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Showing posts with label state department. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Hillary's Benghazi And State Department Headaches Are Far From Over

JUDICIAL WATCH WANTS HILLARY'S DEPOSITION ON EMAIL SCANDAL

Seeks to find out with whom she communicated

Published: 3 days ago

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BOB UNRUH About | Email | Archive

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Hillary Clinton (video screenshot)

The Hillary Clinton email scandal is all over, right?

Not if Judicial Watch gets its way.

The famed government watchdog is back in court asking a judge to take the unusual step of ordering depositions in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth heard arguments on the dispute late Friday but did not immediately rule. His decision is expected shortly.

Judicial Watch wants to put Clinton under oath and ask about, among other issues, the identification of individuals with whom Clinton may have communicated by email, including State Department officials, other government officials or third-parties, such as Sidney Blumenthal.

The case was put on hold by Lamberth because of other government action on Clinton’s email scandal.

But the judge said it’s time to resolve the outstanding arguments in the case, which Judicial Watch explained was the one that in 2015 revealed the email scandal to the public.

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Hillary Clinton, while secretary of state, set up and operated an unsecure, private email server through which she ran even classified information.

She later had her associates delete many of the messages.

“It is frankly unbelievable that the State Department is still protecting Hillary Clinton and her aides from being asked basic questions about her illicit email system,” Judicial Watch said.

“The courts were misled and obstructed by Hillary Clinton’s email scheme and we hope to get some more answers about this scandal.”

Judicial Watch said that at Friday’s hearing, Lamberth “excoriated the Justice Department and FBI for false statements about the Clinton email issue.”

“He also said he was ‘dumbfounded’ by the Justice Department for granting immunity to Cheryl Mills, a top Clinton aide. Judge Lamberth noted he had found Mills to have committed perjury in another Judicial Watch lawsuit. In an April 28, 2008, ruling relating to Ms. Mills conduct as a White House official in responding to concerns about lost White House email records, Judge Lamberth called Cheryl Mills’ participation in the matter ‘loathsome.’ He further stated Mills was responsible for ‘the most critical error made in this entire fiasco. … Mills’ actions were totally inadequate to address the problem.'”

According to Judicial Watch, the hearing was to seek the judge’s order for depositions from Clinton, Mills and several others.

“It was more than two years ago that the court granted plaintiff’s request for limited discovery, mindful of parallel proceedings before Judge Sullivan and the ongoing inquiries by the State Department’s Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the House Select Committee on Benghazi,” Judicial Watch said.

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Its original case from July 2014 sought record regarding Ambassador Susan Rice and the Benghazi scandal under the Obama administration.

“In March 2016, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth granted us ‘limited discovery,’ ruling that ‘where there is evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith, as here, limited discovery is appropriate, even though it is exceedingly rare in FOIA cases,'” the group said.

However, there’s never been agreement from the State Department on the scope of questions and answers.

“As Hillary Clinton tries to remain relevant by encouraging incivility toward her opponents, she perhaps is also trying to deflect attention from our continuing exposure of her irresponsible use of email when she was secretary of state,” Judicial Watch said. “That exposure continues apace. We have received 288 pages of newly uncovered emails that were transmitted over her unsecure, non-‘state.gov’ email system, three of which contain classified information.”

Those details came from another FOIA lawsuit.

The emails also are part of 72,000 pages held by the FBI and ordered to be released.

“We continue to uncover the mishandling of classified information in Hillary Clinton emails that she tried to hide or destroy. This is further evidence of the urgency for the DOJ to finally undertake a complete and legitimate criminal investigation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should immediately order a new investigation of the Hillary Clinton email scandal,” Judicial Watch said.

Hillary Clinton has claimed the 55,000 pages of documents she turned over to the State Department in December 2014 included all of her work-related emails. However, multiple additional caches of emails have been found since then.

Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2018/10/judicial-watch-wants-hillarys-deposition-on-email-scandal/#vVYpXQJ26PB7HOys.99

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Are Palestinians Really This Stupid? Biting The Hand That Feeds Them?

Palestinians: License to Kill Americans

by Bassam Tawil
April 12, 2018 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12147/palestinians-kill-americans

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The ruthless rhetoric the Palestinians are using against the US suggests that they have decided to put the Americans on an equal footing with Israel. They miss the days when the State Department sometimes seemed to be more pro-Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves.
We are talking about the same Palestinian Authority (PA) that continues to receive millions of dollars in US aid annually. The same PA whose security forces are trained and equipped by Americans and Europeans. The same PA that has a "diplomatic mission" in Washington that is actively taking part in the campaign of incitement against the US and its leader.
The anti-US campaign paves the way for terrorists to kill Americans. It feeds into the ideology of the Islamic State terror group, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, which considers the US the "Great Satan."

Hate speech and incitement make up the core of the Palestinian narrative.
For several decades now, the Palestinians have been waging a massive and vicious campaign of incitement against Israel. This campaign has made it impossible for any Arab to even think about the prospects of peace with Israel. Notably, the Palestinian hatred of Israel is not linked to anything Israel does or does not do. Rather, the Palestinian hatred of Israel is based on Israel's existence. Palestinians hate Israel because they believe that Jews have no right to a sovereign country of their own in the Middle East.
Palestinian hate speech against Israel is part of the global landscape: by now, no one even expects anything else from them. A Palestinian mosque preacher calling Jews "descendants of monkeys and pigs" is no story at all -- just more of the same. Similarly, a Palestinian maiming or murdering a Jew has become the norm.
The day will come -- and it is not far away -- when reports of Palestinians notinciting against Israel and Jews will be a remarkable one. The day will come when the only story worth reporting is when a Palestinian did not carry out a terrorist attack against a Jew that day.
Much ink has been spilled about the Palestinians' ongoing efforts to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews. Hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases have been documented in the past few decades. We have become so inured to this Palestinian campaign of incitement and indoctrination that we see it as no different than a daily crossword puzzle in the newspaper.
This campaign of hate and incitement has always served as a catalyst for terror attacks against Jews, thousands of whom have been killed and injured since the establishment of Israel 70 years ago.
In recent months, we have witnessed a new twist in the Palestinian campaign of enmity. Israel is no longer the sole target of this campaign. For the Palestinians, there is a new enemy in town: the US and President Donald Trump and his administration.
The Palestinians' anti-US drive is, by all accounts, unprecedented -- because of its tone and because of its terminology. Never before have the Palestinians dared to voice contempt, hostility and revulsion toward a US president and his senior officials.
Israel can now take cold comfort in the fact that it is no longer alone at the top of the Palestinians' most-wanted list of enemies.
The ruthless rhetoric the Palestinians are using against the US suggests that they have decided to put the Americans on an equal footing with Israel. The abusive rhetoric also shows that the Palestinians miss the "good old days" of the Obama administration, which they admired because of what they perceived as its support for everything the Palestinians said or did and its anti-Israel positions.
The Palestinians miss the days when the Obama administration used to come out in public against Israel at all available podiums, especially in the United Nations. They miss the regular briefings of US officials who displayed "political correctness" by bad-mouthing the settlements and being hard-pressed to say a word against Palestinian abuses. They miss the days when Obama administration officials would lash out, on and off the record, against Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. They miss the days when the State Department sometimes seemed to be more pro-Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves.
Since December 2017, when President Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Palestinians have been waging a systematic campaign of hatred and incitement against the US administration and its top officials. As the days pass, this campaign escalates in its defamatory tone.
Hardly a day passes without the Palestinian Authority (PA) or one of its senior representatives launching a scathing attack on the Trump administration in particular, and the US in general.
Just a reminder, please: We are talking about the same Palestinian Authority that continues to receive millions of dollars in US aid annually. We are also talking about the same PA whose security forces are trained and equipped by Americans and Europeans. We are talking about the same PA that has a "diplomatic mission" in Washington that is actively taking part in the campaign of incitement against the US and its leader.
The silence and indifference of the international community toward calling out the Palestinian offensive serves to embolden Palestinian leaders to step up their vicious rhetorical assaults.
And, as is the situation with Israel, this incitement and indoctrination is being translated into acts of violence and exhibitions of hatred towards the US. Burningeffigies of Trump and US flags have become the norm in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Attacking and intimidating US citizens visiting Palestinian cities and villages have also become familiar in the Palestinian landscape.
Chanting anti-US slogans has become so common that one is left with the impression that the Americans are responsible for the sum total of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim misery. It's only a matter of time before a US citizen or official visiting a Palestinian city is harmed or, God forbid, killed. US citizens are no longer different than an Israeli soldier or settler; they, too, have become legitimate targets of Palestinian violence. This is what the campaign of hatred and incitement has done to the Palestinian public.
When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calls US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a "son of a dog," he is telling Palestinians that they should treat this American as they treat animals: with no respect at all and with disdain and contempt. In Islam, dogs are traditionally considered ritually impure.
For many Muslims, the mere sight of a dog during prayer has the power to nullify a pious Muslim's supplications.
Abbas's derogatory remark sends a message to the Palestinians that there is no difference between an "unclean" dog and Trump's ambassador to Israel. Abbas, who is far from naive, knows very well the strength of this insult in Islam: he would never use it against his rivals in Hamas or any Arab or Muslim.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called David Friedman, the US Ambassador to Israel, a "son of a dog" in a televised speech, on March 19, 2018. (Image source: MEMRI video screenshot)

Friedman is not the only top US official being targeted by the Palestinian leaders' vicious campaign of hate and contempt. US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, is also at the top of the list. The fact that she is a woman makes her even easier prey.
Saeb Erekat, the top PLO official, has no problem telling Haley that she needs to "shut up." Would Erekat ever dare to insult an Arab or Muslim woman in public? The consequences would be disastrous. The woman's family would never let it pass, and if Erekat would be lucky he would be shot only in a limb.
The organization that Erekat represents, the PLO, by the way, is often referred to by Palestinians as the Professional Liars Organization.
Last week, the Palestinian Authority took the anti-Haley campaign to new heights of hypocrisy by denouncing her as an "ambassador of hatred, animosity and dark ideology."
US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt is yet another frequent target of the Palestinian campaign of hate and incitement. Palestinians hurl insults at Greenblatt virtually every day, although they still apparently have not decided if he, too, is a "son of a dog."
Now the Palestinians are being told by their leaders that the US is "complicit" in Israeli "crimes." The Palestinians are furious that the US has not condemned Israel for defending its border with the Gaza Strip against infiltration attempts by Hamas the past two weeks.
The Palestinians are even more angry with the Trump administration for blocking recent anti-Israel resolutions at the Security Council. The resolutions were supposed to have condemned Israel for thwarting attempts by thousands of Hamas supporters to infiltrate the border and kill Jews. Gone are the days when the Obama administration would permit the passing of such anti-Israel resolutions at the UN.
Let us say this clearly: the anti-US campaign paves the way for terrorists to kill Americans. It feeds into the ideology of the Islamic State terror group, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, which considers the US the "Great Satan."
The Palestinian campaign is a license to kill US citizens and officials. Yet the international community is once again failing to call out the Palestinians for their cutthroat incitement.
Yesterday it was Israel. Today, it is Americans. Would the Europeans care to hazard a guess on whose turn is next?

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim based in the Middle East.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

It's About Time Palestinian Funding Ends

Trump admin. announces plan to cut funds for UN agency for Palestinian refugees

Jan 15, 2018 6:15 pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech on Sunday at the 28th session of the Palestinian Central Council, based on the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah, West Bank. Abbas criticizes President Donald Trump’s proposal to withhold more than half of the $125 million, the first installment of donations, to the United Nations Relief and Works agency, which provides money for Palestinian refugees. (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The Trump administration announced Sunday that it might withhold more than half of the $125 million, the first installment of donations, to the United Nations Relief and Works agency, which provides money for Palestinian refugees.

The announcement prompted Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, to go on a two-hour rant criticizing President Donald Trump’s proposal as the “slap of the century” and the president’s attitude as “a slap in the face,” both of which the Palestinians plan to “slap back” against.

The plan has not been implemented, with the State Department commenting Sunday that “the decision is under review. There are still deliberations taking place.” If the plan were implemented, the Palestinians would still receive $60 million in the first installment of donations.

Tensions stem from the on-going negotiations to resolve hostilities in the region. U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley advised U.S. officials to stall the funds until Palestinians resume peace talks with Israel.

The U.S. is the largest donor to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which “focuses on providing health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.” The U.S. government believes severing cashflow to the agency would put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table for a peace deal with Israel and to crack down on Palestinian militants.

Trump has pointed to the lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian progress as motivation for the measure.

In a tweet, Trump said, “We pay the Palestinians HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” he said. “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

Abbas’ speech not only followed the announced plan to cut funding for refugees but also came in the wake of Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel.

“We are in a very dangerous stage,” Abbas said. “There is nothing more important than Jerusalem.”

According to The Associated Press, Abbas said, “Our eternal capital is Jerusalem, and we will not accept what is being offered to us to make Abu Dis the capital of Palestine instead of the city of Jerusalem.”

Speaking directly to Trump, Abbas said “Yekhreb Beitak,” which translates to “may your house be demolished.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to speculate that Abbas’ words indicated deeper hostilities.

In a statement on Facebook, Netanyahu said: “(Abbas) has revealed the truth. He has torn off the mask and shown to the public the simple truth that I have been working to instill for many long years: The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their steadfast refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders whatsoever.”