The Saudis Still Have Some Cleaning Up To Do

By Ryan Mauro

The Iraqi Prime Minister is slamming the Muslim world for their silence on the hate speech of the Mufti of Mecca, Sheikh Adil al-Kalbani, who said in May that Shiites are “infidels” and should not be represented in Saudi Arabia’s “senior scholarly committee” as he describes it, referring to the Grand Ulama Commission. This means Shiites are not Muslims in his eyes, and therefore, the killing of them is justified (of course, some Muslims argue that being an “infidel” does not qualify you for being murdered, but that’s another issue). The Saudis have repeatedly claimed that their top Muslim clerics are moderate and do not support extremism. But, as I say endlessly, being a moderate consists of more than condemning 9/11, Al-Qaeda, or even suicide bombings in general. The Saudis also claim that they are screening and cleansing their country of clerics spouting hatred - but here we have a cleric who has received international attention, and remains in power. [more...]

KT McFarland in the Media

KT helped kick off the Nationwide TroopAThon program for Care Packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan effort Thursday with a link up between FOX News Strategy Room and the Reagan Library. If you want to donate to send care packages, go to TroopAThon.org Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Her video blog this week on DEFCON 3 by KT is about Iran & Regime Change from Within (6/23/09)

Memo to the Mullahs: 'It's Over, Boys' is KT's column on FOX Forum

KT Geraldo at Large 6/20/09 on Iranian elections

KT FOX News 6/21 on Iran

KT on FOX News 6/22 on North Korean Nukes

KT's YouTube Page - with the archive of all her media interviews

FOX News Blogs » FOX Forum » Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland 6/24/09

Update on North Korea

By Ryan Mauro

North Korea's involvement in supplying ballistic missile and WMD technology is done not solely to make common cause with adversaries of the West, but is critical to filling the wallets of the regime's leaders. North Korea is the closest thing to a mafia state we have today, with the government using the black market to sell illicit materials for fundraising and intelligence gathering. Given the importance of such shipments to the operation of North Korea's government, it is highly unlikely that the Stalinist regime will end them.

The insistence of shipping such materials, even after the Obama Administration decided to intercept them when possible, is also a key test of the Administration. Kim Jong-Il is a tough negotiator, and a wise businessman, and is testing the resolve of the United States. He knows the U.S. will not engage in a major military conflict with the DPRK, and so such shipments carry relatively little risk: A clash will allow him to rev up his hyper-nationalistic propaganda, win the attention of the West, and asset his power. At the same time, should the U.S. not board the ship, he will have confirmed his original suspicions that it is business as usual, and will reassure his customers that they need not look for other suppliers. The prestige from such a victory will fuel his already outrageous ego, filling him with the pride and glory every dictator craves.

I expect North Korea to continue its WMD shipments, regardless of how the U.S. decides to handle this latest vessel departure. Black market activity of all kind is in the blood of the North Korean regime, and so long as the regime exists in its present state, we can expect the cycle of confrontation followed by pleas for international aid packages to continue. [more...]

KT McFarland Speaks on The Nuclear Threat

KT McFarland held a captive audience last night on Long Island at the Temple Hillel. Her address was on the Nuclear Threat and the proliferation of weapons in countries around the world. She charmed and enlightened her audience by speaking clearly and succinctly on a subject that, for most of us, is veiled in secrecy. We all learned so much from listening to KT's own experiences traveling the world, her meeting with Golda Meier, and working with President Reagan and Henry Kissinger. The Q&A was particularly lively as the audience was a mixture of both Democrats and Republicans. KT is a regular Fox News Channel contributor and served in the National Security Council. She received a Ph.D from MIT with a concentration in nuclear weapons, China and the Soviet Union.

Iran’s Green Revolution Could Change the World

By Ryan Mauro

Should the Green Revolution succeed in toppling the regime, it will be the greatest event since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It will prove to be a more decisive event than even the invasion of Iraq and will rival the attacks of September 11, 2001, in influencing the course of history. The stakes could not be higher. The regime could fall, resulting in the greatest victory in the war on terror to date, or the regime will survive, leaving behind tens of thousands of bloodied bodies, a discouraged population unlikely to take such risks again and bitter at the lack of support from the United States, potentially losing the West one of its best allies. The regime will emerge stronger than before, far more emboldened, and far more vicious and radical - a development that could prove fatal to efforts to prevent a regional war from erupting. [more...]

KT McFarland in the Media

KT McFarland will be on Fox News Channel News Sunday 6/21 at 11.45 am and Monday 6/22 at noon to discuss North Korea's missile tests and nuclear weapons.

KT will address the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy organization on Tuesday, June 23 at 6.30 pm the Princeton Club in New York. She will also be at Temple Hillel in Woodmere, Long Island on Wed. evening, June 24 to discuss U.S. Policy Toward Iran and Israel.

KT's television appearances last week were on:

6/18 and 6/19 on Fox News Channel discussing North Korea's nuclear program:
http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=011008&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=6094984&referralPlaylistId=playlist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WghNKsOZwdU

KT's two columns for Fox Forum (Fox News's online editorial page) are here.

FOX News Blogs » FOX Forum » KT McFarlandObama Must Send Iran a Message - Reagan Showed Us How to Do It

Iran: Answered Prayers?

By John LeBoutillier

Iran may crumble. The government that was carried in by the mob thirty years ago may get carried out by that mob's children. This electrifying story can go in any direction - and already the past five days have seen things which indicate the closed, Mullah-run society is teetering on implosion:

1) Their Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has reversed himself - in public - twice - on recounting the votes;

2) He is floundering over what to do as the streets erupt in violence and protest;

3) The government clampdown on foreign journalists, text messaging, cell calls, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter shows that Tehran is indeed worried about losing control of their people;

4) The people are increasingly unsatisfied by the government’s response - and thus the protests are spreading, not decreasing. [more...]

Death to Dictatorship: U.S. Must Support Revolution in Iran

By Nicholas Guariglia

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets chanting “Death to the dictatorship!” and “We want freedom!” Some accounts have said the number of protesters could be as high as three million. In retaliation, the regime has blocked cell phone service and text messaging, shut down gas stations, and blocked Facebook, YouTube, and other networking Web sites. Certain television stations and opposition newspapers have been shut down - to which Ahmadinejad coldly replied, “Newspapers come and go. Don’t worry about it.” Foreign journalists have been kicked out of the country. Revolutionary Guard thugs have taken to the streets as well, as have regime-loyalist Basij paramilitaries who are out in full force beating, clubbing, machete-slicing, tear-gassing, shooting, arresting, and killing the protesters. One report said upwards of 100 people were killed in Tehran alone. That number is unconfirmed, however. Should these protests be nurtured and encouraged to proceed to their logical conclusion, this could turn into the best development to come out of the Middle East in sixty years. Should the protesters and rioters be aided, our greatest adversary could become one of our greatest allies overnight. This is a perfect opportunity to advantageously exploit. But how is the United States responding? [more...]

Breaking News from WorldThreats.com: Iran

By Ryan Mauro

The regime is escalating its attempts to stop any information from spreading by raiding and sometimes destroying student dorms and personal homes. They are desperately confiscating satellite dishes, jamming foreign radio and broadcasting, preventing journalists from leaving their offices; and the Internet in most of Iran is experiencing major problems, along with many cell phone networks. Sixteen senior Revolutionary Guards members have been arrested after meeting with top army officials, a key sign that the regime's most trusted security forces are fracturing. Continuous updates at WorldThreats.com. [more...]

Iran Update

By Ryan Mauro

Ryan Mauro has been updating his website, WorldThreats.com, every few hours with exclusive videos, photos and news from contacts inside Iran. He believes the country is in a near-revolutionary state and the possibility of the regime collapsing are high, and that if the U.S. reacts efficiently, can guarantee that the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist in the coming weeks. Book him for details on how the regime is fighting to stay in power, how the Iranian people are clashing with security forces around the country, and how the election was rigged. [more...]

Brigitte Gabriel on the Iranian Elections

No matter who wins today, it will not make that much of a difference in Iran. All four candidates have been chosen by and approved by the Mullahs out of 450 applicants. Even though some of them are touted as moderates such as Mir Hussein Moussavi, they are all subscribers of the Mullah ideology and philosophy in one form or another. This is the reason why they were chosen to run.

Mir Hussein Moussavi, the most likely one to defeat Ahmadinejad in this election, is nothing more than the new PR face for supreme leader Khamenei who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. In his resume, he lists as honors among other things the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the massacre of almost 30,000 political prisoners, and 144 assassinations. This is what the Western media is touting as the saving moderate.

Iran has a sharia legal system where the authority belongs to the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Kamenei who is the final decision and policymaker, not the president.

Iran’s Electoral Choice: Stalin or Gorbachev

The June 12 "vote" is about how best to prolong the life of a dying regime.
By Ryan Mauro

On June 12, the Iranian presidential election will be held. Despite the hopes and dreams of those believing that the tension with Iran relies upon the status of Ahmadinejad and not the regime as a whole, this election isn’t a referendum on whether to become a friend of the U.S.; nor is it a campaign about whether to eliminate the position of supreme leader, the head mullah who controls all the meaningful levers of power and is the true guiding force behind the regime’s actions and ideology. This is a debate about how best to prolong the life of the regime — whether to take a more Stalinist approach to the rising popular discontent or to engage in limited liberalization and tactical shifts in rhetoric and policy to solicit Western investment and appease the anti-mullah population. [more...]

North Korea Gaining Leverage

By John LeBoutillier

Most people seemed to have missed the point of North Korea’s kidnapping, trying, and sentencing-to-twelve-years-in-a-labor-camp of two young female journalists: it is totally and entirely to gain leverage over Washington with a brand new Administration in place.

Kim Jong Il learned from his father, Kim Il Song, who pioneered the technique, that the quickest way to get D.C. to pay attention to you is to hold Americans as prisoners. Why? Because we care!

And if the two are women - and journalists - well, that is just too good to pass up!

Look how much coverage this story is receiving. Plus, Al Gore is involved - and Pyongyang probably feels the Former Vice President can get into the Obama Oval Office and cut a deal.What does this rogue regime want? Duh! Money - and lots of it. In cash. In bags and suitcases. [more...]

KT McFarland in the News

On Saturday, KT will address the New York State Young Republican Convention on Staten Island. Details are at http://www.nysyr.us/events.htm

Her latest FOX Forum op/ed on Afghanistan and Gen. McChrystal hearings.

Her DEFCON-3 by KT video blog this week is on nuclear proliferation and why Obama needs to the red line on North Korea's nuclear program.

North Korea Missile Test

By Brigitte Gabriel

Obama's failure to deal with North Korea a few weeks ago when they did their missile test, as well as with Iran, is emboldening our enemy to move more aggressively in developing nuclear and missile technology. Both North Korea and Iran feel they have cart blanche to finish their missile because if the first 100 days of President Obama were any indication, they can see that America is strong in words but weak in action and lacks the leadership to stop them.

Brigitte Gabriel, the New York Times bestselling author of They Must Be Stopped and president of Act! for America can provide in-depth analysis and commentary on North Korea and Iran.

Because of this lack of confidence in America's strength, some of our allies are taking things into their own hands to ensure their own security. For example, last Friday Jordan signed a 10-year nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia to build four power plants in Jordan, the Russian news agency Novosti reported. This is in reaction to Iran's nuclear development in the Middle East.

President Obama must exercise his options to stop the North Koreans from moving forward and show strength to the rest of the world that is watching him being tested over and over. He must put pressure on China to exercise its power over North Korea. China can threaten to cut off their oil supply to North Korea. This is an immediate and first step that President Obama can take.
We must play the Japan card against China. China's greatest fear is of the Japanese developing military power, which America can play a major part in making happen. This is President Obama's opportunity to show the world that he does have the leadership ability to protect America's interest.

Another Islamist University

By Ryan Mauro

Zaytuna College - America's first four-year, accredited Islamic college - is set to open in California, and the proposed school is already stirring controversy because of the two men leading the project: Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. While presenting themselves as "moderates" who have condemned terrorism, both men have a history of anti-American and pro-Islamist statements. One has railed against the "false gods" of democracy and the Bill of Rights. The other has called for the United States to be governed by Islamic law and defended Hamas. As Zaytuna readies to open its doors, it is worth examining the worldviews of the two scholars who could influence the minds of a new generation of Muslim students. Both men have lengthy resumes in Islamic studies. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, a convert to Islam, has studied in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Morocco and elsewhere. Imam Zaid Shakir converted to Islam while serving in the U.S. Air Force, getting his religious education in places like Egypt, Syria and Morocco. [more...]