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Ex-Obama Assistant Accuses Trump of Turning Boy Scouts Event Into “Nazi Youth Rally”
Trump Derangement Syndrome claims another victim
A former top Obama advisor has accused President Donald Trump of turning a Boy Scouts event into a “Nazi Youth rally”.
Jon Wolfsthal, who brags that he is “blocked by Trump” on Twitter, served as special assistant to President Barack Obama from 2014-2017 as the most senior White House official responsible for arms control, nonproliferation, and nuclear policy.
“Is nothing safe? @realDonaldTrump turns @boyscouts event into Nazi Youth rally. Boy Scouts must repudiate such a disgraceful display,” he tweeted last night.
Wolfsthal’s absurd charge appears to be based on leftist criticism that Trump treated the event as if it was a campaign rally comprised of his supporters rather than a non-political gathering.
The Atlantic accused Trump of “delivering yet another jarringly partisan speech to an apolitical audience—this one, comprised of tens of thousands still too young to vote.”
However, to make the leap from that to the assertion that Trump presided over a “Nazi youth rally” is clearly completely ludicrous and yet another example of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Numerous other anti-Trump leftists made the same comparison.
“Trump constantly speaks about loyalty. He did so tonight w/ the Boy Scouts. Hitler demanded a personal oath of loyalty from German military,” said Elite Daily’s senior politics writer John Haltiwanger.
Report: FBI Investigating Smashed Hard Drives Retrieved from Wasserman Schultz’s Pakistani-Born IT Worker’s Home
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is reportedly investigating several smashed hard drives seized from the home of two Pakistan-born brothers who worked as IT workers for former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
“The suspects in this probe are people who worked for a long time for Democratic members in the House,” Daily Caller investigative reporter Luke Rosiak reportedly told FOX Business Network. “Brothers named Imran Awan, Abid Awan and Jamal Awan and they are criminal suspects,” Rosiak said. “Imran worked for Debbie Wasserman Schultz for a long time.”
Breitbart News previously reported that a federal employee with knowledge of the situation told the Daily Caller in May, “A laptop used by Imran was hidden in an unused crevice of the Rayburn House Office Building” and was found by Capitol Police and seized for use in the criminal investigation against him. The Daily Caller further noted, “Wasserman Schultz’s office is in Longworth House Office Building, a separate structure.”
The laptop was reportedly found hidden in a little-used section of the Rayburn House Office Building and was later seized by Capitol Police in the criminal investigation against him.
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Shortly after the laptop was seized, Wasserman Schultz reportedly threatened Capitol Police with “consequences” if they did not return equipment that she said belonged to her and was being used to Imran Awan.
Breitbart News previously reported that “[t]he Pakistani-born Awan, who was working as a technology administrator for the Florida lawmaker, is being investigated for alleged involvement in several massive cyber security breaches and transferring sensitive congressional data offsite.”
Awan had reportedly managed to bankroll $4 million for himself and several of his relatives since 2010.
Shortly after news of the FBI investigation broke on Tuesday, several media outlets learned that Imran Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport Monday night trying to flee the United States. He was arrested for multiple counts of bank fraud and surrendered his passport.
The Daily Caller’s Rosiak said one of the allegations against the brothers Awan was that “they were sending information to an offsite server and when you look at their backgrounds, these guys have been accused of fraud repeatedly in civil lawsuits.”
Wasserman Schultz, much to the confusion of the public, reportedly fought with Capitol Police to allow the brothers to gain access to their laptops instead of expressing concern over the fact that her IT personnel were allegedly hacking sensitive information.
The Daily Caller had reported that Wasserman Schultz “inexplicably protected” Awan when news of the scandal first broke.
This is a developing story…
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Trump: New York Times ‘Protected’ ISIS Leader al-Baghdadi
President Donald Trump has issued a scathing attack at The New York Times, accusing them of deliberately protecting ISIS leader al-Baghdadi.
According to Trump, the failing newspaper prioritized their “sick agenda” over National Security, helping ISIS to thwart a US bid to kill the Islamic State chief.
‘The Failing New York Times foiled US attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security,’ Trump tweeted.
Dailymail.co.uk reports: US media suggested that Trump may have been referring to a Fox News report about comments made by a top general at a security conference on Friday in Aspen, Colorado.
At that gathering, General Tony Thomas — head of the US military’s Special Operations Command — reportedly said that American forces at one point came ‘particularly close’ to Baghdadi after a 2015 raid recovered information about the Islamic State group.
Fox News reported that Thomas said US troops had ‘a very good lead,’ on the IS leader’s whereabouts.
‘Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,’ Thomas reportedly said at the forum.
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Friday that he believes Baghdadi is still alive, following various claims in recent months that he has been killed.
‘We are going after him, but we assume he is alive,’ the Pentagon chief said.
There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi has died in recent months.
With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but is rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.
The Iraqi — nicknamed ‘The Ghost’ — has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as ‘caliph’ in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul, which was destroyed in the battle for Iraq’s second city.
The Times has become a favorite Trump target despite his penchant for reaching out to the daily, including this week, when he gave its reporters a major interview in which he criticized his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In Saturday’s tweetstorm, Trump railed against The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for its ‘illegal leaks.’
‘A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions,’ he wrote on Twitter, adding ‘These illegal leaks… must stop!’
He also groused about some of his favorite targets: the failure of US lawmakers to repeal ‘dead’ Obamacare, Democratic ‘obstructionists’ and alleged ‘ties to Russia’ by Hillary Clinton, his defeated opponent in last year’s presidential election.
Watch: Hollywood star Jim Carrey delivers incredible speech about forgiveness, grace and Jesus
A video showing actor and comedian Jim Carrey giving a remarkable speech about faith and forgiveness to former convicts is garnering significant attention.
Carrey delivered the remarks in June to Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. According to its website, Homeboy Industries “provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of our community.” More than 10,000 former gang members use Homeboy Industries every year.
“You are heroes to me, and I admire you,” Carrey said to the crowd at Homeboy Industries. “When you stepped through these doors, you decided to be a part of this family. You made a decision to transcend and to leave darkness behind, and it takes a champion to make that decision.”
Citing “challenges” he’s faced, Carrey told the audience “suffering leads to salvation.”
“Ultimately, I believe that suffering leads to salvation. In fact, it’s the only way,” Carrey said. “We have to somehow accept, not deny, but feel our suffering and feel our losses. And then we make one of two decisions: We either decide to go through the gate of resentment, which leads to vengeance, which leads to self-harm, which leads to harm to others. Or we go through the gate of forgiveness, which leads to grace.”
“Your being here is an indication that you’ve made that decision already,” Carrey added. “You’ve made the decision to walk through the gate of forgiveness, to grace—just as Christ did on the cross. He suffered terribly and was broken by it, to the point of doubt and a feeling of absolute abandonment, which all of you have felt. And then there was a decision to be made, and the decision was to look upon the people who were causing that suffering, or the situation that was causing that suffering, with compassion and with forgiveness. And that’s what opens the gates to heaven for all of us.”
Report: Bill O’Reilly has big future plans that include doing TV — and he wants Hannity to join him
Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly is reportedly talking to longtime Fox host Sean Hannity about teaming up to bring their storied success to a new television network.
According to New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, who is one of the most connected journalists covering Fox News, O’Reilly is in talks with Hannity to join Sinclair Broadcasting, a conservative-leaning news network that has a massive reach.
Sherman explained the possibility Sunday morning on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show. Sherman is an MSNBC contributor.
“My sources in and around Fox say that [Hannity] and Bill O’Reilly are potentially in talks to take their shows to Sinclair,” Sherman said. “Bill O’Reilly has wanted to get back into the game.”
“So Sinclair has really wants to build the future of a conservative media empire and poaching Fox’s biggest names would help them do that,” he explained. “This, again, is the groundwork for what I think will be the next conservative media platform in the post-Roger Ailes era.”
Sherman followed up his MSNBC appearance with two weeks reiterating his on-air comments. He also added that O’Reilly has been in talks with Newsmax TV:
However, Sherman wrote on Twitter that he is “skeptical” of an O’Reilly-Hannity alliance because they’ve not been the best of friends over the years:
O’Reilly was fired from Fox in April over allegations that he sexually harassed women while at Fox News. O’Reilly settled with the woman out of court, not because he was guilty, but because he wanted the allegations to go away, he later said.
Since his departure from Fox, where he dominated cable news television for years, many have questioned where O’Reilly would end up. O’Reilly has said he’s still interested in doing television. Meanwhile, he hosts a podcast on his website, BillOReilly.com, and joins Glenn Beck on his radio program each Friday. O’Reilly has even hinted at the possibility of doing an in-house television program.
As far as Hannity, it appears all is well with him at Fox. He currently has some of the best ratings on the network and is thriving with President Donald Trump in office. However, since the departure of Roger Ailes’ and Bill Shine from Fox, questions have been raised over Hannity’s future at the network given that Rupert Murdoch’s sons, James and Lachlan, are now running the day-to-day operations.
It remains to be seen what will happen with the future of conservative media, but wherever O’Reilly and Hannity end up, it’s clear they will have very large audiences as they have cultivated millions of loyal followers over the years.
NY Times explains why they published name of undercover CIA agent — it does not go over well
The New York Times came under fire on social media over the weekend after they explained why they recently published a news story revealing the identity of a CIA officer embedded in the Middle East.
CIA director Mike Pompeo last week criticized the Times after they published the name of a CIA officer who was tapped to run the agency’s Iran operations. According to the CIA, the officer was working undercover, which made the name publication an “unconscionable” decision, Pompeo said.
When the Times initially reached out to the intelligence agency for comment, the CIA even advised the Times not to publish the agent’s name, citing the fact that he was working in a covert fashion. According to the Times, they “take care not to put national security or lives in danger, and we take that concern very seriously.”
However, they chose to publish the name anyway in a June 2 news story.
The newspaper explained:
In this case, editors decided to publish the name because [the agent] is a senior official who runs operations from the agency’s headquarters outside Washington, not in the field. He is also the architect of the C.I.A.’s program to use drones to kill high-ranking militants, one of the government’s most significant paramilitary programs. We believe that the American public has a right to know who is making life-or-death decisions in its name.
It was also not the first time that [the agent’s] name has been mentioned in our newspaper. After his identity was disclosed in a 2015 article, The Times’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, discussed the rationale in an interview with Lawfare, a website that covers national security law, and gave more insight into editors’ decision-making.
The explanation was published in the paper’s “Resource Center,” which the paper dubs “a newsroom initiative that is helping The Times build deeper ties with our audience.”
While the explanation was an exercise in transparency, people were not satisfied with their reasoning. Needless to say, it did not go over well: FULL STORY
America’s F-16 Fighting Falcon Can Be Converted into a Drone (And Was Just Shot Down)
Boeing’s QF-16 full-size target drone—a converted version of Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Fighting Falcon—achieved a new milestone on July 19 by being shot down during a Combat Archer Weapons System Evaluation Program (WSEP) exercise.
“First operational (WSEP) kill of a QF-16 was yesterday!!! Fox, Fox. Well done WEG :),” Col. Ryan Serril, commander of the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group, tweeted on July 20 from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
Col. David Abba, commander of the 53rd Wing based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida—the parent unit of the 53rd WEG—also commented on the event. “Most satisfying words on a WSEP shot after ‘Fox, Fox’… ‘Clear the drone!!,’” Abba said on his twitter account. “Way to go WEG, 83 FWS, & 82 ATRS!”
Unfortunately, the QF-16 was not recoverable after the shoot down, Abba noted.
Usually, the Air Force tries to recover its target drone aircraft—which are worth millions of dollars. Normally, if a missile passes within lethal radius of the QF-16, it will count as a kill. However, sometimes the missile physically hits the target and the drone is destroyed.
In this particular case, Abba said that the drone was not recoverable. That being said, Abba said that the shoot down marks an important milestone for the QF-16 program.
“Big step in the QF-16 program!” Abba wrote.
The QF-16 is replacing older jets such as the QF-4 Phantom II in the role of target drone. Not only was the Air Force running out of viable McDonnell Douglas F-4 airframes to convert, the older jets simply do not have the performance to replicate newer threats like the Russian Sukhoi Su-35S Flanker-E. According to Boeing the QF-16 can replicate 4th and 4.5 generation aircraft such as the Chinese J-11 Flanker copy or Russian Su-30SM Flanker-H.
The QF-16 retains the F-16’s full 9G supersonic envelope. In fact, it is probably more maneuverable than an operational Fighting Falcon due to the fact it is most often flown with clean wings with only the occasional ALQ-188 or ALQ-167 electronic warfare pod installed. It is a huge step up from earlier target drones in terms of flight performance and other operational parameters.
Boeing was recent awarded a contract to convert 18 more retired older-model F-16s into QF-16 target drones. That’s on top of earlier contracts to convert 25 jets in 2015 and 30 jets in 2016. The work should be completed by April 2027.
Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @Davemajumdar.
Image: Reuters.
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