The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
Featuring:
There Will Always Be War
Alan Caruba
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
THREAT MATRIX…
“When Secretary of State Hanoi John Kerry decided to try to put the threat from ISIS into perspective in congressional testimony, he raised some eyebrows in the intelligence community. Hanoi Kerry told lawmakers, ‘Our citizens, our world today, is actually, despite ISIL, despite the visible killings that you see and how horrific they are, we are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally; less deaths, less violent deaths today, than through the last century.’
That prompted a quick response from lawmakers and from inside the intelligence community. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President nObama told Fox News, ‘Secretary Hanoi Kerry is out of touch with reality, he clearly is not listening to the entire U.S. intelligence community, he is not reading any of the intelligence or other things that have been written over the last few weeks, months, years. …[ F]or him to make those statements is totally irresponsible and he should be challenged by anyone who cares about the future of this country.’ Hanoi Kerry’s comments appear to be part of a pattern. The president, for example, recently told Vox that he believed the media was hyping the threat from terrorists.
But we have a reminder today about the relentless enemy we face. It was on this day 22 years ago that terrorists detonated a truck bomb in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. It killed six Americans and injuring hundreds more, but it didn't have the intended effect of bringing down the tower. Eight years later, though, the terrorists would not only accomplish that goal, but bring down both towers in the most audacious attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.
The administration’s assurances would be comforting if true. But the people we talk to in and around the intelligence community – the people who actually analyze the data – see things very differently. They see a threat matrix exponentially more deadly than it was 22 years ago today.” – Bret Baier. -Fox News
“When Secretary of State Hanoi John Kerry decided to try to put the threat from ISIS into perspective in congressional testimony, he raised some eyebrows in the intelligence community. Hanoi Kerry told lawmakers, ‘Our citizens, our world today, is actually, despite ISIL, despite the visible killings that you see and how horrific they are, we are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally; less deaths, less violent deaths today, than through the last century.’
That prompted a quick response from lawmakers and from inside the intelligence community. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President nObama told Fox News, ‘Secretary Hanoi Kerry is out of touch with reality, he clearly is not listening to the entire U.S. intelligence community, he is not reading any of the intelligence or other things that have been written over the last few weeks, months, years. …[ F]or him to make those statements is totally irresponsible and he should be challenged by anyone who cares about the future of this country.’ Hanoi Kerry’s comments appear to be part of a pattern. The president, for example, recently told Vox that he believed the media was hyping the threat from terrorists.
But we have a reminder today about the relentless enemy we face. It was on this day 22 years ago that terrorists detonated a truck bomb in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. It killed six Americans and injuring hundreds more, but it didn't have the intended effect of bringing down the tower. Eight years later, though, the terrorists would not only accomplish that goal, but bring down both towers in the most audacious attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.
The administration’s assurances would be comforting if true. But the people we talk to in and around the intelligence community – the people who actually analyze the data – see things very differently. They see a threat matrix exponentially more deadly than it was 22 years ago today.” – Bret Baier. -Fox News
The Judge’s Ruling - Citing challenges to the protection against unreasonable search and seizure provided by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano ponders the notion of a government fearful of freedom: “What if invading our freedoms keeps us less safe? What if the president has failed to keep our freedoms safe? What if the government doesn’t like freedoms? What if the government is afraid we will exercise them?” -Fox News
nOBAMA VOWS ‘AGGRESSIVE’ RESPONSE ON COURT DEFEAT FOR AMNESTY: ‘THIS IS JUST ONE JUDGE’
The Hill: “Participating in a town hall-style immigration forum in Miami, [President nObama] said a recent ruling against his new immigration policies by a federal judge in Texas was wrongly decided and promised to use all his legal options to ensure the new programs are ultimately adopted. ‘This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can,’ nObama said during the event at Florida International University, hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo, the Spanish-language media giant. ‘I’m using all of the legal power vested in me in order to solve this problem.’” -Fox News
The Hill: “Participating in a town hall-style immigration forum in Miami, [President nObama] said a recent ruling against his new immigration policies by a federal judge in Texas was wrongly decided and promised to use all his legal options to ensure the new programs are ultimately adopted. ‘This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can,’ nObama said during the event at Florida International University, hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo, the Spanish-language media giant. ‘I’m using all of the legal power vested in me in order to solve this problem.’” -Fox News
Denied using immigration for a political advantage - Rejecting accusations that he failed to push through immigration reform when Democrats controlled Congress, President nObama blamed Republicans, then and now, and seemed a perturbed when asked if both parties are playing “political ping pong” with immigration. “That’s just not true,” nObama said. “Democrats have consistently stood on the side of comprehensive immigration reform.” “You do a disservice when you suggest that, Ah, nobody was focused on this," the president added. “Because then you don't know who's fighting for you and who's fighting against you.” -Fox News
Homeland funding fight will return to House - WaPo: “The Senate voted Wednesday to move ahead with a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security after Democratic leaders dropped an earlier pledge to block it unless they get assurances from House Republican leaders that it would pass their chamber. The bill advanced on a procedural vote by a 98-2 margin. The only dissenters were Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) Final passage could come before Friday when current funding will run out at DHS. ‘We're going to do everything we can to make sure it passes by an overwhelming vote,’ Senate Minority Leader dinky Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters. He said he looked forward to working with Republicans "in the next 24 hours" to get this done. Even if the bill clears the Senate, it's unclear how the House will respond.” -Fox News
REID AGREES TO MEET WITH BIBI
The Hill: “Senate leaders from both parties will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C., next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader dinky Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will meet with Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon, after his address to a joint session of Congress on the Iranian nuclear threat. On Wednesday, Netanyahu declined an invitation to meet only with Senate Democrats, fearing it would ‘compound the misperception of partisanship’ surrounding his visit. The bipartisan invite comes amid rising tension between the nObama administration and Netanyahu.”
The Hill: “Senate leaders from both parties will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C., next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader dinky Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will meet with Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon, after his address to a joint session of Congress on the Iranian nuclear threat. On Wednesday, Netanyahu declined an invitation to meet only with Senate Democrats, fearing it would ‘compound the misperception of partisanship’ surrounding his visit. The bipartisan invite comes amid rising tension between the nObama administration and Netanyahu.”
-Fox News
1.
Megyn Kelly Played This Video from George W. Bush
(Matthew Burke) - On FOX News’ The Kelly File on Thursday, host Megyn Kelly played an eerily prophetic, timely, and applicable video from George W. Bush in 2007 warning about the consequences of pulling out of Iraq too early (WATCH VIDEO BELOW)...Bush was roundly criticized for the comments at the time, but considering the horrific events in the Middle East excalating while nObama works on lowering his golf handicap, Bush’s words have even deeper impact. http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/05/megyn-kelly-played-this-video-from-george-w-bush-and-liberal-heads-are-exploding/
2.
MAJOR U.S. Company Bows to Shariah Law
(tpnn.com) - The United Stated is in a moment of crisis. While we have a longstanding history of religious tolerance and allowing for the free and open worship of all faiths, it would be less-than-truthful to claim that the United States is not engulfed in a cultural war surrounding religion...As the nObama Administration cracks-down on Christian institutions and principles while citing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as their supposed justification, the nObama Administration conspicuously coddles the religion of Islam in order to display a sort of tolerance to Muslims strictly denied to Christians. http://www.tpnn.com/2014/11/01/major-u-s-company-bows-to-shariah-law/
3.
Taliban Suicide Bomber Strikes NATO Diplomatic Convoy in Kabul
(Bill Roggio) - The Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into the NATO convoy as it traveled in the Wazir Akbar Khan area, a neighborhood in the Afghan capital which hosts foreign embassies, a NATO base, and other sensitive installations...The attack took place “shortly after 8:00 am, not far from the Iranian embassy,” a senior Afghan interior ministry official told Ariana News. Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, NATO’s new command in the country, confirmed that one “service member died as a result of an attack in Kabul today.” But “the NATO Senior Civilian Representative,” who previously was Turkey’s ambassador to Afghanistan, “was not involved and is unharmed.” http://defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/bill-roggio-taliban-suicide-bomber-strikes-nato-diplomatic-convoy-in-kabul/
4.
Famous PC Maker Exposed in Shocking Scandal
(Greg Miller) - Another day… another appalling spying scandal. One that would even shock infamous whistleblowers, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. But we’re not talking about the government skimming through a few emails or phone records, or snapping your photo with a surveillance camera and adding you to a database...This was an egregious act of corporate larceny perpetrated by one of the world’s biggest companies. Think of Lenovo (LNVGY), and you probably picture a company renowned for designing and manufacturing personal computers. And you’d be absolutely right. The Chinese firm is the biggest PC manufacturer in the world. But there’s a dark side to the company, too. http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/02/27/lenovo-superfish/
5.
Fines Remain Rare Even As Health Data Breaches Multiply
(Charles Ornstein) - In a string of meetings and press releases, the federal government’s health watchdogs have delivered a stern message: They are cracking down on insurers, hospitals and doctors offices that don’t adequately protect the security and privacy of medical records... “We’ve now moved into an area of more assertive enforcement,” Leon Rodriguez, then-director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, warned at a privacy and security forum in December 2012. But as breaches of patient records proliferate – just this month, insurer Anthem revealed a hack that exposed information for nearly 80 million people – federal overseers have seldom penalized the health care organizations responsible for safeguarding this data, a ProPublica review shows.
6.
Kurdish Fighters Seize Key Islamic State Stronghold in Syria
(voanews.com) - Kurdish fighters say they have "liberated" a northeastern Syrian town that has been a key stronghold of Islamic State militants...A spokesperson for the People's Protection Units, or YPG, confirmed to VOA that the Kurdish fighters had seized the city of Tal Hamis, in Hassakeh province. “This victory is a huge blow for IS terrorists because they orchestrated their attacks against Qamishli and other Kurdish cities in Syria and Sinjar region in Iraq from this city," he told VOA's Kurdish service. "In this operation a significant number of local Arab forces also helped them because people came to realize that there is no future under this terrorist organization." http://www.voanews.com/content/kurdish-fighters-seize-key-islamic-state-stronghold/2661793.html
7.
Empowering Jihad: The Deadly Myth of a 'Root Cause'
(Phyllis Chesler) - Reports that "Jihadi John," the British-accented narrator of ISIS snuff videos, is Mohammed Emwazi — an educated young man from a middle-class background — ought to put the final stake in the pretense that poverty and a lack of education and opportunity fuel Islamist hate. This mistaken idea seems to be nObama administration policy...Marie Harf, the US Department of State deputy spokesperson, recently said: "We cannot win this war by killing jihadists. We need to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it is lack of opportunity for jobs. . . We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people." Of course, the news about "Jihadi John" is only the latest evidence to the contrary. These terrorists are often well educated and even wealthy. Osama bin Laden certainly was. http://www.meforum.org/5059/jihad-root-cause-myth
8.
In Plain Sight: A National Security “Smoking Gun”
(Terresa Monroe-Hamilton) - The first article of the Betrayal Papers asserted that the Muslim Brotherhood was not only influential in the United States government, but in fact dominated the administration of President Barack Hussein nObama...This article will name several key people who were or are in the nObama administration and who have various, documented associations with organizations which are directly tied to and/or funded by the Muslim Brotherhood and the State of Qatar (home to Brotherhood’s Spiritual Leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi). These individuals have helped dictate national security policies that have crippled counterterrorism efforts at home and abroad. http://www.trevorloudon.com/2015/02/betrayal-papers-part-2-in-plain-sight-a-national-security-smoking-gun/
9.
Stopgap DHS funding bill fails in House
(foxnews.com) - A stopgap bill to keep money flowing to the Homeland Security Department past a midnight deadline failed in the House late Friday, in a surprise turn of events that again raises the possibility of a partial agency shutdown...The vote was 224-203 against the measure, as 52 Republicans defected and joined Democrats in opposing the leadership-backed legislation. The first group was upset because the legislation had been stripped of changes to President nObama's immigration policy, and the second because it lacked full-year funding for the sprawling department. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/27/congress-prepares-to-punt-amid-impasse-on-dhs-funding/
10.
During his lifetime, Ali, Mohammad’s son-in-law, was the leader of the Arab forces. As noted in Samuel Willard Crompton’s ‘The Handy Military History Answer Book’, by the time the Arabs fought the Byzantines and the Persians they had also initiated the great split that remains today between the Sunnis and the Shiites.” Shiite means “follower of Ali.” The Sunnis wanted to elect their own caliph. 
Islamist Terrorists Are In America, Mexico Partially Responsible
(rickwells.us) - Neil Cavuto references a sixty-eight page report which was just issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety which states that not only are illegal aliens with terrorist ties currently crossing into the United States unchecked, they have been doing so for quite a long time...Lt Col Tony Shaffer agrees with the report and notes that this is information known to the federal government as well. He also notes that al-Shabaab, the terrorist organization that has threatened the Mall of America has conducted a similar operation in Kenya, adding credibility to their threats. Shaffer points out that FBI director James Comey has already stated that we are tracking about 200 suspected terrorists, with suspects in every state of the Union. He asks, “What about the 1,000 to 2,000 we’re not tracking who have come through the border?” He reiterates his point, “We know they’re coming through. We know we’re not detecting them.” http://www.rickwells.us/islamist-terrorists-are-in-america-mexico-partially-responsible-is-military-action-against-mexico-part-of-the-solution/
There Will Always Be War
Alan Caruba
(factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com) - We begin with the reality that the United States and many other nations are at war with militant Islamists. They are a growing army of religious zealots murdering Christians, Jews, others who are not Muslim, and even other Muslims.
In my youth America knew how to win wars. In Europe it bombed Germany into submission, leading its allies in an invasion that left Germany divided for decades until the Soviet Union collapsed. In Asia Truman dropped two atomic bombs on Japan because they didn’t get the message when Hiroshima was destroyed on August 6, 1945. It took a second bomb on Nagasaki on August 9 to bring about Japan’s surrender.
Millions died in World War II but the alternative would have been the loss of freedom for millions worldwide.
If one spends any time learning history, the primary lesson is that war has been a constant factor from the beginning of what we call civilization about five thousand years ago.
The Bronze Age introduced new weapons that gave the residents of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East a distinct advantage over invading nomadic people, but the invaders introduced chariots and it took the Egyptians and Babylonians a while to catch up. War has always been about new, more lethal weaponry.
Why would we be surprised to learn that the Assyrians who originated in what is now northern Iraq or the Islamic State (ISIS) were the most violent and bloodthirsty of the ancient world’s peoples? Known to all their neighbors by 1300 B.C.E., their army become a source of terror for the Middle East during the ninth century. They destroyed the Kingdom of Israel around 732 B.C.E., but the southern part of the Kingdom of Judah survived. In time the Babylonians would defeat the Assyrians.
Not all wars involved religion. The Greeks fought each other and then fought the Persians. Alexander the Great, a Macedonian, loved waging war and was very successful. The constant factor, however, was war and, of course, Rome would become the greatest empire of its time, beginning around 509 B.C.E., fighting three Punic wars with Carthage, but losing an estimated 400,000 in the first war and 150,000 in the second.
Eventually, Rome was so powerful it imposed a “Pax Romana” on the entire Mediterranean area it controlled. In time, Rome would be destroyed by the “barbarians”, Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoth’s, and Burgundians. By 476 C.E., the Roman Empire was history.
After establishing a group of followers in the Arabian Peninsula as the “last prophet”, proclaiming Islam as the one, true faith, Muhammad died in 632 C.E. Within ten years, the Arabs had conquered Jerusalem and were taking aim at Damascus and Cairo. Baghdad and the Libyan Desert were the next to be conquered. They moved on to Spain and Central Asia.
During his lifetime, Ali, Mohammad’s son-in-law, was the leader of the Arab forces. As noted in Samuel Willard Crompton’s ‘The Handy Military History Answer Book’, by the time the Arabs fought the Byzantines and the Persians they had also initiated the great split that remains today between the Sunnis and the Shiites.” Shiite means “follower of Ali.” The Sunnis wanted to elect their own caliph. After taking the southern half of Spain, the Muslim army was poised to take all of Europe, but their 732 C.E. defeat in the Battle of Tours put an end to further expansion. Their momentum in Asia was stopped in 751 C.E. with a defeat in the Battle of Talas. As Crompton notes, “in the century that followed the Prophet’s death, the Arabs took over ninety percent of all the urban centers in the Western world, and their conquests equaled those of ancient Rome.”
The Crusades
Which brings us to the first Crusade; it began when Pope Urban II in 1095 told a gathering of 10,000, mostly French and German knights, that a “new accursed group”, the Muslims, had taken control of the holy land were preventing pilgrims from visiting holy sites. The knights responded to his call to liberate Jerusalem by chanting “Deus Volt! Deus Volt!”—God wills it.
They were joined by a “Peasants Crusade” between 1095 and 1096. By June 1099 the knights arrived outside Jerusalem and what followed was a wholesale murder of everyone there. In 1185, Saladin, the emir of Cairo and Lord of Damascus, proclaimed a jihad—a holy war—against the Christians in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The knights defending it were defeated.
A Second Crusade followed in 1147 C.E. but accomplished little and the Third Crusade had the same result. A Fourth Crusade resulted in the Europeans taking control of Constantinople in August 1204 C.E. They would rule it for the next fifty years. Years later, in 1489, a war drove the Muslims from Spain.
The spokeswoman from our Department of State who said that the present generation of Muslim holy warriors can’t all be killed doesn’t know that this is the way wars are won. You kill the enemy until the enemy decides that dying for their cause is not worth it.
If ISIS is insane enough to bring the war to our homeland (and even if it doesn’t), a war of total destruction will be the only way to end the present conflict. Currently, the Jordanians and the Egyptians are doing what they can to resist ISIS, but recent polls confirm that Americans are beginning to conclude that our active boots-on-the-ground participation is the only way this will end.
nObama is merely going through the motions of conducting a war against ISIS, but retired generals and diplomats have told Congress that only full-scale war will end the threat they represent.
Meanwhile, ISIS is committing genocide against the Christians of the Middle East while Boko Haram is doing the same in Africa. Hezbollah would do the same against Israel if it could. Given nuclear arms, Iran will assert control over all of the Muslim warriors, threatening both Israel and the U.S.
Our next President will have to commit to destroying ISIS. There is no alternative. That is history’s primary lesson.
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