Author Archives: Barry Kelly

About Barry Kelly

Author of "Justice Beyond Law," "Justice Without Mercy," "Shades of Justice," "Justice Without Mercy," and "Run to Freedom," as well as two ,"nonfiction books ,"INSIGHTS-The Transforming of America," and "INSIGHTS-Stepping Stones to Tyranny. He also is the author of the blog "8 Decades of Insights." Barry Kelly is no stranger to the world of espionage, counter-terrorism, weapons, deep cover, and the inner workings of the governmental security apparatus. His immersion in the Cold War began with enlistment in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Following his discharge, he earned a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree from Duke. His career in the CIA included deep cover operations and overseas experience, primarily in South and Southeast Asia. He has been awarded the Certificate of Merit with Distinction, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Intelligence Officer of the Year Award. After retiring from the CIA, Kelly served as a special assistant to President Reagan. He holds a first dan black belt in hap-ki-do. Visit www.factsandfictions.com or find the author on Facebook.

by Barry Kelly | October 3, 2014 · 4:52 pm

INSIGHTS-113 PROFILING: A SURVIVAL INSTINCT

REPUBLISHED

Profiling is not a politically correct law enforcement policy in today’s world. Most liberals and even George W. Bush, a Republican president, spoke against profiling as part of a counter-terrorism program. Profiling doesn’t need to be defined. Everyone knows exactly what it is because everyone does it.

The act of profiling is as old as the beginning of life. Isn’t profiling simply looking for indicators of a danger to survival? Like any other activity, profiling can be misused. But when used properly it can save lives and diminish day-to-day threats.

People who live and work in active war zones quickly sharpen up their profiling skills. In Danang, Vietnam, in 1968 one of the best Viet Cong assassins was a young boy, probably not yet in his teens. His modus operandi was to carry a pistol in a paper bag and on a crowded street walk casually up to his selected target and shoot through the paper bag from inside three feet. How long do you think it took for those of us walking in the markets of Danang to profile any young boy carrying a paper bag? Not long. It wasn’t because we were discriminating against young boy or paper bags. It was the awakening of an old survival instinct. All living creatures have the ability to recognize dangers to their survival. Ask anyone who has ever hunted crows. They will tell you that the crows can recognize if you are carrying anything looking like a rifle or shotgun. The crows profile hunters.

In the world of counter-terrorism, all Arab Muslims are not terrorists but most terrorists are Arabs and Muslims. It is insane for law enforcement officers to not give special scrutiny to Arab-looking men and women traveling by air. How many elderly non-Arabs have been pulled out of line for extra scrutiny just to show no one is being profiled? If you resemble a rational threat description, you should be profiled. Not many blue-haired grandmothers have been terrorists.

Profiling has been attacked by people perpetuating racism. Black male teenagers have reported they hear car door locks clicking when they cross streets. Our president has said he has heard the doors locking when he was a young man crossing streets. Of course, and it is not because they are black or young. It’s because nearly all urban street crime is by young black males. Most of it black on black violence. You have to be nearly mindless if you do not profile a group of young black men approaching. Remember the wave of people injured in the “knockout game” on urban streets. Weren’t all the victims white and the attackers black?

Profiling can be abused and profiling policies need to be routinely reviewed. Profiling is a natural instinct. Don’t confuse it with racism. No matter what Eric Holder says.

Written by the author of “Insights: Transforming America — Is This What We Fought For?” available now as an ebook, in paperback or hardcover on Amazon.com or BN.com. Follow the author on Twitter @factsfictions80. If you think this message is important, please share it.

INSIGHTS 161: ERIC HOLDER’S END GAME

theblaze.com

Where do attorney generals go when they leave office? Most just follow the path of retiring generals of our military forces and just fade away or become talking heads. I can’t see our activist AG just going quietly into semi-retired obscurity. He is not yet finished.

In the progressive’s game plan, the control of the Supreme Court is the way they protect progressive gains and carry their socialist agenda forward. What is the top rung for any AG? It is certainly not becoming a part-time player on the ‘talking heads’ bench.

The top rung of the AG ladder ends in the Supreme Court. That is where their legacies can be protected and pushed forward. Of course, there has to be a vacancy on the court. No president, not even Roosevelt or Obama, can expand the court. Several Supreme Court justices are nearing or past a retirement date.

Justices, either liberal or conservative, know the game. They only retire when a like-minded jurist can be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. If the Republicans take control of the Senate in the 2014 mid-term election, President Obama surely recognizes he would have a hard time getting an activist progressive nominee through the Senate.

I believe it was always Mr. Holder’s ambition to continue his socialist agenda on the Supreme Court after serving the president as the chief law enforcement official in the land. He has admirably protected the president from the scandals of the “Fast and Furious” gun running to drug cartels to the IRS’s flagrant partisan discrimination persecution of conservative political groups seeking legal tax exemption status.

Mr. Holder, as the protector of the president, has done an excellent job and deserves being repaid by President Obama. However, his strident partisan approach to enforcing the law of the land, selectively according to the progressive agenda, will make it nearly impossible to get any conservative votes in the Senate for him.

This reality dictated the timing of Mr. Holder’s resignation. If he is going to realize his dream of sitting on the Supreme Court, the president must nominate him while Democrats (progressives) control the Senate. It just may work. If it does, we will have a hard-core activist socialist on the high court for a few decades. Watch for the ‘going out the door’ law enforcement rules he sends out from his office such as anti-profiling.

Don’t confuse Eric Holder with real law enforcement.

INSIGHTS 160: FACTS ON THE GROUND

While the president and his administration are pointing fingers of blame at everyone and everything but themselves, let’s look at some ground truths.

The Obama administration could have had a Status of Forces of Agreement in Iraq to protect our troops from being charged, arrested, and tried in Iraqi courts. All that is required is for us to leave a mobile Army Division augmented by its supporting logistical units, air support, selected combat teams, and Special Forces in a U.S.-controlled base strategically located in Iraq. Prime Minister al-Maliki was in no position to follow his Iranian guidance and refuse. We could have replaced him. Sometimes the development of a new democracy needs a little forceful guidance.

When Obama pulled out all our troops, the training of the Iraqi Army with critical American combat support had reached a point where it could have defended Iraqi territory. Without American boots and eyes on the ground to detect and stop al-Maliki from critically weakening the Iraqi Army by replacing most Sunni and Kurdish officers with Shiite replacements, the Iraqi Army was no longer the force America trained. It had no chance against the ISIS invasion. al-Maliki’s leadership destroyed any faint hopes the Sunnis and Kurds had in sharing Iraq’s resources and having a real say in the governing of the country.

The powerful Sunni tribes that fought with U.S. forces to destroy al-Qaeda in Iraq are not going to fight to defend a corrupt Shiite government in Baghdad. Many of these Sunnis joined ISIS as the better choice for them. Some of the Sunnis trained by American forces may well be fighting with ISIS now. They only thing we can offer them to change sides is the promise of their own Sunni nation with no ties to a Shiite government located somewhere south of Baghdad.

The Kurds and their Peshmerga forces are good fighters. They will fight to the death to defend their people and their land. They will not defend the Shiite regime in Baghdad, no matter the name of the prime minister. For many decades, the Kurds have wanted control of their historical homeland. They have fought the Turks, Iranians, and Iraqis as far back as their oral history. American arms and supplies sent to the Kurds through Baghdad will never reach Kurdistan. Out of this chaos the Kurds are betting they have a good chance of winning their freedom. But they will need our help. Without assurances of a free Kurdistan, they will not fight ISIS forces very far from their own borders.

Iran is the biggest danger in the region. Their intent is to development nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems. We don’t know when it will happen, only that it will. Probably during President Obama’s time in office. The mindset of the current Iranian Islamic autocracy is that when they have nuclear weapons, they will use them.

Here again, the president holds views that have no basis in reality. He even has a secretary of state who shares his view of peace through negotiations even when the other side only demands instead of negotiating. It is a one-sided negotiation. Iran doesn’t want ISIS on its doorstep but will not change its focus on the development of nuclear weapons. Iran does not want to be involved in a punishing ground war with ISIS. The Iraqi Shiites will be protected by Iran and become an Iranian puppet pseudo state.

The Obama administration could have prevented the ISIS crisis if it had been more interested in the reality of foreign affairs rather than using inaction to create a make-believe, no-fault-of-Obama’a world. Inaction led to pulling all our troops out of Iraq and turning victory into defeat. Inaction led to the civil war in Syria from spreading into Iraq. Either the Obama Administration did not know or ignored indications al-Maliki was destroying the fabric of the Iraqi nation by cutting the Sunnis and the Kurds out of their share of oil revenue and a voice in the running of the national government, creating a fertile environment for ISIS forces.

The rate of training 5,000 fighters a year in Saudi Arabia to serve as ground troops is not going to work. It creates the illusion of action but is not going to be effective. NATO countries and Sunni coalition members need to field a force of at least 20,000 combat troops, augmented by as many regional fighters as we can recruit, and declare all of Syria and Iraq as a no-fly zone for military aircraft. With the right approach the Sunni tribes we can cut them out of the ISIS recruitment pool and set up a Sunni government to rival ISIS. To do that, President Obama has to recognize the Baghdad government is over and to stop negotiating unimportant legalistic details with a government that will soon be fleeing south. He also needs to get over his anti-colonial hangups about the alleged misuse of America military power in foreign lands. It is not unusual to hear liberal Americans refer to our efforts in Iraq in the Bush years as the “occupation of Iraq.” This is the epitome of “hate America” thinking. We all deserve a better legacy than that espoused by progressives.

INSIGHTS 159: FLAWED VISION OR ANTI-U.S. AGENDA?

Normally when a president gives a speech to an international audience, the president and his staff carefully craft the message he is to deliver. The Obama White House is no different. They never miss a chance to get their message out. They are very good about keeping all their key members on the message.

What message was the president reading off his teleprompter this past week in front of his international audience? Was it that ISIS is a bad group that needs to be checked and all concerned nations should join him in the fight against ISIS? Sounds right. And he did ask for support.

The second message seemed to be that while these people are bad, they are not radical or extremist Islamists. In fact, he never used the words “radical Islamists.” He said America will never wage a war against Islam, going on to say there is no “them or us.” We have millions of Islamic members in America, he said, as if to say a war against Islam would be a war against our own people.

The president has a hard time with using words to describe terrorism inflicted on others by followers of Islam. Remember he and his attorney general still refer to the murdering of service members at Fort Hood by a self-avowed Islamist shouting “Allah Akbar” while firing into an unarmed group of service men and women as “work place violence.” The president and his attorney general have never used the Islamic label in any situation involving terrorism. (Hope the next attorney general can break this mold.) It is clear all Islamists are not terrorists but nearly all recent terrorism attacks have been done in the name of Islam by the terrorists. What is the problem with recognizing reality?

This president acts as if he doesn’t like America or its historical past. Does he really think the shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, is equal to the beheadings and murders of thousands of people judged to be unbelievers by ISIS? If not, why even raise the issue? The case in Ferguson is still under investigation and until the grand jury makes the evidence public, everyone, including our president and Eric Holder, should be quiet about the issue. It may not be exactly the way they would like it to be.

I suspect the president is so mired in the anti-colonial socialist past of his historical view that he has trouble seeing reality in some cases. Unfortunately, those cases sometimes involve national security. A lot of American blood and treasure have been spent by brave men and women to defend us from radical jihadists. How can we win the struggle against radical Islam if our leaders cannot even recognize the issue and call it by name? Your call: flawed vision or an anti-U.S. agenda?

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Filed under Barry Kelly, Conservative views, foreign policy, Intelligence & Politics, Politics, Progressives, Terrorism

Tagged as Attorney General, eric holder, ISIS, Islam, Middle East, Obama, socialism

by Barry Kelly | September 25, 2014 · 7:35 am

INSIGHTS 157 — WHO’S TO BLAME FOR OUR MESS? PART 1

beforeitsnews.com

Most Americans seem to realize the country is in a mess, both domestically and internationally. The evidence is clear to all but the fringe true believers who have totally closed their minds to new or conflicting information.

You don’t have to look far. We have fewer people in the workforce than anytime in the last eight years. Wages have not keep pace with inflation. More people are on food stamps and their numbers are growing faster than ever before. The dollar is losing strength. Only those who can afford to make investments in the stock market are doing better than okay. The president’s Qualitative Easing program has pumped varying amounts as high as 86 billion dollars a month into the economy for the last several years, creating an artificial stock market for the well-to-do, but widened the gap between the haves and have-nots. The progressives have created an ideal economy for their class warfare rhetoric.

Tax reform has been ignored. Social programs and debt servicing are eating deeply into the gross national product and getting worse each year. Obamacare has yet to find a niche where it is actually helping people. Regulations are killing business and driving American corporations overseas in search of friendly business locations. Government is growing at a rate far beyond what is necessary. Power is accruing to the executive branch. The separation of powers contained in the Constitution is being rapidly eroded. Congress, largely due to its timidness, is becoming irrelevant. At least the progressives in charge know where they are driving the country. The Republicans do not.

If anything good is happening domestically, it is hard to find. The president, the attorney general and profession racists raise the race flag at every opportunity. The once-prestigious New York Times and Washington Post have become ideological supporters of the progressive agenda. Selective omission and slanting of the news is an everyday affair.

Our universities are no longer bastions of free thinking and speech. They too are turning out left-wing ideologues, rather than graduates who have learned to question orthodoxy and think outside the box. Pride in America is hard to find in progressive ranks and the history of our country is, according to Obama’s progressives, something we must apologize for. The progressive party refers to our armed forces in Iraq as an occupying force. At a time of real dangers in the world, President Obama is cutting the armed forces back to pre-WWII levels.

Internationally, nothing done by the president’s direction has gone right. First, the do-nothing but travel everywhere secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the “never saw a situation he couldn’t make worse” John Kerry, have made a shambles out negations with Iran, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinians, Russia, China, Europe, and the Middle East. If there ever was gang in the White House that couldn’t shoot straight, this is it. Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Benghazi come to mind. The foreign policy list of unbelievable gaffs could go on much longer.

Read my next blog to find out who is to blame for all this mess. Coming later this week.

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