Why were the US troops in Niger not in armored HUMVEES?
Why has Mr Trump not spoken of or Tweeted about the loss of 4 US service members in the War on Terror on his watch 13 days after the ambush?
Why was there no US air support available?
Why did they leave Sgt Johnson behind?
There will be more questions ...
Concerning the Trump Administration's bungled foreign policy regarding Chad, and how that failure may have led to the deaths of 4 US service members.
If only there had been an Asst Sec of State for Central Africa ... Or anyone knowledgeable about US Interests in Central Africa, Chad and ExxonMobil, other than Mr Tillerson
"I have proof too. This man is a sick man. He is cold-hearted and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone," said Wilson.
"And when she actually hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, 'he didn't even know his name.'"
Trump was already under fire for not reaching out more quickly to the families of the fallen soldiers, who were killed in an attack in Niger on Oct. 4th.
According to the military, Johnson's Special Forces unit was assisting and advising Nigerians on dealing with terror groups. The U.S. and Niger forces in a joint patrol were leaving a meeting with tribal leaders when they were ambushed by 40-50 militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group.
Chad has withdrawn “hundreds” of troops from Niger where they had been fighting Boko Haram. Shortly after the announcement, Chadian Minister of Defense Bissa Ichara stressed that the troops were merely being redeployed to Chad’s northern border with Libya. With the withdrawal of Chadian troops, Boko Haram attacks in Niger’s Diffa region have increased, as has general banditry. Boko Haram militants, based in Nigeria, cross the Nigerien border to carry out raids and attacks.
Why are the Chadian troops leaving? It is suggestive that the departure comes in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s imposition of a travel ban for Chadian nationals coming to the United States. At the time, Chadian spokespersons warned that the ban could affect its security commitments
Three weeks after the Trump administration baffled its African allies by including Chad, one of the US military’s key counterterrorism partners, in its travel ban, the country is pulling hundreds of its troops out of Niger, where four US Green Berets died in a terrorist ambush last week.
Chad has not explained publicly why it has been withdrawing its forces, which were fighting Boko Haram militants in the region as part of a multinational task force, and was first reported by Reuters. But security analysts and former defense officials said it was likely connected to its inclusion in President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, which Chad’s government said “astonished” and “baffled” them.
“Chad did say at the time that they would review their security commitments, and it makes perfect, logical sense that they are signaling to the US ‘How about you experience us backing off for a while and see how you like it?’” said Alice Hunter Friend, the Pentagon’s former principal director for African affairs who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic
Exxon Mobil Corp. reached a settlement with Chad over tax payments, avoiding a $74 billion fine the Central African country had imposed on the oil major.
The deal also means that Exxon will be able to keep its exploration permit in the country through 2050, Chad Petroleum Minister Bechir Madet said after a meeting with Christian Lenoble, the head of Exxon in the country.
“The accord marks an amicable agreement and ends in a definitive and irrevocable manner the dispute about the contentious issues,” the minister told reporters in the capital, N’Djamena.
The world’s biggest oil producer by market value began talks with the government of the central African nation in November after the country’s High Court heeded a claim from the Finance Ministry that a consortium led by Irving, Texas-based Exxon hadn’t met tax obligations. The court also demanded the oil explorer pay $819 million in overdue royalties.
It was eloquent, from the heart and reflected the American views of an American military commander, a father, and it was based on traditional American and human values. He is upstanding, patriotic and stands on a level that some will never climb to as much as they opine otherwise. Kelley has not been brought down by anyone.
I listened to the self-serving vacuous words of "mission accomplished" George W. Bush:
He has picked up the latest left-wing jargon, well salted with "nativism" and peppered with the use of "nationalism" and "bigotry seems emboldened". His speech reached the same skill level of his oil paintings.
Each time Gonzalez was arrested, ICE sent a request that the jail hold Gonzalez beyond his official release date so federal immigration agents could intervene — a practice found unconstitutional in federal courts, violating a person’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t cooperate with ICE detainer requests, and instead treats them as requests to be notified of the date and time an inmate will be released.
Jail staff alerted ICE to Gonzalez’s release dates on multiple occasions before Aug. 18, when Giordano changed jail policy.
“We have notified ICE about his release in several of those arrests as they took place before our recent policy change,” Giordano said.
Since that date, jail staff only respond to federal notification requests about release dates in cases where inmates have been convicted of serious and violent crimes outlined by the California Trust Act.
Related Stories Suspected arsonist arrested in Sonoma
The Sheriff’s Office policy also includes about a dozen additional crimes that would warrant cooperation with ICE, including DUIs, battery and sex crimes relating to minors. It will stop doing so Jan. 1 when a new state law takes effect which further limits what inmate information local jails give to ICE.
Giordano said his agency will honor federal warrants, but ICE had not submitted one for Gonzalez.
“Go get the warrant and we’ll keep the guy,” Giordano said.
Jerry Threet, director of Sonoma County’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, said the Sheriff’s Office is correctly following state law as well as case law that has established holding inmates beyond their release dates is unconstitutional.
“The breakdown here is that ICE never misses an opportunity to manipulate the facts,” Threet said.
There have been fierce clashes between Kurdish and Iraqi troops north of Kirkuk city, days after the Iraqi army took control of disputed areas. A BBC correspondent at the scene said there had been rocket, artillery and machine-gun fire in Alton Kupri. The district is the last area in Kirkuk province still held by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
Muslim Citizen of Jewish State: Israel Is not an Apartheid Nation, I’m Proud to Speak on Its Behalf By Pamela Geller - on October 19, 201
At last, a Muslim citizen of Israel tells the truth, amidst the endless barrage of lies from her “Palestinian” coreligionists. Now we should hear from Jews living in Iraq and Egypt and Yemen about how their lives are there — except the Jews were expelled from those and other Muslim countries in 1948. Where is the outcry over their “right of return”?
“Muslim Citizen of Jewish State: Israel Is not an Apartheid Nation, I’m Proud to Speak on Its Behalf,” Algemeiner, October 18, 2017 (thanks to Lookmann):
“Israel is not an apartheid state and anyone who believes this should be ashamed of himself,” a Muslim citizen of the Jewish state declared in a recent media interview — a video of which has gone viral online this week.
Appearing on an Arabic-language news channel, Dema Taya — a resident of the central Israeli city of Qalansawe — told the program host, “You live in this country and enjoy the full benefits of its citizenship. You are free to work, study, express yourselves and whatever you desire. You lead and educate the next generations in a state that respects you. Look at Syria, Iraq, Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries. What have they done for the good of their people?”…
“I’m proud to stand up and speak for Israel and that I’m an integrated part of it,” Taya said in the interview....
David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, (cited): Israel, he said, better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State. (1967 - cited in Hirsh Goodman, 2005)
Former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair: [In 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day. (2002)
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state. (2010)
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic.
If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state. (2010)
Deuce ☂Fri Oct 20, 02:57:00 AM EDT I listened to Kelley's speech:
It was eloquent, from the heart and reflected the American views of an American military commander, a father, and it was based on traditional American and human values.He is upstanding, patriotic and stands on a level that some will never climb to as much as they opine otherwise...
I listened to Kelley's speech too. I agree with everything you've said...up to a point.
Kelley said...
"He called four people the other day to express his condolences in the best way that he could," Kelly said of the President. "And he said to me, 'What do I say?' I said to him, 'Sir, there is nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.'"
Kelly continued, recalling what he was told by Gen. Joseph Dunford, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after his own son died, then, addressing the situation here, added that he was "stunned" and "broken-hearted" by Wilson's role in conveying the details of the call to the media.
"In his way," Kelly said of Trump, he "tried to express that opinion -- that (Johnson) is a brave man, a fallen hero. He knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There's no reason to enlist, he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted." ..
I don't doubt Trump tried to put the message Kelley expressed in his own words. I don't question Trump's sincerity. It's hard to judge motives at times like these. I don't blame him that the words came out clumsily. I expect most people understand the difficulty in trying to console someone when a loved one dies especially if it's a parent of a dead child.
Kelly's address was pitch perfect up to that point. It turned south when following Trump's lead it turned political.
Kelley said it was disgusting that Wilson listened in on a private conversation between Johnson's family and the president. He ignored the fact that Wilson knew the family. That the call came while the family was driving to the airport to pick up the soldier's casket. That the call was taken on speaker phone. Or, that Trump himself had a number of people in the room with him when he made the call.
Was the fact that Wilson was in the car with one of her constituents when the call was taken political? Who knows? You might as well ask was Trump making the call a political act. Who knows? But putting his own opinions on the motives of others in this situation was hardly Kelley's best moment. More importantly, it was Trump who picked the time and place of the call, a time when Wilson was with the family. It was Trump who did most of the talking.
It was Trump who didn't seem to be able to recall Johnson's name which reflects on either his seriousness or his preparation. If it was the latter, that also reflects negatively on Kelley, Trump's Chief of Staff.
Kelley (along with everyone else in the Trump administration) accused Wilson of politicizing the situation. This is the height of hypocrisy given that it was Trump who first started politicizing the whole issue in his presser at the White House when he was asked about whether he had called the family's of the soldiers who were killed in Niger. Instead of providing a simple answer stating the reason or even making up some innocuous reason, he fell back on the Trump playbook and began blaming other presidents for not making similar calls. It's the Trump MO, lie, mislead, scapegoat, blame everyone else but yourself. It's pathological and pathetic.
Trump (and everyone else in the White House) blame the Dems and the media for politicizing the death of John Kelley's son. They are forgetting or ignoring the fact that it was Trump himself who brought up Kelley's son's death in an effort to politicize it in the first place and cover his own ass.
Trump's first instincts are to lie and to scapegoat and to divert blame. We see it in the simple example of him calling Wilson a liar and stating that he had proof. She wasn't lying, at least, if you can believe Johnson's parents. And Trump had no proof.
John Kelley would have been much better off had he simply explained Trump's clumsy statement of condolence as he did so well in the quotes above and let it drop at that.
DougFri Oct 20, 04:48:00 AM EDT What does General Kelly know about honor and sacrifice compared to the Great Quirkster?
(or Wilson)
Good old Doug. Always the first with the inanities. Did you even read the Miami Herald story you posted above or simply put it up because in your stilted view all you could see was the fact that 'Wilson calls Kelley a liar'?
The article itself is rather lengthy and goes into some detail on the areas Kelley was mistaken. Or lying if you like.
Both Ms Wilson and Gen Kelly agree on the content of what Mr Trump said
Sgt Johnson knew the risks in what he volunteered for.
Kelly criticized Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson for claiming “she got the money” for the new building during the 2015 ceremony while he and others in the audience were focused on the heroism of agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, killed during a 1986 shootout with bank robbers south of Miami.
Thursday night, Wilson said Kelly got the story flat-out wrong. In fact, she said Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress. The legislation she sponsored named the building after Grogan and Dove, a law enacted just days before the ceremony.
“He shouldn't be able to just say that, that is terrible,” Wilson said of Kelly’s remarks in the White House briefing room, the latest volley in the controversy over Trump’s condolence call to a military widow from Miami Gardens, an area Wilson represents. “This has become totally personal.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article179869321.html#storylink=cpy
You'd find fault with the Sermon on the Mount, or The Gettysburg Address if The Donald lurked near either of the two.
You are an idiot, Bob. No matter what the character of the man whether Christ or Lincoln or Trump, if he says something that is either hypocritical or bullshit, whether intentional or in error, you call him on it, you don't let it slide.
Your sense of values never came into being and you are a nitpicker of the first degree.
You are a sad excuse for the noble title of Citizen, Sir.
Gold Star Widow Releases Trump’s Call After Husband Was Killed In Afghanistan Photo of Henry Rodgers HENRY RODGERS Political Reporter 9:55 AM 10/20/2017
Gold star widow Natasha De Alencar released the audio of a phone conversation she had with President Donald Trump in April about the death of her husband who was killed in Afghanistan.
“I am so sorry to hear about the whole situation. What a horrible thing, except that he’s an unbelievable hero,” Trump told her in the call about her husband Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, which The Washington Post released.
“Thank you. I really, really appreciated it,” she said. “I really do, sir.”
Trump also told the widow if she is ever in Washington D.C. that she is welcome in the Oval Office.
“If you’re around Washington, you come over and see me in the Oval Office,” he said. “You just come over and see me because you are just the kind of family … this is what we want.”
“Say hello to your children, and tell them your father he was a great hero that I respected,” Trump said. “Just tell them I said your father was a great hero.”
The phone call was released after White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly pushed back against Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson’s criticism that Trump told a Gold Star widow “he knew what he signed up for.”
Shattuck: John Kelly gives eloquent address Tom Shattuck Friday, October 20, 2017
Credit: AP photo
‘BROKENHEARTED’: Chief of staff John Kelly, above, takes to task criticism by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), below, of President Trump’s phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson.
Chief of staff John Kelly took to the podium in the White House press briefing room yesterday just after 3 p.m. What ensued was the most stunning 12 minutes in that room in long memory.
He educated. He excoriated. He earned the respect of America yet again.
He was there to set the record straight about President Trump’s condolence phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who died in a terrorist attack in Niger on Oct. 4.
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, listened in on the call and loudly claimed that Trump had insulted the mourning family by saying Johnson “knew what he signed up for.”
The beltway media ran with the story and a firestorm erupted. Wilson has gladly been soaking up the attention her wild claims about a grieving family have garnered.
Kelly came to extinguish the fire and he held nothing back. He wasn’t running defense for the president. This was much bigger than that. This was personal.
“Most Americans don’t know what happens when we lose one of our soldiers ... in combat,” Kelly said. “Let me tell you what happens. ... Their buddies wrap them up in whatever passes as a shroud, put them on a helicopter ...
“Their first stop along the way is when they’re packed in ice ... and flown to Dover Air Force Base, where Dover takes care of the remains, embalms them, meticulously dresses them in their uniform with the medals that they’ve earned, the emblems of their service and then puts them on another airplane ... that takes them home.”
In a room whose walls generally endure ricocheting rhetoric, artful spin, and crafty doublespeak, the weight of Gen. Kelly’s serious words seemed to stun everyone present.
He said he recommended to Trump that he avoid calling the families of fallen soldiers but the president insisted. He asked Kelly what to say and the retired Marine choked up as he recalled what the casualty officer said to him when his son perished.
“He was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed,” Kelly said. “He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war ... When he died he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That’s what the president tried to say to four families the other day.”
John Kelly was magnificent yesterday. He defended the sacred pillars of America without agenda, criticizing opportunist politicians, the media and even, perhaps, the president himself, for his treatment of a Gold Star family at the Democratic National Convention.
Once again, the English major proves his inability to read and comprehend. The story above says nothing I didn't say in my comments. Rightfully, it points out Kelley's sensitivity on this subject that no doubt comes from his personal experience. Where it stops short is in not providing any of the details of the charges Kelley launched against Wilson.
It's obvious why the English major likes this article. Bob doesn't like to think. He would rather simply emote.
No mention of Wilson's political showboating, "just the facts."
Obviously, this is a sensitive matter and shouldn't be aired in public for whatever reason(s). I don't know what Wilson's motives were. According to news reports she knew the family. That must be true since she was in the car when the president's call came through. In the same sense, I don't know Kelly's motives for bringing up the FBI building dedication ceremony.
...except all those that detract from their case.
Please, give us the facts you want aired.
Face it: Wilson's a saint.
I didn't say that. I never heard of the woman before this incident. She looks like a nut. Every picture I've seen of her she is wearing some big flower and a cowboy hat. What's with that? However, that doesn't make her a liar just as it doesn't prevent her from appearing (to me) political in reporting the conversation.
All that said, it doesn't change the facts, facts that no one but Trump, Kelly, and Huckabee seem to dispute.
It also doesn't change the fact that all of this could have been put to bed with a few well chosen words from Trump (written or verbal) a couple of days ago addressed to Myeshea Johnson explaining that he was sorry if the words he offered in consolation were misunderstood. But, of course that's not the way Trump, works. Instead of bragging about getting a budget passed through the Senate yesterday he was still tweeting about this.
I am waiting the outcome. I am hoping it's an impartial one. I'll decide what I think about it when it comes through and we are given the justification for the decision.
You on the other hand appear to have already made up your mind. Given our experience with you, I am not surprised.
"The (gates) were down, and I thought he was going to stop,” said Cowsert, who was stopped at the crossing. “Ding, ding, ding, and I hear the train. And the next thing I see is him rolling under the train, and his bicycle is under the front of the train.”
The man was wearing earphones and talking on his cellphone, and apparently did not notice the oncoming train or the lowered gates, police said in a statement. He was thrown 20 to 30 feet across West Steele Lane, police said. His bicycle was lodged under the right front train wheel.
Cowsert said the cyclist did not appear to be wearing a helmet.
October 20, 2017 The strength and power of General John Kelly By Monica Showalter
Sometimes the best spokesmen aren't spokesmen. They are the authentic participants, the genuinely knowledgeable, the people who were there. General John Kelly, President Trump's chief of staff, was that, in the best press conference ever given from the Trump White House and probably all the others before it.
Kelly addressed the recent controversy that came after a congresswoman, Democrat Frederica Wilson of Florida, sought to make political hay by telling the press that President Trump called a slain serviceman's grieving widow and, as Wilson listened in, callously told her that "he knew what he was getting into." The implication was that Trump thought the serviceman deserved his death and he could not care less. The media ran with it, using it to build up its already existing narrative of President Trump as a crude, indifferent troglodyte who could not be trusted as commander in chief. The White House and Trump himself tried to deny it, and the brouhaha descended into a secondary battle about presidential condolence call counts. Nobody who already hated Trump thought anything different, and nobody who liked Trump did, either. It didn't look as though anyone but the press would win this one.
Then came Kelly.
In the transcript and video of press conference statement, Kelly explained the story from the beginning. In simple descriptive language, devoid of any adjectives, he calmly explained what happens when a serviceman is killed in the line of duty, from the "whatever passes for a burial shroud" at the battlefield to the long trip home to the psychologically painful process of notifying the wives and parents or next of kin, usually early, waiting for the light to come on, to the letters and phone calls of comfort. He explained which condolence calls were comforting and which weren't. It was the language of Hemingway, the calm unadorned content of the story told creating its own passion.
Kelly described the sequence of events and gradually allowed his own feelings to enter, first by stating that it was the condolence calls from the fallen serviceman's buddies on the battlefield that mattered most, including to him in the case of his own son's battlefield death, rather than any call from the commander in chief. He also spoke of the esteem with which he held U.S. soldiers, the top 1%.
Then he spoke of his own feelings upon learning of Wilson's gambit to use a serviceman's death to score points off President Trump, describing the feeling of being "stunned" by the appallingness of it all. He said his reaction was to visit the graves of slain servicemembers at Arlington Cemetery to honor the selfless.
Beyond his feelings, he asked if anything is sacred anymore. And he marked his contempt for the opportunistic congresswoman by refusing to name her, denying her the fame she seemed to have craved as she elsewhere described the attention she was getting as that of a rock star.
Wilson even more foolishly claimed earlier that Kelly's intervention was solely a matter of Kelly trying to keep his job, viewing the entire substance of Kelly's life through a base politicized perspective of self-interest.
Kelly noted this, ever so indirectly in criticism of the congresswoman, who besides using a serviceman's death for political gain also dismissed the sacrifices of two FBI lawmen killed in the line of duty, by using the opportunity to remember them to instead crow for herself for securing the funding for a building named for them.
He probably finished her off, and finished off the press that sought to reinforce its narrative. Twitter has been remarkably sedate generally. The congresswoman, knowing that her stupid and, yes, callous remarks fell flat, now says she won't say another thing about the matter.
It's not often that the left loses in one of these media battles, but the leftists certainly were knocked flat by Kelly. They underestimated Kelly, who is said to be extremely nice in person by those who know him but who has the heart of a lion out in the field – as I described in an anecdote about Kelly punching back at a group of Red Chinese airport bullies. It's quite amazing what can be accomplished by addressing Americans directly instead of communicating only through replies to media intermediaries dead set on a narrative.
Kelly is said by those who know him to harbor presidential ambitions himself. His press conference demonstrates just why that might happen.
...Kelly was not well served by whoever "informed" him.
Whoever "informed" him?
With all your commenting on this issue, I thought you must have seen all the video and press conferences on this matter. No one informed Kelly about Wilson's speech on the FBI building dedication. He was "stunned" (he seems to often be "stunned" by events) by Wilson's speech. Evidently, so stunned he forgot or misremembered most of the speech.
For instance, though she did say she started the push to get the building named after the two dead FBI agents she gave most of the credit to John Boehner for getting it expedited through the House, to Marco Rubio and another senator for getting it fast-tracked through the Senate, and to Obama for quickly approving it.
Not included in the video was an extended speech that followed where she honored the fallen agents. She also had all the agents and first responders in the audience stand up and be acknowledged.
A number of Republican officials praised Wilson for her work getting the name approved.
However, what Gen. Kelly was stunned about was that Wilson would stand up and try to take credit for getting the $20 million in funding for the building. Unfortunately, the building actually cost around $144 million rather than $20 million and those funds were allocated before Wilson ever came to Congress. At this point, it's a little hard to really know what the general was actually stunned about.
But Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn't let that stop her. When a reporter pointed out the general seemed to be mistaken in his umbrage, Sarah indignantly said, "If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that's highly inappropriate."
FBI Agents Say Comey ‘Stood In The Way’ Of Clinton Email Investigation
FBI agents say the bureau is alarmed over Director James Comey deciding not to suggest that the Justice Department prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information.
According to an interview transcript given to The Daily Caller, provided by an intermediary who spoke to two federal agents with the bureau last Friday, agents are frustrated by Comey’s leadership.
“We didn’t search their house. We always search the house. The search should not just have been for private electronics, which contained classified material, but even for printouts of such material,” he said.
“There should have been a complete search of their residence,” the agent pointed out. “That the FBI did not seize devices is unbelievable. The FBI even seizes devices that have been set on fire.”
Another special agent for the bureau that worked counter-terrorism and criminal cases said he is offended by Comey’s saying: “we” and “I’ve been an investigator.”
After graduating from law school, Comey became a law clerk to a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan and later became an associate in a law firm in the city. After becoming a U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Comey’s career moved through the U.S. Attorney’s Office until he became Deputy Attorney General during the George W. Bush administration.
After Bush left office, Comey entered the private sector and became general counsel and Senior Vice President for Lockheed Martin, among other private sector posts. President Barack Obama appointed him to FBI director in 2013 replacing out going-director Robert Mueller.
“Comey was never an investigator or special agent. The special agents are trained investigators and they are insulted that Comey included them in ‘collective we’ statements in his testimony to imply that the SAs agreed that there was nothing there to prosecute,” the second agent said. “All the trained investigators agree that there is a lot to prosecuted but he stood in the way.”
He added, “The idea that [the Clinton/e-mail case] didn’t go to a grand jury is ridiculous.”
The Kurdish Independence Bid Has Turned Into A Shooting War (Briefly)
JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:01 am on October 20, 2017
If you thought the Catalonian independence bid in Spain was going poorly, that one is looking like a stunning achievement in diplomacy compared to what’s going on with the Kurds in Iraq. What started as a debate over autonomy is turning into a straight-up shooting war, with Iraqi federal forces moving on the Kurds and pushing them out of regions they’ve been occupying for a while now.
SEE ALSO: Huckabee Sanders on media challenging Kelly: It’s highly inappropriate to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general
Last night reports of federal troops moving into the town of Altun Kupri began to come in. The Peshmerga had fortified the area and were well armed, but apparently rather small in numbers. When the government troops arrived they weren’t just exchanging small arms fire, either. (Associated Press)
TRENDING: Obama: We've got folks in office now who are trying to deliberately make Americans angry Iraqi and Kurdish forces are exchanging fire at the border between federal and Kurdish lands, days after Kurds withdrew from disputed territories across northern Iraq.
Iraqi artillery forces shelled Kurdish military positions north and south of the town of Altun Kupri. Thick smoke could be seen rising from a checkpoint just north of the town.
While the first communications from the Kurds indicated that they were holding their own, within a few hours we learned that the Peshmerga had mostly been flushed from the town and the attacking troops had raised the Iraqi flag. Perhaps even more disturbing was the makeup of the Iraqi forces. It wasn’t just the federal troops, but a mix of those fighting alongside police units and (for the icing on the cake) Iranian trained militia.
Iraq’s Joint Command has claimed that they are now in full control of Altun Kupri, last town to fall to Iraqi forces in Kirkuk.
It said that the US-trained Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), the Federal Police, and the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi have imposed their grip on the town. Altun Kupri is little more than a hamlet of 10,000 people located on the shore of Dibis Lake. While perhaps not all that strategically significant, the location shows how far this territorial dispute may spread. The town is well to the north of Kirkuk and is more than halfway between Baghdad and the Turkish border.
The Peshmerga are probably among the toughest fighters on the planet, but their numbers are relatively small and their fighting resources limited. If the Iraqi government is going to openly go to war with them it’s tough to be optimistic in terms of their future. In addition to Baghdad going after them, Turkey has already announced that they claim the right to come at the Kurds across their northern border with a full military assault as well. And now that President Trump has come out and said that we’re “not taking sides” in this conflict, the Kurds find themselves basically with no allies in the coming battles.
Of course, it’s still possible that the central Iraqi government will back off after this. They’ve already taken Kirkuk and are positioned to control the major oil fields near there. That seemed to be the biggest bone of contention originally, and if the lines are drawn roughly where they are now the Kurds could maintain a compact autonomous region, though they would lose a lot of revenue. But it would probably need to remain an autonomous region and not an independent nation. None of their neighbors seem to be willing to tolerate an independent country for the Kurds and clearly we’re not going to open up a fresh battlefront to save them.
That’s a pity, really, because the Kurds have been some of our best allies in the region. Sadly, this three-way internal battle playing out in Iraq isn’t one that we started by a long shot. They’ve been fighting each other since before there were printing presses to publish any news about it.
After Video Refutes Kelly’s Charges, Congresswoman Raises Issue of Race
— Video of a 2015 speech delivered by Representative Frederica S. Wilson revealed Friday that John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, misrepresented her remarks when he accused her of bragging about securing $20 million for a South Florida F.B.I. building and twisting President Barack Obama’s arm.
Ms. Wilson, in an interview on Friday, called Mr. Kelly a liar and hinted strongly that the altercation, prompted by a call from President Trump to the widow of a fallen black soldier, was racially charged.
“The White House itself is full of white supremacists,” she said.
Mr. Kelly, escalating a feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. Wilson, had cast the congresswoman on Thursday as a publicity-seeking opportunist. However, the video, released by The Sun Sentinel, a newspaper in South Florida, showed that during her nine-minute speech, Ms. Wilson never took credit for getting the money for the building, only for helping pass legislation naming the building after two fallen federal agents.
She never mentioned pleading with Mr. Obama, and she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then the House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo; and Senator Marco Rubio.
“I feel very sorry for him because he feels such a need to lie on me and I’m not even his enemy,” Ms. Wilson said of Mr. Kelly. “I just can’t even imagine why he would fabricate something like that. That is absolutely insane. I’m just flabbergasted because it’s very easy to trace.”
After failing to get his criminal conviction wiped off his record as a result of his pardon from President Donald Trump, former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio could be targeted by lawsuits arising out of his acknowledged disobedience involving a 2011 court order to stop his immigration patrols.
A judge has rejected Arpaio's request to throw out a 14-page decision that explains why she found him guilty of misdemeanor contempt of court.
The former sheriff wants the ruling thrown out in a bid to clear his name and bar attorneys from using it in future court cases as an example of a prior bad act.
Latinos who were illegally detained by Arpaio's officers during the 17-month period in which the sheriff disobeyed the order will be able to apply for money from a taxpayer-funded compensation system for the harm they suffered.
Or they could file a lawsuit seeking damages from illegal detentions, though no such civil cases have yet been filed. Prosecutors and Arpaio's critics say at least 170 people were illegally detained because Arpaio didn't stop the patrols
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s decision to hold an independence referendum, despite furious Iraqi and regional objections, has backfired spectacularly.
Instead of paving the way to statehood, or boosting the Kurds’ bargaining power in negotiations, it has trigged a humiliating reversal of fortunes for Iraq’s Kurds.
Nothing sacred.
ReplyDeleteWilson says Kelly is a liar:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article179869321.html
Quirk's Hero (s)
ReplyDeletehttps://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSFNZf9RlQfVw2Ai4ShOeZLsDNOCO21EOkYAzc71KQ0N58rykVd6Q4JeP6I
wtf? Is that Busama?
DeleteWhoopi hands up on Congresswoman.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_fSPf0Xxx0
"Hangs up."
DeleteWhew... I was getting some interesting visuals there.
DeleteWhy were the US troops in Niger not in armored HUMVEES?
ReplyDeleteWhy has Mr Trump not spoken of or Tweeted about the loss of 4 US service members in the War on Terror on his watch 13 days after the ambush?
Why was there no US air support available?
Why did they leave Sgt Johnson behind?
There will be more questions ...
Concerning the Trump Administration's bungled foreign policy regarding Chad, and how that failure may have led to the deaths of 4 US service members.
If only there had been an Asst Sec of State for Central Africa ...
Or anyone knowledgeable about US Interests in Central Africa, Chad and ExxonMobil, other than Mr Tillerson
"I have proof too. This man is a sick man. He is cold-hearted and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone," said Wilson.
ReplyDelete"And when she actually hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, 'he didn't even know his name.'"
Trump was already under fire for not reaching out more quickly to the families of the fallen soldiers, who were killed in an attack in Niger on Oct. 4th.
According to the military, Johnson's Special Forces unit was assisting and advising Nigerians on dealing with terror groups. The U.S. and Niger forces in a joint patrol were leaving a meeting with tribal leaders when they were ambushed by 40-50 militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group.
ReplyDeleteChad has withdrawn “hundreds” of troops from Niger where they had been fighting Boko Haram. Shortly after the announcement, Chadian Minister of Defense Bissa Ichara stressed that the troops were merely being redeployed to Chad’s northern border with Libya. With the withdrawal of Chadian troops, Boko Haram attacks in Niger’s Diffa region have increased, as has general banditry. Boko Haram militants, based in Nigeria, cross the Nigerien border to carry out raids and attacks.
Why are the Chadian troops leaving? It is suggestive that the departure comes in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s imposition of a travel ban for Chadian nationals coming to the United States. At the time, Chadian spokespersons warned that the ban could affect its security commitments
ReplyDeleteThree weeks after the Trump administration baffled its African allies by including Chad, one of the US military’s key counterterrorism partners, in its travel ban, the country is pulling hundreds of its troops out of Niger, where four US Green Berets died in a terrorist ambush last week.
Chad has not explained publicly why it has been withdrawing its forces, which were fighting Boko Haram militants in the region as part of a multinational task force, and was first reported by Reuters. But security analysts and former defense officials said it was likely connected to its inclusion in President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, which Chad’s government said “astonished” and “baffled” them.
“Chad did say at the time that they would review their security commitments, and it makes perfect, logical sense that they are signaling to the US ‘How about you experience us backing off for a while and see how you like it?’” said Alice Hunter Friend, the Pentagon’s former principal director for African affairs who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic
ReplyDeleteExxon Mobil Corp. reached a settlement with Chad over tax payments, avoiding a $74 billion fine the Central African country had imposed on the oil major.
The deal also means that Exxon will be able to keep its exploration permit in the country through 2050, Chad Petroleum Minister Bechir Madet said after a meeting with Christian Lenoble, the head of Exxon in the country.
“The accord marks an amicable agreement and ends in a definitive and irrevocable manner the dispute about the contentious issues,” the minister told reporters in the capital, N’Djamena.
The world’s biggest oil producer by market value began talks with the government of the central African nation in November after the country’s High Court heeded a claim from the Finance Ministry that a consortium led by Irving, Texas-based Exxon hadn’t met tax obligations. The court also demanded the oil explorer pay $819 million in overdue royalties.
.
ReplyDeleteTrump seems to be able to bring everyone that works for him down to his level even John Kelly.
.
More of Q's irrational inbred Trump-hate.
DeleteI listened to Kelley's speech:
ReplyDeleteIt was eloquent, from the heart and reflected the American views of an American military commander, a father, and it was based on traditional American and human values. He is upstanding, patriotic and stands on a level that some will never climb to as much as they opine otherwise. Kelley has not been brought down by anyone.
I listened to the self-serving vacuous words of "mission accomplished" George W. Bush:
He has picked up the latest left-wing jargon, well salted with "nativism" and peppered with the use of "nationalism" and "bigotry seems emboldened". His speech reached the same skill level of his oil paintings.
What does General Kelly know about honor and sacrifice compared to the Great Quirkster?
Delete(or Wilson)
Mr Kelly brought down Mr Trump when the General mentioned the abominable way Gold Star familea were treated in the campaign.
DeleteIt was Mr Trump that violated the tradiontional sacredness related to how the families of the fallen were treated.
Non-Citizens Fourth Amendment Rights:
ReplyDeleteEach time Gonzalez was arrested, ICE sent a request that the jail hold Gonzalez beyond his official release date so federal immigration agents could intervene — a practice found unconstitutional in federal courts, violating a person’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t cooperate with ICE detainer requests, and instead treats them as requests to be notified of the date and time an inmate will be released.
Jail staff alerted ICE to Gonzalez’s release dates on multiple occasions before Aug. 18, when Giordano changed jail policy.
“We have notified ICE about his release in several of those arrests as they took place before our recent policy change,” Giordano said.
Since that date, jail staff only respond to federal notification requests about release dates in cases where inmates have been convicted of serious and violent crimes outlined by the California Trust Act.
Related Stories
Suspected arsonist arrested in Sonoma
The Sheriff’s Office policy also includes about a dozen additional crimes that would warrant cooperation with ICE, including DUIs, battery and sex crimes relating to minors. It will stop doing so Jan. 1 when a new state law takes effect which further limits what inmate information local jails give to ICE.
Giordano said his agency will honor federal warrants, but ICE had not submitted one for Gonzalez.
“Go get the warrant and we’ll keep the guy,” Giordano said.
Jerry Threet, director of Sonoma County’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach, said the Sheriff’s Office is correctly following state law as well as case law that has established holding inmates beyond their release dates is unconstitutional.
“The breakdown here is that ICE never misses an opportunity to manipulate the facts,” Threet said.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7542883-181/sonoma-county-sheriff-ice-statement
ReplyDeleteIt is not the Government that provides US with those 4th Amendment rights.
All men are created equal
All are endowed with inalienable rights
If you do not beleve that ...
You do not stand with US.
Sanctuary policies afford him his "rights."
Delete...otherwise he wouldn't be here.
ReplyDeleteThere have been fierce clashes between Kurdish and Iraqi troops north of Kirkuk city, days after the Iraqi army took control of disputed areas.
A BBC correspondent at the scene said there had been rocket, artillery and machine-gun fire in Alton Kupri.
The district is the last area in Kirkuk province still held by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
Stand Tall
ReplyDeleteHere is what David Stockman thinks of the Trump/Cohen Tax Plan
https://youtu.be/FsWuWcgZmEA
Mr Trump ... He ain't no Ronald Reagan
General John Kelly's speech was wonderful in all ways.
ReplyDeleteMuslim Citizen of Jewish State: Israel Is not an Apartheid Nation, I’m Proud to Speak on Its Behalf
ReplyDeleteBy Pamela Geller - on October 19, 201
At last, a Muslim citizen of Israel tells the truth, amidst the endless barrage of lies from her “Palestinian” coreligionists. Now we should hear from Jews living in Iraq and Egypt and Yemen about how their lives are there — except the Jews were expelled from those and other Muslim countries in 1948. Where is the outcry over their “right of return”?
“Muslim Citizen of Jewish State: Israel Is not an Apartheid Nation, I’m Proud to Speak on Its Behalf,” Algemeiner, October 18, 2017 (thanks to Lookmann):
“Israel is not an apartheid state and anyone who believes this should be ashamed of himself,” a Muslim citizen of the Jewish state declared in a recent media interview — a video of which has gone viral online this week.
Appearing on an Arabic-language news channel, Dema Taya — a resident of the central Israeli city of Qalansawe — told the program host, “You live in this country and enjoy the full benefits of its citizenship. You are free to work, study, express yourselves and whatever you desire. You lead and educate the next generations in a state that respects you. Look at Syria, Iraq, Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries. What have they done for the good of their people?”…
“I’m proud to stand up and speak for Israel and that I’m an integrated part of it,” Taya said in the interview....
https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/muslim-apartheid-israel.html/
As the dumbest member of the apartheid Black Caucus my vote always goes to Rep. Hank Johnson:
ReplyDeletevideo of Hank in action making certain Guam won't capsize:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&p=hank+johnson+guam#id=1&vid=7481a8f531e2ac6f595e62ffde83133f&action=click
DeleteDavid Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, (cited):
Israel, he said, better rid itself of the territories and their Arab population as soon as possible. If it did not Israel would soon become an Apartheid State. (1967 - cited in Hirsh Goodman, 2005)
Dumbest Senator is Patty Murry.
Deletewiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Murray
DeleteFormer Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair:
[In 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day. (2002)
DeleteIsraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak:
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state. (2010)
DeleteIsraeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak:
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic.
If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state. (2010)
DeleteFormer Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel:
In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state.
This joint state — in the hope that the status quo is temporary — is an apartheid state. (2013)
.
ReplyDeleteDeuce ☂Fri Oct 20, 02:57:00 AM EDT
I listened to Kelley's speech:
It was eloquent, from the heart and reflected the American views of an American military commander, a father, and it was based on traditional American and human values.He is upstanding, patriotic and stands on a level that some will never climb to as much as they opine otherwise...
I listened to Kelley's speech too. I agree with everything you've said...up to a point.
Kelley said...
"He called four people the other day to express his condolences in the best way that he could," Kelly said of the President. "And he said to me, 'What do I say?' I said to him, 'Sir, there is nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.'"
Kelly continued, recalling what he was told by Gen. Joseph Dunford, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after his own son died, then, addressing the situation here, added that he was "stunned" and "broken-hearted" by Wilson's role in conveying the details of the call to the media.
"In his way," Kelly said of Trump, he "tried to express that opinion -- that (Johnson) is a brave man, a fallen hero. He knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There's no reason to enlist, he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted." ..
I don't doubt Trump tried to put the message Kelley expressed in his own words. I don't question Trump's sincerity. It's hard to judge motives at times like these. I don't blame him that the words came out clumsily. I expect most people understand the difficulty in trying to console someone when a loved one dies especially if it's a parent of a dead child.
Kelly's address was pitch perfect up to that point. It turned south when following Trump's lead it turned political.
Kelley said it was disgusting that Wilson listened in on a private conversation between Johnson's family and the president. He ignored the fact that Wilson knew the family. That the call came while the family was driving to the airport to pick up the soldier's casket. That the call was taken on speaker phone. Or, that Trump himself had a number of people in the room with him when he made the call.
Was the fact that Wilson was in the car with one of her constituents when the call was taken political? Who knows? You might as well ask was Trump making the call a political act. Who knows? But putting his own opinions on the motives of others in this situation was hardly Kelley's best moment. More importantly, it was Trump who picked the time and place of the call, a time when Wilson was with the family. It was Trump who did most of the talking.
It was Trump who didn't seem to be able to recall Johnson's name which reflects on either his seriousness or his preparation. If it was the latter, that also reflects negatively on Kelley, Trump's Chief of Staff.
{...}
.
Delete{...}
Kelley (along with everyone else in the Trump administration) accused Wilson of politicizing the situation. This is the height of hypocrisy given that it was Trump who first started politicizing the whole issue in his presser at the White House when he was asked about whether he had called the family's of the soldiers who were killed in Niger. Instead of providing a simple answer stating the reason or even making up some innocuous reason, he fell back on the Trump playbook and began blaming other presidents for not making similar calls. It's the Trump MO, lie, mislead, scapegoat, blame everyone else but yourself. It's pathological and pathetic.
Trump (and everyone else in the White House) blame the Dems and the media for politicizing the death of John Kelley's son. They are forgetting or ignoring the fact that it was Trump himself who brought up Kelley's son's death in an effort to politicize it in the first place and cover his own ass.
Trump's first instincts are to lie and to scapegoat and to divert blame. We see it in the simple example of him calling Wilson a liar and stating that he had proof. She wasn't lying, at least, if you can believe Johnson's parents. And Trump had no proof.
John Kelley would have been much better off had he simply explained Trump's clumsy statement of condolence as he did so well in the quotes above and let it drop at that.
.
.
DeleteDougFri Oct 20, 04:48:00 AM EDT
What does General Kelly know about honor and sacrifice compared to the Great Quirkster?
(or Wilson)
Good old Doug. Always the first with the inanities. Did you even read the Miami Herald story you posted above or simply put it up because in your stilted view all you could see was the fact that 'Wilson calls Kelley a liar'?
The article itself is rather lengthy and goes into some detail on the areas Kelley was mistaken. Or lying if you like.
.
You'd find fault with the Sermon on the Mount, or The Gettysburg Address if The Donald lurked near either of the two.
DeleteBoth Ms Wilson and Gen Kelly agree on the content of what Mr Trump said
DeleteSgt Johnson knew the risks in what he volunteered for.
Kelly criticized Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson for claiming “she got the money” for the new building during the 2015 ceremony while he and others in the audience were focused on the heroism of agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, killed during a 1986 shootout with bank robbers south of Miami.
Thursday night, Wilson said Kelly got the story flat-out wrong. In fact, she said Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress. The legislation she sponsored named the building after Grogan and Dove, a law enacted just days before the ceremony.
“He shouldn't be able to just say that, that is terrible,” Wilson said of Kelly’s remarks in the White House briefing room, the latest volley in the controversy over Trump’s condolence call to a military widow from Miami Gardens, an area Wilson represents. “This has become totally personal.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article179869321.html#storylink=cpy
.
DeleteThe title of the Miami Herald article was In attack on Frederica Wilson over Trump’s call to widow, John Kelly gets facts wrong
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article179869321.html#storylink=cpy
.
.
DeleteYou'd find fault with the Sermon on the Mount, or The Gettysburg Address if The Donald lurked near either of the two.
You are an idiot, Bob. No matter what the character of the man whether Christ or Lincoln or Trump, if he says something that is either hypocritical or bullshit, whether intentional or in error, you call him on it, you don't let it slide.
Your sense of values is non-existent.
.
You are lower than a moron, Sir.
DeleteYour sense of values never came into being and you are a nitpicker of the first degree.
You are a sad excuse for the noble title of Citizen, Sir.
Gold Star Widow Releases Trump’s Call After Husband Was Killed In Afghanistan
Photo of Henry Rodgers
HENRY RODGERS
Political Reporter
9:55 AM 10/20/2017
Gold star widow Natasha De Alencar released the audio of a phone conversation she had with President Donald Trump in April about the death of her husband who was killed in Afghanistan.
“I am so sorry to hear about the whole situation. What a horrible thing, except that he’s an unbelievable hero,” Trump told her in the call about her husband Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, which The Washington Post released.
“Thank you. I really, really appreciated it,” she said. “I really do, sir.”
Trump also told the widow if she is ever in Washington D.C. that she is welcome in the Oval Office.
“If you’re around Washington, you come over and see me in the Oval Office,” he said. “You just come over and see me because you are just the kind of family … this is what we want.”
“Say hello to your children, and tell them your father he was a great hero that I respected,” Trump said. “Just tell them I said your father was a great hero.”
The phone call was released after White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly pushed back against Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson’s criticism that Trump told a Gold Star widow “he knew what he signed up for.”
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/20/gold-star-widow-releases-trumps-call-after-husband-was-killed-in-afghanistan/
One can only think of Sir Quirk with a sense of sadness and exasperation. Poor wandering fellow needs the prayers of us all.
Please include Sir Quirk in your prayers, people.
I do.
Shattuck: John Kelly gives eloquent address
DeleteTom Shattuck Friday, October 20, 2017
Credit: AP photo
‘BROKENHEARTED’: Chief of staff John Kelly, above, takes to task criticism by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), below, of President Trump’s phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson.
Chief of staff John Kelly took to the podium in the White House press briefing room yesterday just after 3 p.m. What ensued was the most stunning 12 minutes in that room in long memory.
He educated. He excoriated. He earned the respect of America yet again.
He was there to set the record straight about President Trump’s condolence phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who died in a terrorist attack in Niger on Oct. 4.
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, listened in on the call and loudly claimed that Trump had insulted the mourning family by saying Johnson “knew what he signed up for.”
The beltway media ran with the story and a firestorm erupted. Wilson has gladly been soaking up the attention her wild claims about a grieving family have garnered.
Kelly came to extinguish the fire and he held nothing back. He wasn’t running defense for the president. This was much bigger than that. This was personal.
“Most Americans don’t know what happens when we lose one of our soldiers ... in combat,” Kelly said. “Let me tell you what happens. ... Their buddies wrap them up in whatever passes as a shroud, put them on a helicopter ...
“Their first stop along the way is when they’re packed in ice ... and flown to Dover Air Force Base, where Dover takes care of the remains, embalms them, meticulously dresses them in their uniform with the medals that they’ve earned, the emblems of their service and then puts them on another airplane ... that takes them home.”
In a room whose walls generally endure ricocheting rhetoric, artful spin, and crafty doublespeak, the weight of Gen. Kelly’s serious words seemed to stun everyone present.
He said he recommended to Trump that he avoid calling the families of fallen soldiers but the president insisted. He asked Kelly what to say and the retired Marine choked up as he recalled what the casualty officer said to him when his son perished.
“He was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed,” Kelly said. “He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we’re at war ... When he died he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That’s what the president tried to say to four families the other day.”
John Kelly was magnificent yesterday. He defended the sacred pillars of America without agenda, criticizing opportunist politicians, the media and even, perhaps, the president himself, for his treatment of a Gold Star family at the Democratic National Convention.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/tom_shattuck/2017/10/shattuck_john_kelly_gives_eloquent_address
Delete... and even, perhaps, the president himself, for his treatment of a Gold Star family at the Democratic National Convention.
No doubt about who, what and when Gen Kelly was referring to.
Mr Trump
Ghazala Khan
August of 2016
.
DeleteOnce again, the English major proves his inability to read and comprehend. The story above says nothing I didn't say in my comments. Rightfully, it points out Kelley's sensitivity on this subject that no doubt comes from his personal experience. Where it stops short is in not providing any of the details of the charges Kelley launched against Wilson.
It's obvious why the English major likes this article. Bob doesn't like to think. He would rather simply emote.
.
ReplyDeleteInstead Of Risking Nuclear War, U.S. Should Let South Korea Take Over Its Own Defense
Policymakers should reconsider Washington’s current strategy, which needlessly risks the lives, wealth and security of Americans
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59e9d9dce4b0542ce4290cbb
.
ReplyDeleteAnother Vet's Perspective
As a former US marine, I see Trump's phone call with a widow being used as a political football and feel like everyone's missed the point
Civilians in the US don't seem to understand that we are fighting what we've termed the Forever War.
.
"The title of the Miami Herald article was In attack on Frederica Wilson over Trump’s call to widow, John Kelly gets facts wrong"
ReplyDelete===
I will obey.
I will obey.
I will obey.
Miami Herald good, Kelly, bad.
DeleteNo mention of Wilson's political showboating, "just the facts."
Delete...except all those that detract from their case.
Face it: Wilson's a saint.
.
DeleteMiami Herald good, Kelly, bad.
I assume that's your opinion, Doug.
I never said it. What I said was...
'Facts good. Misrepresenting (misremembering?) those facts bad.
.
...leaving out the facts of her politicizing a funeral, then the death of a soldier.
Delete.
DeleteMore Dougisms...
No mention of Wilson's political showboating, "just the facts."
Obviously, this is a sensitive matter and shouldn't be aired in public for whatever reason(s). I don't know what Wilson's motives were. According to news reports she knew the family. That must be true since she was in the car when the president's call came through. In the same sense, I don't know Kelly's motives for bringing up the FBI building dedication ceremony.
...except all those that detract from their case.
Please, give us the facts you want aired.
Face it: Wilson's a saint.
I didn't say that. I never heard of the woman before this incident. She looks like a nut. Every picture I've seen of her she is wearing some big flower and a cowboy hat. What's with that? However, that doesn't make her a liar just as it doesn't prevent her from appearing (to me) political in reporting the conversation.
All that said, it doesn't change the facts, facts that no one but Trump, Kelly, and Huckabee seem to dispute.
It also doesn't change the fact that all of this could have been put to bed with a few well chosen words from Trump (written or verbal) a couple of days ago addressed to Myeshea Johnson explaining that he was sorry if the words he offered in consolation were misunderstood. But, of course that's not the way Trump, works. Instead of bragging about getting a budget passed through the Senate yesterday he was still tweeting about this.
.
Remember: Quirk is waiting for an impartial outcome from the pure as the wind driven snowman, Mueller.
ReplyDeleteI do believe, etc etc.
.
DeleteI am waiting the outcome. I am hoping it's an impartial one. I'll decide what I think about it when it comes through and we are given the justification for the decision.
You on the other hand appear to have already made up your mind. Given our experience with you, I am not surprised.
.
"The (gates) were down, and I thought he was going to stop,” said Cowsert, who was stopped at the crossing. “Ding, ding, ding, and I hear the train. And the next thing I see is him rolling under the train, and his bicycle is under the front of the train.”
ReplyDeleteThe man was wearing earphones and talking on his cellphone, and apparently did not notice the oncoming train or the lowered gates, police said in a statement. He was thrown 20 to 30 feet across West Steele Lane, police said. His bicycle was lodged under the right front train wheel.
Cowsert said the cyclist did not appear to be wearing a helmet.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7543680-181/cyclist-struck-by-smart-train?ref=most&artslide=2
General John Kelly For President
ReplyDeleteOctober 20, 2017
The strength and power of General John Kelly
By Monica Showalter
Sometimes the best spokesmen aren't spokesmen. They are the authentic participants, the genuinely knowledgeable, the people who were there. General John Kelly, President Trump's chief of staff, was that, in the best press conference ever given from the Trump White House and probably all the others before it.
Kelly addressed the recent controversy that came after a congresswoman, Democrat Frederica Wilson of Florida, sought to make political hay by telling the press that President Trump called a slain serviceman's grieving widow and, as Wilson listened in, callously told her that "he knew what he was getting into." The implication was that Trump thought the serviceman deserved his death and he could not care less. The media ran with it, using it to build up its already existing narrative of President Trump as a crude, indifferent troglodyte who could not be trusted as commander in chief. The White House and Trump himself tried to deny it, and the brouhaha descended into a secondary battle about presidential condolence call counts. Nobody who already hated Trump thought anything different, and nobody who liked Trump did, either. It didn't look as though anyone but the press would win this one.
Then came Kelly.
In the transcript and video of press conference statement, Kelly explained the story from the beginning. In simple descriptive language, devoid of any adjectives, he calmly explained what happens when a serviceman is killed in the line of duty, from the "whatever passes for a burial shroud" at the battlefield to the long trip home to the psychologically painful process of notifying the wives and parents or next of kin, usually early, waiting for the light to come on, to the letters and phone calls of comfort. He explained which condolence calls were comforting and which weren't. It was the language of Hemingway, the calm unadorned content of the story told creating its own passion.
Kelly described the sequence of events and gradually allowed his own feelings to enter, first by stating that it was the condolence calls from the fallen serviceman's buddies on the battlefield that mattered most, including to him in the case of his own son's battlefield death, rather than any call from the commander in chief. He also spoke of the esteem with which he held U.S. soldiers, the top 1%.
Then he spoke of his own feelings upon learning of Wilson's gambit to use a serviceman's death to score points off President Trump, describing the feeling of being "stunned" by the appallingness of it all. He said his reaction was to visit the graves of slain servicemembers at Arlington Cemetery to honor the selfless.
Beyond his feelings, he asked if anything is sacred anymore. And he marked his contempt for the opportunistic congresswoman by refusing to name her, denying her the fame she seemed to have craved as she elsewhere described the attention she was getting as that of a rock star.
Wilson even more foolishly claimed earlier that Kelly's intervention was solely a matter of Kelly trying to keep his job, viewing the entire substance of Kelly's life through a base politicized perspective of self-interest.
Kelly noted this, ever so indirectly in criticism of the congresswoman, who besides using a serviceman's death for political gain also dismissed the sacrifices of two FBI lawmen killed in the line of duty, by using the opportunity to remember them to instead crow for herself for securing the funding for a building named for them.
He probably finished her off, and finished off the press that sought to reinforce its narrative. Twitter has been remarkably sedate generally. The congresswoman, knowing that her stupid and, yes, callous remarks fell flat, now says she won't say another thing about the matter.
DeleteIt's not often that the left loses in one of these media battles, but the leftists certainly were knocked flat by Kelly. They underestimated Kelly, who is said to be extremely nice in person by those who know him but who has the heart of a lion out in the field – as I described in an anecdote about Kelly punching back at a group of Red Chinese airport bullies. It's quite amazing what can be accomplished by addressing Americans directly instead of communicating only through replies to media intermediaries dead set on a narrative.
Kelly is said by those who know him to harbor presidential ambitions himself. His press conference demonstrates just why that might happen.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/10/the_strength_and_power_of_general_john_kelly.html#ixzz4w5CTDM2H
This Is Not Trump’s Benghazi
ReplyDeleteThe deaths of U.S. troops in Niger were a tragedy, but there’s no need for conspiracy theories.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2017/10/do_not_try_to_turn_niger_into_trump_s_benghazi.html
In short, Maddow is full of shit.
Again
Slate seems to have the most complete coverage.
ReplyDelete...Kelly was not well served by whoever "informed" him.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/10/20/video_debunks_john_kelly_s_story_about_rep_frederica_wilson.html
Gives full credit to her heroes Comey and Debbie Blabbermouth.
Delete.
Delete...Kelly was not well served by whoever "informed" him.
Whoever "informed" him?
With all your commenting on this issue, I thought you must have seen all the video and press conferences on this matter. No one informed Kelly about Wilson's speech on the FBI building dedication. He was "stunned" (he seems to often be "stunned" by events) by Wilson's speech. Evidently, so stunned he forgot or misremembered most of the speech.
For instance, though she did say she started the push to get the building named after the two dead FBI agents she gave most of the credit to John Boehner for getting it expedited through the House, to Marco Rubio and another senator for getting it fast-tracked through the Senate, and to Obama for quickly approving it.
Not included in the video was an extended speech that followed where she honored the fallen agents. She also had all the agents and first responders in the audience stand up and be acknowledged.
A number of Republican officials praised Wilson for her work getting the name approved.
However, what Gen. Kelly was stunned about was that Wilson would stand up and try to take credit for getting the $20 million in funding for the building. Unfortunately, the building actually cost around $144 million rather than $20 million and those funds were allocated before Wilson ever came to Congress. At this point, it's a little hard to really know what the general was actually stunned about.
But Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn't let that stop her. When a reporter pointed out the general seemed to be mistaken in his umbrage, Sarah indignantly said, "If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that's highly inappropriate."
:o)
No wonder Bob likes Sarah, they think alike.
.
FBI Agents Say Comey ‘Stood In The Way’ Of Clinton Email Investigation
ReplyDeleteFBI agents say the bureau is alarmed over Director James Comey deciding not to suggest that the Justice Department prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information.
According to an interview transcript given to The Daily Caller, provided by an intermediary who spoke to two federal agents with the bureau last Friday, agents are frustrated by Comey’s leadership.
“We didn’t search their house. We always search the house. The search should not just have been for private electronics, which contained classified material, but even for printouts of such material,” he said.
“There should have been a complete search of their residence,” the agent pointed out. “That the FBI did not seize devices is unbelievable. The FBI even seizes devices that have been set on fire.”
Another special agent for the bureau that worked counter-terrorism and criminal cases said he is offended by Comey’s saying: “we” and “I’ve been an investigator.”
After graduating from law school, Comey became a law clerk to a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan and later became an associate in a law firm in the city. After becoming a U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Comey’s career moved through the U.S. Attorney’s Office until he became Deputy Attorney General during the George W. Bush administration.
After Bush left office, Comey entered the private sector and became general counsel and Senior Vice President for Lockheed Martin, among other private sector posts. President Barack Obama appointed him to FBI director in 2013 replacing out going-director Robert Mueller.
“Comey was never an investigator or special agent. The special agents are trained investigators and they are insulted that Comey included them in ‘collective we’ statements in his testimony to imply that the SAs agreed that there was nothing there to prosecute,” the second agent said. “All the trained investigators agree that there is a lot to prosecuted but he stood in the way.”
He added, “The idea that [the Clinton/e-mail case] didn’t go to a grand jury is ridiculous.”
http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/17/exclusive-fbi-agents-say-comey-stood-in-the-way-of-clinton-email-investigation/
The phone call.
ReplyDelete..wife goes on to describe how much Trump knew about her husband.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/20/gold-star-widow-releases-trumps-call-after-husband-was-killed-in-afghanistan/
That Wilson turned this into a negative says it all.
Same for those here.
How come she appears to be home, not in car with Wilson?
Delete.
DeletePossible because it's a different woman, a different soldier, one killed in Afghanistan rather than one in Niger.
.
"Possibly"
DeleteMy bad.
DeleteAmazing family, amazing mom.
What do we call a female Uncle Tom?
Auntie Tom?
No doubt, Doug
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteThe Kurdish Independence Bid Has Turned Into A Shooting War (Briefly)
JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:01 am on October 20, 2017
If you thought the Catalonian independence bid in Spain was going poorly, that one is looking like a stunning achievement in diplomacy compared to what’s going on with the Kurds in Iraq. What started as a debate over autonomy is turning into a straight-up shooting war, with Iraqi federal forces moving on the Kurds and pushing them out of regions they’ve been occupying for a while now.
SEE ALSO: Huckabee Sanders on media challenging Kelly: It’s highly inappropriate to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general
Last night reports of federal troops moving into the town of Altun Kupri began to come in. The Peshmerga had fortified the area and were well armed, but apparently rather small in numbers. When the government troops arrived they weren’t just exchanging small arms fire, either. (Associated Press)
TRENDING:
Obama: We've got folks in office now who are trying to deliberately make Americans angry
Iraqi and Kurdish forces are exchanging fire at the border between federal and Kurdish lands, days after Kurds withdrew from disputed territories across northern Iraq.
Iraqi artillery forces shelled Kurdish military positions north and south of the town of Altun Kupri. Thick smoke could be seen rising from a checkpoint just north of the town.
Kurdish forces responded with rocket fire.
While the first communications from the Kurds indicated that they were holding their own, within a few hours we learned that the Peshmerga had mostly been flushed from the town and the attacking troops had raised the Iraqi flag. Perhaps even more disturbing was the makeup of the Iraqi forces. It wasn’t just the federal troops, but a mix of those fighting alongside police units and (for the icing on the cake) Iranian trained militia.
DeleteIraq’s Joint Command has claimed that they are now in full control of Altun Kupri, last town to fall to Iraqi forces in Kirkuk.
It said that the US-trained Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), the Federal Police, and the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi have imposed their grip on the town.
Altun Kupri is little more than a hamlet of 10,000 people located on the shore of Dibis Lake. While perhaps not all that strategically significant, the location shows how far this territorial dispute may spread. The town is well to the north of Kirkuk and is more than halfway between Baghdad and the Turkish border.
The Peshmerga are probably among the toughest fighters on the planet, but their numbers are relatively small and their fighting resources limited. If the Iraqi government is going to openly go to war with them it’s tough to be optimistic in terms of their future. In addition to Baghdad going after them, Turkey has already announced that they claim the right to come at the Kurds across their northern border with a full military assault as well. And now that President Trump has come out and said that we’re “not taking sides” in this conflict, the Kurds find themselves basically with no allies in the coming battles.
Of course, it’s still possible that the central Iraqi government will back off after this. They’ve already taken Kirkuk and are positioned to control the major oil fields near there. That seemed to be the biggest bone of contention originally, and if the lines are drawn roughly where they are now the Kurds could maintain a compact autonomous region, though they would lose a lot of revenue. But it would probably need to remain an autonomous region and not an independent nation. None of their neighbors seem to be willing to tolerate an independent country for the Kurds and clearly we’re not going to open up a fresh battlefront to save them.
That’s a pity, really, because the Kurds have been some of our best allies in the region. Sadly, this three-way internal battle playing out in Iraq isn’t one that we started by a long shot. They’ve been fighting each other since before there were printing presses to publish any news about it.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/10/20/kurdish-independence-bid-turned-shooting-war-briefly/
The death and destruction you advocated for ...
DeleteA little frowny face will not suffice for accepting your complicity in providing aid and comfort for the insurrection.
Stand Tall
ReplyDeleteFLASH!
Trump told wife her husband was killed because of an internet video!
What wife, the husband was killed ... where?
DeleteWhen was the call made?
Fake News. .. so far
ReplyDeleteAfter Video Refutes Kelly’s Charges, Congresswoman Raises Issue of Race
— Video of a 2015 speech delivered by Representative Frederica S. Wilson revealed Friday that John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, misrepresented her remarks when he accused her of bragging about securing $20 million for a South Florida F.B.I. building and twisting President Barack Obama’s arm.
Ms. Wilson, in an interview on Friday, called Mr. Kelly a liar and hinted strongly that the altercation, prompted by a call from President Trump to the widow of a fallen black soldier, was racially charged.
“The White House itself is full of white supremacists,” she said.
Mr. Kelly, escalating a feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. Wilson, had cast the congresswoman on Thursday as a publicity-seeking opportunist. However, the video, released by The Sun Sentinel, a newspaper in South Florida, showed that during her nine-minute speech, Ms. Wilson never took credit for getting the money for the building, only for helping pass legislation naming the building after two fallen federal agents.
She never mentioned pleading with Mr. Obama, and she acknowledged the help of several Republicans, including John A. Boehner, then the House speaker; Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo; and Senator Marco Rubio.
“I feel very sorry for him because he feels such a need to lie on me and I’m not even his enemy,” Ms. Wilson said of Mr. Kelly. “I just can’t even imagine why he would fabricate something like that. That is absolutely insane. I’m just flabbergasted because it’s very easy to trace.”
John Kelly for President
ReplyDeleteWilson is all hat, no cattle.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAfter failing to get his criminal conviction wiped off his record as a result of his pardon from President Donald Trump, former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio could be targeted by lawsuits arising out of his acknowledged disobedience involving a 2011 court order to stop his immigration patrols.
A judge has rejected Arpaio's request to throw out a 14-page decision that explains why she found him guilty of misdemeanor contempt of court.
The former sheriff wants the ruling thrown out in a bid to clear his name and bar attorneys from using it in future court cases as an example of a prior bad act.
Latinos who were illegally detained by Arpaio's officers during the 17-month period in which the sheriff disobeyed the order will be able to apply for money from a taxpayer-funded compensation system for the harm they suffered.
Or they could file a lawsuit seeking damages from illegal detentions, though no such civil cases have yet been filed. Prosecutors and Arpaio's critics say at least 170 people were illegally detained because Arpaio didn't stop the patrols
ReplyDeleteKurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s decision to hold an independence referendum, despite furious Iraqi and regional objections, has backfired spectacularly.
Instead of paving the way to statehood, or boosting the Kurds’ bargaining power in negotiations, it has trigged a humiliating reversal of fortunes for Iraq’s Kurds.
Stand Tall
Delete... backfired spectacularly.
DeleteStand Tall
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Kelly was caught as being flat out wrong. Was he mis-briefed or did he simply flat out lie?
DeleteI think it could be the water they use to mix the KoolAid in the White House mess.
DeleteQuirk is looking for an honest man.
ReplyDeleteWhy not an honest woman? Sexist?
I tell you, it's not a good idea to be honest in all things.