Russian warships Arrive in Cuba, Complete with Hypersonic Missiles

Posted on June 12, 2024June 12, 2024 by Denise Simon

Meanwhile, our Commander in Chief has left the United States for a G7 Summit in Italy.

Cuban armed forces said in a statement Thursday, confirming the military exercises first disclosed by U.S. officials on Wednesday.

The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces said the Russian missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the nuclear sub Kazan, the oil tanker Pashin and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker are included.

***

(exact text from USNI)

THE PENTAGON – A nuclear Russian submarine carrying guided missiles with a range of 1,000 nautical miles is operating off the East Coast as part of Russian missile drills in the Atlantic.
Kazan, a Yasen-M-class guided missile submarine, is part of a naval action group the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed to the Atlantic. The group is bound for the Caribbean as part of military drills ordered by the Kremlin against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, according to the MoD.

On Tuesday, Kazan and the advanced guided-missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov tested anti-ship missiles in the Atlantic at targets with a range of more than 350 miles before resuming its transit to a previously scheduled port visit to Havana on Wednesday, the Russian MoD said in a statement.

Ship spotters are tracking the Russian action group off the coast. The group was operating just east of the Florida Keys as of Tuesday afternoon and is under surveillance by at least three U.S. guided-missile destroyers and a P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft, according to public flight and ship tracking data.

A Navy spokesperson referred USNI News to the Office of the Secretary of Defense when asked about the U.S. warships. A Pentagon spokesperson would not confirm the details, but provided a Monday statement about the Russian exercises.

“Russia will conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States. These actions will likely culminate in a global Russian naval exercise this fall. We are expecting that Russia will temporarily send combat naval vessels to the Caribbean region and these ships will likely conduct port calls in Cuba and possibly Venezuela,” reads a statement from OSD.
“There may also be some aircraft deployments or flights in the region. Russia’s deployments are part of routine naval activity and we are not concerned by Russia’s deployments, which pose no direct threat to the United States. “

While Russian ships operating in the Caribbean is not new, the submarine and the frigate are among the most advanced Russian warships and their presence is the largest visit of Russian Navy ships to the region in years. For example, last year the training ship Perekop sailed to Havana.

The modern Kazan and Gorshkov both field a variety of anti-ship and land attack weapons. While it’s unclear what weapons the two ships used during the Tuesday test fire, they both can field the 1,000-mile range 3M-54 Kalibir NK land attack cruise missile, the P-800 Oniks anti-ship missile and the 3M-22 Zircon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.

According to a report in RUSI, Kazan could field up to 32 P-800s, 40 Kalibirs and an unknown number of Zircons.

The Kalibir, modeled on the U.S. Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, is a key weapon for the Yasen submarines.

The silent operation and weapon load out of the 13,800-ton submarines are reasons U.S. officials have used to describe the boats as some of the most capable in the world.

For the Yasens, “long-range strike missions appear to … a primary task. This will likely necessitate a change in how NATO manages the anti-submarine warfare challenge in the High North, given that a strategy of barrier defense at the Greenland–Iceland–U.K. gap may actually do little to impact Russian submarines, which may have little need to traverse this barrier in order to achieve their operational ends,” according to RUSI.

Last year, then-commander of U.S. Northern Command Gen. Glen VanHerck said the deployment of cruise-missile submarines off the coast of the U.S. is increasing and is a growing concern for homeland defense.

“[The risk is] absolutely increasing. Within the last year, Russia has also placed their [Yasens] in the Pacific,” he said.
“Now not only the Atlantic, but we also have them in the Pacific and it’s just a matter of time – probably a year or two – before that’s a persistent threat, 24 hours a day. … That impact has reduced decision space for a national senior leader in a time of crisis.”

8 ISIS-K Arrested in 3 Cities After Crossing the Southern Border

Posted on June 12, 2024June 12, 2024 by Denise Simon

In part from USA Today, hardly tells the whole story about this case.

WASHINGTON ― U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in recent days arrested eight foreign nationals in the U.S. suspected to have ties with the terrorist group ISIS, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation confirmed.

The eight individuals were detained on immigration charges from New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Each is from Tajikistan and entered the U.S. at the southern Mexico border, the official said. They remain in U.S. custody.

The official said no derogatory information was detected about the individuals during their initial screening at the border but the U.S. later learned information that tied them to ISIS. They don’t currently face any terrorism charges. More here.

A deeper dive:

The FBI had been tracking these operatives for several weeks, long before the most recent fake Biden Executive Order on the southern border. Obviously the White House ignored not only the case and intelligence but continues to ignore the warnings put forward by FBI Director Christopher Wray in several congressional hearings.

Bill Melugin

@BillMelugin_

BREAKING: Per federal source familiar, ICE, in conjunction w/ the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, arrested 8 Tajikistan nationals w/ suspected ISIS ties in NYC, LA, and Philly in recent days. I’m told all 8 crossed the southern border illegally, received “full vetting”, and had no initial derogatory information that flagged. I’m told derogatory info/potential national security concerns flagged later on – apparently after release into the US. Source was unable to say when and where they crossed illegally into the US. All are now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and an active federal investigation. This was initially scooped by

@JennieSTaer

& New York Post, who report at least one of the individuals was caught on a FBI wiretap talking about bombs. FBI/DHS joint statement to

@FoxNews

“Over the last few days, ICE agents arrested several non-citizens pursuant to immigration authorities. The actions were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The individuals arrested are detained in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment. The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security. ”

***

In part from CBS:The official noted that it is very difficult for the U.S. to deport migrants to Tajikistan due to both operational and diplomatic reasons. In fiscal year 2023, ICE deported only 4 migrants to that Central Asian country, according to agency data.

The arrests were carried out in close coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, adding that the individuals who were arrested are in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the U.S. has been in a heightened threat environment,” the statement went on to say. “The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security.”

*** Per UPI:

“Now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall,” Wray testified in April.

“As the FBI and DHS have recently described in public and partner bulletins, the United States has been in a heightened threat environment,” according to Tuesday’s statement on the arrests.

“The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate and disrupt potential threats to national security.”

According to the National Counterterrorism Center, IS-K is among the deadliest branches of ISIS, conducting attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as in Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan while seeking to conduct similar operations in the United States and Europe.

It was sanctioned by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization in 2016.

Actor George Clooney’s Wife Plays Key Role in ICC Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu

Posted on May 20, 2024May 20, 2024 by Denise Simon

Imagine having to defend your country for years against terrorists and using every humanitarian tactic seen and unseen and then have the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for doing just that. Imagine how many other leaders have never been investigated or have an arrest warrant…those like Bashir al Assad, President of Syria to killing innocent civilians with bombings and even chemical weapons. Imagine purposely starving and jailing dissenters and never having an arrest warrant…how about allowing children that are classified as migrants being sold or turned over to known sexual predators or being housed as slaves to work off the debt to human traffickers…..

Yes, all that and more…yet Amal Clooney says it goes something like this –> Oh and she for sure along with George is a globalist…

“There is no doubt that the step taken today by the prosecutor is a milestone in the history of international criminal law,” the group added. “There is no conflict that should be excluded from the reach of the law; no child’s life valued less than another’s. The law we apply is humanity’s law, not the law of any given side. It must protect all the victims of this conflict; and all civilians in conflicts to come.” source

Don’t kid yourself, this is part of the Biden administration’s ploy for a regime change in Israel…

The court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, accused Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned the move as disgraceful and antisemitic. U.S. President Joe Biden also lambasted the prosecutor and supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. source

Per the Daily Mail in part:

Amal Clooney played a key role in the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’ leader Yahya Sinwar over alleged war crimes, it has been revealed.

Clooney, a renowned human rights lawyer, was named as one of the six legal experts who helped British prosecutor Karim Khan come to the decision, announced today, to seek warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders.

Clooney, who is married to Hollywood legend George Clooney, revealed that she had been asked to help Khan evaluate the evidence of alleged war crimes in Gaza and Israel four months ago.

She added in a statement on her foundation’s website: ‘As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law.’

An Israeli official slammed the ICC’s move as a ‘baseless blood libel’ against the country, while senior figures including President Isaac Herzog called the move ‘outragious,’ saying it ‘cannot be accepted by anyone’.

‘[The] ICC prosecutor’s baseless blood libel against Israel has crossed a red line in his lawfare efforts against the lone Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East,’ the official said, according to the Financial Times.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday denounced as ‘shameful’ a bid by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to arrest Israeli leaders, rejecting the court’s authority and saying the move put ceasefire efforts at risk.

‘We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,’ Blinken said in a statement.

A spokesperson for British prime minister Rishi Sunak said: ‘This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in.’

‘We fully respect the independence of the ICC,’ Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer said. ‘The fact however that the leader of the terrorist organisation Hamas whose declared goal is the extinction of the State of Israel is being mentioned at the same time as the democratically elected representatives of that very State is non-comprehensible.’

Read the full article here from the Daily Mail for total context.

More about Amal: She has held various appointments with the Government of the United Kingdom and the United Nations, and is also an adjunct law professor at Columbia Law School. In 2016, she and her husband, the American actor George Clooney, co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Originally from Lebanon, her father is Druze and her mother is Sunni. She enrolled at the New York University School of Law (NYU Law) to study for an LLM degree. She received the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for excellence in entertainment law. While at the university, she worked for one semester in the office of American lawyer and jurist Sonia Sotomayor, who was then a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and an NYU Law faculty member. Since 2015, Amal has been a visiting faculty member as well as a senior fellow at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, where she co-teaches the Human Rights Course with Professor Sarah H. Cleveland.

Judge Merchan is Part of an Incestuous Legal Template

Posted on May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 by Denise Simon

There is a clique, a tribe and even a dynasty when it comes to judges, law firms and cases…they do collude and certainly between Washington DC and New York.

Juan Merchan - Zeydanspriyadi Judge Juan Merchan

So, have a look at the Judge overseeing the Trump ‘hush-money’ case, Juan Merchan…You may need to even take notes for this.

Merchan was born in Bogota, Columbia and later emigrated to New York and is a graduate of Hofstra University.
Merchan’s career began with the appointment to a Bronx Family Court by then Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Then Democrat Governor David Patterson appointed Merchan to the New York State Supreme Court.
He has given campaign donations to the Democrat Party, to Joe Biden’s campaign, to the Progressive Turnout Project and to Stop Republicans, a subsidiary of the Progressive Turnout Project.
Merchan presided over the Trump Organization in the tax fraud case that sent Allen Weisselberg to prison.
He too was the Judge in the Steve Bannon case for fraud.
His daughter Loren serves as President of the Chicago based Authentic Campaigns, a digital firm that does online fundraising, web design and mobile messaging.
Authentic Campaigns has history of work for: Senator Corey Booker, Avow (abortion advocacy), Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Governor Katie Hobbs, Governor Tina Kotek, the Immigrant Justice Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, Vote dot Org which uses Taylor Swift, the United Nations Populations Fund, Adam Schiff for Senate, Biden Harris, Governor Kathy Hochul, Congressman Dan Goldman, Senator Mazie Hirono, Hakeem Jeffries and even Ilhan Omar.
New York Congressman Dan Goldman also prepped Michael Cohen as a witness for the Trump trial.Goldman also paid more than $157,000 dollars to the political consulting firm of Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, Federal Election Commission disbursement filings.
Congressman Dan Goldman, per Breitbart running in New York, is part of a new cohort of left-wing prosecutors who have brought their “woke” left-wing ideas into law enforcement, where their mission is to liberate criminals through “reform,” while persecuting conservatives.
He was once an obscure former Southern District of New York prosecutor who appeared occasionally on MSNBC, where he helped spread the “Russia collusion” conspiracy theory. Notably, he was taken in by Christopher Steele’s so-called “pee tape.”

He then found his way to the House Intelligence Committee, where he was employed as Schiff’s committee counsel. In that role, he led the impeachment investigation — such as it was — into President Donald Trump’s supposedly scandalous phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The staff at Authentic Campaigns per the website is made up of 55% Cis-women, 36% Cis men and 10% non-binary and well it seems the entire organization is about pronouns too.
In 2020, Kamala Harris paid Authentic Campaign for services along with Perkins Coie (the firm that initiated the Trump dossier) and Act Blue.
Loren Merchan has raised so far $93 million just off the Trump ‘hush-money’ case while raising $73.6 million for the Senator Schumer led Democrat Senate PAC.
Judge Juan Merchan’s wife, Lara Merchan, worked for 21 years as a Special Assistant in the New York Attorney General’s office, including three years when Letitia James served as AG. James had led a widespread investigation into Trump’s business dealings and last year won a $350 million civil fraud case against the former president.
Letitia James and Alvin Bragg

And then this –>

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James demanding documents about New York County District Attorney (DANY) Alvin Bragg’s lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo as the Committee continues its investigation into politicized prosecutions.

Given the perception that the Biden DOJ is assisting in District Attorney Bragg’s prosecution, Chairman Jordan has requested communications and documents related to Colangelo’s previous employment at the New York Attorney General’s Office, where he worked several anti-Trump investigations. The fact that a former senior Biden DOJ official—whose previous employment consisted of leading “a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies”—is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden DOJ is politicized and weaponized.

Yesterday, May 15, 2024, at 10:00 am ET the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a hearing to examine the weaponization of the rule of law.

Excerpts of the letter to New York AG Letitia James:

“Mr. Colangelo’s recent employment history demonstrates his obsession with investigating a person rather than prosecuting a crime. At the New York Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Colangelo—who, for some time, held the title of Chief Counsel for Federal Initiatives—ran investigations into President Trump, leading ‘a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies.’ On January 20, 2021, the first day of the Biden Administration, Mr. Colangelo began serving as the Acting Associate Attorney General—the number three official at the Justice Department. Upon the confirmation of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, Mr. Colangelo then served as the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. In December 2022, District Attorney Bragg ‘beefed up [his] office’ by hiring Mr. Colangelo to fill the void left by the departure of politicized line prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne. District Attorney Bragg hired Mr. Colangelo to ‘jump-start’ his office’s investigation of President Trump, reportedly due to Mr. Colangelo’s ‘history of taking on Donald J. Trump and his family business.’ Mr. Colangelo is now a lead prosecutor in President Trump’s trial.

“District Attorney Bragg’s prosecution concerns federal subject matter that is identical to a matter that the Justice Department closed in 2018, raising concerns that a state-level prosecutor is seeking to relitigate an issue on which the federal government previously declined prosecution. In addition, Bragg’s prosecution relies heavily on the testimony of his star witness, Michael Cohen, a convicted felon with a demonstrable bias against President Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 2018. In 2019, when he testified before the Democrat-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform in a hearing orchestrated by a longtime Democrat activist to aid their fruitless investigation into President Trump, Cohen lied again—six times. In the years since, Cohen has been vocal about his deeply personal animus toward President Trump.

“District Attorney Bragg’s politicized prosecution of President Trump has serious consequences for federal interests. The fact that a former senior Biden Justice Department official—whose previous employment consisted of leading ‘a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies’—is now leading the prosecution of President Biden’s chief political rival only adds to the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized.”

Read the full letter to New York AG Letitia James here.

Read the full letter to AG Garland here.

Read the full letter to Matthew Colangelo here.

Read the full letter to Alvin Bragg here.

Obama’s Radical Relationships are Cloned in the Biden Admin

Posted on May 14, 2024May 14, 2024 by Denise Simon

Does President Obama’s radical past tell us anything significant about his stance on Israel today? Perhaps more important, do the radical alliances of Obama’s Chicago days raise a warning flag about what the president’s position on Israel may be in 2013, should he safely secure reelection? Many will deny it, but I believe Obama’s radical history speaks volumes about the past, present, and likely future course of his policy on Israel.

The Los Angeles Times has long refused to release a videotape in its possession of a farewell dinner, attended by Obama, for scholar and Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi. Obama spoke warmly of his friendship for Khalidi at that event. Unfortunately, the continuing mystery of that video tape has obscured the rather remarkable article that the LA Times did publish about the dinner — and about Obama’s broader views on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In light of the controversy over Obama’s remarks on Israel in his address yesterday on the Middle East, it is worth revisiting that 2008 article from the LA Times. More here from 2011

*** Biden’s NSC Intel Director, Maher Bitar, Is a Former Radical Pro-Palestinian Activst

Meet Maher Bitar and as found on Wikipedia:

Bitar worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jerusalem.^[2]

Obama Administration

During the Obama Administration, Bitar worked at the National Security Council (NSC) as Director for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, and was an deputy to Samantha Power during her tenure at the NSC.^[6] From 2011 to 2016, Bitar worked as a foreign affairs officer at the Department of State.^[7] At the State Department, Bihar developed a close relationship with Jake Sullivan.^[6]

In 2017, Bitar joined the House Intelligence Committee as general counsel for the Democrats, where he played a role in the first impeachment of Donald Trump.^[6] He was also legal counsel to U.S. Representative Adam Schiff.^[8]

Biden Administration

At the beginning of the Biden Administration in January 2021, Bitar was appointed Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the NSC, succeeding Michael Ellis.^[9]^[6] His appointment was praised by Rob Malley and Ziad Asali of the pro-Palestinian group American Task Force on Palestine.^[5]

In January 2024, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan moved Bitar into a new role at the NSC as Deputy Assistant to the President and coordinator for intelligence and defense policy.^[10]^[11]

***

It gets more interesting…

Caroline Glick noted that Bitar’s master’s thesis at Oxford University was about the so-called Palestinian “Nakba,” which is how Palestinians now refer to the displacement of 700,000 people due to a war in which Arab states tried to destroy Israel at its founding.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the U.S., also warned at the time of Bitar’s appointment that Bitar’s his rise to a position of prominence at the White House meant that “anti-Israel hate occupies the top of the foreign policy establishment and is set to define the foreign policy of the Biden administration.”

Bitar also played a key role in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, working for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on the House Intelligence Committee. Politico described Bitar as Schiff’s “top legal adviser,” and added:

He served as [National Security Council] director for Israeli and Palestinian affairs during the Obama administration and as a deputy to Samantha Power while she was at the NSC. He also worked as a foreign affairs officer at the State Department. Bitar is close with national security adviser Jake Sullivan from their time together at the State Department.

…

Bitar served as a senior member of the House impeachment team during Trump’s first impeachment, alongside Dan Goldman who worked as the impeachment manager’s top lawyer. Goldman called Bitar “a brilliant lawyer” and said his experience on the committee would give the new NSC insight into the changes in the intelligence community over the last four years.

The office of the senior director for intelligence receives sensitive information that comes in from the intelligence agencies, especially if it is in hard copy form, and coordinates covert action activities between the White House and the intelligence community. It’s also where the NSC houses the server that stores the most sensitive classified information. source

Perhaps even worse…

Bitar is joined at the hip with Robert Malley and he is under severe investigation.

The FBI is investigating whether the Biden administration’s Iran envoy, Rob Malley, moved classified information onto his personal email, where it may have fallen into the hands of a foreign actor, according to a person briefed on the case and a letter from Republican lawmakers.

Investigators are trying to determine if any crimes were committed, according to the person briefed on the case and another person familiar with the matter. But it is not yet clear if the Department of Justice will bring any charges against Malley or what the scope of any charges might be. The people were granted anonymity to discuss a highly sensitive issue. Malley’s security clearance was suspended roughly a year ago, and he later went on full-time leave. As President Joe Biden’s envoy for Iran issues, Malley’s position included trying to revive the nuclear deal the United States and other nations had struck with Tehran. Iran hawks, many of whom view Malley as too soft on Tehran, have used the investigation into him to attack Biden’s policies toward Iran.