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Charles Lipson:Hunter’s new special counsel also needs investigating As US attorney, David Weiss slow-walked the Biden case for years

Posted By on August 12th, 2023

https://thespectator.com/topic/hunter-biden-special-counsel-david-weiss-investigating-probe/

At long last, Attorney General Merrick Garland decided to appoint a special counsel to continue the investigation of Hunter Biden, his family and associates. His choice: US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, who has been on the case for several years. He was originally appointed as US attorney by Donald Trump, a point Democrats always highlight without noting that he was promoted by both Democratic senators from the state. 

Being named special counsel gives Weiss some authority beyond that of a regular US attorney. In particular, he can bring federal cases outside his narrow territorial domain without consent from US attorneys in those other districts. That’s an important point, since Weiss was apparently denied the right to bring at least two other cases his office sought. 

His appointment makes sense in one way: any other choice would have added years to the investigation. Weiss is already up to speed. The question is whether he is speeding down the right road. 

Weiss might have been appointed special counsel during the Trump administration, but outgoing AG Bill Barr has said he thought that decision should be left to the incoming administration. His rationale was a strong one: he feared that appointing a special counsel as one administration went out the door would set a precedent for future administrations to begin investigating their successors. If a special counsel was needed, Barr concluded, that should be up to the Biden administration. 

Shockingly, the Biden administration did not want to appoint a special counsel to investigate itself or the president’s family. The new attorney general could have given Weiss those additional powers two years ago but declined. Garland actually made the incredible argument that Weiss, as a US attorney, had more powers than he would have as a special counsel. 

Both Garland and Weiss have also told Congress that Weiss had ultimate authority to bring cases wherever he wished. But those statements may not be true, since Weiss was apparently blocked from filing cases in other jurisdictions, and since he told multiple IRS investigators that he was not the ultimate decision-maker on these cases. The latter statement directly contradicts what he and Garland have told Congress.  

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You say Taiwan; I say Korea-Francesco Sisci

Posted By on August 12th, 2023

http://www.settimananews.it/informazione-internazionale/you-say-taiwan-say-korea/

In theory, it is a peninsula, but actually, for all practical purposes, it is an island. South Korea is separated from the rest of the Asian continent by its intractable half-brother to the North, making any land contact with its neighbors impossible.

The gap between the reality (being an island) and the theoretical aspiration (being a peninsula) is compounded by being one of the world’s wealthiest and most dynamic locations, bordering one of the most backward and stagnant places globally, its northern half-brother.

This reality makes the Korean peninsula one of Asia’s most dangerous flash points for future strains.

Tempest on the South Korean Island

Tension is on the rise around China. Saber rattling has become frequent around Taiwan, the island de facto independent but, in theory, part of One China. Strategists’ risk assessments consider the possibility of a clash around Taiwan because the PLA might attempt to invade the island.

There are also risks of skirmishes that could get out of control in the contested waters of the South China Sea between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. A fight that gets out of hand could also start in the high altitudes of the Himalayas between Chinese and Indian troops. Yet, the North Korean scenario could be the most significant jeopardy.

It is impossible to assess Chinese intentions on all these borders. However, a war in the Korean peninsula could be less risky and more advantageous to Beijing in the present situation.

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Biden Administration Abandoning Israel for Ruling Mullahs of Iran? by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on August 12th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19872/biden-abandoning-israel-for-iran

“For the last year and a half, Iran stated clearly that its main strategy is to make the Samaria region [of Israel] another Gaza.” The Iranians… are “pouring money and smuggling weapons into the region. They are supporting Hamas and the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] and other factions within the Palestinian Authority.” — Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, former deputy commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, Fox News, July 24, 2023.

More than 19 Iranian regime-backed groups that are targeting Israel and US interests in the region meet the U.S. “terror designation criteria, ” according to Joe Truzman, in the report, “Iran and its Network of Nineteen Terrorist Organizations on Israel’s Borders”. The Biden Administration, however, has not added them to the list of foreign terror groups.

“Over the last four decades, the Iranian regime has built a network of armed groups on Israel’s borders to create instability and foment terrorism. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and a mosaic of other terrorist organizations receive funding, training and weapons from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC-QF).” — Joe Truzman, “Iran and its Network of Nineteen Terrorist Organizations,” fdd.org, 2023.

“Long War Journal has monitored the buildup of Iran-backed terrorist organizations on key fronts: Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel has worked to limit the growth of these terrorist organizations, but they remain a significant threat on multiple fronts.” — Joe Truzman, “Iran and its Network of Nineteen Terrorist Organizations.”

What is mind-boggling is that the Biden Administration criticizes Israel but then turns a blind eye to Iran’s military buildup near Israel’s borders — all while Iran fires missiles into Israel from Syria, ships ballistic missiles to Israel’s self-declared enemy, Hezbollah, and continues to threaten exterminating Israel down the pike.

The Biden administration’s appeasement policies towards the ruling mullahs of Iran are empowering their Islamist and radical regime in the region, all while undermining America’s democratic ally in the Middle East, Israel.

As the Iranian regime continues to sponsor, fund and arm terror groups on the borders of Israel, the Biden Administration is carefully looking the other way.

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The Massive Transformation of India and the Middle East by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19874/transformation-of-india-middle-east

“Since 1947… Pakistan has initiated three full-fledged wars with India…. In addition, Pakistan has consistently utilized cross-border terrorism in India as an official instrument of state policy, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people…. Pakistan’s military and ISI spy agency also continues to support the Taliban, the Haqqani group, Lashkar-eTaiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and other affiliated militant groups in Afghanistan to undermine U.S. military operations and maintain its strategic influence there.” — Hindu American Foundation, August 2019.

According to the Hindu American Foundation, “India is one of the few countries in the world where Baha’is and Jews have never faced religious persecution.”

India first faced Islamist violence, dating as far back as the 8th century to the time of the Muslim Mughal invasions and rule through the mid-19th century. Countless Hindus and other non-Muslims were murdered or forcibly converted to Islam.

“[Historian Mahomed] Ferishtha lists several occasions when… sultans in central India… (1347-1528) killed a hundred thousand Hindus, which they set as a minimum goal whenever they felt like “punishing” the Hindus…. Prof. K.S. Lal once estimated that the Indian population declined by 50 million under the Sultanate…. research into the magnitude of the damage Islam did to India is yet to start in earnest…” — Koenraad Elst, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, September 2, 2011.

“Apart from actual killing, millions of Hindus disappeared by way of enslavement. After every conquest by a Muslim invader, slave markets in Bagdad and Samarkand were flooded with Hindus…. [O]ne cold night in the reign of Timur Lenk (1398-99), a hundred thousand Hindu slaves died [on the Hindu Kush, “Hindu-killer”] while on transport to Central Asia.” — Koenraad Elst, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, September 2, 2011.

Islamist violence against Hindus and other non-Muslims who enjoy freedom of speech is an ongoing problem.

Ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Hindu people of Kashmir was one of the occurrences that drastically changed the demographic balance in the region. Starting in 1989, more than 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus were driven from their ancestral homeland in the Jammu and Kashmir region by a radical insurgency orchestrated and funded by Pakistan.

Where are the indigenous non-Muslim communities in what is today called the “Muslim world”? Where is their presence?

Today’s “Muslim world”, which used to be non-Muslim before Islamic invasions, conquests and massacres, is now demographically transformed. The indigenous non-Muslim communities there are now either dying minorities or extinct.

Today, the only religion that has freedom in Afghanistan is Islam.

Turkey, the site that used to be known as Anatolia for more than a thousand years, was the seat of the Christian Byzantine Empire. For centuries, Islamic invaders attacked Anatolia; in 1453, Muslim Turks from Central Asia captured Constantinople, now Istanbul. Today, Christians comprise only 0.1 percent of Turkey’s population.

Prior to the Islamic invasions, most of the entire Middle East and North Africa – countries such as Syria, Algeria, Egypt and Iraq — used to be majority-Christian. Today, indigenous Christians and other minorities — such as Assyrians, Yazidis and Alawites — in almost every majority-Muslim country where they remain, are severely persecuted.

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The Deadly Untrustworthiness of General Mark Milley By Al Bienenfeld

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/the_deadly_untrustworthiness_of_general_mark_milley.html

Once, he was a soldier. Now, though, Milley has become a bureaucrat in uniform, trading national security for leftist policies.

General Mark Milley, who is Secretary of Defense, has forgotten that he was a soldier. Now, he’s only a leftist bureaucrat in uniform. Milley’s basic mode of operation is ingratiating himself to a political class that values the servile.

What makes Milley dangerous is his willingness to lie unhesitatingly, particularly in public. He is the highest-ranking military officer in the nation, and this matters. Technically the Secretary of Defense is a civilian post even though the Secretary may have a military background. The President and Congress provide civilian oversight but can only do so when presented with truthful, accurate information.

In June 2021, Tucker Carlson made some very strong remarks about Milley’s attempts to make teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the military seem benign. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Milley compared CRT to reading Marx and Mao, as if it’s just part of educating the troops about different ideologies. However, our military is not urging the adoption of Marxism. (At least not yet!) What Milley is doing is cooperating with the Democrat left to indoctrinate the troops in blatant racism.

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For Washington Post’s Feared ‘Pinocchio’ Fact Checker, Forthrightness Dies in ‘Updates’ to Biden-Burisma Story Kessler’s fact check has not aged well By Paul Sperry

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/10/for-washington-posts-feared-pinocchio-fact-checker-forthrightness-dies-in-updates-to-biden-burisma-story/

For the second time in three years, the Washington Post has quietly “updated” one of the most consequential fact checks in the history of American politics – its October 2020 article undercutting reports that Hunter Biden arranged a dinner meeting between one of his foreign business clients and his father, who was then vice president of the United States.

The original article by the Washington Post’s chief fact checker, Glenn Kessler, was published the same day as the New York Post’s pre-election scoop revealing that Joe Biden had attended a 2015 dinner with a top executive of a Ukrainian energy firm, Burisma, which was paying his son $83,000 per month. Kessler’s fact-check involved interviews with a host of Biden aides who vehemently disputed the vice president’s attendance at the dinner and advanced the theory that the source of the information – a laptop Hunter had abandoned at a Delaware repair shop – was untrustworthy and possibly a Russian plant.

That conspiracy theory was quickly embraced by 51 former intelligence officials, who signed an open letter dismissing the New York Post’s scoop as having “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” This letter and the Washington Post fact check were used by the Biden campaign, other media outlets, and social media platforms to discredit the information contained on the laptop in the final days of the campaign. The article, Kessler would later boast, was “one of the most read articles in our 13-year history” of the fact-checking feature.

But Kessler’s fact check has not aged well. Just last week Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, testified before Congress that the article was “not correct reporting.” Instead of retracting the article – as the Post did with some of its debunked Russiagate coverage – or running a straightforward correction, the paper has appended a series of “updates” to its reporting.

“The Washington Post and other media have tried to squelch the scandal of Joe Biden potentially using his high office to enrich himself and his family,” said a congressional investigator for a GOP-led committee. “Almost nobody is fact-checking these biased fact checkers, and they carry a lot of weight and authority.”

In his original article, “Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop: An explainer,” Kessler took the Biden camp’s word that the then-vice president never met senior Burisma official Vadym Pozharskyi on April 16, 2015, and didn’t even attend the dinner in question at a Georgetown restaurant. Kessler also expressed open doubts about the authenticity of the laptop. Kessler wrote that the New York Post stories “purportedly” came from a Hunter Biden laptop “supposedly” left at a repair shop. Quoting an author of a book on disinformation, Kessler also questioned the authenticity of the emails on the laptop. The specific email in question – the New York Post called it a “smoking gun” – was an April 17 message from Pozharskyi thanking Hunter Biden for the “opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together.”

“Officials who worked for Biden at the time told The Fact Checker that no such meeting took place,” Kessler asserted, noting that it was not listed on the former vice president’s schedule and that it was unlikely Biden even went to the restaurant.

After the election, with Biden in office, and as more details about the dinner trickled in over the next several months, the Washington Post on June 7, 2021, appended Kessler’s story with a note that the article had been ”updated.” It linked to a revised version, which carried the headline, “Hunter Biden’s laptop: The April 16, 2015, dinner.”

HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

A Cautionary Tale From France about Muslim Migrants Hosting them could endanger your life. by Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-cautionary-tale-from-france-about-migrants/

It is worth recalling that in France, there was several months ago yet another case of a French host being murdered by the Muslim – in this case a Muslima – to whom he had offered free lodging. The enduringly relevant cautionary tale can be found here: “Algerian woman stabs her French host to death, 3rd such murder in months,” by John Cody, Remix News, March 20, 2023:

France has been hit with another case of a foreigner killing their host, this time with an Algerian woman being accused of stabbing her French host to death on March 18 in a town outside Paris.

It marks what appears to be a worrying trend. Just last month, Remix News reported that an Albanian was accused of killing his French host after they became involved in an argument about religion. The suspect reportedly sent photos of the victim’s naked body to a neighbor in the building over Snapchat.

An argument about religion? Could the Albanian Muslim have become enraged because his French host had rejected his attempts to convert him? Perhaps that host did not agree that Islam was the most wonderful of all possible religions and made the mistake of expressing his opinion. Why wouldn’t that be enough to explain the outraged Albanian Muslim’s murderous assault?

In November last year, an Afghan national was arrested for stabbing his 73-year-old host 30 times inside their shared apartment in Paris. The suspect had a long history of sexual assault, although it is unclear if the host was aware of this. Police say the victim, whose body was found inside the apartment, was trying to be a good samaritan and provide shelter to the Afghan male.

Another victim, a benevolent and elderly French sharing his Paris apartment with an Afghan, suddenly realized, too late, that his Muslim guest, far from being grateful to him, was homicidally inclined toward his Infidel host.

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Where is Hillary’s Indictment on the Same Charges as Trump? The Clinton campaign is actually guilty of the electoral coup Trump was indicted for. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/where-is-hillarys-indictment-on-the-same-charges-as-trump/

On December 12, 2016 (or D12), the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign endorsed a call by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of then House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as other electors to receive an “intelligence briefing” on how “Russian interference was performed to help Donald Trump get elected” from Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

Hillary Clinton and her senior campaign officials were aware that they had concocted the lie that the Russians had gotten Trump elected, outsourced it to a former British intelligence operative, Christopher Steele, who produced the infamous Steele dossier, and distributed it through the FBI and were exploiting it to subvert the Electoral College and hijack the presidential election.

The Clinton campaign was endorsing a move to influence members of the Electoral College to set aside their duty and corrupt the electoral votes. Electors are bound to vote in accordance with the ballot count. There was no purpose to a “briefing” on the conspiracy theories that were manufactured by the Clinton campaign except to persuade them to corrupt the vote.

The Wall Street Journal correctly described the move as an “Electoral College Coup”. Pelosi’s daughter and other Democrat electors were requesting “a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States.” And they were asking it from Clapper who would go around pushing the Steele dossier and defending its conspiracy theories as based on facts.

Clapper, using similar language to the Democrat electors, would describe Trump as unfit.

The Clinton campaign endorsed this proposed Electoral College coup by claiming that the “electors’ letter raises very grave issues involving our national security. Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”

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Prosecutors Targeting Trump Gave FBI’s McCabe a Pass Double standards are their only standard. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/prosecutors-targeting-trump-gave-fbis-mccabe-a-pass/

Meet Molly Gaston.

“It is difficult to imagine a public interest stronger than the one in this case,” assistant special counsel Molly Gaston wrote in a court document filed Thursday, “in which the defendant — the former President of the United States — is charged with three criminal conspiracies intended to undermine the federal government, obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, and disenfranchise voters.”

You may remember Molly Gaston from passes for Russiagate figures such as these.

In early 2021, Mr. Cooney pressed federal law enforcement officials to turn their attention to people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, including his flamboyant political adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., according to The Washington Post. He would eventually work on the successful prosecutions of Mr. Stone and another Trump adviser, Stephen K. Bannon.

He joined Mr. Windom’s team in mid-2022, then moved into Mr. Smith’s office late last year.

The assistant U.S. attorney in federal court on Tuesday, when a grand jury handed up a four-count indictment against Mr. Trump, was Molly Gaston, who has worked closely with Mr. Cooney on the Stone and McCabe cases.

See if you can spot the difference between the handling of the Stone, Bannon, and McCabe cases.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The New York Times seems puzzled by Biden’s low approval ratings. Let me explain by Liz Peek

Posted By on August 11th, 2023

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/4146449-the-new-york-times-seems-puzzled-by-bidens-low-approval-ratings-let-me-explain/

Peter Baker, White House correspondent for the New York Times, appears genuinely puzzled that President Biden’s approval ratings are not higher.  

He writes recently that many things are heading in the right direction: “Inflation at long last is down. So are gas prices and Covid deaths and violent crime and illegal immigration. Unemployment remains near record lows. The economy, meanwhile, is growing, wages are climbing, consumer confidence is rising and the stock market is surging.”

One negative trend, Baker notes, is Biden’s approval ratings which, in the latest New York Times/Siena poll, are at 39 percent, the lowest of any president at this point in his term but Jimmy Carter.  

In all of Baker’s lengthy exploration of the president’s prospects and standing, he mentions not one word about ongoing investigations into likely Biden corruption. No hint of the fastidious hearings being held by the House Oversight Committee under Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). No reference to Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s past business partner, who blew up any remaining pretense that Joe Biden was not engaged in his son’s nefarious business activities in China, Ukraine and other countries.

Does Baker think that the Democratic Party’s “hear no evil” stonewalling on credible accusations that Joe Biden took a bribe from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky will erase that charge from the nation’s consciousness? Do supporters of the president think it’s perfectly normal that Hunter Biden used dozens of shell companies to funnel money to family members, and also employed 14 encrypted apps and burner phones? That’s not normal.

The New York Times and Washington Post may not be reporting on these activities, but Democrats must know that the truth is seeping out. Thanks to the openness of Twitter, courtesy of Elon Musk, and to pervasive commentary elsewhere, Americans now know that Joe Biden is not the honest, moderate and likable person he pretended to be while running for president.