A Radical Suggestion: Diana West

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-radical-suggestion_2869905.html

I wouldn’t call it an out-of-body experience exactly, but I did get a thrill in reading the autobiography of former CIA Director Richard Helms, “A Look Over My Shoulder.” It served as strong validation of the line of research I followed to write my new book, “The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.”

Helms’ book explained that it’s this same line of research—which Helms followed in 2003—that helped identify Soviet agents.

Helms, who led the CIA between 1966 and 1973, was recounting a post-retirement luncheon he had with a World War II buddy from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. It was the day before Helms was to meet with the CIA’s counterintelligence staff, and his old friend told him: “Remind them that no intelligence agency can for very long be any better than its counterintelligence component. And recommend that they chisel the words into the granite entrance out there.”

Helms continued: “He had a point. A quick glance in the rearview mirror shows that the most notorious traitors and successful spies in this century would have been barred from sensitive government work, or exposed early in their careers, had basic counterintelligence measures been taken.”

As Helms explained them, these basic counterintelligence measures include conducting precisely the kind of research I have put together under the rubric of “red threads” to build ideological profiles of leading persons in the anti-Trump conspiracy: Nellie Ohr, Christopher Steele, John Brennan, James Comey, and others.

Trump Designates the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Org Why our president did it – and why he is right. Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273421/trump-designates-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-joseph-klein

President Trump has decided to designate the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) to counter Iran’s global campaign of terrorism. “This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday morning. “This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as a FTO.” The designation takes effect on April 15th.

The Iranian regime lives and breathes Islamic extremism, which it seeks to export through its global jihad terrorist network. The IRGC sits at the center of that terrorist network. It provides funding, equipment, training, and logistical support to terrorist proxy groups, including most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. The IRGC has American blood on its hands, going as far back as bombings in Beirut at the Marine barracks in 1983 and at the U.S. Embassy annex in 1984. The IRGC also caused casualties to U.S soldiers in Iraq by providing roadside bombs to its proxies. As Special Representative for Iran and Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State Brian Hook explained on Monday, “The IRGC has been threatening American troops almost since its inception. And whenever we impose sanctions on Iran, it’s usually followed by a range of threats. What endangers American troops in the Middle East is an IRGC that operates with impunity and never has its ambitions checked in the Middle East. We’re taking an entirely new approach to this of significant sort of sustained maximum economic pressure to deny the IRGC and the Iranian regime of the revenue that it needs to conduct its foreign policy.”

Ahmed al-Tayeb, Sunni Islam’s Jew-Hating Papal Equivalent, In His Own Words :Andrew Bostom

https://www.andrewbostom.org/2019/04/ahmed-al-tayeb-sunni-islams-jew-hating-papal-equivalent-in-his-own-words/

Since its founding in 973 C.E., Al Azhar University (and its mosque) have represented a pinnacle of Islamic religious education, which evolved into the de facto Vatican of Sunni Islam.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, Ahmed al-Tayeb, was the number 1 ranked Muslim figure for 2017 in “The Muslim 500”. His “The Muslim 500” profile states,

Influence: Highest scholarly authority for the majority of Sunni Muslims, runs the foremost and largest Sunni Islamic university.

School of Thought: Traditional Sunni

During an interview with Al-Tayeb, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, October 25, 2013, he gave a brief explanation of the ongoing relevance of the Koranic verse 5:82 which has been invoked—“successfully”—to inspire violent Muslim hatred of Jews since the advent of Islam:

A verse in the Koran explains the Muslims’ relations with the Jews…This is an historical perspective, which has not changed to this day. See how we suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism…Since the inception of Islam 1,400 years ago, we have been suffering from Jewish and Zionist interference in Muslim affairs. This is a cause of great distress for the Muslims. The Koran said it and history has proven it: “You shall find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews…”

ISIS-Inspired Terrorist Plotted to Run Over National Harbor With a U-Haul By Tyler O’Neil

https://pjmedia.com/trending/isis-inspired-terrorist-plotted-to-run-over-national-harbor-with-a-u-haul/

On Monday, federal authorities charged a Maryland man who had stolen a truck and planned to use it in a terrorist attack. Prosecutors say the man was inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS).

Rondell Henry, a 28-year-old man from Germantown, Md., allegedly stole a U-Haul truck and planned to drive over pedestrians in National Harbor.

“He said he wanted to carry out a Nice-style attack,” a law enforcement official said, NBC News reported. The official was referring to a 2016 ISIS-claimed terror truck attack that killed 86 people in Nice, France.

“I was just going to keep driving and driving and driving. I wasn’t going to stop,” Henry told the FBI, according to charging papers filed Monday.

Authorities found “image of gun-wielding ISIS fighters, the ISIS flag, and the Pulse nightclub shooter” who killed 49 people at the Orlando nightclub in 2016, ABC News reported.

The Justice Department said Henry harbored “hatred for non-Muslims.

No-Deal Brexit? Yes, if Macron Vetoes an Extension By John O’Sullivan

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/no-deal-brexit-yes-if-macron-vetoes-an-extension/

This week European leaders will meet in solemn conclave, with and without Prime Minister Theresa May, to determine whether or not to extend the U.K.’s membership of the European Union and, if so, for how long. Brits have until recently paid relatively little attention to this occasion since it was generally agreed that the other EU members wanted the Brits to stay in. All doubts were on the British side, where a heated debate now seems to be moving towards a cross-party Con–Lab agreement to strike a pretend Brexit that would keep Britain inside most of the EU’s economic institutions, regulations, and tariffs for an indefinite period. There’s a lot to play for still — half the Tory party hates May’s deal — but for the moment the ball is in the court of Brussels.

And for the first time, one of the Europeans may say no. Not just any old European either, but the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The actual choice before the European Council asks should Britain be allowed to remain in the EU for a short time (i.e., until June 30) ,to sign off on May’s withdrawal deal or nearest equivalent; or a long time (another year or even longer), to enable a different deal to be negotiated; or no time at all, being shown the door on Friday. All Europeans except Macron favor some version of the first two options. If you’re interested in such matters, Wolfgang Munchau in today’s FT has an informative analysis that suggests that if Corbyn and May can agree on the general principles of leaving the EU, then the good ship BRINO (Brexit in Name Only) can sail between the Scylla of No Deal and the Charybdis of Another Referendum to reach an agreed departure date in December. Macron, however, is reportedly tired of these endless discussions and skeptical that the Brits will ever agree on a bipartisan deal that has public support and a chance of survival. He is thinking of exercising the French veto to prevent any extension at all, and so in effect bringing about a no-deal Brexit from outside.

How Will Democrats Explain South Bend? The search continues for a premise to the Buttigieg candidacy. James Freeman

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-will-democrats-explain-south-bend-11554759834

Some readers thought it unfair last week when this column described potential Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg as “a small-city mayor with a middling record.” This assessment may have been too kind to the media’s favorite millennial. Regardless, it appears that the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is almost ready to announce a 2020 run.

The South Bend Tribune reports today:

Mayor Pete Buttigieg could make his exploratory presidential campaign official sometime after 12 p.m. Sunday outside his campaign headquarters, his campaign announced Monday.

In a one-minute fundraising video he emailed Thursday to prospective donors, Buttigieg said he would make an announcement on Sunday April 14 and invited supporters to attend or watch it via livestream. Campaign officials had not yet announced a specific time and place for the event.

All Bernie’s Socialists The candidate’s advisers want America to be more like Venezuela.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/all-bernies-socialists-11554763031

Socialism is cool again, and Bernie Sanders wants to reassure voters that there’s nothing to worry about. “I think what we have to do, and I will be doing it, is to do a better job maybe in explaining what we mean by socialism—democratic socialism,” Mr. Sanders said last month. He has also said that conservatives portray his brand of socialism “as authoritarianism and communism and Venezuela, and that’s nonsense.”
***

We wish that were true. But we’ve been reading the work of Bernie’s senior political advisers, and their words deserve more attention. Take speechwriter David Sirota, who joined the Sanders campaign in March, though he had been attacking the Vermont Senator’s Democratic opponents on Twitter for months.

Mr. Sirota wrote an op-ed for Salon in 2013 titled “Hugo Chávez’s Economic Miracle.” Mr. Sirota conceded, Chávez “was no saint” and “amassed a troubling record when it came to protecting human rights and basic democratic freedoms.” Those pesky disclaimers aside, Mr. Sirota suggested that there’s plenty to learn from Chávez.

Cardinal Robert Sarah: Mass Migration is ‘New Form of Slavery’

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

Robert Sarah is a Guinean prelate of the Catholic Church. A Cardinal since 20 November 2010, he was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014.

“I would like to explain why I, a son of Africa, allow myself to address the West. The Church is the guardian of civilization. I am convinced that western civilization is passing at present through a mortal crisis. It has reached the extreme of self-destructive hate….

How could I not emphasize the threat posed by Islamism? Muslims despise the atheistic West…. A West that denies its faith, its history, its roots, and its identity is destined for contempt, for death, and disappearance.”

Indeed,

‘”It is a false exegesis to use the Word of God to promote migration. God never wanted these rifts,” Cardinal Sarah told French publication Valeurs Actuelles before going on to blast bishops who “say fuzzy things, vague, imprecise, to escape criticism, and they marry the stupid evolution of the world.”

Sarah, head of the Vatican liturgy office, minced no words in his denunciation of the prevailing viewpoint among liberal Catholics, which states that the faithful betray Christ by wanting stricter immigration policies.

David Singer: Hashemite Rule in Jordan on Collision Course with Trump and Israel

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/04/david-singer-hashemite-rule-in-jordan.html

King Abdullah seems increasingly hell-bent on ending 99 years of Hashemite-dynasty rule in Jordan.

This possibility is emerging as Abdullah is:

Seemingly refusing to commit to negotiating with Israel on President Trump’s soon-to-be-released deal of the century to end the Jewish-Arab conflict and
Taking active steps to place the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty in jeopardy.

Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1950) has always been the key to resolving competing territorial claims by both Arabs and Jews in former Palestine.

Transjordan comprised 78 per cent of the territory placed under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine after being wrested from 400 years of Ottoman Empire sovereignty during World War One.

Mandatory Palestine was designated in April 1920 by the Principal Allied Powers at the San Remo Conference and in August 1920 by article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres as the location for reconstitution of the ancient and biblical homeland of the Jewish people.

Transjordan’s first Hashemite ruler – Abdullah I – arrived there in November 1920.

Report: Corbyn’s Labour Long Ignored Complaints of Anti-Semitism By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/jeremy-corbyns-labour-long-ignored-complaints-of-anti-semitism/

Despite receiving more than 850 formal complaints, the British labour party has failed to take action against, and on occasion defended, members who have made outrageously anti-Semitic claims, according to a new exposé published by the Sunday Times.

Data obtained by the Times show that party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s office had received 863 complaints relating to anti-Semitism as of March 8, 2019, but only intervened in 101 of those cases. In total, 454 of the cases remain unresolved, including 249 cases in which no action has been taken. And in those cases that were resolved, 191 members faced no sanction, 145 received a warning the Times characterized as a “slap on the wrist,” and just 29 members were expelled.

Many of the complaints that failed to prompt permanent expulsions were based on a party member having explicitly endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. In one such case, a trade-union official in Manchester was readmitted to the party after sharing a tirade that blamed “Jewish Israelis” for the September 11 terrorist attacks. In another, a councilor in Lancashire was readmitted after decrying the nefarious influence of the “Jewish media” and the “Rothschilds” and after having defended those epithets as “blanket term[s] of description without any racist connotations.”

In other cases, members who said things such as “Heil Hitler,” “F**k the Jews,” and “Jews are the problem” have remained in the party despite Corbyn’s office having received complaints about them over a year ago.