The John Batchelor Show

Monday 15 April 2013

Air Date: 
April 15, 2013

Photo, above: Explosions on Boylston Street, Boston, today.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 1, Block A:  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, and Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re:

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  continued. Lashkar-e-Toiba does conduct terrorist attacks in India – did the Mumbai bombings; have been operating for years; called "al Qaeda junior."  Its leader is wanted by the US and others, yet appears on TV and goes to dinner with Pakistani politicians.    ISAF declined to give much info; the insurgent leader killed in Kunar funds al Q & other foreign groups to fight inside Afghanistan; was killed in a raid yesterday.   . . .  Founded with support and direction of ISI & have rcd funding since inception; same with al Qaeda.  ISAF leaves this year; who'll take over?  LET.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Lara M Brown, Villanova, in re: Boston marathon is the premier such race.  One, from Pittsburgh, saw that as it began there were bomb-sniffing dogs. At the end, the explosions knocked him off his feet.

JD Mullane, Bucks County Courier Tribune columnist, in re:  Rep Allyson Schwartz's (PA-13) candidacy for Pennsylvania governor; her work with an abortionist in a Planned Parenthood operation. Trial under way for Dr Gosnell, charged with seven counts of homicide & one of manslaughter – the seven were past the legal 21 weeks of gestation (ban on partial-birth abortions); he's facing death penalty in courtroom 304. Last week, I snapped a photo of three rows of media seats – all empty but mine, and published it. Today, all the major media were there. Trial began on 18 March, may go for eight weeks.  Prosecution is still presenting witnesses. Today's testimony was a nightmare; Phil med examiner autopsied multiple dead foetuses.  Gosnell stays calm, doesn’t flinch at terrifying photos, spends mot of his time whispering to  his superb  criminal defense lawyer.    Schwartz founded and ran an abortion clinic in Philadelphia. How many referrals did she make to Kermit Gosnell's "house of horrors"?  

"That could sink her candidacy - she was the executive director for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philly from 1975-1988. Then she went to work for the Philadelphia Dept of Human Services (supposedly helping to provide safety and well-being for youth at risk). I imagine that she'll have a tough time talking about being pro-choice and trying to side-step the issue of what she knew or didn't know about not just Gosnell, but also criminal abortion providers like him."

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 1, Block D:   continued. Gov Ridge's administration was motivated not to conduct inspections of abortion clinics, which left Gosnell convinced no one would go after him. Unclean conditions, unlicensed staff,  underage females, illegal prescriptions ("running a pill mill"); Tom Ridge's state inspectors looked at all this and just dismissed it.  Right now, the trickle effects are important. People working for the PA state treasurer are gleeful because he wants to run for governor, too.  LMB: If we don’t look at something, we can imagine it's not happening; ideological issues often generate a decision to avoid tension and reform.  JBM: This is not an outlier; if journalists did their job it'd be found everywhere. In Alabama right now there's an abortion clinic operating with no permit – and no one is shutting it down. All over he country, evidence: 911 calls that the police wont respond to. 

Hour Two

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  . David Drucker, Roll Call (GOPpers column), and John Fund, NRO, and John Avlon, CNN, The Daily Beast and Newsweek International, in re: Boston attack today.  Heavy security in Washington, no traffic around White House. Bombs were planted in trash cans, this time killed a small number of people – because natl security is much improved since 9/11, they had to look hard to find a hard target.   Sens McCain & Schumer to WH tomorrow?  Sen Leahy pushed off hearings to allow more time to read the bill; bodes well for its passage.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  . continued. JPA: "The full Rubio" – seven Sunday shows.  Citizenship; that dreaded word "amnesty."  Gun debate in the Senate: Newtown families in the bleachers.  Pat Toomey & Joe Manchin deserve credit. Some Dems on the fence with an eye to 2014.  DMD:   Sixty votes?  Have abt 52 guaranteed yes votes right now. Until 60, won’t see a vote right away. Event I n Boston today may push everything off a little longer.  JF:  Another abortion mill in Delaware – shocking, Abortion mills have less regulation in this country than do beauty salons.  JB: The media section at the Gosnell trial is now full.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  . Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re:  Mohamed el Chalabi.  Boasting that Europe has been penetrated by sleeper cells that mean to sow terror. Sinai to Gaza to Syria to the Persian Gulf – the regime is author to all those attacks. IF it turns out that any foreign group was involved in Boston, then it should be said tht that attack had some of the hallmarks of Iranian terror. No substantial info; one source overseas suggested that it looks like Hezbollah. 

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Congressman Peter King (NY-3)(R), and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Boston bombings Could have been any of a lot of things, incl a boiler explosion.  Tempting to think it was an al Q-related group, but there's a lot of material for he police to analyze; look for signature on bomb 0 style, method, materials components. May be able to track back to stores where it was bought or to supplier. Right now, we're pretty sure it’s a terrorist attack – sequential explosions for the sake of murder and to cause horror; no financial or other reason. Ray Kelly, NYC Police Commissioner, runs a first-rate operation; same in Boston.  Obama administration is committed to fighting terrorism, but sends mixed signals, e.g., "al Qaeda is now defeated."   Some in DC want to cut back on antiterrorist funding. But once a person is able to put a device together, s/he'll be able to get it through.  Too many in Congress are too [casual] abut this. JB: Familiar pattern of setting bombs for maximum press coverage. PK: The [slender] silver lining here is that it may have awakened Americans to the ongoing danger.

Hour Three

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: [played the sound of the two bombs this afternoon] – sophisticated attack, media-sensitive. Meant to intimidate national policy, to scare the populace as much as possible.  Initial reports of limbs flying,, screaming crowds, reminiscent of a scene right outside my hotel in Israel once. Cannot imagine the horror, the devastation.  When you look down and see it – the blood, the terror – you see clearly how this affects families, everyone. What you understand is that this needs to be identified as terrorism, cannot waffle, Need to go after the sources of this and put a stop to it. this is why the Europeans are being pressed to [sanction] Hezbollah. Tweet arrives: challenge the notion that there were five addtl devices.  /  This is the birthday of Israel – date moves around on Gregorian (solar) calendar, stays the same on the Hebrew, lunar calendar.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  . Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  .Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re; If the North Koreans were to agree to denuclearize,, Sec Kerry would be willing to [communicate? w Jong-eun].  KJE believes that eventually he'll be rewarded by direct talks – China will arrange unconditional talks the US will accept, and the US will waste ore time; to decline to speak under China's urging would be bad optics. Ergo, Eun calls this a victory, but his remarks of a few hours ago on Seoul were [nuts]. Eun missed another off-ramp.  Kerry made a Mad-Hatter statement that he wants to reset to zero and act as though he can start fresh with DPRK. Need sanctions, blockade, a panoply of coerce diplomacy – but Kerry isn’t willing to do that. Kerry is telling China that if China can get DPRK to denuclearize, the US will remove it’s defense system from the Pacific – a deeply inappropriate and dangerous offer. Need to say, You correct this now.    China is supposed to remove the nukes hat it gave to Kim?  Kerry said, "Pakistan gave DPRK the nukes" – whereas China gave the technology to Pakistan. Chinese are laughing at him, We need a new Secretary of State – Chinese are saying, "You’re a stupid fool." How can you get someone worse than Condoleezza Rice?  Obama did! The US diplomatic establishment is not protecting Americans. There will be a test firing of Eun's missile so he an sell it. May use the KN-01 – China sold DPRK the KN-08 mobile missile launchers.  This totally threatens Americans – when a Chinese missile heads toward the US, we will have known exactly what was happening, Americans are likely to die. 

Kerry Hints at Conditions for Talks with North Korea The secretary of state said that the United States was prepared to reach out if North Korea made the first move to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Mixing the geopolitical event of the moment with a little . . .   [more]

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Kate Galbraith, Texas Tribune, in re: Campaigns on Multiple Fronts Against Whale Hunting  Whaling brings to mind visions of the 19th century. Harpoons into blubber. Captain Ahab ...

Hour Four

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re:  As of tonight, we have two explosions and apparently confirmed another bomb that the [FBI?] will explode.  Authorities are looking at a Saudi national , but he's not yet a real suspect. Cd be just the usual thoroughness of investigators, Boston cops & Feds to _ on Revere bldg:  police vehicles, H=DHS, dogs, have closed in on a building in the Boston suburb of Revere.  Interesting that the Feds and Mass. police are all saying, "One step at a tie; fog of war."  Mostly the media have been responsible, although social media throwing out wild guesses.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Kirk Johnson, Hoquiam Journal, in re:  A Mill’s Fate Weighs Heavy on a Washington Town  Residents and workers in Hoquiam, Wash., say they hope the town’s largest private employer will reopen, but delays have left uncertainty hanging thick in the air. There was such he excitement in the town last fall when the paper mill reopened; a theory was that intl competition [had perhaps been vanquished].  Once, the Hoquiam river was lined with mills, but now it’s gone. There's still a shred of hope that it'll return – third-generation timber workers want to believe.  The bountiful forests of the Northwest: something has gone wrong such that we can’t sell.  Can the global mkt undercut every US commodity>?  If you're making beams and 2x4s  that are expensive to ship, then American firms are at an advantage in selling domestically.  Paper, however, is cheap to ship so can be undercut by other countries.

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  Kiron Skinner, CNN.com, in re: Margaret Thatcher Led in Fighting Terrorism

Monday  15 April  2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   John Batchelor

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Music

Hour 1: Skyline; Season of the Witch

Hour 2: The Raid; Centurion

Hour 3:  There Will Be Blood; Skyline

Hour 4: Season of the Witch; Person of Interest

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