More @ The Last Refuge
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
FBI uncovered Russian bribery plot before Obama administration approved controversial nuclear deal with Moscow
Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.
Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.
More @ The Hill
Fusion GPS to House: We'll take Fifth rather than testify on Trump dossier
Via Billy
On Oct. 4, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm at the center of the Trump dossier affair. On Monday, the company told the House what it can do with its subpoena. Fusion GPS chief Glenn Simpson and two others will "invoke their constitutional privileges not to testify," Simpson's lawyers told the committee in a letter. The panel shouldn't even bother to call Simpson to the hearing room, the lawyers said, because he won't answer their questions under any circumstances.
It seems unlikely the House will grant that request. If Simpson and two other GPS officials are going to assert their right against self-incrimination, lawmakers, or at least the majority Republican lawmakers on the committee, will want to hear it first-hand.
What is striking about Fusion's refusal is the form it took. Notifying the House that Simpson and the others will not testify took one paragraph. Yet Fusion sent a 17-page letter to the intelligence committee, going to great lengths to argue that Chairman Devin Nunes is not qualified to issue the subpoena.
On Oct. 4, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm at the center of the Trump dossier affair. On Monday, the company told the House what it can do with its subpoena. Fusion GPS chief Glenn Simpson and two others will "invoke their constitutional privileges not to testify," Simpson's lawyers told the committee in a letter. The panel shouldn't even bother to call Simpson to the hearing room, the lawyers said, because he won't answer their questions under any circumstances.
It seems unlikely the House will grant that request. If Simpson and two other GPS officials are going to assert their right against self-incrimination, lawmakers, or at least the majority Republican lawmakers on the committee, will want to hear it first-hand.
What is striking about Fusion's refusal is the form it took. Notifying the House that Simpson and the others will not testify took one paragraph. Yet Fusion sent a 17-page letter to the intelligence committee, going to great lengths to argue that Chairman Devin Nunes is not qualified to issue the subpoena.
More @ Washington Examiner
Alan Dershowitz: Trump was right to walk away from UNESCO -- for now
Via Billy
The State Department announced on Thursday that the United States would be withdrawing from the U.N. agency UNESCO.
The U.S. agency cited financial reasons, the need for reform and the body's "continuing anti-Israel bias." President Trump's decision to leave UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – as of December 31, 2018, was an appropriate foreign policy decision that will hopefully prompt a much-needed rethink of the United Nations, its purpose and practices. It will also send a strong message to the Palestinians that statehood cannot be achieved on the basis of U.N. resolutions alone, and that the only way forward is to engage in direct negotiations with Israel, during which mutual sacrifices will be required.
The State Department announced on Thursday that the United States would be withdrawing from the U.N. agency UNESCO.
The U.S. agency cited financial reasons, the need for reform and the body's "continuing anti-Israel bias." President Trump's decision to leave UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – as of December 31, 2018, was an appropriate foreign policy decision that will hopefully prompt a much-needed rethink of the United Nations, its purpose and practices. It will also send a strong message to the Palestinians that statehood cannot be achieved on the basis of U.N. resolutions alone, and that the only way forward is to engage in direct negotiations with Israel, during which mutual sacrifices will be required.
More @ Washington Examiner
Air Force punishes colonel who refused to affirm gay marriage, attorney says
Via Billy
The Air Force has punished a highly-decorated and respected colonel after he refused to publicly affirm the same-sex spouse of a retiring subordinate.
Col. Leland Bohannon, who was on the verge of being promoted to a one-star general, was suspended from command and orders were handed down recommending he not be promoted.
“His career is likely over and he will likely have to retire as a colonel instead of as a general,” First Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry told the Todd Starnes Show.
The Air Force has punished a highly-decorated and respected colonel after he refused to publicly affirm the same-sex spouse of a retiring subordinate.
Col. Leland Bohannon, who was on the verge of being promoted to a one-star general, was suspended from command and orders were handed down recommending he not be promoted.
“His career is likely over and he will likely have to retire as a colonel instead of as a general,” First Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry told the Todd Starnes Show.
More @ Todd Starnes
Orrin Hatch tears into Washington Post opioids report: It's meant to derail Trump's drug czar nominee
Via Billy
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Monday a news investigation about whether a bill he sponsored disarmed the Drug Enforcement Agency from going after drug companies was meant to smear President Trump's nominee for drug czar, who sponsored the bill on the House side.
"I think we need to be candid about what's going on here," Hatch said in floor remarks. "Opponents of the current administration are trying to derail the president's nominee to be head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Rep. Tom Marino, by mischaracterizing and trying to rewrite the history of a bill that he championed."
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Monday a news investigation about whether a bill he sponsored disarmed the Drug Enforcement Agency from going after drug companies was meant to smear President Trump's nominee for drug czar, who sponsored the bill on the House side.
"I think we need to be candid about what's going on here," Hatch said in floor remarks. "Opponents of the current administration are trying to derail the president's nominee to be head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Rep. Tom Marino, by mischaracterizing and trying to rewrite the history of a bill that he championed."
More @ Washington Examiner
Las Vegas guard Jesus Campos vanished after visiting urgent-care clinic, union leader says
Via Billy
A spokesperson at the UMC Quick Care, which has eight
locations throughout the Las Vegas area, told Fox News on Monday that
they had "heard nothing" about Campos visiting them.
The Mandalay Bay security guard who disappeared
last week moments before he was scheduled to break his silence in
television interviews has not been heard from since he went to a walk-in
health clinic, his union president said.
David Hickey of the Security, Police,
and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) told reporters Friday that he
got a text the night before saying Jesus Campos was taken to a UMC
Quick Care facility, though he did not specify where or whom the text
came from.
More @ Fox
Trump warns McCain: 'At some point I fight back, and it won't be pretty'
Via Billy
President Trump warned on Tuesday that he would "fight back" after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a blunt denunciation of nationalist forces that was seen by many as a thinly-veiled attack on the president.
"People have to careful, because at some point I fight back," Trump told WMAL radio host Chris Plante. "I'm being very nice. I'm being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back, and it won't be pretty."
President Trump warned on Tuesday that he would "fight back" after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a blunt denunciation of nationalist forces that was seen by many as a thinly-veiled attack on the president.
"People have to careful, because at some point I fight back," Trump told WMAL radio host Chris Plante. "I'm being very nice. I'm being very, very nice. But at some point I fight back, and it won't be pretty."
More @ The Hill
Russia vs. the Confederacy
Russian-American relations over the past two and a half centuries, like the weather in Alaska, the land Russia sold to the United States in 1867 for ten dollars a square mile, have blown from very warm to extremely frigid; but its balmiest period by far was during the War Between the States. In stark contrast to America’s sixteen-year hiatus in diplomatic relations with Russia following the 1917 Revolution, the forty-four year Cold War with the Soviet Union after World War Two and the present discordant dialogues with the Russian Federation, Imperial Russia had maintained a close and cordial relationship with the United States from the moment the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. This, unfortunately, was not to be the case nearly a century later when the eleven Southern States declared their independence from the Union.
More @ The Abbeville Institute
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