TBR News February 22, 2019

Feb 22 2019

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Isaiah 40:3-8 

Washington, D.C. February 22, 2019:” Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a robot bird whose wings can flap independently of each other.

Called the “Robo Raven,” the breakthrough engineering technology allows the robot to achieve any desired motion and to perform aerobatic maneuvers.

Developed by University of Maryland Professors S.K. Gupta and Hugh Bruck and their students, the robot birds could one day be used for reconnaissance and surveillance.

The final design enables a tiny video camera, can be launched from the ground, and can fly in winds up to 10 mph.

The micro air bird even fooled a local hawk, which attacked the robot in mid-flight on more than one occasion.”

 

The Table of Contents

  • On to Caracas and Tehran!
  • The Truth About Georgia
  • US military interventions from 1890 to 2014.
  • One dead in Venezuela’s Brazil border area after troops open fire
  • U.S. Democrats introduce resolution stopping Trump border emergency
  • ‘Even Nixon wasn’t like him’: Trump’s bid to upend Russia inquiry unprecedented, experts say
  • Trump-Russia inquiry: What might ‘Mueller report’ look like?
  • Manhattan district attorney preparing charges against Manafort: New York Times
  • The CIA Confessions: The Crowley Conversations
  • Revisionism’s Cast of Characters

 

On to Caracas and Tehran!

February 22, 2019

by Patrick J. Buchanan

In the Venezuelan crisis, said President Donald Trump in Florida, “All options are on the table.” And if Venezuela’s generals persist in their refusal to break with Nicolas Maduro, they could “lose everything.”

Another example of Yankee bluster and bluff?

Or is Trump prepared to use military force to bring down Maduro and install Juan Guaido, the president of the national assembly who has declared himself president of Venezuela?

We will get an indication this weekend, as a convoy of food and humanitarian aid tries to force its way into Venezuela from Colombia.

Yet, even given the brutality of the regime and the suffering of the people – 1 in 10 have fled – it is hard to see Trump sending the Marines to fight the Venezuelan army in Venezuela.

Where would Trump get the authority for such a war?

Still, the lead role that Trump has assumed in the crisis raises a question. Does the reflexive interventionism – America is “the indispensable nation!” – that propelled us into the forever war of the Middle East, retain its hold on the American mind?

Next week, Trump meets in Hanoi with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

While Kim has not tested his missiles or nuclear warheads in a year, few believe he will ever surrender the weapons that secure his survival and brought the U.S. superpower to the negotiating table.

Is Trump prepared to accept a deal that leaves a nuclear North but brings about a peace treaty, diplomatic relations and a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula? Or are American forces to be in Korea indefinitely?

Nancy Pelosi’s House just voted to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Senate may follow.

Yet Trump is prepared to use his first veto to kill that War Powers Resolution and retain the right to help the Saudi war effort.

What is our vital interest in Yemen’s civil war? Why would Trump not wish to extricate us from that moral and humanitarian disaster?

Answer: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his regime would sustain a strategic defeat should the Houthis, supported by Iran, prevail.

Before the Warsaw conference called by the U.S. to discuss the Middle East, Bibi Netanyahu’s office tweeted: “This is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries, that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran.”

The “war-with-Iran” tweet was swiftly deleted, replaced with a new tweet that spoke of “the common interest of combating Iran.”

Like many Americans with whom he is close, Bibi has never hidden his belief as to what we Americans must do to Iran.

Early this week came leaks that Trump officials have discovered that Shiite Iran has been secretly collaborating with the Sunni terrorists of al-Qaida. This could, headlined The Washington Times, provide “the legal rationale for U.S. military strikes” on Iran.

At the Munich Security Conference, however, NATO allies Britain, France and Germany recommitted to the Iran nuclear treaty from which Trump withdrew, and to improved economic relations with Tehran.

Trump pledged months ago to bring home the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria and half of the 14,000 in Afghanistan. But he is meeting resistance in his own party in Congress and even in his own administration.

Reasons: A U.S. pullout from Syria would abandon our Kurdish allies to the Turks, who see them as terrorists, and would force the Kurds to cut a deal with Syria’s Bashar Assad and Russia for their security and survival.

This week, Britain and France informed us that if we leave Syria, then they leave, too.

As for pulling out of Afghanistan, the probable result would be the fall of the Kabul government and return of the Taliban, who hold more territory now than they have since being overthrown 18 years ago. For Afghans who cast their lot with the Americans, it would not go well.

U.S. relations with Russia, which Trump promised to improve, have chilled to Cold War status. The U.S. is pulling out of Ronald Reagan’s INF treaty, which bans land-based nuclear missiles of 300 to 3,000 mile range.

Putin has said that any reintroduction of land-based U.S. missiles to Europe would mean a new class of Russian missiles targeted on Europe – and on the United States.

Today, the U.S. maintains a policy of containment of Russia and China, which are more united than they have been since the first days of the Cold War. We are responsible for defending 28 NATO nations in Europe, twice as many as during the Cold War, plus Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.

We have troops in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and appear on the cusp of collisions with Venezuela and Iran. Yet we field armed forces a fraction of the size they were in the 1950s and 1960s and the Reagan era.

And the U.S. national debt is now larger than the U.S. economy.

This is imperial overstretch. It is unsustainable.

 

The Truth About Georgia

February 22, 2019

by Christian Jürs

As one of the great turning points in American history recedes from the confusion of the battlefield, many truths are beginning to slowly emerge…but never in the controlled American media. In the first place, no matter how the Administration or its creatures like John McCain try to conceal it, America has received  terrible damage not only to its image but to its global reputation.

Bush and Cheney had done their best to belittle and goad Russia’s Vladimir Putin and when he reacted, they fled the field in terror, leaving behind many tons of valuable military equipment, trucks full of highly secret papers, a number of dead American soldiers, an outraged and howling Israel and the shattered remains of their Cacausian puppet state which was set up not only to antagonize Putin but to give their Israeli a convenient base from which to launch brutal attacks on Iran.

As Russia and China have made it very clear that any attacks on Iran would cause serious problems, Israel decided that instead of pushing an ever-eager to please Bush into doing their dirty work for them (as he obediently did with Iraq) they would do it themselves and in such a way as to be certain to draw the United States into any possible imbroglio that might result.

Note that Georgia, firmly in the pocket of the United States, would have never launched a massive artillery and armor attack against South Ossetia without active United States complicity and assistance . The Israelis were also deeply involved in this, one of their IDF intelligence units conducting aerial observations over suspected areas of possible Russian retaliatory buildups on their side of the boarder by using their own drone spy planes and passing any information gained from these flights not to the Georgians but to their friends, the Americans.

In Georgia at the time of the attack, there were over two thousand troops engaged in intensive training of the Georgian army and added to this number there were approximately 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry. This was under the command of the U.S. Special Operations Command, a division of EUCOM. And this controlled GSSOP (Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program), which has trained over 5,000 Georgian troops, some for eventual service in Iraq. As a condition for Georgian service in Iraq, there were promises of getting Georgia NATO membership in year. 2009.

The U.S. trainers, usually a team of 70 Americans taking a 600 man Georgian infantry battalion through a 17 week training program, concentrate on combat subjects. Other training programs instructed support and staff troops.

The decision to invade South Ossetia did not originate in Tiblisi but in Washington. Bush agreed that if Georgia could be pushed into attacking an area known to be of especial interest to Moscow, a probably Russian reaction could be blown up in the American press out of all proportion to its actuality and this could quickly be used by a faltering McCain’s presidential campaign. As McCain is well-known to be very pro-Israel, Tel Aviv also supported a Georgian offensive and did everything it could to promote it, realizing that in the chaos following, they could launch their sneak attacks on Iran.

Artillery specialists from the 48th Infantry Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry were heavily involved in the Georgian artillery buildup and at least four of the casualties of the Russian counter-attack were black American soldiers.

The Israelis, who had close ties with Georgia and whose Defense Minister was an Israeli citizen, as usual played both sides, contacted the Russians and tipped them off about the pending attack in return for what they hoped would be Russian aid in an Israeli attack on Iran. The Russians generally detest and certainly distrust Jews, having had decades of very painful experience with them under Stalin so they took the Israeli information and put it to good use and, of course, had no intention of becoming involved in any anti-Iranian activity.

This entire third grade farce exploded in Washington’s face, the U.S. military fled the country, leaving the trusting Georgians to be dealt with massive Russian armor attacks, the Israelis ran away almost as fast but left their drones and much valuable spy equipment behind as they hastened back to the security of Israel. The betrayed and tricked Georgians were left behind as were the tons of American tazpayer-funded equipment.

Now, our press rants about the evil Putin and forgets what it knows about the idiotic connivances and badly failed plots of the inept Washington pseudo-expert plotters.

 

US military interventions from 1890 to 2014.

 

COUNTRY OR STATE Dates of intervention Forces Comments
SOUTH DAKOTA  1890  Troops 300 Lakota Indians massacred at Wounded Knee.
ARGENTINA 1890 Troops Buenos Aires interests protected.
CHILE 1891 Troops Marines clash with nationalist rebels.
HAITI 1891 Troops Black revolt on Navassa defeated.
IDAHO 1892 Troops Army suppresses silver miners’ strike.
HAWAII 1893 Naval, troops Independent kingdom overthrown, annexed.
CHICAGO 1894 Troops Breaking of rail strike, 34 killed.
NICARAGUA 1894 Troops Month-long occupation of Bluefields.
CHINA 1894-95 Naval, troops Marines land in Sino-Japanese War
KOREA 1894-96 Troops Marines kept in Seoul during war.
PANAMA 1895 Troops, naval Marines land in Colombian province.
NICARAGUA 1896 Troops Marines land in port of Corinto.
CHINA 1898-1900 Troops Boxer Rebellion fought by foreign armies.
PHILIPPINES 1898-1910 Naval, troops Seized from Spain, killed 600,000 Filipinos
CUBA 1898-1902 Naval, troops Seized from Spain, still hold Navy base.
PUERTO RICO 1898 Naval, troops Seized from Spain, occupation continues.
GUAM 1898 Naval, troops Seized from Spain, still use as base.
MINNESOTA 1898 Troops Army battles Chippewa at Leech Lake.
NICARAGUA 1898 Troops Marines land at port of San Juan del Sur.
SAMOA 1899 Troops Battle over succession to throne.
NICARAGUA 1899 Troops Marines land at port of Bluefields.
IDAHO 1899-1901 Troops Army occupies Coeur d’Alene mining region.
OKLAHOMA 1901 Troops Army battles Creek Indian revolt.
PANAMA 1901-14 Naval, troops Broke off from Colombia 1903, annexed Canal Zone; Opened canal 1914.
HONDURAS 1903 Troops Marines intervene in revolution.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1903-04 Troops U.S. interests protected in Revolution.
KOREA 1904-05 Troops Marines land in Russo-Japanese War.
CUBA 1906-09 Troops Marines land in democratic election.
NICARAGUA 1907 Troops “Dollar Diplomacy” protectorate set up.
HONDURAS 1907 Troops Marines land during war with Nicaragua
PANAMA 1908 Troops Marines intervene in election contest.
NICARAGUA 1910 Troops Marines land in Bluefields and Corinto.
HONDURAS 1911 Troops U.S. interests protected in civil war.
CHINA 1911-41 Naval, troops Continuous occupation with flare-ups.
CUBA 1912 Troops U.S. interests protected in civil war.
PANAMA 1912 Troops Marines land during heated election.
HONDURAS 1912 Troops Marines protect U.S. economic interests.
NICARAGUA 1912-33 Troops, bombing 10-year occupation, fought guerillas
MEXICO 1913 Naval Americans evacuated during revolution.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1914 Naval Fight with rebels over Santo Domingo.
COLORADO 1914 Troops Breaking of miners’ strike by Army.
MEXICO 1914-18 Naval, troops Series of interventions against nationalists.
HAITI 1914-34 Troops, bombing 19-year occupation after revolts.
TEXAS 1915 Troops Federal soldiers crush “Plan of San Diego” Mexican-American rebellion
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1916-24 Troops 8-year Marine occupation.
CUBA 1917-33 Troops Military occupation, economic protectorate.
WORLD WAR I 1917-18 Naval, troops Ships sunk, fought Germany for 1 1/2 years.
RUSSIA 1918-22 Naval, troops Five landings to fight Bolsheviks
PANAMA 1918-20 Troops “Police duty” during unrest after elections.
HONDURAS 1919 Troops Marines land during election campaign.
YUGOSLAVIA 1919 Troops/Marines intervene for Italy against Serbs in Dalmatia.
GUATEMALA 1920 Troops 2-week intervention against unionists.
WEST VIRGINIA 1920-21 Troops, bombing Army intervenes against mineworkers.
TURKEY 1922 Troops Fought nationalists in Smyrna.
CHINA 1922-27 Naval, troops Deployment during nationalist revolt.
MEXICO

HONDURAS

1923

1924-25

Bombing

Troops

Airpower defends Calles from rebellion

Landed twice during election strife.

PANAMA 1925 Troops Marines suppress general strike.
CHINA 1927-34 Troops Marines stationed throughout the country.
EL SALVADOR 1932 Naval Warships send during Marti revolt.
WASHINGTON DC 1932 Troops Army stops WWI vet bonus protest.
WORLD WAR II 1941-45 Naval, troops, bombing, nuclear Hawaii bombed, fought Japan, Italy and Germay for 3 years; first nuclear war.
DETROIT 1943 Troops Army put down Black rebellion.
IRAN 1946 Nuclear threat Soviet troops told to leave north.
YUGOSLAVIA 1946 Nuclear threat, naval Response to shoot-down of US plane.
URUGUAY 1947 Nuclear threat Bombers deployed as show of strength.
GREECE 1947-49 Command operation U.S. directs extreme-right in civil war.
GERMANY 1948 Nuclear Threat Atomic-capable bombers guard Berlin Airlift.
CHINA 1948-49 Troops/Marines evacuate Americans before Communist victory.
PHILIPPINES 1948-54 Command operation CIA directs war against Huk Rebellion.
PUERTO RICO 1950 Command operation Independence rebellion crushed in Ponce.
KOREA 1951-53 Troops, naval, bombing , nuclear threats U.S./So. Korea fights China/No. Korea to stalemate; A-bomb threat in 1950, and against China in 1953. Still have bases.
IRAN 1953 Command Operation CIA overthrows democracy, installs Shah.
VIETNAM 1954 Nuclear threat French offered bombs to use against seige.
GUATEMALA 1954 Command operation, bombing, nuclear threat CIA directs exile invasion after new gov’t nationalized U.S. company lands; bombers based in Nicaragua.
EGYPT 1956 Nuclear threat, troops Soviets told to keep out of Suez crisis; Marines evacuate foreigners.
LEBANON l958 Troops, naval Army & Marine occupation against rebels.
IRAQ 1958 Nuclear threat Iraq warned against invading Kuwait.
CHINA l958 Nuclear threat China told not to move on Taiwan isles.
PANAMA 1958 Troops Flag protests erupt into confrontation.
VIETNAM l960-75 Troops, naval, bombing, nuclear threats Fought South Vietnam revolt & North Vietnam; one million killed in longest U.S. war; atomic bomb threats in l968 and l969.
CUBA l961 Command operation CIA-directed exile invasion fails.
GERMANY l961 Nuclear threat Alert during Berlin Wall crisis.
LAOS 1962 Command operation Military buildup during guerrilla war.
 CUBA  l962  Nuclear threat, naval Blockade during missile crisis; near-war with Soviet Union.
 IRAQ 1963 Command operation CIA organizes coup that killed president, brings Ba’ath Party to power, and Saddam Hussein back from exile to be head of the secret service.
PANAMA l964 Troops Panamanians shot for urging canal’s return.
INDONESIA l965 Command operation Million killed in CIA-assisted army coup.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1965-66 Troops, bombing Army & Marines land during election campaign.
GUATEMALA l966-67 Command operation Green Berets intervene against rebels.
DETROIT l967 Troops Army battles African Americans, 43 killed.
UNITED STATES l968 Troops After King is shot; over 21,000 soldiers in cities.
CAMBODIA l969-75 Bombing, troops, naval Up to 2 million killed in decade of bombing, starvation, and political chaos.
OMAN l970 Command operation U.S. directs Iranian marine invasion.
LAOS l971-73 Command operation, bombing U.S. directs South Vietnamese invasion; “carpet-bombs” countryside.
SOUTH DAKOTA l973 Command operation Army directs Wounded Knee siege of Lakotas.
MIDEAST 1973 Nuclear threat World-wide alert during Mideast War.
CHILE 1973 Command operation CIA-backed coup ousts elected marxist president.
CAMBODIA l975 Troops, bombing Gassing of captured ship Mayagüez, 28 troops die when copter shot down.
ANGOLA l976-92 Command operation CIA assists South African-backed rebels.
IRAN l980 Troops, nuclear threat, aborted bombing Raid to rescue Embassy hostages; 8 troops die in copter-plane crash. Soviets warned not to get involved in revolution.
LIBYA l981 Naval jets Two Libyan jets shot down in maneuvers.
EL SALVADOR l981-92 Command operation, troops Advisors, overflights aid anti-rebel war, soldiers briefly involved in hostage clash.
NICARAGUA l981-90 Command operation, naval CIA directs exile (Contra) invasions, plants harbor mines against revolution.
LEBANON l982-84 Naval, bombing, troops Marines expel PLO and back Phalangists, Navy bombs and shells Muslim positions. 241 Marines killed when Shi’a rebel bombs barracks.
GRENADA l983-84 Troops, bombing Invasion four years after revolution.
HONDURAS l983-89 Troops Maneuvers help build bases near borders.
IRAN l984 Jets Two Iranian jets shot down over Persian Gulf.
LIBYA l986 Bombing, naval Air strikes to topple Qaddafi gov’t.
BOLIVIA 1986 Troops Army assists raids on cocaine region.
IRAN l987-88 Naval, bombing US intervenes on side of Iraq in war, defending reflagged tankers and shooting down civilian jet.
LIBYA 1989 Naval jets Two Libyan jets shot down.
VIRGIN ISLANDS 1989 Troops St. Croix Black unrest after storm.
PHILIPPINES 1989 Jets Air cover provided for government against coup.
PANAMA 1989 Troops, bombing Nationalist government ousted by 27,000 soldiers, leaders arrested, 2000+ killed.
LIBERIA 1990 Troops Foreigners evacuated during civil war.
SAUDI ARABIA 1990-91 Troops, jets Iraq countered after invading Kuwait. 540,000 troops also stationed in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Israel.
IRAQ 1990-91 Bombing, troops, naval Blockade of Iraqi and Jordanian ports, air strikes; 200,000+ killed in invasion of Iraq and Kuwait; large-scale destruction of Iraqi military.
KUWAIT 1991 Naval, bombing, troops Kuwait royal family returned to throne.
 IRAQ 1991-2003 Bombing, naval No-fly zone over Kurdish north, Shiite south; constant air strikes and naval-enforced economic sanctions
LOS ANGELES 1992 Troops Army, Marines deployed against anti-police uprising.
SOMALIA 1992-94 Troops, naval, bombing U.S.-led United Nations occupation during civil war; raids against one Mogadishu faction.
YUGOSLAVIA 1992-94 Naval NATO blockade of Serbia and Montenegro.
BOSNIA 1993 Jets, bombing No-fly zone patrolled in civil war; downed jets, bombed Serbs.
HAITI 1994 Troops, naval Blockade against military government; troops restore President Aristide to office three years after coup.
ZAIRE (CONGO) 1996-97 Troops Troops at Rwandan Hutu refugee camps, in area where Congo revolution begins.
LIBERIA 1997 Troops Soldiers under fire during evacuation of foreigners.
ALBANIA 1997 Troops Soldiers under fire during evacuation of foreigners.
SUDAN 1998 Missiles Attack on pharmaceutical plant alleged to be “terrorist” nerve gas plant.
AFGHANISTAN 1998 Missiles Attack on former CIA training camps used by Islamic fundamentalist groups alleged to have attacked embassies.
IRAQ 1998 Bombing, Missiles Four days of intensive air strikes after weapons inspectors allege Iraqi obstructions.
YUGOSLAVIA 1999 Bombing, Missiles Heavy NATO air strikes after Serbia declines to withdraw from Kosovo. NATO occupation of Kosovo.
YEMEN 2000 Naval USS Cole, docked in Aden, bombed.
MACEDONIA 2001 Troops NATO forces deployed to move and disarm Albanian rebels.
UNITED STATES 2001 Jets, naval Reaction to hijacker attacks on New York, DC
AFGHANISTAN 2001 Troops, bombing, missiles Massive U.S. mobilization to overthrow Taliban, hunt Al Qaeda fighters, install Karzai regime, and battle Taliban insurgency. More than 30,000 U.S. troops and numerous private security contractors carry our occupation.
YEMEN 2002 Missiles Predator drone missile attack on Al Qaeda, including a US citizen.
PHILIPPINES 2002 Troops, naval Training mission for Philippine military fighting Abu Sayyaf rebels evolves into combat missions in Sulu Archipelago, west of Mindanao.
COLOMBIA 2003 Troops US special forces sent to rebel zone to back up Colombian military protecting oil pipeline.
IRAQ 2003-11 Troops, naval, bombing, missiles Saddam regime toppled in Baghdad. More than 250,000 U.S. personnel participate in invasion. US and UK forces occupy country and battle Sunni and Shi’ite insurgencies. More than 160,000 troops and numerous private contractors carry out occupation and build large permanent bases.
LIBERIA 2003 Troops Brief involvement in peacekeeping force as rebels drove out leader.
HAITI 2004-05 Troops, naval   Marines & Army land after right-wing rebels oust elected President Aristide, who was advised to leave by Washington.
PAKISTAN 2005 Missiles, bombing, covert operation CIA missile and air strikes and Special Forces raids on alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban refuge villages kill multiple civilians. Drone attacks also on Pakistani Mehsud network.
SOMALIA 2006 Missiles, naval, troops, command operation Special Forces advise Ethiopian invasion that topples Islamist government; AC-130 strikes, Cruise missile attacks and helicopter raids against Islamist rebels; naval blockade against “pirates” and insurgents.
SYRIA 2008 Troops Special Forces in helicopter raid 5 miles from Iraq kill 8 Syrian civilians
YEMEN 2009 Missiles, command operation Cruise missile attack on Al Qaeda kills 49 civilians; Yemeni military assaults on rebels
LIBYA 2011 Bombing, missiles, troops, command operation NATO coordinates air strikes and missile attacks against Qaddafi government during uprising by rebel army. Periodic Special Forces raids against Islamist insurgents.

 

IRAQ 2014 Bombing, missiles, troops, command operation Air strikes and Special Forces intervene against Islamic State insurgents; training Iraqi and Kurdish troops.

 

SYRIA 2014 Bombing, missiles, troops, command operation Air strikes and Special Forces intervene against Islamic State insurgents; training other Syrian insurgents.

 

One dead in Venezuela’s Brazil border area after troops open fire

February 22, 2019

Reuters

CARACAS/KUMARAKAPAY, Venezuela (Reuters) – At least one civilian was killed and several were injured in the southern Venezuelan town of Kumarakapay near the border with Brazil after troops opened fire there, indigenous community leaders and victims’ relatives told Reuters.

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Carlos Suniaga and William Urdaneta in Kumarakapay; Sarah Marsh

 

U.S. Democrats introduce resolution stopping Trump border emergency

February 22, 2019

by Susan Cornwell

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution on Friday aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on border security, taking the first step to assert congressional power over the expenditure of taxpayer funds.

About 226 lawmakers have joined the sponsor, Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro, in backing the legislation, indicating it will pass the chamber, which is controlled by Democrats. But its future in the Republican-run Senate was less clear.

“What the president is attempting is an unconstitutional power grab,” Castro said in a conference call with reporters. He called on all members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans — to support the resolution terminating Trump’s emergency declaration, saying it tramples on congressional authority and would set a dangerous precedent.

Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress decides how taxpayer dollars are spent. The president can, however, veto spending bills.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the full House could vote on the resolution as soon as Tuesday.

Trump declared a national emergency last week in order to take money Congress had appropriated for other activities and use it to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s move came after Congress declined to fulfill his request for $5.7 billion this year to help build the wall.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said he also plans to introduce such a resolution in the Senate. The resolution needs only a simple majority in both houses. But to get this majority in the Senate, at least four of 53 Republicans would have to join in, assuming all 45 Democrats and two independents back the measure.

However, any such legislation would then go to Trump, who would likely veto it. Overriding the veto would require a two-thirds vote of support in both chambers.

The issue is also in the courts already. A coalition of 16 U.S. states led by California sued Trump and top members of his administration on Monday to block his decision to declare the emergency.

The lawsuit said Trump’s declaration was a misuse of presidential power.

Congress this month appropriated $1.37 billion for building border barriers as part of a wide-ranging spending bill enacted following a long battle in Congress, which included a 35-day partial government shutdown when agency funding lapsed on Dec. 22.

Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by David Gregorio

 

‘Even Nixon wasn’t like him’: Trump’s bid to upend Russia inquiry unprecedented, experts say

Democrats have compared Trump’s fixation on the federal inquiry to Watergate, but legal experts say it’s worse than that

February 22, 2019

by Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington DC

The Guardian

It was yet another bombshell report for a president already ensnared in multiple investigations against his campaign, administration and family members.

This time it had to do with hush money paid to women to silence them from speaking about alleged affairs they had with Donald Trump. According to a New York Times report published this week, Trump asked Matthew Whitaker, his controversial acting attorney general, if he could install a loyalist at the helm of the investigation into the hush money.

Although Whitaker declined Trump’s request, the story has raised fresh questions over whether the president was seeking to obstruct justice and how the reported move fits into a broad pattern of Trump attempting to interfere with an investigation concerning himself.

Since taking office, Trump’s fixation on the federal inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election – and potential collusion between his campaign and Moscow – has spurred a series of actions that could now imperil his presidency and prospects of a second term.

From high-level firings to public misstatements, Trump’s repeated steps to undermine the investigations that have clouded his two years in office paint a picture of a president who is his own worst enemy, legal experts say.

“It is quite clear from all the evidence that the president has had the intent to obstruct this investigation,” said Andy Wright, a former associate counsel to Barack Obama and the founding editor of the legal blog Just Security. “It’s been in plain sight.”

“It’s a fundamental abuse of power for the president to be trying to shut down an investigation in which he has a personal stake – both as a potential target himself and his political allies and family members,” he added.

One of the very first deeds appeared to be the most alarming: in an abrupt move, Trump fired James Comey, the FBI director then at the helm of the Russia investigation.

The White House initially claimed Comey’s dismissal had to do with his own conduct during the 2016 election, but Trump publicly conceded “this Russia thing” had been part of the calculus.

Democrats swiftly decried the move as reminiscent of when Richard Nixon in 1973 ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. Both Nixon’s attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest in what was coined the “Saturday Night Massacre”.

Although Trump did not face any meaningful punitive action from a Republican-led Congress in the wake of Comey’s firing, the moment served as the impetus for appointing special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia investigation.

In the time since, the president’s frustration with the special counsel has routinely spilled into public view – be it through Trump’s Twitter tirades deriding the investigation as a “witch hunt” or attempts to frame the narrative as a “deep state” conspiracy intent on taking him down.

“He’s a subject of these investigations and he should just keep his hands off,” said Susan Bloch, a law professor at Georgetown University.

Trump has nonetheless proved incapable of allowing the multiple inquiries involving him and his inner circle to unfold in the background. He has instead chosen to meet the developments head on, dismissing unflattering revelations as “fake news” and on several occasions intervening directly.

When it was revealed that Donald Trump Jr accepted a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign, under the pretense of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton, Trump reportedly dictated a highly misleading White House statement characterizing the encounter as having to do with adoptions.

The president’s elder son was later forced to disclose the communications that precipitated the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, in which he was explicitly informed of an effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign. The meeting, and Trump’s role in crafting the false statement downplaying its nature, have been a key focus for investigations.

Other instances of alleged meddling on Trump’s part include threatening in private to fire Mueller and the president’s treatment of his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

Trump reportedly dispatched Don McGahn, then serving as his White House counsel, to persuade Sessions not to recuse himself from handling the Russia investigation after it was revealed that Sessions failed to disclose his own contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US.

“This president has a ‘you’re with or against me’ mindset,” Wright said.

Mueller is soon expected to conclude his investigation – perhaps as early as next week – and deliver a report on the special counsel’s findings. Although Mueller is expected to adhere to justice department precedent, under which a sitting president would not be indicted, he could recommend obstruction of justice charges against the president.

The matter would then be in the hands of a divided Congress, where the battle lines are already drawn.

Republicans have maintained a broadly sympathetic tone with respect to Trump, at times echoing his attacks on the justice department.

While a majority of the American public has expressed support for the special counsel, Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the investigation has paid dividends with Republican voters, who remain overwhelmingly in his favor.

Democrats are meanwhile using their newfound majority to pursue investigative avenues of their own, but have sought to temper expectations with respect to impeachment. House Democratic leaders have argued that efforts to impeach Trump would be purely symbolic, since there would not be sufficient votes in the Republican-led Senate to remove the president from office.

Regardless of the outcome, Bloch said Trump’s actions had already crossed the threshold of unprecedented.

“There’s just never been anyone quite like Trump,” she said, “in terms of the charges against him, and in terms of his flagrant efforts to malign the whole investigation and a substantial part of the justice department.”

“Even Nixon wasn’t like him. There’s nothing like him.”

 

Trump-Russia inquiry: What might ‘Mueller report’ look like?

February 21, 2019

by Anthony Zurcher North America reporter

BBC News

It’s been more than 21 months since former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed to head a special investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election “and related matters”.

Now, according to multiple media reports, the end is drawing near.

But what does that mean? Time Magazine senior editor Ryan Teague Beckwith has described trying to keep up with the twists in the Mueller investigation as akin to understanding the plot of a Russian novel by listening to a book club conversation.

Now, at last, perhaps we will see the full manuscript. Or at least the CliffsNotes (that’s York Notes to you Brits).

Or maybe we won’t.

If it all seems confusing, that’s because no-one knows exactly what happens next – just that something may be about to happen soon.

How soon is ‘soon’?

According to CNN, Mr Mueller’s investigation could be completed “as early as next week”. The Washington Post says it will be “in the coming days”. CBS’s Major Garrett has reported that the end could come “as early as tomorrow”.

Is that soon enough for you?

Just because the Mueller investigation is drawing to a close, however, doesn’t mean we’ll know all the details immediately – or ever. The notoriously tight-lipped former FBI director could simply announce that his work is done, pack his bags and go back to a private life of golf clubs, corporate boards, academic speaking engagements and trips to the Apple store Genius Bar.

Wait, won’t there be a final ‘Mueller Report’ with all the juicy details?

Not necessarily. In fact, probably not.

It doesn’t seem likely there will be a detailed investigative narrative presented to the public similar to the multi-tome report produced by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr back in 1998.

Mr Starr’s wide-ranging investigation that started with a real-estate inquiry and ended up scouring Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was governed by a federal statute with different rules. And Mr Starr himself – a former judge and Republican administration lawyer – was a different kind of man to the by-the-books ex-Marine Mueller.

Mr Mueller’s probe is conducted under the auspices of the Justice Department and is governed by its regulations.

The special counsel’s obligations at the conclusion of his work are to provide a “confidential report” to Attorney General Bill Barr explaining his prosecutorial decisions.

Mr Barr must then provide the top members of the Senate and House Judiciary committees with a brief explanation of any actions taken – or instances where he overruled the special counsel’s proposed action.

It is up to the attorney general to decide whether it would be in the “public interest” to make any of these reports or communications accessible to the rest of us.

Traditionally the Justice Department has been reluctant to provide information about investigations that do not lead to criminal prosecution. That was a guideline notably violated by former FBI Director James Comey during his July 2016 press statement outlining the results of a federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

It would be ironic, to say the least, if the resulting political fallout from Mr Comey’s decision – which grievously wounded Ms Clinton’s presidential campaign – is cited by Justice Department officials to defend a decision to keep confidential damaging details of the Mueller investigation involving Donald Trump.

What will Bill Barr do?

This is the million-dollar question.

In his testimony during his January Senate confirmation hearings, Mr Barr was repeatedly pressed by Democrats to promise he would make public any findings or reports produced by the Mueller investigation.

He demurred.

“My objective and goal is to get as much as I can of the information to Congress and the public,” he told Senator Dianne Feinstein. “I am going to try to get the information out there consistent with these regulations and to the extent I have discretion, I will exercise that discretion to do that.”

His answers left considerable wiggle room. He could view the Justice Department’s special counsel regulations as a ceiling or a floor – a minimum requirement of disclosure that can be exceeded or a limit to what he can reveal, given confidentiality requirements and prosecutorial guidelines.

So we may not know anything?

It’s certainly a possibility. Or if we do learn something, it could take a while to render it into a form for public consumption (or, given the way things work in Washington, to leak).

Imagine the scene in Washington, as the political world learns Mr Mueller has provided his findings to Mr Barr and then waits – for hours, days, maybe even weeks – to learn what, if anything, will come of it.

There is another possibility, however.

Up until now, Mr Mueller has spoken through his court filings, which are rich in detail and new revelations. While Mr Mueller’s report to the attorney general will be confidential, it may not be his final word at the conclusion of his investigations.

There may be more indictments to come.

Over the course of the last 21 months, Mr Mueller – in his prosecutorial documents – has explained how Russian agents and operatives allegedly gathered information about the US political process, initiated a social media campaign to influence and enflame American political views, funded on-the-ground political activities, and hacked the emails and files of top Democratic operatives in an effort to damage Mrs Clinton’s presidential campaign.

He has prosecuted multiple members of the president’s inner campaign circle for a variety of misdeeds, including obstruction of justice and lying about Russian contacts.

He helped strike a deal with Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, which unearthed evidence of Trump business negotiations with Russian officials conducted in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign.

He indicted a Trump confidant, Roger Stone, for lying about his contacts with Wikileaks, the organisation he says was the conduit through which Russia injected its purloined material into the American political bloodstream.

The special counsel could be building a prosecutorial path that leads to the White House, with the final stones about to be set. Court-watchers note multiple sealed indictments have been filed in the federal courts used by Mr Mueller’s team over the past few months. Those could be political and legal bombs, with their fuses lit.

Or they could be duds.

That’s it, then?

Hardly. Even if the Mueller investigation closes up shop and there is no “report”, there are no new indictments and the attorney general’s public pronouncements provide few details, it’s not the end of the story.

There are a number of cases initiated by the special counsel – involving Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, campaign chairman Paul Manafort and deputy campaign aide Rick Gates – that still await final sentencing.

Long-time Trump adviser Mr Stone has yet to go to trial on his charges of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Mr Mueller has handed this prosecution over to government lawyers. There’s also a special counsel case against Concord Management and Consulting, which Mr Mueller has charged with assisting Russia’s 2016 social media election-meddling campaign.

Meanwhile there’s a plethora of other ongoing investigations that are being run independently of the special counsel’s office. Federal investigators in New York are looking into possible election-law violations by the Trump campaign and his businesses and misconduct by the Trump inaugural committee.

The US attorneys in Washington and Virginia also have their hands full, with the espionage case involving Russian Maria Butina and an unregistered foreign lobbying prosecution of Mr Flynn’s business associates.

There are also state-level investigations of Mr Trump’s charitable foundation and Trump Organization tax filings, as well as an ongoing lawsuit by Maryland and the District of Columbia alleging that the president, through his business dealings, is violating a constitutional rule prohibiting the acceptance of money from foreign governments while in office.

Mr Mueller may exit the stage, but the drama will continue

 

Manhattan district attorney preparing charges against Manafort: New York Times

February 22, 2019

(Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney is preparing to file state criminal charges against Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, in case the president pardons him for his federal crimes, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing sources.

The Times reported that District Attorney Cyrus Vance is expected to seek charges whether or not Trump pardons Manafort.

Manafort, 69 was convicted last August of bank and tax fraud. He is due to be sentenced in a federal court in Virginia on March 8, and faces up to 24 years in prison and a fine of up to $24 million.

Manafort is also due to be sentenced on March 13 in a parallel federal case in Washington.

He is one of the first people in Trump’s orbit to face criminal charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Both Trump and Russia have denied any election meddling.

The U.S. president can issue pardons for federal cases only, and Manafort could still face prison if found guilty of any state charges. There are strict provisions in the U.S. Constitution against “double jeopardy,” with the Fifth Amendment saying a person cannot be tried multiple times for the same alleged crime.

Some of Manafort’s New York property loans have also been investigating by Vance, sources have told Reuters. The local prosecutor issued subpoenas last year to lenders including Federal Savings Bank of Chicago, a small bank that provided millions in loans to Manafort, Reuters reported last year.

It is unclear whether Vance will pursue charges over the loans. A spokesman for Vance declined to comment.

Reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe

 

The CIA Confessions: The Crowley Conversations

February 22, 2019

by Dr. Peter Janney

On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley’s widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley’s CIA files.

Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal, Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment.

Three months before, on July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md.

After Corson’s death, Trento and the well-known Washington fix-lawyer went to Corson’s bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled ‘Zipper.’ This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever.

The small group of CIA officials gathered at Trento’s house to search through the Crowley papers, looking for documents that must not become public. A few were found but, to their consternation, a significant number of files Crowley was known to have had in his possession had simply vanished.

When published material concerning the CIA’s actions against Kennedy became public in 2002, it was discovered to the CIA’s horror, that the missing documents had been sent by an increasingly erratic Crowley to another person and these missing papers included devastating material on the CIA’s activities in South East Asia to include drug running, money laundering and the maintenance of the notorious ‘Regional Interrogation Centers’ in Viet Nam and, worse still, the Zipper files proving the CIA’s active organization of the assassination of President John Kennedy..

A massive, preemptive disinformation campaign was readied, using government-friendly bloggers, CIA-paid “historians” and others, in the event that anything from this file ever surfaced. The best-laid plans often go astray and in this case, one of the compliant historians, a former government librarian who fancied himself a serious writer, began to tell his friends about the CIA plan to kill Kennedy and eventually, word of this began to leak out into the outside world.

The originals had vanished and an extensive search was conducted by the FBI and CIA operatives but without success. Crowley’s survivors, his aged wife and son, were interviewed extensively by the FBI and instructed to minimize any discussion of highly damaging CIA files that Crowley had, illegally, removed from Langley when he retired. Crowley had been a close friend of James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s notorious head of Counterintelligence. When Angleton was sacked by DCI William Colby in December of 1974, Crowley and Angleton conspired to secretly remove Angleton’s most sensitive secret files out of the agency. Crowley did the same thing right before his own retirement, secretly removing thousands of pages of classified information that covered his entire agency career.

Known as “The Crow” within the agency, Robert T. Crowley joined the CIA at its inception and spent his entire career in the Directorate of Plans, also know as the “Department of Dirty Tricks,”: Crowley was one of the tallest man ever to work at the CIA. Born in 1924 and raised in Chicago, Crowley grew to six and a half feet when he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in N.Y. as a cadet in 1943 in the class of 1946. He never graduated, having enlisted in the Army, serving in the Pacific during World War II. He retired from the Army Reserve in 1986 as a lieutenant colonel. According to a book he authored with his friend and colleague, William Corson, Crowley’s career included service in Military Intelligence and Naval Intelligence, before joining the CIA at its inception in 1947. His entire career at the agency was spent within the Directorate of Plans in covert operations. Before his retirement, Bob Crowley became assistant deputy director for operations, the second-in-command in the Clandestine Directorate of Operations.

Bob Crowley first contacted Gregory Douglas in 1993 when he found out from John Costello that Douglas was about to publish his first book on Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo who had become a secret, long-time asset to the CIA. Crowley contacted Douglas and they began a series of long and often very informative telephone conversations that lasted for four years. In 1996, Crowley told Douglas that he believed him to be the person that should ultimately tell Crowley’s story but only after Crowley’s death. Douglas, for his part, became so entranced with some of the material that Crowley began to share with him that he secretly began to record their conversations, later transcribing them word for word, planning to incorporate some, or all, of the material in later publication

 

Conversation No. 77

Date: Tuesday, March 4, 1997

Commenced: 2:30 PM CST

Concluded: 3:10 PM CST

 

GD: It’s a little late in the day., Robert. Am I OK on my timing?

RTC: Not a problem, Gregory. Lunch is over long ago. I did hear from Bill last night about that material on Hillary.

GD: What about it?

RTC: Oh, it’s all true but it will never get into the papers. Those things never do.

GD: Some of it, the stuff about Bob Treuhaft in Oakland, did. In the Chronicle.

RTC: A fluke. What was your source?

GD: Military collector who was also in the California State Police office in Sacramento. He copied the file and sent it to me.

RTC: Well, they aren’t up for reelection so there’s no point in beating a dead horse. But not a surprise.

GD: I suppose with her background, when they get out of office, the pair of them, she can become the mayor of Skokie or if we have another Democrat president, the ambassador to Israel.

RTC: Sad to say but they’re everywhere you look these days. Back in the reign of Franklin I, they filled the ranks of State and stood right next to the Oval Office. Of course, they pilfered all our secrets and sent them off to Russia. That was their new homeland, after all, and Stalin loved them. Or so they thought. When Bill and I were working on our KGB book, I discovered that Joe hated them and when they managed to kill him with rat poison, was planning a super pogrom in Moscow. No, the regular Russians loathe and fear them and now that Putin is coming up, they are fleeing to Israel like fleas leaving a dead dog. The problem with this, as we know, is that the ranks of Israeli intelligence are now full of fresh blood what with the refusedniks pouring into the country and believe me, Gregory, any scrap of secret information, every secret code, that we mistakenly give to the Israeli government will end up in Moscow about ten seconds after they get it. Multiply Pollard about a hundred times and you’ll see the real picture. I told Jim dozens of times to keep away from the Hebrews but Jim never listened. He was hip deep with the mob but they weren’t trying to sell the dreaded white man down the river like the Jews do. My God, I wouldn’t let them into my department because I know what they’re like but they’ve gotten in the door elsewhere.  Polland was only the tip of a huge iceberg.

GD: None of that comes as a great surprise. They managed to start the Second World War and I agree that they pumped Stalin full of state secrets and you know my connection with the Pollard business. In any other country, they would have taken the little shit out for a very long walk on a very short pier. Well, maybe some patriotic con will get an early parole by sticking a file into his liver.

RTC: One hopes, one hopes. But in a way, I feel sorry for Russia. That was quite a game after Yeltsin got in, let me tell you. Old Boris the drunk was ours, bought and paid for. The drill was for Boris to privatize the Russian natural resources and let our people…our oil people really…get their hands on everything. How did we do it? We located a bunch of street thugs. Drug dealers, whoremongers, porn merchants and especially extortionists, set them up as businessmen, get them funded, let them buy up all  the oil, steel and aluminum former Soviet corporations and then sell the stock off to our companies. The thing is, all of these thugs and murderers, because that’s what they are, are Jewish street bandits, all of them. And they got their co-religionists in the IMF and the World Bank to help them with capital both from us and from Israel. And they did buy up everything at rigged auctions and they did make deals with the big US oil people. You fancy yourself a newspaperman , Gregory? I’ll give you an inside story but I beg you not to use me as a source….

GD: Never…

RTC: An Israeli owns the Bank of New York and they are using it to launder billions in stolen Jewish Mafia money. I mean money from Russia. Billions. And our people have been helping the Hebes set up Swiss bank accounts. Before that, they used to keep the money under the bed in bags but now they can buy expensive suits, that the tasteless shits wear with tennis shoes, and strut their stuff in international society. I can give you some inside information on this and you could expose some of it. It needs to be done but you’ll never see a word of it in the New York Times or the Post. Why not? Because these organs of truth and light are owned by Jews and Jews never go after their own kind.

GD: I could go to Carto. He would love this.

RTC: Any old port in a story, Gregory. I have names. One of my friends down there gave them to me.

GD: I have good connections with the Swiss. If I could get the names, perhaps I could get the account information.  The Bank of New York?

RTC: Yes. One of the oldest banks in this country. Hamilton founded it. The Jews have it now and more money goes in and out of it than the US Treasury. Kimmel knows about this so do not ever tell him about this conversation or that you are working on this. I can send you my entire file on all of this and you can take it from there. And if you have friends in Switzerland, be sure to look for the black accounts, not the white ones. These greaseballs always have a white account with a few thousand in it and a black one with billions. That way, if an official request is made, say be us, the Swiss can put up a show of resistance and then break down and give us the smaller one. The black accounts.

GD: Sounds good.

RTC: And I can give you the name of at least two Russian intelligence people here who are disguised as newspaper men and you can contact either or both and pass on the information. They would love you, Gregory, and it might lead you to make more friends. You certainly wouldn’t have any in the Jewish camp.

That moron Bronfman, the booze king, has delusions of grandeur, and thinks he is going to push the Swiss around so you can kick him in his flabby ass for me. My God, I hate to deal with these swine, believe me. The biggest pack of thieves, murderers and back stabbers I have ever run into and believe me, I have seen them all. And there’re a lot more bits and pieces I can pull together for you but again, mention none of this to Kimmel and if he ever starts to talk about this, say nothing. Understood?

GD: Is the FBI involved?

RTC: Not that I know but they all suck on the same tit so be careful.

GD: What do you see as the end result of outing them?

RTC: Hopefully, enough publicity to slow them down in this country. They own the press and the banks and dig in like maggots in a side of beef so if the public gets wind of the enormity of their thefts, they can watch them. Ah, but in Russia, the Putin people will love you. Putin, as I understand it, wants to stop this drain on Russian oil and kick the Jews out of power. And, of course, like a good KGB officer that he is, kick the US in the nuts. But, I think uprooting the Hebrews and outing them outweighs a boot in the testes.

GD: Collateral damage.

RTC: How astute, Gregory. Let me tell you, my boy, the whole world would be far better off if some rag head set off an atomic bomb in downtown Tel Aviv during Passover. I know that sounds terrible but from my years of experience, that game would well be worth the candle. I tell you, if we don’t put a stop to their burrowing,  treachery and high treason, those filthy Yids will drag us into a nasty war with the Arabs. I mean it. None of them care a fig about this country. Everything for that miserable habitat of warped trolls and nothing for anyone else. No wonder they have been hated and persecuted for thousands of years. The Romans had a wonderful chance to advance civilization by killing them all off but they missed their opportunity.

GD: The tsars should have chased them all into Siberia and we would have been spared Bolshevism.

RTC: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And now they want to kill off all the Arabs in the Near East and move into their homes. And they would expect us to help them. I tell you that if we don’t get our nose out of Israel’s hairy ass, the Arabs will come after us as well. America has no business over there and Israel is not our friend. America is full of white Christians and Jews hate all Christians and do their best to rape, loot and pillage us, all in the name of greater Israel. Well, not in my lifetime but maybe in yours, Gregory, in yours.

GD: If you send me the papers, I will do my best.

RTC: Expose and derail. They have already looted England and Poland and now they’re raping Russia and we’re next on the menu.  And their creepy Mossad agents are crawling all over this country as well. The FBI knows about this so that’s one of the reasons to keep quiet around Kimmel. You tell him anything hot and juicy and Tom will burn the line to the headquarters. Once they have it, the Jews will have their hands on it in seconds and they can either put a few pounds of cocaine in your car or shoot your crippled mother as a warning. Say nothing and publish.

GD: Good advice. I recall an conversation I once had with a Pole. He said they Poles hated the Germans but one good thing was that Hitler cleaned the Jews out of Poland. Did you know that after the war when the Jewish refugees went back to Poland, the locals used to chase them into barns, lock them in and barbecue them? Last major pogrom in Europe was in Poland in ’46. In fact, Stalin…I mean in ’39 when Hitler went into Poland, about three hundred thousand Polish Jews fled eastwards to find security in the friendly bosom of Mother Russia. Stalin did not want any more Jews so he ordered the border guards, the NKVD, to shoot anyone trying to cross the border. They wiped out the lot of them. And now, of course, the Germans get the blame.

RTC: The older ones still love Stalin. Well, isn’t truth relative, Gregory?

GD: Depends on who wins, doesn’t it?

RTC:Well, I’ll dig out some of the papers on this business and send them off to you. Probably after the next weekend. I can’t get to the post office but I can get my son to do it. I hate to drag him into this but I have no choice here.

GD: Well, if it’s too much trouble to…

RTC: No, not a problem. The is not a damned thing I can do about these assholes but perhaps you can.

GD: I might get it in Carto’s paper but I doubt if anyone else will touch it.

RTC: You will shake up the FBI if you publish but does this bother you?

GD: Why should it?

RTC: DC is so incestuous, Gregory, so involved. Everyone is so self-important.

GD: My impression has been that they want to be important but never will be anything but pointy headed hacks and wannabees. I am sure there are smart people in DC but I have yet to encounter one.

RTC: I know a few but you have a point. Here, we have spent this entire conversation trashing the Jews. God help both of us if someone is tapping our phones.

GD: You’re retired and I am no one so I don’t worry about myself. I suppose what with the collapse of the Soviet Union, all your people are happy.

RTC: Well, James Joyce said that: In moments of happiness, don’t despair, tragedy lurks around the next corner.

GD: Always. Tragedy would be the Jews tricking or forcing us into a war somewhere to help them out. A lot of dead young men, slaughtered Arabs and Tel Aviv rubbing its hands in glee. Or they can do it on their own and invade some place without soldiers around to shoot back and kill fifty children in a Syrian school. Of course these dead toddlers would be proclaimed in the New York Times as a training camp for Arab militants. Of course, out public wouldn’t really care about this. I wonder what would happen if the Arabs blew up one of our day care centers? My God, what a howl that would bring out. Of course we both know that they did it to teach us a lesson for our support of a rogue state. Ah, the Skokie crowd cheers us onwards, over the edge. If that happens they will all run to Toronto which a friend tells me is crawling with them. They even have special lamp posts there.

RTC: The better to hang them on, Gregory.

GD: It might come to that yet, Robert. But enough amusing talk. When you were talking about the take-over of Russian gas and oil and so on, were they successful? I mean your people?

RTC: Oh, yes, they achieved their initial goal. But then the Jews got too greedy and too public with their wealth and I think now, Putin will pull them all down, one by one. And I also think there will eventually be serious problems with America’s banking system. It’s totally corrupt, Gregory, and, like the oil barons of Russia, getting too arrogant. If we were to try to restructure America, we would have to start by reforming the banks and then reestablish the press as independent entities. But to accomplish this, we have to take into consideration that the banks, the media and, to a lesser degree, our intelligence agencies, are firmly in the hands of Jewish interests. These people are not operating for the good of the public but for their own little cliques and more seriously, solely for the interests of Israel. Mark you, Gregory, that miserable dwarf country will drag this powerful country into ruin unless someone puts a stop to it. But, I suppose, it’s the old question of who will bell the cat.

GD: Why not let nature, or time, take its course, Robert? None of what you talk about is new, at least not from a historical point of view. Happened before and will happen again. Watch and wait is what I say.

 

(Concluded at 3:10 PM CST)

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https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Conversations+with+the+Crow+by+Gregory+Douglas

 

Revisionism’s Cast of Characters

February 22, 201

by Christian Jürs

And there is the redoubtable Lady Renouf.

As a member of London’s high society, the former wife of a New Zealand lord, and prior to that union, the spouse of a member of the Imperial Russian nobility, Lady Renouf attended the long Irving libel trial and found herself in great sympathy with the embattled writer.

As a member of the famous London Reform Club, Lady Renouf made several attempts to invite Irving into her club but the unfortunate writer was promptly blackballed and forced to leave, never to return.

“Lady Renouf” was born Michele Mainwaring in New Zealand in 1947.  Her father, Arthur Mainwaring, was a truck driver. Michelle, an attractive woman, was a model, an ‘exotic dancer’ and a beauty contest entrée before marrying a Jewish psychiatrist, Daniel Griaznoff, by whom she had two daughters.

Following her departure from the Griaznoff ménage, Michele adopted the name “Countess Griaznoff” and in January, 1991, married multimillionaire New Zealand financier, Sir Frank Renouf. On her marriage certificate Michelle stated that was the Countess Griaznoff, ex-wife of a Russian nobleman. Shortly after the wedding, Sir Frank discovered that his aristocratic wife was actually the daughter of a truck driver and her former husband was certainly not an Imperial Russian count.

Having been made a fool of, Sir Frank immediately left his new wife and they were eventually divorced in 1996.

This, then, is the “member of the British aristocracy” who actively supported the declining David Irving.

She was nearly expelled from her club by circulating a particularly vicious screed attacking Jewish press interests in England and attempting to get this published in British newspapers.

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