Interference in US foreign policy and elections? Try Israel

There are over 100 high-level members of the US government who are citizens of Israel. The US State Dept. allows dual citizenship. If you don't think Israel exerts  tremendous influence  over the decisions, policies, and wars of the United States, think again. It is absurd that people who are citizens of foreign countries would be allowed to hold public office in the US. One  cannot serve two masters.

Michael Cheroff - Israeli/US dual citizen, second United States Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009). Co-author of the USA Patriot Act.  Federal Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005). US Assistant Attorney for the Criminal Division (2001-2003) of the Dept. of Justice personally supervised and controlled the entire FBI non-investigation of 9-11. He is also responsible for the obstruction of justice and blocking access to evidence since Sept.11,2001. He also advised the CIA of the legality of torture techniques in coercive interrogation sessions.

Michael Mukasey - Israeli/US dual citizen. 81st Attorney General of the US (2007-2009). He was the second Jewish US Attorney General. 18 years as a judge of the US District Court of New York (1987-2006), 6 of those years as Chief Judge (2000-2006).

Richard Pearle -  Israeli/US dual citizen was first Assistant Secretary for Global Strategic Affairs under Pres.Ronald Reagan. Senior staff member to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson on the Senate Arms Committee in the 1970's. On the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee (1987-2004) under the Bush Administration.  Resigned due to conflicts of interest. Most likely an Israeli government agent. He was expelled from Senator's Jackson's office in the 1970's after the NSA caught him passing highly classified national security documents to the Israeli embassy. Perle was amember of the Bilderberg Group  until Dec. 2015. Also known as the "Prince of Darkness" and is a major player in the Israeli lobby.

Paul Wolfowitz - Israeli/US dual citizen. He is a political scientist and diplomat, was the tenth President of the World Bank (2005-2007). Resigned under pressure from World Bank members for misuse of power. US Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) under G.W. Bush and US Ambassador to Indonesia under Ronald Reagan and G.H.W. Bush (1986-1989).

Douglas Feith - Israeli/US dual citizen. Worked at the Reagan White House as a Middle East specialist for the National Security Council and then served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. Served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the G.W.Bush Administration from 2001 to 2005. He is closely associated with the extremist group the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), which attacks Jews that don't agree with their extremist views. Feith supervised the Pentagon Office of Special Plans, a group of policy and intelligence analysis created to provide senior government officials with unvetted raw intelligence. The office was responsible for hiring Lawrence Franklin who was convicted along with AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) employees Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman for passing classified National defense information to an Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon.

Henry Kissenger - Israeli/US dual citizen was the 56th US Secretary of State from 1973-1977 under Pres. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Was Assistant to the Pres. for Natiional Security Affairs under Nixon and Ford. Member of the Foreign  Intelligence Advisory Board from 1984-1990. A member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department  from 1986-1988.  A member of both the Council of Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission.

John Bolton - Israeli/US dual citizen. National Security Advisor to Pres. Trump. Assistant Attorney General under Reagan (1985-1989). One of the most hawkish of war hawks, he aggressively supported and helped plan military action and regime change in Iraq and Libya and is now doing the same thing in Syria and Iran.

Israeli/US dual citizens in high level US government positions:

Janet Yellen-Federal Reserve Chair

Stanley Fisher-Federal Reserve Vice-Chair

Lincoln Bloomfield-Assistant Secretary of State

Daniel Kutzer-Ambassador to Israel

Cliff Sobel-Ambassador to the Netherlands

Stuart Bernstein-Ambassador to Denmark

Nancy Brinker-Ambassador to Hungary

Frank Lavin-Ambassador to Singapore

Ron Weiser-Ambassador to Slovakia

Jay Lefkowitz-Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Domestic Policy Council

Ken Melman-White House Political Director

Brad Blakeman-White House Director of Scheduling

There are 14 current and former US Senators who are dual Israeli/US citizens.

There are 32 current or past members of the US House of Representatives who are Israeli/US citizens.

Heather Cox Richardson

January 23, 2023 (Monday)

Today a jury found three members of the Oath Keepers gang, along with a fourth defendant associated with them, guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding the January 6th insurrection in 2021. In October a different jury also found the founder of the Oath Keepers, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, as well as their Florida leader, Kelly Meggs, guilty of seditious conspiracy. Five members of another extremist gang, the Proud Boys, are currently on trial on that charge and others.

Today’s defendants, Joseph Hackett, 52; Roberto Minuta, 38; David Moerschel, 45; and Edward Vallejo, 64, were found guilty of a rack of other charges, too, but the seditious conspiracy charges are the biggies. Such indictments are rare and indicate a careful plot against our democracy. They are hard to prove. These six convictions—so far—are a big win for Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department. 

*THEY ALL SHOULD BE TRIED FOR NO LESS THAN TREASON!!!

At Talking Points Memo, Nicole Lafond notes that defense attorneys for the Oath Keepers argued that the fault for January 6th was not that of their clients. “Responsibility really rests at our politicians’ feet,” attorney Scott Weinberg said. “The president and Stewart Rhodes were claiming that the world is coming to an end even before the election.”

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol recommended that the Department of Justice consider criminal charges against former president Trump, the man behind the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It also called a number of his associates co-conspirators. 

So far, those charges have not materialized, and Trump is running for president in 2024. That campaign is off to a rocky start. Trump is supposed to kick it off next week in Columbia, South Carolina, but Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post report that he’s having trouble lining up politicians to show up. They’re not willing to indicate support for him yet. Scherer and Dawsey note that South Carolina has two homegrown candidates, former governor Nikki Haley and current senator Tim Scott, who might want to run. In addition, Trump has recently alienated evangelicals—his formerly rock-solid base—by blaming them for his 2020 loss. 

It is also possible that his many legal troubles will catch fire, burning up his presidential chances. His secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton are apparently testing the waters themselves, publicly needling each other. Bolton recently said Trump’s support is in “terminal decline,” and after Trump called former cabinet members considering a campaign “disloyal,” Pompeo told Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade, “I never said I wouldn’t run.” 

Another issue dropped today, huge in itself and at least tangentially related to the former president. On Saturday, authorities from the Department of Justice arrested Charles McGonigal, 54, at JFK Airport as he returned from a trip to Sri Lanka. McGonigal worked for the FBI from 1996 to 2018.

On October 4, 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey named McGonigal the head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office. 

As the special agent in charge, McGonigal supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs. Before that, he was the section chief of the Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. Charges against McGonigal—who is one of the highest ranking FBI members ever charged with a crime—stem from his connection to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. The United States sanctioned Deripaska in 2018 for working for the Russian state to destabilize Ukraine. Deripaska was also a close associate of political operative Paul Manafort, who ran Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Manafort was convicted in 2018 of a number of crimes associated with his ties to Russia. Trump pardoned him.

McGonigal, along with Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who has worked as an interpreter for U.S. courts, is charged with violating sanctions by taking money from Deripaska to investigate one of his rivals, and with money laundering. In a separate indictment, McGonigal is accused of hiding multiple cash payments from a foreign intelligence official and of trying to get the sanctions on Deripaska removed.

As Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel points out, the Department of Justice is pursuing this case so far as about public corruption, not about national security. But it is surely significant that the man who was supposed to be in charge of protecting the U.S. from Russian oligarchs went to work for one as soon as he left the FBI, and perhaps sooner. And that oligarch was connected to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager. While there is a lot we still don’t know, we do know that in 2018, Comey told Congress he worried that officials in the FBI’s New York field office had given Trump ally Rudy Giuliani sensitive information in the last days of the 2016 election, after Giuliani had said so in front of television cameras. Giuliani made that claim in October, after McGonigal took over that office. 

We know that Comey told investigators that he released news of the reopened investigation of Clinton’s emails—against Department of Justice policy, right before the election with voting already underway—out of concern that “people in New York” would leak that information. Former acting attorney general Sally Yates was clearer. She told the inspector general that Comey and other FBI officials “felt confident that the New York Field Office would leak it and that it would come out regardless of whether he advised Congress or not.” 

We also know that after McGonigal left the FBI, he went to work for Brookfield Properties, the multibillion-dollar real-estate company in New York that handled the bailout of Jared Kushner’s 666 Fifth Avenue by a $1.1 billion, 99-year lease—all paid up front—thanks to the Qatar Investment Authority. None of those things is currently on the table in the indictments, and they might not turn out to be significant. But my guess is that this case will continue to develop.

Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York told Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave that they had agreed with McGonigal’s attorney for him to be released on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond, co-signed by two other people.

 Another prominent legal case touching on the Trump years wrapped up today when it took a jury only two hours to find another January 6 defendant guilty of all charges for which he was on trial. Richard “Bigo” Barnett, 62, of Gravette, Arkansas, who was photographed with his feet on then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, was found guilty of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, carrying a dangerous weapon into a restricted building—he was the one with a stun gun in a walking stick—and five other counts. Barnett said he ended up in the speaker’s office by accident while he was looking for a bathroom.  

And legal commentator Joyce White Vance of Civil Discourse points out that tomorrow, a judge in Fulton County, Georgia, will hold a hearing to decide whether to release the report of the grand jury that investigated Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. You can see why Republicans are nervous about leaping aboard the Trump train for 2024.

January 23, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 24

SAVE

▷ LISTEN

Today a jury found three members of the Oath Keepers gang, along with a fourth defendant associated with them, guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding the January 6th insurrection in 2021. In October a different jury also found the founder of the Oath Keepers, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, as well as their Florida leader, Kelly Meggs, guilty of seditious conspiracy. Five members of another extremist gang, the Proud Boys, are currently on trial on that charge and others.

Today’s defendants, Joseph Hackett, 52; Roberto Minuta, 38; David Moerschel, 45; and Edward Vallejo, 64, were found guilty of a rack of other charges, too, but the seditious conspiracy charges are the biggies. Such indictments are rare and indicate a careful plot against our democracy. They are hard to prove. These six convictions—so far—are a big win for Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.

At Talking Points Memo, Nicole Lafond notes that defense attorneys for the Oath Keepers argued that the fault for January 6th was not that of their clients. “Responsibility really rests at our politicians’ feet,” attorney Scott Weinberg said. “The president and Stewart Rhodes were claiming that the world is coming to an end even before the election.”

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol recommended that the Department of Justice consider criminal charges against former president Trump, the man behind the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It also called a number of his associates co-conspirators.

So far, those charges have not materialized, and Trump is running for president in 2024.

That campaign is off to a rocky start. Trump is supposed to kick it off next week in Columbia, South Carolina, but Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post report that he’s having trouble lining up politicians to show up. They’re not willing to indicate support for him yet.

Scherer and Dawsey note that South Carolina has two homegrown candidates, former governor Nikki Haley and current senator Tim Scott, who might want to run. In addition, Trump has recently alienated evangelicals—his formerly rock-solid base—by blaming them for his 2020 loss. It is also possible that his many legal troubles will catch fire, burning up his presidential chances. His secretary of state Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton are apparently testing the waters themselves, publicly needling each other. Bolton recently said Trump’s support is in “terminal decline,” and after Trump called former cabinet members considering a campaign “disloyal,” Pompeo told Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade, “I never said I wouldn’t run.”

Another issue dropped today, huge in itself and at least tangentially related to the former president.

On Saturday, authorities from the Department of Justice arrested Charles McGonigal, 54, at JFK Airport as he returned from a trip to Sri Lanka. McGonigal worked for the FBI from 1996 to 2018.

On October 4, 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey named McGonigal the head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office. As the special agent in charge, McGonigal supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs. Before that, he was the section chief of the Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Charges against McGonigal—who is one of the highest ranking FBI members ever charged with a crime—stem from his connection to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. The United States sanctioned Deripaska in 2018 for working for the Russian state to destabilize Ukraine. Deripaska was also a close associate of political operative Paul Manafort, who ran Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Manafort was convicted in 2018 of a number of crimes associated with his ties to Russia. Trump pardoned him.

McGonigal, along with Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who has worked as an interpreter for U.S. courts, is charged with violating sanctions by taking money from Deripaska to investigate one of his rivals, and with money laundering. In a separate indictment, McGonigal is accused of hiding multiple cash payments from a foreign intelligence official and of trying to get the sanctions on Deripaska removed.

As Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel points out, the Department of Justice is pursuing this case so far as about public corruption, not about national security. But it is surely significant that the man who was supposed to be in charge of protecting the U.S. from Russian oligarchs went to work for one as soon as he left the FBI, and perhaps sooner. And that oligarch was connected to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager.

While there is a lot we still don’t know, we do know that in 2018, Comey told Congress he worried that officials in the FBI’s New York field office had given Trump ally Rudy Giuliani sensitive information in the last days of the 2016 election, after Giuliani had said so in front of television cameras. Giuliani made that claim in October, after McGonigal took over that office.

We know that Comey told investigators that he released news of the reopened investigation of Clinton’s emails—against Department of Justice policy, right before the election with voting already underway—out of concern that “people in New York” would leak that information. Former acting attorney general Sally Yates was clearer. She told the inspector general that Comey and other FBI officials “felt confident that the New York Field Office would leak it and that it would come out regardless of whether he advised Congress or not.”

We also know that after McGonigal left the FBI, he went to work for Brookfield Properties, the multibillion-dollar real-estate company in New York that handled the bailout of Jared Kushner’s 666 Fifth Avenue by a $1.1 billion, 99-year lease—all paid up front—thanks to the Qatar Investment Authority.

None of those things is currently on the table in the indictments, and they might not turn out to be significant. But my guess is that this case will continue to develop.

Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York told Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave that they had agreed with McGonigal’s attorney for him to be released on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond, co-signed by two other people.

Another prominent legal case touching on the Trump years wrapped up today when it took a jury only two hours to find another January 6 defendant guilty of all charges for which he was on trial. Richard “Bigo” Barnett, 62, of Gravette, Arkansas, who was photographed with his feet on then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, was found guilty of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, carrying a dangerous weapon into a restricted building—he was the one with a stun gun in a walking stick—and five other counts. Barnett said he ended up in the speaker’s office by accident while he was looking for a bathroom.

And legal commentator Joyce White Vance of Civil Discourse points out that tomorrow, a judge in Fulton County, Georgia, will hold a hearing to decide whether to release the report of the grand jury that investigated Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

You can see why Republicans are nervous about leaping aboard the Trump train for 2024.

What a SPIN!

What a SPIN! Right off the bat! “Virtually everything was going right”, and he most likely would be reelected (tell that to my 401K). This article also admits what every democrat really cares about; this is an unwelcomed distraction that muddies the waters against Trump. All of this is so petty but the hypocrisy from the left is breath taking. 

This article states that documents were found in his garage in December; if the Biden administration is the most transparent administration ever…why we are finding out about these documents several weeks later. I love how we are taking the White House’s word that it was a “mistake”.

There are a lot of differences we can talk about with these cases. The article points out a few petty ones; one major one that I think we should discuss is the difference between a VP taking classified documents VS. a sitting President.

Direct Quotes

Virtually everything was going right for President Joe Biden as he opened the year. His approval ratings were ticking up. Inflation was slowing. And as Democrats united behind his likely reelection campaign, Republicans were at war with themselves after a disappointing midterm season.

Democrats publicly and privately conceded that the stunning development was at best an unwelcome distraction at an inopportune time that muddies the case against Donald Trump.

Most notably, there is no suggestion that Biden purposefully tried to prevent the documents discovered at his home or office from being turned over or that he was even aware of their presence.

Trump “is the luckiest man in American politics,” said John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump and is considering a Republican White House bid. “This ought to be disqualifying to both of them.”

One of Biden’s potential challengers, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, recently told The Associated Press that he would make a decision about his 2024 intentions “at the appropriate time.”

Garland’s appointment of a special counsel followed Biden’s acknowledgement Thursday morning that documents with classified markings from his time as President Barack Obama’s vice president were found in the garage of his Delaware home and in his personal library, in addition to documents already discovered in a locked closet at an office he used after leaving the White House.

Garland said Biden’s lawyers informed the Justice Department on Thursday morning of the discovery of a classified document at Biden’s home, after FBI agents first retrieved other documents from the garage in December.

“People know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,” Biden said. He added: “My Corvette’s in a locked garage.”

To be clear, there are stark differences between the cases, including the volume of documents discovered and the gravity of the ongoing grand jury investigation into the matter at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, home.

Roughly 300 records with classification markings were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, a private club that hosts constant events. The search of Trump’s property was the culmination of months of back-and-forth between the government and Trump’s representatives, who repeatedly resisted efforts to return the missing documents. And the Justice Department says classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from a storage room as part of what they allege was an effort to obstruct the federal investigation.

Some Democrats were hopeful, but not certain, that voters might distinguish between Biden’s cooperative approach involving a small trove of documents he apparently possessed by mistake

“I think everyone would wish this hadn’t happened, including the president,” he said. “But it’s important to keep all of this in context: Everyone views President Biden as a far more responsible figure than Donald Trump.

We Happy Few Scenery: Johnny Bolton’s Tree House ( pt 003/? )

Timothy Wepner officiating.

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Whoever was behind the attacks also began going after Americans on American soil. An American diplomat and his spouse, who had been hit when they were stationed in China, traveled to Philadelphia to get specialized treatment at the University of Pennsylvania. One night in June 2018, according to three government sources, the couple was startled awake by a sound and pressure in their heads similar to what they had felt back in China. On the advice of FBI agents, the family moved to a hotel, but on their second night there, they were again awoken in the early morning hours. Terrified, the parents ran into the room where their children were sleeping to find them moving in their sleep, bizarrely and in unison. In the weeks afterward, the children developed vision and balance difficulties. The family members, whose identities GQ is not revealing for privacy reasons, declined to be interviewed for this story. “I can’t say anything about that,” says attorney Janine Brookner, who represents the family.

Then, shortly after Thanksgiving 2019, according to three sources familiar with the incident, a White House staffer was hit while walking her dog in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. According to a government source familiar with the incident, the staffer passed a parked van. A man got out and walked past her. Her dog started seizing up. Then she felt it too: a high-pitched ringing in her ears, an intense headache, and a tingling on the side of her face.

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Now my brain is getting connections with vaccine autism, ELF weapons, and gangstalking

February 21, 2020 (Friday)

More news today about the intelligence briefing that led to Trump firing acting Director of Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

First of all, observers see the replacement of an intelligence officer who reported the truth with a toady as a five-alarm fire. Today, retired Admiral William H. McRaven, the commander who oversaw the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, broke the military’s reluctance to comment on politics with an op-ed in the Washington Post. Discussing the firing of Maguire, he concluded: “As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”

Political writer Greg Sargent was clear: [L]et’s not mince words: Trump and his GOP defenders appear to be actively abetting an attack on our country.” He points out that a bipartisan Senate investigation concluded that Russia targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016, likely so they could figure out how it worked for future havoc. Their goal is “undermining the integrity of elections and American confidence in democracy.”

And Trump and GOP leaders are letting it happen.

The intelligence briefing that so angered Trump, in which intelligence officials warned members of the congressional intelligence committees that Russia was working for Trump’s reelection, also delivered the news that Russia has been working to promote the candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). And yet, given information they could use against a Democrat at a crucial moment, Trump and his people instead said that this information just proves the party is against Sanders, precisely what it appears Russian propagandists are saying.

(For his part, when asked about it, Sanders said he had received a briefing “about a month ago” but had not revealed it publicly because “I go to many intelligence briefings which I don’t reveal to the public.” In a statement, he said: “I don’t care, frankly, who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants to be president…. My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.”)

Tonight, news broke that Trump is planning to prevent the publication of John Bolton’s book, which allegedly ties Trump directly to the Ukraine Scandal, until after the election. Trump plans to declare that everything he said to Bolton while he was Trump’s National Security Advisor was classified. He says Bolton is “a traitor.”

The book’s publication date is March 17, but if it comes out without the final approval of the National Security Council Bolton might face a criminal investigation and, possibly, forfeit his seven-figure advance. Since Bolton was well aware of the limits of what he could safely talk about, and since his lawyer’s initial letter about the final classified check reminded the office that it should be seen only by the person responsible for checking it, not by the president’s people, and since the White House made and circulated multiple copies, it seems to me likely Bolton would win in a legal struggle with Trump. But that will take a long time.

Meanwhile, Trump has been purging the White House of anyone who cooperated with the impeachment probe, but now has expanded that purge, instructing his aides to identify anyone not considered sufficiently loyal to the president so they can be forced out. Apparently, Jared Kushner and Trump’s children have been key players in making this push, intending to concentrate more power amongst themselves.

This is the key reason to put Richard Grenell at the head of national intelligence, along with former Nunes aide Kash Patel. Already, Grenell has asked for information from the CIA and other intelligence agencies about the information that Russia is already attacking the 2020 election. Looking at intelligence is, of course, now his job, although his fitness for the position was thrown into question even further today when news broke that, although he never registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, he worked for a Moldovan oligarch who is now a fugitive banned from the U.S. Patel was the lead author of the “Nunes Memo” of two years ago, accusing FBI and Justice Department officials of starting the Russia investigation because they were biased against Trump. It is a matter of concern that Grenell and Patel are now in charge of the information about Russian attacks on our country today.

Hiring people based on their loyalty to Trump means that the competent leadership has been replaced by people whose major skill is their ability to please a man whose interests do not run to deep understanding. This is consistent with the GOP idea that government is useless and should be dismantled, and that businessmen should control the levers of power instead of politicians.

Today, a video circulated of Richard Grenell, US Ambassador to Germany and now our acting Director of National Intelligence, saying that there is no need to have an embassy staff analyzing political currents in foreign countries because “we can get that information off the internet.” Instead, he wants to revamp embassies to make them “mini-commerce sections” full of “economic specialists.” (The State Department, of course, became the power it is now after WWII proved that economic interests demanded a thorough understanding of other nations’ cultures and politics, and careful, long-term diplomacy to enable us to work out differences with other countries.)

Perhaps even more disturbing at this particular moment is that the U.S. currently has no expert at the National Security Council who specializes in pandemics. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned today that the window is closing for containing the worldwide spread of the coronavirus (officially SARS-CoV-2) after new cases turned up in Lebanon and Iran. But in May 2018, when he was National Security Advisor, Bolton broke up the team in charge of global health security and pushed out its leader, Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer.

It is clear that the administration does not have a clear plan for managing the disease. There is already finger-pointing and anger today over the fact that State Department officials and a top Trump official overruled officials of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to evacuate 14 Americans infected with coronavirus in an airplane from Japan with 314 uninfected passengers.

The Americans were traveling on the cruise ship the Diamond Princess out of Yokohama for a 15-day cruise when it turned out the ship had carried a man with the virus for 5 days before he left to go to a hospital. The ship returned to Yokohama where Japanese officials quarantined the passengers for fourteen days to make sure there were no other cases. There were. The disease spread on the ship, and after two weeks, the State Department decided to evacuate the Americans. But, once the Americans were aboard buses to the airport, lab reports showed that 14 were infected. Officials from the CDC explicitly recommended that they not be evacuated with the others, but were overruled. CNN reported today that Trump was not told ahead of time that the infected passengers would be brought back home along with the others, and is furious.

And one final note: Roger Stone is trying to get a new trial, based on the idea that the jury in his first trial was biased. He has asked Judge Amy Berman Jackson to recuse herself from ruling on his motion for a new trial because she herself is biased: she praised the jurors for serving “with integrity under difficult circumstances.”

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Available as a free newsletter at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

Many of the same far-right think tanks which have promoted the white genocide thesis that has inspired recent terrorist attacks started off scapegoating Muslims as closet extremists attempting to takeover Western societies from within.

In the U.S., groups like the Gatestone Institute (formerly chaired by Trump’s current National Security Advisor John Bolton), Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy, Robert Spencer’s JihadWatch, David Horowitz’s Freedom Center, Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum, Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism, and Raphael Shore’s Clarion Project have made it their business to accuse prominent Western Muslim civil society networks of being hotbeds of extremism conspiring to conquer the West by stealth.

“With the massive migration of Muslims to Europe, the Brotherhood — with its history, organization, cadre, clear ideology, and international connections — was in the perfect position to affect their thinking and compete for their leadership,” claimed a Gatestone article earlier this year. “The Muslim Brotherhood has, over the last decades, also successfully implanted itself in the United States,” the article continues, concluding that: “In fact, nearly all prominent Islamic organizations in the United States are rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood.”

One organization that has repeatedly come under fire from this sort of far-right propaganda is the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), the largest American Muslim philanthropic foundation, founded in 1981. Like many other ordinary American Muslim civil society groups, such as the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) or the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), IIIT is routinely portrayed as little more than a front for an Islamist conspiracy to infiltrate America and impose “Shariah Law.”

Yet the “fake news” playbook used to build up this picture is revealing — a close inspection reveals that the claim is built-up entirely from innuendo, non-sequiturs, and false generalizations.

After 9/11, the U.S. government launched a major multi-agency investigation into terrorism financing across multiple agencies known as Operation Green Quest, focused on uncovering Muslim charities operating as “front organizations” for terrorists.

The problem was that U.S. government agencies like the Treasury Department, FBI, and many others had a nebulous and weak understanding of the Muslim world, often leading investigators to see connections and ties which were not there, and to read conspiratorial meaning into every association or relationship that might potentially link individuals or organizations to extremism — however tenuous.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the net of suspicion was thrown over virtually the entire American Muslim community. IIIT was just one venerable organization that found itself caught up in Operation Green Quest’s vast effort.

“All the major Muslim charities have had their assets frozen and raids have been conducted on homes and businesses around the country without any kind of accountability or redress,” noted the ACLU. “Raids were mounted in scores of cities across the country, with special attention given to convenience stores. Once a business, charity or other body was ‘flagged’ as having some kind of connection to ‘terrorism’ — no matter how tenuous — the investigation would proceed entirely in secret, giving the organizations no opportunity to clear their names.”

According to Michael Isikoff, reporting in Newsweek in late 2003, Operation Green Quest’s “most highly publicized case — its raids on the offices of a large network of Islamic charities and foundations in northern Virginia in March 2002” resulted in no charges or prosecutions relating to terror financing. “Customs agents, armed with federal search warrants, hauled away truckloads of documents and computer files. But so far the investigation, which created a ruckus within the American Muslim community, has yet to yield any criminal charges.”

Even in relation to a number of successful indictments, Isikoff noted that “it is still unclear whether these connect to the financing of terror groups or simply involve networks of Middle Eastern immigrants attempting to send money home to relatives.”

Eventually, Operation Green Quest did yield some results. But IIIT and its most senior founders and officers — such as Jamal al-Barzinji and Hisham al-Taib — having fully cooperated with U.S. investigators, were eventually exonerated completely when it became clear there was simply no meaningful evidence whatsoever they had ever organized or facilitated terrorist financing.

Much of the “evidence” cited by far-right groups implicating IIIT in a terrorist-Brotherhood conspiracy is based on cherry-picking documents that came to light from Operation Green Quest, including alleged Muslim Brotherhood documents as well as FBI files relating to inquiries at the time.

Yet innocent Muslims were regularly caught up in this sweeping process. A 2004 report by the U.S. government’s General Accounting Office pointed out that having provided a list of 30 suspected terrorists to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified from July to October 2003, the FBI went on to find that only “10 of the approximately 30 subjects had a confirmed nexus to terrorism or terrorist financing.”

Trump’s end run around the State Department in foreign policy, using self-dealing agents in ‘shadow government’

Some of the White House's most senior foreign policy officials were trying to raise the alarm about the administration's illegal activity in Ukraine well before President Donald Trump's now notorious call with his counterpart in Kiev, according to stunning new testimony in the impeachment inquiry.

Fiona Hill Trump's former top Russia adviser, said in a startling deposition Monday that then-national security adviser John Bolton told her to tip off White House lawyers about the activities of Giuliani and others, according to sources familiar with her testimony. 

Bolton's advice followed a meeting two weeks before the call between the two presidents on July 25, one source said.The detail suggests that senior figures inside Trump's White House were deeply concerned that the activities by the President and those close to him reached the level of illegal behavior -- a potentially significant turn in the three-week-old impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.

Much of the conduct now emerging at least appears unethical, off-the-books of regular diplomatic activity and more expansive than it initially appeared.

The new testimony challenges White House arguments that Trump did not abuse his power by asking a foreign leader for dirt on a domestic political foe: Joe Biden

.It adds to a growing tapestry of evidence that suggests that the call between the US and Ukrainian Presidents and a whistleblower account of behind-the-scenes activity in the White House represents just the tip of the iceberg of what may have been going on.

According to sources familiar with the testimony, Hill quoted Bolton as saying that Trump's lawyer, who was freelancing on Ukraine policy apparently at the President's request, was a "hand grenade" who was "going to blow everybody up."

Bolton is now almost certain to be called as a witness -- a dangerous prospect for a President who ousted him after disagreements over North Korea and Russia policy. 

According to the sources familiar with Hill's testimony, she also said Bolton warned her that he would not get caught up in what he referred to as a "drug deal" being cooked up by Gordon Sondland and Mick Mulvaney.

Hill also testified that the public discord over issues like Ukraine sowed confusion about American policy and was the kind of corruption that the Russians could exploit.

Hill is a former intelligence official and Russia scholar who specializes in the Russian President.

The testimony of Hill, formerly senior director for Russian and European Affairs on the National Security Council, may also be a sign that the White House will not succeed in its effort to prevent all former officials from testifying as part of a strategy of blanket non-cooperation with the inquiry.

in an eye-opening warning, the lawyer, Lee Wolosky, cited precedent to the effect that privilege disappears if "government misconduct occurred," in an apparent suggestion of possible criminal activity within the White House.

What makes Hill's testimony especially interesting is the fact that she was not on Trump's call with Zelensky on July 25. She had officially left her post by then. That means that her account relates to the period before the telephone call -- suggesting that the scheme to pressure Ukraine was much longer in the making than it first appeared.

CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal

Headlines

Astrology in the office (LI) Astrology is infiltrating the office, with more employees looking to the stars to enlighten their 9-to-5. Enthusiasts say astrology offers powerful tools for understanding, team building, and decision making, and investors are cashing in, pouring millions into the $2.2 billion “mystical services” market, Fast Company reports.

Court allows barring of asylum seekers (NYT) The Supreme Court said that most Central American migrants could be prevented from seeking asylum while the legal fight plays out, a major victory for the Trump administration. A federal appeals court had largely blocked the policy, which requires migrants to first seek asylum in countries they travel through on their way to the U.S. The rules reversed longstanding policies that allowed people to seek haven no matter how they got to the U.S.

Bahamas announces number of missing (Foreign Policy) The Bahamas government said Wednesday that around 2,500 people have been reported missing since Hurricane Dorian struck the islands on Sept. 1, though the names have not been checked against lists of evacuees. The confirmed death toll remains at 50--a number expected to rise. “No living Bahamian has ever seen anything like this in their lifetime,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in a televised address. At least 4,000 people have left for the United States. A U.S. official said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump does not plan to grant temporary protected status to the evacuees.

Patients Evacuate Brazil Hospital During Fire, 1 Person Dead (AP) A deadly fire broke out at a Rio de Janeiro hospital Thursday night, forcing staff to hastily evacuate patients and temporarily settle some on sheets and mattresses in the street while firefighters battled the blaze.

EU prods Britain towards Northern Ireland backstop to break Brexit deadlock (Reuters) The European Union has pressed Britain to give Northern Ireland special status within the bloc’s trading orbit to unlock a Brexit deal, with Dublin promising a positive response should London shift its position.

Paris Commuters Hit by Transport Strike Over Pension Overhaul (Reuters) Parisian commuters faced travel chaos on Friday as transport workers went on strike over plans to reduce their retirement privileges in a challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans.

Torrential Rain Causes 3rd Death in Southeastern Spain (AP) Spanish authorities say that heavy storms in the southeast have claimed another victim, bringing the death toll from the extremely bad weather to three.

Explosion on a Road in Southeast Turkey Kills 4, Wounds 13 (AP) Turkish officials say Kurdish rebels have detonated an improvised explosive device on a road in southeast Turkey, killing four people and wounding 13 others.

China Prods State Firms to Boost Investment in Crisis-Hit Hong Kong (Reuters) China has called on its biggest state firms to take a more active role in Hong Kong, including stepping up investment and asserting more control of companies in the financial hub, executives familiar with the matter said, as Beijing attempts to calm months of unrest in the city.

As Unrest Deepens, Hong Kongers Eye Exits From Vancouver to Melbourne (Reuters) As protests in Hong Kong stretch from summer into autumn with little sign of resolution, a surge in migration applications suggests more locals are making plans to leave the special administrative region.

As Indonesia Fires Rage, Schools and Airport Forced to Close (AP) Indonesian authorities closed an airport on Indonesia’s Sumatra island Friday due to poor visibility caused by smoke from raging fires burning through peatland, while schools in several provinces closed due to the hazardous haze.

Pope Francis to Visit Thailand, Japan in November (AP) Pope Francis will visit Thailand and Japan in November in a visit expected to highlight his call for complete nuclear disarmament and honor the small Catholic communities in each country.

Mnuchin says U.S. still pursuing ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran (Reuters) The United States is still pursuing its campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday, even after President Donald Trump parted ways with his hard-line national security adviser John Bolton.

U.S. Says It Has Evidence Adrian Darya 1 Oil Transferred to Syria (Reuters) The United States has evidence that the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1 has transferred its crude oil to the Syrian government, breaking assurances it gave not to sell crude to the country, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.

US concluded Israel likely planted surveillance devices near White House: report (The Hill) Israeli intelligence agents were likely behind the placement of surveillance devices near the White House, U.S. intelligence has reportedly concluded. Politico reported Thursday that U.S. investigators had determined that Israel was most likely the culprit responsible for placing StingRay phone trackers near the White House, with the apparent purpose of capturing information from phones used by President Trump or top White House aides. A spokesman for Israel’s embassy in the U.S. called the allegations leveled by U.S. officials “nonsense,” and disputed the idea that Israel carries out surveillance operations in the U.S.

New data shows Israeli settlement surge in east Jerusalem (AP) Jewish settlement construction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has spiked since President Donald Trump took office in 2017, according to official data obtained by The Associated Press. The data also showed strong evidence of decades of systematic discrimination, illustrated by a huge gap in the number of construction permits granted to Jewish and Palestinian residents.

Here are some senior figures who have been fired, quit or otherwise changed roles in the administration.

2019

Randolph "Tex" Alles -- the head of the U.S. Secret Service -- left in May as part of a broader shake-up of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The White House tapped James Murray, a career Secret Service agent, to take over.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. She resigned in April amid Trump's rising anger at a surge in migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Kevin McAleenan, who had led the U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, was chosen as acting DHS secretary.

Linda McMahon - The Republican fundraiser was one of Trump's first Cabinet picks. She served as director of the Small Business Administration until March, when she resigned to join Trump's re-election campaign. Trump nominated U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza to the position in April.

Clete Willems - A key figure in trade talks with China and a deputy to Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, Willems said in March he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Heather Wilson - The U.S. Air Force secretary, once considered a top candidate to become defense secretary, decided to return to academia.

Bill Shine - Eight months after being hired as the White House communications director, he resigned to work on Trump's re-election campaign. A source close to Trump said the president had lost confidence in the former Fox News executive.

2018

Jim Mattis - In a candid resignation letter that laid bare his growing divide with Trump over Syria and Afghanistan policies, the defense secretary abruptly quit, shocking allies and Congress. Trump named Mattis' deputy, Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, to the role in an acting capacity soon afterward.

Ryan Zinke - Trump's first interior secretary left at the end of 2018 amid investigations into his use of security details, chartered flights and a real estate deal.

John Kelly - A retired Marine Corps general, Kelly was hired as White House chief of staff to bring order to the chaotic Trump White House, but ultimately fell out with his boss. Trump named his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, to the job on an acting basis on Dec. 14.

Jeff Sessions - The Republican former U.S. senator from Alabama was finally forced out as attorney general on Nov. 7 after months of being attacked and ridiculed by the president for recusing himself from a special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was replaced briefly by Matthew Whitaker until William Barr was confirmed to the job.

Nikki Haley - The former South Carolina governor stepped down at the end of 2018 as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump first put forward State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert as her successor, but she later withdrew. Trump has since nominated Republican donor and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft for the position.

Don McGahn - Trump said in August the White House counsel would leave, amid strains between the two over the Russia probe.

Scott Pruitt - The Environmental Protection Agency chief quit in July under fire over a series of ethics controversies.

David Shulkin - White House officials said in March that the Veterans Affairs secretary would resign.

H.R. McMaster - The national security adviser was replaced in March by John Bolton.

Rex Tillerson - The secretary of state was fired by Trump in March after long-standing tension between them.

Gary Cohn - The National Economic Council director and former Goldman Sachs president said in March he would resign. Trump picked Larry Kudlow to replace him.

Hope Hicks - The White House communications director, a long-serving and trusted Trump aide, resigned on Feb. 28.

Rob Porter - The White House staff secretary resigned in February after accusations of domestic abuse from former wives.

2017

Omarosa Manigault Newman - The former reality TV star was fired as assistant to the president in December.

Tom Price - The Health and Human Services secretary quit under pressure from Trump on Sept. 29 over travel practices.

Stephen Bannon - Trump's chief strategist was fired by Trump in mid-August after clashing with White House moderates.

Anthony Scaramucci - The White House communications director was fired by Trump in July after 10 days on the job.

Reince Priebus - Replaced as chief of staff by Kelly, Priebus lost Trump's confidence after setbacks in Congress.

Sean Spicer - Resigned as White House press secretary in July, ending a turbulent tenure.

Michael Dubke - Resigned as White House communications director in May.

James Comey - The FBI director, who led the Russia probe before the special counsel was appointed, was fired by Trump in May.

Michael Flynn - Resigned in February as Trump's national security adviser. Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Sally Yates - Fired in January by Trump as acting attorney general.

(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, and Alistair Bell)

All of the appointees of President Putin’s Apprentice share certain things in common; They’re either Corrupt, Incompetent or BOTH.

They may think they’re the smart ones  for jumping of his sinking garbage barge, but all of them will be tainted with his foul stink for the rest of their wasted and unredeemable lives.

Bolton believes the US has to overthrow Kim Jong Un, period. He got himself into trouble with his comments that the US would insist on using the "Libya model" and got sidelined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He stepped aside, said little and watched as the president kissed up to the North Korean dictator and basked in the glory of his delusional historic agreement. He's just sitting back, waiting for the moment when Trump realizes he's been betrayed. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) seemed to have a similar idea, only he seemed to want to play the role of Trump press agent and announce it to the world. He said, “If you try to play Trump or back out, there’s going to be a war and nobody wants war. Look at what he said to Canada when he thinks he’s wronged." This was the danger in letting Trump do his elaborate photo-op and then go all over the media praising Kim as his very favorite new friend, telling everyone who will listen that they have "chemistry" and they trust each other. It's very personal for him now and like the playground bully that he is, Trump will feel betrayed when he finds out that Kim didn't feel the same way about their "special bond." You can be sure that John Bolton has Plan B ready to go.

Frank Worthington: A personal memory

IF Stalybridge Celtic signed Frank Worthington as a publicity stunt, it worked perfectly. Bower Fold was crammed that Boxing Day afternoon in 1988, and apparently the takings cleared the club's overdraft.

As lockdown prevents me from checking what I and others wrote at the time, I'm having to rely on my fraying memory. But the crowd for that derby against a Hyde United including John Bishop must have been at least 1,700. All four sides of the pitch were hemmed in by spectators with no gaps to be seen.

I'm sure even the Tigers fans were hoping to see Frank to weave the odd bit of magic to entertain them, so long as they didn't lose. There was a collective sense of  anticipation whenever he got the ball — an intake of breath, necks craning, eyes opening that little bit wider — but Worthington largely stayed in his box. There was just the odd spark here and there.

I seem to recall a tricky free kick, but that was about it. I'm told he missed a penalty, although I've no recollection. The game ended in a 1-0 win to the Tigers, Ricky Harris scoring the goal.

To be fair to Frank, top players rarely shine at non-league level. The only one I can think of is former Manchester City and Oldham defender Kenny Clements and I still remember him one very wet Saturday, slowly hauling himself up from the National Park mud, rain pounding into his face, with a look that said: "What the hell am I doing here?"

There's always someone who wants to make a name for himself by crunching a star. Denis Law told me that's one of the reasons he never played again after announcing his retirement. He even turned down an invitation to sign for Stalybridge Celtic.

When Celtic signed Frank Worthington, it was big news. He went to Bower Fold with his former Bolton team-mate Paul Jones. Jones held Frank in the highest esteem, commenting a few years ago: "Frank Worthington would have put people like Ronaldo in the shade." Praise indeed.

After the game, in the Sportsman on Mottram Road (now an estate agent's office), Bridge secretary Martyn Torr manoeuvred me through the packed pub to get a few words with the great man.

Of course, being me, I did my best to fluff it. "How did you find Stalybridge Celtic?" I blurted.

"Well I got on the M62 and headed west," came the reply.

At the time, Frank would have been just 40, and with his lank hair and moustache he reminded me of a Wild West gunslinger. He looked more like Wild Bill Hickok than his  hero Elvis. But I suppose a gunslinger is what he was. He was quick on the draw with his footballing skills rather than his Colt 45s.

My first memories of Frank were forged when Huddersfield were promoted to the first division under the management of former Manchester United midfielder Jimmy Nicholson.

The only time I saw him play before his appearance at Bower Fold was at Old Trafford on April 11, 1979. He'd found the net to cancel out Martin Buchan's goal and deep into injury time, with the score still 1-1, I left to get the bus home.

On the 330 from Hyde to Dukinfield, the conductor (remember them?) saw my United scarf and asked me the result. "A 1-1 draw," I told him, and somebody shouted from the back: "No, Bolton won 2-1." Frank had scored about six minutes into injury time. I was gutted.

What did Frank get for his efforts? I understand he was paid the princely sum of £100 in cash for his Stalybridge Celtic appearance and promptly blew the lot in the pub and in an Indian restaurant on Market Street.

I have the feeling he played one more game for the Bridge but I'm told he didn't. Whatever the truth, that Christmas afternoon at Bower Fold provided me with a special memory of a truly talented and special player.

Need to ring my son now to tell him all about the day I met the great Frank Worthington.

Trump White House pursues broader campaign to punish China amid coronavirus blame game

That decision — which prompted a pledge from Beijing to retaliate — came after other punitive measures in recent weeks, including economic sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims; the stripping of Hong Kong’s special economic status after the Communist Party tightened control of the island; and plans to expel some Chinese journalists and restrict exchange students in the United States.

“The old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done. We must not continue it. We must not return to it,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. “Today, China is increasingly authoritarian at home, and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else. . . . If the free world doesn’t change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”

Pompeo’s remarks at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., came nearly half a century after President Richard M. Nixon pursued an opening of diplomatic relations with Beijing, and were intended to delineate a sharp break in decades of U.S. policy that Trump aides have described as too lenient.

The speech followed addresses from other top Trump aides — national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray — who delivered their own indictments of China this month in a coordinated effort to emphasize the administration’s determination to confront Beijing on a wide array of issues.

Yet the timing of the tougher strategy, coming less than four months before the presidential election, has alarmed Trump’s critics. They questioned whether the president’s eagerness to blame China for the pandemic — and paint Democratic rival Joe Biden as weak on Beijing — has led the administration to lash out without thinking through the consequences, an approach one Capitol Hill aide privately termed the “burn it all down phase” of its China policy.

“I am deeply concerned that the administration’s approach is one that labors under the mistaken belief that just being confrontational is the same thing as being competitive,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told Stephen Biegun, Pompeo’s top deputy, at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on China this week.

Menendez agreed that the U.S. policy must get tougher and said he is working on a bill with fellow Democrats, but he added that “being tough is the means, not the ends,” and asked what the administration will do if Beijing follows through on threats to retaliate for the closure of the Houston consulate.

Biegun responded that U.S. policymakers have “invested quite a bit over the last three decades” in trying to coax China into becoming a responsible international stakeholder, only to be betrayed.

“Sometimes, wishful outcomes are hard to let go of, and many have not,” he told lawmakers. “This administration has been equally criticized for moving too abruptly or too harshly or for precipitating a new Cold War, which is not our intention.”

Inside the White House, there are signs that the emerging China strategy remains a work in progress. One White House ally said the series of speeches from Trump aides was prompted by concern among his political advisers that the president — while attacking Biden for being inconsistent on China — was himself facing criticism for having vacillated in his approach.

“Somebody pointed out, ‘We look like we’re flip-flopping ourselves,’ ” said this person, who is in semi-regular contact with Trump aides and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their private conversations. The person added that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has more-moderate views on China, declined a request to deliver his own address.

And even as Trump has blamed China for failing to contain the virus, which originated in the city of Wuhan, he has continued to refrain from the kind of sweeping rhetoric used by some of his aides to denounce a string of Chinese offenses.

During a Rose Garden news conference two weeks ago, Trump announced that he would sign an executive order to punish China for its imposition of a strict new national security law in Hong Kong. But he spent most of the hour-long event bashing Biden and touting his record in a stream-of-consciousness monologue that resembled a campaign speech.

At a news conference this week, Trump suggested he remained willing to collaborate with Beijing if Chinese researchers are the first to develop an effective vaccine for the coronavirus. He was also relatively muted when asked if his administration would consider shutting down other Chinese compounds in the United States.

“It’s always possible,” he replied.

Though Trump came to office projecting a tougher edge on China, his pursuit of a bilateral trade deal — and his related unwillingness to personally criticize President Xi Jinping or forcefully confront Beijing on human rights — undercuts efforts within the administration to develop a comprehensive strategy.

Last month, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton asserted in a White House memoir that the president attempted to convince Xi that China’s purchase of more U.S. goods would help Trump win reelection, and that the president told Xi in a private discussion that he was justified in building detention camps for ­Uighur Muslims.

But trade talks have broken off amid the pandemic and Trump has not spoken with Xi since March, providing an opening for China hard-liners within the administration.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., last week, Barr inveighed against Chinese surveillance and censorship, and faulted Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo for collaborating with the Communist Party and becoming “pawns of Chinese influence.” Pompeo, who has lobbied U.S. allies to follow the administration’s efforts to ban Chinese 5G telecom giant Huawei, has floated potentially banning Chinese-owned technology apps, including the popular TikTok, a social media platform.

The State Department issued a statement this month aligning the United States with an international tribunal’s ruling four years ago that China’s encroachment on disputed shipping lanes in the South China Sea was “unlawful.”

In his remarks at the Nixon Library, attended by a handful of Chinese political dissidents, Pompeo accused Xi of being “a true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology” that “informs his decades-long desire for global hegemony built on Chinese communism.”

Michael Pillsbury, a China analyst at the conservative Hudson Institute, said Trump, despite his long-standing concerns about China’s unfair trade and intellectual property theft, had not fully endorsed an expansive indictment of the Chinese political system.

“This is a new area for the president,” said Pillsbury, who lauded the administration’s “dramatic reappraisal” of the bilateral relationship in an op-ed Thursday.

But Trump’s critics faulted the administration for failing to promote an alternative U.S. leadership model abroad. During the Senate committee hearing this week, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Trump’s declared “America first” policy had left all nations free to “pursue their own interests” rather than develop a coordinated response to Chinese aggression.

And Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) cited the administration’s use of federal agents to employ tear gas and make arrests amid protests in Portland, Ore., and asked Biegun whether the United States was “facing more accusations of hypocrisy” in criticizing China over its actions in Hong Kong.

Biegun allowed that the United States is going through an “uncomfortable moment,” but he rejected the comparison and said the administration’s effort to maintain order “does not indict our democracy.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the affiliation of Michael Pillsbury. He is a China analyst at the Hudson Institute.

The post Trump White House pursues broader campaign to punish China amid coronavirus blame game appeared first on Shri Times.

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Reading tea leaves: US backs off support for regime change in Iran

By James M. Dorsey

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An Iran hawk who advocated killing general Qassim Soleimani, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has ordered his diplomats to limit contacts with militant Iranian exile and opposition groups that support either regime change or greater rights for ethnic groups like Kurds and Arabs.

Coming on the back of the Soleimani killing, Mr. Pompeo’s directive appears to put an end to the Trump administration’s hinting that it covertly supports insurgent efforts to at the very least destabilize the Iranian government if not topple it.

A litmus test of the directive by Mr. Pompeo, known to have a close relationship with Donald J. Trump, is likely to be whether the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, distances himself from the controversial National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an offshoot of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a group that was taken off the US Treasury’s list of designated terrorists several years ago.

Mr. Giuliani is a frequent, well-paid speaker at gatherings of the group that has built a significant network among Western political elites. The council and the Mujahedeen openly call for regime change in Iran.

The Mujahedeen were moved with US assistance from their exile base in Iraq to a reportedly Saudi-funded secretive facility in Albania.

A New Jersey-based lobbying firm hired by the NCRI, Rosemont Associates, reported last year in its filing as a foreign agent frequent email and telephone contact on behalf of its client with the US embassy in the Albanian capital of Tirana as well as Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran, and Gabriel Noronha, an aide to Mr. Hook.

In his directive, Mr. Pompeo said that “direct US government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behaviour.”  

The secretary went on to say that Iranian opposition groups “try to engage US officials regularly to gain at least the appearance of tacit support and enhance their visibility and clout.”

Mr. Pompeo’s cable, while keeping a potential negotiated deal with Iran on the table, does not stop other US government agencies from covertly supporting the various groups, that also include Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of al-Ahwaz (AMLA), the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI).

Iran, which has long believed that the United States, alongside Saudi Arabia and Israel, supported the Mujahedeen as well as ethnic militants that intermittently launch attacks inside Iran, is likely to take a wait-and see-attitude towards Mr. Pompeo’s directive that could be seen as a signal that the Trump administration is not seeking regime change.

The timing of the directive is significant. Iran responded to the killing of Mr. Soleimani with carefully calibrated missile attacks on US facilities in Iraq in a bid to create an environment in which backchanneling potentially could steer the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table.

While it was uncertain that one round of escalated tensions would do the trick, potential efforts were not helped by the death of Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, a key interlocutor who has repeatedly helped resolve US-Iranian problems and initiated contacts that ultimately led to the 2015 international agreement that curbed Iran’s nuclear program.

In his directive, Mr. Pompeo, referring to Komala, acknowledged that “Iran’s regime appears to assess that the United States and/or Israel support this group of militant Kurds.”

Iranian perceptions were reinforced not only by calls for regime change by senior figures like Mr. Giuliani and Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of the kingdom’s intelligence service and ex-ambassador to Britain and the United States, but also the appointment in 2018 of Steven Fagin as counsel general in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Shortly before moving to Erbil, Mr. Fagin met In Washington as head of the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs, with Mustafa Hijri, leader of the KDPI as it  stepped up its attacks in Iranian Kurdistan.

Iranian perceptions were further informed by the appointment of John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s since departed national security advisor and like Mr. Giuliani a frequent speaker at NCRI events, who publicly advocates support of ethnic insurgencies in Iran in a bid to change the regime.

As Mr. Trump’s first director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mr. Pompeo named Michael D’Andrea, a hard-charging, chain-smoking covert operations officer, alternatively nicknamed the Dark Prince or Ayatollah Mike, whose track record includes overseeing the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, as head of the CIA’s Iran operations.

The appointment was followed by publication by a Riyadh-based think tank believed to be close to crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of a study for Saudi support for a low-level Baloch insurgency in Iran. Prince Mohammed vowed around the same time that “we will work so that the battle is for them in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia.”

Pakistani militants have claimed that Saudi Arabia had stepped up funding of militant madrassas or religious seminaries in the Pakistani province of Balochistan that allegedly serve as havens for anti-Iranian fighters.

The New York Times reported this week that aides to Prince Mohammed had in the past discussed with private businessmen the assassination of Mr. Soleimani, an architect of Iran’s regional network of proxies, and other Iranians as well as ways of sabotaging the country’s economy.

Mr. Pompeo’s directive is unlikely to persuade Iran that Washington has had a change of heart. Indeed, it hasn’t. Mr. Trump maintains his campaign of maximum pressure and this week imposed additional sanctions on Iran.

Nonetheless, potentially taking regime change off the table facilitates backchanneling that aims at getting the two nations to talk again.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture