ISIS Warnings | Israel Update | Scandal Update - GAO Reports Obama Administration Broke The Law

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: More Warnings On ISIS - Military and political leaders are ratcheting up their warnings regarding the threat America faces from the jihadists of ISIS. For example:

• During a Pentagon press briefing yesterday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said:"ISIL is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. They're beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded. Oh, this is beyond anything that we've seen. So we must prepare for everything."
• General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored the reality that border security IS national security. While specifically referring to Europe, Dempsey's comments apply to America as well, as this USA Today report makes clear. Dempsey said:
  "Well, the immediacy is in the number of Europeans and other nationalities [including Americans]who have come to the region to become part of that ideology. And those folks can go home at some point. …because of open borders and immigration issues, it's an immediate threat. That is to say, the fighters who may leave the current fight and migrate home."
• Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said this:"We're in the most dangerous position we've ever been in as a nation. ISIS, they are really bad terrorists, they're so bad even Al Qaeda is afraid of them. They're crazy … and they're rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major U.S. city and people just can't believe that's happening."

"Beyond anything we've ever seen." "An immediate threat." "Rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major U.S. city."

And this is the group that Barack Obama once dismissed as "junior varsity."

By the way, Obama is getting slammed for the terrible optics of cutting loose on the golf course while the Foley family was publicly grieving the loss of their son, Jim. Ezra Klein, a leading Obama apologist, tweeted: "…golfing today is in bad taste. Not sure how to reconcile."

The New York Daily News ripped Obama's "Golf War" on its front page yesterday. The article added, "President Obama put his own spin on the oft-quoted advice of predecessor Teddy Roosevelt: speak strongly and carry a nine iron."

These sorts of episodes -- optics, scandals and policy blunders (more on that below) -- are seriously hurting Obama in the polls. "Big deal," you may be thinking. "He's not on the ballot again." That's true, but his allies are -- and Obama is hurting them too.

 A recent Marist poll found that voters are angry with Obama, and by a 10-point margin they said planned to vote against Democrat candidates because of Obama.

Everything Republicans say and do must make this election a referendum on Obama: Do voters want to elect more Democrats who will support Obama? Or do they want to elect Republicans who will fight him?

Israel Update - If Israel had bombed a home and 18 innocent Palestinians died, the streets of Paris, London and New York would be filled with angry demonstrators. Well, Hamas just summarily executed 18 Palestinians without trial. There is zero outrage from the U.N. to the streets of major Western cities.

The IDF has released a report finding that Hamas has fired 1,600 rockets at Israel since July 8th from civilian areas -- mosques, schools, playgrounds, graveyards, U.N. facilities, etc.

Scandal Update - Yesterday, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that Obama Administration officials broke two laws when they traded five Taliban generals for a suspected Taliban sympathizer.

First, they failed to sufficiently notify Congress that it was releasing the terrorists. Second, they spent money in the process that was never appropriated for that purpose, funds that "were not technically available," in violation of the Antideficiency Act.

Noting that federal employees who violate the Antideficiency Act are subject to administrative and even criminal penalties, Senator Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is demanding a special prosecutor to investigate the release of the Taliban 5.

Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to release documents demanded by House Republicans as part of their investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama Administration's gun-walking scandal that resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Attorney General Eric Holder has impeded that investigation, even refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena. Two years ago, House Republicans voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

If Republicans succeed in taking the Senate back this November, it will be much easier for Congress to act against these kinds of outrageous abuses when both the House and the Senate are united and working together.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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