Leaked Western intel dossier reveals how China deceived the world about coronavirus - Nick Givas, Samuel Chamberlain

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by Nick Givas, Samuel Chamberlain

"China's secrecy amounted to an “assault on international transparency"

A research dossier compiled by the so-called "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance states that China intentionally hid or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak, leading to the loss of tens of thousands of lives around the world

The 15-page document from the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, was obtained by Australia's Saturday Telegraph newspaper and states that China's secrecy amounted to an “assault on international transparency."

TIMELINE OF CHINA'S POSSIBLE CORONAVIRUS COVER-UP

The dossier touches on themes that have been discussed in media reports about the outbreak of the virus, including an initial denial by China that the virus could be transmitted between humans, the silencing or "disappearing" of doctors who tried to speak up, the destruction of evidence in laboratories and refusal to provide live samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.

Specifically, the file notes that China began censoring news of the virus on search engines and social media beginning Dec. 31, deleting terms including “SARS variation," “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”

Three days later, on Jan. 3, China’s National Health Commission ordered virus samples to be either moved to designated testing facilities or destroyed, while simultaneously issuing a "no-publication order" related to the disease.

The Saturday Telegraph report includes a timeline of Chinese obfuscation. On Jan. 5, for example, Wuhan's Municipal Health Commission stopped releasing daily updates on the number of new cases and would not resume them for 13 days. On Jan. 10, Wang Guanga, a respiratory specialist at Peking University First Hospital who had been investigating the outbreak, said it was "under control" and largely a "mild condition." (Wang himself would disclose 12 days later that he had been infected with the virus.)

Two days later, on Jan. 12, a Shanghai professor's lab was closed down after it shared data on the virus' genetic sequence with the outside world. On Jan. 24, Chinese officials stopped the Wuhan Institute of Virology from sharing virus samples with a lab at the University of Texas.

Perhaps most damningly, the dossier states that Chinese authorities denied that the virus could be spread between humans until Jan. 20, "despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December."

The file is similarly unsparing about the World Health Organization (WHO), stating that it toed the Chinese line about human-to-human transmission despite the fact that "officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on January 4.”
As of Friday night, the WHO's official Twitter account still featured a tweet from Jan. 14 that stated: "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

The dossier goes on to state that throughout February, "Beijing [pressed] the US [sic], Italy, India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours [sic] and others not to protect themselves via travel restrictions, even as [China] impose[d] severe restrictions at home."

At the same time, the file states: "Millions of people [left] Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing lock[ed] down the city on January 23."

The dossier continues with a litany of Chinese defensiveness, stating: “As EU [European Union] diplomats prepare a report on the pandemic, [China] successfully presses Brussels to strike language on [China] disinformation."

Similarly, “As Australia calls for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, [China] threatens to cut off trade with Australia. [China] has likewise responded furiously to US [sic] calls for transparency.”

WHO HAUNTED BY JANUARY TWEET SAYING CHINA FOUND NO HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF CORONAVIRUS

The Saturday Telegraph report does present one apparent point of divergence between the allied governments, with Australia believing the coronavirus most likely originated in the Wuhan wet market and putting the chances it accidentally leaked from a lab at "5 percent."

By contrast, Fox News reported April 15 that U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly confident that coronavirus likely originated in a Wuhan lab as a consequence of China's attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States

President Trump said Thursday that he's seen evidence suggesting the virus came from a lab after Fox News and others asked if he knew of anything that gave him confidence that the outbreak originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"Yes, I have," he replied, "And, I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China."

Multiple sources previously told Fox News that it is believed standards in Wuhan were disregarded before the virus leaked, prompting Beijing to initiate a cover-up. Sources also claimed the WHO was complicit from the beginning in helping China cover its tracks.

The WHO and China have denied any wrongdoing.

The Saturday Telegraph also reported that key figures at the Wuhan Institute of Virology previously worked or trained in Australian government labs where they conducted research on pathogens in live bats as part of an ongoing partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to the dossier, the team's work at the Wuhan lab involved discovering samples of coronavirus within a cave in Yunnan province and synthesizing a bat-derived coronavirus that could not be cured.

Fox News' Bret Baier and Louis Casiano contributed to this report 


Nick Givas, Samuel Chamberlain

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/new-dossier-condemns-china-for-destroying-evidence-of-covid-19-outbreak

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China Committed an Act of War - William L. Gensert

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by William L. Gensert

China chose to remain silent and allow the contagion to spread throughout the world.

Xi and the CCP thugs running China committed a deliberate act of war the moment they banned air travel from Wuhan to all other Chinese cities while allowing international flights to proceed unmolested to the far corners of the globe. They did this despite knowing those flights out of China comprised desperate souls escaping a homegrown pandemic and a communist regime willing to let them die to save face. It was an artificial diaspora intended to seed humanity with the Xi Plague.

It has been shown that ChiVid-19 came from a "wolf" bat, a particular type of bat not sold in the Wuhan "wet" market located mere feet from China's only level 4 research lab — a lab that, coincidentally, was studying various strains of coronavirus.

Did China deliberately unleash COVID-19? I doubt it. Hanlon's Razor dictates that one should never put off to malice what can be explained more easily by incompetence. No, COVID-19 is not a deliberately created biological weapon. While the infectious nature is perfect, its kill rate is minimal, rendering it marginal as a weapon of war. The actual weapons being worked on in China's labs are likely much more deadly.

The WuFlu was a viral study gone awry — an accident that escaped the lab because although China is a first-world manufacturer, it is a third-world country with a per capita income not much greater than Botswana's. China is a nation where tens of millions of people still live in caves and half the population still does not have indoor plumbing or toilets.

Once the virus was out, China had a choice. It could seal the borders to protect humanity and fight to halt its progression in China, which would mean that China alone would bear the brutal economic costs. It did shut down much of its economy for a month while it isolated the disease and learned from it. Or it could remain silent and share with innocents the world over the misery it had created.

For most people not living in a mercantilist, authoritative dictatorship, it would be an easy decision. Few civilized human beings would choose to make millions pay for their own mistakes, much less seek a means to not only make others suffer, but to profit from their suffering.

China needed time. With the first case in the city of Wuhan on November 17, the country used the ensuing six weeks to learn exactly what it had and how it could be turned to China's advantage. China kept mum long enough to acquire sufficient knowledge to understand the parameters of the pandemic.

What the Chinese discovered in that time is exactly what we in the West had discovered during the previous six weeks. Although ignored by the Dem-left-media cabal, the virus presents as extremely contagious, while, for the vast majority of those afflicted, it exhibits asymptomatically and results in a kill ratio between 1 and 3 out of every 10,000 infected. Those deaths almost entirely comprise people over 65 and suffering from other morbidities, such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and poor lifestyle choices.

Opportunity Knocks

Pretend you are Xi. You have used the years since you rose to power to consolidate and eliminate rivals and enemies. You have become the "capo di tutti capi" of the mafia-like CCP. But it is not all lollipops and rainbows, especially since America elected a new president not terrified of his own shadow and willing to see China for what it is and act accordingly. Your economy has suffered under Trump and his insistence that China play fair, keep its word, and not cheat on every deal and promise it makes.

Your scientists tell you the Wuhan Flu is a pandemic candidate that infects many but kills few. As an added benefit for a nation soon to have the oldest population on Earth, it kills primarily the old and infirm. Bingo! Who's better than you? Your country is suffering dramatically from an aggressive American president who called you on your game and acted on your thievery, unfair trade practices, and all around "China wins, and everyone else loses" attitude.

You could take the hit, bear the additional damage the WuFlu will do to an already suffering economy at the hands of the American dogs in addition to the effect it would have on your — some say — precarious hold on total power. Or you could share your baleful bounty with the rest of the world, knowing that you alone understand what other nations do not. There is a good chance that if you keep your mouth shut, throw your propaganda apparatus into overdrive with meaningless diversions (the virus originated in America, a benevolent China bought the world crucial time), and continue to reward American politicians and media figures, America can be convinced to overreact and commit economic suicide, leaving China the last man standing.

As a bonus, you could use the interregnum to corner the market on PPE (personal protective equipment), while seizing foreign-owned factories producing the medical supplies that countries suffering from your pandemic will need, and then sell to them those same supplies at exorbitant prices — all while portraying China as graciously generous in supplying supplies at triple the price to countries suffering from your plague.

And if the pandemic comes back to China, which it surely will (the "what goes around comes around" thing), it can be useful in fixing the demographic catastrophe headed your way. Eliminate the nonproductive aged, and China will never have to worry about being old before it is rich.

To recap, Xi, and the CCP, helped make a local error into a worldwide pandemic and then kept quiet about how little danger the virus created to productive nations, knowing that people who are allowed to think would let their imaginations run wild, resulting in actions that would destroy their economies — allowing you to make a buck while becoming more powerful.

It is the often heard but rarely experienced win-win-win situation.

Xi talks often about the "great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." "Rejuvenation," to Xi, means nothing like what we who speak English mean by it. To Xi, it means control. To Xi, it means supremacy. It means that the world surrenders to China's rightful position as the premier nation here on Earth under the guiding hand of Xi's "Mandate from Heaven," over tianxia — over "everything beneath heaven."

Just as blockbuster movies have sequels, China, having succeeded with the premiere of COVID-19, is already planning COVID-20 — coming soon to a civilized nation near you.

Please follow the author on Twitter at @williamlgensert.

William L. Gensert

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/china_committed_an_act_of_war.html

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China Exploiting the Coronavirus Pandemic to Expand in Asia - Con Coughlin

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by Con Coughlin

Despite the Trump administration's preoccupation with tackling the coronavirus pandemic, Washington is not prepared to tolerate China's aggressive actions.

• The incident prompted a furious response from the Vietnamese government, which accused Beijing of violating its sovereignty and threatening the lives of its fishermen. The US State Department said it was "seriously concerned"....
• The dispute concerns China's recent announcement that it intends to administer two disputed groups of islands and reefs in the waterway. One district covers the Paracel Islands, and the other has jurisdiction over the Spratlys, where China has built a network of fortified man-made islands. The Philippines has a presence of its own on at least nine islands and islets in the area, and bitterly opposes Chinese attempts to extend its influence.
• Despite the Trump administration's preoccupation with tackling the coronavirus pandemic, Washington is not prepared to tolerate China's aggressive actions. Three ships from the US Seventh Fleet, together with an Australian frigate, have responded by sailing through the disputed waters in a show of force.
• China's communist leadership may believe that they can take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to bully their Asian neighbours. But this show of force by the US Navy should send a timely reminder to Beijing as to which country is the real military power in the region.

China's gradual encroachment on the South China Sea and the surrounding area has been resisted by other countries in the region such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, which all have competing claims of their own. As the region's dominant power, China has shown little interest in seeking to resolve these conflicting claims peacefully. Pictured: An aerial view of Qilianyu islands, part of the disputed Paracel Islands chain in the South China Sea, which China claims are part of its Hainan Province. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

While the rest of the world is preoccupied with tackling the coronavirus pandemic, China is intensifying its efforts to extend its influence in the South China Sea by intimidating its Asian neighbours.

The arrival of China's Liaoning aircraft carrier, together with five accompanying warships, in the South China Sea earlier this month has resulted in a significant increase in tensions in the Asia-Pacific region as Beijing seeks to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to flex its muscles.

So far in April, there were claims that a Chinese coast guard vessel deliberately rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat operating close to the disputed Paracel Islands. All the fishermen survived and were transferred to two other Vietnamese fishing vessels operating nearby.

The incident prompted a furious response from the Vietnamese government, which accused Beijing of violating its sovereignty and threatening the lives of its fishermen. The US State Department said it was "seriously concerned" about the incident and called on Beijing "to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea."

In other incidents, Chinese vessels have been accused of harassing Indonesian fishing boats, as well as tailing Malaysian oil-exploration boats.

At the same time, China has provoked a diplomatic dispute with the Philippines following Beijing's declaration that a region over which Manila claims sovereignty in the South China Sea is Chinese territory.

The dispute concerns China's recent announcement that it intends to administer two disputed groups of islands and reefs in the waterway. One district covers the Paracel Islands, and the other has jurisdiction over the Spratlys, where China has built a network of fortified man-made islands. The Philippines has a presence of its own on at least nine islands and islets in the area, and bitterly opposes Chinese attempts to extend its influence.

Beijing has long claimed control over the South China Sea and the surrounding area because of its strategic significance as one of the world's busiest waterways. Around one third of the world's shipping passes through it and carries trade worth around $3 trillion. In addition, the waters contain lucrative fisheries, and huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lie beneath its seabed.

China's gradual encroachment on the area has been resisted by other countries in the region such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, which all have competing claims of their own.

As the region's dominant power, China has shown little interest in seeking to resolve these conflicting claims peacefully. Instead, it has resorted to brute force, using its increasingly powerful navy to assert its dominance by harassing the shipping of rival states, even, at times, in their own territorial waters.

China's increasingly aggressive action, known in Beijing as "Wolf Warrior diplomacy", has prompted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to warn that China is taking advantage of the world's preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to push its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. At a recent briefing to foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mr Pompeo stated:

"Beijing has moved to take advantage of the distraction [over Covid-19], from China's new unilateral announcement of administrative districts over disputed islands and maritime areas in the South China Sea, its sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel earlier this month, and its 'research stations' on Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef."

Despite the Trump administration's preoccupation with tackling the coronavirus pandemic, Washington is not prepared to tolerate China's aggressive actions. Three ships from the US Seventh Fleet, together with an Australian frigate, have responded by sailing through the disputed waters in a show of force.

China's communist leadership may believe that they can take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to bully their Asian neighbours. But this show of force by the US Navy should send a timely reminder to Beijing as to which country is the real military power in the region.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15956/china-expansion-asia

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Intel boss confirms investigation into whether coronavirus outbreak the ‘result of an accident’ at Wuhan lab - Adam Shaw, Gillian Turner

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by Adam Shaw, Gillian Turner

"The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan”

Wuhan lab director denies COVID-19 escaped from his laboratory

Reaction from Dr. Michael Pillsbury, director for Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute and author of 'The Hundred-Year Marathon.'

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed on-record for the first time Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community is investigating whether the coronavirus outbreak, which has wreaked havoc across the globe, started as the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

“The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China. The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified,” a statement from the office of acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE 

“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan,” the statement said.

Fox News first reported earlier this month that there is increasing confidence that the outbreak likely escaped from the lab, not as a bioweapon but as part of a Chinese effort to show that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal or greater than those of the U.S. This would be at odds with claims the outbreak originated at a wet market nearby.

Fox News also reported previously that a full-scale investigation was underway, with intelligence operatives said to be gathering information about the laboratory and the initial outbreak of the virus. Intelligence analysts are piecing together a timeline of what the government knew and “creating an accurate picture of what happened,” sources said.

Once that investigation is complete -- something that is expected to happen in the near-term -- the findings will be presented to the Trump administration. At that point, White House policymakers and President Trump will use the findings to determine how to hold the country accountable for the pandemic.

Senior intelligence sources told Fox News that as of now, the investigation may continue for days, weeks or even months. They add there are very stringent requirements in place that must be met before investigators can present their findings to the Trump administration with confidence.

Video

The ODNI statement was the first on-record comment from the office confirming the probe.

SOURCES BELIEVE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK ORIGINATED IN WUHAN LAB AS PART OF CHINA'S EFFORTS TO COMPETE WITH US

U.S. officials and the intelligence community have confirmed to Fox News that they have taken the possibility of the coronavirus being man-made or engineered inside China as some sort of bioweapon off the table and have ruled it out at this point.

Sources point to the structure of the virus, in saying the genome mapping specifically shows it was not genetically altered. The sources believe the initial transmission of the virus was a naturally occurring strain that was being studied there -- and then went into the population in Wuhan.

US officials are 100 percent confident China went to great lengths to cover up after the virus was out, the sources said.

Additionally, the sources believe that the World Health Organization -- which the president paused funding to this week over its role in the crisis -- was either complicit in the coverup, or looked the other way.

The president hinted at an investigation earlier this month when he told Fox News’ John Roberts: "More and more we're hearing the story ... we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation."

There have been more than 3 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the globe, and more than 227,000 deaths.

Fox News' Bret Baier and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.  


Adam Shaw, Gillian Turner

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/intel-boss-confirms-investigation-into-whether-coronavirus-the-result-of-an-accident-at-wuhan-lab

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'International Criminal Court has invented a Palestinian state' - David Rosenberg

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by David Rosenberg

Israeli minister slams ICC decision to move forward with case against Israel. 'ICC prosecutor is showing her typical anti-Israel bias.'

Yuval Steinitz                                                                                            צילום: אסתי דזיובוב/TPS

Israel’s Energy Minister, Yuval Steinitz (Likud), excoriated the International Criminal Court Friday morning, and ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, following Bensouda’s decision Thursday to move forward with a case filed against Israel by the Palestinian Authority.

In a statement released Friday morning, Minister Steinitz, who also serves as Israel’s Coordinator of the Interministerial Task Force for the International Criminal Court, accused Bensouda of holding an anti-Israel bias, which he said was influenced by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

"As someone who has closely followed developments at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, I am forced to conclude that the Prosecutor’s latest position continues to espouse her typical anti-Israel stance, as influenced by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the global BDS movement.”

Steinitz went on to say that Bensouda’s ruling Thursday that the Palestinian Authority can be regarded as a state for the purposes of legal standing to file a petition with the ICC ignored the rules of international law and effectively ‘invented’ a Palestinian state – despite the fact that no final status agreement on the issue of Palestinian statehood.

“The Prosecutor’s disregard for the opinions of some of the world’s leading experts on international law points to her determination to harm the State of Israel and tarnish its name. In the name of this objective she has reformulated the rules of international law, inventing a Palestinian state while the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has yet to be concluded.”

“Israel will continue to be proud of the fact that it is the only liberal democracy in the entire Middle East – and to vigorously reject baseless attempts to tarnish its name and harm its soldiers and civilians."

On Thursday, Bensouda ruled that the Palestinian Authority’s petition against Israel can move forward, claiming that the PA is a state and therefore has standing to file a war crimes complaint.

A three-judge panel of the ICC Pretrial Chamber must now affirm the decision before it is formally adopted.

The complaint accuses Israel of war crimes in the 2014 conflict with Hamas. The complaint also claims that Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria and neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem constitute war crimes.

The Palestinian Authority and the PLO lauded the ruling Thursday, calling it a “message of hope”.

"The arrival of Palestine at this stage sends a message of hope to our (Palestinian) people that the date is coming on which a criminal investigation will be launched against those in Israel who have committed war crimes against the Palestinian people," said senior PA negotiator and PLO secretary-general Saeb Erekat.


David Rosenberg

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279517

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PLO's Program of Deception and Lies - Bassam Tawil

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by Bassam Tawil

Did Arafat (or the PLO) ever really recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist?

• "The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security... accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338... commits itself... to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides... the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence... the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist... are now inoperative and no longer valid." — Letter from former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, September 9, 1993.
• Why do the Palestinians still need an organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization whose declared goal is the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle? The presence of the PLO bluntly contradicts Arafat's letter in which he claims that the PLO "recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security" and "renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence."
• If the PLO did recognize Israel's right to exist, why does its largest faction, Fatah, continue to refer to areas inside Israel as "occupied" territory? ... They openly say and show that they consider all of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as "occupied" territories that need to be "liberated." This wording lays bare the straightforward lies of the PLO and Arafat about their ostensible support for the two-state solution. At least they should get credit for being honest about what they want.

The actions and rhetoric of PLO leaders demonstrate without a shred of doubt that they have not fulfilled any of the promises made by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat when he signed the Oslo Accord in 1993. PLO leaders still do not recognize Israel's right to exist, and they continue to engage in terrorism, glorify terrorists and pay regular financial tributes to their families. Pictured: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left), U.S. President Bill Clinton (center) and Arafat at the signing of the Oslo Accord at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 13, 1993. (Vince Musi/The White House/Wikimedia Commons)

Palestinian officials are again threatening to revoke their recognition of Israel's right to exist -- this time if the Israeli government extends Israeli sovereignty to any part of the West Bank. These officials, in short, are saying that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an organization founded in 1964 with the purpose of the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle, will no longer honor the letter former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sent to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on September 9, 1993. In that letter, Arafat wrote:

"The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security... accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338... commits itself... to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides... the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence... the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist... are now inoperative and no longer valid."

Has the PLO ever abided by Arafat's letter in the first place?

The actions and rhetoric of PLO leaders demonstrate without a shred of doubt that they have not fulfilled any of the promises Arafat made. PLO leaders still do not recognize Israel's right to exist, and they continue to engage in terrorism, glorify terrorists and pay regular financial tributes to their families.

Moreover, the PLO's claim that it had cancelled articles of the Palestinian Covenant that call for Israel's destruction was also proven to be a sham.

The continued existence of the PLO to this day is an indication that the Palestinian leadership has not given up its desire to eliminate Israel.

The Oslo Accords led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim self-government body designated to have exclusive control over security-related and civilian affairs of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The PA has a president, Mahmoud Abbas, and a government that continues to manage the affairs of the Palestinians.

While the PA cabinet has authority over the civilian and security affairs of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the PLO is responsible for Palestinians worldwide and has an "executive committee," which serves as a second Palestinian cabinet. This committee's functions include: representing the Palestinian people, supervising the various PLO institutions, executing the policies and decisions of the PLO leadership, and handling the PLO's financial issues.

In addition, the PA and PLO each has its own parliament.

Why do the Palestinians need two separate governing bodies, particularly at a time when they continue to complain about economic hardship and a decline in financial aid from donor countries?

More significantly, why do the Palestinians still need an organization called the Palestine Liberation Organization whose declared goal is the "liberation of Palestine" through armed struggle? The presence of the PLO bluntly contradicts Arafat's letter in which he claims that the PLO "recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security" and "renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence."

It is worth pointing out that the emblem of the PLO features a map of "Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River" that totally covers present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Despite Arafat's claim that the organization "recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security," the PLO continues to use this message.

PLO leaders who are now threatening to revoke recognition of Israel need look no further than at their own emblem to see that their organization is continuing to deceive the world. If the PLO was sincere about honoring Arafat's pledge, it could at least have replaced a map that denies Israel's existence. If the PLO was sincere about implementing Arafat's letter, it could have should have dismantled itself back in 1993, immediately after its former leader claimed that the organization recognized the right of the State of Israel "to exist in peace and security."

If the PLO did recognize Israel's right to exist, why does its largest faction, Fatah, continue to refer to areas inside Israel as "occupied" territory? Just last week, Fatah posted on its Facebook page a photo of Muslims praying in the "occupied city of Jaffa" near Tel Aviv. If a city inside Israel is "occupied," this implies that the PLO and Fatah do not believe in Israel's right to exist: they openly say and show that they consider all of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as "occupied" territories that need to be "liberated." This wording lays bare the straightforward lies of the PLO and Arafat about their ostensible support for the two-state solution. At least they should get credit for being honest about what they want.

Recognizing Israel, however, is not the only promise the PLO has failed to fulfill after the signing of the Oslo Accords. Arafat's claim that the organization would renounce terrorism and other acts of violence is yet another example of how PLO leaders continue to engage in deception.

Several PLO groups, including Abbas's ruling Fatah faction, have carried out scores of terrorist attacks against Israel since Arafat wrote his letter to Rabin. Many of these attacks were carried out during what is called the Second Intifada (2000-2005).

Last week, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the PA must pay $150 million to Israeli families who were the victims of Palestinian terrorism. The case was filed by the Israel Law Center ("Shurat HaDin"), an Israeli organization representing 17 complaints covering 34 fatalities and seven injuries all of which date back to that time. Last year, the court ruled that the PA was responsible for terrorist attacks committed during that period.

The head of the Israel Law Center, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, said the ruling proved that the Second Intifada "was not a popular uprising, but a planned and deliberate war against the civilian population of Israel." She added: "What Arafat did not achieve through the Oslo Accords, he tried to achieve through suicide bombings and shootings. The Palestinian cause was genocide against Jews in Israel."

Despite warnings by Israel, the PA and its leaders have pledged to continue paying regular financial tributes and allowances to the families of Palestinian terrorists. "The salaries of our martyrs, prisoners, and wounded are a red line," Abbas said in an interview with Palestine TV in October 2018.

"They [Israelis] try by all means, and exert pressure by all means, and they continue to exert. The martyrs and their families are sacred, and so are the wounded and the prisoners. We must pay all of them. If one penny remains in our hands it is for them and not for the living."

So much for Arafat's pledge to renounce terrorism and all acts of violence against Israel.
Finally, the false claim that the PLO had removed from its charter the clauses that describe the establishment of Israel as "entirely illegal" and that strongly urge the "liberation of Palestine" is contradicted by none other than PLO leaders themselves.

Shortly after the claim was made in 1998, a number of PLO officials were quick to clarify that the covenant had not been altered.

Ziad Abu Zayyad, a senior PLO official, explained: "Israel must not demand that the PLO alter its covenant, just as the PLO does not demand that the Jewish nation cancel the Bible." (Speech to the American Jewish Federation, October 23, 1993).

Tayseer Qaba, deputy chairman of the PLO's National Council, said: "We have no intention of changing or nullifying the Covenant; rather, we will adhere to it until our last breath since it embodies the essence of our demands." (A-Nahar, September 19, 1995).

Secretary-General of the PLO's Arab Liberation Front Abu Abbas also denied that the covenant had been changed:

"The [Palestinian] National Council did not vote to annul the Covenant, but rather announced its readiness to change the Covenant under certain terms. If the terms are met, it will be amended. Otherwise, the Covenant will remain as is. The Covenant has yet to be changed, and this is better understood by the [Israeli] enemy than by our own people." (Al-Bilad, June 11, 1998).

If and when the PLO announces its decision to revoke its recognition of Israel, the leaders of the organization need to be exposed for their program of unremitting lies over the past three decades. Since 1993, the PLO leadership has done everything in its power to prove that Arafat's letter to Rabin was not worth the paper it was written on.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15952/plo-deception-lies

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Flynn Entrapment was McCabe's Revenge - Daniel John Sobieski

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by Daniel John Sobieski

Michael Flynn and Andrew McCabe have a past that predates the Trump presidency, one that provides ample motivation for the perjury trap that McCabe and James Comey set up.

Key to the ambush interview of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn that set him up for prosecution and persecution on made-up charges by James Comey’s FBI was the advice given to Flynn by Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe -- relax, you won’t need a lawyer. Flynn had to be caught off guard and without legal counsel for the entrapment plan to work:

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who arranged the bureau's interview with then-national security adviser Michael Flynn at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017 -- the interview that ultimately led to Flynn's guilty plea on one count of making false statements -- suggested Flynn not have a lawyer present at the session, according to newly-filed court documents. In addition, FBI officials, along with the two agents who interviewed Flynn, decided specifically not to warn him that there would be penalties for making false statements because the agents wanted to ensure that Flynn was "relaxed" during the session.
The new information, drawn from McCabe's account of events plus the FBI agents' writeup of the interview -- the so-called 302 report -- is contained in a sentencing memo filed Tuesday by Flynn's defense team.
Citing McCabe's account, the sentencing memo says that shortly after noon on Jan. 24 -- the fourth day of the new Trump administration -- McCabe called Flynn on a secure phone in Flynn's West Wing office. The two men discussed business briefly and then McCabe said that he "felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down" with Flynn to discuss Flynn's talks with Russian officials during the presidential transition.
McCabe, by his own account, urged Flynn to talk to the agents alone, without a lawyer present. "I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between [Flynn] and the agents only," McCabe wrote…
Within two hours, the agents were in Flynn's office. According to the 302 report quoted in the Flynn sentencing document, the agents said Flynn was "relaxed and jocular" and offered the agents "a little tour" of his part of the White House.
The agents did not provide Gen. Flynn with a warning of the penalties for making a false statement under 18 U.S.C. 1001 before, during, or after the interview," the Flynn memo says. According to the 302, before the interview, McCabe and other FBI officials "decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport."

We know that swamp thing James Comey’s mission in life was to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House, but McCabe had a personal animus towards Flynn which goes way back, possibly originating in Flynn’s offer to be a witness in a legal proceeding filed against McCabe.

As I noted here on June 30, 2017, Flynn and McCabe have a past that predates the Trump presidency, one that provides ample motivation for the perjury trap that McCabe and James Comey set up after Flynn’s illegal unmasking. McCabe had a personal grudge against Flynn and the perjury trap was his revenge.
To help cover up, it also appears that multiple 302s were created:

The sentencing memorandum reveals for the first time concrete evidence that the FBI created multiple 302 interview summaries of Flynn’s questioning by now-former FBI agent Peter Strzok and a second unnamed agent, reported to be FBI Special Agent Joe Pientka…
While Flynn’s sentencing memorandum methodically laid out the case for a low-level sentence of one-year probation, footnote 23 dropped a bomb, revealing that the agents’ 302 summary of his interview was dated August 22, 2017. As others have already noted, the August 22, 2017 date is a “striking detail” because that puts the 302 report “nearly seven months after the Flynn interview.” When added to facts already known, this revelation takes on a much greater significance.

Indeed, the existence of multiple 302s and the seven-month gap suggests that the Flynn investigation was a setup motivated in large part by Andrew McCabe’s desire for retaliation for Flynn’s drumbeat of criticism of the foreign policy of an Obama administration he once served.

As Sara A. Carter and John Solomon of Circa News report:

The FBI launched a criminal probe against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn two years after the retired Army general roiled the bureau’s leadership by intervening on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who accused now-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination, according to documents and interviews.
Flynn’s intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz’s case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau’s leadership ranks.
The FBI sought to block Flynn’s support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn…
McCabe eventually became the bureau’s No. 2 executive and emerged as a central player in the FBI’s Russia election tampering investigation, putting him in a position to impact the criminal inquiry against Flynn.
Three FBI employees told Circa they personally witnessed McCabe make disparaging remarks about Flynn before and during the time the retired Army general emerged as a figure in the Russia case.

In legal circles, that’s called “motive.” We have to factor in as well that McCabe and Flynn come from different ends of the political spectrum. Flynn became a key Trump supporter after accusing President Obama of facilitating the rise of ISIS through his policies and inaction. McCabe is a Democratic loyalist whose wife campaigned for state office in Virginia as a Democrat with heavy Democratic financial support. In fact, McCabe’s efforts on behalf of his wife became the subject of multiple federal probes:

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a central player in the Russia election case, is the focus of three separate federal administrative inquiries…
The allegations being reviewed range from sexual discrimination to improper political activity, the documents show…
Circa reported Monday that former supervisory special agent Robyn Gritz, a decorated counterterrorism agent, has filed a sexual discrimination and retaliation complaint that names McCabe and other top FBI officials…
Gritz also filed a complaint against McCabe with the main federal whistleblower agency in April, alleging social media photos she found show he campaigned for his wife’s Virginia state senate race in violation of the Hatch Act…
In addition, the Justice Department Inspector General is investigating allegations from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that McCabe may not have properly disclosed campaign payments to his wife on his ethics report and should have recused himself from Hillary Clinton's email case.

McCabe certainly had no love lost for Flynn, who was a potential witness on behalf of one of McCabe’s accusers. As PJ Media reports:

In 2014, Flynn, then director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, personally intervened on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz by writing a letter vouching for her on his official Pentagon stationary and offering to testify on her behalf. He also supported her case in a radio interview in 2015….
The FBI, for its part, claimed that Gritz had become "underperforming, tardy to work, insurbordinate, possibly mentally ill or emotional and deserving of a poor performance review."…
Flynn argued just the opposite in his May 9, 2014 letter: “SSA Gritz was well-known, liked and respected in the military counter-terrorism community for her energy, commitment and professional capacity...

McCabe did not disclose Democratic contributions to his wife’s campaign in Virginia in financial disclosure forms, donations that raised questions about both is integrity and objectivity:

The records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe left the box blank for wife Dr. Jill McCabe's salary, as a doctor with Commonwealth Emergency Physicians. And there is no documentation of the hundreds of thousands of campaign funds she received in her unsuccessful 2015 Virginia state Senate race…
For the reporting period of October through November 2015, McCabe's campaign filings show she received $467,500 from Common Good VA, a political action committee controlled by McAuliffe, as well as an additional $292,500 from a second Democratic PAC.

Connect those dots: We have a former Deputy FBI Director, Andrew McCabe, campaigning for his wife who receives huge sums of money from the Democratic Party of Clinton political ally Terry McAuliffe. After Clinton blames Russia for her election loss, Flynn becomes a target of an FBI probe in which his identity is illegally unmasked. He was a character witness on behalf of one of McCabe’s accusers. Was Mrs. McCabe’s largess a quid for a future quo?

And is all this just the result of McCabe’s lust for personal revenge?


Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/flynn_entrapment_was_mccabes_revenge.html

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Another bombshell about Flynn — and it may reach up to Obama and Biden - Andrea Widburg

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by Andrea Widburg

The latest document drop reveals that the FBI knew before interviewing Flynn that he’d done nothing wrong but it went after him anyway.

"Show me the man and I'll show you the crime." —Lavrentiy Beria (head of Stalin's secret police)

Under America's criminal law system, an investigation cannot begin unless there's a crime. After that, one seeks the probable criminals. These alleged criminals, in turn, are given myriad due process protections so the government, which is judge, jury, and executioner, does not violate their inherent civil rights. Under Stalin's totalitarian system, the state targeted people for destruction, invented crimes against them, and then led them through a sham investigative and prosecutorial process that led to an inevitable conviction.

Newly released documents establish that beginning in the waning days of Obama's presidency, high-level FBI officials inflicted Soviet-style "justice" on General Mike Flynn. It's also possible that both Obama and Biden were part of this plot.

The newest batch of documents reveals that, by January 4, 2017, the FBI had ruled Mike Flynn out as a possible suspect in its investigation into whether Trump or his associates had colluded with the Russians. The agent reviewing the evidence against Mike Flynn wrote a memorandum explaining that there was no "derogatory" evidence against Flynn either in house or through an outside agency.

The investigating team concluded, therefore, that Flynn was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger [Russia investigation] umbrella case. A review of logical [redacted] databases did not yield any information on which to predicate further investigative efforts.
[snip]
The FBI is closing this investigation.

If the FBI knew as of January 4 that Flynn was innocent, why then did agents sneak into the White House and interview Flynn with an eye to getting "him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired"?

That was Peter Strzok's doing. Immediately after receiving notice that the FBI intended to close the file, Strzok texted, "Hey if you haven't closed RAZOR [Flynn], don't do so yet."

(You can review all of the documents here.)

Strzok's conduct is interesting, but it still raises the question of why he wanted it open. Sundance, at the Conservative Treehouse, looked at the chronology and thinks this peculiar conduct might have involved Obama and Biden trying to wipe out Trump's presidency from the get-go.

On January 4, case agents wanted to close the file on Flynn because he was innocent, but Strzok still wanted the file kept open. That same afternoon, Strzok noted that the "7th floor [was] involved," which meant that Comey had inserted himself into the Flynn affair.

On January 5, Obama, Biden, Susan Rice, Sally Yates (who'd been focusing on Flynn), and Comey met in the White House. Two weeks later, Rice emailed herself to say of that meeting that Obama stressed that everything should be "by the book." Her email looked like "cover your a--" retrofitting, as did Obama's statement (assuming he made it).

On January 6, Comey went to Trump Tower to tell Trump about the Steele dossier, thereby giving the Deep Staters a justification for getting the Steele dossier to the media. On that same day, Steele deleted all his files relating to the dossier.

At this point, everyone involved knew or should have known that Flynn was an innocent man. By the end of the month, though, the FBI was entrapping Flynn, the DOJ was hell-bent on prosecuting Flynn, and Obama and Biden, who knew that Flynn was innocent, said and did nothing while that Soviet-style kangaroo process proceeded. All had the same plan: destroy Flynn, whose policies they disliked, and undo the results of the November 2016 election.

Kimberly Strassel sums up nicely what happened to Flynn:

2) The new docs show FBI had already cleared Flynn of ludicrous claims that he was agent of Russian power; it moved to close that investigation on Jan 4 2017. But then DOJ cooked up the absurd Logan Act claim, the notion Flynn had violated an obscure 1799 law.

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) April 30, 2020

4) The real goal was trap him into saying something at odds with transcript, to "get him to lie." And the evidence of that strategy is everywhere. We have Comey bragging that they went around WH legal counsel, so Flynn would have no representation.

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) April 30, 2020

6) We have McCabe docs showing he discouraged him from getting lawyer. FBI decided to get rid of standard admonition altogether. Also did not tell Flynn he was being interviewed in an "investigatory" context, suggesting this was a chat between gov officials.

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) April 30, 2020

7) As for liberal commentators/legal scholars saying all this is "routine," well, let's sure as hell hope not. The FBI exists to investigate cries--not create them.

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) April 30, 2020
Money is not enough to compensate Gen. Flynn for what the Deep State did to him. When these conspirators, who stomped on his civil rights and attempted to overthrow an elected government finally land in prison, Flynn needs a day pass so he can go visit them every day and spit in their faces.

Andrea Widburg

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/05/another_bombshell_about_flynn__and_it_may_reach_up_to_obama_and_biden.html

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