Photo, above:  Chris Dorner and Bill Bratton  

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board.   Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 1, Block A:   Larry Johnson, NoQuarter, in re: 5PM, 11 Sept 2012, all of Washington assembled in White House; where's the ambassador? Op centers had been alerted.  Protocol followed, a precise procedure; here the officers for counterterrorism were kept on th e outside.  They knew that the site had been attacked and overrun, and the amb lost. DID nothing! Needed to have a video conference with DOD, Chairman of Chiefs, CI, FBI, DOJ, Homeland Security, and a handful of others.  Instead, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, and a small number of their acolytes kept the professionals out and made decisions by themselves.  Esp Mark Thompson, most experienced counterterrorism ofcr at State, was deliberately shut out of the process. He nonetheless made recommendations was hot down.  Amb Stevens had made repeated requests for addtl security; repeatedly refused under Kennedy's authority.  Call had gone to CIA, Notification of all op centers; failure of policy types at State and NSC to convene experts. Could have employed a bunch of forces, incl a group in Croatia, three hours away. F-16s could have overflown.  From 9:40 to 10:30P Benghazi time; found out eight hours later by cell=phone call from a stranger at a hospital.  2. Hillary and Brennan both kne3 that activities under way at he annex were [unusual]; Congress had not been briefed.

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: New York's new Police Commissioner, William Bratton, sworn in today.  Will be much more of a decentralized disciplinarian; will cut back stop & frisk; will introduce a lot of new technology to the NYPD.  The guy is a genius.  Kelly is a brave guy, but never disperses authority. Bratton is an old-school Irishman, he's terrific; so's his wife.  A lot of Hispanics and African-Americans on the force. Will not authorize much surveillance of Muslim holy places.  Today, I got on the subway, and obnoxious panhandler was in the car . . .  Bratton: how he was cop who walked the beat; was awarded the medal of honor. Very impressive guy. "You cannot arrest your way out of the crime problem."  Relationship with Giuliani? Not especially good.  Giuliani is a hard man; but Bratton runs around with a pistol; don't mess with him. 

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Michael Auslin, AEI, Director of Japan Studies, in re:        China, Korea and Japan: relati0ons poisoned by 400 years of warfare over the seas and islands; looks a whole lot like genocide.  Misha Auslin writes of "a new cold war in Asia."  Their contest is not two vs one, but one vs. one vs. one.  Visits to Yasakuni shrine by PMs and a main minister  - this is the third rail of East Asian politics: it enshrines the souls of Japanese who've died in war in the last century; then, when they included Tojo – and then when two past Japanese PM's visited it, both Korea and China claimed that Japan has no regret for its horrifying war deeds.     Japanese textbooks often have omitte4d Japanese misdeeds; also the issue of the "comfort women" -  Korean and Chinese women  kidnapped and gang-raped and kept for years;  meanwhile, Japan thinks that all its apologies have gone unheeded.  Film that clearly documents the astoundingly evil actions of the Japanese troops.  MA: A cottage industry in China that continues whip up national rage at Japan.  In Japan. Pres Park is a bit of a mystery; was assassinated.  He was close to Japanese; the daughter is drawing a thick line between her and her father She's humiliated the Japanese at ever PM Abe went to Yasaluni to show: he'd done everything he could to improve relations with China and Korea, all to no end.  At the beginning of 2014, he decided to do what he could for his own benefit.  this is the third rail of East Asian politics; none want s to give up the sense of victimhood. They’re manoeuvering themselves into a place where it'll be very hard to back down.   VP Biden has wholly failed.    We need to lock them into a room and knock heads together: You're in real danger from DPRK and  you don’t have to like each other but you have to work together.  In 1914: posturing of Russia, France, and ______ - they get into a position where if the shooting starts they can’t stop it. 

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Kerry in the Holy Land for the tenth time. Every Palestinian refuses to acknowledge that Israel exists; twenty sessions in the interim.  Kerry was supposed to arrive with a framework both sides cld agree to. this trip, Kerry was greeted by Netanyahu: Israel has released 100+ terrorists, many with blood on hands, some so brutal that it can’t be described.  The PA embraced the terror PA threatening another intifada; Hamas constantly rejects elements of what was to be in the framework.  MK: At what point does John Kerry look like an idiot?  MH: He's well-intentioned; but this is his signature deal. Look at Syria.  Iran – the situation is not bright; Israel/Palestine is the only remaining possibility. He's carrying the ball on his own.  (MK: "They brought Israel and Saudi Arabia together.") 

Hour Two

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Ariel Sharon, in a coma since 2006, is weaker, his health is failing rapidly and irreversibly.  His heart was strong and  he breathed on his own for years; family believed he had some sort of alertness . In the last 24 hours, his body is deteriorating.    Iran is speaking of bldg new centrifuges, submarines.  Appt of two very hardline guys to oversight committee, about which Rouhani seemed to be upset.  restrictions blt into Geneva agreement do not become relevant till implementation agreement is signed – Iran can enrich a lot now, that'll become the base later.  Volgograd:  Russians fear Sunni jihadists, think Shi'a are the only ones who can restrain that.   Russia's population has shrunk from 120 milli0n to 100 million while Muslim population is growing (about 20%).  The "emir of the Caucasus" – Umarov – said they'd attack the Sochi games.    Jordan Valley: critical for Israel to control it. In Jordan, 1.2 million Palestinian refugees.  Eighty per cent of Israel's mfrg along a narrow strip; cannot afford not to protect.  King Abdullah of Jordan also doesn’t want ore overflow spilling into Jordan. 

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Aaron David Miller is currently the Vice President for New Initiatives and a Distinguished Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in re: John Kerry in Israel and Palestine.  Kerry's tenth visit, 'twixt Jerusalem and Ramallah. Comprehensive Agreement on Permanent Status  (CAP) also out of the question.    "Framework" agreement – set of parameters, general principals, to guide negotiations, 3 to 7 pages. Six issues: Borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, end of claims, and recognition of the State of Israel  as a Jewish state (incl water).  He may get a piece of paper in the coming months; will it be meaningful? Lead to anything?  For this to be seen as a success, Mr Kerry needs:        .  On three of the six issues, US is closer to Israel: security, Jordan Valley; refugees (US will not support a right of return);  US inclined to have Israel recognized; also on claims.  On borders and Jerusalem, the US position is closer to Palestinians's.

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re:  Turkey, Iran

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Olli Heinonen, Kennedy School, Harvard, in re: Nearly a month since the six-month Joint Plan of Action with Iran was announced in Geneva on November 24, the deal has yet to go into effect.  The two sides have not even agreed on a start date for implementing the deal. Meanwhile, Iran says it is continuing to advance its nuclear program.   Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Reza Najafi, says that Iran will not begin implementing its Joint Plan of Action commitments, including its pledge to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent, until the still-unspecified start date.

In the past, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has boasted repeatedly of how he used a 2003 set of nuclear negotiations with the West, for which he was Iran’s lead negotiator, to buy time to advance Iran’s program.   History appears to be repeating itself.  Rather than implementing the deal in good faith, Iran is playing games with it, manipulating the Joint Plan of Action to alter to Tehran’s advantage both the circumstances on the ground and the terms of the deal itself.

 Increasing Iran’s Uranium Stockpile  The start date delay is particularly worrisome because the Joint Plan of Action text appears to commit Iran to freezing its program at its magnitude not on November 24, but rather on that still-unspecified date of implementation.  This includes

Hour Three

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re; ASA, American Studies Assn, held a vote of a small percentage of members to support b=a boycott of Israel; when that became public knowledge 101 major universities condemned the vote in strong words.  To come: MLA (Modern Language Assn), where a few members will try to highjack the group.  Syrian civil war: Beirut blast by a fugitive Saudi militant.  Proxy war between Saudi and Iran. Hezbollah is fighting the Syrian civil war in Syria and Lebanon on Assad's side.  Vast influx f Syrian refugees into Lebanon.   "Flying Aid" – y0ung Israelis who go into Syria and also into Turkey to take medical and food aid: IDF has set up a clinic, treated hundreds of Syrians, many taken into Israel to hospital; returned to border to sneak across because if it were known that Israel had treated them, they'd be killed.

MIDDLE EAST GEOPOLITICAL SUMMATION (pls go to podcast):

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to PM Rabin & Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence; in re: Changing patterns of Middle East 2013/2014. How the Middle East map has just changed – the end of pan-Islamism; in its place, a disintegration of nation-states – Libya, Syria, Iraq, transformed into tribal areas with a war to the death between Sunnites and Shiites.    Muslim Brotherhood:  now underground and clandestine; has been the saviour of political Islam.  US has reached its lowest point in the Arab world, which distrusts and dislikes it. New alliances: mending fences with Iran.  Russia: compared ti the US, Russia looks to be a loyal ally. US said by Sisi to have betrayed Egypt. No vacuum; as the US influence wanes the Russians enter.  Arms deal with Egypt: $2 to 4 billion.  A new entity is he Kurds, who've maintained a grip on their territory facing jihadists in the north; possible unification of Kurds in Iraq and Syria, maybe 20 million people Copts in Egypt: no 300,000 have fled from persecution, were very badly treated under MB. 

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, in re: Mandela's Message Didn't Make It to Cuba. Raúl Castro's Warning.  Capitalism (still) isn't welcome here, he tells Cubans

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Sarah Maslin Nir, NYT, in re: Infection Resulting in Amputation Raises Questions About Asian Immigrants’ IV Use   The use of IV solutions to combat mild illnesses is common among Korean and Chinese immigrants in New York City, but the fate of one woman has sent a scare through the communities.

Hour Four

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show, and Haym Benaroya, Rutgers, in re: possibility of living on Mars; space rocks in Earth's atmosphere;

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 4, Block B:  John Bolton, AEI, in re: 

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Daniel Henninger, WONDER LAND, WSJ, in re: Time for a Big-League President.

Thursday  2 January  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re: Good strategy over the years, but not today.  The world is painfully coming to grips with something that no one could begin to imagine before 2009:  a world in . . .

Can the catastrophe be undone?  Nobody knows.  Nor does anyone know how long it may take to undo it, if indeed it’s possible.  If it is possible, then countries like France and Saudi Arabia are going to have to change their behavior to cope with the new world.  They no longer have the lazy luxury of beating [the US] up for doing what they want and expect us to do.  They’re going to have to start doing it themselves.

We’ll find out pretty soon if they’re up to it.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:   Oblivion. Sin City. Season of the Witch.  All the King's Men.

Hour 2:   Babylon AD.   Game of Thrones: Season Three. 

Hour 3:   Lost.   Kingdom of Heaven.  

Hour 4: