Securing America with Frank Gaffney Podcast

BING WEST, author of “One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War” and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs:

• A look back at the devastating combat waged by the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in Sangin, Afghanistan (Helmand Province)
• Afghanistan today and the plan to withdraw most U.S. troops by the end of the year
• The skewed rules of engagement U.S. servicemen faced when implementing a counterinsurgency strategy

PART TWO

• How stringent rules of engagement breed a risk-averse culture
• President Obama’s feckless security policy and how it harms America’s long-term credibility
• The challenges posed by Iraq’s ethnic tensions
• Working with an Iranian-friendly Shiite administration in Baghdad

PART THREE

• Turkish President Erdogan’s Islamist ambitions
• Why the Afghanistan air campaign of 2001 was an ideal campaign for containing the spread of jihadist insurgencies
• How the War on Terror represents a greater clash of civilizations that will last for generations

PART FOUR

• What the two controversial memoirs by Secretaries of Defense Gates and Panetta indicate about President Obama’s leadership
• The FBI Director’s warning about China’s relentless hacking of American businesses
• Failure of the Republican Party to articulate meaningful alternatives and be consistent in its opposition to current Administration policy
• The indispensable capability offered by land mines and the ideological motive behind the President’s desire to remove them from America’s arsenal

MARK HELPRIN, bestselling author of “In Sunlight and in Shadow”:

• A macro look at the current progressive-liberal view on war
• The Administration’s failure to distinguish between rational and irrational actors in the international arena
• A historic analysis of the new Islamic conquest

PART TWO

• How the direct threat of “civilization jihad” is systemically eroding American values
• Updates on the battle for Kobani, Syria
• Evidence of civilization jihad in the previous efforts to construct a mosque at Ground Zero

PART THREE

• A recurrent and existential threat posed to mankind by emerging pathogens
• Russia’s long historical memory and Putin’s writing of the newest chapter of Russian aggression towards its neighbors
• Economic dependence as a means of domination for ambitious nations

PART FOUR

• The atrophy of the American military industrial base in the post-Cold War era
• The additional risks associated with a reduced military capacity for crisis management stemming from budget cuts
• Confronting the ideology of retrenchment in a more dangerous world

JACK CASHILL, author of “You Lie! The Evasions, Omissions, Fabrications, Frauds, and Outright Falsehoods of Barack Obama”:

• A deeper look into President Obama’s early family life
• The three main Presidential deceptions about America’s border security
• Questioning the President’s religious affiliation and its political repercussions

PART TWO

• Reasons behind the stall in US relations with Russia
• Why the Administration is unable to focus on its pivot to Asia
• President Obama’s post-Benghazi falsehoods
• The outlook for the remaining two years under Barack Obama

SUE MI TERRY, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council:

• Making sense of Kim Jong Un’s recent disappearance from the public eye
• Does recent North Korean outreach constitute a serious opportunity for change, or is yet another seasonal charm offensive?
• What role—if any—sanctions are playing as the force behind the DPRK’s calls for dialogue

BILL GERTZ, Managing Editor at the Washington Free Beacon:

• The Administration’s failure to take necessary precautions to preempt the spread of the Ebola virus
• A growing spirit of cooperation between Al Qaeda affiliated groups and the Islamic State
• Japan’s military role expanded in official doctrine regarding the JSDF relationship with U.S. forces in a conflict setting

YOSSIE HOLLANDER, co-founder of the Fuel Freedom Foundation:

• PUMP, a newly released documentary highlighting the importance of fuel choice
• Reasons why the U.S. should invest in cheaper and cleaner fuels, such as methanol and electricity
• Clean energy’s role in defunding the global jihad

PART TWO

• The impact of supply & demand on the oil market
• The use and production of methanol as an alternative to oil
• How to “jail break” a car to run on cleaner and cheaper fuel

PART THREE

• Lessons from Brazil's success in making flex fuel vehicles easily accessible to consumers
• Regulatory obstacles inhibiting Americans from converting their own cars into flex fuel vehicles
• EPA consideration of how to make alternative fuel sources more common in the American market

PART FOUR

• Economic, ecological, and security gains that OPEC-dependent nations can gain from investing in alternate fuels
• Developing localized production of energy through alternative energy sources
• Disparate interests in energy sources and investment from the business and political elite

With Steven Groves

STEVEN GROVES, Bernard and Barbara Lomas Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation:

• The circumvention of the U.S. legislative process by the Human Rights Counsel and other UN groups
• The Obama Administration’s use of “international norms” to implement its domestic policy
• Problems with President Obama's enforcement of treaties that have yet to be ratified by the Senate

PART 2

• The ability of the U.S. to be bound by international treaties that have not received Congressional approval
• Why the President bypassed Constitutional law to sign the International Arms Trade Treaty
• How the International Arms Trade Treaty restricts U.S. foreign affairs and defense

PART 3

• UN Disability Treaty advocates garnering the support of veterans through arguably misleading promises
• Attempts by human rights groups to take advantage of Congress' lame-duck session to push through legislation
• Why the Law of the Sea Treaty is counterproductive to American national security interests

PART 4

• Problems the Law of the Sea Treaty would cause for the U.S. Navy
• President Obama’s decision to ban the use of land mines against the advice of military leadership
• The Administration’s habit of bypassing Senate approval in order to comply with international agreements

STEVEN GROVES, Bernard and Barbara Lomas Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation:

• The circumvention of the U.S. legislative process by the Human Rights Counsel and other UN groups
• The Obama Administration’s use of “international norms” to implement its domestic policy
• Problems with President Obama's enforcement of treaties that have yet to be ratified by the Senate

PART 2

• The ability of the U.S. to be bound by international treaties that have not received Congressional approval
• Why the President bypassed Constitutional law to sign the International Arms Trade Treaty
• How the International Arms Trade Treaty restricts U.S. foreign affairs and defense

PART 3

• UN Disability Treaty advocates garnering the support of veterans through arguably misleading promises
• Attempts by human rights groups to take advantage of Congress' lame-duck session to push through legislation
• Why the Law of the Sea Treaty is counterproductive to American national security interests

PART 4

• Problems the Law of the Sea Treaty would cause for the U.S. Navy
• President Obama’s decision to ban the use of land mines against the advice of military leadership
• The Administration’s habit of bypassing Senate approval in order to comply with international agreements

With John Bolton, Andy McCarthy, Peter Huessy, Kevin Freeman

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

• The John Bolton PAC’s support for national security-oriented candidates
• The Obama Administration’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program
• Wendy Sherman’s policy shortcomings towards Iran and North Korea
• Returning to the ideal of "Peace Through Strength"

ANDY MCCARTHY, former federal prosecutor:

• Embracing a realist perspective to guide America’s role as a world leader
• The Khorasan group's position as a sub-entity of core Al Qaeda
• Lackluster progress in the air campaign against ISIS

PETER HUESSY, Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council:

• Iran’s work towards a nuclear weapon under the guise of a nuclear energy program
• Questions surrounding Iran's assertion that its supposed peaceful nuclear program needs centrifuges
• What the U.S. can learn from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system

KEVIN FREEMAN, Founder of GlobalEconomicWarfare.com:

• Chinese and Russian cooperation on supplanting American financial institutions
• The weakening reliability of the American dollar
• Vladimir Putin’s success in forming meaningful economic relationships with China

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, author of “Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel’s Just War Against Hamas”:

• Hamas’ use of slave & child labor to dig terror tunnels
• Evidence that Palestinian civilians have been used as human shields
• The “perverse idiocy” of U.S. --Israeli genocide claims
• How the UN has become “Palestinian occupied territory”

KAREN PAVLICIN-FRAGNITO, publisher of "Stories Around the Table: Laughter, Wisdom, and Strength in Military Life”:

• Bringing military families together to share their stories in "Stories Around the Table"
• The importance of awareness about the unique challenges of military family life
• Pavlicin-Fragnito's planned tour in 2015 to bring military families together in communities across America

DOUGLAS MURRAY, Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society in London:

• U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May’s mischaracterization of the Islamist threat
• Treason laws, free speech, and radical Islam
• Updates on radical Islamist preachers Anjem Choudary and Abu Qatada

GORDON CHANG, author of “The Coming Collapse of China”:

• The latest on the Hong Kong protests and the likelihood that Beijing resorts to violence to repress dissent
• Is Kim Jung-Un's leadership in North Korea threatened by the political rise of a female relative?
• North Korea's latest charm offensive aimed at closer ties with South Korea
• Statements made by a former president of Taiwan that possibly encourage Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe’s reinterpretation of Japan’s post-WWII constitution

ADAM KREDO, Senior writer at The Washington Free Beacon:

• The President’s disconnect as seen through his claim that ISIS does not pertain to Islam, and his praise of Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah
• A threat on the home front from radical Islamists
• Eric Holder’s misdeeds over his long tenure
• Reactions to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s declining health

Adm. JAMES STAVRIDIS, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, author of "The Accidental Admiral," and Former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO:

Part One:

• The fulfilling nature of a career as a service member in America’s armed forces
• Admiral Stavridis’ memories of being in the Pentagon when it was struck on 9/11
• The genesis and mission of the Navy’s Deep Blue think tank

Part Two:

• The global dispersion of Jihadist campaigns
• Forming a coalition and executing an intervention in Libya
• Afghanistan’s new President Ghani signing of the delayed Status of Forces Agreement and Bilateral Security Agreement

Part Three:

• The relatively docile period of Stavridis’ command in NATO with respect to Russian aggression
• Maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent force in Europe
• The questionable wisdom behind slowing production of critical weapons systems prior to developing replacements
• Recognizing the growing mandate yet shrinking size of the U.S. Navy

TEVI TROY, former Deputy Secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services:

• Is an Ebola outbreak in the United States possible?
• A dearth of Ebola vaccine research due to the lack of profitability
• Concerns that the Hajj to Mecca could be an avenue for the proliferation of disease

ROGER NORIEGA, Former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs:

• The questionable wisdom of Venezuela’s nomination to the U.N. Security Council
• SOUTHCOM Commander’s testimony on American retrenchment in Latin America
• Brazil’s contentious upcoming Presidential election

BILL ROGGIO, managing editor of "The Long War Journal”:

• Turkey’s competing interests in the fight against ISIS
• ISIS advances despite coalition airstrikes
• The need for a credible ground force in Iraq and Syria
• Flaws of the Afghan-U.S. security agreement

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

• Concessions being given to Iran in nuclear negotiations
• Congress’ role in the Iranian nuclear talks
• Evidence that ISIS was a credible threat years ago