Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Home Front: WoT

Iranian Operatives Are On American Soil Conducting ‘Pattern Of Life’ Analyses

2022-08-19

[The Dispatch] Iran Targets Diplomats and Political Opponents—on U.S. Soil. In addition to threats against John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, the Islamic Republic has surveilled members of the think tank community.

Iran is expanding its proxy warfare beyond its malign activities in the Middle East to another front: American soil.

Individuals working on behalf of the Iranian government have targeted several prominent members of the think tank community through both in-person surveillance and cyber operations, The Dispatch has learned.

At the center of the regime’s campaign is United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a U.S.-based advocacy group promoting policy to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Sources indicate that Iran’s targets within the organization’s ranks include UANI CEO and former George W. Bush administration official Mark Wallace, former Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Thomas Kaplan, an American billionaire and UANI’s original funder.

"The threat existed from the very beginning. It’s just gotten more and more pervasive," Kaplan said, asked by The Dispatch when he first became aware that he was in Iran’s crosshairs. "I’d been sort of given signals that the Iranians were watching, and that didn’t inhibit me. And it still doesn’t inhibit me despite the fact that the threat level is now at an official level. To the contrary, it just reinforces my opposition to this particular regime."

Kaplan has received "duty to warn" notices from the FBI, which alert targets to threatening activity by hostile foreign powers. Sources say that suspected Iranian-directed operatives have conducted "pattern of life" analyses—tracking UANI affiliates’ movements and routines—in possible preparation for planned abductions or assassinations. In at least three instances, UANI affiliates were photographed by unknown individuals.

In cyberspace, suspected Iranian hackers have attempted to carry out various phishing operations on UANI members. Records obtained by The Dispatch show efforts by unknown actors to circumvent two-factor authentication, impersonate think tank leadership, and stage fake events with suspicious RSVP links. UANI believes these hacking campaigns to be the work of Charming Kitten, an Iranian government-linked cyberwarfare group.

"The threats to Americans are multiple, pervasive, and systematic," Wallace said, asked by The Dispatch about Iran’s targeting of UANI. "It’s not a localized event. This is a strategic effort by the Iranians to intimidate, exert their strength—a show of force—because they feel like they can either manage, or deal with, or temper any response."

"I’m not aware of any time in our history that a hostile foreign government is systematically and pervasively targeting attacks on American soil against Americans," Wallace added. "This is a state actor pursuing these activities against Americans. That sure looks to me like an act of war."

The organization and its targeted members are now tasked with providing their own cyber security and private security details, which Kaplan described as "not cheap," declining to provide additional information.

Like the rest of us, billionaires are not as rich as they used to be.

"It just goes with the territory, I suppose," he says. "It’s a price we have to pay, but as Americans, we shouldn’t. It should be very, very, very clear that we’re off limits." At least one other policy institute has been subject to threats from Iran, The Dispatch confirmed.

News of Iran’s campaigns surveilling private researchers and activists comes amid a series of high-profile attacks and attempted attacks on former government officials, Iranian exiles, and other regime opponents in the United States. Those affected say the plots—and the networks of Iranian operatives and local recruits tasked with carrying them out—speak to the Islamic Republic’s sense of impunity.

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed court documents detailing an Iranian conspiracy to assassinate Bolton via proxy.

Beginning around 2021, Shahram Poursafi—a Tehran-based member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)—allegedly tried to commission a Texas-based individual to take pictures and videos of Bolton. Per the complaint, Poursafi eventually requested that the connection hire someone to carry out Bolton’s assassination for $300,0000 and alluded to a follow-up "job" for $1 million, in a reported reference to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

An accompanying 28-page affidavit described in great detail the frequent contact between Poursafi and his local conduit, including deliberations on where to carry out the attack, what weapon to use, and when. On several occasions, Poursafi urged the recruit to hurry the process along, imposing IRGC deadlines on the operation. In one instance, the recruit asked Poursafi about his background in "this type of work." In response, Poursafi said that "it was like crossing the street: It was better not to spend too much time looking in one direction, but just to do it," the affidavit reads.

In an interview with The Dispatch, Bolton said the FBI first alerted him to Iran’s intention to target him in the spring of 2020, shortly after the U.S. strike on IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani. Over the course of the following year, he said, the notices became more urgent and more specific. In one meeting with more than a dozen FBI agents just before Thanksgiving of last year, Bolton asked that his security detail be reinstated—a request authorities eventually granted.

"I said then, ’look, if it’s this serious, why don’t you talk to the Secret Service to see if maybe they should come back into action here, having lost the Secret Service the day I resigned," Bolton told The Dispatch. "Trump cut it off within hours, which is not the normal practice, but anyway, that’s Trump for you."

The conspiracy bears striking resemblance to the planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Adel al-Jubeir, during the Obama administration. In 2011, Manssor Arbabsiar—an Iranian national—was sentenced to 25 years in prison for planning the killing of al-Jubeir and accompanying attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in DC. The suspect allegedly confessed to being "recruited, funded, and directed by men he understood to be senior officials in Iran’s Quds Force."

Bolton and other prospective targets of Iranian operations in the U.S. are quick to praise the around-the clock-efforts by law enforcement to prevent prospective attacks from coming to fruition, but they also view the apparent prevalence of such plots as a major policy failure, particularly as the Biden administration pushes forward with indirect negotiations with Iran to resurrect parts of the Obama-era nuclear deal. Iranian negotiators sent their formal response to the European Union's proposed agreement on Monday.

"The White House has a compartmented brain. It’s got the nuclear negotiations over here and the terrorism threat over there, whereas in the minds of the ayatollahs in Iran, there’s no compartmentalization at all," Bolton said. "This is part and parcel of their arsenal."

After the scheme targeting Bolton was made public by the Justice Department last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement vowing that "any attack would be met with severe consequences." But many have criticized the assertion as an admission of the administration’s apparent unwillingness to respond to attempted attacks.

"There is no public evidence the US or Europe have deterred Iran from terrorism on our territory," Norman Roule, former National Intelligence Manager for Iran, told The Dispatch. "The absence of any significant penalty for failed attempts at terrorism on our territory means that Iran will continue such operations until they are successful."

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Home Front: Politix

Delicious Divide: Dems & Neocons Align Against Israeli Nationalists & Trump

2019-08-21

[Barely A Blog] A delicious divide has opened up, one that strengthens the Trumpian, populist, anti-globalist, national-sovereignty impetus. The divide is between American establishment politicians and Israel, BUT it’s a divide that both highlights and strengthens the MAGA, America-First movement.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat from Florida, Joe Lieberman, former Senator and bosom buddy of neocons John McCain, and AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee): They’ve all shown their anti-nationalist, globalist, leftist, values-enforcer credentials, coming out in opposition to the nationalist faction in Israeli politics, which wishes to bar America’s most repulsive political agitators from acting out in the Jewish State.

Israel actually wanted to "send them home."

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Home Front: Politix

Lieberman Tells N.Y. Dems to Vote Crowley

2018-07-19

h/t Instapundit
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter complaints didn’t do any good. Even though she scored an upset victory over Rep. Joe Crowley in the New York Democratic Party’s June primary, his name is still going to be on the 14th Congressional District’s November ballot.

Ocasio-Cortez demanded Crowley answer her phone calls so she could hear his congratulations and concession, and move on to win the November general election in NY-14. But she won the primary, right? Maybe she’s just being paranoid?

Maybe not.

Joe Lieberman wants NY-14 Democrats to "Vote Joe Crowley, for Working Families."
IMO, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for as long as she'll last, is an important source of merriment.

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Home Front: Politix

McCain doesn't want Trump at his funeral

2018-05-06

Making a virtue out of what would have happened anyway.

[NYP] Sen. John McCain loathes President Trump so much that he plans to diss him from beyond the grave.

The ailing Arizona Republican, who has brain cancer, is organizing his funeral ‐ and close associates have told the White House that Trump will not be invited.

Instead, Vice President Mike Pence, who served with McCain in Congress, will be asked to attend the service, the New York Times reported Saturday. The ceremony will be held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

This is one of the things we have vice presidents for, as in general their duties are not so pressing.

A stream of politicians, including former Vice President Joe Biden and former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, have been visiting McCain at his Arizona ranch and a nearby hospital in recent weeks.

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Home Front: Politix

Senate Democrats reject Lieberman for FBI director

2017-05-19

[POLITICO] President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
may be dramatically miscalculating how much support Sen. Joseph Holy Joe Lieberman
...what a Democrat maverick would look like if the Democrats had mavericks...
has among his former fellow wardheelers to become FBI director.

Some Senate Democrats hold a grudge against Lieberman for his rightward turn and opposition to some of President Barack Obama
Ready to Rule from Day One...
's agenda late in his Senate career. Others say even though they respect Lieberman, the FBI director should not be a former politician. And all Democratic senators interviewed for this story said the former Connecticut senator lacks the kind of experience needed for the post.

The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, who later caucused with the party as an independent in the Senate after losing his 2006 Senate primary, has emerged as a front-runner to replace fired FBI Director James Comey. But Lieberman's nomination would likely produce the most partisan vote for an FBI chief in Senate history. Typically, nominees for the job have been approved unanimously or with token opposition.

Rep. Trey Gowdy took his name off the list on Monday. I'm happy about both -- the FBI needs an experienced manager to overcome the bad habits of the last eight years.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Former Mossad director joins anti-Iran organization

2016-06-19

In which eminent persons who know what they are talking about share their unease with our beloved president's keystone policy in a personnel announcement.

[Ynet] Tamir Pardo, who left Israel's foreign intelligence service in January, explains his decision saying the dangers of a nuclear Iran cannot be ignored.

Former Mossad director Tamir Pardo is joining the board of directors of the American non-profit United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which operates internationally in an effort to raise awareness of the dangers posed by the Shiite state's regime.

Check out the membership:

UANI's membership also includes former US senator Joseph Holy Joe Lieberman
...what a Democrat maverick would look like if the Democrats had mavericks...

...former Senator Lieberman is the last of the Skip Jackson Democrats. His party left him...

, former American special Middle East government coordinator Dennis Ross,

...who must have been monumentally frustrated, to so openly oppose his former master...

former Spanish foreign minister Ana de Palacio, former heads of the CIA,

I note the plural.

and former Australian defense minister Robert Hill. UANI also works to convince international corporations not to do business with Iran.

UANI was founded in 2008

...interesting timing...

by ambassador Mark D. Wallace, the late ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA director Jim Woolsey and Middle East expert Dennis Ross.

...who is mentioned twice, in a slight excess of enthusiasm.

In addition to Pardo, former US ambassador to the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
John Bolton

...putting his powers to good use...

and former Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski have also joined UANI.

According to Pardo, the world's leading powers should not ignore the clear dangers posed by the Iranian regime, which he says threaten the personal safety and freedom of people both inside the country's borders and in the world on the lam. He expressed his satisfaction at being part of the UANI board.

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Home Front: Politix

Donald Trump Is Winning The Polls ‐ And Losing The Nomination

2015-08-13

[FiveThirtyeight] Twelve years ago, in August 2003, Joe Lieberman led in most polls of the Democratic primary. Eight years ago, in August 2007, Rudy Giuliani maintained a clear lead in polls of Republicans, while Hillary Clinton led in polls of the Democratic nomination contest. Four years ago, in August 2011, Mitt Romney began with the lead in polls of Republican voters, but he would be surpassed by the end of the month by Rick Perry, the first of four Republican rivals who would at some point overtake Romney in national polling averages.

Lieberman, Clinton, Giuliani and Perry, as you've probably gathered, are not the faces atop Mount Rushmore. Only Clinton came close to winning the nomination.

But the problem isn't just that the national polls at this stage in the race lack empirical power to predict the nomination; it's also that they describe a fiction. I don't mean to suggest that Donald Trump's support in the polls is "fake." I have no doubt that some people really love him or that he'd be the favorite if you held a national, winner-take-all Republican primary tomorrow. However, the "election" these polls describe is hypothetical in at least five ways:

They contemplate a vote today, but we're currently 174 days from the Iowa caucuses.

They contemplate a national primary, but states vote one at a time or in small groups.

They contemplate a race with 17 candidates, but several candidates will drop out before Iowa and several more will drop out before the other states vote.

They contemplate a winner-take-all vote, but most states are not winner-take-all.

They contemplate a vote among all Republican-leaning registered voters or adults, but in fact only a small fraction of them will turn out for primaries and caucuses.

This is why it's exasperating that the mainstream media has become obsessed with how Trump is performing in these polls.
More @ link

Link

Home Front: Politix

Reid cites seniors' love of junk mail to argue for passage of postal reform bill

2012-04-20

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cited seniors' love of junk mail in urging passage of a United States Postal Service reform bill.
He had to say something...
In his opening speech on Wednesday, Reid called on the Senate to quickly move forward on the passage of S. 1789, the 21st Century Postal Service Act, which restructures pension plans for Postal Service employees as well as allows the USPS to access overpayments in the Federal Employee Retirement System.

"Madam President," Reid said to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the presiding officer of the Senate, "I'll come home tonight here to my home in Washington and there'll be some mail there. A lot of it is what some people refer to as junk mail, but for the people who are sending that mail, it's very important.

"And when talking about seniors, seniors love getting junk mail. It's sometimes their only way of communicating or feeling like they're part of the real world," Reid continued. "Elderly Americans, more than anyone in America, rely on the United States Postal Service, but unless we act quickly, thousands of post offices ... will close. I've said this earlier today; I repeat it."

On Tuesday, Reid blocked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) from adding an amendment to the postal service bill that would cut off U.S. funding to Egypt. Reid used a Senate procedure called "filling the tree" to keep Paul's amendment from coming to the floor, arguing that Paul's bill had nothing to do with saving the Postal Service.

Later on Tuesday, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) both urged their chamber to come to some kind of compromise on amendments to move the legislation forward.

In his speech on Wednesday, Reid signaled that he would be open to adding some amendments to the bill.

"We're gonna offer amendments and we should do that as quickly as possible to move forward on this legislation," Reid said. "If there's no agreement, we'll have to vote on the substitute amendment tomorrow morning. It'll be too bad if we can't get it done."

Reid announced Tuesday evening that the Senate would vote on a motion to proceed on S. 1789 on Thursday.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Obama Ratifies ACTA Without Senate Approval

2012-01-27

The referenced post is an opinion piece. It is not a secret agreement; you can download a PDF file of the agreement here. There is nothing at other major news sites about Obama 'ratifying' ACTA. He signed it October 1, 2011 (when representatives of other countries did the same) as an 'executive agreement' that does not require a Senate vote. However, because of that it does not have the force of law. Congress has to write and pass laws that implement the specific provisions of ACTA, and that hasn't happened. Obama can't implement an executive order on issues that are given to the control of Congress.

I've applied the salt shaker to this; it's important to know about the issue but the writer of this piece is a bit ... hysterical.

Obama has ratified the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or ACTA. President Obama had signed the first binding draft of ACTA last October 1, 2011, also in secret.

ACTA is much more dangerous than SOPA, PIPA or OPEN, because it is the accord that legalizes internet censorship on a global basis. That is why presidents and prime ministers around the world have signed the agreement without any review from their congresses, parliaments, or review by their people.

As explained by senator Joe Lieberman, the United States president will have the power to shut down portions of the Internet in order to protect corporate intellectual property. This power has been labeled the Internet "kill switch"; and with good reason, because in reality, the president will be able to prevent Americans' access to anything he doesn't want them to see.

The global agreement surrenders Internet sovereignty to the multinational corporations and Internet service providers that will be in charge of monitoring Internet user activity in order to censor anything deemed as an illegal transfer of information anywhere along the information pipeline under their control.

ACTA has been known publicly since 2008, when the secret meetings creating it were leaked to the press, despite efforts to arrest those responsible for the leaks.

"ACTA is legislation laundering on an international level of what would be very difficult to get through most Parliaments," said Stravros Lambrinidis, Member of the European Parliament.

Neither the US congress nor the European Parliament has had representation in ACTA negotiations.

"It is extremely regrettable that democratic debate has been eliminated from talks that could have a major impact on such a fundamental freedom as free expression," said Reporters without Borders.

"We can only assume that the final text could do great harm in developing countries and undermine the balance between the protection of intellectual property and the need to provide affordable medicines for poor people," added Rohit Malpani, OXFAM, from a press release criticising possible impact of ACTA. "We are in danger of ending up with the worst of both worlds, pushing IP rules, which are very effective at stopping access to life-saving drugs but are very bad at stopping or preventing fake drugs," warns Michelle Childs of Médecins Sans Frontières.

Among all of the things ACTA will help control is the free circulation of medical information. Parts of ACTA mirror legislation introduced in the United States, which could ban the publication of health oriented websites. ACTA will oversee issues such as generic drugs and food patents.

It is also vital to the implementation of the United Nations radical environmentalist program, Agenda 21.

With ACTA, Internet Service Providers will be obligated to use invasive procedures to make sure no user infringes what corporations say is a violation of copyright laws. Failure to detect and denounce such breach will result in the IP and Internet user receiving massive fines, and after three warnings, individuals who are considered repetitive offenders will be sent to jail and banned from the Internet.

The IP that fails to stop the supposed violation of corporate interests will be taken off the air. The outrageous part of this is that the party -corporation- whose property was supposedly used without permission doesn't even have to prove that the user or the IP violated its intellectual property. It is enough to make three accusations.

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Home Front: WoT

Bills Introduced To Strip Americans Of Citizenship

2012-01-13

Congress is considering HR 3166 and S. 1698 also known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Charles Dent (R-PA).

This bill would give the US government the power to strip Americans of their citizenship without being convicted of being hostile against the United States.

In other words, you can be stripped of your nationality for engaging in, or purposefully and materially supporting, hostilities against the United States. Legally, the term hostilities means any conflict subject to the laws of war but considering the fact that the War on Terror is a little ambiguous and encompassing, any action could be labeled as supporting terrorism.

The new law would change a part of US Code 1481. Compare 3166 to 1481 and the change is small. The new section makes no reference to being convicted as it does in section (7).

So even though the language of the NDAA has been revised to exclude American citizens, the US government merely has to strip Americans of their citizenship and the NDAA will apply. And they will be able to do so without convicting the accused in a court of law.

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Home Front: WoT

Project Gunwalker: Lieberman Directs Staff to Examine Fast and Furious Coordination

2011-12-23

Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman has directed the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to examine miscommunication between law enforcement agencies related to the Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious.
This adds months to the investigation.... moving into the height of the election season, and Joe ain't no right wing extremist
A spokesperson told The Daily Caller Wednesday that Lieberman "believe[s] that the lack of interagency coordination along the border merits further examination, and as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has directed his staff to follow up with the relevant federal agencies on that topic."

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown.

Some reports suggest that the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were also involved in some manner or another with the operation.

For instance, Pajamas Media reported that the night Terry was killed, an FBI informant was in the drug cartel rip crew that used Fast and Furious weapons to murder him. Rip crews are armed groups of bandits who work for specific drug cartels and try to rob rival cartel shipments and illegal immigrants as they're crossing the border.

Pajamas reports that the DEA also had some knowledge of that drug cartel rip crew's whereabouts. Assuming the reports are true, the DEA and the FBI failed to "deconflict," or warn other agencies including the Border Patrol about potentially deadly risks.
Joe's expanding the investigation to other departments.....

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Home Front: WoT

Sen. Lieberman Announces F&F Investigation, BP Head Immediately Resigns

2011-12-23

Posted late enough last night that it seemed right to roll over to today.

-- tw at 9:34 a.m. ET

Joltin' Joe Lieberman announces a Senate Homeland Security investigation on F&F "inter-ageny miscommunication" and the head of Border Patrol runs away the very same day.

Statement from Alan D. Bersin, Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Earlier today, I notified the President of my intent to resign as Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection effective Dec. 30. I have expressed my deep gratitude and appreciation to President Obama and Secretary Napolitano for the opportunity to have led such an exceptional organization and for the confidence they have shown in me.

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