Tag Archive for: Iran

Elite University Hosting Biden Center Took Money From School That Settled With US Gov’t Over Alleged Hezbollah Ties

The University of Pennsylvania, which hosts the Penn Biden Center, took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2022, roughly five years after AUB paid a settlement to the United States government in connection with its alleged ties to Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terror organization.

UPenn received $474,947 from AUB in 2022, with the donations earmarked as “Education/Tuition/Scholarship,” according to a 2021-2022 foreign gift disclosure obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. AUB settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, paying $700,000 and promising to revise its policies, following a suit alleging the university assisted organizations linked to Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terror organization that has attacked U.S. and Israeli embassies, was implicated in the assignation of a Lebanese prime minister and has carried out suicide bombings, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The United States designated Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, according to the State Department.

Federal prosecutors said that AUB admitted to training members of al Nour Radio and al Manar TV, media outlets designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as branches of Hezbollah in 2006. “Al Manar and al Nour are the media arms of the Hizballah terrorist network and have facilitated Hizballah’s activities,” a press release from the Treasury Department reads.

“Hizballah” is an alternative way to transliterate “Hezbollah.”

The media organizations solicited donations for Hezbollah, aided in the terrorist group’s recruitment efforts and had their budgets managed and overseen by the secretary general of Hezbollah, according to the Treasury Department.

Prosecutors also said that AUB connected students to Jihad al-Binaa, a construction company the Treasury Department says was “formed and operated by Hizballah.”

AUB provided video production and blogging training to representatives of terrorist-linked groups alongside journalists, Reuters reported.

Some American universities have partnered with Israeli-designated terror organizations or had ties with Palestinian colleges that released pro-Hamas statements. Nonprofits financed by George Soros paid out millions to fund a partnership between Bard College and a Palestinian university that praised Hamas the day after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, law schools encouraged their students to work at organizations deemed to be terrorists by the Israeli government and Georgia State University cut ties with a college in the West Bank after the Daily Caller News Foundation reported on it praising deceased Hamas terrorists.

The University of Pennsylvania didn’t refer to Hamas as a terrorist group following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks until after a prominent donor said his family would cut off financial support to the university.

UPenn received millions in donations from Chinese donors tied to Hunter Biden.

The Penn Biden Center, established on Feb. 8, 2018, in honor of now-President Joe Biden, exists to “convene world leaders, develop and advance smart policy, and strengthen the national debate for continued American global leadership in the 21st century,” according to its website.

While UPenn received money from Chinese donors linked to the president’s son and AUB, there is no way to know whether that money funded the Penn Biden Center.

The University of Pennsylvania and AUB did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Hezbollah Calls For Day of ‘Unprecedented Anger’

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


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

HAMAS OFFICIALS: Iran Has Given Our Organizations $ Billions, Paying For ‘Every Weapon’ And Funding Our Jihad

Over the past few years, MEMRI has translated top officials from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and even the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) talking openly about how Iran is funding their organizations’ military activity.

MEMRI has compiled these clips into a video exposing these leaders discussing the weapons, funding, training, and “guidance” that Iran has given to their organizations for terrorism and for waging jihad. Among other things, they describe their “strategic relationship” with Iran, assess Iran’s funding of the Palestinian resistance at billions of dollars, and explain how IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020, had personally overseen the arming, equipping, and training of the Palestinian resistance factions.

The clips in this compilation, from Iranian and Arabic-language television channels, feature Hamas leaders Yahyah Sinwar, Ismail Haniya, and Khalil Al-Hayya; PIJ leader Ziyad Nakhalah and senior official Muhammad Shalah; PFLP secretary-general Talal Naji, and Iranian analyst Emad Abshenas, and others.


Below are the MEMRI TV clips included in this compilation.

Hamas Leader In Gaza Al-Sinwar: “Our Complete Gratitude Is Extended To The Islamic Public Of Iran – They Have Provided Us With Money, Weapons, And Expertise” – May 26, 2021

PIJ Leader Nakhalah: Iran Has Paid The Palestinian Resistance Billions Of Dollars – It Pays For Every Weapon Used By The Resistance – April 17, 2023

Iranian TV Report About PIJ Leader Nakhalah’s Tehran Visit: IRGC Qods Force Commander Says “At Least 15 Operations Against Israel Are Carried Out Every Day Under Iran’s Guidance”; IRGC Says Iran Will “Exhaust All Means To Support The Palestinian Militias” – August 6, 2022

Senior Hamas Official Khalil Al-Hayya: Iran “Supports Hamas And The Resistance Forces… With Money And Weapons” – March 19, 2023

Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad Official Muhammad Shalah: “Iran Supports Us With Rockets” – April 24, 2022

Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad Official Muhammad Shalah: “Iran Supports Us With Rockets” – April 24, 2022

PFLP Secretary-General Talal Naji: Iran “Has Made A Great Contribution And Invested A Lot Of Effort In Developing The Military Capabilities Of The Palestinian Resistance”; IRGC Qods Force Commander Soleimani Personally Supervised Weapons Development – August 11, 2021

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

Two Dozen U.S. Soldiers Injured in Iran-Backed Attacks Last Week

The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check hasn’t arrived.

The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check hasn’t arrived in the mail. And they do like celebrating the 40th anniversary of their great triumph… the Marine Barracks bombing.

So they spent a little time trying to kill American soldiers. Again.

At least two-dozen American military personnel based in Iraq and Syria were injured in drone attacks last week that officials said were launched by Iran-backed proxy groups.

The largest attack carried out against a US base was on Oct. 18 when 20 troops suffered “minor injuries,” after numerous one-way drones targeted al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, US military officials said, according to the Washington Post.

On the same day, multiple drones also targeted the US and its allies in two different attacks on Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq that left four people with minor injuries, the Washington Post reported. Those injured also returned to duty.

A US citizen working as a contractor died the same day after he went into cardiac arrest during a shelter-in-place order at the base.

The Pentagon has said the groups behind the attacks are supported by Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It’s natural to assume that this is a response to the current situation in the region, but the depressing thing is that it’s not even new.

The two elements that jump out at most people (1. Iran launching attacks on U.S. bases and (2. the White House not even mentioning it… have been around for quite a while.

Here’s my article on it from Jan 2022.

Two more terror drones targeted American forces deployed to fight ISIS at the Al Asad air base. The base has been repeatedly hammered by Iran-backed rocket attacks over the past year, most notably when 14 rockets struck the base over the summer causing several injuries.

There were repeated Iran-backed rocket strikes against Americans in Iraq throughout the last year totaling an estimated 25 separate attacks under the Biden administration.

On September 11, two drones launched an attack on U.S. forces at Erbil International Airport.

Then, as now, the Biden administration limited American military personnel to defensive preventative air strikes against the Shiite terror groups carrying out the attacks.

This was going on long before the current Hamas attack and the Israeli response. Or before we directed more forces to the region.

American soldiers have been killed and worse still, we’re funding their killers. And I don’t just mean with that $6 billion.

While some U.S. conflicts with Jihadists in the region are old news, Kataeb Hezbollah fired rockets at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in 2019, and has bombed U.S. bases in recent years. Kataeb Hezbollah killed two American soldiers in 2020: Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts.

Politicians and the media have mostly ignored the fact that Americans are continuing to be killed in Iraq, that the Iraqi government is funding their killers, and that we’re funding Iraq.

While Iraq funds Iran’s terror militias, the United States funds the UN Development Programme to “stabilize” Iraq and has invested over $100 million into “conflict, peace and security” funding.

The United States has spent over $1 billion financing the nation’s military while Iraq spends billions financing the Iranian PMU terror militias which are expected to approach a quarter of million Jihadis.

Did you hear any mention of Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts?

On March 14, 2020, Roberts lost his life when enemy fire engaged with his unit at Camp Taji. With rockets flying, Roberts and his friend took cover. They discussed running to a bunker but not without considering if they could make it to safety. Roberts told his fellow Airmen to go and get her body armor. As his friend left, a rocket landed, taking his life. In losing his own, Roberts saved another.

Her body armor.

Do we talk about any of this? No. And then suddenly we notice it and wonder what’s going on. Iran keeps attacking us and trying to kill us. And Biden keeps trying to cut a deal while warning against offending Iran.

AUTHOR

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

‘Significant Escalation’: Iranian Proxies Target U.S. Military Bases in Middle East

U.S. forces in the Middle East have come under attack 13 times in the past week, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Tuesday, and the attacks have injured at least two dozen military personnel. U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the Pentagon held Iran responsible for the attacks and warned of “the prospect for more significant escalation against U.S. forces and personnel across the region in the very near-term.”

“Between October 17th and the 24th, U.S. and coalition forces have been attacked at least 10 separate times in Iraq and three separate times in Syria via a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets,” Ryder explained at a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday.

At least 24 American military personnel were wounded in the attacks, U.S. Central Command told NBC News, and a civilian contractor died of cardiac arrest during a shelter-in-place order, which turned out to be a false alarm. On October 18, two drones targeted al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, injuring 20 military personnel and destroying a hangar housing small aircraft. The same day, two separate drone attacks at al-Asad base in western Iraq wounded four military personnel.

The U.S. military maintains a small presence on the ground in Syria and Iraq to deter a resurgence of the Islamic State. There are approximately 900 U.S. troops in Syria and approximately 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose confederacy of Iran-backed militias, claimed responsibility for the attack on al-Tanf base.

On October 19, a U.S. Navy ship in the Red Sea intercepted and shot down four cruise missiles and 14 drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, based in Yemen. “We cannot say for certain what these missiles and drones were targeting but they were launched from Yemen heading north along the Red Sea potentially to targets in Israel,” Ryder reported last week.

“We know that the groups conducting these attacks are supported by the IRGC [Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the Iranian regime,” Ryder said Tuesday. “What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against U.S. forces and personnel across the region in the very near-term coming from Iranian proxy forces and ultimately from Iran.”

“We’ve already deployed a significant number of additional U.S. military capabilities into the region to bolster our regional deterrence efforts, strengthen our capabilities there and enhance our ability to respond to a range of contingencies,” Ryder told the press.

Since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and slaughtered more than 1,400 Israelis on October 7, the U.S. military has sent two aircraft carrier groups and extra fighter squadrons to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, near the zone of conflict. Other units stationed at U.S. military bases have received orders to prepare to deploy.

However, Ryder declined to say whether the U.S. military was planning any counterstrikes on Iran-allied targets. “We will do everything necessary to protect and defend our forces,” he stated. “If and when we would decide to respond, we will do so at a time and place of our choosing.”

“Since that Hamas terrorist attack, we’ve also been crystal clear that we do not want to see the situation in Israel widen into a broader regional conflict,” Ryder explained.

“That conflict has started,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins insisted on “Washington Watch.” “We’ve seen our own troops in Syria and Iraq being attacked by those that are funded and supported by Iran.”

In the meantime, Israeli forces have clashed with Iran-backed militants near the northern border with Lebanon, at sea near the Gaza Strip, and in the West Bank, where The Wall Street Journal reported that the Islamic Jihad has strengthened its position, armed by weapons smuggled from Iran. Israel on Wednesday conducted airstrikes on enemy positions in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.

Perkins lamented the Biden administration’s “schizophrenic foreign policy, stating, “we fund Palestinian Authority, Hamas, who attacks Israel. … We release money to Iran. They then attack our allies. This makes absolutely no sense.”

On “Washington Watch,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) responded that the Biden administration has been pursuing an “appeasement” policy toward Iran. “You can’t have an appeasement position … against a terrorist regime. You have to stand strong like the Trump administration did.”

“The increasing tempo of attacks on U.S. positions and the vital assets of its regional partners is reminiscent of a similar campaign Iran embarked upon in 2019,” noted National Review Senior Writer Noah Rothman. “Then as now, the president was reluctant to respond directly to those attacks for fear that such a response would provoke a wider regional war.”

But, Rothman added, “the provocations did not end until the United States responded disproportionately with the strike that neutralized Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani.”

President Biden’s term in office has been punctuated by foreign policy crises, including America’s controversial 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Hamas’s 2023 terror attack on Israel. “You didn’t see any of these wars, any of these type of attacks when [Trump] was president because he was strong on foreign policy,” Steube pointed out. “We have a weak Joe Biden in the White House that doesn’t stand for anything but appeasing our enemies.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Senator to Biden: ‘You Can’t Be Pro-Israel and Pro-Iran. You Have to Choose.’

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Senator to Biden: ‘You Can’t Be Pro-Israel and Pro-Iran. You Have to Choose.’

A month ago, the idea of U.S. troops doing live-fire exercises in Iraq would have seemed like something out of 2002. But almost three weeks removed from one of the bloodiest days in the modern Middle East, war is closer than it’s ever been. With more than 18 separate attacks launched at American soldiers last week, it’s clear: Israel is no longer the only target.

“My warning to [Iran],” President Biden said Wednesday, was “be prepared.” “If they continue to move against those troops, we will respond.” Whether the Ayatollah takes the message seriously is anyone’s guess. After all, Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) pointed out, it’s not like this White House’s position has been one of strength.

“Iran does not know if this president has any red lines,” the Kansan argued on “Washington Watch,” “and I’m afraid that they could be right. And that’s why I’m saying we need to retaliate and teach them a lesson. We need to hit the bully across the nose really hard the next time they do anything whatsoever. As long as we have ships in harm’s way, which we do, it’s very possible that one of those drones or one of those underwater attacks get through. So of course, I’m very, very concerned about the situation there.”

And it’s not just Republicans who are sounding the alarm. After 24 Americans were wounded on bases in Iraq and Syria, hard-core Democrats like Senator Chris Coons from the president’s own state have expressed frustration with Biden’s lack of spine. “There needs to be pressure back against Iran,” he insisted to Fox News’s Bret Baier. “… Iran funded, supplied, and trained the fighters of Hamas and is behind these other proxies that are in the north of Israel, in the south of Lebanon, in Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula, in Iraq. So, we need to be striking back — and we need to be prepared for the very real prospect that this will get harder before it gets easier.”

In conversations with some of the Syrian rebel commanders, Biden’s weakness is only feeding Iran’s aggression. “There has been absolutely no response to these attacks,” one told a Washington Post reporter, “which has resulted in the fact that the Iranian-backed militias are getting much braver.”

Much as this White House has tried, you can’t be “pro-Israel and pro-Iran,” Marshall insisted. “You have to choose one or the other.” But if we think back to what’s happened under Biden, the senator explained, “… [H]e’s empowered their nuclear weapon program. He’s unfrozen this $6 billion [dollars] … three months ago. He unfroze $10 billion [dollars]. And he’s now allowing them to sell $1 billion [dollars] of oil every week.” Under this administration, Iran’s reserves have climbed from $6 billion dollars to $60 billion dollars.

“This is what’s happening under Joe Biden’s watch,” Marshall shook his head. “He’s allowed Iran to once again be a force, to be a power. And again … You have to choose Israel or you have to choose Iran. Iran is the one that says, ‘Death to Israel. Death to America.’”

If Biden doesn’t act, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins asked, could we see this escalate into a “global conflict?”

“Absolutely,” Marshall answered. “We’re [all] looking [for] some type of clarity from this president, some type of priorities. [No one understands] what the president’s priorities [are] under this situation. To me, the priorities should be very, very clear. Number one, we want to get all the Americans back safely. We need to secure our southern border. By the way, we need to cut the head off the snake of Iran, and we need to eliminate Hamas. … We need a president who’s going to put our first, our best, best foot forward to stand with peace through strength.”

Frankly, Perkins pointed out, “I wish this president had the same clarity on issues such as this, as he does for abortion, the whole LGBTQ agenda, and climate change. [Those seem] to be the only three issues this administration has clarity on. It’s frightening.”

And look, the senator replied, we’re not “warmongers.” “I don’t want this war,” he admitted. “But let’s face it — over the next days, weeks, and months, it’s going to get really ugly there in the Gaza Strip. And Israel needs to know that we have their back, that unequivocally we’re going to stand with them.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

VIDEO: ‘ISRAEL AT WAR’ Interview with Lebanese-Israeli Shady Khaloul

As Israel prepares to launch a ground operation in Gaza to end the curse of Palestinian Hamas, Israel has a watchful eye on our northern border with Lebanon, a beautiful country hijacked and ruined by Hezbollah, and Palestinian terrorists before them.

In recent days, Hezbollah has increased their attacks against northern Israel.

To understand Lebanon, I had a conversation with Shadi Khaloul, Lebanese-Israeli, and a friend.

Shadi is the founder of the Maronite Christian community in the north of Israel.

Many Maronite Christians serve in elite units of the IDF and, despite being proud and loyal Israelis, they mourn the loss of a Lebanon they once knew and loved.

Help raise the Facebook profile of The View from Israel by clicking the friend subscribe button, and by sharing it with others.

©2023. Barry Shaw. All rights reserved.

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THE WAR ON X: WW III • The Global War Against Islamic Terrorism — Day 16

Today October 23rd, 2023 we are now seeing the violence that Hamas began 16 days ago is now spreading like wild fire across the Middle East, Europe and in America.

Demonstrations, some violent, are being led by supporters of Hamas. This is the global Islamic jihad we have been predicating for years.

Here are some of the top headlines for today:

These tweet on X say it all.

This interview with Brother Rachid was taped on Friday, October 21st for RAIR Foundation and the story can be read here. Brother Rachid has a wildly popular TV show in the Arabic World where be brings people out of Islam and into Christianity.

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE With Hunted Islamic Expert Brother Rachid: ‘Muslims Will Be the Majority, They Will Govern the West’

WW III • The Global War Against Islamic Terrorism

©2023. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Chaos Erupts In Middle East As Israel-Hamas Conflict Surges

In the wake of Israel’s attacks on Hamas, U.S. forces in the Middle East have endured several attacks as violent protests decrying Israel ensue throughout the region.

Israel is carrying out a sweeping counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip after Hamas killed over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped over 100 civilians, including children, during mass terrorist attacks that began on Oct. 7. Protests and violence have flared up in surrounding Middle Eastern nations – despite the Biden administration claiming days before the Hamas attack that the region is “quieter” than it has been in decades.

Mass protests are taking place in Arab nations surrounding Israel, including Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, the latter of which houses the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah. U.S. military forces in regions including Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea have recorded rocket and/or drone attacks from a number of groups, including Islamic Resistance and Houthi forces.

Several of the groups involved in the attacks against U.S. forces are supported and backed by Iran. While Tehran’s role in helping plan the initial Oct. 7 attacks against Israel by Hamas is disputed, it heavily supports the terrorist organization.

“Tehran is bringing various elements of its proxy network online and in place to bail out Hamas, distract Israel, and deter the U.S. from standing with Israel,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior researcher on Iranian security and political issues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The more Tehran greenlights the involvement of its proxies, the more it is attempting to create a new security architecture in the region to keep America out and Israel bogged down.”

To the northeast, Iranian-backed militants fired rockets at the Ain al-Asad air base hosting Americans in Iraq on Thursday, and a search and rescue operation was subsequently launched by the Iraqi military; it is not immediately clear if casualties or injuries were sustained during the attacks. Another base was attacked via rocket fire near the international airport in Baghdad on the same day.

The al-Asad base came under attack earlier in the week after U.S. troops staved off incoming kamikaze drones on Tuesday. In Syria, two U.S. military sites housing American and allied troops fell under attack from drones on Thursday; incoming drones were shot down by personnel at the al-Tanf coalition garrison, with one servicemember sustaining injuries. Militants also fired rockets at the Conoco base in the Deir al-Zor region of Syria after it fell under siege from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Thursday.

A U.S. naval destroyer operating in the Red Sea shot down an incoming hive of drones and cruise missiles launched by Houthi terrorist forces in Yemen on Thursday, the AP reported. The drones were “potentially” headed for Israel, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

“These small-scale attacks are clearly concerning and dangerous,” Ryder said on Wednesday. “We’re going to do everything necessary to ensure that we’re protecting our forces. And  if and when we choose to respond, we’ll do so at a time of our choosing.”

Hezbollah has warned the U.S. against increasing its support of Israel, and has launched several small-scale attacks over its southern border, including missile attacks and gunfire toward IDF, according to Fox News. IDF has increased its presence at the border with troops and tanks as tensions with Hezbollah rapidly escalate, according to The Associated Press.

Hezbollah warned Israel on Wednesday it is “thousands of times stronger” than it was before, according to Reuters; the Iranian-backed terrorist group consists of approximately 100,000 fighters, leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah claimed. It also has a stockpile of weaponry and boasts precision-guided missiles that could hit any target in Israel.

After it was reported without evidence that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, Hezbollah called for a “day of unprecedented anger” and violent protests ensued near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon starting Wednesday. Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds of protestors who broke through barbed wire and fencing leading to the embassy, according to Reuters.

Mass Palestinian protests are occurring in several Arab nations surrounding Israel, including Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Turkey and Jordan, according to the Associated Press. The State Department issued a “Worldwide Caution Security Alert” to U.S. citizens traveling overseas on Thursday amid the risk of further terrorist attacks and violence.

Demonstrations also took place in Iran, where protestors can be seen burning the Israeli flag and chanting “death to Israel,” NBC News reported on Tuesday. All of the unfolding chaos, from attacks against U.S. forces to the ongoing protests against Israel, can be traced back to Tehran, according to Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Jewish Policy Center.

“Iran is the center of the conflict. The religious leadership believes it is destined to control Islam, and then the rest of the world. They’re not ‘crazy,’ they’re believers,” Bryen told the DCNF. “Without an international determination to thwart Iran’s goals, the region will not see peace regardless of the outcome of Israel’s present war in Gaza.”

Bryen said that when the war between Israel and Hamas concludes, the chaos will reflect poorly on the Biden administration, which has been accused by lawmakers and foreign policy experts of taking a concessionary stance toward Iran.

“When the history of the current horror in Israel is written, it will be clear that the administration’s oil sanctions waivers, unfreezing assets, ignoring Iranian arms sales to Russia, and ignoring the suffering of the Iranian people under the mullahs gave Tehran the sense that it was driving events,” Bryen told the DCNF. “And Hamas had the same sense in Gaza.”

The Biden administration said on Oct. 7 – two days before the brutal Hamas terrorist attacks – that the Middle East is “quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

JAKE SMITH

Contributor.

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


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Biden Administration has Blood on its Hands

Ignored Warnings from His Own State Department.


Hamas And Amoral Clarity

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON | October 12, 2023

One unexpected blowback from the medieval Hamas’s barbaric murdering of hundreds of Israeli civilians is the revelation of current global amorality.

More than 20 Harvard University identity politics groups pledged their support to the Hamas murderers — to the utter silence for days of Harvard President Claudine Gay.

Americans knew higher education practiced racist admission policies. It has long promoted racially segregated dorms and graduations. And de facto it has destroyed the First Amendment.

But the overt support for Hamas killers by the diversity, equity, and inclusion crowd on a lot of campuses exposes to Americans the real moral and intellectual rot in higher education.

Democratic Socialist members of the new woke Democrat Party openly expressed ecstatic support for Hamas’s bloodwork.

Their biggest fears were not dead fellow Americans or hostages, or some 1,000 butchered Jewish civilians. Instead, they were fearful that righteous Israeli retaliation might destroy the Hamas death machine.

Palestinians for years fooled naïfs in Europe and the Obama and Biden administrations into sending billions of dollars into Gaza.

These monies were channeled to tunnel into Israel, to obtain a huge rocket arsenal, and to craft plans to wipe out Jews.

The Biden administration has blood on its hands.

As soon as President Joe Biden took power, he resumed massive subsidies to radical Palestinians, canceled by the prior Trump administration.

He ignored warnings from his own state Department that such fungible monies would soon fuel Hamas terrorism.

His administration dropped sanctions against Iran, ensuring that Tehran would enjoy a multi-billion-dollar windfall to be distributed to Israel’s existential enemies — another fact well-known to the Biden administration.

If the Biden administration had announced overtly that it was rabidly anti-Israel, it would be hard to imagine anything it could have done differently from its present nihilist behavior.

Biden and company quickly restarted the defunct Iran appeasement deal — a leftover from the anti-Israeli Obama administration. No surprise, they appointed radical pro-Iranian activist Robert Malley to head the negotiations.

Malley allegedly has leaked American classified documents to Iranian officials and is under investigation by the FBI. He did his best to place pro-Iranian, anti-American activists into the high echelons of the U.S. government.

Biden was intent on forcing South Korea to release to Iran $6 billion in sanctioned frozen money.

That expectation of cash ensured Iran would be reimbursed for its present terrorist arming spree.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken shamefully tweeted that Israel should settle for an immediate ceasefire. No wonder he soon withdrew his unhinged posting.

That idiocy would be the moral equivalent of an American ally in December 1941 urging the U.S. to seek negotiations with imperial Japan after its surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor — to avoid a “cycle of violence.”

The Biden team has drained strategic arms stockpiles in Israel, designed to help the Jewish state in extremis.

It recklessly abandoned a multibillion-dollar arms trove in Kabul, some of which reportedly made its way from Taliban killers to the Hamas murderers.

Once the mass murdering started, the amoral clarity of our “allies” was stunning.

NATO partner Turkey openly sided with the killers. It — along with Blinken — called for a cease-fire — at the moment the Hamas death squads had finished, and Israel was ready to hold Hamas to account.

Qatar, where the U.S. Central Command is based, proved little more than a Hamas front.

It offers sanctuary to the architects of Hamas killing. And Qatar ensures a safe financial pipeline to Hamas from Iran and the radical Arab world.

Some of the most vehement current supporters of the Hamas death squads were immigrants to America from the Middle East.

Oddly, they apparently had fled just such illiberal Middle East regimes to reach a tolerant, democratic, and secure United States.

Yet they now endorse the Hamas butchering of Jewish civilians. Its savagery is aimed at executing, raping and beheading Jews, and then mutilating their bodies.

Hamas apparently hopes to shock the Israeli government into voluntarily committing suicide — in line with the ancient Hamas agenda to destroy the Jewish state.

In a strange way, this reign of death has become a touchstone, an acid test of sorts that has revealed the utter amorality of enemies abroad and quite dangerous people at home.

It is past time that Americans deal with the medieval world that was revealed this week rather than keep dreaming in the fantasy world of our government.

Americans need to stop illegal immigration and restore their southern border, while ceasing all immigration from unhinged, hostile nations.

The military must return to its deterrent role and fire its woke commissariat.

Our leaders must accept that in the last three years of the Biden administration, serial American appeasement abroad, disunity at home and social chaos have encouraged an entire host of enemies — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Middle East illiberal regimes and former friends like Turkey and Qatar.

And our enemies dream of doing to us what we just saw in Israel.

Hamas is not fighting for a Palestinian State that shares borders with Israel. Hamas’s goal is the total annihilation of the Jewish people and the Nation of Israel.

It’s time to get informed and equipped for another wave of Islamic Terrorism! Here is my gift to you, in October, with your annual Substack subscription. Receive critical information and action alerts to make a real impact on our national security, freedoms, and culture.

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EDITORS NOTE: This ACT for America column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

The Killing of Western Civilization

The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel was just a recent atrocious assault against Western civilization, a war that started a hundred years ago. In fact, I have been writing about that global cabal, which was waging WWIII against Western civilization for forty-two years.  “This global cabal is capable of anything. They are already responsible for the deaths of millions. They use lies as easily as they breathe. Everywhere they have gone, there is death and destruction.” If you read my column: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America published October 6, 2023, one day prior to the Hamas attack, you will learn about this global cabal—I called them a new “Axis of Evil” under the Russian umbrella.

Yes, this global cabal is the new” Axis of Evil,” under the Russian umbrella: Cuba, China, North Korea, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. But only people who read my columns or books know that. Iran is a Russian proxy and to know Iran you have to know Russia and its Intel. Because there are the patterns of Soviet Socialism, Russia implements into all its proxies, including the terror groups, especially in the Mideast: ISIS, Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hezb’allah, Hamas, and others. That was the essence of Stalin’s legacy: brainwashing Muslims groups, and marring Islam with Communist ideology. That way we got a Fascist-Jihad of Stalinist era in the 20th century. A misleading system of disinformation, an instrument designed by Stalin was executed by all his devoted disciples after his death. To educate America, I have been writing about that system of Stalinist Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet Fascism, for the last forty-two years…

The new “Axis of Evil—the Evil Doer” has not been known to the vast majority of Americans. Yes, all mentioned above terror groups have the same parents–the Russian Intel. The KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov 1967-1982 has designed two-states solution in the Mideast, when the KGB has begun controlling Hamas—anti-Semitism has united them. The same unity had been achieved for all terror groups in the 20th century. We have dealt with strategic partnerships against Western civilization. Russian expansion of Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet fascism was the goal for the Mideast region. I have been writing this story of the people’s suffering, griefs, and killings to make you familiar with the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer for forty-two years. You can find the details in my columns…

Forty-two years is a pretty long-time and I am tired, very tired of being alone writing to educate and convince the American people with my poor English. Nobody helped me. I was writing about terrorist Russia and its expansion of terrorism throughout the globe. A devoted disciple of Stalin/Andropov Vladimir Putin was doing that for the last thirty years… I couldn’t believe a word, listening from the actively-destructive Biden’s team, I don’t trust them… Can you imagine how excited I’ve become reading the column with the warning, I was yelling for forty-two years:

“People living in modern civilization—especially in the West—play by the rules, live within their means, love their families, and cherish their children’s future. We get up in the morning, go to our jobs, or to our tasks, not thinking about any threats that may be formulating to destroy our lives. And yet, the threats are there, and they persist. For those of us who do our research and read what these enemies are plotting against us—and we do have enemies—we start to understand how dangerous they really are, these globalist elites. They have told us numerous times, both in print and in speech, what they are planning. And yet they are ignored when all we have to do is take them seriously and act accordingly.” War Is Upon You, By Ray DiLorenzo, Canada Free Press, October 8, 2023 

The author described the current events in the world, as if he came from the society of Soviet Socialism. But he didn’t indicate any specific country, only a new foreign predicament in America. He loves America, and is suffering watching how America loses its moral compass. I felt an alarm and pain in his every word. I believe, he read my columns or books and now expressing his sincere warning to Americans and the world:

“Anyone can see that society is changing, and not for the better. The Greatest Generation is long gone. The self-image and desire generation of fifty years ago, especially in government, is hanging on by threads, unwilling to give in to time and poor decisions. We are now witnesses to a society and a generation no longer American, heavily influenced by social media, with narcissism transformed into amorality, hysteria, self-indulgence, and violence.” By Ray DiLorenzo– Friday, October 6, 2023

Meanwhile the killing in Israel is going on… I’d like to remind you of the Vietnam war, because the Russian military Doctrine is active here in the Hamas assaults of Israel. Do you remember the Vietnam War? The North Vietnamese used the tunnels for unexpected access and assaults against the South Vietnamese. You can see exact the same Russian Doctrine used against Israel by Hamas. History is the mother of all sciences and I know who helped the North Vietnamese. I had a client, a Soviet pilot, who participated in the Vietnam War. You can find this story in my books and articles. There is another Stalinist Doctrine: “No lives matter.” Have you heard Hamas tell Palestinians to stay in Gaza and not evacuate: for Hamas “No lives matter,” Stalinist Doctrine is alive and well in the 21st century Mideast. The Russian tentacles are all over the region and the globe.

“No lives matter” under Soviet Fascism!

The picture of Stalin, the greatest mass murderer of the 20th century is here.

The Republican Ignorance

“Those who don’t know Stalinist legacy of the 20th century will pay a dear price for their ignorance. “I wrote that one day prior to the Hamas invasion: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America: The Stalinist Mexican Cartels, October 6, 2023. I had in mind Fox News and the firing of two talented men: Dan Bongino and Tucker Carlson. I knew that Putin was preparing something bad. I wrote it purposely to alert the ignorant and remind them about Holocaust of Jews by German-Nazis. It is for a reason I have been writing about Soviet Fascism for decades. Russia is a terrorist, anti-Semitic country with close and long-term relations to all Middle Eastern countries through its KGB, which was implementing Soviet Fascism there, while the FBI didn’t know Russia and the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer, I’ve been writing about for decades. I had to write it–the FBI has not protected us!

Moreover, “According to a White House pool report, President Biden told the two dozen who were in attendance why he decided to run for president in 2020. He mentioned Charlottesville and the events that transpired there in 2017 as his reason for running.” Joe Biden has a meltdown that leaves Democrats sick with worry, The Federalist Wire, September 26, 2023. Reading this information my antenna went up. As a matter of fact, I was writing about Charlottesville in many columns: like Jan.6, on Capitol Hill, Charlottesville was the KGB’s Mafia/Army—Evil Doer operation to build a fascist movement in America.    

A Controlled Opposition  

Charlottesville happened in August 2017, in Unite the Right, the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In fact, it was the KGB operation in cahoots with the Democrat Party to establish and built a fascist movement in America. The designers and organizers were the Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe and the FBI deputy Director Andrew McCabe. I wrote this in my column: Origin of the Washington Spy Ring and the Swamp, March 31, 2018:

“Yes, firing Andrew McCabe was the beginning of a huge international case of conspiracy against the U.S.A, because those two are the accomplices of the crime or even crimes. To investigate the case, you have to know the KGB well and I’ll try to give you some tips. It was Andropov’s idea to invent a “controlled opposition.” The KGB had practiced it in Russia for many years. It is very simple to achieve, just infiltrate the opposition with a couple of people, promote them to the leadership and act in a way that is beneficial for your initial design. That exact move was realized and implanted in America. The result you see in August 2017, in Unite the Right, the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.’’

It was the time for the FBI to do their job. But as we found out today the FBI didn’t want to do the job and the Democrat Party had been left not being exposed… I don’t want to impose my opinion and conclusion, I rely on each of you to make your own decision, watching Biden/Obama and their team for many years. We are living in the predicament of global disinformation where truth is hard to find. By the way, the House of Representatives, the only Republican power, has no Speaker for 12 days, because of the same dysfunctional FBI. I hope, sooner or later the truth will shine to disinfect the globe, I hope…You can read my columns for free now.

Don’t be surprised by the large-scale rally at the U.S. Colleges and Universities in defense of Hamas. Just watch TV. Have you heard about the group Students for Justice in Palestine? They are sponsored by Hamas and Iran.  And they are not alone, there are a hundred of these organizations around the world. Please, read about one of them:

National Students for JUSTICE IN PALESTINE

Supporting over hundred Palestine solidarity organizations across occupied Turtle Island, we aim to develop a student movement that is connected, disciplined, and equipped with the tools necessary achieve Palestinian liberation

Please, pay attention to the last two words—Palestinian liberation. These words should bring your memory back to Yasser Arafat, President of Palestinian Liberation Organization–PLO. Arafat’s lieutenant Abbas is still there. To make a long story short, read my columns and learn that Yasser Arafat was recruited by the KGB’s Mafia/Army in 1957. The cycle of War Crimes committed by the Russian Government and its KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer is in front of the world. Now, as usual I rely on people’s imagination and knowledge…

Today I receive an email from Rep. Chip Roy–This is existential.

The Biden administration is allowing over 10,000+ illegal crossings a day – mostly adult males from 150+ countries, including these latest numbers from CBP:

  • Syria: 538
  • Yemen: 139
  • Iran: 659
  • Iraq: 123
  • Afghanistan: 6,386
  • Lebanon: 164
  • Egypt: 3,153
  • Pakistan: 1,613
  • Mauritania: 15,594
  • Uzbekistan: 13,624
  • Turkey: 30,830

As we watch what is going on in Israel right now, how can we be safe in America without securing our border?

My fellow Americans!

The U.S.A. is under an existential threat—we have Hamas and the KGB’s Mafia/Army—the Evil Doer with their deadly activities on our soil! The Killing of Western Civilization is on a progress, before your eyes!

Equip yourselves with knowledge and act decisively! Save the American Constitutional Republic for our children, grandchildren, and the world!

To be continued www.simonapipko.com and atwww.drrichswier.com/author/spipko/

©2023. Simona Pipko. All rights reserved.

Appeasement is the Art of Losing Slowly

I am a student of America’s foreign policy. During my twenty-three years in the U.S. Army I helped implement our foreign policy both here and abroad. The primary enemy of the United States during my career was the former Soviet Union. I say former because we won the Cold War.

During my twenty-three years of active duty I served seven U.S. Presidents. Some were strong and some were weak when dealing with the Soviet Union. For a third of my career “détente” was the basis of our foreign policy. The term was used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1971, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. Détente ended after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 24, 1979.

May I suggest that détente was another word for appeasement, which is the art of losing slowly?

I was stationed in Germany on a date that is etched forever in my mind — September 5, 1972. On that day an Islamist group called Black September invaded the peaceful Olympic village in Munich, Germany. Sixteen innocent and unarmed Israeli athletes and one German police officer were killed. This year marks the 51st Anniversary of that attack. So what did I learn about Islamists on that fateful day? I learned that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I also learned on that day everything I needed to know about shariah Islamists and their ideology.

Let us fast forward to November 4, 1979 and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. On that date the United States learned in very stark terms all it needed to know about shariah Islamists when fifty-five U.S. embassy employees were taken hostage. But what did President Carter learn from that experience? Appeasement is the art of losing slowly because in the end President Carter lost the Presidency to Ronald Reagan. It was only minutes after President Reagan was sworn in that the hostages were on an airplane headed home. Why, because the Iranians knew that President Reagan would not appease them rather he would use the full force of our military to end the hostage crisis. It was President Reagan who called the former Soviet Union an “evil empire” and confronted its leaders rather than appease them. President Reagan knew that appeasement is the art of losing slowly.

Let us fast forward to September 11, 2001 and the fateful events on that day. Yet again we saw the resiliency of shariah Islamists to do what they say they will do. It also showed how both Presidents George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton misunderstood the lessons of September 5, 1972 and November 4, 1979. While President Bush did push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait he failed to see the global threat posed by shariah Islam. President Clinton had numerous opportunities to take Osama bin Laden into custody but failed to do so. President Clinton continued to deal with the issues in the Middle East by negotiations and appeasement of the Palestinians. His hope for a solution led to intifada – a holy war against Israel that has not ended.

Let us again fast forward to the P-5 +1 talks concerning Iran and its quest to obtain nuclear weapons. Since September 5, 1972 every U.S. President has tried diplomacy and sanctions to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.  Détente, the failure to define Iran as an enemy and diplomacy are different forms of appeasement. Each slowly leads to the appeaser losing. Time is always on the side of those who are being appeased.

Dr. Jay Bergman, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, in his column “Understanding the Iran talks” writes, “[A]n analogy comes to mind that suggests what the results of these negotiations are likely to be. The analogy is with the Munich conference at the end of September 1938, at which Nazi Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain forced Czechoslovakia to cede to Germany the so-called Sudetenland, in the western part of the country, where some (but by no means all) of the three million ethnic Germans living there were demanding, in the name of self-determination, that it become part of Germany.

“For good reason Munich has become code for the appeasement of regimes that cannot be appeased because there is no limit to the demands they will make,” notes Professor Bergman.

We have new words for détente, they are coexist and tolerance.

Let us fast forward to today. Our leaders tell us we must peacefully coexist with shariah Islam and embrace Islamic beliefs in the name of religious tolerance. We cannot criticize those who daily criticize us. We cannot call for the end of oppression under Islamist rulers, secular and theocratic alike, even though these Islamists call for our death and destruction on a daily basis. We must tolerate those who have sworn to kill us in the name of our Judeo/Christian beliefs.

Jerry Gordon, Editor of the New English Review and Middle East expert put it best when he wrote, “Islamic countries are wedded to an ossified totalitarian creed denying civil and human rights and a future – the basis of the Judeo Christian value system and Western dynamism.”

I close with the words of Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam”, whose family for three generations has fought political Islam in Syria and the United States. Dr. Jasser writes, “If the Islamists have their way, the United States will find itself with a nation within a nation, one governed by the precepts of the U.S. Constitution, the other under the sway of shariah.”

Dr. Jasser notes the observation of French philosopher Joseph de Maistre who wrote, “Every nation has the government it deserves.”

I for one want to retain and strengthen our Constitutional Republican form of government. Something every American, regardless of faith or belief, must embrace or we will continue to lose slowly our liberty and freedoms.

Fast forward to Saturday, October 7th, 2023 and the unprovoked attack against innocent men, women and children by Hamas. This is all because of the appeasement of Iran, the Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah and others by the current administration.

History is repeating itself.

Chamberlain appeased Hitler in 1938 with the Munich Agreement and now Biden is appeasing Hamas and Iran with his Iranian Nuclear Deal

The Munich Agreement led to WW II. The Iranian Nuclear Deal is leading to WW III.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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THE WAR ON X: WW III The Global War Against Islamic Terrorism — Day 9

America’s Adversaries Are All Connected

A day after murderous terrorists invaded Israel, critical infrastructure connecting frontline NATO allies was shut down as a “result of external activity” — possibly foreign sabotage — according to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. “Russia sympathizes with us,” senior Hamas official Ali Baraka said in a Sunday interview on the government-controlled Russia Today TV. “One war eases the pressure in another war.”

While Finnish and Estonian officials are still investigating the disruption of a pipeline and communication cable, the timing is likely no coincidence. If it resulted from foreign action, then the foreign agents took advantage of the fact that world attention was focused elsewhere to carry out an operation they had likely already planned. Did Russia have prior knowledge of Hamas’s invasion plan?

Russia has long weaponized its monopolistic position as Europe’s oil supplier to extract political concessions from dependent neighbors by cutting off energy supplies. The Balticonnector Pipeline began operations in 2020, connecting Finland to the rest of Europe via Estonia and reducing Russia’s oil leverage over both countries.

Russia would clearly benefit from disabling the pipeline. Both countries are pro-western states on Russia’s border and view the USSR’s primary successor state as their greatest threat. In April, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland officially joined the anti-Russian NATO alliance, which Estonia joined in 2004.

Yet, according to Baraka’s interview in a Russian propaganda outlet, Russia was notified prior to the assault. “In order to keep the attack secret and successful, the different factions and our allies did not know the zero hour,” he said. But Hamas did update Russia after they inquired about the Hamas attack and its intention. If Russia is responsible for the Balticonnector sabotage, they implemented the plan opportunistically.

Russia was not the only ally Hamas informed of its plans on Saturday. “After half an hour [of commencing the attack], all the Palestinian resistance factions were contacted, as were our allies in Hezbollah and Iran,” said Baraka. He added that they even notified Turkey — an increasingly rogue member of NATO — and met with them only three hours into the operation.

“Our allies are those that support us with weapons and money,” explained Baraka. “First and foremost, it is Iran that is giving us money and weapons.” For years, Western intelligence officials have known that Iran was providing military training and logistical help. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said last year that Iran had provided the group with $70 million in military assistance. On Thursday, the U.S. government and Qatar agreed to block Iran from accessing $6 billion in funds the U.S. had unfrozen as an appeasement measure.

Baraka also pointed to Hamas’s close affinity with Hezbollah, another radical Islamic terror organization funded by Iran, but which is based in Lebanon instead of Gaza. Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel on Tuesday, in an effort to divide Israel’s forces and limit the safe places where refugees from southern Israel could be temporarily relocated. Baraka also boasted that “the Arab and Islamic people … are standing by us.” Even if he presumes too much when speaking for all people who identify as Muslims, these are not idle words; on Sunday, Palestinian sympathizers staged demonstrations in support of Hamas’ barbarous tactics across the West.

“Even Russia sympathizes with us,” added Baraka. “Russia is happy that America is getting embroiled in Palestine. It alleviates the pressure on the Russians in Ukraine. One war eases the pressure in another war. So, we are not alone on the battlefield.” He said that Russia, a major exporter of weapons, even gave “a Russian license to produce Kalashnikov bullets in Gaza,” allowing Hamas to procure additional ammunition for Russian-made machine guns despite international sanctions.

That’s quite the international coalition supporting a terror group, but it features the usual suspects. Nations like Iran and Russia are not friendly toward the U.S. and would jump at any opportunity to knock the U.S. down a peg.

Consequently, Hamas’ attack did not happen in isolation. “We have been preparing for this for two years,” Baraka said. In other words, Hamas began preparing to launch a major assault against Israel in the immediate aftermath of America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some unconfirmed reports have even suggested that Hamas used weapons U.S. forces left behind in Afghanistan, which evidently made their way across the Middle East through illicit arms trading. When America’s foes see us as weak, they calculate that it is time to strike.

The same actors — and even more of them — are aligned on Russia’s side of the conflict in Ukraine. After Ukraine stalled Russia’s first assault and ground down its war machine with Western aid, Russia turned to other bad actors to restock its supplies. There have been reports that Iran, China, Cuba, North Korea, and even South Africa are supplying Moscow with military equipment and personnel.

In October 2022, the Pentagon said they knew that Russia was using Iranian drones in Ukraine, and they believed Iranians were on-site to help the Russians operate them. In February, the Biden administration considered releasing intelligence that showed China was supplying arms to Russia. Customs records obtained by Politico this summer show that China has shipped body armor and other military munitions to Russia. In May, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa accused the allegedly neutral country with supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia, via a sanctioned cargo ship it allowed to dock at a naval base near Cape Town in December. In September, the White House said North Korea and Russia were “actively advancing” arms negotiations, and satellite photos last week detected a near-quadrupling in rail traffic along the North Korea-Russia border. Even distant Cuba has gotten involved, smuggling hundreds of soldiers to fight in Russia’s war.

In addition to military assistance, American rivals on the world stage also cooperate economically. An organization of second-tier economic powers, known as BRICS (for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) will more than double its membership in January 2024 when it officially admits Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. The organization, which includes some of the largest economies in Africa, Asia, and South America, is actively discussing ways to move international trade away from the U.S. dollar and towards other national currencies. BRICS expansion is significant because it indicates that even U.S. military allies, like India, or economic partners, like Saudi Arabia, are increasingly willing to cooperate with adversaries the U.S. has tried to isolate.

Such interconnection in foreign policy is not a new development. Independent powers have combined into military coalitions since at least the time of Abraham (see Genesis 14:1-2). In the century between Napoleon and World War I (1814-1919), international politics particularly focused on the alliances between five to nine so-called “great powers,” which were ever-changing to maintain a precarious balance of power. This provoked a string of conflicts, culminating in two devastating world wars.

After World War II, only two great powers remained (the U.S. and the Soviet Union), which spearheaded two worldwide coalitions (countries not aligned with either side were dubbed the “third world”). Due to the invention of nuclear weapons, the two great powers did not risk an all-out war, but they still struggled together in an economic Cold War and a series of proxy wars over influence in other countries — Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Afghanistan.

When the Soviet Union collapsed after four decades, the U.S. found itself in the rare position of a global hegemon — a world power with no equal. The conflicts of this period — two Iraq wars, Afghanistan, Serbia — reflect America’s ability to go anywhere in the world and do whatever we wanted, always dealing with asymmetric opponents. In the early 2000s, President Bush could call out by name an “axis of evil,” consisting of three countries, for the whole world to shun.

But shifting alliances and changing power balances have changed the global situation once again. China’s decades-long buildup and Russia’s resurgence have placed the U.S. on the defensive in far-flung zones of influence. Part of this is from not recognizing the threat. America has largely let China’s military buildup and global friend-buying projects go unanswered, and the U.S. has become consumed with internal divisions, which other nations may have played a role in aggravating. We stopped playing the game, while everyone else was playing harder than ever.

Whatever the reason why a growing coalition of global adversaries is arrayed against America, a world in which the U.S. is not the all-dominant power is actually just a return to equilibrium, from a historical aberration. Most Americans today can’t remember anything different, but for most of history geopolitics has been a delicate balancing act, or very bloody. American ingenuity and freedoms can go a long way, at least with good leadership. But we can’t count on always being the unchallenged champion in an adversarial arena that incentivizes the rise of challengers — especially when those challengers can combine together.

The takeaway is that America cannot afford to view one hostile power or one national crisis in isolation. What is currently happening in Israel will affect the war in Ukraine, the security of Taiwan, and even the possibility of major terror strikes against American targets.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden’s Iran Envoy Robert Malley Helped Fund and Direct Iranian Intel Operation to Influence U.S. and Allies

What is the definition of “treason” again? Oh yeah, giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

High-Level Iranian Spy Ring Busted in Washington

by Lee Smith, Tablet, October 1, 2023:

The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.

On Thursday, Maier told a congressional committee that the Defense Department is “actively looking into whether all law and policy was properly followed in granting my chief of staff top secret special compartmented information.”

The emails, which were exchanged over a period of several years between Iranian regime diplomats and analysts, show that Tabatabai was part of a regime propaganda unit set up in 2014 by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) tasked operatives drawn from Iranian diaspora communities to promote Iranian interests during the clerical regime’s negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program. Though several of the IEI operatives and others named in the emails have sought to portray themselves on social media as having engaged with the regime in their capacity as academic experts, or in order to promote better understanding between the United States and Iran, none has questioned the veracity of the emails.

The contents of the emails are damning, showing a group of Iranian American academics being recruited by the Iranian regime, meeting together in foreign countries to receive instructions from top regime officials, and pledging their personal loyalty to the regime. They also show how these operatives used their Iranian heritage and Western academic positions to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, first as outside “experts” and then from high-level U.S. government posts. Both inside and outside of government, the efforts of members of this circle were repeatedly supported and advanced by Malley, who served as the U.S. government’s chief interlocutor with Iran under both the Obama and the Biden administrations. Malley is also the former head of the International Crisis Group (ICG), which directly paid and credentialed several key members of the regime’s influence operation….

Read more.

AUTHOR

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Chief of Staff of the Pentagon’s Counterterrorism Office Served Iranian Government

Senior adviser worked on secret Iranian government propaganda campaign.

In 2016, Ariane Tabatabai co-wrote an article arguing that the United States should ally with Iran against ISIS. The Iranian immigrant suggested the United States Air Force could “provide air cover for Iranian-backed militia” and “the US and Iran can share intelligence on targets”. Finally she warned that “excluding Iran, the region’s major Shia state, from the international coalition built to fight ISIS worsens the regional sectarian conflict, ultimately playing into ISIS’ hands.”

Tabatabai’s bio now describes her as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. Up from a Senior Advisor last year. The ASD(SO/LIC) office advises the Secretary of Defense on counterterrorism and it’s hard to think of a better place for a woman accused of being an Iran regime apologist to find herself in.

Almost as good as her former role representing the United States in the Iran negotiations.

In 2021, when the State Department had brought in Tabatabai as a senior adviser to the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, a congressional letter urged that her security clearance be pulled. The letter stated that Tabatabai “has echoed Iranian regime talking points and has made excuses for Iran’s oppressive government.

“Why would we hire someone… who has access and security clearance to some of the most sensitive and important issues there [and] who obviously has had a relationship with the administration in Iran?” Rep. Van Drew asked.

Biden’s State Department Spokesman Ned Price claimed that she “was thoroughly vetted and investigated before being granted the position. Any suggestion of security-related concerns about Dr. Tabatabai are baseless and illegitimate.” He fumed that, “we will not sit idly by as our employees—dedicated public servants—face personal smears and slander.”

Now a Semafor article by former Wall Street Journal chief correspondent Jay Solomon based on materials gathered by Iran International’s dissident media channel has revealed emails showing Tabatabai’s participation in a secret Iranian government to influence the United States.

In 2014, a year before Tabatabai began working as a NATO consultant, she joined an initiative by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to mobilize “Iranians who have established affiliations with the leading international think-tanks and academic institutions, mainly in Europe and the US.”

Tabatabai, along with Dina Esfandiary, her co-author on the proposal to have the United States ally with Iran, who is currently a senior Middle East advisor to George Soros’ Crisis Group, allegedly became members of the “core group” of Iran’s influence operation.

Before Tabatabai testified about the Iran Deal in Congress, she allegedly checked in with the head of an Iranian Foreign Ministry think tank. “I am scheduled to go to the Congress to give a talk about the nuclear program. I will bother you in the coming days,” she wrote.

In 2015, while Tabatabai was consulting for NATO, serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy’s Atom/International Security Program and teaching at Georgetown University, the Iranian government was bragging about her propaganda. Emails containing her articles were circulated from the Iranian Foreign Ministry operation all the way to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Ariane Tabatabai personally forwarded her propaganda articles, including one claiming that Iran really needs nuclear energy and doesn’t intend to use it as a weapon.

In one leaked message, Tabatabai emailed her handler her article, co-written again with Esfandiary, titled, “Meeting Iran’s nuclear fuel supply needs”. “Our goal was to show what is said in the West – that Iran does not need more than 1500 centrifuges – is wrong, and that Iran should not be expected to reduce the number of its centrifuges,” she allegedly told her handler.

Her handler then forwarded the email to Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif.

Before the Biden administration brought Tabatabai on board to negotiate with the Iranians, she was actually providing propaganda to bolster the nuclear arguments of Iran’s negotiators.

It’s unknown when Ariane Tabatabai stopped working with Iran’s government. Or if she ever did. The exact degree of entanglement is unclear, but Tabatabai asked for permission from her handlers before visiting or meeting foreigners which implies that she was working for Iran.

When Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal proposed having her visit Saudi Arabia, Tabatabai emailed her handler asking, “I would like to know your opinion; would you be interested in this?”

This is the language of an agent acting on behalf of an enemy nation and raises legal questions.

In 2018, she became a senior fellow at the liberal Center for a New American Security whose members typically staff incoming Democrat administrations. That same year she also joined RAND which acts as the think tank for the military. At that point it was virtually certain that the next Democrat administration would bring her into the State Department and on defense issues.

In 2021, Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran special envoy, currently under investigation for mishandling classified documents, who had turned over the negotiations to Iran lobbyists, brought Tabatabai into the negotiating team where she spent over a year before leaving over an undisclosed issue.

There were multiple red flags about her even before the release of the emails.

Iranian dissidents had repeatedly warned about her ties to the regime. And even her own article on Iran’s “counterterrorism” in which she claims that Iran is actually fighting against terrorists, draws on “several years of fieldwork in Iran, interviews with current and former officials”.

But the Biden administration chose to ignore those warnings and it has refused to address the emails, replying that it won’t comment on “purported leaked Iranian government documents.”

Even in the face of serious evidence that the State Department and the Department of Defense are employing an enemy government agent, the Biden administration is not backing down.

The speed with which Tabatabai, who had been living in Iran during the Ahmadinejad 2009 election, has been able to fully penetrate the highest echelons of our national defense in a little over a decade is a testament to the national security collapse within a disloyal bureaucracy.

Under the Obama administration allegiance to the Iran Deal came to matter more than allegiance to the United States. Anyone willing to argue, as Tabatabai was, that Iran was eager to make a deal and could be trusted to keep to its terms had a smooth glide path into the liberal defense establishment that was busy sidelining the ‘hawks’ skeptical of Iran’s intentions.

Churning out articles like “Why Regime Change in Iran Wouldn’t Work” and “Don’t Fear the Hard-Liners” didn’t make Ariane Tabatabai look like an Iranian government propagandist, but like an Obama administration propagandist. Even while the Obama administration was covertly investigating its political opponents for ties to Israel and Russia, it had so thoroughly blurred the lines that Iranian propagandists couldn’t be told apart from administration figures.

Under Biden, who was backed by Iran lobby figures and benefited from an Iranian hacking campaign, the two groups have blended together so much that they are indistinguishable.

Robert Malley was the prototype of figures like Ariane Tabatabai and others who are not merely anti-American in the traditional leftist fashion, but appear to have outright foreign allegiances. The Left, like most extremist movements, is no longer capable of making such distinctions. And neither is a government whose foreign policy ranks are being populated by Iran Deal advocates.

Tabatabai’s elevation to Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict show how deep the rot is in the Department of Defense. The DOD, entrusted with defending the nation, has allowed itself to be suborned into ignoring national security and its allegiances in order to do the bidding of the Biden administration.

Not just politics, but the most fundamental kind of national security, requires urgently cleaning house in the Pentagon. It’s either that or hand over control over our government to our enemies.

AUTHOR

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

Biden Regime Says Iran Won’t Able to Buy Weapons With $6,000,000,000 Ransom, Iran Says It Will

“Iran will have full and direct access to its released assets”

Tough question. Whom do you believe, the terrorists or their accomplices?

After announcing a $6 billion ransom for 5 hostages, the Biden administration is claiming that the money, stored in Qatar, an ally of Iran, will only be used for “humanitarian purposes”.

Iran is denying that.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the United States would have “full visibility” into where any released Iranian funds are directed and used. An estimated $6 billion in Iranian assets are now held in South Korea.

“Essentially, the funds can only be accessed for food, medicine, medical equipment that would not have a dual military use,” he said. “And there will be a rigorous process of due diligence and standards applied with input from the U.S. Treasury Department.”

I’m old enough that I remember when Kirby and the administration were promising the same thing in Afghanistan. Then the State Department decided it wouldn’t cooperate with the Afghanistan watchdog or let employees talk to investigators without a lawyer present.

So I’m sure we can trust these fine folks who have never blatantly lied to us before and never will again.

“This is a dishonest claim manufactured by bitter people. Iran will have full and direct access to its released assets, there will be no Qatari companies involved, Iranian banks will have full control, and they can purchase goods and services without any limitation or restriction,” a top advisor to the Iranian negotiating team tweeted.

No need to worry. Humanitarian aid never funds terrorism. Never, ever.

Between January 2012 and March 2018, USAID provided $2.6 billion in funding to public international organizations and an additional $2 billion to NGOs operating in Iraq and Syria. A partial audit by USAID’s Office of the Inspector General of funds given to public international organizations revealed that the agency provided nearly $700 million in awards without an adequate system in place to ensure that members of terrorist groups would not be beneficiaries. As of January 2018, official investigations resulted in the blacklisting of several dozen individuals and organizations and the suspension of at least $239 million in program funds in the region.

Other recipients of American funding have run into difficulty identifying groups with ties to barred terrorist organizations. When such instances come to light — like World Vision’s payment of $125,000 to the Islamic Relief Agency in Sudan, a group with alleged ties to al-Qaeda — publicly available details are often murky.

In August 2016, Israeli prosecutors charged a manager of World Vision’s Gaza branch for allegedly funneling $43 million in funding over a period of six years to Hamas’s military wing.

In 2010, the United Nations investigated the World Food Programme’s operations in Somalia following reports of corruption, piracy, and the diversion of food aid to al-Shabaab. The United Nations identified a food aid fraud scheme in which approximately 30 percent of food aid was diverted to local personnel employed by the World Food Programme, 10 percent went to the contracted ground transporter, and 5 to 10 percent went to al-Shabaab.

I’m sure the same “rigorous process of due diligence” used to release terrorists into the U.S. will be applied when it comes to sending money to an Islamic terrorist state through another Islamic terror state.

AUTHOR

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