Frank Gaffney Jr.

Doing something about space weather

A wit once observed a persistent truth: “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” That has been especially the case with respect to “space weather” – a phenomenon associated with intense solar activity, known by scientists as coronal mass ejections and popularly as solar flares. If oriented in the wrong direction, one of these flares could blanket much of the earth with devastatingly powerful bursts of energy known as electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

Metadata and the common defense

The revelation that the super-secret National Security Agency has been vacuuming up so-called “metadata” from foreign and American communications has lots of us in a full-scale flail.

Does Rubio care about national security?

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer confidently predicts that at least seventy members of the U.S. Senate are going to vote for his Gang of Eight’s so-called “comprehensive immigration bill.” That assumes a substantial number of what he calls “our Republicans” will join in.

Obama’s Surrender Speech

The White House billed last week’s address by President Obama as a major foreign policy address. Indeed, it was. It was tantamount to a surrender speech in what is most accurately described, not as the War on Terrorism, but as the War for the Free World – for that is what is at stake if we lose.

Do You Feel Lucky? The Danger of EMP

In 1987, Ronald Reagan mused that, if the world were about to be devastated by an alien force – perhaps a collision with a large asteroid, peoples of all nations, ideological persuasions and political parties would come together to save the planet and our civilization. We may be about to test that proposition.

The Women of Benghazigate

Suddenly, it seems we have broken through the most effective executive branch cover-up and complicit media blackout in memory. Among the many recent revelations is one that has gone unnoted: The prominent role played by women in the Obama administration’s: policy-making that led up to the jihadist attack in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012; its handling of the crisis; and its subsequent, scandalous damage-control operation.

Moment of Truth for Benghazigate?

The dam seems to be breaking on the nearly eight-months-long cover-up concerning the deadly jihadist attack on Americans and their facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

Welcome to the Global Jihad

Authorities in Massachusetts have identified suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday as Dzhokhar and (the now-deceased) Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two brothers of Chechen descent originally from Kyrgyzstan. Many Americans haven’t heard of the place; most couldn’t find it on a map. Nearly all would be unable to say why people from there would want to kill people from here.

Connecting the Dots 101

The dramatic events in Boston last week have given rise to what President Obama would call a “teachable moment.” The question is, will we “connect the dots”? And, more to the point, will our leaders, the media and the rest of us have the intellectual integrity and courage to learn the evident lessons?

Obama’s ‘China Syndrome’

Secretary of State John Kerry spent the weekend showing what predictably comes of the North Koreans behaving badly: China benefits. Unfortunately, this is not the only example of the Obama administration’s cravenness in the face of misbehavior on the part of Beijing and/or its proxies. Call it Team Obama’s China Syndrome.

The Torch Passes: Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

The death of Margaret Thatcher marks the passing of a generation of leaders who literally remade their world. The former British prime minister was universally known as the “Iron Lady” for her steadfast commitment to anti-communist and free-market principles. Her passing is a loss to her people, to Americans – who knew in her time the full meaning of a “special relationship” between her country and ours, and to the Free World in which she was a truly heroic figure.

Obama’s ‘Nuclear Zero’ Rhetoric is Dangerous

Recent threats from North Korea have led the Obama administration to reverse some of its previous decisions and to build up U.S. missile defenses. Welcome as that course correction is, the North’s recent missile developments and underground nuclear test should cause President Obama to rethink his basic approach to nuclear weapons policy. He should acknowledge that he was unrealistic in making it U.S. policy to achieve “a world without nuclear weapons.”

The Senate’s Thomas Perez Test

“The president shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States….” Article II, U.S. Constitution Since the start of his second term, President Obama has sought to stock his Cabinet with leftists whose records should have been subjected to exacting scrutiny, but that by and large were given a pass. Even on the basis of what did come to light in at least two of those cases – Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and CIA Director John Brennan – the Senate should have provided its advice and dissented to the nominations.

William Van Cleave, the Cold War’s Unsung Hero

There’s a certain historic symmetry that we mark the thirtieth anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s historic unveiling of his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) within days of the passing of a man who played a central role in inspiring it. We must take the occasion of celebrating the former to honor the latter: Dr. William Van Cleave, an unsung hero of the War for the Free World, and most especially the part of that long and continuing conflict known as the Cold War.

Investigate Benghazigate

After Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein’s despotic misrule, critics denounced the then-incumbent president with the charge that “Bush lied, people died.”

Putting politics over public safety

An ominous pattern has been developing, particularly of late: The Obama administration seems determined to subordinate public safety to political expediency. If a course-correction is not effected promptly, the result is predictable. Americans will be needlessly harmed, and perhaps killed.

The Case Against Chuck Hagel

This is no time for America to have a mediocre Secretary of Defense. Under present circumstances – let alone foreseeable ones – it would be the height of folly to give the job to someone even more deficient: Chuck Hagel.

Obama’s ‘Friends of Hamas’?

Last week, twenty-five Republican Senators wrote a former member of their caucus and the man President Obama wants to lead the Defense Department a letter demanding full disclosure of his financial dealings. To date, Sen. Chuck Hagel has demonstrated afresh his contempt for the legislature by declining to do so.

Chuck Hagel’s Contempt for the Senate

In the run-up to the Senate Armed Services Committee's hearing this Thursday on Chuck Hagel's fitness to become the next Secretary of Defense, its members have been treated to the spectacle of the nominee spinning at the RPM of a prima ballerina.

Hillary Clinton’s legacy

This week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be making her swan song appearance on Capitol Hill, providing at last to Senate and House panels her testimony about the Benghazigate scandal. Under the circumstances, legislators may feel pressured to be deferential and to keep their questions more limited in scope and superficial rather than probing. For the good of the country, it is imperative that they resist going soft.