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In this mailing:
* Khaled Abu Toameh: Biden Administration and Iran Empowering Rushdie's Attackers
* Pete Hoekstra: Status of Global War against Terrorism


** Biden Administration and Iran Empowering Rushdie's Attackers ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • August 18, 2022 at 5:00 am
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* "Whenever they (Islamists) disagree with a woman, they accuse her of treason, threaten her with rape and torture, and bully her family." — Ghada Oueiss, Lebanese journalist, to Lebanese television presenter Dima Sadek's 1.1 million followers on Twitter, after she received death threats for criticizing the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie; Twitter, August 14, 2022.
* "Get out of the Middle Ages and learn how to live with other people's opinions." — Antoine Haddad, Lebanese academic, to people threatening Sadek, Twitter, August 14, 2022.
* Sadek has good reason to be worried for her life. Most of the threats she received came from supporters of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that effectively controls Lebanon and reports directly to the mullahs in Iran.
* On the same day that Sadek was receiving threats of murder and rape, Taliban militiamen in Kabul beat women protesters and fired into the air. The women [were] chanting "Bread, work and freedom...."
* It is the mullahs of Iran, whose media has welcomed and praised the stabbing attack on Rushdie, that are inspiring, funding and arming Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Yemeni Houthis and other Islamist terrorist groups around the world.
* In July, Iran executed at least 71 prisoners, including four women, according to the Iran Human Rights Monitor. Most of the women executed in Iran are themselves victims of domestic violence and commit murder in self-defense, the group noted.
* Without the Biden administration's support for the mullahs, these groups would not be threatening to rape and kill women. Without the Biden Administration's support for the mullahs, these groups would not be launching drone and missile attacks on America's allies.
* These are the same mullahs who are now hoping that the Biden administration will reward them with hundreds of billions of dollars as part of a new nuclear deal between Iran and the Western powers.
* The mullahs will undoubtedly use the money to continue their campaign of murder and intimidation. They will also use the money to consolidate their occupation of four Arab countries – Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen – and continue their savage persecution not only of their own people, but also of women and journalists such as Dima Sadek and Hasan Shaaban.

It is the mullahs of Iran, whose media has welcomed and praised the stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie, that are inspiring, funding and arming Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Yemeni Houthis and other Islamist terrorist groups around the world. Without the Biden Administration's support for the mullahs, these groups would not be launching drone and missile attacks on America's allies. Pictured: Rushdie in 2018. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran's proxies and loyalists are threatening to murder renowned Lebanese media personality Dima Sadek because she dared to criticize the stabbing of Indian-born British-American novelist Salman Rushdie in Chautauqua, New York last week.

Since the stabbing attack, Sadek has been subjected to a campaign of incitement and threats of murder and rape through social media posts and text messages sent to her personal phone number.

The threats began immediately after she posted on Twitter a picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the first "Supreme Leader" of Iran, and Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander assassinated by the US in Iraq in 2020.

Sadek wrote on top of the picture: "The Satanic Verses." That is the name of the Rushdie's novel, inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, and published in 1988.

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** Status of Global War against Terrorism ([link removed])
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by Pete Hoekstra • August 18, 2022 at 4:00 am
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* Many of us have never been fans of the term "War on Terrorism" -- it is difficult to articulate a war against a tactic.
* The successful surgical strike that killed Zawahiri, the successor to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden... and the drone strike and military operation that took out two ISIS leaders, demonstrated the resolve of the Biden Administration to keep a focus on terrorist groups.... These actions send a strong message to terrorist organizations, their supporters and our allies that the U.S. still considers fighting this threat a significant priority.
* On the flip side of this record is the growing apprehension that the U.S. withdrawal once again has made Afghanistan a safe haven for radical terrorist groups to plan and train for attacks against the U.S. and the West.
* Another major concern as we evaluate the war on terrorism is the porous southern border of the United States.... We are gambling with American lives by allowing millions of poorly- or unvetted aliens to come into the country: the open border crisis is a preventable national security threat.
* The open border has been bonanza for the cartels who control human trafficking, often increasing America's unacknowledged slave trade, as well as importing lethal drugs that, in 2021 alone, killed more than 100,000 people. Reports estimate that the cartels take in between $5 billion and $19 billion a year.
* Lastly, distraction has become a major problem in the fight against overseas terrorist threats. Rather than prioritize the jihadist groups abroad who want to kill us, the Biden-led U.S. government has made the threat from supposed "domestic terrorists" a priority.
* Federal law enforcement personnel have been pressured to regard "right wing" groups and hate crimes as priorities. In June 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the first "National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism." This document was developed through the coordination of multiple departments, including Defense, Homeland Security and State. To many, the document signaled the redirection of limited resources to an ill-defined threat that smacked more of politics than as a true threat assessment.
* [D]evelopments in Afghanistan, along the southern border, and the redirection and prioritization for law enforcement towards alleged domestic threats should be cause for major concern.... [A] major attack against the homeland is the aspirational goal of transnational terrorist groups. I still believe this is the real goal for those who hate America.... [W]e may be entering a phase of vulnerability not seen since 9/11/2001. This, as we near the 21^st anniversary of that tragic day, should alarm everyone.

A major concern as we evaluate the "war on terrorism" is the porous southern border of the United States. There have been reports of at least 42 individuals on the FBI's terrorism watchlist -- that we know about, apart from whoever might be among the 800,000 "getaways" -- crossing the border. Pictured: Illegal immigrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico, on May 23, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

As we approach 21^st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, one year since Joe Biden's disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, and following shortly after a drone strike that killed al-Qaeda terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, it makes sense to ask: What is the status of the global war on terror that started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11? Is this so-called war over, and is the United States safe?

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