By Barry Rubin

Consider five factors that had no effect on the very warm reception given by President Barack Obama to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

–While the U.S. government has pressured Erdogan not to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Erdogan announced in the White House Rose Garden that he would do so. An alleged U.S. ally says publicly in front of Obama while being hosted by him that he is going to defy the United States.

This is not some routine matter. With previous presidents, if an ally was going to do something like that he would say nothing at the time and then months later would subvert U.S. policy. Or better yet the foreign leader would not do so. To announce defiance in such a way is a serious sign of how little respect Middle East leaders have for Obama — and U.S. policy nowadays — and how little Obama will do about it.

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by David P. Goldman*

Errors by the party in power can get America into trouble; real catastrophes require consensus.

Rarely have both parties been as unanimous about a development overseas as they have in their shared enthusiasm for the so-called Arab Spring during the first months of 2011. Republicans vied with the Obama Administration in their zeal for the ouster of Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak and in championing the subsequent NATO intervention against Muammar Qaddafi in Libya. Both parties saw themselves as having been vindicated by events. The Obama Administration saw its actions as proof that soft power in pursuit of humanitarian goals offered a new paradigm for foreign-policy success. And the Republican establishment saw a vindication of the Bush freedom agenda.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

American Middle East analysts often claim that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization, nothing like the more radical Salafis. If true, what do we make of the fact that the most intolerant, anti-American, hate-filled Salafis and jihadis also happen to be the greatest and staunchest supporters of Morsi? Doesn’t such unequivocal support indicate shared ideologies and goals?

Consider: A few weeks ago, while discussing the ongoing protests against Egypt’s President Muhammad Morsi—himself a leader of the Brotherhood—Sheikh Abdullah Badr, an Al Azhar trained scholar and professor of Islamic exegesis, made the following assertion on live TV:

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U.S. Representative Mike Kelly, representing the 3rd congressional district of Pennsylvania, left Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller speechless as he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee today. You should watch the exchange between Miller and Kelly below — though Miller sat there with his mouth agape, obviously on the verge of diarrhea, probably realizing the gravity of the words levelled against him by Kelly, who did most of the talking. Kelly spoke the hard cold truth about the egregious nature of the obviously politically-motivated IRS witchhunt. Here’s a great synopsis from the Houston Chronicle of the IRS’s Orwellian and very anti-American activities:

… How would you feel if that scrutiny were being triggered by some wacky word association game made up by the agency and including seemingly harmless words such as “Tea Party” and “Patriot,” “Constitution” and “good government” in a list of suspicious words and phrases?

You’d feel like Big Brother was watching, and you’d be right. What is being revealed about IRS targeting of conservative groups over a period of two years because of words like those mentioned above is Orwellian. For those unfamiliar with the term, it derives from the British writer’s classic work “1984,” in which a character known as “Big Brother” tracked the thought processes of ordinary citizens through a system of omnipresent government surveillance. …

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President Obama is already trying to sweep another one of his scandals under the rug, the IRS debacle, in which that agency “used inappropriate criteria that identified for review tea party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions.” This is a huge scandal, with many major ramifications for free speech and other aspects of our constitutional rights. The President stood before the American people for “a mere four minutes” yesterday and fired the acting director of the IRS, a guy who already had decided to step down before the scandal broke, and who is by some accounts “well respected at the agency” and “a very smart, capable guy.” After another of Obama’s scandals, his betrayal of the Associated Press, one would think the media would see right through the President’s obvious attempt to find a quick scapegoat for the IRS debacle. But the Washington Post is already seemingly defending the President. So let’s start with Obama’s attack on the free press:

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The mere thought of granting amnesty to 11 – 20 million illegal immigrants should frighten any common sense American citizen. Amnesty means that wannabe tyrants like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Michael Bloomberg, and Barack Obama will achieve their “dream of a permanent Democratic majority” in the U.S. The entire political, cultural, social, and economic landscape created by our Founding Fathers will be destroyed by amnesty. Concerned citizens must engage in the democratic process to stop the current immigration “reform” madness. This article provides them with all the tools they need to do so by clicking here. Please take action NOW or read on before doing so. NOW is the time to act as:

… opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship.

The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress. …

Most of you are the descendents of immigrants who came to this great nation legally, who built decent lives by living according to decent values, and passed those values unto you. Your ancestors assimilated. Most of you were raised to believe that the American dream is the chance — the opportunity — to achieve your full potential by working hard, being honest, treating people as you would have them treat you, believing in the common sense law of the land (based on the Constitution), having core values, and having faith, all to build a better life for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation, and even the whole world. Your conscientious legal citizenship — your patriotism — is about to be thrown in the trash.

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After multiple scandals — using the IRS as a political weapon, covering up Americans being killed in Benghazi — the Obama administration may have just put the last nail in its own political coffin. The President has alienated a key ally: the mainstream media. According to the Yahoo! News:

Exactly ten days ago, President Barack Obama was piously telling reporters who cover him that free speech and an independent press are “essential pillars of our democracy.” On Monday, the Associated Press accused his administration of undermining that very pillar by secretly obtaining two months’ worth of telephone records of AP reporters and editors. …

The latest revelations are sure to pour fuel on the fire of Republican-driven Richard Nixon comparisons. They come in the wake of revelations that the IRS may have improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative, tea party-linked groups. This might, in order words, not be a great time to announce a groundbreaking trip to China.

And the news threatens to pile fresh political woes on a second term already burdened by a painful gun-control defeat, a seemingly stalled economic agenda, and Republican rage at the botched response to the Sept. 12, 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. …

For a long time, many have suspected that Obama has made “the US media its mouthpiece.” Perhaps the “US media” wanted to be Obama’s mouthpiece — until they got targeted. The AP wasn’t too happy, according to NBC:

… In a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, [AP President and CEO Gary] Pruitt called [sic] said obtaining more than two months of AP phone records on 20 separate telephone lines without prior notice was a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into news-gathering operations. …

CNN is covering the story. MSNBC reported that the Obama administration’s actions against the AP:

… also drew a swift rebuke Monday from members of Congress and freedom of the press watchdogs, one of whom called the move ‘Nixonian.’ …

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vowed to investigate.

“This is obviously disturbing,” he said. Coming in the wake of other disclosures about the administration’s response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the IRS’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups, he said it showed “top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.”

Rep. Issa hit the nail on the head: “top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.” With the pileup of scandals, Obama will surely lose the trust of the majority of the American people.

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By Barry Rubin

In his speech at Ohio State University, President Barack Obama used the word “together” four times. Yet each time he defined the collective endeavor of Americans as merely that of promoting more government. Thus, while trying to turn American history and even the Constitution into precedents for his goals and policies, Obama actually reverses reality, undermining not only the conservative vision of America but also the historic liberal one.

Normally, a president would speak of the vast array of efforts made “together” to refer — or at least include — non-government activities. That means the actions of voluntarily formed communities, organizations, corporations, charities, religious groups, and trade unions. It is the freedom, energy, and enthusiasm to form such groups that marks American society as unusual in the world.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

In January, an American Christian was sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence on charges of “endangering national security” in Iran. A 32-year-old married father of two from Boise, Idaho, Pastor Saeed Abedini traveled to his country of origin last year to visit family and help build an orphanage, only to be arrested and sent to Tehran’s brutal Evin prison.

According to Fox News, Abedini, a Muslim convert to Christianity—also known as an apostate deserving of death under Islamic Sharia law—is “facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs.” In a recent letter smuggled to family members, he recounted the “horrific pressures” and “death threats” he endures: “My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk, and my steps become very weak and shaky… They are only waiting for one thing… for me to deny Christ. But they will never get this from me.”

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By Gary Gerofsky

The Jewish Daily Forward published an article on April 17, 2013, soon after the Boston terrorist bombings entitled “Jews Warn Against Rush to Judgment on Boston Marathon Terror Bombings: Security Experts Say History of Mistakes Teaches Caution.” It contained the usual cautionary tripe and left-wing warnings not to presume anything about the bombings and not to jump to conclusions. The article did not, however, avoid musing about connections to Hitler’s birthday, the Oklahoma bombings, and the low-tech nature of the attacks — all conjecture used by the author to obscure the true nature of the terror act and to pin blame on the unobvious. The carnage was actually carried out by obvious culprits and the usual suspects: Muslim terrorists.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

Reports of Christian persecution by Muslims around the world during the month of February include (but are not limited to) the following accounts. They are listed by form of persecution, and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Church Attacks

Egypt: Once again, soon after Friday prayers, a throng of Muslims in Fayoum province, destroyed a Coptic church. The reason cited this time was that the church is “an unlawful neighbor to the Muslims who live adjacent to it and must therefore be moved.” According to AINA, “The mob climbed to the church dome and started demolishing it and setting it on fire. The dome collapsed into the burning church and caused great damage. Muslims used bricks from the dome and the holy cross and hurled it at the altar inside the church, causing part of it to be demolished; all the icons of saints were destroyed. Muslims tried to assault Father Domadios and threw stones at him, but he was saved by a Muslim family who brought him away from the village in their car.” Local Christian families were reported as staying indoors for fear of being assaulted by the Muslims. And, once again, although state security was present throughout this entire proceeding, it did nothing to prevent it. None of the perpetrators was arrested. Two days later, hundreds of Copts demonstrated demanding a halt to the ongoing attacks on their churches. In response, the church was attacked again by Muslims hurling more Molotov cocktails and stones while shouting “We do not want the church.” Some Muslims climbed atop the church again to completely destroy the remains of the wooden dome.

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BREAKING: NYC MAYOR BLOOMBERG WANTS TO REWRITE THE CONSTITUTION CLAIMING “that recent attacks on the Second Amendment have left him confident that such re-interpretation is possible.”

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President Obama and his lackeys in government still insist that the Fort Hood massacre was a case of “‘workplace violence,’ despite mountains of evidence [that] clearly proves the Fort Hood shooting was an act of terror.” Is the Obama administration now taking the same course with the Boston bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev? How did our national security apparatus allow these brothers to slip under the radar? Two men murdered three people and injured over 175 at an international event in a great American city, and “avoid[ed] capture for three days.” The daily activities of 1 million people were paralyzed in the midst of hundreds of law enforcement personnel.

Ample evidence already exists supporting the theory that the Tsarnaev brothers’ atrocity was motivated by Islamist ideology. Even CNN admitted:

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Here, you can thank those senators who voted yesterday against the destruction of the Second Amendment via phone, email, Twitter, and Facebook. These senators deserve our continual support. They acted as they should because “Upon taking office, senators-elect must swear or affirm that they will ‘support and defend the Constitution.’” Even though the Second Amendment is quite clear to many Americans, as it succinctly states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,” there are extremists who care nothing about our great nation’s founding principles. But these pro-Second Amendment senators stepped up to the plate for gun rights full-well knowing that they will be targeted by special interest groups for being “soft” on gun control.

After the defeat of anti-gun rights legislation, President Obama “flashed anger as he said that the gun rights lobby had ‘willfully lied’ about the legislation, and that Republicans and Democrats had ‘caved to the pressure’” of the supposedly nefarious gun lobby. But was Obama really doing the lying?”

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Before we review the winning numbers… Because of sour grapes over losing their crusade to destroy the Second Amendment, “gun control” advocates are trying to smear those Americans who used our great democratic system to preserve gun rights. Citizens must continue to contact their senators and remind them that good law-abiding Americans peaceably stopped an obvious move to limit the constitutional right to bear arms. Tell senators that citizens never “‘caved to the pressure’ from what [Obama] called a vocal minority of people who support gun rights.” Please easily contact your senators now by calling (202) 224-3121 and sending emails. Remember to mention: 1) Republican senators like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Jerry Moran, Jim Inhofe, Richard Burr, Ron Johnson, Mike Enzi, Jim Risch, Mike Crapo, Dan Coats, and Pat Roberts (see here, too); and 2) Democratic senators Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, and Max Baucus. They stepped up to the plate for gun rights full-well knowing that they will be targeted by special interest groups for being “soft” on gun control. Here, you can thank those senators who voted yesterday against the destruction of the Second Amendment via phone, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

WE WON! The Toomey/Manchin botched “background check” bill, rather an unconstitutional and erosion-of-personal-privacy bill, lost in the Senate by a vote of 54-46. Senator Feinstein’s amendment to ban assault weapons — which are not “assault” weapons — lost by a vote of 60-40. Her equally nonsensical “proposal” to place limits on the size of ammo magazines lost by a vote of 54-46. Of course, President Obama threw a tantrum for not being able to trample on the constitutional right to bear arms. He “flashed anger as he said that the gun rights lobby had ‘willfully lied’ about the legislation, and that Republicans and Democrats had ‘caved to the pressure’” of the supposedly nefarious gun lobby. But who was doing the “lying?”

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by David J. Rusin*

Editors’ note: This article discusses many public figures in the context of the positions they held in December 2012 when the article was submitted. There has been much turnover in government and military posts since then, but the problems caused by political correctness remain despite the changes in personnel.

As U.S. service members risk their lives to combat violent jihadists abroad, military leaders, both uniformed and civilian, capitulate to stealth jihadists at home. By bending to Islamists’ appeals for religious sensitivity, these leaders ignore the most crucial lesson of the Fort Hood massacre: Political correctness can kill.

The War on Training

A key battleground in the war of ideas between Islamists and the West is military training because Islamists seek to suppress knowledge of their beliefs and goals.[1] This campaign hit high gear in 2011 when journalist Spencer Ackerman of Wired launched a series of articles documenting “offensive” training employed by various government agencies. He highlighted, among others, FBI materials stating that Islamic doctrine calls for war against non-Muslims and equating greater religious devotion with the potential for violence.[2]

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