US sanctions Iranian banks, factories & mines
Washington has blacklisted some 20 Iranian companies, including banks, steel mills, zinc mines, and manufacturers of cars, buses and tractors.
Among the companies added to the US Treasury’s blacklist on Tuesday is the Tehran-based Bahman Group, which produces vehicles under license by Mazda, Isuzu and Mitsubishi. The Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company was also included on the list.
https://www.rt.com/usa/441439-iran-sanctions-banks-tractors/
DICTATOR?
First Le Pen, now Melenchon? Another Macron critic has headquarters raided
Former French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon’s home has been raided by police, as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of EU funds that also targeted political firebrand and Macron critic Marine Le Pen.
The leader of France’s left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) livestreamed the unannounced intrusion on Facebook, vowing to exact revenge on France’s Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet for the raid, which targeted his home as well as his party’s headquarters.
"Nicole Belloubet, are you proud of what you are doing? Have you forgotten everything: who are you, who I am? So you have no dignity? All shots are allowed?” he said during the livestream.
"You do not know what you're up against – a political force, not an isolated person. We will make you pay politically.”
Melenchon then urged his supporters to meet at the head office of France Unbowed in Paris for an impromptu rally. Police reportedly seized phones and computers from the headquarters as part of their investigation.
The searches are believed to be part of an ongoing probe into fraudulent claims to the EU to cover for fictitious staff members. Melenchon is also under scrutiny for alleged financial irregularities during his 2017 presidential campaign.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s right-wing National Rally, was targeted by a similar EU funds probe last year. Le Pen dismissed the allegations made against her as political persecution.
A raid on National Rally’s headquarters in February 2017, which came amid the French presidential election, was slammed by the party as a “media operation whose sole purpose is to try to disrupt the smooth running of the [Le Pen’s] presidential election campaign.”
Both Melenchon and Le Pen have been fierce critics of French President Emmanuel Macron, who triumphed over the two politicians in last year’s presidential election.
In September, Melenchon led a rally against Macron’s newly-signed labor reforms, describing the demonstration as necessary to prevent a “social coup d’etat” aimed at French workers.
https://www.rt.com/news/441401-melenchon-raid-home-france-macron/
U.S. Hid Osama bin Laden in Iran for Decade After 9/11; Bush & Obama White Houses Worked Saudi & Iranian Deal to Safeguard Terror Leader
Osama bin Laden, the founder, and leader of terrorism conglomerate al-Qaeda, who was responsible for the deadly and devastating Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil, never was hiding in Afghanistan or its damp caves, according to explosive revelations in a new book from intelligence insiders and highly secret government documents.
Thousands of Americans died that day and many more in the wretched aftermath.
Instead, incredibly, bin Laden was whisked to a safe house in Iran following the deadly attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York, the Pentagon and the downing of a commercial jet in western Pennsylvania targeting the White House.
And the highest-ranking U.S. officials in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama White Houses — and possibly the presidents themselves — knew where bin Laden was and did nothing to capture him, according to insider revelations and documents detailed in Mike “Thomas Paine” Moore’s upcoming book PAINE: How We Dismantled the FBI In Our Pajamas. The book’s revelations reveal the United States was working with Saudi Arabia and Iran to keep bin Laden’s living arrangements in Iran very quiet.
“One of the biggest scandals in United States history is coming unraveled,” Moore said. “This is a national travesty, and people need to go to prison. The highest members of both administrations knew where bin Laden was tucked away but sent U.S. troops to die in Afghanistan looking for a ghost.
“Republican and Democrats working together to protect al-Qaeda and sell out the United States. We have it documented.”
https://truepundit.com/u-s-hid-osama-bin-laden-in-iran-for-decade-after-9-11-bush-obama-white-houses-worked-saudi-iranian-deal-to-safeguard-terror-leader/
ABSURD: Alumni, Faculty Want To Revoke Susan Collins’ Honorary Degrees Because She Supported Kavanaugh
Nearly 2,000 alumni and faculty members from Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) alma mater have demanded the university revoke her most recent honorary degree to “dismantle rape culture.”
Collins received an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University in 2017 – an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters – because she did not vote to repeal Obamacare. But now that she has voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, she lacks “the integrity and commitment to justice that we expect from the St. Lawrence body,” according to a letter signed by more than 1,300 alums.
So, if she does something liberal liberals like, she gets rewarded, if she does something liberals don’t like, she must be punished.
The letter claims Collins should lose the honorary degree “in support of truth and for all of the victims of sexual assault and violence, of which many of her fellow alumni and students have suffered."
The alumni seem to struggle with the meaning of the word “truth,” since none of the sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh were even close to being proven, and in fact had more evidence in his favor. No named witnesses could remember any of the parties the incidents were alleged to have occurred, and none of the accusers presented any evidence other than their own claims. So, it is far from “truth” that Kavanaugh did anything untoward.
Collins addressed how she came to her decision to support Kavanaugh in a lengthy floor speech. She made her decision despite death threats and the unhinged antics of the Left. She stood up for truth and basic decency.
Faculty members sent their own letter, claiming, hilariously, that revoking Collins’ honorary degree was not about partisan politics, but would help “dismantle rape culture.” Because, apparently, standing up for due process and rejecting the notion that no woman ever lies about sexual assault and that we must destroy a man’s family and reputation based on a decades-old allegation without evidence somehow promotes “attitudes and behavior that normalize and condone sexual assault.”
"While our campus has come a long way in the years since Senator Collins was a student here to educate the campus population about sexual assault and harassment, and to adjudicate it fairly when it happens, we still have much hard work before us in and outside of the classroom," the faculty said in their letter.
Yes, we do “have much hard work before us” when faculty members claim to want to adjudicate accusations “fairly” while also demanding the university punish Collins for pointing out how unfairly the accusations against Kavanaugh were adjudicated in the court of public opinion.
Collins graduated from St. Lawrence in 1975. She received two honorary degrees thereafter, an honorary doctorate of law in 1998, and the one she received in 2017. The alumni and faculty only want to revoke the latter.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/37200/absurd-alumni-faculty-want-revoke-susan-collins-ashe-schow
Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar Deletes Instagram Post Calling His Terrorist Grandfather a ‘Legend’
Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar has deleted an Instagram post in which he referred to his grandfather, Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Yousef al-Najjar, as a “legend.”
Muhammad Yousef al-Najjar was “was “a senior member of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September that murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics,” according to the Times of Israel, and a deputy for Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat.
Earlier this year, when Campa-Najjar’s roots were first reported, he condemned his grandfather’s actions and supported peace.
But in a 2015 Instagram post praising his father, who is a former Palestinian Authority (PA) official and Palestinian ambassador, Campa-Najjar referred to his grandfather as a “legend.” He offered no criticism or condemnation of his grandfather’s terrorist acts.
Breitbart News reported the existence of that Instagram post on Monday, as well as another in which he noted that his family was close to Yasser Arafat’s. The Campa-Najjar campaign declined to comment, and by Tuesday both posts had been taken down, and the account made “private.” Both posts, however, survive as screen shots.
Campa-Najjar is pushing back against an effort by his opponent in California’s 50th congressional district, incumbent Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), to portray him as a “security risk.”
Campa-Najjar changed his name after the June primary (from Ammar Yasser Najjar to Ammar Joseph Campa-Najjar); received a campaign donation from a Palestinian ambassador; and donated campaign funds to a radical group, CAIR, while taking donations from CAIR officials.*
Campa-Najjar has argued that he passed an FBI background check when he worked for the Obama administration, and has noted that Hunter was recently indicted on federal charges of misusing campaign funds.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
*As Breitbart News has noted:
In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization . The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/16/democrat-ammar-campa-najjar-deletes-instagram-post-calling-his-terrorist-grandfather-legend-arafat/
‘X-Men’ Director Bryan Singer Is Getting Accused Of Sexual Predation Once Again
Prior to the release of director Bryan Singer’s upcoming Freddy Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Esquire magazine plans to release yet another article detailing his alleged sexual predation of teenaged boys, a dark cloud that has followed the acclaimed filmmaker throughout his career.
Though the specifics of the Esquire article remain unknown at this time, it clearly paints Singer in an unflattering light given that the director has already blasted it as a story that will “rehash false accusations and bogus lawsuits.”
“In today’s climate where people’s careers are harmed by mere accusations, what Esquire is attempting to do is a reckless disregard for the truth, making assumptions that are fictional and irresponsible,” Singer wrote Monday morning on Instagram.
According to TheWrap, Esquire did reach out to Singer for comment; he declined. The article should be made available this week.
Director Bryan Singer has had a raft of sexual assault allegations made against him — and most of the allegations involve teenaged boys.
https://truepundit.com/x-men-director-bryan-singer-is-getting-accused-of-sexual-predation-once-again/
REPORT: Hungary Calls on EU to Cease Funding NGOs Hostile to Israel
Hungary’s foreign minister is believed to have called on the European Union to cease financially supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that oppose Israel or that facilitate illegal migration.
Sources told Euractiv that Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó raised the issue at a meeting of his counterparts in Luxembourg on Monday.
The suggestion was rejected by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini who said that the bloc had stringent checks are in the place for the NGOs it supports and that such support will continue, according to the source.
Mr Szijjártó was reportedly to have targetted charities supporting anti-Israel boycott and divestment (BDS) campaigns, and asked for the bloc to ensure that NGOs “that engage in incitement to violence and hatred or engage in boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel” as well as those that “contribut[e] to illegal migration” via the Mediterranean Sea do not receive EU funding.
In May, Israel likewise called on the EU to stop funding BDS groups, which they said work to legitimise and destroy the Jewish state.
Israel said that some of the NGOs that had received funding from the bloc in 2016 have links to Palestinian terror groups, naming specifically Norwegian People’s Aid, British group War on Want, the Dutch anti-war group PAX, and Palestinian organisation PNGO Net.
Hungary, like Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, has been described as “very pro-Israel”, and the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is said to enjoy a warm relationship with the Jewish state’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meeting during a historic trip in Hungary in July 2017 — the first time since the fall of Communism in 1989 that an Israeli premier went to the central European nation — Mr Netanyahu said that Hungary was at the “forefront” on the war against anti-Semitism, thanking Hungary for “standing up for Israel time and again”.
The visit came at a time when Hungary was under attack from senior EU officials such as European Commission First Vice-president Frans Timmermans, who labelled the government “anti-Semitic” for criticising open-borders Hungarian-American activist George Soros, who is of Jewish heritage.
Israel’s foreign office released a statement in defence of Hungary, saying it was important not to “delegitimise criticism of George Soros who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself”.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/10/16/hungary-calls-eu-cease-funding-ngos-hostile-israel/
Mayor of Bethlehem: PM Netanyahu’s Statement on Bethlehem and Palestinian Christians is Another Attempt at Distorting the Reality of Israeli Occupation
Mayor of Bethlehem, advocate Anton Salman said, in response to Sunday’s statements by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Bethlehem and the situation of Palestinian Christians, that such a statement “is another Israeli attempt at distorting the reality of the Israeli occupation and particularly the effects that Israeli policies have had on the Palestinian Christian community since 1948.”
“If Mr. Netanyahu was concerned about the situation of Palestinian Christians, particularly in the Bethlehem area, he would return the 22,000 dunams of Bethlehem land illegally annexed to Israel for expansion of colonial settlements. He would dismantle the annexation wall that divides Bethlehem from Jerusalem, for the first time in 2000 years of Christianity, and would stop imposing restrictions to Palestinian movement, including the thousand of Palestinian Christians living in exile and whose return is impossible due to the Israeli control over the Palestinian population registry,” said the mayor in a statement issued by the Bethlehem municipality.
He continued, according to WAFA: “For example, in Jordan alone, a few kilometers away, there are at least 20,000 Palestinian Christians from the Bethlehem area that are denied family unification and even cannot enter the city, not even to celebrate Christmas, due to the Israeli military restrictions.
“We would like to remind Mr. Netanyahu that it was he who supported the building of one of the most damaging colonial-settlements that surround Bethlehem, Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa), and that, in 2015, he declared that by doing so he is preventing the connection between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.”
There are over 100,000 Israeli settlers surrounding Bethlehem from all sides, reducing the area of Palestinian control over Bethlehem to less than 13% of the district, and making it impossible to plan for the future of our city, said the statement.
Furthermore, it was Mr. Netanyahu who voiced objection to declaring the Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage route as a World Heritage site and his policies of harassment were behind the decision of the churches to close the church of the Holy Sepulcher for three days in Jerusalem in objection to church taxation policy, added the statement.
“His comment was also full of historical inaccuracies. It is shameful that while calling himself a ‘protector of Christianity’, he would use Christians as a tool for his Islamophobic talking points. The decrease in percentage of Christians in Bethlehem, as well as in the rest of Palestine, was provoked with the Nakba of 1948 and ongoing due to Israel’s colonial plans and policies that started in 1967.”
He said that this was also the case in West Jerusalem, from where a large Palestinian Christian community was expelled by Israel from Ein Karem, Talbiya, Qatamon, and other places. From 31,000 Christians in 1948, Jerusalem only has around 12,000 Christians today.
“We would like to advise Mr. Netanyahu to stop using Christians as a tool to pinkwash the occupation. The best he could do for a future of peace and coexistence, where the Christian community would thrive again, it is to respect his obligations under international law, including Security council resolutions 478 on Jerusalem and 2334 on settlements, dismantling illegal colonial-settlements and the annexation wall surrounding Bethlehem, including in the Cremisan Valley, fully end the occupation of Palestine and allow for the return of our people to their city. It is not the Palestinian government that prevents their return Mr. Netanyahu; It is your government.”
He said: “I would like to use this occasion to call upon the heads of the churches in Jerusalem as well as to the Holy See to raise their voices against the use of religion for political purposes. It cannot be tolerated anymore that the bible is used wrongfully in order to justify crimes and violations that go against the teachings of values spread by our lord Jesus Christ.”
http://imemc.org/article/mayor-of-bethlehem-pm-netanyahus-statement-on-bethlehem-and-palestinian-christians-is-another-attempt-at-distorting-the-reality-of-israeli-occupation/
Goes with Australia the other day saying they will move their embassy to Jerusalem.
I think this is a means to divide it from European cabal so….
How do you catch a wild animal?
Set it at ease
Get close
Surround it
Then grab it quick
North and South Korea agree to reconnect roads and railways
North and South Korean delegations met Monday and reached a number of agreements to further the thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Seoul. Chief among them is a plan to reconnect roads and railways severed when the Korean Peninsula was split in half by war more than half a century ago.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry reported Monday it will share details of the arrangement with the United States and will work with other nations to avoid running afoul of international sanctions against North Korea tied to its nuclear weapons program. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held later this year for work on the Gyeongui railroad line, which once connected Seoul and Sinuiju, a North Korean city on the Chinese border.
Other topics in Monday's talks included fielding a joint Olympic team in 2020, making a bid to cohost the Olympics in 2032, and reuniting elderly people with family members stuck on the opposite side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Potential for further progress in the economic and political arenas is limited until North Korea makes movements toward denuclearization that result in the easing of international sanctions. Bonnie Kristian
More:
http://theweek.com/speedreads/801929/north-south-korea-agree-reconnect-roads-railways
me too
Russian-US consultations on North Korea to be held in Moscow on October 16
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and US Special Representative for North Korea held a phone conversation in September
MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov has said he will held a meeting with US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun in Moscow on October 16.
"Tomorrow, I will have a meeting with US Special Representative for North Korean Stephen Biegun," he told reporters on Monday. "We will hold a full round of consultations on the situation on the Korean Peninsula."
In September, Morgulov and Biegun had a phone conversation, during which they agreed to continue the dialogue between Moscow and Washington on a settlement on the Korean Peninsula.
The appointment of a new US envoy for North Korea was announced in late August.
More:
http://tass.com/world/1026032
Believe Women: Apply Congress' Christine Blasey Ford Test to TSA’s Female Victims
Do members of Congress care about any sexual assault that does not permit them to politically grandstand? Hold TSA agents responsible for assaults.
In the uproar over Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, many members of Congress declared that women have a “right to be believed.” Unfortunately, Congress is ignoring legions of women who have been sexually abused thanks to the immunity Congress provides to federal agents. But a federal appeals court may grant relief despite Washington’s negligence.
Congress gives the Transportation Security Administration almost $8 billion a year and does nothing to constrain how TSA’s 43,000 screeners treat American travelers. A Justice Department lawyer insisted last year that there’s no law “establishing a specific degree of permissible intrusiveness of a (TSA) security screening pat-down.” Americans have no legal recourse regardless of how TSA’s screeners treat them, thus explaining why TSA pat-downs become more intrusive.
Many women have shared vivid allegations of TSA abuses on Twitter:
►Dr. Jenn complained on Sept. 8: “Is it common practice for TSA agents to forcefully slide their hand up my (15-year-old) daughter’s inner leg and ending at her vagina? Literally slamming their hand into my daughter’s vagina.”
‘I was sexually assaulted by the TSA’
►Melissa Emmal, whose Twitter header page shows a banner calling for impeaching Trump, tweeted on Aug. 28: “A @tsa agent at DCA told me the scanner had ‘alarmed’ at my groin. She then searched me from my knee up ‘until she met resistance’ (her words). She met resistance when she made contact with my labia FOUR times (front and back pat up of each leg). Felt like a sexual assault.”
►Emily White complained on Aug. 26: “I was sexually assaulted by the @TSA on August 1 @LGAairport’s Marine Terminal at around 11:50 am. … If you don’t want your vagina paddled multiple times, I recommend avoiding that crew.”
►Valerie Knees groused on Aug. 14: “Was prepared to be a beacon of light and happy airport travel person this morning. Until the @TSA needlessly felt up my labia. 19 months into Trump’s presidency is apparently the length of time it takes for the government to grab my p—y.”
►Dev, a New York author, complained on Aug. 8: “Having someone move their hands from your ankle all the way up until they karate chop your f—ing vulva while your skirt is already removed is not okay. It is not casual, it is not necessary and I’m going to war with the TSA and their poor training.”
►Liz Groeschen tweeted on July 10 that she almost missed her flight at JFK Airport thanks to “an invasive hand pat-down that should be relabeled ‘tsa hands in your vagina’ to be completely accurate” and which was “an absolute embarrassment to America.”
►Marina Modela complained on July 9: “Dear @TSA, At #seatac , 2 agents groped my labia in the name of ‘security’ and falsely accused me of having something in my pants. How does groping female genitalia promote security, especially when your agents are too incompetent to know the difference between labia and bombs?”
►Elizabeth Nolan Brown, a Reason magazine editor, complained on June 7: “My ‘right groin area’ was suspicious to TSA so the agent just groped my ass & ran her hands under my waistband, between my thighs and all over my crotch in the middle of the airport. … It’s really unsettling to have an armed agent of the state rubbing your vulva while everyone watches.”
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/10/james-bovard/believe-women-apply-congress-christine-blasey-ford-test-to-tsas-female-victims/
Twitter works with SJWs to ban NPC meme users, just in time for mid-terms!