Center holds CPAC panels on jihad threat and Obama security legacy

On Thursday, March 3, the Center for Security Policy convened two panels at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, MD. Most of the topics covered by Center experts and guests were not broached elsewhere at CPAC, and a capacity audience listened eagerly throughout the evening.

Panel 1: “The Global Jihad Movement in America and the Counterjihad Campaign”

Panelists argued that free speech is the indispensable tool in confronting jihad and Islamic shariah law.

Author and historian Lars Hedegaard of Denmark founded the Danish Free Press Society and International Free Press Society, and has been a fierce critic of the encroachment of shariah law on freedom of expression in the West. He has faced persecution by his own government and survived an assassination attempt in 2013.

The UK’s Paul Weston leads the Liberty GB party, and is a strong voice against creeping sharia in his homeland. In 2014, he was arrested on “suspicion of racial harrassment” after quoting verbatim a passage about Islam written by Winston Churchill.

CSP Executive Vice President Jim Hanson outlined a new initiative against these and related threats, the Counterjihad Campaign.

Panel 2: “Obama’s Dangerous National Security Legacy and How it Must Be Reversed”

CSP President and CEO Frank Gaffney lead this panel of national security experts, composed also of Former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral James “Ace” Lyons, and 20 year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, and VP for Research and Analysis at CSP Clare Lopez. They analyzed the grievous toll the policies of the Obama administration have taken on our nation’s defenses, and how those policies might be mitigated by the next president.