RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-militarys-crisis-of-imagination-11545264636

At the heart of national-security strategy is imagination. The strategist’s job is to dream up what enemies someday might do to harm us. But there’s a lot of history supporting the adage that generals forever prepare to fight the last war. After World War I, France fortified itself against a German invasion of the kind it had spent four years stalemating in the trenches. After Sept. 11, 2001, the new Transportation Security Administration focused on airport procedures to prevent a repeat of that attack.

The problem of dangers’ being unimaginable was front and center for the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission. Congress created the commission of national-security experts in December 2016. Its report, released last month, conjured up realistic near-term scenarios to show how the U.S., as a result of military deficiencies, might acquiesce to enemy aggression or accept defeat in battle.

Here’s one of the report’s scenarios: “Responding to false reports of atrocities against Russian populations in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, Russia invades those countries under guise of a ‘peacekeeping’ mission. . . . Russia declares that strikes against Russian forces in those states will be treated as attacks on Russia itself—implying a potential nuclear response. Meanwhile, to keep America off balance . . . Russian submarines attack trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables. Russian hackers shut down power grids and compromise the security of U.S. banks. The Russian military uses advanced anti-satellite capabilities to damage or destroy U.S. military and commercial satellites. Major [American] cities are paralyzed; use of the internet and smart phones is disrupted. Financial markets plummet. . . . The banking system is thrown into chaos. Even as the U.S. military confronts the immense operational challenge of liberating the Baltic states, American society is suffering the devastating impact of modern conflict.”

Unless one is blessed with stupid enemies—and you can’t count on that—the proper assumption is that they are innovating. For World War II, the Nazis invented blitzkrieg, which worked stunningly at the outset and made France’s static fortifications ineffective. Before 1973, intelligence leaders in Jerusalem didn’t imagine that Egypt, without being able to destroy Israel’s army, would launch a surprise attack to seize the Suez Canal. It’s hard to dream up the unprecedented, and even harder to persuade large bureaucracies to heed unfamiliar dangers.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272274/how-historians-will-see-canary-mission-years-now-edwin-black

On a recent Thursday, at about 8 am, on a desk illuminated by light from a nearby window, a paper cup of steaming coffee laden with cream and sugar was nudged near an open laptop, thus beginning a ten-to-twelve-hour day of mind-numbing monitoring by a Canary Mission [CM] staffer at one of the organization’s several locations. In endless social media searches, refreshes, clicks, video reviews, forwards and saves, the Canary Mission staffer will capture the worst of the openly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions agitation and hate speech erupting all across America’s campuses. Their work also encompasses white nationalism.

BDS advocates often spew some of the most venomous hate speech visible on the Internet, hate speech that Canary Mission captures and re-publishes in personal profiles. For example, the tweet by a Chicago activist with Students for Justice in Palestine who tweeted this joke: “Why did Hitler commit suicide?…….. He saw the gas bill. Pahhahaha.” Or the UCLA protestor whose Twitter account was captured with this remark: “Mmmaaaannnnnnnnnnn what’s with all this peaceful approaches!?? F**k that. I want terrorism and another intifada.” The same UCLA student reportedly added a photo close-up of a gun and bullets.

After the massacre at Pittsburgh, calls went out broadly to monitor, spotlight, and report hate speech, especially since hateful acts of violence are often preceded by hate speech. That is precisely what Canary Mission does. Canary Mission tracks social media and videos, capturing BDS, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic expressions, triangulating them into individual profiles that expose and create permanent, highly-visible records of the words and images BDS and SJP leaders actually use. The profiles are almost always incontestable since CM links to actual videos, tweets and other open documentation. Canary Mission’s intent is to shine an indelible light on students, faculty, and others, thus creating a negative incentive or at least a consequence for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate speech.

Canary Mission began in 2015 with just 50 profiles. By December 2018, about 2,500 profiles have been listed. CM has received about 80-100 requests for removal. Very few have been made. One staffer explained, “Even small errors are exceptionally rare due to our strict internal protocols. On the handful of occasions that we found an error, we made an immediate correction.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272287/iran-threatens-us-and-its-allies-drugs-refugees-michael-cutler

On December 9, 2018 The Hill, posted an article, that was short and to the point, “Iran: US sanctions will open doors to ‘drugs, refugees and bombs and assassination’ in west.”

The article focused on the remarks of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made on December 8, 2018 at what was described as an “Anti-terrorism event” in Tehran. In his remarks Rouhani stated that if nations continued to adhere to the boycott against Iran that was reimposed by President Trump over the bogus Iranian nuclear deal that had been negotiated by the Obama administration, that Iran would not be able to continue its purported efforts to combat drug trafficking.

As reported in The Hill article:

“By making Iran weaker through sanctions, many people will not be safe. Those who do not believe what we say, they had better look at the map,” Rouhani added.

He said Iran spends millions each year against drug trafficking, “the results of which guarantees more health for people from Eastern Europe to Western America and from Northern Africa to Western Asia.”

“I warn all those who boycott, that if our abilities in fighting drugs and terrorism in their origins is undermined, you will not be able to survive the debris of drugs, refugees and bombs and assassination,” he added.

This brings us back to the nexus between U.S. border security and the threats posed to America and Americans by Latin America drug cartels that have been working in close cooperation with Hezbollah and Iranian Qods (Shock Troops) to move huge quantities of narcotics and aliens into the United States. Smuggling drugs and aliens provides huge profits and provides Iran with the opportunity to embed their sleeper agents among those aliens.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/272284/anti-israel-activist-arrested-after-waving-machete-daniel-greenfield

You might think the guy waving a machete outside a Los Angeles synagogue while dressed like a Muslim terrorist is a Muslim terrorist.

But for once, you would be wrong.

He’s not a Muslim terrorist. Just a sympathizer who posts, “Long live Palestine” on Facebook.

A man who was taking selfies with a machete and making menacing gestures in front of a North Hollywood Chabad synagogue on Friday was arrested later that night, according to local media reports.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Inmate Information Center indicates that 49-year-old David Brener was arrested late Friday evening, and released Saturday afternoon on a $10,000 bond.

While Dave looked like he was auditioning for the ISIS calendar, he seems more likely the David Icke/Alice Walker type of bigot. But his obsession with Israel is pretty clear.

What is allegedly Brener’s Facebook page includes “Palestinian” imagery, claims that Israel committed genocide, “Love live Palestine”, praise for the Tamimis, calling Jews, “Zionazis”, and hashtags like, #palestineforever #zionazi #antizionism and #antizionist

Also Holocaust denial.

Most of his social feed seems to be rants about Israel and Jews. So this is none too surprising.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/dod-u-s-vulnerable-to-deadly-missile-attacks-due-to-ballistic-missile-system-cyber-weaknesses/

We’re constantly reading about cybersecurity weaknesses and cyber break-ins at our banks, department stores, and large corporations. The results include disclosure of our credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information. But cybersecurity breakdowns can have much more ominous results, as a Department of Defense report reveals.

Serious cybersecurity flaws have been found in the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS). These flaws were found to put at risk our ability to defend ourselves if we are attacked by an enemy with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In the report filed on December 10 by the inspector general (IG) for the Department of Defense, it was disclosed that a number of security issues were found with the networks that process, store, and transmit both the classified and unclassified technical information related to our ballistic missile defense systems. The issues include access to removable storage media that contains classified information, weak password controls, failures to encrypt technical information transmission, and problems in detecting intrusions — all relating to BMDS.

The report, which is full of redactions, can be viewed here. It reads in part:

We determined that officials from the (redacted) did not consistently implement security controls and processes to protect BMDS technical information. Specifically, (redacted) network administrators and data center managers did not:

require the use of multifactor authentication to access BMDS technical information at the (redacted)

identify and mitigate known network vulnerabilities at three of the five Components visited

lock server racks at the (redacted)

protect and monitor classified data stored on removable media at the (redacted)

encrypt BMDS technical information transmitted between (redacted)

implement intrusion detection capabilities on classified network

require written justification as a condition to obtain and elevate system access for users at the (redacted)

The report notes, “We determined that officials did not consistently implement security controls and processes to protect BMDS technical information and facility security officers did not consistently implement physical security controls to limit unauthorized access to facilities that managed BMDS technical information.” As a result, “The disclosure of technical details could allow U.S. adversaries to circumvent BMDS capabilities, leaving the United States vulnerable to deadly missile attacks,” the report explained. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272241/cair-sex-predator-changes-name-heads-pakistan-joe-kaufman

Former CAIR-Florida operative Ahmad Saleem’s two-year prison term stemming from his 2015 Orlando-area arrest, during a child sex sting operation, has expired. In an attempt to put the shame and scandal behind him or a way to further his illicit exploits from a different locale, Saleem looks to be starting anew elsewhere. He has even traveled outside the country, and he has changed his name on social media. Unsuspecting parents, both here and abroad, need to be made aware of his presence.

On the night of May 20, 2015, Ahmad Abrar Saleem was arrested in Clermont, Florida, a short distance from his Orlando home. Saleem was intending to meet the twelve-year-old girl he had been chatting with online, but instead, met Sheriff’s deputies waiting for him and 21 others in a child sex sting operation. He was charged with “use of computer to seduce/solicit/entice a child to commit sex act” and “travel to seduce, solicit, lure a child to commit sex act.” Ironically, the car he was driving, when apprehended, had a specialty license plate which read, “Invest in Children.”

In December 2016, Saleem was sentenced to two years behind bars in state prison.

This could not have come at a worse time for Saleem. His star was quickly on the rise within the radical Muslim community. He had just a couple years earlier served as President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) as well as the MSA National Service Director; he was being invited to speak at different Islamist conferences; and he had recently been named Orlando Regional Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272207/terrorism-charges-coming-soon-new-mexico-jihadists-matthew-vadum

The five accused Muslim terrorists arrested at a jihadist training facility in New Mexico this summer will soon be charged with “terrorism and or kidnapping” in addition to the current firearms charges already pending, according to federal prosecutors.

This is the case in which five adults, including Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, were arrested after authorities found 11 hungry, filthy children living in squalid conditions in a terrorist training compound in Amalia, Taos County, a remote part of New Mexico on Aug. 3. The children were reportedly being trained to commit school shootings.

The remains of a three-year-old disabled boy, since identified as Wahhaj’s son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, were discovered on the property which was filled with weapons. Authorities also found a manual explaining how to carry out terrorist attacks and fight hand-to-hand.

According to investigators, Abdul-Ghani died during a ruqyah, which is an Islamic rite of exorcism, in early 2018, after the boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Leveille refused to give him epilepsy medication, which they claimed caused him to become “possessed.” He reportedly cried and foamed at the mouth during the ritual which was performed for hours each day until he died.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/ohio-man-arrested-for-planning-isis-inspired-mass-shootings-against-synagogues-in-toledo/

On Monday, the FBI announced that it had arrested 21-year-old Damon Joseph for planning multiple mass shootings at synagogues in the Toledo, Ohio area. Joseph had reportedly been inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) and announced his intention to target Jews on the Sabbath. He had also expressed hatred for gays, Christians, Catholics, and Jews.

Joseph was arrested on Friday after purchasing two AR-15 rifles and openly announcing his plans to kill many people, including a rabbi, the Times of Israel reported. According to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court in Toledo, Joseph said he was inspired by the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pa. in October, which killed 11.

Earlier this month, Joseph had told an undercover FBI agent that the Tree of Life victims “got what was coming to them,” that Jews were evil, and that he was targeting synagogues in the Toledo area to carry out a mass-shooting in the name of ISIS.

“I admire what the guy did with the shooting actually,” Joseph wrote to an FBI agent. “I can see myself carrying out this type of operation inshallah. They wouldn’t even expect [an attack] in my area.”

The affidavit claims that Joseph was deciding between two synagogues as late as December 4. He said the choice “would depend on ‘which one will have the most people, what time and what day. Go big or go home.'”

On December 6, he had chosen a synagogue, telling the FBI agent “he had conducted research to determine when the Jewish sabbath was so that more people would be present.”

If convicted of terrorism, Joseph could face up to 20 years in prison.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) praised law enforcement for preventing this planned ISIS attack.

“We are tremendously grateful to law enforcement at both the federal and local levels for apprehending the suspect, and for working so diligently to prevent terror from hitting our community,” ADL Cleveland Regional Director Jeremy Pappas declared. “The Jewish community is still grieving following the October attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. We can never let that happen again.” CONTINUE AT SITE

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/isis-magazine-for-millennials-threatens-vehicle-attacks-near-u-s-capitol/

Declaring that ISIS is a “globalist” organization, a new magazine geared toward young recruits is calling on jihadists to wage vehicle attacks outside of the U.S. Capitol.

Shabab al-Khilafah, or The Youth of the Caliphate, debuted its first issue on Oct. 10 as a colorful collection of articles, posters and teasers to online videos encouraging home-turf attacks on behalf of the Islamic State. Supporters were encouraged to submit content for future issues.

That debut issue, which was distributed via online file-sharing sites, called for lone-jihadist attacks in Australia. On Nov. 9, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali rammed his car filled with propane canisters into a sidewalk in Melbourne’s central business district, got out and stabbed three people, killing one before being shot by police.

The Youth of the Caliphate isn’t an official publication, but is produced by multiple ISIS-supporting media groups under the leadership of groups including Ashhad Media, which has been recruiting online jihadists in English, Arabic and French, and Al-Abd Al-Faqir, which produces frequent online threat images and videos. These independent media organizations form a growing online support network that creates and disseminates propaganda for recruitment and incitement on behalf of the terror group, with the goal of widening the geographical scope of attacks and ISIS influence.

This onslaught of continuously fresh propaganda has figured into other cases of lone jihad. Everitt Aaron Jameson of Modesto, Calif., pleaded guilty this summer to plotting a Christmas 2017 attack at Pier 39, a popular tourist spot in San Francisco; he loved with a heart on Facebook a poster from ISIS supporters showing Santa overlooking Times Square with a box of dynamite at his side. CONTINUE AT SITE