Month: December 2018

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2018’s Under Reported News

Throughout 2018, most of the news media pushed the Trump investigation as their most important news story.  Breathless reporters and journalists detailed each and every twist and turn of the Mueller investigation, despite the continued lack of any evidence of Russian collusion, and the very real indication that the entire investigation had a shaky foundation built around a flawed document paid for by the Clinton campaign.

That obsession played a part in the downplaying of the truly vital stories of the year, as did the generally left-leaning bias of the news industry.

Momentous, far-reaching news and issues received unusually low levels of attention. Among the major topics given inadequate coverage:

  • The extraordinary build up of the Russian and Chinese militaries;
  • The cost of illegal immigration;
  • The dramatic change in Europe brought about by the massive influx from Islamic nations;
  • The growing acceptance of anti-Semitism and anti-religion sentiments;
  • The growing danger within the Western hemisphere;
  • The growing censorship of major internet search engines and social media sites.

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The Buildup of Russian and Chinese Armed Forces

The severity and immediacy of the massive arms buildups by America’s opponents and the aggressive nature of their actions were, throughout 2018, inadequately covered by the media.

The willingness to ignore the rapidly gathering storm clouds flies in the face of very overt evidence. Todd South, writing in Military Times, notes that “Between 2007 and 2016, Russia increased military spending by 87 percent.”

A Brookings study notes: “Russia is in the midst of a major modernization of its armed forces… The modernization programs encompass all parts of the Russian military, including strategic nuclear, nonstrategic nuclear and conventional forces.

“Russia is modernizing the three legs of its strategic triad…Moscow’s nonstrategic nuclear weapons are …worrisome. To begin with, there is Russia’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty…constitutes a treaty violation and would threaten U.S. allies, as well as other countries, in Europe and Asia…the military has developed a range of nonstrategic nuclear capabilities, including cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles and aircraft. By contrast, the United States has steadily reduced the number and types of weapons in its nonstrategic nuclear arsenal, which now consists solely of the B61 nuclear bomb.Of particular concern is Russia’s apparent focus on low-yield nuclear weapons—which one official has referred to as a ‘nuclear scalpel’—coupled with its nuclear ‘de-escalation’ doctrine. That doctrine envisages escalating to de-escalate, that is, using low-yield nuclear weapons as a means to terminate a conventional conflict on terms favorable to the Kremlin.

Beijing displays no reticence in its threatening actions. In a speech broadcast On China Central Television, monitored by The Scottish Sun leader-for-life President Xi told officers of his Southern Theatre Command: “It’s necessary to…concentrate preparations for fighting a war…”

The Rand Institute’s Michael Spirtas reports that “China has built island outposts in the South China Sea, has challenged Japan, the Philippines and other East Asian states over territorial claims and continues to threaten Taiwan. Both Russia and China have invested in capabilities to defeat U.S. aircraft and threaten its air bases and aircraft carriers that would raise the cost of opposing them, and could even defeat the United States in a major war.”

Bill Gertz, in a Free Beacon review, notes that China is rapidly building space weapons and other advanced arms infused with artificial intelligence capabilities as part of its bid for military dominance, according to a Congressional sponsored study. Anti-satellite missiles and orbiting killer satellites, swarms of attack drones, hypersonic missiles, maneuvering warheads, lasers, and high-speed rail guns are key systems China is fielding in the coming years in a bid to leap ahead of the U.S. military supremacy…The advanced weapons are part of a shift in Beijing’s military focus from deploying high-technology “informatized” weapons to “intelligentized” arms—revolutionary capabilities boosted by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the report said. …The report also concludes the United States is falling behind China in the development of advanced weapons and will have to hurry to avoid being overtaken. “The United States has a small window, only a decade at most, to develop new capabilities and concepts for countering China’s advanced weapons programs,” the report said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges,  writing in the Military Times, notes the Associated Press’s Vanessa Gera, believes the U.S. is likely to be in a military conflict with China within 15 years.

Illustration: Russian warship (Russian Defense Ministry) China’s navy is now larger than the U.S. Navy, and Russia has significantly increased its naval prowess.

The Report continues tomorrow.

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Foreign Policy Update

ISIS and SYRIA

In a December 21 interview with NPR Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said that the United States has made the caliphate in Syria “go away.” The remaining battle,  he added, is to eliminate the threat of terrorism by groups such as ISIS, al-Qaida, HTS, and others. The US is supporting the UN peace process which seeks a political outcome. Washington had a very clear set of goals in Syria, which centered on the elimination of the ISIS caliphate in Syria. Pompeo said that the United States has achieved it goals, but that Washington would continue to support or allies in the region. With more than 90% of ISIS’ territory taken back, it no longer makes sense to keep 2,000 American troops in the area, he added.  

IMMIGRATION and the SOUTHERN BORDER

The United States announced a fundamental shift in how the government handles immigrants coming to the US from south of the border. Secretary Pompeo said the policy shift is “consistent with U.S. law, and more importantly it is deeply consistent with the protection, the humanitarian protection, of these migrants as they transit their way through Mexico. We will no longer permit those who are seeking asylum to remain inside the United States during the pendency of their immigration process.

They’ll file a claim and then they will be returned to Mexico. This is both deeply lawful and deeply humanitarian.” The State Department believes that this new model will disincentivize immigrants and reduce the migrations flows across the southern US border. Earlier in December Washington had announced it was making a financial commitment in Central America to create good projects that will, hopefully, lead to conditions that will reduce the number of people attempting to illegally enter the United States.

CHINA

The Department of State issued a statement pointing out that since at least 2014, Chinese cyber actors associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security have “hacked multiple U.S. and global managed service and cloud providers.” They then used this access to compromise the networks of the providers’ clients, including global companies located in at least 12 countries.

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The State Department pointed out that these actions by Chinese actors to target intellectual property and sensitive business information, present a very real threat to the economic competitiveness of companies in the United States and around the globe.

CHINA TRADE

In an interview with KMUW public radio of Wichita, Kansas, Secretary of State Pompeo said the Chinese trade relationship with the US is “fundamentally unfair.” He added that they steal US intellectual property and charge huge tariffs on American made products. The United States wants a fair and reciprocal trade relationship with China.

“It is fundamentally unfair to allow the United States to continue to have the Chinese have forced technology transfer, force American companies who want to operate in China to behave in ways that are inconsistent with their own workers’ best interest. And President Trump is the first president in an awfully long time to take this threat to American workers,” according to Pompeo. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Weaning America off the First Amendment

There is a common purpose in what at first appears to be unrelated moves to limit free speech.

Initially, there isn’t an evident connection between the attempts to take down old holiday songs (“Baby, it’s Cold Outside;”) the scolding of law enforcement officials who describe terrorists as being Islamists; the instructing of college students that they can’t say anything that could “offend” anybody on campus; or any of the other myriad objections levied by progressive censors.

John Podhoretz, writing in the New York Post, notes that  “ America is going insane with finger-wagging, tut-tutting, outrage-ready …. censoriousness… progressive bullies [are] intent on shutting everyone the hell up lest anyone fail to conform to their narrow sense of what is and is not acceptable. The humorless scolds have decided they are in charge, and for complicated reasons the rest of the culture is going along.”

Over the past decade, progressive politicians had been at the forefront of the move to limit free speech. Senator Schumer (D-NY) actually introduced legislation to limit the First Amendment’s application to some political speech. (The measure was, fortunately, defeated.) Numerous campaign regulations limit the ability of the citizenry to openly support candidates without first jumping through bureaucratic hoops.

Some elected officials are not shy about their goals. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) boldly announced that he would “love to be able to regulate the content of speech” He particularly spoke about restricting Fox News. Newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex (D-NY) threatened Donald Trump Jr. with a subpoena merely for questioning her economic views.

On a governmental level, the trend reached a high point during the Obama Administration, when some dissenting reporters were harassed and their personal records were obtained by the federal government. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service was employed to suppress the Tea Party.  The former President’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch even considered “criminally prosecuting” those that merely disagreed with Obama’s climate change views.

Writing during the time when Obama was in the White House, reporter and author Kimberley Strassel described the frightening move towards punishing free speech that was launched by the Obama Administration: “Americans are…being targeted on the basis of their political views; they…risk losing their jobs and reputations for speaking out; they…face economic and community reprisal…”

Despite the arrogance of progressive politicians such as Obama, Schumer and Lieu, the most immediate current threat comes not from Washington but from nongovernmental sources.
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Shireen Qudosi, writing in the Clarion Project  reports that “Sweeping censorship across social media and subscriber-content sites has pushed conservatives out of these sites and sent them searching for more tolerant digital platforms. The latest story in the news points to increased bans and discrimination against conservative views on Twitter.”

While it has become evident that some internet search engines and social media sites have discriminated against anyone rejecting left-wing orthodoxy, it is less clear what the uniting thread is in the consistent moves to oversee just about everything said (or sung) in public.

A change this dramatic in the national culture cannot occur quickly.  Free speech is ingrained in the DNA of the nation. Attempts by elected officials, such as occurred during the Obama Administration, are too obvious.  Those pushing the watering down of the First Amendment recognize this, and so resort to more subtle means. Gradually, they are acclimating Americans to the acceptance, on college campuses and in popular culture, to acquiesce to speech limitations.

Americans who have been (at least until Academia drummed it out of their curriculum) brought up in the belief that the First Amendment was a sacred, unassailable right are being re-trained to accept that free speech is now subject to severe limits. Lacking the ability to persuade the public to abandon this key provision of the Bill of Rights, circuitous means are being employed to wean the citizenry from their devotion to it.

The obvious question is why this is being done, and why the left is so enthusiastic about it.   The fact is, progressive policies are generally not successful in resolving issues, but very successful in establishing a culture in which elites run roughshod over individual rights.  From foreign policy to economics, America’s left has failed to produce salutary results. Exposing that reality, questioning the failed basic premises guiding progressives, is dangerous to the left.  But if the conversation can be controlled, if individuals can be restricted, under various excuses, from questioning the left’s logic, then, despite failure, those elites can remain in power.  That is why socialist governments consistently need to become more authoritarian, as can be seen in Venezuela and numerous other examples.

Accepting the excuses of the would-be censors would lead to disaster.  Americans should tolerate no limits to their First Amendment rights.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Quick Analysis

Freedom Slipping Away

There should be greater attention paid to the comments made by Washington’s growing number of hard-left politicians.

Socialism is increasingly seen as part of the American political environment. It is more than just an an economic philosophy. Because it involves the centralization of a key part of a nation’s life, the use of government power to enforce its tenets is a major necessity in achieving its strategies and goals.

In many ways, this runs directly contrary to the standard Constitutional  emphasis on individual rights. But that is not seen as an obstacle for those who view that bedrock document as open to loose interpretation.

The use of overbearing power to insure the compliance of those who would stand in the way of the activities of leftist governments rather quickly develops into an habitual practice. The old USSR, or today’s Venezuela, are two of the best known examples, and they are the rule, not the exception.

The 2018 midterm elections brought with it a new generation of pro-socIalist elected officials. They have not even officially taken office, and their philosophical proclivity to suppress dissent has already taken hold.

It is difficult to take many of Representative-elect Ocasio–Cortez‘s comments on substantive issues seriously due to her rather shaky grasp of facts. But she is abundantly clear about her devotion to socialist policies, and her determination to execute a “fundamental transformation” (to borrow Obama’s phrase) of America.

True to form for socialists across the globe, Ms. Ocasio–Cortez has little tolerance for oppostion.  Following an instagram post by Donald Trump Jr. criticizing her by pointing out the deficiencies of her political philosophy, she responded, not with a countervaling argument or even an ad hominem attack, but with a comment on the House’s ability to issue subponeas. The message was clear, and consistent with the history of socialism: dissent will be punished.

More than just an attack on individual opponents, the U.S. left is now focusing on essential components of the U.S. government that block  their goals.
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Preventing the implementation of their radical concepts is the steadfastness of the U.S. governing structure. As a consequence, it has become a target.

The practice of basing legal decisions on law and precedent limits the ability of biased judges to push a socialist agenda.  As a result, the radical 9th Circuit has had its results frequently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. That explains the extrordinary vehemence of the left’s opposition to G.O.P. president- nominated justices.

A more recent battleground has been added to the  “fundamental transformation” fight. Based on equal representation of each state, the U.S. Senate is a powerful check on the ability of left-wing  dominated jurisdictions to push their agenda on the rest of the nation.  That has led to rumblings about abolishing it. The latest assault comes from former Rep. John Dingle, (D-Michigan) who openly proposed just that in an Atlantic theatlantic.com  article:

“Abolish the Senate.  At a minimum, combine the two chambers into one…It will take a national movement, starting at the grassroots level, and will require massive organizing, strategic voting, and strong leadership over the course of a generation.  But it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? ‘Abolish the Senate.'”

The attempts to reject the traditional impartiality of judges and  to abolish the Senate reveal a dramatic, even if obvious fact: socialism is wholly incompatible with the American form of government, and also with basic American culture and traditions. Socialists recognize that reality, but it does not appear that others do.

Indeed, even some of those who rather blithely claim to support socialism are unaware of its true nature, believing it to be just an enhanced form of liberalism.  That’s its greatest strength: the ability to hide its true nature from the masses.

Photo: Ocasio-Cortez, from her website

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China Expands Repression of Christians

China’s oppression of religious freedom continues to expand. This month, the Congressional Executive Commission on China released its report on Beijing’s latest moves against Christians.

A summary of the report:

Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Chris Smith, the chair and cochair respectively of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), issued the following statement regarding the escalating crackdown on Protestant Christian believers in China, including the targeting of Zion Church in Beijing, Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, and Rongguili Church in Guangzhou.  Rongguili is the third major unregistered church in China since September to be forcibly shuttered by authorities.  Among those detained in connection with the crackdown on Early Rain Covenant Church are prominent Chinese pastor and legal scholar Wang Yi, as well as his wife, Jiang Rong, and roughly 100 church lay leaders and seminary students.

“We are deeply concerned by the escalating crackdown against Christians in China, including the forced closure of prominent Protestant churches, confiscation of church property and harassment and detention of church and lay leaders alike.  These developments are set against the backdrop of the human rights crisis unfolding in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where upwards of a million or more Uyghur and other Muslims have been interned in “political reeducation” camps, amidst growing reports of forced labor.

In short, Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s efforts to “sinicize” religion are taking a devastating human toll.  Chinese officials and others complicit in severe religious freedom violations must be held accountable and specific cases of those unjustly harassed, detained, and imprisoned must be raised at the highest levels of government. As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas, China’s Christians and other faith communities are under siege and treated as enemies of the state for daring to worship and peacefully live out their faith.”
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Background

Congress created the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) in 2000 to monitor China’s compliance with international human rights standards, to encourage the development of the rule of law in the PRC, and to establish and maintain a list of victims of human rights abuses in China. The Commission comprises nine Senators, nine members of the House of Representatives and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President.

The Commission’s professional staff is made up of U.S. experts on China specializing in religious freedom, labor affairs, Tibet and ethnic minorities, the Internet and free-flow of broadcast and print information, and law and legal reform, including commercial law reform. The Commission submits an annual report to the Congressional leadership and the President. To gather information for the report, the CECC holds formal hearings and informal issues roundtables that bring together academics, activists, government officials, business representatives, and other experts on issues related to the Commission’s mandate. Staff members also make frequent trips to China to gather information, meet Chinese officials, scholars, and analysts, and consult about the human rights situation and the development of the rule of law in China with U.S. diplomats, and others.

China Violates Existing Laws

Both Chinese and international law provide guarantees of religious freedom. Despite these guarantees, the Commission continued to observe widespread and systematic violation of the principles of religious freedom during the 2018 reporting year, as Chinese authorities exercised broad discretion over religious practice. Under international law, freedom of religion or belief encompasses both the right to form, hold, and change convictions, beliefs, and religions—which cannot be restricted—and the right to outwardly manifest those beliefs—which can be limited for certain, specific justifications. These principles are codified in various international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). China has signed  and stated its intent to ratify  the ICCPR, which obligates China to refrain in good faith from acts that would defeat the treaty’s purpose. Article 36 of China’s Constitution guarantees citizens ‘‘freedom of religious belief’’ and protection for ‘‘normal religious activities.’’ With essential terms such as ‘‘normal’’ undefined, it is unclear whether China’s Constitution protects the same range of belief and outward manifestation that is recognized under international law. In other ways, however, China’s Constitution and other legal provisions 8 join the ICCPR in prohibiting discrimination based on religion  and loosely parallel the ICCPR’s prohibition on coercion  by forbidding state agencies, social organizations, and individuals from compelling citizens to believe or not believe in any religion. China’s Constitution prohibits ‘‘making use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt social order, impair the health of citizens, or interfere with the educational system of the State.’’ The ICCPR does allow State Parties to restrict outward manifestations of religion or belief, but such restrictions must be ‘‘prescribed by law and . . . necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.’’

Picture: Beijing official site

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Christmas in the Military

We are pleased to present this guest editorial from U.S. Army Chaplain Don Zapsic (ret.)

The Christmas holiday season presents a litany of challenges compounded by military service to remote areas of the world. I did not come fully to this realization until deployed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a military chaplain. The year was 2000 and the kingdom happens to be one of the most formidable places on earth when it comes to exercising freedom of religion with the exception of Islam. To complicate matters even more, there is not a single legally recognized church throughout the entire country.

So what is a forward-deployed Christian at Christmas time to do some 7,000 miles away from home when there is not an accessible church nearby? This problem is not unique to our present –day military. Enter in General George Washington, 1775. The Continental Army was not isolated from churches geographically. The difficulty lied in restricted church access imposed by the harsh conditions of war. Washington had to find a way to promote the free exercise of religion for his soldiers while meeting the demands of military necessity.

General Washington faced at least two difficulties. First, he needed to provide religious support to his troops without sacrificing strategic or tactical advantage. Secondly, after restructuring the Continental Army to provide consistent religious support for those who faced death on a daily basis, Washington needed to find a way to sustain it. On the first order of business, the commanding general successfully petitioned the Continental Congress to provide a dedicated chaplain corps to accommodate the spiritual needs of his soldiers. Easy enough.

The second task was not as simple since military leaders do not universally appreciate the value of fostering faith through religious observance. Then, as in now, not all commanders are on board when it comes to providing for the spiritual needs of those they lead. The word “commander” is used here because they are the ones that ensure that adequate time and resources are available for chaplains to minister within the command setting. Some have no use for religion and care little about the needs of those that do believing that another staff officer would better serve the command than clergy.

General Washington astutely recognized that a commander’s personal beliefs or lack thereof, could impede the religious freedom of his soldiers. It is one thing to ask a man to risk his life in service to his country and quite another to expect him to neglect his faith in the process. To do so would be to play God. Washington ordered his regimental commanders to promote and protect the fledgling chaplaincy by appointing chaplains of good character and standing to promote religious observance within their ranks (P. Thompson, The United States Army Chaplaincy (1978).

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Times have changed, but many things should never change. Just as sure as there is Christmas, there should always be chaplains as long as America exists as a free nation. Who can face death better than those who know that death is not the end, but just the beginning of eternal life in Christ? The prospect of facing death followed by nothingness in a six-foot hole does would not inspire me to readily lay down my life. And of the commanders that I had the privilege of serving with for over 24 years as a chaplain?  I never met one who was not in need of the prayers and support of God’s people. Merry Christmas, one-and-all.

Illustration:  “Washington kneeling in the Snow” by Arnold Friberg

 

 

 

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Foreign Policy Update from the U.S. State Department

Expert Report From the Moscow Mechanism for Human Rights Abuses in Chechnya

The United States welcomes the expert, fact-finding report on human rights violations and abuses in the Russian Federation’s Republic of Chechnya and impunity for them, which we believe to be a particularly serious threat to Russia’s fulfillment of its Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) human dimension commitments.

This expert report concluded that Chechen authorities committed torture and other appalling human rights violations and abuses, including extrajudicial killings of LGBTI persons and others, and describes a worsening “climate of intimidation” against journalists and civil society activists. The report observes that the Russian government “appears to support the perpetrators rather than the victims” and has “not lived up to its responsibilities” to address the “grave situation” in Chechnya.

The report, presented today at the OSCE, is the result of the invocation by the United States and 15 other countries of a rarely used diplomatic tool known as the Moscow Mechanism.

We call on the Russian Federation to protect the human rights of all within its borders, consistent with international law, OSCE commitments, and its own constitution. We support the report’s recommendations that Russia conduct a new and truly independent inquiry into the violations and abuses, that human rights defenders and the media be allowed to operate in Chechnya without reprisal, and that imprisoned human rights defender Oyub Titiyev be immediately released.

The United States will continue to speak out in support of human rights for individuals everywhere, including in Chechnya, and to support international efforts to promote accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses.

 

Calls With Iraqi Officials

Dec. 21: Secretary Pompeo spoke with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi to discuss the recent territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria, the U.S. commitment to Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and reaffirmed U.S. support for Iraq as it continues to fight ISIS remnants and builds a more stable, prosperous future. The Secretary reiterated his support for the continuation and deepening of the long-standing U.S.-Iraq partnership.

 

Joint Statement by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen: Chinese Actors Compromise Global Managed Service Providers

Since at least 2014, Chinese cyber actors associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security have hacked multiple U.S. and global managed service and cloud providers. These Chinese actors used this access to compromise the networks of the providers’ clients, including global companies located in at least 12 countries.

The United States is concerned that this activity violates the 2015 U.S.-China cyber commitments made by President Xi Jinping to refrain from conducting or knowingly supporting “cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.” China has also made this commitment with G20 and APEC members as well as in other bilateral statements.
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Stability in cyberspace cannot be achieved if countries engage in irresponsible behavior that undermines the national security and economic prosperity of other countries. These actions by Chinese actors to target intellectual property and sensitive business information present a very real threat to the economic competitiveness of companies in the United States and around the globe. We will continue to hold malicious actors accountable for their behavior, and today the United States is taking several actions to demonstrate our resolve. We strongly urge China to abide by its commitment to act responsibly in cyberspace and reiterate that the United States will take appropriate measures to defend our interests.

 

2018 To Walk the Earth in Safety: A Message From Under Secretary Andrea Thompson

Each day, I witness the vitally important work carried out by the Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement to protect civilians and advance our nation’s interests through Conventional Weapons Destruction (CWD) programs.

In today’s dynamic world, threats to U.S. national security abound. Stockpiles of excess, poorly-secured, or otherwise at-risk conventional weapons remain a serious challenge. Poorly-secured munitions are illicitly diverted to terrorists and other destabilizing actors, threatening the lives of our citizens and those of our allies. Explosive hazards continue to kill and maim people long after conflicts have ended, preventing the safe use of land and suppressing economic opportunities that are crucial to prosperity and political stability. I have witnessed these threats firsthand in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and now most recently in Vietnam, where I met local villagers who survived unexploded ordnance (UXO) accidents and have benefited from survey and clearance activities funded by the United States. CWD programs were also among the early initiatives that helped set the stage for our newly-enhanced relationship with Vietnam, as well as the historic 2016 peace negotiations in Colombia. They are also—and perhaps most saliently—keeping weapons out of the hands of those who would kill American citizens abroad.

CWD assistance provides the United States with a powerful and flexible tool to help partner countries manage their stockpiles of munitions, destroy excess small arms and light weapons (SA/LW) and clear explosive hazards such as landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and UXO. Our assistance also helps countries destroy or enhance security of their man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and their threat to civilian aviation, in addition to other weapons and munitions.

Since 1993, the United States has provided more than $3.2 billion in CWD assistance to over 100 countries. In 2017, we had active CWD programs in 47 countries. These programs are implemented by commercial contractors, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations.

Since late 2015, the United States and our partners in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS have cleared IEDs from critical infrastructure in Iraq and Syria including hospitals, schools, and water pumping stations, facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in stabilization assistance and humanitarian aid to flow into liberated areas. In this regard, explosive hazard clearance serves as an essential enabler for follow-on stabilization and humanitarian assistance.

U.S. CWD programs are not taking place in a vacuum. They are tied to key U.S. foreign policy priorities and play a direct role in keeping U.S. citizens and those of our allies safe, while also clearing the way for a stable, secure, and prosperous future in countries that are key to long-term U.S. security interests. Thanks to the U.S. Congress’ bipartisan support and support of the American people, we can attest that our goal remains one where all may walk the earth in safety.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Quick Analysis

The Dangerous and Crowded Arctic

The North Pole is getting crowded, and dangerous.

Earlier this year, we reported on Russia’s massive move towards supremacy in the Arctic.

Now, the Coast Guard and the Pentagon are stressing that China and Russia, America’s great-power competitors, are increasing their presence in the Arctic Ocean, as are many other nations. According to Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz, “Presence equals influence. If we don’t have a presence there, our competitors will.”

Commandant Schultz emphasized that nations are engaged in mineral, oil and gas exploration there, as well as jockeying for strategic advantage.  The Arctic is seen as vital to both commerce and national security.

The imbalance between Washington and Moscow is overwhelming, in Russia’s favor.  Putin’s military has 46 ice cutters, including seven that are nuclear powered, and 12 more are under construction. Schultz noted also that although China isn’t an Arctic nation, they have two ice cutters and another under construction. “It’s hard not to see [China’s ] activities in the Arctic as anything but an overt claim to power, pure and simple.” The U.S. Coast Guard has a mere two ice cutters, the Polar Sea, a heavy ice cutter commissioned in 1976, and the Healy, a medium ice cutter, commissioned in 1999.

At the top of the commandant’s wish list is legislative funding for the Polar Security Cutter. The Polar Security Cutter is actually more than one cutter. It’s a program to acquire three new heavy polar icebreakers, to be followed years from now by the acquisition of up to three new medium polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard wants to begin construction of the first new heavy polar icebreaker in this fiscal year and have it enter service. by fiscal 2023.

The United States faces severe threats from the dramatic increase in Russian military strength in the region.  The resources Washington has to confront it are wholly inadequate, even assuming the Coast Guard receives the funding it is requesting.

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Russia is engaging in new and extremely worrisome activities in the Arctic. According to The NATO Association’s Aleksi Korpela “…the erection of military bases and deployment of forces rings ominous to contiguous states and those with Arctic possessions or interests. This issue has become especially controversial in the last few years, as Russia has expanded its military infrastructure following the creation of a new strategic district: The Arctic Joint Strategic Command (OSK) …”

Mark Galeotti has written in the Moscow Times “Russia is using extortion in the Arctic…  Russia’s icebreaker fleet is a particular ‘ice-power’ asset: It is the world’s largest and includes the massive nuclear-powered vessel 50 Years of Victory… This is all very impressive, but it begs the question of just what these forces are meant to do. Bombers cannot dig for oil, infantry cannot collect taxes from passing Chinese container ships. But they can board and occupy oil rigs, seize cargo ships and threaten any forces that seek to challenge Moscow’s right to do this. After all, it may be impossible to ‘occupy’ the Arctic, but Russia is developing assets that could deny it to anyone else.”

In 2015, the military newspaper  Stars and Stripes reported that on the development of the Russian Arctic command, which included four new Arctic brigades, 50 airfields, increased long-range air patrols by Russian bombers and a total of 40 conventional and nuclear icebreakers, with 11 more planned. That same year, the BBC  reported that Russia was developing a new naval infrastructure in the region. In addition to a new air defense base on Sredniy Island, five island bases were being built by 1,500 workers – at Alexandra Land, Rogachevo, Cape Schmidt, Wrangel and Kotelny. During that year’s summer months, according to Defense News, Russia launched military exercises in the region that included over 1,000 soldiers, 14 aircraft and 34 special military units.

Moscow’s military aircraft have flown provocatively close to Arctic-area territories belonging to NATO members. The Kremlin’s Arctic military buildup occurred even as the United States reduced its military spending under the Obama Administration.

Photo: The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star

 

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Quick Analysis

Bureaucracy’s Unchecked Power

Despite efforts on the part of the Trump Administration to reduce the size and power of regulatory agencies, the impact of unelected and frequently unaccountable bureaucracies on the everyday lives of Americans remains vast.

On December 3, the Competitive Enterprise Institute  reported that:

  • Last week, 40 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register, after 50 the previous week.
  • That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every four hours and 12 minutes.
  • Federal agencies have issued 3,035 final regulations in 2018. At that pace, there will be 3,285 new final regulations. Last year’s total was 3,236 regulations.
  • Last week, 1,905 new pages were added to the Federal Register, after 2,157 pages the previous week.
  • The 2018 Federal Register totals 62,240 pages. It is on pace for 67,360 pages. The all-time record adjusted page count (which subtracts skips, jumps, and blank pages) is 96,994, set in 2016.
  • Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. Five such rules have been published this year, none in the last week.
  • The running compliance cost tally for 2018’s economically significant regulations is a net savings ranging from $348.9 million to $560.9 million.
  • Agencies have published 100 final rules meeting the broader definition of “significant” so far this year.
  • So far in 2018, 585 new rules affect small businesses; 24 of them are classified as significant.

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The Heritage Foundation calls administrative agencies the Unaccountable Fourth Branch of Government. “Though typically categorized as part of the executive branch, administrative agencies perform legislative, executive, and judicial functions by issuing, enforcing, and settling disputes involving regulations that have the force of law. James Madison called such an accumulation of power the ‘very definition of tyranny.’ … The modern administrative state…blurs the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances… oversight from the executive or judicial branches is limited. The President lacks the ability to actively supervise the myriad agencies, and Congress has even insulated some “independent” agencies from executive branch control by limiting the President’s ability to remove agency heads at will. As President Harry Truman put it, ‘I thought I was the president, but when it comes to these bureaucrats, I can’t do a damn thing.’

America’s entire way of government—with laws passed by legislators elected by the citizenry—has become increasingly jeopardized as the administrative state has grown to nearly uncontrollable levels.

Joseph Postell, writing for Libertylawsite during the Obama Administration, noted that “Multiple scandals involving myriad federal agencies have placed the administrative state front-and-center in many Americans’ minds. Though the scandals involve overreach by specific agencies, they raise broader and more profound questions that extend to the entire federal bureaucracy because the institutional problems are systemic…Astonishingly, we still don’t fully understand how responsible the President is for the actions of administrative agencies (such as the IRS…) Simply put, if the administrative state is really accountable, legally and practically, to the President, then it is not a “fourth branch” of government but merely part of the executive branch, accountable to the public… Today’s administrative state, therefore, makes a mess of the constitutional separation of powers and its careful adjustment of incentives, checks and balances. In such a system, what role can and should the courts play in reviewing agency decision-making? Here is where a deeper understanding of the courts’ historical role in administration is most needed.”

Peter Wilson, writing for the American Enterprise Institute, writes that “Not all administrations are, like the Obama administration [was], willing to abandon due process and legal restrictions to achieve certain policy ends. But we risk this kind of lawlessness in the future unless administrative power is limited by law.”

Administrative agencies are not directly run by individuals elected by the citizenry. As their power increases, and as they are increasingly governed by career bureaucrats who see themselves as immune from the influence of elected officials, the rights of Americans subject to their jurisdiction becomes increasingly imperiled.

Photo: Pixabay

 

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Quick Analysis

Religious Persecution Continues to Grow

Largely ignored by most of the media, persecution of religious believers has reached dramatic levels in the past several years.  From genocide against Christians in Africa to concentration camps for Uyghur Moslems in China and Iranian crackdowns on minority faiths in the Middle East, freedom of faith is severely challenged across the globe. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo notes that “Around the world, religious minorities are persecuted and stripped of human rights.”

According to an Open Doors analysis  “215 million Christians experience high levels of persecution in the countries on the World Watch List. This represents 1 in 12 Christians worldwide. North Korea is ranked #1 for the 16th consecutive year (since 2002). During the World Watch List 2018 reporting period: 3,066 Christians were killed; 1,252 were abducted; 1,020 were raped or sexually harassed; and 793 churches were attacked. Islamic Oppression fuels persecution in 8 of the top 10 countries.”

A Gatestone Institute  by Raymond Ibrahim reports that events in Nigeria are particularly dramatic. He cites an analysis from the Christian Association of Nigeria which reveals that “Realistically speaking, Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria. The ascendancy of Sharia ideology in Nigeria rings the death toll for the Nigerian Church… These nonstop Islamic attacks are causing the Christian population of the West African nation to plummet — to the point of extinction by 2043, warned Bosun Emmanuel, the secretary of National Christian Elders Forum. On June 23 he was reported as saying that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria ‘is openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda that has resulted in countless murders of Christians all over the nation and destruction of vulnerable Christian communities.’”

While being a Christian is illegal in North Korea, identifying as one in Afghanistan or Pakistan is extremely dangerous.

In China, according to the U.S. State Department, Christian churches reported that increased monitoring has caused many churches to cease their normal activities. Authorities have arrested and harassed Christians in Zhejiang Province, including requiring Christian churches to install surveillance cameras to enable daily police monitoring of their activities. “An ongoing campaign of cross removals and church demolitions continues…During [2017], the government passed new laws…to govern the activities of religious groups. Religious leaders and groups stated that the…regulations would increase restrictions on their ability to practice their religions, including a new requirement for religious group members to seek approval to travel abroad and a prohibition on ‘accepting domination by external forces.’”

Christians are not alone in their suffering.

In Iran, according to Secretary Pompeo, Hundreds of Sufi Muslims are jailed for their beliefs. In a USA Today op-ed, he noted that “The religious intolerance of the regime…applies to the Sufi dervish community, Christians, Jews, Sunnis, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and other minority religious groups simply trying to practice their faiths.”
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As a major power, China’s actions must be seen at the forefront of any discussion of the global acceptance of religious persecution. According to the U.S. State Department, in 2018

“There continued to be reports the government tortured, physically abused, arrested, detained, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups for activities related to their religious beliefs and practices, including members of unregistered Christian churches (also known as “house churches”). Falun Gong reported dozens of its members died in detention.

“Although Chinese authorities continued to block information about the number of self-immolations of Tibetan Buddhists, including Buddhist monks, media reported on six self-immolations and one instance in which a man in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) committed suicide by slitting his throat…

“Multiple media outlets reported an increase in control over religious activities in advance of the 19th Party Congres …The government continued to cite concerns over the “three evils” of “ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and violent terrorism” as grounds to enact and enforce restrictions on religious practices of Muslims in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and Tajiks. In addition to the national Counterterrorism Law that addressed “religious extremism,” Xinjiang enacted a separate counterextremism law, effective April 1, which spelled out many of the behaviors deemed “extremist.”

“Authorities in Xinjiang punished university students for praying and barred them from participating in religious activities, including fasting during Ramadan. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims have been forcibly sent to re-education centers, and extensive and invasive security and surveillance practices have been instituted. The government sought the forcible repatriation of Uighur Muslims from foreign countries and detained some of those who returned, leading many to seek asylum overseas on the grounds of religious persecution. In several cases, there are reports that returnees died while in detention or disappeared.”

Illustration: Pixabay