Monday 8 September 2014
Photo, above: Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Kind, generous, hospitable Jordan is immediately next in the sights of ISIS.
In the 13th century BC, Amman was called Rabbath Ammon by the Ammonites. It was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Persians, and then the Greek Macedonians. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian ruler of Egypt, renamed it Philadelphia (Ancient Greek Φιλαδέλφεια). The city became part of the Nabataean kingdom until 106 AD, when Philadelphia came under Roman control and joined the Decapolis
The Amman Citadel is a national historic site at the center of downtown Amman. Known in Arabic as Jabal al-Qal'a, the L-shaped hill is one of the seven jabals that originally made up Amman. Evidence of occupation since the pottery Neolithic period has been found, making it among the world's oldest continuously inhabited places.
The Amman Citadel’s history represents significant civilizations that stretched across continents and prospered for centuries, as one empire gave rise to the next. It also symbolizes the birth of the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Umayyad Mosque also lies inside, within the borders of the site, which attests to the continuous inhabitation of the area. Settlement at the Citadel extends over 7,000 years. The site represents a passage across time with an astounding open-air museum to explore as a part of the heritage of humankind.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
C0-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
Hour One
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: IS is operating in a failed-state area (Iraq) next to another failed state (Syria), a group of cruel men who hold that either you’re with them or you’re dead. Al Nusrah sees IS getting all the attention – twitter, messaging in multiple languages – now issues PR in English: a 26-page pamphlet as a digital monthly report. Al Nusrah Front releases English-language summary of monthly operations
Haditha, a small city on the Euphrates. Washington's mission creep. Hadithah Dam: if IS blew it up, a lot of people would be flooded. IS has controlled dams for a year; it's not wishing to destroy infrastructure right now. US airstrikes target Islamic State at the Haditha Dam AQAP, Shebaab, AQAM – all al Qaeda branches; the fifth one is now in the Subcontinent, called AQAS.
Al Qaeda veteran takes on a more prominent role as spokesman in Syria Abu Firas al Suri long served as a clandestine figure in al Qaeda's international terrorist network. Today he serves as the Al Nusrah Front's spokesman. He is tasked with defending Al Nusrah's capture of more than 40 UN peacekeepers.
US confirms Shabaab emir Godane killed in airstrike 'Removing Godane from the battlefield is a major symbolic and operational loss to al-Shabaab," the Pentagon's spokesman said. But jihadist groups have withstood the loss of top leaders in the past. Islamic State militants on Sept. 8 attacked Dhuluiya, a riverside town 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad, using gunboats and a car bomb, security sources said, Reuters reported. The militants killed 17 people and wounded 54.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, & Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: The US air campaign against the Islamic State has expanded into Anbar province. Al Nusrah friendly with many operating units thereabout; gathers US-supplied weapons and materiel. These come in from Turkey. Also seizes these from "Free Syrian Army." Only fighting group there is ISIS.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Claudia Rosett, FDD, in Hong Kong, in re: Who's firing these mortars and rockets? Can’t find it in the news. UNRWA proposes to investigate the Hamas gangsters using the UN – "reportedly, there were 100 rockets and 88 mortar shells fired toward Israel." Apparently, they just fired themselves. UNWA files sitreps in which Hamas doesn’t fire; when Israel fires back, UNRWA proclaims it loudly. Even reported that Gaza was desperately short of building materials – of which thousands of tons had been used to construct attack tunnels. UNRWA shilling for Hamas, Bizarre. Margot Ellis, an American ["Ms. Ellis, a national of the United States of America, brings a wealth of senior management experience in both the international development and private sector . . . ] , is second at UNRWA as miles of tunnels were being constructed. Children's schools were arsenals – UNRWA schools. The mortars fire themselves. The tunnels build themselves. The rockets store themselves in schools. US gave $300 mil in 2013 to UNRWA. The Palestinian refugees of the late 1940s are now dead; who remain are not refugees. UNRWA exists to perpetuate itself. It very clearly supports terrorist rule. US is stuffing money down not a rat hole, but down an attack tunnel. In August, Hamas took about a half-dozen hooded opponents into a public square, and shot them. A former IRCRC official, a Swiss, who’s been blaming Israel for everything possible, said zero about this horrific mass execution. UNRWA has a staff of 30,000 Palestinians; uses the UN for cover, represents Hamas.
The U.N.: Clueless or Complicit in Gaza? Problems abound with the U.N. agency responsible for helping Palestinians. The United Nations has been quick to launch a special inquiry into Israel for defending itself this summer against Hamas terrorist attacks out of Gaza. But will anyone be investigating the role in this conflict of the U.N. itself? This latest bout of war has underscored alarming questions about the U.N.’s chief agency in Gaza, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA. Officially, UNRWA advertises itself as a strictly neutral party providing humanitarian and relief services — including schooling, health care, construction, loans, and emergency response — to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, including some 1.2 million beneficiaries in Gaza. In practice, UNRWA has become so enmeshed in the workings of Gaza that it effectively functions as a support service for the interests of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that rules the territory.
Hamas is dedicated in its charter and its public statements to eradicating Israel, and has used Gaza for years as a launching pad for bombarding Israel with rockets and mortars. Lacking the ability to obliterate Israel in one fell swoop, Hamas’s strategy has been to terrorize and try to delegitimize Israel, firing weapons from behind or near human shields, including UNRWA facilities, until the Israelis strike back in self-defense. Hamas then parades the resulting destruction before the world, blaming Israel for the conflict and punishing anyone in Gaza who might dissent. UNRWA plays along, condemning Israel in graphic terms while making scarce mention or none of Hamas.
Here’s a typical locution, plucked from an August 1 UNRWA daily Situation Report on Gaza: “Reportedly there were 100 rockets and 88 mortar shells fired toward Israel.” In UNRWA reports, it’s as if the rockets and mortars targeting Israel simply assemble and launch themselves. During the thick of the fighting, in July, UNRWA reported discovering caches of rockets stored in three of its schools in Gaza. But not one of the related UNRWA press releases laid any blame on Hamas. UNRWA officials contented themselves with strongly condemning the unnamed “group or groups” who were using its schools as arsenals.
Surely UNRWA is aware that Hamas rules Gaza, and is the de facto authority responsible for policing both schools and munitions. That is spelled out in the U.N.’s previous, 2009 special inquiry into Gaza, better known as the Goldstone Report, which stated: “Since Hamas seized control in June 2007, law and order and other security functions have been performed by Hamas security organizations.” Does UNRWA’s preference for ignoring this fact when it discovers munitions in Gaza constitute “neutrality”?
Further questions abound. Here are a few: Prior to this summer’s conflict, did UNRWA officials know anything about the vast labyrinth of attack tunnels, requiring thousands of tons of cement, that Hamas had dug into Israel? According to the Israeli military, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, there were more than 30 of these terrorist tunnels, built at an estimated cost of some $90 million — with the average tunnel requiring 350 truckloads of construction supplies.
That’s a lot of material to import into and ferry around the famously small enclave of Gaza, under the nose of UNRWA, which by its own account has a pervasive presence there. UNRWA employs more than 12,000 local Palestinians in Gaza, and agency facilities in the territory include 245 schools with more then 230,000 pupils; 22 primary-care health centers; and multiple centers for women, community rehabilitation, and vocational training. Not all that long before this latest conflict erupted, UNRWA officials had been lamenting a dearth of construction materials in Gaza, demanding more, and blaming Israel for the shortages. Take, for example, a statement made last December by UNRWA’s deputy commissioner general, Margot Ellis, an American citizen and career aid expert, who has served since 2010 as UNRWA’s No. 2 official. Speaking at a U.N. donor conference to gather pledges for UNRWA, Ellis said that, since “the closure of the smuggling-tunnel trade with Egypt,” the lack of construction materials coming into Gaza had led to “severe setbacks for the economy,” and more materials were “desperately and urgently needed.” She blamed Israel for not allowing free access, saying: “Gaza remains suffocated by the illegal blockade imposed by the Government of Israel, which has now intensified with the non-admittance of building supplies urgently needed for UNRWA construction projects — to build schools and rehabilitate shelters.”
Was Ellis utterly ignorant of what was happening on the ground in Gaza, or under it? Were she and her UNRWA colleagues clueless that Hamas was pouring tons of building supplies into tunnels meant to attack Israel? Or did UNWRA officials know, or at least suspect, but say nothing? Either way, the answer would be damning: If UNRWA, for all its networks and facilities in Gaza, knew nothing about the Hamas tunnels, that would suggest . . .
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Some investments are merely bad, and others are truly atrocious. For a truly atrocious investment opportunity, see this. China trying to palm off really bad loans – to Goldman, to Warburg Pincus et al. Major Chinese investor: as bad as European banks are, Chinese are worse. TARP boys will lie forever. / More Chinese are seeking medical care abroad [pic.twitter.com/9cfpIkhLR3 wsj.com/1wcwAh3 ]
Hour Two
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: John Fund, National Review Online; David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re: Foreign policy. David Drucker's article on Devin Nunes. Americans feeling uncomfortable with what they know of intl affairs and a poor domestic economy; unsettled. One would think that the president could address ISIS and build a consensus. Question is how much will we hear from the president after this Wednesday's speech? Usually, he gives one big speech and then doesn’t much mention the topics again. Our presdent has been flat-footed on all these issues; Overseas commentators say they always knew he'd be slow; he ignored or backpedalled on ISIS for a year – drift, uncertainty, lack of cohesion; Carter redux but worse because of the multiplicity of issues. When Someone such as Rep Nunes publicizes a concern, makes it easier for the [public talkers] to discuss it. Rep Nunes concerned lest Americans think al Qaeda is splintered and no longer as powerful; that's not true. TGM: Reality has shaken the president's worldview. His mode has failed. His speech is on 10 Sept – when people read of is next day, memories of 9/11 will be there.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent; John Fund, National Review Online; in re: Stu Rothenberg of RollCall thinks this will be a wave election in favor of the GOP in the Senate. DMD: "He's not prone to hyperventilating – I think he's concluded that the president's approval ratings are so low that the Democratic challengers can't run out too far ahead. " Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia are the three automatics. TGM: Stu Rothenberg is probably the best political prognosticator out there. ACA. Govt shut-down.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Arif Rafiq, Middle East Institute & PakistanRisk & Politico, in re: How Pres Obama messed up in Afghanistan and got lucky in Pakistan. The New Al Qaeda Group in South Asia Has Nothing to Do with ISIS There's a resilient political system in Pakistan, with deeply flawed politicians. Imran Khan erred in thinking that big-man-ism was enough.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Jack Goldsmith, Lawfare & Hoover, in re: A Politically Palatable Authorization to Use Force Against IS
Hour Three
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Saudi. Iraq. Attacks via Humvees at Jabour tribe meeting. Jordan now said to be the next state at extreme risk from ISIS – target number one. Privately the king has expressed much concern: Jordan has also absorbed a million-plus Syrian refugees, and has Jordanians who may have joined ISIS. Concern about tribes. Special passports created. US gives $1 bil aid to Jordan plus assistance. Takfiri jihadists. Sixty British women now are in ht ISIS modesty police in Syria monitoring behavior. From France: 900; Britain: 600; Europe overall: 3,000 – all in ISIS. The brute who tortured French journos also planned a massive attack on the Champs Elysees.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Yemen. When Pres Salah was ousted several years ago . . . in Sanaa, Houthis* (Zaidi Shia; ash-Shabāb al-Mū‘min) encroaching, armed by Iran. Surrogate war between Riyadh and Teheran. Protest camps on the outskirts of the capital – could be the end of the govt. IAEA: Iranians have not kept any of their commitments. Enrichment continues at a high pace; about 20% of their commitment has been enforced. Were there a deal by 24 November, . . . If not, Congress will move with sanctions. Israel can’t dare to sit by and let this continue, and the end-date just pass. Turkey: Erdogan going crazier with his Islamic interpretations. Many Arab leaders and others thin the dynamic has gone too far, that it's irreversible.
*Houthis belong to the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam, also known as Fivers, a sect of Islam almost exclusively present in Yemen. They are distinct from the Shi'ite majority, the Twelvers found in mainly in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran and are known for being most similar to Sunni Muslims in matters of religious law and rulings. They do, however, believe in the concept of an Imamate as being essential to their religion, which makes them distinct from Sunnis.
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Henry I Miller, M.D., Hoover & Forbes.com, in re: WHO's Misplaced Ebola Priority
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Kori Schake, Hoover & NYT & LA Times, in re:, The Consequences of Obama’s Dithering & NATO's Newest Mission: Conquering Its Generation Gap
Hour Four
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Olivier Guitta, analyst, in re: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/06/mehdi-nemmouche-syria_n_5777064.html
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: Sending American military to fight Ebola is bizarre, stupid and dangerous to us. IT's as bad an idea as believing NATO or Obama - or some combination of the two - are going to do anything about ISIS. ISIS, ISIL, NATO, and Obama | The American Spectator
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Paul R. Gregory, Hoover & Forbes, in re: If The Wales NATO Summit Is Business-As-Usual, Putin Will Threaten NATO Itself
Monday 8 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Tunku Varadarajan, Hoover & Daily Beast, in re: Although al Qaeda is still a long way from having morphed into a Pakistani organization (with an Egyptian commander), it is clear that the once-largely Arab outfit has bulked up its sickly frame with Pakistani muscle, comprising both raw recruits and experienced militants. As the Americans depart Afghanistan, it is hard not to imagine Pakistani jihadis swooning to visions of 1989. In that year, the Soviets left Afghanistan, freeing up battle-hardened jihadis for holy war in Kashmir.
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