https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther
>DOUGH
>They hate you and want you to die
>Australian police showing up at people's houses in response to their "problematic" social media posts.
trippy
https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/1439000046482715/
Leon Panetta: Gen. Milley "did the right thing"
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta says Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley "did the right thing."
"We had, at that point, a very unpredictable President who was not abiding by the Constitution. [He] was refusing to concede an election, was inciting a mob to go after the Capitol. He was totally unpredictable in terms of what he would do and I think that General Milley had a legitimate concern about what could possibly happen."
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta says Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley "did the right thing."
"We had, at that point, a very unpredictable President who was not abiding by the Constitution. [He] was refusing to concede an election, was inciting a mob to go after the Capitol. He was totally unpredictable in terms of what he would do and I think that General Milley had a legitimate concern about what could possibly happen."
https://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html
>https://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html
Vice President Kamala Harris Flips Coin During Surprise Visit at Howard University Football Game
>"Unable to schedule a call" means "Go and fuck yourself" in French.
>uptake is discouragingly low among white Evangelicals
>It won't stop posting.
>President [Trump] was appointing political people to key positions at the Defense Department. […]Wewere concerned about what the President might do.
the hair does it
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/265217-panetta-heads-into-benghazi-committee
Panetta testifies before Benghazi committee
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta sat down for five hours in a closed-door meeting of the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Friday as part of a rush of interviews the committee is conducting early in the year.
Panetta’s appearance on Friday follows a four-hour Wednesday interview with former CIA Director David Petraeus and as a session on Thursday with Charlene Lamb, a former State Department official in charge of diplomatic security.
Panetta declined to answer questions from reporters after exiting the meeting in the basement of the Capitol on Friday.
A day before the interview, Panetta said on MSNBC that the Obama administration had done all it could to save the lives of the four Americans killed in the diplomatic compound in Libya in 2012.
“There was never any order to stand down,” he said on Thursday. “On the contrary, the whole effort was to do everything possible to try to save lives.”
Lawmakers appear to be questioning the status of U.S. forces during the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks, among other issues.
“If we did not have assets in the region … why did we not have assets in the region on the anniversary of 9/11?” Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on Fox News on Thursday.
On MSNBC, Panetta claimed that he “immediately” put forces in position to assist the Americans on the ground in Benghazi.
“The problem was that attack ended quickly and because of time and distance, we never had a chance to get there,” he claimed. “This is a tragic event.”
Critics of the Benghazi Committee’s work, including its Democrat members, have accused Gowdy of dragging out the panel’s work in order to damage the political prospects of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
On Friday Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel's top Democrat, claimed that Panetta, who endorsed Clinton for president on Thursday, was not asked to appear before the panel until the day after Clinton’s high-profile testimony in October.
“The problem is that even Republicans condemned their marathon hearing with Secretary Clinton as an epic failure, so now they are trying to clean up their mess,” Cummings said in a statement.
Gowdy and other Republicans have repeatedly denied allegations that their investigation is politically motivated. Instead, they say, the probe has been prolonged by the Obama administration’s refusal to cooperate.
“I want to get it done as soon as possible,” Gowdy said on CNN on Thursday. “I want to wrap up tomorrow, but I've got a dozen more witnesses and I've got three departments that haven't given me my documents," he added.
This week, Gowdy predicted that the committee would finalize its slate of interviews my mid-February and then turn to compiling and writing up its findings. The analysis is expected to be released at some point later this year.
>Panetta’s appearance on Friday follows a four-hour Wednesday interview with former CIA Director David Petraeus and as a session on Thursday with Charlene Lamb, a former State Department official in charge of diplomatic security.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/264940-petraeus-steps-before-benghazi-committee
Petraeus appears at Benghazi panel
Former CIA Director David Petraeus on Wednesday appeared before the House Select Committee on Benghazi for a four-hour interview as Republican committee leaders narrow in on their final weeks of interviews.
The retired Army general will return to answer additional questions on an undetermined date in the coming days, committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said.
“We’re going to get back together,” Gowdy said.
“He’s a really important witness,” Gowdy added, without going into detail about the unanswered questions. “He’s willing to answer more questions, and we have more questions.
“That’s a good combination, when you have more questions and the witness is willing to answer them.”
Petraeus, who is one of the highest-profile former government officials to have appeared before the panel, brushed past reporters without comment after his interview on Wednesday.
The Benghazi committee appears to be closing in on the homestretch of its work amid repeated attacks from Democrats, who say the investigation has gone on for too long.
Democrats, who fought the creation of the panel from the start, on Wednesday highlighted that the 9/11 Commission took less time than the Benghazi panel to release its final report.
Gowdy promised reporters that the investigation is nearing the finish line.
Within the next month, he predicted, lawmakers would conduct their final dozen or so interviews. Then, they should begin work on a final report about the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans and is a flashpoint in the presidential race.
“We are just as anxious to wrap up our work as you are,” Gowdy told reporters before Wednesday’s session.
The extended delay, he said, was due to vigorous opposition from committee Democrats — who have vocally protested the panel’s existence — and the Obama administration’s reluctance to hand over documents. The committee is still waiting on information from the CIA, White House and State Department, Gowdy said.
“You have a choice: You can either issue a report that’s incomplete because you don’t have all the documents [or] you can wait and put up with the criticism of how long it’s taking until you do have all the documents,” he added. “And I have accepted the reality that we’re going to be criticized no matter what we do, so we might as well provide a complete and exhaustive report.”
Petraeus served as director of the CIA during the 2012 attacks but resigned shortly afterward amid the fallout from an extramarital affair. Last year, he pleaded guilty to one charge of mishandling classified material for leaking government secrets to his mistress, biographer Paula Broadwell.
That legal trouble was one reason why Petraeus could not appear before the committee until Wednesday, Gowdy said.
“There’s no lawyer in the world that will allow his client to be interviewed by a congressional committee while you have pending criminal charges,” he said. “That would frankly be legal malpractice had his attorney allowed him to do that.”
Among the roughly 12 more interviews the panel has scheduled in the next two weeks is former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is expected to answer questions behind closed doors on Friday.
President Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice and top aide Ben Rhodes are also on tap to testify at some point soon, Gowdy said.
“They have not indicated they will not be here,” he said.
Gowdy said the schedule could change based upon revelations that may come up during future interviews or unforeseen events.
Even if the panel begins to write its report next month, however, it could be months before the full analysis is released.
Democrats portray the lengthy process as further proof that the committee was created to hurt the presidential run of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State at the time of the assault.
“This is being dragged to get as close to the election process as possible. That’s very, very unfortunate,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the committee’s top Democrat, said before entering the meeting with Petraeus.
Committee Republicans have repeatedly declined to discuss their findings about Benghazi before the completion of their report, even as Democrats assert that the “charade” has failed to yield new information.
Petraeus’s answers were “completely consistent with what we have concluded in now eight separate investigations,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the committee who has also investigated the 2012 Benghazi attacks through his role on the House Intelligence Committee.
“I’m not sure why, in fact, it was necessary to bring the general back again, but perhaps it was to give the appearance that this select committee is about something apart from Secretary Clinton.”
https://apnews.com/article/europe-middle-east-israel-trials-greece-a28e3d915ea13eb7b9ff1878515586bd
Greece probes crash that killed witness in Netanyahu trial
Authorities in Greece on Tuesday opened an investigation into the crash of a private plane from Israel that killed a prosecution witness in the corruption trial of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Haim Geron, a former senior official at Israel’s ministry of communications, and his wife Esther, were killed in the crash late Monday off the island of Samos. The Israeli Foreign Ministry identified the victims, both 69, adding that consular officials and the ministry were working with the family to return the bodies.
Geron was one of more than 300 witnesses that prosecutors listed for Netanyahu’s trial on corruption charges. He is on trial for allegedly accepting expensive gifts from wealthy associates. Netanyahu, now the opposition leader in Israel’s parliament, has denied all the accusations and mocked the size of the witness list.
Greece’s Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Board is investigating the causes of the crash, officials said Tuesday.
The single-engine Cessna 182 took off from Haifa, Israel, and crashed near Samos Airport.
“Shortly before landing, communication with the control tower on Samos was lost and the Civil Aviation Authority informed the search and rescue center about the loss of communication,” the authority said in a statement.
The bodies of the two Israeli occupants were recovered by the coast guard several hours later with the help of divers. Fishing boats as well as vessels from the European Union’s border protection agency, Frontex, joined Greek coast guard vessels in the recovery effort.
Witnesses on the island interviewed by local news media said the crash occurred as the plane made an unsuccessful approach to land at Aristarchos International Airport.
As Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu spent a total of 15 years in office, but recent years were marred by the corruption allegations and a string of deadlocked elections. The trial resumed Monday after a three-month break.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-haiti-mexico-texas-09d7de5bc57e1dbd92d40751c0d91f69
US launches mass expulsion of Haitian migrants from Texas
The U.S. flew Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland Sunday and tried blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signaled the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.
More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, said Yael Schacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International whose doctoral studies focused on the history of U.S. asylum law.
Similarly large numbers of Mexicans have been sent home during peak years of immigration but over land and not so suddenly.
Central Americans have also crossed the border in comparable numbers without being subject to mass expulsion, although Mexico has agreed to accept them from the U.S. under pandemic-related authority in effect since March 2020. Mexico does not accept expelled Haitians or people of other nationalities outside of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
When the border was closed Sunday, the migrants initially found other ways to cross nearby until they were confronted by federal and state law enforcement. An Associated Press reporter saw Haitian immigrants still crossing the river into the U.S. about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) east of the previous spot, but they were eventually stopped by Border Patrol agents on horseback and Texas law enforcement officials.
As they crossed, some Haitians carried boxes on their heads filled with food. Some removed their pants before getting into the river and carried them. Others were unconcerned about getting wet.
Agents yelled at the migrants who were crossing in the waist-deep river to get out of the water. The several hundred who had successfully crossed and were sitting along the river bank on the U.S. side were ordered to the Del Rio camp. “Go now,” agents yelled. Mexican authorities in an airboat told others trying to cross to go back into Mexico.
Migrant Charlie Jean had crossed back into Ciudad Acuña from the camps to get food for his wife and three daughters, ages 2, 5 and 12. He was waiting on the Mexican side for a restaurant to bring him an order of rice.
“We need food for every day. I can go without, but my kids can’t,” said Jean, who had been living in Chile for five years before beginning the trek north to the U.S. It was unknown if he made it back across and to the camp.
Mexico said Sunday it would also begin deporting Haitians to their homeland. A government official said the flights would be from towns near the U.S. border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group remains.
Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after a devastating 2010 earthquake. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.
Some of the migrants at the Del Rio camp said the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel MoĂŻse make them afraid to return to a country that seems more unstable than when they left.
“In Haiti, there is no security,” said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived in Texas with his wife and two daughters. “The country is in a political crisis.”
Since Friday, 3,300 migrants have already been removed from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention centers, Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz said Sunday. He expected to have 3,000 of the approximately 12,600 remaining migrants moved within a day, and aimed for the rest to be gone within the week.
“We are working around the clock to expeditiously move migrants out of the heat, elements and from underneath this bridge to our processing facilities in order to quickly process and remove individuals from the United States consistent with our laws and our policies,” Ortiz said at news conference at the Del Rio bridge. The Texas city of about 35,000 people sits roughly 145 miles (230 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
Six flights were scheduled in Haiti on Tuesday — three in Port-au-Prince and three in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, said Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, Haiti’s migration director.
The rapid expulsions were made possible by a pandemic-related authority adopted by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 that allows for migrants to be immediately removed from the country without an opportunity to seek asylum. President Joe Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the order but let the rest stand.
Any Haitians not expelled are subject to immigration laws, which include rights to seek asylum and other forms of humanitarian protection. Families are quickly released in the U.S. because the government cannot generally hold children.
Some people arriving on the first flight covered their heads as they walked into a large bus parked next to the plane. Dozens lined up to receive a plate of rice, beans, chicken and plantains as they wondered where they would sleep and how they would make money to support their families.
All were given $100 and tested for COVID-19, though authorities were not planning to put them into quarantine, said Marie-Lourde Jean-Charles with the Office of National Migration.
Gary Monplaisir, 26, said his parents and sister live in Port-au-Prince, but he wasn’t sure if he would stay with them because to reach their house he, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter would cross a gang-controlled area called Martissant where killings are routine.
“I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t have a plan.”
He moved to Chile in 2017, just as he was about to earn an accounting degree, to work as a tow truck driver. He later paid for his wife and daughter to join him. They tried to reach the U.S. because he thought he could get a better-paying job and help his family in Haiti.
“We’re always looking for better opportunities,” he said.
Some migrants said they were planning to leave Haiti again as soon as possible. Valeria Ternission, 29, said she and her husband want to travel with their 4-year-old son back to Chile, where she worked as a bakery’s cashier.
“I am truly worried, especially for the child,” she said. “I can’t do anything here.”