A rash of knife attacks by recently released terrorists has put Britain on edge and serves as a reminder that the United States needs to do more itself to prepare for the imminent release from prison of convicted terrorists. In order to avoid the current problems of the British government, which is rushing to pass emergency legislation, American lawmakers should take advantage of our federalist system to bring state and local resources to play in tracking released terrorists.
The British government is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/02/streatham-attacker-was-released-terror-offender-sudesh-amman">struggling to address</a> the threat from dozens of convicted jihadi terrorists who are due to be released within months. Britain has seen several high-profile attacks from freed terrorists who received early release before serving even half their sentences.
Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/03/wave-jihadi-terrorists-due-freed-early-release-within-months/">20-year old Sudesh Amman</a> strapped on a fake explosive vest before launching a knife attack on Streatham High Road in London. Despite being under direct police surveillance during the attack, the jihadist critically wounded one person. Amman had previously been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for multiple terrorism offenses in November 2018 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-46592539">related to distributing Islamic State propaganda</a>.
The attack methodology of a fake suicide bomb vest and knives directly mirrored that of Usman Khan, another convicted terrorist, who in November 2019 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50653191">killed two people</a> on London Bridge. Prior to the attack, authorities had considered Khan <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50653191">a model</a> rehabilitated prisoner. Khan was attending a deradicalization conference minutes before he launched his attack.
Official data show that the British government has reconvicted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/12/six-terrorists-freed-from-jail-committed-further-terror-act-figures-reveal">an additional six British jihadi terrorists</a> released from prison between 2013 and 2019.
This newest wave of attacks is a reminder that the U.S. also faces a risk from previously convicted terrorists who are released; various “rehabilitation” schemes are highly suspect.
Aimen Dean, a former al-Qaeda member who later spied for Britain’s MI6, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/al-qaeda-spied-mi6-know-deradicalisation-doesnt-work/">told The Telegraph</a>, “there is no such thing as a rehabilitated jihadist.” Morton Storm, a Danish former al-Qaeda member who later helped to betray terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki to the CIA, agrees. Rehabilitation efforts, he says, ignore that jihadis are not confused or mentally ill, <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/joseph-perticone/denmark-aims-rehabilitate-not-punish-returning-jihadists">but are adherents of an ideology</a> to which they are committed. “[D]eradicalizing the jihadists doesn’t work, because they’re religiously motivated,” Storm told the Associated Press in 2017, in response to a Danish rehabilitation program.
Nearly two decades after 9/11, even high-level terrorist leaders facing long sentences are becoming eligible for parole and may even complete their full sentences. While there is very little information available on recidivism rates among convicted terrorists, the recidivism rate of jihadist fighters released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was nearly 17% in 2018, with another 13% also suspected of returning to active terrorism.
In 2017, a National Counterterrorism Center <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-troubling-us-post-prison-experiment-to-rehabilitate-an-isis-supporter">report noted,</a> “more than 90 homegrown violent extremists incarcerated in the U.S. who are due to be released in the next five years will probably re-engage in terrorist activity.”
In order to address this challenge, U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement need tools in order to prepare for released terrorists. One such tool would be a terrorism registry, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/america-needs-a-national-terrorist-registry-to-keep-us-safe">which would provide law enforcement</a> the ability to track the location of former terrorists in the same way police and the public can keep tabs on sex offenders — with legal sanction for failure to register. Louisiana successfully passed the first terrorism offender registry law in 2019, and several states have expressed interest in following suit.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/america-needs-a-national-terrorist-registry-to-keep-us-safe">A nation-wide network</a> has also been proposed by Patrick Dunleavy, a specialist on terrorist activity in the prison system. Realistically, such a proposal requires both federal assistance with information-sharing, as well as state laws to establish the registries and allow state authorities to enforce them.
A nationwide system of state terrorism registries would also take advantage of American federalism, utilizing state and local law enforcement to help prevent federal counterterrorism agents from being overwhelmed with keeping tabs on prior offenders.
Public registries protect and empower the individual citizen without need for government controls. The Department of Justice maintains a <a href="https://www.nsopw.gov/">public sex offender registry</a>, which private companies often use as a database for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsp.android.h&amp;hl=en">websites and apps that alert citizens</a> about rapists, stalkers, and molesters living in their neighborhoods.
Pseudoscience models of rehabilitation treat convicted terrorists as emotionally stunted unfortunates rather than committed ideologues willing to use violence for a political purpose. This has proven to be a disaster. Instead, the U.S. should implement a registry system for terrorists, bringing state and local law enforcement resources, as well as private enterprise, to bear and improving communication and cooperation for law enforcement in order to ensure that terrorist re-offenders do not slip through the net.
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Kyle Shideler is the Director and Senior Analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy.

London

SHIDELER: Stop Releasing Jihadists From Prison

Al Qaeda

Great Britain

Islamic State (ISIS)

Jail

Prison

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

United Kingdom

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d">debate</a> about the Trump administration’s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as “a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals” and “an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.”
Hammer was previously scheduled to <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> Palestinian-Arab activist <a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>, but Amro <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/2">refused to respond</a> to Hammer after his <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/1">initial response</a>. Pairagraph then secured Omar Baddar as a new debate opponent, and Baddar <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/2">responded</a> to Hammer on Sunday. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries. 
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/3">rebuttal to Baddar</a>.
<div>
An old lawyer maxim goes: &#8220;If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.&#8221;
Omar Baddar is pounding the table. He has doused a field of straw men in gasoline and applied an industrial-grade blowtorch.
Baddar embraces countless obfuscations and outright lies. There was no &#8220;ethnic cleansing&#8221; in 1948 — only the fateful Arab rejection of November 1947. Blame for the 1967 war lies squarely with Gamal Abdel Nasser, who repeatedly vowed to exterminate Israel and militarized the Sinai in defiance of the 1956 demilitarization. U.N. S.C.R. 242 has never been internalized by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has frequently offered a generous Palestinian state (e.g., 2000 and 2008) hewing closely to 1948&#8217;s harrowing &#8220;Auschwitz borders.&#8221; Israel did not instigate the civilizational jihad that was Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada; rather, the mentee of Hitler ally Haj Amin al-Husseini planned it while rejecting the peace offered at Camp David in July 2000. (“[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all,&#8221; President Clinton said.)
Baddar and his ilk nonsensically shout &#8220;apartheid,&#8221; but if the Palestinian-Arabs wanted peace, they would have negotiated one of the sundry times Israel has offered statehood. Instead, the PA has become the laughingstock of the Arab world. The vile 1967 Khartoum Resolution is now the very distant past; following Trump&#8217;s peace plan unveiling, Saudi Arabia said it &#8220;appreciate[d] the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan.&#8221; The UAE&#8217;s foreign affairs minister approvingly tweeted a Bret Stephens column decrying Palestinian rejectionism.
Historically, separatist movements are rarely successful. Those separatist movements — Tibetans, Kurds, etc. — that might be offered a state by the &#8220;international community&#8221; would gladly accept. That the PA, which names parks after suicide bombers and directly subsidizes murderous jihad via &#8220;pay to slay,&#8221; rejects such offers gives the game away. The PA&#8217;s ultimate goal is not peace, but to kill all the Jews. &#8220;From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,&#8221; a rally cry frequently associated with terror-sympathizing hate groups, is nothing short of a call to genocide.
The Arab world, sobered by Iran, finally sees the Palestinian ruse. It wants to finally resolve this issue. Accordingly, the Trump peace plan is emphatically reasonable. That the plan&#8217;s bare-bones preconditions to full Palestinian statehood — cease indoctrinating Palestinian-Arab children in Jew-hatred, oust Hamas, etc. — are viewed as non-starters in Ramallah says all one needs to know about the moral midgets of the PA.
There is zero — zero — compelling U.S. national security interest in carving out a PLO/PA jihadist state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The PA is fortunate that it has enough addlebrained leftists to carry its flag and keep viable the &#8220;two-state&#8221; solution paradigm. Israel has yet again stretched out its hand, but the PA is again poised to throw its own people under the bus.
</div>
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RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-at-pairagraph-trumps-israel-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-part-1">Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 1)</a>

Israel : Illustration

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 2)

Donald Trump

Foreign Policy

Hamas

Israel

Middle East

Palestinians

Students for Justice in Palestine

“Jerusalem is ours, our weapon is our Islam, and our ammunition is our children. And you, O my son, are meant for martyrdom.” 
This <a href="https://palwatch.org/page/16939">statement</a>, uttered by a Palestinian mother to her son, was posted on the official Facebook page of Fatah, the political party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately, the sentiment expressed in this Facebook post is not a rare one. The use of Palestinian children as child soldiers and terrorists has been prevalent in the Levant for decades — and not just by Fatah. Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other organizations indoctrinate children and regularly send them to their deaths. With more light being shed on the issue recently, it is time for all people of good conscience to stand up and tell these children what their leaders will not: They deserve life.
The practice of using children in warfare and terrorism is immoral and contradicts the norms outlined in the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> in 1989. The U.N. articles ban the use of children in any military capacity — such as combatants, laborers, and support staff. Thankfully, many countries have signed and ratified the convention, thereby committing to the protection of the most vulnerable amongst us. However, this ban means nothing if the international community fails to speak up against violations of this norm, or even address the issue in any serious way.
There are roughly <a href="https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2015/02/4-10-child-soldiers-girls/">300,000 estimated child soldiers</a> around the world in over 20 countries. About 40% of the children are girls, sometimes as young as eight years old. While there has been much attention and even some <a href="https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/2020/02/south-sudan-comprehensive-action-plan-to-end-prevent-all-grave-violations-against-children-signed-by-government/">successes</a> in addressing the issue in African countries (though of course, much more is necessary), the issue of Palestinian-Arab child soldiers, specifically, has thus far failed to grasp the world’s attention. Worse, it is sometimes even excused.
For too long, the systemic abuse that Palestinian minors suffer at the hands of their oppressive leaders has gone largely ignored by the international community. Far too many children have been sent to their deaths, either as suicide bombers or while carrying out stabbing attacks. The abuse extends from &#8220;traditional&#8221; combat roles to every imaginable dangerous auxiliary capacity. Children are used by Gaza-based terror groups as <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/">human shields</a>, whether it’s protecting adult terrorists on the front lines of violent riots, or protecting weapon stores and rocket launching silos intentionally placed in proximity to, or even inside, Gaza schools.
Indoctrination in violence frequently begins in the Palestinian-Arab education system. Countless reports of inflammatory material propagated on official Palestinian Authority- or Hamas-run media have been published, yet have received little condemnation internationally. It took until August 2019 for the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to issue its first ever <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-un-panel-calls-on-palestinians-to-halt-hate-speech-against-israelis/">condemnation</a> of incitement and anti-Semitism found in Palestinian Authority textbooks. The textbooks included glorification of terrorists like <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5161024,00.html">Dalal Mughrabi</a>, who viciously slaughtered 38 civilians, including 13 children, during the 1978 &#8220;Coastal Road massacre.&#8221; Even <a href="https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20997/E_080_16_1749675127.pdf">kindergarteners</a> are not off limits from Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based terror group, even runs terrorist <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/100000-children-attend-radical-Hamas-summer-camps">summer</a> boot camps for about 10,000 children.
The tragedy of Palestinian child soldiers — or any child soldier, for that matter — does not end once the child takes off the uniform. Those who survive their ordeal often exhibit severe psychological trauma that hinders their ability to adjust to civilian life. The evil people who turn children into tools of war for their own political gain do not merely rob children of their childhoods; they rob them of the joy of living normal lives.
On February 12, 2020, the word commemorates the annual “Red Hand Day,” which is meant to draw attention to child soldiers. There is no better time to shine a light on the plight of Palestinian-Arab children suffering at the hands of their oppressive, corrupt leaders.
Indeed, some have already to take matters into their own hands. A <a href="http://www.pcsweek.org/">multi-NGO campaign</a> is underway on social media and college campuses to raise awareness about the nightmare that so many Palestinian-Arab children are forced to endure. This campaign encourages citizens to send open letters to their governments and public leaders. Yet this is merely the first step.
We all have a duty to raise awareness and pressure Palestinian-Arab leaders to cease these exploitative practices. Palestinian-Arabs must know that they can have more to life than death and murder — and are worth more than ammunition. Even if no one else will tell them this, we must.

Mahmoud Abbas

FISCHBERGER: Palestinian Child Soldiers Can No Longer Be Ignored

Anti-Semitism

United Nations

&#8220;In both law and politics, I think the essential battle is the meta-battle of framing the narrative. As Sun Tzu said, every battle is won before it’s fought. It’s won by choosing the terrain on which it will be fought.&#8221; – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to The New Yorker&#8217;s Jeffrey Toobin, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/the-absolutist-2">June 2014</a>
Although President Donald Trump no doubt prefers to vent his off-the-cuff frustrations in tweet threads and campaign rallies, it is the planned teleprompter format in which he most clearly excels. Since assuming office, Trump&#8217;s State of the Union addresses have consistently been visceral, evocative, rhetorically fine-tune affairs that make brilliant use of audience guests to drive home his substantive agenda.
Last night&#8217;s speech was <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/02/04/best-state-of-the-union-ever/">no exception</a>, and the president was tremendously successful in framing the 2020 election as a stark choice between two competing visions of American governance: The economic prosperity, domestic security, and &#8220;peace through strength&#8221; deterrence of the Right, and the socialism, lawlessness, and capitulatory foreign policy of the Left. To borrow from Cruz&#8217;s quoting of Sun Tzu, Trump has &#8220;cho[sen] the terrain on which&#8221; the 2020 election &#8220;will be fought.&#8221;
The president <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/05/president-trump-offers-a-sharp-rebuke-of-socialism-at-precisely-the-right-time/">spoke at length</a> about the revving American economic engine, thus placing on the defensive the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-aocs-squad-will-destroy-democrats-2020-josh-hammer">toxic brand of socialism</a> that has come to dominate the modern Democratic Party. The Democrats are a political party with a <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">statistical frontrunner</a> of a presidential nominee who is a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">lifelong communist activist</a> — a man who literally honeymooned in the Soviet Union and infamously hung a hammer-and-sickle Soviet flag inside his Burlington, Vermont mayoral office. They are advancing that nominee (and so many others who now mimic his economic illiteracy) in the context of an American electorate that, according to reliable pollster Gallup, is the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-are-more-optimistic-about-the-economy-than-they-have-been-in-decades">most optimistic</a> it has been about the economy in decades. Americans <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval_economy-6182.html">currently approve</a> of Trump&#8217;s handling of the economy by over 17%, and Democrats&#8217; solution for that is to stage a presidential primary where one of the leading &#8220;intellectual&#8221; debates among the candidates is whether to literally abolish private health insurance in favor of a government monopoly.
Good luck with that.
The president also spoke about the gruesome horrors of sanctuary cities, the great majority of which are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-no-one-pointing-out-sanctuary-cities-josh-hammer">clearly illegal</a> under a straightforward reading of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1373">8 U.S.C. § 1373(a)</a>: &#8220;Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the [Department of Homeland Security] information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.&#8221; The president masterfully provided gut-wrenching details of the crimes committed by illegal aliens mollycoddled by sanctuary jurisdictions — thus seemingly borrowing a tactic from Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, each of whom has at times provided vivid details of the underlying murders of those defendants whose capital punishment appeals reach the Court. Trump forced Democrats in the House chamber to retreat to the unenviable position of loudly booing his oratory assaults on criminal aliens and the sanctuary jurisdictions that harbor them. It was a remarkable sight to behold.
The president has thus successfully framed the 2020 election as a referendum about whether the nation will reject the Left&#8217;s two most profoundly ruinous current hobbyhorses: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-a-political-wish-for-2020-less-socialism-more-law-and-order">Socialism and lawlessness</a>. He also spoke directly to the heart and mind of the proverbial <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">forgotten American</a> — the tax-paying, church-attending, law-abiding American who still has an innate love and appreciation for what has always made America great. Say what one might about Trump, but one cannot plausibly deny that he is an &#8220;Americanist,&#8221; properly understood.
The American people will head to the ballot box this November with an exceedingly straightforward choice before them. Here is hoping they make the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-here-are-three-reasons-why-i-plan-vote-josh-hammer">right decision</a>.

President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address

HAMMER: Trump Successfully Framed The Stark 2020 Election Choice During Last Night’s SOTU Address

2020 Election

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Clarence Thomas

Communism

Democratic Party

Economy

Law Enforcement

Qassem Soleimani

When speaking with liberal-minded folks about solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the recently revealed &#8220;Deal of the Century,&#8221; inevitably the question of Arab buy-in arises. “Will the Palestinians accept it?” is the oft-heard refrain.
While this may seem to be a pretty reasonable question, it actually reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of the Middle East.
Here is a true story involving one of my mentors, Dr. Mordechai Kedar. It helpfully illustrates Middle East thinking.
Kedar has crafted an alternative vision to the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; that is called the “<a href="http://www.palestinianemirates.com/contact.html">emirates plan</a>.” He presented it to a well-known sheikh in Judea and Samaria (i.e., the “West Bank”). The sheikh listened attentively to Kedar and in the end, announced: “I like it. It is good for us. Now you will have to force it upon me.”
Why did the sheikh, who liked the plan and thought it was good for his people, say this strange phrase, “now you will have to force it upon me?”
For a knower of the Middle Eastern mind, the answer is obvious. No self-respecting Arab can publicly proclaim support for a plan that recognizes Israel a regional sovereign. It’s simply against a basic tenet of Islamic law: No non-Islamic entity may exercise jurisdiction over a landmass once controlled by Islam.
Moreover, there is Islam’s corollary: Arab nationalism. The jingoistic Arab world has tried to defeat Israel in numerous wars and attacks. They lost, and they know it — but the dream of Arab nationalism lives on in their hearts.
So, what the sheikh was saying to Kedar was: While I like your plan, please respect my honor and my need to avoid looking weak to my nation or disloyal to my religion by publicly surrendering to your plan. Help me save face by forcing your plan on me — that way I maintain my dignity and we can move forward together.
Israel is a small Jewish enclave within the massive, and predominantly Arab, Middle East. It is therefore important to understand the regional mindset. While in the West, seeking consent and acquiescence is a sign of respect, equality, and moral uprightness, in the Middle East that same attitude may be insensitive. Trying to elicit public Arab buy-in can inadvertently put Arabs in the uncomfortable position of having to openly repudiate their religion and their nationalism — even if they like the plan.
Ironically, we have arrived at a time where much of the Arab world is looking for an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/historic-arab-states-welcome-trumps-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan">excuse to wind down</a> the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fleisher-end-100-year-arab-israeli-war-yishai-fleisher">100-year war</a> against Israel, which, they realize is fruitless and continues only to their own detriment. Moreover, there is real pressure. The Egyptians fear both the ISIS presence in the Sinai and the threat of homegrown Muslim Brotherhood jihadis overthrowing the Sisi government. Even more urgently, the threat of Iran is very real for the Saudis, who are facing Shiite incursions on all of their borders. As strange as it sounds, today both Egypt and Saudi Arabia desperately need Israel for their own security reasons.
However, while these Arab countries feel pressure to line up with Israel to defend their strategic positions, as leaders of Arab nationalism and authentic Islam, they still need to publicly save face.
That is why the Trump plan smartly kept the &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; on the table so that Arab states could pay lip service to the creation of a Palestine. This allowed Arab representatives to sit at the White House in their traditional robes as the deal was being unveiled. Yet the real effect of Arab states accepting the tenets of the deal was not the creation of an independent Palestine at all. Rather, it was the recognition of Israel as a legitimate Jewish entity in the Middle East — with its capital in Jerusalem and with rights in Judea and Samaria.
Shocking! And with regard to Palestine, the Arab states heard and acquiesced to the call on Palestinians to disarm, to stop paying for terror, to stop incitement — to basically give up the war with Israel. This was truly revolutionary. By agreeing to an Israel in the &#8220;West Bank&#8221; and also a defanged Palestine, the Arab states, quietly and without public pronouncement, essentially agreed to an end of hostilities with the Jewish state.
The Palestinian leadership, naturally, is up in arms. But it is not only their former Sunni Arab state allies who have turned their backs on them — it is also the proverbial Arab street. Many “West Bank” Arabs are tired of the pointless war with Israel and are tired of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. It is for this reason that there have barely been any protests against the &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; — just as there was a muted reaction to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the Trump administration.
Yet, while many Arabs want to end hostilities, it is a mistake to pine for public Arab buy-in. Israel is anathema to both their Arab nationalism and a core tenet of Islam — and if they must swallow the existence of Israel, they prefer it play out as coercion, or at least a gradual and quiet acceptance rather than voluntary proclamations of &#8220;peace in our time.&#8221; In the end, helping the Arab world transition from war to cooperation is a delicate task and it will surely benefit Israel. But the Muslim world, which is hungry for prosperity, modernity, and reform, stands to gain even more.
Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron.

Israel map

FLEISHER: The Myth Of Arab Buy-In

Egypt

Islam

Saudi Arabia

Perhaps the sole silver lining of the otherwise-harrowing capitulation to fundamentalist jihadist evil that was President Barack Obama&#8217;s Iran nuclear deal was the fact that the leading Sunni Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt chief among them — began to warm up to the Jewish state of Israel. The enemy of my enemy, as the venerable maxim goes, is indeed my friend. And these Sunni stalwarts have found common cause with Israel in opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran&#8217;s decades-long hegemonic ambitions, which were only augmented by the capitulatory cash influxes provided by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
To date, however, the thawing of relations has generally taken a clandestine form — mostly on the intelligence and counterintelligence level. But the unveiling yesterday of President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221; peace proposal for Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs represents the clearest public sign yet of just how far this thawing has progressed.
It is nothing short of remarkable just how far we have come, when considering the &#8220;Three No&#8217;s&#8221; of the infamous 1967 Khartoum Resolution, decreed in the aftermath of Israel&#8217;s miraculous Six-Day War victory: &#8220;No peace [with Israel],&#8221; &#8220;no recognition [of Israel],&#8221; and &#8220;no negotiations [with Israel].&#8221;
For starters, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Hank Berrien <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-deal-of-the-century-for-israel-palestinians-a-realistic-plan-with-arab-states-backing-it">reported</a> yesterday, &#8220;Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba of the UAE, Ambassador Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and the Ambassador Hunaina al-Mughairy of Oman <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Bahrain-UAE-envoys-come-to-White-House-for-Trump-Deal-of-the-Century-615706">were in the East Room</a> of the White House on Tuesday as Trump announced his plan.&#8221;
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Three great friends of peace &#8211; you, your countries &amp; your leaders are courageous. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being at the event at the <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> today &amp; thank you for your encouragement &amp; support! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UAE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UAE</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bahrain?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bahrain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oman?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oman</a> <a href="https://t.co/N3LvtQufvz">pic.twitter.com/N3LvtQufvz</a>
&mdash; Jason D. Greenblatt (@GreenblattJD) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenblattJD/status/1222227819033518083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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It is unprecedented to have such leading representatives from Sunni Arab governments effectively recognizing Israel&#8217;s right, under U.N. Security Council <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-meaning-of-un-security-council-resolution-242">Resolution 242</a>, &#8220;to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.&#8221; It is even more unprecedented for such Arab governments to effectively recognize this international law right in the context of what is quite clearly, on the underlying merits, the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-Trump-Plan-How-Israel-Should-Respond-615681">most pro-Israel peace plan ever offered</a> by an American president — and one that is offered by a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-jerusalem-matters-ben-shapiro">historically pro-Israel American president</a> and a conservative Likud party Israeli prime minister, no less.
Numerous Arab governments, furthermore, have offered public endorsements of Trump&#8217;s plan that invariably refer to it as a welcoming or promising development.
From the <a href="https://www.spa.gov.sa/viewfullstory.php?lang=en&amp;newsid=2027848#2027848">Kingdom of Saudi Arabia</a>, home to the Islamic holy city of Mecca and the centuries-long epicenter of the Sunni Muslim world: &#8220;The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump&#8217;s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, and encourages the start of direct peace negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, under the auspices of the United States, and to resolve any disagreements with aspects of the plan through negotiations.&#8221;
From (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">deeply problematic &#8220;ally&#8221;</a>) <a href="https://news.qna.org.qa/lang/en/w/article/1580250375011598800">Qatar</a>: &#8220;The State of Qatar welcomes all efforts aiming towards a longstanding and just peace in the occupied Palestinian territories. It also appreciates the endeavors of President Trump and the current U.S. administration to find solutions for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, all solutions should be consistent with international law and the relevant U.N. resolutions.&#8221;
From <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1452664425061142/posts/2592875164373390/?d=n">Egypt</a>: &#8220;The Arab Republic of Egypt appreciates the continuous efforts exerted by the U.S. administration to achieve a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue, thereby contributing to the stability and security of the Middle East, ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.&#8221;
From the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1021964141227620/posts/2670012913089393/">Kingdom of Morocco</a>: &#8220;The Kingdom of Morocco expresses the wish that a constructive peace process be launched from now on, with a view to a realistic, applicable, equitable and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question, satisfying the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, for an independent, viable and sovereign State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and enabling the peoples of the region to live in dignity, prosperity and stability.&#8221;
Contrast that with the leading 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, who have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democratic-candidates-censure-trump-peace-plan-warn-against-annexation/">all assailed</a> the plan. Or contrast it with Hamas/Hezbollah-loving Jeremy Corbyn of Britain, who calls it a &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1222303875593637891">travesty</a>.&#8221;
The Arab world is desperately trying to move on and finally resolve the Palestinian issue once and for all. But the American and European Left will not let them do so.
Kudos, nonetheless, to the Trump administration and the main actors/former actors there responsible for crafting the plan — including but hardly limited to Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner, and Avi Berkowitz — for their work in this very <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/eugene-kontorovich-trump-israeli-palestinian-peace-plan-is-fair-and-just-but-palestinians-wont-compromise">fair and thoughtfully devised</a> peace plan.

Donald Trump at White House with Benjamin Netanyahu

HISTORIC: Arab States Welcome Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan

Barack Obama

Benjamin Netanyahu

Iran

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

The Daily Wire conducted an email interview with New York City Jewish leader <a href="https://twitter.com/HikindDov">Dov Hikind</a>, a former Democratic New York state assemblyman, founder of <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericansAA">Americans Against Antisemitism</a>, and prominent public-facing activist representing large swaths of New York&#8217;s Orthodox Jewish community. Just last month, President Trump called Hikind a &#8220;highly respected Jewish leader&#8221;:
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Thank you to highly respected Jewish leader Dov Hikind for his wonderful statements about me this morning on <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a>.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1211655287247126535?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
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What follows is a question-and-answer exchange about anti-Semitism — and how to fight it.
The Daily Wire (TDW): Anti-Semitism is, of course, the world&#8217;s oldest bigotry. But why has it been so on the rise over the past decade or so in Europe and now, it seems, in the U.S.?
Dov Hikind (DH): The answer is complex, as there are many factors involved. Though Europe and the U.S. are experiencing increased anti-Semitism, the sources aren’t exactly the same. In Europe, most physical attacks and verbal assaults are committed by Muslims — though there is also a resurgent far-Right. In America, nationally, it is primarily a white supremacy problem; but in the major cities, which happen to be areas with high concentration of Jews, it’s the far-Left and minority groups that are responsible for perpetuating anti-Semitism and justifying the violence committed in its name. But what they do have in common is that the rise happens because hatred is tolerated and anti-Semitism is back in vogue. Additionally, the cesspool of hatred that can be found on social media has no borders or political affiliations and serves to feed the growing hateful appetites on both sides of the Atlantic.
TDW: How much do you blame Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio for the rise in anti-Semitism in New York and New York City, specifically?
DH: I’m not in the habit of blaming any single individual for a massive problem that predates their own existence. The governor and mayor did not create anti-Semitism and certainly don’t directly contribute to its rise. They are, however, responsible for reacting appropriately and swiftly to restore the sense of security that has been robbed of the Jewish community. And here, the onus is more on the mayor than the governor since it’s New York City that is far beyond out of control in comparison with any other city in America. That’s not a great distinction for New York to hold. So I don’t blame them for the rise, but they are to be held accountable for the lack of results on the ground.
TDW: To what extent have Mayor de Blasio&#8217;s constant attacks on police undermined the safety of Jews in New York City?
DH: That goes to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-hammer-on-tipping-point-with-liz-wheeler-new-yorks-insane-pro-criminal-bail-law">broader issue of policing and criminal justice</a> that we’re seeing unfold now. There’s no doubt that when respect for law enforcement is undermined, so is respect for the law itself. Add to that the lack of consequences for violent anti-Semitic criminals, and there’s no doubt as to why there’s a lack of deterrence and the attacks continue unabated. The police of New York City are the best; they just need to be enabled to do their jobs with the dignity and respect they deserve. Strong policing ensures safe communities; they go hand in hand. It remains to be seen if these trends will be reversed or if they continue to deteriorate.
TDW: Why do so many Jews seem to not take self-defense seriously? Why is a fear of guns and gun ownership so seemingly popular among large swaths of the Jewish community?
DH: Two reasons: First, there is a notion that G-d protects every person, not guns — so if a person’s time comes, no gun will help. Second, there is a legitimate fear that in households filled with children, bringing in a lot of guns to a community that is not especially adjusted to it will only lead to accidents and tragedies that will be painfully regretted. Also, there’s a notion that the fighter, the one to take up arms, is not for every segment of the Jewish population. Some study and pray, some fight. I do think it’s important for every person, Jewish or not, to know how to defend oneself in this crazy and unpredictable world, but that’s a decision for each individual to make.
TDW: Why do so many people politicize anti-Semitism and weaponize it as a cudgel? Why do so many on the Left, in particular, only focus on white nationalist/neo-Nazi anti-Semitism and turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism from Islamists, so-called &#8220;anti-Zionists,&#8221; and black nationalists alike?
DH: Anti-Semitism has always been used as a cudgel. Rather, more precisely, Jews have always been used as political cudgel (in previous times, known as “the Jewish question/problem”). What it signifies is a certain decay and rot within society. When a society cannot face its decisions and actions, and instead seeks a scapegoat, the most available and returned to in history, are the Jews. Easy. Convenient. And it comes with an entire repertoire of “reasons” for hating Jews. Now, at this point in time, in America, it is the Left that has a major blind spot when it comes to anti-Semites in their ranks, and that’s because anti-Semites got so good at couching hateful rhetoric in the guise of humanitarian concern that they’ve lost sight of what they’re really promoting. Think of the morning Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) woke up to find that David Duke had tweeted in her support! A white supremacist neo-Nazi tweeting support for an African-American anti-Zionist anti-Semite! That’s the level of distortion and blindness at play in the current landscape that leads to such strange political bedfellows.
TDW: Is so-called &#8220;anti-Zionism&#8221; the same as anti-Semitism, pure and simple?
DH: Yes. Pure and simple. Why? Because can you find a similar movement that is “anti-China” over its detention of over 1,000,000 Uighur Muslims? Is there any anti-Syria movement over Bashar al-Assad’s committing genocide against his own people? The list goes on. The answer is no. There is only one movement of people that are mobilized to challenge the &#8220;right to exist&#8221; and sovereignty of a single nation on Earth, and that so happens to be the lone Jewish state. Anti-Zionism is simply one variation of anti-Semitism. It’s on the menu. You can hate Jews because we’re not white (neo-Nazis), because we’re white and share in its privilege (far-Left), or because we’re baby-killing, Zionist-colonialists who have absolutely no history in the land of Israel (radical Islamism). They can take their pick from the &#8220;hate du jour.&#8221;
TDW: What can be done to make Zionism and the pro-Israel cause palatable and popular again among the American and international Left?
DH: You know, traditionally this question gets an answer like, “we have to show how valuable Israel is to the world, how the start-up nation is innovating for the betterment of the world by bringing water and irrigation technologies to rain-deprived regions in Africa and being among the first to send rescue teams and humanitarian aid when natural disasters strike any country on earth.” But I’m personally sick of those answers because it implies that we need to constantly compete in some kind of warped popularity contest. Our deserving of equal rights and treatment on the global stage should not be tied to how wonderful Israel is. No. Let’s take Israel for no better than any other state, no more amazing — it would still be no less deserving of fair treatment! So I don’t think we can magically make Zionism and Israel more palatable, but more importantly, I don’t think that’s where our energies should go.
TDW: Why is Israel so unpopular on the American university campus? What can be done to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-how-pro-israel-students-campus-can-fight-josh-hammer">counter growing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment</a> on the university campus?
DH: We know for a fact that a lot of money has been pouring into the American university system from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-al-jazeeras-disgraceful-holocaust-denying-josh-hammer">terror-supporting states like Qatar</a>, which bankrolls <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a> as well as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a> and its American subsidiary, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/firester-cairs-fight-to-undermine-u-s-border-security-continues">CAIR</a>. These benefactors are behind groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, which is single handedly responsible for creating a terribly toxic environment for Jewish students and faculty. Frankly, I don’t believe Jewish groups will ever invest the same resources in combating those efforts as the enemies of Israel do, but it goes back to high school education. When you peel that layer back and see what kind of Jewish education students have received prior to arriving on campus, it becomes clear that too many lack the basic and adequate knowledge to defend themselves against the malicious lies and libels that anti-Semitic student groups spread. If we can better educate our high school students, they’ll have a better chance at fighting back against anti-Semitism on university campuses.
TDW: What role does education play, exactly, in countering anti-Semitism? How can education about the Holocaust and Jewish history, in general, help counter the trend?
DH: Crucial. Central. It’s all about education. Hate is borne of ignorance. But the task is doubly as hard because it’s not only a matter of getting the right information to students, but working to counter all the lies and falsehoods that are perpetuated at astounding speed and frequency. The Holocaust is the central case study of anti-Semitism because it encapsulates from beginning to end what the dangers of unchecked anti-Semitism look like. What starts with hateful rhetoric can easily end in a genocide perpetrated by the most &#8220;cultured&#8221; and &#8220;civilized&#8221; of European societies, with a majority of its citizens partaking in the apparatus that annihilated six million Jews. No society is immune to the plague of anti-Semitism. However, those who choose ignorance and denial of the Holocaust rather than wrestling with its wrenching paradoxes are those most likely to repeat its darkest chapters.
TDW: What advice would you give to those who are trying to make a difference in their own lives, in terms of countering anti-Semitism?
DH: Action! Get involved with an organization, like Americans Against Antisemitism, that takes concrete steps to combat this hatred. Taking part gives the individual a sense of control, that we are not victims or pawns, that we will not be pushed around, but will stand up for our G-d-given rights. But individuals can do anything that works for them. For some, it’s being loud on social media; for others it&#8217;s hosting events and attending rallies. The point is for every individual to do his or her part, no matter how small or big, because our force is increased with unity. And to be clear, one need not be Jewish to take up the fight against anti-Semitism; the fight to eradicate this special and oldest of hatreds is quintessentially an American struggle for the right to live in freedom and pursue happiness.

Assemblyman Dov Hikind &#8211; Jewish organizations held a protest

Fighting Anti-Semitism: An Interview With Jewish Leader Dov Hikind

Andrew Cuomo

Bill de Blasio

CAIR

Crime

Hate Crime

Holocaust

Judaism

It turns out that an Iranian student who was recently denied entry upon his arrival in the U.S. and was subsequently deported has some pretty shady ties, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">spoke to Fox News</a>. That the deported student has such problematic links — to Iran&#8217;s murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy</a>, in particular — ought to serve as a wakeup call for the Democratic Party officials, left-wing activists, and open-borders advocates who trotted out the normal hue and cry upon the student&#8217;s denial and deportation.
&#8220;An Iranian student who was denied entry to the United States on arrival and deported this week, amid objections from top Democrats and left-wing activists, has family ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News,&#8221; the outlet <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">reported</a>.
&#8220;Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein was denied entry to the U.S. and detained on Sunday when he arrived on a student visa at Boston Logan International Airport,&#8221; Fox News continued. &#8220;His detention sparked outrage from activists, who flooded the airport demanding his release. It also drew objections from Northeastern University, where [Hossein Abadi] was due to be enrolled, and the American Civil Liberties Union.&#8221;
Some very prominent Democrats, such as 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), responded indignantly. Warren, taking up Hossein Abadi&#8217;s cause, casually accused President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration of &#8220;xenophobia[a].&#8221;
&#8220;Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education,&#8221; Warren tweeted. &#8220;[U.S. Customs and Border Protection] already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#8217;s xenophobic policies.&#8221;
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Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education. CBP already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#39;s xenophobic policies. <a href="https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM">https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1219457019729588224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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A judge in Massachusetts had initially stayed Hossein Abadi&#8217;s deportation, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) then promptly executed his deportation. CBP issued a statement on the incident, as <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/22/iranian-student-bound-northeastern-removed-us-despite-court-order">reported</a> by Insider Higher Ed.
&#8220;Every applicant for admission is subject to inspection upon arrival in the United States,&#8221; CBP said. &#8220;The issuance of a visa or participation in the visa waiver program does not guarantee entry to the United States. Upon arrival at Logan Airport on Sunday, January 19, [Hossein Abadi] was deemed inadmissible and processed for expedited removal and return to his place of departure. During today’s hearing, the court ruled that the matter is now moot as the subject was never admitted into the United States, the subject is no longer in custody, and the court does not have jurisdiction to order his return.&#8221;
Hossein Abadi had first applied for a U.S. visa in 2018 and &#8220;[h]is visa was granted approximately a week ago,&#8221; Insider Higher Ed reported. But the DHS official who spoke to Fox News told the outlet that &#8220;the case was more complicated than some were letting on, and that there were legitimate reasons for rejecting [Hossein Abadi]&#8221; — in other words, his ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iran-funded and -trained proxy militia that has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/lebanon-is-gone">all but overrun Lebanon</a>, is uniquely poised to cause immense trouble for Israel. As I explained last month in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Daily Wire op-ed</a> calling for the full defunding of all U.S. taxpayer foreign aid to Lebanon:
<blockquote>Bear in mind that Hezbollah currently maintains scores of Iranian-funded, <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollahs-precision-guided-missile-project/">precision-guided missiles</a> currently stationed in southern Lebanon and aimed straight at the hearts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s next war — and it is a matter of when, not if — with Hezbollah is going to be a <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/the-new-hezbollah-israels-next-war-will-be-a-godawful-mess/">long, bloody mess</a>. And foreign aid to Israel aside, the U.S. taxpayer presently also funds the horrifically wrong side of that inevitable war.</blockquote>

Department of Homeland Security

Deported Iranian Student Linked To IRGC And Hezbollah, DHS Says

Immigration

National Security

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

In October, the Trump administration handed out $100,000 of taxpayer dollars to the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/pics/CAIR-Dossier-other.pdf">terror-tied</a> Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Middle East Forum has found.
In 2009, the FBI blacklisted CAIR after federal prosecutors <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/423.pdf#page=5">named the Islamist group as an unindicted co-conspirator</a> during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/holy-land-foundation-hamas-support-convictions-affirmed-andrew-c-mccarthy/">terrorism financing</a> trial. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated CAIR as a terrorist organization. And today, its officials continue to <a href="https://www.meforum.org/59432/hate-crimes-panel-with-cair-leader-cancelled">promote</a> and <a href="https://www.meforum.org/59007/zahra-biilloo">excuse</a> violently anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
To fund CAIR, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/#/award/ASST_NON_EMW-2019-UA-00061_7022">awarded</a> monies to the Washington, D.C. government, which then selected CAIR and a number of other extremist organizations as suitable sub-recipients. The federal government would likely have been aware, however, that CAIR was a grantee — <a href="https://hsema.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/hsema/publication/attachments/subrecipient-handbook%20Oct%202018.pdf">according</a> to government documentation, it seems sub-grantees must be approved by DHS before funds are distributed.
The administration’s funding of CAIR was the product of the DHS’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program. As my colleague <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/60198/stop-taxpayer-money-from-funding-islamist-tied">David Swindle recently wrote</a> in The Daily Wire, Congress’ current proposed expansion of the program’s budget, however “well-meaning,” carries enormous “potential for abuse” and will end up providing “millions of taxpayer dollars” to “pro-jihadist Islamist groups.”
This program and others seem to be doing just that. Additional new federal grants of taxpayers’ money handed out to Islamist organizations include over $57,000 to the Muslim American Society (MAS), a national Islamist organization whose Philadelphia branch hosted an event last year at which young children from an MAS-run school recited poetry about the killing of Jews; and $100,000 to Dar al-Hijrah, a hardline Virginia mosque once home to former al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, and <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/mosques/417/dar-al-hijrah-mosque">long</a> <a href="https://clarionproject.org/dar-al-hijrah-islamic-center/">considered</a> a key terror hub by law enforcement agencies.
The Middle East Forum has written before about the enormous amount of taxpayers’ money being handed out to dangerous Islamist organizations. In 2019, we <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/westrop-research-has-uncovered-41-million-taxpayer-sam-westrop">discovered</a> that over $41 million of federal grants has been given to radical groups since 2007. This total does not include the dozens of more recent awards made in the last few months.
Surprisingly, under the Trump administration, grants to extremist organizations have actually increased. As we <a href="https://www.meforum.org/60019/american-islamism-flourishes-under-trump#_ftn28">noted</a> last year, “between 2017 and 2018, the amount of taxpayers&#8217; money given to organizations either influenced or controlled by Islamist activists more than tripled from $4 million to $13.5 million. Under the Obama administration, the amount given to Islamist-linked organizations averaged a mere $1.7 million each year.”
In August 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau quickly cancelled a proposed partnership with CAIR after a number of conservative media outlets started <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/census-bureau-abruptly-ends-just-announced-partnership-with-muslim-advocacy-group-cair">investigating</a> the decision. But why this was not enough to stop the federal government from subsequently funding the very group it had previously conceded was beyond the pale?
Over the last few months, some supporters of the administration have reacted to our research into public subsidy and <a href="https://www.meforum.org/60019/american-islamism-flourishes-under-trump#_ftn28">political support</a> for these theocratic groups by acknowledging the problem but arguing that, in many instances, the federal government’s embrace of Islamists and its failure to work instead with moderate Muslims is an enduring legacy of extant Obama administration policies.
Given the longstanding programs behind many of these grants, this may well be true. If only there were someone to drain the swamp.
&nbsp;
Sam Westrop is director of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

DHS car

WESTROP: DHS Approves $100K Grant Of Taxpayers’ Money To CAIR

Christians in Nigeria were violently assaulted by radical Muslims in the small village of Kulben, located in the central area of the country&#8217;s Plateau state Mangu County. At least thirteen civilians were murdered and three more were injured in the attack.
Nigerian outlet <a href="https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/01/09/herdsmen-in-another-massacre-in-kulben-village/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PM News</a> reports that the Plateau Police Command confirmed the January 8 attack was suspected to be the work of armed members of the Muslim Fulani herdsmen extremist group, who have used violence in the past to suppress Christian communities in the African nation. 
Police Public Relations Officer DSP Terna Tyopev explained, “In the early hours of today, we received a distress call that gunmen, suspected to be herdsmen, attacked Kulben community of Kombun District of Mangu.”
“Immediately we received the information, the commissioner in charge of the command, Mr. Isaac Akinmoyede, directed the DCP in charge of Operations, Mr. Aliyu Tafida to mobilize to the scene,” he continued. “As I speak, our team of detectives and other officers are in the scene of the crime to prevent further attacks.”
Local resident Michael Mutding described the assault in a text message to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2020/01/muslim-fulani-herdsmen-kill-13-christians-wound-three-in-central-nigeria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Morning Star News</a>. 
“They were shooting with guns in all directions, forcing the villagers to scamper into surrounding bushes,” he said. “Corpses of those killed have been evacuated by soldiers and police to the mortuary of Mangu Cottage Hospital; and all the victims are members of COCIN.”
According to <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/again-gunmen-kill-13-persons-in-fresh-plateau-attack/">The Guardian</a>, an eyewitness claims that the attack was in retaliation to villagers stopping the heavily armed herdsmen from cattle rustling outside the village of Kerang. 
“It was a tough battle between the youths and the rustlers. At the end, three of them were arrested and some of the cows recovered. The cows and the suspects were handed over to the Police in Kerang,” the eyewitness said. 
The deadly attack prompted swift responses from Nigerian lawmakers. 
Local representative Bala Fwengje said in a statement, “This attack on my people by these herdsmen comes as a rude shock to us, as efforts have been made by security agencies to curtail such incessant attacks on our people.” He added, “It is a sad thing that these attacks are still being carried out by the herdsmen on our people without provocation.”
Plateau state Gov. Simon Bako Lalong echoed those sentiments. “We have toiled to ensure that peace returns to Plateau state, and we will not allow anyone to make nonsense of our efforts,” he said vowing to arrest the suspects. “We are determined to deal decisively and firmly with anybody found culpable in attacking or inciting people to carry out attacks against one another.”
Tyopev confirmed that no arrests have been made. “No arrest is yet to be made, but we are doing everything possible to ensure the criminals are arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.”
Local Christian leader Audu Tetmut told Morning Star News that the attack was a surprise, since the village has had no prior discernible tension with the radical group. 
“Our community had lived peacefully with the herdsmen without any issues of dispute with them,” he said. “So we are surprised that they attacked us.”
Radical Muslims have engaged in a campaign to force the growing Christian community out of Nigeria. In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-radical-muslims-suspected-may-attacks-jacob-airey">May 2019</a>, the Fulani herdsmen were suspected in an attack near the city Jos that took thirty civilian lives. This assault was on the heels of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/muslim-extremists-murder-over-30-nigerian-jacob-airey">March 2019</a> attack in Maro where over two dozen were killed. 
The aid group Mercy Corps told the <a href="https://www.gulf-times.com/story/652919/Gunmen-kill-12-in-central-Nigeria-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gulf Times</a> that the extremists’ attacks on villages and farmers have, &#8220;contributed to more than 7,000 deaths in the past five years.”

NIGERIA-UNREST-FULANI

Radical Muslims Kill Thirteen Nigerian Christians

Africa

Christianity

Persecution

Terrorism

Progressives, never known for their sense of epistemological humility, are often fond of boasting that it is they — and only they — who are on the &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that American progressives, going back at least as far as the depths of the Cold War, have evinced a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">most peculiar obsequiousness</a> toward America&#8217;s totalitarian geopolitical foes.
President Barack Obama, the braggart who taunted then-House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) a mere three days after his first inauguration with, &#8220;<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/08/13/too_bad_obama_didnt_follow_his_own_advice_123650.html">I won</a>,&#8221; was very fond of gloating how it was he — and not his partisan opposition — who was on the &#8220;<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/69855/right-side-history-according-president-obama">right side of history</a>.&#8221; Never mind that Barack Obama, who oversaw a most rancid realignment in the Middle East in favor of the world&#8217;s number one state sponsor of jihad, kowtowed to that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">terrorist regime</a> to the tune of $100–150 billion in funding and $1.7 billion in <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-iran-payment-cash-20160907-snap-story.html">cold, hard pallets of cash</a>.
Because nothing apparently says &#8220;progressive&#8221; like a regime that funds murderous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">terrorist proxies</a> the <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/houthis/">world over</a>, brazenly attempts targeted assassinations <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/08/iran-behind-two-assassinations-in-netherlands-minister">all</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/02/france-blames-iran-for-foiled-bomb-attack-near-paris">throughout</a> the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/justice/iran-saudi-plot/index.html">West</a>, publicly <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-publicly-hangs-man-on-homosexuality-charges-578758">hangs homosexuals</a> simply because they are homosexuals, and has been found <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/iran-told-to-pay-10-5-billion-to-sept-11-kin-insurers">liable by a U.S. federal judge</a> for billions of dollars in damages owed to the families of those killed on 9/11.
In a sane world, Barack Obama and his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html">failed novelist</a>-centric <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-05-24/the-secret-history-of-the-iran-deal-echo-chamber">&#8220;echo chamber&#8221;</a> of pro-ayatollah sycophants would be apologizing today to both the American people and the Iranian people. Obama will never actually do so, of course; how very un-&#8220;progressive&#8221; it would be to humbly concede the retrospective error of one&#8217;s ways. As Dennis Prager once <a href="https://www.dennisprager.com/being-on-the-left-means-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry-part-230/">quipped</a>, perhaps the nicest part of being on the Left is never having to say you&#8217;re sorry.
Instead, it is Donald Trump, recent author of the <a href="https://twitter.com/SGhasseminejad/status/1216131659986325504">most liked tweet</a> in the history of the Farsi language, who has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">boldly defended</a> American interests against the Iranian mullocracy and stood in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216356280933273600">lockstep solidarity</a> with the repressed Persians <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-protesters-refuse-to-walk-on-u-s-israel-flags-attack-soleimani-posters">bravely protesting in the streets</a> against their Islamic Revolutionary overlords. The mullahs are once again shooting some of their very own in the streets, but the president of the United States has made it exceedingly clear that the eyes of the world are watching. By <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/03/trumps-strike-on-soleimani-is-about-america-first-not-reckless-interventionism/">knifing the Qassem Soleimani jugular</a>, prudently declaring victory and <a href="https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1216363363510386688">cutting bait</a> at exact right time, and offering moral and rhetorical succor to a subjugated populace, Trump has led by example every step of the way through this most recent flare-up of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-unyielding-iranian-menace">unceasing</a> post-Islamic Revolution <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-dispatch-of-soleimani-and-the-escalation-of-the-war">tumor</a>.
Every step of the way.
It is Donald Trump, and not Barack Obama, who is on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; on the issue of Iran.
You would never know that from our media elites — nor from the other sheltered denizens of our bicoastal <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ruling-Class-Corrupted-America-About/dp/0825305586">ruling class</a> clerisy who barely conceal their dripping disdain for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">rubes and yokels</a> of flyover country. Really, hold aside for a moment the oh-so-predictable pro-Iran apologia of moral midgets like Rep. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-crippling-sanctions-starve-iran-bds-movement-israel-economic-warfare-measured-response">Ilhan Omar</a> (D-MN). It is our media vanguard, who on cable television and the nation&#8217;s leading broadsheets alike so often take the form — by sheer happenstance, we are assured! — of <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2020/01/10/the-obama-administrations-guerrilla-war/">Obama administration alumni</a>, that have parroted ludicrous <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dan-gainor-anti-trump-media-attack-him-for-killing-of-soleimani-blame-him-for-iran-shooting-down-plane">Iranian regime talking points</a> in a depraved attempt to deny the dreaded orange man of anything that might be viewed as a political &#8220;victory.&#8221;
Cold War-era Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI) may have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-and-iran-11578262553">once said</a> that &#8220;politics stops at the water&#8217;s edge,&#8221; but for today&#8217;s debased media and political Left (I repeat myself), the mantra might as well be &#8220;shilling for a uniquely evil jihadist regime to own the cons.&#8221;
Thankfully, the Iranian people — who, above all else, are the victims of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 — need not care about the American media&#8217;s temper tantrums and self-immolations; Trump&#8217;s Twitter allows him to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-trump-tweets-for-liberty-in-iran">easily speak directly</a> to the American people. The Iranian people need not care about the armchair quarterbacking of those who would question the wisdom of the Soleimani strike. The Iranian people need not care about those who would haphazardly yell &#8220;warmonger!&#8221; at a president who has arguably been the most militarily restrained commander-in-chief since Jimmy Carter. And the Iranian people need not care about an idolatrous political Left that, along with abortion and global warming, has found an additional pagan sacrament in the thuggish Iranian regime.
What the Iranian people quite clearly do care for is Donald Trump&#8217;s Iran policy. The Iranian people, unlike Obama&#8217;s &#8220;echo chamber&#8221; and the leftist/media alliance that has fought so diligently to defend its rotten legacy, know what it means for an American statesman to be on the &#8220;right side of history&#8221; when it comes to their country. Barack Obama and his henchmen will never apologize for their sins, but the history books they seem to care so much about will note how it was his successor who righted his own wrongs on Iran.

John Kerry with Javad Zarif

HAMMER: On Iran, Trump Shows Obama The Real ‘Right Side Of History’

Nuclear Weapons

In the aftermath of the death of Qassem Soleimani last week, the torching of the <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/12/iraq-protests-iran-consulate-karbala-najaf.html">Iranian consulates in Najaf and Karbala</a>, Iraq, and the Saturday death of Abbas Ali Al-Sa&#8217;edi, the pro-Iranian Hashd Al Sha’abi commander in Karbala, there are clear indications that the Iranian and Iraqi people are losing their fear of the mullahs of Iran. There is a lot of YouTube video of Iranians in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere, and a particularly neat one of Iranian students <a href="https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1216401446674919424">refusing to walk </a>on an American and an Israeli flag.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here’s the most beautiful thing you will see today! Students at Beheshti University in Tehran refuse to walk on the US &amp; Israeli flags painted on the ground. They chant, “Basij [the IRGC paramilitary] forces, you are responsible for killing the people.” | <a href="https://t.co/dskKJeDa18">pic.twitter.com/dskKJeDa18</a>
&mdash; Mike (@Doranimated) <a href="https://twitter.com/Doranimated/status/1216328831239360512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This is a prelude to understanding President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216114167108849665">tweet to the Iranian people</a> on Saturday and the sure knowledge that he’s outpaced newspapers, radio, and TV alike in understanding what regular people understand regardless of what language they speak. Then there is the absence of coverage of the event by what has been called the “mainstream media” — although the mainstream appears not to be following them. Google results mid-morning Sunday — in order of appearance, with sources — show you who cared:
<ul>
<li>Trump Persian Tweet to Iranian People: I “Stand with You.” (Heavy.Com)</li>
<li>Trump tweet in Farsi “the most liked Persian tweet’ in history of Twitter (Washington Examiner)</li>
<li>Trump’s support for Iranian protestors breaks a Twitter record, something the MSM ‘will not report’ (TheBlaze)</li>
<li>Trump Persian Tweet to Iranian People: I &#8220;Stand With You…” (Schooltips.com)</li>
<li>Trump tweet in Farsi &#8220;the most liked Persian tweet&#8221; in… (enmnews)</li>
<li>Donald Trump Tweets in Persian to Pump Up Iranian Protests (CNN)</li>
<li>President Trump’s Tweet in Farsi is Most Liked Persian Tweet… (Gateway Pundit)</li>
<li>Trump Tweets Support for Iranian Protesters — in Persian (Legal Insurrection)</li>
<li>Trump Tweets Support for the ‘Brave and Suffering’ of Iran (PJ Media)</li>
</ul>
See a pattern?
With the exception of the snarky CNN headline, most are smaller outlets and all are openly supportive of the president’s decision to tell the Iranian people that we are not their enemy and we support their struggle against their government.
The Iranian people appear to appreciate that.
So where is The New York Times? Where is The Washington Post? The Los Angeles Times?
The Post had a few presidential tweet stories. In May, there was one about how the president’s tweets “put the Middle East <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/20/trump-places-middle-east-knife-edge/">on a knife edge</a>.” There were a few  in June and July — specifically, about one tweet the Iranian government called &#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/irans-top-diplomat-says-white-house-statement-on-tehran-attack-is-repugnant/2017/06/08/a7604a62-4c1b-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html">repugnant</a>.&#8221; The New York Times did some “analysis” of Mr. Trump’s tweets: &#8220;<a href="https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrCmnriRBteySUAKhUPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTEycXY1bDdiBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjg0OTJfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1578874210/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.nytimes.com%2f2019%2f11%2f02%2fus%2ftrump-twitter-takeaways.html/RK=2/RS=Ex5huSGSJj_rBkAbLi_kwJBlmas-">Trumps Twitter Presidency</a>&#8221; and an opinion piece that claimed the tweets proved the president to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/opinion/trump-twitter-racism.html">a &#8220;raging racist.&#8221;</a>. Those were the nice ones.
You get the point.
And sure, by the time you read this, someone in the MSM will have figured out that the tweet was important — not only for what it said, and not only for the apparent joy it brought to the Iranians who read it, liked it, and retweeted it, but because Donald Trump has figured out a way to talk to people without their government or media intervening.
Oh, wait. That’s what he’s been doing with the American people from the beginning of his presidency — letting people hear directly from the man they elected. Americans have often taken that for granted: After all, most of us have unfettered Internet and we can log onto WhiteHouse.gov if we want to know what the president said last night in Arkansas. But this is why the president has 70 million Twitter followers.
And here, perhaps, is the source of MSM unhappiness with Donald Trump. It isn’t only what he does as president; sometimes they even approve of that. It is resentment that he skips them — and denigrates them — just as much as they skip over his agenda and denigrate him. It has long been the position of newspapers, radio, and television that the American people need a filter for what happens — and that they are the filter. They are the way to understand the world. Walter Cronkite was that for millions of people in the 1960s. Tom Friedman, with fewer than a million followers (even adding the 44 million of his employer, The New York Times), isn’t that.
And no one is likely to be that again. Not in the United States. And not even in a country where the government manages and manipulates the media and the official pronouncements. Not even in Iran.
There’s a new day out there. President Trump gets it.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

Twitter iPhone

BRYEN: Trump Tweets For Liberty In Iran

Media

Media Bias

Muslims

Asia Siddiqui, a 35-year-old woman who was arrested on terrorism-related charges in 2015, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison following a trial in New York City.
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/73efbf179942949cdd1638b7408762da">Associated Press</a>, Siddiqui was “studying how to make bombs for a terrorist attack that prosecutors said would have targeted” U.S. law enforcement officers. Prosecutors also said that Siddiqui “followed and expressed a violent, warped version of Islam which, in their view,&#8221; demanded that she and her co-defendent, Noelle Velentzas, “teach each other and learn how to build a bomb.”
According to the <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/asia-siddiqui">Counter Extremism Project</a>, Siddiqui was born in Saudi Arabia and holds dual U.S. citizenship.
Richard Donoghue, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release that “lives were saved when the defendants’ plot to detonate a bomb in a terrorist attack was thwarted by the tireless efforts of law enforcement,” reports the news agency. “This is precisely the reason why countering terrorism remains the highest priority of the Department of Justice.”
Defense lawyers claim that Siddiqui “would have required the expertise of the fictional MacGuyver” to build a bomb with the materials she had in her basement. Furthermore, they say, the idea that “she was going to independently build her own explosive device is equally fictional.”
Following the 2015 arrest of Siddiqui and Velentzas, the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/wannabe-terrorists-weighed-attack-nypd-funeral-complaint-article-1.2171174">New York Daily News</a> reported that the terrorist duo had considered bombing a funeral for police officers, and expressed to an undercover officer how easy murdering a police officer would be.
<blockquote>Homegrown terrorists Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, were self-proclaimed &#8220;bad bitches&#8221; hoping to &#8220;make history&#8221; with a massive blast and body count from a police funeral or some other major public event, authorities charged Thursday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s war,&#8221; Velentzas, who declared herself an Islamic State citizen, said in a tape-recorded August conversation. &#8220;It&#8217;s f&#8212;ing war.&#8221;
Velentzas, in another of many chats recorded by an undercover investigator, declared that killing a cop was actually easier than grocery shopping.
&#8220;Sometimes one has to wait in line to buy food,&#8221; she was quoted as coolly telling the undercover last December after the executions of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
The Ramos funeral, which drew 20,000 law enforcement mourners, sparked speculation between the two accused women and the undercover about bombing a subsequent funeral.</blockquote>
A <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/04/02/velentzas-siddiqui-complaint.pdf">criminal complaint</a> filed against Siddiqui and Velentzas in 2015 reveals that Siddiqui also had a soft spot for jihadist literature and poetry, and in 2009 submitted a poem to “Jihad Recollections,” a terrorist magazine. According to the complaint, the poem “calls for its readers to engage in violent jihad and to destroy enemies of Islam.” In a conversation with an undercover officer, Siddiqui also referenced an article she wrote that “referred to having written the poem.”
The New York Daily News previously published an excerpt of the poem, revealing lines that read: “Some of us are born soldiers, battle runs through our blood,” “Hit cloud nine with the smell of turpentine, nations wiped clean of filthy shrines,” and “taste the Truth through fists and slit throats.” The excerpt of the poem concludes as follows: “What can my enemies do to me if Allah has promised me success.”
Velentzas is scheduled for sentencing on March 3, 2020.

Funeral Held For NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen Shot In Friendly Fire Incident While Apprehending Suspect In Bronx

Jihadist Poet Who Considered Bombing NYPD Funeral Sentenced To Prison

In March 2003, then-President George W. Bush let a multinational land invasion of Iraq. At the time, ethnically diverse Iraq — one of the sundry Middle East states haphazardly crafted by clueless Europeans in the World War I-era Sykes-Picot Agreement — was run by thuggish Ba&#8217;athist strongman Saddam Hussein. Within weeks, Baghdad was held by U.S.-aligned forces. Less than a year later, Hussein was captured.
But that was deemed woefully insufficient by Bush-era foreign policy hands. Operating under the intellectually hubristic and universal values-ridden guise of a White House &#8220;<a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/freedomagenda/">Freedom Agenda</a>,&#8221; Bush-era foreign policy was not content to engage in Israel Defense Forces-style one-off <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/a-holistic-approach-to-the-middle-east-and-our-national-security/">&#8220;strike and maneuver&#8221;</a> tactical hits against threatening jihadist outfits. Rather, the Bush administration, in tandem with its concurrent nation-building project in the third-world sharia backwater hellhole of Afghanistan, sought a more enduring physical presence in order to help birth a Madisonian republic in the war-torn, ethnically fractious Iraqi desert.
The rest — with the exception of an Obama-era full troop withdrawal between the end of 2011 and our troops&#8217; return in 2014 to fight the ascendant Islamic State Sunni death cult — is, as they say, history. In the year 2020, the U.S. retains a substantial physical military presence in Iraq.
Following the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">just and proper strike</a> last week of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, it is now time for our U.S. troops in Iraq to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/07/offing-soleimani-gives-trump-an-excellent-chance-to-exit-iraq/">come home</a>.
There is simply no longer any compelling strategic reason for the U.S. to retain a troop presence in Iraq, which is increasingly dominated by pro-Iran Shi&#8217;ite militias whose fealty is to no one other than the Quds Force and its mullah overlords. The day has long passed where true American influence in Iraq has been anything other than symbolic; the nation is, at this point, hardly distinguishable from its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-irans-imperial-overreach">&#8220;Shi&#8217;ite Crescent&#8221;</a> fellow nations of Syria and Lebanon in its status as an Iranian satrapy. It was only a matter of days ago when Iraqi security officials seemed, at best, ambivalent about Soleimani loyalist Shi&#8217;ite radicals storming the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
The true threat in the region to the United States, as it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-the-dispatch-of-soleimani-and-the-escalation-of-the-war">has been ever since</a> the Islamic Revolution of 1979, is the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">inherently jihadist</a> regime in Tehran. Non-state Sunni jihadist actors, no matter the alphabet soup under which they organize, utterly pale in comparison. The threat of Sunni Islamist infiltration can largely be stanched by severely limiting entry visas from problematic Islamic nations, massively ramping up immigration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-border-wall-nice-interior-enforcement-nicer-josh-hammer">interior enforcement</a>, and engaging in occasional ad hoc drone strikes based from the U.S.&#8217;s already-manifold bases across the region. The strike that killed Soleimani, after all, was launched from Al Udeid Air Base in (deeply problematic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-terror-funding-qatar-once-again-proves-it-is-not-americas-friend">&#8220;ally&#8221;</a>) Qatar.
The issue with leaving large-scale numbers of U.S. military assets, from a hardened realist perspective, is that it is <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/death-iranian-gen-soleimani-long-overdue-justice/">actually counterproductive</a> to our over-arching goal of deterring the Iranian menace. As Daniel Horowitz quite <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/death-iranian-gen-soleimani-long-overdue-justice/">presciently warned</a> even before last night&#8217;s missile launches from Iran into Iraq, &#8220;[c]ontinuing to leave so many assets in Iraq itself will just make us vulnerable to Iran’s attacks and counterattacks in the future.&#8221; And a higher-level goal such as deterring Iran necessarily takes hierarchical primacy over a tactic such as deploying troops to Iraq. As famed Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/19042/should-israel-invade-gaza">once said</a>: First decide on one’s policy, then one’s strategy, and only then one’s tactics.
In taking out Soleimani, the Ayatollah Khameini&#8217;s most trusted servant, the Trump administration clearly communicated to the Tehran mullocracy that America will always zealously guard and defend our national interests, as we carefully demarcate and define them. We no longer need to be involved in the dreadful and feckless task of nation-building. As Lee Smith compellingly <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/07/offing-soleimani-gives-trump-an-excellent-chance-to-exit-iraq/">writes</a> today at the New York Post, &#8220;Trump carved out his own exit strategy&#8221; via the Soleimani strike.
Let&#8217;s bring our troops in Iraq home. It will only help, not hinder, our continued efforts to defiantly stand athwart Iran&#8217;s aspirational regional hegemony.

US troops in tank in Baghdad

HAMMER: The Time Is Right For Our Troops In Iraq To Come Home

George W. Bush

Iraq

Iraq War

Obama Administration

The January 2 death of Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, has prompted consternation from some press and policymakers. Killed in Baghdad by a U.S. drone strike, Soelimani was <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpilSf6fYHToY3HKxO7dBDmtZp5g">described</a> by The Washington Post as a “revered military leader” and by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as a mere “<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF5c-YWQiOrhhfuX94tA4Xym2dK6w">foreign official</a>.”
In fact, he was an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/raphael-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-is-a-modern-day-nazi-ss">arch-terrorist</a> responsible for the murders of thousands of people — including hundreds of American servicemen and women, many of who were murdered and maimed by Iranian-created explosive devices.
Pundits and reporters alike have claimed that Soleimani’s death has led to Iran threatening the U.S. But they have it backwards. Tehran has been threatening the U.S. for years — a fact the media have often ignored or obfuscated.
Indeed, in the days prior to his death, Soleimani and the Shiite militias under his command had <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMa9PkrZSmYC2xW8fYZ1vNbQ9jUQ">murdered</a> an American contractor and attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Iranian belligerence long predates the Trump administration.
Ever since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently called for “death to America.” <a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEEZcg3ZcJ_BHvO4a6GXbjKkZW9QA">Anti-Americanism</a>, like anti-Semitism and imperialism, is a core tenet of the regime’s Islamist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TAPs_r81AqQC&amp;q=ideology#v=snippet&amp;q=ideology&amp;f=false" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DTAPs_r81AqQC%26q%3Dideology%23v%3Dsnippet%26q%3Dideology%26f%3Dfalse&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFH0wn8HiHGON8co_qZTpuMYlgB5g">ideology</a>. For four decades, Iran has sought to make good on its threats, kidnapping and <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF0l1yNTe6i7IbJDBOyLddUXtGEuA">torturing</a> Americans, bankrolling terrorist groups — Sunni and Shiite <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGU6Zm_QmKHPkTTArPeNB3gCvB7Cg">alike</a> — that attack Americans, and murdering <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHx1UBKlC8CMU6EHLKorW4JQceemA">our troops</a>.
Yet Western media have frequently minimized Iran’s open hostility. In December 2015, for example, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhsPzIt_VMhKvJstZpG-Q8vfPvCg">noted</a> that “powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias” had “threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq in response to U.S. legislation” granting Kurdish forces the means to defend themselves from ISIS. Most major U.S. news outlets <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHTc8EeHpMz_Vr-OyEIX9PwyMANtw">ignored</a> Iran’s gangster-like behavior.
Similarly, on November 26, 2016, an Iranian ship threatened a U.S. military helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident was profiled in a brief Reuters report at the time that noted that “a small Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard vessel pointed its weapon” at a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter. However, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other prominent newspapers <a href="https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0_4WHsusjl8wTHte1QcPg22dz-A">failed</a> to cover it.
In 2014 and 2015 — while the Obama administration was engaged in negotiations with Iran over its illicit nuclear weapons program — the regime was ramping up its cyber war. As one New York Times report <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r=0" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r%3D0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFp2L3zAElm6sm6U5J29ebbrNo5Lw">detailed</a>, American officials and private security groups “say they see a surge in sophisticated computer espionage by Iran, culminating in a series of cyber attacks against State Department officials.” The attacks, the Times admitted, were “nothing new, having begun in the latter years of the Bush administration and proceeded since then to target U.S. agencies, banks and citizens.” The report pointed out that Iranian cyber attacks transitioned in 2014 from attempting to disrupt, degrade, and destroy targets to “spear phishing for espionage.”
“Beginning in May 2014,” the report said, “researchers found evidence that Iranian hackers were targeting Iranian dissidents, and later policymakers, senior military personnel and defense contractors in the United States, England, and Israel.”
Perhaps most alarmingly, Iranian terrorists have sleeper cells in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — a fact that many in the press have overlooked. On April 17, 2018, several intelligence officials told Congress that Iranian agents tied to the terror group Hezbollah had been discovered. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based terrorist organization completely <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjhvF0zS7Zt41jYdK4uzRmtUqDKA">funded and controlled</a> by Tehran. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by al-Qaeda, Hezbollah had murdered more Americans than any other terrorist entity.
Although the majority of analysts testified that Iranian proxies like Hezbollah pose a threat to the U.S. homeland, many news outlets failed to report their testimony, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQAjDE6ZIZXfOysiC3aF94CQ8Paw">noted</a> at the time.
U.S. law enforcement even arrested two Hezbollah operatives, Samer El Debek and Ali Mohammad Kourani, indicting them in May 2017 for “casing targets for possible future terror attacks.” Both were members of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization (ESO), also known as Unit 910. ESO is tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks and other operations, such as money laundering and drug smuggling, throughout the world. As he later told investigators, Kourani had been recruited into the ESO in January 2008.
The two Hezbollah operatives — both naturalized U.S. citizens — underwent military training in Lebanon and procured explosives, night-vision goggles, and drone technology. El Debek reportedly scoped out potential targets, including New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) and La Guardia International Airports, and the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in Queens, New York. As the terror analyst Matthew Levitt detailed in a June 14, 2019 Foreign Policy <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHixgr6xY7xcaKSjhb7wujvP4nm8w">article</a>, before he was convicted, Kourani’s trial showed that Iranian sleeper cells were far more active in the U.S. than previously thought. Yet this revelation, and the trial itself, received little press attention.
In 2007, Iranian proxies <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHk7Z2JVKGcDEDoxTj36OEqYh53hA">planned</a> to blow up the fuel tanks at JFK International Airport, but were thwarted by authorities. In another foiled plot, Iranian-backed operatives <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF1Cfv2ScXLiMfmDDtw32fuLU4avw">planned</a> to blow up a Washington, D.C. restaurant in 2011 in order to murder a Saudi dignitary. Yet these facts were conveniently ignored in numerous reports on the potential fallout from Soleimani’s death.
Iran itself has openly broadcast its ambitions, holding rallies and marches calling for death to both “the Great Satan” (the U.S.) and “the little Satan” (Israel). In 2017, an Iranian filmmaker <a href="https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnAbpF-sOXW-wLoqVf-iUDgimOag">released</a> a 90-minute movie depicting the destruction of U.S. Naval forces by Tehran. In the film, a character that closely resembles Soleimani leads a single vessel against more than a dozen American warships. When a U.S. commander orders him to surrender or die, he replies: “General, I am not a diplomat, I am a revolutionary!”
But Iran’s threats are no mere fantasy. And the threat posed by the Islamic Republic warrants honest and complete media coverage.
&nbsp;
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Washington D.C. office of CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Iran map

DURNS: The Media Have Long Ignored Iran’s Threats

Leftism

Progressivism

Saturday night’s bloody machete attack in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/29/us/new-york-stabbing-rabbi-home/index.html">Monsey, New York</a> against a rabbi and his congregants celebrating Chanukah shocked in ways beyond its sheer brutality. This anti-Semitic assault by a man influenced by the “Black Hebrew Israelite” movement comes amidst a spate of crimes against Jews, with the New York Police Department now investigating <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-semitic-attacks-new-york-city-hanukkah_n_5e06227ac5b6b5a713ada7f9">six hate crimes</a> that occurred during the holiday.
Certainly, churches, synagogues, and mosques are under siege in America, from <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2018/11/10/Robert-Bowers-extremism-Tree-of-Life-massacre-shooting-pittsburgh-Gab-Warroom/stories/201811080165">Pittsburgh</a> to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikehayes/jury-sentences-dylann-roof-to-death">Charleston</a>, and from <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/news/los_angeles/220410/synagogues-carry-face-bomb-threats/">Los Angeles</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/us/minnesota-mosque-bombing-suspects.html">Minnesota</a>. However, under the pretense of protecting places of worship and faith-based nonprofits, Congress stands poised to spend millions of taxpayer dollars effectively providing pro-jihadist Islamist groups — with documented ties to overseas terrorist organizations — with their own private armed militias.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and co-sponsor Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) have put forth a new bill, the <a href="https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/portman-peters-introduce-legislation-increase-security-resources-faith">Protecting Faith-Based and Nonprofit Organizations From Terrorism Act</a>, which provides <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2019/09/as-hate-attacks-on-houses-of-worship-mount-congress-needs-to-do-more-to-help-with-security-rob-portman.html">$75 million annually</a> over the next five years for security to religious groups.
Lawmakers need to address two notable problems as they consider this security bill.
First, <a href="https://www.portman.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/Protecting%20Faith-Based%20and%20Nonprofit%20Organizations%20from%20Terrorism%20Act.pdf">the proposal</a> provides funding to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/05/the-muslim-brotherhoods-american-goals">Muslim Brotherhood</a>-linked Islamist groups such as the <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/3437/cair-islamists-fooling-the-establishment">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/swindle-california-islamist-activists-protest-david-m-swindle">Muslim American Society</a>, and the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/732/isna-admits-hamas-ties">Islamic Society of North America</a> would therefore be eligible for funding under the plan, providing security dollars to advocacy organizations that share a common Islamist ideological heritage. Another network of Muslim nonprofits, including the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/57929/catalogue-of-icna-links-to-jamaat-e-islami">Islamic Circle of North America</a> and the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/84.pdf">Muslim Students Association</a>, would also benefit from the bill despite being tied to <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/59929/jamaat-e-islami-a-threat-at-home-and-abroad">Jamaat-e-Islami</a>, a violent South Asian Islamist movement.
Assuredly, Islamists are not the only extremists exploiting 501(c)(3) laws; <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/white-supremacist-groups-tax-break-educational-2017-8">white nationalists also have a long history</a> of doing the same thing.
Second, the bill fails to adequately limit how grant monies can be spent. It identifies three general types of uses for the funds: “Target hardening,” “security training,” and “any other appropriate activity.” But what is to prevent religious centers and nonprofits from hiring or training armed guards to enforce religious law?
Some Muslim American communities have previously recruited security guards to serve as enforcers of Islamic law. These vigilante patrols have often been less concerned with local security than they are with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/02/a-breach-in-guards-invincibility/d0f9c4cc-4562-482f-9aac-fb9be699d003/">converting</a> their neighbors, enforcing standards of dress, and prohibiting drug and alcohol use.
Sunni Muslim secu͏r͏i͏ty patrols can be traced back to January 1988, when New York City imam <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6576/svcf-hate-speakers-siraj-wahhaj">Siraj Wahhaj</a> — listed as a potential <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/02/blind-sheikh-dies-terrorist-evangelist/">un-indicted co-conspirator</a> in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings — announced his <a href="https://clarionproject.org/clarion-special-report-nys-sharia-patrol/">“40 Days and 40 Nights”</a> campaign to expel crack cocaine dealers from Brooklyn. Armed with guns and nightsticks, Wahhaj’s team of nearly 50 men drew recruits from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/23/nyregion/muslims-start-patrol-to-fight-crack-in-brooklyn.html">homeless shelters</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">prison converts.</a>
From this “40 Days” event arose a more formalized, permanent, and licensed group of paramilitary guards and enforcers, known as SSI Patrol Services. In 1991, a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">headline</a> described SSI as “private police as violent as their enemy” and questioned whether the firm employed “Security Guards or Vigilantes?”
The imam’s foot soldiers had no concept of proportionality: “If they spill one pin drop of our blood, we spill gallons of theirs,” one member promised. And indeed, they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/16/nyregion/security-guards-vigilantes-special-report-brooklyn-private-police-violent-their.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;assetType=REGIWALL&amp;fbclid=IwAR2bJlupgVwbKMXoKgDHADEtNRa5_ZILHylCaZfAnK_IFpa26DzMmfvUEqA">followed through with this threat</a>: One guard received a second degree murder charge, a second was held in a case involving the shooting of a disabled man, and a third faced a lawsuit for a brutal beating.
SSI was not the only Muslim paramilitary group with a questionable record. In 1996, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/02/a-breach-in-guards-invincibility/d0f9c4cc-4562-482f-9aac-fb9be699d003/">exposed</a> how the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) “Fruit of Islam” wing inspired the creation of multiple private security corporations that received “an estimated $20 million in public contracts in 10 cities.” Residents of areas patrolled by NOI security groups claimed “that guards paid with public money were proselytizing for Farrakhan, pestering residents to stop eating pork, go to the mosque or buy subscriptions to the Final Call, the Nation&#8217;s newspaper.”
<a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/11/black-muslim-security-firm-makes-false-claims-in-bid-to-secure-port-of-oakland-contract/">BMT International Security Services</a> is another black Muslim security group accused of defrauding the government and lying about its credentials to secure a $450,000 contract patrolling parks at the Port of Oakland. Such behavior was in keeping with the group’s background since “prosecutors have called it a cult that ran a wide-ranging criminal enterprise, committing crimes from real estate and mortgage fraud to murder.”
More recently, last year Wahhaj <a href="https://spectator.org/brooklyns-islamist-vigilantes/">revived his Islamist security group</a> under a new name: The <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/12/24/new-york-muslims-have-a-new-security-patrol-group/">Muslim Community Patrol (MCP)</a>. Just weeks after its founding, MCP members initiated a <a href="https://christianaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/The-Secret-Agenda-of-New-York-Citys-Muslim-Patrol-Cars.pdf">conflict</a> when they attempted to stop a group of African-American men from smoking marijuana near a mosque. According to “Abdul,” <a href="https://clarionproject.org/clarion-special-report-nys-sharia-patrol/">an informant who attended an MCP meeting</a>, Wahhaj said, “The mosques need protection and the MCP cars can help stop people who were not following the rules and regulations of the Sharia …”
“Everything is going to be Sharia,” Abdul explained. “That’s Wahhaj’s main thing. He’s working on a ‘one sheikh’ and ‘one government’ system that practices Sharia.”
Portman should  therefore consider one major revision for his bill: Funds must be allocated to increase the presence of trained local police — not dangerous and unprofessional faith-based patrols. The fungibility of funding to Islamist groups must also be considered; every taxpayer dollar dispensed to these groups frees up funding for other extremist activities.
If there’s one thing at which American Islamists are particularly adept, it is exploitation of the good intentions of others. And indeed, the intentions behind this bill are obviously well-meaning, but for such efforts to succeed, Congress must recognize the potential for abuse.
&nbsp;
David M. Swindle is a fellow for <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/">Islamist Watch</a> and the Southern California associate of the <a href="https://counterislamist.org/">Counter-Islamist Grid</a>. He also works as the Director of Research for <a href="https://theisraelgroup.org/">The Israel Group</a>. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/daveswindle">@DaveSwindle</a>.

Capitol Hill

SWINDLE: Stop Taxpayer Money From Funding Islamist-Tied Security Agencies

Congress

New York Police Department (NYPD)

Police

Rob Portman

U.S. Senate

One of the main arguments against the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">strike that killed Qassem Soleimani</a> is that targeted killings of terror leaders are ineffective: They invite escalation and reprisals, and the removal of senior terrorists doesn’t degrade the effectiveness of the groups they lead because they can be quickly replaced.
But this argument doesn’t hold up to the experience of recent history. Take two examples of targeted killing campaigns against terrorist groups in the past 20 years: Israel during the Second Intifada, and the Obama administration campaign against al-Qaeda.
In both campaigns, Israel and the U.S. combined precise intelligence with precision-guided munitions to systematically eliminate the leadership and top operatives of dangerous terrorist groups. The key to these campaigns was that they weren’t one-offs — they were sustained over the course of years.
During that time, in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, and the tribal regions of Pakistan, targeted killings did much more than symbolically remove terror leaders from the battlefield. They helped cripple the effectiveness of terror groups by forcing them to shift from offense to defense.
Instead of recruiting followers and planning attacks, they had to spend time and energy worrying about security. The sophisticated intelligence employed by the U.S. and Israel raised suspicions of informants. Distrust grew. The ability of operatives to propagandize, communicate, plan, and move freely was undermined as every phone call and meeting raised the specter of surveillance or a missile strike. As leaders were killed off and replaced, only for the replacements themselves to be killed, morale suffered.
As much as jihadists boast about their lust for death, few genuinely want to be killed. And much of the ardor of the foot soldiers owes to the belief that they have joined the winning side — but it’s hard to maintain enthusiasm when a promotion means likely death.
Meanwhile, as anyone who has worked in an organization knows, few people have the genuine talent or experience for leadership. It’s simply not true that operatives who have spent decades working their way up the ranks of an organization can be easily replaced with people of equal ability. Terrorist groups, like any company, organization, or cause, need talent at the top.
Targeted killings, of course, weren’t the only reason why Israel prevailed against the Palestinian-Arab suicide bombing campaign of the early 2000s or why the Obama administration was able to turn al-Qaeda into a has-been — but they were a key component, and this success could be replicated by forcing Iranian terror masters to grow far more worried about their safety than they have recently been. In recent years, Soleimani was so confident of his impunity that he traveled the Middle East almost openly, meeting with political leaders and visiting the front lines of the various battles Iranian-sponsored militias and terrorists were fighting in order to pose for selfies with his troops.
Killing him creates a major opportunity for the U.S. to reset its tolerance for Iran’s strategy of arming and training of proxy terrorist forces in the Middle East. Soleimani was the chief architect of this strategy, and it has succeeded largely due to the willingness of countries such as the U.S. to observe the distinction without a difference between Iran and the militia groups it builds in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and elsewhere. By killing Soleimani, the U.S. and its allies can put a bookend on this Iranian game. And the way the U.S. can enforce this new policy is through targeted killings of any Iranian terrorist leaders who attempt to replicate Soleimani’s success. We need only look to Israel and the Obama administration for guidance.
&nbsp;
Noah Pollak is a political consultant and contributor to The Washington Free Beacon. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/NoahPollak">@NoahPollak</a>.

Panoramic view of Wadi Rum, Jordan

POLLAK: Yes, Targeted Killings Work

Far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said on Friday that she was &#8220;outraged&#8221; at President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to kill Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/world/middleeast/qassem-soleimani-iraq-iran-attack.html">reported</a> on Thursday that Soleimani and top Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, who headed the Iranian-linked Popular Mobilization Forces, were killed in an airstrike on Thursday at Baghdad International Airport when when an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles on a convoy the two terrorists were riding in.
Omar initially responded to the news by writing on Twitter: &#8220;So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction? Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will.&#8221;
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded to Omar, &#8220;According the the Obama Department of Defense, Qasem Soleimani was a terrorist directly responsible for the murder of over 500 US service men &amp; women. Why are congressional Dems outraged that he’s finally dead? See more: [link to news article]&#8221;
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According the the Obama Department of Defense, Qasem Soleimani was a terrorist directly responsible for the murder of over 500 US service men &amp; women. Why are congressional Dems outraged that he’s finally dead? See more: <a href="https://t.co/7MrD4tyM5y">https://t.co/7MrD4tyM5y</a> <a href="https://t.co/cKYSPLSLmj">https://t.co/cKYSPLSLmj</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1212958723074867201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Omar responded, &#8220;We are outraged the president would assassinate a foreign official, possibly setting off another war without Congressional authorization and has zero plan to deal with the consequences. But of course you know that.&#8221;
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We are outraged the president would assassinate a foreign official, possibly setting off another war without Congressional authorization and has zero plan to deal with the consequences. 
But of course you know that. <a href="https://t.co/GzfdKilV4t">https://t.co/GzfdKilV4t</a>
&mdash; Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1213152758976647174?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The U.S. State Department released the following facts about Qassem Soleimani:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Since 1998, Qassem Soleimani commanded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the terror arm of the Iranian regime. The IRGC-QF is tasked with planning and executing terror and military operations outside Iran’s borders. Under Soleimani’s command, the IRGC-QF has fueled destabilizing sectarian conflicts throughout the Middle East for decades.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>The IRGC-QF continues to wage an illegal campaign of terrorism, assassinations, and violence. At Soleimani’s direction and with his oversight and guidance, the IRGC-QF has planned and conducted terrorist attacks across six continents and inside the United States.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>The United States designated IRGC-QF a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its activities, and the United States designated Soleimani as a Specially-Designated Global Terrorist.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>As the leader of the IRGC-QF, Qassem Soleimani was directly responsible for arming, funding, and training proxy groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Operations carried out by these proxy groups have led to the death and suffering of tens of thousands, including many hundreds of Americans. These proxies routinely target and kill civilians, intensify sectarian conflicts, and prolong the suffering of innocent men, women, and children.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Soleimani personally directed and provided arms to militias in Iraq for more than a decade. These militias undermine the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, threaten the legitimacy of Iraq’s security forces, and target American citizens and forces. With Soleimani’s support and lethal assistance, proxies of the IRGC-QF targeted and killed over 600 Americans between 2003 and 2011.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>We can confirm that in the past several days, General Soleimani had been traveling in the Middle East coordinating further imminent large-scale attacks against U.S. diplomats and service members. These threats were highly credible and the intelligence is sound. General Soleimani’s travel also violated the ban imposed by the United Nations Security Council.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Recent orders given by General Soleimani dramatically escalated Iran’s campaign of violence and terrorism against Americans and American interests in the Middle East. He orchestrated a series of attacks against American forces in Iraq in the past several months, culminating in the rocket attack on December 27, 2019, which resulted in the death of an American citizen, wounded four American service members, and threatened the lives of many more American personnel. General Soleimani also ordered the assault on the American Embassy in Baghdad. General Soleimani continued to command Iranian supported proxies in Iraq, which posed an escalating threat to the lives of Americans.</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>For his actions, Soleimani had been designated and sanctioned by the United Nations, European Union, and United States and is banned from international travel by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231. In defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions, however, Soleimani continued to travel to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon directing and coordinating lethal actions that pose a threat to regional peace and security.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>

Ilhan Omar

Ilhan Omar: I’m ‘Outraged’ Trump Killed Iranian Terrorist Who Killed Hundreds Of Americans

State Department

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-just-and-proper-strike-of-mastermind-iranian-jihadist-qassem-soleimani">is no more</a>. He died with the blood of tens of thousands of people on his hands — Americans, Syrians, Kurds, Israelis, Lebanese, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghans, Africans in Nigeria, Chad, Mali, and more. He was an enemy combatant of the United States and leader of a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
It is tempting just to say, “yippie” and move on. But the extraordinary number of people — including Americans, including The New York Times, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — disapproving of President Donald Trump’s decision to have our military skillfully dispatch Soleimani to wherever he’s gone requires more comment.
The Times began its story with, “Mr. Trump’s decision to kill General Soleimani was one that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had rejected, fearing it would lead to war.” The Times makes the fundamental mistake: Nothing the United States does will “lead to war.” The war is already 40 years old — we just haven’t been fighting it much.
Iran declared real and operational war on the United States (and Israel) at the onset of the Islamic Republic in 1979. From the U.S. embassy takeover in 1979 to the Beirut Marine Barracks bombing in 1983 to the attacks against American troops in Iraq to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/man-in-iran-backed-plot-to-kill-saudi-ambassador-gets-25-years/2013/05/30/0435e7a2-c952-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html">bomb plots</a> against the Saudi ambassador in Washington and the Israeli embassy in 2011 to the capture of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-18/iran-captured-u-s-sailors-at-gunpoint-defense-department-finds">American naval personnel</a> in 2016 (and major violations of the Americans’ Geneva Convention rights) to the continuing Iranian harassment of U.S. shipping in the Persian Gulf and Bab-el-Mandeb Straits, Iran has killed Americans and threatened to kill more.
Soleimani was head of the Iranian militias that <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/04/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says/">killed 608 American soldiers</a> in Iraq and maimed thousands of others through the use of IEDs. He armed, trained, and commanded the Iraqi Kataib militia Hezbollah that was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/world/middleeast/iraq-embassy-attack.html">responsible for the killing</a> of an American contractor in Iraq and the injuring of several American soldiers — and for attacking the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which directly precipitated the current situation.
And that’s only about the United States. Soleimani’s IRGC-controlled militias sent tens of thousands of troops, mostly Pakistani and Afghan, to Syria to commit large-scale ethnic cleansing of Syrian Sunnis and precipitating the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe. Soleimani’s IRGC-controlled militias ostensibly fought against ISIS in western Iraq, but committed a variety of crimes against Iraqi Sunni civilians there, as well. The arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon with precision missiles, now aimed at Israel, is a Soleimani-led IRGC operation. The establishment of Iranian missile factories in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq is a Soleimani-led IRGC operation.
At home, Pelosi and Schumer think <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democrats-call-us-killing-of-soleimani-reckless-say-congress-wasnt-notified/">Congress should have been notified</a> — asserting a privilege that does not exist. For the record, President Barack Obama put American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki on a CIA “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040604121.html">kill list</a>” in 2010 without discussion in Congress, let alone prior congressional approval. Al-Awlaki was dispatched by an American drone in Yemen in 2011.
Others, including Democratic presidential hopefuls <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/democrats-call-us-killing-of-soleimani-reckless-say-congress-wasnt-notified/">Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang</a>, are condemning the elimination of Soleimani out of fear of the retaliation that Iran might try to exact. Those people aren’t actually wrong. But if they believe the United States should ignore Iranian provocation or abandon the Middle East to protect ourselves here at home — it’s too late for that.
Just last month, Ali Hourani, an American citizen, was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/prosecutors-ask-life-term-new-york-man-who-wanted-die-n1091421">sentenced to 40 years in federal prison</a> for “helping Hezbollah and Iran prepare to strike strategic and vulnerable targets around New York City, such as federal facilities housing day care centers, critical infrastructure, counterterrorism command posts, and international airports, as well as members of the NYPD, the Mossad, and the Israel Defense Forces,&#8221; according to the federal sentencing memo.
Anything <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Hezbollah knows</a>, Iran knows.
That, however, is less a reason to condemn the elimination of Soleimani than to understand the breadth and depth of the war Iran has long been waging. The present escalation of that war is a sign that the Iranian empire has overreached, is collapsing, and needs a “victory” against the mullahs&#8217; &#8220;Great Satan&#8221; (U.S.) or the &#8220;Little Satan&#8221; (Israel) to justify its continued existence.
The Trump administration has cut off Iran’s money supply and other countries have stopped trading with Iran, making bribery in the form of cash, weapons, arms factories, and training less and less possible. The regime, reduced to stealing Iraqi oil to sell on the black market, faces rebellion in its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bryen-irans-imperial-overreach">provinces Lebanon and Iraq</a> — as well as at home. Opposition to Islamist clericalism <a href="https://besacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1315-Political-Islam-Is-Declining-in-the-Middle-East-Frisch-final.pdf">appears to be on the rise</a> in the region.
Enemies are most dangerous when they see their demise on the horizon — the Battle of the Bulge was Hitler’s way of ensuring the greatest number of allied casualties before the end of the Nazi empire. That appears to be where Iran is now, that is why the dispatch of Soleimani was essential, and that is why Americans and our allies must present a united front against Iran.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a> in Washington, and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.

Iran Middle East map

BRYEN: The Dispatch Of Soleimani And The Escalation Of The War

Mike Pompeo

United States

The world has awoken today a safer and more just place. And the unraveling of former President Barack Obama&#8217;s pro-Iran regional Middle East realignment, which began with President Donald Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-just-shredded-iran-deal-here-are-5-ben-shapiro">thunderous exit</a> from his predecessor&#8217;s pro-ayatollah nuclear capitulation, has now reached its logical conclusion.
The Obama Middle East foreign policy legacy is dead. As is the Islamic Republic of Iran&#8217;s infamous jihadist mastermind, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-responds-to-u-s-military-killing-2-top-iranian-military-leaders-involved-in-terrorists">Qassem Soleimani</a>.
Good riddance to both.
It is difficult to overstate the geopolitical and strategic ramifications of Soleimani&#8217;s long-overdue demise. Aside from Osama bin Laden himself, no leading international jihadist thug has had more American blood on his hands than the decades-long veteran commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) — a U.S.-designated <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/">Foreign Terrorist Organization</a> and umbrella organization overseeing so much regional and global evil, from Iraq to Yemen to <a href="https://ctc.usma.edu/irans-unwavering-support-to-assads-syria/">Syria</a> to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Lebanon</a> to Gaza to <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190109-eu-sanctions-iran-over-assassinations-peoples-mujahedeen-france-bomb-plot">European</a> capitals to our very own <a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/jewish-world/2019/08/the-men-responsible-for-the-amia-bombing-are-known-and-still-at-large/">western</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/man-in-iran-backed-plot-to-kill-saudi-ambassador-gets-25-years/2013/05/30/0435e7a2-c952-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html">hemisphere</a>. From <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Hezbollah</a> to Hamas to Palestinian Islamic Jihad to Yemeni <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/houthis-explain-death-to-america-slogan-reveal-what-will-bring-them-to-peace-talks">Houthi rebels</a> to (contra Iranian <a href="https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1212946202280579073">propaganda</a>) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/politics/us-iran.html">al-Qaeda itself</a>, the extraterritorial tentacles of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">inherently jihadist</a> Iranian regime are simply ubiquitous.
No nation on Earth funds, sponsors, and exports more genocidal jihad than the Islamic Republic of Iran. And no one has been more responsible for that over the past 20-plus years than Qassem Soleimani. The Hudson Institute&#8217;s Michael Doran is thus correct when he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/opinion/trump-iran-suleimani-assassination-baghdad.html">writes</a> today that, &#8220;[t]he killings of Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leaders of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, were certainly meaningful, but they were also largely symbolic.&#8221; By contrast, Doran continues, &#8220;[t]aking out the architect of the Islamic Republic’s decades-long active campaign of violence against the United States and its allies, especially Israel, represents a tectonic shift in Middle Eastern politics.&#8221;
This is <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1212943146512003073">precisely right</a>.
Soleimani, who was designated and sanctioned by the U.N., E.U., and U.S. alike, directly approved <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-now-is-not-the-time-to-go-soft-on-iran">Tuesday&#8217;s U.S. embassy storming</a> in Baghdad by Iranian proxy militia Kataib Hezbollah, and was credibly assessed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as actively planning more <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-strike-on-soleimani-disrupted-imminent-attack-saved-hundreds/">&#8220;imminent&#8221;</a> attacks against hard American assets in the Middle East, has been directly active in the mass murder of Americans. He personally oversaw the mass arming of Shiite Iraqi insurgents and it is estimated that the IRGC-QF targeted and killed over 600 Americans in Iraq from 2003–2011. The State Department asserts that this personally amounts to a whopping <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-dept-iranian-general-killed-in-u-s-strike-responsible-for-17-of-american-deaths-in-iraq">17% of all </a>deaths of U.S. military personnel during the Iraq War. As Iraq War veteran Jesse Kelly <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1212916676167122944">tweeted</a>, &#8220;If you’ve been to a VA hospital in recent years and seen a young man missing limbs, there’s a reasonable chance Qasem Soleimani is responsible for it.&#8221;
Qassem Soleimani was a monstrous thug. In addition to the hundreds of Americans killed in Iraq via Iranian-supplied roadside IEDs, Soleimani personally oversaw the jihad-led destabilization of all nations within Tehran&#8217;s coveted <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/09/03/the-shiite-crescent-and-regional-disaster/">&#8220;Shiite crescent&#8221;</a> of desired regional hegemony. He likely is responsible, on net, for tens of thousands of deaths. He was a relentless and unceasing foe of Western civilization, more broadly, though he held a special disdain for the mullahs&#8217; &#8220;Little Satan&#8221; of Israel and &#8220;Great Satan&#8221; of the United States.
Totalitarian regimes the world over crave Obama administration-style trepidation and appeasement. Sharks, alas, are always on the prowl for bloodletting weaklings. But it takes righteousness to refuse to be cowed by revanchist thuggery; it takes resolve to stake one&#8217;s ground; and it takes willpower to defend one&#8217;s carefully calibrated <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/death-iranian-gen-soleimani-long-overdue-justice/">strategic interests</a>.
The only travesty here is that Qassem Soleimani was not taken out sooner. The president of the United States deserves kudos for having the courage to execute this strike. America and her allies are today safer and stronger for it. A small portion of justice has been served, and there is no more deserving target of that rough justice than mastermind Iranian jihadist Qassem Soleimani.

HAMMER: The Just And Proper Strike Of Mastermind Iranian Jihadist Qassem Soleimani

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