‘This Was a Jihadist Attack’: Frank Gaffney Explains Why the New York Bombing Happened
New details are coming out about the man who set off a pipe bomb inside New York’s Port Authority bus terminal Monday morning.
Frank Gaffney from the Center for Security Policy says the event was a “jihadist attack” aimed at taking innocent lives.
“We know he’s from Bangladesh originally. He’s been in this country as I understand it for about seven years,” Gaffney told CBN News.
Akayed Ullah, 27, set off the device in a subway passageway in the middle of morning rush hour traffic.
“He was motivated to attack innocent Americans in the subway system in New York on the grounds that he was upset about how Israel had responded to Hamas attacks from Gaza.”
Last week, just days after President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Hamas fired at least three rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel quickly responded by bombing the terrorists.
While Ullah claimed allegiance to ISIS, Gaffney says the attack is the result of an ideology that extends way beyond the Islamic State.
“There’s a doctrine that the ISIS, as it’s called, shares with any number of other jihadist groups, whether they’re the Taliban in Afghanistan, or Boko Haram in Africa, or Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh,” he explains. “What they call it is an adherence to Sharia…what they explicitly aspire to is the destruction of all governments that stand against the imposition of Sharia world-wide.”
Gaffney said many violent Muslims who adhere to Sharia law are being radicalized in mosques, the internet, and social media.
While not all Muslims will commit jihad, Gaffney believes this does not limit the threat of those who do aspire to terrorism.
“I’d be the first to tell you that there are lots of Muslims who do not want any part of Sharia and I think they can be our natural allies. It’s the folks to who adhere to what they believe is, and what the authorities of Islam say is the true faith, that are the problem,” he said.
Ultimately, he believes the only way people can stop terrorism is to understand and fight against the ideology that inspires it.
“We have to be clear about the nature of the ideology that we’re operating against and how it’s operating against us,” he said.
“There are two things we can do. One is use a filter, use a screen, an ideological screen, much as we did with communists and Nazis in the past, to try to prevent people who adhere to this totalitarian and ultimately anti-constitutionalist and dangerous ideology of Sharia from coming into the United States,” Gaffney said.
“The other thing is we have to counter these Muslim Brotherhood mosques and organizations and similar Sharia supremacist operations in this country,” he concluded.
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
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