Sic Semper Tyrannis

Venezuela - Bay of Pigs Redux?

In the Spring of 1961 a lightly armed group of Cuban exiles invaded the south coast of Cuba.  They had little air support and were dwarfed in number by the armed forces of revolutionary Cuba which when brought to bear at the site of the invasion quickly crushed them.  The members of the invading force were captured and imprisoned.  They were held for a time and then released to the US after prolonged negotiations.  Some of them were offered admission to the US armed forces and a number accepted.

The Eisenhower Administration had approved this project.  It was meant to overthrow the new  Communist government of Cuba. In 1960 when it became apparent that the Fidelistas were intent on allying themselves with the USSR Eisenhower decided to try to remove that government.  Before the intentions and true loyalties of the revolutionaries became clear the US government as well as most Americans had been romantically sympathetic to the notion of a tiny band of long exiled rebels having incited a country wide rebellion that overthrew the dastardly caudillo Fulgencio Batista from a base in the jungled mountains of eastern Cuba.  How grand, Robin Hoods with beards come to free the people!  Unfortunately for that view, the emerging Cuba/USSR alliance quickly showed that it would bear fruit in something really dangerous like the emplacement of Soviet IRBMs in Cuba in 1962.

In response to a perceived emerging threat Eisenhower authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion project in a presidential finding that was altogether legal under US law.  The laws in question were the 1947/1958 National Security Acts which allowed the president to order the CIA (not the armed forces) to carry out covert military actions of the Bay of Pigs variety.  The operation was planned by CIA in the expectation that the Cuban people, if given the inspiration of a Cuban manned invasion force, would rise and throw out the Communists.  The plan included stand-by US air support in case things got "sticky" after the landing.  On that basis the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave the CIA plan their blessing.

The new Kennedy Administration detested the Castro government and decided to continue invasion preparations with one critical emendation.  The open use of US air power to support the invasion was taken out of the plan.  The Camelot crew at the Kennedy White House did not realize how dangerous it was to remove that pillar of the plan.  No one bothered to inform the JCS that the plan had been changed.

In the event, the Cuban people did not rise to support the invasion, The Cuban armed forces crushed the effort and a key part of that success was the uncontested application of Cuban air attacks on the beachhead.

The whole thing had been a shoestring operation concocted by the militarily inept paramilitary section of the CIA run by former but failed junior military officers assisted by a few  sergeants borrowed from the active armed forces for this project.

I knew one such.  When I was in the 8th SFGA in the Panama Canal Zone I was for a time in the staff intelligence section of group headquarters.  The senior sergeant in the section was a master sergeant of Nicaraguan birth who had been borrowed by CIA to be the chief trainer of the paratroop component of the invasion force.  He trained these Cubans in Guatemala while posing as a retired US Army senior airborne officer and then sent them on their way to the Bay of Pigs while standing alongside the runway waving at each plane as it took off.

Does this sound fantastical and unlikely?  It does to me as well, but it was all true.  One day I was in the Ft. Gulick PX with Sergeant Gonzalo ------- when we were approached by a US Army captain who looked Gonzalo up and down and said "Colonel Jim!  You are a sergeant?"  He was amazed.  He was one of the Bay of Pigs prisoners who had been taken into the US Army after release from prison.  "Colonel Jim" had trained him and his comrades for war in Cuba.

The  analogy to whatever it is that the US has been covertly trying to do in Venezuela is obvious with some differences:

1.  There is no exile military force trained by the CIA for insertion as a rallying point for the the anti-Communist forces among the people and armed forces of Venezuela.

2.  There is no evidence that First in his Class and the Stache have persuaded the Commander in Chief to commit US military support in any way to the Venezuela project of regime change.  In the Bay of Pigs case the US military stood ready in the background to intervene if ordered to do so but were never so ordered.  That does not seem to be the case now.

3.  There is some evidence that most Latin American states would like to see regime change in Venezuela.  That was not true in 1961.

4.  There is no USSR.  The attempt to portray the Communist government of Venezuela as a Russian or Chinese bridgehead in the Western Hemisphere is just absurd.

My SWAG is that Maduro's troops and police will crush today's "revolt," arrest Guaido and his handful of military supporters and put them on trial. The US will do nothing but wring its hands in frustration. 

Remember - Analysis is not Advocacy.  I would love to see the Maduro government fall.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs

Fake News Media Suffers Body Blow on Case Linked to Seth Rich by Larry Johnson

A big, old, giant Sequoia has been knocked down in the mainstream media forest of lies and none of the fake news media are commenting on this development. Ok. Got your attention? I am referring to a defamation case that a Texas financial advisor brought against NPR reporter, David Folkenflik. The Judge in the case described it as:

This is an action for defamation, business disparagement, and civil conspiracy filed by Plaintiff Ed Butowsky (“Plaintiff” or “Butowsky”), a Dallas investment advisor, against National Public Radio, Inc. (“NPR”),1 its senior media correspondent, David Folkenflik (“Folkenflik”), and certain former and current executive editors at NPR.2 According to Plaintiff, the defendants published false and defamatory statements about Plaintiff online and via Twitter between August 2017 and March 2018 – statements Plaintiff alleges injured his business and reputation.

NPR and Folkenflik filed a motion to dismiss. The Judge said no. The case will go forward:

The Court, having carefully considered the relevant briefing and hearing arguments of counsel February 7, 2019, recommends the motion be DENIED.

Oh oh. NPR could be paying out some big dollar to Mr. Butowsky

Here's how the judge explained the critical facts:

Biden? Grandpa should not be president.

The received wisdom about Joe is that he is the ultimate nice man.  From personal experience with him I do not think so.

At his request I took an Arab client to see Biden in his offices in the senate and found that he bristled with hostility against the man before he had said a word about anything.  Biden was so clearly programmed by his staff handlers to be completely a Zionist asset and hostile to Arabs that what there was of his mind was completely unreachable.

On that occasion the Arab in my company was so bold as to express a hope that peace could be achieved through a two state solution.  Biden flew into a rage and yelled at him that if he did not admit that Arab intransigence was wholly responsible for Israel's problems, he would physically throw his visitor out of the offices.  Biden's staff handlers glowed with satisfaction.  It was clear that the staffies wanted to expose him to Middle Easterners from time to time for the purpose of keeping him focused on the issue.

I told Biden that the man was trying to be polite and compromising and he told me to shut up.  One of the staff whispered to him and he then thanked me for my service.  It was clear that they had him under excellent control.

A big problem with Uncle Joe is that he ain't too bright and that unfortunate fact is sadly apparent to all who deal with him.  His ridiculous public statements are legendary and caused not by clumsiness with language.  No.  They are caused by a basic lack of intelligence .

His habit of pawing at women, and children unlucky enough to be with him in public is also legendary.  The Democrat politico in Hawaii who complained about him experienced what can only be described as his normal mode of operation.  The occasion in which Jeff Sessions pushed Biden's hands away from a 12 year old girl is one of many similar spectacles available on the internet if you want to take the time to find it.  The picture at the head of this piece is animated.  Double click on it.

And then there was the Anita Hill hearing during Clarence Thomas's confirmation tot the Supreme Court.  I happened to be in the States at the time and watched the whole show on TeeVee.  It was evident that he was incapable of running the hearing in such a way as to be fair to either Thomas or Hill.  It was just sad.

If the Democrats nominate this nasty chump for president they will deserve what they get, and he will probably lose.  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden

Open Thread 26 April 2019

pl

Analysis is not advocacy. The Lebanese should understand that truth.

(This is ONE B-52 plane load)

"Analysis is not advocacy."

How many times have I written that on SST?

Unless you want to live in fantasy you must have the ability to think outside the box created by what you want rather than what is or is likely to be.

The Israelis live in such a box.  In their box the world is filled with gentile monsters who must be dominated and manipulated.  The manipulation part of that illusion is reinforced in their minds by their incredible success in forming public opinion in the US.

The Lebanese live in a different box in which they, in their collective mind's eye, are far more important to the rest of the world than they really are.  A Lebanese I knew well often told other Lebanese that their mistake was in thinking that Bill and Hillary woke up every morning and asked each other " I wonder what is happening in Beirut today?"  The truth is that Lebanon is only important to the Lebanese and that has always been true.  It is particularly true now in the age of neo-neocon domination of US foreign policy.  The cartoon like simplicity with which Bolton, Pompeo and Trump misunderstand realities on the ground in places like Lebanon is striking.

In service to Israeli ambitions for hegemony throughout the ME, these people have no interest whatever in the welfare of the Lebanese.  In particular they are incapable of seeing Hizbullah as anything like an integral part of Lebanese society.  No, they see these Lebanese Shia as nothing more than a threat to Israel.  As I have pointed out, war against Hizbullah is already authorized under American law by their designation as a terrorist group and the AUMF against terrorism.

The Lebanese in Lebanon should understand that US Embassy Beirut has no policy influence in Washington.  None!  The true believer neo-neocons have no interest whatever in the opinions of State Department career bureaucrats who usually do not share their imperialist faith in the global destiny and mission of the US.  Remember that truth when you are tempted to shower praise and attention on the inhabitants of Fort America in east Beirut.  They are in exile among you.

Does any of this mean that I favor the aggressive and disrespectful bullying that emanates from Washington in the era of the neo-neocons?  It does not, but I can recognize reality and this attitude toward Lebanon is real and must be recognized.  The neo-neocons would not shrink from devastating southern Lebanon in order to wreck Hizbullah.  pl 

The Collapse of Deterrence with Iran by Christopher J. Bolan

Earlier this month, the U.S. administration announced its decision to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).  Just this week, the Trump administration said that it will no longer exempt any country from U.S. sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil.  These moves are justifiably sparking renewed debate about U.S. strategy for Iran. 

The White House portrays these steps as a natural progression in its ‘maximum pressure’ campaign to deprive Iran of “funds that it has used to destabilize the Middle East for decades.”

The reaction among policy pundits has been mixed but imminently predictable.  Supporters of regime change in Iran, like Mark Dubowitz at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, have long pushed for such moves.  On the opposing side, advocates of rapprochement such as Trita Parsi have sounded alarmist assessments indicating that the IRGC designation alone represents a dangerous escalation that might well lead to war.  Still others see the combination of the IRGC designation and the imposition of crippling new sanctions as part of an orchestrated public information campaign to build a U.S. case for war against Iran. 

Meanwhile, others in the analytical community including Suzanne Maloney at Brookings have characterized the IRGC designation as an action that will ultimately prove to be of little consequence.  Similarly, while the threat of additional U.S. sanctions on countries importing Iranian oil have already predictably led to a short-term increase in oil prices, some oil analysts have suggested that the U.S. drive to get Iranian oil exports to zero will ultimately fail and characterize such policies as more “feel-good rather than strategy-driven.”

Whichever side of this debate you find yourself, it is imperative to recognize that – whether by happenstance or design – these steps are dangerously degrading the pillars of a successful U.S. deterrence strategy against Iran. 

Random Tuesday thoughts- 23 april 2019

• Marcus, my avatar and muse seems in good voice today.  This reminds me of the scene in "Tears of the Sun" in which the column passes under a jungle tree limb on which sits a magnificent male mandrill.  I have seen many baboons but, alas, never a mandrill.
• Bernie Sanders says that Bibi is a racist and that the US should treat the Palestinians as though they were equally human in their captive nation plight.  Heavens!  Such statements will never do!  Perhaps he should be de-circumcised, or at least deprived of any support from the righteous.
• The US government, having failed thus far to uproot Hizbullah from its home territory in Lebanon now proposes a reward for suggestions as to how to accomplish this.  The Israelis want Hizbullah, a Lebanese Shia movement, army and political party to be gone but are at a loss as to how to achieve that goal.  The IDF ground forces got a bloody nose in 2006 when the Gucci generation of Israeli conscripts were sent to fight in the Tabbouleh Line complex of fortified villages, tank traps and canalized killing zones.  They do not want to do that again, but the tens of thousands of Hizbullah missiles and artillery rockets that threaten Israeli counter-value targets (towns) are a true strategic threat for which the IDF has no solution.  Well pilgrims, Occam's Razor provides the only viable (irony) answer to the problem.  This would be a heavy bomber stream provided by USAF proceeding to devastate a strip of south Lebanon  for the purpose of eradicating Hizbullah.  What would this suggestion be worth in dollars to some think tank like RAND or IDA?
• I suspect that what Trump wishes to conceal in his financial records and tax returns is that he is nothing like as rich as he pretends to be.  One of the elements of the psychology of entrepreneurial hustlers like him is a relentless need to exaggerate his own importance and to puff himself up and preen like a tropical bird in mating season.  He is probably cash poor.
  
• The Democrats surely know that they have zero chance of impeaching Trump before 2020.  Only dimwits and fanatics can think otherwise.  No, what they are aiming for in their campaign of harassment is to diminish the man enough in the public mind to beat him in that election.  This tactic may well backfire on them.  They look incredibly petty in doing this.
• The Sri Lanka jihadi attacks on Easter Sunday are not something that should surprise.  The jihadis see themselves as waging war against Christianity.  They foolishly hope to break the will of Christian believers.  What better place to find Christian believers than at Easter services?  Expect more of the same.
• I have asked TTG to keep track of the emerging desperation of Pompeo/Bolton in their hostility to Iran.
• French anti-clericalism has been a major theme in their history since the Revolution.  It used to be a feature distinguishing those devoted to Republicanism, but that, thankfully, is gone.  There are not many monarchists in France these days.  The time when the Vendee rebellion of Catholics against the revolutionaries is gone as is the event in which General Thiers broke the back of the Communards by shooting tens of thousand of them in 1871.  A coalition of leftist political parties gained power in France in 1905 and produced a law that confiscated much Church property including Notre Dame and exiled all religious orders (Jesuits, etc) from the country for a time.  Sine that time the country and the government have been relentlessly secular.   Secularism is a feature of the national curriculum in the public schools. Notre Dame is viewed solely as a cultural monument and tourist attraction by the French government.  Should they leave it in ruins?
  
• My genealogist wife tell me that a question regarding citizenship has been historically frequent in US census taking.
• My eldest dog, Lola the Magnificent, A Norwich Terrier bitch, is almost 16  years old.  She went through a bad patch yesterday.  She went comatose for four hours and then suddenly woke up, walked around the TeeVee room and then peed in the middle of a 120 year old Kazak Caucasian Soumak rug.  She is bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.  She gobbled up her breakfast and went for a stroll around the landscaped back garden in a survey of her domain.   Ah, well, rugs can be cleaned and I like her better than the rug.  She is pretty frisky today.  pl

The theme song of the New Democratic Party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

Be happy!  pl

RSS feed

I received a query from a correspondent about problems with the RSS feed from SST.  I contacted Typepad and got the following response:

"Thank you for reaching out to us. I would be happy to help. First, we want to make sure they are using the correct RSS Feed. We recently updated to include an SSL certificate and if they are using the feed URL without that may be the issue.

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/atom.xml

If they are still having issues, we can work directly with the reader.

Have them email us at [email protected]. Have them include this ticket number (6J76DRXZFA2F) so we can connect it to your account."  pl

Levin on Mueller

"“There’s no collusion, says the Special Counsel. That takes one sentence. It doesn’t take 200 damn pages. It doesn’t take $35 million dollars,” Levin said, referring to Vol. 2 of the report.

Despite the Democrats warning of a "Saturday Night Massacre" like President Nixon during Watergate, President Trump never asserted executive privilege to prevent documents or people around him from talking to Mueller. He was an open book," Levin argued."  Levin

---------------

 

This is entertaining stuff.

 

Mark Levin, the ranter, looks to be approaching apoplexy in parts of this peroration on the dastardly natures of the Mueller Report and its principal author.

 

I find it hard to disagree with his points even though he bears a disturbing physical resemblance to "Chuck," the NY State Attorney General character now played by Paul Giamatti on the excellent TeeVee series "Billions."  One can only hope that Levin does not share poor "Chuck's" need for masochistic relief from the pressures of the empowered life.

 

This is fun.  You will enjoy.  I can hardly wait for Mueller's inevitable testimony before the House and Senate Judiciary committees. 

 

pl

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mark-levin-on-the-greatest-scandal-in-american-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Levin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billions_(TV_series)

Mueller's Lies About George Papadopolous by Larry C Johnson

This article provides a comprehensive presentation of facts and an analysis that demonstrates the disengenuity and dishonestly of the Mueller Report with respect to George Papadopolous.

The Papadopolous saga begins on page 1 on of the Mueller report:

In late July 2016, soon after WikiLeaks's first release of stolen documents, a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.

The claim that Papadopoulos had information from a source representing Russia is demonstrably false. As I noted in my previous article, Special Counsel Mueller--Disingenuous and Dishonest, the FBI was going after the Trump team as early as September 2015. Let’s take a look at George Papadopolous’ account: ( The following are excerpts from: George Papadopolous. “Deep State Target.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/deep-state-target/id1446495998)

Salvator Mundi

Special Counsel Mueller--Disingenuous and Dishonest by Larry C Johnson

While President Trump is correct to celebrate the Mueller Report’s conclusion that no one on Trump’s side of the ledger attempted to or succeeded in collaborating or colluding with the Russian Government or Russian spies, there remains a dark cloud behind the silver lining. And I am not referring to the claims of alleged obstruction of justice.  A careful reading of the report reveals that Mueller has issued findings that are both disingenuous and dishonest. The report is a failed hatchet job. Part of the failure can be attributed to the amount of material that Attorney General Barr allowed to be released. It appears that Bill Barr's light editing may have been intended to expose the bias and sloppiness of Mueller and his team.

Let us start with the case of trying to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. If you were to believe that the Steele Dossier accurately reported Vladimir Putin's attitude towards Trump, then a Trump real estate deal in Moscow was a slam dunk. According to one of Steele's breathless reports:

 

The Kremlin's cultivation operation on TRUMP also had comprised offering him various lucrative real estate development business deals in Russia, especially in  relation  to  the  ongoing  2018 World Cup soccer tournament. How ever, so far, for reasons unknown, TRUMP had not taken up any of these.

 

Then there is reality. The impetus, the encouragement for the Moscow project came from one man--Felix Sater. 

 

In the late summer of2015, the Trump Organization received a new inquiry about pursuing a Trump Tower project in Moscow. In approximately September 2015, Felix Sater . . . contacted Cohen on behalf of I.C. Expert Investment Company (I.C. Expert), a Russian real-estate development corporation controlled by Andrei Vladimirovich Rozov.J07 Sater had known Rozov since approximately 2007 and, in 2014, had served as an agent on behalf of Rozov during Rozov's purchase of a building in New York City.30S Sater later contacted Rozov and proposed that I.C. Expert pursue a Trump Tower Moscow project in which I.C. Expert would license the name and brand from the Trump Organization but construct the building on its own. Sater worked on the deal with Rozov and another employee of I.C. Expert. (see page 69 of the Mueller Report).

 

To reiterate--if the Steele Dossier was based on truthful intelligence then the Trump organization only had to sit back, stretch out their hands and seize the moment. Instead, little Felix Sater keeps coming back to the well. In January 2016, according to the Mueller report, 

 

Sater then sent a draft invitation for Cohen to visit Moscow to discuss the Trump Moscow project,along with a note to "[t]ell me if the letter is good as amended by me or  make whatever changes you want and send it back to me."

 

After a further round of edits, on January 25, 2016, Sater sent Cohen an invitation- signed by Andrey Ryabinskiy of the company MHJ-to travel to"Moscow for a working visit" about the "prospects of development and the construction business in Russia," "the various land plots available suited for construction of this enormous Tower," and "the opportunity to co-ordinate a follow up visit to Moscow by Mr. Donald Trump. .

 

This produced nothing. No deal, no trip. But Sater persisted:

 

Yemen Situation Report

by Willy B

President Trump’s April 17 veto of the Congressional resolution calling for the ending of US support to the Saudi war in Yemen, it seems, won‛t end the conflict in that country, regardless of what side you’re on. Trump claimed that the US has a "duty to protect the safety of the more than 80,000 Americans who reside in certain coalition countries that have been subject to Houthi attacks from Yemen.” He gave Saudi Arabia as one example where he said the “Houthis, supported by Iran, have used missiles, armed drones, and explosive boats to attack civilian and military targets in those coalition countries.” Never mind that the Houthi rocket attacks are solely a response to the unrelenting Saudi bombing campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and wrecked Yemen‛s ability to feed itself.

A collapse in the House of Bolton?

"The Baghdad Summit is scheduled to take place on April 20th with several Middle Eastern countries set to participate in this conference organized by Iraq.

The list of countries participating in the Baghdad Summit are as followed: Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and Syria."  AMN and Reuters

------------

Unless I am seriously mistaken, this meeting is a major setback for the John Bolton view of "the direction" of history in the ME.  These countries are supposed to be obeying Bolton's rules of international order in which peoples and governments are easily manipulated through intimidation and/or bribes to line up neatly into blocs that are on one side stooges of the US and on the other implacable and deadly enemies who must be pursued across all the world's oceans until they "spout black blood and roll fin out."  They can then be added to the US controlled blocs.

Perhaps I have missed something here but these folks do not appear to be playing their assigned roles.  pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/iran-turkey-syria-saudi-arabia-set-to-meet-for-first-time-at-baghdad-summit/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-parliament/iraq-to-host-regional-rivals-iran-and-saudi-arabia-at-conference-idUSKCN1RW08B

Red Gelatin Salad Night By Richard Sale

          Ben Falls, 36, had been administrator of the prison's Diagnostic and Receiving Center since last August. “It was the opinion of the prison administration and the Department of Corrections that a qualified person was needed for the position,” and Ben got the job. He was good at it.

          One early Monday morning, he was talking to his inmate clerk, Jute, who was doing time for embezzlement.

          Atop a gray metal desk, a boxy radio was blaring. A wiry, dark-haired man, balding and undersized, sat in Ben’s chair, his cheek bulging out as he ate. He chewed happily in time to the music.

          Ben Falls opened the door. His red face was moist with sweat.

          “Hey – Sparky,” Jute sang out happily, chewing. When he saw his boss, he stood up in haste, brushing off crumbs. “Could you turn that down, please?” Ben said coldly.

          Jute looked like a startled raccoon caught rummaging in the trash. “Thought you were Sparky.” He moved quickly to quell the concert.

          As the prison psychologist, Ben Falls was known as a man who would listen before he would judge. Custody officers saw the convicts as the most depraved, vice-hardened and desperate set of men ever to disgrace the face of the Earth, but to Ben the inmates were human beings pretty much like himself, and he took their side against custody.

          There were exceptions – there were murderers who would kill you if they chose to. He knew that there was a small hard core among the inmates who were sullen, ignorant and even fanatical, but the majority were simply ordinary people who had made bad mistakes. His goal was to help them regain their lives, and he deeply cared for their welfare. As a result he was widely popular with them. Therefore, his inmate clerk enjoyed a certain esteem and prestige. More importantly, the two men had liked each other from the first, and a strong, affectionate respect had grown between them, even though, according to prison rules, Jute was required to address his boss as “Mr. Falls.”

The FBI Tried and Failed to Entrap Trump by Larry C Johnson

The Mueller Report is damning of the FBI and reveals circumstantial evidence that the FBI was engaged actively as early as September 2015 in trying to entrap Donald Trump in a web of Russian conspiracy. Let's go to the report and you can read the evidence yourself.

In the late summer of 2015, the Trump Organization received a new inquiry about pursuing a Trump Tower project in Moscow. In approximately September 2015, Felix Sater, a New York based real estate advisor, contacted Michael Cohen, then-executive vice president of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Donald J. Trump. Sater had previously worked with the Trump Organization and advised it on a number of domestic and international projects. Sater had explored the possibility of a Trump Tower project in Moscow while working with the Trump Organization and therefore knew of the organization 's general interest in completing a deal there.  Sater had also served as an informal agent of the Trump Organization in Moscow previously and had accompanied Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to Moscow in the mid-2000s.

Sater contacted Cohen on behalf of I.C. Expert Investment Company (I.C. Expert), a Russian real-estate development corporation controlled by Andrei Vladimirovich Rozov. Sater had known Rozov since approximately 2007 and, in 2014, had served as an agent on behalf of Rozov during Rozov's purchase of a building in New York City. Sater later contacted Rozov and proposed that I.C. Expert pursue a Trump Tower Moscow project in which I.C. Expert would license the name and brand from the Trump Organization but construct the building on its own. Sater worked on the deal with Rozov and another employee of I.C. Expert.

Cohen was the only Trump Organization representative to negotiate directly with I.C. Expert or its agents.

Please pay attention. It was not Trump that directed Felix Sater to go get a deal in Russia. IT WAS SATER BRINGING THE DEAL (or trying to) to Donald Trump. A key fact not included in this paragraph was the fact--yes, established fact--that Sater was a fully signed up FBI informant. He helped the FBI make multiple cases against the Russian mob and Russian spies. Please go back and re-read the pieces I wrote on Sater:

Should the resolution on Yemen under section 1544(c) of the War Powers law be faithfully executed by the president rather than be subject to a veto?

By Robert Willmann

On 4 April 2019, Congress passed a resolution under the War Powers Act, officially known as the War Powers Resolution, Public Law 93-148, to stop most operations by U.S. Armed Forces in Yemen.  This was noted here on SST [1].  On 16 April, president Trump vetoed the resolution, which was Senate Joint Resolution 7 (S.J.Res. 7)--

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-veto-message-senate-accompany-s-j-res-7/

The section of the War Powers Resolution/Act applied in this instance is section 1544(c), "Concurrent resolution for removal by president of United States Armed Forces" [2]--

"(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution."

The War Powers law was passed during the time of the Vietnam War to try to give Congress more specific control over actions amounting to war because the Vietnam conflict was not conducted pursuant to a declaration of war by Congress under Article 1, section 8 of the constitution.  President Richard Nixon vetoed the bill, arguing that Congress could use its power to appropriate money and stop funding the war.  However, Congress overrode his veto by at least a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, and the War Powers Resolution became law on 7 November 1973. 

 

New VIPS Memo

Those of us who lived thru the Cold War are old enough and remember that Russia and the former Soviet Union have always "meddled" in US elections. And here is a shocker--the United States also meddled in Russia's/Soviet Union's internal affairs. Grow up. The question that should be asked, but is ignored, is whether Russia did something so quantitatively and qualitatively differente in 2016 that something extraordinary and unprecedented happened. The answer is simple--NO!!!

We need to acknowledge that there are a host of very positive reasons we should be engaging Russia. For the love of God, we are continuing to cooperate with the Russians to get our astronauts to and from the International Space Station.The Russians, whether we want to admit it or not, have saved our ass in Syria and played a decisive role in defeating ISIS. Stop acting like petulant children. Russia is not our main enemy.

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: The Fly in the Mueller Ointment

April 16, 2019

Mr. President:

The song has ended but the melody lingers on. The expected release Thursday of the redacted text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” will nudge the American people a tad closer to the truth on so-called “Russiagate.”

Sacred Places - TTG

I experienced a strange coincidence on the day of the fire at Notre Dame. The air was cool and the sun was bright so I decided to decided to venture into the small patch of woods behind my house. From my gazebo I could see that the mayapples were out and I wanted to take a closer look. I came upon a spot barely twenty meters behind my garden shed and a feeling came over me of entering a sacred space. There was nothing spectacular or particularly notable about this spot, but the spirits of the forest and my God spoke to me in harmony. This harmony may seem odd to most, but it is quite natural among many of Lithuanian descent. We were the last pagans of Europe becoming Christianized only late in the 14th century. Among the peasantry, the old ways held sway much longer. Some of us never fully abandoned the old ways. The forest spirits are as real as the saints and the Holy Trinity.

   

My minor forest cathedral brought forth this harmony and that gave me great peace. The mayapples were up, but not yet in bloom. The fiddleheads of the Christmas ferns were rising from the fallen fronds of last year, how appropriate for both Spring and Easter. The forest floor was carpeted with a small white flower which I have not yet identified. The small flowers were accented by subtle and beautiful rose colored lines. I meditated upon their beauty. The taller trees have only just started to leaf out allowing the perfect sunlight to bathe the forest floor. Such beauty and tranquility. Feeling rejuvenated, I returned home. 

A few hours later I watched the news of the fire at Notre Dame. I experience the same shock and feeling of loss as most, although certainly not to the same extent as many. I thought back to my lone visit to that cathedral back in 1982. As I climbed the spiral stone steps to the bell tower I remember feeling like Quasimodo. I was impressed by such an ancient and sacred place. Even then I thought back to an ancient and sacred place of my youth. There was a massive boulder, a glacial erratic, deposited on the crest of a ridge by the last retreating glacier very close to my Connecticut home. I would often make the pilgrimage to this boulder, climb to the top and contemplate its frozen journey from far to the north. I felt the same miraculous sense of awe meditating in that sacred place as I did serving mass with Father O’Dea as he consecrated the Host. Somehow I reconciled this duality of faith. I still do.

TTG     

HARPER: RUSSIAGATERS IN IG CROSSHAIRS

With all the attention focused on tomorrow's release of the redacted version of the Mueller final report, more attention should be directed at the upcoming report of Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, who is looking into misconduct by those who foisted the Russiagate/Trump collusion tale.  In recent meeting with two House Republican allies of Trump--Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows--Horowitz indicated that he would be making criminal referrals, presumably against FBI and DOJ officials.

While criminal referrals from Congress are often ignored at the DOJ, referrals from the Department's own Inspector General can hardly be ignored altogether.  I anticipate that the release of the Horowitz report, expected in four-to-six weeks will be a bombshell.

Cleanout of the corrupt, inept and ultra-partisan elements of the FBI and DOJ is long, long overdue.  Horowitz is respected for his professionalism.  He nailed the bias by some of the FBI and DOJ people who totally blew it in the Hillary Clinton email probe.

It may take years--perhaps a generation--to do a genuine house cleaning at the FBI and DOJ.  But look for Horowitz to move that process ahead.  Much more worthwhile reading than the Mueller report when it is released.

Ave Maria

"A gutted roof, blackened stone and a gaping hole where the spire once stood.

The scale of the damage caused by a devastating fire that tore through Notre Dame cathedral on Monday has been revealed by dramatic images shot from a drone above the 850-year-old church.

The pictures, taken by Lana Sator, show the interior of the medieval Catholic church exposed to the elements, and the impact caused by the dramatic collapse of the structure's spire.

French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to rebuild the cathedral, one of Paris' most-famous landmarks."  CNN

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The miracle of what remains is astonishing.  Those who criticize les pompiers de Paris are just bitching against brave men and women who did their best.

The flying buttresses held under all that pressure from heat and stone expansion.  What a marvelous thing!  The Rose windows survived!  Another miracle!

And then there was the hero priest, the chaplain of the firemen, who led some of his flock into the burning medieval building with tons of dried wood above them to save holy relics but most importantly for them the consecrated Host from the altar.  We Catholics believe that the consecrated Host is the actual Body of Christ transformed at the Consecration through trans-substantiation.  To die in the attempt to save that was surely to be saved.

And then there was the spectacle of so many young French people gathered in the streets to mourn and sing the praises of Jesus' mother for whom the cathedral is named.

This was nothing like defeat for France and her remaining Christian people. No, it was a moment of renewed hope.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/world/gallery/notre-dame-aerials-intl/index.html

The Lost Comments

For those suffering from Lost Disqus Comments Anxiety (LDCA), I will write again that I have arranged with Disqus for them to send me a message containing all those comments.  It is queued up and when I receive it, I will do something to make them available on SST.  Bless your hearts.  pl

Targeting Hizbullah - TTG

Last week Colonel Lang told us of the latest Middle Eastern goofiness of the Trump administration focusing on our declaring the IRGC a terrorist organization and Pompeo’s truly zany effort to turn the Lebanese government against Hizbullah. If not for the deadly seriousness of the potential consequences, our efforts to reshape the Middle East would be fodder for several Monty Python skits.

Why are we doing this? Well, there is the longstanding neocon addiction to treating the entire world as our personal plaything. There is also the unhealthy hold the Israelis and Saudis have on our body politic. Reinforcing this hold is the drive to hasten the rapture among large segments of the American evangelical community. I don’t think I’m alone in seeing this as a dangerous situation.

Pompeo’s latest buffoonery lead Colonel Lang and myself to wonder if the US and Israel are planning to take out the Hizbullah missile threat. That Hizhullah threat remains a knife in the heart of Israel’s myth of invulnerability. This threat is discussed in a JINSA opinion piece that appeared last month in “The Hill.” The JINSA piece called for US sanctions against Hizbullah-controlled Lebanese ministries. We’ll see if the US tries this approach now that Pompeo’s effort to convince Michel Aoun to turn his back on Hizbullah ended in abject failure. I’m sure the Pentagon has developed plans to attack Hizbullah’s missile arsenal. The Pentagon has plans foreverything. I’m also pretty damned sure these plans depend on first goading Hizbullah and/or the IRGC into providing a pretense for such an attack. Good luck with that. Not only are Hizbullah and the IRGC extraordinarily disciplined, but they also have non-kinetic ways of reacting to Western goading.   

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Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah slammed the U.S. decision to designate the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, saying that Washington’s “audacity and folly” went beyond limits. “Blacklisting the IRGC is an evidence that it is strong and not weak and this is an expected move by the Great Satan,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech commemorating the day of “Resistance Wounded Fighters” on April 10.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. has blacklisted the IRGC, citing alleged terrorist activists by the Iranian group as a reason. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council retaliated to Washington’s decision by labeling the U.S. Army military as terrorist organization.

Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah and its allies from the so-called “axis of resistance” will not continue to deal with the U.S. hostile moves with “condemnation, denouncement and patience.” The Lebanese leader said the axis has other options on all battlefields. “Our choices are open but we will act calmly, with a cool head and at the right time, in all battlefields and arenas,” said Nasrallah.

The Hezbollah leader’s warning confirms the fears of some U.S. officials, who had warned that designating the IRGC as a terrorist group could endanger U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East. Despite this some experts openly state that the administration of US President Donald Trump is moving towards an escalation scenario because it contributes to its current political interests.  (South Front)

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I’m sure Nasrallah’s mention of “all battlefields and arenas” goes far beyond a targeting of US troops in the region. That would be unimaginative and exactly what the neocons desire. The old quote is “living well is the best revenge.” I think that’s the plan. “South Front” says that a strategic cooperation among Iran, Iraq and Syria on various projects is a nightmare for the US and Israel. Baghdad and Damascus will soon open the al Qaim crossing and, along with Tehran, plan on linking their national railways. China is interested in joining this as an extension of their One Belt, One Road initiative. Russia plans to assist Lebanon in the development of her offshore oil and gas fields. Of immediate importance Russia is moving to help resettle the 1.5 million Syrian refugees now living in Lebanon. That’s 1.5 million in a country with a population of six million. Now that’s a refugee crisis. This is of critical importance since Aoun has no intention of assimilating those refugees into Lebanese society given recent history and the nature of Lebanon’s political system.

Would Russia extend her defensive umbrella to include Lebanon if we attacked Hizbullah? Perhaps, but only reluctantly. Russia does not want a wider war. Syria, however, may be more ready to assist if needed. She owes Hizbollah. Even if Russia is reluctant to launch missiles against US and Israeli aircraft, she may be far less reluctant to employing her formidable radio-electronic combat capabilities. That alone could blunt the effectiveness of an attack on Hizbullah facilities.

In short, I feel an effective US-Israeli attack on Hizbullah missile forces is a pipe dream. Hizbullah won’t be goaded and Russian-Syrian aid, even limited aid, could make such an attack ineffective. Unfortunately, I don’t have confidence in the Trump administration’s ability to grasp this reasoning. 

TTG 

https://southfront.org/nasrallah-slams-u-s-blacklisting-of-irgc-says-washington-moves-will-not-remain-without-a-response/

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/435014-us-should-sanction-hezbollah-controlled-govts-to-counter

https://southfront.org/us-and-israel-nightmare-scenario-iraq-syria-iran-restart-their-strategic-cooperation-projects/

Open Thread 15 April 2019

pl

al-Sisi is evidently not impressed with Trump

"The reasons behind the decision, according to the sources, is that Egypt doesn’t wish to harm its relations with Iran, as well as it doesn’t believe that US President Donald Trump would be elected for a second term. If Trump is gone that jeopardizes the entire “Arab NATO” idea since the next POTUS may decide not to follow through.

On April 9^th, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi visited the US and met with Donald Trump. Trump said that they spoke of security issues, but neither the Arab NATO nor Iran were mentioned in the press conference following the meeting.

Both leaders praised the warm relations between the countries, which could presumably be spoiled if the reports of Egypt giving up efforts are true.

In addition to the US and Saudi Arabia, the MESA proposed participants include the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Jordan.

Two anonymous sources also told Al Jazeera that the project would be moving forward and that Egypt would be pressured into not revoking its membership. The project was initially proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2017, and was perpetuated by US President Donald Trump.."  SF and al jazeera

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It surprises me that Egypt has rather brazenly walked away from the Boltonesque fantasy of an "Arab NATO."  I would have thought that the paychecks Egypt receives every year from the American taxpayer and the Saudis would have kept Sisi in line, but apparently  the prospect of other sources of funding affected the decision to defy the Amiirkaan.

With the exception of Jordan's small but competent armed forces, Egypt is the only  country among the members that possesses significant military power,  The armed forces of the other countries are mere playthings for princes.  Egypt's withdrawal from this alliance makes the farcical nature of the plan quite clear.

This is a humiliation for the US in that it demonstrates the waning power and influence of the US in the region and most especially of Donald Trump who has demonstrated his indifference to the interests of the Arabs in repeated slavish support of Israel against the Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians.  pl

https://southfront.org/egypt-pulled-out-of-u-s-efforts-to-form-arab-nato-to-combat-iran-reports/

Musk does it again. Bravo!

"Payload fairings are the nose cones that surround and protect satellites during launch. SpaceX has yet to re-fly any fairings, but doing so has always been part of the plan. The company outfits each fairing half with an avionics system and thrusters, which it uses to steer itself to a soft, parachute-aided ocean splashdown. 

SpaceX has gone to such trouble because fairings are expensive and therefore worth reusing. Each one costs $6 million, Musk has said — about 10% of the cost of a launch of one of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rockets. (The two-stage Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy use the same payload fairing. The Heavy is basically three modified Falcon 9 first stages strapped together; the central booster is topped with a single-engine second stage and the payload.)

Yesterday's recovered payload fairing will be reassigned to a launch for Starlink, Musk added. That program is SpaceX's huge internet-satellite constellation, which will ultimately consist of thousands of spacecraft. The first operational Starlink launch is planned for next month; it will lift off atop a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

It's unclear if the recovered fairing will top that Falcon 9; Musk didn't specify which Starlink mission the hardware will fly on."

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Yet another major step in the reduction of spaceflight costs.  pl

https://www.space.com/spacex-reuse-payload-fairing-starlink-launch.html

Disqus

I am thinking of disabling Disqus on SST.  Many commenters here find them difficult to deal with and lately they have stopped posting approved comments on some basis that is obscure.  Disabling the service will cause some loss of posted comments, but it may be worth it.  Opinions?  pl

Falcon Heavy landed all three boosters last night

Mission Arabsat 6A carried  a major communications satellite into a high geosynchronous orbit last night.  This bird will provide service all over the Arab World and East Africa.  This was a commercially funded mission.  Watch the tape.  Enjoy.  pl

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/11/livestream-watch-spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-and-landing.html

" ... Six US Agencies Conspired ..."

"Here is what we now know, per intelligence gleaned form federal law enforcement sources with insider knowledge of what amounts to a plot by U.S. intelligence agencies to secure back door and illegal wiretaps of President Trump’s associates:

• Six U.S. agencies created a stealth task force, spearhead by CIA’s Brennan, to run domestic surveillance on Trump associates and possibly Trump himself.
• To feign ignorance and to seemingly operate within U.S. laws, the agencies freelanced the wiretapping of Trump associates to the British spy agency GCHQ.
• The decision to insert GCHQ as a back door to eavesdrop was sparked by the denial of two FISA Court warrant applications filed by the FBI to seek wiretaps of Trump associates.
• GCHQ did not work from London or the UK. In fact the spy agency worked from NSA’s headquarters in Fort Meade, MD with direct NSA supervision and guidance to conduct sweeping surveillance on Trump associates.
• The illegal wiretaps were initiated months before the controversial Trump dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
• The Justice Department and FBI set up the meeting at Trump Tower between Trump Jr., Manafort and Kushner with controversial Russian officials to make Trump’s associates appear compromised.
• Following the Trump Tower sit down, GCHQ began digitally wiretapping Manafort, Trump Jr., and Kushner.
• After the concocted meeting by the Deep State, the British spy agency could officially justify wiretapping Trump associates as an intelligence front for NSA because the Russian lawyer at the meeting Natalia Veselnitskaya was considered an international security risk and prior to the June sit down was not even allowed entry into the United States or the UK, federal sources said.
• By using GCHQ, the NSA and its intelligence partners had carved out a loophole to wiretap Trump without a warrant. While it is illegal for U.S. agencies to monitor phones and emails of U.S. citizens inside the United States absent a warrant, it is not illegal for British intelligence to do so. Even if the GCHQ was tapping Trump on U.S. soil at Fort Meade.
• The wiretaps, secured through illicit scheming, have been used by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election, even though the evidence is considered “poisoned fruit.”

Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who spearheaded the Trump Tower meeting with the Trump campaign trio, was previously barred from entering the United Sates due to her alleged connections to the Russian FSB (the modern replacement of the cold-war-era KGB)"  True Pundit.

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Someone left this link in a comment to LJ, but as  ringmaster of this circus, I choose to publish this as the best summary of all the threads of the supposed conspiracy that I have seen thus far.  pl

https://truepundit.com/exclusive-six-u-s-agencies-conspired-to-illegally-wiretap-trump-british-intel-used-as-front-to-spy-on-campaign-for-nsa/

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 11 APRIL 2019 (by Patrick Armstrong)

IRONY. Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Moscow Region. In his Russian-built Aurus. His previous ride was a Mercedes. I suppose he would eventually have wanted a Russian-made limo, but I can't help thinking this is another consequence of sanctions.

GPS. If (if) Russian technology really can spoof GPS signals, (if)... then... well... practically everything NATO does or has depends on GPS signals... Without Aegis and GPS, all NATO has left are bayonets, submarines and an expensive building.

RUSSIA/CHINA. It's clear that a very consequential result of two decades of (stupid and obvious) PNAC machinations is that Moscow and Beijing, not sitting around waiting to be targetted, are drawing ever closer. I've been waiting for Beijing to become more active in the front line – so far it's been letting Moscow take the heat – and it seems that it has. The reports of Chinese soldiers in Venezuela appears to be false, but Chinese aid is certainly arriving and Beijing has pointedly said that Washington does not own Venezuela. Protecting investments certainly, but the larger geopolitical purpose that both know they're on Washington's hitlist and are defending themselves cannot be ignored. And, a number of Russian banks have linked to the Chinese alternative to SWIFT – CIPS. Beijing and Moscow have a multi-faceted strategy; more below.

PETRODOLLAR. Saudi Arabia is reported to have threatened to drop the "Petrodollar" if Washington goes ahead with certain legislation. It then denied it had done so: well, either way, the point is made, isn't it? Meanwhile the Central Bank of Russia continues to buy gold, reserves are now reported to be 2,149 tonnes. China, usually silent, has announced its holdings: up 60% since the last announcement.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA I. In an interesting finding, given the non-stop Trumputin obsession of the corporate media, Rasmussen finds that slightly more respondents are suspicious of Clinton's collusion with foreign entities than Trump's. And, just on cue (or maybe it's something we can expect in the post-Mueller world) the MSM notices Biden's involvement and interference in Ukrainian corruption (Hill, Times) and a Ukrainian official wondering why Washington isn't interested in their evidence of money and influence going to the Clinton campaign. Well, maybe Washington will be interested now.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA II. Is the dam finally about to break? Barr Forms Team To Investigate FBI Malfeasance; criminal referrals from Nunes; Ukrainian involvement; FISA warrants; lawsuits; spying on Trump campaign; this. Stay tuned.

PUTIN DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. I speculate on PDS post-Mueller.

WESTERN VALUES™. Canada's Democratic Institutions Minister (apt title eh?) says the Internet should be regulated to protect against election meddling. Who knew Our Democracies were so delicate? I will have a piece coming out in Strategic Culture Foundation to explain how to protect our precious bodily fluids democracies against Putin.

THE EMPTINESS OF FORMER FLAPS. The US violates Swedish airspace more often than Russia.

TURKEY. When the coup failed two and a half years ago, I predicted that sooner or later, Turkey would leave NATO. Erdoğan blamed Washington for the attempt and there is the persistent story that Moscow saved his life. We move closer. More threats from Washington with Pence telling Ankara to choose between NATO or the S-400 ("done deal" says Foreign Minister); some US senators threaten too. Ankara threatens back and points out that there are other makers of fighter aircraft: Russia, for example. A book published by the US Naval Institute is said by a Turkish newspaper to include a scenario of a conflict with Turkey. Erdoğan was just in Moscow for talks with Putin: here's the news conference: trade, investment, NPP, TurkStream, tourism, Syria. And weapons. None these subjects will make Washington happy. Why, BTW, would Turkey want Russian air defence missiles? Simple: in case it should become a former friend of Washington: a very dangerous thing to be.

UKRAINE ELECTION. A poll suggests that the losers' votes are most likely to go to Zelensky in the runoff on the 21st. Putin is apparently a candidate, or is Poroshenko saying Zelensky is Putin's puppet? More questions than answers: will Poroshenko contrive to cancel the election? Is Zelensky a beard for Kolomoisky? How's Tymoshenko going to take being knocked out? Has she cut a deal with Zelensky? How much cheating? (And sotto voce: does anybody care any more?) Speculations.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Vindicated At Last, Thank You General Barr by Larry C Johnson

Attorney General Barr stated the obvious--law enforcement and intelligence agencies spied on Donald Trump's campaign--and touched off an incredible display of stupidity and obtuseness among the Trump haters. Me? I was cheering because Bill Barr confirmed what I said two years ago. Unfortunately, for daring to speak a simple truth in the spring of 2017 I immediately was a target of the hate Trump media mob.  

I was attacked for telling the public the truth that foreign intelligence--the British  to be precise--were spying on the Trump campaign and passing this info along to US intelligence. But the Brits were not acting unilaterally. There was full cooperation and activity by U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI. Another word for this is "COLLUSION."

My speaking out brought about a furious counter attack by the media. People inside the Department of Justice reached out to my business partner and denounced me as a crank and conspiracy theorist. Because of that backlash I took down my blog, NoQuarter, and “retired” from blogging. Thanks to generosity of Colonel Lang, I eventually climbed back onto the blogging saddle.

Let me take you back to the events that unfolded after Donald Trump tweeted on March 4, 2017 that he was being wiretapped by the FBI. The media establishment erupted in laughter and saw this as just one more piece of evidence proving Trump’s mental instability. But I had a different take.

Interview transcripts from Congress on FBI officials Bill Priestap and James Baker

By Robert Willmann

Update, 10 April 2019, 4:25 p.m. central time:  The second day of the interview of former FBI general counsel James A. Baker has been released.  The interview was on 18 October 2018, and the transcript is 152 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/jamesbaker

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Baker%20Day%202%20Redacted.pdf

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Congressman Doug Collins (Repub. Georgia) has released two more transcripts of committee interviews of people about the attempt to de-legitimize the election and inauguration of an elected president, and to create conditions for his removal. They can be viewed and downloaded for reading. 

The transcript of James Baker is the first day of at least a two-day session. 

Interview on 5 June 2018 of Bill Priestap, the assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Division, 219 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/Priestap

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Priestap%206.5.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Interview on 3 October 2018 of James A. Baker, the former chief counsel of the FBI, 152 pages, day one--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/baker

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/BakerRedacted.pdf

James Baker was the main in-house lawyer for the FBI, and as he says at the beginning of his testimony, he supervised around 200 FBI lawyers plus 100 additional "professionals".  This means that he was also the supervisor of the socially versatile former FBI attorney, Lisa Page.

HARPER: NUNES CRIMINAL REFERRALS ANNOUNCED

On Sunday, Representative Davin Nunes, ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters that he is about to make eight criminal referrals to the Department of Justice related to crimes committed in the launching of the Russiagate investigation.  While the details of the referrals will remain classified, he provided clear indications of the targets.

Speaking on Fox News on April 7, Nunes said: "Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals so just referrals that are, that name someone and name the specific crimes. Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, leaking classified information."

"There are three that I think are more complicated so you mentioned conspiracy. So the question on conspiracy is what, there's the conspiracy statute, and then what do they need to look at under that statute. So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters we believe there is a conspiracy to lie to the FISA Court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigative and looked at. The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence. That also could [involve many] many Americans and we are, so that's kind of the second one. As you know, we've had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used."

Nunes described the third referral as "global leak referral."

"There are about a dozen highly sensitive classified information leaks that were given to only a few reporters over the last two and a half-plus years, so we don't know if there's actually been any leak investigations that have been open, but we do believe that we've got pretty good information and a pretty good idea of who could be behind these leaks.  Doesn't mean we know all the people behind the leaks because when you read these a lot of these they're always anonymous sources, and they always say something to the effect of current and former senior officials."

Since the start of the Russiagate probe, Nunes has focused on collusion between former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Agent Peter Strzok.  They were all implicated in the circulation of the "dodgy dossier" produced by "ex" MI6 agent Christopher Steele.  Steele simultaneously worked on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the FBI, peddling unsubstantiated allegations against then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump.  

In the wake of the release of the Mueller report, which exonerated Trump on any collusion with Russians in manipulating the 2016 presidential elections, many of the Nunes targets have been scrambling to distance themselves from the operations they launched against Trump.  Now it will be up to the Department of Justice to determine whether they crossed the threshold of criminal conspiracy.

Can Pompeo really be this goofy?

"“Lebanon and the Lebanese people face a choice: bravely move forward as an independent and proud nation or allow the dark ambitions of Iran and Hezbollah to dictate your future,” he said while standing next to the foreign minister, Gebran Bassil, after an afternoon meeting. Mr. Pompeo added that it would “take courage” for Lebanon to stand up to what he called Hezbollah’s “criminality, terror, and threats.”

Mr. Bassil, who is an ally of Hezbollah, countered Mr. Pompeo in his own post-meeting statement, saying: “For us, Hezbollah is a Lebanese party, not terrorists. Its members of parliament were elected by the Lebanese people, with high popular support.”"  NY Times

*********

"Lebanese President Michael Aoun reportedly received a US-Israeli document detailing plans for creating a civil war in Lebanon, during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Beirut, Lebanon on March 22^nd.

The document outlines covert false flag operations and a possible Israeli invasion, Lebanese TV station, Al-Jadeed reported.

According to the report, the source of the document is Israeli and it was created in partnership with the US, it is unclear who exactly presented it to President Aoun."  SF and al Jadeed

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Well now, pilgrims, the trick in looking at this story is to figure out how much of this can possibly be true.  "Al Jadeed" has a long history of tilting at windmills, but ... there is a certain madcap consistency in this story with the Trump/Bolton/Pompeo view of their role in history and willingness to "think big."

I don't think anyone would have been foolish enough to actually give the Lebanese a document that laid out this scheme, but that does not mean that Pompeo the Great did not verbally press this evidence of his mastery of the world on Aoun and company.

For him to do that would have required a presidential "finding" under the US National Defence Acts for what would undoubtedly be covert warfare, but that could be.  There must by now be a number of findings signed by Trump to authorize such efforts as the march of freedom toward Caracas, etc.

Would the Israelis be goofy enough to have suggested/ordered such a plan?  As I have written here before, Hizbullah's massive rocket and missile capability poses a strategic problem to Israel all the way down to Tel Aviv.  This capability is protected from Israeli attacks by the Tabbouleh Line of entrenched Hizbullah militia, many of them very combat experienced in Syria.  The Israelis do not want to repeat their 2006 experience against what was then a weaker TL but they yearn for an end to Hizbullah's retaliatory capability against Israel.

How much easier or possible it might be to take down Hizbullah by fomenting an anti-Hizbullah civil war within Lebanon.  

Unfortunately for this hope Hizbullah is a fully integrated part of Lebanese society and government.  President Aoun, a Maronite Christian, and his foreign minister made that clear to the Pomp.  The notion that Lebanon can still be split like a melon by spreading a bucket full of money around is typical of the arrogance and ignorance with which Israeli policy still views its neighbors.

My SWAG is that this Al-Jadeed report represents the decision of some Lebanese politician to debrief  to the TeeVee station concerning the verbal statements made by Pompeo in Lebanon. 

pl

https://southfront.org/secret-document-outlines-us-israel-plan-for-syria-style-civil-war-in-lebanon-report/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/world/middleeast/mike-pompeo-lebanon-hezbollah.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jadeed

The Iranian and Russian Jabberwocky by Larry C Johnson

I consider myself a student of history. I have done quite a bit of reading over the years and believe I have a pretty firm grasp on the road we have already traveled. With this as my preamble I must say I have never read about a period in our history that is as batshit crazy and dangerous as what we are doing now. Let me be more specific. The anti-Russian hysteria and feckless attempts by Democrats and Republican Trump haters to paint Trump as a puppet or even a paramour of Putin is insane. It is a sentiment not grounded in reality.

Then we have the preposterous policy announcement on Iran by the Trump Administration today.. Call it the Trump/Bolton/Pompeo Jabberwocky moment (for those unfamiliar with Lewis Carroll's creation, a Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem--sound and fury meaning nothing).

Notice the common thread that binds crazy Adam Schiff with crazy Donald Trump. They each hold a fervent belief that is devoid of fact and based on nothing more then feelings and impressions born of ignorance.

If the IRGC is a Terrorist army the AUMF applies

"Washington is planning to designate the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group, the Wall Street Journal reported on April 5, citing unnamed U.S officials.

According to the officials, the decision will be officially announced by the U.S. State Department as early as April 8. This will be first time Washington to formally designate another country’s military a “terrorist group.”

The President Donald Trump administration reportedly hopes that this decision will increase pressure on Tehran. However, some U.S. officials believe that this step could endanger U.S. troops deployed near IRGC forces in the Middle East."  WSJ and SF

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The AUMF on terrorism has been used far and wide as a hunting license to attack any armed group that could even distantly be thought a terrorist enemy.  The anti-terrorism AUMF makes such attacks legal under US law.

The official designation as "terrorist" of the IRGC which is a 125000 man army with its own navy and air force makes it legal for the US Armed Forces to attack the IRGC and its people wherever they are found and under any circumstances that may occur.  It is a declaration of war.

The neocon nitwits (Pompeo, Bolton, Hannah, etc.)  may think that Iran's reaction to this declaration of war will be submission to their will but IMO that is very unlikely.  IMO it is more likely that the IRGC will absorb the new reality and will prepare for war with the US. 

https://southfront.org/u-s-to-designate-irans-revolutionary-guard-corps-as-terrorist-group-report/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_Against_Terrorists

Habakkuk on cockroaches and the New York Times

"Dan, Thanks for the reference, which I will follow up. Unfortunately, although Bongino has produced a lot of extremely valuable material, a lot of it is buried in the ‘postcasts’, searching through which is harder than with printed materials. It would greatly help if there were transcripts, but of course those cost money. I am still trying to fit the exploding mass of information which has been coming out into a coherent timeline. Part of the problem is that there is so much appearing in so many different places. In addition to trying to think through the implications of the information in this post and the subsequent exchanges of comments, I have been trying to make sense of evidence coming out about the British end of the conspiracy.

Congress finally uses the War Powers law to try to stop involvement in Yemen

By Robert Willmann

While the mass media tries to distract and influence the people by using topics on the federal income tax returns of Donald Trump's numerous limited liability companies and corporations, and what the Robert Mueller group might have said in its "report", something of real importance happened yesterday.  Congress as a whole finished passing a resolution under the War Powers Act, also called the War Powers Resolution, to stop involvement in the Yemen war without further authorization.

Senate Joint Resolution 7, first introduced in the Senate on 30 January 2019 by co-sponsors Bernie Sanders (Independent [Dem.] Vermont) and Mike Lee (Repub. Utah), is entitled:  "A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress" [1]--

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/7/text

It passed the Senate by a 54-46 vote, and in the House by 247-175 (voting present, 1; not voting, 9).  A few Republicans joined the Democrats to push it through [2].

The War Powers Resolution/Act was passed in 1973 in the context of the Vietnam War to try to boost the power of Congress to decide whether war will exist or not, by adding specific language in a statute in addition to the Constitutional statement in Article 1, section 8:  "The Congress shall have Power ... To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water".  The Vietnam War was a full-fledged, real war, but it was not authorized by a Congressional declaration of war pursuant to the constitution.

 

Yet another piece of Kushner's "Deal of the Century"

"The king said that the plan was dangerous and not simple to implement, in particular the part relating to the land swaps in Tzofar, a moshav in the Arava desert, and Naharayim, where Jordan conquered in 1948 the Island of Peace and a hydroelectric power-plant that belonged to Israel. According to the Trump proposal, Jordan would receive from Saudi Arabia an area equal in size to these territories which Israel would reacquire.

In addition, Jordan has been asked to take in a million “Palestinian” refugees in several stages, in return for $45 billion in investments. Jordan’s entire GDP is only $40 billion. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states will finance these investments."  Jewish Press

--------------

The full "good deal of the century" will evidently be revealed after the Israeli election. 

Pieces of the "good deal of the century" have previously been revealed.

The move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem has been followed by endless Palestinian waves of self immolation along the Gaza "dead line."  This will continue indefinitely unless the Beebster or his successor decide to  re-occupy Gaza to stop Palestinian rockets reaching Tel Aviv.  Now, that  would be a spectacle.

Another piece of "The Kushner Plan" was the cession by the US of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights to Israel.  The justification for this was that the Israelis hold it by force of arms.  Syria, of, course does not accept the US transfer of title deed to part of its territory.

These two things are typical of Trump's NY City real estate methodology.  In his mind he is systematically taking points of contention off "the bargaining table" so that he can "close" over what's left.

This latest "offer" made to Jordan is part of what is left.  Perhaps some savant can explain what the various parts of this "partial good deal" mean. " A million Palestinians?"  Where would they come from?  Would they be round up for transportation to The East?  Saudi Arabia would transfer land to Jordan?  Where?  On the Gulf of Akabah coast near Tabuk?  Really?  The Saudis and Gulfies would cough up $45 billion for investments in Jordan?  To do what?  Tourism?  Really?  And who would own these enterprises?  Lebanon will give its citizenship to the hordes of Palestinian descended people who inhabit the country?  They have firmly resisted this for decades. 

Explain all this, someone.  pl

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/al-akhbar-trump-wants-jordan-to-take-in-1-million-palestinians/2019/04/05/

Who Does John Bolton Actually Work For? By Willy B

A review of publicly available reporting that I have accumulated in my files over the past two years would suggest that John Bolton's boss is really Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino king who has plied the Republican Party with tens of millions of dollars in largesse in order to remake it in his image. This conclusion is irrespective of what you might think of Trump himself and whether or not you believe he really meant it when he said there should be no more regime change wars. The fact is, the neo conservative "Never Trumpers" began moving in on Trump almost as soon as he won the election in order to ensure that their policy perspective prevailed. Greased by Adelson's money, it appears that they have succeeded to a considerable degree, particularly on Iran, but also on other aspects of national security policy as well, including, it appears, on Venezuela. And if US relations with Russia don't improve now that Russia-gate is dead, it'll be because of this crowd as well.

Bolton's history goes back to the Reagan Administration in the 1980's, and his perfidy during the runup to the Iraq invasion is well known to this readership. What I focus on here is the period from January of 2017 through mid-2018, around the time of his appointment to be Trump's national security advisor, plus a couple of months, during which period a number of interesting reports were posted on Trump's lobbying of the White House to get an administration position and his sponsorship by Adelson. Adelson's only concern, by his own quoted words, is protecting Israel and, according to the reports below, has even advocated the nuclear bombing of Iran if it doesn't give up a nuclear weapons program that every reasonable intelligence assessment and the IAEA say it doesn't have. Adelson is also credited with facilitating the firing of both H.R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson and replacing them with Bolton and Mike Pompeo, another one of Adelson's boys.

What follows is a time line of summaries of news stories covering the period above in the form that I wrote them at the time with the dates over each one of them. It's not meant to be comprehensive–there's undoubtedly a great deal of insight still to be gained on how deeply these neo-con networks have actually penetrated the administration–and the news reports the summaries are based on likely vary in their quality. I hope anyone with such deeper insights will post them in the comments section.

Appended at the end of the time line is a short report on Richard Goldberg, the Z-lobby activist who Bolton brought onto the NSC in January to be his "Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction." Goldberg, who came out of the neo-con Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is clearly part of Adelson’s orbit.

TEST IT YOURSELF, THE 2-SECOND-ROUNDING FACT PATTERN IN THE DNC EMAILS By William Binney and Larry Johnson

Larry Johnson

Bill Binney

 

Bill and I published a piece a few weeks back that provides actual evidence that challenges the claim that “Russia hacked the DNC.” Yes, we know, the Mueller Report continues to insist that theft of emails from the DNC was done over the internet. But that conclusion rests on the opinion of third parties who offer no actual forensic evidence. We, by contrast, are offering up actual evidence that points to an alternative explanation. We do not asky you to take our word for it. Instead, we want to show you how you can test the data yourself ..

 

First, let’s review our key findings from the original piece:

 

An examination of the Wikileaks DNC files shows they were created on 23 and 25 May and 26 August respectively. The fact that they appear in a FAT system format indicates the data was transfered to a storage device, such as a thumb drive.

 

How do we know? The truth lies in the “last modified” time stamps on the Wikileaks files.  Every single one of these time stamps end in even numbers.  If you are not familiar with the FAT file system, you need to understand that when a date is stored under this system the data rounds the time to the nearest even numbered second.  

"... and he's pushing down, and pushing down."

" ... And he’s pushing down and pushing down,” she said through tears. “I honestly didn’t know what was going on. And then the next thing I know, like, my head is, like, literally in his crotch … And I’m choking and gagging. And, you know, I couldn’t say anything ‘cause I’m choking and gagging.”

Tyson also believes that Fairfax took advantage of her past as a survivor of incest, about which she recalls telling him 2004. At the time of the alleged assault, she was counseling other survivors at a rape crisis center, which was then “the biggest part of [her] life.”

In early February, Tyson came forward after a right-wing website reported a private Facebook post she wrote, claiming that Fairfax had sexually assaulted her; a day later, she made her name public and claimed that he had “forced [her] to perform oral sex on him,” after which she “suffered from both deep humiliation and shame.” In the time since, a second woman, Meredith Watson, has accused Fairfax of raping her in a “premeditated and aggressive” fashion."  The Cut

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I am not sure what rape in a "non-aggressive fashion" would be, but, no matter.   Tyson's experience as recounted by her cannot be described as other than rape.  Forced oral sex is rape without any doubt at all.  This attack occurred in  Boston, MA and the statute of limitations has not run on it as yet. 

Joe Biden, he of many hands, has said of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearing long ago that Hill was poorly treated at the hearing.  Biden, was then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and presided at the hearing.  He now says that her ill treatment was caused by the application of legal concepts derived from ancient British common law by the "old white guys" on the committee.  They being he, Edward Kennedy, etc.  I am not sure what he means by the concepts thingy.  Perhaps he means that actual evidence of physical or spiritual assault should not be required in the face of female accusations  and assertions of distress.  In other words lynch law should apply and the process should take place in televised autos da fé.

Well, pilgrims, the two women who have accused Fairfax are willing to testify under oath about these events before the Virginia General Assembly, so, public humiliation and the Biden rule of New Law can apply.

Would Fairfax sit in the chair of the president of the senate during this testimony?  All the world wonders.

pl

https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/justin-fairfax-accuser-vanessa-tyson-details-alleged-assault.html

“A terrible, terrible thing” - TTG

"(CNN) - India's anti-satellite missile test created at least 400 pieces of orbital debris, the head of NASA says -- placing the International Space Station (ISS) and its astronauts at risk. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that just 60 pieces of debris were large enough to track. Of those, 24 went above the apogee of the ISS, the point of the space station's orbit farthest from the Earth.

"That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris at an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," Bridenstine said in a live-streamed NASA town hall meeting "That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight." He added: "It is not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris fields that put at risk our people."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on March 27 that the country had achieved a "historic feat" by shooting down its own low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space missile. Only three other countries -- the US, Russia and China -- have anti-satellite missile capabilities."  (CNN)

—————

What did we think was going to happen? When our Space Force, Russia’s Aerospace Force and/or what ever China is calling their military space capability come to blows, this is what’s going to happen. Now throw India and Lord knows who else into the mix. We will be blowing each other’s satellites out of orbit and launching replacement satellites as fast as we can. The process will then repeat itself until no one’s satellites will survive in low Earth orbit... for a long, long time. It should cause our military and space leaders to contemplate a space MAD situation.

We have agreed to keep nuclear weapons out of space. The ABM treaty limited anti-satellite weapons in space, but that was shot to hell long ago. There are no other limitations on blowing each other’s satellites out of orbit including nothing in the laws of war. 

I suggest that this is a fertile field for a grand international agreement. Let Trump lead such an effort. Obviously the negotiations will be long and technical, but I think Trump is the ideal person to push such an idea. Let him make space safe for international exploration or even a peaceful space race. 

TTG

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/india/nasa-india-anti-missile-test-intl/index.html

 

40 Martyrs Cathedral reconsecrated in Aleppo

"The Forty Martyrs Armenian Cathedral in Aleppo was re-consecrated on Saturday, four years after the jihadist rebels ransacked the building.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, visited the historic church after its reconstruction meant it could be opened again after Jabhat Al-Nusra razed parts of the compound back in April 2015."  AMN

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Let us remember that the Syrian Arab Republic's recovery of Aleppo City after ferocious and prolonged combat made possible the re-construction of this ancient Armenian cathedral.

The Syrian Arab Army's front against al-Nusra just west of Aleppo City protects this cathedral and all the good people of Aleppo while re-construction continues.

Let us remember that al-Nusra is the Syrian branch of al-Qaida.  They destroyed as much of this cathedral as they could manage while they held that part of the city.  The al-Nusra were John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman's good friends.  The three senators often visited them as well as the other FSA unicorns who were under al-Nusra's control.  According to these three fools anything was better than the Syrian government.  Now, who would have given then that idea?

And then there is the matter of the Borgist and neocon insistence that the US and our SDF allies defeated IS in Syria all by our selves.  The fierce fighting done by the Russians and the SAA/allies is simply ignored by the swampies in DC.

Well, pilgrims, Reuters says that Bolton torpedoed the Hanoi meeting by persuading Trump to stiffen his terms at the last minute.  Bolton is also leading the US toward a major geopolitical defeat in a failed attempt to remove Maduro in Venezuela.  How long is Trump going to put up with this fool and his sidekick "ole first in his class" at State? 

Perhaps a change in faces might result in different policy.  pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/600-year-old-aleppo-cathedral-re-consecrated-after-jihadist-destruction/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Martyrs_Cathedral

AOC, FDR and the 22nd Amendment

"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was lambasted on Twitter and in the media for confusing the facts while waxing lyrical about the Democratic golden age of the 1930s and 1940s—but was she actually right?

“When our party was boldest, the time of the New Deal, the Great Society, the Civil Rights Act and so on, we had, and carried, supermajorities in the House, in the Senate. We carried the presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said Friday while speaking on MSNBC with Chris Hayes.

“They had to amend the constitution of the United States to make sure Roosevelt did not get reelected. There were so many extraordinary things that were happening at that time that were uniting working people,” she continued.

The New York congresswoman’s comments divided Twitter users, with detractors accusing her of fiddling with the facts around the 22nd Amendment and the fourth term served by 32nd President Franklin Delano Roosevelt."  newsweek

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I could read when I was four years old.  My father taught me using the comics section of the newspapers as a first text.  I particularly looked forward to Sundays and the multi-colored, multi-paged section.  Soo, pilgrims, I remember FDR's death and the banner headlines.  1945 it was and the specter of Harry Truman as president left a lot of people breathless.  It is true that there had been talk of the need to find a way to restore the Washingtonian tradition of not more than two terms for a president.  I remember listening to my parents discuss the matter while we sat around the giant wooden cabinet of the big living room radio of the time.

Roosevelt died.  His ill health had always been well concealed, so his death was unexpected.  The war was still a going thing in the Pacific and it was just ending in Europe.  Nuclear weapons appeared on the historical stage and after VJ Day hordes of servicemen returned home.  The country was busy but by 1947 someone(s) in Congress was ready to act in favor of the two term tradition.

The amendment passed in both houses of Congress and the ratification process was completed in 1951.  There was general bipartisan  agreement throughout the country.  There have been several attempts at repeal.  None have gained much traction.

Clearly, the country has not wanted the emergence of presidents who serve for life. 

AOC evidently has not bothered to inform herself of the basic constitutional history of the United States.  She insisted in the course of a media event that the Republicans in Congress had changed the constitution to prevent FDR's re-election.  How on earth did she get such an idea?

The Republicans tried hard to defeat FDR's desire for a fourth term in 1944 but the feeling was strong in the country that he had somehow magically ended the great depression, that he was the ultimate war leader and that was enough to re-elect him.

Why doesn't this woman who presumes to have a grand vision for the re-organization of our lives know the basic history of the country?  Why?

https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-attacked-twitter-constitutional-mistake-was-she-1381693

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution