Securing America with Frank Gaffney Podcast

BILL ROGGIO, managing editor of the Long War Journal:

Segment One:

• Why the divide between Al Qaeda and the Islamic State?
• Policy reasons behind the Obama Administration’s hesitancy to see ISIS in the role it sees itself in

Segment Two:

• A battle of strength between the Islamic State, the Iraqi Army, and the Peshmerga
• Where is the Islamic State most likely to spread to next?

Segment Three:

• Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s roles in the global jihadist movement
• Iranian support for and cooperation with both Shia and Sunni jihadist terror groups
• Jihadist connections in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria

Segment Four:

• Hezbollah and Hamas’ reach into the Western Hemisphere
• Civilization jihad in the US

RYAN MAURO, National Security Analyst at the Clarion Project:

• Discrepancies in public perception of Hamas and the Islamic State, despite their similar goal
• Declining public approval of Hamas in Palestine

MICHAEL AUSLIN, Director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute:

• China's continued assertion of its hard power, making it the dominant player in East Asia
• The inherent need for the U.S. to provide support to and ally with smaller Asian nations
• The U.S. stance towards China: a difficult balance of security and economics

JOHN SCHINDLER, Former NSA Intelligence Analyst:

• Revelations that Germany has been spying on allied nations
• Edward Snowden and Julian Assange's questionable use to their host countries

PAUL RODERICK GREGORY, Fellow at the Hoover Institution:

• Russia's purported humanitarian aid convoy to Eastern Ukraine
• Putin’s miscalculating and dangerous Ukrainian policy
• Did Russia intend to shoot down an Aeroflot as a pretext for invading Ukraine?

CLAUDIA ROSETT, Journalist in Residence at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies:

• Is the UNWRA program encouraging malicious Hamas behavior?
• The enormous U.N. relief effort essentially being transformed into an overly-generous entitlement program
• Concerns that Hamas is using the cover of UNWRA facilities to launch rockets

MARIA WERLAU, Director of Cuba Archive:

• The rekindling of the strategic relationship between Cuba and Russia
• The future of the Castro totalitarian regime after the deaths of Fidel and Raul
• Can Cuba still be accurately described as a communist country?
• Thoughts on the reports of a recent USAID covert operation in Cuba

GORDON CHANG, author of "The Coming Collapse of China":

• Pope Francis' attempts to have an open dialogue with the Chinese communist government
• Is the Chinese regime creating its own state-based sect of Christianity?
• Security concerns over Apple's move of its cloud-based data to servers in China

BING WEST, author of the upcoming book, "One Million Steps":

• In Iraq, the war won by boots on the ground and the peace lost by politicians
• America's fatal mistake of enabling Nouri al-Maliki's rise to power
• Chances that CIA operators and U.S. Special Forces Advisors are covertly re-inserted into the Anbar Province

ROGER ZAKHEIM, Former General Counsel of the House Armed Services Committee:

• Unprecedented changes made in the most recent Quadrennial Defense Review
• Findings of the National Defense Panel's critical review of the QDR
• Ways to minimize the gap between the U.S. military's mission and resources
• Bringing back the "peace through strength" doctrine to American foreign policy

Dr. JARNO LIMNELL, Director of Cybersecurity at McAfee, a product of Intel:

• Understanding cyber threats as the biggest indicator of worldwide security
• The international community's responsibility for the creation of proactive measures of cyber defense
• Top three cyber threats facing the West today
• Implications of the expected addition of cyber attacks to NATO's Article V

DANIEL McGROARTY, Founder and Executive Director of the American Resources Policy Network:

• Globalization's impact on access to strategic metals
• Titanium's critical use in civilian and military aircraft, and problems with the U.S.'s heavy reliance on Russia and other foreign sources for it
• Ways to move the U.S. away from depending on China for 90% of its supply of rare earth metals

BILL GERTZ, Senior Editor at the Washington Free Beacon:

• Yesterday's acknowledgment of Russian INF Treaty violations by a State Department official
• Continuing efforts by the Obama Administration to move towards nuclear disarmament
• Recent Chinese anti-satellite weapon development and ballistic missile testing

Rep. (Lt. Col.) ALLEN WEST, former US Congressman from Florida's 22nd Congressional District:

• President Obama's working relationship with radical Islamist groups and organizations
• The "Hillary Clinton Influence" on President Obama's first term
• Recent Russian military incursions in close proximity to U.S. air space
• Appointment of a German General as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Command in Europe

Rep. PETE HOEKSTRA, former US Congressman and Chair of the House Intelligence Committee:

• Recent revelations about the CIA's spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers
• CIA Director John Brennan's history of discounting the threat posed by radical Islam
• Unification of terror organizations across the Middle East and Africa based on their common jihadist ideology
• Controversial decision to allow Libyan nationals into the U.S. to study nuclear engineering and flight training

PAULA DeSUTTER, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation:

• Details of Russia's violation of the INF treaty
• Lengthy time lapse between when the Obama Administration found out about the violation and when NATO learned about it
• Inherent risks of eroding America's nuclear deterrence

YOSSI HOLLANDER, Founder of the Fuel Freedom Foundation:

• The basis of America's oil dependence
• Why the US needs true competition in the oil market
• Alternative fuel sources and the impediments to their implementation
• PUMP, an upcoming documentary on oil and alternative energy sources

GARY BERNTSEN, former Commander of all CIA forces in Eastern Afghanistan:

• An overview of past contested political elections that are adding to the political turmoil in Afghanistan
• The Afghan National Security Forces' heavy reliance on American military support
• Ideas for a new U.S. force structure in Afghanistan

JIM HANSON, former Army Special Forces Master Sergeant:

• Major General Harold Greenes's death in Afghanistan and the larger problem of "green on blue" attacks
• Reasons behind the U.S.'s engagement in Iraq to protect the Yazidi minority, compared to its non-action in Syria
• Facts about the Israeli force doctrine in Gaza

Amb. YORAM ETTINGER, former Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC:

• The "Arab Tsunami"
• Problems with relying on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to destroy Hamas
• Mahmoud Abbas' early history of causing mayhem throughout the Middle East

Dr. KIRON SKINNER, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution:

• Where is the Obama Administration's foreign policy strategy?
• A case for an official acknowledgment of the ideological threat facing the US
• President Obama's "re-litigation" of Iraq

DOUGLAS FEITH, Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy:

• US attempts to slow the Islamic State's advances in Iraq
• ISIS' threat capacity outside of the Middle East
• Is Afghanistan the next Iraq?
• Details of the ongoing danger Hamas poses to Israel

ANDY McCARTHY, author of "Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment":

• Blame being put on George W. Bush for the current Iraq crisis by the Administration
• Jimmy Carter's controversial opinion about Hamas
• Problems with the classification of the Fort Hood massacre as an "isolated, lone-wolf" incident

SEÁN McGURK, Former Director of the National Cyber Security & Communications Integration Center at the Department of Homeland Security:

• Evolution of warfare into the "cyber domain," and the adoption of cyber warfare as an asymmetrical weapon by state actors
• Potential damages to critical energy infrastructure from the DragonFly/Energetic Bear malware
• Ways Congress can help the private sector fight cyber threats

Rep. GUS BILIRAKIS, FL-12:

• The need to hold Turkey accountable for its hostile behavior towards Israel
• Importance of securing U.S. energy independence
• Urgent issues facing the U.S. electric grid
• Recent House legislation to improve the VA

HAROLD RHODE, former Advisor on Islamic Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense:

• Implications of the election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as President of Turkey on the ongoing power struggles in his country
• Why is Erdogan willing to settle for a mainly ceremonial position?
• Possible replacements for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
• Thoughts on the conflict between Israel and Hamas

MICHAEL O'HANLON, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence:

• Application of the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) norm in Iraq
• Can Turkish leader Erdogan be a reliable US ally?
• The impact of the US withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan on America's broader Middle East policy
• An update on the situation in Eastern Ukraine and Russia's agenda in the region

GORDON CHANG, author of "The Coming Collapse of China":

• The threat posed to Malaysia and Indonesia by fighters returning from the ranks of ISIS
• The rise of militarists in the Chinese government
• Chinese crackdowns on Western businesses and employees
• The impact of an anti-corruption campaign on the Chinese economy and the Communist Party

KATIE GORKA, President and co-Founder of the Council on Global Security:

• Campaigns to eliminate Christians from Iraq and parts of the Middle East and North Africa more broadly
• Was President Obama showing "selective concern" when he intervened to protect the Yazidis but not the Christians also endangered by the Islamic State?
• The response- or lack thereof- from Church leaders to the persecution of Christians

Col. RICHARD KEMP, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan:

• What the killing of US Major General Harold Greene indicates about the security situation in Afghanistan
• Israel's attempts to minimize civilian casualties in contrast with Hamas' use of human shields to maximize the body count for propaganda purposes
• The need to respond to jihadist organizations worldwide

ELLEN SAUERBREY, Former Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration:

• Do unaccompanied illegal minors fit the legal definition of refugees?
• Organized efforts, including by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, to change and influence the UN's' designation of certain groups as refugees
• The potential impact on the existing system if the definition is broadened

CONN CARROLL, Managing Editor of Townhall Magazine:

• Problems with President Obama claiming "prosecutorial discretion" on immigration reform
• Will the President give amnesty to five million illegal immigrants this week?
• The unprecedented benefits granted by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program

CHARLOTTE FLORANCE, Research Associate at the Heritage Foundation:

• How to protect large, densely populated urban areas of West Africa from the Ebola outbreak
• Takeaways from the US-Africa Leaders Summit
• Combating the manifestation of supremacist Islam in Africa

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

• Murder of US Major General Harold Greene—how was it able to happen, and why?
• Evidence that Shi'a led Iran is supporting radical Sunni groups
• ISIS inroads near the Kurdish Peshmerga
• Which side is benefitting the most from the Israel/Hamas ceasefire?

FRED FLEITZ, senior analyst at Lignet.com:

• President Obama's comments about the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, and reports that the agency spied on Senate staffers
• Controversy over acceptable redactions to the Senate Intelligence Committee Democratic staff's report on CIA interrogation methods
• A potential upcoming report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about the Benghazi attack

PETER KELLY-DETWILER, Principal at NorthBridge Energy Partners:

• Where does expert opinion stand on the EMP threat?
• "Failure of imagination" in recognizing the vulnerabilities of the electric grid
• Pros and cons of President Obama's Power Africa initiative

CHRISTIAN WHITON, author of "Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War":

• Putin's tactics for consolidating previous territorial gains
• Russia's baiting of the US with nuclear bomber fly-bys and violations of the INF Treaty
• Strategic impacts of potential amnesty for illegal immigrants in the US