Iran, Jihadism and Violent Crime

Congressman Mike Pompeo of Kansas was on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney Friday and revealed that the Islamic Center of Wichita recently tried to host a cleric with direct ties to Hamas. To make matters worse, they had invited him to come on Good Friday. Pompeo asked the group to reconsider and fortunately, they cancelled the event.

Gaffney pointed out that it was also distasteful timing considering the recent terror attacks in Brussels and made a larger point about social infrastructure in certain radical portions of Muslim communities which made those attacks possible. He suggested to Pompeo that this incident is an example of the same infrastructure which exists in select clusters in the United States.

Gaffney then shifted topics to Iran and the recent news story about Iranian hackers taking control of a dam in New York State. Pompeo  said that it’s a serious issue, that the Iranian regime is determined to develop nuclear weapons. They scoff at the terms of the nuclear deal and Pompeo described the Obama administration’s efforts to welcome Iran into the peaceful community of nations as a fool’s errand.

Gaffney also asked Pompeo about the administration’s efforts to give Iran access to finances. Pompeo responded:

“It’s incomprehensible. This administration seems to be prepared to allow Iranian companies and most importantly Iranian banks to have access to the entire international global trading system and finance system. The administration promised, they told congress, they told the Democrats who voted to support the JCPOA, don’t worry, we’ll keep terror sanctions in place… If the Iranians continue to spread terror around the world, we will keep sanctions in place, and yet, it appears they now are ready to allow Europeans to trade not only with Iran but using U.S. dollars and that is illegal… and it’s an enormous mistake.”

Another guest on the show with Frank on Friday was Steve Cook, President of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Gaffney asked Cook to explain the sentencing reforms for non-violent offenders currently being advanced with bipartisan support. Cook responded:

“The premise that’s being sold to the public and to congress is that our federal prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders. That conjures up all kinds of false images, it’s just a false narrative. What I think about when you say a non-violent drug offender is this kid I went to high school with that’s smoking dope in a bathroom. That’s not who’s in federal prison and the notion that that’s anything like who’s in prison is just crazy talk.”

Cook suggests that the cases which are going to federal court are high level drug trafficking cases, cartel cases and heroin trafficking cases and gangs which sell drugs to generate money for violent crimes.

Cook also reminds us that because of the massive cash revenues associated with high level drug trafficking, the people who engage in this business almost have to be prepared to engage in violent crime to protect their profits. In other words, the entire idea of these people being non-violent offenders is incredibly misleading.

Cook offered real life examples such as a man out on early release in Columbus, Ohio who murdered his girlfriend and her two young daughters and another early release criminal in Tennessee who killed a man with whom he had a hostile exchange. Cook says there are dozens of other examples just like them.

Gaffney made the point that compounding this problem is the number of these individuals who have been converted to radical Jihadism while in prison. Cook expanded his point:

“Well just look at the Brussels and Paris attackers. Those individuals are individuals who came from neighborhoods fraught with drug dealing and violent crime, people who have been involved with that themselves.. The link there is unmistakable.”

As Gaffney mentioned in the broadcast, Cook has created a powerful Powerpoint slide presentation on the subject which can be viewed here.

The next president will have a lot of work to do.