THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
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How is he not the front runner?
Forget Cuban-Medicine-for-All, banning cows and planes, and universal free speech bans for all. This is a truly big idea.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, who always looks like he came to MSNBC directly from a Hitler Youth rally, is running in 2020. Him and everybody else.
On Colbert, Rep. Eric Swalwell announced that he was running for president to an audience of people wondering who he was. He promised to go big, but he didn't roll out his signature policy which would have gone over big with the smirking prep school host and his audience.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, warned gun owners Friday that any fight over firearms would be “a short one,” because the federal government has an extensive cache of nuclear weapons.
After Joe Biggs tweeted that Mr. Swalwell “wants a war” over the Second Amendment, Mr. Swalwell responded, “And it would be a short war my friend.”
“The government has nukes.Too many of them. But they’re legit,” the congressman tweeted. “I’m sure if we talked we could find common ground to protect our families and communities.”
Mr. Swalwell quickly added that “No one is nuking anyone or threatening that,” but by then it was too late.
At least not until he's in the White House.
I can't wait until the media starts urging 2020 candidates to take a stand on whether they're ready to nuke Republicans or will settle for rounding them up into gulags via Dick's and Amazon warehouses. _______________________________________________________ SEE ALSO:
Swalwell Swagger: California Dem Running on Gun Control Platform
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For months, the Trump administration has said the illegal-alien invasion at the southwest border of the United States is a major crisis.
The numbers depict nothing less than a Camp-of-the-Saints-like tsunami of “migants,” many of them in “families” or traveling as “unaccompanied minors,” who have marched north and overwhelmed border agents.
The effort to control the border is close to futile if the testimony of Rodolfo Karisch, chief of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector of Customs and Border Protection, is even remotely true.
Karisch described a border and patrol force under siege that goes well beyond the occasional caravan traveling through Mexico. Karish says the border is hit with caravan-like numbers every week.
Depite CBP’s best efforts, the border is open. And the “migrants” know it.
Testimony
In his 30 years working the border, Karisch has “never witnessed the conditions we are currently facing on the Southwest border,” he told members of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security Committee this morning.
“This is not a manufactured crisis created by those of us who live and work in the border area.”
The border patrol, he continued, is catching “record numbers of people who purposely violate US immigration laws. We are taken advantage of by gaps in our legal framework that undermine the rule of law.”
Karisch didn’t elaborate, but he was likely speaking of the administration continuing to catch and release thousands of illegal aliens who falsely claim asylum. Ninety percent of such claims are false, and most migrants come to the United States for jobs, welfare, and other public benefits.
“Criminal organizations along the border capitalize on these issues and make tremendous profits at the expense of both migrants and the American people,” he said.
Karisch said his 277-mile section of border is but a “small fraction” of the United States, but it accounts for 38 percent of all illegal immigration across the southwest border.
“To put things in perspective,” he told the committee, “last year agents in RGV made 162,000 apprehensions. We’re already at 147,000.” He anticipated 260,000 in his sector by the close of the fiscal year.
Karisch said his agents are catching more than 1,000 people day, “the capacity of 17 commercial buses.” Last week, he said, his agents collared 1,766 illegals in a single day..
Karsich said the number will climb as the weather warms, “which will undoubtedly place both migrants and our border patrol agents at significant risk. Rescue missions will increase as a result of drawing personnel from our frontline law enforcement mission.
Thus Karisch dropped the really frightening truth bomb: “Much media attention has focused on caravans from Central America, but the fact is that RGV is receiving caravan-equivalent numbers of migrants every seven days.”
The Numbers
CBP has not released the number of illegals caught in March, but agency officials have repeatedly said it will exceed 100,000. Seventy percent will come from the Northern Triangle of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Through February of this fiscal year, CPB data show, agents on the southwest border have collared 318,407 illegals, including 158,118 as families and 28,976 children. Agents apprehended 76,013 in February alone. Last year’s total through February was 187,097.
Frighteningly, Breitbart.com reported, the Department of Homeland Security has loosed 108,500 illegals upon unsuspecting Americans in the last three months. DHS released 24,000 between March 5 and March 20 alone.
“DHS is releasing more than 36,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the country every single month,” the website reported. “For the year, DHS is on pace to release more than 430,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the country.”
The report from Karisch mirrors that from CBP chieftain Kevin McAleenan a month ago, who called the situtation at the border “unsustainable.”
Two releases from CBP today demonstrate, again, the dire situation.
In the past few days, border agents have seized more than 23 pounds of cocaine, 33 pounds of marijuana, and more than two pounds of methamphetamine worth about $833,000.
On Sunday in a separate arrest, agents nailed 10 illegals near Fronton, Texas, and seized a Chevy Suburban loaded with 925 pounds of marijuana worth $725,000.
On Thursday, border agents and other authorities nailed six illegals with 20 bundles of marijuana worth about $185,000.
Total haul? $1.7 million.
CBP continued catching other criminals as well. Agents collared two gangbangers and a sex fiend in three days last week.
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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood to undergo mandatory vaccinations or pay a fine.
Declaring a public health emergency Tuesday, the mayor insisted the order was necessary to address the measles “crisis” in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg community, a neighborhood of more than 250 ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents.
“The declaration requires all unvaccinated people who may have been exposed to the virus to get the vaccine, including children over 6 months old,” reports the Associated Press.
The order affects people residing, going to school or working within four ZIP codes: 11205, 11206, 11221 and 11237.
De Blasio said anyone in these areas must receive the measles vaccine or get fined up to $1,000.
“We have a very dangerous situation on our hands,” de Blasio stated. “We cannot allow this dangerous disease to make a comeback here in New York City. We have to stop it now.”
“If people will simply cooperate quickly, nobody will have to pay a fine,” the mayor added.
The New York City Health Department has also issued an order to yeshivas to prohibit unvaccinated students from attending classes or face a fine.
Unnamed “neighborhood officials” say a “vast majority” in the Williamsburg community are vaccinated, but are blaming “a small number of anti-vaxers” for the outbreak, according to CBS News.
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AUSTIN, Texas — Hundreds are flocking to the Texas capitol building today to testify in support of a bill that would completely outlaw abortion in the state, and supporters are encouraging fellow residents of the Lone Star State to still arrive at the capitol this evening to be a part of the historic hearing.
According to video updates posted online by Abolish Abortion Texas, an estimated 300-400 people were in the building as of 2 p.m. this afternoon to testify before the House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence.
The sounds of “Amazing Grace” and “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” filled the rotunda, and at one point, those gathered got down on their knees to pray for an end to abortion. Exuberant chants of “abolish abortion” also filled the air.
The hearing for the bill had not started yet as of press time, but once it does, it will likely go into the late evening due to the large number of residents who wish to testify in support of the measure. Residents will be allowed one minute each to speak, again due to the size of the crowd.
“[T]hat’s still five to six hours [of testimony],” Wesley Thomas of Abolish Abortion Texas explained. “So, if you can still get here, if you haven’t come but you were on the fence, please come down here. … Let’s keep going. Let still give them seven to eight hours of testimony.”
“We expect this to still be going on 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock at night,” added Bradley Pierce. “So, if you have to get home from work, get dressed, get over here, there still should be plenty of time to do that. So, please get over here as soon as you can and be a part of this historic day.”
According to instructions provided earlier in the day by committee Chairman Jeff Leach, signs are not allowed within the hearing rooms, but t-shirts with messages on them are permitted. Those interested in testifying must also register upon their arrival.
As previously reported, House Bill 896, also known as the “Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act,” declares that life begins at conception, and grants the unborn the same rights that are entitled to born children.
“A living human child, from the moment of fertilization upon the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum, is entitled to the same rights, powers, and privileges as are secured or granted by the laws of this state to any other human child,” the bill, introduced by Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, reads in part.
It asserts state sovereignty in that the legislation requires the attorney general to “monitor this state’s enforcement of Chapter 19, Penal Code [surrounding criminal homicide], in relation to abortion” and to “direct state agencies to enforce those laws regardless of any contrary or conflicting federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, or court decisions.”
According to VoteSmart, Tinderholt identifies as a Roman Catholic and attends Saint Vincent De Paul Catholic Church in Arlington.
Recently, the bill was assigned to the most favorable committee possible, chaired by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who co-sponsored an identical bill to abolish abortion in 2017. Rep. James White, R-Hillister, who also serves on the Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence committee, is already a co-sponsor of the current measure.
In order to be advanced to the full House for a vote, the Act needs the full support of its Republican members as the committee is comprised of five Republicans and four Democrats. In addition to Leach and White, Republican Reps. Matt Krause, Morgan Meyer and Reggie Smith sit on the committee. It is not known where these three stand on the legislation.
The bill has generated much support from Texans and beyond as more than 70,000 petitions were submitted to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in February calling for him to make the issue an “emergency item.” While he did not mention abortion at all during his State of the State address on Feb. 5, supporters still expressed a hope that the measure would move forward in the legislature anyway.
The matter also is of special significance this legislative season as Jeremiah Thomas, a 16-year-old boy who died in August following a fight with osteoblastic osteosarcoma, urged Abbott a month prior to his death to abolish abortion in the state of Texas.
“For my wish, I wanted to talk to you and discuss a bill of abolition,” he explained, while speaking to the governor by phone from his hospital room at McLane Children’s Hospital. “[W]e want you to treat abortion like an act of murder that should be punished by law.”
“I know that it must be difficult standing against a whole federal beast that forces abortion on us, but I think that we … could end abortion here and now,” Thomas said.
Abbott told Thomas that the Texas Republican party platform expresses a desire to abolish abortion, and that state lawmakers already planned on putting forward a bill that would make abortion illegal in the state.
“Your wish is on the Republican party platform and it’s what we’re going to be pursuing this next legislative session — that’s to outlaw abortion altogether in the state of Texas,” he told Thomas, the recording of which was posted to social media. “And so, your wish has been granted.”
Thomas’ parents and siblings are expected to be among those testifying this evening.
Abolish Abortion Texas told Christian News Network that it is not known whether or not the committee will immediately vote on the bill following public testimony, but that supporters of the measure are urging legislators to do so. A vote could also come at a later time, even the following day.
Editor’s Note: Those who are unable to attend the hearing, but would like to watch the live feed, may do so here or here.
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More than 300 people testified on Monday evening in favor of a bill that would outlaw abortion in Texas in a legislative hearing that lasted for over eight hours, continuing into the night to 3 a.m. Pastors, women who have had abortions, fathers who regretted taking their girlfriend for an abortion, men and women who could have been aborted themselves, and children who wanted to speak out behalf of the babies all addressed the House committee.
Some of the testimonies were personal and tearful in sharing their own stories, and others simply exhorted the five Republicans and four Democrats to do what is right in the eyes of God and advance House Bill 896 to the full House.
“Since when has killing any human being been legal?” “Our Constitution never said that murder is a right or a privilege.” “Why does size matter? A human being is a human being.” These were among the many points made during the hearing at the state capitol before the House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence.
PASSIONATE TESTIMONY
“I don’t have any aunts or uncles. I did, but … they were both aborted,” one woman tearfully testified. “I don’t know why my grandmother gave my dad life, [but] I’m here today because of that. If he was aborted, I wouldn’t be here. I just think of those cousins I could have had, and those aunts and uncles — they’re not here.”
“When I was 15 years old, I went into an abortion clinic in Houston, Texas, and I paid someone to murder my child,” a pastor’s wife shared. “No one forced me. I made the choice on my own and stood guilty before God with my child’s blood on my hands. The only thing that convinced me to do it was our laws that allow us to murder our children. Please stop this. I’m begging you.”
Another pastor’s wife testified that she became pregnant while on birth control, and the birth control killed her baby. She said she did not know she was pregnant until she went into severe cramping and the tiny baby fell out of her.
“What I saw next will forever be seared on my heart. What I was holding in my hands had little arms, a little body and little legs,” she recalled with deep emotion. “Unbenounced to me, I had been pregnant. The realization turned to shock, and the shock turned to grief.”
“I stand before you today as a 31-year-old woman without a womb. I am childless because I believed what doctors told me, and as a result, my ability to have biological children has been taken from me,” the pastor’s wife mourned.
“Please pass this bill so that young women are no longer fooled by doctors into making the worst of decisions that they can never change. Ignore Roe. It does nothing but harm.”
One woman testified who had an abortion and had been left barren as a result. She adopted a baby girl who had been conceived in rape, and that child has now grown up and given her four grandchildren.
“We’re aborting generations, and we’re aborting them based on having told young women lies,” she grieved.
Another woman who had been raped lamented having an abortion, stating that she was wrong to think “that ripping apart my child would end my suffering.”
“She did not deserve the death penalty I and my government paid [her] for this crime,” she stated.
One man is who now active in pro-life ministry expressed regret for consenting to his girlfriend’s abortion as a teenager, noting that losing the child “ruined her life.”
“If I had told her that I would stand by her, she would not have done it. But I was a selfish, cowardly man at that time in my life,” he testified. “I turned my back on her and I turned my back on my own child. I’m thankful to God for His great mercy and His grace.”
A woman similarly shared that abortion caused her to spiral into a depression, quoting from Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
“I found myself in the deepest, darkest hole that seemed inescapable,” she recounted. “I took drugs and it caused a seizure. I woke up in the emergency room with the doctor telling me ‘You could have died.’ I couldn’t help but wish I didn’t wake up.”
“I have lived my life for 17 years in silence from the shame and the guilt I have carried,” she stated candidly. “[But] I am no longer a slave to my past, and that is why I am silent no more.”
Another woman testified that she had found herself pregnant as a youth as she had been “looking for love to ease [her] broken heart” after losing her parents at age 7 and 15. During her first two years of college, she also had two abortions, and spent the decades ahead feeling guilt and shame.
“We’re all fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s own image. God is the only giver of life, and He never gave us the right to take a life. … Murder is sin,” she proclaimed. “So, I desire to spend the rest of my lifetime to make it right for others that they don’t go down this road. It’s a sad one. But because of the redemption of Jesus Christ, I know that I’m healed and set free.”
JUSTICE FOR THE UNBORN
Rep. Victoria Neave, D-Dallas, had argued early in the hearing that the bill would result in women being convicted of murder for seeking out an abortion, and they would thereby face the death penalty. She characterized the bill as killing women, and found it to be counteractive to the goal of ending murder.
Chairman Jeff Leach, R-Plano, told those gathered, “I hate abortion. I agree with everything that’s been said. To me, it is absolutely, unequivocally murder.” He quoted from the Book of Jeremiah, which states that God knew Jeremiah in his mother’s womb.
However, he also indicated that he was similarly wrestling with the idea of whether women who are pressured to obtain an abortion should face punishment.
“What about women who are trafficked and coerced into abortions?” he asked.
Rep. James White, R-Woodville and co-sponsor of the bill, stated that he had thought about the matter and pondered the responsibility of the men who push women to have their unborn child killed.
“Everybody has to stand before the Lord in judgment, but I am really grappling with these dudes that are driving these women, and husbands in some instances, compelling them and leaving them abandoned,” he said.
“So, there’s a lot of finger pointing to go around. There’s a lot of soul searching and navel-gazing,” White stated. “We need to look at this men, and all us of as men need to start stepping up and standing up, and being men too.”
Leach opined that White “hit the nail on the head,” asking, “I wondered, in this bill, should we make those men an accessory? Are they as culpable in the crime as the others? And if we’re going to go after them, we need to look there too.”
One commenter told the committee in support of leaving the bill as is, “Without consequences, there is no responsibility.” Another said that it can’t be true that all mothers who seek out an abortion are merely “victims and can’t be responsible for their crimes.”A third asked, “Without penalties, how is there protection?”
Others noted that whatever charge is applicable, or if the woman should be charged at all, would be at the discretion of the prosecutor, and juries would also have the ability to find a defendant innocent.
“It is for the courts and juries to weight the facts of each case to determine the party responsible for the murder of the baby,” one man stated. “A trafficked woman who is literally coerced into an abortion has zero culpability compared to the pimp or the abortionist. But, if this bill is passed, pimps would no longer have legal, nice looking facilities to hide their atrocities.”
“These exceptions where a mother can do something a father can’t do [they need to be removed],” a police officer urged. “A father, if he doesn’t want to accept responsibility of his child and slips pills into a drink, and takes the life of his child, that’s capital murder. A mother, [if] she slips a pill [and] doesn’t want to accept responsibility — down her throat, takes the life of an individual, it’s fine, pat on the back.”
“In law enforcement, how can we say this is just?” he asked. “Our hands our tied where we’re forced to be unjust in our dealings.”
Photo Credit: Rep. Matt Krause/Facebook
Some outlined that while conducting ministry to abortion-minded mothers, they endure profanities and vulgarities, and that they believe the women know full well what they are doing.
One woman who converses with abortion-minded mothers online to urge them not to have their baby killed noted that the women are often resolute and callous. She provided screenshots as examples, noting that one woman said she didn’t want to be pregnant because they don’t want to be “fat,” and another joked about grinding the baby up in a blender.
One woman stated that years ago, mothers did coat-hanger abortions because they knew would not be charged for committing the act.
“In 1973, before Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal, except that a mother could not be prosecuted. This caused the coat-hanger abortions, because it was illegal for the doctors but not the mother, and they thought they should get away with this,” she said. “HB 896 is rightly not retroactive.”
OPPOSING TESTIMONY FROM NARAL AND THE ACLU
Only five people testified against the bill, including a legislative intern from NARAL and a representative from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Leach asked the intern from NARAL, Jasmine Wang, if she believes in any limitations to abortion.
“No,” she replied forthrightly.
“So, at 39 weeks, you believe a woman should be able to terminate the life of her child?” Leach asked.
“If that is what is best, yes,” Wang responded.
“At 39 weeks, you believe she should be able to terminate the life of that child?” Leach pressed.
“Absolutely,” Wang answered. “I’m not in any position to speak for a woman and her personal decision. That is not my place; that is not anyone’s place in this room.”
“Who’s speaking for that 39-week old baby?” Leach asked.
“The mother,” Wang answered. “She will make the decision for her body, and what is best for her body and her life.”
“What about that baby?” Leach grilled. “I’m asking you about that baby, who’s living and breathing, her heart is beating. She feels pain, she recoils. … I am very, very disturbed at [your] testimony.”
He also scolded her and others in noting that he had witnessed them snickering as others were testifying, including those who have had abortions and are suffering in the aftermath.
“I cannot as the chairman of this committee put up with snickering or laughing or giggling when we’re dealing with literally life or death issues, and I don’t appreciate it,” Leach declared.
A representative from the ACLU also spoke against the bill, asserting that it is unconstitutional, and that it punishes women who need an abortion to save their life. As previously reported, a number of doctors and nurses have spoken out against the assertion that abortion is ever necessary to save a mother’s life, as the physician will simply perform a Cesarean section and take the baby early.
INTERPOSITION ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK
Over all, the hundreds of those gathered, sensing that a number of those on the committee agreed that abortion is murder, urged the men and women to do what is right in the eyes of God. Many quoted Scripture or reminded men of their duty before God as the lesser magistrate.
“I think you know that abortion is murder. I think you do want to end it. Failure to pass this bill out of committee is a death sentence” for children, one man exhorted.
“Who needs your help more than those who can’t speak for themselves, who are being ripped apart limb from limb by vacuums and forceps?” another asked.
“You have a chance to end this Holocaust. Let it be the beginning to the end of abortion in America,” a young teenage girl urged.
“History will record your names as those who either murdered babies or saved them,” another warned. “Remember your oath. Punish wickedness, protect the innocent, and not the opposite.”
“You are God’s deacon. You are the blood avenger,” a pastor exhorted, referring to Romans 13. “I am here to beg you to stop weidling that sword in vain.”
According to Chairman Leach, 502 people signed up to be witnesses, and 330 people were heard last evening into the overnight hours.
A vote was not taken following testimony, but could be forthcoming at any time.
As previously reported, House Bill 896, also known as the “Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act,” declares that life begins at conception, and grants the unborn the same rights that are entitled to born children.
“A living human child, from the moment of fertilization upon the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum, is entitled to the same rights, powers, and privileges as are secured or granted by the laws of this state to any other human child,” the bill, introduced by Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, reads in part.
It asserts state sovereignty in that the legislation requires the attorney general to “monitor this state’s enforcement of Chapter 19, Penal Code [surrounding criminal homicide], in relation to abortion” and to “direct state agencies to enforce those laws regardless of any contrary or conflicting federal statutes, regulations, executive orders, or court decisions.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
President Trump has decided to designate the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) to counter Iran’s global campaign of terrorism. “This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday morning. “This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as a FTO.” The designation takes effect on April 15th.
The Iranian regime lives and breathes Islamic extremism, which it seeks to export through its global jihad terrorist network. The IRGC sits at the center of that terrorist network. It provides funding, equipment, training, and logistical support to terrorist proxy groups, including most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. The IRGC has American blood on its hands, going as far back as bombings in Beirut at the Marine barracks in 1983 and at the U.S. Embassy annex in 1984. The IRGC also caused casualties to U.S soldiers in Iraq by providing roadside bombs to its proxies. As Special Representative for Iran and Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State Brian Hook explained on Monday, “The IRGC has been threatening American troops almost since its inception. And whenever we impose sanctions on Iran, it’s usually followed by a range of threats. What endangers American troops in the Middle East is an IRGC that operates with impunity and never has its ambitions checked in the Middle East. We’re taking an entirely new approach to this of significant sort of sustained maximum economic pressure to deny the IRGC and the Iranian regime of the revenue that it needs to conduct its foreign policy.”
The IRGC has sustained itself financially over the years through its deep penetration into virtually all major facets of Iran’s economy, including its black markets. Countries, companies and individuals that do business with the IRGC and the many enterprises it controls are supporting what Mohsen Sazegara, a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and now a U.S.-based dissident described, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, as “something like the Communist Party, the KGB, a business complex, and the Mafia." Add to that sinister profile a well-funded global terrorist enterprise.
President Trump’s decision to designate the IRGC as a whole as an FTO builds on previous steps taken against the IRGC. In 2007, the IRGC’s “elite” paramilitary Quds Force was subjected to terrorism-related Treasury sanctions for providing material support to the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The Quds Force has been the leading arm of the IRGC used to export the Iranian regime’s brand of Islamic extremism and to support terrorist groups to that end.
However, while the Quds Force is the tip of the IRGC’s spear, it is far from being the entire spear. The IRGC has five branches (Ground Forces, Air Force, Navy, Basij militia, and Quds Force special operations) in addition to a counterintelligence directorate and representatives of the regime’s Supreme Leader. The IRGC oversees the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile program. In October 2017, the U.S. Treasury labeled the IRGC itself as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for its activities “in support of the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) … for providing support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hizballah and Hamas, as well as to the Taliban.”
President Trump has now upped the ante further by designating the IRGC altogether as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in its own right, based on the finding that the IRGC meets the legal criteria of engaging "in terrorist activity or terrorism” which “threatens the security of United States nationals or the national security of the United States.” The IRGC has moved from being treated as a supporting actor in providing backing for terrorism that its proxies undertake to an organization branded as directly engaging in terrorism itself. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it in his remarks to the press on Monday, “The IRGC will take its rightful place on the same list as terror groups its supports: Lebanese Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Kata’ib Hizballah, among others, all of which are already designated as foreign terrorist organizations.”
The IRGC’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization triggers the provisions of a law making it a federal criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison for any person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide material support or resources to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Material support or resources include any property or service, money, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel or transportation.
The prohibition against providing material support or resources to the IRGC as a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization would appear to preclude any individual or company subject to U.S. jurisdiction from doing business with any individuals or entities affiliated with any part of the IRGC and/or the vast pieces of the Iranian economy it controls. Secretary of State Pompeo offered some direct advice that Iran’s friends in Europe should heed: “If you’re the general counsel for a European financial institution today, there is more risk. I think this will require more diligence be done by every business that is considering doing things that are even now second and third orders removed from what you might think of as a traditional connection to the Iranian economy.”
Some military and intelligence officials were reluctant to recommend taking this additional step. They feared it could come back to bite our own servicemen and our allies fighting ISIS who, under some limited circumstances, may find themselves on the same side as the IRGC against the common ISIS enemy, as they have in the past. The question is whether providing some sort of support to IRGC forces in such circumstances could trigger potential criminal penalties for technically providing material support or resources to the IRGC. Concerns have also been raised how U.S. and its allies’ diplomats might be affected if they are perceived as giving some sort of advice or assistance to IRGC personnel, even in the context of negotiating for the release of hostages held by the IRGC. The State Department’s answer is that the law will be applied carefully on a case by case basis. Moreover, argue the opponents of the FTO designation, the designation will cause the Iranian regime to retaliate against U.S. personnel and assets in the region. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has already responded with a threat, designating the United States Central Command, whose area of responsibility includes operations in the Middle East, as a terrorist organization.
Such objections miss the big picture. The Iranian regime is always making threats and shouting “death to America.” The Obama administration cowered in the face of such threats. The result was the disastrous nuclear deal that rewarded the Iranian regime economically while failing to stop its ballistic missile tests and failing to obtain ironclad inspections of all regime facilities, including its military and IRGC facilities, capable of developing nuclear materials, triggering devices and nuclear weapon miniaturization technology. The Trump administration reversed course, exited the nuclear deal, and re-imposed tough economic sanctions. As a result, the Iranian economy is in free-fall. The U.S. sanctions have cut off Iran’s access to billions of dollars in oil revenue and are driving its exports lower than ever before, according to the State Department. Three of the remaining eight importers granted waivers by the United States to buy oil from Iran have now cut their shipments to zero. Iran’s total trade has declined by nearly 25 percent within the last year. Its rial currency has lost two-thirds of its value.
President Trump’s latest move adds even more economic pressure on the Iranian regime and its principal arm for the spread of terror in the name of jihad. It has further isolated this arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, placing it in the same rogues’ gallery of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations as ISIS and al Qaeda. The designation strips away any pretense that the IRGC serves any legitimate governmental function whatsoever or that it will not hesitate to use its control of vast sectors of the Iranian economy to feed the terrorist monster it has created and nurtured.
President Trump is forcing other countries to make a choice. Either join the United States in combating the increasing danger that the Iranian regime poses to peace and security through maximum economic pressure or the United States will be willing to go it alone as the leader of the free world. Anyone who gets in the way will do so at their own peril.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The Islamic State issued this call in September 2014: So O muwahhid, do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawaghit. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be….If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him….
“Germantown Man Inspired By ISIS Allegedly Stole U-Haul To Use As Weapon At National Harbor,” WJZ, April 8, 2019:
GREENBELT, Md. (WJZ) — A Germantown man who was reportedly inspired by ISIS, allegedly stole a van to use as a weapon against pedestrians at National Harbor.
Rondell Henry, 28, of Germantown, Md., is charged by criminal complaint with interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle….
Police said in their report they and family had been concerned for Henry’s physical and emotional welfare.
The government filed a motion Monday arguing for Henry to be detained pending trial as a flight risk and a danger to the community. They allege that Henry, who claimed to be inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization, stole a U-Haul van with the intention of using it as a weapon against pedestrians on sidewalks at National Harbor….
When police responded to the garage, they found the BMW near where the U-Haul had been stolen. The BMW was registered to Rondell Henry.
According to the detention memo, for two years, Henry has harbored “hatred” for those who don’t practice the Muslim faith. Allegedly inspired by videos he watched of foreign terrorists, Henry decided to conduct a vehicular attack, similar to the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France, for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
After he stole the van, Henry drove around, arriving at Dulles International Airport in Virginia at around 5 a.m. on March 27.
The government claims Henry left the U-Haul and entered the terminal to try to find his way through security, allegedly to harm “disbelievers” in a way designed for “maximum publicity,”
After he tried to breach Dulles’ security perimeter for more than two hours, Henry allegedly returned to the U-Haul.
Henry then allegedly drove the U-Haul from Virginia to the National Harbor in Maryland, arriving at around 10 a.m. He then allegedly parked the U-Haul and walked around a popular part of National Harbor….
______________________________________________________________ SEE ALSO:
"Maryland Man" Caught Waging Vehicular Jihad
Maryland: Muslim who plotted vehicular jihad massacre led prayer services at Islamic Society of Germantown
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
“Osman Alaalla, 61, came to pray Monday evening at a 5 p.m. service at the Islamic Society of Germantown. He said Henry typically led that service….’He’s very peaceful,’ he said.”
Yes, clearly.
What is taught at the Islamic Society of Germantown? Did Rondell Henry get his idea to align himself with the Islamic State and take up their call for vehicular jihad massacres at the Islamic Society of Germantown? Did he learn there that he should hate non-Muslims and do violence to them? Is anyone going to investigate this mosque in light of Henry’s jihad plotting, or will any concerns about this mosque be waved away with the claim that he was “radicalized on the Internet”? Would investigating this mosque be “Islamophobic”?
“Man accused of ISIS-inspired plot to ram truck into pedestrians near DC,” Associated Press, April 8, 2019:
WASHINGTON — A Maryland man inspired by the Islamic State group plotted to ram a stolen U-Haul truck into as many pedestrians as possible at a popular convention and tourist destination just outside the nation’s capital, federal prosecutors said Monday….
“I was just going to keep driving and driving and driving. I wasn’t going to stop,” the document quotes Henry as telling law enforcement authorities who questioned him. He said he wanted to create “panic and chaos” similar to a deadly truck attack that killed scores of people in Nice, France in 2016, prosecutors say….
The government’s six-page detention motion describes Henry as harboring hatred for “disbelievers” and looking to emulate Islamic State militants he saw on beheading videos and fighting overseas.
On his phone, which prosecutors say he discarded on a highway in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence, authorities found images of the ISIS flag, armed ISIS fighters and the man who carried out the massacre in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub three years ago.
The document alleges that Henry, a computer engineer, walked off his job in the middle of the day on March 26 and stole a U-Haul van from the parking garage of a mall in Virginia after determining that his four-door sedan “would not cause the catastrophic damage that he desired.”
He first considered an attack at Dulles International Airport, trying unsuccessfully over two hours to breach the security perimeter by slipping in through a checkpoint or accessing a restricted area, prosecutors said.
From there, he headed to National Harbor – a waterfront complex of restaurants, retail and hotels in Maryland.
“But so early in the morning on a weekday,” prosecutors wrote, “the defendant did not find the sizable crowd upon which he desired to inflict his radical conduct.”…
Acquaintances of Henry expressed surprise at the allegations.
Osman Alaalla, 61, came to pray Monday evening at a 5 p.m. service at the Islamic Society of Germantown. He said Henry typically led that service. Alaalla described Henry as a quiet, nice man but said he didn’t know anything about his personal life. He said he would come to pray and leave.
