#u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo

[odinsblog]

No one loves Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman more than America’s elite. In recent years, we’ve seen leaders, investors, and celebrities hold out a Saudi exception to human rights in the service of a blurry concept of national interests that requires the U.S. to constantly compromise its values in service of an autocrat. And so MBS has been welcomed back into the establishment fold, and he won over Washington. And now he’s taking a victory lap.

When Saudi Arabia convened a 2018 summit in Riyadh, businesspeople shielded their name tags from view, sheepish about seeking MBS’s money just days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. But the stigma has apparently worn off, and big names in finance, tech, media, and entertainment showed up at the Miami edition of Davos in the Desert.

The entire conceit of the conference is that Saudi Arabia can be abstracted from MBS, who is hardly ever mentioned yet remains the unspoken force behind the events. The host, the Future Investment Initiative Institute, a mouthful, is essentially the crown prince’s personal think tank. Session after session offered platitudes and ruminations on the least controversial ideas ever—AI is going to change the world! Climate is important! Sports bring people together! The two-day gathering was titled “On the Edge of a New Frontier,” itself a sort of redundant name. (Isn’t a frontier an edge?)

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of a major sovereign wealth fund that’s currently under Senate investigation, led the proceedings. The Public Investment Fund that Al-Rumayyan runs is the conference’s founding partner and powers its lavish events. That Al-Rumayyan has $70 billion in annual investments to dole out is enough to draw out financial titans, curious entrepreneurs, and former Trump officials.

Jared Kushner, who had grown a beard, was talking about his theory of investing, without noting that MBS’s sovereign wealth funds had reportedly contributed $2 billion to his Affinity Partners. Steve Mnuchin, who similarly snared $1 billion of Saudi funds for his Liberty Strategic Capital, wore a suit and dress sneakers and talked about Israel as a tech hub. Mike Pompeo, in a tie, said that U.S. leadership in the world requires a “stability model” that involves working with “like-minded nations,” though “they’re not all going to be democracies.” Little wonder he rushed U.S. arms to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state as part of an end run around Congress.

Doing business with Saudi Arabia has become so normalized that the CEOs of major corporations and investment firms showed up in droves. There was Accenture’s Julie Sweet, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, and Thiel Capital’s Jack Selby. David Rubenstein—the billionaire who has played host to President Joe Biden at his Nantucket estate—spoke alongside his daughter Gabrielle. (This year, the Biden administration didn’t send an emissary, but the deputy commerce secretary, Donald Graves, attended in 2021.)

Journalists have kept a distance from Saudi Arabia after the dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, but in Miami the moderators included CNN’s Bianna Golodryga, Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, Bloomberg’s Manus Cranny, and The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker.

MBS has especially used boldfaced names to rehabilitate his standing post-Khashoggi, his crackdown on women activists, and the destructive Yemen war. In Miami, there was a fireside chat with failed Senate candidate Dr. Oz. “Saudi Arabia is, I think, doing some wise investing and shifting mindsets by trying to leapfrog, in some cases, where the West is,” Oz said.

For Gwyneth Paltrow, it was just another fun public event. She spoke about how Goop had “built meaning” for its fans, in conversation with entrepreneur Moj Mahdara, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton. It was particularly incongruous when Paltrow discussed bringing more women to the cap table to fight the patriarchy.

Rob Lowe had some advice for Riyadh’s efforts to break into Hollywood and create its own film industry. “My view is there’s no reason that Saudi shouldn’t be the leader in IP in the same way they’re attempting to be the leader in sports and everything else,” Lowe said. “You need to have someone who can communicate: Why Saudi, why now.”

For all of the glitzy stage management and slick social media branding, at many moments there were fewer than 50 people watching the livestream on YouTube. But what mattered more were the opinion leaders, financiers, and tycoons in the room.

Big Tech was there, too, with Google’s Caroline Yap and Dell’s Michael Dell. Nothing was quite as obsequious as last year’s gathering in Miami when Adam Neumann, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz—all beneficiaries of Saudi Arabia’s financial largesse—gushed about how MBS is like a “founder,” except “you call him, ‘His Royal Highness.’”

(continue reading)

#politics #saudi arabia #jared kushner #mohammed bin salman #jamal khashoggi #davos #uae #corporate greed #mbs

[beardedmrbean]

The FBI in Miami has warned of an Iranian assassin that is wanted in connection to assassination targets against former and current public officials, such as those involved in former President Donald Trump's administration.

The FBI field office in Miami shared a wanted notice for Majid Dastjani Farahani on Friday.

"Majid Dastjani Farahani, an Iranian intelligence officer, is wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former United States Government officials as revenge for the killing of IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani," the FBI stated.

"Farahani also reportedly recruited individuals for surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States," the FBI said. "Farahani acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security."

The announcement by the FBI comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. Earlier this year, three U.S. Service members were killed at a military base in Jordan. President Joe Biden announced that "radical, Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," were responsible, prompting speculation on Iran's role in the incident.

According to the BBC, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaan denied Tehran was behind the attacks, saying that Iran is "not involved in the decision-making of resistance groups."

However, in 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a speech in which he blamed Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the killing of Soleimani.

"If Trump and Pompeo are not tried in a fair court for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take our martyr's revenge," Raisi said, according to Reuters. "The aggressor, murderer and main culprit—the then-President of the United States—must be tried and judged under the (Islamic) law of retribution, and God's ruling must be carried out against him."

In December 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Farahani and another Iranian intelligence officer Mohammad Mahdi Khanpour Ardestani.

"Both Farahani and Ardestani have recruited individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former U.S. Government officials as revenge for the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani," the Treasury Department said. "Farahani and Ardestani also recruited individuals for surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States,"

#nunyas news #yikes much

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune :: @Patbagley

* * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 11, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 12, 2023

As is sometimes the case in American politics, a bill that many people are likely not paying a great deal of attention to is likely to have enormous impact on the nation’s future. 

That $110.5 billion national security supplemental package was designed to provide additional funding for Ukraine in its war to fight off Russia’s invasion; security assistance to Israel, primarily for missile defense systems; humanitarian assistance to citizens in Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, and elsewhere; funding to replenish U.S. weapon stockpiles; assistance to regional partners in the Indo-Pacific; investments in efforts to stop illegal fentanyl from coming into the U.S. and to dismantle international drug cartels; and investment in U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enhance border security and speed up migrant processing. 

President Joe Biden asked for the supplemental funding in late October. Such a package is broadly popular among lawmakers of both parties who like that Ukraine is holding back Russian expansion that would threaten countries that make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). If Russia attacks a NATO country, all NATO members, including the U.S., are required to respond. 

Since supplying Ukraine with weapons to maintain its fight essentially means sending Ukraine outdated weapons while paying U.S. workers to build new ones, creating jobs largely in Republican-dominated states, and since Ukraine is weakening Russia for about 5% of the U.S. defense budget, it would seem to be a program both parties would want to maintain. Today, even Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “If Ukraine loses, the cost to America will be far greater than the aid we have given Ukraine. The least costly way to move forward is to provide Ukraine with the weapons needed to win and end the war.”

But now that former president Trump has made immigration a leading part of his campaign and a Trump loyalist, Mike Johnson (R-LA), is House speaker, Republican extremists are demanding their own immigration policies be added to the package. 

Those demands amount to a so-called poison pill for the measure. The House Republicans' own immigration bill significantly narrows the right to apply for asylum in the U.S.—which is a right recognized in both domestic and international law—and prevents the federal government from permitting blanket asylum in emergency cases, such as for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees. It ends the asylum program that permits people to enter the U.S. with a sponsor, a program that has reduced illegal entry by up to 95%. 

It requires the government to build Trump’s wall and allows the seizure of private land to do it. 

When the House passed its immigration measure in May 2023, the administration responded that it “strongly supports productive efforts to reform the Nation’s immigration system” but opposed this measure, “which makes elements of our immigration system worse.”

And yet House Republicans are so determined to force the country to accept their extreme anti-immigration policies, they are willing to kill the aid to Ukraine that even their own lawmakers want, leaving that country undersupplied as it goes into the winter. 

When he brought the supplemental bill up last week, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) promised the Republicans that he would let them make whatever immigration amendments they wanted to the bill to be voted on, if only they would let the bill get to the floor. But all Senate Republicans refused, essentially threatening to use the filibuster to keep the measure from the floor until it includes the House Republicans' demands.

This unwillingness to fund a crucial partner in its fight against Russia has resurrected concerns that the Trump-supporting MAGA Republicans are working not for the United States but for Russian president Vladimir Putin, who badly needs the U.S. to abandon Ukraine in order to help him win his war. 

Media outlets in Moscow reinforced this sense when they celebrated the Senate vote, gloating that Ukraine is now in “agony” and that it was “difficult to imagine a bigger humiliation.” One analyst said: “The downfall of Ukraine means the downfall of Biden! Two birds with one stone!” Another: “Well done, Republicans! They’re standing firm! That’s good for us.”

Today, allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán were in Washington, D.C., where they are participating in an effort to derail further military support for Ukraine (an effort that in itself suggests Putin is concerned about how the war is going). Flora Garamvolgyi and David Smith of The Guardian explained that the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank, which leads Project 2025—the far-right blueprint for a MAGA administration—and which strongly opposes aid to Ukraine, is hosting a two-day event about the war and about “transatlantic culture wars.”

This conference appears explicitly to tie the themes of the far right to an attack on Ukraine aid. Orbán has dismantled democracy in his own country, charging that the equality before the law established in democracies weakens a nation both by allowing immigration and by accepting that women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people should have the same rights as heterosexual white men, principles that he maintains undermine Christianity. In Hungary, Orbán has cracked down on immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and women’s rights while gathering power into his own hands. 

In the U.S. the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and its allies—including former Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson and Arizona representative Paul Gosar—openly admire Orbán’s Hungary as a model for the U.S. Indeed, some of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws Florida governor Ron DeSantis has pushed through the Florida legislature appear to have been patterned directly on Hungarian laws.

Orbán—a close ally of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, who embraces the same “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy” Orbán does—is currently working to stop the European Union from funding Ukraine. Now Orbán’s allies are openly urging their right-wing counterparts in the U.S. to join him in backing Putin. A diplomatic source close to the Hungarian embassy told Garamvolgyi and Smith: “Orbán is confident that the Ukraine aid will not pass in Congress. That is why he is trying to block assistance from the EU as well.”

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul today noted that even the delay in funding has hurt the U.S. “Delaying a vote on aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan will do great damage to America's reputation as a reliable global leader in a very dangerous world. Delay is a gift to Putin, Xi, and the mullahs in Iran,” he wrote. “The stakes are very high.” 

Republican determination to push their own immigration plan seems in part to be an attempt to come up with an issue to compete with abortion as the central concern of the 2024 election. As soon as he took office, Biden asked for funding to increase border security and process asylum seekers, and he has repeatedly said he wants to modernize the immigration system. To pass the national security supplemental appropriation, he has emphasized that he is willing to compromise on immigration, but the Republicans are insisting instead on a policy that echoes Trump’s extreme policies.

Immigration, on which Orbán rose to power, has the potential to outweigh abortion, which is hurting Republicans quite badly.

We’ll see. The story out of Texas, where 31-year-old Kate Cox has been unable to get an abortion despite the fact that the fetus she is carrying has a fatal condition and the pregnancy is endangering her health and her ability to carry another child in the future, illuminates just how dangerous the Republicans’ abortion bans are. Under Texas’s abortion ban, doctors would not perform an abortion, so Cox went to a state court for permission to obtain one. 

The state court ruled in Cox’s favor, but Texas attorney general Ken Paxton immediately  threatened any doctor who performed the abortion, and appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to block the lower court’s order, saying that allowing Cox to obtain an abortion would irreparably harm the people of Texas. All nine of the justices on the state supreme court are Republicans. 

Late Friday night the Texas Supreme Court blocked the lower court’s order, pending review, and today, Cox’s lawyers said she had left the state to obtain urgently needed health care. This evening the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Cox, saying she was not entitled to a medical exception from the state’s abortion ban. 

The image of a woman forced by the state to carry a fetus with a fatal condition at the risk of her own health and future fertility until finally she has to flee her state for medical care is one that will not be erased easily.

Meanwhile, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has disappeared. His lawyer says he was told Navalny was “no longer listed” in the files of the prison where he was being held, and Navalny’s associates have not been able to contact him for six days. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #MAGA #support for Ukraine #Russia #Texas Supreme Court #Orban #Senate Republicans #$110.5 billion national security supplemental package #NATO #national security

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a Monday interview that he believes Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union, is the “most dangerous person in the world.”

In an interview with Semafor, Pompeo, who is thought to be eyeing a potential 2024 White House bid, said that education is one of the central issues that Republicans should focus on, noting his criticism of Weingarten and the current teaching curriculum in U.S. school systems.

“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten,” Pompeo said.

“It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing,” the former top U.S. diplomat added.

“These are the things that candidates should speak to in a way that says, ‘Here’s the problem. Here’s a proposal for how to solve it. And if given the opportunity, these are the things I will go work on to try and deliver that outcome that fixes that problem,'” Pompeo concluded. “Pretty straightforward stuff.”

In a thread on Twitter, Weingarten said she didn’t know if the remarks should be considered “ridiculous or dangerous.”

“At the state department, Pompeo defended Middle East’s tyrants & undermined Ukraine. He was more focused on pleasing Trump than fighting 4 freedom, national security & democracy. To compare us to China means he must not know what his own department says,” she wrote.

“Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America.”

Education was one of the issues Americans cited as the most important during the 2022 midterm election cycle, as many GOP-led states implemented laws that prohibited the teaching of critical race theory — a college-level theory that posits racism underlies American institutions and public policies — or LGBTQ perspectives in classrooms.

Florida’s state legislature earlier this year passed its Parental Rights in Education bill, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The law prohibits educators in the state from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools, and parents are able to take legal action against school districts they believe have violated it.

Weingarten, who has been AFT’s president since 2008, told USA Today in August that “extremists on the right wing” despise teachers unions and their commitment to creating a safe and welcoming environment for every student.

“Our job is about what kids need, what communities need,” she said at the time. “Because when you’re doing that, you’re also doing what your members need.”

“But it’s never been as bad as right now — where it’s not just political, it’s cultural,” Weingarten said. “People had a different view of how to do education, but there was not this attack on people’s basic humanity. This is really new.”

The Hill has reached out to AFT for comment.

#us politics #news #the hill #mike pompeo #Randi Weingarten #American Federation of Teachers #semafor #2022 #department of education #teachers union #twitter #tweet #usa today #parental rights in education #don't say gay bill #critical race theory #xi jinping #kim jong un #department of state #2024 election #2024 elections #2024 presidential race

[news4dzhozhar]

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

(RNS) — The Muslim and Jewish communities in the West have a decades long history of standing together in solidarity against Islamophobia and antisemitism and supporting one another in times of pain. We have faced a similar bigotry and an uptick of hate-fueled attacks on our communities in recent years. We have been familiar faces to one another at the endless press conferences in the aftermath of so many of those incidents.

But these relationships cannot be confined to empathy at home. When that same hatred is overseas, it has to be just as near to our hearts. And at a time in which Palestinian civilians — two-thirds of whom are women and children — are being killed at a rate of 280 per day, we must affirm that anti-Palestinian racism and bigotry are also extensions of Islamophobia. We must also be crystal clear as to what anti-Zionism is and is not. 

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.

It is a travesty that we are forced to state and defend what should be an undeniable fact. It is a strategic conflation made by the Zionist lobby, engineered to suppress a shift in narrative and public opinion that increasingly humanizes Palestinians and rejects the Israeli occupation. Over the past two months, Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and ground invasion has resulted in more than 16,000 Palestinians killed and at least 40,000 more injured. And with that, a global audience otherwise ignorant of the Palestinian catastrophe has been granted firsthand access to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.

House Resolution 894, a resolution that strongly condemns and denounces the “drastic rise of antisemitism in the United States and around the world,” also states “that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” This is an ignorant at best — malicious at worst — attempt to amalgamate two disparate concepts. Antisemitism is a discriminatory and bigoted view of the Jewish people, a people with a millennialong history, while anti-Zionism opposes a political ideology introduced in the late 19th century that sought the establishment of an ethnostate on Palestinian territory. 

On December 5, the resolution passed despite last-ditch efforts by three Jewish Democrats, who urged their colleagues to avoid what they termed an “attempt by Republicans to weaponize Jewish pain.” They described the resolution as “just the latest unserious attempt by Republicans to weaponize Jewish pain and the serious problem of antisemitism to score cheap political points.” While 92 Democrats voted merely “present,” a majority voted in favor, marking a dramatic disconnect between Democrats in Congress and their constituents — at a time when Gallup data shows “Democrats’ sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis.”

And the impact of AIPAC lobbying cannot be overstated. As M.J. Rosenberg wrote for the Huffington Post in 2017, “(Democrats) are in the grip of a foreign policy lobby as powerful as the NRA, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.” Rosenberg alluded to Democrats’ decadeslong frustration with the National Rifle Association’s lobbying efforts against gun control measures. “Sorry, Democrats: your NRA is spelled AIPAC,” he titled the piece. 

House Republicans, and the GOP at large, began this deliberate mischaracterization of anti-Zionism years ago. In his remarks at the 2019 AIPAC Policy Conference, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo catered to the crowd. “Let me go on the record,” he said. “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.” He defined anti-Zionism as denying “the very legitimacy of the Israeli state and of the Jewish people.”

And that is exactly the conflation AIPAC hopes to embed and establish in the public discourse, the idea that the Israeli occupation and the Jewish people are inseparable. But as Dave Zirin of The Nation puts it, this is the greatest disservice to the Jewish people. “Anyone who attempts to fasten a 5,000-year-old religion to a 150-year-old colonial project is guilty of antisemitism. They are pushing the idea that my family, merely because of our religion, supports war crimes abroad and the crackdown on critics at home.” It also assumes American Jews are a homogenous group; a Pew Research Center survey found that most American Jewish adults take the position that God “did not literally give” the land of Israel to the Jewish people. 

Anti-Zionists, including thousands of Jews across the globe, reject the notion of an ethno-state that expels the existing Palestinian population. Anti-Zionists oppose the Israeli occupation on the basis of the myriad human rights abuses that Israel has carried out since its founding. These include the displacement and ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians, the establishment of an apartheid system that systematically disenfranchises Palestinians, a sustained illegal occupation, the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past seven decades and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. It would be absurd to be forced to make the same clarifications regarding other distinctly independent concepts, and it is an indictment of the uninformed level of discourse Congress has succumbed to. Equating anti-Zionism and antisemitism is a strategic and calculated measure designed to stifle criticism of the Israeli occupation and instill fear in those who speak out, Jews and non-Jews alike. 

After the resolution’s passage, I wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that, “according to the House of Representatives, the Muslim community that has stood in solidarity in front of synagogues and Jewish community centers against hate for years — yet also opposes Zionism — is to be considered antisemitic. And all of the brave members of the Jewish community standing in solidarity against occupation are also apparently antisemites. Make it make sense.”

Unfortunately, it will never make sense. To equate anti-Zionism and antisemitism is to conflate being Jewish with being Zionist, and, as Dave Zirin posited, “this is rank antisemitism: the assumption that to be Jewish is to support Israel’s crimes.” Ironically, despite the resolution’s stated attempts to condemn antisemitism, it — in fact — fans the flames of bigotry. This resolution seeks to weaponize Jewish pain by criminalizing criticism of the occupation, apartheid and systemic racism, all of which are part and parcel of the current Israeli fabric.

#anti zionism isnt anti semitism #stop weaponizing words to prevent debate #complicit in genocide #genocide #israel lobby #aipac #israel is an apartheid state #apartheid #ethnic cleansing #collective punishment #save palestine #free palestine 🇵🇸

[wartakes]

KD’s First Annual “Top 4 Nat Sec Things I’d Burn to the Ground if I Could” (OLD ESSAY)

This "essay" was first posted on February 3rd, 2021.

It's not really an essay to be honest but it was a belated listicle for the New Year because I was feeling very burnt out (not long after I posted this I'd start throttling back my output on the essays lol).

(Full essay below the cut)

I meant to do this piece to start off the new year, before certain events distracted me – and a lot of the country and the world, apparently. But the year is still only one month old, so I think we can comfortably call it pretty new. And as is customary in a new year, folks often make resolutions on things they wish to change or work harder on in the coming year, make wishes that they hope will come true, and generally hope for what might be better or different.

It is in that spirit I offer you my own contribution of a sort:

KD’s First Annual “4 Things in National Security That I’d Burn to the Ground if I Could.”

First, a clarifying note: No, these are not threats or calls to violent revolution. When I say “burn to the ground” I mean that in a purely metaphorical sense (though I’d still say burn down the physical structures in some cases because they may have bad juju left behind but I also say we should do that only after we’ve fired everyone and they can leave with their personal items. I shouldn’t have to explain all of this in a perfect world, but we live in far from a perfect world, so I’m going to err on the side of caution.  

A second note: Just because I think we should get rid of these things; doesn’t mean I don’t think we need something like them or a better version of them. In fact, I think all of these things are necessary for a country’s national defense in some shape or form. However, I think the version or versions we have of these organizations or institutions are so flawed and so beyond repair or reform at this point, that the only way that we can have anything resembling a positive version of them is to shut the existing one down and start over with a clean sheet of paper. I tend to have a similar attitude towards law enforcement, but that’s a story for another time (not fully a national security topic, but it might still cover it here if there’s any interest).

With those disclaimers and covering of my ass out of the way, let’s get on to the list:

U.S. Military Service Academies

Oh, the service academies. What distinguished graduates you have given us. From famous Civil War traitors, to rampant cheaters, to noted man of integrity and best Secretary of State of all time Mike Pompeo, and all manner of other leaders and elites – ranking from mediocre to downright awful – in between. Oh, to say nothing of all the sexual assaults the academy students mange to pack in between classes and the poisonous and harmful professional culture they perpetuate within the military’s officer corps.

But all that is ok apparently because sports ball. Sports ball, folks? Sports ball.

Now, is every graduate of a service academy an awful person? No. Are enough of them bad to justify just burning these institutions to ashes and starting anew? Yes. At least in my opinion. Is the pitiful excuse for a military leadership ethos that they instill in the officer corps bad enough to justify that as well? Very yes.

Though, the buildings themselves are nice. Maybe instead of burning the actual buildings down we should just shut the academies down and repurpose them as housing for homeless veterans, or for the refugees from the wars we’ve been waging in the Middle East for a good two decades now.

Oh, and we’ll let the Coast Guard keep their current one. They don’t really seem to be hurting anyone (as far as I know). Or the Merchant Marine, I guess. But West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs? Pack your shit and move out. We’re shutting it down and starting over with something that doesn’t just churn as many rapists, cheaters, and traitors per capita and maybe creates officers who care about those under them and serving the people – not just the state. I dunno, we’ll figure out what officers and an officer culture should actually be like later – that’s an article within itself I need to write. I not only think the military still needs to exist, but we’re gonna still need officers. I feel running a military unit by committee and debate, Russian Revolution style, may not be the best idea in the world when it comes to modern warfare – especially when the bombs and the shells start falling.

Special Operations Forces

These guys are supposed to be masters of their craft in unconventional warfare, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and so on. Instead, the only thing they appear to be masters of is what we like to call in the biz: having a normal one.

And boy do current and former special operators ever have a normal one. Whether its spousal abuse, drug smuggling, attempting to carry out poorly planned coups in foreign countries, committing horrific war crimes in foreign countries – and then getting Presidential protection for it from Trump because he thought it should be more horrific, or just shooting up random civilians at bowling alleys here at home, nobody really compares in the skill of having a normal one like US SOF community. Really setting that bar high there, folks.

It’s always been hilarious to me that these guys are supposed to be elite badasses who supposedly make their enemies tremble in their boots and are just doing so much winning all the time – just constant winning. Yet, the wars in which they have been at the forefront of since they started, rage on with no real end in sight with them having accomplished virtually nothing except rack up the body count for all involved. If that isn’t a damming indictment of them being pretty much worthless in their current form, I really don’t know what is.

I say, shut it all down, send them all off to their second careers as Instagram influencers, and let’s go back to the drawing board. It’d give us a great chance to re-examine some concepts about SOF that we previously took for granted. Do we really need special operations force (or two, or three) for every branch of the military? Probably not. Should they be able to operate with the level of impunity and lack of accountability they do now? Absolutely not. Do we really need as many of them as the whole SOF enterprise has bloated to? Also probably not. Should they be going off and getting involved in endless forever wars of dubious legality or necessity? Absolutely not.

I say we start over, slim down, and go back to training SOF to blow up bridges to slow down authoritarian states that are invading their neighbors, or training rebel guerillas to fight back against an authoritarian foreign occupier, o rescuing hostages – stuff of that nature. Not just walking around the Middle East in Gucci gear committing war crimes and then coming back home and starting a racist coffee and/or military themed apparel company.

The Central Intelligence Agency

Do I really need to justify this one?

Like, really?

If you know anything about the CIA you should know it’s beyond saving at this point. I could list you a litany of their misdoings both at home and abroad. Literal books upon books have been written about it, and I could fill this entire article with hyperlinks to articles, documentaries, and much more describing it all. Countless stories of scandals and misconduct, such as torture, coups, assassinations and drone strikes, support of horrific violent groups and governments, and what have you – ever since its founding.

How do we solve this? Simple. Tell everyone at Langley their services are no longer required, have them pack up a cardboard box, and then literally set that cursed place on fire and let it burn until all the bad spirits have been released. Then bulldoze over the remains and, I dunno – turn it into a pet cemetery or something. Or just pour cement over it like it was a toxic waste dump.

Now, this leads to another question: do we need an intelligence capability? Well, some leftists may not be happy with this answer because the CIA has conceptually poisoned the well for them so thoroughly on this topic, but in my opinion: yes. When pull a Henry Stimson and decide that “gentlemen don’t read each other’s mail,” you’re not doing yourself any favors but you’re giving plenty to anyone and everyone who wishes to do you harm. I’ll save that discussion for an essay of its own, but while I still think we need intelligence gathering and analytical capability, I don’t think the CIA is the answer by any means. We need to start over with a new culture, new people, new methodology, and new ideology guiding it all – among many other new things.

Defense Contractors

Defense contractors have to be some of my favorite punching bags in the national security field. And why shouldn’t they be? They just make it so goddamn easy. Its all so justified. They’re either at best amoral, or at worst bordering on Dr. Evil levels of supervillainy with the role they play in fueling conflict.

But its not just the evil that makes me want to get rid of them. It’s the fact that they can’t even do their goddamn jobs right while being evil. I read defense and national security news and analysis pretty much every, and you’d be hard pressed to go more than a couple days without seeing some story about a major defense procurement program that has run into issues that will delay and almost certainly drive up the cost of the end product – if the program isn’t cancelled before you even get to production. Hell, for a while last week, we were getting at least one of these a day.

This is not new by any stretch of the phenomenon. The decades following the end of the Cold War are littered with dozens of failed acquisitions efforts that wasted billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars only to end in little to nothing to show for it. Efforts to build new amphibious armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery, stealth scout helicopters, airborne laser systems (you see now I wasn’t joking with the Dr. Evil comparison), or comprehensive plans to entirely transform the Army have all ended in failure – but not without running up hefty price tags first.

Even the programs that do get through and do get fielded often do so plagued with problems. Take the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter for instance – the world’s most expensive weapons system in history, which despite almost two decades of development and a trillion dollars or so in funding is still plagued with both hardware and software problems – so many issues that Defense News has an entire section of its website dedicated to them.. Or the KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft, which the Air Force itself has called a “lemon” and that I can only describe as the defense procurement version of Sideshow Bob constantly stepping on rakes. Oh and don’t even get me started on the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships – which someone wittier than I on twitter once aptly described as a “glorified jet ski”, which is once again having technical issues that are only the latest in a long line of problems and have led the Navy to halt deliveries.

I could go on and on with stories like this. We could also have a very detailed discussion or on why the defense industry can’t seem to do anything right since the end of the Cold War – don’t’ get me wrong, they sucked back then too, but they could least delivery a bit more regularly. We could have a debate on whether these failures and overall state of the defense industry is the result of incompetence, laziness, or willful malevolence and greed on the part of the defense contractors – my opinion is the answer is “all of the above” to varying degrees.

However, we’ll save all that for another time because it’s definitely a topic that deserves an essay of its own – or two, or three – to pack in all the detail. The main takeaway here is, is that whatever you call this disaster factory – whether its military industrial complex or defense industrial base – it’s not working. Its time for it to go.

Now I’ve built up a reputation of adding caveats at this point, so far be it from me to defy expectations at this point.  Shocker: I believe we still need a capability to manufacture weapons and military equipment. However, I don’t think this should be something private sector corporations should be doing for profit. War is a racket, as Marine General Smedley Butler famously said – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

My answer? Nationalize them. All of them. Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, the whole lot. Nationalize them. Providing for the national defense shouldn’t be a money-making endeavor. It should be an obligation taken on by the state in order to defend its people – and that’s the key: the people. Not just  protecting the institutions and certainly not just corporations and the wealthy and the elite. Competition for who gets to build what shouldn’t be about getting a paycheck, it should be for the pride of having done the best job providing the military with a tool that – while we hope we never have to use it – will be used under just circumstances to defend ourselves and others from unequivocal and clear aggression.

You want to make money? I dunno. Start a podcast with a Patreon (or an OnlyFans). But making the machines and material that are unfortunately necessary for the grim and permanently reality of armed conflict shouldn’t be where you go to become rich and powerful. Not on my watch.

That’s All Folks! (For now…)

I could go on for pages more with these – I haven’t even gotten to the National Guard yet (I bet that one might cause some interesting opinions). But I do try to keep those somewhat short and accessible, so your eyes don’t glaze over the first couple paragraphs in. I thank you for sticking with me this far in on this self-indulgent journey. I’ll be doing more of these in the future – not least because its fun (being the giant nerd that I am), but also because it gives you a bit of a preview of topics I’m planning to cover on their own in the future, as well as more of an idea of what I’m about with my own ideology and outlook.

This year may not have gotten off to the greatest start, but what were we expecting really? It can be hard not to get bummed out and black pilled somedays for sure – I struggle with it off and on. But at the end of the day, while I think things will probably get worse before they get better, I remain convinced that they can and will get better eventually. So, we might as well start planning for it now so we can get a running start when that day comes. Making a little click-bait style list gives us at least something to work off of once we get there, right?

#essay #War Takes #War Takes Essay #leftism #leftist #socialism #democratic socialism #international relations #IR #national security #national defense #international security #foreign policy #foreign affairs #listicle #war

[xtruss]

Playing Victim

— Liu Rui | July 09, 2023

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Lying Not To Make America 'Great Again'

— Published: 07 March 2020 | Pang Xinhua | Sunday July 09, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 7, 2018. /Xinhua

"I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole… we had entire training courses." This is a line from a speech made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Texas.

Following a burst of laughter from the audience as a response to that line, Pompeo hastened to add: "It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."

If lying, cheating and stealing do not sound outrageous for someone working at the CIA, what makes it less sensible though is that after becoming Secretary of State, Pompeo has done little to change what he's learned from those "training courses," but carried the practice even further.

His attacks on China are exact proof of that. At all times and in all places, Pompeo never forgets to lash out at China, using nothing other than lying and cheating as his weapon.

For example, he alleged that Chinese investments in Africa pose a risk to the sovereignty of African states, pushing them into a debt trap and breeding corruption and dependency. He criticized China's Xinjiang policies by claiming that China is "trying to erase Muslim culture and religion" and also noted that China is an unreliable partner that spreads chaos in Latin America. While in Munich, he accused China of encroaching on the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. And in many other places, he said Huawei is dangerous and a "Trojan horse for Chinese intelligence".

Trump's campaign slogan was "Make America Great Again," but what his Secretary of State has done so far makes people look at it with disbelief.

"A Slip of the Foot You May Soon Recover, But a Slip of the Tongue You May Never Get Over." — Benjamin Franklin

First, lying undermines the foundation of international relations. The concept of bonafide in international law, meaning good faith, is a universally recognized principle that underpins the formation and fulfillment of international legal obligations and lays the bedrock for international exchanges.

Playing the role of foreign minister, the U.S. secretary of state is, supposedly, responsible for promoting relations between the U.S. and other states. However, Pompeo, on top of his lack of good faith and integrity, is also a habitual liar that is bent on stoking up conflicts around the world. He is exactly the one who is hindering the U.S. from getting along with other countries.

Currently, the U.S. relations are strained not only with world powers such as China and Russia, but its relations with almost all its allies including Britain, Germany, France are also tainted by constant discordance. Pompeo, the chief U.S. diplomat, is undeniably responsible for that. Given such an international environment, how could America be great again?

Second, Pompeo has poisoned America's international trade environment. In international relations, politics and economy are two sides of the same coin. In the Munich Security Conference, Pompeo, on the one hand, blatantly sold his lie that "the West is winning," and on the other hand, he aggressively pressured its Western allies in issues related to Huawei's 5G network, threatening sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline project involving Germany. No wonder Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council, once made the sharp remark that "With friends like that [i.e. America] who needs enemies?"

Pompeo recently made a three-nation trip to Africa. In the face of numerous China-Africa cooperation projects and facts, he even denigrated China's aid to Africa as "empty promises." African leaders categorically refuted his nonsense.

"I Was The CIA Director. We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole…………………. We Had Entire Training Courses." — Mike Pompeo

As the second largest economy in the world, China has contributed over 30 percent to global growth for 13 consecutive years. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, China's imports and exports to the U.S. totaled 3.73 trillion Yuan in 2019. The two countries are economically complementary, with China being the third largest market for U.S. exports of goods and services. With its economy deeply intertwined with that of China, the U.S. would hardly achieve significant economic growth without trading with China.

However, Pompeo still clings to the Cold War mentality and keeps throwing mud at China, or even demonizing China, seriously damaging the trade relations between the two countries.

Today, globalization is intensifying the division of labor around the world. How could America be great again without the contribution made by its global trade partners including China?

Confucius, A Sage in Ancient China, said: "If a Person Lacks Trustworthiness, I Don't Know What He/She Can Be Good For."

Third, lying runs counter to American cultural traditions, upending the world's perception of the U.S. culture. In the U.S., lying and cheating are offenses. For people across the world, the image of the hard-working Uncle Sam is widely associated with America.

After the Cold War, as the only global superpower, the U. S. has gained its cultural dominance in the world. Integrity, being part of the American culture, is also one of the most important virtues shared by nations worldwide. Benjamin Franklin once said: "A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over." Confucius, a sage in ancient China, also said: "If a person lacks trustworthiness, I don't know what s/he can be good for." What the Chinese people believe is: "Be true to your words and be resolute in your action."

As the Chief U.S. Diplomat, Pompeo spews lies at will. How could he be trusted by anyone who has dealings with him?

As a State of Ceremonies, China attaches great importance to diplomatic etiquette. Thanks to Pompeo's repeated lies, China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the following statement at the Munich Conference: "I'd only like to say that all his accusations against China are lies. They are not true. But if the U.S. was the accused, then all this would be true."

More Than A Century Ago:

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln Said: "You Can Fool All the People Some of the Time and Some of the People All the Time, But You Cannot Fool all the People all the Time."

Hope Pompeo, whose lies have repeatedly fallen flat across the world, could one day realize that ‘Lying Will Not Make America Great Again.’

#Mark Pompeo #US Secretary of State 🇺🇸 #Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) #Philippines 🇵🇭 Indonesia 🇮🇩 and Vietnam 🇻🇳 #Make America Great Again #China 🇨🇳 Russia 🇷🇺 #Germany 🇩🇪 #China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi #U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 🇺🇸

[usafphantom2]

Production of the Su-35 from Egypt almost finished, but without any delivery so far

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 06/06/2022 - 12:00 PM in Military

Egyptian Air Force Su-35 fighters, serial numbers 9221 and 9237, seen at the Sukhoi aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAPO).

Egyptian Air Force Su-35 fighters, serial numbers 9221 and 9237, seen at the Sukhoi aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAPO).

The Sukhoi aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAPO) is still producing Egypt's new and advanced Su-35 Super Flanker multifunctional fighters, despite uncertainty about Cairo's interests in the new jets.

The Russian daily Kommersant announced in March 2019 that Egypt had ordered two dozen Su-35 fighters for about $2 billion.

"The agreement for the supply of 'more than two dozen aircraft' and aviation aid will be US$ 2 billion. The signing of the contract was carried out at the end of 2018 and the delivery of the aircraft will begin as early as 2020-21," the report said at the time.

Two Egyptian Su-35 fighters, serial numbers 9221 and 9237, were recently seen in a video during a visit by Russian State Duma deputies to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft factory. The two Su-35s were almost ready.

The aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur began serial production of Egypt's new and advanced Su-35 Super Flanker multifunctional fighter two years ago, but the agreement to buy the Su-35 has suffered setbacks since it was signed in 2018, the main one is the growing pressure from the U.S. on countries around the world not to buy weapons produced in Russia.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that if Egypt proceeds with its planned purchase of Sukhoi Su-35 fighter, the U.S. could sanction Egypt through the Law to Combat America's Opponents through Sanctions 2017 (CAATSA).

CAATSA requires the U.S. to sanction anyone who conducts transactions with Russian military and intelligence services, including arms manufacturers.

After U.S. defense-related sanctions, Russia faces the prospect of being unable to manufacture new weapons systems and uncertainty hangs over how it will fulfill its export contracts while waging a war in Ukraine and dealing with a catastrophic economic crisis.

Egyptian Su-35 aircraft stopped at the Sukhoi factory.

However, Russia proceeded with the manufacture of the aircraft, with the first batch completing its flight tests in July 2020. The first five Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets of the Egyptian Air Force were photographed at Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport on their way to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aircraft factory.

The five Su-35 aircraft with production serial numbers (9210, 9211, 9212, 9213, 9214) have been completed. By June 2021, 17 of the fighters were completed to meet Egyptian orders.

In response to the planned purchase of Russian jets, Washington tries to persuade Cairo to move away from its agreement with the Su-35, granting Egypt permission to buy the closest Western competitor to the Su-35, the F-15 Eagle.

An agreement that is strongly supported by regional rival and neighbor Israel as part of Jerusalem's efforts to improve relations between Cairo and Washington. Although Egypt's interest in American hunting has not been confirmed.

"In the case of Egypt, I think we have good news, because we will provide them with F-15," General Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It was a long and difficult job" to get such an agreement, he added.

For a long time, Egypt has been cautious about relying heavily on the United States for its military equipment and particularly sensitive systems, such as fighter planes, with the U.S. notably having embargoed the country in 2013, which seriously damaged its ability to launch important counterinsurgency operations against Islamic militants.

When the U.S. warned of possible CAATSA sanctions on Egypt, several high-ranking government officials and former military commanders warned that these sanctions would be considered unacceptable interference in Egypt's sovereign decision to acquire weapons.

The acquisition of the Su-35 was seen as an attempt to diversify Cairo's arms suppliers and also nullify the effects of repeated U.S. rejections to its attempts to buy U.S. military equipment.

In addition, the United States followed a policy of limiting the range and capacity of the Egyptian Air Force, preventing Cairo from acquiring advanced fighter jets of heavy air superiority.

Likewise, the U.S. for decades has provided only heavily demoted hardware to Egypt, in addition to strictly controlling how aircraft can be used, including for which air bases they can be deployed and when they can fight. Russian aircraft such as the Su-35 do not have such restrictions imposed.

Egypt also ordered 50 MiG-29M/M2 aircraft in 2015, with deliveries between 2017 and 2020.

The MiG-29M/M2 fighters sold by Russia to Egypt were delivered along with air refueling equipment, allowing the use of MiG-29M/M2 fighters as tankers.

Tags: Military AviationEAF - Egyptian Air Force / Egyptian Air ForceSukhoi Su-35S (Flanker-E)

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[beardedmrbean]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A court in Iran on Thursday ordered the United States government to pay over $4 billion to the families of Iranian nuclear scientists who have been killed in targeted attacks in recent years, state-run media reported.

The largely symbolic ruling underscores the escalating tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, with negotiations to restore the tattered atomic accord at a standstill.

Although Tehran has blamed Israel in the past for slayings targeting Iranian nuclear scientists since a decade ago, Iran did not directly accuse its arch-foe Israel in its announcement. Iran has not recognized Israel since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the pro-West monarchy and brought Islamists to power.

The court mentioned Israel only in saying the U.S. supported the “Zionist regime” in its “organized crime” against the victims.

It's unclear how the court decision, like a raft of previous Iranian cases against the U.S. as the two sides have engaged in a spiraling escalation of threats, would gain traction; there are no American assets to confiscate in the Islamic Republic.

Still, the court branch, which is dedicated to the review of Iranian complaints against the U.S., summoned 37 former American officials, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Iran envoy Brian Hook and former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran that severed most of its oil revenues and international financial transactions.

President Joe Biden wanted to return to the accord, but talks have stalled in recent weeks over America’s designation of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, Iran is enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels under decreasing international oversight. Earlier this month, Iran removed 27 surveillance cameras of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency in what its director warned could deal a “fatal blow” to the nuclear accord.

The families of three nuclear scientists who had been killed in targeted slayings, along with one nuclear scientist wounded in an attack, filed the lawsuit in Tehran, the country's state-run IRNA news agency reported, without identifying the plaintiffs. The court ordered that the U.S. pay $4.3 billion in total compensation, including fines.

Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war across the Middle East and its waters. That conflict has escalated with the recent suspected targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and military officials. In late 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun while he was traveling in a car outside Tehran.

Iran also has placed sanctions on prominent American political and military officials for alleged “terrorism” and “human rights violations,” in retaliation for the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top commander, Qassem Soleimani, two years ago.

Meanwhile Thursday, the Guard replaced the head of its intelligence arm. Cleric Hossein Taeb will be replaced by Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, the former head of the Guard's security department.

The move follows the deaths of several Guard officers in recent weeks. Taeb was known for his heavy-handed policies toward pro-reform figures since Iran's 2009 post-election turmoil.

#nunyas news

[future2020]

[bllsbailey]

Nikki Haley Takes On New Position At The Hudson Institute (Race Card Player)

According to a recent press release, the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank located in Washington, D.C., has appointed former 2024 GOP contender Nikki Haley as its next Walter P. Stern Chair.

“Nikki is a proven, effective leader on both foreign and domestic policy,” Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters said in the release. “In an era of worldwide political upheaval, she has remained a steadfast defender of freedom and an effective advocate for American security and prosperity. We are honored to have her join the Hudson team.”

Haley’s latest action follows her withdrawal from the Republican primary in March after suffering a steep loss to former U.S. President Donald Trump on Super Tuesday.

Haley routinely drew on her background as the previous U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during debates and political gatherings.

During her tenure in that capacity under the Trump administration, from 2017 to 2018, she led the U.S. departure from the Paris Climate Agreement and promoted robust Israel-U.S. relations.

The Hudson think tank has also welcomed other well-known members. In 2021, the group welcomed former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[dertaglichedan]

SAM FADDIS

MAR 7, 2024

We have been warning for some time about the danger of the Iranians and their surrogates like Hezbollah using Venezuela as a launching pad for attacks inside the United States. That possibility is particularly troubling given the number of Venezuelan passport holders this administration has allowed into the country. We don’t need to speculate about this threat anymore, however. It is no longer a possibility. It is happening.

The FBI field office in Miami has issued a public alert seeking information on Majid Dastjani Farahani. According to the FBI, Farahani is an Iranian intelligence officer who is in the United States plotting to assassinate current and former American officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Per the FBI’s statement on Friday, Farahani is actively recruiting “individuals for operations in the U.S., to include lethal targeting of current/former USG officials.” Farahani is also accused of recruiting individuals to surveil religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States. That suggests strongly that he is not here simply to hit a single target but is setting up infrastructure to support multiple attacks

[chandupalle]

Robot Operating System Market by Robot Type (Articulated, SCARA, Cartesian, Collaborative, Autonomous Mobile, Parallel), Application (Pick & Place, Testing & Quality Inspection, Inventory Management), End User and Region - Global Forecast to 2028

#Robot Operating System Market

[xtruss]

Biden Administration Issues “Weasel Words” Assurances To Secure Assange’s Extradition

— Thomas Scripps | Wednesday April 17, 2024 | ​World Socialist Web Site | WSWS.ORG

The United States has provided “assurances” to the UK government to further its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange, held in London’s maximum security Belmarsh prison.

The US is seeking to prosecute Assange on charges under the Espionage Act which carry a de facto life sentence for publishing documents exposing war crimes and human rights abuses carried out by Washington and its imperialist allies.

Julian Assange. Photo by David G. Silvers, Cancillería del Ecuador/CC BY-SA 2.0

When, at the end of last month, the UK’s High Court offered the US the opportunity to provide such commitments to prevent Assange from appealing against his extradition to America, the World Socialist Web Site wrote, “The court’s proposals are a fig leaf. US prosecutors will furnish ‘assurances’ as worthless as those already provided in connection with his conditions of imprisonment.”

This has been confirmed. The commitments required by the court were that Assange would not be subject to the death penalty, and two connected points that he would not be prejudiced at trial by virtue of his Australian nationality and would be granted free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

A facsimile of the letter sent by the US Embassy to UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron Tuesday, published by Consortium News, reads:

“Assange will not be prejudiced by reason of his nationality with respect to which defenses he may seek to raise at trial and sentencing. Specifically, if extradited, Assange will have the ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial… the rights and protections given under the First Amendment.” It then stresses, “A decision as to the applicability of the First Amendment is exclusively within the purview of the U.S. Courts.”

It continues: “A sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed on Assange… These assurances are binding on any and all present or subsequent individuals to whom authority has been delegated to decide these matters.”

Assange’s wife Stella was quick to point out the “blatant weasel words” of the first assurance, which only states that Assange can “seek to raise” First Amendment rights—it does not guarantee that he will receive them.

Legally, this should bar extradition outright.

Section 87 of the UK’s Extradition Act (2003) requires the courts to “decide whether the person’s extradition would be compatible with the Convention rights [European Convention on Human Rights] within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998… If the judge decides the question… in the negative he must order the person’s discharge.”

Article 10 of the Convention is the right to freedom of expression, or free speech. The same protection is enshrined in the US legal system in the form of the First Amendment. But the US Embassy’s letter leaves the door open to this right being denied to Assange at the say so of the US courts.

As Stella Assange noted, the letter pointedly “makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution’s previous assertion that Julian has no first amendment rights because he is not a US citizen.”

Both the lead prosecutor Gordon Kromberg and the former CIA Director Mike Pompeo have made this claim.

Stella Assange added that her husband’s “life is at risk” every day he is in prison: 'The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family's extreme distress about his future—his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in US prison for publishing award-winning journalism.”

Her statement underscores the cynicism of the death penalty assurance offered by the US. Substantial medical evidence has been provided in Assange’s case confirming the significant likelihood of suicide in the event of extradition to and imprisonment in the US. His mental and physical health have already declined sharply in the five years he has spent in Belmarsh.

Nor is it beyond the US government—whose intelligence agencies surveilled Assange and plotted his assassination—to renege on its promise or see to it that Assange is killed “unofficially”.

Underscoring the case’s lawless character, on the same day the US sent its “assurances” to the UK, CIA Director William Burns submitted a statement to the Spanish courts. Burns asserted that “the CIA’s statutory privileges… to protect intelligence sources, methods, and activities at issue” in a case examining the Agency’s spying against Assange, refusing to either confirm or deny its involvement or to provide “factual bases for my privilege assertions”.

None of this was acknowledged by the Democratic Party-aligned New York Times, which sunk to new lows in its reporting of the case by citing some of Stella Assange’s comments while excising her reference to the Biden administration’s “weasel words”, allowing it to run a totally uncritical article headlined, “U.S. Lays Out Protections for Assange if He Is Extradited”.

The UK courts will likely take the same wilfully credulous view.

Geoffrey Robertson KC, founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers which is representing Assange, and who previously represented him directly, claimed, “Unless you can guarantee it [free speech rights], I think the British courts will be dubious about extraditing Mr Assange to a situation or to a trial where he doesn’t have the equal protection of the laws.”

This will doubtless be the legally impeccable argument advanced by Assange’s lawyers at the next hearing scheduled for May 20. But the High Court has already accepted equally worthless assurances at an earlier stage in the case to override warnings about Assange’s significant risk of suicide—barring extradition under Section 91 of the Extradition Act.

These “guaranteed” that Assange would not be placed in America’s supermax prison, the ADX Florence, or be subjected to Special Administrative Measures (SAMS), implicitly acknowledged to constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment prohibited under Article 3 of the Convention. But in each case, the undertaking was given “subject to the condition that the United States retains the power to impose SAMs [or an ADX designation] on Mr Assange in the event that, after entry of this assurance, he was to commit any future act that met the test for the imposition of a SAM [or ADX designation].”

The UK’s High Court responded favourably in their December 2021 judgment that it could “see no merit in the criticisms made of the individual assurances… There is no basis for assuming that the USA has not given the assurances in good faith.”

Screenshots of the US Letter of Assurances From X, Formerly Twitter. Megan Specia @meganspecia! US has filed assurances in Assange extradition case, which were requested by a British court before it makes a final decision on his ability to appeal. Next step is a hearing on May 20.

In its latest ruling, dismissing Assange’s right to appeal provided the new assurances were given, the High Court was again at pains to stress the trustworthiness of the US state, even to the point of denying that there was “anything to show” a connection between CIA plots to kidnap or poison Assange and the prosecutor’s attempt to have him extradited.

If the assurances are accepted by the High Court on May 20, Assange’s request for an appeal will be dismissed, leaving him at imminent risk of extradition. His legal team have submitted a preliminary appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, but it is unclear whether the UK would abide by orders from that court to keep Assange in its custody until it has reached a decision even if Strasbourg agrees to hear the case.

Amid the vital and ongoing legal defence being mounted, workers must understand that Assange’s fate depends on stepping up the global campaign demanding his release.

#Britain 🇬🇧 #United States 🇺🇸 #Australia 🇦🇺 #Europe 🇪🇺 #Democratic Rights #Media Issues #Julian Assange #Free Julian Assange #Hands Off Julian Assange #War Criminal | Genocidal | Joe Biden Administration #Weasel Words | Assurances #Julian Assange Extradition #World Socialist Web Site | WSWS.ORG