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Peter Schweizer: Jeff Sessions Ending DOJ Handouts to Activist Groups ‘a Tremendous Victory’

June 12, 2017

Peter Schweizer: Jeff Sessions Ending DOJ Handouts to Activist Groups ‘a Tremendous Victory’, Breitbart, Dan Riehl, June 12, 2017

Scott Olson/Getty Images

President of the Government Accountability Institute, Peter Schweizer, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXX host Raheem Kassam on Monday regarding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to end Department of Justice handouts for leftist groups, which has come to be known as something of a “slush fund.”

As Breitbart News reported:

For decades, through a variety of initiatives, the DOJ has insisted on donations to third parties as part of the settlements it reaches with defendants, especially corporations. In the Obama administration, this practice took on the character of a “slush fund,” which funneled hundreds of millions of dollars from these corporate defendants and put it into the hands of non-government organizations.

Recipients have included left-wing “community organizer” groups such as the National Council of La Raza, or “The Race,” a Latino racial advocacy group that supports mass illegal immigration. Other recipients include the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and NeighborWorks America, which is a congressionally chartered mortgage aid group that itself has come under widespread criticism.

“This is a tremendous victory people ought to be very encouraged by,” said Schweizer.

The idea got its start under Eric Holder as far back as the Clinton administration. “The problem is, it got distorted, as so many things do in Washington, DC,” added Schweizer. “And so rather than going to the victims of what a company might have done, they ended up giving it to activist groups. And many of these activist groups, like La Raza, like others, not only didn’t do things to alleviate the activity that had taken place, they actually used the money for things like voter registration.”

“These were politically active groups,” he added.

Categories: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Government Accountability Institute, Slush fund for leftists
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Iran’s Foreign Legion in Syria

June 12, 2017

Iran’s Foreign Legion in Syria, Front Page Magazine, Joseph Puder, June 12, 2017

(Please see also, Syrian-Hizballah massacre in Daraa: 140 dead. — DM)

The Iranian strategy, it appears, is to consolidate is forces in southwestern Syria facing the Druze area of Dar’aa, and gradually move their commanded forces toward the Israeli border in the Golan.  Iran has sought for a long time now to establish its proxies, including Hezbollah units in the Golan facing Israel.  Israel however, was able to dislodge these Iranian efforts.  Nevertheless, the Iranian cooperation with Russia in Syria, and the lucrative arms deals between them, may persuade Russia to consider the Iranian efforts.

Iran is the leading state-sponsor of international terrorism, and the IS attack has given Tehran a taste of its own deadly medicine.  The oppression of Sunnis in Shiite Iran is likely to drive Sunni Baluch and Ahwazi Arabs into doing the IS’s bidding, translated into acts of terror in the heart of Tehran.  It demonstrates a hard truth – that Sunni jihadists can assemble a foreign legion, just as the Iranian jihadists have done in Syria.

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Arab News reported (6/7/2017) that “Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the parliament building and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Iranian capital.  Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament.”  The twin attacks on Wednesday killed 12 Iranians, and embarrassed the radical Islamist regime by showing its vulnerability at home.  IS terrorists hit the most potent symbols of Iran’s Islamic Republic on Wednesday.  It has brought into sharp focus the high cost of Tehran’s involvement in Syria, which according to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) leadership, was meant to ward off terrorist attacks at the home front.  With an economy that has barely recovered from sanctions imposed on it by the international community, the Iranian regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can hardly justify the huge cost to the treasury of exporting its revolution and backing Assad in Syria with Iranian cash, if not in blood.

Given the Sunni-Shiite conflict engulfing the Middle East, it was inevitable that IS will ultimately strike at Iran – the patrons of Shiite-Islam.  The antecedents of IS in Iraq proved that the Sunnis who ruled in Iraq albeit, as a minority with a Shiite majority, won’t easily allow Shiites to disenfranchise them.  In Syria however, the Sunnis are the majority, and have been ruled for almost 50 years by the Alawite (Shiite) clan of the Assads.  It was never a question of whether or if IS will strike at Iran but rather when.  The array of Shiite militias fighting IS, and non-Islamist Sunni militias, under the command of Maj. General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Division of the IRGC, is clear enough reason why Iran is, and will continue to be a target.

To expand its influence throughout the Middle East region, and extend the Shiite Crescent, the Ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran has devoted huge resources to protect its turf in Syria, and maintain it as a bridge to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea.  In essence, it means the preservation of the Bashar Assad, Alawi-led (Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam) regime.  The Syrian dictator who has now earned the moniker “the butcher of Damascus” can count on the Iranian ‘Foreign Legion’ made up of Shiite fighters from Lebanon (Hezbollah), Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. They provide the manpower that serves the Iranian agenda in Syria.  Besides Hezbollah, there is the Afghan “Fatimiyoun and Khadem  el-‘Aqila Brigades; the Pakistani Zainebiyoun Brigade; Yemeni Houtis “Liwa Al-Saada Brigade, the Iraqi Shiite militia Al-Nujaba Movement.  The Iraqi Shiite contingent is the largest force engaged in the defense of the Assad regime.  It is estimated to number around 40,000 fighters.

According to the Qatari based outlet, Al-Jazeera (1/22/2016), “Some 20,000 Afghan Shia fighters alone are said to be fighting alongside Iran to help save the government of the Syrian President Assad.”  Iran, the publication pointed out, recruited tens of thousands of Afghan Shiite fighters, offering them salaries to join the fight to save President Bashar Assad.  The Afghan Shiites are refugees from the ongoing war in Afghanistan between the government of Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban.  They escaped to Iran due to economic and political hardship, and sought asylum there.  Given the inability of young Afghanis to find work in Iran, they are easily manipulated into being cannon-fodder for the Iranians.  Unlike an Iranian fighter, an Afghan illegal migrant killed in action would not be a burden on the Iranian treasury.  Moreover, its foreign mercenaries provide Iran with deniability with regards to their intervention in Syria.

Captured Afghan Shiite fighters revealed that they are attracted to Syria by the promise of a financial reward.  The Iranian regime paid recruits supposedly between $500 and $1,000 a month.  Some Afghans claimed that they joined the fighting brigades as a way to escape prison sentences or even the death penalty for drug trafficking, one of the few outlets for Afghan refugees in Iran. Anas al-Abdah, the secretary of the opposition Syrian Coalition committee told Al-Jazeera that “Iran considers itself the one and only reference point for all Shia people in the whole world.  It organizes them into political, social and military organizations, both in their local communities and abroad…This is part of the main mission of the Iranian regime in terms of exporting the revolution.  Iran recruits, motivates, organizes, finances, and trains Shias from all over the world to help support Bashar al-Assad’s regime from collapsing.”

In Israel, there is particular attention being paid to the Al Nujaba group.  Israeli Col. (retired) Dr. Jacques Neriah, suggested that at “The end of February, 2017, the leader of Al-Nujaba’, Akram el-Q’aabi, declared in an unprecedented announcement that his forces were to fight together with the Syrian army to ‘liberate’ the Golan.  El-Q’aabi justified his position by stating that the terrorism of ISIS is but a part of a grand plan designed by the Zionists, supervised by the Americans with Turkish-Gulf implementation. Therefore, it was time to decapitate the head of the Zionist snake.”  Neriah added, “The Brigade announced in March, 2017 the creation of “The Liberation of the Golan Brigade” (Liwa’ Tahrir el-Jolan). The Brigade whose members have fought in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq will have one mission: to assist the Syrian army in liberating its “stolen lands.” According to the spokesman of the Al-Nujaba, ‘The creation of this Brigade was but a step toward liberating the holy places in occupied Palestine.”

The Iranian strategy, it appears, is to consolidate is forces in southwestern Syria facing the Druze area of Dar’aa, and gradually move their commanded forces toward the Israeli border in the Golan.  Iran has sought for a long time now to establish its proxies, including Hezbollah units in the Golan facing Israel.  Israel however, was able to dislodge these Iranian efforts.  Nevertheless, the Iranian cooperation with Russia in Syria, and the lucrative arms deals between them, may persuade Russia to consider the Iranian efforts.

As a result of the IS twin attacks in Tehran, the Golan front is a secondary priority for now. The IRGC, whose position in Iran has strengthened, despite the overwhelming reelection victory of the more “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani in the recent elections, will now increase its operations in Syria and Iraq, and more Iranian resources will be spent there.  Iranian President Rouhani will now find it more difficult to reduce spending on foreign arenas such as Syria, as he has promised to do in his election campaign.

Iran is the leading state-sponsor of international terrorism, and the IS attack has given Tehran a taste of its own deadly medicine.  The oppression of Sunnis in Shiite Iran is likely to drive Sunni Baluch and Ahwazi Arabs into doing the IS’s bidding, translated into acts of terror in the heart of Tehran.  It demonstrates a hard truth – that Sunni jihadists can assemble a foreign legion, just as the Iranian jihadists have done in Syria.

Categories: Golan, Iran and Israel, Iran and Syria, Iranian proxies, Islamic State attacks Iran, Israel's enemies, Israeli security, Russia and Iran, Shiite vs Sunni
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John McCain, off rail, says Obama better than Trump

June 12, 2017

John McCain, off rail, says Obama better than Trump, Washington Times, Cheryl K. Chumley, June 12, 2017

(Please see also, Never Trump is Still Waiting for the Apocalypse. — DM)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., questions former FBI Director James Comey during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 8, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

We know Sen. John McCain is no friend of President Donald Trump’s — but this is ridiculous.

The Arizona senator, who says he’s a Republican, actually came out and told a left-leaning overseas newspaper, the Guardian, that Barack Obama provided better leadership for America than Trump.

Seriously.

Here’s the context: The Guardian, in a long-running hit piece on Trump that included quotes from those who were upset at the president’s tweeting and non-politically correct talk and walk on foreign affairs — including blunt assessments of the terrorist situation — asked McCain what he thought of the message the White House chief was sending ‘round the world.

The Guardian asked McCain this, no doubt because the Guardian knew exactly what kind of reply McCain would give. And McCain, the anti-Trumper of the Senate, did not disappoint.

“What do you think the message is? The message is that America doesn’t want to lead,” McCain said, the Guardian gleefully reported. “They are not sure of American leadership, whether it be in Siberia or whether it be in Antarctica.”

The Guardian, sensing victory on the horizon, then followed up with this: So was America’s standing in the global arena better under Obama?

And again, McCain didn’t disappoint.

“As far as American leadership is concerned, yes,” he said.

Unbelievable. Now the important thing to remember here is a) members of the media only go to McCain when they want to act like they’re doing the balanced thing and getting a quote from a Republican — while knowing full well McCain’s a Republican In Name Only; and b) nobody in the conservative world gives a hoot what McCain thinks.

In fact, the only ones who want McCain to stay in office are the Democrats.

But saying Obama — Obama of world tour apologist fame, Obama of diplomacy at all costs fame, Obama of selling out Israel and Mideast allies with the Iran treaty fame — is better for America in terms of leadership is a new low, for even the left.

Trump’s policy with other nations is pure and simple: America first. Those who criticize, are globalists.

Those who say Obama was a better leader than Trump — especially those in the Republican Party who say such — are delusional.

Categories: McCain, Never Trumpers
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Never Trump is Still Waiting for the Apocalypse

June 12, 2017

Never Trump is Still Waiting for the Apocalypse, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, June 12, 2017

“Republicans of all stripes must be made to acknowledge and accept that Trumpism is an experiment that failed,” Noah Rothman wrote in Commentary.

It was October 2016 and Rothman was declaring the terms on which Never Trumpers would accept the surrender of Republicans after Trump’s defeat. Some “examples must be made”, but after some political purges, the GOP could be reunited around “free trade” and “an internationalist foreign policy”.  

But instead of losing, Trump won. The disasters that Rothman was predicting, the loss of Congress and the White House, never came about. And the scorned prophets of Never Trump, instead of apologizing or being offered terms for rejoining the GOP, continued forecasting disaster and doom for the heretics.

Like Democrats, Never Trumpers were still stuck on an election that Trump wasn’t supposed to win. Democrats had predicted a Hillary victory and Never Trumpers predicted a Republican disaster. Both Democrats and Never Trumpers want to reverse the results of the election. The Democrats invent vast conspiracies and the Never Trumpers predict disasters that will never happen.

Never Trumpers are obsessed with proving to Republicans that electing Trump was a disastrous mistake.

So everything is a disaster. Trump is infuriating Europeans alienating Muslims, abandoning NATO and destroying the planet. The sky is always falling. The apocalypse is just around the corner. And when it finally arrives, Rothman and the rest of the gang can lay out their terms for reunifying the GOP around illegal alien amnesty, destructive trade practices and open borders for terrorist refugees.

Even after the election, President Trump still can’t win.

“Donald Trump’s Republican Party Will Be Defeated,” George Will predicted in his Washington Post column before the November election. The National Review chose to reprint his warning that Republicans must break with Trump. That would “determine how many of them lose with him, and how many deserve to.”

When Trump won, Will dubbed it a, “A Disruptive yet Ruinous Triumph for the GOP”. Never mind that the GOP had won, it was really a defeat. “Will the Republican party learn the wrong lessons from its election victory?” he inquired.

And who better to turn to for the right lessons than the man who had predicted that Republicans would lose and who had declared “this was not my party anymore”, but still insisted on lecturing Republicans?

When Trump was sworn in, Will called it, “A Most Dreadful Inaugural Address”. He warned, “Donald Trump’s Economic Policy Could Spell Disaster” and “Trump’s Immigration Plan Could Spell Doom for the GOP.”

And if the disaster isn’t forthcoming on its own, Will pleaded with the public “to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man.” And there’s the National Review wing of the “Resistance” — the left’s effort to sabotage the Trump presidency and fulfill the prophecies that failed.

Back at Commentary, Noah Rothman had consistently predicted that Trump would lose. “When Trump’s Republican presidential bid flames out – and it will flame out,” he wrote confidently. “This “plan” is a road to electoral ruin,” he warned of Trump’s common sense migration reform.

Everything was Trump’s fault.

“Bilateral relations between the United States and Russia have cratered since Trump took office,” Rothman mourned. Obama departed office with relations at their lowest point in decades. Hillary Clinton had compared Putin to Hitler. But to Never Trumpers, it’s always Trump’s fault.

Elsewhere, Rothman bemoaned that Trump had “prioritized renewed confrontation” with Iran and China. To Never Trumpers, common sense policies were bad if they had Trump’s name on them.

But Rothman’s constant predictions of disaster, before and after, were nothing compared to even madder voices at Commentary like Max Boot; the Republican answer to Keith Olbermann.

“Donald Trump represents the No. 1 security threat to the United States today,” Max Boot declared. Greater even than Global Warming.

This month, Rothman echoed Boot’s preposterous claim by invoking the conspiracy inside the conspiracy. “The Bannon wing is now a menace to global security.”

But none of the Never Trumper hysterics can actually define this global security menace. Trump has taken a tougher line on every enemy from China to Iran to Syria to Russia to Cuba to ISIS. Despite all the innuendo about Russia, it was Trump not Obama, who enforced a red line in Syria. Obama made a deal with the devil in Iran. Trump is beginning to roll it back. And the Russians aren’t remotely happy about it.

Trump stood up to China and North Korea. Unlike Obama’s fake pivot, Trump is staying the course. ISIS is being defeated. And that’s the problem for the Boot-Rothman fantasies.

Boot claimed that Trump was “embracing fascism” and had also embraced “war crimes”. He argued that Trump was playing “right into the terrorists’ hands” and “doing serious damage to American credibility and to collective security.” Outside Commentary, Boot would go on to demand that “for the good of the country, Trump should resign before our new national nightmare gets worse.”

“Republicans Need to Abandon the Trump Ship ASAP,” Boot insisted. He closed by echoing the conviction that, “the security of the United States might now depend on electing a Democratic Congress in 2018.” It would have been more honest of Boot to just join the Democrat Party.

The job security of Never Trump pundits certainly depends on a Republican defeat in 2018. If Trump doesn’t fail, how will anyone know they were right? And so, with the logic of the left, they insist that he must be made to fail. If Trump won’t fail and Republicans won’t abandon him, it’s time to vote Democrat. As a number of Never Trumpers actually did.

But neither the National Review nor Commentary can hold a candle to the sheer derangement of the Weekly Standard. The Standard pushed 25th Amendment and Electoral College shenanigans to stop Trump that were hardly seen outside left-wing swamps. It compared Paul Ryan to a Nazi collaborator for endorsing Trump. All of this was spiced with doom headlines that could have come from the media.

“Trump the Loser”, “Donald Trump, a One-Man Wedge Issue, Threatens GOP Future”, “Donald Trump’s Plan to Destroy the U.S. Economy”, headlines shrieked. “With Trump, It Only Gets Worse from Here.”

And even, “Is Trump Ruining Marriages?”

Is there anything wrong in the world Trump isn’t responsible for? Everything he did was terrible.

Even if Trump won, a story speculated that, “It is doubtful that he will have a commanding legislative majority.”  Even if he does, Schumer will filibuster a Trump nominee and “If you think the Senate Republicans will blithely go along with eliminating that procedural tool, then you haven’t been paying much attention to the Senate Republicans in the last decade” and “It beggars belief to presume that Trump can build a majority coalition in favor of conservative principles”.

The establishment that was always right had spoken. Yet it kept on being embarrassingly wrong. Over and over again.

According to “Trump’s Position Is Even Worse Than You Think”, the election was so hopeless that “the national polls are actually overstating Trump’s strength.” It’s always hopeless for the Never Trumpers. And that’s because their position is hopeless. The product they’re selling is defeatism. And that’s never been very popular. The only argument for defeatism is manufacturing a constant sense of crisis.

Throughout the election, the Standard warned that Republicans must break with Trump or go down with him. A single quote from “To Save the Party, Pull the Plug on Trump Now” will suffice.

“Understand this: Donald Trump is not going to win.”

Even now, a Standard column insists that Trump will go the way of Nixon and Republicans must break with him. In the Never Trump camp, Trump and the GOP are always on the verge of destruction.

But the apocalypse never arrives.

In just one paragraph of one Weekly Standard article, President Trump is accused of undermining “legitimate checks on his authority”, eroding “confidence in our electoral system” and tarnishing his office. And probably ruining your marriage too.

But after all this time the disaster still hasn’t arrived. Trump won. The alarmists lost. The stock market is rising and our enemies are afraid. The alarmism of the echo chamber has added up to nothing more than failed predictions, falling subscriptions and encouragement to Democrat seditionists.

Never Trump is really Never Wrong. Like the Democrats, they refuse to adapt to reality. Rothman and his Never Trump colleagues need to accept that Never Trumpism is an experiment that failed, apologize to Trump and the American people whose progress they are obstructing, and go home.

Categories: Never Trumpers
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The PA-North Korean connection

June 12, 2017

The PA-North Korean connection, Israel Hayom, Yoram Ettinger, June 12, 2017

A thorough examination of the track record of the Palestinian Authority, the ‎PLO, Fatah (all three headed by Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas is a prerequisite ‎for a realistic assessment of the nature of the proposed Palestinian state and ‎its potential impact upon vital U.S. interests in the Middle East.‎

North Korea has scrutinized these terror organizations since Fatah’s inception, in ‎‎1959, and has identified the significant, long-term, geo-political ‎synergies between them and Pyongyang. Hence, the systematic and elaborate ‎geo-strategic cooperation, since 1966, between one of the most repressive, ‎terroristic and anti-U.S. regimes in the world and the Palestinian terror ‎organizations, which have been systematically anti-American, role models of ‎international and intra-Arab terrorism, subversion and treachery. Similarly to ‎North Korea, they forged alliances with the USSR and the ruthless East ‎European communist regimes, collaborated with Iran’s ayatollahs, fomenting ‎egregious systems of hate-education, incitement and repression. ‎

Furthermore, Pyongyang is aware of the Palestinian trail of anti-Jewish and ‎‎(mostly) intra-Arab terrorism during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, their ‎collaboration with the Nazis, and their 1951 murder of Jordan’s King Abdullah, ‎while the monarch prayed in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.

It’s also no surprise that a ruthless totalitarian like Kim Jong Un, who would never submit to the judgment of the ballot box, would support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud ‎Abbas, now in his 12th year of what was to be a four-year term.‎

North Korea considers its ties with the Palestinians compatible with its ‎paramount strategic goal: the erosion of the U.S. power projection in the Korean ‎Peninsula, the Middle East and throughout the globe. Therefore, Pyongyang ‎has attempted to destabilize pro-U.S. regimes while forging cooperation with ‎regimes that are rivals of — or hostile to — the U.S. and its allies, such as ‎Israel. ‎

North Korea has supported terror organizations — which have targeted the U.S. ‎and its allies — providing them with training, military supplies, communications ‎technologies, and expertise on the construction of tunnels and fortifications. ‎

North Korea has considered Iran and Syria its senior partners in the Middle ‎East, but has also provided the Palestinian terror machine critical assistance.‎

Moreover, Pyongyang has leveraged the unique Palestinian “terror startup” — ‎developed ever since the 1960s — when Arafat and Abbas ‎established PLO camps in ‎Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen, training anti-Western terrorists from ‎Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. ‎

The Palestinians have participated in the North Korean semi-proxy terrorist ‎network, stretching from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, ‎Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela, through South Africa, Mozambique, ‎Zimbabwe, Western Sahara, Europe, Syria and Iran all the way to Sri Lanka ‎and Japan.‎

While Israel’s security control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria precludes substantial North Korean military assistance to the ‎Palestinian Authority, such assistance has been extended to Hamas in Gaza. Thirty-five ‎tons of arms destined for Gaza via Teheran — including rocket-propelled ‎grenades, missiles and rocket launchers, missile tubes, surface-to-air missile ‎launchers and spare parts — were seized when a North Korean cargo plane ‎made an emergency landing in Bangkok. In addition, during 2009, five North ‎Korean vessels were interdicted while carrying weapons intended for Iran, ‎Hamas or Hezbollah. Recently, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza received North ‎Korean shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles and anti-tank missiles. ‎

North Korea has been implicated in notorious cases of Palestinian ‎terrorism, such as the 1972 attack (in conjunction with the Japanese Red ‎Army) on Lod Airport, murdering 26 persons, most of ‎them Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico. In 2010, a U.S. federal judge ordered ‎North Korea to pay $378 million in compensation to the families of the victims. ‎

According to Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean ‎Workers’ Party, the Palestinian Embassy to North Korea (one of only 24 ‎embassies in the country) issued a statement expressing Abbas’ praise of the current and ‎previous tyrants for “devoting [themselves] to freedom and people’s ‎happiness.” Such praise reflects Abbas’ own track record of hate-education, terrorism and violation of civil liberties, providing more evidence ‎of the nature of the proposed Palestinian state.

Categories: North Korea and Palestinian Authority
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Syrian-Hizballah massacre in Daraa: 140 dead

June 12, 2017

Syrian-Hizballah massacre in Daraa: 140 dead, DEBKAfile, June 12, 2017

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, any Syrian rebels surviving the initial onslaught on the town had no choice but to fall back. They could only find sanctuary in two places – Jordan, to the south, or the Al-Tanf Syrian-Iraqi border crossing to the east, which is held by US and Jordanian special forces. Those forces did not intervene in the Daraa debacle.

After capturing Daraa, the next victim of a Syrian-Hizballah massacre is most probably Quneitra, which lies less than 9km from the Israeli border. Its capture would bring every last Syrian town bordering Jordan and Israel under their domination.

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Bashar Assad’s troops and his allies, the Iran-backed Lebanese Hizballah, are notorious for their barbaric cruelty to the populations they conquer. But even by their own appalling standards, the massacre they wreaked against the 100,000 citizens of the southern Syrian town of Daraa this week must stand out as a milestone from hell.

Posted in the town, just one kilometer from the Jordanian border, were 3,000 anti-Assad rebels, some of whom joined the Free Syrian Army to be trained and armed by the United States and Jordan. The offensive the Syrian government army and Hizballah launched against their positions on Sunday, June 11, left 140 dead and hundreds injured in its first hours.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it started with dozens of Syrian air force helicopters dropping 150 explosive barrels on those positions, while Syrian bomber-fighter planes conducted at least 25 sorties against rebel rooftop positions atop the highest buildings, and Syrian artillery fired off some 120 ground-to-ground missiles against various key points in the town of Daraa.

Syrian and Hizballah forces advanced into the town under this hellish blitz.

Our sources report that the spearhead consisted entirely of Hizballah’s Al Qaim Brigade, followed by units of the Syrian army’s elite 4th armored Division, armed with advanced Russian-made T-90 tanks. The commander of the offensive was Col. Ghayath Galla.

(On June 6, DEBKAfile disclosed in an exclusive report that the 4th Division’s commander, Bashar Assad’s younger brother, Gen. Maher Assad, and his officers were sighted inspecting the terrain around Daraa in advance of the offensive.)

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, any Syrian rebels surviving the initial onslaught on the town had no choice but to fall back. They could only find sanctuary in two places – Jordan, to the south, or the Al-Tanf Syrian-Iraqi border crossing to the east, which is held by US and Jordanian special forces. Those forces did not intervene in the Daraa debacle.

After capturing Daraa, the next victim of a Syrian-Hizballah massacre is most probably Quneitra, which lies less than 9km from the Israeli border. Its capture would bring every last Syrian town bordering Jordan and Israel under their domination.

Categories: Airstrikes, Daraa Syria, Hezbollah, Israeli security, Jordan, Quneitra, Syria war, Syrian rebels
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Gohmert: Obama DOJ, Not the Russians, Tried to Influence Presidential Election

June 12, 2017

Gohmert: Obama DOJ, Not the Russians, Tried to Influence Presidential Election, Breitbart, Penny Starr, June 11, 2017

 

In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “America’s News HQ” on Sunday, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) said that if anyone interfered with the 2016 presidential election, it wasn’t the Russians but the Department of Justice.

He specifically named former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former FBI Director James Comey.

Gohmert referred to Comey’s testimony last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee where he said Lynch had told him to refer to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information as a “matter,” rather than an “investigation,” even though Clinton was under investigation.

Comey said that led him to publicly announce the end of the Clinton investigation in July 2016.

“At best, it was an attempt to manipulate the election, not by the Russians in this case, but by the Department of Justice – the Attorney General herself – because that came from Comey,”  Gohmert said.

“[Comey] totally ruined his own credibility – or what was left of it,” Gohmert said. “He did vast damage and raised big red flags and questions over Loretta Lynch’s job as head of the Justice Department.

“[Lynch] was using her official position to help the campaign of Hillary Clinton and that didn’t seem to bother him enough to do a memo,” Gohmert said.

Gohmert said this should be the subject of a congressional investigation.

“We need to round up all those people [Comey] talked to – because we have a conspiracy remaining afoot in the Department of Justice that is going to be out to destroy this president and they’ve got to be fired if not worse.”

Categories: Clinton investigation, Comey and AG Lynch, Comey and Trump, Comey leaks, Comey memos, Comey testifies, Comeygate, FBI, Loretta Lynch, Louis Gohmert, Obama administration, Obama and Department of Justice
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US military warns of Shabaab resurgence, strikes ‘command and logistics node’

June 11, 2017

US military warns of Shabaab resurgence, strikes ‘command and logistics node’, Long War Journal, , June 11, 2017

While announcing an airstrike that targeted a Shabaab “command and logistics node” in southern Somalia, the US military warned of al Qaeda’s resurgence in the country and said it has “taken advantage of safe haven.” The strike is the first announced by the US military since the Trump administration declared that it would expand operations against al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia.

US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, announced that it targeted a “command and logistics node at a camp located approximately 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu in a stronghold for the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab organization” in an airstrike. AFRCOM assessed that eight Shabaab operatives were killed.

AFRICOM’s worrying assessment of Shabaab’s revival in Somalia is an admission that efforts by the US, African Union, and Somali government to contain and defeat the group over the past several years have failed. The US Department of Defense admitted as much in late March, when it announced that the Trump administration approved “additional precision fires” to target Shabaab throughout Somalia.

The Pentagon’s desire to actively target Shabaab reflects the growing concern that al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa is gaining strength despite the presence of both African Union and US forces, and it is plotting to attack the West. Shabaab used a sophisticated laptop bomb in an attempt to down a Somali airliner in 2016. This attack was cited by the US government as one of the reasons that electronics have been banned in the cabins of airplanes departing from 10 airports in the Middle East. [See What’s really behind Trump’s laptop ban.]

Today’s strike is part of an overarching effort to “degrade the al-Qaeda affiliate’s ability to recruit, train and plot external terror attacks throughout the region and in America.”

The AFRICOM statement also acknowledged that African Union and Somali forces have suffered significant losses at the hands of Shabaab:

In the last eight months, al-Shabaab has overrun three African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Forward Operating Bases by amassing large numbers of fighters and attacking in overwhelming numbers. Al-Shabaab has also increased its combat capability by seizing heavy weaponry, armored vehicles, explosives, small arms, ammunition, and other miscellaneous supplies during its operations overrunning Burundian National Defense Forces FOB Leego, Ugandan People’s Defense Force FOB Janaale, and Kenyan Defense Force FOB Ceel Ad.

The terror organization has taken advantage of safe haven. The group has cemented its control [sic] southern and central Somalia, they have used this area to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, and to shelter other radical terrorists.

Shabaab has successfully overrun Somali and African Union bases in the past and inflicted a large number of casualties on troops based there. In Jan. 2016, Shabaab fighters assaulted a base in Al Ade in the south and killed at least 100 Kenyan soldiers. In June 2015, Shabaab killed an estimated 60 Ethiopian soldiers in the south. That same month, Shabaab fighters killed more than 50 Burundi soldiers in Leego.

Shabaab has been resurgent in Somalia since losing ground to a combined African Union and Somali offensive in 2011. The jihadist group has slowly but methodically retaken several towns and villages that it lost, including the coastal town of Marka.

However, Shabaab’s efforts have not been confined to southern and central Somalia. Late last week, Shabaab fighters overran a base manned by Puntland forces in northern Somalia. Upwards of 60 troops were killed and Shabaab seized a large number of weapons and vehicles as well as a quantity of ammunition.

Today’s strike is the first reported by the US military against Shabaab since the Department of Defense announced that it would expand military operations. AFRICOM released a statement on April 17 to refute press reports that US forces launched airstrikes in southwestern Somalia.

Categories: Air strikes, Al Qaeda, Shabaab, Somalia, U.S. Military
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Corruption and Collusion: Obama, Comey, and the Press

June 11, 2017

Corruption and Collusion: Obama, Comey, and the Press, PJ Media, Andrew Klacan, June 11, 2017

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

My point is simply this: when you are listening to Comey, and when you are listening to the news media sanctifying Comey or indeed demonizing Trump, just remember who it is you are listening to: unindicted co-conspirators in an administration that was rotten to the core.

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It now seems clear that Barack Obama was a corrupt machine politician in the worst Chicago mold. He used the IRS to silence his enemies, and the Justice Department to protect his friends. His two major “achievements” — a health care law that doesn’t work and a deal that increased the power and prestige of the terrorist state of Iran — were built on lies to the public and manipulation of the press. And that’s according to his own allies! Only the leftist bias and racial pathology of the media kept his administration from being destroyed by scandal, as it surely would have been had he been a white Republican.

I don’t mention this to bring up old grudges, but for what it says about the current moment and the week just passed. Here’s some of what we recently learned:

Former FBI Director James Comey’s Senate testimony concerning former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s corruption confirmed our worst suspicions about the Obama DOJ. In an apparent attempt to help Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Lynch told Comey to refer to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s abuse of classified material as “a matter” rather than an investigation. And, as we already knew but Comey confirmed, Lynch’s secret tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton so underscored Comey’s sense of her crookedness that the self-serving drama queen Comey actually went around her to publicly declare Hillary guilty-but-not-guilty.

“It won’t get much attention, but that was pretty damning,” said CNN’s John King of Comey’s testimony about Lynch. You can translate “it won’t get much attention” into “we won’t give it much attention.”

But all that was nothing compared to the brutal, nearly 300-page report released last week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a report absolutely blasting the previous Obama AG, Eric Holder. The report details how Holder and the Obama administration labored to cover up the details of the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal — a scandal which, unlike the non-collusion-with-Russia non-scandal, was implicated in the murder of an American law officer. Even the mom of the slain officer couldn’t get the truth out of Holder and his cronies. The report says Holder considered the officer’s family a “nuisance” because they were trying to get him to tell them how exactly the lawman died at the hands of gangsters who were wielding guns Obama’s DOJ had allowed them to buy.

We’ve heard a lot from Comey and the press this week about the precious independence of the Justice Department. And yet Attorney General Holder once said, “I’m still the president’s wing-man, so I’m there with my boy.” Holder was also the first attorney general ever to be held in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents relating to Fast and Furious. And, speaking of obstruction of justice — we were speaking of obstruction of justice, weren’t we? — President Obama asserted executive privilege to make it easier for Holder to keep those docs in the dark. Hey, nothing’s too good for the president’s wingman!

What a sleazy bunch they were! Hiding their corruption behind the color of their skin. Criticized for Fast and Furious in 2011, Holder said: “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.” What a sleazy bunch.

So let’s remember. Obama is the nefarious machine pol who appointed James Comey to head the FBI in the first place. This is the Comey who took no notes when he spoke with Obama, no notes when he questioned Hillary about her emails, no notes, apparently, during the cover-up conversation with Lynch that left him with “a queasy feeling,” but who suddenly began documenting his exchanges with Trump — exchanges that Trump says never happened. This is the Comey who let Hillary off the hook because he somehow knew she didn’t intend to share classified information (a matter that doesn’t exist in the relevant law), but who cannot comment on whether Donald Trump intended to obstruct justice when Trump expressed his hopes about an investigation.

And the Obama administration — this crooked gang of liars and colluders — this is the gang that was deemed “scandal free” by virtually every “mainstream” news outlet. Indeed, investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson had to leave CBS News in large part because CBS would not run her work on Fast and Furious.

My point is not to excuse Trump for any of his inappropriate and sometimes boorish behavior. I hope he learns better. My point is simply this: when you are listening to Comey, and when you are listening to the news media sanctifying Comey or indeed demonizing Trump, just remember who it is you are listening to: unindicted co-conspirators in an administration that was rotten to the core.

Categories: 2016 elections and Russia, Clinton cover ups, Comey and AG Lynch, Comey and Trump, Comey leaks, Comey memos, Comey testifies, Comeygate, Democrats and Comey, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Great Trump - Russia conspiracy, IRS, Loretta Lynch, Media and Obama, Media and Trump, Obama administration, Obama and Department of Justice, Obama obstruction of justice
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Hezbollah Terrorists Caught in US Planning Attack

June 11, 2017

Hezbollah Terrorists Caught in US Planning Attack, ClarionProject, Ryan Mauro, June 11, 2017

New Hezbollah recruits in Lebanon salute during a ceremony (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The pace of jihadist activity has been so intense lately that an incredibly important story has been barely reported on:

Two terrorists belonging to Hezbollah, a puppet of the Iranian and Syrian regimes, have been arrested for planning attacks in the U.S., with one scouting potential targets in New York including JFK International Airport.

Both are citizens who entered, exited and re-entered the U.S.

Although the Iranian and Syrian regimes regularly organize terrorist attacks through its Hezbollah proxy, the plotting of attacks on U.S. soil and on Americans overseas is very significant, but not unprecedented.

The two arrested terrorists are Ali Kourani of the Bronx, New York and Samer El-Debek of Dearborn, Michigan. Each is a well-trained militant who belongs to Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad branch that is tasked with perpetrating terrorist attacks, preferably with some level of deniability.

Yet, under questioning, Ali Kourani explicitly told the FBI in 2016 and 2017 that he was a “sleeper” agent of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad carrying out “black ops” for Hezbollah and “the Iranians.”

His first round of training took place in Lebanon in 2000 when he was only 16-years old. Kourani admitted to the FBI that he was accepted by Hezbollah because his family is connected to a top official in the terrorist group. He said one of his brothers is the “face of Hezbollah” in Yater, Lebanon and boasted that his family’s name is like the “Bin Laden’s of Lebanon.” In other words, his family is famous for being terrorists.

Shockingly, in 2003 (two years after the 9/11 attacks), this member of a famous terrorist family successfully entered the U.S. and became a student. He also went by the names of “Jacob Lewis” and “Daniel.”

In 2008, he then joined Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad branch. Shortly thereafter, he applied for naturalization and became a citizen in April 2009, all the while lying about his connections to terrorism. If his boasts are true, a simple look of his family would have tipped off the U.S. government about who Kourani was.

Kourani predictably lied throughout his process to become a U.S. citizen, including denying any plans to travel overseas when he applied to become a citizen. Only a month after becoming a citizen, he went to Guangzhou, China, on a so-called “business trip” to the location of a medical company that produces chemicals that can be used in bombs. Stolen chemicals from the company were later found in the possession of Iranian terrorists in Thailand planning bombings.

In 2011, Kourani went to Lebanon for a second round of terrorism training in RPG and various firearms. He then came back into the U.S. to use the skills he acquired.

On the orders of his Hezbollah handler, he began identifying and surveilling targets.

According to the criminal complaint, his handler directed him to “surveil and collect information regarding airports, including the layout of terminals, the locations of cameras and personnel, and other security features. In response, Kourani provided detailed information to [his handler] regarding specific security protocols, baggage-screening and collection practices and the locations of surveillance cameras, security personnel, law enforcement officers and magnetometers at JFK and an international airport in another country.”

Some historical context is important here: This is a revival of Iran’s ambitions to target New York’s JFK International Airport. Iran already tried to carry out an attack at the airport once and was preparing to do so again.

The previous plan (in 2007) was to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines going to the airport. The FBI confirms that one of the individuals involved in this plot had links to “militant groups” in Iran and Venezuela and had regularly contact with Iranian authorities.

There were various other Iranian links, including the involvement of an operative who was previously part of an Iran-sponsored bombing in Argentina in 1994.

Kourani also used Google Maps to research LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York (specifically its terminals) in April 2011. He also looked up the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in Queens in February 2013.

Kourani conducted surveillance on a governmental building in Manhattan with FBI offices inside; an Army National Guard office in Manhattan; an Army Armory building in Manhattan and a Secret Service office in Brooklyn.

He looked for people tied to the Israeli military. He was also tasked with making contacts who could provide firearms to Hezbollah operatives in the U.S.

In addition, Hezbollah wanted Kourani to do something in Mexico and Canada. His handler talked about possibly having him fly to one of these countries and cross into the U.S. by land using his passport. Hezbollah has ties to Latin American drug cartels, which may have something to do with the talk of a trip to Mexico.

The surveillance of targets in preparation for expected Hezbollah attacks continued until at least September 2015, as per the complaint.

Like Kourani, Samer El-Debek is a naturalized citizen who belonged to Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad branch. He communicated via email with someone who owned a business in Iran.

El-Debek acted as an agent of the terrorist group from 2007 to September 2016, with his salary growing to over $1,000 per month plus medical expenses. He is a specialist in bomb-making and began confessing to the FBI after Hezbollah accused him of being an American spy and detained him for four months until he falsely admitted to being one.

El-Debek was first trained in 2008 and received four rounds of training total. One round included six days of religious teaching, where a sheikh taught about Islam’s rules and “martyrdom ideology.” His explosives training focused on remotely-detonated bombs.

El-Debek was specifically taught how to make IEDs like the one Hezbollah used on a bus of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in 2012 that killed 6 people and injured 32. He told the FBI that the bomber was his aunt’s nephew.

In 2009, he was sent to Thailand to dispose of bomb ingredients from a Hezbollah safehouse that they believed to have come under surveillance. His cover was that he was traveling to Thailand for paid sex, going so far as to hire a prostitute and to have her enter the safehouse so he could try to discover any surveillance taking place.

In 2011, El-Debek flew to Colombia and entered Panama on a Hezbollah mission to identify gaps in security at the Panama Canal and the Israeli embassy. He returned to Panama in 2012 to identify weaknesses in the Panama Canal’s construction and security gaps and find out how close someone could get to a ship passing through.

He was told to conduct surveillance of the U.S. embassy but did not, fearing it would compromise his mission.

Hezbollah detained El-Debek in December 2015 until April 2016, accusing him of being a U.S. spy and demanding a confession. He eventually did so. Based on the complaint, it appears the detention caused him to open up to the FBI during voluntary questioning (assuming his story is true).

This is only a tiny portion of what Iran and Hezbollah is doing to try to attack targets in the U.S. at home and abroad. This is the experience of only two Hezbollah terrorists we caught.

If this is the scale of what we do know, then what horrors are being planned that we don’t know about?

Categories: Hezbollah in America, Iranian proxies, Islamic immigration, Islamic terrorism, Latin America
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