Podcasts about aqap

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Best podcasts about aqap

Latest podcast episodes about aqap

The John Batchelor Show
1/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2024 11:45


1/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/08/generation-jihad-ep-201-new-un-report-on-jihadi-threat-in-africa-asia-and-the-middle-east.php 1870 Damascus

The John Batchelor Show
2/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2024 6:05


2/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/08/generation-jihad-ep-201-new-un-report-on-jihadi-threat-in-africa-asia-and-the-middle-east.php 1898 Damascus

The John Batchelor Show
GOOD EVENING: TThe show begins tonight in Somalia...the Afghanization of Somlia.....

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2024 7:21


GOOD EVENING: TThe show begins tonight in Somalia...the Afghanization of Somlia..... 1932 stamp CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR FIRST HOUR 9-915 1/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/08/generation-jihad-ep-201-new-un-report-on-jihadi-threat-in-africa-asia-and-the-middle-east.php 915-930 2/2: #Jihadists: Somalia, AQAP, Syria. Bill Roggio, FDD, Husain Haqqani, Hudson https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/08/generation-jihad-ep-201-new-un-report-on-jihadi-threat-in-africa-asia-and-the-middle-east.php 930-945 #UKRAINE: Kursk Salient. The Russia Offensive. John Hardie, FDD. Bill Roggio, FDD.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-aims-to-create-kursk-buffer-zone-zelensky-says-as-kyiv-s-forces-blow-up-second-russian-bridge/ar-AA1p0lYp 945-1000 #UKRAINE: Kursk Salient The Russia Offensive. John Hardie, FDD. Bill Roggio, FDD.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-aims-to-create-kursk-buffer-zone-zelensky-says-as-kyiv-s-forces-blow-up-second-russian-bridge/ar-AA1p0lYp SECOND HOUR 10-1015 #IRAN; Why not bomb the oilfields? Malcolm Hoenlein @Conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1@ThadMcCotter @theamgreatness 1015-1030 #INDIANA HOENLEIN: And the Lost 1500 year old pyx in Austria. Malcolm Hoenlein @Conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1@ThadMcCotter @theamgreatness https://www.yahoo.com/news/military-experts-suggest-iran-may-100008421.html 1030-1045 #HEZBOLLAH: Raining drones day and specially night with 15 second too the shelter,. David Daoud, FDD Bill Roggio, FDD https://www.timesofisrael.com/soldier-killed-another-seriously-hurt-in-hezbollah-drone-attack-on-western-galilee/ 1045-1100 #HAMAS: Suicide bomber in Tel Aviv, David Daoud, Bill Roggio, FDD https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hamas-claims-attempted-suicide-bombing-as-cease-fire-diplomacy-resumes/ar-AA1p3BsH THIRD HOUR 1100-1115 1/4: Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America by  Charles Gasparino  (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Go-Woke-Broke-Radicalization-Corporate/dp/1546007415/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= How did a bunch of rich dudes who run corporate America become the tools of left-wing radicals? Intimidated by activists on the left, virtually every major corporation in America has embraced woke politics. For years, these businesses could get away with progressive virtual signaling without worrying about alienating customers. Then the anti-woke counter-offensive movement arrived. As high-profile, disastrous backlashes at companies like Anheuser-Busch, Disney, Target and other companies reveal, companies who cave to the demands of left-wing social justice activists are being punished like never before. Customers are fighting back and taking their money elsewhere.   In Go Woke, Go Broke, New York Times bestselling author and veteran financial journalist Charles Gasparino calls out the nonsense and takes readers inside the radicalization of corporate America, based on numerous insider interviews and exclusive reporting.  The story is wilder than you can imagine. Gasparino introduces readers to America's most woke corporate leaders, tracing the origins of ESG and "stakeholder investing.” He takes readers along on for a rollicking ride through corporate America as he shines a light, unlike anyone else, on Fortune 500 companies that have suffered for caving to the silly and irresponsible demands of social justice activists and left-wing interests.   A respected financial reporter who has covered finance for more than 30 years, Gasparino is deeply sourced and has dug into countless episodes involving Wall Street greed, corporate hubris, and government overreach in enterprise. This explosive, untold story and in-depth examination of the seminal players, institutions, and forces of the markets shows that, for the sake of global stability, we must immediately pry the clenched fists of radical activists off the levers of the economy. Read less 1115-1130 2/4: Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America by  Charles Gasparino  (Author) 1130-1145 3/4: Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America by  Charles Gasparino  (Author) 1145-1200 4/4: Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America by  Charles Gasparino  (Author) FOURTH HOUR 12-1215 #NewWorldReport: The Tri Border and peril. Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc. Ernesto Araujo, Former Foreign Minister Republic of Brazil. #NewWorldReportHumire https://www.barrons.com/news/paraguayan-lawmaker-killed-in-shootout-with-drug-agents-police-8764b12d 1215-1230 #NewWorldReport:  No New Election for now.  Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc. Ernesto Araujo, Former Foreign Minister Republic of Brazil. #NewWorldReportHumire https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/amid-calls-for-new-elections-in-venezuela-opposition-weighs-next-move/ar-AA1oSz5J 1230-1245 #JAPAN: Kishida to step away. Lance Gatling, Nexial Research. @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill https://www.ft.com/content/12fbc532-2236-4e36-8991-34d7035e21fe 1245-100 am #CANA: Censorship by any Ottawa name. Charles Burton, Sinopsis. @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill https://www.tftc.io/canada-bill-c63-life-imprisonment-speech-crimes/

The John Batchelor Show
#AlQAEDA: AQAP names a new Emir. Bill Roggio, @LongWarJournal @FDD

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2024 10:25


#AlQAEDA: AQAP names a new Emir. Bill Roggio, @LongWarJournal @FDD  https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/03/al-qaeda-in-the-arabian-peninsula-names-new-emir-u-s-has-6-million-bounty-on-his-head.php 1800 Yemen

The John Batchelor Show
GOOD EVENING: The show begins at Kfar Aza kibbutz in Israel, where the survivors of October 7 begin the rebuilding. Then to Tel Aviv. To SOU with Cliff May; to Oakistan borderland with Arif Rafiq. To Gaza, to Phonecian Tyre, to Melbourne. To Yemen and

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2024 6:05


GOOD EVENiNG: The show begins at Kfar Aza kibbutz in Israel, where the survivors of October 7 begin the rebuilding. Then to Tel Aviv.  To SOU with Cliff May; to Oakistan borderland with Arif Rafiq.  To Gaza, to Phonecian Tyre, to Melbourne.  To Yemen and the new emir of AQAP, to Kabul and the Taliban.  To Central Asia, to Moscow, to Brasilia, Lima, El Paso, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Guatemala City. 1928 Brazil

The John Batchelor Show
PREVIEW: #ALQAEDA: #AQAP: Conversation with Bill Roggio, of @LongWarJournal @FDD, re the new emir of the lethal AQAP branch of Al Qaeda -- and the history of the group now secure from battle in the broken Yemen. More later.

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2024 3:22


PREVIEW: #ALQAEDA: #AQAP: Conversation with Bill Roggio, of @LongWarJournal @FDD, re the new emir of the lethal AQAP branch of Al Qaeda -- and the history of the group now secure from battle in the broken Yemen.  More later.   1939 Yemen

Hírstart Robot Podcast
Volf-Nagy Tünde úgy kérdezte Orbánt Sulyokról, hogy korábban Novák elnöki stábjának egyik vezetője volt

Hírstart Robot Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 4:12


Volf-Nagy Tünde úgy kérdezte Orbánt Sulyokról, hogy korábban Novák elnöki stábjának egyik vezetője volt Telex     2024-03-10 22:41:18     Belföld Interjú Ő volt az exelnök első kommunikációs vezetője, de korábban gyakran ő csinálta az Orbán-interjúkat a Kossuth Rádióban és az M1-en is. Új világ az utánvétes webshopos rendeléseknél 24.hu     2024-03-11 06:00:33     Gazdaság Webáruház Összefogtak a webáruházak: kiszűrik azokat a vevőket, akik jelzés nélkül nem veszik át utánvétes csomagjaikat. Ők a jövőben csak előre fizethetnek. Fogós kérdések az állampapírokról, amiket sohasem mert feltenni Privátbankár     2024-03-11 05:43:00     Gazdaság Infláció Állampapír Alapkérdések, amelyeket a kisbefektetők feltesznek maguknak, de senki sem meri megválaszolni. Hogyan védekezhetünk az infláció ellen? Miért pont állampapírt vegyek? Ha igen, mégis melyiket és hol? Nem kéne inkább eurót vásárolni? Esetleg dollárt vagy aranyat? Mi lesz, ha…? Oscar-díjat nyert Mihalek Zsuzsa vg.hu     2024-03-11 01:42:31     Gazdaság Elismerés Díjátadó Oscar-díj A Szegény párák berendezője nem volt ott a díjátadó gálán, kollégái vették át a nevében a legrangosabb filmes elismerést. Felvásárlással tör előre a digitális bank Fintech     2024-03-11 05:05:00     Modern Gazdaság A neobankok megítélése újra felívelőben, és a pozitív közvéleményt csak erősíti a Qonto, amely bejelentett egy felvásárlást. Csontváry egy külön ügy – de lesz-e jobb befektetés, mint a bitcoin? Forbes     2024-03-11 06:24:04     Cégvilág Infláció Válság Kriptovaluta Virtuális pénz Bitcoin Műtárgy Az infláció hogyan hatott a műtárgypiacra, van-e elég klasszikus a piacon és mi nyomja fel egy festmény árát? Kelen Annával beszéltük át, hogy változott a műtárgypiac az elmúlt évek bizonytalanságai és válságai közepette. Az Arab-félsziget al-Kaida vezetőjének haláláról tettek bejelentést Magyar Hírlap     2024-03-10 23:11:52     Külföld Jemen Batarfit 2020 elején nevezték ki az AQAP élére, miután az Egyesült Államok egy jemeni terrorelhárító műveletben megölte elődjét. Kovács Gergely és Döme Zsuzsanna lemondtak Kétfarkú Kutya Párt vezetéséről rtl.hu     2024-03-10 23:26:38     Belföld Telex Kétfarkú Kutya Párt Kovács Gergely és Döme Zsuzsanna lemondanak a Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt társelnöki posztjairól, tudta meg a Telex. Az értesülést Kovács Gergely is megerősítette a lapnak. A Vinted egy fullos hely, de megérkeztek a trash arcok Noizz     2024-03-11 06:01:00     Életmód Cipő A Vinted egy elképesztően hasznos platform: megválhatsz a használt vagy sosem hordott ruháidtól; eladhatod a cipőidet, táskáidat, könyveidet, játékaidat; vagy vásárolhatsz belőlük a bolti ár töredékéért. De ahogy minden platformon, itt is megjelentek a furcsa felhasználók, akik a legbizarrabb hirdetésekkel töltik meg az applikációt. Megkezdődött a Ramadán Gázában és Izraelben Euronews     2024-03-11 06:17:38     Külföld háború Izrael Gázai övezet Az izraeli háborús kabinet minisztere, Benny Gantz azt mondta, országa nem az iszlám ellen harcol, hanem azok ellen, akik sértik az iszlám értékeket. A Liverpool legjobbja, mint Chuck Norris: egy lenyűgöző statisztika Magyar Nemzet     2024-03-11 04:47:18     Sport Liverpool Premier League Chuck Norris Van Dijk a Premier League-ben legutóbb januárban veszített fejpárbajt, és 25-nél tart a nyerő szériája. A Roma nagy góllal mentett pontot a 95. percben Rangadó     2024-03-11 03:35:39     Foci USA Cigányság Christian Pulisic Jól ment az amerikai játékosoknak, Pulisic és McKennie is főszerepet játszott csapata meccsén. Nagy esők jönnek Kiderül     2024-03-11 05:23:51     Időjárás Csapadék Egyre enyhébb, de nedvesebb levegő áramlik a Kárpát-medencébe, ezért a héten helyenként nagyobb mennyiségű csapadék is hullhat. A hét második felében csökkennek csak a csapadékesélyek. A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon.

Hírstart Robot Podcast - Friss hírek
Volf-Nagy Tünde úgy kérdezte Orbánt Sulyokról, hogy korábban Novák elnöki stábjának egyik vezetője volt

Hírstart Robot Podcast - Friss hírek

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2024 4:12


Volf-Nagy Tünde úgy kérdezte Orbánt Sulyokról, hogy korábban Novák elnöki stábjának egyik vezetője volt Telex     2024-03-10 22:41:18     Belföld Interjú Ő volt az exelnök első kommunikációs vezetője, de korábban gyakran ő csinálta az Orbán-interjúkat a Kossuth Rádióban és az M1-en is. Új világ az utánvétes webshopos rendeléseknél 24.hu     2024-03-11 06:00:33     Gazdaság Webáruház Összefogtak a webáruházak: kiszűrik azokat a vevőket, akik jelzés nélkül nem veszik át utánvétes csomagjaikat. Ők a jövőben csak előre fizethetnek. Fogós kérdések az állampapírokról, amiket sohasem mert feltenni Privátbankár     2024-03-11 05:43:00     Gazdaság Infláció Állampapír Alapkérdések, amelyeket a kisbefektetők feltesznek maguknak, de senki sem meri megválaszolni. Hogyan védekezhetünk az infláció ellen? Miért pont állampapírt vegyek? Ha igen, mégis melyiket és hol? Nem kéne inkább eurót vásárolni? Esetleg dollárt vagy aranyat? Mi lesz, ha…? Oscar-díjat nyert Mihalek Zsuzsa vg.hu     2024-03-11 01:42:31     Gazdaság Elismerés Díjátadó Oscar-díj A Szegény párák berendezője nem volt ott a díjátadó gálán, kollégái vették át a nevében a legrangosabb filmes elismerést. Felvásárlással tör előre a digitális bank Fintech     2024-03-11 05:05:00     Modern Gazdaság A neobankok megítélése újra felívelőben, és a pozitív közvéleményt csak erősíti a Qonto, amely bejelentett egy felvásárlást. Csontváry egy külön ügy – de lesz-e jobb befektetés, mint a bitcoin? Forbes     2024-03-11 06:24:04     Cégvilág Infláció Válság Kriptovaluta Virtuális pénz Bitcoin Műtárgy Az infláció hogyan hatott a műtárgypiacra, van-e elég klasszikus a piacon és mi nyomja fel egy festmény árát? Kelen Annával beszéltük át, hogy változott a műtárgypiac az elmúlt évek bizonytalanságai és válságai közepette. Az Arab-félsziget al-Kaida vezetőjének haláláról tettek bejelentést Magyar Hírlap     2024-03-10 23:11:52     Külföld Jemen Batarfit 2020 elején nevezték ki az AQAP élére, miután az Egyesült Államok egy jemeni terrorelhárító műveletben megölte elődjét. Kovács Gergely és Döme Zsuzsanna lemondtak Kétfarkú Kutya Párt vezetéséről rtl.hu     2024-03-10 23:26:38     Belföld Telex Kétfarkú Kutya Párt Kovács Gergely és Döme Zsuzsanna lemondanak a Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt társelnöki posztjairól, tudta meg a Telex. Az értesülést Kovács Gergely is megerősítette a lapnak. A Vinted egy fullos hely, de megérkeztek a trash arcok Noizz     2024-03-11 06:01:00     Életmód Cipő A Vinted egy elképesztően hasznos platform: megválhatsz a használt vagy sosem hordott ruháidtól; eladhatod a cipőidet, táskáidat, könyveidet, játékaidat; vagy vásárolhatsz belőlük a bolti ár töredékéért. De ahogy minden platformon, itt is megjelentek a furcsa felhasználók, akik a legbizarrabb hirdetésekkel töltik meg az applikációt. Megkezdődött a Ramadán Gázában és Izraelben Euronews     2024-03-11 06:17:38     Külföld háború Izrael Gázai övezet Az izraeli háborús kabinet minisztere, Benny Gantz azt mondta, országa nem az iszlám ellen harcol, hanem azok ellen, akik sértik az iszlám értékeket. A Liverpool legjobbja, mint Chuck Norris: egy lenyűgöző statisztika Magyar Nemzet     2024-03-11 04:47:18     Sport Liverpool Premier League Chuck Norris Van Dijk a Premier League-ben legutóbb januárban veszített fejpárbajt, és 25-nél tart a nyerő szériája. A Roma nagy góllal mentett pontot a 95. percben Rangadó     2024-03-11 03:35:39     Foci USA Cigányság Christian Pulisic Jól ment az amerikai játékosoknak, Pulisic és McKennie is főszerepet játszott csapata meccsén. Nagy esők jönnek Kiderül     2024-03-11 05:23:51     Időjárás Csapadék Egyre enyhébb, de nedvesebb levegő áramlik a Kárpát-medencébe, ezért a héten helyenként nagyobb mennyiségű csapadék is hullhat. A hét második felében csökkennek csak a csapadékesélyek. A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon.

Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews
5/11/23 Joziah Thayer on AQAP's Standing in Yemen

Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2023 26:53


Joziah Thayer joins to show to discuss some of the work he's done digging into the many factions and groups within Yemen and the foreign powers working to pull their strings. Scott and Thayer drill in on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, and explore how the group's standing in Yemen has changed and how the country is likely to evolve going forward. Discussed on the show: “The CIA, AQAP, and the Never-Ending Excuse to Bomb Yemen” (WEDA Coalition) “How the IMF & World Bank Destroyed Yemen” (WEDA Coalition) Joziah Thayer is a researcher with the Pursuance Project. He founded WEDA in 2014 to combat mainstream media narratives. He is also an antiwar activist and the online organizer behind #OpYemen. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Libertarian Institute - All Podcasts
5/11/23 Joziah Thayer on AQAP's Standing in Yemen

The Libertarian Institute - All Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2023 26:38


 Download Episode. Joziah Thayer joins to show to discuss some of the work he's done digging into the many factions and groups within Yemen and the foreign powers working to pull their strings. Scott and Thayer drill in on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, and explore how the group's standing in Yemen has changed and how the country is likely to evolve going forward. Discussed on the show: “The CIA, AQAP, and the Never-Ending Excuse to Bomb Yemen” (WEDA Coalition) “How the IMF & World Bank Destroyed Yemen” (WEDA Coalition) Joziah Thayer is a researcher with the Pursuance Project. He founded WEDA in 2014 to combat mainstream media narratives. He is also an antiwar activist and the online organizer behind #OpYemen. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY

I SAID WHAT I SAID - WHY ARE YOU RUNNING
The United States lent its support to Saleh al-Qaeda in Yemen, a group that would later become AQAP, conducted a suicide attack on a U.S.

I SAID WHAT I SAID - WHY ARE YOU RUNNING

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2023 1:50


Tech Transforms
Unbelievable Lessons with Greg Crabb Former Chief Information Security Officer of the US Postal Service

Tech Transforms

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2022 39:24


What does it take to secure 160 million Americans privacy? Greg Crabb, former Chief Information Security Officer at US Postal Service joins Tech Transforms to talk about his experiences from his time as Projects Coordinator for International Fraud to his role in the 2020 US Presidential Election. Episode Table of Contents[00:42] Greg Crabb in the House, Founder of 10-8 Cyber [10:33] Good Guys Get Together With Greg Crabb [20:05] They Want To Do the Right Thing [29:32] Greg Crabb Had a Long, Deep, and Intense Service Episode Links and Resources Greg Crabb in the House, Founder of 10-8 CyberCarolyn: Today, our guest is a rockstar. His background just blew me away.https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorycrabb/ ( Greg Crabb), founder of 10-8 Cyber and strategic advisor to several organizations, but that doesn't even scratch the tip of the iceberg of who our guest is today. Greg: Thank you, Carolyn. I enjoy the opportunity to chat. Carolyn: You recently retired after 20 years with the US Postal Service where you wore many hats. From being a project coordinator for international fraud, assistant director of economic crimes, you ended your career as the chief information security officer and vice president of USPS. That's the very tip of the iceberg of your career. I want to kick it over to you and have you tell us your story. Greg: The mission of my life has been to protect others and drive benefits for society. I was grateful enough to have the opportunity to retire last year after 30 years of federal service. When I joined the postal service in the mid-90s, I spent the first several years of my career being an auditor. I was responsible for the old electronic data processing controls portion of the financial audit. There I learned an amazing amount of information about how computers work, mainframes, networking, and all that sort of thing. In 2000, I transitioned to spend seven years investigating the origins of Eastern European organized cyber crime. That was an amazing experience. I got the opportunity to really attack an organized crime group. It was based out of Ukraine and had splinters all over the world. I worked with Europol and Interpol, the Secret Service, the FBI, and many other organizations in between. Bigger and Better Things for Greg CrabbGreg: In about 2005, I moved to Washington to take on bigger and better things. Then in 2010, the international supply chain was attacked with some parcel bombs from AQAP. AQAP put PETN, it's the liquid explosive that we all know as why we can't carry water bottles onto airplanes. It completely changed the security model of how international supply chains work for moving parcels. I spent a number of years working with an international community of 190 countries to develop new standards. Worked with civil aviation authorities to properly secure the supply chain from a commercial aviation perspective for parcel security. In 2014, I got tapped to respond to a pretty significant breach at the US Postal Service. In that moment, I transitioned from being the law enforcement officer who was the hunter to the chief information security officer who was the hunted and responsible for an amazing network. I was grateful to provide security for 160 million delivery points, private communications, and parcels for all of America for six years. As we talked before the show, I was really grateful to have the opportunity to help protect the 2020 election. It was just an amazing collaboration with the folks at CISA and many other organizations across the country in order to pull that off.Carolyn: Can you talk about what you did to prepare for that? Talk about pressure. You'd been preparing for 20 years. Greg: I had been preparing. I wouldn't have been as successful in protecting the technology assets the postal service relied on to move 70 million ballots if I had not had those experiences. Greg Crabb Is Dealing With Eastern European Organized Cyber CrimeGreg: I've been dealing with...

The John Batchelor Show
1757: #AfterAfghanistan: AQAP speaks of victory in Afghanistan and new threats to the US. @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal HFN

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2021 15:25


Photo: Pyrrhic victory:  The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of consul Publius Valerius Laevinus, and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Although the battle was a victory for the Greeks and their casualties were lower than the Romans, they had lost many veteran soldiers that would be hard to replace on foreign soil. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow #AfterAfghanistan:  AQAP speaks of victory in Afghanistan and new threats to the US.  @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal HFN https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/10/ex-guantanamo-detainee-praises-talibans-victory-threatens-america-in-new-aqap-video.php

Arab Digest podcasts
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: down but not out

Arab Digest podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2021 30:45


Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Oxford University's Pembroke College. Though drone strikes have seen AQAP severely degraded, the ongoing war and the Taliban victory in Afghanistan reinforce the lethal threat jihadist terrorism continues to pose to the region and to the West from its base in Yemen. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
Joscelyn ‘Round the Middle East

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2021 99:15


On today’s episode, Vital Interests author and national security extraordinaire Thomas Joscelyn makes his first Remnant appearance. With a healthy supply of Hayek references on hand, Jonah seems determined to outdo the wonkiness of Brian Riedl’s visit earlier this week. Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, China, and the meaning of necrocracy are all discussed peacefully by the pair, until a certain name is mentioned; If you thought Jonah’s contempt for Woodrow Wilson was unparalleled, just wait until you hear the disdain that overtakes Tom at the mere mention of Henry Kissinger.  Show Notes: -       Tom’s journal, Long War -    Vital Interests at The Dispatch -    Just in case you happen to know Siraj Haqqani -    The history of the institutionalized form of al-Qaeda, the AQAP -    Bin Laden’s files -    Tom: “The Flawed Reasoning Behind Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal” -    Jonah: “Biden Citing the Wrong Reasons for Afghanistan Withdrawal” -    The Remnant with Bing West -    Kissinger makes WWI metaphors in regards to China -    Hitchens: “A necrocracy?” -    The Remnant with Oriana Skylar Mastro -    “The Longer Telegram,” by an anonymous official -   Lin Wells’ memo See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now is Not the Time with Ramsey Badawi
027 - The William Jefferson Clinton School for Pick Up Arts

Now is Not the Time with Ramsey Badawi

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2020 61:11


Good morning,,, The west coast kings of satire are back with a brand new episode of Worst Hour of the Week. Today, Bryan and Ramsey talk about the state of comedy after a wild week on Twitter, their teenage obsession with sperm count,elephantiasis of the nuts, Heelies and Soap Shoes, the curse of being a cool teacher in High School, the allegations against Chris D’elia, the viability of wind turbines, and we breakdown Trump’s speech in Tulsa.Peace be onto the prophet. Long live AQAP.**Support your favorite show **Join our Patreon please? It’s $5 bucks a month, you’ll love it …. www.patreon.com/whotw Follow Ramsey:www.twitter.com/ramsbadwww.instagram.com/ramsbad Follow Bryan:www.twitter.com/bryanjvokeywww.instagram.com/mrbryanvokey/ Follow Tyler, the content creator www.twitter.com/tylerguizarwww.instagram.com/tylerguizarFollow the show baby!!!!www.twitter.com/worsthourpodwww.instagram.com/worsthourpod

Now is Not the Time with Ramsey Badawi
026 - The Legend of Larry Sinclair, Renaming Military Bases, and the First Ever Babe of the Year...of the Week Award

Now is Not the Time with Ramsey Badawi

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2020 64:09


Good morning,,,On today’s episode of the Worst Hour of the Week we talk about the legend of Larry Sinclair, Orange County’s lifting of the face mask requirement, and the time Bryan tried to be a white knight in high school.And, the boys award the very first ever, Babe of the Year...of the Week Award Peace be onto the prophet. Long live AQAP.**Support your favorite show **www.twitter.com/worsthourpodwww.instagram.com/worsthourpodFollow Ramsey:www.twitter.com/ramsbadwww.instagram.com/ramsbad Follow Bryan:www.twitter.com/bryanjvokeyhttps://www.instagram.com/mrbryanvokey/ Follow Tyler, the content creator www.twitter.com/tylerguizarwww.instagram.com/tylerguizar

Generation Jihad
Ep. 3 - AQAP Names A New Emir

Generation Jihad

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2020 55:47


Hosts Bill Roggio and Tom Joscelyn profile Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) new emir, Khalid Batarfi. They explain how Batarfi came to his leadership position, what's ahead for the group's local and global operations, and what AQAP can teach us about Al Qaeda's larger structure and the ambitions of jihadist insurgencies the world over.

Midrats
Episode 521: Best of the South African Border War and its Lessons, with LT Jack McCain

Midrats

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2020 63:04


Going back three years, today's best of we look back to a forgotten corner of the Cold War.If you define the Cold War as lasting 44 years from 1947 to 1991, then for over half the Cold War there was a simmering proxy war in southern Africa that involved, to one extent or another, the present day nations of Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa.Over the course of time, it would involve nations from other hemispheres such as Cuba, and brought in to conflict two political philosophies of the 20th Century now held in disrepute in the 21st Century; Communism and Apartheid. The last decade of the Cold War brought the conflict in fresh relief as part of the Reagan administration's push back against Communist aggression in South Africa, Central America, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Acronyms such as UNITA, and SWAPO were as well known then as AQAP and Boko Haram are now.What does that relatively unknown conflict have to teach us about the nature of war today? Our guest for the full hour to explore that answer will be Lieutenant Jack McCain, USN.LT McCain is a helicopter pilot with operational experience in Guam, Japan, Brunei, the Persian Gulf, and the Western Pacific and is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is currently assigned as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. The opinions he expresses in this article are his own and represent no U.S. government or Department of Defense positions.

Sztuka biznesu - porozmawiajmy
Jak podnieść jakość zarządzania? Systemy zarządzania jakością ISO.

Sztuka biznesu - porozmawiajmy

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2019 35:06


- Do czego są potrzebne systemy zarządzania i czy przedsiębiorcy powinni się nimi zainteresować? - Jakie są największe wyzwania podczas wdrażania ISO? Na te i inne pytania odpowiada gość podcastu Leszek Maksoń, ekspert, trener, przedsiębiorca i prezes Fundacji Kubek Biznesu w Mielcu. Nasz gość zajmuje się szkoleniami, wdrażaniem i utrzymaniem systemów zarządzania wg międzynarodowych standardów ISO 9001, ISO 14001, AS 9100, AQAP 2110, HACCP i innych. Leszek Maksoń - strona www: iso-makson.pl Informacja o Śniadaniu Kubka biznesu Data: 11.12.2019 Godz. 8.00 Miejsce: Hotel Polski w Mielcu Zgłoszenia uczestnictwa: leszek.makson@gmail.com ----------------------- Music author: Kevin MacLeod Song title: Modern Jazz Samba Music from https://filmmusic.io "Modern Jazz Samba" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Managing Uncertainty, by Bryghtpath LLC
Managing Uncertainty Podcast - Episode #60: BryghtCast for the week of August 5th, 2019

Managing Uncertainty, by Bryghtpath LLC

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 21, 2019 30:14


In this episode of our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Consultant Bray Wheeler take a look at three current risks and upcoming events: Hong Kong's protests evolve into a general strike on Monday India revokes the special status of Kashmir Iran seizes yet another oil tanker in Gulf, warns of increase in nuclear tech, and the US & UK team up on maritime task force //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Bryan Strawser: Hello, and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is Brian Strawser, principal and CEO here at Bryghtpath. Bray Wheeler: Hi, this is Bray Wheeler, Consultant at Bryghtpath. Bryan Strawser: This is our BryghtCast edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, where we break down two or three interesting developments around the world and talk about what that may or could mean for the private sector and other organizations. This week we're going to start off by talking yet again about developments in the city of Hong Kong. Bray Wheeler: Again. Bryan Strawser: Hong Kong, the special administrative region of China, continues to have disruption. We've now evolved, today, we're recording this podcast on Monday, August 5th, today there was a general strike in Hong Kong that paralyzed transportation networks during rush hour, forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights, and shut down scores of business and restaurants after another chaotic weekend of protest across several parts of the city. Bryan Strawser: It's interesting now that this is evolving from protest to a general strike, which I think portends a much more difficult path for the Hong Kong government, and the Chinese government for that matter, and the demonstrators are getting more savvy. They're using tactics deliberately to outsmart the police. They're using lasers and lights in order to disrupt facial recognition. That was one example. Bray Wheeler: That was a big concern here kind of over the last week that they were afraid they weren't going to be able to make much more progress in terms of the protest based on the fact that China was going to use this facial recognition to start rounding folks up. Bryan Strawser: Identify people. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like tens of thousands of people participated in the protest including airline pilots, airline crews, baggage handlers, bus drivers, financial planners and others who declined to show up to work. In fact, transportation networks, the train system, primarily, train and bus system across Hong Kong, which is normally quite efficient in the financial hub, were suspended or delayed, including the airport express train that links downtown Hong Kong to the airport. More than 200 flights were delayed or canceled at Hong Kong's International Airport. Bryan Strawser: The protests have now been going on since June, and I think they've solidified now on kind of what their demands are. Of course, they're demanding the complete withdrawal of the current suspended bill that started this, the bill that allowed extradition to mainland China for trial of individuals that were arrested in Hong Kong. They want the resignation of Hong Kong's chief executive, they want an independent investigation of the police, and they want the protestors that have been arrested and charged with crimes, fake crimes, as they're describing them, to be freed or the charges dropped, I think. I'm not sure they're still in jail. Bray Wheeler: Just a couple of demands. Bryan Strawser: Just a few demands, which I think are probably going to get ignored by the mainland Chinese government. So, does our recommendation change? I mean, our recommendation has really been about monitoring what's going on. What do you think companies should be looking at now, Bray? Bray Wheeler: Well, I think right now we're starting to see that these protesters are making a much more impactful impact on life in Hong Kong. Being able to shut down transportation, being able to shut down the markets within Hong Kong, are some pretty major steps in terms of disruption. The fact that they are escalating and not deescalating as many thought probably may happen over the last week or two, just from a sustainment standpoint, that's not taking place. If anything, they're escalating this pretty substantially in terms of disruptions to businesses. Bray Wheeler: Again, not much is changing in terms of probably our recommendations for businesses, other than they continue to monitor. But I think if you haven't had discussions around continuity planning, around [crosstalk 00:04:27]- Bryan Strawser: Travel, safety- Bray Wheeler: Safety- Bryan Strawser: Travel safety. Bray Wheeler: Travel safety. Bryan Strawser: Yeah. Bray Wheeler: Those conversations need to start taking place, probably sooner rather than later. Bryan Strawser: I mean, there's a potentially a very disruptive situation that could happen here, and you and I have experienced this in other countries where there has been political strife. We saw general strikes in parts of India. We saw significant strikes and protests of different type, both peaceful and violent, during the Arab Spring of 2011. I mean, we've seen this before, where, literally, the city or state can shut down. Given the number of financial institutions and businesses that use Hong Kong as their Asia headquarters, Asia base, in a lot of cases, this may change the calculus of what that's going to look like in the future. Bray Wheeler: Even as a transportation hub for the region and being able to get in and out of that airport, I mean, that's going to have impacts, even if you don't have business based directly in Hong Kong, you can't really use that as a hub anymore. Bryan Strawser: I know that the Chinese military commander for Hong Kong said that the ... Where was his quote? The top military official, China's top military official in Hong Kong, according to this Reuters report, called the protests "absolutely intolerable" and made that statement alongside releasing video of the Chinese army conducting anti-riot drills in downtown Hong Kong. Bray Wheeler: Those protesters thought the police were a problem. The PLA is involved. Bryan Strawser: The PLA is a significant problem. Bray Wheeler: That's correct. Bryan Strawser: For those of you that haven't been to Hong Kong, they literally are in a garrison, right downtown, on the water, in the financial district. It is impossible to miss, because there are gigantic Chinese flags. It's the only place you really see that, and it's right there. It's been there since they took over from the British that the PLA was going to ... I believe it was the old British garrison that they're in. Bray Wheeler: Yeah. Bryan Strawser: British army garrison. Bray Wheeler: What we need to expect here, more than likely, is that given the complications of all sorts of other things that are happening, and not trying to make kind of direct connections, but given the fact that Hong Kong is in an uprising over democracy, really, their position on it, the trade war with the U.S., those contentions, a lot of this kind of atmosphere and dynamic that's going on right now compounds kind of China's ability in some of their calculus in terms of what they're going to do next. They're probably not too worried about other countries getting involved, necessarily, if we've escalated this up with trade wars and other things. There's a little bit of that dynamic at play, too, that just the environment of what's happening here, it's not, it's less in control than it has been, even when these first started, that the calculus has changed a little bit. There's a little bit more uncertainty out there. Bryan Strawser: And I'm not sure what the answer is. I mean, where will this go in the long run? As we've talked previously, China's history for dealing with internal disruption is not pretty. Bray Wheeler: No. Bryan Strawser: These protests are on the scale or bigger than what happened in Tiananmen Square. I think that was 1989, if I remember right. These are beyond that in terms of scale, and they're happening in this city where press censorship is much more difficult than what they did in Beijing in '89 when they decided to act on the student protests. Bray Wheeler: Well, and even in some of their more remote regions that they've kind of asserted their control over different rebellions and uprisings that they've seen, Hong Kong, to your point, it's a very different animal in terms of that freedom of press, that exposure to the international scene. People are seeing it. You can't get away from it from a global standpoint, and so China, they have to assert themselves, probably, at some point, how they're going to choose to do that given that exposure. I think to your point, we just don't know yet. Bryan Strawser: I mean, I'm not sure what the path is going to be. I think there might be a middle ground here if China picks a new chief executive, and the new chief executive comes in and just withdrawals the law, the previous law, and calls it a day, and does it end or does it continue? I can see that being a move that China makes, because they could brush it off as ineffective leadership by Carrie Lam, and so, "We're going to dump her, and we're going to pick a new chief executive." And then make that play. That's not ... China's done this before in the aftermath of Tiananmen, where they made major changes to the successors of the regime at the time, because they were opposed to that action, so they deposed them. Bray Wheeler: Yep. The party will always survive. Bryan Strawser: The party will survive. Bray Wheeler: It's just a matter of who's going to take the blame for it. Yeah. I mean, that scenario is entirely possible given they're kind of demonstrating some of their strong arm tactics and kind of their rhetoric, that to be able to back off and find a happy medium, in terms of making those leadership changes and kind of, hopefully, settling it out and then addressing their issues later on a few years from now, a year from now, something like that, through new legislation or new politics. Bray Wheeler: The second item we have this week just kind of happened also today. On Monday, India revoked Kashmir's special status. Why that's important here ... Kashmir is kind of a long-contested region between India and Pakistan, primarily. China also has a little bit of an involvement there, but it's India's only Muslim kind of majority state. And so there's some difficulties from that standpoint, as well. But Kashmir, once India and Pakistan won kind of their independence from Britain in 1947, they ended up dividing Kashmir kind of as an independent area, kind of between the nations. India has since kind of asserted some more direct control through constitutional and different deals. But given that ... And which kind of forms the basis for that special status. The fact that they've revoked that special status is a pretty big deal, and it's a little bit unprecedented. They've kind of toyed with it in the past. They've suggested some different things in the past that were kind of around that, but never made this direct move. Bray Wheeler: And why this is important is a couplefold. Probably from the international community, Kashmir doesn't have a whole lot of kind of impact on global economics, excuse me. But from their relationship with Pakistan and probably a little bit with China, this is a big deal. Pakistan has already made indications that they're pretty outraged about it. This is a pretty direct kind of move by India in that region. There's often been skirmishes, there's been battles, there's been troop movements, things like that in Kashmir. It's a very contested zone. But for India to take this kind of dramatic step and contest control of that area, directly, is probably not only incites kind of internal politics within India, but also kind of outrages Pakistan. The fact that they're so close to each other, and just their given their history, we don't know where this leads. Bryan Strawser: For those who don't know the history, of course, when India became independent, Pakistan also became independent. It was part of India for forever. But it really spun off because Pakistan was made up, for the most part, the Muslim majority provinces or states of India, with the exception of Kashmir. Kashmir is India's only Muslim majority state, and its proximity to Pakistan has always been in dispute since their separation in 1947. The fight over Kashmir, which has always been more of a cold fight with a few hot spots, on a monthly basis thrown in there, as in they like to lob artillery at each other regularly. Bray Wheeler: Suicide attacks. Bryan Strawser: Suicide attacks- Bray Wheeler: Troop movements- Bryan Strawser: Some troop movement. Look, India has committed aggressive acts against Pakistan. Pakistan has committed aggressive acts against India. It all happens in and around Kashmir, for the most part. It's nothing unusual. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of like, all of a sudden, they just looked at this tinder box and said, "Well, let's throw a match in it and see what happens." Bryan Strawser: I mean, this is really controversial. It's controversial within India's parliament, where the representatives from the two impacted states, in one case, they're taking the state's actual government away and making it an arm of the central government. Right? And the other one, they're telling them that they've lost their autonomy, their special autonomy status that they had. It's just, it's an interesting one. And I don't know, would this have happened under a different prime minister? Bray Wheeler: Maybe, maybe not. I think probably what we're seeing here is ... This is, again, I think we've talked about this a few podcasts ago. India's kind of assertion of their power in the region kind of leads here a little bit. This is kind of another move by India to kind of make some noise, make some hay, assert their kind of control and their power. They're kind of flexing their muscles a little bit with this, because Pakistan can't directly stop this decision. Bryan Strawser: Right. Bray Wheeler: The fact that Pakistan and the U.S. met within the last week or so, India's kind of reasserting themselves. That, because Pakistan had asked the U.S. to kind of help mediate between the two countries regarding Kashmir, U.S. and China have, obviously, had some stuff over the last couple of weeks, India is now making a little bit of a kind of a power move to just get in the game and kind of assert themselves is really kind of my view on this move, is really to kind of take a step and say, "Yeah, we're not forgotten here. We're making a move." Bryan Strawser: How much of this ... The reason I asked the question about would this have happened under the previous prime minister, this move kind of fits with Modi's approach as a Hindu nationalist. He has been unafraid to making decisions based upon India's Hindu majority population. Bray Wheeler: Correct. Bryan Strawser: This kind of fits in that mold from the standpoint that he's stripping this autonomy from a region that is not a Hindu majority. In fact, it's a Muslim majority population. A lot of the Hindus, because of ancient ... I shouldn't say "ancient", because the history of India, the India-Pakistan independence movement, the two religions and its adherence don't necessarily trust each other inside of India. The central government hasn't always done a good job of respecting that difference of religious view, either. Bray Wheeler: No, and that leads a little bit to the, some of what they've given as explanations for this move, in terms of terrorism and kind of Muslim attacks within Kashmir and kind of the contested area. I mean, that aligns with kind of Modi's M.O. around that, and kind of taking some direct stances against that. That's kind of one of the reasons they've given for this. Bray Wheeler: But I mean, really, for companies right now, this is a thing to watch, especially if you have business within India, especially if you have business within some of those areas along the coast in between Pakistan and India. We've seen terrorism attacks in the past within India. It's not out of the question for groups within Pakistan, not necessarily affiliated directly with Pakistan. Some are. But it is possible for this to get out of control pretty quick, depending on kind of where this goes over the next 48 to 72 hours, and kind of Pakistan's response. Bray Wheeler: Now, Pakistan has, obviously, appealed to the UN, because it's in violation of some of the UN resolutions and kind of deals that have been struck. Pakistan has been kind of making all the right moves politically to set themselves up as aggrieved. Bray Wheeler: But that's not going to stop some of these groups from potentially kind of exercising their more aggressive tendencies. That's not to say it's doom and gloom, that it's going to happen, but companies definitely need to start kind of paying attention to this and preparing for the fact that this could go sideways pretty quick. Because this is, as we've talked about, this as a pretty unprecedented step for India. Bryan Strawser: I would go as far as to say that unless your company specifically has business operations in Kashmir, to your travelers or expatriates that are in India, I would make Kashmir off limits to them. There's too much risk of conflict, and you're suddenly going to find yourselves in a situation where you've got a couple of travelers who wanted to see Kashmir, because it's beautiful, and they're out there, and an artillery barrage starts. There's not a lot you're going to be able to do at that point in time to guarantee their safety, to ensure their safety. Bray Wheeler: Yep. That's one of those regions in the world where it's beautiful- Bryan Strawser: It's best just not to be there. Bray Wheeler: It's beautiful for a reason. Because it's- Bryan Strawser: Because it's best not to be there. Bray Wheeler: It's like the Korean demilitarized zone. It's beautiful for a reason. You know? Because there's guns pointed on both sides. Bryan Strawser: I think our last story for this episode is about a Iran's seizure of yet another tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Bray, what's the story there? Bray Wheeler: Iran has taken a couple of steps here in the last kind of few days. They've claimed they've seized another oil tanker, which they say is smuggling oil through the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. They're kind of elevating their presence as a security force to guarantee kind of tanker safety and maritime safety within the region. All of which is a little bit fuzzy, because they're the ones taking tankers. However, this kind of demonstrates that they really haven't backed off, and they're not backing off. If anything, they're continuing to kind of elevate their posture with some of that. Bray Wheeler: They've also made some pretty kind of direct comments kind of at European powers here today, as well, in terms of the kind of nuclear deal, and their kind of escalation of, "Unless we can work something out ... " Excuse me. "Unless we can work something out between Iran and Europe for the U.S. kind of backing out of the agreement," they're going to start kind of elevating their production of nuclear materials, heavy water, uranium, plutonium, et cetera. There's really not much Europe can do about that, because the U.S. has kind of led the charge on that, so there's only so much Europe can do. It kind of fits in the mold of what kind of Iran's been doing of kind of escalating tensions there in the area. Bryan Strawser: There's been a lot of discussion about some type of maritime security alliance in the Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz, where I believe, initially, this was kind of, this was bounced around a little bit in the last two weeks. But, initially, when the United States talked about it, no one wanted to play with us. Primarily, because of the current administration's foreign policy approach, the president's foreign policy approach. Then it became, "Well, the UK can lead a maritime security alliance in the Strait of Hormuz." The Brits approached the French and the Germans who said, "No." Now this appears to be coming back or headed back towards a UK-U.S., which means probably Canada, New Zealand and Australia will come along and play for this. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: There was an interesting piece related to this whole issue on the U.S. Naval Institute blog, kind of the think tank that looks at maritime issues from a U.S. perspective, where a retired U.S. naval officer made a long argument why the data shows that the Brits, the Royal Navy, can, essentially, not project enough power to do this on their own. They have one destroyer, as I understand, or a cruiser, in the Persian Gulf- Bray Wheeler: It's limited. Bryan Strawser: ... and that's what they can do. And he really kind of took to task the Brits for some of their defense decisions when it comes to the navy. I'm just going to read the end, because I thought it was an interesting and insightful view that "Alliances at sea are tender devices. Everyone's relearning today a lesson that will be eternal for any nation's naval forces. Friends are nice to have, but they're often fleeting, and you need to be prepared to fight alone or just go home. Design your nation's navy accordingly." I think the Brits are in a situation where they simply can't project enough power to protect their shipping- Bray Wheeler: They can't. Bryan Strawser: ... in that area. They have other ships who are committed elsewhere. I think in the end, this is going to come down to can the Brits, and the U.S., and perhaps some of the Commonwealth countries, the Five Eyes, figure out how we can do this together. Of course, we have the challenges of our president's current lack of relationships on the international front probably complicate this, because there is no personal diplomacy to be had to build that alliance. Bray Wheeler: Well, and this all stems somewhat back to the nuclear deal and our, the U.S.'s decision to- Bryan Strawser: To blow it up. Bray Wheeler: ... to pull out of it. It's kind of forced Europe into a box, particularly the UK, because they're one of the kind of the major parties of that. The UK, again, doesn't have the force projection in the Strait of Hormuz. They continue to do it. The U.S. has indicated that, "Well, it's British tankers, it's kind of your problem." There's a reluctance to, necessarily, probably on our end, to get super-involved from a U.S. standpoint, just based on everything else that's going on. Unless there's some kind of direct confrontation that would kind of force our hand in a different way. It's just this situation in particular is, again, like we've seen with Hong Kong, isn't going away anytime soon. There's not- Bryan Strawser: No. Bray Wheeler: There's not a magic answer here. Bryan Strawser: No, there's not. There's a very deliberate effort. I mean, you have to kind of take a step back and look at who benefits from all of this. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: There's a very deliberate effort underway with Iran's approach having the JPOA pulled by the United States. What Iran is trying to do is, they see the personality split in the NATO alliance, in the [inaudible] Atlantic alliances, between the U.S. and others in Europe. They see the split between President Trump and the European leaders, and they're trying to drive a wedge through that by continuing to separate the United States from its traditional allies. Because in the end, that just benefits to them. Bray Wheeler: Right. Bryan Strawser: They know they can't win. They don't want a war, a shooting war. They know they can't win in a head on conflict between themselves and the NATO powers. No one's going to back their play, so they're trying to divide us. They're trying to separate these traditional alliances through this irregular warfare. Iran is the expert, the modern day expert, in irregular warfare. They've been doing it with Hamas and Hezbollah, with Israel and Lebanon, all along. Bray Wheeler: Yep. Right. Bryan Strawser: They know how to play that game better than anybody on that end of the spectrum. So, that's the challenge. The foreign policy, national security challenge, anyway. The corporate challenge is, it's just a very unsafe situation. Bray Wheeler: Well, I think that's kind of the general theme, in particular, with these three topics this week, is it's just an indication of the changing dynamic of the U.S. foreign policy influence kind of in the global community, and what's happening, and people's desire or courage to take some different steps that they may not have taken in the past. Would Iran have done this five years ago, 10 years ago? Maybe, maybe not, depending on the situation. But there's definitely an environment out there that they feel pretty willing to try and take some pretty overt moves in terms of, to your point, driving the wedge and finding those cracks in the policies, and just pushing enough that they continue to kind of get away with what they want to get away with. Bryan Strawser: To me, this poses the bigger national security and private sector challenge is that, certainly, there's the potential for great power conflict between the United States and China or Russia. And we are dealing with that in some different ways that we've talked about here before with Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and elsewhere. I still think it's the irregular warfare situation that's driven by, really, Iran is the last big player in this area. Bryan Strawser: But, certainly, the terrorist groups fit in here. I mean, this was Isis' and Al-Qaeda's approach, and AQAP's approach in Yemen, and Somalia, and Ethiopia, Djibouti. You know? And things that we still see happening. But I think that this is the threat. It's not going to be the great naval and air war between the U.S. and China. It's going to be, how do we continue to deal with the irregular warfare set in the Middle East and elsewhere, Horn of Africa, that cause these issues? Bray Wheeler: Well, and just the unstable environments that arise, that pop up, that are stoked by different nations trying to unsettle things. And so, private sector, certainly, from the U.S. and from other kind of western European kind of origins, you're having to change. You're starting to see a change in the writing on the wall, or whatever cliche you want to insert there, that your business as usual is evolving, and probably in a way that is going to be kind of a slow burn, until all of a sudden in a spot you were pretty comfortable in, is no longer comfortable. It's popped up, not because of kind of armed conflict, even. It could just be what we're seeing in Hong Kong, or kind of heightened tensions with Kashmir, or kind of disruption with economic trade like we're seeing in the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, all these things are kind of little slow burns that all of a sudden change the dynamic, and you're operating in a different way. And if you're not thinking about that, and you're not paying attention to those things, you're going to get caught. Bryan Strawser: This kind of takes us to another pivot that's going on, and I don't think we've recognized it for what it is yet. But if you think about the last 20 years, starting with September 10th and what we thought was the challenge from a national security and private sector perspective, and how the next day changed all of that. Right? We woke up on September 12th, 2001, and we spent the next couple of years figuring out the new rule sets. Right? Bray Wheeler: Yep. Bryan Strawser: Everything had changed. Business resiliency suddenly became a real thing, because 9/11 made it much more real to a lot of people and companies than before. Then you saw the pivot in the kind of counterinsurgency and the rise of irregular warfare in the Middle East, driven by our, the United States efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, what that meant for surrounding areas. Bryan Strawser: Now I think we're on the next pivot, and the pivot is, now it's Iran spinning much more publicly, much more visibly, this web of issues that it's creating, and we still have those other irregular warfare things going on to disrupt our world. Not to mention the active shooter incidents of this past weekend that changed the security posture of companies, and mass gatherings, and things along those lines. But that's a conversation for another day. Bray Wheeler: It is. It is. We're not jumping in that one today. Bryan Strawser: That's it for this edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, the BryghtCast edition for the week of August 5th, 2019. We'll have more episodes coming soon. Hope to see you then. Thanks for listening.

Congressional Dish
CD195: Yemen

Congressional Dish

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2019 152:18


Yemen: Most of us don't know where that is but we Americans have been participating in a war there since 2015. In a surprise move, the 116th Congress recently put a resolution on President Trump's desk that would LIMIT our participation in that war. In this episode, learn about our recent history in Yemen: Why are we involved? When did our involvement start? What do we want from Yemen? And why is Congress suddenly pursuing a change in policy? In the second half of the episode, Jen admits defeat in a project she's been working on and Husband Joe joins Jen for the thank yous. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD167: Combating Russia (NDAA 2018) LIVE CD131: Bombing Libya CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL? Additional Reading Article: Hurricane Michael upgraded to a Category 5 at time of U.S. landfall, NOAA, April 19, 2019. Article: US carries out first airstrikes in Yemen in nearly 3 months by Ryan Browne, CNN, April 1, 2019. Article: The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi by Joyce Lee and Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, April 1, 2019. Article: Trump revokes Obama rule on reporting drone strike deaths, BBC News, March 7, 2019. Article: US carried out 36 airstrikes in Yemen last year by Andrew Kennedy, The Defense Post, January 7, 2019. Article: See no evil: Pentagon issues blanket denial that it knows anything about detainee abuse in Yemen by Alex Emmons, The Intercept, January 7, 2019. Report: Senate bucks Trump's Saudi approach by Jeff Abramson, Arms Control Association, January/February 2019. Article: Saudi strikes, American bombs, Yemeni suffering by Derek Watkins and Declan Walsh, The New York Times, December 27, 2018. Article: The wooing of Jared Kushner: How the Saudis got a friend in the White House by David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler, and Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times, December 8, 2018. Report: Saudi lobbyists bout 500 nights at Trump's DC hotel after 2016 election by John Bowden, The Hill, December 5, 2018. Article: Hidden toll of US drone strikes in Yemen: Nearly a third of deaths are civilians, not al-Quaida by Maggie Michael and Maad al-Zikry, Military Times, November 14, 2018. Article: Jamal Khashoggi's friends in Washington are in shock by Scott Nover, The Atlantic, October 12, 2018. Report: Catastrophic Hurricane Michael strikes Florida Panhandle, National Weather Service, October 10, 2018. Article: Yemen's President Hadi heads to US for medical treatment, Aljazeera, September 3, 2018. Article: Bab el-Mandeb, an emerging chokepoint for Middle East oil flows by Julian Lee, Bloomberg, July 26, 2018. Report: YEM305: Unknown reported killed, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, March 29, 2018. Article: Yemen: Ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh killed, Aljazeera, December 10, 2017. Article: In Yemen's secret prisons, UAE tortures and US interrogates by Maggie Michael, AP News, June 22, 2017. Report: Yemen: UAE backs abusive local forces, Human Rights Watch, June 22, 2017. Article: What we know about Saudi Arabia's role in 9/11 by Simon Henderson, Foreign Policy, July 18, 2016. Report: Yemen: Background and U.S. relations by Jeremy M. Sharp, Congressional Research Service, February 11, 2015. Article: How al Qaeda's biggest enemy took over Yemen (and why the US government is unlikely to support them) by Casey L. Coombs and Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept, January 22, 2015. Report: Yemen protests erupt after fuel price doubled, Aljazeera, July 30, 2014. Article: U.S. charges saudi for 2002 oil tanker bombing by MAREX, Feburary 6, 2014. Report: "Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda": The civilian cost of US targeted killings in Yemen, Human Rights Watch, October 22, 2013. Article: Yemen: Opposition leader to be sworn in Saturday by Reuters, The New York Times, December 7, 2011. Article: Yemen's Saleh signs deal to give up power by Marwa Rashad, Reuters, November 23, 2011. Article: Yemen's leader agrees to end 3-decade rule by Kareem Fahim and Laura Kasinof, The New York Times, November 23, 2011. Article: Yemeni president's shock return throws country into confusion by Tom Finn, The Guardian, September 23, 2011. Article: Yemen: President Saleh 'was injured by palace bomb', BBC News, June 23, 2011. Article: Government in Yemen agrees to talk transition by Laura Kasinof, The New York Times, April 26, 2011. Article: Hundreds take to streets in Yemen to protest by Faud Rajeh, The New York Times, February 16, 2011. Article: U.S. plays down tensions with Yemen by Eric Schmitt, The New York Times, December 17, 2010. Article: Cables depict range of Obama diplomacy by David E. Sanger, The New York Times, December 4, 2010. Article: Yemen's drive on Al Qaeda faces international skepticism by Mona El-Naggar and Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, November 3, 2010. Article: Op-Ed: The Yemeni state against its own people by Subir Ghosh, Digital Journal, October 11, 2010. Roundtable Summary: Reform priorities for Yemen and the 10-Point agenda, MENAP, Chatham House, February 18, 2010. Article: As nations meet, Clinton urges Yemen to prove itself worthy of aid by Mark Landler, The New York Times, January 27, 2010. Article: After failed attack, Britain turns focus to Yemen by John F. Burns, The New York Times, January 1, 2010. Resources Congress.gov: S.J.Res.54 - A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress Govtrack: S.J.Res. 7: A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by ... Congress IMF.org: Gulf Cooperation Council Countries Middle East Institute: Addressing the Crisis in Yemen: Strategies and Solutions Open Knowledge Repository: Leveraging Fuel Subsidy Reform for Transition in Yemen US Dept. of Treasury: International Monetary Fund Sound Clip Sources House Proceedings: Yemen Resolution Debate, 116th Congress, April 4, 2019. Congressional Record Sound Clips: 1:06:30 Rep. Michael McCaul (TX):This resolution stretches the definition of war powers hostilities to cover non-U.S. military operations by other countries. Specifically, it reinterprets U.S. support to these countries as ‘‘engagement in hostilities.’’ This radical reinterpretation has implications far beyond Saudi Arabia. This precedent will empower any single Member to use privileged war powers procedures to force congressional referendums that could disrupt U.S. security cooperation agreements with more than 100 countries around the world. 1:14:30 Rep. Barbara Lee (CA): Yes, Madam Speaker, I voted against that 2001 resolution, because I knew it was open-ended and would set the stage for endless wars. It was a blank check. We see this once again today in Yemen. We must repeal this 2001 blank check for endless wars. Over the past 18 years, we have seen the executive branch use this AUMF time and time again. It is a blank check to wage war without congressional oversight. 1:21:30 Rep. Ro Khanna (CA): My motivation for this bill is very simple. I don’t want to see 14 million Yemenis starve to death. That is what Martin Griffith had said at the U.N., that if the Saudis don’t stop their blockade and let food and medicine in, within 6 months we will see one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world. Senate Floor Proceedings: Yemen Resolution Debate, 115th Congress, 2nd Session, December 12, 2018. Congressional Record Pt. 1 Congressional Record Pt. 2 Sound Clips: 7:09:00 Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Finally, an issue that has long been a concern to many of us—conservatives and progressives—is that this war has not been authorized by Congress and is therefore unconstitutional. Article I of the Constitution clearly states it is Congress, not the President, that has the power to send our men and women into war—Congress, not the President. The Framers of our Constitution, the Founders of this country, gave the power to declare war to Congress—the branch most accountable to the people—not to the President, who is often isolated from the reality of what is taking place in our communities. The truth is—and Democratic and Republican Presidents are responsible, and Democratic and Republican Congresses are responsible—that for many years, Congress has not exercised its constitutional responsibility over whether our young men and women go off to war. I think there is growing sentiment all over this country from Republicans, from Democrats, from Independents, from progressives, and from conservatives that right now, Congress cannot continue to abdicate its constitutional responsibility. 7:14:45 Sen. Bob Corker (TN): I have concerns about what this may mean as we set a precedent about refueling and intelligence activities being considered hostilities. I am concerned about that. I think the Senator knows we have operations throughout Northern Africa, where we are working with other governments on intelligence to counter terrorism. We are doing refueling activists in Northern Africa now, and it concerns me—he knows I have concerns—that if we use this vehicle, then we may have 30 or 40 instances where this vehicle might be used to do something that really should not be dealt with by the War Powers Act. 7:49:06 Sen. Todd Young (IN): We don’t have much leverage over the Houthis. We have significant leverage over the Saudis, and we must utilize it. 7:58:30 Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK): The Sanders-Lee resolution is, I think, fundamentally flawed because it presumes we are engaged in military action in Yemen. We are not. We are not engaged in military action in Yemen. There has been a lot of discussion about refueling. I don’t see any stretch of the definition that would say that falls into that category. 8:01:00 Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK): Saudi Arabia is an important Middle Eastern partner. Its stability is vital to the security of our regional allies and our partners, including Israel, and Saudi Arabia is essential to countering Iran. We all know that. We know how tenuous things are in that part of the world. We don’t have that many friends. We can’t afford to lose any of them. 8:04:30 Sen. Chris Murphy (CT): It is important to note some-thing that we take for granted in the region—this now long-term detente that has existed between the Gulf States and Israel, which did not used to be something you could rely on. In fact, one of the most serious foreign policy debates this Senate ever had was on the sale of AWACS to Saudi Arabia back in the 1980s. The objection then was that by empowering Saudi Arabia, you were hurting Israel and Israeli security. No one would make that argument today because Saudi Arabia has been a good partner in trying to figure out a way to calm the tensions in the region and, of course, provide some balance in the region, with the Iranian regime on the other side continuing to this day to use inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric about the future of Israel. So this is an important partnership, and I have no interest in blowing it up. I have no interest in walking away from it. But you are not obligated to follow your friend into every misadventure they propose. When your buddy jumps into a pool of man-eating sharks, you don’t have to jump with him. There is a point at which you say enough is enough. 8:06:00 Sen. Chris Murphy (CT): Muhammad bin Salman, who is the Crown Prince, who is the effective leader of the country, has steered the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia off the rails. Folks seem to have noticed when he started rounding up his political opponents and killing one of them in a consulate in Turkey, but this has been ongoing. Look back to the kidnapping of the Lebanese Prime Minister, the blockade of Qatar without any heads-up to the United States, the wholesale imprisonment of hundreds of his family members until there was a payoff, the size of which was big enough to let some of them out. This is a foreign policy that is no longer in the best interests of the United States and cannot be papered over by a handful of domestic policy reforms that are, in fact, intended to try to distract us from the aggressive nature of the Saudis’ foreign policy in the region. 8:08:15 Sen. Chris Murphy (CT): I am appreciative that many of my colleagues are willing to stand up for this resolution today to end the war in Yemen. I wish that it weren’t because of the death of one journalist, because there have been tens of thousands who have died inside Yemen, and their lives are just as important and just as worthwhile as Jamal Khashoggi’s life was, as tragic as that was. But there is a connection between the two, which is why I have actually argued that this resolution is in some way, shape, or form a response to the death of Jamal Khashoggi, for those who are primarily concerned with that atrocity. Here is how I link the two: What the Saudis did for 2 weeks was lie to us, right? In the most bald-faced way possible. They told us that Jamal Khashoggi had left the consulate, that he had gotten out of there alive, that they didn’t know what happened, when of course they knew the entire time that they had killed him, that they had murdered him, that they had dismembered his body. We now know that the Crown Prince had multiple contacts all throughout the day with the team of operatives who did it. Yet they thought we were so dumb or so weak— or some combination of the two—that they could just lie to us about it. That was an eye-opener for a lot of people here who were long-term supporters of the Saudi relationship because they knew that we had trouble. They knew that sometimes our interests didn’t align, but they thought that the most important thing allies did with each other was tell the truth, especially when the truth was so easy to discover outside of your bilateral relationship. Then, all of a sudden, the Saudis lied to us for 2 weeks—for 2 weeks—and then finally came around to telling the truth because everybody knew that they weren’t. That made a lot of people here think, well, wait a second—maybe the Saudis haven’t been telling us the truth about what they have been doing inside Yemen. A lot of my friends have been supporting the bombing campaign in Yemen. Why? Because the Saudis said: We are hitting these civilians by accident. Those water treatment plants that have been blowing up—we didn’t mean to hit them. That cholera treatment facility inside the humanitarian compound—that was just a bomb that went into the wrong place, or, we thought there were some bad guys in it. It didn’t turn out that there were. It turns out the Saudis weren’t telling us the truth about what they were doing in Yemen. They were hitting civilian targets on purpose. They did have an intentional campaign of trying to create misery. I am not saying that every single one of those school buses or those hospitals or those churches or weddings was an attempt to kill civilians and civilians only, but we have been in that targeting center long enough to know—to know—that they have known for a long time what they have been doing: hitting a lot of people who have nothing to do with the attacks against Saudi Arabia. Maybe if the Saudis were willing to lie to us about what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, they haven’t been straight with us as to what is happening inside Yemen, because if the United States is being used to intentionally hit civilians, then we are complicit in war crimes. And I hate to tell my colleagues that is essentially what the United Nations found in their most recent report on the Saudi bombing campaign. They were careful about their words, but they came to the conclusion that it was likely that the Saudi conduct inside Yemen would amount to war crimes under international law. If it is likely that our ally is perpetuating war crimes in Yemen, then we cannot be a part of that. The United States cannot be part of a bombing campaign that may be—probably is— intentionally making life miserable for the people inside of that country. 8:14:00 Sen. Chris Murphy (CT): There is no relationship in which we are the junior partner—certainly not with Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia can push us around like they have over the course of the last several years and in particular the last several months, that sends a signal to lots of other countries that they can do the same thing—that they can murder U.S. residents and suffer almost no consequences; that they can bomb civilians with our munitions and suffer no consequences. This is not just a message about the Saudi relationship; this is a message about how the United States is going to interact with lots of other junior partners around the world as well. Saudi Arabia needs us a lot more than we need them, and we need to remind folks of that over and over again. Spare me this nonsense that they are going to go start buying Russian jets or Chinese military hardware. If you think those countries can protect you better than the United States, take a chance. You think the Saudis are really going to stop selling oil to the United States? You think they are going to walk away from their primary bread winner just because we say that we don’t want to be engaged in this particular military campaign? I am willing to take that chance. We are the major partner in this relationship, and it is time that we start acting like it. If this administration isn’t going to act like it, then this Congress has to act like it. 8:44:15 Sen. Mike Lee (UT): Many of my colleagues will argue—in fact some of them have argued just within the last few minutes—that we are somehow not involved in a war in Yemen. My distinguished friend and colleague, the Senator from Oklahoma, came to the floor a little while ago, and he said that we are not engaged in direct military action in Yemen. Let’s peel that back for a minute. Let’s figure out what that means. I am not sure what the distinction between direct and indirect is here. Maybe in a very technical sense—or under a definition of warfare or military action that has long since been rendered out- dated—we are not involved in that, but we are involved in a war. We are co-belligerents. The minute we start identifying targets or, as Secretary James Mattis put it about a year ago, in December 2017, the minute we are involved in the decisions involving making sure that they know the right stuff to hit, that is involvement in a war, and that is pretty direct. The minute we send up U.S. military aircraft to provide midair refueling assistance for Saudi jets en route to bombing missions, to combat missions on the ground in Yemen, that is our direct involvement in war. 8:48:00 Sen. Mike Lee (UT): Increasingly these days, our wars are high-tech. Very often, our wars involve cyber activities. They involve reconnaissance, surveillance, target selection, midair refueling. It is hard—in many cases, impossible—to fight a war without those things. That is what war is. Many of my colleagues, in arguing that we are not involved in hostilities, rely on a memorandum that is internal within the executive branch of the U.S. Government that was issued in 1976 that provides a very narrow, unreasonably slim definition of the word ‘‘hostilities.’’ It defines ‘‘hostilities’’ in a way that might have been relevant, that might have been accurate, perhaps, in the mid-19th century, but we no longer live in a world in which you have a war as understood by two competing countries that are lined up on opposite sides of a battlefield and engaged in direct exchanges of fire, one against another, at relatively short range. War encompasses a lot more than that. War certainly encompasses midair refueling, target selection, surveillance, and reconnaissance of the sort we are undertaking in Yemen. Moreover, separate and apart from this very narrow, unreasonably slim definition of ‘‘hostilities’’ as deter- mined by this internal executive branch document from 1976 that contains the outdated definition, we our- selves, under the War Powers Act, don’t have to technically be involved in hostilities. It is triggered so long as we ourselves are sufficiently involved with the armed forces of another nation when those armed forces of another nation are themselves involved in hostilities. I am speaking, of course, in reference to the War Powers Act’s pro- visions codified at 50 USC 1547(c). For our purposes here, it is important to keep in mind what that provisions reads: ‘‘For purposes of this chapter [under the War Powers Act], the term ‘introduction of United States Armed Forces’ includes the assignment of members of such Armed Forces to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany the regular or irregular military forces of any foreign country or government when such military forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent threat that such forces will become engaged, in hostilities.’’ In what sense, on what level, on what planet are we not involved in the commanding, in the coordination, in the participation, in the movement of or in the accompaniment of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the civil war in Yemen? 9:57:15 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT): In March of this year, I led a letter to the Department of Defense with my colleague Senator JACK REED of Rhode Island, along with many of our colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, stating our concern regarding U.S. support for Saudi military operations against the Houthis in Yemen and asking about the DOD’s involvement, apparently without appropriate notification of Congress, and its agreements to provide refueling sup- port to the Saudis and the Saudi coalition partners. We were concerned that the DOD had not appropriately documented reimbursements for aerial re- fueling support provided by the United States. Eight months later—just days ago— the Department of Defense responded to our letter and admitted that it has failed to appropriately notify Congress of its support agreements; it has failed to adequately charge Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for fuel and refueling assistance. That admission 8 months after our inquiry is a damning indictment. These errors in accounting mean that the United States was directly funding the Saudi war in Yemen. It has been doing it since March of 2015. Video: Trump: Khashoggi case will not stop $110bn US-Saudi arms trade, The Guardian, October 12, 2018. Donald Trump: I would not be in favor of stopping from spending $110 billion, which is an all-time record, and letting Russia have that money, and letting China have that money. Because all their going to do is say, that's okay, we don't have to buy it from Boeing, we don't have to buy it from Lockheed, we don't have to buy it from Ratheon and all these great companies. We'll buy it from Russia and we'll buy it from China. So what good does that do us? Hearing: U.S. Policy Toward Middle East, House Foreign Affairs Committee, C-SPAN, April 18, 2018. Witnesses: David Satterfield: Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Wess Mitchell: Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Sound Clips: 18:00 David Satterfield: We all agree, as does the Congress, that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is unacceptable. Last month, the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provided $1 billion to Yemen's humanitarian response appeal, and this complements the US government pledge of $87 million and more than $854 million contributed since beginning of fiscal year 2017. 19:45 Wess Mitchell: Turkey is a 66 year member of the NATO alliance and member of the defeat ISIS coalition. It has suffered more casualties from terrorism than any other ally and hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees. It supports the coalition through the use of Incirlik air base through its commitment of Turkish military forces against Isis on the ground in (Dibick? al-Bab?) And through close intelligence cooperation with the United States and other allies. Turkey has publicly committed to a political resolution in Syria that accords with UN Security Council. Resolution 2254. Turkey has a vested strategic interest in checking the spread of Iranian influence and in having a safe and stable border with Syria. Despite these shared interests, Turkey lately has increased its engagement with Russia and Iran. Ankara has sought to assure us that it sees this cooperation as a necessary stepping stone towards progress in the Geneva process, but the ease with which Turkey brokered arrangements with the Russian military to facilitate the launch of its Operation Olive Branch in Afrin district, arrangements to which America was not privy, is gravely concerning. Ankara claims to have agreed to purchase, to, to purchase the Russian S 400 missile system, which could potentially lead to sanctions under section 231 of CAATSA and adversely impact Turkey's participation in the F-35 program. It is in the American national interest to see Turkey remains strategically and politically aligned with the west. Hearing: U.S. Policy Toward Yemen, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, C-SPAN, April 17, 2018. Witnesses: Robert Jenkins: Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, & Humanitarian Assistance David Satterfield: Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Robert Karem: Assistant Defense Secretary for International Security Affairs Nominee and former Middle East Adviser to Vice President Cheney Sound Clips: 9:30 Chairman Bob Corker (TN): Well, Yemen has always faced significant socioeconomic challenges. A civil war, which began with the Houthis armed takeover of much of the country in 2014 and their overthrow of Yemen's legitimate government in January 2015, has plunged the country into humanitarian crisis. 17:25 Chairman Bob Corker (TN): Our first witness is acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador David Satterfield. Ambassador Satterfield is one of the most distinguished, one of our most distinguished diplomats. He most recently served as director general, the multinational force and observers in the Sinai peninsula and previously served as US Abassador to Lebanon. 17:45 Chairman Bob Corker (TN): Our second witness is Robert Jenkins, who serves as the Deputy Assistant Administrator for USA ID Bureau for Democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance. Mr. Jenkins, recently mark 20 years at USAID and previously served as the Director of Office of Transition Initiatives. 18:15 Chairman Bob Corker (TN): Our third witness is Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Robert Kerem. Prior to his Senate confirmation last year, Mr. Karem served as National Security of Staff of Vice President Cheney and then as National Security Advisor to the House, majority leader's Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. 20:15 David Satterfield: US military support serves a clear and strategic purpose to reinforce Saudi and Mrid self defense in the face of intensifying Houthi and Iranian enabled threats and to expand the capability of our Gulf partners to push back against Iran's regionally destabilizing actions. This support in turn provides the United States access and influence to help press for a political solution to the conflict. Should we curtail US military support? The Saudis could well pursue defense relationships with countries that have no interest in either ending the humanitarian crisis, minimizing civilian casualties or assisting and facilitating progress towards a political solution. Critical US access to support for our own campaign against violent extremists could be placed in jeopardy. 30:00 Robert Karem: Conflict in Yemen affects regional security across the Middle East, uh, and threatens US national security interests, including the free flow of commerce and the Red Sea. Just this month, the Houthi, his attack to Saudi oil tanker and the Red Sea threatening commercial shipping and freedom of navigation and the world's fourth busiest maritime choke point, the Bab el Mandeb. 32:00 Robert Karem: The Defense Department is currently engaged in two lines of effort in Yemen. Our first line of effort and our priority is the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS in Yemen, two terrorist organizations that directly threaten the United States, our allies and our partners. To combat AQIP, AQAP, and ISIS, US forces in coordination with the UN recognized government of Yemen are supporting our regional key counter terrorism partners in ongoing operations to disrupt and degrade their ability to coordinate, plot and recruit for external terrorist operations. Additionally, US military forces are conducting airstrikes against AQAP and ISIS in Yemen pursuant to the 2001 a authorization for the use of military force to disrupt and destroy terrorist network networks. Our second line of effort is the provision of limited noncombat support to the Saudi led coalition in support of the UN recognized government of Yemen. The support began in 2015 under President Obama and in 2017 president Trump reaffirmed America's commitment to our partners in these efforts. Fewer than 50 US military personnel work in Saudi Arabia with the Saudi led coalition advising and assisting with the defense of Saudi territory, sharing intelligence and providing logistical support, including aerial refueling. 35:45 Sen. Ben Cardin (MD): Mr. Karem. I'm gonna Start with you. Um, in regards to the US military assistance that we give to the kingdom, you said that is to embolden their capacity and to reduce noncombatant casualties. Last March, the CENTCOM commander General Votel stated that the United States government does not track the end results of the coalition missions. It refills and supports with targeting assistance. So my question to you is, how do you determine that we are effectively reducing the non combatant casualties if we don't in fact track the results of the kingdoms military actions? Robert Karem: Senator, thank you. Um, it's correct that we do not monitor and track all of the Saudi aircraft, um, uh, a loft over Yemen. Uh, we have limited personnel and assets in order to do that. Uh, and CENTCOM's focus is obviously been on our own operations in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in Syria. Sen. Ben Cardin (MD): I understand that, but my question is, our stated mission is to reduce noncombat and casualties. If we don't track, how do we determine that? Robert Karem: So I think one of our stated missions is precisely that. Um, there are multiple ways that I think we do have insight into, uh, Saudi, uh, targeting behavior. Um, we have helped them with their processes. Um, we have seen them implement a no strike list. Um, and we have seen their, their, their uh, capabilities, uh, improved. So the information is based upon what the Saudis tell you, how they're conducting the mission rather than the after impact of the mission. I think our military officers who are resident in Saudi Arabia are seeing how the Saudis approach, uh, this, this effort that took getting effort. Sen. Ben Cardin (MD): But you know, obviously the proof is in the results and we don't know whether the results are, there are not fair statement. Robert Karem: I think we do see a difference in how the Saudis have operated in Yemen, how they operate. Sen. Ben Cardin (MD): I understand how they operate but we don't know whether in fact that's been effective. The United Nations Security Council panel of experts on Yemen concluded in recent reports that the cumulative effect of these airstrikes on civilian infrastructure demonstrates that even with precaution, cautionary measures were taken, they were largely inadequate and ineffective. Do you have any information that disagrees with that assessment? Robert Karem: Senator, I think the assessment of, uh, our central command is that the Saudi, uh, and Emirati targeting efforts, uh, have improved, um, uh, with the steps that they've taken. We do not have perfect understanding because we're not using all of our assets to monitor their aircraft, but we do get reporting from the ground on what taking place inside Yemen. 40:15 Sen. Rand Paul (KY): Ambassador Satterfield. I guess some people when they think about our strategy might question the idea of our strategy. You know, if your son was shooting off his pistol in the back yard and doing it indiscriminately and endangering the neighbors, would you give hmi more bullets or less? And we see the Saudis acting in an indiscriminate manner. They've bombed a funeral processions, they've killed a lot of civilians. And so our strategy is to give them more bombs, not less. And we say, well, if we don't give him the bomb, somebody else will. And that's sort of this global strategy, uh, that many in the bipartisan foreign policy consensus have. We have to, we have to always be involved. We always have to provide weapons or someone else will and they'll act even worse. But there's a, I guess a lot of examples that doesn't seem to be improving their behavior. Um, you could argue it's marginally better since we've been giving them more weapons, but it seems the opposite of logic. You would think you would give people less where you might withhold aid or withhold a assistance to the Saudis to get them to behave. But we do sort of the opposite. We give them more aid. What would your response be to that? David Satterfield: Senator, when I noted in my remarks that progress had been made on this issue of targeting, minimizing or mitigating civilian casualties, that phrase was carefully chosen into elaborate further on, uh, my colleagues remarks, uh, Robert Karem. We do work with the Saudis and have, particularly over the last six to nine months worked intensively on the types of munitions the Saudis are using, how they're using, how to discriminate target sets, how to assure through increased loiter time by aircraft that the targets sought are indeed clear of collateral or civilian damage. This is new. This is not the type of interaction… Sen. Rand Paul (KY): And yet the overall situation in Yemen is a, is a disaster. David Satterfield: The overall situation is extremely bad. Senator. Sen. Rand Paul (KY): I guess that's really my question. We had to rethink...And I think from a common sense point of view, a lot of people would question giving people who misbehave more weapons instead of giving them less on another question, which I think is a broad question about, you know, what we're doing in the Middle East in general. Um, you admitted that there's not really a military solution in Yemen. Most people say it's going to be a political solution. The Houthis will still remain. We're not going to have Hiroshima. We're not going to have unconditional surrender and the good guys win and the bad guys are vanquished. Same with Syria. Most people have said for years, both the Obama administration and this administration, probably even the Bush administration, the situation will probably be a political solution. They will no longer, it's not going to be complete vanquished meant of the enemy. We're also saying that in Afghanistan, and I guess my point as I think about that is I think about the recruiter at the station in Omaha, Nebraska, trying to get somebody to sign up for the military and saying, please join. We're going to send you to three different wars where there is no military solution. We're hoping to make it maybe a little bit better. I think back to Vietnam. Oh, we're going to take one more village. If we take one more village, they're going to negotiate and we get a little better negotiation. I just can't see sending our young men and women to die for that for one more village. You know the Taliban 40% in Afghanistan. Where are we going to get when they get to 30% don't negotiate and when we it, it'll be, it'll have been worth it for the people who have to go in and die and take those villages. I don't think it's one more life. I don't think it's worth one more life. The war in Yemen is not hard. We talk all about the Iranians have launched hundreds of missiles. Well, yeah, and the Saudis have launched 16,000 attacks. Who started it? It's a little bit murky back and forth. The, the Houthis may have started taking over their government, but that was a civil war. Now we're involved in who are the good guys of the Saudis, the good guys or the others, the bad guys. Thousands of civilians are dying. 17 million people live on the edge of starvation. I think we need to rethink whether or not military intervention supplying the Saudis with weapons, whether all of this makes any sense at all or whether we've made the situation worse. I mean, humanitarian crisis, we're talking about, oh, we're going to give my, the Saudis are giving them money and I'm like, okay, so we dropped, we bomb the crap out of them in this audience. Give them $1 billion. Maybe we could bomb last maybe part of the humanitarian answers, supplying less weapons to a war. There's a huge arms race going on. Why do the Iranians do what they do? They're evil. Or maybe they're responding to the Saudis who responded first, who started it? Where did the arms race start? But we sell $300 billion a weapons to Saudi Arabia. What are the Iranians going to do? They react. It's action and reaction throughout the Middle East. And so we paint the Iranians as the, you know, these evil monsters. And we just have to correct evil monster. But the world's a much more complicated place back and forth. And I, all I would ask is that we try to get outside our mindset that we, uh, what we're doing is working because I think what we're doing hasn't worked, and we've made a lot of things worse. And we're partly responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.  48:30 David Satterfield: The political picture on the ground in Yemen has changed radically with the death, the killing of a Ali Abdullah Saleh, uh, with the fragmentation of the General People's Congress. All of that, while tragic in many of its dimensions, has provided a certain reshuffling of the deck that may, we hope, allow the United Nations to be more effective in its efforts. 1:05:45 Sen. Todd Young (IN): Approximately how many people, Mr. Jenkins require humanitarian assistance in Yemen? David Jenkins: 22 million people. Sen. Todd Young (IN): What percent of the population is that? David Jenkins: Approximately 75% was the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance increase from last year. It increased by our, we're estimating 3.5 million people. Sen. Todd Young (IN): And how much has it increased? David Jenkins: About 3.5 million people. Sen. Todd Young (IN): Okay. How many are severely food insecure? David Jenkins: 17.8 million. Sen. Todd Young (IN): How many children are severely malnourished? David Jenkins: 460,000 Sen. Todd Young (IN): How many people lack access to clean water and working toilets? David Jenkins: We estimate it to be around 16 million people. Sen. Todd Young (IN): Does Yemen face the largest cholera outbreak in the world? David Jenkins: It does. Sen. Todd Young (IN): How many cholera cases have we seen in Yemen? David Jenkins: A suspected over a 1 million cases. Sen. Todd Young (IN): And how many lives has that cholera outbreak claim? David Jenkins: Almost 2100. 1:46:00 Robert Jenkins: I do know that the vast majority of people within that, the majority of people in need, and that 22 million number live in the northern part of the country that are accessible best and easiest by Hodeidah port, there is no way to take Hodeidah out of the equation and get anywhere near the amount of humanitarian and more importantly, even commercial goods into the country. Hearing: Violence in Yemen, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East and North America, C-SPAN, April 14, 2015. Witnesses: Gerald Feierstein: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Former Ambassador to Yemen (2010-2013) Sound Clips: 1:45 Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (FL): On September 10th of last year, President Obama announced to the American public his plan to degrade and destroy the terrorist group ISIL. While making his case for America's role in the fight against ISIL, the president highlighted our strategy in Yemen and held it up as a model of success to be emulated in the fight against ISIL. Yet about a week later, the Iran backed Houthis seized control of the capital and the government. Despite this, the administration continued to hail our counter-terror operations in Yemen as a model for success, even though we effectively had no partner on the ground since President Hadi was forced to flee. But perhaps even more astonishingly in what can only be described as an alarmingly tone deaf and short sighted, when Press Secretary Ernest was asked at a press briefing if this model was still successful after the Yemeni central government collapsed and the US withdrew all of our personnel including our special forces, he said yes, despite all indications pointing to the contrary. So where do we stand now? That's the important question. President Hadi was forced to flee. Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of over 10 Arab nations and Operation Decisive Storm, which so far has consisted of airstrikes only, but very well could include ground forces in the near future. 4:45 Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (FL): Iran has reportedly dispatched a naval destroyer near Yemen in a game of chicken over one of the most important shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden. This area is a gateway between Europe and the Middle East and ran was not be allowed to escalate any tensions nor attempt to disrupt the shipping lanes. 13:30 Rep. David Cicilline (NJ): I think it's safe to say that the quick deterioration of the situation in Yemen took many people here in Washington by surprise. For many years, Yemen was held up as an example of counter-terrorism cooperation and it looked as if a political agreement might be achieved in the aftermath of the Arab spring. The United States poured approximately $900 million in foreign aid to Yemen since the transition in 2011 to support counter-terrorism, political reconciliation, the economy and humanitarian aid. Now we face a vastly different landscape and have to revise our assumptions and expectations. Furthermore, we risk being drawn deeply into another Iranian backed armed conflict in the Middle East. 17:30 Rep. Ted Deutch (FL): Following the deposition of Yemen's longtime autocratic Saleh in 2011, the US supported an inclusive transition process. We had national dialogue aimed at rebuilding the country's political and governmental institutions and bridging gaps between groups that have had a long history of conflict. Yemen's first newly elected leader, President Hadi made clear his intentions to cooperate closely with the United States. 18:00 Rep. Ted Deutch (FL): Yemen, the poorest country on the peninsula, needed support from the international community. The United States has long viewed Yemen as a safe haven for all Qaeda terrorists, and there was alarming potential for recruitment by terrorist groups given the dire economic conditions that they faced. In fact, the US Department of Homeland Security considers al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate, most likely the al Qaeda affiliate, most likely to attempt transnational attacks against the United States. 18:30 Rep. Ted Deutch (FL): While the national dialogue was initially viewed as successful, the process concluded in 2014 with several key reforms still not completed, including the drafting of the new constitution. The Hadi government had continued to face deep opposition from Yemen's northern tribes, mainly the Shiite Iranian backed Houthi rebels, over the past year. The Houthis, in coordination with tribes and military units still loyal to Saleh, began increasing their territorial control, eventually moving in to Sanaa. Saleh had long been thought to have used his existing relationship to undermine the Hadi government. Houthis are well trained, well funded, and experienced fighters, having fought the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia in 2009. 23:15 Gerald Feierstein: I greatly appreciate this opportunity to come before you today to review recent developments in Yemen and the efforts that the United States is undertaking to support the government of Yemen under president Rabu Mansour Hadi and the Saudi led coalition of Operation Decisive Storm, that is aimed at restoring the legitimate government and restarting the negotiations to find peaceful political solutions to Yemen's internal conflict. 26:45 Gerald Feierstein: To the best of our understanding, the Houthis are not controlled directly by Iran. However, we have seen in recent years, significant growth and expansion of Iranian engagement with the Houthis. We believe that Iran sees opportunities with the Houthis to expand its influence in Yemen and threatened Saudi and Gulf Arab interests. Iran provides financial support, weapons training, and intelligence of the Houthis and the weeks and months since the Houthis entered Sanaa and forced the legitimate government first to resign and ultimately to flee from the capitol, we have seen a significant expansion of Iranian involvement in Yemen's domestic affairs. 27:30 Gerald Feierstein: We are also particularly concerned about the ongoing destabilizing role played by former President Saleh, who since his removal from power in 2011 has actively plotted to undermine President Hadi and the political transition process. Despite UN sanctions and international condemnation of his actions, Saleh continues to be one of the primary sources of the chaos in Yemen. We have been working with our Gulf partners and the international community to isolate him and prevent the continuation of his efforts to undermine the peaceful transition. Success in that effort will go a long way to helping Yemen return to a credible political transition process. 42:00 Gerald Feierstein: From our perspective, I would say that that Yemen is a unique situation for the Saudis. This is on their border. It represents a threat in a way that no other situation would represent. 52:30 Gerald Feierstein: I mean, obviously our hope would be that if we can get the situation stabilized and get the political process going again, that we would be able to return and that we would be able to continue implementing the kinds of programs that we were trying to achieve that are aimed at economic growth and development as well as supporting a democratic governance and the opportunity to try to build solid political foundations for the society. At this particular moment, we can't do that, but it's hard to predict where we might be in six months or nine months from now. 1:10:00 Gerald Feierstein: When the political crisis came in Yemen in 2011, AQAP was able to take advantage of that and increase its territorial control, to the extent that they were actually declaring areas of the country to be an Islamic caliphate, not unlike what we see with ISIL in Iraq and Syria these days. Because of our cooperation, primarily our cooperation with the Yemeni security forces, uh, we were able to, uh, to defeat that, uh, at a significant loss of a life for AQAP. Uh, as a result of that, they changed their tactics. They went back to being a more traditional terrorist organization. They were able to attack locations inside of, uh, inside of Sanaa and and elsewhere. But the fact of the matter is that, uh, that we, uh, were achieving a progress in our ability to pressure them, uh, and, uh, to keep them on the defensive as opposed to giving them lots of time. And remember in 2009 in 2010, uh, we saw AQAP mount a fairly serious efforts - the underwear bomber and then also the cassette tape effort to attack the United States. After 2010, uh, they were not able to do that, uh, despite the fact that their intent was still as clear and as strong as it was before. And so a while AQAP was by no means defeated and continue to be a major threat to security here in the United States as well as in Yemen and elsewhere around the world, nevertheless, I think that it was legitimate to say that we had achieved some success in the fight against AQAP. Unfortunately what we're seeing now because of the change in the situation again, inside of Yemen, uh, is that we're losing some of the gains that we were able to make, uh, during that period of 2012 to 2014. That's why it's so important that we, uh, have, uh, the ability to get the political negotiation started again, so that we can re-establish legitimate government inside of Sanaa that will cooperate with us once again in this fight against violent extremist organizations. 1:16:45 Rep. Ted Yoho (FL): How can we be that far off? And I know you explained the counter-terrorism portion, but yet to have a country taken over while we're sitting there working with them and this happens. I feel, you know, it just kinda happened overnight the way our embassy got run out of town and just says, you have to leave. Your marines cannot take their weapons with them. I, I just, I don't understand how that happens or how we can be that disconnected. Um, what are your thoughts on that? Gerald Feierstein: You know, it was very, it was very frustrating. Again, I think that, if you go back to where we were a year ago, the successful conclusion of the National Dialogue Conference, which was really the last major hurdle and completion of the GCC initiative, Houthis participated in that. They participated in the constitutional drafting exercise, which was completed successfully. Uh, and so we were in the process of moving through all of the requirements of the GCC initiative that would allow us to complete successfully the political transition. I think there were a combination of things. One, that there was a view on the part of the Houthis that they were not getting everything that they wanted. They were provoked, in our view, by Ali Abdullah Saleh, who never stopped plotting from the very first day after he signed the agreement on the GCC initiative. He never stopped plotting to try to block the political transition, and there was, to be frank, there was a weakness in the government and an inability on the part of the government to really build the kind of alliances and coalition that would allow them to sustain popular support and to bring this to a successful conclusion. And so I think that all through this period there was a sense that we were moving forward and that we believed that we could succeed in implementing this peaceful transition. And yet we always knew that on the margins there were threats and there were risks, and unfortunately we got to a point where the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh, my personal view is that they recognized that they had reached the last possible moment, where they could obstruct the peaceful political transition that was bad for them because it would mean that they wouldn't get everything that they wanted, and so they saw that time was running out for them, and they decided to act. And unfortunately, the government was unable to stop them. Hearing: Targeted Killing of Terrorist Suspects Overseas, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, C-SPAN, April 23, 2013. Sound Clips: 44:30 Farea al-Muslimi: My name as you mentioned, is Farea al-Muslimi, and I am from Wessab, a remote village mountain in Yemen. I spent a year living with an American family and attended an American high school. That was one of the best years of my life. I learned about American culture, managed the school basketball team and participated in trick or treat and Halloween. But the most exceptional was coming to know someone who ended up being like a father to me. He was a member of the U S Air Force and most of my year was spent with him and his family. He came to the mosque with me and I went to church with him and he became my best friend in America. I went to the U.S. as an ambassador for Yemen and I came back to Yemen as an ambassador of the U.S. I could never have imagined that the same hand that changed my life and took it from miserable to a promising one would also drone my village. My understanding is that a man named Hamid al-Radmi was the target of the drone strike. Many people in Wessab know al-Radmi, and the Yemeni government could easily have found and arrested him. al-Radmi was well known to government officials and even local government could have captured him if the U.S. had told them to do so. In the past, what Wessab's villagers knew of the U.S. was based on my stories about my wonderful experiences had. The friendships and values I experienced and described to the villagers helped them understand the America that I know and that I love. Now, however, when they think of America, they think of the terror they feel from the drones that hover over their heads ready to fire missiles at any time. What violent militants had previously failed to achieve one drone strike accomplished in an instant. 1:17:30 Farea al-Muslimi: I think the main difference between this is it adds into Al Qaeda propaganda of that Yemen is a war with the United States. The problem of Al Qaeda, if you look to the war in Yemen, it's a war of mistakes. The less mistake you make, the more you win, and the drones have simply made more mistakes than AQAP has ever done in the matter of civilians. News Report: Untold Stories of the underwear bomber: what really happened, ABC News 7 Detroit, September 27, 2012. Part 1 Part 2 Hearing: U.S. Policy Toward Yemen, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, C-SPAN, July 19, 2011. Witnesses: Janet Sanderson: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Daniel Benjamin: State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Sound Clips: 21:00 Janet Sanderson: The United States continues its regular engagement with the government, including with President Ali, Abdullah Saleh, who's currently, as you know, recovering in Saudi Arabia from his injuries following the June 3rd attack on his compound, the acting president, Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the opposition, civil society activists, and others interested in Yemen's future. We strongly support the Gulf Cooperation Council's initiative, which we believe would lead to a peaceful and orderly political transition. The GCC initiative signed by both the ruling General People's Congress party and the opposition coalition, joint meeting parties. Only president Saleh is blocking the agreement moving forward and we continue to call on him to sign the initiative. 22:30 Janet Sanderson: While most protests in Yemen have been peaceful over the last couple of months, there have been violent clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators and between protesters and government security forces and irregular elements using forced to break up demonstrations. The United States is strongly urged the Yemeni government to investigate and prosecute all acts of violence against protesters. 27:00 Janet Sanderson: We strongly believe that a transition is necessary, that an orderly, peaceful transition is the only way to begin to lead Yemen out of the crisis that it has been in for the last few months. 34:30 Daniel Benjamin: Really, I just want to echo what ambassador Sanderson said. It is vitally important that the transition take place. 1:02:15 Daniel Benjamin: The the view from the administration, particularly from a DOD, which is doing of course, the lion's share of the training, although State Department through anti-terrorism training is doing, uh, uh, a good deal as well, is that the Yemenis are, uh, improving their capacities, that they are making good progress towards, uh, being, able to deal with the threats within their border. But it is important to recognize that, uh, uh, our engagement in Yemen was interrupted for many years. Uh, Yemen, uh, did not have the kind of mentoring programs, the kind of training programs that many of our other counter-terrorism partners had. Um, it was really when the Obama administration came into office that a review was done, uh, in, in March of, uh, beginning in March of 2009, it was recognized that Yemen was a major challenge in the world of counter terrorism. And it was not until, uh, December after many conversations with the Yemenis that we really felt that they were on-board with the project and in fact took their first actions against AQAP. This, as you may recall, was just shortly before the attempted, uh, December 25th bombing of the northwest flight. So this is a military and a set of, uh, Ministry of Interior that is civilian, uh, units that are making good progress, but obviously have a lot to learn. So, uh, again, vitally important that we get back to the work of training these units so that they can, uh, take on the missions they need to. Press Conference: Yemen Conference, C-SPAN, January 27, 2010. Speakers: David Miliband - British Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton - Secretary of State Abu Bakr al-Kurbi - Yemeni Foreign Minister Sound Clips: 3:30 David Miliband: And working closely with the government of Yemen, we decided that our agenda needed to cover agreement on the nature of the problem and then address the, uh, solutions across the economic, social, and political terrain. Five key items were agreed at the meeting for the way in which the international community can support progress in Yemen. First, confirmation by the government of Yemen, that it will continue to pursue its reform agenda and agreement to start discussion of an IMF program. The director of the IMF represented at the meeting made a compelling case for the way in which economic reform could be supported by the IMF. This is important because it will provide welcome support and help the government of Yemen confront its immediate challenges. 11:45 Hillary Clinton: The United States just signed a three year umbrella assistance agreement with the government of Yemen that will augment Yemen's capacity to make progress. This package includes initiatives that will cover a range of programs, but the overarching goal of our work is to increase the capacity and governance of Yemen and give the people of Yemen the opportunity to better make choices in their own lives. President Saleh has outlined a 10 point plan for economic reform along with the country's national reform agenda. Those are encouraging signs of progress. Neither, however, will mean much if they are not implemented. So we expect Yemen to enact reforms, continue to combat corruption, and improve the country's investment in business climate. 15:45 Abu Bakr al-Kurbi: This commitment also stems from our belief that the challenges we are facing now cannot be remedied unless we implement this agenda of reforms and the 10 points that her exellency alluded to because this is now a priority number of issues that we have to start with, and I hope this is what will be one of the outcomes of this meeting. 16:30 Hillary Clinton: One of the factors that's new is the IMF's involvement and commitment. the IMF has come forward with a reform agenda that the government of Yemen has agreed to work on. 24:30 Hillary Clinton: We were pleased by the announcement of a cease fire, um, between the Saudis and the Houthis. That should lead, we hope, to broader negotiations and a political dialogue that might lead to a permanent, uh, end to the conflict in the north. It's too soon to tell. The Daily Show with John Stewart: Terror 2.0 by Yemen - Sad Libs, CC.com, January 6, 2010. The Daily Show with John Stewart: Terror 2.0 by Yemen, CC.com, January 4, 2010. Community Suggestions See Community Suggestions HERE. Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

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CashFlow DadLife
CDL 22: What Mooning A Cop Taught Me...

CashFlow DadLife

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2018 12:27


So the big question is this, what would you do if money didn't matter? So you had millions in your bank account, what would you focus on? Would you spend more time with your family, with your wife, with your kids? Take family vacations.   Would you pursue your gifts and talents and dreams? Serve your local community, teach others, serve your church. You see if what you would do if money didn't matter, it was pursuing your gifts and talents and dreams to serve others, and that is probably what you should be doing.   The problem is most people are in the rat race, living five inches in front of their face with no time to pursue what they were born to do. That is the problem, and the solution is to develop enough passive income to replace your working income so you can quit your job and be free to live your life the way you were created to.   That is a solution and this podcast will show you how...   Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to another awesome episode of the cashflow dad live podcast. My name is Ryan Anker, your host. And today I'm going to tell you guys what mooning Aqap in high school taught me about real estate negotiations. So here's what happened where, you know, it's like a Friday night, either junior or senior year of high school, I'm not sure.   And we're out there driving on the interstate and this truck just starts tailgating us, like coming really close to our bumper.   And so my friends were like, man, this truck is really close. Um, somebody should moon them. And I was like, no, we shouldn't. Okay, I will.   And so, uh, I moved away at this guy in this truck, whoever it is, and we, you know, I do my thing, pull up my pants sitting there and he's still tailgating us and we're kind of laughing about it...   And then we get off the interstate and as we get off the interstate, the guy follows us off the interstate. So we're like, oh crap, maybe this wasn't just a one and done thing. Maybe this guy is going to keep following us. So we got to lose them. Well, as we exit the interstate, we see three cop cars waiting at the exit right there.   And so at this point we're like, Huh, I wonder what happened there. I wonder who died, you know, it's a small town. Uh, it was a smaller town back then than it is now. And uh, and so the cops don't have or didn't have a whole lot to do on a Friday night. So I guess they were looking for something to do.   So there's three cop cars waiting at the edge of the interstate and we're like, huh, wonder what, what the deal is there...   So we pull off the interstate and onto another road and all the cops turn on their lights and they pull us over. So at this point I'm like, crap, I wonder if that guy in the truck called the cops. So I tell my buddies, I'm like, look guys, whatever this jerk. And the truck says I didn't move them. Okay, y'all got to get my back on this one.   So we get out the car, the cops, you know, of course they're just messing with us. And so the cop gets on the, on the loudspeakers, like the car, put your hands above your head and put your hands on the hood so it makes us get out, put our hands on the hood of the car.   We put our hands on the hood, on the hood of the car and he starts, you know, pat me down and he goes, what do you think you were doing back there?   And I said, back where he goes on the interstate, what were you doing? And I said, I wouldn't do anything. An --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cashflow-dadlife/support

Intelligence. Unclassified.
Foreign Terrorist Propaganda - A Year in Review

Intelligence. Unclassified.

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2017 25:38


Tune-in to this episode of Intelligence. Unclassified. as Analysis Bureau Chief Dean Baratta and Intelligence Analysts Alyssa Potter, Travis Gross, and Dylan Brody cover topics and trends of propaganda among al-Qa’ida, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, and ISIS.

Target USA Podcast by WTOP
Target USA -- Ep 72: US Central Command facing tough challenges

Target USA Podcast by WTOP

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2017


Responsible for U.S. military activity in 20 countries, U.S. Central Command is faced with multiple difficult, generational challenges. The Taliban is surging in Afghanistan. The Islamic State group 's so-called "caliphate" is crumbling in Iraq and Syria. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) continues to make deceptively clever and elusive bombs, while engaged in a brutal fight to taken over Yemen. CENTCOM spokesman Col. John Thomas paints a stark picture for Target USA of the incredibly complex and dangerous challenges facing the U.S.

Target USA Podcast by WTOP
Target USA - Ep 59: Peter Neffenger, former head of TSA, bluntly describes terror threats to US aviation

Target USA Podcast by WTOP

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2017


After liquid and laptop bans were put in place on planes in 2017, a new twist on a very dangerous threat has emerged. Terrorists are competing for supremacy in aviation terror attacks. Whether it's ISIS, AQAP or other up-and-coming terror groups, they all have master bomb makers and access to extensive knowledge bases that make the terrorist threat to airplanes -- specifically those flying to the U.S. -- more dangerous than ever. Peter Neffenger, former head of the Transportation Security Administration, tells Target USA that terrorist groups never sleep. There are more potential threats out there than ever before.

Lock N Load with Bill Frady podcast
Lock N Load with Bill Frady Ep 1094 Hr 1 Mixdown 1

Lock N Load with Bill Frady podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2017 47:03


A Republic, if You Can Keep It, The Curious Suspensions of Tomi Lahren And Andrew Napolitano, European Parliament Passes Stringent New Gun Controls, Report: Laptop ban result of raid on AQAP in Yemen last January.      http://www.nighthawkcustom.com/locknload Enter To Win The Nighthawk Predator 2 Pistol Giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a Nighthawk Predator 2 Pistol Worth $3,795! Enter For Free Today. USA ONLY - RULES APPLY - ENTER BY 4/30/2017 Sponsored By: Nighthawk Custom, GunWinner.com, On Target Magazine, GAT Daily

Intelligence. Unclassified.
Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula: A Persistent Threat to the West

Intelligence. Unclassified.

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2017 8:50


In November 2016, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) cited the bombings in New Jersey as a model for future attacks in the United States, the first time the group has highlighted New Jersey in its English-language magazine Inspire. AQAP uses Rahimi as an instructive case study on how to improve planning and execution in future terrorist operations. AQAP remains a persistent threat to the West because of its proven ability to incorporate, train, and deploy operatives abroad; the group also has maintained a territorial foothold in Yemen, giving it space to plan and finance operations. AQAP has not attempted to attack the United States since 2012, when a foiled plot against a US-bound airliner, conceived by the group’s chief bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri, was disrupted. The bombings in New Jersey and New York and the attacks in Orlando and at Ohio State University last year highlight the enduring influence of radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who was killed in a US airstrike in Yemen in 2011. Since 2011, Aulaqi has been named in over 20 terrorism cases in the United States. The most recent drone strikes in Yemen provide AQAP with an opportunity to revisit the death of al-Aulaqi and further their propaganda as well as increase recruitment. Join Director of Intelligence Rosemary Martorana and Intelligence Analyst Alyssa Potter as they explore recent developments in AQAP's tactics and their overall threat to the West.

15 Minutes with Lincoln
Trump's Travel Ban/Yemen

15 Minutes with Lincoln

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2017 25:05


After a brief interruption from Tim's girlfriend, Lisa, Tim and Abe discuss the repercussions of President Trump's travel ban and the AQAP raid in Yemen.

Midrats
Episode 363: The South African Border War and its Lessons, with LT Jack McCain

Midrats

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2016 64:16


If you define the Cold War as lasting 44 years from 1947 to 1991, then for over half the Cold War there was a simmering proxy war in southern Africa that involved, to one extent or another, the present day nations of Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa.Over the course of time, it would involve nations from other hemispheres such as Cuba, and brought in to conflict two political philosophies of the 20th Century now held in disrepute in the 21st Century; Communism and Apartheid. The last decade of the Cold War brought the conflict in fresh relief as part of the Reagan administration's push back against Communist aggression in South Africa, Central America, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Acronyms such as UNITA, and SWAPO were as well known then as AQAP and Boko Haram are now.What does that relatively unknown conflict have to teach us about the nature of war today?  Our guest for the full hour to explore that answer will be Lieutenant Jack McCain, USN.LT McCain is a helicopter pilot with operational experience in Guam, Japan, Brunei, the Persian Gulf, and the Western Pacific and is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is currently assigned as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. The opinions he expresses in this article are his own and represent no U.S. government or Department of Defense positions.

Intelligence. Unclassified.
War of the Words: Inspire vs. Dabiq

Intelligence. Unclassified.

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2016 15:23


Tune-in to Episode 32 of Intelligence. Unclassified. as Intelligence Analysts Alyssa Potter and Angie Gad cover the recent propaganda produced by Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), particularly in their respective magazines: Inspire and Dabiq.

JihadPod
XXXI. Nashids: History and Cultural Meaning with Behnam Said

JihadPod

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 29, 2016 36:27


Behnam Said comes on the show to talk about nasheeds. Some of the topics covered include: The role of music in Islam and how it relates to nasheeds A modern history of the use of nasheeds Differences between Sufi, mainstream Islamist, and jihadi nasheeds Different themes used in these nasheeds Why there has been such an explosion in new nasheeds and media outlets from IS and AQAP recently. Links: Behnam Said – Extremis Project Amazon.com author page for Behnam Said Hymns (Nasheeds): A Contribution to the Study of the Jihadist Culture – Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Behnam Said (@BenSai) | Twitter Thanks to Haakon Jahr, TankThoughts, and Raihan Kadir for supporting the show. If you’d like to support the podcast please check out the show’s Patreon page! The podcast is produced by Karl Morand. If you have feedback you can email podcast@jihadology.net, or find us on Twitter: @JihadPod. You can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or with our RSS feed.

JihadPod
XXX. al-Qaeda’s Franchising Strategy with Barak Mendelsohn

JihadPod

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2016 74:42


Barak Mendelsohn comes on the show to discuss his new book, The al-Qaeda Franchise: The Expansion of al-Qaeda and Its Consequences. Some of the topics covered include: How organizations expand Why AQ decided to branch out and the strategy behind that decision AQ’s choices on where to expand Case studies on AQ’s different branches. Links The al-Qaeda Franchise: The Expansion of al-Qaeda and Its Consequences: Barak Mendelsohn Amazon.com Barak Mendelsohn (@BarakMendelsohn) | Twitter Barak Mendelsohn | Haverford College Barak Mendelsohn | Foreign Policy Research Institute Thanks to Haakon Jahr, TankThoughts, and Raihan Kadir for supporting the show! If you’d like to support the podcast please check out the show’s Patreon page! The podcast is produced by Karl Morand. If you have feedback you can email podcast@jihadology.net, or find us on Twitter: @JihadPod. You can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or with our RSS feed.

JihadPod
XVIII. Jihadi Governance 101 with Will McCants

JihadPod

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2015 55:36


Will McCants comes on the show to talk about jihadi governance. The conversation is based on a chapter in his new book The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State. Aaron and Will discussed numerous cases of jihadi groups attempts to govern, including the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Shabab, AQAP, AQIM, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islamic State. This episode also features a Primary Sources segment covering releases from August 14-September 19 and a #SocialMedia segment on postings from October 7-13. Links: The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State: William McCants William McCants | Brookings Institution Will McCants (@will_mccants) | Twitter Thanks to Raihan Kadir and Kaspars Gasuns for supporting the podcast. If you’d like to support the show check out our Patreon page! You can help the podcast and get rewards like access to bonus content, being thanked in the show notes, and more. The podcast is produced by Karl Morand. If you have feedback you can email podcast@jihadology.net, or find us on Twitter: @JihadPod.

JihadPod
XVI. Don’t Call It a Comeback, AQAP’s Been Here for Years with Katherine Zimmerman

JihadPod

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2015 42:25


Katherine Zimmerman comes on the show to talk AQAP. Some of the topics covered include: AQAP since the death of Awlaqi and their withdrawal from territory in southern Yemen in 2012 The effect of the rise of the Huthis and how the Saudi/Emirati war in Yemen has affected AQAP AQAP’s local outreach and how it compares to what it tried from 2011-2012 How drone attacks on AQAP leadership have affected the group The Islamic State’s activities in Yemen and what they mean for AQAP Links: Katherine Zimmerman » AEI Scholar Critical Threats | Katherine Zimmerman A New Model for Defeating al Qaeda in Yemen – Katherine Zimmerman | AEI AQAP: A Resurgent Threat – Katherine Zimmerman | CTC Sentinel Katherine Zimmerman (@KatieZimmerman) | Twitter The podcast is produced by Karl Morand. If you have feedback you can email podcast@jihadology.net, or find us on Twitter: @JihadPod.

Rational Security
The "Crusader Air Strikes" Edition

Rational Security

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2015 31:33


This week on the podcast, the gang discusses Congress weighing in on the Iran nuclear deal. Sunni, Shia, let’s call the whole thing off. And a key Al Qaeda leader who was once held in Guantanamo is killed in a U.S. drone strike. Plus, Ben joins the surveillance state, and Shane solves a mystery from last week's episode. 

The Week In Bike  - The Internet's Second Most Weekly Pro Cycling News Podcast

Let me go back, Grand Tour of Petro-Dollar Excess, Tour of Yemen p/b AQAP, Qatar, Oman, Pozzato, DIA, Armstrong, English major, lawyers, inflight wi-fi, Murcia, Almeria, Algarve, Women’s Tour of New Zealand, looking forward, crash roll, conclusions, EWR, Penn Station, Brooklyn, cyclocross essentials. The post The Week in Bike #57 – Internal Monologue appeared first on Cyclocosm.

Rational Security
The State of the Union is Boring

Rational Security

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2015 62:17


The gang ignores the State of the Union and speculates about how Ali Saleh Al-Marri got sprung from federal prison. Shane takes on FBI Director Jim Comey with a new encrypted phone and a defense of granting anonymity to AQAP sources. Tamara talks about why moderate Arab states are unreliable partners in a war on radical Islam and talks about the great exception to this rule, the United Arab Emirates. And Ben shows up with a virus and an Anonymous mask.  

LIVE with Doctor MO
Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Attack in France

LIVE with Doctor MO

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2015 30:04


Popular (and infamous) Charlie Hebdo french satyrist mag attacked by Al Quaeda cadet commandos. Multiple dead.

LIVE with Doctor MO
Charlie Hebdo Terrorist Attack in France

LIVE with Doctor MO

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2015 30:04


Popular (and infamous) Charlie Hebdo french satyrist mag attacked by Al Quaeda cadet commandos. Multiple dead.

Cold War Radio
CWR#85

Cold War Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2014 58:24


Cold War RadioREPORT: U.S. DEPLOYS 'SPECIALLY-FORMED ELITE MILITARY UNIT' TO HUNT DOWN ISIS HEAD,Al Sharpton to Headline Annual CAIR Banquet,AQAP announces support for ISIL,The Ingenious Way Kurdish Forces Are Battling ISIS, and Winning,Today in Cold War History for August 20,China troops enter disputed India territory: sources

The Armstrong and Getty Show (Bingo)
More on test tube beef; Oprah talked about Trayvon Martin; Washington Post sold to Amazon founder; Chimps love ice cream

The Armstrong and Getty Show (Bingo)

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2013


9 AM - More on test tube beef; Oprah talked about Trayvon Martin; Washington Post sold to Amazon founder; Chimps love ice cream; What happened to the kids at the park and the ice cream man?; AQAP is active; Hassan trial is starting.

SpyCast
A Western Spy among Terrorists in Yemen

SpyCast

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2013 58:11


Morten Storm was a Danish convert to Islam who became a close associate of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American imam who was a senior member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen. He even ate in Awlaki’s home and helped find him a wife. When Storm repented of his radical ways, he turned to the Danish intelligence service and offered inside access to AQAP. Hear him tell SPY Historian Mark Stout how MI6 and CIA came into the picture and how he helped tracked down Awlaki, who died in a controversial CIA drone attack in September 2011.

american western islam cia danish terrorists yemen al qaeda mi6 anwar awlaki aqap arabian peninsula aqap morten storm spy historian mark stout
National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations
Crisis Yemen: Going Where?

National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2012 100:15


"Crisis Yemen: Going Where?" Featuring: Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Mr. Gregory Johnsen, Dr. Charles Schmitz, Mr. Robert Sharp, and Dr. John Duke Anthony. Recorded June 26, 2012 in Washington, DC. Visit www.ncusar.org for more information.

Pundit Review Radio
Marc Thiessen on Courting Disaster

Pundit Review Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2010 26:20


One of the most underappreciated aspects of the Scott Brown victory in deep blue Massachusetts was his vigorous, clear, no apologies defense of some of the most controversial aspects related to how we handle the war on terror, or whatever the Obama administration is calling it this week. War on man-made disasters is sooooo 2009! Scott Brown said quite clearly, the Christmas Eve crotch bomber was funded and trained by Al Qaeda and therefore, he should be treated as an enemy combatant within the military justice system. His opponent, Martha Coakley, agreed with the Obama administration that he should be read his rights, lawyered-up and put into our civilian court system where he will enjoy the same constitutional protections as you or I would. The choice for voters was crystal clear. I have never read a book that made me as angry as Courting Disaster. The Obama administration approach to the war on terror is as naïve as it is dangerous. The crotch bomber incident is the perfect example of how we no longer able to effectively interrogate, or even question terrorists with potentially critical information. In a war against small cells of people able to move freely around the world, human intelligence is more important than ever. The Obama administration has put a blindfold on the CIA. Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard reviews Robert Gibbs statements on the way the crotch bomber was dealt with and it just serves as validation for everything author Marc Thiessen covers in this book. "We learned that the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, whose agency is responsible for pulling together pieces of intelligence to prevent attacks, went on vacation the day after the attack. We learned that the top White House counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, told him to go. We learned that the White House's initial view of the botched attack -- from Janet Napolitano and Robert Gibbs -- was that "the system worked." We learned that President Obama still believed the attempted bombing was the work of "an isolated extremist" three days after the attack, despite a wealth of evidence that Abdulmutallab had been sent by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). We learned that Brennan was surprised that AQAP was capable of attacking the United States. We learned that Napolitano was surprised by al Qaeda's "determination" to hit the U.S. and stunned that they would send an individual -- not a group -- to conduct an attack. We learned that four top U.S. counterterrorism officials -- Leiter, Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair -- were not consulted about whether to treat Abdulmutallab as an enemy combatant or a criminal. We learned that a proposed "high-value detainee interrogation unit," or HIG, does not exist one year into the Obama administration. We learned that Blair, the nation's top intelligence official, thought that it did. We learned that Abdulmutallab was read his Miranda rights less than twelve hours after he was captured. We learned that the FBI interrogated Abdulmutallab for just 50 minutes before he was told he had the right to remain silent and chose to exercise it. That's an impressive record of incompetence." We had a bad connection initially, but we called Marc back and jumped right into this excellent book. We covered a lot of ground but it felt like we only had time to scratch the surface. I hope to have him back on soon. I recommend buying this book, and some Tums to go along with it. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 8-10pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Pundit Review Radio
Marc Thiessen on Courting Disaster

Pundit Review Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2010 26:20


One of the most underappreciated aspects of the Scott Brown victory in deep blue Massachusetts was his vigorous, clear, no apologies defense of some of the most controversial aspects related to how we handle the war on terror, or whatever the Obama administration is calling it this week. War on man-made disasters is sooooo 2009! Scott Brown said quite clearly, the Christmas Eve crotch bomber was funded and trained by Al Qaeda and therefore, he should be treated as an enemy combatant within the military justice system. His opponent, Martha Coakley, agreed with the Obama administration that he should be read his rights, lawyered-up and put into our civilian court system where he will enjoy the same constitutional protections as you or I would. The choice for voters was crystal clear. I have never read a book that made me as angry as Courting Disaster. The Obama administration approach to the war on terror is as naïve as it is dangerous. The crotch bomber incident is the perfect example of how we no longer able to effectively interrogate, or even question terrorists with potentially critical information. In a war against small cells of people able to move freely around the world, human intelligence is more important than ever. The Obama administration has put a blindfold on the CIA. Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard reviews Robert Gibbs statements on the way the crotch bomber was dealt with and it just serves as validation for everything author Marc Thiessen covers in this book. "We learned that the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, whose agency is responsible for pulling together pieces of intelligence to prevent attacks, went on vacation the day after the attack. We learned that the top White House counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, told him to go. We learned that the White House's initial view of the botched attack -- from Janet Napolitano and Robert Gibbs -- was that "the system worked." We learned that President Obama still believed the attempted bombing was the work of "an isolated extremist" three days after the attack, despite a wealth of evidence that Abdulmutallab had been sent by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). We learned that Brennan was surprised that AQAP was capable of attacking the United States. We learned that Napolitano was surprised by al Qaeda's "determination" to hit the U.S. and stunned that they would send an individual -- not a group -- to conduct an attack. We learned that four top U.S. counterterrorism officials -- Leiter, Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair -- were not consulted about whether to treat Abdulmutallab as an enemy combatant or a criminal. We learned that a proposed "high-value detainee interrogation unit," or HIG, does not exist one year into the Obama administration. We learned that Blair, the nation's top intelligence official, thought that it did. We learned that Abdulmutallab was read his Miranda rights less than twelve hours after he was captured. We learned that the FBI interrogated Abdulmutallab for just 50 minutes before he was told he had the right to remain silent and chose to exercise it. That's an impressive record of incompetence." We had a bad connection initially, but we called Marc back and jumped right into this excellent book. We covered a lot of ground but it felt like we only had time to scratch the surface. I hope to have him back on soon. I recommend buying this book, and some Tums to go along with it. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 8-10pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.