WHILE THE U.S. SQUANDERS HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS AND TROOPS TO
DEFEND THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHO HATE OUR GUTS, MEXICO IS OVERRUN
AMERICAN WITH DRUGS!
GRAPHIC: Gulf Cartel Gunmen Burn
Rivals Alive in Mexico near Texas Border
Washington, D.C
(December 2, 2019 ) – The Center for Immigration Studies presents
arguments for and against the Trump administration’s actions to designate
some Mexican drug trafficking cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations
(FTO). An FTO designation triggers powerful American authorities to
freeze financial assets, prosecute for activities that
support terrorism, and bar entry into the country. some
70 currently designated Islamic terrorist groups that aspire,
emphatically unlike any of Mexico's cartels, to kill as many Americans as
possible on American soil the present war on Jihadists.” He continues, “The
sometimes shrill calls, with each new gun battle or atrocity, that
Mexican cartels imminently threaten U.S. national security don't hold up
under scrutiny, at least not without more evidence. If the U.S.
government insists on adding a massive layer of new terrorists to existing
U.S. counterterrorism systems, plans for how to resource it and allocate
the greater burden among agencies, without taking from the war on terror,
should be laid out first.” Section
219 of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)? Section 219 provides that
the secretary of state may designate a group as a FTO on finding that it
engages in terrorist activity as defined at INA Section 212(a)(3) or
terrorism as defined at 22 U.S.C. Section 2656f(d)(2). Does Mexican Cartel
conduct meet the threshold definitions, including specifically as a threat
to the national security of the United States?
Mexico
Will Reject U.S. Designations of Cartels as Terrorists, Says AMLO
Mexico’s president announced Monday that he will reject any
designation of cartels as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.
During his morning press conference, Mexican President Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said he would not accept the U.S.’s potential
designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations–which could enable
direct actions in Mexico.
“We will never accept that, we are not ‘vendepatrias’ (nation
sellers),” Lopez Obrador said.
The president’s statements come
after the relatives of nine U.S. women and children who died in a cartel ambush in
Sonora revealed they would be meeting with President Donald Trump. The family is
expected to ask for some cartels to be labeled as terrorist organizations.
Last week, Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca used the
term “narco-terrorism” to refer to the brazen attacks on citizens of Nuevo
Laredo by a faction of Los Zetas Cartel called Cartel Del Noreste. Cabeza de
Vaca publicly called out Mexico City for past inaction in confronting Los
Zetas.
On Monday morning, Lopez Obrador’s foreign relations minister
Marcelo Ebrard called designations unnecessary and inconvenient, adding that
the U.S. and Mexico have a healthy working relationship in fighting cartels.
According to Ebrard, terrorist designations would give the U.S. the legal
avenue to take direct action on cartels on Mexican soil.
Ildefonso
Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded
Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior
Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook . He can be contacted
at Iortiz@breitbart.com .
Brandon
Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He
co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and
senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook . He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com .
Enough Is Enough’: Josh Hawley Calls for Sanctions on Mexican
Cartels
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Wednesday that
“enough is enough” and called on the U.S. government to sanction Mexican officials
and cartel members complicit in trafficking meth and killing Americans.
Hawley called for harsh
retribution against the Mexican cartels complicit in ambushing and murdering
nine American women and children near the New Mexico border.
In the wake of the attack on
Americans, as well as the Mexican cartels’ complicity in Missouri’s meth
crisis, the Missouri conservative called for the U.S. government to sanction
the cartel members who are “openly slaughtering American citizens.”
“With Mexico, enough is enough. US
government should impose sanctions on Mexican officials, including freezing
assets, who won’t confront cartels,” Hawley tweeted Wednesday. “Cartels are
flooding MO [Missouri] w/ meth, trafficking children, & openly slaughtering
American citizens. And Mexico looks the other way.”
Hawley said that just over the last
14 days, there had been over 40 drug overdoses coming from drugs across
America’s southern border.
Hawley continued, “In SW Mo last two
weeks alone, over 40 drug overdoses & multiple deaths from drugs coming
across [the] southern border. Story is the same all over the state. Cartels
increasingly call the shots in Mexico, and for our own security, we cannot
allow this to continue.”
With Mexico, enough is enough. US
government should impose sanctions on Mexican officials, including freezing
assets, who won’t confront cartels. Cartels are flooding MO w/ meth, trafficking
children, & openly slaughtering American citizens. And Mexico looks the
other way
In SW Mo last two weeks alone, over 40 drug
overdoses & multiple deaths from drugs coming across southern border. Story
is the same all over the state. Cartels increasingly call the shots in Mexico,
and for our own security, we cannot allow this to continue
Hawley spent much of his August
recess traveling across rural Missouri, learning what matters to the average
Missourian.
This AM I had the great privilege of
meeting Brittany Tune, a nurse, a mother of two, a follower of God, and a remarkable
woman. Born & raised in rural Shannon Co., she has raised two kids on her
own while putting herself through nursing school & dedicating her life to
others
Brittany says meth is hammering this
community. She has many friends & family members who have been touched by
this epidemic. She worries about what it means for her own kids, ages 15 &
10. It’s much worse now than when she was growing up, she says
In an interview with Breitbart News
in September, Hawley said that meth coming from
Mexico is destroying local Missouri communities.
“Come with me to any town, any town
in the state of Missouri of any size, and I will show you communities that are
drowning in meth, drowning in it. It is literally killing people; it is
destroying families it is destroying schools and whole communities,” he said.
“Missouri is a border state,” Hawley
said, adding that “we have to got to secure the border to stop the meth” and
“stop the flow of illegal immigration.”
Hawley’s remarks about the Mexican
cartel attack on Americans mirrors that of President Donald Trump, who said Tuesday that the
United States was ready for war against the drug cartels.
“This is the time for Mexico, with
the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them
off the face of the earth,” the president tweeted.
Trump has campaigned on cracking
down on violence on the southern border as well as handling the drug cartels.
During an exclusive interview with
Breitbart News, Trump said he is “very seriously” thinking of designating the
drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
“It’s psychological, but it’s also
economic,” Trump told Breitbart News in March. “As terrorists — as terrorist
organizations, the answer is yes. They are.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) told Breitbart News in May
that he would back Trump’s potential designation of the Mexican cartels as FTOs
and that seizing cartel leader El Chapo’s assets would build the wall and make
the cartels pay for it. In a similar manner to Missouri, Daines told Breitbart
News about how Montana has been ravaged by meth from Mexican cartels.
Daines said that by seizing
“billions” of El Chapo’s assets, it “would absolutely fulfill President Trump’s
promise to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it. In this case, it would be
a Mexican cartel paying for it would be an excellent idea.”
Sean
Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @ SeanMoran3 .
The architect of Mexico's war on cartels was just arrested in
Texas and accused of drug trafficking and taking bribes
45 Comments
Genaro
Garcia Luna Mexico
LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images
·
Genaro Garcia Luna, who was
Mexico's public-security secretary between 2006 and 2012, was arrested in Texas
on Monday.
·
Garcia Luna, the architect of
Mexico's campaign against organized crime in the late 2000s, is the latest
Mexican official accused of corruption and involvement in drug trafficking.
A former high-ranking Mexican
security official who led the country's crackdown on organized crime in the
mid-2000s was arrested in the US and been charged with drug-trafficking
conspiracy and making false statements.
Genaro Garcia Luna, 51, was
arrested in Dallas by US federal agents, according to the US district attorney
for the Eastern District of New York, which said it plans to seek his removal
to face charges in New York.
"Garcia Luna stands accused
of taking millions of dollars in bribes from 'El Chapo' Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel
while he controlled Mexico's Federal Police Force and was responsible for
ensuring public safety in Mexico," US Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said in
the release.
Garcia Luna faces three counts of
conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and a fourth count of making false
statements with regard to an immigration naturalization application.
Garcia Luna began his career with
Mexico's Center for National Security and Investigation in the late 1980s
before moving to the federal police in the late 1990s. He was then head of
Mexico's federal investigation agency, AFI, between 2001 and 2005 and secretary
of public security, then a cabinet-level position in control of the federal
police, between 2006 and 2012.
Genaro
Garcia Luna Felipe Calderon Mexico
ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/GettyImages
He was 38 when appointed to the
latter position by then-President Felipe Calderon but already had nearly 20
years of experience in Mexico's security services, much of it spent tracking
organized crime and drug trafficking.
"By his late 20s, he was
considered something of a wunderkind," according to a 2008 New York Times profile.
"He really was the architect
of Calderon's war on drugs," said Mike Vigil, former chief of
international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who worked
with Garcia Luna in Mexico in the 1990s.
That war comprised major military
deployments inside the country and the kingpin strategy, which entailed
targeting high-level cartel figures in an effort to weaken the cartels. This
approach has been criticized for fostering more violence, both by state forces and
fragmented cartels .
According to the release, Garcia
Luna received millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel. In return,
the release states, the cartel received safe passage for drug shipments,
sensitive law-enforcement information about investigations targeting it, and
information about rival cartels — all of which allowed it to move multiton
quantities of drugs into the US.
Financial records obtained by the
US government showed that by the time Garcia Luna relocated to the US in 2012,
he had a personal fortune worth millions of dollars, according to the release,
which said he is also accused of lying about those alleged criminal acts on an
application for naturalization submitted in 2018.
'Another black eye for
Mexico'
El Chapo
Joaquin Guzman
Reuters
One detail in the release
mirrors allegations made during the trial of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman, who was convicted on drug trafficking and other charges in the Eastern
District of New York in February.
"On two occasions, the
cartel personally delivered bribe payments to Garcia Luna in briefcases
containing between three and five million dollars," the release states.
During testimony in November
2018, Jesus "El Rey" Zambada — the youngest brother of Ismael
"El Mayo" Zambada, who is considered Guzman's peer at the top of the
Sinaloa cartel and now its de facto leader — said the cartel twice made
multimillion-dollar payments to Garcia Luna.
A $3 million payment, which
"El Rey" said was to Garcia Luna at a restaurant in Mexico City
between 2005 and 2006, was to ensure he would pick a specific official as
police chief in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state and the cartel's home turf.
"El Rey" said the other
payment, between $3 million and $5 million, was in 2007 and was to make sure
"he didn't interfere in the drug business" and that "El
Mayo" was not arrested. Zambada also said that the Sinaloa cartel and its
partners also pooled $50 million in protection money for Garcia Luna.
A press officer for the Eastern
District of New York did not immediately respond when asked by email whether
the charges unsealed Tuesday against Garcia Luna stemmed from allegations made
during Guzman's trial.
At the time, Garcia Luna denied
Zambada's claims, calling them a " lie, defamation and perjury ." On Tuesday, Calderon said he had heard of Garcia Luna's
arrest but was awaiting confirmation and further details, tweeting that his "position will always be in favor of justice
and the law."
El Chapo
Guzman home town
REUTERS/Roberto Armenta
Vigil, who was the DEA assistant
country attache to Mexico during the 1990s, was skeptical of the allegations
made during the Guzman trial and said he was "surprised" by the
arrest on Tuesday.
"I worked with Genaro Garcia
Luna," Vigil said. "We, DEA, had a very good working relationship
with Genaro. At that time there were no allegations of corruption. There we
coordinated investigations with them, and we never saw any evidence of
compromise."
The allegations made during that
trial seemed "less than credible," Vigil said, in large part because
Guzman was arrested twice during the administration of President Enrique Peña
Nieto, who followed Calderon into office in 2012.
But it was possible that a
high-ranking Mexican official could obscure activities in one area from their
work with the US in another area.
"In terms of what the US
sees, [it's] very different than what occurs within the Mexican government, but
through time if he were taking bribes, obviously some of those investigations,
you would've known if they had been compromised," Vigil said. "But
there's some areas that could be compartmentalized in terms of efforts by the
Mexican government."
If convicted on the
drug-conspiracy charge, Garcia Luna faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years and a maximum of life in jail.
"Today's arrest demonstrates
our resolve to bring to justice those who help cartels inflict devastating harm
on the United States and Mexico, regardless of the positions they held while
committing their crimes." Donoghue, the US attorney, said in the release,
thanking the DEA, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, as well
as police in New York City and New York state.
Regardless of the outcome of the
case, it tarnishes a bilateral relationship in which cooperation against
organized crime and drug trafficking has been a major component.
"I don't know what the
evidence is against Genaro Garcia Luna," Vigil said Tuesday, "but it
certainly is another black eye for Mexico."
Read the original article
on Business Insider
House Votes to
'Enhance the Border Security' of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia--Not the
USA
The Democrat-controlled House of
Representatives has voted to fund
efforts to
"enhance the border security" of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia
while moving to deny all funding to build walls, fencing or any other
structures to enhance the border security of the United States.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and her lieutenants have their priorities.
To them, borders on the
other side of the world are more important than our own.
On June 19, the House approved a massive
spending bill. In an act of legislative polygamy, it "married" the appropriations
bill for the Department of Defense to the appropriations bills for the
Department of State, the Department of Energy, and the Departments of
Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.
Yet there is one thing
this bill would forbid the Trump administration from spending one penny to
accomplish.
On page 304 (of 650) , it says: "None
of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act or any prior
Department of Defense appropriations Acts may be used to construct a wall,
fence, border barriers, or border security infrastructure along the southern
land border of the United States."
A month later, the
House Appropriations Committee sent the full House a bill to fund the
Department of Homeland Security.
President Trump had
requested that it include $5 billion to use in constructing barriers at the
border.
How much did the
committee give him?
It also said, "The
recommendation provides no funding for additional Border Patrol Agents."
Thus, the
Democrat-controlled House is advancing discretionary appropriations bills that
would spend more than $1 trillion in one year but provide zero dollars to build
physical barriers to stop illegal aliens, human traffickers and drug smugglers
from crossing our southern border.
Yet that does not mean
the Democrat-controlled House is not planning to spend some money to enhance
border security.
It just depends where
the border is.
In that 650-page
spending bill that prohibits Defense Department money from being used to defend
the southern border of the United States, there is a section that creates a
$1.295 billion fund for use by the secretary of defense.
"For the
'Counter-Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Train and Equip Fund', $1,295,000,000,
to remain available until September 30, 2021," says the bill.
"Provided, That such funds shall be available to the secretary of defense
in coordination with the Secretary of State, to provide assistance, including
training; equipment; logistics support, supplies, and services; stipends;
infrastructure repair and renovation; and sustainment, to foreign security
forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals participating, or preparing to
participate in activities to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and
their affiliated or associated groups."
"Provided
further," says the bill, "That these funds may be used in such
amounts as the Secretary of Defense may determine to enhance the border
security of nations adjacent to conflict areas including Jordan, Lebanon,
Egypt, and Tunisia resulting from actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria."
So, the secretary of
defense could take a chunk of this $1.295 billion and give it to the government
of Egypt to secure its border with post-Gadhafi Libya, where ISIS is
active.
And he could give a
chunk to Tunisia to secure its border with Libya.
Or he could give some
American tax dollars to unnamed "irregular forces, groups, or
individuals" who, someplace in this world, are "preparing to
participate in activities" to counter ISIS, or at least groups that are
"affiliated or associated" with ISIS.
But according to the
House appropriations bills, President Trump cannot spend a penny to build
structures at our own border to secure our own territory and our own people.
By contrast, the
Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a Homeland
Security spending bill that does include $5 billion to build "pedestrian
fencing" — to stop people on foot and in vehicles from crossing our southern
border. Also, that committee's defense spending bill does not prohibit the
president from using defense money to build barriers to defend our own border.
It even includes a
larger fund ($1.8 billion) than the House bill that, among other things, can be
used "for enhanced border security" not only in Jordan, Lebanon,
Egypt and Tunisia but also in Oman.
We are now more than a
month into fiscal 2020. The government is running on a continuing resolution
that expires Nov. 21.
President Trump should
deliver a simple message to Speaker Pelosi: He is not going to sign a spending
bill that funds border security in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia but not
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
He should put America
first — even if Pelosi will shut down the government trying to stop him.
(Terence
P. Jeffrey is the editor in chief of CNSNews.com.)
US sends 3,000 more
troops to defend Saudi monarchy
The Pentagon confirmed Friday that
3,000 more US troops are being deployed to Saudi Arabia to defend the blood-soaked
monarchy led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and prepare for war against
Iran.
The deployment includes two fighter
squadrons, one Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW), two more Patriot missile
batteries, and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD).
According to a Pentagon statement
Friday, the US Secretary of Defense phoned Crown Prince bin Salman (who also
holds the post of Saudi minister of defense) to inform him of the coming
reinforcements, which he said were meant “to assure and enhance the defense of
Saudi Arabia.”
The Pentagon also acknowledged that
the latest escalation brings the number of additional troops sent into the
Persian Gulf region since May to 14,000. They have been accompanied by an
armada of US warships and a B-52-led bomber task force. The Pentagon has also
announced that an aircraft carrier-led battle group will remain in the Persian
Gulf.
US soldiers deployed in the Middle
East (U.S. Army by 1st Lt. Jesse Glenn)
While initiated as a supposed
response to unspecified threats from Iran, the US buildup in the Persian Gulf
region has constituted from its outset a military provocation and preparation
for a war of aggression. This military buildup has accompanied Washington’s
so-called “maximum pressure” campaign of sweeping economic sanctions that are
tantamount to a state of war. The aim, as the Trump administration has stated
publicly, is to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero. By depriving Iran of
its principal source of export income, Washington hopes to starve the Iranian
people into submission and pave the way to regime change, bringing to power a
US puppet regime in Tehran.
The latest military buildup was
announced in the immediate aftermath of an attack on an Iranian tanker in the
Red Sea, about 60 miles from the Saudi port of Jeddah.
The National Iranian Tanker Co.
reported that its oil tanker, the Sabiti, was struck twice by explosives early
Friday morning, leaving two holes in the vessel and causing a brief oil spill
into the Red Sea.
While Iranian state news media blamed
the damage on missile attacks, a spokesman for the company told the Wall
Street Journal that the company was not sure of the cause.
Some security analysts have suggested
that the fairly minor damage to the vessel could have been caused by limpet
mines. Such mines were apparently used last June when two tankers—one Japanese
and one Norwegian-owned—were hit by explosions in the Sea of Oman. At the time,
Washington blamed the attacks on Iran, without providing any evidence. Tehran
denied the charge, saying that it sent teams to rescue crew member of the
damaged tankers.
The Iranian Students News Agency
(ISNA) quoted an unnamed Iranian government official as stating that the
Iranian tanker had been the victim of a “terrorist attack.”
“Examination of the details and
perpetrators of this dangerous action continues and will be announced after
reaching the result,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
The National Iranian Tanker Co.
issued a statement saying that there was no evidence that Saudi Arabia was
behind the attack.
The incident raised the specter of an
escalating tanker war that could disrupt shipping through the strategic Strait
of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows. News of
the attack sent crude oil prices spiking by 2 percent.
In addition to the June attacks on
the tankers in the Gulf of Oman, in July British commandos, acting on a request
from Washington, stormed an Iranian super tanker, the Grace 1, in waters off
the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. In apparent retaliation, Iranian
Revolutionary Guards seized the British-flagged Stena Impero for what Tehran
charged were violations of international maritime regulations as it passed
through the Strait of Hormuz. Both tankers were subsequently released.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo issued a statement charging that the Iranian super tanker,
renamed the Adrian Darya 1, had offloaded its oil in Syria in violation of
European Union sanctions and a pledge made by Tehran to the UK at the time of
the vessel’s release. He demanded provocatively that “EU members should condemn
this action, uphold the rule of law, and hold Iran accountable.”
The Trump administration, which in
May of last year unilaterally and illegally abrogated the 2015 nuclear
agreement between Tehran and the major powers has been pressuring the European
signatories to the deal—Germany, France and the UK—to follow suit.
While the respective governments of
the three countries have insisted that they still support the nuclear
agreement, they have repeatedly bowed to Washington’s war drive, while failing
to take any significant actions to counter the effects of the US “maximum
pressure” campaign and deliver to Tehran the sanctions relief and economic
normalization that it was promised in exchange for curtailing its nuclear
program.
Most recently, the three European
governments backed Washington in blaming Iran for a September 14 attack on
Saudi oil facilities that temporarily shut down half of the kingdom’s oil
production and sent crude prices spiraling by 20 percent—again without
providing a shred of proof.
Washington is seeking to topple the
Iranian regime or bully it into accepting complete subordination to US
imperialist predatory interests in the energy-rich and geostrategically vital
Middle East.
The US sanctions regime and military
buildup have placed the entire region on a hair trigger for the outbreak of a
catastrophic war that could engulf not only the Middle East, but the entire
planet.
All of the regimes involved in the
escalating conflict are gripped by crises that make the drive to war all the
more explosive.
The impact of the sanctions on Iran’s
economy has been devastating. It is estimated that oil exports last month fell
to just 400,000 barrels per day (b/d), compared to 1.95 million b/d in
September 2018. Left with little means of combating spiraling inflation and
growing unemployment, Iran’s bourgeois-clerical regime is caught between
intense pressure from imperialism on the one hand, and the growth of social
opposition among Iranian workers and poor on the other.
The Saudi monarchy is confronting the
debacle of its four-year-old and near genocidal war against the people of
Yemen, made possible by the weapons and logistical aid provided by Washington,
even as Prince bin Salman remains a global pariah for his ordering of the
grisly assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year in
Istanbul.
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu,
incapable of forming a new government after two elections and confronting
criminal indictments, has grown increasingly concerned over the apparent lack
of appetite by the Persian Gulf Sunni monarchies for military confrontation with
Iran and Washington’s failure to carry out military strikes after the downing
of its drone in June and the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities last month.
Clearly, Tel Aviv, which has cast Iran as its strategic enemy, would have a
motive for attacking Iranian tankers in the hopes of provoking a response that
could lead to US military action.
And then there is Trump. He has
proclaimed his determination to halt the “endless wars” in the Middle East and
provoked a political firestorm by pulling back a relative handful of US troops
in Syria, allowing Turkey to launch a long-planned attack on the Pentagon’s
erstwhile proxy force, the Kurdish-dominated YPG militia.
Faced with an escalating political
crisis and growing social tensions within the US, along with an impeachment
investigation by the Democrats in Congress that is focused entirely on the
national security concerns of the CIA and the Pentagon, he has ample motive for
launching a new war.
While the Democrats’ exclusive focus
on Trump’s failure to pursue a sufficiently bellicose policy against Russia and
prosecute the war for regime change in Syria has allowed the US president to
absurdly posture as an opponent of war, the reality is that he has overseen a
staggering increase in military spending designed to prepare for “great power”
confrontations, particularly with China.
Meanwhile, whatever his political
pretense, Trump has done nothing to end any of the wars in the Middle East.
While he has ordered US troops to pull back, allowing the Turkish invasion, none
of them have been withdrawn from Syria.
With the latest buildup of US forces
in Saudi Arabia, Washington is preparing, behind the backs of the working
class, to launch a catastrophic military conflict with Iran. The most urgent
task posed by these developments is the building of a global antiwar movement
led by the working class. This movement must be armed with a socialist and
internationalist program to unify working people in the United States, Europe
and the Middle East in a common struggle against imperialist war and its
source, the capitalist system.
TRUMP AND THE
MURDERING 9-11 MUSLIM SAUDIS…
Why is the Swamp Keeper
and his family of parasites up their ar$es??
WHAT WILL TRUMP AND HIS
PARASITIC FAMILY DO FOR MONEY???
JUST ASK THE SAUDIS!
JOHN DEAN: Not so far. This has been right by the letter of the special counsel’s
charter. He’s released the document. What I’m looking for is relief and
understanding that there’s no witting or unwitting likelihood that the
President is an agent of Russia. That’s when I’ll feel comfortable, and no
evidence even hints at that. We don’t have that yet. We’re still in the process
of unfolding the report to look at it. And its, as I say, if [Attornery General
William Barr] honors his word, we’ll know more soon.
“Our entire crony capitalist system,
Democrat and
Republican alike, has become a
kleptocracy
approaching par with third-world
hell-holes. This
is the way a great country is raided
by its elite.” ---
- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER
PRESIDENT of the
UNITED STATES DONALD TRUMP: Pathological liar, swindler, con man, huckster,
golfing cheat, charity foundation fraudster, tax evader, adulterer, porn whore
chaser and servant of the Saudis dictators
THE TRUMP FAMILY FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a Democrat and is seeking millions of dollars in
penalties. She wants Trump and his eldest children barred from running other
charities.”
Opinion: Trump And Pompeo Have Enabled A Saudi Cover-Up Of
The Khashoggi Killing
October
2, 201911:45 AM ET
AARON DAVID MILLER
RICHARD SOKOLSKY
In the
weeks following the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Trump
spent more time praising Saudi Arabia as a very important ally than he did
reacting to the killing.
Hasan
Jamali/AP
Aaron
David Miller (@aarondmiller2) is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace and a former State Department Middle East analyst, adviser
and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations. He is the author
most recently of the End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want)
Another Great President.
Richard
Sokolsky, a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, worked in the State Department for six different
administrations and was a member of the secretary of state's Office of Policy
Planning from 2005 to 2015.
It has been a year since Saudi journalist
and Washington Post
The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman's admission in a recent CBS interview that
he takes "full responsibility," while denying foreknowledge of the
killing or that he ordered it, sweeps under the rug the lengths to which the
Saudis have gone to obscure the truth about their involvement in the killing
and cover-up.
The Saudi campaign of obfuscation, denial and
cover-up would never have gotten off the ground had it not been for the Trump
administration's support over the past year. The president and Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo not only refused to distance themselves from the crown
prince, known by his initials MBS, but also actively worked to relegitimize
him. The Saudis killed Khashoggi but Trump acquiesced in the cover-up and
worked hard to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship and soften the crown
prince's pariah status. In short, without Trump, the attempted makeover — such
as it is — would not have been possible.
The Saudis killed Khashoggi but Trump
acquiesced in the cover-up and worked hard to protect the U.S.-Saudi
relationship and soften the crown prince's pariah status.
Weak administration response
The administration's weak and feckless
response to Khashoggi's killing was foreshadowed a year before it occurred. In
May 2017, in an unusual break with precedent, Trump visited Saudi Arabia on his
inaugural presidential trip; gave his son-in-law the authority to manage the
MBS file, which he did with the utmost secrecy; and made it unmistakably clear
that Saudi money, oil, arm purchases and support for the administration's
anti-Iranian and pro-Israeli policies would elevate the U.S.-Saudi
"special relationship" to a new level.
Predictably, therefore, the
administration's reaction to Khashoggi's killing was shaped by a desire to
manage the damage and preserve the relationship. In the weeks following
Khashoggi's death, Trump spent more time praising Saudi Arabia as a very
important ally, especially as a purchaser of U.S. weapons and goods, than he did reacting to the killing. Trump
vowed to get to the bottom of the Khashoggi killing but focused more on
defending the crown prince, saying this was another example of
being "guilty before being proven innocent."
Those pledges to investigate and impose
accountability would continue to remain hollow. Over the past year, Trump and
Pompeo have neither criticized nor repudiated Saudi actions that have harmed
American interests in the Middle East. Two months after Khashoggi's death, the
administration, in what Pompeo described as an "initial step," imposed sanctions on
17 Saudi individuals implicated in the killing. But no others have been
forthcoming, and the visa restrictions that were imposed are meaningless
because none of the sanctioned Saudis
What's more, the administration
virtually ignored a congressional
resolution imposing sanctions on the Saudis
for human rights abuses and vetoed another bipartisan resolution that would
have ended U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia's inhumane military
campaign in Yemen.
The Saudis opened a trial in January of
11 men implicated in the killing, but the proceedings have been slow and
secretive, leading the United Nations' top human rights expert to declare that
"the trial underway in Saudi Arabia will not deliver credible
accountability." Despite accusations that the crown prince's key adviser
Saud al-Qahtani was involved in the killing, he's still advising MBS, has not stood trial and
will likely escape punishment. A year later, there are still no reports of
convictions or serious punishment.
Legitimizing Mohammed bin
Salman
The Trump administration has not only
given the crown prince a pass on the Khashoggi killing, but it has also worked
assiduously to remove his pariah status and rehabilitate his global image.
Barely two months after the 2018 slaying, Trump was exchanging pleasantries with the crown prince at the
Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires and holding
out prospects of spending more time with him. Then this past June, at the G-20
in Osaka, Japan, Trump sang his praises while dodging questions about the
killing. "It's an honor to be with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, a
friend of mine, a man who has really done things in the last five years in terms
of opening up Saudi Arabia," Trump said .
And you can bet that when Saudi Arabia
hosts the G-20, scheduled to be held in its capital of Riyadh in November 2020,
the Trump administration will be smiling as its rehab project takes another
step in its desired direction.
What the U.S. should have done
Trump has failed to impose any serious
costs or constraints on Saudi Arabia for the killing of a U.S. newspaper
columnist who resided in Virginia or for the kingdom's aggressive policies,
from Yemen to Qatar. In the wake of the Khashoggi killing, the administration
should have made it unmistakably clear, both publicly and privately, that it
expected a comprehensive and credible accounting and investigation.
Back to business as usual
The dark stain of the crown prince's
apparent involvement in Khashoggi's death will not fade easily. But for Trump
and Pompeo, it pales before the great expectations they still maintain for the
kingdom to confront and contain their common enemy, Iran, as well as support
the White House's plan for Middle East peace, defeat jihadists in the region
and keep the oil spigot open.
Most of these goals are illusory. Saudi
Arabia is a weak, fearful and unreliable ally. The kingdom has introduced
significant social and cultural reforms but has imposed new levels of
repression and authoritarianism. Its reckless policies toward Yemen and Qatar
have expanded, not contracted, opportunities for Iran, while the Saudi military
has demonstrated that, even after spending billions to buy America's most
sophisticated weapons, it still can't defend itself without American help.
Meanwhile, recent attacks on critical
Saudi oil facilities that the U.S. blames on Iran have helped rally more
American and international support for the kingdom.
When it comes to the U.S.-Saudi
relationship and the kingdom's callous reaction to Khashoggi's killing, the
president and his secretary of state have been derelict in their duty: They
have not only failed to advance American strategic interests but also
undermined America's values in the process.
The U.S. Military is Sending Thousands of Troops and Even B-1
Bombers into Saudi Arabia (To Counter Iran)
On October 6, around fifty U.S. commandos in northeastern Syria tasked
with hunting down ISIS forces were withdrawn from territory near the Turkish
border controlled by the Kurdish-Arab SDF faction.
The U.S. withdrawal was a prerequisite for a Turkish attack
against the SDF which subsequently took place. The remaining hundreds of U.S.
forces elsewhere in northeastern Syria were endangered in the crossfire and had
to be withdrawn a few days later.
The U.S. withdrawal was post-hoc justified on the basis that
they were no longer needed in the Middle East and it was time to “bring the
troops home.”
But in the weeks since, the United States has deployed over
3,000 more troops to the Middle East—including hundreds of National Guardsmen
in Syria, and thousands of soldiers and airmen deployed to Saudi Arabia.
While a companion article looks at the deployment of a
mechanized battalion to defend an oil field in southeastern Syria, this second
part looks at the rapid buildup of U.S. forces in the wealthy Kingdom in
response to intensifying clashes with Iran following the United State’s
withdrawal from a nuclear deal with Tehran.
Return to the Kingdom
The deployments to Saudi Arabia marks a dramatic turn around
from sixteen years earlier in 2003, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
pulled out thousands of U.S. troops. Their presence had long been cited as a
factor radicalizing Muslims across the planet who objected to the presence of
foreign troops so close to the holy city of Mecca.
Apparently, these concerns have since faded, despite political
headwinds from a U.S. Congress angered by Saudi Arabia’s grisly murder of
journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul.
First, following the loss of drones in June, that the Defense
Department announced it was doubling troop deployment to the Kingdom from 500
to 1,000 personnel.
18 Dec 201959
GOP/Democrats
Slip Amnesty for 1K Liberian Nationals into Defense Budget
Chris
Hondros/Getty Images
JOHN
BINDER
18 Dec 201959
2:15
Senate Republicans and Democrats approved a defense budget for
Fiscal Year 2020 after slipping into it an amnesty for nearly 1,000 Liberian
nationals who will now be eligible for American citizenship.
This
week, the Senate passed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that
includes a provision that gives amnesty to about 840 Liberian nationals and
their children who would otherwise have self-deported from the United States in
March.
In early
2018, President Trump ended Deferred Enforced Departure (DED)
for Liberia, which acted as a de facto amnesty for Liberians to stay in the
U.S. since 1991. Liberians were first given the temporary amnesty in the early
1990s due to a civil war in their nation.
After
decades of renewing the temporary amnesty by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W.
Bush, and Barack Obama — despite the nation’s civil war long having ended —
Trump reviewed their DED status and determined that Liberia is safe for
nationals in the U.S. to return to.
The amnesty for Liberian nationals slipped
into the defense budget had been pushed for months by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
and a handful of Minnesota lawmakers. Effectively, all Liberian nationals who
were allowed to stay in the U.S. over the last few decades will now be allowed
to adjust their immigration status, making them permanent residences who can
eventually apply to become American citizens.
Liberian
nationals will only be disqualified from the amnesty if they have been
convicted of aggravated felonies such as murder, rape, child sex abuse, sex
trafficking, and kidnapping.
Also
included in the defense budget is billions of American taxpayer money that will continue funding
border security measures in foreign countries like Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and
Tunisia. Meanwhile, less than $1.4 billion is explicitly authorized for the
construction of a border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
John Binder is a
reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder .
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