In January 2024, Gold Institute President, Eli Gold, traveled to Bangladesh to observe the country’s elections. Amidst concerns about the fairness of the electoral process, Eli Gold spent eight days on the ground, affirming that the elections were indeed free and fair. His firsthand experience underscores the importance of ensuring the integrity of democratic processes.
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As the year draws to a close, we at the Gold Institute continue to pause and reflect on our significant accomplishments of 2023. This year has been marked by our deep involvement in various influential activities and initiatives. As you continue to read, please consider making your year-end contribution to support the important work of our fellows. Click Here
In the wake of the Covid pandemic’s ongoing impact, we find ourselves facing challenges from aggressive, autocratic powers and international Islamist terrorism. Despite the West’s cohesive stance on issues like Ukraine, complexities arise as some allies maintain nuanced ties with Russia and Iran. These situations highlight the critical need for our sustained efforts in fostering resilience, optimism, and pride in the West’s contributions to humanity. It is imperative to defend the West, our allies, and our values against both internal and external threats across multiple fronts.
Our challenges are both domestic and international. The emergence of “Wokeism” has evolved into an attack on Western history, values, and achievements. The agitational Left, spurred by misinformation from foreign adversaries, is creating divisions and undermining confidence in our democratic institutions, particularly among the youth. The Gold Institute for International Strategy is committed to defending Western ideals through a variety of channels, including articles, television broadcasts, seminars, and discussions.
In the Middle East, our fellows have been instrumental in transforming existing and new media outlets into highly accurate sources, thereby significantly expanding their readership and viewership.
Politically, the strategic alliances established by our esteemed legislative fellows are key in upholding conservative values worldwide. Our events in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East showcase our capability to create meaningful connections with conservative entities globally. Academically, the Institute plays vital advisory roles with leading universities in the Middle East and Europe, enhancing collaboration and fostering academic partnerships.
Our work with Chinese dissidents, aiming to expose and counter Xi Jinping’s and the CCP’s global ambitions, reflects our dedication to opposing autocratic regimes. Our advocacy in the European Parliament for a shift in the European Institutions’ approach towards China has been impactful. The EU’s recognition of the threat posed by China, as evident in the EU-China relations report, affirms our persistent efforts to address the challenges of the largest communist dictatorship.
Reflecting on these achievements, we acknowledge that our mission is ongoing. The support from individuals like yourself is crucial in addressing these pressing matters. Looking ahead to 2024, we aim to amplify our impact, forge new collaborations, and continue safeguarding the values fundamental to our societies.
We kindly ask for your continued support. Your contributions are vital to our research, education, and initiatives aimed at protecting the West and highlighting its positive global influence.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation online at www.Goldiis.org or by simply clicking here.
Thank you for being an essential part of our community and for your commitment to this important cause.
We wish you a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
By: Isabella DeLuca, Media Associate
In recent years, China’s assertive actions and growing influence on the global stage have raised serious concerns about its hostility towards the United States. As China’s geopolitical influence begins to expand, so do our circumstances.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.” He’s right, yet the FBI, the DOJ, the Department of Defense, and even the President of the United States have sat back and allowed China to run the show– behavior that would have never been tolerated under President Trump.
In recent months and years, very alarming and aggressive actions have occurred on China’s behalf. China has sent a spy balloon over our airspace– conveniently over one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the U.S. and was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites. Thankfully, the U.S. military could shoot down the balloon after it was done spying. Despite us not having an extradition policy with China, they also have established police stations on American soil to “monitor Chinese citizens living in the United States.” Just last month, the CCP sent a Chinese warship to harass a U.S. Destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, and they have even threatened the use of nuclear weapons against the United States if we do not stay away from Taiwan. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that over the last two years, at various points in the Ukraine crisis, when we have witnessed nuclear threats from the Russian side, we have known how to address them because we have decades of atomic risk reduction, strategic arms control and essential signaling experience with the Russians. We do not have this with China, which is unsettling and destabilizing.
Additionally, China has bought up 384,000 acres of farmland– including land in North Dakota that is just a stone’s throw away from some of our high-capability military bases; they have begun negotiations with Cuba to establish a new joint military training facility on the island– which is only eighty miles from Florida; they’ve been colonizing and continue to occupy parts of Africa and have established military bases there. China has also escalated the U.S. Tech War by banning Micron over “security and privacy concerns;” they have raided U.S. businesses in China and arrested workers; expanded their spy network in Mexico; and over the years, they have tenaciously increased their presence in Central America and the Caribbean through what is part of their Belt and Road Initiative (B.R.I.). The B.R.I. is a global infrastructure development strategy that seeks to connect China with the rest of the world– but in reality, it’s just a calculated expansion of their influence and an attempt by China to isolate Taiwan. Cuba is the most recent country to join China’s B.R.I., Jamaica and six other island nations in the Caribbean joined in 2019, and Costa Rica in 2018.
The list goes on and continues to grow exponentially. The CCP blatantly disregards and disrespects the United States and continues to mock us by violating American rules and privacy through their belligerent and aggressive behavior.
China’s aggression is the direct consequence of electing a President whose son has done shady business dealings with them. The Hunter Biden laptop story is already criminal enough, but whatever blackmail the Chinese government has on the Biden crime family indicates that it blows the laptop story out of the water. In efforts to do damage control to prevent something that is most likely illegal and horrifying from surfacing, the Biden Administration has allowed China to do whatever it is they want.
While some members of the Biden Administration have called for talks with China to establish peace and de-escalation, China is past the talking stage. With the amount of power and influence China has obtained in such a short time, we are at their mercy, not the other way around.
Isabella DeLuca is a Media Associate at the Gold Institute for International Strategy.
Gold Institute for International Strategy’s president, Eli M. Gold, toured Israel’s heartland for a firsthand look at the impact it has on the regional and global security. Meetings included Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem for Foreign Relations, Fleur Hassan, as well as a day of touring the land with Mayor Ariel Elmaliach of the city of Eli in the West Bank (Samaria).
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On Monday, November 14th the Gold Institute for International Strategy hosted our dinner for the Preservation of Liberty.
Honorees included Congressman Trent Franks and citizen diplomat Steve Menzies.
As we see growing conflict across the globe, be it in Ukraine, Iran, Taiwan etc., the question of western influence keeps growing. On Wednesday, October 12th the Gold Institute for International Strategy hosted a roundtable discussion regarding the Future of Western Leadership
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Gold Institute’s Ambassador to the NY Region, Mark Foley, hosted an evening conversation with the institute’s vice-president Saul Montes-Bradley and General Ernie Audino, Gold Institute Senior Military Fellow and former EA to the Vice Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff for an insider’s perspective on U.S. grand strategy and America’s capacity to fight and win its wars.
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This artcle orginally appeared in the Star News Network at https://thestarnewsnetwork.com/2022/05/27/questions-swirl-around-law-enforcements-response-to-uvalde-shooting-ap-sro-driving-nearby-not-at-campus/)
The director of the southern section of the Texas Department of Public Safety cut short his Thursday press conference as reporters shouted questions at him about why local law enforcement was ineffective for the hour after Tuesday’s spree shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School as gunshot victims languished inside. The crisis ended when Border Patrol Tactical officers arrived, engaged shooter Salvador Ramos, and killed him.
DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon: “One more, one more question, please.”
Reporter 1: “Eyewitnesses and some parents of the students were urging that the police go in while you were waiting for a tactical SWAT team. Even some parents were asking to borrow police armor, so they could launch a counterassault on the school.”
Escalon: I have heard that information, but we have not verified it yet.
Reporter 2: What haven’t you verified?
Escalon: “We have not verified that that is a true statement or not, or is it just a rumor out there – so, you got to understand, we’re getting a lot of information. We’re trying to track down what is true. We want to vet it.
That’s all I have for questions. Thank you so much, so look, we appreciate the questions.
Reporter 3: What were your officers doing between 11:44 and 12:44?
Escalon: I got you. Yes, sir. I have taken all of your questions into consideration. We will have updates.
Reporter 3: “We’ve been given a lot of bad information – why don’t you clear this all up? Why don’t you explain to us how it is that your officers were in there for an hour, and yet, no one was able to get inside that room? You guys said he was barricaded. Can you explain to us how he was barricaded, and why you could not breach that door?
Escalon told the reporters he would circle back as he closed the presser.
When the press conference opened, Escalon put out two shocking corrections to the previous official timeline of events: there was no initial confrontation with a school resource officer, and the door to the school was not locked.
The Associated Press reported that an anonymous source said the SRO, the armed guard responsible for the school’s security, was driving nearby and not on the grounds when Ramos entered the school.
Watch DPS Regional Director Escalon’s press conference remarks here.
Black: Access control of a building is the key to the building’s security
Marc Black, who retired from the New York City police department as a detective investigator, said that while many people focus on armed guards, he focuses on a building’s access.
“This is my background from a security and vulnerability perspective from physical security,” said Black, who now is a senior fellow at the Washington-based Gold Institute for International Strategies.
“At all these shootings, here’s the question, and nobody in the press ever asks this. What are the access controls for the school? And where were they deployed? That’s an extremely important question,” he said.
“The access control needs to be robust, and it needs to detect, deter, deny, and delay the threat, so it gives enough time for the good people to distance themselves from the bad guys. Were the doors locked?” the detective said.
“Physical security is done in layers. Did they have security personnel outside the school who can observe the school if there was anything that was suspicious?” Black asked.
“Everybody thinks of the resource officer and guns. If you have a resource officer who’s going for their gun, did the physical security somewhere fail? That’s the last line of defense,” he said.
As troubling as these items were, now the emotional center of gravity for the Robb School shooting is the lack of action by local law enforcement.
Although there were officers in the school coordinating the evacuation of students, faculty and administrators, according to the official timeline, two officers were shot and injured by the shooter soon after he entered the school, and afterward, neither they nor any other officers engaged the shooter until the tactical unit arrived.
The Associated Press spoke to one parent of one of the dead students, who said he demanded the police take action to save the children inside.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. When he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said.
As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot.
“A lot of us were arguing with the police, ‘You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs.’ Their response was, ‘We can’t do our jobs because you guys are interfering,’” Cazares said.
Black said after the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, the NYPD changed its procedure so that patrolmen no longer waited for officers from the department’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU).
“In New York City, if something like this happens, you don’t wait for ESU,” he said.
Black said all officers are trained in the same procedures so that if officers from different parts of the city arrive at the scene of an emergency, they can work together.
“It’d be like this. Maybe we all have the same training. I never met you. You never met me, but coincidentally, now we have this situation, but we’re all trained to the same standard, and we go in,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do there is isolate the scene or actually stop the threat.”
Evans: Often, victims survive gunshot wounds but bleed out without immediate medical attention
Craig Evans, the Northern Virginia Emergency Medical Services Council executive director, said it is surprising that many gunshot victims can survive in a mass casualty situation if they are attended to in time.
“The primary injuries that you can help correct, as a paramedic or on-the-scene initially, are severe bleeding, sucking chest wounds and airway compromises – depending on where the bullet goes,” said Evans, who retired from the City of Fairfax, Virginia, fire department in 2020.
“Immediate intervention makes the difference,” the retired firefighter said.
“If you want to survive a shooting, you don’t need a gun; you need a tourniquet and a 14-gauge needle, in case you have to do a chest decompression on yourself and some dressing, in case you have a sucking chest wound,” he said.
Victims with those injuries can survive, he said. “If those three things can be fixed immediately – but, an hour is a very long time.”
Evans said the Robb School shooting victims, especially the students, would not have much time to wait before they bled out from their wounds.
“The average 10-year-old weighs about 70 pounds so that they would have roughly 2.7 liters of blood,” he said.
“A 15 percent loss of that and you would be in severe shock – about 400-to-500 milliliters of blood – half a liter,” he said. “One 20-ounce bottle of soda is 591 milliliters, so theoretically, one bottle of soda is enough to put a 10-year-old into shock.”
Shock is when the body does not have enough blood to nourish tissue, and the body withholds blood from extremities to preserve the heart, brain and the core, he said.
All other gunshot injuries fall into one of two categories, Evans said.
“The majority of other injuries are either survivable, meaning you can go to the hospital the next day, or they are fatal,” said the member of the adjunct faculty of George Washington University’s Emergency Health Services Department.
“If you got shot in the arm, and it did not hit any major vessels? You could go to the hospital in two days, and you’d be fine,” he said. “If you got shot in the head, you could not survive it. If you got shot in the heart, you could not survive it.”
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Neil W. McCabe is the national political editor of The Star News Network based in Washington. He is an Army Reserve public affairs NCO and an Iraq War veteran
As we prepare to observe this Memorial Day let us take a moment to remember all the members of our military who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms we hold dear.
Let us take a moment to remember ALL our heroes who have sacrificed their lives while taking up the task to defend this nation from those who wish to destroy all it stands for.
Most importantly let us take a moment to thank God for those who continue to stand up and fight to protect our freedom, and to ask for his continued guidance and protection.
O God, our Father, Thou Searcher of human hearts, help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth. May our religion be filled with gladness and may our worship of Thee be natural.
Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish. Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy. Guard us against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of life. Grant us new ties of friendship and new opportunities of service. Kindle our hearts in fellowship with those of a cheerful countenance and soften our hearts with sympathy for those who sorrow and suffer. Help us to show forth in our lives the ideals to Thee and to our Country. All of which we ask in the name of the Great Friend and Master of all. – Amen (West Point Cadet Prayer)
May God bless us all,
The Gold Institute for International Strategy is pleased to welcome Honorable William A Chatfield as a distinguished Fellow.
William A. Chatfield became the 11th Director of Selective Service in November 2004, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He was directly responsible to the President for the management of the Selective Service System.
Mr. Chatfield, of Texas, brought to that position more than 25 years of experience working with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.
He commenced public service as a staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the late Seventies. He then performed in several appointed positions of increasing responsibility in both terms of the Reagan Administration: Department of Defense; Civil Aeronautics Board; Office of Personnel Management; Consumer Product Safety Commission; Department of the Interior; and Interstate Commerce Commission.
From 1987 until his appointment with the Selective Service, he was engaged in governmental relations and public affairs consulting. After leaving public office at the end of the Bush Administration, Mr. Chatfield returned to consulting. The main focus of his practice was in the field of advancing effective healthcare protocols, specifically dealing with our nation’s wounded warrior population.
He is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, with 34 years of active duty and reserve service.
Mr. Chatfield joined the Trump Presidential Transition Team in September of 2016. He was the policy lead on VA reform for candidate Trump and a leader on the transition effort for the president-elect at the Department of Veterans Affairs from election day to inaugural day. In the Trump administration, he served as a Department of Defense Fellow for the White House Liaison at the Office of the Secretary of Defense; working with the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness and the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs, providing liaison with the Defense Health Agency, focusing on the latest protocol for the effective treatment of the wounded warrior community.
In the Trump-Pence 2020 reelection effort, Mr. Chatfield worked with Election Operations, coordinating effective voter participation efforts and providing ballot security measures.
At present, in the private sector, he is advocating for the latest advancements in mental and physical treatment for our nation’s veteran community.
