The John Batchelor Show

Monday 19 September 2016

Air Date: 
September 19, 2016

Photo, left:  James P. "Jimmy" O'Neill is an American police officer who has been the Chief of Department of the New York City Police Department since 2014. The Chief of Department is the highest uniformed position in the NYPD, and O'Neill is the 38th person to hold this post. O'Neill is expected to be succeeded by Carlos M. Gomez when he becomes Police Commissioner.
On August 2, 2016, O'Neill was appointed Police Commissioner of New York City by Mayor Bill de Blasio, effective September 2016.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Eli Lake, Bloomberg. Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  The weekend bomber left bombs in Manhattan with apparently no concern for videocams everywhere.   New Police Commissioner today.   Ahmad Khan Rahami Is Arrested in Manhattan and New Jersey Bombings   He seems to have made some trips to Afghanistan in the past years; seems to be a well-enough planned and poorly-executed plan.  Here in the earliest stage, it looks as though he ;earned from online jihadi site.  This vaguely hearkens back to the early Seventies, when we had the Weather Underground.  Targetting is in line with how jihadis do that. Multiple attacks could have gone off over 24 hours in multiple locations.
Stabbings and slashings: the Minnesota stabber was claimed by Amaq news agency (ISIS).  Young Somali-American acted consistent with what ISIS has called for: pick up a gun, a knife, do whatever you can.  Like German or Normandy attacks – crude ops that require no real planning or sophistication.  In four cases since June (Germany, France, Moscow): IS released vids. Some claim that all this activity is because ISIS is losing territory, but: they’ll continue onward in any case —ISIS claims more martyrdom ops than any other group; and IS external ops have a lowered bar for success, can reach into many different countries. 
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  The UN General Assembly is getting in gear.  Al Qaeda:  more dangerous than the comic-book IS. Here,  the State Dept ID’g an al Q foreign fighter recruiter, Omar Diaby from Senegal.  He recruits for a French brigade that fights alongside al Nusrah.   Will have 50 guys plus some women; he has pull in France and can send personnel back to France.   19HH video he released: sophisticated in quality, is effective in recruiting in France, esp among immigrants He was busted in 2011 en rout to Afgh with a posse. Anti-AM, anti-Western, pro-al Q, pro-bin Laden.  He pretended to be dead in 2015 in order to sneak to Turkey for a medical procedure; he staged his resurrection this past summer, was massive covered by France 24 heures. Diabi is a member of their senior shura, gruesome vids of burning people in a cage.  Terrifying.  If France thinks one of their compatriots is fighting for jihadis in Syria, France drops a bomb on ’em right away, no process.
Guantanamo recidivists: 208 confirmed and suspected, is about 30% of releasees.  And plenty of guys transferred in the last year who just haven't popped up yet but will. 
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com, in re: Duterte and the Philippines: state-to-state relations.  Chinese sharp and boastful claims and exercises, esp anent the fake islands.
US-India relations are ever more important; in future, a strong US and a strong India in alliance will be daunting to China and Russia.
CIA uses bz as front groups; how much of Chinese intl relations run through corporations for dirty little deeds?  Many.   Chinese have long been transferring nuke technology to Pakistan, North Korea and around Africa: yes, they are laughing at the US.
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Harry Siegel, The Daily Best and New York Daily News, in re:  DeBlasio tries to get involved in policing matters . . . After an eventful first weekend on the job, the city's new police commissioner, James O'Neill, was officially sworn in Monday.   Police Commissioner James O'Neill had his first full day in his new position on Saturday. He took over for former commissioner Bill Bratton, who appointed O'Neill as his Chief of Department during his tenure. His formal swearing-in took place at police headquarters in Lower Manhattan.  The new Chief of Department Carlos Gomez was also sworn in.  http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2016/09/19/swearing-in-day-for-...
Hour Two
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:   David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: Massive police presence: large—huge—people in armor standing with long guns; very polite, very serious. Cruisers, ambulances, fire dept, and unrecognizable units, all deployed around New York. The alleged bomb-builder now in police custody.
We have a Warne stock company: doesn’t matter what he plot is, we have all the same actors and extras in all the events.    Mr Trump on the explosions: “bombing”; Mrs Clinton: “vigilance.”  . . . Pols do best when they just let the professionals do their work. / Dems are pleased with Obama’s leadership on this sort of stuff; GP is not.  For a lot of unsure voters, . . .  usu want someone serious, sober-minded, and having a plan; both candidates fall short, although Trump falls slightly shorter. On matters of readiness, she still has an edge. I believe this is a race between how many terrorist attacks we have  vs.  how many stumbling Trump gaffes. More attacks and fewer gaffes: he’s on his way to winning.
The Chelsea bombing on Sat night at 8:30: what did you think then?  I was at Birdland (a jazz club) on West 44 Street, so I was a mile from the exploded bomb and ¾ mi from the unexploded.  UN delegations, world leaders, here this week; I thought it was either a sophisticated cell testing police capabilities or else a bunch of crass amateurs. So far, looks like the latter. 
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: Mrs Clinton has a lot of experience in debates, which Mr Trump does not, and has a lot of detail on foreign policy, Trump can be wherever he wants since he hasn't staked out a territory He can be charming and charismatic; and have “a presidential look.”  She has an impressive command of the facts, will be armed with many asides to highlight Trump’s ignorance; but he’ll be very entertaining. Battle ’twixt Hillary’s effort to delegitimize Trump and Trump to call her old and inept.  Mrs C is boring. Mr T has no message discipline and sounds like a teenager with ADHD.  The two candidates’s biggest weaknesses are themselves.  If she can look strong and healthy for 90 minutes that’ll help her a lot. Issues of character.   Dead Heat in the Battleground States ; Trump Push Left on Key Women’s Issues ; Clinton Struggles in Florida
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Ceasefire “dead.”  Russia and Syria sent strikes on aid workers and civilians.  Syrian was army bombed by coalition forces, enraging Russians, Syrian and Iranians (this is not confirmed).  Syria has declared and end to the ceasefire; Kerry asked Russians to rein in Assad; air strikes hit 20 truckloads of aid, food, medicine, outside the Red Crescent center in Aleppo.  US wants a ”moderate” Sunni regime, but haven't put in effort or resources. Russia has done, but wants an Alawite regime with or without Assad. Turkey wants a Sunni regime and is focussed against the Kurds.  There are hundreds of small militias there.  All highly unstable.  Phrase used about Syria and Iraq: “retribalized.”  Top-down is not working; any way to build bottom-up?  Cf: Egypt: all have an Egyptian identity; in Syria, no real Syria identity.  Could one informally divide the land to create spheres of influence for  each group, then build an overarching authority, that might work but no one has been able to do that so far.  The US started with villages, then states, then, after a bloody civil war, creation of a federal state. 
Golan:  “errant fire” – missiles fired against belligerents across the border; what hits on the Israeli side in the last two days was fired by Syrian oppo groups.   As Assad’s forces push ahead they push rebels closer to Israeli border.  Iron Dome was fired at two of the mortars, but cannot deal with material fired from very close range or of a small size.  Need 25 seconds and 7 to 9 kilometers.  . . . Can buy the F15S, the F16S.  Hezbollah and Iran pose the largest threats. Syrian army is more of an irritant. 
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Pres Obama and PM Netanyahu to meet in New York on Wednesday.  Last mtg between these two during Mr Obama’s last visit to the UN as US president. Will this be a chance for Bibi to thank Pres Obama for the MOU? For Pres Obama to scold PM Netanyahu?  Raise the matter of a one-sided veto? Today Senators of both parties sent a strong message to Pres Obama:  do not sabotage PM Netanyahu at the UN.  . .  . French are still manoeuvering about Palestinians; Russia offers Moscow, Egypt offers Cairo. 
Indiana Hoenlein and the lost synagogue of Alexander the Great.   Announced finding a 2000-yr-old scale weight belonging to a high priest of the Temple with the priest’s family name.   Also, University of North Carolina at Charlotte excavating at Mt Zion found a coin, first of its kind, struck in 56 CE, a decade before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nero.  Found in rubble outside ancient Jewish homes. Also found a ritual Jewish bath and other accommodations.
Hour Three
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:   Eric Trager, Washington Institute via Wall Street Journal, in re:   Egyptian Moslems for Trump. @EricTrager18, @WashInstitute.   Egyptians have a conspiracy theory. About Mrs Clinton: she supports the Muslim Brotherhood; they blame her for the election of Morsi in 2011, that she forced Washington to recognize Morsi.  Careless and twisted reading of one of Hillary’s statement, and Huma Abedin; and how Hillary called Huma “a second daughter.”  In fact Mrs C was much more conservative than President Obama, was sceptical of the MB, and said so in her memoires; but the version available in Cairo says she said she and Pres Obama created ISIS. These are given credence among Egyptians.   . . .  About  Mr Trump, the elites think he’s just talking campaign junk, won't carry out what he says; but they approve of the fact that he’s not interested in promoting democracy and will work with strongmen. . . .  Whoever wins, Egyptians hold that, “American thinking will still support chaos in Egypt”   —because, they think, we embrace the Arab Spring and endorse the Muslim Brotherhood.  http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/09/19/how-egyptians-conspiracy-theories-about-clinton-explain-trumps-appeal-to-them/
How Egyptians’ Conspiracy Theories about Clinton Explain Trump’s Appeal to Them   Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Whereas Mr. Trump’s meeting is consistent with his admiration for strongmen and therefore unsurprising, Mrs. Clinton’s meeting has surprised some in Egypt, where prevalent conspiracy theories depict her as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and, therefore, an enemy of the current government.
Many Egyptians, including senior government officials, believe that Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi won the June 2012 presidential election thanks to pressure from Mrs. Clinton. As with many conspiracy theories, this one is rooted in a twisted interpretation of what Mrs. Clinton actually said at the time.
Four days before Egypt’s election results were announced, Mrs. Clinton remarked that “it is imperative that the military fulfill its promise to the Egyptian people to turn power over to the legitimate winner.” (In the same interview, she also said that “we don’t know yet who’s going to be named the winner.”)   http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/09/17/the-flow-of-islamist-fighters-from-egypt-to-syria-and-the-sisi-governments-crackdown/
The Flow of Islamist Fighters from Egypt to Syria, and the Sisi Government’s Crackdown  After Egypt’s first elected president, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown in July 2013, many analysts (myself included) feared that the new government’s crackdown on Islamists.  (1 of 2)
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Eric Trager, Washington Institute via Wall Street Journal, in re:   Egyptian Moslems for Trump. @EricTrager18, @WashInstitute.   (2 of 2)
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Paul Gregory, Hoover Institution via Forbes, in re: http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2016/09/16/an-open-letter-to-donald-trump-regarding-his-fondness-for-vladimir-putin/#6947f88033bb
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Michael Ledeen, FDD via Forbes, in re: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelledeen/2016/09/18/evil-and-the-intellectuals/#581d02914d55
 
Hour Four
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  1956: The World in Revolt by Simon Hall, Part I of II (segment 1 of 8).
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  1956: The World in Revolt by Simon Hall, Part I of II (segment 2 of 8).
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: 1956: The World in Revolt by Simon Hall, Part I of II (segment 3 of 8).
Monday 19 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   1956: The World in Revolt by Simon Hall, Part I of II (segment 4 of 8).
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