Securing America with Frank Gaffney Podcast

Bill Gertz

BILL GERTZ, Senior Editor at the Washington Free Beacon:

PART ONE:

• A year of Communist China pushing the U.S. out of Asia
• Intelligence brief on secret Chinese nuclear forces
• China’s new J-31 stealth jet and DF31B missile

PART TWO:

• Chinese Mission Action 2014 and combined-arms warfare
• Naval aggression in the South and East China Seas
• How new asymmetric advances are changing China’s capabilities in the space and cyber domains
• Looking back at the five PLA hackers indicted in the United States

PART THREE:

• The North Korean information warfare campaign
• America’s failure to counter the radical Islamist ideology in 2014
• The need for an “Information America” service to battle anti-U.S. propaganda

PART FOUR:

• Steps for the Pentagon to improve U.S. nuclear deterrence
• Ballistic missiles currently in occupied Crimea and other prior Russian violations of the 1987 INF Treaty
• Sequestration funding cuts and protracted wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq hemorrhaging U.S. conventional forces
• The Obama Administration’s passive approach to cyber conflict

Dr. Judith Curry

JUDITH CURRY, former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology:

PART ONE:

• What is climate change and why does it happen?
• Variabilities in 20th century global temperatures
• "Climate change" versus "global warming"
• New scientific concerns over the accuracy of climate models

PART TWO:

• Mid-20th century "global cooling" panic
• How global climate models operate
• If climate models are inherently flawed, where does that leave the science of climate change?

PART THREE:

• Is there an overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming?
• Political influences over climate change research

PART FOUR:

• What the Climategate emails revealed about the politicization of scientific research
• The backlash Curry faced for speaking out against unethical behavior
• Fights between the developed and developing world over environmental policy
• Can human beings "fix" the climate?

José Cárdenas

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS, Former Acting Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the USAID, Associate at VisiónAméricas:

PART ONE:

• Criticism of the concessions given to the Castro regime in Cuba
• How the U.S.-Cuba hostage trade was a separate entity from diplomatic recognition
• Congressional options to keep the embargo on Cuba

PART TWO:

• What a normalization of relations means for the average Cuban citizen
• Economic woes of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro regimes continue to haunt Cuba
• Will the United States benefit from relations with traditionally hostile actors in the Western Hemisphere?

PART THREE:

• The Cuba situation distracting the U.S. from the faltering Chávisimo movement in Venezuela
• Russian, Iranian, Chinese, and Islamic radical actors all moving with impunity in Maduro’s Venezuela
• How aggressively will the U.S. government pursue those in the Venezuelan regime accused of human rights violations?

PART FOUR:

• High corruption and drug-related violence in Mexico
• The continued battle between the Colombian government and FARC narcoterrorists
• Uruguay granting freedom to six former Guantanamo Bay detainees

Rep. Trent Franks

Congressman TRENT FRANKS (AZ-8), member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chair of the Judiciary Committee's Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee:

PART ONE

• Rep. Franks' efforts to raise awareness of the vulnerabilities of the electric grid
• Natural and man-made causes of EMP
• Iranian military references to "weaponized EMP"
• Future of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act in the new Congress

PART TWO

• President Obama's dismissal of the Sony hack by North Korea as "cyber vandalism"
• Executive overreach and holding the President accountable to the Constitution and his oath of office
• President Obama's history of voting "present," rather than for or against, state and federal bills

PART THREE

• Does Congress' refusal to fund DHS through the "Crominbus" give it leverage over President Obama in 2015?
• Amnesty and the end of the Republican Party
• A disconnect between President Obama's response to the hack of Sony Pictures, and to that of a film he claimed spurred the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12
• The meaning of true religious tolerance

PART FOUR

• Claims of injustice surrounding the U.S. grand jury process
• Means of determining whether certain police behavior is race-motivated
• Violent jihad references on the Facebook page of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suspected murderer of two NYPD officers
• Expectations for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force against the Islamic State in 2015

PART FIVE

• Sequestration's impact on the U.S. military
• Innovation within the U.S. space and missile defense programs
• In light of the secret U.S.-Cuba negotiations, what other clandestine talks might the Administration be engaging in?

Amb. John Bolton, Luis Fleischman, Zuhdi Jasser, Bill Roggio, and Chris Farrell

Amb. JOHN BOLTON, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:

• Is Obama’s Cuba policy a surrender to a U.S. adversary?
• Predicting Iran's reaction to recent events in the Western Hemisphere
• Voters asking for more Republican leaders to oppose the President’s foreign policy direction
• Reestablishing the G.O.P. as the “national security party”

LUIS FLEISCHMAN, author of “Latin America in the Post-Chavez Era: The Security Threat to the United States”:

• Venezuela and Cuba's exchange of subsidized oil for security and medical personnel
• The role of the global oil market in the timing of the Obama Administration's normalization of relations with Castro’s Cuba
• Why only a complete economic restructuring will enable Cubans to enjoy benefits of U.S. recognition
• Barack Obama's failure to gain concessions from the Cuban government, aside from the prisoner swap

Dr. ZUHDI JASSER, President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith”:

• Self-radicalized lone wolves in the global Shariah movement
• How to promote a peaceful, tolerant form of the Muslim faith currently under threat from "Islamo-patriotism"
• The need to understand ideologies instead of just fixing symptoms
• Why the canceling of “The Interview” is a bigger issue than simply that of North Korean cyberterrorism

BILL ROGGIO, Managing Editor of the Long War Journal:

• The Taliban massacre in Peshawar and the Pakistani government’s complex relationship with jihadist groups
• How the Sydney hostage crisis reflects the inability of Western governments to identify domestic extremist threats
• The battle to combat the Shariah ideology

CHRIS FARRELL, Director of Investigations and Research at Judicial Watch:

• The U.S. Border Patrol being utilized as facilitators for resettlement
• Criticism’s of the President’s broad-sweeping directives on immigration policy
• Political ramifications of the Senate Intelligence report on enhanced interrogation
• The importance of HUMINT and its ability to discern threat intentions

Amb. Roger Noriega, Mark Krikorian, Franklin Miller, Fred Fleitz

Amb. ROGER NORIEGA, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs:

• Timing of American outreach to Cuba given the current oil market and the regime’s ties to the Venezuelan government
• Rául Castro's claim that he will use U.S. economic concessions to strengthen the socialist totalitarian regime
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s push to lift the embargo on Cuba
• Will the Cuba prisoner exchange serve as a blueprint for future Obama policy with Iran?

MARK KRIKORIAN, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies:

• The congressional funding bill that will only provide short-term spending measures for the Department of Homeland Security
• Cruz’s (R-TX) proposed amendment for a vote on the constitutionality of the President’s actions on immigration
• Republican willingness to shut down the federal government to foil an executive amnesty

FRANKLIN MILLER, former Senior Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the NSC Staff:

• Looking at the U.S. nuclear arsenal amidst growing modernization of other nations' capabilities
• An urgent need to modernize warhead delivery mechanisms
• Russia's violations of the 1987 INF Treaty and contempt for international agreements that don’t constrain the U.S.
• Is it time to enlarge the U.S. nuclear deterrence in Europe?

FRED FLEITZ, former CIA analyst:

• The co-dependency of the Cuban regime and Venezuela’s Maduro government
• Cuban intelligence operations inside the U.S. as evidenced by the “Cuban Five”
• A Shariah-inspired atrocity in Pakistan
• John Brennan’s poor defense of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program

Diana West, Jim Hanson, Michael Pack, and Dan Pollak

DIANA WEST, author of “American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character”:

• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s response to the threat from the international jihad movement
• Street protests over the influx of refugees into Germany
• Unrest in New York City over the death of Eric Garner

JIM HANSON, former U.S. Special Operations Master Sergeant:

• Yesterday's school massacre in Peshawar, Pakistan
• Is it possible to distinguish between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban ideology?
• More lone wolf theories arising after the Sydney hostage crisis

MICHAEL PACK, filmmaker and President/Founder of Manifold Productions, Inc.:

• Looking at the legacy of Adm. Hyman Rickover in the film “Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power”
• The criticism Adm. Rickover faced for his long tenure and micromanagement of the nuclear navy
• How Adm. Rickover helped win the Cold War and fundamentally transformed the U.S. Navy

DAN POLLAK, former U.S. Navy Submarine Officer and Co-Director of Government Relations at the Zionist Organization of America:

• The introduction of females into the submarine service
• Shortcomings of the U.S. undersea deterrent amidst Chinese military modernization
• Hamas's removal from the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations

Kevin Freeman

KEVIN FREEMAN, author of “Game Plan: How to Protect Yourself from the Coming Cyber-Economic Attack”:

PART ONE

• A synopsis of economic warfare
• Understanding the 2008 financial collapse as an attack on the U.S. economy
• “Naked short-selling” of Lehman Brothers shares and the Russian bear raid on Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac
• Saudi Arabia’s manipulation of oil prices to bring down the U.S. energy sector

PART TWO

• Domestic production of shale oil’s contribution to the majority of U.S. economic growth since the 2008 collapse
• The need for continued investment into U.S. energy development in order to finance the drilling of new wells
• The impact of dropping oil prices on Iran, Venezuela, and Russia
• Correlation between American prosperity and the strength of the reserve currency status

PART THREE

• Are the BRICS nations trying to undermine the U.S.-established, post-WW2 economy?
• A form of international currency that has the infrastructure and strength to replace the dollar
• Sovereign wealth funds and Shariah-compliant financing

PART FOUR

• Cyber vulnerabilities of U.S. critical infrastructure and financial institutions
• Dangers to consumer privacy from the Chinese information technology giant Alibaba
• Reasons behind the creation of the National Security Investment Consultants Institute
• National security experts and investment advisors brainstorming to merge the goals of Washington and Wall Street

Ann Corcoran

ANN CORCORAN, founder of Refugee Resettlement Watch:

PART ONE:

• How the Virginia Council on Churches spawned the creation of Ms. Corcoran’s organization
• The 1980 Refugee Resettlement Act's intertwining with the State Department and nine non-profits in a cyclical resettlement program
• The large non-profit lobbying for comprehensive immigration reform

PART TWO:

• The United Nation’s role in directing refugees displaced from the Syrian conflict to come to the U.S.
• The disparity between the UN-granted temporary asylum for refugees in Middle Eastern countries and full asylum in Western democracies
• Controversial allocations of tax-payer dollars to federal government contractors competing for refugees

PART THREE

• The political, societal, and financial impact of refugee influxes on local communities
• Migration as a form of jihad
• What help are persecuted Middle Eastern Christians being given from the UN and the United States?
• Plans for the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. in 2015

PART FOUR

• Keith Ellison (MN-5), the first Muslim elected into the U.S. Congress
• “Pockets of resistance” around the U.S. to the influx of refugees and asylum seekers
• The six Guantanamo Bay detainees being resettled in Uruguay given permission to leave the country

Daniel Horowitz, Bill Harlow, Tarek Fatah, Sen. Mark Kirk, Bill Gertz

DANIEL HOROWITZ, Senior Editor for conservativereview.com:

• Dwindling House Republican pushback against the President’s policies and agenda
• How the House-passed spending package will benefit Obama and his amnesty plan
• Current Republican congressional disunity

BILL HARLOW, former Chief CIA Spokesman:

• Did the Senate Intel report ignore reliable intelligence gained from the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program?
• A troubling lack of CIA input during the five-year compilation of the Senate report
• The system of checks and measures to authenticate information gained from enhanced interrogation

TAREK FATAH, author and weekly columnist for the Toronto Sun:

• Canadian academic support for Sharia law
• Findings of a recent Canadian Parliamentary hearing on domestic terrorism
• An assessment of the potential for infiltration of Canadian political and security institutions

Sen. MARK KIRK (R-IL), ranking Republican on the Appropriations Subcommittee for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs:

• The current state of affairs in the Iran nuclear talks
• Should the United States be concerned about an EMP attack from Iran?
• Sen. Kirk's commitment to reinstate sanctions on Iran in the forthcoming GOP-led Congress

BILL GERTZ, Senior Editor at the Washington Free Beacon:

• A newly unearthed 2012 DHS report detailing the electrical grid’s vulnerability to a geomagnetic storm
• European security implications of Russia's violation of the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty
• China's new hypersonic missile