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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
C0-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; and author, Liberty Risen.
Hour One
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re:   Emir was said by Washington to have been killed (several times); he probably is not.
Wapo op-ed from Ahrar al Sham's spokesman.  In past broadcasts, I've warned the audience that there was a major push to whitewash Ahrar al Sham in Syria. The group is, in fact, an al Qaeda front group. We have been the only ones exposing it as such for almost two years.  And now their spokesman has published an op-ed arguing they aren't really linked to al Qaeda and they're really moderate. This is nonsense.  Reading it line by line, it's bogus.  Disinformation for the benefit of our enemies. 
   New AQAP leader renews allegiance to the ‘beloved father,’ Ayman al Zawahiri.  Abu Khaled al Suri.
See photo (LongWarJournal) of men looking like Iraqi fighters in front of Abrams M1:  Badr gang, loyal to Iran and Quds force. Did the Pentagon give the tank as a gift?  Probably given by the Iraqi military.  See also AT4 tank rocket (Finnish-made, turned over to Baghdad by US), which Iran now gets to inspect./ Badr Organization fighters pose with US M1 Abrams tank
for changing title color based on category  THREAT MATRIX A Badr fighter also displays an AT4 anti-tank rocket. US equipment that has been supplied to the Iraqi military continues to fall into the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite militias.  READ MORE →
New AQAP leader renews allegiance to the ‘beloved father,’ Ayman al Zawahiri.  Abu Khaled al Suri.
 
Burka-clad male suicide bomber strikes in Chadian capital   The attack in N'Djamena is the third in Chad in less than a month. Boko Haram, which now refers to itself as the Islamic State's West African province, continues to be a large threat to regional security despite losing ground in Nigeria.  READ MORE →
 
Afghan intelligence claims US killed Islamic State’s emir for Khorasan province   The National Directorate of Security (NDS) claimed that the US killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State’s leader for its Khorasan province in an airstrike in Nangarhar. The US has killed top leaders of jihadist organizations in the past, only to watch these groups expand.   READ MORE →
 
Chechen commander in Syria pledges to Islamic Caucasus Emirate   Salahuddin Shishani, the former emir of the Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar who now leads a group of jihadists from the Caucasus in Syria, swore allegiance to the new leader of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, giving a small boost to a group that has been plagued by defections.
Qasim al Raymi, the new head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reaffirms his allegiance to Ayman al Zawahiri in a newly-released audio message. It is al Raymi's first message as AQAP's emir
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb backs jihadists fighting Islamic State in Derna, Libya
AQIM has issued a pair of statements backing the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in Derna against its rivals in the Islamic State. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's men picked a fight with the MSC last month, but have sustained significant losses since then.  (1 of 2)
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD (2 of 2)  Islamic Caucasus Emirate: al Qaeda in Southern Russia. Amir died recently; have named a new amir.   Salahaddin has declared his allegiance to the new amir.   Shashani re-upping with al Q. "This of these as competing wolfpacks. . . on a landscape of anarchy, where warlords rule; no time for anyone weak ; everyone's a victim or a victimizer."  North Africa.  Al Qaeda and ISIS tangling.
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Lenovo, in many ways China's most-internationalized company, has one big challenge it must meet. The Chinese stock market – where you're no longer allowed to sell – and people are now selling Lenovo stock as the world's perception of China has shifted.  Lenovo's laptops are illegal to be bought by federal employees because they contain spyware.  This and past Administration have been very sloppy, not good.  Renminbi as the wold's reserve currency?   Not in the foreseeable future. Chinese govt won’t let its mkts functions normally, so will do the same thing with its currency – RMB will not go in a global basket.  Chinese mkt began its bull rn a year ago simply b/c the govt strongly encouraged that.  Now, lost credibility and leaders look a bit overwhelmed.  Cash fleeing China I oceanic volumes.  . . . Silk Road economic dvpt.  Looks like the Mashall Plan, but it's in the hands of people who can’t deliver at home. Promised $1 trillion for one belt/One road, from China to Africa.  Not working out; and if it's a great idea, why wasn't it done by the private sector?   China wants ore aircraft carriers, supersonic jets, torpedoes.  Beijing doesn’t see to have cash at hand for all its promised purchases. 
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: Australia has cancelled its order for the US F35 (STOL) for its assault ships Checkered dvpt career of the F35: blt to  be the low fighter.  The "high fighter" was to be the sine qua non, that no one could win against; the low fighter is to be everything else – F16, F18.  F35 was to replace the low fighter, and also have air superiority – the F16 and F18 and A10   are all to be replaced by this F35, in three versions and can do nothing well.  Purchase of F35 probably forced by Congress, the Navy and h Air Force. It's not stealthy;  has one engine and is slow; it cannot dogfight.  "F35 is irrelevant unless the F22 (of which we have gravely too few)  is flying with it." Political pressure from the Administration; have spent so-oo much on it that it's too expensive to fail. "If you put enough engines on the Edsel, it'd fly, too." We're retiring the A10 early – insanity. Good news: China hacked the plans for the F35 and now have a version.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/9/jed-babbin-the-deadly-f-35-strike-fighter/
http://sputniknews.com/military/20150713/1024535149.html
Hour Two
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Jed Babbin, The London Center & American Spectator;  John Fund, National Review Online, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re: Mrs. Clinton is playing defense.  Also, spoke against Uber – Silicon Valley, the Sharing Economy.  Maybe she's decoded she'll get some of the Silicon Valley crowd, doesn’t need the rest. "The economy is stalled" – a slap at the president, but more. She came across as so thunderously tone-deaf – how many in Indianapolis know what Uber is?  Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio: she criticized all three.  She recently joked abut the song, "Yesterday."  Now Rubio is a thorn under her collar.  She said she'd "prosecute Wall Street" – some, not all, can spare her friends. She's a one-percenter.  Campaigning as though she was Bernie Sanders. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421116/hillary-clinton-uber-speech-statist-economics
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/421086/who-foresaw-uber-one-big-defining-issues-2016-jim-geraghty
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, National Review Online; Jed Babbin, The London Center & American Spectator; in re: Scott Walker declared for the presidency today; did well. He's been brave, bold and successful in policy, so is attacked as "without a college degree," and "He's a rube and boring."  He covered the entire range of GOP issues.   he's a Midwestern conservative: an expansive view of the Party.  Can he be charismatic enough to put that in the face of a Party that at times doesn’t care to be inclusive?  Two elections: primary and general. Walker will be strong in the first. What does he know about alliances and foreign relations? Maybe not much.—He's come far in the last few months, and speaks of safety since that’s personal to all of us.  Can he maintain what he brings to the table:: he can unite the Party, but if he makes position changes he'll jettison what makes him unique as strong – a good communicator and doesn’t alarm people.
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, & Jed Babbin, The London Center & American Spectator; in re: lengthy overtime overtime negotiations on/with Iran in Vienna. Document? statement? framework?   Today I was in Washington at the amazing annual CUFI annual meeting. Now it looks like midday Vienna time tomorrow/Tuesday. Euros are cross because they’re missing their summer holiday.  UN arms embargo – Russians are pushing hard because they'd get $7 bil in bz; Iran has increased defense spending in the last year.  The anywhere/anytime IAEA visits of sites:  Iran demands "consultation" – advance warning of which sites.  Will we have a final document? Pres is obligated to share it with Congress; if it's a  treaty, need Senate approval, but the Adm calls it "an agreement."  However, right now both houses get to vote an the president gets to veto.  If the P5+1 sign an agreement with Iran, that says that Iran is a responsible actor – "We've charmed the world" – but all their neighbors disagree and are overtly afraid.  Olli Heinnonen: If they’re not cheating, it’ll be  the first time in 30 year."   Last week in the al Quds Day celebrations burned the US president in effigy also Netanayhu and Jewish star and US flags all over the country.  These guys are bazaaris, run circle around others. "We will continue the assault against he US based on Quranic principle."  Note a classified annex: how big? Will it never be revealed? PMD – past military dvpts; sanctions relief in 2016; & lifting the arms embargo. Congress needs to be shown  the whole doc; secret codicils are in addition the 100 page, but WH must give it over within 30 days. Need 88 Dem votes in House & 13 Dems in the Senate, joining the GOP.   Iran nuke deal is likely in coming hours, diplomats say ;  Conflicting reports on whether announcement will be made pre-dawn Tuesday, as sides wrap up years of tortuous negotiations
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he believed there should be no further extension to the talks — but added that he would negotiate as long as needed. We're not clear about all the negotiations, and neither is the US military. Ash Carter: The deal must be verifiable. WE know Iran will cheat; if it's not verifiable, we won't agree; cannot be based on trust with this partner. See also: human rights agenda; by excluding this, we're giving a green light to the Rouhani regime – execute s 5 people a day; and not mention yet of terrorism, which is much alarming to all of Iran's regional neighbors. We must also include missiles – the Pentagon may be the biggest  [barricade] to the agreement It's nuts not to include them in the discussions.  / The Western Wall: Khamenei says he'll obliterate the Western Wall.; UN has now renamed the Western Wall for a horse: al Buraq, the theoretical horse of Mohammed (pbuh), who never went to Jerusalem. 
“I always believe there shouldn’t be any extension but we could work as long as necessary to finish this,” Zarif said as he met Wang. Also present were Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany — Philip Hammond, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The current diplomatic effort began when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013. In November that year an interim deal was agreed but two deadlines in 2014 for a lasting accord were missed. Then in April, the parties scored a major breakthrough by agreeing the main outlines of an accord, aiming to finalise it by June 30, a deadline since pushed back twice.
Hour Three
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: http://www.wsj.com/video/opinion-journal-hillary-nomics/DF4BB628-394D-4AE1-B14F-8A17D2A956AF.html 
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Seb Gorka, Marine Corps University & Heritage, in re: Just gave this brief at Heritage on the ISIS strategy in Iraq and Syria. The only way to defeat an insurgency is to take back the territory they control.  Constituent elements of Iraq need to believe inn Iraq a functioning polity.  All ideology is a distortion of reality; you win by identifying the gaps between what the ideologues portray as reality, and what is.  In ISIS< a fellow says he's a caliph and is the best Muslim – but most of the people ISIS kills are Muslims – and Sunni Muslims! "How can a man who says he's a good Muslim kill that many Muslims?" is how we defeat ISIS. Need a strategic counterideological push.
 http://thegorkabriefing.com/4-reasons-why-isis-is-more-dangerous-than-al-qaeda/
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block C:  Ken Croswell, Science magazine, in re: Here are some Pluto-related items in addition to the quiz ( http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2015/07/quiz-what-do-you-know-about-pluto  ).  We've talked about some of these in the past: In September 1987--yes, 28 years ago--I published an article entitled "A Mission to Pluto" in the magazine Space World.
Even though Pluto is moving farther from the Sun, recent observations indicate that Pluto's atmosphere is getting thicker.  See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/air-apparent-plutos-eternal-atmosphere/ Pluto now has five known moons--more than Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars put together:  http://KenCroswell.com/PlutoFifthMoon.html .  It's possible New Horizons will find more. Those moons may teach us how planets orbit double stars:  http://news.sciencemag.org/2012/06/plutos-moons-offer-hints-alien-worlds .
But William Shatner lost his battle to name one of those moons "Vulcan":  http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/07/scienceshot-plutos-moons-get-off.html .  After New Horizons visits Pluto, it may investigate other objects--much smaller than Pluto--in the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt:  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-work-to-keep-new-horizons-busy-after-pluto/  In 2005, astronomers discovered Eris and claimed it was bigger than Pluto, but the latest analysis suggests Pluto is bigger than Eris:  http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/03/scienceshot-pluto-regains-its-title-largest-object-its-neighborhood .  New Horizons should tell us Pluto's exact diameter.
I classify Pluto as a planet, along with Eris, which is nearly the same size.  See this op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, which appeared on the 80th anniversary of Pluto's discovery back in 2010:  http://KenCroswell.com/NinthRockFromTheSun.html .  The latest news about Pluto is at the New Horizons website:  http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: David K. Devaney SgtMaj USMC Retired, & SpotterUp.com 150617,  in re: Snipers, the cleanest killers in the history of warfare. The Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon of 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines during the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s had their platoon t-shirts printed with this on it:  Invisible Souls - Leave .308 Holes; my favorite shirt ever.   First, this is in no way a slight on pilots, artilleryman, or anyone else.  This is to point out the idiocracy in maligning the evil sniper; which is actually a phobia – an irrational fear (snipaphobia).    Pilots / aircrew.  American airmen (all services) have been absolutely brilliant during the recent wars.  They have destroyed more enemy personnel than we will ever know.  I might not be writing this right now if it were not for Marine aircraft and crews.  But you must realize aircraft bombardments, although they are getting better, are an ugly way of warfare, killing as much infrastructure as enemy.  God bless our American aircrews. 
Hour Four
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman (1 of 2)
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman (2 of 2)
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Richard A. Epstein, Hoover via Defining Ideas, in re:  Raisin' a Raw Deal   (1 of 2)
Monday  13 July 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Richard A. Epstein, Hoover via Defining Ideas, in re:  Raisin' a Raw Deal   (2 of 2)