Obama’s New Muslim Podcast: Allah’s ‘Throwing Shade at Jews and Christians’

/in , , , /by

Obama’s gotta do something with his time besides serving as the façade for a bunch of white socialists looking to wreck America. Besides that job only pays in the low six figures, so he’s got contracts with Netflix and Spotify through his own production company.

The Obama podcasting game includes talking about how racist the country is to fellow working-class millionaire hero Bruce Springsteen, and this Muslim podcast.

Barack and Michelle Obama have their Ramadan plans ready.

The couple, who have spent the years since Barack’s US presidency came to an end focusing on developing multi-platform media projects, announced a new season of their Higher Ground podcast called Tell Them, I Am, which will feature a collection of narratives from Muslim voices.

No, Obama’s not actually in it.

Produced by the Obamas, the pod will be hosted by Misha Euceph, a first-gen Pakistan-American and exclusively available on the platform, launching on the first day of Ramadan.

Euceph also appears to have hosted a Koran book club on Instagram. Here’s the description of one episode.

God is still throwing shade at the Jews and Christians this episode of #quranbookclub

Meanwhile, social media is purging conservatives. But this sort of thing can help you get a podcast produced by Barry.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Al-Qaeda: ‘Whoever thinks that somebody can stop the imminent collapse of America is mistaken’

Sweden: Knife-wielding Muslim breaks into family’s home, screams ‘Allahu akbar’ as he is arrested

Nigeria: Islamic jihadis forced kidnapped Christian girls to study the Qur’an, pressured them to convert

Online petition calls for changing name of Pakistan’s capital from Islamabad to ‘Islamagood’

Germany: Muslims praying in the street, including ISIS jihadi, beat up driver because he honked during their prayer

Inside Hizb Ut Tahrir, A Gateway to Jihad

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Judge Socks It To The Left

/in , , , , , , /by

U.S. District Judge Drew E. Tipton grants order to restrain Biden administration from implementing its “Immediate 100-Day Pause on Removals” of illegal criminal aliens.

Judge Tipton wrote:

“This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect pending a final resolution of the merits of this case or until a further Order from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the United States Supreme Court.”

To see this alert in your internet browser and share this article click here.  Simply copy the URL for this article then past into social media posting window.

State of Texas v. United States of America and Fiel Houston, et al., Intervenor-Defendants.  6:21-cv-00003

On January 20, 2021, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske sent a memorandum  to the leadership of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS). The memorandum instructed the agencies to ignore federal law by stopping all deportations and releasing detained illegal aliens into the general public.  This would also cause local law enforcement agencies across the country to release detained illegal criminally charged aliens.

On January 26, 2021, United States District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order sought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying the state had demonstrated a likelihood of facing immediate harm from Biden’s pause. The court order will be in effect for 14 days while Judge Tipton considered a broader motion by the state for a preliminary injunction.

Florida Family Association sent out an email alert on January 27, 2021 titled: Federal judge blocks Biden’s order to stop deporting illegal criminal aliens.  The email encouraged subscribers to send emails that expressed  appreciation for his ruling and encouraged him to extend the restraining order.

On February 8, 2021, Judge Tipton extended the TRO until February 23, 2021 to allow both parties time to more fully prepare and submit their arguments.   Florida Family Association sent out another email alert that encouraged subscribers to send emails that expressed  appreciation for his ruling and encouraged him to extend the restraining order.

On February 23, 2021, Judge Tipton extended his order restraining the Biden administration from allowing illegal criminal aliens to walk free.  The conclusion to his 105 page order states:

IV. CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Texas’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

(Dkt. No. 62).  Therefore, it is hereby ORDERED that:

1.    Defendants and all their respective officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and other persons who are in active concert or participation with them are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from  enforcing  and  implementing  the  policies described in the January 20 Memorandum in Section C entitled “Immediate 100-Day Pause on Removals.”(Dkt. No. 2-2 at 4–5).

2.    This preliminary  injunction is  granted  on  a  nationwide  basis  and  prohibits enforcement  and implementation  of  the  policies  described  in  the  January  20 Memorandum in Section C entitled “Immediate100-Day Pause on Removals” in every place Defendant shave jurisdiction to enforce and implement the January 20 Memorandum.

3.    This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect pending a final resolution of the merits of this case or until a further Order from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the United States Supreme Court

This is great news!

Sadly, the following states filed a BRIEF FOR AMICI CURIAE that countered Texas’ lawsuit that seeks to restrain the Biden administration from allowing illegal criminal aliens to walk free:

New York
California
Connecticut
Delaware
The District of Columbia
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington

It would appear that these states are okay with allowing illegal aliens with criminal convictions to be released into neighborhoods in their states.

What impact would Biden’s evil order have on Americans’ safety?  Just consider these ICE Statistics reported in part from ice.gov:

Administrative and Criminal Arrests: In FY 2020, ICE ERO conducted 103,603 administrative arrests 90 percent of those arrested had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges at the time of arrest.

Removals: ICE ERO conducted 185,884 removals during FY 2020. The vast majority of ICE ERO’s interior removals – 92 percent – had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, demonstrating ICE ERO’s commitment to removing those who pose the greatest risk to the safety and security of the United States.

Public safety would be destroyed as we know it if the Biden order allows close to 300,000 illegal aliens, more than 90 percent with criminal charges, to remain in towns across America every year.  Biden should not be legally permitted to essentially repeal federal law by ordering ICE to stop enforcing it.  If Biden wants that to happen then he needs congress to repeal the federal statute.

Florida Family Association will continue to follow this case and keep you posted.

EDITORS NOTE: This Florida Family Association column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Twitter Deplatforms Project Veritas

/in , , , , , /by

One of the biggest sources of original alternative content, Project Veritas, is now banned from one of the biggest platforms to reach millions of Americans, Twitter.

Without being terribly specific as to what the “repeated violations” were of the company rules, Twitter deplatformed Veritas on February 11.

The proximate cause of banishment was a brief video posted by Veritas where one of their journalists, 60 Minutes style, accosts an employee of Facebook who is returning home from a jog. This Facebook executive, Guy Rosen, had previously been featured in a Veritas video, leaked to Veritas by a Facebook whistleblower, where he claims the platform is freezing comments whenever automated systems detect “there may be a thread that has hate speech or violence.”

It’s interesting that Project Veritas, at least so far, survives on Facebook, despite Facebook, and not Twitter, being the target of many recent controversial videos from Veritas. But that may change. On February 17, in yet another leaked video featuring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, he is exposed expressing concern for the COVID-19 vaccines, worrying they may alter human DNA and wondering about the possible long-term side effects.

Facebook bans all posts that make similar claims about the COVID-19 vaccines, making this video somewhat embarrassing for the company.

Because there are so many, it is difficult to keep track even of these major incidents of censorship. One of the biggest reasons for bans is so-called “hate speech.” But “hate speech” is a nebulous term. As the Veritas journalist put it to Facebook’s Guy Rosen, “do you ban hate speech, or speech you hate?”

Banning Veritas from a major social media platform is not a trivial incident of censorship – notwithstanding that no exercise of censorship is trivial. With their videos, Veritas provides essential balance. When nobody else was there to do it, Project Veritas has done landmark investigations. For example, they exposed the corruption at ACORN, seriously disrupting its activities.

A mainstay of the mainstream media that gets more biased very year, 60 Minutes, engages in reporting that is every bit as aggressive as Veritas, but runs virtually zero risk of being deplatformed from the major social media platforms. Why is this? 60 Minutes routinely presents investigations that are supposedly objective, but to informed observers are transparently biased. Their selectivity in pursuit of their narrative easily rivals, if not surpasses, anything Veritas has ever done.

Once again, the double standard applies.

RELATED VIDEO: Democrats In Congress Are Now Trying To Block Public Access to Fox News

EDITORS NOTE: This Winston84 Project column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Wall Street Banks And Tech Companies Are Fleeing New York And California

/in , , , , , /by

They’ll destroy the red states.

Wall Street Banks And Tech Companies Are Fleeing New York And California

There is a steady exodus of businesses moving out of New York and California and the pandemic may have completely changed the way companies operate. Now that working from home has taken its hold, the trend offers CEOs options. No longer do they have to pay for expensive real estate in New York City or San Francisco. They can have people working remotely or relocate jobs to locations that are less costly.

Major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, have punishingly high tax rates and lack business-friendly policies. With pushes to defund the police and cutting down on prosecutions, cities have been plagued by crime, violence, looting and disorder. Government officials have demonstrated flagrant disregard for their citizens by haphazardly ordering businesses and schools to shutdown with little warnings.

The flight out of New York has been in the works before the pandemic. Wall Street executives previously relocated thousands of jobs to states outside of New York, in an effort to cut costs. Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, UBS, Citigroup, Alliance Bernstein and an array of other financial institutions have established and aggressively staffed hubs in Florida, North Carolina, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Nashville and other less expensive locations compared to New York.

A combination of high taxes, poor governance on the part of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, ever-increasing crime, capricious business and school shutdowns and a resurgence in Covid-19 cases contributed to Goldman Sachs’ recent decision to move its large money management division to Florida.

The absence of a state income tax, plus warm weather and a business-friendly mindset, has already prompted hedge fund billionaires and native New Yorkers Paul Singer and Carl Icahn to relocate their respective businesses to Florida. Leon Cooperman, the billionaire former hedge fund manager and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, previously moved to Florida. He said of his move, “I suspect Florida will soon rival New York as a finance hub,” due in part to the “Tax and Spend” policies of New York.

A number of bankers told their boss, Ken Moelis, the CEO of his eponymous investment bank Moelis, that they wanted to leave New York City for Florida. In response to their request, Moelis replied, “We’re a talent business. I want to attract, I want to motivate and I want to retain the greatest talent in the world. And if that talent wants to do it in Florida, that’s where we’ll support them.” Moelis, according to a Bloomberg interview, will consider opening or expanding offices, as his employees decide to relocate to cities where tax rates are lower, the climate is warmer and the government is friendly to business.

Charles Gasparino, the long-time chronicler of Wall Street, wrote in the New York Post, “Many other banks and financial businesses are now seeking to move out of the once-friendly confines of New York City, which isn’t so friendly anymore.” He added, “The trend has been a slow burn over the past two decades, but now it has kicked into high gear thanks to [Covid-19], spiraling costs and a feckless political class that runs this city and state.” Gaparino said about JPMorgan’s CEO, “[Jamie] Dimon, I am told, vetoed a plan several years back to move a swath of the bank to south Florida because he didn’t think the schools were good enough. Now, he appears to have changed his mind and is considering plenty of relocations outside New York City.”

It’s not just Wall Street firms. While the banks are primarily relocating to Florida and other Southeast locations, tech companies are going to Texas.

Elon Musk, having battled officials in California, said that he’s moving to Texas. Musk told the Wall Street Journal, “For myself, yes, I have moved to Texas.” He continued, “We’ve got the Starship development here in South Texas where I am right now. We’ve got big factory developments just outside of Austin for Giga Texas as well.”

The New York Times reported, “California, with its steep housing costs, raging wildfires and strict business regulations, has been losing residents to other states, with Texas as the most popular exodus destination. Of more than 653,000 people who left California last year, about 82,000 went to Texas, more than any other state, according to census figures.”

Hewlett-Packard, with its cofounders as two of the original grandfathers of Silicon Valley, who started their company in a Palo Alto garage back in 1939, will relocate its headquarters from San Jose, California to Houston.

Drew Houston, the CEO of Dropbox, said the company is moving to Austin and remote work will be the new standard practice. He’ll offer “Dropbox Studios” in a number of cities for workers who want to go into an office.

Oracle, led by billionaire Larry Ellison, moved its headquarters to Austin because of California’s high tax rate, exorbitant living costs and the ability to have remote workers. The tech giant offers employees the option of either working remotely or selecting which office they’d prefer working at.

Unless city and state elected politicians make changes, the flight out of high-taxed, expensive cities will continue. As corporations and well-paid, white-collar workers leave, the cities will bear the brunt of plummeting tax revenue. The decline will force mayors to drastically cut costs. This will include massive layoffs of teachers, police officers, firefighters, garbage collectors and other municipal workers.

With less services, the cities become dirtier, crime increases and living conditions worsen. This will prompt even more people to move. A cascading downward spiral could occur, making places like New York dangerous and inhospitable. It could become just like in the dark days of New York in the ‘70s. It took over a decade to turn things back around.

— 12/14/20: It was inaccurately stated that Deutsche Bank announced it is moving its workers out of NYC, rather than that staff could conceivably work remotely or from hubs.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense permenently banned us. Facebook, Twitter, Google search et al have shadowbanned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Help us fight. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW more than ever. Share our posts on social and with your email contacts.

BIG WIN! Judge Rules That Millions of Ballots Must Be Turned Over to Arizona Senate

/in , , , , , /by

‘After a long, bitterly contested legal struggle, a Maricopa County judge has ruled that millions of voter ballots must be turned over to the Arizona Senate.

The stunning news, which comes over a month after the Biden Inauguration, was reported by the Associated Press.’

Judge Rules That Millions of Ballots Must Be Turned Over to Arizona Senate

By Kyle Becker, February 26, 2021

After a long, bitterly contested legal struggle, a Maricopa County judge has ruled that millions of voter ballots must be turned over to the Arizona Senate.

The stunning news, which comes over a month after the Biden Inauguration, was reported by the Associated Press.

“A judge has ruled that the Arizona Senate can get access to 2.1 million ballots from Arizona’s most populous county so it can audit results of the 2020 election that saw Democrat Joe Biden win in the state,” the AP reported.

“Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason’s decision on Friday comes after a protracted battled between the Republican-controlled state Senate and the GOP-dominated Maricopa County board over subpoenas issued by the Senate,” the report added.

The board of elections had tried to keep the ballots secret and away from an audit.

“The board contended that the ballots were secret, that the Legislature had no right to access them and that the subpoenas issued by Senate President Karen Fann were for an illegitimate purpose, among other arguments,” the AP noted.

“The Senate’s lawyers contended that the constitution gives the Legislature the role of maintaining the purity of elections and make sure voter integrity is protected, that the subpoenas were legal and a proper use of legislative power,” the report stated.

The judge’s ruling comes in the aftermath of an “independent” audit provided by the Maricopa election officials that claims the election was completely above-board.

“The results of the county’s independent audit released Tuesday found that the votes were counted correctly, the machines worked properly, and the machines were not hacked or connected to the internet during the election,” the Washington Examiner reported.

“The Senate wants another audit of ballots and a check of voter information, while the county has contended that its multiple audits have been sufficient and said the ballots must remain sealed under state law,” the report continued.

The Arizona Senate’s coming “audit of the audit” will find out exactly how “independent” these election observers really are.

RELATED ARTICLE: Conservative reporter confronts CNN’s Jim Acosta at CPAC for not covering Governor Cuomo

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense permenently banned us. Facebook, Twitter, Google search et al have shadowbanned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Help us fight. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW more than ever. Share our posts on social and with your email contacts.

Orlando Weekly and Hamas-linked CAIR hit CPAC for speaker who opposes jihad violence and Sharia oppression

/in , , , , , /by

First, smear opposition to jihad violence and Sharia oppression as “anti-Muslim.” Invoke the discredited far-Left smear propaganda organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center as if it were an infallible and impartial authority on what constitutes a “hate group.” Present the SPLC’s smears without any substantiating evidence, as if they were unquestionable fact. Throw in the word “extreme,” so as to abet the growing campaign to portray all dissent from the far-left agenda as terrorism.

Then drag in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identifying it only as a “civil rights organization,” without bothering to inform your readers that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.) CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.

Note also that Presler isn’t even set to speak about anything related to Islam or jihad. Hamas-linked CAIR and far-left organs such as Orlando Weekly, or at least its reliably fascist writer Matthew Moyer, want to hound anyone who stands against them to their deaths. If you oppose jihad terrorism, Hamas-linked CAIR won’t just come after you if you ever speak about this in a public forum. It will come after you no matter what you’re doing, and try to intimidate event organizers, in this case CPAC, to drop you for your transgression of Sharia blasphemy provisions. If it were up to the left and Islamic supremacists, their critics would all be unemployed and unemployable, starving to death on the streets (at best). A few years ago I was invited to address an education conference in California that had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam; the hate-filled fascist “Islamophobia” propagandist-turned-real estate agent Nathan Lean got the weak and ignorant Catholic bishop Jaime Soto, under whose auspices the conference was being held, to cancel my appearance. (I spoke at the conference as scheduled, in a venue outside the bishop’s purview.) And also a few years ago, the Washington Post discovered that the Qur’an-burning pastor Terry Jones was driving for Uber; they duly got him fired. I don’t approve of book-burning, but it is not illegal in the United States, and the idea that a man must be hounded forever and prevented from making a living for views that dissent from the left’s reveals what Leftists really are.

So it has been clear for years that if you dissent from leftist orthodoxy, you must be destroyed. Not just “debunked” or “discredited” in your field, but also prevented from doing everything else, so that the only option you have is to die.

This smear of Presler is also ironic in light of the fact that when it comes to the jihad threat, CPAC, like all establishment conservative organizations, left the building years ago, barring all discussion of the actual nature and magnitude of the threat, and opting instead for comforting religion-of-peace fictions. This hit piece on Presler must have the cowardly Matt Schlapp quivering under his desk.

“CPAC speaker called out for anti-Muslim sentiments, and that’s only scratching the surface of this year’s spectacle,”

by Matthew Moyer, Orlando Weekly, February 25, 2021:

Another speaker on the lineup for the conservative mega-gathering CPAC is getting some unwelcome spotlight for anti-Muslim statements and activity, and this is only scratching the surface of the extreme ideologies being trotted out at this week’s event in Orlando.

On Tuesday, civil rights organization the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on CPAC organizers to remove Scott Presler from their conference lineup.

CAIR points out that Presler had been involved with “ACT for America” from 2017-2018 as an organizer. The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized that organization as “an anti-Muslim hate group because it pushes wild anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, denigrates American Muslims and deliberately conflates mainstream and radical Islam.”

More recently, Presler was in Washington, D.C., for the Stop the Steal rally and even called the Jan. 6 insurrection the “largest civil rights protest in American history.”

Preslar is scheduled to participate in a group session on Saturday afternoon titled, ironically, “Front Porch Politics: How to Talk About Issues Without Starting a Back Alley Brawl.”

“CPAC organizers should immediately drop anti-Muslim activist Scott Presler, who has actively worked to promote conspiracy theories about American Muslims and Islam,” said CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert S. McCaw. “Presler’s reported role in supporting the January 6 insurrection is enough to disqualify him from being offered a credible speaking platform.”…

RELATED ARTICLES:

Pensacola Jihad Massacre Victim Families Sue Saudi Arabia

UK’s Mirror claims decision not to allow ISIS bride to return means ‘if you’re brown you’re not really British’

New al-Qaeda top dog is former Egyptian general who wants to make the group as dangerous as it was under Osama

Nigeria: Muslims murder church elder and abduct three other Christians

Turkey: Yazidi slave girl rescued during raid to arrest senior Islamic State member in Ankara

India: Muslims who murdered Hindu activist scream ‘Allahu akbar’ inside police station

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Donald Trump Jr’s Speech Brings Down The House at CPAC 2021

/in , , , /by

WATCH Donald J. Trump Jr’s rousing speech:

©All rights reserved.

Bill Clinton Ignored Genocide in Rwanda. Will Joe Biden Ignore it in China?

/in , , , , , , /by

It’s not too late for President Biden to live up to his responsibility as the leader of the free world to make it clear to Beijing that there will be no business as usual with the United States until the Uighur genocide ends.

The Clinton administration chose not to call the mass murder of up to 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda “genocide” because it felt the designation would legally require the United States to take action. And because it feared the political inconvenience.

President Joe Biden is now facing a similar political conundrum with the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide of ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. It appears that he is backing away from doing anything just as the Clinton administration did nothing to stop the genocide against Africans.

As a CIA analyst, I personally witnessed President Bill Clinton’s shocking dereliction of duty, along with that of his aides, during the April 1994 mass murder in Rwanda. The Clinton National Security Council instructed the CIA not to use the word “genocide” to describe these killings. This was because Clinton officials believed that the use of the word would compel the United States to take action under the 1948 Genocide Treaty, officially known as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Even though Clinton officials had plenty of warning that mass killings in Rwanda could occur, it prevented the UN from acting in advance of the genocide. After the genocide began, the Clinton administration still prevented the UN from acting because of the political damage the administration had incurred from the failed peacekeeping missions it promoted in Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti.

Future UN Ambassador Samantha Power wrote in a 2001 Atlantic article that a young National Security Council aide named Susan Rice stunned attendees at a late April 1994 NSC meeting when she revealed the political motivations for why the Clinton administration would not call the killings in Rwanda genocide.

According to Power, Rice said: “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”

Rice confirmed that the Clinton administration was more worried about giving Republicans ammunition to attack its foreign policy than preventing the mass murder of Africans.

The following month, after downplaying the atrocities, Clinton officials admitted there may have been “acts of genocide” in Rwanda but would not say genocide took place, in order to avoid triggering the Genocide Convention.

Bill Clinton later apologized for the way his administration mishandled the Rwanda genocide. He passed the buck to his aides, claiming that he would have taken action had he known more about this situation. Numerous experts and studies have proved Clinton and his senior aides were well aware that genocide was taking place but decided to take no action and prevented other countries from doing so.

The Genocide Convention does not require going to war. It provides numerous ways to hold genocidal governments accountable including sanctions, travel bans on government officials, and refusing normal diplomatic relations.

Today there is undeniable proof that the Chinese government is committing genocide against its Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.

Click HERE to read more.

Originally published by The National Interest

COLUMN BY

Fred Fleitz

Fred Fleitz, president of the Center for Security Policy, served in 2018 as deputy assistant to the president and to the chief of staff of the National Security Council. He previously held national-security jobs with the CIA, the DIA, the Department of State, and the House Intelligence Committee staff. Twitter @fredfleitz. View all posts by Fred Fleitz →

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Mediocrity Is The New Excellence

/in , , , , , /by

We have been reporting the failure of America’s government schools who now follow UNESCO’s worldwide Common Core.  You read that right: Common Core is a UNESCO program, and is supported by Microsoft.  When Common Core was required parents, teachers, and administrators were warned that our students would be approximately two (2) behind.  No one cared or listened and another unproven program was forced on our students.  Today with CCPvirus, students will be about 3-4 years behind. Mission Accomplished. American Exceptionalism is dead.  Mediocre, indoctrinated, woke students afraid of words now rule.  The communists have created their internal army. Mission Accomplished.

American government schools are failing our students.  Fifty percent of American graduates cannot read, write and do simple math. Bill Gates admitted its failure. More money was his answer.  We all know that the only thing that will affect change is a return of the curricula back to traditional education, WHICH WAS A HUGE SUCCESS.

OK, so the schools are failing, who cares? What does that mean to me?  Why should I care?  Our government positions are filled by diversity using racial lines not ability; therefore, the high standards and pride in work ethic are no longer important. Due to the extreme push for diversity, important positions are filled following a racial quota, not ability guaranteeing a failure of the program.  Scientists and experts are motivated by grants and money “proving” theories that have no scientific or technical basis.  Functionally illiterate people (people taught to be illiterate) are below average, so standard employment requirements are also lowered. Employers are finding workers are not qualified. Workers can’t read and follow directions. Too often, ignorant people make costly mistakes which could pose safety hazards or damaged products.  Instead of addressing the real issue, poor quality education, employers are forced to lower standards to meet racial quotas often imposed by government through grants, subsidies or directives. Too often lowered standards pose a danger to the people they serve.

Remember when:

Eric Holder when AG lowered the standards of the police force.

Tucker Carlson reported that the Obama administration put diversity over safety in hiring for air traffic controllers. How enthusiastic will you be to travel by air?

New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio wants to lower the standards for NYC’s elite high schools. Will they still be elite after quotas have changed their academic rating?

These are just a few Obama examples.

Trump turned it around and excellence with America First was just beginning to take hold.  Communists hate excellence because it brings opposition.

No fear Joe is here. He will fix and segregate the government again under the banner of equity. Biden’s newest Executive Order Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.

Joe has turned the clock back to when the government under the original order of Woodrow Wilson, was segregated. Joe managed to cancel MLK JR, by putting  the 1963 Civil Rights Act in the trash.

Now the left can focus on trashing all those “white” Americans, while teaching our kids hatred not reading writing and math. Why teach at all? Better to train new activists to destroy the country.  Pay attention to the chart. Will your grandkids or kids turn you in?

Biden immediately nixed the 1776 project.  Biden will force  America to take its place at the bottom of the worldwide heap.  Biden is more interested in color and race than exceptionalism.  After all communists believe educated people require more of their government so their vow is to keep the people stupid. Ignorant people can easily be diverted to activism since they have no skills and must fill a void to feel useful. Schools are the perfect place to create these “useful idiot”. The destruction of America’s youth is evident as Komrad Biden Removes Trump’s Ban on CCP Propaganda in Schools.  Love your enemy.

Check out the 45 Goals of Communism read into the Congressional Record in 1963:

#17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

#18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

#19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

What we don’t see is the affect of mediocre schooling.  What goes on in the actual office where common sense (no longer taught in school) does not exist?  Porn now shown on government computers during work hours is acceptable.  Lying is acceptable, Emailing during work is acceptable.  All of this amounts to billions of dollars lost due to incompetence, theft and corruption.  Remember the Gulf Oil Spill?  Government Inspectors from MMS were busy watching porn rather than inspecting rigs.

According to the CDC, American suicide is up and higher due to CCP Virus. Instead of asking why more meds are given to depressed people—often causing more depression, while root causes are ignored.

Depression has multiple causes.  Some are:

  • an individual forced into a controlled environment
  • not being able to express themselves as individuals
  • anti-depressants
  • ignoring natural psychological and physical needs
  • not belonging
  • loneliness (devices replacing friends)
  • lack of responsibility
  • lack of morality
  • life without meaning or purpose
  • lack of common sense
  • inability to logically draw conclusions in problem solving
  • inability to reason (thus drawing wrong solutions)
  • frustration having no future or destiny.

All of these are key triggers often leading to anxiety and depression.

Depression can lead to violence and or suicide.  Sadly key skills have been eliminated from schools giving student nothing meaningful to look forward too. Schools now teach our children to hate their country family and G-d, forcing students through communist propaganda of what to think, not how to think.

Common Core forces a child to think in a box with little hope for a future not in line with the predetermined government goal. Common Core is based on the premise that people are stupid and the “smart academics know best”.  If a child  makes a different response not their desired response, often a child will be  bullied by other students or teacher. A child might act out just to make their ideas known. Then too often students feeling worthless turn to drugs, massive piercing, tattooing, drinking, cutting, murder, terrorism, or suicide.  Hopelessness is the dominant emotion.  Common Core manipulates emotion and eliminates individualism, forcing a child into groupthink, not innovation and creation. Emotion become dominant with no logical reason to balance.  A person can only think of one thought at a time. By forcing overuse of right brain function (emotion) the left brain (logic and reason)  become dormant from lack of use.   Today, aside from being functionally illiterate, too many people are motivated by  trigger words that unleashes unbridled emotion too often resulting in violence or suicide.  Not to worry. Common Core will be gone. That is the name Common Core not the ideas.  We must be vigilant and learn the names of the new programs saying the same things like BLM or 1619 Project.

Continuing to do the same thing over and over, expecting different results, is insane, as we have heard over and over. Common Core, Whole Word Reading, Eureka Math, Evolution all assist in diminishing the capacity of America’s future. Yet we ignore the facts and continue to push this horrid programs filled with errors, omissions and bias.  Have we learned nothing from years of failing grades? Not to worry, more money will “fix” the problem. No, “It’s the curricula stupid.”

Why are we forcing America’s children to follow a failed program?  Education based on collectivism not individualism, training not education and values not facts, according to the brilliant educator Shirley McCune, in a speech to the Governors Association under GHW Bush, it is necessary to change and alter the culture and society.  This is not education. It is indoctrination. She promotes outcome based education.  Our children’s destiny will now be chosen by a computer.   How many more generations of Americans will we lose to this indoctrination called education? So far we have lost 4 generations. You can listen to Shirley.

According to Biden, all K-12 and colleges are now forced to select students on the basis of Diversity.  This does not produce the best and brightest.  The danger in science, by ignoring the SCIENTIFIC METHOD of reasoning out problems  is escalating as students study irrelevant subjects like diversity, race and minority affects on a variety of issues NOT SCIENCE.  If STEM students are selected by diversity not ability who will invent the next Widget, or cure?

I have a challenge.  Since Common Core was thrown at us without proper vetting (no test run) and violates many educational codes and statutes, why not have at least one school in each district teach traditional education?  Several states are finally beginning to recognize the harm that training not educating have brought. Florida, Texas, are taking the lead.
How is this problem being address by Wall Street? 

If nothing is done, how many more agencies and businesses will fail putting the public at risk?  Do we now get to choose our doctor, mechanic, air traffic controller, police based on color of skin or ability to do the job? The choice is ours.

What’s in your school?  Will you Join Floridacitizensalliance.com

Will you check your school? Your child’s work? Correct mistakes challenge texts for bias? errors? omissions? Join Us.  America’s future is in our hands.

Is America worth saving? If not you, who?  If not now, when?

I will not comply will you?

©Karen Schoen. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Diversity or Safety? Justice Dept. Orders Lower Standards for Police Exam

Tucker Carlson: Obama Administration Put Diversity Over Safety in Hiring Air Traffic Controllers

De Blasio Proposes Changes to New York’s Elite High Schools

VIDEO: Trump Jr. Slams Media Double Standard on Cuomo, Springsteen

/in , , , , , /by

Thursday on FNC’s Hannity, Donald Trump, Jr., son of the former President, blasted the media double standard applied to Govs. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL) regarding their respective states’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Look at the difference in the handling of Governor DeSantis versus Andrew Cuomo,” Trump Jr. said. “Andrew Cuomo gets Emmys for sending your grandmother to her nursing home to her death, OK? Governor DeSantis got more hell in Florida for keeping beaches open, for keeping beaches open, with social distancing and masks than Andrew Cuomo got for executive orders sending people into nursing homes to die…

“Governor DeSantis gets more hell for various decisions for taking on the press than Andrew Cuomo does for having credible accusations of sexual harassment and other harassment,” Trump continued. “There is a double standard that’s out there. I think that people in America see it, which is why the mainstream media’s approval rating is almost as low as Congress’.”

In a tweet on Thursday, Trump Jr. also slammed rock star and Joe Biden supporter Bruce Springsteen over his recent dropped DWI charges. Springsteen pled guilty to the charge of consuming alcohol in an enclosed area after being arrested in New Jersey’s Gateway National Recreation Area late last year. Two other charges — DWI and reckless driving — were dismissed. Springsteen was fined $540.

“I’d say it’s white privilege but we all know it’s really liberal privilege,” tweeted Trump Jr.

Bruce Springsteen

11 Known Connections

In September 2013, Springsteen recorded, in Spanish, an Internet version of the song Solo le pido a Dios (I only ask of God) (Solo le pido a Dios), which he said he had learned from the late Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, who initiated the “Nuevo Cancion” (“New Song”) movement — songs that often expressed themes of social justice and political and personal struggle in metaphoric style. Nuevo Cancion became closely linked to the socialist revolutionary movements of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Another influence who has pulled Springsteen to the political left is childhood friend and on-again, off-again guitarist for his E Street Band, Steven (“Little Steven”) Van Zandt, a Noam Chomsky acolyte who views the United States as the successor of Nazi Germany. Van Zandt persuaded Springsteen to perform the Artists United Against Apartheid song “Sun City.”

To learn more about Bruce Springsteen, click here for the profile link.

©Discover the Networks. All rights reserved.

Dems Invite MSNBC Analyst Who Called for ISIS to Bomb Trump Properties to Testify on ‘Rise of Domestic Terrorism in U.S.’

/in , , , /by

You can’t make this stuff up.

MSNBC analyst who told ISIS to bomb Trump Tower testifying in domestic terrorism hearing

By Andrew Mark Miller | Washington Examiner| February 24, 2021:

An MSNBC political analyst who once encouraged terrorists to blow up a Trump Tower building is set to testify in a House hearing on domestic terrorism.

“This is my nominee for first ISIS suicide bombing of a Trump property,” Malcolm Nance, an author and political commentator, wrote in 2017 in a since-deleted tweet with a picture of Trump Towers Istanbul.

Nance, who is referred to as an “intelligence expert” on MSNBC, will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday in response to the Capitol Hill riot last month.

Nance has also repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to get elected to the White House in 2016.

The hearing, labeled “The Rise of Domestic Terrorism in America,” is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

Various members of the House Judiciary Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Washington Examiner.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense permenently banned us. Facebook, Twitter, Google search et al have shadowbanned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Help us fight. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW more than ever. Share our posts on social and with your email contacts.

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC Ignore Andrew Cuomo Sex Harassment Claim

/in , , , , , , /by

How long is America going to put up with these totalitarian barbarians?

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC Ignore Andrew Cuomo Sex Harassment Claim

By: Wendell Husebo, Breitbart News, February 26, 2021:

America’s three most prominent networks–ABC, NBC, and CBS–ignored any mention of sexual harassment claims against Gov. Andrew Cuomo during their evening news programs Wednesday. CNN and MSNBC also declined to address the scandal.

According to transcripts, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS’s Evening News, and NBC’s Nightly News made no mention of the embattled Cuomo, who is also facing calls for his impeachment and resignation after he was accused of covering up the number of deaths from the coronavirus in state nursing homes following his controversial order that these facilities accept coronavirus-positive patients.

Cuomo’s former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser Lindsey Boylan alleged on Wednesday in an essay published on the website Medium that the governor went “out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” forcibly kissed her on the lips during a one-on-one briefing, and suggested they “play strip poker” during a plane ride.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) later on Wednesday called for Cuomo to resign in the wake of twin scandals over his handling of data on coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes and allegations of sexual harassment by a former aide.

Boylan’s allegations come as Cuomo’s administration is under investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn following reports that the governor’s top aide told Democrat lawmakers officials withheld the nursing home data due to concerns that the figures could “be used against us” in a federal investigation.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense permenently banned us. Facebook, Twitter, Google search et al have shadowbanned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Help us fight. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW more than ever. Share our posts on social and with your email contacts.

South Korea to release $7 billion in frozen assets to Iran after consulting with Biden’s handlers

/in , , , , /by

While Biden may well be looking for ways to save face in a standoff with Iran, he just gave the thumbs up for South Korea to release $7 billion in assets in Iran. Biden likely hopes this gesture will move Iran closer to negotiations with the U.S. If Biden is lucky, this money will lead Iran to soften its stance and return to the negotiating table, so as to restart the disastrous Iran nuclear deal that saw over $100 billion flow into the coffers of the Islamic Republic. That was a windfall that allowed the mullahs to continue their jihad in the region and globally; another such windfall is in the offing.

To facilitate the trade with Iran of humanitarian items, such as medicine and medical equipment, South Korea has been seeking to use a Swiss channel backed by the U.S., known as the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), to use the money through Swiss companies’ sales of goods to Iran.

But the trade of humanitarian items just frees up money for other activities. Who could forget Iran’s deceptions? These include its violation of the nuclear deal, and its own admission to having done so, as well as its boastful, repeated threats and provocations regarding its military capabilities. Yet far too many Western leaders have never recognized the implications of all this.

“Foreign ministry says Iran’s assets to be unlocked through consultations with US,”

Korea Times, February 23, 2021:

The Iranian assets locked in South Korea will be released after consultations with the United States, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, after Iran claimed it has reached a deal with Seoul on how to transfer and use the frozen money.

According to Iran’s government website, the agreement was reached Monday (Tehran time) during the meeting between Iran’s Central Bank Gov. Abdolnaser Hemmati and South Korean Ambassador to Iran Ryu Jeong-hyun.

It said that the two sides agreed on the destinations for the transfer and that the Iranian central bank informed Seoul of the amount of the money it wants to be transferred.

Tehran has been pressuring Seoul to unblock about US$7 billion of its assets frozen in two South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions. Seoul has been in talks with Washington on ways to release the money without violating the sanctions, including expanding humanitarian trade with the Middle Eastern country.

“Our government has been in talks with Iran about ways to use the frozen assets, and the Iran side has expressed its consent to the proposals we have made,” the foreign ministry said without providing further details of the proposals.

“The actual unfreezing of the assets will be carried out through consultations with related countries, including the United States,” the ministry said.

Earlier this month, a foreign ministry official said Seoul was finalizing talks with Washington about using some of the frozen funds to pay Tehran’s U.N. dues in arrears, to which the Islamic republic has also agreed.

To facilitate the trade with Iran of humanitarian items, such as medicine and medical equipment, South Korea has been seeking to use a Swiss channel backed by the U.S., known as the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), to use the money through Swiss companies’ sales of goods to Iran.

Despite the denial from Seoul and Tehran, speculation has mounted that Iran’s discontent over the frozen funds is related to its recent seizure of a South Korean oil tanker and its crew members in the Persian Gulf early last month….

COLUMN BY

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

MCLAUGHLIN: The Republican Party Changed Forever — For The Better — Under President Donald Trump

/in , , , , , /by

In 2020, President Donald J. Trump created one of the greatest voter coalitions in American political history, bringing millions of new voters into the Republican Party and expanding the GOP’s vote among African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

The electoral votes that decided this election were determined by a mere 44,000 votes out of a record almost 160 million ballots cast. And two of the three states that decided the electoral outcome — Georgia and Wisconsin — were decided themselves by contested recounts.

These states, and the nation at large, did not see Independents and Republicans who voted for Trump in 2016 swing away from him. They came out and voted for Trump and Republicans again.

Instead, a record turnout of early, pro-Democrat Party voters was facilitated by changes to state election laws to create mail-in ballots and drop boxes funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from pro-Biden corporate non-profits like Secure Democracy.

President Trump’s record 74+ million Republican votes built a solid foundation that down-ballot Republicans benefitted from. Many of these voters solely came out for Trump, and the candidates on the Republican ticket reaped the rewards, as our poll indicated Trump voters supported down-ballot Republicans at least 90% of the time.

During his own reelection campaign, Trump campaigned extensively for the entire Republican ticket, participating in over 50 TeleRallies for congressional candidates and issuing hundreds of tweets for Republican candidates.

The results? President Trump’s popularity among folks who otherwise would not come out and vote enabled Republicans to gain 12 seats in Congress with zero losses by GOP incumbents. Every House Republican in a tossup race won. A record 35 Republican women won election to Congress. Republicans won 59 of 98 partisan state legislative chambers – a net gain of 2 state houses and 141 seats across the country.

Election Day voting has decreased from 76% in 2004 to only 36% in 2020, while early voting, mostly by mail and drop box, increased to 64% in 2020. In many cases these changes led to charges they enabled ballot harvesting, which need to be re-examined as state election reforms are considered.

According to our 2020 post-election poll, 29% of all voters voted by U.S. mail and they preferred Biden 61%-39%. Another 11% said they voted by drop box and they voted for Biden 68%-32%.

Those who voted early in person were virtually even—Biden 51% to Trump 49%, and among those who voted on Election Day Trump won big 62%-36%. It is evident by the data that if Trump had not worked around the clock to rally the GOP vote, it would have been a Biden landslide.

This is why Trump is leading the effort to preserve honest elections and ballot integrity, and Republicans solidly agree. We need changes so this doesn’t happen again.

Never before has a president in American history challenged the permanent Washington political class the way Trump has, and never before has a President been persecuted by the political establishment the way Trump has been.

But just like both phony impeachments, these attacks have backfired and made him even stronger among the American people.

Our January poll of battleground state voters, 74% said impeachment was politically motivated to stop Trump from running again, and 65% agreed by continuing to attack Trump, Biden and Pelosi were making things worse and keeping the country divided. 77% thought Congress should be expediting the Trump-created vaccine and economic aid over impeachment.

And 48% to 36%, they were less likely to vote for a member of Congress who voted for impeachment, including 80% of Trump voters and 76% among Republicans.

Rasmussen Reports found among Republicans that 72% want the Republican Party going forward to be more like Trump, while only 20% prefer to be more like the average GOP member of Congress. 73% say Trump is still the kind of leader the Republican Party needs.

Country Club Beltway Republicans need to realize the Republican Party has been changed forever — for the better — because of Trump’s leadership and they need to stop blaming him for their failings. In order to regain the House and Senate in 2022, the GOP needs to continue to broaden the Trump coalition and not discourage Trump voters from coming out again in 2022 and 2024.

Like Judge Smails found out in the classic movie Caddyshack, the caddies are now running the country club.

They need to learn to live with it.

COLUMN BY

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN

John McLaughlin is CEO and Partner at McLaughlin & Associates.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Trump Endorses Primary Opponent For Congressman Who Voted To Impeach

‘He Is The Leader Of Our Party’: Jim Jordan Dismisses ‘A Handful Of People’ In GOP Who Oppose Trump

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Biden administration shouldn’t be negotiating with Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

/in , , /by

Recent reports reveal throughout the Trump administration, former Obama administration officials worked actively to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Obama nuclear deal.

On at least three occasions, former Secretary of State John Kerry met with his counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Javed Zarif to persuade him to keep the deal on life support so a future Democrat administration could return to compliance with it.

Now that President Joe Biden is in office, getting the U.S. back into the JCPOA appears to be the guiding principle of his policy towards the Middle East. But the new administration needs to understand the region in 2021 is not what it was when the deal was struck in 2015 — and rather than seeing things for what they were six years ago; they may want to engage in a reality check before entering into any agreements — first and foremost with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Take for example, the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) — an official designation with significant economic repercussions for groups so designated. The regime in Tehran is widely regarded as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — a grim practice that went completely unaddressed in the JCPOA.

While the Obama alumni in the Biden administration seem to stovepipe their Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs interlocutors from the terror masters, we might recall the regime cut its teeth with one of the most egregious terror attacks on diplomats in modern history: the taking of U.S. hostages in our Embassy in Tehran for 444 days in 1979-80.

Decision-makers in the Iranian regime have aggressively ramped up terrorist activities in recent years, and the Biden administration should take a long and sober look at this behavior. It should be one of the primary reasons Iran should never get a nuclear weapon, and not seen as a discreet issue “on the margins” as the diplomats say of any negotiations.

In 2019, the Trump administration took the historic step of listing the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as an FTO, the first time the U.S. had so sanctioned an official foreign military. The Feb. 16, 2021, attack on the International Airport in Erbil that killed a contactor and injured nine others, including U.S. citizens, as well as subsequent attacks on Balad Air Base in Erbil and on our Embassy in Baghdad, are a deliberate escalation of IRGC terrorist activities at the start of the Biden administration’s term.

While the elimination of the IRGC Quds Force chief Qasam Soliemani in January 2020 resulted in a temporary reduction of IRGC plotting, these tactics are clearly back on the table to test President Biden’s commitment to fighting IRGC-sponsored terrorism. There is indubitably pressure on the new administration to remove the IRGC from the FTO list as an incentive to bring Iran to the JCPOA negotiating table. However, taking this step before the IRGC renounces its violent and destabilizing behavior would only reward and incentivize more terrorism.

The Erbil attack took place the very day Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally removed the IRGC-supported Yemini Houthi from the FTO list. The Houthi celebrated their delisting by aggressively ramping up terrorist attacks on Saudi Arabia, then launched a new offensive against a million Yemeni refugees in Marib. These developments suggest that rather than removing entities from the FTO, a more effective approach is to reinstate the Houthi designation, given their egregious behavior since the announcement, not to mention their utter failure to enable any increase in humanitarian access into Yemen. In addition, recent events suggest the very entity Biden officials have been engaging with on the JCPOA — the Iranian MFA — should now be added to the FTO list. While this would be, as with the IRGC, a unique designation, the case is fact-based and straightforward. On Feb. 4, in a Belgium court, an Iranian diplomat assigned to their embassy in Vienna, Assadollah Assadi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his leadership of a 2018 terrorist plot to bomb an Iranian opposition meeting in Paris.

Mr. Assadi, who was of course employed by Mr. Zarif himself (who was meeting with Mr. Kerry while this plot was being hatched), actively attempted to use his diplomatic status to evade detection, arrest and trial, and the MFA deplored his conviction as a violation of the Geneva Conventions, which they apparently believe give them carte blanche to bomb peaceful political gatherings in European capitals.

This attempted subterfuge would be a shocking violation of diplomatic protocol for any normal government, but Tehran’s pattern of exploiting the MFA as a cover for terrorist activities is hardly new. In December 2020, for example, the U.S. Department of State announced sanctions on the recently-named Iranian ambassador to the Houthi in Yemen on the grounds he was also a known IRGC Quds Force officer, and the Quds Force was an FTO.

Furthermore, in 2014, Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, authored and passed legislation to amend the Foreign Relations Authorization Act to deny visas to United Nations representatives who have engaged in terrorism. This bill effectively blocked Tehran’s attempt to make the 1979 hostage-taker of U.S. diplomats — Hamid Aboutalebi — Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN. It prohibited this known terrorist to freely operate on our own soil under the cover of diplomatic immunity.

Mr. Assadi’s conviction confirms Iran’s use of diplomatic immunity as a shield for terrorist activities is part of a deliberate, ongoing strategy to exploit the MFA’s ostensible status as a diplomatic organization.

It’s sobering to think that had the regime continued to have access to the financial relief provided by the JCPOA, the 2018 Paris plot might have been more sophisticated — and ultimately successful. We dodged a bullet — or rather a bomb —  this case. However, given the brazen nature of this plot and Tehran’s track record, it is only a matter of time before another attempt is made.

Rather than trying to rush back into that deal at the expense of all other considerations and using the FTO list as a diplomatic incentive to achieve this aim, it’s far better to face the reality that the IRGC, the Houthi, and the MFA are branches of the corrupt terrorist enterprise that is the Islamic Republic of Iran and should be designated as such.

Originally published by the Washington Times

COLUMN BY

Victoria Coates

Victoria Coates is an academic and policy maker with senior experience across the U.S. government in the Congress, White House, Department of Energy, and U.S. Agency for Global Media. Dr. Coates balances national security priorities against economic viability in order to advance American interests and prosperity, and advocates for the U.S. energy industry as a power-projector in an evolving geopolitical reality. View all posts by Victoria Coates →

©Center for Security Policy. All rights reserved.