Happy Birthday to Margaret Thatcher -- and Hold Your Cards on Who Did What to Khashoggi

THE REAL NEWS IS THAT TURKEY IS ON A TEAR AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA -- AND SATURDAY WAS MARGARET THATCHER'S BIRTHDAY. Hold your cards on what happened ot Jamal Khashoggi. And Happy Birthday to a great lady. A great Conservative. A great Prime Minister. Simply Great. • • • REMEMBERING MARGARET THATCHER. That is the title of the Sunday American Thinker article by Silvio Canto, Jr., who wrote : "Once in a while, it's good to take a break from the political fights and remember some great people from our past....Back in the late 1970s, the US and UK looked like a couple of allies lost against the threat of an advancing USSR. Right or wrong, it felt as if the left was winning and the good guys were stuck in a 'malaise.'....Prime Minister Thatcher...put her cards on the table quickly : 'I am not a consensus politician,' she said. 'I am a conviction politician.' Thatcher led the UK with determination and grit. She was a leader in every sense, an 'in your face' kind of woman who reminded many of us of our mothers. Like a good mom, she knew when to look you in the eye and tell you the truth! One of the early tests of leadership was the UK economy. She animated the Conservatives into the party of reform. Her free-market policies revitalized businesses, grew the economy, and helped the middle class. During her tenure, the UK fought for the Falklands and reversed much of the misguided socialism of the postwar period. Later, PM Thatcher and President Reagan turned into a great team, especially as they stood up to the USSR. I recall watching her on TV supporting the Polish labor uprising. It felt so good to watch a European leader standing up for something rather than the usual 'look the other way' approach. We remember the great PM Thatcher. She was one of the great ladies of the 20th century and one of the greatest UK prime ministers ever." • Silvio Canto could have added that Margaret Thatcher in 2007 became the first living ex-prime minister in British history to be honored with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. It stands opposite a statue of Winston Churchill in the lobby of the House of Commons. Thatcher rejected the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who advocated deficit spending during periods of high unemployment, instead preferring the monetarist approach of Chicago economist Milton Friedman. At her first conference speech, she chastised the Labour Party on economic grounds, saying, “A man’s right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master -- these are the British inheritance.” Soon after, she attacked the Soviet Union as “bent on world dominance.” A Soviet army newspaper responded by calling her “the Iron Lady,” a nickname she immediately embraced. In what xould become a key part of her legacy, Thatcher also privatized British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways, Rolls-Royce and a number of other state-owned companies. • On the foreign policy front, Thatcher often found herself allied with US President Ronald Reagan, whom she later described as “the supreme architect of the West’s Cold War victory.” Her relationship with her own continent’s leaders was more complicated, particularly since she believed the Europe Union should be a free-trade area rather than a political endeavor, stating in her 2002 book "Statecraft" : “That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European superstate was ever embarked upon will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era.” • On November 14, 1990, former Defense Minister Michael Heseltine challenged her for leadership of the party, partly due to differences of opinion on the European Union. Thatcher won the first ballot but by too small of a margin for outright victory. That night, her cabinet members visited her one by one and urged her to resign. She officially stepped down on November 28 after helping to assure that John Major and not Heseltine would replace her. • Margaret Thatcher's influence remains strong. Many of her free market policies have since been adopted, not only by Conservatives, but also by Labour Party leaders like Tony Blair. • My favorite of the many quotable quotes on Margaret Thatcher is this axiom of conservatives everywhere : "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." • Happy Birthday, Mrs. Thatcher. • • • WHAT IS GOING ON IN ISTANBUL?? I've been watching the story unfolding in Istanbul and saying to myself that I cannot image that Saudi Arabia is at fault. It has no real motive -- if anti-Saudi reporting were to blame, half the world's reporters would now be missing in action -- and Saudi Arabia could expect only negative consequences, as their leaders surely know full well. It has seemed to me much more likely to be a Turkish effort to stain SA-US relations, or SA-world relations, such as they are. Or, perhaps Turkey has let an Iranian Revolutionary Guards QUDs operative in to do it for Erdogan, whom we know detests the Saudis almost as much as he detests the US, if the truth were told. The only reason I could come up with that would make Saudi Arabia the culprit would be if journalist Jamal Khashoggi were a spy for Iran or Turkey, in which case the Saudis could pretty easily make the national security case to the US -- that they took him back to Riyadh to de-commission his activities. But, I had n ocorroboration and didn't want to start a what-if story line that I couldn't fullt support. • THEN -- Clarice Feldman came to the rescue. She wrote an article published on Sunday's American Thinker titled "Turkish Taffy." Feldman wrote : "It seems to me the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, last seen in Istanbul, is Erdogan-brand Turkish taffy, a confection of sugary lies made to inflame Americans against the Saudis and aid the far more dangerous to our well-being mullahs of Iran. I confess to prejudice in this matter. I think Iran is a grave threat to the world, and the Saudis are aiding us in constraining the mullahs. Like Matthew Continetti, I believe the Saudis are now an important counterterrorism ally and roiling the waters there would disrupt 'energy markets, create pockets of instability in which jihadists and Iranian-backed militias thrive, and cause headaches for Israel.' If we disrupt our present relationship, why wouldn’t the Saudis turn elsewhere -- China and Russia -- and any influence we have in the Middle East would be lost. In fact, if those in Congress who believe this nonsense get their way and cut arms sales to the Saudis, the beneficiaries will be arms producers in China and Russia and, of course, Iran." • Clarice Feldman agrees with and quoted Emmett Tyrell, Jr., who wrote in the American Spectator : "Today, the United States is faced with a potentially-nuclear- armed Iran that has spread itself far beyond its borders. Iran threatens America’s allies in Israel and the Sunni Arab states, as well as seeks undue control over the region’s vital oil and natural gas sources. What’s more, Iran’s ruling elite are intoxicated by a noxious mix of anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and radical Shiite orthodoxy....Thanks to the Trump Mideast policy, Israel and the Sunni Arab states are now moving closer together as they are increasingly threatened by Iran. Last year, President Trump presided over one of the largest arms sales to Saudi Arabia in history. And, the United States is buttressing Saudi Arabia’s efforts to roll back Iran’s influence in Yemen. All of these are good things that will contribute to the securing of US interests in the region. Do We Lose Little or Lose Big? Naturally, just as things seem to be going well for the United States in the Mideast, the reality of Mideast politics hits American policymakers hard. Recently, a Washington Post contributor, Jamal Khashoggi, is believed to have been gruesomely murdered after he entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Now, American leaders are calling for an embargo of arms sales and foreign aid to Saudi Arabia until their behavior changes. I understand the desire to seek justice on Khashoggi’s behalf. But, punishing Saudi Arabia in this case will do nothing more than harm America’s already-tenuous ability to roll back the Iranians. Trying to socially reengineer Saudi foreign policy will be as idiotic as trying to turn Iraq into Idaho -- especially at a time when Washington needs Riyadh. Unfortunately, we are not dealing with nice people in the Middle East. Washington policymakers need to stop thinking such leaders exist there. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states are essential in the American mission to isolate Iran. Either the United States is serious about rolling back Iran or it’s not. And, if Washington no longer believes returning Iran back to its containment is the best course, then overriding the terrible Iran deal was a catastrophic mistake on the part of the Trump Administration." • Feldman adds some CRITICAL FACTS to the analysis. She asks : "So why the fuss -- stirred by the Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi was the Saudi correspondent, and peddled by Iran’s supporters and Trump’s opponents, who falsely assert that he was a liberal, progressive voice for democracy?" Feldman says Khashoggi was anything but those things, as Daniel Greenfield and others remind us : "In the 1970s he joined the MOSLEM BROTHERHOOD, which exists to rid the Islamic world of western influence. He was a political Islamist until the end, recently praising the Moslem Brotherhood in the Washington Post. He championed the ‘moderate’ Islamist opposition in Syria, whose crimes against humanity are a matter of record. Khashoggi frequently sugarcoated his Islamist beliefs with constant references to freedom and democracy. But he never hid that he was in favor of a Moslem Brotherhood arc throughout the Middle East. His recurring plea to bin Salman in his columns was to embrace not western-style democracy, but the rise of political Islam which the Arab Spring had inadvertently given rise to. For Khashoggi, secularism was the enemy. The Washington Post was happy to provide a forum for a member of a terror network that is responsible for murdering countless Christians and Jews." • Khashoggi -- Islamist Moslem Brotherhood activist journalist. Now that we know this -- what else is there to know about Khashoggi? Clarice Feldman states : "Hatice Cengiz, his purported fiancé who, we are told, waited for hours outside the Saudi consulate in vain for his exit, is connected to Qatar (an Iranian ally) which, like the Washington Post, has been promoting the story and has openly been critical of the Saudis, 'While she claims to be Khashoggi’s fiancée, his family has denied ever hearing or knowing about her.' " • Also critical to this story, Feldman reveals : "are the purported eyewitness (Turan Kislakci) and the reporter (Jamal Eishayyal). Kislakci, who has led the protests against the Saudis, claimed that 15 Saudi operatives killed Khashoggi, which was debunked later by Turkish officials, who said that the 15-man team were investigators who entered with their agreement. Eishayyal, an Al Jazeera correspondent, is the brother of 'the director of a Qatari-funded news website al-Araby al-Jadeed, which is supervised by the Moslem Brotherhood in Doha and in London and is run by Palestinian politician, Asmi Bisharai, the adviser to the emir of Qatar. Their father is a leading Brotherhood figure who works for the Emir.' Meanwhile the Washington Post, which has yet to explain why it hired a Moslem Brotherhood propagandist, is still being fed anti-Saudi and anti-Trump nonsense by Khashoggi buddy Khaled Saffuri, 'an aide to US Al-Qaida fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi (currently in federal prison) and friend of convicted/deported Palestinian Jihad leader Sami al-Arian.' ” • TO TOP IT OFF, Feldman states : "Indeed, Khashoggi tooled around Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida founder Abdullah Azzam." • • • SHOW US THE EVIDENCE. The Turkish police reports keep shifting as the story falls apart. Clarice Feldman states : "On Twitter, Turkish academic and columnist Emre Uslu contends that in the 650 meters distance between the hotel (where the claimed assassins stayed) and the consulate there are seven security cameras, but for some reason, the police haven't shown any of that camera footage to prove that they actually went to the consulate. Perhaps Turkey is dialing down the story because, as journalist-in-exile Abdullah Bozkurt reminds us, the Saudis have plenty of dirt on the corrupt Erdogan, like the $100 million they wired to the Erdogan family foundation. Not only are the sources of the Khashoggi tale suspect, but also the information they peddle is bizarre. First accounts were that the Turkish government had video and audio proof that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the consulate but wouldn’t release them because that would reveal where the cameras and recorders were hidden. Think : Surely if that were the case the Saudis would know from the claim itself where the cameras and recorders had been placed. Later accounts say Khashoggi recorded the proof on his Apple wristwatch synced to a phone outside the building. Whatever 'proofs' of this bizarre tale the Turks and Iranian stooges are promoting, we haven’t seen it. On the other hand, we are seeing lots of evidence of a press, in particular the Washington Post, that is terminally credulous and uninterested in the background and motives of its sources at best, or at worst willing promoters of the mullahs and the Obama crowd that loved them." Wou cna read the entire Clarice Feldman article at < https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/10/turkish_taffy.html#ixzz5Tuh7VEeA >. • • • DEAR READERS, nobody condones murder, or the intimidation of real journalists. But, in the cesspool that is Turkey, we need to be VERY careful about reaching any conclusions about anything. I am now more than ever convinced that SA is not at fault in the Khashoggi disappearance. AND, just one more point -- why did every Washington Post and European story about his disappearance instantly jump to the conclusion that he was murdered and is dead?? He has disappeared -- but we have absolutely no evidence that Khashoggi is dead. • I feel certain that national security advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel are busy working this case and will advise President Trump before anything happens in Congress. A Turkish effort to stain SA-US relations or Turkey letting Iran's QUDs operatives do it for them seems to be the most likely truth. Neither Turkey nor the Washington Post are credible on any position they take or story they break. Why would we believe them about Khashoggi? I don't think I'm all wrong.