Christian Whiton, Roger Noriega & Andy McCarthy

Frank kicks off today’s show with his thoughts. Next, Principal at DC International Advisory and former US State Department official, Christian Whiton, joins Frank to discuss the recent travels of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is engaging Egypt in actions that could be used to undermine support for Israel in the region, says Whiton. He believes that the democratically elected leader, Erdogan, is looking to increase his popularity by downgrading relations with Israel. Furthermore, Whiton argues that the US Department of State’s chiding of the Israel-Turkey tensions wrongfully implies a moral equality between the two formerly friendly nations. Turkey is the apparent aggressor in the situation, he reveals. An increased tension between Israel and Syria is not novel news, however, as Syria has for a long time had ill intensions towards Israel. Additionally, Whiton enlightens us on the UN’s engagement in the Palestinian-Israeli statehood disagreement and the problems a unilateral declaration of independence by Pakistan would mean for the international community. Former US Ambassador to the Organization of American States, Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and our go to guy on Latin American affairs, Roger Noriega visits with Secure Freedom Radio to give us his insight into the December 2012 presidential elections that will happen in Venezuela. He expresses his fears that the opposition will not have enough time to mobilize a nation-wide election if the elections are moved up to March 2012 due to Chavez’s battle with cancer. Noriega also states how the Chavez regime is “bracing for the impact” that will occur in the wake of Hugo Chavez’s potential death. These initiatives include moving $29 billion of international reserves from banks in Britain and the US to China and Russia, as well as moving $9 billion in gold back to Venezuela. Moreover, Noriega hashes out his concerns of the mining uranium efforts in Ecuador and other countries that could be used to support nuclear efforts by Iran. Andy McCarthy of National Review Online concludes today show examining the 9/11 remembrances that occurred over the weekend. McCarthy believes that the official recognition ceremony was botched and not that big of a deal, whereas the private observances are more meaningful for the American public. In his view, government’s first impulse is to continually overcorrect; such as in the case of Mayor Bloomberg who was so fearful of media backlash that he banned any recognition of faith on the sacred ground of Ground Zero. He also discusses how the mission in Afghanistan has become incoherent, as the Obama administration is ambient about the Taliban. The original aim of the government in Afghanistan, says McCarthy, was not to topple the Taliban, but to have the Taliban surrender to them al Qaeda. When they refused, the US government decided that the Taliban must be toppled.