Christof Gramm

German Military Spy Chief Apologizes for Map that Omits Israel

“I regret this incident deeply and expressly apologize,” MAD chief Christof Gramm said.

By AP

The head of Germany’s military counterintelligence agency has apologized for publishing a report containing a map that failed to show the State of Israel.

The agency, known by its German acronym MAD, said Thursday that the initial draft of its 2019 annual report erroneously depicted Israel in the same color as neighboring Jordan.

The agency said the error was “immediately corrected” and an investigation was launched. The probe concluded that the mistake had been caused by “lack of diligence and insufficient quality control” rather than deliberate action or political intent, MAD said.

“I regret this incident deeply and expressly apologize,” MAD chief Christof Gramm said, noting that the agency’s duties include combating anti-Semitism and extremism within the military.

5.

Biden Sold Out America to China While Working for Hollywood

Biden: “There is no question that you’ve got the right guy with the right influence.”

 

Daniel Greenfield

Outside the JW Marriot in Los Angeles, Rev. Eddie Perez Romero was being handcuffed by the LAPD.

Rev. Romero was holding up a “Free China” sign outside a Chinese Ministry of Commerce conference. Inside was the LAPD’s boss Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, along with Governor Jerry Brown, and Vice President Joe Biden, who were palling around with China’s future dictator, Xi Jinping.

“My hope is that Vice President Joseph Biden, Governor Jerry Brown and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will rise above any pandering spirit, but as true statesmen, intentionally blur the artificial line between the economy and human rights,” Rev. Romero said.

Biden though had a very different agenda on his mind.

It was 2012 and Joe was thinking about his future. A year earlier his best friend, Senator Chris Dodd, had left the Senate to run the MPAA. The MPAA was Hollywood’s trade association and the movie industry, reading its own writing on the wall, wanted into China, and was willing to sell its soul to make a deal.

Biden wanted Hollywood cash for a future presidential campaign.

Dodd had been one of the sleaziest figures in the Senate, even by the low standards of the era, eager to do favors for any well-heeled industry from finance to entertainment. His friendship with Biden gave him a direct pipeline into the Obama administration. And Dodd gave Biden a pipeline into Hollywood.

“Joe was our champion inside the White House,” Dodd later said.

Two years later, in 2014, Biden began an address to the MPAA by joking, “there have been the rumors all those years when Chris and I served in the Senate that although I was chairman, he controlled me.”

“We’ve just given new life to those rumors,” he continued, describing how he had left a meeting with Obama and Chancellor Merkel, telling Obama that he had to address the MPAA.

“There is no question that you’ve got the right guy with the right influence,” Biden concluded.

And that’s exactly what Biden had been proving in Los Angeles as he surrounded Xi with Hollywood tycoons, especially Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major donor to his 2020 campaign, and cut a deal with the Chinese thug to increase the quota of Hollywood movies allowed in by the Chinese Communist regime.

“Some of you were there. Literally when by end of that lunch we had a handshake,” Biden boasted to the MPAA. “The next year the number of blockbuster foreign films showing in China has increased by over half and our share of the box office revenue has doubled — or your share of the box office revenue has doubled.”

“Keep me in mind for Chris’ assistant later,” he joked.

Biden understandably lost track of the difference between “your share” and “our share” because Hollywood has been a reliable fundraising machine for Biden. What was good for Hollywood was also good for Biden. Katzenberg got Oriental Dream Works, a $330-million joint venture with the PRC, and eventually hosted Biden’s first Southern California fundraiser which brought in $700K.

2012 was a big year for the adulterous nuptials of Hollywood and the Chinese Communist Party.

A few months after the meeting between Biden and Xi, China’s Wanda Group bought AMC Theaters for $2.6 billion. The Wanda Group, run by a billionaire Communist oligarch with close ties to regime officials, is working on a Communist theme park, and its investors allegedly include Xi’s sister. Beyond just owning the theaters, Wanda owns the Legendary Group which has a hand in a long list of movies from Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman, to Pokemon, along with the King Kong and Jurassic Park sequels.

The only reason Hollywood movies can play in China is because the Communist leadership directly profits from them and controls what goes into them, either directly through ownership, or by forcing the industry to submit scripts for the approval of its Communist censors. HUAC would be superfluous today. The big studios who make up the MPAA are all working for the Communists. And they’re proud of it.

That’s why a Tibetan character vanished from Doctor Strange (Disney has been the worst offender when it comes to appeasing the Communist leadership), why Taiwanese and Japanese flag patches vanished from Tom Cruise’s jacket in the Top Gun sequel (the movie was backed by Tencent, the PRC social media monopoly whose social media controls allow the regime to censor dissent and which has its paws on Wonder Woman, Venom and many other blockbusters), and why World War Z erased references to China covering up the origin of the zombie outbreak. That act of censorship now appears prophetic.

Biden’s brokering of the relationship between Hollywood and the Communist elite was more than financial, it was also cultural. Hollywood traded access for control, not just over what Chinese people saw, but what Americans were likely to see. Biden’s donors got richer and American movies were reduced to a bunch of CG cartoons with limited dialogue that had to win Communist approval.

And it wasn’t just Hollywood.

In 2013, a year after the Xi event at the Marriot, Joe and Hunter Biden flew on Air Force Two to China. BHR Partners was founded that year and included Hunter Biden as a board member. Underneath all the rhetoric about the ennobling virtues of globalism was some very parochial and familial profiteering.

The big Chinese partner in the BHR arrangement was Harvest Fund Management which, coincidentally enough, in 2012 was targeting Hollywood with an $800 million investment fund. That same year, you could find Bruno Wu, who had been working with Harvest, and Chris Dodd, along with Harvey Weinstein, playing roles at the Asian Film Summit in Toronto. And the money didn’t just go one way.

The Delaware Board of Trade was incorporated in 2013. Despite its name, the DBOT was not a government agency, but a penny stock startup which received a $3 million loan from New Castle County.

New Castle County had approved the issue of $15 million in revenue bonds to fund the DBOT “stock exchange” by touting the “globally recognized leaders in the financial services industry” running it. DBOT’s founders included people with experience in stock exchanges and financial services, and Dennis Toner, who was described as a “top aide to Vice President Joe Biden.”

Toner, Biden’s deputy chief of staff, is in the news for denying that Tara Reade ever told him anything.

Reade’s decision to tell Toner and Ted Kaufman was a pretty poor one. Both are longtime Biden men and considered as close to the boss as family. And they’ve reaped the benefits of that closeness.

Emperor Caligula appointed his horse to the Roman Senate. After Obama won, Ted Kaufman was temporarily appointed to the Senate. If there was anything odd about appointing a Biden advisor to sit in the Senate, it became odder when Senator Kaufman delivered the opening statement in favor of Toner’s appointment as Post Office Governor, by vouching for his “loyalty” working for Joe Biden.

Reade might as well have taken her complaint to Biden, as to Toner and Kaufman.

The current New Castle County exec has since called DBOT’s founders criminals and threatened to sue after the company was disposed of as a “distressed asset” in exchange for shares of Ideanomics. Ideanomics is a Chinese crypto company trading as a penny stock and the software that served as collateral for the loan has been described as worthless. The chairman of Ideanomics is Wu.

The manager of DBOT-I LLC was listed as John Hynansky. The car dealer is a Biden pal with extensive Ukrainian ties who had lent Biden’s shady brother half a million dollars and had received $20 million in government loans to start a Porsche luxury car dealership in the Ukraine.

Biden’s vaunted foreign policy expertise has consisted of brokering deals between family members, donors, and foreign interests. These deals haven’t been good for America, but they’ve worked out very well for members of his crooked family, as well as assorted donors, camp followers, and local boys.

But his biggest deal was helping broker the Chinese takeover of the American entertainment industry.

Xi’s visit to Los Angeles hit on all the right cultural notes. He schmoozed Hollywood bigwigs and their errand boys, like Dodd and Biden, he watched a Lakers game, and cheered Obama’s 100,000 Strong China initiative to have a hundred thousand American students study in the Communist dictatorship.

“I can say with confidence my visit has been a full success,” Xi declared.

In China, culture serves the agenda of the Communist government. Unlike the Russians, who struggled vainly to stem the impact of American culture, their Chinese counterparts decided to control it at the source. Biden was a key figure in negotiating the terms on which the PRC would control Hollywood.

In 1962, the Manchurian Candidate depicted an effort by Communists in China, Russia, and elsewhere to kidnap and brainwash American soldiers. The modern remake replaced the Communists with a corporation and the Chinese doctor with a South African geneticist. China could not be offended.

While Biden, Katzenberg, and Xi were partying at the Marriot, human rights protesters were calling for freedom, and being arrested by the henchmen of a one-party Democrat city and state for their trouble.

Even while Biden was falsely claiming that the Hollywood sellout would improve human rights in China, the rise of China was already violating human rights in America. Now, as Chinese drones fly over American cities, police stalk empty streets, social media monopolies monitor every single phone, and Democrat officials dismiss the Bill of Rights while locking up millions of people, our rights are gone.

And Joe Biden is the Manchurian Candidate who long ago sold out the country he now seeks to rule.

6.

Chinese Espionage Made Possible By Immigration Failures

What visa fraud does to our national security and public health.

 

Michael Cutler

With all of the focus on the Coronavirus pandemic other major issues. such as the immigration crisis, is being utterly ignored by the news media.

There is however, a direct nexus between failures of the immigration system and the current Coronavirus Pandemic.  China has robbed America blind of intellectual property that has included high tech research into biology, chemistry and physics.

Indeed, Chinese espionage has become so routine across a wide array of areas including military secrets that the intelligence community has given it the sarcastic nickname of “Chinese Takeout!”

Obviously, in order to spy on America, Chinese operatives need to enter the United States.

Border security involves much more than our northern and southern borders, it also includes the vetting process conducted at ports of entry by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) inspectors and the issuance of visas at U.S. embassies and consulates overseas.

The preface of the official report 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel begins with the following paragraph:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.

In point of fact, that paragraph properly identified the process by which visas are issued and aliens lawfully admitted into the United States as integral elements of border security.

While that report focused on terrorists, not unlike terrorists, spies need to enter the United States to carry out their nefarious missions as well.

Most folks assume that the only threat that we face comes from aliens who evade the inspections process conducted at ports of entry and, indeed, this is a serious problem.  However, we have also seen numerous instances where aliens with nefarious goals have committed visa fraud and entered the United States through the lawful process conducted at ports of entry.

On January 28, 2020 the Department of Justice issued a press release, Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases that began with this excerpt:

The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.  Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested this morning and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement.  Lieber will appear this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts.

Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye is currently in China.

Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China.  On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements.  He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.

Yanqing Ye is believed to currently be in China.  Her Indictmentalleges that she concealed her position as a lieutenant in the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) of the Chinese Communist Party and that she was under the direct supervision of a colonel in the PLA at the time she applied for her exchange visitor visa (J-1) to attend Boston University Department of Physics, Chemistry, Bio-Mechanical Engineering, Center of Polymer Studies.  It is further alleged that consistent with her position in the PLA she was tasked with, among other things, conducting research,  assessing U.S. military websites, sending U.S. documents and information to China by masking her affiliation to the PLA.

The DOJ press release noted above said this about defendant Zheng:

Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China.  On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements.  He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.

In August 2018, Zheng entered the United States on a J-1 visa and conducted cancer-cell research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston from Sept. 4, 2018, to Dec. 9, 2019. It is alleged that on Dec. 9, 2019, Zheng stole 21 vials of biological research and attempted to smuggle them out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China.  Federal officers at Logan Airport discovered the vials hidden in a sock inside one of Zheng’s bags, and not properly packaged.  It is alleged that initially, Zheng lied to officers about the contents of his luggage, but later admitted he had stolen the vials from a lab at Beth Israel.

Zheng stated that he intended to bring the vials to China to use them to conduct research in his own laboratory and publish the results under his own name.

Furthermore, universities have benefitted greatly by huge gifts from foreign countries.

My April 2, 2020 article, Welcome to the PC (Post Coronavirus) Era, included this excerpt:

On February 12, 2020 the Department of Education (DOE) issued a press release:  U.S. Department of Education Launches Investigation into Foreign Gifts Reporting at Ivy League Universitiesthat included this subtitle:

Since July, the Department has uncovered more than $6 billion in unreported foreign gifts from countries including Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

This case is hardly unusual.  On November 4, 2019 the New York Times reported, Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China

Here is a sobering excerpt from that report:

The N.I.H. and the F.B.I. have begun a vast effort to root out scientists who they say are stealing biomedical research for other countries from institutions across the United States. Almost all of the incidents they uncovered and that are under investigation involve scientists of Chinese descent, including naturalized American citizens, allegedly stealing for China.

Seventy-one institutions, including many of the most prestigious medical schools in the United States, are now investigating 180 individual cases involving potential theft of intellectual property. The cases began after the N.I.H., prompted by information provided by the F.B.I., sent 18,000 letters last year urging administrators who oversee government grants to be vigilant.

So far, the N.I.H. has referred 24 cases in which there may be evidence of criminal activity to the inspector general’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services, which may turn over the cases for criminal prosecution. “It seems to be hitting every discipline in biomedical research,” said Dr. Michael Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the N.I.H.

The first paragraphic of that excerpt notes that naturalized United States citizens from China are being investigated for stealing biomedical research.

Naturalized U.S. citizens have also engaged in espionage in other areas of vital concern.

This is not limited to naturalized citizens from China.  Terrorists from the Middle East have acquired U.S. citizenship as a means of concealing and facilitating their crimes in the United States and also to provide them with multiple passports and identities as a means of moving undetected around the world.

Just as our southern border needs to be hardened against illegal (un-inspected) entry, immigration fraud must receive the attention and resources essential to combat this serious threat to national security, public safety and public health.

My concerns about visa fraud is apparent in the title of an article I wrote some time ago, Immigration Fraud:  Lies That Kill.

7.

The Final Days of the Iran Nuclear Deal

The unsalvageable deal.

 

Caroline Glick
There is a growing chance that by October, the nuclear deal with Iran, otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will be dead.
Under the deal with the United States, China, Russia, Germany, Britain and France, Iran purported to accept limitations on its nuclear program.
These limitations included capping its low-enriched uranium stockpiles at 300 kilograms (661 pounds), restraining its enrichment activities, and accepting the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) right to inspect its declared and undeclared nuclear sites.
In exchange, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, agreed to cancel the Security Council sanctions resolutions that had been imposed on Iran due to its illicit nuclear activities over the previous decade.
The JCPOA, which was never formally signed, was anchored in UNSC Resolution 2231, which was passed immediately after the JCPOA was concluded.
At the time, the JCPOA was vociferously opposed by U.S. lawmakers from both sides of the partisan divide. Their opposition owed to the fact that even if Iran abided by the restrictions on its nuclear activities prescribed by the JCPOA, it would still be able to develop a full-blown nuclear arsenal within 10 to 15 years.
To placate the deal’s opponents, and secure its approval in the Senate, the Obama administration added two safeguards to Resolution 2231. The first imposed a five-year embargo on conventional weapons sales to Iran. The second enabled all sides to the agreement to end the JCPOA by triggering the reimposition of the UN sanctions canceled under 2231.
According to Articles 10-12 of the resolution, if a party to the agreement informs the Security Council that Iran is in breach of its commitments under the agreement, such a declaration will automatically trigger the reimposition of the sanctions within 30 days.
The Obama administration dubbed this mechanism “snapback sanctions.”
Now both of these safeguards are being tested.
In May 2018, due to incontrovertible evidence of Iranian bad faith both during the negotiations process and following the implementation of the JCPOA, President Donald Trump announced that the United States was washing its hands of the nuclear deal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set out the U.S.’s new “maximum pressure campaign” that replaced the JCPOA as the central element of U.S. policy towards Iran.
The strategy of maximum pressure involves applying harsh U.S. economic sanctions against Iran’s oil, financial and shipping sectors in particular. The goal is to weaken the Iranian economy in order to destabilize the regime and minimize its financial capacity to fund its nuclear operations and its terror proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and beyond.
The other parties to the JCPOA did not follow America’s lead. On the contrary, they sought to undermine U.S. sanctions. Led by Germany, the European Union clung ever more tightly to the nuclear deal. Germany, France and Britain attempted to create a financial mechanism that would enable Iran to bust U.S. sanctions. They also continued to develop Iran’s heavy-water reactor at Fordo.
The Russians maintained and intensified their alliance with Iran in Syria. China breached the U.S. sanctions and continued importing Iranian oil and gas. Currently, China is working closely with Iran in Afghanistan on behalf of the Taliban.
The Europeans, Russians and Chinese have all been playing for time in the hope that Trump loses the presidential election in November. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, has pledged that if elected, he will return the United States to the nuclear deal and end U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.
The problem for all of these parties is that time, and the facts, aren’t on their side.
The Iranian regime which they are so keen to keep afloat is not playing along with them. Instead, it is systematically and openly breaching all of its commitments under the JCPOA. In March, the IAEA revealed that between November 2019 and March 2020, Iran increased its store of low-enriched uranium from 373 to 1050 kilograms (822 to 2315 pounds) — more than three times the quantity permitted under the agreement.
The IAEA also reported that Iran had increased the number of advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to prohibited levels in operation by approximately 20 percent since last November.
In January, the Iranian regime rejected IAEA requests for information regarding three newly discovered undeclared nuclear sites and subsequently rejected IAEA requests to dispatch inspectors to two of them.
Earlier this month, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced that Iran was building two more nuclear reactors at Bushehr. He added that “a new generation of centrifuges would soon come online at the Natanz fuel enrichment plant.”
Salehi explained that Iran is now in full breach of the JCPOA, saying, “Nuclear activities, as well as research and development on the nuclear fuel cycle, uranium conversion, and enrichment —including production and storage — are being carried out without any restrictions.”
Iran’s apparent race to develop the ability to build a nuclear arsenal on-demand—or what has been dubbed “breakout capacity”—is happening in the context of the quickly approaching deadline for the conventional arms embargo imposed under Resolution 2231. The embargo will expire on October 23.
Over the past six months, Pompeo has stated repeatedly that the United States will not permit the embargo to be lifted. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Russian defense firms have already concluded deals to sell Iran advanced aircraft, tanks and air defense systems the moment the embargo is lifted.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Pompeo set out how the administration intends to prevent it from being lifted. Pompeo explained that the administration is pressuring the Europeans to put forward a Security Council resolution calling for the arms embargo to be extended even as Russia has vowed to veto any such resolution.
In light of the Russian position, the only way to extend the arms embargo is to cancel the JCPOA entirely by triggering 2231’s snapback sanctions clause, which no side can veto.
To prevent the Americans from triggering the snapback clause, since May 2018, the Europeans, Iranians, Russians and Obama administration officials have claimed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement canceled America’s standing as a party to the JCPOA and so abrogated the U.S.’s right to trigger the snapback sanctions.
Last year, the State Department’s legal department published a brief rejecting this position. The U.S. action did not abrogate Security Council Resolution 2231, and Article 10 of the resolution clearly names the United States as a party to the agreement.
At Wednesday’s briefing, Pompeo repeated this key claim.
“The U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 is very clear: We don’t have to … declare ourselves a participant. U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 is unambiguous where the United States is a participant,” he said.
Pompeo added, “We’re going to … [make] sure that come October of this year, the Iranians aren’t able to buy conventional weapons that they would be given what President Obama and Vice President Biden delivered to the world in that terrible deal.”
As the sides set up for a confrontation, the fact is that the administration will come out on top under all circumstances. This is true for three reasons:
First and foremost, the United States will benefit if the administration invokes the snapback sanctions articles because it is the right thing to do. As the IAEA reported and Salehi acknowledged, the Iranians are comprehensively breaching all of their commitments under the JCPOA. There is no substantive justification for maintaining the fiction that the deal is still salvageable. There is clearly no substantive justification for selling Iran conventional weapons.
This brings us to the second reason, and to Iran’s defenders — particularly the European Union and the Democrats:
If the United States triggers the snapback sanctions, the move will critically harm the European Union which, under German leadership, has consistently advanced a harshly anti-American foreign policy. If the European Union responds to a U.S. move to trigger the snapback sanctions by insisting the United States has no authority to act, the position will boomerang.
Even before the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic, many EU member nations were rejecting the European Union’s authority to dictate a unified anti-American, pro-Iranian foreign policy.
In February 2019, Poland co-hosted a summit on Iran in Warsaw with the United States. Then EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Federica Mogherini refused to participate in the conference that bought more than a dozen key EU states, along with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, together to discuss the threat Iran poses to global security.
The European Union’s utter failure to manage the coronavirus pandemic has struck it a massive blow. Its incompetence has convinced millions of Europeans who had previously supported the union that they have nothing to gain from it, and that national governments are the only instruments to protect their lives and liberty.
The European Union’s weakening was apparent earlier this month when several EU member states angrily rejected an attempt by current EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell to pass a resolution condemning the Trump Middle East peace plan and Israel’s intention to apply its law to parts of Judea and Samaria in the framework of the Trump plan.
If the European Union subverts a U.S. effort to restore UN sanctions on Iran, its action is liable to destroy whatever is left of Brussel’s power to dictate a unified EU foreign policy.
Perhaps to block this prospect, and perhaps due to Iran’s reduced economic prospects after two years of U.S. sanctions, Germany announced on Thursday that it is finally outlawing Hezbollah’s “political” wing and blocking its operation in Germany.
Until now, Germany has blocked the European Union from recognizing Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization and so enabled the Iranian proxy army to raise funds and draft operatives throughout Europe. Germany’s action Thursday indicates that, aware of the dangers to the European Union, Germany may support a U.S. move to impose the snapback sanctions and end the JCPOA.
Thirdly, there is Biden. If the administration moves to implement the snapback sanctions and so end the ill-begotten JCPOA, which was the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy in Obama’s second term, Biden and the Democrats will be harmed no matter how the move plays out: If the United Nations blocks the U.S. move, the Trump administration will claim — rightly — that Obama and Biden deliberately lied to the American people when they said the snapback sanctions provision would ensure Iran could not get away with breaching the JCPOA.
If the administration is successful and snapback sanctions are imposed, scuppering the JCPOA, its success will expose the madness at the heart of Biden’s pro-Iranian Middle East policy. It will demonstrate that the key component of the Obama-Biden foreign policy was to provide America’s most dangerous enemy in the Middle East with the ability to develop a nuclear arsenal while building itself into a regional hegemon.
It isn’t clear how events will transpire in the coming weeks and months. But as things now stand, the Trump administration seems to recognize that there is no downside to triggering the snapback sanction articles in Resolution 2231 and ending the JCPOA by October.
Caroline Glick is an award-winning columnist and author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.”
* * *

8.

Where Did the Coronavirus Come From?

And what are the costs?

 

Michael Ledeen

The coronavirus has brought the world to a major turning point, with millions of parents and children infected, locked in their homes, shut out of school, and the like. Along with them are parents and teachers, similarly locked out of their places of work. The turning point affects both sides in the global battle for supremacy, from Russia and Iran to China itself, to the EU and the United States.

Chinese economist Li Xunlei was recently removed from his post as director of Chinese brokerage firm Zhongtai Securities after he posted on social media an analysis that estimated China’s unemployment rate is 20.5 percent, more than three times the official figure announced by authorities.

Li Xunlei remarkablypublished an analysis of the Chinese unemployment rate that estimated it at a fraction more than than twenty percent, more than treble the official number. He is now out of a job.  Meanwhile, some polls show Donald Trump trailing presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden in the upcoming November presidential elections, just as they did in 2016.

But no one seems to believe these polls, just as they rejected the public polls on the eve of the last elections. There is a repetition of the doubts about Trump, just as there was four years ago.

Right now it is interesting to note several things that suggest the 2016 history is likely to repeat itself. The betting markets still have Trump as the favorite, as does a Barron’s magazine poll of 107 leading money managers:

Nearly 50% of Big Money respondents grade President Trump an A or B for his handling of the current financial crisis. Fifty-six percent expect the president to secure a second term in November, while 89% predict the Republican party will keep control of the Senate, and 75% say Democrats will continue to rule the House of Representatives.

The polls are as reliable today as they were last time around, and will be as accurate in November as they were in 2016. Indeed, Trump may well do better this time around than he did last time. As Steven Hayward nicely puts it:

A lot can and likely will change between now and election day, and how the aftermath of the lockdown unfolds (if it ever does end) is anyone’s guess, but if Trump is at or near 49 percent job approval rating on election day he will win.

And this doesn’t even take into account Joe Biden’s ongoing problems, which will become more evident and severe once he emerges from his basement.

So the president looks like a favorite, and is mounting a critique of Joe Biden’s international buddy, Communist China, for its coverup of the virus. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reminded his listeners of Chinese deception in the recent past:

These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab … And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.

Trump has mounted a fierce campaign against Beijing, rejecting the increasingly common view that Beijing covered up the emergence of the virus in order to increase imports of medicines to limit its dangers, and to put a halt to the spread of the deadly drug.

The Chinese have a big edge in population over the West, and they are well prepared for a dramatic loss of life. Anyone who has studied Beijing’s military strategy will know that the Chinese are well prepared for a significant loss of life in the event of turmoil with the United States.

This is part of a pattern. Just as Beijing is prepared for large losses within the domestic population, their allies in the struggle against the United States are equally equanimous about their people dropping in conflict with the West. Iran has often proposed a swap of prisonersthat would free some of their agents in America and other Western countries, lessening the danger that their prisoners might reveal the pattern of Iranian espionage against us.

Last year Iran’s Foreign Minister said in a couple of instances that Tehran has presented a list to the US government suggesting a prisoner swap. The Spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that “this suggestion is still on the table,” which confirms there are US citizens in jail in Iran.

Iran is known for holding dual nationals and foreign citizens in jail as hostages and using them for political gain or prisoner swap.

It’s an ugly business, to be sure.

* * *

Photo from Pixnio

9.

Today’s Americans and Yesteryear’s Americans

Cry babies vs. roaring giants.

 

Walter Williams

Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a military historian and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He has written two articles relevant to today’s society. Last October he published, “Members of Previous Generations Now Seem Like Giants,” and he recently wrote, “Is America a Roaring Giant or Crying Baby?”

In the first article, Hanson starts with some observations and questions regarding the greatness of previous generations compared with today’s Americans. He asks: “Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years? … America went to the moon in 1969 with supposedly primitive computers and backward engineering. Does anyone believe we could launch a similar moonshot today?” Hanson observes: “We have been fighting in Afghanistan without result for 18 years. Our forefathers helped to win World War II and defeat the Axis Powers in four years.” Keep in mind that the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy) had far greater firepower than the Afghan rebels that we’ve fought. Hanson also could have asked whether today’s Americans could build a 1,700-mile road such as the ALCAN Highway, connecting the lower 48 states to Alaska, whose construction started in March 1942 and was completed in October that year.

In terms of learning, Hanson asks whether anyone believes that a 2020 college graduate knows half of what a 1950 graduate knew. In the 1940s, he says, young people read the works of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pearl Buck and John Steinbeck. He doubts that today’s high school graduates could even finish “The Good Earth” or “The Grapes of Wrath.” I attended Benjamin Franklin High School from 1950 to 1954, and our senior English class required reading included Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” and William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar.” By the way, when I attended Benjamin Franklin High, it was ranked the lowest among Philadelphia’s high schools.

Hanson’s second article asks whether our response to the COVID-19 epidemic will be that of a “roaring giant” or “crying baby.” We can awaken, just as we did on Dec. 8, 1941, with massive amounts of fight, ready to get on a war footing. For those who were not around then or do not know our history, in 1941 our nation had seven fleet aircraft carriers and one escort carrier. By 1945, it was deploying 27 fleet and 72 escort carriers. In December 1941, we had 2.2 million service members in the U.S. military. By the war’s end, there were more than 12 million Americans in the armed services. That’s an astonishing mobilization considering our population was a little over 132 million. What’s even more amazing is that our gross domestic product for 1944 exceeded the combined economic output of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and Germany.

Hanson says that our other choice regarding the epidemic is whether to continue the partisan bickering and blaming. We can ignore the importance of the crisis and instead scapegoat and play the blame game. We can talk not of an America in crisis but of the virus’s effects on particular groups. We can decide that to hold China responsible for lying about the virus is mean, racist and, at best, xenophobic.

In other words, Hanson says, “The choice is ours whether America awakens as a roaring giant or a crying baby.” My prediction is that Americans, left to their own tendencies, will roar together as giants and will ignore the political and media crybabies.

10.

Eλληνίδα Πρέσβης ΗΠΑ: Η Τουρκία μετατράπηκε στο μεγάλο πρόβλημα της περιοχής

ΣΤΟΧΟΣ – 09 Μαΐου
Αλεξάνδρα Παπαδοπούλου, πρώτη γυναίκα Ελληνίδα πρέσβης στην ...

Για τις σχέσεις ΗΠΑ Ελλάδας, τον αποσταθεροποιητικό ρόλο της Τουρκίας στην περιοχή και την προοπτική εμβάθυνσης της συνεργασίας ΗΠΑ-Κύπρου-Ισραήλ-Ελλάδας μίλησαν στο Εβραϊκό Ινστιτούτο Εθνικής Ασφάλειας της Αμερικής (JINSA), η Ελληνίδα Πρέσβειρα στις ΗΠΑ Αλεξάνδρα Παπαδοπούλου και ο Πρόεδρος & Διευθύνων Σύμβουλος της JINSA.

«Κοιτάξτε το χάρτη. Ο χάρτης μιλάει από μόνος του όπου βρίσκεται η Ελλάδα… Εκεί συναντώνται 3 Ήπειροι: Αφρική, Ασία και Ευρώπη. Είναι ένας σημαντικός τομέας για το εμπόριο και τη σταθερότητα. Η Ελλάδα παρέχει αυτήν την άγκυρα για τις πολιτικές των ΗΠΑ στην ευρύτερη περιοχή», τόνισε αρχικά.

Σε αυτήν την χρονική ιστορία, συνέχισε, η Τουρκία έχει πάρει μια πολύ διαφορετική στροφή. «Κανείς σε αυτόν τον κόσμο δεν θέλει να έχει μια σταθερή, ευημερούσα Τουρκία περισσότερο από την Ελλάδα».

«Δυστυχώς, η Τουρκία έχει μετατραπεί σε μεγάλο πρόβλημα. Ένα πρόβλημα όχι μόνο για την Ελλάδα, είναι ένας σημαντικός παράγοντας αποσταθεροποίησης στη Μέση Ανατολή και την Ανατολική Μεσόγειο», είπε.

«Βλέπουμε τον ρόλο που παίζει η Τουρκία στη Λιβύη. Κάθε άλλο παρά χρήσιμος είναι», επεσήμανε.

«Αυτό που συμβαίνει στη Λιβύη, είναι ότι η Τουρκία εμπλέκεται άμεσα στον πόλεμo… είναι ένα σημαντικό μέρος στη σύγκρουση. Η Ελλάδα πιστεύει ότι η κατάσταση στη Λιβύη δεν πρόκειται να λυθεί με στρατιωτικά μέσα.»

«Έτσι, σήμερα, υπάρχει συναίνεση μεταξύ των ελληνικών πολιτικών κομμάτων… και επίσης συναίνεση μεταξύ του ελληνικού πληθυσμού, το οποίο είναι εξίσου σημαντικό ότι οι ΗΠΑ είναι αληθινοί φίλοι της Ελλάδας και τα στρατηγικά συμφέροντα των δυο ευθυγραμμίζονται».

Για τη σχέση Ελλάδας-Ισραήλ, η Κα Παπαδοπούλου είπε: «Παρά τις διαφορές που μπορεί να υπάρχουν, υπάρχουν πολλά κοινά πράγματα. Ένα από αυτά είναι ότι είμαστε δημοκρατικές χώρες. Πιστεύουμε στις ίδιες αξίες. Ανήκουμε στην ίδια στρατηγική συνεργασία. »

«Τα προβλήματα που έχουν προκύψει στην περιοχή μας είναι κοινά. Η επιβίωσή μας… μας οδηγεί στην αναγκαιότητα να συνεργαστούμε », τόνισε τονίζοντας πως Ελλάδα και Ισραήλ σέβονται βαθιά ο ένας τον άλλο.

«Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες πρέπει να ενισχύσουν τη συμμετοχή τους στη περιοχή. Οι τρεις χώρες: το Ισραήλ, η Ελλάδα και η Κύπρος εργάζονται για τους ίδιους στόχους που προωθούν οι ΗΠΑ στην περιοχή», είπε υπογραμμίζοντας πως «Αυτή η συνεργασία είναι κάτι πολύ μεγαλύτερο από την ενέργεια. Είναι στρατηγική … επίσης πολύ στενή συνεργασία όσον αφορά την ανταλλαγή πληροφοριών», τόνισε.

11.
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10.05.2020 

Dışişleri Bakanlığı’ndan son dakika Libya açıklaması

Dışişleri Bakanlığı’ndan son dakika Libya açıklaması

Dışişleri Bakanlığı, Libya’nın doğusundaki gayrimeşru silahlı güçlerin lideri Halife Hafter’in saldırısı hakkında, “Libya’daki temsilciliklerimiz ile çıkarlarımızın hedef alınması halinde, Hafter unsurlarını meşru hedef olarak telakki edeceğimizi tekrar vurguluyoruz.” ifadesini kullandı.

Bakanlıktan yapılan yazılı açıklamada, “Libya‘da savaş ağası Hafter’e bağlı gayrimeşru milis güçleri, son günlerde başta Trablus’ta olmak üzere sivillere ve sivil altyapıya yönelik saldırılarını herhangi bir ayrım gözetmeksizin artırmıştır. Hafter’e bağlı unsurlar, sadece 9 Mayıs günü Trablus’un merkezindeki yerleşim birimlerine yoğun topçu ateşinin yanı sıra 100’ün üzerinde roket fırlatmıştır.” ifadelerine yer verildi.

Türkiye’nin Trablus Büyükelçiliği dahil diplomatik misyonların, Mitiga Havalimanı’nın, kalkışa hazırlanan sivil uçakların ve diğer sivil altyapının hedef alındığı, sivillerin hayatını kaybettiği ve yaralandığı bu saldırıların savaş suçu teşkil etmekte olduğu vurgulanan açıklamada, “Bu vesileyle Libya’daki temsilciliklerimiz ile çıkarlarımızın hedef alınması halinde, Hafter unsurlarını meşru hedef olarak telakki edeceğimizi tekrar vurguluyoruz.” ifadesi kullanıldı.

“ULUSLARARASI TOPLUMUN ORTAK SORUMLULUĞUDUR”

Açıklamada, şunlar kaydedildi:

“Birleşmiş Milletler’in bu vahşet karşısında daha fazla hareketsiz kalması kabul edilemez. Mübarek ramazan ayında ve bu salgın döneminde çocuk, kadın, yaşlı demeden kendi halkını katleden darbeci Hafter’in durdurulması, uluslararası toplumun ortak sorumluluğudur. Hafter’e askeri, mali ve siyasi destek veren ülkelerin, Libya halkının maruz kaldığı mezalimde ve ülkenin sürüklendiği kaos ve istikrarsızlıkta sorumluluklarının bulunduğu unutulmamalıdır. Türkiye, dost ve kardeş Libya halkının korunması için Libya’nın meşru hükümetini ve kurumlarını desteklemeye devam edecektir.”

HAFTER’İN SALDIRISI

Hafter’e bağlı milislerin, dün Mitiga Havalimanı ve başkentin çeşitli bölgelerine 80’den fazla roketle düzenlediği saldırıda, 6 sivil hayatını kaybetmişti.

Libya ordusu karşısında son dönemde üst üste kayıplar veren Hafter’in, mayısın ilk haftasında Trablus’taki sivil yerleşim bölgelerine gerçekleştirdiği saldırılarda da 15 sivil ölmüş, 30’dan fazla sivil yaralanmıştı.

12.

MİT‘ten nefes kesen operasyon! İtalyan basınında dikkat çeken Türkiye yorumu

MİT'ten nefes kesen operasyon! İtalyan basınında dikkat çeken Türkiye yorumu

Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı Başkanlığı (MİT), Kenya’da kaçırılıp Somali’ye götürülen bir İtalyan vatandaşını, koordineli çalışmalar sonucu sağ olarak kurtardı.

Güvenlik kaynaklarının verdiği bilgiye göre, Kasım 2018’de Kenya’nın Chakama bölgesinde kaçırılıp Somali’ye götürülen 25 yaşındaki İtalyan vatandaşı Silvia Constanzo Romano için İtalyan makamları, MİT’e talepte bulundu.

Bunun üzerine MİT, Aralık 2019’da Romano’nun durumuna dair bölgede bir çalışma başlattı. Bölgedeki yerel istihbarat ağını devreye sokan MİT, önce Romano’nun sağ olduğunu tespit etti. MİT, bölgedeki teknik imkanlarını da seferber ederek özgün istihbari metotlar üzerinden çalıştı.

Somali ve İtalya’nın ilgili birimleriyle yürütülen koordineli çalışma neticesinde sağ kurtarılan Romano’nun, MİT tarafından dün Somali’nin başkenti Mogadişu’da İtalyan makamlarına teslim edilmesi sağlandı.

İtalyan basınında çıkan haberlerde, Romano’nun Africa Milelel Onlus isimli yardım kuruluşunda gönüllü olarak çalıştığı ve bir süredir bu amaçla Kenya’da bulunduğu belirtilmişti.

İTALYAN BASINI TÜRKİYE’NİN ETKİSİNE DİKKATİ ÇEKTİ

Romano’nun özgürlüğüne kavuşması, ülkesi İtalya’da da geniş yankı buldu.İtalyan basınındaki haberlerde, Romano’nun Türk, Somalili ve İtalyan gizli servislerinin iş birliğiyle yürütülen operasyon sonucunda kurtarıldığı vurgulanırken, yapılan yorumlarda Türkiye’nin bölgedeki etkisine dikkat çekildi.

İtalya Dışişleri Bakan Yardımcısı Marina Sereni de LA7 kanalına yaptığı açıklamada, “Yerinin tespit edilmesi ve doğru zamanda harekete geçilmesi için bölgede bulunan Türk gizli servisiyle iş birliği olmuştur.” dedi.

18 aylık esaretin ardından 8-9 Mayıs’ta düzenlenen operasyonla kurtarılan Silvia Romano, öğle saatlerinde İtalyan devletine ait özel jetle başkent Roma’daki Ciampino Havaalanı’na geldi.

Romano’yu, İtalya Başbakanı Giuseppe Conte, Dışişleri Bakanı Luigi Di Maio ve ailesi karşılarken, 25 yaşındaki genç kız, kurtarılmasında emeği geçenlere teşekkür etti.

13.

Hürriyet Gazetesi İlk Sayfası

14.

Πόσο «πονάει» ο Ολυμπιακός!

Πόσο «πονάει» ο Ολυμπιακός!
Κυριακή, 10 Μαΐου 2020

Για άλλη μία φορά, αποδείχθηκε πόσο «πονάει» ο Ολυμπιακός! Τι άλλο δείχνει, άλλωστε, το «κίνημα της παύλας» (και) στον Ερασιτέχνη; Ο ΟΣΦΠ, ωστόσο, με ηχηρή ανακοίνωση που εξέδωσε, έστειλε μήνυμα προς πάσα κατεύθυνση. Έβαλε τα πράγματα στη θέση τους, βάζοντας παράλληλα… στοπ στην προπαγάνδα! Τι θέλουν στο Λιμάνι; Να ολοκληρωθούν τα πρωταθλήματα στα γήπεδα! Να σηκώσουν όλες τις κούπες στον αγωνιστικό χώρο! Τόσο απλά…

Για να μην μαγκρηγορούμε όμως, σας παραθέτουμε εδώ, στο gavros.gr, μερικές από τις επιδόσεις των ομάδων του «ερυθρόλευκου» Ερασιτέχνη στα φετινά αντίστοιχα πρωταθλήματα. Στα πρωταθλήματα, που… κάποιοι θέλουν «παύλα».

Μέχρι τη διακοπή λόγω του κορονοϊού, τέσσερις από τις έξι ομάδες του κορυφαίου ελληνικού συλλόγου ήταν αήττητες στα πρωταθλήματα! Πιο αναλυτικά, σε 105 ματς πρωταθλήματος, ο σύλλογος του Πειραιά είχε 101 νίκες, μόλις τρεις ήττες και μία ισοπαλία. Ναι, καλά διαβάσατε. 101/105! Μυθικό επίτευγμα. Θρυλικό!

Τα «κόκκινα» τμήματα, δηλαδή, που έχουν ηττηθεί φέτος, στα πρωταθλήματα, είναι του χάντμπολ Ανδρών και του βόλεϊ Ανδρών. Οι χαντμπολίστες των Πειραιωτών έχουν χάσει μία φορά από την ΑΕΚ, σε 20 «στροφές» (19/20) στο πρωτάθλημα. Ενώ η ομάδα του Φερνάντο Μουνιόθ Μπενίτεθ δύο φορές σε 16 αγωνιστικές (14/16), από την Κηφισιά και τον Παναθηναϊκό.

Το ακόμα πιο εντυπωσιακό είναι, ότι και τα έξι ομαδικά τμήματα του ΟΣΦΠ ήταν στην πρώτη θέση των πρωταθλημάτων τους! Στο χάντμπολ δε, σε ισοβαθμία με την ΑΕΚ…

Παράλληλα, ο Θρύλος ξεχώριζε και στις στατιστικές κατηγορίες, καθώς ήταν πρώτος και σε τομείς όπως η επίθεση και η άμυνα. Με εξαίρεση μόνο την ομάδα χάντμπολ Ανδρών, η οποία ήταν δεύτερη στο πρωτάθλημα στο επιθετικό κομμάτι, με 610 γκολ, 76 λιγότερα από την πρώτη ΑΕΚ (686). Στην άμυνα δε, η ομάδα του Νέναντ Κλιάιτς είχε καλύτερη επίδοση από την «Ένωση» (460), αφού σε 20 ματς στον θεσμό, είχε 416 τέρματα παθητικό! Όσον αφορά στα υπόλοιπα σπορ, ο Ερασιτέχνης Ολυμπιακός ήταν πρώτος τόσο σε επίθεση, όσο και άμυνα…

Πιο αναλυτικά, οι Πρωταθλητές Ευρώπης του 2018, στο πόλο Ανδρών, είχαν σκοράρει έως τώρα, σε 18 αγωνιστικές πρωταθλήματος, 310 γκολ και αντίθετα, είχαν δεχθεί 105. Με την Βουλιαγμένη να ήταν δεύτερη, με 222-123. Τεράστια η διαφορά! Ο τελευταίος (σε όλα) Παναθηναϊκός δε, είχε μόλις 132 τέρματα στην επίθεση, αλλά και 250 παθητικό…

Στο πόλο Γυναικών, η ομάδα του Χάρη Παυλίδη σκόραρε 180 γκολ (16,4 μ.ο.) και δέχθηκε 63 (5,7 μ.ο.), σε 11 αγωνιστικές στο πρωτάθλημα, μέχρι τη διακοπή.

Στο βόλεϊ Ανδρών; Ο «Αυτοκράτορας», σε 16 ματς για το πρωτάθλημα, είχε 45 κερδισμένα σετ και 12 χαμένα, 1.043 πόντους και 57% αποτελεσματικότητα στην επίθεση. Κάτι που… μεταφράζεται σε 796/1398 επιθετικές προσπάθειες! Στην υποδοχή δε, 26%.

Στο βόλεϊ Γυναικών, οι Κυπελλούχες Ευρώπης του 2018, που είχαν 20 νίκες σε ισάριθμες αγωνιστικές πρωταθλήματος, μέτρησαν 60 κερδισμένα σετ και 13 χαμένα! Επιθετικά, είχαν πανηγυρίσει 1.770 πόντους, ενώ αμυντικά, είχαν δεχθεί 1.316. Σε ό,τι αφορά τη δεύτερη ομάδα του θεσμού, είναι ο ΑΟ Θήρας, με 54-18 σετ, αλλά και 1695-1401 πόντους…

Τέλος, στο μπάσκετ Γυναικών, η ομάδα του Γιώργου Παντελάκη, με εξίσου «20 στα 20» στο πρωτάθλημα, ήταν πρώτη σε… όλα, πέρα από την βαθμολογία. Στην επίθεση, είχε έως τώρα 1.908 πόντους, ενώ στην άμυνα, 1.082. Μιλάμε, για 826 πόντους διαφορά! Οι «αμαζόνες» του Πειραιά σκόραραν 95,4 πόντους κατά μέσο όρο και δέχονταν 54,1.

Και που να αναφερθούμε και στις φετινές επιδόσεις στην Ευρώπη! Τα συμπεράσματα δικά σας…

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