ISIS
December 30, 2015 — Scott Johnson
A reader writes to comment on my pieces here and elsewhere regarding the threat from “Minnesota men.” Citing this Daily Mail article dating from September 2014, he writes: Thank you for your reporting on the security issues at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and how that relates to Islamic terror. You might recall this is not the first time MSP and Islamic terror have intersected. In 2014 it was reported
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December 29, 2015 — Scott Johnson
This past October, in the course of researching the article that became “The threat from ‘Minnesota men,'” I learned of an unnamed former airport employee and terrorist suspect who had been working “on the tarmac” in Minneapolis in 2014. I was advised by a source at one remove from the information that the suspect had luckily been discovered by a member of Minnesota’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (disclaimer: I still
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December 28, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota’s Somali community presents a stark challenge to Americans concerned about terrorism. The community is Muslim, large, and protected by an extreme form of ideological conformity that runs from the governor down and permeates the media. In this month’s story on the indicted ISIS wannabe and local ringleader, reporters Dan Browning and Mary Lynn Smith add this editorial observation: Minnesota is believed to have produced more would-be foreign fighters than
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December 27, 2015 — Scott Johnson
This past April six “Minnesota men” were charged with seeking to support ISIS by joining up with the group in Syria. The charges represented the culmination of a 10-month FBI investigation conducted out of the FBI’s Minneapolis office. The office of the United States Attorney for Minnesota initiated the case by the filing of a criminal complaint and supporting FBI affidavit that are available online here. The Department of Justice
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December 23, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that Iraqi troops, supported by U.S. air strikes, have stormed into the center of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. At last word, they hadn’t yet retaken the city from ISIS, but their prospects of doing so seem excellent. According to the Post, this is the first major offensive by the Iraqi army in which Shiite militias have been largely excluded. Thus, it can be viewed
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December 22, 2015 — Scott Johnson
President Obama’s all-purpose explanation for the unpopularity of various of his policies never varies. He isn’t talking enough to make you understand and you aren’t smart enough to understand without his talking. Right? Well, we can all agree we’re stupid. That’s how he can account for his election and reelection to the presidency. Obama drew on his all-purpose explanation most recently in his year-end interview with Democrat State Radio with
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December 22, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seem to think we should order our affairs to make it more difficult for ISIS to recruit jihadists. This past Saturday night at the Dems’ Hillary be-in, Clinton therefore held it a black mark against Donald Trump that he had been featured in ISIS recruiting videos. One problem with her argument: Hillary was making up the factual predicate. Her campaign has conceded that no such
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December 21, 2015 — Scott Johnson
As I note here, Hillary Clinton purports to think it a key point against Donald Trump that he is featured in ISIS recruiting videos. Her campaign has been unable to cite any such video so far, so Clinton maintains her batting average for veracity in making this point. At RedState, however, streiff has posted the new ISIS recruiting video (below). It stars a few prominent Americans including Barack Obama…and Bill
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December 21, 2015 — Scott Johnson
The Democrats held their presidential candidates’ be-in on ABC this past Saturday night. Time has posted a transcript. I have posted the video below. The be-in made for difficult viewing, but reading the transcript isn’t much easier. It’s painful. Hillary will of course be the Democratic nominee. She seems to me an increasingly absurd figure. I find it hard to take her seriously, but she’s as serious as cancer. When
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December 15, 2015 — Scott Johnson
President Obama took a brief trip across the river to the Pentagon in order to hold a meeting with a subset of his national security team. Following the meeting he read a statement (transcript here, video here and below). Obama sought to reassure nervous Americans that all is well in the contest with ISIS, but his heart isn’t in it. He is going through the motions. He is pathetic. He
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December 7, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
In his address last night, President Obama described “our strategy to destroy ISIS” as follows: First, our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary. In Iraq and Syria, airstrikes are taking out ISIL leaders, heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure. And since the attacks in Paris, our closest allies — including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — have ramped up their contributions
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December 6, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama spoke to the nation tonight about the killings in San Bernardino and the matter of ISIS (or ISIL, as he says). The transcript of his address is here. John is working on a post about Obama’s speech and I may have some additional thoughts. But now, lets’s hear from Sen. Tom Cotton. He had this to say: President Obama is a wartime president who doesn’t seem to realize
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December 6, 2015 — Scott Johnson
The December 2015 issue of the New Criterion carries the magazine’s annual special section on art. The last of the essays in the special section is James Panero’s “The vengeance of the Vandals.” It’s an essay that smartly draws interesting historical connections, explains the barbaric vandalism of the Islamists, and makes sound policy recommendations. I can’t recall another essay quite like it. Here is James’s conclusion: It would be untrue
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December 5, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
We have been critical of President Obama’s campaign against ISIS, and we will continue to be. The air campaign against the terrorist state should have been far more vigorous from the outset and we should have more boots on the ground. In fairness, though, there are indications that ISIS is finally being pegged back. ISIS has lost a significant amount of territory. In Iraq, according to the Washington Post, up
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December 4, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama famously characterized ISIS as al Qaeda’s jayvee. This bit of idiocy will long be remembered, to the detriment of Obama’s legacy. But how should we compare ISIS and al Qaeda? A year ago, if I recall correctly, conventional wisdom had it that ISIS was preoccupied with securing and expanding its regional caliphate (sort of like Stalin’s “socialism in one country”), whereas al Qaeda was more internationally focused (Trotsky
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November 18, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The Obama administration likes to boast about the thousands of sorties our Air Force has undertaken against ISIS in the past year-plus. But according to this report, if one takes into account the fact that only approximately 25 percent of our sorties result in the dropping of bombs, it turns out that we are striking ISIS from the air only around 11 times per day. This pales in comparison not
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November 18, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Our well-connected law enforcement source writes following events in Paris overnight. I thought readers would be interested in his report: One of my friends in intel in Europe said tonight they got one cell in France but they believe there are others in Belgium, Spain, Germany and “other countries.” Their big worry at the moment is the possibility that these guys are trained or training to do swarm attacks on
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