The John Batchelor Show

Monday 26 September 2016

Air Date: 
September 26, 2016

Photo, left: Military use of children—children of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University. 
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University. 
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University. 
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University. 
 
Hour Two
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University.   
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  Presidential debate between Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump  at Hofstra University. 
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video, and Mona Charen, NRO, in re: The just-ended debate:  Mr Trump did an entirely adequate job but was visibly weak on specifics; Mrs Clinton our very much held her own  Anomaly: The GOP candidate  has threatened not to stand by our allies, while the Democratic candidate is in the historically unusual position of reassuring our allies that we’ll stand by them militarily.
Trump’s best line: “She has experience, but it’s bad experience. “
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Sean Wilentz, Princeton, and Harry Siegel, Daily Beast and New York Daily News, in re:  “She’s been fighting ISIS her entire life” – um, hunh?  Mr Trump as strong during the law an order portion, but otherwise rather incoherent. Without a rally behind him and almost no audience reaction, his faces and interruptions were [not dignified].  Trump is about shtick.  His exchanges with Lester Holt: hard to fill a minute [from that perspective].    A healthy Secretary of State.  “I got a very small loan from my father” — $14 million.
 
Hour Three
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Larry Kudlow, CNBC, & Steve Moore, Heritage, in re:
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Gene Countryman, KNSS, Wicihta, Kansas, in re:  Watching the debate in a nearby theater; much of the audience were pro-Trump. Laughed a bit at Mrs Clinton.  . . . 
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  Bill Whalen, Hoover, and Brett Arends,  , in re: A ragged presentation by Trump.  Clinton kept making it personal to push his buttons; not succeed.   NAFTA: Trump made his point vigorously, she did not respond much
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  John Fund, NRO, and Thaddeus McCotter, WJR Detroit, in re: discussion of the evening’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. 
 
Hour Four
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Tom Joscelyn, FDD and LongWarJournal; and Bill Roggio, FDD and LongWarJournal; in re: the summer’s attacks were widely said to be by “lone wolves” – which clearly they were not. Digital work by ISIS. German and French authorities now have a lot of digital records: the killers were getting advice by e up to the moment they start the murders.  Virtual planners are online right up to  the moment of he attack. US killers are part f he digital network.   San Berdoo terrorists?  Maybe lots of digital info Also, an Ohioan pled guilty to charges, was constantly online with an ISIS member in Syria. 
ISIS mfrg and using chemical weapons:  several weeks ago, said to have used a mustard agent.
US is bombing chemical weapons storage and production facilities. Within 100 mi south of Mosul.
. . .  There may be cases where Saddam’s old stockpiles and possibly from Syria – a mix of mfrd and raided stockpiles.  ISIS clearly losing its safe haven in Syria; the deceased spokesman al Anani(?) said that Sirte as critical. But it’ s being squeezed slowly.   Operation Odyssey Lightning, US fight there vs a lot, esp vs VBIEDs.  IS probably has significant forces in Libya but not [too well organized].  Islamists from Misrata are leading the charge.   With al Sisi’s visit to New York, Egypt concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Libya.
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Tom Joscelyn, FDD and LongWarJournal; and Bill Roggio, FDD and LongWarJournal; in re: On July 18, an Afghan refugee named Riaz Khan (also known as “Muhammad Riyad”) assaulted passengers on a train in Würzburg, Germany with an ax and a knife. Nearly one week later, on July 24, a Syrian refugee identified as Mohammad Daleel blew himself up outside of a music festival in the German city of Ansbach. Approximately 20 people were wounded in the incidents.
Amaq News Agency, a propaganda arm of the Islamic State, quickly issued claims of responsibility for the operations. Amaq also released videos from Khan and Daleel in which they swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
As The Long War Journal reported at the time, the fact that Amaq was able to release the videos so soon after the attacks suggested that both were in touch with the Islamic State’s media operatives, or at least knew someone in the Islamic State’s network who could send the clips to Amaq. Therefore, they each had at least one tie to the Islamic State, even if it was only digital. [See LWJ reports: Teenager who terrorized German train appears in Islamic State video and Attacks in France and Germany claimed by Islamic State propaganda arm.]
German authorities discovered that there was much more to the story. Islamic State operatives provided specific direction to both Khan and Daleel via messaging applications. The jihadists did the same for a teenage girl who stabbed a police officer at the train station in Hannover, Germany in February. After the bombing in Ansbach, Bavaria’s Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, said that Daleel had been involved in an “intensive chat” that ended “immediately before the attack.”
“There was apparently an immediate contact with someone who had a significant influence on this attack,” Herrmann said, according to the Associated Press.
The evidence that has been uncovered in Germany and elsewhere in Europe shows that the Islamic State’s external operations arm has devised a new method for orchestrating terror. The group’s assistance goes far beyond mere inspiration in at least some cases.
In both Würzburg and Ansbach, the Islamic State’s external operations network guided the terrorists through their day of terror. The electronic fingerprints uncovered in these cases recently prompted Germany’s Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, to say that the jihadists were guided by “remote control.” French prosecutor Francois Molins has used the same phrase, “remote-controlled,” to describe a group of women who were plotting terrorism in Paris.
Transcripts published by German press
On Sept. 14, Süddeutsche Zeitung, a newspaper based in Munich, published transcripts of the conversations Khan and Daleel had with their Islamic State handlers. The Long War Journal has obtained a translation of Süddeutsche Zeitung’s report. (Another translation has been published at Worldcrunch, a website that aggregates and translates news stories from around the globe.)
The Islamic State operatives tasked with directing Khan and Daleel are not identified and it is not clear if the same man chatted with both of them.
The details revealed in the transcripts are chilling. Khan and Daleel may have acted alone, in the sense that no other terrorist was physically with them when they struck. But they were certainly not “lone wolves” in any meaningful sense.
During a digital chat with Khan, the Islamic State’s man asked: “What kind of weapons do you intend to use to kill people?”
“My knife and ax are ready for use,” Khan replied.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/09/terror-plots-in-germany-f...
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re:  Obama’s failed legacy on child soldiers   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/obamas-failed-legacy-on-child-soldiers/2016/09/25/fe1b36ac-81b7-11e6-8327-f141a7beb626_story.html?utm_term=.894aa84e76e4
Monday 25 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   Gordon Chang, Daily Beast and Forbes.com, in re: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/09/26/us/politics/ap-us-united-states-japan-china.html?_r=0  /  Japan Scrambles Jets after China Makes Show of Force in Key Strait   /  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-25/u-s-to-try-again-on-missile-defenses-as-n-korea-threat-grows