President Trump Fights Iran Ethically With Weeks Of Negotiations As Iran Fails To Negotiate At All!
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Stop neutering President Trump from performing his duty to America! Those infringing on President Trump as he revives America and saves Americans from foreign and domestic terrorists wheresoever and whosoever they are must STOP their heinous crimes.
The nation is waiting for the domestic terrorists and foreign terrorists influencers from X-presidents of America on down who spoke heinous unfiltered hate and depopulation of over half of the American population through the last quarter millennia—particularly emanating from the mouths of Obama and Biden and top comedians and influencers With ZERO accountability—These criminals must come before justice NOW‼️
For those people who don’t know about war, war preparedness and fighting in wars, zero countries put war mechanisms industry, weapons production and or storage, in public places, hospitals and schools, or anywhere else that could and can and will jeopardize civilians. Speaking of this where did Obama and Biden hide every military weapon, AK-47’s and other guns and bullets, amounting to billions of dollars of American taxpayer dollars ❓
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Why Are Federal Bureaucrats Buying Guns And Ammo? $158 Million Spent By Non-Military Agencies
ByAdam Andrzejewski,Former Contributor.
Oct 20, 2017 at 07:48am EDT
Jun 30, 2021 at 12:44pm EDT
This article is more than 8 years old.
Education Department is just one of 53 federal administrative agencies purchasing guns and ammunition since 2006.
Education Department is just one of 53 federal administrative agencies purchasing guns and ammunition since 2006.
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
We live in a dangerous world. For the 70,000 officers at Homeland Security and the 40,000 officers within the Department of Justice, proper training and equipment are vital to their daily law enforcement duties. Over a nearly two-year period – the last years of the Obama administration (FY2015 – FY2016), these law enforcement agencies spent $138 million on new guns and ammunition. That seems reasonable.
What’s curious, however, is that traditionally administrative agencies spent more than $20 million. Four notable examples:
1) The 2,300 Special Agents at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are allowed to carry AR-15’s, P90 tactical rifles, and other heavy weaponry. Recently, the IRS armed up with $1.2 million in new ammunition. This was in addition to the $11 million procurement of guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment procured between 2006-2014.
2) The Small Business Administration (SBA) spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to load its gun locker with Glocks last year. The SBA wasn’t alone – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service modified their Glocks with silencers.
3) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a relatively new police force. In 1996, the VA had zero employees with arrest and firearm authority. Today, the VA has 3,700 officers, armed with millions of dollars’ worth of guns and ammunition including AR-15′s, Sig Sauer handguns, and semi-automatic pistols.
4) Meanwhile, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agents carry the same sophisticated weapons platforms used by our Special Forces military warriors. The HHS gun locker is housed in a new “National Training Operations Center” – a facility at an undisclosed location within the DC beltway.
Last year, we released our OpenTheBooks.com Oversight Report: The Militarization of America in an editorial published with former-U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn at The Wall Street Journal. Our report quantified the $1.48 billion spent by 67 non-military federal agencies on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment from 2006-2014.
This week, our organization at OpenTheBooks.com updated our data to include gun and ammo purchases over fiscal year 2015 and a partial FY2016. Spending on guns and ammo at 58 non-military federal agencies – including 40 regulatory, administrative agencies – amounted to $158 million.
The continued growth of the federal arsenal begs the question: Just whom are the feds planning to battle?
More examples of agencies amassing firepower over the last two years:
Loading the Gun Locker – Federal agencies spent $44 million on guns, including an “urgent” order for 20 M-16 Rifles with extra magazines at the Department of Energy ($49,559); shotguns and Glock pistols at the General Services Administration ($16,568); and a bulk order of pistols, sights, and accessories by the Bureau of Reclamation whose main job is to build dams, power plants, and canals ($697,182).
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Buying Bullets in Bulk – The government spent $114 million on ammunition, including bulk purchases by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ($66,927); the Smithsonian ($42,687); and the Railroad Retirement Board ($6,941). The Social Security Administration spent $61,129 on bullets including 50,000 rounds of ammunition plus 12-gauge buckshot and slug ammo.
The EPA special agents purchased ammunition for their .357 and 9mm revolvers and buckshot for their shotguns. While Bernie Sanders claimed that the biggest adversary to the United States was climate change, the EPA stood ready to fight in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
Hollow-Point Bullets – Despite being outlawed by the Geneva Convention, federal agencies spent $426,268 on hollow-point bullets, including orders from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Office of Inspector General, Bureau of Fiscal Service, as well as Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Why does the IRS need guns?
Why does the IRS need guns?
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
Here’s a closer look at the data by agency, which is posted at OpenTheBooks.com:
Department of Education (DOE) – The DOE is armed and ready with 88 law enforcement officers possessing arrest and firearm authority. They’ve purchased buckshot for their shotguns and 40-caliber ammunition for their Glocks. DOE special agents dress in body armor. Their spending on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment was up 25 percent during the last two years under the Obama Administration. Yet, in 2016, it took a pair of armed U.S. Marshals to arrest a man for his unpaid $1,500 student loan!
Department of the Interior – The agency’s mission is to “manage America’s vast natural and cultural resources.” However, over the last two years, the agency spent $4.4 million on guns and ammunition. Although the National Park Service is responsible for nearly half of this spending – mostly to arm its park police – six other bureaus and offices under the Department of Interior spent millions of dollars to amass firepower.
The U.S. Geological Survey provides “real-time data and information on current conditions and earth observations.” Yet, the agency loaded up on Winchester Black Shadow shotguns and bulk ammunition. Even the Office of the Inspector General armed up – purchasing G27 Glocks, shotgun slugs, and frangible ammo.
Just who is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trying to sneak up on? The agency was created to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats – but they spent $410,263 on .308 rifles, Glock pistols, and semi-automatic rifles. Then, they modified their Glocks with silencers.
Our OpenTheBooks oversight report on the militarization of the federal agencies was launched in June 2016 at The Wall Street Journal.
Our OpenTheBooks oversight report on the militarization of the federal agencies was launched in June 2016 at The Wall Street Journal.
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
Department of the Treasury – Treasury exists to “maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities … and manage the U.S. government’s finances and resources effectively.” However, it spent $2.6 million to maintain a strong arsenal.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing spent nearly $100,000 on a purchase described as “firearms” while the U.S. Mint spent $179,247 on ammunition. The Bureau of Fiscal Services – tasked with promoting the “financial integrity” of the government through accounting, financing, etc. – spent $672,424 on ammunition including hundreds of cases of .223 Rem 62 Grain Service Ammo, .40 caliber ammo, and buckshot. Additionally, they stocked up on Glock pistols, Remington firearms, and handgun magazine clips.
Department of Agriculture – Even Agriculture spent $1.1 million on guns and ammunition. The Forest Service stocked up on .22 rifles. The National Resources Conservation Service signed a $10,347 contract with Wild West Guns, LLC for “Guns through 30Mm.” The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service tallied the biggest tab at the Department of Agriculture, spending $22,336 on rifles and pistols plus nearly half a million dollars on ammunition including buckshot, shotgun shells, and rifle ammunition.
In the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, many Washington politicians have tried shifting the conversation to the Second Amendment, reinvigorating the call for tighter gun control. President Trump has an opportunity to propose changes concerning gun control, but not in the way his opponents are calling for.
Trump should listen to the advice former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn memorialized at Forbes last year after the Orland nightclub massacre: the non-military, non-law enforcement – paper pushing administrative federal agencies – are the ones who should be subject to stricter gun control laws, not the general public.
After grabbing legal power, federal bureaucrats are amassing firepower. It’s time to scale back the federal arsenal.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com – a national transparency organization with a database of 4 billion federal, state and local expenditures.
When referencing this piece, please use the following citation: ‘Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, as published at Forbes.’
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Why Are Federal Bureaucrats Buying Guns And Ammo? $158 Million Spent By Non-Military Agencies
ByAdam Andrzejewski,Former Contributor.
Oct 20, 2017 at 07:48am EDT
Jun 30, 2021 at 12:44pm EDT
This article is more than 8 years old.
Education Department is just one of 53 federal administrative agencies purchasing guns and ammunition since 2006.
Education Department is just one of 53 federal administrative agencies purchasing guns and ammunition since 2006.
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
We live in a dangerous world. For the 70,000 officers at Homeland Security and the 40,000 officers within the Department of Justice, proper training and equipment are vital to their daily law enforcement duties. Over a nearly two-year period – the last years of the Obama administration (FY2015 – FY2016), these law enforcement agencies spent $138 million on new guns and ammunition. That seems reasonable.
What’s curious, however, is that traditionally administrative agencies spent more than $20 million. Four notable examples:
1) The 2,300 Special Agents at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are allowed to carry AR-15’s, P90 tactical rifles, and other heavy weaponry. Recently, the IRS armed up with $1.2 million in new ammunition. This was in addition to the $11 million procurement of guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment procured between 2006-2014.
2) The Small Business Administration (SBA) spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to load its gun locker with Glocks last year. The SBA wasn’t alone – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service modified their Glocks with silencers.
3) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a relatively new police force. In 1996, the VA had zero employees with arrest and firearm authority. Today, the VA has 3,700 officers, armed with millions of dollars’ worth of guns and ammunition including AR-15′s, Sig Sauer handguns, and semi-automatic pistols.
4) Meanwhile, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agents carry the same sophisticated weapons platforms used by our Special Forces military warriors. The HHS gun locker is housed in a new “National Training Operations Center” – a facility at an undisclosed location within the DC beltway.
Last year, we released our OpenTheBooks.com Oversight Report: The Militarization of America in an editorial published with former-U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn at The Wall Street Journal. Our report quantified the $1.48 billion spent by 67 non-military federal agencies on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment from 2006-2014.
This week, our organization at OpenTheBooks.com updated our data to include gun and ammo purchases over fiscal year 2015 and a partial FY2016. Spending on guns and ammo at 58 non-military federal agencies – including 40 regulatory, administrative agencies – amounted to $158 million.
The continued growth of the federal arsenal begs the question: Just whom are the feds planning to battle?
More examples of agencies amassing firepower over the last two years:
Loading the Gun Locker – Federal agencies spent $44 million on guns, including an “urgent” order for 20 M-16 Rifles with extra magazines at the Department of Energy ($49,559); shotguns and Glock pistols at the General Services Administration ($16,568); and a bulk order of pistols, sights, and accessories by the Bureau of Reclamation whose main job is to build dams, power plants, and canals ($697,182).
Forbes Daily: Join over 1 million Forbes Daily subscribers and get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.
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By signing up, you agree to receive this newsletter, other updates about Forbes and its affiliates’ offerings, our Terms of Service (including resolving disputes on an individual basis via arbitration), and you acknowledge our Privacy Statement. Forbes is protected by reCAPTCHA, and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Buying Bullets in Bulk – The government spent $114 million on ammunition, including bulk purchases by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ($66,927); the Smithsonian ($42,687); and the Railroad Retirement Board ($6,941). The Social Security Administration spent $61,129 on bullets including 50,000 rounds of ammunition plus 12-gauge buckshot and slug ammo.
The EPA special agents purchased ammunition for their .357 and 9mm revolvers and buckshot for their shotguns. While Bernie Sanders claimed that the biggest adversary to the United States was climate change, the EPA stood ready to fight in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
Hollow-Point Bullets – Despite being outlawed by the Geneva Convention, federal agencies spent $426,268 on hollow-point bullets, including orders from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Office of Inspector General, Bureau of Fiscal Service, as well as Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Why does the IRS need guns?
Why does the IRS need guns?
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
Here’s a closer look at the data by agency, which is posted at OpenTheBooks.com:
Department of Education (DOE) – The DOE is armed and ready with 88 law enforcement officers possessing arrest and firearm authority. They’ve purchased buckshot for their shotguns and 40-caliber ammunition for their Glocks. DOE special agents dress in body armor. Their spending on guns, ammunition and military-style equipment was up 25 percent during the last two years under the Obama Administration. Yet, in 2016, it took a pair of armed U.S. Marshals to arrest a man for his unpaid $1,500 student loan!
Department of the Interior – The agency’s mission is to “manage America’s vast natural and cultural resources.” However, over the last two years, the agency spent $4.4 million on guns and ammunition. Although the National Park Service is responsible for nearly half of this spending – mostly to arm its park police – six other bureaus and offices under the Department of Interior spent millions of dollars to amass firepower.
The U.S. Geological Survey provides “real-time data and information on current conditions and earth observations.” Yet, the agency loaded up on Winchester Black Shadow shotguns and bulk ammunition. Even the Office of the Inspector General armed up – purchasing G27 Glocks, shotgun slugs, and frangible ammo.
Just who is U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trying to sneak up on? The agency was created to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats – but they spent $410,263 on .308 rifles, Glock pistols, and semi-automatic rifles. Then, they modified their Glocks with silencers.
Our OpenTheBooks oversight report on the militarization of the federal agencies was launched in June 2016 at The Wall Street Journal.
Our OpenTheBooks oversight report on the militarization of the federal agencies was launched in June 2016 at The Wall Street Journal.
OPENTHEBOOKS.COM
Department of the Treasury – Treasury exists to “maintain a strong economy and create economic and job opportunities … and manage the U.S. government’s finances and resources effectively.” However, it spent $2.6 million to maintain a strong arsenal.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing spent nearly $100,000 on a purchase described as “firearms” while the U.S. Mint spent $179,247 on ammunition. The Bureau of Fiscal Services – tasked with promoting the “financial integrity” of the government through accounting, financing, etc. – spent $672,424 on ammunition including hundreds of cases of .223 Rem 62 Grain Service Ammo, .40 caliber ammo, and buckshot. Additionally, they stocked up on Glock pistols, Remington firearms, and handgun magazine clips.
Department of Agriculture – Even Agriculture spent $1.1 million on guns and ammunition. The Forest Service stocked up on .22 rifles. The National Resources Conservation Service signed a $10,347 contract with Wild West Guns, LLC for “Guns through 30Mm.” The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service tallied the biggest tab at the Department of Agriculture, spending $22,336 on rifles and pistols plus nearly half a million dollars on ammunition including buckshot, shotgun shells, and rifle ammunition.
In the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, many Washington politicians have tried shifting the conversation to the Second Amendment, reinvigorating the call for tighter gun control. President Trump has an opportunity to propose changes concerning gun control, but not in the way his opponents are calling for.
Trump should listen to the advice former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn memorialized at Forbes last year after the Orland nightclub massacre: the non-military, non-law enforcement – paper pushing administrative federal agencies – are the ones who should be subject to stricter gun control laws, not the general public.
After grabbing legal power, federal bureaucrats are amassing firepower. It’s time to scale back the federal arsenal.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com – a national transparency organization with a database of 4 billion federal, state and local expenditures.
When referencing this piece, please use the following citation: ‘Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of OpenTheBooks.com, as published at Forbes.’
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https://foac-pac.org/Where-Are-All-The-Guns-And-Ammo-Purchased-Under-Obama/News-Item/11170
Where are all the guns and ammo purchased under Obama? :: 06/20/2020
During the last two years of the Obama administration, some unusual purchases were made. Large quantities of ammunition were purchased, as were firearms, mostly for somewhat obscure agencies or agencies with no real need for such weaponry. Estimates are that over 1 billion rounds of ammunition were ordered, which resulted in making ammunition scarce for the normal civilian market.
Also significant was Obama's troublesome statement made during his campaign, as follows
We cannot continue to rely only on our military ... we've got to have a civilian security force just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set.
What national security objectives? Surely, he is not talking about arming the civilian population, as he wants to disarm us. Why would he want such a "civilian security force"? Could it be that he realized he couldn't use the U.S. military to enforce his social dysfunction for multiple reasons? One is the Posse Comitatus laws, and another was the simple fact that the military likely would refuse his orders. Looking below, we can see he was arming agenciesunder his Executive Branch control.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spent $4.77 million purchasing shotguns, 7.62mm caliber rifles, night-vision goggles, propane cannons, liquid explosives, pyro supplies, buckshot, LP gas cannons, drones, remote-control helicopters, thermal cameras, military waterproof thermal infrared scopes and more.
The SBA loaded up their arsenals with Glock pistols. The Fish folks spent approximately $410,000 on their Glocks and rifles and modified their Glocks with silencers.
The Department of Health and Human Services was outfitted with sophisticated weaponry normally carried by Special Forces, stored at an undisclosed location.
Others include:
- Department of Energy: approximately $50,000 worth of M-16 fully automatic rifles
- General Services Administration: approximately $16,000 in shotguns and Glocks
- Bureau of Reclamations: approximately $697,000 for firearms and ammunition
- EPA: almost $70,000 for ammunition
- Smithsonian: approximately $42,500 for ammunition
- Social Security: approximately $61,000 for ammunition
- $426,268 on hollow-point bullets, including orders from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Office of Inspector General, Bureau of Fiscal Service, as well as Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The latter three, sure, but the Forest Service, National Park Service, and Inspector General's Office?
- Bureau of Engraving and printing: approximately $100,000 on firearms
- U.S. Mint: almost $180,000 for ammunition
- Bureau of Fiscal Services: approximately $672,000 on ammunition and firearms
- Department of Agriculture: $1.1 million for weapons and ammunition
We are now seeing anarchist groups like Antifa, BLM, and others carrying nice weaponry. Just look at a recent photo of a CHAZ resident with his tricked-out AR-15 or M-16.
There are now several left-wing gun clubs such as the Socialist Rifle Association, Huey P. Newton Gun Club, Trigger Warning Queer & Trans Gun Club, and the John Brown Gun Club, with the last one often asked to provide security around the Seattle area for protests and rallies.
We now know that Obama and Holder set up selling guns to the Mexican drug cartels in what is known as Fast and Furious.
Perhaps it is high time that the president orders a detailed inventory and audit of these weapons and ammunition. If anything is missing, where is it? Also, has any of these weapons been used in any known crimes?
Most have probably forgotten about Obama's aforementioned statement and his subsequent unusual purchases for odd agencies, but maybe we had better wake up and take a look around before it is too late.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/where_are_all_the_guns_and_ammo_purchased_under_obama
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Did Obama and Biden hide these weapons and ammunition among civilians in America like Their buddy foreign terrorists friends in Iran?
June 18, 2020
Where are all the guns and ammo purchased under Obama?
By John Watson
During the last two years of the Obama administration, some unusual purchases were made. Large quantities of ammunition were purchased, as were firearms, mostly for somewhat obscure agencies or agencies with no real need for such weaponry. Estimates are that over 1 billion rounds of ammunition were ordered, which resulted in making ammunition scarce for the normal civilian market.
Also significant was Obama's troublesome statement made during his campaign, as follows
We cannot continue to rely only on our military ... we've got to have a civilian security force just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set.
What national security objectives? Surely, he is not talking about arming the civilian population, as he wants to disarm us. Why would he want such a "civilian security force"? Could it be that he realized he couldn't use the U.S. military to enforce his social dysfunction for multiple reasons? One is the Posse Comitatus laws, and another was the simple fact that the military likely would refuse his orders. Looking below, we can see he was arming agencies under his Executive Branch control.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spent $4.77 million purchasing shotguns, 7.62mm caliber rifles, night-vision goggles, propane cannons, liquid explosives, pyro supplies, buckshot, LP gas cannons, drones, remote-control helicopters, thermal cameras, military waterproof thermal infrared scopes and more.
The SBA loaded up their arsenals with Glock pistols. The Fish folks spent approximately $410,000 on their Glocks and rifles and modified their Glocks with silencers.
The Department of Health and Human Services was outfitted with sophisticated weaponry normally carried by Special Forces, stored at an undisclosed location.
Others include:
Department of Energy: approximately $50,000 worth of M-16 fully automatic rifles
General Services Administration: approximately $16,000 in shotguns and Glocks
Bureau of Reclamations: approximately $697,000 for firearms and ammunition
EPA: almost $70,000 for ammunition
Smithsonian: approximately $42,500 for ammunition
Social Security: approximately $61,000 for ammunition
$426,268 on hollow-point bullets, including orders from the Forest Service, National Park Service, Office of Inspector General, Bureau of Fiscal Service, as well as Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The latter three, sure, but the Forest Service, National Park Service, and Inspector General's Office?
Bureau of Engraving and printing: approximately $100,000 on firearms
U.S. Mint: almost $180,000 for ammunition
Bureau of Fiscal Services: approximately $672,000 on ammunition and firearms
Department of Agriculture: $1.1 million for weapons and ammunition
We are now seeing anarchist groups like Antifa, BLM, and others carrying nice weaponry. Just look at a recent photo of a CHAZ resident with his tricked-out AR-15 or M-16.
There are now several left-wing gun clubs such as the Socialist Rifle Association, Huey P. Newton Gun Club, Trigger Warning Queer & Trans Gun Club, and the John Brown Gun Club, with the last one often asked to provide security around the Seattle area for protests and rallies.
We now know that Obama and Holder set up selling guns to the Mexican drug cartels in what is known as Fast and Furious.
Perhaps it is high time that the president orders a detailed inventory and audit of these weapons and ammunition. If anything is missing, where is it? Also, has any of these weapons been used in any known crimes?
Most have probably forgotten about Obama's aforementioned statement and his subsequent unusual purchases for odd agencies, but maybe we had better wake up and take a look around before it is too late.
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https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/obama-iran-terrorism/
Iran: One of the linchpins of former President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was that it would be accompanied by a near-ban on Iran having any access to the U.S. banking system. A new congressional report says that, too, was a lie.
Obama and his officials at the Treasury Department and State Department were clear: They would work assiduously to freeze out Iran from getting dollars to fund its mischief and mayhem around the world.
The Associated Press, puts it this way: "As the Treasury and State Department worked behind the scenes to help Iran access the dollar, the message to Congress remained the same: The JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) did not allow Iran to access the U.S. financial system."
Obama sent a clear message to Congress: If you don't block this nuclear deal, we will bar Iran's access to our financial system. The deal was clear, unequivocal.
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It was also a lie. Obama lied, and so did others in his administration.
That's the conclusion of a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It alleges Obama officials pushed the U.S. Treasury to let Iran convert the equivalent of $5.7 billion of funds held in Oman's Bank of Muscat from rials into dollars and subsequently into euros.
It required a special license by the U.S. Treasury, which was granted in February of 2016. But it was never disclosed, either to Congress or the American people.
OK, you say, $5.7 billion. What is that, when big economies like the U.S., Britain, Germany and France have economies trillions of dollars in size?
Apart from the lie, which is bad enough for an administration that claimed repeatedly to be "scandal-free," this money did not have innocuous uses. Far from it.
Our own State Department characterizes Iran as the No. 1 terrorist-supporting state on Earth. Every dollar it gets from us has an ultimate use that is highly questionable, which is the reason why the U.S. imposed sanctions in the first place.
Terrorist Funding
Washington Times national security correspondent Bill Gertz in February of this year reported that some of the $1.7 billion that the Obama administration officially handed over to the Iranians had ended up in the hands of terrorist groups. Those terrorist groups included Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Iran's own Quds Force, the dirty tricks and terror branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
No one knows how much of the $5.7 billion that Obama allowed Iran to access also went to terrorist activities. Or, for that matter, how much went to further research activity on Iran's nuclear bomb project. That awaits a later investigation.
But it's important to note that the Iran nuclear deal also removed some $100 billion in sanctions on Iran. This made Iran once again a big player in the Mideast. It's almost certain that a good piece of that went to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which by some accounts control as much as 40% of Iran's economy.
It's clear from Obama administration actions, under both his Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, that the Obama White House despised Israel and did all they could to undermine its security. How else can you explain the enabling of a terrorist-supporting regime?
The Obama administration failed to enforce its own "red line" in Syria on chemical weapons. By doing so, it in effect invited both Russia and Iran into that disintegrating country. Iranian troops today are within striking distance of our one true ally in the region, Israel.
Mideast Disintegration
The disintegration of Libya, the collapse of Egypt, and Turkey's embrace of radical Islam, all took place under Obama's watch. None of them were in the U.S.' interest.
The Mideast has been a mess for decades, but things got markedly worse under Obama. A big reason is the Iran nuclear deal didn't make anyone in the Mideast, Europe or U.S. safer. But it did empower the terrorist-supporting mullahs in Tehran.
The mullahs are now funding terrorism on Israel's border. They're biding their time until they can get another anti-Israel president in the White House. Mullahs with a nuclear weapon will be a nightmare. President Trump has a big job still ahead of him, but in his first year and a half in office he has undone much of Obama's damage.
All of this because the Obama administration signed a deal that not only didn't end Tehran's nuclear program, but merely postponed it for a decade, all while doing nothing about its terrorist activities. Now we find that Obama also helped finance that.
Paying to support terrorism, and not telling the American people about it. Still think the Obama administration was "scandal-free"?
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
IBD/TIPP Poll: Americans Support Tough Trump Stance On Iran Nuclear Deal
Iran: Will Netanyahu, Trump Slam Door On Obama's Bad Nuclear Deal?
In The Mideast, Trump Just Pushed A Real 'Reset Button'
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WASHINGTON – Much of the $7.1 billion in military equipment and technology President Biden left behind in Afghanistan after his botched withdrawal was still operable despite Pentagon claims to the contrary – including fingerprint devices the Taliban later used to track down down American’s abandoned Afghan allies, according to a comprehensive report by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the fiasco.
Throughout the August 2021 withdrawal and its aftermath, both the Defense Department and the Harris-Biden administration repeatedly asserted that “nearly all equipment used by US military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal.”
However, the report, released Sunday following a nearly two-year investigation, indicated that the administration’s denials were largely semantics.
While the US military destroyed or moved most of its own equipment, they left intact billions in weapons and materiel transferred to the Afghan military, which collapsed along with the Western-backed Kabul government before the last American troops left the central Asian nation on Aug. 30, 2021.
“When questioned about the weapons left behind, [US Forces Afghanistan commander Gen. Austin Scott] Miller informed the committee those were the property of the Afghan government and had been provided pursuant to US security assistance to the Afghan forces,” the report said. “The idea was that those weapons were ‘going to be used, not abandoned.'”
Responding to the report on Monday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted that “there was no handover of US equipment to the Taliban.”
“That equipment had been provided to Afghan security forces appropriately and with congressional approval over the course of two decades of war,” he said. “That equipment was left by those Afghan forces when they surrendered or stopped fighting.”
Still, officials told the committee that there were obvious signs that Kabul would fall to the Taliban as the US withdrew – meaning the Harris-Biden administration should have predicted that the terrorist group would ultimately own any equipment left behind.
“It was clear to the administration at that point in time, that it was not a matter of if Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban, but a matter of when,” the report said.
“Greg Sherman, the deputy assistant secretary of state and assistant director of High Threat Programs Directorate — the security and law enforcement arm of State Department — stated, ‘it did not take a crystal ball,’ even in May of 2021, to see ‘the Afghan Government would fall apart.’”
Kirby claimed Monday “there was no fine-tuned assessment of how fast things would unfold in August of 2021,” and added that the collapse “moved a lot faster than anyone anticipated.”
“As the Taliban moved in, Afghan forces stopped fighting and the Ghani government fled,” he said. “As then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley said, ‘Nothing that I saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.‘”
The equipment was left behind even though the military spent four months tearing down and shipping home thousands of pieces of other military hardware from US sites in Afghanistan after Biden announced his decision to end the 20-year war in April 2021.
“The Taliban claim to have recovered 40 operational aircraft from the former Afghan government, including two Mi-17 helicopters, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, two MD-530 light helicopters, two Mi-24 helicopter gunships, and one fixed-wing transport aircraft — all of which have since been observed flying according to the UN Sanctions Monitoring,” the report said.
Some of that equipment was seen in as recently as last month, when Taliban fighters hosted a military parade to celebrate the three-year anniversary of recapturing Kabul.
The equipment captured by the Islamic fundamentalists did not just include military weaponry, but also key technological tools and sensitive databases that put Afghans who had helped the US at great risk.
“American technology has empowered the Taliban to systematically target Afghan allies,” the committee said. “A 2022 report by the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) of NATO discovered the Taliban gained access to US military-maintained biometric devices and databases after the withdrawal.”
“The biometric devices in question are enabled to recognize fingerprint, eye scan, and facial information, and the DEEP report warned that the Taliban had access to biometric data allowing them to identify civilians that worked with the United States or NATO.”
On Monday, committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that the Taliban “goes door to door [and] checks fingerprints” of residents before torturing and killing those found to have assisted the US and NATO.
Other military goods were siphoned off even before the Afghanistan collapse thanks to negligence on the part of the military, the report charged.
When the US handed the sprawling Bagram Air Base over to Afghan forces in July 2021, the Harris-Biden administration failed to properly communicate its plans. Instead, the military cut off the installation’s water and left in the middle of the night, keeping the base’s new Afghan commander literally in the dark about their departure.
“Afghan General Mir Asadullah Kohistani — who took over command of Bagram for the Afghan military — asserted he heard a ‘rumor that the Americans had left Bagram … and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,'” the report said.
“Darwaish Raufi — Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram — confirmed General Kohistani’s account, stating the U.S. departure from Bagram had occurred without proper coordination with local Afghan officials.”
This meant the base – home to three large hangars, a control tower and two runways, one of which cost $96 million to build – was left unsecured enough that “looters made their way to Bagram before the Afghan military became aware of the American departure.”
However, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the then-head of US Central Command, denied the allegation when asked by the committee.
“We did this in close coordination with our allies and partners,” he told the committee. “Every departure of every element was carefully synchronized across the coalition and with our Afghan partners. On no occasion were they caught unaware by our movements.”
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