Hezbollah's Great Diversion - Khaled Abu Toameh

 

​ by Khaled Abu Toameh

 

The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.

• Many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port "massacre." They are also demanding an end to Iran's occupation of Lebanon.

• Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.

• "Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons." — Nizar Salloum, Lebanon, Twitter, December 7, 2020.

• The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel.

• The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.

More than four months have passed since the huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port "massacre." Pictured: The scene of the explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

More than four months have passed since the huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port "massacre." They are also demanding an end to Iran's occupation of Lebanon.

On August 4, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Beirut port exploded, causing at least 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and $15 billion in property damage. An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless.

Many of Hezbollah's political and civil opponents blamed the terrorist organization for storing the dangerous chemicals. A commission of inquiry set up by the Lebanese government has so far failed to provide satisfactory answers, prompting many Lebanese to call for an international probe. Denying responsibility, Hezbollah this week threatened to sue those who have accused it of being behind the explosion.

Hezbollah's denial, however, has failed to convince many Lebanese, who are saying they are fed up with the terrorist organization's lies. On December 5, Lebanese demonstrators took to the streets, chanting "Hezbollah the terrorist" and asking questions about its role in the explosion.

"We, Lebanese, should do to [Hezbollah Secretary-General] Hassan Nasrallah the same thing Libyans did to [slain Libyan dictator] Gaddafi: Step on his face and crush it.," The Beirut Journal wrote on Twitter.

A hashtag named "Hezbollah is Terror" that has recently been trending on Twitter and other social media platforms accuses the terrorist organization of hijacking and destroying Lebanon to serve the interests of Iran. The hashtag further accuses Hezbollah terrorists of beating and intimidating peaceful demonstrators in various parts of Lebanon.

"What has Nasrallah done to the Lebanese people?" asked Lebanese social media user Martine J. Zaarour. "1. Killed our people. 2. Stolen our money. 3. Destroyed Beirut. 4. Placed on the terrorist list 5. Made war with Israel. 6. Prioritized Palestinians and Syrians. 8. Threatened us with illegal weapons."

Some Lebanese citizens scoffed at Hezbollah's threat to sue those who hold it responsible for the port explosion. "If Hezbollah is resorting to the judiciary, this means that it trusts the Lebanese state," remarked Lebanese political activist Charbel Frem. "So why does Hezbollah not surrender its weapons to the state?"

In response, Nizar Salloum, also from Lebanon, wrote: "Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons."

Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.

"Four months have passed," noted Larissa Aoun, a Lebanese reporter for Sky News Arabia. "Where is the investigation? Where is justice? Who is responsible? We will not forget."

Alarmed by the growing criticism of Hezbollah's presence as a state-within-a-state in Lebanon and allegations over its responsibility for the Beirut explosion, the terrorist organization has begun berating and intimidating journalists who dare to speak out.

One victim, Maraim Seif, was recently attacked at her home by Hezbollah terrorists for her repeated criticism of the terrorist organization.

"Hezbollah's 'resistance fighters' have officially turned into thugs," commented Lebanese anchorwoman Dima Sadek. "These resistance fighters attacked the activist, journalist and friend Mariam Seif and her family, beat them and threatened to kill them. Mariam was assaulted for articles she wrote attacking Hezbollah."

Sadek herself was targeted by Hezbollah thugs for supporting protests against the terrorist organization. She recently resigned from Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International after receiving threats from Hezbollah.

"Lebanon is ruled by an armed militia and a corrupted mafia," said Serge Dagher, Secretary-General of the Lebanese Kataeb party. "No change can be achieved in this country expect with holding parliament elections, changing the ruling authority as a whole as well as the mafia and militia that has been prevailing over the country for the past period." He blamed the Lebanese government for mishandling the Beirut port explosion and pointed out that none of the Lebanese officials has taken to the streets and supported the people.

The failure of the Lebanese authorities to reveal the identities of those responsible for the explosion has led several Lebanese politicians, political activists and journalists to call for the intervention of the international community.

Samir Geagea, Chairman of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party, threatened to resort to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the Lebanese government's investigation into the port explosion does not reach clear results. "We will go to the International Criminal Court to uncover the truth and the circumstances surrounding this crime," he said.

In an apparent attempt to divert attention from the port explosion, Hezbollah claimed on December 5 that one of its unmanned aerial drones flew over the Galilee in northern Israel. The claim came as Lebanon is facing a deep economic crisis and amid growing outrage in the country over Hezbollah's responsibility for the disasters that have befallen the Lebanese people in the past few decades.

The Lebanese are naïve in the extreme to believe that the international community is going to listen to their grievances or interfere to stop Hezbollah and its masters in Iran from destroying Lebanon. They are also painfully naïve if they believe that anyone in the international community cares about the assaults and threats against Lebanese journalists and activists who criticize Hezbollah or call for an end to Iran's occupation of Lebanon.

The international community has more pressing issues on its mind: Israel. Earlier this month, the United Nations General Assembly approved five pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli resolutions.

The Lebanese who have lost their loved ones or their homes in the port explosion could not care less about Israel.

In fact, such resolutions are harmful to the Lebanese because they keep the world's attention focused only on Israel. The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel. The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.

• 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/16845/hezbollah-great-diversion 

 Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Bedfellows: Iran and Al Qaeda - Majid Rafizadeh

 

​ by Majid Rafizadeh

 

If Biden becomes the next US president and if he pursues the same policies towards Iran as former President Barack Obama, he will not only embolden this predatory regime, but also empower its allies, as well as terror groups such as Al Qaeda.

• In addition, a trove of 470,000 documents, released by the CIA in late 2017, point to close ties between the Iranian regime and Al-Qaeda.... According to the documents, Iran also provided Al Qaeda with "money and arms and everything they need, and offered them training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, in return for striking American interests in Saudi Arabia."

• Eight of the 9/11 attack hijackers passed through Iran before coming to the US. Tehran provided funding, logistical support and ammunition to Al-Qaeda leaders, and sheltered several of them in exchange for attacks on US interests.

• As sanctions against Iran were lifted during the Obama administration, it quickly became clear that those actions, instead, gave Iran's brutality to its own people and its adventurism abroad a global legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. This newfound legitimacy and the lifting of sanctions generated billions of dollars for Iran's military institution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for Iran's militia and terror groups. Tehran used those revenues to expand its influence throughout the region, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. The expansion campaign proved to be immensely successful.

• If Biden becomes the next US president and if he pursues the same policies towards Iran as former President Barack Obama, he will not only embolden this predatory regime, but also empower its allies, as well as terror groups such as Al Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, was reported assassinated in Tehran, Iran on August 7. Al-Masri was accused of taking part in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa on August 7, 1998. Pictured: Rescue workers search for survivors of the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

While the presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden is advocating for pursuing appeasement policies with Iran's ruling mullahs as did his former boss, President Barack Obama, it should be noted he will be assisting a regime that has close ties not only to Shia militia groups but also to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.

Some people might attempt to convince you that Iran and Al Qaeda are enemies because the Iranian government is Shia and Al Qaeda is Sunni, but evidence shows strong collaboration between the two.

Based on a recent report by The New York Times, which cited information from intelligence officials, Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, was killed on August 7. He was reportedly gunned down, at the behest of the US, by two Israeli operatives in the streets of Tehran along with his daughter, the widow of former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza.

Al-Masri, who would most likely have been the successor to Al-Qaeda's current leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was accused of taking part in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998. At first, Iranian authorities attempted to cover up his death, apparently because they would have preferred it not to be known that they have any links to Al-Qaeda. The theocratic Iranian establishment may well have provided Al-Masri with the resources to carry out his campaigns against the US.

Further evidence has come from the former spokesman for the IRGC, Saeed Qasemi (Ghasemi), who shared a surprising revelation. He stated that the Iranian government sent agents to Bosnia and Herzegovina to train Al-Qaeda members and that Tehran's operatives had hiden their identity by posing as humanitarian workers for Iran's Red Crescent.

Another Iranian official, Hossein Allahkaram, believed to be one of the operatives sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina, confirmed this account. "There used to be an Al-Qaeda branch in Bosnia and Herzegovina..." he said. "They were connected to us in a number of ways. Even though they were training within their own base, when they engaged in weapons training they joined us in various activities."

In addition, a trove of 470,000 documents, released by the CIA in late 2017, point to close ties between the Iranian regime and Al-Qaeda. The terror group's former leader, Osama bin Laden, advised his followers to respect the Iranian government and wrote that Iran was the organization's "main artery for funds, personnel and communication." For more sophisticated training, Al-Qaeda members traveled to Lebanon. According to the documents, Iran also provided Al Qaeda with "money and arms and everything they need, and offered them training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, in return for striking American interests in Saudi Arabia."

Iran was also implicated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, before which Tehran allowed Al-Qaeda operatives to travel through the country without passports or visas. Robust evidence, including a US federal court ruling, suggests that "Iran furnished material and direct support for the 9/11 terrorists." Eight of the hijackers passed through Iran before coming to the US. Tehran provided funding, logistical support and ammunition to Al-Qaeda leaders, and sheltered several of them in exchange for attacks on US interests.

Iran and Al-Qaeda are allies due to the fact that they both view the US as their main enemy; the group has carried out several successful terrorist attacks against the US. Al-Qaeda is also a threat to Gulf states, which Iran views as regional rivals.

In addition, Al-Qaeda's modus operandi is anchored in efforts to destabilize the region and create chaos, a ripe environment that the Iranian regime, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies and militia groups can exploit, and from which they can prosper.

The US government has targeted the IRGC with sanctions and designated it as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019. "The IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," stated US President Donald Trump. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."

The alliance between Iran and Al Qaeda is probably why the terrorist group has carried out attacks in many countries but has never targeted the Iranian regime.

Biden's policy towards the Iranian regime is anchored in the idea that the only informed and effective policy that will deal with Iran's clerical establishment is rooted in enticing them in from the cold: in other words, appeasement. The argument goes that if the mullahs are appeased, then they will change their malign behavior and support for terror groups such as Al Qaeda. During Biden's Vice Presidency, however, for eight years, the US government initiated and expanded appeasement policies during the administration of President Barack Obama. Throughout this time, the Obama administration made unprecedented concessions in an attempt to appease Iran's ruling mullahs. The Obama-Biden administration met the Iranian leaders with generosity and flexibility at every step. What was the outcome?

As sanctions against Iran were lifted during the Obama administration, it quickly became clear that those actions, instead, gave Iran's brutality to its own people and its adventurism abroad a global legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. This newfound legitimacy and the lifting of sanctions generated billions of dollars for Iran's military institution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for Iran's militia and terror groups. Tehran used those revenues to expand its influence throughout the region, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. The expansion campaign proved to be immensely successful.

In conclusion, If Biden becomes the next US president and if he pursues the same policies towards Iran as former President Barack Obama, he will not only embolden this predatory regime, but also empower its allies, as well as terror groups such as Al Qaeda.

• Follow Majid Rafizadeh on Twitter

 

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16841/iran-al-qaeda 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Will America Become China's Vassal? - Gary Gindler

 

​ by Gary Gindler

The dire cost of Biden taking the White House.

 

On election day, Fox News betrayed President Trump, and this has puzzled many patriots. The confusion vanishes if one assumes that this episode could be just a small part of the process of China's colonization of America. China has already colonized some countries in the Pacific region, South America, and Africa for all practical purposes. Add to this list the de facto colonization of northern Italy and a large part of Russia in Eastern Siberia. Also, communist China greedily devours real estate and businesses in the United States.

Therefore, the 2020 presidential election should be seen as an integral part of this process.

From this perspective, Trump and Biden symbolize two diametrically opposed approaches to America's future. If Biden made it clear that he was ready to swear allegiance to the new master, Trump is fighting for America's economic and political independence. Biden is helped not only by the so-called "Democrats" and numerous anti-Trump Republicans but also by the world socialist movement.

The current leading force of palace intrigues in China is Xi Jinping's group of supporters of Soviet methods: "Xi Jinping belongs to the faction long forgotten in China, which at one time was aligned with the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin." When this group came to power, a wave of repressions swept across China, like two drops of water similar to Stalin's repressions of the 30s and 40s. China's economic policy is generally reminiscent of the Soviet one. For example, foreign companies' penetration into Chinese markets is only possible if joint ventures with China are established, and all the know-how is transferred to the Chinese side.

Donald Trump, of course, is fighting for the presidency. Nevertheless, for Trump, the presidency is only part of a more significant challenge. Trump seeks not only to win these elections but to destroy once and for all the leftist movements in general. Obviously, it includes China and the so-called "Democrats." That is a much more important goal, and it looks like Trump would prevail. What if Trump loses? In this case, all his actions will be aimed at ensuring that by the next electoral cycle – in 2022 – no one in his or her right mind would even think to vote for (D)ecadence.

Trump must win Americans' sympathy to achieve his goal. There is no doubt that the Trump team is acting in this direction. Numerous hearings in state legislatures, sensational statements by witnesses, mathematical and computer experts, and court hearings, of course, show a horrid picture of election fraud by "Democrats."

Election Day has been transformed into Election Months; however, more and more Americans are convinced of the "Democrat" fraud every day. More and more Americans switch to alternative sources of information every day and thus deprive propaganda outlets of their material base. Every day more and more Americans are beginning to understand which Republican is an anti-Trumpist rooting for China and which one is a Conservative. Finally, more and more Americans are beginning to guess where the command center that issued an order to stop counting votes simultaneously in six battleground states at 2 a.m. on November 4, 2020, was located.

Trump understands that America, unfortunately, has been dozing for the past hundred years. While we were sleeping, our Constitution was undermined. We have lost control of the Washington swamp dwellers because they prefer to be controlled by Chinese interests rather than American citizens. We just lived our lives and watched football until the international leftist movement attempted to steal our America out from under our noses.

Trump's strategic goal is an America, which is not sleeping at the wheel.

There is now every sign that America's sleeping giant is awake. Thanks to China – the elections they most likely helped to steal could be the Chinese equivalent of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thanks to the "Democratic" fraudsters and their leader Joe "Yuan" Biden – the 2020 elections were the last straw.

In 1776 we did not want to be vassals to the British king, and in 2020 we do not want to be vassals of the communists.

China communists and their distant ideological cousins on the Left – the American "Democrats," of course, went for broke. They have in their arsenal not only economic and political methods. A very extraordinary direction of China's expansion is that the communists began to transfer their enterprises to the United States, considering our country as one of the offshore destinations for money laundering. Based on our knowledge of communists' methods, the most probable course of action by the Politburo of the Communist Party of China would be outright buying of politicians. It seems they calculated (quite correctly) that they need to buy a limited number – no more than a few thousand – key politicians worldwide to carry out their expansion plans. This path seems to them to be quicker and economically more feasible.

The massive importation of drugs into the United States was one of the main activities of the Soviet KGB, for which numerous drug cartels were created (have you ever wondered why most drug cartels are in countries with strong left-wing traditions?) It was the Chinese comrades who did what the Soviet comrades could not achieve – flood America with fentanyl.

China's espionage has reached a level that the Soviet KGB could only dream of. Under Bush and Obama, China's cyber attacks, like Operation Titan Rain, were incredibly successful. Consider the 2013 attack, when China took over the personal files of 21 million US government employees. China uses widespread blackmail and bribes to lobby her interests in Washington.

In 2020, communist China used artificial intelligence algorithms to identify Americans who could participate in the Antifa and Black Lives Matter pogroms (of course, the Chinese communists favor only left-wing organizations). Once identified, these Americans were sent instructions (including well-crafted videos) on organizing riots via social media. As we now know, American "Democrats" enthusiastically participated in this orgy. Finally, everybody has noticed that numerous concentration camps sprung up worldwide as a precursor to CoronaGulag.

Trump has swung not only at the Chinese communists, not only at the "Democrats" as traditional rivals of the American conservatives, and not only at the Washington swamp. All the above suggests that Donald Trump is an historical figure on a much larger scale than it seems at first glance.

Trump is fighting a global communist Utopia, also known as the "Global Gulag."

The "Democrats," if they do win this battle with China's help, will find themselves in a completely new, redefined reality – the majority of the country's population will regard them as usurpers, deceitful and dishonest people. If an infirm old marionette settles in the White House, it will be a classic Pyrrhic victory, where winning a battle leads to losing the war.

Donald Trump has been compared with Winston Churchill more than once, and these comparisons, of course, have a good reason. They are based on the similarity of the circumstances these leaders had to face. Churchill, too, found himself in a situation where he and his country were single-handedly fighting both German Socialists' horde and the numerous National Socialism and International Socialism supporters among the British establishment.

If the socialists come to power despite Trump's actual landslide victory, then the political suicide of the "Democrats" will enter the final phase. Moreover, the American patriots who feel down in the dumps should remember one of the quotes commonly attributed to Churchill: "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

 

Gary Gindler, Ph.D., is a conservative columnist at Gary Gindler Chronicles and the founder of a new science: Politiphysics. Follow him on Twitter and Quodverum.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/will-america-become-chinas-vassal-gary-gindler/ 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Lowering the Barr - Lloyd Billingsley

 

​ by Lloyd Billingsley

Has the DOJ become the pro bono law firm of the Deep State?

 

“We have put together the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” said Joe Biden on October 24, and duly confirmed on November 3. With Trump holding a lead in critical states, the voting suddenly stopped and harvested ballots came pouring in for Biden. Mail ballots had been handled by a postal union that endorsed Joe Biden, a clear conflict of interest. No identification required, ballots backdated, poll workers shielded from observation, and so forth. Plenty to see here, but not for Attorney General William Barr.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr said in a December 1 interview. Voters had a right to wonder if the nation’s highest law enforcement official had taken a look at voting by illegal aliens, a crime punishable by one year in prison, deportation and inadmissibility. Even so, in California, voting by illegals is already inherent in the system.

When illegals get driver’s licenses, the DMV automatically registers them to vote, and by 2018 the “motor voter” program added one million “new” voters to the rolls. In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered mail ballots sent to every registered voter in California, which includes all the illegals registered by the DMV. Secretary of state Alex Padilla, who opposed a federal probe of voter fraud after the 2016 election, won’t say how many illegals voted in 2018 and 2020. If Barr made any effort to uncover the extent of this crime, nothing has come to light. On other fronts, the attorney general has been busy.

Also on December 1, Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Durham has been investigating the matter since 2019 and to date has only brought a single charge against FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith for altering a document. High-profile players such as James Comey and Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr and others have escaped prosecution. By kicking the probe down the road, Barr effectively kills it off. That should come as no surprise, given Barr’s history of defending deadly government operations against American civilians.

In his January, 2019, Senate confirmation hearings, Democrats asked Barr if he had ever undertaken pro bono activities to serve the “disadvantaged.” As James Bovard observed, “nobody is asking about Barr’s legal crusade for blanket immunity for federal agents who killed American citizens.”

During the Ruby Ridge siege of 1992, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot unarmed Vicki Weaver in the head as she held her infant child. Snipers are trained carefully to “acquire” the target so the killing was not accidental. Horiuchi had already shot Vicki’s husband Randy in the back, and as Bovard recalls, “the suspects were never given a warning or a chance to surrender and had taken no action against FBI agents.”

This went down during Barr’s first stint as attorney general from 1991-1993. Barr spent two weeks organizing former attorney generals to defend Horiuchi, who already had government lawyers working on his behalf. Barr told reporters he was not directly involved in Ruby Ridge but the Washington Post revealed that the DOJ made 20 telephone contacts with the operation, two of them from William Barr.

The Weaver family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and the DOJ paid $3 million. When an Idaho county filed criminal charges against Horiuchi, Barr sought immunity for the FBI sniper. Appeal court judge Alex Kozinski warned of a “007 standard for the use of deadly force” against American citizens who posed no immediate threat.

The shoot-without-provocation rules were approved by the FBI’s Larry Potts. When Clinton attorney general Janet Reno nominated Potts to head the FBI, William Barr told the New York Times Potts was “deliberate and careful” and “I can’t think of enough good things to say about him.” So no surprise that Barr would find nothing amiss with the FBI bosses who conducted covert operations to smear candidate Donald Trump and attempted to take down the duly elected president of the United States.

Barr did put John Durham on their tail, but as the AG has now revealed, that was all for show.

A ballpark figure for the number of corrupt DOJ and FBI officials who will face criminal charges, much less serve prison time, is zero. Attorney General Barr has no problem with that, nor with those who killed off fair elections, a pillar of American democracy.

“You won fair and square, Joe,” Barr said in effect on December 1. “And listen up, Jim, Peter, Lisa, Bruce and all the rest. No worries, I’ve had your back from the start.” For all but the willfully blind the lessons should be evident.

The DOJ has become the pro bono law firm of the deep state, defending bad actors in the government. The FBI has become the American KGB, off limits to oversight, ignoring government criminals, and deploying military force against the people. Stay safe everybody.

* * *

Photo credit: Office of Public Affairs

 

Lloyd Billingsley  

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/lowering-barr-lloyd-billingsley/ 

 Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Sidney Powell is still out there fighting - Andrea Widburg

 

​ by Andrea Widburg

 

It's hard to keep up with the dynamo that is Sidney Powell, but she's got arrows in her quiver, and we need to keep the faith.

As I write these words in the wee hours of Saturday morning, it's tough not to be disheartened by the Supreme Court's refusal to take up Texas's challenge to those states accused of running corrupt elections.  Still, that was just one of many efforts to return sanity to the election.  One of the most interesting actors now, as before, is Sidney Powell.  (The other is Lin Wood, with whom she works.)  This post sums up Powell's most recent pronouncements.

First, late Friday night, after the Supreme Court had already dismissed the Texas case, Powell told people to "Pay attention!"

 

Pay attention! We made emergency filings in #SupremeCourt tonight for #Georgia & #Michigan. Will be filing #Arizona #Wisconsin shortly. These cases raise constitutional issues and prove massive #fraud.
Our plaintiffs have #standing #WeThePeople will not allow #rigged elections https://t.co/AfvQ3h40u0

— Sidney Powell 🇺🇸⭐⭐⭐ (@SidneyPowell1) December 12, 2020

I did pay attention and was able to get a link to the 97-page emergency petition she filed — except that I can't get it to load. You can find it here, and it may work for you.

Incidentally, even without reading the petition, I believe absolutely that Powell is correct that the American people have standing.  In our federal republic, the votes in 50 standalone states are combined to elect a president.  When a state engages in unconstitutional cheating for Biden in a way that affects the election outcome, that conduct not only invalidates votes for Trump within the state, but destroys the vote of all Trump voters who participated in constitutionally run elections in other states.

And for those who say this argument opens up leftist lawsuits against Trump votes in red states, I say go for it.  This may well be a case of "it takes two thieves to strike an honest bargain."  Or, if you're familiar with Kurt Vonnegut's brilliant Report on the Barnhouse Effect, everybody tattling on everyone else may be what we need to keep American elections sparkling clean.  Dueling litigation might be enough to get us back to paper ballots.

Powell also wants people to pay close attention to a Kevin McCullough video in which he talks about the Dominion machines in Antrim County in Michigan.  That's the county in which 6,000 Trump votes ended up in the Biden bucket, alerting Trump-supporters to the Dominion factor.  One of the Trump legal teams (I've lost track of which one) got a court order for a forensic analysis of the machine.

I've had emails asking what the result of that analysis was.  I now know why I couldn't answer the question.  Michigan's Democrat attorney general stopped anyone from disclosing the results of the audit, and a Democrat judge concurred:

 

Very important to watch! And understand @realDonaldTrump@Scavino45@GenFlynn@JosephJFlynn1@MariaBartiromo@LouDobbshttps://t.co/aG6PoTvJvR

— Sidney Powell 🇺🇸⭐⭐⭐ (@SidneyPowell1) December 12, 2020

Lou Dobbs, who's been a stalwart warrior in the fight against election fraud, covers this point, too:

Secret Audit: @pjcolbeck slams efforts by Michigan’s AG and the courts to hide a forensic audit of Dominon’s voting machines in a county where 6,000 votes were flipped from @realDonaldTrump to Biden. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/juQqUfi0Et

— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) December 10, 2020

Dobbs also provided a forum for Sidney Powell to explain that, just in the last few days, she's received an inrush of documents proving that foreign actors, including Venezuela and China, actively interfered in the 2020 presidential election:

Cyber Pearl Harbor: @SidneyPowell1 reveals groundbreaking new evidence indicating our Presidential election came under massive cyber-attack orchestrated with the help of Dominion, Smartmatic, and foreign adversaries. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/YXMpg1M3fT

— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) December 10, 2020

Evidence of Fraud: @SidneyPowell1 says the FBI and law enforcement aren’t interested in electoral fraud witnesses and offers to make public evidence of a cyber-attack on the US election system. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/rSpnVBoLJJ

— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) December 10, 2020

 Let me remind you of those names:

Did you catch that Powell explains one of the things that's also been perplexing people?  (I know because I've gotten emails about this issue, too.)  If the Biden votes were added through computer algorithms or brute force computer changes, people follow up with the logical question: how can there later be enough paper ballots for those recounts?  The answer is "backfilling," which is to have truckloads of prepared ballots delivered to vote-counting locations on an as-needed basis.  (Lou Dobbs is on that, too.)

The website Powell refers to in the second video is Kraken Wood — although I did not find there the documents to which she refers unless they're attached to the filing with the Supreme Court that I was unable to view.

I won't lie to you: the clock is ticking, and the various Trump teams keep losing in state courts and in federal district and appellate courts.  The Supreme Court just turned away a lawsuit that excited everyone.  That's all grim stuff.

However…

Sidney Powell and Lin Wood are still fighting.  There are still writ petitions to place before the Supreme Court.  And Trump, that wily fighter, may still have a few aces up his sleeve.

Those of you who are downhearted are also forgetting one of the most important weapons we have: each other.  We are fighters who believe in our constitutional, free-market, morally governed democratic republic.  We matter.

Image: Four names you need to know.  Twitter screen grab.

 

Andrea Widburg  

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/sidney_powell_is_still_out_there_fighting.html 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Americans Said No to Coronavirus Contact Tracing Spy Apps - Daniel Greenfield

 

​ by Daniel Greenfield

But will they be able to stay off the “national server” if the Democrats take over?

 

 

When the NHS, Britain's socialized medicine system, debuted its contact tracing app, six million eagerly rushed to download it. After a few days, 10 million had downloaded and installed the app, and after a month, around 40% of smartphone users had put a monitoring device on their phones that would trace their social interactions and could tell them to isolate at any moment.

In October, Governor Cuomo launched a New York contact tracing app based on technology from Google and Apple, and some assistance from Bloomberg’s organization.

"It’s going to not only bring contact tracing to a new level," Cuomo boasted, while claiming that it wouldn't violate anyone's privacy.

Few New Yorkers seemed to believe him. Despite being available in Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, and, even more unexpectedly, English, the app hasn’t taken off and Cuomo’s regime has refused to reveal the data that would actually show if it’s tracking positive cases. The lack of data transparency has been the second biggest story about Cuomo’s mismanagement of the pandemic, after the deaths of 11,000 nursing home residents when his administration forced nursing homes to accept infected patients. The numbers are likely higher, but the Cuomo administration, in its typical fashion, is refusing to release the data.

After a month, only 5% of New Yorkers have downloaded Cuomo’s spy app. That’s far short of the 60% that’s needed for contact tracing to work.

Even Europeans haven’t hit that 60% target. Few outside Communist China have.

Apple and Google claimed that they needed at least 15%. Only a few states in America hit that bar and they tend to have small populations that lean leftward. Most Americans have opted out.

Governor Murphy launched his state’s contact tracing app to great fanfare, urging a, “shared sense of personal responsibility to support our contact tracing efforts”. Only 4% of New Jersey residents decided to take up the former Goldman Sachs tycoon on his modest proposal.

Murphy, like Cuomo, had forced nursing homes to accept infected coronavirus patients. Some of the state’s deadliest outbreaks had also taken place in state hospitals for veterans.

Pennsylvania's Governor Wolf and Secretary of Health Richard Levine, debuted their contact tracing app in September.

“We won’t know who has downloaded the app, who has received notifications and who used symptom check,” Richard (Rachel) Levine, who had taken his mother out of a nursing home and into a hotel, while forcing nursing homes to take in infected patients, assured Pennsylvanians.

Only 4% of Pennsylavanians were convinced. Richard Levine has begun pleading with 13-year-olds to download the app. If there’s anything that’s bound to reassure state residents, it’s a strange man in a blonde wig urging their children to download an app to monitor them.

Contact tracing app adoption in America isn’t likely to get much better even with more time.

Governor Northam rolled out a contact tracing app in Virginia back in August. After half a year, the state has passed Google's 15% bar with an estimated 19% of smartphone owners having installed the app.

But few people are actually using it.

Only 553 people submitted their positive results out of 100,000 positive tests in the state.

While Democrat governors and their European counterparts have brandished download figures, many people download apps and then uninstall them. Or leave them on and then pay no further attention to them. The actual utilization of contact tracing apps is laughably miniscule.

Virginia’s 800,000 plus downloads figure still only comes out to 553 people submitting results.

That’s why Governor Cuomo in New York and the NHS in the UK refuse to release their impact numbers. Considering the performance of contact tracing apps in Europe, it’s not hard to guess what they’re hiding.

Italy's Immuni app was downloaded by 14% of the population, but only had 155 positive results submitted in three months. In France, after 2.3 million downloads, only 72 risk contacts were flagged.

A lot of people can be badgered into passively downloading an app, but when it comes time to upload their results and have the system notify everyone they’ve been around, they just as passively choose not to do it and the system fails.

After a year of touting contact tracing as the answer, the assault on privacy has stalled.

Contact tracing apps have failed miserably in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. California only got around to launching its contact tracing app now. The numbers are worse in much of the rest of the country with only 8 million Americans actually using contact tracing apps.

Trust is the biggest factor in the adoption of contact tracing apps. And very few Americans trust Big Tech, the government and its public health experts with tracking their lives and the lives of those around them. The NHS app intends to start asking users about their personal lives to "score" their lifestyles for coronavirus risk. It's easy enough to see this sort of thing as not only a privacy violation, but as an echo of China's public surveillance and social credit system.

In a socialized medicine system where people are already penalized for their risk factors by being denied access to medical care, leaving them with few options except emigration or death where age or obesity can mean a denial of medical care, and where babies can be killed because saving them is not deemed to be the best use of resources, a “score” isn’t just a score.

Few people want to be denied medical treatment because they failed the social credit system.

Conservatives are the most likely to see the downside of such calculations and the more conservative parts of the United States have the lowest utilization rates of contract tracing apps.

Nevada's contact tracing app was only downloaded 70,000 times, as of last month, and zero exposures were registered in September. In Wyoming, its app only managed 5,000 downloads.

South Carolina’s legislature banned the use of contact tracing apps by government agencies.

But all of that may be about to change if the Democrats succeed in their plan to place Biden in the White House. Biden's team is filled with Big Tech lobbyists and strongly favors a national contact tracing app infrastructure. While the Trump administration allowed states to define their own policy, the Democrat plan has been to nationalize the crisis and control the response.

Key to their plans is the creation of a national server that would store information across state lines, and allow national authorities to monitor everyone’s movements even if they leave a state.

Ten states have already moved their codes to Microsoft’s National Key Server maintained for the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Another five are following suit. As of now, virtually every state and area, such as D.C., with a contact tracing app, is on the National Key Server. That includes heavily populated states such as California, New York, and Michigan.

The hodgepodge of apps and approaches will be replaced by one system to rule them all.

Scott Becker, the CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, has also been touting Biden’s plans for app contact tracing. A national server will make a national contact tracing app much easier to implement. Google, which is also involved in the national server using its own cloud system, has, along with Apple, rebranded “contact tracing” as “exposure notification”.

Big Tech decided that people were leery of “contact tracing” so they gave it a new name.

Meanwhile, Biden’s people have been coordinating with the Rockefeller Foundation on testing plans.

"Policy makers," the Rockefeller Foundation had urged, must "allow the infection status of most Americans to be accessed and validated in a few required settings and many voluntary ones."

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recently warned that the "pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty".

Despite that, under President Trump, Americans have still enjoyed an oasis of human rights compared to the brutal restrictions and measures in the rest of the world. Red states were able to choose less restrictive and abusive routes for tackling the pandemic, even while blue states relentlessly violated civil rights under the guise of a public health emergency.

All of that may be coming to an end.

The near future may be a mandatory national app based either on the existing Apple or Google architecture embedded into virtually every smartphone, or, worse, GPS tracking like Norway’s app which was withdrawn after being panned by Amnesty International, linked to the National Key Server, which will serve as a key element of a national pandemic social credit system.

Americans rejected contact tracing, but a Biden administration won’t take no for an answer.

 

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

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/americans-said-no-coronavirus-contact-tracing-spy-daniel-greenfield/ 

 Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Texas GOP chair calls for a 'union of states,' and the left has a cow - Monica Showalter

 

​ by Monica Showalter

Texas GOP chair Allen West is calling for a civil society association of states to right some glaring wrongs on this past election.

After the Supreme Court refused to even hear the great Texas-plus-18-states request for legal relief on participating in a clearly fraud-tainted national election, a pall descended on a lot of the U.S.  

The chairman of the Texas GOP suggested this as a post–legal shutout remedy:

The Supreme Court, in tossing the Texas lawsuit that was joined by seventeen states and 106 US congressman, has decreed that a state can take unconstitutional actions and violate its own election law. Resulting in damaging effects on other states that abide by the law, while the guilty state suffers no consequences. This decision establishes a precedent that says states can violate the US constitution and not be held accountable. This decision will have far-reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.

Chairman @AllenWest's statement regarding #SCOTUS and the #Texas election lawsuit. @txlege https://t.co/pEDQwdhSj7

— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) December 12, 2020

This the left read as a thinly veiled call for secession.  Here's The Hill's jump-to-conclusions headline:

Texas GOP chair floats secession for 'law-abiding states' after Supreme Court defeat

Here's the screech of the Daily Mail:

Republicans rage! Texas GOP chairman calls for secession, Diamond and Silk demand military intervention, and Rudy Giuliani fumes that it's 'censorship' after the Supreme Court refuses to hear a case to throw out millions of votes

Here's the Daily Beast:

Texas GOP Throws Tantrum Over SCOTUS Ruling and Floats Secession for ‘Law-Abiding States’

This is crap, on multiple fronts. 

First, Texas is the one state in the union that actually does have the right to secede.  It was embedded in its agreement to enter the Union.  So let's not have a cow about any talk like that coming from Allen West.  If one state can do it, so can many, and never mind the Civil War, because let's face it: the Supreme Court has effectively ruled that how states run their affairs doesn't matter anymore, and no one has "standing" except for them.  The Court has opened the gates to secession themselves by their refusal to grant Texas and its 18 allied states so much as a chance to plead their case.  The refusal to hear sends the message that anything goes in the states.

And spare us the allusions to the Confederacy, a Democrat-led secession movement, as many leftist Twitterati are doing.  West, as it happens, is black, and Texas was the state where Juneteenth was first celebrated, quite possibly by West's ancestors.  This is no Confederate thing.

The most annoying thing about this, though, is that West didn't call for secession.  He made a call for a "union of states," as in a club.  Far from being secession, this is what is known as civil society.  It makes sense, because states have been denied legal relief and told they're to be forced into participating in fraudulent elections as determined by four corruption-infested blue cities.  Legal remedies have been nixed, and conservatives have now been shut out.

Instead of stewing about it, the Texas GOP is proposing some other kind of action, a natural move.  It's gathering its friends among states and calling for them to put their heads together.  People with common interests, in this case, following the Constitution, have always gathered in constitutionally guaranteed associations.  Alexis de Tocqueville wrote all about it, and it's right there in the First Amendment. 

Sure, something like a "union of states" could grow into something more forceful (this is why tyrants are always trying to stomp out freedom of association), but that's not what's being called for now, nor is it being threatened.  Civil society groups exist to talk things over, to put ideas together, to create fellowship, and create proposed solutions, and then move to influence society further.  The idea here is to make things better and use the multiplier effect of many entities acting as one.

Nobody's threatening secession for seeking to form a "union of states."  What West is proposing now is talking it over as a group so that no secretive Antifa-style thugcraft from embittered Republicans, feeling disenfranchised by all the voter fraud in four socialist one-party-city hellholes, is what follows.  Human beings always form associations based on common interest.  Antifa operates in secret because its aims are illegally violent and chaotic.  A union of states is precisely the opposite.  West may well be onto something because what this country needs is relief from fraud-tainted elections.

Image credit: Pixabay public domain.

 

Monica Showalter  

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/texas_gop_chair_calls_for_union_of_states_and_the_left_has_a_cow.html 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Israel and Bhutan normalize ties - Arutz Sheva Staff

 

​ by Arutz Sheva Staff

Sides sign joint work plan in water management, agriculture, health, and more.

 

Israel and Bhutan normalize ties

Israeli Embassy, New Delhi

The Kingdom of Bhutan and Israel this evening signed a full diplomatic relationship. The signing ceremony was held at the residence of Israeli Ambassador to India, Dr. Ron Malka. Ambassador Malka held an official exchange ceremony with his colleague, Ambassador of Bhutan in India, Major General Vetsop Namgyel.

Last weekend, Foreign Minister Ashkenazi spoke with his Bhutanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Tandy Dorji. During the conversation, it was agreed on the date of the signing as well as on the formulation of a joint work plan in the areas of water management, agriculture, health and more.

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said: "I would like to thank the Kingdom of Bhutan and congratulate it on its decision to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. This decision is a milestone in deepening Israel's ties with Asia.

"I invite my friend, H. H. Dorji, to visit Israel to promote cooperation between the two countries. I sincerely hope that in the coming year we will also host the King of Bhutan in Jerusalem for a first state visit of its kind.

"I would also like to thank the Israeli Ambassador to India, Dr. Ron Malka and his staff, for strengthening our relationship with Bhutan and for building the outline that led to the signing of the agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations between us."

The Foreign Affairs Ministry maintains contact with the Kingdom through the Mashav Division, and in Israel, Bhutan students participate in agricultural tutoring in Israel.

In recent years, secret contacts have been conducted between the countries, led by the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, with the aim of establishing official relations, and there have been reciprocal visits by delegations from Israel to Timpo, the capital of Bhutan and Bhutan in Israel.

The Kingdom of Bhutan, bordering India and China, lies in the heart of the Himalayas and is one of the most beautiful and unique tourist destinations in the world. Bhutan has full diplomatic relations with only 53 countries and is the country that gave the world the "happiness index".

 

Arutz Sheva Staff  

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/292946 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Joe Biden, the Manchurian President - John Leonard

 

​ by John Leonard

There can be little doubt left that Chinese influences corrupted the 2020 elections, interfering on behalf of Joe Biden.

In the political/Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate, a U.S. soldier being held as a prisoner-of-war is brainwashed by Chinese and Russian agents and becomes a traitorous “sleeper” agent hidden within the civilian population. The film’s popularity led to the phrase “Manchurian candidate” used to define any person or politician as a disloyal puppet of an enemy power.

In 2016, Donald Trump was falsely accused of being a Manchurian candidate and colluding with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to steal the presidential election from Hillary Clinton, even though the only “evidence” to support the fantastic claim was the salacious, unconfirmed, and ludicrous Steele dossier. Apart from a couple of Macedonian content farms spending a measly few hundred thousand dollars on Facebook ads to promote strife and confusion over any particular candidate, there was no evidence of foreign interference from Russia or anywhere else that affected the outcome of the 2016 election of Donald Trump. However, the same cannot be said of Trump’s alleged 2020 electoral defeat by Joe Biden. China, not Russia, clearly interfered with the 2020 elections. The only question about this interference is whether the release of COVID-19 was accidental or on purpose.

Before the pandemic crippled the U.S., Trump was headed to reelection by a historic landslide. The economy was roaring, and a record number Americans were enjoying prosperity and freedom. In spite of Democrat efforts to remove Trump from office by impeachment and the economic shutdown because of the virus, the president still earned ten million more votes than 2016 and in any other election would have crushed his political opponent. The virus not only had a horrific detrimental impact on our economy, it was used as an excuse for making substantive changes to the electoral process through unprecedented millions of mail-in votes.

Even if it was an accidental release from a Wuhan lab, the Chinese are responsible for the criminally negligent deaths of U.S. citizens and the economic damage caused by the virus. If the virus was deliberately released, it was an act of war. So, are we at war with China?

In support of the theory that China released the virus on purpose as an act of war, we can see signs of aggression on multiple fronts -- health and economic being the most obvious. In February of this year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that the Chinese government keeps a list of U.S. governors organized by whether or not the governors were susceptible to Chinese influence. Interestingly, even though Georgia governor Brian Kemp was listed as a hardliner (presumably meaning pro-American, anti-Chinese) this amazing website, apparently written in Mandarin and owned by the state of Georgia to promote Chinese investments, would seem to suggest Kemp is a lot friendlier to the Chinese than his inclusion on the list implies.

Back in September, Tucker Carlson interviewed Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a well-known Chinese virologist. She made the sensational claim that in her expert opinion the COVID-19 virus was manmade in a Wuhan laboratory, not a natural virus emerging from the “wet markets” where exotic wild animals such as bats are sold to the general public and eaten as food, as some had speculated. To the best of my knowledge her claims were never debunked, but they were also never repeated, and she hasn’t been seen in public since. What happened? She had impeccable credentials and her opinion should have carried significant weight. If the virus was a Chinese attack on the rest of the world, shouldn’t the rest of the world know about it?

Why doesn’t anyone seem to care about that claim? Is it because Joe Biden keeps assuring everyone that China isn’t a threat? The Chinese government didn’t just want America or Donald Trump to lose, they apparently wanted Joe Biden to win. Cui bono? Biden has been thoroughly corrupted through the business dealings of his son, Hunter, according to well-documented public information and confirmed by Joe’s own words, and not just corrupted by China. We know about the Ukraine and Burisma, and that Hunter also allegedly accepted $3.5 million dollars from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire.

We have evidence, and a corroborating witness. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Tony Bobulinski’s claims confirm the authenticity of Hunter’s laptop as indisputable evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption. Bobulinski, a patriotic American citizen, came forward to defend himself against accusations of being part of a Russian disinformation campaign and confirmed that Joe Biden accepted millions of dollars from the Communist Chinese through his son Hunter. The evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption is ubiquitous, actually, and that body of evidence grows by the day. Tucker Carlson’s most recent bombshell report revealed that a Chinese economics professor confirmed in a speech that foreign agents have corrupted our federal government at the highest levels. He also confirmed we are in a war -- as he put it, a trade war. If the translation is correct (and two translators said it was), this economics professor just bragged that the Communist Chinese government “have people at the top” (of the U.S. government.)

Well, doesn’t that just warm the cockles of your heart? There can be little doubt left that Chinese influences corrupted the 2020 elections, interfering on behalf of Joe Biden. Given their admitted bias against Donald Trump, is there any reason to assume the release of the virus and election interference wasn’t a deliberate act of war?  

I have a question I’d like to ask the half of America that supposedly hates Donald Trump so bad they voted for a corrupt, senile old man… do you really hate him so much you’d betray your own country? Are you willing to side with Communist Chinese over a man doing his best to return America to greatness and keep us there? If the electoral college certifies Joe Biden’s election, we’ll have our first Manchurian president.

Donald Trump has donated every penny of his salary to charity. Joe Biden has been a parasite living off the American economy almost all of his adult life. A lifetime of working for the government didn’t make Biden rich and he didn’t get William Ayers to ghostwrite a bestselling autobiography for him, so Hunter had to scrounge for foreign contributions to the Biden family’s concept of wealth redistribution.

And remember, the big guy got half.

Image: Gage Skidmore

 

John Leonard  

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/joe_biden_the_manchurian_president.html 

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter