Migrant Paid $130 to ‘Rent’ Boy to Cross Border as Family, Says DOJ

A Guatemalan man allegedly paid a family the equivalent of $130 to “rent” their eight-year-old son so that he could go to the U.S. as a “family,” federal prosecutors told a Tucson grand jury in March. He also allegedly paid another $130 (about 1,000 quetzales) to another person who created a false birth certificate for the child.

In a federal indictment reported on by Tucson.com, Maynor Velasquez Molina sought out a Guatemalan child he could use to get into the U.S. because he was told that would be “easier to get into the United States with a child,” a federal agent stated in a criminal complaint. Velasquez crossed the border with the young boy as part of a large group of 101 migrants who illegally crossed the border on February 18 just west of the Lukeville Port of Entry, the Arizona news outlet reported.

They made the illegal border crossing after traveling across Mexico by bus, the special agent stated. After being processed in the Tucson Sector, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents began talking to the man and eventually learned he paid for the use of the boy and for the false documents used in the smuggling case.

The grand jury returned an indictment on March 27 on a charge of human smuggling, Tucson.com stated.

Velasquez is not alone in his efforts to cheat the U.S. immigration and asylum system. Since October 1, 2018, Border Patrol officials in the Yuma Sector reported more than 700 fraudulent family cases, the news outlet reported. Some of those alleged fraudulent cases involve a migrant claiming to be an unaccompanied minor when they are actually an adult. Still others involved misrepresenting the relations between two travelers.

In one case, two Mexican men paid #260 for a pair of birth certificates belonging to a Guatemalan man and a Guatemalan minor with the same last name. The pair were eventually found out and a court sentenced the two men to only 20 days in federal prison, the Tucson news group reported.

Light sentences seem to follow convictions in these cases so far. The Arizona Daily Star reportedly found only 53 prosecutions for false family claims and 15 cases of adults using fraudulent birth certificates to try and pass as a minor since June 2018. Of those, all but three cases resulted in quick pleas for illegally crossing the border where the migrants received sentences ranging from a few days to about six weeks.

To combat this problem created by broken asylum laws in the U.S., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials deployed three teams of HSI special agents to the El Paso Sector to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in interdiction efforts in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas beginning on April 16. The agency deployed three additional teams on April 22 to the Rio Grande Valley, Del Rio, Yuma, and El Centro Borde Patrol Sectors.

“ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is redirecting resources to the border in response to cases of fake families using forged documents to illegally enter our country and avoid detention. Our highly-skilled teams are working to stop individuals, networks and organizations facilitating child smuggling and document fraud,” ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence said in a written statement. “ICE along with our partners at CBP, remain committed to protecting children by ensuring they are not used as pawns by individuals attempting to gain entry to the U.S. through fraud.”

During 100 interviews conducted in the first two weeks of the operation, agents found possible fraud in 25 percent of the interviews.

“This fraud may include the use of forged birth certificates or other fraudulent documents to establish parentage,” ICE officials stated in a press release on Tuesday. “Forged or other fraudulent documents are also being used by adult illegal aliens to falsely claim they are minors under the age of 18.”

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/05/06/migrant-paid-130-to-rent-boy-to-cross-border-as-family-says-doj/

Ray McGovern - Does Israel act like a U.S. ally?

Rachel Maddow Sides with Bolton on Venezuela and Russia

This is where three years of failed Russiagate conspiracy theorizing and fixation leads you — into the arms of fanatical endless war proponent John Bolton: "John Bolton God bless you, good luck.." one can now hear on "resistance" network MSNBC prime time.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is now championing neocon national security adviser John Bolton's "humanity" given he apparently went loose cannon this past week, vowing to confront Russia over Venezuela even as his boss President Trump downplayed Moscow's role in the crisis after a Friday phone call with Putin.

"This is what John Bolton, human being, thought his job was this week,” Maddow said on her show Friday night. Both Pompeo and Bolton had clearly gone a bit rogue with their overly bellicose Venezuela comments, while Trump appeared to be more restrained — and for Maddow this was of course cause for championing the neocon interventionist line: “Hey, John Bolton, hey, Mike Pompeo, are you guys enjoying your jobs right now?” she questioned.

https://russia-insider.com/en/rachel-maddow-sides-bolton-venezuela-and-russia/ri26954

Yair Netanyahu in Breitbart Op-ed: Land for peace doesn't work

Prime Minister's son declares, the “Land for Peace” formula leads in reality to “Land for War”.

Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday published an opinion piece on the Breitbart news website explaining how despite giving up land for peace and other initiatives, Israel still finds itself in the firing line and cannot afford to give in to more demands.

Land for Peace is an interpretation of a UN Security Council Resolution that determines Israel's forces should withdraw from all territories. Its success, however, is based upon a willingness of the Israel's enemies to recognize the State of Israel and pursue peace.

After a weekend in which 700 rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, resulting in the death of four Israeli citizens and dozens wounded, Israel is once again facing a balancing act between peace and war.

The prime minister's son negated arguments of "the left in Israel, Europe and America," which, he wrote, sees the "root cause" of the terrorism in poverty and despair. Netanyahu believed that this reasoning is wrong, seeing that Palestinians received billions in aid "surpassing even the amount that Japan received to recover after World War II."

The young Netanyahu firmly placed the blame in the hands of Hamas, who rule Gaza, saying "The reason the people of Gaza live in poverty is because their terrorist government utilizes the foreign aid that they receive to build their missile infrastructure and construct terror tunnels with the aim of waging war on the Jewish state."

During the unilateral disengagement from Gaza in 2005, around 10,000 Jewish inhabitants were forced to leave their homes, a measure intended to prove Israel's commitment to the 'land for peace' initiative. Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 and since then Israel has faced wave after wave of rocket bombardments and terror attacks.

As Netanyahu wrote "The right in Israel warned that the evacuated Gaza Strip will become a launching pad for missiles into Israel and that Gaza will be taken over by Hamas. The left mocked this assumption and reassured the Israeli public that once Israel will be out of the Gaza Strip there will be peace".

With more than half a million Jewish residents currently living in Judea and Samaria the concept of land for peace there is a lot more difficult to envisage, despite the insistence of the international community that any future peace deal must include Israel giving up its settlements in those areas.

Netanyahu declared that "such a move will lead to the destruction of Israel. The 'Land for Peace' formula leads in reality to 'Land for War.'”

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Yair-Netanyahu-in-Breitbart-Op-ed-Land-for-peace-doesnt-work-588976

World Condemns Israeli Attack On Anadolu Agency Office

A growing list of news agencies, advocacy groups and leaders condemned an Israeli attack on Anadolu Agency office, in the Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

Israeli warplanes hit the building with at least five rockets after firing warning shots, Anadolu Agency’s correspondent in Jerusalem reported.

No injuries or death were reported.

“The targeting of the Anadolu Agency office is the attempt to remove witnesses and prepare for the massacres of Israel against Gaza,” Ibrahim Melhem, spokesman for the Palestinian government told Anadolu Agency.

The Association of the Balkan News Agencies- Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) and Athens News Agency has also condemned the attack.

“We condemn the attack against Anadolu Agency office in the West Bank,” Secretary General of ABNA-SE and President of Athens News Agency, Michalis Psilos said, in a statement.

“It’s urgent to defend press freedom against such attacks,” Psilos said.

“I would like to express my support to Anadolu Agency’s Director General Senol Kazanci vis a vis this attack,” he added.

The Media Review Network, a Johannesburg based advocacy group, also denounced the attack.

“The Media Review Network (MRN) condemns in the strongest terms Israel’s barbaric missile attack on a prominent media institution in Gaza” Iqbal Jassat executive member of the group said in a statement late Saturday.

Jassat said the wanton destruction of Turkey’s Gaza-based Anadolu Agency, is a calculated attempt to prevent the agency from reporting Israel’s horrendous war crimes.

“We at MRN are deeply concerned that notwithstanding previous targeted attacks on media platforms by the Netanyahu regime, global outrage has been largely muted,” Jassat said.

He added that the current onslaught on the besieged population of occupied Gaza, has taken a huge toll on the lives of the enclosed territory.

“Targeting media outlets such as Anadolu Agency, is not only cowardly but a downright attempt to snuff out news reporters, journalists and commentators.

“We call on media freedom activists and NGOs to ensure that the campaigns in defense of free press and the integrity of journalists continue unabated,” Jassat said.

The Israeli bombing of the Anadolu Agency’s office in Gaza is an attack on free speech, a prominent Nigerian Muslim leader has said.

Disu Kamor, head of the influential Muslim Public Affairs Center (MPAC), said the Israeli attack followed a similar pattern of the country’s disrespect for civilian lives and should be condemned.

“To violently damage any building is abhorrent. More so a media house that is well marked and well known,” Kamor told Anadolu Agency.

“This attack must be seen and condemned for what it is an attack on free speech with total disregard for human lives. It is well known that Israel is so unscrupulous about civilian life and anyone who considers free speech not to be a political right but a human right must condemn this violent attack on free press wholeheartedly,” Kamor added.

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli warplanes also targeted two positions of Palestinian resistance factions in the northern part of the enclave, a naval police building in the Gaza seaport and a civilian house in Khan Yunis city.

The raids completely destroyed the targeted house and severely damaged a number of houses surrounding the other targeted sites.

At least six Palestinians were killed when Israeli warplanes struck Hamas positions in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The strikes occurred following reports that two Israeli soldiers had been injured by gunfire near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Friday.

*Erdogan Cagatay Zontur from Ankara, Hassan Isilow from Johannesburg, and Rafiu Ajakaya from Lagos contributed to this story.

https://imemc.org/article/world-condemns-israeli-attack-on-anadolu-agency-office/

Bolton’s Vague Press Release Lays Foundation for Military Attack Against Iran

According to Bolton’s statement, an attack launched by a “proxy” of Iran on not just assets but “interests” of the U.S. in the region or “interests” of a U.S. ally in the region, would now be sufficient to trigger a U.S. attack on Iran, even if Iran itself was not directly responsible.

WASHINGTON — In a late Sunday press release, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the deployment of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ABECSG) and a bomber task force to U.S. Central Command as a “clear and unmistakable message to Iran.” The press release claims that the move was made “in response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings,” which were left unspecified.

The statement further claims that “any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force” and that, while “the United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime,” the Trump administration is “fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.”

Last month, in a move that many viewed as a set-up for a war with Iran — which has long been sought by Bolton as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, even prior to their posts in the current administration — the Trump administration labeled the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran as a terrorist organization. Iran’s government subsequently responded in kind, labeling U.S. soldiers of Central Command as terrorists and designating the U.S. government as a state sponsor of terrorism.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-bolton-press-release-deploys-carrier-group-to-mideast-with-threat-of-war-on-iran/258223/

US State Department publishes, then deletes sadistic Venezuela hit list boasting of economic ruin

The Grayzone has obtained a list of “key outcomes” on Venezuela deleted out of apparent embarrassment by the State Department. It boasts of wrecking the nation’s economy, destabilizing its military, and puppeteering its political opposition.

By Anya Parampil

On April 24, six days before self-proclaimed Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaido’s attempt to violently overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government alongside a handful of military defectors, the U.S. State Department published a fact sheet that boasted of Washington’s central role in the ongoing coup attempt. After realizing the incriminating nature of its error, the State Department quickly acted to remove the page.

The Grayzone has obtained a full copy of the expunged report. The deleted page puts to bed any claims of Guaido’s independence from Washington, as the State Department emphasizes the fact that he “announced his interim presidency… in January” at the the top of a section dedicated to breaking down “key outcomes” of U.S. efforts with regard to Venezuela.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier recently took to Twitter to claim that “since he became acting president, Juan Guaido has given tangible results to the people of Venezuela.” Her tweet was accompanied with an infographic detailing alleged accomplishments of the powerless coup administration based on data compiled by the legally defunct National Assembly, the only governing body actually controlled by Guaido.

But the Venezuela fact sheet posted and then deleted days earlier by the State Department told a dramatically different story.

https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/06/us-state-department-publishes-then-deletes-sadistic-venezuela-hit-list-boasting-of-economic-ruin/

Full doc:

https://thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/US-Department-of-State-Venezuela-actions.pdf

Facebook gives social scientists unprecedented access to its user data

Projects from around the world will delve into questions including how misinformation spreads on social media platforms and who distributes it.

Facebook is giving social scientists unprecedented access to its data so that they can investigate how social media platforms influence elections and alter democracies.

More than 60 researchers split into 12 teams will tackle questions such as how fake news spreads, who distributes it and how to identify it. Their projects, announced on 28 April, will focus on countries including Germany, Chile, Italy and the United States.

The scientists will have access to reams of Facebook data such as the URLs that users have shared and demographic information including gender and approximate age. The company — which has been accused of privacy violations in the past — is developing new protections aimed at shielding the identities of its users.

The research teams were chosen by the Social Science Research Council in Brooklyn, New York, a non-profit research group, and Social Science One, an academic-industry partnership with ties to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A coalition of eight charitable organizations will fund the work. Facebook had no say in selecting the projects.

The programme could set a precedent for how social scientists work with companies to access information about social media, a growing force in shaping public discourse, says Simon Hegelich, a political data scientist at the Technical University of Munich. “It’s still a problem that social media is so important — especially for social science — but we don’t have access to the data,” he says. “Sometimes you spend a lot of time trying to find things out that were already known in companies.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01447-5

America’s Blueprint for Global Domination: From “Containment” to “Pre-emptive War”. The 1948 Truman Doctrine

ANNEX: Archive of (Declassified) Top Secret Policy Planning Document drafted by George F. Kennan

First published by GR on September 7, 2014

We bring to the attention of our readers the writings as well as an analysis of George F. Kennan (1948) which constitute the foreign policy cornerstone of the “‘Truman doctrine.”

These documents have a direct bearing on US foreign policy and military doctrine under the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

The Declassified documents were first posted by Global Research in December 2003 (see original url

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG312A.html )

Analysis

Today’s US-NATO sponsored wars are part of a military and foreign policy agenda extending over a period of more than half a century.

What these 1948 State department documents reveal (see below in Annex) is continuity in US foreign policy from “Containment” during the Cold War to today’s doctrine of “Pre-emptive War”.

In this regard, the NeoCons Project for the New American Century’s blueprint formulated in 2000 for global conquest should be viewed as the culmination of a post-war agenda of military hegemony and global economic domination as initially formulated by the State Department in 1948 at the outset of the Cold War.

Needless to say, successive Democratic and Republican administrations, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been involved in carrying out this hegemonic blueprint for global domination, which the Pentagon calls the “Long War”.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-blueprint-for-global-domination-from-containment-to-pre-emptive-war-the-1948-truman-doctrine/5400067

Darwin, Australia Adopts China's Tech for Total Social Control

TN has warned that China intends to aggressively export its draconian social control system. It has found an unlikely sale in Australia, which is as unlikely as the U.S. to follow China’s lead toward Technocracy. China is marketing in the U.S. as well. ⁃ TN Editor

Australia is preparing to debut its version of the Chinese regime’s high-tech system for monitoring and controlling its citizens. The launch, to take place in the northern city of Darwin, will include systems to monitor people’s activity via their cell phones.

The new system is based on monitoring programs in Shenzhen, China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is testing its Social Credit System. Officials on the Darwin council traveled to Shenzhen, according to NT News, to “have a chance to see exactly how their Smart Technology works prior to being fully rolled out.”

In Darwin, they’ve already constructed “poles, fitted with speakers, cameras and Wi-Fi,” according to NT News, to monitor people, their movements around the city, the websites they visit, and what apps they use. The monitoring will be done mainly by artificial intelligence, but will alert authorities based on set triggers.

Just as in China, the surveillance system is being branded as a “smart city” program, and while Australian officials claim its operations are benign, they’ve announced it functions to monitor cell phone activity and “virtual fences” that will trigger alerts if people cross them.

“We’ll be getting sent an alarm saying, ‘There’s a person in this area that you’ve put a virtual fence around.’ … Boom, an alert goes out to whatever authority, whether it’s us or police to say ‘look at camera five,’” said Josh Sattler, the Darwin council’s general manager for innovation, growth, and development services, according to NT News.

The nature of the “virtual fences” and what type of activity will sound an alarm still isn’t being made clear.

The system is being promoted as mostly benign. Sattler said it will tell the government “where people are using Wi-Fi, what they’re using Wi-Fi for, are they watching YouTube, etc. All these bits of information we can share with businesses. … We can let businesses know, ‘Hey, 80 percent of people actually use Instagram within this area of the city, between these hours.’”

The CCP’s smart city Social Credit System is able to monitor each person in the society, tracking every element of their lives—including their friends, online purchases, daily behavior, and other information—and assigns each person a citizen score that determines their level of freedom in society.

The tool is a core piece of the CCP’s programs to monitor and persecute dissidents, including religious believers and people who oppose the ruling communist system.

Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao, a visiting scholar at New York University, described the Social Credit System as a new form of tyranny, meant to reactivate the CCP’s totalitarian hold on society.

“In the past, there was the Nazi totalitarianism and Mao Zedong’s totalitarian system, but a totalitarian system powered by the internet and contemporary technology has not existed before,” Teng said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times.

“The CCP is now taking the first step to build such a high-tech totalitarian system, by using credit ratings and monitoring and recording every detail in people’s daily life, which is very frightening.”

The regime also isn’t interested in keeping the technology within its own borders. It’s exporting the system, and its “China model” of totalitarian government, as a service of its “One Belt, One Road” program. When the CCP builds its infrastructure abroad, its surveillance and social control programs are part of the package.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72498/darwin-australia-adopts-chinas-tech-for-total-social.html

Israel’s Terrorists: The White Helmets Receive an Award

Increasingly, groups and even foreign governments have pandered to Israel and its supporters in the United States because they have come to understand that success in dealing with Washington can be dependent on Jewish support.

Last week, Raed Saleh, the leader of the so-called White Helmets, also referred to as the Syrian Civil Defense, a terrorist-affiliated group, was in the United States to “…receive the Elie Wiesel Award from the Holocaust Memorial Museum for his organization’s work in Syria.” He was also dropping by to pick up a check for $5 million courtesy of the U.S. government “…to help us with acquiring ambulances and help us with search and rescue operations.”

During his visit, Saleh was treated to a nauseatingly obsequious interview courtesy of National Public Radio, which, inter alia, described how the Helmets “were the subjects of an Oscar-winning documentary two years ago, which captured images of them carrying broken and bloody Syrians from dust and rubble.”

Saleh claimed that the alleged victory of the Syrian regime in the yet to be completed war is an illusion as President Bashar al-Assad presides over a broken country, yet reports from inside Syria indicate that the return of the government to areas formerly controlled by terrorists has been welcomed and refugees from the fighting are now eager to return home. Saleh also claimed, falsely, that his organization has been

“providing services to all Syrians and to providing support to all Syrians. Now after six years of war, we have saved more than 116,000 people from under the rubble. We have not asked any of these 116,000 people who did they belong to? Is he a Kurd? Is he a Christian? Is he a Muslim? Is he with Assad? Is he against Assad? Is he with the Kurds? Is he against the Kurds? We have never asked anyone these questions.”

Saleh, whose group has only operated in terrorist-controlled areas, could not, however, maintain his approved narrative. He fairly quickly abandoned his non-partisan quasi-humanitarian rhetoric when asked about how he sees the Syrian conflict developing, saying

“We do not call this a civil war, but we rather call it a revolution against a dictatorship…the revolution still goes on. We have not lost.”

Those who are unfamiliar with the White Helmets should understand that the group has been praised by those who hate the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and want to see it removed, which includes the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. The White Helmets have played a leading role in the propaganda campaign that seeks to instigate violence or use fabricated information to depict the Damascus government as guilty of slaughtering its own citizens. The propaganda is intended to terrorize the civilian population, which is part of the definition of terrorism.

Favorable media coverage of the group has largely derived from the documentary The White Helmets, which was produced by the group itself and tells a very convincing tale promoted as “the story of real-life heroes and impossible hope.” It is a very impressive piece of propaganda, so much so that it has won numerous awards including the Oscar for Best Documentary Short two years ago and the White Helmets themselves were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More to the point, however, is the undeniable fact that the documentary has helped shape the public understanding of what is going on in Syria, describing the government in Damascus in purely negative terms.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israels-terrorists-white-helmets-receive-award/5676631

Bilderberg Elites Planned Free Speech Crackdown Prior to Trump Win, Internet ID Next Step

In June of 2016, prior to the current social media purge, Bilderberg elites discussed implementing an Internet ID in Dresden, Germany.

The Bilderberg group has served as a secretive gathering of world elites for decades. Decisions made at the meetings are often implemented by attendees working to establish a world order.

Paul Joseph Watson reported on the 2016 meeting, “According to our source, the creation of a virtual passport that web users will need to obtain before they can use many Internet services is high on the agenda.”

As Infowars reported based on sources within the meeting, the proposed Internet ID would allow Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to “use the online passport to revoke posting permission if a user violates terms of agreement.”

Under the Obama administration, a National Internet ID was proposed. CBS News reported in 2011,

President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans.

The program was sold as being “voluntary,” and was never fully implemented.

Those involved said that the ID needed to be created by the private sector because if the government did it, “it wouldn’t be trusted.”

When discussions were taking place on how to implement this ID system, Facebook emerged.

MIT Technology Review reported in 2011 that “Facebook wants to supply your Internet Driver’s License.”

Google and Facebook have the infrastructure and databases necessary to implement this Internet ID system. Facebook is developing a cashless payment system. These companies have our personal data, and a monopoly over the Internet. They have also shown a malicious intent to ban nationalist, Christian and conservative voices from their platforms.

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/bilderberg-elites-planned-free-speech-crackdown-prior-to-trump-win-internet-id-next-step.html

Bolton Threatens Iran With “Unrelenting Force” as US Bombers Deployed to Middle East

In a late Sunday statement warning—without any evidence whatsoever

—of “troubling and escalatory” actions by the Iranian government, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton used the scheduled deployment of an American aircraft carrier and bomber task force to the Middle East to threaten Iran with military action.

The United States, said Bolton, “is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

Foreign policy analysts and international observers were quick to point out that the Lincoln Strike Group’s deployment was announced nearly a month ago—a fact critics highlighted as further evidence that Bolton is willing to use any and every opportunity to move the U.S. closer to war with Iran.

According to The Guardian, the U.S. “withdrew its B-1 bombers from the Middle East in March for maintenance and upgrades amid concerns the bomber force was over-stretched. While such changes in global deployment are made regularly, it is rare for the announcement of such deployments to be made by a national security advisor rather than the Pentagon.”

“Bolton wants war. He will do any provocation to get war,” tweeted Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council.

Stephen Miles, director of Win Without War, said Bolton’s statement is “the latest indication that this administration is running full speed directly into a major war with Iran.”

“This is Bush and Iraq in 2002,” said Miles. “The time to stop their disastrous war plans is now!”

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/bolton-threatens-iran-with-unrelenting-force-as-us-bombers-deployed-to-middle-east.html

Texas Man Found Guilty of Conspiring to Support ISIS

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/texas-man-found-guilty-conspiring-support-isis

Judicial Watch Seeks Information on Qatari Government’s Funding of Texas A&M, a Public University

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a petition to intervene on behalf of its client Zachor Legal Institute under the Texas Public Information Act, seeking information about potential influence by the Qatar government’s funding of certain Texas A&M University programs and a Texas A&M campus in Education City, Al Rayyan, Qatar (Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development v. Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General (No. D-1-GN-18-006240)).

Zachor Legal Institute is a U.S.-based advocacy group dedicated to combatting the spread of anti-Semitism. Zachor made requests under the TPIA for information about the funding or donations made to Texas A&M by the government of Qatar and agencies and subdivisions of the government of Qatar. Qatar controversially has aligned itself with Islamic terrorists and extremists which has placed it at odds with the United States, Israel and other U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Zachor’s began asking nearly a year ago for information about Qatari funding of Texas A&M research and how Texas A&M, a public university, was able to establish a degree-conferring campus in Qatar without the Texas Legislature’s permission or involvement. In 2003 Texas A&M established a campus in Qatar that now grants Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering. Since 2011, advanced degrees have been offered in Chemical Engineering.

Texas A&M at Qatar has awarded more than 900 degrees since 2007.

In October 2018, Qatar filed suit to prevent disclosure of its funding information. Judicial Watch contends that neither the Qatari government nor any of its agencies are protected by Texas Public Information Act exceptions and that federal law “expressly makes the requested information public.”

The university claims the records can be kept from the public because disclosure would reveal confidential donor information. Judicial Watch points out the law only protects private donors, not donations from a foreign government body, specifically the Qatar Foundation. The Qatar Foundation “was created by the Emir of Qatar, is Chaired by his consort, and is sponsored and supported by the government of Qatar, a monarchy. At no point did the Qatar Foundation demonstrate that it is not an agency or subdivision of the government of Qatar.”

“Judicial Watch and the Zachor Legal Institute are battling in court for the truth about how the foreign government of Qatar lassoed Texas A&M into setting up a campus in a country run by a government known for its promotion of terrorism and extreme anti-Israel and anti-Semitic policies,” said Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch.

Marc Greendorfer, President of Zachor Legal Institute said, “We are grateful for the assistance of Judicial Watch in intervening on our behalf. We were surprised that the Qatar Foundation sought to suppress the production of information that is required to be reported under federal law and look forward to finally receiving the documents from Texas A&M so we can continue our work researching the influence of malign foreign actors on American campuses.”

Judicial Watch was assisted in this case by Jennifer S. Riggs of Riggs & Ray, P.C. in Austin, Texas.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-seeks-information-on-qatari-governments-funding-of-texas-am-a-public-university/

The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon

The eagle has conveniently forgotten that the original, Ancient Silk Road linked the dragon with the Roman empire for centuries – with no interlopers outside of Eurasia, muses Pepe Escobar.

Once upon a time, deep into the night in selected campfires across the deserts of Southwest Asia, I used to tell a fable about the eagle, the bear and the dragon – much to the amusement of my Arab and Persian interlocutors.

It was about how, in the young 21stcentury, the eagle, the bear and the dragon had taken their (furry) gloves off and engaged in what turned out to be Cold War 2.0.

As we approach the end of the second decade of this already incandescent century, perhaps it’s fruitful to upgrade the fable. With all due respect to Jean de la Fontaine, excuse me while I kiss the (desert) sky again.

Long gone are the days when a frustrated bear repeatedly offered to cooperate with the eagle and its minions on a burning question: nuclear missiles.

The bear repeatedly argued that the deployment of interceptor missiles and radars in that land of the blind leading the blind – Europe – was a threat. The eagle repeatedly argued that this is to protect us from those rogue Persians.

Now the eagle – claiming the dragon is getting an easy ride – has torn down every treaty in sight and is bent on deploying nuclear missiles in selected eastern parts of the land of the blind leading the blind, essentially targeting the bear.

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/06/pepe-escobar-the-eagle-the-bear-and-the-dragon/

Pompeo Won’t Promise to Consult Congress Before Attacking Venezuela

Says anything Trump decides to do would be legal

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to comment on whether the administration would consult Congress before invading Venezuela, saying “I don’t want to speak to that.”

Pompeo shunned all questions about the role of Congress in a potential Venezuelan war, saying he is confident that President Trump has sufficient authority that whatever he decides will be legal.

This is a serious question constitutionally. Lawmakers note that the power to declare war lies exclusively with Congress. Fresh off of the veto of the Yemen War challenge, there is reason to question if the law matches up to the practical reality of US war-making anymore.

Pompeo would just insist that the US-imposed regime change in Venezuela is an inevitability, with or without the invasion. Though he has talked up the willingness to launch such an invasion, the administration seems to prefer to be vague about the specifics.

That’s likely because Congress may feel that, if war is imminent, they have a pressing need to pass legislation on the war, potentially complicating a unilateral attack. The administration reportedly has split on the matter of starting a war, though either way they seem securely on the side of Congress not being involved in that conversation.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/05/pompeo-wont-promise-to-consult-congress-before-attacking-venezuela/

Pro-Trump conservatives challenge possible U.S. military involvement in Venezuela

For months, hawkish Florida Republicans have dominated the narrative on Venezuela, meeting with President Donald Trump days before the U.S. recognized Juan Guaidó as the country’s legitimate leader and arguing that the president sees the situation in Venezuela differently than his “America First” desire to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

But as Nicolás Maduro maintains control of the military three days after Guaidó declared Operation Liberty underway, Sen. Rick Scott calls for U.S. troops to enter Venezuela and a senior administration official says “it’s now or never,” other conservative voices close to the president are arguing more forcefully that U.S. military intervention in Venezuela is not the right move.

“I’m not the only Republican urging restraint when it comes to uniformed U.S. military on the ground in Venezuela and I believe the president to be aware that there are some conservatives who hold that view,” Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said in an interview with the Miami Herald.

Gaetz, a frequent defender of the president on cable news who speaks with him regularly, doesn’t represent South Florida’s large Venezuelan community like Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart. Instead, he represents a district with one of the highest percentage of military veterans in the country and the home of the 7th Special Forces Group, a unit designed to train friendly Latin American governments.

Any decision to send in ground troops could put Gaetz’s constituents in harm’s way, and he wants to make sure all of the consequences of military intervention have been soundly evaluated by the White House and Pentagon.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to characterize my remarks as against military intervention,” Gaetz said. “I agree, all options should be on the table, but leaping to military intervention in absence of a thorough understanding of the consequences would be a mistake in my view. It’s my fear that at the first casualty at the hands of a U.S. service member, we could see mass protests in capitals beyond Venezuela.”

Gaetz made the same argument on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business show on Thursday morning, a show the president frequently calls into or watches.

There are three main arguments against military intervention from conservatives. The first, espoused by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, is that U.S. military intervention must have approval from Congress. Paul called Scott’s position on sending in troops a “mistake” and said that the president doesn’t have the authority to do it.

And Paul, much like Rubio and Scott, is also in constant communication with the president. He spent the weekend golfing with him.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/latin-america/article229941964.html#storylink=cpy

Lying the US into war again

Israeli Intelligence Warned White House Of "Iran Plot" To Strike US Troops

On Sunday night US national security advisor John Bolton threatened Iran with "unrelenting force" while announcing the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Persian Gulf region, saying further it sends a "clear and unmistakable" message to the Iranian regime.

Bolton's statement also cited a "number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" from Iran, which later on Monday morning CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr described based on unnamed US defense officials as including “specific and credible” Iranian threats against US assets in Syria, Iraq, and at sea.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-06/israeli-intelligence-warned-white-house-iran-plot-strike-us-troops

Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Moves to Impeach ‘Rogue’ Pittsburgh Mayor Over Gun Control Measures That Violate the Constitution

Pennsylvania Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R) was met with thunderous applause at a Second Amendment rally as he discussed his intentions of impeaching Democrat Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto over new gun regulations.

Speaking at the 14th annual Second Amendment rally in the state Capitol, Rep. Metcalfe said that he is moving to impeach the “rogue mayor.”

According to a report from WESA, Peduto signed legislation last month restricting assault weapons, banning armor-piercing bullets and allowing temporary seizure of guns from people determined to be a danger to themselves or others.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/pennsylvania-gop-rep-moves-to-impeach-rogue-pittsburgh-mayor-over-gun-control-measures-that-violate-the-constitution/