Month: April 2019

According to the U.S. military and other experts, Iranian proxies like the IRGC are active in Latin America where they carry out recruiting operations along with Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy Hezbollah.

The White House announced the foreign terrorist organization label for the IRGC in a statement issued Monday, noting:

This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft. The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.

This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as [an] FTO. It underscores the fact that Iran’s actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments. This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.

In February 2017, Reuters learned from American officials speaking on condition of anonymity that the Trump administration was considering designating the IRGC as an FTO.

Later that year, in October, the Trump administration authorized the U.S. Department of Treasury to sanction the “entire” IRGC as a terrorist organization “and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents, and affiliates.”

Trump denounced the IRGC as “the Iranian Supreme Leader’s corrupt personal terror force and militia.”

“Remember a few weeks ago, I filed against Twitter — that they were censoring conservatives,” he continued. “McClatchy is one of the biggest offenders of this. But we’re coming after the rest of them. I think people are just beginning to wake up now. I’m serious. I’m coming to clean up all of the mess. So, if you’re out there and you lied, and you defamed, we’re going to come after you.”

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“This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” President Donald Trump said in announcing the measure.

The response in Iran was swift and to the point just 24-hours later.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani denounced the U.S. decision as the “climax of stupidity and ignorance.” Supreme National Security Council’s spokesman, Keivan Khosravi, said that going forward, “any unusual move by American forces in the region will be perceived as the behavior by a terrorist group.” He did not elaborate.

Iranian newspapers carried reports of the U.S. move along with bellicose commentary on their front pages.

The Guard-affiliated Javan daily said any attack on Revolutionary Guard bases and facilities will be “recognized as a right” for Iran to respond. The hard-line Kayhan newspaper said it gave Iranians “permission” to kill American military personnel.

State-owned IRAN daily went a step further, saying the U.S. move was a “designation of the entire Iranian nation” as terrorist.

AP contributed to this report

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Trump’s public criticism of the Federal Reserve is no longer as unpopular on Wall Street as it once way. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said Trump’s remarks were inappropriate, with 39 percent saying they were appropriate.  In July, the last time CNBC asked about Trump’s Fed comments, 83 percent disapproved and only 15 percent approved.

On the other hand, Wall Street also is becoming more convinced that Trump may actually be influencing the Fed with his comments. Back in November, 83 percent said Trump’s comments had “no effect” on monetary policy. That dropped to 65 percent in the most recent survey. The number saying Trump’s criticisms make rate hikes less likely rose to 22 percent from 14 percent in November.

Between the two surveys, The Fed changed its approach to monetary policy, going from a policy of gradual rate increases to putting rate changes on pause until evidence of higher inflation or lower growth emerges. That brought the Fed more in line with the president’s views, although recently Trump said the Fed should actually cut rates to accelerate economic growth.

In other words, Wall Street took notice of the Fed changing its policies after Trump blasted last year’s hikes.

The Jakarta Post explained the Yogyakarta region is uneasy after a viral video caught Muslims refusing to rent a house to Christians in a village called Karet, based on a long-revoked local ordinance that forbids non-Muslims from owning or renting property in the village.

Indonesia, in general, has been dealing with a rising tide of Islamist intolerance after years of being hailed as a positive example of pluralism in a Muslim-majority nation. Incumbent president Joko Widodo alarmed human rights groups by tapping a 75-year-old hardline Muslim cleric named Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate in the 2019 election, which is now less than two weeks away. Widodo’s old friend and successor as governor of Jakarta, Baskuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, was jailed for blaspheming against Islam in 2017 after massive demonstrations by angry Muslims.

The optimistic take on Widodo’s re-election strategy is that he is walking a difficult line between tolerance and Islamism, hoping to win over conservative Muslim voters with a few showy displays of Muslim piety and his choice of running mate while planning to keep a more moderate course if he wins re-election. In this analysis, Widodo is no longer the secularist he used to be, but he might at least be able to hold extremist elements at bay.

The pessimistic view is that Widodo has been captured by Islamism, either becoming more of a true believer himself or concluding he can only stay in office by courting hardliners – who have grown increasingly influential among young Indonesians through social media – and giving them, through Amin, a strong hand in shaping the next Indonesian government.

The incident is also unlikely to have been well met by populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s League party which proposed in 2018 to require a crucifix be hung in all public buildings including train stations, airports, universities, and embassies.

The covering up of the crosses is also not the first time Italians have covered up statues and monuments so as not to offend those from different cultures.

In 2016, the-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had statues at the Capitoline Museum covered entirely so as not to offend Iranian President Hassam Rouhani who had come to Italy on a state visit. The move was met with widespread derision from the public on social media.

The Archbishop of Florence has announced he will be selling 86,000 square feet of property to a Muslim group in order for them to build a mosque in Sesto Fiorentino.

Cardinal of Florence, Giuseppe Betori, approved of the sale saying, “The transformation of Western societies into multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-religious societies is a fact and a future that inevitably awaits us.”

In the northern city of Bergamo, another Muslim association has spent nearly half a million euros on an old church, which they also plan to convert into a mosque.

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