Antisemitism > Pittsburg synagogue terrorist to be sentenced to death; US Ambassador to Israel "Screwed Up"; Other American "Screw-Ups"; Iran actress arrested for Instagram post

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Pittsburgh synagogue gunman will be sentenced to death for the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack

The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death. A federal jury recommended Wednesday that 50-year-old Robert Bowers be sent to death row for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. (Aug 2) (AP video by Jessie Wardarski)

BY PETER SMITH AND MICHAEL RUBINKAM

Updated 8:17 PM PDT, August 2, 2023

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The gunman who stormed a synagogue in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and killed 11 worshippers will be sentenced to death for perpetrating the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, a jury decided Wednesday.

Robert Bowers spewed hatred of Jews and espoused white supremacist beliefs online before methodically planning and carrying out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue, where members of three congregations had gathered for Sabbath worship and study. Bowers, a truck driver from suburban Baldwin, also wounded two worshippers and five responding police officers.

The same federal jury that convicted the 50-year-old Bowers on 63 criminal counts recommended that he be put to death for an attack whose impacts continue to reverberate nearly five years later. He showed little reaction as the sentence was announced, briefly acknowledging his legal team and family as he was led from the courtroom. A judge will formally impose the sentence Thursday.

Jurors were unanimous in finding that Bowers’ attack was motivated by his hatred of Jews, and that he chose Tree of Life for its location in one the largest and most historic Jewish communities in the U.S. so that he could “maximize the devastation, amplify the harm of his crimes, and instill fear within the local, national, and international Jewish communities.” They also found that Bowers lacked remorse.

At a news conference after the verdict, attack survivor Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Congregation noted that Wednesday was a “day of love” on the Hebrew calendar.

“I don’t believe in coincidences. Today we received an immense embrace from the halls of justice,” he said, taking the jury’s decision as an affirmation that “we have the right to practice our Judaism and no one will ever take that right away from us.”

The family of 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, who was killed in the attack, and her daughter, Andrea Wedner, who was shot and wounded, thanked the jurors and said “a measure of justice has been served.”

Bowers’ lead defense attorney, Judy Clarke, declined comment.

The verdict came after a lengthy trial in which jurors heard in chilling detail how Bowers reloaded at least twice, stepped over the bloodied bodies of his victims to look for more people to shoot, and surrendered only when he ran out of ammunition. In the sentencing phase, grieving family members told the jury about the lives that Bowers took — elderly people and intellectually disabled brothers among them — and the unrelenting pain of their loss. Survivors testified about their own lasting pain, both physical and emotional.

Thomas Nides Admits He ‘Screwed Up’ in Praying for ‘Both Sides’

After Jihad Massacre of Israelis

AUG 4, 2023 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

The latest American official to admit he was wrong in the comment he made about a recent flare-up of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorism and the IDF’s response to it is Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, who has just returned to Washington from his Jerusalem posting, no doubt to return to civilian life as a well-paid member of some think tank, or as a university professor, where he will resume his scolding of Jerusalem. More on Nides can be found here: 

Ex-State Department Officials Admit They Were Wrong

by Stephen M. Flatow, JNS.org, August 1, 2023:

On his way out the door, the retiring U.S. ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, has belatedly acknowledged that he “screwed up” in one of his last major actions.

He’s just the latest in a growing line of U.S. diplomats who have admitted—when it was too late—that they made significant errors in their treatment of Israel. So why does anybody still listen to them when they offer advice on the Arab-Israeli conflict?

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, Nides was asked about his outrageous tweet commenting on the June 20 massacre of four Israelis by Palestinian-Arab terrorists. The four victims were defenseless civilians in a restaurant; their “crime” was eating lunch while Jewish.

Here is Nides’ tweet: “Deeply concerned about the civilian deaths and injuries that have occurred in the West Bank these past 48 hours, including that of minors,” Nides tweeted several hours after the deadly attack in which two Palestinian terrorists murdered four Israelis.

“Praying for the families as they mourn the loss of loved ones, or tend to those injured.”

The tweet was outrageous on multiple levels. Nides equated the Arab slaughter of innocent civilians with Israel’s anti-terrorist operation in Jenin that week; he failed to acknowledge that the victims of the massacre were Jews or that the killers were Arabs; and he lumped Israeli victims and dead Jenin terrorists together, saying that both deserved prayers and mourning.

Since all four of the Israeli victims of the terror attack at the restaurant were known to be adults, Nides must have been referring, when he mentioned “minors,” to those the IDF had unavoidably wounded in the Jenin attack. He did not differentiate between an attack on four innocent Israeli civilians and the IDF attacks in Jenin on terrorists that resulted in 12 killed, all of them members of the terrorist groups PIJ and Hamas. And why did he say he was “praying for the families” of both sides instead of insisting, in morally correct fashion, that he was “praying for the families of those killed in the latest terrorist attack by PIJ”?

Nine days later, when it was too late to make a difference, Nides acknowledged to Israel Hayom: “I screwed up … it was a stupid thing to do.” Unfortunately, he then trotted out assorted excuses: “I had just returned from Los Angeles when I got word of the attack. I was shown a draft of a tweet, and I signed off on it.” Translation: “I was tired, somebody else wrote it, so it wasn’t totally my fault.” Not a very impressive apology.

His quasi-apology, in which he attempted to suggest that his tweet had been written by someone else, and having just come back from a long flight, too tired to focus, he had signed off on it, will not do. And it was only after nine days of protests by Israelis about his tweet that he was ready to admit that he had “screwed up” — a choice of words that minimizes the gravity of his error. 

Nides, who for much of his adult life has been an investment banker, with stints at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, may know all about what the Fed is doing about interest rates, and why the Hang Seng Index is feeling poorly, and no doubt he’s a dab hand at discussing volatility and risk in the bond market, but his job as American Ambassador to Israel required not any of that, but a very different kind of knowledge. 

Nides needed to know the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel over the last 3500 years, and how the Jews in their land fared under many different conquerors, and how, in exile, they continued to long for “Zion and Jerusalem.” He needed to understand the Treaty of San Remo, the Mandate for Palestine (with special attention to Article 6), Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, and UN Security Council Resolution 242, as glossed by its chief author, British ambassador to the U.N. Lord Caradon. He knew none of these things, but he knew well how to speak when he should have refrained. Perhaps in his Hamptons or Jackson Hole or Chilmark retirement, he will learn – it’s never too late —  the fine art of shutting up.

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American Officials Admit Giving ‘Mistaken’ Advice to Israel

AUG 4, 2023 2:00 PM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

For a long time American officials have advised — and often pressured — Israel to make concessions of various kinds to the Arabs. And, upon reflection, some have regretted their advice, or their wrongheaded comments about Israel’s ongoing campaign of self-defense against terror groups, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of advice and comments from Washington. Here is more about officials who have admitted to making “mistaken” comments to, and advice for, Jerusalem: 

Ex-State Department Officials Admit They Were Wrong

by Stephen M. Flatow, JNS.org, August 1, 2023:

…Recall, for example, the infamous episode of Dennis Ross and the terror tunnels.

As a senior aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009, Ross pressured Israel to let Hamas bring concrete into Gaza. Here’s how Ross recalled it: “I argued with Israeli leaders and security officials, telling them they needed to allow more construction materials, including cement, into Gaza so that housing, schools and basic infrastructure could be built. They countered that Hamas would misuse it, and they were right.” That admission came six years too late.

The Israelis, under American pressure that originated with Dennis Ross, had reluctantly agreed to allow much more cement into Gaza where the Israeli fears about the misuse of that building material for military purposes — that Ross had pooh-poohed — proved right. The cement — 600,000 tons of it — was used by Hamas not to build houses and schools, as Ross had said they would, but instead, to construct a vast underground network of tunnels and bunkers, used both to hide weapons and fighters, and to allow them to move undetected throughout the Strip.

Thanks to Ross’s pressure, Hamas built “a labyrinth of underground tunnels, bunkers, command posts and shelters for its leaders, fighters and rockets,” as Ross acknowledged. They built the tunnels with “an estimated 600,000 tons of cement,” some of which was “diverted from construction materials allowed into Gaza” (The Washington Post, Aug. 8, 2014).

600,000 tons of cement were diverted for military purposes by Hamas — that represents quite a whopping error by the egregious Dennis Ross, who was so idiotically certain that cement sent to Gaza would be put only to civilian use.

He also belatedly admitted that he and his colleagues in the Obama administration were wrong to abandon the anti-government protesters in Iran in 2009. It was a chance to undermine and perhaps even topple the most evil regime on earth—and Ross blew it. Writing in the journal Foreign Policy on Jan. 2, 2018, Ross confessed:

“In June 2009, I was serving in President Barack Obama’s administration as the secretary of state’s special advisor on Iran and was part of the decision-making process. Because we feared playing into the hands of the regime and lending credence to its claim that the demonstrations were being instigated from the outside, we adopted a low-key posture. In retrospect, that was a mistake. We should have shined a spotlight on what the regime was doing and mobilized our allies to do the same.”

The 2009 protests nationwide in Iran were the largest since the Iranian Revolution in 1978. The regime’s fate was in the balance. A sign of American and other Western support, for example by raising the matter of the Iranian regime’s murderous suppression of the protesters to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, would have helped to encourage the protesters, might have strengthened their spirits and demoralized elements of the regime, and possibly helped to topple the Islamic Republic at its moment of maximum peril. Instead, there were no words of support from Washington officials, no encouragement on Voice of America’s Farsi channel, no emergency meeting of the General Assembly called to discuss Iran, and no promises of assistance of any kind were made to the protesters. The Tehran regime went about its business of suppressing the protests with extreme violence. The American reluctance to get involved, Ross now admits, was a grievous error. The Iranian regime was going to blame the Americans in any case for being behind the demonstrations, so Washington had little to lose, and much to gain, by actually helping the protesters.

And don’t forget the case of Aaron Miller and the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

In an op-ed in 2010 in The Washington Post, Miller revealed that he was the U.S. State Department official who came up with the plan to have Yasser Arafat visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998 in order to help Arafat improve his public image.

In the article, Miller acknowledged that his plan would have meant “appropriating the memory” of the Holocaust for narrow political purposes, and therefore was “one of the dumbest ideas in the annals of U.S. foreign policy” (The Washington Post, Aug. 18, 2010)….

Miller’s “bright idea” was to help Arafat burnish his image by having him visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum, so as to assure Jews, and pro-Israel politicians, of his understanding and sympathy. Of course had Arafat taken Miller’s advice, he would have been hailed by the New York Times and the Washington Post for this “generous gesture.” His lifetime of antisemitic pronouncements would be forgotten in this Potemkin visit. Fortunately Aaron Miller’s public relations effort for the world’s then-leading antisemite, a worthy heir of Hajj Amin el Husseini, came to naught. Miller, of course, from his new base at a Washington think-tank, continues to offer his bright ideas for Israeli territorial concessions that, were Jerusalem to follow them, would seriously weaken the Jewish state.

Remember the First, Second, and Third Rogers plans? The Kissinger Plan? The Baker Plan? So many disastrous American plans to force Israeli concessions which Israel, fortunately, has consistently rejected.

Now the Bidenites are continuing with the same anti-Israel folly. In order to win Saudi agreement to join the Abraham Accords, the Americans may be willing to provide the Kingdom with what it most wants: first, an ironclad defense pact; second, American help in establishing a civilian nuclear program in the Kingdom; third, an American willingness to provide the Saudi military with access to advanced American weapons. Those three concessions ought to be more than enough to get the Saudis to agree to join the Accords, but the Bidenites want to sweeten the pot still more for the Crown Prince, by obtaining from Israel a commitment not to annex any part of the West Bank, and to stop all building of new, or enlarging of existing, settlements. These are concessions that no Israeli government, especially the present one, is prepared to make.

Washington officials and American diplomats should stop trying to interfere with what the Israeli government feels it must do in order to defend the people of Israel, stop scolding Israel for its attempts to punish terrorists in their lairs, and instead of minimizing the ever-increasing terrorist threat, the administration should publicly recognize that there were 5000 terror attacks — almost all of them failed — on Israelis in 2022. Washington officials should stop ignoring the Mandate for Palestine’s provisions that give the Jews the right to build their Jewish state on “state and waste lands,” as well as on land abandoned by, or bought from, Arab owners, in all the territory “from the river to the sea.” And the Bidenites should stop interjecting themselves into Israeli domestic policy quarrels, as with the judicial reform that Biden has Insisted on denouncing, pontificating on a matter that is none of his business.

That’s what I’d call a good start. I hope you agree.

Iran: Pro-regime actress arrested for wishing Netanyahu

a speedy recovery

AUG 4, 2023 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

The Iranian media is claiming that she criticized government officials and called for protests, and while that is possible, she supported Raisi and the execution of protestors before. This is the gratitude she gets from the mullahs for her support.

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Iranian actress arrested for wishing Netanyahu speedy recovery

by Tzvi Joffre, Jerusalem Post, July 29, 2023:

Iranian actress Shohreh Ghamar was arrested after writing that she was praying for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s health in an Instagram story…

Ghamar was arrested on suspicion of “publishing offensive content and unsubstantiated claims”…

The Iranian Fars News Agency shared screenshots of Instagram stories it said were posted by the actress, including one with a photo of Netanyahu with the text “I prayed a lot for your health.”…

…she criticized government officials for threatening to destroy Iran. Fars News Agency additionally claimed that Ghamar called for protests.

A video of Ghamar starring in a promotional video for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s campaign was shared on social media as well, after her arrest. According to Radio Farda, Ghamar also expressed support for the execution of a death sentence against three protesters who took part in protests in 2018.

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The Media is the Message > Shifting Narrative on Covid-19; Reporter Dramatizes Report; NPR and Activism; The Lucrative Anti-Russian Conspiratorial

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Sudden Shift in COVID-19 Lab Leak Narrative ‘Mysterious’:

Evolutionary Biologist

BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN AND JAN JEKIELEK

July 2, 2021 

The sudden shift in narrative over the possibility that COVID-19 could have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, is mysterious and contingent to “just how corrupt our system has become,” according to evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein.

Weinstein, biologist and co-host of the DarkHorse Podcast, has since last year explored the possibility that COVID-19 could have emerged from a laboratory. He told Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program (episode premiering on Sat. July 3) that the fact that the hypothesis is now receiving widespread recognition from the international community is “completely mysterious.”

“My channel was very early on this topic, and it was quite clear to many of us, starting with the tremendous coincidence of this virus having emerged first in Wuhan, where there is a biosafety level four lab studying these very viruses and enhancing them,” said Weinstein. “It was quite clear that there was at least a viable hypothesis that needed to be discussed.

I discussed this 14 months ago.

Weinstein, a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton University, said that before the narrative surrounding the COVID-19 lab leak theory gained traction, those who did discuss it were stigmatized, demonized and “portrayed as everything from racist to reactionary.”

“All we were doing was following the evidence,” Weinstein continued. “The change in that story was, I have to say, completely mysterious.”

While the theory that the virus was the result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was labeled a “conspiracy theory” last year, it has recently gained traction as a growing number of scientists and officials have lent credence to the hypothesis.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

A January State Department fact sheet raised questions about whether the outbreak could have been the result of a lab accident at WIV. It said the United States has “reason to believe” that several WIV researchers became sick with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses in autumn 2019. The department also said the lab had been conducting secret military experiments on animals since at least 2017, and that it has a history of conducting gain-of-function research on viruses. Such research involves modifying viruses to have new or enhanced capabilities.

The absolute madness of this research is stunning!

President Joe Biden on May 26 ordered the intelligence community to produce a report in 90 days on the origins of the virus, saying that intelligence agencies are looking at rival theories, including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China.

Weinstein criticized the explanations provided in recent weeks by “all of those who had gotten the story wrong” after the lab leak theory gained wider recognition.

PolitiFact, for example, on May 24 quietly retracted a September 2020 fact check that labeled a Hong Kong virologist’s claim that COVID-19 originated in a lab as inaccurate and a “debunked conspiracy theory.”

“The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous,” the now-archived fact check previously said. “We rate it Pants on Fire!”

In an updated editor’s note, PolitiFact explained why it removed the label.

“When this fact-check was first published in September 2020, PolitiFact’s sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more widely disputed,” the note said. “For that reason, we are removing this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review. Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in dispute.”

Separately, the Washington Post quietly walked back its claims regarding the COVID-19 lab leak theory.

The paper in February 2020 published an article claiming the idea was a “conspiracy theory” that had been “debunked.” The article attacked Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who called for an investigation into the origins of the CCP virus.

Some reporters have said that they disregarded the lab leak theory because Republicans were largely the ones promoting the idea.

Weinstein described the phenomenon as “a headlong rush, by all of those who had gotten the story wrong to explain themselves—and their explanations made less than no sense.”

He said that certain journalists or media outlets “seemed to center on the fact that because [former President] Donald Trump had been favorable to the idea that this might have emerged from a lab, that that made it not true.”

“Which, of course, is such an illogical conclusion that it’s hard to imagine how anybody who considers himself a journalist could for a moment have been misled,” he continued. “I mean, at worst, if you thought everything that Donald Trump said was a lie—at worst, you would have to take it as no evidence either way.

“But that’s not how people treated it. They treated it almost as if the truth was always the opposite of what he said.”

Other outlets have also corrected or quietly updated stories, including Vox, while Facebook stopped banning posts suggesting the virus was man-made.

Weinstein said that he believes it eventually became “impossible to maintain the public lie that a laboratory version was somehow in conflict with the evidence.”

“And we now know from Dr. Fauci, his emails, that behind the scenes, the top people didn’t believe it either. They were just simply feeding the public a line that they had their own reasons for wanting the public to believe,” he said.

“It is contingent on the several different stories that surround COVID-19, revealing to us just how corrupt our system has become.”

German TV reporter suspended by RTL after smearing mud on herself

to dramatize on-scene report from deadly flood's aftermath

22 Jul, 2021 21:48 

RTL's Susanna Ohlen is shown in a screenshot, reporting on the flood damage ©  web.archive.org / RTL

German television reporter Susanna Ohlen was caught on video apparently trying to muddy herself before going on camera to report from a town devastated by last week’s deadly flooding, prompting her suspension by news outlet RTL.

Videos posted Thursday on social media showed Ohlen in the town of Bad Munstereifel, appearing to wipe mud on herself as her camera crew stood by. An online RTL report, which has since been deleted, said, “Numerous prominent helpers also lend a hand and actively support local people. One of them is Susanna Ohlen.”

The broadcaster issued a statement on Thursday afternoon saying that Ohlen had been suspended. “Our reporter's approach clearly contradicts journalistic principles and our own standards,” RTL said. “We therefore gave her a leave of absence on Monday, after we heard about it.”

As social media users pointed out, the media outlet made no mention of the embarrassing incident or its disciplinary action until days later, when the footage of Ohlen’s actions came to light. “Have you publicly discussed this incident and your moderator’s leave of absence or are we only now finding out about it because the video is currently making the rounds?” one Twitter commenter asked the broadcaster.

The 39-year-old Ohlen also reportedly posted a clip of herself on Instagram earlier, saying, “Everyone lends a hand here, grabs a shovel. If you have a shovel at home or a wheelbarrow, come here and get in touch.” She added that she has a holiday home near Bad Munstereifel, making the devastation even more emotional for her, “but of course, people stand together here. You help each other.”

At least 173 people were killed in Germany in the horrific floods, which hit some areas with the most rain seen in more than 100 years. German officials said on Thursday that they fear 158 people still missing may never be found.

NPR allows its reporters to join BLM and LGBT activists,

as long as the cause is ‘freedom and dignity’

29 Jul, 2021 18:05

People celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, at Black Lives Matter Plaza

in Washington, DC, June 19, 2021 © Reuters / Ken Cedeno

NPR has overhauled its ethics rules and will now let its reporters march in BLM protests and pride parades. Some commenters say the move blurs the line between journalism and activism. Others say NPR’s already way past that line.

National Public Radio updated its two-decade-old ethics policy earlier this month, with the liberal outlet explaining the change on Thursday. While reporters were once forbidden from taking part in “marches, rallies and public events,” that blanket ban has been lifted.

Now, NPR reporters can “express support for democratic, civic values...such as, but not limited to: the freedom and dignity of human beings, the rights of a free and independent press, the right to thrive in society without facing discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, disability, or religion.”

Campaigning for specific politicians and policies is still off the table, as is donating money to political causes. However, the list of permitted activities is broad and vague. In an article explaining the new policy, NPR’s Kelly McBride stated that marching in a Black Lives Matter protest would probably be allowed, as would taking part in an LGBT pride parade.

“But in practice, NPR journalists will have to discuss specific decisions with their bosses, who in turn will have to ask a lot of questions,” McBride wrote.

Democratic politicians, and some Republicans, regularly stump at pride parades, and the slogans and icons of BLM are utilized by Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration itself. While some see these movements as advocating for “the freedom and dignity of human beings,” many see them as overtly political. 

Commenters online didn’t trust NPR management to enforce the policy fairly, given the persistent accusations of heavy liberal bias leveled at the taxpayer-funded outlet.

And given the fact that anti-abortion activists view themselves as sticking up for the “dignity of human beings,” one commenter wondered if bosses at the network, which is overwhelmingly pro-choice, would sign off on a reporter taking part in a pro-life demonstration.

Others saw the change as redundant, for the same reasons.

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Anti-Russia crusader McFaul says helping destroy US-Moscow relations

worth it because of ‘million-dollar salary’ & ‘adoring fans’

2 Aug, 2021 08:49

FILE PHOTO. US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul speaking live at the Echo of Moscow radio station. 21.02.2014 © Sputnik / Sergey Kuznecov

By Bryan MacDonald

Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Moscow who has since transitioned into one of Russia’s most vociferous and omnipresent critics, has revealed online that the move from diplomat to info warrior has been a lucrative one.

On Sunday, an anonymous Twitter user posted an exchange with the ubiquitous anti-Moscow activist, who teaches international studies at Stanford University, and writes a column for the Washington Post, when he's not on television peddling conspiracy theories.

Asked whether he would be concerned about being granted a visa to visit Russia again, the former advisor to US President Barack Obama said that he was more than comfortable commenting on the country from afar.

“I have a job for life at the best university in the world,” he said. “I live in a giant house in paradise. I make close to a million dollars a year. I have adoring fans on TV and a half million followers on Twitter, 99% who also admire me. I’m doing just fine without a damn visa from Russia.”

In reply, the Twitter user shot back that “all of that perfectly exemplifies the fact that American meritocracy is just a myth.” For the riposte, the account was reportedly blocked by the ex-diplomat.

In a subsequent Tweet posted late Sunday night, McFaul confirmed the exchange was real, saying “I wrote that message in a private channel. I did not expect it to be published.” However, he went on, “it was still a mistake. It was arrogant and idiotic.” According to him, “a swarm of Russian trolls was accusing me of failure, and I responded in a most unprofessional way.”

Despite claiming to be targeted primarily by shadowy Russians online, McFaul has drawn no end of criticism from fellow Western commentators and analysts who see his approach to the country as out of touch with its reality. Journalist Glenn Greenwald said McFaul was assuming the user was “a Kremlin agent unless he immediately provided his real name, but that probably goes without saying. Everyone is a Kremlin agent to these elite conspiratorial loons.”

McFaul served as US ambassador to Moscow for two years, leaving the post as the Ukraine crisis boiled over, in 2014. His time in the Russian capital was controversial, with many establishment figures believing the accidental diplomat was meddling in the country’s domestic political affairs. In a 2012 interview with the website Slon, McFaul described himself as “specialist on democracy, anti-dictator movements, revolutions.” Furthermore, he had written a 2005 paper on “American Efforts at Promoting Regime Change in the Soviet Union and then Russia.”

After his return to the US, McFaul became a vocal critic of the Russian government, primarily through his Twitter account. This led to appearances on American cable television shows, and op-ed space in mainstream newspapers. If his claim of a close to one-million-dollar annual income is true, it appears he has fabulously monetised this "sideline."

The professor’s real fame kicked off when he positioned himself as perhaps the loudest proponent of the conspiracy theory that became known as ‘Russiagate’. McFaul helped feed paranoia among those aligned to the Democratic Party about supposed Russian meddling, with his former diplomatic status adding heft to the fake allegations – claiming, for example, that “Russia attacked us” and pushing fantastical, partisan, and often outright delusional, talking points.

This led to a punditry gig at MSNBC, where he helped feed the Russiagate narrative, often with Rachel Maddow. The style was more "news entertainment" than what would be considered journalism in most of the civilized world.

McFaul’s carry-on raised eyebrows in Moscow, where many wondered how a man with considerable genuine expertise on Russia ended up going down such a path.

A view often expressed to this writer by academic and political Russians (many of them opposition-minded) was that the tragedy of the former ambassador is that he could have used his status to work towards improving perceptions of Russia (and Russians as a people) in the US, but instead he chose to promote xenophobia and cash in on a conspiracy theory he knew was completely false.

Just last night, a close Kremlin advisor privately messaged to say “we always knew that he was fantastically stupid, but we didn’t realise it was to this extent,” after seeing the Twitter exchange.

Back in 2018, the Russian prosecutor general’s office announced it would be eager to speak with McFaul in connection with allegations made against Bill Browder, a former pro-Kremlin financier who has since led the charge on anti-Moscow sanctions. Browder, once a prominent supporter of Vladimir Putin, turned against Moscow after being accused of evading $40 million in taxes.

Former President Donald Trump, asked by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin about the request, described it as “an interesting idea.” American lawmakers later voted against the idea of making former diplomats available for interrogation.

While the think tank racket, and American cable news, provide healthy stipends to those whose analysis of the world neatly fits with the goals of embedded US foreign policy, and McFaul’s California pad may well be plush, at least one of his claims may not be demonstrably accurate. A Twitter Audit report, while far from the most scientific of techniques, claims that almost 40% of the esteemed professor’s followers are fake accounts.

Whether this apparent shadow army of bot accounts has been provided by the Kremlin in an effort to elevate McFaul’s hot takes about the country, or paid for by the former ambassador himself, is unclear.

U.S. Recalls Ambassador to Zambia After Dispute Over Gay Rights

By Don Jacobson

Zambian President Edgar Lungu told U.S. officials he would no longer work with the American diplomat.

File Photo bu Harish Tyagi/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- The United States has recalled its ambassador to Zambia after he waded into a dispute over gay and lesbian rights with the president of the southern African nation.

The U.S. State Department confirmed Monday it has recalled diplomat Daniel Foote after it was told Zambian President Edgar Lungu would no longer work with him.

Saying they were "dismayed" by Lungu's stance, U.S. officials conceded Foote's position in Zambia was "no longer tenable" after the American envoy last month criticized 15-year prison sentences handed down to two gay men convicted of having sex. Sexual relations among gay Zambians, even consensual, is outlawed.

The department said there are no immediate plans to send another diplomat to Zambia, Bloomberg reported.

"Despite this action, the United States remains committed to our partnership with the Zambian people," a State Department spokesperson said, emphasizing that the United States "firmly opposes abuses against" lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.

Zambian Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji first registered displeasure with Foote last month after the U.S. ambassador said he was "horrified" at the long prison terms imposed on the gay men.

Malanji said the government strongly disagreed with Foote's view, and concluded that his questioning Zambian courts "is tantamount to questioning the Zambian Constitution."

Pakistan Summons Norwegian Ambassador Amid Outcry Over Koran Burning at Rally in Kristiansand

Islamabad expressed “deep concern” and launched a diplomatic action over the burning of the Koran in Norway, while the man who tried to save the book earned high praise on Pakistani social media.

Last week, a young Muslim counter-protester tackled Lars Thorsen, the head of the Stop Islamization of Norway (SIAN), after he set a copy of the Koran on fire at an anti-Muslim rally in the city of Kristiansand. The video of the incident caused a strong reaction in Pakistan, where the man reportedly named Ilyas Umer was hailed as hero on social media for trying to “save” the most-revered book in Islam.

Warning - the noises in this video are a little disturbing

video 0:45

The nation’s Foreign Ministry even summoned the Norwegian Ambassador over the weekend to tell him that Thorsen’s actions “hurt the sentiments of 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, including those in Pakistan.”

The Ministry said that Koran-burning “could not be justified in the name of freedom of expression,” and urged Oslo to “prevent” such incidents from happening in the future.

An online petition was launched, calling on the police to release the man, dubbed “Ilyas the Koran Defender.”

The army’s spokesperson Asif Ghafoor also took to his personal Twitter account praise him for trying to stop Thorsen. “Salute to brave #Ilyas for displaying courage to stop an absolutely deplorable action,” he wrote.

Asif Ghafoor✔

@peaceforchange

Salute to brave #Ilyas for displaying courage to stop an absolutely deplorable action. Such Islamophobia based provocations only promote hatred & extremism.  All religions are and must stay respectable. Islamophbia is threat to global peace and harmony.#TheGloriousQuran#Norway

Meanwhile, protesters burnt Norwegian and US flags in Karachi, denouncing what they said was the desecration of the Koran.

Anti-Muslim actions overseas have in the past sparked demonstrations in Pakistan. In 2010, rallies were held in Pakistani cities after controversial Florida-based pastor Terry Jones announced plans to burn the Koran. Two years later, a massive protest was staged in front of the US embassy in Karachi against the American film ‘Innocence of Muslims’, which was deemed blasphemous by the local Muslim community.

Man Behind Anti-Islamic Film Sentenced To Another Year In Prison

November 7, 2012 • Mark Basseley Youssef admitted to violating four of eight conditions of his probation. He'd previously served 21 months in prison for bank fraud. His film, Innocence of Muslims, which depicted Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, sparked violence in the Muslim world.

NATO's Only Purpose - To Sell Weapons for America

European governments are just beginning to see through the bullying of USA/NATO for the reality that it is - sales tactics for US armaments. Russophobia, or is it Russohysteria, is an integral part of it.

‘NATO solidarity clause is called Article 5, not article F-35’ – French defense minister

(L) Lockheed Martin F-35B © Reuters / US Air Force / Staff Sgt. Joely Santiago; (R) French forces

© Reuters / Guillaume Horcajuelo

Europe must move away from full dependency on American weapon supplies, the French defense minister stressed, slamming President Donald Trump’s “conditional” approach towards NATO and his European allies.

Expressing concern that Trump’s idea of NATO’s solidarity is “conditional on allies buying this or that equipment,” the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, wondered if the US commitment to the military block will continue to be “perennial.”

The alliance should be unconditional, otherwise,

it is not an alliance. NATO’s solidarity clause

is called Article 5, not article F-35.

Despite the White House pushing their allies to buy more American weapons, developing European autonomous capabilities in the military field is crucial to national security and essential to moving away from Washington's dominance, Parly argued, noting the US arms industry currently supplies NATO with 100 percent of its strategic bombers and missile defense systems, 92 percent of its drones, and 91 percent of its air tankers.

US arms industry currently supplies NATO with

100 percent of its strategic bombers and missile defense systems,

92 percent of its drones, and

91 percent of its air tankers.

In January, Germany’s Ministry of Defense officially ruled out purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to replace its aging Tornado fleet and is currently considering upgrading its air power to a fourth-generation Eurofighter Typhoon. Competing against the Franco-German armaments cooperation is Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet. Unlike the Typhoon, the F-18 is certified to carry US-made nuclear bombs as part of NATO's nuclear sharing agreement.

While stressing that France and other NATO allies will do their “best” to spend two percent of their GDP on defense, Parly also called on the US to respect the “autonomy” of European nations to build up their own defense bloc independent of NATO.

“Building a European autonomy should never be seen as a move against the United States,” Parly told the Atlantic Council, in reference to the idea of a joint European Defense Force as advocated by French President Emmanuel Macron. “We need to step up to help without waiting for the US to always foot the bill.”

Weary of Donald Trump’s NATO diplomacy and use of European security as a bargaining chip, last year French President Emmanuel Macron resurrected a decades-old idea of creating a “real European army” independent from its key partner on the other side of the Atlantic. While Germany voiced support for Macron's proposition to better protect the continent against the perceived Russian threat, Trump found the idea simply “insulting,” reiterating that NATO members must spend two per cent of GDP on their protection.

Russia is no threat to Europe and hasn't been since Glasnost. NATO is entirely obsolete except for the hysteria they have created about Russia. This, and arms sales, is the only reason for NATO's continued existence. They should have been disbanded almost 30 years ago. 

I believe in the past 28 years, NATO has contributed to several wars, revolutions and rumours of wars (ie fear-mongering). They are a danger to peace on earth and a colossal waste of time and money. That's just my humble opinion!

Germany: US ambassador Richard Grenell should be expelled,

says FDP deputy leader

US Ambassador Richard Grenell is acting like "a high commissioner of an occupying power," the deputy leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) has said. Grenell has also drawn rebuffs from Germany's two governing parties.

 US Ambassador Richard Grenell in 2018 (Getty Images/O. Andersen)

Wolfgang Kubicki, the deputy chairman of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), said Richard Grenell's repeated interference in German sovereignty should prompt Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to immediately declare Grenell persona non grata.

"Any US diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits," said Kubicki, who is also one of five deputy speakers of Germany's Bundestag parliament.

Wolfgang Kubicki during a plenary session of the Bundestag (picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka)

Grenell had on Tuesday criticized Germany's military spending plans within NATO as insufficient, prompting Kubicki to accuse the envoy of "interfering" repeatedly in political issues of a sovereign country.

Grenell's criticism of Germany's defense spending came weeks after he demanded that Berlin halt Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline being laid across the Baltic Sea to deliver gas from Russia to Germany, and threatened firms involved in the project with sanctions.

The USA does not want Russia's Nordstream 2 gas pipeline to be completed because they want Europe to buy American gas even though it would be considerably more expensive.

Carsten Schneider, caucus manager of the Social Democrats (SPD) within the parliament, told the German news agency DPA on Tuesday that "Mr Grenell is a complete diplomatic failure."

Grenell's behavior, said Schneider, reminded him of "a flail," a farmyard term for somebody who thrashes around wildly, adding that "Mr Grenell damages trans-Atlantic relations with his repeated clumsy provocations."

Turkey Can't Have Both F-35s and Russian Missile System,

NATO Commander Says

FILE - In this file photo taken Dec. 16, 2015 and provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service,

Russian S-400 long-range air defense missile systems are deployed at Hemeimeem air base in Syria.

(Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

Military.com | By Richard Sisk

Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti said Tuesday that the U.S. should block sales of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkey if it goes ahead with its plan to buy the advanced S-400 anti-air missile system from Russia.

"My best military advice is that we don't follow through" on supplying F-35s to NATO ally Turkey unless it backs out of the S-400 deal with Moscow, said Scaparrotti, who is dual-hatted as head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Scaparrotti said he has two reasons for objecting to Turkey getting the S-400 system, which Russia has billed as a weapons system to counter the F-35 in its sales pitch to Turkey, Arab states and China.

"If they accept the S-400 to establish it in Turkey, there is first the issue that it's not interoperable with NATO systems, nor is it interoperable inside of our integrated missile defense system," he said.

"The second has to do with the F-35. It presents a problem to all of our aircraft, but specifically the F-35, I believe," Scaparrotti said.

And the real reason is, they want Turkey to buy American made missile defense systems!!!

The dispute over the F-35 sale comes at a time of increasing friction between the U.S. and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over concerns about the way forward in Syria as the U.S. plans to withdraw troops, as well as Turkey's growing ties with Iran and Russia.

Since 2017, Turkey has been negotiating the estimated $2.5 billion purchase of the mobile S-400 system, dubbed the SA-21 Growler by NATO and called the Triumf system by Russia.

In a two-day visit to Turkey last April, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "A priority task in the sphere of military technical cooperation is the implementation of the contract for supplies of S-400 Triumf missile systems to Turkey."

Then-Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said that Turkey was turning to Moscow after the U.S. and NATO allies refused help in upgrading its air defenses. "They don't agree to the transfer of technologies in the sphere of air defense systems to us" and "do not make price concessions," he said.

Under previous agreements with the U.S., Turkey also had plans to buy more than 100 F-35As, the conventional takeoff and landing model of the stealth fighter. Turkish pilots are already training on the F-35 at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.

"I can confirm we have two Turkish jets [from the proposed sale] here at Luke flying in the 63rd Fighter Squadron and several Turkish pilots in training to fly the F-35," 56th Fighter Wing spokeswoman Maj. Rebecca Heyse said Tuesday. "All our jets at Luke are pooled within the squadrons, so on any day U.S. pilots assigned to the 63rd could be flying Turkish or USAF jets while the Turkish pilots could be flying Turkish or USAF jets."

To counter the Russian S-400 sale, the U.S. State Department in December approved the potential sale to Turkey of the Patriot missile system and related equipment for $3.5 billion.

The U.S. offer, if it were accepted by Turkey and approved by Congress, would include 80 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM-T), 60 PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles, and related equipment, the State Department said.

"This is a huge decision for Turkey. I would hope that they reconsider this one decision on S-400," Scaparrotti said under questioning by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, at the hearing.

On Tuesday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer and James Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria, were in Ankara for meetings with their Turkish counterparts. Palmer was expected to focus on the S-400 sale and the potential risk that going ahead with the deal would scrap the U.S. agreement to sell F-35s to Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.

In other words, we don't care if we've signed a contract; you buy our Patriot system or forget the F-35s. Personally, I think they should forget the F-35s. 

Bags Containing $9.6M in Cash Spark Standoff at Somalia Airport

Corruption is Everywhere - UAE, Somalia

By Sommer Brokaw  

Somalia's security officials seized nearly $10 million over the weekend that arrived at Aden Abdulle Airport

in Mogadishu, Somalia. File Photo Dai Kurokawa/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Authorities have started an investigation into bags containing nearly $10 million that arrived on a plane at a Somali airport over the weekend.

Somalia security officials found the money in three unmarked bags on a Royal Jet plane at the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia's interior ministry said.

Royal Jet is a luxury airline based in the United Arab Emirates.

"The seized money is worth $9.6 million," the minister said. "Security agencies are currently investigating where the money came from, where it was going, the individuals involved and the reason for bringing money worth this amount into the country."

Senior security officials told Voice of America the three money bags have been placed in Somalia's central bank for storage.

Officials said the money was seized after diplomat Mohammed Ahmed Othman Al Hammadi's entourage tried to take it out of the airport, but security instructed them to have them scanned.

"The ambassador refused, walked back to the plane with three bags, and counterterrorism units confiscated the three bags," one officer said.

Al Hammadi told VOA the money was not intended for the UAE embassy, but rather the ministry of defense.

"It's for the salary of the Somali soldiers," he said.

Which Somali soldiers, is the question?

The seizure resulted in a standoff for hours between airport officials and UAE embassy staff.

Somalia and UAE relations have been tense since last June when Somalia decided to remain neutral in Persian Gulf political matters.

UK's Claims Questioned: Doubts Voiced About Source of Salisbury Novichok

Former British Ambassador questions his government's

and NATO's actions

Porton Down scientists revealed it cannot confirm Russia was behind the attack

on ex-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia

Ewen MacAskill Defence correspondent
The Guardian

Theresa May with Wiltshire police’s chief constable, Kier Pritchard, in Salisbury on Thursday. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

Russia's chemical weapons destroyed

It was a historic moment largely ignored at the time by most of the world’s media and might have remained so but for the attack in Salisbury. At a ceremony last November at the headquarters of the world body responsible for the elimination of chemical weapons in The Hague, a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the destruction of the last of Russia’s stockpiles.

Gen Ahmet Üzümcü, the director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which works closely with the UN, was fulsome in his praise. “This is a major achievement,” he said. The 192-member body had seemingly overseen and verified the destruction of Russia’s entire stock of chemical weapons, all 39,967 metric tons.

Where did novichok come from?

The question now is whether all of Russia’s chemical weapons were destroyed and accounted for. Theresa May – having identified the nerve agent used in the Salisbury attack as novichok, developed in Russia – told the Commons on Wednesday that Russia had offered no explanation as to why it had “an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law”. Jeremy Corbyn introduced a sceptical note, questioning whether there was any evidence as to the location of its production.

The exchanges provoked a debate echoing the one that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq over whether UN weapons inspectors had overseen the destruction of all the weapons of mass destruction in the country or whether Saddam Hussein had retained secret hidden caches.

On social media, there were arguments that the novichok could have come from some part of the former Soviet Union other than Russia, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan or Ukraine, or some non-state group, maybe criminals.

The years following the fall of the Berlin Wall were chaotic, with chemical weapons laboratories and storage sites across the Soviet Union abandoned by staff who were no longer being paid. Security was almost non-existent, leaving the sites at the mercy of criminal gangs or disenchanted staff looking to supplement their income.

“Could somebody have smuggled something out?” Amy Smithson, a US-based biological and chemical weapons expert, said to Reuters. “I certainly wouldn’t rule that possibility out, especially a small amount and particularly in view of how lax the security was at Russian chemical facilities in the early 1990s.”

It took almost a decade before order was restored, in part through stockpiles being transferred to Russia from other parts of the former Soviet Union and in part through help from US and other western experts.

Novichok was developed at a laboratory complex in Shikhany, in central Russia, according to a British weapons expert, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, and a Russian chemist involved in the chemical weapons programme, Vil Mirzayanov, who later defected to the US. Mirzayanov said the novichok was tested at Nukus, in Uzbekistan.

British Diplomat questions premature blaming of Russia

The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who visited the site at Nukus, said it had been dismantled with US help. He is among those advocating scepticism about the UK placing blame on Russia.

In a blog post, he wrote: “The same people who assured you Saddam Hussein had WMDs now assure you Russian ‘novichok’ nerve agents are being wielded by Vladimir Putin to attack people on British soil.”

A Russian lawyer, Boris Kuznetsov, told Reuters he was offering to pass to the British authorities a file he said might be relevant to the Salisbury case. It details an incident when poison hidden in a phone receiver killed a Russian banker and his secretary in 1995. The poison came from an employee at the state chemical facility who sold it through intermediaries – in an ampule placed in a presentation case – to help reduce his debts.

The UK government case rests not just on its argument that novichok was developed in Russia, but what it says is past form, a record of Russian state-sponsored assassination of former spies.

Murray, in a phone interview, is undeterred, determined to challenge the government line, in spite of having been subjected to a level of abuse on social media he had not experienced before.

“There is no evidence it was Russia. I am not ruling out that it could be Russia, though I don’t see the motive. I want to see where the evidence lies,” Murray said. “Anyone who expresses scepticism is seen as an enemy of the state.”

"Your either with us or your against us!" Remember that line as the US martialled support for the invasion of Iraq. When you are trying to propagandize something, dissenters are treated as enemies, even though those perpetrating the propaganda know very well the dissenters are right to question the lies and the premature conclusions.

Murray went on to say, (admittedly to RT):

“a fortnight ago sources inside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told him they were 'under pressure' to say it was made in Russia" but they knew they were unable to do so.

He said: "What we have seen today is news management because the Government had to get over the hurdle the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will shortly be telling people there is no evidence this came from Russia.

"The Government decided for damage limitation it was best Porton Down came out and said that first. We will see careful news management over the next day or two.”

Porton Down scientists said “a state” was likely to be behind the attack, because of the complexity of the agent. However, Murray said there is evidence to the contrary.

He said: “The probably in the statement is very important, there are many people including David Colum, professor of organic chemistry at Cornell University, who says it’s just not true it has to be a state and any of his senior students could make it.”

“If you watch the interview, the sentence where he says it would probably need a state to make it is tacked on to the end. If you look closely, not only has the shot changed, the camera and tripod have actually moved. I strongly suspect government handlers who would have been in that room watching him were unhappy with his interview and wanted something which implicated Russia more, so added a bit onto the end.”

Murray said a minimum of a couple of dozen states could make it. He also said this “ought to be an investigation into a serious crime” investigated appropriately to find proof.

He said: “We are told probably this and likely that, well that is not the way criminal verdicts are found.

“This quite simply feeds into a desire by NATO members in particular to step up the cold war and enhance confrontation with Russia. This has to be seen in a wider geopolitical context. Within that context the last thing the politicians care about is the truth about what happened in Salisbury.”

'The UK and its NATO friends have attempted to

“step up the Cold War” with Russia and have failed'