Trump Administration

Gina Haspel Debate Spotlights America’s Soul Sickness

May 10, 2018 By John Kiriakou, Truthdig.com Educate! CIA, History, Trump Administration

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will hold hearings Wednesday to decide if Gina Haspel should be the next CIA director. The vote in committee and on the floor of the Senate is going to be close. And if Haspel wins, we will have the Democrats to thank for it. You remember “Bloody Gina” Haspel. She’s already the CIA’s acting director and has had just about every high-level job in the building. She’s the godmother of the CIA’s immoral, unethical and illegal George W. Bush-era torture program. She was the chief of a secret prison, where she oversaw the implementation of the torture program and was personally responsible for directing the torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Nashiri’s attorneys say the torture of their client was so severe that he has lost his mind and can no longer participate in his own defense.

An Apology To The People Of Iran

May 9, 2018 Staff, Codepink.org Resist! Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Trump Administration

We, the undersigned, apologize for Donald Trump’s reckless, baseless, and dangerous decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement and we pledge to do everything we can to reverse that decision. We are ashamed that our government has broken an agreement that was already signed not just by the United States and Iran, but also by France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, and then approved by the entire UN Security Council in a unanimous vote. We are ashamed that our government has broken a deal that was working, a deal with which Iran was complying, a deal that was making our entire world safer and could have moved our nations closer towards the path of friendship.

Trump’s Shameful Choice Of ‘Bloody Gina’

May 8, 2018 Robert Scheer, Truthdig.com Educate! CIA, Trump Administration

They call her “Bloody Gina,” and for some of her buddies in the torture wing of the CIA and their supporters in Congress, that is meant as a compliment. For a decade after the 9/11 attacks, Haspel served as chief of staff, running the vast network of secret rendition torture prisons around the globe. As a definitive Senate Intelligence Committee report established, torture is not legal, according to U.S. law and international covenants signed by President Ronald Reagan, nor does it produce any actionable information in preventing acts of terror. After the public revelation of the vast extent of the torture program horrified the world, Haspel deliberately destroyed 92 videotapes depicting the barbaric practice, violating a Justice Department order that the tapes be preserved, and thus clearly obstructing a criminal investigation. Yet in March, Trump chose to nominate Bloody Gina to be the new head of our super-spy agency.

“NRA Enables Domestic Terrorism” Projection Lights Up Trump Hotel Before Conference

May 8, 2018 John Zangas, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! NRA, Trump Administration, Washington DC

Washington, DC–Activists lit up Trump International Hotel with messages critical of the National Rifle Association lobby on Thursday night. The light show was timed to draw negative attention to the NRA annual conference being held in Dallas, Texas on Friday. Activists projected giant memes across the iconic bell tower of the hotel, reading, “The NRA paid Congress $2,401,020 For Inaction” – “Take Democracy Back” and “NRA Enables Domestic Terrorism.” Other light images included memes of an AR-15 and a skull and crossbones. Trump Hotel security called police and within minutes DC police responded and ordered the activists to turn off the projector or face arrest. Police claimed the activists had no permit or permission to be on “private property” despite the equipment being staged on the sidewalk far from the building. Activists refused to leave and invoked their first amendment right to free expression.

Economists Warn Trump Of Depression From His Trade Policies

May 4, 2018 By Kevin Glass, Ntu.org Resist! New Economy, Policy, Trade Deal, Trump Administration

NTU’s Free Trade Initiative director Bryan Riley said, “very few policy areas generate as much consensus among professional economists like free trade does. Protectionism is flat-earther economics.” NTU is holding an event to unveil the letter and submit it to the White House and Congress on Thursday, May 3 at the National Press Club. This letter to Congress and the White House comes on May 3, the anniversary of the economists’ letter in 1930 warning against the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs were intended to protect American jobs, but the consensus among economists is that they prolonged and worsened the Great Depression. “Tariffs are never good, and a necessary evil to be used as sparingly as possible,” said founding signatory Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Opening Pandora’s Box: Karl Grossman On Trump And The Weaponization Of Space

April 21, 2018 Karl Grossman and TJ Coles, Counterpunch.org Educate! Space weapons, Trump Administration

Trump’s missile attack on Syria was guided by space-based satellites. I asked award-winning journalist, author, professor and space weapons expert Karl Grossman about the prospects for peace and survival under Trump and his moves toward space weaponization. “With the arming of the heavens, the kind of attack with Tomahawk and other missiles we’ve just seen in the strike on Syria would be succeeded by strikes with space-based weapons – those of the U.S. and other nations – from overhead,” says Grossman. Raytheon is developing anti-satellite weapons, presumably for use against other countries. Under Trump, there’s talk of reviving the nuclear energy sector. What’s your take on these developments?

Pittsburgh Police Prepare For Possible Riots If Trump Fires Mueller

April 20, 2018 By Edward Helmore, Theguardian.com Resist! Pittsburgh, Police, Protests, Trump Administration

Pittsburgh police have issued a memo to department detectives to prepare for possible protests should President Trump fire special counsel Robert Mueller. The memo, issued by Victor Joseph, commander of the Pittsburgh bureau of police, instructed detectives to begin wearing a full uniform and carrying riot gear “until further notice”. “There is a belief that President Trump will soon move to fire Special Prosecutor Mueller. This would result in a large protest within 24 hours of the firing,” the emails states. “The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice,” the memo read and was issued based on “information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District”. The police department appeared to be acting on information gathered from a group, Nobody is Above the Law, that has been preparing for demonstrations should the president move to fire Mueller.

Out Of 26 Major Editorials On Trump’s Syria Strikes, Zero Opposed

April 20, 2018 Adam Johnson, Fair.org Educate! Airstrikes, Syria, Trump Administration

A survey by FAIR of the top 100 papers in the US by circulation found not a single editorial board opposed to Trump’s April 13 airstrikes on Syria. Twenty supported the strikes, while six were ambiguous as to whether or not the bombing was advisable. The remaining 74 issued no opinion about Trump’s latest escalation of the Syrian war. This is fairly consistent with editorial support for Trump’s April 2017 airstrikes against the Syrian government, which saw only one editorial out of 47 oppose the bombing (FAIR.org, 4/11/17). The single paper of dissent from last year, the Houston Chronicle, didn’t publish an editorial on last week’s bombing. Seven of the top 10 newspapers by circulation—USA Today,Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post,Chicago Tribune, Newsday and Washington Post—supported the airstrikes.

Stopping War Pusher John Bolton, Trump’s Choice For National “Insecurity” Advisor

April 2, 2018 Ralph Nader, Nader.org Resist! National Security, Trump Administration

John Bolton’s career of pushing for bombing countries like Iran and North Korea, and his having played an active role in the Bush/Cheney regime’s criminal war of aggression that destroyed Iraq, makes him a clear and present danger to our country and world peace. He is about to become Donald Trump’s personal national security advisor with a staff of 400 right next to the White House. He must be stopped! For Bolton, the Constitution, federal law, the Geneva Conventions, and other international laws are pieces of paper to be thrown away with unctuous contempt. This outlaw – the shame of Yale Law School—should have been cast away as a pariah if not prosecuted and imprisoned. A bully to his subordinates in the government and known as “kiss-ass” to his superiors, Bolton is aggressive, relentless, and consistently wrong, when not prevaricatory.

We’re Coming Out Of Syria Very Soon, Let Others Take Care Of It – Trump

March 30, 2018 Staff, RT.com Educate! Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Syria, Trump Administration, US Imperialism

The US spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, Trump said, describing how the US would build schools only for insurgents to destroy them, while there was no funding to build schools in Ohio. “We build a school, they blow it up. We rebuild the school, they haven’t blown it up yet, but they will,” he said. The president also pointed out the “wall” and 32,000 US troops guarding the border between North and South Korea, while the US border with Mexico was not likewise protected. “Is there something a little bit wrong with that?” he asked the crowd. Trump’s remarks about Syria are in line with what he said last month, at a press conference in Washington with Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull. “We're there for one reason: to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS, and to go home,” the US president had said. “We’re not there for any other reason and we’ve largely accomplished our goal.”

The Real Problem With Gina Haspel’s CIA Nomination

March 29, 2018 Staff, Nationalinterest.org Educate! CIA, Trump Administration

An especially insidious snare for a liberal democracy in the conduct of its foreign policy is the temptation to adopt the strategies and tactics of one’s adversaries. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Gina Haspel as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency highlights that problem. A longtime CIA veteran, Haspel ran one of the Agency’s infamous “black sites” (in Thailand) during George W. Bush’s administration. Those sites specialized in conducting “enhanced interrogation” (torture) of Al Qaeda suspects. Such techniques included subjecting prisoners to sleep deprivation lasting for days, hanging them in stress positions for hours at a time, and most controversial of all, waterboarding—repeated simulated drowning—of suspects. Haspel apparently not only presided over such misdeeds; there is evidence that she played a leading role in covering them up.

An Essential History Of Militarist John Bolton

March 27, 2018 By Staff, Rightweb.irc-online.org Educate! National Security, Trump Administration

John Bolton, a senior fellow at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute and the chairman of the Islamophobic Gatestone Institute, was appointed by President Donald Trump to be his national security adviser in March 2018, replacing H.R. McMaster. An extremist national security hawk, Bolton is a former board member of the Project for the New American Century and a past adviser to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, and other right-wing media outlets. Bolton has been a key Republican Party figure since he was tapped to serve in the Reagan administration in the 1980s, where he held a series of posts at USAID before joining a team of Federalist Society lawyers under Attorney General Edwin Meese.

Trump Should Withdraw Haspel Nomination, Intel Vets Say

March 27, 2018 Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Consortiumnews.com Resist! CIA, Trump Administration

With respect, we veteran intelligence officers from CIA and other agencies urge you to withdraw the nomination of Gina Haspel for CIA director. From what is already known of her leading role in CIA torture 16 years ago, she has disqualified herself. In 2002 Haspel supervised the first CIA “black site” for interrogation, where cruel and bizarre forms of torture were applied to suspected terrorists. And when the existence of 92 videotapes of those torture sessions was revealed, Haspel signed a cable ordering their destruction, against the advice of legal counsel at CIA and the White House. We are confident that if you set aside some time to read the unredacted portions of the Senate Intelligence Committee report of 2014 on the torture ordered and supervised by Haspel and other CIA managers, you will change your mind about her nomination. The five-year Senate investigation was based primarily on original CIA cables and other sensitive documents.

Liberal Ire At Trump And Cambridge Analytica Is Misdirected From Billionaires Who Own Your Data

March 24, 2018 By Bruce A. Dixon, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Data, Liberals, Surveillance, Trump Administration

Liberals this week want to drum us into outrageous fury over the fact that Facebook, with almost 2 billion accounts worldwide, handed over user data of millions of people to Cambridge Analytica, a firm retained by the Trump campaign. Cambridge Analytica, or CA for short is part of the Robert Mercer empire, which funds an entire zoo of nonprofits from Citizens United to the Cato and Heritage Foundations, and which sponsored Steve Bannon’s career and Breitbart News after the death of its founder Andrew Breitbart. CA’s claim to fame was the supposed identification of 5,000 data points on millions of people by which they could supposedly distinguish firm supporters from wavering ones, identify potential contributors and much more. Of course the millions whose data is being sold to marketers have nothing to say in the matter.

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