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Brooke: Mark Dubowitz is the CEO for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mark, thank you so much for coming on. I wanted to talk to you specifically because you and your organization know all too well what it’s like to be a target of Iran’s, and I know, I’ve read your organization has described this as a badge of honor. I know that you through this ordeal were in touch with the FBI. What was it really like to have that kind of bullseye on your back?

Mark: Well Brooke, thanks for having me on. Yeah, Brooke look, it was obviously very concerning when the leading state sponsor or terrorism that’s been responsible for assassinations and terrorist campaigns around the world for decades puts a bullseye on your back and believes that a guy who runs a think tank represents a national security threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran. So, we’re obviously hardening our defenses, we’re in touch with the FBI, we’re taking it seriously. But we’re also redoubling our efforts to explain to Americans why this is such a dangerous and threatening regime.

Brooke: So since you have that experience, I mean you know, you’ve seen what’s happened, you’ve also tweeted that Soleimani’s death is bigger than the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, and you also called him “irreplaceable.” So given that you have experienced first hand Iranian retaliation and given the stakes now, what kind of consequences could the U.S. be facing here?

Mark: Well obviously, the consequences could be quite severe. Iran has been at war with us for forty years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Unfortunately, we haven’t taken that war as seriously as we need to. I mean they’ve obviously killed and maimed thousands of Americans as well as hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners and Europeans and others. Their abilities in the Middle East are quite profound and Qassem Soleimani really represented that. I mean, he was in some respects a combination of the CIA director, the Foreign Minister or Secretary of State, and the commander of Joint Special Operations Command. He had all those roles together and so he really was uniquely and profoundly important to the Islamic Republic. I think their ability to strike back at us will be undermined by his death but they certainly retained some pretty waring capabilities.

Brooke: I suppose the obvious question is, you know, is this administration prepared to handle it. Because you have worked with this White House in the past, do you think they have a plan for whatever the next steps may be?

Mark: Yeah, I’ve worked with three administrations on Iran policy and certainly three administrations have had plans they’ve also seen those plans go out the window as they face increased Iranian escalation. I think this administration has a plan, it’s called maximum pressure. I think they’ve been implementing it that plan quite vigorously over the past three years and I think what we saw, which was surprising, a couple days ago is that the maximum pressure campaign which had really been an economic campaign with doubling down on the sanction’s pressure, has now turned into one using military pressure and has turned into one using military force and trying to reestablish the military deterrence that I think had been so significantly undermined over the past three, if not more, administrations as we didn’t respond to Iranian violence with proper measures and proper deterrence. 

Brooke: So that sounds like we don’t know. We don’t know, only the administration knows if we have a plan moving forward and what that retaliation may look like. Mark Dubowitz, thank you so much, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. I appreciate your insight. 

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Trump’s sanctions are the right way to take on Iran

Trump’s maximum pressure campaign has precipitated a huge economic and political crisis for this regime with millions of people in the streets.

 

The following is an excerpt:

The Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign has precipitated a huge economic and political crisis for this regime with millions of people in the streets of the Middle East protesting against the regime, and a collapsing economy that is creating enormous difficulties for the mullahs to fund both butter for their people and guns for their terrorists. It’s also denied this regime money for their destructive and repressive activities. The United States is maximizing its negotiating leverage against a weakened regime and really providing an opportunity for Iran’s leaders to come back to the table to negotiate a much more comprehensive agreement that deals with the full range of Iran’s malign activities.

[…]

Read Mark’s piece for National Post here. 

https://www.fdd.org/in-the-news/2019/11/02/america/

Eric: So, what does all this mean? Mark Dubowitz joins us, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an advisor to the Trump administration on Iran issues. So Mark, before we get to Iran which you know so well,  do you think countries are really going to take their citizens back to join ISIS? I mean you got France and Germany, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority. I mean, do they have any choice?

Mark: Well, Eric, I think they’re very reluctant obviously, to take back these ISIS fighters because many of them are hardened terrorists who ultimately could find themselves released back into European society and become terrorists once again. And it’s also very difficult to separate who are the hardened terrorists from those who can be rehabilitated separate the incorrigible from the corrigible. But ultimately, this is Turkey’s responsibility. It was Erdogan who opened his border to foreign fighters, to jihadists that were coming in and crossing that border into Syria, and he’s also created havoc now by invading Syria and forcing the Kurds who are guarding these prisons to fight against his military rather than keeping these terrorists under lock and key.

Eric: So basically, Erdogan has made his bed, now it’s time for him to stay in it.

Mark: Yeah, I think that’s right. I mean, I think the responsibility is also with the Europeans. I mean, they’re either going to have to take these prisoners back into European territory, or they’re going to have to help the Kurds build the appropriate facilities and provide them with the financing to keep these prisoners where they are. But ultimately, the Europeans are also going to have to pull their weight.

Eric: There are about 10,000 or so ISIS prisoners that we believe at 2,500 from the European countries. I mean, let’s say you’re in France and there was a bulk of them from France, they’re now being held by Turkey, what does France do with them? I mean let’s say you bring them back; do you keep them in prison? Do they get due process if they’re considered terrorists? What kind of legal system is there, or do they get really basically a gitmo situation? And can they be rehabilitated?

Mark: France doesn’t have gitmo. I mean I think the Bush administration made a wise decision in creating gitmo so that we could deal with these hardened prisoners. It’s very difficult to deal with them through the normal legal processes and that’s why the French don’t want them back because they understand that through the normal judicial system, some of these terrorists may end up getting released and becoming terrorists again. So the French I think really want to stay where they are. And if they do, they’re going to have to help the Kurds. They’re also going to have to work with our administration in stopping Erdogan from invading this territory and fighting the Kurds who are otherwise our last line of defense against these ISIS terrorists.

Eric: Well then why doesn’t Erdogan step up? I mean as you say, he caused this crisis, so why doesn’t he step up and have Turkey build these prisons. I mean, he’s responsible for it now, he’s pushing on that 20-mile safety zone. The Kurds are the victims in this, so why doesn’t Erdogan and his country step up, you know, and take responsibility?

Mark: You’re exactly right. Erdogan should be stepping up. Unfortunately, Erdogan right now is using these ISIS prisoners as well as all refugees as a threat against Europe. He keeps threatening to basically unleash these refugees, send them all home, send them to Europe. Europe, as you know, has faced a massive refugee crisis over the years which has only intensified their national security crisis, and as Americans, you know, we should also be careful because the European security services in some respects, are our last line o defense against a terrorist jumping on a plane in Paris or Frankfurt or London and flying to Washington or Chicago or New York. So these overburdened European security services are again, our last line of defense, and the last thing we want is another refugee crisis engulfing Europe.

Eric: That is so important. Erdogan is basically, in your view, weaponizing these terrorists against us and our Western allies.

Mark: Exactly.

Eric: you just mentioned the threat of terrorism, let me read you that state department report that has come out yesterday about all this: “homegrown terrorists, inspired by ISIS ideology, planned and executed attacks against soft targets, including hotels, restaurants, stadiums, and other public spaces.” Yet it says, “Iran remains the world’s worst sponsor of terrorism. The regime has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe.” And Mark you yourself, personally and your group the foundation for defense of democracies have been targeted by Tehran for the good work that you’re doing for freedom and liberty across the globe. Do you think Iran with ever get the message? Do you think Iran can ever change their behavior? Do you think the mullahs and the theocracy in Tehran will ever pull back from this radical jihadist philosophy that they have that has spread terrorism across the world?

Mark: Well Eric, I don’t. I mean, and I think it’s always really important to draw a real clear distinction between clerical military dictatorship that occupies Iran and Iran itself. I mean, the Iranian people, the majority of whom despise this dictatorship and want to have a normal life, a free and prosperous life and have been living for 40 years under this kind of repression at home and having to deal with the regime that practices aggression abroad. And as you quite rightly said, I mean they spend billions of dollars supporting terrorism, supporting Bashar Assad’s brutality in Syria. They are the leading state sponsor of terrorism this year, but they have been for many years and they have the resources as a state, as an oil-rich state, to fund this kind of malign activity. And as well as you noted, thank you for noting this, they threatened me, they threatened my organization, and they’re a regime that really threatens all Americans because they are trying to build nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver them. That’s a significant threat to the homeland above and beyond terrorist threat they represent.

Eric: Nuclear weapons as well as plots that they’ve been busted on both in Europe against citizens and against Americans and plots here right on US soil convicted, allegedly they say by Tehran. Mark Dubowitz, the foundation for defense of democracies. Mark, thank you.

Trump’s Syria pullout, aiding Russia and Turkey, is when America stopped leading the world

Since the end of WWII, every other president understood that U.S. power and wealth can only be sustained by assuming great responsibility.

 

The following is an excerpt:

Donald Trump has been telling us since the first day of his presidency that the American president should no longer be the leader of the free world and that he personally has no interest in the job. This month, he made good on his words by unleashing chaos in northern Syria.

Trump’s actions empowered American adversaries ranging from the Islamic State militant group to Iran, Russia, Turkey and the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and abandoned the local Syrian forces, especially Kurdish ones, who fought side by side with U.S. troops against ISIS. In defending his decision, Trump insisted America has nothing at stake in Syria and can let others handle an Islamic State insurgency.

This ingratitude not only will do lasting damage to America’s reputation as a trustworthy ally, it also rejects the importance of American foreign goals more than seven decades in the making: containing an expansionist Russia; supporting allies, particularly those most likely to embrace democracy and human rights; and orienting U.S. policy away from the pre-WWII fiction that Americans at home will be safe from threats abroad — whether China, Iran or ISIS — if the U.S. would only retreat from the world.

[…]

Read Mark and David’s piece for NBC News here.