Secure Freedom Minute

Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and its Council on American Islamic Relations front as terrorist organizations. One might be forgiven for thinking that would put CAIR out of business, at least in Texas.  CAIR’s business is supporting the Brotherhood’s sharia-supremacism and, in particular, its Palestinian franchise Hamas, a federally designated terrorist organization.  Yet, CAIR is currently mobilizing with leftist allies an effort to dictate what children in K-12 public schools across the nation learn about America, denouncing an approved, standard-setting social studies curriculum in Texas as “Islamophobic” and “exclusionary.”  Those aiding and abetting a terrorist organization like CAIR are on notice: By promoting sharia, a doctrine that requires the overthrow of the U.S. government, CAIR is by definition engaged in seditious conspiracy. Material support for such an entity could, and should, have consequences for all involved.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Next Tuesday, the Texas State Board of Education will cast votes with potentially profound and far-reaching implications for students across America. That’s because publishers sell nationwide the textbooks used to teach Texans’ curriculums. So, if Texas’ State Board of Education sticks with a patriotic framework for K-12 social studies that it adopted last year and the standards that would implement it, kids throughout America will be equipped with factual information about, for example, our Founders, our Constitution and other founding documents, and the Judeo-Christian beliefs at their core.  If, on the other hand, a designated terrorist group called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its leftist allies have their way, our children will instead be indoctrinated with political agendas inimical to our freedoms and values. Join us in encouraging the Texas board to vote for a pro-America curriculum at BanSharia.com.      This is Frank Gaffney. 

On March 3rd, 1.9 million Texans voted to prohibit sharia law in their state. Next Tuesday, the Council on American Islamic Relations intends to win a vote involving just fifteen people, insinuating sharia’s agenda into textbooks used in Texas and across the country.  The occasion is an April 7th hearing and vote in the State Board of Education on whether to stick with its previously approved, pro-America curriculum for K-through-12 social studies or adopt a “CAIR curriculum.” It may be the most important battle in Texas since the Alamo, a structure that, according to CAIR’s version of history, was a tribute to Islam.  Sharia-supremacists – like all totalitarians – know if they can indoctrinate the children, they can dominate the society. Texans and other Americans who don’t want a designated terrorist group like CAIR dictating what our kids are taught must say so now.   This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump is now declaring that he has achieved “regime change” in Iran. It’s very welcome that that is, in fact, our purpose. So is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s report that what’s left of the previous Iranian government is fracturing. But the President is indicating that we are now dealing with government officials three layers down with whom we have not interacted before. He is suggesting that amounts to regime change. Unfortunately, if such interlocutors adhere to their predecessors’ apocalypitic sharia-supremacist agenda, the inevitable result will be that the Iranian people remain enslaved and ours, among many others in the region and beyond, remain imperilled. President Trump is right to seek regime change and to insist on new people leading the government of Iran that emerges from this war. But putting toxic old wine into new bottles will assure our defeat. This is Frank Gaffney.

The Council on American Islamic Relations has been the Muslim Brotherhood’s pitbull front group from shortly after its organizational meeting in 1993, which was wiretapped by the FBI. Its particular mission has been supporting the Brothers’ terrorist Palestinian franchise, Hamas.   CAIR itself has been designated as a terrorist organization by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis. Gov. DeSantis is expected shortly to sign pathbreaking legislation that, among other things, confirms that status and would effectively shut CAIR’s operations in Florida.  Next week, though, a member of the Texas State Board of Education named Pam Little – who has been endorsed by that terrorist organization – is apparently poised to cast the deciding vote to approve an anti-American “CAIR curriculum” for K-through-12 social studies education that would not only be used in Texan schools, but across the country. That must not happen.   This is Frank Gaffney.

This afternoon, Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlevi is scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas. His appearance affords an opportunity for a potential transitional leader of a post-ayatollah Iranian government to clarify what is at stake in the nearly month-long war in the Middle East. Hopefully, he will speak for the vast majority of his countrymen who yearn for deliverance at last from the regime that has long brutalized them and threatened us. They understand that only the end of that death-cult animated by Islam’s totalitarian sharia code will actually finish the war and the threat the mullahs present to the whole world. As it happens, an important theme of this CPAC is ending the menace posed by sharia in Texas and the rest of America, as well. Learn why – and how you can help – at BanSharia.com.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Today, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference gets underway in earnest in Dallas, Texas. CPAC is the year’s single most important gathering of American patriots and this particular meeting promises to be especially so. That’s because on March 3rd, 1.9 million Texan voters supported Proposition 10 in the state’s Republican primary. In so doing by a margin of 95-5%, they endorsed these five words: “Texas should prohibit sharia law.” It is nothing short of providential that, in the immediate aftermath of that epic vote, thousands of political candidates, activists and donors are going to be convening in a city squarely in the crosshairs of sharia-supremacists intent on conquering, not just Texas, but the rest of the country, as well.  We hope to launch a powerful movement at CPAC 26 with candidates taking the Sharia-Free Pledge. Encourage yours to do so at BanSharia.com This is Frank Gaffney.

It’s hard to keep up with developments in the war with the apocalyptic Iranian regime that has brutally repressed its own people and endlessly threatened, and periodically attacked, ours for nearly fifty years.  The question is whether a man who has been at the heart of that government and directly responsible for many of its horrifying atrocities – including the mass murder of countless Iranians who responded to President Trump’s call to overthrow the ayatollahs – is a man with whom we now can safely and prudently do business. Mohammed Ghalibaf may be the Iranian parliament’s speaker. But he’s also a top general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – a committed and dangerous jihadist. Let us pray that President Trump is once again buying time to bring to bear the Marines and other forces needed to prevent, not enable, further threats from Iran.  This is Frank Gaffney. 

President Trump has indicated that the United States is now involved in negotiations with a surviving top, but as-yet-unidentified, Iranian official.  Press accounts indicate the interlocutor is Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps General Mohammed Ghalibaf. If true, that would mean the President thinks that perhaps the regime’s most vicious butcher of the Iranian people is a candidate for the so-called “Venezualan solution.” Put simply, that’s a non-starter. Making a deal that leaves such a monster in charge of Iran would not only be an odious betrayal of that nation’s long-suffering population. It would also be seen throughout the region and among the world’s sharia-supremacists elsewhere as a victory for the jihadists. And it would ensure that the war will continue, almost certainly under less favorable circumstances for us. Donald Trump has no intention of having such an ignominious defeat as his legacy.  This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has made no secret of his ambition to “take Cuba” next. It’s hard to overstate the importance of such an initiative.  Obviously, freeing the long-suffering people of that island nation would end their collective nightmare caused by six decades of Communist misrule.  But it would also have profound knock-on effects for this country and its vital interests throughout the Western hemisphere.  For one thing, Cuba has provided a permanent base of operations for hostile powers including Russia, China and Iran.  Cuba’s collaboration with such adversaries has extended to nations elsewhere in the region, as well – subverting its democracies and, particularly through Chinese penetration and domination of nation after nation, empowering and weaponizing its many hard-left governments. Learn how freeing Cuba could transform hemispheric security – and ours – via a PresentDangerChina.org webinar tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.  This is Frank Gaffney. 

Mike Arnold is the Nigerian government’s worst nightmare. This longtime missionary has singlehandedly shattered its false narratives about, and complicity with, jihadists genocidally persecuting and murdering that nation’s Christians.  So, the sharia-supremacists ruling in Abuja and their allies here have sought to prevent Mike from addressing a briefing about this catastrophic bloodletting next week in the House of Reprepresentatives. Shockingly, they were abetted by the International Religious Freedom Summit, a group deeply penetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and, consequently, prioritizing so-called “interfaith dialogue” – the Brothers’ code words for promoting submission to Islam – over robustly defending those persecuted for following Jesus.  Fortunately, a faithful champion of international religious freedom, New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, has arranged a program at which Mike Arnold will appear. Let’s pray President Trump will respond by redoubling his campaign to save persecuted Christians, in Nigeria and elsewhere.  This is Frank Gaffney. 

Steve Bannon declared on his War Room program yesterday, “We’re in a war now, so we gotta win it. And we have to win it in a smart way to make sure the blood and treasure is not needlessly spilled. But we’re in it and we have to have victory.” This statement marks a significant, and very welcome, break by my old friend from those who fail to understand our time’s central reality: We confront a global threat from adherents to Islam’s totalitarian sharia ideology that explicitly seeks the destruction of Western civilization. Anything short of a decisive victory over sharia-supremacists – whether they are in Tehran or Texas – will embolden the rest of them who are obliged to respond by intensifying their jihad.  Steve Bannon’s “Posse” are critical to our nation’s survival and, I pray, will follow his courageous lead.  This is Frank Gaffney.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited his city’s notorious Rikers Island prison this week to break the Ramadan fast with inmates there. In so doing, he promoted yet again Islam and encouraged conversion to it. Mamdani’s excursion called attention to a troubling fact: Large numbers of convicts have done just that. Thanks in no small measure to the Muslim Brotherhood’s success dating back to the Clinton administration in insinuating its chaplains into federal and other prisons, what is arguably the most dangerous population in America has been assiduously recruited to sharia-supremacism by a group two governors have designated as a terrorist organization. While Democrats are resisting needed electoral reforms in the SAVE America Act, there’s one they are very keen on: restoring the voting rights of felons after their incarceration ends. Jihadist Mamdani understands that means more, and more perilous, Muslim votes.   This is Frank Gaffney. 

President Trump is insisting that the U.S. Senate approve the SAVE America Act that would make vitally needed reforms to voter registration and balloting nationwide. So are the American people. A new McLaughlin poll conducted for Tea Party Patriots found overwhelming support by Republicans, Democrats and independents for the purpose of this legislation: namely, ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote.   The only reason for opposing the SAVE America Act is to ensure instead that non-citizens can impact our elections. In practical terms, that means they can not only vote illegally. They can nullify the votes of Americans.   Presidential and popular support for the SAVE America Act has compelled Senate Majority Leader John Thune to ensure it gets a vote soon. Unclear, however, is whether he’s determined to make it a decisive victory.   Urge your senators to protect your vote at TeaPartyPatriots.org.   This is Frank Gaffney.

For over four decades, the people of Iran have yearned to be liberated from the mullahocracy that has brutalized them. Thanks to the U.S. and Israeli militaries, they finally have a real opportunity to secure their freedom. Yet, some contend the absence since Operation Epic Fury’s launch of the mass demonstrations of the past indicate Iran’s people are no longer a key potential ally in its success. This ignores the fact that American and Israeli officials have insisted they stay home pending the further dismantling of the regime’s security apparatus that murderously suppressed the most recent ones. Evidently, however, Iranians are now materially contributing to regime change by providing lethal targeting information about the location of checkpoints the ayatollahs’ thugs have set up to control and kill would-be demonstrators.  As the late, great champion of freeing Iran, Michael Ledeen, would say, “Faster.”  This is Frank Gaffney.  

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. At this hour, a dangerous fire is raging in an industrial complex in south Texas. It is too early to tell whether it was the result of an attack – let alone whether, if so, those responsible are tied to Iran’s regime.  One thing is clear, however: Official warnings and those of highly regarded former national security professionals indicate that, at least as long as the mullahs cling to power, it’s a matter of time before we are subjected to such sabotage, and possibly much worse.   For example, former CIA spy “Sam” Faddis notes that the new Iranian supreme leader has explicitly promised to hit “where the enemy has little experience and where it would be highly vulnerable.” Some persist in believing that there’s a negotiated alternative to decisive victory over such an adversary. Regrettably, that’s not true.  Finish the job. Liberate Iran.  This is Frank Gaffney. 

While the world’s attention is understandably increasingly focused on Iran’s ongoing attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf, fresh attention is needed on another potential threat involving merchant vessels.     Specifically, the regime’s dead-enders are assessed to be capable of using such ships to bring drones and perhaps even short-range ballistic missiles within striking distance of our shores. Coast Guard intelligence reportedly was behind recent warnings that Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, could be launched against targets in California. And Committee on the Present Danger: China Chairman Brian Kennedy reminded our webinar yesterday of previous Iranian tests of ship-launched ballistic missiles simulating the delivery of a devastating electromagnetic pulse attack on our homeland.   Such threats are just two more reasons why we must secure the end of the mullahocracy and the liberation of Iran now.   This is Frank Gaffney.

In all the Monday morning quarterbacking about the war with Iran, one assumption keeps popping up. The widely shared premise of government officials, present and former, assorted pundits and other commentators is that ending the monstrous Iranian regime is an option, not mandatory. A powerful Victory Coalition webinar yesterday made two things abundantly clear. The decision President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to preemptively attack Iran was not a war of choice. It was a necessity. And so is the elimination of the apocalypse-seeking ayatollahs and what’s left of their security apparatus. House Speaker Mike Johnson declared yesterday that “Sharia is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution.” Neither is the sharia-supremacist Iranian theocracy that, if it can, absolutely, positively will cataclysmically destroy our constitutional republic.  Our security requires the liberation of Iran. Period.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Sharia Imperils the State of the Union   This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. President Trump has offered differing assessments of how the war with Iran is progressing, how close it is to a successful conclusion and what comes next with respect to that nation’s government.  One thing seems clear: The Chinese Communist Party has a lot riding on the outcome. It needs access to cheap, sanctions-busting oil imports from Iran. Its air defenses and other weapons have been deployed widely there – and have not performed well, with adverse implications for their marketing elsewhere.  And the resulting external pressures only exacerbate China’s serious domestic economic, political and demographic challenges.  So, will Chinese dictator Xi Jinping respond to these difficulties by deferring his plans for aggression against Taiwan and other U.S. interests? Or will he accelerate them in the hope of exploiting the current American preoccupation with Iran? Stay tuned.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Keeping track of how the war with Iran is going, let alone where it’s going, is challenging.  A key development from the latest phase of the Iranian regime’s war against us and most of the rest of the world – in which it has engaged since 1979 – has resulted in tectonic shifts in the Middle East. The United States and Israel have been joined by key European nations and a number of important Arab ones.  While it remains to be seen how this coalition hangs together, the fact that it has formed up at all further seals the ayatollahs’ fate. Provided, that is, President Trump continues to insist on their unconditional surrender. Combined with sustained efforts to destroy the regime’s security apparatus, that stance holds the greatest promise for regional peace and the return of Iran to the community of civilized nations. This is Frank Gaffney.