WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Islamic Terrorists Win a Convert An Italian hostage returns home from 18 months in captivity—and sparks a debate. By Alessandra Bocchi

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-terrorists-win-a-convert-11590100143?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

When Italian aid worker Silvia Romano returned home this month, the government hoped for a bright moment amid the devastation of Covid-19. Ms. Romano, 25, had been held captive in East Africa for 18 months by a gang affiliated with the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte personally welcomed her back, but her liberation wasn’t an unblemished political victory. In fact, it infuriated many Italians.

Ms. Romano appeared in a chador, a modest garment common in many Islamic countries. During an interrogation, she reportedly told officials that she had converted to Islam freely and now went by Aisha. The former hostage denied rumors that she had been forced to marry one of her abductors. She said they treated her well.

The West has waged war against Islamist extremists for decades. Raising arms against such evil to ensure security and stability for innocents at home and abroad is justifiable and laudable. But there are other reasons for the fight, and Ms. Romano’s story suggests that many Westerners have forgotten them.

The former hostage is innocent of wrongdoing, the victim of a tragedy that cost her dearly. No one yet knows, and it’s possible no one will ever know, whether genuine belief or incessant brainwashing motivated her conversion. Yet I can relate to Ms. Romano. I too come from Milan, an industrial city with a proud history of hardworking people now suffering from spiritual decay. As a freelance journalist in North Africa, I also spent significant time living among Muslims.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Moves on Hong Kong Beijing plans a new national-security law. Is Taiwan next?

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-moves-on-hong-kong-11590103414?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

China’s forceful takeover of Hong Kong appears to have begun, and threats against Taiwan are rising. That’s the message this week as the National People’s Congress in Beijing moved to pass an onerous new security law for Hong Kong and the Chinese navy plans to practice an amphibious assault on an island controlled by Taiwan.

Under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China promised Hong Kong legal autonomy and the preservation of basic liberties, including freedom of speech, press and assembly. Yet Beijing is now seeking to bypass the Hong Kong Legislative Council and impose the national-security law unilaterally. This rule-by-diktat means the end of the “one country, two systems” arrangement that Beijing promised for 50 years after 1997.

Enforcement of the national-security legislation would erase the legal lines between Hong Kong and the mainland. By our deadline China’s Communist Party legislature hadn’t released a draft bill, but rest assured the purpose is to silence and punish dissent to prevent a repeat of last year’s mass protests in Hong Kong. For months Beijing has falsely accused protesters of seeking independence from the mainland and acting on behalf of a foreign “black hand.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Obamagate: Co-ordinating The Cover Story  Francis Menton

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-5-20-obamagate-co-ordinating-the-cover-story

When a collection of bad guys pulls off a big heist, or a murder, or another important crime, one of the critical problems they face is co-ordinating the cover story. The cops may arrest one or more of them, and then question each suspect separately. Any cover stories must be completely consistent if they are to succeed. Inconsistencies in the cover story, even slight ones, will prompt focused questioning that could cause the whole house of cards to collapse.

But co-ordinating cover stories is not so easy. You might remember the case of Paul Manafort, recently under investigation for alleged crimes including lobbying of the U.S. Congress without proper registration. On that subject, Manafort’s story was that his lobbying efforts did not relate to the U.S. Congress, but only to Europe; thus, no registration necessary. As the government questioned other witnesses, Manafort attempted to reach out to them to be sure that they were on board with the line that “we were only lobbying Europe.” Unfortunately, the FBI was snooping on everything Manafort did. From the New York Times, June 4, 2018:

ISRAEL, POLITICS Comments turned off

Democratic senators release letter warning Israel against annexation By  Melissa Weiss …See DPS note

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

https://jewishinsider.com/2020/05/democratic-senators-release-letter-warning-israel-against-annexation/

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and six other senators sign onto updated version after not joining the initial draft

DPS Note:
Democratic senators release letter warning Israel against extending sovereignty over portions of Judea & Samaria which everyone knows will always be Israeli, & despite the Palestinians making it clear every day that no Israel is the only acceptable deal for them.

And additionally, keeping in mind that the areas in question were never “Palestinian.”
Nor Jordanian which illegally occupied them from 1948 until 1967 after forcing Israel to fight a defensive war against extermination. Jordan magnanimously bestowed up the “Palestinians” Jordan’s claims to there areas – which iseffectively giving them nothing since Jordan never had a legitimate claim to begin with.

The last sovereignty exerted over these areas was by the Ottoman Empire and it lost that after WW I. So these are at best “disputed” areas and some very smart legal minds have opined that Israel actually has the best legal claim to them, having acquired them fighting a defensive war – not to mention that they are the ancestral home of the Jewish people and there have been Jews living there ever since. 

If you care a whit about Israel – and if you are Jewish you should because its well being also keeps you safe – then the Democrat Party should be viewed as a hostile environment.

I grew up profoundly admiring Scoop Jackson, Pat Moynihan and Danny Inouye – all as strongly supportive of Israel as anyone can be. I promise you, they are all spinning in their graves right now. This is not their Democrat Party. DPS

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hydroxychloroquine Naysayers have Financial Ties to Remdesivir Developer

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

This is an excellent exposé from former CBS investigative journalist, Sharyl Attkisson, who discusses the prophylactic and treatment efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as well as Gilead Science’s newly developed drug, Remdesivir, with several physicians.

It turns out that many of those disparaging the use of hydroxychloroquine, a very inexpensive drug that has been used for many decades, have ties to Gilead Science. Janet Levy Ross

Watch the video below for more information.

https://youtu.be/zB-_SV-y11Y

ISRAEL Comments turned off

A people are not “settlers” in their own land. By Victor Sharpe *****

Posted By on May 22nd, 2020

Sometimes it becomes necessary to look back at the not so recent history of a nation’s leader when evaluating successes and failures. The very fact that one of the first decisions that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made during his initial term as Israel’s prime minister. which began on June 18th, 1996, was to surrender the first capital of the Jewish faith to the fraudulent Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.

 Ruth King, once justifiably lamented in her blog, Ruthfullyours, about Netanyahu’s capitulation at the Wye Plantation to then Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, (aka Madeline Halfbright) who pressured him into betraying the ancestral Jewish holy city of Hebron.

It was Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who had given away Jericho after the fateful signing of the Oslo Accords, which of course became the Oslo War. Jericho was the first city in the Promised Land that Joshua liberated some 3,500 years earlier after the ancient Jewish tribes had crossed the River Jordan.

Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a Temple Mount activist and former Member of Knesset once said, “Jericho was the beginning of that process of building up the Land of Israel, it also was the beginning of the Oslo Process that cut Israel into sections.

“The first stage of the 1993 Oslo Accords was a partial Israeli withdrawal from Jericho and the transfer of some powers and responsibilities on civil matters to the interim Palestinian Authority. After this step was implemented, the negotiations stalled and the process ended.

ELECTIONS Comments turned off

Oregon Movie Star and Terrorist-Stopping Hero Snags GOP Nomination for Congress By Jeff Reynolds

Posted By on May 21st, 2020

https://pjmedia.com/election/jeff-reynolds/2020/05/21/oregon-movie-star-and-terrorist-stopping-hero-snags-gop-nomination-for-congress-n414011

In the primary election this Tuesday in Oregon, a noteworthy candidate snagged the GOP nomination for Congress. Alek Skarlatos won the most votes in the history of the Republican primary election in the Fourth District, running away with the nomination and setting himself up as a real threat to ultra-liberal Peter DeFazio (D-OR), who has held the seat for about a century (give or take).

Skarlatos shot to unexpected fame in August 2015 while on the Thalys train from Brussels to Paris. He and two of his buddies, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, stopped a Moroccan terrorist who tried to take out as many travelers as possible with an AK 47, pistol, box cutter, and a jar of gasoline.

The details of how they suppressed the terrorist and the lives they saved garnered them the Knights of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian honor. Clint Eastwood later decided to cast Skarlatos, Stone, and Sadler as themselves in the movie retelling of their story, The 15:17 to Paris.

It may take a movie star/veteran/terrorist hunter to take out DeFazio, who has held the seat for 17 terms. Prior to that, he worked as an aide to the previous representative, and has never held a private sector job. The liberal from Eugene via Massachusetts co-sponsored Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. President Obama considered him as a nominee for Secretary of Transportation, before settling on Ray LaHood.

This guy is the ultimate DC barnacle.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

D.C. Circuit Orders Judge Sullivan to Respond to Flynn Mandamus Petition By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on May 21st, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/michael-flynn-case-dc-circuit-orders-judge-sullivan-to-respond-to-mandamus-petition/

Is Judge Emmet Sullivan’s collusion cameo nearing its end?

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, on its own motion, ordered Judge Sullivan to respond within ten days to the petition for a writ of mandamus filed by Michael Flynn. Earlier this week, Flynn’s counsel, Sidney Powell, filed the petition for that extraordinary writ, asking the appellate court to instruct Sullivan to grant the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against Flynn.

That was after Judge Sullivan not only declined to grant the prosecution’s motion, but (a) invited non-parties to intervene in the case by filing amicus briefs (transparently, to make arguments that he somehow has authority to deny DOJ’s motion); and (b) appointed one amicus, former federal judge John Gleeson, as a quasi-prosecutor to make arguments that prosecutors are declining to make in favor of entering a judgment of conviction and sentencing Flynn.

As I noted yesterday, Sullivan’s encouragement of amicus briefs, which are not authorized in criminal cases, flies in the face of Sullivan’s own very firm orders previously declining to permit amicus briefs in Flynn’s case — some two dozen times by Ms. Powell’s count.

The appointment of Gleeson is equally astonishing and offensive to the principle of courts as impartial arbiters. Gleeson — who worked at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York with Loretta Lynch (later President Obama’s attorney general) and Andrew Weissmann (chief prosecutor on the Mueller probe that brought the Flynn case — and now a Biden for President fundraiser) — has co-written a Washington Post op-ed portraying the Justice Department’s dismissal motion as an abuse of power.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Could his protests over annexation be Mahmoud Abbas’s last whimper? Abbas is a one-trick pony who keeps himself relevant by pretending that his main mission in life is to obtain Palestinian independence from the “occupation.” By Ruthie Blum BLUM

Posted By on May 21st, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/could-his-protests-over-annexation-be-mahmoud-abbass-last-whimper-628910

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas needs new material. Even the flies on the wall at his compound in Ramallah must have yawned on Tuesday night when he announced – for the umpteenth time – that the PA is no longer bound by previous agreements with Israel.

The only twist to his tired mantra was the inclusion of the United States in the chant.

“We hold the American administration fully responsible for the oppression befalling the Palestinian people, and we consider it a primary partner with the Israeli occupation government in all its aggressive and unfair decisions and measures against our people,” he declared to PLO officials summoned to the emergency meeting to listen to his televised rant.

Though the honchos in attendance must have doubted that Abbas was actually going to make good on his threat to halt economic and security cooperation with the Jewish state, they couldn’t have admitted it aloud. In fact, as Khaled Abu Toameh reported on Wednesday, those who dared to inquire about a timetable for the action were warned by Abbas’s aides that if they didn’t shut up, they would be banished from the premises.

Naturally.

The last thing that Abbas wants, after all, is to put his money where his mouth is, except when it comes to funding terrorists. That is one policy he proudly upholds, no matter how often certain countries urge him to stop.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Multiple Universities Refuse to Cooperate with Federal Investigations into Ties to China by Tom Ciccotta

Posted By on May 21st, 2020

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/05/21/multiple-universities-refuse-to-cooperate-with-federal-investigations-into-ties-to-china/

Several universities around the nation are currently under investigation by the Department of Education over their alleged financial ties to the Chinese government. A report published this week suggests that many universities are refusing to comply with a standard request to produce internal documents.

According to a report by the College Fix, several universities and colleges that are under investigation by the Department of Education are refusing to release internal documents that may contain evidence of undisclosed financial grants from the Chinese government.
The report claims that lawyers for several universities refused to comply with a request to produce documents, arguing that they were entitled to privacy under “Freedom of Information Act exemptions and legal privileges.” A letter from the Department of Education did not name the universities and colleges that have refused to comply with the request for documents.

Department of Education General Counsel Reed Rubinstein believes that many American universities and colleges have been compromised by foreign governments, China being one of the primary governments in question.  “However, the evidence suggests massive investments of foreign money have bred dependency and distorted the decision making, mission, and values of too many institutions,” Rubinstein said.