RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling against President Trump’s so-called travel ban empowers both radical Islam and judicial imperialism. The combination portends lasting damage to the United States.

To rehash, the executive order (EO) proclaimed temporary restrictions (the main one, for 90 days) on travel to the United States by the nationals of six countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Those countries, along with Iraq (cited in Trump’s original executive order, but not the revised EO at issue), had previously been singled out by Congress and President Obama — not because they are Muslim-majority countries, but because a) the presence or promotion of terrorism in their territories makes their nationals suspect and b) their anti-Americanism and/or dysfunctional governments render it impossible to conduct background checks on visa applicants.

This Fourth Circuit’s en banc review of prior invalidations of the EO by “progressive” activists masquerading as jurists produced 205 pages of opinions. The outcome was about as uncertain as Secretariat at Belmont, with ten of the tribunal’s 13 judges joining Chief Judge Roger Gregory’s majority ruling to one degree or another.

Three judges filed compelling dissents that will prove quite useful when, as Trump promises, the case proceeds to the Supreme Court. The continuation of the litigation is an unfortunate outcome, even if conservatives and other rule-of-law types, buoyed by Justice Neil Gorsuch’s appointment, may be right that the EO has a better shot in the High Court.

That’s because the EO doesn’t matter. You may not have noticed, but sharia supremacism has already won, regardless of what the Supreme Court does.

See, the EO was never an end in and of itself. It is a means — a fatally flawed one — to a vital end. That end is a vetting system that enables our security services to distinguish pro-Western Muslims from sharia supremacists. That’s the goal. The EO was conceived as a temporary pause while the vetting system took shape.

From a security perspective, though, the EO was utterly ineffective: applicable to a negligible slice of the global anti-American threat. More significantly, as a strategy, starting with the EO rather than getting to vetting has been a catastrophe.

As we have previously observed, in order to install the vetting system we need, the challenge of Islam must be confronted head-on and without apology. That is unavoidable. You can’t flinch. It is a certainty that the Democrat-media complex — of which Islamist organizations are members in good standing — is going to smear you as a racist “Islamophobe.” (Yes, this is another race-obsessed “progressive” narrative, so Islam gets to be the “race,” so that defenders of the Constitution and Western culture can be cast as “the oppressor.”) You have to be content with knowing that you are not a racist, with knowing that you are defending religious liberty, including the religious liberty of pro-Western Muslims.

There is a single battle that must be won. American culture must be convinced that Islam, while it has plenty of diversity, has a mainstream strain — sharia supremacism — that is not a religion but a totalitarian political ideology hiding under a religious veneer.

Earlier this month, Minneapolis police stumbled across an arsenal of guns, ammunition, and bomb-making materials — including a drone — inside the car of two brothers with ties to the Middle East. The pair were arrested, but now a concerned citizen is “outraged” because one of the men is already out of jail.

The police discovered the arsenal after the man reported 27-year-old Abdullah Alrifahe and 26-year-old Majid Alrifahe to law enforcement on May 11 following an incident outside a federally subsidized senior housing project. When the Good Samaritan confronted the brothers about littering from their car, they jumped out and “moved aggressively toward him,” WCCO reports.

Abdullah is being held in the Hennepin County Jail. His brother, Majid, has been released and is facing minor charges.

WCCO-TV has confirmed that both Homeland Security and the FBI are involved in the investigation, which started outside a federally-subsidized senior housing project. A good Samaritan confronted the men about littering from their car.

The man, who asked that his name not be used for fear of his safety, said the brothers jumped out of their car, moved aggressively toward him and used the N-word. He then called police.

Inside the brothers’ car, police found a loaded AK-47, another rifle, a handgun, a grenade, large amounts of ammunition, and what would later be identified as bomb-making materials, including a drone.

Abdullah Alrifahe had recently been released from jail after serving time for a weapons conviction. He is now facing a single felony weapons charge.

His brother, Majid, has been released from jail and is facing a low-level misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct.

The good Samaritan is outraged the charges aren’t more serious.

“For what they found in their car, that is way too light,” he said. CONTINUE AT SITE

The children of Manchester were killed by a Jihadi known to authorities. So were the victims of 12 out of the 14 Islamic terror attacks in America under Obama’s watchful eye. That must end. Our terror watch list must become a terror deportation list.

President Trump went to the very heart of Islam, Saudi Arabia, and told the assembled leaders of the Muslem world they must drive the Jihadis out of their mosques, out of their communities, out of their country and out of this earth.

The Saudis are responsible for their country. We are responsible for America. Let us start right here and right now. We need to drive all those who preach Jihad out of our American mosques, community, and country.

Preachers in America are not allowed to encourage murder or the overthrow of our government. It is immoral and illegal to allow the preaching of Jihad in our mosques. Yet time after time, whenever we have an Islamic atrocity in our country, we discover the killer attended a radical mosque. One estimate is that half of the mosques in our country were founded by radical Muslim Brotherhood members.

In 2012, then-President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, banned radical imams from entering France; in 2016, France closed down a handful of radical mosques where they found terrorist weapons caches. We should do that and more. We should close all radical mosques. Especially for those who believe Islam is a religion of peace, it is clear these are not true religious institutions, but centers promoting Muslim supremacy, violence, and the suppression of other religions.

Make no mistake. Islamism in America reaches far beyond mosque walls. We have a pro-Jihadi curriculum in our schools, Jihadi preachers and speakers in our mosques and prisons, Jihadi bureaucrats and support staff in our government, Jihadi judges in our courts (one appointed by New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie), and Jihadis serving on oversight committees of police departments, the FBI and Homeland Security.

President Trump is asking the Muslim leaders across the globe to step up. We have to step up at home. We have to step up at every level. We need to support courageous citizen activists like Pamela Geller and Brigitte Gabrielle, the remarkable Charles Jacobs and Steven Emerson. These heroic Americans have been carrying the burden to fight Jihad. They have been doing it almost alone for years. We need an all-out effort by city and state governments, Congress and every federal department, and yes, the president, who has to get moving. They are supposed to protect us from organized killers.

What more do we need to know about these people? Can their intentions be more clear? What else do they have to do? Blow up teen girls at a pop concert?

As Roger Simon wrote:

If you think what happened in Blighty can’t happen here — 19 killed, 59 injured — you’ll have to excuse me if I say “You’re out of your bloomin’ mind.” Did you already forget 9/11/2001? Or the Boston Marathon? Or San Bernardino? Or the Orlando gay bar attack less than a year ago that killed 49?

Oh, yeah. Seems so long ago, doesn’t it, even that last one? The “new normal.” We put these things out of our minds the week after to deal with the next trivial Washington scandal or go about our petty lives.

Our culture lives in a self-destructive willful blindness, refusing to see the obvious even though it happens again and again across the globe.

Radical Islam, Islamism, or whatever you want to call it has been at war with us since the Twin Towers came down and even well before. And they have no intention whatsoever of stopping.

Nevertheless we respond in the most perfunctory manner, nattering on about how Islam is a”religion of peace,” criticizing ourselves and others for “Islamophbia,” or dismissing it all as a police matter.

My guess is that we will react decisively in the US. We’ve had a much more realistic view of terrorism over here. As a last resort, we believe in self defense and allow some citizens to carry guns and serve as a line of protection.

However, I’m not very optimistic about Europe. For example, Salman Abedi, the alleged terrorist, was known to British authorities prior to the attack. Wonder how that makes any parent feel about the next concert that their teens want to go to? Or the next time that there is a big soccer event? In other words, would you attend a concert in the UK any time soon knowing that people under the eye of the police will join you for the proceedings?

Most of all, it makes President Trump’s realism about terrorism and uncontrolled immigration really stand out.

Ironically Warren Buffet recently stated that “I don’t know that much about cyber, but I do think that’s the number one problem with mankind.” He is right. Cybersecurity is a preeminent threat.

What is being called the largest ransomware attack is being described as a real wakeup call y many cybersecurity experts and government officials. The ransomware disrupted hospital , organizational and company networks that were not well protected and up to date. Low hanging fruit for hackers. It did not turn out to be as lethal as originally feared, but it certainly demonstrated the global vulnerabilities associated with inter-connected networks and devices.

Facts are still being analyzed and disputed but It appeared initially that the cyber-extortion attack was perhaps initiated with a phishing/macro email attack, involving a variant of a ransomware called “WannaCry”, that exploited a Microsoft Windows Flaw. But in forensic reviews there is still no definitive explanation of how the malware propagated or who are the culprits, although some suspect North Korean involvement. What we do know that the ransomware was self-replicating and spread swiftly reaching over 100 countries. In various countries, industry, organizations and government were victimized. The Czech security company Avast stated that they saw 57,000 infections included major hits in Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan. (http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/12/technology/ransomware-attack-nsa-microsoft/) British Prime Minister Theresa May called it “an international attack. Cybersecurity is truly a global threat and problem. (http://www.businessinsider.com/theresa-may-nhs-cyberattack-part-of-international-attack-2017-5)

It is thought that early ransomware spread via email and was propagated via online advertising. The ransomware locks computers and then launches a ransom note in a text file demanding payment. In this case, the ransom was $300 per device. Of particular concern were the attacks on the UK National Health Service. Non-emergency operations were suspended and ambulances were diverted because of the WannyCry attacks. Hospitals are often targets for cyber-attacks because they often use a multitude of devices, systems, and networks allowing for more surface attack areas. Also, They generally to not have adequate security operating budgets.

A federal grand jury today indicted a Jordanian man living in Ohio on charges that he attempted to provide material support and resources to ISIS — the second such case in Ohio in a month.

Laith Waleed Alebbini, 26, of Dayton, was arrested on April 26 by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport as he was going to board the first of a series of connecting flights to Jordan, where he planned to cross the border into Syria and join the terror group.

According to the FBI, Alebbini is a citizen of Jordan and became a legal permanent resident of the United States in April 2014. He first traveled to the U.S. in July 2011.

A sworn affidavit from FBI investigators states Alebbini was arrested Jan. 10 for unlawfully entering the Turkish embassy in Washington D.C., but the charges were later dropped.

Two days later, Alebbini tried to travel to Turkey via Amsterdam, but was denied entry because his Jordanian passport had expired, officials said. He returned to the U.S. on Jan. 15.

On Jan. 23, the FBI states Alebbini was interviewed about the incident at the Turkish embassy.

During the interview, Alebbini allegedly admitted to posting pro-ISIS videos on Facebook and to supporting ISIS’s desire for a united Middle East.
He allegedly said during the interview that “I am the perfect recruit for ISIS,” but said he did not agree with their violence, according to court documents.

He said his reason for going to the embassy was to discuss the conflict in the Middle East with the Turkish Ambassador, the documents state.

“Alebbini said the security at the embassy was very lax, and that ‘if I had on bomb on me, I swear to God, three embassies would have done down,'” investigators reported in the affidavit.

The FBI decided to keep a close eye on Alebbini after that.

Via WCPO Cincinnati:

In court records, an FBI special agent detailed various pro-ISIS comments he said Alebbini had made to a confidential source, including that he planned to travel to the Middle East, join ISIS and “fight in Jihad.”

“Our duty is to support the Islamic State,” Alebbini is quoted as saying. “Those are the words, what is your duty? Jihad. A person is supposed to stay away from the people of sins … and what happens, happens … caught? Let them arrest you, then, let them arrest me. This is the true conversation.”

If convicted, Alebbini could spend up to 20 years in prison. CONTINUE AT SITE

Paul Ferrillo, Chuck Brooks, Kenneth Holley, George Platsis, George Thomas, Shawn Tuma, and Christophe Veltsos.

Let us take a headcount of recent events: the attack on the Ukraine’s electric grid, a LinkedIn data dump as a result of a 2012 breach, the information warfare campaign surrounding the US Elections, a peculiar “Google Docs” app involved in a massive spear-phishing campaign, and most recently, another information warfare campaign aimed at the French Elections. Do not forget our ”good ole friends” – North Korea, Iran, and Syria, just to mention a few – are well into the cyber game and ready to pounce on the next database which has been left unguarded, unencrypted, and unprepared to thwart an attack.

As the disc jockey says, “and the hits keep on playing!”

Despite increased “cybersecurity talk” since the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach, great strides in Federal IT security improvement are not apparent.

Despite loads of Congressional attention, there is only one piece of credible legislation to show for, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA).

And despite the billions spent on cyber defense measures, we seem to wake up every morning to news of some type of new breach, making it feel like Groundhog Day.

With each new breach, some nation state, cybercriminal, or terrorist group has gotten their hands on our personal information (and that of our spouses, kids, and parents) all in an effort to exploit us further, whether it is a wire transfer scam or an attempted run at the crown jewels of whoever employs us. Coupled with publicly available information that we – and our family, friends, and co-workers, and businesses, services, and not-for-profits – post online, and that which is available through workplace and government listings, seemingly tiny and unrelated pieces of information, once collated, become a powerful weapon for the adversary.

The adversary will not hesitate for one moment to use this information against us should it meet their interests.

We cannot overemphasize this issue enough: spear-phishing and pretexting tactics work and they work extremely well. And government employees are by no means exempt or necessarily protected from these social engineering attacks. Once that email makes it past the firewalls, the spam filters, the anti-virus and the artificial intelligence onto your device (which it can and does), you – and you alone – are the last line of defense.

So why have we been so completely unsuccessful in defending our data? There are enough reasons to numb you:

Silo mentalities of various agencies, groups, and companies;

Unsubstantiated hype of vendor strategies designed to work together, but in practice are disjointed;
Never-ending shortage of skilled cyber professionals;
Perpetual lack of money, time, and attention the issue truly needs;
Basic naivety of the user; and
A fundamental misunderstanding of issues and terms.

Do people really understand the intricacies and complexities the cybersecurity challenge presents? How much do the US House and Senate really care to understand these intricacies and complexities?

We do not need to spend another year, or election cycle, or decade debating across party lines or through political filters when there are actionable steps that support a unified American interest, regardless of party or ideology.