Israel's War Is Against Hezbollah, Not The Lebanese People - Bassam Tawil

 

by Bassam Tawil

Hezbollah has decided to destroy Lebanon and sacrifice a large number of Lebanese civilians to keep Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip. It has left Israel with no choice but to wage a counterterrorism offensive to defend its own citizens.

 

• On October 8, 2023, the very day after Hamas attacked, Hezbollah opened a "second front" against Israel to help Hezbollah's brothers in Hamas.

• On September 19, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised that his organization's terrorist attacks on Israel would continue until the war in Gaza ended. Hezbollah, he said, will continue supporting the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "no matter what the consequences are, what the sacrifices are, what scenarios will unfold." Nasrallah further threatened that Israelis who have evacuated from their homes will not be allowed to return, implying that Hezbollah might be planning to invade and occupy Israel's north.

• The war in the Gaza Strip could end tomorrow if Hamas would lay down its weapons and release the 101 Israelis hostages it is still holding, only about half of whom are thought to be alive. Hamas, nonetheless, seems to have chosen to fight to the last Palestinian. Hamas evidently does not care if thousands of Palestinians are killed in the war. Its main objective is to hold onto power.

• How would the US respond if a terrorist organization in Mexico launched thousands of missiles and drones into American cities?... How would France respond if its cities came under attack from terrorists based in neighboring countries... Would the French call for negotiations with the terrorists, or would they practice their right to self-defense?

• Hezbollah has decided to destroy Lebanon and sacrifice a large number of Lebanese civilians to keep Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip. It has left Israel with no choice but to wage a counterterrorism offensive to defend its own citizens. After Hamas brought a nakba (catastrophe) to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah is bringing the Lebanese people another.

How would the US respond if a terrorist organization in Mexico launched thousands of missiles and drones into American cities? Would the US tolerate such attacks for nearly a year? How would France respond if its cities came under attack from terrorists based in neighboring countries? Would the French call for negotiations with the terrorists, or would they practice their right to self-defense? Pictured: A house and two cars in Moreshet, Israel, which took a direct hit from a rocket fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon, on September 22, 2024. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

Some in the international media are misrepresenting the recent round of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist organization, Hezbollah, as a war between Israel and Lebanon. This, however, is not a war between Israel and the Lebanese people. Rather, it is a war between Israel and a heavily armed terrorist group that has created a state within a state in Lebanon and is acting on orders from the mullahs in Tehran to advance their goal of destroying the "Zionist entity." This war was initiated 11 months ago by Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, another Iran-backed proxy based in the Gaza Strip.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and thousands of "ordinary" Palestinians launched an attack on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip, murdering 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping more than 240 others. Israel responded by sending troops into the Gaza Strip with two objectives: to release the Israeli hostages and destroy the military capabilities of Hamas, a group whose charter openly calls for waging Jihad (holy war) with the purpose of killing Jews and eliminating Israel.

On October 8, 2023, the very day after Hamas attacked, Hezbollah opened a "second front" against Israel to help Hezbollah's brothers in Hamas. On October 13, 2023, after the Israeli military offensive in Gaza began in earnest, Hezbollah terrorists began firing thousands of rockets, drones and guided missiles at Israeli communities along the border with Lebanon. As a result, Israel was forced to evacuate tens of thousands of residents from northern Israel. Since then, the displaced Israeli families have been unable to return to their homes, some of which have been severely damaged or completely destroyed by Hezbollah's missiles and drones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have displayed incredible self-restraint in the face of Hezbollah's war of attrition. Netanyahu and his government have tried their utmost to avoid a full-scale war with Hezbollah, mainly to avoid harming innocent civilians in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) have repeatedly warned Lebanese civilians to flee north out of harm's way. The Israeli military's response to the unremitting daily barrage of rockets and drones fired by Hezbollah over the past 11 months was restricted to airstrikes targeting Hezbollah terrorists and their military installations in southern Lebanon.

How would the US respond if a terrorist organization in Mexico launched thousands of missiles and drones into American cities? Would the US tolerate such attacks for nearly a year? Would the US accept a situation where tens of thousands of its own citizens are forced to flee their homes and become refugees in their own country? How would France respond if its cities came under attack from terrorists based in neighboring countries such as Belgium, Spain or Germany? Would the French call for negotiations with the terrorists, or would they practice their right to self-defense?

On September 19, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah promised that his organization's terrorist attacks on Israel would continue until the war in Gaza ended. Hezbollah, he said, will continue supporting the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "no matter what the consequences are, what the sacrifices are, what scenarios will unfold." Nasrallah further threatened that Israelis who have evacuated from their homes will not be allowed to return, implying that Hezbollah might be planning to invade and occupy Israel's north.

The Hezbollah leader is evidently more worried about the well-being of Hamas than the safety of the Lebanese people. He seems to believe that the war he waged against Israel 11 months ago would save Hamas and allow it to continue ruling the Gaza Strip. Nasrallah and his patrons in Iran are willing to destroy Lebanon and sacrifice many Lebanese citizens to keep Hamas in power. They seem determined to prevent the downfall of one of Iran's Palestinian terror proxies in the Middle East. Hezbollah, it seems, has made the decision to hold the entire Lebanese population captive to shield the Hamas murderers and rapists who carried out the massacres against Israelis on October 7.

Earlier this week, Israel published photographic evidence of Hezbollah weaponry placed inside of homes in southern Lebanon. Among the weapons siloed in Lebanese homes were cruise missiles, rockets with enormous warheads, and drones. In one instance, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed pictures showing a long-range missile, mounted on a hydraulic launcher, sitting in the attic of a Lebanese family's home.

This is the same tactic used by Hamas in the Gaza Strip over the past two decades. Like Hezbollah, the Palestinian terror group has also been placing weapons and missile launchers in densely populated areas throughout the Gaza Strip, in homes, hospitals, mosques, United Nations facilities and schools.

Israel's war primarily aims to prevent Hamas from launching another October 7-style attack against Israelis in the future. Shortly after the attack, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad declared that his group is prepared to repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated:

"The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas uses to call its October 7 attack] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight. We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. Israel is a country that has no place on our land."

The war in the Gaza Strip could end tomorrow if Hamas would lay down its weapons and release the 101 Israelis hostages it is still holding, only about half of whom are thought to be alive. Hamas, nonetheless, seems to have chosen to fight to the last Palestinian. Hamas evidently does not care if thousands of Palestinians are killed in the war. Its main objective is to hold onto power.

The war in Lebanon could end tomorrow if Hezbollah stopped its rocket and drone attacks on Israeli towns and cities. Hezbollah, however, has so far indicated that it has no intention of halting them.

Many Lebanese people are strongly opposed to Hezbollah's attempt to drag their country into a war on behalf of Hamas and Iran. Addressing the Hezbollah secretary-general, Lebanese journalist and political analyst Dr. Ghassan A. Bou Diab wrote:

"You have plunged your community and people into a confrontation whose extent only God knows, with the state of Israel, a state that is truly one of the foremost nations in terms of technological and military advancement, enjoying an extensive network of international relations, all under the pretext of supporting the Gaza front.

"The day after the terrorist organization Hamas began its fateful operation, you initiated gunfire into Israeli territory, causing dozens of innocent civilians to flee their homes. You supported the terrorist organization in its horrific crime of kidnapping hostages and using civilians as human shields.

"This was preceded by your constant threats that you would 'keep the Israelis on one and a half feet,' and that you were ready to 'destroy Israel in seven and a half minutes.'

"Your misguided bets have characterized your journey. You gambled that Israel could not withstand a prolonged war, but Israel surprised everyone, and the war has continued for nearly a year. You bet on the collapse of the political, security, and military institutions if fronts were opened, yet Israel has proven to be cohesive. In fact, it forged a new social contract in Israel following the events of October 7, centered around fighting for existence...

"You gambled on direct Iranian intervention in the battle, only to see Khamenei retreat and limit himself to prayer and seeking safety as soon as he witnessed American aircraft carriers, equipped with fifth-generation technologies, sailing with terrifying weaponry capable of annihilating half the globe. You relied on international diplomatic pressure and protests around the world, yet you failed because your axis initiated the aggression."

Hezbollah has decided to destroy Lebanon and sacrifice a large number of Lebanese civilians to keep Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip. It has left Israel with no choice but to wage a counterterrorism offensive to defend its own citizens. After Hamas brought a nakba (catastrophe) to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah is bringing the Lebanese people another.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20968/war-against-hezbollah

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Biden-Harris Admin Ordered Border Patrol to Cover Up Hundreds of Terror Penetrations - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

This is treasonous and impeachable conduct.

 

The Biden-Harris administration deliberately kept the border open and allowed the country to be flooded with invaders, criminals, and Islamic terrorists. But the administration also doesn’t want anyone to know about it. It apparently was not very happy with the steady drumbeat of reports about terrorists, people on watch lists and other such lovely folks being caught at the border or detained more deeply within the United States.

The Biden/Harris Border Crisis Cover Up - straight from the mouth of retired Chief Patrol Agent Heitke of U.S. Customs and Border Control. pic.twitter.com/cMQS83y0eO

— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) September 19, 2024

The answer from the White House isn’t to tighten border security, but to silence the whistleblowers.

(The Center Square) – Retired San Diego Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke said he was instructed by the Biden administration to not publicize arrests of illegal border crossers identified as “Significant Interest Aliens” with ties to terrorism.

“We had an exponential increase in Significant Interest Aliens … with significant ties to terrorism,” illegally entering in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Diego Sector, he said.

Prior to the Biden-Harris administration, the sector averaged 10 to 15 SIAs per year. “Once word was out that the border was far easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, way over 100 SIAs in 2023 and more than that this year,” he said.

“These are only the ones we caught,” meaning the number likely is higher because of the volume of gotaways, those who illegally cross the border and are not apprehended.

“At the time, I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIA’s or mention any of the arrests,” Heitke testified.

Hundreds of terror penetrations should have had alarm bells going off. But the only alarm bells going off were those off a cover-up.

AARON HEITKE, RETIRED CHIEF BORDER PATROL AGENT ON SUPPRESSING INFO ON ILLEGALS: "It would be subject to discipline. In my position, I would likely be removed from my position" pic.twitter.com/NgwXqncUES

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) September 23, 2024

This is treasonous and impeachable conduct.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-harris-admin-ordered-border-patrol-to-cover-up-hundreds-of-terror-penetrations/

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Six most shocking revelations in Senate report on Secret Service's handling of first Trump shooting - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

USSS sniper team leader warned counter snipers by email, not radio communications, about Crooks lurking with a rangefinder and did not urge agents to keep Trump off the rally stage

 

Some alarming revelations appear in the bipartisan Senate report on the U.S. Secret Service's handling of the first attempted assassination of former President Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pa. in July.

Report on Trump shooting in Butler, Pa.pdf

1 - The full report, released on Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, detailed how an inexperienced Secret Service drone detection operator was on the phone with customer service, trying to figure out how to properly operate the C-UAS drone detection system as suspect Thomas Crooks' assassination plot was unfolding. 

"C-UAS system experienced technical problems and was inoperable until 4:33 pm, after Crooks flew his drone near the rally site," the report said. "With no backup system, the USSS agent responsible for overseeing the C-UAS capabilities at the July 13 rally called a toll-free 888 tech support hotline 'to start troubleshooting with the company,' which took several hours. That agent had only three months of experience working with that equipment and lacked knowledge about it."

2 - The report revealed that a USSS Counter Sniper Team Leader warned counter snipers by email, not radio communications or mobile text messaging, about Crooks lurking with a rangefinder and did not urge agents to keep Trump off the rally stage.

The leader received text messages from a local sniper at approximately 5:45 pm "regarding an individual near the AGR building with a rangefinder looking toward the stage." The text messages he received included two photos of Crooks, whose identity was unknown at the time. He forwarded the information to USSS counter snipers in an email, which contained an error. The message said, "Kid learning around the building we are in" instead of, "Kid lurking around the building we are in." 

One of the snipers who saw the email told the committee it was "worded vaguely" but they still tried searching the site for Crooks.

3 - A Secret Service sniper saw local law-enforcement with guns drawn, heading toward the building where Crooks was about to shoot from, but did not alert the agents protecting Trump.

“Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper saw local law enforcement running toward the AGR building with their guns drawn, but he did not alert former President Trump’s protective detail to remove him from the stage," the committee reported. “The USSS counter sniper told the Committee that while seeing officers with their guns drawn ‘elevated’ the threat level, the thought to notify someone to get Trump off the stage ‘did not cross [his] mind.’"

4 - A Secret Service official was informed before the outdoor rally that “credible intelligence” of a threat existed prior to the rally, but "still wrote in a security planning document that there was 'no adverse intelligence' concerning the visit to Butler, PA."

5 - The report concluded that USSS "did not give state or local partners specific instructions for covering the AGR building, including the positioning of local snipers." The report points out that prior to events with protectees, "USSS assigns personnel to serve as 'Advance Agents' responsible for planning security, coordinating with state and local law entities, and requesting needed assets to secure the upcoming event, among other tasks." However, USSS "did not adequately consider state and local law enforcement operational plans" and USSS "did not ensure it could share information with local law enforcement partners in real time."

6 - The report found that USSS leaders "failed to provide resources for the July 13 rally that could have enhanced security," including denying "specific requests for additional Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) capabilities and a Counter Assault Team liaison." The report also found that USSS Advance Agents did not request a USSS Counter Surveillance Unit, which "could have helped patrol the outer perimeter that included the AGR building."

 
Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/six-most-shocking-revelations-senate-report-secret-services-handling-first

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BBC told director of Nova massacre film to not describe Hamas as terrorists - Mathilda Heller

 

by Mathilda Heller

"It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organization or not," Mozer said.

 

YARIV MOZER, director of ‘We Will Dance Again’ with some of the survivors of the Supernova music festival.

(photo credit: Hanna Taieb)

Yariv Mozer, the director of We Will Dance Again, a documentary film about the Nova festival, said that he had to agree with the BBC to not describe Hamas as a terrorist organization if he wanted it to air, according to an interview he gave to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

The film, which is set to broadcast on the BBC today, contains unseen footage of the Hamas massacre at the festival on October 7. It was commissioned by BBC Storyville.Mozer told The Hollywood Reporter that this was a concession he had to make if he wanted the film to be seen by the British public.

“It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organization or not,” Mozer said.

This comes amid claims of anti-Israel bias in the BBC since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, including a scandal caused last week by British Trevor Asserson's report that the BBC breached its own editorial guidelines for news coverage more than 1,500 times since the beginning of the war.

THE SITE of the Nova music festival massacre. The writer asks ‘How can we be comforted this year?’ (credit: Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Mozer added that he had offered the documentary to multiple streaming platforms in the US. However, they were reportedly unwilling to pick it up due to concerns about the political situation.

“The film isn’t political,” Mozer stated. “It’s told from the eyes of the survivors and from the eyes of Hamas. There is one truth about what happened.”

The documentary will still be shown in Australia, Spain, and on Paramount+ in the United States.

Brutal details and footage

Speaking on the content of the film, and the deliberation over using graphic and violent footage, Mozer told the Reporter that he “wanted to keep as much as possible, to be able to show how enormous the scale of this attack was and the brutality of these atrocities against people who couldn’t defend themselves.”

“A brutal fundamentalistic movement is obsessively looking to destroy the values of Western society. These were young people at a music festival celebrating life, love, and peace: very naïve and free-spirited. And they faced the most horrific people, who value death.”

The documentary is a minute-by-minute reconstruction. It begins with the run-up to the attack, which began at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 7, and depicts the events using testimonies, videos, CCTV, GoPro footage from the Hamas live stream, and phone and dashcam footage.

The footage covers the six-plus hours that people tried to hide or escape from the terrorists. 

 
Mathilda Heller

Source: https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-821666

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Republican senators say Biden administration is continuing to delay critical weapons from Israel - Hannah Sarisohn

 

by Hannah Sarisohn

Republican Senators allege the Biden administration is delaying the delivery of three critical types of military weapons and equipment to Israel.

 

U.S. President Joe Biden attends a ceremony, to present the Medal of Honor posthumously to descendants of Union soldiers Pvt. Philip Shadrach and Pvt. George Wilson, members of the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 3, 2024.

(photo credit: REUTERS/ELIZABETH FRANTZ)

Republican Senators Tom Cotton (AR) and Mitch McConnell (KY) believe the Biden administration is continuing to delay the delivery of three critical types of military weapons and equipment, according to a letter the senators sent to the White House on Wednesday.

According to Cotton and McConnell, the Biden administration is withholding MK-84 bombs, Apache attack helicopters, and Caterpillar DP tractors.

State Department statement

The Jerusalem Post has reached out to the State Department for comment.

“Despite ongoing discussions between the United States and Israel, your administration has failed to fast-track and approve the sale of Apache attack helicopters,” the letter said.

“Israel requested these helicopters last December, recognizing the increased need given the war in Gaza. That need has only increased with Hezbollah’s escalation in the North.”

Cotton and McConnell said they recently learned Biden is holding up the tractors the IDF uses to clear improvised explosive devices ahead of its troops. The military puts armor on the tractors and uses them to save the lives of IDF soldiers and civilians.

“Further delays will endanger Israeli lives, increase the likelihood that the conflict will escalate further, and harm American national security interests,” the senators said. “It’s far past time to transfer to Israel the capabilities it needs to win.”

Hannah Sarisohn

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-821723

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Argentina's President Milei calls out UN's hypocrisy in condemning Israel - Hannah Sarisohn

 

by Hannah Sarisohn

During his remarks, Milei criticized the UN for its hypocrisies in criticizing Israel.

 

Argentina's President Javier Milei addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 24, 2024.

(photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon thanked Argentine President Javier Milei for defending Israel in his speech before the General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, the two leaders embracing for a handshake following Milei's speech. 

"Thank you, President Milei! You are a true friend of the State of Israel," Danon said in a statement. "In this hall where they slandered Israel all day, you showed courage and supported Israel!"

During his remarks, Milei criticized the UN for its hypocrisies in criticizing Israel. 

"In this same house, we, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela without reproach," Milei said.

"In this same house, which purports to defend the rights of women, we've allowed on the CEDAW Committee countries that punish their women just for showing their skin," Milei added. 

Argentina's President Javier Milei addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 24, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)

The only country 'to defend liberal democracy'

"And this same house has voted against the State of Israel, which is the only country in the Middle East to defend liberal democracy."

The rest of Milei's speech focused on criticizing the organization from its shift in its original mission of peace and human rights to promoting collectivist policies under the 2030 agenda. 

Hannah Sarisohn

Source: https://www.jpost.com/international/article-821598

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Iran: Israeli state terrorism in Lebanon cannot go unanswered - Tovah Lazaroff

 

by Tovah Lazaroff

“Israeli state terrorism over the past few days in Lebanon, followed by a massive aggression with thousands of victims, cannot go unanswered,” Pezeshkian said.

 

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a press conference in Tehran, Iran, September 16, 2024.

(photo credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA/via Reuters)

There must be a response to Israel’s military actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly as the region braced for the possibility of an all-out war.

“Israeli state terrorism over the past few days in Lebanon, followed by a massive aggression with thousands of victims, cannot go unanswered,” Pezeshkian said.

“The responsibility for all consequences will be borne by those governments who have thwarted all global efforts to end this horrific catastrophe and have the audacity to call themselves champions of human rights,” Pezeshkian stated.

He had earlier told CNN that Hezbollah, one of its proxy groups, “cannot stand by herself against a country that is armed to the teeth and has access to weapons systems that are far superior to anything else,” he said.

Islamic countries have to convene to plan a joint reaction, Pezeshkian said, adding that Iran would hold such a conversation at the UN on Wednesday.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 24, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR)

The UN Security Council is also expected to meet in the evening to discuss Lebanon.

“We must not allow for Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hand of Israel," he said. It was a sentiment that was also expressed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Israel has in the last year fought a multi-front war against Iranian proxies for the last year, including the Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Lebanon.

Iran directly attacked Israel in April, and the International community has feared that the proxy wars would descend into a regional Israeli-Iranian war.

Presenting Israel as an aggressor country 

At the United Nations, Pezeshkian presented Tehran as a peace-loving nation and Israel as an aggressor country guilty of “genocide” in Gaza.

“It is Israel that has assassinated our scientists, diplomats, and even guests on our soil and supported, both covertly and overtly, terrorist groups like ISIS,” Pezeshkian said. 

His listing of "guests" was a reference to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an act which has been widely attributed to Israel.

“Iran, in contrast, has supported popular liberation movements of people that have been victims of four generations of the crimes and colonialism of the Israeli regime,” Pezeshkian explained.

“We have been siding with the people across the world who have flooded the streets in outrage against Israeli atrocities. 

Condemning Israel's 'crimes against humanity' 

“We condemn Israeli crimes against humanity. It is imperative that the international community should immediately stop the violence and bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and bring an end to the desperate barbarism of Israel in Lebanon before it engulfs the region and the world,” he stated.

Israel, he said, has to stop the war in Gaza and admit defeat, that it has lost, Pezeshkian explained. 

“Israel has been defeated in Gaza, and no amount of barbaric violence can restore its myth of invincibility,” he said.

 
Tovah Lazaroff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-821597

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The Corrupt Economics of Immigration - Edward Ring

 

by Edward Ring

That California politicians like Kamala Harris have succeeded in selling open borders to the American people as necessary to solve the twin crises of “climate” and “equity” is a con job for the ages.

 

 

The common refrain among supporters of the Democratic Party’s open borders policy is that immigration helps the economy. A very recent example of this was published in MSNBC Daily last month, where the author, David Bier of the Cato Institute, claims that “The Congressional Budget Office finds that the surge will boost the economy by $7 trillion and reduce the federal debt by nearly $1 trillion by 2034.” That’s actually an unimpressive statistic since the cumulative GDP of the United States over the next decade will easily exceed $300 trillion, but Bier is probably not wrong in his assertion that immigration increases GDP.

So what?

What Bier and most libertarians fail to emphasize in their analysis is not merely the quantity of economic growth caused by immigration but the quality of that growth. We should not be surprised. Adhering to orthodox dogma at the expense of real-world consequences is just another trait libertarians share with socialists, who are their equally doctrinaire, equally out of touch supposed ideological antagonists.

For example, libertarians support free trade without recognizing that it is impossible for our manufacturers to compete against subsidized imports, manufactured in the absence of environmental and labor standards applicable in the United States. Libertarians support the abolition of residential zoning laws while doing nothing to stop the proliferating array of subsidies and tax incentives that artificially incentivize developers to demolish homes to build apartments. And libertarians only tepidly challenge urban containment policies that prevent new suburb developments on open land outside of existing cities. In what is perhaps some odd bid to find common ground with socialists, they have even claimed the infrastructure needed for urban expansion would “subsidize the car.”

When it comes to immigration, libertarians call for open borders without first insisting on a critical prerequisite: immigrants should not receive government subsidies or special benefits. They should be able to support themselves immediately through private employment. Immigration to America today, unlike any previous waves of immigration, offers new arrivals an array of taxpayer-funded benefits that often exceed what is available to the average American citizen. This creates incentives for mass migration that would not otherwise exist. But in the attempt to assess how immigration affects the health of the American economy, this is merely surface phenomena.

The economic process playing out across the U.S. in cities like Springfield, Ohio, has attracted an ecosystem of government contractors, tax-sheltered NGOs, and public agencies that is remarkably similar to what has been dubbed the Homeless Industrial Complex. In both cases, there is an incentive on the part of these multi-billion dollar players, protected by government regulations and snarfing down government subsidies, to make the cost of living unaffordable for America’s working families. California is ground zero for this corruption.

When people decry California’s inability to come up with an alternative to a homeless population that has now risen to an estimated 186,000, the highest ever, they have to understand that the root cause is a corrupt alliance between government and politically connected corporations. Critics of California’s failing homeless policies must understand that the growth of state regulations on home construction, excessive local permit fees, protracted and capricious building approval processes, myriad obstructionist government agencies at all levels, the failure to maintain or expand enabling infrastructure, and the near total ban on urban expansion have made it impossible for unsubsidized developers to build affordable homes. Voila, the “affordable housing” industry was born—a corrupt, obscenely expensive, entirely unnecessary invention.

The most visible symptom of this deeper problem is California’s 186,000 homeless, who ought to all be offered beds in group shelters. These facilities could be built for a fraction of the $24 billion of taxpayers’ dollars that California has spent just between 2019 and 2023 on “permanent supportive housing,” which, at over $500,000 per unit, hasn’t made a dent in the homeless population. But solving the problem would put an end to the scam.

There is a parallel corruption informing America’s immigration policy. The equilibrium between working-class household income and the cost of homes and rental housing remains almost manageable in most of America, even though that is changing fast. And the reason for the change is the policies that began in California, which are now rolling their way across the country. Restrictions on growth, excessive regulations, and increasingly elaborate building codes are increasing the cost of building homes. More government agencies to oversee the expanded regulatory environment are causing permit fees to go up.

Also going up—way up—are the “impact fees,” which transfer the burden of paying for new roads and other infrastructure from the cities and states to the homebuilders who have to pass those costs on to the home buyers. Connector roads, parks, schools, and utility conduits used to be funded out of government budgets. Now those funds are instead allocated to personnel costs, thanks to the growing power of government unions, who unironically demand more pay and benefits so the government workers can exempt themselves from the cost of living increases they play a large part in causing. And all of these regulations are justified in the name of protecting the planet.

Exacerbating this trend, whereby large corporations, hedge funds, NGOs, and government agencies expand and thrive as the cost of living is systematically put out of reach for more and more American families, is immigration. Dumping millions of people into the nation makes America’s housing shortage worse, driving prices up even more. Crippling, stifling regulations prevent the market from responding at a scale anywhere close to what is required to restore affordability.

This is the corrupt economics of immigration in America today. And it gets worse. Since working American families can no longer afford to purchase or rent a home, neither can unskilled immigrants from destitute nations. But when they come into a town and start to work, the system gears up to subsidize their expenses. The companies where they take jobs are now part of the corrupt scheme. They lower wages, knowing they now have a workforce that receives government-subsidized housing, healthcare, and food assistance. Meanwhile, the American workers who are displaced, along with everyone living in the town whether or not they are employed, have to deal with a housing market that has suddenly become more costly. Complicit, often remote landlords raise rents and favor the immigrants from whom they are guaranteed all or a portion of their rent collections by the government.

Immigration into a welfare state, where housing development is crippled by excessive regulations, is not happening by accident. This is a corrupt scheme that confers advantages to a powerful coalition of players—investors, corporations, developers, NGOs, government agencies, and environmentalists. It appeases socialists by virtue of the central role of government regulations and subsidies.

Libertarians, on the other hand, ought to know better. Half a solution is worse than no solution at all. Open borders are only possible when there is no welfare state awaiting new arrivals. More to the point, the underlying economics that surrounds immigration reflect a corrupt system that libertarians fail to acknowledge, much less fight with everything they’ve got. It is a massive transfer of wealth upwards from America’s lower-income and middle-class communities into the hands of an oligarchy. This is not a healthy version of capitalism.

This is also not healthy economic growth. That California politicians like Kamala Harris have succeeded in selling this betrayal to the American people as necessary to solve the twin crises of “climate” and “equity” is a con job for the ages.

Edward Ring

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/25/the-corrupt-economics-of-immigration/

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DOJ IG Horowitz won't say how many confidential human sources were among crowd on Jan. 6, 2021 - Nicholas Ballasy

 

by Nicholas Ballasy

"I'm not in a position to to say that both because it's in draft form and we have not gone through the classification review. And so I need to be careful," he said.

 

U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Wednesday would not say how many U.S. government confidential human sources were among the protestors during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when pressed on the matter by a lawmaker on Wednesday.

Horowitz was asked if he has evidence of the number of confidential human sources that were operating on the Capitol grounds on January 6th.

In response, he said his forthcoming report will include "information in that regard." 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asked him how many there were in the crowd but Horowitz declined to provide that information.

"I'm not in a position to to say that, both because it's in draft form, and we have not gone through the classification review. And so I need to be careful," he said.

Horowitz was testifying on Wednesday at a House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about FBI whistleblowers.

 
Nicholas Ballasy

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/doj-ig-horowitz-wont-say-how-many-confidential-human-sources-were-among-crowd

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Can Harris’ Cynical, Run-Out-The Clock Campaign Succeed? - Victor Davis Hanson

 

by Victor Davis Hanson

She believes her delays, deceptions, and vilifications will ensure her victory.

 

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Cynically running out the clock has been the overarching principle of the entire abbreviated 105-day presidential campaign of Kamala Harris—ever since Joe Biden, at the 11^th-hour, dropped out in July.

Harris seems unwilling or unable to answer any impromptu question that she has not been previously prepped for. Her answers at the debate were memorized and canned. They never addressed the questions asked.

Her single, 11-minute post-debate Philadelphia interview was a shipwreck of dodging and dissimulating—even though the host was sympathetically left-wing.

Even socialist Bernie Sanders pointed out that for Harris to get elected, she must temporarily disown her lifelong leftist credentials.

As vice president, she must further deny co-ownership of the unpopular record of the Biden-Harris administration.

Left unstated is that whether she wins the presidency—or loses it and continues as vice president for another three months—nonetheless she will inevitably revert back to her hard-core, lifelong leftist beliefs.

In addition, Harris has reconstructed her privileged upbringing as a child of two PhDs, living in a posh Montreal neighborhood into a struggling, middle-class Oakland childhood.

How can she stage such a complete makeover—and contemptuously count on the voting public to be so easily deceived?

She avoids all news conferences, one-on-one nationally broadcast interviews, and town halls. And like Biden, she will debate only on leftist venues with impartial pro-Harris moderators.

When asked to provide the details of her past responsibility for the open border, inflationary economy, spiraling crime, attacks on fossil fuels, and collapsing foreign policy, Harris smiles, makes hand gestures, and dodges. She changes the subject to her empathetic personality, her “joy” campaign, and her iconic profile as a supposedly dynamic black woman.

When pressed, Harris outsources the task of squaring her hypocrisies and subterfuges to the stonewalling campaign, Democratic surrogates—and the media.

Harris is also certainly not running on her demonstrable experience, vision, or intelligence as much as she is not Trump (or, for that matter, her former partner Joe Biden).

To make that distinction stark, Harris must demonize and bait Trump nonstop and make the country fear him.

So, she paints Trump as a racist and violent insurrectionist, not a former president whose four-year term saw a superior foreign policy, economy, border, and security than during the Biden-Harris term.

Instead, Harris has repeatedly claimed Trump is a dictator and a threat to democracy—as if he had politically weaponized the FBI, CIA, DOJ, or IRS as had Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Trump as Hitler has become a staple Democrat smear for the past decade.

That vicious caricature is so entrenched that major Democratic figures assume it’s okay to joke about, or seriously call for, Trump’s demise.

So, Harris’s current prominent advisor David Plouffe years ago warned the nation that “it is not enough to simply beat Trump. He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again.”

Just last year, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) claimed that Trump “is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated.”

Even after an assassin sought to kill Trump last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared, “Extreme MAGA Republicans are the party of a national abortion ban and Trump’s Project 2025. We must stop them.”

Harris’s dehumanizing of Trump, outsourcing the campaign to the media, avoiding all public dialogue, and temporarily reinventing one’s politics and biography have taken a toll on the country.

Harris was coronated the Democratic candidate without ever entering a primary or winning a single delegate by vote. Some 14 million Democrat primary voters were reduced to irrelevancy.

Like the 2020 Biden campaign, Harris has nationalized a new kind of cynical campaign in which leftist candidates seek for a few months to deceive the public into thinking they are centrist and moderate—until elected.

Avoiding all cross-examination and outscoring the campaign to the obsequious media is now the new norm.

Most news stories deemed unhelpful to Harris—the left-wing, pro-Harris politics of the recent would-be Trump assassin, the lie that dozens of bomb threats were called in against Springfield schools due to Trump, or prominent Democrats before and after the recent assassination attempt blaming Trump for being the target of an assassin—are suppressed by the media.

The recent two foiled assassination attempts on Trump logically follow a near-decade pattern of trying to destroy rather than outvote him.

The Russian collusion hoax, the laptop disinformation con, the two impeachments, the effort to remove Trump from some 16 state ballots, and the attempt to jail and bankrupt Trump through five criminal and civil “lawfare” indictments and suits also led to the current hateful climate of Trump assassination attempts.

Harris thinks her delays, deceptions, and vilifications for the next 47 days will ensure her victory.

But if so, it will be because she, her stealth campaign, and her self-proclaimed guardians of democracy have been willing to systematically destroy it.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/can-harriss-cynical-run-out-the-clock-campaign-succeed/

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Calling Nasrallah's bluff: IDF strikes bring turning point in Israel-Hezbollah war - analysis - Seth J. Frantzman

 

by Seth J. Frantzman

It’s possible Iran will enter the conflict or push the Houthis to increase attacks. Many things can happen in war.

 

A man uses a hose to extinguish flames, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Dishon, near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, June 4, 2024.

(photo credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)

It is likely that Israel’s decision to turn the tables on Hezbollah and call its bluff via massive airstrikes against it this week will be seen as a turning point in the conflict. It is important to understand how these events unfolded, especially since, for many years, an ingrained fear of Hezbollah was built up in Israel.

On Monday, the IAF launched airstrikes on more than 1,300 Hezbollah targets. They included numerous waves of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and deeper into Lebanon. Lebanese civilians were called upon to flee areas where Hezbollah is present in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Many things occurred on Monday that illustrate how Israel is turning the tide against Hezbollah. Calling on civilians to leave areas in Lebanon where Hezbollah is present is one example. The IDF provided details on how Hezbollah has used civilian homes to store arms. This is important information that could have been provided earlier, although this might have tipped Israel’s hand about its plans to turn the tables on Hezbollah.

Another key aspect of the turning of the tide against Hezbollah was calling the terrorist group’s bluff. Hezbollah has always threatened to rain down thousands of missiles a day on Israel and also use numerous new capabilities it had acquired over the last years. For instance, Hezbollah acquired precision-guided munitions and also drones. It threatened to use these capabilities to target Israeli infrastructure.

Damage in Israel's North following multiple Hezbollah rocket barrages on September 22, 2024 (credit: MDA SPOKESPERSON)

Hezbollah was seen as so powerful that any war with it would be devastating for Israel. In past years, the description of war with Hezbollah always made it seem almost apocalyptic. According to those predictions, it would mean civilians in shelters across the country for days or weeks on end, widespread destruction, and large numbers of casualties.

The Hezbollah bogeyman was conjured up because of fears of what a major conventional-style war would mean. This model for what war would look like emerged slowly and wasn’t typical in the years after the 2006 war. Instead, in the years after 2006, the main concern was that Hezbollah had proven itself tougher to fight than Israel assumed. The IDF had to put in place reforms for its ground forces after the war. Training was a key element intended to redeploy the IDF from fighting terrorism in the West Bank to being a conventional military force again.

The fear of another 2006 war haunted Israel, and fear soon became an overarching narrative that Hezbollah was some kind of all-powerful monster. Hezbollah increased its capabilities, and it became typical to talk of the group as possessing 150,000 or 200,000 rockets. The rocket arsenal soon came to include precision-guided munitions. Over the past year or two, it became clear that the terrorist group had also acquired thousands of drones.

Hezbollah's weaponry

This huge arsenal painted a picture of a war in which thousands of rockets would rain down across Israel, threatening most of the country. This is because Hezbollah was assumed to have a large number of long-range rockets as well.

Hezbollah benefited from the Syrian civil war. Even though it suffered losses in Syria due to its involvement from 2012-2018, it also achieved a lot. Its fighters gained experience fighting as a conventional ground force. It also was able to penetrate Syria deeply and knit itself in with other Iranian-backed militias. Hezbollah sought to expand the threat to Israel to include the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

Iran also used Hezbollah to expand its own concept of a multifront or multi-arena war. This is what gave Hezbollah the sense it could get involved in the war against Israel after October 7. Hezbollah broke through any sense of Israel’s ability to deter it by beginning its attacks on Israel on October 8. Hezbollah forced Israel to evacuate the North. Fears that it could carry out an October 7-type attack led to the evacuations. In addition, there was hesitancy about creating a larger war with Hezbollah. The limited proportional war began to take shape, which benefited Hezbollah.

Israel called Hezbollah’s bluff on September 23. It was able to do this by eliminating Hezbollah’s commanders in an airstrike on September 20. In addition, Israel was able to accomplish this via other means. The exploding pagers hurt Hezbollah and caused numerous casualties. Hezbollah struggled to respond, but it found itself in chaos.

Hezbollah was seen as a major bogeyman, but it’s possible it never put in place an ability to launch thousands of rockets a day. Hamas had achieved this on October 7. Hezbollah may not have actually been able to do what Hamas did. In addition, the chaos that emerged after September 18 also enabled Israel to increase its strikes on Hezbollah launchers. The lessons of August 25, when Hezbollah sought to launch thousands of projectiles at Israel, also helped Israel understand how Hezbollah would react.

The overall story here is that Hezbollah became arrogant and complacent. It also came to overly rely on Iran and Iran’s multifront strategy. This reined in Hezbollah. This restrained it and turned it into a kind of secondary front for Iran. Iran wants to preserve Hezbollah, and therefore, it is afraid of Hezbollah entering a major war. This left Hezbollah open to the kinds of attacks it suffered from September 17-23.

It’s possible Hezbollah will be able to get its house in order and carry out large-scale attacks against Israel. It’s possible Iran will enter the conflict or push the Houthis to increase their attacks. Many things can happen in a war. Once you decide to go to war, there is contact with the enemy, and one cannot know how the war will unfold.

Israel will also have to decide what to do. Israel shaped the battlefield in strikes on September 20-22. That is why September 23 will ring out as a major shift in this conflict. Israel has sought to turn the tide on the Iranian-backed terrorist group. It has called Iran’s bluff and pushed away the bogeyman of Hezbollah. Now, the sum of all our fears about Hezbollah’s capabilities has been deflated a bit.

I drove along the border of northern Israel on September 23 and expected to see wide-ranging Hezbollah rocket fire. I expected to see the enemy launch anti-tank-guided missiles along the border.

As I drove home at sunset, after most of Israel’s 1,300 airstrikes had been carried out, I saw numerous barrages of Hezbollah rockets over my head. But it appeared that Hezbollah’s capabilities to launch its arsenal of rockets had been degraded to a similar level that Hamas had in October 2023. It’s still a major threat, but the fear of Hezbollah has now diminished.

 
Seth J. Frantzman

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-821501

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Bombshell transcripts: Trump urged use of troops to protect Capitol on Jan. 6 , but was rebuffed - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Key lawmaker says interviews prove Pentagon wrongly allowed optics to overwhelm security concerns in lead-up to fateful day. The Pentagon's top brass did not comply with Trump's orders because of political concerns and "optics."

 

Then-President Donald Trump gave clear instructions to Pentagon brass days before the Jan. 6 riots to “do whatever it takes” to keep the U.S. Capitol safe, including deploying National Guard or active-duty troops, but top officials did not comply because of political concerns, according to transcripts of bombshell interviews conducted by the Defense Department's chief watchdog that shine new light on government disfunction ahead of the historic tragedy.

Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, confirmed to the Pentagon inspector general three years ago that during a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting Trump pre-approved the use of National Guard or active duty troops to keep peace in the nation’s capital on the day Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 election.

Milley's interviews were among several key to transcripts obtained by House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and shared with Just the News.

“The President just says, ‘Hey look at this. It’s going to be a large amount of protesters come in here on the 6th, and make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it’s a safe event,’” Milley told the inspector general in one of two interviews he did in spring 2021 during a probe of the Pentagon’s response to Jan. 6.

Milley said then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, himself a former general, assured Trump there was an adequate safety plan for Pentagon assistance to Washington, D.C. “Miller responds by saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a plan, and we’ve got it covered.’ And that’s about it,” Milley recalled.

"Just make sure it’s safe"

Milley confirmed a second time during the interviews that Trump was clear in his wishes. “It was just what I just described, which was, ‘Hey, I don’t care if you use Guard, or soldiers, active-duty soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe,” the general told the IG.

26 - Milley - 4.8.21.pdf

The transcripts of Milley’s April 8, 2021, and April 16, 2021, interviews confirm reporting by Just the News two years ago that Trump wanted troops to keep the capital city safe.

But other transcripts gathered by Loudermilk during his subcommittee’s ongoing probe of Jan. 6 security failures show civilian leadership at the Pentagon admittedly openly they would not comply with Trump’s wishes, with some saying they did not like the optics of armed soldiers or Guardsmen roaming the Capitol with weapons during what was supposed to be a peaceful transition of power.

“There was absolutely -- there is absolutely no way I was putting U.S. military forces at the Capitol, period,” Miller told the inspector general during his March 2021 interview.

Miller said officials instead used an interagency process to devise an alternative plan that would put some DC National Guard troops on the ground in the nation’s capitol to direct traffic but not to guard the Capitol, a plan that District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested.

“The operational plan was this, let’s take the D.C. National Guard, keep them away from the Capitol. Let’s put -- the request, it wasn’t my request, Bowser and her Metropolitan Police Department were like ‘Let’s put D.C. National Guard on traffic control points and at the Metro stations to free up credentialed law-enforcement officers that can go out and arrest people,’” Miller explained.

25 - Miller - 3.12.21.pdf

Miller admitted there was a political calculus to his decision not to deploy troops near or at the Capitol ahead of time for preventative security.

“I hate to use the word optics because it’s been used and so prejudicially and negatively. It wasn’t the optics. It was like there was would have been huge political consequences that, because that’s what I got paid to do. Is I had the factor in the politics of this and that was my concern is the situation does not warrant at this time U.S. military forces,” he explained,

Pentagon refused to assist D.C. Police

Former District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee confirmed in his interview that Pentagon officials, specifically Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, resisted his department’s initial request around New Year’s Eve for troops in advance of Jan. 6, especially if they were to be deployed anywhere near the Capitol.

“I received a call directly from the Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and at that time -- at that point he had reviewed our request for the support of D.C. National Guard, and what he relayed to me this phone call was not what I initially thought that he would saying,” Contee recounted in his interview. “He did not initially say, ‘Yes, you get the National Guard responding and they’re going to handle this traffic and crowd management that you asked for that they’re going to be responding to handle it.’

“That was not what was stated. What was stated to me was that he was not inclined to fulfill the request with Guardsmen simply because the optics of it was bad,” Conte added. “He said that he did not want to have boots on the ground on the -- he didn’t want to have boots on the ground anywhere near the Capitol is what was stated.”

2 - Contee - 3.17.21.pdf

Loudermilk said he is deeply concerned that Pentagon officials substituted their own personal politics for the president’s instructions.

“President Trump directed senior DoD leaders to ensure events on J6 be safe. They ignored his guidance, prioritized optics concerns over security, and pushed a flawed narrative in their IG report,” he wrote on the X social platform last week. “The American people deserve the full truth.”

Eventually, the Pentagon approved less than 400 DC Guard troops to be used on traffic control. But documents gathered by Loudermilk’s team show the DC Guard was told directly by McCarthy it could not use weapons or engage with protesters, a limitation that became magnified when violence broke out.

“DCNG are not authorized to perform any additional tasks or duties not authorized in this memorandum,” McCarthy’s staff wrote the National Guard commander on Jan. 5, 2021. “In addition, without my personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following: a,) to be issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, and batons. (Removed body armor and helmets)

“Addition: DCNG Soldiers have the inherent right to self‐defense. DCNG Soldiers will store their helmets and body armor within vehicles or buildings in close proximity to their positions. In the event of an elevation of the threat requiring immediate donning of this equipment for self‐defense, DCNG leadership will immediately notify the Secretary of Army,” that email read

WalkerOrder.pdf

Subsequently, on the afternoon of Jan. 6 when violence broke out, the Pentagon would eventually deploy hundreds more though it took hours to get them to reach the Capitol, a delay that frustrated Capitol Police.

The DC Homeland Security Coordinator Christopher Rodriguez told the Pentagon inspector general that the same concerns about political optics that nixed troops at the Capitol ahead of time may have factored into the delay on the afternoon of Jan. 6, noting a top Army official used the word “optics” during a call as emergency resources were being urgently sought to quell the violence at the Capitol.

“I do believe it was one of the generals that was on the line from Secretary of Army staff that I referred to,” Rodriquez recalled.

When pressed about what he heard on the call, Rodriguez said: “It shocked me quite frankly. And we recognize that we might not be able to get an answer to getting needed support up to the Capitol in a timely fashion”

37 - Rodriguez - 2.12.21.pdf

The Pentagon IG ultimately concluded the Pentagon acted quickly after violence broke out, noting Miller signed an order to approve troops to the capitol within 45 minutes of the request for help.

DODIG-2022-039 V2 508.pdf

"Optics"

But Loudermilk has since challenged that assertion publicly, including in interviews with The Washington Times, noting there were other delays after the order that kept troops from arriving until sundown.

“The DC National Guard was significantly delayed from deploying to the U.S. Capitol on J6 because senior DoD leaders had 'optics' concerns,” Loudermilk wrote on X earlier this month.

The transcripts also show there remain some factual disputes among key players.

For instance, ex-Defense Secretary Miller told Congress that Trump gave a specific number of troops he wanted to see made available for security ahead of Jan. 6.

“The President commented that they were going to need 10,000 troops the following day...I interpreted it as a bit of presidential banter or President Trump banter that you all are familiar with, and in no way, shape, or form did I interpret that as an order or direction," Miller testified.

But Milley, the former Joint Chiefs chairman, said he did not recall that number ever being uttered in the meetings with Trump. "There was no discussion of 10,000 troops," the retired four-star general said.

The transcripts also provide some hints that top Pentagon officials personally disliked the 45th president. For instance, former Acting Secretary Miller at one point compared the former president to Cuba’s most infamous communist leader, the late Fidel Castro.

“Everyone was like, ‘Did you listen to the President’s speech?’ I’m like, ‘The guy speaks for 90 minutes, it’s like Castro or something. No. I’ve got work to do,” Miller told the IG at one point.

John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/bombshell-transcripts-trump-urged-use-troops-protect-capitol-jan-6-was

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