Photo, left: Khuzestan Province: The Parthian Prince, found in Khuzestan c. AD 100, is kept at The National Museum of Iran, Tehran. Concerning: Al Awazis, Arabs in Western Iran.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Sebastian v Gorka, Marine Corps University, in re: LA school system shut down today because of a threat received by email from Frankurt, Germany. Turns out that the shooters in San Bernardino had been fairly explicit about their intentions on social media and DHS had refused to research it on some sort of spurious privacy grounds.  Further, half of the persons arrested in the US for having been ISIS supporters had previously broadcast their support and intentions on social media. "Heaven save us from the next interdepartmental committee to investigate this."  . . .
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:    Kori Schake, Hoover, in re: Operation Provide Comfort for hre Kurds of northern Iraq against the brutality of the Saddam Hussein regime.  Kurds. Jordan, Syria – move refugee camps to safe spaces. Provide safe water and good schooling and grow the next generation of leaders.  Let Assad have Latakia and the northwest.  The northeast, Rojava, is a Kurdish proto-nation.  Our passivity has let 300K persons be killed there,  . . .  and tempted the Russians to enter. First and foremost, we need to protect Syrians, so they're not fleeing the country.  John Kerry in Moscow today said, "We're not in favor of regime change" – which is insane.  Main problem for Pres Obama's so-called strategy in Syria is that he thinks there's no cost to time – when in fact the cost is enormous: San Bernardino, Paris, dozens of thousands dead in Mesopotamia.  We don't have until January 2017 to get this right.
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Rahim Hamid, Iranian human rights activist and journalist; in re:  Iran's regime is using both radio and TV as propaganda tools to persecute Iranians. Al Ahwazi in Iran (Arabs in southwestern Iran), about 10 million, are over 12% of the population, are viewed by the regime as racially inferior, are consistently maltreated; also executed.  Terrifying. The regime captures someone, tortures him to make a "confession" in front of a camera, then plays the forced confession  on TV as an excuse for killing the person.  Most of Iran's oil is under the land where the Ahwazi live – so Teheran would be happy for all those racially-inferior people to be "ethnically cleansed, like a virus; wiped off the face of the Earth" and leave the oil wells for the ayatollahs.  Because that region is overindustrialized, the air is massively polluted and the hospitals are filled with Ahwazi citizens who are dying of pulmonary diseases and cancer.  The European Court of Justice has rejected an appeal from two of the regime's broadcasters who, the court agreed, are guilty . . .
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Iranian Media Figures Lose Court of Justice Appeal      / The European Court of Justice has condemned the directors of Iranian radio and television for human rights violations.  The European Court of Justice has rejected the appeal filed by Mohammad Sarafraz,  the head of the IRIB ( Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting ) and Hamid Reza Emadi, the senior editor of Press TV (English), which sought to remove them from the list of EU  sanctions.  Both men were included on the list for their violation of human rights.   According to the court, . . .
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  space news.
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Stephen F. Cohen is Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton. He is also a member of the Board of the recently-formed American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re:  . . . EU needs to decide whether or not to extend the EU sanctions, which have hurt Europe as much as Russia – and theyre inconisistent with Hollande's call to work with Ru ssia in fighting ISIS. Ergo, some European countries no longer blindly follow Washington.  Remember why the sanctions originally were imposed?  The mists of time: Ukraine, the Malaysian plane, and  . . . 
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, prof. Emeritus, Princeton; also American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re: Russia and the US.
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, prof. Emeritus, Princeton; also American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re: Russia and the US.
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, prof. Emeritus, Princeton; also American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re: Turkey asphyxiates financially un;ess ISIS keeps sending vast amounts of oil through Turkey.  NATO either is in denial or is part of the fiction that the problem here is Russia. See Alex Cockburns piece inHarper's: NATO-US complicity in the rise of terrorist movements. Well known, but rarely reported in the US press – Turkey and Saudis, inter al., have funded the movements that kill Americans, French, et al. Has to do with the ongoing fight 'twixt Sunni and Shia. There's nothing we can do about this – so why are we arming them?  Erdogan and his family are vacuuming in cash by the multibarrelful.  In Eight weeks, the Russians hav accomplished a good deal: ISIS is losing real estate and revenue sources; or – Russia isn't really bombing ISIS; rather, it's attacking only Assad's enemies. The latter is Erdogan's story.    
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Larry Kudlow, CNBC, and Steve Moore, Heritage, in re: Carly Fiorina asked, "Where are the warrior generals?"  The answer is, Obama pushed them out.  Lots of crdit to her on htat.  SM: Bush did well.  LK: I'm afraid I don't agree – and his tie was askew. Made him look distractingly odd.   SM: Immigration and security.    Obvious that our security is much in jeopardy if Hillary becomes president.  Debate on what is America's role in the world.  Rand Paul said if we were lesss involved overseas might not have so much terrorism at our doorstep. 
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  Larry Kudlow, CNBC, and Steve Moore, Heritage, in re: SM: Let's use all the powers we  have as a government so we can be phuysically safe.  I'm a libertarian – but we need to secure the safety of the citizenry. . . . LK: Disappointed with Chris Christie – the prosecution is not  a legal problem – it's a war problem.  Totalitarians killing Americans. SM: Trump announced that he will not run as a third-party candidate. A GOP loyalist?!
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Mary Kissel's birthday.  Mary Kissel, WSJ editorial board & Opinion Journal live video, and Bill Whalen, Hoover, in re: The discussions between Rubio and Cruz provided the clarity of the night in security matters. Cruz dressed up his discussion of isolationism in a lawyerly tone. Rubio said we'd need troops on the ground – the key fight of the evening.  Rand Paul tore after a bunch of other candidates in order rto make himself look relevant.  Like a hockey match fight.   Rubio and Cruz on immigration: they corssed swords; Cruz's position, similar to Rubio's  . . . Christie helped his cause tonight; Mr Bush didn't; Ms Fiorina did, esp fighting al Qaeda in Iraq.  The strongest performances of the night were Rubio and Cruz; Trump couldn't engage because [he had so little to say].  Dr Carson looked lost to me – not good at asserting himself in debate. Not a good night for him. Mr Trump: necer had exprfessed much loyalty to the GOP before.   WW: Not a good night. MK: Disagree – a good discussion on dictarors, prosecute the war on terror, immigration, I think the American people are starting to see what their choices are. ---With nine candidates, it's too much. ---Bush stumbled over his words; like Walker: a great state fobernor but not rising to the presidency.  Outsider lane: Rubio. Trump called Bush "the chaos candidate."  Fiorina:  Trump's policies echoed Obama's.  Cruz took a very bad vote on the metadata program.  Rubio deftly cleared that up. Cruz's lawyerly spin will return to haunt him.   Sen Cruz far ahead in Iowa; anent Trump:  complicates Trump's life since all his self-proclaimed greatness rests on polls.  Trump is a Democrat, then a Republican. Is for, then against, Obamacare; would then would not intervene in Iraq. Can't trust a syllable he says. 
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: John Fund, NRO, and Gene Countryman, Wichita,  in re: Gener was in a fancy theater with a subduesd audience of abitu 200; it frankly was hard to keep track of what they were saying. Representative of the performance that got us to where we are now.  CNN came close to letting it get out of control; people talked over each other and over the moderator.   CNN covered Trump's arrival at the hotel as though he was already president. Odd.  So far, people around Wichita seem to  favor Trump.   Bob vander Platz, leading conservative, endorsed Cruz after the polling.  Whoever wins Iowa gets the pedestal in NH.   Bush tangled with Trump a bit; Bush was stronger than previously but still not going to ignite.  Trump got applause when he said he was a Republican and wouldn't change parties. recall that Trump said we'd shut down parts of the Internet to protect vs terrorists, and we'd kill their family members. Intl law??
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Patrick Tucker, Defense One, in re:  Quantum COmmunicatins. Lebanon, assembled 49 interviews with people in Saudi, Yemen, Morocco, et al., and had one way or another worked with ISIS.   Authors devised nine different motivations based entirely on the statements in the interview.   I took the report to Paul Davis at RAND, seminal report on application of social science to counterterrorism. Nine categories: 1. status seekers (want to improve their social standing, sense of recognition from people around. Applies primarily to foreign fighters from within the Arab world).  2. Identity-seekers (mostly for Western-based foreign fighters; radical Islam gives you all this.). 3. Revenge-seekers (feel as though they're part of a group that's been persecuted; primarily, to Sunnis in Syria or Iraq).   4. Redemption-seekers (thirteenth step in a twelve-step program; want strict rules of behavior).   (1 of 2)
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Patrick Tucker, Defense One, in re:  Quantum COmmunicatins. Lebanon, assembled 49 interviews with people in Saudi, Yemen, Morocco, et al., and had one way or another worked with ISIS.   Authors devised nine different motivations based entirely on the statements in the interview.   I took the report to Paul Davis at RAND, seminal report on application of social science to counterterrorism. – Syrian ISIS is now producing a methanmphetamine-like drug that makes people feel invincible.  . . .  9. Justice-seekers (have been victimized: Sunni Muslims in Syria and northern Iraq – the Assad regime has in fact been horrible to Sunnis in Syria.) 10. Death-seekers (glorification of martyrdom and gore).  (2 of 2)
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ, in re:  Turkey (1 of 2)
Tuesday 15 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ, in re:  Turkey (2 of 2)
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