Top 10 Center for Security Policy articles of 2021

Below is a list of the ten most-read articles from the Center for Security Policy in 2021. Michael Waller’s first-hand analysis of the January 6 incident led all CSP articles, being viewed over 140,000 times.

10. No spying on Americans – here’s how we stop Biden admin from misusing Intelligence Community

By Pete Hoekstra – As former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, I remember the intense debate on the National Security Agency’s Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) and how up in arms the media got about U.S. intelligence agencies being used to “spy on Americans” when the program was illegally disclosed to the press by disgruntled NSA employee Edward Snowden in the mid-2000s.

9. El Salvador is intent on displacing the US to make China its patron. But it needs our cash to do it.

By J. Michael Waller – The country that we rescued from a Communist takeover a generation ago is selling itself to Communist China. But it needs our money to bridge the gap. El Salvador is on somewhat of a charm offensive in Washington this week, desperately trying to convince anybody who will listen that its dynamic young president, Nayib Bukele, is a solid asset for the United States who is fending off aggressive advances from Beijing. The opposite is true.

8. A Domestic Terrorism Bill Only Antifa Could Love

By Kyle Shideler – Moving swiftly on the wings of the violent disturbance on Capitol Hill on January 6, the newly sworn in Democratic-controlled 117th Congress is pushing a radical domestic terrorism bill that singles out “right-wing” terrorists and labels local law enforcement officials as potential terrorist threats. This legislation is less about securing Americans from domestic terrorism, and more about propagandizing a dangerous narrative and enforcing a political bias in our counterterrorism efforts.

7. Texas Blackouts Highlight Costs of Ignoring Resilience

By Tommy Waller – Millions of residents of Texas and bordering states -and even parts of Mexico– are without power this week facing freezing, life-threatening temperatures. This should be a wake-up call for the nation that “all-hazards resilience” must become a top priority for owners, operators, and regulators of electric power infrastructure at the federal, state, and local level.

6. Exercising Your First Amendment Rights? How to Avoid Antifa Violence at the Upcoming January 6th Protests

By Kyle Shideler – On January 6^th major demonstrations are planned by supporters of President Donald Trump to highlight last-ditch efforts by Conservative lawmakers at the joint session of Congress to formally count electoral votes. A significant number of House and Senate Republicans have announced they intend to move to reject electors from key battleground states where there has been significant indications of election fraud and other irregularities.

5. ‘I was known as Comrade Barbara.’ Now, Congresswoman Barbara Lee controls the State Department budget

By J. Michael Waller – Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the sole Member of Congress to vote against using military force against terrorists after the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attack. This week the 12-term Lee assumed chairmanship of the House subcommittee in charge of the State Department budget.

4. Col. Phil Waldron – Election fraud-buster

By Frank Gaffney – There’s a war on to determine whether our constitutional Republic will survive the 2020 presidential election. The critical battles are being fought not just in courts, newsrooms and government offices across the country, but in state legislatures that have a unique responsibility for the conduct and integrity of their voters’ balloting.

3. Biden’s SecDef Nominee Says DOD Will Participate in Democrats’ Extremist Witchhunt

By Kyle Shideler – Provided with an opportunity to rein in growing politicized rhetoric which paints America’s military as riddled with white supremacists and far right extremists, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin declined, choosing to add his name to the list of those calling for purging the U.S. military of “far-right” elements.

2. A diplomatic disaster in Alaska

By Fred Fleitz – It goes without saying that when conducting high-level diplomacy, you don’t insult the other party at a joint press conference before the negotiations begin. And if you choose to do something so foolish, you must be ready when the other party retaliates in its response.

1. Covert Cadre: What I saw leading up to the US Capitol attack

By J. Michael Waller – The deadly riot at the US Capitol bore the markings of an organized operation planned well in advance of the January 6 joint session of Congress.

A small number of cadre used the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack. Before it began, I saw from my vantage point on the West Front of the Capitol, what appeared to be four separate cells or units:

Plainclothes militants. Militant, aggressive men in Trump and MAGA gear at a front police line at the base of the temporary presidential inaugural platform;
Agents-provocateurs. Scattered groups of men exhorting the marchers to gather closely and tightly toward the center of the outside of the Capitol building and prevent them from leaving;
Fake Trump protesters. A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators; and
Disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouflage uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches.