Thursday Noon ~ TheFrontPageCover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
Chaos or Not, Trump Is Racking Up
a Record of Foreign Policy Success
by Marc A. Thiessen 
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Polygraph exam taken by Kavanaugh
accuser Christine Ford comes under scrutiny
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by Gregg Re
{ foxnews.com } ~ One day after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., raised concerns about the polygraph test taken by Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Ford... her attorney is refusing to comment on who paid for the examination or provide additional details on how it was conducted. And experts contacted by Fox News confirmed that while polygraph examinations can be useful, they are ultimately fallible tools that "can be beaten." Without mentioning any particular instances, one former senior FBI agent said polygraphs would have difficulty detecting deception by sociopaths, psychopaths and committed liars lacking a "conscience." Even well-intentioned individuals who have come to believe that their false stories are, in fact, true -- whether because of therapist-induced memories or other causes -- can sometimes pass polygraph tests, former FBI officials and psychology experts told Fox News. Ford provided The Washington Post the results of a polygraph examination conducted by a former FBI agent in August, which reportedly showed that she had been truthful in her allegations. According to the Post, Ford took the polygraph on the advice of her attorney, Debra Katz...
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The International Criminal Court: A Failed Experiment
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{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ The International Criminal Court (ICC) is "already dead to us" National Security Adviser John Bolton told the Federalist Society recently... The U.S. will, he said, resist the court "by any means necessary." Why would the Trump Administration take such a hard line against "the world's court of last resort"? Founded in 2002, in the wake of the Rwandan and Yugoslavian genocides and mass rapes, the international body was supposed to try evildoers who would otherwise escape justice due to broken legal systems in failed states. Opposing the court is not a new position for the U.S. or Ambassador Bolton. The Bush Administration  refused to sign the court's implementing treaty in 2003, contending that it would lead to trials of U.S. soldiers and spies by a politically turbo-charged body located in Europe. At the time, many European leaders opposed President Bush's war in Iraq and questioned its actions in the war on terror, including rendition and holding prisoners indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. Ambassador Bolton was even more prescient. He warned, in 1998, when the formation of body was first being debated in Rome, that it would be ineffective, unaccountable and overly political. Now, U.S. soldiers may face charges for activities in Afghanistan. While the U.S. is not a signatory of the treaty, Afghanistan is, and the court claims jurisdiction over any actions taken there. If the ICC begins prosecuting American "war crimes" abroad, commanders will temper their battle plans, soldiers will become gun-shy and civilians will refuse to serve. America's sovereign right to defend itself will be weakened. Israel is also expected to be another target, as the Palestinian Authority has agreed to the court's jurisdiction and has already requested a probe...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13008/international-criminal-court 
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Conflicting Reports Over DOJ and FBI
“Classification” and “Redaction Removal”
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{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ There is nuance within the directive for declassification by President Trump.  The sets of documents are not identical in the way they are classified within the intelligence apparatus... There are distinct differences and conflicting reports Bloomberg Report and Washington Examiner perhaps based on conflation and miss-identification of those differences. First, Sara Carter: Breaking down the presidential directive to the four component parts helps understanding the issues, and the likelihood for redactions within the releases: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications. (4) publicly release of all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of scumbag-James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr...  https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/09/19/conflicting-reports-over-doj-and-fbi-classification-and-redaction-removal/.
Chairman Devin Nunes Discusses
“Unacceptable Delay” in Declassification Process
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{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has seen all of the intelligence documents, and as a Gang-of-Eight intelligence oversight member... he has also received the briefing material behind the origin of FBI’s operation “Crossfire Hurricane.” Devin Nunes was also the person who led the FISA legislative reauthorization and initiated some of the preliminary reforms surrounding the 702 process. So Chairman Nunes is essentially the key subject matter oversight expert on the nature of the information within the declassification directive.  https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/09/20/chairman-devin-nunes-discusses-unacceptable-delay-in-declassification-process/
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Laura Ingraham Interviews Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
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{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sits down with Laura Ingraham for an interview on a wide variety of topics... including former Secretary of State hanoi-John Kerry’s interference with current U.S. policy on Iran; ongoing issues with China; refugee resettlement and more..
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Chaos or Not, Trump Is Racking Up a Record of Foreign Policy Success

by Marc A. Thiessen

In his new book “Fear,” Bob Woodward recounts that in April 2017, after President Trump saw images of dead Syrian children with their mouths foaming from a sarin attack, he called Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and issued an order: Get me a plan for a military strike to take out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
               “Let’s f — ing kill him!” Trump told Mattis, according to the book. “Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f — ing lot of them.” Mattis, Woodward writes, assured the president that “he would get right on it.” But as soon as Mattis hung up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that.” Instead, Woodward says, the defense secretary gave Trump options for more-limited strikes.
               Today, as Assad menaces 3 million civilians in the last rebel stronghold, the Idlib province, it’s clear that Trump’s instinct was right. We should have taken out the Syrian dictator last year.
               When Trump was elected in 2016, many worried that he would usher in a new age of American isolationism and withdrawal. That hasn’t happened. Trump has pursued a foreign  policy that is not only not isolationist but also a significant improvement over his predecessor’s.
               In Syria, while Trump did not eliminate Assad, he did enforce President Barack scumbag/liar-nObama’s red line against the use of chemical weapons, punishing violations not once but twice — and restoring America’s credibility on the world stage. Last week, Trump launched the U.S.-led coalition’s assault on the Islamic State’s last stronghold on the Syrian-Iraqi border, which will eliminate its physical caliphate. And unlike scumbag/liar-nObama, Trump is not taking America’s boot off the terrorists’ necks. The Post reports that the president has approved a new strategy that “indefinitely extends the military effort” in Syria until a government acceptable to all Syrians is established and all Iranian military and proxy forces are driven out. Conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan, a die-hard isolationist, recently asked: “Is Trump Going Neocon in Syria?
               In Israel, Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which he recognized as the country’s capital — something three of his predecessors promised, but failed, to do. He also withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and refocused U.S. efforts in the Middle East on shoring up relations with allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia instead of courting Iran.
               In Afghanistan, after a careful deliberative process in which Trump (correctly) pressed his generals for answers to tough questions, the president reversed his campaign position favoring a troop pull-out and sent additional forces, with no timetable for withdrawal.
               In Turkey, Trump is taking a hard line with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, imposing tariffs as the Turkish lira has gone into free fall. Trump’s move was intended to punish Erdogan for his continued detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and followed his threats against U.S. forces in Syria and his plans to buy an S-400 advanced air-defense system from Moscow.
               Trump has also taken a surprisingly tough line with Russia. He approved a massive arms and aid package for Ukraine, expelled 60 Russian diplomats and authorized new sanctions against Moscow at least four times for: (1) interfering in U.S. elections, (2) violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, (3) launching a chemical-weapon attack against a Russian national in Britain and (4) violating North Korea sanctions. And the Trump administration recently warned Russia that it would face “total economic isolation” if Moscow backed the Assad regime’s assault in Idlib. Trump’s policies more than make up for his disastrous Helsinki news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.
               On North Korea, Trump issued credible threats of military action, which brought Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table. The chances of successful denuclearization are slim, but every other approach by Trump’s predecessors has failed. And there is reason for hope that Trump will not sign a bad deal, because he set a very high bar for a good deal when he withdrew fromscumbag/liar-nObama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.
               The list of good foreign-policy moves goes on. Trump has taken a strong stand against the narco-dictatorship in Venezuela, and his administration even considered supporting coup plotters seeking to remove the Maduro regime. He strengthened NATO by getting allies to kick in billions more toward the alliance’s collective security. He declared war on the International Criminal Court, which purports to have jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers and citizens even though America is not a signatory to the treaty creating the ICC.
               Liberals might not like any of these developments, but long-standing policy goals of conservative internationalists are being achieved. There may be chaos in the Trump White House, but so far at least the chaos is producing pretty good results.

~The Patriot Post 
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/58330?mailing_id=3746&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3746&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

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