This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Candidate Donald Trump pledged to rebuild America’s military might and secure peace through strength.  The Republican platform explicitly pledged to end Obama-era social reengineering of our armed forces, for example, by assigning women to ground combat units and admitting avowed homosexuals and even transgender individuals. 

The stated goal was to make sure that those charged with the nation’s defense are trained, equipped and otherwise ready to perform that vital mission.  The test for personnel policies must, therefore, be do they contribute to the military’s readiness? Obama’s didn’t – and had to go.

Unfortunately, Mr. Trump’s voters never imagined they had to ensure his administration was staffed by people with a similar commitment. Instead, the Pentagon continues to be almost completely run by Obama hold-overs.  And they just succeeded in getting their radical feminist and LGBTQ agenda affirmed by “Mad Dog” Mattis.

That must not stand. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has just elevated his son, Mohammed bin Salman (widely known by his initials, MBS), to be their country’s new Crown Prince. 

It’s early to guess what this ambitious young man’s designation as the king-in-waiting portends for the House of Saud and its kingdom’s relations with: enemies like Iran; former friends like Qatar and the Islamic State; and what amounts to an emerging modus vivendi with Israel.

Donald Trump seems to have bet that MBS will end the Saudis’ persistent double-dealing.  The President’s recent visit to Riyadh signaled his confidence that the young prince is, indeed, committed not only to reforms at home, but to improved relations with the United States, as well.

So, test the prince:  For starters, insist that Saudi Arabia reveal – and terminate – its support for the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, worldwide, including here.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The United States seems poised to enter the civil war in Syria. So-called “limited operations” to destroy the Islamic State are morphing into a campaign likely to bring clashes with three nations purportedly seeking the same goal: Syria, Iran and Russia. 

Why would we risk such a potentially far-reaching conflict? After all, Candidate Donald Trump expressly foreswore the idea of embroiling the United States in another war in the Mideast. 

Worse, Mr. Trump is being urged to break that promise in order to support so-called “Syrian moderates.” Never mind that, by and large, these “rebels’” goals – if not in every case their tactics – are indistinguishable from those of the Islamic State’s jihadists.  

The next step will be for President Trump to inject significant ground forces into Syria’s fratricidal conflict.  All I can say is, literally “Don’t go there, Mr. President.”

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The latest instance of vehicular homicide in Britain is being rightly denounced as an act of “terrorism.”  This time, though, instead of the perpetrators being Muslims, they were its intended victims.  

Indeed, the attack was evidently meant as in-kind retaliation aimed at people associated with Finsbury Park Mosque, one of the most notoriously jihadist institutions in the United Kingdom. If, as appears to be the case, Britain is inexorably sliding into a Sharia-induced insurgency, there may well be more episodes of this kind, or far worse, as vigilantes take matters into their own hands. 

That may be especially so to the extent that the government’s response to this incident is more submission to the Islamists.  It’s way too early to suggest that this is what the opening engagements of a civil war look like, but that prospect can no longer be ignored.  

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

One of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced warships collided early Saturday morning with a huge container ship in the waters off Tokyo Bay, puncturing a large hole below the destroyer’s waterline. Seven American seamen perished.  Others, including the ship’s captain, were hurt. And, but for the heroics of the crew, the USS Fitzgerald might have been lost.

There is much that remains to be explained about what happened that night.  The track of the Philippine-flagged cargo vessel, the ACX Crystal, suggests that it turned dramatically off course to bring it onto the path of the Fitzgerald.  Was that an accident or a deliberate attack?  

Either way, an extremely important part of the Navy’s defense of the fleet in the increasingly volatile Western Pacific has now been taken out – for perhaps a year in the shipyard.  America’s enemies are pleased, and perhaps inspired.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President Trump is expected today to dismantle another odious piece of the Obama foreign policy “legacy.”  In a speech in Miami, Mr. Trump reportedly will walk back some – but, unfortunately, not all – of the concessions by his predecessor that have provided life-support to the island’s Communist Castro regime. 

Importantly, President Trump will disallow business deals with most – but, again, not all – of the vast array of enterprises run by the still-deeply and -dangerously hostile Cuban military. 

We can only hope that, while he’s at it, Mr. Trump will also shred another reckless part of President Obama’s bequest with respect to Cuba – namely, his order to the U.S. intelligence community to share classified information with its counterparts in Havana. 

Such Obama policies simply perpetuate threats to the national security interests of the United States – and must not be allowed to stand.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a radical left-wing, Islamist-sympathizing group that has made many millions of dollars labeling people and organizations as “haters.”  For the second time in recent years, an individual inspired by the SPLC’s attacks on those with whom it politically disagrees sought to murder them. 

One such target, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, was shot yesterday at a baseball practice.  Thank God he was there.  If his security detail hadn’t been present, fifteen legislators and staff probably would have been killed.

As I am among those who have been slandered by the SPLC, the menace posed by what truly is a hate-mongering group is not an abstraction. It’s personal.  Those who cite – or otherwise promote – the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate-mongering must share responsibility not only for its discredited defamations, but the violence they invite.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

During President Trump’s remarks last month in Saudi Arabia, he memorably called on the assembled Sunni Muslim leaders to “drive out” Islamic extremists in their midst. Several of the most important countries represented have seemingly responded by punishing one of their number most deeply involved in supporting and underwriting the global jihad movement: Qatar.

Washington has long ignored Qatar’s insidious role, largely due to the sprawling and important military base America operates there. That was especially true under President Obama, who shared the Qatari government’s desire to expand the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood – a Sharia-supremacist organization seeking to supplant secular, pro-Western allies in the Middle East and, ultimately, destroy this nation from within.

President Trump has described Qatar as a “funder of terrorism at a very high level” and applauded the crackdown on it as “hard but necessary.” He’s absolutely right. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

For months, it has been obvious that official investigations of alleged Russian influence operations and obstruction of justice have been highly selective – and partisan – affairs.  

For example, Democrats’ collusion with the Kremlin to affect U.S. elections and enrich themselves are going unaddressed.  Ditto evidence of obstruction of justice by Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, including last week’s revelation that Mrs. Lynch told FBI Director James Comey to misrepresent the nature of the investigation then underway of Hillary’s email scandal, involving the apparent compromise of classified information.

Now, Circa News’ Sarah Carter reports that the Attorney General told Comey she was going to put the “kybosh” on that inquiry.

Selective scrutiny of alleged official wrongdoing is not simply incomplete and unfair.  It is malfeasant, and discredits any in Congress and the Special Counsel’s operation that engage in such misconduct.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. 

Last week, fired FBI Director James Comey showed why he is reportedly seen by FBI agents as a compromised or “dirty” cop. For starters, he acknowledged bowing to pressure from his then-boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, to intervene in the 2016 election to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

That cop got even dirtier when he acknowledged leaking confidential government records to secure the appointment of a special counsel, feeding the narrative that Mr. Trump obstructed justice when he sacked Mr. Comey.  The President adamantly denies doing that and is prepared to say so under oath. 

Obviously, it matters that the special counsel who would receive and evaluate such testimony is Robert Mueller, an old and close friend of Comey’s.  That’s the very definition of a conflict of interest and can only be resolved by Mueller’s replacement with a truly independent investigator.

This is Frank Gaffney.