Month: November 2018

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AP Issues ‘Clarification’ After Story Claims Iran Has ‘Never Threatened to Attack Israel’


An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei / Getty Images

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The Associated Press claimed in a report on Saturday that “Iran has never threatened to attack Israel.” The AP later clarified that Iran has frequently predicted Israel’s demise, saying Israeli officials “view” those comments as existential threats, but the news agency did not revoke the statement.

Nasser Karimi, a 14-year veteran of the AP, wrote the story, titled “Iran’s Rouhani calls Israel a ‘cancerous tumor,'” from Tehran. It was shared by multiple media outlets, including the New York Times, Daily Mail, and U.S. New & World Report.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) pointed out the inaccurate statement about Iranian threats and contacted the AP about the error, according to a story published on its website Sunday.

The AP subsequently clarified the story, casting Iranian threats as Israeli perception.

In a story Nov. 24, The Associated Press reported that Iran frequently condemns Israel and predicts its demise. The story should have made clear that Israeli officials view any such comments from Iran as existential threats.

The updated AP story reads as follows:

Iran supports militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that are pledged to Israel’s destruction. Iran has never threatened to attack Israel, but has vowed to retaliate if it is attacked. Israel views Iran as an existential threat.

Iran’s threats and desire to destroy the state of Israel are well-documented. In 2011, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a commander in Iran’s IRGC, said: “We recommend them [the Zionists] to pack their furniture and return to their countries. And if they insist on staying, they should know that a time while arrive when they will not even have time to pack their suitcases.” In 2018, Guardian Council secretary Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said ”[s]oon we will celebrate the destruction of this [Israeli] regime in Palestine.”

Writing for the Atlantic in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg documented the many times Iran has threatened Israel’s existence, including since Karimi joined the AP in 2004. Earlier this year, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released a report on “Israel’s Eradication – An Ideological And Practical Goal Of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Regime.”

The AP had long recognized that Iran seeks Israel’s destruction, at least before Saturday. In 2016, the AP reported that “Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in the past.” Also in 2016, the AP reported Iranians, including “the deputy commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard,” marched in parades chanting ”death to Israel.” In 1994, the news agency reported Iran had sponsored a day of solidarity “with pledges to destroy Israel.”

The AP in 2016:

Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in the past.

The AP in 2018:

Iran has never threatened to attack Israel.

As of Monday morning, the story with the claim remained on the AP website.  The Daily Mail still had the story on its website without any editor’s note. The Times posted the update, which was classified as a “clarification.” U.S. New & World Report ran the updated headline “Clarification: Iran-Israel Story” but did not actually include any clarification.

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Monica Lewinsky: Bill Clinton Urged Me to Lie Under Oath About Affair

In the final part of the A&E documentary series "The Clinton Affair," Monica Lewinsky revealed that then President Bill Clinton urged her to lie under oath about their affair and gave her gifts in the period leading up to the testimony in the Paula Jones case.

Lewinsky, in comments reported by Fox News, said Clinton told her that if she denied their affair in a sworn affidavit, she could likely avoid being called to testify. She was, however, subpoenaed.

"I was petrified. I was frantic about my family and this becoming public. Thankfully, Bill helped me lock myself back from that and he said I could probably sign an affidavit to get out of it, and he didn’t even know if 100 percent I would be subpoenaed," Lewinsky told A&E.

Clinton never encouraged Lewinsky to tell the truth, according to her account.

From there, she said a Clinton associate introduced her to lawyer Frank Carter, who encouraged her to lie in the affidavit.

"Frank Carter explained to me if I’d signed an affidavit denying having had an intimate relationship with the president it might mean I wouldn’t have to be deposed in the Paula Jones case," she said. "I did feel uncomfortable about it but I felt it was the right thing to do, ironically, right? So, the right thing to do, to break the law."

After signing that affidavit, Clinton invited Lewinsky to a private White House Christmas celebration where they played with his dog, Buddy, and Clinton presented Lewinsky with several gifts.

"Over the summer he had gone to Martha’s Vineyard and he brought back a bunch of different things." Lewinsky said. "He had this big canvas bag from the Black Dog. This marble bear, sunglasses. It was the most presents he’d given me at one time. He knew the subpoena was gonna ask to produce certain items and yet he was giving me more gifts. He clearly still trusted me."

Lewinsky gave the gifts to the president’s secretary for safe-keeping, in case she was asked to turn them over. She also said that after the affair was revealed, she contemplated suicide.

"There was a point for me somewhere within these first several hours where I would be hysterically crying and then I would just shut down," she said. "And in the shutdown period, I just remember looking out the window and thinking the only way to fix this is to kill myself."

Back in October 2018, when asked about the affair, former presidential candidate and first lady Hillary Clinton said that she did not think the affair with the 23-year-old intern was an abuse of power on the part of her husband. In a June 2018 interview, the former president defended his actions during that time, indicating he "did the right thing" by not resigning and saying he believed his public apology to Lewinsky was enough.

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Report: Jerome Corsi Rejecting Plea Deal, Plans to Sue Mueller


Former Infowars D.C. bureau chief Jerome Corsi will reject a plea agreement offered by the special counsel and fire back with a criminal complaint, accusing Robert Mueller of “Gestapo” tactics in attempting to pressure the author into pleading guilty to one count of perjury.

“They can put me in prison the rest of my life. I am not going to sign a lie,” Corsi said in a brief telephone call with CNN. Asked what Mueller office will do next if he does not agree to the plea deal, Corsi replied, “I don’t know.”

Corsi told NBC producer Anna Schecter that a plea agreement would involve the author of pleading guilty to one count of perjury. “I’d rather sit in prison and rot for as long as these thugs want me to,” he told Schecter.

As reported Friday, Corsi revealed that he has been negotiating a potential plea but declined to comment further on the matter. He said on a YouTube show earlier this month that he expected to be charged with lying to federal investigators, though he said at the time that he was innocent of wrongdoing.

Mueller’s team questioned Corsi as part of an investigation into Stone’s connections with WikiLeaks. American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia was the source of hacked material released by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election that damaged Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mueller’s office is trying to determine whether Stone and other associates of President Donald Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans.

It is unclear whether the charges against Assange are related to Mueller’s investigation, but WikiLeaks was singled out in an indictment last summer against a group of Russian intelligence officers accused of carrying out the wide-ranging hack of Clinton’s campaign and other Democratic organizations.

It is also not known whether any plea by Corsi signals a new raft of charges by the special counsel — or merely that investigators are aggressively pursuing cases against people they believe made false statements to investigators. Mueller has brought such cases against four others, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Corsi has said he cooperated with the probe for about two months after he received a subpoena in August. As part of that cooperation, he turned over two computers and a cell phone and provided the FBI access to his email accounts and tweets.

But he said earlier this month that talks with investigators recently had “blown up.”

“I fully anticipate that in the next few days, I will be indicted by Mueller,” he said.

The spokesman for the special counsel, Peter Carr, declined comment on Friday.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Violent Migrant Border Incident Exact Replay of When Obama Used Tear Gas at Border


Five years almost to the day before President Donald Trump’s border officers blocked migrants with tear gas, authorities under President Barack Obama used identical tactics along the same stretch of border near the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to 2013 press accounts.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported November 25, 2o13:

The incident occurred about a quarter-mile west of the San Ysidro border crossing in the Tijuana River channel. No one was seriously injured, no shots were fired and no arrests were made, said Mary Beth Caston, a Border Patrol spokeswoman.

The group first approached a lone agent stationed about 1/8 of a mile north of the border. They ignored his commands to stop, so he fired pepper balls to try to stop them and protect himself, Caston said.

As the crowd kept advancing and throwing rocks and bottles, she said, more agents came to the scene and used other “intermediate use-of-force devices” to push back the group. The agents also contacted Mexican law enforcement.

In 2018, on November 25, border officers used tear gas to drive migrants back from a border fence they were seeking to push through.

The incident took place at almost the same location, but five years apart. The major difference is that Trump’s deputies installed a temporary barrier to fill a gap between permanent fences.

KPBS News reported the 2013 clash, saying:

Deported migrants attempted a once-common tactic of rushing the border en masse on Sunday. But Border Patrol agents met them with tear gas and rubber bullets and forced them to turn back.

Deportees in Tijuana said plans to rush the border had been in the works for a week.

It all started with a guy handing out pocket-sized fliers at the Padre Chava breakfast hall for migrants and deportees in Tijuana. The fliers called for a mass border crossing on Nov. 24.

“So that we can reunite with our children, families,” the flier read in small, Spanish text.

According to the Union-Tribune, pro-migration groups defended the 2013 migrants, saying they were “desperate:”

Immigrant-rights groups in San Diego said they didn’t know beforehand about the plan to rush the border, and they worry that desperation is driving homeless deportees to make a bold bid to rejoin their families in the United States.

…

Christian Ramirez, human rights director for the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said he does not believe the move could have been a strategic protest. He views it as an act of desperation on the part of deportees who have been pushed to live around the river in makeshift camps or those who are set up in other migrant camps in the city.

In 2018, progressives and pro-migration activists supported the aggressive migrants.

Read it all here.

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Macron: Globalist Poster Boy’s Polls Plunge to Historic Low, Le Pen Now More Popular


French president Emmanuel Macron had broken a new record, becoming the most unpopular French president in history at this stage of his presidential term, according to recent polls which have also seen populist rival Marine Le Pen rise in popularity.

President Macron’s approval rating now registers at a mere 26 percent according to figures by pollsters BVA, who compared his current polling numbers to former presidents during the same era of their terms as leaders of France.

Macron now polls even lower among the French than his predecessor, former President Francois Hollande, who eventually left office in 2017 with an approval rating in the single digits.

The current French leader’s popularity is even starker when compared to the last conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who enjoyed an approval of nearly one in two French voters.

As Macron’s popularity has faded, the approval ratings of populist Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen, seen as Macron’s main political rival by many, has seen a dramatic increase. The BVA poll now sees Le Pen beating Macron with 27 percent to his 26 percent approval.

The unpopularity of President Macron has been one of the central focuses of the Gilets Jaunes or “Yellow Vests” movement against the rise of taxes on fuel which has seen protests across the country on the 17th and 24th of November.

The protests, which have seen over 100,000 people participate, blocked entrances and exits on major motorways and over the weekend blockaded much of central Paris.

While the movement has been largely peaceful, it has not been without several incidents of violence including the death of a protestor in the eastern Savoie region during the first protest who was killed by the driver of a car that sped into a group of Yellow Vest movement members.

In Paris, movement members clashed with police along the Champs Elysees, with Ms Le Pen among others claiming that far-left activists had infiltrated the movement in order to fight with police.

Le Pen has been a vocal supporter of the Yellow Vests whose movement has been described by leading French political scientists as a real grassroots populist movement.

Prominent French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus commented  on the movement saying, “This is the first time we’re seeing a mobilization that’s coming from the social networks, and not led by the political parties or the unions,” and added, “This is really a populist-type movement, and it’s an extremely strong protest against elite France.”

The movement has also seen the support of the vast majority of French with a poll taken by Odoxa finding that around 77 percent of the country supported the movement.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com

 

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Chicago Slammed with 13 Inches of Snow — Worst Winter Storm Since 1975


A near-record November snowstorm blanketed the Chicago-area with 13 inches of snow in the last 24 hours, prompting morning commute delays, wide-spread power outages, and hundreds of flights being canceled.

According to the Chicago Tribune, 7.4 inches of snow fell at O’Hare International Airport by 7:00 a.m. local time, 7.6 inches was dumped on Crystal Lake. McHenry County saw the largest bouts of snow with some parts receiving around 13.1 inches, the National Weather Service reported. Further, 4.1 inches and 9 inches of snow fell in Downers Grove and Lindenhurst, respectively. 460 flights at the city’s largest airport were canceled and at least 300,000 homes and business lost power.

“It’s going to be messy,” said Todd Kluber, a National Weather Service meteorologist, hinting that the area could see even more blizzard-like conditions.

This year’s blizzard is the worst storm to hit Chicago since November 25-26, 1975, which dumped 8.9 inches on the Windy City.

ABC 13 reports other parts of the Midwest were also impacted the major storm:

Strong winds and snow created blizzard conditions across much of Nebraska and parts of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. The National Weather Service was warning those conditions would make travel difficult in places. Other parts of central plains and Great Lakes region were under a winter storm warning, that could see a foot or more of snow dumped in some places by the end of the day.

In eastern Nebraska, part of Interstate 80 between Lincoln and Omaha was closed Sunday morning because of multiple accidents after snow blanketed that area. That included semitrailer trucks jackknifed across the highway. It was re-opened by Sunday afternoon.

In response to the storm, Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer issued a state of emergency declaration.”Here in Kansas we make it a priority to take care of our neighbors,” said Colyer. “We strongly recommend that you postpone travel plans, if possible, however, if you must be on the road, make sure your vehicle’s emergency kit is stocked, your gas tank is full and your cell phone and charger are with you and someone knows your travel plans. Also, be mindful of all emergency response personnel out on Kansas roadways and give them space to do their jobs to ensure their safety and that of our citizens.”

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Caravan mob rushes border, is repelled

I hate to say I told you so, but… I told you so. When the Honduran caravan arrived at the southern border of Mexico and its leaders were informed that they would need to wait there while their requests were processed, what did they do? They overwhelmed the border security forces and crossed the river illegally.

Since that time I’ve continued to point out that there was no reason to believe they wouldn’t try the same thing if they were held up at the US border. And yesterday that’s precisely what they did. The first hint I saw of it came from one reporter on the Mexican side of the border who reported that the crossing point had been shut down.

Shortly after that, the news went national, with reports that hundreds of migrants were attempting to swarm the crossing point. The Mexican authorities were doing their best to stop them, however, and US border security forces deployed tear gas. (WaPo)

Migrants approaching the U.S. border from Mexico were enveloped with tear gas Sunday after a few tried to breach the fence separating the two countries.

U.S. agents shot the gas, according to an Associated Press reporter on the scene. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem.

Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point U.S. agents fired tear gas at them.

The surge was eventually repelled and if any migrants made it through illegally, most of the reporters on the scene seem to agree that it was only a few. So in that sense, the system worked. Most impressively, the Mexican government stepped up to stop the surge rather than waiting for us to do it. They later announced that the people they apprehended attempting to force their way across would be deported to their home countries.

UPDATE: (Jazz) CNN is reporting that 42 migrants were arrested on the US side of the border. That’s still a rather small portion of the entire mob, however, so the defensive efforts were still largely successful.

Here’s one of the more bizarre sidebars from this story. Everyone was weighing in with their own opinions as usual, but on the Democratic side, Congressman Elijah Cummings had one of the strangest (if not hottest) takes. Appearing on Meet the Press, he proclaimed that migrants had to be allowed to cross the border to seek asylum without waiting for permission because “that’s the law.” (Washington Times)

Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday that caravan migrants seeking asylum should be able to enter the country immediately, challenging President Trump’s efforts to keep them in Mexico while their cases are processed.

“That’s not the law. They should be allowed to come in, seek asylum. That’s the law,” Mr. Cummings said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Asked if he would support changing the law, the Maryland Democrat said, “No.”

Pardon me for being so blunt as to point it out, but that’s not what the law says at all. What Representative Cummings was probably trying to allude to was the wording found in Title 8 Chapter 12 which says, “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum…”

All that says is that if the alien in question is already physically in the United States, irrespective of whether or not they entered legally, they are allowed to apply for asylum. (That doesn’t mean it will be granted, but they can apply.) But it says absolutely nothing about it suddenly being okay for them to illegally cross the border. That’s still a crime and we are entitled and obligated to stop such illegal crossings wherever and whenever we can.

Cummings is a senior member of the legislative branch of our federal government. That means he’s one of the people responsible for writing our laws. Shouldn’t he know better than this?

The original article was updated to relfect the number of migrants who were arrested after illegally crossing.

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Hoaxed: The ‘Illegal Alien Mom with Barefoot Kids’ Photo was a Setup – Another Staged #FakeNews Production


Hoaxed: The ‘Illegal Alien Mom with Barefoot Kids’ Photo was a Setup – Another Staged #FakeNews Production

Jim Hoft
by Jim Hoft
November 26, 2018

Guest post by Joe Hoft

Yesterday’s Headline is today’s hoax. The illegal alien mother ‘fleeing’ from the border wall was all a lie. It was a setup.

After further review, yesterday’s ‘horrific’ picture of a woman with barefoot children running from the US border wall was a hoax. In the background of the picture a group of men are posing for one camera man and another is running towards another camera man. In other areas, people are just standing around. The woman with the children was just a photo-op:

The high resolution picture shows guys in the background posing for a cameraman proving again that liberals are easily fooled:

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Migrants Report Mexican Officials Seek Money To Allow U.S. Border Access


Standard procedure with the federales.

Via Breitbart:

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mexican officials are also overseeing a waiting list of migrants seeking entry into the U.S.

“The asylum seekers and immigrant-rights advocates say that has put them at risk of extortion, discrimination, and deportation, with many telling of Mexican officials demanding money to let them pass and of watching others, further down the list, cross ahead of them,” the Times reported.

The Times claimed the waiting list protocol comes from the Trump administration as a way to delay entry to the migrants after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. could not enforce federal immigration law that does not allow asylum status to people who bypass official ports of entry and enter the country illegally.

But U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the Times the agency “processes undocumented persons as expeditiously as possible” and denied it was involved in selecting who from the list enters.

“Nationality has absolutely no bearing on the processing” of asylum seekers, and those on the lists are “processed on a first-come, first-serve basis,” the agency said.

CPB told the Times it “does take into consideration persons with medical emergencies, unaccompanied alien children, the disabled, and gives priority as we can, bearing in mind the day-to-day availability of resources, case complexity, holding space, port volume and enforcement actions.”

The waiting list, CPB officials said, is a way to manage the ongoing crush of migrants on two bridges from Mexico to the United States.

Keep reading…

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Official Petition: Give Alex Jones WH Credentials, Seat Him Next to Acosta


If you love Infowars creator Alex Jones, value free speech, or just hate CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, this little tidbit may make your day. For everyone else, the pure entertainment value alone may be enough to elicit a smile.

In the aftermath of Acosta’s White House press pass being pulled then reinstated, a petition has been started to give the controversial Jones the same access to media briefings.To some, both are “showboats,” so if it is OK for Acosta to be there, there is no reason for Jones to not be there, as well.

For some, their “big egos” competing for answers, attention, and headlines could turn the whole thing into a circus. But, could that also get Acosta evicted, again? Could Jones be the perfect “trigger” to rid the White House of Acosta for once and for all?

The petition was posted the the White House’s official petition website. It was started by someone identified only as “T.S.” on Nov. 17.

It reads simply:

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“Alex Jones’ first amendment rights are being violated everyday he does not have White House press credentials.

THIS IS AMERICA!

Let Alex Jones have press credentials and a permanent seat next to Jim Acosta!”

Officially, 100,000 signatures are required for a response from the White House. By Monday morning, it had already amassed more than 40,000 signatures for the cause.

The petition has already gotten attention on social media and by some media outlets. A separate and less popular petition posted on Change.org, asking for the exact same thing.

The Washington Times noted that the petition on the White House website will have 30 days from creation, so approximately three more weeks, to amass the requisite 100,000 signature total. However, that is not a guarantee of a response as there are other petitions that have hit the goal and still not gotten one.

Do you think the White House should give Alex Jones a press pass and permanent seat next to Jim Acosta?

Jones’ Infowars platform gets millions of viewers monthly and even censorship actions against it didn’t kill it. In fact, the opposite happened, so in terms of him being at pressers at all, he has the numbers to justify it.

RELATED: Every Line of the White House’s New Press Conferences Rules Is a Shot at Acosta

And for the “Dear Diary,” Acosta-trolling fans, a field day could be had with all the tweets they could create from what could be a regular litany of complaints from Acosta due to being parked next to Jones. And given how “passionate” and “emotional” Jones can be, would he engage with Acosta, when the latter plays activist rather than journalist during the briefings?

Jones has a loud, booming voice. Could Acosta even ever be heard over him if Jones shouted out questions at the same time?

If Acosta was rude to press secretary Sarah Sanders, would Jones stand up for her and call out Acosta over it? How would Acosta respond to someone, anyone, calling him out on his bad behavior?

The mind reels with possibilities for such a scenario with Jones and Acosta in pressers together. Some speculate it was started as a joke, but the petition could be taken seriously, particularly if it garners enough signatures.

And love them or hate them, Jones and Acosta in briefings together could be something interesting to see.

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