Displaying posts published in

April 2023

Federal investigation into classified docs leak heats up as U.S., allies race to contain fallout Revelations could pose diplomatic headaches with close allies: Ben Wolfgang

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/apr/10/federal-probe-classified-docs-leak-heats-us-allies/

The Pentagon, Justice Department and agencies across the federal government scrambled Monday to track down the source of a major classified documents leak and to limit the widening fallout in allied capitals from Jerusalem to Seoul, South Korea, where the revelations threatened to stoke domestic turmoil and friction with Washington.

The collateral damage from the leak, one of the most serious disclosures of sensitive information in years, has quickly spread far beyond American shores. Biden administration officials said they are in contact with allies because of signs that the individuals behind the leak are trying to sow discord between the U.S. and its closest partners.

At the Pentagon, officials called the leak a “very serious” risk to national security. They were careful to avoid confirming specific revelations in any of the materials, including apparent assessments of the Russia-Ukraine war and what appear to be internal political conversations in South Korea. The Defense Department has started an internal review, and the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation.

“This team is really working to get our arms around everything that has to do with this distribution,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Meagher told reporters. “It’s a comprehensive effort. The department is trying to wrap its arms around what may have happened and the way ahead in terms of our response.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said President Biden has been getting regular briefings about the leak.

He said the administration isn’t sure whether more disclosures are on the horizon.

When Democrats attack democracy by Byron York

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/when-democrats-attack-democracy

The United States Constitution and all the state constitutions establish legislatures and give those legislatures the authority to set their own rules. The constitutions also give lawmakers the authority to punish members for violating those rules.

Rules make a legislature run, which is why party leaders always stack their rules committees with lawmakers sure to side with their party on any heated dispute. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), for example, was widely regarded as a master of using the rules to further her party’s ends. To see how she did it, look to January 2021, at the beginning of her last term as speaker, when Pelosi introduced a series of rules “reforms” that severely limited the rights of the minority, Republicans, to offer amendments to bills. “The rules all but eliminate what is called the motion to recommit,” the Wall Street Journal editorial page noted at the time. “This legislative tool has existed since the first Congress, and for nearly 90 years it has allowed the minority party to offer the last amendment to legislation. The motions typically fail, but they are a way for the minority to highlight and provoke a debate on controversial questions.”

Pelosi, working with a very small Democratic majority, shut down the minority’s ability to focus on issues important to them. Her basic guideline was very simple: The majority rules. For this, Pelosi received lavish praise in the media as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, speakers in history.

So Pelosi showed that rules matter. But she also showed that rules did not matter when they stood in the way of something she wanted to do. In June 2016, Democrats, then in the minority in the House, wanted to force votes on gun control measures in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting. Majority Republicans did not. The problem was Democrats had only 188 members, while Republicans had 247. On their own, Democrats couldn’t force the House to do much of anything. The majority rules.

ADL: Criticizing George Soros Is ‘Anti-Semitic’ By Ben Bartee

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/04/10/adl-criticizing-george-soros-is-anti-semitic-n1685984

The Anti-Defamation League – one of the premier censorship agencies of the corporate state — has unironically adopted the Hamas human shield tactic of hiding behind Holocaust victims to deflect incoming flak for George Soros, globalist puppeteer extraordinaire.

Via ADL:

Hungarian Jewish billionaire, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros is widely recognized for funding progressive political and social causes, usually through grants made by his Open Society Foundations. As a result, Soros has become a lightning rod for conservative and right-wing groups who object to his funding of liberal causes.
In far-right circles worldwide, Soros’ philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals. Many of those conspiracy theories employ longstanding antisemitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events.

Get it, bigot? Criticizing a foreign billionaire money changer (Soros literally built his fortune trading currencies and wrecking multiple national economies in the process) who uses his ill-gotten fortune to meddle in American politics isn’t about a sincere desire for national sovereignty and local, true political representation.

An unspeakable atrocity The pain is made so much worse by the pusillanimity of the west Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/an-unspeakable-atrocity?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The heart breaks. The pain currently being felt by Rabbi Leo Dee and his family is unimaginable. 

On Friday, as the rabbi drove towards Tiberias in northern Israel for a Passover break with his family, the car following him carrying his wife Lucy (Leah) and two of his daughters, Maia and Rina, was ambushed by Palestinian Arab gunmen and crashed into the barrier. The gunmen then approached the car and shot Lucy and her daughters at point blank range with 20 bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle. Maia and Rina were killed on the spot. Lucy was left fighting for her life. Yesterday, Rabbi Dee buried his daughters. “How will I explain to Lucy what has happened to our two precious gifts?” he wept. Today, Lucy died.

This unspeakable atrocity has united Israel in horror. Once again, Israeli Jews have been murdered for nothing other than the fact that they are Jews living in their ancestral homeland. Once again, a quiet, wholesome, blameless family has been shattered for ever by the forces of evil bent upon exterminating Jews. 

Hours after the attack on the Dee family, an Italian tourist, Alessandro Parini, was murdered and several people injured in a car-ramming terror attack in Tel Aviv.

Since September 2000, Palestinian Arabs have murdered at least 1420 Israelis. Over the past year, at least 30 Israelis have been murdered in such attacks. For months, there have been multiple attempted attacks against Israeli citizens almost every day.