53percenter's Blog

Former director of National Intelligence and current CNN contributor James “I Lied To Congress and Got Away with It” Clapper stammered through his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday, admitting that he may be a target of U.S. atty. John Durham’s investigation, now officially turned into a criminal probe by Atty. Gen. William Barr.  As BizPacReview notes:

Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper seemed to struggle with his poker face as he reacted to news of a DOJ criminal inquiry.

The current CNN contributor spoke with Anderson Cooper about reports of the transition of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review into the origins of the Russia probe into a criminal investigation. And his body language spoke louder than his words.

“What do you make of this,” the CNN host asked on “Anderson Cooper 360.”

“Well, I’m very curious because presumably, I guess I’m one of those under investigation,” Clapper replied, peppering his sentence with several uses of “uh.”

“Uh” rhymes with “duh,” which is the reaction to growing suspicions that based on his actions and mounting evidence that perjurer James Clapper and Lt. Gen.. Michael Flynn might be headed in opposite directions — Deep State point man James Clapper headed to prison for sedition, along with Deep State political hack John Brennan, both charged with helping to orchestrate a coup against a duly elected sitting president, Donald J. Trump.

Sidney Powell, the attorney for Gen. Flynn, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him based on indications that the FBI altered his 302s, essentially written reports based on witness interviews, to make him look guilty and leaking information on Flynn’s calls to the Washington Post.  As reported by RedState:

Powell alleges a set-up of Flynn including that the FBI 302s related to Flynn were edited.  A 302 is the form the FBI uses to reflect what a witness says during an interview.  Powell’s filing also suggests that Office of Net Assessment’s James Baker illegally leaked the transcripts of Flynn’s calls to David Ignatius of the Washington Post.  And Powell is specifically looking for the phone records of James Clapper to see about his contacts with Ignatius, including that he essentially told Ignatius to “take the kill shot on Flynn.”

Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a veteran of 500 federal appeals, is the author of Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, a biting tome exposing the prosecutorial misconduct of government lawyers such as Robert Mueller’s “pit bull,” Andrew Weissmann, and other members of Obama’s inner circle that have threatened the foundations of true justice in our democracy.  Powell has sunk her legal teeth into the fraudulent case against Flynn that should result in his, with apologies to Robert Mueller, exoneration.  As noted by Powerline:

Powell’s most explosive charge is that the FBI falsified the Form 302 that recorded the content of its agents’ interview with Flynn in order to set him up for prosecution:

On February 10, 2017, the news broke — attributed to “senior intelligence officials” — that Mr. Flynn had discussed sanctions with Ambassador Kislyak, contrary to what Vice President Pence had said on television previously.  Overnight, the most important substantive changes were made to the Flynn 302.  Those changes added an unequivocal statement that “FLYNN stated he did not” — in response to whether Mr. Flynn had asked Kislyak to vote in a certain manner or slow down the UN vote.  This is a deceptive manipulation because, as the notes of the agents show, Mr. Flynn was not even sure he had spoken to Russia/Kislyak on this issue.  He had talked to dozens of countries.  Exs. 9, 10, 11.

Second, they added: “or if KISLYAK described any Russian response to a request by FLYNN.”  That question and answer do not appear in the notes, yet it was made into a criminal offense.  The typed version of the highly unusual “deliberative” 302 by that date already included an entire section from whole cloth that also serves as a criminal charge in the Information and purported factual basis regarding “Russia’s response” to any request by Flynn. The draft also shows that the agents moved a sentence to make it seem to be an answer to a question it was not.

As Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett notes on his website, it is Clapper who may have ordered the hit job on Flynn, calling for a Washington Post reporter to “take the kill shot” on Flynn by publishing leaked information:

New court documents released Thursday night shed some light on some of the deep state’s actions in attacking former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn.  If these actions were revealed to have been taken against anyone else that was not a Trump ally, the media would be screaming about the abuse of power and the corruption of dirty law enforcement officials.

These documents allege that President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, called Washington Post reporter David Ignatius to “take the kill shot on Flynn.”  It is believed that ONA Director James Baker had leaked information, including transcripts from General Flynn’s calls, to Ignatius.  Director Baker is believed to also have been the handler for Stefan Halper who may have been tasked by the FBI/CIA to slander General Flynn personally[.] …

James Clapper admitted earlier in the month that President Obama ordered the intel community to collect and release as much information about “Russian interference” as possible.  Could the command from President Obama have directly led to the leaking of transcripts from Director Baker as well as Clapper telling a reporter to “take the kill shot” on a political adversary?

Close scrutiny of the Intelligence Community’s actions by Durham and Barr should send chills down Clapper’s spine and former CIA director John Brennan’s as well.  In the search for the answer as to how the whole Mueller collusion probe and spying on Team Trump originated, one does not have to look far.  One needs only to revisit another interview Deep State conspirator and perjurer James Clapper gave with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.  In that interview, Clapper points his finger directly at Barack Hussein Obama as leader of the coup against Donald Trump:

Former Obama administration director of national intelligence James Clapper admitted that former president Barack Obama gave the order to Peter Strzok to kick off his Operation Crossfire Hurricane targeting of President Donald Trump.

Obama — who also gave a stand-down order on stopping alleged Russian hacking — was personally implicated in the plot according to Peter Strzok and Lisa Page’s texts.  Clapper confirms the obvious.

This is James Clapper’s interview with Anderson Cooper, which confirms that Obama ordered Strzok to carry out an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which became the basis for the entire Mueller probe.

“If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.  President Obama is responsible for that.  It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place,” Clapper said in his Anderson Cooper interview.

Newly revealed text messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest that in addition to the FBI altering Michael Flynn’s 302s, Deep State actors at the FBI were well aware of and in cahoots with the intelligence community of James Clapper and John Brennan and may shed light on what clapper meant by taking a “kill shot” on Flynn.  Certainly GOP Sens. Charles Grassley are interested, according to Fox News:

Republican congressional leaders are calling for a new investigation of media leaks surrounding the Russia investigation — possibly emanating from the intelligence community — pointing to internal text messages they say indicate a more widespread problem.

“[T]hese texts and emails demonstrate the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI,” Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael K. Atkinson, pointedly asking whether he’s launched a probe “into these apparent leaks.” …

The specific messages include a December 2016 text, in which Strzok told Page, “Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking in to overdrive.”  Fox News previously reported on that exchange.

In April 2017, Strzok also sent an email commenting on an article about the Trump campaign and Russia by saying, “I’m beginning to think the agency got info a lot earlier than we thought and hasn’t shared it completely with us.  Might explain all these weird/seemingly incorrect leads all these media folks have.  Would also highlight agency as source of some of the leaks.”

What did the CIA and FBI share exactly?  Strzok, in another text, expressed the need for an “insurance policy” to either prevent Trump from being elected or, if he was, remove him from office.  This was quite a policy and quite a coup, involving the FBI, the CIA, and quite possibly President Obama himself.  Godspeed, Durham and Barr, and if justice still exists in America after this Deep State assault, Michael Flynn will be a free man, and John Brenan and James Clapper will be cellmates.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

Former director of National Intelligence and current CNN contributor James “I Lied To Congress and Got Away with It” Clapper stammered through his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday, admitting that he may be a target of U.S. atty. John Durham’s investigation, now officially turned into a criminal probe by Atty. Gen. William Barr.  As BizPacReview notes:

Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper seemed to struggle with his poker face as he reacted to news of a DOJ criminal inquiry.

The current CNN contributor spoke with Anderson Cooper about reports of the transition of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review into the origins of the Russia probe into a criminal investigation. And his body language spoke louder than his words.

“What do you make of this,” the CNN host asked on “Anderson Cooper 360.”

“Well, I’m very curious because presumably, I guess I’m one of those under investigation,” Clapper replied, peppering his sentence with several uses of “uh.”

“Uh” rhymes with “duh,” which is the reaction to growing suspicions that based on his actions and mounting evidence that perjurer James Clapper and Lt. Gen.. Michael Flynn might be headed in opposite directions — Deep State point man James Clapper headed to prison for sedition, along with Deep State political hack John Brennan, both charged with helping to orchestrate a coup against a duly elected sitting president, Donald J. Trump.

Sidney Powell, the attorney for Gen. Flynn, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him based on indications that the FBI altered his 302s, essentially written reports based on witness interviews, to make him look guilty and leaking information on Flynn’s calls to the Washington Post.  As reported by RedState:

Powell alleges a set-up of Flynn including that the FBI 302s related to Flynn were edited.  A 302 is the form the FBI uses to reflect what a witness says during an interview.  Powell’s filing also suggests that Office of Net Assessment’s James Baker illegally leaked the transcripts of Flynn’s calls to David Ignatius of the Washington Post.  And Powell is specifically looking for the phone records of James Clapper to see about his contacts with Ignatius, including that he essentially told Ignatius to “take the kill shot on Flynn.”

Powell, a former federal prosecutor and a veteran of 500 federal appeals, is the author of Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, a biting tome exposing the prosecutorial misconduct of government lawyers such as Robert Mueller’s “pit bull,” Andrew Weissmann, and other members of Obama’s inner circle that have threatened the foundations of true justice in our democracy.  Powell has sunk her legal teeth into the fraudulent case against Flynn that should result in his, with apologies to Robert Mueller, exoneration.  As noted by Powerline:

Powell’s most explosive charge is that the FBI falsified the Form 302 that recorded the content of its agents’ interview with Flynn in order to set him up for prosecution:

On February 10, 2017, the news broke — attributed to “senior intelligence officials” — that Mr. Flynn had discussed sanctions with Ambassador Kislyak, contrary to what Vice President Pence had said on television previously.  Overnight, the most important substantive changes were made to the Flynn 302.  Those changes added an unequivocal statement that “FLYNN stated he did not” — in response to whether Mr. Flynn had asked Kislyak to vote in a certain manner or slow down the UN vote.  This is a deceptive manipulation because, as the notes of the agents show, Mr. Flynn was not even sure he had spoken to Russia/Kislyak on this issue.  He had talked to dozens of countries.  Exs. 9, 10, 11.

Second, they added: “or if KISLYAK described any Russian response to a request by FLYNN.”  That question and answer do not appear in the notes, yet it was made into a criminal offense.  The typed version of the highly unusual “deliberative” 302 by that date already included an entire section from whole cloth that also serves as a criminal charge in the Information and purported factual basis regarding “Russia’s response” to any request by Flynn. The draft also shows that the agents moved a sentence to make it seem to be an answer to a question it was not.

As Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett notes on his website, it is Clapper who may have ordered the hit job on Flynn, calling for a Washington Post reporter to “take the kill shot” on Flynn by publishing leaked information:

New court documents released Thursday night shed some light on some of the deep state’s actions in attacking former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn.  If these actions were revealed to have been taken against anyone else that was not a Trump ally, the media would be screaming about the abuse of power and the corruption of dirty law enforcement officials.

These documents allege that President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, called Washington Post reporter David Ignatius to “take the kill shot on Flynn.”  It is believed that ONA Director James Baker had leaked information, including transcripts from General Flynn’s calls, to Ignatius.  Director Baker is believed to also have been the handler for Stefan Halper who may have been tasked by the FBI/CIA to slander General Flynn personally[.] …

James Clapper admitted earlier in the month that President Obama ordered the intel community to collect and release as much information about “Russian interference” as possible.  Could the command from President Obama have directly led to the leaking of transcripts from Director Baker as well as Clapper telling a reporter to “take the kill shot” on a political adversary?

Close scrutiny of the Intelligence Community’s actions by Durham and Barr should send chills down Clapper’s spine and former CIA director John Brennan’s as well.  In the search for the answer as to how the whole Mueller collusion probe and spying on Team Trump originated, one does not have to look far.  One needs only to revisit another interview Deep State conspirator and perjurer James Clapper gave with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.  In that interview, Clapper points his finger directly at Barack Hussein Obama as leader of the coup against Donald Trump:

Former Obama administration director of national intelligence James Clapper admitted that former president Barack Obama gave the order to Peter Strzok to kick off his Operation Crossfire Hurricane targeting of President Donald Trump.

Obama — who also gave a stand-down order on stopping alleged Russian hacking — was personally implicated in the plot according to Peter Strzok and Lisa Page’s texts.  Clapper confirms the obvious.

This is James Clapper’s interview with Anderson Cooper, which confirms that Obama ordered Strzok to carry out an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which became the basis for the entire Mueller probe.

“If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.  President Obama is responsible for that.  It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place,” Clapper said in his Anderson Cooper interview.

Newly revealed text messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest that in addition to the FBI altering Michael Flynn’s 302s, Deep State actors at the FBI were well aware of and in cahoots with the intelligence community of James Clapper and John Brennan and may shed light on what clapper meant by taking a “kill shot” on Flynn.  Certainly GOP Sens. Charles Grassley are interested, according to Fox News:

Republican congressional leaders are calling for a new investigation of media leaks surrounding the Russia investigation — possibly emanating from the intelligence community — pointing to internal text messages they say indicate a more widespread problem.

“[T]hese texts and emails demonstrate the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI,” Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael K. Atkinson, pointedly asking whether he’s launched a probe “into these apparent leaks.” …

The specific messages include a December 2016 text, in which Strzok told Page, “Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking in to overdrive.”  Fox News previously reported on that exchange.

In April 2017, Strzok also sent an email commenting on an article about the Trump campaign and Russia by saying, “I’m beginning to think the agency got info a lot earlier than we thought and hasn’t shared it completely with us.  Might explain all these weird/seemingly incorrect leads all these media folks have.  Would also highlight agency as source of some of the leaks.”

What did the CIA and FBI share exactly?  Strzok, in another text, expressed the need for an “insurance policy” to either prevent Trump from being elected or, if he was, remove him from office.  This was quite a policy and quite a coup, involving the FBI, the CIA, and quite possibly President Obama himself.  Godspeed, Durham and Barr, and if justice still exists in America after this Deep State assault, Michael Flynn will be a free man, and John Brenan and James Clapper will be cellmates.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

Do you think President Obama was weak on confronting terrorists?

I’m beginning to think that hidden somewhere in the White House or Trump Tower there’s a magic wand that the president wields which turns his detractors— old Obama hands, make-believe conservative politicians and commentators, Democrats, and the media, into laughingstocks. If so, this weekend he waved it over the Washington Post.

First, a little background to refresh your memory. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an ISIS leader. He was a very, very bad man. In 2009, we had him captured and imprisoned in Iraq. For some utterly inexplicable reason, President Obama released him from Camp Bucca. Thereafter, Baghdadi and his troops took over the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit and Mosul, and threatened Baghdad. 

Along the way they burned down everything in their path and tortured and murdered civilians, soldiers and police officers. 

Director Blue posted a gruesome photo essay of his butchery. 

Baghdadi photographed and publicized how he and his fellow butchers roasted alive men hogtied over flames, burned whole families with their children in cages, drowned prisoners in cages, raped and murdered thousands of Yazidi women and girls, and beheaded, shot, and blew up countless thousands of people.

Among those he kidnapped, tortured and murdered was a young American woman Kayla Mueller whom Obama failed to rescue in time.

After his Iraqi mayhem, Baghdadi took refuge in Syria where he hid out.

This week, U.S. Special Forces, aided, according to reports, by Turks and Kurds, were granted permission by the Russians to fly over the area held by them. These forces overran his compound and chased him into a dead- end tunnel where he used his suicide vest to kill himself and three of his children. In the process, our Special Forces gathered up valuable intelligence about the origins of ISIS, its structure and future plans.

You’d think Baghdadi’s obituary would acknowledge what a monster he was. The header the Washington Post chose for this was originally 

“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief,’ dies at 48.”

It was changed to:

     “Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State dies at 48.”

Why they changed it, I can’t say but it appears to downplay the Islamic aspect of the terror and suggest this butcher was really a thoughtful, religious sort of a fellow.
From his teens, he was fascinated with Islamic history and the intricacies of Islamic law. Acquaintances would remember him as a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque.

“He always had religious or other books attached on the back of his bike,” Tariq Hameed, an acquaintance from the same lower-middle-class neighborhood, told a Newsweek interviewer in 2014. The young Ibrahim disdained the Western clothes popular with Samarra’s young men, preferring the traditional prayer cap, beard and white dishdasha robe of the religiously devout, neighbors said.

He graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1996 and received a master’s degree in Koranic recitation from the Saddam University for Islamic Studies in 1999. Immersing himself in the arcane world of 7th-century religious codes, he grew increasingly conservative. Acquaintances remembered how the college-age Mr. Baghdadi took offense at the sight of men and women dancing in the same room during wedding celebrations.

You had to read to the 40th paragraph for this:

 “Later, former hostages would reveal that Mr. Baghdadi also kept a number of personal sex slaves during his years as the Islamic State’s leader, including slain American hostage Kayla Mueller and a number of captured Yazidi women. U.S. officials corroborated the accounts,” the Post wrote.

In any event the headline provoked a torrent of satires.

Powerline Blog snapped up some of the best early ones: 

 

Adolf Hitler, Austrian vegan activist and landscape painter, dies at 56https://t.co/szPOVa5Sae

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 27, 2019

 

 

“John Wayne Gacy, children’s party clown, dead at age 52” https://t.co/W64p94Zixa

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

Osama Bin Laden, spiritual leader and architect of lower Manhattan urban revitalization projects, dead at 54. https://t.co/ZfpIrQsbQo

— John Noonan (@noonanjo) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey Dahmer, amateur chef with a flair for exotic cuisine, dies at 34. #WaPoObits

— Levi Gibian (@LeviGibian) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

The mocking—well-deserved—went on all Sunday. See where there are too many wonderful satire headers for me to repeat all.

Kayla Mueller’s family was delighted with the outcome even if the Post mourned this austere scholar.

But the magic wand didn’t stop at making only the Washington Post look ridiculous. As one Facebook poster (Bryan Dean Wright) observed: there are the 354 House members and the 68 Senators who voted to condemn the President’s Syrian policy. And of course the pundits and former Obama military officers (Mattis, Kelly and McRaven) belong in the corner with dunce caps, too.

People like former CIA Deputy Director Michael J. Morell, who said on Face the Nation that he was bothered by the detail in the presidential briefing as it only might inspire more terrorism.

On the other hand I don’t remember him criticizing Hillary Clinton who said laughingly of the murder of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who was, after all, cooperating with us: “We came, we saw, he died.” The Libyan dictator’s gruesome death has turned Libya, once fairly stable, into a slave market. Or James Clapper who expressed the fear that Baghdadi’s death could galvanize ISIS. 

Listening to these people I’ve come to believe that only God’s hand prevented us from total disaster during Obama’s eight years in office. Or maybe Trump’s magic wand was charged and in operation that early.

I’m beginning to think that hidden somewhere in the White House or Trump Tower there’s a magic wand that the president wields which turns his detractors— old Obama hands, make-believe conservative politicians and commentators, Democrats, and the media, into laughingstocks. If so, this weekend he waved it over the Washington Post.

First, a little background to refresh your memory. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an ISIS leader. He was a very, very bad man. In 2009, we had him captured and imprisoned in Iraq. For some utterly inexplicable reason, President Obama released him from Camp Bucca. Thereafter, Baghdadi and his troops took over the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit and Mosul, and threatened Baghdad. 

Along the way they burned down everything in their path and tortured and murdered civilians, soldiers and police officers. 

Director Blue posted a gruesome photo essay of his butchery. 

Baghdadi photographed and publicized how he and his fellow butchers roasted alive men hogtied over flames, burned whole families with their children in cages, drowned prisoners in cages, raped and murdered thousands of Yazidi women and girls, and beheaded, shot, and blew up countless thousands of people.

Among those he kidnapped, tortured and murdered was a young American woman Kayla Mueller whom Obama failed to rescue in time.

After his Iraqi mayhem, Baghdadi took refuge in Syria where he hid out.

This week, U.S. Special Forces, aided, according to reports, by Turks and Kurds, were granted permission by the Russians to fly over the area held by them. These forces overran his compound and chased him into a dead- end tunnel where he used his suicide vest to kill himself and three of his children. In the process, our Special Forces gathered up valuable intelligence about the origins of ISIS, its structure and future plans.

You’d think Baghdadi’s obituary would acknowledge what a monster he was. The header the Washington Post chose for this was originally 

“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Islamic State’s ‘terrorist-in-chief,’ dies at 48.”

It was changed to:

     “Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State dies at 48.”

Why they changed it, I can’t say but it appears to downplay the Islamic aspect of the terror and suggest this butcher was really a thoughtful, religious sort of a fellow.
From his teens, he was fascinated with Islamic history and the intricacies of Islamic law. Acquaintances would remember him as a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque.

“He always had religious or other books attached on the back of his bike,” Tariq Hameed, an acquaintance from the same lower-middle-class neighborhood, told a Newsweek interviewer in 2014. The young Ibrahim disdained the Western clothes popular with Samarra’s young men, preferring the traditional prayer cap, beard and white dishdasha robe of the religiously devout, neighbors said.

He graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1996 and received a master’s degree in Koranic recitation from the Saddam University for Islamic Studies in 1999. Immersing himself in the arcane world of 7th-century religious codes, he grew increasingly conservative. Acquaintances remembered how the college-age Mr. Baghdadi took offense at the sight of men and women dancing in the same room during wedding celebrations.

You had to read to the 40th paragraph for this:

 “Later, former hostages would reveal that Mr. Baghdadi also kept a number of personal sex slaves during his years as the Islamic State’s leader, including slain American hostage Kayla Mueller and a number of captured Yazidi women. U.S. officials corroborated the accounts,” the Post wrote.

In any event the headline provoked a torrent of satires.

Powerline Blog snapped up some of the best early ones: 

 

Adolf Hitler, Austrian vegan activist and landscape painter, dies at 56https://t.co/szPOVa5Sae

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 27, 2019

 

 

“John Wayne Gacy, children’s party clown, dead at age 52” https://t.co/W64p94Zixa

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

Osama Bin Laden, spiritual leader and architect of lower Manhattan urban revitalization projects, dead at 54. https://t.co/ZfpIrQsbQo

— John Noonan (@noonanjo) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey Dahmer, amateur chef with a flair for exotic cuisine, dies at 34. #WaPoObits

— Levi Gibian (@LeviGibian) October 27, 2019

 

 

 

 

 

The mocking—well-deserved—went on all Sunday. See where there are too many wonderful satire headers for me to repeat all.

Kayla Mueller’s family was delighted with the outcome even if the Post mourned this austere scholar.

But the magic wand didn’t stop at making only the Washington Post look ridiculous. As one Facebook poster (Bryan Dean Wright) observed: there are the 354 House members and the 68 Senators who voted to condemn the President’s Syrian policy. And of course the pundits and former Obama military officers (Mattis, Kelly and McRaven) belong in the corner with dunce caps, too.

People like former CIA Deputy Director Michael J. Morell, who said on Face the Nation that he was bothered by the detail in the presidential briefing as it only might inspire more terrorism.

On the other hand I don’t remember him criticizing Hillary Clinton who said laughingly of the murder of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, who was, after all, cooperating with us: “We came, we saw, he died.” The Libyan dictator’s gruesome death has turned Libya, once fairly stable, into a slave market. Or James Clapper who expressed the fear that Baghdadi’s death could galvanize ISIS. 

Listening to these people I’ve come to believe that only God’s hand prevented us from total disaster during Obama’s eight years in office. Or maybe Trump’s magic wand was charged and in operation that early.

‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State, dies at 48’

No. Not an Onion spoof of the politically correct insanity of the left-liberal media, but an actual headline from the Washington Post.

For the record, WaPo headline was “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State,” before they realised something was wrong and corrected it. pic.twitter.com/k6RbmPr5vs

— Ejder Memis (@_sHx_) October 27, 2019

True – the original headline read: ‘Islamic State’s terrorist-in-chief.’

And WaPo has since amended it to ‘Extremist leader of Islamic State dies at 48.’

But ‘Austere religious scholar’. WaPo: what were you thinking?

Was that really the best way to sum up the life of a mass-murdering religious psychopath, responsible for many thousands of rapes, tortures, burnings-alive, crucifixions, a surge in global terrorism and the attempted genocide of the Yezidis?
Many social media users thought not:

#WaPoDeathNotices Genghis Khan, accomplished horseman and indefatigable traveler, breathes his last.

— Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) October 27, 2019

John Wayne Gacy, noted child enthusiast and clown participant at kid’s parties #WaPoDeathNotices

— LegallyBae (@legallybae) October 27, 2019

#WaPoDeathNotices Joseph Stalin, former seminarian and noted agrarian reformer, dead at 74.

— Stephen F. Knott (@publius57) October 27, 2019

Mohamed Atta, skilled aviator and leader of men, dies at 33. #WashPostOrbits #WashingtonPostOrbits #WaPoDeathNotices

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 27, 2019

Jim Jones, passionate community organizer and religious leader, dead at 47.#WaPoDeathNotices pic.twitter.com/OP8YBvehBV

— Dan Crenshaw’s Eyepatch (@DansEyepatch) October 27, 2019

#WaPoDeathNotices Jimmy Saville. British celebrity marathon runner and raiser of millions for children’s charities pic.twitter.com/tXR1iNtiAe

— Mark Tamm (@GarbleBlather) October 27, 2019

#Wapodeathnotices Fearless advocate of 20/20 vision, unmanicured hands and rustic authenticity, Pol Pot was also renowned for his world-class ossiary…

— James Delingpole QC (@JamesDelingpole) October 27, 2019

Mussolini, community service volunteer renown for getting the trains to run on time, dies at 61. #wapodeathnotices https://t.co/vS5FNSaHlD

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 27, 2019

Democrats deliberately omitted President Donald Trump from their congratulations Sunday on the successful raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS). But Trump had congratulated then-President Barack Obama in May 2011 when he announced the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

I want to personally congratulate President Obama and the men women of the Armed Forces for a job very well (cont) http://tl.gd/a7dhom

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2011

Trump’s full statement emphasized the need to put country ahead of party as the nation celebrated, as follows:

I want to personally congratulate President Obama and the men [and] women of the Armed Forces for a job very well done. I am so proud to see Americans standing shoulder to shoulder, waving the American flag in celebration of this great victory.

We should spend the next several days not debating party politics, but in remembrance of those who lost their lives on 9/11 and those fighting for our freedom. God Bless America.

Other Republicans were generous to Obama, too, putting patriotism ahead of politics.

As the New York Times noted:

WASHINGTON — President Obama drew praise from unlikely quarters on Monday for pursuing a risky and clandestine mission to kill Osama bin Laden, a successful operation that interrupted the withering Republican criticism about his foreign policy, world view and his grasp of the office.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney declared, “The administration clearly deserves credit for the success of the operation.” New York’s former mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said, “I admire the courage of the president.” And Donald J. Trump declared, “I want to personally congratulate President Obama.”

The Times observed that Republicans praised Obama even though it was clear the raid would help him politically.

As of Sunday morning, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro had congratulated U.S. forces while pointedly excluding President Trump from their congratulations.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that leaks in Washington could have jeopardized the successful raid on the hideout of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the now-deceased leader of the so-called “Islamic State,” known as ISIS.

Trump confirmed in a press conference following his address to the nation that he had deliberately withheld information about the raid in advance from some congressional leaders. He did not mention House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), but other media reports indicated Schiff had not been briefed.

As Breitbart News reported:

President Donald Trump confirmed in remarks to the press Sunday after his address to the nation that he had deliberately kept some congressional leaders out of the loop, without naming Schiff directly.

“We notified some; others are being notified as I speak,” Trump said.

“We were going to notify them last night but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before,” Trump said. “There is no country in the world that leaks like we do and Washington is a leaking machine.”

Trump said that U.S. forces would have been placed in greater danger due to leaks in Washington tipping off the terrorists.

“A leak could have caused the death of all of them,” Trump said.

Schiff is currently pursuing an “impeachment inquiry” against the president, using the secrecy that the House Intelligence Committee to shield witnesses from scrutiny, and to prevent Republicans from commenting on the testimony, even though none of the material being discussed is classified.

Trump emphasized that U.S. forces would have fought and won even if they had encountered stiffer resistance from the terrorists, but that leaks from Washington would have made their task much harder.

There were no U.S. personnel injured or killed; one K-9 dog was wounded in the raid.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

A Facebook Live video appears to capture several minutes of a vehicle pursuit where an alleged human smuggler with ten migrants onboard claims to be attempting to outrun law enforcement. The video and the Facebook account of the person who posted the video have since been made unavailable.

“I’ve got immigration on my ass,” the alleged human smuggler can be heard telling his “tio” (uncle) in a cell phone conversation. “I’ve got immigration on my ass because I have ten guys with me.”

“I need you to do me a huge favor and not tell anyone,” he continued. “I’m in a f*cking sh*thole fight now. Could you go open the ranch gate so that I can drive in super fast and close the gate so I can lose them?”

He explained that Border Patrol vehicles were about a mile behind him at the time.

His uncle apparently responded that he was in town and no one was at the ranch to open the gate. “F*ck,” the alleged smuggler responded.

“I am going to save these vatos (men) and I’m going to save my ass,” he concluded before hanging up. Earlier in the video, he could be heard calling his father and telling him “I love you” as if saying goodbye.

At one point, the female passenger (also reported to be a human smuggler) claimed the vehicle was doing “160.” That speed in kilometers per hour converts to about 100 mph.

At one point, the alleged smuggler tells the woman, “We’re jumping, we’re running, we’re leaving the car.”

Shortly after the alleged smuggler says goodbye to his uncle, he appears to drive the vehicle off the roadway at a high speed. The vehicle comes to a stop and everyone bails out of the vehicle. The woman continues the video as she runs through the brush. Police sirens can be heard approaching the scene about a minute after the bailout.

Border Patrol agents in Zapata County, Texas, initiated a vehicle pursuit on a vehicle suspected to be smuggling a group of migrants on Friday, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Hector Garza told Breitbart Texas in his role as Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). Texas Department of Public Safety troopers backed up the Border Patrol agents during the pursuit, he said.

“When Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene of the bailout, they conducted a search and apprehended the driver and passenger along with several aliens,” Garza told Breitbart Texas in a phone interview.”

“This video shows the real danger these human smuggling pursuits present,” Garza continued. “Fortunately, this one ended safely but we see way too many where innocent civilian bystanders are injured or killed in crashes involving these smugglers.”

Garza said agents in his sector have seen an increase in the number of pursuits as more migrants are shifting from a strategy of turning themselves in at the border to attempt to avoid apprehension and detention.

“You can hear the fear in the voices of the people pleading to be let out as the vehicle reached speeds around 100 mph,” Garza stated. “Many times, these types of pursuits end in crashes, or worse yet, vehicle rollovers where the migrants are severely injured or killed.”

In June 2018, Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector engaged in a pursuit of a human smuggler with 14 people crammed into a Chevrolet Tahoe, Breitbart Texas reported. Dimmit County Sheriff’s Office deputies took over the pursuit which ended after the driver lost control while entering the town of Big Wells, Texas. The vehicle rolled several times ejecting 12 of the 14 people on board. At least four migrants died at the scene and a fifth died at a San Antonio hospital from injuries sustained in the crash.

“We have also seen an increase in the strategy of packing human cargo into big-rig trailers,” Garza continued. “This appears to be happening as more OTMs (Other Than Mexican) migrants are returned to Mexico under the MPP policy. As the migrants figure out they can’t just arrive and stay, they begin to seek more traditional human smuggling tactics to get into the country.”

Breitbart Texas reports extensively on the human smuggling activities in South Texas and Arizona involving tractor-trailer rigs with human cargo.

Breitbart Texas reached out to Laredo Sector Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for an official statement on the vehicle pursuit. Officials promised a response that has not yet been received.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

(Disclosure: Breitbart Texas sponsored the Green Line podcast for the NBPC in an effort to provide a platform for agents to inform the public about the realities on the border and what Border Patrol agents face. Director Brandon Darby received an award from the Laredo chapter of the NBPC for his work in helping to defend and bring a voice to Border Patrol agents. Breitbart News assisted in covering funeral costs for a slain Border Patrol agent previously.)

Environmentalists intent on finding new ways to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change have proposed a novel method: feed cows seaweed to diminish methane in flatulence, belches, and manure.

Ermias Kebreab, an zoology professor at the University of California–Davis, led a team in producing a bovine meal regimen containing varying levels of Asparagopsis armata, a strain of red seaweed, and fed it to 12 dairy cows over a two-month period. In a mix containing just 1 percent seaweed, the cows’ methane emissions went down by a stunning 60 percent.

“In all the years that I’ve worked in this area, I’ve never seen anything that reduced it that much,” Kebreab said.

A 2012 United Nations report revealed that the earth’s cattle population produces more carbon dioxide than automobiles, planes, and all other forms of transport combined. Moreover, the cow pies they drop and the wind they break produce a third of the world’s methane emissions, which traps 84 times as much heat as carbon dioxide.

In the summer of 2016, EcoWatch published an article confirming that greenhouse gas emissions from livestock actually account for a higher percentage of total global emissions than the world’s 1.2 billion automobiles.

Kebreab’s cow experiment sought to replicate results from researchers at Australia’s James Cook University, who mixed bacteria from cows’ digestive systems with red seaweed and discovered a significant decrease in methane production. Their experiment suggested that tweaking a cow’s diet to include 2 percent seaweed could reduce its methane emissions by as much as 99 percent.

Last March, Kebreab and his team initiated a more expansive version of his cow study, using 21 steers over a period of six months. Preliminary results reportedly mirror those of the earlier experiment, but the final analysis will not be ready until December.

Paul Dobbins, a senior specialist at the World Wildlife Fund and former president of a kelp farm in Maine, said that seaweed could provide a key remedy for bovine gas emissions.

“You don’t have to rebuild 10,000 power plants in the world. You basically create a modest feed additive that has a big leverage effect,” he said.

According to Dobbins, seaweed farming may be a “triple win.” It furnishes a way to grow nutritious food for both cows and people, provides coastal jobs, and improves the marine environment.

“Everything you do in food production has pluses and minuses relative to the environment,” he has claimed. “Seaweed farming, if done correctly, actually comes out more on the plus side.”

While flatulence is an issue, studies have suggested that cow belching is a much bigger problem because of the methane produced in cows’ stomachs.

“Despite misconceptions, most cow methane comes from burps (90%) rather than farts (10%),” Michael Battaglia wrote in October, 2016, in the Conversation.

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A North Carolina sheriff who has refused to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials but last month said he wanted to build a relationship with ICE has not made good on his word, according to ICE officials.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden has refused to cooperate with ICE since taking office last December. In September, he publicly asked ICE officials to sit down with him to achieve a form of cooperation.

“This is when you sit down and talk to someone. This is when you come into town and say, ‘how can we help with that problem?’” McFadden said then, according to WBTV.

ICE said that McFadden has not followed those words with action.

“Since our last news conference in Charlotte on September 26, ICE leadership has made multiple attempts to communicate with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in an effort to reach a mutually agreeable solution to the county’s ICE non-cooperation policy, which knowingly releases violent criminal offenders back onto the streets of Charlotte,” Bryan Cox, the acting press secretary for ICE, said, according to The Daily Caller.

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“ICE senior leadership has sent email, and made multiple phone calls, over the past four weeks in an attempt to do so. This agency’s efforts to engage in dialogue have received no response,” Cox said.

WBTV said that it was shown documentation that ICE reached out to McFadden.

“Hello Sheriff McFadden, it was good speaking with you today regards to coming up with an agreeable solution on the ICE warrants and Detainers issue. Please contact me once you have discussed with your staff and perhaps we can set up a follow-up call or meeting,” Field Office Director John Tsoukaris wrote in an email, according to WBTV.

Cox said the email was followed up with phone calls to McFadden’s office. No response was received to the calls, Cox said.

The non-partisan, but conservative-leaning, Center for Immigration Studies lists Mecklenberg County as one of many jurisdictions nationally that are considered “sanctuary” areas because of their opposition to working with federal agencies.

McFadden, however, told WBTV that ICE never contacted him after one phone call in which McFadden said he needed to contact organizations of fellow sheriffs to guide him going forward.

“No,” McFadden told the station when asked of has received a phone call from ICE.

”I have not received an email,” he also said.

“I see how they play these games. We had one conversation. One,” McFadden said.

RELATED: CNN Headline Warns ICE Is Sequestering Teens, Ignores Fact Teens Were Deemed Dangerous

“We had a conversation on the phone and here’s what I said: ‘I can’t create something that no other sheriff’s office is doing,’” McFadden said.

“I said, ‘let me check with the national sheriff association and the local sheriff association.’”

ICE is also highlighting individuals ICE has sought to detain who are now in the Mecklenburg County Jail who it fears could be released, despite felony charges against them.

“We don’t have a crystal ball. They could post bond, if they have a bond set against them. They could complete their sentence. They could be released early. By not having that cooperation with the local sheriffs, ICE has no way of knowing when they’re going to be released,” Henry Lucero, Acting Deputy Associate Executive Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said.

Lucero and Cox said that they still want to work with McFadden to find a solution to the ongoing problem of local officials failing to cooperate with ICE.

“The only persons protected by these misguided policies are criminals,” Matt Albence, the acting director of ICE, said in a statement.

“It is past time to put aside all the political rhetoric and listen to the facts – and the fact is, people are being hurt and victimized every day because of jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE,” said Albence.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

President Trump on Sunday shared with the American people details of the U.S. military operation that led to the death of terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a nearly 50-minute live press conference in which he described the operation, Baghdadi’s purported last moments, and answered journalists’ questions about the raid and his strategy.

It was a contrast to the statement from former President Obama when he announced the operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which was about nine minutes and contained few details about the operation. He took no questions from the media. In fact, he described the operation in five sentences:

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

In contrast, Trump gave a detailed description of the raid, what he purportedly saw and heard while watching the operation from the Situation Room, details of al-Baghdadi’s death, and answered numerous questions.

“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering, crying, and screaming all the way. The compound had been cleared by this time with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel,” he said.

“He had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased them down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast, the tunnel had caved in on it in addition. Test results gave certain, immediate, and totally positive identification. It was him,” he continued.

“The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, and total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him. We were in the compound for approximately two hours, and after the mission was accomplished we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid. Much having to do with ISIS origins, future plans, things that we very much want,” he said.

Trump also talked about the details leading up to the raid, telling reporters al-Baghdadi was under surveillance for a couple of weeks before, shedding insight into U.S. intelligence capabilities.

“We knew about where he was going, where he was heading. We had very good information that he was going to another location. He did not go,” he said. “Two or three efforts were canceled because he decided to change his mind, constantly changing his mind.”

He said finally they saw he was held up in a compound — which U.S. intelligence knew a lot about.

“We knew it had tunnels. The tunnels were dead ends for the most part. There was one we think wasn’t, and we had that covered just in case,” he said.

He described the breach of the compound.

“When we landed with eight helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the building, not wanting to go through the main door because that was booby-trapped,” he said.

“They blasted their way through the house in a very heavy wall. It took them literally seconds. By the time those things went off they had a beautiful big hole and they got everyone by surprise.” He said 11 children were taken custody. He also said that a number of adults died, and some were taken into custody. He said the number of those killed would be announced soon.

Trump said the flight to the compound took about an hour and 10 minutes, including travel over dangerous territory. He said the aircraft took gunfire coming in, which was “immediately terminated.”

“Meaning, they were shot from the airships,” he said.

He described al-Baghdadi’s last moments.

“He died like a dog, he died like a coward. He was whimpering, screaming, and crying,” he said.

Trump also revealed that a canine was involved in the operation, and was hurt in the tunnel, but was evacuated. “A beautiful dog, a talented dog, was injured and brought back.”

He said the raid began at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday. “The liftoff started moments after that.”

Trump also described efforts to identify al-Baghdad after his death.

“They went in with lab technicians,” he said. “They brought body parts back with them. There was not much left. The vest blew up. They did an on-site test and it was a very quick call that took place about 15 minutes after he was killed and it was positive.”

Trump also revealed there were two wives with Baghdadi who were killed. He said they were wearing vests that did not detonate, making it difficult for U.S. forces.

He also revealed there was a robot that went into the tunnel. “We had a robot just in case because we were afraid he had a suicide vest on and if you get close to him and he blows it up, he’s going to die. He had a very powerful suicide vest.”

He said back in the situation room, he and the team were getting full reports literally on a minute-by-minute basis.

“They gave us a report: ‘Sir, there’s only one person in the building. We are sure he’s in the tunnel. Trying to escape. But it’s a dead-end tunnel’…when he blew himself up the tunnel collapsed on top of everything and his children. So he led his three children to death.”

He talked about the uncertainty of the situation as it was unfolding.

We weren’t 100 percent sure about the tunnel being dead-ended. It’s possible there could have been an escape hatch somewhere along we didn’t know about. So we moved very, very quickly. These people, they were moving — they were chasing.”

Follow Breitbart News’ @Kristina_Wong.