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Today's News (2020/1/4)
Jan. 4th, 2020 08:25 pmRukmini Callimachi - twitter.com/rcallimachi
Correspondent for The New York Times covering ISIS & al-Qaeda. NBC & MSNBC analyst. Previously, seven years in West Africa. Ex-AP bureau chief. Ex-refugee.
https://twitter.com/rcallimachi/status/1213421769777909761
1. I’ve had a chance to check in with sources, including two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani. Here is what I’ve learned. According to them, the evidence suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is “razor thin”.
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Rockets fired after day of mourning for slain Iranian leader
Thousands of militiamen and other supporters chanting “America is the Great Satan” marched in a funeral procession in Baghdad for Iran's top general, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-mourn-iranian-general-killed-us-airstrike-68063780
BAGHDAD -- Thousands of militiamen and other supporters chanting “America is the Great Satan” marched in a funeral procession Saturday in Baghdad for Iran's top general after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike, as the region braced for the Islamic Republic to fulfill its vows of revenge.
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Trump Is Holding His First 2020 MAGA Rally at a Tax-Exempt Megachurch
Tax-exempt churches are federally prohibited from engaging in politics.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7eaxv/trump-is-holding-his-first-2020-maga-rally-at-a-tax-exempt-megachurch
President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally at a Hispanic megachurch near Miami Friday night, two weeks after an editorial in the influential publication Christianity Today called for his removal from office.
The campaign event, which also serves as the launch for the "Evangelicals for Trump" coalition and Trump’s first rally of 2020, will attempt to assuage any potentially bruised support among the religious right, although some evangelical Christians criticized the editorial. It will also present a serious legal question as to whether the president can hold a massive political rally at a tax-exempt church that's federally prohibited from engaging in politics.
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The Pinnacle of Trump’s Foreign Policy Stupidity
The fatal strike against Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani has destabilized the world, endangered Americans, and thrilled Republican war hawks.
https://newrepublic.com/article/156113/iran-suleimani-bombing-iraq-airport-pinnacle-trumps-foreign-policy-stupidity
Suleimani died as he lived: spoiling American aims in the Middle East. His death, now treated as a national tragedy and an act of war by Iran, makes Americans in the region and across the world less safe. Regional experts are aghast and handicapping the odds of a costly great-power war. Others are pointing out that removing the head of a sophisticated state terror network does little to prevent that network’s operations, and likely radicalizes the survivors.
...
Trump and Republicans now have what they love: a tough, if completely self-defeating, internally inconsistent, national security talking point. They are openly boasting today about an act of destabilizing, violent vengeance that will make Americans, Iraqis, and Iranians less safe for the foreseeable future.
There is no logic in it, and there is no telling how bad things may get. But the U.S. State Department gives a pretty good indicator of just how inept, feckless, and stupid its leadership is in this crisis. This morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extolled the Suleimani killing as a masterstroke “to protect American lives.… The U.S. will protect its people and its interests.”
At the same time, his subordinates were advising Americans in Iraq to leave the nation immediately for their own safety and not expect help from their government: “Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all public consular operations are suspended until further notice. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy.” Those citizens “should depart via airline while possible,” the State department urged. Of course, that’s already a complicated task in Baghdad, where this crisis was precipitated yesterday by the U.S. bombing of the airport base complex it once occupied.
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Mike Pence shares 9/11 conspiracy theory about Qassem Soleimani in attempt to justify killing
Official 9/11 report undermines vice president's criticism of killed Iranian general
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-soleimani-iran-war-9-11-conspiracy-theory-assassination-a9270271.html
Mike Pence has promoted an unsubstantiated theory linking the 9/11 terrorist attacks to Iran in his defence of the Trump administration’s killing of Qassem Soleimani.
Donald Trump’s vice president posted a Twitter thread on Saturday in which he described Iran’s top military commander as “an evil man responsible for killing thousands of Americans”.
In the thread, Mr Pence claimed Soleimani had “assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States”.
However, his accusation is undermined by the conclusions of the official government report on the attacks.
The 9/11 commission report found “no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack”.
-----
Far-right Trolls Pose as Jews to Aggravate Tensions With African American Community
White supremacists are taking advantage of recent anti-Semitic attacks to further conspiracy theories and cause outrage
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trolls-pose-as-jews-to-aggravate-tensions-with-african-american-community-1.8349810?fbclid=IwAR3FWvXX-AjPuekO0bzMeEWiWzMOuPN-2ImiQfmarU20F1oEvSxD8Pke-dk
In the wake of the shooting and stabbing attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York and New Jersey as well as the ongoing anti-Semitic violence in the area, far-right online trolls are once again creating fake Jewish profiles on social media to fan the flames of discord between the black and Jewish communities.
The problem first appeared six months ago, when Twitter was flooded with fake accounts of “Jewish” users who endorsed extreme views and anti-Semitic messaging. The campaign originated on the alt-right bulletin board 4Chan and was designed to “subvert Jews” through impersonating them. This time, the online “fake Jews” are spreading racist incitement against the perpetrators of the latest wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
Correspondent for The New York Times covering ISIS & al-Qaeda. NBC & MSNBC analyst. Previously, seven years in West Africa. Ex-AP bureau chief. Ex-refugee.
https://twitter.com/rcallimachi/status/1213421769777909761
1. I’ve had a chance to check in with sources, including two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani. Here is what I’ve learned. According to them, the evidence suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is “razor thin”.
-----
Rockets fired after day of mourning for slain Iranian leader
Thousands of militiamen and other supporters chanting “America is the Great Satan” marched in a funeral procession in Baghdad for Iran's top general, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thousands-mourn-iranian-general-killed-us-airstrike-68063780
BAGHDAD -- Thousands of militiamen and other supporters chanting “America is the Great Satan” marched in a funeral procession Saturday in Baghdad for Iran's top general after he was killed in a U.S. airstrike, as the region braced for the Islamic Republic to fulfill its vows of revenge.
-----
Trump Is Holding His First 2020 MAGA Rally at a Tax-Exempt Megachurch
Tax-exempt churches are federally prohibited from engaging in politics.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7eaxv/trump-is-holding-his-first-2020-maga-rally-at-a-tax-exempt-megachurch
President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a rally at a Hispanic megachurch near Miami Friday night, two weeks after an editorial in the influential publication Christianity Today called for his removal from office.
The campaign event, which also serves as the launch for the "Evangelicals for Trump" coalition and Trump’s first rally of 2020, will attempt to assuage any potentially bruised support among the religious right, although some evangelical Christians criticized the editorial. It will also present a serious legal question as to whether the president can hold a massive political rally at a tax-exempt church that's federally prohibited from engaging in politics.
-----
The Pinnacle of Trump’s Foreign Policy Stupidity
The fatal strike against Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani has destabilized the world, endangered Americans, and thrilled Republican war hawks.
https://newrepublic.com/article/156113/iran-suleimani-bombing-iraq-airport-pinnacle-trumps-foreign-policy-stupidity
Suleimani died as he lived: spoiling American aims in the Middle East. His death, now treated as a national tragedy and an act of war by Iran, makes Americans in the region and across the world less safe. Regional experts are aghast and handicapping the odds of a costly great-power war. Others are pointing out that removing the head of a sophisticated state terror network does little to prevent that network’s operations, and likely radicalizes the survivors.
...
Trump and Republicans now have what they love: a tough, if completely self-defeating, internally inconsistent, national security talking point. They are openly boasting today about an act of destabilizing, violent vengeance that will make Americans, Iraqis, and Iranians less safe for the foreseeable future.
There is no logic in it, and there is no telling how bad things may get. But the U.S. State Department gives a pretty good indicator of just how inept, feckless, and stupid its leadership is in this crisis. This morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extolled the Suleimani killing as a masterstroke “to protect American lives.… The U.S. will protect its people and its interests.”
At the same time, his subordinates were advising Americans in Iraq to leave the nation immediately for their own safety and not expect help from their government: “Due to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the U.S. Embassy compound, all public consular operations are suspended until further notice. U.S. citizens should not approach the Embassy.” Those citizens “should depart via airline while possible,” the State department urged. Of course, that’s already a complicated task in Baghdad, where this crisis was precipitated yesterday by the U.S. bombing of the airport base complex it once occupied.
-----
Mike Pence shares 9/11 conspiracy theory about Qassem Soleimani in attempt to justify killing
Official 9/11 report undermines vice president's criticism of killed Iranian general
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-soleimani-iran-war-9-11-conspiracy-theory-assassination-a9270271.html
Mike Pence has promoted an unsubstantiated theory linking the 9/11 terrorist attacks to Iran in his defence of the Trump administration’s killing of Qassem Soleimani.
Donald Trump’s vice president posted a Twitter thread on Saturday in which he described Iran’s top military commander as “an evil man responsible for killing thousands of Americans”.
In the thread, Mr Pence claimed Soleimani had “assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States”.
However, his accusation is undermined by the conclusions of the official government report on the attacks.
The 9/11 commission report found “no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack”.
-----
Far-right Trolls Pose as Jews to Aggravate Tensions With African American Community
White supremacists are taking advantage of recent anti-Semitic attacks to further conspiracy theories and cause outrage
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trolls-pose-as-jews-to-aggravate-tensions-with-african-american-community-1.8349810?fbclid=IwAR3FWvXX-AjPuekO0bzMeEWiWzMOuPN-2ImiQfmarU20F1oEvSxD8Pke-dk
In the wake of the shooting and stabbing attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York and New Jersey as well as the ongoing anti-Semitic violence in the area, far-right online trolls are once again creating fake Jewish profiles on social media to fan the flames of discord between the black and Jewish communities.
The problem first appeared six months ago, when Twitter was flooded with fake accounts of “Jewish” users who endorsed extreme views and anti-Semitic messaging. The campaign originated on the alt-right bulletin board 4Chan and was designed to “subvert Jews” through impersonating them. This time, the online “fake Jews” are spreading racist incitement against the perpetrators of the latest wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
