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Home Front: Politix
These refugees were elected to Congress before Ilhan Omar
2019-01-05
[IsraelTimes] Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos, Rudy Boschwitz who fled the Nazis as a toddler and Ileana Ros-Lehtine, who escaped Cuba as a child, were all refugees.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on her first day on the job as a congresswoman, posted a list of firsts that her class represents.

"The #116thCongress has SO much to be proud of," Omar said Thursday on Twitter.

Among them, naturally enough, is what she and her colleague, Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., represent ‐ the first Moslem women elected to Congress.

But there’s a glaring error: Omar, who was born in Somalia, lists herself as the first refugee elected to the body.

Seffi Kogen, the Global Director of Young Leadership for the American Jewish Committee, counts at least four other politicians who in their lifetimes had refugee status, and two of them are Jewish:

    * The late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who made human rights
    When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
    a hallmark of his leadership on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

    * Former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., who as a toddler fled Nazi Germany with his family for the United States and who also has played a prominent role in human rights advocacy.

    * Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., just retired, who is of Jewish descent, arrived in Florida as a child of a family fleeing Cuba.

    * Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La., the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress, served one term (2009-2011).

I’d add former Republican Florida Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, also born in Cuba to a family who fled after Fidel Castro seized power.

Two more errors on Omar’s list: Tlaib, whom she lists as the first Paleostinian American; is preceded by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and former Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the youngest woman ever elected, at 29, but there have been plenty of younger men, starting with Richard Bland Lee, who was 28 when he joined the First Congress in 1789.
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Home Front: Politix
Miami Herald endorses House candidate who claims aliens took her aboard a spaceship
2018-08-21
[THEHILL] The Miami Herald is endorsing a congressional candidate who claims to have communicated with aliens throughout her life and says extraterrestrials once visited her.

The newspaper on Sunday endorsed Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, who is running as a Republican for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-Fla.) seat in the Republican primary for Florida’s 27th Congressional District. The newspaper called her “a strong candidate in the race with plausible conservative ideas.”

Rodriguez Aguilera said in a 2009 television interview that she boarded a spaceship occupied by aliens when she was 7.

“I went in. There were some round seats that were there, and some quartz rocks that controlled the ship — not like airplanes,” Rodriguez said in the interview. She said she was visited by three large, blonde beings.

In a separate interview with the Herald last year, she said she joins “the majority of Americans who believe that there must be intelligent life in the billions of planets and galaxies in the universe.”

The newspaper’s editorial board acknowledged in its endorsement that Rodriguez Aguilera “is an unusual candidate,” but agreed with her assessment that her past comments about aliens aren’t an issue in the race.

“Her bona fides as a former elected official, and now a businesswoman who spends time in other countries training women to run for office are solid,” the editorial board wrote.

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Home Front: Politix
Here Are The 41 Republicans Who Voted Against Securing The U.S. Border
2018-06-23
[Daily Caller] Forty-one House Republicans voted against a bill Friday that would have secured funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall, addressed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and included E-verify, among other conservative provisions.

Members voted on an amended version of GOP Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Michael McCaul of Texas’s bill that provided more border security funding, only granted DACA recipients a temporary protected three-year legal status with no pathway for citizenship ‐ which moderate Republicans are fervently asking leadership to provide ‐ and included other features. (RELATED: What’s Up With Immigration In Congress)

The bill failed in the House in a 193-231 vote Thursday. (RELATED: Goodlatte Bills Failed In The House)

Here the Republican members who voted against the bill:

Paul Gosar of Arizona
Andy Biggs of Arizona
Jeff Denham of California
David, Valadao of California
Steve Knight of California
Dana Rohrabacher of California
Mike Coffman of Colorado
Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida
Carlos Curbelo of Florida
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida
Drew Ferguson of Georgia
Mike Simpson of Idaho
Peter Roksam of Illinois
Steve King of Iowa
Thomas Massie of Kentucky
Justin Amash of Michigan
Fred Upton of Michigan
Erik Paulsen of Minnesota
Frank LoBiando of New Jersey
Tom MacArthur of New Jersey
Chris Smith of New Jersey
Leonard Lance of New Jersey
Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey
Pete King of New York
John Faso of New York
Elise Stefanik of New York
Tom Reed of New York
John Katko of New York
Michael Turner of Ohio
Steve Russell of Oklahoma
Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania
Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania
Kristi Noem of South Dakota
Louie Gohmert of Texas
Will Hurd of Texas
Mia Love of Utah
Barbara Comstock of Virginia
Dan Newhouse of Washington
Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington
David Reichert of Washington

Some of the members who voted against the bill did so because leadership altered the bill before the final vote, adding on amendments and provisions they deemed "amnesty."
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen's letter, an FBI-raided donor's port deal, and the Bob Menendez scandal
2017-09-08
[Miami Herald] At first glance, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s letter to the Dominican Republic’s ambassador to the United States looks like standard fare for a chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"Recent reports that the illicit drug trade and the presence of drug cartels may shift towards the Dominican Republic are of increasing concern to the Committee," the Miami Republican, then committee chair, wrote Ambassador Aníbal de Castro April 10, 2012.

"I am interested to hear what specific steps your administration is tak[ing] to improve cargo security," she closed, "and reducing the flow of drugs to the United States and how we can work together towards achieving this goal."

Someone else was keenly interested, too: Dr. Salomon Melgen, investor in a Dominican Republic port security company, ICSSI, which wants to X-ray cargo at the very ports Ros-Lehtinen was concerned about.

Ros-Lehtinen's letter came a month after Melgen contributed $5,000 to her campaign in a race where she faced token opposition (in 2011, he contributed $4,800). And, a few months before that, Ros-Lehtinen held a benefit for medical research in which Melgen cut another $15,000 check.

Melgen’s West Palm Beach offices were raided last week by federal agents in a Medicare-fraud investigation. FBI agents are also examining his ties with Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ.

Melgen has a reputation, among some political insiders, of being "transactional," meaning he gives donations but also expects to get something in return. Sources tell The Miami Herald the doctor has asked various members of Congress over the years for help with one of his lawsuits, his port deal, Medicare and a tax issue.

The top recipient of Melgen’s largesse, Menendez, has been most-vocal about the need to X-ray cargo at Dominican ports. He held a hearing on the matter that was trumpeted in February in VOXXI, the Hispanic-centric news website owned by Melgen.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Cruz to Push for More Action to Secure Release of U.S. Hostages in Iran
2017-07-09
[Free Beacon] Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) next week plans to introduce a bill calling for both the unconditional, safe return of several U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents imprisoned in Iran and also the creation of a multi-national task force to try to secure their release, according to a Senate source.

Cruz's measure will mirror a bipartisan House resolution sponsored by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), Ted Poe (R., Texas), Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), and Ted Deutch (D., Fla.). That version calls on the Trump administration to make securing the release of at least six U.S. hostages the "highest of priorities."

It also urges the United States and its allies who also have citizens detained in Iran to create a multi-national task force to leverage resources and share information in an attempt to win the prisoners' freedom.

Iran has over the last several months jailed several dual-nationals of other western nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Canada.

The move comes in the wake of stepped up efforts by several families of prisoners held in Iran to try to secure the release of their loved ones. The families feel a new sense of urgency after the death late last month of Otto Warmbier. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student held in North Korea for a year and a half, was released in mid-June only to die just days later from complications his family believes were the result of his detainment.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Shocking development: UNESCO Passes Resolution to Diminish Jewish, Christian Ties to Jerusalem
2016-10-14
[Free Beacon] The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization passed a resolution on Thursday that diminishes the historic and spiritual connections of Judaism and Christianity to the city of Jerusalem after dozens of U.S. lawmakers called on the international body to reject the measure.

Israeli officials and others in the pro-Israel community decried the resolution as anti-Semitic and said it was an effort to delegitimize the Jewish state. Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the measure while six rejected it, including the United States. Another 26 states abstained. No European nation approved the resolution, which was introduced by Egypt,
...clearly President Sisi is not actually a friend to Israel, but a partner of necessity in their mutual fight against Hamas...
Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) led a bipartisan group of 40 lawmakers earlier this week in writing a letter to the Executive Board of UNESCO saying the resolution to be discussed Thursday and Friday was part of a broader effort to delegitimize Israel.

"The United Nations’ obsessive hostility towards Israel will be on display yet again this week as UNESCO considers another blatantly biased resolution that unjustly singles out our close ally Israel with false accusations and criticism, and attempts to erase the specific deep-rooted, historical connection of Jews and Christians to Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital," Cruz said.

The resolution, postponed from the initial July vote amid fallout from the failed coup in Turkey, identifies holy sites in Jerusalem exclusively by their Muslim names. Jewish and Christian advocacy groups were particularly outraged by a provision that would declare the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, sacred to "Muslims only."

How they voted: UNESCO resolution on Temple Mount, Western Wall

[IsraelTimes] The following is a breakdown of how the nations of the world voted on today’s UNESCO resolution that omits any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

For: South Africa, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Russia, Lebanon, Iran, Malaysia, Morocco, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, the Dominican Republic, Senegal, Sudan, Chad and Vietnam

Against: Britain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the US, Estonia and Germany

Abstentions: Albania, Argentina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Spain, France, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, India, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, Paraguay, South Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ukraine

Absent: Turkmenistan and Serbia
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Home Front: WoT
Congress Works to Shutter Palestine Liberation Organization D.C. Office
2016-02-12
[Free Beacon] Congress is working to shut down the Palestine Liberation Organization's Washington, D.C., office as punishment for breaching agreements barring it from sponsoring terrorism and inciting violence against Israel, according to a copy of new legislation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

An executive waiver signed by former president Bill Clinton in 1994 nullified laws prohibiting terrorist fronts from operating on U.S. soil and allowed for the establishment of the PLO office in D.C. The Palestinian delegation was tasked with helping to facilitate the implementation of the Oslo Accords peace agreement with Israel.

Lawmakers charge that, since its establishment, the PLO--which was designated by the United States as a terror group in 1987--has violated multiple agreements with Israel and the international community, thereby violating waivers permitting it to operate with immunity on U.S. soil.

The new legislation would alter U.S. anti-terrorism laws to classify the PLO mission in D.C. as illegitimate, according to a copy of the legislation, which was jointly filed in the House and Senate Wednesday by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) and Mark Meadows (R., N.C.).

The bill would further mandate that to retain its right to exist in the United States, the PLO must stop paying terrorists a salary, end its incitement against the United States and Israel, and enter into good-faith peace negotiations with the Jewish state.
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Caribbean-Latin America
US officials called 'terrorists' mock Venezuela travel ban
2015-03-02
[CHRON] Conservative U.S. politicians banned from traveling to Venezuela by socialist President Nicolas Maduro are taking the restriction as a badge of honor.

Maduro laid out a series of measures against U.S. diplomats and tourists Saturday night, including a promise to limit the size of the embassy here and impose a tourist visa requirement.

Maduro also gave a list of conservative U.S. officials who would be barred from entering Venezuela. He named former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and several congressmen.

"They can't come to Venezuela because they're terrorists," Maduro said before a crowd that had gathered to protest imperialism. "Out of here, terrorists."

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said on Twitter that she was proud to be listed among such "good company." Another Florida Republican, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, responded with faux disappointment.

"I've always wanted to travel to a corrupt country that is not a free democracy. And now Castro's lapdog won't let me!" he wrote on Twitter.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US should block funds to Palestinian authority: Ros-Lehtinen
2015-01-02
The United States should prevent the Palestinian Authority from getting any funding to show that there will be consequences if it attempts to join the International Criminal Court, RIA Novosti reported referring to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's statement.

"It's time for the Obama administration to show Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] and the PA [Palestinian Autority] that there will be consequences for their irresponsible behavior and continued efforts to undermine the peace process," Ros-Lehtinen said.

The congresswoman called on US Congress to do "everything in its power" to block funds to the Palestinian Authority and to any UN entity that recognizes "a non-existent State of Palestine" to get a message across to the Palestinian leadership that its "schemes at the United Nations and other international organizations like the International Criminal Court" would carry certain implications.

On Dec.31, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed several requests to join a number of international organizations, including the International Criminal Court, after the United Nations Security Council did not to pass the resolution to create an independent Palestinian state.

"The latest destructive actions by Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority reaffirms, once again, that Abu Mazen is not a real partner for peace. By attempting to bring a flawed resolution to the UN Security Council and by signing the Rome Treaty, Abu Mazen only reiterates that he is not willing to return to direct peace negotiations with Israel without pre-conditions," Ros-Lehtinen went on to say.

On Jan.1, the United Nations Security Council rejected the resolution on Palestinian statehood.
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Home Front: WoT
Top US lawmakers demand Kerry explain position on Hamas
2014-06-11
Top politicians on a congressional Middle East subcommittee want Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
to explain his decision to continue dealing with the Paleostinian Authority now that it is backed by Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.

The leading Democratic and Republican members of the US House of Representatives Middle East subcommittee sent a letter to Kerry Monday seeking an explanation from the B.O. regime regarding Hamas, which has been designated by the United States and Israel as a terror organization.

"Any decision to work with this unity government could be extraordinarily counterproductive in our efforts both to promote peace and to help support the security of our ally Israel," said the letter from Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the committee's chairwoman, and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), its top Democrat.

Ros-Lehtinen and Deutch said in the letter that they are ready to convene a hearing on the issue so that the B.O. regime can explain how any ongoing relationship would not violate US law, which bans interactions with Hamas. Ros-Lehtinen authored the 2006 law which bans such contacts.

Israeli officials have openly criticized the administration for its decision to continue aid to and interaction with the Paleostinian Authority in the wake of the establishment last week of an interim government jointly backed by Fatah, the relatively moderate group preeminent in the West Bank, and Hamas, the US-designated terrorist group controlling the Gazoo Strip.
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China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. House Moves to Re-List N.Korea as Terrorist State
2013-02-14
The U.S. House of Representatives is to vote on a motion that would re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
This is almost as tough as a sternly worded UN resolution...
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida on Wednesday proposed the bill to add the renegade country to the list again, and eight representatives from both side of the house joined her.

In press release, Ros-Lehtinen condemned North Korea's nuclear test on Monday as a "deliberate and provocative action by the… regime," which is "yet another display of the regime's hostile intentions and is a reminder that Pyongyang is one step closer toward its goal of nuclear armament."
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The Grand Turk
US to sell two frigates to Turkey
2013-01-02
US House of Representatives approved a bill that would authorize US President Barack Obama to grant two guided missile frigates to Turkey, Anadolu Agency reported.

The bill was submitted by Republican member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic member Howard Berman, and it was debated at House floor through suspension of rules that by-passed a preliminary debate at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

If the bill also gets the backing of the US Senate, Turkey may receive the USS Halyburton (FFG-40) and the USS Thach (FFG-43) -- both capable of firing guided missiles --
Both are Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigates and both were commissioned in 1984. Sounds like we're clearing out a few frigates that we'd be scrapping in the not too distant future. Curiously, reading up on both suggests that neither is armed with guided missile launchers now -- both have a 76 mm gun, a Phalanx system and ASW torpedo launchers. But the info on the web might be out of date.
along with several other countries, including Thailand and Mexico.
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