TBR News July 5, 2016

Jul 05 2016

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C. July 5, 2016: “The attacks against Sunni Muslim targets in Saudi Arabia are interesting in the extreme. The Sunni Saudis are well-known to have set the radical Sunni IS up in the hopes of establishing a religious hegemony and the US is also well-known to have its CIA supply the training of IS using US- supplied weapons. IS is failing but now the world is expected to believe the Sunni IS is attacking their own religious holy sites? And it is also rather peculiar that while the Western-hating IS has attacked targets in France and Turkey but have not attempted to do this in either the UK or the US. Perhaps the IS people don’t have a good travel agent.”

 The Müller Washington Journals   1948-1951

At the beginning of December, 1948, a German national arrived in Washington, D.C. to take up an important position with the newly-formed CIA. He was a specialist on almost every aspect of Soviet intelligence and had actively fought them, both in his native Bavaria where he was head of the political police in Munich and later in Berlin as head of Amt IV of the State Security Office, also known as the Gestapo.

His name was Heinrich Müller.

Even as a young man, Heini Müller had kept daily journals of his activities, journals that covered his military service as a pilot in the Imperial German air arm and an apprentice policeman in Munich. He continued these journals throughout the war and while employed by the top CIA leadership in Washington, continued his daily notations.

This work is a translation of his complete journals from December of 1948 through September of 1951.

When Heinrich Müller was hired by the CIA¹s station chief in Bern, Switzerland, James Kronthal in 1948, he had misgivings about working for his former enemies but pragmatism and the lure of large amounts of money won him over to what he considered to be merely an extension of his life-work against the agents of the Comintern. What he discovered after living and working in official Washington for four years was that the nation¹s capital was, in truth, what he once humorously claimed sounded like a cross between a zoo and a lunatic asylum. His journals, in addition to personal letters, various reports and other personal material, give a very clear, but not particularly flattering, view of the inmates of both the zoo and the asylum.

Müller moved, albeit very carefully, in the rarefied atmosphere of senior policy personnel, military leaders, heads of various intelligence agencies and the White House itself. He was a very observant, quick-witted person who took copious notes of what he saw. This was not a departure from his earlier habits because Heinrich Müller had always kept a journal, even when he was a lowly Bavarian police officer, and his comments about personalities and events in the Third Reich are just as pungent and entertaining as the ones he made while in America.

The reason for publishing this phase of his eventful life is that so many agencies in the United States and their supporters do not want to believe that a man of Müller¹s position could ever have been employed by their country in general or their agency in specific.

 Wednesday, April 25 1951

Robert came by my office today with an aide who brought several boxes of intercepted Soviet documents. These are from the TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee, ed.) This comes to me because I have had dealings with (Dr. Erich, ed.) Hüttenhain in the past. He has been the best insofar as the decryption of Soviet messages are concerned. Now, we are using German machines to spy on not only the Russians but our delightful allies as well! This department here is full of Germans…a mixed bag of Abwehr, SD, Gestapo and Reichspost plus some Luftwaffe boys. Most of the SS people are on the “automatic arrest” and “forbidden entry” level but no one pays any attention to that here and, thank God, the Jews have shut up now that we are charging many of them with being Soviet spies. If we did not do this, they would wail and howl about “evil Nazis” running around Washington. As Smith said, ‘Better to have professional German intelligence people here than that damned pack of communist Jews that Roosevelt shoved off on us!’

TICOM material is vital to us now and I am highly entertained when the Americans discovered that we were breaking many of their codes. Of course now there is much talk about the Enigma (German military encryption machine, ed.) victories. Of course we knew that they had the capacity to break this. We knew they had broken the Japanese code machine patterns and we tried to warn them but they wouldn’t believe us. When Hitler planned the Ardennes attack in December of 1944, Hitler gave specific orders that no messages concerning this attack were to be processed through Enigma and we took the Amis completely by surprise. Now we know what Comrade Josef and DeGaulle are saying, not to mention the highest level governmental and military British message traffic!

One of the fellows I lunch with regularly was with the Einsatzkommando and was a specialist in Soviet bandit groups. He was the overseer of a radio interception unit for the SD and took part in many an action against the bandits. They took only a few prisoners and executed the rest. Since the leadership of these groups and many of the members were Jews, I shudder to think what Hollywood would do with all this! Still, we are in the midst of a de facto war with the Soviets and since the Jews run that murderous state, they can’t complain if they get fried. And they couldn’t complain earlier when we wiped out their bandit groups. Of course they couldn’t because we wiped them off the map. The friendly Poles liked to chase such rodents into barns and then burn them down but we are more correct and only hung them up in the trees or shot them.

We have a Pole here, one Juliuz Kowalski, who works in the clandestine services and who is the worst enemy of the Jews I have ever seen. I try to keep away from him as much as possible because he sounds worse than Streicher!

We see that Comrade Josef is not happy about the Zionists in Prague giving all the weapons to Israel and the end of the Slansky murder gang will no doubt improve the standard of living in Prague.

I will have Robert bring me these intercepts as often as he can and will analyze them as soon as I can.

Having trouble with one of my teeth and will have to go to a dentist. We have one on the payroll as the bosses are worried that someone might say something indiscreet while under the gas.

The ‘Robert’ mentioned in Müller’s journals was Robert Trumbull Crowley, a very early member of the CIA and later the Deputy Director of Clandestine Activities. He basically “ran” Müller, who was technically an employee of the U.S. Army. Müller’s other control was Walter Bedell Smith, once Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff and later head of the CIA.

Friday, 27, April, 1951.

The CIA has been buying up the leadership of the trade unions in both Italy and France (England is a lost cause for us) and Angleton is turning his Sicilian Mafia friends loose on those people in Italy that are blocking our progress. They have killed six so far but Togliatti has managed to escape. Angleton’s stories about life with the Mafia are quite interesting indeed and we all know that he has a hand in the Cuban casinos and makes money with it. I often wonder what the casino bosses thought when they found their two monkeys dead in that Havana alley. If Arno was up to his usual tricks, no doubt they were terrified. Behn says the Mafia is a fact of life and one should simply learn to live with them. Hoover is afraid of them because they have “gotten something” on him, so his pursuit of them is desultory at best. The Colonel, on the other hand, hates perverts and communists, makes no distinction between an ultra-left wing sympathizer and practicing agent. The former are deluded idiots who ought to be stripped naked and paraded through the streets but the professionals one should deal with differently.

I have never met one that could not be turned. That is, if they are truly professional. The ideological ones like the Rosenbergs should be sent off to the galleys or thrown into the river encased in concrete. One can say this about the Mafia: they are all businessmen and hate the communists with a passion.

That makes them useful allies indeed…at times…but dangerous ones. If they do you a favor, they wish to have it repaid with interest.

Next week or thereabouts I have to go to New York. I will get together with Behn at the Knickerbocker, go to the Metropolitan, check out several antique galleries, one of whom sold a Kandinsky for me and with whom I have a credit. Maybe I can get something by a real artist. Also, to see (Francis, Cardinal, ed. ) Spellman for a private interview regarding McCarthy’s rampages in Hollywood. I am told the Holy Father (Pius XII, ed.) is delighted that we are finally putting our house in order. Maybe I can get a nice Papal decoration out of them for all my help and certainly because of my support in certain delicate matters. Catholics are not particularly welcome in the upper branches of the CIA, all of whom are Episcopalians or Zen Buddhists, so I am their man on the inside.

I have about used up all my various false identifications and will have to get more. It is a nuisance not to be able to be a fixed person but that is the way it goes.

“What a great scandal” I am told, if someone should discover who I really am.

Firstly, no one would admit knowing me; everyone would deny knowing me and all would point and demand justice for having tricked them so cleverly! But they won’t do this at all because I have enough serious information on each and every one of them to terrorize them if I have to. I terrorized Wisner who no doubt wets his pants each time I come into his office. The CIA now goes to enormous lengths to protect me but mostly for their own safety, not mine! I do not own my car; have three driver’s licenses, one for Maryland, and one for Washington and one in Virginia, all with different names! And six passports, five American Social Security numbers, a pilot’s license, four permits for concealed weapons and so on. My home here is in another name, my home in Washington was rented by the Government, and my home in Colorado is in yet another name. Behn knows who I am and has assisted me in joining a number of very exclusive clubs…three under three different names! Of course I cheat terribly on my income taxes and no one is going to catch me on that issue either.

And six checking accounts, three savings accounts, ten safe deposit boxes all in American banks, two checking accounts and two safe boxes in a Canadian bank, real estate in Canada, the United States and Spain, all under different names. I have a record of all this important nonsense so that if anything happens to me, Bunny can reclaim my assets.

I have been discreetly selling off those paintings and other works of art that might make serious problems if found. My Titian is still with me but I sold the Signorelli to Behn for a fraction of its price. Of course it was officially burnt up in the Zoo Flak tower in 1945 but they never found a trace of it and if it showed up in his hands, even the weak puppet government in Bohn could probably get it back and it would embarrass Behn.

He knows enough to keep it hidden but he does admire it. I told him I was aiming for a Papal decoration and he thought it interesting. He collects decorations and has several rather fancy ones. You ought to see him when he is all dressed up. Looks like a minor potentate from a Balkan country.

I am going to give the Rothschild chess set, which is rather ugly but very valuable, to Viktor for Christmas. I got it free from the CIA in Switzerland and my own set is very simple and I have had it for many years. These gold, jewel-encrusted things have intrinsic value but are in such bad taste. Of course the Rothschilds never had much taste in fine art (although they do produce wonderful wines) anyway, just a lot of money. I am certain the set is not “Gothic” but early Weininger (a Viennese goldsmith who forged artwork in the nineteenth century, ed.) but it is still a very valuable set and should make Viktor happy.

Viktor and I were laughing about our “aliases” the other day and he said if I took him out into genteel society, please to tell him which name I was using this time!

Bunny, who knows all about this, calls me the ‘Great Scandal’ but my reply is that I have lost weight and my stomach is as flat as a washboard and one could grate oranges on it. The bite marks have gone away and I have now resumed the nuptial bed again.

https://www.amazon.com/DC-Diaries-Translated-Heinrich-Chronicals-ebook/dp/B00SQDU3GE?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20DC%20Diaries&qid=1462467839&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

The Müller Reports

The Official German RSHA Daily Reports on the Action of all Einsatzgruppen engaged in Anti-Partisan Warfare on the Eastern Front 23 June 1941 through 21 May 1943 inclusive

The information in the following tables comes directly from twelve folders of IV A 1 Lagezimmer and are the only surviving originals of Ereignismeldung UdSSR. Numbers 1-195 from 23. June 1941 through 24 April 1942 by CdS/Amt IV A1 and Meldungen aus den besetzeten Ostgebeiten, Numbers 1-55 between 1 May 1942 and 31 May 1943 by CdS Kommando stab. Copies of these important documents can be found in the U.S. National Archives, Rolls T-175 No’s 233 through 236, the Berlin Document center in Berlin and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich.

With the invasion of Soviet Russia on 21 June 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the RSHA instituted these reports into a comprehensive daily summery of the various daily reports submitted by the Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos. “Sammelmeldung UdSSR, Nr. 1” was prepared by SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, head of Amt IV, the Gestapo. They were classified as “Geheime Reichssache” or Secret State matters and circulated to a limited distribution list (at first 10 copies, then distribution was expanded successively.)

The only known copies of these daily summaries was from the IV A 1 Lagezimmer. A typical; Ereignismeldung contains a list of Standorte of each HSSPF, KdS, Einsatzgruppe, Einsatzkommando, and Sonderkommando reporting, accounts of Bandenbekämpfung operations, including the shooting of Jews and Soviet Political Commissars, and reports on political and economic conditions much like those to be found in standard SD reports.

Since a great deal of fictional data has been presented concerning the number of Jews who died as a result of interactions with the Einsatzgruppen and their subgroups, it is instructive to study all of these daily, highly classified reports, and set down the actual numbers of the casualties on the Soviet Russian side. It is clearly obvious from reading through these over 4,000 pages of detailed reports that Jews were singled out for murder both because they were Jews but also because they were basically allied with the Soviet Partisan movement and were killed in combat with German security units.

It should be noted that these Müller reports were classified as highly secret and had a very limited circulation within the organs of the Third Reich. As Müller was noted for his accuracy and thoroughness, it is not possible that he invented these figures in the event that future scholars would be mislead by their contents

Very often numbers of Communist party officials and the dreaded Commissars were executed by the SD units when they were captured. As there were a significant number of Jews in these organs, it has been impossible to differentiate between the makeup of the totals. The reports of executions were, in a number of cases, marked: Execution of Communist officials and Jews.

The following several examples of messages are from the Einsatzgruppen Reports.

The number of the report and the date will be noted with each excerpt. The

Einsatzgruppen reported on their activities to their respective headquarters which sent the information to Berlin. There the RSHA compiled concise reports in the name of the Chief of Sipo and the SD. Copies were distributed to high- ranking army, police and SS officers, diplomats, members of the foreign office an even to industrialists as they related to economic factors in the Soviet territories.  The Einsatzgruppen Reports were discovered by the U.S.Army in Gestapo headquarters in Berlin after the war. They were initially impounded by a research analyst attached to the Berlin branch of the Office of the Chief of Council for War Crimes. They were sealed and transported in the custody of the US Army to Nuremberg. During the first days of the Einsatzgruppen Trial, the authenticity of the reports was established beyond doubt and none of the German defendants challenged their validity.

After the trial, the original reports were sent to the National Archives in Washington, DC. In 1960 they were given to the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. Photocopies of all the reports remain in the National Archives, the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz , the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Examples of the Einsatzgruppen Reports

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 17

7.July.1941

According to instructions by RSHA, liquidations of government and party officials, in all named cities of Byelorussia, were carried out. Concerning the Jews, according to orders, the same policy was adopted. The exact number of the liquidated has not as yet been established.

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 19

11.July.1941

In Kaunas, up to now a total of 7,800 Jews have been liquidated, partly through pogroms and partly through shooting by Lithuanian Kommandos. All of the corpses have been removed. Further mass shootings are no longer possible.  Therefore, I summoned a Jewish committee and explained that up to now we had no reason to interfere with the internal arrangements between the Lithuanians and the Jews.

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 106

7.October.1941

In agreement with the city military command, all the Jews of Kiev were ordered to appear at a certain place on Monday, 29 September, by 6 o’clock. This order was publicized by posters all over the town by members of the newly organized Ukrainian militia. At the same time, oral information was passed that all the Jews of Kiev would be moved to another place. In cooperations with the HQ of the Einsatzgruppen and two Kommandos of  Police Regiment South, Sonderkommando 4a executed 33,771 Jews on September 29 and 30.

[NOTE: This took place outside of Kiev and is known, post-war as the so-called Babi Yar massacre.]

 Austria Interior Minister proposes October 2 for presidential election rerun

Austrian voters could be heading to the polls again on October 2 for a rerun of the presidential election. The initial vote, narrowly won by the Green candidate in May, was annulled over irregularities in vote counting.

July 5, 2016

DW

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced shortly before a government meeting on Tuesday that he would submit the proposal to the government, adding that he hoped the council of ministers would agree. The date of October 2 is yet to be formally confirmed by parliament.

Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen won the run-off election in May by a slim margin against far-right contender Norbert Hofer.

Hofer’s Freedom Party contested the result, however, alleging that ballot papers were sorted and counted prematurely. The far-right party also claimed that in a significant number of voting districts, ballots were counted without proper supervision.

Court orders rerun

After four days of questioning more than 60 witnesses, Austria’s Constitutional Court confirmed on Friday that there had been widespread irregularities in May’s election and ordered the vote to be retaken.

The court found irregularities in 14 of the 20 investigated constituencies, which affected some 77,000 votes. Green Party candidate van der Bellen had only led the right-wing populist Norbert Hofer by 30,863 votes, so judges could not rule out the possibility that the overall election result was distorted.

Both van der Bellen and Norbert Hofer were quick to praise the court’s decision.

“I respect the decision, that is clear,” van der Bellen said, adding that he “expects to win a second time.”

His opponent Hofer said he has a “real desire for another election campaign.”

Following the court’s ruling, as of July 8, when the term of the outgoing president ends, the Hofburg Palace will remain temporarily vacant.

Official duties will be carried out in the interim by a three-party committee consisting of top parliamentarians.

Saudi crown prince seeks to assure Saudis after triple bombings: agency

July 5, 2016

by Sami Aboud

Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and anti-terror tsar sought on Tuesday to reassure Saudis of the country’s security after suicide attacks targeting the holy city of Medina, the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and Shi’ites in the city of Qatif.

At least four people were killed in the attacks on Monday. No group has claimed responsibility but Islamic State has carried out a number of similar bombings in the kingdom in the past year, targeting Shi’ite Muslims and Saudi security forces.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, who is also the Saudi interior minister, visited two security officers and a citizen wounded in the bombing in Jeddah, the state news agency SPA reported on Monday evening.

“The security of the homeland is good, it is at its highest levels and thanks be to God it gets stronger every day,” SPA quoted Prince Mohammed as saying during the visit.

The attacks have rattled Saudis who are preparing to celebrate Eid al-Fitr from Wednesday following the month-long Ramadan when they fast from dawn to dusk.

Militant attacks on Medina, home to the Prophet’s Mosque and the second-holiest site in Islam, are unprecedented. The Al Saud ruling family considers itself the protectors of Islam’s holiest sites Medina and Mecca.

Prince Mohammed has been credited for successfully ending a bombing campaign by al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia between 2003-2006.

“I know that terrorist operations are not a simple thing, and the minor impacts that you feel now will go away, God willing,” Prince Mohammed said, according to SPA. “I had been through this in the past and feel what you feel,” he added, referring to a suicide bombing he had survived in his office in 2009.

Saudi security officials say the group’s supporters inside the kingdom mainly act independently, depending on Islamic State based in Iraq and Syria for only limited logistical help and advice, making them harder to detect, but also less capable of mounting attacks on well-protected targets.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Coordinated bombings rock Saudi Arabia

Three coordinated suicide bombings have shaken Saudi Arabia, including one near Islam’s second holiest site. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attacks which came a day before the end of Ramadan.

July 5, 2016

DW

Three separate suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia on Monday left at least four police dead and several people wounded, just a day before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

There was no claim of responsibility for the coordinated attacks, including one near the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, Islam’s second-holiest site and the burial place of Muhammad.

Tens of thousands had gathered to pray at the mosque for evening prayers when security guards approached a suspicious man at a nearby parking lot.

“Security forces suspected a man who was heading towards Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet’s Mosque) as he passed through a visitors’ parking lot,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

“As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death, and the death of four security personnel,” said the statement. Five others were also injured.

Undeterred worshippers continued to pray, Saudi television showed, as a plume of black smoke rose near the mosque.

An attack on Islam

Al-Qaeda and the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) have regularly carried out attacks in the conservative Kingdom, which is considered heretical and corrupt by the global jihadist movements. IS has vowed to up the number of attacks during Ramadan, which officially ends on Wednesday with the start of the three day Eid al-Fitr (breaking the fast holiday).

Saudi journalist Khalid Al Maenna told DW News that groups like IS were trying to sow chaos and confusion in the Kingdom. He said an attack on one of Islam’s three most holy sites was an affront to all Muslims.

“To touch the Prophet’s mosque is very upsetting to any Muslim,” Al Maenna said, adding the attack showed the extremists were weak.

At the same time as the evening attack in Medina, in the east of the country a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in the Shiite-populated city of Qatif on the Gulf coast.

There were conflicting reports about causalities. The Saudi interior ministry said they were investigating the remains of three bodies, indicating there may have been more than one suicide bomber.

Mohammed al-Nimr, a resident of Qatif and brother of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed in January on charges of inciting anti-government protests, told the Associated Press that there were no casualties.

Al-Nimr’s execution caused a diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, whose foreign minister Javad Zarif condemned the attack in Medina.

The two evening mosque attacks were preceded by an early Monday morning suicide blast near a mosque and the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Two security officers were wounded after they approached a suspicious looking man who blew himself up. The Saudi interior ministry said the bomber was a 35-year-old private driver from Pakistan who had been living in Jeddah for 12 years with his wife and her parents.

The German Embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh condemned all of the attacks.

The coordinated attacks across the Kingdom come after IS carried out three high profile attacks in Turkey, Iraq and Bangladesh over the past week that killed a total of more than 200 people.

Turkey’s foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusolgu said his country would continue to cooperate with Saudi Arabia against terrorism.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been close regional partners, especially in Syria, where alongside Qatar and the United States they have backed Syria rebels groups in a bid to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Saudi and Turkish backing of Islamist rebel groups – and, in the case of Turkey, turning a blind eye until last year to a stream of weapons and fighters entering Syria from its territory – have opened both countries to accusations of following policies that have help fuel the rise of “IS” and other extremist groups.

Both countries deny the accusations and participate in the US-led coalitions against IS.

 WikiLeaks rolls out archive of over 1,200 ‘Clinton Iraq War’ emails

July 5, 2016

RT

The now-infamous whistleblowing website has published an archive of what is said to be over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton’s private emails pertaining to the Iraq War. Julian Assange previously said that the release would be “enough to indict her.”

On Monday, WikiLeaks tweeted a link to a search aggregate of 1,258 emails that Clinton wrote or received discussing US engagement in Iraq while she headed the State Department. The Iraq War email bundle is part of a trove of Clinton’s correspondence that was released by the State Department in February, under the Freedom of Information Act.

In March, WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive consisting of 30,322 emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server that she used while serving as Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents cover Clinton’s correspondence from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. Out of that number, 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton.

The use of private email for state-run business has become a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. With Democratic convention just weeks away, the public eye is following a close watch of a potential grand jury indictment.

This past weekend, the FBI spent more than three hours questioning Clinton about the email scandal, but as elections loom, the Bureau has yet to issue a report on its findings.

It has been a year since inspectors general from the State Department and federal intelligence agencies referred the case of Clinton’s server to the Justice Department last July.

The FBI questioning fell days after it was reported that former president Bill Clinton had held talks with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, responsible for the government’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Clinton denied that her husband’s meeting with Lynch had anything to do with the email investigation.

Many believe that the former Secretary of State will not be indicted for her use of private email.

“That’s just not going to happen,” Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, told CNN’s State of the Union program Sunday. “That’s something that, to me, is not within the realm of possibility.”

“I am not worried about it,” Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “There will not be an indictment, and that means she did what many secretaries of state have done in the past.”

Prior to Monday’s release, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange warned that “upcoming leaks in relation to Hillary Clinton” would be enough to indict her.

“We’ve accumulated a lot of material about Hillary Clinton. We could proceed to an indictment,” Assange told ITV.

Yet at the same time, the whistleblower said that despite overwhelming evidence calling for an indictment, Lynch “will never” proceed with the charges.

Hillary’s Hawkishness Began When She Was First Lady

June 27, 2016

by Ted Galen Carpenter

National Interest

It’s no secret that Hillary Clinton favors a hawkish foreign policy. Her views seem out of step with the more dovish preferences of most rank-and-file members of the Democratic Party. And although there were many factors that led to the surprisingly strong challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders during the primary, discontent among his supporters—especially his young supporters—about Clinton’s fondness for military force was high on the list of grievances. Antiwar Democrats recalled all too well that she supported George W. Bush’s disastrous military crusade in Iraq and retracted that approval only when it became obvious that the mission had unleashed catastrophic instability in the heart of the Middle East.

Concerns about Clinton’s hawkish inclinations are not merely confined to the Democratic left. Various experts have commented on them with more than a little concern. Some even regard her foreign policy track record and views as more dangerous than one could expect from the volatile Donald Trump.

Most of the concern stems from Clinton’s record as a senator and secretary of state. But one should look even earlier for signs of congenital hawkishness—her disturbingly casual attitude about the use of U.S. military force even when important American security interests are not at stake. Those attitudes were already evident in the 1990s, when Hillary Clinton was first lady and an informal adviser to her husband. Despite not holding an official policy position, she helped push the United States into the Balkan Wars. That was especially true of the 1999 Kosovo War, when she worked hand-in-glove with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other advocates of a hardline policy toward Serbia. Indeed, the American-led NATO airstrikes became a model for what Clinton sought to do in Libya more than a decade later—a supposedly cheap and effective military intervention that accomplished ambitious policy goals without putting large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground.

Hillary’s role in the Bosnia intervention remains murky. Given her later enthusiasm for “humanitarian” wars, it is likely that she pushed her husband to become more proactive in that conflict. On the other hand, until the sweeping GOP victory in the 1994 congressional elections, she had strong hopes for health care reform, and there is some evidence that she worried that a Bosnia intervention might be a fatal distraction for the administration and the nation. It should be noted though, that officials who were close allies of Hillary Clinton, most notably Richard Holbrooke, played an influential role in getting Washington to take the lead in the military intervention against the Serbs in 1995. At the same time, she helped ensure that Albright became Secretary of State in the second term of the Clinton administration.

There was no ambiguity about her position regarding Kosovo. She was virulently hostile to the Serbian government in Belgrade and extremely sympathetic to the rebel Albanian Kosovars. In her discussions with Bill Clinton, she later admitted, “I urged him to bomb.”  In the book Hillary’s Choice, author Gail Sheehy describes the tense exchange between the Clintons in detail. “On March 21, 1999, Hillary expressed her views by phone to the president: ‘I urged him to bomb.’ The Clintons argued the issue over the next few days. [The President expressed] what-ifs: What if bombing promoted more executions? What if it took apart the NATO alliance? Hillary responded: ‘You cannot let this go on at the end of a century that has seen the major holocaust of our time. What do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life?’ The next day the President declared that force was necessary.”

There are two noteworthy aspects of that episode. First, Hillary Clinton was a far more eager warrior than her husband; one wonders what his decision might have been without her hawkish input. Second, her comment about “what do we have NATO for?” is reminiscent of Albright’s infamous comment earlier in the 1990s, when she screamed at Gen. Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, “What is the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about if you can’t use it?” For both Albright and Clinton, the U.S. military seemed to consist of bloodless pawns—an instrument to be used for whatever grand venture they wanted to pursue, whether the nation’s tangible interests were involved or not.

The foreign policy views that emerged during her stint as First Lady in the 1990s were on full display when she became Secretary of State. The preference for supposedly humanitarian military intervention was expressed in both Libya and Syria. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad supplanted Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic as the designated villains that must be removed from power. The same casual indifference to the wider consequences is also evident. Just as she still seems to ignore the reality that Kosovo is a political and economic basket case, Clinton is shockingly indifferent to the institutional and human wreckage left in the wake of pet policies in Libya and Syria. Her flippant comment about Qaddafi (“We came, we saw, he died.”) speaks volumes about her foreign policy. To this day, Clinton portrays the Libya intervention as a success, even though the country is now a cauldron of chaos and a target of opportunity for ISIS. And there is little doubt that if she becomes president, she will push for a much larger U.S. military footprint in Syria, despite similar risks. It is the policy she advocated before she left the State Department.

Hillary Clinton demonstrates that the bankruptcy of American foreign policy is a bipartisan problem. The gap between what members of the political elite, both Republican and Democrat, want this country to do in the world and what is in the best interest of the American people has never been wider.

The Muslim fundamentalism

by Harry von Johnstn, PhD

In early January of 1993, Islamic leaders in Iran, Algeria, Egypt, Afghanistan and the Sudan proclaimed a holy war against selected Christian nations. Primary amongst their enemies was the United States, mainly because of its unquestioning support for the state of Israel. Targets of opportunity were to be American financial interests throughout the world, American political and military personalities, (both inside and outside of the United States), prominent objects such as the World Trade buildings in New York, the Pentagon, the White House and the capital buildings in Washington and the following projected areas of strategic, political and sociological significance in both the United States and her m ain ally, Great Britain.. From papers siezed in Germany by anti-terrorist police units in June of 2004, the following potential American targets were listed:

1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)

2nd Vice Presidential DC Area Bunker

63 US-based Nuclear Power Plants

AF New Boston Sat Tracking Station

Air Force Satellite Control Network

American Type Culture Collection

American controlled oil pipelines in:

Alaska, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq

American oil platforms in the Caribbean

Anniston Chemical Depot

Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory-West

AU Defence Signals Directorate

Barksdale Air Force Base WSA

Beale Air Force Base

Big Hole Communications Bunker

Bremerton Submarine facilities

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Bunker on White Rock Road

Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant

Camp David Presidential Retreat

Capenhurst Phone-Tap Tower

Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters at Langley, VA

Charleston Naval Weapons Station

Chesepeake Car Tunnel, Norfolk, VA

Chevron Refinery, Pascagoula, MS

Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center

CIA Office of Special Technology

CIA Special Training Center

CIA/NSA Special Collection Service

Cudjoe Key Air Force Station

Defense Nuclear Weapons School

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

DIRNSA Residence

Dixon/Stockton Naval Radio Facilities

DoD WMD Contractors

Downtown Manhattan Telephone Hubs

Drug Enforcement Administration

Edwards AFB/NASA Dryden Flight Center

Fairchild Air Force Base WSA

FBI Academy

FBI CALEA Wiretap Homes

Former NSA Rosman Station

Ft. Meade SIGINT Operations Center

Grand Coolie Dam system

Grand Forks Air Force Base

Hanford Nuclear Reservation

Hoover Dam and associated power grid

Horizon-Backscatter Radar

HQ of the Homeland Security Dept.

Indian Point Nuclear Generating Sta.

Janet Airlines Terminal

Jim Creek Naval Radio Station

Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center

Kirtland Nuclear Storage Complex

Lake Kickapoo Space Surveillance Station.

Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Letterkenny Army Depot

MacDill AFB and Central Command

Marshall Space Flight Center

McGregor Naval Weapons Industrial. Reserve

Medina Regional SIGINT Center

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

Minot Air Force Base

Mississippi River Bridges

Moyock Naval SIGINT Station

National Air Intelligence Center

National Football League Stadiums

National Reconnaissance Office

National Reconnaissance Office HQ

National Security Agency

Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek

Naval Maritime Intelligence Center

Naval Missile Range Facility

Naval Radio Station Driver

Naval Security Group at Winter Harbor

Naval Security Group San Diego

Naval Security Group Skaggs Island

Naval Station Guantanamo Bay

Naval Station Norfolk

Naval Submarine Base Bangor

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay

Naval Submarine Base New London/NSGA Groton

Naval Surface Warfare Center

Naval War College

Naval Weapons Station Earle

Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach

Naval/Marine Intel Training Center

Nellis Nuclear Weapons Storage Area

Nevada Nuclear Test Site

New York City Water Reservoirs

Newport Chemical Depot

North Island Naval Air Station WSA

NRO at Moffett Field

NSA Bad Aibling DE Echelon Station

NSA Friendship Annex

NSA Geraldton AU Echelon Station

NSA Kent Island Research Facility

NSA Leitrim CA Echelon Station

NSA Menwith Hill UK Echelon Station

NSA Misawa JP Echelon Station

NSA Neighborhood

NSA Pine Gap AU Echelon Station

NSA Sugar Grove US Echelon Station

NSA Waihopai NZ Echelon Station

NSA Yakima US Echelon Station

NSGA at North Island NAS, San Diego

Nuclear Device Assembly Facilities

NYPD Ammunition Depot

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Panama Canal locks

Pantex Nuclear Warhead Plant

Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant

Presidential Homes in Texas and Maine

Pueblo Chemical Weapons Depot

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

Radio Station Cutler

Ready Reserve Force

San Nicolas Isle Missile Test Center

Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant

Site R – Raven Rock Governmental Bunker

Statue of Liberty

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Sugar Grove Echelon Station

Tooele and Deseret Chemical Depots

Twenty-eight US Airports

Two Rock Ranch Communications Station.

  1. Army Intelligence Center

US Army Chemical Center

US Bullion Depositories

US Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas

US Secret Service Training Facility

US Transatlantic Cable Landings

US Transpacific Cable Landings

US Vice Presidential Official Residence

Warren Air Force Base

Warrenton Training Center Site D

White House

Whiteman Air Force Base WSA

Wilson Blvd Tech Centers, Arlington

WIPP Nuclear Waste Target

Yakima Echelon Station

Yorktown Naval Weapons Station

Yucca Mountain Project

Although U.S. Counterintelligence has proven to be less than competent in evaluating the organization, strengths and motivations of foreign terrorist groups, it appears reasonably evident that the groups who have prepared these target lists can be conveniently lumped under the name of Al-Qaida. What does the word “Al-Qaeda” mean? In Arabic, “Al-Qaeda” has a different meanings, among them “Base”, “Ground”, “Norm”, “Rule”, “Fundament”, “Grammar”. The exact meaning is dependent on the context in which it is used. It depends on the word which follows “Al-Qaeda” in the sentence. “Qawa’ad Askaria” is an Army Base. ”

In this context, the name Al-Qaeda is a blanket name for loosely knit groups of Islamic fundamentalists whose aim is to attack foreigners whom they view as hostile to and aggressive towards Islam. This loosely knit group of Musim jihadists are known by a number of names; al Qaeda, Al-Qaida,” the Base,” the Islamic Army, the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, the Usama Bin Laden Network, the Usama Bin Laden Organization, Islamic Salvation Foundation, the Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites

They have been accused of the following plots and actions:

  • Plotted to carry out terrorist operations against US and Israeli tourists visiting Jordan for millennial celebrations. (Jordanian authorities thwarted the planned attacks and put 28 suspects on trial.)
  • Conducted the bombings in August 1998 of the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed at least 301 persons and injured more than 5,000 others.
  • Claims to have shot down US helicopters and killed US servicemen in Somalia in 1993 conducted
  • Three bombings that targeted US troops in Aden, Yemen, in December 1992.
  • Attacks on commercial centers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington and
  • An abortive attack on the White House, also in Washington in 2001, attacks on trains in Madrid, Spain, attacks on London subway targets.
  • Linked to the following plans that were not carried out:
  • to assassinate Pope John Paul II during his visit to Manila in late 1994,
  • simultaneous bombings of the US and Israeli Embassies in Manila and other Asian capitals in late 1994,
  • the midair bombing of a dozen US trans-Pacific flights in 1995,
  • an attempt to assassinate President Clinton during a visit to the Philippines in early 1995.
  • Continues to train, finance, and provide logistic support to terrorist groups in support of these goals.

‘Price to pay for US’: Beijing ready to confront Washington if it intervenes in S.China Sea dispute

July 5, 2016

RT

Beijing must prepare to make the US “pay a cost it can’t stand” if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force, a state newspaper editorial has warned, days before a court at The Hague rules on the territorial row between China and the Philippines.

The American military build-up in the South China Sea, including the deployment of two carrier strike groups, comes in defiance of China’s vital interests and represents “a direct threat to national security,” the state-run Global Times said in strongly-worded editorials in its Chinese and English editions on Tuesday.

Beijing should accelerate developing its strategic deterrence capabilities to contain the United States, the newspaper added.

“Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force.”

China is a peaceful country that welcomes dialogue on the disputed region, the influential newspaper wrote, “but it must be prepared for any military confrontation.”

The Global Times is believed to have close ties with the government as it operates under the auspices of the Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily.

The Tuesday editorial went online a week ahead of a ruling by the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines. In 2013, the Philippines filed a complaint with the court, asking it to rule on who owns the Spratly Islands, which lie at the heart of economically important shipping routes in the area.

China sees the ruling – which is due to be announced on July 12 – as “posing more threat to the integrity of China’s maritime and territorial sovereignty,” the Global Times stated, claiming “the arbitration becomes nothing but a farce.” Beijing has said it will not recognize the ruling.

The Spratly Islands, or Spratlys, comprise more than 750 islets, atolls and reefs, and lie off the coastlines of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and China, with all the claimants having their own national names for the archipelago.

China runs military drills near Paracel Islands

Prior to The Hague court’s ruling, Beijing announced it will conduct a routine naval exercise covering an area east of China’s Hainan Island all the way up to and including the Paracel Islands (known as Xisha in Chinese), another disputed area. The drill will run from Tuesday to July 11, and will involve two Chinese guided-missile destroyers, the Shenyang and Ningbo, as well as a frigate, the Chaozhou, according to the People’s Daily.

The exercise has sparked fears across the region, but “could be regarded as a countermeasure” to the US efforts “to press China militarily and politically,” the Global Times’ editorial said.

Over the past few years, Beijing has reclaimed several atolls and built up military installations on the group of disputed islands in the South China Sea. Washington has accused China of “aggressive behavior” in the region, sending warships to enforce what it calls freedom of navigation in international waters.

China’s President Xi Jinping says Beijing has no plans to attack anyone, but will continue its policy of active defense.

China, Brexit worries send Treasury yields to record

July 5, 2016

by Marc Johes

Reuters

London-U.S. government bond yields, the benchmark for global borrowing costs, hit an all-time low on Tuesday and the yen jumped as weak Chinese data and Brexit worries triggered a fresh scramble for the safest and most liquid assets.

Risk aversion swept though markets as data showing China’s manufacturing growth stalled last month coupled with warnings from the Bank of England that the UK’s vote to leave the European Union was already having an economic impact.

Investors made a dive for bonds, sending 10-Treasury yields as low as 1.377 percent US10YT=RR and Swiss yields CH50YT=RR negative all the way out to 50 years on bets the world’s major central banks will wade in with yet more stimulus.

“Everything is still being driven by one main factor and that is that central banks still have their taps on,” said Neil Williams, chief economist at fund manager Hermes.

“It seems to me that Brexit has global implications … and when an $11 trillion economy (China) which accounts for a large chunk of the world’s commodity demand slows down, you have to take notice.”

Stocks were firmly out of favor. Wall Street was expected to reopen after a long weekend down roughly 0.5 percent.

European shares .FTEU3 were down 1.5 percent as weaker commodity stocks and ongoing worries about Italian banks that have seen their value drop almost 60 percent this year [.EU] more than offset small rise for London’s FTSE .FTSE on the back of Bank of England rate cut hints.

In the currency market, the safe-haven yen rose almost one percent against the euro EURJPY= and dollar JPY= [FRX/] as Brexit-battered sterling GBP= hit another 31-year low.

BREXIT

Uncertainty in the run-up to Britain’s vote on its EU membership last month had already seen growth in its dominant service sector hit a three-year low data showed and pushed businesses expectations to their weakest since the end of 2012.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said he thought the bank would need to cut it already record low interest rates and possibly provide other stimulus over the summer to cushion the Brexit shock.

“There is a prospect of a material slowdown in the economy,” he added, warning also that the UK had “entered a period of uncertainty and significant economic adjustment.”

Insurers Aviva and Standard Life have both suspended property funds as a result of withdrawals.

“The problem these funds face is that it takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, and the cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door, both in the run up to the EU referendum,” said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Sterling slumped to a new 31-year low of $1.3112 as it fell 1.3 percent on day GBP=D4.

U.S. DATA, FRAGILE CHINA

The U.S Commerce Department will release a report that is expected to show later ECONG7 that new orders for manufacturing goods fell by 1 percent in May, compared to 1.9 percent in April.

The overnight data from China had shown that while the country’s growing services sector saw activity rise to an 11-month high in June, a composite measure of activity including manufacturing fell to a four-month low.

Nervousness was also seeping back in about Beijing’s intentions for its currency, the yuan, as the country’s central bank fixed its daily yuan/dollar reference rate CNY=SAEC at a fresh 5-1/2-year low.

Back in Europe, the euro EUR=EBS slid 0.2 percent to $1.1130, but retained most of the gains made since its 3 1/2-month low of $1.0912 hit in the wake of the UK referendum, while the yen JPY= jumped 0.8 percent as it slice back above 102 to dollar to 101.79.

The ‘risk-off’ sentiment was further compounded as oil fell below $50 a barrel on Tuesday, as concern about a potential slowdown in economic growth that would weigh on demand trumped supply outages in Nigeria and other exporting nations.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down $1.42 at $48.67 a barrel and U.S. crude dropped $1.54 at $47.45 a barrel.

(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Turkey proposes cooperation with Russia in fighting Islamic State

July 4, 2016

by Ece Toksabay and Dmitry Solovyov

Reuters

ANKARA/MOSCOW-Turkey said on Monday it wanted to cooperate with Moscow in combating Islamic State in Syria but denied having suggested it might allow Russia to use its Incirlik Air Base, near the Syrian frontier.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan last week expressed regret over last year’s shooting down of a Russian warplane, with the loss of the pilot. Moscow, which had broken off virtually all economic ties and banned tourists from visiting Turkish resorts, pledged in return to help rebuild relations.

In an interview with Turkish state television on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had appeared to suggest Ankara could open up Incirlik to Russia, a move that could raise concern among Turkey’s NATO partners already using the base, including the United States.

But Cavusoglu, in comments broadcast live on television on Monday, denied such an interpretation of his words.

“We said that we could cooperate with Russia in the period ahead in the fight against Daesh (Islamic State)…I did not make any comment referring to Russian planes coming to the Incirlik Air Base.”

Incirlik hosts aircraft from the United States, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar involved in the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State, which has controlled extensive territories along Syria’s border with Turkey.

“We will cooperate with everyone who fights Daesh,” he told TRT Haber in Sunday’s remarks. “We have been doing this for quite a while, and we opened Incirlik Air Base for those who want to join the active fight against Daesh.

Why not cooperate with Russia as well on these terms? Daesh is our common enemy, and we need to fight this enemy.”

The Kremlin described the notion that Turkey could open up Incirlik as a “serious statement” although it said it had not had any contact with Ankara on the matter.

REVIVAL

Russia  said it was looking to “revive” the sharing of information with Turkey in the fight against Islamic State.

“Channels to exchange information with Turkey have not been working lately. We now have to revive and relaunch them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Last week’s bomb attack on the main airport Istanbul – which left 45 people dead and hundreds wounded – showed the importance of working together to counter terrorism, he said.

Russian nationals have been identified as two of the three suspected Islamic States suicide bombers behind the airport attack, which is thought to have been masterminded by a Chechen, Turkish media said on Friday.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack, the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings in NATO-member Turkey this year, was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev.

Chatayev is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as a leader in Islamic State responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

In many cases these fighters have been influenced by Islamist insurgencies at home, pushed out of their own countries by security crackdowns, and won advancement in Islamic State through their military skills and ruthlessness.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

 

 

 

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