The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Ten years after last Lebanon war, Israel
warns next one will be far worse
by William Booth
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Russia Would Love a Third nObama Term
Arnold Ahlert: If one lives by the vulnerable server, one dies by the vulnerable server. As the week unfolds, America is witnessing the ultimate unmasking of the Democrat Party, an entity whose self-aggrandizing claims of unity, fairness and intellectual honesty have been revealed as utterly fraudulent by a flood of DNC emails released by WikiLeaks. Moreover, a stunning level of hypocrisy attends the entire exposure, as DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is sent packing for this breach of confidential party information, while liar-Hillary Clinton, whose equally accessible private server contained far more critical top-secret information, officially became the party's standard-bearer.
But not to worry, assured FBI Director James Comey, who insisted there was no direct evidence that liar-Clinton's server had been hacked by hostile actors — before adding it was possible that hostile actors "gained access" to liar-Clinton's accounts.
liar-Clinton was equally adept at making semantical distinctions. "If you go by the evidence, there is no evidence that the system was breached or hacked successfully," liar-Clinton said. "And I think that what's important here is follow the evidence. And there is no evidence. And that can't be said about a lot of other systems, including government systems."
New York Post columnist John Crudele obliterates the despicable word-parsing. "liar-Clinton was so careless when using her BlackBerry that the Russians stole her password," he writes. "All Russian President Vladimir Putin's gang had to do was log into liar-Clinton's account and read whatever they wanted."
When it comes to the DNC hack, "The Russians did it" is the theme-du-jour. liar-Clinton campaign manager, Robby Mook stated Sunday that "experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails, [and are] releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump." The campaign itself echoed that assertion. "This is further evidence the Russian government is trying to influence the outcome of the election."
The reliably leftist Politico — so far left that reporter Ken Vogel remains employed there despite sending a story to the DNC before he sent it to his own editor — is quite comfortable advancing that agenda, using it as a vehicle to buff up liar-Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. "Former U.S. officials who worked on Russia policy with liar-Clinton say that Putin was personally stung by liar-Clinton's December 2011 condemnation of Russia's parliamentary elections, and had his anger communicated directly to President Barack nObama," Politico reports. "They say Putin and his advisers are also keenly aware that, even as she executed nObama's 'reset' policy with Russia, liar-Clinton took a harder line toward Moscow than others in the administration. And they say Putin sees liar-Clinton as a forceful proponent of 'regime change' policies that the Russian leader considers a grave threat to his own survival."
Yet even Politico is forced to admit the payback angle is "speculation," and that some experts remain "unconvinced that Putin's government engineered the DNC email hack or that it was meant to influence the election in Trump's favor as opposed to embarrassing DNC officials for any number of reasons."
Americans would also be wise to remain highly skeptical of this claim for any number of reasons. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asserts there is "there is no proof whatsoever" Russia is behind the hack and that "this is a diversion that's being pushed by the liar-Hillary Clinton campaign." To be fair, Assange is a Russian sympathizer, and leftists aren't the only ones attributing the hack to the Russians. The same FBI that gave liar-Clinton a pass will be investigating the DNC hack, and at some point the bureau will reach a conclusion.
In the meantime, it might be worth considering that this smacks of a carefully orchestrated disinformation campaign similar to the one liar-Clinton and several other nObama administration officials engineered with regard to Benghazi. While liar-Clinton was never held personally or legally accountable for the deaths of four Americans, it is beyond dispute that she lied unabashedly about a video causing the attack, while sending her daughter a damning email at 11:12 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, admitting the administration knew "the attack had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack, not a protest."
The theme of this coordinated narrative? liar-Clinton campaign chair John Podesta referred Monday night to "a kind of bromance going on" between Putin and Trump. liar-Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook echoed that assertion, insisting the email dump comes on the heels of "changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian."
The Leftmedia were equally obliging. "The theory that Moscow orchestrated the leaks to help Trump ... is fast gaining currency within the nObama administration because of the timing of the leaks and Trump's own connections to the Russian government," reports the Daily Beast.
Other Leftmedia examples abound. Ultimately, here's the question: If the Russians could access the DNC server, they could certainly access liar-Clinton's unsecure server. And if they could access liar-Clinton's server, including the 33,000 emails she deleted (maybe some were about how the liar-Clintons profited from selling Russia American uranium), ask yourself who they'd rather have in the Oval Office: Donald Trump, who professed admiration for Putin but remains a highly unpredictable individual — or liar-Hillary Clinton, who could be subjected to blackmail for as long as eight years?
Russia's clear objective would be to have the weakest American leadership they can get. Blackmail aside, what would be weaker than an extension of nObama's presidency?
Moreover, it is just as likely a number of the so-called "experts" as well as liar-Clinton's useful idiot media apparatchiks have considered the blackmail possibility and are trying to divert attention from it with a phony Trump connection story.
Democrats can theorize, complain and blame to their hearts' content, but none of it obscures the reality that the DNC — and by extension liar-Hillary Clinton and the entire Democrat Party — are a conglomeration of morally bereft, utterly incompetent individuals wholly ill-equipped to handle internal security, much less national security. And they are aided and abetted by an equally corrupt media, more than willing to abide that potentially catastrophic reality as long as it gets a Democrat in the Oval Office.
WikiLeaks has promised additional dumps with be forthcoming. How much deeper Democrats sink is anyone's guess. -The Patriot Post
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OPINION IN BRIEF
Brent Bozell & Tim Graham: "The radical leftist collective known as WikiLeaks tried to ruin the Democratic convention by posting a trove of Democratic National Committee emails that easily proved that party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her staff shunned neutrality in favor of pushing liar-Hillary Clinton's nomination. The Bernie Sanders socialists were enraged, their suspicions confirmed. The media paid some attention to that, especially when Schultz was quickly ousted from her job. Guess what else was confirmed, which the media largely skipped over? The evidence in the emails that revealed great chumminess and coordination between Democrats and the supposedly 'objective' national press. ... The primary reason the media would skip covering their own lack of independence is obvious. The public already believes they aggressively favor one side in our political debates. Why put a spotlight on your problem? Transparency is a media buzzword, but it never applies to their own partisan games." -The Patriot Post
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nObamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing
National Security Threat
by CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY
by CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ July 14, 2016 was the one-year anniversary of the nuclear agreement with Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA... In his new book, nObamabomb: A Dangerous and Growing National Security Threat, Center for Security Policy Senior Vice President Fred Fleitz provides a detailed analysis of the dangers this agreement continues to pose to U.S. and international security. Although Fleitz argues that the nuclear deal is so dangerous that the next president should tear it up and start over, nObamabomb also includes recommendations for new sanctions against Iran and these principles that should guide any effort by a future president to re-negotiate the nuclear pact:... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/obamabomb-a-dangerous-and-growing-national-security-threat?f=must_reads
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Defense Adviser Gets It Wrong on EMP
by DR. PETER VINCENT PRY
by DR. PETER VINCENT PRY
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Popular Science should remove nObama defense adviser Peter Singer from its editorial board... He has degraded the magazine, promoting a political and error-filled article by Kelsey Atherton "GOP Platform Vows To Protect U.S. From A Fantasy Weapon: An EMP Is An Empty Threat" (July 11, 2016). The Republican platform deserves high praise for promising to protect our nation from the existential threat from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack: "A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over this country would collapse our electrical grid and other critical infrastructures and endanger the lives of millions . . . With North Korea in possession of nuclear missiles and Iran close to having them, EMP is no longer a theoretical concern - it is a real threat." Every major U.S. government study agrees an EMP attack would have catastrophic consequences and the nation must be protected. For example, the Congressional EMP Commission, comprising the foremost experts in the Free World, warned in 2004:...
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Islamic American Relief Agency, Long
Accused of Terror Finance, Pleads
Guilty on Sanctions Violations
by KYLE SHIDELER
by KYLE SHIDELER
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ On July 20, 2016, federal prosecutors successfully secured a guilty plea from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization known as the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA)... The Missouri-based organization, also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA, was an affiliate of a Sudan-based international relief organization of the same name. The organization was raided in October of 2004 under suspicion of violating Iraq sanctions, money laundering and terrorism finance to Al Qaeda and Hamas. The plea deal comes after the Department of Justice had already secured guilty pleas from IARA fundraiser Abdel Azim El-Siddig, Mubarak Hamed, Ahmed Mustafa, and former Republican Congressman Mark Siljander of Michigan... http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/islamic-american-relief-agency-long-accused-of-terror-finance-pleads-guilty-on-sanctions-violations?f=must_reads
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Taken To Saudi Arabia And Locked in a Cage
{clarionproject.org} ~ Amina al-Jeffrey was born in Swansea, UK, and taken at age 16 to Saudi Arabia by her father, who disapproved of her Western lifestyle... Now 21, she is fighting a court battle in the High Court in London against her father to be allowed to return to the UK. She alleges that her father, Mohammed al-Jeffrey, put "metal bars" on her bedroom and described being a "locked-up girl with a shaved head." Holman also said that it is unclear whether or not Britain had jurisdiction in the matter since al-Jeffrey was an adult with dual Saudi and UK citizenship... https://www.clarionproject.org/news/taken-saudi-arabia-and-locked-cage#
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Germany: "No Change to
Open-Door Migration Policy"
by Soeren Kern
by Soeren Kern
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected criticism of her decision to allow more than a million mostly Muslim migrants to enter Germany last year... Speaking at an annual summer press conference in Berlin on July 28, a defiant Merkel ignored critics of her refugee policies and insisted there would be no change to her open-door migration stance. She also said she bears no responsibility for a recent spate of violent attacks in Germany. Germany has been rattled by an axe attack on a train in Würzburg, a mass shooting in Munich, a machete attack in Reutlingen and a suicide bomb in Ansbach — all within a week. The attacks, which left 13 dead, were all carried out by Muslims: Three of the attacks were carried out by asylum seekers and one by a German-Iranian who harbored a hatred of Arabs and Turks... She is one stupid lady. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8591/germany-open-door-migration
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Terrorists in our backyard:
the Hezbollah threat in Latin America
by Emanuele Ottolenghi
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ In Latin America, the combination of weak governments, porous borders, widespread corruption, and the lack of adequate legislative tools to combat terror finance creates an ideal environment for transnational organized crime... Drug trafficking, trade-based money laundering, and terror financing can no longer be treated as distinct phenomena. Terror organizations help drug traffickers move merchandise, then launder revenues through sales of consumer goods. Profits then return to the terrorists to fund their activity. In Latin America, Hezbollah plays a central role in this new landscape. Hezbollah generates loyalty among local Shi’a communities by managing their religious and educational structures. It then leverages that loyalty to solicit funds to its own advantage – including, critically, to facilitate interactions with organized crime... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/emanuele-ottolenghi-terrorists-in-our-backyard-the-hezbollah-threat-in-latin-America/
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The problem with globalism
by Clifford D. May
{washingtontimes.com} ~ “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.” That line from Donald Trump’s long and emphatic speech to the Republican National Convention last Thursday jumped out at me... I think I know what he meant: that he prioritizes America’s national interests above those of the wider world. If so, most Americans probably agree. I’d be among them. But there are complexities here that are worth unpacking. For one, globalism is a term the media often use but seldom define. The academic literature strikes me as confusing — or perhaps just confused. From a recent tome on the subject:... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/26/the-dark-dilemma-of-modern-globalism/
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Europe terror attacks spotlight
security failings amid refugee crisis
by Benjamin Weinthal
{foxnews.com} ~ The European policy Germans call “Willkommenskultur” -- the enthusiastic embrace of refugees from Syria and other Muslim-majority countries -- has morphed into a summer of terror... Loose screening of refugees, lax counter-terrorism policies and lenient treatment of those with terrorist links or sympathies has led to a spate of attacks by terrorists already flagged by authorities. Tuesday’s attack in France, where a jihadist already under house arrest slit a priest’s throat, came just two days after a suicide bombing in Germany by a terrorist who a medical expert had predicted would “commit suicide in a spectacular fashion.” Critics say such cases are piling up. "It has happened in France and the UK -- people who were on the radar and eventually were caught up in plots,” said Davis Lewin, deputy director at the Henry Jackson Society, a UK based counter-terrorism think tank. “It will inevitably happen again.”... http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/27/europe-terror-attacks-spotlight-security-failings-amid-refugee-crisis.html
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Will Iran wordsmith its way off
our terrorism list? It certainly is trying
by Toby Dershowitz & Saeed Ghasseminejad
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ Iran is on a diplomatic offensive to persuade global illicit finance regulators to accept that Hezbollah is not a terrorist group... It may be just a matter of time before the international body in charge of protecting the global financial system succumbs to pressure from businesses on a gold rush back into Iran. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sets global standards to combat money laundering and finance for terrorism and proliferation. In June, FATF announced it would keep Iran on its high-risk blacklist, saying it “remains concerned with the terrorist financing risk emanating from Iran and the threat this poses to the international financial system.” The business community was advised to “apply enhanced due diligence to business relationships and transactions” with Iran. Still, FATF suspended mandatory counter-measures for a year on the promise that Iran would take steps to address “deficiencies” and seek “technical assistance” to implement its Action Plan... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/toby-dershowitz-will-iran-wordsmith-its-way-off-our-terrorism-list-it-certainly-is-trying/
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The Myth of Lone-Wolf Terrorism
by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Nathaniel Barr
{foreignaffairs.com} ~ This month, Europe has again been rocked by a series of shocking terrorist attacks perpetrated by lone individuals and claimed in the name of the Islamic State (ISIS)... On July 14, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian national residing in France, killed over 80 and wounded hundreds when he ploughed a 19-ton cargo truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in the southern French city of Nice. Mere days after the Nice massacre, a 17-year-old Afghan migrant seeking asylum in Germany attacked passengers on a train in Würzburg with an axe and a knife, wounding four before police killed him. Two other attacks claimed in ISIS’ name have been carried out since then: A suicide bombing on July 24 injured 15 in the German city of Ansbach, and on July 26, two attackers claiming allegiance to ISIS stormed a church in a suburb of the French city of Rouen, slit an 84-year-old priest’s throat, and took hostages. These incidents are part of a broader trend of increasing violence carried out by lone individuals. Analysts, journalists, and scholars have been quick to label each perpetrator of recent attacks as a lone wolf: individuals who lacked substantial connections to ISIS or other jihadist groups and who carried out their operations without the assistance of others. The designation has generally been applied within 24 hours of these attacks, before significant intelligence about an incident’s planning and execution has emerged—and long before authorities have concluded their investigation. Indeed, less than a day after the Nice attack, observers rushed to describe Lahouaiej Bouhlel as a lone wolf who was not in fact linked to ISIS... https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/western-europe/2016-07-26/myth-lone-wolf-terrorism
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Ten years after last Lebanon war, Israel
warns next one will be far worse
by William Booth
For both sides, the Israelis fear.
Yet far worse for Hezbollah and the civilians of Lebanon, they promise.
Ten years after Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody but inconclusive 34-day war that left more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians dead in July and August of 2006, the Lebanese Shiite militant group has been transformed.
Hezbollah is now a regional military power, a cross-border strike force, with thousands of soldiers hardened by four years of fighting on Syrian battlefields on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad. There are 7,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria, Israeli commanders say.
Hezbollah troops have been schooled by Iranian commanders, funded by Tehran and have learned to use, in combat, some of the most sophisticated armaments available, such as fourth-generation Kornet guided anti-tank missiles. They pilot unmanned aircraft and fight with artillery and tanks to concentrate forces, coordinate attacks. They have taken rebel villages with Russian air support.
More than 1,000 Hezbollah fighters have died, the Israelis say; they do not describe Hezbollah as "demoralized" but "tested."
"In 2006, Hezbollah fought a guerrilla war. Today, Hezbollah is like a conventional army," said Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general who teaches at the American University in Beirut.
Israel fought the first Lebanon war in 1982 against the Palestine Liberation Organization, a conflict that saw Israel occupy southern Lebanon and lay siege to Beirut. Hezbollah arose during that war. The second Lebanon war broke out in July 2006 after Hezbollah kidnapped a pair of Israeli soldiers on the border.
Ten years ago, Hezbollah fired 4,000 short-range, relatively crude rockets at Israel, about 100 a day, killing some 50 Israeli civilians. Today, the group has 100,000 rockets, including thousands of more accurate mid-range weapons with larger warheads capable of striking anywhere in Israel, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, according to Israeli army commanders and military analysts in Israel and Lebanon.
Hezbollah poses a far greater threat to Israel than it did 10 years ago. The challenges posed by Islamist militant movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip are almost trivial by comparison, Israeli senior commanders say.
Earlier this year, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot called Hezbollah Israel's "main enemy" now that Iran's nuclear ambitions may have been delayed by a decade or more.
Whether Hezbollah's arsenal of rockets and the overwhelming retaliatory response promised by Israel serves as a dual deterrent is one of those questions that can never be answered - but probably keeps commanders on both sides awake at night.
In Israel's far north, Misgav Am kibbutz sits on a hilltop above the Lebanon border. There is a popular overlook. There is a gift shop for the tour buses.
On a sunny morning, an Israeli army colonel stood on the hill and pointed toward Lebanese villages at his feet.
"You see villas, red tile roofs, summer homes. You don't see soldiers in uniforms. They don't wear uniforms. It looks nice and peaceful, right?" said the commander of a paratrooper reserve brigade, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is serving on active duty on the Lebanon border.
"I see rocket rooms, weapons caches, underground compounds," he said. "I can pinpoint to you, below, a house with washing on the line that is a Hezbollah outpost."
Israeli military leaders say Hezbollah has spent the past decade transforming hundreds of villages in southern Lebanon into covert fire bases with hidden launch pads, many rigged to operate by remote.
In briefings with reporters in Tel Aviv, Israeli military intelligence officers in the past year have begun to show aerial photographs of villages in Hezbollah's southern stronghold.
A photograph of Muhaybib, a town south of here, is covered with red squares marking the placement of what the Israelis say are command posts, anti-tank positions, tunnels and launch pads. Israel says there are 90 buildings in the village of 1,100 people and that 35 buildings are being used by Hezbollah. The message is implicit: This is a target list.
The Israeli commanders in Tel Aviv and here on the Lebanon border may be issuing propaganda as a warning to Hezbollah. Both sides do talk to each other through the media, yet there is broad agreement in Washington, Jerusalem and Beirut that another Lebanon war could be devastating, especially for civilians.
"Hezbollah is not a group or a organization or a movement. It's an army. A big terrorist army," said the paratrooper commander, who is a veteran of the 2006 Lebanon war. "We understand that people here find themselves in the middle. The next war will be a terrible war. I think they understand too that the next war will be different."
Speaking publicly, the Israeli generals promise that if Hezbollah launches mass strikes against Israeli cities, Israel will be compelled to respond, similarly, with 10 times as much force. The commanders say they cannot allow Israeli cities to face 1,000 Hezbollah rockets a day.
Historians say the 2006 war came as a surprise for both sides. Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers at the border, which sparked a sustained aerial and ground war by Israeli forces - and tough resistance by Hezbollah.
Both claimed victory, but neither won. In Israel, the 2006 Lebanon war is widely viewed by Israelis as a military failure. Hezbollah boasted that it had stood toe-to-toe with the most powerful army in the Middle East, but the widespread destruction and civilian deaths were unpopular.
As the 10-year anniversary approached, both Hezbollah and Israel stressed that they do not want another war - even as both declared themselves ready for one.
"Israel knows Hezbollah has missiles and rockets that can strike anywhere in its territory," the group's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, said in a speech delivered by video in February.
Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah rockets could strike ammonia plants at the port in Haifa in any future fight, saying that the damage would be equivalent to an atomic bomb and could lead to the death of 800,000 people.
"Haifa is just one of many examples," Nasrallah said. "The leaders of Israel understand that the resistance has the ability to cover the entirety of occupied Palestine with missiles. We must keep this capability because it acts as a deterrent for the Third Lebanon War."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said, "If the quiet is kept, those facing us will enjoy quiet." Then he warned that Hezbollah aggression would be met by "an iron fist."
Today, Hezbollah has lost some of its previous luster because of its decision to fight for Assad in a war that became deeply sectarian, Shiite against Sunni.
Going to Syria might have turned Nasrallah from "a hero to a zero" for many in the Arab world, said Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.
"But the Syria war also emboldened them and sharpened his military skills," he said. "Hezbollah may be tempted to engage Israel in what it hopes is a limited war to recover their prestige."
Simon Abu Fadel, a political analyst in Lebanon, predicts that in the event of war Hezbollah would try to inflict heavy damage on Israeli cities, power plants and airports to degrade national morale. "In case of a new war with Israel, Hezbollah's missiles would be painful to Israel," he said. "However, the damage would be far less than what Israeli airstrikes could do to Hezbollah and Lebanon."
"It is not a win-and-lose game," Fadel said. "It is a mutual exchange of bombing and destruction."
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