Day: July 17, 2024

The Taliban Are Holding Three Americans Hostage As Old Joe Biden sends them billions.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-taliban-are-holding-three-americans-hostage; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Order a copy of Robert Spencer’s forthcoming book,"Muhammad: A Critical Biography, by clicking here.]

The Biden regime's State Department has now publicly confirmed what it must have known for nearly three years, if not longer: Taliban jihadis are holding three Americans hostage. What have relentlessly anti-American Biden regime apparatchiks done in response? True to form, they’ve sent billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to the Taliban.

The Washington Examiner reported Saturday that a Biden regime Foggy Bottom wonk “confirmed on July 11 that three U.S. citizens, George Glezmann, Mahmood Habibi, and Ryan Corbett, are currently being held in Taliban custody. Taliban representatives repeatedly claimed they only held two Americans in detention.” Why are they holding any at all, and why are the comrades in the State Department and the Oval Office sending them money instead of applying pressure upon the Taliban?

Of course, the Biden regime has long since made clear which side it is on, with $10 billion to Iran and $100 million to Gaza, which means to Hamas, since there isn’t any entity in Gaza that has the power or will to keep the money away from Hamas. The Taliban have been in on the gravy train as well. Just The News reported in early June that “a recently released federal watchdog report shows that the U.S. government has sent at least $11 million to the Taliban since the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops.”

That was a wildly low estimate, as it left out the key excuse that the Biden regime uses to send our money over to Kabul: humanitarian aid. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) wrote in its May 2024 report, “U.S. Funds Benefitting the Taliban-Controlled Government: Implementing Partners Paid at Least $10.9 Million and Were Pressured to Divert Assistance,” that since the Taliban returned to power, “the U.S. government has continued to be the largest international donor supporting the Afghan people,” and that the Biden “has provided more than $2.8 billion in humanitarian and development assistance to help the people of Afghanistan.”

Antony Blinken and his henchmen would likely insist that this $2.8 billion was not sent to the Taliban, but to other groups that are operating in the country. But this is just as unrealistic and disingenuous as claiming that money sent to Gaza won’t go to Hamas. The aid money that has been sent to Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of the Taliban despite all the denials and claims to the contrary.

“Now,” said The Foreign Desk in an Aug. 2022 report, “humanitarian aid to the Afghan people is lining the pockets of the Taliban at the expense of innocent Afghans and American taxpayers alike.” Nothing has changed since then; if anything, the Taliban have consolidated their power even more than they had by mid-2022. Just as The News notes, “Judicial Watch released an investigation recently showing that the Taliban has created fake NGOs to siphon away tax dollars.”

Your tax dollars are even going to fund education in Afghanistan, even after the Taliban have barred girls from going to school. Judicial Watch reports that the Biden regime “has continued to fund Afghanistan’s education sector through six programs that cost $185.2 million even though the Taliban has issued decrees drastically limiting access to education for girls and women as well as restricting women’s ability to work and other basic freedoms.”

In fiscal year 2023 alone, “the U.S. sent Taliban-ruled Afghanistan over $566 million in humanitarian assistance. Most of it was for emergency food, but a chunk was classified as going to general humanitarian and health.” And all this business is about how the money is for food or “general humanitarian” needs is a steaming pile of nonsense, anyway.

Money is fungible. If you give the Taliban $566 million for food and medicine, they’ll have $566 million freed up for jihad violence and the oppression of women. Why this simple fact of basic economics continues to elude the great minds of the Biden regime remains a mystery and a matter of no curiosity at all for our nation’s “journalists.”

Ominously, “more than $15 million went to a cause that is labeled ‘redacted’ in the government records.” That’s right: we sent the Taliban $15 million for a secret purpose, and you can be assured that it’s not to cover the costs of printing millions of copies of the Bill of Rights. Congressional opposition, such as it is, should be demanding that the regime disclose what that money is going for and whether or not it is being spent in the best interests of the United States.

It’s a reasonable line of inquiry. After all, it seems as if the Biden regime never misses an opportunity to aid America’s enemies, even the Taliban, as they hold Americans hostage. There used to be a word for that. Started with a T. But everyone has forgotten that word.

Secret Service Corruption and Incompetence is No Secret, Consorting with criminals, ignoring White House shooters, and failing to stop an attempted assassination.

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SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/secret-service-corruption-and-incompetence-is-no-secret; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]

The Secret Service is coming under fire for the ease with which Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get within 150 meters of Donald Trump, a distance U.S. Army recruits must hit human-sized targets to qualify with the M-16 rifle. Former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker also called out the Secret Service for poor communication and failing to get Trump out of the danger zone in rapid fashion. Those troubled by the attempted assassination should know that Secret Service incompetence and corruption are not new developments.

“The U.S. Secret Service has suspended four agents linked to two men accused of impersonating federal law enforcement officers who authorities said gave gifts worth thousands of dollars to agency personnel including one assigned to protect President Joe Biden’s wife,” explains an April 7, 2022 U.S. News story headlined “Four U.S. Secret Service Agents Suspended Over Ties to Phony Cops,” a reference to “Washington men” Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35.

According to the FBI, “Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden and told other government officials they could have access to what he claimed were official government vehicles.” Ali told witnesses that he has “connections to the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.”

According to prosecutors, “the pair had posed as special agents since at least February 2020 and offered a variety of gifts to Secret Service members and at least one Department of Homeland Security employee including rent-free apartments valued at $40,000 a year, iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat-screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator and other law enforcement paraphernalia.” The FBI found “a loaded Glock pistol, ammunition, components from disassembled guns and sniper equipment” along with “body armor, gas masks, zip ties, handcuffs, firearm storage cases, a drone, Department of Homeland Security patches and law enforcement clothing, DHS training manuals, surveillance equipment and a binder with a list of residents in the apartment complex.”

According to the Justice Department, “Ali and Taherzadeh ingratiated themselves with employees of the U.S. Secret Service because it provided them with cover and aided in their scheme.” The pair also tried to recruit at least one person to join what they claimed as an official DHS “task force.” The pair required that the recruit “be shot with an Airsoft rifle to evaluate their pain tolerance and reaction.” Prosecutors called Taherzadeh and Ali “a serious threat to the community” and “a potential risk to national security.”

Last August, Haider Ali was sentenced to 68 months in federal prison for his role in a “fraud conspiracy.”  Last December Arian Taherzadeh was sentenced to 33 months in prison for pretending to be a federal law enforcement officer to curry favor with members of the U.S. Secret Service.” The four suspended Secret Service agents were also not named, which was also the case in another failure.

In 2011, gunman Oscar Ortega-Hernandez parked his car on Constitution Avenue, fired at least seven rounds at the White House with a semi-automatic rifle, and safely fled the scene. According to a CBS report, Secret Service agents responded to the sound of gunfire but were ordered to stand down. Secret Service bosses blamed the noise on construction equipment backfiring and a gang shoot-out.

The attack was not noticed until four days later when a housekeeper spotted broken glass and plaster around Truman's balcony. The president and First Lady blasted then-Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, but deputy national security advisor Antony Blinken told reporters “I know the Secret Service is on top of this and they will take every necessary step to correct any problems.”

Ortega-Hernandez was apprehended in Pennsylvania and in 2014 sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism and weapons offenses. That year Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigned in the wake of security breaches such as an armed man jumping a fence and gaining access to the White House. So Tony Blinken was wrong that the Secret Service would take every necessary step to correct the problems.  Jump ahead ten years and Blinken is Biden’s Secretary of State, a big fan of the letter proclaiming Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation,” which he knows is untrue.

Joe Biden’s pick for Secret Service director is Kimberly Cheatle the veteran of “a long and distinguished career at the Secret Service.” Biden came to “trust her judgement and counsel” and Cheatle “was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service.” Cheatle’s Secret Service failed to prevent Thomas Matthew Crooks from firing rifle shots that wounded Donald Trump and killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a firefighter and family man, and critically wounded David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

In May, House Oversight and Accountability chairman James Comer wrote to Cheatle about “potential vulnerabilities within the Secret Service preventing it from fulfilling its mission to ensure the safety and security of its protectees.” The committee has now launched an investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and requests Cheatle’s “voluntary appearance” at a hearing on July 22. As Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.

Who Was Thomas Crooks?

We're learning more about Thomas Crooks, the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump. Crooks was a high school student when he appeared in an ad for an investment company. Inside Edition found video of Crooks on its high school Facebook page, explaining computer coding to another student. Crooks' high school years were troubling, according to one former peer. Jason Kohler says Crooks was rejected by the school's rifle team.