FBI whistleblowers send shockwaves with warning that threat tags used to target conservatives - Nick Givas

 

by Nick Givas

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan decried the FBI's emerging "pattern" of targeting "parents, traditional Catholics, pro-lifers" with threat tags.

 

What do school parents, Catholic attendees of Latin Mass and pro-life activists have in common? They've all been branded by the FBI as potential domestic terrorist threats in what whistleblowers say is a growing trend of using intelligence threat tags to enforce cancel culture.

The latest revelation came this past weekend when House Republicans released testimony from an FBI whistleblower who alleged colleagues in the bureau flipped a terrorist threat tag originally created to flag threats against pro-life Supreme Court justices into a signifier that anti-abortion protesters were somehow a threat.

The revelation came months after confirmation that similar threat tags were reserved for parents raising concerns about curriculum at school board meetings and the disclosure of an FBI memo suggesting Catholics who prefer the legacy Latin Mass posed a risk of extremist violence.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee told Just the News on Tuesday the pattern is a disturbing new trend in the political weaponization of federal law enforcement that can be traced all the way back to the launch of the Russia collusion probe targeting Donald Trump in 2016 based on uncorroborated allegations from his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"If it's [targeting] parents, that's one thing," Jordan said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "Traditional Catholics — okay, well, that's a concern too. But when it gets to be three, which is what we learned from a whistleblower when he said they were targeting pro-lifers, now we see a pattern, right? So it's parents, traditional Catholics, pro-lifers — all are wrong. Now it's a pattern." 

In testimony released this weekend, FBI whistleblower Garret O'Boyle told congressional investigators the bureau issued guidance following the Dobbs abortion decision that overturned Roe v. Wade so agents could "look into ... pregnancy centers" using the tag "THREATTOSCOTUS2022." 

O'Boyle found this strange, he testified, beacuse it was pro-choice activists who were "protesting or otherwise threatening violence in front of Supreme Court Justices' houses."

He was asked to talk to a pro-life informant "about the threats to the Supreme Court," he testified. "I was like, why would this person know about those threats? He's pro-life. Like, he's not the one going and threatening the Supreme Court Justices."

O'Boyle never received guidance from the FBI to look into attacks on pro-life facilities, churches, or pregnancy resource centers, he told congressional investigators, illustrating how the threat tag was turned on its head to target pro-lifers instead of radicalized pro-choice supporters as was originally intended. 

He went on to describe how the Bureau "made him divide one domestic terrorism case into four separate cases" to give the appearance of a bigger caseload. This was done, he said, to give lawmakers conducting oversight the appearance of a spike in domestic terror so as to increase funding. 

"It was one case, but the FBI had me open up four different cases," O'Boyle recounted, "because they had me open a case for every individual that I had an articulable, factual basis that there may have been potential Federal law being violated." 

O'Boyle alleges he was suspended by the FBI in retaliation for making protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress. After he was suspended, he testified, the FBI denied him access for more than a month to his family's personal belongings held in storage with a company contracted by the Bureau in Virginia, forcing him and his wife to rely on family members to provide clothing for their three children. He told Congress he ultimately spent around $10,000 to retrieve these belongings. 

"God bless him though for coming forward," Jordan said Wednesday. "They believe in the Constitution, they believe in the First Amendment. I actually think this is the biggest concern we have ... this attack on speech and this web of people ... this web of censorship is so scary. It's one of the things we're really going to try to focus on, on the committee ... as well as the double standard we see: One set of rules for the connected class; another set if you don't have the right political views." 

O'Boyle accused the federal government of persecuting him for speaking out and claimed they "did it maliciously knowing how difficult they were going to make it on me."

"And I thought the FBI was being weaponized against agents or anybody who wanted to step forward and talk about malfeasance inside the agency prior to this," he concluded. "But now, after what has happened to me, I don't think I can ever be convinced that it's anything different than that." 

You can follow Nick on Twitter @NGivasDC

Nick Givas

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/whistleblowers/eveare-fbis-threat-tags-being-used-another-form-cancel-culture-some

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Federal Trade Commission demands Elon Musk 'identify all journalists' who had access to Twitter Files - Joseph A. Wulfsohn

 

by Joseph A. Wulfsohn

The FTC also ordered an explanation regarding the firing of ex-deputy general counsel and former FBI lawyer Jim Baker

 

 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is demanding Elon Musk turn over internal Twitter documents, including a list of the journalists who were behind the viral "Twitter Files."

The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday about more than a dozen letters the FTC sent to Twitter and its legal counsel as part of a probe looking into Musk's 2022 takeover of the tech giant. 

The information ordered by the FTC included a demand to "identify all journalists" who were granted access to the company's archives, turn over anything involving the massive layoffs and the Twitter Blue subscription service, provide all internal communications related to Musk, and explain why Twitter fired its deputy general counsel and former FBI lawyer Jim Baker.

WHAT ELON MUSK'S TWITTER FILES HAVE UNCOVERED ABOUT THE TECH GIANT SO FAR

Details of the letters emerged from an interim staff report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government which accused the government agency led by FTC chairwoman Lina Khan of overreaching to harass Twitter. 

FTC chairwoman Lina Khan is under fire for demanding Elon Musk to hand over a list of all the journalists who have had access to the Twitter Files. (SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"The timing, scope, and frequency of the FTC’s demands to Twitter suggest a partisan motivation to its action. When Musk took action to reorient Twitter around free speech, the FTC regularly followed soon thereafter with a new demand letter," the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee wrote in a press release on Tuesday. "The ostensible legal basis for the demand letters—including monitoring Twitter’s privacy and information security program under a revised consent decree between the company and the FTC—fails to provide adequate cover for the FTC’s action. A number of the FTC’s demands have little to no nexus to users’ privacy and information."

LATEST TWITTER FILES SHOW MEDIA, DEMS RELIED ON SINGLE SOURCE ALLEGING ‘RUSSIAN BOT’ ACTIVITY: ‘IT WAS A SCAM’

"There is no logical reason, for example, why the FTC needs to know the identities of journalists engaging with Twitter. There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter’s personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk," the committee added. 

Twitter owner Elon Musk slammed the FTC's probe into his company, calling it a "shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth!" (Getty Images)

Several of the journalists who authored various installments of the Twitter Files have slammed the FTC's actions.

"The Biden administration is demanding that @elonmusk explain why he allowed journalists access to the Twitter Files. This is an outrageous attack on the First Amendment," writer Michael Shellenberger tweeted.

Musk replied, "A shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth!"

The Biden administration is demanding that @elonmusk explain why he allowed journalists access to the Twitter Files. This is an outrageous attack on the First Amendment.https://t.co/j900uoqg0w

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 7, 2023

ELON MUSK GIVES DAVE RUBIN BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT TWITTER AND WHAT CAUSES SHADOWBANS

"Which journalists a company or its executives talks to is not remotely the government’s business. This is an insane overreach," Substack writer Matt Taibbi reacted.

 

Which journalists a company or its executives talks to is not remotely the government’s business. This is an insane overreach https://t.co/87JdDQ2s0P

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 7, 2023

"Hmmm…" fellow Twitter Files colleague David Zweig wrote, which was retweeted by Free Press editor Bari Weiss. 

Hmmm...

The FTC is asking Twitter to “identify all journalists” who were granted access to company recordshttps://t.co/5Ku9Qja6LM pic.twitter.com/wthIxPNree

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) March 7, 2023

An FTC spokesman told WSJ, "Protecting consumers’ privacy is exactly what the FTC is supposed to do," adding the FTC "conducting a rigorous investigation into Twitter’s compliance with a consent order that came into effect long before Mr. Musk purchased the company."

The office of the FTC did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. 

FTC chairwoman Lina Khan sent Twitter over a dozen letters demanding information as part of its probe into Elon Musk's takeover of the company. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Beginning in December, Musk granted independent journalists unprecedented access to Twitter's archives, which were published in a series of viral threads dubbed "The Twitter Files."

The Twitter Files exposed the platform's censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the suspension of former President Trump, the shadowbanning of prominent conservatives as well as the company's coziness with government agencies including the FBI, which had flagged Twitter accounts suggesting they were violating the company's policies. 

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray denied to Fox News' Bret Baier that the agency demands Twitter accounts be taken down, insisting Twitter makes those decisions itself.

 

Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/federal-trade-commission-demands-elon-musk-identify-journalists-access-twitter-files

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Seven-figure ad campaign exposes billions in Biden's Medicare cuts after accusations GOP wants to slash - Houston Keene

 

by Houston Keene

The ads will be playing in 14 vulnerable districts for Democrats

 

Republicans are pushing back on President Biden’s proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage with a new ad campaign upwards of $2 million after the president claimed the GOP is looking to cut Medicare and Social Security funding.

According to a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, Biden moved $307 billion away from Medicare Advantage for green energy projects and to fund his expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), among other projects, effectively offsetting the cuts.

The CBO report found that Biden spent $80 billion of the Medicare Advantage cut cash for IRS expansion, $76 billion "to reduce greenhouse gasses," and $36 billion on refundable tax credits for green energy, among other projects.

BIDEN WILL KEEP CLAIMING GOP WANTS TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE INTO THE 2024 CAMPAIGN, CONSULTANTS SAY

According to a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, President Biden moved $307 billion away from Medicare Advantage for green energy projects and to fund his expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), among other projects, effectively offsetting the cuts. (Screenshot/Twitter)

Famously, the president pointed his finger at Republicans during his State of the Union address and beyond, accusing them of looking to slash Medicare and Social Security. 

However, Biden's accusation is a talking point that has been debunked by fact-checkers before. His claim, and the White House’s defense, that "some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset" is based on a legislative agenda released by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., last year.

REP. CISCOMANI SCOLDS BIDEN'S HANDLING OF ECONOMY IN STATE OF THE UNION REBUTTAL: 'BUYING EGGS IS A LUXURY'

His proposal that "all federal legislation sunsets in 5 years" was widely rejected by Republicans and denounced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Biden announced in January a new advance notice rule proposing to cut funds for Medicare Advantage in a move that could cost seniors up to $540 per year in benefits.

Famously, the president pointed his finger at Republicans during his State of the Union address and beyond, accusing them of looking to slash Medicare and Social Security. (Jacquelyn Martin)

In response to the cuts, the American Action Network (AAN), a conservative issue advocacy organization, launched a northward of $2 million ad campaign hitting 14 blue congressional districts 

The campaign will be over broadcast, cable and the internet with digital advertising, and will also hit the Washington, D.C., cable market.

Biden announced in January a new advance notice rule proposing to cut funds for Medicare Advantage in a move that could cost seniors up to $540 per year in benefits. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

"Joe Biden and his liberal friends in Congress are talking out of both sides of their mouth: promising to protect Medicare while pushing benefit cuts for seniors," AAN President Dan Conston said.

"Each and every liberal in Congress needs to speak out now and stop Biden’s cuts to Medicare benefits before it’s too late," he continued.

The ads will be playing in several vulnerable Democrat districts, including in the districts of Reps. Anna Eschoo of California, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, and Mary Peltola of Alaska.

 

Houston Keene is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.  Story tips can be sent to Houston.Keene@Fox.com and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/seven-figure-ad-campaign-exposes-billions-bidens-medicare-cuts-after-accusations-gop-wants-slash

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Some Jan. 6 defendants seek trial delays over emergence of Capitol video footage - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

Defendant William Pope cited the 41,000 hours of footage and his lack of access to those materials while seeking a delay.

 

Amid the public emergence of new video from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, multiple defendants have sought to delay their trials so they can access and review the footage for possible exonerating evidence.

At least five alleged participants in the demonstrations have sought trial delays citing a lack of access to all the relevant evidence in recent weeks, the Epoch Times reported.

Some have directly cited the footage that was provided from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to TV journalist Tucker Carlson and that began airing Monday.

In his first segment, Carlson showed footage of Jacob Chansley, the "QAnon Shaman," being peacefully escorted by two Capitol Police officers during the incident.

"The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides," the Fox host asserted. Chansley "understood that the Capitol police were his allies," he said. "If he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn't the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?"

Capitol Police and lawmakers alike have taken exception to the news anchor's portrayal of that day as a largely peaceful affair. Police have asserted that the footage he aired showcased a police effort to deescalate a previously raucous situation.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also expressed disagreement with Carlson's narrative, insisting "it was a mistake" for the network to allow his segment to air.

Carlson's trove includes roughly 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage. McCarthy previously insisted in late February that the public had a vested interest in learning the truth of the matter, saying  "the American public should actually see all [that] happened instead of a report that's written [on] a political basis."

Do they have all the footage?

Naturally, many of the defendants agree with McCarthy, and have insisted they cannot mount a proper defense of their actions without complete access to relevant materials, namely all of the surveillance footage.

Defense attorneys have had access to surveillance footage from the Department of Justice (DOJ) database, but some have expressed concerns the federal agency may not have received the entire amount of footage that Fox did. The Epoch Times highlighted concerns from attorney William Shipley, who observed that "if Congress... held back video then DOJ would not have it to put in the database."

"It is not possible to say definitively right now that defense attorneys did — in fact — have all the videos that Tucker/Fox is showing. McCarthy says he gave Fox everything. That might include videos not given to DOJ," he asserted.

Is there exculpatory evidence?

Defendant Shane Jenkins made exactly this argument recently, arguing that the Republican-driven release of footage included at least 25,000 hours of footage to which his attorneys had not previously had access, the Times noted.

"The request for additional time is necessary in order to adequately and diligently review all discovery pertaining to Mr. Jenkins and to determine whether any video contains relevant and material information that would pertain to Mr. Jenkins’ defense," defense attorney Dennis Boyle wrote in a motion seeking delay of the trial, set to begin March 21.

"Video evidence depicting Mr. Jenkins would constitute both exculpatory and material evidence, which would require disclosure from the government," he continued.

The judge has yet to rule on the motion.

Likewise, defendant Ryan Nichols sought a similar delay, saying in a filing the Times obtained that "for the first time since the inception of this case, the full context of January 6th has been made available to the Defendant and members of the public." He further noted that the volume of footage more than doubles the amount previously thought to exist.

A judge has yet to rule on that motion as well.

Prior to Carlson's Monday show, a judge rejected a delay request from defendant Sara Carpenter, who had made similar arguments. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg asserted that there was no evidence that any new materials would include exculpatory evidence in her case.

Defendant William Pope also cited the 41,000 hours of footage and his lack of access to those materials while seeking a delay.

Yet another defendant, Rachel Powell, excoriated claims that the defendants have had access to defense materials, telling the Times that "I am a J6 defendant and have not gotten my evidence even though it has been over two years.“

Some defendants already took plea deals or were convicted

Numerous Jan. 6 participants have already taken plea deals or been convicted on charges stemming from the incident. At least 650 people have faced charges related to the incident. As of November 2022, roughly 120 had pleaded guilty.

Among them is Chansley, who received a 41-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to one count of felony obstruction of an official proceeding. Prosecutors had described him as "the public face of the Capitol riot."

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in late November 2022. A further four members of his group were convicted on the same charge in January of this year.

Other prominent participants, such as Richard Barnett, who appeared in photographs propping his feet on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk, was convicted in January. Likewise, Kevin Seefried, who gained fame for carrying a Confederate Flag through the Capitol, was convicted much earlier, in June 2022.

It remains unclear to what footage any of these individuals may have had access during the trial.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/holdsome-jan-6-defendants-seek-trial-delays-following-fox-airing-capitol

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PA libel: Israel tries to maximize murder of Palestinians - Itamar Marcus

 

by Itamar Marcus

Israeli soldiers were said to be deliberately seeking to murder Palestinians, shooting “not randomly, but rather in order to wound and kill.”

PA demonizes Israel and Israeli soldiers as blood thirsty monsters deliberately targeting Palestinians and aiming to kill:

• “The occupier… insists on committing a new crime while realizing its craving for murder”
   
• “Bloody hands pull the trigger on a hunch, as long as the target is Palestinian”

• "The occupation… spread out its snipers everywhere and began to shoot live gunfire – not randomly, but rather in order to wound and kill”
   
• “The occupier… is an expert in the language of sadism”

A number of times when Israeli forces entered Nablus to arrest Palestinian terrorists, among them two murderers, they were attacked by other Palestinian terrorists and in the ensuing gun battles several Palestinian terrorists were wounded and one Palestinian was killed.

 

The PA used these incidents to reinforce the demonic image of Israel and Israeli soldiers it has painted and transmitted to Palestinians at every opportunity for years.

 

The official PA daily described the entrance of Israeli forces as the “occupier’s” mission to “realize its craving for murder.” Israeli soldiers were said to be deliberately seeking to murder Palestinians, shooting “not randomly, but rather in order to wound and kill.”

“The occupier infiltrates Nablus, which is always ready for the next invasion. As is its custom, it insists on committing a new crime while realizing its craving for murder… Bloody hands pull the trigger on a hunch, as long as the target is Palestinian… The occupation… spread out its snipers everywhere and began to shoot live gunfire – not randomly, but rather in order to wound and kill… The occupier, who is an expert in the language of sadism.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

When 5 Hamas terrorists were killed while shooting at Israeli forces at the time of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, regular columnist of the official PA daily, Muwaffaq Matar, who is also a Fatah Revolutionary Council member, accused Israel of being an “earthquake of the aggression and organized terror” that is worse than “crimes against humanity”:

“These are victims of the earthquake of the aggression and organized terror of ‘the State of Israel’ – an earthquake that has been continuing for more than 100 years against the Palestinian people, and whose intensity is greater than crimes against humanity of the most severe level.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 7, 2023]

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed numerous examples of PA hate speech and demonization of Israel and Israelis.

 

The following are longer excerpts of the reports cited above:

Headline: “Nablus’ blood-soaked dawn”

“The occupier infiltrates Nablus, which is always ready for the next invasion. As is its custom, it insists on committing a new crime while realizing its craving for murder…

After 1:00 a.m., special forces invade the city, and following them are convoys of military vehicles. Bloody hands pull the trigger on a hunch, as long as the target is Palestinian.

As usual and in an instinctive manner, young [Palestinian] people and youth gather at every invasion of their city. They gather as many rocks as they can, burn tires in resistance to this invasion, and wait for the arrival of the military vehicles. They understand within them that they are preparing for an unreasonable battle between rocks and bullets, but they are determined to participate in it, out of an understanding that the voice of the truth is louder than the lie.

The occupation, which surrounded a building early yesterday morning [Feb. 13, 2023], on Sufyan Street in Nablus, spread out its snipers everywhere and began to shoot live gunfire – not randomly, but rather in order to wound and kill (sic., refers to gun battle when Palestinian terrorists shot at Israeli forces arresting terrorists involved in the murder of a soldier). Eight people wounded by gunshots reached Rafidia Hospital, one of them [wounded] in his stomach. Just moments afterwards the hospital announced that young Amir Al-Bastami ascended to Heaven as a result of a bullet that pierced his stomach…

While Nablus was mourning its Martyr, the occupier ignored the crime of murder and execution of young Amir Al-Bastami and focused on a report about the arrest of two young people [Kamal Jouri and Osama Al-Tawil] (i.e., terrorists, murdered 1). According to its claims, the two were responsible for carrying out a shooting operation next to the town of Deir Sharaf west of Nablus, in which an occupation soldier was killed approximately four months ago…

The occupier, who is an expert in the language of sadism, prevented the rescue and Red Crescent teams from reaching the wounded in the area of the building that it surrounded.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

Kamal Jouri and Osama Al-Tawil – Palestinian terrorists who shot and murdered Israeli soldier Ido Baruch, 21, in a drive-by shooting attack near Shavei Shomron, northwest of Nablus, on Oct. 11, 2022. Israeli forces located Jouri and Al-Tawil in Nablus refugee camp on Feb. 13, 2023, at which the terrorists resisted arrest and opened fire on the forces, causing them to shoot and wound them before arresting them.

 

Excerpt of a column by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily

Headline: “The earthquake in Syria and Turkey, and what really hurts!”

“May Allah have mercy on the victims of the destructive earthquake from among our brothers, members of the Syrian people; our friends, members of the Turkish people; and the Palestinian refugees in the refugee camps in Syria (refers to earthquake disaster on Feb. 6, 2023, which left over 5,000 dead -Ed.).

As if it is our fate to be part of the lists of Martyrs that nature, in its cruelty, strikes suddenly, here in Jericho – the first settled city in the history of humanity – the residents awoke to news of a group of Palestinian Martyrs (refers to 5 Hamas terrorists who shot at Israeli forces, and were previously involved in a shooting at an Israeli restaurant; see note below -Ed.). These are victims of the earthquake of the aggression and organized terror of ‘the State of Israel’ – an earthquake that has been continuing for more than 100 years against the Palestinian people, and whose intensity is greater than crimes against humanity of the most severe level. The goal is completely clear: to empty Palestine of its people, and their [Israel’s] way to carry this out is by crushing the Palestinians’ homes with the machine of destruction, murder, and fire with every dawn, so that the mornings in Palestine will become bloody.

If nature is blind and does not see, does not exercise discretion, and does not distinguish between small and large, between the strong and capable and the weak, between truth and lie, the criminal Zionist invaders know and understand the atrocity of the crime they are committing under cover of darkness in the cities, villages, and refugee camps of Palestine.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 7, 2023]

Rafat Wael Aweidat, Ibrahim Wael Aweidat, Malek Awni Lafi, Adham Majdi Aweidat, and Thaer Aweidat – Palestinian terrorists and members of the Hamas terror organization who shot at Israeli forces conducting a counter-terror operation in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp south of Jericho on Feb. 6, 2023. The forces returned fire, killing the 5 terrorists. Israeli forces were in the camp to arrest a Hamas terror cell that shot at an Israeli restaurant at Almog Junction in the Jordan Valley on Jan. 28, 2023 – all 5 terrorists were involved in that shooting attack. Israeli forces arrested 2 senior Hamas members in the operation.

Itamar Marcus

Source: https://palwatch.org/page/32858

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The Philippines, Tired of China's Bullying, Restores Military Alliance with the U.S. - Lawrence A. Franklin

 

by Lawrence A. Franklin

Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.

• Manila apparently ran out of patience.

• After a decade of suffering China's aggressive acts against Philippine vessels, fishermen and energy exploration efforts in waters within the archipelago country's Exclusive Economic Zone, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently welcomed an expanded US military presence.

• Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.

• In a direct rebuke to China, two of these new bases are on Palawan, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed, as is much else, by Communist China.

• Philippine officials have failed to persuade China to abide by the May 2016 ruling of the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which said that China had consistently violated the Philippines' rights, guaranteed under the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea.... Upon completion of the proceedings, the PCA's 501 page decision sided entirely with the Philippines.

• China, by bullying its neighbors, is bringing about what it fears the most: a united phalanx of Asian powers under an American umbrella that is ready to prevent China from expanding to what it claims as its historic land and maritime borders.

Pictured: Filipinos protest China's incursion in the West Philippine Sea, on June 21, 2019, in Manila, Philippines. Filipino fishermen reported that on June 9, 2019, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and sank their boat within the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone, leaving all 22 Filipino crew floating at sea before being rescued by a Vietnamese fishing vessel. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Manila apparently ran out of patience.

After a decade of suffering China's aggressive acts against Philippine vessels, fishermen and energy exploration efforts in waters within the archipelago country's Exclusive Economic Zone, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently welcomed an expanded US military presence.

Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.

In a direct rebuke to China, two of these new bases are on Palawan, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed, as is much else, by Communist China. A US military presence on Palawan will be a direct challenge to the Chinese Communist Party's plan to ultimately seize Taiwan: Palawan is the closest large Philippine island to Taiwan and the equally disputed waters of the South China Sea. US air and naval assets on Palawan could potentially play a large role in supporting the Free World forces against China.

Despite Chinese President Xi Jinping having agreed to manage maritime differences through consultation, during Marcos' state visit to China in January, the Chinese Coast Guard initiated another incident with the Philippines in disputed waters in the South China Sea. A Chinese Coast Guard vessel on February 6, 2023, lasered a Philippine Coast Guard ship. The Chinese vessel directed a military-grade laser at the bridge crew of the Philippine ship twice, temporarily blinding a Filipino sailor.

On February 14, Marcos summoned China's Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian. Marcos then condemned the Chinese Coast Guard vessel's "dangerous maneuvering," in which it came within 150 yards of the Filipino ship. The US government called China's use of laser beams against the ship "provocative and unsafe." Both the Australian and Japanese Embassies in the Philippines followed up the US diplomatic protest with similar condemnatory notes to their Chinese counterpart in Manila.

In 2022, the Philippines criticized China's aggressive maneuvers in South China Sea waters by lodging roughly 200 protests with Beijing. This pattern of reckless Chinese behavior may have helped Marcos to reverse the pro-China slant of former President Rodrigo Duterte, his predecessor. Duterte foolishly sought to appease Beijing during his term from 2016 to 2022, by issuing flippant statements such as: "It's time to say goodbye to Washington." Duterte, during his mid-October 2016 visit to China, attempted to negotiate a diplomatic agreement with Xi to defuse any incidents involving conflicting claims in the South China Sea. During his fifth visit to China in August 2019, however, where he finally was permitted an audience with Xi, Duterte failed to lower China's ambition to control the entirety of the East and South China Seas.

Philippine officials have failed to persuade China to abide by the May 2016 ruling of the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which said that China had consistently violated the Philippines' rights, guaranteed under the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. The Philippines filed their complaint at the PCA against China three years earlier, in January 2013. Upon completion of the proceedings, the PCA's 501 page decision sided entirely with the Philippines. The PCA's unanimous ruling by a five-judge panel declared that China was responsible for disrupting the enterprise of Filipino fishermen, interfering with Philippine hydrocarbon operations, and creating environmental hazards with its construction activity on seven different entities. The PCA also criticized China for having constructed airfields, ports facilities and other military installations on artificial islands in the South China Sea, particularly the Scarborough Shoal and the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.

China, by bullying its neighbors, is bringing about what it fears the most: a united phalanx of Asian powers under an American umbrella that is ready to prevent China from expanding to what it claims as its historic land and maritime borders.

Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

 

Lawrence A. Franklin

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19469/philippines-military-alliance

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Rocket targeting Israel falls on Gaza Strip border, IDF on high alert - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

The IDF is on high alert for "revenge" terror attacks following a failed rocket launch and continued violence in the West Bank.

 

Streaks of light are pictured as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from the Israeli side of the border March 25, 2019

(photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip fell on the border between the Strip and Israel, triggering rocket sirens in the southern Israeli kibbutz Nir Am early on Wednesday morning, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

The rocket fire followed an IDF raid in Jenin on Tuesday in which six Palestinians were killed - including Hamas operative Abdel Fattah Hussain Harusha, the terrorist who killed Hillel and Ya'acov Yaniv in a shooting attack in Huwara last week - and 26 were wounded.

Harusha had recently been released from prison after spending eight months there for his part in a conspiracy to plan a terror attack.

IDF on high alert following rocket launch, West Bank violence

Following Wednesday morning's failed rocket launch, the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility that Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem will attempt to carry out terror attacks as "revenge" for the IDF raid in Jenin, as per Maariv.

An Israeli Helicopter seen during a Military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on March 7, 2023 (credit: NASSER ISHTAYEH/FLASH90)

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that Israeli settlers clashed with Palestinians in Huwara and at least five Palestinians were injured, a week after settlers had rioted in the village, destroying property and injuring hundreds of people.

50 Palestinians threw stones at Israeli cars in the town, according to Israeli residents.

Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-733660

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Our Christophobic Ruling Caste - Bruce Thornton

 

by Bruce Thornton

Why Christianity is a threat to our technocratic elites.

 

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley last week persistently questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland about the FBI’s over-reaction last September in its heavily armed arrest of pro-life Catholic Mark Houck at his home––for an alleged assault that local law enforcement had already declined to prosecute. Houck was tried, and a jury acquitted him in just an hour.

For citizens of faith, the raid and trial demonstrate how many “public servants” in our federal agencies have an animus against Christians, a peculiarity given that the DOJ and other agencies are so vigorous in protecting Muslims from alleged Islamophobic persecution. Christophobia, on the other hand, apparently is okay, and Christians’ First Amendment rights can be violated to serve partisan political agendas.

Once again, the self-styled “brights,” the technocratic, progressive ruling elite who “follow the science,” are abusing their power to intimidate and marginalize Christians while violating their 1^st and 14^th  Amendment rights in order to discredit Christianity, long a threat to the technocracy and its authority.

The Houck case is not an outlier in the Feds’ sorry record of targeting Christians. In January there surfaced an FBI field office’s report called “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” which was disavowed only after an FBI whistleblower exposed it.

Or consider the FBI’s double standards in pursuing attacks on reproductive services offices, which are violations of the FACE Act used to charge Houck. According to the Heritage Foundation, “The DOJ charged 26 pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in 2022 alone, but did not charge a single pro-abortion activist with FACE Act charges in 2022, despite over 100 apparent pro-abortion attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches across the nation, according to Catholic Vote trackers.”

Nor is this a recent development. During the Obama administration, starting in 2010 the IRS targeted conservative and Christian non-profits. Losing a subsequent lawsuit did not slow the IRS down. In 2021, the agency pulled a Texas prayer group’s tax-exempt status because it “benefits Republicans.” As Ohio Senator Jim Jordan commented, “The Obama/Biden IRS targeted conservatives for their political beliefs. It looks like the Biden/Harris IRS is already up to no good as well. Every American should be concerned, but sadly, not surprised.”

This disdain for Christianity has been intensifying for a century, and goes back even farther to the 18^th century Enlightenment. When not atheists, many of the new rationalists were Deists, reducing God to the “first mover” responsible for the created world. The theology of Christ’s divinity, incarnation, death, and resurrection, and the miracles attending Christ’s mission, was rejected. Christians, when not decried as tyrannical, intolerant instigators of slaughter, were patronized as “shamans or witch doctors from savage tribes whom one humors until one can dress them in trousers and send them to school,” as Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz satirized this attitude.

By 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche memorably expressed this new sensibility and its cause: “Wither is God?” the madman in a fable asks. “I will tell you. We have killed him––you and I. All of us are his murderers . . . . God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” The only question left is, what will take God’s place as the foundational source of our ideals like virtue or human rights, if these can even survive.

The progress of science and the new technologies that followed, and the spread of political structures like political freedom and equality, human rights, and social justice gave one answer: The new authority of science based on its material improvements changed radically human existence, and disproved the Christian doctrine of mankind’s innate corruptibility. The dream of endless progress brought on by education and scientific new knowledge, took hold and started the long process of secularization. The new knowledge and “human sciences” could now improve human nature and usher in an age freed from the destructive behaviors that once blighted human life.

It didn’t take long for that dream to become a nightmare. Yet not even the 20^th century’s gruesome catalogue of industrialized slaughter, genocide, and gulags written by political religions like fascism, Nazim, and communism has weakened this faith among our cognitive elites.

For Americans in particular, this growing authority of science and distaste for religion began to erode the 1st Amendment’s rights of free speech and religion. The provision was distorted to mean a “wall of separation of church and state,” a phrase created by Thomas Jefferson. The “establishment clause” proscribed a church established the federal government with authority over the whole nation, like England’s Anglican Church. State-level established churches already existing in many states were left alone. Now they are forbidden by Supreme Court rulings that extended the 1^st and 14^th amendments to the states.

Today this misreading of the Constitution has been used to justify banning any public connection of politics to religion, which of course violates the 1^st Amendment’s freedom of religion and speech. But this unwarranted interpretation conflicts with the thinking of the Founders about the viability of the Constitution’s freedoms given the destructive “passions and interests” and lust for power that all humans are prey to.

As John Adams expressed this importance of religion for the new nation’s success in his 1798 “Letter from John Adams to Massachusetts Militia”:

“Because we have no government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by Morality and Religion, Avarice, Ambition, Revenge, or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Indeed, even atheists like Voltaire acknowledged the utilitarian value of religion in his famous quips, “If God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” and “God is dead, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murder me at night.” Or as Napoleon put it, “Religion is a kind of vaccination, which, by satisfying our natural love for the marvelous, keeps us out of the hands of charlatans and conjurers. The priests are better than the Cagliostros [famous occultists and frauds, Andrew Roberts’s gloss], the Kants, and all the visionaries of Germany.”

As advanced materially as we are, as successful as our science has been at unlocking the secrets of nature and using its powers to create life-changing technologies, our science still can’t give us an answer to the question why we shouldn’t just follow our impulses and appetites, no matter how evil. Instead, it falls back on dubious Darwinism like the “God gene,” or various forms of determinism like Freudianism or Marxism, both of which have been dead-ends in the attempt to find a substitute for God. At least Nietzsche was honest, acknowledging that God’s death has undercut all our virtues like charity and empathy for our fellow humans that make us humane rather than just clever chimps.

Finally, the discrediting of faith and the idealization of science as the royal road to ultimate happiness on earth, has created an emptiness in our civilization, which lacks a convincing story of who we are and what is best for us, how we should live and act, what is good for us and what we are good for.

Into that void have stepped cults and political religions like Marxism, which has co-opted much of Christian salvation theology. Only now, original sin is called the “alienation” of people from nature, their fellow man, and their labor, a fallen condition that the abolishing of capitalism and private property will redeemed. And the “born-again” Christian will be the “new man” communism creates through revolution, inheritors of a new “salvation” here on earth––“a higher sociobiological type, a superman . . . . Man will become incomparably stronger, wiser, more subtle,” as Leon Trotsky preached. As the Catholic thinker Andre de Lubac asked, “On which side are the miracles greater?”

We know the cost of this low-rent religion––100 million killed by famine, torture, gulags, and mass murder. Yet still the Left promotes the false knowledge about people and their natures that contributed to such carnage and cruelty. The history of communism alone answers the question that Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov raises: whether “without God and immortal life . . . all things are permitted.”

Yet science still has not been able to give a convincing answer to that question, as all around us belief in more and more secular “miracles” proliferate.

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an emeritus professor of classics and humanities at California State University, Fresno, and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents: The Tyranny of the Majority from the Greeks to Obama.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/our-christophobic-ruling-caste/

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Jan. 6 footage appears to show Capitol Police escorting QAnon Shaman to Senate floor - Ben Whedon

 

by Ben Whedon

"The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides," Carlson lamented.

 

Fox New host Tucker Carlson aired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot on Monday evening that appeared to show Capitol Police did not attempt to stop one of the leading demonstrators from reaching the Senate floor but rather escorted him to the chamber.

The footage shows Jacob Chansley, widely known as the QAnon Shaman, walking through the corridors of the U.S. Capitol with two members of the Capitol Police alongside him, according to the New York Post. The officers have not subdued him and he does not appear to have had his movement restricted via handcuffs.

Carlson, for his part, was livid at the behavior of the police force.

"The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides," Carlson lamented. Chansley received a 41-month sentence in connection with his role in the incident.

His outlandish dress and image appeared in much of the reporting on the riot and he ultimately became its most recognizable participant. Carlson also played interview footage in which Chansley indicated his belief that Capitol Police had allowed their entry and that his actions had been permissible.

"The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers that it was acceptable," Chansley says in the clip.

Carlson then asserts that Chansley "understood that the Capitol police were his allies," before asking viewers "If he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn't the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?"

The Fox News host then excoriated the legacy media for its selective, narrative driven reporting on the incident which made Chansley the riot's public face and pushed a narrative that the incident was a violent attempt to overthrow democracy.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson exclusive access to roughly 41,000 hours of security footage related to the riot, which prompted outrage from the legacy media, who expressed concerns that Carlson would selectively present the material to support his own narrative. The California Republican asserted that such outlets were merely "jealous" he got the tapes.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/jan-6-footage-appears-show-capitol-police-escorting-qanon-shaman-senate-floor

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IAEA top dog says attack on Iran’s nuclear program would be illegal, Netanyahu fires back - Robert Spencer

 

by Robert Spencer

Apparently the IAEA expects Israel to go quietly to its own destruction.

 

“Netanyahu blasts IAEA head for saying attack on Iran would be ‘illegal,’” JNS, March 5, 2023:

(March 5, 2023 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized as “unworthy” International Atomic Agency Director Raphael Grossi’s statement a day earlier that any attack Iran’s nuclear program would be illegal.

“Against which law?” said Netanyahu at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. “Is Iran, which openly calls for our destruction, permitted to defend the destructive weapons that would slaughter us? Are we permitted to defend ourselves? It is clear that we are, and it is clear that we will do so.”

Rafael Grossi, he said, was “a worthy gentleman who said something unworthy.”

Noting that it was Purim eve, the Israeli premier said, “2,500 years ago an enemy arose in Persia who sought to destroy the Jews. They did not succeed then, neither will they succeed today.”

Following a meeting in Tehran on Saturday, Grossi said during a joint press conference with Mohammed Eslami, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, that “I think any attack, any military attack on a nuclear facility is outlaw[ed]—is out of the normative structures that we all abide by.”

The two-day meeting was a bid by the IAEA to convince Iran to cooperate as the U.N. nuclear watchdog seeks to monitor the country’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with world powers.

The IAEA director said there were “great expectations” in the talks, which had expressed “readiness” to cooperate.

According to a statement released by the parties on Saturday, the two sides agreed to work in a spirit of collaboration. Specifically, Grossi said that Tehran will allow the IAEA to reinstall some monitoring equipment that was removed last year.

Grossi’s visit comes in the wake of a quarterly IAEA report released on Feb. 28 that found Iran can produce enough weapons-grade (90% enriched) uranium for a nuclear weapon in 12 days using half of its existing stock of 60% enriched uranium….

Robert Spencer

Source: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/03/iaea-top-dog-says-attack-on-irans-nuclear-program-would-be-illegal-netanyahu-fires-back

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