Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks
Sean D. NaylorNational Security Correspondent August 18, 2020, 10:09 PM GMT+3
Russell Travers, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, testifies before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Threats to the Homeland on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. November 5, 2019. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)Travers, who was interviewed by Yahoo News before the the DHS analysis was issued, said in a subsequent phone call that he had not seen the document and was unaware of its existence.Despite Trump’s declared intent to designate the left-wing activist movement known as antifa as a domestic terror organization, the threat from right-wing groups dwarfs that of their left-wing counterparts in the United States, according to Travers.“There absolutely is a left-wing effort that has conducted violent activities,” he said, citing the “small numbers” of such offenses during recent protests in Portland, Ore., “but it is not even in the same ballpark as the extreme right wing.” However, any attempt to designate either type of group would be unlikely to survive a legal challenge, he added.Indeed, said Travers, the U.S. government likely underestimates the amount of white supremacist domestic terrorism in the United States. But that has not stopped Trump from frequently focusing his rhetorical ire on antifa, which is short for “antifascist.” It was after the start of nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed in Minneapolis police custody, that Trump announced on May 31 that he would declare antifa a terrorist organization. Attorney General William Barr issued a similar statement the same day: “The violence instigated and carried out by antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
Chris Kleponis/Polaris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nonetheless, Travers said the difference between the small number of violent left-wing activists and the larger threat posed by right-wing groups is so significant as to be a case of “night and day,” and was the main reason why, when it came to domestic terrorism, the counterterrorism center decided to focus exclusively on white supremacist groups.An experienced intelligence officer with 32 years of federal service, Travers was the center’s acting director for most of 2018 and again from August 2019 to March 2020, when he was fired by Trump’s then-acting intelligence chief Richard Grenell, as part of a purge of career officials holding leadership positions at the office of the director of national intelligence, to which the counterterrorism center belongs.Established in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to analyze all U.S. government intelligence related to terrorism, the center during its early years was overwhelmingly focused on threats from Islamist groups such as al-Qaida, according to Travers. Only when that threat began to subside did the center begin to pay serious attention to white supremacism and similar right-wing movements, a shift that coincided with Travers, who had been the center’s deputy director, taking charge in December 2017.Travers, who had been at the counterterrorism center since 2003, questioned his staff in early 2018 about what it thought the center should be focusing on. In response, the center’s dozen representatives posted to joint terrorism task forces or FBI field stations around the country reported that among the state and local law enforcement officials with whom they dealt, as well as among academic and private sector experts, there was “a thirst for NCTC to engage in more of the domestic terrorism side, and in particular on the right wing,” Travers said, adding that in its work the center always acts in support of the FBI, which has the lead role in countering terrorism in the U.S.
Members of far-right militias and white pride organizations rally in Stone Mountain, Ga., on Saturday. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images)“In the heartland, they were asking our reps more and more questions on the domestic terrorism side, rather than the Islamist side,” he said. At roughly the same time, Travers said, he was hearing from a wide range of sources, including members of Congress and the leaders of social media firms, “that the domestic terrorism problem — and primarily the right-wing side of the domestic terrorism problem — was a growing concern for people.However, a cursory analysis of the links between white supremacist groups in North America, Europe and Australia meant that even the phrase “domestic terrorism” was something of “a misnomer,” Travers said. “It was pretty clear to us that a lot of this right-wing thing was a bit of a global movement. All of my European partners had the very same concerns. … This was a different flavor of international terrorism.”There was at least one other area in which white supremacist terrorism and Islamic terrorism overlapped, according to Travers: their use of the internet and social media to attract and radicalize followers. “The right-wing thing looks a lot like the Islamist thing in terms of the information that’s out there and the ways in which people radicalize and mobilize to violence,” he said.White supremacist groups’ use of social media in particular presents challenges to social media companies, which can ban groups like the Islamic State more easily than they can homegrown threats, according to Travers. In addition, most right-wing terrorism is committed by “lone offenders,” and while those individuals might have been inspired by white supremacists’ online screeds, “invariably” that “hate speech” would be protected by the First Amendment, he said.Travers believes that “there probably is more domestic terrorism out there than we realize,” because in the absence of a domestic terrorism statute, local law enforcement officials tend to treat “any murder that occurs anywhere” as a simple crime. “But what is the motivation behind that crime?” he said. “Was it a white supremacist thing or not? That may not be cataloged or tracked, and in all likelihood it’s not.”Even the August 2019 attack at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in which Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man, used an AK-47-style rifle to kill 23 people, most of whom were Latinos, and wounded another 23, was not immediately classed by local officials as domestic terrorism, Travers said. “It took a few days before that one gravitated from crime to domestic terrorism,” he said. “It helped that Crusius put out a manifesto, basically talked about a Hispanic invasion.”
Yet the same lack of a domestic terrorism statute that prevents officials from designating some white supremacist attacks as terrorism is one reason why the Trump administration will have difficulty making its effort to designate antifa as a terrorist group stick in court, he said. A second reason is that antifa has neither an organizational structure nor a leader, making it similar to the right-wing “boogaloo” movement, according to Travers. “I don’t think it will pass constitutional muster,” he said of the administration’s intent to designate antifa, “and that would be true both for extreme right movements and extreme left movements.”
The U.S. counterterrorism community has become used to dealing with groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State that were hierarchical in nature, according to Travers. “But that just isn’t the case anymore, so we’ve got to get our heads around what is a movement and how do we deal with it,” he said. “And I’m pretty sure that’s going to befuddle those that want to go after both antifa and boogaloo.”
Indeed, despite its May 31 announcements, the Trump administration has made no public attempt to legally designate antifa a terrorist organization, a fact that does not surprise Travers. “I would be shocked if there is a designation of antifa that survives legal challenge,” he said. “I just don’t see how it happens.”
As acting head of the counterterrorism center, Travers decided that antifa and other left-wing movements or groups did not pose enough of a threat to show much concern about. “It didn’t have the kind of international connections that the right wing had … and I [didn’t] have the resources to do everything,” he said. “There’s no question that in years past, so the late ’60s and early ’70s, left-wing terrorism in the United States was a huge deal, but just not so anymore.”
As for right-wing domestic terrorism, Travers believes that the key to reducing the threat is to focus on preventing individuals from becoming violent actors. Just as it became clear that the United States was “never going to kill or arrest” its way to victory over Islamist terrorists, “we as a government need to be thinking a little bit broader than just arresting our way out of the domestic terrorism problem set. We don’t want to make the same kinds of mistakes on the right-wing side that we have made, I think, on the Islamist question.”
While acknowledging the challenges of trying to balance the need to reduce the threat of white-supremacist-inspired terrorism with the First Amendment requirement to permit people to express their “abhorrent but nevertheless constitutionally protected views,” Travers still finds reasons to be optimistic.
“All the Pew research data suggests that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of immigration, and the vast majority of the American public sort of believes that rights and freedoms should be respected for everybody,” he said. “So in my mind, at least, a lot of this, even the right-wing stuff, I think, is still best characterized as a fringe, but it’s a fringe that is pretty loud.”
Jana Winter contributed reporting.
Trump Attacked Obama’s DNC Speech Before It Was Even Over
Former President Barack Obama hadn’t even finished his speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention before President Donald Trump attacked him.
Obama offered his toughest criticism of Trump yet in the speech, arguing the current president “hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.”
“The consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone,” Obama said. “Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
In response, Trump ― in all caps ― revisited a criticism he often lobs at his predecessor:
He followed that claim, which he’s made many times despite there being no evidence anything like that occurred, with another all-caps tweet criticizing Biden.
Several reports published during the Democratic primary that cited sources close to Obama said he purposefully stayed out of the race. Biden told reporters in April he’d asked Obama not to endorse him in the race, saying “whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Trump and Miss Moscow: Report Examines Possible Compromises in Russia Trips
Two decades before he ran for president, Donald J. Trump traveled to Russia, where he scouted properties, was wined and dined and, of greatest significance to Senate intelligence investigators, met a woman who was a former Miss Moscow.
A Trump associate, Robert Curran, who was interviewed by the Senate investigators, said he believed Trump may have had a romantic relationship with the woman. On the same trip, another Trump associate, Leon D. Black, told investigators that he and Trump “might have been in a strip club together.” Another witness said that Trump may have been with other women in Moscow and later brought them along to a meeting with the mayor.
Trump was married to Marla Maples at the time.
Curran is an American photographer whose work hung in Trump’s SoHo hotel. Black is a founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
The allegations about Trump were included in the fifth and final volume of a bipartisan report released Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which presented potentially compromising information that the Russians may have on Trump and could use against him as leverage.
But at the same time, the committee cast some doubt on the significance of the allegations, saying investigators “did not establish” that the Russian government actually had compromising information on Trump. The report also said there was no evidence the Russians had sought to blackmail Trump or others working for his 2016 presidential campaign.
The report justified the inclusion of the salacious details about the president as necessary to understand the threat of a possible foreign influence operation or whether misinformation was spreading that could harm the American political process. The details were in a section of the report about the Russian art of “kompromat,” or disseminating damaging information to discredit a rival or an enemy, which can pose a national security threat by targeting American officials.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview that he wanted to let the section about whether Trump was potentially compromised by the Russians speak for itself.
“On that subject, I would simply say Americans should read the report and make their own conclusions,” Warner said.
The White House denounced the report Tuesday. “After a special counsel, numerous other committee investigations and four prior reports from this committee, the Senate intelligence report affirms what we have known for years. There was absolutely no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman. Deere called the report part of “a never-ending, baseless conspiracy theory peddled by radical liberals and their partners in the media.’’
There are long-standing questions about the president’s affinity for Russia, which intervened in the 2016 campaign to help Trump, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, a special counsel investigation and the current Senate Intelligence Committee report. Trump has called it all a hoax, publicly accepted President Vladimir Putin’s word that Russia did not interfere and pushed policies helpful to Putin and his government.
This month, Trump rejected warnings from the U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia is trying to help him win reelection in 2020.
“Collectively, the allegations raised a potential counterintelligence concern, that Russia might use compromising information to influence the then-presidential candidate’s positions on relations with Russia,” the report said. “The committee sought, in a limited way, to understand the Russian government’s alleged collection of such information, not only because of the threat of a potential foreign influence operation, but also to explore the possibility of a misinformation operation targeting the integrity of the U.S. political process.”
The report released Tuesday provided one of the most detailed official accounts of Trump’s time in Russia. More than dozens of pages in the nearly 1,000-page document, the report said that a Marriott executive told committee investigators that after Trump traveled to Russia in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant the executive overheard two colleagues who worked at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow discussing video footage that they said showed Trump with women in an elevator at the hotel.
Similar accusations have arisen before. A dossier of largely unverified information compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, about Trump’s ties to Russia claimed that during Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow there was video of him with prostitutes in his Ritz-Carlton hotel room. A person Steele relied on for that information later told the FBI that the allegation was just a rumor he was passing along.
The Ritz-Carlton, the Senate report said, is a “high counterintelligence risk environment” that has “at least one permanent Russian intelligence officer on staff, government surveillance of guests’ rooms and the regular presence of a large number of prostitutes, likely with at least the tacit approval of Russian authorities.”
The Marriott executive told the committee that one of the colleagues he overheard discussing the footage from the Ritz-Carlton said the video showed Trump “with several women” in the elevator, whom the colleague “implied to be ‘hostesses.’”
The executive said that the colleagues were discussing how to deal with the recording. But as they went back and forth about the matter, they moved to a more private place where it was more difficult to hear the conversation.
The committee interviewed the two colleagues who said they did not recall seeing the recording.
“The committee was not able to resolve these discrepancies,” the report said.
The report also said that a Trump associate, David Geovanis, an American businessman based in Russia who was in Moscow for the 1996 visit, continued to discuss Trump’s relationship with the former Miss Moscow after the president’s inauguration in 2017. According to the committee report, Curran, the photographer and a friend of Geovanis, told Senate investigators that he had asked Geovanis, “What exactly happened … did they hook up, or whatever?’’
Geovanis responded, Curran told the investigators, with “Yeah, well, I saw them again the next day and they were together, so.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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Live: Democratic National Convention to feature Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Kamala Harris on night 3
Night three of the 2020 Democratic National Convention is underway, with a packed schedule that includes speeches from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 2016 Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate.
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Tonight’s lineup:
Here in the list of speakers and performers for DNC night three, in the order they are scheduled to appear:
• Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers
• Kerry Washington
• Activist and Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez
• Gabrielle Giffords
• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham
• Billie Eilish
• Prince Royce
• Hillary Clinton
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
• Mariska Hargitay
• Ruth Glenn
• Carly Dryden
• Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
• Former President Barack Obama
• Democratic Nominee for Vice President Kamala Harris
•Jennifer Hudson
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Barack Obama: Trump using presidency as ‘one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves’
Former President Barack Obama made the case for his friend and former vice president, Joe Biden, saying Biden’s „got the character and the experience to make us a better country.”
Obama also didn’t hold back in his criticism of President Trump, making the unprecedented move of slamming a sitting president by saying, „For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends.”
„I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies,” Obama said. „I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”
Former President Barack Obama speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Elizabeth Warren touts Joe Biden’s ‘really good plans’
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made her case for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during her Wednesday night Democratic National Convention speech.
“I love a good plan, and Joe Biden has some really good plans—plans to bring back union jobs in manufacturing and create new union jobs in clean energy. Plans to increase Social Security benefits, cancel billions in student loan debt, and make our bankruptcy laws work for families instead of the creditors who cheat them,” said Warren. Read more.
(Democratic National Convention via AP)
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Elizabeth Warren: COVID-19 crisis ‘on Donald Trump and the Republicans who enabled him’
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on night 3 of the DNC.
„COVID-19 was Trump’s biggest test. He failed miserably,” Warren said.
„This crisis is bad, and it didn’t have to be that way,” Warren continued. „This crisis is on Donald Trump and the Republicans who enabled him. On November 3, we will hold them all accountable.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Nancy Pelosi calls out McConnell on day 3 of DNC
While speaking on night 3 of the DNC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of obstructing legislation, and derided them for threatening the Affording Care Act.
„Who was standing in the way? Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Instead of crushing the virus, they’re trying to crush the Affordable Care Act and its preexisting conditions benefits.”
Nancy Pelosi speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Billie Eilish performs new song at DNC
Eighteen-year-old singer-songwriter Billie Eilish performed a new song on day three of the DNC entitled „my future.” It was the first time she had performed the song in public. Eilish prefaced her performance by urging Americans to vote „against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden.”
„We all have to vote like our lives and the world depend on it,” Eilish said. „Because they do.”
Billie during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Shooting survivor Gabrielle Giffords urges Americans to ‘speak out’
Shooting survivor and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., gave an emotional speech against gun violence and urged Americans to „speak out.”
„I put one foot in front of the other. I found one word and then another. My recovery is a daily fight, but fighting makes you stronger,” Giffords said.
„I have not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words. We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue, or we can act.”
Gabby Giffords speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Kerry Washington moderates day 3 of DNC
Actress Kerry Washington moderates the third night of the Democratic National Convention.
„This is going to be an unforgettable night filled with important voices,” Washington said during her opening remarks. „But the most important voice we hope to hear from tonight is the one we need to hear from most. It’s yours.”
Kerry Washington speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
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Kamala Harris kicks off day 3 of DNC
California Sen. Kamala Harris kicked off day 3 of the Democratic National Convention with welcoming remarks. She is slated to deliver a speech later in the evening after accepting the party’s nomination for vice president, making history as the first Black woman and first woman of Indian descent on a major party presidential ticket.
Kamala Harris speaks during the virtual Democratic National Convention on August 19, 2020. (via Reuters TV)
PoliticsCould the fight over mail-in voting decide the election?
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.Postmaster general says he’ll pause cutbacks that threatened voting, but slowdowns may continue
What’s happening
The U.S. Postal Service, normally among the most universally beloved of federal services, has been mired in controversy amid accusations that President Trump and his allies are attempting to stifle mail-in voting for political advantage.
Trump has repeatedly railed against mail-in ballots in recent months, making false claims that they are more vulnerable to fraud than in-person votes and threatening to block emergency spending to support the Postal Service. His campaign has also sued to try to block some states from expanding access to mail-in voting. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to lead to a record number of mail-in votes this election cycle.
The issue rose to the center of public attention following recent reports that new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor and Trump ally, had made a series of operational changes that threatened the agency’s ability to deliver mail-in ballots on time to be counted.
Since DeJoy took over in June, the Postal Service has drastically reduced overtime for letter carriers, banned extra trips to ensure on-time delivery, decommissioned hundreds of high-volume mail-sorting machines and removed mailboxes from streets in cities across the country. DeJoy has said these moves are part of a necessary restructuring to shore up the agency’s struggling budget. On Tuesday he said cost-cutting efforts would be suspended until after the election. The announcement was met with skepticism from Democrats, who had previously accused him of trying to “kneecap” the Postal Service.
Whether the motives are benign or nefarious, the changes have led to reports of significant delays in mail delivery that may carry over to the election. The Postal Service recently informed 46 states that it cannot guarantee all ballots will be delivered in time to be tallied.
Why there’s debate
Conservatives have pushed back on claims that the changes to Postal Service operations are deliberate sabotage, but Trump has left little doubt that he wants to limit the number of mail-in votes cast in the election. There’s no evidence to support assertions that mailed ballots lead to fraud, but experts predict that the mail-in vote will skew strongly in favor of Joe Biden. A much larger share of Democrats than Republicans say they plan to vote by mail, in part because of Trump’s politicization of the issue, polling suggests.
The president’s critics say this partisan imbalance creates incentive for him to interfere with mail-in ballots to limit votes for Biden or create enough confusion to throw the result into question. Many experts, based on current polls, expect in-person GOP voters to give Trump a lead on election night, but the race may tip in Biden’s favor over the following days or weeks as mail-in ballots are tallied. Democrats have posited a scenario where Trump calls foul as his lead disappears and his GOP allies in state legislatures and federal courts help enshrine a fraudulent reelection victory.
Some argue that Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting show just how dire his chances are, given Biden’s current lead in the polls. Others point to a number of steps that state lawmakers and individual voters can take to reduce the role of the Postal Service in delivering mail-in ballots, such as legal challenges and drop-off ballot boxes — a resource Trump took aim at on Monday.
DeJoy’s announcement that cost-cutting measures would be suspended has shown that the public will not tolerate meddling with a venerated institution like the Postal Service, some argue.
Others say Trump’s efforts may backfire by making it politically untenable for Republican lawmakers to stand in the way of extra funding for the post office and giving Biden supporters more determination to ensure their votes are counted. Polls show a majority of the public opposes the president’s intention to block extra funds for the post office, showing the issue may tip some undecided voters into Biden’s camp.
What’s next
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called representatives back from vacation to vote on legislation to block changes to Postal Service procedures. Any bill they pass likely has a slim chance of being approved by the Republican-led Senate and signed by Trump. DeJoy is set to testify before the Senate on Friday and the House next week.
Perspectives
Mail delays could mean millions of votes for Biden go uncounted
“Trump’s efforts to undermine the Postal Service, so Americans can’t reliably or effectively vote by mail, are working. They could very well be sufficient to steal an election, especially since Biden’s healthy national lead in the polls is much tighter in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.” — Amanda Marcotte, Salon
Being viewed as sabotaging the Postal Service is a huge political mistake
“Democrats call it voter suppression; we can all agree to call it disturbing. For Republicans trying to stave off a Democratic takeover of the Senate and the White House, owning this outrage is mind-bogglingly dumb.” — A.B. Stoddard, RealClearPolitics
Trump may try to capitalize on confusion caused by delayed vote tallies
“If you had a situation where Republicans are up and Democrats take the lead based on mail ballots, even if that’s a totally normal situation, Trump is absolutely going to try to weaponize that, and claim it’s evidence of some sort of voter fraud or rigged election.” — Voting rights researcher Ari Berman to Vox
The public will be more motivated to vote
“Critically, they have been so blatant and transparent that voter suppression has itself become more of an issue than ever before. The fact that Trump is trying so hard to keep people from voting will only boost the determination of Americans who despise him to get out and vote.” — Paul Waldman, Washington Post
Democrats may not be able to thwart efforts to slow the mail
“Democrats need to accomplish two separate and equally important tasks in order to succeed. First, they need to win more funding for the Postal Service to guarantee it has enough manpower to handle the election. Second, they have to ensure that the administration actually uses the money to restore delivery back to normal. Left to his own devices, it seems unlikely that Donald Trump would cooperate.” — Jordan Weissmann, Slate
Local Republican officials could stifle efforts to overcome mail delays
“Lawmakers should try to increase dropbox locations and speed up counting — reducing Trump’s ability to demagogue the early results — but GOP obstruction might make that impossible.” — Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer
Democrats are stoking a fake conspiracy about mail-in votes
“Conveniently they forget to mention the president is more than an arms-length away from how we vote, and the Postal Service is not under the thumb of his control.” — Jason Chaffetz, Fox News
Postal workers will put in extra work to make sure the election is legitimate
“What will likely have a bigger impact on the election is the avowed determination of the 300,000 letter carriers themselves to deliver the ballots this year no matter what DeJoy and his boss Trump do. … The message is that nobody is going to steal this election if they can help it, that falsehoods and sabotage are not going to stop letter carriers from doing their sworn duty and thereby enabling people to exercise their right to vote even in a pandemic.” — Michael Daly, Daily Beast
States could make mail delays irrelevant with simple rule changes
“States should adopt a postmark rule, whereby every ballot postmarked on or before November 3 is included in the tally. If the question isn’t whether ballots are received by November 3 but instead whether they’re sent by that date, a deliberately tardy Postal Service no longer poses the same threat.” — Laurence H. Tribe, Jennifer Taub and Joshua A. Geltzer, Atlantic
It may take an unprecedented protest movement to ensure the election is legitimate
“Getting Democrats to use the full extent of their power will not be easy. It will take a mass movement on a scale we have not yet seen, and the mobilization will need to be sustained for weeks and possibly months. Intense pressure from millions of people — that rivals the intensity of the Trump base — will be needed to stiffen the spines of national and state Democratic leaders.” — Frances Fox Piven and Deepak Bhargava, Intercept
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Trump weighs F-35 jet sales to UAE despite objections by Israel
Trump weighs F-35 jet sales to UAE despite objections by Israel President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. is considering selling advanced American F-35 warplanes to the United Arab Emirates over the objections of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump told reporters at a White House news conference that the Emiratis had expressed interest in buying “quite a few” of the stealth fighter jets. He said such a sale was “under review” given the new dynamic between Israel and the UAE since the two nations agreed to normalize relations last week. Perhaps just as important, Trump said, is that the UAE can afford to buy the planes.
“They have the money and they would like to order quite a few F-35s,” Trump said. “It’s the greatest fighter jet in the world, as you know, by stealth, totally stealth.”
“They’d like to buy F-35s, we’ll see what happens,” Trump added. “It’s under review, but they made a great advance in peace in the Middle East.”
Netanyahu said Tuesday he would oppose the sale despite the historic UAE deal after an Israeli newspaper reported that the normalization accord that Trump brokered included language to supply the Arab Gulf nation with advanced U.S. weapons systems.
The Yediot Ahronot daily, citing American and Emirati sources, reported that Israeli acquiescence to the sales had clinched the deal for the Emiratis. Further, it reported that Netanyahu had made the deal behind the back of the Israeli defense establishment and kept Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, both former military chiefs, in the dark about it.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister has opposed the sale of F-35s and other advanced weapons to any country in the Middle East, including Arab countries that have peace agreements with Israel.
Maintaining Israel’s regional military supremacy has been a hallmark of Israeli policy for decades, and Israel has used its close ties with Washington to ensure that certain sophisticated weapons are not sold to neighboring countries. The UAE has long been reported to be interested in acquiring U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighter jets and attack drones like those the Israelis have.
Netanyahu said Gantz had been updated on his opposition to F-35 sales just weeks ago. But as part of his various corruption scandals, Netanyahu has been accused by critics of bypassing Israel’s defense establishment in regards to a German sale of advanced submarines to Egypt.
In security-obsessed Israel, confirmation that military-related strings are attached to the deal could temper some of the excitement that has widely surrounded it thus far.
Gantz seemed to question Netanyahu’s denial in a televised statement, saying he was only informed of last week’s blockbuster accord after the fact. Gantz, who also serves as the alternative prime minister and is Netanyahu’s chief coalition partner, is supposed to replace Netanyahu as premier next year. Gantz vowed to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge at any price.
The Air Force Recovered a Live French Missile in Florida
Photo credit: MacDill Air Force Base - A commercial airport discovered a French-made missile.
- Authorities called in the U.S. Air Force and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which transported it to a nearby air force base for safekeeping.
- The missile was described as “live,” but authorities are unsure if it has a real explosive warhead. Indications on the casing, however, say it does.
A Florida airport called in the U.S. Air Force last week after discovering a live air-to-air missile. Officials at Lakeland Linder International Airport found the Matra 530 missile in a shipment to a defense contractor that uses the airport to house its fleet of fighter jets. The weapon was transferred to MacDill Air Force Base for disposal.
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Authorities found the live missile in a shipment to Draken International, which specializes in providing pilots and fighter jets to fly against U.S. military pilots and air defense systems in realistic, real-world training. Draken has a fleet of 150 older jets retired from military services around the world, including the U.S., Czech Republic, South Africa, and France.
Photo credit: MacDill Air Force Base The Matra Super 530 is an older, obsolete radar-guided missile. Draken flies the French-made Mirage F1M multi-role fighter, which was equipped with the Matra Super 530 during its military service. It’s possible a live 530 was accidentally slipped into a shipment of parts purchased by Draken. Judging from the visible markings, it’s not immediately clear there’s a live missile inside, although a trained weapons handler might guess as much.
According to Military Times, explosive ordnance disposal techs from the 6th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal at MacDill Air Force Base retrieved the missile. The techs then secured the missile to the back of a flatbed truck and took it to their base for destruction.
“It was live, but unarmed,” an Air Force public affairs officer told the Military Times. The missile was “like having a gun with a bullet in chamber, but on safety,” that official elaborated. „Someone would have to arm the missile to fire it.”
This is the second time in two years the military confiscated a wayward Super Matra 530 from civilians. In 2019, Italian police seized another missile from a criminal gang. In an article covering that seizure, The Aviationist wrote a red band on the protective canister is a universal symbol, meaning there’s an explosive warhead on the missile inside, while a yellow band indicates a real rocket motor.
Like the Italian missile canister, the Florida canister clearly is painted with both red and yellow bands.
