Turkish artillery in a border garrison near the Yanankey settlement targeting Kurdish positions in Syria. / RT
Turkey continues to shell Kurdish forces in Syria, hampering their operations against Al-Nusra terrorists, and at the same time funneling supplies to the militant-controlled areas at the border, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.
Ankara bears responsibility for the ongoing ceasefire violations in the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, the head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko told journalists at a briefing on March 4.
Militants continue to freely cross the Turkish-Syrian border, Kuralenko noted, presenting the latest reconnaissance video featuring a “large terrorist unit in a forested border area.”
Another video depicted Turkish artillery in a border garrison near the Yanankey settlement targeting Kurdish positions in Syria.
“Artillery shelling of Kurdish militia units, fighting against Nusra Front, continues from the territory of a Turkish border post near Yanankey,” Kuralenko said.
Lt. Gen. also noted that in footage captured by an RT crew who traveled with the Kurdish YPG force in the area, Turkish trucks crossed the Turkish-Syrian border, according to Kuralenko. He said they are carrying supplies and arms exclusively to the territories controlled by Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham terrorist groups.
Turkish activities in the region are undermining the ceasefire and crippling the efforts aimed at launching the inter-Syrian dialogue and bringing peace to Syria, the defense ministry spokesman reiterated.
The ceasefire regime in Syria is being monitored and promoted via special centers set up in Moscow, Washington, Amman and Latakia and Geneva to collect and review information. The Russian center has registered 27 breaches of the ceasefire regime over the last 24 hours, with most of them – eight breaches – occurring in Aleppo, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday. The province of Idlib has seen a total of 7 violations, Damascus and Homs – 4 in each, Daraa – 3, Latakia – 1.
Besides Damascus, almost 100 various armed groups operating in Syria, alongside different regional and international interested parties, have agreed to take part in ceasefire, according to UN Syria special envoy Staffan de Mistura. The groups that don’t obey the ceasefire, including but not limited to ISIS and Al-Nusra, are considered terrorists.
Five more commanders of so-called Syria’s moderate opposition groups agreed to take part in the ceasefire along with the elders of two settlements in the province of Homs just recently, according to the ministry’s statement. Leaders of four other groups may soon join the agreement.
The nationwide ceasefire was implemented on February, 27 at midnight Damascus time. Outlined by the co-chairs of the ISSG (the International Syrian Support Group) US and Russia, it was supported by the United Nations Security Council and is abiding to all parties involved in the conflict. The exceptions are Islamic State group (IS, formely ISIS/ISIL), Al-Nusra, and “other terrorist organizations” as designated by the UN Security Council.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he is not an antisemite. Yet there is a malicious campaign afoot to paint him as one.
Tablet Magazine, for example, has launched a “Trump Watch” series, complete with German Gothic script that is apparently meant to remind readers of antisemitic tabloids in Nazi Germany. Its mission: to show the “daily low-lights of Donald Trump’s attempt to use the dark forces of bigotry to become President.”
The inaugural post cites Louis Farrakhan’s praise for Trump for refusing money from Jews (as he has from virtually everyone, thus far).
The post goes further, and quotes Lloyd Grove’s absurd article at the Daily Beast, in which Breitbart is accused of inciting Twitter trolls to scare Federalist writer Bethany Shondark Mandel, who has never once been attacked by this website. Breitbart News has called on the Daily Beast to retract the article. (No one from Tablet contacted Breitbart News before regurgitating the article’s false innuendo, and wrongly associating Breitbart with bigotry.)
The next edition of Trump Watch links Trump with the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement — though it admits he has nothing to do with it. Actual quote: “Factually, of course, they’ve little in common. But facts don’t matter here because facts don’t always make sense.”
The following Trump Watch hits him for comments about the KKK, whom he had already disavowed. And the next takes up a letter signed by foreign policy experts opposed to Trump’s candidacy, and suggests “maybe something darker is taking place … Republicans with fundamentally authoritarian instincts are beginning to shoot glances at one another and to see their opportunity.”
None of the above is convincing, or even attempts to be. It is aimed at toxifying Trump among potential supporters in the Jewish community and beyond.
Never mind his daughter Ivanka’s Orthodox Jewish conversion, or Trump’s endorsement for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The man, and his supporters, must be demonized.
Take, for instance, Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI), which did outstanding work in trying to stop the Iran deal. You might think Kristol and ECI would acknowledge Trump’s efforts to fight the deal, including his address to a large rally on Capitol Hill last fall.
Instead, ECI has waded into primary politics with a new ad this week claiming that Trump is dangerous for Israel because of his “disturbing affection for anti-American dictators.”
And earlier this week, Nefesh b’Nefesh, a non-profit organization that helps Jews who want to make aliyah (move to Israel), tweeted to Jewish Republicans who oppose Trump that “we’re here if you need us.” The tweet (for which the organization later apologized) was responding to an op-ed in the left-leaning Forward that claimed Jewish Republicans are worried about Trump because of his “nativist working class political movement,” adding that “the Jewish experience with overweening, oversensitive wannabe dictator-chieftains is not a good one.”
The article purported to speak for Jewish Republicans. But there are certainly some who support Trump as well.
There is much to criticize in Trump’s foreign policy, including on Israel. Trump arrived at a Republican Jewish Coalition candidate forum in December poorly prepared to answer policy questions on Israel, and was criticized for making Jewish jokes in a clumsy attempt to bond with the audience.
, his two main rivals, have slammed him repeatedly for saying he would be “neutral” in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Yes, they have misconstrued his remarks, suggesting that he would be neutral towards Israel in general, when he specifically blamed Palestinians for the impasse. But that’s just politics.There’s also an argument to be made, as Ben Shapiro does, that Trump could speak out more forcefully against antisemitism.
All of that is legitimate criticism. The attempt to turn Donald Trump into Hitler is not. It is a game of guilt-by-association, the same nonsense that was unleashed against Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008, when Democrats immediately tried to link her to Nazis.
’s decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his “great courage.”
The smear campaign against Trump comes out of the same playbook. It is not simple fear of populist nationalism. It is being carried out by those who know, or are capable of deducing, that Trump is neither an antisemite nor trying to appeal to antisemites. It is a vendetta by political opponents who are determined to stop Trump and have chosen to use this noxious slander as their weapon.
As with false accusations of racism, it tends to desensitize people to the real thing.
The U.S. Navy sent a small fleet of ships to the South China Sea in recent days as tensions continue to escalate over China’ territorial claims.
The Navy Times reported that the Pentagon has sent the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers, and the 7th Fleet flagship to the South China Sea, according to military officials. The report came on the heels of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s warning to China that the country refrain from “aggressive” actions in the South China Sea.
“China must not pursue militarization in the South China Sea,” Carter said during a speech in San Francisco Tuesday. “Specific actions will have specific consequences.”
When asked about those consequences, Carter mentioned that the U.S. had increased its deployments to the Asia-Pacific region and that it would spend $425 million on exercises and training with countries in the region over the next few years who feel threatened by China.
The cruisers Antietam and Mobile Bay are currently present in the South China Sea, the former conducting a “routine patrol” independent of the Stennis, officials said. The destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockade are also in the region along with the USS Blue Ridge, the command ship for the 7th Fleet, which is en route to the Philippines.
Tensions have escalated in the disputed waters since reports last month that China deployed a surface-to-air-missile system to Woody Island, one of the Paracel Islands, which is claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
The move led Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, to tell lawmakers in February that China is “militarizing” the South China Sea.
U.S. warships have sailed near disputed islands in the region in recent months, asserting their freedom to navigate through international waters, actions that have sparked criticism from China.
In a statement reported Friday, a spokesperson for China’s legislature rejected claims that it was militarizing the South China Sea and instead accused the U.S. of doing so.
“The accusation [that China is militarizing the region] can lead to a miscalculation of the situation,” Fu Ying, the spokesperson, said at a press briefing, according to the South China Morning Post. “If you take a look at the matter closely, it’s the U.S. sending the most advanced aircraft and military vessels to the South China Sea.”
“The U.S. has made it clear that it will deploy 70 per cent of its navy to the Asia-Pacific region under its strategy of pivoting to Asia. The U.S. has stepped up military moves with its alliances and its military presence in the Asia -Pacific region. Isn’t this militarization?” she continued.
The entrance of Zaman headquarters. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Selahattin Sevi)
Turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon on a crowd to forcibly enter the country’s top-selling newspaper on Friday after a court ordered its confiscation.
An İstanbul court appointed trustees to take over the management of the Feza Media Group, which includes Turkey’s biggest-selling newspaper, the Zaman daily, as well as the Today’s Zaman daily and the Cihan news agency, dealing a fresh blow to the already battered media freedom in Turkey.
Police in riot gear pushed back Zaman supporters who stood in the rain outside its İstanbul office where they waved Turkish flags and carried placards reading “Hands off my newspaper” before they were overcome by clouds of tear gas.
Officers then forcibly broke down a gate and rushed into the building. The footage showed them scuffling with Zaman staff inside the offices.
Zaman employees waiting near the entrance said police immediately tear-gassed hundreds of readers who had gathered outside Zaman newspaper to protest the ruling without even delivering the court decision.
Police use bolt cutter to break the steel gate in front of the Zaman building.
Employees shouted ‘free press cannot be silenced,” as hundreds of police officers entered the building. Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Abdülhamit Bilici, who had hard time in speaking due to tear gas that covered inside the building, said the scene will be noted in the Turkish history as a black stain.
Police then went to the management floor in the building. Police initially prevented Bilici from entering his office but they later let him in. Bilici was heard saying he does not recognize the court decision.
Live footage also showed Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Sevgi Akarçeşme being pushed by police. She said a police officer held her arm and tried to take her out of the building. “Police did not let us inside our offices in our own newspaper building! This is pure despotism! They physically blocked me, both men&women,” she tweeted.
A group of opposition deputies who were also present at the building to show support for the daily were also affected by pepper gas.
Police then broke cameras in the building to cut live footage from the building, an employee said. “Throw him off the staircase”, one police shouted at 2nd floor as one editor was pushed down from the stairs, another Zaman employee tweeted.
The employees were later asked to leave the building. “We are evacuating the building. This is probably my last message from my office,” Akarçeşme tweeted after midnight.
The decision was issued by the İstanbul 6th Criminal Court of Peace at the request of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which claimed that the media group acted upon orders from what it called the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure (FETÖ/PDY),” praising the group and helping it achieve its goals in its publications.
The prosecutor also claimed that the alleged terrorist group is cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization to topple the Turkish government and that high-level officials of the two groups have had meetings abroad.
The court decision means that the entire management and the editorial board of Feza Media Group companies will be replaced by the three-member board named by the court.
(Photo: DHA)
A crowd of Zaman and Today’s Zaman journalists, readers and supporters gathered outside Zaman’s headquarters as court-appointed trustees were expected to arrive at any moment.
Zaman Editor-in-Chief Abdülhamit Bilici addressed his colleagues on the grounds of the newspaper, calling the court decision a “black day for democracy” in Turkey as journalists and other newspaper workers held up signs that read: “Don’t touch my newspaper” and chanted “free press cannot be silenced!”
Today, we are experiencing a shameful day for media freedom in Turkey. Our media institutions are being seized,” Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Sevgi Akarçeşme said as she addressed the crowd.
“As of today, the Constitution has been suspended,” she said, referencing to the fact that the Turkish Constitution forbids seizure of printing houses and press equipment.
(Photo: DHA)
Şahin Alpay, a veteran political expert and a columnist for both Zaman and Today’s Zaman, lamented the situation, saying Turkey is having a “dark day” when one of the most prominent media outlets in the country is being confiscated at the order of a political leader.
“It is utterly saddening, particularly for people of my generation, that Turkey is turning into a third-world dictatorship,” Alpay said.
The takeover of Zaman comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the government of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that he founded intensified pressure on the Turkish media. Zaman, which is affiliated with the Gülen movement, is one of the few opposition media outlets in the country, which is dominated by pro-government television stations and newspapers.
Turkey’ satellite provider Türksat halted the broadcast of the independent İMC TV station last week on terrorism charges. Two newspapers and two television stations owned by Koza İpek Holding were placed under the management of a trustee board on charges of financing terrorism in October 2015. Those media outlets were closed down by the trustee board due to financial losses last week.
“This is not a matter of a fight between the government and the [Gülen] movement. This is a matter of existence for Turkey,” columnist Levent Gültekin said as he joined the crowd outside Zaman in a show of solidarity. “Just a few days ago, they pulled the plug on İMC TV for ‘supporting terrorism,’ which is a massive lie.”
An employee of Zaman newspaper holds a chain during a protest at the courtyard of the newspaper in İstanbul, March 4, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)
Erdoğan declared the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, his number one enemy after a corruption investigation in December 2013 that implicated people in his inner circle. He accused alleged sympathizers of the movement within the judiciary and the police of staging a coup against his rule. The corruption charges were dropped after prosecutors of the case were replaced.
According to the court’s decision three trustees were appointed to the Feza Media Group. One of the trustees is Sezai Şengönül, who serves as an editor at a news website. The two others are lawyers are Tahsin Kaplan and Metin İlhan.
İlhan’s social media accounts showed that he is an open supporter of the AK Party and Erdoğan. His personal Twitter account’s background photo shows Erdoğan and Davutoğlu while some of his tweets even included insults at main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists have pitched their camps right next to the border and receive regular supplies from the Turkish side, Syrian Kurdish forces told RT’s Lizzie Phelan, who traveled with YPG to investigate suspicious activity there.
An RT crew has filmed a number of vehicles coming through the Bab al-Salam crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border, on the outskirts of the northern town of Azaz, which is partially controlled by Al-Nusra, according to reports.
“We can actually see here the important border town of Azaz, that Turkey is determined to prevent YPG from taking. Just a little beyond that you can see the Bab al-Salam border crossing and a heavy flow of vehicles coming from Turkey into Azaz,” the RT correspondent said, reporting from the Turkey-Syria border, an area that TV crews rarely gain access to.
“When we zoom in we can see Turkish military vehicles, probably around a kilometer away, maybe less. And just in front here’s another small village that YPG say Al-Nusra uses for training,” Phelan said.
“Beyond that we can see the Turkish flag flying, that’s on the Turkish side of the border, and through there the YPG says they monitor a regular supply of weapons coming from Turkey to that Al-Nusra camp.”
According to the Kurds, after the terror group was excluded from the ceasefire, Al-Nusra have taken down most of their flags, which would give their location away and invite airstrikes. However, the RT crew still managed to film some flags flying above their positions.
YPG are unequivocal about Turkey’s sponsorship of terrorist groups in Syria.
Head of the YPG in Afrin, Abdu Khalil, says Turkey is definitely providing support for terrorist groups in the area.
“Turkey wanted to make a coalition against terrorism, but any country which would be in a coalition against terrorism should not open its border to Al-Nusra Front,” he said.
“When there is a Kurdish prisoner, when he is in Turkish hands, they deliver him to Al-Nusra Front, whereas a wounded man from Islamic State who is in a Turkish hospital: he gets immunity and guards. No one can even look at him. What more evidence do you want than that?”
Ankara says its direct strikes against the YPG are justified due to its links with the Turkish-based militant group the PKK, which Turkey has recently resumed its war against at home.
The rebel fighters on the ground say they are certain Turkey is providing assistance to IS, Al-Qaeda and Al Nusra.
“The reason Turkey is on the ground is to support groups like Al-Qaeda. Support for ISIS is coming from Turkey. They are shelling because it wants to occupy our land, not to help our people. Turkey dismissed many of the armed groups, and supported Al Nusra against us,” Abu Jouma Benawii, a general in the FSA and co-founder of Jaish al-Thuwar (Army of Revolutionaries), told RT.
“Our fronts against the regime have stopped, but our fronts against ISIS are going on and against Al Nusra as well. We are committed to the ceasefire, one million percent,” he added.
Asked if he would have changed his mind about joining the uprising, Abu Jouma Benawii said in hindsight: “Really I would have changed my mind, because everybody contributed to destroying Syria, at the beginning and the end it is only the people who lose.”
“Had we known that Syria’s friends would be like this, we wouldn’t have been with them. All our people were forced to flee,” he added.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said Turkey has the right to carry out military operations not only in Syria, but in any other country hosting terror groups that threaten the Turkish state. He alleged that Ankara’s stance has “absolutely nothing to do with the sovereignty rights of the states that can’t take control of their territorial integrity.”
“On the contrary, this has to do with the will Turkey shows to protect its sovereignty rights,” Erdogan added.
Turkish forces have been shelling YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization, as well as government army positions in Syria, since mid-February. The bombings of YPG targets, the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have been underway despite the US, Ankara’s ally, viewing the Kurdish fighters as a vital partner in fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
There were reports of dozens of Turkish military vehicles crossing into Kurdish northern Syria, with servicemen digging trenches in the area. Turkey’s “provocative” military buildup on the border and shelling of the Syrian territory could thwart the fragile truce and disrupt the peace process in the Arab Republic, the head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko said this week.
The ceasefire in Syria, which came into force on February 27, brokered by leading world powers, including the US and Russia, is designed to pave the way to reconciliation between the Syrian government and moderate rebel forces. They would together agree on a peaceful transition in the country. Some of the forces in Syria, including IS and Al-Nusra, are not subject to the ceasefire.
Experts have been criticizing moderate rebel forces, but even they think that the situation is shifting now.
Moderate rebels used to be “a fable, a pure lie,” Syrian political analyst Taleb Ibrahim told RT.
“Everyone remembers what happened to the rebels who had been trained in Turkish camps by the CIA, and when they returned to Syria, and turned to Al-Nusra Front”.
However, the situation is starting to change slowly, as more and more Syrian rebel fighters “discover that they are destroying their country and serving external plans to divide Syria.”
Russian aircraft continue to carry out airstrikes against Al-Nusra front militants to “stabilize the situation” in the regions north of the city of Aleppo, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
There have been at least 31 violations of the Syrian ceasefire over the past three days, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that during the same period the number of local ceasefire agreements between various factions had increased to 38.
Did the state department declare now Turkey as a criminal state ?
The State Department issued a new Worldwide Caution on Thursday that warned about the ongoing terrorist threat to U.S. citizens across the world from groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.
“Current information suggests that ISIL, al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions,” the State Department said in a release updating the Worldwide Caution, using another name for ISIS.
“Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that U.S. citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. ”
The new alert replaced a previous alert issued in July of last year, months before ISIS launched terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people last November. Authorities believe that ISIS continue to plot attacks against U.S. and Western interests worldwide, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Asia, the new alert stated.
The State Department warning cited major terrorist attacks that have been carried out in France, Belgium, Mali, Turkey, and other countries, and emphasized that U.S. citizens are at risk of kidnapping by operatives from ISIS, al Qaeda, and other groups. It noted that terrorists targeting U.S. citizens at home and abroad generally focus on places that attract crowds, including sporting events, hotels, restaurants, and public transportation systems.
“Extremists may use conventional or non-conventional weapons and target both official and private interests,” the State Department warning said. “Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, shopping malls, and other tourist destinations both in the United States and abroad where U.S. citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.”
The alert included information about threats in various regions, including Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and parts of Asia. It noted that “credible information” indicated that all countries in Europe are “vulnerable” to attacks from terrorist organizations.
“Authorities believe there is a high likelihood terror attacks in Europe will continue as European members of ISIL return from Syria and Iraq. European governments are taking action to guard against terrorist attacks; however, all European countries remain potentially vulnerable,” the warning said.
The agency also reminded U.S. citizens that it is a crime to provide support to terrorist groups like ISIS.
“Private U.S. citizens are strongly discouraged from traveling to any country to join in armed conflict. U.S. citizens are reminded that fighting on behalf of or providing other forms of support to designated terrorist organizations, including ISIL, can constitute the provision of material support for terrorism, which is a serious crime that can result in penalties including prison time and large fines,” the alert warned.
American citizens have been arrested for attempting to join or provide material support to ISIS. More than 200 Americans have tried to fight for ISIS, the head of the FBI said in 2015.
On May 31, 2010, there was an historic confrontation between the Israeli Navy and six ships sailing from Turkey, seeking to blow up the internationally-recognized legal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Starting the very morning of the incident, Sidney Blumenthal began emailing Hillary Clinton, haranguing her to treat this grave tragedy as a whip with which to lash Israel.
Blumenthal also sent screeds written by his unhinged son Max, who insisted that the entire incident was orchestrated in advance by a bloodthirsty Israel as a means to blow up the peace process.
But this confrontation, known as the Mavi Marmara raid – after the lead Turkish ship – or as the Gaza Flotilla built to a crescendo when the IHH-terrorists aboard the ship ignored repeated warnings to change course and steer towards the Israeli coastal town of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. When the ships refused to heed the directions, elite IDF naval commandos were lowered from helicopters by ropes, onto the ship’s deck.
As soon as the Israelis landed aboard the Mavi Marmara, they were attacked by demonstrators who used clubs to beat them, as well as knives. Weapons were also stripped from the Israeli soldiers, and used against them. One soldier was thrown over the deck.
By the time the attack ended, seven IDF soldiers were wounded and nine Turkish citizens were killed when off-board soldiers came to their colleagues’ rescue.
Eight out of the nine who died aboard the ship were later identified as members of Turkish Islamist organizations. Half of those killed had written wills or informed others that they sought to die as martyrs. Not a single human rights activist were among the victims on May 31, as they all stayed below deck, choosing not to join in the fracas with the antagonists carrying an array of weapons.
Weapons taken from the Mavi Marmara. May 31, 2010.
Closer view of some weapons removed from the Mavi Marmara. May 31, 2010.
Early that very afternoon, Blumenthal père wrote to Clinton, viciously comparing the Flotilla raid to the 1976 Entebbe raid, in which Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother, Yoni, was tragically killed despite the complete success otherwise.
“The raid on the ship to Gaza resembles the raid on Entebbe, except that there are no hostages, no guns, it’s not in Africa, and it’s a fiasco; otherwise, it’s Entebbe,” Blumenthal wrote to Clinton. He went on, warning Clinton that the international press will want to know how the U.S. is going to respond to Israel’s calamitous actions, and pointed out that the U.S. shouldn’t look as though it was secretly supporting Israel on this.
Finally, Blumenthal pointed out the likelihood of harm to the peace process and to embarrassment to Obama just on the eve of Netanyahu’s visit. Blumenthal then suggestively asks, “Or are the Israelis bone stupid? I don’t think so. Cheers, Sid.” In other words, this is what the Israelis intended.
Clinton forwarded this email to her deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, with an “FYI” and “ITYS” notation.
By the next morning, Blumenthal had written a seven-point memo to Clinton suggesting ways in which she and the United States should respond to the flotilla incident. Amongst other points, he told her that “someone in authority needs to read Israel the riot act”; Michael Oren should be given the “full dress Biden treatment”; that the “Gaza embargo is obviously wildly counterproductive,” which “has to end” and that end “should begin now.”
In this same memo to Clinton, Blumenthal told her that U.S. approaches to Hamas “should be more open.” And he makes very clear that the U.S. must distance itself from Israel, stressing that: “The US should not be in the business of reinforcing Israeli propaganda on the incident. No assistance should be provided on its public diplomacy.”
Over the next few days Blumenthal sent Clinton at least a half dozen more emails about the Mavi Marmara incident. Every Blumenthal memo contained either his own thoughts or articles on the incident, each of which placed all of the blame squarely and unequivocally on Israel.
During this same time period Max Blumenthal wrote a hit piece (with several more to come), claiming the violence was planned in advance by the Israelis. He refused to even consider what turned out to be the truth, that the violence was caused by the weapons-carrying terrorists and their supporters, all of whom were trying to break a blockade that even the UN has said was legal, and with the Israeli response only escalating in response to the brutally bludgeoning of their troops as they boarded the ship.
Four days after the Mavi Marmara incident, Sid Blumenthal sent Hillary Clinton four articles. One was by his son, another was titled “Israel as a Strategy Liability?” a third from the Washington Post: “The U.S. Needs to Keep Nudging Israel on a Gaza Fix,” another by a Jewish critic of Israel, “Operation Make the World Hate Us,” and the final, a letter to the New York Times from a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, also castigating Israel for the incident.
Did Clinton actually listen to Blumenthal? Although Blumenthal had direct email access to the-then Secretary of State, maybe he was just writing to a blank wall.
We know that isn’t true, because dozens of times Clinton either responded directly to Blumenthal, or forwarded on his emails to others, asking them to “please print” or “fyi” or to “forward without headers.”
Sometimes Clinton initiated the contacts. Occasionally she asked personal questions of Blumenthal or wished him a “mazel tov” – on his mother’s marriage – or told him how “moving” she found Max Blumenthal’s article about a murdered Palestinian Arab (who was, by the way, killed by other Arabs, but you’d never know that from the bulk of the article which went on and on about the horrors of the “occupation”), or discussed plans for dinner in Georgetown, or asked how well Max’s (viciously anti-Israel) book was faring.
Just one more example of the close relationship between Hillary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal follows.
Just after midnight on May 31, 2010, Blumenthal sent Clinton yet another email, this one with an article from an Israeli newspaper, detailing yet another stage of the Obama-Netanyahu lack-of-love-fest. Clinton wrote back to Blumenthal at 6:58 a.m. the next morning, asking: “Are you up? Can I call?” to which Blumenthal replied an hour later: “Call anytime. Sid.”
Later that same morning, Blumenthal sent another quick email to Clinton, this one entitled, “one more quick thought.” The body of the memo contained just ten words: “Without ‘tough love,’ any support for Israel will lack credibility.”
And it’s true — Sid’s love for Israel comes through loud and clear in all of his emails to the Secretary. And her appetite for the emails, and for Blumenthal’s take on every aspect of Middle East policy, tells American pro-Israel voters everything they need to know about the Israel policy that would be followed by a Hillary Clinton administration. It’s all there in black, white and REDACTED.
Senior Iranian officials this week accused the Obama administration of failing to uphold its end of the nuclear agreement, saying that the Islamic Republic has not been given full access to international banking tools.
The Iranian leaders “lashed out” at the United States in their comments and maintained that the Islamic Republic continues to have many disagreements with the Obama administration, according to remarks published in the country’s state-controlled media.
“Our differences with the U.S. have remained in place,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a key figure in the nuclear discussions, said Wednesday in front of reporters in Tehran.
“They have not been resolved yet,” Zarif added, explaining that the implementation of the nuclear deal has not soothed relations between Washington and Tehran.
The comments come on the heels of an election in Iran that ushered in a large number of hard-line candidates who hold anti-American views. The Obama administration has declined to comment on the outcome.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, also accused the U.S. of failing to uphold the nuclear agreement.
“After the deal, Iran fully implemented its end of the bargain. Unfortunately, other parties are yet to fully commit themselves to the deal and reciprocate,” Larijani said Wednesday during a meeting in Tehran with Romania’s foreign minister.
Larijani took aim at the United States and other Western governments for not moving quickly enough to grant Iran access to international banks and other markets.
This “delayed compliance” by the West has prevented Iran from moving forward “with its policies and plans to normalize and expand economic, trade, and banking ties with its international partners,” Larijani said, according to the state-controlled Fars News Agency.
When asked to comment on the rhetoric, a State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon that Iran’s comments are misleading and that the U.S. has upheld all of its responsibilities under the deal.
“In exchange for the [International Atomic Energy Agency]-verified completion of Iran’s nuclear steps, we have taken all of the necessary steps to lift the nuclear-related sanctions we committed to lift on Implementation Day,” the official said.
Final vote tallies published following last Friday’s election in Iran show that a large number of hard-line candidates won seats in Iran’s parliament and on its powerful Assembly of Experts, which will install the next Ayatollah.
Obama administration officials continue to tell reporters that they are reserving judgment until more is known about the election results.
While regional experts do not expect the election to spark greater moderation in Tehran, those elected support the nuclear deal, particularly the $150 billion received in sanctions relief.
“The recent elections solidify the support for the deal in the Islamic Republic. Even though the candidate field was rigged, the results were a clear signal that the majority of Iranians approve of the nuclear agreement and expect improvements to their economic situations from it,” said Amir Toumaj, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“The most prominent radical members of parliament who opposed the agreement and impeded President [Hassan] Rouhani’s economic policies were voted out, and the radicals who have seats in the next parliament generally support the deal,” Tourmaj said. “The parliament results, however, are far from clear, as roughly 20 percent of seats will go to runoffs due in April. Rouhani can find a more cooperative parliament to pass his economic policies, though it wouldn’t necessarily be smooth sailing.”
Some U.S. lawmakers also expressed concern about the elections.
“Until Iran stops being the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, militarily propping up Assad the butcher in Syria, and spreading violence and instability throughout the Middle East, all this talk about ‘reformers’ taking hold in Tehran seems premature,” Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), a vocal opponent of the Iranian regime, told the Free Beacon earlier this week. “What’s more, some newly-elected ‘reformers’ seem anything but moderate, such as Kazim Jalali, who called for the death penalty against leaders of the Green Movement in 2011.”
Moscow was amused by the top NATO General’s claims that it is using the refugee crisis as a “weapon” against the West, with the Defense Ministry’s spokesman saying such rhetoric reaffirms concerns of Breedlove’s apparent dislocation of memory.
In front of the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, top NATO General Philip Breedlove accused Moscow of siding with the Syrian President and deliberately fueling the displacement of Syrians.
“Together, Russia and the Assad regime are deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve,” Breedlove told the committee.
Insisting that the influx of migrants to Europe benefited Moscow, Breedlove noted that foreign militants who have been fighting in Syria are now returning back home, where they might use their battlefield skills.
Breedlove added that the alleged strategy was used by both Russian and Syrian presidents to create a distraction for the western countries that have been busy tackling the crisis and did not notice its root cause: “Indiscriminate weapons used by both Bashar al-Assad, and the non-precision use of weapons by the Russian forces.”
Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov called the latest allegations a “recurrence” of the NATO general’s traditional rhetoric which only reaffirms concerns about Breedlove’s “memory dislocation.”
“Taking into account that such recurrence of the ‘sunshine of the spotless mind’ appeared right before the scheduled meeting of the Armed Services Committee, there is no wonder that a decision has been made by the US congressmen to replace him on his post of the Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Joint Force in Europe,” Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov once again pointed out that Moscow could not have possibly been the reason for the refugee crisis, which began long before Russia launched its anti-terror operations in Syria. And unlike the anti-ISIS coalition, Russia’s operations in Syria have alleviated the refugee crisis in the country and led to the first step of the establishment of a peace-making process, Konashenkov added.
“Essential is the fact that as a results of the Russian operation, the UN is registering the reduction of refugee flows from Syria and a process of reconciliation has been initiated, which is something the Western so-called “anti-ISIS coalition” has been unable to achieve over the previous three years of their “fight” against terrorism,” Konashenkov stated.
Responding to the “indiscriminate” and “non-precision” bombing claims, Konashenkov reminded the NATO general that precision of airstrike depends not only on smart weapons, but also on proper intelligence, pilot’s skills and aiming systems of the aircraft.
“Sole reliance on ‘supersmart’ or ‘superprecision’ weapons leads American hawks to tragic mistakes with fatal consequences, as it was repeatedly observed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and since recently – in Syria,” Konashenkov said.
Sen. Marco Rubio is plotting to take the Republican nomination away from Donald Trump using surreptitious tactics at a so-called “brokered convention,” according to an audio recording of his campaign manger in a private meeting with high dollar donors in Manhattan obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.
Last Wednesday evening in New York, according to CNN, Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan met privately with a group of supporters and top donors to chart Rubio’s path forward heading into Super Tuesday after abysmal performances from the first-term Florid Senator so far. During the meeting, Sullivan walked Rubio’s money men through the scenario he envisions he will use to stop Trump.
An audio recording of Sullivan giving the powerpoint presentation obtained exclusively by Breitbart News shows Sullivan plotting for a brokered convention.
“That is – I know if you watch the cable shows, they’re pretty breathless right about now that this is it, nothing is stopping Donald Trump,” Sullivan says at the opening of his remarks on aiming for brokered convention. “He can’t be stopped. He has got more momentum, this is it. It is over.”
But, Sullivan argued in the pre-Super Tuesday session: “5.3 percent of the delegates allocated in this thing. We have 94.7 percent remaining. You need to get to 1,237 delegates to win this thing.”
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO RECORDING:
The presentation came the day after Trump destroyed the rest of the field in Nevada among every demographic including Hispanics. Rubio finished more than 20 percent behind Trump, getting only 7 delegates—half of Trump’s 14 delegates. That was an embarrassing finish for Rubio, who spent much of his childhood in Las Vegas and emphasized the Silver State, campaigning there heavily throughout the course of 2015 and early 2016. That bad finish for Rubio came after three previous disappointments.
On Feb. 1, Rubio finished in third in Iowa with just 23 percent of the vote. He pulled in 7 delegates, the same amount Trump’s second place with 24 percent won the national frontrunner and one fewer than Iowa caucuses winner
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) who got 8 delegates there. In New Hampshire, Trump’s astounding 35 percent victory—20 points better than Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s 15 percent—won Trump 11 delegates. Kasich got 4, Cruz won 3 with an 11.7 percent third place finish, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush beat Rubio out for fourth place winning 3 delegates. Rubio’s abysmal fifth place finish with just 10.6 percent won him only 2 New Hampshire delegates.
A couple weeks later in South Carolina, Rubio similarly failed to meet expectations. Even with the Palmetto State’s governor, Nikki Haley,
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) campaigning for him—and Sullivan hailing from South Carolina—Rubio failed to win the state after his team was previously telling people he’d finish in third in Iowa, second in New Hampshire and first in South Carolina, his 3-2-1 strategy. Trump’s definitive 32.5 percent victory there won him all 50 delegates in South Carolina, and Rubio came up empty as did everyone else.
Sullivan argued in the meeting in Manhattan that according to South Carolina exit polling, late deciders in these primaries are breaking for Rubio in a big way—so it’s not time to throw in the towel just yet. Exit polling from Virginia on Super Tuesday seemed to back that point up, but again like South Carolina—it was too little too late and Rubio lost to Trump.
“This is the exit polling in South Carolina, just kind of to give you a little – kind of a snapshot of the public,” Sullivan told the donors.
All of these states, when you start to looking at it, they close quickly at the end. People start paying attention, voters – there’s a big difference between a voter’s position on who they support and who they’re going to vote for two weeks before the election, a week before the election, a day before the election. That’s when it matters. We start to see here – and this is voters who decide in the last week who they are going to support, 28 percent chose Marco Rubio. On the electability, that was 47 percent. That is an angle we’re pushing hard because we know that we are the best candidate to beat Hillary, or Bernie. We are confident about that, and we know the voters are confident about that and they want him to win.
Sullivan added that this trend has been seen around the country. “That 28 percent close in the final week, that’s indicative of what we saw in Iowa and then, to a lesser extent in New Hampshire, obviously, that was not a good state for us – had a bad run there,” Sullivan said.
When Sullivan was giving this presentation, the final delegate counts from Nevada had not yet been totaled. But heading into Super Tuesday, Trump had 82 delegates while Cruz had 17 delegates and Rubio had 16 delegates. While the totals aren’t yet completely tabulated for Super Tuesday, Rubio—by any calculation—fared especially poorly since he failed to hit the 20 percent threshold statewide in Texas meaning he only will from there win a handful of delegates from congressional districts in which he topped 20 percent.
Rubio similarly failed in Alabama, winning just 1 of 50 delegates up for grabs—and the first term Florida senator only one won state, a victory in Minnesota. That prompted comparisons between Rubio and Walter Mondale, with some calling him “Marco Mondale” since the 1984 Democratic presidential candidate against incumbent President Ronald Reagan won only Minnesota and no other U.S. States. The unfortunate turn of events for Rubio also undercuts his carefully crafted image as the standard bearer of the next generation of Reagan’s legacy, since Rubio has only won where Reagan lost.
Back then, while publicly projecting that they could potentially beat Trump in a race to 1,237 delegates to win outright, Sullivan had already signaled that the race is about trying to broker the convention. At such a brokered convention, Sullivan’s plan to help swing it for Rubio even if Rubio has fewer delegates than Trump is to convince the delegates to back Rubio on a second ballot—where they would be technically unbound—and thereby essentially take the nomination away from Trump, its rightful winner if he has the most delegates.
“What this really comes down to, this race going forward on these delegates, is a race to get the most delegates at convention,” Sullivan said in the private Manhattan meeting.
If nobody gets to 50 percent of the delegates, if nobody gets to 1,237, then there’s a floor fight and delegates in most of these states, every state has different rules on these delegates, most of these states – the delegates are no longer bound after the first ballot. So if nobody has 50 percent, they do a perfunctory ballot, no one gets there. No one gets to 1,237, and then the vast majority of the next round of voting are free agents.
Sullivan further explained who the delegates actually are, and how they’re not people loyal to Trump in any way—but really party insiders.
“The interesting thing without getting too far into the weeds of these delegates is – you know, a little over 95 percent of the [inaudible], the delegates aren’t selected by the campaigns,” Sullivan said.
Donald Trump doesn’t choose his delegates for the national convention, I don’t choose Marco Rubio’s, Ted Cruz doesn’t choose his. These are people –in many cases who have already started the process, they ran on a slate at their precinct, then it was GOP conventions, then at their state conventions, to become a delegate for the national convention. Some of you I know have been delegates in the national convention here, different way, different state, it’s a pretty laborious process. It is generally not someone who just – a casual voter if you will, or someone who is just suddenly energized. These are people who have been involved in the process for a long time, have relationships with other activists, because you’re elected at your state convention. So why that’s important—and I know I’m side tracking, but this is an important [point]—when you show up at the convention, if I just say, ‘I want to go to Cleveland, because well it’s a fun place to go hangout in July—thank you Reince Priebus. After I spend 15 minutes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.’ Most of the people go to these conventions because they believe in the Republican Party, they believe in a core set of issues, they’ve been doing this for a while.
In continuing to explain it, Sullivan even admitted that the debate audiences have been stacked against Trump and for Rubio—something the Rubio campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have repeatedly denied.
“Most of them it’s not their first time: these are repeat delegates,” Sullivan said.
None of them look like a Donald Trump supporter. None of them look like a Donald Trump supporter. So my point in this little deviation here is: should this go to the convention, that’s a real problem for Donald Trump because he’s got to start persuading these same—the people that he’s getting booed at, that he’s talking about these debates that he’s mocking, you know what those are? You know what I like to call them? Delegates.
In this pre-Super Tuesday presentation by Sullivan, the Rubio campaign manager also made some fairly bold predictions that his boss fell well short of on election day. First, while he was right when he predicted that Cruz would win Texas, he was wrong about predicting a bounce for both second and third place finishers.
“Cruz will win Texas, which will be the biggest prize on March 1, but even with his win—first place finish—in Texas, he is not going to get the kind of bounce out of that … because the second place person in the state of Texas is going to get delegates, and the third place person in Texas is going to get delegates,” Sullivan said.
And that’s what matters. Whoever wrote the memos, it looks great to see Rubio in first place, second place, third place or fourth or fifth or all the way down on election night. What really matters is how many delegates do they have? That’s what is most important. And so to that point: we – coming in third in Texas, that should get you a lot of delegates. And then going over and playing in other states that matter more: Virginia is not proportional by congressional district; that’s a smart place to win. We’ve gone through this map and I don’t mean we’ve gone through this map in the last few weeks.
Cruz did win Texas, and he won it big with nearly 44 percent of the vote. While all of Texas’ 155 delegates haven’t yet been apportioned according to Politico, Cruz currently has 99 delegates there. Trump, who finished in second with nearly 27 percent, pulled down as of Wednesday afternoon 38 delegates. Rubio, as of Wednesday afternoon, got just 4 delegates since he missed the mark of 20 percent statewide to win a proportional share of the state delegates and only reached 20 percent in a couple congressional districts to pick up the scraps.
That may change, but not significantly, as the state’s final 14 delegates are apportioned. Rubio missed the 20 percent mark elsewhere throughout the country on Super Tuesday as well, earning just 1 delegate in Alabama thanks to a congressional district he hit 20 percent in for instance.
Rubio also lost Virginia to Trump despite Sullivan’s prediction nearly a week before Super Tuesday that is “a smart place to win.” Trump’s 34.7 percent in Virginia earned him 17 delegates, while Rubio’s second place 31.9 percent earned him 16 delegates.
Rubio failed to win Oklahoma, too, despite his campaign predicting he would win there–not place or show–according to Bloomberg News. In Oklahoma, Rubio placed third with just 26 percent winning only 11 delegates. Cruz’s 34.4 percent won the state–and 14 delegates–while Trump’s 28.3 percent won got the businessman 12 delegates.
Rubio underperforming in even accumulating delegates in proportional states makes it even more difficult for him to come back form the brink later in the game, or to broker the convention. The delegate count currently stands at 319 for Trump, 226 for Cruz, 110 for Rubio and 25 for Kasich. There’s a handful more Super Tuesday delegates to be apportioned in Vermont, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Tennessee.
Sullivan, in his donor meeting, also laid out that Rubio has been planning to run for president since right after he got into the U.S. Senate, something that may explain Rubio’s serious delinquency as a U.S. Senator. Rubio has the worst attendance record—for voting and for committee hearings, including hearings regarding matters of national security—of any member of the U.S. Senate at this time. A senior adviser to Trump, Stephen Miller, even went so far on Wednesday to suggest that Rubio has “defrauded” the taxpayers of Florida and should repay his salary of more than $1 million over his time in the Senate back to the treasury with interest.
Part of Rubio’s delinquency as a Senator seems to be because, as Sullivan reveals in this private Manhattan donor meeting, that he’s been running for president for years—and that Sullivan, while working for Rubio even before he senator announced his campaign, was tasked with pulling together plans for the senator to run.
“I’ve worked for Marco now for five years,” Sullivan said.
It’s the longest I’ve worked—I’ve been running these campaigns my entire life – it’s the longest I’ve worked for any candidate exclusively. This isn’t something that we’ve started taking lightly, I fully believe that you don’t wake up one day and decide to start running for president and then start an organization. So it was my job to start thinking of these things years ago and start planning this, should he want to make that decision, so that he was ready on day one. So little – probably about a year and a half ago, right after the November election, I was prepared. And I sat down, with a Power Point presentation—actually 20 times as long as this, actually more than 20 times as long as this—but with some of these same slides, walking through.
Rubio’s campaign has not responded to a request for comment.
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