Secure Freedom Minute

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

In another important Trump administration effort to expose and counter Communist China’s ongoing “unrestricted warfare” against us, the State Department announced Tuesday that five of Beijing’s most important propaganda instruments would be treated as what they are: agents of the Chinese state. 

That means they will, henceforth, be subjected to the same restrictions as other PRC personnel in this country. This will help counter their aggressive efforts to disinform, otherwise influence and subvert Americans and their nation.

Unless, of course, U.S. media like the Washington Post and New York Times continue to enable such activities by permitting Chinese information warfare operatives to run their tripe as “advertising supplements.” The early returns suggest that the Times, for one, intends to do so. 

The very least we can expect is that, from now on, such inserts will be clearly labeled as Chinese government propaganda. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Last Thursday, the Justice Department brought the hammer down on the Chinese Communist Party’s prime instrument for its digital imperialism, the telecommunications conglomerate Huawei. The company and four of its subsidiaries were charged with such crimes as racketeering, the theft of intellectual property and violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The indictment paints a familiar picture of aggressive illegal Chinese activity, accompanied by fraudulent business dealings, cynical lies and shameless deception.

Also charged with criminal conduct was the daughter of Huawei’s founder who we’re trying to extradite from Canada.

These welcome actions by one Trump administration agency against the enabler of Communist China’s 5G wireless hegemonism makes all the more ill-advised a recent decision by the Commerce Department to allow the company to have continued access to U.S. technology.

Repeat after me: No way, Huawei.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Jim Banks is a naval officer and veteran of the Afghan war. He’s continuing to fight our country’s adversaries in his current role as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Banks has been commendably focused on a largely neglected battlefront: the use Communist China is making of U.S. capital markets to fund its military build-up, domestic repression and other ominous activities. Notably, he’s introduced legislation that would keep our service personnel and civilian government employees from having their pension funds invested in malevolent Chinese companies. 

Last week, the Congressman urged California’s governor to fire a Chinese expatriate named Yu Ben Meng who has enthused about his commitment to “work for the motherland” via Beijing’s espionage-tainted “Thousand Talents Program.” Meng shouldn’t be investing billions of dollars of retired California employees’ pensions in corporations tied to the Chinese Communist Party. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Communist China has been waging “unrestricted warfare” against this country for decades. One of its most devastating lines of attack in that war has been the hollowing out of America’s industrial base. 

A stupefying case in point is the Chinese Communist Party’s success in destroying our nation’s capacity to manufacture prescription drugs – to the point where we are virtually completely dependent on China for our medicines. 

A recent poll of likely voters found that 83% were concerned about such a dependency. 76% worried that China may cut off the supply, devastating our health care system and people.

Rosemary Gibson, the co-author of China Rx, has warned about such a scenario for years. Now, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, it is upon us. We need immediately to heed Ms. Gibson’s call urgently to reconstitute an America First drug manufacturing capability.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The Senate vote today on a resolution designed to restrict the President’s ability to protect us against Iran is the latest round in a struggle that has ebbed and flowed since the last conflict in which Congress actually declared war in 1945.

In the interval, legislators passed a War Powers Act of dubious constitutionality that presidents of both parties have effectively ignored. So, they have periodically adopted resolutions to authorize the use of military force as a means of asserting some control over presidential war-making.

Interestingly, the last of these AUMFs authorized force to be used against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. In fact, Iran played a significant role in that act of murderous jihad and it’s still at war with us. We mustn’t signal a lack of resolve to defend against Iran’s oft-stated determination to bring death to America.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Juan Guaido is one of the most courageous men in public life today. After completing a tour of world capitals – including a State of the Union shout-out from President Trump – Venezuela’s acting president returned home to redouble his efforts to free that long-suffering nation from the communist tyranny of Nicholas Maduro.

The legitimate president was hectored and roughed up at the airport in Caracas by a mob loyal to Maduro. That thug’s regime clings to power through the subsidies and reinforcements supplied by such fellow totalitarians as the governments of China, Russia, Cuba and Iran.

Juan Guaido’s safety and his country’s future prospects depend critically upon continuing – and intensifying – the international support he enjoys. The United States and other freedom-loving nations must focus now on ending Maduro’s foreign life-support and the pillaging of Venezuela’s vast oil riches that prompts it.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Last night, President Trump and Vice President Pence joined bereaved loved ones in witnessing the return from Afghanistan of two fallen soldiers.  One family member, overcome by emotion had to be restrained as she rushed the plane bearing the heroes’ remains.

This searing episode will likely intensify the President’s understandable desire to prevent any further U.S. losses in America’s longest war– even if that means agreeing to terms in ongoing negotiations with the Taliban that will effectively surrender Afghanistan to that terrorist group responsible for killing and maiming so many of our servicemen and women. 

There is an alternative: Use volunteer veterans willing to help Afghanistan’s military improve its combat effectiveness and use a proven counter-insurgency strategy known as CORDS to enable its people to secure and defend their communities.

Let’s honor our fallen by ensuring they have not died in vain.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a blunt warning to the nation’s governors: Beware Chinese influence operations. As he put it, “…Competition with China is not just a federal issue….It’s happening in your states with consequences for our foreign policy, for the citizens that reside in your states, and indeed, for each of you.” 

Mr. Pompeo speculated that many in his audience had probably already been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. Their respective state’s universities, companies, business development efforts and public employee pension funds have likely been penetrated, and even suborned.

For example, the Committee on the Present Danger: China has recently established that the public employees’ retirement plans of Iowa and New Hampshire hold in portfolio stocks of malevolent Chinese companies. And such companies don’t disclose material risk as American counterparts must. That perilous double-standard must end.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President Donald Trump has just eliminated another top jihadist. The death of Qasim al-Rimi takes off the global battlefield a Sharia-supremacist and senior al Qaeda leader who recently took credit for a murderous attack in Pensacola in December.

Al-Rimi was a close associate of al Qaeda’s founder, Osama bin Laden, a deputy to his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Some experts believe he would likely succeed al-Zawahiri. 

Donald Trump has now liquidated top jihadists of ISIS, the Iranian regime and al Qaeda. Each had American blood on their hands. Each was a mortal threat to more of us, to our allies and to our vital interests. While other presidents have used force to take out enemy operatives, none has done so with such strategic effect as this one. 

Hail to the Commander-in-Chief.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The acquittal of Donald Trump yesterday represents an opportunity for a fresh beginning – a chance to put partisanship aside in the wake of the crushing repudiation of a politically driven impeachment and in the interest of a nation much in need of unity.

Don’t hold your breath. For one thing, this is, of course, an election year. With the campaign for the White House and down ballot offices on the line, the country will be preoccupied with politics non-stop from now until November – and probably beyond.

Worse, those who have repeatedly tried to thwart Mr. Trump are not just deeply hostile to him personally. They seem determined to achieve a “fundamental transformation” of America and see him as their principal impediment. 

All we can hope for is that the impending election will mandate a course that keeps America sovereign and free.

This is Frank Gaffney.