08/17/16

Abdulrahman Al Harbi: Revisiting the first suspect in the Boston Bombings

By: Renee Nal | New Zeal

Boston Marathon Bombing via Wikipedia

“If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press.” – New York Times Investigative reporter Judith Miller, who was “sent to jail after a federal judge declared that she was ‘defying the law’ by refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source”

Media mogul Glenn Beck has been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris (appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993) “to identify at least two confidential sources” that gave him information about Abdulrahman Al Harbi, the Saudi national and initial “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing, which took place on Monday, April 15, 2013.

Lingering questions remain about Abdulrahman Al Harbi

While Abdulrahman Al Harbi is very possibly innocent, the appalling behavior of the federal government, particularly then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is in-and-of-itself suspicious, particularly her condescending denial that Abdulrahman Al Harbi was scheduled to be deported, despite evidence to the contrary.

Read more here…

08/17/16

What a 1917 school lesson can teach America

By: Renee Nal | New Zeal

Perfectly preserved chalkboard lesson from 1917

“I give my head my heart and my life to my God and one nation indivisible with justice for all.” – Uncovered classroom chalkboard from 1917

Contractors at a high school in Oklahoma got more than they bargained for when they unearthed lessons on a chalkboard dating back to 1917.

The lessons are a poignant reminder of a bygone era, before activists sought to remove all semblance of God, a love for America, and accurate history from schools. Over time, Americans – perhaps weary of the radical left or ignorant to their own rights – have allowed this usurpation to take place.

Read more here…

08/17/16

Manafort Caught Secretly Routing at Least $2.2 Million in Payments to Lobbyists

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

After documents surfaced implicating Paul Manafort in corrupt dealings in the Ukraine with ties to not only Vladimir Putin, but the Russian mob, now comes a new bombshell. It turns out that Manafort probably broke the law, secretly routing at least $2.2 million to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012 from the pro-Russian governing party in the Ukraine. He did it in a way that hid those connections to influence foreign policy. Bad Russian plant… bad, bad.

Per the AP, under federal law, US lobbyists must declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties and provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Manafort has some ‘splainin’ to do and federal charges may be forthcoming.

The Trump campaign, now in panic mode, shuffled the deck quickly last night, saying that Trump doesn’t like to be ‘constrained’. I guess he’s not into handcuffs much. Go figure. Manafort is still on his team as campaign manager… wouldn’t want to sever that life or death connection to Putin, now would we?

Look carefully at who Trump brought up the ranks. Kellyanne Conway joined the Donald Trump campaign three weeks ago and she has appeared on television an average of three times daily, projecting titanic optimism: Trump will win over America’s women as his new campaign manager. That’s just laughable. But even more hilarious is the selection of Breitbart’s Steve Bannon as CEO… a vicious and predatory media hit man with leanings toward racist nationalism. He’s literally turned Breitbart into Pravda for Donald Trump. Which is apropos considering that BuzzFeed put out that he was accepting $500 per story at Breitbart in 2014 to favor Russia over the Ukraine. Think about that and then think about all of Trump’s nefarious Russian connections. Once again, Bannon sought Trump out just as Manafort did. Last but not least, former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has been hired to prepare Trump for the debates. Yeah, that ought to be great for PR and women love men who have sexually accosted other women. What a winner.

And don’t forget Donald Trump’s daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, who spent some time on billionaire Democrat David Geffen’s yacht off the coast of Croatia on Friday. The couple were photographed jet skiing and sunbathing on the $200 million boat, named the Rising Sun. Geffen, a Hollywood executive and close friend of President Barack Obama, donated large sums of money to both Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns during the primaries, according to the Daily Mail.

Ivanka is said to be vacationing with Wendi Deng Murdoch – Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife and Vladimir Putin’s current rumored girlfriend. Cozy with Russia AND Progressive Marxists. It’s a twofer and all in the elite family, don’t ya know.

Wendi Deng Murdoch, left, is shown with Ivanka Trump in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Ivanka Trump / Instagram)

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are seen riding jet skis and sunbathing while enjoying a vacation on the Rising Sun yacht with a friend on the Adriatic Coast in Croatia.
Featuring: Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner
Where: Adriatic Coast, Croatia
When: 12 Aug 2016
Credit: WENN.com
**Only available for publication in UK, USA, Germany, Austria, Switzerland**

And we come back to Manafort, because he is key in all this. Manafort and business associate Rick Gates, another top strategist in Trump’s campaign, were working in 2012 on behalf of the political party of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych. During the period when Gates and Manafort were consultants to the Ukraine president’s political party, Gates was also helping steer the advocacy work done by a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms, Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC. That’s right… the freaking Podesta Group.

From the AP:

Gates told the AP that he and Manafort introduced the lobbying firms to the European Centre nonprofit and occasionally consulted with the firms on Ukrainian politics. He called the actions lawful, and said there was no attempt to circumvent the reporting requirements of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The heads of both lobbying firms told AP they concluded there was no obligation to disclose their activities to the Justice Department. Manafort did not directly respond to AP’s requests to discuss the work, but he was copied on the AP’s questions and Gates said he spoke to Manafort before providing answers to them.

Political consultants are generally leery of registering under the foreign agents law, because their reputations can suffer once they are on record as accepting money to advocate the interests of foreign governments — especially if those interests conflict with America’s.

Ironically, one of the lobbying firms Manafort and Gates worked with has strong Democratic ties.

The founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, Tony Podesta, is the brother of longtime Democratic strategist John Podesta, who now is campaign chairman for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The head of Mercury, Vin Weber, is an influential Republican, former congressman and former special policy adviser to Mitt Romney. Weber announced earlier this month that he will not support Trump.

Whether Manafort and Gates will be prosecuted for this is unclear, but it would not surprise me. Prosecutions under the Foreign Agents Registration Act are generally rare, but they do happen. This looks extremely corrupt to me and it appears that Manafort was covering up where the money was coming from and why.

Then you add Carter Paige, who is heavily invested with Gazprom and living in Putin’s lap and Michael Flynn ― a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency who was paid by a Russian state-funded television network to speak at its 10th-anniversary gala ― who Trump brought to his first national security briefing on Wednesday. Flynn is strongly connected to Russia. And did I mention he’s a Democrat? All of these people might as well be living in the Kremlin and if they tried harder they couldn’t more obviously be plants.

They are all certainly national security threats, but here we go… bringing our biggest enemy into our election and possibly into the White House. SMH. With Hillary Clinton you get the Middle Eastern Islamists, the Russians and the Chinese. With Trump, you get the same, only more Russian seasoning with a hint of mob. #WorstElectionEver #NeitherOne2016

08/17/16

Weekly Featured Profile – Jose LaLuz

KeyWiki.org

Jose LaLuz

Jose LaLuz is Executive Director of Servidores Publicos Unidos de Puerto Rico/AFSCME (United Public Employees of Puerto Rico).

He is currently associate director of the leadership academy of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and a vice chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. La Luz is credited as the architect of a grassroots campaign that resulted in a 1998 law granting bargaining rights and the right of unionization to 120,000 public employees in Puerto Rico.

A native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, LaLuz graduated from the State University of New York’s Empire State College with a B.A. in labor studies and earned an M.A. in labor studies at Rutgers University.

During his college years, LaLuz joined Students for a Democratic Society and in the early 1970s was active in the Connecticut branch of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. Allied to Castro’s Cuba, the Marxist-Leninist PSP agitated for Puerto Rican independence and committed several bombings and other terrorist acts on U.S. soil.

LaLuz was expelled from the PSP in 1976 and went on to join the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee the following year. He became chairman of the Hispanic Commission of DSOC before the merger with the New American Movement that createdDemocratic Socialists of America in 1982.

In the late 1980s, LaLuz was active in the Communist Party USA initiated and dominatedU.S. Peace Council – an affiliate of the Soviet front World Peace Council.

He eventually became active in Democratic Party politics. In 2008, he was “on loan” toHillary Clinton’s primary election campaign and later was the chairman of Latinos for Obama and campaigned in Colorado and New Mexico registering, educating and mobilizing voters until election day.

LaLuz explained his tactics to the Peoples Weekly World:

“The Obama campaign is working in both New Mexico and Colorado, among other states, telling Latino voters about McCain’s terrible stands on the economy and about the horrible role Republicans have played and continue to play on immigration… “We are showing how the companies and outfits that exploit Latino workers are the people behind McCain,”

Between now and Election Day LaLuz said that the Obama campaign is registering voters in New Mexico and Colorado and developing lists of tens of thousands of Latino supporters for Obama.

Over 300 Sanders activists attended Democratic Socialists of America’s “Socialist Caucus” on July 27th, 2016. Jose LaLuz, DSA vice-chair and veteran labor and Puerto Rican rights activist, brought down the house with an impassioned plea to end United States colonial rule in Puerto Rico.

(Jose LaLuz|more…)

08/17/16

Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Cover-Ups: A Look Back

By: Cliff Kincaid | Accuracy in Media

The 1999 book, Hell to Pay: The Unfolding story of Hillary Rodham Clinton, asked, “Will there be another President Clinton?” The question has become front and center 17 years later, as the current presidential campaign unfolds. The author, Barbara Olson, who also wrote the follow-up, The Final Days: The Last Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House, was the lawyer and conservative commentator who was murdered by Islamic terrorists when the aircraft she was on, American Airlines Flight 77, was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon in the September 11, 2001, attacks. The crash killed 125 people on the ground and another 64 passengers and crew.

These two books are absolute must-reads in order to understand the power-driven Bill and Hillary Clinton relationship. Olson provides the best account of Hillary’s emergence as a “budding Leninist” who studied Saul Alinsky and “understood the Leninist concept of acquiring, accumulating and maintaining political power at any cost.” Her work went into our own August 2003 AIM Report, “Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Cover-Ups.”

Cliff Kincaid

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.