Saturday, April 25, 2020

Coronavirus: China Continues to Flood the World with Defective Medical Supplies - Soeren Kern


by Soeren Kern

Chinese authorities have refused to take responsibility for the defective equipment and in many instances have cast blame on the countries that purchased the material.

  • More than a dozen countries on four continents have recently disclosed problems with Chinese-made coronavirus tests and personal protective equipment. The problems range from test kits tainted with the coronavirus to medical garments contaminated with insects.
  • Chinese authorities have refused to take responsibility for the defective equipment and in many instances have cast blame on the countries that purchased the material. They have also called on nations of the world to stop "politicizing" the problem.
  • Slovakian Prime Minister Igor Matovič disclosed that more than a million coronavirus tests supplied by China for a cash payment of €15 million ($16 million) were inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19. "We have a ton of tests and no use for them," he said. "They should just be thrown straight into the Danube."
  • U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler from Georgia accused China of holding up shipments of test kits: "Testing is core to opening our country back up. I'm concerned that China's holding up test kits. They're playing games with trade policy to prevent us, the United States, from getting the testing that we need."
  • "[W]e should not lose sight of the foundational strategic challenge confronting the West in the emerging post-globalization era: We are in a long twilight competition with the Chinese communist regime, a struggle we cannot escape, whether we like it or not." — Andrew Michta, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

More than a dozen countries on four continents recently disclosed problems with Chinese-made coronavirus tests and personal protective equipment. The problems range from test kits tainted with the coronavirus to medical garments contaminated with insects. Defective Chinese face masks, purchased by Spain's Ministry of Health, were distributed to hospitals and nursing homes across the country, and more than 100 healthcare workers who used them tested positive for Covid-19. Pictured: A shipment from China of 8.6 million protective face masks and 150 tons of sanitary equipment arrives at Paris-Vatry Airport in France, on April 19, 2020. (Photo by Francois Nascimbeni/AFP via Getty Images)

Gatestone Institute recently reported that millions of pieces of medical equipment purchased from China by European governments to combat the coronavirus pandemic are defective and unusable.

Since that report, more than a dozen countries on four continents have disclosed problems with Chinese-made coronavirus tests and personal protective equipment. The problems range from test kits tainted with the coronavirus to medical garments contaminated with insects.

Chinese authorities have refused to take responsibility for the defective equipment and in many instances have cast blame on the countries that purchased the material. They have also called on nations of the world to stop "politicizing" the problem — at the same time that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Communist Party have sought to leverage the pandemic to assert a claim to global leadership.

Spain, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in Europe, has experienced the greatest number of problems with medical equipment purchased from China.

After the epidemic hit Spain, the Spanish government purchased medical supplies from China in the amount of €432 million ($470 million). Chinese vendors demanded they be paid up front before making any deliveries. It now appears that much of the material being supplied by China is substandard.

In late March, for instance, the Spanish Ministry of Health revealed that more than a half million coronavirus tests it had purchased from a Chinese vendor were defective. The tests, manufactured by Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, a company based in China's Guangdong Province, had an accurate detection rate of less than 30%. Bioeasy had claimed, in writing, that its tests had an accurate detection rate of 92%.

After the swindle made international headlines, Bioeasy agreed to replace the tests. On April 21, however, the Spanish newspaper El País reported that all 640,000 replacement tests were also useless. The Spanish government is now seeking a refund.

The Chinese Embassy in Madrid blamed the Spanish government for purchasing the tests from an unauthorized vendor. Bioeasy, apparently, does not have a license to sell coronavirus tests. Spain, however, has also reported problems with material purchased from vendors that are authorized by the Chinese government.

On April 15, Spain's Ministry of Health recalled 350,000 so-called FFP2 masks after laboratory tests determined that they were substandard. The defective masks were manufactured by Garry Galaxy Biotechnology, a company included on the Chinese government's list of approved manufacturers of personal protective equipment. FFP2 masks are required to filter at least 94% of aerosols, but those delivered to Spain filtered only between 71% and 82% of aerosols.

The defective masks were purchased by the Spanish Ministry of Health and distributed to hospitals and nursing homes across the country. After the defective masks were recalled, more than a hundred healthcare workers who had used them tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

In the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, local health officials on April 18 recalled 180,000 Covid-19 antibody tests — also known as serological tests — because of their low rate of detection. The tests, produced by the Chinese manufacturer Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, were purchased by the central government in Madrid and distributed to regional health authorities to detect Covid-19 in two priority groups: healthcare personnel and elderly people in nursing homes. The Wondfo tests reportedly gave negative results to people who had previously tested positive for Covid-19, and also failed to distinguish between two types of antibodies, including those that confer immunity.

In the eastern city of Alicante, the General Hospital recalled 640 disposable medical garments after one of the boxes from China contained cockroaches. The hospital said that it had received a total of 3,000 garments in 75 boxes and that it found two insects inside one of the boxes. It added that given the shortage of medical supplies, the garments would be sterilized, not destroyed.

Other countries — in Europe and beyond — have also criticized the quality of Chinese medical supplies:
  • Australia. On April 1, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that the Australian Border Force (ABF) had seized nearly one million Chinese-made faulty face masks and other protective clothing that was exported to Australia to help halt the spread of coronavirus. The material was valued at A$1.2 million (US$760,000). "We started seeing this stuff arriving roughly three weeks ago when news of the pandemic was really taking off," an ABF official told ABC. "The dodgy material is coming via air cargo because there is a backlog of sea freight at Australian ports."
  • Austria. On April 6, the Ministry of Economic Affairs confirmed that 500,000 masks ordered from China for use in South Tyrol were "completely unusable" because they did not meet safety standards: "The result of the quality control check showed that the masks do not meet an FFP standard. When putting on the masks, it is impossible to obtain a tight fit in the area of ​​the chin and cheeks." Minister of Economics Margarete Schramböck complained that international providers of the urgently needed FFP2 and FFP3 masks had not delivered the required quality in nine out of ten cases. On April 9, Austrian media reported that the defective mask problem was far greater than initially thought. The Austrian Red Cross ordered 20 million masks from the same Chinese manufacturer that made the defective masks for South Tyrol.
  • Belgium. On March 31, the University Hospital of Leuven rejected a shipment of 3,000 masks from China because the equipment was substandard.
  • Canada. On April 7, the City of Toronto recalled more than 60,000 surgical masks made in China. The masks, valued at more than $200,000, were provided to staff at long-term care facilities. Toronto health authorities were investigating whether caregivers were exposed to Covid-19 while wearing the equipment. The masks represented around 50% of Toronto's inventory of surgical masks, according to Matthew Pegg, Toronto's fire chief and general manager of emergency management.
  • Czech Republic. On March 23, the Czech news site iRozhlas reported that 300,000 coronavirus test kits delivered by China had an error rate of 80%. The Czech Ministry of Interior had paid $2.1 million for the defective kits.
  • Finland. On April 10, the Managing Director of Finland's National Emergency Supply Agency, Tomi Lounema, resigned after he admitted to spending €10 million ($11 million) on defective protective equipment from China.
  • Georgia. On March 27, Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze cancelled an order for 200,000 coronavirus tests manufactured by the China-based Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology Company. The move came after Spain reported that 640,000 tests that it purchased from the company were defective. She said: "Georgia had a contract with this company, but today it has been canceled. The money has not been transferred. We are negotiating with another company and at first, they will send two thousand tests. If the reliability of those is approved by us, we will purchase an additional quantity."
  • India. On April 16, the Mumbai-based Economic Times reported that 50,000 pieces of personal protective equipment donated by China were defective and unusable.
  • Ireland. On April 6, the Health Service Executive (HSE) revealed that a large portion of the €200 million delivery of personal protective equipment supplied by China was found to be unusable for health care workers. The HSE told the Chinese company responsible for the delivery that unless the quality of the equipment being sent is guaranteed, there will not be any more deals between the two nations with regards to PPE. The government said that it was seeking a refund.
  • Malaysia. On April 16, Malaysian authorities approved the use of coronavirus test kits from South Korea after similar kits from China were found to be defective. A senior official in the Ministry of Health, Noor Hisham Abdullah, said that the accuracy of the Chinese tests was "not very good." He expressed optimism over the South Korean tests: "Now that we have a test kit that is fast, portable and is cheap, that will make the difference."
  • Netherlands. On March 28, the Netherlands recalled 1.3 million face masks produced in China because they did not meet the minimum safety standards for medical personnel. The so-called KN95 masks are a less expensive Chinese alternative to the American-standard N95 mask, which currently is in short supply around the world. The KN95 does not fit on the face as tightly as the N95, thus potentially exposing medical personnel to the coronavirus.
  • Philippines. On March 29, the Department of Health apologized for comments it made a day earlier that two batches of coronavirus test kits provided by China were substandard. Undersecretary for Health Maria Rosario Vergeire had said that kits made by Chinese manufacturers BGI Group and Sansure Biotech were only 40% accurate in diagnosing Covid-19 and that some of them would have to be discarded. The Chinese Embassy in Manila rejected those accusations and claimed that the kits complied with standards established by the World Health Organization. "The Chinese Embassy firmly rejects any irresponsible remarks and any attempts to undermine our cooperation in this regard," a spokesman tweeted.
  • Slovakia. On April 1, Prime Minister Igor Matovič disclosed that more than a million coronavirus tests supplied by China for a cash payment of €15 million ($16 million) were inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19. "We have a ton of tests and no use for them," he said. "They should just be thrown straight into the Danube." China accused Slovakian medical personnel of using the tests incorrectly.
  • Turkey. On March 27, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that Turkey had tried Chinese-made coronavirus tests but authorities "weren't happy about them." Professor Ateş Kara, a member of the Turkish Health Ministry's coronavirus task force, added that the batch of testing kits were only 30 to 35% accurate: "We have tried them. They don't work. Spain has made a huge mistake by using them."
  • United Kingdom. On April 6, the London-based newspaper The Times reported that 17.5 million coronavirus antibody tests supplied by China were defective. The Chinese manufacturers of the tests blamed British officials and politicians for misunderstanding or exaggerating the utility of the tests. The British government, which reportedly paid at least $20 million (£16 million) for the tests, said that it was seeking a refund. Meanwhile, other coronavirus tests destined for the UK were found to be tainted with coronavirus.
  • United States. On April 17, the director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Sandy Karsten, revealed that 3.9 million KN95 masks manufactured in China were defective. The State of Missouri had signed a $16.5 million contract with an unidentified vendor for the masks and paid half in advance. The vendor is refusing to return the $8.25 million. Missouri Governor Mike Parson said: "We got cheated here in this state and we are going to go out there and try to get our money back and hold people accountable." In neighboring Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker said that the state had spent $17 million on KN95 masks that may be unusable: "You know things come in shipments of a million — you can't go through one mask at a time and so you try to take samples from the shipments that come in, make sure you got what you are paying for." In Washington State, 12,000 coronavirus testing kits produced in China were recalled after some of them were found to be contaminated with the coronavirus.
On March 30, China urged European countries not to "politicize" concerns about the quality of medical supplies from China. "Problems should be properly solved based on facts, not political interpretations," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

On April 1, the Chinese government reversed course and announced that it was increasing its oversight of exports of coronavirus test kits made in China. Chinese exporters of coronavirus tests must now obtain a certificate from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in order to be cleared by China's customs agency.

On April 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that millions of pieces of medical equipment destined for the United States were being held in warehouses in China due to the new export restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. "We appreciate the efforts to ensure quality control," the U.S. State Department said. "But we do not want this to serve as an obstacle for the timely export of important supplies."

U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler from Georgia accused China of holding up shipments of test kits: "Testing is core to opening our country back up. I'm concerned that China's holding up test kits. They're playing games with trade policy to prevent us, the United States, from getting the testing that we need."

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the flaws of globalization by laying bare how the West has allowed itself to become dangerously dependent on Communist China for the supply of essential health care and medical products.

Andrew Michta, Dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, explained:
"The Wuhan Virus and the attendant misery that the Chinese communist state has unleashed upon the world (very much including its own people) has laid bare a core structural flaw in the assumptions underpinning globalization. It turns out that the radical interweaving of markets — which was supposed to lead to the 'complex interdependence' that international relations theorists have been predicting for the better part of the century would lead to an increase in global stability... has instead created an inherently fragile and teetering structure that is exacerbating uncertainty in a time of crisis....
"If there is any good to come from the devastating impact on our nation of this pandemic brought about by the Chinese communist regime through its malice and incompetence, it will be the likely demise of enthusiasm for globalization as we know it across the West. After three decades of intellectual gymnastics aimed at convincing Americans that the off-shoring of manufacturing and the attendant deindustrialization of the country are good for us, the time has come for a reckoning.
"Since the end of the Cold War, Western elites seem to have been in thrall to the idea that various 'natural forces' in the economy and politics were propelling us forward to a digitally interconnected brave new world, one in which traditional considerations of national interest, national economic policy, national security, and national culture would soon be eclipsed by an emergent peaceful global reality. This virus crisis is a wake-up call, and while some argue we are waking up too late to effectively counter current trends, my money is on the ability of the American people to rally in a crisis and on the resilience of Western democratic institutions.
"Today, while battling the Wuhan Virus consumes the attention of our government agencies and health care systems, we should not lose sight of the foundational strategic challenge confronting the West in the emerging post-globalization era: We are in a long twilight competition with the Chinese communist regime, a struggle we cannot escape, whether we like it or not. Now is the time to wake up, develop a new strategy for victory, and to move forward."


Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15917/china-defective-medical-supplies

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Why Do Democrats Want to Save Iran's Theocracy? - A.J. Caschetta


by A.J. Caschetta

Ignorance, naiveté and a warped sense of priorities explains much of their recent activity.



A bank in Shiraz, Iran is defaced with the slogans "Death to Khamenei" and "Death to Rouhani," November 17, 2019.
At a time when Iran's oppressive totalitarian regime is coming under increasing pressure from within and its grip on power is being tested daily, Democrats are rushing in with sanctions relief plans that would shore up its control. Ignorance, naiveté and a warped sense of priorities explains much of their recent activity.

Since last fall, protests in Iran have become bold. Rather than "Death to America!," the chants in Tehran increasingly are "Death to the Dictator!" and "We don't want the Ayatollahs!" If Ali Khamenei loses control because of his regime's inept response to Iran's COVID-19 deaths, it might be the only good thing to come out of the pandemic. That is, unless the Democrats have their way.

On April 9, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote to President Trump, urging him not to block Iran's request for a $5 billion humanitarian aid loan from the International Monetary Fund. On March 26, 11 senators wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requesting that the Trump administration suspend sanctions on Iran.

In their letter, Sens. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md. ), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Jeffrey Merkley (D-Ore.) argue that "U.S. sanctions are hindering the free flow of desperately needed medical and humanitarian supplies" not only to Iran but also Venezuela. They argue that sanctions have "exacerbated the failing medical responses" and are increasing "anti-Americanism that is at the heart of both regimes' hold on power."

Anti-regime sentiments in Iran are stronger than anti-American sentiments.
This embarrassingly simplistic view ignores the fact that, in both countries, anti-regime sentiments are stronger among the populace than anti-American sentiments. Both regimes hold power in spite of their people's beliefs, not because of them.

The senators further undercut their argument by calling attention to 2003, when an earthquake killed 26,000 people in Iran. They applaud the Bush administration for having "temporarily suspended sanctions to send 150,000 pounds of medical supplies and more than 200 aid workers on military aircraft to help the people of Iran recover." Such actions "show... that above all else, America cares about the preservation of human life." The senators perhaps forgot that in 2012 after another earthquake, President Obama's Treasury Department temporarily lifted sanctions against Iran.

But if American aid diminishes anti-Americanism, why does it persist among Iran's clerics? Why didn't it end in 2003 or 2012, after those displays of compassion? Why haven't the mullahs realized that American philanthropy contradicts their "Great Satan" narrative?

When relief money flows into Iran, it disappears.
The gullible Democrats seem ignorant of the well-documented fact that when relief money flows into Iran, it disappears. Pompeo revealed on March 23 that more than 1 billion euros designated for Iran's fight against the coronavirus reportedly have gone missing, and personal protection equipment donated to Iranian hospitals has wound up for sale on the black market. Pompeo tweeted a video on March 28 showing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani acknowledging a "concerted effort to influence public opinion ... aimed at bringing back our money seized in other countries." Pompeo says Rouhani's "concerted effort to lift U.S. sanctions isn't about fighting the pandemic. It's about cash for the regime's leaders."

Even Iran's chief auditor, Abdel Azar, recognizes the problem. He published a report on April 14 charging that $4.8 billion has gone missing from the country's budget and that some government employees are receiving "astronomical salaries." For his work in exposing the apparent theft and corruption, he was denounced by Rouhani.



Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wants Trump to "issue comfort letters" to foreign governments and organizations "to reassure them that they will not be subject to U.S. sanctions" for aiding Iran.
Another Democrat urging an Iranian bailout is former vice president Joe Biden, the party's presumptive presidential nominee. On April 2, he released a statement on sanctions relief for Iran, bemoaning the Trump administration's "failure [and] cruelty by inhibiting access to needed humanitarian assistance" in spite of the fact that Trump has offered both medical aid and the assistance of American physicians, both of which were rejected. Biden's letter acknowledges Trump's offer, but he worries that foreign governments and organizations fear retaliation from the U.S. His solution is for Trump to "issue comfort letters to reassure them that they will not be subject to U.S. sanctions."

Biden calls for other extraordinary measures, such as "issuing broad licenses to pharmaceutical and medical device companies [and] creating a dedicated channel for international banks, transportation companies, insurers and other service firms to help Iranians."

At a time when pharmaceutical and medical device companies are struggling to keep up with the needs of American patients and hospitals, and while banks, transportation companies and insurance firms are laboring to serve American customers, Joe Biden wants to add to the burden by redirecting their efforts in order to aid suffering Iranians.

Predictably, Obama's former vice president complains that Trump's "abandon[ing] the Iran nuclear deal in favor of a 'maximum pressure' strategy ... has badly backfired, encouraging Iran to become even more aggressive." Here Biden apparently has forgotten that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) did nothing to curb Iran's aggression. In January 2016, just months after the agreement was signed, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized 10 U.S. Navy sailors in international waters and held them hostage until then-Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated for their release and then issued a groveling statement expressing "gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation in swiftly resolving this matter." Expect more of the same if Joe Biden becomes president. He'll probably make Kerry secretary of state again.

Biden's defenders will say — as Democrats love to say of the JCPOA — that "at least Obama had a deal," but they rarely acknowledge two important facts. One, through its sunset clauses, Obama's deal only delayed Iran's illegal nuclear program by 10-15 years, and then laundered it into a legal nuclear program. Two, Iran cheated on the deal from day one, with its hidden nuclear sites and research. Iran used the multibillion-dollar payout it scored on the front end of the JCPOA to sponsor more terrorism. It now seeks more cash, and Democrats appear all too willing to comply.

Easing sanctions would throw a life preserver to the regime as it struggles to survive.
On what would Iran spend money that it gains through "sanctions relief"? It would pay Hezbollah salaries, including Kata'ib Hezbollah, the terrorist group attacking American forces in Iraq. It would supply missiles to its Shiite proxies worldwide, from Houthi rebels in Yemen to Hamas terrorists in Gaza. It would finance missile research and tests under the guise of a "space program." It would continue sending gunboats to harass U.S. ships in international waters. It might even create more terrorist organizations, such as the new "League of Revolutionaries" currently threatening to bomb U.S. embassies and kidnap American forces throughout the Middle East.

Iran's theocracy may not fall to a coronavirus coup — but, then again, it may. The government's continued abilities to suppress protestors and pay its henchmen are crucial to its control of power. Easing the maximum-pressure sanctions would be like throwing a life preserver to the regime as it treads water and struggles to survive.
Go ahead Democrats, make Iran's day.


A.J. Caschetta is a Ginsberg-Ingerman fellow at the Middle East Forum and a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Source: https://www.meforum.org/60739/why-do-democrats-want-to-save-irans-theocracy

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What lies behind Iran's missile launch? - Hassan Mahmoudi


by Hassan Mahmoudi

As the pandemic has killed an estimated 33,000 Iranians


Tensions between Washington and Tehran flared up again on Wednesday as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is on the US foreign terrorist list, launched a satellite. This launch could be the start of the Regime’s long-range missile program. This week 11 armed speedboats of IRGC in the Persian Gulf came too close to US fleets, and then President Donald Trump threatened to "shoot and destroy" any Iranian gunboats that interfere with naval vessels.

Experts have called the IRGC's launch of a spacecraft a secret military space program that could reveal the progress of Iran's ballistic missiles.



Iran's Fars News Service showed off their missiles in August 2019

In UN Security Council Resolution 2231, the Security Council requested Iran to not engage in any activity in line with the development of ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

"The Pentagon has carefully examined this launch," said John Hyten, US Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "This missile traveled a very long distance and it could be a threat to other countries," Hyten declined to give classified details.

In the first official response from US, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized IRGC's launch of a military satellite, calling it a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and saying the Iranian regime should be concerned about the comfort and security of its people. "I think Iran needs to be held accountable for what it has done," Pompeo told a news conference.

At the same time, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist said, "This is further evidence that Iran's behavior is threatening and destructive to the region. Last week's naval interception in the Persian Gulf and the launch on Wednesday are along the same line.

The U.S. Space Force's 18th battalion in a tweet identified the tracking code of Noor Satellite and confirmed it had reached its orbit.

According to the US Space Force's 18th battalion, the body of the “Ghased” missile, and the Noor satellite are both in orbit. This battalion is responsible for intercepting satellite and space activities.

According to initial estimates, the body of Noor satellite is small and can capture low-resolution images.

Last May, The United States sent thousands of troops, including long-range bombers and a carrier, to the Middle East in response to what it called a growing threat of Iran's attacks on US interests in the region.

Iran has responded with a ballistic missile attack on a base in western Iraq where US troops were stationed. No Americans have been killed, but more than 100 have suffered minor brain injuries as a result of the blasts.

Senior Pentagon officials did offer any hint to any major change in Trump’s military policy toward Iran.

Political experts see Iran's actions as a reflection of developments within Iranian society. They say Tehran has spent millions of dollars belonging to Iranian people on missiles instead of paying for treatment of Coronavirus patients (with 33,000 deaths, according to the opposition National Council of Resistance) and livelihoods of Iranian people who need to be quarantined. Also, due to the economic crisis and inefficiency in dealing with the Coronavirus crisis, after November and February uprisings in Iran and the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Tehran officials are terrified of the insurgency and unforeseen uprisings in Iranian cities. 

Iran is pursuing these maneuvers, launching missiles, or harassing the US fleet in The Persian Gulf to divert public opinion inside Iran and to have an open hand to suppress the Iranian people, as evidenced by military and IRGC maneuvers inside the country, which have nothing to do with tensions with the United States. Tehran is saying that it sees the heavy US military presence in the Middle East as a threat to its security. By mentioning "security," it means “danger of overthrow of its regime” and has used it as a cover to suppress internal riots. Therefore, with great controversy and fuss, it announces the launch of a military missile into space. Tehran thinks in vain that with this show of power and international law-breaking act, it can repel and neutralize the revolts and uprisings that lie in wait.


Hassan Mahmoudi

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/what_lies_behind_irans_missile_launch.html

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Turkey records 3,122 new cases of coronavirus - Elad Benari


by Elad Benari


Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Turkey increases to 104,912, death toll surges to 2,600.


Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Friday said the country had recorded 3,122 new cases of coronavirus and 109 more deaths.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Turkey increased to 104,912 while the death toll surged to 2,600, Koca tweeted, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Turkey conducted 38,351 tests for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of tests carried out to 830,252, he added.

21,737 patients have recovered from COVID-19 so far, while 1,790 are being treated at intensive care units and 929 intubated.

Turkey reported its first COVID-19 case on March 11. Earlier this week, it surpassed Iran in the tally of total cases of COVID-19.

In an attempt to fight the spread of the virus, the country announced a series of measures, including a curfew prohibiting members of the public under the age of 20 from leaving their homes except if absolutely necessary.


Elad Benari

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279163

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Coronavirus: More Palestinian Libels Against Israel - Khaled Abu Toameh


by Khaled Abu Toameh

The international community, meanwhile, appears blithely unperturbed about the Palestinian leadership's continued libels against Israel and their continuing incitement to murder.

  • By talking falsely about sick workers being smuggled through water drainage systems and Jews walking around and spitting, the Palestinian leadership is seeking to create the impression that Palestinians are under attack and must therefore defend themselves -- by launching violent attacks against Israelis on the pretext of attempting to stop them from spreading a deadly disease.
  • The international community, meanwhile, appears blithely unperturbed about the Palestinian leadership's continued libels against Israel and their continuing incitement to murder.
  • The indifference of the international community does not bode well for any future talk of peace or coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians. After all, why would any Palestinian want to make peace or live next to a Jew who, according to Palestinian leaders, is spreading a deadly disease and professedly trying to kill him?

The fabricated stories spread about sick workers being smuggled through water drainage systems and Jews walking around and spitting are part of a new Palestinian campaign of incitement against Israel, using as a pretext the outbreak of coronavirus. The campaign's main message: Israel (or, to be more accurate, Jews) is deliberately spreading coronavirus among Palestinians. Pictured: An employee at the Palestinian Authority ministry of health sprays disinfectant on workers returning from Israel through the Tarqumiah crossing near Hebron, on April 6, 2020. (Photo by Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images)

The heavy downpour of rain last week prompted the Israeli authorities to open some water drainage systems in the West Bank to avoid flooding Palestinian-owned agricultural lands. Israel, in other words, wanted to prevent damage to Palestinian farmers, whose crops would have been destroyed in the flooding.

Some Palestinian officials, however, have exploited the Israeli move to claim , falsely, that this was one of Israel's methods to spread the coronavirus among Palestinians.

What is the connection between the water drainage systems and the coronavirus?

According to the Palestinian officials, Israel opened the drainage systems to allow Palestinian workers (in Israel) to "infiltrate" back to their homes without having to undergo tests for the virus and be placed under quarantine by the Palestinian Authority. (The PA assumes that most of these workers contracted the disease after coming into contact with Israelis.)

"Israel opened the water systems to facilitate the movement of the workers," said Osama Qawassmeh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction. "Our people are fighting two epidemics: coronavirus and Israeli colonialism."

The PA recently announced that all Palestinian workers in Israel who wish to return to their homes must undergo tests for coronavirus and place themselves in quarantine for 14 days. Israel has allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to work in various sectors, particularly construction and agriculture.

On the eve of the Jewish Passover Holiday early this month, thousands of Palestinian workers began returning to their homes. Some of these workers, however, sought to avoid Palestinian checkpoints to avoid being forced into a two-week quarantine. Those workers chose to return to their homes by hiding in the trunks of vehicles or walking through fields to avoid Palestinian checkpoints manned by health and security officials.

The false claim about the water drainage systems is part of a new Palestinian campaign of incitement against Israel, using as a pretext the outbreak of the coronavirus. The Palestinian campaign's main message: Israel (or, to be more accurate, Jews) is deliberately spreading coronavirus among Palestinians.

Why would Israel do such a thing? The Palestinian officials claim it is because Israel wants these workers to spread the disease in Palestinian cities and villages.

Israeli officials vehemently denied the charge as a new libel, lie and fabrication. If Israel had facilitated their return to their homes through water drainage systems because the Palestinian workers supposedly carry the virus, wouldn't Israel be afraid that when they returned to their jobs in Israel, they would bring the disease back with them and transmit the disease to Israelis?

These workers already have permits to return to their workplaces in Israel. If they are infected with the virus, why would Israel not just revoke their permits and ban them from coming back?

Moreover, if these workers were allowed to return to their homes in West Bank as part of an Israeli scheme to "spread the disease," wouldn't the hundreds of thousands of Jews living near Palestinian villages and cities also get infected? What about the thousands of Israeli soldiers and policemen stationed there? Wouldn't Israel be worried that the Palestinian workers could also transmit the virus to them?

Even at this moment of global crisis, the Palestinian leadership does not wish to be "confused with the facts" -- especially when these facts contradict the particular narrative the Palestinians are seeking to market to the world.

The fabrication about Israel allowing infected workers to crawl back to their homes through water drainage systems came after yet another false charge: that Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers were going around spitting in public places in Palestinian cities and villages to spread the coronavirus among Palestinians.

The false story about the purported spitting, like the one about the water drainage systems, was echoed by senior Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and his spokesman, Ibrahim Milhem. Needless to say, the Palestinians have yet to provide any proof of these allegations, which come at a time when Israel and the PA are working together to curb the spread of the virus.

One might have hoped that the Israeli-Palestinian cooperation against the coronavirus would usher in the beginning of a new era in relations between the two sides.

One might have hoped that this cooperation and Israel's assistance to the Palestinians would have had a moderating effect on the Palestinians, especially their leaders, who have long been engaged in vitriolic anti-Israel rhetoric. Sadly, it seems that even the joint war on the pandemic has not changed the hearts and minds of most of the Palestinians' leaders.

"Israel is not only exporting the virus to the Palestinians," a defiant PA government spokesman, Ibrahim Milhem, told reporters this week, "but it is an agent of this epidemic, which is called the occupation."

By repeating such allegations every day, Palestinian leaders are not only libeling Israelis and Jews, they are also seriously endangering the lives of Israelis and Jews by depicting them as responsible for spreading the deadly virus. This is the kind of talk that prompts a Palestinian to go out and murder the first Jew he meets.

By talking falsely about sick workers being smuggled through water drainage systems and Jews walking around and spitting, the Palestinian leadership is seeking to create the impression that Palestinians are under attack and must therefore defend themselves -- by launching violent attacks against Israelis on the pretext of attempting to stop them from spreading a deadly disease.

The lies spread about Israel will undoubtedly pave the way for more violent attacks against Jews. The next time a Palestinian goes out to kill a Jew, he or she will say: "I had to do that in order to prevent these evil Jews from spreading coronavirus among my people. My own leaders told me that Jews are spreading the virus."

The international community, meanwhile, appears blithely unperturbed about the Palestinian leadership's continued libels against Israel and their continuing incitement to murder.

"Make no mistake about it: the belief that Jews or Israel is responsible for the coronavirus is a deadly serious threat," warned Dr. Harold Brackman, senior consultant for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The indifference of the international community does not bode well for any future talk of peace or coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians. After all, why would any Palestinian want to make peace or live next to a Jew who, according to Palestinian leaders, is spreading a deadly disease and professedly trying to kill him?

  • Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on Twitter

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15893/coronavirus-palestinian-libels-israel

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Greenfield Video: Believe All Women — Unless They Accuse Joe Biden - Frontpagemag.com


by Frontpagemag.com


Sacrificing women on the altar of utopian ideals.




Subscribe to the Glazov Gang‘s YouTube Channel and follow us on Twitter: @JamieGlazov.

This new edition of The Glazov Gang features Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Fellow at the Freedom Center and editor of The Point at Frontpagemag.com.

Daniel discusses: Believe All Women — Unless They Accuse Joe Biden, unveiling how the Left sacrifices women on the altar of utopian ideals.

Don't miss it!




Frontpagemag.com

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/greenfield-video-believe-all-women-unless-they-frontpagemagcom/

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Leak of sealed evidence in the Michael Flynn case points to a high-ranking deep state operative as a key to the Russia hoax conspiracy at DOJ and FBI - Thomas Lifson


by Thomas Lifson

General Michael Flynn was the first victim of the conspiracy of senior officials at the CIA, DOJ and FBI to unseat President Trump; meet the deep state operative point man.

General Michael Flynn was the first victim of the conspiracy of senior officials at the CIA, DOJ and FBI to unseat President Trump, and a leak about court-sealed new evidence in the legal case against him, under review by a US Attorney, upon close analysis points to a new key member, a point man of the conspiracy, a name until now only familiar to students of the Russia Hoax. A new visage is going to join Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, Page, and Rosenstein on the front page of the cabal’s rogues’ gallery: Dana Boente.

On April 24, The US Attorney reviewing the case against Flynn released new evidence to Flynn’s lawyers, putting it under seal. His lawyer Sidney Powell gleefully tweeted:


Sean Davis of the Federalist received a leak from an unnamed FBI official:
New court documents filed under seal include significant exculpatory information about Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, an FBI official familiar with the situation told The Federalist on Friday. The new documents, which were filed under seal by the Department of Justice Friday, allegedly include exonerating evidence about Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his conversations with foreign diplomats as Trump’s top incoming foreign policy adviser and is currently attempting to withdraw his plea, as well as evidence of malfeasance by the FBI during its investigation of Flynn.
According to the FBI official who spoke to The Federalist, FBI general counsel Dana Boente led the charge internally against DOJ’s disclosure of the new materials. Boente, who briefly served as acting Attorney General after Trump became president, personally signed off on one of the federal spy warrants against former Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page. The new documents, which were filed under a protective order by DOJ on Friday, will reflect poorly on the FBI, the official told The Federalist. It is not clear when, or even if, those documents will be unsealed and made available to the public for review.
Boente was covering up the railroading of General Flynn, which is bad enough. And he signed off on a phony FISA warrant, a crime. But that is far from Boente’s only role in the conspiracy. Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse, who has a matchless command of the minutiae of the evidence of this conspiracy so far, has been arguing for years that Boente was a key conspirator. Now, with this latest disclosure, he fits together the pieces in a meticulous fashion.
Early on CTH identified Dana Boente as part of the problem. Dana Boente was part of the group who advised Sessions to recuse. Boente later authorized the second renewal of the Title-one surveillance warrant and worked with James Comey. Boente then leaked his Comey notes to the media (MSNBC), essentially to support Comey’s narrative about Trump; and participated from within the FBI as legal counsel to Chris Wray who told everyone in July 2018 there was no political bias in the FBI…
A long and detailed review of Boente’s very curious career moves follows. Sundance doesn’t mention this as even a hypothesis, but to my eyes it looks a lot like he was moved around among important posts in the FBI and Justice Department (sometimes holding multiple jobs at once) as a kind of hatchet man to get the necessary job done. Just a theory, though, until we learn more, maybe when that evidence is unsealed.
Here is the beginning of the deep dive, a brief sample of the sort of analysis that comprises this long article. If you want to understand how the conspiracy was actually carried out – and you should because it is the greatest political scandal in American history – then I recommend this article. Read it here.
Here’s the backstory on Dana Boente as a key player in the Spygate cover-up, as we presented the information over a year ago. [NOTE: feeling confident that Boente was one of the key corrupt actors, I noted originally to bookmark that post]:
If you followed closely, and accept that Rosenstein was part of the problem, then you see how FBI Director Christopher Wray came into office; and, more importantly how/why Wray selected former DOJ-NSD head Dana Boente to shift from main justice to be legal counsel for the FBI.
Boente took over for former chief legal counsel James Baker, after the discoveries around Baker and McCabe could no longer be hidden. After being removed from responsibility eventually Baker resigned and went to work with the Lawfare group. Boente’s job at FBI was/is to bury information, block congressional inquiry, and protect the crew. Boente, along with Christopher Wray, is still there.

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, June 23, 2019, Devin Nunes said “someone at the FBI” appears to have been “determined to hide” then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s notes from both the FISA court and Congress. Our research identified that “someone” as Dana Boente and crew in 2018.
Near the end, Sundance eummarizes some points:
Dana Boente was part of the group who advised Sessions to recuse. Boente later authorized the second renewal of the Title-one surveillance warrant and worked with James Comey. Boente then leaked his Comey notes to the media, essentially to support Comey’s narrative about Trump; and participated from within the FBI as legal counsel to Chris Wray who told everyone in July 2018 there was no political bias in the FBI… but hey, everyone is going to bias training….. and pay no attention to the 40 FBI agents who were investigating an invisible Trump Russia-Collusion-Conspiracy for two years.
Update: When contacted for comment by The Epoch Times, an FBI spokesman denies that Director Wray pushed to withhold exculpatory evidence:
“The assertion that Director Wray pushed to withhold exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case is absolutely false,” said Brian Hale, assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs in an emailed statement.

An FBI official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Epoch Times that the denial applied to the allegation against Boente too
Hat tip: Roger Luchs
Photo credit: US DOJ (cropped)

Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/leak_of_sealed_evidence_in_the_michael_flynn_case_points_to_a_highranking_deep_state_operative_as_a_key_to_the_russia_hoax_conspiracy_at_doj_and_fbi_.html

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A major Jewish organization does “Interfaith” with Muslim Brotherhood - Janet Levy


by Janet Levy

Why did AJC join iwth ISNA if speakers at ISNA’s conventions routinely attack Israel and even refer to the Holocaust as justifiable punishment for the Jews?


Despite antisemitism featuring prominently in Islamic doctrine and liberally disseminated and promoted by Islamic institutions and mosques throughout the United States, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) recently established a partnership with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).  It is troubling that this major Jewish organization would join hands with a known affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in an “interfaith” venture they say is meant to fight both antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias.

A growing problem in America, the recent rise of antisemitism can be traced back to 1991.  The FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Act report of 2018 revealed that in every single year since then, Jews and Jewish institutions were the primary target of religious hate crimes.  They represented nearly 60% of all victims of hate crime attacks compared to 14.5% against Muslims and 12.3% against Christians.  
Against this alarming backdrop of physical attacks, verbal attacks by Muslims fuel antisemitism.  In 2019, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a non-profit organization that monitors, analyzes and translates Arab and Muslim media content, monitored sermons by imams across America.  In a random sample of more than 100 U.S. imams, they found evidence of support for the global jihad and incitement to kill Jews.  Attempting to inform Jewish leaders, MEMRI founder Yigal Carmon took his disturbing findings to major American Jewish organizations.  Remarkably, Jewish leadership declined to act out of fear for their safety and concern over being accused of “Islamophobia.”

Investigative reporter and author of Infiltration:  How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington, Paul Sperry, cited several virulent examples of the call to American Muslims to attack Jews.  He described a Houston imam calling for Muslims to “fight the Jews;” a Raleigh, North Carolina imam invoking a Jew-killing hadith from the Koran; and a Garland, Texas imam beseeching Allah to “destroy the Zionists and their allies.”  In New Jersey, an imam prayed for the annihilation of the Jews, calling them “apes and pigs.”  An imam in Northern California called for the genocide of the Jews, accusing them of contaminating Muslim shrines with their “filth.”    

The sentiments expressed by Muslim clerics in America and beyond come directly from Islamic doctrine. Fully 9.3% of the Islamic trilogy, the three books that contain all of the doctrine of Islam – Koran, Sira, Hadith – espouse Jew hatred.  In Bukhari, (103/6, 2926), The Prophet said, “The hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, “O Muslim!  There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”  

In Koran 9:5, Muslims are instructed to “Fight the unbeliever wherever you find them and lie and wait for them in every stratagem of war.” The sins of Jews are depicted as so great in the Koran that they are transformed into apes: “They are those whom Allah has cast aside and on whom His wrath has fallen and of whom He has made some as apes and swine…” (Koran 5:60).  

Given this preponderance of antisemitism inherent in Islam and echoed in many American Islamic institutions, most particularly Muslim Brotherhood organizations, it was confounding that in 2016, the AJC, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations with revenue of approximately $70 million, would partner with ISNA, the largest MB organization in the U.S., to create the Muslim Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC).

According to the AJC website, the ostensible mission of MJAC is to “develop and advocate a domestic policy agenda to protect and expand the rights of religious minorities,” to encourage “interreligious cooperation,” and “to reverse the rise in hate crimes” with particular references to neo-Nazi and white supremacist attacks on Jews and threats to mosques.  

Sorely missing was any mention of the problem of endemic Islamic antisemitism, the leading cause for antisemitism in America today, according to the Zionist Organization of America.  This “joint” venture is especially disturbing since speakers at ISNA’s conventions routinely attack Israel and even refer to the Holocaust as justifiable punishment for the Jews.  It is also curious that while the AJC’s website includes a glowing description of the alliance, ISNA’s website fails to mention it at all.  

Further, after the AJC announced MJAC’s formation, ISNA issued a “Clarification,” distancing the organization from AJC’s version of MJAC’s stated mission.  In it, ISNA affirmed its primary commitment to issues of concern to Muslims and most especially the “right of self-determination of Palestinians without fear of legal sanction.”  Such a statement obviates any possible appearance to fellow Muslims of abandoning the Muslim cause and also belies any attempts at true interfaith harmony, AJC’s stated objective for the organization.

It is hard to imagine how a prominent Jewish organization would so graciously welcome ISNA.  The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization’s stated purpose and history has been well explicated in open sources and media reports from the Holy Land Foundation trial – in which ISNA was labeled by the FBI as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a criminal conspiracy to fund the terrorist group, Hamas. 

This brings AJC’s judgment into question, especially given clear evidence that antisemitism, not Islamophobia, is the true, serious problem in America.  In such an uneven playing field, why enter into a joint venture with a questionable Muslim organization?   Instead, AJC should focus resources on combating antisemitism by educating the public.  Since Jews are the targets of Muslims and not vice versa, this odd alliance begs the question, “Quo bono?”


Janet Levy, MBA, MSW, is an activist, world traveler, and freelance journalist who has contributed to American Thinker, Pajamas Media, Full Disclosure Network, FrontPage Magazine, Family Security Matters and other publications. She blogs at www.womenagainstshariah.com Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/authors/detail/janet-levy#ixzz2loiYFuxQ Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25594

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