The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might allow nuclear proliferation.
The plot was pushed by a “company” formed for this express purpose called IP3 International, which doesn’t seem to have actually existed except as a sort of shell for lobbying the Trump administration. IP3 was, according to the committee, helmed by “General Keith Alexander, General Jack Keane, Mr. Bud McFarlane, and Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt, as well as the chief executives of six companies— Exelon Corporation, Toshiba America Energy Systems, Bechtel Corporation, Centrus Energy Corporation, GE Energy Infra structure, and Siemens USA—“ All “signed a letter to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The letter presented ‘the Iron Bridge Program as a 21st Century Marshall Plan for the Middle East.’”
Bud McFarlane? That is Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor who was up to his elbows selling arms to Khomeini in the Iran-Contra scandal, and thought up the idea of sending Ayatollah Khomeini a cake shaped like a key and a Bible (along with a few T.O.W. anti-tank emplacements)! Like Elliot Abrams, he was pardoned by George H. W. Bush, who seems to have created a factory for 21st century further scandals.
The point man for the plot was General Mike Flynn, who called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up at the Republican National Conference in late summer of 2016 and glommed on to Trump, becoming his first National Security Adviser. Flynn had visited Saudi Arabia in connection with the IP3 plot to transfer nuclear technology to that country that could help Riyadh make a bomb if the royal family felt they needed to do so to remain safe (e.g. if Iran went in that direction or if relations with nuclear-armed Israel tanked). The cover story was that the US corporate front would just make 6 nuclear reactors for electricity generation.
Derek Harvey, the Senior Director for Middle East and North African Affairs at the National Security Council in the first half of 2017, is alleged to have adopted the IP3 plot as US policy, dubbing it the “Middle Eastern Marshall Plan.” Mr. Harvey seems confused. The Marshall Plan was an aid program where the US gave out hundreds of millions of dollars to poor societies after WW II to promote prosperity and fight Communism. It wasn’t a money-making scheme whereby we would sell nuclear weapons technology to an absolute monarchy that uses bone saws on journalists in return for vastly enriching private individuals and a handful of corporations.
Remember, all these retired generals and CEOs and Republican bigwigs were calling for Iran to be bombed back to the stone age on the pretext that it had a civilian nuclear enrichment program that was potentially dual use and could maybe someday perhaps lead to an Iranian Bomb (the Iranians never decided to go in that direction and in 2015 mothballed 80% of their program). Apparently what the US economic elite really minded was not so much possible Iranian proliferation but that they would not get a few billion dollars as a payday for being the ones to supply the technology.
IP3 was not in a position to do an end run around the Atomic Energy Act, the law preventing an administration from handing over top nuclear secrets to another country without congressional approval. But the National Security Council could be a vehicle for secretly making such a deal.
The Congressional report says that the IP3 plot was closed down at one point but that NSC whistleblowers are afraid that some Trump administration personnel in the NSC and elsewhere may still be working on the illegal technology transfer.
Note that it might actually have been possible for Trump to get the scheme through the Republican House and Senate before last November but that the current legislators are unlikely to want to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear-bomb-making technology.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, appears to have picked up the scheme once Flynn was fired for having lied to the FBI over his contacts late in 2016 with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The committee report says that whistleblowers allege that in March, 2017, a meeting was held…
“Also present was a career NSC staffer who later informed colleagues that Mr. Harvey was again trying to promote the IP 3 plan “so that Jared Kushner can present it to the President for approval.”
For all we know, the plan to give the Saudis a nuke is still in play, with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake. This scheme is the ultimate in criminality, where US government resources (remember the Manhattan project?) are given away to another government by the white collar criminals now running the US government so that they can scoop up private massive fortunes rivaling those of the richest persons in the world such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
One thing you may be assured of is that Iran is going through this Congressional report with a fine-tooth comb. If there is one thing that really could crash the 2015 Iranian non-proliferation nuclear deal, it is the prospect of a Saudi Bomb. That people would try to destroy that deal on the one hand and slip Riyadh world-destroying secrets for personal enrichment boggles the mind.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, also a former federal prosecutor and early Trump supporter, said he’s confident the Southern District of New York is seeking to build a case against President Donald Trump for when he leaves office.
“They’re trying to build a case,” Christie said of the Southern District on CNN Thursday night. He noted that Michael Cohen said in his hearing Wednesday that he was in constant contact with the Southern District, and is aware of other potential crimes that he can’t speak about because the Southern District instructed him not to.
Christie noted he has previously stressed that the Southern District investigation has always been a bigger threat to Trump than Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation.
“The reason for that is three-fold,” Christie said. “First, they have no limit on their scope. Bob Mueller has a limit on his scope. It’s Russia and Russia related activities. Second, Michael Cohen, third Rick Gates.”
“They have two tour guides that can take them through the Trump businesses,” Christie explained.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo asked Christie what the point of such investigations are, given Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
“What they’re doing — and I’m confident — is building a case for two things,” Christie continued. “One, to go after those around the president who may have committed crimes.”
“And two, to build the case — if they have one, I don’t think they have one at the moment, but they’re trying to build one — against the president for when he leaves office.”
In addition to Special Counsel Robert Mueller and other federal prosecutors, several U.S. congressional committees are pursuing investigations focusing on President Donald Trump, looking at questions regarding Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election as well as the Republican president's finances.
As the backlash from the biggest scandal of his political career intensified, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has seen his standing in the polls slip, losing his lead in the October race for the first time since June. Following Wednesday's damning testimony from his former justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, who accused Trudeau and his staff of a months long campaign of veiled threats and political pressure to try and coerce her into offering a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec-based engineering firm facing years old financial fraud charges.
During her testimony, Wilson-Raybould created an image of Trudeau that was strikingly at odds with the public's perception: The cheerful liberal crusader was cast as conniving and paranoid about his electoral prospects. Intensely worried that the SNC-Lavalin case could harm his reelection prospects by moving out of Quebec and killing thousands of jobs in his district, Trudeau was willing to unduly use his office to try and influence a criminal prosecution, and, when he didn't get his way, unceremoniously demoted the cabinet member who stood in his way.
Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould
Now, as his political opponents demand an official investigation, Trudeau's liberals are circling the wagons. And with the conservatives already leading in the polls - one recent poll showed Trudeau's team with 33.9% of the vote, below the conservatives with 35.8% - the Liberals worry that any break in their ranks could be fatal. So far, almost no members of Trudeau's party have spoken out against the PM (other than Wilson-Raybould, that is, who remains a Liberal MP after resigning from Trudeau's cabinet).
The goal now, according to one pollster, is to convince the public that Trudeau did nothing wrong. Though, the fact that one of the government's most high-ranking members has emerged as Trudeau's biggest critic could seriously complicate that narrative.
Any divisions within his government on the matter could be fatal for efforts to convince voters the Liberals have done nothing wrong, said Nik Nanos, a pollster with Nanos Research Group. Trudeau, at the center of the crisis and with his own popularity waning, will also need a more team-oriented campaign in the next election to win voters who may blame him for the current crisis.
"If a narrative emerges that the caucus is divided on this, that will be lethal for Justin Trudeau," Nanos said in a telephone interview. "I can’t remember any party leader winning an election with his caucus divided. If the caucus can’t even agree, how is it that they can govern?"
Still, no current members of the cabinet have broken ranks, and some of the government's most visible members have publicly declared their support for Trudeau, and their confidence in his judgment.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told the CBC she couldn’t imagine Trudeau applying inappropriate pressure, and signaled frustration that Wilson-Raybould was now taking aim at cabinet. "At the end of the day, when you leave the room, you have to play as a united team," Freeland said.
Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he believes Trudeau was within the "box of what’s legal" with his actions, and that no one should jump to conclusions. "We should take the time to listen to the other witnesses." Champagne and another minister, border security chief Bill Blair, each brushed aside a question on whether Trudeau should replace key staff. “I remain very confident in the work of this government,” Blair said.
Parliament adjourns on Friday for a two-week break, due to return in time for Morneau’s March 19 budget. The path of the scandal could also depend on what Liberal lawmakers hear while away from Ottawa, in their home districts scattered across Canada.
"They’re going to get earfuls," Collenette said. "If the truth is really two perceptions, then voters will make up their minds. But they need facts."
[...]
Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he believes Trudeau was within the "box of what’s legal" with his actions, and that no one should jump to conclusions. "We should take the time to listen to the other witnesses." Champagne and another minister, border security chief Bill Blair, each brushed aside a question on whether Trudeau should replace key staff. "I remain very confident in the work of this government," Blair said.
Meanwhile, Trudeau's finance minister and one of his former top aides - who resigned after Wilson-Raybould exposed his role in the scandal - are doing everything they can to push their version of what transpired between them and the former justice minister.
Among those Wilson-Raybould accused of improper pressure is Bill Morneau, who she said she spoke to in the House of Commons. The finance minister said Thursday it was Wilson-Raybould who approached him, and defended the actions of his chief of staff, Ben Chin, in stressing the magnitude of potential job losses at the company.
"My role is, and continues to be, to think about how protect Canadian jobs," Morneau told reporters in Toronto. "I will continue do that. I think that’s critically important for us to understand in every decision we take as a government."
Wilson-Raybould also took aim at Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s former principal secretary, who on Thursday asked to be allowed to speak to a committee of lawmakers to tell his version of events. The former attorney general - whose absence from cabinet will be filled in a shuffle Friday, according to CBC - may also end up testifying again.
So far, Trudeau has told reporters that he has no plans to resign, even as the opposition and members of the press demand that he resign. Still, if MPs return from a two-week break that begins Friday having lost faith in Trudeau's ability to win in October, we could see the party adopt a very different strategy - perhaps one that doesn't involve Trudeau retaining his position as leader.
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The US State Department has issued a whopping $1 million bounty for information leading to the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden, son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was reportedly killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011.
US intelligence and counter-terror officials believe the son, now estimated to be 30 to 33 years old, has emerged as leader of the al-Qaeda terror network and is currently trying to track him, especially after new audio and video messages have emerged of him calling for terror attacks against the United States and its allies.
Hamza bin Laden, right, was a teenager when seen in this 2001 video recording (still frame), via AFP
The US State Department said in a statement this week, "He has released audio and video messages on the Internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by US military forces."
The new information was posted on the State Deptartment's "Rewards for Justice" program website further says he married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, who was the lead hijacker and a assumed mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Hamza bin Laden, center, in recently released video footage.
Citing letters recovered from the Abbottabad, Pakistan compound where bin Laden was found, Osama was apparently "grooming Hamza to replace him as leader" of the terror network, according to the US government press release.
While the global manhunt is on, United Nations member nations are required to to freeze Hamza bin Laden's assets and to enforce an arms and travel ban on Hamza.
Long considered bin Laden's "favorite son," Hamza was not at the compound with his parents when his father was killed. Immediately after Osama's death Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian longtime leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group, took over leadership.
The CIA released the last known video of Hamza bin Laden in 2017, said to be filmed as part of a wedding ceremony.
However, over the past few years it's believed that Hamza has come the new "charismatic" face of al-Qaeda, especially after al-Qaeda in 2015 released an audio message from Hamza, which urged followers across the Middle East and central Asia to wage jihad on Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv.
The US State Department had called the sanction a "powerful tool" for mobilizing a new wave of terror recruits.
Zabihullah (known Afg Taliban spox) release video of Hamza bin Laden in Ghazni province giving bayah/oath of allegaince to Mullah Omar in 2002.
Hamza is fondly protected by Afg Taliban with pride. pic.twitter.com/sKjbCPjn1J
However, al-Qaeda leadership in the Levant, which has long been active and gaining experience in the Syrian war and in Idlib, appears to be the more militarily powerful threat.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul once called Idlib "a jihadi wonderland" and lamented that instead of allowing regional forces like Syria and Russia to uproot the terror safe-haven, Washington has long actually seemed more interested in protecting it.
SpaceX is ready for Saturday's inaugural test flight of the Crew Dragon, the next step in a mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
SpaceX is ready for Saturday's inaugural test flight of the Crew Dragon, the next step in a mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
