HALF-FULL REPORT 07/01/16

Three ISIS suicide bombers killed 43 and injured 239 at Turkey’s Ataturk International airport Tuesday (6/28). The three-part attack “was carried out in a way that suggests the kind of advance intelligence, careful study of a target, and cool execution that would normally be practiced by Western special forces.”

America isn’t on this list of countries where ISIS claims to have covert units in place.  But CIA Director John Brennan said he’d be “surprised if (ISIS) is not trying to carry out that kind of attack in the United States.”

“You look at what happened in the Turkish airport, these were suicide vests, it’s not that difficult to actually construct and fabricate a suicide vest,” Brennan told Yahoo News.

The killers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals, the Turks said.  Thousands of foreign fighters have passed through Turkey to join ISIS.  Turkey also has been the conduit for weapons and ammunition for ISIS and other Sunni Islamist groups fighting the regime of Syrian Bashar Assad, who belongs to an offshoot of Shia Islam and is allied with Iran.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan shares their Islamist ideology, fancies himself as the first caliph of a resurrected Ottoman empire.  But recently, under pressure from both the U.S. and Russia (which supports Assad), Turkey has tightened its border controls.  Those compromises made Erdogan appear weak, which “has played right into the hands of ISIS, which had been looking for a spectacular way to mark the second anniversary of the establishment of its so-called ‘caliphate,’” said CNN commentator Lina Khatib.

But ISIS may have overreached.  Turkey has a large and very capable military. “Turkey’s vengeance will come down like rain from hell,” predicts Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute.

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Gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” have taken at least 20 hostages today in a café popular with foreigners in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh.

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Four days before the bombing at Ataturk airport, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, predicted Turkey would be the next target of an ISIS attack. The attack proves ISIS is “desperate,” knows they are losing, said Secretary of State John Kerry.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex, chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee on administration efforts to scrub references to “radical Islam” from Department of Homeland Security training materials. Watch as Cruz catches DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson in a lie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nxmQcQT_zQ

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One of the guns used in the terrorist attack in Paris last November was purchased illegally from a gun owner in Phoenix. The seller committed at least two federal firearms violations, but hasn’t been prosecuted. Judicial Watch suspects the seller was participating in the infamous “Fast and Furious” operation in which ATF deliberately permitted “straw purchases” for Mexican drug cartels and let guns “walk” across the border.

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The FBI instructed local law enforcement to deny requests for access to public records pertaining to the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.  News organizations are suing to obtain the audio from all of Omar Mateen’s conversations with police that night.

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A mass shooting at a South Carolina nightclub Sunday was prevented by one of the intended victims, who had a concealed carry permit and shot the would be killer in the leg.

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There were no new bombshells in the report of the Benghazi Committee Tuesday. But there were chilling new details confirming what those who were paying attention already knew.  Which was:

*Hillary Clinton and her senior aides at the State Department ignored repeated warnings of Islamist activity in Libya – in Benghazi particularly – and repeated requests from the ambassador on down for more security.

A Diplomatic Security Service agent told the committee Benghazi was “a suicide mission.” He was told by a superior:

“Everybody back here in D.C. knows that people are going to die in Benghazi, and nobody cares and nobody is going to care until somebody does die.”

*The president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were informed immediately the consulate was being attacked by Islamist terrorists. Rather than tell Americans the truth, the administration concocted a lie that this was a “spontaneous” demonstration prompted by a Youtube video critical of the Prophet Muhammad.

The chief liar was then UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who did the full Ginsburg of Sunday talk shows Sept. 16.  But the most brazen lie was at a memorial service at Andrews AFB Sept. 14, when Hillary told family members of the victims the video was responsible for the attack, and she was going to have the film maker arrested.  Hillary has since implied the family members were lying about what she told them.  This is one mean, cold-hearted bitch.

Here’s what Dorothy Woods, widow of former Navy SEAL Tryone Woods, had to say about Hillary:

*The president and the secretary of defense say they ordered help to be sent to Benghazi, but none was dispatched during the eight hour siege.

The Marine Fleet Anti-terrorism Support Team assigned to Rota, Spain probably could have gotten to Benghazi before former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed, but it didn’t take off until almost 12 hours after the attack ended. Dispatch of the FAST team was delayed during a two hour “deputies meeting” which Hillary attended where senior officials argued whether the Marines should wear their uniforms or not, have U.S. markings on their vehicles. The Marines changed in and out of their uniforms four times while the bureaucrats deliberated.

“At the same time the State Department appeared to waste time on what our soldiers would wear, it also appeared to waste time and focus on the YouTube video that the administration would later blame, falsely, for the attack,” wrote Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan, and Jim Jordan, R-OH, in a supplemental report.

“It has emerged that during an emergency call at 7:30 p.m. on the night of the attack involving Secretary Clinton and other high-level officials from the Department of Defense, State Department, and CIA that a full five of the eleven action items from the meeting related to the video.”

After diddling for hours, administration officials decided not to send help because they thought, mistakenly, the attack was over.  There could have been 39 dead Americans – not just four – if the survivors hadn’t been rescued by forces loyal to Muammar Khadafy.

“Benghazi was a foreseeable disaster they failed to prevent,” summed up Richard Fernandez of PJ Media. “And in the aftermath it was a catastrophe whose lessons they were determined to ignore.”

*There are still unanswered questions, because the administration denied access to key witnesses and documents. Foremost among them are (1) What was going on at the CIA annex?  (2) An unarmed drone was giving Washington real time video of the attack.  Why wasn’t an armed drone sent?

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Democrats on the committee issued their own report, accusing Republicans of “playing politics.”  The Dem report mentions Donald Trump 23 times. I had no idea he was in Benghazi, or what he was doing there.

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The Donald was in Pennsylvania Tuesday to deliver a speech on trade so profoundly economically illiterate it could have been given by Bernie Sanders.  It was also profoundly hypocritical, since the merchandise Trump sells – including those stupid hats — is manufactured abroad.

He threatened to start a trade war with China, renegotiate NAFTA, impose a 45 percent tariff on imported goods.  Evidently he’s unaware it’s American consumers who’d pay the tariff.

His is a Cliff Notes version of mercantilism, an economic philosophy Adam Smith demolished in his Wealth of Nations in 1776.  Trump conflates free trade, favored by small government conservatives, with “globalism,” favored by big government elitists.

Trump’s trade speech was blasted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and by the National Association of Manufacturers, who noted that 40 percent of U.S. manufacturing jobs are related to exports.

Trump “is appealing to ignorance and anxiety, using trade to provide himself with the one thing every politician really needs: an enemy,” said the editors of National Review.

The Donald’s trade policy “is a scam, skillfully pitched to fool the gullible,” said columnist Steve Chapman. “Its most noticeable feature is a total divorce from basic economic realities.”

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A few minutes after declaring NATO “obsolete,” Trump said he would use NATO to fight ISIS.

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The economic collapse elitist scaremongers were predicting would result from Brexit hasn’t materialized. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn lost a vote of no confidence, but refused to resign. Boris Johnson won’t be the next prime minister. Brexit fever is spreading throughout Europe. Hungary wants out, says a prominent government official.

Watch here as Brexit supporter Dan Hannon smacks down CNN’s execrable Christiane Amanpour.

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Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton met for half an hour Tuesday on her government airplane at the airport in Phoenix.  They didn’t discuss the FBI investigation of Hillary, Ms. Lynch said. Not even the Lying Swine believe that.  “Democrats groan,” says Politico. FBI agents are “livid” about the secret meeting, says Fox News.

The fallout was so great Lynch said this morning she’d go along with whatever the FBI recommended.

FBI Director “James Comey just became the most powerful person in America,” said Mark Finkelstein of Legal Insurrection.  Comey is a “straight shooter,” Rudy Giuliani told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.  Which may be why Justice issued a “clarification” backtracking on Ms. Lynch’s promise.

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The Justice Department filed a motion in federal court Wednesday to delay for 27 months release of emails between Hillary’s top aides at the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and Teneo Holdings, a public relations firm Bill helped start.

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Tea Party favorite retired Air Force LtCol. Darryl Glenn, who is black, easily won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Colorado Tuesday.  He faces an uphill fight in one of only two seats the GOP has a chance to pick up this cycle.

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David Farenthold, the Washington Post reporter whose reporting forced The Donald actually to give to veterans’ groups the money he promised reported Tuesday that despite Trump’s promises to donate millions to charity, he could find less than $10,000 in donations over the last seven years.

Farenthold did find Trump used money that was supposed to go to charity to acquire for himself a helmet autographed by Tim Tebow.

“Under normal political rules, this is the sort of thing that could bury a presidential candidate,” said Steve Benen of MSNBC. “It’s not just a question about greed or stinginess, it’s also one about honesty.”

It’s possible The Donald has given more than Farenthold could find.  Trump could clear things up by releasing his tax returns.

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Trump’s been soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, which is illegal.

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Polls this week were all over the map, but most showed a widening lead for Hillary.

Trump led in a Rasmussen poll Wednesday, 43-39.  In a Quinnipiac poll Tuesday, Hillary led, 42-40. In a Fox News poll Wednesday, it was Hillary 44, Trump 38. In an IBD/TIPP poll yesterday, Hillary led, 44-40.

In an Ipsos-Reuters poll yesterday, it was Hillary 42, Trump 32. When Reuters added in “Other, wouldn’t vote, refused,” support for Hillary fell to 39.4 percent.  Trump, at 29.2 percent, finished third, behind “Other, wouldn’t vote, refused” at 31.4 percent.

In a YouGov/Economist poll Monday, Hillary led, 40-35.  In a Morning Consult poll Monday, it was Hillary 44, Trump 39.

Most polls in battleground states this week have been brutal for The Donald. Hillary leads in all the states Obama carried in 2012, plus North Carolina and Arizona.

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For making life very uncomfortable for the Obama administration and for Bill and Hillary Clinton, my hero of the week is Christopher Sign, the reporter for the ABC affiliate in Phoenix who broke the story of the secret meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.