Part 1 here

Viktor Kalashnikov is a Russian freelance journalist and a former KGB colonel. In the autumn of 2010, he and his wife Marina, a historian, were treated in a hospital in Germany for mercury poisoning in what they said had been an attempt on their lives by Russia’s FSB, the successor to the KGB. He is a distant relative of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47.

Kalashnikov and his wife have been publishing articles critical of the Kremlin since the 1990s. After living in Europe for several years they are now back in Moscow.

By J.R. Nyquist

Continuing my discussion with former KGB officer Victor Kalashnikov, I was eager to learn more about Russian strategy. Kalashnikov told me that Russian grand strategy has one focus. “It’s all about struggle against the United States,” he said. “All allies are measured in terms of their anti-Americanism. If they are anti-American, they are our friends.”

This is how we should understand the activities of Syria and Iran, for example. Russia is helping these countries acquire new weapons, new capabilities. To measure the degree of Russian enmity let us consider the Syria crisis, noted Kalashnikov: “The head of the Russian state has publicly warned the West that starting arms deliveries to the opposition in Syria might result in terrorist attacks against Europe. That’s a clear causes belli – a real terrorist threat.”

The average reader might imagine that Washington has taken alarm at Putin’s threatening remarks. But no such alarm has been registered. The American side barely acknowledges a threat has been made. And this is normal for us. For whatever reason, our leaders ignore the threat from Russia. Again and again, the Cold War is said to be over. There is no longer a threat from Russia, which is now described as a “normal” country.

But Russia is not a normal country. “The majority of Russians are supportive of Putin,” Kalashnikov explained. “The popularity of Putin is growing while American society and ideology are depicted as hostile to Russian interests. Therefore Russia is hungry for new allies or friends of any kind whatsoever. And these allies must be anti-Americans. All of this helps place the military issue in a broader context. It is not about tanks on the battlefield of Europe. It is about rockets in the arsenal of Hezbollah.”

The Cold War is not over. The rulers of Russia haven’t given up their goal of smashing America. Today, however, their strategy follows an indirect approach. The old direct approach of threatening Europe with tank armies has been replaced with a new strategy based on Islamic terrorism.

“Now this is another topic,” Kalashnikov confided, “but we have to ask what happened to the Soviet Union in 1991. It was dismantled for the sake of reorganization and for the sake of Russian power. I remember quite well, even before Gorbachev, that our military showed discontent with the strategic picture. These huge tank masses were a wasting resource, especially after 1983.”

The grand strategy of the Soviet Union had to be overhauled and modernized while costs had to be brought down. Therefore, new methods of defeating America had to be devised, and new opportunities would then appear. These methods included the arming of terrorist states with nuclear and biological weapons. 

Kalashnikov continued: “I mentioned the year 1983. At that time the core strategy was splitting Europe from America. Europeans worried that Soviet troops could reach the Atlantic in one or two weeks. Therefore, the West recognized an imminent threat. And there was real fear on the European side that the Americans would not defend Europe. In 1983, when America deployed Pershing missiles in Europe, this whole Soviet strategy of massing tanks was finished. It was futile. That was the starting point for a new strategy.”

Once the old strategy had failed, it was time to apply new strategic concepts. Kalashnikov asked, “What need was there for huge armies in central Europe when the result was always a standoff with the Americans?”

Inspiring your enemy with fear may lead him to capitulate. That was not the only possible outcome, however. There was always the possibility that he would call your bluff. In the case of America and NATO, the West’s defenses were strengthened rather than weakened in the 1980s.  As Kalashnikov noted, “I remember our officers asking, ‘what shall we do next?’ Well, we were forced to start over with a new design.”

According to Kalashnikov, “The West sees that with friends like Iran and Hezbollah the Russians could start a lot of trouble. Add this to Russian ballistic nuclear weapons targeting American cities and you have a new formula: Nuclear rockets plus Hezbollah makes Russia invincible, and it is quite dangerous. It’s a new combination of military tools. That’s why I was irritated by certain statements in President Obama’s speech.”

I asked Kalashnikov about the increasingly precarious position of Israel. Kalashnikov replied, “The Israeli position is twofold. They are anti-Syria and anti-Hezbollah. But their position versus Russia was ambiguous. They have a growing population of Russian immigrants. So they would like to develop their relationship with Russia. Yet Russia is moving closer to the anti-Israeli side.”

While Israel remains uncertain toward Russia, Russia’s president charts a steady course, noted Kalashnikov: “Some of the top Israeli security figures met with Putin and asked him not to deploy anti-ship missiles which are effective against the American navy, and also the S-300 missiles that will greatly limit Israeli airpower against Syria. Putin rejected the Israeli request.”

How will Russia stop the Israelis from destroying the delivered missiles before they are deployed? Kalashnikov offered a surprising answer: “Syria’s military is going to be quasi-integrated with Iran. That means an attack on Syria implies an attack on Iran. Meanwhile Russia is sending ships from the Pacific Fleet, even as they modernize the Black Sea Fleet, with a new naval base at Novorissiysk. So the Russians are bound to increase their naval pressure on the Eastern Mediterranean.”

By strengthening Russia’s regional military presence, and by integrating the Syrian and Iranian armed forces, Russia hopes to build a soon-to-be impregnable stronghold in the Middle East. “I see Russia’s position growing there,” said Kalashnikov. “An Israeli attack on Syria would involve Hezbollah. And if push comes to shove, we can make trouble for the Americans in Lebanon, or somewhere in Asia.”

The West may not be willing to support Israel under these circumstances. As Kalashnikov explained, “The Western allies are going to think twice whether they will support Israel because of their growing vulnerabilities elsewhere. You have the bombing of the Boston Marathon. You have the vulnerability of NATO’s left flank in the Baltic States. Russia is saying, ‘You mess with our friends, we mess with yours.’ It’s a new game that you didn’t have to play during the good old days of the Cold War. “

Kalashnikov continued, “What happened on 9/11 was just an omen of things to come. At the time of 9/11 America’s dispute with Russia had reached its peak. George Bush was going to leave the ABM Treaty. Putin said, ‘If you do this you will not be able to defend against new threats.’ Bush said, ‘I am leaving the Treaty.’ So 9/11 happened. You had broken the strategic balance based on strategic missiles. You had been warned that new security challenges will emerge. But you didn’t listen in the summer of 2001.”

Part 3 coming soon.

President Obama doesn’t like leaks and he doesn’t like scandals. In recent weeks he’s had plenty of both. We should not be surprised, then, that the Administration is once again using its government apparatus the “Chicago way” to stifle whistleblowers. It’s most recent victim: Aurelia Fedenisn.

As Accuracy in Media recently reported, Fedenisn broke the story that high-level State Department employees stifled eight inquiries into alleged illegal behavior by its employees, including an ambassador who has been accused of pedophilia and picking up prostitutes. The investigations that were covered up also include allegations of sexual assault and drug purchases. In addition, they showed a long-time Clinton loyalist Cheryl Mills interceding in Obama’s nominee for Iraq ambassadorship, Brett McGurk. These revelations could have a dire effect on Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances. Clinton’s reputation has already been hurt by the Benghazi scandal, according to a Bloomberg News poll.

What happens when you threaten the reputation of the Obama Administration and its subordinates? Strong-arm tactics emerge quickly. After all, the State Department found it difficult to give security clearances to attorneys who wanted to represent the Benghazi whistleblowers when they went before Congress. “Former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova said today that the State Department is denying clearances to attorneys who want to represent Benghazi whistleblowers—even though one of the attorneys already has a current Top Secret security clearance,” reported CNS News in April.

“At least four State Department and CIA employees are being intimidated and blocked from cooperating with a congressional investigation into the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, according to an attorney for one of the officials,” reported CNN that month. “The officials consider themselves whistleblowers and feel threatened with career damage if they decide to give testimony to Congress, according to Victoria Toensing, an attorney for one of the State Department officials.”

Given how the Administration has pursued national security leaks, this is unsurprising. After all, this is the same government whose Justice Department subpoenaed two months of Associated Press call records in response to a leak, and the same DOJ that named James Rosen as a “co-conspirator” and a “flight risk” for reporting classified information about North Korea. The DOJ even went to three different judges until it found one willing to give them the search warrant without requiring that they notify Rosen about it.

It seems par for the course, then, that Fedenisn is being treated like a criminal by the State Department after revealing its misdeeds under Clinton’s leadership. Her attorney, Cary Schulman, told The Cable, a blog on the Foreign Policy magazine website, that “Fedenisn has paid a steep price” for her watchdog revelations. “They had law enforcement officers camp out in front of her house, harass her children and attempt to incriminate herself,” Schulman told John Hudson.

“After the CBS News made inquiries to the State Department about the charges, Schulman says investigators from the State Department’s Inspector General promptly arrived at Fedenisn’s door.” They “talked to both kids and never identified themselves,” says Schulman.

The officials even tried to get her to sign a document that says she stole the material. “Schulman says the purpose of the visit was to get Fedenisn to sign a document admitting that she stole State Department materials, such as the memos leaked to CBS,” reports Hudson. “Schulman says it was crucial that she didn’t sign the document because her separation agreement with the State Department includes a provision allowing disclosures of misconduct” (emphasis added). None of the documents released were classified; they were drafts of a report that in later iterations had been scrubbed of all references to the eight investigations.

CBS News has a video of the visit, where an unnamed official holding a bunch of papers asks for the “recording device” to be switched off so he can talk to her. “Ma’am, I can’t discuss it with you with the recording device on,” said the unnamed man on camera. Just “Two hours after CBS News made inquiries to the State Department about these charges, investigators from the State Department’s Inspector General showed up at her door,” reported CBS News at the time.

Hudson quotes Kel McClanahan, “a D.C. attorney who has represented several agency whistleblowers,” as saying that “This type of intimidation technique is all too common when an agency wants something from you that it is not entirely confident it can get without your cooperation, and more often than not people who don’t know any better fall for it.”

The threats don’t stop there. Schulman, Fedenisn’s attorney, “also said that officials from the Inspector General’s Office told him they’d be having a ‘no kidding get together with the [Department of Justice],’ implying to him that they would push criminal charges if his client didn’t cooperate.”

Apparently, the Administration would rather go after the whistleblowers rather than those who have committed real crimes.

Roger Aronoff is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and can be contacted at roger.aronoff@aim.org.

If the NSA or the FBI wants to find fugitive Edward Snowden, who is apparently in hiding in Chinese Hong Kong, its analysts and agents might want to examine a controversial non-profit group, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and its main financial sponsor, the San Francisco-based Foundation for National Progress.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, which includes Snowden’s media mouthpiece and handler Glenn Greenwald on its board, acknowledges that the organization “is made possible by the fiscal sponsorship of the Foundation for National Progress.”

The Foundation for National Progress is best known as the publisher of Mother Jones magazine, and is backed by several prominent liberal foundations, including the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros, according to its 2010/2011 annual report.

Mother Jones journalists accepted an award this year named in honor of I.F. Stone, who postured as an “independent” journalist but was exposed as a Soviet agent of influence. Greenwald had previously received the award.

Snowden is their new hero. “At the heart of Edward Snowden’s decision to expose the NSA’s massive phone and Internet spying programs was a fundamental belief in the people’s right-to-know,” says actor John Cusack on the website of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Cusack is also a member of its board.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, which openly funnels money to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, says it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and that the Foundation for National Progress “provides users a way to give tax-deductible donations.”

“We are pleased to receive anonymous donations in the mail,” it says.

One purpose of the arrangement is to make sure that WikiLeaks has a secure funding source, as “U.S. officials unofficially pressured payment processors to cut WikiLeaks off from funding in late 2010, despite the fact that the organization has never been charged with a crime,” the group claimed.

In fact, U.S. officials regarded WikiLeaks as hostile to the United States because it publicly released classified counter-terrorism information from Army analyst Bradley Manning, who is now on trial for espionage against the U.S. and aiding the enemy. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange went to work for Moscow-funded television.

Prosecutors say that WikiLeaks material was found in the possession of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda after a U.S. raid killed the terrorist leader.

Assange has called Snowden a “hero,” but NSA Director General Keith Alexander said at a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that the leaks created “irreversible and significant damage” to national security. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a member of the committee, said Snowden was clearly a “traitor.”

The title of the hearing was, “How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries.”

But the radical left, including members of Barack Obama’s “progressive” base, are rallying around Snowden, even as Obama himself gives lip service to what the NSA is doing.

One of the prominent directors of the Foundation for National Progress that is backing Snowden is Susan S. Pritzker, a member of one of the richest families in the United States, the Pritzker family, which is very close to Obama. The Pritzker family owns the Hyatt Hotel chain.

Another member of the family, Penny Pritzker, is a Chicago billionaire nominated by President Obama to lead the Commerce Department. Her nomination has been held up because of questions from Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) about income generated from an offshore account.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation board includes not only Glenn Greenwald of the British Guardian, but Laura Poitras, described by Alana Goodman of The Washington Free Beacon as a “long-time activist filmmaker who has railed against U.S. counterterrorism policies put into place after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Poitras and Greenwald arranged the secret interview with Snowden in Hong Kong and authored the Guardian’s story about him. Poitras also shared the lead byline with former Post journalist Barton Gellman on the front-page NSA story in The Washington Post.

Poitras, who is emerging as perhaps the central figure in the NSA leaks controversy, even more important than Greenwald, says she “has been detained and interrogated about her work at the U.S. border over 40 times.” Greenwald himself has written that the Department of Homeland Security has been behind her detentions and interrogations. 

In a New York Times interview, she said she had been placed on a “Watch List” by the U.S. Government since 2006, and claims she has been trying to find out why, with the assistance of the ACLU.

John McCormack, a staff writer for The Weekly Standard, may have the answer. He reports evidence that Poitras, who has been covering the wars in the Middle East, “had foreknowledge of a November 20, 2004 ambush of U.S. troops [in Iraq] but did nothing to warn them.” He says a Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation was launched about the attack, but that no charges were filed against Poitras, and she did not respond to requests for comment.

Nevertheless, the Soros-funded blog Think Progress hailed Poitras for making “a series of powerful documentaries about the impact of the War on Terror.” Think Progress is part of the Center for American Progress, one of the major Soros-funded groups in Washington, D.C.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation promotes Snowden as a whistleblower, rather than a traitor, as do “journalism and transparency organizations” such as WikiLeaks, the Center for Public Integrity, and the National Security Archive, the latter two of which are funded by Soros.

Another member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s board is Josh Stearns, the Journalism and Public Media Campaign Director at Free Press, a Soros-funded group started by Marxist Professor Robert. W. McChesney.

Free Press has launched a petition campaign demanding that Congress investigate the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance activities, labeled “spying programs.”

“Stand up for privacy and push Congress to dig up the truth about the NSA’s surveillance schemes,” the left-wing group says. “Millions of Americans have woken to the threat the NSA’s programs pose to our civil liberties.”

Similar claims have been echoed on the right by some personalities in the conservative media, such as radio host Michael Savage.

A “Stop Spying on Us” website has been launched, featuring “A Network of Groups Across the Political Spectrum, Organizing against Surveillance Abuse, Government Repression, and Political Witch Hunts; and Working to Expand Civil Liberties, Free Speech, and the Right to Dissent for All.”

The National Lawyers Guild, once identified as a Communist front, is playing a key role in the effort.

Another coalition, “Stop Watching Us,” includes conservative groups such as Freedom Works and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in addition to MoveOn.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Greenwald’s Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Coming to the defense of Greenwald, the Soros-funded Free Press has attacked Rep. Peter King of New York for saying that “journalists who report NSA surveillance leaks should be arrested.”

This is not what King said, however. Appearing on Fox News, King had said, “Greenwald, not only did he disclose this information, he has said that he has names of CIA agents and assets around the world, and they’re threatening to disclose that. The last time that was done in this country, we saw a CIA station chief murdered in Greece… I think it should be very targeted, very selective and certainly a very rare exception. But, in this case, when you have someone who discloses secrets like this and threatens to release more, yes, there has to be—legal action taken against him.”

King was referring to Snowden’s comments, in the interview arranged by Greenwald and Poitras, that he possessed the “full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community and undercover assets all around the world, the locations of every station we have, what their missions are and so forth.”

Since Greenwald presumably has access to Snowden’s classified information on U.S. intelligence activities, including the names of agents around the world, King’s concern may be valid.  

Greenwald promised “significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months,” but denies he had threatened to name U.S. covert agents.

However, since Greenwald has a history of anti-American rhetoric and is a fixture at international Communist conferences, as documented by Accuracy in Media, disclosures of this classified information to individuals and groups hostile to the United States cannot be ruled out.

What Obama is doing to the U.S. military puts hundreds of millions of lives and the survival of the entire West at stake.

by Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady

As incompetence, deception, duplicity and dishonesty become the hall marks of the Obama administration, it is important that we not lose sight of the greatest danger posed beyond these serial scandals: the feminization, emasculation and dismantling of our military. The two most important elements of national survival are the media and the military; one keeps us free and the other keeps us secure. We know the media are failing – God help us if the military does also. We may be able to fix the government in 2014. Fixing the military is more problematic.

Let’s begin with Benghazi. It is incomprehensible that any commander, let alone the commander in chief, would go AWOL during a crisis such as Benghazi, but he was. In the midst of the massacre of our ambassador and three heroic Americans, President Obama was nowhere to be found. He did manage to surface, too late for the massacre, to meet a campaign commitment the next day. But, before retiring, we are told he turned the crisis over to his underlings, including the military. What we learned about our military leadership during that crisis should alarm all Americans.

The demise of our military of course begins with the commander in chief, but he can’t do it alone. He has to have willing sycophants and he has had them in the civilian and military leadership at the Department of Defense. The indiff
erence of the people and military inexperience in Congress are contributing factors. The military disasters are a form of gradualism. Look at the changes under Mr. Obama. We cannot focus on these changes enough.

Our military is suffering unprecedented rates of suicide and PTSD. Obama’s sequestration will cut benefits to veterans as well as damage readiness. (There has been a 2000 percent increase in backlog for veteran assistance in four years!) We now have a quad-sexual military with all the health, readiness and moral issues that come with exalting sodomy. Sexual assault is at an all-time high. Women will be tasked to lead bayonet charges. As a result of the sex scandals, Congress is now looking to curtail the military’s ability to discipline, another tribute to the lack of leadership in the military and lack of military understanding in Congress.

Billions of defense dollars are unaccounted for. Christianity is under military attack, and Bibles have been burned to appease Muslims. (References to God and Jesus are forbidden at Arlington, chaplains will be forced to perform homosexual “marriages,” and Bibles and religious item are forbidden to the wounded at Walter Reed, etc.)

We have a new doctrine for crisis: “Don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.” Therefore, no Normandy or Inchon. In other words, don’t go until the crisis/massacre is over. Their default position is don’t go, period. The military leadership, after the terrorist massacre at Fort Hood, outrageously lamented the effect it would have on diversity – and equally outrageously labeled it workplace violence denying the victims and their families the benefits they deserve.

There have been unprecedented security leaks, and China is electronically in bed with us. They even lost the graves of our warriors at Arlington. I could go on, but it should be clear that all of the above is the result of a leader who knows not the difference between a corps and a corpse and is both indifferent to and unknowledgeable of military readiness. And as bad, the military leadership is complicit in these disasters. (As a further tribute to their ineptitude, they have actually considered combat-level medals for warriors not shooting and desk-bound computer operators, medals that were the laughingstock of veterans.)

But given that the president tasked the military to act in the Benghazi crisis, what did they do? Indefensibly, they did nothing, they did not even try! No obstacle, no doctrine, nothing can defend not trying, never mind the risk, to save fellow Americans. Were they under orders to sit on their a– and let their fellow Americans die? In my 34 years of military service involving many crises, I never knew of one without an after action report (AAR), in which each and every action was put under a microscope to identify those responsible for the results be they good or bad. Congress, the media, someone should demand the AAR on Benghazi. It must exist. Who ordered the stand down? Who said sit on your a–? Why no hearing on this?

Just as the way forward for America is a return to the morality and values of the past, so too must the military return to the readiness standards and common sense of the past. We can survive in a relatively valueless society – but only with a strong and ready military. Sadly the military is mirroring society – the goal of Mr. Obama and progressives – and will soon be impotent. Once the progressives have a helpless military they no longer need to explain why they didn’t go; they can say we are unable to go. Progress is not the path we are on; true progress is the path to our past. The other scandals may be more glamorous and outrageous (such as lying about Benghazi before the coffins of those massacred by terrorists, enemies’ lists and assaults on the First Amendment) but what Mr. Obama is doing to our military is more grave.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, retired from the U.S. Army, is a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He is the author of “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam The Legend of Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.”

Thanks to Shona.

Summertime and the livin’ is easy! At least for some of us.

Just a little 8 day excursion with family, entourage and friends at a mere $12 million plus per day.

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:

This week, Right Truth, Tina Trent, Ask Marion and The Pirate’s Cove took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6 PM PST/ in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members, while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week…

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – The Sandbagging of America
• Liberty’s Spirit – Caroline Glick on the Jewish-American Community’s Affair with Leftist-Jew-Hatred
• Simply Jews – What Do The Russians Really Want
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The al Qaeda Nation States of 2018
• The Colossus of Rhodey – “White privilege” and those who’ve “made it”
• Joshuapundit – Epic Fail! GM Recalls 500,00 Cruze Cars Over Engine Fire Risk
• The Political Commentator – Politics Obama-style: The Obama Lie-Clock and Obama lies!
• Bookworm Room – Regressive Progressive’s strike again, spending hundreds of thousands of education dollars on recycled liberal claptrap
• The Right Planet – Angry Wacko Bird
• The Glittering Eye – The Past Is a Bucket of Ashes
• Nice Deb – Pedophile Ambassador Protected By State Dept ID’d as Major Obama Bundler & Political Appointee
• The Razor – Multiculturalism Turns Out To Be A Disguised Form of White Supremacy
• Rhymes With Right – Now That She Has The Lungs
• VA Right! – NSA Snooping Incompatible with the Right to Privacy in Roe v. Wade Ruling
• The Mellow Jihadi – No More Navy Uniform Changes

Honorable Mentions

• Right Truth – Eighth-Grader Who Refused to Remove NRA Shirt Could Face Year in Prison
• Tina Trent.Com – Don’t Let Anyone Silence You On The Illegal Immigrant Amnesty Bill … Especially Other Republicans
• Ask Marion – Sarah Palin Back as Fox News Analyst…
• The Pirate’s Cove – Ted Cruz Files Amendment Requiring ID, Citizenship To Register To Vote

Non-Council Submissions

• Mark Steyn – Big Politically Correct Brother submitted by The Noisy Room
• Boker Tov Boulder – I agree With Chelsea Clinton submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• BBC Watch – BBC’s Knell uses F1 to amplify PA propaganda on Jerusalem submitted by Simply Jews
• Telegraph Blogs – North Korea’s State-Sanctioned Girl Band submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Mona Charen/NRO – The Unmentionable Injustice submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Answering Muslims.com – Sacrificing Our Daughters: On the Psychology of Islamic Rape-Gangs submitted by Joshuapundit
• The American Spectator – The Era Of Contempt submitted by The Political Commentator
• Elbert Guillory – Elbert Guillory: “Why I Am a Republican” submitted by Bookworm Room
• Own The Narrative – The Progressive “Reality” submitted by The Right Planet
• Real Clear Politics – Bill Ayers: Try Obama for War Crimes submitted by The Glittering Eye
• John Hayward/The Conversation – The all-seeing State averts its gaze submitted by Nice Deb
• Gavin McInnes/Taki’s Mag – 10 Misconceptions About Being a Parent I Had Before I Became A Parent submitted by The Razor
• Althouse – “What’s so ‘ugly’ about the mockery?” submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Angry White Dude – Marco Rubio Comes Out Of The Closet – He’s A Democrat submitted by VA Right!
• PJ Tatler – Ms. Magazine‘s ‘My Month with a Gun’ Story Shooting Blanks? submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Heather McDonald/City Journal – The Real Risks of Amnesty submitted by The Watcher
• David Gerstman/Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Is Hassan Rouhani Really a Reformer? submitted by The Watcher

Enjoy! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!

It also examines several ways these Congressmen are being used and manipulated by Marxists on the road to a socialist America.

One of the key weapons in the socialist arsenal is of course illegal immigration – particularly across the Southern border.

“The Enemies Within” reveals how key communist and socialist activists have deliberately promoted soft treatment and amnesty for illegal immigrants as a way of increasing the left/Democratic vote in California and the Southwest.

They aim to bring socialism to America, through a permanent Democratic majority built on the back of a growing Latino vote.

Key players in the program include late Southern Californian activist Bert Corona, a secret communist who worked with Cesar Chavez and in the highest offices of the Democratic Party, to build and promote the “immigrants’ rights” movement.

Corona in turn would go on to train prominent California state politician Gil Cedillo, a long-time communist and socialist affiliate who fathered the 2011 California Dream Act – a major victory for illegal immigrants in the Golden State and across the entire nation.

Other Corona proteges include California’s top labor unionist Maria Elena Durazo and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, both also long-time communist and socialist hangarounds.

Durazo has headed a 15 year “get out the Latino vote” campaign, which has turned much of previously deep red Southern California forever blue. Villaraigosa has virtually banned the LAPD from enforcing immigration law, so that Los Angeles is now virtually a “sanctuary city” for illegals.

If these people get the vote, they will make California an impregnable Democratic stronghold. Which is of course the plan.

Several serving California Democrats owe their jobs to Bert Corona and his movements.

Lorenzo Torrez

Another key “immigrants’ rights” player was late Arizona activist Lorenzo Torrez – the long-time leader of the Arizona Communist Party.

As head of the Communist Party’s Mexican American Equality Commission, Torrez’s job was to coordinate opposition to any crackdown on illegal immigration and to encourage Latino “get out the vote” efforts across the Southwest.

Though little known to the public, Torrez was easily one of the most influential political activists in the region up until his death in 2012.

Several prominent Arizona Democrats owe their positions to comrade Torrez.

Probably the most important contemporary player in the “immigrants’ rights”  battle is SEIU Executive VP Eliseo Medina. A member of the U.S.’s largest Marxist group, Democratic Socialists of America, Medina is also very close to the Communist Party and is a former disciple of United Farm Workers Founder, Cesar Chavez.

Medina’s task  for the revolutionary cause has been to get the traditionally anti-immigrant labor movement to back “immigration reform.” Not an easy sell to get workers to support their own competition, but Medina has managed it.

Medina works closely with Democratic Congressmen on immigration issues and even served on Barack Obama’s 2008 Latino Advisory Commission.

Medina has stated at a “progressive” gathering in 2009 that the reason he is pushing so hard for amnesty for illegals, is that their several million votes would go mainly to the Democrats. According to Medina:

“We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle…”

“The Enemies Within” exposes so much of what is ailing modern America. The country is not in trouble by accident. Radical forces have worked long and hard to bring America down.

By themselves the radicals are weak, but with dozens of covert supporters in the U.S. Congress, their power is magnified exponentially.

Just who are these ”enemies within”?

Be one of the first Americans to find out!

My book will be released officially August 20, 2013 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

However, if you are a U.S. resident, you can receive one of the very first copies hot off the press by pre-ordering through the button below.

Trevor Loudon
Christchurch
New Zealand

cartoon via CosnervativeDailyNews.com

I am not a member of the Tea Party, but I must support them and the rally they have planned for this Wednesday, June 19th at the Capitol.

It was originally supposed to be only an Audit the IRS rally. It is so much more than that now. We must now stand up for all our freedoms!

It is a last stand!

Mark Levin has pleaded for people to show up.

One of the issues is the immigration bill which is being passed off as a Conservative bill in the ads on Fox News and Talk Radio. Mark Zuckerberg, a liberal, is paying for the ads. They are an attempt to convince Conservatives to not oppose the bill.

If you search this site you will see a number of articles on this bill, which is anything but Conservative.

The bill puts amnesty before border security. If in five years the border isn’t secure, then a new government oversight agency will be formed to look into it.

The bill sets up chain migration and there are exemptions to every fee, to citizenship, and so on.

Illegal immigrants will be called “New Americans.” They will receive “legal” status within six months. They will be eligible for Obamacare and no one is going to deprive them of welfare or earned income tax credits despite what you have heard.

Can we afford this?

We are losing our economic freedom.

Our government is monitoring our Internet communications and spying on us. Government agencies are targeting everyday Americans. George Orwell was right!

This is the Brave New World unless we say enough.

Our Constitution and our Bill of Rights are being eroded and if we won’t stand and fight now we might never have a chance again.

Louie Gohmert, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz among others have asked for our help. They want us to show up in DC on Wednesday.

Please consider taking the day off and heading for DC. There are buses leaving from almost every location.

Show DC that we stand for liberty and for the Constitution!

You don’t have to be a Tea Party member or a Conservative, or a Republican to go and stand with the Patriots at this rally. This is a rally for individual freedom.

We are losing our country.

Information at Forbes.com and also at Tea Party Patriots.

Click this link for information about buses.

Eliseo Medina speaking on “immigration reform”

One of the US’ top “immigrant’s rights” activists, labor leader and Democratic Socialists of America Marxist, Eliseo Medina, admits that illegal immigrant amnesty has nothing to do with compassion or economics – it’s all about permanent political power for the left.

Medina sees illegal immigrant amnesty and voting rights as the beginnings of a “governing coalition for the long term.”

At the “progressive” America’s Future Now! conference in Washington, D.C. on June 2, 2009, SEIU International Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina addressed attendees on the necessity of comprehensive immigration reform.

Speaking of Latino voters, Medina said “when they voted in November, they voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showed up.”

So I think there’s two things that matter for the progressive community. Number one, if we are to expand this electorate to win, the progressive community needs to solidly be on the side of immigrants, that we’ll expand and solidify the progressive coalition for the future…

When you are in the middle of a fight for your life you will remember who was there with you. And immigrants count on progressives to be able to do that.

Number two. “We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters”. Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? If we have eight million new voters who care about …… and will be voting. We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle…

If illegal immigrants are given voting rights, there will probably never be another Republican (or conservative president) in America again.

The Democrats and their Marxist masters in the labor unions will become America’s permanent ruling class.

Every GOP legislator needs to see this video before they cast a vote on “immigration reform.”

Every week on Monday morning, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day. This week’s question: Do You Think The Obama Administration’s decision to Get Actively Involved in The Syrian Civil War Is A Good Idea?

Simply Jews: The WH need to respond to the Syria Civil War makes me commiserate with the lose-lose situation WH is in regarding this conundrum.

To provide arms to the people that will almost certainly turn the weapons against the people who provided them in the first place is not an appetizing choice. It has already happened during the so-called “Arab Spring,” the best example being Libya, as it happened in Afghanistan and in other places.

To do nothing and to watch the numbers of dead and wounded mounting, as do the numbers of fugitives all around Syria, is also not a pleasant alternative.

Many good people call for the military assistance to be provided immediately, and of course there is no good explanation why not to do it. Many other good people warn about the dire consequences of providing the military assistance to raving Al Qaeda and other fundies, and there is no good answer for these too.

So there.

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: Syriavention? Too little, too late. All indications indicate an upcoming blitz on Aleppo is like in the last bit of planning and a Gotterdammerung battle will last perhaps two or maybe even 3 weeks.

Unless 44 plans on using American troops on station in Jordan to split Syrian forces (either by crossing the border or just by making tons of noise to distract forces needed for Aleppo), by the time Great Satan is all crunk up for intervention, it will only be like an honor guard for the rebels trek to annihilation.

For now – right now – looks like 44″s posse wants both sides to lose – including civilians – and will most likely not go much further than maintaining a bloody stand off stalemate.

What is also evident is that ebberdobby else involved in the conflict — and the cats that are sponsoring them — is still waiting on 44. On Assad’s side, Russia, Iran, HizBAllah, and Iraq have helped to somersault the tide of conflict against Syrian Free Army and Rebellious rebels, and they’ve sweetly enjoyed pretty much free rein in light of 44″s tardiness and limited response (only civilian and medical stuff so far). NATO like France and Great Britain – are holding back for 44 to lead.

The real quiz is: Can 44 continue a neither-in-nor-out approach to ye olde Suriya al Kubra since it’s like a real live humanitarian and regional disaster that could threaten the unstable stability of the entire Middle East?

See, the influx of foreign weaponry – Iranian drones, HizBAllah brigades, and more better and more effective Russian style tactics have allowed the Syrian military to isolate the rebels into urban pockets before handing them their assets and defeating them in detail. Supplying hot up to date anti-panzer and anti-aircraft weaponry might give the rebels a chance to counter attack heavy duty forces constricting their areas. Yet the fear that MANPADS and Kornet rockets might end up in Western nations are carnage creators for terrorists is a real threat

It looks like Bashar’s cats and allies have compromised the rebels’ communications networks, so secure communication abilities might help conduct surprise ops without giving away their plots and advertising it to their enemies.

This stuff alone is prob not near enough to turn the tide though. Syria (on paper anywrought) has an armed to the teeth military of ginormous size and appears to have learned some dang hard lessons in the last 6 months.

The best option would most likely be for Great Satan to give up unconventional warfare advice and training from Special Ops.

JoshuaPundit: America has never had a dog in the Syrian civil war. But an intervention in Syria has several benefits for President Obama, if not for America.

First, from a political standpoint, it provides an important distraction from the myriad scandals now confronting the administration. The Obama Administration has known about what was going on in Syria for a long time, but only now has it suddenly become imperative that we intervene there.

From the standpoint of this president’s agenda, an American intervention accomplishes several things.

The aim of President Obama and his cronies from day one has been the idea that ending America’s problems with the Muslim world involves promoting Islamism at home and abroad and creating ‘daylight’ between America and Israel by destroying the alliance between the two countries.

We have already seen President Obama do his part to create and fund Islamist regimes in Libya and Egypt as well as funding the Hamas regime in Gaza. He wants to do the same in Syria, even if it means arming and financing al-Qaeda jihadis.

The chief financial backers of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists worldwide and the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda dominated rebels in Syria have been Saudi Arabia and Qatar, while logistical support for the Syrian rebels has come from the Islamist regime of Turkey. What’s evolved in Syria is a Sunni vs. Shi’ite proxy war somewhat similar to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980′s. The Syrian Sunni rebels have been augmented by Sunni jihadis from various places while the Assad regime has drawn on Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as well as Russian support. The rebels are losing because they’re running short on manpower, and the Saudis and Qataris want someone else to do the fighting.

That’s why they’ve dragged the United States into this.

If the rebels win, not only has President Obama gained some points with the Saudis, Turks and Qataris by putting together yet another hardline Islamist regime, but this one, like Egypt, will be on Israel’s borders. Jordan, where the Brotherhood is also quite strong will also be destabilized and may very well be the next piece of the Caliphate that is forming.

President Obama and his Secretary of State are already making demands of Israel that even Israel’s most die hard Leftists can’t support. When push comes to shove and if the inevitable war starts, don’t be surprised if President Obama cuts Israel off from armaments and supplies.

The Noisy Room: Emphatically, no. Not for us, any way — it’s a good idea for the Obama Administration as it creates more confusion for Americans and supports Islam. It depletes our military resources; it guts our Treasury (by 50 million a day), it creates illusions of security, while creating anxieties about security… in summary, if you are in the chaos business, this is a good thing.

We have just aligned ourselves with Turkey, al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. We are now at war, not only with Syria, but also — by proxy — Russia and Iran. There are bad guys on both sides, but by siding with the Muslim Brotherhood, we are actively pushing forth a worldwide Caliphate and Obama knows this. The CIA just announced that they are going to arm the rebels, which gives cover to the whole Benghazi atrocity and gives plausibility to Ambassador Stevens and the CIA running guns for the rebels. So, helping the rebels will provide cover for Obama and Clinton to a certain extent to justify their monstrous misdeeds. Glenn Beck predicted this and was right on the money. President Obama also signed a secret order giving support to Syrian rebels and John “we-have-nothing-to-fear-from-an-Obama-presidency” McCain visited them and gave them credibility as well. See a picture forming here? I do.

I firmly believe we have entered WW III and don’t even know it yet. Thanks to Obama, not only has this Administration destroyed America financially with the Cloward and Piven strategy and Alinsky tactics, he has discredited our military and defense agencies and now is ushering in the mother of all wars. Hell, he’s not reshaping America, he’s melting her down and helping to beat her into servile plowshares on the radical Islamic forge.

You are seeing radical Islam align with Marxists to accomplish ‘change’ globally into a hellish worldwide dictatorship. Under cover of this war, the Jihadists will attempt the destruction of Israel to further solidify the Caliphate. And I predict, either directly or indirectly, the U.S. will help them. We have chosen the wrong side and are heading down a very dark path. Syria is the gate to global hell.

Liberty’s Spirit: There are almost 100,000 dead and millions of refugees, but the redline for Obama was 150 killed with chemical weapons? What even happened to the “responsibility to protect” that was touted so much when he illegally intervened in Libya? Apparently that theory only works if your country has oil reserves that the Europeans want to protect and if Russia is not their “sugar daddy,” nor Iran their ally. Quite frankly this move at this time is insulting to the world’s intelligence. He is two years too late.

Interesting how when Obama could have intervened and perhaps influenced in some manner any democratically aligned members of the opposition he refused. Instead, those that helped the opposition were Sunni Islamists, mostly Wahhabis. So we are now going to help Islamists in Syria who think that after they destroy Assad their next goal is to destroy Israel and then the United States. The opposition has also been shown to commit many war crimes. They have butchered non-Sunnis and have slaughtered Christians. Their goal is to drive out any non-Moslem from Syria. These are not Jeffersonian Democrats, but another group of mass murderers.

In truth, Obama allowed Syria to become the new juxtaposition of the old “cold war,” with Putin asserting his influence in the Middle East through Assad and the West trying to catch up by influencing the Islamists on the opposition. (As if the Islamists have respect for the United States. Use the US yes they will, and then they will turn on us in no time, just like in Libya.) If the West had not waited Russia would not be as strong as it is today in the region and neither would Iran. But the problem is that the Obama administration has no idea what it is doing vis-à-vis foreign policy and especially in the Middle East. It has spent the last four years blaming every Middle East issue on Israel and specifically the settlements in Judea and Samaria. These foreign policy clowns allowed the Arab world to fall into chaos, they supported Islamist takeovers in major American allies, have threatened the few pro-American Arab regimes that still exist, and created a much more dangerous world for everyone.

The best part will be when this “Arab Winter” is all “over” the Obama administration is going to demand a “Peace Conference” where Israel is to give up Judea, Samaria, part of Jerusalem to the Islamist supporting and aligned PA (to appease the Saudis and all Obama’s Islamist friends) and then give back the Golan Heights to the murderers that will be governing Syria, whoever that will be. It’s already started with the US Secretary of State saying how the world blames Israel for all the Islamo-terrorism. This is the next phase in Obama’s foreign policy plan: sacrifice the Jews of Israel to appease the Islamists, as the world once sacrificed the Sudetenland to appease Hitler. Israel will sanely refuse. The war that will come between Israel and the Islamists will finally at least decide the region’s stability for a decade. And Israel will survive as she always has, because she relied only on herself and did not ask the world’s permission to survive. Meanwhile, Obama, because the inadequate can never take any blame themselves, will blame any and all devastation in the Middle East and its repercussions throughout the world, on the Jews and undercut Israel as much as he can. In their true nature as well, the leftist-Jewish-American-Obama-sycophants in the US will join in the Obama-blame-Israel-chorus. It’s coming, you mark my words.

The Razor: As a superpower we’re involved whether we want to be or not. Obama failed to realize this two years ago, but now evidently recognizes that saying “Assad’s days are numbered,” is meaningless unless you actually do something to make that statement true. Back then the Syrian opposition was much more secular and broad; today it’s devolved into a Sunni vs Shiite brawl with al Qaeda leading the most effective elements of the opposition. If al Qaeda suddenly renounced terror and promised to rescue kittens and give presents to dying children I’d still want to see them at the business end of a hellfire missile. The only thing we should help al Qaeda do is kill themselves.

When the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy, there isn’t much you can do except support both sides. So far we have supported the Iranians and Hezbollah by doing nothing, so in a sense that’s not a bad thing considering lots of jihadis have been sent to Paradise without us firing a shot – proof that inaction is an action of sorts. Now that they are losing, it is time to alter the balance in favor of the jihadis so that body bags get sent back to Teheran and south Lebanon. The easiest and safest way to do this is through a no-fly zone that would prevent Assad from using air attacks against the jihadis and resupplying his regime’s, Iran’s and Hezbollah’s troops.

With the addition of Susan Rice as the National Security Advisor and Samantha Power to UN ambassador, two liberal interventionists to posts of power, I’m not surprised to see Obama end his Hamlet imitation. They are probably fretting about the dead Syrian civilians, and although the humanitarian impulse in me exists, there is no reason I would risk my stepson’s life, or anyone else’s son or daughter, to fulfill this impulse. But the Machiavellian in me appreciates a good opportunity to bash America’s enemies on both sides of the dispute, and a no-fly zone allows this to happen without very much risk to American life or property.

I doubt anyone else would support intervening in Syria for this reason, and it’s a shame. It’s exactly what our politicians should be doing: thinking about what is best for America first, and letting the world sort itself out on its own.

Rhymes With Right: The problem here is that Obama’s commitment to the war is so vague that it can mean anything. Today it is weapons — how long until it is troops? And how will he ensure that the weapons given to fight in Syria will end up in the hands of non-terrorist, non-Islamist forces? I don’t see how he can.

Of course, maybe he can put each rebel through the same background check he wants for American citizens before they get guns — and then limit the number of rounds of ammo each gets to the same number he and other gun grabbers want to impose on Americans.

Bookworm Room: No. It might have been a good thing two years ago, when a little American oomph could have knocked Assad out of power and allowed room for reform. Two years and eighty-thousand dead bodies later, it’s too late. Syria is now mired in a proxy war between Iran and al Qaeda, with us now siding with al Qaeda — and we know how well that alliance will turn out based upon our experiences in Libya.

I predicted this in 2008. Not precisely this, of course, but I predicted that, with an obviously weak horse in the White House, all Hell would break loose somewhere or everywhere.

Well, there you have it.

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