In a move that will only further buttress the Trump administration&#8217;s well-deserved claim to being the most pro-Israel American presidency since the 1948 founding of the Jewish state, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trump-administration-announces-major-policy-shift-toward-israel-no-longer-views-israels-west-bank-settlements-as-violation-of-international-law">announced</a> today that it shall henceforth be the policy of the United States that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; — Jews living in the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — do not, by their very existence, violate international law.
&#8220;After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this [a]dministration agrees with President Reagan [that] [t]he establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law,&#8221; Pompeo said. Former top Trump administration Middle East peace negotiator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-trump-administration-right-un-can-never-josh-hammer">Jason Greenblatt</a> further broke down the administration&#8217;s move on <a href="https://images1.ynet.co.il/static/video/vpreview.html?m3u8=https://besttv227-hls-video-ynet.cdn.it.best-tv.com/1119/16c995093f4d46ed55f7bffed4c648f4/master.m3u8&amp;hd1080=0">Israeli television</a>: &#8220;The right [legal] result &#8230; is that Israeli settlements are not per se illegal,&#8221; he explained.
This is a <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1196495392466231296">paradigm-altering</a> and inspired decision for which the Trump administration deserves effusive praise. It is manifestly correct on the black-letter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AYZBjoeeehg?autoplay=0">international law merits</a>, symbolic in its courageous defiance of the sclerotic groupthink of the ubiquitously anti-Semitic &#8220;international community,&#8221; and stakes out a bold moral starting point in the longstanding fight for Judea and Samaria — which is ground zero in the fight for Western civilization itself.
In many academic, legal, and political circles the world over, it is taken as something of an unassailable given that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; built over the 1967 armistice line are illegal under well-established principles of international law. In reality, nothing could be further from the case. As legal academic Eugene Kontorovich has painstakingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYZBjoeeehg">pressed for years</a> and as Elliott Hamilton once <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-down-israeli-occupation-myth-elliott-hamilton">argued</a> here at The Daily Wire, it is Israel that actually has the preeminent modern-day legal claim to the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — a.k.a the &#8220;West Bank.&#8221;
Israel&#8217;s claim is based on the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations&#8217; 1922 Mandate for Palestine, the San Remo Conference, <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2011/09/22/article-80-and-the-un-recognition-of-a-“palestinian-state”/">U.N. Charter Article 80</a>, the Arabs&#8217; decision to refuse the U.N.&#8217;s November 1947 partition plan in lieu of attempting to commit genocidal jihad against the Jews, and Israel&#8217;s subsequent victories in the defensive wars against invading Arab foes in both 1967 and 1973. The lands that today constitute Judea and Samaria were never, ever in their entire history part of a sovereign state called &#8220;Palestine&#8221;; on the contrary, they were merely <a href="http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/jordanianocuupationjerusalem.asp">illegally occupied</a> by the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan between Israel&#8217;s independence in 1948 and Israel&#8217;s miraculous victory in the Six Day War of 1967. Watch Kontorovich&#8217;s fuller explication of Israel&#8217;s clearly superior legal claim to Judea and Samaria:
<iframe title="Disputing Occupation: Israel&#039;s Borders and Settlements in International Law" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AYZBjoeeehg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yet for all its black-letter legal correctness, the Trump administration&#8217;s decision is arguably even more indispensable for its pure symbolism. In reversing Obama presidency-era legal precedent and re-asserting the Reagan presidency-era belief that Israeli &#8220;settlements&#8221; are not legally problematic, the Trump administration has flipped two delectably brazen middle fingers at one of the most deeply held shibboleths of the leftist, <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2016/12/27/destroy-the-united-nations/">Jew-hating</a> &#8220;international community.&#8221; In left-leaning legal and political science academe circles, there is perhaps no more agreed-upon &#8220;truth&#8221; than the notion that Israel is an illegal &#8220;occupier&#8221; that flagrantly tramples all over Palestinian-Arabs&#8217; rights to sovereignty and self-determination. The Trump administration has just taken a jackhammer to that golden calf of ivory tower idolatry — and it has done so less than a week after the European Union&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kalev-european-political-opposition-to-the-jewish-state-should-not-be-taken-lightly">anti-Semitic decision</a> to specifically label certain Israeli products made by Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria. Bravo — truly.
Finally, though it would not — and, indeed, does not — admit it, the Trump administration has also just staked out a morally righteous starting point in the final political resolution of the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over Judea and Samaria. Secretary Pompeo today was careful today to emphasize that the Trump administration&#8217;s legal proclamation bears no relationship to the ultimate political adjudication of Judea and Samaria&#8217;s status, and we ought to take him at his word that the administration did not intend to put its political or moral thumb on the scale. Indeed, given that the administration&#8217;s unveiling of its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fleisher-clash-american-liberal-jewry-and-israeli-yishai-fleisher">&#8220;Deal of the Century&#8221;</a> peace plan is still awaiting Israel durably securing a new parliamentary coalition, perhaps it would even be politically imprudent for the administration to do so.
But, at least indirectly, it seems to have done so nonetheless. By refusing to pay lip service to demonstrably erroneous legal fictions pertaining to Israel&#8217;s allegedly illegal &#8220;occupation&#8221; in Judea and Samaria, the Trump administration has — at least inadvertently — emboldened Israel&#8217;s political negotiating position. How could Israel not feel empowered to more adamantly push its political position vis-à-vis Judea and Samaria if it knows that the world&#8217;s greatest superpower and its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-pro-israel-case-against-u-s-military-aid-to-israel">chief foreign aid</a> provider does not, in fact, view its purportedly most infamous illegality as not actually being illegal? Israel should feel more secure in its pushing for increased sovereignty over the ground zero battleground between liberalized Western civilization and barbaric jihad that is Judea and Samaria.
The Trump administration has, once again, shown its unmistakable and remarkable commitment to the irreplaceable American ally that is Israel. Thank you, President Trump.

Ariel, Israel

HAMMER: The Trump Administration Is Absolutely Correct To Call Israeli ‘Settlements’ Legal

Foreign Policy

Israel

Lawfare

Middle East

Mike Pompeo

Palestinians

State Department

Trump Administration

On Friday, Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who is an attorney by training, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SjD3d6gvnM">joined</a> &#8220;Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler&#8221; on One America News Network to discuss reporter John Solomon&#8217;s recent <a href="https://johnsolomonreports.com/hunter-bidens-ukraine-gas-firm-pressed-obama-administration-to-end-corruption-allegations-memos-show/">bombshell revelation</a> that now-infamous Ukrainian energy firm Burisma attempted to leverage employee Hunter Biden&#8217;s stature as the son of former Vice President Joe Biden to obtain access to the U.S. State Department toward the end of the Obama presidency.
As <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/07/emails-reveal-burisma-consulting-firm-leveraged-hunter-biden-to-get-state-dept-meetings/">reported</a> last week by Erielle Davidson of The Federalist, Solomon obtained emails via the <a href="https://www.foia.gov">Freedom of Information Act</a> (FOIA) that &#8220;reveal[ed] that Burisma&#8217;s consulting firm had &#8230; mentioned Hunter Biden when seeking a meeting with the State Department to discuss corruption allegations against the company.&#8221; Solomon&#8217;s FOIA-uncovered &#8220;<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/433389210/Bluestar-Novelli-Contacts" data-reader-unique-id="11">email from February 2016</a> specifically cited Hunter Biden&#8217;s involvement with Burisma when discussing the possibility of setting up a meeting with Burisma’s consulting firm,&#8221; Davidson continued. Here is the full email in which Burisma&#8217;s consulting firm was sure to highlight the then-vice president&#8217;s son as a prominent employee (emphasis added):
<blockquote>Per our conversation, Karen Tramontano of Blue Star Strategies requested a meeting to discuss with [Under Secretary] Novelli [U.S. Government] remarks alleging Burisma (Ukrainian energy company) of corruption. She noted that two high profile U.S. citizens are affiliated with the company (including Hunter Biden as a board member). Tramontano would like to talk with U/S Novelli about getting a better understanding of how the U.S. came to the determination that the company is corrupt. According to Tramontano, there is no evidence of corruption, has been no hearing or process, and evidence to the contrary has not been considered.  Would appreciate any background you may be able to provide on this issue and suggested TPs for U/S Novelli’s meeting.</blockquote>
Furthermore, the February 2016 email was <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/hunter-bidens-ukraine-gas-firm-lobbied-state-department-to-end-corruption-allegations-emails-show_3137480.html">sent merely one month</a> before then-Vice President Biden <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/03/what-really-happened-when-biden-forced-out-ukraines-top-prosecutor/3785620002/">pressured Ukraine</a> to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
Wheeler and Hammer discussed the stakes of the FOIA bombshell. Wheeler began the discussion by asking Hammer whether the FOIA-released email, which clearly demonstrates Burisma attempting to secure high-level U.S. government access via deploying Hunter Biden&#8217;s name, reveals exactly what the Bidens have denied transpired. Hammer concurred with Wheeler&#8217;s intuition and described the powerful FOIA statutory tool as a &#8220;helluva drug.&#8221;
<blockquote>FOIA is a hell of a drug. FOIA litigation in the federal courts is oftentimes crazy, just because of what it ends up divulging, and this is no different than that. The timeline here is pretty crazy. It looks like one month before Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire this prosecutor who was looking into Burisma — literally one month before that, Burisma was in communication with the U.S. State Department trying to get a meeting. And they were expressly name-dropping Hunter Biden as a reason to get that meeting.
I mean, Liz, the Left wants to talk about foreign interference, foreign governments, foreign corporations, everyone kind of defiling our sovereignty and meddling in our affairs. &#8230; Look at what is going on here: A foreign corporation &#8230; they&#8217;re allowed to lobby, that&#8217;s their right, but to do so in this manner, to expressly name-drop in communication with the State Department that the reason they want this meeting is because the vice president at the time&#8217;s son is on the board &#8230; that is wild. That is a wild, wild revelation.</blockquote>
WATCH:
<iframe title="Hunter Biden FOIA Bombshell" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6SjD3d6gvnM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hammer OANN 11.08.19

WATCH: Hammer On ‘Tipping Point With Liz Wheeler’: The Hunter Biden FOIA Bombshell

Hunter Biden

Ukraine

Just days after Attorney General William Barr set off a firestorm among progressive elites for his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-america-is-better-off-for-having-bill-barr">remarkable comments</a> on the importance of morality to the preservation of freedom, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in a <a href="https://www.state.gov/being-a-christian-leader/">speech</a> that his own leadership is drawn from his Christian faith. Now some are calling for what every American ought to instinctively know is an unnecessary investigation by the inspector general of the United States.
Secretary Pompeo’s speech, delivered to the annual meeting of the American Association of Christian Counselors, made a clear distinction. The fourth in line to the presidency admitted to learning a great deal about leadership while at West Point, in his service in the Army and Congress, and as director of the CIA.  Yet Pompeo tailored his comments to focus on how his faith has also informed his leadership style.
He cited the wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs: “With the humble is wisdom.” Great leaders are humble, he noted, observing how critical such humility is to his work as America’s top diplomat. Looking to the New Testament Book of James, Secretary Pompeo made the point that how one speaks and deals with others says a lot about who one is as a leader. And he acknowledged our responsibility to be wise stewards “of whatever it is that we have been privileged to hold onto,” including the decisions we make in our areas of leadership.
Secretary Pompeo’s leadership — in disposition, dialogue, and decision-making — is informed by the Christian principles of humility, forgiveness, being slow to speak, and stewardship.
For this, Americans United for Separation of Church and State now <a href="https://www.au.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/AU%20Letter%20on%20Investigation%20of%20Sec.%20Pompeo%20%26%20Dept.%20of%20State%2010.18.19.pdf">demands</a> that the United States government officially investigate Secretary Pompeo and the department he leads. To them, Secretary Pompeo gave “a proselytizing religious speech,” thus violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. When the U.S. Department of State then promoted the speech online, Americans United for Separation of Church and State contends, it too broke the law.
Secretary Pompeo anticipated the pushback. As an anticipatory defense, he invoked President Abraham Lincoln’s famous admission: “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” Had Americans United been established during his presidency, no doubt Lincoln would have received a similar complaint.
It may come as a surprise to some that presidents (and secretaries of state) often look to moral principles — their personal faith — in making leadership decisions.  When those leadership decisions align with calls for social justice and progressive calls for economic equality, the Left celebrates.
Yet, admit that a secretary of state relies upon his faith to be humbler, listen better, and make wiser decisions, and suddenly it crosses the line into a constitutionally dubious attempt to establish an official church of the United States.
The error in thinking by Secretary Pompeo’s critics is that anyone serving in government must relinquish or renounce his/her faith upon entering civil service. Americans United for Separation of Church and State believes that Secretary Pompeo must be converted from religion to secularism in order to be neutral in his office. The group erroneously equates neutrality with government-enforced secularism.
The missionary-like zeal with which these secularists act is damaging to freedom itself. What would they ask the inspector general to do in response to the secretary of state admitting in public that his leadership is informed by his Christian faith? Must he be removed from office? Should the United States fine him for referencing his faith in this speech? Must Secretary Pompeo spend a night and a day in the stocks under a sign declaring, “Thus always to religious civil servants?”
Civil servants are citizens, too. They are, and must be, free to rely upon their religious faith in their efforts and unafraid to admit that they do so. Such honesty contributes to the great diversity of our nation — including religious diversity.
The human right to religious freedom — a freedom, as Secretary Pompeo noted in his speech, denied to 80% of the world’s population — means more than the freedom to worship on Sunday and hum hymns in the recesses of one’s home. Rather, Americans of every walk of life — elected or not — are free to be known by their faith in both public and private life. More than that, they are free to rely upon that faith in their disposition, dialogue, and decisions.
Whether one’s leadership is informed by Jack Welch, Jim Collins, or Jesus Christ should be of little surprise to anyone — let alone cause for an official inquiry by the inspector general.
&nbsp;
Jeremy Dys (<a href="https://twitter.com/jeremydys">@JeremyDys</a>) is Special Counsel for Litigation and Communications for First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all Americans. Read more at <a href="https://firstliberty.org">FirstLiberty.org</a>.

DYS: Response To Pompeo Speech Reveals Anti-Christian Hostility

Constitution

First Amendment

Leftism

Progressivism

Religion

William Barr

As the firestorm over President Trump&#8217;s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to consume the news cycle, the Trump administration has taken new action into a controversy that played a central role in the 2016 election: the Hillary Clinton private email server scandal.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/state-dept-intensifies-email-probe-of-hillary-clintons-former-aides/2019/09/28/9f15497e-e1f2-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html">The Washington Post</a> reported Saturday that State Department investigators are &#8220;investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email.&#8221;
&#8220;As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials,&#8221; the Post reports. &#8220;Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.&#8221;
The Post&#8217;s sources say investigators began contacting former officials 18 months ago, &#8220;then seemed to drop the effort before picking it up again in August.&#8221; In &#8220;virtually all&#8221; of the cases, potentially sensitive information was sent to Clinton&#8217;s private, unauthorized server, the outlet notes.
A State Department official stressed to the Post that the renewed investigation &#8220;has nothing to do with who is in the White House.&#8221; The official, who asked to remained anonymous, told the paper, &#8220;This is about the time it took to go through millions of emails, which is about 3½ years.&#8221;
<div class="remainder-content">
<section>In its report on the State Department&#8217;s investigation into Clinton&#8217;s use of an unsecured private server, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/us/politics/hillary-clinton-email-server-state-department.html">The New York Times</a> claims that the FBI&#8217;s investigation into the issue concluded &#8220;without finding wrongdoing by Mrs. Clinton.&#8221;But that&#8217;s not what the FBI said at all. In his much-critiqued announcement of the bureau&#8217;s findings just a few months before the 2016 election, former FBI Director James Comey condemned Clinton and her colleagues&#8217; &#8220;extremely careless&#8221; handling of &#8220;very sensitive, highly classified information.&#8221;&#8221;Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/05/politics/fbi-clinton-email-server-comey-damning-lines/index.html">said</a> Comey.&#8221;There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton&#8217;s position, or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about those matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation,&#8221; Comey asserted.
&#8220;None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government &#8212; or even with a commercial email service like Gmail,&#8221; he said later.
The &#8220;security culture&#8221; of Clinton&#8217;s State Department, said Comey, was &#8220;generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information that is found elsewhere in the government.&#8221;
<div>Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-judiciary-letter-to-doj-ukraine-helped-clinton-campaign-dnc">Senate Judiciary Letter To DOJ: Ukraine Helped Clinton Campaign, DNC</a> 
</div>
</section>
</div>

Hillary Clinton

State Department Takes New Action On Hillary Investigation

Donald Trump

James Comey

According to sources who spoke to The Daily Wire from both inside and outside the administration, the Trump administration will not implement any policy that allows countries to import Iranian oil — thus apparently closing the door on a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/trump-china-iran-oil-1396052">proposal being circulated among State Department hands</a> that would have allowed China to use an obscure legal loophole to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil imports.
Last Wednesday, Eliana Johnson of Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/trump-china-iran-oil-1396052">reported a very interesting scoop</a>: &#8220;The State Department is seriously considering using an Obama-era loophole to allow China to import oil from Iran,&#8221; which would &#8220;violat[e] the Trump administration’s pledge to bring Iranian oil exports to zero.&#8221; Specifically, Johnson cited &#8220;three U.S. officials&#8221; who claimed that the U.S. is considering &#8220;granting China a waiver to a 2012 law [the Iran Freedom and Counterproliferation Act] intended to kneecap the Iranian oil industry.&#8221; The proposal would have effectively allowed China to avoid paying directly for Iranian oil while nonetheless still acquiring it.
For close observers of the Trump administration&#8217;s foreign policy and national security apparatus, this might have seemed more than a little strange. Why would this administration, which famously removed the U.S. from the harrowing capitulation to fundamentalist jihadist evil that was President Barack Obama&#8217;s Iran nuclear deal and has infamous Iran hawk John Bolton as its national security advisor, undercut the thrust of its own <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2019/04/29/trump-ends-waiver-grace-period-for-irans-oil-customers/">hardline Iran oil waivers policy</a> by granting an obscure legal loophole to the U.S.&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47057/hammer-china-americas-greatest-21st-century-threat-josh-hammer">number one 21st century geopolitical threat</a>?
To be sure, Politico almost assuredly did not get the story wrong. Rather, leakers in the famously Arabist/anti-Israel State Department bureaucracy were likely candid about internal deliberations in Foggy Bottom.
But reading Johnson&#8217;s scoop, one is forced to ponder the distinct possibility that the State Department could be wildly out of line with administration officials in and around the White House national security apparatus. Sure enough, a senior Trump administration official contacted by The Daily Wire categorically ruled out implementation of any proposal that would grant the Chinese such a waiver for Iranian oil imports.
&#8220;There will be no waivers issued to any country for the import of Iranian oil, in accordance with the President’s direction,&#8221; the senior administration official stated. &#8220;Importing Iranian oil is a sanctionable activity under U.S. law. U.S. secondary sanctions will be fully enforced.&#8221;
Well.
This is what a brutal inter-agency fight looks like. Hawkish Iran hardliners in the administration are battling — quite publicly now, as of this writing&#8217;s publication — with dovish State Department mandarins.
Contacted by The Daily Wire, a U.S. official familiar with the inter-agency Trump administration battle over Iranian oil waivers put it bluntly: &#8220;The president is under enormous pressure to give Iran a face-saving off-ramp and look the other way at sanctions busting. The Europeans and their friends inside the administration are selling him the delusion that the ayatollah is ready to make a deal, if only he&#8217;ll bribe Iran with a few hundred million dollars. It hasn&#8217;t worked yet. They&#8217;re still trying.&#8221;
This will be a fascinating inter-agency fight to watch unfold. Iran hawks have a very clear rooting interest — and it is surely not with the State Department. Suffice it to say there is no world whatsoever in which China ought to be granted any waivers at all for importing Iranian oil.

HAMMER: INTER-AGENCY FIGHT: White House Closes Door On Plan To Give China ‘Get-Out-Of-Jail’ Free Card For Iran Oil

Barack Obama

Iran

John Bolton

National Security

Nuclear Weapons

Politico

The State Department has identified &#8220;multiple security incidents&#8221; involving the handling of Hillary Clinton&#8217;s emails by current and former staffers, the agency said in a <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06-05%20State%20to%20CEG%20%28Security%20Investigation%20Follow-Up%29.pdf">letter</a> Monday.
At least 15 people were involved and there were 23 &#8220;violations&#8221; and seven &#8220;infractions&#8221; issued as part of the department&#8217;s ongoing investigation.
The State Department has been investigating Clinton&#8217;s email from the time she was Secretary of State during the Barack Obama administration. She deleted some 30,000 emails and scrubbed hard drives after she left the post, and subsequent probes have found that she mishandled classified material.
No names of Clinton staffers were released. In a letter to Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the department said it &#8220;does not release the names of current or former employees participating in the security incident program.&#8221;
&#8220;However, in the spirit of cooperation, the Department can share with you certain information about the status of the ongoing review. To this point, the Department has assessed culpability to 15 individuals, some of whom were culpable in multiple security incidents. DS has issued 23 violations and 7 infractions incidents under 12 FAM 550. This number will likely change as the review progresses.&#8221;
Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the State Department&#8217;s Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, also said the process has been time-consuming.
&#8220;Given the volume of emails provided to the Department from former Secretary Clinton&#8217;s private email server, the Department&#8217;s process has been necessarily more complicated and complex requiring a significant dedication of time and resources,&#8221; Taylor wrote.
The department said it expects to end its probe by September 1.
Clinton had her own private email server in her New York home, which was used by her and her top staff. She&#8217;s been found to have mishandled classified information, including in 2016, when then-FBI Director James Comey said that she had been &#8220;extremely careless&#8221; with such documents in emails.
&#8220;And in March, it was revealed that the Justice Department &#8216;negotiated&#8217; an agreement with Clinton&#8217;s legal team that ensured the FBI did not have access to emails on her private servers relating to the Clinton Foundation,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-state-department-violations-security-incidents">Fox News</a> reported. &#8220;Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok testified about the arrangement during a closed-door appearance before the House Judiciary Committee last summer, according to a transcript released this year.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;A significant filter team&#8221; was employed at the FBI, Strzok said, to &#8220;work through the various terms of the various consent agreements.&#8221; Limitations imposed on agents&#8217; searches included date ranges and names of domains and people, Strzok said, among other categories.
</blockquote>
Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton&#8217;s top aide and estranged wife of sex offender Anthony Weiner, also allegedly forwarded State Department emails &#8212; including the classified passwords for government systems &#8212; to her personal email account on Yahoo, a service provider that later saw every account hacked, according to a <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/01/01/abedin-forwarded-state-passwords-to-yahoo-before-it-was-hacked-by-foreign-agents/?utm_source=site-share">Daily Caller</a> report in January.
Explaining its current process, the department said: &#8220;In every instance in which the Department found an individual to be culpable of a valid security violation or three or more infractions, the Department forwarded the outcome to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security&#8217;s Office of Personnel Security and Suitability (DS/PSS), to be placed in the individuals&#8217; official security file. All valid security incidents are reviewed by DS and taken into account every time an individual&#8217;s eligibility for access to classified information is considered.
&#8220;This referral occurred whether or not the individual was currently employed with the Department of State and such security files are kept indefinitely. Consistent with the referral policy, for individuals who were still employed with the Department at the time of adjudication, the Department referred all valid security violations or multiple infractions to the Bureau of Human Resources.&#8221;
Those found in violation can be fired, or, depending on the circumstances, ordered into counseling, reprimanded or suspended, the department said.
President Trump weighed in on the new development, saying, &#8220;Wow!&#8221; and &#8220;This is really big.&#8221;
&#8220;Wow! The State Department said it has identified 30 Security Incidents involving current or former employees and their handling of Crooked Hillary Clinton&#8217;s Emails. @FoxNews This is really big. Never admitted before. Highly Classified Material. Will the Dems investigate this?&#8221; he wrote on Twitter.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Wow! The State Department said it has identified 30 Security Incidents involving current or former employees and their handling of Crooked Hillary Clinton&#8217;s Emails. <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> This is really big. Never admitted before. Highly Classified Material. Will the Dems investigate this?
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1140844412127326208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

HILLARY EMAILS: State Department Identifies 23 Violations, &#8216;Multiple Security Incidents&#8217;

Huma Abedin

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is, as The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/17362/7-things-you-need-know-about-labour-leader-jeremy-aaron-bandler">long</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47370/sick-hamas-thanks-uk-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn-josh-hammer">reported</a>, a fairly transparent anti-Semite who has done little to quell the harrowing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43200/corbyn-effect-anti-semitism-uk-reaches-record-high-josh-hammer">rise in anti-Semitic incidents</a> in Britain that has perhaps not so coincidentally overlapped with his political rise to Labour Party national prominence. As Foreign Policy <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/03/jeremy-corbyn-has-a-soft-spot-for-extremists-ira-hamas-hezbollah-britain-labour/">reminded readers</a> last October, furthermore, the leading politician of Britain&#8217;s main center-left party once infamously referred to sharia supremacist jihadist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as his &#8220;friends&#8221;:
<blockquote>
[T]hree days after al Qaeda&#8217;s suicide bombings in London in July 2005, Corbyn spoke at a Stop the War Coalition rally in the city to stress the reason that civilians there were being blown up on trains and buses was &#8220;because of the way we inflict an insecurity on so many other people around the world. We have to be very clear about that.&#8221;
It is a favorite Corbyn theme. At another Stop the War rally (before becoming leader of the Labour Party, attending Stop the War rallies constituted a significant part of Corbyn&#8217;s life), he said the Islamic State&#8217;s beheading of Alan Henning, a British aid worker, was &#8220;the price of jingoism.&#8221;
For groups regarded as less extreme than al Qaeda and the Islamic State, Corbyn has been less restrained &#8212; and often a vocal backer. In a 2009 speech in London, where he was addressing the Stop the War Coalition, Corbyn famously described Hamas and Hezbollah as his &#8220;friends.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Just last week, in fact, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48028/former-british-prime-minister-jeremy-corbyn-anti-josh-hammer">reported</a> how Labour Party ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair &#8212; whose tenure as British leader overlapped with those of U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and was much more of a political centrist than is Corbyn &#8212; recently excoriated Corbyn by bluntly claiming that Corbyn is an anti-Semite who merely does not know yet that he is actually an anti-Semite. Per <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48028/former-british-prime-minister-jeremy-corbyn-anti-josh-hammer">The Times of Israel</a>:
<blockquote>
UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite who doesn&#8217;t know that he is one, Tony Blair said Monday during a visit to Israel, speaking of the &#8220;shameful&#8221; anti-Semitism scandal that has engulfed the opposition party.
Blair, a former prime minister and long-time leader of Labour, said he no longer recognizes the party he led from 1994 until 2007.
&#8220;To be frank, this anti-Semitism row, it&#8217;s a shameful thing,&#8221; said Blair, who was interviewed at a panel event at Bar Ilan University just outside Tel Aviv.
&#8220;If you told me, not merely back in May 1997, but at any point in the next 10 years, that the party I led for 13 years would have a problem with anti-Semitism, I would literally not have credited it, or believed it, and yet it is, and it&#8217;s there today,&#8221; said Blair.
</blockquote>
Now, as the Times also <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/pompeo-us-will-push-back-against-corbyn-before-he-makes-things-hard-for-jews/">reports</a>, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo &#8212; who has long cultivated a philo-Semitic and pro-Israel political profile going back to his tenure as a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/07/congressmen-discover-secret-deals-iran-agreement/">staunchly anti-Iranian regime</a> U.S. congressman from Kansas &#8212; is vowing to &#8220;push back&#8221; against Corbyn&#8217;s insidious dissemination of venomous anti-Semitism, should the safety and security situation for British Jewry <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43200/corbyn-effect-anti-semitism-uk-reaches-record-high-josh-hammer">continue to deteriorate</a>:
<blockquote>
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a group of British Jewish leaders that Washington would &#8220;push back&#8221; against UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and do its &#8220;level best&#8221; to keep him from taking any steps that would make life difficult for Jews in the United Kingdom, a report said Saturday.
The comments drew outrage in Britain, with some accusing America of interfering in its internal affairs for the second time this month, after US President Donald Trump endorsed Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party and prime minister. &#8230;
Citing a leaked recording of a private meeting, the Washington Post said that Pompeo was asked: If Corbyn is elected &#8220;would you be willing to work with us to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews in the UK?&#8221;
Pompeo responded: &#8220;It could be that Mr. Corbyn manages to run the gantlet and get elected. It&#8217;s possible. You should know, we won&#8217;t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. We will do our level best. It&#8217;s too risky and too important and too hard once it&#8217;s already happened.&#8221;
</blockquote>
It seems that British Jews, much like their <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/27/pompeo-israel-palestine-congress-1238860">American counterparts</a>, ought to continue to be grateful for Pompeo&#8217;s moral clarity and diplomatic stewardship at Foggy Bottom.

U.S. Will ‘Push Back’ Against Jeremy Corbyn’s Anti-Semitism, Pompeo Says

Anti-Semitism

Great Britain

Jeremy Corbyn

United Kingdom

As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Kassy Dillon has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46296/trump-administration-seeks-stop-all-countries-kassy-dillon">reported</a>, the Trump administration recently decided to formally end its program of granting sanctions waivers for certain countries to import Iranian oil:
<blockquote>
&#8220;Our goal has been to get countries to cease importing Iranian oil entirely,&#8221; [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo said. &#8220;Last November, we granted exemptions from our sanctions to seven countries and to Taiwan. We did this to give our allies and partners to wean themselves off of Iranian oil, and to assure a well-supplied oil market.&#8221;
Pompeo then announced that no more exemptions would be granted.
&#8220;Today I am announcing that we will no longer grant any exemptions. We&#8217;re going to zero. We&#8217;re going to zero across the board. We will continue to enforce sanctions and monitor compliance, any nation or entity interacting with Iran should do its diligence and air on the side of caution. The risks are simply not going to be worth the benefits.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The ostensible goal of the U.S.&#8217;s doled out oil sanctions waivers had been to stabilize international energy markets. But as The Daily Wire has also reported, many <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45883/senate-hawks-push-white-house-stop-extending-josh-hammer">Iran hawks</a> viewed the waivers as merely a backhanded way of propping up the fanatical anti-American, anti-Israeli regime that oppressively rules Iran.
Pompeo tweeted at the time that the decision was made to phase out the waivers: &#8220;Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime means maximum pressure. That&#8217;s why the U.S. will not issue any exceptions to Iranian oil importers. The global oil market remains well-supplied. We&#8217;re confident it will remain stable as jurisdictions transition away from Iranian crude.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime means maximum pressure. That&#8217;s why the U.S. will not issue any exceptions to Iranian oil importers. The global oil market remains well-supplied. We&#8217;re confident it will remain stable as jurisdictions transition away from Iranian crude.
&#8212; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1120308601913073666?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
But the waivers, which indeed do <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/27/ted-cruz-right-united-states-axe-irans-oil-waivers/">merely boost</a> the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranians-chant-death-to-israel-on-anniversary-of-us-embassy-takeover/">genocidal</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">jihadist</a> mullocracy that governs Tehran, will still take 90 days to officially phase out. And this morning, noted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">Iran hawk</a> Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) found himself in a fiery Foreign Relations Committee exchange on the subject with State Department official Andrea Thompson, who serves as undersecretary for arms control and international security.
Jordan Schachtel of Conservative Review neatly <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/watch-sen-ted-cruz-spars-state-dept-bureaucrat-iran-nuke-program/">summarizes</a> the exchange:
<blockquote>
&#8220;How is it possibly in our best interest to allow Iran to continue doing nuclear research in the Fordow bunker that was built into the side of a mountain to be able to develop nuclear weapons to use to murder Americans? How is that in our best interest?&#8221; Cruz asked.
Failing to answer the question, the unelected State Department official responded that &#8220;everyone in this administration will stand for what&#8217;s right for the safety and security of the American people, bar none.&#8221;
Sen. Cruz repeated his question:
&#8220;Is it in our interest to allow Iran to continue to do nuclear research in the Fordow facility?&#8221;
He then received the shocking response from the unelected bureaucrat that the decisions made by the State Department are &#8220;always in the interest of the American people,&#8221; which Sen. Cruz called an &#8220;Orwellian position.&#8221;
</blockquote>
For decades, the State Department has been known as a particularly restive den of anti-Western, pro-Islamist sympathizing. But what is perhaps even more revealing is the supercilious nature of Thompson, who seems to feel that she is too morally enlightened to feel any accountability for her bureaucracy&#8217;s actions &#8212; no matter how deleterious those actions may be to the national interest.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StateDept</a> is allowing <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Iran</a> to continue doing research in their nuclear bunker at Fordow, which Iran dug into the side of a mountain to build nuclear weapons. They are unwilling to explain to the American people why they&#8217;re doing it. <a href="https://t.co/j8L2YvPAgI">pic.twitter.com/j8L2YvPAgI</a>
&#8212; Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1128702255513907201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Ted Cruz Eviscerates State Department Bureaucrat Over Waivers For Terrorist Iranian Regime

Ted Cruz

U.S. Senate

There appears to be an increasingly wide rift developing in Washington between conservative Iran hawks and Iran lesser-hawks. The issue is whether the United States should fully let expire the next batch of oil waivers for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43339/hammer-iranian-revolution-forty-years-old-stand-josh-hammer">fanatical</a> jihadist regime that governs the Islamic Republic of Iran. The rift exposes Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and a small handful of other Republican senators, alongside National Security Advisor John Bolton, on one side, and the institutional U.S. State Department &#8212; embodied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo &#8212; on the other side.
Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/fresh-u-s-divide-on-iran-emerges-over-expiring-nuclear-waivers">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
In a letter to President Donald Trump this week, a group of Republican senators demanded that Secretary of State Michael Pompeo stop letting Iran continue its limited civilian nuclear research program.
At issue are three waivers the Trump administration granted after it withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. They allow Iran to work with nations that remain in the deal at three sites &#8212; Fordow, Bushehr and Arak &#8212; to ensure it doesn&#8217;t seek to enrich uranium to high levels. It&#8217;s part of an effort to limit the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.
In their April 9 letter to Trump, six Republican senators including Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida argued that the administration shouldn&#8217;t extend the waivers when they expire in early May.
&#8220;There is extensive evidence Iran channeled its nuclear weapons program through civil nuclear projects after 2003,&#8221; the senators wrote. &#8230; They urged the president to &#8220;finally end all U.S. implementation&#8221; of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
</blockquote>
The Daily Wire received a copy of the senators&#8217; letter, courtesy of a Republican staffer. The letter urges the Trump Administration to take four concrete steps: (1) once and for all end all U.S. implementation of the Iran deal by refusing to reissue waivers permitting civil nuclear work, (2) urge the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to reopen its file on the possible military dimensions of Iran&#8217;s nuclear program, (3) properly designate all Iranian entities named in the Israeli government&#8217;s previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30045/iran-lied-netanyahu-reveals-israel-smuggled-100000-ben-shapiro">seized nuclear archive</a> from Tehran, and (4) explicitly reference the aforementioned nuclear archive in the Trump Administration&#8217;s upcoming report to Congress on &#8220;Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments.&#8221;
At least on issue (2), it seems like the senators may be fighting an uphill battle. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44212/classic-iaea-head-says-he-can-not-speak-past-josh-hammer">reported</a> last month, the IAEA tends to be less than forthcoming on the issue of Iran&#8217;s hegemonic nuclearization ambitions:
<blockquote>
On Monday in Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano hedged hard when asked about the extent of the Iranian regime&#8217;s prior nuclear activity. Specifically, Amano said that he could &#8220;not speak of&#8221; such previous activity &#8212; effectively refusing to confirm or deny that the Islamic Republic has engaged in prior nuclearization efforts.
</blockquote>
At The Federalist last month, Erielle Davidson persuasively <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/27/ted-cruz-right-united-states-axe-irans-oil-waivers/">argued</a> Cruz and his fellow senators are correct to push for a full evisceration of Iran&#8217;s oil waivers:
<blockquote>
Waivers have been used as a balm to protect Iran from economic collapse following President Trump&#8217;s exit from the Iran Deal and the swift reinstatement of sanctions this past November. The Trump administration has expressed aims of removing Iranian crude exports entirely from the market very soon, but arguments within the State Department questioning the feasibility of such an aim have garnered suspicion. &#8230;
The waivers have allowed Iran to continue to rake in billions of dollars, thus enabling the country&#8212;and the repressive regime&#8212;to stave off economic collapse. Many experts on both sides of the Iran debate think Iran is positioned to wait out the Trump administration&#8217;s pressure campaign, perhaps indefinitely, unless the Iranian economy sustains a dramatic shock.
</blockquote>
Sen. Cruz has made hawkishness on Iran a centerpiece of his foreign policy profile. As I argued in a Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43151/hammer-ted-cruzs-non-interventionist-hawk-foreign-josh-hammer">op-ed</a> in February:
<blockquote>
Since joining the U.S. Senate in 2013, Cruz&#8217;s foreign policy has consistently been in the wide chasm between Ron Paul-style isolationism and Dick Cheney-style moralistic interventionism. Cruz has been blisteringly hawkish on true national security threats to the United States and our core allies &#8212; his stances on the Shiite supremacist Iranian terror regime mullocracry and the Sunni supremacist Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas alike both come to mind &#8212; but as a doctrinal rule, he has generally been warier of the risk of prolonged military deployments.
</blockquote>

Senate Hawks Push White House To Stop Extending Certain Iran Nuclear Waivers

Marco Rubio

Tom Cotton

As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43069/bipartisan-support-builds-israeli-sovereignty-over-josh-hammer">reported</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/39463/cruz-cotton-submit-resolution-urging-israeli-hank-berrien">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41900/ted-cruz-tom-cotton-renew-call-israeli-sovereignty-hank-berrien">times</a>, there has been a recent push among many for the U.S. to formally recognize Israel&#8217;s control over the strategically sensitive Golan Heights region, which Israel first acquired in 1967&#8217;s existential Six Day War defensive fight and formally annexed in 1981. Since 1981, however, the status of the Golan Heights has languished as a matter of formal U.S. recognition.
On December 18, a joint Senate <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/files/documents/Bills/20181217_golan_heights_new.pdf">resolution</a> from Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for formal recognition by thoroughly tracing the modern history of the Golan&#8217;s legal status, from 1967 through the bloody years-long civil war raging in Syria through the present day. In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/41900/ted-cruz-tom-cotton-renew-call-israeli-sovereignty-hank-berrien">January</a>, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct pitch for formal U.S. recognition to National Security Advisor John Bolton. At a joint press conference with Bolton, Netanyahu stated, &#8220;Tomorrow, if weather permits, we will go up to the Golan Heights &#8212; it is tremendously important for our security. When you are there, you&#8217;ll be able to understand perfectly why we will never leave the Golan Heights and why it is important that all countries recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.&#8221; And most recently, some Democrats last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43069/bipartisan-support-builds-israeli-sovereignty-over-josh-hammer">indicated</a> the possibility that there might be bipartisan support for some measure of U.S. recognition &#8212; either formal or de facto &#8212; of the Golan Heights.
Now, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/us-changes-label-of-golan-heights-israel-netanyahu-569c7dbd-d793-441e-af99-e9e357f6514b.html">reports</a> that, for the first time, the U.S. State Department &#8212; long a parochial <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/opinion/contributors/valerie-plame-antisemitic-state-department.html">bastion</a> of pro-Arab, anti-Israel bias &#8212; has taken the comparatively mild step of referring to the Golan Heights not as &#8220;occupied territory,&#8221; but instead as &#8220;under Israeli control&#8221;:
<blockquote>
The U.S. refers to the Golan Heights as an area &#8220;under Israeli control,&#8221; instead of &#8220;occupied territory,&#8221; for the first time in a human rights report issued today by the State Department. &#8230;
This step is both symbolic and significant. Israel occupied the Golan Heights, recognized internationally as Syrian territory, during the 1967 war. In the last year, Israel has been lobbying the Trump administration and Congress to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area. The change in language in the report is not a recognition of Israeli sovereignty, but is a clear signal in that direction.
</blockquote>
As Axios also notes, the State Department last year also dropped the term &#8220;occupied&#8221; in a separate report headline that discussed Israel&#8217;s (entirely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/11948/breaking-down-israeli-occupation-myth-elliott-hamilton">lawful</a>) presence in Judea and Samaria &#8212; which much of the &#8220;international community&#8221; refers to as the &#8220;West Bank.&#8221;
As Axios further notes, an anonymous senior State Department official attempted to downplay the news:
<blockquote>
As we stated last year, we retitled this Human Rights Report to refer to the commonly used geographic names of the area the report covers: Israel, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza. That is in line with our practices generally. We also believe it is clearer and more useful for readers seeking information on human rights in those specific areas. The title of the report was updated to reflect current practices in the Department and to be clearer and more useful to readers and researchers.
</blockquote>
As anyone who has ever personally visited the Golan Heights would be able to attest, &#8220;under Israeli control&#8221; is simply an accurate description of the on-the-ground, day-to-day reality of how the strategically sensitive, mountainous terrain is administered and governed.

Excellent Trump: For First Time Ever, U.S. Recognizes Golan Heights As ‘Under Israeli Control’

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ruled out his possible candidacy for a soon-to-be vacated U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Kansas. In addition to his prior service as CIA Director, Pompeo had also served as a Wichita-area U.S. Congressman for six years.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), who has served in the Senate since 1997, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/kansas-sen-pat-roberts-announces-he-wont-seek-reelection-in-2020/2019/01/04/569b7bf4-0a1c-11e9-a3f0-71c95106d96a_story.html">announced</a> last month that he will not seek reelection in 2020.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/21/mike-pompeo-senate-1176869?nname=playbook-pm&amp;nid=0000015a-dd3e-d536-a37b-dd7fd8af0000&amp;nrid=00000169-02b0-df38-abe9-77bf94dd0001&amp;nlid=964328">reports</a>:
<blockquote>
The former Kansas congressman and CIA director had dodged questions about whether he planned on running in 2020 to claim the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, fueling speculation that he might by attending certain events and meeting with GOP operatives in the state.
But on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Today&#8221; show on Thursday, the secretary of state threw cold water on the prospect, telling anchor Craig Melvin &#8220;it&#8217;s ruled out.&#8221;
&#8220;I love Kansas. I&#8217;m going to be the secretary of State as long as President Trump gives me the opportunity to serve as America&#8217;s senior diplomat,&#8221; Pompeo said. &#8220;I love doing what I&#8217;m doing and I have 75,000 great warriors out and around the world trying to deliver for the American people.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Pompeo had <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/24/mike-pompeo-2020-senate-1121851">previously confirmed</a> that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had asked him to consider a 2020 Senate run, but Pompeo had otherwise previously been noncommittal as to whether he might leave the Executive Branch to return to the realm of elected office.
&#8220;Lots of folks have reached out to me and suggested I ought to do it,&#8221; Pompeo told Fox News last month, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/mike-pompeo-says-he-has-ruled-out-running-senate-seat-n973906">NBC News</a> today. &#8220;I have suggested to them that I have a very full plate as Secretary of State and I intend to keep doing this so long as President Trump will commit to it.&#8221;
The Kansas City Star&#8217;s lede <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article226581194.html">opines</a> that a &#8220;giant obstacle has been cleared from the path of Kansas politicians&#8221; who are interested in pursuing Roberts&#8217; soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, but otherwise would have been deterred by the presence in the race of a nationally prominent figure like Pompeo.
One possibly intriguing name for conservatives may be FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who is a 46-year-old Kansas native with degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago. Pai&#8217;s leadership for the Trump Administration in rolling back the FCC&#8217;s cumbersome net neutrality regulatory framework has earned him heaps of scorn from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24009/net-neutrality-protesters-target-fcc-chairmans-hank-berrien">Left</a>, but no shortage of praise from the <a href="https://conservative.org/article/acu-praises-fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-unwavering-resolve-and-congratulates-pai-fellow-commissioners-on-passage-of-order-to-restore-internet-freedom">Right</a>. He is well-liked and respected by many grassroots conservatives.
In December 2017, following FCC Commisioners&#8217; 3-2 procedural vote that set the wheels in motion for net neutrality&#8217;s demise and thereby made Pai the bête noire of large swathes of the Left-leaning tech nerd cognoscenti, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24691/breaking-net-neutrality-repealed-left-loses-its-ben-shapiro">mocked</a> the Left&#8217;s hyperbolic reaction:
<blockquote>
The level of panic set off by the end of net neutrality is utterly out of proportion to the actual effect that end is likely to have. The basic debate over net neutrality is actually a reasonable one: is the best way to ensure a better internet for consumers to ban internet service providers (ISPs) from charging certain content providers more for their use of bandwidth than others, or is it to free ISPs to charge what they want, thereby incentivizing ISPs to compete with one another to offer different services at different prices? &#8230;
This is a reasonable debate. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s not reasonable: the suggestion that your internet use is likely to change radically from what it was in 2015, before net neutrality went into effect. Here&#8217;s what else isn&#8217;t reasonable: people of the Left who think that Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter operate fine in the free market, and that consumers don&#8217;t have to worry about discrimination thanks to open competition, but that the same doesn&#8217;t apply to ISPs.
</blockquote>

Mike Pompeo Rules Himself Out Of Kansas’ Open 2020 Senate Seat

2020 Election

Kansas

Republican Party

On Thursday morning, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) &#8212; which exists as a discrete group solely to support those whom UNRWA identifies as Palestinian-Arab &#8220;refugees&#8221; resulting from Israel&#8217;s 1948 War of Independence &#8212; claimed that it defines &#8220;refugee&#8221; in precisely the same manner as does its sister organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR, in contrast to UNRWA, exists to support &#8220;refugees&#8221; resulting from every other conflict in the world besides the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;The UNRWA registration of descendants, corresponding with the need to protect family unity, is in line with UNHCR procedures.&#8221;
&#8212; UNRWA (@UNRWA) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1098550709467992064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The main problem, as the inestimable Hillel Neuer of UN Watch tweeted, is that this is a bald-faced lie.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Your former General Counsel says you&#8217;re lying.
&#8220;UNRWA is the only refugee organization in the world that considers citizens of a state to be refugees, and there are many of these&#8212;1.8 million in Jordan&#8212;oxymoronic &#8216;citizen-refugees&#8217; on UNRWA rolls&#8230;&#8221;
&#8212;&gt; <a href="https://t.co/Np4O1dMaIh">https://t.co/Np4O1dMaIh</a> <a href="https://t.co/58mDjCEJbw">https://t.co/58mDjCEJbw</a>
&#8212; Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1098553341653725184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Note: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNHCR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNHCR</a> solutions include &#8220;resettlement and integration.&#8221;
By contrast, <a href="https://twitter.com/UNRWA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UNRWA</a> never speaks of integrating Palestinian descendants of refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria&#8212;even as they&#8217;ve lived there 70 years &amp; share same language, religion and culture.<a href="https://t.co/zVIaeuepLu">https://t.co/zVIaeuepLu</a>
&#8212; Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) <a href="https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1098565189283262465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
As Neuer claims, UNRWA&#8217;s very own former General Counsel, James Lindsay, confirmed in a 2012 Middle East Quarterly <a href="https://www.meforum.org/3404/reforming-unrwa">essay</a> that UNRWA calculates its &#8220;refugees&#8221; in a very different manner than does UNHCR:
<blockquote>
The UNRWA definition makes no mention of citizenship, and UNRWA makes no effort to de-register persons who were formerly refugees but are now citizens of a state. As such, UNRWA is the only refugee organization in the world that considers citizens of a state to be refugees, and there are many of these oxymoronic &#8220;citizen-refugees&#8221; on UNRWA rolls.
</blockquote>
As Lindsay noted in his essay, UNRWA&#8217;s lack of mention of citizenship is hugely consequential &#8212; and it differs from UNHCR&#8217;s <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html">definition</a> of &#8220;refugee,&#8221; which &#8220;specifically does not apply to any person who &#8216;has acquired a new nationality, and enjoys the protection of the country of his new nationality.'&#8221;
Therefore, all the millions of descendants of the Palestinian-Arabs displaced by Israel&#8217;s 1948 War of Independence &#8212; a genocidal war launched by the Jewish state&#8217;s Arab neighbors only after those neighbors flatly rejected the incipient United Nation&#8217;s previously proffered two-state partition proposal &#8212; who have since acquired citizenship in a distinct sovereign nation, such as the 1.8 million Jordanians Neuer references, would not be considered &#8220;refugees&#8221; under UNHCR&#8217;s definition but are considered &#8220;refugees&#8221; under UNRWA&#8217;s definition.
As The Washington Free Beacon&#8217;s Adam Kredo <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/u-s-government-hiding-report-number-palestinian-refugees/">reported</a> last April, Capitol Hill lawmakers have been pressing the U.S. State Department to release a classified report that will confirm that the actual number of Palestinian-Arab &#8220;refugees&#8221; is therefore orders of magnitude smaller than what UNRWA disingenuously and self-aggrandizingly claims:
<blockquote>
The U.S. government continues to inappropriately keep classified a report on Palestinian refugees that congressional officials view as a potential game changer in how America approaches its regional policies and allocates billions in taxpayer funds, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the report.
Congressional officials familiar with the classified report&#8230;say the State Department continues to keep it secret in order to not disrupt billions of dollars in allocations to [UNRWA], the organization responsible for providing aid to what they claim is some 5.2 million Palestinian refugees.
Those familiar with the report say the U.S. quietly determined under the Obama administration that the actual number of Palestinian refugees is far smaller, closer to around 30,000. This disclosure could fundamentally change the way billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are allocated to UNRWA and the Palestinian government and impact America&#8217;s longstanding policies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
</blockquote>
Last August, the Trump Administration <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/31/politics/trump-administration-ending-funding-palestinian-refugees/index.html">announced</a> its intention to fully defund UNRWA. The U.S. had previously been the largest donor to UNRWA, donating more than $350 million in 2017.
&#8220;The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,&#8221; U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, at the time. &#8220;We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business.&#8221;

Pro-Palestinian Frauds: UNRWA Called Out For Lying About Its Own Definition Of ‘Refugee’

United Nations

On Sunday, the Trump administration&#8217;s State Department, a far cry from the Obama State Department&#8217;s sycophantic dealings with Iran, targeted the Iranian government with a series of blunt tweets that pointed out the corruption of Iranian officials, even referring to Iran&#8217;s Supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, as a &#8220;so-called holy man.&#8221; The State Department wrote, &#8220;Today is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash">#AntiCorruptionDay</a>. Sadly, for the Iranian people, their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Take Ayatollah Khamenei, who has a tax-free hedge fund worth billions. This so-called holy man devours property from religious minorities, then funnels the cash to IRGC.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Today is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AntiCorruptionDay</a>. Sadly, for the Iranian people, their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Take Ayatollah Khamenei, who has a tax-free hedge fund worth billions. This so-called holy man devours property from religious minorities, then funnels the cash to IRGC. <a href="https://t.co/rnAwNaLhfW">pic.twitter.com/rnAwNaLhfW</a>
&#8212; Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1071811173354496016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Just in case you thought the State Department was only targeting Khamenei, think again. They were taking no prisoners. They followed with more tweets targeting more officials. They next tweeted, &#8220;This <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash">#AntiCorruptionDay</a> Iranians have much to despair about. Their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Meet Sadegh Mahsouli&#8212;The Billionaire General. Somehow he had a knack for winning lucrative construction and oil contracts from IRGC businesses. He is now worth billions.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AntiCorruptionDay</a> Iranians have much to despair about. Their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Meet Sadegh Mahsouli&#8212;The Billionaire General. Somehow he had a knack for winning lucrative construction and oil contracts from IRGC businesses. He is now worth billions. <a href="https://t.co/m9OL0srEei">pic.twitter.com/m9OL0srEei</a>
&#8212; Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1071848209486671877?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
That was followed by tweeting, &#8220;Unfortunately, this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash">#AntiCorruptionDay</a> is a reminder for Iranians that their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Meet Grand Ayatollah Makaram Shirazi&#8212;The Sultan of Sugar. He made millions flooding the market with expensive imported sugar, putting Iranian people out of work.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Unfortunately, this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AntiCorruptionDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AntiCorruptionDay</a> is a reminder for Iranians that their government is full of corrupt hypocrites. Meet Grand Ayatollah Makaram Shirazi&#8212;The Sultan of Sugar. He made millions flooding the market with expensive imported sugar, putting Iranian people out of work. <a href="https://t.co/30wGEcNLbv">pic.twitter.com/30wGEcNLbv</a>
&#8212; Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1071895068955607040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then, on Monday, the State Department targeted Iran&#8217;s record on human rights, tweeting, &#8220;On this #Human Rights day, spare a moment to remember the innocent Americans held hostage by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iran?src=hash">#Iran</a>, and their families. The regime must release Bob Levinson and all other U.S. hostages immediately. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeIranHostages?src=hash">#FreeIranHostages</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HelpBobLevinson">@HelpBobLevinson</a>.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
On this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HumanRightsDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HumanRightsDay</a>, spare a moment to remember the innocent Americans held hostage by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iran?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Iran</a>, and their families. The regime must release Bob Levinson and all other U.S. hostages immediately. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FreeIranHostages?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FreeIranHostages</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/HelpBobLevinson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HelpBobLevinson</a> <a href="https://t.co/3d4qqqG8Bf">pic.twitter.com/3d4qqqG8Bf</a>
&#8212; Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1072143018499719168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The State Department has released a <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/286410.pdf">comprehensive report</a> titled, &#8220;Outlaw Regime: A Chronicle of Iran&#8217;s Destructive Activities.&#8221; In it, the State Department asserted:
<blockquote>
The policy President Trump has laid out comes to terms fully with the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state. Normal states do not attack embassies and military installations in peacetime; fuel terrorist proxies and militias; serve as a sanctuary for terrorists; call for the destruction of Israel and threaten other countries; aid brutal dictators such as Syria&#8217;s Bashar al-Assad; proliferate missile technology to dangerous proxies; conduct covert assassinations in other countries; and hold hostage citizens of foreign nations. Normal states do not support terrorism within their armed forces, as Iran has done with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Qods Force. Normal states do not abuse the international financial system and use commercial industry to fund and support terrorism. Normal states do not squander their own natural resources. Normal states do not violently suppress legitimate protests, jail their own citizens or those of other countries on specious crimes, engage in torture, and impose severe restrictions on basic freedoms.
</blockquote>
The report added, &#8220;We will engage with any nation prepared to take a stand with us against the chaos and brutality that Iran imposes on its citizens and spreads in spades around the world. We know many countries share our concerns and our yearnings for a more secure and stable Middle East, as well as a freer Iran. We encourage nations and businesses across the world to examine the record enclosed here, and answer the call to address the challenge of Iran head-on.&#8221;

Not Obama&#8217;s State Department Anymore: Trump&#8217;s State Department Blasts Iran Full-Force

James O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s Project Veritas has <a href="https://www.projectveritas.com/2018/09/18/deep-state-unmasked-state-department-on-hidden-cam-resist-everything-i-have-nothing-to-lose/">released</a> their first dose of undercover footage allegedly revealing the shadowy actors of the &#8220;deep state.&#8221; In Tuesday&#8217;s footage, an employee of the State Department and a member of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) admits to working on DSA work while on the clock and makes it clear that his goal is to &#8220;resist everything&#8221; at &#8220;every level.&#8221;
State Department employee Stuart Karaffa tells undercover Project Veritas reporters that he drafts communication for his DSA activism on the taxpayers&#8217; dime, though he&#8217;s careful not to leave a &#8220;paper trail.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m careful about it,&#8221; he says in the footage. &#8220;I don&#8217;t leave a paper trail, like I leave emails, and like any press s*** that comes up I leave that until after 5:30. But as soon as 5:31 hits, got my, like, draft messages ready to send out.&#8221;
Karaffa also boasts about assisting the DSA by monitoring Virginia campaign finance and election news while on the clock.
&#8220;You could put two and two together probably,&#8221; says the State Department employee. &#8220;So with web traffic, I mean I could make the case before a court of law that &#8212; I&#8217;m going to the Virginia sort of, campaign finance website &#8212; that I&#8217;m just interested in what people are doing politically. But if they also go and look at like DSA minutes and like Officer positions they&#8217;ll be like, &#8216;That&#8217;s weird, you were the co-chair of the electoral caucus, and you spent three hours on a Virginia campaign finance website.'&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe someday I&#8217;ll go to board of elections jail, probably not,&#8221; Karaffa scoffs. It&#8217;s unlikely, he explains, because of the weak oversight and strong protection for firing.
&#8220;I have nothing to lose. It&#8217;s impossible to fire federal employees,&#8221; he says, adding that &#8220;nobody knows&#8221; about his on-the-job DSA activism.
Karaffa also notes that government disclosure forms are merely &#8220;rubber stamped.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if [the ethics officer is] all there. He&#8217;s so checked out,&#8221; he says.
Karaffa also seemingly advocates for the so-called &#8220;resistance&#8221; movement. &#8220;Resist everything,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Every level. F*** s*** up.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve heard a lot about the &#8216;deep State&#8217;; holdovers from the previous administration resisting change or nameless and faceless bureaucrats slowing things down or leaking secrets in an effort to undermine this administration,&#8221; explains O&#8217;Keefe. &#8220;What is truly striking is their boldness, they are not afraid. They are even boastful about a warped reality, where they won&#8217;t get caught and can&#8217;t get fired even if they did.&#8221;
O&#8217;Keefe promises more &#8220;deep state&#8221; footage to come.
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="721.9116022099447" width="1280"></iframe></div>

Project Veritas Releases &#8216;Deep State Unmasked&#8217; Video: &#8216;Resist Everything. Every Level. F*** S*** Up&#8217;

Democratic Socialism

James O'Keefe

Project Veritas

The Washington D.C. Palestinian Mission will close, State Department officials say, after a Palestinian attempt to prosecute Israel in an international court and after the PLO refused to come to the negotiation table in peace talks.
A statement by the State Department claims that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) &#8212; the recognized representative of the Palestinian people &#8212; failed to negotiate a peace plan with Israel and instead attempted to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate Israel for so-called war crimes, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45471420">BBC reports.</a>
&#8220;The PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;To the contrary, the PLO leadership has condemned a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the US government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise.&#8221;
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erkat called the decision a &#8220;dangerous escalation,&#8221; and said it &#8220;shows that the US is willing to disband the international system in order to protect Israeli crimes and attacks against the land and people of Palestine as well as against peace and security in the rest of the region.&#8221;
In a statement, a PLO spokesperson, Yousef al-Mahmoud, also claimed the U.S.&#8217;s decision &#8220;is a declaration of war on efforts to bring peace to our country and the region,&#8221; adding it &#8220;is part of the open war waged by the US administration and its Zionist team against our Palestinian people, their cause and just and legitimate rights.&#8221;
&#8220;It is a continuation of US policy of dictates and blackmail against our people in order to force them to surrender,&#8221; al-Mahmoud added.
The Palestinian mission opened in 1994 and under a provision in U.S. law, the mission must close if the Palestinians do not help move the peace process forward, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-closing-palestinian-mission-pro-israel-move-57725576">according to ABC.</a>
The Palestinians have refused to participate in peace talks following the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital of Israel, Jerusalem. Additional tensions arose after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refused to halt stipends to family members of Palestinian terrorists who committed attacks on Israel despite a demand from the Trump administration, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/10/trump-administration-closing-plo-mission-in-washington.html">Fox News reports.</a>
Earlier this month, the U.S. also announced that it would cut funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which is responsible for providing foreign-sponsored aid to the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. provides 30% of the budget, and the decision will cost UNRWA $300 million.
&#8220;The United States continues to believe that direct negotiations between the two parties are the only way forward,&#8221; Heather Nauert, the spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement. &#8220;This action should not be exploited by those who seek to act as spoilers to distract from the imperative of reaching a peace agreement. We are not retreating from our efforts to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace.&#8221;
An additional condition of the mission, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-threatens-close-palestinians-d-c-office-amid-renewed-n822061">NBC News reports</a>, requires the PLO to refrain from calling on the ICC to prosecute Israel.
In a speech at the United Nations last year, Abbas called for the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israeli citizens, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-expected-to-warn-of-sanctions-other-penalties-if-international-court-moves-against-americans/2018/09/09/9c47bd64-b2b2-11e8-9a6a-565d92a3585d_story.html?utm_term=.b500e6cae319">reports the Washington Post. </a>
&#8220;The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,&#8221; National Security Adviser John Bolton said during a speech according to Fox News. &#8220;The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel.&#8221;
&#8220;We will provide no assistance to the ICC. And we certainly will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,&#8221; Bolton said.
In response to threats of an ICC investigation against U.S. for actions in Afghanistan, Bolton reportedly threatened to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from the United States, and suggested imposing sanctions on their any funds they had in the U.S. financial system. Bolton added that these measures would apply, additionally, to companies and countries assisting the ICC&#8217;s investigation.
&#8220;[W]e will remember that cooperation when setting U.S. foreign assistance, military assistance and intelligence-sharing levels,&#8221; Bolton said.
The ICC was formally chartered in 2002, but the Bush administration refused to sign on to be bound by the international court, a charge led by Bolton, who was a top State Department official at the time. <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/405871-bolton-threatens-sanctions-against-international-criminal-court">According to The Hill</a>, Bolton claims his push to prevent the U.S. from signing on to the ICC is &#8220;one of my proudest achievements.&#8221;

U.S. To Close Palestinian Mission After PLO Refuses To Engage In Peace Talks

Operations at the American embassy in Cairo resumed normally after Egyptian law enforcement officials arrested a man who was allegedly carrying an explosive device outside the embassy on Tuesday. 
Security officials spoke to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/09/04/man-carrying-explosive-device-arrested-outside-us-embassy-in-cairo-officials-say.html">Fox News</a> on the condition of anonymity, telling reporters that the unidentified suspect was arrested near the consulate and nearby British embassies. 
Embassy officials released a statement on Twitter saying, &#8220;We are aware of a reported incident on Simon Bolivar Street in Cairo. Please avoid the area and monitor local media for updates. We are aware of reports that public transportation near the area has been disrupted due to the incident. Please exercise caution.&#8221;
They added, &#8220;U.S. Citizens should/not come to the Embassy at this time.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
[1 of 3] 
&#8226; We are aware of a reported incident on Simon Bolivar Street in Cairo. Please avoid the area and monitor local media for updates. We are aware of reports that public transportation near the area has been disrupted due to the incident. Please exercise caution.
&#8212; US Embassy Cairo (@USEmbassyCairo) <a href="https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/status/1036944462109462528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
[2 of 3] 
&#8226;U.S. Citizens should/not come to the Embassy at this time. Please email ConsularCairoACS@state.gov with any questions. 
&#8226;U.S. Citizens: Sign up for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for security updates at <a href="https://t.co/UMoke72V75">https://t.co/UMoke72V75</a>.
&#8212; US Embassy Cairo (@USEmbassyCairo) <a href="https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/status/1036944584578883585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Later, the embassy informed the public via social media that the investigation of the area for more possible threats has concluded with no further serious threat identified. 
&#8220;Police have finished their investigations at the scene of the incident. The Embassy is resuming normal business,&#8221; the message said. 
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8226; Police have finished their investigations at the scene of the incident. The Embassy is resuming normal business. Please Sign up for Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for security updates at <a href="https://t.co/UMoke72V75">https://t.co/UMoke72V75</a>.
&#8212; US Embassy Cairo (@USEmbassyCairo) <a href="https://twitter.com/USEmbassyCairo/status/1036960310056378368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
In January 2018, the U.S. State Department released an <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/egypt-travel-advisory.html">Egypt Travel Advisory</a> warning tourists to &#8220;exercise increased caution in Egypt due to terrorism. Some areas have increased risk.&#8221;
They continued, &#8220;Terrorist groups continue plotting attacks in Egypt. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities. There is a possibility of terrorist attacks in urban areas, despite the heavy security presence. Terrorists have targeted religious sites, to include mosques, churches, monasteries, and buses traveling to these locations.&#8221;
This has led to increased security around consulate areas.

REPORT: US Embassy In Cairo Resumes Operations Following Bomb Scare

Egypt

Terrorism

The two men accused of firing shots at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, reportedly confessed to being under the influence of alcohol and angry at President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent remarks about Turkey.
Shots were fired from a white car in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34742/shots-fired-american-embassy-turkey-kassy-dillon">drive-by shooting on Monday</a> at the security booth outside Gate 6, resulting in no injuries.
<a href="https://www.turkishminute.com/2018/08/22/suspect-in-gunshot-attack-on-us-embassy-annoyed-by-trumps-remarks-on-turkey/">According to Turkish Minute</a>, the two suspects, Ahmet Çelikten and Osman Günda&#351;, have criminal backgrounds and decided to shoot at the embassy after getting angered during a conversation.
&#8220;We were driving around the city in Osman&#8217;s car and drinking. We were talking about the Turkish lira, Trump&#8217;s threats and remarks. Under the effect of the alcohol, we got angry and decided to act,&#8221; Çelikten said.
&#8220;While we were passing by the embassy building, I decided to shoot in that direction. Nobody directed, ordered or instigated it,&#8221; he added.
The attack comes amid increased tensions between the two countries over the U.S. applying pressure to Turkey to free North Carolina Christian Pastor Andrew Brunson, who Turkey claims supported Kurdish militants and assisted in the 2016 coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The dispute has resulted in the U.S. applying sanctions to Turkey&#8217;s steel and aluminum imports, and Turkey boycotting U.S. electronic goods.
The U.S refused a deal to release the pastor in exchange for the U.S. dropping an investigation on Hallbank, one of the largest state-owned Turkish banks that allegedly violated U.S sanctions on Iran, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/20/us-reportedly-refuses-to-give-turkish-bank-relief-in-exchange-for-detained-pastors-release.html">reports CNBC.</a>

Men Who Shot At U.S. Embassy In Turkey Were Drunk And Angry At Trump

Alcohol

Turkey

Shots were fired at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey early Monday in an apparent drive-by shooting. 
The shots were fired from a white car at the security booth outside Gate 6, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/08/20/shots-fired-at-gate-us-embassy-in-turkey-but-no-one-hurt.html">Fox News reports</a>. There were no injuries.
David Gainer, the embassy&#8217;s spokesman thanked the police for their &#8220;rapid response.&#8221;
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu&#351;o&#287;lu called the attack &#8220;provocative&#8221; in a tweet. &#8220;We will make sure that this incident is investigated quickly and the perpetrators are brought to justice,&#8221; he wrote.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
We condemn the provocative attack against the US Embassy in Ankara. We will make sure that this incident is investigated quickly and the perpetrators are brought to justice.
&#8212; Mevlüt Çavu&#351;o&#287;lu (@MevlutCavusoglu) <a href="https://twitter.com/MevlutCavusoglu/status/1031519773987880960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#304;brahim Kal&#305;n, a presidential spokesman, also condemned the attack and reassured that &#8220;Turkey is a safe country and all foreign missions are under the protection of law.&#8221; 
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
ABD büyükelçili&#287;ine yap&#305;lan sald&#305;r&#305;y&#305; k&#305;n&#305;yoruz. Bu aç&#305;kça bir kaos yaratma giri&#351;imidir. 
Türkiye güvenli bir ülkedir ve bütün yabanc&#305; misyonlar kanunlar&#305;n güvencesi alt&#305;ndad&#305;r. Olay soru&#351;turulmaktad&#305;r ve en k&#305;sa sürede ayd&#305;nlat&#305;lacakt&#305;r.
&#8212; Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ikalin1/status/1031476989662777344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
According to local news, a suspect is in custody.
The embassy closed this week for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The attack comes amid increased tensions between the two countries over the U.S. applying pressure to Turkey to free North Carolina Christian Pastor Andrew Brunson, who Turkey claims supported Kurdish militants and assisted in the 2016 coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The dispute has resulted in the U.S. applying sanctions to Turkey&#8217;s steel and aluminum imports, and Turkey boycotting U.S. electronic goods. 
The U.S refused a deal to release the pastor in exchange for the U.S. dropping an investigation on Hallbank, one of largest state-owned Turkish banks that allegedly violated U.S sanctions on Iran, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/20/us-reportedly-refuses-to-give-turkish-bank-relief-in-exchange-for-detained-pastors-release.html">reports CNBC.</a>

Shots Fired At American Embassy In Turkey

A senior advisor at the State Department who opposes President Donald Trump&#8217;s views on Iran is currently slated to be named the Special Envoy for Iranian Affairs, The Daily Wire has learned.
Brian Hook, the Senior Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State and Director of Policy Planning, is expected to be named to the position, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Hook, who was brought in by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, is considered by Trump loyalists to be &#8220;never Trump&#8221; because he was closely aligned with officials who were highly critical of Trump&#8217;s policies during the 2016 presidential campaign. <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/11/top-advisors-fate-serves-as-bellwether-for-state-department/">Foreign Policy</a> (FP) reports:
<blockquote>
Hook is the co-founder of the John Hay Initiative, a group of former Mitt Romney foreign-policy advisors whose leaders organized a prominent letter signed by 121 GOP national security luminaries refusing to support Trump last March because he would &#8220;act in ways that make America less safe.&#8221;
</blockquote>
FP notes that while Hook did not personally sign the letter, he has stated that he opposes multiple Trump policy stances and that his wife is vehemently in the &#8220;never Trump&#8221; resistance.
&#8220;My wife said &#8216;never,'&#8221; Hook told Politico in 2016. &#8220;Even if you say you support him as the nominee, you go down the list of his positions and you see you disagree on every one.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/25/605597042/state-department-official-on-the-iran-deal">NPR</a> reported this April that Hook did not want to scrap the Iran nuclear deal but rather wanted to slightly tweak it, which would seem to fall short of Trump&#8217;s desired aggressive approach toward the world&#8217;s leading state-sponsor of terrorism.
R.C. Hammond, Tillerson&#8217;s former media strategist, provided some reassurances about Hook in a Bloomberg report from March of this year, saying that Hook is &#8220;far more conservative than he gets credit for.&#8221;
While that may provide some relief for the Trump administration, it is worth noting that Hook has been plagued by some controversy while at the State Department.
FP further noted that emails obtained by Democratic lawmakers and Politico have brought up questions &#8220;as to whether he and other Trump administration officials sought to retaliate against career diplomats at the State Department who were branded by conservative activists as politically suspect.&#8221;

EXCLUSIVE: Critic Of Trump&#8217;s Iran Policies Slated To Be Named Special Envoy For Iranian Affairs

Rex Tillerson

Legislators are pressuring the State Department to release a classified government report that has been buried for years and reportedly exposes the enormous exaggerations from the U.N. and other entities regarding the number of Palestinian refugees.
In January, <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-hiding-game-changer-report-myth-palestinian-refugees/">The Washington Free Beacon</a> quoted multiple sources who claimed that the State Department first classified the report under the Obama administration, despite the fact that the report&#8217;s release was required by law. At the same time, the Trump administration slashed funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has long been viewed as virulently anti-Israel and uses the exaggerated numbers to seek more aid.
&#8220;The State Department is committed to taking all appropriate measures to provide information in response to requests from Congress,&#8221; a State Department official told <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-demands-state-department-release-secret-report-busting-myth-palestinian-refugees/">The Washington Free Beacon</a>.
Sources told The Free Beacon that the report estimates there are roughly 20,000 Palestinian refugees, astronomically fewer than the 5.3 million that UNRWA and pro-Palestinian advocates routinely claim.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told The Free Beacon that the stonewalling of the State Department bars Congress from providing oversight for the U.S. taxpayer. He asserted, &#8220;UNRWA lashes out against America and engages in anti-Semitic incitement. Hamas terrorists use UNRWA facilities to target Israeli civilians. The American people deserve to see this reported State Department assessment, so Congress and the administration can have a transparent and productive debate about America&#8217;s role in the organization.&#8221;
One senior congressional official said, &#8220;It&#8217;s not really a question of what they&#8217;re hiding. We know what&#8217;s in the report because it&#8217;s just a matter of mathematics and demographics. The number of refugees was half a million people to begin with, and that was 70 years ago so many of them have passed away, so it can&#8217;t be five million now. The question is why the Trump administration is trying to lock in the Obama era policy of never letting this report see the light of day.&#8221;

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