I doubt that Bill Browder's visa revocation is an accident.
More likely, it was ordered by someone who is either directly sympathetic to Putin's goals or wants to make the administration look bad.
Regardless, Secretary Tillerson should make a personal apology on behalf of the agency to Mr. Browder, who, instead, should be lauded for his heroic efforts on behalf of human rights and anti-corruption.
Showing posts with label Rex Tillerson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rex Tillerson. Show all posts
Sunday, October 22, 2017
We're Living An Old Joke About the Nazis
Rex Tillerson: It's time for Iranian militias to go home.
IRGC + Iranian militias immediately picked up their marbles and went home.
Or not. No, they actually didn't even blink.
IRGC + Iranian militias immediately picked up their marbles and went home.
Or not. No, they actually didn't even blink.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Contrary to Progressive Bandwagon Fantasy, Tillerson's Exist Would Actually Strengthen The Presidency
So the entire left-wing media jumped on the "Rex Tillerson is in shambles and will be leaving soon" bandwagon. On the one hand, weakening the presidency is in the interests of the left-leaning media circus; on the other hand, they are shooting themselves in the foot by trying to get Tillerson out as quickly as possible. In fact, the next candidate is much more likely to be on the same page as Trump with regards to Iran deal and other issues, and will likely to strengthen our foreign policy rather than weaken it. At this point, in their desperation, the progressives are just making noise for the sake of making noise.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
State Department follows Iran and Turkey right into the Swamp
Our pathetic State Department, as voiced not by some Arabist career diplomat, nor by an insidious Obama holdover, but by Trump's very own Rex Tillerson, just proclaimed that it does not recognize the results of Kurdish independence referendum.
Yet, this administration, continuous onwards in its quest to fund corrupt Palestinian leadership and work towards establishing a Palestinian state.
Mind you, in an interesting and completely unexpected coincidence, Hamas, part of the future unity government, is openly funded by Iran, same country bluntly opposed to the establishment of a Kurdish state. In the same coincidence, Hamas is also supported by Turkey, another country that expressed its opposition to the Kurdish state in the strongest possible terms short of an invasion.
Instead of providing moral strength and leadership and using its status as a world power to shush the naysayers once and for all, the United States is once again, jumping off the moral bridge following the bad example of instigating bullies no one ever actually wants to be friends with, right into the morass of nincompoopery and relativism.
Well done, Secretary Tillerson, we are not only NOT draining the swamp, we are actually making it a lot worse.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The Cuban Travesty
What we know about the mysterious sonic attacks against US diplomats n Cuba...
... Not much,actually.
What we know about the actions of the US government:
- Despite the multiplicity of victims, most of the US diplomats and staff are still there.
- The State Department is planning to evacuate a "large portion" of the embassy, without clarifying when exactly that's going to happen, nor giving reasons why it won't evacuate the entire body of our personnel, all potentially open to future attacks by the unidentified entity.
- After announcing that the State Department is considering shutting down the embassy, under pressure from five US Senators, the State Department agreed to a hastily arranged meeting with Cuban representatives, who are urging the US to be involved in the investigation and not to shut down the embassy.
- No further information about the source of the attacks was put forth at the meeting, but interesting, the US is now sure it wasn't Cuba, but no one will state what other actor it is or could be.
- Interestingly, no one raised any questions as to whether Cuba could potentially know who that other party is.
- Cuba is known to engage in friendly relations with a number of anti-Western entities, including North Korea, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and others.
Let me get something straight here.
Cuba needs us a lot more than we need Cuba.
Yet, despite getting 0 useful information pertaining to the health of our diplomatic personnel, the State Department agrees to a meeting in the US on short notice. And immediately puts aside the question of shutting down the Embassy. And is suddenly sure that it's not Cuba, but appears uncertain of the identify of the mysterious attacker.
Color me skeptical for a moment.
What has changed from before the meeting to after?
Perhaps, the Cubans offered to cut a deal in exchange for not disrupting the relationship. What's a few dozen diplomats when major investments are at stake? The US (and various cronies) get good cuts. The affected diplomats are evacuated, at least for a while, shutting down the criticism about the urgency of the matter, while embassy remains open in a major diplomatic victory for everyone's benefited from the normalized relations (Obama's cronies, most of the career State Department employees, and those Obama appointees who are still in plays), the administration gets the credit for skillfully managing the situation, and everyone walks away happy. The culprit may never be found, but we have bigger fish to fry.
Except the inconvenient truth here is that the affected personnel is STILL in Cuba for reasons that defy logic or explanation - and that haven't, in fact, been directly addressed or explained by Tillerson or anyone else.
Cuba has recently been devastated by Hurricanes, and searching for mysterious sound devices with a flashlight is likely the least of their worries, even if they are honest about the effort.
However, most likely they are not and never have been. Here's why:
The affected territory - in and around diplomatic residences and the embassy, is limited in nature. IF this is a serious investigation involving Cuba, the US, Canada, and possibly other Western actors, if there was a stationary source of sound, it would have been found by now, or else completely destroyed by the storm. If it's a mobile device, the culprits would never leave it out there to be found. So even if Cuba is responsible for the attacks, it certainly won't ever make itself accountable, but it will play along with the United States and wag the tail nicely in order to continue reaping the benefits of normalization. More likely, if there's another entity involved, and Cuba is well aware of who it is, it gets to milk two cows - pretend to cooperate with the US in exchange for goodwill, while also getting paid off by the responsible party.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
Most importantly, it can happen again and again, so long as our people are still there.
I am now convinced that simply evacuating the affected individuals, who are not even receiving the best treatment that they can in Cuba, is not enough, though it should have been the first priority.
The embassy has to be shut down for the safety of our foreign officers and other employees. We should not allow Cubans, and their malevolent buddies to play us for fools while they are enriching themselves with our investments, and legitimizing themselves in the international community through diplomatic contacts and priority visits with our officials. If they want to build a relationship with the US, Cuban government must choose sides now, and give up whoever it is that is behind these unconscionable attacks on our personnel.
And our first duty is to our own citizens. We must regard all such incidents as attacks on our national sovereignty, acts of aggression, and do everything humanly possible to first, remove our people from the zone of danger and ensure the best possible treatment for them all, second sending a clear signal that we take such acts of aggression seriously, and third, leave any of our would-be partners with a clear choice of action: either they ensure that we get whatever we need to defang our adversaries, or they themselves will be regarded as facilitators and accessories of the aggressors and treated accordingly.
... Not much,actually.
What we know about the actions of the US government:
- Despite the multiplicity of victims, most of the US diplomats and staff are still there.
- The State Department is planning to evacuate a "large portion" of the embassy, without clarifying when exactly that's going to happen, nor giving reasons why it won't evacuate the entire body of our personnel, all potentially open to future attacks by the unidentified entity.
- After announcing that the State Department is considering shutting down the embassy, under pressure from five US Senators, the State Department agreed to a hastily arranged meeting with Cuban representatives, who are urging the US to be involved in the investigation and not to shut down the embassy.
- No further information about the source of the attacks was put forth at the meeting, but interesting, the US is now sure it wasn't Cuba, but no one will state what other actor it is or could be.
- Interestingly, no one raised any questions as to whether Cuba could potentially know who that other party is.
- Cuba is known to engage in friendly relations with a number of anti-Western entities, including North Korea, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and others.
Let me get something straight here.
Cuba needs us a lot more than we need Cuba.
Yet, despite getting 0 useful information pertaining to the health of our diplomatic personnel, the State Department agrees to a meeting in the US on short notice. And immediately puts aside the question of shutting down the Embassy. And is suddenly sure that it's not Cuba, but appears uncertain of the identify of the mysterious attacker.
Color me skeptical for a moment.
What has changed from before the meeting to after?
Perhaps, the Cubans offered to cut a deal in exchange for not disrupting the relationship. What's a few dozen diplomats when major investments are at stake? The US (and various cronies) get good cuts. The affected diplomats are evacuated, at least for a while, shutting down the criticism about the urgency of the matter, while embassy remains open in a major diplomatic victory for everyone's benefited from the normalized relations (Obama's cronies, most of the career State Department employees, and those Obama appointees who are still in plays), the administration gets the credit for skillfully managing the situation, and everyone walks away happy. The culprit may never be found, but we have bigger fish to fry.
Except the inconvenient truth here is that the affected personnel is STILL in Cuba for reasons that defy logic or explanation - and that haven't, in fact, been directly addressed or explained by Tillerson or anyone else.
Cuba has recently been devastated by Hurricanes, and searching for mysterious sound devices with a flashlight is likely the least of their worries, even if they are honest about the effort.
However, most likely they are not and never have been. Here's why:
The affected territory - in and around diplomatic residences and the embassy, is limited in nature. IF this is a serious investigation involving Cuba, the US, Canada, and possibly other Western actors, if there was a stationary source of sound, it would have been found by now, or else completely destroyed by the storm. If it's a mobile device, the culprits would never leave it out there to be found. So even if Cuba is responsible for the attacks, it certainly won't ever make itself accountable, but it will play along with the United States and wag the tail nicely in order to continue reaping the benefits of normalization. More likely, if there's another entity involved, and Cuba is well aware of who it is, it gets to milk two cows - pretend to cooperate with the US in exchange for goodwill, while also getting paid off by the responsible party.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
Most importantly, it can happen again and again, so long as our people are still there.
I am now convinced that simply evacuating the affected individuals, who are not even receiving the best treatment that they can in Cuba, is not enough, though it should have been the first priority.
The embassy has to be shut down for the safety of our foreign officers and other employees. We should not allow Cubans, and their malevolent buddies to play us for fools while they are enriching themselves with our investments, and legitimizing themselves in the international community through diplomatic contacts and priority visits with our officials. If they want to build a relationship with the US, Cuban government must choose sides now, and give up whoever it is that is behind these unconscionable attacks on our personnel.
And our first duty is to our own citizens. We must regard all such incidents as attacks on our national sovereignty, acts of aggression, and do everything humanly possible to first, remove our people from the zone of danger and ensure the best possible treatment for them all, second sending a clear signal that we take such acts of aggression seriously, and third, leave any of our would-be partners with a clear choice of action: either they ensure that we get whatever we need to defang our adversaries, or they themselves will be regarded as facilitators and accessories of the aggressors and treated accordingly.
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