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Federal prosecutors are expected to unseal new charges against a bomb-maker linked to the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to a report. Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, a top bomb-maker for the late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, is accused of constructing the explosive that downed the airliner and killed 270 people on board, the Wall Street Journal said. Masud is being held by Libyan authorities.

It was hard to help but notice – and be somewhat sad about – all those happy faces Thursday afternoon when President Trump announced that Morocco had become the fourth Arab country, after Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates to formally recognize Israel. These four agreements – all achieved in the last four months – establish Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and leader of his negotiating team on this, as one of the preeminent diplomats of our generation. These accomplishments, along with the president’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from former hot spots around the region, have dramatically remade America’s...

WASHINGTON - President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to end U.S. fossil fuel subsidies worth billions of dollars a year for drillers and miners could be hard to keep due to resistance from lawmakers in a narrowly divided Congress, including from within his own party. The challenge reflects just one of the obstacles that Biden will need to overcome as he seeks to usher in sweeping measures to combat climate change and transform the nation’s economy to net-zero emissions within three decades. Biden has said axing fossil fuel subsidies will generate money to help pay for his broader $2 trillion climate plan....

Joe Biden made clear he wants to put the old gang back together when he announced his prospective national security team this past week including the likes of John Kerry, Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. They represent the worst instincts and outcomes of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy of promoting endless wars while undermining allies and placating adversaries that the Trump Administration had to clean up. How do I know? I served as the Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of State in the Trump administration, cleaning up the mess that the Obama-Biden administration left behind. While the...

If Israel, as is universally believed and has not been denied, was behind the assassination of Iran's leading nuclear scientist, questions arise:Why would the Israelis kill him? And why would they do it now?The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it is conceded, was a leader in Iran's nuclear bomb program, but that program was disbanded in 2003.Under George W. Bush, in 2007, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies declared with "high confidence" that Iran no longer had a bomb program.Four years later, the same intel agencies affirmed that finding.Since 2015, Iran's nuclear facilities, under the Iran nuclear deal, have been subject to U.N....

Two self-described supporters of the anti-government 'Boogaloo' movement have been arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to Hamas in a bizarre alleged plot to bomb a county courthouse and assassinate white supremacists and national politicians. Michael Robert Solomon, 30, and Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, were arrested on Thursday in Minnesota on federal charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The Boogaloo movement is a loosely organized network of anti-government extremists who advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, and predict and hope for an impending civil war, which they refer...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his team are headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks ... Kushner’s trip comes after the killing on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran... Days before the killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Saudi Arabia and met with bin Salman, an Israeli official said, in what was the first publicly confirmed visit by an Israeli leader. Israeli media said they were joined by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The historic meeting underlined how opposition to Tehran is bringing about a strategic realignment of countries...

How permanent an impact a Joe Biden presidency will have comes down almost entirely to what happens in the state of Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021.There’s no doubt a Joe Biden administration is going to have a massive impact on the United States. How permanent an impact it will have, however, comes down almost entirely to what happens in the state of Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021. Like all modern presidents, President Barack Obama used the power of the executive to his benefit, signing orders that ranged from granting amnesty to illegal immigrants to joining the Paris climate agreement. President...

In threat to Iran, US sends heavy B-52H Stratofortress Bombers to Middle East via Israel FROM TIMES OF ISRAEL: In a highly irregular move, the B-52H Stratofortress planes were seen flying toward Israeli airspace on Saturday en route to the base where they will be stationed, likely in Qatar. The aircraft were spotted on civilian tracking software approaching Israel before they apparently turned off their transponders, rendering them invisible on those applications. It was the third time in the past year and a half that B-52 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and other powerful munitions, have been...

American B-52s, the massive strategic bombers, arrived in the Middle East on Saturday. They are part of the Fifth Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota. These veteran, giant aircraft were last deployed in the region in May 2019 and the US Central Command says they are here to “deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.” The B-52s have been sent to the region as the US appears to be drawing down forces in Iraq. The Pentagon has said that hundreds of troops are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan. As the US seeks to end twenty years of involvement...

The U.S. military deployed B-52 bombers to the Middle East Saturday, just days after the Trump administration announced a partial withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. Central Command said the U.S. Air Force B-52H “Stratofortress” aircrews conducted the mission on "short notice" to "deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies."“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theater to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression," said Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, 9th Air Force commander."These missions help bomber aircrews gain familiarity with the region’s airspace and command,...

A reprioritization of America’s strategic interests would cement the legacy of the first president in the era of great-power rivalry.n a recent memo advocating a swift U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller gave shape to the fundamental political stand of the Trump administration—realism and restraint. “We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end,” the memo read. This comes after a rapid purge in the last couple of weeks, in which President Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark...

Former National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster for the Trump administration said in an interview with Fox News Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden should not rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in on January 20. McMaster said to Fox host Bret Baier that then-Secretary of State John Kerry was wrong and did not consider the "hostile ideology" of the Iranian regime, in addition to its involvement in regional proxy wars and aggression against the United States. "These big payoffs to Iran when the deal was signed, as well as the relief of sanctions ... what did they...

It’s no secret that tensions between Washington and Tehran have been tense since Trump’s inauguration in 2016, recent developments indicate that a potential joint Israel/US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities could be closer than we realize. WHY TRUMP TERMINATED ESPER US President Donald Trump has fired his defense secretary, Mark Esper earlier this week. And while many speculate that the reason is because Esper was at odds with his boss over deploying US troops into cities during violent Black Lives Matter protests, there could have been another reason for the move that many seem to be overlooking. Elissa Slotkin, an...

The decision by three Arab states to make peace with Israel can be credited both to efforts by the Trump administration and the recognition by these Sunni states that their security would improve against the ongoing threats they face from Turkey and Iran. Iran and its proxies interfere with Arab states while promoting their Shi’ite revolutionary ideology; likewise, Turkey pushes its Sunni revolutionary ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the region. Turkey and Iran look to overthrow the Sunni Arab states that do not align with them, such as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The normalization deals between the...

Major American news media and the usual gang of Washington beltway clerks have tried to ignore into oblivion the Trump administration's diplomatic achievements in the Middle East. Their collective pay-no-heed is crooked and vile on so many levels. First and foremost, their corrupt collective silence sets conditions for more war, violence and death in the next four years. In the longer term, their corrupt silence is an information darkness that not only does a deep disservice to the American people but is also the dirty brush of dishonest history. American journalists once proclaimed their daily reports were the "first rough...

“It is easier to fight with someone you can present as your adversary.” That is what a senior member of Israel’s right-wing camp told me on Sunday following the announcement that then-Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden had won the presidential election. Biden, he explained, might be a veteran friend of Israel. But, he added, the former vice president would be easier to portray as the opposite if needed. “Trump gave Israel so much that it was harder to battle him on something like the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said. “With Biden, that will be easier.” The conversation was...

Only to have their vote stolen

Israeli Settlements Minister Tzachi Hanegbi warns that a Biden presidency could ignite war in the Middle East, while Egypt fears Biden would aid the resurgence of Islamists in the region. Hanegbi pointed out that Biden has indicated he will resurrect America’s nuclear agreement with Iran which was cancelled by the Trump administration. For Israel, this would represent an existential threat to national security and drastically increase the chances of war with Tehran. “If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,” said Hanegbi. Meanwhile, other Middle Eastern countries such as...

Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden’s position on the Iran Deal could lead to war between Israel and Iran, Settlements Minister Tzachi Hanegbi warned on Wednesday night. “Biden has said openly for a long time that he will go back to the nuclear agreement,” Hanegbi said. “I see that as something that will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran.” Hanegbi said he is not concerned about a likely Biden victory on most fronts, including the area of settlements, but Iran is a glaring exception. The minister told Channel 13 News that he, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most...