Frank Gaffney Jr.

Our Churchill

Americans tend to revere our preeminent honorary citizen, Sir Winston Churchill. That view is apparently not shared by Barak Obama, who made one of his first official acts the unceremonious return to the British embassy of a bust of the great wartime leader that George W. Bush had received from Tony Blair shortly after 9/11.

Destroying America from within

A powerful new book is wreaking havoc with the reputation myriad Islamic organizations in America have been carefully cultivating for years. Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Trying to Islamize America (WND Books, 2009) reveals that, far from the moderate Muslim "mainstream" they profess to represent, these entities are associated with the insidious Muslim Brotherhood - an international criminal enterprise that has the self-professed mission of "destroying Western civilization from within."

Assault on the military

The nation's armed forces are under sustained attack. Unfortunately, while the military is engaged in two conflicts overseas, the most serious fire they are taking comes from some of their fellow Americans, starting - incredibly - with their Commander-in-Chief.

Peace in our time

Give President Obama this much. He came to office promising climate change and, according to the committee that awards the annual Nobel Peace Prize, in nine short months in office he has achieved it. Barack Obama, of course, has not lowered global temperatures, carbon emissions or rising sea-levels. Instead, the Norwegian Nobel Committee believes Mr. Obama deserves this distinction because he has given the world "hope for a better future." This arises from his "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons" and his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

What was Obama thinking?

In the wake of the debacle of Chicago's rejection as the Olympic venue for the 2016 summer games, the question probably occurred to most Americans: What was President Obama thinking when he dramatically personalized the U.S. bid by joining his wife in Copenhagen to appeal for the selection of his adopted city?

A virus called ‘Shariah’

A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas' tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.

The Obama doctrine

Those nine words define the Obama Doctrine with respect to American security policy. All three elements were much in evidence in the President's benighted decision last week to cancel the "Third Site" for intercontinental-range missile defenses in Eastern Europe. They will be on display as well during this week's several conclaves with foreign leaders.

‘Reset’ translates as ‘capitulation’

Last March, during a visit to Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was made to look foolish when she presented her host, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, with a box festooned with a button marked "Reset" in English. The idea was to have a photo-op designed to symbolize President Obama's ambition to put U.S. relations with the Kremlin on a new, more positive footing after the bilateral strains of the George W. Bush years.

‘Here, the people rule’

On the CBS "60 Minutes" Sunday night, President Obama tried to allay concerns that his headlong rush to get a health care bill enacted defies the time-tested axiom that haste-makes-waste: "I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it."

EMP and you

With hurricane season upon us once again, the recent anniversary of one of the most deadly and destructive in our nation's history - the mega-storm called Katrina - was an occasion for remembering what can happen if we are unprepared.

Putin’s ‘do-over’

Twenty-six years ago this Fall, a titanic struggle played out in Europe. The main protagonists were Ronald Reagan and the Western alliance he led on the one hand and Yuri Andropov's KGB-led Soviet Union on the other. It proved to be the beginning of the end of what Mr. Reagan properly called the "Evil Empire." Today, one of Andropov's agents, Vladimir Putin, is striving for a "do-over" - one which may have no-less-far-reaching implications.

Snakes in the grass

The Florida Everglades are reeling from an explosion in the number of deadly Burmese pythons. By some estimates, there may be as many as 140,000 of them slithering around in a place they don't belong. These particular snakes are believed to have gotten their start in the Everglades through the well-intentioned, but ill-considered, action of a few Americans who thought they were doing the humane thing by turning their pet pythons loose in the swampy wilderness.

Is ‘Islam’ at war with us?

Last week, John Brennan, the assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism approvingly recalled a key point in the speech Mr. Obama delivered in Cairo in June: "America is not and never will be at war with Islam." Unfortunately, that statement ignores the fact that the decision as to whether the United States is at war with anybody is not entirely up to our leadership or people. The real question is: Is ‘Islam' at war with us?

A world of hurt

As an increasing number of roadside bombs, suicidal jihadists and cars packed with high explosives kill and maim in Afghanistan and Iraq, it seemed like a good time to take in a feature film that pays well-deserved tribute to the American servicemen in the frontlines of countering such horrors. “The Hurt Locker” is an unflinching and powerful testimonial to those George Orwell thanked with his timeless quote: “Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Judging the truth

During confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees, Senators always try to draw out the witnesses on their judicial philosophy and views about the constitutional implications of topical issues. Lately, with few exceptions, the would-be justices have deftly deflected the questions, truthfully but opaquely responding in ways that offer little grist for critics' mills.

An avoidable catastrophe

Amidst all the congressional to-ing and fro-ing associated with the President's controversial health care, cap-and-trade and "hate crimes" initiatives, it would be easy for most legislators to overlook a hearing the House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. If Congress fails to address the subject of that hearing, however, it literally will not matter whether the government addresses any of those other, disproportionately prominent agenda items.

Welcome to Faisal County

At this writing, the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia are poised to make a momentous decision. After a hearing tonight, the Supervisors could well accede to demands by the House of Saud to change the name of their jurisdiction to Faisal County, in recognition of the contributions the late Saudi king and the virulent strain of Islam promoted by his government in Northern Virginia and elsewhere.

Your Deterrent: What’s at stake at the Moscow summit

When President Obama wheels and deals this week with his double-headed Russian counterpart - Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, please keep one thing in mind: As he proposes to make further, dramatic cuts in and otherwise weakens the United States' nuclear arsenal, it's your deterrent that is being compromised.

‘Take My Voice’: An everywoman’s story from Iran

Starting last Friday, theaters across the country gave Americans a vivid, dramatic and most timely insight into the struggle now playing out in Iran. More importantly, the extraordinary new film, "The Stoning of Soraya M.," offers each of us a way to help the the Iranian people - and most especially the women - to free themselves from the theocratic repression with which they have been afflicted for the past 30 years.

Missile defense misjudgment

What on earth are they thinking? The Obama administration and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are significantly reducing America's missile defense programs at the very moment when the need for such systems is becoming ever more palpable. It is hard to believe - especially in the wake of the President's much-ridiculed decision to close Guantanamo Bay without a better plan for safely incarcerating its dangerous detainees - that either the Chief Executive or legislators really want to impale themselves on another national security decision that defies common sense.