English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 28/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.october28.20.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since
2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
The parable of the sower: But as for what
was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty,
and in another thirty.’”.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
Matthew 13/18-23/:”‘Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the
word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches
away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what
was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a
while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that
person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the
one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke
the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is
the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and
yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’”.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on October 27-28/2020
Health Ministry: 1809 new Coronavirus cases
Hizballah mobilizes reservists to counter Israel’s military drill – report
UNIFIL Head Chairs Tripartite Meeting with Lebanese and Israeli Officers
Israel's Gantz Praises 'Positive Voices' from Lebanon
Hariri Meets Aoun amid Reports of Near-Final Agreement on Govt.
Hashem Says Rotation Principle Does Not Apply to Finance Portfolio
Strong Lebanon Says Highly Committed to Facilitating Govt. Formation
Wehbe meets Ambassadors of China, Canada
Prices of Imported Foodstuffs to be Lowered
More Fires Break Out in Mountainous Regions
Lebanese president's daughter 'doesn't mind' conditional peace with Israel
Hariri, after a few days, to Baabda with a final formation...
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 27-28/2020
UN watchdog says Iran building new underground nuclear
facility
French Interior Minister to Turkey: Stay out of France's Domestic Affairs
'Limited' Middle East Protest Boycott of French Goods
Facing Muslim Anger, France Warns Citizens Abroad to Take Care
Saudi Arabia condemns Prophet cartoons, rejects attempts linking Islam to
terrorism
Azerbaijan Accuses Armenia of Deadly Missile Strike on Civilians
2 Militants Killed in Southern Turkey after Large Blast
Istanbul court sentences US consulate employee over speculated support to 2016
coup
Greece, Turkey Wrangle over Military Games in Eastern Med
4 Albanian Children Leave Syria Jihadist Camp for Home
Syria: Turkey-backed fighters retaliate against regime-allied forces
Pro-Turkey Rebels Lob Hundreds of Missiles at Syrian Posts after Deadly Raid
German Minister Warns of 20,000 New Daily Virus Cases Within Days
India, US to Sign Data Pact ahead of Talks on Countering China
Bomb at Seminary in Pakistan Kills 7 Students, Wounds 112
Mother of US Journalist Missing in Syria Says Pompeo Undermines His Release
Albania Repatriating 5 Family Members of Militants in Syria
Israel to Begin Human Trials on COVID-19 Vaccine
News Alert: Senate confirms Trump's Supreme Court nominee a week ahead of
Election Day
Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on International Religious
Freedom Day
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 27-28/2020
Why I'm Voting for Donald J. Trump for President!/Eblan
Farris/October 27/2020
Analysis: U.S. confirms senior al Qaeda leader killed in Afghan raid/Thomas
Joscelyn/FDD/October 27/2020
Iran’s Access to Hard Currency Reserves Drops Precipitously/Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD/October
27/2020
Israel-UAE Normalization Takes Big Leaps; Process Remains Fragile/Riad Kahwaji
/Breaking Defense/ October 27/ 2020
Will They Really Get Away With It?/Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October
27/2020
UN Rewards Iranian Atrocities/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/October 27/2020
Are Schools Safe? Kids Might Still Be a Covid-19 Risk/Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/October
27/2020
Boris Johnson is Humbled by a 22-Year-Old Footballer/Therese
Raphael/Bloomberg/October 27/2020
La Turquie islamiste, la fin de l’ère Atatürk et les aléas de l’islamisme néo-ottoman/Charles
Elias Chartouni/October 27/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 27-28/2020
Health Ministry: 1809 new Coronavirus cases
NNA/October 27/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced on Tuesday the registration of 1809 new
Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to
73995. It also reported 11 death cases during the past 24 hours.
Hizballah mobilizes reservists to counter Israel’s
military drill – report
DEBKAfile/October 27/2020
The Iran-backed Lebanese Hizballah has reportedly mobilized extra reservists on
the southern Lebanese border in response to the large-scale five-day military
exercise Israel launched on Sunday, Oct. 25.
On a visit to the North, Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned on Monday, “If
Hizballah attacks Israel, Lebanon will in the end pay the price, and we’re
prepared for a moment that I hope will not come.” The exercise “Deadly Arrow”
simulates a war with Hizballah in which Israeli forces break through to southern
Lebanon to win the day. The local Daily Star reported that Hizballah had acted
“as a precaution in case the drill was a ploy to launch a limited attack” on its
border strongholds. Gantz went on to comment more optimistically “I also hear
positive voices in Lebanon that are even talking about peace with Israel, who
are implementing processes with us like shaping the maritime border,” he said,
referring to the US-brokered talks for resolving the dispute over the sea border
which that runs through rich energy deposits. Lebanese national media reported
that as the IDF exercise got underway, low-altitude overflights were sighted
over the southern towns of Hasbaya, Arqoub, Jabal al-Sheikh, Marjayoun, Keserwan
and Metn, and reconnaissance drones appeared over Jezzine. Lebanon remains at
war with Israel. Still, President Michel Aoun’s daughter, Claudine, said this
week that she supported the idea of peace with Israel provided that “all
problems are solved” – some pretty stiff, like all the borders and “the
Palestinian refugees.” Since July, Israel’s northern front has been on a state
of preparedness after Hizballah vowed to avenge the death of one of its fighters
in an Israeli air strike over Syria. Hizballah, a powerful political force in
Beirut, belongs to the Iranian-led “resistance front” which is committed to
Israel’s destruction. It is backed by a vast arsenal of some 150,000 missiles
largely interred underground. This week, two covert Iranian nuclear arms
development sites were revealed by opposition leaders in Washington. They too
operate largely underground, like most of Iran’s important military facilities.
Two American lawmakers were prompted this week to initiate a bipartisan bill for
providing Israel with US bunker-buster munitions to meet any expanded Iranian
nuclear or proxy threat. The bill, co-sponsored by Democratic New Jersey
Representative Josh Gottheimer and Florida Republican Brian Mast, specified the
14,000-kg Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
UNIFIL Head Chairs Tripartite Meeting with Lebanese
and Israeli Officers
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col on
Tuesday chaired a special Tripartite with senior officers from the Lebanese and
Israeli armies at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura, a UNIFIL statement said.
The meeting was held under a curtailed format due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Discussions focused on the situation along the Blue Line, air and ground
violations as well as other issues within the scope of UNIFIL’s mandate under
U.N. Security Council resolution 1701. Major General Del Col emphasized the
importance of the Tripartite forum as a mechanism aimed at "reducing tension,
preventing misunderstandings between the parties and finding solutions," the
UNIFIL statement said. "We have a unique opportunity to make substantial
progress on contentious issues along the Blue Line," Del Col said. And he added:
“I would like to call on you to move beyond maintaining what we have already and
finish the work on the outstanding points as encouraged by the Security Council
resolution 2539.” The UNIFIL chief also complimented the parties for the
"constructive role" played in de-escalating tensions along the Blue Line. "I
want to acknowledge the efforts of both parties, following my repeated calls, to
pro-actively take measures and bring about a change in the prevailing dynamic of
tension and escalation. The continuation of this positive dynamic will greatly
facilitate constructive engagement between the parties on outstanding issues,"
he said. Tripartite meetings have been held regularly under the auspices of
UNIFIL since the end of the 2006 war in south Lebanon as an essential conflict
management and confidence building mechanism.
Israel's Gantz Praises 'Positive Voices' from Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday welcomed "positive voices" from
Lebanon open to "peace with Israel," ahead of the resumption of unprecedented
maritime border talks between the two states.
Lebanon and Israel, still technically at war, held an initial round of
negotiations on their disputed maritime border under U.N. and U.S. auspices on
October 14. The talks resuming Wednesday are a rare official interaction between
countries with no diplomatic ties.
Both sides insist they are narrowly focused on resolving the maritime dispute to
allow for oil and gas exploration and do not mark a step towards normalization.
During a tour of northern Israel, Gantz said: "I am hearing positive voices
coming out of Lebanon, who are even talking about peace with Israel, who are
working with us on things like determining maritime borders." Gantz, also
Israel's alternate prime minister, did not specify which Lebanese comments he
was referring to. But they came a day after Claudine Aoun, daughter of Lebanese
President Michel Aoun, told Lebanon's al-Jadeed TV that peace with Israel would
be conceivable if issues between the countries were resolved. "We have the
maritime border dispute, the issue of Palestinian refugees, and another topic
which is more important which is the issue of natural resources: water, oil and
natural gas which Lebanon is depending on to advance its economy," she said.
When asked directly if she would object to a peace treaty with Israel, she
responded: "why would I object?" "Are we supposed to stay in a state of war?...
I don't have doctrinal differences with anyone... I have political differences."
Iran-backed Hizbullah, a major force in Lebanese politics, has criticized the
composition of the Lebanese negotiating team. Israel and Hizbullah last fought a
war in 2006, but the sides still exchange sporadic cross-border fire. Gantz's
comments came with Israel deepening its Arab ties through a series of
U.S.-brokered deals. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have established
diplomatic relations with Israel, breaking decades of Arab League consensus
against normalization with Israel until the Palestinian conflict is resolved.
Sudan has said it also intends to establish full diplomatic relations with
Israel.
Hariri Meets Aoun amid Reports of Near-Final Agreement on
Govt.
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri held a new meeting Tuesday with President
Michel Aoun as media reports said a near-final agreement has been reached on the
shape of the new government. "President Aoun met PM-designate Hariri and
discussed with him the governmental situation in an atmosphere of understanding
on the progress that has so far been made," the Presidency said in a tweet.
Al-Jadeed TV meanwhile said that "a near-final agreement has been reached on a
20-minister government." "The rotation of portfolios will involve the various
portfolios except for the finance portfolio, and accordingly Hizbullah is
willing to give up the health portfolio," al-Jadeed said. "Hariri presented a
roadmap and the discussions are now revolving on the allocation of portfolios to
sects. Based on everyone's acceptance of the rotation of portfolios, the Sunni
sect will get the foreign affairs portfolio instead of the interior portfolio,"
the TV network added. It had earlier reported that Hariri would submit a draft
cabinet line-up to Aoun during the meeting. Hariri will later “propose a host of
names for the political forces to choose from and these name will not be
provocative to anyone, because they are supposed to win parliament’s
confidence,” the TV network said.
Berri: Time is Not on Our Side
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Amid the ongoing efforts to form a new government in Lebanon, Speaker Nabih
Berri reportedly said the new cabinet has a “very difficult mission” ahead and
must be formed “quickly” to counter the multiple crises facing the country, al-Joumhouria
daily reported on Tuesday.
“Time is not on our side. A new cabinet must be formed without any delay for it
has a very difficult mission ahead requiring the backing of all political
parties,” a political source quoted Berri as saying. The Speaker emphasized that
all parties should be involved in the rescue plan to save the country. “Rescue
is everyone’s responsibility,” he said, noting that the government's mission
must enjoy a wide range of “popular, partisan and parliamentary support in order
to achieve its goal and steer Lebanon out of the crisis,” the source quoted
Berri as saying. On Monday, media reports quoted informed sources as saying that
the atmosphere of negotiations to form a new government are positive.
Hashem Says Rotation Principle Does Not Apply to Finance
Portfolio
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Development and Liberation bloc MP Qassem Hashem said in remarks on Tuesday that
the principle of rotation of portfolios in future governments will apply to all
ministries “except for the Finance Portfolio.”“Rotation in ministerial
portfolios is up for discussion until we reach an agreement on this, except for
the finance portfolio which remains out of the principle of rotation,” said
Hashem in remarks to VDL radio station. However, Hashem, a lawmaker of Speaker
Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement, said the formation atmospheres were “positive” and
that the efforts could make a breakthrough “at the end of this week or early
next month at the latest." Shall no obstacles arise, PM-designate Saad Hariri is
expected to submit a cabinet format to President Michel Aoun once he finishes
consultations with parliamentary blocs. Hariri had vowed to form a cabinet of
non politically aligned experts with the mission of economic, financial and
administrative reforms contained in the French initiative roadmap. Political
parties wrangling over who controls the Finance Ministry and over a rotation of
the three sovereign portfolios have thwarted the attempts of PM-designate
Mustafa Adib to form a government. A relatively unknown diplomat, Adib, had been
nominated in late August following the resignation of his predecessor Hassan
Diab's government in the aftermath of the deadly port blast.
Strong Lebanon Says Highly Committed to Facilitating Govt.
Formation
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday announced that it
is “committed to the utmost degree to facilitating the formation” of the new
government. In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, held electronically
due to Covid-19 restrictions, the bloc added that it insists on “the unity and
fairness of standards towards all blocs and components.” It also said that it is
“positively awaiting the outcome of the ongoing consultations between President
Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri to in order to decide how to deal with
the formation issue.”
The bloc also added that it is betting on “the success of these consultations in
respecting the standards of the National Pact and the Constitution.”It
accordingly called for naming ministers who have the ability to “quickly
implement the reform program through their competency, integrity, effectiveness,
expertise and knowledge of the state’s affairs and sectors.”
Wehbe meets Ambassadors of China, Canada
NNA/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Charbel Wehbe, met Tuesday
with Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon, Wang Kejian. The pair reportedly discussed
the bilateral relations between the two country, in addition to China's request
for the support of Lebanon over an array of affairs before the United
Nations.Wehbe later met with Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Chantal Chastenay,
over the latest developments on the local scene.
Prices of Imported Foodstuffs to be Lowered
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
The prices of imported foodstuffs will be lowered this week, the head of the
Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuff, Consumer Products & Drinks, Hani Bohsali,
said on Tuesday. “In cooperation with all importers, the syndicate is currently
studying the fluctuation in the dollar exchange rate in the parallel market with
the aim of re-pricing foodstuffs imported from abroad,” Bohsali said in a
statement, following a recent drop in the dollar exchange rate on the black
market. He noted that the move will target items not subsidized by the Lebanese
state. “The completion of the pricing process requires some time, especially
that we are witnessing rapid surges and drops in the dollar exchange rate, which
complicates the process,” Bohsali added. He also reassured that “the lowering of
prices is being seriously studied and the new pricing process will be completed
this week.”
More Fires Break Out in Mountainous Regions
Naharnet/Tuesday 27 October 2020
A large fire broke out at dawn in pine woods between the mountainous towns of
Qoubbei and Chbaniyeh, and civil defense firefighters are trying to douse it,
the National News Agency reported on Tuesday. NNA said the fire has expanded due
to the speed of the warm eastern winds. Municipalities of Qoubbei and Chbaniyeh
have called on owners of water cistern to help provide the fire fighting
vehicles with water. The blaze has threatened homes in Chbaniyeh. More than 100
forest fires fuelled by high temperatures have ravaged parts of Lebanon in
recent days and were brought under control. Several families had to flee
residential areas near the fires, according to media reports.
Lebanese president's daughter 'doesn't mind' conditional peace with Israel
Tzvi Joffer/Jerusalem Post/October 27/2020
"I defend the interests of my country Lebanon first. Are we required to remain
in a state of war?" • Maronite leader: "Lebanon should be the last Arab country
to normalize its relations with Israel."
Claudine Aoun Roukoz, daughter of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and head of the
National Commission for Lebanese Women, stressed that she would "not mind" if
Lebanon makes peace with Israel, in an interview with Al-Jadeed TV on Sunday.
Roukoz stated that border disputes with Israel and Palestinian refugee issues
needed to be resolved, stressing that Lebanon is "counting on solving these
problems to advance our economy."
"After these problems are solved, I do not mind that the Lebanese state makes
peace with Israel, after the demarcation and the guarantee of resources," said
the Lebanese official to Al-Jadeed. "I defend the interests of my country,
Lebanon, first. Are we required to remain in a state of war? I do not have an
ideological dispute with anyone, but my dispute is political."
"I defend the sovereignty and independence of my country, but today we ask who
is the victim? They are the Lebanese people," she said. Roukoz reiterated part
of the comments on her Twitter account. Her views of the matter seems to be
similar to those of her father.
In August, the Lebanese president expressed willingness to consider peace talks
with Israel in an interview with the French BFM TV news channel, just days after
the United Arab Emirates signed a historic normalization deal with Israel.
In response to a question concerning whether Lebanon would consider making peace
with Israel, Aoun stated, "That depends. We have problems with Israel, and we
have to resolve them first." Aoun did not specify what problems would need to be
resolved.
In 2006, Aoun signed a formal agreement of alliance between his Free Patriotic
Movement and Hezbollah, and has consistently backed the Shi’ite group ever
since. In a statement made concerning neutrality in July, Aoun stated that
Lebanon will "not attack anyone," but is "obliged to defend" itself, according
to Lebanon's National News Agency. In a television interview in 2005, Aoun
pointed to peace deals made between Israel and Jordan and Egypt, stressing that
"Lebanon, which has been resisting for 35 years, cannot continue to resist
Israel all by itself. It cannot go against the general Arab trend," according to
MEMRI. He added that he was "not calling for peace" and that Lebanon would be
the "last to sign a peace agreement with Israel."
TWO WEEKS ago, Israeli and Lebanese officials conducted US-mediated negotiations
about the maritime border between the countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones. The
US State Department said that, “during this initial meeting, the representatives
held productive talks and reaffirmed their commitment to continue negotiations
later this month.”The talks in Naqoura, which is near the border with Israel,
are not about normalization or peace. The officials present were authorized only
to discuss the technical matter of the border between the countries’ EEZs.
Neither side is able to develop gas reservoirs in the disputed area, which is a
triangle shape starting from the border on the Mediterranean Sea. The dispute is
over up to 15 km. in the widest part, and averaging five to six km. The area
would be about 2% of Israel’s economic waters.
Sources in the March 8 Alliance led by Hezbollah responded with outrage to the
comments, saying that "the pursuit of normalizing relations with Tel Aviv is
seen as suspicions of treason," according to Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that "this
environment was present during the Lebanese war and what preceded it, but it did
not reach a result, and it will not achieve any result in any circumstance."
Lebanese MP Ali Khurais, a member of the Development and Liberation bloc, told
Asharq Al-Awsat that "our position is clear that Israel is an enemy, and
therefore the farthest that the Lebanese can reach is to confirm the 1949
armistice agreement, which is never a treaty, just like the 1996 Understanding
and the 2006 Agreement."There is neither reconciliation, nor recognition, nor a
treaty with the enemy who attacks our land, nor is there any confidence in him
under any circumstances," added Khurais. "Talking about normalization or peace
is fabricating problems that are not [relevant] now."
Wadih El Khazen, president of The Central Maronite Council, a charitable
organization of the Eastern Rite Maronite Church, told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the
Lebanese structure does not allow us to do more than that, in order to prevent
the ignition of the Lebanese sphere."
El Khazen explained that there were two similar attempts in 1982 and 1983, but
they failed after the Lebanese public exploded in response. "Lebanon should be
the last Arab country to normalize its relations with Israel because of its
peculiarity, composition and the divisions in it."
*Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.
Hariri, after a few days, to Baabda with a final
formation...
AlKhaleej Today/October 27/2020
Building: The optimistic atmosphere near the birth of the government still
prevails in the government scene, as it is expected that the Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri will visit Baabda for the third time today to
present his vision of the form of government to the President of the Republic,
General Michel Aoun, and if this matter is agreed upon, Hariri will return in a
few days to Aoun with a final formation. With the names of the ministers.
Al-Binaa sources pointed out that the government is waiting for a final
understanding between Presidents Aoun and Hariri on two matters: the Christian
quota and the distribution of ministers and portfolios to the parliamentary
blocs that represent Christians in the parliament, and the second round of
portfolios with the decision of the Finance Ministry for a specialist minister
nominated by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The information favored the birth
of the government during the weekend, if the remaining decades were to be
wavered, and confirmed that there is almost an agreement that the government
will be composed of twenty ministers who are not partisan, but politicized
specialists. As for the government, it will be based on a three-thirds political
balance with two additional ministers:
6 ministers for the two Amal, Hezbollah and their allies.
6 ministers for the Prime Minister, the Future Movement and their allies.
6 ministers for the president’s team, the Free Patriotic Movement and their
allies, in addition to a second Druze minister chosen by consensus between
Aoun’s triumvirate – President of the Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt – MP Talal
Arslan, and another Christian minister.
According to the information also, the principle of rotation that Aoun adheres
to does not include the Ministry of Finance, which was decided during the
authoring consultations undertaken by Ambassador Mustafa Adeeb and with Hariri
prior to his assignment. The Ministry of Energy has not been decided, and it may
not be for the Free Patriotic Movement, and it will be exchanged for the
Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Interior It is waiting for the adoption
of the rotation principle for its foreign exchange between Presidents Aoun and
Hariri.
According to the sources, Hezbollah will name specialized ministers who are not
partisan, but they support the resistance politically, as well as the Amal
movement, and the party will demand the Ministry of Health, but it will not
insist on it if it will obstruct the authorship, noting that it has not deducted
from the Shiite share except for the financial ones.
The sources talk about three nodes that could hinder the authorship:
If Aoun insists on the principle of comprehensive rotation.
If Hariri refuses to give the interior to Aoun in return for gaining foreign
affairs or defense.
If Jumblatt insists on naming the second Druze minister.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 27-28/2020
UN watchdog says Iran building new underground nuclear
facility
David Berlin/Germany /AP/October 27/2020
IAEA says centrifuge structure meant to replace Natanz plant hit by mysterious
explosion over summer; Tehran had promised to replace site with more secure one
in mountains. Inspectors from the UN’s atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has
started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one
exploded in what Tehran called a sabotage attack over the summer, the agency’s
head told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Iran also continues to stockpile
greater amounts of low-enriched uranium, but does not appear to possess enough
to produce a weapon, Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, told the AP in an interview in Berlin. Following the July
explosion at the Natanz nuclear site, Tehran said it would build a new, more
secure, structure in the mountains around the area. Satellite pictures of Natanz
analyzed by experts have yet to show any obvious signs of construction at the
site in Iran’s central Isfahan province.
“They have started, but it’s not completed,” Grossi said. “It’s a long
process.”He would not give further details, saying it’s “confidential
information.” Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond
to a request for comment. Iran said last month it had identified those
responsible for the sabotage at the Natanz facility, but did not provide further
details. Foreign media reports have attributed the explosion, which they said
badly damaged an advanced centrifuge development and assembly plant, to Israel
or the US.The explosion was one of a series of mysterious blasts at Iranian
strategic sites around the same time, which were largely attributed to either
Washington, Jerusalem, or both.
Reports in August had indicated that Iran was moving to boost uranium enrichment
at Natanz. A document from the International Atomic Energy Agency said new
advanced centrifuges were being moved from a pilot facility to a new area of the
nuclear facility. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s nuclear department, last
month told state television the destroyed above-ground facility was being
replaced with one “in the heart of the mountains around Natanz.”Natanz hosts the
country’s main uranium enrichment facility. In its long underground halls,
centrifuges rapidly spin uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium.
Natanz became a flashpoint for Western fears about Iran’s nuclear program in
2002, when satellite photos showed Iran building an underground facility at the
site, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. In 2003, the
IAEA visited Natanz, which Iran said would house centrifuges for its nuclear
program, buried under some 7.6 meters (25 feet) of concrete. That offers
protection from potential airstrikes on the site, which also is guarded by
anti-aircraft positions. Natanz had been targeted by the Stuxnet computer virus
previously, which was believed to be a creation of the US and Israel. Iran has
yet to say who it suspects of carrying out the sabotage in the July incident.
Suspicion has fallen on Israel as well, despite a claim of responsibility by a
previously unheard-of group at the time. Under the provisions of the landmark
2015 nuclear deal with world powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action, Iran is allowed to produce a certain amount of enriched uranium for
non-military purposes.
In return, Iran was offered economic incentives by the countries involved.
Since US President Donald Trump pulled the US unilaterally out of the deal in
2018 and re-imposed sanctions, however, the other signatories — Germany, France,
Britain, Russia and China — have been struggling to keep the deal alive.
Meanwhile, Iran has been steadily exceeding the deal’s limits on how much
uranium it can stockpile, the purity to which it can enrich uranium and other
restrictions to pressure those countries to come up with a plan to offset US
sanctions. Iran has continued to allow IAEA inspectors full access to its
nuclear facilities, including Natanz, Grossi said.
In the latest IAEA quarterly report, the agency reported Iran as of Aug. 25 had
stockpiled 2,105.4 kilograms (4,641.6 pounds) of low-enriched uranium, well
above the 202.8 kilograms (447.1 pounds) allowed under the JCPOA. It was also
enriching uranium to a purity of 4.5%, higher than the 3.67% allowed under the
deal. In the next report, due in coming weeks, Grossi said: “We continue to see
the same trend that we have seen so far.” According to a widely cited analysis
by the Washington-based Arms Control Association, Iran would need roughly 1,050
kilograms (1.16 tons) of low-enriched uranium — under 5% purity — in gas form
and would then need to enrich it further to weapons-grade, or more than 90%
purity, to make a nuclear weapon.
The IAEA’s current assessment is, however, that Iran does not at the moment
possess a “significant quantity” of uranium — defined by the agency as enough to
produce a bomb — according to Grossi. “At the moment, I’m not in contact with my
inspectors, but by memory, I wouldn’t say so,” he said. “All of these are
projections and the IAEA is not into speculation,” he added. “What may happen?
What could happen? We are inspectors, we say the amounts that we see.” Iran
insists it has no interest in producing a bomb, and Grossi noted that before the
JCPOA, Iran had enriched its uranium up to 20% purity, which is just a short
technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90%. And in 2013, Iran’s
stockpile of enriched uranium was already more than 7,000 kilograms (7.72 tons)
with higher enrichment, but it didn’t pursue a bomb.
“The idea of a ‘significant quantity’ is a technical parameter… that applies in
the context of the safeguards agreement to indicate amounts which could be
theoretically used for the development of a nuclear weapon,” he said. “The fact
that there could be such an amount would not indicate automatically that a
nuclear weapon is being fabricated, so I think we have to be very careful when
we use these terms.” Grossi personally visited Tehran in late August for
meetings with top officials and managed to break a months-long impasse over two
locations thought to be from the early 2000s where Iran was suspected of having
stored or used undeclared nuclear material and possibly conducted
nuclear-related activities. Inspectors have now taken samples from both of those
sites, and Grossi said they are still undergoing lab analysis. “It was a
constructive solution to a problem what we were having,” he said. “And I would
say since then we have kept the good level of cooperation in the sense that our
inspectors are regularly present and visiting the sites.”
* Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
French Interior Minister to Turkey: Stay out of
France's Domestic Affairs
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Turkey should not meddle in France’s domestic affairs, Interior Minister Gerald
Darmanin said on Tuesday, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called
for a boycott of French goods, citing French leader Emmanuel Macron’s
“anti-Islam” agenda. Erdogan’s comments on Monday were the latest expression of
anger in the Muslim world over images being displayed in France of the Prophet
Mohammad, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Erdogan also questioned
Macron’s mental health, prompting Paris to recall its ambassador in Ankara. “It
should shock each one of us that foreign powers are meddling with what is going
on in France,” Darmanin told France Inter radio, adding he was referring to
Turkey and Pakistan, where parliament passed a resolution urging the government
to recall its envoy from Paris. “Turkey should not meddle with France’s domestic
affairs,” Darmanin added. The row has its roots in a knife attack outside a
French school on Oct. 16 in which a man of Chechen origin beheaded Samuel Paty,
a teacher who had shown pupils cartoons of Mohammad in a civics lesson on
freedom of speech. Macron, who met representatives of France’s Muslim community
on Monday, has pledged to fight “Islamist separatism”, saying it was threatening
to take over some Muslim communities in France.
'Limited' Middle East Protest Boycott of French Goods
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Calls for the Muslim world to boycott French goods over arguments over Islam and
freedom of speech appeared Tuesday to have had "limited" uptake in the Middle
East and North Africa. The boycott was called after French President Emmanuel
Macron last week defended the right to mock religion, following the murder of a
French schoolteacher who had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined calls for people to
spurn French goods, but only a few isolated boycott actions were recorded across
the Middle East and North Africa. French Trade Minister Franck Riester said
Tuesday that "for now, this boycott is very limited". In the mainly Arab Beit
Hanina neighborhood in east Jerusalem, a sign on the cheese and cold meat
section of one supermarket said that "French products have been
withdrawn."Meanwhile, an employee filled a trolley with cheese and butter to
clear the shelves. "We will only hand them over when Macron apologizes," the
employee told AFP. In Libya's capital Tripoli, shopkeepers said the decision to
boycott French goods lay with customers. French products such a cheese and
butter are often out of the price range of ordinary citizens. But in war-torn
Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, French products were
withdrawn from a supermarket in Sanaa. French goods were pulled from some
supermarket shelves in Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Egypt. However, demonstrations
against the French government are more numerous, including outraged protesters
who burned flags or posters of Macron in Libya and Syria. Macron has also drawn
fire in Pakistan and Morocco, while the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the
Taliban in Afghanistan and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbullah have also
spoken out against France.
Facing Muslim Anger, France Warns Citizens Abroad to
Take Care
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
France urged its citizens Tuesday to be cautious and avoid mass gatherings in
countries that have announced boycotts of French products in a fast-spreading
protest against perceived anti-Muslim bias from Paris. Muslims have reacted
angrily to President Emmanuel Macron's staunch defense of the right to mock
religion following the beheading of a history teacher who had shown his pupils
cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed during a class discussion on free speech.
Tens of thousands marched Tuesday in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, while in
Syria protesters have burnt pictures of Macron and in Libya they torched French
flags. "In several countries in recent days, there have been calls for a boycott
of French products, particularly foodstuff, and more generally calls to protest
against France," the French foreign ministry said on its website. "It is
advisable to avoid areas where demonstrations are held, to stay away from
gatherings, and to follow the guidance of the relevant French embassy or
consulate," it added. "It is recommended to be most vigilant, especially
when traveling, and in places frequented by tourists and expatriate
communities." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led the charge against
Macron, backing calls in the Islamic world to boycott French goods. Depictions
of the Prophet Mohammed are considered offensive by many Muslims, but in France
such cartoons have become synonymous with freedom of expression and a proud
secular tradition dating back to the Revolution. In the aftermath of teacher
Samuel Paty's murder, Macron vowed the country "will not give up cartoons."
Publication of the same drawings had sparked the 2015 massacre of cartoonists
and others at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the beginning of a spate of
deadly terror attacks on French soil. Earlier this month, Macron had unveiled a
plan to defend France's secular values against a trend of "Islamist separatism,"
and described Islam as a religion "in crisis."
Saudi Arabia condemns Prophet cartoons, rejects attempts
linking Islam to terrorism
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Saudi Arabia condemns any cartoons offending the Prophet Mohammed and rejects
any attempts to link Islam with terrorism, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) cited an
official source from the Kingdom’s foreign ministry as saying. “The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to link Islam with terrorism and condemns the
offensive cartoons of the Prophet of Guidance and the Messenger of Peace
Mohammed bin Abdullah, may God bless him and grant him peace, or any of the
messengers, peace be upon them,” the source said. Saudi Arabia condemns all
terrorist attacks and those responsible for them and rejects all practices and
actions that incite hatred and violence, the source added, according to SPA.
“Freedom of expression and culture should be a beacon of respect, tolerance and
peace that rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence and
extremism and are contrary to coexistence,” the statement said. The statement
comes amid rising controversy after the murder of a French teacher who had shown
cartoons of the Prophet during a class about free speech. French President
Emmanuel Macron labelled the killing as “an Islamist terrorist attack” and
tweeted in Arabic earlier this week that France would “not give in” and would
“not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate.” In response, several Arab
countries, including Kuwait and Jordan, urged their citizens to boycott French
products over the use of Prophet Mohammed in French cartoons, with retail co-ops
in Kuwait pulling French products from their shelves. Social media users in the
Kingdom also called for a boycott of French supermarket retailer Carrefour on
Sunday.
Azerbaijan Accuses Armenia of Deadly Missile Strike on
Civilians
Agence France Presse/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Azerbaijan accused Armenia of a missile attack that killed four civilians
Tuesday, as Washington urged the two sides to abide by a ceasefire aimed at
halting weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh. With clashes over the disputed
Caucasus region entering a second month, international mediators are pushing to
bring a stop to frontline clashes and shelling of civilian areas that have left
hundreds dead. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed at the weekend -- the third
attempt at a truce -- unraveled within minutes on Monday with the two countries
trading accusations of new attacks.
Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said Tuesday that Armenian forces
had fired missiles on a village in the country's Barda region near the
frontline, killing four civilians, including a two-year-old girl, and wounding
13 others. He claimed cluster bombs had been used and accused Armenia of an
"indiscriminate and targeted attack against civilians". "In violation of
humanitarian ceasefire and in order to compensate their sustained military
losses, Armenia resorts to war crimes of killing civilians," Hajiyev said in
English on Twitter. Armenian defense ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan
denied the claim as "an absolute lie and a dirty provocation." Karabakh's rights
ombudsman Artak Beglaryan accused Azerbaijani forces of "deliberately targeting
civilians" by firing rockets carrying cluster munitions Tuesday into a village
in the region's Martuni district, wounding three women.
'No military solution' -
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a bitter conflict over Karabakh since
Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of the mountainous
province in a 1990s war that left 30,000 people dead.
Karabakh's self-declared independence has not been recognized internationally,
even by Armenia, and it remains a part of Azerbaijan under international law.
The current fighting broke out on September 27. Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse
each other of having targeted civilians and of breaking the previous truces. In
separate phone calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged them
to stand by the ceasefire agreed on Sunday. Pompeo "pressed the leaders to abide
by their commitments to cease hostilities and pursue a diplomatic solution to
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the State Department said in a statement. Pompeo
told the two leaders that "there is no military solution to this conflict," the
State Department said. Russia, France and the United States are leaders of the
"Minsk Group" which has failed since the 1990s to bring about a negotiated
settlement to the conflict.
Fresh frontline fighting -
This year's fighting is the heaviest since a 1994 ceasefire, raising fears that
both Russia, which has a military alliance with Armenia, and Azerbaijan's ally
Turkey could be further drawn into the conflict. Azerbaijan has claimed to be
making significant gains since the fighting began by retaking areas it lost in
the 1990s war, in particular in a buffer zone outside Karabakh seized by the
Armenians. Armenia has admitted to suffering losses and called on volunteers to
join the fighting at the front. The two countries' defense ministries said
fighting was continuing along the frontline on Tuesday. More than 1,000 people
have been reported dead in the fighting, mainly Armenian separatist fighters but
also dozens of civilians on both sides. Azerbaijan has not released any figures
on its military casualties and the death toll is believed to be substantially
higher, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying last week that close to
5,000 people had been killed.
2 Militants Killed in Southern Turkey after Large Blast
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Turkish security forces killed two militants in the southern province of Hatay
on Monday, after clashes that resulted in a large blast in the area, Interior
Minister Suleyman Soylu said. The militants were identified by authorities at a
security checkpoint in Hatay’s Payas district earlier on Monday, Hatay’s
governor said, adding that one of them was neutralized following clashes in the
Iskendurun district. A large blast occurred during the clashes, but no
casualties were reported on the side of the security forces, the governor said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast. Footage from the area showed
several ambulances and police vehicles at the blast site, as authorities
inspected the area and searched the vehicle used by the militants to escape from
the checkpoint to Iskenderun.
Istanbul court sentences US consulate employee over
speculated support to 2016 coup
Reuters, Istanbul/Tuesday 27 October 2020
An Istanbul court on Tuesday sentenced a local US consulate employee to jail for
aiding the network Ankara accuses of attempting a 2016 coup, in a verdict that
could further strain the ties between Turkey and the United States. Nazmi Mete
Canturk, a Turkish security officer at the Istanbul consulate, was sentenced to
five years and two months. The court did not arrest Canturk, meaning he will be
free pending appeal.
Greece, Turkey Wrangle over Military Games in Eastern Med
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 26 October, 2020
Greece on Monday denounced Turkey’s plans to carry out a maritime military
exercise on Oct. 28, a Greek national holiday, announced hours after NATO’s
secretary general said both countries had called off wargames on each other’s
national holidays. Tension with Turkey was one of the main topics of discussion
between Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and visiting Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday. Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said
Ankara’s move showed it was an “unreliable” partner when it comes to
negotiations. “Over the last few days, Turkey has been making a persistent
effort to prove that not only is it a troublemaker in our wider region, but it
is also a completely unreliable interlocutor,” Petsas said. Neighbors and NATO
allies Greece and Turkey have had often frosty relations through the years. Most
recently they have been locked in a bitter dispute in over maritime boundaries
and energy exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.Turkey has sent a
seismic research vessel, the Oruc Reis, to prospect for energy reserves on the
seabed in an area Greece that claims is on its own continental shelf and where
it has exclusive economic rights. Turkey disputes the claim. The spat has led to
warships from the two sides facing off in the area, leading to fears of open
conflict. On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said both Greece
and Turkey were canceling military exercises scheduled for this week on each
other’s national holidays, and described the move as “steps in the right
direction, they help reduce the risks of incidents and accidents.”But Petsas
said Monday that hours after that statement was made, Turkey issued a new
maritime safety warning, known as a Navtex, announcing a military exercise
during Greece’s Oct. 28 holiday.
The day marks the anniversary of Oct. 28, 1940, when Greece rejected an
ultimatum by Italy to allow Axis forces to enter Greece, thus marking Greece’s
official entry into World War II. A Turkish official confirmed that Turkey and
Greece mutually cancelled planned exercises for this week. The official said
Turkey had also canceled another Navtex for live-fire exercises as a show of
goodwill. However, a third notice for exercises on Oct. 28 and 29 was still in
place. The official provided the information on condition of anonymity in line
with government protocol. Greece's foreign minister said the “common
denominator” in issues he discussed with Lavrov was “Turkey's destabilizing
role, its neo-Ottoman, expansionist views.” Both Dendias and Petsas said Turkey
had issued a new Navtex for more research to be carried out in an area they said
was over the Greek continental shelf. “It is obvious that Turkey is investing in
escalating tensions,” Dendias said after his meeting with Lavrov, adding he
"made it clear that Greece is ready for all contingencies and has no choice but
to defend its sovereignty and its sovereign rights.” Lavrov said all disputes in
the region should be "resolved in accordance with international law” and through
dialogue. Both Greece and Turkey have said they are willing to talk, although
Greece has said it cannot do so while Turkey continues to prospect for energy
reserves in areas claimed by Greece.
Dendias also raised the issue of the sale of weapons systems to Turkey with
Lavrov. Last week, Athens called on European countries to halt military exports
to Turkey, saying the equipment was being used as a destabilizing factor in the
region. Dendias said he expressed concern to Lavrov over “the particularly
negative role Turkey is playing” in efforts to undermine successes against the
ISIS group, and accused Turkey of having become “a travel agency for extremists,
who are transported to various areas of problems in the region.”Turkey has been
accused of using Syrian mercenaries to boost parties it supports in conflicts in
Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
4 Albanian Children Leave Syria Jihadist Camp for Home
Agence France Presse/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Four Albanian children held in a camp housing families of jihadists in
northeastern Syria are on their way to Lebanon ahead of repatriation, the Red
Crescent said Monday. The children were headed for "Damascus then... the
Lebanese border, and from Lebanon, they will go to Albania," Rahaf Aboud, a
spokeswoman for the Syrian Red Crescent, told AFP. The children, who had
initially been taken to the Kurdish-run city of Qamishli, were "in good health",
Aboud said, after their departure from Al-Hol camp. The operation to remove them
took place at the request of the Albanian government, she said.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama was travelling to Beirut for the repatriation,
scheduled to take place on Tuesday. "We are in the process of repatriating four
Albanian children from the hell of the Al-Hol camp tomorrow to Albania, thanks
to a really complicated operation and after more than a year of efforts," Rama
said on Facebook. Since before the fall in March 2019 of the Islamic State
group's self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria, Kurdish forces have managed
several camps housing thousands of civilians in the northeast of the country who
fled the fighting. The largest is Al-Hol, which also houses the wives of foreign
IS fighters and their children. "This operation opens the way to a second
operation to repatriate other children who still find themselves in Al-Hol
camp," Rama said, just before departing for the Lebanese capital. Albanian
police say at least 40 Albanian children are stuck in Al-Hol, including several
orphans. But the Red Crescent spokeswoman told AFP she had no information about
other Albanian children who could be repatriated. An official Albanian
delegation had arrived on Thursday in northeastern Syria where they met Kurdish
officials, according to the foreign affairs department of the semi-autonomous
Kurdish administration that runs the area. The Kurds, backed heavily by a US-led
coalition in the fight against IS, have repeatedly demanded that countries of
origin repatriate foreign fighters and their families. But many nations have
been slow to oblige, other than to bring back orphans. In November 2019 an
11-year-old Albanian boy called Alvin Berisha was reunited with his family in
Italy after leaving the camp. Earlier this month Kurdish forces freed more than
600 Syrian prisoners detained over links to IS.
Syria: Turkey-backed fighters retaliate against
regime-allied forces
Associated Press, Beirut/Tuesday 27 October 2020
Syrian opposition groups lobbed hundreds of missiles and artillery rockets at
government posts in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, in retaliation for a deadly
attack that killed dozens of their fighters a day earlier. The renewed violence
has undermined an already shaky cease-fire in place since March that aimed to
quell military operations and government troop advances in the overcrowded
opposition enclave. The escalation also comes as relations between Russia and
Turkey, who negotiated the cease-fire, show signs of strain over Ankara's
increased military involvement in a region stretching from Syria to the Caucasus
and the Mediterranean. U.N Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson appealed to
Russia and Turkey to “contain the situation.” Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed
the attack in Idlib as well as the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya in a
telephone call on Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. It did not provide
details. Monday’s strike was the deadliest in Idlib since the
Turkish-Russian-brokered truce there came into effect, raising fears that the
truce could further fray. Some 1 million people were displaced by the last
offensive inside the already packed enclave, home to over 3 million. In
retaliation, the Turkey-backed groups, operating under the umbrella of the
National Front for Liberation, fired hundreds of artillery rounds and missiles
since late Monday at government posts in territories adjacent to areas they
control in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. A spokesman for the NFL, Naji al-Mustafa,
said the opposition's military retaliation targeted and killed Russian officers
in southern Idlib, as well as Syrian soldiers working in the area. The report
could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from
Russia or Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded hundreds of
projectiles lobbed by opposition fighters at nearly 30 government posts in
different locations in southern Idlib, western Aleppo and the coastal province
of Latakia. The Observatory said 12 Syrian soldiers and allied fighters were
killed in the barrage. The Monday airstrike on an opposition training camp near
the border with Turkey killed more than 50 Turkish-backed fighters, according to
one opposition spokesman, and wounded nearly as many, in one of the heaviest
blows to the opposition’s strongest groups. The Observatory for Human Rights,
which monitors the war in Syria, put the toll at 78 fighters dead and nearly 90
wounded. Videos circulating online showed the bodies of about a dozen men spread
on the ground of an open space, wrapped in blankets. The camp, operated by
Faylaq al-Sham, an NFL faction, was hosting training sessions for new recruits.
The NFL said a “large number” of fighters were killed, but declined to give
details. It vowed retaliation and blamed Russia for the attack. U.S. Special
Representative for Syria James Jeffrey said the escalation in Idlib in violation
of the March cease-fire deal is “dangerous” and threatens to prolong the
conflict and deepen the Syrian people's suffering. Jeffrey said the UN-led
political process is the only way to peace and stability in Syria. “By
continuing their quest for a military victory, the Assad regime and its Russian
and Iranian allies are threatening the stability of the surrounding region,” he
said in a statement Tuesday. “It is time for the Assad regime and its allies to
end their needless, brutal war against the Syrian people.” Russia and Turkey,
although they support opposite sides in Syria’s nine-year conflict, have worked
together to maintain a cease-fire in the last enclave of Syria’s opposition.
In the first official comment following the violence, the Turkish state-run
Anadolu Agency said top Turkish presidential aide Ibrahim Kalin discussed the
situation in Idlib with U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser
Robert O’Brien late Monday. The two men expressed concern over “recently
increased attacks by the regime and its supporters,” according to Anadolu.
Pro-Turkey Rebels Lob Hundreds of Missiles at Syrian Posts
after Deadly Raid
Associated Press/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Syrian opposition groups allied with Turkey lobbed hundreds of missiles and
artillery rockets at government posts in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, in
retaliation for a deadly attack that killed dozens of their fighters a day
earlier. The renewed violence has undermined an already shaky cease-fire in
place since March that aimed to quell military operations and government troop
advances in the overcrowded rebel-held enclave. The escalation also comes as
relations between Russia and Turkey, who negotiated the cease-fire, show signs
of strain over Ankara's increased military involvement in a region stretching
from Syria to the Caucasus and the Mediterranean. Russia is a main supporter of
Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. U.N Special Envoy for Syria Geir
Pederson appealed to Russia and Turkey to "contain the situation." Meanwhile,
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart, Sergey
Lavrov, discussed the attack in Idlib as well as the situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya in a telephone call on Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign
Ministry said. It did not provide details. Monday's strike was the deadliest in
Idlib since the Turkish-Russian-brokered truce there came into effect, raising
fears that the truce could further fray. Some 1 million people were displaced by
the last offensive inside the already packed enclave, home to over 3 million. In
retaliation, the Turkey-backed groups, operating under the umbrella of the
National Front for Liberation, fired hundreds of artillery rounds and missiles
since late Monday at government posts in territories adjacent to areas they
control in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. A spokesman for the NFL, Naji al-Mustafa,
said the rebels' military retaliation targeted and killed Russian officers in
southern Idlib, as well as Syrian soldiers working in the area.
The report could not be independently verified and there was no immediate
comment from Russia or Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights recorded hundreds of projectiles lobbed by opposition fighters at nearly
30 government posts in different locations in southern Idlib, western Aleppo and
the coastal province of Latakia. The Observatory said 12 Syrian soldiers and
allied fighters were killed in the barrage. The Monday airstrike on a rebel
training camp near the border with Turkey killed more than 50 Turkish-backed
fighters, according to one opposition spokesman, and wounded nearly as many, in
one of the heaviest blows to the opposition's strongest groups. The Observatory
for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, put the toll at 78 fighters
dead and nearly 90 wounded. Videos circulating online showed the bodies of about
a dozen men spread on the ground of an open space, wrapped in blankets. The
camp, operated by Faylaq al-Sham, an NFL faction, was hosting training sessions
for new recruits. The NFL said a "large number" of fighters were killed, but
declined to give details. It vowed retaliation and blamed Russia for the attack.
U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey said the escalation in Idlib
in violation of the March cease-fire deal is "dangerous" and threatens to
prolong the conflict and deepen the Syrian people's suffering. Jeffrey said the
UN-led political process is the only way to peace and stability in Syria. "By
continuing their quest for a military victory, the Assad regime and its Russian
and Iranian allies are threatening the stability of the surrounding region," he
said in a statement Tuesday. "It is time for the Assad regime and its allies to
end their needless, brutal war against the Syrian people."
Russia and Turkey, although they support opposite sides in Syria's nine-year
conflict, have worked together to maintain a cease-fire in the last enclave of
Syria's rebels. In the first official comment following the violence, the
Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency said top Turkish presidential aide Ibrahim
Kalin discussed the situation in Idlib with U.S. President Donald Trump's
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien late Monday. The two men expressed
concern over "recently increased attacks by the regime and its supporters,"
according to Anadolu.
German Minister Warns of 20,000 New Daily Virus
Cases Within Days
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
The number of new coronavirus infections in Germany is likely to reach 20,000 a
day by the end of the week, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday as
authorities readied new curbs to break the second wave of the pandemic. “We are
dealing with exponential growth,” Altmaier told a virtual German-French economic
conference in Berlin. “In Germany the number of new infections is rising by
70-75% compared to the week before.” German minister warns of 20,000 new daily
virus cases within days. Altmaier’s forecast shows that Germany is contending
with a faster upswing in coronavirus cases than previously expected. At the end
of September, Chancellor Angela Merkel said there could be 19,200 cases per day
by Christmas. On Tuesday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by
11,409. That compares with 6,868 cases last Tuesday and with the record 14,714
reported on Saturday. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said the increase in new
infections was “very worrying,” and authorities had to quickly implement
decisive steps to halt the second wave. “The additional measures should be
targeted, temporary and focussed. And they should be taken as uniformly as
possible across Germany and be generally understandable,” Scholz said. “So far,
our country has fared quite well during the coronavirus pandemic and it will be
decided in the coming weeks whether it will stay that way. It’s in our hands,”
he added. Merkel and leaders of Germany’s 16 states will hold talks on Wednesday
to decide on additional measures. Scholz and Altmaier will also take part in the
discussions. Bild newspaper reported Merkel is planning a “lockdown light” which
would mainly focus on the closure of bars and restaurants as well as
restrictions on public events. Altmaier said rising infections across Europe and
corresponding curbs on daily life would make it harder for economic growth to
rebound as quickly as previously hoped. But he did not expect supply chains to
be disrupted like they were during the first wave of the virus in spring. The
German government expects Europe’s largest economy to shrink by 5.5% this year,
a source told Reuters on Monday, a slightly more optimistic forecast than its
previous guidance for a 5.8% decline in gross domestic product.
India, US to Sign Data Pact ahead of Talks on
Countering China
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
India and the United States will on Tuesday sign an accord on sharing sensitive
information ahead of talks between their defense and foreign ministers that will
focus on countering China's growing influence. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper
and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet India's External Affairs Minister
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh as Indian and Chinese
troops face off at their disputed Himalayan border. The Pompeo-Esper visit to
New Delhi is part of a concerted US campaign to draw India into a deeper defense
relationship. Esper and Singh "reinforced their commitment to deepening
military-to-military cooperation" during talks on Monday, said a US Defense
Department statement. Jaishankar tweeted after his talks with Pompeo that
relations between the emerging allies have "grown substantially in every
domain". Both sides said that an accord on sharing geospatial intelligence would
be signed during the day. The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement will
allow the US to share top-secret satellite and sensor data that would help India
in targeting its missiles and placing troops. It will also allow the US to
provide the latest navigational technology on any fighter jets it supplies to
India. Esper has been pressing the case for India to buy US F-18 jets and move
away from its reliance on Russian weaponry. Esper and Singh "welcomed the
expansion of information-sharing", the US statement said. An Indian Defense
Ministry statement said the two ministers discussed potential new areas of
cooperation, without giving details. Pompeo said on Monday his four-country Asia
tour would focus on the threats posed by China, a topic that is expected to take
a key place in the "two-plus-two" ministerial talks. India's arch-rival neighbor
was not mentioned publicly after Monday's meetings but the US statement said
Esper and Singh "agreed to continue to work in partnership to address pressing
global security challenges". India has sought greater international military
support since the eruption of its latest deadly border showdown with China in
June. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the clash while Chinese
casualties are unknown. Both sides have since sent tens of thousands of troops
to either side of the disputed frontier in the Ladakh region and are digging in
for a long, hard winter in the high-altitude region. India is shopping for US
cold-weather equipment, officials said. India has also since agreed to expand
naval maneuvers in the Indian Ocean in November to include Australia.
Traditionally, the MALABAR exercises have involved India, the US and Japan. US
officials have said they want the four-nation Quad alliance to be given a more
permanent structure in moves that China's foreign ministry said it had "noted".
Pompeo will go on from India to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia. China's
growing investment and influence in Sri Lanka and the Maldives have sparked
concern in both the US and India.
Bomb at Seminary in Pakistan Kills 7 Students,
Wounds 112
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
India and the United States will on Tuesday sign a
A powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the
northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning, killing at least seven
students and wounding 112 others, police and a hospital spokesman said. The
bombing happened as a prominent religious scholar during a special class was
delivering a lecture about the teachings of Islam at the main hall of the Jamia
Zubairia madrassa, said police officer Waqar Azim. He said initial
investigations suggest the bomb went off minutes after someone left a bag at the
madrassa. TV footage showed the damaged main hall of the seminary, where the
bombing took place. The hall was littered with broken glass and its carpet was
stained with blood. Police said at least 5 kilograms of explosives was used in
the attack, The Associated Press reported. Several of the wounded students were
in critical condition, and hospital authorities feared the death toll could
climb further. Authorities said some seminary teachers and employees were also
wounded in the bombing. Initially police said the bombing killed and wounded
children but later they said almost all of the students were in their mid-20s.
Shortly after the attack, residents rushed to the seminary to check up on their
sons or relatives who were studying there. Many relatives were gathering at the
city's main Lady Reading Hospital, where the dead and wounded students were
brought by police in ambulances and other vehicles. Some Afghan students
studying at the seminary were also among the wounded persons, officials said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the bombing and asked authorities
to ensure the provision of best possible medical aid to the victims. The attack
comes days after Pakistani intelligence alerted that militants could target
public places and important building, including seminaries and mosques across
Pakistan, including Peshawar. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the
attack in Peshawar which is the provincial capital of Pakistan's Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The province has been the scene of
such militant attacks in recent years, but sectarian violence has also killed or
wounded people at mosques or seminaries across Pakistan.
Mother of US Journalist Missing in Syria Says Pompeo Undermines His Release
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
The mother of Austin Tice, a freelance journalist and former US Marine officer
who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, on Monday accused US Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo of undermining efforts to free her son. In a statement
released ahead of the Nov. 3 US election, Debra Tice appeared to be trying to
play Pompeo off against US President Donald Trump, who has stressed his desire
to bring home Tice and other US. citizens detained abroad, Reuters reported.
“Unfortunately for Austin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is undermining the
President’s crucial outreach, refusing any form of direct diplomatic engagement
with the Syrian government,” she said. “President Trump is committed to seeing
Austin walk free, whereas Secretary Pompeo is willing to accept his continued
detention.” A Trump Administration official on Oct. 18 confirmed a newspaper
report that a White House official visited Damascus this year for secret
meetings with the Syrian government seeking the release of Tice and another US
citizen. Asked on Oct. 21 about the report and whether Washington was ready to
withdraw US troops from Syria to secure their release, Pompeo said: “We’ll
continue to work for the return not only of Austin, but of every American that’s
held. We’re not going to change American policy to do that.” “As the President
said clearly, we don’t pay for the return of hostages,” Pompeo added, repeating
long-standing US policy. About 600 US forces remain in northeastern Syria after
a sharp reduction in troops that were initially there to drive ISIS militants
from their strongholds in the country. Tice’s mother characterized Pompeo’s
stance as “in essence, there is nothing he is willing to do to bring my son
home.”
She also said Trump “can and should insist upon continuing the dialogue with the
Syrian government.”
Albania Repatriating 5 Family Members of Militants
in Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October, 2020
Albania’s prime minister said Monday that four children and a woman, all related
to Albanian nationals who joined extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq,
are being repatriated from a Syrian camp. Edi Rama told The Associated Press
(AP) in a telephone interview from Beirut, Lebanon, that the return of the five
was arranged after 12-month negotiations, and that his government also hoped to
secure the repatriation of other Albanian nationals stuck in Syria in similar
circumstances. All five were taken to Beirut Monday, where Rama had dinner with
them, and were due to fly back to the Albanian capital of Tirana Tuesday. “It
has been a complicated year’s work,” Rama said. He declined to provide details
on the negotiations so as not to endanger efforts to secure the return of other
Albanian militants’ families. He added that the woman uses a wheelchair as a
result of injuries and will require immediate and difficult surgery once back in
Albania. All five lived in the Al Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria. A few
hundred Albanian men joined ISIS and other groups fighting in Syria and Iraq in
the early 2010s. Many were killed, and their wives and children are stuck in
Syrian camps. Rama could not give the exact number of Albanian nationals in the
camps. Relatives who remained in Albania say 52 children are in the camps. “We
are first committed in taking care of the children and the women not involved in
terror acts,” Rama said. He added that Albanian nationals who took part in the
fighting would face criminal prosecution if they are detained and repatriated.
“We are trying to bring every Albanian back home,” he added. Rama said
humanitarian and religious organizations, military officials and Albania’s
honorary consul in Beirut, Mark Ghraib., played a major part in the repatriation
effort
Israel to Begin Human Trials on COVID-19 Vaccine
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 27 October,
2020
Israel will begin human trials for a potential COVID-19 vaccine on Nov. 1 after
receiving regulatory approval, the Defense Ministry announced on Monday. The
Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) began animal trials for its
“BriLife” vaccine in March. The Health Ministry and an oversight committee have
now given the green light to take it to the next stage. The “Bri” is the first
part of the Hebrew word for health; the “Il” stands for Israel and “life.”
According to the ministry statement, 80 healthy volunteers, between the ages of
18 and 55, will be monitored for three weeks to see if virus antibodies develop.
Two other phases will take place over a period of six months to ensure the
vaccine is approved for mass use. The vaccine, the ministry said, has already
tested well on a number of animal models and the IIBR has produced more than
25,000 doses for the first and second phases of the clinical trials. The
Institute’s final goal is 15 million rations for Israelis and Palestinians, the
ministry stressed. “This is a day of hope for the citizens of Israel, thanks to
the researchers of the IIBR,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz. He expressed
gratitude for dozens of researchers who work day and night on this mission in
full cooperation with the Health Ministry, pledging to provide the institute
with all the means and support required to reach a safe and effective vaccine.
The IIBR affirmed it obtained all the necessary authorizations from the Health
Ministry to begin human trials, noting that it also obtained the approval of the
US Department of Health.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 channel reported on Monday that the foreign
intelligence service, Mossad, brought a Chinese coronavirus vaccine to Israel in
recent weeks in order to study and learn from it. Israel is trying to reach
agreements to purchase coronavirus vaccines from several other potential
developers, according to an informed senior Health Ministry official. The
coronavirus cabinet held a two-day meeting on Sunday, chaired by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, but found no radical solutions to the fundamental issues
raised by the public on the current partial lockdown. Members agreed on the
gradual reopening of the educational sector, with tighter fines imposed on
violators of Health Ministry instructions, A $150 fine will be imposed on those
who do not wear a mask, and $10,000 for those who open their shops without an
approval from the ministry.
News Alert: Senate confirms Trump's Supreme Court nominee a week ahead of
Election Day
Senate Republicans voted to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court
nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Monday, a major victory for the President and
his party just days before November 3, that could push the high court in a more
conservative direction for generations to come.
The stakes in the Supreme Court battle are immense and come at a pivotal time in
American politics in the run up to an election in which control of Congress and
the White House are on the line.
Trump's appointment of a new Supreme Court justice marks the third of his tenure
in office, giving Republicans a historic opportunity to deliver on the key
conservative priority and campaign promise of transforming the federal courts
through lifetime appointments. Trump is expected to swear-in Barrett at the
White House in an outdoor ceremony later Monday night, a source familiar with
the invitation tells CNN.
Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on
International Religious Freedom Day
October 27, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today
issued the following statement:
“International Religious Freedom Day is an important occasion to assert the
universal human right of all people to practise their religion and hold beliefs,
without discrimination, violence or abuse.
“This year, it is also a critical opportunity to recognize the resilience of
faith and belief communities across the world in adapting their practices in the
COVID-19 context.
“We also know that many situations of persecution and discrimination on the
basis of religion or belief have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Canada remains concerned by the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia; the
ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong
practitioners, and other faith and belief communities in China; the continued
economic exclusion of Bahá’ís in Iran; and the imprisonment of Christians in
North Korea. Canada will continue to call upon governments to allow UN special
procedures immediate, unfettered and meaningful access.
“As a multicultural, multi-faith and multi-ethnic society, Canada will continue
to stand up for human rights, including the promotion and protection of freedom
of religion or belief, at home and around the world.”
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 27-28/2020
Why I'm Voting for Donald J. Trump for President!
Eblan Farris/October 27/2020
الناشط الأميركي اللبناني قبلان فارس: من أجل 123 سبب جوهري سوف انتخب دونلد ترامب مرة ثانية لموقع رئاسة أميركا
People are fed up with electing politicians that spoke the speak and once
elected really did nothing except enriching themselves. Face it DC is broken
there are hooks around every corner and that is not what our forefathers
envisioned/worked and died for. That’s my problem with the left they are ok with
re-electing these failures.
If the left let the process work itself out Biden would have never been the
candidate but they are corrupt and they shoehorned him in against the will of
the people. If left alone Bernie or Tulsi or someone else would have been the
candidate. And to my utter surprise, my democratic friends are totally ok with
this manipulation, it astounds me.
Consider these FACTS about where we were at the end of the Obama/Biden legacy:
*95 million Americans were out of the labor force. Of that, there had been a 20
percent increase in the number of black Americans who had fallen out of the
labor force since Obama/Biden became president.
* We had the lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s.
* We were experiencing the worst economic recovery since the 1940s.
* We had the lowest homeownership rate in 51 years.
* 7 in 10 Americans had less than $1,000 in savings.
* There were 13 million more Americans on food stamps today than before
Obama/Biden took office. Of that, there had been a 58 percent increase in black
Americans on food stamps since Obama/Biden became president.
* There were 8 million more Americans in poverty than there were before Obama
took office.
* Obama/Biden was the only president in American history to never reach 3% GDP
growth.
* 1 in 5 American families did not have a single family member in the workforce.
1 in 6 American men 18-34 was either in jail or out of work and living in their
parents' basement.
47% of American's were living in poverty,
45% of American's were on food stamps.
The United States had an $800 billion trade deficit
7,000 Factories closed in the United States in Obama/Biden years and Moved
overseas
There was an average of 15 factories closing every day in the United States.
*** Are you listening Are you reading - 15 Factories Closing Every Day - HELLO
does this mean anything to you all? ***
*Our military was depleted to where once we could hold a 2 1/2 war front and
under Obama/Biden that went to less than 1
*We were not winning the war against Al Qaida
*No progress was being made with respect to the Middle East and Israeli Peace
*They gave Iran billions - those billions were used to spread Iranian hegemony
all over the Middle East thus creating another powder keg of Shi’ites vs Sunni
war potential and Iran continued its nuke goals - as a Lebanese American I
understand this as total and complete incompetence and failure that led to
innocent deaths across the Mideast - total morons.
My family was raised in Missouri since 1898 and 1902 and all were Democrats
because the Democratic Party was for the working class - but guess what over
time Trump has changed this - he even changed the Republican Party to where
today Trump (and thus the Republican Party) are fighting for and are for the
working class. The utter and total failure of Clinton Bush Obama Biden signing
deals and giving away and making incentives to our manufacturers to leave the
USA and set up shop in Mexico and China and thus taking jobs away from Americans
reached a peak. The American worker took note
The American worker fought back - the failures of the politicians were met with
overwhelming energy and excitement in a Trump campaign in 2016 and I don’t think
that knowledge nor enthusiasm has subsided, the American worker knows who has
their back and they know who stabbed them in the back.
We will see - I hope the democrats don’t cheat as I witnessed them cheating in
my days as an election monitor.
I haven’t even begun to talk about the respect for the sanctity of life which I
despise the left for.
Let's see what Trumps Accomplishments are:
Trump Accomplishments
1. Trump recently signed 3 bills to benefit Native people. One gives
compensation to the Spokane tribe for loss of their lands in the mid-1900s, one
funds Native language programs, and the third gives federal recognition to the
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Montana.
2. Trump finalized the creation of Space Force as our 6th Military branch.
3. Trump signed a law to make cruelty to animals a federal felony so that animal
abusers face tougher consequences. 👀👀
4.) Violent crime has fallen every year he’s been in office after rising during
the 2 years before he was elected.
5. Trump signed a bill making CBD and Hemp legal. 👀👀
6. Trump’s EPA gave $100 million to fix the water infrastructure problem in
Flint, Michigan.
7. Under Trump’s leadership, in 2018 the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia
to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil.
8. Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on Pharmacists that prevented them
from sharing money-saving information.
9. Trump signed the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking
Act” (FOSTA), which includes the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act” (SESTA)
which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking.
👀👀
10. Trump signed a bill to require airports to provide spaces for breastfeeding
Moms.
11. The 25% lowest-paid Americans enjoyed a 4.5% income boost in November 2019,
which outpaces a 2.9% gain in earnings for the country’s highest-paid workers.
12. Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and from
corporations that are increasing entry-level pay.
13. Trump signed the biggest wilderness protection & conservation bill in a
decade and designated 375,000 acres as protected land.
14. Trump signed the Save our Seas Act which funds $10 million per year to clean
tons of plastic & garbage from the ocean. 👀👀
15. He signed a bill this year allowing some drug imports from Canada so that
prescription prices would go down.
16. Trump signed an executive order this year that forces all health care
providers to disclose the cost of their services so that Americans can
comparison shop and know how much fewer providers charge insurance companies.
17. When signing that bill he said no American should be blindsided by bills for
medical services they never agreed to in advance.
18. Hospitals will now be required to post their standard charges for services,
which include the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept.
19. In the eight years prior to President Trump’s inauguration, prescription
drug prices increased by an average of 3.6% per year. Under Trump, drug prices
have seen year-over-year declines in nine of the last ten months, with a 1.1%
drop as of the most recent month.
20. He created a White House VA Hotline to help veterans and principally staffed
it with veterans and direct family members of veterans. 👀👀
21. VA employees are being held accountable for poor performance, with more than
4,000 VA employees removed, demoted, and suspended so far.
22. Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland
Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access
to access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life.
23. Because of a bill signed and championed by Trump, In 2020, most federal
employees will see their pay increase by an average of 3.1% — the largest raise
in more than 10 years.
24. Trump signed into law up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for millions of
federal workers.
25. Trump administration will provide H.I.V. prevention drugs for free to
200,000 uninsured patients per year for 11 years. 👀👀
26. All-time record sales during the 2019 holidays.
27. Trump signed an order allowing small businesses to group together when
buying insurance to get a better price👀👀
28. President Trump signed the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act that provides
funding for states to develop maternal mortality reviews to better understand
maternal complications and identify solutions & largely focuses on reducing the
higher mortality rates for Black Americans.
29. In 2018, President Trump signed the groundbreaking First Step Act, a
criminal justice bill that enacted reforms that make our justice system fairer
and help former inmates successfully return to society.
30. The First Step Act’s reforms addressed inequities in sentencing laws that
disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that
created unfair outcomes. 👀👀
31. The First Step Act expanded judicial discretion in the sentencing of
nonviolent crimes.
32. Over 90% of those benefiting from the retroactive sentencing reductions in
the First Step Act are Black Americans.
33. The First Step Act provides rehabilitative programs to inmates, helping them
successfully rejoin society and not return to crime.
34. Trump increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
by more than 14%. 👀👀
35. Trump signed legislation forgiving Hurricane Katrina debt that threatened
HBCUs.
36. New single-family home sales are up 31.6% in October 2019 compared to just
one year ago.
37. Made HBCUs a priority by creating the position of executive director of the
White House Initiative on HBCUs.
38. Trump received the Bipartisan Justice Award at a historically black college
for his criminal justice reform accomplishments.
39. The poverty rate fell to a 17-year low of 11.8% under the Trump
administration as a result of a jobs-rich environment. 👀👀
40. Poverty rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans have reached
their lowest levels since the U.S. began collecting such data.
41. President Trump signed a bill that creates five national monuments, expands
several national parks, adds 1.3 million acres of wilderness, and permanently
reauthorizes the Land and Water, Conservation Fund.
42. Trump’s U.S.D.A. committed $124 Million to rebuild rural water
infrastructure. 👀👀
43. Consumer confidence & small business confidence is at an all-time high.
44. More than 7 million jobs created since the election.
45. More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history.
46. More than 400,000 manufacturing jobs created since his election.
47. Trump appointed 5 openly gay ambassadors. 👀👀
48. Trump ordered Ric Grenell, his openly gay ambassador to Germany, to lead a
global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe.
49. Through Trump’s Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) initiative,
Federal law enforcement more than doubled convictions of human traffickers and
increased the number of defendants charged by 75% in ACTeam districts.
50. In 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismantled an organization that was
the internet’s leading source of prostitution-related advertisements resulting
in sex trafficking.
51. Trump’s OMB published new anti-trafficking guidance for government
procurement officials to more effectively combat human trafficking.
52. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security
Investigations arrested 1,588 criminals associated with Human Trafficking.
53. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services provided funding to support
the National Human Trafficking Hotline to identify perpetrators and give victims
the help they need.
54. The hotline identified 16,862 potential human trafficking cases.
55. Trump’s DOJ provided grants to organizations that support human trafficking
victims — serving nearly 9,000 cases from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018.👀👀
56. The Department of Homeland Security has hired more victim assistance
specialists, helping victims get resources and support.
57. President Trump has called on Congress to pass school choice legislation so
that no child is trapped in a failing school because of his or her ZIP code.
👀👀
58. The President signed funding legislation in September 2018 that increased
funding for school choice by $42 million.
59. The tax cuts signed into law by President Trump promote school choice by
allowing families to use 529 college savings plans for elementary and secondary
education. 👀👀
60. Under his leadership, ISIS has lost most of its territory and been largely
dismantled.
61. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is said to have detonated a suicide vest during a 2019 raid
by United States Special Operations forces.
62. Signed the first Perkins C.T.E. reauthorization since 2006, authorizing more
than $1 billion for states each year to fund vocational and career education
programs.
63. Executive order expanding apprenticeship opportunities for students and
workers.
64. Trump issued an Executive Order prohibiting the U.S. government from
discriminating against Christians or punishing expressions of faith.
65. Signed an executive order that allows the government to withhold money from
college campuses deemed to be anti-Semitic and who fail to combat anti-Semitism.
66. President Trump ordered a halt to U.S. tax money going to international
organizations that fund or perform abortions.
67. Trump imposed sanctions on the socialists in Venezuela who have killed their
citizens.
68. Finalized new trade agreement with South Korea.
69. Made a deal with the European Union to increase U.S. energy exports to
Europe. 👀👀
70. Withdrew the U.S. from the job-killing TPP deal.
71. Secured $250 billion in new trade and investment deals in China and $12
billion in Vietnam.
72. O.K.’d up to $12 billion in aid for farmers affected by unfair trade
retaliation. 👀👀
73. Has had over a dozen U.S. hostages freed, including those Obama could not
get freed.
74. Trump signed the Music Modernization Act, the biggest change to copyright
law in decades.
75. Trump secured Billions that will fund the building of a wall at our southern
border.
76. The Trump Administration is promoting second-chance hiring to give former
inmates the opportunity to live crime-free lives and find meaningful employment.
77. Trump’s DOJ and the Board Of Prisons launched a new “Ready to Work
Initiative” to help connect employers directly with former prisoners. 👀👀
78. President Trump’s historic tax cut legislation included new Opportunity Zone
Incentives to promote investment in low-income communities across the country.
79. 8,764 communities across the country have been designated as Opportunity
Zones.
80. Opportunity Zones are expected to spur $100 billion in long-term private
capital investment in economically distressed communities across the country.
81. Trump directed the Education Secretary to end Common Core.
👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀
82. Trump signed the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund into law.
83. Trump signed measure funding prevention programs for Veteran suicide. 👀👀
84. Companies have brought back over a TRILLION dollars from overseas because of
the TCJA bill that Trump signed.
85. Manufacturing jobs are growing at the fastest rate in more than 30 years.
86. Stock Market has reached record highs.
87. Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded.
88. African-American unemployment is at an all-time low.
89. Hispanic-American unemployment is at an all-time low.
90. Asian-American unemployment is at an all-time low.
91. Women’s unemployment rate is at a 65-year low.
92. Youth unemployment is at a 50-year low.
93. We have the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded.
94. The Pledge to America’s Workers has resulted in employers committing to
train more than 4 million Americans.
95. 95 percent of U.S. manufacturers are optimistic about the future — the
highest ever.
96. As a result of the Republican tax bill, small businesses will have the
lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years. 👀👀
97. Record number of regulations eliminated that hurt small businesses.
98. Signed welfare reform requiring able-bodied adults who don’t have children
to work or look for work if they’re on welfare. 🙌🙌
99. Under Trump, the FDA approved more affordable generic drugs than ever before
in history.
100. Reformed Medicare program to stop hospitals from overcharging low-income
seniors on their drugs — saving seniors 100’s of millions of $$$ this year
alone. 👀👀
101. Signed Right-To-Try legislation allowing terminally ill patients to try an
experimental treatment that wasn’t allowed before.
102. Secured $6 billion in new funding to fight the opioid epidemic. ❤️❤️
103. Signed VA Choice Act and VA Accountability Act, expanded V.A. telehealth
services, walk-in-clinics, and same-day urgent primary and mental health care.
👀👀
104. U.S. oil production recently reached an all-time high so we are less
dependent on oil from the Middle East.
105. The U.S. is a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957.
106. NATO allies increased their defense spending because of his pressure
campaign.
107. Withdrew the United States from the job-killing Paris Climate Accord in
2017 and that same year the U.S. still led the world by having the largest
reduction in carbon emissions. 👀👀
108. Has his circuit court judge nominees being confirmed faster than any other
new administration.
109. Had his Supreme Court Justice’s Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh confirmed.
110. Moved U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. 👀👀
111. Agreed to a new trade deal with Mexico & Canada that will increase jobs
here and $$$ coming in.
112. Reached a breakthrough agreement with the E.U. to increase U.S. exports.
113. Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer,
intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices, has
agreed to a Part One trade deal with China.
114. Signed legislation to improve the National Suicide Hotline. 👀👀
115. Signed the most comprehensive childhood cancer legislation ever into law,
which will advance childhood cancer research and improve treatments.
116. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by Trump doubled the maximum
amount of the child tax credit available to parents and lifted the income limits
so more people could claim it.
117. It also created a new tax credit for other dependents.
118. In 2018, President Trump signed into law a $2.4 billion funding increase
for the Child Care and Development Fund, providing a total of $8.1 billion to
states to fund child care for low-income families.
119. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) signed into law by Trump
provides a tax credit equal to 20-35% of child care expenses, $3,000 per child &
$6,000 per family + Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s) allow you to set aside
up to $5,000 in pre-tax $ to use for child care.
120. In 2019 President Donald Trump signed the Autism Collaboration,
Accountability, Research, Education and Support Act (CARES) into law, which
allocates $1.8 billion in funding over the next five years to help people with
autism spectrum disorder and to help their families. 👀👀
121. In 2019 President Trump signed into law two funding packages providing
nearly $19 million in new funding for Lupus specific research and education
programs, as well an additional $41.7 billion in funding for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), the most Lupus funding EVER.
122. Another upcoming accomplishment to add: In the next week or two Trump will
be signing the first major anti-robocall law in decades called the TRACED Act
(Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence.) Once it’s the
law, the TRACED Act will extend the period of time the FCC has to catch & punish
those who intentionally break telemarketing restrictions. The bill also requires
voice service providers to develop a framework to verify calls are legitimate
before they reach your phone.
123. US stock market continually hits all-time record highs.
If you have time - for more of Trump's Accomplishments please visit what Trump
has done here: Trump Accomplishments
Analysis: U.S. confirms senior al Qaeda leader killed in
Afghan raid
Thomas Joscelyn/FDD/October 27/2020
The United States has confirmed that Husam Abd-al-Ra’uf, a senior al Qaeda
leader also known as Abu Muhsin al-Masri, was killed by Afghan forces during a
raid in Ghazni province earlier this month.
Chris Miller, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, described
Abd-al-Ra’uf’s “removal…from the battlefield” as “a major setback to a terrorist
organization that is consistently experiencing strategic losses facilitated by
the United States and its partners,” according to Reuters. Miller touted the
raid further, saying it “highlights the diminishing effectiveness of the
terrorist organization.”
However, Miller implied just last month that characters such as Abd-al-Ra’uf
were either unimportant, or didn’t even exist. In an op-ed published by the
Washington Post on Sept. 10, Miller claimed that Ayman al Zawahiri was al
Qaeda’s “sole remaining ideological leader.” As FDD’s Long War Journal pointed
out, that isn’t true. Zawahiri’s role was never purely ideological, and he isn’t
the sole remaining al Qaeda leader, ideological or otherwise. A number of al
Qaeda veterans remain active in the network’s hierarchy, including, until
recently, Abd-al-Ra’uf.
Abd-al-Ra’uf’s demise is undoubtedly significant. He was a veteran jihadist,
whose career began in the 1980s. He was a trusted subordinate for Zawahiri and
served al Qaeda in senior roles, including in its propaganda arm, As Sahab. But
it is debatable whether his death, as well as other setbacks, add up to
“strategic losses” for al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere, as Miller claims.
It is likely that Abd-al-Ra’uf trained and oversaw many other al Qaeda men
throughout his lengthy career. And the U.S. has been unable to produce
consistent, reliable estimates of al Qaeda’s strength inside Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda fights for the Taliban in Ghazni and elsewhere
There has been no strategic break between the Taliban and al Qaeda. Abd-al-Ra’uf
was reportedly killed in the village of Kunsaf, which is controlled by the
Taliban. If the Taliban’s men did not betray the Egyptian, and there is no
evidence that they did, then yet again a senior al Qaeda leader was found in
Taliban country. This is an apparent violation of the Feb. 29 withdrawal
agreement between the U.S. State Department and the Taliban. The State
Department has repeatedly vouched for the Taliban’s supposed counterterrorism
assurances, including that al Qaeda wouldn’t be allowed to operate on Afghan
soil. But nearly eight months after that deal was signed, Abd-al-Ra’uf was
located in a Taliban-controlled area.
Al Qaeda has a long-established presence in Ghazni. FDD’s Long War Journal can
trace al Qaeda operations in Ghazni back to 2008.
Aafia Siddiqui, dubbed “Lady al Qaeda” in the press, was among the al Qaeda
figures captured or killed during raids in Ghazni in 2008. There have been
multiple operations targeting al Qaeda in Ghazni since then.
Al Qaeda’s role in the fighting in Ghazni is referenced in the files recovered
in Osama bin Laden’s compound. In a June 19, 2010 memo to bin Laden, Atiyah Abd
al Rahman wrote that al Qaeda had “very strong military activity in
Afghanistan.” Rahman, who served as bin Laden’s key lieutenant, listed Ghazni
was one of eight provinces in which al Qaeda “groups” had been “the same for
every season for many years now.” Rahman was killed in a drone strike the
following year.
In subsequent letters that were also written in 2010, bin Laden ordered his
operatives in northern Pakistan to relocate into Afghanistan. Ghazni was one of
several provinces that the al Qaeda founder considered hospitable for his men.
Operational evidence confirms that al Qaeda was still operating in Ghazni years
later. In Feb. 2017, Afghan troops killed Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a senior al
Qaeda leader who also doubled as the emir for Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI),
a Pakistan-based terror group. Later that year, in Dec. 2017, the U.S. killed
Omar Khetab (a.k.a. Omar Mansour), the “second senior leader” in AQIS, al
Qaeda’s regional branch. In Mar. of 2019, the Afghan military claimed it killed
31 AQIS fighters in the district of Giro. In Sept. 2019, Afghan forces raided a
warehouse that Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) used to house
explosives for operations jointly conducted with Taliban.
Should al Qaeda help the Taliban recapture much of Afghanistan after America’s
planned withdrawal from Afghanistan in the spring of 2021, and there is no real
break between the two, then that could be considered a strategic victory for the
group.
Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.
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Iran’s Access to Hard Currency Reserves Drops Precipitously
Saeed Ghasseminejad/FDD/October 27/2020
In its latest assessment of Iran’s economy, released last week, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that Iran’s “readily available and
controlled” gross official reserves will fall to $8.8 billion by the end of
2020, a downward revision of almost 90 percent compared to the IMF’s April
estimate of $85 billion. If accurate, the new estimate indicates Iran may be
closer to a balance-of-payments crisis than previously thought.
While one should treat the IMF’s new finding cautiously, its figure is very
close to a previously publicized U.S. government estimate that only 10 percent
of reserves remained accessible in December 2019. Still, information on where
Tehran’s reserves were parked in 2018, when U.S. financial sanctions were first
reimposed, is not publicly available, which makes it difficult to vet the IMF
estimates. However, most of the money the IMF now considers less than fully
accessible is likely held in sanctions-mandated escrow accounts by Iran’s major
oil customers, such as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, and Italy.
In 2019, Washington also designated the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) for financing
terrorism, which further restricted Tehran’s access to its funds held abroad.
This month, the U.S. government also designated 18 major Iranian banks. These
designations put immense pressure on Iran’s access to the international
financial system. However, all U.S. sanctions imposed so far have a humanitarian
trade exemption, which allows Tehran to buy non-sanctioned goods such as food
and medicine. The United States and Switzerland set up a special financial
channel for such purchases; the Treasury Department also issued a general
license allowing the CBI to conduct humanitarian trade despite its role in
financing terrorism.
This exemption affects calculations regarding when Tehran may face a
balance-of-payments crisis, as Tehran can use money held in foreign oil escrow
accounts to fund humanitarian imports. Accordingly, the IMF estimated that
Tehran’s “readily available and controlled” reserves will increase from $8.8
billion at the end of 2020 to $10.5 billion in 2021.
Iran has been actively lobbying to release its blocked funds. For example, in
2018, Tehran secured the release of $700 million held by the United Arab
Emirates. Abdolnasser Hemmati, the head of the CBI, said this month that his
negotiations with Iraq to release Tehran’s blocked money produced a favorable
agreement. The future of Iran’s reserves will likely depend on the outcome of
the U.S. presidential election in November. If former Vice President Joe Biden
wins, he will likely lift key sanctions on Iran if Tehran complies with the 2015
nuclear deal, which would enable Iran to access its blocked funds. This
development would significantly increase Iran’s gross official reserves.
If President Donald Trump wins, however, a continuation of the maximum pressure
campaign, combined with the further expansion and enforcement of sanctions, can
further reduce Iran’s access to its foreign reserves, making the IMF’s estimate
for 2021 too optimistic. In fact, with increased sanctions and better
enforcement, Washington can push Tehran’s fully accessible reserves close to
zero within the next two to three years.
Tehran is not yet facing a balance-of-payments crisis, but a lack of reserves is
only one of the economic woes Tehran faces. The Iranian economy is also
suffering from three years of recession, double-digit inflation, and
depreciation of its national currency. The regime faced two waves of widespread
protests in 2017 and 2019 and is preparing for another round. Tehran’s clients
across the Arab world are also facing increasing challenges to their legitimacy.
If Washington continues maximum pressure, by the end of the next presidential
term, the Islamic Republic will likely face a stark choice between collapse and
capitulation to U.S. demands.
*Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior Iran and financial economics advisor at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he also contributes to FDD’s
Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) and Iran Program. For more
analysis from Saeed, CEFP, and the Iran Program, please subscribe HERE. Follow
Saeed on Twitter @SGhasseminejad. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP and @FDD_Iran.
FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on
national security and foreign policy.
Israel-UAE Normalization Takes Big Leaps; Process Remains
Fragile
Riad Kahwaji /Breaking Defense/ October 27/ 2020
As the UAE and Israel make big progress in normalizing relations, analysts warn
of actions that include obstructing the sale of the F-35 fighters to the UAE,
that could derail the entire Abraham Accords, which might change the region's
political landscape
Our first story from our new Middle East bureau appears below. Riad Kahwaji,
perhaps the most respected defense journalist in the region, details for our
readers the remarkable progress Israel and the UAE have made in less than six
weeks and compares it to the adumbrated results of the 41 years that have passed
since Israel and Egypt made peace. You’ll be seeing much more of this sort of
excellent coverage for us from Dubai. Read on! The Editor.
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel are making greater strides at
normalizing relations more quickly than many had expected, and the scale of
progress already dwarfs the size of the very limited normalization reached
between Egypt and Israel — even though they signed their peace treaty in 1979.
As soon as the UAE-Israeli treaty was ratified, both states embarked on swift
moves of implementation that included major steps such as lifting entry visa
requirements on nationals of both countries, running regular commercial flights
between the two states, and creating a joint investment fund. There are even
reports of plans for a highway and train-track linking both countries and an oil
pipeline from the UAE to Israel.
However, experts warn this whole process could be derailed quickly if Israeli
partisan power politics leads to attempts to infringe on UAE sovereignty or to
obstruct the sale of F-35 warplanes by the US to the UAE.
The UAE signed its peace treaty with Israel on September 15, thus leading the
way in a U.S.-brokered process known as the Abraham Accords, which has so far
seen one other Arab country, Bahrain, come on board, and another one, Sudan,
commit to signing a normalization peace pact with Israel.
Most Egyptian experts are not surprised by the much greater scale of
normalization by UAE and Israel and attribute this to several factors.
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Israel fought three wars with Egypt and occupied part of its land, while it did
not fight any wars with the UAE or other Gulf Arab states, Gamal Soltan, a
senior fellow at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in
Cairo, said: “The Egyptian government was mainly interested in liberating its
territories and ending the state of war with Israel, but did not pursue
normalization of relations because the culture and civil society groups were
opposed to it.”
Soltan pointed out there were actions by Israeli governments that did further
hinder normalization efforts, especially the Israeli refusal to pull out from
Taba and two other settlements in Sinai, which led to both sides seeking
international arbitration that ruled in Egypt’s favor and ended the occupation.
“The Israeli attempt to retain Egyptian territory reinforced feelings of
distrust and killed chances of normalization on the popular level,” he noted.
The situation is different in the UAE. The country is a cosmopolitan
international business hub home to ten million expatriates from all over the
world, and receives millions of tourists and businessmen of all races and
religious affiliations every year. It has mosques, churches, synagogues and
temples of other faiths. Seeing Israeli Jews will not be a shock to the society.
The UAE is a melting pot of many cultures and has taken genuine steps towards
normalization on state and public levels, Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of
political science from the UAE, told me. “But the Israelis should be aware that
the UAE will not take lightly any attempts to carry out espionage on its
territories and will not accept moves to hinder the F-35 deal.”
The Pentagon will retain strict security protocols to ensure “we’re not training
Chinese scientists that are going to go help their programs” said Gillian Bussey,
head of the Joint Hypersonic Transition Office
Abdullah was referring to the assassination of the Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhoh
by Mossad agents in Dubai in 2010. One UAE official source who asked not to be
named said the UAE-Israeli normalization could have happened much sooner but for
that assassination.
“If Israel tries in the future, whether directly, or indirectly, through its
strong lobby in the U.S. to torpedo the F-35 deal, the UAE will very likely
react negatively in a way that would hinder the normalization process,” added
Abdullah. The UAE opened the door for the Abraham Accords, and any setback on
its side would likely affect normalization tracks in other countries.
The UAE has already submitted a formal request to the U.S. government to
purchase 24 F-35 fifth generation stealth fighters. The Trump Administration has
sounded an initial approval to the deal but it still has to gain approvals of
many branches of the U.S. government, including Congress. UAE sources expect the
administration to fast-track the process to gain Senate approval before end of
the year.
After the Israeli media and officials showed mixed feelings about the UAE F-35
deal, the government came out later to express “no objection.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyaho and his coalition partner, Defense
Minister Benny Gantz, have stated on October 23 that Israel will not oppose the
U.S. sale of “specific weapon systems” to the UAE, in an apparent reference to
the F-35 fighters.
However, both U.S. and Israeli officials have reasserted the need to maintain
Israeli military superiority in the Middle East region.
Israel has so far been the only Middle Eastern country to operate the F-35, and
whenever the UAE request goes through it will be the first Arab country to
acquire the advanced warplane. As Breaking D readers knew first, Netanyahu
secretly approved the F-35 sale before the normalization agreement was struck.
Israel and the UAE share a common perception of Iran as a major security threat
to them and the region. The peace treaty will mostly likely enhance the level of
security cooperation and defense industrial collaboration between the two.
“It is very important for Israeli officials not to make the UAE subject of their
internal political campaigning, and the target of populist propaganda to win
votes, because this will most certainly undermine trust and the whole
normalization process,” Abdullah advised. “Learning from past mistakes is
crucial for the success and endurance of the Abraham Accords process that have
the potential to change the geopolitical landscape of the region.”
Will They Really Get Away With It?
Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October 27/2020
Obamagate is the First American Coup. Not from the militaristic right, as
fantasized by liberal Hollywood. Oh, no – from the "fundamental transformation"
artists of the Bolshevik Left.
"The other side must not be rewarded for its efforts to sabotage and remove a
duly-elected president.... It's not the algorithms; it's the people behind
them." — Michael Goodwin, New York Post, October 24, 2020.
This is all very important stuff. It is still defective in one key area: it
ignores (largely) the crime. The details of the criminal seditious conspiracy to
overthrow the government of the United States.
How is it that Attorney General William Barr and John Durham are consumed with
prosecutorial ennui when the crimes and cover-ups are so painfully obvious? One
is left to conclude that it really all comes down to political will. Do Barr
and/or Durham have the stomach to seek the indictment of people like James Comey,
John Brennan, Andy McCabe and (many) others?
How is it that Attorney General William Barr and John Durham are consumed with
prosecutorial ennui when the crimes and cover-ups are so painfully obvious? One
is left to conclude that it really all comes down to political will. Pictured:
Barr on August 4, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Obama administration officials committed crimes against the constitution. They
engaged in a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United
States.
Will they really get away with it?
Forty government officials were indicted or jailed as a result of Watergate.
White House staffers H.R. Haldeman and John Erlichman went to jail. White House
counsel John Dean went to jail. Attorney General John Mitchell went to jail.
Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, Charles Colson and James McCord – all jailed.
Nixon Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler called Watergate a "third-rate
burglary." It toppled a president.
"Obamagate," or the "Russia Hoax" is a political and criminal scandal
exponentially more serious and damaging to the constitution. Like the Richter
Scale measurements of earthquakes, Obamagate can be measured in "orders of
magnitude" greater seriousness than the third-rate burglary. Obamagate is the
First American Coup. Not from the militaristic right, as fantasized by liberal
Hollywood. Oh, no – from the "fundamental transformation" artists of the
Bolshevik Left.
Writing in the New York Post on October 24, 2020, columnist Michael Goodwin
listed his reasons for voting for Donald Trump, again. His reasoning included:
"The other side must not be rewarded for its efforts to sabotage and remove a
duly-elected president.
"Russia, Russia, Russia was a scam that ruined lives and put a cloud over the
White House for nearly three years. The sequel was partisan impeachment, a
clumsy coup attempt orchestrated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump haters in
Congress, the deep state, and the media.
"The press corps' bias of 2016 has morphed into full-blown partisanship on a
daily basis at print, digital and broadcast outlets. Facebook, Twitter and other
platforms openly use their power to censor pro-Trump news and opinion while
promoting anything that makes the president look bad.
"It's not the algorithms; it's the people behind them.
"Their decision to block The Post's groundbreaking reports on Hunter Biden's
business deals and Joe Biden's involvement should scare anyone who treasures the
First Amendment. To censors, Orwell's nightmare is their dream.
"All fairness has been abandoned in a frenzy to destroy Trump and everything he
represents. This culture war extends backward, too."
This is all very important stuff. It is still defective in one key area: it
ignores (largely) the crime. The details of the criminal seditious conspiracy to
overthrow the government of the United States.
How are we still missing this?
The (awesome and formidable) law enforcement and intelligence powers of the
United States were perversely twisted and abused to advance a partisan political
agenda by the sitting president (Barack Obama); his paid political operatives;
and officers, agents and employees of the United States Government against
Candidate Trump, President-elect Trump and President Trump.
There are handy references to keep track of the cast of characters involved in
the coup plot. The Epoch Times has a resource, as does the Capital Research
Center. One hopes John Durham has a reference, file or graphic that is something
close to those analytical pieces. He seems to need some sort of help, since he
apparently is unable to move past the anemic, pathetic Clinesmith indictment.
Seasoned investigators and attorneys can take the publicly available records and
assemble sufficient facts, documentation and evidence to meet the legal
threshold ("probable cause") for successfully presenting a bill of indictment to
a grand jury.
Why is there reluctance today? How is it that Attorney General William Barr and
John Durham are consumed with prosecutorial ennui when the crimes and cover-ups
are so painfully obvious? One is left to conclude that it really all comes down
to political will. Do Barr and/or Durham have the stomach to seek the indictment
of people like James Comey, John Brennan, Andy McCabe and (many) others?
Granted, Lindsey Graham is certainly no Sam Ervin; and Richard Burr abdicated
the running of the Senate Intelligence Committee to Mark Warner years ago – but
AG Barr and Prosecutor Durham do not need committees of Congress for "cover" to
pursue the criminality of the Obama administration and their operatives in the
Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and State Department.
Just remember: 40 jailed for Watergate.
**Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20
years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial
Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of
Judicial Watch.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
UN Rewards Iranian Atrocities
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/October 27/2020
In 2012, [Nasrin Sotoudeh] received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for
her work, which included representing dissidents arrested during mass protests
in 2009, an effort for which she previously served three years in prison. She
has also represented convicts on death row for offenses committed as minors. She
is perhaps most famous for her defense of women's rights, including the defense
of several womn who protested against wearing the headscarf, or hijab....
There seems to be little hope for the political prisoners of Iran today. Even
despite a global outcry, the young wrestler Navid Afkari was executed on
September 12 by the Iranian regime. US President Donald J. Trump had also
appealed to Iran to let him live: the wrestler's "sole act," he said, "was an
anti-government demonstration on the streets"
Meanwhile, the international community rewarded Iran. On August 14, the UN
Security Council voted against a US resolution to extend the 13-year arms
embargo against Iran indefinitely. Instead, the embargo will expire in
mid-October, allowing Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons without UN
restrictions. Perhaps it is time for the US to defund the UN, rather than
bankroll and be complicit in these crimes against humanity.
In March 2019, Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was
sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Last month, she was committed to
a hospital after more than 40 days on a hunger strike. Pictured: Sotoudeh with
her son on September 18, 2013.
In March 2019, Iranian human rights activist and lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was
sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Last month, she was committed to
a hospital after more than 40 days on a hunger strike. She was held at a
hospital for a few days, heavily guarded by Iranian security, then returned,
despite a serious heart condition, to notorious Evin Prison, where she is
serving her 38-year sentence. As she began her hunger strike, Sotoudeh wrote in
a letter from Evin prison:
"In the midst of the coronavirus crisis engulfing Iran and the world, the
situation facing political prisoners has become so difficult that their
continued incarceration under these tyrannical conditions has become impossible.
"Political [activists] have been accused of unbelievable acts: espionage,
corruption on earth, undermining national security, prostitution... which can
keep them behind bars for up to 10 years or even lead to execution.
"From the very start of the judicial process all the way through to sentencing,
many suspects are denied independent legal representation or prevented from
unrestrained consultation with their lawyers...
"Given the lack of any response to communications and requests for the freedom
of political prisoners, I am starting a hunger strike.
"With the hope that one day justice may prevail in my homeland; the land of
Iran." According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran:
"Sotoudeh's central demand, for which she embarked on her hunger strike, was for
the release of Iran's political prisoners, who were largely left out of Iran's
March 2020 mass prisoner release, which was implemented to stem the growing tide
of COVID-19 infections in Iran's overcrowded and unhygienic prisons. "Since that
release, Iran's political prisoners have been contracting COVID-19 at alarming
rates."
Sotoudeh has been at the forefront of the fight for human rights in Iran for
many years. In 2012, she received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for
her work, which included representing dissidents arrested during mass protests
in 2009, an effort for which she previously served three years in prison. She
has also represented convicts on death row for offenses committed as minors. She
is perhaps most famous for her defense of women's rights, including the defense
of several women who protested against wearing the headscarf, or hijab, as part
of the White Wednesday movement, where every Wednesday women would remove their
headscarves, or wear a white shawl in support of those who did. One of these
women, Shaparak Shajarizadeh, was arrested three times in one year for removing
her hijab. Shajarizadeh wrote:
"I was beaten and brutalized in prison, my only breaks from the psychological
torture of solitary confinement. It was the most frightening experience of my
life — not just the pain — but that I felt so alone, suffering in solitude.
"But then Nasrin showed up. She told me that my struggle is her struggle — the
struggle of all Iranian women — that I am not alone, and that she would not
relent until I am free. Knowing Nasrin was there for me gave me solace and
sustained me through it all. She courageously protested, spoke to the media, and
navigated the complex and opaque Iranian legal system on my behalf".
Shajarizadeh managed to escape from Iran, but most of the other women from the
movement did not. In September 2019, six women were handed sentences of a total
of 109 years for refusing to wear a hijab.
Sotoudeh is not the only lawyer imprisoned in Iran for fighting for human
rights. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran:
"At least five human rights attorneys are currently imprisoned in Iran under
trumped-up charges, including one who is currently being held incommunicado.
They are among a group of at least nine known cases of attorneys that have been
arrested or charged in the last two years".
A recent report by Amnesty International, "Iran: Trampling Humanity - Mass
arrests, disappearances and torture since Iran's 2019 November protests",
published on September 2, describes how detainees in Iranian prisons are
subjected to widespread torture, grossly unfair trials and death sentences based
on torture-induced "confessions". According to Amnesty International: "The
organization's research found that victims were frequently hooded or
blindfolded; punched, kicked and flogged; beaten with sticks, rubber hosepipes,
knives, batons and cables; suspended or forced into holding painful stress
positions for prolonged periods; deprived of sufficient food and potable water;
placed in prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for weeks or even months;
and denied medical care for injuries sustained during the protests or as a
result of torture.
"Other documented methods of torture included stripping detainees and spraying
them with cold water, and subjecting detainees to extreme temperatures and/or
bombardment of light or sound; forcible extraction of the nails from fingers or
toes; pepper spraying; forced administration of chemical substances; using
electric shocks; waterboarding; and mock executions".
A former prisoner, journalist and human rights advocate, Roxana Saberi, who was
arrested on accusations of being a spy and sent to Evin Prison in 2009, was
released after 100 days. She credits international efforts on her behalf for her
release:
"I was very lucky to be released after 100 days. I believe that media coverage,
along with people's efforts such as signing petitions, writing letters to
Iranian officials, and speaking out for me helped pressure the Iranian
authorities to release me after my appellate trial."
There seems to be little hope for the political prisoners of Iran today. Even
despite a global outcry, the young wrestler Navid Afkari was executed on
September 12 by the Iranian regime. US President Donald J. Trump had also
appealed to Iran to let him live. The president said the wrestler's "sole act
was an anti-government demonstration on the streets". "It is deeply upsetting,
the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wrote in a statement, "that the pleas
of athletes from around the world and all the behind-the-scenes work of the
IOC... did not achieve our goal".
Meanwhile, the international community rewarded Iran. On August 14, the UN
Security Council voted against a US resolution to extend the 13-year arms
embargo against Iran indefinitely. Instead, the embargo will expire in
mid-October, allowing Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons without UN
restrictions. Perhaps it is time for the US to defund the UN, rather than
bankroll and be complicit in these crimes against humanity.
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished
Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Are Schools Safe? Kids Might Still Be a Covid-19 Risk
Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/October 27/2020
What to do about schools is perhaps the biggest dilemma facing policy makers
right now. Closing them could lead to a “lost generation” of learners and make
it harder for parents to get back to work. Keeping them open could further
propagate the virus. Should governments choose the latter, they will need other
ways to mitigate the impact on health.
After closing down schools earlier in the pandemic, many European leaders
insisted on letting students resume in-person classes after the summer break.
Now with new infections on the rise again, some are having to backtrack. Italy
is to switch back to distance learning, at least for high school students. Other
countries may be forced to do the same.
One argument for reopening schools is that kids aren’t primary spreaders of the
virus. But the evidence on this is mixed at best. There are sufficient data to
show that youngsters are unlikely to fall severely ill with Covid-19. Most
students who catch the virus exhibit few symptoms or none at all. Yet there is
also ample research showing that even healthy carriers of SARS-CoV-2 can be
infectious. As a result, children and young adults could spread the virus to
older people at home, on public transportation or elsewhere.
There are two ways to decipher the role of schools in disseminating the virus.
The first is a top-down approach that looks at the correlation between when
schools reopened in various regions of a country and whether infections in those
areas subsequently rose. Researchers can then use statistical techniques to
control for other possible explanations and determine whether local governments
that sent students back sooner saw an earlier surge in infections.
The evidence here is inconclusive. A study looking at Germany suggests there was
no negative public health impact from schools reopening, which the researchers
say was the consequence of strict hygiene measures. A separate article on Italy,
however, found that schools indeed contributed to an upswing in infections. The
Italian researcher suggests that the German study may have failed to capture
what was going on because it used data from the summer season, when the spread
of coronaviruses is generally more limited.
The second approach is to examine bottom-up studies that focus on whether kids
actually carry and spread the virus. The picture here is also uncertain. The
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control published a paper in August
finding that less than 5% of cases reported in the European Economic Area and
the UK involved those younger than 18. That could suggest children and schools
play quite a small role in transmitting infection — however, this figure
probably results from children displaying fewer symptoms and therefore being
less likely to be tested.
Seroprevalence studies, which search for the presence of SARS-Cov-2 antibodies
in a given population to understand how many individuals were infected in the
first place, find that youngsters only have a slightly smaller diffusion of the
virus than adults, though these estimates are shaky. The study concludes that
transmission in schools is limited but does occur — especially when the virus is
circulating widely in a community.
In any case, reopening schools causes important logistical problems. As soon as
a positive case is identified in a school, this can put track-and-trace systems
under pressure, as several families begin demanding tests at once. It is hence
no surprise that many epidemiologists suggest in-person schooling can play a
decisive factor in magnifying contagion. Last spring, simulations from official
scientists in Italy showed a menu of policy choices and their impact on
infection: Sending kids back to school had one of the largest effects on the
number of cases and hospitalizations. A cross-country study on 131 nations
published this month in The Lancet found that reopening schools can increase
virus transmission (as measured by the reproduction factor “R”) by 24% four
weeks after the decision is taken, while closing them can reduce it by 15% over
the same time frame.
Governments should have explored different routes for education. It may have
been better to have brought kids back to school in the warmer months of June,
July, August and September, when people were outside more. There should have
been more thought about alternatives to holding classes in the winter as well as
greater investment in online learning. Instead, many politicians simply
committed to keeping schools open.
Of course, governments can decide that face-to-face education is too important
to renounce. After all, the costs of not attending school for a full year —
especially for kids from underprivileged backgrounds — are high. Younger kids
may not learn much through a computer or a tablet.
But if classrooms must stay open, leaders must consider tougher constraints on
other areas of economic and social life as a counterbalance. This doesn’t just
mean forcing students to wear masks, social distance and stagger their classes;
politicians might also need to increase the number of buses to limit crowding,
ban non-essential movement and close down businesses if health-care systems are
overwhelmed. France, Spain and Italy are introducing several such measures.
The pandemic is bound to leave long-lasting scars on society. Governments will
have to make hard choices about where to minimize them.
Boris Johnson is Humbled by a 22-Year-Old Footballer
Therese Raphael/Bloomberg/October 27/2020
Some sports stars dazzle on the pitch or earn headlines for their afterhours
antics. Others lend their names to good causes. But it’s unusual for a player in
his early prime to take on a government as Manchester United striker Marcus
Rashford has done.
In early summer, Rashford’s campaign to extend Britain’s free school-meal
vouchers over the summer break got the cold shoulder from Boris Johnson’s
government. But such was the underlying logic of his demand, and the public
support for the footballer’s plea, that Johnson made a swift U-turn, allocating
120 million pounds ($156 million) for that period.
When the 22-year-old star argued that a further extension was needed to cover
the autumn and winter school breaks, it should have been a simple matter of
hitting the repeat button. The government, however, refused. The backlash has
shown the fragility of Johnson’s new coalition of Conservative voters. It also
suggests the public may be moving even further to the left of a government that
has promised large amounts of spending.
Rashford is no ordinary sportsman. A hugely talented soccer player with one of
Europe’s top clubs, he’s a goal scoring super-celebrity and a regular for the
England team. But his personal narrative adds to his influencer status: Raised
by a single mother along with five other children, Rashford knew food poverty
firsthand. Well before the pandemic, in Oct. 2019, he set up a campaign with
British department store Selfridges to provide essential items to the homeless
over Christmas.
After Tory members of Parliament voted last week to defeat a motion from the
opposition Labor Party to extend the voucher program over the holidays, Rashford
took to social media to express his despair. Then something remarkable happened.
Restaurants, pubs and cafes around the country stepped in to offer free meals to
needy children over this week’s autumn school break. Local authorities pledged
help at Christmas, too. Nearly 900,000 people signed a petition calling for the
government to extend the meals program, and Labor is threatening a new vote on
the matter. Even the players of Leeds United, a bitter rival of Rashford’s team,
donated to his campaign. It was as if David Cameron’s moribund 2010 idea of the
Big Society — the notion that charities and civic groups could replace parts of
state provision — had come to life. Only this time it was a rebuke to a Tory
prime minister rather than a validation of a Conservative ideal.
That’s quite a blow to Johnson, whose biggest asset when he was elected in
December was an uncanny ability to take the public’s pulse, read a room and
reach out across boundaries of age, income and education. With one simple “no,”
Johnson has managed to set himself against a popular, Black sports star, against
the working-class northern English constituencies whose votes delivered his
parliamentary majority — and seemingly against feeding hungry children at
Christmas. It’s been a communications disaster.
Of course, it stretches cynicism beyond credulity to think that Johnson or his
ministers really don’t care about children having enough to eat. They’re just
conflicted about the right approach and seemingly loath to accept ideas they
haven’t invented.
But why not engage with Rashford and the issues earlier? If there was
justification for meal vouchers for deprived children over the summer lockdown,
it looks like hairsplitting in the extreme to say it wouldn’t be needed over
Christmas when some state support has been cut back and unemployment is ticking
upward.
Largely this is a disagreement over how to manage this problem, not one about
fundamental principle, as Johnson concedes. And yet, the government’s
alternatives to the Rashford plan of just extending the meal vouchers are
inferior. That just fuels the impression that the government hasn’t thought
carefully about an issue that ought to be paramount.
Ministers’ claims that extra cash given to the councils this summer (63 million
pounds) will cover the cost merely strengthen Rashford’s case. That money was
only expected to last 12 weeks and wasn’t specifically earmarked for school
dinners.
The government has increased the general UK welfare payment, known as Universal
Credit, which will help. That’s also useful for getting money to families too
proud to apply for free school meals. But the increased benefit is unlikely to
be enough and isn’t targeted at children themselves. If the government is
adamant it doesn’t want to extend the voucher program, it will have to find
another way to do effectively the same thing.
The public response to Marcus Rashford’s campaign is, ironically, a confirmation
that Johnson’s instincts for his party were correct. People are looking to
government to level the playing field and provide some baseline protection right
now. The open question, increasingly within his own party too, is whether he’s
the leader to do it.
La Turquie islamiste, la fin de l’ère Atatürk et les aléas
de l’islamisme néo-ottoman
Charles Elias Chartouni/October 27/2020
شارل الياس شرتوني: تركيا الإسلامية، نهاية عهد أتاتورك وتقلبات الإسلاموية
العثمانية الجديدة
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/91818/charles-elias-chartouni-la-turquie-islamiste-la-fin-de-lere-ataturk-et-les-aleas-de-lislamisme-neo-ottoman-%d8%b4%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%b3-%d8%b4%d8%b1%d8%aa/
Le projet islamiste d’Erdogan loin d’être une esquisse idéologique en quête de
réalisation, sert désormais de paradigme structurant à partir duquel s’ordonne
la vie politique intérieure, et se projette la Turquie dans ses rapports avec le
reste du monde. Le projet d’intégration à l’aire civilisationnelle européenne
conçu et promu par la Turquie post-ottomane est non seulement révolu, mais
résolument rejeté au profit d’un retour intempestif à l’ère ottomane, son
imaginaire, ses fictions géopolitiques, ses entreprises de subversion et de
conquête, et son instrumentalisation de l’islam comme opérateur idéologique et
géo-stratégique. Cette mutation idéologique s’effectue parallèlement à une
contestation intérieure qui se nourrit des échecs de la gouvernance économique,
de l’inflation en spirale, d’un taux élevé de chômage ( 26/100 parmi la jeunesse
), des tensions inter-ethniques de plus en plus irrémédiables ( kurde, alévi,
arménien, grec ... ), des engagements militaires aux coûts prohibitifs sur des
terrains hasardeux ( Interfaces syro-iraquienne, bassin méditerranéen / Grèce et
Chypre, Liban, Afrique du Nord et du Nord Sud / Lybie, Tunisie, Algérie, Égypte,
pays de la CEE via l’instrumentalisation de la question migratoire et des
migrations musulmane et turque, déstabilisation du Caucase Sud à travers le
conflit d’Artsakh-Nagorno Karabakh, et les embardées au cœur du périmètre
géo-stratégique russe...,. ), alors que ces son adhésion à l’OTAN et son
partenariat avec la CEE sont résolument remis en question.
L’offensive politique et idéologique d’Erdogan suscite inévitablement des
réactions qui evoluent sur la base même du projet néo-impérial qu’il a dû mettre
au point en vue de créer le lien entre la mise en place de l’autocratie à
l’intérieur de la Turquie et ses liens de consubstantialité avec la stratégie
néo-impériale qu’il tente d’impulser et installer au cœur de la configuration
transcontinentale à partir de laquelle il opère. Les contradictions de parcours
ne suffisent pas à elles seules à mettre un terme à leurs effets délétères
diffus, mais rendent inévitable la mise en place d’une politique d’endiguement
qui évoluerait entre la mise au ban des consortiums sécuritaire et
communautaire ( OTAN, CEE ), le démantèlement des réseaux politico-religieux
assignés au prosélytisme, à l’interventionnisme politique et à la création des
ghettos islamiques ( Imam Hatip, la moitié des imams nommés par les pays
musulmans en France sont turcs 150/300 ), le blocage géopolitique à géométrie
variable ( Caucase du Sud, Mer d’Egée, bassin Méditerranéen ), le soutien actif
aux oppositions plurielles qui s’organisent sur la base des agendas catégoriel,
ethno-politique et idéologique.
L’affrontement frontal avec Emmanuel Macron se laisse comprendre à partir de la
politique d’échec et mat que lui oppose le président français, tout au long du
continuum politico-idéologique qu’il a du poser comme toile de fond et cadre
structurant à sa démarche d’ensemble. La stratégie islamiste d’Erdogan ressort à
un schéma néo-imperial ottoman qui projette des remaniements géopolitiques, la
déstabilisation des démocraties occidentales à travers la politique des
enfermements communautaires, et la consolidation des extraterritorialités
juridico-religieuse propre à la doxa politique en islam classique.
L’affrontement avec Erdogan relève d’impératifs politico-stratégique qui
définissent désormais la trame politique d’une géopolitique trans-continentale
en mutation, et de la nécessité de mettre fin à l’état de labilité créé par les
béances stratégiques croissantes, et l’impossibilité de recréer un ordre
régional sur des bases étatiques viable, légitime et pouvant encadrer des
projets d’État de droit dans la durée.