Friday PM ~ thefrontpagecover

TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~    
Royal Navy Weakness a Warning for America
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Harold Hutchison  
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Mueller’s Ignorance Of Fusion GPS Proves 
His Investigation Was A Sham 
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By Margot Cleveland
thefederalist.com } ~ Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees provided yet further proof that the entire special counsel investigation was a political witch hunt... While Democrats succeeded in eliciting affirmative responses from Mueller to their dramatic reading of the special counsel report at Wednesday’s prosecution of President Trump in absentia, it was Mueller’s ignorance when queried about Fusion GPS that exposed both the proceedings and the special counsel probe as a sham. In what he surely saw as an introductory question, Rep. Steven Chabot asked Mueller to confirm that the name of the firm that produced the Christopher Steele dossier was Fusion. “I’m not familiar with that,” the former special counsel responded. Taken aback by Mueller’s ignorance, Chabot stressed, “It’s not a trick question,” before attempting to ask Mueller about Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier. “This is outside my purview,” Mueller testified. How is that even possible? In his opening statement, Mueller stressed that he agreed to serve as special counsel because he thought “it was of paramount interest to the nation to determine whether a foreign adversary had interfered in the presidential election.” “The order appointing me as special counsel directed our office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” Mueller continued. Yet here he was, telling Congress that Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier were outside of his “purview.” But the Steele dossier built the entire case of Russia collusion. It justified the four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance orders on former Trump adviser Carter Page. It detailed supposed connections between Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen and the Kremlin. Had anyone truly believed there was collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, they would have pulled every thread in the Steele dossier to see if something stuck. Rep. Matt Gaetz knew this, and said to Mueller: No, it is exactly your purview, Director Mueller. And here’s why. Only one or two things is possible. Either Steele made this whole thing up and there were never any Russians telling him of this vast criminal conspiracy that you didn’t find. Or Russians lied to Steele. Now, if Russians were lying to Steele to undermine our confidence in our duly elected president, that would seem to be precisely in your purview because in your opening you stated that the organizing principle was to fully and thoroughly investigate Russia’s interference. But you weren’t interested in whether Russians were interfering through Christopher Steele. And if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying. But you say nothing about that in your report. But Mueller persisted: “It’s not my purview. Others are investigating what you address...  https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/26/muellers-ignorance-fusion-gps-proves-investigation-sham/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=153f6dfc48-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-153f6dfc48-83771801   
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 If Mueller Didn’t Write the Report, That Means Someone from His Team of Former Clinton
Lawyer FBI Agents Did (And Now
Everything Makes Sense)
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by americanlibertyreport.com ~ The biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s Congressional hearing with Special Counselor Robert Mueller was how unfamiliar he was with his own report... He had no clue who Glenn Simpson or Fusion GPS was. He literally told one Congressman who questioned him he “wasn’t familiar with that part of the report.” Even the Trump hating mainstream media ran headlines calling Mueller frail… confused… lost… doddering. What happened? Out of all of the predictions about the outcome of the Mueller investigation, the one thing that surprised us was that Mueller turned out to be a senile old man. It appears that Grandpa Mueller spent the entirety of the “Mueller investigation” looking for his slippers, eating soft food and trying to guess the puzzle before Vanna White turns all the letters around. Meanwhile, scumbag/liar-Clinton attack dog Andrew Weissmann and scumbag/liar-Clinton Foundation attorney Jeannie Rhee ran the actual anti-Trump investigation...
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16 Marines Arrested for Alleged Human 
Smuggling, Drug-Related Offenses
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By Gidget Fuentes
news.usni.org } ~ During an infantry battalion’s morning formation on Thursday at Camp Pendleton, Calif., 16 Marines were arrested on allegations they took part in illegal human smuggling and illicit drug-related offenses... 1st Marine Division announced. Another eight Marines with the battalion “were taken aside to be questioned on their involvement in alleged drug offenses related to today’s arrests,” division officials said in a news release. An official confirmed to USNI News the Marines arrested and questioned are all assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, an infantry battalion in Camp San Mateo at the Southern California base. “The investigation is ongoing. They were taken into custody by NCIS personnel,” said a division spokesman, 1st Lt. Cameron Edinburgh. Charges against each of the Marines were pending and no information yet was available. Division officials said today’s arrests and investigation are tied to “information gained from a previous human smuggling investigation.” That case appears to be the July 3 arrests of two Marines – Lance Cpls. Byron Daniel Law II and David Javier Salazar-Quintero, assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. The Marines were stopped in the Boulevard/Jacumba area, east of San Diego, by border agents who had spotted a black car in an area known for smuggling and where agents saw fresh footprints, according to the federal complaint. Another agent spotted the car and pulled the vehicle over. Law was driving and Salazar-Quintero was in the front passenger seat. Three men in the back seat told agents “they are citizens of Mexico without any immigration documents that would allow them to enter or remain in the United States legally,” the complaint stated. All five men were arrested...  https://news.usni.org/2019/07/25/16-marines-arrested-for-alleged-human-smuggling-drug-related-offenses?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=06117e76fd-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-06117e76fd-231491269&mc_cid=06117e76fd&mc_eid=3999f18767   
An English Misunderstanding of Iran
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by Amir Taheri
gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ The subtitle of Jack Straw's new book promises to help the reader in "understanding Iran". However, what one gets in 390 pages may best be described as a misunderstanding of Iran today... a misunderstanding that has prevented Britain, along with other Western powers, from developing a realistic Iran policy and has helped prolong the crisis caused by the Islamic Republic's unorthodox behavior in the international arena. Straw's misunderstanding, perhaps caused by his "absolute infatuation" with his imaginary Iran, has three aspects. The first is that he thinks that because Iran, as he reminds the reader, is an ancient civilization -- and has produced great poets, weaves exquisite carpets and offers one of the world's hautes cuisines -- it deserves indulgence for its weird activities in other domains such as hostage-taking, hate-mongering, human rights violations and the export of terror in the name of revolution. It is like granting Stalin indulgence because one appreciates Pushkin and Tchaikovsky and enjoys a dish of borscht with a glass of "little water" on the side. In another register, what would you say if we gave Hitler a pass because we like Schiller, Beethoven and potato salad? That Cyrus the Great was a great king and, arguably, even the founder of human rights, as Straw suggests, does not justify, to cite just one example, the mass murder of Syrians by a mercenary army led by the Iranian mullahs. The second "misunderstanding" concerns Straw's strange belief that the Khomeinist ruling elite includes a "reformist" faction that desires close relations with Western democracies, and must, therefore, be supported to weaken and eventually get rid of the "hardline" faction led by "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But, who are the "reformists" Straw claims to have discovered in Tehran? He cites a number of names among them former Presidents Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Muhammad Khatami, the current President Hassan Rouhani, former presidential candidates Mir-Hussein Mussavi and Mehdi Karrubi -- both under house arrest -- and lower rank current or former officials such as Muhammad-Javad Zarif, Kamal Kharrazi whom Straw calls " my old friend", and Mostafa Tajzadeh. The trouble is that Straw is unable to cite a single reform proposed, let alone carried out, by his "reformist" faction in Tehran. Worse still, he forgets that there have been more executions and political arrests under Khatami and Rouhani than during the presidency of the supposedly "hardline" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The third misunderstanding is that in dealing with the Islamic Republic, all choice is limited to just two options: swallowing whatever Iran does or launching a full-scale war against it...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14585/the-english-job-jack-straw  
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U.S. Cruiser Transits Taiwan Strait After China 
Calls to Stop Foreign Interference on Island
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By Ben Werner
news.usni.org } ~ Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG-54) transited the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday... a day after Chinese defense officials released a white paper vowing to defeat any attempts to sever Taiwan from the mainland. The white paper,  China’s National Defense in the New Era, addresses several security issues facing China’s government, including Taiwan’s status. “We make no promise to renounce the use of force, and reserve the option of taking all necessary measures,” states the white paper. “This is by no means targeted at our compatriots in Taiwan, but at external interference forces and the very small number of Taiwan separatists and their activities.” Wednesday,  Antietam sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the narrow body of water separating Taiwan from the mainland, according to several media accounts and first reported by Reuters. Typically, Chinese government officials protest the movement of foreign military vessels through the water. On Thursday, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, addressed Antietam’s voyage during a regularly scheduled press briefing. “China closely monitored from start to end the passage of the U.S. warship through the Taiwan Strait. We have expressed concerns to the U.S. side. The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive one in China-U.S. relations. We urge the U.S. to observe the one-China principle … and deal with Taiwan-related issues properly and with caution so that they won’t undermine China-U.S. relationship and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Hua said, according to an English-language translation of the briefing’s transcript, released by the ministry.
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Royal Navy Weakness a Warning for America
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Harold Hutchison:  The seizure of at least one British tanker by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has caused a lot of concern. It rightly should, and not just because it’s technically an act of war against one of America’s closest allies by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The seizure raises the risk that the tension could erupt into war.

Why did this happen? Well, Iran has a long track record of aggression and sponsoring terrorism going back to 1979. The country has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map. The regime’s Houthi stooges in Yemen fired missiles at a U.S. vessel multiple times. When President George W. Bush put Iran on the Axis of Evil, it was for that and a host of other reasons. This maritime hostage-taking escalation is just the latest on the list of reasons to kick this genocidal regime’s collective rear.

Well, that’s the readily apparent reason. However, if you want to get to the root cause, it comes down to the fact that evil, genocidal mullahs in Tehran thought they could get away with it. To see why, look at this graphic from the Twitter feed of NavyLookout. This represents the entirety of the Royal Navy’s force of major surface combatants: Six Daring-class guided-missile destroyers and 13 Type 23 guided-missile frigates. The Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are not even ready to deploy.

Loyal Patriot Post readers will note that we have discussed the Navy’s need for hulls in the water on  multiple occasions — not just in terms of the aircraft carriers but also the need for more submarines. Just take a look at that graphic about the Royal Navy again, and you will see why.

Of the six Daring-class destroyers, only two are actively deployed as of this month. Of the other four, two have been undergoing major refits (significant maintenance to address wear and tear), and two others are undergoing minor maintenance). One has deployed to the Persian Gulf on short notice, the other is preparing to operate in the Western Atlantic. In essence, to have one ship deployed, you really need three hulls to account for upgrades and maintenance.

Looking at the baker’s dozen of guided-missile frigates, the British are in the same sort of fix. Five of the ships are undergoing extensive modernization to receive a new surface-to-air missile (among other upgrades). One is inactive, waiting its turn. That leaves seven active frigates, with one deployed to the Persian Gulf, one making a hasty deployment there, one returning from an exercise in the Baltic, and four others in British waters.

This is exactly why the decline in the United States Navy’s ship totals has to be considered a huge problem in need of immediate addressing. The good news is that the Navy’s FFG(X) program offers one chance to do that. Buying the designs based on the Freedom and Independence classes of the littoral combat ship and the Coast Guard’s Bertholf-class national security cutter would help boost the totals. But the real benefit would also be to buy the version of Spain’s Alvaro de Bazan-class guided-missile frigate.

That ship, with many systems similar to those on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, would be an excellent addition to the Navy’s fleet with a few minor tweaks. But the other real problem is that the Navy needed even more ships built earlier. The Zumwalt-class of destroyers was supposed to be 32 ships. We’re only getting three. It will be even worse as the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers keep aging and need replacement. There seems to be no movement forward there. And a large navy will be needed to help Japan protect the Marcus Island motherlode that could neutralize one of China’s economic weapons.

President Trump is buying time with his policies aimed at China and Russia. However, if the United States does not start building the necessary hulls in the water now, we’re squandering a strategic opportunity.  ~The Patriot Post

https://patriotpost.us/articles/64444?mailing_id=4436&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.4436&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body  

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