Clinton Machinery has Sand in the Gears

The book hits the shelves today.

Then my buddy Charles Ortel has been digging deep for the last several weeks on the Clintons and ‘inurement’. Charles declares that the Foundations are actually to flawed to fix. The legal team and the inner circle of those employed by the Clinton Foundation(s) have stated there were mistakes and they are ‘re-filing tax returns. (do you get to do that?)

Per the Internal Revenue Service:

A section 501(c)(3) organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, such as the creator or the creator’s family, shareholders of the organization, other designated individuals, or persons controlled directly or indirectly by such private interests. No part of the net earnings of a section 501(c)(3) organization may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. A private shareholder or individual is a person having a personal and private interest in the activities of the organization.

 

Judicial Watch Lawsuit Exposes ‘Clinton Cash Machine’

Judicial Watch’s independent work recently resulted in extensive coverage of Hillary and Bill Clinton’s corruption of the State Department.

A Judicial Watch lawsuit was central to the ongoing scandal involving the Clintons and the money they raised while Hillary was secretary of state.

Last year, Judicial Watch forced the disclosure of documents that provided a road map for over 200 conflict-of-interest rulings that led to $48 million for the Clinton Foundation and other Clinton-connected entities during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. Previously disclosed documents in this lawsuit, for example, raise questions about funds Clinton accepted from entities linked to Saudi Arabia, China, and Iran, among others. The story on these documents that got the ball rolling can found be here. The headline says it all:  “State Department approved 215 Bill Clinton speeches, controversial consulting deal, worth $48m; Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff copied on all decisions.”

Dedicated investigating, legal work, and journalism (Judicial Watch’s Micah Morrison in partnership with The Washington Examiner) produced the key documents that led to much more investigating by others. Notably, Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Peter Schweizer used Judicial Watch-produced documents to help with his headline-making book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. This book helped feed major media interest in the story that Judicial Watch has been highlighting since 2008.

The headlines tell the whole story:

Now, in the midst of this cavalcade of reporting on Clinton corruption, Judicial Watch has disclosed yet more documents in its Clinton accountability lawsuit.

The organization has recently highlighted 126 more pages of documents from the State Department related to Hillary Clinton’s conflicts of interest during her time as secretary of state. These documents were forced out of the State Department thanks to a federal court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the State Department back in May 2013.

Incredibly, the State Department has also turned over almost 1,000 records to the Clinton Foundation, beginning in January 2014, for review prior to public release.

The Obama State Department allowed Hillary Clinton to remove and destroy government email records, and now it has been made clear that the State Department has been improperly giving government documents to the Clinton operation – documents that should have been turned over to Judicial Watch and the American public years ago.

The latest group of documents again raises the specter of foreign potentates compromising American foreign policy by giving cash to the Clinton machine. One new document shows that State Department officials had concerns in January 2011 about Bill Clinton’s activities related to Saudi Arabia. An email chain, begun on January 25, 2011, includes several members of the State Department’s Legal Advisor Office, and the subject line “Clinton Foundation Request – Saudi entities.” The discussion is almost entirely redacted in the three-page email chain. This is Obama transparency at its best. If nothing else, Bill and Hillary have a friend in the Obama administration in helping cover their tracks. The timing of the email suggests it was about the Saudi government and that the event netted the Clintons $300,000.

We already have the documents about this lucrative event. The Clinton Foundation told the State Department he would participate in the 2011 Global Competiveness Forum, a five-day event in Riyadh. The event was co-sponsored by the Dabbagh Group Holding Co., which “comprises 28 autonomous companies, operating in diversified businesses in 30 countries. Mohammed Husnee Jazeel currently serves as Dabbagh Group’s CFO.” The Clinton Foundation described the event as:

[A]n annual meeting of global business leaders, international political leaders and selected academics and journalists. It was founded in 2006 by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and is held under the patronage of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz.

Established in 2000, the SAGIA encourages investment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and provides licensing and support services to investors.

The “ticketed event” targeted “the Saudi Arabian business community.”

Also discussed is a Clinton Foundation request regarding an undisclosed country in Asia in August 2010: “Spoke to Jim [James H Thessin], on this and he plans to speak to the EAP [East Asian & Pacific Affairs] PDAS [Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary] and get his views.”

A June 2010 message chain addressed to then-Deputy Chief of Mission in Tanzania Larry E. Andre and others is labeled “URGENT RE: Clinton Foundation Issue, ” and states: “Former POTUS Clinton is on the ground in Tanzania… we need guidance fairly urgently to still be relevant.”

Also in the documents is a fully redacted June 2011 exchange between longtime Clinton associates Cheryl Mills and Doug Band.

Band assisted in creating the Clinton Global Initiative and is a founding partner and president of Teneo. Also previously disclosed, documents show that the State Department approved a consulting arrangement between Bill Clinton and Band. The Clintons ended the deal after only eight months, as criticism mounted over Teneo’s ties to the failed investment firm, MF Global.

Mills defended Bill Clinton during his 1999 impeachment trial. She also was on the Clinton Foundation’s board prior to joining Mrs. Clinton at the State Department. Mills reportedly negotiated the “ethics agreement” on behalf of the Clintons and the Foundation that required the Clintons to submit to rigorous conflict-of-interest checks. Despite this, and in apparent violation of Obama administration ethics rules, the documents Judicial Watch forced out show Mills was involved in ethics reviews as chief of staff for Mrs. Clinton at the State Department.

There’s another interesting tidbit that speaks to Clinton cover-up tactics with which Americans are all too familiar. There’s a January 2013 email from Clinton Foundation Scheduler Margaret Steenburg to State Department attorneys saying a list of speech hosts for conflict-of-interest review was provided to them. The list, however, is conspicuously absent from the FOIA production documents.

The State Department just disclosed that it turned over 128 records to the Clinton Foundation for review under Exemption 4 of FOIA. Exemption 4 allows the withholding of commercial information about third parties that could cause them competitive harm. More than 1,000 records have been turned over to the Clinton Foundation under this unusual review process, resulting in more delay.

The lawsuit which first exposed the Clinton foreign fundraising racket at the State Department continues to be obstructed by Mrs. Clinton’s political operation. Remember that Mrs. Clinton is obstructing the release of information about the very scandal she is dismissing as “politics.”

With these revelations of State Department concerns about the Clinton machine’s Saudi and Asian dealings, this simple FOIA lawsuit is once again providing the road map for those tracking Hillary Clinton’s abuse of office as secretary of state. In the meantime, the State Department seems to be more concerned about helping Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than following federal disclosure law.

Finally, the State Department promised to conduct a supplemental search of email records allegedly turned over late last year by Hillary Clinton. The State Department has been silent on obtaining or recovering other emails from Hillary Clinton’s secret accounts or any secret accounts of her top staff, including Cheryl Mills.  And it is silent as to when Judicial Watch will get those documents.

Judicial Watch’s litigation continues. As the Clinton campaign distracts, lies and denies, the court process will move forward and more truths about Hillary Clinton’s abuse of office will come to light.

Pam Geller and those Before Her

Did the Yazidis draw cartoons? Did James Foley draw cartoons? Did Daniel Pearl draw cartoons?

How is it that Islam has assumed exclusive power with the declaration they are the judge, jury and executioner of what is blasphemy?

The Southern Poverty Law Center has this on Pam Geller. Ah but, they do have a right to do so as noted by the Supreme Court decision in 2011 in the case of picketing a funeral.

All media, even global media has become Sharia compliant for not standing long ago on free speech and now for blaming the Garland, Texas attack on those who are taking a stand.

Pam Geller, Tom Trento, Geert Wilders, Robert Spencer and Louis Gohmert are all declaring a call to action, a clarion call and offering sage advise. Are we as a nation listening? Two hundred plus years later why they forced to do this? They are telling you the same as many historical figures before them. LISTEN

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
George Orwell

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

[Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950]”
Harry S. Truman

Article the third… Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So Geller is taking a stand with her organization noted here.

Robert Spencer is doing the same here, offering books and lesson plans.

Tom Trento is tireless in his efforts as noted here.

Geert Wilders has been at the mission for a very long time in Europe.

Koran says the following about the Jews, Christians, and other “unbelievers:”

“O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.” (Sura 5, verse 51).

“And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah DESTROY them; how they are turned away!” (Sura 9, verse 30).

“And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion. Say: Surely Allah’s guidance, that is the (true) guidance. And if you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you shall have no guardian from Allah, nor any helper.” (Sura 2, verse 120).

“And KILL them (the unbelievers) wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.” (Sura 2, verse 191).

“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends rather than believers; and whoever does this, he shall have nothing of (the guardianship of) Allah, but you should guard yourselves against them, guarding carefully; and Allah makes you cautious of (retribution from) Himself; and to Allah is the eventual coming.” (Sura 3, verse 28).

“And guard yourselves against the fire which has been prepared for the unbelievers.” (Sura 3, verse 131)

“And when you journey in the earth, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer, if you fear that those who disbelieve will cause you distress, surely the unbelievers are your open ENEMY.” (Sura 4, verse 101).

“O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).” (Sura 9, verse 123).

“Surely We have prepared for the unbelievers chains and shackles and a burning fire.” (Sura 76, verse 4).

“O you who believe! if you obey a party from among those who have been given the Book (The Jews and Christians), they will turn you back as unbelievers after you have believed.” (Sura 3, verse 100).

“And their taking usury (interests on money) though indeed they were forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful chastisement.” (Sura 4. verse 161).

“Surely Allah has cursed the unbelievers (Jews, Christians and followers of other faiths) and has prepared for them a burning fire.” (Sura 33, verse 64).

“And whoever does not believe in Allah and His Apostle, then surely We have prepared burning fire for the unbelievers.” (Sura 48, verse 13).

 

Challenge: What the U.S. has in Common with UK

It only happens somewhere else, some other country, some other people. Militant Islam is over there somewhere…well not so much as noted with the Garland, Texas attack on free speech and a planned attack on Ft. Riley.

 New Jersey

Here is your challenge, as you read below, replace ‘those’ places with what you know has occurred in America just in the last five or six years. Then ask yourself if we have a national security problem, where jihad is in our front yard.

Here are some tips:

Teens from Colorado

From Louisiana to Jihad

Kansas to bomber

Born in Illinois

How to Radicalize an Entire London Borough

by Samuel Westrop

  • Schoolchildren in Tower Hamlets grow up under the shadow of non-violent but extremist ideology, funded by the British government. Meanwhile, the British media and politicians are busy debating the causes of radicalization.
  • “Non-violent” but extremist Islamic movements seek to offer their own networks as alternatives to the jihadists.

In February, three London schoolgirls flew to Istanbul, from where they travelled by road to Syria to join the Islamic State. British police have confirmed that at least 700 Britons have now joined the terrorist group as fighters. Over the past year alone, 22 British women, most under the age of 20, are believed to have travelled to Syria to become “jihadi brides.”

In February, three girls from Bethnal Green Academy, in London’s Tower Hamlets, travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State as “jihadi brides”: 15-year-old Amira Abase (left), 15-year-old Shamima Begum (middle), and 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana (right).

These three London schoolgirls, who lived in the borough of Tower Hamlets, were not the first from there to travel to Syria. They were not even the first Islamic State recruits from their school — nor, it seems, will they be the last.

In December 2014, a friend and fellow pupil of the three London schoolgirls travelled to Syria after being “in covert phone contact with an unknown woman.” These four 15- and 16-year-old Islamic State recruits were all pupils at the Bethnal Green Academy in Tower Hamlets.

The Telegraph recently revealed that a fifth Bethnal Green Academy pupil also attempted to leave Britain to join the Islamic State, but was stopped after police boarded the aircraft as it was about to take-off.

Then, in March 2015, a British court made four more pupils of Bethnal Green Academy “wards of the court” and confiscated their passports. The four girls, also age 15 and 16, were “barred from travel after showing an interest in going to Syria.”

What made a total of nine young girls, from the same London school, attempt to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State?

For one of the girls, The Guardian cited “upheavals at home… 18 months of sadness following death of mother from cancer and father getting remarried.”

Muhammad Abdul Bari, a prominent British Islamist leader, based in Tower Hamlets, claimed the girls were “definitely convinced by the slick IS media. I think it was online radicalisation.”

The Daily Mail has reported, meanwhile, that Abase Hussen, the father of one of the girls, was previously filmed “at the head of an Islamist rally led by hate preacher Anjem Choudary and attended by Michael Adebowale, the killer of soldier Lee Rigby.”

These claims perhaps illuminate the motivation of one or two of the girls, but they do not explain how nine young girls, all from the same school, attempted, with some success, to join the world’s most ruthless terrorist movement.

Bethnal Green Academy has denied that its students could have been radicalized at school. The principal, Mark Keary told the BBC that, “Police have advised us there is no evidence radicalisation took place at the academy.” He added that, “Students are unable to access Facebook and Twitter on Academy computers.”

A number of teachers at the Bethnal Green Academy, however, do seem to harbor extremist views. Tasif Zaman, a “Graduate Achievement Coach” at Bethnal Green Academy, has expressed support for Babar Ahmad, a British Islamist convicted on terrorism charges by a U.S. court in 2014. After the September 11 attacks, Ahmad ran a website that urged recruits to take martial arts courses, read books on military warfare and train with weaponry. Ahmad’s website called for jihad against “infidels” and explained how to send funds to named Taliban officials in Pakistan. Tasif Zaman has also called for the release of Shaker Aamer, whom the senior Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah once described as an “extremely active” recruiter for the terror group.

Another staff member at Bethnal Green Academy, Nabila Akthar, serves as the “Student Voice and Events Coordinator.” Akthar is also “Head of Membership Services” for the Leaf Network, an Islamic group that regularly hosts extreme Islamist activists, including:

  • Muddassar Ahmed, who works closely with Tablighi Jamaat, an extreme Islamic sect, which security officials have named as a recruiting ground for Al Qaeda;
  • Anas Al-Tikriti, a leading British Muslim Brotherhood operative and a vocal supporter of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas; and
  • Farooq Murad, the son of the “Supreme leader” of Jamaat-e-Islami and a trustee of the Islamic Foundation. The Foundation’s other trustees, in 2003, were reported to be on a UN list of people associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The assumption that radicalization is an online process has been widely cited, but little evidence is ever offered. That local Islamist leaders, such as Muhammad Abdul Bari, echo these claims, only serves the interests of “non-violent” but extremist Islamic movements, which seek to offer their own networks as alternatives to the jihadists.

The Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim counter-extremism think tank, has concluded that, “the vast majority of radicalized individuals come into contact with extremist ideology through offline socialisation prior to being further indoctrinated online.” In 2008, a briefing note written by the British security services noted: “personal interaction is essential, in most cases, to draw individuals into violent extremist networks.”

Islamist movements such as Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood have been keen to attribute support among British Muslims for the Islamic State to “slick IS media.” They do so to downplay evidence that their own “non-violent” Islamist groups are part of the conveyor belt theory of radicalization, in which some extremists gradually become terrorists.

The role of “non-violent” extremists within the conveyor belt, however, is not solely the influence of a single preacher, activist or group. The teachers at Bethnal Green Academy, despite their extremist views, were not directly responsible, of course, for the radicalization of nine young schoolgirls. These teachers are, however, part of a culture of extremist Islamic thought, under which these young girls grew up.

The dominance of Islamist ideology is a systemic problem in certain areas of Britain. Tower Hamlets offers a particularly vivid example of the pervasive influence of Islamist ideology over a local Muslim population.

In a recent speech, Home Secretary Theresa May said the borough of Tower Hamlets was beset with “corruption, cronyism, extremism, homophobia and anti-Semitism.” The Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, was recently removed from office after a High Court hearing found him guilty of electoral fraud. The journalist Andrew Gilligan reports that Rahman, “achieved power with the help of the Islamic Forum of Europe, an extremist group that wants a sharia state in Europe.”

The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) is a key Islamist institution in Tower Hamlets. Undercover filming in Britain has revealed IFE activists explaining that they exercised “consolidated… influence and power” over the local government of Tower Hamlets.

Speakers invited by the IFE have included the late Al Qaeda leader, Anwar Al-Awlaki, as well as Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose forces have fought alongside the Taliban against British troops.

The IFE was originally established by the Jamaat-e-Islami operative Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, sentenced to death in November 2013, by the Bangladeshi War Crimes Tribunal, for his role in the abduction and murder of 18 journalists and intellectuals when he led the Al-Badr killing squad during Bangladesh’s 1971 War of Liberation.

In 1995, a British television documentary reported that another leading Tower Hamlets Islamist, Abu Sayeed, was also a senior member of the Al-Badr death squad, and had similarly fled Bangladesh to live in Britain. In Britain, Sayeed became a “head teacher of a Muslim school and a co-opted member of Tower Hamlets Education Council.”

As yet another example, in 2013, Tower Hamlets Councillor Lutfa Begum stated, at a council meeting, that the “IFE do lots of jobs for Tower Hamlets local people. They are working with… local schools. They are working with teachers.”

The Islamist-dominated local government and schools, and extremist groups, appear to be all heavily intertwined.

These problematic institutions in Tower Hamlets have been propped up with taxpayer’s money that was designated for counter-extremist purposes. In 2013-14, Tower Hamlets council allocated 451,000 euros (about $500,000) to the Al-Huda Mosque and Cultural Centre, which manages its own “supplementary school.”

During that period, the mosque hosted an event with Abu Suhaib Bassam, an Islamist preacher who has called for the killing of blasphemers; encouraged Muslims to commit to jihad, and who has said: “The love of this worldly life and the hatred of death — this is the symptom of the disease of the Jews.”

In 2011, Lutfur Rahman’s Tower Hamlets Council granted £105,887 (about $170,000) to the Osmani Trust, a charity run by trustees of the IFE. According to the journalist Andrew Gilligan, some of this money was paid as part of the government’s “preventing violent extremism” program. The Osmani Trust runs weekend schools, organizes workshops in Tower Hamlets primary schools and works to “help young people into education.”

One of the managers at the Osmani Trust, Muhammad Rabbani, also trained recruits for the IFE. In 2009, Rabbani told his recruits: “Our goal is to create the True Believer, [and] to then mobilise these believers into an organised force for change who will carry out dawah [preaching], hisbah [enforcement of Islamic law] and jihad.”

Rabbani is now the Managing Director of CAGE, a pro-terror lobby group linked by the media to the Islamic State executioner “Jihadi John.”

The East London Mosque, another important Tower Hamlets Islamist institution, is an affiliate of the IFE. The mosque has a long history of promoting extremist speakers. In October, the mosque hosted Imam Abdullah Hasan, an Islamist preacher and IFE activist who describes Jews as “devil-worshippers” and has praised Osama Bin Laden.

Since 2006, the East London Mosque has received at least £3 million (over $4.5 million) of taxpayers’ money, some of which was funded by the government’s counter-extremism program.

More importantly, the East London Mosque manages its own school, the London East Academy. In March, the Evening Standard reported that Zubair Nur, a 19-year old graduate of the school, was believed to have joined the Islamic State.

There had been warnings. In October 2014, after emergency inspections by the education regulator Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, stated that students at the school were at risk of “extremist influences and radicalisation.”

Furthermore, one of London East Academy’s governors, Gulam Robbani, was Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s election agent. Robbani’s fellow governors at the school included other local government officials as well as Abdul Qayyum, the Imam of the East London Mosque. Qayyum was also a signatory to the Istanbul Declaration, a document that advocates attacks on Jewish communities and British troops.

Schoolchildren in Tower Hamlets grow up under the shadow of extremist ideology, much of it funded by the British taxpayer. Meanwhile, British media and politicians are busy debating the causes of radicalization. Factors they cite include: online propaganda, institutionalized Islamophobia, British foreign policy, poverty, or even the pressure of police scrutiny. None of these claims, however, has ever been substantiated.

The most important influence, in fact, seems to be the prevailing extremist culture imposed on British Muslims by “non-violent” Islamist networks, and which successive British governments have allowed to cultivate. By permitting Islamist groups to represent British Muslims, and then equipping them with funds and political recognition, Britain has actually advanced intolerance — and for far too long.

Over the past decade, a considerable number of commentators, moderate Muslim activists and the occasional journalist have warned of the dangers of allowing extremist preachers and terror-connected groups to exert such extensive influence over local government, schools, universities, charities, prisons and even interfaith groups.

Although these issues have consumed national debate for years, very little has been done in response. It is not surprising that British Muslim schoolchildren are now rushing off to fight with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State. Tower Hamlets is only a microcosm of a much larger problem of radicalized Muslim communities all across Britain. The question of the extremist grip over British Islam is still waiting to be properly addressed.

Ring of Fire, PACOM

Since the Department of Defense announced the Jade Helm operation scheduled for this summer, there have been theories all over the internet with regard to what Jade Helm really is. Personally, none of us is doing our jobs unless we in fact question all actions by government, we are suspicious with proven and historical reasons. There are many take-a-ways in this post, fair warning, go slow. Nothing is ever simple.

Let us take a real hard look at what our Americans in uniform are in fact asked to do and where. To be honest, it is really extraordinary what our soldiers are asked to do, where they are to do it and why. USSOCOM, which is hosting Jade Helm is led by General Kelly. He delivered a posture statement in March. Reading what our soldiers do is eye-popping.

Nepal Earthquake Happened Right On Schedule, Scientists Say

A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on Saturday was part of a pattern of major temblors that have become so predictable that many seismologists had been expecting this one — and at least one team of researchers warned just weeks ago that a major quake was due in the exact location where this one struck.

Nepal sits right where the Indo-Australian Plate is pushing itself beneath the Eurasian Plate, a collision that gave rise to the Himalayan Mountains. As the plates push, pressure builds, eventually resulting in a quake to relieve that pressure.

And according to Nature, the Indo-Australian Plate is still pushing itself under the Eurasian Plate at a rate of nearly 2 inches per year. So what does our Defense Department have to do with the earthquake?

Operation Pacific Endeavor tests no only civil and infrastructure drills of our soldiers, but it also tests hardware, signals intelligence, satellite systems and a whole host of platforms and skills. This has been an operation for several years and in cooperation with other participating countries. Here are some videos that will help explain just how integrated these types of operations are with civilians, local civic leaders and infrastructure.

A full operation explanation with regard to natural disasters is detailed below.

Pacom Exercise Program Integrates Disaster Response Preparation

CAMP SMITH, Hawaii, Sept. 5, 2012 – As they reach out to long-time allies and new partners alike to increase regional engagement through U.S. Pacific Command’s exercise program, officials are finding that one of the biggest enticements is a common threat: Mother Nature.

Click photo for screen-resolution image
Navy personnel react to a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief scenario during the Rim of the Pacific 2012 exercise at Joint Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, June 20, 2012. Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel participated in the biennial exercise. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Anderson C. Bomjardim
  

(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The Asia-Pacific region experiences more natural disasters than any other part of the globe. It sits squarely on the earthquake-prone “Ring of Fire” and also suffers frequent cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons, floods, and even volcanic eruptions.

“It’s not a matter of if they are going to have the next disaster. It is really when,” said Army Col. Phillip Mead, director of Pacom’s Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake rattled Indonesia on Sept. 3 and the Philippines experienced two earthquakes within the past week: one yesterday in the southern Philippines at magnitude 5.6 and a 7.6-magnitude quake in the east on Aug. 31.

Pacom works with regional nations to promote disaster preparedness and build resilience; and to respond quickly and effectively should disaster strike.

One of the best ways to do that is through the exercise program, Army Col. David Parker, chief of the command’s exercise division, told American Forces Press Service.

As the Defense Department’s largest combatant command in terms of territory – an area covering 52 percent of the Earth’s surface that includes 3.6 billion people in 36 nations – Pacom also conducts the U.S. military’s largest exercise program.

Eighteen of its exercises are joint exercises approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a designation that assigns them a specific name and increased priority for resources and people.

“And that doesn’t include a lot of the engagements we have that also fall under the joint exercise program,” Parker said.

The focus of Pacom’s exercise program runs the gamut. “We have exercises that test and then form our contingency plans,” Parker said. “We have exercises that strictly test our joint task force capabilities. Then others focus on engagements with our allies and partners.”

As it implements DOD’s new strategic guidance that focuses heavily on the Asia-Pacific region, Pacom is working to promote the exercise program, expanding the scope of existing exercises and getting more nations to participate.

“The trend is toward more multilateral engagement,” Parker said. “We still have a lot of bilateral relationships, and we are still evolving. But we’re making a concerted effort to encourage more multilateral exercises in the region.”

Parker pointed to Cobra Gold, the largest multilateral exercise in the Asia-Pacific, as the gold standard. Cobra Gold 2012 included participants from 20 nations, and next year’s exercise is expected to include at least as many.

Meanwhile, Pacom is reaching out to new partners with a goal of initiating new exercises. Parker reported promising developments with Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mongolia and other regional partners.

As Pacom strives to exercise with more partners and promote more multilateral engagements, officials are finding disaster preparedness to be a universal common ground.

“If there is something common across the [area of responsibility], it is the awareness that there is going to be another natural disaster. So nations are focusing on that,” Mead said. “And that is why, when you develop a multilateral exercise under the humanitarian assistance disaster relief umbrella, it helps bring everyone to the table.”

As nations come to the table to address crisis response, the conversation goes into the broader issues Pacom’s exercise program addresses. “You are working on issues of interoperability. You are working on isues of ‘How do you get your communications systems to talk to each other?’ You are working on the issue of ‘How do we share information?’” Mead said.

“And all those issues that you work through during the exercise will be leveraged during a regional response to a natural disaster,” he said.

So more Pacom-sponsored exercises – from staff-level table-top exercises and command post exercises to larger-scale field training exercises involving troops on the ground as well as aircraft and ships – are focusing on disasters or including disaster scenarios.

During the recent Khaan Quest 12 exercise in earthquake-plagued Mongolia, for example, Army Brig. Gen. Mike Bridges, commander of the Alaska Army National Guard, shared Alaska’s lessons in responding to natural disasters with officials from Mongolia’s National Emergency Management Agency. Bridges encouraged his Mongolian counterparts to participate in the Vigilant Guard exercise in Alaska in 2014, which will include a simulated earthquake and tsunami with mass casualties.

Pacific Endeavor 2012 in Singapore integrated high-frequency military communications into the amateur or ham radio community that could provide a vital communications link in the event that a natural disaster took out or overran existing systems.

This year’s Rim of the Pacific exercise, which wrapped up earlier this month in Hawaii and its surrounding waters, included the first humanitarian assistance and disaster relief event in the exercise’s 31 iterations, with participants from 22 nations rehearsing crisis scenarios.

“If you talk to anyone who lives within the rim of the Pacific they will tell you it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when the next natural disaster or crisis may affect one of the countries,” said Navy Adm. Gerald R. Beaman, commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet.

“[RIMPAC participants] are forming a team,” he said. “In the event of the next crisis or disaster, this team will have worked with each other and understand the processes that a coalition will have to go through in order to form and be able to accomplish whatever mission we may be asked to do.”

To add realism during exercises, Pacom’s Center of Excellence staff, which offers a unique capability within the Defense Department, often serves as the “white cell.” Its members inject disaster scenarios into the play, Mead said, forcing staffs to go through a deliberate decision-making process they would use in a real-life humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission.

As staffs respond, they’re encouraged to go by the book –specifically, the multinational standard operating procedures that 31 Asia-Pacific nations have agreed to — so they can provide a unified, coordinated response.

Parker called those SOPs, which the signatories review annually to ensure they are current, a big step toward in the right direction.

“That document is probably one of the biggest things we have to promote interoperability. It spells out the processes and procedures that these nations may use if we ever engage with each other in a humanitarian assistance disaster response situation or other operations other than war,” he said.

“So when we have a crisis situation, or nations have to come together and operate together, they have already established the processes they are going to use to tackle that crisis – whether it is [humanitarian assistance and disaster relief] or other small-scale events,” Parker said. “The procedures are already established, and that is going to jump-start the process.”

That, he said, will help reduce suffering and save lives.

As Pacom’s exercise program helps U.S. and partner nations prepare for future disasters, it also provides a forum for them to review lessons learned from past responses.

During Cobra Gold 12, for example, leaders from the participating nations shared expertise and lessons from Operation Tomadachi in Japan and flood relief conducted last year in Thailand.

“This is an ongoing learning process, but it’s a critical one,” Parker said. “As we work with many of our partners and friends in the region, humanitarian assistance and disaster response is the most likely scenario that we are going to execute.”

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Parts Behind the Garland, Texas Attack

The FBI began investigation Elton Simpson, one of the 2 shooters in Garland, Texas. The other shooter is Nadir Soofi. They were roommates in Phoenix. Nadir Soofi graduated from the University of Utah and the International School of Islamic Studies in Pakistan. He was a Palestinian sympathizer and published anti-police propaganda.

The FBI paid an informant to gather information on Elton Simpson going back to 2006 and used wires to record conversations. The case was proven (trial memorandum here) as Simpson was well connected to al Shabaab and Simpson had purchased a ticket to travel to South Africa and had a visa to do so.

The case against Elton Simpson, nom de guerre, Ibrahim failed to gain any sentencing other than probation from an Arizona judge, Mary H. Murguia. She is a Clinton appointee and has a twin sister who is president of La Raza.

Hold on there is more. Not only is the Obama administration aggressively resettling refugees in America from Syria, Kenya, Iraq but the worst is Somalia. This speaks to real failed foreign policy. In fact Kenya just received $45 million for refugees. If you think there is a problem controlling the insurgency at the Southern border, this Refugee/Asylum problem is much bigger.

So, while the two dead Islamists from Arizona that were shot by a single officer in Garland, they were not refugees but lived with them in an apartment complex in Arizona, one of many across the country that are part of an approved contracted system by Health and Human Services in collaboration with the U.S. State Department. There is likely one in a town where you live.

Here is what you need to know.

The Garland shooters lived at Autumn Ridge Apartments in Phoenix, Arizona. That complex is owned by BH Management which holds properties across the country and works in tandem with HHS. There are several communities in Arizona, which is the same model as in Iowa, Idaho, S. Carolina, Maryland…all heck every state. These locations are all part of the Obama administration.

Contractors

RRP supports and advances successful refugee resettlement through the coordination of public and private resources.  Contractors are required to provide services in ways that respect the cultural and linguistic needs of clients.
Click here for a list of current contractors (47 KB PDF)

Federal Partners

Three federal agencies play key roles in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program.

Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is responsible for the domestic program of refugee resettlement services – including cash and medical assistance and a broad range of social services.
ORR State Letters

Information for asylees seeking services supported by ORR is now available on the ORR website.

The U.S. Department of State coordinates resettlement policy, overseas processing, cultural orientation, transportation to the U.S., and the Reception & Placement program for newly arrived refugees.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security determines which applicants meet the requirements for refugee status and are admissible to the United States under U.S. law

 

A “Refugee” is defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act as: 

“…any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”  

Asylees, Cuban / Haitian entrants, certain Amerasians, Special Immigrant Visa holders and victims of severe forms of human trafficking are among the other humanitarian immigrants eligible for assistance and services under the Refugee Act. 

Okay, sorry but there is more. You may need a seat belt for this.

Garland, Texas: There’s Some History Here

 

Last night a free speech event in Garland, Texas was attacked. As this is written, two suspects are dead. One security guard was shot and released from the hospital after treatment for a minor wound.

The event, the “Mohammed Art Exhibit and Contest,” was reported here by Breitbart and here by the Dallas Morning News. It was sponsored by Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and featured keynote speaker Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician and free speech advocate. Both were safe, with Geller finally contacted by Fox News where she was interviewed by anchor Kelly Wright.

The AFDI event was proceeded by another gathering in the same venue — the Curtis Culwell Center — in January. That event? It was titled the “Stand with the Prophet” rally, and was reported here as follows by the Washington Free beacon. Wrote the Free Beacon:

Muslim leaders from across America will gather in Texas this weekend to hold the annual Stand With the Prophet in Honor and Respect conference, a weekend forum that is being billed as a “movement to defend Prophet Muhammad, his person, and his message,” according to event information.

The Saturday event, which seeks to combat “Islamophobes in America” who have turned the Islamic Prophet Muhammad “into an object of hate,” according to organizers, comes just a week after radicalized Islamists in France killed 17 people.

The victims died in events that began with the shooting attack on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo for its satirical cartoons that skewered the prophet.

Organizers of the event place the blame for Islam’s bad reputation on the media and so-called American Islamophobes who have “invested at least $160 million dollars to attack our Prophet and Islam,” according to the conference web page.

Keynote speakers at the event will include Georgetown University professor John Esposito, founding director of the school’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which has come under fire for, among other things, hosting 9/11 Truthers and a member of Egypt’s Nazi Party.

 

Also scheduled to attend the forum is controversial New York-based Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings trial. Wahhaj has called the FBI and CIA the “real terrorists” and expressed a desire for all Americans to become Muslim, according to the New York Post.

The “Stand With the Prophet” event was, in typical American style, protested by the AFDI free speech group, as announced here at the time on the Jihand Watch site of Robert Spencer. The site published a press release from AFDI that said in part of the protest:

NEW YORK, January 13: The human rights advocacy group the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) today announced that it will be holding a demonstration in defense of the freedom of speech on Saturday, January 17 in Garland, Texas, outside a conference on “Islamophobia” that seeks to stifle opposition to jihad terror and restrict the freedom of speech, working to further the same Islamic law that led to the Charlie Hebdo jihad massacre.

… AFDI President Pamela Geller said in a statement: “Saturday’s Stand With the Prophet event seeks to combat ‘Islamophobes in America’ — in line with Islamic supremacist groups’ longstanding objective of defaming, smearing and marginalizing anyone who opposes the jihad agenda. They say they want to defend Muhammad — which means to silence those who notice that defenders of Muhammad just murdered sixteen people in Paris, and tens of thousands worldwide since 9/11.”

“Our AFDI rally,” Geller added, “will stand for the freedom of speech against all attempts, violent and stealthy, to impose Islamic blasphemy laws on Americans and stifle criticism of Muhammad and Islam. As Muhammad’s followers kill more and more people, we need critics of him more than ever — and free people need to stand up against these underhanded attempts to stifle all criticism of Islam, including honest investigations of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify Jew-hatred, violence, supremacism and oppression.”

Sunday night, the AFDI counter-event was held. In the same place. The event was described as follows by Breitbart:

Pamela Geller is planning a “Draw the Prophet” event in Garland, Texas in the same location as a Muslim group held a “Stand with the Prophet” conference in January. The First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest will be hosted by the Curtis Caldwell Center, which is owned and operated by the Garland Independent School District.

And up pulled a vehicle with two gun-wielding men, both now dead at the hands of the Garland police. Police were investigating whether there was a bomb in their vehicle, thus far with none found.

Contacted amid the chaos by Fox News, among other things Geller noted what one would think is the obvious: “A free speech conference is not controversial, shooting people is controversial…” As she also pointed out, that when the image of Jesus Christ on the cross is immersed in a jar of urine and presented as “art” in America — no one seeks to kill the artist.

Exactly.

It is impossible to look at this shooting as anything else than an attempt on Ms. Geller’s life and that of Geert Wilders, the founder of the Dutch Party for Freedom that has won seats in the Dutch parliament. As the attack unfolded, Geller said, audience members stood and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Question? Is this America anymore? Or is this now to be government by lynch mob? Whether in Baltimore or Garland, Texas?

And what will President Obama say? Will he stand up for the free speech of Americans? Not with some mealy mouthed if-this-than-that attempt at moral relativity — but with flat out, stand-up support for the Constitution and the right of free speech? News reports say the Garland police were prepared in case this kind of thing happened — but the question really should be: Why should police or anyone else have to prepare for a murderous assault on a free speech event?

The “Stand With the Prophet” rally participants had a right to hold their rally — just as the people of Baltimore had a right to peacefully protest the death of Freddie Gray. But no one has the right to burn and loot private property, much less to attack a peaceful event with the intent of killing the participants — in this case targeting Pam Geller and Geert Wilders.

When reached last night by Fox Pam Gellers said something else: “This is our most basic right…. [Now] this is a war… it’s here. It’s not Paris, it’s not Copenhagen — it’s Texas.”

And so it is. The question now is whether the American people — and the President of the United States — will sit by quietly and not speak out. The Islamists don’t get to judge.

*** Free Speech Matters: