Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Russia Blocks Lithuania from Supervision on Kaliningrad Nukes

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Russia Blocks Lithuania from Supervision on Kaliningrad Nukes


The Trumpet
Moscow unilaterally suspended a deal on May 5, under which it had agreed to provide information to Lithuania about Russian weapons and armed forces in the region of Kaliningrad.
The agreement, established by Russia and Lithuania bilaterally in 2001, said the two nations would exchange information regarding their armed forces, and said each were free to conduct military inspections of the other. While it required Lithuania to disclose information about the entirety of its armaments, the deal said Russia was required only to share data about its armaments in Kaliningrad Oblast—the Russian enclave situated on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad is home to Moscow’s Baltic Sea fleet.
Now Russia says it is no longer willing to uphold its end of the agreement, which has fueled concerns among many in Lithuania and beyond. “The move is upsetting,” said Linas Linkevičius, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs.
The suspension of the treaty is especially upsetting due to the possibility that Russia has nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad. In 2001, the United States infuriated Russia by announcing plans to put missile defense systems in Poland. Reports emerged saying Russia’s response to the announcement included the deployment of nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad—outside the range of the defense system.
Moscow denied the reports, but asserted it is under no legal obligation to keep nuclear weapons out of Kaliningrad, since it is, after all, Russia’s own territory.
In 2009, Wikileaks released a secret document from the 2002 Congressional Research Service report saying U.S. intelligence had, in fact, detected the presence of nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad using satellite technology. In December of last year, a spokesman for Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the Kremlin did have nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad, but Putin again denied it.
In light of these reports and the great likelihood that Russia’s Kaliningrad arsenal includes nuclear weapons, the Kremlin’s decision to put the kibosh on Lithuanian inspections takes on great significance. Some analysts wonder if the decision may be designed to give Putin space to move armaments around during this time of heightened Russian aggression.
Last month, Lithuanian Ambassador to the U.S. Žygimantas Pavilionis told the Trumpet he is worried that Putin may not stop grabbing up Eastern European turf—as he did in Crimea—unless Western powers stand up to him.
“We have to draw the line before the Russians move tanks on top of it,” he said.

Hillary Clinton Discussed U.S. Approval of an Israeli Strike On Iran

Hillary Clinton Discussed U.S. Approval of an Israeli Strike On Iran

Midway through Barack Obama’s first term as president, U.S. officials grew alarmed that Israel might launch a unilateral air strike against Iran’s nuclear program. Iran had snubbed Obama’s outreach after the 2008 election, and rejected an October 2009 international proposal to ship most of its enriched uranium out of the country—stirring pessimism about prospects for a future breakthrough.
“Militarily, I thought we needed to prepare for a possible Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes in his new memoir, Duty. At a January 2010 Oval Office meeting, Gates told Obama “he needed to consider the ramifications of a no-warning Israeli attack,” including whether the U.S. would assist Israel and how it would respond to Iranian retaliation.
(MORE: Hillary Clinton’s Unapologetically Hawkish Record Faces 2016 Test)
Around the same time, senior officials met to discuss ways the U.S. might dissuade Israeli Prime Minister from taking unilateral action. In one such meeting, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised a bracing question, two former Obama administration officials tell TIME: Was it possible that, instead of trying to restrain Israel, the U.S. should instead provide what one of those official described as “a tacit green light to the Israelis to take care of the problem for us”? In other words, instead of begging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give diplomacy more time, perhaps it was worth telling him to go proceed with airstrikes.
Clinton did not actually endorse the idea. She only raised the notion “as one option to consider,” according to one former official, who adds that it gained no traction inside the administration. Clinton’s current press secretary, Nick Merrill, did not respond to requests for comment this week on this matter.
While the very idea of a U.S.-approved Israeli strike on Iran is dramatic, Clinton’s thought experiment was actually a responsible act of bureaucratic deliberation, says Kenneth Pollack, a former White House national security aide under Bill Clinton and author of a recent book on Iran.
“Anytime something like that comes up, you need to discuss it—and in fact it’s irresponsible not to,” says Pollack, who adds that he personally thinks a unilateral Israeli strike should be resisted. “Sometimes you just want to look at it, and if you decide it’s a bad idea, that allows you to make the case against it more effectively. So it leads to a much better policy process in which you can figure out what to do instead.”
Obama continues to pursue diplomacy with Iran. And Israel continues to hold its fire, however grudgingly.
MORE: Israel Renews Warnings of Military Action After Iran Nuclear Deal

O'bama tells Congress to impeach him or get out of his way!

Army Ranger retires because of Obama. Tells everything about America's f...

Harry Reid – Standing Between A Politician And His Millions

Harry Reid – Standing Between A Politician And His Millions

May 4, 2014
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Submitted by:  Veronica Coffin
harryreidcleanface-300x190By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Questions, questions… I have a whole lot of them for Harry Reid. I know that his salary as a Senator, is about 200k per year. And I know that he made a substantial amount as an attorney. What I want to know, is how much he has made off land in Nevada. Specifically BLM land and mining/mineral rights. Open Secrets states Reid’s value is between 2.5 and 6 million. I actually don’t believe that. I believe he has money buried in the desert so-to-speak, in shell companies and third parties all over the place. I’m all for making a lot of money — just don’t rip off everyone while doing it.
Why is it that a man who is worth millions and is arguably the most powerful man in Nevada and one of the most powerful nationally, is covering his tracks so hastily? A man who screamed for transparency under Bush, but seems to have forgotten what it means under Obama. Ask yourself why Reid’s real estate holdings are “supposedly” disappearing from the assessor’s rolls. Well, mostly… Both Harry and his son Rory’s land holdings and tax records seem to be missing suddenly. But hey… I was sent a few of them and will link here so you can see a couple of pics of them. You can’t see them anymore online, someone has removed them and when you speak to the assessor’s office, well golly… they don’t know what is going on I understand. Isn’t that strange?
Such a deal Dirty Harry got from someone on this parcel!
We’re just getting started here, so settle in… My next question, has to do with why no one that I know of in the state of Nevada in 30+ years has gone after Reid and his shady dealings. A man who has been linked to the mob and is notoriously ruthless. Yet, no one can be bothered. Or if they have, they have either suddenly shut up, just disappeared or are suddenly flush with money. Wonder why? Harry Reid has been embroiled in scandal after scandal for decades. Isn’t it time someone had the cajones to expose this thuggish, Progressive opportunist for the corruptocrat he is?
Things Cleanface Harry may be thinking right about now:
It’s not a crime when *I* do it. That’s why I’m hiding public records of my holdings. You peasants can go pound sand, eat cake or whatever it is you do.
Will someone please just shut those bloggers up? I’m trying to do serious land deals here.
As we look for bodies in the desert, let’s look at Harry Reid’s connection to the mining industry, shall we? I find his relationship with Neil Kornze, the Director of the BLM to be VERY interesting. Kornze is the son of former Barrick U.S. Exploration Manager and a former Newmont Mining chief geologist, Larry D. Kornze. Kornze spent 11 years working in Washington, D.C. Eight years as a staff member for Reid on public lands, forest and mining, and three years with the BLM as the agency’s principal deputy director. Neil was instrumental in the Western Solar Plan, which established 17 solar energy zones on public land and in approving nearly 50 utility-scale renewable energy projects. Reid has been supporting the mining industry in Nevada forever. Now, his hand picked boy is the head of the BLM. Makes you go hmmmm. Oh, it gets better — so, very much better.
Kornze’s father has a long history in mining:
Neil Kornze’s father, Larry D. Kornze, was the General Manager of Exploration and U.S. Exploration Manager for Barrick Gold Corporation from 1987 to 2001.
Larry Kornze “directed minesite exploration activities for the Goldstrike Mine, with discoveries at the Betze, Meikle, Deepstar, Screamer, and Rodeo deposits. He managed the Betze/Deep Post reserve development drilling and reserve estimation, along with mine dewatering, ore control guidance, ore body metallurgical studies” and “was Chief Geologist — Operations and New Projects at Barrick Mercur Gold Mines, Inc. from 1985 — 1986.”
“Prior to working for Barrick, Mr. Kornze was Chief Geologist for Newmont Mines Ltd., Similkameen Division, B.C., and Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) of Canada from 1968 to 1981.”
It seems that Larry D. Kornze also serves/has served on the Board of Directors and Advisory Boards of multiple mining companies, including:
Candente Resource Corp.
Gold Summit Corporation
Goldex Resources Corporation
Mexivada Mining Corp.
Dynasty Gold Corp.
Anaconda Gold Corp.
Duncan Park Holdings Corporation
Northland Resources Inc.
X-Cal Resources Ltd. Mesa Exploration
Under an 1872 law, mining companies in Nevada have been able to buy mineral-rich federal land for $5 an acre or less. Before Congress banned the practice in 1994, Toronto-based Barrick Gold paid just $9,765 for 1,950 acres in Nevada that held an estimated $10 billion in gold. Reid is solidly connected to Barrick Gold. Do the math. I wonder how much Harry Reid has made in his dealings with them? Reid is also connected to Lionel, Sawyer and Collins — Nevada’s largest and most powerful law firm, with deep, deep ties to mining. Both his sons work for law firms that represent mining interests.
It’s a family affair with Reid. Corruption is the underpinning of the family business. I don’t agree with most environmentalists, but one of them at least has been digging on Reid:
But Reid’s ties to mining run deeper than his sentimental connection to his rough-and-tumble origins. His sons Rory and Leif work for law firms that represent mining companies. Since 1999, his son-in-law, Steven Barringer, has earned as much as $3.7 million lobbying for mining interests including Barrick Gold, though he does not lobby Reid directly. Reid’s natural resources staffer, Neil Kornze, is the son of a geologist who discovered Barrick’s Betze deposit outside Elko. Since 1994, mining interests have donated more than $269,000 to Reid, including at least $82,000 from Barrick and its employees. Any suggestion, however, that these links have swayed Reid is “an attempt to draw a conclusion that would be inaccurate,” says his spokesman Jon Summers. (Reid declined to be interviewed for this article.)
Reid’s relationship with the mining industry is a fiercely guarded piece of political capital. Though Reid has a solid base in expanding urban areas such as Las Vegas and Reno, he has had to fight for votes in conservative rural areas. Part of the problem is his environmental record: Reid has opposed road building in national forests and supported setting aside 5.6 million acres in southern Nevada to protect the threatened desert tortoise. His 1998 reelection bid was opposed by the anti-environmentalist Wise Use movement; he won by just 428 votes. In 2001, when Bush moved to quash mining regulations put in place by the Clinton administration, Reid saw an opportunity to mend fences back home. “President Bush can’t be wrong all the time,” he said. In 2003, prominent Nevada Republicans endorsed his reelection bid, and he won by a comfortable margin.
In the end, Reid’s stance seems to be the product of a highly personal political calculus. More than 85 percent of Nevada is federally owned; there are 48 major mines and more than 179,000 active claims on that land. “The economy of rural Nevada is tied to the mining industry in a big way,” explains Alan Coyner, chief administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals. The industry claims to generate 102,000 jobs and pump $9.6 billion annually into the economy. “If a punitive royalty is imposed that closes or doesn’t allow a bunch of mines to open,” says Coyner, “then you’ve got a bunch of unemployed Nevadans.”
You see, in the end, the Bundy affair and the BLM land grabs are all about land, water and mineral rights. Those connected are lining their pockets and getting filthy rich. Here are two pics of the mining in Nevada and who owns what:
A patented mining claim gives the holder full ownership of the location with the rights to all the minerals and resources above and below the surface. I have saved and uploaded a number of pdfs on this for your viewing outrage — these are declarations of values on mining patents and other documents — the order may be off, but it is good info: You can view a listing of Clark County, Nevada mines here. The grab for mineral rights is going on throughout the west… it is why the feds won’t give the land back to the states.
Cliven Bundy was not the only one in Nevada attacked for his land, in which attack Reid and the BLM were involved. Not by a long shot. 23 other ranchers were chased off for their property, water and mineral rights. And there were others…
Meet Bobby Franklin. Here are the facts as I understand them. His story is similar to the Bundy’s regarding how Harry Reid’s BLM Task Force recruited a Clark County Commissioner, his appointees and the LVMPD to get what they wanted from him. In 1995-96, they road blocked his gates on his 160 acres and falsely arrested him on charges, for which he was never prosecuted. In 1996, they beat, jailed and chased him out of Laughlin, Nevada. These thugs ransacked and completely destroyed all structures and fences on his estate without any warrant to do so (very reminiscent of Bundy’s experience). His land was in abeyance on appeal from BLM to the Dept. of Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA). On December 18, 1996, the IBLA entered their “final order” and had no further jurisdiction on the land. After years of falsifying public records, including deleting Franklin’s serial # — N-49548 — from the BLM master Title Plat Map, the named participants spent years on their “proposed” “BLM Land Auction.” In 2005, the conspired “BLM Land Auction” sold 80 acres of his land to Don Laughlin, who is still suing Franklin in federal court. This is an ongoing 26 year roster of events. Franklin has saved years of Reid’s press releases, where he was trying to make a “Land Swap” law to funnel his estate into Robert Bilbray’s private corporations. Franklin claims you could tell how Bilbray and Woodbury embezzled 5000 acres, under color of their office. Franklin also alleges his daughter was kidnapped in this land grab.



BLM and the Story of Bobby Franklin
I don’t have all the details, but one thing I can tell you… Reid’s real estate dealings go far beyond shady. They are rife with corruption and graft. With the nationalization of the BLM and it forming a central authority over all the states, it is wielding its power like a tyrant, sweeping through the west and cherry picking the land and resources. Numerous states are caught up in this and gearing up for a fight. Evidently the BLM attacks those that have something it wants and ensures that elitists make money on the deals — individuals such as Harry Reid. With his sycophant heading the agency, he can get land for next to nothing, ensure people lose their land if he wants it and profit off any mining concern that attracts his attention. There seems to be a lot of BLM gold/silver land deals suddenly being cut with Rimrock Gold, a company that was pretty much non-existent until Neil Kornze’s father took the lead in 2013. One has to wonder if such deals would have been possible had Harry Reid not appointed Neil to oversee land his daddy now has significant interest in. Just sayin’.
Harry Reid has made millions and has destroyed those who got in his way. Most of the leadership in Nevada know what is going on and are either too afraid or too corrupt to do anything. Reid stands for every corruption in Nevada. He boldly promotes gaming, while killing off the ranching industry. He sings the praises of mining, while pushing Marxist policies everywhere he can. He says what he thinks big business wants to hear, convinces the NRA he is the very best choice in Nevada and softly plays the caring politician when it suits him, waxing poetic on his upbringing in a working family and how he was a boxer. All of it is window dressing. The only person Harry Reid loves is himself and whatever benefits his bottom line. There’s no question of that. The only question left is… is there anyone who will stop Reid, his family and his cronies from shaking down Nevada for every dime they can strip from the good people of that state?

Infiltration of the U.S. Government, Part One

Infiltration of the U.S. Government, Part One

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
The announcement that the House will vote on a special congressional committee to investigate Benghazi is long overdue. Accuracy in Media’s two special conferences on Benghazi helped mobilize the public and the press to demand this outcome.
In addition to identifying the Obama operatives in charge of the cover-up, a critical question is why the Obama administration facilitated the flow of weapons to al Qaeda in Libya. Indeed, answering this question could help explain the nature of the cover-up and why a video was falsely blamed for the deaths of four Americans.
It will take a lot of public pressure to uncover the dimensions of what one member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi called evidence of the “infiltration” of the U.S. government by the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is because some of those who want to investigate Benghazi, such as Senator John McCain (R-AZ), have no interest in uncovering Muslim Brotherhood operatives in the U.S. Government. McCain defended Hillary Clinton when one of her aides, Huma Abedin, was publicly identified as having personal and family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has also defended Abedin.
At AIM’s second conference on Benghazi, held at the National Press Club on April 22, retired Admiral James “Ace” Lyons stated openly what many have been talking about privately—that the transformation of U.S. policy from opposing to supporting al Qaeda can only be understood in terms of Muslim Brotherhood “penetration into every national security agency of this government,” and “their carte blanche entry into the [Obama] White House.”
So will these agents of influence be named and exposed by the Benghazi special committee? That is why the public has to continue to be mobilized to apply pressure.
Lyons said, “Just like during the 30s and 40s, and 50s, if you compare what went on then, to what we’re seeing today, that influences our policies, our actions, it is very similar and cannot be dismissed. Nobody wants to talk about it. But that’s what happened then, and that’s what’s happening now. The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t want to see Qaddafi there. They wanted him out. How much influence did that have on our policies? You’ve got to go in and dig and find out.”
His comments on the early time period are, of course, a reference to communist infiltration of the U.S. government. But it appears that some of our most important intelligence agencies have still not come to grips with that.
Consider Michael J. Sulick, who worked for the CIA for 28 years, served as chief of CIA counterintelligence from 2002 to 2004, and as director of the National Clandestine Service from 2007 to 2010. His new book, American Spies: Espionage against the United States from the Cold War to the Present, insists that “Senator Joseph McCarthy’s shrill allegations of pervasive communist infiltration of the US government denigrated scores of civil servants but again surfaced no real spies.” Sulick says McCarthy was “discredited” and that he ran a “misguided crusade” that “raised American suspicions of government efforts to prevent foreign espionage.”
In fact, author M. Stanton Evans has produced a “‘McCarthyism’ by the Numbers” table naming 50 people identified by McCarthy, his aides, or in his committee hearings, and what is now known about them, based on official records. They are Soviet agents, Communists, suspects, or persons who took the Fifth rather than talk about communist or Soviet activities.
In total, the number was larger. Evans says, “All told, the McCarthy cases linked together in such fashion amounted to several hundred people, constituting a massive security danger to the nation. However, numbers per se were not the central issue. By far the most important thing about his suspects was their positioning in the governmental structure, and other posts of influence, where they could shape American policy or opinion in favor of the Communist interest. This they did on a fairly regular basis, a subject that deserves discussion in its own right.”
The same question about influencing policy should now be front and center in the Benghazi probe.
But the other important question in regard to both scandals, then and now, is why a former high-ranking CIA official would take the position that McCarthy had somehow exaggerated the threat and failed to uncover even one spy. Sulick’s book includes praise from Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and former director of the NSA; Peter Earnest, executive director of the International Spy Museum (and a 35-year veteran of the CIA); and Burton Gerber, a retired CIA senior operations officer.
In his previous book, Spying in America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War, Sulick claimed McCarthy “defamed civil servants with baseless charges” and was “eventually discredited” after his “smear campaign” was over. In this book, he says McCarthy was able to identify “no major Soviet spies.”
Sulick may feel that he has to go along with the liberal view of McCarthy in order to sell books. It may be that he is resentful that a member of Congress investigated a problem of infiltration that affected the intelligence community, of which he was a part.
Whatever the motive, we are likely to see the same kind of resistance to a Congressional probe of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the intelligence community and White House.
The work has only just begun. The target can’t just be the White House. But it is a good place to start.
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

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Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

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CBN News
Evidence that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where Americans including U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens were killed, continues to mount.
Egyptians understand the U.S. president’s policies better than Americans.
First, on June 26, 2013, I produced and partially translated what purported to be an internal Libyan governmental memo which was leaked and picked up by many Arabic websites.  According to this document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including now ousted President Morsi, played a direct role in the Benghazi consulate attack. “Based on confessions derived from some of those arrested at the scene,” asserted the report, six people, “all of them Egyptians” from the jihad group Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Islamic Law), were arrested.  During interrogations, these Egyptian jihadi cell members:
confessed to very serious and important information concerning the financial sources of the group and the planners of the event and the storming and burning of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi…. And among the more prominent figures whose names were mentioned by cell members during confessions were: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi; preacher Safwat Hegazi; Saudi businessman Mansour Kadasa, owner of the satellite station, Al-Nas; Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Hassan; former presidential candidate, Hazim Salih Abu Isma’il…
Four days after this memo appeared, the military-backed June 30 Egyptian revolution took place.  Many of the Islamists in the Libyan document have either been arrested—including Safwat Hegazi and Abu Isma’il—or have arrest warrants under terrorism charges.
Walid Shoebat followed up with some important investigative work concerning the Libyan document, including by documenting that Western sources had finally acknowledged that there is a group called Ansar al-Sharia operating in Egypt with a cell in Libya, and that, with the ouster of Muhammad Morsi, it (along with al-Qaeda) had declared jihad on Egypt’s military (not to mention regular civilians in general, and Coptic Christians in particular).
The fact is, days after the Benghazi attack back in September 2012, Muslim Brotherhood connections appeared.  A video made during the consulate attack records people approaching the beleaguered U.S. compound; one of them yells to the besiegers in an Egyptian dialect, “Don’t shoot—Dr. Morsi sent us!” apparently a reference to the former Islamist president.
Most recently, on July 29, 2013, Ahmed Musa, a prominent Egyptian political insider and analyst made several assertions on Tahrir TV that further connected the dots.  During his program, while berating U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson for her many pro-Brotherhood policies—policies that have earned her the hate and contempt of millions of Egyptians—Musa insisted that he had absolute knowledge that the murderer of Chris Stevens was Mohsin al-‘Azzazi, whose passport was found in Brotherhood leader Khairet al-Shatter’s home, when the latter was arrested. According to the firm assurances of political analyst Musa, ‘Azzazi is currently present in Raba‘a al-Adawiya, where he, the seasoned terrorist, is preparing to do what he does best—terrorize Egypt, just as the Brotherhood have promised, in revenge for the ousting of Morsi.
But why would Morsi and the Brotherhood attack the consulate in Libya in the first place?  The day before the embassy attacks, based on little known but legitimate Arabic reports, I wrote an article titled “Jihadis Threaten to Burn U.S. Embassy in Cairo,” explaining how Islamists—including al-Qaeda—were threatening to attack the U.S. embassy in Cairo unless the notorious Blind Sheikh—an Islamist hero held in prison in the U.S. in connection to the first World Trade Center bombing—was released.  The date September 11 was also deliberately chosen to attack the embassy to commemorate the “heroic” September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda strikes on America.  (Regardless, the Obama administration, followed by the so-called mainstream media, portrayed the embassy attacks as unplanned reactions to an offensive movie.)
The theory is this: in order to negotiate the release of the Blind Sheikh, the Islamists needed an important American official to barter in exchange.  And while the violence on U.S. embassies began in Egypt, it seemed logical that kidnapping an American official from neighboring Libya would be less conspicuous than in Egypt, where Egyptians, including Morsi, were calling for the release of the Egyptian Blind Sheikh.   Thus the U.S. consulate in Libya was attacked, Chris Stevens kidnapped, but in the botched attempt, instead of becoming a valuable hostage, he wound up dead.
Add to all this the fact that, despite the very serious charges filed against them—including inciting murder and terrorism, and grand treason—the Obama administration, first with Anne Patterson, and now with Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham, keep pressuring Egypt to release Brotherhood leaders; McCain personally even visited the civilian al-Shatter, whose raided home revealed the passport of ‘Azzazi, whom Musa claims is the murderer of Stevens.
Needless to say, at this point, tens of millions of Egyptians are convinced that U.S. leadership is fully aware of the Brotherhood’s connection to Benghazi—and hence desperately pushing for the release of Brotherhood leadership, lest, when they are tried in Egypt’s courts, all these scandals become common knowledge.
Meanwhile in the United States, to a mainstream American public—conditioned as it is by a mainstream media—all of the above is just a “conspiracy theory,” since surely the U.S. government is transparent with the American people—except, that is, when it’s not.

Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack

Libyan Intelligence: Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi Involved in U.S. Consulate Attack

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According to a Libyan intelligence document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Egyptian President Morsi, were involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where several Americans, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed.
Image of the Libyan intelligence document
On Wednesday, June 26, several Arabic websites, including Veto Gate, quoted the intelligence report, which apparently was first leaked to the Kuwaiti paper, Al Ra’i.  Prepared by Mahmoud Ibrahim Sharif, Director of National Security for Libya, the report is addressed to the nation’s Minister of Interior.
It discusses the preliminary findings of the investigation, specifically concerning an “Egyptian cell” which was involved in the consulate attack. “Based on confessions derived from some of those arrested at the scene” six people, “all of them Egyptians” from the jihad group Ansar al-Sharia (“Supporters of Islamic Law), were arrested.
According to the report, during interrogations, these Egyptian jihadi cell members “confessed to very serious and important information concerning the financial sources of the group and the planners of the event and the storming and burning of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi…. And among the more prominent figures whose names were mentioned by cell members during confessions were: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi; preacher Safwat Hegazi; Saudi businessman Mansour Kadasa, owner of the satellite station, Al-Nas; Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Hassan; former presidential candidate, Hazim Salih Abu Isma’il…”
It should be noted that these findings are unsurprising: the supremacism of prominent Brotherhood figure Safwat Hegazi is such that he publicly declares the Brotherhood “will rule the world“;  Saudi Mansour’s hate-mongering, pro-Brotherhood TV station repeatedly aired footage of the YouTube Muhammad movie inciting violence around the Muslim world; popular Sheikh Muhammad Hassan holds that smiling to non-Muslims is forbidden, except when trying to win them over to Islam;  and Sheikh Hazim Abu Ismail is simply an openly anti-freedom, anti-infidel religious leader.
As for President Morsi, a video made during the consulate attack records people speaking in the Egyptian dialect: as they approach the beleaguered U.S. compound, one of them yells to the besiegers, “Don’t shoot—Dr. Morsi sent us!”
Update: On July 11, Tahrir News further validated the veracity of this document.

Ibrahim: Islam Unveiled

Raymond Ibrahim

CBN News Contributor, Middle East and Islam Expert
www.raymondibrahim.com
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Exposed: Muslim Brotherhood-Al-Qaeda Connection


As former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi’s trials continue, it’s enlightening to consider what is likely to be one of the centerpieces of the trial: longstanding accusations that Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party worked with foreign terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, against the national security of Egypt.
Based on these accusations of high treason, Morsi and others could face the death penalty.
Ibrahim will be on The 700 Club, Feb. 20, to talk more about how most Christian persecution is occuring in Muslim-dominated areas today. For more on this, check out his blog, The Existential Elephant in the ‘Christian Persecution’ Room.
Concerning some of the more severe allegations, one of Egypt’s most widely distributed and read newspapers, Al Watan, recently published what it said were recorded conversations between Morsi and Muhammad Zawahiri, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri’s brother.
In these reports, Watan repeatedly asserts that Egyptian security and intelligence agencies confirmed (or perhaps leaked out) the recordings.
Much of the substance of the alleged conversations is further corroborated by events that occurred during Morsi’s one-year-rule, most of which were reported by a variety of Arabic media outlets, though not by Western media.
In what follows, I relay, summarize, and translate some of the more significant portions of the Watan reports (verbatim statements are in quotation marks). In between, I comment on various anecdotes and events—many of which were first broken on my website—that now, in light of these phone conversations, make perfect sense
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The first recorded call between Muhammad Morsi and Muhammad Zawahiri lasted for 59 seconds. Morsi congratulated Zawahiri on his release from prison, where he had been incarcerated for jihadi/terrorist activities against Egypt, and assured him that he would not be followed or observed by any Egyptian authorities, and that he, Morsi, was planning on meeting with him soon. Prior to this first call, Refa’ al-Tahtawy, then Chief of Staff, mediated and arranged matters.
The presidential palace continued to communicate regularly with Muhammad Zawahiri, and sources confirm that he was the link between the Egyptian presidency and his brother, Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born leader of al-Qaeda.
It should be noted that, once released, the previously little-known Muhammad Zawahiri did become very visible and vocal in Egypt, at times spearheading the Islamist movement.
The next recording between Morsi and Zawahiri lasted for 2 minutes and 56 seconds and took place one month after Morsi became president. Morsi informed Zawahiri that the Muslim Brotherhood supports the mujahidin (jihadis) and that the mujahidin should support the Brotherhood in order for them both, and the Islamist agenda, to prevail in Egypt.
This makes sense in the context that, soon after Morsi came to power, the general public did become increasingly critical of him and his policies, including the fact that he was placing only Brotherhood members in Egypt’s most important posts, trying quickly to push through a pro-Islamist constitution, and, as Egyptians called it, trying in general to “Brotherhoodize” Egypt.
This second phone call being longer than the first, Zawahiri took it as an opportunity to congratulate Morsi on his recent presidential victory—which, incidentally, from the start, was portrayed by some as fraudulent—and expressed his joy that Morsi’s presidency could only mean that “all secular infidels would be removed from Egypt.”
Then Zawahiri told Morsi: “Rule according to the Sharia of Allah [or “Islamic law”], and we will stand next to you. Know that, from the start, there is no so-called democracy, so get rid of your opposition.”
This assertion comports extremely well with his brother Ayman Zawahiri’s views. A former Muslim Brotherhood member himself, some thirty years ago, the al-Qaeda leader wrote Al Hissad Al Murr (“The Bitter Harvest”), a scathing book condemning the Brotherhood for “taking advantage of the Muslim youths’ fervor by … steer[ing] their onetime passionate, Islamic zeal for jihad to conferences and elections.” An entire section dedicated to showing that Islamic Sharia cannot coexist with democracy even appears in Ayman Zawahiri’s book (see “Sharia and Democracy,” The Al Qaeda Reader, pgs. 116-136).
The call ended in agreement that al-Qaeda would support the Brotherhood, including its international branches, under the understanding that Morsi would soon implement full Sharia in Egypt. After this, Muhammad Zawahiri and Khairat al-Shater, the number-two man of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, reportedly met regularly.
It is interesting to note here that, prior to these revelations, U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson was seen visiting with Khairat al-Shater—even though he held no position in the Morsi government—and after the ousting and imprisonment of Morsi and leading Brotherhood members, Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham made it a point to visit the civilian Shater in his prison cell and urged the Egyptian government to release him.
The next call, recorded roughly six weeks after this last one, again revolved around the theme of solidifying common cooperation between the Egyptian presidency and the Muslim Brotherhood on the one hand, and al-Qaeda and its jihadi offshoots on the other, specifically in the context of creating jihadi cells inside Egypt devoted to protecting the increasingly unpopular Brotherhood-dominated government.
As I reported back in December 2012, Egyptian media were saying that foreign jihadi fighters were appearing in large numbers—one said 3,000 fighters—especially in Sinai. And, since the overthrow of the Brotherhood and the military crackdown on its supporters, many of those detained have been exposed speaking non-Egyptian dialects of Arabic.
During this same call, Zawahiri was also critical of the Morsi government for still not applying Islamic Sharia throughout Egypt, which, as mentioned, was one of the prerequisites for al-Qaeda support.
Morsi responded by saying “We are currently in the stage of consolidating power and need the help of all parties—and we cannot at this time apply the Iranian model or Taliban rule in Egypt; it is impossible to do so now.”
In fact, while the Brotherhood has repeatedly declared its aspirations for world domination , from its origins, it has always relied on a “gradual” approach, moving only in stages, with the idea of culminating its full vision only when enough power has been consolidated.
In response, Zawahiri told Morsi that, as a show of good will, he must “at least release the mujahidin who were imprisoned during the Mubarak era as well as all Islamists, as an assurance and pact of cooperation and proof that the old page has turned to a new one.”
After that call, and as confirmed by a governmental source, Morsi received a list from Zawahiri containing the names of the most dangerous terrorists in Egyptian jails, some of whom were on death row due to the enormity of their crimes.
In fact, as I reported in August 2012, many imprisoned terrorists, including from Egypt’s notorious Islamic Jihad organization—which was once led by Ayman Zawahiri—were released under Morsi.
One year later, in August 2013, soon after the removal of Morsi, Egypt’s Interior Ministry announced that Egypt was “preparing to cancel any presidential pardons issued during Morsi’s era to terrorists or criminals.”
During this same call, and in the context of pardons, Morsi said he would do his best to facilitate the return of Muhammad’s infamous brother and al-Qaeda leader, Ayman Zawahiri, back to Egypt—“with his head held high,” in accordance with Islamist wishes—as well as urge the U.S. to release the “Blind Sheikh” and terrorist mastermind, Omar Abdul Rahman.
In March 2013, I wrote about how Morsi, during his Pakistan visit, had reportedly met with Ayman Zawahiri and made arrangements to smuggle him back to Sinai.  According to a Pakistan source, the meeting was “facilitated by elements of Pakistani intelligence [ISI] and influential members of the International Organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The gist of the next two calls between Morsi and Muhammad Zawahiri was that, so long as the former is president, he would see to it that all released jihadis and al-Qaeda operatives are allowed to move freely throughout Egypt and the Sinai, and that the presidential palace would remain in constant contact with Zawahiri, to make sure everything is moving to the satisfaction of both parties.
Zawahiri further requested that Morsi allow them to develop training camps in Sinai in order to support the Brotherhood through trained militants. Along with saying that the Brotherhood intended to form a “revolutionary guard” to protect him against any coup, Morsi added that, in return for al-Qaeda’s and its affiliates’ support, not only would he allow them to have such training camps, but he would facilitate their development in Sinai and give them four facilities to use along the Egyptian-Libyan border.
That Libya is mentioned is interesting. According to a Libyan Arabic report I translated in June 2013, those who attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, killing Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were from jihadi cells that had been formed in Libya through Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood support. Those interrogated named Morsi and other top Brotherhood leadership as accomplices.
More evidence—including some that implicates the U.S. administration—has mounted since then.
Next, Watan makes several more assertions, all of which are preceded by “according to security/intelligence agencies.” They are:
  • That Morsi did indeed as he promised, and that he facilitated the establishment of four jihadi training camps. Morsi was then Chief in Command of Egypt’s Armed Forces, and through his power of authority, stopped the military from launching any operations including in the by now al-Qaeda overrun Sinai.
  • That, after Morsi reached Pakistan, he had a one-and-a-half hour meeting with an associate of Ayman Zawahiri in a hotel and possibly spoke with him.
  • That, after Morsi returned to Egypt from his trip to Pakistan, he issued another list containing the names of 20 more convicted terrorists considered dangerous to the national security of Egypt, giving them all presidential pardons—despite the fact that national security and intelligence strongly recommended that they not be released on grounds of the threat they posed.
  • That the Muslim Brotherhood’s international wing, including through the agency of Khairat al-Shater, had provided $50 million to al-Qaeda in part to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
One of the longer conversations between Morsi and Zawahiri reported by Watan is especially telling of al-Qaeda’s enmity for secularist Muslims and Coptic Christians—whose churches, some 80, were attacked, burned, and destroyed, some with the al-Qaeda flag furled above them, soon after the ousting of Morsi. I translate portions below:
Zawahiri: “The teachings of Allah need to be applied and enforced; the secularists have stopped the Islamic Sharia, and the response must be a stop to the building of churches.” (An odd assertion considering how difficult it already is for Copts to acquire a repair permit for their churches in Egypt.)
Zawahiri also added that “All those who reject the Sharia must be executed, and all those belonging to the secular media which work to disseminate debauchery and help deviants and Christians to violate the Sharia, must be executed.”
Morsi reportedly replied: “We have taken deterrent measures to combat those few, and new legislative measures to limit their media, and in the near future, we will shut down these media stations and launch large Islamic media outlets. We are even planning a big budget from the [Brotherhood] International Group to launch Islamic and jihadi satellite stations to urge on the jihad. There will be a channel for you and the men of al-Qaeda, and it can be broadcast from Afghanistan.”
Undeterred, Zawahiri responded by saying, “This [is a] Christian media—and some of the media personnel are paid by the [Coptic] Church and they work with those who oppose the Sharia… secularist forces are allied with Christian forces, among them Naguib Sawiris, the Christian-Jew."
Morsi: “Soon we will uphold our promises to you.”
In fact, there was a period of time when the secular media in Egypt—which was constantly exposing Brotherhood machinations—were under severe attack by the Brotherhood and Islamists of all stripes (comedian Bassem Youssef was the tip of the iceberg). In one instance, which I noted back in August 2012, six major media stations were attacked by Brotherhood supporters, their employees severely beat.
The last call recorded between Muhammad Morsi and Muhammad Zawahiri took place on the dawn of June 30, 2013 (the date of the June 30 Revolution that ousted Morsi and the Brotherhood). Morsi made the call to Zawahiri in the presence of Asad al-Sheikha, Deputy Chief of Presidential Staff, Refa’ al-Tahtawy, Chief of Presidential Staff, and his personal security.
During this last call, Morsi incited Zawahiri to rise against the Egyptian military in Sinai and asked Zawahiri to compel all jihadi and loyalist elements everywhere to come to the aid of the Muslim Brotherhood and neutralize its opponents.
Zawahiri reportedly responded by saying “We will fight the military and the police, and we will set the Sinai aflame.”
True enough, as I reported on July 4, quoting from an Arabic report: “Al-Qaeda, under the leadership of Muhammad Zawahiri, is currently planning reprisal operations by which to attack the army and the Morsi-opposition all around the Republic [of Egypt].” The report added that, right before the deposing of Morsi, Zawahiri had been arrested and was being interrogated—only to be ordered released by yet another presidential order, and that he had since fled to the Sinai.
Also on that same first day of the revolution, Khairat al-Shater, Deputy Leader of the Brotherhood, had a meeting with a delegate of jihadi fighters and reiterated Morsi’s request that all jihadis come to the aid of the presidency and the Brotherhood.
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As Morsi’s trial continues, it’s only a matter of time before the truth of these allegations—and their implications for the U.S.—is known. But one thing is certain: most of them comport incredibly well with incidents and events that took place under Morsi’s government.
Raymond Ibrahim, a CBN News analyst, is author of The Al Qaeda Reader and Crucified Again. He is a Shillman fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; associate fellow, Middle East Forum; and 2013 media fellow, Hoover Institution
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Exposing Harry Reid’s Dirty Laundry From Bribery , Lies, Mob Connections, And Stealing.

Exposing Harry Reid’s Dirty Laundry From Bribery , Lies, Mob Connections, And Stealing.

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What is Harry Reid’s motivation  behind the Bundy Ranchers?
It could have ended up like the infamous 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, as over the past several days federal agents confronted 300 armed supporters of Nevada rancher Clive Bundy. But the feds blinked and backed down from the highly charged episode that was threatening to become a major headache for Senator Reid (D-Nevada).
The Bureau of Land Management had been rounding up Bundy’s cattle to cover the $1.1 million in “grazing fees” the government claims he owes over a 20-year period. The BLM, in concert with other federal agencies, planned to sell Bundy’s cattle in order to pay his debt.
Tea party activist Dr. Jerome Corsi saids he’s convinced Reid wants to facilitate construction of a $5-billion solar energy plant in the Nevada desert by a Chinese company.
“It was clear that Reid had an economic motivation here and that one of Reid’s senior advisors is now heading the BLM. So clearly this whole Democratic Party scam on renewable energy came to roost on Harry Reid and Obama’s doorstep,” he remarks.
And what of the argument that the feds were protecting the desert tortoise from Bundy’s cattle? “The federal government was at risk of being exposed to America with grabbing land supposedly to defend some stupid tortoise that the government would readily move if Harry Reid wanted to build a highway,” Corsi offers.
The New York Times bestselling author maintains the whole incident was a pretext for the fact that Reid was going to make millions with the conversion of thousands of acres of Nevada land into solar farms owned by the Chinese. Senator Reid’s press aide denied such accusations Monday, describing them as “conspiracy theories that are being pushed by right-wing media outlets.”
Harry Reid Believes Paying Taxing is Voluntary

Why Corruption is Harry Reid’s Middle Name

Harry Reid’s Mob Connections
The connections between Harry Reid and the Mafia are quite numerous, but much of it is complicated. Ironically, Reid wants to build a $50 million dollar “Mob Museum” in Las Vegas, paid for by the taxpayers. (38) Indeed, Reid inserted this money into the Stimulus Bill. Why does Reid want to glorify a murderous bunch of thugs? Does he have fond memories of the days when the Mob ran Las Vegas?
Reid likes to claim he was responsible for chasing the Mob out of Las Vegas and portrays himself as some type of hero by claiming to have “cleaned up Las Vegas and ushered in a new era of responsibility.” (39)
The fact is that the Mob may not be as involved with the casinos as they once were, but they are still heavily involved in Las Vegas and Reid knows this. In fact, the mob has moved into sports betting. Indeed, in a report requested by the U.S. Congress in 1999, the National Gambling Commission estimated illegal sports betting generates around $80 billion; half of that figure betted on football games. (40)
I will outline the major links Reid has with the Mob; most of this is taken from a 4-part report by a mysterious author with the alias “Fedora,” all of which can be accessed in the footnotes.
What Former FBI Agent Joseph Yablonsky Says
Yablonsky was a FBI special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office for four years, until his retirement in 1983. When interviewed by journalist Del Tartikoff in 1996 Yablonsky was asked questions about many Las Vegas figures, including Reid:
Yablonsky: “Harry Reid is a mealy-mouth, and he was in their pocket just like the rest of them. Of course, there’s certain things I know I can’t speak about because of Privacy Act considerations. But he’s a worm, and he was a congressman, back there, representing Mr. Greenspun, you now, trying to agitate in terms of my removal. But all you’ve got to do is
read the pone he read when they had that phony Sinatra licensing.”
Tartikoff: “He wrote a poem?”
Yablonsky explained that, even though Frank Sinatra has lost a gaming license in the State of Nevada back in 1963 after evidence surfaced that mobster Sam Giancana was the real owner of the Cal-Nevada Lodge at Lake Tahoe and that Sinatra was merely a mob-friendly figurehead, Sinatra was back before the state Gaming Control Board in the late ‘70s, seeing a gaming license again.

“After this ridiculous hearing,” he said, “when Sinatra went up for licensing which had no adversary witnesses – McNeil-Lehrer played a half-hour of it on their program without even making a comment, it was so obvious. And when it came up to the Gaming Commission, which you know is [the top-tier of] a two-tiered system, Reid was the chairman, and he read this kiss-ass poem. He’s a faker.” (41)

So here you have the former head FBI agent in charge of investigating the mob in Las Vegas admitting Reid was “in their pocket” and relating how Reid voted to return to Sinatra his license to own gaming casinos, even though the Gaming Commission had access to plenty of information indicating that Sinatra remained connected to the Mob.
The Gaming Commission, led by Reid, dismissed strong evidence presented by FBI informants and other police reports. During the proceedings, Sinatra lied about his relationship with Mobster Willie Moretti, claiming he was just “a neighbor.” Sinatra denied making a pay-off to Lucky Luciano and acted like he didn’t know Sam Giancana. When Sinatra was questioned about a 1976 photo of himself with a group of prominent Gambino family mobsters, Sinatra claimed that he didn’t even know these men and that one of them wanted a picture with him and “before I realized what happened, there were approximately eight or nine men standing around me and several other snapshots were made.” (42)
This outrageous pack of lies was accepted by Reid who told the New York Times that he found Sinatra’s defense convincing! As New York Times reporter Robert Lindsey recounted:
All the old charges appeared to have been dispensed with. Yet, at least some observers said afterward that they felt there was less to the hearing than met the eye. Mr. Sinatra was treated with a kind of awe. He and his lawyer-manager, Milton Rudin, appeared to know many of the panel’s questions in advance. Board investigators seemed to base many of their conclusions solely on the singer’s own word; on some points, their fact-finding appeared to have been naively superficial. . .
Several times, when asked a potentially embarrassing question, Mr. Sinatra said that his memory failed him; he also gave some puzzling replies. In answering a question about the incident that led to the loss of his gaming license in 1963, he firmly denied knowing that the late Sam Giancana, a Chicago mobster, had visited the Cal Neva Lodge in violation of state laws barring gangsters from casinos. But when asked if he had ever admitted knowing Mr. Giancana was there, he answered, ”I might have said almost anything; if I said it, I don’t believe I meant it because I never saw him.”. . . Whatever Mr. Sinatra’s relationships might have been with the underworld, no matter whether he had been treated unfairly by the press, as he claims, there appeared to be a desire at the hearing to reinstate him, if for no other reason than that he’s good for business. (43)
After Reid and his fellow gaming commissioners awarded Sinatra gaming rights regarding Caesars Palace, Caesars Palace donated at least $8,000 to Reid. (44)
Reid has Four Sons who Work for a Law Firm that Defends Mobsters
All four of Reid’s sons have worked for Lionel Sawyer & Collins, a firm that also employs John Dawson, an expert in transferring assets offshore. It is believed that Dawson is involved with hiding the assets of convicted Mobster Rick Rizzolo, who was in trouble with the law for using his Crazy Horse bar to engage in illegal activities. Many people were beaten in this bar, some died, but those suing Rizzolo had a difficult time getting their money due to Rizzolo’s assets being hidden. John Dawson’s brother Kent was appointed to the Federal Bench by Senator Reid. And Kent Dawson, as Judge, has a history of giving out lenient sentences to mob connected people. Both Kent and John Dawson are heavy donors to Harry Reid. (49); (50); (51)
The Reno managing partner of Lionel Sawyer & Collins is Frederick Whittemore, whose clients have included casino mogul Steve Wynn, identified in a Scotland Yard report as a front man for the Genovese Mob family and connected to some high profile drug dealers. (52)
Moreover, Rory Reid and Mob attorney Jay Brown both acquired stock in American Enterprises, a company that operates the Table Mountain Indian casino near Fresno, California and Brown became an agent for this company. A short time later, Brown and other officers of this company gave Reid campaign contributions. (53) Is it illegal for Harry Reid’s son to invest in the gaming business along with Mob lawyers and then used their connections to donate to Harry Reid? No, but it certainly raised the question of why so many mob-connected people want to keep Reid in power.
Reid was Investigated for Accepting Mob Bribes as Head of the Nevada Gaming Commission
While Reid was cleared of this charge, lots of questions remain. Federal authorities were unable to prove Reid was being bribed. However, the main evidence for this was a tape recorded conversation involving Kansas City Mobster Joe Agosto. Unknown to Agosto, the FBI was taping him:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has received campaign contributions from people and political action committees linked to multiple companies suspected of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The FCPA “generally prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business,” according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Coincidentally, when describing Charles and David Koch as “un-American” during a recent Senate floor speech, Reid referred to a Bloomberg news story in 2011 on a French subsidiary of Koch Industries.
“These are the same brothers whose company, according to a Bloomberg investigation, paid bribes and kickbacks to win contracts in Africa, India and the Middle East,” Reid said.
“I have no problem with people making a lot of money — but it’s what they do with their money,” Reid told Business Insider in a subsequent interview.
Koch officials in the U.S. told Bloomberg in 2011 they had no prior knowledge of the illegal activities linked to the subsidiary. More than a dozen people were fired as a result of a French investigation, a source told the Washington Examiner in 2011.
Reid’s mention of the French debacle on the Senate floor prompted some journalists to dig into the Senate Majority Leader’s contribution records with the Center for Responsive Politics.
The CRP records reveal that Reid has accepted campaign money from individuals and political action committees associated with 10 companies linked to FCPA investigations.
The contributions total $515,100 between 2009 and 2013.
Indicted Businessman Names Harry Reid as Alleged Recipient of Massive Bribe
A Utah businessman is rocking both state and national politics after claiming Utah Attorney General John Swallow helped him broker a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make a federal investigation into his company quietly disappear, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Jeremy Johnson was allegedly told that the price would be $600,000, and claims to have made an initial payment of $250,000 when he was slapped with a federal lawsuit.  Now he says he wants his money back.
The Salt Lake Tribune points out that Johnson has no way of knowing whether the funds actually made it to Reid, even if he did make a massive payment to Reid’s alleged intermediary.
The Salt Lake Tribune continues, explaining how the bribe supposedly came to be in 2010:
At the time, Johnson was largely known in Utah as a wealthy philanthropist who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to ferry supplies into Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Then, with the FTC investigation continuing, Johnson said Swallow suggested Reid could make problems with regulators go away — for a price.
“I said, ‘OK, what do I need to do?’ He’s like, ‘OK, it costs money,’ ” Johnson said, who claimed Swallow was adamant he make a deal.
“I think he told me, ‘Richard Rawle has a connection with Harry Reid,’ ” Johnson said.
He said Swallow at first wanted $2 million to enlist Reid’s help. But [his company] I Works was no longer profitable and he did not have the money, Johnson said, so they eventually agreed on $300,000 upfront and $300,000 later.
Swallow put Johnson in contact with Rawle, whose company has operations in Nevada…
Rawle, who died of cancer last month, had contributed to Reid’s 2010 re-election bid and later bragged to Johnson that the Nevada Democrat helped him delay new federal payday-loan regulations, Johnson said.
“Richard [Rawle] is traveling to LV tomorrow and will be able to contact this person, who he has a very good relationship with. He needs a brief narrative of what is going on and what you want to happen. I don’t know the cost, but it probably won’t be cheap.”
On Oct. 7, Johnson emailed Rawle, insisting there was “rock solid proof” the FTC allegations against I Works were false. “We will do whatever it take[s] to get Senator Reid on our side and hopefully you can help make it happen. Let me know.”
Johnson spent 96 days in jail and has released a number of emails and statements seemingly corroborating parts of his story.  However, Swallow insists that Johnson is making “false and defamatory accusations” and that any role he may have played was merely for lobbying purposes.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Swallow stated. “As long as I’m not interfering with a government agency as a government official, there’s nothing wrong with me being involved.”
But Johnson told a judge he’s felt guilty about the situation from the start: “The truth is the worst thing I think I’ve done was I paid money knowing it was going to influence Harry Reid…So I’ve felt all along that I’ve committed bribery of some sort there.”
Though the connection to Reid remains unverified, some are remembering how Reid claimed on the Senate floor that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid his taxes for ten years based on far less evidence.
A Las Vegas Review-Journal blog jokes about how Reid might address the situation, if looking in from the outside:
I have a “source” that says that Harry Reid takes bribes all the time. In fact, if you want anything done out of his office, you must come with a suitcase of cash just to get an audience. That’s how he’s gotten so rich on a senator’s salary. He stashes his money in an offshore bank account. And, as a sidebar for Salt Lake church execs, he hasn’t tithed on that bribe money.
Senator Harry Reid’s office has declined to comment
Jeremy Johnson claims Harry Reid took $1m from Full Tilt to change poker stance