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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal & FDD, in re:
The Khorasan Group (al Qaeda) operates comfortably out of Turkey.  DNI Clapper said: “Al Q maintains the ability to plot attacks against the West from Turkey.” Osama bin Ladin had his two most important guys moved to a safer space than Pakistan, to Turkey as a guest of Erdogan – who’s deeply complicit with al Qaeda as well as with ISIS. 
US strikes al Qaeda’s ‘Khorasan Group’ in Syria  The US killed Rifai Ahmed Taha Musa in an airstrike this week. Musa first began working with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri in the 1980s and 1990s. US intelligence officials identified him as a key figure in al Qaeda's so-called "Khorasan Group." According to one of his former comrades, he was in Syria to promote unity between Al Nusrah Front and Ahrar al Sham.
Senior Islamic State Khorasan leaders defect to Taliban   Several members of the Islamic State Khorasan Provinces' "central council" as well as other senior and mid-level leaders based in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar have broken their oath to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and have rejoined the Taliban. “We are breaking our oath of allegiance to Baghdadi” – which will enrage Baghdadi, but shows how much the ISIS fortunes have fallen.  It’s marginal in Afghanistan.
US military kills 2 Swedish Islamic State fighters in Iraq  Khalid Ostman Timayare was the deputy emir of the Anwar Awlaki brigade, while Harris Cary Saneen "was "a trusted member of the cadre of foreign fighters," the US military said. 
 
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:    Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal & FDD, in re:
“Willful blindness at play here” -  we heard that the Arab Spring would discredit the jihadist ideology, once and for all; we debated lots of people and it turned out they were horribly wrong. Al Q: “There’s a blessed Islamic renascence in Libya.”   To this day, the White House and the CIA do not understand that al Qaeda is doing.  Also, the US assumed that the Iraqis would greet US soldiers with praise and flowers, and Americans could go home. Not plan for the day after in Libya– and for governance to flourish, it absolutely needs security, We learned that from WWII, for example – but not the last two American presidents/.  “A cynicism gap between the Americans and al Qaeda.”   Tom’s analysis s is spot on an brilliant. We've squandered too many forces and too much time in these fights; it's too late. Nasty stew of Islamism – we’d have to deploy divisions of American troops. Pres Obama has just washed his hands of it.  Not politically feasible for the next president. We had the chance to contain Mordor in Iraq, and didn’t.  Won't in Libya, either. 
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com and Daily Beast, in re: Oops. Navy officer accused of passing secrets to China faces espionage ...  A Taiwan-born Navy officer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen faces charges of espionage.  Lt Commander Lin is a naturalized US citizen; was involved in flights across China’s coast, learned a lot of the technology, Is now in a brig in Chesapeake, Va,  What's personal to me is a Chinese-American who's involved in spying for China; the Chinese-American community has been very lax about calling out spies for China. Very bad. China has a large and long-term-plan to infiltrate, and considers Taiwan to be part of China.   Chinese-Americans criticize the FBI, not the turncoat.  Chinese censors now delete the word “Panama.”!
Hu Yaobang (who long ago was fired by Deng Xiaoping; a genuine reformer who died in 1989 of a heart attack, and whose loss precipitated the Tien An Men demonstrations) – his son, a princeling, established an offshore company, Nine members or former members of the Standing Committee – top if the pyramid – have offshore companies. M Fonseca has multiple offices in China. 
Double oops. China Blocks Economist and Time Websites, Apparently Over Xi ...
President Xi Jinping of China at the annual National People's Congress in Beijing. The Economist and Time have published articles examining ...
China blocks Economist, Time websites over Xi Jinping articles
Leading publications face ire of Chinese censorship for articles ... / The Economist and Time websites censored by China in response ... / Upset over articles critical of Jinping, China 'blocks' The Economist ...
It looks like Beijing is counting renminbi as foreign exchange.  China  has s=been selling forex, converting it to RMB, then counting the RMB as part of its forex reserves – fraud.  Tens of billions of dollars worldwide ride on the value of the RMB.  Bloomberg said that in 2015 the capital flight was one trillion dollars.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2016/04/10/is-china-counting-yuan-as-forex/#1b8515c818ab  China is taking the same “baby steps” of spying that the Japanese took twenty years before WWII.
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR; John Bolton, AEI; in re: We can step up pressure on North Korea by abrogating the Iran deal. What a new president needs to to do: because both Iran and DPRK progress in their decades-long goal of making nuclear warheads that can be delivered to the US, for example.  This would confront China “We don’t want DPRK to have nukes,” say the Chinese, then they do naught.  They and they alone have the capacity to keep the Kim family dictatorship in power. 
@marykissel Son of Chinese Leader Threatens Suit over Panama Papers Allegations voanews.com/content/son-of…    WASHINGTON—Military authorities have charged a U.S. Navy officer born in Taiwan with espionage on suspicions that he passed secrets to foreign governments, according to U.S. officials and redacted legal documents released by the Navy.
Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin, who was born in Taiwan and became a U.S. citizen after moving to America with his parents as a teenager, has been charged with espionage, making false statements and failing to obey an order, according to the officials and documents.http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-navy-officer-faces-charges-of-espionage-1460400816
“SEOUL—A North Korean colonel defected to South Korea last year, Seoul said on Monday, the most senior military official to switch allegiance since the Korean War of the 1950s. South Korean government officials said the officer worked for North Korea’s primary spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, but declined to give further details about him or his defection. They also said a senior North Korean diplomat based in Africa defected to the South last year.
“The confirmation of local media reports about the defections comes after Seoul said last week that a group of 13 workers from a North Korean restaurant had defected to South Korea. That defection was highly unusual because of the size of the group, and because North Koreans permitted to work abroad are regarded as very loyal to the regime. “A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday that the group had fled from a restaurant in China. At a regular press briefing, Lu Kang said officials had verified the North Koreans had left the country legally….    http://www.wsj.com/articles/seoul-announces-defection-of-highly-ranked-north-korean-spy-1460350878   /   http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/10255965-74/north-nuclear-state
 
Hour Two
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  David Drucker, Senior Congressional correspondent, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO; in re: Tigers are 3 and 2.  Colorado was a sweep for Cruz. Mr Trump is upset and complaining about rules, processes, conventions.  Cruz’s media strategies may be lacking but his grass-roots organizing and data analytics are superb; and craft a message and a way to reach them – turn them out to vote. Barack Obama did excellently twice and GOP did nothing.  Donald Trump has not been well served by his staff; often has not been given bad news; his existing team has been inadequate and now they're playing catch-up.  Catch-up? These are skills developed over months if not years.  Trump may be unable to build the right team but his advantage is not having ethical considerations  ‑ expect delegates’ being offered free vacations to Mar a Lago on the personal 757, to his private golf course. Mr Manafort.   Cruz could invite delegates to Texas. In The Art of the Deal: a contract is a contact; absent a contract, can't count on anything.  However, no one would prosecute of a delegate broke his word. 
Trump: Marco, Kasich or Walker for veep?  He could reassure the GOP that he’s reliable, and float a rock-ribbed Republican. 
Marco Rubio would never sign up for a voyage on the SS Trump Titanic. 
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: David Drucker, Senior Congressional correspondent, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO; in re: New York primary in a week.  Sen Sanders and Mrs Clinton in a food fight – puzzling, since Mrs Clinton has this in a lock.   Sen Sanders offered free healthcare and education, and will make the bankers pay for it.  Sen Sanders leans over the podium at a professorial angle; Mrs Clinton is challenged by this?  Bernie Sanders shares protectionism with Trump; hand in glove with a country htat feels htat thigs are unfair. This is the left-wing version. This is what happens when a country has a drifting foreign  policy with economic stagnatjon, Both Trump and Sanders have inherently self-destructive policies.  The way thorough is a stabler economy.  How to help people have confidence in a government? Dunno how to solve in the short term except reassuring leadership, but that may not be coming soon.  If the FBI primary turns out poorly for Mrs Clinton, Joe Biden would be [easy to plug in.]  Dawn of the Age of Jackson – Trump and Sanders voters will consider it a corrupt bargain when their candidate doesn’t win; the populism will increase; the following election will see the zenith if populism.
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Egypt signs over two small islands to Saudi. Both are in the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba – they have to remain demilitarized. Israel captured them in the Six-Day War and returned them to Egypt.  Saudis owned them for a long time, lent them to Egypt to protect from Israel., and now Egypt is committed to returning them.  Parliament is largely in favor of al Sisi. King Salman has just addressed the Parliament in a brief speech and was much applauded.  “The deal on Tiran and Sanafir paves the way for the construction of a bridge linking Saudi Arabia to Sharm el-Sheikh, at the tip of the Sinai peninsula. It was announced at the weekend during a visit by King Salman of Saudi Arabia.”   This is the post-US world; a direct deal ‘twixt Egypt and Saudi.  The money being given is critical for the war vs ISIS in the Sinai.    ISIS officers have left Raqqa and arrived in Sinai to fight Egypt; with transfer of troops to Golan vs Israel.  Planning a beach landing and other things that ISIS has done in Libya, Intend to break the hold of the Bedouin who have a huge, powerful smuggling network and favor ISIS.   Need to win support of Bedu  chieftains; and a $20 billion oil deal .  US president to Saudi on 21 April; US issues travel warning to Americans as Saudi being too dangerous.  Americans currently forbidden to got closer than 50 miles to the Yemeni border.  / Israelis warned to leave Turkey right away.  Specific threats: seem to be high-confidence reports on what ISIS and others are targetting in Turkey, incl also targetting Americans.  The warning now is unconditional: get out now, don't wait. It's real and imminent. Turkey has much felt economic impact of tourism diminutions, esp for 4.5 million Russians. There are 1,300 hotels for sale on Turkey’s coast. This is not an industry coming back soon. 
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Abu Mazzen – head of PA, Mahmoud Abbas – has a son with funds reported in Panama Papers. Do not hold breath waiting for an investigation,  Abu Mazzen will visit the US soon.  If he doesn't get what he wants there’s balm in — the Caymans!  Panama.   Were there an election the West Bank, Abbas would lose to Hamas – even prison leaders are campaigning against him His term ended eight years ago and he just sits there.   BFLB (so to speak): PA is giving huge pensions and payments to terrorists – the bloodier the better. Now are giving the funds to the PLO to deliver. Abbas in a fit of novelty has just formed a constitutional court – not likely to function in the familiar way – and Hamas and many others reject it as bogus. Two-thirds of the Palestinian public want Abbas to resign.  John Kerry met with GCC on Thursday – who confronted him with specific facts and complaints about the [really rum] Iran deal. An effort by the US to call for missile negotiations to come up with a new arrangement. Iran says, “Our missile power is not negotiable; our critics are impudent.”
Iran Rejects U.S. Call for Missile Negotiations
Brig.-Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, on Friday rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's calls for missile negotiations with Tehran and urged Iran's Foreign Ministry to respond "firmly to the impudence." "We are stressing what has been said several times: the missile power is non-negotiable and among the red lines of the Iranian nation and for developing its defense capabilities, Iran doesn't get permission from anybody." He added that the Iranian nation is "a victim of American aggression."  (Press TV-Iran)
Egypt Gives Saudi Arabia Two Islands in a Show of Gratitude - Declan Walsh
Egypt's cabinet announced on Saturday that it was transferring sovereignty of Tiran and Sanafir, arid and uninhabited islands at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia had transferred Tiran and Sanafir to Egyptian control in 1950 amid concerns that Israel might seize them. The move came during a visit to Cairo by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who has promised Egypt aid and investment. (New York Times)
    See also Egypt and Saudi Arabia Sign Loan Agreements Worth $24 Billion (Al Ahram-Egypt)
    See also Report: Egypt-Saudi Maritime Border Deal Requires Change to Peace Treaty with Israel - Yasser Okbi
Egypt and Israel have recently held talks about Egypt's demarcation of its maritime border in the Gulf of Aqaba with Saudi Arabia, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported. According to the report, Israel did not express any opposition to the Red Sea islands of Sanafir and Tiran coming under Saudi sovereignty. (Maariv Hashavua-Jerusalem Post)
Brussels Attackers Planned to Strike France Again, Belgian Authorities Say - Louise Dewast and David Caplan
The terror group that unleashed deadly attacks on the Brussels airport and subway on March 22 had planned to launch a second attack on France, but instead turned their attention to Brussels, Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday. "The terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again. Eventually, surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels." The announcement follows the arrest Friday in Belgium of Mohamed Abrini, who was caught on video alongside the other bombers in the Brussels airport bombing. (ABC News)
Israelis Warned to Leave Turkey Immediately - Barak Ravid (Ha'aretz) — Israel's Counterterrorism
 
Hour Three
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re:   President Obama chooses his words carefully, so it was startling on Sunday when he chose to opine on the Justice Department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton ’s private email server. All the more so in the way that he phrased his defense of the Democrat he wants to succeed him as President in January.
On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace rolled a clip from October of Mr. Obama saying that “I can tell you this is not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.” Mr. Wallace then cited the 2,000 or so emails we have since learned contained classified information, including 22 that included “top secret” information, and he asked: “Can you still say flatly that she did not jeopardize America’s secrets?”
Mr. Obama replied: “I’ve got to be careful because, as you know, there have been investigations, there are hearings, Congress is looking at this. And I haven’t been sorting through each and every aspect of this. Here’s what I know: Hillary Clinton was an outstanding Secretary of State. She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy.” 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-on-hillarys-email-intent-1460322087?mo...
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Francis Rose, WMAL; NationalDefenseWeek.com and francisrose.com, in re: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/07/va-wait-time-manipulation-veterans/82726634/  ;  http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/conn-billionaire-pledges-275m-to-vets-for-free-mental-health-services-1.403394
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:   Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution, via Defining Ideas; in re:  The Fannie and Freddie Fiasco  Government self-dealing has violated shareholder rights. (1 of 2)
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Richard A. Epstein, Hoover Institution, via Defining Ideas; in re:  The Fannie and Freddie Fiasco  Government self-dealing has violated shareholder rights. (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, PART I OF III.  (Segment 1 of 12)
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, PART I OF III.  (Segment 2 of 12)
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, PART I OF III.  (Segment 3 of 12)
Monday 11 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, PART I OF III.  (Segment 4 of 12)
 
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