Op-eds

The Wuhan lab leak theory reappraised

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at American Thinker

Bipartisan investigations are a rarity in Washington, D.C. The constituencies likely to be affected or to suffer collateral damage are usually enough to derail them from gaining momentum. Affix the term “disinformation” to the claim in need of investigation, and the chances of a genuine inquiry plummet from hardly ever to “forget about it.” Such is the current trajectory of the need to explore the origin of COVID-19.

We now know that intelligence officials and top diplomats studied the issue in the spring of 2020 and concluded that the virus “most likely” came from a lab. In keeping with their history of suppressing any news that could be damaging to the regime, the Chinese have stridently opposed entertaining the question. We also know from public records that many of the world’s top scientists, including those from our nation’s own health agencies, went to extremes to prevent the question from being asked early on in the pandemic, with help from media and tech firms. These damning revelations took nearly two years to emerge, and the same forces that suppressed the information early on have responded by ignoring them.

Read the rest at American Thinker

No Matter What Happens To Biden’s ‘Disinformation’ Board, The Feds Are Spying On Americans

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at The Federalist

Facing an increasing backlash against the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governing Board (DGB), Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised it would not monitor Americans. It was not enough. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was forced to put the DGB on “pause,” and its director, Nina Jankowicz, resigned under public pressure.

Now DHS says it is “reviewing” the board while “continuing” its “critical work…to address disinformation.”

No matter what happens with the board, it is hard to take Mayorkas’s promise not to monitor Americans seriously. Several recent cases of the federal government spying on Americans as well as DHS’s own actions were certain to make people skeptical.

Read the rest at The Federalist

When it comes to COVID, Illegals Outrank the Military

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at American Thinker

Should American citizens be treated differently from migrants illegally entering the country? How about our men and women who serve in the military? Many would likely answer yes, but that’s not the way it appears to be playing out when it comes to COVID vaccine mandates.

Recently, the brother of Col. Alexander Vindman, of impeachment infamy, expressed his support for a prosecution team that secured a first-in-the-nation conviction of a lieutenant for failing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Regardless of where one stands on the issue of mandates, the double-standard when it comes to the new vaccine policy announced for migrants is hard to accept. In the midst of firing members of the military for not getting jabbed, the Biden administration has declared the pandemic over for the purposes of turning migrants away from the southern border (i.e., use of Title 42) and stated it will no longer be implementing COVID mitigation measures such as testing and vaccines for migrants entering the country. The idea that those not legally in the country are entitled to more liberty and autonomy than American citizens may strike many as puzzling.

Read the rest at American Thinker

When You Think the Border Crisis Can’t Get Worse, It Does

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at Townhall

Just when you think the situation at the Southern border can’t get any worse, it does. Last week, Texas National Guardsman SPC Bishop E. Evans drowned attempting to save two migrants from drowning. It was later revealed the migrants “were involved in illicit transnational narcotics trafficking.” This tragic incident highlights a number of questions that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to answer.

So, what is DHS going to do about the border crisis? With Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifying on the Hill, the DHS produced a 20-page memo outlining his six-point plan to manage the southern border, called the DHS Plan for Southwest Border Security and Preparedness. The memo provides no new ideas that are not already in place. Further, it appears to have been hastily cobbled together in response to concerns the federal government had no plan to replace Title 42, the act that empowers the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to remove illegal immigrants who cross the border and could be infected with COVID-19. This is not an adequate substitute for Title 42, however. When Title 42 ends, it is estimated that the number of illegal aliens entering this country daily could hit 18,000, more than double the current 8,000. The DHS Plan relies on Title 8 and other existing authorities, which, unlike Title 42, will allow those entering illegally a chance to file asylum claims, making it harder to remove them.

Read the rest at Townhall

When ‘Fact Checking’ Fails, There’s Always Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at Townhall

The media likes to lecture Americans about the increasing threat to democracy posed by ‘conspiracy theories.’ The term, historically relegated to UFOs and the JFK assassination, has picked up steam in recent years as it seems to have obtained some political usefulness. Early examples include the Hillary Clinton private email server, spying on the Trump 2016 Presidential campaign, and the contention that Trump-Russia collusion was a product of the Clinton campaign’s opposition research. In each of these instances, dismissing allegations of wrongdoing as conspiracy theories proved more useful than trying to dispute what later turned out to be reality.

The response proved so effective for politicians and campaigns that now mainstream media and technology companies have adopted it as a key tactic to suppress politically damaging stories. But what happens when these conspiracy theories turn out to be true? It seems to be happening more often and consistently in one ideological direction. 

Read the rest at Townhall

China Lurks Behind Most Crises Facing America

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at American Thinker

Since the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last August and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has felt like the world is on fire. But in the midst of these attention-grabbing crises, there is an even more pernicious threat facing the United States and the signs are all around us. Behind most major foreign policy issues lies China.

Take the Iran nuclear deal. Media reports indicate that Iran’s fleet of tankers has ferried at least $22 billion worth of illicit oil to the People’s Republic of China since 2021. This has provided the Iranian regime with a major source of revenue and raised questions about the Biden administration’s lax enforcement of sanctions.

Read the rest at American Thinker

Playing Politics With National Security is Never A Good Idea

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at Townhall

After more than two years it appears to still be too much to ask for consistency with federal COVID policies. While on the one hand, the Biden Administration continues to fight in court to protect its federal employee vaccine mandates and extends mask mandates on airplanes, on the other it is removing an order that helps keep illegal immigrants who may be infected from entering the country.

Even without this apparent contradiction, the Biden administration’s decision to rescind Title 42 on May 23 (officially known as the CDC’s Order Suspending the Right to Introduce Certain Persons from Countries Where a Quarantinable Communicable Disease Exists issued pursuant to Title 42 of the U.S. Code) is controversial, to say the least. This order allows the federal government to remove illegal immigrants who cross the border and could be infected with COVID-19. Under the measure, the majority of asylum seekers apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border have been expelled immediately back to Mexico or their country of origin, without the chance to file asylum claims.

Read the rest at Townhall

Biden courts enemies and punishes allies

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at American Thinker

Recently, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, a Shia Islamist terrorist group backed by Iran, struck targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates using drones and missiles. The attacks, on two of America’s erstwhile allies, prompted Saudi Arabia’s oil chief to say markets are going through a “jittery period” and that cross-border attacks have put to question “our ability to supply the world with the necessary energy requirements.” Oil prices, already at their highest in years, shot up further as a result of these strikes.

These incidents represent another piece of evidence pinning at least part of the blame for the rise in oil prices on President Joe Biden.  To paraphrase the famous sticker — he did that!

Read the rest at American Thinker

A Nuclear Deal at Any Cost

CASA Director Adam Turner’s op-ed at Townhall

The recently-released Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Annual 2021 Report disclosed that ICE “significantly disrupted IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) and QF (Quds Force) funding through the sale of Iranian crude oil, resulting in the seizure of 2.6 million barrels of IRGC-QF fuel and crude oil, $64 million in U.S. currency, and the indictment of two Iranian nationals.” All of this is illegal because of U.S. sanctions on Iran, its oil, and the IRGC.

ICE is doing what it should – cracking down on the Iranian terror force known as the IRGC. (The QF is a branch of the IRGC that focuses on extraterritorial actions.) Among other things, the IRGC is responsible for the murder of over 600 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sponsoring anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Western world terrorism through the creation and/or funding of other terror organizations like Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas, and taking Western hostages. Just recently, the IRGC was firing ballistic missiles at the U.S consulate in Erbil, Iraq, and its QF was reportedly plotting to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Read the rest at Townhall

Is Gain of Function Research a National Security Threat?

Exclusive to WND: Adam Turner poses questions about U.S.-funded labs in Ukraine, Wuhan, elsewhere

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed many challenges facing the West and particularly the U.S. One rather unexpected challenge is the revelation that U.S.-funded biological research facilities in Ukraine may be targets of Putin’s military strategy. Conspiracy theories aside, statements from a senior State Department official, Victoria Nuland, confirming that these facilities could pose a serious threat only elevate the need to look deeper into U.S.-funded gain of function (GOF) research.

Read the rest at WND