Kiloton Threat: An Interview with General William “Jerry” Boykin

Lt. General (retired) William G. "Jerry" Boykin spent thirty-six years in the U.S. Army, many of them as an original member of Delta Force, the world’s premier Special Operations unit. His career plays out like a series of Tom Clancy thrillers: he helped capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, hunted the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, and has served in Vietnam, Iran, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, in addition to a stint with the CIA, and became the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush.

Along the way, Boykin, now an ordained minister, courted controversy with comments that seemed to couch the War on Terror in religious terms. This drew fire from leftist figures such as Sidney Blumenthal, John Kerry, and Seymour Hersh, as well as from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the self-proclaimed advocacy group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The author of the autobiographical Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom and the thriller Danger Close has a new novel, Kiloton Threat. Both thrillers feature Special Forces officer Blake Kershaw combating Muslim extremism.

Mark Tapson: General, your new book is about a U.S. covert operation to extract a defecting Iranian scientist, a Christian convert, out of Iran to help neutralize their nuclear weapons program. Based on your knowledge of and experience with covert actions after 9/11, how close did we come to neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program ourselves, and do you think we might still have to resort to that?

Gen. Boykin: The Iranian nuclear program is a very serious threat to global stability. A nuclear-armed Iran may very well prompt a nuclear arms race in the Mid East which only increases the threat of a deadly exchange between warring factions. The threat to Israel is real, as [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is driven by a radical theology that directs him and others of the same theology to create an atmosphere of “bloodshed and chaos” in order to usher in the reign of the “Mahdi.” Otherwise known as the 12th Imam, this messiah will return and bring global peace and implement Shariah. This is not just the belief of a group of ignorant and uneducated men. Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are erudite men with a deep passion for what they believe and are willing to throw the world into chaos in order to bring about the return of the Mahdi.

At this point, the US efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program have been weak. Diplomacy and sanctions have not slowed Iran's progress. Any covert action that has been executed by the US has had little effect. Even if the “worm” in the computers was part of a US effort, it was just a minor setback. The world is at a point now that the only hope may be an Israeli strike, since it is unlikely that the US will act militarily. The problem is that the Israeli capabilities to destroy the Iranian program are very questionable. The program was built to make a strike from any source difficult. The better option is to take out the Iranian leadership, but once again, who is willing to try? Certainly the US will not do it. Israel would if they could but this would be a very difficult task for them too. Ultimately, there are no good solutions to this problem.

Tapson: You were a leader on the important “Team B” report Shariah: The Threat to America, put out last year by the Center for Security Policy. Tell us, please, about that work and your role in it.

Boykin: The “Team B” report is an effort by nineteen very knowledgeable experts to inform Americans about the seriousness of the threat of Shariah encroachment on the US Constitution. Shariah, Islamic law, is already in America and is growing in influence as a result of a very deliberate plan that is being carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is very serious, and it is being ignored and even supported by the leadership of the nation at all levels, from community leaders to national leaders. Even the leadership of some Christian and Jewish churches and ministries are supporting the efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Europe made the same bad decisions two decades ago that America is making today and is now paying for it through the loss of their culture and freedom, as Britain now has 85 Shariah courts where imams administer justice. That is happening in America right now and the focus of the Team B report is to make people aware of what is happening. I was one of the team leaders who helped write and organize the writing effort.

Tapson: Our leaders feel compelled to reassure the world that we’re not at war with Islam, even though the Islamic fundamentalists themselves, like the Ft. Hood shooter, have no qualms about proclaiming their religious motivation. Do you think that acknowledging and embracing the religious nature of our conflict would strengthen us in this Clash of Civilizations, or would it simply serve, as some people argue, to radicalize more Muslims?

Boykin: Islam is foremost a legal system, Shariah. It is totalitarian and controls every aspect of its adherents’ lives. Many Muslims do not accept the totalitarian nature of Islam and those are the people who must be allowed to worship freely in America. They are the group that do not want Shariah; in many cases they came to the US to escape it. US leadership should be engaging them to become part of the solution.

Instead, the leadership of the nation has implemented outreach programs to the very elements in the nation who represent the authoritative and totalitarian nature of Islam. Groups like CAIR and ISNA [the Islamic Society of North America] are unindicted co-conspirators from the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial; the largest terror finance trial in US history. Yet the nation's leaders continue to engage and legitimize them rather than those who reject Shariah. When the US shows so little resolve and understanding of the nature of the threat, the groups who could be our natural allies in fighting the encroachment of Shariah are driven further underground, as they see the jihadists on the winning side.

Tapson: As a minister and a strong advocate of “putting on your armor and getting into battle” for Christ, as you once put it, what would you say to the religious Left in this country, who seem to have adopted a stance of pacifism and appeasement in the face of the Islamist threat?

Boykin: Christians should be a major force in standing against the encroachment of Shariah. There are no commonalities between Islam and Christianity. The Jesus of the Bible is the Son Of God; the Jesus of the Koran is not. Authoritative Islam curses the Christian and Jewish faith as part of their worship routine.

Some Christians have made no effort to understand the nature of Islam but have chosen the path of least resistance by accepting the lie that we all worship the same God rather than standing firm in the foundations of their own faith. Christians should be focused on taking the Gospel to Muslims and not compromising on the Christian faith.

Tapson: You’re retired from the military now, but you’re carrying on your work in other ways. Tell us about your new project “Kingdom Warriors” and why you turned to writing thrillers.

Boykin: Kingdom Warriors is a ministry that focuses on encouraging people in the Christian church to recognize that spiritual warfare is real and to help equip them to be spiritual warriors by using the spiritual weapons that are outlined in the Bible.

I write thrillers to raise awareness of serious global issues but in a way that is entertaining. I write about espionage to highlight the fact that there are some very brave Americans who are doing great work protecting the nation without recognition. People in the dark world of espionage are serving sacrificially and courageously, but few people know of their deeds. I try to make their exploits come alive through my novels.

(This article originally appeared here at FrontPage Mag, 9/2/2011)