North Korean Situation Is Obviously Getting Worse Every Second

Entire Senate being called to White House for North Korea briefing

Published April 24, 2017

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The entire U.S. Senate has been invited to the White House for a briefing Wednesday on the North Korea situation, amid escalating tensions over the country’s missile tests and bellicose rhetoric.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed the upcoming briefing, for all 100 senators, on Monday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats plan to provide the update to lawmakers.

It is rare for the entire Senate to be invited to such a briefing. 

Spicer clarified that while the event will take place on the White House campus, it is technically a Senate briefing and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the one who convened it.

The briefing, first reported by Reuters, was confirmed after President Trump earlier spoke to the leaders of both China and Japan.

Trump spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Xi told Trump that China strongly opposed North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and hoped “all parties will exercise restraint and avoid aggravating the situation,” according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV. Trump hopes China could increase pressure on its isolated ally instead of using military options or trying to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Trump and Abe agreed to urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions.

Meanwhile, U.S. commercial satellite images indicated increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site, while Kim has said that the country’s preparation for an ICBM launch is in its “final stage.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said the North appears ready to conduct such "strategic provocations" at any time. South Korean Acting Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has instructed his military to strengthen its "immediate response posture" in case North Korea does something significant on the April 25 anniversary of its military. North Korea often marks significant dates by displaying military capability.

On Monday, Trump also had lunch with ambassadors of countries on the U.N. Security Council. Ahead of the meeting, Trump called for “big reforms” at the U.N. and criticizing its handling of recent events in Syria and North Korea – but said it has “tremendous potential.”

"You just don't see the United Nations, like, solving conflicts. I think that's going to start happening now," he said. 

Fox News’ Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. rthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Trump and Abe agreed to urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions.

Meanwhile, U.S. commercial satellite images indicated increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site, while Kim has said that the country’s preparation for an ICBM launch is in its “final stage.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said the North appears ready to conduct such "strategic provocations" at any time. South Korean Acting Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has instructed his military to strengthen its "immediate response posture" in case North Korea does something significant on the April 25 anniversary of its military. North Korea often marks significant dates by displaying military capability.

On Monday, Trump also had lunch with ambassadors of countries on the U.N. Security Council. Ahead of the meeting, Trump called for “big reforms” at the U.N. and criticizing its handling of recent events in Syria and North Korea – but said it has “tremendous potential.”

"You just don't see the United Nations, like, solving conflicts. I think that's going to start happening now," he said. 

Fox News’ Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Why Should Palestinians Negotiate When Their Pockets Are Filled With Money From The US?

From: FLAME

Tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent annually to pay salaries to Palestinian terrorists who murder innocent civilians in Israel.

To prop up the virtually bankrupt Palestinian Authority (P.A.), the U.S. sends Palestinians more than $400 million a year in aid. The P.A., however, spends some $140 million annually to reward jihadists and their families for murderous acts that kill innocent Americans and Israelis.

What are the facts?

“You can’t be a partner in peace when you are paying people to commit terrorist acts.” Senator Lindsey Graham

In June 2016, 13-year-old Hallal Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed by a Palestinian terrorist who broke into her family’s home.
In March of this year, 28-year-old Taylor Force, a West Point graduate and two-tour U.S. army veteran from Texas, was killed as he strolled with his wife in Jaffa by a knife-wielding Palestinian.

Hailed as heroic jihadist martyrs by the Palestinian Authority, both terrorists and their families now receive monthly stipends from the P.A.

For more than 20 years, the Palestinian government has openly used aid donations from the U.S. and other countries to motivate and reward terrorists.

Depending on the number of people murdered in a terrorist attack, salaries range from $364 to $3,100 per month. Terrorists with families and who die in the act or are captured and sentenced to 30 years or more receive the highest allowances.

These expenditures—a hefty $140 million per year—make up an estimated 10% of the Palestinian Authority’s total budget.

In addition to financial incentives for terror, jihadists also receive abundant moral support from the Palestinian government. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said, “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem. This is pure blood, clean blood . . . With the help of Allah, every martyr will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward.”

U.S. Payments to the Palestinian Authority. According to a Congressional Research Service report, the U.S. since the mid-1990s has contributed more than $5 billion in security assistance and bilateral economic aid to the P.A., and American taxpayers’ current annual commitment is now some $400 million. In fact, Palestinians are the world’s largest per-capita recipients of international aid.

While a 2014 State Department report praised the Palestinian Authority for making “terrorism financing a criminal offense,” the P.A. still has laws on its books mandating payments to terrorists and their families.

In the face of mounting criticism of such hypocrisy from Western nations, however, the P.A. concocted a deceitful shell game, seeking to hide its support of terror by changing what used to be termed “salaries” to “assistance” and shifting distribution duties from the P.A. to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which does not directly receive foreign funding.

So far, this sham seems to have satisfied some of the gullible nations that support the Palestinian Authority.

Time to End U.S. Funding of Terror. At last, members of Congress are introducing legislation to prevent U.S. aid from supporting this culture of jihadist terror. Senators Dan Coats, Roy Blunt and Lindsey Graham, for example, have introduced legislation to end financial aid to the Palestinian Authority until it stops incentivizing terrorism.

Senator Graham has noted that “You can’t be a partner in peace when you are paying people to commit terrorist acts.”

However, both the U.S. and Israel fear that cutting funding to the Palestinian Authority could destabilize the Palestinian government, preferring a duplicitous P.A. to Hamas or Islamic State. Lamentably, those familiar with the corrupt P.A. know that expectations of reforming it anytime soon are fantasy.

But surely funding a Palestinian terror program that kills Americans and Israelis cannot serve the long-term interests of the United States or Israel.

Cutting off aid to the P.A. is a move in the right direction, but it is inadequate, since it doesn’t address the Palestinian culture of Jew hatred and denial of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, both of which beliefs make any notion of peace impossible.

Unfortunately, the Palestinian government perpetuates in its media, mosques and schools the myths that Jews have no rights to sovereignty in the Holy Land and that all non-Muslims, even innocent civilians, are laudable targets for terrorist attacks.

In order to achieve a secure and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, convicted terrorists or who those die while committing terrorism must not compensated by the Palestinian government for these crimes.

It is a travesty that American taxpayer dollars subsidize this hateful practice, and Congress should move urgently to stop it.

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A Good Change On The NSC. Bannon Was Too Politicized.

Rick Perry’s Addition To NSC Follows Bannon’s Departure

"... has returned the NSC to its proper function."By Randy DeSoto
on April 5, 2017 at 3:48pm

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Former Texas governor and current Energy Secretary Rick Perry has been added to a core advisory group within the National Security Council in a shakeup announced Wednesday that included the removal of White House aide Steve Bannon.

The Trump administration issued an updated list of the NSC’s Principals Committee, which added the energy secretary and no longer included Bannon.

Bannon’s initial appointment to the group in January had been seen by some as controversial, given his role as one of Trump’s top political advisers.

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“Critics of Bannon’s role were worried he would politicize a body traditionally viewed as a candid and nonpartisan source of national security information to the president,” McClatchy reported. 

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Steve Bannon is out and Rick Perry is in as Trump reshuffles his National Security Council http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article142865064.html#storylink=latest_side …

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Others on the Principals Committee, which was first established under President George H.W. Bush, include Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.

After being named national security advisor in February following the resignation of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Michael Flynn, McMaster was given the authority to reorganize the NSC as he deemed necessary, including those who would be part of the Principals Committee.

Haley and Pompeo are new additions to the Principals Committee under McMaster, as well.

Perry served as governor of Texas from 2000-2015. He is also a U.S. Air Force veteran, serving as a pilot in the 1970s.

Heritage Foundation national security expert Dr. James Carafano told Western Journalism the addition of Perry to the Principals Committee “reflects the importance of the energy portfolio” to the Trump administration. 

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He surmised that Bannon’s original inclusion and subsequent removal from the committee is “mostly about optics.”

“I don’t think it reflects any change of his importance and value to the president or how foreign policy will get done,” Carafano said. 

Bannon said in a statement released Wednesday he was taken off the committee because it had returned to a “de-operationalized” function.

“[Obama administration National Security Advisor] Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration” for political purposes, Bannon stated. “I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized. [National Security Advisor] General [H.R.] McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function.”

Pence also spoke to the reorganization in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, saying the move was “just a natural evolution to ensure the National Security Council is organized in a way that best serves the president in resolving and making those difficult decisions.”

What do you think?