This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

The most important responsibility of the American presidency is to safeguard the public against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is a task the next occupant of the Oval Office is likely to find more challenging, and vital, as the world becomes more dangerous by the day.

A damning report released last week by the State Department Inspector General confirmed that Hillary Clinton violated a similar public trust in her last job. Specifically, she knowingly and deliberately used e-mail communications arrangements that violated her own official policies.

In the process, Mrs. Clinton exposed to hostile powers – presumably thereby compromising – classified and other sensitive government information, making us all less safe.

It remains to be seen if Mrs. Clinton will be prosecuted for such misconduct. What is already clear is that she has shown herself disqualified to serve as Commander-in-Chief.

This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

With his trip to Hiroshima today, President Obama once again displayed his preoccupation with the illusion that nuclear weapons can be un-invented and eliminated from the planet’s arsenals.

Meanwhile, another very real threat looms, one to which we are arguably more vulnerable than when he entered the White House. Over the past two weeks, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have called for attacks in the West during Islam’s month of Ramadan, bounded roughly by Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

These terrorists seek our destruction. They won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons or other means of mass destruction if they can. In the meantime, they are calling on fellow Muslims to engage in individual jihad, to kill infidels and achieve the triumph of their repressive doctrine they call Sharia. Understanding and defeating this impending threat must be our national purpose.

This is Frank Gaffney.

President Obama’s condemnation of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima today constitutes an implicit apology for their use against Japan to end World War II, whether he explicitly expresses regret or not.

That outrage should prompt a serious national debate about what has been arguably the most dangerous of his “fundamental transformations.” He inherited a nation that was widely seen as the world’s only superpower.  He will bequeath to his successor one that has at least two other nuclear peers and a planet awash with burgeoning proliferation.

Worse, President Obama has presided over the atrophying and obsolescence of our deterrent – epitomized by yesterday’s revelations that it relies on 1970s-era information technology.  Most of its weapons are even older.

The world is not a safer place because Barack Obama has sought to rid it of nuclear weapons, starting with ours.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

BBC

Radio this morning remembered the 1984 rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews

from likely death to safe haven in Israel. 

The story is a vivid reminder of the importance of that refuge for world

Jewry. 

Incredibly,

this country’s Democrats are poised to complete their party’s “fundamental

transformation” from that of Harry Truman and “Scoop” Jackson – American

patriots who helped give birth to and sustained the modern state of Israel and

a vital ally. 

Instead,

if Bernie Sanders and his appointees to the Democrats’ 2016 platform committee have

their way, that party will reduced to an ally and enabler of the Jewish State’s

enemies.  

If

Donald Trump makes his declared support for Israel a defining issue in this

campaign, he will both be affirming the right – and traditionally bipartisan – policy line.  He’ll also be rewarded for doing so by the

American people.    

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President

Obama is obsessed with repudiating America’s Cold War policies.  He has: vainly sought to “reset” relations

with Russia’s anti-U.S. dictator; struck a terrible deal with Iran, in part, as

compensation for CIA involvement in a coup there long ago; and provided political

legitimacy and economic life-support to Cuba’s still-hostile Stalinist regime.  

Now,

Mr. Obama is using shared concerns about Chinese militarism as cover for yet

another repudiation of past American stances, by allowing communist Vietnam

access to U.S. weapons systems. 

In

this case, the misplaced priority Team Obama gives to helping Cold War enemies

is showcased by the fact that pro-U.S. nations no less in Beijing’s cross-hairs

than Vietnam – like Taiwan and the Philippines – are not receiving such presidential attention or help with their

defenses. Showing yet again that, under Obama, it’s better to be America’s foe,

than its friend. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

President

Obama confirmed the liquidation over the weekend of Mullah Aktar Mansour.  Whenever Islamic supremacists like the leader

of the Afghan Taliban are neutralized, it’s a good day for freedom.  But it remains to be seen if it will have any

enduring benefit for the American forces he had been targeting, or the Afghans

his group has brutalized for so long.

Unfortunately,

Mr. Obama himself may have minimized any such benefits from this drone strike.

Two years ago, he exchanged five top Taliban commanders detained at Gitmo for

one American deserter. 

At

the time, it was clear they would likely return to the fight. If so, their

status as jihadist rock stars and experienced leaders may assure that one or

more will help rally the Taliban – and undo whatever good might otherwise

accrue from killing their erstwhile, and now-thankfully dispatched, mullah. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

An

unfenced swimming pool is known in the law as “an attractive nuisance” – an accessible,

irresistible and possibly fatal temptation. 

The

same might be said of the vulnerability of America’s electric grid.  

Two

congressional panels this week served notice:  Enemies of this country know our grid lacks

resiliency – and they are tempted to exploit that vulnerability by denying

electricity to large parts of this country for protracted periods.  The consequences could be catastrophic, even

nation-ending. 

Fortunately,

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin convened vitally

needed oversight hearings in the House and Senate, respectively.  They established that, while our grid is vulnerable to attacks and to Mother

Nature’s periodic powerful solar storms, we can protect it. 

They

deserve our thanks – and bipartisan support in transforming a grid that’s an

attractive nuisance into a critical infrastructure that’s resilient. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Ben

Rhodes was a no-show on Capitol Hill yesterday. 

The President’s Deputy National Security Advisor wouldn’t defend the

deception he’s acknowledged perpetrating on Congress, the media and the

American people to sell the so-called Iran nuclear deal. 

His

contempt for the public, as well as the public trust, could scarcely be more

palpable – or more unacceptable.  So is

the possibility that, in the process, he has broken the law prohibiting the

federal government from engaging in domestic propaganda. 

There

was a time when Rhodes’ sort of malfeasance would have prompted bipartisan

demands from lawmakers for accountability and his resignation.  What is so worrying about the failure of

Democrats to do so is that they are signaling not simply their blind loyalty to

President Obama, but their indifference to this sort of misconduct.  

That’s

a sure-fire formula for getting more

national security fraud. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. 

Anyone

still attracted to the illusion of socialism and its promise of social justice

and wealth redistribution needs to check out what’s happening in Venezuela. Seventeen

years of Bolivarian revolutionary repression and ripping off an oil-rich nation

have left its people without food, electrical power or even toilet paper.

Now,

the despotic regime founded by the radical leftist, Hugo Chavez, has declared a

state of emergency.  It justified this

extreme measure by asserting the United States was organizing a coup – a

preposterous claim given President Obama’s friendly attitude towards Chavez and

his successor, Nicholas Maduro. 

The

people of Venezuela have already expressed how fed up they are with Maduro’s

misrule.  Last year, they gave control of

parliament to a coalition of opposition parties now pursuing a legal means of

removing Maduro from power.  They, not the regime, deserve our

support. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.

This

is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.

Yesterday,

the Pentagon at long last cut the ribbon on a new missile defense deployment in

Eastern Europe.  A decided chill was cast

on the celebration of this milestone, however, by threats from Russia to

respond with nuclear attacks on the basing nation, Romania. 

Early

in his presidency, Barack Obama foolishly sought to lubricate his vaunted

“reset” of relations with Moscow by canceling an anti-missile capability that

would, several years ago, have started protecting our European allies and the American homeland from Iranian –

but not Russian – ballistic

missiles.  

By

contrast, the relatively modest “Aegis Ashore” system declared operational on

Thursday still can’t stop Russia’s vast missile threat to Europe – and won’t

defend us against Iran’s. 

Putin

has long hoped to shatter the NATO alliance. 

Obama’s earlier appeasement and belated, half-a-loaf reversal has

emboldened Russia’s dictator, perhaps actually to try to do it. 

This

is Frank Gaffney.