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Jihad, Iranian-style

August 21, 2015

Jihad, Iranian-style, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, August 21, 2015

The new twist in the controversy surrounding the nuclear agreement is an argument over the veracity of a report on a side deal giving Iran the right to inspect its own nuclear facilities for potential violations. The idea is so preposterous that it must be true, judging by the rest of the top-secret document on which the U.S. Congress is going to vote in September.

But as the debate heats up over whether the deal furthers or hinders Iran’s nuclear weapon capabilities, an equally serious issue keeps being marginalized. This is the more immediate and tangible danger posed by Iran’s terrorist proxies, and the sudden financial and ideological boost the deal is providing them.

The reason it is crucial to keep an eye on their activities is that they constitute Iran’s global army — the boots on the ground, so to speak — who perform the legwork necessary for the ultimate aim of regional and global jihadist hegemony. Their role is to set the stage for that time in the not-so-distant future when Iran’s power and reach are so extensive that its leaders won’t need to waste their nuclear warheads by firing them.

This is where Israel comes in. As the only democracy in the Middle East, an ally of the West and a Jewish state, it has key strategic value. It is like the central card in a house of cards, whose removal topples the whole structure.

It is also tiny and surrounded by rogue states with an endless supply of Muslim would-be “martyrs” willing to die in the “holy” endeavor to take it down.

On Thursday, Israel received its latest message to this effect, when four rockets, launched from Syria, landed in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights. The Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist organization was behind the attack, which spurred Israel to retaliate.

Also on Thursday, Israel deployed anti-missile Iron Dome batteries in the south of the country, in the areas between Ashkelon and Ashdod, as well as in Beersheba. This was in response to threats of rocket fire by Iran-baked terrorists in Gaza — whose excuse was the worsening condition of hunger-striking Palestinian terror suspect Mohammed Allan.

A review of recent Iranian rhetoric and activity, released by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, puts all of the above in context.<

Last month, the General Assembly of Islamic Resistance Ulema (scholars) held a weekend conference titled “Unity for Palestine.”

At the gathering, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said, “We believe with certainty that Israel, this cancerous tumor, is headed for extinction, and that Palestine and Jerusalem will be returned to their people. It is only a matter of time and is linked to the will, action, jihad, and sacrifices of the Ummah [Islamic nation], according to the principle: If you achieve victory for Allah, Allah will lead you to achieve victory.”

From Iran, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought, agreed.

“Annihilation of the Zionist regime is a sure thing and Quranic pledge,” he said, adding that it is important to unify “Muslims in countering the regime of Zionism and the arrogant world.”

Muhammad Hasan Zamani, a former Iranian cultural attache in Egypt who heads the Department of International Islamic Madrasas (educational institutions) for the General Assembly of Islamic Resistance Ulema, reiterated this position.

“Israel must be erased from the map of the world,” he said. “These are the golden words Imam Khomeini, may God have mercy on him, uttered.”

Sheikh Abdel Halim Qadhi, a professor at Zahedan University in Iran, said, “The holy Quran makes it known that Jews are the enemies of Islam and the Muslims and their holy places and rites. … Jihad is the most powerful and only way to liberate Palestine and defend Jerusalem. … God loves those who fight in his way.”

Earlier this month, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published “Palestine,” a 416-page tome devoted to the issue of Israel’s inevitable demise, with a blurb on its back cover calling the author the “flagbearer of jihad to liberate Jerusalem.”

This week, Khamenei gave an abbreviated version of this on Twitter: “We spare no opportunity to support anyone #FightingTheZionists,” he wrote.

At the same time, a clip produced by the Islamic Revolution Design House, a media outlet associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, began to circulate on YouTube. The minute-and-a-half animated video depicts an Islamist invasion of Jerusalem.

The brief silent film shows soldiers from the Revolutionary Guards, Shia Badr, Hezbollah, Hamas and Qassam Brigades, clad in military gear and keffiyehs, marching to and standing on a hill overlooking the Temple Mount, as thousands upon thousands of additional terrorists amass.

An inscription in Farsi on a black screen at the end says: “Israel must be erased from the annals of history, and the youth will definitely see that day when it comes.”

Lest anyone imagine the mullahs pulling the strings in Iran don’t mean business, all one has to do is observe how they are executing their grand plan, part of which is the nuclear deal with the “Great Satan” and the other P5+1 countries. Among these is Russia, which confirmed on Wednesday that it will supply Iran with four upgraded batteries of S-300 surface-to-air missiles as soon as the deal is finalized.

Such missiles give Iran the extra benefit of being able to stave off attack. At that point, will it really matter if Iran is in charge of its own inspections?

Categories: Antisemitism, Death to Israel, Defense of Israel, Diplomacy, Dishonor, Foreign policy, IAEA, IDF, Iran / Israel War, Iran military, Iran nuke inspections, Iran scam, Iranian proxies, Israel, Middle East, Netanyahu, Obama, Obama's affinity for Iran, Obama's America, Obama's legacy, P5+1, Rocket attack, Supreme Leader, Terrorism
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America: A Tool for Turkish Domestic Policy

August 21, 2015

America: A Tool for Turkish Domestic Policy

How the US is helping the ruling Islamist government solidify power.

August 21, 2015

Robert Ellis

via America: A Tool for Turkish Domestic Policy | Frontpage Mag.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has finally agreed to allow the US to use the NATO airbase at Incirlik in southern Turkey for sorties against ISIL in Syria. This will cut flying time for American bombers from 3 hours from the Gulf to 15 minutes, but the two allies seem to be talking at cross purposes.

According to US President Barack Obama, the agreement they are working on is carefully bound around closing off the Turkish border to foreign fighters entering Syria, but Turkey regards it as carte blanche for a showdown with Kurds on both sides of the border. A senior US military official, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, has been more forthright: “It’s clear that ISIL was a hook. Turkey wanted to move against the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party], but it needed a hook.”

Three years ago, Turkey failed to secure the UN Security Council’s support for the creation of a safe zone for refugees and a no-fly zone along the Syrian border and has since lobbied for U.S. backing, but after the bomb attack in the Kurdish border town of Suruc on July 20 a solution has been found.

There is apparent agreement between the US and Turkey to create what both parties call “an ISIL-free zone” across the border in northern Syria, which will drive a wedge about 68 miles long and 40 miles deep between the Kurdish autonomous cantons of Kobane and Jazira to the east and Afrin to the west of the projected zone.

The US State Department insists that this will not be a “safe zone,” but Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu continues to push for a no-fly zone in this “safe area.” Furthermore, Turkey claims it has reached an understanding with the US that the Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party) and its military wing, the YPG (People’s Defense Units), will not cross to the west of the Euphrates.

The idea is that joint anti-ISIL operations will clear this zone ready for occupation by “moderate” Syrian opposition forces, but here there is also a difference of opinion on the definition of “moderate.” The first test of a joint “train and equip” program did not end well, as most of a team of 54 fighters sent to Syria in July were killed, wounded or captured by the al-Nusra Front.

The most effective force in the region is Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), which includes the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, a Salafist group. Backed by Turkey, Qatar and the Saudis, this coalition is unlikely to gain US support. Besides, al-Nusra has decided to withdraw from the region in criticism of the Turkey-US plan, which it said was aimed to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Syria rather than fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A Reliable Ally

The Suruc bombing was blamed on ISIL, but whoever arranged it, it allowed Turkey’s interim AKP (Justice and Development Party) government to make common cause with the US and brand itself as a reliable ally in the war on terror. Prime Minister Davutoglu declared: “Turkey and AK Party governments have never had any direct or indirect connection with any terrorist organization and never tolerated any terrorist group,” but facts state otherwise.

A report last November from the UN Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team notes that the primary routes for the arms smuggled to ISIL and the al-Nusra Front run through Turkey. A US State Department briefing at the beginning of June also stated that nearly all of more than 22,000 foreign fighters who have poured into Syria to join extremist organizations, mainly ISIL, have come through Turkey.

There are numerous reports in the Western and also Turkish press implicating Turkey and in particular Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in the organized supply of weapons and fighters to jihadist groups in Syria. In one instance, in January last year Syria-bound trucks belonging to MIT were stopped by the local gendarmerie, but the public prosecutors and the gendarmerie commander involved have themselves been arrested and prosecuted for “attempting to topple or incapacitate the government” and “exposing information regarding the security and political activities of the state.”

The violent response of the PKK to the Suruc bombing has also provided justification for the Turkish government to launch attacks on PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey under the guise of a “synchronized war on terror.” It is indicative that there have been three strikes on ISIL positions in Syria but 300 against the PKK.

In a tape of a national security meeting leaked on YouTube in March last year, the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s undersecretary observed: “Our national security has become the tool of vulgar, cheap domestic policy.” This is apparently what has happened, and in return for access to Incirlik airbase the US is now serving Turkish domestic interests.

President Erdogan’s AKP government lost its overall majority in the June election because the Kurdish-based HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) overcame the 10 percent electoral threshold and gained 80 out of the Turkish parliament’s 550 seats.

Attempts to form a coalition government have predictably collapsed and now Erdogan can call for a new election, probably in November. His hope is that the AKP will once again gain an overall majority sufficient to push through a new constitution, which will give him full executive power.

To do this Erdogan will have to discredit the HDP in the eyes of the electorate, which he is well on the way to doing with his claim that the Kurdish party is an extension of the PKK. In return, the HDP has warned: “It is a plan to set the country on fire in order for the government to secure a single-party government in a snap election, while creating an impression it is conducting a comprehensive fight against terrorism.”

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Tale of the Two-Timing Terrorist

August 21, 2015

Tale of the Two-Timing Terrorist

It’s time for Israel to kick two-timing terrorist supporters out of its house.

August 21, 2015

Daniel Greenfield

via Tale of the Two-Timing Terrorist | Frontpage Mag.

When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Israel’s parliament, he was heckled by Muslim politicians. Netanyahu told the conservative Canadian leader that the presence of a vocal opposition was the difference between Israel and Syria.

The leader of the Muslim hecklers pointed at parliamentarian Talab Abu-Arar and howled, “There is no water or electricity in his village. Perhaps in Syria they have such things.”

As it turned out, Talab Abu-Arar not only had water, electricity, air conditioners, high speed internet and a satellite television dish, the Muslim Brotherhood politician also had two wives.

Abu Arar had gotten “almost ten children” out of his first wife, but the middle-aged Imam added a second twenty-year old wife. Unfortunately the devout Muslim leader was apparently unable to get permission from his first wife which made the arrangement illegal under the infidel law of the Zionist entity.

Not only does the Israeli apartheid state interfere with cultural practices like beating wives and honor killing them, but it humiliates a Muslim man by telling him to ask his wife to let him get another wife.

While Islamic law does not require that a Muslim man get permission from his wife to expand his harem, Israel does. Talab Abu-Arar, who waged a persistent campaign against Israel, apparently could not overcome this sudden alliance between his wife and the Zionist devil. Much as Abu-Arar denounced Israel’s opposition to polygamy as “anti-democratic” in the Knesset, there was no way around it.

He couldn’t fight both Israel and his wife.

And so Wife #2, recognized by Islamic law, but illegal under Israeli law, lives in a separate house. Officially the second wife, who added more children to the clan, is only a mistress. But unofficially, Abu Arar, the head of a mosque in his village, appeared to have begun scouting for Wife #3 or Mistress #2.

Depending on how you keep count in the Arara drama of “As the Oasis Turns”.

Talab Abu-Arar’s official email address for Israel’s Knesset, its parliament, appeared on the list of addresses leaked from “dating” website Ashley Madison for men who want to cheat on their wives.

In his case, it was literally “wives”.

Like Anthony Weiner, another philandering politician with Muslim Brotherhood links, Talab Abu-Arar blamed “hackers” who had “signed up my email in order to damage my good name”. It’s unclear why a hacker would have wanted to covertly set up an account that no one outside the site’s management would know about or how these hackers would have managed to confirm his email.

Or how revealing that a man with an official mistress was seeking seventy-one more, even before martyrdom, could possibly damage his good name.

There are of course more damning things about Talab Abu-Arar than an alleged frantic attempt to hit the four-wife limit before he hits fifty.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Israel is divided into different sections. While Hamas is the best known of these, the Brotherhood also operates as the “Islamic Movement in ‘48 Palestine”. Typical of the Muslim Brotherhood’s two-faced strategy, the “Movement” is split between the “extremist” northern branch and the “moderate” southern branch.

Both want to destroy Israel, but only the southern “moderates” do it by running for public office.

Ibrahim Sarsour, the head of the southern Islamic movement, sat in the Knesset and promised to build a “Bridge between Israeli Jews and the Arab and Muslim world.” The details of the architecture of that wonderful bridge however involved destroying Israel and establishing a caliphate in Jerusalem.

Like Abu Arar, Sarsour was a two-timer. While he was setting up dates with liberal Jewish leaders and promising them a bridge to the 7th century, he was also dating Hamas leaders. A Muslim Brotherhood politician who participates in political activities in an infidel country is always a two-timer. His ultimate allegiance is to the Islamic State, the thousand-year Reich of the Caliphate to be built on the ashes and bones of the people of the land his movement is colonizing.

The “moderate” and the “extreme” branches of the Islamic Movement share the same destructive goals as Hamas. When they aren’t looking for new wives on Ashley Madison, they’re trying to destroy Israel.

The roots of the Islamic Movement in Israel go back to Hitler’s Mufti who was named the first director of the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Mufti wasn’t around due to his Nazi connections, but the Brotherhood had also been allied with the Nazis.  During Israel’s War of Independence, its forces invaded Israel with some 10,000 fighters in an attempt to exterminate the Jews.

A battalion of Brotherhood butchers went after the village of Kfar Darom where 400 men, women and children were defended by forty-five Israeli militia members. The Brotherhood’s Jihadists attacked and were beaten back. They launched an artillery barrage against the small village, but like many of the rockets fired by their Hamas descendants, the shelling fell short and instead killed the terrorists.

The Muslim Brotherhood had tanks, and the Jewish defenders were short on ammo and food, but the village held out for two months. Among the Muslim Brotherhood attackers was an Egyptian who would eventually become the face of the imaginary “Palestinian” people. His name was Yasser Arafat.

The myth of the moderate and the extremist terrorist is like the myth of the faithful cheating husband.

Arafat, Al Qaeda, Hamas and the branches of the Islamic Movement are all the same thing. It’s all the Muslim Brotherhood and behind the fronts, facades and false faces, the agenda is mass murder.

The “moderate” southern Islamic movement is the one whose kindergartens teach children to chant, “O Allah, slaughter them. O Allah, make widows of Jewish women… make orphans of their children.”

When Abu Arar isn’t searching for his 72 virgins, he is out giving interviews to Hamas publications or declaring that Jews have no right to pray at the site of their own temple, which is now under Muslim occupation, because “Any non-Muslim person has no right to pray at the holy Aqsa Mosque.”

“It should be closed all the time to Jews,” Abu Arar said.

This is true Apartheid.

Talab Abu-Arar, like the rest of the Islamic Movement politicians in the Knesset, is “cheating” on Israel, but like his double marriage, it’s an obvious adultery. No one expects a man who openly flaunts two wives to be faithful and no one should expect Muslim Brotherhood members to be loyal to whichever country they happen to be living and plotting in.

When the adultery is this obvious, it’s time for a divorce. In political terms that means booting Abu Arar and his confederates out of Israel’s parliament to give them more time to look for Wife #3 or #4.

The spectacle of terrorist supporters who openly advocate for Israel’s destruction sitting in its parliament is obscene all the more so because Israelis on the far right have been banned from running for public office for far less than the Jihadists of the Joint List. A political movement allied with the enemies of a country in order to destroy it is an enemy organization and should be treated that way.

As the Ashley Madison user names are leaked, unfaithful men will be getting kicked out of homes. It’s time for Israel to kick the two-timing terrorist supporters out of its house.

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Netanyahu: ‘You Rush to Embrace Iran, They Fire Rockets at Us’

August 21, 2015

Netanyahu: ‘You Rush to Embrace Iran, They Fire Rockets at Us’, Israel National News, August 21, 2015

The attack ordered by Iran comes after a report in April, when  Iranian officials reportedly told the Syrian regime to strike Israel and open a war front on the Golan Heights.

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PM warns ‘we’ll harm those who try to harm us,’ slams world powers for nuclear deal after ‘Iranian commander ordered rocket strike.’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a statement on Friday, shortly after the IDF airstrike that took out the Islamic Jihad terror cell backed by Iran that launched four rockets into Israel from Syria the day before.

“I said this week that those who try to harm us – we will harm them. And that’s what we did,” said the prime minister.

“The IDF struck the cell that conducted the (rocket) fire, and the Syrian forces that enabled it. We don’t intend to escalate the incidents, but our policy remains as it was,” he said. At least 14 targets were hit by the IDF overnight, including a strike on an army post which Syria said killed one soldier.

Turning his attention to the IDF reports that Iranian military sources funded and directed the Islamic Jihad cell, Netanyahu condemned the world powers that sealed a nuclear deal with Iran just last month and are now advancing economic trade and diplomatic ties.

“The countries that rush to embrace Iran need to know that an Iranian commander is the one who gave the cover and direction to the cell that fired on Israel,” he said.

As noted by Netanyahu, the one who gave the order for the rocket strike was said to be the head of the Palestinian department in Iran’s Al-Quds force, the covert foreign operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Netanyahu on Friday ordered the Foreign Ministry to send an official letter to Western governments, saying Israel has “reliable information that this attack was carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, ordered directly by the Iranian terrorist Said Izadhi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

“This is further clear indication of Iran’s increasing involvement in attacks against Israel in particular and against regional targets in general. The ink on the nuclear agreement has not yet dried, and this attack shows clearly how Iran plans to act the moment after the international sanctions are removed.”

The attack ordered by Iran comes after a report in April, when  Iranian officials reportedly told the Syrian regime to strike Israel and open a war front on the Golan Heights.

Categories: Airstrikes, Al-Quds, Death to Israel, Defense of Israel, Diplomacy, Dishonor, Foreign policy, Golan, IDF, Iran / Israel War, Iran scam, Iranian missiles, Iranian proxies, Iranian Threats, Israel, Netanyahu, Obama, Obama's America, Obama's legacy, P5+1, Syria
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Israel demands all details of nuclear deal be revealed

August 21, 2015

Israel Hayom | Israel demands all details of nuclear deal be revealed.

“The more details revealed from the deal, the more we see that our concerns are justified,” says Israeli official on report that Iran will inspect its own nuclear site • Poll finds 56% of Americans think Congress should reject Iran deal.

Mati Tuchfeld, Erez Linn and Yoni Hersch
A satellite image of the Parchin military site in Iran

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Photo credit: AP

Following an Associated Press report on Thursday outlining a secret deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency according to which Iran would inspect its own Parchin nuclear site, Israel is demanding that all details of the deal be revealed.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said he was “disturbed by statements suggesting that the IAEA has given responsibility for nuclear inspections to Iran,” and that reports on the deal “misrepresent the way in which we will undertake this important verification work.”

According to Amano, “The arrangements are technically sound and consistent with our long-established practices. They do not compromise our safeguards standards in any way.”

Still, Israeli officials were outraged by the report.

“There is only one safe way to verify this report: The world powers must publish all appendixes to the nuclear deal with Iran. The more details revealed from the deal, the more we see that our concerns are justified. I wonder why they are not publicizing the entire agreement,” one official said,

60% say Obama is mistaken

Meanwhile, less than a month before the deal goes to a vote in Congress, the debate in Washington is heating up.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez (New Jersey) announced Tuesday that he would not support the Iran deal. U.S. President Barack Obama shot back at his announcement, defending the nuclear agreement in a opinion piece for website NJ.com, a New Jersey-based news outlet.

“After two years of negotiations, we have achieved an arrangement that permanently prohibits Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama wrote. “If Iran tries to cheat over the next decade, sanctions will snap back into place.”

At the same time, Democratic Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have announced their support for the Iran deal, bringing the number of Democrats in the Senate who in favor of the deal to 26. The White House needs a further eight votes to ensure a presidential veto cannot be overturned.

As for the American public, a new CNN/ORC poll found that 56% of Americans think Congress should reject the deal with Iran.

The poll also found that 60% of Americans disapprove of how Obama is handling the U.S. relationship with Iran.

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At least 5 said killed in IDF strike on Syria rocket-firing cell

August 21, 2015

At least 5 said killed in IDF strike on Syria rocket-firing cell

Military says it targeted Islamic Jihad men who fired projectiles on northern Israel Thursday; PM says Israel has no interest in escalation but maintains policy of retaliation

By Judah Ari Gross and Times of Israel staff August 21, 2015, 11:33 am

via At least 5 said killed in IDF strike on Syria rocket-firing cell | The Times of Israel.

.A large fire raging near Kfar Sold, caused by missiles fired from the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border and hitting open areas in the Golan Heights in northern Israel on August 20, 2015. (Photo by Basel Awidat/Flash90)

A large fire raging near Kfar Sold, caused by missiles fired from the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border and hitting open areas in the Golan Heights in northern Israel on August 20, 2015. (Photo by Basel Awidat/Flash90)

he Israeli military said it carried out a new raid Friday morning, targeting the cell that launched rockets on northern Israel from Syria on Thursday. At least five people were said to have been killed in the strike on a car some 10 kilometers from the Syrian-Israeli border, in territory held by the Syrian army.

“We targeted a vehicle this morning in which there were at least five people,” an IDF source was quoted by Israeli media as saying Friday.

“We were monitoring this cell and it was attacked some 10-15 kilometers from the border, on territory firmly in the control of the Syrian military. This is an Islamic Jihad cell directed by Iran,” added the source.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that despite the strike, Israel had no interest in an escalation.

“We have no intention of ratcheting up this confrontation, but our policy [of retaliating for attacks against Israeli civilians] remains as it was,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen during his visit to the northern border of Israel on August 18, 2015. Defense Minister Yaalon is behind him. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

“Those who are quick to embrace Iran [following the nuclear agreement on July 14] should know that an Iranian commander directed and backed this cell that attacked Israel,” he added, echoing comments made by senior military sources.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the strike against the cell was proof that Israel will not tolerate efforts to harm the security of its citizens.

“We have no intention of compromising on this issue, and I suggest no one test our resolve on this matter,” he said in a brief statement after the attack.

Syrian state television said the fatalities were unarmed civilians.

Israel says that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terror group that operates mostly out of the Gaza Strip, but whose headquarters are in Damascus, carried out the Iran, with Iranian direction and Syrian complicity.

The Islamic Jihad has denied involvement but called an urgent meeting Friday after midday prayers to discuss the targeting of the cell.

Also Friday, a Syrian military source said that at least one person was killed in a series of air strikes carried out by Israel late Thursday after the rocket attacks earlier in the day.

“The enemy aircraft struck a military position in the area of Quneitra at 11:30 p.m. (20:30 GMT Thursday), martyring one and wounding eight soldiers,” said the source, quoted by the official news agency SANA.

According to Israeli media — citing the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — at least two people were killed in the strikes, possible two military officials close to Syrian President Bashar Assad. According to the report, the Israeli strikes included a raid on a target outside Damascus and one on a weapons depot belonging to the Syrian military.

The Israeli military said that it carried out strikes on 14 Syrian army positions in the Golan Heights on Thursday night.

“The Israel Defense Forces targeted 14 Syrian military posts in the Syrian Golan Heights,” the Israeli army said in a statement early Friday, without elaborating.

The strikes hit artillery batteries near Quneitra, several army outposts and communications antennae, local news sites reported.

The Israeli retaliation Thursday was its largest assault on Syrian territory in decades.

The Israeli government said it held the Syrian government responsible and indicated that Iran was directly behind the rocket fire on northern Israel Thursday afternoon.

A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards orchestrated Thursday’s rocket fire from Syria, military sources said late Thursday night.

According to a senior Israeli security official, it was Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian Division of the Iranian al-Quds Force, who planned the attack.

Throughout the Syrian civil war, mortar shells have occasionally strayed into Israel, but this was not the case on Thursday when four rockets struck the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights, the official said.

“We understand that this attack was clearly a deliberate one,” he said.

Ya’alon warned Thursday that the rocket fire was merely a “coming attraction” for future Iranian-funded attacks on Israel. With sanctions relief as part of the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran will increase support for its Middle East proxies, he maintained.

From right, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on a tour of the northern border, August 18, 2015. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

“What we have seen tonight is just a coming attraction for a richer and more murderous Iran,” Ya’alon said in a statement Thursday.

“This is the intention of the bloody regime from Tehran, and the Western world cannot just sweep that fact under the rug,” he added.

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Inspector Clouseau was unavailable

August 20, 2015

Inspector Clouseau was unavailable, Power Line,  Scott Johnson, August 20, 2015

President Obama purports to have a sophisticated theory of international relations supporting his catastrophic deal with Iran.

Dealing with the world’s foremost sponsor of state terrorism and an avowed enemy of the United States, Obama is lavishly funding the regime and leaving Iran’s nuclear program on the path of development to nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

He proclaims the deal a famous victory, but with the AP’s report on the, ah, unusual arrangement for the self-inspection of the Parchin research facility, it has descended into self-evident farce. Even Stevie Wonder could see that.

Why self-inspection? With the death of Peter Sellers, Inspector Clouseau was unavailable.

For the United States, the self-inspection is one more humiliation among a long train of humiliating concessions. It represents a sort of reductio ad absurdum, a piece of black humor in the style of Joseph Heller. The secret side deal could be a sequel to Catch-22. From President Obama’s perspective, the humiliation of the United States must be an added advantage of the deal.

The revelation of the terms of the Parchin side deal prompts me to think back to the comments of senior Iranian presidential adviser and former intelligence minister Ali Younesi this past fall. The comments were offered for domestic political consumption to the official Iranian news agency.

There was something to offend everyone in Younesi’s comments. Most striking to me, however, was Younesi’s perception of Obama. Younesi had Obama’s number. Younesi’s contempt for Obama shone through his comments and it surely reflects the consensus of the regime. Obama has worked hard to earn it.

The fact that Younesi made these comments on the record for public consumption was striking and newsworthy. The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo had the story:

The Iranian president’s senior advisor has called President Barack Obama “the weakest of U.S. presidents” and described the U.S. leader’s tenure in office as “humiliating,” according to a translation of the highly candid comments provided to the Free Beacon.

The comments by Ali Younesi, senior advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, come as Iran continues to buck U.S. attempts to woo it into the international coalition currently battling the Islamic State (IS, ISIL, or ISIS).

And with the deadline quickly approaching on talks between the U.S. and Iran over its contested nuclear program, Younesi’s denigrating views of Obama could be a sign that the regime in Tehran has no intent of conceding to America’s demands.

“Obama is the weakest of U.S. presidents, he had humiliating defeats in the region. Under him the Islamic awakening happened,” Younesi said in a Farsi language interview with Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

“Americans witnessed their greatest defeats in Obama’s era: Terrorism expanded, [the] U.S. had huge defeats under Obama [and] that is why they want to compromise with Iran,” Younesi said.

Younesi followed up with comments that were somewhat offensive to conservatives like us, but the substance wasn’t unflattering. We believe Israel is our friend and Iran has been our mortal enemy since, you know, around about 1979. In assessing Iran our enemy, we have taken them at their word and judged them by their actions. They have a voluminous amount of American blood on their hands.

Younesi is to some extent on the same page with President Obama. He said of American conservatives: “Conservatives are war mongers, they cannot tolerate powers like Iran. If conservatives were in power they would go to war with us because they follow Israel and they want to portray Iran as the main threat and not ISIS.”

Well, Iran is the main threat. ISIS doesn’t have a nuclear program or the trappings of a state and I would like to think we would support military action against Iran if necessary, though a president whose strength they respected would make it unnecessary.

Younesi also had the Democrats’ number. He deemed them “no threat.” He got that right, though you don’t have to be a former intelligence minister to figure that out.

Younesi’s comments foretold our rendezvous with destiny, Obama style: “We [the Islamic Republic] have to use this opportunity [of Democrats being in power in the U.S.], because if this opportunity is lost, in future we may not have such an opportunity again.”

Categories: Democrats, Diplomacy, Dishonor, Foreign policy, IAEA, Iran - secret deal, Iran nuke inspections, Iran scam, Iranian military sites, Iranian nukes, Iranian Threats, Obama, Obama's America, Obama's legacy, P5+1, Parchin, Republicans, U.S. Congress, U.S. politics
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The four rockets fired on Galilee came from the new Iranian terror front on the Golan

August 20, 2015

The four rockets fired on Galilee came from the new Iranian terror front on the Golan, DEBKAfile, August 20, 2015

Netanyahu_northern_border_B_18.8.15Israel leaders at Northern Command HQ this week

According to our military sources, it is this Iranian-backed network which Thursday, Aug. 20, fired a salvo of four rockets from the Golan into upper Galilee and the Golan. The impact set off brush fires but caused no casualties. A red alert had sent most people running to shelters.

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Israel’s top government and military went on a high level of preparedness Tuesday, Aug. 18 in expectation of the first terrorist attack to be orchestrated by Iran from Syrian or Lebanese borders. That is what brought Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott on a tour of inspection to the Golan and Northern Command headquarters. Netanyahu said then that Israel is ready for any scenario and would “harm anyone trying to harm us.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that these events were sparked by the knowledge reaching Israeli intelligence that Iranian Al Qods and Hizballah officers were building a new terrorist network for mounting large-scale terrorist attacks on Israel from the Syrian border opposite the Golan.

The officers had handed out anti-tank and anti-air rockets to the terrorists, raising Israeli suspicions that one of their plans was to seize an Israeli location or part of one and try and hold out against an Israeli counter-offensive of tanks and assault helicopters.

Our counter-terrorism sources disclose that three radical terrorist movements staff the new network:

One is the hard-line rejectionist Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).

Another is the Golan-based Syrian Druze group known as Liberators of the Golan. It is headed by the notorious Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze who has set up a Golan terror ring based in the Druze village of Al-Khadar opposite the Israeli border fence.

Also harnessed to Iran’s new Golan terror organization is the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) which is made up of radical Christian terrorists. This old timer violent group, which is run by Syrian intelligence, took part in the 1982-3 Hizballah bombing massacres at the US Embassy and Marine headquarters in Beirut.

The first SSNP activists have arrived in the Quneitra district of the Golan.

According to our military sources, it is this Iranian-backed network which Thursday, Aug. 20, fired a salvo of four rockets from the Golan into upper Galilee and the Golan. The impact set off brush fires but caused no casualties. A red alert had sent most people running to shelters.

This was an unusually long-range attack: Previous launches from within Syria, whether deliberate or stray fire from the civil war there, hit the Israeli-held Golan without reaching the Israeli interior. It is now up to Israel to decide how and when to respond to an act of war orchestrated by Tehran, after the prime minister’s warning Tuesday had no deterrent effect.

Categories: Defense of Israel, Foreign policy, Galilee, Golan, IDF, Iran / Israel War, Iran scam, Iranian missiles, Iranian proxies, Iranian Threats, Israel, Netanyahu, Obama's legacy
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Humor | Obama supports Iran’s self inspection

August 20, 2015

Obama supports Iran’s self inspection, Dan Miller’s Blog, August 20, 2015

(The views expressed in this article are those of my imaginary guest author, Senator Ima Librul, and do not necessarily reflect mine, those of Warsclerotic or any of its other editors. — DM)

In an exclusive interview with the FARtz News Agency, President Obama today voiced firm support for any deal bewteen Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency permitting Iran to know for sure what it hasn’t been doing at its alleged military sites.

veto (1)

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by my (imaginary) colleague, the Very Honorable Ima Librul, Senator from the great State of Confusion Utopia. He is a founding member of CCCEB (Climate Change Causes Everything Bad), a charter member of President Obama’s Go For it Team, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Meretricious Relations Subcommittee. He is also justly proud of his expertise in the care and breeding of green unicorns, for which his Save the Unicorns Foundation has received substantial Federal grants. We are honored to have a post of this caliber by a quintessential Librul such as the Senator.

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During His FARtz interview President Obama stated,

Secretary Kerry and I are both delighted with any deal between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian officials which helps Iran to become more introspective. Introspection is good for the soul and I Myself engage in it often to help Me understand the very few instances in which I may have made mistakes and to atone for them. Almost always, I discover that I was right in the first place and wrong in even considering the possibility that I might have been wrong.

If in the past Iran mistakenly declared that it had never attempted research and development of nuclear weapons, its own inspection of Parchin and other alleged military sites should be instrumental in discovering its mistake and advising the World. For example, many years ago Iranianian scientists may have rubbed two pieces of Uranium ore together and, upon discovering that they did not explode, given up all hope of ever trying to develop nuclear weapons. My administration and Iran’s other friends need to know. Then we can put aside any and all lingering doubts about Iran’s exclusively peaceful nuclear program.

World reaction to Obama’s remarks was swift and almost entirely favorable.

iran_self_inspection_cartoon_by_mike

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency praised His enlightened understanding of the possibility of human error and, indeed, even His own. “Talking with President Obama is a humiliating humbling experience!” The often unfairly critical New York Times Editorial Board offered similar praise for Obama’s charming candor and His recognition that even Iran’s allegedly Mad Mullahs are as reasonable as He Himself is. It suggested that Obama follow up on His interview by issuing an Executive Decree pursuant to which

a committee selected by Iran’s Supreme Leader shall have sole authority to determine which, if any, remaining sanctions will be lifted, when, and whether any possibility of their reimposition — or the reimposition of previously removed sanctions —  will be permitted.

Obama’s deputy under secretary for press relations stated that Obama had immediately set to work crafting such a decree.

Only one Israeli newspaper, an infrequently read far right-wing scandal sheet favored by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wife, had an adverse and therefor obviously racist headline: “IT’S A DARK DAY FOR AMERICA!” Less blatantly right wing Israeli media, such as Haaretz, immediately condemned the story in an article headlined “AS ALWAYS, OBAMA DOES THE RIGHT THING AGAIN.”

Tratorious Republicans, who are trying to kill Obama’s wonderful deal with peace-loving Iran to starve innocent Iranian children, took a position comparable to that of the far right-wing Israeli scandal sheet. For example, Tod Krutz, junior senator from a smelly coal mining village in West Virginia, argued

Whether Iran knows what it’s not been doing is less important than the U.S. Congress knowing what it has been doing. I therefore demand that House Speaker Boehner go immediately to Iran to investigate the Parchin military facility and stay there until he finds out what’s been happening. [Emphasis added.]

Speaker Boehner declined the invitation, lamenting that his miniscule budget does not permit him to acquire any possibly necessary anti-radiation clothing. He did, however, offer tearful thinks to Senator Krutz for the confidence he had placed in his ability and scientific knowledge.

Conclusion

It is indeed a sad day for America when even a right-wing Israeli paper such as Haaretz is less critical of our Dear President than some tratorious, racist Republicans such as Senator Krutz. President Obama, a very sensitive and loving person, needs our unstinting help. In this, His time of need, we must all stand behind Him as He battles the forces of oppression, ignorance and racism sadly still rampant in the U.S. Congress.

Categories: Death to America, Foreign policy, Humor, IAEA, Iran - secret deal, Iran scam, Iranian media, Iranian military sites, Iranian nukes, Israel, Israeli media, Kerry, Khamenei, Obama, Obama's affinity for Iran, Obama's America, Obama's legacy, P5+1, Republicans, Rouhani, U.S. Congress, U.S. media
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Iran Is Already Violating the Nuke Deal

August 20, 2015

Iran Is Already Violating the Nuke Deal

Will enough Democrats put country over party and defy Obama?

August 20, 2015

Joseph Klein

via Iran Is Already Violating the Nuke Deal | Frontpage Mag.

 

As the congressional vote on President Barack Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran draws closer, the Iranian regime appears to be doing everything it can to show that it has the upper hand as a result of the deal it negotiated with the United States and its five partners. It is either dishonestly twisting certain terms of the deal to justify its misbehavior or simply defying the terms outright. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are not pushing back. Instead, they are pushing hard to avoid a veto-proof congressional vote of disapproval.

For example, Iran is planning to sign a contract for four advanced Russian surface-to-air S-300 missiles as early as next week, following a visit to Moscow by Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in violation of an international travel ban.

There have been whimpers of objection from the Obama administration, but no forceful statement that such activities by the Iranian regime will jeopardize the agreement from the get-go.

Iranian leaders have also declared that their arms shipments to allies in the region, such as their terrorist proxy Hezbollah, will continue despite the United Nations Security Council arms embargo still in effect for the next five years.

The Obama administration’s response is staggering. According to Kerry, “The arms embargo is not tied to snapback. It is tied to a separate set of obligations. So they are not in material breach of the nuclear agreement for violating the arms piece of it.”

That is all the encouragement the Iranian regime needed to up the ante. According to Debkafile, “Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, acting on the orders of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this week set up a new Iranian command to fight Israel.” This newly named “Eastern Command” is reportedly set “to start handing out weapons, including missiles, to any Palestinian West Bank group willing to receive them.” This is the same Soleimani with American blood on his hands who recently visited Moscow in violation of the current international travel ban, but who will eventually have sanctions and freezes against him lifted as part of the nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, to make matters even worse, the Associated Press is reporting that “Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, operating under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work.” In other words, the UN international inspection team that President Obama has pointed to as the chief verification safeguard will now give way at least in part to Iranian inspectors investigating their own alleged nuclear weaponization development work at a military site declared off limits by Iran to international inspectors. The White House remained “confident” in the viability of the inspection regime despite the confidence game the Iranian regime played with the UN to permit Iran to self-inspect.

Nevertheless, Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives are lining up to support President Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. They are willfully ignoring clear evidence that Iran, post-deal, is continuing its pattern of cheating and violating international sanctions and embargoes still in place. Like lemmings jumping over the cliff, these Democrats are willing to ease the Iranian regime’s path towards becoming a threshold nuclear armed state in a little over a decade, out of blind partisan loyalty to Obama.

To date, the Obama administration has the declared support of 23 Democratic and nominally “independent” senators it will need to sustain an expected veto by President Obama of any resolution passed by Congress to disapprove the deal. This tally is according to The Hill’s Senate whip list compiled as of August 18th. The administration needs at least 34 senators on Obama’s side to sustain a veto. Six Democratic senators are said to be leaning towards a favorable vote, including Senator Richard Blumenthal (Conn.). Fifteen Senate Democrats are still undecided.

So far, only two Democratic senators have shown the courage to serve the public interest, rather than narrow partisan interests. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) became the second Democratic senator to announce his willingness to vote against the president from his own party in opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran. Senator Chuck Schumer had announced his opposition on August 6th.

On the House side, according to The Hill’s Whip List as of August 19th, 55 Democratic representatives have indicated that they are planning to vote in support of the deal. Fourteen more Democrats are leaning in favor. Twelve have declared their opposition to the deal so far. Three are leaning against and 57 are listed as undecided. Obama will prevail on a vote to sustain his expected veto of a disapproval resolution that passes both houses of Congress if he loses no more than 43 House Democrats (assuming the Republicans in the House all vote to override the veto).

Speaking at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations on August 18th when he announced his opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran, Senator Menendez provided a very detailed explanation of his decision.  He characterized the fundamental flaw in the deal this way: “The agreement that has been reached failed to achieve the one thing it set out to achieve – it failed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state at a time of its choosing. In fact, it authorizes and supports the very road map Iran will need to arrive at its target.”

Senator Menendez objected to the exchange of permanent sanctions relief for Iran in return for “only temporary – temporary – limitations on its nuclear program – not a rolling-back, not dismantlement, but temporary limitations.” The deal, the senator added, “is based on ‘hope.’ Hope is part of human nature, but unfortunately it is not a national security strategy.”

Senator Menendez also took a swipe at President Obama’s attempt to tie opponents of his deal to supporters of the 2003 war in Iraq. “Unlike President Obama’s characterization of those who have raised serious questions about the agreement, or who have opposed it,” the senator said, “I did not vote for the war in Iraq, I opposed it, unlike the Vice President and the Secretary of State, who both supported it.”

The New Jersey senator reminded his audience that the purpose of the negotiations from the U.S. perspective had been “to dismantle all — or significant parts — of Iran’s illicit nuclear infrastructure to ensure that it would not have nuclear weapons capability at any time.  Not shrink its infrastructure. Not limit it. But fully dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons capability.”

Senator Menendez cataloged examples of early assurances from the Obama administration of red lines that were later wiped away. For example, Secretary of State John Kerry had declared in the early days of engaging with Iran that Arak, Iran’s plutonium reactor, would be dismantled. That is not the case under the deal Obama and Kerry signed off on.  The underground Fordow enrichment facility was to be closed. That too was not part of the final deal. The Iranians, Senator Menendez said, were supposed “to come absolutely clean about their weaponization activities at Parchin [their military facility] and agree to promise anytime anywhere inspections.” That too, in Senator Menendez’s words, “fell by the wayside.” Now we have learned that the Iranians will be able to self-inspect.

In addition, not even one existing centrifuge will be destroyed. Some are just being disconnected. Thousands will remain in operation. Research and development on centrifuges will be permitted to continue even during the first ten years of the deal.

“While I have many specific concerns about this agreement, my overarching concern is that it requires no dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and only mothballs that infrastructure for 10 years,” Senator Menendez explained. “We lift sanctions, and — at year eight — Iran can actually start manufacturing and testing advanced IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges that enrich up to 15 times the speed of its current models.  At year 15, Iran can start enriching uranium beyond 3.67 percent – the level at which we become concerned about fissile material for a bomb.  At year 15, Iran will have NO limits on its uranium stockpile.”

Under the deal, Iran will get significant sanctions relief within the first year, while its obligations stretch out for a decade or more. And there is a major concession in the deal that has gotten very little attention to date. Iran’s negotiators out-maneuvered Secretary of State Kerry’s team into conceding away the right to re-impose or extend U.S. sanctions beyond their expiration date. Senator Menendez noted that “we will have to refrain from reintroducing or reimposing the Iran Sanctions Act I authored – which expires next year — that acted significantly to bring Iran to the table in the first place.”

Iran has agreed only to provisionally apply the Additional Protocol to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is supposed to ensure continuing access to suspect sites in a country, and only formally adopt it when Congress has abolished all sanctions.

Senator Menendez, like Senator Schumer, dismisses the either-or choice between Obama’s deal and war, which Obama and his supporters are offering as a red herring. “If there is a fear of war in the region,” said Senator Menendez, “it is fueled by Iran and its proxies and exacerbated by an agreement that allows Iran to possess an industrial-sized nuclear program, and enough money in sanctions relief to continue to fund its hegemonic intentions throughout the region.”

The senator suggested offering Iran some limited inducements to return to the negotiating table, and outlined some parameters that the Obama administration should follow in seeking better terms. These include “the immediate ratification by Iran of the Additional Protocol to ensure that we have a permanent international arrangement with Iran for access to suspect sites,” closing the Fordow enrichment facility, resolving the ‘possible military dimensions’ of Iran’s program” before there can be any permanent sanctions relief, banning centrifuge R&D for the duration of the agreement, and extending to at least 20 years the duration of the agreement.

Senator Menendez also wants to extend the authorization of the Iran Sanctions Act beyond its expiration in 2016 “to ensure that we have an effective snapback option.” And he wants a clear declaration of U.S. policy by the President and Congress that “we will use all means necessary to prevent Iran from producing enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, as well as building or buying one, both during and after any agreement.”

Unfortunately, the procedure for congressional involvement with the nuclear deal has turned the Constitution’s treaty ratification process on its head. Instead of requiring a two-thirds vote of the Senate to ratify the nuclear deal if had been handled as a treaty, President Obama will get his way unless both houses of Congress override his veto of a disapproval resolution by a two-thirds vote. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that opponents of the nuclear deal will likely lose in a vote to override an Obama veto. Why the Republican majority in the Senate ever agreed to such a legislative trap is beyond comprehension.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, at the very least the leaders of the House and Senate must insist that a resolution of disapproval be voted upon on the merits. Each representative and senator should be required to go on the record in a roll-call vote, indicating his or her vote of yea or nay. This means that Democrats in the Senate should not be permitted to hide behind a filibuster to avoid an up-or-down vote. If the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster and allow a majority of the Senate to pass or reject a disapproval resolution is not attainable, Senate Majority Leader McConnell must stand up and take a page out of former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s playbook. Senator McConnell should deploy the so-called “nuclear option.” This would mean eliminating the filibuster that could otherwise be used by Democrats to block a vote on what is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime agreement with life and death consequences for national security.

If the Democratic senators supporting President Obama’s deal believe that it is the only realistic alternative to war, then they should have the backbone to put their names on the record in support of the deal. If they try to duck their legislative responsibility to their constituents and the nation, then Senator McConnell must act promptly to take away their filibuster fig leaf. If Senator McConnell does not move aggressively in this direction as and when necessary, he will show as much cravenness as the Democrats exploiting the filibuster.

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