Ninety miles from the South Eastern tip of the United States, Liberty has no stead. In order for Liberty to exist and thrive, Tyranny must be identified, recognized, confronted and extinguished.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Symptoms Of A Death Cult...
“This is not a Drill” Dispatch, 12/7/1941
File Unit: EF37 - Foreign Governments and Countries - Japan, 12/7/1941 - 12/7/1941. Series: General Correspondence, 1930 - 1943. Record Group 181: Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments, 1784 - 2000.
This Navy dispatch announces the attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese Navy. It was received at the Squantum Naval Reserve Aviation Base on December 7, 1941 from the First Naval District. It states, “AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.”
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: Ukraine was the Origin of the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax
My-oh-my, what a tangled web did the far-left weave when it comes to the now-infamous Trump-Russia collusion hoax and the now equally infamous anti-Trump / Ukraine impeachment clown show.
Here’s a bit of fact-finding carried out by Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D., a retired US Army Reserve colonel, an IT command and control and cybersecurity subject matter expert and a veteran of Afghanistan who does a fantastic job connecting the dots between Ukraine, the Obama-era State Department, (including the alleged Ukraine whistleblower) various Deep State officials like James Comey, the Clinton campaign, high-ranking Democrats, etc.
This is a must-read…
“December 2015 was a pivotal month in many respects.
During the first week of December 2015, Donald Trump began to establish a substantial lead over his Republican primary opponents.
Vice President Joseph Biden traveled to Ukraine to announce, on December 7th, a $190 million program to “fight corruption in law enforcement and reform the justice sector,” but behind the scenes explicitly linked a $1 billion loan guarantee to the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating the energy company Burisma, which employed Biden’s son Hunter.
On December 9, 2015, the reported whistleblower Eric Ciaramella held a meeting in Room 236 of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Action Center, which was 59%-funded by Barack Obama’s State Department and the International Renaissance Foundation, a George Soros organization.
Also attending that meeting was Catherine Newcombe, attorney in the Criminal Division, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, with the U.S. Department of Justice, where, among other duties, she oversaw the Department’s legal assistance programs to Ukraine.
By December 2015, Paul Manafort was undoubtedly considering approaching the Trump campaign to rejuvenate his U.S. political bona fides and mitigate the legal and financial difficulties he was experiencing at the time.
From the beginning of his association with the Trump campaign, Roger Stone, a longtime Manafort partner, made a strong case to Trump to bring in Manafort, who would officially connect to the campaign immediately after the February 1, 2016 Iowa caucuses.
Based on events occurring during the same period, were Obama Deep State operatives aware of Manafort’s intent and already intending to use his past questionable practices and links to Russia against Trump?
Such awareness of Manafort’s plans could have been obtained either through FBI surveillance, which began in 2014 and ended in early 2016, or through information provided by Manafort associates, for example, Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort and was a FBI and Department of State asset, not a Russian agent as later painted by the Mueller investigation.
According to White House visitor logs, on January 19, 2016, Eric Ciaramella chaired a meeting of FBI, Department of Justice and Department of State personnel, which had two main objectives:
To coerce the Ukrainians to drop the Burisma probe, which involved Vice President Joseph Biden’s son Hunter, and allow the FBI to take it over the investigation.
“December 2015 was a pivotal month in many respects.
During the first week of December 2015, Donald Trump began to establish a substantial lead over his Republican primary opponents.
Vice President Joseph Biden traveled to Ukraine to announce, on December 7th, a $190 million program to “fight corruption in law enforcement and reform the justice sector,” but behind the scenes explicitly linked a $1 billion loan guarantee to the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating the energy company Burisma, which employed Biden’s son Hunter.
On December 9, 2015, the reported whistleblower Eric Ciaramella held a meeting in Room 236 of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Action Center, which was 59%-funded by Barack Obama’s State Department and the International Renaissance Foundation, a George Soros organization.
Also attending that meeting was Catherine Newcombe, attorney in the Criminal Division, Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, with the U.S. Department of Justice, where, among other duties, she oversaw the Department’s legal assistance programs to Ukraine.
By December 2015, Paul Manafort was undoubtedly considering approaching the Trump campaign to rejuvenate his U.S. political bona fides and mitigate the legal and financial difficulties he was experiencing at the time.
From the beginning of his association with the Trump campaign, Roger Stone, a longtime Manafort partner, made a strong case to Trump to bring in Manafort, who would officially connect to the campaign immediately after the February 1, 2016 Iowa caucuses.
Based on events occurring during the same period, were Obama Deep State operatives aware of Manafort’s intent and already intending to use his past questionable practices and links to Russia against Trump?
Such awareness of Manafort’s plans could have been obtained either through FBI surveillance, which began in 2014 and ended in early 2016, or through information provided by Manafort associates, for example, Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort and was a FBI and Department of State asset, not a Russian agent as later painted by the Mueller investigation.
According to White House visitor logs, on January 19, 2016, Eric Ciaramella chaired a meeting of FBI, Department of Justice and Department of State personnel, which had two main objectives:
To coerce the Ukrainians to drop the Burisma probe, which involved Vice President Joseph Biden’s son Hunter, and allow the FBI to take it over the investigation.
To reopen a closed 2014 FBI investigation that focused heavily on GOP lobbyist Paul Manafort, whose firm long had been tied to Trump through his partner and Trump pal, Roger Stone.
That is, contain the investigation of Biden’s son and ramp up the investigation of...
Report: 6 Saudis Detained After Pensacola Shooting, Including 3 Who Filmed Attack
Six Saudi nationals, including three who allegedly filmed Friday’s attack on Naval Air Station Pensacola, were reportedly detained after the shooting.
Breitbart News reported that a gunman opened fire at the air station Friday morning, killing three and wounding numerous others.
The Associated Press reports that the Pensacola gunman was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, and NBC News reports that the gunman’s name was Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
Now the New York Times reports that six other Saudis were detained after the shooting and three of those six allegedly filmed the shooting as it unfolded in Pensacola.
The shooter was reportedly at the Pensacola to train. Former Gov. Rick Scott, currently Sen. Scott (R-FL), expressed concern that the Saudi attacker was in Pensacola training on a U.S. base:
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media, identified the gunman as Mohammed al-Shamrani, saying he had posted a short manifesto on Twitter that read: “I’m against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil.”
“I’m not against you for just being American, I don’t hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only...
Breitbart News reported that a gunman opened fire at the air station Friday morning, killing three and wounding numerous others.
The Associated Press reports that the Pensacola gunman was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, and NBC News reports that the gunman’s name was Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
Now the New York Times reports that six other Saudis were detained after the shooting and three of those six allegedly filmed the shooting as it unfolded in Pensacola.
The shooter was reportedly at the Pensacola to train. Former Gov. Rick Scott, currently Sen. Scott (R-FL), expressed concern that the Saudi attacker was in Pensacola training on a U.S. base:
I'm very concerned that the shooter in Pensacola was a foreign national training on a US base.
Today, I’m calling for a full review of the US military programs to train foreign nationals on American soil. We shouldn't be providing military training to people who wish us harm.
787 people are talking about this
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media, identified the gunman as Mohammed al-Shamrani, saying he had posted a short manifesto on Twitter that read: “I’m against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil.”
“I’m not against you for just being American, I don’t hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only...
Do You Know How To Catch Wild Pigs?
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Pelosi again exposes impeachment as just a cynical political show
Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped out from behind the curtain Thursday to order up articles of impeachment against President Trump — once again exposing the official process as merely a show.
Her approach has been cavalier from the start, when she announced an “official impeachment inquiry” back on Sept. 24 — yet didn’t allow an actual House vote to make it official until Oct. 31, after weeks of leaked testimony from closed-door hearings had ensured that she’d have the votes.
And it’s only gotten worse. “The facts are uncontested,” she said Thursday — then whipped off “facts” that in reality are vigorously contested.
Namely: “The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival.”
That is indeed what Democrats say Trump did. But they haven’t remotely established it as fact, and certainly aren’t trying all that hard to do so. Most important, as law professor Jonathan Turley testified Wednesday, they haven’t shown his intent was corrupt, rather than a sincere effort to get to the bottom of scandals he believed had been covered up. Which means that they haven’t shown he abused his powers in any way.
And while they’ve asked for the testimony of those in the best position to know, such as former national security adviser John Bolton, they’ve refused to push the matter in court after the president objected, as is his right, on grounds of executive privilege.
Pelosi cited the “separation of powers, three co-equal branches, each a check and balance on the other” as the heart of what she’s supposedly protecting from Trump. Yet that doctrine gives Trump the right to seek a judiciary ruling on executive privilege.
Yes, it would take a few weeks. But it’s the only way the House could build a case with a real chance of convincing the Senate to remove Trump from office.
If Pelosi were truly out to protect the republic from the threat she claims Trump poses,
45 Has 52...
This With 24/7 Non-stop Hate propaganda From All The Television Outlets, Newspapers, Hollywood, Television Show, Late Night Comedians, Indoctrination By Teachers And Professors, Violence and Threats Of Violence From Hooded Leftist Anarcho-Communists, Intimidation By FBI, CIA And Deep State Operatives, Non-stop Media Hyped Impeachment Hearings With Fake Charges, He Still Gets 52 Percent.
Imagine If They Just Reported The Facts?
The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #131
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #828
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Friday, December 6, 2019
Did Commissar Schiff employ KGB tactics to spy on his rivals as well as Trump?
So now his denial of ever subpoenaing the phone records of his Republican counterpart, Rep. Devin Nunes, one of Nunes's aides, and reporter John Solomon, (as well as those of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his Ukrainian client named Lev Parnas) is worth looking at.
Power Line's Scott Johnson interpreted the apparent spying as evidence that Schiff got the phone data from his subpoenas of the Giuliani and Parnas phone records in the impeachment report, and yes, Johnson, unlike Schiff, is credible, so I was inclined to accept his take earlier.
But other reports suggest that Schiff is lying, spying on his rivals, doing it with subpoenas, putting the Soviet KGB to shame.
The Wall Street Journal, for one, dug deeper and reported an undisclosed source saying that yes, Schiff did indeed issue subpoenas to spy on Trump's lawyers, as well as his own political counterparts, and inconvenient reporters like Solomon. I'll bet Kimberley Strassel wrote that one:
This is unprecedented and looks like an abuse of government surveillance authority for partisan gain. Democrats were caught using the Steele dossier to coax the FBI into snooping on the 2016 Trump campaign. Now we have elected members of Congress using secret subpoenas to obtain, and then release to the public, the call records of political opponents.
Our sources says Mr. Schiff issued a subpoena in September to AT&T, demanding call logs for five numbers—including Mr. Giuliani’s. Subsequent subpoenas to AT&T and Verizon demanded more details. Republicans were told of the subpoenas, yet under rules of committee secrecy couldn’t raise public objections.
Readers may recall that only a few years ago Democrats were in high dudgeon over the executive branch’s collection of metadata against terrorists. They claimed the National Security Agency was “spying” on Americans, and in 2015 Congress barred NSA from collecting bulk domestic metadata. Federal investigators must offer legitimate reasons to obtain metadata from telecom companies, and they are subject to restrictions on divulging it.
Yet here the companies appear to have handed over metadata based on little more than Mr. Schiff’s say-so—and in AT&T’s case in response to a request that was made before the House began a formal impeachment inquiry.
AT&T released a statement Wednesday saying it is “required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement agencies.”
The fact that AT&T tried to extricate itself from controversy instead of just deny that it forked over any subpoena records relating to Devin Nunes and others suggests something damning going on, too.
For now, it comes down to whom you believe - Schiff, or the Journal, which probably fact-checked the hell out of that bombshell detail about the subpoenas before printing it.
Schiff says he only spied on...
Idiot Car Driver Vs. Truck....
More Great Gifs:
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Animated Gif Collection #5 -OR- Motorcycles And Bulls Don't Mix..
Animated Gif Collection #6 or Bet She Lost Some Teeth...
Animated Gif Collection #7 -OR- This Is What Happens When You Fall Asleep While Driving...
Animated Gif Collection #8 -OR- Fish: 1, Dog: 0
Animated Gif Collection #9 -OR-Out Of Control Bus -OR-
Animated Gif Collection #10 -OR- How To Launch An Oil Truck Into The Air
Animated Gif Collection #11 -OR- Man That Must Have Hurt
Animated GIF Collection #12 -OR- This Is Brutal
Animated Gif Collection #13 -OR- This Guy Was Inches From DEATH!
Animated Gif Collection #14
Inspector General Ramps Up Investigations of FBI Employees
Open investigations of FBI employees by the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) have about doubled in recent years and, as far as available records go, there have never been so many investigations of this kind.
The Office of IG Michael Horowitz had 104 “open criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct related to FBI employees” as of Sept. 30, according to its latest semi-annual report to Congress (pdf).
The number fell from 112 open investigations just six months earlier, but still fit into a heightened trend. In fiscal 2018, the IG reported 84 and 93 open investigations, respectively. In the decade before that, the average was a bit under 51.
It’s not clear what’s behind the increase.
In the past few years, the IG has worked on a number of high-profile investigations, including one into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for a self-serving media leak and another into former FBI Director James Comey for disclosure of sensitive information.
In June 2018, the IG released a report on his review of the investigation into the purported mishandling of classified information by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While the report criticized several FBI officials involved in the probe for political bias, it concluded that “we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative decisions we reviewed.”
Anticipated Report
Horowitz is expected to release on Dec. 9 his review of FBI actions to obtain a spying warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page and the counterintelligence probe into several associates of Donald Trump. The warrant was in large part based on the Steele dossier, a collection of unsubstantiated claims about collusion between Russia and the campaign of then-candidate Trump.
The warrant was taken out by the bureau in the fall of 2016, was renewed several times, and remained active well into 2017.
The FBI officially opened a counterintelligence investigation into claimed Russian ties of four Trump associates on July 31, 2016. In 2017, the investigation was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose appointment was prompted by Comey’s release of sensitive information about his personal conversations with the newly elected President Trump.
Mueller released his final report in April, saying the investigation didn’t establish any collusion between Trump or his associates and...
The Office of IG Michael Horowitz had 104 “open criminal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct related to FBI employees” as of Sept. 30, according to its latest semi-annual report to Congress (pdf).
The number fell from 112 open investigations just six months earlier, but still fit into a heightened trend. In fiscal 2018, the IG reported 84 and 93 open investigations, respectively. In the decade before that, the average was a bit under 51.
It’s not clear what’s behind the increase.
In the past few years, the IG has worked on a number of high-profile investigations, including one into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for a self-serving media leak and another into former FBI Director James Comey for disclosure of sensitive information.
In June 2018, the IG released a report on his review of the investigation into the purported mishandling of classified information by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While the report criticized several FBI officials involved in the probe for political bias, it concluded that “we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative decisions we reviewed.”
Anticipated Report
Horowitz is expected to release on Dec. 9 his review of FBI actions to obtain a spying warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page and the counterintelligence probe into several associates of Donald Trump. The warrant was in large part based on the Steele dossier, a collection of unsubstantiated claims about collusion between Russia and the campaign of then-candidate Trump.
The warrant was taken out by the bureau in the fall of 2016, was renewed several times, and remained active well into 2017.
The FBI officially opened a counterintelligence investigation into claimed Russian ties of four Trump associates on July 31, 2016. In 2017, the investigation was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose appointment was prompted by Comey’s release of sensitive information about his personal conversations with the newly elected President Trump.
Mueller released his final report in April, saying the investigation didn’t establish any collusion between Trump or his associates and...
Rudy Drops Ukraine Grenade on Biden & Obama With Mysterious Tweet About Billions of Missing U.S. Cash
KABOOM.
Rudy Giuliani just dropped a bank safe on the heads of Joe Biden and Barack Obama — a bank safe that might be missing billions in U.S. funds.
This is getting interesting.
And ugly. Fast.
And what a surprise, MORE missing money linked to Biden and his former boss.
And talk of another Obama-linked cover up.
Rudy Giuliani just dropped a bank safe on the heads of Joe Biden and Barack Obama — a bank safe that might be missing billions in U.S. funds.
This is getting interesting.
And ugly. Fast.
And what a surprise, MORE missing money linked to Biden and his former boss.
And talk of another Obama-linked cover up.
Tucker Carlson’s Critique Of Paul Singer Is Part Of The Reckoning Underway In America
The Fox News host’s exposé on “vulture capitalism” goes to the heart of a debate on the Right about the role of government.
Tucker Carlson is perhaps the only major media figure in America willing to attack across party lines to make his point. On Tuesday night he went after Republican mega-donor Paul Singer in a withering 10-minute special segment on how Singer destroyed a small town in Nebraska in a hostile takeover of the sporting goods retailer Cabela’s.
For those who don’t know, Singer is a New York hedge fund manager who has made billions as a so-called “vulture capitalist,” buying up the sovereign debt of financially distressed countries at a discount and then cashing in later, using lawsuits to pressure governments to pay up. He’s done something similar with U.S. firms—buying up debt, shipping jobs overseas, firing American workers and cashing out—in some cases at taxpayer expense.
In addition to donating to the GOP and running his hedge fund, Elliott Capital, Singer also funds a lot of conservative media, which is why you won’t hear much criticism of him from right-leaning outlets or Republican politicians. That of course makes Carlson’s segment on Tuesday all the more remarkable.
Carlson’s report focused on the town of Sidney, Nebraska, population 6,282. Sidney was the longtime home of Cabela’s and once employed thousands of local residents. It was the economic anchor of the town. But Singer’s firm took an ownership stake in the company in 2015, when the Cabela’s was making nearly $2 billion in annual profits, and pressured the board to sell. A year later Bass Pro Shops purchased Cabela’s, the company’s stock price surged, and Singer cashed out for at least $90 million.
But Sidney was destroyed. As Carlson explained, “The town lost nearly 2,000 jobs. A heartbreakingly familiar cascade began: people left, property values collapsed, and then people couldn’t leave. They were trapped there. One of the last thriving small towns in America went under.”
What Role Should Government Play In Our Civic Life?
The point of highlighting the fate of this one town and the role of Singer in its demise isn’t to vilify capitalism or the free market in general, but to point out how the system is engineered to benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. As Willis Krumholtz explains nearby in greater detail, the story of Cabela’s and the people of Sidney is an example of “financial engineering that paid a select few off, while the whole suffered.”
This critique goes to the heart of what the political right has been grappling with in the age of Trump. What is the proper role of the government and public policy in American society? Whose interests should it serve?
Much of what’s behind Trump-era populism, not just in America but across the West, is the dawning realization that the post-Cold War global capitalist system doesn’t necessarily benefit working- and middle-class Americans—or at least that free trade and global capitalism aren’t unmitigated goods. They have costs, and those costs are borne disproportionately by ordinary people, the kind of people who get laid off from Cabela’s for no good reason other than it made Singer a pile of money.
This isn’t just an economic question. The role of government is also at the center of the ongoing Sohrab Amari-David French debate on the right about whether the public sphere can really ever be neutral and what, if anything, conservatives should do to advance what they see as the good. Libertarian-minded conservatives like French look at drag queen story hour and conclude, hey, this is just the price of liberty. We can no more use government power to prohibit drag queens in public libraries than we can use it to prohibit any other kind of free speech
Ahmari and others have challenged this way of thinking, positing that liberty has an object, which is the good, and that government’s role is not just to protect liberty but also to promote and defend the good. Things like stable and intact families, prosperous communities, and vibrant churches and schools aren’t merely what we hope might spring forth from unfettered liberty secured by a neutral and indifferent government; they’re the entire purpose of securing liberty in the first place.
In the same way, champions of global capitalism might look at the desolation of a town like Sidney and conclude, hey, this is just the price of free markets. Carlson argues that no, this is the price of maintaining a system designed to benefit people like Singer at the expense of middle-class Americans.
All of this is part of a reckoning now underway in America about what our government is for and whose interests it should serve. The status quo of recent decades, in which both major political parties crafted policies that served the interest of an established donor class, is coming to...
Is This The Reason AT&T Is Spying On Republicans On Behalf Of Democrats?
AT&T's latest shareholder is a big GOP donor. Just not to Trump.
Washington (CNN)Elliott Management, a major investment firm run by billionaire Republican donor Paul Singer, alerted AT&T Monday of its $3.2 billion stake in the telecommunications giant. In a letter to AT&T's board, Elliott argued the company is underperforming and proposed AT&T sell its non-core businesses and restructure.
President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that the announcement was "great news" and used the opportunity to criticize CNN, whose parent company WarnerMedia is a division of AT&T.
Singer founded Elliott in 1977 and has gained a reputation as an activist investor who accumulates large stakes in public companies in order to force changes in management and strategy. Elliott declined to comment on Trump's tweet about the firm's investment in AT&T. A person familiar with Singer's operations denied the investment was related to politics.
"There's a total firewall between Paul's personal political activities and the firm's investment process," said the person.
In recent decades, Singer has become an influential donor to conservative and Republican causes. He has raised money for GOP presidential nominees George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, as well as donated millions to Republican-aligned organizations for both federal and state-level elections, including the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Senate Leadership Fund and the Republican Governors Association.
But with Trump, Singer has been a notable holdout. He endorsed Marco Rubio in November 2015, prompting Trump to attack Singer as someone who "represents amnesty and ... illegal immigration pouring into the country."
In early 2016, Singer funded a super PAC supporting Rubio that ran TV and digital ads sharply critical of Trump. One asked if Republicans "can trust" Trump for holding more liberal positions on health care and economic stimulus. Another documented several of his disparaging comments about women.
After Trump won the nomination, Singer did not donate to his campaign. He did donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration, and in February 2017 met with Trump at the White House. After that meeting, the President claimed Singer had given Trump "his total support."
Since Trump has been in office, Singer has focused his political giving on congressional and state-level Republican campaigns, according to two people familiar with his donations. Singer has not donated to Trump's reelection campaign nor to the super PAC supporting him.
Singer has also not commented publicly on Trump since June 2016. Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, he criticized Trump's proposed trade policies. "And I think if he actually stuck to those policies and gets elected president, it's close to a guarantee of a global depression, widespread global depression," Singer said, according to CNBC.
A regular Republican donor
Setting aside his issues with Trump, Singer has otherwise been a traditional Republican donor. He has long been the chairman of the board for the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based conservative think tank largely associated with influencing the policies of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Singer would later serve as a regional finance chair for Giuliani's failed 2008 presidential campaign, his first significant foray into Republican electoral politics.
Singer has donated to other Washington-based think tanks and issue groups, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Federalist Society. He has backed both pro-Israel and politically neutral Jewish organizations. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative online news outlet, is also largely funded by Singer.
The Free Beacon and Singer's involvement attracted attention after the outlet disclosed to congressional investigators in 2017 that it had funded the research firm Fusion GPS during the 2016 GOP primary. The Free Beacon stated it had contracted with the firm "to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary" -- including Trump.
After Trump secured the GOP nomination, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign picked up the tab and paid Fusion GPS to continue its opposition research into Trump. Fusion GPS later hired former British spy Christopher Steele to tap into his network of...
AP Exclusive: 629 Pakistani Girls Sold as Brides to China
In this May 22, 2019 file photo, Sumaira a Pakistani woman, shows a picture of her Chinese husband in Gujranwala, Pakistan. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File) |
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable.
The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018.
But since the time it was put together in June, investigators’ aggressive drive against the networks has largely ground to a halt. Officials with knowledge of the investigations say that is because of pressure from government officials fearful of hurting Pakistan’s lucrative ties to Beijing.
The biggest case against traffickers has fallen apart. In October, a court in Faisalabad acquitted 31 Chinese nationals charged in connection with trafficking. Several of the women who had initially been interviewed by police refused to testify because they were either threatened or bribed into silence, according to a court official and a police investigator familiar with the case. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution for speaking out.
At the same time, the government has sought to curtail investigations, putting “immense pressure” on officials from the Federal Investigation Agency pursuing trafficking networks, said Saleem Iqbal, a Christian activist who has helped parents rescue several young girls from China and prevented others from being sent there.
“Some (FIA officials) were even transferred,” Iqbal said in an interview. “When we talk to Pakistani rulers, they don’t pay any attention. “
Asked about the complaints, Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries refused to comment.
Several senior officials familiar with the events said investigations into trafficking have slowed, the investigators are frustrated, and Pakistani media have been pushed to curb their reporting on trafficking. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals.
“No one is doing anything to help these girls,” one of the officials said. “The whole racket is continuing, and it is growing. Why? Because they know they can get away with...