Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

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Lord Jim
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Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Lord Jim »

Yes indeed, Trump and Co. can in fact, go even lower:
To ease Turkish pressure on Saudis over killing, White House weighs expelling Erdogan foe

"Once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious," a U.S. official said of request tied to Khashoggi killing.

WASHINGTON — The White House is looking for ways to remove an enemy of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. in order to placate Turkey over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to two senior U.S. officials and two other people briefed on the requests.

Trump administration officials last month asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen in an attempt to persuade Erdogan to ease pressure on the Saudi government, the four sources said.

The effort includes directives to the Justice Department and FBI that officials reopen Turkey's case for his extradition, as well as a request to the Homeland Security Department for information about his legal status, the four people said.

They said the White House specifically wanted details about Gulen's residency status in the U.S. Gulen has a Green Card, according to two people familiar with the matter. He has been living in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.

Career officials at the agencies pushed back on the White House requests, the U.S. officials and people briefed on the requests said.

"At first there were eye rolls, but once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious," said a senior U.S. official involved in the process.

The Justice Department did not initially respond to a request for comment. But after the story was published Thursday, a spokesperson said the Justice Department continues to work with Turkey on Gulen's case, would review any materials Ankara provides and "make any decisions about extradition on the basis of the facts and relevant U.S. law."

On Friday, the spokesperson added: "The Justice Department has not been involved in nor aware of any discussions relating the extradition of Fethullah Gulen to the death of Jamal Khashoggi."

The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer representing Gulen declined to comment. The FBI also declined to comment.

A Turkish official said the government does not link its concerns about the Khashoggi murder with Gulen's extradition case.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... ey-n933996

So let me see if I've got this straight...

In order to help to end the pressure to get to the bottom of the brutal torture and murder of one US permanent resident by an authoritarian despot (something that a legitimate, rule of law respecting American government would be leading the charge to accomplish; not trying to thwart) the rogue Trump regime wanted to sacrifice another US permanent resident to the hands of a second authoritarian despot (where he could also be brutally tortured and murdered)...

Is that about right? :loon :evil:

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ETA:

This is an excellent case in point for why it is critically important that we have a vibrant, relentless free and independent press up this regime's ass 24/7, 365...

Were it not for that, if every news organization was "reporting" like Fox and Friends, instances of these sorts of disgraceful, shameful, disgusting anti-American plots being hatched by Trump and his henchmen would go unreported, and quite likely be carried out...

As it is now, with all the light that has been shined on this, at least in this case their hand has probably been stayed...(In fact I see that they're even denying that they were ever considering this, which is usually a good sign that they've given up on it...at least for now...)
Last edited by Lord Jim on Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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RayThom
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Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by RayThom »

I will assume that Lord Dampnut will have his own particular spin on this, too.
The CIA has concluded with "high confidence" that the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Washington Post reports... "
CIA report: Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi killing
https://www.axios.com/cia-report-mohamm ... 39910.html
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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Lord Jim »

Il Boobce hasn't given up on the 400 pound guy from New Jersey theory:
Trump calls CIA assessment of Khashoggi murder premature but possible

President Donald Trump on Saturday called a CIA assessment blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi "very premature" and said he will receive a complete report on the case on Tuesday.

Trump, on a trip to California, said the killing "should never have happened." The report on Tuesday will explain who the U.S. government believes killed Khashoggi and what the overall impact of his murder is, Trump said. It was unclear who is producing the report.[Probably the Saudis...]
More:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/18/trump-c ... sible.html
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Guinevere
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Guinevere »

Get your vomit bags ready for this one — I cannot think of a more horrendous, repulsive, un-American statement from the White House, in modern times. And no, this is not an invitation to hold a beer....(I can’t bring myself to copy the text, link below and discussed in the article after)

White House statement

NYTimes article
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Lord Jim »

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Guinevere
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Guinevere »

Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Sue U
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Sue U »

In an administration marked by a jaw-dropping succession of new moral lows, the Statement on Standing With Saudi Arabia is the most shameful abandonment of American values and principles I have ever seen. I'm sure I don't need to go line by line into the disgusting details of how utterly wrong and disgraceful this is on so many many levels -- not just in naming the monetary price for selling out justice and basic human decency, but in its ill-informed, grotesque and profoundly stupid articulation of this president's foreign "policy." It is nothing less than revolting. I hope the new Congress does not forget about this.
GAH!

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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Lord Jim »

the Statement on Standing With Saudi Arabia is the most shameful abandonment of American values and principles I have ever seen. I'm sure I don't need to go line by line into the disgusting details of how utterly wrong and disgraceful this is on so many many levels -- not just in naming the monetary price for selling out justice and basic human decency, but in its ill-informed, grotesque and profoundly stupid articulation of this president's foreign "policy." It is revolting.
And it's obvious from the crude, jumbled, and illiterate way it's written (and the overflowing abundance of blatant lies) that El Disgusto wrote it himself...

What we see in this vile un-American screed is the Trump Doctrine expressed in its "purest" form...

The good news is that judging from the reaction from both sides of the aisle, it will probably serve as the final push to get meaningful sanctions passed by veto-proof margins in both houses, (Just as his servile statements about Russia and Putin provided the impetus for the passage of strong sanctions in that instance. Then the challenge becomes to stay on this feckless regime to make sure they actually follow the law and impose and enforce the actions.)

The main thing the new Congress will probably be needing to investigate in regards to this are the motives behind this completely indefensible policy position, and whether evidence can be developed that financial interests (personal or familial; past, present or future) played a role...

Commonsense applied to even a cursory knowledge of how Trump operates and what motivates him tells you that must be the case, but one of the nice things about subpoena empowered investigations is that you can develop the proof in public hearings for public consumption...

(When you're conducting an investigation that's actually intended to find out things rather than conducting one designed to make sure things are not found out...)
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Big RR
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Big RR »

This isn't the first, and it won't be the last time we (the US) turn a blind eye to the vicious thuggery of a an ally because it is judged to be in our national interest (often just the interest of US businesses doing business with the regimes), but it is the first time I can recall every seeing such an idiotic attempt by a president (or pretender of a president) to justify it. We joined with Stalin to defeat the Nazis, but I never recall any statements of FDR trying to justify Stalin's conduct. I am sure there are/were other who defend(ed) our brutal allies, but for a president (even one as bogus as Trump) to make such idiotic statements demeans us greatly as a nation.

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RayThom
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Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by RayThom »

Emoluments... what emoluments?



If Congress doesn't get their ass in gear over this latest presidential "fuck you" to the nation then I feel we're doomed as a democracy.

This cannot stand.
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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Lord Jim »

The anti-Trump left-wing fake news failing Wall Street Journal offers a spot-on summary:
The bloody realities of the Middle East and the clear threat from Iran, which Mr. Trump described in his statement, give any U.S. President some latitude in forging a policy toward the region that reflects America’s interests.

But we are aware of no President, not even such ruthless pragmatists as Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson, who would have written a public statement like this without so much as a grace note about America’s abiding values and principles. Ronald Reagan especially pursued a hard-line, often controversial, foreign policy against Soviet Communism, but he did so with a balance of unblinkered realism and American idealism. Mr. Trump seems incapable of such balance.
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by Econoline »

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People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
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rubato
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Re: Just In Case You Had Some Doubt...

Post by rubato »

Impeach. Convict. Or admit that you (the Republicans in congress and the senate) are wholly corrupt and completely cynical. The GOP are the most evil and corrupt organization outside of the Vatican.

I would never have imagined that any American president would ever be as morally bereft as this.


yrs,
rubato

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