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HOMELAND SECURITY

7 Years Later, Trial of Benghazi Attacker Ends in Mistrial on 15 Charges Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274052/7-years-later-trial-benghazi-attacker-ends-daniel-greenfield

Arresting Islamic terrorists and bringing them to trial was a signature policy of the Obama years.

Despite his end zone dance after OBL’s death, Obama’s actual plan was to arrest Osama bin Laden and put him on trial. The arrests of terrorists, instead of their battlefield elimination, is still continuing on as a policy even after Obama is out of office.

Here’s how well that plan worked out in the Benghazi Islamic terrorist attack that killed 4 Americans, including an ambassador..

 A U.S. judge has declared a mistrial on 15 remaining charges against a Libyan militant who was found guilty last week of playing an instrumental role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

The mistrial in the case of Mustafa al-Imam was declared Monday in Washington after a jury could not reach a decision on 15 counts. The same jury last week found al-Imam guilty of two different counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

That’s two to fifteen. Great track record.

Mustafa will be spending plenty of time in prison. But the entire process is a pointless farce. 

Benghazi was an enemy attack. Its perpetrators should have been taken out, not put on trial at a cost of millions to taxpayers, with indecisive results are best.

This was not a sign of strength, but of weakness.

Ilhan Omar Refuses to Comment on Terrorist Recruitment in Her District By Nicholas Ballasy

https://pjmedia.com/trending/illhan-omar-declines-to-address-terrorist-recruitment-in-her-district/

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) declined to address a report that found the highest level of terrorist group recruitment has taken place in her congressional district.

According to a Fox News report from February, “More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.” The city of Minneapolis is located in Omar’s district.

“FBI stats show 45 Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined. And as of 2018, a dozen more had been arrested with the intention of leaving to support ISIS,” stated the report.

Omar, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was asked about the report’s findings on Capitol Hill.

Terror in D.C. Media under-reports plot to imitate Nice truck rampage in America.Stephen Brown

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273955/terror-dc-stephen-brown

In a vastly under-reported story by the mainstream media, the capital of the United States barely missed being the target of a Nice-like terrorism attack that killed 86 people and plunged France into grief and shock.

In that French city, in July, 2014, a Muslim terrorist drove a large truck down a popular promenade, deliberately smashing into as many innocent people out for a walk as possible, killing 86.

Jihadists have a bitter history of using vehicles to kill infidels in the West. Besides Nice, the Berlin Christmas market truck attack in 2016, for example, left 12 dead, while in 2017 a jihadist drove a van down a pedestrian promenade in Barcelona, killing 13.

It was now America’s turn.

In Washington, D.C. last March, Rondell Henry, 28, a native of Trinidad inspired by Islamic State videos of violence and death, was planning a Nice-like attack by running over a crowd of innocent people.

Henry, a naturalized American citizen who lived in Germantown, Maryland, had first driven to Virginia on March 26 where he stole a U-Haul truck he had tailed and which he intended to use as his murder weapon. He actually left his BMW parked near the parking garage where he stole the truck, probably considering it too small for his murderous purposes.

“The defendant appears to have formed a plot to harm large numbers of people and taken concrete steps to execute that plot,” said the U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Students for Justice in Palestine Supporter Plotted Grenade Attack in Times Square

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273961/students-justice-palestine-supporter-plotted-daniel-greenfield

Times Square has been a popular target for a number of Muslim terrorist plots and attacks.

The latest one was allegedly the work of Ashiqul Alam, a Muslim settler living in Queens.

Sources told CBS2 that Ashiqul Alam was taken into custody by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes both the NYPD and FBI.

The 22-year-old man from Queens allegedly bought guns and wanted to use a suicide vest and grenades to attack Times Square to kill police officers and civilians.

Authorities say Alam bought two guns with their serial numbers removed from undercover agents.

“Mr. Alam discussed guns, suicide vests, hand grenades, and surveilled crowded New York targets such as Times Square”, said Police Commissioner James O’Neill. “Our job is to prevent these terrorist attacks whenever we can before they are carried out. This case is another example of the tightly-knit teamwork of the JTTF and the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau. Mr. Alam is charged with illegally purchasing untraceable firearms from undercover officers. That was a clear indicator of his intent to move his plot forward.”

Authorities say Alam wanted to either attack Times Square or Washington D.C., with an eye toward killing a “senior government official.”

Alam reportedly went to Times Square for reconnaissance and made videos as he was researching potential targets.

Authorities say Alam underwent laser surgery to correct his vision and allegedly linked his decision to get surgery with his plot.

“Let’s say we are in an attack, right, say that my glasses fall off. What if I accidentally shoot you? You know what I mean. Imagine what the news channel would call me the ‘Looney Tunes Terrorist’ or the ‘Blind Terrorist,’” Alam allegedly said.

ISIS at the Border Terrorist infiltration threat increases the stakes. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273971/isis-border-joseph-klein

The staggering numbers alone prove there is an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. In just May of this year, 132,887 people were apprehended between ports of entry on the southwest border with Mexico, the highest monthly figure since March 2006. The number of U.S. Border Patrol southwest border apprehensions for the first 5 months of 2019 is more than 2.6 times greater than the number of apprehensions during the same period last year. “We are bursting at the seams,” Randy Howe, executive director of Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, told reporters last week. “It’s unsustainable and this can’t continue.”

As far as open border Democrats are concerned, however, the only crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico is the plight of the many thousands of migrants themselves as they try to manipulate our loophole-ridden asylum system or otherwise try to enter the country illegally. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives refuses to fix the asylum mess, or to provide monies for effective border security that must include barriers erected in vulnerable locations. Instead, they passed an amnesty bill last week for more than 2 million so-called “dreamers” whose parents brought them to this country illegally as children and individuals who had been designated for “Temporary Protected Status.”

Beyond the sheer number of illegal migrants overrunning the border and straining our resources, the surging flow of migrants traversing Mexico into the United States poses a serious national security risk. Open border Democrats could care less. They say not to worry about terrorists crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since no terrorist attack linked to such migration has happened yet. Beto O’Rourke said during a campaign rally, for example, “[Z]ero, precisely zero, terrorists, terrorist groups, or terror plots have ever been connected with the U.S.-Mexico border to do harm to people within the United States.” Proponents of such a pre-9/11 attitude are either clueless or, in the case of the radical left, are part of the red-green axis. 

Pentagon Condemns Russian Conduct after Warship’s Near-Collision with U.S. Cruiser By Mairead McArdle

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pentagon-condemns-russian-conduct-near-collision-american-cruiser/

The Department of Defense on Friday condemned the near collision of a Russian destroyer and an American guided-missile cruiser and said the U.S. will file a formal demarcate against the Russians for their part in the incident.

“The behavior’s unsafe and unprofessional,” Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters on Friday. “We’ll have military-to-military conversations with the Russians, and of course we’ll démarche them.”

  

On Friday morning, the Russian destroyer Udaloy came within 50 to 100 feet of the USS Chancellorsville in the Philippine Sea’s international waters, executing “an unsafe maneuver” that put “the safety of her crew and ship at risk,” according to Commander Clayton Doss, a Navy spokesman. “This unsafe action forced Chancellorsville to execute all engines back full and to maneuver to avoid collision,” Doss said. The Navy also alleged that the Russian ship had violated the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

Like Doss and Shanahan, top Navy admiral John Richardson blamed Russia for the incident, saying in a statement that:

This unwise maneuver, combined with the unsafe maneuvers by the Russian aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean earlier this week, make it clear that these dangerous actions by Russian military forces across the globe do not match what the world expects from a responsible and trustworthy world power.

“The U.S. Navy will not be deterred from supporting the free and open use of the seas and skies where international law clearly allows all to operate,” Richardson added.

SpaceX and an Unappreciated Strategic Defense Initiative Legacy By Henry F. Cooper

https://www.newsmax.com/henryfcooper/spacex-strategic-defense-initiative-sdi/2019/06/06/id/919214/

Ambassador Henry F. (Hank) Cooper, Chairman of High Frontier and an acknowledged expert on strategic and space national security issues, was President Ronald Reagan’s Chief Negotiator at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks with the Soviet Union and Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Director during the George H.W. Bush administration. Previously, he served as the Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Deputy Assistant USAF Secretary and Science Advisor to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory.

On the eve of the D-Day celebrations, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule returned from the International Space Station (ISS), completing the private launcher’s 17th resupply mission to the manned orbital research facility. Its June 4 “splash down” completed the Commercial Resupply Services mission 17 (CRS-17) — that delivered 5,500 pounds of supplies for the astronauts and materials for ongoing experiments and research.

Dragon docked at the ISS for about a month, while the crew unloaded its cargo, and then began its de-orbit burn. SpaceX has provided an informative 30-minute recap of the CRS-17 mission, complete with an infrared capture of the return of the Falcon’s first-stage booster for a perfect landing on the drone landing ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean.

This reuse of launchers for space operations was the objective of an important effort in President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known for its advocacy for space-based defenses against ballistic missiles and still the most cost-effective, but as yet unrealized, defense against ballistic missile attack for Americans at home and our overseas troops, friends and allies.

Lest you doubt that impressive SDI efforts preceded the impressive SpaceX achievements, consider the 1993-94 demonstration of SDI’s Delta Clipper-X, or DC-X, and later dubbed the Clipper Graham, after USA Lt. General Danny Graham who persuaded Vice President Dan Quayle and my predecessor SDI Director USAF Lt. General George Monahan to initiate the effort.

Gun-Toting CAIR Leader Hassan Shibly Wants Off Terror Watch List So he meets with and helps fundraise for convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad member. Joe Kaufman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273920/gun-toting-cair-leader-hassan-shibly-wants-terror-joe-kaufman

CAIR Representative Hassan Shibly is not happy that his and his radical Muslim brethren’s names are found on the United States government terrorist watch list, so he and his organization are suing the federal government to get rid of the list. However, there is a good reason that the list exists and many good reasons for Shibly to be on it, and he just made that case even stronger by meeting with and helping to fundraise for convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad member, Hatem Fariz.

The terrorist watch list or Terrorist Screening Database was established by the US to protect Americans from potential dangers. According to the FBI, the agency that maintains the list, the list includes those who are “known or suspected terrorists.”

Apparently, one of those “suspects” is the Executive Director of CAIR-Florida, Hassan Shibly. Shibly is a plaintiff in a lawsuit put forward by CAIR, in 2016 and continuing to this day, claiming anti-Muslim harassment by authorities and attempting to eradicate the watch list. Indeed, according to reports, Shibly has admitted to having been “searched dozens of times” because of his watch list status and “was once handcuffed” at a border crossing in Detroit, Michigan.

Just being affiliated with CAIR is a ‘red flag’ on Shibly. CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations has both financial and foundational ties to Hamas. The US government has stated as such. Various CAIR representatives have served prison time and/or have been deported from the US for terrorist-related activity, and CAIR, itself, in November 2014, was designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government.

Ben Weingarten :The Democrat-Deep State-Media Cover-Up that Protected the Russiagate Narrative — Revisiting the Awan Cybersecurity Scandal with Luke Rosiak

https://benweingarten.com/2019/05/revisiting-the-democrat-awan-brothers-cybersec

Luke Rosiak  is an investigative reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation where he broke arguably one of the biggest scandals in the history of the federal government — one the media refused to cover and the prosecutors refused to prosecute.

This is the story of Awangate, which proved no match for Russiagate — but should have on its merits.

It is the subject of Rosiak’s Obstruction of Justice: How the Deep State Risked National Security to Protect the Democrats, a book that has taken on new significance as the treasonous Russian collusion narrative collapses.

I had Luke Rosiak on the podcast to reflect on the story of the Awans, and its far broader significance for our nation.

What We Discussed
How the Awans amassed so much power on Capitol Hill
The breathtaking litany of criminality of the Awan conspiracy
Why and how House Democrats and the Department of Justice covered up Awangate – and House Republicans enabled it
Why Rosiak is confident members of Congress were blackmailed and are still susceptible to blackmail by the Awans, how deep the blackmail threat runs and why Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s behavior proves it
How politicians and bureaucrats put self-interest above national security
The inextricably intertwined relationship between Russiagate and Awangate, and what both “investigations” say about the Deep State
The Democrat-Media-Deep State collusion over Awangate
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her underlings’ role in rigging the Awan case for the Democrats’ benefit
The government’s failure to do anything to prevent future Awans from infiltrating Congress

Iran-Linked Individuals Faked Social Media Accounts, Blog Posts, Letters to the Editor By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/iran-linked-individuals-faked-social-media-accounts-blog-posts-letters-to-the-editor/

A private cybersecurity firm, FireEye Threat Intelligence, recently announced that they had identified a network of English-language social-media accounts that engaged in inauthentic behavior and misrepresentation and that “we assess with low confidence was organized in support of Iranian political interests.” This is the second group of social media accounts identified by FireEye as part of an Iranian propaganda or disinformation campaign.

Narratives promoted by these and other accounts in the network included anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes. Accounts expressed support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal; opposition to the Trump administration’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization; antipathy toward the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East (a U.S.-led conference that focused on Iranian influence in the Middle East more commonly known as the February 2019 Warsaw Summit); and condemnation of U.S. President Trump’s veto of a resolution passed by Congress to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen conflict.

This Iranian operation is a little more sophisticated, and potentially more dangerous, than what we saw from Russia in 2016. Quite a few media institutions quoted the Russian Twitter accounts in their articles while covering that year’s presidential election. The Iranian accounts identified by Fire Eye managed to get letters, guest columns, and blog posts published in American publications and web sites, written under false names.

We observed some personas in the network leverage legitimate print and online media outlets in the U.S. and Israel to promote Iranian interests via the submission of letters, guest columns, and blog posts that were then published.