Secure Freedom Minute

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Today marks one of the darkest days in human history:  It is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.  In the decades since, countless millions of people have been brutalized, brainwashed and murdered at the hands of that extraordinarily repressive regime.  

To “celebrate” this appalling record, China’s dictator-for-life, Xi Jinpeng, orchestrated a parade in Beijing. It was chock-a-block with 15,000 goose-stepping servicemen and women and an array of missiles and assorted weapons designed to destroy ever larger numbers of other people – including ours.  

It speaks volumes about the paranoid and dangerous character of Xi’s regime that it locked down Beijing today and allowed the first use of actual bullets against Hong Kong protesters.  Given the PRC’s track record, we must expect that much worse is to come.  We must not underwrite or silently accede to it.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President Trump reportedly has under consideration deploying a powerful new weapon against Communist Chinese aggression that is now becoming evident in virtually every conceivable domain. It would involve ending China’s ability to use Americans’ pension funds and other investments to underwrite the threats the PRC poses to us. What a concept! 

By deregistering companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party – and, let’s face it, they pretty much all are – we can stop them from raising mega-billions on our capital markets. As a result, U.S. investors would no longer enable, for example, Chinese corporations that are building Beijing’s police state apparatus, its man-made and fortified South China Sea islands and its next generation of naval combatants. 

Wall Street is furiously lobbying to let it keep funding our enemy. One of its alumni, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is, too. Just say “No,” Mr. President.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The most likely casualty of the manufactured, so-called “scandal” over President Trump’s July conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart will be Joe Biden. The question occurs: Was that the real impetus behind what otherwise appears to be an exceedingly incompetent political gambit?

The idea that Nancy Pelosi would otherwise have decided to throw in with her nemeses on the socialist “Squad” is hard to credit. Her record as a calculating and disciplined Democratic operative is the antithesis of the way she cluelessly jumped into an impeachment investigation without knowing what actually transpired during that phone call.

What would have been a safe bet, though, is that putting Ukraine up in lights would inevitably expose to withering scrutiny the corrupt dealings of the relatively centrist presidential candidate. And that, it seems certain, will soon clear the field for a radical leftist like Elizabeth Warren.   

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Jesus famously called us to remove the plank from our own eye before we address the speck in that of our brother. That admonition comes to mind as Democratic partisans respond to the transcript the White House released yesterday.

Presidential candidate Joe Biden is among those asserting that Donald Trump’s congratulatory phone conversation last July with the then-newly elected president of Ukraine involved an abuse of power. They point to Mr. Trump’s request to his Ukrainian counterpart for help in getting to the bottom of what sure appears to have been an actual abuse of power by Mr. Biden when he was Vice President.

The campaign to impeach President Trump on these improbable grounds is prompting Democrats and their allies in the media not only to ignore real malfeasance. They seek to blind the rest of us to it, as well. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President Trump championed freedom, sovereignty and the American way yesterday before the U.N. General Assembly. He also denounced the globalists, socialists, communists and other elites who seek power at all costs, usually at the expense of their people’s well-being.

Simultaneously, an apparent example of the left’s “ends justify the means” strategy was playing out in official Washington.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw in with the most radical members of her Democratic Caucus to announce that she would now back an impeachment investigation based on reported claims of an intelligence community whistleblower. 

President Trump is releasing today documents that will shed light on whether those claims have merit or are simply the work of a Deep State partisan. What’s already clear is that the politicization of intelligence continues and this compromise of sensitive diplomatic communications will harm the conduct of U.S. national security.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Yesterday, President Trump took the unprecedented – and highly commendable – step of lending the prestige of his office to a “Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom” at the United Nations. He movingly affirmed his commitment to those persecuted for their faith.

The President expressed solidarity with every religious tradition experiencing intolerance and oppression.  But on two occasions, he addressed specifically the plight of Christians.  First, he noted incredulously that, every day, on average 11 people are murdered simply because they follow Jesus Christ. 

Second, Mr. Trump saluted Pastor Andrew Brunson whom he had rescued from prison in Turkey by holding  accountable the missionary’s persecutors and imposing real costs for their crimes against humanity.  

Today, as President Trump addresses an audience with leaders responsible for persecuting 327 million Christians, he should signal that they, too, risk getting “the Brunson Treatment.”  

This is Frank Gaffney. Learn more at SavethePersecutedChristians.org.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Religious freedom is the foundational liberty. It underpins all others in the U.S. Constitution. It is also enshrined in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And religious tolerance conduces to civilized behavior and economic prosperity.

President Trump is making an important address today on the margins of the UN General Assembly.  He’ll call on the countries whose representatives are in the room to respect religious liberty. It’s likely his audience won’t include, however, the scores of national leaders who persecute believers – and yet are welcome at the General Assembly meetings.

So, Mr. Trump should reprise from the General Assembly’s main stage on Tuesday what should be tomorrow’s key message: The United States government will hold accountable and impose costs on those who persecute people of faith, especially 327 million Christians – approximately the population of our entire country.

This is Frank Gaffney. Learn more at SavethePersecutedChristians.org.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Yesterday, I had a fascinating conversation with Gregory Wrightstone. He’s a geologist, which means that he studies scientific data spanning many millennia, not just the past few decades. He is also an expert reviewer for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the author of  Inconvenient Facts: The Science that Al Gore Doesn’t Want You to Know.

Actually, the scientific data don’t support the apocalyptic warnings increasingly being advanced by deeply indoctrinated young people. While he agrees the planet is warming, it’s not at unprecedented levels and it started long before mankind began generating large amounts of “greenhouse gases.” And such warming is actually positive.

So, before we allow a misinformed Children’s Climate Crusade to drive us to eliminate fossil fuels, cows and airplanes, let’s address the facts – especially the inconvenient ones.

This is Frank Gaffney. Hear my illuminating interview with Gregory Whitestone at SecureFreedom.org.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President Trump’s new National Security Advisor is  Robert O’Brien, a man who interestingly previously worked at the United Nations for his predecessor, John Bolton.

Most recently, Mr. O’Brien has been the Trump administration’s hostage negotiator. In that role, he helped the President force the government of Turkey to free Christian missionary Andrew Brunson from prison by holding it accountable and imposing costs for his persecution. 

Such experiences equip Robert O’Brien brilliantly for an early initiative in his new role. He should encourage President Trump to use his upcoming address before the UN General Assembly to serve notice on the many persecutors of Christians in that audience that they, too, will be held accountable and face real penalties for their crimes against humanity.

Call it “The Brunson Treatment” and bring it to bear now on behalf of the world’s 327 million persecuted Christians. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Next week, President Trump will address the United Nations General Assembly. His audience will include scores of countries that, collectively, persecute an estimated 327 million Christians.

The trouble is that, at the moment, there is basically no cost to these nations for directly oppressing or simply tolerating the persecution of followers of Jesus. That must change.

President Trump should make clear that those responsible for anti-Christian persecution will be held accountable and that they can no longer engage in such behavior with impunity. Costs could take the form of reduced relations with the United States, loss of our foreign aid, denial of military sales or other sanctions.

This could be Donald Trump’s “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall” moment. It may catalyze an significant reduction in the horrors facing believers. At a minimum, it will let them know we stand beside them.

This is Frank Gaffney.