Thursday 25 October
Photo: Mexican Railroad 1900
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Sebastian Gorka, Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
Hour One
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Sebastian Gorka, Why We Fight, and Fox; in re: In the “caravan,” there are 14,000US border; ICE cannot process that many all at once; need at least a temporary back-up to border agents, in this case, the 800 military members whom Secretary Mattis will send. A direct threat to US natl security.
Guatemalan president has found 100 ISIS members and deported them
Sara Carter went there, found that South Asians, Bangladeshis, and others have inveigled themselves into the Honduras-to-US caravan.
Estimates are that the caravan population is 70% males of military age. One cable TV station found one pregnant woman. What is the intent, or the status, of these individuals? Some have agreed cheerfully that they're travelling to get jobs and send home money.
Bombs packages sent to eleven people; explosive to a limited extent–there were a timer and some sort of explosive; sent oddly by USPS. None has detonated; several had no capacity to explode. One military veteran said, “They look more like Hollywood props”
INF treaty: US plans to withdraw in six months because only one side has honored it, Russia has not. Also, China is not a member; Trump Adm needs to tidy up problems left by G Bush. GW Bush, Clinton, Obama, Administrations.
Of the two foes, Russia and China, China is by far the or threatening. John Bolton and the Joint Chiefs are working hard to be sure that this is understood.
What entity raided the OPM, continues to throw cyber spies at us, brutalizes its own people, practices genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang? Xi Jinping and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Sebastian Gorka, Why We Fight, and Fox; in re: The caravans seem profoundly to have changed the fate of the GOP in the Senate.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: The white powder associated with the explosives is thought to be not dangerous. One of the couriers seems to have been identified. . . . Had we a wall now, that’d deter people from coming in by 1,500-mile march. Looks as though 60% or 70% are young men. . . . Now there’s a second caravan marching toward the US border. And explosives delivered to celebrity Democrats. Do these look theatrical to you? Perhaps associated with the midterms? I think everyone has become pretty cynical about this. “Tough speech reifies aggressive actions like these” – not really. We don’t know what the rules are; and it's not symmetrical. If speech leads to violent acts – Madonna wanted to assassinate President Trump – maybe they should be on a no-fly list for 90 days.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Cori Petersen , Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, in re: Presidential rally at Mosinee, Wisconsin, at the airport. Enthusiastic attendees. It was a lot of fund. He began explaining that he was responsible for the safety of the American people during a time of bomb threats; then he left the scrip. At some point, the crowd began to to chant, “lock her up.” A way of demonstrating that the president hasn't changed in two years; paper headlines wouldn't lead with news of the cheer, rather of chants of “lock her up”—for clicks.
American flags everywhere.
Trump made a joke about Walker, which the crowd didn't quite get. Foxconn: to bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin? Governor spoke of it; Pres Trump took a little credit. Crowd said: not just Foxconn, but using resources from all over the state in construction of the new headquarters. You can't get Pres Trump off the stage; he loves being with people who are happy.
Hour Two
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block A: Olli Heinonen, in re: Parchin. November 4 is the day on which sancti0ns against Iran are visited; also, the suspect nuclear weapons program. The whole point of the sanctions is to deter the Iranian nuclear weapons program. . . .
● https://www.thefdd.org/analysis/2018/10/23/new-information-about-the-parchin-site/
● https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1054786027091415040.html
● https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1MC173
● https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/385591-the-details-reveal-the-true-danger-of-irans-secret-nuclear-program
● http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/new-information-about-the-parchin-site
Dr. Olli Heinonen is a senior advisor on science and nonproliferation at FDD. He is the former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and head of its Department of Safeguards. Olli is also a member of the non-partisan Iran Task Force.
Olli is currently a senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block B: Kate Bauer, in re: Iran sanctions. SWIFT: financial messaging service, like an email that carries a msg from one bank to another; predominant mode. The provision of msgs to Iran will be sanctionable activities after November 4. There are other ways to do this; when the sanctions relief was put in place; , when the sanctions were lifted, a lot of banks were wary of re-opening relations. SWIFT is not a silver bullet. The Special-Purpose Vehicle that the Europeans are going to use from November 5 onward.
The terrifying and tracking program?? – info from SWIFT to search terrorist activity.
● https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/trumps-new-iran-sanctions-face-snag-with-global-financial-system/
● https://www.thefdd.org/analysis/2018/10/10/swift-sanctions-frequently-asked-questions/
● https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-us-treasury-undersecretary-sanctions-will-hit-iran-hard-1001257324
● https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear-bolton/trump-adviser-tells-putin-well-quit-arms-control-treaty-youre-breaking-idUSKCN1MX1LO?il=0
● https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/as-us-sanctions-loom-china-s-bank-of-kunlun-to-stop-receiving-10856554
● https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm524
● https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/iran-oil-sanctions-1.4868531
● https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Avoiding-detection-The-team-tracking-Irans-attempt-to-cloak-its-oil-exports-570236
Katherine Bauer is the Blumenstein-Katz Family Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Treasury official who served as the department's financial attaché in Jerusalem and the Gulf. She is also an adjunct associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service. Before leaving Treasury in late 2015, she served several months as senior policy advisor for Iran in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC).
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Congressman Eliot Engel, in re: US-Israeli relations; Iran, Saudi.
· https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/18/if-trump-helps-cover-up-khashoggis-murder-that-will-also-come-out/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.70c0bc21bcad
· https://engel.house.gov/latest-news/engel-statement-on-iran-deal-withdrawal/
· https://engel.house.gov/latest-news/engel-statement-on-yemen-resolution/
· https://engel.house.gov/latest-news/engel-statement-on-us-embassy-in-jerusalem/
Congressman Engel is the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee including the Subcommittee on Health, and the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. He is the founder and Co-Chair of the House Oil and National Security Caucus, which is seeking clean, energy efficient alternatives to America's over-reliance on oil. He also sits on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the Bipartisan Task Force for Combatting Anti-Semitism, the HIV/AIDS Caucus, the Long Island Sound Caucus, and the Animal Protection Caucus, among others.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Emmanuele Ottolenghi, FDD, in re: Latin America: where does Hezbollah get its money? Has been active in Latin America for four decades; got Shi’a Lebanese expat communities in LA and Africa and Far East to remain loyal to the cause, and leverage the communities to engage at least in fundraising, and often in illicit financial activities that raise funds for the organization In Latin America, the most profitable is trafficking in cocaine. Cartels need allies to transport sell, and repatriate the money, which is what Hezbollah does all over the globe. Also money-laundering schemes, for which Hezbollah gets hefty commissions. Of the $1 billion per annum budget of Hezbollah, 30% comes from these illicit activities. It thus is an ally and significant contributor to organized crime that’s eating societies, corrupting governments in Latin America, and pushing crime up to our border. Project Cassandra.
· https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/366179-to-get-tough-on-hezbollah-and-fix-obamas-mistake-revive-project
· https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/411703-department-of-justice-right-to-go-after-hezbollah
· https://dialogo-americas.com/en/articles/tri-border-governments-take-measures-against-criminal-organization-linked-hezbollah
· https://thehill.com/opinion/international/409820-washingtons-silent-war-against-hezbollah-in-latin-america
Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior Fellow at FDD and an expert at FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF), focussed on Hezbollah’s Latin American illicit threat networks and Iran’s history of sanctions evasion. His research has examined Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Hour Three
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Mohsen Sazegara, in re: Iran
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1391406http://www.arabnews.com/node/1391406
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181025-official-irans-economic-crisis-forced-70-of-factories-to-close/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-moves-to-shelter-millions-as-u-s-sanctions-bite-1540459800
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-hesitates-over-scope-of-finance-sanctions-on-iran-1540483196
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-iraq/iraq-will-prioritise-own-interests-regarding-iran-sanctions-new-pm-idUSKCN1MZ299
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/iran-won-face-iraq-181018101229959.html
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-revolutionary-guards-claims-killed-mastermind-behind-ahvaz-military-parade-attack-abu-zaha/29547822.html
Mohsen Sazegara is an Iranian journalist and pro-democracy political activist. Dr. Sazegara held several high-ranking positions in the Government of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, such as deputy prime minister, minister of industry, deputy chairman of the budget and planning department, and many more before becoming disillusioned with the government in 1989 and pushing for reforms. He applied to become a candidate for President of Iran in the 2001 election but was declined.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Israel. China –some of its ships won't carry Iranian oil. Bank of Kunmun has stopped US currency transactions. Sanctions affecting much commerce. Treasury has 700 persons tacking; increasingly turning the noose. Eruption between Jordan and Israel on the peace deal.
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block C: Hikmet Hajiyev, Deputy Head of the Presidential Affairs Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in re:
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block D: Ted Frank, Competitive Enterprise Institute, director of legislation, in re: Class-action suits benefit the law firms that litigate them but the (“slush funds”) to, e.g., the litigants’s alma mater.
Hour Four
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block A:
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block B:
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:
Thursday 25 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block D:
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