Stripping Le Pen of immunity ‘EU is interfering in French internal affairs’ – UKIP MEP
Marine Le Pen’s loss of EU Parliament immunity is going to help her get elected: French people and other Europeans see it as a plot by the establishment to silence her, it shows the EU Parliament is undemocratic, says David Coburn, UKIP MEP.
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has had her EU Parliamentary immunity revoked. The decision follows the second round of voting held by EU Parliament lawmakers. Le Pen may now face prosecution for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence. In her latest interview for a French TV channel, Le Pen called the allegations politically motivated.
According to David Coburn, Le Pen has a point saying that.
“This is an absolute scandal – the lights are going out all over Europe on freedom of speech. And the European Parliament which continues to maintain …the mother of European democracy has obviously given up that responsibility. The idea that you can stop people speaking freely is absolutely wrong,” he adds.
According to Coburn, “the Socialists always hate freedom of speech, it is completely against their philosophy. And they were pushing for this, and you could see them all cheering for this. And that is a scandal. The Socialists and the European Parliament do not want freedom of speech.”
“Marine Le Pen is only pointing out the obvious. They’ve had terrible catastrophes in France: Bataclan and other things. Of course, she has a right to discuss this,” he says.
Coburn says he agrees with many other politicians who now say that this is going to help Marine Le Pen get elected.
“French people are not stupid and neither is the rest of Europe. We could see that this is a plot by the establishment to nobble her and it is not going to work,” he said.
“People see what this is all about. It is blatantly trying to nobble her campaign. And it is the European Parliament interfering in French internal affairs. We should not be doing that. We should keep out it,” he continues.
“It questions in fact that we have any immunity here which means people cannot speak their minds freely. So, therefore, it just shows this parliament to be undemocratic. And all I can say, Le Pen will benefit from that”, Coburn told RT.
There is no Russian problem. It is a fabricated distortion, a political hit job from a discredited loser of a political party and a rejected ethos. It is being played out in different versions throughout Europe and most notably France.
ReplyDeleteIn France, the media is saying that Marine Le Pen cannot win. Marine Le Pen can win. Marine Le Pen should win. Marine Le Pen will win. The Establishment fears and loathes Le Pen because she exposes their lies, false promises and failures.
We have seen this play before. But with a difference. Trump won the opening round. But that is all it is, round one.
The Trump haters are only beginning, they have tried everything but are persisting with the McCarthyite tactics about Russia and Trump. This is war.
It is a global culture war. It is The Culture War. There is a right side and a wrong side. Those buying into the fake Trump Russia meme are played fools of the Left apparatchiks, true believers and uniformed naive know-nothings and believe-anythings.
This culture war needs to be won because the Left will never quit. Take the gloves off.
If Le Pen wins, it is the end of the EU masquerade of the Global Leftists that lost when communism was defeated but reappeared as "Europeans".
Big news may be breaking today.
ReplyDeleteTrump Tower may have been wire tapped by O'bozo.
Those buying into the fake Trump Russia meme are played fools of the Left apparatchiks, true believers and uniformed naive know-nothings and believe-anythings.
DeleteSounds suspiciously like a characterization of our Smirk....
The infantile hysteria and fear mongering about US/Russian contact begs some questions:
ReplyDeleteShould the two major nuclear powers and the countries that border Russia not be engaged with each other at many levels?
Trump stated: "If we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that’s a good thing." Is he wrong?
The relationship between Russia and the US is really at its worst state today since probably the 1980s. It was handled by amateurs and those with agendas other than what was best for the US. Should that continue?
How does the U.S. formulate its national security policy if is not primarily about managing US interests and avoiding needless, expensive, and deadly conflicts?
It is past time to grow up and open our eyes.
DeleteFox News has an emergency call into Judge Napolitano to explain the seriousness of this:
ReplyDeleteTrump Tower may have been wire tapped by O'bozo
TRUMP: OBAMA BUGGED THE TOWER....DRUDGE BLAZING HEADLINE
DeleteThings are getting interesting.
Trump lives in the Tower. It is his home. Not to mention his main office.
DeleteLadies and Gentlemen, we may be talking about the indictment, trial and jailing of a former sitting President and his staff here.
DeleteI am waiting anxiously for Napolitano.
DeleteI almost want this to be baseless, because if it isn't I fear I may die laughing. Even though that's not a bad way to go....
DeleteI thought it odd at the end of Clinton's campaign that Obama was running around with his hair on fire trying to get her elected.
ReplyDeleteJust maybe Obama came to realize that if Clinton lost, Trump had the keys to the filing cabinets.
They managed to get a warrant to tap his phones? Interesting, or is Trump just crying "Wolf!"...
ReplyDelete...again.
.
ReplyDeleteIf the story turns out to be true, and I've read the Breitbart story which raises some real questions about Obama's moves and motivation, Trump probably should call for an investigation.
.
Where is the Briet Bart story? I went to the website and I didn't see it on the front page. You'd think it would be a lead...
DeleteHmmm....well....yes....I should think....hmmmm....indeed yes....probably....hmmm....I should think that might be appropriate....an investigation....that's it.....Indeed !....if the story turns out to be true, of course....one wouldn't however want to investigate fake news....wait, how do we know if it's fake or true unless an investigation is done ?
Delete.
DeleteI'm sure Obama will claim it was all part of the Trump/Russia investigation.
However, the law he pushed through at the 11th hour that I posted about here pissed me off at the time and now makes me suspicious.
The law allowed the NSA to share classified intelligence information with other government agencies, CIA, FBI, DOI, others.
Now we learn Obama did it purportedly to assure the Russian investigation didn't get deep sixed by the new Trump team. However, what's not said is that with that many eyes involved it almost certainly guaranteed leaks.
If it turns out Obama pulled a stunt that resulted in privacy protections being eroded for all Americans just to satisfy his personal vendetta, I shall be doubly pissed.
.
If all this is true, I think it will boil down to whether the FISA applies or not.
DeleteI've got tapes of Q interacting with Dada Le Boeuf.
DeleteTaking offers....
.
Deletehttp://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/03/mark-levin-obama-used-police-state-tactics-undermine-trump/
Half the story is typical Breitbart bullshit. Other parts can possibly be explained away. But there are a couple of issues where Obama (or his lawyer) should have to answer to.
Oh, and let me start the morning off right...
Ex-hick Bob you are an idiot.
.
O'bozo seems to have gotten turned down on the first FISA application, but succeeded with a second.
DeleteIt's all a bunch of crap.
We are turning into a banana republic.
I'm waiting for Napolitano to weigh in....
.
DeleteAnd I mean that in the best possible way.
:o)
.
You are an idiot, Quirk.
DeleteAnd I mean that.
DeleteYes, yes, we should probably have an investigation....
.
DeleteWe're not going to start this 'I know you are but what am I' thing again are we?
.
I've been soliciting offers for my Q/Le Boeuf tapes for days, but, unbelievably, no one seems to a damn about them.
DeleteI always follow your lead, Quirk.
DeleteIt's entirely up to you.
Where the hell is Napolitano ?
Fox put out an emergency call to him over an hour ago.
.
DeleteThere just no pleasing some people.
Especially, some crusty old...whoops strike that...
Especially some crusty old rural sophisticate like Bob.
.
.
DeleteWhere the hell is Napolitano ?
Having brunch with Obama down in the Caribbean.
They are all dicks.
.
I always value and appreciate your city sophistication and insight, Crusty.
DeleteEspecially if it's expressed soon after your visiting Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe for a shave and a haircut, $2 bucks.
:o)
:o)
Napolitano is not a politician.
DeleteYour definition of 'dicks' is expanding.
Soon you'll be calling ME a dick.
I'm not a dick, I'm a proud naturally born hick.
Delete.
DeleteI would never do that.
Don't be so sensitive.
On another issue, where's Waldo...er...I mean Rex.
Has anyone seen our new Secretary of State lately?
Is he on some secret mission to North Korea or Trinidad/Tobago?
.
T. Rex is at Mar a Lago, relaxing, just as he should be doing.
DeleteI wish I were there too. Still cold here.
Image of typical Democrat these days -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-pasco/video-gator-carries-huge-fish-in-its-mouth-across-trinity-golf-course
Court ordered wire taps are limiting. The cops can only listen if the conversation applies to the limited subject matter.
ReplyDeleteThey cannot just tune in for entertainment and non related subjects.
It is a matter of record that Obama asked for a warrant that was initially denied as being too broad.
It is reasonable to assume a follow-up request, approved, would be more restrictive. On such a sensitive matter as a sitting president approving such a request against a presidential candidate is very serious business. Especially in this case where Obamawas so in the tank for Clinton.
This will be thoroughly investigated by the Republicans. It should be. It is barely mentioned on the current front page of the NY Times.
Trump needs to investigate, prosecute and send to prison any and all, including Obama if he is involved in any illegalities. The Democrats may have jumped the shark on this one.
If there were wiretaps on Trump it appears they were legally obtained. If this is the case it is hard to see how Trump can turn it to his advantage.
DeleteHow do you know the parameters of the wiretaps were not exceeded ?
DeleteIt's bullshit for a sitting President to be wiretapping a very strong Presidential candidate in the first place, FISA warrant or not.
If George W. had done that all hell would have broken loose, as it should have....
I hope it blows over some way.
ReplyDeleteThere might actually be shooting in the streets if O'bozo is headed for the slammer.
Nothing good ever comes from shooting in the streets.
Usually, anyway.
THIS IS RICH _ WASHINGTON POST HEADLINE:
ReplyDeleteTrump, citing no evidence, accuses Obama of ‘Nixon/Watergate’ plot to wiretap Trump Tower
No evidence?
So far the evidence is a Trump tweet and a Brietbart story.
DeleteThere is a second FISA app, supposedly, which should have been turned down like the first one.
DeleteIt's all crap. We are turning into a banana republic.
THIS FROM BREITBART:
ReplyDeletePresident Barack Obama’s Department of State sponsored the July event in Ohio where Sen. Jeff Sessions met the Russian ambassador for the second time in 2016, according to the organizers of the event.
The July 20 meeting in Cleveland was used by the Washington Post’s March 1 headline to double the number of meetings where Sessions met with Russians in 2016. “Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose,” said the headline, which has created a mini-scandal as Democratic partisans push for Sessions’ resignation from his post as the nation’s Attorney General, amid Democratic claims that the Russian government helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election.
The two-day event was hosted by a civic organization, Global Cleveland, whose website cites the state department’s role:
On Tuesday, July 19, Global Cleveland welcomed roughly 80 international ambassadors to its Global Partners in Diplomacy reception at Severance Hall. The event, coordinated in partnership with the 2016 Republican National Convention and the U.S. Department of State, introduced the ambassadors to nearly 200 of Northeast Ohio’s civic and corporate leaders.
…. The [first] evening’s keynote speaker, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stressed the importance of understanding what “having people of different backgrounds and origins means to your community.”
On a completely different note:
ReplyDeleteI saw stories yesterday here in Canada that they won't impose Buy American regs on Keystone pipeline steel. But Trump said...
What's up with that?
It's too late.
DeleteIn the future pipelines will be made with USA steel.
If we can find a still functioning steel plant somewhere in the USA....
Trump: Obama was tapping my phones
ReplyDeletePOSTED AT 10:01 AM ON MARCH 4, 2017 BY ED MORRISSEY
For eight years, Barack Obama blamed George W. Bush for the performance of his own economic policies. Donald Trump has managed to eclipse that by accusing his predecessor of bugging his communications. Earlier today in a series of tweets, Trump lashed out at Obama for his “McCarthyism” and his surveillance of Trump’s communications as part of the probe into Russian interference in the election:
President Donald Trump on Saturday accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “tapping” his phone during last year’s White House campaign, without providing evidence of the explosive charge.
“I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp (sic) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he wrote in another tweet. …
The businessman-turned-politician, who has accused his political foes of conducting “a total witch hunt” on Saturday directed his Twitter tirade at his Democratic predecessor.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote a day after departing Washington for a weekend getaway at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort for the fourth time in five weeks.
What’s the purpose of this accusation? The adage the best defense is a good offense goes all the way back to George Washington, in substance if not in form. “[O]ffensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence,” wrote the first president in the conclusion of a letter to John Trumbull not long after leaving office, and not long before he died. A series of leaks have kept the White House on the back foot ever since taking office (or even before that), and Trump may have decided to go on the attack as a means of playing defense. Unless Trump has some substantive evidence for that charge, though, all it does is perpetuate the negative narrative.
But does he? Mark Levin alleged on Thursday that the previous administration of seeking a FISA warrant against Trump and his associates to do exactly what Trump accuses Obama of doing (via RealClearPolitics):
“There’s a much bigger scandal here: We have a prior administration. Barack Obama and his surrogates, who are supporting Hillary Clinton and her party, the Democratic Party. Who were using the… intelligence activities to surveil members of the Trump campaign, and to put that information out in the public. Those are police state tactics. Nothing Flynn or Sessions has done is even in the same category as that,” Levin said.
“The question is: Was Obama surveilling top Trump campaign officials during the election?” he asked.
Delete“We absolutely know this is true, the FBI did a preliminary criminal investigation based on a potential connection between a server in Trump Tower and a couple of Russian banks. That turned out to be a dry hole, but one of the most outrageous things I’ve ever seen… totally uncovered by the media. Instead of closing the investigation, the Obama administration tried to turn it into a FISA court investigation in June [2016]. Apparently the first application they submitted named Trump.”
“Even the FISA court said no. There wasn’t enough evidence to make out probable cause involving Donald Trump,” he said. “In the middle of the campaign the administration was actively having Trump investigated.”
This is actually not a new revelation; in fact, the Guardian reported it on January 11th. The Obama administration apparently did ask the FISA court for permission to surveil Trump and his operation at Trump Tower. Despite an almost unbroken series of approvals for such warrants by FISA courts, that time they refused to grant one. However, that wasn’t the end of the effort:
The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation.
Heat Street reported last November that the FBI did get a FISA warrant on their second try. Just before the election, the White House went back to the FISA court with a warrant that didn’t specifically name Trump — and this time got the warrant:
Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
Contrary to earlier reporting in the New York Times, which cited FBI sources as saying that the agency did not believe that the private server in Donald Trump’s Trump Tower which was connected to a Russian bank had any nefarious purpose, the FBI’s counter-intelligence arm, sources say, re-drew an earlier FISA court request around possible financial and banking offenses related to the server. The first request, which, sources say, named Trump, was denied back in June, but the second was drawn more narrowly and was granted in October after evidence was presented of a server, possibly related to the Trump campaign, and its alleged links to two banks; SVB Bank and Russia’s Alfa Bank. While the Times story speaks of metadata, sources suggest that a FISA warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.
Bear in mind that the FBI’s link to the FISA court would have been on counter-intelligence and not in criminal investigations. Criminal warrants go through normal courts, while FISA warrants deal with intelligence, espionage, and counter-terrorism that normally would not directly produce criminal prosecutions. NRO’s Andrew McCarthy wrote about this almost two months ago, and mentioned it on my show Thursday afternoon as well. McCarthy worries that the Obama administration abused the FISA system to jump-start a criminal probe where no probable cause existed for one:
DeleteAgain, agents do not ordinarily draw FISA requests around possible crimes. Possible crimes prompt applications for regular criminal wiretaps because the objective is to prosecute any such crimes in court. (It is rare and controversial to use FISA wiretaps in criminal prosecutions.) FISA applications, to the contrary, are drawn around people suspected of being operatives of a (usually hostile) foreign power. …
To summarize, it appears there were no grounds for a criminal investigation of banking violations against Trump. Presumably based on the fact that the bank or banks at issue were Russian, the Justice Department and the FBI decided to continue investigating on national-security grounds. A FISA application in which Trump was “named” was rejected by the FISA court as overbroad, notwithstanding that the FISA court usually looks kindly on government surveillance requests. A second, more narrow application, apparently not naming Trump, may have been granted five months later; the best the media can say about it, however, is that the server on which the application centers is “possibly” related to the Trump campaign’s “alleged” links to two Russian banks — under circumstances in which the FBI has previously found no “nefarious purpose” in some (undescribed) connection between Trump Tower and at least one Russian bank (whose connection to Putin’s regime is not described).
That is tissue-thin indeed. It’s a good example of why investigations properly proceed in secret and are not publicly announced unless and until the government is ready to put its money where its mouth is by charging someone. It’s a good example of why FISA surveillance is done in secret and its results are virtually never publicized — the problem is not just the possibility of tipping off the hostile foreign power; there is also the potential of tainting U.S. persons who may have done nothing wrong. While it’s too early to say for sure, it may also be an example of what I thought would never actually happen: the government pretextually using its national-security authority to continue a criminal investigation after determining it lacked evidence of crimes.
Most of this was known before the inauguration, so why is Trump tweeting about it now? The continuing leaks prompted Levin to revisit it on Thursday, and that Joel Pollak put together a timeline of the issue at Breitbart yesterday. The timeline makes a few of the subsequent leaks about Team Trump look a little more than just coincidental — although they certainly may still be just coincidences. The recent reporting around this from Levin and Pollak would have certainly come to Trump’s attention, and that’s why Trump made the accusations today.
DeleteAre they true, however? AFP notes that Trump made the accusation “without providing evidence,” which is tough to do in a tweet, but that doesn’t make them false, either. The circumstantial evidence surrounding the two FISA requests and the warrant granted by the court certainly suggests that some form of surveillance at Trump Tower did take place, although whether those were wiretaps on Trump’s phones has still not been established. It may not end up being true that Trump’s phones were bugged, but the circumstances show that it’s not necessarily just a paranoid fantasy, either.
This should be rather easy to clear up, though. Guess who’s in charge of counter-espionage and the intelligence community these days? Newly installed Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats can perform an investigation into the conduct of the probe and report back to Congress as to whether an outgoing administration tapped the phones of a political candidate for president, and whether or not they found anything that would have given them reasonable cause to do so.
Update: Of course, the FBI works within the Department of Justice, so Jeff Sessions might be a better focus for transparency in this case — or, since he’s recused himself on these issues, acting deputy Attorney General Dana Boente should be able to clear it up. If it’s true, then let’s have it out in the open, along with all the findings of the probe. If not, then Trump owes everyone a retraction.
Update: Sen. Chris Coons’ allegations that the FBI had transcripts of calls that showed collusion between Team Trump and Russia might be what actually prompted the tweet storm. If they weren’t wiretapping Trump’s facilities, how did they get the transcripts? That assumes, of course, that Coons knows what he’s talking about. (Via Garance Franke-Ruta.)
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/04/trump-obama-was-tapping-my-phones/