Ted Cruz Names National Security Team

[T. Belman. This a great team. I have highlighted people I respect and in some cases, know.]

NEWSMAX

Cruz1Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz unveiled his national security team, which includes former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent and former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy.

“These are trusted friends who will form a core of our broader national security team,” the Texas senator said. “After two terms of a failed Obama-Clinton foreign policy, our allies are confused and frightened, and our enemies are looking for opportunities.

“This is the moment for all those who believe in a strong America that is secure at home and respected abroad to come together and craft a new path forward,” Cruz said.

Abrams, who served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, praised the senator’s support for Israel, saying that “he has made it clear that he believes a strong Israel is America’s key ally and asset in the Middle East.

“He understands the power relationships in that region and he will put an end to the tensions of the Obama years that have weakened the U.S.-Israel alliance,” Abrams added. “He is very clearly the most pro-Israel candidate in the race today.”

Other members of Cruz’s team include:

Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Health and Human Serves and general counsel of the National Security Agency.
Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.
Retired Army Lt. General William Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council.
Fred Fleitz, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst.
Randy Fort, who has served in senior intelligence positions in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations.
Frank Gaffney Jr., president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy.
Nile Gardiner, a former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Katharine Gorka, president of the Council on Global Security.
Steven Groves, a senior research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Mary Habeck, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Kristofer Harrison, a co-founder of the China Beige Book who once served in the George W. Bush White House.
Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain.
Michael Ledeen, an author who serves at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Clare Lopez, a vice president at the Center for Security Policy.
Robert O’Brien, a partner at the Larson O’Brien LLP law firm in Los Angeles.
Michael Pillsbury, who was a Reagan campaign advisor in 1980.
Charles Stimson, the senior legal fellow and manager of National Security Law Program at the Heritage Foundation.
Daniel Vajdich, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Christian Whiton, a former State Department senior advisor in the Bush administration.

March 21, 2016 | 7 Comments »

Leave a Reply

7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. Ted Belman Said:

    The White House must formulate, publish, and implement a new National Security Strategy that defines Islamic Law (shariah) as an enemy threat doctrine.

    does this mean they will ban islam or ban muslims?
    Is it possible to follow Islam and not shariah?
    Did they use the term Islamism and Sharia in order to avoid targeting muslims and Islam?
    In my view the problem is Islam and Muslims.. I agree with erdogan that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. So called moderate muslims simply suspend, or dont mention, the creeds contained in Islam which are violent and unacceptable. But without those there is no Islam.

    Ted Belman Said:

    To do this, it will be necessary that U.S. national security leadership understand that the shariah threat is advanced by way of jihad, which may be kinetic or non-kinetic (head, heart, hands, including funding).

    without sharia or jihad there is no Islam… isnt the real need ultimately that Islam be banned or the number of muslim adherents restricted to very few? Like nazism which isnt banned but is kept contained and small… if the threat got larger it would have to be banned and the adherents jailed. The problem is that in the case of Islam the threat is enormously large already… its just that the numbers are still low. Once the muslim problem is dealt with in non muslim nations it will also have to be dealt with in muslim nations… or they must be kept in the middle ages.

    Muslims and Islam are a lunatic existential danger to the world…. a political, military, mind control vehicle using cult tactics to control their adherents….. a kind of scientology, jim jones, naziism on steroids. But who will say the necessary words and will that happen before a massive murderous catastrophe of unacceptable proportions, or afterwards? The “moderate muslims” are the stealth sleeper cells.

  3. Babushka, thanks for the link. Every time Cruz does something I detest, he does something I can cheer about.

  5. I don’t find a Bolton mentioned in Cruz’ list. I was hoping to find John Bolton, but maybe Cruz would offer J. B. to be ambassador to the UN or Sec. State.

    Very happy to see Center for Security Policy folks on the list.

    Also happy to see people saying Sharia is an enemy doctrine.

  6. It is the team that one would would expect of a principled conservative, with the possible exception of Abrams who has been associated with the absurd Bush Middle Eastern nation building debacle. McCarthy is first rate, as are Gaffney and Ledeen. This is an impressive aggregate that would defeat rather than appease Islamism, which in practical terms means Americans/Israelis would be safe and defenseless infidels around the world would be spared excruciating torment.

    It makes me sad (if not despondent) that GOP voters are so incompetent they are squandering this rare opportunity to elect a historically great president. The difference between Cruz and Trump/Clinton is the difference between success and failure.

  7. Bolton is Chairman of the Board at Gatestone Institute. Lopez, Gaffney and Fleitz are all connected with Center for Security Policy. They were the people who produced a foreign policy doctrine that held

    The White House must formulate, publish, and implement a new National Security Strategy that defines Islamic Law (shariah) as an enemy threat doctrine. It must be a priority objective of this new National Security Strategy to deter and defeat Islamic jihad globally. To do this, it will be necessary that U.S. national security leadership understand that the shariah threat is advanced by way of jihad, which may be kinetic or non-kinetic (head, heart, hands, including funding).

    Clare Lopez told me that they prepared the doctrine intending it for the next Republican Administration.