Trump Takes on Issues Left by Obama, as the UK Gets One European Idea about Christian Values

In the week in which we await the release of a new Obama biography that promises -- perhaps -- more truth than earlier bio's provided, we can focus on both Obama and Trump, the two contending team leaders of our time. • • • HOUSE TO INVESTIGATE OBAMA IRAN DEAL. Breitbart, citing a POLITICO investigation, reports that : "Republican leaders of the House Oversight Committee said Friday they have launched a sweeping investigation into whether the Obama administration, in trying to win support for a nuclear deal and prisoner swap with Teheran last year, undermined an ambitious US counterproliferation effort to thwart Iranian weapons trafficking networks. Also in response to the POLITICO investigation, 13 Republican Senators have demanded answers about whether the Obama administration jeopardized US national security as a result of its protracted top-secret negotiations with Teheran, and then misled the American public when disclosing the terms of the two deals in January 2016." Breitbart says that the House and Senate lawmakers cited various portions of an April 24 report by POLITICO that found that the Obama administration, through actions in some cases and inaction in others, "significantly hampered a much-touted federal law enforcement effort known as the National Counterproliferation Initiative at a time when it was making unprecedented headway in thwarting Iran’s illicit weapons proliferation activities." • The POLITICO investigation also reported that during their public rollout of the two deals, Obama and other key administration officials downplayed the threat posed by the Iranian traffickers they were freeing as part of the swap that also freed five Americans held by Iran. Obama administration officials focused their public comments only on seven Iranian-born men in the US whose convictions or prosecutions were being dropped as part of the swap, and described them as civilians involved in mere sanctions-related offenses but not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses. But, in reality, many of the men -- and 14 other Iranian fugitives not named publicly by the top Obama officials -- were accused or convicted of charges stemming from their alleged involvement in clandestine networks supplying Iran with parts and technology for its weapons, ballistic missile and nuclear programs, according to POLITICO. The Justice Department itself had characterized many of them as threats to national security, the investigation found. • • • CHAFFETZ ASKS DOJ AND STATE TO PROVIDE OBAMA-IRAN DOCUMENTS. In a May 5 letter, Republican Representatives Jason Chaffetz and Ron DeSantis asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to produce an exhaustive volume of Justice Department documents that they said would “help the Committee in better understanding these issues.” They sent a nearly identical letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson demanding all related documents in the State Department’s possession, and gave both officials until May 19 to provide one copy of them to committee Republicans, and another to committee Democrats. A Democratic Committee staffer said the minority side wasn't asked to sign the letter or given an advance copy of it before it went out. Chaffetz and DeSantis also directed Sessions and Tillerson to “please also make your staff available for a briefing on these issues no later than May 25.” They characterized the committee’s interest in following up on the POLITICO report as an investigation as the “principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives.” The two committee leaders demanded all documents relating to the January 16, 2016, prisoner exchange agreement with Iran, including the negotiations that preceded it. They also asked for any and all information about the 21 Iranian-born men for whom the US dropped convictions or charges and international arrest warrants, and information about whether State and Justice department officials delayed or blocked efforts to lure Iranian suspects to US-friendly countries so they could be arrested, citing details in the POLITICO report. • But, Chaffetz and DeSantis also made it clear that their investigation would delve into much broader topics. They asked for information not only about all individuals and entities whose cases or convictions were dropped, but also any “for whom any enforcement action was modified or cancelled in connection with the [swap], and indicate the action taken and how it was modified or cancelled.” They asked for information about “any Iranian national or entity investigated for, charged with, or convicted of engaging in violations of export controls, terrorism, arms sales, nonproliferation, money laundering, or other financial crimes, from January 1, 2013, to the present.” • Chaffetz is chairman of the committee, formally titled the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. DeSantis is chairman of its Subcommittee on National Security. A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on the scope of the investigation, except to confirm that it was underway. • Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for President Obama, did not immediately respond to a Breitbart email seeking comment. Justice and State department officials also had no immediate comment in response to the letters. But, they said last week that they would comply with a separate but similar request made by the Hosue Foreign Relations Committee. • Late Thursday, 13 Senators led by Republican David Perdue of Georgia also wrote to Sessions, Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to say they were concerned about issues raised in the POLITICO report, and to ask for a broad array of documents. POLITICO stated that the Senators wrote : "We write to request your assistance in providing Congress with more information regarding the Obama Administration’s decision” to drop the charges or convictions in the 21 cases. “Based on new reports, we are concerned that President Obama and certain previous administration officials intentionally suppressed the seriousness of the charges against these individuals in order to garner public support for the nuclear deal with Iran, and we fear that these individuals may still pose a threat to the national security of the United States.” The Senators’ letter, released Friday, was co-signed by GOP Senators Thom Tillis, James Inhofe, John Boozman, Ben Sasse, Roger Wicker, Johnny Isakson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Mike Rounds, Tim Scott, and Luther Strange. The Senators' letter included a list of questions they wanted answered, including whether the 21 men whose cases were dropped were “still engaging in illicit activities on behalf of the Iranian government.” The Senators also asked the Trump Cabinet leaders if they could provide Congress with more information about whether any investigations and prosecutions were derailed by the Obama administration. Also, they asked, “What counter-proliferation activities are we currently pursuing in order to combat Iran’s attempts to illicitly procure sanctioned goods? Given that much of this information was previously kept from the American public, we respectfully request a report or an in-person briefing to Congress on this investigation at your earliest convenience." • Are we seeing the beginning of the Republican awakening -- now that they have a sympathetic Attorney General -- to the illegal activities of President Obama and his team? • • • A FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS OBAMA BENGHAZI EMAILS RELEASED. In another positive sign of the shift in Washington power bases, last Friday CNSNews reported that :"Despite legal pleadings from the Trump State Department, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for DC, has ordered the department to release eight paragraphs from emails sent by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sept. 12, 2012, 'regarding phone calls made by President Barack Obama to Egyptian and Libyan leaders immediately following the terrrorist attack on the US mission in Benghazi,' " Judicial Watch ahs almost alone pursued the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attack by Islamic radicals, in which 4 American personnel were murdered, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. For weeks following the attack, the Obama administration and Secretary Clinton falsely claimed the assault was caused by an anti-Muslim video posted on TouTube. JW says that the eight paragraphs in question were redacted in previous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by Judicial Watch. The unredacted emails requested "had the subject line 'Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt,' and were among emails stored on Clinton's unofficial email server," according to Judicial Watch : "Judge Jackson reviewed the documents directly and rejected the government's contention that the records had been properly withheld under" a FOIA 'deliberative process' exemption. The emails may reveal what Secretary Clinton and President Obama knew about the Benghazi attack the day after it happened." Judicial Watch argues that there is a "deliberate effort by the State Department to protect Clinton and the agency by avoiding identifying emails on Clinton's unofficial, non-secure email server as classified." JW President Tom Fitton says : “Does President Trump know his State and Justice Departments are still trying to provide cover for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? An extraordinary court ruling that could result in key answers about the Benghazi outrage is being opposed by the Trump administration. This may well be an example of the ‘deep state’ trying to get away with a cover up -- if so then the Trump administration must put a stop to it.” • The Deep State still lives inside most Trump executive agencies, and Cabinet Secretaries should devote all resources necessary to oust these Obama cronies and spies from the Trump administration. • • • COMEY'S POLITICAL TRICKS CONTINUE. Also last Friday, Fox News reported that FBI Director James Comey considered an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer so important that he insisted the document be included in January's final intelligence community report on Russian meddling in the US election. Fox News said : "Sources would not speak on the record, citing the sensitivity of the matter and its current relevance to upcoming testimony on the unmasking of American citizens as part of the FBI probe into alleged contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Moscow." The FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said they could not comment on a classified document. • It was reported last month that the unverified dossier was part of the evidence the FBI used to obtain a FISA warrant for Carter Page, a peripheral figure in the Trump campaign. In an interview with Fox News, Page denied the dossier’s central allegations that he was the Trump campaign’s point person for Moscow. The dossier also contained later-refuted salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump. The classified version of the intelligence report issued at the end of the Obama administration included a summary of the document, as an attachment, apparently at Comey's insistence. Both then-President Obama and President-elect Trump were presented with the findings. • In a remarkable exchange Wednesday between Senator Lindsey Graham and Comey during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, more questions were raised about the FBI’s relationship with the former British officer who wrote the dossier, Christopher Steele, and his British company Orbis -- and its relationship to Washington, DC-based Fusion GPS. Comey said in answer to a Graham question “I know the name” -- and “I can’t say” when Graham pressed if Fusion GPS is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus. And when Graham asked if he agreed it “would be interfering in our election by the Russians” if Fusion were involved in preparing the anti-Trump dossier, Comey replied, “I don’t want to say.” Inside the packed hearing room, Committee’s chairman Senator Charles Grassley was visibly irritated at the lack of response from Comey. For months, Grassley has highlighted the FBI’s failure to meet deadlines and respond to his questions, calling it in a recent letter a “pattern of obstruction” on matters related to the former British official Christopher Steele. • Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Wednesday that she does not “at this time” have evidence of collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign. • A letter of complaint against Fusion GPS was filed with the Justice Department, alleging the company -- and founder former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson -- violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Attorney Joshua Levy told Fox News that the allegation that Fusion GPS acted as an unregistered agent for Russian interests was false : “Fusion GPS has complied with the law and was not required to register under FARA.” • Senator Grassley stressed to Comey during last week's hearing his concerns that “the FBI has relied on the document to justify [Comey's] current investigation. There have been reports that the FBI agreed to pay the author of the dossier, who paid his sources, who also paid their subsources. Where did the money come from and what motivated the people writing the checks?” Grassley also criticized the FBI for giving him “materially inconsistent” information and specifically referenced Steele, noting “The man who wrote the dossier admitted in court that it has unverified claims. Does that sound like a reliable basis for law enforcement or intelligence actions?” • This is just one more incidence of FBI Director Comey meddling in politics -- in the Fusion GPS / Steele case by using unreliable, unverified reports and fake news to attack President Trump and his team. Is Comey actively trying to bring down Trump by any maens at his disposal? • • • TRUMP AND ABBAS. Israel Today reported on Friday that : "Few were surprised that the first words out of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' mouth in his meeting with US President Donald Trump were bald-faced lies," citing Abbas' words to President Trump : "Mr. President, I affirm to you that we are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace. And we are endeavoring to bring about security, freedom and peace for our children to live like the other children in the world, along with the Israeli children in peace, freedom and security." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at Abbas during a joint press conference with visiting Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu. Netanyahu stated : "I heard President Abbas yesterday say that the Palestinians teach their children peace. That’s unfortunately not true. They name their schools after mass murderers of Israelis and they pay terrorists." • Netanyahu was referring to Abbas' Palestinian Authority use of the massive amounts of foreign aid it receives to provide large stipends to Palestinian terrorists arrested by Israel. Israel Today said Abbas' PA also routinely names Palestinian schools, parks and summer camps after the most blood-soaked terrorists -- those who have managed to kill the most Jews, and noted that Netanyahu did not even speak about "what Palestinian children are taught in local schools, where teachers and textbooks refer to Jews as sub-human, blood-thirsty monsters. And the incitement is even worse on after-school programming on Palestinian Authority-controlled television. It is a culture of death that Hamas, the largest party in the Palestinian parliament, has proudly admitted to." • Fortunately, it seems that Trump was not been taken in by Abbas' lies -- unlike Obama who routinely sided with the Abbas version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his own remarks to the press, Trump said that for peace to move forward, the Palestinian leadership would have to cease the incitement against Israel and the Jews : "...there cannot be lasting peace unless the Palestinian leaders speak in a unified voice against incitement to violate — and violence and hate. There’s such hatred." • Amen, Mr. President. • • • DEAR READERS, the French election has left many Americans wondering how Macron could have won. His left-of-center socialist policies overshadowed his centrist economic positions, but his total support for the European Union mystifies many Americans, who view the EU as a non-elected bureaucracy of elites who are destroying Europe's cultures and nation-states in the name of globalization. Here is an article from the leftist Guardian that goes a long way to explaining the political gulf that exists between America and Europe. • The Guardian reported last Saturday on a Church of England letter urging voters to 'set aside apathy' in the June general election in the UK. The letter was sent by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to all parishes, urging citizens to consider the British values of cohesion, courage and stability when they cast their votes. The Anglican Church also says the “religious faith of any election candidate should not be treated by opponents as a vulnerability to be exploited,” in what the Guardian says may be a reference to the repeated questioning of the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, an evangelical Christian, about his views on gay sex. The message of the three-page “pastoral letter” was intended to be shared with congregations last Sunday. • The letter, signed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, speaks of concern for “the weak, poor and marginalised” and the need for a “radical approach for education”, a “flourishing health service” and a “just economy.” The letter says that the election -- nearly a year after the Brexit referendum and amid renewed speculation about the future of the 'United' Kingdom -- is “being contested against the backdrop of deep and profound questions of identity. Opportunities to renew and reimagine our shared values as a country and a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland only come around every few generations. We are in such a time. If our shared values are to carry the weight of where we now stand and the challenges ahead of us, they must have at their core cohesion, courage and stability.” Two years ago, a YouGov analysis for the Church Times found that people who identify themselves as Anglicans were almost twice as likely to vote Conservative as Labour. AND, the archbishops’ inclusion of stability as a key British value may be interpreted as an implicit endorsement of Theresa May’s “strong and stable” campaign slogan. • In discussing cohesion, the archbishops say : “The United Kingdom, when at its best, has been represented by a sense not only of living for ourselves, but by a deeper concern for the weak, poor and marginalised, and for the common good. At home that includes education for all, the need for urgent and serious solutions to our housing challenges, the importance of creating communities as well as buildings, and a confident and flourishing health service that gives support to all -- especially the vulnerable -- not least at the beginning and end of life. Abroad it is seen in many ways, including the 0.7% aid commitment, properly applied in imaginative ways, standing up for those suffering from persecution on grounds of faith, and our current leading on campaigns against slavery, trafficking and sexual violence in conflicts.” The archbishops chose to include a comment on refugees that could be seen to support Brexit : “Offering a generous and hospitable welcome to refugees is a vital expression of our common humanity, but it is not without cost and we should not be deaf to the legitimate concerns that have been expressed about the scale of population flows and the differential impact it has on different parts of the country. The pressures of integration must be shared more equitably.” Americans can more or less agree with all of the archbishops' statements, as long as proper controls are in place to determine who and how many refugees enter the US, and presumably the UK. • BUT, it was the Guardian's last thought that hammered home the chasm that exists between America and the socialist left globalists of Europe -- not Mrs. May and her Conservative Party, I hasten to add. Consider what the Gurardian chose as its last words on the archbishops' letter : "Responding to the letter, Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association said: 'This is a letter to a country that no longer exists. The public today overwhelmingly recognise that sound virtues and ethics are not the preserve of the religious nor ‘spring’ from Christianity. That is...an insult to the majority of the British people who have non-religious beliefs and values and contribute enormously to British life as they have for generations.' ” • Can the socialist leftist globalist European society that says sound virtues and ethics are not based on religious beliefs and do not ‘spring’ from Christianity be a true friend either of the United Kingdom or the United States? No. The Christian world exists. Christianity exists. Its values and beliefs guide and inform every political and societal decision made, at least in America, because it is those Christian beliefs and values that are fundamental to the US Constitution and define what it means to be an American.