NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Capitol Investigation Seeks to Criminalize Political Dissent The government’s response to the January 6 melee isn’t about justice. It’s about partisan retribution and revenge. And the consequences will be disastrous. Julie Kelly

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/15/capitol-investigation-seeks-to-criminalize-political-dissent/

In the early hours of March 12, FBI agents in southwestern Florida barricaded a neighborhood to prepare to raid the home of one resident. Christopher Worrell of Cape Coral was arrested and charged with several counts related to the January 6 Capitol melee. Even though Worrell had been cooperating with the FBI for two months, the agency nonetheless unleashed a massive, and no doubt costly, display of force to take him into custody.

Law enforcement agents, according to one neighbor who spoke with a reporter, wore “whole outfits . . . like military and it was crazy. There was like six or seven . . . big black vehicles. They busted down the front door.” The raid included “armed men with helmets and a tanker truck” and was partially executed by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Worrell never entered the Capitol building on January 6; he isn’t accused of committing a violent crime. But a D.C. judge overturned a Florida judge’s ruling to release Worrell pending further review of his case. He remains in jail.

Ginning Up “Domestic Terrorism”

Worrell’s arrest is the latest in what the U.S. Department of Justice warned would be an “unprecedented” investigation leading to sedition charges filed against American citizens. Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged to make the Capitol Breach manhunt his top priority; on his first day in office, he received an update on the investigation from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Garland has compared January 6 to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, including 15 children.

Roughly 300 people have been arrested so far, many of them transported to Washington, D.C. to await trial and dozens denied bail after federal prosecutors argued the defendants, including a high school senior from Georgia, pose a threat to the nation.

The Capitol Breach probe, the department’s official title, is a flagrant political prosecution targeting Trump supporters. Every display—from heavy-handed FBI raids to a militarized Washington, D.C.—is designed to portray the President Trump’s allies as domestic terrorists.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Nigerian Gunmen Kidnap Primary-School Teachers in Latest Abduction Surge in armed militancy has worsened security in northwest Nigeria, where kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative industry

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nigerian-gunmen-kidnap-primary-school-children-in-latest-mass-abduction-11615820244?mod=world_major_2_pos1

Gunmen kidnapped three teachers from a primary school in northwestern Nigeria on Monday, government officials said, as parents of students kidnapped in another school four days earlier staged a protest demanding the government bring their children home safely.

Samuel Aruwan, the security commissioner for Kaduna state, initially said that authorities had received reports that both pupils and teachers had been abducted on Monday morning in the Birnin Gwari area, but later issued a statement to say the missing children had escaped. A local vigilante group who was hunting for the kidnappers said it would take until Tuesday morning to say definitively that none of the students had been abducted.

The victims’ families said the gunmen arrived Monday morning, shortly after school gates had opened, and attacked the school. Primary schools in Nigeria usually admit children between 6 and 9 years old.

“They came to the village looking like normal people and one of them drew a gun from his caftan and started firing before moving to the school,” said Abduljalal Usman, the elder brother of one of the abducted teachers.

It was the fifth mass school abduction since December in Nigeria’s northwest, where a surge in armed militancy has led to worsening security and kidnapping for ransom become a lucrative industry.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

U.S. Outreach to North Korea Has Gone Unanswered, White House Says Biden administration has sought a dialogue on Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-outreach-to-north-korea-has-gone-unanswered-white-house-says-11615835288

The Biden administration has reached out to North Korea to launch a dialogue on Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programs but has yet to receive a response, the White House said Monday.

“Our goal is to reduce the risk of escalation. But to date, we have not received any response,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Diplomacy continues to remain our first priority.”

Ms. Psaki didn’t explain how the Biden administration had tried to contact North Korea nor spell out what its message had been. The administration is currently conducting a review of its policy toward North Korea, which may be completed in coming weeks.

The U.S. has a number of ways to reach out to Pyongyang, including contact through North Korea’s mission to the United Nations, use of an intelligence channel the Obama administration established for sensitive communications with North Korea, and messages through Sweden, the U.S.’s “protecting power” in the country.

Washington and Pyongyang haven’t held nuclear talks since October 2019. The negotiations are held up over U.S. demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons program and long-range missiles in return for relief from U.S. sanctions.

Ms. Psaki said the administration has continued to engage with allies in Japan and South Korea as it crafts its own policy toward the region. She added that the U.S. hasn’t had an “active dialogue” with North Korea for more than a year.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Attention President Biden: Yemen’s Houthi Rebels are Iranian-backed Terrorists by Con Coughlin

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17165/yemen-houthi-rebels-terrorists

[T]he Houthis have also used the sophisticated weaponry they have received from Iran, such as drones and ballistic missiles, to broaden the conflict into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition military campaign to re-establish Yemen’s democratically-elected government.

[US sanctions were] promptly denounced by humanitarian and aid agencies, which claimed that designating the Houthis as terrorists would impede the global effort to help Yemen’s starving population, an argument that appears perverse as the Houthis control most of the key aid supply routes, and regularly steal aid supplies to sell on the black market and fund their terrorist operations.

So far this month the Houthis have launched more than 20 drone and missile attacks against predominantly civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. In the most high profile attack, the Houthis used an explosive-laden drone and a ballistic missile against the Saudi petroleum plant at Ras Tanura, prompting global oil prices to rise above $70 a barrel earlier this week, its highest in more than a year.

Mr Biden has indicated he is keen to revive the controversial nuclear deal with Iran and, by easing the pressure on the Houthis, whose success on the battlefield is entirely due to the weapons and support they receive from Tehran, the White House was hoping to send a message to Iran that it was serious about having a constructive dialogue with Tehran. Instead, in the weeks since Mr Biden lifted the FTO, the region has seen a significant increase in Houthi activity.

[B]y helping to facilitate these attacks by providing the Houthis with sophisticated weapons, Tehran is showing that, far from seeking improved relations with the new US administration, it remains committed to pursuing an uncompromising policy of aggression throughout the Middle East, one that is unlikely to result in the resumption of talks on the problematic issue of Iran’s nuclear programme anytime soon.

US President Joe Biden has good reason to regret his hasty decision to remove the terrorist designation applied to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen after they responded to his act of benevolence by unleashing a fresh wave of attacks in the Middle East.

The Houthis and their Iranian backers are primarily responsible for starting Yemen’s long and bitter civil war after they overthrew the democratically-elected government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2014.

Apart from helping to create what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, the Houthis have also used the sophisticated weaponry they have received from Iran, such as drones and ballistic missiles, to broaden the conflict into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which is leading the coalition military campaign to re-establish Yemen’s democratically-elected government.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Military Brass Bravely Launch Operation Tucker Carlson By Stephen Kruiser

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2021/03/15/the-morning-briefing-military-brass-bravely-launch-operation-tucker-carlson-n1432206

Military Higher-Ups Get Their Fatigues in a Bunch Over Cable News

There I was, minding my own business and avoiding the news as is my wont on the weekends, when a friend texted me about military personnel going after Tucker Carlson on Twitter. I knew that I was going to regret ruining my weekend zen by diving into the brouhaha, but the whole story seemed so ridiculous that I couldn’t stay away from it.

Like an idiot, I jumped online and quickly discovered that some guys who probably prided themselves on their toughness at one point had, indeed, turned into a team of whiny Brian Stelters.

Treacher wrote about it on Saturday, and brought up some excellent points:

I’m no expert on the military, but don’t these guys have anything better to do with their time than cutting wrestling promos on civilians? “You listen and you listen well, Mister Tucker Carlson: We will settle this in the squared circle on Sunday at Wrestlemania 37. I’ll shove that bowtie where the studio lights don’t shine!”

And doesn’t the military have regulations about uniformed personnel making political statements? Isn’t that one of the things you give up when you join? Isn’t that the whole point of having civilian oversight of the military? Aren’t taxpayers allowed to speak up about where their money is going?

I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s nuts. Can you imagine if somebody did this while Trump was president? Just picture a uniformed military officer calling out Anderson Cooper or Rachel Maddow. Every newspaper in the country would be $#!++ing bricks directly onto the front page. Brian Stelter’s head would explode like somebody forgot to poke holes in it before putting it in the microwave. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.

MEDIA Comments turned off

The Washington Post confessed to a very big lie By Andrea Widburg

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/the_washington_post_confessed_to_a_very_big_lie.html

On Monday, conservatives were outraged when the Washington Post, in a teeny little paragraph appended to a major story from January, admitted that the core of the story was a lie based upon false quotations. I find myself surprisingly unmoved. First, this is par for the course for the modern, Pravda media. Second, as long as there are no consequences, and there never are, it’s irrelevant that the Washington Post behaved in a morally corrupt, fraudulent way.

This example of moral turpitude from the Washington Post began on January 9. That was when the paper published an “exclusive” entitled, “‘Find the fraud’: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction.” The word “obstruction” is extremely important in that title because the Washington Post wrote this allegedly expose as the house was debating whether to impeach Trump for the events of January 6 – and of course, for daring to question the fact that doddering Joe, who barely emerged from his basement and had a vice presidential candidate even his own party couldn’t stand, got more votes than Trump did.

The allegations in the article were explosive. Amy Gardner alleged that, during a telephone call to a Georgia election investigator, President Trump pressured the investigator to make up fake evidence that would overthrow the results of the election in Georgia:

President Trump urged Georgia’s lead elections investigator to “find the fraud” in a lengthy December phone call, saying the official would be a “national hero,” according to an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

The Sovereign Crime of Industrial Scale Vote Fraud By Jay Valentine

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/the_sovereign_crime_of_industrial_scale_vote_fraud.html

Recently our team was invited to meet with 2020 election fraud investigators in downtown Austin.  Our team, with some of the top criminal profiling talent in the country, was happy to attend.  At the last minute, our new pals cancelled their meeting.

Since we changed our schedules and lost those days, we decided to hold our own confab.

Our team members were the lead builders of one of the world’s most sophisticated criminal profiling systems in use by law enforcement today.  We broke the eBay auction fraud rings and deployed a never-before-used technology to end auction fraud as an emerging crime category. We identified numerous Medicaid fraud rings and were hired by most of the top 10 property and casualty insurance firms to solve auto crash rings that eluded the FBI and every fraud technology.

What we do not talk about much is our team’s record predicting crime.  There were several occasions when we predicted terrorist activity and warned government agencies.  There is a particularly famous one, involving a military base, where they did not listen.  That’s one for another day.

When you are at the table with some of the top criminal profilers in the world, talking about industrial scale election fraud, you do more listening than talking.  And the listening was interesting.  The profilers have zero interest in U.S. elections.  Two of them did not vote and had unflattering opinions about both presidential candidates.  Their comments were most insightful because they saw the current questions about election fraud so differently than the American media.

To them, 2020 election fraud was an industrial level crime.  It was of such magnitude that it moved from the category of an election crime to a sovereign crime.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Lukashenko Still Crushes Belarus by Judith Bergman

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17113/lukashenko-crushes-belarus

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since he came into power in 1994, has cracked down violently on the still-ongoing protests in which police have detained more than 33,000 people.

Belarus “is not a member of the Council of Europe – it still has the death penalty which is an automatic bar to its membership. This means that it is not subject to… requirements… to bring its prison system in line with the norms outlined in the European Prison Rules…. All prisoners are vulnerable to their treatment in custody being manipulated at the behest of investigators to exact confessions and witness statements from them. The lack of transparency of the Belarus prison service is almost absolute.” — Judith Pallot, Director of the GULAGECHOES project at the University of Helsinki, Open Democracy, November 20, 2020.

The US has “designated” several individuals and entities in Belarus for their role in undermining democracy and human rights abuses. The EU has also imposed several rounds of sanctions against high-level officials…. It is up for debate, however, whether sanctions have any effect on the leadership of Belarus, especially because Belarus largely relies on Russia, not the West…. “The individuals on the list don’t care about being on it. On the contrary, they consider it a medal of honor.” — Artyom Shraibman, a political analyst based in Minsk, politico.eu, September 19, 2020.

“I will not suddenly give up the presidency. I have nothing other than Belarus. I cling to it and I hold on to it”. — Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, France 24, February 11, 2021.

It has been six months since protests began in Belarus against the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko and the unfree elections that took place there on August 9, 2020. Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since he came into power in 1994, has cracked down violently on the still ongoing protests, in which police have detained more than 33,000 people.

On November 5, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a report, OSCE Rapporteur’s Report under the Moscow Mechanism on Alleged Human Rights Violations related to the Presidential Elections of 9 August 2020, which concluded that the presidential elections “fell short of fulfilling the basic international requirements for genuine elections. Accordingly, the allegations that the presidential elections were not transparent, free or fair were found confirmed.”

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

House Democrats Scheme to Unseat a Duly Elected Republican From Iowa An audacious maneuver to steal an election. Joseph Klein

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/house-democrats-scheme-unseat-duly-elected-joseph-klein/

The 2020 election cycle is over. Or so we thought. More than 4 months after Election Day, the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives are still eyeing a House seat won by Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa. The scorched-earth Democrats would like to snatch her seat away and give it to the loser of the race, Democrat candidate Rita Hart.

On November 30, 2020, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced that the state canvassing board had officially certified Republican Miller-Meeks’ victory over Democrat Hart in Iowa’s second Congressional district race. “The official result in #IA02 is @millermeeks 196,964 to @RitaHartIA 196,958. 6 vote difference,” he tweeted.

Sore loser Hart (at left above) decided to bypass a further challenge in the Iowa courts and to instead petition the House of Representatives directly to overturn the officially declared election result. Hart claimed that 22 ballots were wrongly excluded, despite multiple recounts.

Under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.” The Supreme Court has ruled that each congressional chamber’s final judgment is not reviewable by the courts because it is “a non-justiciable political question.” This extraordinary power to potentially override the will of the voters has historically been used quite sparingly.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UK Foreign Secretary Claims Britain is ‘Dismantling’ the ‘Lies’ of ISIS Recruiters An entire nation ruled by wishful thinking and denial of reality. Robert Spencer

Posted By on March 16th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/uk-foreign-secretary-claims-britain-dismantling-robert-spencer/

The Islamic State (ISIS) is newly emboldened by the departure of Donald Trump from the Oval Office and the return to power of the forces of appeasement, denial, weakness and surrender. The National reported Thursday that “children are being exposed to ISIS terrorism online during lockdown, raising fears of brainwashing,” according to British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Raab talked tough in response, but all he really offered was more of the same: lip-service to counterjihad efforts from a government that lacks the will to confront this foe, and would rather pretend that its real problem is “right-wing extremists.”

Dominic Raab (pictured above) told Parliament that “security services were fighting hard to combat the threat,” but he also recounted “the terrorists’ rising global influence, with armed groups in Africa and Asia adopting its violent methods.” The “biggest worry,” however, “was the ‘perfect storm’ of young people stuck indoors during lockdown, and going online to relieve their boredom where they were subjected to extremist indoctrination.” Accordingly, Raab said, “we can see a worrying rise in the proportion of children and teenagers that are now being arrested for terrorism offences.”

Yeah, that’s it, Raab, boredom leads to jihad. Give these boys a basketball and a job at Tesco and all will be well, right?

ISIS, he continued, is “still able to carry out lethal attacks,” and contrary to all the propaganda about “white supremacists,” it is still Britain’s “most significant terrorist threat.” Raab asserted that ISIS “more and more reliant on its perverse propaganda and warped narrative to try and maintain its relevance and cement support for its terrorist attacks. Daesh [the political elites’ favored euphemism for the Islamic State] maintains a steady drumbeat of violent communications, which they distribute with encrypted messaging applications.”