[IsraelTimes] Move by US philanthropist and New England Patriots owner comes as Modern Orthodox institution readies for influx of students who left secular universities amid anti-Israel protests
[Breitbart] Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press conference on Wednesday that Moscow is preparing to sign a “big treaty with Iran.” "It's on 11x17 paper and everything!" Huuuge
She implied the Iran treaty might be even more expansive than the security pact Russia signed with North Korea, which caused great alarm among the free world and considerable unease in China.
“Now we are working on a treaty — probably you have heard about it, and I ask you once again not to use the formula ‘the same as the one with North Korea’ — now the work is underway on the big treaty with Iran,” Zakharova said.
Several other Russian officials previously hinted that a deal with Iran that has been at least two years in the making could be signed soon. Both the Iranian and Russian foreign ministers declared their commitment to finalize an agreement at the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Nizhny Novgorod in June. BRICS is an economic bloc headed by China and Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the BRICS meeting that as soon as a few final steps were taken in Iran, “we can do this.” Iran made comments around the same time that indicated there was no problem or delay on its end.
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said a comprehensive agreement would be signed with Iran “in the very near future,” and the text of the agreement is “already close to completion.”
On the same day, Russia’s Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) to supply Russian gas to Iran. Gazprom has been desperately seeking customers to replace the European suppliers it lost after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russia and Iran already have a strategic agreement, which was signed in 2001 and was extended for five years in 2020. The new pact has been touted as a substantial upgrade to that agreement.
Zakharova said, in January 2024, that the leaders of Iran and Russia would “meet in the near future” to sign an agreement that was “currently being finalized.” In the time since she made that comment, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash. Iran will hold a sham election on Friday to install his replacement.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
06/28/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[83 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
Russia continues its time-honored tradition of sucking up to totalitarians. It is recalled that in the 18th Century French diplomats sent to Russia were given a funeral before leaving. So a propos.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] "Snitches get stitches" is a threat typically made by adolescents to avoid punishment by intimidating those who might expose their misdeeds. Yet it seems Harvard is a glorified junior high these days, with Lawrence Bobo, its dean of social sciences, threatening faculty who publicly criticize the university for its mistreatment of Jewish students.
Writing in the Crimson, Bobo argued that it is "outside the bounds of acceptable professional conduct for a faculty member to excoriate University leadership, faculty, staff, or students with the intent to arouse external intervention into University business."
You can always tell a Hahvahd Man but, they say, you can’t tell him much. No insult intended to Rantburg’s own Harvard men, who are of course very much out of the common way.
Faculty who appeal to external actors to reverse gross injustices at Harvard may not get literal stitches, but Bobo could deny them tenure or lower their pay. His piece has not been made official Harvard policy, but more senior administrators have not repudiated his interpretation of "acceptable professional conduct," and his discretion to punish snitches remains intact.
Bobo’s hostility to "external intervention" is reminiscent of something more menacing than junior high taunts about snitches. It echoes George Wallace’s complaints about "outside agitators." The segregationist governor of Alabama claimed in a 1964 letter that efforts by him and other Southern leaders to improve the condition of the "Negro citizen" were being undermined by "the national news media and the propaganda distributed by various organizations." If only outside agitators would avoid stirring up trouble, both "white and colored" could continue to live in "peace and equanimity."
Bobo similarly expresses a preference for managing Harvard’s problems through "internal discussion on key policy matters," threatening to sanction "behaviors that plainly incite external actors — be it the media, alumni, donors, federal agencies, or the government — to intervene in Harvard’s affairs." It’s as if Bobo were saying that Harvard’s Jews could be living in "peace and equanimity" without outside agitators in the media and government stirring up trouble.
Bobo and other Harvard leaders are right to fear outside intervention. Despite its more than $50 billion endowment, Harvard is a financial house of cards built on government subsidy and donor largesse. Harvard’s operating budget last year was $5.9 billion, of which about $650 million came from federal research grants, $55 million came from government student aid and loans, and another $500 million came from the "current use" gifts of donors
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[207 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Bobo argued that it is "outside the bounds of acceptable professional conduct for a faculty member to excoriate University leadership, faculty, staff, or students with the intent to arouse external intervention into University business."
#4
After Trump returns to Office and purges the DC Swamp of the National Liberal Socialist element now in the DC Swamp. The Harvard Dean, and many others like him, will be charged for Hate Crimes, Racial discrimination, and Civil Rights violations.
#5
Dr. Bobo: "A failure to heal!"
Larry, baby, quit squealing and deal
With your failure to thrive:
Give up speaking that jive
And stop judging the juice by the peel.
I mean, let's face it -- if you were half the dude your daddy was, you'd be a real doctor, and your "notable students" would be stitchin', not bitchin'. But there you stand, surfing a vast endless wave of government preference into the sunset of the greatest country in the history of the world, backwards, whining to the most powerful powers that ever were about the very people whose inhuman patience and generosity have empowered you and all the rest of your worse than useless class.
And if you were half the dude your mamas were... well, sociology?
#8
Harvard’s operating budget last year was $5.9 billion. In comparison, the operating budget of the Legislative Branch of the US Government was 7.6 billion. And, for example the budget of the Small Business Administration was 1.5 billion.
#9
Hahvahd gets $1.15 billion from research grafts grants and dupe donor "current use" gifts a year. When those stop, they will just have to get by on the other $5.9-$1.15 billion they are accustomed to. The horror!
#10
taxing excess college trusts and endowments, e.g., endowments which are greater than 2 years of the average of past 3 years of budgets would do a lot of good
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/28/2024 15:38 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] UK files amicus brief contesting the ICC’s 2021 decision asserting jurisdiction over Israeli actions in Palestinian territories; potential moves against Netanyahu, Gallant delayed
The International Court of Justice has allowed the United Kingdom to file an amicus brief challenging the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals in the investigation by The Hague tribunal into alleged Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court’s Pre Trial Chamber I decided on Thursday to give the UK until July 12 to submit its brief, meaning that the decision-making process on whether or not to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will be suspended until a decision can be made on the UK’s challenge.
According to court documents published on Thursday, the UK made its request on June 10, where it cited a decision by the same chamber from 2021 when it ruled that, despite the State of Paleostine not being a sovereign state the ICC did have jurisdiction over any alleged violations of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s foundational charter, in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The UK’s brief noted that the court at the time ruled that it would need to make a final decision on Israel’s claim that the Paleostinian Authority’s request to join the ICC violates the Oslo Accords if and when an ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrants against Israeli nationals.
The UK’s argument is that the Paleostinian authorities cannot have jurisdiction over Israeli nationals under the terms of the Oslo Accords, and so it cannot transfer that jurisdiction over to the ICC to prosecute Israelis.
"The United Kingdom submits that the Chamber, pursuant to Article 19(1) of the Rome Statute, ’is required to make an initial determination of jurisdiction in resolving the application for arrest warrants’ of which ’[t]he Oslo Accords issue necessarily forms part,’" the court noted.
The court said that other member states of the ICC could file similar briefs if they so wished by the July 12 deadline.
Dr. Tal Mimran, a lecturer in law and technology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a program director at the Tachlith Institute, said he did not expect the decision to delay the ICC’s decision-making process on the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for very long.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced in May that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant due to suspected crimes of "causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict."
The decision was fiercely criticized by Israel, the US and others, arguing among other claims that Israel’s independent judiciary and legal system was capable of investigating any criminal wrongdoing during the ongoing Gaza war, and that the prosecutor had not allowed enough time to Israel to exercise that power.
Critics also argued that Khan had not engaged with Israel to understand what steps it might have taken or was currently carrying out to investigate any possible criminal actions during the war, unlike his attitude in other investigations such as against Caracas where he has engaged with the dictatorial regime of Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet...
[IsraelTimes] Haredi demonstrators rail against High Court order to draft yeshiva students, call police ‘Nazis’ and vow to die before enlisting
Ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked a main traffic junction for several hours on Thursday at a demonstration against proposals to draft them into the military. The demonstrators scuffled with police, who arrested at least 32 participants.
Police said some protesters blocking Route 4 at the Coca-Cola Junction in Bnei Brak called them “Nazis” and lay under police vehicles to block them.
Police were seen using mounted officers in attempts to clear the road during rush hour. After some three hours police announced that the road was finally open.
Some protesters called for violence, while others vowed to go to jail or die instead of enlisting.
Demonstrators carried signs reading: “All Haredi Jews are forbidden from enlisting, even those who are not yeshiva students.”
The sign was referring to a talking point often made in public discourse that many of the ultra-Orthodox men who receive exemptions on account of their status as yeshiva students do not actually study at yeshivas.
The demonstrators belonged to the extremist Jerusalem Faction, which numbers some 60,000 members and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life and fear that those who do enlist will be secularized.
The protest was a response to the High Court of Justice’s landmark ruling on Tuesday that ordered the Israel Defense Forces to begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men and halt funding to yeshivas that do not comply.
[IsraelTimes] Patients and relatives exiting enclave did not know where they were heading; Gaza doctor says 21 patients a ‘drop in the ocean’ compared to Strip’s medical needs
Twenty-one critically ill children exited Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... on Thursday in the first medical evacuation since the territory’s sole travel crossing was shut down in early May, Paleostinian officials said.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Stats compiled by Haaretz, while incomplete and unconfirmed, show average monthly shipments were at 30 through January before falling to 15 in the five subsequent months
The number of United States weapons shipments to Israel dropped significantly after the first four months of the Israel-Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... war, according to figures published Thursday by the Haaretz daily. The publication of the figures come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public claim last week that the US has been "withholding" weapons shipments from Israel.
Tracking the number of American military and civilian cargo planes landing in Israel from US military bases around the globe, Haaretz tallied 173 deliveries to date since October 7. The majority of flights landed in October (22), November (47), December (32), and January (20). Then, figures began tailing off significantly, with only eight planes arriving in February and 11 in March.
April saw a slight uptick to 17 against the backdrop of the Iranian missile and drone attack against Israel, which the US helped the Israel Defense Forces thwart.
But May and June saw a return to lower numbers, with seven and nine shipments landing in Israel respectively.
The tally doesn’t include another 100 leased cargo planes that originated from non-US Army bases. Also left out of the tally were dozens of US military planes that landed in Israel as part of visits by senior American officials, Haaretz said. Maritime arms shipments to Israel weren’t included either, even though ships are able to carry much larger cargo than planes.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Biden administration announced separately that progress had been made toward resolving what Jerusalem considers to be an insufficient flow of arms.
A senior Biden administration official briefing news hounds confirmed for the first time that there had been some "bottlenecks" in weapons transfers that are now being addressed.
The official clarified that these bottlenecks weren’t intentional and that Gallant’s meetings with brass hats in Washington were an opportunity for the US to order the acceleration of certain shipments while reprioritizing others based on Israel’s needs.
The comments were the closest the administration has come to confirming Netanyahu’s public claim last week that the US has been "withholding" weapons shipments and that there had been a "dramatic drop" in transfers. The accusation made in a video statement infuriated Washington, which vociferously denied the assertion and insisted that it has only held one transfer of heavy bombs that Biden didn’t want the IDF using in the densely populated Paleostinian city of Rafah.
As for other weapons shipments, the senior administration official said, "There are some things we are able to maybe pull up a little faster or reprioritize."
"The progress made [during Gallant’s meetings] was the ability to sit down with the people who do this work every day and go through every single case and where it is in the system."
"Where there were some misunderstandings, those were clarified," he added, noting the highly complex bureaucracy within the US weapons transfer system.
A US team went through each of the hundreds of planned weapons shipments with Israeli counterparts, explaining where each stood in the transfer process, the senior administration official said.
Further explaining the apparent slowdown, a second US official told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem submitted fewer weapons and ammunition requests in recent months as the intensity of its fighting in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... waned.
The official said that during the early months of the war, the US had been able to expedite the transfer of weapons that had been further along in the approval process. In recent months, though, such shipments ran low.
Moreover, Axios reported that some officials in the administration interpreted Biden’s freeze of the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs as a signal that all arms shipments should be scrutinized more closely, slowing the process in comparison to the beginning of the war.
There is also concern in Washington about a potential Israeli preemptive offensive against Hezbollah in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , which the administration fears could lead to a regional war, the second official said.
Nonetheless, the senior administration official briefing news hounds stressed that the US has sent more than $6.5 billion in weapons to Israel since October 7, with nearly $3 billion alone in May.
[BBC] A snap election called after a deadly helicopter crash. A candidate promising a different approach both at home and abroad. And suddenly there’s an element of suspense and unpredictability in Iran, as voters go to the polls to choose a new president.
Elections in the Islamic Republic are tightly-controlled affairs - the candidates are all vetted by an influential committee of clerics before they can stand. And recently voter apathy has been widespread.
But this time there is a wild card: a reformist former heart surgeon and health minister, Massoud Pezeshkian, who has declared “immoral” the actions of Iran’s morality police, who enforce strict dress codes on women.
The rules on wearing the hijab are now being regularly flouted by women and Mr Pezeshkian, 69, has said: “If wearing certain clothes is a sin, the behaviour towards women and girls is 100 times a greater sin. Nowhere in religion is there any permission to confront someone because of their clothing.”
He has also promised to try to improve relations with the West and revive nuclear talks, in the hope of bringing an end to sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
Mr Pezeshkian has been publicly backed by two former reformist presidents, Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, and the former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
His campaign rallies attracted growing crowds in the run-up to polling day.
And on Thursday two candidates dropped out of the contest - in an apparent attempt by the clerical establishment to avoid splitting the conservative vote.
The most recent opinion polls showed Mr Pezeshkian ahead of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who is currently speaker of parliament, and Saeed Jalili, a hardline former nuclear negotiator.
The conservatives oppose engagement with the West and argue that Iran can succeed despite sanctions.
One other candidate remains in the race to replace Ebrahim Raisi - the hardliner who died on a foggy mountainside last month in a helicopter crash that also killed seven other people.
Turnout figures are seen as a key test of the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic.
They hit record lows in parliamentary elections in March and the last presidential election in 2021.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - who is the ultimate authority in Iran - has called for “maximum” turnout. And a solid core of regime supporters are sure to vote.
But many young and middle-class Iranians are deeply disillusioned and distrustful of any political process organised by the Islamic Republic, and now want an end to 45 years of clerical rule.
“There are lots of billboards in the streets asking people to ‘vote for a better tomorrow’, but we just don’t buy it any more,” a 20-year-old student in Tehran told me via text message. “Nobody wants to vote any more.”
Since the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in morality police custody in 2022 - and the nationwide uprising it sparked - the gulf between Iran’s leaders and its people has widened dramatically.
A brutal crackdown on protesters hardened hatred of the regime, particularly among Generation Z.
Hopes pinned on reformists in the past have repeatedly been dashed. And, over the past few years, those wanting reform of the system have been increasingly marginalised.
Former president Hassan Rouhani wasn’t even allowed to stand in recent elections for an influential body, the Assembly of Experts, whose job it is to appoint the Supreme Leader.
[Jerusalem Post] Iran smuggled two planes out of Lithuania, the country's public broadcaster announced on Thursday. The planes were due to fly to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
The two Airbus A340s, leased by the Gambian company Macka Invest, were due to fly to South Asia in February but reportedly ended up in Iran. The aircraft's transponders—which enable them to be identified on air traffic control radars—were turned off upon entry into Iranian airspace. The aviation data site ch-aviation reported that one plane had landed at Mehrabad airport in Tehran and another at Konarak airport in Chabahar.
The incident was originally reported by vz.lt, a Lithuanian business news website.
#2
Iran’s Civil Aviation Administration has confirmed the purchase of four Airbus A340 wide-body aircraft, despite US sanctions.
On December 24, 2022, the four Airbus A340 airliners, formerly flown by Turkish Airlines and recently registered in Burkina Faso, departed for a scheduled flight from South Africa to Uzbekistan. However, as they flew over Iran, the aircraft disappeared from flight tracking services.
Days later, their presence at Mehrabad International Airport (THR) in Tehran, Iran, was confirmed by satellite imagery.
Have such piecemeal sanctions worked against Iran thus far?
[IsraelTimes] Sanctions announced by Blinken will affect companies in the UAE accused of being involved in the transport of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products
The United States on Thursday issued fresh sanctions targeting Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in response to "continued nuclear escalations," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... said in a statement.
"Over the past month, Iran has announced steps to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose," Blinken said.
"We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome."
Iran’s mission to the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thursday’s action imposes sanctions on three companies based in the United Arab Emirates the US accused of being involved in the transport of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products, as well as 11 associated vessels.
Earlier this month, the Group of Seven rich nations warned Iran against advancing its nuclear enrichment program and said they would be ready to enforce new measures if Tehran were to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia.
Iran rebuked the statement, calling on the G7 to distance itself from "destructive policies of the past," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said.
Earlier in June, the UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution calling on Iran to step up cooperation with the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors.
Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the 90 percent of weapons-grade, and has enough material enriched to that level, if enriched further, for three nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Western powers say there is no credible civilian reason for that. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful but officials have recently said it could change its "nuclear doctrine" if it is attacked or its existence was threatened by arch-foe Israel. That has prompted alarm at the IAEA and in Western capitals.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
