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Karzai: Afghan Release of Dangerous Militants ‘of No Concern to U.S.’ (+video)

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Photo Credit; APLess than a year after Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “great confidence” that U.S. interests would be protected regarding Afghan prisoners, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that his government’s decisions on prisoner releases are “of no concern to the U.S., and should be of no concern to the U.S.”

The U.S. military regards some of the dozens of prisoners released by Afghan authorities on Thursday as dangerous militants and killers and warns they will return to the battlefield.

“Afghanistan is a sovereign country,” Karzai told reporters in a joint press appearance in Ankara with Turkish and Pakistani leaders. “If the Afghan judicial authorities decide to release a prisoner, it is of no concern to the U.S., and should be of no concern to the U.S.”

Karzai said he hoped the U.S. would “stop harassing” Afghanistan’s judicial authorities. “I hope the United States will now begin to respect Afghan sovereignty.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Israeli Settlers Mock Kerry’s Peacemaking with Spoof Video

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Photo Credit: YouTubeIsrael’s Yesha [settlers] Council has posted online a deliberately disrespectful spoof depicting America’s top diplomat – played by an actor resembling John Kerry – riding a camel and making a series of preposterous statements that belittle his understanding of the region’s complexities.

At one point, the Mr Kerry character is seen down-playing the importance of the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, in Jerusalem’s old city.

“Dividing Jerusalem is not an easy thing,” the actor says. “We must realise it is holy to all religions – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Klingons and Hobbits. But what I’m saying is: ‘why fight over an old wall?’

I’ll build you a brand new wall, close to the beach.”

A woman with an American accent is then seen telling him: “I think you should go home, where you belong, and stay there.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Malkin: Kerry’s ‘Poor Jihadist’ Myth

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

The myth of the poor, oppressed jihadist never dies. U.S. secretary of state John Kerry is the latest Obama administration official to peddle this odious narrative. Cue John Lennon’s cloying “Imagine,” don your plaid pajamas, and curl up with a warm cup of deadly naïveté.

While meeting with Catholic Church officials at the Vatican in Rome on Monday, Kerry expounded on their “huge common interest in dealing with this issue of poverty, which in many cases is the root cause of terrorism or even the root cause of the disenfranchisement of millions of people on this planet.” In other words: If only every al-Qaeda and Taliban recruit had a fraction of Kerry’s $200 million fortune, they’d all be frolicking peacefully with infidels on jet skis sporting “Coexist” bumper stickers.

This wasn’t a one-off. Kerry delivered a similar Kumbaya-style discourse at the Global Counterterrorism Forum last fall: “Getting this right isn’t just about taking terrorists off the street. It’s about providing more economic opportunities for marginalized youth at risk of recruitment.” Naturally, the Foggy Bottom apple doesn’t fall far from the Pennsylvania Avenue terror-excusing tree. President Obama subscribes to the very same “midnight basketball” theory of counterterrorism. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Obama asserted that jihad “grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.”

The chronic cluelessness of the root-cause apologists of jihad never ceases to amaze. Britain’s MI5 reported in 2011 that two-thirds of the U.K’s jihad suspects were from middle-class backgrounds, “showing there is no simplistic relationship between poverty and involvement in Islamist extremism.” Thorough reviews of the empirical evidence shows, as the RAND Corporation has reported, that “terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Israeli Defense Minister: Kerry is ‘Obsessive,’ ‘Messianic’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe “Boogy” Ya’alon, is facing criticism from the opposition after slamming U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported earlier on Tuesday that the outspoken Ya’alon had said that Kerry, who recently completed his tenth trip to the region in less than a year on the job, “turned up here determined and acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor” for a peace deal.

Ya’alon added: “In reality, there have been no negotiations between us and the Palestinians for all these months –but rather between us and the Americans. The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: We’ll Help Iraq Fight al-Qaeda, But No ‘Boots on The Ground’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday the U.S. will help Iraqi authorities fight al-Qaeda terrorists who have seized parts of two cities in western Iraq, but will not send troops.

“We are not, obviously, contemplating returning,” he told reporters in Jerusalem. “We’re not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight, but we’re going to help them in their fight.”

Kerry declined to say specifically how the U.S. would help the Iraqis.

“We’re going to do everything that is possible to help them, and I will not go into the details except to say that we’re in contact with tribal leaders from Anbar province whom we know, who are showing great courage in standing up against this as they reject terrorist groups from their cities,” he said.

“And this is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis. That is exactly what the president and the world decided some time ago when we left Iraq.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry Comments Add to Mystery About Rogue CIA Agent Missing in Iran

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The intrigue over the rogue CIA agent last seen six years ago in Iran intensified Sunday with an accusation about a cover-up, Secretary of State John Kerry rejecting allegations the United States has abandoned the search and Iran distancing itself from the mystery.

Kerry expressed hope the new Iranian government would provide information on the whereabouts of the 65-year-old Robert Levinson and pushed back on the argument that the U.S. has stopped looking for the retired FBI agent.

“To suggest that we have abandoned him or anybody has abandoned him is simply incorrect, and not helpful,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” “I think the Iranian government has the ability to help us here, and we hope they will.”

Meanwhile, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Levinson is not being held by the government and that he has “no idea” about who might have him.

Still, Zarif said his country “will certainly discuss” Levinson’s return should he be found.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hillary and John Kerry’s State Department Boozing it Up: Spent Hundreds of Thousands of our Tax Dollars on Liquor (+video)

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Photo Credit: Foreign PolicyWhile the rest of the government prepared to shut down this fall, the State Department was busy stocking up on embassy liquor supplies.

In September, the final month of the fiscal year, the State Department spent about $180,000 — and racked up a total of more than $400,000 for the whole year, three times the entire liquor tab for all of 2008.

The liquor bill, split among purchase orders placed at embassies around the world, included some major last-minute pre-shutdown splurges:

• $5,625 in “gratuity wine” at the embassy in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 29, followed by $5,925 in “gratuity whiskey” on the day the shutdown began.

• $22,416 in wine at the embassy in Tokyo.

Read more about booze in John Kerry’s State Department HERE.

Kerry Warns Fresh Iran Sanctions Could Scuttle Nuclear Talks

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Secretary of State John Kerry has told US lawmakers any new sanctions against Iran would risk ruining talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

He told a Senate banking committee that the US might lose negotiating partners if it imposed economic penalties.

The panel has been considering a fresh package but legislators are divided on the measure.

Mr Kerry has told the BBC that Iran and world powers had come “extremely close” to a deal at the weekend.

Before Wednesday’s closed-door meeting with senators, Washington’s top diplomat told reporters: “What we’re asking everybody to do is calm down, look hard at what can be achieved and what the realities are.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Conspiracy Theorist: Kerry Says, ‘I Have Serious Doubts Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone’

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Photo Credit: APIn an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC, Secretary of State John Kerry said he has “serious doubts” that Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy, acted alone.

The Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, came to the opposite conclusion. The commission did suggest, however, that Oswald’s motive for murdering Kennedy might have arisen from Oswald’s “avowed commitment to Marxism and communism.”

“Where do you come down on the conspiracy theories?” Brokaw asked Kerry in a clip from the interview that was broadcast on CNN’s “Situation Room” on Friday.

“To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone,” said Kerry.

“Really,” said Brokaw.

Read more from this story HERE.

President Obama, John Kerry Negotiate with Iran as Abuse of Jailed American Pastor Increases

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Photo Credit: AP/Idaho Press-Tribune, Adam EschbachIranian President Hassan Rouhani’s reputation as a moderate has convinced U.S. leaders to begin nuclear negotiations by easing sanctions on the rogue regime, even as Rouhani has permitted the increasing abuse of American pastor Saeed Abedini.

Abedini’s plight has worsened in recent days, while Secretary of State John Kerry prepared for a historic meeting with his Iranian counterpart.

Abedini’s family confirmed last week that he was moved to the infamous Rajaï Shahr prison.

“Once in there, one stops to be a human being,” Dutch diplomat Loes Bijnen said in 2005. “One is put out of sight, even of human rights activists and the press.

“In Rajaï Shahr, political prisoners have to share cells with dangerous criminals like murderers, rapists and drug addicts who don’t hesitate to attack their cell mates.

Read more from this story HERE.