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Iran’s Endless Rounds of Negotiation: Delay, Deceive, Cheat by Majid Rafizadeh

Posted By on April 20th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21565/iran-endless-negotiation

The Iranian regime’s primary objective remains preserving its power. The mullahs see their nuclear program as the key to their survival.

Any agreement should aim for nothing less than the total and permanent dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. This means no enrichment, no reprocessing, no heavy-water reactors, and no stockpiles – anywhere on the planet — of enriched uranium.

The dismantlement and enforcement processes must not be outsourced to any international organizations or foreign governments…. Ensuring compliance must lie directly with the United States and its most trusted regional ally, Israel. Both countries have the intelligence capabilities, military readiness and political will to ensure that any nuclear dismantlement is not only thorough but irreversible.

Rounds of negotiations, verbal commitments or limited restrictions are invitations to cheat. The mullahs’ plan is one of delay and deception. America’s plan must be not to let them.

The Trump administration, after signaling a preference for dialogue over confrontation, is engaging in renewed a diplomatic effort to end Iran’s nuclear program. President Donald J. Trump has made clear that he is not seeking war. “I would prefer to make a deal,” he stated recently, “because I’m not looking to hurt Iran.”

Given the devastating costs of war, focusing on negotiation rather than on military intervention is a noble and responsible course of action. The Iranian regime, however, is not new to such diplomatic games of chess. The mullahs have mastered the art of prolonging negotiations: appearing cooperative while covertly advancing their strategic interests, especially developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, and operating proxies in the region, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, not to mention Iran’s own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as well as smaller militias.

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Fact Check: Video does not show Harrison Ford making a pro-Palestinian speech (May 2024)

Posted By on April 20th, 2025

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/video-does-not-show-harrison-ford-making-pro-palestinian-speech-2024-05-08/

A video showing actor Harrison Ford talking about climate change at a United Nations summit in 2019 has been miscaptioned online as him making a pro-Palestinian speech.

The clip was falsely captioned online as students in universities across the U.S. protested, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel.

A social media post

, opens new tab sharing the video online said: “Harrison Ford is Pro-Palestine.”

VERDICT

Miscaptioned. The video shows Harrison Ford talking about the young people who want to protect the environment at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.

ANTI-SEMITISM, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Shapiro attack was more than political violence. It’s about antisemitism. | Opinion Antisemitism is a sickness that has killed millions of innocent people. We need to call it out and condemn it without hesitation. Nicole Russell

Posted By on April 20th, 2025

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/04/18/shapiro-fire-suspect-antisemitism-jewish-passover/83118325007/

The arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family appears to have been driven by antisemitism, with a police warrant indicating that the suspect arrested in the case targeted the governor for “what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.”

All of us, on the political left or the right, should be able to condemn antisemitism without hesitation. But the fact is that a prominent Jewish political leader and his family were attacked in their home during Passover didn’t get the attention it deserved in much of the mainstream news media.

Instead, most commentators condemned the attack as just another act of political violence. Washington Post columnist Robin Givhan, for example, wrote that “the entire country is enmeshed in this awfulness. Not that long ago, it seemed that political violence was something that was mostly relegated to American history.”

As naive as it sounds to argue that political violence was ever somehow relegated to the past, failing to recognize and call out the evident antisemitism in this incident is even worse.

Liberal media blames conservatives for Shapiro fire. What?

Hours after the arson attack, Shapiro responded with grace and clarity, and he had no problem recognizing that the assault was driven by antisemitism.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Report: Deported MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Was Detained For Human Trafficking in 2022 By Debra Heine

Posted By on April 20th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/17/report-deported-ms-13-gang-member-kilmar-abrego-garcia-was-detained-for-human-trafficking-in-2022/

New evidence has emerged that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member and wife-beater who was deported to El Salvador last month, engaged in human trafficking several years ago.

In an exclusive report, the Tennessee Star reported Wednesday that in December 2022, Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) caught Garcia smuggling seven suspected illegal aliens in a van in Tennessee. Garcia and the seven individuals were allegedly caught midway through their trip from the Texas border to Maryland. THP detained the crew until the FBI under then-Director Christopher Wray directed THP to release them.

The Star obtained information about the stop, “including the identity of the THP officer, the officer’s badge number, and the Computerized Dispatch Report code assigned to the incident.”

During the nearly two-hour traffic stop, “an officer determined that Abrego Garcia was operating the vehicle without a valid driver’s license and began searching for information about him,” according to the Star’s THP sources.

The sources also indicated that someone in the car, possibly Garcia himself, may have been on a terrorist watch list.

The officers on the scene called the FBI, who instructed them “to capture photographs of all eight people in the vehicle and document its contents.”

After the photos were taken, according to a THP source, the FBI directed the officers to “release all eight individuals.” The THP officers then complied with this request despite their concern that  Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking and driving without a license, a misdemeanor offense in Tennessee.

IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mass Hearings and Due Process by Zoom: A Modest Judicial Proposal Court orders demanding Trump reverse a deportation highlight escalating judicial interference in immigration and foreign policy, raising questions about constitutional overreach. By Roger Kimball

Posted By on April 20th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/20/mass-hearings-and-due-process-by-zoom-a-modest-judicial-proposal/

The tsunami of court orders that has been washing over the Trump administration—he “can’t do this,” he “must do that”—has me wondering where it all will end. Will the multifarious injunctions, restraining orders, and appeals finally paralyze Trump’s agenda? An agenda, I hasten to point out, on which he was elected, so, given the strength of his victory, it is also the American people’s agenda.

I don’t know. The attacks have been extraordinary not only in number but also in depth. The president and his lieutenants have, in effect, been told that they cannot hire and fire whom they wish or enter into or terminate what contracts they wish; in some cases, they are even forbidden to know what payments have been made by the agencies they nominally direct. Law enforcement and foreign policy are, or at least used to be, executive branch responsibilities. But the courts have gone to extraordinary lengths to insinuate themselves into those processes.

On April 4, Paula Xinis, a Maryland district court judge appointed by Barack Obama, ordered that the Trump administration must “facilitate and effectuate the return of Plaintiff Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7, 2025.”

As all the world knows, Garcia, an illegal alien, had been sent to enjoy the hospitality of El Salvador in March. It turns out that his deportation to El Salvador had been a mistake, an “administrative error.” This was not because he did not deserve to be deported. He most certainly did. However, he had previously been granted “withholding of removal” status by a judge in 2019 because, though El Salvador was his native land, he said he was threatened by gang members of MS-13 there. That meant that while Garcia could be deported, he could not be deported to El Salvador.

There are several ironies in the case. One is that MS-13, once a scourge of El Salvador, has been effectively neutered there by Nayib Bukele, the president. Indeed, Bukele has transformed El Salvador from “the murder capital of the world” into one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

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Trump’s Anti-Israel Officials Sabotaging His Efforts to Disarm Iran by Con Coughlin

Posted By on April 18th, 2025

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21564/trump-anti-israel-officials-iran

The appointment, however, of several officials to key national security positions in the Trump administration, who vehemently oppose direct military action against Iran, has raised concerns that the White House might be backing away from its commitment to eliminate the threat Iran poses to global security.

In particular, these concerns relate to the recent appointments to the Pentagon of influential figures such as John Byers for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (South and South-East Asia), and Michael DiMino, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism official, for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Middle East).

Similarly, concerns have arisen that DiMino will be able to use his position as the Pentagon’s new chief Middle East policy adviser to advance an anti-Israel stance while questioning the Trump administration’s confrontational stance towards Iran.

As with Byers, DiMino was previously linked to the libertarian Koch brothers, having held tenure as a fellow at the Washington think tank Defense Priorities, which is funded by the Koch team.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently downgraded Trump’s professed demands by asking Iran just to lower uranium enrichment — a statement he quickly had to walk back. Iran has already stated that it could move its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to “safe and undisclosed locations,” presumably for use at a later time. Russia, in an apparent burst of generosity, has offered to host the enriched uranium. How kind of them!

While Trump keeps offering perfect negotiating parameters, such as, “All hostages must be released by Saturday or all hell will break out,” or, “Iran issue is easy to solve, they cannot obtain nuclear weapons,” his statements always seem to be instantly undermined.

IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Democrats’ Bizarrely Misplaced Empathy Ben Shapiro

Posted By on April 18th, 2025

https://pjmedia.com/benshapiro/2025/04/17/democrats-bizarrely-misplaced-empathy-n4939001

This week, Democrats decided to expend their quickly diminishing political capital in defense of a deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia was deported to El Salvador some weeks ago; the Department of Justice initially admitted that his deportation was an “administrative error.” It turns out that Garcia had an order withholding removal to his home country, due to his claims that returning to El Salvador would risk his life. Nonetheless, the administration flew him to that country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, where he is apparently being held to date.

Initially, a district court judge ruled that Abrego Garcia’s removal was violative of due process, and that the administration had to “facilitate” his return to the United States. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court, which found 9-0 that while the executive branch likely had the power to order his deportation, it still had to follow court orders to “facilitate” his temporary return for due process reasons. The Trump administration, for its part, claims that it has already “facilitated” his release from custody — that they’ve asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele nicely to release him, and that Bukele has refused. Bukele sat in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and said just that: “The question is preposterous: how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”

Regardless of the legal wrangling over the case — and there is in fact a solid legal basis to the idea that the administration ought to temporarily return Abrego Garcia just to receive a court hearing, after which he can be deported right back again — Democrats have wrong-footed themselves yet again. This week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., decided to fly down to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia; other Congressional Democrats vowed to do the same. In their telling, Abrego Garcia is an innocent caught up in the mills of wrongheaded justice.

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Questions for Carney That the legacy media aren’t gonna ask. by Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on April 18th, 2025

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/questions-for-carney/

Before Canadians cast their votes on April 28 they might run a few questions by Prime Minister Mark Carney, starting with the man Carney has already replaced. For example, did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ever do anything with which you disagreed? Carney hasn’t made that clear, and there’s more to it.

During the Covid pandemic, the Trudeau government froze the bank accounts of protesting truckers. Does you approve of that action? Does it square with your concept of free speech and civil liberties?

Do you share Justin Trudeau’s admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship?” Did the People’s Republic of China ever do anything with which you disagreed? The PRC maintains police stations in 30 countries, including Canada. Is that a wise policy? Has Canada ever collaborated in any way with China’s military?

Do you agree with David Frum that Pierre Trudeau was “a bad man and a disastrous prime minister?” As Frum explained, Pierre Trudeau “traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities.” Was that a wise choice on Trudeau’s part? Why did the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service destroy secret files on Pierre Trudeau? Can the CSIS be trusted?

According to Justin Trudeau, “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.” Do you agree with Justin? Did Fidel Castro ever do or say anything with which you disagreed? Why does Justin Trudeau look so much like Fidel Castro?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Trump’s Courage to Fight By John J. Waters and Adam Ellwanger

Posted By on April 18th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/18/trumps-courage-to-fight/

When the White House invoked the “Immortal Chaplains” to illustrate the history between the United States and Greenland, it touched on a theme emerging in the second Trump administration: the importance of courage.

On February 3, 1943, the American steamship SS Dorchester embarked with 902 souls – soldiers, merchant seamen, and civilians – bound for a U.S. Army base in southern Greenland to support the buildup of military personnel during World War II. The ship’s captain ordered those on board to sleep in their uniforms and life jackets in case of an attack by German submarines, but many disregarded the order because of heat from the ship’s engine.

Just after midnight, a U-boat’s torpedo slammed into the Dorchester’s starboard side below the water line. Four Navy chaplains — a rabbi, a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant reverend — gave up their own life vests and guided panicked crewmembers to the lifeboats. The Dorchester sank in 20 minutes. One of the 230 survivors later recalled what he saw as he swam away from the ship: “The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could.”

Courage means feeling fear but behaving in a way that is noble and good, as the chaplains did when they acted on their deepest convictions aboard the Dorchester. Donald Trump once wrote that courage is not the absence of fear but “the ability to act effectively, in spite of fear.”

In 2016, Trump showed moral courage when he spoke the truth to American voters: a parasitic “establishment” of political and corporate interests had been exploiting our workers, farmers, and soldiers. When Trump challenged 16 opponents in the Republican primary, he exposed untruths in a conservative orthodoxy passed down from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush. Establishment foes hounded him with investigations and impeachment proceedings throughout the four years of his presidency, but Trump refused to compromise his principles or check his ambition to “make America great again.”

NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE Comments turned off

DNI Gabbard Must Reverse “Stupid” US Intelligence on Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program U.S. intelligence still claims Iran has no active nuclear weapons program—despite stockpiles of near-weapons-grade uranium and evidence of covert weaponization efforts. By Fred Fleitz

Posted By on April 18th, 2025

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/18/dni-gabbard-must-reverse-stupid-us-intelligence-on-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/

Iran’s nuclear weapons program made tremendous advances over the past four years and can now enrich enough weapons-grade uranium to fuel a nuclear bomb in less than a week. Despite this fact, America’s intelligence agencies are sticking to their longtime position that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons program.

This line of reasoning is so ridiculous that a former CIA director once called it “stupid intelligence.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard should do away with this “stupid intelligence” immediately because the evidence for an active Iranian nuclear weapons program is overwhelming and undeniable.

Iran claims it is enriching uranium only for peaceful purposes to produce fuel for its one operational nuclear power reactor at Bushehr, two or three small research reactors, and to make radiopharmaceuticals. This claim is farcical. Iran imports fuel rods for its Bushehr nuclear power reactor because it cannot produce them domestically. Iran could also obtain radiopharmaceuticals and fuel for its research reactors at a much lower cost on the international market.

More importantly, the huge amount of near-weapons-grade uranium Iran is enriching is clearly part of a nuclear weapons program because enrichment at this level can be used for only one purpose: nuclear bomb fuel. Iran can now enrich enough uranium to fuel one nuclear weapon in less than a week and 14 in about four months, according to a February 2025 report by the Institute for Science and International Security.

This is a significant increase from late 2020, when Iran could only enrich enough weapons-grade uranium for two bombs in about 5.5 months.

In addition, Iran has spent billions of dollars to develop a covert nuclear weapons infrastructure and to conduct research on producing nuclear warheads. The Iran Nuclear Archive—secret documents on Iran’s nuclear weapons program stolen from Iran by Israel in 2018—also revealed that Iran has acquired several nuclear bomb plans.

The Iran Nuclear Archive also confirmed that although Iranian officials scaled back their nuclear weapons effort following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the program quietly continued as a classified operation with a sophisticated deception effort to conceal its existence from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and the world.