Walid Phares Is Among Trump's Policy Advisors

You pretty much have to be an IBA/Pamela Geller/Jihad Watch/Vlad Tepes/Gates of Vienna junkie to know who Walid Phares.

But suffice it to say, this is a good choice.

From CNN:

Trump's team of foreign policy advisers, led by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, consists of counter-terrorism expert Walid Phares, energy consultant George Papadopoulos, former Defense Department inspector general Joe Schmitz, managing partner of Global Energy Capital Carter Page and former Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the names to CNN. 

"And I have quite a few more," Trump told the Post's editorial board, without offering details. "But that's a group of some of the people that we are dealing with. We have many other people in different aspects of what we do. But that's pretty representative group."

Here's an important book from Walid Phares:

Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America

Here's a speech from Walid Phares given for the Center for Security Policy:



Mitt Romney had Walid Phares on his Advisory Team. For this he was roundly attacked by CAIR and Hizbollah:

See these links:

One

Two

Three.

Early Assessment of the elimination of Taliban commander Mehsud

Counterterrorism Blog:

by Walid Phares

As reports are confirming the elimination of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, including Pakistani sources to al Jazeera, a growing debate is widening in the international media about the "value" of that event. Some analyses are using terms such as "turning point," while other are describing it as "lethal hit against Pakistan's Taliban." Evidently, authorities in Pakistan and the United States are logically rejoicing for the fact that a tough foe is gone. Intelligence estimates will soon tell how important what that successful drone and what would the field consequences be in the next weeks, months and maybe a year or two.

But it is important that the expert community help the public and decision makers in making a fair and accurate assessment of the event with the correct understanding of the value of the tactics employed on the Pakistan's front with the Taliban; but also one should suggest that no excesses should be projected in over estimating the impact on the "war." As the discussion is ongoing in the media and inside Government circles, following are eight points of assessment to be considered:

1. Tactically, the elimination of Baitullah Mehsud, as the direct commander of the Taliban terror networks is a real field victory for Pakistan's Government and, in perspective, a payback for the assassination of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Moreover, the vanishing of Mehsud can create conditions for progress of Pakistan's forces in south Waziristan, only for a short period of time and if Islamabad can mobilize enough popular support for the next stage of engagement against the Taliban.

2. It is also a victory to the global US intelligence and an indicator to current and future successful strikes via the technology employed by American deployment out of Afghanistan. It adds some deterrence to NATO presence in the region, but again, within limitations.

3. It will put some pressure on the Taliban and also on al Qaeda inside Pakistan, and psychological pressure on the Taliban inside Afghanistan

4. It could ease some past tensions between US and Pakistan military authorities regarding the use of missiles and drone attacks against Taliban, across the borders; but it will not transform the current discrete cooperation into a NATO like open collaboration.

However, on the other hand

a. We know almost for sure that the Taliban will select a new leader who will replace Mehsud. They may well select or add later a member of his own clan, family or entourage. The assessment will be made by the "war room" of the Jihadists in the region. In short, undoubtedly the Taliban campaign will continue.

b. Also one has to be ready that Taliban Pakistan, or their allies inside the country (and they have many) may try to assassinate important figures inside Pakistan, in retaliation.

d. Hence the elimination of Baitullah Mehsud is a tactical turning point that could be used to provoke more crumbling, but the window is very short.

e. Jihadi media and some al Jazeera commentators say his elimination will affect but not crumble the Taliban.

FOX News Reports On July 19 Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference

FOX News has a special report up on the conference to be held July 19 in Chicago that is sponsored by the al Qaeda-linked Hizb ut-Tahrir under the title "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam".

Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference
Friday, July 17, 2009

Diane Macedo


A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq's onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has operated discreetly in the U.S. for decades. Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb of Chicago.

Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it does not engage in terrorism, and it is not recognized by the State Department as a known terror group. But some terrorism experts say it may be even more dangerous than many groups that are on the terror list.

"Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism," Walid Phares, director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told FOXNews.com.

Phares said that Hizb ut-Tahrir, rather than training members to carry out terrorist acts like Al Qaeda, focuses instead on indoctrinating youths between ages of 9 and 18 to absorb the ideology that calls for the formation of an empire — or "khilafah" — that will rule according to Islamic law and condones any means to achieve it, including militant jihad.

Hizb ut-Tahrir often says that its indoctrination "prepares the infantry" that groups like Al Qaeda take into battle, Phares said. "It's like a middle school that prepares them to be recruited by the high school, which is Al Qaeda," he said. "One would compare them to Hitler youth. ... It's an extremely dangerous organization."

Phares said Hizb ut-Tahrir has strongholds in Western countries, including Britain, France and Spain, and clearly is looking to strengthen its base in the U.S. "The aim of this conference is to recruit within the Muslim community in America," he said. "The Middle East governments go after them, but in the U.S. they are protected, so having a base here is going to help their cells around the world."

Representatives of Hizb ut-Tahrir declined to comment when contacted by FOXNews.com.

Oren Segal, director of Islamic Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, said the conference is cause for concern.

"While they're not, for the most part, engaging in violent activities, and they publicly say that they're against violence, there have been examples around the world where people who have spun off of this group have engaged in violent activity," Segal told FOXNews.com. "That's why they're banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries, as well as Germany and Russia."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the group's most famous alumni, New
Statesman journalist Shiv Malik reported, citing intelligence sources. In addition to plotting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he also is implicated in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, the Bali nightclub bombings and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Malik's report, the public policy institute the Nixon Center and the counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation agree that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed in June 2006, also was once a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Thy say other former members include Asif Muhammad Hanif, a British man who blew himself up outside a bar in Tel Aviv, killing four people (including himself) and wounding more than 50; and Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric currently banned from Britain who praised the 9/11 attacks, raised funds for Hezbollah and Hamas and called for attacks on the Dublin
airport because U.S. troops transfered there on their way to Iraq. Segal said Hizb ut-Tahrir is becoming more active online in the U.S. — particularly on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace — and now it may be able to add a significant number of Americans to its ranks.

But one place the group will likely not be recruiting is a local Islamic school that backed out of hosting the conference. he non-profit Aqsa school in Bridgeview said Hizb ut-Tahrir had deceptively portrayed the conference as a bazaar-type event where traditional food and clothing would be sold.

"They misrepresented themselves and the event. We don't want to be in the middle of something like that," the school's business manager Rana Jaber, told CBS News.
The conference's new venue doesn't seem to mind.

Hilton Oak Lawn General Manager Rick Harmon said Hizb ut-Tahrir used its own name when it reserved the room for the conference, but the hotel was not aware of the content of the event, which includes lectures entitled "Capitalism is Doomed to Fail," "The Global Rise of Islam," and the "Role of Muslims in America," until after the contract was signed. Still, Harmon said the hotel is open to all kinds of meetings, that don't necessarily reflect its position or beliefs.

"We're United States citizens and an American business — if it's legal, we're able to host it, as long as it's nothing that disrupts our other guests' privacy and security," Harmon told FOXNews.com.

Lots more at the FOX News site including links to the conference site itself.

Walid Phares on the Arkansas Jihad

Counterterrorism Blog:

ARKANSAS' LONE JIHADIST: HOW ALONE IS HE?
By Walid Phares

In an armed attack outside the Army-Navy Career Center which handles recruiting, in Little Rock, AR, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, killed one soldier wounded another. Muhammad, an American citizen who is a convert to Islam and previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, already had been under investigation by the FBI at the time of the shootings. He had traveled to Yemen, received indoctrination from radical clerics, according to a watch group, and possessed a false Somali passport. He was charged in the death of Pvt. William Long, 23, while a prosecutor said Muhammad admitted shooting Long and another soldier "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past."

Here we have a new case of an individual U.S. citizen who committed an act of terror in the name of his ideology (Government officials have called it inaccurately a "political and religious motive") against U.S. military targets. Do we see a pattern here? Are we witnessing a repeat and copycats? In fact, as we review several previous cases, from the Miami cell case, to the Fort Dix Six, the Georgia two, the New York Four, the Virginia Paintball network, and many other cases, we're witnessing the surge of a phenomenon we have been warning about. I have repeatedly coined it Mutant Jihad, including in my book Future Jihad. Two important elements are to be taken into consideration: One is the fact that in many of these cases, U.S. military personnel and targets have been on the short list of these "homegrown terrorists." If you study the repeated targeting process of these urban Jihadists, they systematically focus on military deployment inside the United States. In a sense, even as the perpetrators are separate, dispersed, and not connected, their targeting seems war-like: attacking the enemy's forces on the homeland. The second element to be taken into consideration is the clear fact that in all these cases, without exception, we're seeing one ideology: Jihadism. Despite various levels of understanding and sophistication, the cells and lone wolves who were involved in the terror acts, legitimized their action under the label of "Jihad."

In several media interviews and defense and security workshops conducted over the past few years and months, I've made the case for the existence of a "force" behind these activities, pushing the Jihadi agenda and indoctrinating the "militants" into "fighting elements." As I studied the cases and compared them to each other, I found out that in each one case, there is a "clicking moment." Several U.S. and European legislators asked me about defining the "clicking moment" where a militant becomes a terrorist. My answer has been and continues to be: once one is indoctrinated into Jihadism, the mutation into a terrorist is at the discretion of the militant. We need to stop the terrorists at the indoctrination level.

In this case, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad had been under investigation by the FBI after he traveled to Yemen and was arrested there for using a Somali passport. How come he was under surveillance and yet he committed this attack? Even though he was on some list, so are many others. The countering policies are challenged by a much wider issue, i.e the radicalization process which is touching hundreds if not thousands of individuals. The speed of radicalization is more rapid than the speed of counter radicalization.

Some argued that Mr. Muhammad — a U.S. citizen who is a recent convert to Islam and was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe — studied jihad with an Islamic scholar, and thus raises the issue of religious conversion and the parties responsible for it. In fact, conversion by itself isn't the front issue but studying Jihadism under radical ideologues is the stage where individuals turn into Jihadi militants, regardless of their affiliation with a group or a conspiracy. Which brings us to law enforcement’s understanding of what we're dealing with. According to AP, a U.S. local official said: "Muhammad was not part of any terrorist group, nor was his attack part of a larger conspiracy." But is this relevant? If anything, this is evidence that some official does not understand that Jihadi terrorists aren't necessarily part of a terrorist group and or of a vast conspiracy. This is a new type of threat which is penetrating the United States that we need to be aware of. Similarly, a local official told AP: "We believe that it's associated with his disagreement over the military operations." This is further evidence that authorities may not comprehend the true motives of the Jihadists. It is not about "disagreement over military operations." It is about indoctrination of individual U.S. citizens or residents to turn them against
their own society for a much larger purpose.

Phares on Pirates

Dr. Walid Phares discusses the "pirates." They're not, not in your typical sense, but jihadis.

from Counterterrorismblog:

Jihad Corsairs on High Seas: What's Behind them?
By Walid Phares

Most of the media discussion about piracy in the Gulf of Aden has drifted understandably towards the sensational part of the story: how are the Pirates able to roam the Ocean? Is paying them ransom a better option than to engage them militarily? Last but not least, will a military intervention against the Pirates worsen the situation; will it lead to a massive escalation in Somalia and a Vietnam like quagmire for many years to come?

The armed bands on the waters are still roaming the seas of Aden and the Indian Ocean across from Somalia and Kenya, are not impressed with the dozens of naval units dispatched by powerful navies from around the world.

What is behind this Piracy phenomenon, what lays ahead if the international community intervenes and what could develop in that region if the latter is late to intervene or doesn’t meet the challenge? It appears the strategic challenge is even bigger than the mere piracy. Indeed the strategy now contemplated by regional powers could become a major military debacle. Here is why:




These so-called Somali pirates are strategically different from their historical predecessors in the Caribbean or from their contemporary colleagues in archipelagoes around the world. They aren’t a vast collection of individual thugs, acting as bands replicating what successful sea gangs have accomplished for centuries before them. They are too many, operating from extremely long shores, all using similar methods, and are backed from hinterland forces. They may seem like pirates as they seize ships and negotiate for the ransom. But these water thugs actually belong to a wider chess game. The grand ensemble of the army of little boats is in fact part of a regional Jihadi apparatus being deployed in the horn of Africa and beyond. The Jihadi grand circle building in the region is not limited to the pirates but involves hostile forces from the mid Red Sea to East Africa. The Somali pirates are merely one facet of this grand circle.

Ironically, the term used in Arabic (and now in Arabic media) to depict the Somali pirates is Qursaan, which derives from Corsairs, the swashbuckling French privateers from a bygone era.

A view of the operations map of these Somali Qursaan leaves little room that the end aim is to create a vast zone of insecurity stretching from East Africa to the Red Sea. A closer look allows strategists to easily realize that these are the maritime passages from the Oil rich Gulf to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal and also parts of the East African alternative routes the most economic via Cape Town. So, above and beyond the globally low (even if locally lucrative) revenues that these operations bring to their little pirates, the greater Qursaan operation is of regional-international dimension. It is about holding these passages hostages thereby bringing global negotiation. This is nothing more than a maritime Jihad striking at the Western/international lifeline on high seas to bring about a change in balance of power.

If the West (with other democracies or powers) decides to engage the Qursaan on high seas only, there will be more waves of piracy action, and revenge actions will gradually take place against the countries whose vessels conducted the military interdictions. When such escalation takes place the options are only two: either the powers suspend the operations and negotiate with the pirates/corsairs or they shall take offensive against their ports of launching, that is, on Somali soil. If the US and its allies drop the naval campaign and assign diplomats to treat the matter, the Qursaan will grow in numbers and influence and eventually their outreach will close the waters between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. But if the international coalition (which yet has to take shape) decides to take on the points of origins of the attackers, this will lead to a massive campaign along the Somali-Kenyan coastlines forcing actions to be taken against ports, many small ports and eventually beachheads, establishing security enclaves. Such a projection will re-create a multinational force to perform the missions, reprisal operations and eventually inland deployment, deeper and deeper inside Somalia. That’s precisely what the Jihadists are looking for: brigades of international forces landing in that country, Kuffar (infidels) in nature, so that the Shabab al Jihad and other remnants of the Mahakam have the honor of fighting.

The so-called pirates are being used by land-based forces to drag the enemy into a wider war in the region, with all probabilities and possibilities open. To each decision made by the West and its allies, a counter plan will be applied. These are the types of complex threats that twenty-first century terror forces will develop to upset the balance of forces. For by challenging a previously stable area of transportation and commerce, the forces behind the Qursaan will be scoring a major victory. If the foe negotiates, they win, and in their view also, if the foe engages militarily, the Jihadists win too.

Indeed, if Somalia will go back to full war, the forces engaged in such campaign will involve many navies in the area. Two months ago, Eritrea and the Iranian regime signed an agreement granting naval facilities to the Khomeinist military ships to use the country’s ports and eventually build a base on the Red Sea. Last month, reports signaling an alignment of military intelligence between the Sudanese and Iranian regimes and Hezbollah’s networks in the region. In our media debate we are still at the stage of sensationalist stories and footage of modern day piracy. In the war rooms of the other side, the Qursaan are probably a tip of an Islamic iceberg moving slowly towards one of the most sensitive regions of the world. The gap between our debate and strategic realities has always been at the core of failures. This time we should catch up before we fall behind and stumble terribly.

Behind the Corsairs: Shabab al Jihad, al Qaeda, Iran, Hezbollah?

Dr Walid Phares is the author of The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad. He is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy.

Phares Says the Three-Letter Word: EMP

Oh s***...

On the heels of a boast by an Osamaton blogger (see my post below) that another massive blackout is being planned by OBL's merry pranksters here North America comes an op-ed by Walid Phares at Family Security Matters warning of the danger of an EMP, or electro-magnetic pulse, attack originating in Iran.

Over the past seven months, I have been interacting with U.S. Homeland Security and European defense officials and experts on the next potential threat to the West, more particularly against mainland America. The signature of that strategic menace is EMP, or electro magnetic pulse - a weapon of the future but already available in design, construction and possible deployment. As eyes are focused on the Iranian nuclear threat, and as we began recently to understand that missile advances are as important as fissile material development, private sector projects and some in the defense world are now paying attention to what can cause a wider circle of damage to the U.S. and thus be more crippling to U.S. national security...

Even if a high-altitude EMP kills nobody at first, it would paralyze a large section, if not most of, of the United States. The lingering practical and economic effects would take anywhere from hours to years to resolve: when secondary effects are considered, such as the unavailability of food, an EMP could be even deadlier than a direct nuclear strike against the mainland.

For those unfamiliar with EMP-related concerns, Phares provides a link to a useful overview at http://shieldamerica.org/ . Basically, an EMP attack causes its most significant devastation not through blast damage or radiation, but via long-term crippling of the target nation's electrical infrastructure. Detonation of a nuclear device at extremely high altitude over America would create a shockwave knocking out electrical power, communications, transportation, the ability to supply water, food, and heat -- in short, casting this country backwards more than a century in technological time. As Phares observes, the missle threat from Iran is diverse. Theoretically, at least, it could be used to deliver a chemical, biological, or EMP strike as well as a "conventional" nuclear attack against major city or other significant target.

Geopolitical projections, including developments which may take place in Iraq and Afghanistan, tell us that Iran may find itself free from constraints to equip itself with long range missiles able to reach the U.S. mainland at some point in the near future, not only from mainland Iran, but also from other locations closer to America, including from the hands of terrorist forces in the open seas and elsewhere.

Is The One aware of this form of nuclear weaponry, or has he been made aware of it in the course of his post-election security briefings? Assuming he has, how will he play this hand in his talks with the Ahmadhimmijerker?

Read it all at Phare's website.

Without Firing a Shot... ?

Interesting analysis of the financial crisis by Walid Phares. Phares acknowledges that "blame can be leveled in two directions" for the real estate market crisis. "First, towards those politicians who threatened political retaliation if the financial system didn’t lend beyond rational limits; and second, Wall Street financiers who risked breaking the financial system by relying on poor judgment regarding the public’s ability to overcome economic challenges." But, as he points out, the last straw that you should excuse the expression broke the camel's back may have come from outside the U.S.:

A thorough psycho-economic observation of the public’s financial behavior, however, tells us that there may be more to the crisis. It reveals that an outside “push” – I now coin it economic terrorism - may have been the tipping point of the collapse. For monitoring how and why buyers massively abandoned their plans shows that it followed, or coincided, with an abrupt rise in the cost of gas dividends. With the numbers at the pumps going ballistic, the cost of living suddenly rose, goods became less attainable and the price of enjoying, let alone using, the newly purchased properties soared. Hence, undoubtedly the lifestyle that was sought by the tens of millions of homes buyers wasn’t possible to achieve anymore; thus they surrendered financially in droves, taking the system down with them.

Economists will tell us if this diagnosis stands up. But if it does, then we cannot avoid investigating the factor that caused the strategic stress in real estate, which turned into economic chaos. In bypassing a narrow economic analysis, we can detect clearly the connection between the dizzying ups in petrol pricing and the slowing of American buying capacity. Stunningly, one can conclude that while it is sadly true that both Wall Street’s corruption and politicians’ abuse of the system handed the tools of doom to the middle class, Main Street’s rapid disenfranchisement was manufactured overseas, thousands of miles away, at the hands of OPEC, or perhaps in some quarters of the oil-producing Cartel.

As usual, Phares is insightful without overstating his case. It is certainly not stretching credibility to assume that OPEC members and the Islamic world in general have been keeping close watch on the U.S. economy, waiting for the right moment to throw a monkey wrench into the works. This sure as hell is the right moment: if Phares is right, their actions will help to propel their favored candidate into the Presidency of this country. "Economic terrorism" indeed -- and without firing a shot.

Phares: Western Public Must Educate Itself About Jihadist Threat

"The Confrontation", Dr. Walid Phares' third book in his trilogy on the war against jihad ("Future Jihad" and "The War of Ideas" prceeded it), was released this month. Phares has consistently placed strong emphasis on the need for the Western public to be educated about the nature of jihadism and its threat to our society. He castigates Western academics and the MSM for defaulting on their responsibility to supply the public with the relevant information needed to form an accurate picture of the Islamist threat and act accordingly. Below are excerpts from Chapter 3: Cultural Revolution in the West.

The major missing component in the Western War on Terror is undoubtedly: public action and knowledge. The man or woman on the street is strangely absent from the raging debates on the conflict... On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, one might have expected to see millions in the streets demonstrating against al Qaeda and its ideology... but the people of America didn't show a visceral anger. Lighting candles, holding cermonies, and displaying the flag showed they were touched, hurt, and concerned. But the question most often asked was "Why?" This... showed how shielded the American public was from what had happened. The dominant elites had performed a lethal brainwashing... the public was denied the truth, and actively miseducated.

The marginalization of... the Western public denies them their basic right to resist the Jihadist onslaught. It denies the public the right to obtain information and to act. Ordinary men and women in societies under attack knew with their basic instincts that their culture and their very existence was being assaulted. But they were deprived of the knowledge needed to transform their feelings, their frustration, and their real aspiriations into action -- and by their own establishment... The elite... has acted in conjunction with the terror campaign, in fact betraying the confidence of its constituency.

In a besieged political culture, where the command-and-control systems are solidly in the hands of the oil-backed (and mostly Jihadi) cartels, the only choice when survival is at issue is for the public to rise... and presssure the press and audiovisual media to end the dominance of the apologists and open the media to a plurality of views on the terror wars. The public also has to look beyond the traditional media to a new media now available to civil society: bloggers, direct news from the field, YouTube, chat rooms, free media...

Citizens will have to educate themselves on the most dangerous development of the twenty-first century and begin electing officials on the basis of their understanding of the threat and their will to combat it.

Phares Endorses Romney, Stresses Preparedness

Walid Phares has endorsed Mitt Romney for president in a powerful statement released today on his blog and in Human Events. Phares has been quite proactive in this campaign, sending emails and copies of his books to the candidates of both parties. This is not an act of hubris but an acceptance of responsibility by an expert who knows his subject thoroughly. Phares' work has always been distinctive for combining devastatingly incisive analysis of Islamist aims and Western vulnerabilities with a firm, encouraging optimism that the malignant dream of the caliphate can yet be defeated by Western Civilization, but this article sets out the implications of the choices between the candidates with a starkness and urgency I have never read before even in his work. Phares has predicted developments in the years prior to and following 9/11 with literally stunning accuracy and his warnings about what the U.S. president will face in his/her next two terms and exactly what are the stakes:

The stakes are much higher than the sweet but irrelevant American usual
personality debate. I want to know if the candidates are strong willed, smart,
educated about the world, informed about the threat, can define it, can identify
it, can fight it, are not duped by their bureaucracy, cannot be influenced by
foreign regimes, have the right advisors, can run an economy while commanding a
war and still see the threats as they handle daily crisis and take drastic
measures as the hard times are approaching. I want to know if the candidates are
very specific when they inform their public about the menace. Yes, it is indeed
a vital function of national security that we need to insure for the next few
years, so that all other issues can be addressed thoroughly. In short I don’t
want to see the fall of Constantinople being repeated on these shores in the
next decade or two. Humanity will not recover from such a disaster.

I have been leaning towards Romney since Giuliani dropped out of the race. Any differences I have with him on "social issues" are irrelevant at this time. There is only one issue and I agree with Phares that Romney exhibits the most thorough undersanding of and resolution towards dealing with it. As Phares puts it, McCain senses the nature of the enemy but has not yet identified it. If he is the nominee we can only hope that he will successfully "catch up" in time to take the right actions. Romney sees the enemy clearly and does not flinch. That is what I want in my president in the coming dangerous years.

Phares Speaks Out on DoD Firing of Coughlin

If you haven't visited Walid Phares' site recently, take a few minutes to listen to his interview on the Right Balance radio show in which he discusses the connection between the firing of jihadism expert Major Steve Coughlin and the influence of the pro-Islamist lobbyists that we now see reaches even into the DoD.