Monthly Archives: January 2016

“ISIS may be testing chemical weapons as terror group rapidly expands,” reports Fox News.

January 13, 2016 By in Epicenter

ISIS-baghdadi(Washington, D.C.) — In a chilling story that seems ripped from the pages of The Third Target and The First Hostage, Fox News is reporting that “there is growing evidence that ISIS is experimenting with chemical weapons,” and that “the number of foreign fighters [has] hit a new high.”

Last year, just 20,000 foreign fighters were operating as part of the ISIS shock troops, Fox reports. Now that number has skyrocketed to 36,000, and they come from 120 countries.

Former deputy CIA director Mike Morrell, testifying before Congress on ISIS’s development of chemical weapons capabilities, warned that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the leaders of ISIS “have made two things very clear publicly in documents that have come out. One is that if they acquire these weapons they would use and they wouldn’t care that the vast majority of those killed were civilians. and they have also provided a religious justification very similar to Al Qaeda’s, in fact I think it is identical to Al Qaeda’s justification for using such weapons.”

This is not the first report of ISIS pursuing chemical weapons. I first cited a spate of news stories about this last August.

It should not be surprising that the Islamic State is pursuing the development and deployment of chemical weapons. Its leaders and members have apocalyptic, genocidal ambitions. They want to find ways to kill larger and larger numbers of “infidels.” They want to bring about the end of the world as we know it, and usher in the coming of the their messiah known as the Mahdi, all to build a global Islamic kingdom or caliphate. Their fervency and urgency and their barbaric savagery is what is attracting so many foreign fighters.

This is the very premise of my latest series of political thrillers. Unfortunately, what I’ve written about as fiction is not fiction at all — it’s the ISIS game plan and it is extremely dangerous. President Obama and the presidential front-runners give no evidence that they understand the threat of Apocalyptic Islam. But it’s time to take their heads out of the proverbial sand. The threat is real, and it’s growing.

Excerpts from the Fox News report:

  • There is growing evidence that ISIS is experimenting with chemical weapons as the number of foreign fighters hits a new high, according to current and former government officials.
  • Photos taken by the Kurds in northern Iraq last summer and fall and reviewed by Fox News show burns and blistering on the skin that a source on the ground there said are consistent with the use of chemical agents. The agents were described as “odorless, colorless and absorbed through the clothing,” causing burns or illness hours later.
  • “I think it’s, could be a perfect testing ground,” former FBI intelligence officer Timothy Gil Sr. said. “They (ISIS) were particularly interested in using these chemicals in confined space environments, soft targets like shopping malls and movie theaters.”
  • Gill who is doing his own independent research for an upcoming international conference on weapons of mass destruction said there is a disturbing trend, that ISIS is using safe havens in Syria, Iraq and potentially Libya as laboratories to learn how chemical agents impact the battlefield, with the goal of sharing their expertise via social media with ISIS followers outside the region.
  • “It’s enough to use in a crude weapon that could really push the panic button,” Gill said. “This now provides an opportunity to say ‘this is working, we’re now going to push this out to any potential lone wolf, lone actor that may have a background in chemistry.'”
  • A doctor who was in northern Iraq last year and asked not to be identified for security reasons, said he treated Kurdish fighters whom ISIS used as “lab rats for WMD,” adding that the variety of burns and illnesses over several weeks suggested to him that “mustard gas, precursors, as well as neurotoxic acids” were being tested….
  • While ISIS tries to broaden its use of unconventional weaponry, the terror group also has broadened its appeal. A US intelligence official confirms to Fox News the number of foreign fighters has hit a new high — more than 36,000 from 120 countries since the conflict began in 2011, including at least 6,600 from Western countries.
  • A year ago, at the worldwide threat hearing on Capitol Hill, where the U.S. intelligence community publicly presented its global view on terrorism, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper said that since the conflict began, more than 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries had travelled to the region.  A key figure is the number of countries affected, with the extremist ideology now drawing followers from 60 percent of the world’s nations.
  • During congressional testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, former senior intelligence officials said ISIS is expanding.
  • “ISIS has gained affiliates faster than Al Qaeda ever did — from nothing a year ago, there are now militant groups in nearly 20 countries that have sworn allegiance to ISIS,” former CIA deputy director Mike Morell said.  “They have conducted attacks that have already killed Americans.”
  • On the development of unconventional weapons, Morell added, “They have made two things very clear publicly in documents that have come out. One is that if they acquire these weapons they would use and they wouldn’t care that the vast majority of those killed were civilians. and they have also provided a religious justification very similar to Al Qaeda’s, in fact I think it is identical to Al Qaeda’s justification for using such weapons.”
  • The Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (ISIS) recently briefed reporters in Washington DC, emphasizing the overall trend line is in the right direction, pointing to progress securing the Turkish border to stem the flow of foreign fighters.
  • “This is a challenge like we’ve never seen before,” Brett McGurk said, “The world has never seen something like this, upwards of 35,000 now foreign fighters from 100 countries all around the world supercharged by social media and Twitter and everything.

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Iranian regime emboldened after seizing two US Navy vessels, holding 10 sailors in custody, requiring “apologies,” and then releasing humiliating images of their captivity.

January 12, 2016 By in Epicenter

BreakingNews-Iran10sailors>> Wednesday morning update: Iran releases 10 US Navy sailors after boat drifted in Persian Gulf (Fox News)

Iran’s tyrannical regime is feeling emboldened today.

It has been increasingly aggressive in recent months without penalty (burning down the Saudi Embassy, sending military forces into Syria, sending forces into Iraq, helping overthrow the Sunni regime in Yemen, etc). It humiliated the Obama administration on the eve of the President’s State of the Union address. And if this weren’t enough, on Monday the Iranians are expecting the White House and international community to end economic sanctions and release to Tehran upwards of $50 billion in frozen assets.

Did the President even mention Iran’s seizure of our Navy personnel in his State of the Union address last night? No. Did he mention any of Iran’s aggressive behavior? No. Rather, he praised his nuclear deal with Iran as a model of international diplomacy.

With the release of my new book, I’ve been speaking much about the threat posed by the Islamic State in recent weeks. But let’s be clear: the Apocalyptic Islamic tyrants running Iran are 10,000 times more dangerous than those running ISIS.

  • Iran is a country of 80 million people with a full blown army, navy and air force.
  • Iran has ballistic missiles.
  • Iran has legions of terrorist fighters, and alliances with terrorist organizations around the world.
  • Iran has an entire nuclear infrastructure that puts them on the road to a nuclear weapons arsenal.
  • Iran has a history of waging war and terror on its enemies and has vowed to export its Islamic revolution around the globe.

This is not a regime the White House should be appeasing. Yet that’s exactly what President Obama is doing, and it’s a very dangerous road he is taking us down.

ORIGINAL POST: (Virginia Beach, Virginia, Tuesday afternoon) — Just hours before the President delivers his State of the Union address, Iran has seized two U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf and are now hosting ten American sailors hostage.

The official Iranian news service says the U.S. sailors have been “arrested.”

The White House is insisting that Iran’s actions suggest no hostile intent.

A few initial thoughts to this developing story:

  • Iran’s tyrannical regime has clearly been emboldened by the foolish nuclear deal President Obama, and Tehran keeps ratcheting up its hostile actions.
  • Iran recently fired on US Navy ships.
  • Iran has allowed mobs to storm and burn the Saudi embassy.
  • Now Iran has seized ten US sailors.
  • Will Iran hold on to these sailors — plus 4 others Americans Iran is holding (including American Pastor Saeed Abedini) — until the U.S. releases $150 billion in frozen assets as part of the nuclear deal?
  • The President should announce he will not release a dime to Iran unless every American is released by Iran and returned safely to the U.S.

The whole situation has thrown a monkey wrench in the President’s plans for his address to Congress and the nation tonight. He desperately wants to say that his “Obama Doctrine” of negotiating with our mortal enemy is a good thing and will produce good results. The truth is we’re edging dangerously close to Jimmy Carter territory here.

Here’s what we know so far:

“Ten American sailors are in Iranian custody after two small U.S. naval craft apparently briefly entered Iranian territorial waters, a U.S. senior defense official said Tuesday,” CNN is reporting. “The official, however, expects the situation to be resolved quickly. A senior administration official said there is nothing to indicate this was anything hostile on the part of any entity in Iran, adding that the U.S. has received high-level assurances that the sailors will be released promptly.”

“White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told CNN’s Jake Tapper that President Barack Obama will be in touch with members of Congress about the incident,” CNN notes.

“Certainly, everybody should be aware of the fact we have been in touch with the Iranians and they have assured us that our sailors are safe and that they’ll be allowed to continue their journey promptly,” Earnest said.

“A U.S. official said the sailors may be spending the night in Iran, and it’s not expected that they would depart until after daylight,” CNN added. “A senior administration official told CNN that the U.S. lost contact with the two ships, which were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain….The U.S. is uncertain whether the vessels, which were sailing near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf, intentionally entered Iranian waters, and the senior defense official said no distress call was made by the ships….The Fars News agency also reported that the American boats were equipped with three, 50-caliber machine guns. The boats crossed a little more than a mile into Iranian-patrolled waters, reported Fars, which cited information recorded on the GPS device of the American vessels and now in the hands of the IRGC. Fars also reported that the ‘arrested’ sailors were nine men and one woman.”

“Rosenberg Blasts Obama for Snubbing Jordan’s King Abdullah,” reports CBN News.

January 12, 2016 By in Epicenter

Jordan-KingAbdullah-fatigues

(Virginia Beach, Virginia) — The following is an article published by CBN News:

President Barack Obama’s decision to pass on meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah is a sign that the president doesn’t understand the Middle East or how to fight radical Islam, author and Middle East expert Joel Rosenberg told CBN News.

Jordan is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East and the fight against the Islamic State. Abdullah is in Washington this week, but Obama, who will give his final State of the Union Address tonight, has declined to meet with him citing “scheduling conflicts,” according to a report by The Times of Israel.

“This is insane,” Rosenberg said. “The King of Jordan is probably the most faithful Sunni ally that the United States has, and President Obama doesn’t have time to meet with him?”

“He had time for Matt Lauer this morning on the ‘Today Show.’ You know, I mean, carve out 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour with our main ally in the most dangerous fight that we are in right now,” he continued. “This just goes to the heart of it, if you understand Islam, if you understand the Middle East, then meet with your allies.”

A White House official said the two leaders will meet “in the near future,” according to The Times report.

Abdullah met with Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday and Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Monday.

The Times reports Abdullah and Kerry held talks about defeating the Islamic State and reviving peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That discussion included conversations about the Temple Mount and ongoing disputes between parties on both sides.

A Pentagon spokesman said Carter told Abdullah he deeply appreciates Jordan’s help in countering the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria and proclaimed itself a caliphate. The radical Islamic army has attacked and killed religious minorities and turned women into sex slaves.

[To watch the full segment of my comments on the President’s snub of King Abdullah II, please click here]

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“The state of the Middle East is a catastrophe.” My interview with CBN on the State of the Union, the presidential front-runners & the visit by Jordan’s King to Washington.

January 12, 2016 By in Epicenter

CBN-FirstHostage2(Virginia Beach, Virginia) — This morning, on the day President Obama was scheduled to deliver his final State of the Union address tonight before a Joint Session of Congress, I was interviewed on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

We discussed President Obama’s performance in the Middle East, the President’s stunning refusal to meet this week with Jordan’s King Abdullah II who is on an official visit to Washington, and whether the two presidential front-runners are better prepared than Mr. Obama to deal with the rising threats in the Middle East.

“The state of the Middle East right now is a catastrophe,” I explained. “President Obama’s policies in the Middle East have been an utter failure because he has chosen, ideologically, to withdraw all U.S. forces and influence from the region….The region is on fire.”

“Syria is in a total meltdown — we’re watching the implosion of a modern Arab state and an absolute human catastrophe,” and the President has offered no plan to turn things around.

What’s more, in 2015, Mr. Obama signed off on an insane nuclear deal that I noted will give Iran “two pathways to The Bomb” — one if Iran cheats on the deal, and the other if Iran keeps the deal, waits ten years until all the restrictions are removed, and then races to build a whole arsenal of nuclear warheads.

Meanwhile, the President is making Israeli leaders and Sunni Arab leaders feel that he has abandoned them while emboldening their worst enemy, Iran, and doing precious little to defeat the forces of the Islamic State.

“What is the President doing?” I asked. “The President today is refusing to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah, who is in Washington this week, because he’s too busy. Too busy for our most faithful Sunni Arab ally?”

[Let me add: This stunning decision by Mr. Obama to snub the King of Jordan is as nonsensical as it is offensive. Jordan is in a hot war with the Islamic State. The King, a Muslim — indeed a descendent of Muhammad — is doing a heroic job confronting this barbaric enemy. How in the world could the President not make time to meet with him, listen to his perspective, and talk about how to work even more closely together. The President took time to meet with Matt Lauer of the TODAY Show this morning. I watched that interview. To refuse to meet with an ally in wartime in disgraceful.]

“The Saudis feel like the President of the United States has cut and run [from our allies],” I added during the interview. “The Jordanians feel this way. So do the Egyptians. The Israelis have the worst relationship with this President in the history of the country. So the region feels scared by two existential threats — Iran, ISIS, and their Apocalyptic Islam.”

“This has been a catastrophic year in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. If the President of the United States comes out tonight and says that the state of the union is strong and the state of our foreign policy, nobody in the region — much less in our country — will believe him.”

“You cannot defeat an enemy you refuse to define. And I’m saying the President still won’t call Radical Islam by its name. But Apocalyptic Islam is much worse. Why? Because Radical Islam wants to attack us, to drive us out of the holy lands and the holy places. But Apocalyptic Islam doesn’t simply want to attack us, it wants to annihilate us and bring about genocide, in order to usher in the coming of their messiah.”

“The novels — The Third Target, and now The First Hostage — take you, through the eyes of a reporter [J.B. Collins], inside this story to understand what might happen, worst case scenarios, if our leaders don’t understand the threats that we face. The President doesn’t understand it. But I’m also concerned that the two front-runners in the presidential campaign, Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump , that neither of them understand Apocalyptic Islam or are prepared to deal with it.”

[To watch the full interview I did with CBN’s Pat Robertson, which runs 10:54 minutes, please click here]

NOTE: We will post the full transcript soon.

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As President prepares for final State of the Union, nation has lost confidence in his ability to defeat Islamic terror. The latest polling.

January 11, 2016 By in Epicenter

SOTU-2015

(Virginia Beach, Virginia) — During his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama never mentioned the terms “Islam” or “Islamic extremism” or “Radical Islam” or “Apocalyptic Islam” or even “al Qaeda.”

He never even used the term the “Islamic State,” calling our very serious enemy “ISIL” instead. He insisted that “in Iraq and Syria, American leadership — including our military power — is stopping ISIL’s advance,” even though at that point the Islamic State had essentially doubled its territorial gains over the course of 2014, was slaughtering Muslims, engaged in genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and had recently seized Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq.

What’s more, Mr. Obama insisted that the mortal threat facing the American people wasn’t from a nuclear Iran or a genocidal Islamic State. Rather, he said that “no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.”

Even by August 28, 2015, after the Islamic State had seized more than one-third of the territory of Iraq and James Foley, an American journalist, had been beheaded by ISIS, the President admitted that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to defeat ISIS.

In November of last year, the President insisted in November that his policy had “contained” ISIS. The next day came the terror attacks in Paris, and soon thereafter the attacks in San Bernardino.

What, then, will the President say on Tuesday night, when he delivers his final State of the Union address?

Will he finally acknowledge the threat of Radical and Apocalyptic Islam?

Will explain them — and their differences — to the American people? Will he lay out a comprehensive strategy to actually defeat ISIS?

Most Americans aren’t holding their breath for such decisive leadership. In the wake of the attacks in San Bernardino and Paris and in so many other places — and FBI arrests of at least 80 ISIS loyalists operating here in the homeland — the American people have lost confidence in President Obama’s ability to protect us from the terrorists.

More Americans than ever before now believe the terrorists are winning, and the U.S. is losing the global war with Radical Islam. In fact, a recent CNN poll found a 17-point jump in the number of Americans who believe the terrorists are winning.

What’s more, the CNN poll reveals that:

  • Only 18% of Americans believe that the U.S. and our allies have the upper hand against the terrorists.
  • Three-out-of-four Americans (74%) do not believe the United States is doing an effective job in the war against Radical Islamic terrorism.
  • Nearly two-out-of-three Americans (64%) specifically disapprove the way President Obama is handling the threat posed by the Islamic State.

The central theme of my recent novels — The Third Target and The First Hostage — is this: “To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blind-sided by it.”

To the extent that President Obama and his senior team continue to fail to truly comprehend the evil we and our allies are facing from Iran and the Islamic State, the more dangerous a year 2016 is likely to be.

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Why is ISIS trying feverishly to lure the U.S. into a ground war in Syria? The answer lies in ancient Islamic prophecies of a place called “Dabiq.” (My interview on Fox News)

January 11, 2016 By in Epicenter

Bream-Rosenberg-FirstHostageDabiq-first3issues(Washington, D.C.) — In my latest novel series — The Third Target and The First Hostage — the leaders of the Islamic State launch a carefully-coordinated plot to blow up an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit, capture the President of the United States, and lure the U.S. and Western alliance into a ground war in Syria.

While the books are fiction, they are based on actual ISIS strategy. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, and his inner circle are, in fact, feverishly trying to draw the U.S. into a ground war in Syria.

The question is: Why? The answer lies in an obscure town in northern Syria called “Dabiq.” On Fox News yesterday, I explained why Dabiq is so important to the ISIS leadership.

To watch the video, please click here. Also, here’s the transcript.

AUTHOR WARNS AGAINST “APOCALYPTIC ISLAM”

FOX NEWS ANCHOR SHANNON BREAM: The fight against terror — both home-grown and global — is a top concern for those tuning into the President’s final State of the Union address Tuesday. What is the President’s strategy and how important are the exact words he uses when outlining the global terror threat? Joel Rosenberg is a best-selling author who has written extensively about the realities of the newest threat, which he calls “Apocalyptic Islam.” His brand new book, The First Hostage, has just been released, and I am at the edge of my seat getting through it — an excellent book. And you use fiction to communicate ideas that you think are important as a way of helping people learn about the threats and what’s going on, but in an entertaining, fascinating way.

JOEL C. ROSENBERG: Tom Clancy did it. Vince Flynn did it. It is a good way. A lot of people don’t want to read a 900 page book on Islamic theology or history. But they understand that it’s real and it’s urgent, and this is a way to get into the story.

BREAM: You and I have talked about the fact that al Qaeda and that threat, obviously, murderous around the globe, but this is — you say — ISIS to a new level. It’s not simply radical. You’re using the word apocalyptic, that they want to bring about the end of the world, essentially.

ROSENBERG: That’s right. The Islamic State’s magazine is called, Dabiq. D-A-B-I-Q. Most people have no idea what that means. It’s a little town in the north of Syria. Why is that important? Because they believe, based on ancient Islamic prophecies, that the Western world — “the forces of Rome” — will be drawn to that spot for the second-to-last battle of all history, and that the West will lose, and the Islamic State will win, and then they head to Jerusalem. The idea is that they believe that the End of Days has come, their messiah — known as the “Mahdi” — will come reign over the entire world at any moment. They’re driven by an Islamic eschatology that’s genocidal. And that’s why it’s so dangerous. And yet most leaders — including the President and our two front-runners on the Democrat and Republican side — they don’t understand it. They don’t talk about it. That’s a problem.

BREAM: Well, what you’re saying — what you’re outlining, their whole purpose and mission — it seems to be driven by theology, by their beliefs about the End Times. But as you mention, we have a lot of leaders who want to say, “This isn’t a religious group. They are not Islamic. They’ve hijacked, or they’re using, the religion simply as a vehicle for their violence, but it’s not based on religion.” But it sounds like the way that you’re describing it, it’s completely based on they’re understanding of it.

ROSENBERG: You can decide that you don’t want to want it to be based on religion, but that’s what they believe. Now, we’re not talking about all 1.6 billion Muslims. You know, I’ve got characters in here [in my novels] who are Islamic leaders, Arab leaders — they’re Muslims, they’re not evil. What’s evil is to have an End Times theology, that you’re trying to bring about the end of the world, and you believe you need to kill every Jew, Christian, and others you would call an “infidel,” to get to your Islamic global kingdom. This is what’s defining ISIS. This is what’s actually defining Iran’s leadership — not the people, but the leaders. The difference is that ISIS wants to build the caliphate now, so they’re killing, slaughtering now, whereas Iran wants to build the pathway to nuclear weapons so when they get ready to launch the caliphate war it will be genocidal by the millions, not just the tens or hundreds of thousands.

BREAM: So how do you respond to those who say, “This sounds like crazy talk. It sounds cuckoo, all these theories and prophecies”?

ROSENBERG: Well, it is. And you have to distinguish this. Jews have an eschatology. Jews — I’m Jewish on my father’s side — we believe the Messiah is coming at one point. Christians — I’m an Evangelical — believe that Jesus is coming to set up a Kingdom. The difference is the genocidal nature [of Islamic eschatology], [they’re determination] to annihilate all of Israel and the United States and all infidels. So it is a crazy eschatology, End Times theology, but to ignore it, to ignore what’s actually animating both the Islamic State leaders and the Iranian leaders, is incredibly dangerous. Because one of the themes in my novels — including The First Hostage — is, “If you misunderstand the nature and threat of evil, you risk being blindsided by it.” This [novel] is about ISIS trying to capture and behead the President of the United States, as they draw us into a ground war in Syria, based on their ancient Islamic prophecies. And you have to understand your enemy if you’re going to defeat them.

BREAM: Well, as with all your books, it’s a great way to be entertained and informed at the same time. It is a wild ride. We wish you much success with it. Thanks for stopping in, Joel Rosenberg. Best wishes.

ROSENBERG: It’s good to be with you.

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What’s the difference between Radical Islam & Apocalyptic Islam? (My interview with Stuart Varney on the Fox Business Channel.)

January 9, 2016 By in Epicenter

Varney-FirstHostage2(Washington, D.C.) — “Joel, the premise of your book is that ISIS and Iran, they want to bring about the end of the world as we know it. It’s that kind of cataclysmic [threat]. Make your case.”

That’s how Stuart Varney on the Fox Business Channel began our interview. You can watch the video by clicking here.

We discussed The First Hostage, the enormous threat posed by the Islamic State, and particularly the difference between Radical Islam and Apocalyptic Islam. It was my first time on the program and I’m grateful to Stuart for having me on and wanting to have this important discussion.

NOTE: This Sunday, I’ll be interviewed by Shannon Bream on the Fox News Channel in the 1pm eastern hour. We’re scheduled to discuss my Jerusalem Post column on what the next President of the United States needs to know about ISIS and Iran. Please tune in if you can.

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#TheFirstHostage hits #13 on Publishers Weekly bestseller list. Today Show says it’s “fantastic” and “just so prescient.”

January 9, 2016 By in Epicenter

TodayShow-screenshot(Washington, D.C.) — We just got the news that The First Hostage has hit #13 on the Publishers Weekly hardcover fiction best-seller list.

Given that we’re up against the biggest novel writers of our time — John Grisham, Stephen King, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci, Mitch Albom, Harper Lee, Dean Koontz, Janet Evanovich, and more — I’m amazed we made the list at all!

Thank you so much to all of my readers who’ve been so enthusiastic and supportive of this new one. Thanks, too, for all the word-of-mouth you’ve been doing, writing about and reviewing The First Hostage on Facebook, Twitter and all kinds of other social media. I couldn’t be more grateful. and please keep it up!

Also, in case you missed it, here’s the video of my appearance on the Today Show on Friday morning with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. It’s brief, but I was so encouraged by how enthusiastic Kathie Lee was about The First Hostage and my ten other novels. She’s read them all and wanted to introduce me to her audience. She and Hoda have been so kind — love those two. (Here’s my write up on how I got invited onto the show and a bit about my lunch with Kathie Lee, her brother, and a Hollywood producer.)

Watch by clicking here — or read the transcript:

GIFFORD: Before we go, I want to introduce you to my friend, Joel C. Rosenberg. He’s a New York Times best-selling author who has written a new book called, The First Hostage, the second in a series that is just so prescient. It’s unbelievable!

KOTB: You’ve been raving about his books, by the way, Kath.

GIFFORD: I’ve read every one — how many have you written? — because I’ve read them all.

ROSENBERG: This is the eleventh.

GIFFORD: This is the eleventh, yeah. He sends them to me in galley form before they’re out now because I want to know — I can’t wait.

ROSENBERG: I didn’t know until the last book that you even liked them, I didn’t know. So — or that you even read them.

GIFFORD: I do. I read them and I love them because they’re geopolitical, historical — well, they’re happening now kinda thing — they’re scenarios that could happen.

ROSENBERG: They could happen — ISIS captures chemical weapons, tries to assassinate or capture the President of the United States. These are the kind of things you do not want to happen, but they make for good fiction.

KOTB: Well, you’re very first one [The Last Jihad] was a best-seller, and they’ve all been since.

GIFFORD: They’ve all been.

KOTB: And I have a feeling this one will be, too.

ROSENBERG: They have all been best-sellers, and that’s crazy, right?

GIFFORD: For our Joel! Thank you for coming by and being with us.

KOTB: Thank you, Joel!

GIFFORD: Fantastic book!

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BREAKING NEWS: ISIS is here. Two Muslim refugees allegedly connected to the Islamic State arrested in California & Texas

January 8, 2016 By in Epicenter

ISIS-inAmerica-graphic

(New York, New York) — The ISIS threat is getting closer and closer to home.

“Two men born in Iraq who came to the United States as refugees were set to appear in court Friday on terror-related charges in California and Texas,” reports Fox News. “A criminal complaint unsealed Thursday accused 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, of Sacramento, Calif., of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to government investigators about it. Almost simultaneously in Houston, federal authorities announced the arrest of Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, 24, on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and making false statements to investigators.”

“Based on the facts, as we know them, today’s action may have prevented a catastrophic terror related event in the making and saved countless lives,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement, Fox News reported.

“This is precisely why I called for a halt to refugees entering the U.S. from countries substantially controlled by terrorists,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott added. “I once again urge the President to halt the resettlement of these refugees in the United States until there is an effective vetting process that will ensure refugees do not compromise the safety of Americans and Texans.”

I agree — since the U.S. has no capacity to vet the refugees coming out of Syria and Iraq to see if they are jihadists or not, we absolutely must not allow them to enter the country. The U.S. should provide humanitarian assistance to Jordan and other countries and organizations who are caring for refugees fleeing war and terror in the Mideast. But the President’s job is to protect the American people from attack, and allowing thousands of refugees into the States without vetting them properly is suicide.

The evidence of the last several years makes clear that ISIS is planning attacks inside the United States. In my last novel, The Third Target, ISIS-linked terrorists launch a mass murder attack in Washington, D.C., even assassinating a high-ranking government official. In the latest novel, The First Hostage, ISIS plots to capture and kill the President of the United States and other world leaders.

I’m afraid attacks in against U.S. leaders and citizens around the world are a realistic scenario. But we need to be prepared for the activation of ISIS sleeper cells inside the homeland, leading to Paris-style attacks. We also need to anticipate more San Bernardino-style attacks by lone-wolves who have been inspired by – and see themselves loyal to – the Islamic State. And while the use of automatic weapons and explosive devices are likely, I would not be surprised if we also see beheadings, the hijacking of private planes, cyber-warfare and other forms of attack.

The good news is that federal authorities are hard at work to keep Americans safe. The bad news is that the threats posed by ISIS and other jihadist groups are rapidly metastasizing.

What will happen when those who aren’t killed on the battlefield return to the U.S. with their American passports? What if they aren’t detected and stopped by federal authorities in time? How many more will they recruit into violent jihad? What kind of terror operations will they be instructed to carry out on American soil?

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#TheFirstHostage will be featured on the TODAY Show on Friday, thanks to Kathie Lee Gifford. Here’s how that came about. (Also: novel hits #21 on USA Today bestseller list.)

January 8, 2016 By in Epicenter

TodayShow-FirstHostage

USAToday-FirstHostage(New York, New York) — One of the fun parts of being a novelist is meeting all kinds of different people all over the country and all over the world who read your books. Most of the people I meet at speeches, conferences and book signings are not famous, of course. They’re salt-of-the-earth folks who just love great stories, and I love them for it!

Every now and then, I have the opportunity to meet government leaders and generals and intelligence experts and the like who are drawn not just to thrillers but those with realistic geopolitical scenarios. And I always enjoy such meetings.

But today was different. Very different. It turns out that Kathie Lee Gifford, the long-time co-host of the Regis & Kathie Lee show, and now one of the co-hosts of the TODAY Show, is a fan of my novels. She reached out to me last year and we’ve corresponded by email. She also had me on her podcast last year for The Third Target release, so we had spoken by phone. But we’d never met in person.

Recently, however, she read an advance copy of The First Hostage and loved it. Next thing I know, she sent me a note inviting me to come to by the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center to tape a segment with her and her partner-in-crime on the show, Hoda Kotb, plugging the book. I’d never been on the TODAY Show, and I was so honored that she asked, and I immediately said yes.

So late Wednesday night, I boarded a flight in Tel Aviv, Israel, flew twelve hours, landed in Newark around 4 o’clock this morning, and checked into a hotel in Manhattan to shower, shave and change. Then I headed over to NBC and we pre-taped the segment. It will air on Friday, January 8th, and I hope you’ll tune in, if you have a moment.

The segment itself isn’t long, but I have to say in all honesty that this was the most fun book events I’ve ever done (and we’ve done some really wonderful ones over the years). Both Kathie Lee and Hoda were lovely, warm, gracious, and hilarious. I felt like I’d known them for years, and we had a great time together. Hoda gave me a big hug the moment we met, saying that Kathie Lee is always raving about my books. That was certainly fun to hear, but it was also fun that Hoda just released her own book this week — Where We Belong: Journeys That Show Us The Way — so we signed and swapped copies for each other.

Then Kathie and her brother, Dave — a wonderful Evangelical Christian pastor in Manhattan whom I’ve known for several years (and have had the honor of preaching to his congregation several times) — went out to amazing restaurant (Neary’s, on East 57th Street) for a thoroughly scrumptious lunch of lamp chops, creamy mashed potatoes, spinach, corn, and wine from Kathie Lee’s private label. Wow — incredible! Really. I have a new favorite restaurant in New York.

Now, all that would have been wonderful enough. But Kathie Lee, also a devout Evangelical, invited a dear Christian friend of hers to join us, a truly fascinating guy, Chris Clarke, who is a marketing genius from Australia and also produces movies. At the moment, Chris is developing and co-producing a major motion picture for Warner Brothers about the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul  The film will star Hugh Jackman as Saul of Tarsus, the Rabbi and Pharisee who is trying to destroy the early Church but suddenly as a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus and  becomes a follower of Christ and one of the greatest evangelists, church planters, and apostles of all time. Also signed on for key roles in the film are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. So, as you might imagine, that was a conversation right up my alley. Chris was also interested in my novels and how I got into writing and why I chose to write this particular series about ISIS. I gave him a copy of The First Hostage (which we’ve just learned has hit #21 on the USA Today best-seller list), and, unfortunately, we all had to go our separate ways. It was a conversation I didn’t want to end.

It was a very fun day — a great way to kick off a new book tour — and I just want to say a special word of gratitude to Kathie Lee for her personal kindness and her enthusiasm about my writing and my faith. Five months ago, she lost her beloved husband, Frank, who passed away very suddenly on a Sunday morning, just before they went to church. So this hasn’t exactly been an easy season for her. But Frank loved Christ and is in heaven. She’s comforted by this truth, and she has a true joy within her that I found very encouraging. Please keep her and her entire family in your prayers. I certainly will, and I look forward to seeing them again soon.

That’s all for now. It’s nearly 9pm here in the Big Apple, which nearly 4am in Israel, so jet lag is killing me right now.  But I wanted to give you a snap shot of Day One of the book tour. Tomorrow, in addition to being on the TODAY Show, I’m doing a series of other interviews, including with Stuart Varney on the Fox Business Channel. Please follow me on Twitter for updates.

Thanks, God bless you, and good night!

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