The John Batchelor Show

Monday 23 November 2015

Air Date: 
November 23, 2015

Photo, left: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice fog the Great Lakes
Hour One
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, FDD & LongWarJournal, in re:  Al Qaeda is McDonald's; ISIS is Carl Jr.  In mid-Oct the US mil launched radios vs two al Q camps in SE Afghanistan – loaded w munitions, and a training facility. Then Secy Kerry said "Al Q has been neutralized."  What??  And that's not the only al Q camp in Afghanistan; imagine all the other countries. This is not a neutralized organization. When you see al Nusrah Front, Shabaab, Murhabatoon --and on and on. Al IS not just active, but is fighting an actual insurgency. With irony, Kerry said, "We'll neutralize ISIS as we've neutralized al Qaeda."  Good grief. Al Q is now richer and more organized  than ever before, has the Plan 2020 - the global caliphate.  Al Qaeda is a masterful global war-fighting machine, ISIS is strong in Iraq and Syria, a beacon for recruiting, but al Q has a strong presence in Syria, Iraq, and many countries where ISIS is only dreaming.    Unhh- didn't we kill Mukhar bel Mukhtar last year?  Do I need a better eraser? He used to be called the Marlboro Man – he's done a vast amount of cigarette-smuggling.  Pays the bills. He dies repeatedly  - when next he's smoked: smile.  Secy Kerry: what helps is candor.
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Al Qaeda has not been neutralized  Secretary of State John Kerry believes that al Qaeda’s “top leadership” has been “neutralize[d]” as “an effective force.” A brief look at al Qaeda's position throughout the globe tells a different story.
Al Murabitoon, an al Qaeda group that operates in West Africa, claimed it executed the hotel siege in Mali in conjunction with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. 
. . .  The attackers were heard yelling "Allahu Akbar" and separated Muslims from non-Muslims. The hostage crisis is the second to occur in Mali this year, but the first to occur in its capital. Jihadists have increasingly been able to penetrate southern Mali after a French-led counterterrorism mission in the north.
The Taliban approves of Paris suicide assault
THREAT MATRIX BY BILL ROGGIO  While western officials still seek to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban, the group continues to support attacks in Western countries. The Taliban said France's "colonial policy" justified the murders in Paris.
Al Qaeda has not been neutralized  Secretary of State John Kerry believes that al Qaeda’s “top leadership” has been “neutralize[d]” as “an effective force.” A brief look at al Qaeda's position throughout the globe tells a different story.
Al Qaeda group claims credit for attack on hotel in Mali’s capital  Al Murabitoon, an al Qaeda group that operates in West Africa, claimed it executed the hotel siege in Mali in conjunction with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Jihadists storm Radisson hotel in Malian capital   The attackers were heard yelling "Allahu Akbar" and separated Muslims from non-Muslims. The hostage crisis is the second to occur in Mali this year, but the first to occur in its capital. Jihadists have increasingly been able to penetrate southern Mali after a French-led counterterrorism mission in the north.
The Taliban approves of Paris suicide assault While western officials still seek to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban, the group continues to support attacks in Western countries. The Taliban said France's "colonial policy" justified the murders in Paris.
Islamic State highlights ‘Sheikh Jalaluddin training camp’ in Afghanistan  The "Sheikh Jalaluddin training camp" is named after the Khorasan Province’s former mufti, or senior religious and legal scholar, who was killed by the US in an airstrike in Nangarhar in October. The Islamic State has advertised three training facilities in Afghanistan in the past two months.
Islamic State releases photograph of bomb that brought down Russian airliner The Islamic State released a photograph of the bomb as well as what it claims are images of passports of Russians who were killed in the explosion and subsequent crash, in issue number 12 of its English language magazine, Dabiq.
Female suicide bomber, attack mastermind killed during raids in Paris  A woman detonated her vest as French special police raided an Islamic State safe house in a Paris suburb. Police were searching for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national who is suspected of plotting the Nov. 13 suicide assault that killed at least 129 people in the French capital. Abaaoud was killed during the raid.
Russians say improvised explosive device brought down jet in Sinai Russian officials say an improvised explosive device with a "capacity of up to 1 kg [2.2. pounds] of TNT" brought down an airliner in the Sinai on Oct. 31. Between the apparent Sinai jet bombing and the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, the Islamic State has killed more than 350 civilians in high-profile terrorist operations since the end of October.
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re: Canada's new defense minister, Harjit Sajjan, at the Halifax Intl Security Forum: intl security policy elite: pulling back planes from Afgh; stopping F35 fighter jets purchase, et al. The new labor party this it has a mandate to do these the intl community tried to convey: events on the ground have changed after the Paris attack, but the new defense minister is undeterred in his goal of doing training, plus addressing the grievances of the Muslim world. American leadership depends to much on physical force; will shape Canada's defense policy thereupon.  Seems unaware that these purportedly tactical decisions call into question Canada's world alliances because he believes that that shouldn't be the case.  Note: the world is a lot more complex to govern than it is to campaign in.  The new administration hasn't sorted this out. Absent the F35, he wants to upgrade the F18s.  It's about interoperability and a bunch of other important matters. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-23/what-canada-s-new-foreign-policy-means-for-the-u-s-
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Xi Jinping, the one-man rule, and the recent interruption of he murder raid in Bamako where  three Chinese nationals were developing the Malian railroad; al Qaeda operatives entered their hotel and intentionally killed the Chinese workers.  Xi's problem is that he holds an enormous domestic army purportedly to protect his citizenry; will soon use this event to ask for world help in hunting down Uyghurs. "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence." In a few hours, in the Hague, Permanent Court of Arbitration, a hearing on China in the South China Sea where China has created bogus islands in a an effort to claim a huge swath of sovereign territory in the sea.  China keeps being surprised when its neighbors respond with displeasure.  Agreements with China doesn't make sense because, while we honor obligations, China does not.  /  Money is flooding out of the country at maybe a trillion a year; Peoples Bank of China reports that its capital is increasing – opposite to what Bloomberg says.  Huge discrepancy between what we say and what China says. More than $3.5 trillion?  Might be closer to $3.1.  Tyrannies are good at hiding weaknesses, whereas democracies can't since everyone has access to the real info.  This constitutes the strength of a democracy.  /  We will not relinquish freedom of navigation, and China won't give up the land it creates from garbage scows and her sea it claims therearound, A zero-sum game.   /  Three Chinese national hostages murdered in Bamako.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/20/and-now-isis-takes-on-c...
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose of francisrose.com and John Batchelor Show, in re: Criminal referral: two employees took jobs inside VA that they'd arranged for themselves, then took permanent station changes and bonuses - $274,000 for relocating from DC to Phila (two hours; drive) – is egregious not in deed but in scope. Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves:  VA accountability of corrupt employees?  No! Moving people around because there was no other way to give them raises $321K annual salary, plus millions in relocation – of only 22 cases that happened to be researched (avg $22,000 moving costs).   Since  there's no restriction on how many times a veteran may appeal, some do so again and again.  One case: a man started in 1985; every time he loses he re-appealed because eventually he won. Unjustly denied a case?  One nuance is that everyone whom you ask in Congress about VA data: "If we can trust the numbers . . ."  Second is that having denied an app for benefits, no way to judge what should have been paid.
Chairman Miller Statement on Lack of Serious Accountability for Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves  WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today Chairman Miller released the below statement regarding the lack of serious accountability for VA employees Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves. The VA inspector general made criminal referrals regarding Rubens and Graves after it found they had abused their authority, enabling them to rake in a total of more than $400,000 in taxpayer-funded relocation benefits.  “For those wondering whether VA is committed to real accountability for corrupt employees, VA leaders answered that question today with a resounding ‘no.’ When presented with the same set of facts regarding Diana Rubens’ and Kimberly Graves’ conduct, VA’s inspector general made criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, while VA leaders went out of their way to allow Rubens and Graves to stay on the department’s payroll and preserve their retirements. Rubens and Graves clearly should have been fired. The fact that VA leaders refused to do so gives me no hope the department will do the right thing and take steps to recover the more than $400,000 taxpayer dollars Rubens and Graves fraudulently obtained. To add insult to taxpayers’ injury, VA rewarded Graves with a bonus of more than $8,000 just this year and department officials don’t even support commonsense legislation that would allow VA to recoup it. Because of the department’s failure to adequately hold employees accountable in this and many other situations, VA is being forced to tolerate corruption, malfeasance and incompetence within its ranks. As a result it remains under the shadow of perpetual scandal.  The millions of American veterans who depend on VA and the hundreds of thousands of VA employees who are dedicated professionals deserve better than this broken status quo. But until VA leaders make a commitment to supporting real accountability – something they have refused to do thus far – efforts to reform VA are doomed to fail.”  Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
 
Hour Two
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block A:  John Fund, NRO, and David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  Gerry Sieb, Bureau chief for WSJ in Washington, a good amateur historian and an careful analyst of Donald Trump: "very much what George Wallace describe in the Democratic Party in 1968." he spoke aggressively and offensively repeatedly: it was the aggressiveness of language that attracted a portion of a portion of a portion of the electorate. We've seen this disordered voice before; it comes to naught What was it? No theme. It's a fire-breathing disrupter, someone who means to crate anarchy.  DMD:  Looks like a third-party run within the confines of the GOP. "We won't take it any more and don't care what happens."  JF: Wallace was so marinated in the racial questions of the day.  He peaked at 21% and dropped to 13%.  TGM: American people by all accounts are frustrated and it's the failure of the parties to lay out acceptable policies – then the media blame the voters. Romney doing well in New Hampshire?    Voters just don't trust things to work. "The end is near-ism."  Cruz moving up in Iowa: the evangelical conservative voters.  /  Wallace upset the Dems in '68 and Nixon was elected – Nixon was appealing to the angry and frustrated silent majority. 
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: :  John Fund, NRO, and David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Mrs Clinton's sudden struggle not to attach her campaign to Wall Street – one of the richest candidates ever to run for the presidency.  She equated taking Wall St donations post-9/11 as a form of patriotism.   Awful lot of people have donated to each Clinton with reservations – not sure if they trust or like her and are most weary of her constant constant demands for more money.  . . . She'll still wind the nomination without too much trouble – inevitable (barring FBI on her foundations and server/emails. She's the most joyless candidates since Richard Nixon – Janus-like on the stump, struggles [to be agreeable].  Eight years of this? With that frozen smile? It'll wear her down.  On the plus side, she'll probably enjoy ruling more than does her predecessor. Throwing things? Not only; she likes running things.  . . .  The emails are another galaxay.
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Vl Putin and the ayatollah in Teheran, chatting about the future.  The success of Pres Obama as Putin sits in the chair that Pres Obama hoped to  sit in?  It's Putin showing his influence, statement opposing Assad's removal, plus other dvpts: Russian giving Iran a $17 bil loan for energy sector incl a buy-in.  report in Iran announcing it won't dismantle any centrifuge.  IAEA report saying Iran is in compliance so can start to get the $150 billion?  Putin exploiting it al.  Also announced that he'd finance the first nucl reactor in Egypt and build it.  Major inroad into another key party. Dies DC see that it's creating the vacuum for Putin to fill??  And that DC likes it that way?   Russia's interest in Latakia [et al.] demonstrating its reliability as an ally to "sticking it " to the US.  Argentina, with the Kirchners in power for twelve years and agreeing to cover up Iran's bombings of the AMIA community center in 1994 that killed many and then killed the prosecutor, and seem to have raided the central bank?; new successor, Macri, wins, and promised to break the deal with Iran and shove all the Iranian agents out of the presidential palace.  Iran has a big infrastructure in Argentina and throughout South America; He'll replace people in security and the army; they'll crack down, it'll be slow and the pro-Iranians will try to block it. Country is badly mismanaged and the economic system has been raped for a long time.  Iran: Rouhani, signatory to brutality of 30 years – going to Europe, his first state visit there. Since then, 2,000 people have been executed in Iran – he stepped up arrests, abuses, attacks  ; huge human rights depredations. sponsorship of terror and destabilizing the entire region. More than 50 IRGC have been killed; Rouhani justifies this as a Syria being a key religious site. 
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Ezra Schwarz killed by Palestinians; Secy Kerry in Abu Dhabi called the family in Massachusetts say there's no excuse for Palestinian terrorism.   So five people killed during an innocent good deed of carrying food.   . . .  US needs to cut off aid the Abbas's kleptocracy (money goes to his posse and esp his children) – massive millions disappear, aid money never reaches the needy people. Knife-ifada, car rammings, wack-a-mole pop-ups in stairwells, outside synagogues, on the street, anywhere. 
Hour Three
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:   Mary Kissel, Opinion Journal.com, in re:  American university presidents's kowtowing to "little Maoists" – a generation of students incapable of dealing with any offense or hint of disagreement.  Trustees capitulated?  the men and women in charge fo the money – the fiduciary responsibility? Yes, are not doing their jobs, although Chicago is pushing back, and Mitch Daniels at Perdue, and Johns Hopkins.  The strugglers of the Sixties went on to get Ph.D.s and burrow into universities and trained the students to avoid any hint of sexual or racial or cultural "aggression" – coddles kids and does not teach them to think critically.  In New York City parties, hard to find anyone who can think clearly.   GoACTA.org     Washington State court rules charter schools unconstitutional.
Opinion Journal: The College Leadership Vacuum American Council of Trustees and Alumni President Anne Neal on nationwide campus protests and why administrators have a responsibility to protect free speech.  /  Opinion Journal: Washington State Charter Setback   Democrats for Education Reform President Shavar Jeffries on the state supreme court's ruling and the Obama administration's reform record. Photo credit: Photo credit: Getty
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Sebastian v Gorka, ThreatKnowledge.org & Marine Corps University, in re:  1. A person somewhere in the world manages to establish himself as a religious authority. e. g., Hassan in the US military, was in regular contacts with al Awlaki to find out how he cold "legally" kill US servicemen.   2. Propaganda and social media. Careful of "lone wolf" – not a useful concept as it suggests that a fellow could be an upstanding citizen then convert himself into a killer; in fact, there's always someone out there who persuades him.  The Tsarnaevs had 2,000 pages of text.    3. Posting Anti-American msgs online; Islamic State flag on Facebook; "growing a beard and dying it red" – obvious sign of someone who's moved into a more Wahhabist or Salafi interpretation of his religion Stop using alcohol or tobacco; get agitated on discussions of religion or US foreign policy of Middle East.   Also: mosque-shopping from a tranquil imam to a jihadist one.  / When all these combine and the rapidity of lifestyle change is noticeable or unusual, have another look.  It's rarely one individual alone, usu a small group. When small groups together start gto pray five times a day when before they didn't, can suggest that more is going on FBI watching 1,000 cases, but in al 50 state and 900-plus cases plus 250 or more gone to fight, plus 82 in the US arrested here who were ISIS supporters, of who 28% had no intention to travel but chose to serve the caliph by doing attacks here on US soil. 
With the November 13th attack in Paris that killed 130 people and injured 368, many are asking what the risk is of a similar attack on U.S. soil. While France has a proportionately larger Muslim population than the United States (7.5% of the total population in France compared with .6% – 2.2% in the U.S.), ISIS has already recruited supporters in the United States with the intent of executing domestic attacks here in America. Key evidence includes the following:
ƒ  82 individuals in the United States affiliating with ISIS have been interdicted by law enforcement since March 2014 (including 7 unnamed mi- nors and 4 killed in the course of attacks). (For a full list of those individuals see www.ThreatKnowledge.org) 

ƒ  More than 250 individuals from the United States have joined or at- tempted to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq according to the Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel published by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee in September 2015. 

ƒ  The FBI currently has nearly 1,000 ongoing ISIS probes in the United States, according to a recent report by Judicial Watch. 

ƒ  ISIS is recruiting within the U.S. at about three-times the rate of Al Qaeda. 

ƒ  Ali Shukri Amin, a 17 year-old Islamic State (IS) supporter from Manassas, Virginia, recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiring to pro- vide support to ISIS, had nearly 4,000 Twitter followers, under the alias, ‘Amreeki Witness.’ 

ƒ  Ahmad Musa Jibril, an Arab-American Islamist preacher living in Dearborn, Michigan, had 38,000 Twitter followers before his site went silent. A report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) found that 60% of surveyed foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria followed Jibril on Twitter. 
What the numbers demonstrate is that ISIS has a significant base of support in the United States, including both those who have already traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight as jihadis, as well as terror suspects who have been interdicted for attempting to travel there, pro- viding support to ISIS in other tangible ways, or attempting attacks. 

Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:   Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ editorial, in re: Argentina’s Political Earthquake  Mauricio Macri, the new president, pledges to end the conflict of the Kirchner years.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/argentinas-political-earthquake-1448242782?tesla=y
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:
Hour Four
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block A:  The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, by Laura Auricchio (1 of 4)
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, by Laura Auricchio (2 of 4)
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, by Laura Auricchio (3 of 4)
Monday 16 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, by Laura Auricchio (4 of 4)
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