Secure Freedom Minute

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Vice President Mike Pence will have today what could be a decisive meeting for tens of millions of Christians in Nigeria now facing the prospect of genocide and forced mass emigration. 

Mr. Pence’s visitor is a man who should be on their side, his Nigerian counterpart Yemi Osinbajo. After all, he’s one of the very few Christians in a Nigerian government otherwise dominated by Islamist Fulani tribesmen.

Unfortunately, Mr. Osinbajo is instead part of the problem. He lies shamelessly – including this weekend in New York – about the anti-Christian persecution his government is at least tolerating and, at worst, enabling.  Osinbajo’s own tribe has sharply repudiated him for doing so.

If Vice President Pence makes clear that all the persecutors in Nigeria will be held accountable and face penalties, he may be able to prevent a catastrophe there on his and President Trump’s watch.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

As President Trump heads into one of the most consequential meetings of his presidency with China’s dictator-for-life Xi Jinping, he is getting some very bad advice. If he takes it, Xi will be just one of America’s enemies who will read it as a sign that Mr. Trump is not the resolute adversary he must be at this critical juncture.

The President is under pressure to jettison his National Security Advisor, John Bolton. It’s painful to see a friend and distinguished public servant subjected to extremely personal attacks by those at home and abroad whose transparent purpose is to weaken Mr. Trump and undermine America.

For those of us who, by contrast, want Donald Trump to succeed with the myriad challenges now besetting his presidency and our nation, we can only pray that John Bolton continues to be his strong right hand. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

It’s become apparent lately that immensely powerful social media companies like Google have ceased being platforms for the free sharing of information. Instead, Google and a handful of other tech giants are increasingly instruments of political warfare.  

James O’Keefe’s remarkable Project Veritas has revealed that it’s not just a matter of Google using its algorithms and other, often non-transparent measures to censor conservatives with whom its leadership disagrees. The Project employed its trademark undercover investigative techniques to expose something far more sinister.

In what may be O’Keefe’s most ominous indictment to date, a Google employee-turned-whistleblower has taken to a new level what Dr. Robert Epstein and the documentary “The Creepy Line” have found: Google’s unprecedent, massive access to personal and commercial information and its sophisticated means of manipulating such data are being deliberately exploited for partisan political purposes.  

Break them up.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Two of the world’s most dangerous tyrants are currently meeting to plot how to put America last in their dealings with a U.S. President determined to put it first. As Donald Trump mulls how he wants to proceed with China’s dictator-for-life Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, their summit in Pyongyang this week is a helpful reminder that both are increasingly implacable foes.

Make no mistake: North Korea is a vassal state of Communist China. Its nuclear weapons program and threatening behavior are enabled and encouraged by Beijing. As long as the PRC can extract concessions from the United States by claiming to restrain the North Korean regime, it will continue to do the opposite.

At his own summit with Xi next week, Mr. Trump must serve notice that, from now on, China won’t be rewarded  for undermining our security.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down an American drone today over international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. It’s the latest in a series of escalating Iranian attacks on U.S. assets and allies in the Persian Gulf region.

It is also a sign of the devastating effect President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is having. In the race against time – aimed at heading off the ayatollahs’ quest to acquire useable nuclear weapons – such lashing out is actually proof of their weakness and growing desperation.

The United States must now double-down by taking off-line selected Iranian energy assets, taking down key IRGC military capabilities and taking out, through cyber and other means, its most important business operations. We should also align explicitly with the people of Iran in their desire to be free of the government that represses them and threatens us.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

As President Trump prepares for his upcoming meeting with Chinese President-for-life Xi Jinping, he will be under intense pressure to focus narrowly on trade disputes – and back away from addressing myriad other, serious differences between the two countries.

But we simply cannot safely ignore Xi’s increasingly aggressive policies designed, for example, to: crush Hong Kong’s autonomy; terminate Taiwan’s sovereignty; control the world’s strategic waterways; dominate space; and use its 5G technology to fracture our security ties with key allies.

In the near future, these challenges will supersede the importance of rectifying trade imbalances, China’s currency manipulation and even its theft of U.S. intellectual property. That is especially true if the effect of a trade deal with Beijing is to buy time for the Chinese Communist Party to realize its plans for global domination.

This is no time to “go wobbly” on China.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Yesterday, one of the most consequential men in public life, my friend Tony Perkins, was elected to chair the vital U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.  Praise God.

The USCIRF press release announcing the election of the Family Research Council’s president signaled the quality of Tony’s leadership.  It declared that he was adopting Leah Sharibu and will work to free her as he tirelessly and successfully did for another prisoner of conscience long held by Turkey, Pastor Andrew Brunson.

Given his great influence with President Trump, this priority may not only help save Leah, a Nigerian girl enslaved by the terrorist group Boko Haram because she refuses to renounce her Christian faith. As Leah’s mother, Rebecca, who is in Washington this week, yearns to impress upon Mr. Trump and his team: Unless America acts, every Nigerian Christian faces a similar fate. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

On Friday, 600 American companies publicly opposed President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. While this “China Lobby” professes opposition to Beijing’s unfair trade practices, they don’t want him to use that countermeasure to address them.

The day before, Senator Marco Rubio raised an alarm about Beijing’s exploitation of our stock markets to underwrite its companies – including some engaged in “unrestricted warfare” against us. The Senator challenged index fund MSCI about its practice of helping PRC businesses raise billions of dollars here without the sort of transparency and risk disclosure required of American corporations.

The effect of this practice is to expand enormously the China Lobby by recruiting millions of Americans whose pension funds can then be manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party. President Trump needs our support for standing firm against this foreign adversary and their allies here.

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

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Yesterday, two more tankers were attacked in the Persian Gulf. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly confirmed that the perpetrator was the region’s most dangerous regime: the mullah-ocracy of Iran.  

Mr. Pompeo cited intelligence about the types of weapons used, the pattern of previous attacks on shipping in the Gulf and the absence of other militaries in the area with the requisite training and capabilities. In addition, there is what amounts to a smoking gun: U.S. Central Command has released a video showing an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ patrol boat removing an unexploded limpet mine from one of the stricken ships.

If we want to discourage more of such aggression, the Iranian regime must understand that there is a cost to engaging in it. Time to dust off and exercise longstanding Pentagon contingency plans for stealthily degrading Iran’s oil exporting capabilities.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Thirty years ago this month, the Chinese Communist Party used murderous violence to crush peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

The PRC suffered little for this egregious crime against humanity. To the contrary, the West’s business-as-usual response only incentivized the Communists to believe they can engage in repression of any kind with impunity.

That proposition is now being tested in Hong Kong, where Beijing and its surrogates seek to end that former British colony’s autonomy. We have an opportunity to change the calculation that this can be done cost-free.

Under U.S. law, if the President does not certify that China is respecting Hong Kong’s autonomy, it can be denied the opportunity to enjoy most favored nation access to the United States via Hong Kong.  Mr. Trump should make clear now that Beijing will suffer real penalties for any further assault on freedom. 

This is Frank Gaffney.