Ha'aretz
Misstatements, exaggerations, false analogies, misleading generalizations, etc.

Ha'aretz, one of Israel's independent daily newspapers, offers news coverage of domestic and international affairs. It has a journalistic staff of about 330 reporters, writers and editors, and a daily circulation of  75,000.

JUNE 28, 2017
Haaretz (Again) Corrects Inflated Rafah Casualty Figure

JUNE 12, 2017
Hebrew Haaretz Says What English Won't: Islamic Jihad Man Was Target of Fatal Strike

JUNE 4, 2017
These Are Your Journalists, Haaretz

MAY 24, 2017
Haaretz's Three-Part Western Wall Error

MAY 14, 2017
In English, Haaretz Upgrades Hamas' New Document to New 'Charter'

MARCH 26, 2017
Basil Al-Araj, Terror Activist or Young Intellectual? Haaretz's Changing Story

MARCH 19, 2017
Who Is Most Targeted in America? Muslims or Jews? Haaretz Corrects

JANUARY 25, 2017
Haaretz Corrects: Bedouin Driver Killing of Cop Not Just A 'Police Claim'

JANUARY 11, 2017
Twice Lost, Then Found, in Haaretz Translation: Hamas Exploitation of Gaza Cancer Patients

DECEMBER 14, 2016
AFP, Haaretz Amend Reference to Syrian, Palestinian Flag

NOVEMBER 7, 2016
Amiram Goldblum's Numbers Don't Add Up

NOVEMBER 1, 2016
After Palestinian Attack, Haaretz Fixes 'Lost in Translation'

NOVEMBER 1, 2016
Sayed Kashua's Revisionism: 1948 and 2016

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
Gideon Levy Underscores Dubious Claims by Father of Terrorist

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016
Flailing Haaretz Lashes Out At CAMERA

AUGUST 12, 2016
Israel's Globes Covers Haaretz's Translation Problems

JULY 10, 2016
Haaretz Omits Critical Information on New Police Regulations

JULY 6, 2016
Bogus Page-One Haaretz Headline: 'Donors Halt Funds' to Ben-Gurion University (Updated)

JUNE 23, 2016
Israel Recycles Water, Amira Hass Recycles False Water Charges

JUNE 19, 2016
Haaretz's Amira Hass Sweeps Away the Facts

MAY 2, 2016
Under Fire for Bias, Haaretz Editor Aluf Benn Lashes Out, Errs on Facts

APRIL 18, 2016
Distorted Haaretz English Translations On Israeli Public Agenda

MARCH 30, 2016
Haaretz Again Corrects on Mohammed Al Dura

MARCH 9, 2016
Haaretz Corrects Latest Skewed Translation

FEBRUARY 28, 2016
Haaretz Corrects Erroneous Headline on U.S. Conviction of Rasmieh Odeh

FEBRUARY 16, 2016
Haaretz Corrects Misinformation on Knesset Session About Biased Media Coverage

JANUARY 27, 2016
Haaretz Covers Up For Palestinian Prisoner Mohammed al-Qiq

JANUARY 27, 2016
Accusing Others of Dishonest Language, Beinart Distorts an Ambassador's Words

JANUARY 25, 2016
Haaretz Legal Follies

JANUARY 3, 2016
Haaretz's Bogus Book 'Ban'

DECEMBER 27, 2015
Haaretz Corrects Mistranslation About Eritrean's Death

DECEMBER 15, 2015
Haaretz: Incitement to Kidnap Soldiers is "Political Activism"

NOVEMBER 18, 2015
Haaretz Corrects: Bill Doesn't Call For Jailing 12-Year-Olds

NOVEMBER 17, 2015
Jewish Agency's Yigal Palmor Slams Media Accounts of Aleppo 'Rescue'

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015
Incitement over Temple Mount Leads to Palestinian Violence, Again

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015
Haaretz Retracts Conspiracy Theory About Syrian Patients in Israel

AUGUST 24, 2015
Did Avi Dichter Call For Separate Roads for Jews, Arabs? Haaretz Corrects

AUGUST 5, 2015
Haaretz's Gideon Levy Chooses a Classical Antisemitic Trope

JULY 16, 2015
Malakhi Moshe Rosenfeld Is Latest Victim of Haaretz Translators

JULY 14, 2015
CAMERA Prompts Haaretz Correction of Inflated Palestinian Casualties Figure

JULY 13, 2015
In Haaretz's English Edition, Many More Palestinians Were Killed

MAY 3, 2015
Gideon Levy's Swimming Pool Falsehood Resurfaces

APRIL 27, 2015
AP, Haaretz Run Temple Mount Correction. Ynet, Israel Hayom Don't

APRIL 14, 2015
Haaretz's Gideon Levy Spreads His Anti-Israel Poison Abroad

MARCH 8, 2015
Mughayyir Mosque 'Arson' Story Flares Up Again

FEBRUARY 25, 2015
Haaretz Corrects Headlines on Unruly Israir Passengers

JANUARY 27, 2015
Kobi Niv Dubs All Israelis Racist, Misses Praise for Lassana Bathily

JANUARY 12, 2015
In Hebrew, Haaretz Clarifies Regarding Rafah Casualties

JANUARY 5, 2015
Party Time: Fatah's Founding Myth

JANUARY 4, 2015
Haaretz Corrects "Lost in Translation" on Mosque Fire

DECEMBER 16, 2014
Backdraft: Some Media Outlets Backtrack on Mosque 'Arson'

NOVEMBER 25, 2014
Zvi Bar'el, Meet Israel's Founding Document

OCTOBER 26, 2014
Haaretz Partially Corrects Article on "Settler Attacks" on Al Aqsa

JUNE 22, 2014
Haaretz Corrects: Sde Avraham Not a 'Settlement'

JUNE 9, 2014
Haaretz, Al Jazeera Go Racist

MAY 20, 2014
Haaretz Corrects: Palestinian Grove Wasn't 'Torched'

MAY 19, 2014
Haaretz Advocacy Journalism and Lag B'Omer Bonfires

MAY 13, 2014
Economist's Nicolas Pelham Deceives About Christians

MAY 11, 2014
CAMERA Prompts Haaretz Correction on Netanyahu Quote

MAY 5, 2014
Haaretz Bungles Headlines on Netanyahu's Nation-State Remarks

APRIL 28, 2014
CAMERA Prompts Haaretz Correction on West Bank Barrier

APRIL 23, 2014
In Ha'aretz, Western Wall Errors, and a Correction

APRIL 9, 2014
Ha'aretz Pulls Tendentious, Plagiarized FIFA Story

APRIL 8, 2014
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Western Wall

MARCH 12, 2014
Ha'aretz Corrects Jewish State Error

MARCH 3, 2014
Just the Facts: Stripping Down Ha'aretz Coverage on Airport Search

FEBRUARY 26, 2014
Ha'aretz Veers Off Course on Israel Ports Story

FEBRUARY 20, 2014
Ha'aretz Corrects: Black Students Enrolled in Herzilya Center

FEBRUARY 15, 2014
Amira Hass, Ha'aretz Publish False Water Charges

FEBRUARY 11, 2014
UPDATED: False Charge of 'Palestinian Kids in Cages' Lives On in Australian Documentary

JANUARY 5, 2014
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Corrections on Ethiopians' Contraception

JANUARY 1, 2014
At End of 2013, Ha'aretz Drops Ball on Depo-Provera Story

DECEMBER 25, 2013
Ha'aretz Headline: Where Disputed Arab Claims Come True

DECEMBER 24, 2013
The Samer Issawi Test

DECEMBER 22, 2013
Bogus Bus Boycott

DECEMBER 10, 2013
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Mandela Visit

DECEMBER 9, 2013
Meet the Ramahis, Family of 'Peace'

DECEMBER 5, 2013
Presspectiva Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on EU Plan

OCTOBER 29, 2013
Ha'aretz on Prisoners: A Correction, and An Error

OCTOBER 24, 2013
Rihanna, Ha'aretz and Palestine

OCTOBER 20, 2013
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Gaza Imports

OCTOBER 1, 2013
Journalists Trip Over Gaza-Bound Construction Materials

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013
After Iranian Twitter Posts, Excitement Overcomes Nuance

JULY 1, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects: Netanyahu, Kerry Met in Jerusalem, Not Tel Aviv

JULY 1, 2013
Ha'aretz's Laor in Denial on Prisoner Releases

JUNE 16, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects: Rape Victim Was Israeli, Not Palestinian

JUNE 11, 2013
Ha'aretz Manipulates Child Casualty Figures

MAY 22, 2013
13-Year Controversy Over Al Dura Incident Continues

MAY 16, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects: No Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount

MAY 12, 2013
Ha'aretz in English: Jews Can Pray on the Temple Mount

MAY 12, 2013
Ha'aretz, But Not AFP, Publishes Correction On Israeli Stone-Throwers

MAY 7, 2013
AFP Misidentifies Israeli Stone-Throwers as Palestinian

APRIL 24, 2013
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Prisoner Samer Issawi

APRIL 7, 2013
Weekend Roundup of Ha'aretz Errors

APRIL 5, 2013
CAMERA Elicits Ha'aretz Clarification on Settlements

APRIL 4, 2013
CAMERA Prompts Corrections on Gideon Levy Column

APRIL 2, 2013
Injured Toddler, Soldiers Lost in Ha'aretz Translation

MARCH 19, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects: Palestine Not Full-Fledged U.N. Member

MARCH 12, 2013
Updated: Ha'aretz Upgrades 'Palestine' to Full U.N. Member

MARCH 10, 2013
Ha'aretz Headline Errs on Australian Report About Zygier

MARCH 7, 2013
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Ethiopian Birth Control Story

MARCH 3, 2013
Updated: Weekend Roundup of Ha'aretz, Lost in Translation

FEBRUARY 27, 2013
Updated: CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Palestinian Prisoners

FEBRUARY 21, 2013
Collective Punishment of Ha'aretz Readers

FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Updated: Neglected Facts About Hunger-Striking Samer Issawi

FEBRUARY 7, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects E-1, Gaza Errors

FEBRUARY 3, 2013
Israeli Outlets Foment Demonization With Sloppy Journalism

FEBRUARY 3, 2013
Whose Land? Ha'aretz Distorts Eli Land's Status

JANUARY 27, 2013
Ha'aretz Corrects: Gazan's Death Was Disputed

JANUARY 20, 2013
Guardian Corrects: Israel Didn't Violate Injunction. Why won't Ha'aretz?

JANUARY 16, 2013
Updated: Killed (by Israel) in Translation: Ha'aretz's 'Tailor-Made' English Content

JANUARY 15, 2013
Ha'aretz's 'Tailor-Made' English Content Wrong Again

JANUARY 9, 2013
In Exclusive Interview, Former Ha'aretz Editor Traces Paper's Decline

DECEMBER 29, 2012
CAMERA Top Ten MidEast Media Mangles of 2012

DECEMBER 18, 2012
Another Front-Page Gaffe at Ha'aretz

NOVEMBER 29, 2012
Ha'aretz Corrects Article Wrongly Blaming Israel for Boy's Death

NOVEMBER 28, 2012
Ha'aretz Lost in Translation: Whitewashing a Stabbing

NOVEMBER 4, 2012
Former Ha'aretz Editor Marmari Speaks Out on 'Apartheid' Poll Scandal

OCTOBER 29, 2012
In Today's 'Apology,' Gideon Levy Just Doesn't Get It

OCTOBER 28, 2012
Will Inquiry Follow Ha'aretz 'Apartheid' Clarification?

OCTOBER 25, 2012
Ha'aretz's Apartheid Campaign Against Israel

OCTOBER 23, 2012
Minority Report: Akiva Eldar Responds

OCTOBER 17, 2012
With Akiva Eldar, the Facts Are a Minority

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
Attack on Christian Housing Project in Jerusalem Ignored

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
At Ha'aretz, English Translation Takes a Beating

JULY 16, 2012
Ha'aretz Allegation of War Crime Unfounded

JUNE 29, 2012
Presspectiva Editor-in-Chief Published in Ha'aretz

JUNE 20, 2012
Ha'aretz Rocket Remix

MAY 30, 2012
Haaretz, Lost in Translation

MAY 20, 2012
UPDATED: Ha'aretz's Conflicting 'Nakba' Headlines: Clashes or Quiet?

MAY 20, 2012
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on 'Nakba Day' Clash

MAY 13, 2012
Ha'aretz Corrects 'Nakba Law' Lost in Translation

MAY 9, 2012
Updated: The Samouni Case in Ha'aretz: Picture of Contradictions

MAY 1, 2012
Amira Hass and the Activists of Nabi Saleh

MARCH 26, 2012
Ha'aretz 'Lost in Translation' Corrected

JANUARY 1, 2012
Ha'aretz and the Christmas Siege That Wasn't

JANUARY 1, 2012
Ha'aretz's Sefi Rachlevsky Fabricates Rabbinic Ruling

DECEMBER 12, 2011
Amira Hass' Water Woes

OCTOBER 9, 2011
Presspectiva Prompts Correction on Ha'aretz Op-Ed About Anatot Violence

OCTOBER 2, 2011
Akiva Eldar, Who Is Lying?

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011
Updated: English Ha'aretz Covers Up Palestinian Violence

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
Media Ignore Ha'aretz Report on Israeli Flexibility

AUGUST 26, 2011
Ha'aretz Corrects Articles Blaming IDF Fire for Egyptian Fatalities

AUGUST 5, 2011
Would-Be Flotilla Participant Poses as Jew in Ha'aretz

JULY 17, 2011
Ha'aretz Corrects: Palestinian 'Civilian' Fatality Was Actually Hamas

JULY 10, 2011
CAMERA/Presspectiva Rebuts Yael Sternhell in Ha'aretz

JULY 3, 2011
Gideon Levy's Distorted Discourse

JUNE 29, 2011
Amira Hass Spouts Vitriol on the CBC

JUNE 23, 2011
Gideon Levy Adrift in His Alternate Reality

MAY 17, 2011
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction on Al Dura

MARCH 31, 2011
Israeli Ambassador Slams Gideon Levy

MARCH 14, 2011
Ha'aretz Buries Fogel Funeral

JANUARY 18, 2011
Ha'aretz Gets Little Right on 'Little Kotel'

JANUARY 17, 2011
CAMERA Prompts Ha'aretz Correction: Palestinians in Silwan Building Illegally

DECEMBER 15, 2010
Presspectiva Editor Yishai Goldflam Criticizes Ha'aretz's Yossi Sarid

NOVEMBER 30, 2010
Israel's English-Language Media, AFP, Selectively Report on Israeli Poll

NOVEMBER 9, 2010
Ha'aretz Corrects Headline on Hamas Casualties

NOVEMBER 1, 2010
Colleague Takes Gideon Levy to Task

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
Ha'aretz, Margaret Atwood, Fabricate Allegation of Child Deaths

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
New Year, New Precedent: Ha'aretz Corrects

AUGUST 29, 2010
Ha'aretz Repeats 'Jewish-Only Apartheid Roads' Canard

AUGUST 23, 2010
How to Distort the News, In Hebrew

JULY 28, 2010
Haaretz: Amira Hass' Ideological Agenda Trumps Journalistic Integrity

MAY 17, 2010
Report on Palestinian Incitement? Ha'aretz Has More Pressing Concerns

MAY 12, 2010
Update/Correction: Akiva Eldar, Mearsheimer's Righteous Jewish Source for Misinformation

APRIL 21, 2010
Journalists Buy Falsehoods on Gaza Shipments

MARCH 25, 2010
Ha'aretz Invents Dershowitz Drama

MARCH 23, 2010
Akiva Eldar Clueless in Jerusalem

MARCH 10, 2010
Ha'aretz Flubs the Facts on Arabs in the Knesset

FEBRUARY 1, 2010
Cloud of Questions Over Ha'aretz's White Phosphorous Story

NOVEMBER 24, 2009
Ha'aretz's Ode to an 'Apartheid Road'

OCTOBER 21, 2009
Amira Hass, the Samouni Family, and the Pursuit of Truth

OCTOBER 2, 2009
Ha'aretz's Gideon Levy: Israel Should be Thankful for Goldstone Report

MAY 19, 2009
Ha'aretz Senseless on Gaza

MARCH 27, 2009
Charges of IDF "Wanton Killing" Crumble

FEBRUARY 4, 2009
The McGirk Affair: Claims of Cold-Blooded Executions Not Credible

JANUARY 20, 2009
Ha'aretz's Levy Fuels Anti-Israel Distortions -- In Croatia

DECEMBER 31, 2008
Pulse on Gaza's Medical Situation

DECEMBER 22, 2008
Ha'aretz Radical Mainstreamed in LAT

NOVEMBER 17, 2008
Hass, Back From Leave, Still Out to Lunch

NOVEMBER 4, 2008
Ha'aretz Tales on Building Permits Grow Taller

OCTOBER 6, 2008
Levy Blinded in Days of Awe

MAY 7, 2008
Ha'aretz Columnist Sacrifices Truth to Show IDF "Wrongdoing"

MAY 4, 2008
UPDATED: 'Last Refuge,' Latest Falsehood

APRIL 18, 2008
CAMERA Translates Letter from Israeli Author Slamming Ha'aretz

FEBRUARY 17, 2008
Ha'aretz Prints Hamas Op-Ed Full of Falsehoods

DECEMBER 26, 2007
Ha'aretz Editor Urges U.S. to "Rape" Israel

JUNE 18, 2007
Farewell to the Minister of Disinformation, Mustafa Barghouti

JANUARY 29, 2007
UPDATED: Al Dura Reprise

NOVEMBER 27, 2006
False Claim by Abbas Goes Unchallenged

SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
Ha'aretz's 'Quiet' Myth

SEPTEMBER 21, 2006
Gideon Levy's Hot Air on Prisoner Releases

AUGUST 20, 2006
Yitzhak Laor Pushes Land Lies in Ha'aretz

JULY 26, 2006
NPR and IHT Corrected. Will Ha'aretz?

JULY 5, 2006
Ha'aretz Again Fails to Correct Error

MARCH 9, 2006
Ha'aretz's Eldar Wrong on Gaza Hothouses

FEBRUARY 6, 2006
Ha'aretz's Hass Scolds Hamas' Haniyeh

NOVEMBER 30, 2005
UPDATED: Ha'aretz Indifferent to Journalistic Norms

OCTOBER 20, 2005
BACKGROUNDER on Professor Ilan Pappé: When Ideology Trumps Scholarship

JULY 12, 2005
UPDATED: AP Corrects: Blair Didn't Link Israel, Bombings

JUNE 30, 2005
No Excuse for Ha'aretz Gaza Population Error

APRIL 19, 2005
Updated: The "Contiguity" Double Standard

APRIL 18, 2005
‘Honor Killing’ or Robbery?

APRIL 4, 2005
Ha'aretz Inaccurately Reports on Garbage Dump

MARCH 21, 2005
BBC and Ha'aretz Journalist Whitewash Palestinian Incitement

MARCH 13, 2005
Ha'aretz Gives Hanan Ashrawi a Makeover

FEBRUARY 28, 2005
Ha'aretz Keeps 'Quiet'

FEBRUARY 18, 2005
BBC Admits to Mistakes, Apologizes

FEBRUARY 6, 2005
Ha’aretz Refuses to Correct Prominent Front Page Error

FEBRUARY 1, 2005
Ha'aretz Feature Explores Media Monitoring

JANUARY 31, 2005
Ha'aretz Prints CAMERA Letter, But No Correction

NOVEMBER 27, 2004
CAMERA Column: Fast and Loose with Facts at Ha'aretz

AUGUST 6, 2001
Ha’aretz Fuels Anti-Israel Bias

WHAT? YOU MEAN THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT DEMOCRAT INVESTIGATIONS...AGAIN?

By Rabbi Dov Fischer 6-23-17

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/06/what_you_mean_they_dont_care_about_democrat_investigations__again.html

What?  Karen Handel beat that Democrat in the race for Sixth Congressional District in Georgia ?

How could that be?  How could that posssibly be?  Five straight Republican Congressional wins in races against Democrats?

Didn’t the voters in Georgia know that Chuck Schumer believes that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin to win the 2016 Presidential election against Hillary Clinton?

Looks like no one really cares.  And looks like Americans see through the nonsense and the enormous waste of our taxes and national resources.

Didn’t the voters know that Michael Flynn was forced to resign months ago because he had not been square with Vice President Mike Pence when asked whether he had spoken with Russian government representatives before President Trump took office?

Didn’t the voters benefit from $50 million spent, much from outside the District, to educate them that The Resistance is ready?

Didn’t the voters know that Congress has been holding hearings to find out whether anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians?

Didn’t the voters know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions felt he had to recuse himself from investigating collusion charges because there were other charges floating that he himself had spoken to a Russian ambassador in the United States?

Haven’t the voters seen Attorney General Sessions being grilled on television by Democratic Party United States Senators?

Looks like no one really cares.  And looks like Americans see through the nonsense and the enormous waste of out taxes and national resources.

Didn’t the voters know that James Comey now is a favorite of Democrats, as the former FBI Director testified with all sorts of innuendoes against President Trump and his supporters?

Don’t the voters know that there now is a Special Prosecutor, Robert Mueller, looking into all sorts of things concerning the Trump White House, or whatever?

Didn’t the voters know that Kellyanne Conway once jokingly told the public from the White House that she endorses Ivanka Trump clothing products?

Didn’t the voters know that President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has done business with Russians?

Don’t the voters know that the Trump White House regularly is lampooned by “Saturday Night Live” and Stephen Colbert?

Looks like no one really cares.  And looks like Americans see through the nonsense and the enormous waste of out taxes and national resources.

From the day that we elected President Donald Trump over a self-obsessed, power-driven, and lying former First Lady and miserably incompetent former Secretary of State who shattered our national foreign footprint rather than any glass ceilings, whose contributions to American leadership included a failed healthcare program that she fatally convinced her husband to promote until its doom, and later a failed series of foreign policy disasters that she helped convince the empty-suit who beat her for the Presidency in 2008 to pursue until others encountered doom, the media and the Democrats have not given Donald Trump a day of fairness.  Not a day, not a single 24-hour period, to simply pursue his vision for a greater America.

Despite that nearly unprecedented attack and five months of their anti-Trump vitriol and investigations and rumors and leaks and even hints of impeachment, this president has continued to lead.  In only five months, he has straightened out the United States Supreme Court by naming one of the finest jurists of our generation, someone so impeccable that Democrats could not dent Neil Gorsuch’s armor even as Republicans marveled at his fidelity to the Constitution and to the Framers’ vision, to fill out the Court.  And the president has begun proceeding to name judges to the 129 other open federal judicial seats that can straighten out the federal district courts that conduct trials and the federal appellate courts that ultimately settle most of America’s laws.

Notwithstanding a five-month war of hate against a fundamemntally good man, with a fundamentally good heart and a vision to make this country great again, to repair the extraordinary damage to America’s foreign and world leadership posture, while fixing all that ails us at home, the president has moved, as quickly as his opponents could be sidestepped, to fulfill one important campaign promise after another.  He has approved the Keystone XL pipeline.  He has issued executive orders reversing a universe of Obama regulations that had handcuffed the American economy, suffocated business, and stifled the American labor force.  He has begun liberating America’s own natural sources of energy from decades of Democrat regulation that gave the Saudis and Kuwaitis and Venezuelans and so many other hostile countries that are not our friends and that mean us no good – and that do not care a whit about the environment, nor impose any meaningful environmental oversight on oil and gas extraction in  their countries – and he has opened new doors for the development and extraction and production of American energy, American oil, American natural gas, American clean coal.

He has opened bidding by inviting submissions for building a wall on our Southern border with Mexico, and his mere strength of presence has resulted in an unprecedented reduction in illegal crossings into our country from across that border.  No wall – just a real president, with a real Attorney General, and a real Justice Department and a real Homeland Security team ready to enforce the laws already on America’s books – and illegal immigration has dropped like an Acme anvil in a Warner Brothers cartoon.  Real ICE raids that finally have given law enforcement confidence and belief that the people whom they round up actually will be deported, not just set free in exchange for a blatantly false promise to appear months later at a court hearing that everyone would know would never happen.

Under brutal non-stop attack from Schumer and Pelosi and their shills at CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the entire left-wing apparatus – an attack so brutal that it has extended to the worst calumny and defamation, lies and libel and slander that go just to the limits of “New York Times malice,” even to portrayals of suggested assassination in New York theatrical productions – this President has forged new relationships overseas.  Our real friends – nations like England and Japan and and Israel – no longer are the pinatas for an Obama-Clinton-Kerry foreign policy.  Other friends – nations like Germany and France – have had to get used to a new playing field where, although the friendship and allegiances remain as strong as ever, now they and their cohorts have to pay their fair share of the bills, put up their fair share of the blood and sweat, and understand that they no longer have a kneeling, prostrating, apologizing “rock star” to tickle but a real American president to deal with.  So maybe President Trump is not as popular with the Europeans as Obama was.  Maybe they do not like when he asks them to pay the bills they have contracted to pay, and maybe they do not like when he tells them that he will not march America down Obama’s ridiculous and nonsensical dance to tie the hands of American power and industry to some blindsided environmental agreements.  So our president is not as popular with the Europeans as was Obama.  And America is not as popular.  Well, we voters are not Europeans, and he is popular with us.

But when the Russians over whom those Democrats now obsess – but whom Obama always considered irrelevant as he and his Hillary Re-set gave Vladimir Putin the Crimea, part of Ukraine, and a new foothold in the Middle East – threaten European sovereignty, to whom will those Angela Merkels and Emmanuel Macrons silently give thanks and beg for protection?  They will give thanks that Trump is in the White House leading the Western alliance and the resolve of freedom, rather than an Obama who responded to the rise of ISIS by joking that they merely were a junior varsity and to the terrorist massacres in Paris by sending John Kerry and James Taylor abroad to ride bicycles and sing “You’ve Got a Friend.”

The voters in Georgia knew that their prior President went to Castro’s Cuba, where he danced the salsa in front of a cutthroat while others were being murdered in Europe.  A president who genuflected and bent the head and knee for Arab oil sheiks.  A president who led from behind in Benghazi, even as American heroes and patriots died and Hillary thereafter lied to their families and the American people while secretly admitting to her daughter that our finest had been murdered by Arab Islamists on a 9-11 attack and not by a YouTube video that almost no one saw.

Those Georgia voters knew that, for the past five months, they instead have had a president who is reversing Obama’s Cuba policies at breathtaking speed, restoring America’s commitment to freedom and human rights in the Western hemisphere.  A President who has traveled to Saudi Arabia, met with Arab world leaders, and proved that America can have strategic alliances even with countries that do not share our values, but on our terms.  We set the terms for such alliances.  We – not they – make clear where we will compromise for our strategic purposes and where we will not bend.  Unlike Obama, who began his presidency by traveling to Cairo and begging the Arab world for forgiveness – and who was repaid for his sycophancy with eight years of ISIS and Benghazi and a complete breakdown of all that our armed forces finally had achieved during the Surge in Iraq – this President went to the Arab world, challenging them to join us in fighting Arab Islamic terror, making no apologies nor excuses for maintaining a deep friendship with Israel as an ally of truly shared values – and still emerged with standing ovations and respect.  Because people overseas respect American strength, and they longed for it after eight years of a pretender who was in way over his head, though he crooned with Jay-Z and always was cheered on by an adoring and adulating media who experienceds thrills in their legs and brain freezes as he tore down so much of what made us great.

The Democrats spent an unholy fortune in Georgia these past several months, seeking to wrest that House seat from the Republicans, just as they have tried in Kansas and Montana and South Carolina.  The political obituaries for President Trump already had been written for the night that Democrat Jon Ossoff had beaten the Republican, ready for publication as soon as that Bernie Sanders leftist would win the House seat that had been in GOP hands.  If ever the Devil went down to Georgia, it was during the parade of American leftist media camping out to tell a story of the demise of the Trump Presidency, the end of the Republican Congress, the return of the Weak.  Maxine Waters surely had the Bills of Impeachment ready, perhaps delayed only because still working on spelling the harder words like “Bill” and “of.”  Nancy Pelosi surely was being prepared with extra Vitamin B12 to get on the rostrum and try to generate five or ten minutes of quasi-coherence, describing the great new Democrat wave.

But, instead, the Republican won.  Again.  After five months of the media telling us that Americans are tired of Trump, regret Trump, care all about James Comey and investigating Attorney-General Sessions and investigating Jared Kushner and investigating Mike Flynn and investigating Donald Trump, it turns out that American voters do not care a whit about all that Washington Insider nonsense.

Americans want jobs.  Americans want a federal judiciary that represents our values.  Americans want European initiatives to remain in Europe, and we want them to pay their promised bills, just as each of us does every day in our own lives.  Americans want clean oil and gas and coal that comes from our shores, that employs our citizens, and that keeps those assets at home, instead of importing foreign energy and paying tyrants for the privilege to send them our money in return for their truly dirty resources.  We want lower taxes, an end to Obamacare, an America where we can keep our doctors once again and pay only for the health coverage options we want.  We do not want to pay for Sandra Fluke’s condoms until she pays for our acetaminophen and ibuprofen and Band-aids.  We do not want to fund Planned Parenthood’s abortions, only their family planning and social counseling.  We want criminals who are not rightly in America to be thrown out of this country.  We want no part of international trade agreements that worry about every other country but our own, nor any part of environmental accords that choke off our industries while allowing China and India and the rest of the world to pollute without compunction.  We do not mind working with China, and delaying calling them on currency manipulation and trade violations, if they truly come through tit-for-tat in managing that maniac in North Korea.  And if they fail us, there is time to call them on currency manipulation and to change the rules of international trade to be fair again.  We are done with free trade agreements that do not protect our workers and Trans-Pacific deals that sell out our interests to curry favor with those who do not care about our interests.

In short, no one who previously has supported President Trump really cares about all the nonsense that consumes the Washington Beltway.  We see through the nonsense and the enormous waste of our taxes and national resources, with one bogus investigation after another.  We just want the Congress – and particularly the Republicans whom we elected to work with President Trump –  to do what we sent them there to do: lower taxes, repeal and replace Obamacare, get the Southern border under control, reverse the Obama era regulations, liberate American energy, maintain a strong world footprint fostering strength and power without sending our boys into new military adventures that we have no business wasting our resources over.  Get the government working for us, start rebuilding the American infrastructure that Democrats and Republicans have allowed to decay while wasting decades building bridges to nowhere and conducting endless investigations over things we do not care about.

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IS BOB MUELLER THE ESTABLISHMENTS STALKING HORSE?

Bruce Thornton, FPM

The threats to our constitutional order posed by the special counsel investigation.

The appointment of Robert Mueller, James Comey’s BFF, as special counsel stinks to high heaven. Forget the bipartisan encomia to Mueller’s “ethics” and “professionalism” and “integrity” and all the other usual question-begging praise the elite shower on each other to justify their power and privilege. Such mutual admiration and reciprocal puffery is just one of the ways that DC is “Hollywood for ugly people,” given that both industries are in the business of selling sows’ ears as silk purses. We heard all the same praise about Comey, who has been exposed as self-righteous, conniving, and cowardly, his ethics trimmed to his careerism. He proves that all political appointees and “public servants” should be judged guilty until proven innocent.

And right now Mueller demands particular scrutiny and suspicion. Why should we ordinary citizens, who don’t know him from Adam, believe that he can set aside his friendship with Comey and be fair and objective? Especially after Comey confessed he leaked his memo about Trump’s comments because he “thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” and he is likely to be a witness? And mirabile visu, that special counsel just happens to be his close friend? And a Democrat, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, just happens to be the one making the appointment of a man under whom he served from 1990-93? And what about new information that Mueller was interviewed by Trump to replace Comey? Was the topic of why Comey was fired part of the interview, which could make him a witness in his own investigation?

Worst of all, this same DOJ, along with the FBI and maybe Mueller’s team, is still springing leaks that are poisoning the integrity of the nascent investigation. It seems to me that a man of such high integrity as Mueller would have put the investigation on hold until the leakers were rooted out, in order to insure the integrity of the investigation. But then, a man of integrity wouldn’t agree to head up an investigation that involves one of his closest friends, who has an axe to grind against the target of the investigation. Nor is Mueller’s past record of substituting his will for the law reassuring. In 2006 he raided the offices of Representative William Jefferson without getting permission from the legislative branch. He seized documents not pertinent to the investigation, and refused to return them when asked by the executive. As the Wall Street Journal writes, Mueller “let his prosecutorial willfulness interfere with proper constitutional and executive-branch procedure,” a bad habit he shares with Comey.

Or consider the staff Mueller has assembled, comprising lawyers from old his law firm, and Andrew Weissmann. All are contributors to the Democrats, though in their defense, it serves the interests of lawyers to have Democrats in power. After all, the regulatory Leviathan is a Klondike of lucrative litigation. Weissmann, however, is a particularly suspicious choice. As the Journal points out, he headed up the five-year-long Enron investigation, which led to the prosecution of the Arthur Anderson accounting firm. The 2002 conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court––after 28,000 employees lost their jobs. More interestingly, one of Weismann’s harshest critics was the New York Observer, which in 2015 called Weismann a “Stunningly Bad Choice” on the part of the DOJ for Chief of Criminal Division Fraud Section. The owner of the Observer at that time was, wait for it, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and aid, who leakers now tell us is in the investigatory crosshairs.

Again the Journal nails it: “With that history, can Mr. Weissmann fairly judge the actions of the Trump family and campaign? And knowing that history, why would Mr. Mueller choose Mr. Weissmann for his prosecutorial team when the appearance of fairness is crucial to public acceptance of the result?”

Finally, as Andy McCarthy has steadfastly documented, Rosenstein’s appointment of a special counsel “failed to follow regulations that permit a special counsel only for criminal investigations— Rosenstein instead put Mueller in charge of the Russia probe described in Comey’s March 20 testimony. Again, that probe is a counterintelligence investigation.” As a consequence, there are no limits to the investigation, which can now encompass whatever Mueller wants. In short, as McCarthy continues, it is a “fishing expedition”:

It is already straying far afield from suspicions about Trump collusion in Russia’s election-meddling — which, we need to remind ourselves, is the purported rationale for the probe, and thus for Mueller. The probe’s focus has morphed from collusion to obstruction: the chief-executive’s weighing in on Flynn’s prosecution, pushing for disclosure of true information that he was not a suspect in the Russia investigation, and firing of the FBI director — all actions Trump was constitutionally entitled to take.

It reminds me of Stalin’s head of the secret police, Lavrentiy Beria, who infamously said, “Show me the man, and I can show you the crime.”

Trump, of course, must shoulder some of the blame for allowing this to happen. He should have cleaned house at the DOJ and FBI the day after he took office. Given the obvious hatred of him on the part of Democrats, and given the amount of leaks and vitriol aimed at him since election day, Trump should never have left Democrat appointees or agency lifers in their jobs. Furthermore, since the Russia investigation is a counterintelligence, not a criminal one, Jeff Sessions did not legally have to recuse himself, and so should not have, leaving Rosenstein in place to appoint Mueller. And as much as Trump’s tweets delight his base, there’s no need to throw fuel on an already raging fire.

But the real issue here is not Trump’s missteps. It is the tidal wave of illegal leaks coming from the bipartisan minions of the Leviathan state who refuse to accept the outcome of a legal election, and who will seek to reverse it by any means necessary––fake news, vulgar and vitriolic rhetoric, simpatico federal judges, Democrat fifth columnists in the federal agencies and bureaucracies, and now the powerful weapon of a special counsel unaccountable to the people or their representatives in Congress.

Contrary to some of Mueller’s fans, no one “deserves respect” because of the recommendations of friends and colleagues, least of all a political appointee unknown personally to the vast majority of voters. Respect is earned by doing the right thing not as defined by partisan, professional, or ideological interests, but because it is lawful, moral, and just. As the Journal writes, “The country needs a fair investigation of the facts, not a vendetta to take down Mr. Trump or vindicate the tribe of career prosecutors and FBI agents to which Messrs. Mueller and Comey belong.”

I hope Mueller proves his critics wrong. I hope he quickly confirms the obvious: that there was no collusion by the president with Russia, nor was there any “obstruction of justice” in Trump’s comments to Comey. By doing so Mueller can reaffirm the Constitutional order now being undermined by Trump’s enemies.

On the other hand, I for one will not be surprised if the investigation drags on until October of 2018, and a damning report is released just in time for the midterm elections. If so, the contrast with the failure to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the criminal behavior of Hillary Clinton––for which, unlike the case of Trump, there is ample evidence already in the public domain––will be a glaring example of the Democrats’ and some Republicans’ hypocrisy and disdain for the bedrock principles of equality before the law, and the sovereignty of the people rather than federal agencies and their clerks.

If there are facts unknown that damn Trump, then they should be discovered and publicized. But if the investigation descends into innuendo, interpretative sophistries, and a toxic cloud of rumor that lead to a legally elected president being brought down solely for partisan gain, then Mueller will share the blame for such an assault on the Constitutional order.

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, a Research Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a Professor of Classics and Humanities at the California State University. He is the author of nine books and numerous essays on classical culture and its influence on Western Civilization. His most recent book is Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents (Hoover Institution Press), 

1.      IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR   US  NATIONAL SECURITY AND  FOR AMERICAN NATIONAL UNITY THAT ROBERT MUELLER  BEGIN HIS INVESTIGATION WITH A THOROUGH EXAMINATION OF SQUARE ONE

A.     History documents  that  several false assumptions/accusations  led the US into major wars. 

.  The USSMaine was  sent to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly, without warning, and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew.  Popular opinion in the U.S., fanned by inflammatory articles printed in the "yellow press" by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, blamed Spain. The phrase, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!", became a rallying cry for action, which came with the Spanish–American War later that year.

 George W. Melville, a chief engineer in the Navy, proposed that a  likely cause for the sinking was from a magazine explosion within the vessel. The Navy's leading ordnance expert, Philip R. Alger, took this theory further by suggesting that the magazines were ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker.The coal used in Maine was bituminous coal, which is known for releasing firedamp, a gas that is prone to spontaneous explosions. There is stronger evidence that the explosion of Maine was caused by an internal coal fire which ignited the magazines. This was a likely cause of the explosion, rather than the initial accusation of a Spanish mine.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7, 1964) gave broad congressional approval for expansion of the Vietnam War.On August 2, shortly after a clandestine raid on the North Vietnamese coast by South Vietnamese gunboats, the U.S. destroyer Maddox (conducting electronic espionage nearby) was fired on by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, in the same area, the Maddox and another destroyer reported that they were again under attack. Although these reports now appear to have been mistaken, Johnson proceeded quickly to authorize retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam. The next day he gathered congressional leaders and accused the North Vietnamese of “open aggression on the high seas.” He then submitted to the Senate a resolution that authorized him to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” The resolution was quickly approved by Congress;  Later, when more information about the Tonkin incident became available, many concluded that Johnson and his advisers had misled Congress into supporting the expansion of the war.

The false certainty of the US intelligence community that  Saddam Hussein  actually possessed nuclear weapons 

B.      Public  records document  that the Obama administration  orchestrated false information to create  public acceptance for several major administration programs. 

   Obamacare. To pass Obamacare, the political consultant/architect was Jonathan Gruber,the Obamacare Architect: “Yeah, We Lied to The "Stupid" American People to Get It Passed”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G790p0LcgbI&ab_channel=AmericanCommitment

   Iran deal.  Ben Rhodes’ Iran Deal ( “wag the dog”) echo chamber operation) which was  explicitly intended to mislead the US public in order to sell this administration’s desired  Iran agreement [ The aspiring novelist who became Obama’s foreign-policy guru  by David Samuels  New York Times May 5, 2016]

 Below, is an excerpt from the New York Times which reproduces in Ben Rhodes’ own words Rhodes’s  campaign to sell the Iran 

"We created an echo chamber,’ he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. ‘They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.”

      Intelligence analysts   complained that their  output is being distorted by the political echelon [50 Spies Say ISIS Intelligence Was Cooked 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/09/exclusive-50-spies-say-isis-intelligence-was-cooked.html]; 

C.    VP Biden threatened Russia with cyber warfare [at a place and it is time of our choosing] thus giving Putin an excellent opportunity to blame the United States for any systems failure [there are many that occur] in Russia. Further, this subject to the United States to the possibility of a cyber war which we can not win.

Thus, it is essential for   US  national security and  for American national unity that Robert Mueller  begin his investigation with a thorough examination of square one 

2.     How Robert Mueller can begin at square one in his investigation

The story  that is being sold  to the American public  is  that there is  100% agreement by all the   US  Intelligence agencies that the Russians penetrated the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. The "intelligence assumptions" cascade with the further  assumption being  announced that the Russians would not conduct such an operation without the explicit knowledge and the explicit direct approval of Vladimir Putin.If Russia, China, Iran, North Korea an Islamic power, or a criminal element  really wanted to disrupt the election in the United States they have the capability to easily do so. This would be by means of a coordinated,  attack on a series of computers, not an isolated intrusion into a single computer system.

This story is politically convenient but it does not comply with the capabilities of the Russians and with the political and technical savvy of the black Internet community operations.

First, they would infiltrate the hundreds of computers operated by the local Democratic and/or Republican organizations. Quantitatively this is a relatively small number compared to past viral and other attacks. This is relatively simple technically given the low level of security protection, the large number of people with access, and the large number of incoming and outgoing emails and other transactions

 Then they would incapacitate the donor lists which would prevent refurbishing the financial coffers during the last phases of the campaign. They would incapacitate the precinct walking lists which would forestall the ground games which are essential to most campaigns. They would incapacitate the directories which would prevent communication with the volunteers, with the potential voters , with  potential donors and with all of the other local and national organizations of their party which would prevent coordination, etc.. This “ hacking “ operation could be accomplished by destroying the files or by  encoding them for ransom. Recent attacks that have been reported in the media have been of much greater magnitude and sophistication.

What is agreed upon is that the intrusion was very sloppy and that the tools used (which had been developed by Russian hackers ) were from a generation or two earlier than those currently used by Russian organizations affiliated with Russian intelligence and that these older tools  are widely distributed and  have been widely used in the hacking community. [ Thus, the observation that this hacking could have been conducted by a reasonably competent 14-year-old sitting in the basement of his parents house is certainly a worthy contender as to whom exactly was the culprit.]

Many technical experts  do not agree with the CrowdStrike  [ Democratic Party contractor ] assessment or with the Obama administration’s claims that the DNC/DCCC hacks were  clearly committed by Russian state actors. A great  deal of  the  criticism  is aimed at the FBI/DHS Joint Analysis Report (JAR) “Grizzly Steppe” that was released at the end of December.

The JAR cited as  “specific indicators of compromise” IP addresses and a PHP malware sample. But what does this really prove?

 Wordfence, a WordPress security company specializing in analyzing PHP malware, examined these indicators and didn’t find any hard evidence of Russian involvement. Instead, Wordfence found the attack software was  an out-of-date, web-shell hacking tool. The newest version is more sophisticated. Its website claims it was written in the Ukraine.

Mark Maunder, Wordfence’s CEO, concluded that since the attacks were made “several versions behind the most current version of P.A.S , one might reasonably expect Russian intelligence operatives to develop their own tools or at least use current malicious tools from outside sources.”

 Errata Security CEO Rob Graham pointed out in a blog post that while P.A.S is popular among Russia/Ukraine hackers. it is “used by hundreds if not thousands of hackers, mostly associated with Russia, but also throughout the rest of the world.” In short, just because the attackers used P.A.S., that’s not enough evidence to blame it on the Russian government.

Independent cybersecurity experts, such as Jeffrey Carr, have cited numerous errors that the media and CrowdStrike have made in discussing the hacking in what Carr refers to as a “runaway train” of misinformation.

Those aspects of the Democratic Party and John Podesta information systems that were relevant to this intrusion should have been secured by the US government. It is inexplicable why James Comey failed to  subpoena and safeguard these materials.  it is reported that the Democratic Party refused  to allow  the US government  to have independent access to these materials.

Robert Muller should immediately subpoena and safeguard all the  computer files and systems of the Democratic National Committee and of John Podesta that are relevant to this hacking operation.

So all we have to go on is the “assessment “by contractors to the Democratic Party that two groups of Russian hackers (which they claim are affiliated with different Russian intelligence agencies)  operating individually did the hackng.

Normally, hackers would seek items such as "opposition research files"; "donor lists" etc. After a quick look at the routine files for such organizations they would cease their operation out of boredom. If the Russians did hack these files they would have to know in advance that they would find very valuable pay dirt such as the evidence uncovered of double dealing, deceit, deception etc.

We do know that Wikileaks  published these files .Julian Assange has publicly stated that he did not get them from a government source.  Julian Assange, in an interview with Sean Hannity  December 15, 2016 stated  that "no state actor was involved.”Hannity  then plays the statement by national security director James Clapper which supports this view. [James Clapper's statement begins approximately at the 2.3 minute point]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R-D1fvMtbk&pbjreload=10&ab_channel=TracyD.   An excellent  review of the entire actual situation is:  MILITARY INTELLIGENCE  Monday, November 7, 2016 WHAT IS PUTIN’s REAL GAME

http://ltgjcmilopsg3.blogspot.com/2016/11/what-is-putins-real-game.html

Robert Muller  should offer Julian Assange whatever immunity and /or other protections that would obtain his full and complete testimony as to his sources of information. [If he is unwilling to name specific individuals, he should be willing, under oath, to clear other individuals and/or other organizations.]

   

Roger Stone discusses Robert Mueller's role with Comey  and what Stone terms  the

left’s offensive against President Trump.

This video was submitted for publication in MIL-ED  by several reputable contributors. However, I personally decided to issue  it   with the following  caution :

All ll of the “facts” presented by Roger Stone are correct , Stone’s conclusion which is essentially  that a conspiracy exists  among  Rothstein, Comey, Muller  and and several  of Muller’s very pro-Obama and pro-Clinton former Justice Department official appointees  is alarming… HOWEVER,  STONE’S CONCLUSION IS  FAR FROM BEING PROVED …….THEREFORE, VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP8RzMnY8rA

No One Mentions That The Russian Trail Leads To Democratic Lobbyists
https://www.forbes.com

K Street lobbyists are the symbol of Washington influence-peddling as they push government for favors, subsidies, exemptions, and other special treatment for their clients. Their customers include, in addition to domestic clients, foreign governments, oligarchs, fugitive speculators, and a rogue’s gallery of questionable figures. Washington lobbyists trade on their access to power. Many are former administration officials or members of Congress. If Trump fulfills his promise to “drain the swamp,” these influence peddlers would have nothing to sell. They are under attack.
The media has focused not on K Street but on the Russian ties of President Donald Trump’s associates. They list the reprehensible Kremlin-associated figures for whom members of his inner circle worked, the most notorious being Viktor Yanukovich, the deposed president of Ukraine, and fugitive oligarch, Dymtro Firtash. But both of these “repulsive” figures were also advised by Democratic top dogs, who likely earned large multiples of what the “small fry” Trump associates took home.
In pushing its Manchurian-candidate-Trump narrative, the media fail to mention the much deeper ties of Democratic lobbyists to Russia. Don’t worry, the media seems to say: Even though they are representing Russia, the lobbyists are good upstanding citizens, not like the Trump people. They can be trusted with such delicate matters.
The media targeted former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for consulting for deposed Ukrainian president’s (Yanukovich’s) Party of the Regions. He also worked for billionaire oligarch, Firtash, who stands accused of skimming billions in the Ukraine gas trade in league with Russian oligarchs. The media also singled out Trump’s former national security advisor, General Michael Flynn, for attending a dinner with Putin and appearing on Russia’s foreign propaganda network RT. Trump’s own Russian ties were the subject of intense media coverage of an unverified opposition research report purportedly prepared by an ex-British spy, who remains in hiding. It seems no enterprising reporter has tried to find him.
The media’s focus on Trump’s Russian connections ignores the much more extensive and lucrative business relationships of top Democrats with Kremlin-associated oligarchs and companies. Thanks to the Panama Papers, we know that the Podesta Group (founded by John Podesta’s brother, Tony) lobbied for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank. “Sberbank is the Kremlin, they don’t do anything major without Putin’s go-ahead, and they don’t tell him ‘no’ either,” explained a retired senior U.S. intelligence official. According to a Reuters report, Tony Podesta was “among the high-profile lobbyists registered to represent organizations backing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.” Among these was the European Center, which paid Podesta $900,000 for his lobbying.
That’s not all: The busy Podesta Group also represented Uranium One, a uranium company acquired by the Russian government which received approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department to mine for uranium in the U.S. and gave Russia twenty percent control of US uranium. The New York Times reported Uranium One’s chairman, Frank Guistra, made significant donations to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 for one speech from a Russian investment bank that has “links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”  Notably, Frank Giustra, the Clinton Foundation’s largest and most controversial donor, does not appear anywhere in Clinton’s “non-private” emails. It is possible that the emails of such key donors were automatically scrubbed to protect the Clinton Foundation.
Let’s not leave out fugitive Ukrainian oligarch, Dymtro Firtash. He is represented by Democratic heavyweight lawyer, Lanny Davis, who accused Trump of “inviting Putin to commit espionage” (Trump’s quip: If Putin has Hillary’s emails, release them) but denies all wrongdoing by Hillary.

That’s still not all: Rep. John Conyers (D., Mich.) read Kremlin propaganda into the Congressional Record, referring to Ukrainian militia as “repulsive Neo Nazis” in denying Ukrainian forces ManPad weapons. Conyers floor speech was surely a notable success of some Kremlin lobbyist.
Lobbying for Russia is a bi-partisan activity. Gazprombank GPB, a subsidiary of Russia’s third largest bank, Gazprombank, is represented by former Sen. John Breaux, (D., La.), and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R., Miss.), as main lobbyists on “banking laws and regulations, including applicable sanctions.” The Breaux-Lott client is currently in the Treasury Department list of Russian firms prohibited from debt financing with U.S. banks.
In his February 16 press conference, President Trump declared in response to the intensifying media drumbeat on his Russian connections: “I haven’t done anything for Russia.” K-Street lobbyists, on the other hand, have done a lot to help Russia. They greased the skids for a strategic deal (that required the Secretary of State’s approval) that multiplied the Kremlin’s command of world uranium supplies. They likely prevented the shipment of strategic weapons needed by Ukraine to repulse well-armed pro-Russian forces. A fugitive billionaire who robbed the Ukrainian people of billions is represented by one of the establishment’s most connected lawyers.
Gazprombank GPB hired Breux and Lott to gain repeal of sanctions. That’s perfectly fine in Washington; they are playing according established “swamp rules” in their tailored suits and fine D.C. restaurants. General Flynn lost his job when the subject of sanctions was mentioned by the Russian ambassador in their telephone conversation, but that’s the way the media and Washington play.
No wonder that Trump’s’ “drain the swamp” and anti-media messages resonate so well with mainstream America.

President Trump's Lawyer Responds to James Comey Testimony 6/8/17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW33q9cuKe8

 Qatar, Trump and double games

BY CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST

Arguably, Qatar’s role in undermining the stability of the Islamic world has been second only to Iran’s.

President Donald Trump has been attacked by his ubiquitous critics for his apparent about-face on the crisis surrounding Qatar.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Trump sided firmly with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the other Sunni states that cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and instituted an air and land blockade of the sheikhdom on Monday.

On Wednesday, Trump said that he hopes to mediate the dispute, more or less parroting the lines adopted by the State Department and the Pentagon which his Twitter posts disputed the day before.

To understand the apparent turnaround and why it is both understandable and probably not an about-face, it is important to understand the forces at play and the stakes involved in the Sunni Arab world’s showdown with Doha.

Arguably, Qatar’s role in undermining the stability of the Islamic world has been second only to Iran’s.

Beginning in the 1995, after the Pars gas field was discovered and quickly rendered Qatar the wealthiest state in the world, the Qatari regime set about undermining the Sunni regimes of the Arab world by among other things, waging a propaganda war against them and against their US ally and by massively funding terrorism.

The Qatari regime established Al Jazeera in 1996.

Despite its frequent denials, the regime has kept tight control on Al Jazeera’s messaging. That messaging has been unchanging since the network’s founding. The pan-Arab satellite station which reaches hundreds of millions of households in the region and worldwide, opposes the US’s allies in the Sunni Arab world. It supports the Muslim Brotherhood and every terrorist group spawned by it. It supports Iran and Hezbollah.

Al Jazeera is viciously anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.

It serves as a propaganda arm not only of al-Qaida and Hezbollah but of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and any other group that attacks the US, Israel, Europe and other Western targets.

Al Jazeera’s reporters have accompanied Hamas and Taliban forces in their wars against Israel and the US. After Israel released Hezbollah arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar from prison in exchange for the bodies of two IDF reservists, Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau hosted an on-air party in his honor.

Al Jazeera was at the forefront of the propaganda campaign inciting against then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2012. Its operations were widely credited with inciting their overthrow and installing in their places regimes controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and other jihadist groups.

As for the regime itself, it has massively financed jihadist groups for more than 20 years. Qatar is a major bankroller not only of al-Qaida and Hamas but of militias associated with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In a State Department cable from 2009 published by WikiLeaks, US diplomats referred to Qatar as the largest funder of terrorism in the world.

According to the Financial Times, the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Saudis and their allies was their discovery that in April, Qatar paid Iran, its Iraqi militias and al-Qaida forces in Syria up to a billion dollars to free members of the royal family held captive in southern Iraq and 50 terrorists held captive in Syria.

Given Qatar’s destabilizing and pernicious role in the region and worldwide in everything related to terrorism funding and incitement, Trump’s statement on Tuesday in support of the Sunnis against Qatar was entirely reasonable. What can the US do other than stand by its allies as they seek to coerce Qatar to end its destabilizing and dangerous practices? The case for supporting the Saudis, Egyptians, the UAE and the others against Qatar becomes all the more overwhelming given their demands.

The Sunnis are demanding that Qatar ditch its strategic alliance with Iran. They demand that Qatar end its financial support for terrorist groups and they demand that Qatar expel terrorists from its territory.

If Qatar is forced to abide by these demands, its abandonment of Iran in particular will constitute the single largest blow the regime in Tehran has absorbed in recent memory. Among other things, Qatar serves as Iran’s banker and diplomatic proxy.

If the story began and ended here, then Trump’s anti-Qatari stance would have been the obvious and only move. Beyond being the right thing to do, if Qatar’s regime is overthrown or emasculated, the development would mark the most significant achievement to date against the Iranian axis of jihad.

Unfortunately, the situation is not at all simple.

First there is the problem of Doha’s relations with key Americans and American institutions.

Ahead of the 2016 US elections, WikiLeaks published documents which disclosed that the emir of Qatar presented Bill Clinton with a $1 million check for the Clinton Foundation as a gift for his 65th birthday. During Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, Qatar reportedly contributed some $6m. to the Clinton Foundation.

Clinton, for her part, was deeply supportive of the regime and of Al Jazeera. For instance, in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2011, Clinton praised Al Jazeera for its leading role in fomenting and expanding the protests in Egypt that brought down Mubarak.

Clinton wasn’t the only one that Qatar singled out for generosity. Since the 1990s, Qatar has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in US universities. Six major US universities have campuses in Doha.

Then there is the Brookings Institution. The premier US think tank had a revolving door relationship with the Obama and Clinton administrations.

In 2014, The New York Times reported that Brookings, which opened a branch in Doha in 2002, had received millions of dollars in contributions from Qatar. In 2013 alone, the Qatari regime contributed $14.8 million to Brookings.

Not surprisingly, Brookings’ scholars supported the overthrow of Mubarak, and supported the Muslim Brotherhood regime during its year in power. Brookings scholars urged the Obama administration to cut off military assistance to Egypt after the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

Brookings scholars have similarly written sympathetically of Qatar and its ally Turkey. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism revealed in a four-part series on Brookings’ relations with Qatar in 2014, Brookings’ scholars ignored human rights abuses by Qatar and praised Turkey’s Erdogan regime as behaving like the US in enabling religion to have a role in public life.

It is likely that given then-president Barack Obama’s strategic goal of reorienting US Middle East policy away from its traditional Sunni allies and Israel toward Iran and its allies in Qatar and Turkey, that Brookings, Clinton and other beneficiaries of Qatar’s generosity were simply knocking on an open door. Indeed, in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, the Obama administration’s alliance with Qatar, Turkey and Iran against Sunnis and Israel came out of the shadows.

During the Hamas war with Israel, Obama sought to dislodge Egypt from its traditional role as mediator between Israel and Hamas and replace it with Qatar and Turkey. For their part, both regimes, which fund and support Hamas, accepted all of Hamas’s cease-fire demands against Israel and Egypt. As their partner, the Obama administration also supported Hamas’s demands.

Had Egypt and Israel bowed to those demands, Hamas would have achieved a strategic victory in its war against Israel and Egypt. To avoid buckling to US pressure, Egypt built a coalition with the same states that are now leading the charge against Qatar – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – and openly supported Israel.

In the end, the standoff between the two sides caused the war to end in a draw. Hamas was not dismantled, but it failed to secure Israeli or Egyptian acceptance of any of its demands for open borders and access to the international banking system.

Given that Trump is not aligned with Brookings, the Clinton Foundation or US academia, it could be argued that he is not beholden to Qatari money in any way.

But unfortunately, they are not the only beneficiaries of Qatari largesse.

There is also the Pentagon.

In the 1990s, Qatar spent more than $1b. constructing the Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha.

It is the most sophisticated air force base in the region. In 2003, the base replaced Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base as headquarters for the US military’s Central Command. Since 2003, all US operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are controlled from the base.

Following Trump’s Twitter postings, the Pentagon was quick to say that operations at Al Udeid base had not been influenced by the crisis between Qatar and its neighbors. The Pentagon spokesman refused to say whether or not Qatar sponsors terrorism.

Instead, Capt. Chris Davis stated, “I consider them a host to our very important base at Al Udeid.” He commended Qatar for hosting US forces and for its “enduring commitment to regional security.”

Also on Tuesday, according to the Egyptian media, Iran deployed Revolutionary Guard Corps forces to Doha to protect the emir and his palace.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s parliament voted to empower Erdogan to deploy forces to Qatar to protect the regime.

The moves by Qatar’s allies Iran and Turkey significantly raise the stakes in the contest of wills now at play between Qatar and its Sunni neighbors and adversaries.

With Iranian forces guarding the palace and the emir, the possibility of a bloodless coup inside the Al Thani family has been significantly diminished.

Any move against the emir will raise the prospect of an open war with Iran.

So, too, if Egypt and Saudi Arabia invade or otherwise attack Qatar, with or without US support, the US risks seeing its Arab allies at war with its NATO ally Turkey.

Under the circumstances, Trump’s refusal to endorse Article 5 of the NATO treaty during his speech in Brussels appears wise and well-considered.

Article 5 states that an attack against one NATO ally represents an attack against all NATO allies.

With the Pentagon dependent on the Qatari base, and with no clear path for unseating the emir through war or coup without risking a much larger and more dangerous conflict, the only clear option is a negotiated resolution.

Under the circumstances, the best the US can probably work toward openly is a diminishment of Qatar’s regional profile and financial support for Iran and its terrorist allies and proxies. Hence, Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that he will mediate the conflict.

However, in the medium and long term, Trump’s statement on Twitter made clear his ultimate goal.

www.CarolineGlick.com

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THE GREAT VICTORY: SIX DAYS AND 50 YEARS

GILAD SHARON  JERUSELEM POST   JUNE 5, 2017 

Let’s say we withdrew from the territories after the war. What would have happened?

Too many Israelis lament our victory in the Six Day War. There are also people who say that we should have withdrawn from all the territories immediately after the war. To the former, let it be said that if the Arabs had won the war, questions regarding the morality and humanity of their governing of the Jews would never have arisen, simply because the only Jews who would still be alive around here are those who could breathe underwater.

The latter should be reminded of conditions before the war: a State of Israel with a border just beyond the suburbs of Tel Aviv, no more than 15 km. wide in the region of Netanya; a narrow corridor to Jerusalem with no alternative access and no Latrun; constant firing on Kibbutz Tel Katzir in the north, on the fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, and on the communities in the Hula Valley; Palestinian terrorism that couldn’t yet rely on the excuse of the “occupation” to justify itself. “The last one to leave has to turn out the light,” was a common phrase.

Is there anyone who wants to return to that situation? All our current problems notwithstanding, we are a thousand times better off now than we were then.

Precisely who prevented the Palestinians from establishing their own state in the 19 years between the War of Independence and the Six Day War? Even earlier, who prevented them from accepting the Partition Plan? Thousands of lives could have been saved and a Palestinian state would have been born the same year as Israel. 

There wouldn’t be a single Palestinian refugee, and all the territory they are demanding now – and more – would already be theirs. But they never even considered that option. Why not? Because they weren’t interested in a state of their own, only in destroying ours.

Let’s say we withdrew from the territories after the war. What would have happened? Would the Arab hostility toward us have faded into thin air? No. We would have had to go back to risking our lives along borders that didn’t allow an inch of breathing space, while they continued to declare their arrogant goal of annihilating the “Zionist entity.” What conclusion would they have drawn? That launching a war against us is a viable option, with no downside. If they win, they throw the Jews into the sea; if they lose, there’s no price to pay.

Nevertheless, the question remains: what do we do now? We still need a glimmer of hope. The good news is that although we don’t have a lot of wiggle room, there is something we can do, as long as we stay true to two principles. The first is that we’re not going to return to the 1967 borders.

That isn’t an option. The second is that the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria will not become Israeli citizens. That would be the end of the country. Aside from that, it doesn’t matter if the solution involves the Palestinian state that already exists in Jordan or some sort of arrangement in Areas A and B. But one thing has to be clear: the future of Area C will not be the same as the future of Areas A and B, nor will the civil definition of the Palestinians in them. We simply have no other choice.

Don’t beat yourselves up over our victory in the Six Day War. On the contrary, savor it. The alternative would have been much worse.

Translated from Hebrew by Sara Kitai, skitai@ kardis.co.il.