Brexit: Britain Votes with Trump, against Hillary, Obama

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by JOEL B. POLLAK23 Jun 20162,779

British voters chose to “leave” the European Union on Thursday, defying the polls — and President Barack Obama, who had urged Britain to “remain” in the EU. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also urged Britain to stay in the EU. Only Donald Trump had backed the campaign to leave.

Republican strategists had panned Trump’s decision to travel to the UK in the midst of campaign turmoil, and in the wake of his blistering attack on Hillary Clinton earlier this week.

Now, however, it looks like a risk that paid off handsomely, in the currency of foreign policy credibility.

Obama’s advice may have pushed some voters to “leave.” In April, he warned British voters they would be at the “back of the queue” in trade with the U.S. if they left the EU. Some, like Andrew Roberts, took offense, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Surely—surely—this is an issue on which the British people, and they alone, have the right to decide, without the intervention of President Obama, who adopted his haughtiest professorial manner when lecturing us to stay in the EU, before making the naked threat that we would be sent “to the back of the queue” (i.e., the back of the line) in any future trade deals if we had the temerity to vote to leave.

Was my country at the back of the line when Winston Churchill promised in 1941 that in the event of a Japanese attack on the U.S., a British declaration of war on Japan would be made within the hour?

…

Were we at the back of the line on 9/11, or did we step forward immediately and instinctively as the very first of your allies to contribute troops to join you in the expulsion of the Taliban, al Qaeda’s hosts, from power in Afghanistan?

Or in Iraq two years later, was it the French or the Germans or the Belgians who stood and fought and bled beside you? Whatever views you might have over the rights or wrongs of that war, no one can deny that Britain was in its accustomed place: at the front of the line, in the firing line. So it is not right for President Obama now to threaten to send us to the back of the line.

Hillary Clinton also backed a “remain” vote in April, with a senior policy adviser issuing a statement on her behalf:

Hillary Clinton believes that transatlantic cooperation is essential, and that cooperation is strongest when Europe is united. She has always valued a strong United Kingdom in a strong EU. And she values a strong British voice in the EU.

Trump, who happens to be in Scotland toopen a golf resort, promised in May that leaving the EU would not put Britain at the “back of the queue,” and said: “I think if I were from Britain I would probably want to go back to a different system.” He reiterated that support last week, telling the Sunday Times: “I would personally be more inclined to leave, for a lot of reasons like having a lot less bureaucracy. … But I am not a British citizen. This is just my opinion.”

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Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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Roger Stone Has Three Questions About Huma Abedin That Hillary WON’T Answer

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AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

by ROGER STONE15 Jun 2016203

Hillary Clinton can run from questions about her top aide Huma Abedin, but she can’t hide.

Earlier this week as America was trying to make sense of the deadliest case of Islamic terrorism on US soil since 9/11, I wrote a detailed article here at Breitbart News that laid out the clear factual case about Hillary Clinton’s top assistant Huma Abedin.

I showed how she has deep, clear, and inarguable connections to a Saudi Arabian official named Abdul Omar Naseef, a powerful Kingdom insider who has helped lead a group called the Muslim World League.

The Muslim World League is the huge “charity” whose goal is to spread Islam throughout the world and which has been connected to terror groups like Al Qaeda.

If that sounds like a serious accusation, you’re damn right it is.

I said that it’s time for Hillary Clinton to give Americans straight answers about Huma.

The reaction was typical: Hillary Clinton blew off questions from the press, who went into full protection mode to cover her. But like I always say, any day you’re attacked by both David Brock and Keith Olbermann is a good day.

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Let’s make this very simple.

I’m going to give a list of three questions that any media outlet in the world can ask Hillary Clinton to give some straightforward answers to. All Hillary has to do is answer the questions and Americans are going to see that there is a very real connection here that should have them very worried that this woman has been anywhere near the White House, much less been Hillary’s top confidant for the last 20 years.

The three questions are very simple, very straightforward, and, frankly, anybody can research the answers themselves. They are:

1) What is Huma’s relationship with a Saudi Arabian official named Abdullah Omar Naseef?

2) Was he the founder of a Saudi charity called the Rabita Trust?

3) Right after 9/11, was the Rabita Trust put on a list by the U.S. government of groups that were funding terrorism?

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That’s it. Three very simple questions.

Anybody else out there who is concerned about this issue can put pressure on Hillary Clinton and the media themselves, by using social media like Twitter and Facebook to say: “answer the three questions about Huma.”

Hillary Clinton is not some princess and America is not some Muslim kingdom — yet. She’s a public official, and as citizens, we have a right to know who she’s giving access to. We have a right to know who she could be sharing state secrets with.

We’re under deadly threat and the media had better start doing their job and informing us, rather than being Hillary Clinton’s defense team.

Answer the three questions about Huma, Hillary… because I’m not going to stop asking them.

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Roger Stone: It’s Time America Got Some Answers About Huma Abedin

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by ROGER STONE13 Jun 20166,401

Chic gal pal? Mild mannered politician’s wife? Harmless clotheshorse? Saudi plant? Innocent aide? Handler?

Huma Abedin is Vice Chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. But Huma is more, much more than that. She is the person closest to the most powerful woman in American politics and perhaps the next President. Huma has been described variously as Hillary’s “body woman,” a sort of glorified go-to personal maid, gentle confidant, and by others as an Islamic spy. She may be all of these things, because as we shall see, Huma Abedin has an interesting and complex career history.

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Abedin was deeply involved with the establishment of Hillary’s private email server, which was used for all of her work as Secretary of State. Now, since we know Hillary had hundreds of classified or top-secret documents on her vulnerable server (despite her early lies saying she did not), any faith in Huma’s judgment — at the very least — has been demolished. You will soon ask yourself, “how did this woman get a security clearance?”

She was born Huma Mahmood Abedin in 1976 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her father, Syed Zainul Abedin, was Indian and born in New Delhi. In the early 1970s, he was affiliated with the Muslim Students Association at Western Michigan University. The Muslim Students Association or MSA was started in 1963 by Saudi Arabia’s biggest charity, the Muslim World League, a group formed and funded by the Kingdomto spread Islam throughout the world.

Her mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, was born in Pakistan. Saleha received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977.

Two years after Huma was born, the family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and with the patronage of Abdullah Omar Naseef of the Muslim World League, founded the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs with offices in Saudi Arabia and London, England. In the 1980’s Syed Abedin was a counselor of the Muslim World League. After his death in 1993, his wife Saleha took over and serves as director of the IMMA (Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs) and as the editor of that organization’s academic magazine, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. More recently she still edits the Journal and is also a part of the administration of Dar Al-Hekma Women’s College.

Naseef’s connections to the entire Abedin family are significant — and, for reasons you’ll see in a moment, very troubling. AsVanity Fair wrote, during “his early years as the patron of the Abedins’ journal, Nasseef was the secretary-general of the Muslim World League” and gives more shocking details about the Abedins:

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It turns out the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs is an Abedin family business. Huma was an assistant editor there between 1996 and 2008. Her brother, Hassan, 45, is a book-review editor at the Journal and was a fellow at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, where Nasseef is chairman of the board of trustees. Huma’s sister, Heba, 26, is an assistant editor at the Journal.

That’s what all the fuss is about. Since 1962, the Muslim World League has been funded by the Saudi government to the tune of more than $1.3 billion.

Naseef, the Muslim World League, and the government of Pakistan created the Rabita Trust in 1988. Naseef was a sponsor and financial supporter of Syed Abedin’s IMMA.

Just a month after the 9/11 jihadist attack left thousands dead and brought down the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush’s Executive Order designated the Rabita Trust as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity and the Treasury Department froze its assets on October 12, 2001.

Naseef founded the Rabita Trust and remains involved with it to this day. ATreasury Department press release issued when Rabita Trust’s assets were frozen indicated that Rabita Trust is headed by Wa’el Hamza Jalaidan, one of the founders of al-Qaida with bin Laden. He was the logistics chief of bin Laden’s organization and fought on bin Laden’s side in Afghanistan. Jalaidan himself was branded a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity by the United States Treasury Department, and his assets have been frozen, as well.

But the connections between the Abedin’s Saudi benefactor, the Muslim World League, and al-Qaeda don’t end there.

In 1984, foreign mujahidin fighters were streaming in from all over the world to an office in Peshawar, Pakistan known as Maktab al-Khidamat or MAK.

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MAK had been created by two Muslims to recruit and raise money: a radical cleric named Abdullah Azzam and Azzam’s protege, the infamous leader behind 9/11, the Saudi Arabian named Osama bin Laden. Before and after his creation of MAK, Azzam subsisted on money provided by the Muslim World League:

Azzam, now determined to move to Pakistan, obtained a teaching position at the newly established International Islamic University of Islamabad, whose foreign faculty were paid directly by the Muslim World League. Thus, from his arrival in Pakistan in December 1981 until his permanent move to Peshawar in 1986, the leader of the Arab Afghans subsisted on a Muslim World League salary.

Donations to MAK came from a number of “Islamic charities” such as the Saudi Red Crescent, as well as some Saudi Arabian princes and mosques.

The office that bin Laden and the other MAK founders were based out of 1984 in Peshawar was the office of the Muslim World League and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim World League was also a principal funder of MAK, bringing in Saudi funds that would eventually go to jihad against the West.

The head of the Muslim World League when their offices in Pakistan were used by Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Azzam in 1984 was none other than the Abedin’s benefactor, Abdullah Omar Naseef.

Naseef’s Rabita Trust, a subsidiary of the Muslim World League, is also connected to a U.S.-based group, called the SAAR Network, through two officers — Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef and Abdullah al-Obaid. The SAAR Network was the focus of a March 2002 raid led by United States authorities for the network’s alleged ties to al Qaeda.

This brings us back to Huma Abedin. She lived in Saudi Arabia until she was 17, while her family worked closely with Naseef. Back in the U.S., she studied at George Washington University. Two years later she, along with Monica Lewinsky, became interns at the White House under Bill and Hillary Clinton. Monica served as Bill’s intern – until their sexual relationship got out of hand and onto her blue dress – and Huma served as Hillary’s intern. In 1998, as the Lewinsky sex scandal was raging, she along with other staff girls formed a sort of shield around the humiliated First Lady.

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While she worked at the White House, Abedin was an editor at the family business—the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

When Clinton ran for the Senate in 2000, Huma moved up the ladder to become her aide and personal adviser.

When the towers fell in 2001, Hillary Clinton was the Senator from New York. When the assets of the Rabita Trust were frozen and the group declared a terror funder, there was no point where Sen. Clinton’s assistant Huma Abedin stepped forward to shed light on her family’s benefactor Abdullah Omar Naseef, the Muslim World League, or the Rabita Trust.

Sen. Clinton and Huma Abedin betrayed every New Yorker and every America with their silence.

Also worth noting: from April 2005 to March 2006, Huma was paid a total of $27,999.92, yet on September 18, 2006, she bought an apartment in Washington D.C. costing $649,000.

The question here is, on an annual salary of no more than $28,000, where did the money come from? We’ve caught of the greatest spies due to their spending well beyond their salaries.

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At the least, what to make of someone who has lived for 17 years in Saudi Arabia, with parents who have close, long-standing ties with people connected to terrorist organizations, and then comes to the U.S. and within two years gets a job as the First Lady’s assistant?

By 2008, she was Hillary’s traveling chief of staff and was always at Hillary’s side. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At this time, Huma had her name removedfrom the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs masthead.

In 2010, Huma married Congressman Anthony Weiner. In 2011, her husband was caught sexting — sending pictures of his erection to several women. He resigned from Congress that same year.

Huma’s luck seemed to know no end when Hillary Clinton personally signed off on a controversial deal in 2012 that allowed Huma to simultaneously work for the State Department and a private New York firm with deep ties to the Clinton family foundation. Mrs. Clinton personally signed a title change form that approved of the transition from being her Deputy Chief of Staff, to an SGE (special government employee), the equivalent of a contractor with special privileges. This allowed Huma to work for both the State department and for the Teneo Group. Some of you might remember the Teneo Group as a top consulting firm run by Bill Clinton gatekeeper Doug Band. Bill Clinton was also on the payroll of Teneo. From June 2012 to February 2013, she held four jobs. She was Hillary’s State Department aide, a consultant at Teneo Group, she worked and was paid a salary at the Clinton Foundation, and she worked as Hillary’s private personal assistant. Huma was triple-dipping.

There were several issues being investigated both internally by the State Department and Sen. Charles Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee for conflicts of interest and embezzlement. She filed inaccurate time sheets overpaying herself $10,000. Mr. Grassley has also questioned whether the deal with Abedin really met the requirements for a special government employee status. One of those requirements is that someone’s work as a contractor be different enough from the original job to warrant giving the person contractor status. Documents acquired by the Washington Times show that she told State officials that she planned to do the same kind of work as an SGE that she did as Deputy Chief of Staff.

She became part of Hillary’s transition team in 2013, helping her to return to private life. She continued her work at the Clinton Foundation and set up her own consulting firm, Zain Endeavors LLC.

On October 16, 2015, Abedin testified in a closed session before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, in a session that was expected to focus on the 2012 Benghazi attack during which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. She said, “I came here today to be as helpful as I could be to the committee. I wanted to honor the service of those lost and injured in the Benghazi attacks,” adding she was “honored” to work for Clinton at State and “proud” of her service there. Representative Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican panel member, said Abedin frequently answered questions with responses of “‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I don’t recollect.'”

There is no doubt that she and Hillary have an extremely close relationship. She has been loyal and faithful to Hillary for twenty years. “I have one daughter. But if I had a second daughter, it would be Huma.” So spoke Hillary in 2010. She even visited with Huma’s mother Saleha in Saudi Arabia in 2011, telling her that Huma’s position was “very important and sensitive.” Saleha is reportedly an outspoken advocate for genital mutilation for girls in the Islamic world.

So how has the media dealt with Huma Abedin? In short, they haven’t. The family’s critics have been attacked and labeled as conspiracy theorists.

One exception to this was the February 2016 issue of Vanity Fair. Author William D Cohen’s story, titled “Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?”  tackled some of the issues I have gone over in this piece. It was well written, informative, and controversial. The backlash was immediate.

Media Matters for America, Hillary Clinton’s private propaganda machine, went into overdrive, putting out a response to Cohen’s article that attacked his credibility and just about every fact he had raised in his piece. According to Lee Stranahan writing in Breitbart, the Media Matters article was filled with false information and smears to protect the Clinton campaign.

This isn’t some minor aide. Huma Abedin has been at Clinton’s side for decades, and it’s time America got some answers.

Listen to Roger Stone discuss Abedin and Clinton on Breitbart News Daily, airing weekdays from 6 AM to 9 AM EST on SiriusXM Patriot 125:

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Ann Coulter: Did Anyone Talking About Trump’s Speech Actually Hear It?

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by ANN COULTER15 Jun 2016787

The media have lost their minds after Trump’s magnificent speech on Monday. It’s all hands on deck, no attack is too extreme. Their main point is: DO NOT LOOK AT THAT SPEECH. It has “words that wound.” Much too dangerous even to read it.

Instead of reporting what Trump said, the media give us the “gist” of it (in the sense of an unrecognizable distortion). It was awful, Hitlerian, beneath our dignity as a nation. They lie about what he said and then attack their own lies as if they’re attacking Trump.

The Washington Post’s headline, which got their reporters banned from Trump’s press briefings, was: “Donald Trump Seems to Connect President Obama to the Orlando Shooting.”

I guess OK, You’re Right, didn’t sound professional, so the Post pretended not to understand Trump’s speech, at all. We can’t makes heads or tails of it, but he seems to be saying …

One thing Trump is not, is unclear.

Contrary to the Post’s headline suggesting that Trump had posited some crazy theory about Obama secretly meeting with Omar Mateen to plot the attack — No, this gun is much better for a mass shooting, Omar — Trump criticized the Obama administration policies that are not keeping us safe. (It’s completely unprecedented to respond to a mass murder by criticizing the policies that allowed it to happen!)

After San Bernardino and Orlando — also, the Boston Marathon, Fort Hood, Little Rock, Chattanooga and Times Square — quite obviously, Trump is right.

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Washington Post: We’re confused. What do you mean?

How about: Washington Post seems to Connect President Bush to Abu Ghraib

Washington Post, May 26, 2006: “Bush has … addressed Abu Ghraib the same way he did last night: Expressing regret without responsibility.”

Or: Democrats Seem to Connect President Bush to Anti-Americanism in Muslim World

Washington Post, May 20, 2005: “It is certainly true that the Bush administration, at Guantanamo and at Abu Ghraib, is responsible for a good deal of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world.”

Or: Washington Post Seems to Connect President Bush to Missing WMDs and Katrina Deaths

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Washington Post, April 5, 2006: “How much was President Bush personally responsible for taking the country to war under false pretenses, or for the botched response to Hurricane Katrina? To hear the White House tell it, it wasn’t really his fault.”

In his speech, Trump said:

“The killer was an Afghan, of Afghan parents, who immigrated to the United States. His father published support for the Afghan Taliban, a regime which murders those who don’t share its radical views. The father even said he was running for president of that country.

“The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here.

“That is a fact, and it’s a fact we need to talk about.

“We have a dysfunctional immigration system which does not permit us to know who we let into our country, and it does not permit us to protect our citizens.”

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Immediately after Trump’s speech, MSNBC’s Katie Tur “fact-checked” Trump, announcing that he had incorrectly said Omar was “born in Afghan.”

What did Tur think this meant? “Afghan” isn’t a country. Didn’t she pause for a moment and realize that what she thought he said makes no sense? Journalists with their outsized sense of importance say, No, no, that’s not what I heard. It says in my notes right here, you said, “blue carrots for Eisenhower.” I stand by my notes.

Obviously, what Trump said was that Omar was “born an Afghan.” Which he was.

The media began indignantly informing us that Trump was wrong because — as The Washington Post put it: “The shooter was born in Queens to parents who emigrated from Afghanistan.”

With the media, you’re an “American” when you commit the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, an “Afghan” when you’re applying to college. You’re an “American” when you shoot up the San Bernardino community center, a “Pakistani” when you’re offended by Trump’s remarks. You’re an “American” when you slaughter troops at Fort Hood, a “Muslim” when the Army realizes it can’t fire you.

This can lead to confusion. After the Post snippily corrected Trump on Omar not being an “Afghan” on Monday, on Tuesday, the Post admitted he was. Headline: “Orlando gunman said he carried out attack to get ‘Americans to stop bombing his country,’ witness says.”

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The Atlantic’s Ron Fournier, Dispenser of Conventional Liberal Opinion, wrote an article on Trump’s speech titled “A Victory Lap in Blood” that would make any social justice warrior proud.

Like the rest of the media’s reviews of a speech they apparently didn’t read, there were no quotes from Trump’s speech. Instead, Fournier ran through a string of accusations, SJW-style: “You didn’t call it,” “You are helping ISIS recruit terrorists,” “You are dividing Americans …”

Trump never claimed he “called it,” but, if he ever does, Fournier has a fantastic takedown:

“You didn’t warn that an American man named Omar Mateen, a well-educated security guard investigated by the FBI for suspected ties to terrorism, would legally purchase a weapon made for warfare and use it to slaughter 49 people at a popular gay nightclub.”

Hillary Clinton is presidential because she wants to dramatically increase the number of unvetted Syrian refugees we bring in. But Trump is an embarrassment because he doesn’t have superhuman powers to know that a “man named Omar Mateen” would attack an Orlando nightclub.

Fournier repeated the fake fact currently sweeping the nation about Trump thinking he deserves congratulations, writing, “Donald Trump wants a pat on the back.”

But then Fournier made the fatal mistake of quoting Trump’s tweet allegedly saying this: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!”

Fournier’s “Trump wants a pat on the back” was 12 words away from Trump saying, “I don’t want congrats.” Even the most bored reader is probably going to make it that far.

Now you see why reporters aren’t quoting Trump and have to hope you won’t read the speech for yourself.

COPYRIGHT 2016 ANN COULTER 
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL UCLICK

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Kenya Builds Wall Along Somali Border to Keep Al-Shabaab Jihadists Out

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by EDWIN MORA27 Apr 2016Washington, D.C.803

Kenya has announced it will begin erecting a nearly 435-mile-long wall along its northeastern border with Somalia to stem the flow of jihadists from the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.

“This wall will help us check on people like al-Shabaab from crossing to and from Somalia. We will not limit movement of other people. There is a need for joint cooperation between both countries and our leaders in dealing with terrorism, which has affected us negatively,” Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery told reporters in Nairobi over the weekend, according to Defense News.

He reportedly added that “the security barrier consists of a concrete wall ringed with a barbed-wire electric fence and trenches. It will also have observation posts where electronic surveillance cameras will be installed to monitor movements on either side of the border.”

The Somalia-based jihadist group has been associated with Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) rival al-Qaeda. ISIS members have reportedly been fighting with al-Shabaab over turf in Somalia.

In March, Kenya’s National Police Servicewarned that members of al-Shabaab posed a security threat to Kenya.

The warning came after the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), backed by Somalia’s national army, killed 34 al Shabaab jihadists in two separate attacks.

According to Defense News, Nkaissery told reporters “that contrary to assertions by the Somali government and some influential clans and communities on either side of the border, the [proposed] fence would not limit or deter the movement of people between the two countries.”

“Instead, he said the fence would limit cross-border terrorist movements and enable the country to prevent attacks which have killed more than 400 people in the country since 2012,” adds the report.

Somalia’s Maheran clan, an armed and influential border community that had been opposed to the plan, has reportedly embraced the Kenyan government’s plan to construct a border wall.

“In January this year, at least 80 Kenyan soldiers died in the Maheran clan communal area in an attack Kenyan officials believe was carried out with the help of local clan militias,” notes Defense News.

“The [border] wall will have border posts in Mandera, Lamu and three other border towns. The project is fully funded by the Kenyan government, with labor coming from the Ministry of Transport and the National Youth Service, while the Kenya Defence Forces provides security to the construction crews,” it adds.

In early March, the U.S. deployed both manned and unmanned aircraft to bomb an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia, killing over 150 jihadists.

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Trump Risks Charles Lindbergh Label with ‘America First’ Foreign Policy Speech

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by JOEL B. POLLAK27 Apr 201662

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump devoted his major foreign policy addressWednesday to a theme, “America First,” that has been discredited through its association with Charles Lindbergh’s isolationist efforts to keep the U.S. out of the Second World War.

In his address Wednesday, Trump defined “America First” as follows: “My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else.”

That would seem the obvious goal of any American foreign policy. Arguably, eight years of sabotage by the Obama administration, and decades of “post-American” policy at the State Department, have made a return to basics necessary.

But Trump’s most vociferous critics will see the phrase as a “dog whistle” to the far right.

In an infamous speech in Des Moines, Iowa on Sep. 11, 1941, Lindbergh blamed “foreign interests” and “a small minority of our own people” for attempting to drag the U.S. into the war. He did not mince words: “The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration,” Lindbergh declared.

He had already been chastised by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and had resigned his military commission earlier that year (though he would later participate in the war in a civilian capacity).

“America First” soon became associated with isolationism, antisemitism — and short-sightedness: Just three months after Lindbergh’s speech, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the U.S., making Lindbergh’s stance obsolete.

Trump certainly knows the legacy of “America First.” And just as he seems unafraid of politically correct taboos on other subjects, Trump seems prepared to risk the backlash “America First” will certainly bring.

In addition, Trump’s policy takes a different tack.

His is not an isolationist approach. In fact, it calls for engagement with Russia (however dubious a proposition this may seem after Hillary Clinton’s failed “reset”), and confronting China.

Trump does want to pull back from nation-building abroad. He also wants to spread the financial cost of global security to U.S. allies, and insists Muslim nations in the Middle East must reciprocate America’s good intentions.

That is not “isolationist” as much as it is an alternative to years of incoherence and appeasement.

Combined with Trump’s focus on ending illegal immigration and on re-negotiating free trade deals on more favorable terms, what “America first” means to Trump is a shift in American priorities without abandoning American leadership.

Curiously, Trump’s rival, 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)

97%

, responded by attacking Trump for political corruption, not by attacking the substance of his address, or the problematic history of “America First.” Instead, Cruz said the following:

With this address [Trump] is now the foreign policy candidate of the Washington lobbyists, even as he proclaims “America first,” he puts K Street lobbyists first. He is never going to fight the system, he is the system. He and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. She has made her millions from inside and Donald Trump has made his billions buying people like Hillary Clinton. Both are part of the culture of foreign policy for personal gain.

Cruz supporters might regard that as a missed opportunity — and liberal critics will say, as they have said before, that he is afraid to confront Trump’s alleged far-right-wing base.

That criticism would be overblown. If there is any trace of Lindbergh’s ideas in Trump’s version of “America First,” it is in Trump’s attack on what he calls “the false song of globalism.”

Certainly global institutions such as the United Nations have become tools for anti-Americanism, antisemitism, and evil. And other, more positive institutions, like NATO, have struggled to respond to new threats and challenges.

But as Trump himself acknowledges, it is impossible to secure some U.S. interests without cooperation with other nations. That cooperation requires a global outlook.

“America First” may be due for a revival — as long as it is not “America alone.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new e-book, Leadership Secrets of the Kings and Prophets: What the Bible’s Struggles Teach Us About Today, is on sale through Amazon Kindle Direct. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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The Panama Papers: ‘Biggest Data Leak In History’ Claims to Expose How the Powerful Hide Their Riches

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by JOHN HAYWARD4 Apr 2016169

The UK Guardian describes the trove of confidential data stolen from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that specializes in administering offshore accounts, as “the biggest data leak in history.”

This refers to both the size of the database given to the Guardian and the BBC – 11.5 million files totaling over 2.6 terabytes in size, covering 200,000 clients of the firm – and its significance. The Panama Papers are touted as blowing the lid off the extremely complex financial arrangements employed by world leaders to conceal their vast wealth, and shelter it from the very tax systems some of Mossack Fonseca’s clients preside over.

The Guardian says the Panama Papers leak is an order of magnitude larger than either the diplomatic cables exposed by WikiLeaks in 2010 or the trove of intelligence documents stolen by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, two leaks that indisputably changed the political conversation around the world. Snowden himself chimed in on Twitter to agree that the Panama Papers are the “biggest leak in the history of data journalism.”

Journalists from over 80 countries are said to be analyzing this mountain of data, which was provided by an anonymous source last year.

Among the prominent political leaders with offshore tax havens managed by Mossack Fonseca is Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is portrayed as using his associates to siphon $2 billion from Russian banks into offshore accounts. Putin cronies named in the scheme include his best friend and godfather of his daughter, cellist Sergei Roldugin, and former Olympic ice dancing champion Tatiana Navka, the glamorous wife of Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Everyone involved in helping Putin conceal his fortune in these offshore accounts grew very rich themselves, according to theGuardian.

The UK Daily Mail quotes Peskov denying the Panama Papers revelations, portraying the story as an attack by foreign intelligence services on Putin’s legitimacy “in the context of the coming parliamentary election.”

“Putinophobia has got so hot that a priori nobody can say anything good about Russia, they must say bad things and if there is nothing to say, one must make something up,” Peskov alleged.

The Daily Mail has Navka claiming she does not know anything about the offshore asset company she is listed as the beneficiary of, and implying that her passport, which was found among the company’s papers, might have been stolen and used without her knowledge.

“My wife never had any offshore company and does not have it now, she never opened it and, accordingly, she could not close it down,” declared Peskov, referring to the November 2015 liquidation of the offshore company.

According to the Daily Mail, there appears to be a Russian media blackout on the Panama Papers story in effect, even though it should be a huge story with the potential to shake up the government, because “Russian law forbids senior officials and their families from using foreign financial institutions and offshore vehicles.” Also, the Guardianobserves that Putin has been publicly urging his citizens to bring money from abroad back home to Russia, which makes the discovery that Putin has been shuffling billions through secret offshore tax havens more than a little inconvenient.

NBC News spoke with several Russia experts who thought the scandal was more likely to embarrass Putin than severely damage him, noting that he is meticulous about keeping his own name away from the most incriminating documents. However, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer suggested Russia could “respond aggressively” to everyone involved in what it perceives as an attack on its presidency, including billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, which provided funding for the group of journalists that broke the Panama Papers story.

“I feel fairly confident that the Kremlin will be going after the U.S., Soros, the CIA and this is going to make Russian policy towards the U.S. actually much more sharp and antagonistic,” said Bremmer.

Other national leaders implicated in the scandal include Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, former Vice President of Iraq Ayad Allawi, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, Iceland’s Prime Minister Signundur Davio Gunnlaugsson, and one of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s sons, Alaa Mubarak.

Furthermore, according to the Guardian’sreview of the data, six members of the British House of Lords and three former Conservative MPs had offshore assets, as did the families of at least eight current and former members of the Chinese Politburo.  23 of Mossack Fonseca’s clients were under international sanctions, including supporters of the regimes in North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

The Associated Press reports the Panama Papers leak has already caused a firestorm in Australia, where over 800 wealthy citizens are now under investigation by the Australian Taxation Office, in cooperation with the Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission, and Austrac financial intelligence agency.

The Daily Mail observes that some of Mossack Fonseca’s clients appear to be “billionaire husbands” using the firm to “hide their fortunes from the wives they divorce,” including Russian oligarch Dmitri Rybolovlev, aviation tycoon Clive Joy, and late British billionaire Scot Young. In fact, internal emails from employees of the firm have them cracking jokes about how the offshore companies they helped create were used to protect assets “against the unpleasant results of a divorce.”

As just about every story on the Panama Papers concedes, there appears to be nothing illegal about the services Mossack Fonseca performed for its clients.

In a lengthy statement to the Guardian, the firm challenged the accuracy of some stories circulating around the data leak, and noted the leaked documents confirm that the company “routinely denies services to individuals who are compromised,” or who fail to provide the information needed to comply with regulations.

“It is legal and common for companies to establish commercial entities in different jurisdictions for a variety of legitimate reasons, including conducting cross-border mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, estate planning, personal safety, restructuring and pooling of investment capital from different jurisdictions in neutral legal and tax regimes that does not benefit or disadvantage any one investor,” Mossack Fonseca wrote.

“Our services are regulated on multiple levels, often by overlapping agencies, and we have a strong compliance record,” the firm continued. “In addition, we have always complied with international protocols… to assure as is reasonably possible, that the companies we incorporate are not being used for tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist finance or other illicit purposes.”

The firm also noted it does not manage its clients’ companies, does not take possession of their money, and does not “have anything to do with any of the direct financial aspects related to operating their businesses.”  

Mossack Fonseca took strong exception to the idea that “the primary function of the services we provide is to facilitate tax avoidance and/or evasion,” and said it was not responsible for the potential “misuse of companies that we incorporate, or the services we provide.”  The firm insisted it would never willingly help individuals associated with rogue regimes to violate international sanctions.

On the other hand, the firm charged that theGuardian was given “unauthorized access to proprietary documents and information taken from our company and have presented and interpreted them out of context,” and reminded the paper that “using information/documentation unlawfully obtained is a crime,” for which they would not hesitate to press charges.

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Cuban State Media: ‘Negro’ Obama ‘Incited Rebellion and Disorder’

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© AFP Nicholas Kamm

by FRANCES MARTEL31 Mar 20163,637

The Havana Tribune, a state-controlled Cuban newspaper, has added insult to injury following Fidel Castro’s scathing criticism of President Barack Obama upon his departure from the island. In an editorial, the title of which refers to President Obama as “negro,” an opinion columnist has accused him of “inciting rebellion.”

The article is titled “Negro, ¿Tu Eres Sueco?” which roughly translates to “Black Man, Are You Dumb?” (The idiom “pretend to be a Swede” means to play dumb, hence the title is literally asking, “Are you Swedish?”) The author, who is black, goes on to condemn President Obama for meeting with Cuban pro-democracy activists and “subtly” suggesting that the Cuban Revolution needed to change. “Obama came, saw, but unfortunately, with the pretend gesture of lending a hand, tried to conquer,” Elias Argudín writes.

“[Obama] chose to criticize and subtly suggest … incitations to rebellion and disorder, without caring that he was on foreign ground. Without a doubt, Obama overplayed his hand,” he continues. “The least I can say is, Virulo-style: ‘Negro, are you dumb?'”

Virulo is a white pro-Revolution comedian.

Argudín’s article later accuses President Obama of presiding over a racist country–mocking the calls for freedom in Cuba by stating, “Which freedom–the freedom enjoyed by white police to massacre and manhandle black people?”–and issue demands parroted straight from the Castro regime: the end of the “genocidal” embargo and giving the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which has belonged to the United States since before Cuban independence, to the Castros.

Claims of rampant discrimination on the part of white police in the United States are common among the leaders and spokesmen of rogue communist states like China, North Korea, and Zimbabwe.

The column appears on the Havana Tribunewebsite with a March 23 dateline, though itappeared in the print edition of the newspaper on Monday and has begun to make the rounds online this week. It hasreceived intense criticism from Cuban-Americans on social media for its disrespect of the president and openly racist language.

Argudín has since written a follow-up article in which he claims he “did not expect” the negative feedback and apologizes “to those who may have been offended.” He then accuses his critics of “misunderstanding” his piece:

It is not necessary to be an advanced reader to note: I did not write a racist column. The word “negro” is mentioned twice, in the title and the phrase giving the article its name, which isn’t even mine. It is a reference to a comedy work. Journalism has its rules. It also allows some licenses. Among the demands of the job there is a very important one: capture the reader’s attention from the title.

Argudín’s piece has, nonetheless, highlighted the rampant discrimination against Afro-Cubans that has existed throughout the history of the Revolution. As the leaders of the communist Revolution were all white–and at least one was an avowed racist—few Afro-Cubans currently hold positions of power in Cuba, though an estimated 60 percent of the nation is black.

In a video declaration in 2015, Ladies in White dissident leader Berta Soler explains that, of known political prisoners, 60 percent are black. Black people are often forced to live in segregated neighborhoods and kept far away from tourism industry jobs (except prostitution). “To the government, the black person is a thief, a bandit, a troublemaker,” Soler argues, noting that the Cuban people are significantly less racist than the regime. “Interracial marriage is resulting in fewer black people. … This is a problem for the government,” she notes.

In a series about racism in Cuba, The Rootnotes a common phrase used by revolutionaries: “Negrada–which means, literally, a group of black people–came to signify a screw-up, a f*cked-up affair. ¡Que negrada! became as common as hustling foreigners.”

The inevitable use of what, in the United States, is considered a racial slur (though Cubans often use negro as a term of endearment), is the latest indignity in a trip to Cuba laden with them, from the slight of Raúl Castro failing to greet President Obama upon landing in Havana to Castro openly denying the presence of political prisoners in Cuba, only to have President Obama later “welcome” his criticism on America. The elder Fidel Castro, or someone claiming to be him, weighed in with a scathing column in the national publication Granma this week, in which he accused President Obama of being racist towards Native Americans and refused his call to normalization: “We do not need the Empire to gift us anything.”

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Hillary Emails: Intelligence Report Said Hezbollah Has Base in Cuba

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by JORDAN SCHACHTEL17 Feb 2016Greenville, South Carolina200

A private intelligence report from Hillary Clinton’s confidant, Sid Blumenthal, claimed that Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization, had set up shop in Cuba, according to an email released by the State Department over the weekend.

The group was actively “casing” facilities related to U.S. interests, the intelligence report also says.

The dispatch read:

During the week of September 5, 2011 extremely sensitive sources reported in confidence that the Israeli Intelligence and Security Service (Mossad) has informed the leadership of the Israeli Government that Hezbollah is establishing an operational base in Cuba, designed to support terrorist attacks throughout Latin America.

The confidential intelligence report from Blumenthal to Clinton continued:

These sources believe that Hezbollah supporters have been instructed to also begin casing facilities associated with the United States and the United Kingdom, including diplomatic missions, major banks, and businesses in the region. These individuals believe that the Hezbollah military commanders in Lebanon and Syria view these U.S. and U.K. entities as contingency targets to be attacked in the event of U.S. and British military intervention in either Syria or Iran, at some point in the future.

Breitbart News has reported extensively on Hezbollah’s encroachment into the western hemisphere, noting the group’s rapid rise in the west in recent years.

U.S. officials, members of Congress, and defense experts continue to warn that Iran is utilizing Hezbollah to expand its influence in the region, and is utilizing cultural centers and mosques to spread the message of the Shia Islamic revolution.

Moreover, a recent report alleged that Hezbollah is now “moving freely” throughout the United States and Latin America.

When reached by Breitbart News, the intelligence services of Canada and Mexico would not confirm or deny reports that Hezbollah had extensive operations already set up within the United States.

A State Department official recently acknowledged in a statement to Breitbart News: “Hizballah receives funding from supporters around the world who engage in a host of licit and illicit activities, some of which takes place in the Western Hemisphere.”

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Machete-Wielding Muslim Man Attacks Israeli-Christian’s Ohio Restaurant, Several Wounded

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by JORDAN SCHACHTEL12 Feb 20161632

Police have shot and killed a man who allegedly attacked patrons of a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant Thursday night, wounding several people. One of the victims is in critical condition, according to reports.

The suspected attacker is a Somali national named Mohammad Barry, CBS reports. There are also reports that Barry was on a terrorist watchlist.

“Law enforcement is concerned that this incident has the hallmarks of the type of so-called “lone wolf” terrorist attack that they have been working to stop,” the report reads.

The suspect entered the restaurant earlier in the day and asked for the owner. He was then told the owner was not at the restaurant, and he left the building, WBNS-10TV reports.

Thirty minutes later, allegedly armed with a machete, the now-deceased suspect entered the Nazareth Restaurant and Deli at 6:30PM local time, witnesses say.

The owner of the restaurant is an Israeli Christian who formerly lived in Nazareth, Israel, according to reports.

“He came in and started beating up on another man, I thought it was a personal thing. Then he just started down the row hitting everybody; people were bleeding,” a witness told a local ABC affiliate.

A waitress said of the events as they unfolded:

He looked straight at me but he went over to the booths and just started going down the booths. It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

Karan Bass, who was in the restaurant at the time of the assault, said:

He came to each table and just started hitting them. There were tables and chairs overturned there was a man on the floor bleeding, there was blood on the floor… I fell like five times. My legs felt like jelly. I just thought he was going to come behind me and slash me up.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now assisting with the investigation, policespokesperson Todd Lindgren revealed. The FBI is well-known as the nation’s preeminent domestic counterterrorism agency.

Police Sgt. Rich Weiner said there did not seem to be any “rhyme or reason” for the attack. He did not reveal the name of the suspect and did not explain why the FBI had gotten involved in the investigation.

Micki Zakas, one of the employees of the restaurant, had nothing but good things to say about the owner of the dining establishment.

“Everybody leaves here with a smile,” she told a local NBC affiliate. “It’s a real happy place, he [the owner] has been in business for 26 years, so he’s got a great reputation around here. The restaurant’s got a great reputation.”

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Iran Pledges to Defy U.S. Sanctions, Build up Ballistic Missile Program

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by JORDAN SCHACHTEL18 Jan 2016Washington, DC1,431

Iran will ignore recently-passed U.S. sanctions against its ballistic missile program, the regime’s defense minister pledged on Monday, promising to unveil new homemade weapons systems in the near future.

“[Any] attempt to impose new sanctions [against Iran] under irrelevant pretexts is indicative of the continued US hostile policy and acrimony toward the Iranian nation, and a futile effort to undermine Iran’s defense might,” said Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan on Monday.

U.S. sanctions enacted over the weekend will have minimal effect on Iran’s missile development programs, he added.

“Hence, sanctions against [certain] people and companies will have no impact on the development of the industry, and we will actually demonstrate [their ineffectiveness] by displaying new missiles,” Dehqan said, in comments reported by state-run PressTv.

The Defense Minister’s comments follow a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry statement pledging to thwart the United States’ “destructive” sanctions against Iran’s weapons program.

“We will respond to such propaganda stunts and disruptive measures by more robustly pursuing our lawful missile program and promoting our defense capabilities and national security,” read a statement from Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would impose sanctions against a number of individuals and organizations over Iran’s ballistic missile program.

“Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions,” read a statementfrom Adam Szubin, acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We have consistently made clear that the United States will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – including those related to Iran’s support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program.”

The new sanctions come as Iran is expected to receive tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets in accordance with the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), agreed upon by the regime in Tehran and the P5+1 world powers.

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerryannounced the U.S. had granted Iran $1.7 billion dollars, repaying the Ayatollah’s theocracy a $400 million dollar debt plus $1.3 billion in interest. Kerry called the payment a “fair settlement.” President Obama agreed, claiming “the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran.”

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Jihadists Massacre 60 in Car Bomb Attack, Take Over Somali Military Base

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by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.15 Jan 201628

In an early morning ambush, Islamic terrorists of the radical al-Shabaab group attacked an African Union military base in southern Somalia Friday, breaching the walls by exploding a car bomband overrunning the base.

According to the officials of the Somali army, the blast demolished the entrance to the military base in in the town of El-Ade, Somalia, slaughtering dozens of Kenyan soldiers and allowing heavily armed jihadist militants to storm the base.

The African Union base is operated by Kenyan peacekeeping forces and is located about 340 miles west of Mogadishu, near the Somali border with Kenya.

The latest official statement issued by al-Shabaab military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab claims that 61 Kenyan soldiers have been killed, and that the base and the nearby town of Ceel Cado are now in the hands of the Islamists.

“Our fighters went in and after a heavy exchange of gunfire we took over the base,” Musab said, and residents have reported sporadic gunfire inside the military compound.

The jihadists also claim to have seized large number of weapons and vehicles at the military base.

The troops of the African Union number around 22 thousand soldiers in total from various African nations. This is not the first time the peacekeeping force has found itself the target of the Islamist terrorists.

Born as an offshoot from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), the al-Shabaab group, which in Arabic means “youth,” has been seeking to overthrow the Western-backed Somalian government and impose a strict form of Islamic sharia law.

The group has been responsible for a number of deadly attacks in Kenya, such as the raid on Garissa University in April of last year that killed 148 mostly Christian students, presumably in opposition to the country’s participation in an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Since February 2012 al-Shabaab has been affiliated with al-Qaeda, though it has been insistently courted by the Islamic State. In October, a portion of its fighters pledgedallegiance to the Islamic State, resulting in tensions within the group.

Ousted from control of the Somali capital of Mogadishu in mid-2011, the terrorist group took over vast rural areas of Somalia from which it launches guerrilla warfare and suicide bombings, both in Somalia and in Kenya.

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EXCLUSIVE – Hamas Paying Off Islamic State to Smuggle Weapons into Gaza 

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by AARON KLEIN AND ALI WAKED15 Jan 20164

TEL AVIV – Hamas has warned Israel against provoking another violent conflict, saying the movement is ready to fight.

Top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh declared earlier this week that the movement’s military wing will “stun the whole world with its power of resistance.”

“We’re building our strength above and below the ground, beyond the enemy lines, in the air, sea, and land, and not just to defend Gaza because, despite the siege, the Strip is liberated,” Haniyeh said during a ceremony marking 20 years since the elimination of the movement’s explosives expert, “the engineer” Yahye Ayash, by Israel.

“We’re doing it for the sake of the whole of Palestine. Al Qassam Brigades, who stunned the entire world in the last war, will do it again whenever they face the enemy.”

Although Hamas regularly threatens Israel, several sources in the movement toldBreitbart Jerusalem that Haniyeh’s speech reflects the group’s increased confidence following successful tests of new missiles and rockets that have recently been smuggled into the Strip or developed in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Hamas’ efforts to rebuild its military power have been boosted thanks to Hamas’ cooperation with Welayat Sinai, the local branch of the Islamic State.

Breitbart Jerusalem previously reportedthat Shadi al-Menai, one of the leaders of Wilayat Sinai, visited Gaza in a bid to mediate between Hamas and local Salafi groups after clashes erupted, resulting in the arrests of dozens of jihadists by Hamas forces.

Now, a leading Salafi source reveals that Menai mediated a deal whereby Hamas would give the Gaza Salafi opposition groups more leeway in exchange for Wilayat Sinai’s help in bypassing the Egyptian army’s restrictions on smuggling rocket parts into Gaza

The resumption of arms smuggling, combined with renewed Iranian financial support, have greatly beefed up the training of Hamas’ military wing. 

Abu Khaled, head of the media office of the Al Qassam Brigades, told Breitbart Jerusalemthat he declined to comment on matters of national security.

This is not the first report of Hamas-IS cooperation in arms smuggling.

A Middle East think tank charged last month that there is information Hamas has been paying off the Islamic State’s Sinai branch to smuggle weapons into Gaza. “Over the past two years, IS Sinai helped Hamas move weapons from Iran and Libya through the peninsula, taking a generous cut from each shipment,” stated a report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Despite the rapprochement between Hamas and IS-Sinai, tensions between the ruling faction and Gazan Salafi opposition groups are rampant.

The Army of Islam, a Salafi group that aspires to become IS’s sole representative in Palestine, recently released an acerbic videoin which it blames Hamas for straying from Sharia law and cooperating with anti-Islamic players, including Shi’ite Iran.

Last month, Breitbart Jerusalem reportedHamas in the Gaza Strip has been hard at work attempting to manufacture rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has also shared its rocket-making capabilities with other terrorist organizations in the coastal enclave, according to security sources familiar with the matter.

Many Gaza residents say that the number of explosions heard across the Strip has greatly increased.

The Israeli army confirmed to Breitbart Jerusalem that Hamas has been engaged in more rocket test launches into the sea.

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Obama Frees 10 Guantánamo Detainees in Largest Recorded Single-Day Release

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File

by JORDAN SCHACHTEL14 Jan 2016Washington, DC2,948

The Defense Department announced Thursday that 10 Yemeni detainees have been set free from Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. All of them were sent to the Gulf state of Oman, the Pentagon said. Less than 100 detainees now remain at the military facility.

“The Oman transfer of 10 is the single largest transfer to a single country at one time under the current administration,” A Pentagon spokesman told the media.

Since the beginning of 2016, 14 detainees have been released from the detention facility. Previously released detainees include Al Qaeda terrorists and a man whopledged to kill Americans should he be allowed back home.

Moreover, the Obama Administration expects to release at least three more detainees by the end of January, officials told VOA.

There are now only 93 detainees at the Guantanamo detention center.

The detainees released are: Fahed Abdullah Ahmad Ghazi, Samir Naji al-Hasan Muqbil, Adham Mohamed Ali Awad, Mukhtar Yahya Naji al-Warafi, Abu Bakr Ibn Muhammad al-Ahdal, Muhammad Salih Husayn al-Shaykh, Muhammad Said Salim Bin Salman, Said Muhammad Salih Hatim, Umar Said Salim al-Dini, and Fahmi Abdallah Ahmad Ubadi al-Tulaqi.

Some of the aforementioned men were associated with Al Qaeda and/or had close ties to Osama Bin Laden’s inner circle, according to leaked files.

Speaking at a ceremony at U.S. Southern Command, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that the U.S. is “diligently” working “to close this chapter in our history.”

Lee Wolosky, a State Department envoy who negotiates transfers, told the media that the Administration will work to release 40 more of the alleged terrorists by this summer.

“Sustained diplomatic engagement led us to this important milestone,” said Wolosky. “We are very grateful to our friends and partners in the gulf and elsewhere who have resettled Yemeni detainees, and we expect to be in a position to empty Guantánamo of all detainees who are currently approved for transfer by this summer.”

In his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, President Obama pledged to continue “working to shut down the prison at Guantánamo,” claiming it serves as a “recruitment brochure for our enemies.” In 2008, he vowed to shut down the facility shortly after he took office.

A recent Politifact review found that Guantánamo is not a “key component” of jihadist recruitment. Groups such as the Islamic State rarely discuss the facility in their propaganda magazine, Dabiq, or through their various multimedia endeavors.

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