A Memorial Day Message From the Men Who Guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Daily Caller recently had an opportunity to talk with the sentinels who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“Many people think that the ultimate sacrifice is giving up your life. But these soldiers gave up not only their lives but their identities,” Staff Sergeant Shane Vincent said.

“When you see a World War II veteran struggling to get out of his wheelchair so that he can stand during taps and salute during taps, that really hits home and lets you know exactly what this place really is about.”

(Read more from “A Memorial Day Message From the Men Who Guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” HERE)

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Top Iranian Official, John Kerry Meeting Partner, Caught Chanting ‘Death to America’

By The Daily Caller. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a key architect of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, was caught on camera chanting “Death to America,” “Death to Britain” and “Death to Israel,” Israeli outlet Ynetnews reported on Saturday.

Zarif participated in the violent chants on Thursday after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a speech in Tehran, according to Ynetnews.

Zarif’s call for the destruction of America came less than two months after he secretly met with former Secretary of State John Kerry in mid-April to try and save the Iran nuclear deal. (Read more from “Top Iranian Official, John Kerry Meeting Partner, Caught Chanting ‘Death to America'” HERE)

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China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt

By Reuters. China will host Iranian President Hassan Rouhani next month at a regional summit aimed at avoiding disruption of joint projects, its foreign ministry said on Monday, as major powers scramble to save Iran’s nuclear deal after the United States pulled out.

Rouhani will pay a working visit to China and attend the summit of the China and Russia-led security bloc the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ministry said.

It did not give exact dates for his visit, but the summit is scheduled to be held on the second weekend of June in the northern Chinese city of Qingdao.

Iran is currently an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, though it has long sought full membership. (Read more from “China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt” HERE)

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James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat

By The Daily Caller. . .During an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Clapper seemed to argue that the Russian threat “had [not] reached the point” where the FBI would alert the campaign, but apparently had reached the point where the FBI would send in an informant.

“The first thing is just to determine what was going on,” Clapper said. “If there wasn’t a concern about the Russians…perhaps no reason to do that. You know, the FBI has rules and protocols for when they decide to do something like that and I don’t think that at that point it had reached the point where it would be appropriate to engage the head of the campaign or the nominee.” (Read more from “James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat” HERE)

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Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe

By Politico. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that the Russia probe has “devastated and destroyed” the reputations of people, continuing his weekend Twitter assault against the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt? They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. … They went back home in tatters,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Trump has repeatedly called special counsel Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt,” a charge that in recent weeks has been coupled with renewed calls from his allies to end the probe soon. Some House lawmakers have gone even further, arguing that reports stating a confidential FBI informant met with Trump campaign officials means the investigation is irrevocably tainted.

“With Spies, or ‘Informants’ as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or ‘Justice‘ contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?” (Read more from “Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe” HERE)

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Racist Bar Pays ‘People of Color’ $10 Each as a Symbolic ‘Reparation’ From White People

A bar in Portland, Oregon, this week hosted a “Reparations Happy Hour” and gave “people of color” $10 in cash as they arrived. The money was a “symbolic gift” funded by white people, according to published reports. . .

The event was organized by a local activist group “Brown Hope,” as a place for people of color to “meet, organize, discuss public policy and potentially plan various actions,” Fox News reported.

Reparations is a concept that today’s white people are “responsible” for giving monetary compensation for slavery, Jim Crow, and the wealth gap between white and black households. In a 2016 poll, the concept was supported by 58 percent of black people and 46 percent of Hispanic people. . .

Robert Brown, an economist, has said the total amount of reparations needed is between $1.4 trillion to $4.7 trillion. The money, Brown and those of a similar mindset say, would give the black community the wealth and community position it missed out on due to slavery and discrimination, the report stated. . .

About 100 people, most of them white, donated to Whitten’s happy hour event on Monday, according to the report. There are also plans for an upcoming “Reparations Power Hour” for people who don’t drink. (Read more from “Racist Bar Pays ‘People of Color’ Customers $10 Each as a Symbolic ‘Reparation’ From White People” HERE)

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Ex-Navy SEAL Credited With Killing Osama Bin Laden Has a Special Request for Memorial Day

. . .[Robert] O’Neill doesn’t want anyone to tell him “happy Memorial Day.”

“Memorial Day is not a celebration,” O’Neill wrote for Fox News, where he is a contributor. “Memorial Day is a time for reflection, pause, remembrance and thanksgiving for patriots who gave up their own lives to protect the lives and freedom of us all – including the freedom of generations long gone and generations yet unborn. We owe the fallen a debt so enormous that it can never be repaid.”

But for many Americans, the day will be spent focused on picnics and family gatherings, and perhaps making plans for the summer season, O’Neill noted. Others will be shopping for deals on cars, furniture and clothes.

As people are celebrating, the grass is growing over the final resting places of those whose lives were cut short defending our country in “Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other far-off places many Americans have rarely heard of,” he said.

Army Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright were killed last October in an ISIS ambush in Niger, but not many know America even has troops in Niger, O’Neill explained. (Read more from “Ex-Navy SEAL Credited With Killing Osama Bin Laden Has a Special Request for Memorial Day” HERE)

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North Korea Caves to Trump After Summit Scrap; Amazing 2014 Tweet Indicates POTUS Bet They Would

. . .The on again, off again summit with North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un looks to be on again with Fox News reporting that North Korea responded to an announcement from President Donald Trump that he was cancelling the planned summit to say his decision is not in line with the world’s wishes and that North Korea is still willing to resolve its issues with the U.S. . .

“We express our willingness to sit down face-to-face with the U.S. and resolve issues anytime and in any format,” North Korea Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said in a statement, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The official statement out of North Korea said Kim sees the need for an upcoming meeting between the nations as “urgent.

Kim said the U.S.’ decision to cancel the upcoming talks demonstrates how serious the animosity between the North and the U.S. remains, which he said underlines the urgent need of a summit between the leaders of the two countries.

. . .

But then, it seems the author of “Trump: The Art of the Deal” called all of this back in 2014.

(Read more from “North Korea Caves to Trump After Summit Scrap; Amazing 2014 Tweet Indicates POTUS Bet They Would” HERE)

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Republican Governor in California?

President Trump is the “pivotal reason” why a Republican likely will finish in the top two in California’s nonpartisan gubernatorial primary and even has a fighting chance to become the next governor of the deep-blue state, according to a long-time observer of Sacramento politics.

John Cox, a businessman from Illinois, was endorsed by Trump last week, noted Ben Boychuk, a regular columnist with the Sacramento Bee newspaper, and is just behind former Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and way ahead of the rest of the mostly Democratic pack, according to two recent statewide polls.

In California’s blanket primary system, the top two candidates go on to the general, regardless of party. A survey and electoral modeling by Competitive Edge Research & Communication, released Thursday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, shows Newsom with 26 percent and Cox with 22 percent.

Last week, Trump tweeted his endorsement of Cox, declaring “California finally deserves a great Governor, one who understands borders, crime and lowering taxes.” . . .

Boychuk wrote that while Democrat usually are the top two vote-getters in the governor’s race, this year could be different. (Read more from “Republican Governor in California?” HERE)

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Two Guys Stroll Into an Indian Restaurant in Toronto, Drop an IED and Split

The blast from the improvised explosive device planted at the Bombay Bhel restaurant in Mississauga — just west of Toronto — wounded 15 people, according to police, three of whom suffered critical injuries, according to police.

The two men didn’t say anything when they dropped off the bomb at the Indian restaurant, and it’s unclear what their goals were, Peel Regional Police Sgt. Matt Bertram told reporters.

“We have no indication to call it a hate crime or any kind of terrorism act,” Bertram said. “It appears they just went in, dropped off this device and took off right away.”

Both men, believed to be in their mid-20s, were wearing masks and clothing to conceal their identities. Police have circulated a photo captured from security cameras.

“Glass was broken in the street,” neighbor Andre Larrivee said. “There was a child’s birthday party. Everything was destroyed. Lots of blood in the floor. Many people were screaming. They were trying to run out from the restaurant. There was a guy with glass inside his eyes. Many people were bleeding so much.” (Read more from “Two Guys Stroll Into an Indian Restaurant in Toronto, Drop an Ied and Split” HERE)

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Rep. Hurls Stunning Accusations Against Robert Mueller

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) made shocking and outrageous claims against special counsel Robert Mueller, including the accusation that he had protected radical Islamists “his whole career.” . . .

“This is consistent with Mueller,” he said, “he has protected radical Islamists his whole career, with the FBI, and even as special counsel but, uhm, 911, we knew who, we found out who the perpetrators were, there were no question, that was radical Islam.”

“And immediately after that, the anthrax scare occurred, and he was looking for something to take the attention away from the concern about radical Islam,” he explained, adding that he believed Mueller botched the anthrax investigation in order to distract from the threat of Islam. . . .

Friday on CNN, former CIA director Leon Panetta responded to Gohmert’s accusations, saying, “Wolf, as a former congressman, I would say with great respect to that particular congressman, he has no idea what the hell he’s talking about.”

“Bob Mueller was FBI director when I was the director of the CIA,” he explained. “He committed himself to going after terrorists. To going after extremist Islam in order to protect this country. And whatever he’s implying is absolutely not only wrong, but in many ways it reflects the kind of unfounded attacks that people are resorting to here in order to undermine what Bob Mueller is doing in this investigation.” (Read more from “Rep. Hurls Stunning Accusations Against Robert Mueller” HERE)

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During His 12-Year Tenure at the FBI, Mueller Embraced Radical Islam

By Jordan Schachtel. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s career is rife with examples of prioritizing politically correct sensitivities over the unfiltered, and sometimes difficult, truth of the matter. And this issue came to the forefront at the beginning of President Obama’s second term in office, when Mueller decided to purge hundreds of counter-terrorism training materials that arguably rendered America less safe in the face of a growing domestic Islamic extremist problem.

While serving as FBI director, Mueller (the current head of the special counsel investigation of the 2016 election) presided over an effort to silence counter-terrorism experts from discussing the threat posed by radical Islamic ideologies. His decision to choose this approach could call into question his judgement while presiding over an incredibly politically toxic debate surrounding the 2016 election.

Instead of providing the tools his agents needed to fight the ideological war against the continuing rise of radical Islam in America, Mueller handicapped his agents because he seemingly prioritized making sure that nobody was offended over keeping America safe.

Radical groups exposed Mueller’s weakness as an opportunity to deliver a critical blow to the United States’ counterterrorism apparatus following a series of leaks sent to far-left journalist Spencer Ackerman, who claimed that the FBI was teaching about radical Islamic terrorism in an “anti-Islam” manner.

In his “exposé” for Wired magazine, Ackerman argued that counter-terror trainers were promoting “Islamophobia.” One of Ackerman’s key sources for his reporting was Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration political appointee who is “known for his almost daily advocacy for the Muslim Brotherhood,” according to the Clarion Project.

Following Ackerman’s report, a coalition of Islamist groups wrote a letter to then-Director Mueller, demanding that he purge training materials that they deemed offensive to Muslims.

“The undersigned civil and human rights groups write to express our deep concern regarding recently-publicized FBI training materials that manifest anti-Muslim bias and factual inaccuracies,” read the letter co-signed by some groups that are tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood.

But “no fewer than six known Muslim Brotherhood-associated organizations” leveraged the far-Left campaign to empower their position with Mueller, according to terrorism expert Stephen Coughlin’s “Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad.”

At an October 2011 congressional hearing, Mueller appeared to push for a training regimen that would conform to politically correct norms.

Instead of defending his organization’s work, Mueller decided to meet privately with members of the radical groups that expressed offense. Some of these groups were identified as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial, which was the biggest terror-financing case in American history.

Mueller attempted to keep the meeting secret, and details of his embrace of radical Islamic groups were only made possible after Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit for the records. In a sign of troubling times ahead, leaders of the fringe groups expressed gratitude to Director Mueller for taking their concerns seriously.

In one such statement, Nihad Awad, the Hamas-supporting director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), thanked Mueller “for his pledge to perform a ‘top to bottom’ review of FBI counterterrorism training.”

The Mueller FBI released a statement on the matter in 2011, revealing that it was “conducting a comprehensive review of all training and reference materials that relate in any way to religion or culture.” Moreover, the FBI would “consult with outside experts on the development and use of training materials.”

Following the Mueller meeting with radical Islamic groups and the continuing pressure campaign from leftist groups like the ACLU, the “purge” began in February 2012. Then, the FBI decided to eliminate training materials according to four criteria: “factual errors”; “poor taste”; “stereotypes”; or anything that “lacked precision.”

The six-month review process eliminated almost 900 pages and 392 presentations of FBI training materials. In doing so, Mueller rendered his FBI helpless in properly training its agents about the threats posed by radical Islamic doctrines.

The FOIA lawsuit by Judicial Watch brought to light some information related to the purge of training materials.

The FBI said that one such article was purged because it “inaccurately argues that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization.” Another document was scrubbed to “remove references to mosques specifically as a radicalization incubator.” A third piece of material was censored because the shielded “outside expert” took issue with the author grouping “Islamic militancy” with “terrorism.”

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who recently served in the White House as a national security expert to President Trump, was at the time contracted to train FBI agents. As soon as the purge was implemented, Gorka recalls that the Department of Justice “created a body of anonymous reviewers,” whose identities remained unknown to this day.

“If this faceless body deemed anything to be anti-Islamic, xenophobic, or inflammatory, the individual instructor was told, ‘You must remove that material. You must remove that slide, or you will never be allowed to lecture,’” he said.

Gorka tells CR that his training materials only “quoted primary jihadi texts,” and that he offered to debate the contested items with the anonymous body tasked with censoring his work. However, Gorka says he was told that there was no right of repeal and that he wasn’t allowed to know who the anonymous reviewers were.

“Not even the FBI unit that hired me was allowed to know who these faceless individuals were,” Gorka said.

The Mueller FBI not only shielded the identities of these “outside experts,” it decided to classify the purged documents, making it extremely difficult even for prominent members of Congress to grasp what had happened.

At the time, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., was a member of the House Intelligence Committee. She was only able to view the classified documents in person and was not allowed to speak publicly about what she saw.

“This is truly censorship by our government, the government purging itself of documents,” Bachmann said after reviewing the files in June 2012. “We are not only seeing documents purged. We are seeing trainers purged and we are seeing the FBI library purged.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, also reviewed the purged documents and said he was “shocked at the material that has been removed.” He chalked up the purge to “political correctness,” arguing that the PC mentality usurped the “interest of truth and properly educated justice officials.”

“We are blinding our law enforcement officers from the ability to see who the enemy actually is,” he added.

Mueller’s PC attitude and apparent blindness to the jihadi ideology showed not only in his purge of counter-terrorism materials, but also in the FBI’s law enforcement operations during his tenure as FBI director, which stretched from 2001 to 2013.

The Mueller FBI repeatedly ignored warnings about Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The deceased jihadi attended the Islamic Society of Boston, a known terrorist recruitment mosque.

Mueller said his agents had invested in “outreach” efforts there, but admitted he was entirely unaware that the mosque was started by a prominent terrorist financier. Mueller refused to allow his agents to receive an education on the possibility that radical mosques could serve as incubators to terrorism, something that Arab-Muslim allies such as the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, and other countries regularly discuss in deterring extremism.

Kyle Shideler is the director of the Threat Information Office at the Center for Security Policy. For years, he has researched the influence of fringe domestic Islamist groups. Shideler tells CR that the Mueller FBI “expressed a willingness to include Islamist groups – even those under active U.S. investigation – in discussions about how best to deal with Islamic terrorism.”

“This resulted in these groups having what amounted to an unacceptable veto over what could or could not be said by law enforcement, and what could or could not be trained,” he said. “The negative impact this has had on our homeland security, measured in both taxpayer dollars as well as American lives, has been almost incalculable.”

Instead of maximizing the FBI’s efficiency as the nation’s premier domestic law enforcement agency, time and time again, Mueller preferred to take the sensitive, inoffensive route in order to gain acceptance inside the mainstream media and Obama administration.

Given his botched tenure at the FBI, it seems only fair to speculate what political forces will impact Robert Mueller’s decisions this time around in his current duties to investigate the 2016 election. (Read more columns like this HERE).

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Giuliani Says New Information Should End Mueller’s Investigation – Here’s Why

By The Blaze. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he will make a request that will lead to the end of the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign. . .

Giulani is calling for a review from the Department of Justice of the documents that led to the opening of Mueller’s investigation, and believes that this will reinvigorate the accusation that the probe was illegitimate and should be ended.

Giuliani, who is one of Trump’s defense lawyers, spoke to the Associated Press about his claim that accusations of “spying” on the Trump campaign may delegitimize Mueller’s investigation.

“If the spying was inappropriate,” he said. that means we may have an entirely illegitimate investigation.”

“Coupled with Comey’s illegally leaked memos,” Giuliani explained, “this means the whole thing was a mistake and should never have happened.” (Read more from “Giuliani Says New Information Should End Mueller’s Investigation – Here’s Why” HERE)

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Giuliani: White House Wants Briefing on Classified Info

By Associated Press. President Donald Trump’s legal team wants a briefing on the classified information shared with lawmakers about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and may take it to the Justice Department as part of an effort to scuttle the ongoing special counsel probe.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, told The Associated Press on Friday that the White House hopes to get a readout of the information next week, particularly about the use of a longtime government informant who approached members of Trump’s campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election. Trump has made unproven claims of FBI misconduct and political bias and has denounced the asset as “a spy.” . . .

Suggesting that the probe was launched on the backs of inappropriately obtained information was Giuliani’s latest effort to discredit the investigation by painting it as a purely political event. The FBI began a counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 to determine if Trump campaign associates were coordinating with Russia to tip the election. The investigation was opened after the hacking of Democratic emails that intelligence officials later formally attributed to Russia. (Read more from “Giuliani: White House Wants Briefing on Classified Info” HERE)

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