There are 200,000 buildings in Mosul. ISIL fighters are using rooftops, internal spaces and subterranean elements of those buildings to launch attacks against Iraqi forces. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, says the effort is designed to put off its inevitable defeat. But that's only a part of the diabolical activity they are engaged in -- they're using children. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...
Jan 26, 2017•28 min•Ep. 722
The Inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States may be a significant security challenge for the Secret Service and its partners. Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy sits down with Target USA to talk about the threats and what is being done to shut them down. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jan 19, 2017•20 min•Ep. 697
The reclusive regime of Kim Jong Un is close to test-launching an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Multiple sources tell Target USA the KNO8, as it is known, can reach the whole of the United States. Our sources and many other credible international observers say North Korea already has nuclear weapons. So, the question is: how long before they are able to mate a missile with a miniaturized nuclear weapon? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https:...
Jan 12, 2017•19 min•Ep. 721
The Berlin Christmas market attack and the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Eve have established that 2017 will be no less dangerous than the previous year. Dr. Tricia Bacon, a counterterrorism expert with American University in D.C., tells Target USA what we might expect in the year ahead. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jan 05, 2017•16 min•Ep. 712
Whether it was ISIL, Russia or North Korea, Target USA interviewed some of the most influential national security and international affairs figures from around the world about key issues in 2016. This week's episode is a round-up of those conversations and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Dec 29, 2016•21 min•Ep. 715
On Dec. 19, a large truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin. At the time, German journalist Marc Etzold was at the movies with his mobile phone offline. When he emerged from the cinema, he - like many in Germany and around the world - was stunned by the attack. Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded, 30 of them seriously. ISIL claimed responsibility. Etzold shares his story with Target USA. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is watching the evolution of terror grou...
Dec 22, 2016•18 min•Ep. 708
ISIL is under pressure all around the world, but former CIA counterterrorism executive Phil Mudd says the group is re-inventing itself and the threat of attack could be greater than ever before. He warns that the group is headed to ungoverned or weakly-governed spaces in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Mudd says one of the biggest enablers of the threat is irresponsible, western media activity. In the meantime, a U.S. precision airstrike conducted on Dec. 4 in Raqqa, Syria, resulted in the dea...
Dec 15, 2016•14 min•Ep. 702
Russia has made it very clear since the fall of the USSR that it would get revenge against the West and the U.S. for what happened. For years, many U.S. officials have said the Cold War is over. However, in Sofia, Bulgaria, in mid-November 2016, during a NATO conference, David Kilcullen, Lt. Col. in the Australian military (RES), former chief strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department and senior counter-insurgency advisor to General David Petrae...
Dec 08, 2016•20 min•Ep. 728
Since its inception in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has helped member countries rest easy in the face of threats. But with the resurgence of Russian aggression, hybrid warfare, cyber warfare and many other global threats, NATO's leaders are doubling down on their mission. Admiral Manfred Nielson, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, joins Target USA to talk about the threats, the challenges, the vision and the security reality for NATO and the world. See ...
Dec 01, 2016•18 min•Ep. 727
We often hear about the harsh life North Koreans live under the Kim regime, from Kim Il Sung, to Kim Jong Il and now Kim Jong Un. It's the most reclusive and closed off country on the planet. Close to 25 million people live there; many have little or no food, no money, no water, no firewood to keep warm in winter and no way to get any of it. On this episode of Target USA, you'll hear the raw story of Grace Jo, who was one of those people. By the time she was 15, she had tried to escape three tim...
Nov 24, 2016•30 min•Ep. 693
During a raucous presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada in October, then-candidate Donald Trump indicated he had doubts about the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia was behind many of the cyberattacks that they believed were launched to interfere with the election. Many in the intelligence community were upset about that, but now, former CIA Director Michael Hayden says the time has come to mend fences. He talks to Target USA about what needs to happen. See Privacy Policy at ...
Nov 17, 2016•18 min•Ep. 705
Two years after ISIL - or D'aesh, as Iraqis call it - blasted into power, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars, taking over the country's second largest city, killing tens of thousands of people and injecting fear into the fabric of a country still traumatized after al-Qaida's reign in the 2000s - the U.S. is leading an effort to end the nightmare. But while this is going on, there is no Iraqi Ambassador serving in the United States. The most recent, former Ambassador Lukman Faily, joins Tar...
Nov 10, 2016•22 min•Ep. 703
Female terrorists are not a new idea, but the Islamic State terror group has initiated a dramatic increase in their numbers. Irfan Saeed, Director of the State Department's Countering Violent Extremism Office, Tara Maller, Spokesperson & Senior Policy Adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, and Ed Gabriel, Chairman of the Moroccan American Center, explain what's driving recruitment of female terrorists, why they're choosing to do it and what's being done to counter it. See Privacy Policy a...
Nov 03, 2016•26 min•Ep. 709
An apocalyptic scene is unfolding in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. Large sulfur fires and huge pits of oil are burning. Buildings are booby trapped, hundreds of suicide bombers are on the loose. Hundreds of thousands of people in Mosul may be displaced and many run the risk of being used as human shields as ISIL fighters try to repel Iraqi forces. Those forces are leading the charge to retake Mosul. Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, discusses the threat, the at...
Oct 27, 2016•21 min•Ep. 719
Seamus Hughes is among a growing number of terrorism experts that have realized today's terrorists are far more savvy at using social media to support their activities than counter-terrorism authorities are at using social media to disrupt them. He lays out the problem in captivating detail and delivers a potential solution. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Oct 20, 2016•24 min•Ep. 711
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) recently published a report about a grave, worsening global threat - the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. The bottom line: North Korea is rapidly becoming an existential threat to the U.S., and leaders can no longer wait for North Korea to meet conditions of sanctions designed to stop their nuclear program. On this episode of Target USA, former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, CFR Project Director Adam Moun...
Oct 13, 2016•22 min•Ep. 696
The Department of Homeland Security campaign urging people to report suspicious activities and packages really does work. Jane Schreibman, who discovered a bomb in New York's Chelsea neighborhood on Sept. 17, probably saved a lot of lives because something about a pressure cooker sitting on a street bugged her. She tells Target USA the "See Something, Say Something" campaign slogan stuck in her head, and drove her to report what she saw. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califo...
Oct 06, 2016•11 min•Ep. 698
Paul Abbate, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office (WFO), is losing a lot of sleep over what he's seeing now. In the last two years, 15 terrorism cases have been brought in the National Capitol Region, according to U.S. Department of Justice officials. There have been at least seven cases this year: a college student, a former transit police officer, a former National Guard member, a young mother with a 7-year-old child, and a man who made it all the way to Syria and ...
Sep 29, 2016•18 min•Ep. 706
There is a laundry list of threats facing the U.S. Some are more urgent than others. In this episode of Target USA, two of the most trusted former intelligence officials in Washington lay out the problems - from North Korea to China to Russia to terrorism - and tell us how they should be dealt with. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Sep 22, 2016•21 min•Ep. 714
The gut-wrenching events of the September 11 attacks triggered an unprecedented effort to insulate the U.S. homeland from foreign terrorists and prevent attacks like those from ever happening again. The Department of Homeland Security was set up, strict anti-terrorism laws were passed and immigration gaps were closed. All of the weak links in the nation's security chain were tightened - except for one big one. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, a Republican, and Juliette Kayyem, a Dem...
Sep 15, 2016•17 min•Ep. 692
On this episode of Target USA, former CIA Director Michael Hayden explains why the problem of finding terrorists is getting worse in the United States. In the 2000s, Hayden says the U.S. intelligence community essentially knew what the terrorists were going to do before they did. This is a new day in the counterterrorism world. Terrorists have a distinct advantage, thanks to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. But Hayden says there is a way to win the battle. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/priva...
Sep 08, 2016•19 min•Ep. 690
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, architect of ISIL's external operations and its spokesman, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Aug. 30. His death represents the biggest setback to the organization since it launched its murderous rampage in June of 2014. U.S. military officials tell Target USA that ISIL is losing money, territory, fighters and of course leaders, and the U.S.-led coalition is preparing for two epic battles in Mosul and Raqqa that would end ISIL as we know it. In this episode, the head of U....
Sep 01, 2016•17 min•Ep. 701
You've no doubt heard about the attacks on police and other law enforcement officers across the country. What seems like a wave of police-related killings has swept the nation, and as D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier prepares to step down and become the NFL's top security official, she worries that the constant negative narratives saturating U.S. society will draw out more threats. Lanier tells Target USA what she's trying to do prepare officers for what may be ahead. See Privacy Policy at https:/...
Aug 25, 2016•10 min•Ep. 685
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier sat down with Target USA to talk about the serious and growing terror threats. She details what's being done to prepare for and neutralize the threats. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Aug 18, 2016•14 min•Ep. 686
Two years after the genocide, the region is still blanketed with millions of shattered and interrupted lives. One of those lives belongs to Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the U.S. She tells her emotional story to J.J. Green and sends a strong message to Da'esh. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Aug 11, 2016•19 min•Ep. 704
Two years after 5,000 Yazidi men were killed and more than 5,000 women and children were kidnapped and turned into sex slaves during a genocidal bloodbath carried out by ISIL in Northern Iraq, many are still unaccounted for, and 3,200 women and children are still in the hands of ISIL. What's been done to stop the carnage and help the victims? David Saperstein, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom explains on Target USA. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Ca...
Aug 04, 2016•21 min•Ep. 723
What's behind ISIL's wave of attacks in Europe? Is the U.S. next? The attacks are mostly conducted by radicalized individuals. Where are they finding these people? Why is ISIL's call being answered by so many people that are not followers of their ideology? How is it the media is actually driving ISIL's success? What is the one question we should ask before calling an attack terrorism? We discuss this and more on this week's program with former CIA and FBI executive Philip Mudd and Robin Simcox,...
Jul 28, 2016•20 min•Ep. 709
As of July 20, 31 law enforcement officers have been shot to death in the U.S. this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. That's a 72 percent increase over last year at this time. Former policeman and top State Department Counterterrorism agent Fred Burton says history may be repeating itself; but history may be the answer to a looming crisis. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-m...
Jul 21, 2016•14 min•Ep. 696
The 2016 U.S. presidential campaign has been a tense and sometimes dangerous string of events. On June 18, the Secret Service and Las Vegas police thwarted an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. The Secret Service is bracing for the possibility of other attempts that may take place against a range of targets at the political conventions and beyond. In an exclusive interview, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy tells Target USA, "We've had over 1,200 events in this campaign, 2.5 million people...
Jul 14, 2016•18 min•Ep. 716
David O'Sullivan, European Union Ambassador to the U.S., says Britain's exit from the European Union will complicate the fight against terrorism. Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer, tells Target USA why this is the worst possible time for the exit to happen. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Jul 07, 2016•15 min•Ep. 685
