Taliban | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 11
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Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 17, 2015 28 Comments
We have covered the case of Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who vowed to carry her mattress around campus in protest of her alleged rapist who remained on campus. That alleged rapist was cleared by the University, and now is suing to clear his name. I don't know if Sulkowicz was lying or telling the truth. But the sharp dispute hardly makes the case comparable to what Afghan women have to go through. Beatings. Burkas. Lack of education. Executions.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 01, 2015 1 Comment
Wednesday we shared the heartwarming story of how Governor Perry and Marcus Luttrell forged a relationship that transcends politics. It's easily one of my favorite stories as of late. Gov. Perry’s relationship with Luttrell is one markedly different from the overplayed politician parades soldier for political expediency schtick. Following the Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, Luttrell found himself struggling to recover from substantial physical, mental, and emotional trauma. That's when Luttrell reached out to Governor Perry. Their relationship blossomed into a story of love, sacrifice, redemption, and hope. WARNING: You might want to grab the tissues before clicking the 'play' button.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 29, 2015 14 Comments
Monday evening, Governor Perry introduced Navy SEAL of 'Lone Survivor' fame at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's Perspectives on Leadership Forum. There, they discussed their unique bond. "These are extraordinary people that step forward and serve their country," Perry said of military service personnel. "Tonight you are going to hear from one who simply understood that he owed a debt. A debt to the individuals who had come before him. In the form of William Barrett Travis at the Alamo, his father before him, my dad, all of those men and women who have stepped forward to keep this country free. We are incredibly blessed... we are in the presence of some extraordinary beings. And none more so than the one you'll hear from tonight. Just a regular, common, country boy who found himself in extraordinary circumstances."
Gov. Perry's relationship with Luttrell is one markedly different from the overplayed politician parades soldier for political expediency schtick. In 2007, two years after he survived a Taliban onslaught in Afghanistan, a distressed Luttrell showed up at the Texas Governor's mansion and asked to speak with Rick Perry.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 17, 2015 18 Comments
As much as the White House might wish it would, the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap scandal simply refuses to die. Last year, the U.S. government released 5 Taliban terrorists in exchange for the life of Bowe Bergdahl, a man who most of the country---and all of his colleagues---believes deserted his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Since then, administration officials have been on offense, defending their actions before Congress, members of the media, and the families of soldiers who kept their posts under fire. The swap was only half the scandal. Soon after the swap went down, Bergdahl and his parents were invited to the White House for a very public visit, and Susan Rice rode the TV circuit to proclaim that Bergdahl had served honorably and had earned his rescue. Not so fast, though. New information coming from some of Bergdahl's platoonmates suggests that then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen knew in 2009 that Bergdahl was at least suspected of desertion---which means that it's likely the White House knew then, too.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 01, 2015 15 Comments
The drama surrounding the official prisoner swap in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has left a lot of Americans wondering just what happened in the days leading up to Bergdahl's going AWOL and eventual capture by the Taliban back in 2009. Sgt. Bergdahl is now on trial on counts for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy; if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. His attorneys, however, aren't prepared to go down without a fight. Defense counsel is planning to argue that Bergdahl couldn't be a deserter because it was never his intention to desert. Instead, they say Bergdahl simply wanted to leave and go to the closest forward operating base to lodge a complaint against his unit. Bergdahl's platoon mates' response? One man says its "asinine." Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on March 25, 2015 21 Comments
Last year, the United States released 5 high-profile al Qaeda commandos from the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities in exchange for the release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl was captured by militants after he allegedly deserted his base in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan. The exchange embroiled the Obama Administration in scandal---why did we trade dangerous prisoners for the freedom of a deserter?---and the public quickly began to demand answers about what consequences should and would rain down on Bergdahl's head. Today, finally, the Army announced that Bergdahl has been charged with one count each of desertion and "misbehavior before the enemy." If convicted, he could face life in prison. More from CNN:
The Army concluded its investigation into the circumstances of Bergdahl's capture in December. Until now, it has been in the hands of Gen. Mark Milley, head of U.S. Army Forces Command, who made the decision to charge Bergdahl. Several U.S. military officials CNN has spoken with suggested privately that the process took longer than expected. Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, officials said Milley only had a few choices. Though the sense had been that Bergdahl must be held accountable for his actions, there had been little appetite for a lengthy term in military confinement given the five years Bergdahl was held by the Taliban. Bergdahl, who's now 28, was taken by the Haqqani terrorist network. But the circumstances of Bergdahl's departure from his base and how willingly he left have not been clear. King said he couldn't offer those details on Wednesday, and that they're being treated as evidence for the upcoming proceedings against Bergdahl. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Arizona, called the charges an "important step" on Wednesday.
Of course, it wouldn't be politics if we didn't leave the charges to the lawyers and dive into the electoral consequences of one of the Administration's most controversial decisions.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 24, 2015 9 Comments
Yesterday, I touched a little bit on how ISIS' acts of terror have had their intended effect on people in the Middle East. Those targeted---or even existing in the blast zone---are falling apart, and it's not all due to videos released of burnings and beheadings. ISIS has a long history of rampaging through villages, destroying homes and kidnapping civilians (including women and children.) This is a tactic we've seen Boko Haram use as well; it creates an atmosphere of instability and fear, puts all the control in the hands of the terror group, and makes it much easier to gain both new territory and new members. Today, ISIS fighters continued their rampage, kidnapping "crusaders" in northern Syria and Afghanistan*. From Fox News:
ISIS' online radio station, al-Bayan, said in a report Tuesday that ISIS fighters had detained myriad "crusaders" and seized 10 villages around Tal Tamr after clashes with Kurdish militiamen. ISIS frequently refers to Christians as "crusaders." Syria's official SANA news agency reported that ISIS overran seven villages during an attack on Monday. It was not immediately clear what ISIS planned to do with the Assyrians. The militants have a long history of killing captives, including foreign journalists, Syrian soldiers and Kurdish militiamen. Most recently, militants in Libya affiliated with ISIS released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. But ISIS also could use its Assyrian captives to try to arrange a prisoner swap with the Kurdish and Christian militias that it faced off against in northeastern Syria. There is a precedent: The extremists have released Kurdish schoolchildren as well as Turkish truck drivers and diplomats after holding them for months. Last year, ISIS abducted several Assyrians in retaliation for some of them fighting alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG. But most were released after long negotiations, Reuters reports.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 20, 2015 27 Comments
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has escalated his battle with ISIS in Libya by sending in Egypt's special forces, which are considered some of the best in the world.
Egyptian special forces have allegedly launched a ground attack in Libya's Islamic State-held Derna capturing dozens of Islamist militants, according to Egyptian and Libyan reports. Ansa news agency cited unnamed local sources as saying that an Egyptian commando stormed the eastern Libyan town, a stronghold of the Islamic State (Isis) there, "capturing 55 Daesh [IS] militants". The Libyan National Army wrote on its Facebook page that Egyptian forces in coordination with the local army stormed IS camp in Derna, "killing a large number of IS militants and capturing several terrorists including Egyptians, foreigners and Arabs". An Egyptian newspaper, ElWatan News, reported that several jihadists were killed in the operation.
I suspect that the only jobs program Sisi is interested in providing ISIS involves the funeral industry. You might think that such a robust response to the terror group that has threatened President Obama would be winning all sorts of support from the White House. Sadly...not so much.

Posted by Amy Miller on February 02, 2015 18 Comments
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) came out of nowhere last week with the announcement that he's formed a presidential exploratory committee. Dubbed "Security Through Strength," the committee will allow Graham to "test the waters" in an already crowded presidential primary field More from WaPo:
"I’m going to take a look at the presidential primary on the Republican side. We’ll have an organization up and running today," Graham told Fox News. "This organization will allow people to donate money and their time and resources to see if there is a pathway forward for me." “The committee will fund the infrastructure and operations allowing Graham to travel the country, listen to Americans, and gauge support for a potential presidential candidacy,” reads a description on the organization’s website. Graham has previously indicated his interested in a presidential run and announced several weeks ago that he intended to launch a formal committee. His most vocal backer has been Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a close friend who has openly encouraged him to make a bid.
However you may feel about Senator Graham threatening us with a presidential run, he's at least living up to the name of his committee by hawking out on issues relating to national security. In a recent interview on the Mike Gallagher Show, Graham lashed out against the Administration's decision to release Gitmo prisoners, and gave us a teaser of what wartime under President Graham might look like. You can listen to the interview here, via Mediaite.

Posted by Amy Miller on January 30, 2015 6 Comments
Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) appeared on Fox News this week to take the White House to task over its weak stance regarding evidence that one of the five former Gitmo detainees released in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been in contact with Taliban operatives.
But Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., in an interview with Fox News, raised concerns that the five freed fighters might indeed be planning to return to the battlefield in the coming months, particularly after strict monitoring in Qatar is over. "What happens then?" Ayotte asked. "Never mind that they're already attempting to re-engage and obviously making communications to do so." She said: "I think this was a bad deal." The senator pushed anew for legislation she has crafted that would suspend transfers of detainees assessed to be high- or medium-risk.
Watch:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 14, 2015 13 Comments
The Obama administration has engaged in absurd linguistic gymnastics to pretend that the terrorists who shot up Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCasher supermarket merely were individuals who happened to adopt radical Islamic extremism almost by chance.  Could have been any extremism, we're told. Generic "extremism" is the problem, as if it lived out of body. By playing these word games, the administration does no favor to those in the Muslim world who recognize the reality and want it to stop.  To the contrary, the administration's word games constitute an abandonment. The President of Egypt is one of those voices, calling for a revolution within the Muslim world against the extremism. Another voice is Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya In late September 2014, I wrote about an article by Melhem, The Barbarians Within Our Gates. Melhem made points as a Muslim examining the Muslim world that would get him labeled "Islamophobic" and "racist" by groups like CAIR and the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Arab civilization, such as we knew it, is all but gone. The Arab world today is more violent, unstable, fragmented and driven by extremism—the extremism of the rulers and those in opposition—than at any time since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. Every hope of modern Arab history has been betrayed.... And let’s face the grim truth: There is no evidence whatever that Islam in its various political forms is compatible with modern democracy. From Afghanistan under the Taliban to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and from Iran to Sudan, there is no Islamist entity that can be said to be democratic, just or a practitioner of good governance. The short rule of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt under the presidency of Mohamed Morsi was no exception. The Brotherhood tried to monopolize power, hound and intimidate the opposition and was driving the country toward a dangerous impasse before a violent military coup ended the brief experimentation with Islamist rule....

Posted by Amy Miller on December 29, 2014 7 Comments
Yesterday, the International Security Assistance Force was folded away into history as the combat mission in Afghanistan officially came to an end. After more than 13 years, the day-to-day combat operations have now been handed over to Afghan security forces. The new international mission, dubbed "Resolute Support," will provide training and support for Afghanistan's military, and require the continued service of 11,000 American troops; considering the total force caps off at 13,500, the American contribution will not be insignificant. In addition to providing more training, American forces are also authorized to assist in counterterrorism operations, which means that we'll be providing air and ground support to Afghan troops for at least the next two years. President Obama took a break from his vacation to send along a congratulatory statement to the coalition forces in Afghanistan, saying that, "[w]e are safer, and our nation is more secure, because of their service." But many in Afghanistan worry about what the change in mission will do to the already tenuous control Afghan troops hold over the country's security:
Afghans have mixed feelings about the drawdown of foreign troops. With the deteriorating security situation, many believe the troops are needed to back up the Afghan effort to bring peace after more than three decades of continual war. "At least in the past 13 years we have seen improvements in our way of life — freedom of speech, democracy, the people generally better off financially," said 42-year-old shop keeper Gul Mohammad. But the soldiers are still needed "at least until our own forces are strong enough, while our economy strengthens, while our leaders try to form a government," he said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Afghanistan's 350,000-member security forces are ready to take on the insurgency alone, despite complaints by officials that they lack the necessary assets, such as air support, medical evacuation systems and intelligence. On Sunday, he said that ISAF's mandate was "carried out at great cost but with great success."

Posted by New Neo on December 19, 2014 30 Comments
Marco Rubio, among others, believes that Obama is a bad negotiator, the worst since Carter:
I don't know what [Obama's] intentions are. His foreign policy is at a minimum naive, and perhaps even truly counterproductive to the future of democracy in the region. Just last week we imposed sanctions on human rights violators in Venezuela, but the people who are supporting the Venezuelans in conducting those violations -- literally the Cubans have taken over the Venezuela government, we're actually lifting sanctions on them. How absurd is that? And it's just par for the course, all of these tyrants around the world know the United States can be had. At a minimum I will say this, the president is the worst negotiator we've had as president since at least Jimmy Carter and perhaps in the modern era.
But Rubio is wrong; Obama is not a bad negotiator at all. He is a faux negotiator. And perhaps Rubio even knows this (the hint being "at a minimum") but feels he can't say it or he will be labeled a kook. But I can say it: Obama's intentions here were almost certainly to prop up the Castro government and concede to them, and the negotiations were an excuse to do that. There were no reluctant concessions on the part of Obama, there were eager concessions. As Rich Lowry writes, it's not so much about whether it was time to loosen economic sanctions or not (reasonable people differ on this), it's about how it was done:

Posted by New Neo on December 16, 2014 15 Comments
There has been another outrageously evil attack in which Islamist terrorists target children, this time in Pakistan:
Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say. Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army.
Gunman methodically went from room to room and shot most of the victims in the head. The terrorists are reported to have been wearing suicide vests, and this article indicates that some of those vests were set off after Pakistani security forces came to the scene. The school appears to have had its own security, but:
The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, possibly Arabic, managed to slip past the school's tight security because at least some of them were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, some witnesses said.
When I wrote the introductory sentence to this post, I was careful to say that this attack involved the targeting of children. It is important to state that the killing of children was completely intentional and the main goal of the operation, rather than children being accidental collateral damage in an attack on other people. This is an important distinction, a line the terrorists (and the left) purposely blur in statements such as this:
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 25, 2014 8 Comments
On November 25, 2001, the first American was killed in the Afghan war, during a prisoner uprising in northern Afghanistan. He was a CIA special operations officer.  His name was Johnny "Mike" Spann.  His story is not told often enough. We have written of Mike Spann several times before, each one documenting a different aspect of his life and family he left behind: (Family of Mike Spann at cemetery) Here's a brief description of his story:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 24, 2014 29 Comments
It's not like this was unexpected. Chuck Hagel long has become the fall guy for Obama administration international failures, as we first noted in connection with the Taliban-Bergdahl swap, Taliban-Bergdahl swap unpopular, so … blame Hagel. The lone Republican in the cabinet, Hagel was supposed to lend credibility to Obama's downsizing of the military and retreat from international engagement. Hagel recently announced a realignment and refocus of the military, including some expanded capabilities.
Now Hagel is resigning under pressure, according to numerous media reports. Via NBC News:
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down amid criticism of the president’s national security team on a series of global issues, including the threat posed by the militant group known as ISIS. Senior defense officials confirmed to NBC News Monday that Hagel was forced to resign. The officials say the White House has lost confidence in Hagel to carry out his role at the Pentagon. According to one senior official, “He wasn’t up to the job.” Another senior administration official said that Hagel has been discussing a departure from the White House "for several weeks."
More to follow.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 23, 2014 7 Comments
While we were sleeping, President Obama decided U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan. In May, Obama said, "this year, we will bring America's longest war to a responsible end," as he discussed his plan to withdraw troops. Here was his announcement of troop withdrawal given in the Rose Garden in May: