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01/11/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Incoming! McCain Gave The FBI Ammo to Smear Trump

‘I did what any citizen should do’: Sworn Trump enemy John McCain admits HE handed smear dossier to FBI – because he had no idea if it was credible

Arizona senator who disowned Trump before election admits he handed document outlining claims of Kremlin blackmail to FBI
He was simply a concerned citizen, 80-year-old Republican claimed
Brief statement claims that he received it and gave it directly to FBI Director James Comey because he was ‘unable to make judgment about accuracy’
But Washington reporter Carl Bernstein says former British ambassador to Moscow handed it to McCain
Ambassador has not been named – and author of report also gave to FBI agent he knew at its station in Rome months ago
Report was apparently paid for first BY Republican enemies of Trump then by Democrats

Sworn Donald Trump enemy John McCain admitted Wednesday that he passed the dossier of claims of a Russian blackmail plot against the president-elect – calling it ‘what any citizen should do’.

McCain – a longstanding anti-Trump Republican who had disassociated himself from the candidate’s campaign weeks before the election – cast himself as an innocent and concerned member of the public as he justified his move.

He claimed he had no idea whether it was accurate or not – but that he believed the FBI should have it because it was ‘sensitive’.

‘I did what any citizen should do. I received sensitive information and handed it to the FBI,’ he told CNN – the network which broke the story that the document existed. It was then published in full by Buzzfeed.

‘That’s why I gave it to the FBI. I don’t know if it is credible or not but the information I thought deserved to be delivered to the FBI, the appropriate agency of government.’

He added: ‘It doesn’t trouble me because I don’t know if it is accurate or not. I have no way of corroborating that.

‘The individual gave me the information. I looked at it. After receiving that information I took it to the FBI.’

He added that he was now aware from media reports that the FBI was apparently already in possession of the information. ‘

The Arizona senator had issued a public statement amid mounting questions of his exact role in the affair – and how a document riddled with errors and unverifiable claims came to be published.

‘Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public,’ he said.

‘Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI.

‘That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.’

But the 2008 Republican loser, who disowned his party’s candidate weeks before the election, may have been far more intimately involved than that.

The dossier claims Russian authorities filmed Trump in a Moscow hotel room with two prostitutes who ‘defiled a bed’ which had previously been used by President Barack Obama

The chain of how the document reached the FBI is not officially known.

However Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporter who contributed to the first story about its existence, published by CNN on Tuesday afternoon, suggested that McCain was handed it by a former British ambassador to Moscow.

Bernstein told CNN: ‘It came from a former British MI6 agent who was hired from a political opposition research firm in Washington who was doing work about Donald Trump for both republican and democratic candidates opposed to Trump.

‘They were looking at Trumps business ties, they saw some questionable things about Russians, about his businesses in Russia, they in turn hired this MI6 former investigator, he then came up with additional information from his Russian sources, he was very concerned by the implications of it, he then took it to an FBI colleague that he had known in his undercover work for years, he took it to this FBI man in Rome who turned it over to the bureau in Washington in August.

‘And then, a former British ambassador to Russia independently was made aware of these findings and he took the information to John McCain – Senator John McCain of Arizona – in the period just after the election, and showed it to McCain – additional findings.

‘McCain was sufficiently disturbed by what he read to take it to FBI director James Comey himself personally, they had a five minute meeting the two men, very little was said, McCain turned it over to him and is now awaiting what the FBI’s response is to that information.’

The identity of the former British ambassador has not been disclosed.

Only one former British ambassador to Moscow remains in UK government service, Sir Tim Barrow, who went on to be Foreign Office political director and is now Britain’s ambassador to the European Union.

McCain’s long-standing opposition to Trump is well known although he only formally ended support for the Republican candidate in October, when the notorious ‘p****’ tape emerged.

The Arizona senator said at the time: ‘”Donald Trump’s behavior… concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.’

US intelligence agencies have claimed that Russian spies hacked the Democratic National Committee and leaked damaging emails designed to undermine Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president.

The new information, which has not been independently verified, claims that Russian officials also gathered highly damaging information on Trump, but only released the details attacking Clinton through the WikiLeaks website.

The Kremlin has denied all of the allegations, while Trump tweeted: ‘FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT’.

However, McCain was so concerned about the information contained within the 35-page dossier, which included allegations that Trump had hired prostitutes in Moscow to urinate on a bed that had previously been used by US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, that he passed the information onto the FBI

CNN reported that intelligence chiefs had presented Trump with a two-page summary of the dossier late last week following a briefing with President Obama.

It is not known if it included the most salacious details.

Trump has consistently denied that Russian intelligence agencies had launched a massive cyber attack ahead of last November’s election.

The dossier which McCain passed to FBI Director James Comey was compiled by the former MI6 man.

The memos describe sex videos involving prostitutes filmed during a 2013 visit by Trump to a luxury Moscow hotel, supposedly as a potential means for blackmail.

They also suggest Russian officials proposed lucrative deals in order to win influence over the Republican real estate magnate.

One claim, that special counsel to Trump Michael Cohen met with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016 has been branded as ‘fake news’.

Cohen denied that he was central ‘to the ongoing secret liaison relationship between the New York tycoon’s campaign and the Russian leadership’.

Cohen tweeted a photograph of his passport and said he had never visited Prague.

According to reports, the former MI6 man had been hired to conduct ‘opposition research’ on the Trump campaign by first Republican enemies of Trump, then Democratic ones.

Russia denied the claims, with President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling journalists: ‘The Kremlin does not have compromising information on Trump.’

The Kremlin spokesman called the dossier a ‘total fake’ and ‘an obvious attempt to harm our bilateral relations’.

Earlier, the Kremlin had denied hacking the Democratic National Committee and leaking information to deliberately weaken Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Donald Trump’s transition team has repeatedly denied allegations that it had received any help from Moscow.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4108960/How-Trump-s-nemesis-John-McCain-kicked-Kremlin-memo-scandal-handing-dossier-FBI-sending-emissary-abroad-collect-it.html

01/11/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Obama Denied Strikes On Iran To Protect Secret Nuke Deal

Iranian-supplied rockets killed as many as 15 U.S. troops per month in Iraq in the summer of 2011, and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis had a plan to retaliate. The Obama administration denied his request.
Six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single such attack in early June of 2011, with another three killed just weeks later. Mattis, then the commander of U.S. Central Command, had had enough and decided the U.S. must strike back before the Iranian rockets caused further bloodshed. In conjunction with then Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey, Mattis proposed a strike inside Iranian territory, according to former senior U.S. officials speaking to the Washington Post.

The plan was to make it clear to the the Iranian government that providing rockets to its Shiite proxy insurgents inside Iraq was no longer going to be tolerated. Mattis suggested a nighttime strike against a power plant or oil refinery within Iranian territory.

The White House received the strike proposal and subsequently denied it. President Barack Obama was under the impression such a strike would infuriate the Iranians, possibly escalating the Iraqi occupation he was trying so desperately to end. Many White House staffers feared the plan risked starting a war with Iran, a country Obama wanted to seek a detente with.

“There were clearly White House staff who thought the recommendations he was making were too aggressive,” Leon Panetta, who was secretary of defense at the time, told the Post. “But I thought a lot of that was, frankly, not having the maturity to look at all of the options that a president should look at in order to make the right decisions.”

Iran was a primary backer of the Shiite insurgency in Iraq during the U.S. occupation. In addition to rockets, Iran supplied its proxies with deadly explosively formed penetrators — a version of an improvised explosive device designed specifically to tear through U.S. armored vehicles.

Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is believed to have supplied many of the weapons used by Iraqi insurgents. Some reports suggest the group’s leader, the infamous Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was responsible for more than 500 U.S. deaths in Iraq due to his support of the insurgents.

Obama had reason to deny the strike request, though Mattis probably did not know it. At the time, the Obama administration was secretly negotiating with Iran on its rapidly advancing nuclear weapons program. A direct strike on Iranian territory would likely scuttle the secret talks. Approximately 54 U.S. military personnel were killed in Iraq in 2011, while the secret talks Iran would eventually fall apart, regardless of the strike.

Trump Promises To ‘Repeal And Replace’ Obamacare Once HHS Secretary Is Confirmed

01/11/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Trump Called Her A Dummy- Judge Dismisses Defamation Lawsuit

NEW YORK — Donald Trump can’t be sued for defamation by a political strategist who said her reputation was trashed after then-candidate Trump called her a “dummy” on Twitter during last year’s presidential campaign, according to a judge’s decision made public Tuesday.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe ruled that though Mr.Trump’s tweets about public relations strategist and Republican consultant Cheryl Jacobus were “rife with vague and simplistic insults,” they were expressions of opinion protected by the First Amendment.

“Thus, although the intemperate tweets are clearly intended to belittle and demean plaintiff,” they wouldn’t prevent her from working as a consultant and political commentator, Jaffe wrote in a 20-page decision signed Monday.

Jacobus’ lawyer, Jay Butterman, vowed to appeal the decision, adding that the ruling had effectively given “now President-elect Donald Trump a free pass to trample on the free speech rights of any critic.”

Larry Rosen, Mr. Trump’s attorney, called Jaffe’s decision “well-reasoned.” A transition spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case has its roots in a February appearance Jacobus made on CNN, in which she said the Republican candidate’s presidential campaign had not been transparent about its financing.

Jacobus had previously had two meetings with then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski in the summer of 2015 about a possible job with the campaign. And though no job offer was ever made, both Mr. Trump and Lewandowski publicly attributed Jacobus’ criticisms to her lack of employment with the campaign.

Mr. Trump tweeted that Jacobus had “begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile,” calling her “a real dummy.” Days later he tweeted that she was a “major loser, zero credibility!”

Jacobus filed a $4 million lawsuit, saying Mr. Trump’s online attacks had cost her TV appearances and inspired bullying Twitter behavior from Trump supporters.

In her decision, Jaffe ruled that whether Jacobus “begged” Mr. Trump for a job, as he had tweeted, was subjective, rather than an objective fact.

Because it followed her own public criticisms of Mr. Trump, Jaffe ruled, the context of the exchange “signals to readers that plaintiff and Mr. Trump were engaged in a petty quarrel.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-cheryl-jacobus-tweet-judge-rules-woman-cant-sue-over-calling-her-a-dummy/

01/11/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Obama Blackballed at Golf Course for Being ‘Hostile to Israel’

The switching Sissy doing what he does best: making a total fool of himself.

President Obama’s clashes with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may cost him a membership at an exclusive golf club, sources said.

Obama is looking to join the elite Woodmont Country Club in Maryland once he becomes a private citizen.

But members of the mostly Jewish club are at each other’s throats over whether to accept the golf-loving president, with many saying he deserves to be snubbed for not blocking an anti-Israel vote at the United Nations, according to the sources.

Obama’s UN decision was Followed by a speech by Secretary of State John Kerry that was seen by many in the Jewish community as hostile to Israel.

“In light of the votes at the UN and the Kerry speech and everything else, there’s this major uproar with having him part of the club, and a significant portion of the club has opposed offering him membership,” a source told The Post.

Obama’s complimentary membership in the club — which charges regular members an $80,000 initiation fee — would have begun after he leaves the White House on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.

The Obamas will continue to live in Washington, DC — and the Rockville club would offer a relaxing respite just miles from his new home. It would also offer a chance for Obama to hit the links on “two premiere golf courses . . . known across the country for their spectacular championship play and . . . rave reviews by golfers throughout the years,” according to the club’s Web site.

“It’s a very exclusive, high-end club,” a source said.

In addition to the steep initiation fee, members must cough up $9,673 in annual dues.

“Originally, this was supposed to be a back-door thing to get this done and give him the membership — free of charge — and circumvent the rules,” said a source.

“But now, with the UN thing, they are not in position or likely to do it,” he added, saying the club is currently facing threats of potential lawsuits and litigation for breaching the bylaws to let Obama join.

Democrats and Republicans in the club both oppose waiving normal procedures for the soon-to-be ex-president, a source said.

While the club “probably skews more Republican than the Jewish community as a whole,” there are many prominent Democratic members, a number of whom supported Obama’s campaigns. But they might not support him now.

“Can you imagine how angry I would be if I had paid $80K to have to look at this guy who has done more to damage Israel than any president in American history?” an official in a Washington Jewish organization fumed to The Post.

“After the UN vote and attack on Israel, I think it probably hurts the club. If there is a club that excludes Jews, he would probably be more comfortable around those folks.”

Obama first played there in September 2015 with aide Joe Paulson, former Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides and John Shulman, head of the private equity firm Juggernaut Capital Partners.

Shulman and his wife, Alison, have donated thousands to the Obama Foundation, according to published reports. His daughter also reportedly attends the Sidwell Friends School, as do the Obamas’ daughters. He did not return calls seeking comment.

When rumors first began to spread in Washington that Obama might consider joining the club, the CEO and general manager, Brian Pizzimenti, welcomed him.

“We’d be honored to have the president at the club as a member,” Pizzimenti told the Jewish publication The Forward. “We’re glad to have offered [Obama] fun and relaxation.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

http://nypost.com/2017/01/10/obama-may-get-rejected-from-golf-club-over-israel-policies/

01/10/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Jeff Sessions Called a Racist Amid KKK Protesters at Confirmation Hearing

Dressed like Klan to protest Jeff Sessions. Asshats!

Hearings regarding incoming cabinet appointments commenced on Tuesday, with the questioning of Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions.

The duty of the U.S. attorney general is to uphold and enforce the laws of the nation — a role the NAACP and other civil rights groups argue the senator is not fit to assume.

As Republicans look to tout the senator’s extensive legal track record, Democrats aim to question Sessions’ history of racially insensitive comments, which are believed to have led to his 1986 rejection from a federal judgeship.

The 1986 nomination failure that occurred some three decades ago marks the senator’s last appearance before the Judiciary Committee. Sessions’ nomination failed, in part, due to allegations that he described the NAACP and other civil rights groups as “un-American” and alluded to a white lawyer’s being a disgrace to his race for representing African American clients.

In 1986, Sessions testified that he didn’t remember making these claims. On Tuesday, the senator denied owning these remarks, saying, “I never declared that the NAACP was ‘un-American’ or that a civil rights attorney was a ‘disgrace to his race.'”

He again pressed the matter later on Tuesday, saying allegations that he is in anyway sympathetic to groups like the Ku Klux Klan are “damnably false.”

Sessions has represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate since 1996, and responded to questions about his ability to transition from the legislative to executive branch, saying, “I don’t think I have any lack of ability to separate the roles that I’ve had.”

In regard to separating his political past from his role as attorney general, the senator stated on Tuesday that he would “recuse himself” from any prosecution that might emerge from investigations into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Sen. Chuck Grassley noted that current Attorney General Loretta Lynch had said she would “defer” to the FBI in regard to the Clinton Foundation email investigation, but never officially recused herself from the inquiry.

When asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal if he will also recuse himself from votes on other cabinet nominees while he is still serving in the Senate, Sessions said he will indeed recuse himself on the vote for his own confirmation but hasn’t decided on his plans for other nominees.

Leading up to and during Sessions’ opening remarks, audience members reacted audibly with chants, laughs and outbursts — after which they were removed from the hearing room.

When pressed on his past support for waterboarding as a military interrogation tactic, Sessions stood by the fact that there was once a determination that it was “proper,” but is now deemed “absolutely improper and illegal” by Congress.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened the committee hearing, saying the senator’s record “is a life of public service.”

The newest member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein also gave introductory remarks, in which she repeated her commitment to Sessions that the appointment approval process is going to be “fair and thorough.”

After introducing DREAMer Denisse Rojas as among those present in the audience, Sen. Feinstein recalled Sen. Sessions’ record in voting against the DREAM Act, which he called “a reckless proposal for mass amnesty.” Sessions also voted against attempts at immigration reform in 2006, 2007 and 2013.

In the wake of Trump’s focus throughout his presidential campaign on fixing American immigration policy and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and domestic security are expected to play a major roll in cabinet appointment hearings this week.

Sen. Susan Collins listed Sessions’ state-level record of working with civil rights voter fraud cases during his 12 years as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Alabama, a post the University of Alabama graduate assumed from 1981 to 1993. She noted the senator’s history of backing African Americans, saying, “These are not the actions of an individual who’s motivated by racial animus.”

A Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire asked Sessions to list the 10 most significant litigated matters that he personally handled, and four of those listed involved voting rights and desegregation of public schools in Alabama.

In a questionnaire supplement, the senator clarified that his role in these listed cases was to “provide support for the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, attorneys. I reviewed, supported and co-signed complaints, motions, and other pleadings and briefs that were filed during my tenure as U.S. attorney. I provided assistance and guidance to the Civil Rights Division attorneys, had an open-door policy with them, and cooperated with them on these cases.”

Sen. Feinstein described a national, post-election climate of alarm in her opening remarks, saying, “There is a deep fear about what a Trump Administration will bring in many places, and this is the context in which we should consider Sessions’ record to be the chief law enforcement in America.”

In Sen. Sessions’ opening statement the cabinet nominee said he an “abiding commitment to pursuing and achieving justice and a record of doing just that.”

Reports emerged from independent ethics lawyers on Tuesday that Sessions failed to disclose his ownership of oil interests on more than 600 acres of Alabama land. While the holdings are reported to produce a small revenue in the range of $4,700 annually, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and others have expressed concern over the omission.

http://www.aol.com/article/2017/01/10/amid-protest-jeff-sessions-kicks-off-donald-trump-cabinet-nominee-hearings/21651872/

01/10/2017 by The Doctor Of Common Sense

Obama Gives Iranian Terrorists Nukes and Billions in Gold

Thanks for the bombs, asshole. — “Thanks for the bombs, Asshole.”

The Obama administration has paid Iran more than $10 billion in gold, cash, and other assets since 2013, according to Iranian officials, who disclosed that the White House has been intentionally deflating the total amount paid to the Islamic Republic.

Senior Iranian officials late last week confirmed reports that the total amount of money paid to Iran over the past four years is in excess of $10 billion, a figure that runs counter to official estimates provided by the White House.

The latest disclosure by Iran, which comports with previous claims about the Obama administration obfuscating details about its cash transfers to Iran—including a $1.7 billion cash payment included in a ransom to free Americans—sheds further light on the White House’s back room dealings to bolster Iran’s economy and preserve the Iran nuclear agreement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi confirmed last week a recent report in the Wall Street Journal detailing some $10 billion in cash and assets provided to Iran since 2013, when the administration was engaging in sensitive diplomacy with Tehran aimed at securing the nuclear deal.

Ghasemi disclosed that the $10 billion figure just scratches the surface of the total amount given to Iran by the United States over the past several years.

“I will not speak about the precise amount,” Ghasemi was quoted as saying in Persian language reports independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.

The $10 billion figure is actually a “stingy” estimate, Ghasemi claimed, adding that a combination of cash, gold, and other assets was sent by Washington to Iran’s Central Bank and subsequently “spent.”

“This report is true but the value was higher,” Ghassemi was quoted as saying.

“After the Geneva conference and the resulting agreement, it was decided that $700 million dollars were to be dispensed per month” by the U.S., according to Ghassemi. “In addition to the cash funds which we received, we [also] received our deliveries in gold, bullion, and other things.”

Regional experts who spoke to the Free Beacon about these disclosures said that the $10 billion figure offered by the Obama administration should be viewed “as a conservative estimate for what Iran was paid to stay at the table and negotiate.”

“Iran does have incentives to overstate this figure,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Free Beacon. “But given the recent state-sponsored narrative in Iran about a Western and particularly American failing to offer sanctions relief, this reads much more as fact rather than another instance of disinformation from Tehran.”

It is likely Iran spent a portion of this money to fund its regional terror operations and military enterprise to bolster embattled Syrian President Bashar al Assad, Ben Taleblu said.

“Given the nature of some of this sanctions relief (through the provision of gold and unfrozen assets), this money likely underwrote some of the Islamic Republic’s more destabilizing regional activities,” he explained. “At the macro level, all of this continues to prove one larger point: The way the Iran deal was handled and the provision of sanctions relief during and after the talks that led to the nuclear accord continues to create problems for those interested in defending the integrity of the international financial system.”

One veteran foreign policy insider familiar with the administration’s outreach to Iran told the Free Beacon that the White House has a history of deflating these figures in order to obfuscate details about its contested diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.

“This is how it always happens when the Obama administration secretly sends money to Iran,” said the source, who would only speak on background when discussing the outgoing administration’s strategy. “They deny it until they’re caught, then they lowball it until they’re caught again, then they say it’s old news. In every single case where Iranian officials confirms these transfers while Obama officials denied them, it later turned out the Iranian officials were the ones telling the truth.”

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-u-s-surrendered-10-billion-gold-cash-assets/

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‘I did what any citizen should do’: Sworn Trump enemy John McCain admits HE handed smear dossier to FBI – because he had no idea if it was credible

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