Archives for July 2014

A filmmaker with extensive knowledge of the current border crisis says this chaos is exactly what President Obama wants and planned for and he says the current media fixation on abandoned children means criminals, drug smugglers and terrorists are coming to the United States without even being noticed.

Dennis Michael Lynch directed and produced “They Come to America” and “They Come to America II” and has extensive, daily contact with U.S. Border Patrol agents about the true state of our southern border.  He says there are essentially four groups of people pouring across the border: families of various sizes, unaccompanied minors, drug smugglers and career criminals and terrorists.  Lynch says while the media focuses on the kids, really bad people are easily slipping into the country.

“I can tell you from the people I speak to in the Border Patrol who are in the intelligence unit, they have told me that gang members are receiving as much as $50,000 per head to bring a person through.  Those people are typically from the Middle East or from China,” said Lynch, who predicts the people waltzing into the country will perpetrate an attack on the U.S. that will rival or exceed 9/11.

“You will absolutely see terror attacks.  They may not come in the form of airplanes crashing into buildings, but they’re going to come in different ways: water treatment plants, electrical grids.  You name it, it is there for the possibility of taking,” he said.

President Obama is urging Congress to approve $3.8 billion in new funding that he says is designed to expedite deportation, while critics contend there’s a lot more about prolonged care for the detainees than there is about deportation in the legislation.  Lynch isn’t buying anything Obama is saying at this point.

“This president has no intent of sending anybody home, just like he didn’t intend for you to be able to keep your doctor if you liked your doctor and just like he knew that there was no video that would spur a terrorist attack in Benghazi.  If you believe what he says right now, I have a desert to sell you,” said Lynch.

According to Lynch, this crisis is exactly what Obama wanted to happen.

“He is enjoying what he is seeing down at the border.  That is why he’s trying to work now with the UN to try to get war refugee status for these children.  That’s why he’s sending them across the country and just releasing them,” he said.  “This is not about reform.  That’s all rhetoric.  This is about fundamentally transforming the country.”

Lynch even alleges that this is the biggest legacy of this administration, topping even the massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

“Everybody always thought that Obamacare was his baby, that Obamacare was going to be his legacy and how he wanted to transform the country.  I say no.  That is just a really heavy insurance policy that the next president could repeal, or alter, or change or lessen the damage on businesses.  When you turn around and let this many people into the country, when you give amnesty or give an executive order that says they can work and stay in the U.S., you can’t repeal people.  You can’t deport 20, 30, 40 million people with a pen.  This is what transforms a country.  This is what Obama wants,” he said.

In addition to asserting Obama wants to make these people citizens and have them voting Democratic for generations through an endless flow of federal benefits, Lynch says this is about moving America closer to the poorer nations of the world.

“I think he does want to put the United States of America on an equal playing field with the rest of the world.  I think he’s doing that, because the more people we take in from the third world, all it does is weaken every part of our country.  It weakens our health care system, our schools, our finances, you name it.  It increases the welfare state,” said Lynch, who elaborated on the immediate impact on our schools.

“From a health and school perspective, I don’t think America is really going to understand what is taking place down on the southern border, not only now but over the past six, eight, nine months to a year.  When school starts again in September, people are going to be amazed by how many kids are coming in who do not speak English.  I mean the schools are going to get flooded,” said Lynch.

Based on his conversations with Border Patrol officials, Lynch described how this new border crisis was carefully orchestrated.

“When you speak to Border Patrol agents like I do, you hear from the Border Patrol agents that they are beside themselves due to the fact they cannot enforce the law,” said Lynch, noting the federal government announcednew orders in January not to turn anyone away.

“They were told by the station head, ‘Going forward, we are not going to capture and deport.  We are going to capture and release,” he said.  “That’s when the whole thing started with them taking in families , doing a quick look over, which really is just ridiculous, and then taking them to a bus station so they could go to somewhere in the USA,” he said.

That same month is when the Department of Homeland Security is known to have sent out Requests for Information on the cost and feasibility of escorting newly arrived illegals to various locations around the country.

In addition to the threat this presents to the nation, Lynch says it is having a horrific impact on the morale of the Border Patrol.

“These guys are at an all-time low.  I talk to them every day.  They send me pictures.  Guys are leaving the department.  They say they’re just not doing it anymore.  These guys are overpaid taxi drivers.  They give illegal aliens the transportation they need from the border to the Border Patrol Detention Center and then to the bus depot.  How would you like to have that job?  These guys signed on to protect America, and all they’re doing is driving a fancy taxi,” said Lynch.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar fearing the border crisis will be President Obama’s ‘Katrina moment.’  They also discuss Democrats trying to couch the transportation funding impasse as another GOP-triggered shutdown.  And they recoil as Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz predicts Mitt Romney will run for president again in 2016.

Retired Israeli Brigadier Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn says Hamas kidnapped and murdered three teenagers in an attempt to free “bloody terrorists” held in Israeli jails, and promises his country’s response will continue until Hamas decides to stop firing rockets into Israel or they are stopped by force.

Ben-Onn also says there is no credibility left among the Palestinians to restart any peace process and suggests it’s time for the United States to start punishing terrorism by reducing foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The international community is imploring Israel to show restraint, but Ben-Onn says that’s impossible as long as Hamas keeps attacking southern Israel.

“In the last 48 hours, Israel suffered more than 200 rockets that were launched towards Israeli communities and settlements inside the state of Israel,” said Ben-Onn, noting that over 1,000 reservists have been called up by the government.

“We are talking now about ground forces that might go again inside Gaza in order to stop those rockets from falling on Israeli cities, communities and villages,” he said.

He says this latest conflict will end when the rockets stop flying into Israel – no matter what it takes to make that happen.

“The situation is very tense now, because if Hamas will not stop shelling Israeli villages and cities, I believe ground forces will have to go in to stop them,” said Ben-Onn.

Casualties appear to be very light, although firm numbers are difficult to find.  Ben-Onn says if lives have been spared, the Israeli missile defense known as “Iron Dome” deserves much of the credit.

“Thank goodness we have Iron Dome.  This is a wonderful system that can stop the rockets on the way.  In the last 48 hours, they intercepted more than 21.  Thank goodness they didn’t reach the civilian targets in Israel,” he said.

Rockets are not the only sign of ongoing terrorist efforts to attack and destabilize Israel.

“Last night, another tunnel that was [dug] from the Gaza strip to Israel was found and seven Hamas terrorists were killed inside while they tried to continue digging toward Israel and again tried to kidnap Israelis along the border,” said Ben-Onn.

For Israelis, that is the exact motive believed to be at work in the recent killing of three Israeli teenagers.  They were found murdered after going missing in Gaza three weeks earlier.  Ben-Onn says the search for the boys brought a nation together, even though many feared the worst.

“For 18 days, all Israelis prayed that we would find them, but it was quite clear to all of us that the reason they were kidnapped is in order to try to release those bloody terrorists from Israeli prisons,” said Ben-Onn, who says radical Islamists are constantly looking to create conditions for a prisoner exchange, citing the 2011 release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli POW Gilad Shalit.

Reports from Israel suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking heat from his political right.  Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman believes Netanyahu is being too soft and suggested to reporters that he and his party could no longer remain part of the ruling coaltion.  Ben-Onn says Lieberman is well known for his grand pronouncements but is highly unlikely to leave the government and force new elections.  He suspects the more likely scenario is Lieberman trying to establish himself as the next prime minister whenever Netanyahu decides to step down.

All of this comes on the heels of Hamas being welcome back into the Palestinian Authority by Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the Fatah movement.  Ben-Onn says that gesture alone speaks volumes.

“If Hamas is the partner of Fatah, what kind of future are we looking at with the Palestinians?  The fact they have a joint government together is a bad sign for a peace agreement.  That’s the reason why most Israelis have the feeling that the leader of the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas, is too weak and he cannot deliver the goods.  And behind our back, he’s signing an agreement with Hamas,” said Ben-Onn.

A growing number of American political figures and activists insist that Hamas being welcomed back into the Palestinian Authority without renouncing terrorism or acknowledging Israel’s right to exist should mean an end to any U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians.  Ben-Onn largely agrees.

“Maybe (the U.S.) should give a clear threat that if Hamas will not change their policy and Fatah will still keep them in the coalition, the United States should really consider the possibility to downsize, to cut part of the financial aid in order to tell them that’s not the direction towards peace,” said Ben-Onn.

“The direction is to come to the negotiation table, speak face-to-face to each other.  Find the solution at the negotiation table not on the battlefield, not relying on those bloody terrorists from Hamas,” he said.  “The United States should make it very clear that if they don’t talk and find solutions, they should suffer.”

Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review discuss the news that the leader of ISIS sports an expensive wristwatch, going against his own anti-Western and anti-indulgence rhetoric. They review the news, revealed by Edward Snowden, that the NSA is collecting baby pictures, selfies, and resumes from normal, everyday people. They close by laughing over Hillary Clinton’s continued denial of her wealth as she states that her speaking fees go to her personal foundation.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert says President Obama is acting like a monarch in unilaterally changing immigration policy and threatening to do it again on a grander scale.

The congressman says Obama is personally responsible for the surge of illegals, including unaccompanied minors, across our southern border, and Congress should begin a process of withholding funding for any department of government that refuses to enforce the existing laws.

In a White House Rose Garden statement on Monday, Obama ripped congressional Republicans for refusing to approve comprehensive immigration reform and said they left him with no choice but to pursue reform on his own.

“I would greatly prefer Congress actually do something.  I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing,” said Obama.

While the president may be frustrated, Gohmert says Obama surrendered the authority to make or change laws the minute he left the legislative branch of government.

“He didn’t run for the legislature.  He left the legislature and ran for president.  Legislating is not an option for him unless he wants to destroy our Constitution or create a constitutional crisis, which he is quickly moving us toward,” said Gohmert.

In the same Rose Garden statement, Obama stated he is asking Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder for recommendations on what he can do on immigration policy through executive action.

If Obama makes good on that promise, Gohmert says House members need to take swift and decisive action.

“The founders gave us the power of the purse.  It’s going to take a lot of courage to stand up to the president and say we’re going to start defunding anything that you care deeply about that’s not important to the American people,” said Gohmert, who wants to start by removing funding for the attorney general’s office and rescinding salaries for anyone held in contempt of Congress.

“We need to start eliminating any money for any federal agency or department, including the White House, that is not following the law.  Then you get their attention.  That’s what the founders anticipated.  I know our Speaker (John Boehner) says we’re only half of one-third (of the government).  Well, we’re the most important half of the appropriations process.  If we don’t agree to an appropriation, it doesn’t happen.  It’s time we took a stronger stand in that regard,” said Gohmert.

Obama also claimed on Monday that comprehensive immigration reform was an urgent priority because the present surge of illegal immigrants is proof that our existing laws are very confusing to people yearning to live in the U.S.  Gohmert says that analysis is exactly backwards.

“The current rules are confusing because the law is very clear and yet the president came out and announced, like a good monarch would, that he didn’t like the law and so he pronounced new law.  ‘If you meet these requirements, then we’ll let you stay here.  So I have spoken, so shall it be.’  That’s what monarchs do.  So because of that, it is confusing.  The law itself is not,” said Gohmert.

In addition to its alleged failure to enforce existing immigration and border security laws, Gohmert says the government is actively thwarting other laws and putting American lives at risk.

“Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, they are engaged in human trafficking.  So if you get into this country, then you are transported to other parts of the country.  If you have a parent who is here illegally, then Health and Human Services, which is no longer about health, and Homeland Security that is no longer about security will engage in human trafficking and help you violate the law by getting you illegally wherever you want to go,” said Gohmert.

The congressman made headlines earlier this week by telling radio host Sean Hannity that the U.S. is on the road to becoming a third world country.  He elaborated further on that characterization, noting that the warehousing of kids and adults does not represent a modern society and neither does the practice of letting people with communicable diseases roam around our country.  But he says there is an even greater concern that smacks of a third world regime.

“One of the things that makes a third world country a third world country is that they don’t follow the law and they don’t enforce it fairly.  There’s graft.  There’s corruption.  Officials can be brought and they can be bribed.  They will do whatever they want.  We have people fleeing countries like that to come into the United States because we have been observing the rule of law for the most part.  We do try to apply it fairly across the board.  Then once they get into this country, then they say, ‘We want you to become like our country and quit enforcing the law,'” said Gohmert.

Gohmert’s solution to the surge across the border is to enforce existing law to the fullest extent and stop people from entering the country and them back to where they came from.  He says history proves this works.

“Border Patrol men can’t afford to say it on the record because of their jobs, but what I heard from them over and over is, ‘We had a problem with Brazilians coming in when they got word we wouldn’t send them back.  Once we were allowed to send a few families back, it stopped immediately,” said Gohmert.

As for the tens of thousands who have just arrived, Gohmert says basic compassion should apply in terms of feeding and providing other immediate needs, but he says they simply need to be told they can’t stay and then escorted out of the country.

“You say, ‘You’re not coming in legally.  Our laws means so much.  That’s why our economy is better than yours, because we apply the rule of law.  We can’t let you destroy the economy by forcing us to quit following the rule of law.  Therefore, we are sending you back,'” said Gohmert.

“It would require some manpower, some expense to send people back, but nearly as much as the damage to our country would be by letting people come in just willy nilly as they wish to,” he said.

Obama is also asking for Congress to approve two billion dollars in new spending to provide better temporary shelter and to set up more judges and courts to process the cases of the illegal immigrants.

Gohmert sees no need for aliens caught illegally crossing the border to get a day in court.

“No, they don’t need to be in court.  What should be done is what’s called a turnaround.  If you attempt to come in to get on our soil and you’re caught at the border, then you’re turned around and sent back.  You don’t need a judge to hear your case.  If you did not come in legally and have the proper papers, you go back.  You go back to where you came from.  That  ought to be what we do,” said Gohmert.

In the final analysis, Gohmert says the current crisis is a result of the federal government not doing its job in protecting our borders.  He says there’s no reason to work with Obama on immigration legislation as along as the president thumbs his nose at the current laws.

“Once we have a president who agrees to follow the law, shows us he will follow the law, then we can get a reform package.  There’s no sense in reforming anything until the president is willing to follow the law.  The courts have made clear that it is up to the federal executive branch to enforce our immigration laws,” said Gohmert.

Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review discuss the increasing violence between Israel and terrorist groups such as Hamas, the Obama administration’s reluctance to dismiss the terrorists and the renewed call to end US assistance for the Palestinians. They talk about the news that more jobs have been announced as a coup for the Obama administration, when the truth is much more minimal. They close by talking about an Oklahoma congressman who was denied entrance into a border-crisis shelter in his own state where illegal immigrant children were being kept.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton says the Middle East is facing more instability now than at any time in the past 50 years and he blames the Obama administration for fueling the chaos through cozy relations with Iran, abandoning Iraq and funding terrorism through foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Bolton says the most alarming developments center on Iran, the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and the latest escalation of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, but he says the erosion of stability impacts far more places in the region.

“It’s worse than at any time, I think, since before the 1967 war between Israel and the Arabs.  In each of the countries, (including) Libya or Egypt or Yemen or other states that are just dissolving in front of us, you could see this series of crises merge into the entire region and really spinning into anarchy,” said Bolton.

Over the past few weeks, the greatest concerns stem from the growing success of ISIS in its effort to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and the specter of Iran taking a more dominant role in the region as it tries to fend off the attempts of ISIS to overthrow the Shia government in Baghdad.

Bolton says he wishes it were possible for both sides to lose, but sees one as a much bigger threat than the other.

“As bad as ISIS is, never forget that Iran remains the principal enemy.  It already has nuclear weapons.  It’s the world’s central banker of international terrorism, fully capable of giving a nuclear device to a terrorist group.  So Iran remains the central threat but it does not in any way diminish the potential that ISIS has.  We’re just in a situation where two powerful groups are in play and neither one of them is a friend of the United States,” said Bolton.

As for ISIS, he says fears that a region of Iraq and Syria under the control of radical extremists could make that part of the world the new breeding ground for terrorist attacks, much like Afghanistan was in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks.

“If they were able to establish a stable control over that area, as when the Taliban and Al Qaeda were running Afghanistan, it very much could be a base for terrorist operations.  We’ve had reports there are lots of Americans and Europeans fighting with ISIS, who could well come back to Europe or the United States,” said Bolton.

The ambassador says many of the Sunnis fighting alongside ISIS are not radicals but see an opportunity to overthrow the hated Maliki government in Iraq.  Bolton says President Obama’s decision to leave Iraq entirely at the end of 2011 was the trigger for the chaos we now see there.  While lamenting what he sees as the squandered U.S. sacrifice in Iraq, he says the U.S. has very limited options in addressing the problem.

The latest explosion in the Middle East is the murder of three Israeli teenagers, and U.S. and Israeli intelligence strongly suggests Hamas is involved or even responsible for the bloodshed.  Given the recent reuniting of Hamas and Fatah under the banner of the Palestinian Authority, Bolton says this episode is proof that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is impossible.

“It really brings into focus this endless cycle of terrorist attacks that Israel is subjected to from Hamas and others.  I think that justifies a very, very strong response from Israel.  We all probably look at this as a crime.  It would be if it were committed in the United States, but the fact is this act of terrorism is part of Hamas’ ongoing war against Israel,” said Bolton, who is comfortable with whatever level of response Israel sees fit to inflict.

“It’s an asymmetric struggle, the way the terrorists conduct their affairs.  So, I think Israel is entitled to treat it as an act of war and to respond accordingly.  Once you see that logic, it certainly doesn’t have to be a proportional response.  I think it can be anything up to and including destroying Hamas,” said Bolton.

As for the U.S. response to the latest terrorist attack, Bolton agrees with the likes of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) and others who say the reconnecting of Fatah and Hamas means the American foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority should vanish.

“I think it is the right call.  I think Fatah itself has very little legitimacy.  When they team up with Hamas, I think it’s a statement that they would prefer to be making agreements with a terrorist group than making agreements with Israel,” said Bolton, who believes a two-state solution has proven to be unrealistic.

“I think the United States has to indicate that this charade is coming to an end and the whole thing is a tragedy for Israel and really a tragedy for the Palestinian people, who have been used as pawns in this struggle by radicals in the Arab world for a long, long time,” he said.

Nearly lost in the commotion throughout the region in recent weeks is President Obama’s latest effort to assist what he considers to be the moderate rebels in Syria.  Obama wants Congress to approve $500 million to train and equip moderate forces trying to remove Bashar al-Assad from power.

Bolton says this is an idea without a plan and the recent exploits of ISIS should serve as a cautionary tale.

“It’s purely a political gesture by the president.  He doesn’t have any strategy in mind at all here.  I think what we saw ISIS do when the Iraqi army collapsed in Mosul, Tikrit and other important Iraqi cities, that allowed ISIS simply to scoop up their weapons and a considerable amount of finance.  You can put weapons in the hands of so-called moderate, assuming we could agree on what the definition of moderates is.  We could give them weapons, but there’s no way we can ensure that they’ll be able to hold on to those weapons,” he said.

Bolton says this is a very dicey time for all responsible actors in the region and he believes the absence of American leadership is making everyone vulnerable.

“I’m extremely concerned about it.  I’m concerned about American interests.  I’m concerned about our friends like Israel and the oil-producing monarchies of the Arabian peninsula.  It’s a very dangerous time.  Honestly, it’s not just that the president doesn’t have a policy to deal with it.  He’s not paying attention to it,” said Bolton.

Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review give their opinions on a recent poll that President Obama is the worst president since WWII. They talk about escalations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of the murder of three Israeli teenagers and one Palestinian youth. And they close by revisiting a somber subject as a Boston widow received an appointment opening for her husband who has been dead for two years.

A prominent Middle East scholar with close ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says three Israeli teens were captured and murdered just for being Jews, Israel is looking at a much bigger threat than a resurgent Hamas and the region is imploding due to failed U.S. leadership.

The bodies of Eyal Yifrah,Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel were discovered Monday, more than two weeks after they were abducted.  Frankel also held U.S. citizenship.  

“(Hamas) planned the target and murder of them.  They didn’t know them.  They just wanted to kill Jews,” said Evans.

“Hamas is part of the Palestinian government.  As a matter of fact, the PLO website had a picture of three rats depicting these three children.  In Ramallah and in Gaza, they were singing songs.  They were passing out candy.  They were celebrating the deaths of these three teenagers,” said Evans, noting that killing Jews simply because they are Jews is reminiscent of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Evans says one simple step Israel can take is to forcefully demand the U.S. stop foreign aid to the Palestinians, particularly since Hamas is still listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department.  Currently, the U.S. targets one billion dollars annually to the Palestinian Authority, which just recently reunited with Hamas.

Netanyahu has not indicated what the scope of the immediate response would be, but Evans says his friend needs to think bigger than Hamas.

“This is really a declaration of war in many ways.  Iran is behind Hamas.  Iran funds it and fuels it.  Al Qaeda is also there,” said Evans.  “This is a very serious existential dilemma and here’s why: we pulled out of Iraq.  We pulled out of Afghanistan.  We told jihadists of the Middle East, ‘It’s yours.’  They’re taking us very serious.  Now we’ve got a brand new caliphate in Iraq.  They’re taking over the country.  Israel just told the Kurds they should proclaim statehood.

“Israel’s looking at this heading at their borders from Jordan. You’ve got that.  You’ve got Iran on the Hezbollah front and then you’ve got Iran nuclear.  So Israel’s looking at the big end game and I think the prime minister’s going to have to look at this more serious than just Gaza.  He’s going to have to look at this entire octopus and decide is it time to deal with the head of the octopus as opposed to the tail,” said Evans, referring to Iran.

In addition to blaming Obama administration policy for much of the recent upheaval in the Middle East, he says the recent coziness between the U.S. and Iran over the ISIS threat in Iraq is reason for even more concern.

“Obama has invited Iran to partner with him in fighting this new Sunni state, this new Islamist jihadist state.  The quid pro quo, I’m sure, is an atomic Iran in exchange for that.  So Netanyahu is looking at that and they realize the state of Israel is on their own,” Evans said.

Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review discuss President Obama’s puzzling insistence that he only acts on his own when Congress won’t do what he wants. They also react to liberal legal pundits criticizing Obama’s overreach on executive power. They close by assessing the ironically intolerant consequences voices on the left predict from the Hobby Lobby case.