Securing America with Frank Gaffney Podcast

Sidney Powell

SIDNEY POWELL, former Assistant US Attorney and author of the new book, "Licensed to Lie," discusses prosecutorial misconduct in the Department of Justice for a special full hour. 

Bill Roggio, Fred Fleitz, Rep. John Carter, Bill Gertz

BILL ROGGIO, managing editor of The Long War Journal:

• ISIS' ambitions to extend into Jordan and Lebanon
• The financial strength of ISIS and how state-sponsored terrorism is facilitating sectarian conflict in the Middle East
• Should the administration rethink its troop withdrawal policy towards Afghanistan, given recent events in Iraq?

FRED FLEITZ, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy:

• ISIS' origins
• Political intelligence failures of the Obama Administration
• The controversies surrounding the use of drones
• Next steps in the legal system for Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khatallah

Congressman JOHN CARTER, of the 31st Congressional District of Texas:

• President Obama's role in the skyrocketing amount of undocumented immigrants seeking amnesty in the U.S.
• How the border patrol, police, Texas and the United States are being affected by the surge of illegal immigrants
• Ideas for what the U.S. should do to handle the influx of illegal immigrants

BILL GERTZ, senior editor of The Washington Free Beacon:

• China's inclusion in RIMPAC, a large international naval exercise: What message does it send to America's allies in the Pacific?
• Russia's recent cruise missile tests amid international tensions over the Ukraine situation
• Implications of a recent successful test of the US missile defense system
• North Korean outrage over a new film about American journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong Un

Diana West, Mark Tooley, Jim Hanson, Andy McCarthy

DIANA WEST, author of "American Betrayal":

• An argument against the prioritization of global interests over national interests
• Who, if anyone, is there to side with in Iraq?
• Dangers of extreme multiculturalism

MARK TOOLEY, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy:

• Yesterday's rearrest of Meriam Ibrahim and her family
• The Presbyterian Church USA's vote to divest in three companies that do business in Israel
• Persecution of Christians in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt

JIM HANSON, of Blackfive.net:

• Frustration as hard-fought gains from the Iraq War dissolve as ISIS surges across Iraq
• Call for the US to show its strength, as it did with the "Road of Death"
• Inconsistencies with US requirements for legal protections of US troops in Iraq between 2011 and 2014

ANDY MCCARTHY, former federal prosecutor and author of "Faithless Execution":

• Questions over the lawfulness of some of the actions taken by President Obama, and ways in which Congress can counter them
• Illegal immigrant surge across the US southern border and its implications for the electorate

Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Claudia Rosett, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Peter Pham

Rep. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, of Florida's 27th Congressional District:

• Will President Obama seek Congressional approval to launch airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq?
• Ways in which U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has prompted a contemplation of allying with Iran
• Iran's continuing strides towards a nuclear weapon, and the Administration's attempt to go around strict sanctions on the regime
• Controversy over the Palestinian Unity Government—composed of Fatah and Hamas--benefiting from American tax dollars and political support

CLAUDIA ROSETT, of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies:

• Iran's past actions that would make it an untrustworthy ally in Iraq
• North Korea and Iran's ongoing weapons collaboration, and the likelihood that NK will assist Iran in testing a nuclear weapon
• Putin's supposed move to lessen Russian military involvement in Ukraine

Rep. DUNCAN HUNTER, of California's 50th Congressional District:

• Thoughts on the direction the U.S. should take in Iraq
• American military power projections, and concern that the DoD's capabilities have not kept up with budget increases
• Illegal immigration's impact on the country

Dr. PETER PHAM, of The Atlantic Council:

• Results of the US ignoring the threat of Boko Haram back in 2011
• Boko Haram's territorial expansionism in Northern Nigeria
• Rundown on a Somali terrorist organization, Al-Shabab, operating with impunity in Kenya

Kiron Skinner, Amb. Eric Edelman, Rep. Mark Meadows, Gordon Chang

KIRON SKINNER, Hoover Institution

"We have helped unleash Al-Qaeda, its affiliates, and great terror across the Middle East simply because we believe withdrawing is the only strategy available to the United States"

• What history has shown about withdrawing from wars
• The national security risk of only focusing on "core Al-Qaeda"
• The theme of '"distorted jihad" in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Iran
• Comparing the Reagan and Obama foreign policy doctrines

ERIC EDELMAN, former US Ambassador to Turkey

• Prospects for Kurdish independence- what is Turkey's position?
• The implications of Turkey's upcoming election
• Is Turkey a reliable ally for the United States?

Rep. MARK MEADOWS, of North Carolina's 11th Congressional District

• Secretary Kerry's trip to Baghdad and the possibility of a U.S./Iran alliance to quell sectarian violence
• The Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act being brought forward in Congress
• Should the U.S. accept the Fatah/Hamas unity government in Palestine as an ally?
• Lois Lerner, the IRS, and the so-called "missing emails"

GORDON CHANG, Forbes.com columnist

• Chinese plans to export untested nuclear power plant designs to countries such as Pakistan
• Concerns about the lack of communication between Chinese and French regulators as China constructs the first of a new European-designed nuclear power plant
• Beijing's white paper retracting Hong Kong's autonomy and the subsequent surge of pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong
• The prospects that Modi's India will economically outperform China

Bing West, Steven Groves, John Hayward, Victor Davis Hanson

BING WEST, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

• Maliki's sectarianism as the root of the Iraq crisis 
• Prospects for Sunni and Shiite infighting during a potential lull in fighting over Ramadan
• Obama's perspective on America's appropriate role in the world: a regional power? 
• The distancing of the military from the Obama White House

STEVEN GROVES, Heritage Foundation:

• Questions over the timing of the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala by U.S. special forces
• Hillary Clinton, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and attempts to limit the First Amendment

JOHN HAYWARD, staff writer at Human Events:

• The invasion of the US border and the "Children Crusade"--why are parents sending their children unaccompanied through Central America to the United States?
• Evidence suggesting the Obama Administration and the Department of Homeland Security expected the current surge of minor illegal immigrants, and the federal government's need to house and care for them
• Displacing effect on American workers of the immigration visa program

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution:

• A comparison of the immigration views of Eric Cantor and the new House Republican Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy
• The moral and practical issues associated with amnesty and the "New Children's Crusade"
• What really led the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq?

John Bolton, Bill Gertz, Bill Roggio, Andy McCarthy

JOHN BOLTON, former US Ambassador to the United Nations:

• Analyzing the as-yet unclear administration policy on Iraq, and how the US response will be shaped by Iran's role in the conflict
• Concerns the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will produce a resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda similar to that of ISIS in Iraq
• What is the future for the Kurds in Iraq?

BILL GERTZ, senior editor of The Washington Free Beacon:

• An attempt by China and Russia to use international treaties to prevent the US from developing space weapons, even while they continue to do so covertly
• A Congressional effort to block the US from sending attack helicopters to the el-Sisi government in Egypt
• The need to modernize the U.S. Air Force's strategic bomber fleet

BILL ROGGIO, editor of the Long War Journal:

• Capture of Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala—if he was watched by the U.S. "from day one," why did the administration blame the attack on an anti-Islam video?
• Likelihood that Iranian troops in Iraq will create a full-scale civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites
• How ISIS's desire to create a new Caliphate might lead to the creation of a Kurdistan made up of the Kurdish areas of Syria, Turkey and Iraq, all of whom would be expected to strongly oppose any loss of territory

ANDY MCCARTHY, former federal prosecutor:

• Problems with trying Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala in federal court—namely, that the start of the discovery process gives Abu Khattala access to US intelligence, and the government is prevented from interrogating him further
• Overview of the newly-established Benghazi Accountability Coalition

Mark Krikorian

MARK KRIKORIAN, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, features in a special-one hour interview about the national security impact of the influx of illegal immigrants entering the United States along the southern border.

Part 1:

• Who are the illegal aliens pouring into the United States? About 1/3 of illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. via the Mexico-Texas border are "unaccompanied minors." This catch-all term includes young men claiming to be 16 or 17 years old, many of whom have known gang connections
• Impact on public safety the mass of illegal immigrants is causing, especially in regards to the health of border communities

Part 2:

• Understanding how the combination of downgraded enforcement, the DREAM Act, and the government's policy of delivering unaccompanied minors to relatives already in the US—no questions asked—has contributed to this "invasion"
• Evaluating the current degree of security at the Mexico-US border and the condition of the Border Patrol agents—a group of law enforcement officers that number less than the NYPD force and are charged with protecting every American border

Part 3:

• Ways in which the use of prosecutorial discretion to downgrade illegal immigration to a "secondary offense" is transforming America
• Critique of the refugee industry racket

Part 4:

• Reflections on the defeat of the "Texas Reform" in the new Texas GOP platform, and Eric Cantor's loss
• How much does a Republican win in 2016 hinge on a GOP change on amnesty?

Sen. David Vitter, Kim Holmes, Erick Stakelbeck, Donald Reay

DAVID VITTER, United States Senator from Louisiana:

• Iraq: a warning that Iran is "playing all sides" in the Sunni—Shiite conflict, and past US policy failures that contributed to the current instability in Iraq
• The role that lax enforcement of immigration laws has played in causing the current surge of illegal immigration
• Hillary Clinton's failure to fully report required information regarding Boko Haram--why weren't they labeled as a terrorist organization during her tenure as Secretary of State?

KIM HOLMES, former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs:

• Short and long term impact of Russia's decision to cut off gas to Ukraine, and Russia's continued supplying of military equipment to Ukrainian rebels
• How walking away from Iraq seems to have helped create another "unnecessary war"
• The Obama administration's relationship with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

ERICK STAKELBECK, host of "The Watchman with Erick Stakelbeck":

• Understanding ISIS's goal of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria
• Arguments against the US cooperating with Iran in fighting against ISIS in Iraq
• The threat posed by Muslim Brotherhood operatives in the United States
• Danger from Western ISIS fighters returning home as battle-hardened jihadists

DONALD REAY, Executive Director of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition

• Similarities to Hurricane Katrina of the impact that the influx of illegal immigrants is having on the local government services of southern border communities
• Health and safety concerns created by large numbers of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. with no medical or background exams, and frustration that border counties are forced to foot the bill of responding to the crisis
• Executive branch policies concerning immigration that circumvented laws passed by the Legislative Branch and contributed to the surge of illegal immigrants entering the U.S.

Peter Gaytan, Roger Noriega, Diana West, Gordon Chang

PETER GAYTAN, Executive Director of the American Legion in DC:

• Full extent of the Veterans Affairs scandal, and evidence showing that DC officials knew about the secret waitlists as far back as 2010
• Efforts the American Legion is taking—some jointly with the VA—to assist veterans who have been unable to get medical appointments
• Fixing the root of the problem by removing the 14-day appointment requirement, and instituting a temporary program that will allow veterans to seek non-VA healthcare in order for the VA to work its way through the backlog of patients

ROGER NORIEGA, former Ambassador to the Organization of American States:

• Security concerns due to a surge of illegal aliens crossing the US's southern border
• Impact of Colombia's recent election on the government's conflict with the FARC
• An update on the continuing unrest in Venezuela
• Riots in Brazil over the high cost of the World Cup

DIANA WEST, author of "American Betrayal":

• Recent developments in Iraq--should the United States get involved?
• The immigration crisis on the southern border
• Critiquing a theory that the video-maker blamed for the Benghazi attack was an employee of the US government

GORDON CHANG, Forbes.com columnist:

• China's vital energy interests threatened by instability in Iraq—with growing energy independence, how much focus should the United States give to swiftly resolving the Iraq violence?
• Implications of continued hostile economic behavior by China towards US companies
• 
Chinese fears of a strengthening Japan-India alliance
• International reaction to the Tiananmen Square Massacre's 25th anniversary