Nathan Phillips stayed in U.S. during Vietnam War and went AWOL 3 times, 'stolen valor' hunter finds

A prominent hunter of “stolen valor” fraudsters has released two pages of Nathan Phillips‘ Marine Corps personnel record that show he stayed in the United States during the Vietnam War and went AWOL three times. Mr. Phillips, 63, an activist whose followers are called “decolonizing warriors” and want an end to borders, has wrapped his career in references to being a Vietnam veteran for his 2½-year military stint in the 1970s. At one point, he said he served “in theater.”

Don Shipley is a retired Navy SEAL who specializes in exposing fake war veterans or veterans who greatly exaggerate their service. He told The Washington Times he acquired the documents via a Freedom of Information Request on Tuesday from the U.S. National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. The center has remained open during the partial government shutdown.

Mr. Phillips‘ military history arose as an issue after he confronted Covington Catholic High School students from Park Hill, Kentucky, some wearing President Trump-supporting “Make America Great Again” caps, at the Lincoln Memorial. There for the pro-life march, the students were feeling the sting of a constant barrage of insults from a fringe group called Black Hebrew Israelites, which has been deemed a hate group by left and right organizations. Videos show Mr. Phillips approaching the students as he pounds a drum. There, he and student Nick Sandmann stood face to face in a now-iconic scene. The videos don’t show the kids blocking him, as he contended in press interviews, or shouting “build the wall.” Liberal activists immediately made unsubstantiated charges that the students started the confrontation. On Twitter, they urged violence against the students and the school. The liberal media instantly awarded Mr. Phillips hero status as a Vietnam War veteran.

Rep. Deb Haaland, New Mexico Democrat and a Native American, issued a tweet that convicted the students of “blatant hate.” “This Veteran put his life on the line for our country,” Ms. Haaland wrote. “The students’ display of blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance is a signal of how common decency has decayed under this administration. Heartbreaking.”

Over the years, Mr. Phillips has made numerous statements that imply he was in Vietnam as a Marine “Recon Ranger,” according to news media reports. He attends an annual ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen native Americans. Indian Country Today, which is devoted to “digital indigenous news,” reported on the 2008 event: “Phillips also described coming back to the U.S. as a veteran of the Vietnam era. ‘People called me a baby killer and a hippie girl spit on me.’

The Daily Caller reported on a video in which he said, “I’m a Vietnam vet. I served in Marine Corps ‘72 to ‘76. I got discharged May 5, 1976. I got honorable discharge and one of the boxes shows peacetime or, what my box says is that I was in ‘theater,’” he said. “I don’t talk much about my Vietnam times.” “In theater” could mean Vietnam or in the area, such as on a warship. He was never stationed in theater. The Washington Examiner reported he has a “violent past.” “In his own teenage years and early 20s, Phillips … was charged with escaping from prison, assault, and several alcohol-related crimes, according to local news reports at the time from his hometown of Lincoln, Neb.,” the Examiner reported.

Mr. Shipley’s acquired personnel records show two names: Nathaniel Richard Stanard and his name at birth, Nathaniel Phillips. The draft was in place when Mr. Phillips entered the Marines, apparently as a reservist, on May 20, 1972. (The draft ended in January 1973.) After training, he left active duty six months later on Nov. 3, 1972. Marines view all troops as infantrymen. He likely attended boot camp and then infantry training before being deactivated. He returned to active duty on Aug 12, 1974, and served nearly two years until May 5, 1976. Either one of his two stints qualified him a “Vietnam-era” veteran. The U.S. declared an end to that designation for service members who joined after April 30, 1975. The personnel documents show that Mr. Phillips was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California. He was deemed AWOL, or unauthorized absence, three times. His job is listed as “util RefrigMan,” which indicates he was a refrigeration mechanic. He entered service as a private and was discharged as a private.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/24/don-shipley-finds-nathan-phillips-stayed-us-during/

>>4897186

Indeed, a complete intended set up.

Trump Admin Pressing Allies to Ban Iranian Airline Tied to Terrorism, Espionage

U.S. helps thwart Iranian effort to fly multiple planeloads of cash out of Germany

The Trump administration is locked in a diplomatic push to convince European allies to ban a major Iranian state-controlled airline known to be engaged in illicit transport and espionage operations, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. Germany's decision to ban Iran's Mahan Air—a state-controlled entity known to carry out clandestine military operations on the Islamic Republic's behalf—is being viewed as a diplomatic coup by the top U.S. official in Berlin and is said to be generating support for expanding this ban across the European Union, a move that would deal a severe blow to Tehran's international reach, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The ban on Mahan has been in the works for months, according to senior U.S. officials, who told the Free Beacon the airline is complicit in the Iranian regime's spying and military operations. Efforts to crackdown on Mahan follow a similar pressure campaign by the Trump administration to prevent Iran from airlifting out of Germany millions of dollars.

U.S. officials familiar with the ongoing diplomatic matter described Iran as trying to airlift several planeloads of cash out of Germany, a major cash influx that could have aided Iran's expansionist foreign policy goals, including its operations in Syria, Yemen, and other regional hotspots. The amount was so large that Iran attempted to use multiple planes to airlift the cash, an effort that was recently stopped in no small part by top U.S. officials stationed in Germany, sources said.

The next leg of the administration's diplomatic push will focus on convincing France and other leading European countries to also enact a ban on Mahan as part of a wide-ranging national security readjustment aimed at collapsing Iran's illicit financial and military channels, officials said. The United States pursued and cracked down on Iran's efforts to fly the cash out of Germany immediately, officials confirmed.

"The Mahan Air flights were part of that effort to crackdown on Iran's malignant activities abroad," one official told the Free Beacon, speaking only on background about the sensitive diplomacy. "Shutting down the cash transfer last summer and shutting down Mahan Air" were two pressing goals for blunting Iran's malign activity. "Mahan Air was being squeezed from every angle," the official explained, disclosing that this is part of the Trump administration's larger policy of choking off the Iranian regime through packages of sanctions and other measures.

As part of the behind-the-scenes effort to put the squeeze on Iran, U.S. officials and others also took a close look at Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat extradited from Germany for his alleged role in a recent plot to bomb Iranian opposition leaders. Multiple U.S. government agencies "were very suspicious" of Assadi's alleged links to a bomb plot on European soil, sources said. Germany's decision to ban Mahan received public approval from top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Berlin. The praise is said to be a sign the United States is working behind closed doors to spread the ban on Mahan across Europe.

"We are thankful for German leadership to shut down Mahan Air," Grenell tweeted. "The safety of German and U.S. citizens is the highest priority. "The U.S. welcomes Germany‘s decision to deny landing rights to Iran‘s Mahan Air," Pompeo tweeted earlier this week. "The airline transports weapons and fighters across the Middle East, supporting the Iranian regime's destructive ambitions around the region. We encourage all our allies to follow suit." Sources familiar with ongoing diplomatic efforts said that pressure is now being applied to France. The national security implications of allowing Iran unfettered air travel are becoming more clear, sources said, pointing to Iran's ongoing shipment of militants into regional hotspots, as well as its reliance on illicit funding networks tied to terrorists.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-pressing-allies-to-ban-iranian-airline-tied-to-terrorism-espionage/

Senators Again Floating Importing Prescription Drugs

Law enforcement fears policy will exacerbate drug crisis

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) are testing the waters of the 116th Congress for support of importing drugs from Canada, an effort to combat exploding prescription costs. But the pair's proposal is likely to face suspicion from Republicans, as well as strong public opposition from law enforcement, worried about how it might unwittingly introduce more deadly fentanyl into the United States.

The Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act (SADCA), introduced by Grassley and Klobuchar, would permit individuals to legally fill prescriptions at Canadian pharmacies assuming that the drug they are seeking is not a controlled or otherwise dangerous substance. This is not Klobuchar's first partnership with a Republican on the issue; in 2017, she joined with then-Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) to try to pass the SADCA as part of the Senate budget bill. Grassley, who the Hill reports has long been a proponent of prescription drug importation, argued that his and Klobuchar's proposal would help families unable to afford sky-high American drug prices. "For decades, safe and affordable prescription drugs have been for sale just across the border, but legally out of reach for American families," Grassley said at the time of the SADCA's release. "It's long past time for Congress to help the millions of Americans who struggle to pay exorbitant prices for medication."

The price of prescription drugs has risen steadily over the past two decades—healthcare consultancy Rx Saving Solutions indicated that 250 drugs saw an average price increase of 6.3 percent over last year alone. Even life-saving, much-used drugs like insulin have seen huge price surges in recent years. A longstanding, popular proposal for addressing this problem has been to make it legal for Americans to import drugs from foreign countries for personal use. Current regulation, enforced by both the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration, prohibits the practice, out of an abundance of caution concerning the competency of other nations' drug safety authorities, and fears of importation becoming a route for controlled substance trafficking. Were importation to be legalized, however, Americans could take advantage of price differences between the United States and foreign countries—including, critically, Canada. Prescription drug prices are lower in America's northern neighbor primarily because a government board sets them; this reality allows cross-border arbitrage, a fact that some 8 percent of Americans admit to having taken advantage of. Grassley and Klobuchar's bill is not the only one up for discussion in this Congress.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has his own, more sweeping proposal—cosponsored by 2020 contenders Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). Sanders's Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act would permit importation from not only Canada, but also other "major countries." Republican senators have already expressed skittishness about even Grassley’s more-narrow proposal. Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.), speaking to the Hill, said that he does not necessarily trust other nations' lower safety standards. "Unless we've got a case we're able to look back through and make sure we've got the same safeguards coming from there, I'd be a little bit leery," Rounds said. Rounds's caution is moderate compared to the objections of the National Sheriffs Association, a law enforcement organization which also opposed the Klobuchar-McCain proposal in 2017.

https://freebeacon.com/issues/senators-again-floating-importing-prescription-drugs/

The Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act (SADCA),

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/Safe%20and%20Affordable%20Drugs%20from%20Canada%20Act%20of%202019.pdf

Supporters to President Trump: ‘We Have Your Six’

WASHINGTON—As President Donald Trump heads into the third year of his presidency, The Epoch Times asked his supporters from across the country, “What words of wisdom do you have for President Trump going into 2019?”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/supporters-to-president-trump-we-have-your-six_2777865.html