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October 2016

Closing Out 2016’s ‘Summer of Terror’: Over the Past 90 Days, 20 Terror Attacks in Western Countries By Patrick Poole

On the evening July 14, citizens and tourists gathered on the promenade in Nice, France, to celebrate Bastille Day, but the night would end in horror as the celebrations turned into the largest terrorist attack during 2016’s ‘Summer of Terror.’

The Nice attack, which took place just 90 days ago, would mark the midpoint of a near-constant stream of terror attacks in the West that began with the June 12 mass shooting at The Pulse night club in Orlando by Omar Mateen.

Since the Nice attack at least 20 terror attacks in Western countries have been committed—one nearly every 100 hours.

That pace is just slightly off from how this year’s “Summer of Terror” began. Two weeks after the Nice attack I noted that the pace was nearly one every 84 hours:

ISIS inspired or directed attacks outside Syria/Iraq occurring once every 84 hours since June 8 https://t.co/0Lh5LgphhF

— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) July 26, 2016

That statistic ended up widely circulated in the media, and the attacks would continue up through this past weekend, with this year’s recently concluded summer earning its moniker.

Hillary’s Leaked Memo Accuses Saudi Arabia and Qatar of Supporting Terror Groups Clinton’s explosive memo accuses the Saudi and Qatari governments of terror support and refers to past U.S. plans to arm Syrian fighters. By Andrew C. McCarthy

As has been widely reported this week, Hillary Clinton has accused the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar of “providing financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups.” She made this explosive claim in a memorandum outlining what is portrayed as her nine-point plan to defeat the Islamic State (the jihadist network also known as “ISIL” and “ISIS”) in Iraq and Syria.

The allegation against these two regimes is far from the only bombshell in the memo, which Mrs. Clinton sent to the White House in August 2014, a year and a half after she had stepped down as secretary of state. She sent it to John Podesta, who was then a top adviser to President Obama and is now the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign. The memo is included in the trove of e-mails hacked from Podesta’s accounts and published by WikiLeaks in recent days.

Another passage that has thus far received little attention is this one (the italics are mine):

We should return to plans to provide the FSA [i.e., the Free Syrian Army], or some group of moderate forces, with equipment that will allow them to deal with a weakened ISIL, and stepped up operations against the Syrian regime.

There has been no small amount of controversy regarding Obama-administration plans to arm so-called rebels fighting Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria — including questions about Mrs. Clinton’s knowledge of those plans. In particular, Congress has inquired about the administration’s participation in the shipment of weapons from Libyan Islamists to the Syrian rebels, including in 2012, while Clinton was still secretary of state.

As I noted in a recent column, one major weapons shipment from Benghazi to Turkey for eventual transit to Syria occurred just days before jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda murdered four American officials in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. One of the officials killed was J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador to Benghazi who reported directly to Clinton — both in that capacity and in his earlier capacity as Obama-administration liaison to Islamist groups the Obama administration was supporting in Libya’s civil war. Siding with Islamists against the regime of Moammar Qaddafi, which was previously touted by the State Department as a key counterterrorism ally, was a policy spearheaded by Secretary Clinton.

The September 2012 weapons shipment was coordinated by Abdelhakim Belhadj, an al-Qaeda–affiliated jihadist with whom Stevens had consulted during the uprising against Qaddafi. Belhadj, one of the Islamists empowered by the Obama-Clinton Libya policy, took control of the Libyan Military Council after Qaddafi was overthrown. The 400 tons of weapons he dispatched from Benghazi arrived in Turkey the week before Stevens was killed. The ambassador’s last meeting in Benghazi, just before the September 11 siege, was with Turkey’s consul general.

While under oath in early-2013 Senate testimony, Clinton denied any personal knowledge of weapons shipments from Benghazi to other countries.

CLINTON FOUNDATION TIES BEDEVIL HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN FROM THE NY TIMES!! AUGUST 20, 2016

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated more than $10 million. Through a foundation, so did the son-in-law of a former Ukrainian president whose government was widely criticized for corruption and the murder of journalists. A Lebanese-Nigerian developer with vast business interests contributed as much as $5 million.http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/politics/hillary-clinton-presidential-campaign-charity.html?_r=0

For years the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation thrived largely on the generosity of foreign donors and individuals who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the global charity. But now, as Mrs. Clinton seeks the White House, the funding of the sprawling philanthropy has become an Achilles’ heel for her campaign and, if she is victorious, potentially her administration as well.

With Mrs. Clinton facing accusations of favoritism toward Clinton Foundation donors during her time as secretary of state, former President Bill Clinton told foundation employees on Thursday that the organization would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations should Mrs. Clinton win in November.

But while the move could avoid the awkwardness of Mr. Clinton jetting around the world asking for money while his wife is president, it did not resolve a more pressing question: how her administration would handle longtime donors seeking help from the United States, or whose interests might conflict with the country’s own.

The Clinton Foundation has accepted tens of millions of dollars from countries that the State Department — before, during and after Mrs. Clinton’s time as secretary — criticized for their records on sex discrimination and other human-rights issues. The countries include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Brunei and Algeria.

Saudi Arabia has been a particularly generous benefactor. The kingdom gave between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation. (Donations are typically reported in broad ranges, not specific amounts.) At least $1 million more was donated by Friends of Saudi Arabia, which was co-founded by a Saudi prince.

Saudi Arabia also presents Washington with a complex diplomatic relationship full of strain. The kingdom is viewed as a bulwark to deter Iranian adventurism across the region and has been a partner in the fight against terrorism across the Persian Gulf and wider Middle East.

At the same time, though, American officials have long worried about Saudi Arabia’s suspected role in promoting a hard-line strain of Islam, which has some adherents who have been linked to violence. Saudi officials deny any links to terrorism groups, but critics point to Saudi charities that fund organizations suspected of ties to militant cells.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said the Clintons and the foundation had always been careful about donors. “The policies that governed the foundation’s activities during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state already went far beyond legal requirements,” he said in a statement, “and yet the foundation submitted to even more rigorous standards when Clinton declared her candidacy for president, and is pledging to go even further if she wins.”

BIG APPLE NEWS FROM EMPIRE REPORT

http://empirereportnewyork.com/
Wikileaks: Hillary Hearts Goldman Sachs…
Chris Cuomo: “Trump is going to get me arrested”…
Page Six: Billy Bush negotiating exit from Today Show…
Wikileaks: Hillary has NY Times in her pocket…
Spitzer’s squeeze Svetlana sobs in court… squeezed Spitz for $400k…
Kuomo Krony Kaloyeros Kwits… Kind of…
NYPOST: Albany Dems have horrendous record on sexual harassment…
Ed Cox: Where were Albany Dems during Lopez, Silver, Weiner?
Top lobbyists share secrets: how to get Cuomo on your side…
JCOPE is a joke: reporting outside income rarely enfoced by state ethics regulators…
Clueless GOP candidate wants to bring Kool Aid, Fried Chicken, Watermelon to Harlem…
Ross Barkan exposes: Why SEIU is supporting Trump-loving Senate GOP?
Crying at Press Conference, Broome County Exec admits using town credit card for personal expenses…
Paladino responds to petition calling for removal from school board…
Smart! lobbyist Todd How was getting paid on both sides of no-bid contracts…
Health department: 1 out of 3 New Yorkers binge drink…
Drunk Rochester judge allegedly had daughter blow on ignition interlock device…
Upstate NY teen named first male Covergirl…
Saratoga resident fight new location of homeless shelter…
Video: Bronx nerd high school fight club ** warning: graphic**…
NOW HIRING: Under De Blasio, NYC govt. grows to record level… 287,000 employees!!!
NYDailyNews: De Blasio casts New Yorkers as heartless racists…
Replacing Brooklyn DA will set off game of political musical chairs…
Trump-style Zolter fortune telling machine appears in NYC…

WikiLeaks: Emails Appear to Show Clinton Campaign Spokesman in Contact With DOJ By Debra Heine

Reince Priebus: Revelation “raises even more questions” about Bill Clinton’s tarmac meeting with Loretta Lynch.

One of the email chains from the latest WikiLeaks document dump indicates that the Hillary Clinton campaign had a contact at the Obama Department of Justice that fed them information about one of her court cases. The revelation now has Republicans wondering if the Clinton camp colluded with the DOJ on the entire email investigation.

The email chain in question reveals that the Clinton camp got a heads up in May of 2015 about one of the lawsuits seeking the production of Clinton’s emails while at the State Department.

On May 18, 2015, Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon received an email from an unnamed DOJ official saying, “Hey Brian, this was filed tonight.” Fourteen minutes later Fallon, a former spokesman for the DOJ, emailed Clinton confidante Cheryl Mills to pass along a tip: “DOJ just filed a briefing saying the gov’t proposes releasing HRC’s cache of work-related emails in January 2016,” he wrote.

The actual date was January 15 — two weeks before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Government lawyers had disclosed the date in court documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by VICE News.

Mills responded, “Get out!???”

The next day, May 19, Fallon emailed to say, “DOJ folks inform me there is a status hearing in this case this morning, so we could have a window into the judge’s thinking about this proposed production schedule as quickly as today.”

Christianity is Rattling: “Lights Out” in Germany by Giulio Meotti

The fall of German Christianity leaves an emptiness that seems likely to be filled by a more multicultural and Islamic society. Germany today houses Europe’s largest Muslim community.

Christians in Germany, Die Welt reports, will become a minority in 20 years.

The falling birth rate will remove a piece of Germany larger than the former communist East Germany. It will result in a demographic loss equivalent to the population of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt combined.

The German army just spent 428 million euros on various operations relating to migrants during the past year. It has been the costliest mission within German borders that the army of the Federal Republic of Germany has ever undertaken.

In the decades after WWII, Germans have turned into hard-core pacifists, enjoying their role on the sidelines of global conflicts. The army was then turned into a humanitarian organization.

“Contemporary historians … right now, have failed to find a single historical example of a society that became secularised and maintained its birth rate over subsequent centuries,” the former UK chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, recently argued.

“Falling fertility has coincided so closely with massive secularization that we must at least ask whether the two phenomena are related, even if not in a neat one-to-one relationship”, the scholar Philip Jenkins also said.

Emails show CNN pundit fed Hillary question before town hall !!!!! By Daniel Halper

WASHINGTON — CNN political commentator Donna Brazile appeared to give the Clinton campaign advance notice of a question that came up at the cable network’s presidential town hall, according to e-mails released Tuesday.

“From time to time I get the questions in advance,” Brazile, who was then vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote in a March 12, 2016, e-mail to Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“Here’s one that worries me about HRC,” she added, as she sent along a detailed death-penalty-related question.

“19 states and the District of Columbia have banned the death penalty. 31 states, including Ohio, still have the death penalty. According to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, since 1973, 156 people have been on death row and later set free. Since 1976, 1,414 people have been executed in the U.S. That’s 11% of Americans who were sentenced to die, but later exonerated and freed. Should Ohio and the 30 other states join the current list and abolish the death penalty?”

In the CNN presidential town hall — which took place the next day, March 13 — Clinton was asked a question on the death penalty.

That question, however, was differently worded.

The e-mail to the Clinton campaign from Brazile, who is currently on leave from CNN as she serves as the interim chair of the DNC, was made public by WikiLeaks, which has been slowly releasing a trove of hacked e-mails from campaign chair John Podesta.

In a statement released by the DNC, Brazile claimed she helped all Democratic campaigns, but denied forwarding particular questions to candidates.

“As a longtime political activist with deep ties to our party, I supported all of our candidates for president. I often shared my thoughts with each and every campaign, and any suggestions that indicate otherwise are simply untrue,” Brazile said.

Emails Show Hillary Clinton Campaign’s Response to Fallout New WikiLeaks release shows the political team’s communications By Byron Tau and Colleen McCain Nelson see note please

PODESTA, THE PARAMECIUM WHO HEADS HILLARY’S CAMPAIGN IS GOING TO THE FBI???!!! HILARIOUS NOW THAT THE AGENCY IS IN HILLARY’S CORNER THANKS TO THE DUPLICITY OF LORETTA LYNCH AND COMEY….RSK

WASHINGTON—Hillary Clinton’s political team sought to contain any potential fallout over her use of a private email server by communicating with government agencies, enlisting help of congressional allies and managing public statements, newly released emails show.

Hacked emails belonging to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were posted by the website WikiLeaks this week, showing her staff candidly debating the tone and substance of responses to media after the 2015 disclosure of her use of a private email server while leading the State Department during President Barack Obama’s first term.

In several electronic exchanges, almost all from last year and this year, Mrs. Clinton’s staff appeared to be in communication with government officials about the email issue. One campaign official is shown telling colleagues about a coming procedural step, which was part of the public record, that he suggests he learned from Justice Department officials.

In another case, an attorney for Mrs. Clinton appeared to know the contents of a State Department document release concerning speeches by former President Bill Clinton before it was made public.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign hasn’t confirmed or denied the authenticity of the email trove posted by WikiLeaks, but a campaign spokesman said the release of apparently stolen internal communications showcases Russian attempts to interfere in the U.S. election on behalf of Mrs. Clinton’s Republican rival, Donald Trump. U.S. intelligence agencies have publicly accused Russia of directing hacks and leaks aimed at top Democratic Party officials, but they haven’t reached a conclusion in the specific breach of Mr. Podesta’s emails.

Mr. Podesta told reporters Tuesday that he had been in touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about what he called a “criminal hack.”

“If you think you’d like all the contents of all your emails for 10 years dumped into public, think about how that feels. It doesn’t feel great,” Mr. Podesta said. “But I’m kind of Zen about it at this stage.” CONTINUE AT SITE

U of M to Monitor Students’ ‘Cultural Sensitivity Levels’ as Part of New $85 Million Diversity Push By Katherine Timpf

The University of Michigan is going to start using an “Intercultural Development Inventory” to monitor its students “cultural sensitivity levels” as part of its new $85 million diversity initiative — and it’s pretty clearly an irresponsible use of money.

The point of the inventory — which is explained in this very creepy video — is, according to the school website, to judge students’ “ability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities,” give students a “customized learning plan and a variety of intercultural training opportunities designed to improve cross-cultural engagement by targeting specific areas for skill development and increased personal capacity” based on their answers, and then test them again later to see if they’ve “improved.”

According to an article in the school’s official newspaper, The Michigan Daily, the school plans to spend $85 million on diversity initiatives over the next five years — in addition to the $40 million it’s already allotted to spend annually — at a school where tuition has increased 3.9 percent this year.

Now, it isn’t clear how much of this money will be spent on the monitoring program itself, but the fact is that any amount would be too much. Not only is it obviously invasive and creepy, but it’s also just not going to accomplish what the school is hoping it will. Any student at U of M, “insensitive” or not, will probably be smart enough to figure out what answer the school wants and choose that answer. After all, choosing the “wrong” answer will brand students as a “racist” in the eyes of their school — and what’s more, as Reason’s Robby Soave points out, the fact that a student’s answers will determine his or her “individual learning plan” means that “students who are judged to be too insensitive might be given more work to do.” Who wants to do sign themselves up to do more work . . . especially when it’s work that’s so likely to be patronizing and pointless? Zero people. Punishing students for telling the truth about their opinions is the best way to ensure that real discussions about those opinions will never happen — which is hindering the exact kind of learning experiences that the school claims it wants to cultivate.

Trump Tapes and Clinton Morals Only the Clintons can protect our moral values. Daniel Greenfield

“Even presidents have private lives. It is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life,” President Clinton whined.

It was the late hot summer of ’98 and the man dubbed “Slick Willie,” the nickname he claimed to dislike the most, was facing the prospect of becoming the first president to be successfully impeached.

These days the Clintons seem to have changed their minds about whether presidents should have private lives that ought to be pried into. So did the media, which back then insisted that it was “just sex,” but has belatedly decided that a president’s sexual conduct ought to be subject to scrutiny after all. But then again double standards are its stock in trade. They always have been.

Bill’s bedroom is off limits, but Trump’s isn’t.

Unable to run on national security, the Clintons want to run on the same subject that they once eschewed. And they want Trump’s sex life to be up for public debate, but not Bill’s.

The media has joined in this chorus which insists that when Trump mentions Bill’s rapes, he’s climbing into the “gutter,” but that when Hillary references Trump’s tape, she’s taking the “high ground.”

How can the same subject be both the gutter and the high ground? It’s either one or the other.

Meanwhile the clock to the next Islamic terror attack goes on ticking.

Back in ‘98 Bill Clinton complained, “Our country has been distracted by this matter for too long, and I take my responsibility for my part in all of this. That is all I can do. Now it is time, in fact, it is past time to move on,” he added. “We have important work to do — real opportunities to seize, real problems to solve, real security matters to face.”

These days the Clintons don’t want to move on. They want to discuss the Trump tape as often as possible. Why? Because they don’t want to deal with what the Clintons did move on to.

Hours before 9/11, Bill Clinton was giving a speech in Australia and boasted that he could have gotten Osama bin Laden, but chose not to because of the collateral damage in Kandahar.

“I nearly got him. And I could have killed him,” he admitted.

The planned airstrike had been vetoed in late December ’98. Congress had postponed debate on impeachment a few days earlier to allow Bill Clinton to bomb Iraq in peace. The raids accomplished little except to distract from the impeachment debate and from his refusal to take out Osama bin Laden.