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June 2019

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Iran Puts Trump to the Test He’s restored U.S. credibility. Now he needs to maintain it. By Michael Makovsky

By on June 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-puts-trump-to-the-test-11559507350

President Trump’s Iran policy has so far been effective at keeping the regime off balance. He especially distinguished himself by defying conventional opinion and withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, and imposing painful economic sanctions, which have undercut Tehran’s finances and exacerbated internal pressures.

But American reliance on sanctions, which Iran has weathered in the past, signals an unwillingness for confrontation. Tehran is pushing back. First, it announced it would stop abiding by certain JCPOA restrictions on its nuclear program. Second, despite Mr. Trump’s warnings and swift deployment of U.S. assets to the region, Iran-backed forces sabotaged oil tankers off the Emirati coast and a Saudi pipeline, and launched a rocket that landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Third, Iran followed up with defiant rhetoric. Mr. Trump warned, “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the end of Iran”—but eight days later he played down any chance of conflict, clarifying that “we’re not looking for regime change.” Tehran acted as if it had succeeded in calling the president’s bluff. “The Americans are unwilling and unable to carry out military action against us,” a military aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei asserted.

Deterrence requires Mr. Trump to maintain U.S. credibility. Otherwise, Iran will intensify its aggressive behavior and ratchet up its nuclear effort, making conflict likelier. Most immediately, the U.S. must retaliate with precise military action against critical Iranian assets. CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

William Barr’s Fresh Air The AG is taking flak because he’s asking questions that others won’t.

By on June 3rd, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/william-barrs-fresh-air-11559510133

If you want to know why William Barr is under political attack, consider his interview last week with Jan Crawford of CBS News. It’s a humdinger, in which the Attorney General challenges the received wisdom about the investigation into Trump-Russia collusion.

Nearby we excerpt Mr. Barr’s comments about the behavior of former top FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe. Note how he disagrees with President Trump’s charge of “treason.” As the AG points out, the Constitution specifically defines treason as “only in levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

But note too that Mr. Barr takes seriously the bias displayed by FBI officials against Mr. Trump. And he calls out the press for a double standard in failing to be alarmed about a potential abuse of power by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in spying on an American presidential campaign.

“The fact that today people just seem to brush aside the idea that it is okay to, you know, to engage in these activities against a political campaign is stunning to me especially when the media doesn’t seem to think that it’s worth looking into,” Mr. Barr says. “They’re supposed to be the watchdogs of, you know, our civil liberties.” This is not something the press corps likes to hear about its own biases.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Mueller must testify publicly to answer three critical questions Jonathan Turley

By on June 3rd, 2019

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/446457-mueller-must-testify-publicly-to-answer-three-critical-questions

In that twinkling zone between man and myth, Robert Mueller transcends the mundane. Even in refusing to reach a conclusion on criminal conduct, he is excused. As Mueller himself declared, we are to ask him no questions or expect any answers beyond his report. But his motivations as special counsel can only be found within an approved range that starts at “selfless” and ends at “heroic.” Representative Mike Quigley defended Mueller’s refusal to reach a conclusion as simply “protecting” President Trump in a moment of “extreme fairness.”

Yet, as I noted previously, Mueller’s position on the investigation has become increasingly conflicted and, at points, unintelligible. As someone who defended Mueller’s motivations against the unrelenting attacks of Trump, I found his press conference to be baffling, and it raised serious concerns over whether some key decisions are easier to reconcile on a political rather than a legal basis. Three decisions stand out that are hard to square with Mueller’s image as an apolitical icon. If he ever deigns to answer questions, his legacy may depend on his explanations.

Refusal to identify grand jury material

One of the most surprising disclosures made by Attorney General William Barr was that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expressly told Mueller to submit his report with grand jury material clearly marked to facilitate the release of a public version. The Justice Department cannot release grand jury material without a court order. Mueller knew that. He also knew his people had to mark the material because they were in the grand jury proceedings.

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IMMIGRATION Comments turned off

Report: Nearly 90 Percent of Illegals Fail to Show Up for Court Hearings By Rick Moran

By on June 3rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-nearly-90-of-illegals-fail-to-show-up-for-court-hearings/

A report from the Justice Department on a pilot program to discover if illegal aliens applying for asylum actually showed up for their initial court hearing found that 90 percent of those who file asylum papers and are released into the interior of the country never show up.

Breitbart:

Since December 21, 2018, DHS  has released at least 190,500 border crossers and illegal aliens into the interior of the United States. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan  told Congress this month that those foreign nationals are eventually given work permits that allow them to take U.S. jobs while awaiting their asylum hearings.

In testimony before Congress this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said that the agency had recently conducted a pilot program with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to test how many recent illegal aliens would show up to their asylum hearings after being released into the U.S.

The results, an ICE official told Congress, were that about 87 percent of illegal aliens, or almost 9-in-10, recently released by DHS into the U.S. did not show up to their asylum hearings. With illegal aliens not showing up to their scheduled hearings, the ICE official said, the agency is then forced to grapple with attempting to locate and deport each illegal alien, an almost impossible task that strains federal resources.

This report flies in the face of other studies that show 65-70 percent of illegals showing up for court. But that information comes with two big caveats.

First, the most recent data is from 2016 — before this most recent tidal wave of asylum seekers began arriving. It should be noted that as the numbers of asylum seekers rose, the no-show rate in court rose as well. The significance is that there are two kinds of asylum seekers; those who show up at the border and report directly to immigration officials asking for U.S. protection and those who are caught entering the country illegally. The first kind is called an “affirmative” asylum request while the second group usually makes their plea for asylum during their court appearance. These are called “defensive” claims of asylum.

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