Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Possible Clinton VP choice, an ex-NATO chief, slammed Iran deal and has close Israel ties
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A former NATO commander being considered as a running mate for Hillary Clinton has called for a formal U.S.-Israel defense treaty and was sharply critical of the Iran nuclear deal.
James Stavridis, a retired four-star admiral, is being vetted by Clinton’s campaign to join the former secretary of state as she accepts the Democratic Party nomination later this month, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
In his 2009-13 term as NATO commander and as U.S. European commander, Stavridis met frequently with Israelis and forged close ties with the Israeli security establishment. During that time he received a top award from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a conservative pro-Israel group.
Stavridis retired in 2013 and became a dean at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and has slammed the Iran sanctions-relief-for-nuclear-rollback deal. In 2015, writing in Foreign Policy, he called for a defense treaty with Israel, citing what he said were the weaknesses in the Iran plan.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
White supremacist David Duke planning congressional bid
David Duke, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, during a debate with Joe Hicks in California, Sept. 25, 1996. (Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
(JTA) — White supremacist leader David Duke is gearing up to run for Congress, saying his decision was bolstered by the killing last week of five white Dallas policemen at the hands of a black gunman.
Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, told the Daily Beast on Tuesday that he plans to challenge incumbent Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., saying he has “very seriously set up an exploratory committee” and expects to make a decision “in a few days.” The ballot deadline is July 22.
Speaking about the Dallas killings, Duke said: “I don’t take any satisfaction in the fact that I was right, but I have been right. Unless European Americans stand up, they are going to lose everything they care about in this country.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Trump says Ginsburg’s mind is ‘shot,’ calls on her to resign from Supreme Court
Donald Trump addressing the crowd at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 6, 2016. (John Sommers II/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump called for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign, saying her “mind is shot” after she called him a “faker.”
“Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me,” Trump said in a tweet posted late Tuesday night. “Her mind is shot – resign!”
Ginsburg, 83, has told several interviewers in recent days that Trump, a billionaire real estate magnate and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is unfit for office.
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From
PressTV
US to deploy 560 more troops to Iraq: US defense secy.
Mon Jul 11, 2016 2:1PM
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter says his country will send more troops to Iraq, claiming that the forces will help Baghdad in an upcoming operation aimed at retaking the key city of Mosul from Daesh Takfiri militants.
Carter, who is currently in Iraq on an unannounced visit, said on Monday that 560 more US troops will be sent to Iraq, which will help establish the newly retaken air base in the town of Qayyarah as a staging hub for the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul from Daesh militants.
“These additional US forces will bring unique capabilities to the campaign and provide critical enabler support to Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight,” Carter said, adding, “The additional troops will provide a range of support for Iraqi security forces, including infrastructure and logistical capabilities at the airfield near Qayyarah”.
On Saturday, Iraqi government forces fully liberated the strategic airbase in Qayyarah, a town located some 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Mosul, from Daesh militants.
The move to increase the number of US troops comes despite growing concerns among the Iraqi public that the US is planning to use battle against Daesh as a pretext to return to Iraq. US forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple long-time dictator Saddam Hussein but the large-scale military operation deteriorated security in the Arab country and gave birth to various militant groups.
The increase announced on Monday will bring the number of US troops in Iraq to more than 4,647. US President Barack Obama had announced three months ago that he planned to send more troops to Iraq.
Carter said most of the troops will go to Qayyarah, adding that they will help Iraqi security forces planning to encircle and eventually retake the key city. A team of American troops went into Qayyarah for a quick site assessment on Sunday and left.
“Iraqi Security Forces … will complete the southern-most envelopment of Mosul. That’s its strategic role, and that’s its strategic importance,” Carter told reporters before arriving in Baghdad.
The top US defense official had called the recapture of Qayyarah a key strategic victory.
Carter’s announcement comes as Iraqi forces prepare to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, which fell to the hands of Daesh in June 2014.
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From PressTV
Daesh lost 12% of territory in Iraq, Syria since 2016: IHS
The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has lost 12 percent of the territory it already held in Syria and Iraq in the first half of 2016, a British think tank says.
According to a report released by the IHS Conflict Monitor on Sunday, the territories under the control of Daesh, which started its reign of terror in Iraq and Syria in 2014, are increasingly shrinking due to a string of setbacks it suffered last year and in the past months.
In 2015, Daesh territory “shrunk by 12,800 square kilometers to 78,000 square kilometers, a net loss of 14 percent,” the IHS said, adding, “In the first six months of 2016, that territory shrunk again by 12 percent. As of July 4, 2016, it controls roughly 68,300 square kilometers in Iraq and Syria.”
On December 22, 2015, the IHS reported that the terror group had lost control over more than 13,000 square kilometers of the territory it controlled in the two Arab countries since January, a net loss of 14 percent.
In another report on March 16, the think tank said that Daesh had lost a further eight percent since the beginning of January.
“Over the past 18 months, it has continued to lose territory at an increasing rate,” said Columb Strack, a senior analyst at the IHS and lead analyst for the IHS Conflict Monitor.
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From Ynet News
UN: Without two-state solution, Middle East faces ‘perpetual violence’
UNSCO Nickolay Mladenov said in an interview that two-state solution was more remote than ever; its alternative is ‘perpetual violence’; he assesses little chance of a quick return to peace talks.
A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more remote than ever, with the risk of generations of violence and radicalism unless leaders act, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said on Wednesday.
In his first public comments since the publication on July 1 of a report by the Quartet of Middle East mediators, Mladenov said the situation was approaching a point of no return.
“(The two-state solution) is perhaps the furthest away it’s ever been, and in fact it is really worse than that—it is slipping away as we speak,” he told Reuters in an interview, citing Israeli settlement building and Palestinian violence and incitement as among the most troubling obstacles.
“It’s time for the international community and the leadership on both sides to wake up.”
From Ynet News
More controversial comments made by IDF chief rabbi to-be come to light
Rabbi Eyal Karim permitted soldiers to refuse an order if it was ‘at odds with Jewish law,’ determined that wounded terrorists must be killed and that homosexuals, who are ‘sick or deformed’ should be ‘helped to escape their situation, with a lot of sensitivity and patience.’
Answering readers’ questions on the religious website “Kipa,” Rabbi Karim ruled that when a military order is at odds with Halachic (Jewish) law, a soldier is allowed to refuse an order.
“Sometimes, there are questions about the ethics of war that are enshrined in Halacha. An order that is at odds with the Halacha—must not be followed,” he wrote. “An order to commit a sin or prevent the fulfillment of a mitzvah (commandment) should certainly not be followed. Just as there is operational alertness, there should be mitzvah alertness.”
From Ynet News
NATO boosts support for countries battling Islamic extremism
The US-led alliance will be giving more support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa to fight Islamic extremism, with special attention given to countries such as Jordan, Iraq, and Libya; Also promises to increase defense of countries which border Russia
WARSAW- NATO allies agreed to provide increased military support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are targets of Islamic extremism on Saturday including using NATO surveillance planes in the fight against ISIS.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance leaders also agreed to launch a new naval mission in the Mediterranean, and made commitments to maintain a stable military presence in Afghanistan and to fund Afghan security forces through 2020.”Today we have taken decisions to strengthen our partners and to project stability beyond our borders,” Stoltenberg told reporters on the second day of a crucial NATO summit in Warsaw. He said millions of people in Africa and the Middle East have been rendered “homeless and helpless” by radical organizations like ISIS, and that the extremist groups are also to blame for organizing terrorist attacks in Europe and America.
From Ynet News
ISIS’s Twitter traffic plunges
The Obama administration has reported that ISIS’s traffic on the popular site has plummeted 45% in the past 2 years; the State Department is distributing anti-ISIS imagery.
WASHINGTON – ISIS’s Twitter traffic has plunged 45 percent in the past two years, the Obama administration says, as the US and its allies have countered messages of jihadi glorification with a flood of online images and statements about suffering and enslavement at the hands of the extremist organization.
Among the images: A teddy bear with Arabic writing and messages saying IS “slaughters childhood,” ”kills innocence,” ”lashes purity” or “humiliates children.” A male hand covering a female’s mouth, saying ISIS “deprives woman her voice.” A woman in a black niqab (veil), bloody tears coming from a bruised eye, and the caption: “Women under ISIS. Enslaved. Battered. Beaten. Humiliated. Flogged.”
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Republican convention will be short on Jews, long on mystery
Donald Trump addressing a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 6, 2016. Prominent Republican Jews are expected to pass on the party’s convention because Trump is the presumptive nominee. (John Sommers II/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – They’re elusive, but show up in the right place at the right time — and you might find one!
No, we’re not talking about the latest iteration of Pokémon Go. This is about tracking prominent Jewish GOPers and Jewish organizational representatives attending the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland.
They’ll be barely visible, and the reason has everything to do with the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
The Republican Jewish Coalition usually rolls out major shebangs at party conventions, starting with a news conference where you can count on director Matthew Brooks to confidently project growth in the GOP share of the Jewish vote.
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From The Times of Israel
US voices concern for free speech over Israeli NGO bill
After EU criticizes legislation, State Department says newly passed law could ‘have chilling effects’ on groups’ activities
July 12, 2016, 11:28 pm
The US State Department on Tuesday expressed concern that a law recently passed by the Knesset to brand foreign-funded NGOs could impinge free speech and association in Israel.
The law — approved by Knesset late Monday night — mandates that non-government organizations that receive more than half their funds from foreign governments or state agencies disclose that fact in any public reports, advocacy literature and interactions with government officials, or face a NIS 29,000 fine ($7,500).
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing that some of Washington’s concerns regarding the bill were alleviated by amendments made before it was finally passed by Israeli legislators.
Nonetheless, he expressed the White House’s concerns “not just about free expression but association and dissent.”
“We are deeply concerned that this law can have a chilling effect on the activities that these worthwhile organizations are trying to do,” he said.
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From The Times of Israel
Austria to take control of Hitler birthplace
Government move aims to nip neo-Nazi attraction to site in the bud
July 12, 2016, 11:13 pm
Austria’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the government has drawn up a draft law that would allow it to take ownership of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.
Tuesday’s move follows steadfast refusal by owner Gerlinde Pommer to sell the empty building in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. The government has sought possession so it can take measures to lessen its draw as a shrine for admirers of the Nazi dictator.
The draft still must be approved by parliament, where the government is in the majority and can rely on the support of most opposition parties.
Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck says he expects a parliamentary vote sometime this year. Government considerations range from tearing down the house to making it into a museum documenting Nazi horrors.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
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From PressTV
Fraud probe against Netanyahu to go public: Israeli official
Sun Jul 10, 2016 10:22AM
An Israeli official says the details of an investigation into allegations of large-scale money laundering by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be made public soon.
The official, whose name was not mentioned in reports, said on Saturday that police believe that they have adequate evidence to make the probe public this week or early next week.
Some of the inquiry materials had originated in other, unrelated investigations, but they have now been linked to the money laundering case involving the Israeli prime minister.
The police and the attorney general’s office think it is untenable to keep the investigation secret anymore due to its sensitivity, he said, adding that a decision was made to make an official announcement about the case.
Police have so far prevented leaks to the media concerning the probe, but there were reports of people being summoned for questioning by the police’s anti-fraud unit.
Recently, Israeli media said the investigation against Netanyahu focuses on foreign funds he received after resuming office in 2009. The premier has dismissed the allegations.
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From Ynet News
US Holocaust Museum, Auschwitz Museum: ‘Pokemon go not allowed’
As Pokemon Go takes the world by storm, Pokestops – places where people with the game can obtain in-game items – are popping up in inappropriate locations, such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, and even inside Auschwitz itself.
Like many other landmarks, the museums are featured in the “Pokemon Go” game as Pokestops—places where players can get free in-game items, as well as stumble upon Pokemon while wandering their grounds.In the US, museum officials are trying to have it removed from the game, Communications Director Andrew Hollinger said in a statement. He said playing the game inside a memorial to victims of Nazism is “extremely inappropriate.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland said it does not allow people to play “Pokemon Go” on their smartphones during visits to the former German death camp because it is “disrespectful on many levels.”
From Ynet News
US lawmakers still take aim at Iran nuclear deal
One year after signing of Iran nuclear deal, opponents seek new laws which would enable the imposition of sanctions on other grounds besides breaches of the deal; ‘It makes sense to do all we can to check this very dangerous Iranian activity.’
From Ynet News
Theresa May to become Britain’s next prime minister
May is due to become the Conservative Party’s leader, after party leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, announced his resignation in wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU; though she was initially against Brexit, May has since become an advocate for a clean break, in accordance to the people’s vote.
British Home Secretary Theresa May is set to become the United Kingdom’s next prime minister after her opponent dropped out of the race on Monday, leaving her the only candidate for the leadership of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party.
May became the single and final candidate for the Conservative Party position after her only opponent, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change Andrea Leadsom, announced she was dropping out of the race on Monday.
Leadsom cited not having the necessary support from Parliament for her to stand a viable chance of wining the leadership.
