During Iran Talks, we Knew Iran was Harboring al Qaeda

It is stunning, that not only has John Kerry declared that upon the completed talks and agreement(s) with Iran, Iran would normalized and be a peaceful accepted actor on the global stage, but it is easy to conclude that during the hostilities with Islamic State in Iraq, the West has essentially given Iraq over to Iran. The Baghdad government is owned by Tehran. Mentioning the billions of dollars, much of it U.S. taxpayer dollars to Iran is almost anti-climatic at this point, when the notion of Iran operating globally with terror is a rightful prediction in the coming months and years. The United States has financially aided Iraq with billions of dollars and with more than 100,000 Iranian Shiite fighters in Iraq, how do we keep our money meant for Iraq out of the hands of Iran? We don’t.

Related reading: Al Qaeda in Iran

There is much talk that Saudi Arabia was behind the attacks of 9/11, while there are key Saudi operators that do deserve a guilty outcome, Iran has an much if not more history and responsibility when it comes to al Qaeda.

Could this another reasons be the basis for the decision not to publically release all the bin Ladin documents found at his compound in Abbottabad?

U.S. blacklists three al Qaeda members living in Iran

Reuters: The United States on Wednesday blacklisted three members of al Qaeda living in Iran, saying they had helped the Islamist militant group on the battlefield, with finance and logistics, and in mediating with Iranian authorities.

Iran has held several al Qaeda high-ranking members and lower-level militants since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, though U.S. officials say the precise conditions of their confinement are unclear.

Faisal Jassim Mohammed al-Amri al-Khalidi, a 31-year-old Saudi national, led an al Qaeda brigade and was serving as the group’s military commission chief in May 2015, Treasury said, describing him as “part of a new generation” of al Qaeda operatives. As of 2011, Khalidi liaised between al Qaeda associates, central council members, and leaders within the Pakistani Taliban.

Yisra Muhammad Ibrahim Bayumi, 48 and an Egyptian national, mediated with Iranian authorities as of early 2015, Treasury said, and helped al Qaeda members living in Iran.

Abu Bakr Muhammad Muhammad Ghumayn, 35, had control of the group’s financing and organization inside Iran as of 2015, Treasury said. Ghumayn, an Algerian, was previously based in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda and Iran’s government have a complex and sometimes tense relationship, according to documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan and made public. At times Iranian authorities promised to release and may have actually released al Qaeda figures, but one of bin Laden’s sons who had been held in Iran, Saad, reportedly was killed in 2009.

Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim rulers deny cooperating with al Qaeda, a Sunni group. Iranian officials call al Qaeda a terrorist group, and Iranian security forces periodically report the arrest of al Qaeda members.

An analysis by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point published in 2012 concluded that while it was obvious the al Qaeda-Iran relationship was antagonistic, the rationale behind Iran’s detention of al Qaeda militants for years “without due process” was unclear.

Treasury’s statement did not make clear what conditions the men were living under in Iran. Bayumi has been in Iran since 2014, Treasury said, but it did not say how long the other two men had lived there. Bayumi had been able to secure funds from Syria for al Qaeda members and facilitate al Qaeda funds transfers in 2015, Treasury said, suggesting he had some freedom to operate since moving to Iran.

Wednesday’s measure freezes any property of the three men in the United States, and bars U.S. citizens from dealing with them.

Iran Released Top Members of Al Qaeda in a Trade

NYT: The government of Iran released five senior members of Al Qaeda earlier this year, including the man who stepped in to serve as the terrorist group’s interim leader immediately after Osama bin Laden’s death, and who is the subject of a $5 million bounty, according to an American official who had been briefed on the matter.

Iran’s release of the five men was part of a prisoner swap in March with Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the group holding an Iranian diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht. Mr. Nikbakht was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital of Sana in July 2013.

The Iranian government, in a statement on Thursday after the release was reported by Sky News earlier this week, denied that the five men had been freed. The American official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter, confirmed the release of Saif al-Adl, a senior member of Al Qaeda’s ruling body, known as the Shura Council, who oversaw the organization immediately after bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011.

Analysts tracking Al Qaeda described the release as alarming, given the seniority of the five men. It comes at a time when much of the organization’s leadership has been lost in back-to-back airstrikes, including the death earlier this summer of Nasser al-Wuhayshi, considered to be the organization’s general manager. At the same time, the organization had been hemorrhaging members to the more brutal and media-savvy Islamic State.

Of special concern is the release of Mr. Adl, a former colonel in the Egyptian military believed to be in his 50s, who is listed on the F.B.I.’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, and who was indicted in the 1998 United States Embassy bombings in East Africa. Qaeda operatives have described him as the organization’s operational boss.

A passport photo of Saif al-Adl. Credit via Kronos Advisory LLC

Cynthia Storer, who was the Central Intelligence Agency’s first full-time analyst dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, called him a “founding father.” She added, “If the organization is having internal issues, he is someone that could bring it together.”

A Qaeda analyst, Michael S. Smith II of Kronos Advisory, who has tracked Mr. Adl’s rise, describes him as “the biggest fish of the big fish” and argued that Al Qaeda’s future would rest on the shoulders of Saif al-Adl.

It remains unclear when exactly the swap occurred, with some saying it happened almost six months ago. The release of Mr. Adl will act like “a shot of energy” in the leadership arm of Al Qaeda, said Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who retired last year after heading the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“The collusion between Al Qaeda and Iran is something we have seen before and this trade, if known by the U.S., should have been included as part of the Iran deal negotiations,” General Flynn said.

According to the official briefed on the details of the transfer, the other four men released by Iran were Abdul Khayr al-Misri, an Egyptian who formerly headed Al Qaeda’s foreign relations council; Abul Qassam, a Jordanian who was a deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of the organization that later became the Islamic State; Sari Shibab, a Jordanian operative; and Abu Mohamed al-Misri, an Egyptian who helped orchestrate Al Qaeda’s major attacks before Sept. 11, 2001.

After those attacks, Mr. Smith, said, Al Qaeda decided to move several high-level leaders to Iran, believing that this would be one of the only places beyond America’s military reach.

Mr. Adl, for example, was dispatched alongside one of bin Laden’s wives and her children, and entrusted to organize their safe passage, he said.

It remains unclear when the men were detained by Iranian officials. They were held under house arrest, Mr. Smith said, and continued to communicate with Al Qaeda, according to intercepts and letters that were later recovered.

Mafia Using Islamic Terror Tactics

Mafia gangsters in Naples styling themselves on Islamist terrorists

Telegraph: A new generation of mafia gangsters battling over drug turfs on the mean streets of Naples are styling themselves on the Islamist extremists of Isil and the Taliban, Italian prosecutors have revealed.

Police at the scene of a shooting in Naples in August 2016. The district has seen ambushes and clashes between rival clans of the Camorra mafiaPolice at the scene of a shooting in Naples in August 2016. The district has seen ambushes and clashes between rival clans of the Camorra mafia Credit: Fabio Sasso /REX

Mobsters belonging to the Camorra mafia are growing long beards and embracing a “cult of death” similar to that adopted by the terrorists of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  One clan, in the Sanita district of Naples, has taken to calling itself the “Barbuti” – the bearded ones.

The new generation, which is challenging the supremacy of older, more established Camorra families, flirts with death in order to give meaning to their lives, said Nicola Quatrano, a judge who recently condemned 43 mafia criminals to prison for a variety of serious crimes.

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It is also a way of striking fear into their enemies, by presenting themselves as being as unscrupulous and murderous as Isil fighters.

“An existential thread links the young men who course through the streets of Naples with guns, and jihadi militants. Both groups are obsessed with death. Maybe they are in love with the idea, they are seeking it out, almost as if it is the only way of giving meaning to their lives,” the judge said.

Related reading: Immigrants Globally a Boon to Mafia and Gangs

Neapolitan gangsters have no interest in converting to Islam, but selectively base their “role models and modes of behaviour” on Islamist terrorists, Mr Quatrano said.  “Some have grown bushy beards in the Taliban style,” he said, in a court document in which he outlined the legal arguments for his conviction of the 43 defendants.

A prominent example was Emanuele Sibillo, a Camorra gangster who grew a jihadist-style beard.  He was shot dead last summer at the age of 19 during a turf war with a rival clan.

In their imagination, Islamic State represents ferocity and a lack of fearVincenzo Morgese

“Today he is regarded as a hero in the alleys and narrow streets of Naples’ historic centre, venerated almost like San Gennaro (the patron saint of Naples) on the altar which his family have erected in his memory,” the judge said.

Vincenzo Morgese, who works with young offenders in Naples, said: “In their imagination, Islamic State represents ferocity and a lack of fear. It’s a symbol of the fight against the State, against institutions and against other tribes.”

The desperate lives of young Camorra criminals in Naples is portrayed in a new Italian documentary, called “Robinu”.  “When I have a Kalashnikov in my hands, I feel like the boss,” one young man says in the film.

Belen RodriguezOne alleged member of the Camorra mafia said that holding a Kalashnikov was like having Belen Rodriguez, one of Italy’s most famous showgirls, in his arms Credit: Maria Laura Antonelli/REX

“A Kalashnikov is the most beautiful thing in the world. It’s like holding Belen (Rodriguez, one of Italy’s best-known models and TV showgirls) in your arms.”

Hillary: Basket of Deplorables, But what About Senator Whitehouse?

Nancy Pelosi called them ‘astro-turf’. Obamacare architect, Jonathon Gruber called people ‘stupid‘. Things inside the beltway move quite slowly and the reason is the lack of cooperation with the most transparent administration in history, where agencies slow walk responses to document requests, FOIA requests and subpoenas. Such is the case with the IRS targeting program. Now there is a new twist….a senator. Seems the Department of Justice, under that pesky former U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder did have his agency hands on the targeting program. Does he get called back to testify?

How so? Seems the House is calling for an impeachment vote on the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Thursday. Perhaps we should get a group rate and group action on these impeachments.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was/is not bashful about this disdain for conservative groups as noted from his own senate webpage:

Sen. Whitehouse Renews Focus on the “Greater” Scandal at IRS

Senator Urges IRS to Develop Plan for Cracking Down on Groups Misleading the IRS About Their Political Activity

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a leading advocate for campaign finance reform, renewed his call today for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate organizations that abuse non-profit 501(c)(4) status by misleading the IRS about their political activity.  The Senator made his case in a letter today to Acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.

Emails: Dem Senator Urged Justice Department to Prosecute Conservative Groups

Sheldon Whitehouse had specific Tea Party groups in mind as targets

FreeBeacon: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) urged the Department of Justice to prosecute conservative groups that were targeted by the IRS, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Sheldon’s staff emailed the Justice Department before an April hearing asking why the department wouldn’t prosecute conservative groups.

“New question from Sen. Whitehouse,” the staff email said. “Sen. Whitehouse is likely to ask [Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili] Raman whether the Department of Justice is too deferential to IRS in deciding to prosecute 501(c) tax organizations that make false statements regarding their political activities in IRS filings.”

“Sen. Whitehouse is curious why, for example if a 501(c) tax organization files were leaked, and they clearly showed that make false statements, [sic] why the Department of Justice wouldn’t prosecute the case by itself and not wait for the IRS,” the email continued.

At the hearing, Whitehouse urged the Justice Department to rethink its deference to the IRS in these cases.

“I would urge that the Department and the Service get together and rethink whether in these two specific areas, which I think bear little resemblance to traditional tax violations and are in fact very plain-vanilla criminal cases, whether or not that deference to the IRS is actually serving the public interest at this point,” Whitehouse said.

The emails reveal that Whitehouse had specific conservative groups in mind for prosecution, including the American Future Fund, Crossroads GPS, Americans for Responsible Leadership, Freedom Path, American is Not Stupid, Inc., RightChange.com II, and A Better America Now.

“The Obama IRS scandal includes abuse of power by Democrats in Congress who wanted to jail Obama’s political opponents to help secure Obama’s reelection,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “And Americans should know that the courts have recently concluded the Obama IRS abuses haven’t stopped- even as we approach another presidential election.”

Whitehouse’s Senate office did not respond to requests for comment.

John Kerry’s Daughter Vanessa and Funneling of Millions

Vanessa Kerry, a physician, married Dr. Brian Nahed in 2009, the New York-born son of Iranian-Americans who live in California.

Related reading: Seed CEO Vanessa Kerry Speaks at HIV/AIDS Problem Solvers Forum

EXCLUSIVE: John Kerry’s State Department Funneled MILLIONS To His Daughter’s Nonprofit

DailyCaller: More than $9 million of Department of State money has been funneled through the Peace Corps to a nonprofit foundation started and run by Secretary of State John Kerry’s daughter, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.

The Department of State funded a Peace Corps program created by Dr. Vanessa Kerry and officials from both agencies, records show. The Peace Corps then awarded the money without competition to a nonprofit Kerry created for the program.

Initially, the Peace Corps awarded Kerry’s group — now called Seed Global Health — with a three-year contract worth $2 million of State Department money on Sept. 10, 2012, documents show. Her father was then the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which oversees both the Department of State and the Peace Corps.

Seed secured a four-year extension in September 2015, again without competition. This time, the Peace Corps gave the nonprofit $6.4 million provided by the Department of State while John Kerry was secretary of state.

Seed also received almost $1 million from a modification to the first award, as well as from Department of State funds the group secured outside the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps program — called the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) — sends volunteer physicians and nurses to medical and nursing schools in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Liberia, according to Seed’s website. More than 40 clinical educators worked at 13 sites in the 2014-2015 program.

Kerry and government officials colluded to launch the program and ensure that Seed would get the contract.

“Vanessa, Buck, and Sarah are meeting with Ambassador Goosby on the morning of 9/16/11 to discuss next steps for the GHSP,” said a memo from September 16, 2011 — one year before Seed received its first award. “Conversations with OGAC leadership confirm that Ambassador Goosby is very supportive of the initial proposal.”

The memo was referring to Peace Corps Directors Buck Buckingham and Sarah Morgenthau and Ambassador Eric Goosby, who then headed the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) — the State Department office that later funded GHSP.

A meeting one month later unveiled the strategy to send tax dollars to Seed.

“The public funding to start the GHSP is secured, it will come from OGAC through [Peace Corps] to support core HQ and field based activities, and to develop a sub-agreement to provide support to the foundation for contributions for their work in this partnership,” minutes from a Nov. 18, 2011, meeting said. The “foundation” refers to Seed, which was then called the Foundation for Global Health Service.

Officials in that meeting also assured Kerry that she would not have to compete with other groups for Department of State funds.

“Buck obtained clarity of the mechanism by which federal money will be provided to” Seed, the minutes said. “The process can be fast tracked and non-competed through a specific grant mechanism.”

Meanwhile, the State Department buried its intent to transfer funds to the Peace Corps in its required congressional notification.

“The GHSP is a smaller line item in a multi-page document with multi-million dollar programs,” minutes from the November 2011 meeting said.

Seed received its first award less than one year later. Peace Corps later provided another nearly $900,000, noting it underestimated the program’s expenses, especially travel and salary costs.

It’s unclear when that modification was added, but Kerry drew a salary from Seed for the first time in 2014. She was the only officer listed on the nonprofit’s 990 tax form to receive compensation — some $140,000 for a reported 30 hours per week.

Discussion about the $6.4 million extension also provides questionable details. Peace Corps officials noted that contracts could not extend beyond five years and considered competing the next award, but decided they would “go forward with sole-source option if mandated by OGAC,” minutes from a July 17, 2014 meeting said.

Ultimately, the extension was awarded without competition on Sept. 10, 2015. It’s unclear why the Peace Corps violated its five-year policy by giving Seed seven years of non-competitively awarded funding.

Peace Corps justified the decision to forgo competition by arguing Seed was already burrowed into the program, and that replacing it out would cause problems.

“As such, if a cooperative agreement were to be awarded to a new partner, applicants that were recruited and vetted by Seed may be unable to be placed in the field,” a Sept. 10 2015 document stated. The document further noted that “Peace Corps has been unable to identify any potential partners which satisfy the needs of the GHSP program” other than Seed, which was created based around the program’s needs.

Seed spokesman Mark Marino denied any conflicts of interest, telling TheDCNF:

No conflict of interest exists in our partnership with Peace Corps and the US government. Dr. Vanessa Kerry is primarily employed by and paid through Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kerry receives no financial compensation from the Peace Corps or US government. Funding from the Peace Corps, an independent agency in the federal government, represents about 27% of Seed’s total $6.3 million budget this fiscal year.

Marino also claimed that “Seed is the only organization that provides debt repayment for US doctors, nurses, and midwives to serve internationally, something Seed does entirely through private philanthropy. Seed specifically works in the areas of medical, nursing and midwifery education focused on human resource capacity building, making it different than many other non-government organizations.”
A Peace Corps spokesman who demanded anonymity told TheDCNF that the “Peace Corps is proud of the continued work we have done in collaboration with Seed Global Health and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to send qualified health professionals abroad to teach and expand clinical capacity.”

“Since the agency’s early years, Peace Corps has sought to improve health outcomes in the countries it serves. The Global Health Service Partnership is an innovative continuation of the Peace Corps’ commitment to global health.”

Department of State spokesman John Kirby told TheDCNF that “there is absolutely no conflict of interest here. Secretary Kerry played no role in this decision making while in the Senate or subsequently while at the State Department.”

Kirby said “Kerry’s work on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee allotted funding to PEPFAR generally — not directly to this program. Using funds appropriated by Congress for PEPFAR, the State Department directs funds through an interagency process to seven implementing agencies.”

“The Peace Corps recommended the GHSP for funding support, and approval of that support went through the standard interagency budgeting and review process. The GHSP was one element supporting PEPFAR’s Human Resources for Health Strategy, which was developed in part to meet the goal set by the U.S. Congress of 140,000 new health care workers trained by PEPFAR under its fiscal year 2009-2013 reauthorization.”

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Social Justice: National Sovereignty and the Right of Intervention

Where is this social justice movement coming from? Do you ever go keyboarding on the internet looking for one specific thing and uncover something related and much bigger? When it comes to this festering growth movement of ‘social justice’ as we are witnessing throughout the country, one must ask what is the genesis. We saw some demands surface after Ferguson and Baltimore. Between those two protests and legal investigations, the White House launched a 21st Century Policing Mandate. But how was this mandate conceived? Ah, seems we need to hop over to New York and that interesting building called the United Nations.

So, it is reasonable to consider the BLM movement is well funded and not only has made it’s way onto Elm Street, it is also taking a place onto network television, where we are forced to see it where the largest TV audiences merge, NFL football.

Are there some connections or collaboration going on here? It cant be proven, however this is a time you can be the judge as this appears to have history and will be with us for years to come.

There is a training program. There are countless issues that do need to be addressed and this movement does have valid reasons that deserve attention. The question is are all components being addressed including the true root causes?

Related reading and timeline: Black Lives Matter: The Growth of a New Social Justice Movement

This is a long United Nations document, almost 160 pages, but to help out the reader, begin at document page 11.

Circa 2006:

The application of social justice requires a geographical, sociological, political

and cultural framework within which relations between individuals and groups can

be understood, assessed, and characterized as just or unjust. In modern times, this

framework has been the nation-State. The country typically represents the context

in which various aspects of social justice, such as the distribution of income in a

population, are observed and measured; this benchmark is used not only by national

Governments but also by international organizations and supranational entities such

as the European Union. At the same time, there is clearly a universal dimension

to social justice, with humanity as the common factor. Slaves, exploited workers

and oppressed women are above all victimized human beings whose location matters

less than their circumstances. This universality has taken on added depth and

relevance as the physical and cultural distance between the world’s peoples has

effectively shrunk. In their discussions regarding the situation of migrant workers,

for example, Forum participants readily acknowledged the national and global dimensions

of social justice.

Social justice is treated as synonymous with distributive justice, which again is often

identified with unqualified references to justice, in the specific context of the activities

of the United Nations, the precise reasons for which may only be conjectured.

In its work, for reasons that will be examined in chapter 5, the United Nations has essentially

from the beginning separated the human rights domain from the economic

and social domains, with activities in the latter two having been almost exclusively

focused on development. Issues relating to the distributive and redistributive effects

of social and economic policies—issues of justice—have therefore been addressed

separately from issues of rights, including those inscribed in the International Covenant

on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The unfortunate consequences of

this dissociation must be acknowledged. To support the concept of social justice is

to argue for a reconciliation of these priorities within the context of a broader social

perspective in which individuals endowed with rights and freedoms operate within

the framework of the duties and responsibilities attached to living in society. Notwithstanding

the implied associations between social justice, redistributive justice,

and justice as a more general concept, the fact is that the explicit commitment to

social justice has seriously deteriorated; over the past decade, the expression has

practically disappeared from the international lexicon and likely from the official language

of most countries. The position will be taken here that the United Nations

must work to try to restore the integrity and appeal of social justice, interpreted in

the contemporary context as distributive justice.

****

This part is chilling just considering the concept:

2.1 National sovereignty and the right of intervention

The Forum noted that on two recent occasions, force had been used against States

Members of the United Nations without the formal approval of the Security Council

and outside the provisions of chapter VII of the Charter.10 Even prior to these events,

the “right of intervention”, legitimized by the overriding need to protect human

rights and in particular to prevent genocide, had been openly and vigorously debated

in international circles. Today, it is generally agreed that the principles of respect for

national sovereignty and non-interference in the domestic affairs of a State can be

legitimately suspended to address unchecked and unpunished violations of basic

human rights and fundamental freedoms. Intolerance for such violations represents

a heightening of the human consciousness and real progress, and is a necessary

step in the building of a true world community. Vexing questions arise, however,

with regard to the type of legal regime needed to govern this right of intervention.