The Political Conundrum!

Good job CJCS Mullen, you made the correct call here.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-18-voa66.cfm

Troy and CJ are very happy to announce two big things about tonight’s show. First we now have a 3rd person joining us in the hosting and running of this show. It is Marcus who not only blogs regularly on CJ’s site at www.soldiersperspective.us, but he also blogs at the www.youserved.com blog too. Marcus has been friends with CJ and Troy for a while and the three have a good working relationship. Marcus will be joining the show primarily in the capacity of Producer. He will take over the primary duties of running the switchboard and participating in the chat so Troy and CJ can focus on guests, the live blogging and other aspects of running the show.

The second big announcement tonight is that we will have our first serving General Officer on the show. CJ has worked hard to line up GEN Peter Chiarelli, who is the Vice Chief of Staff for the US Army. GEN Chiarelli is currently leading up major efforts to counter the alarming rise in soldier suicides and is spearheading efforts to deal with soldier mental issues that are going on today. You can read more about GEN Chiarelli here at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_W._Chiarelli.

Lockheed Martin ventured to the Paris Air Show prepared to extol the virtues of the F-35 joint strike fighter. But the venerable F-16 still commands a large share of the limelight after more than 30 years in production.

Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has indicated that it has transitioned from its covert status to a public phase of operations by issuing an announcement, signed in its own name, that it will host a conference in July 2009 to support the establishment of a Caliphate. The promotional video can be viewed on YouTube. The event, titled "The Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam," is scheduled for Sunday, July 19th, 2009, at the Aqsa School in Bridgeview, Illinois.

Bridgeview is a suburb of Chicago. Chicago has been a major hub of HTA's activities for the past ten years, approximately. According to information available on the internet, the Aqsa School is a private Islamic primary and secondary school. Although HTA's Khilafah conference will be held at the school, there is no public indication that the school, its staff, or its board members are directly involved with HTA.

Last fall, after HTA issued a leaflet in its own name calling for Muslims not to participate in the U.S. elections, I wrote a brief post on CTB about the possible transition of HTA to the second stage of its development. According to party doctrine, Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) implements its strategy in three stages--The first stage is the covert level of development in which members are recruited and trained. In the second stage, members promote the party's methods and objectives publicly in order to win the support of the Muslim population. The final stage is the establishment of an Islamic government and military, in order to carry HT's "message to the world."

Indeed, HTA's announcement that it will host the Khilafah conference in July indicates that the U.S.-based branch now perceives itself as solidly prepared to emerge from its covert status into the second stage. HTA has held Khilafah conferences, and other major conferences, in the past, but has only done so from behind fronts and covers.

Other international branches of HT that have advanced from the developmental stage to the public phase have done so after achieving a level of internal fortitude that would enable the branch to withstand opposition. The transition may indicate that HTA perceives a level of comfort in an operating environment in which aggressive challenge from the government or the public is not anticipated. In order to sustain operations publicly, the branch leaders must be confident that members are loyal and committed to HT's objectives.

The conference promotional video does not provide a list of speakers or an agenda for the conference. However, Khilafah conferences hosted by branches of HT in other countries most often include prominent HT members invited from overseas. It is likely members of HT will travel from abroad to the conference in Bridgeview, Illinois, to enhance the credibility of HTA and to solidify the commitment of its members.

The promotional video for the July conference appears to have been created by an Australian member of HT, which indicates some degree of coordination between the organization's branches. This particular member has created promotional videos for HT conferences in Indonesia and in Australia.

Although HTA appears to have transitioned to the second stage of development, it is important to note that aspects of HTA's activities will continue to be conducted covertly, such as recruitment and ideological training.

HT is not designated as a terrorist organization in the United States, however many consider it to be a stepping stone to more militant organizations.

For more information on Hizb ut-Tahrir, please see Hizb ut-Tahrir: Islam's Political Insurgency, by Zeyno Baran.

For more information on the background of Hizb ut-Tahrir America, please see my article in the Jamestown Terrorism Monitor.

A congressional effort aims to halt future closures of U.S. military installations in Europe if the measure becomes law. Dubbed the NATO First Act, House Resolution 2797 would "fortify America's trans-Atlantic security links with our European allies and partners."

Russia on Thursday accused Western leaders of slighting the Soviet role in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in their remarks this month commemorating the D-Day landings in Normandy.

I am excited to have this site listed and talked about on the Official Soldier’s Angels website. Due to the efforts I have undertaken with donating the profits from the shirts that sell on in the Bouhammer Gear Store on vision-strike-wear.com to four troop supporting charities, to include Soldier’s Angels, they wrote up a nice little story about the effort and have it listed on their official website.

You can read the story at http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=353&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=15

and see where Bouhammer.com is listed on their special discounts page here, http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=discounts-for-soldiers-angels

The former commander of the USS Cole described a meeting with administration officials as a ruse to provide political cover while paying lip service to families of terrorist victims. Cmdr. Kirk Lippold said there was no update given on the stalled prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

The International Assessment and Strategy Center has just published a paper I wrote on the rapidly-deteriorating situation in Bolivia: Into the Abyss: Bolivia Under Morales and the MAS.

The study outlines several of the more dangerous elements of the Morales government and his ties to Venezuela and Iran. Among them are:

o The systematic de-institutionalization of the nation's fragile democratic structures, including the judiciary and independent auditing agencies;
o A complete restructuring of the military patterned after the Venezuelan model of integrating the armed forces into a host of civic and traditionally civilian roles;
o A radical restructuring of the military doctrine, endorsing the asymmetrical warfare tactics embraced and employed by radical Islamist groups and formally adopted by Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelan military;
o A complete restructuring of the nation's intelligence apparatus, advised by Cuban and Venezuelan experts on internal security;
o Growing ties to the FARC and other armed groups in Latin America;
o Permanent confrontation, insults and attacks-verbal and physical-on members of the press, leading to numerous international expressions of concern.

Of greatest concern is the little-discussed endorsement of Chavez of the a doctrine of asymmetrical warfare against the United States based on the principles pioneered by radical Islamist groups.

Since 2005 Chávez has rewritten Venezuela's security doctrine to scrub it of all outside, "imperialist" influences. To replace the old doctrine, Chávez and the Venezuelan military leadership have focused on developing a doctrine centered on asymmetrical warfare, in the belief that the primary threat to Venezuelan security is a U.S. invasion. One of the main books he has adopted is Peripheral Warfare and Revolutionary Islam: Origins, Rules and Ethics of Asymmetrical Warfare (Guerra Periferica y el Islam
Revolucionario: Orígenes, Reglas y Ética de la Guerra Asimétrica) by the Spanish politician and ideologue Jorge Verstrynge. My full blog is here.

The late Jemaah Islamiyah bomber, Azhari Husein, who was killed when his house in East Java was raided in 2005, appears to have struck from beyond the grave. On 17 June, several of his bombs, which were being kept as training aids, blew apart a warehouse of the Indonesian police Mobile Brigade just south of the capital Jakarta.

The explosions took place at around 0215 on 17 June and are believed to have been caused when torrential rains prompted a short circuit in the warehouse. The explosions were heard for 5 kilometers and broke windows in several adjacent houses.

Sources in the Indonesian media said the warehouse stored several home-made bombs seized from Azhari's hideout in 2005, as well as several other bombs seized during the capture of JI suspects in 2007. They were being used by counter-terrorist units to study how terrorists put together their devices.