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Report: US Intelligence Officials Sound Alarm On Russian Interference

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Kremlin.ru, via Wikimedia Commons

History seems to be repeating itself…

Intelligence officials connected to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned that Russia has launched a plan to interfere in the 2024 election to bolster the chances of former President Trump being re-elected. 

In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, ODNI officials said that Russia is the “preeminent threat” to the election.

Fox News reports:

“It’s all the tactics we’ve seen before, primarily through social media, efforts using influential U.S. voices to amplify their narratives and other tactics,” an official said. “And as far as who they’re targeting, what we can say today is, Russia is sophisticated enough to know that, targeting swing state voters is, particularly valuable to them.”

Officials said that the intelligence community expects Russia will increase its underhanded activities as U.S. election day gets closer in order to manipulate public opinion, underscoring the threat to America’s political landscape.

Although former President Trump was not named specifically, ODNI officials said that the Russian interference is mimicking similar preferences for U.S. presidential candidates seen in previous election cycles.

Russia is “undertaking a whole-of-government approach to influence the election, including the presidential race, Congress and public opinion,” the official said, noting that Russia has grown “more sophisticated” over the years in election interference. 

The Kremlin, officials said, is targeting specific voting groups in swing states, as well as looking to promote “divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians,” although no specifics were provided. 

The briefing noted that while China doesn’t plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race, the communist nation is being carefully monitored to see if it mingles in down-ballot races. 

Prominent Foreign Politician Meets With Trump

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Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

On Monday, Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron met with former President Donald Trump in a surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago.

Cameron serves as the U.K. foreign secretary and is in the U.S. to urge lawmakers to back additional funding to Ukraine in its war against Russia.

A spokesperson for the British government’s Foreign Office described the Mar-A-Lago meeting as “standard practice” to meet with an opposition candidate, with Trump being the presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s presidential election.

It is unclear how the meeting went or what exactly was discussed. Trump has previously stated that he would end the war within 24 hours should he be reelected while he has also touted converting the cost of weapons transfers to Ukraine into a loan.

Fox News has more:

Cameron will meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday to discuss the $60 billion military aid package which he has held up for months, while the pair will also discuss the Israel-Gaza war.

Last week, Cameron called on Western leaders to put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans in Congress to approve the additional aid for Ukraine, as Britain and the European Union have already done.

“Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress,” Cameron said in a video posted on social media platform X. “I’m going to go and see him next week and say, ‘Ukraine needs that money. It is American security, it’s European security, it’s Britain’s security that’s on the line in Ukraine, and they need our help.’”

Mexico’s President Speaks Out Over Trump’s Border Wall Plans

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Trump at the border wall via Wikimedia Commons

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thinks Trump is all talk…

During a recent interview,  President Obrador expressed doubts President Trump would follow through on his pledge to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border because of the two countries’ economic ties.

“Because we understood each other very well. We signed an economic, a commercial agreement that has been favorable for both peoples, for both nations. He knows it. And President Biden, the same,” he said in an interview released Sunday by CBS News’s “60 Minutes.”

When CBS reporter Sharyn Alfonsi asked López Obrador to respond to those who argue the wall “works,” he said a wall “doesn’t work,” adding he told then-President Trump the same during a phone call.

López Obrador said the two leaders agreed not to talk about the wall as they “were not going to agree” and the phone call was the only instance the two discussed it.

“That was the only time and I told him, ‘I am going to send you, Mr. President, some videos of tunnels from Tijuana up to San Diego, that passed right under U.S. Customs.’ He stayed quiet, and then he started laughing and told me, ‘I can’t win with you,’” López Obrador recalled.

The Hill has more:

In 2020, López Obrador — Mexico’s first leftist president in decades — said while he does not agree with Trump’s assertion the wall staved off COVID-19 transmission, he also would not publicly confront him over the claim.

López Obrador, at the time, asserted the relationship between the U.S. and his country was “very good” and emphasized the two nations “are not distant neighbors.”

Report: FBI Searching For Iranian Spy Targeting Trump Admin. Officials

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Jsg2020, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The FBI Is currently searching for an Iranian intelligence operative who has been allegedly plotting to assassinate current and former U.S. government officials, especially those who served in the Trump administration.

According to The Daily Wire, the Bureau’s Miami field office issued a public alert as it sought information on Majid Dastjani Farahani, who is suspected of being a member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, Semafor reported. The FBI warned of Farahani, 42, in a Most Wanted notice on Friday, saying that he speaks Farsi, French, Spanish, and English and will often move between Iran and Venezuela.

The Daily Wire has more:

According to the FBI, Farahani was recruiting “individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former United States Government officials” as part of a revenge operation for the U.S. taking out Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in 2020 under Trump and Pompeo.

Semafor reported that U.S. officials said Pompeo and former special envoy for Iran Brian Hook were given 24-hour security after the FBI warned of Farahani. In 2022, the Department of Justice indicted members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for an alleged plot to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who also served under Trump.

Farahani is also accused of recruiting people to run “surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States.”

Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike ordered by Trump in January 2020. Shortly after Soleimani’s death, the top Iranian general and other officials vowed that Iran would get revenge on the U.S.

Tucker Carlson Confirms Vladimir Putin Interview

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Kremlin.ru, via Wikimedia Commons

On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson confirmed he will interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The sit-down will mark the first time a member of the Western media will interview Putin since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine that sparked the ongoing war between the two countries.

“We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview,” Carlson said in a video posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can. And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.”

Carlson did not specify when his interview with Putin would be published.

According to The Hill, while speaking from what appeared to be an elevated balcony in Moscow, Carlson acknowledged what he called “risks to conducting an interview like this” and noted he and his crew paid for the trip to Moscow themselves and did not take any financial assistance from government groups to travel.

However, the next day Putin’s press secretary called out Carlson for lying about his interview with the Russian leader.

While Carlson made many claims in his 4-minute video, one that stuck out was, “Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin.”

Dmitry Peskov said they were wrong. The long-time Putin press secretary told the New York Times, “Mr. Carlson is not correct, but he couldn’t have known that. We receive a lot of requests for interviews with the president.”

Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Against Steele Dossier Business

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

On Thursday, a London judge tossed out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence, a company co-founded by Christopher Steele, the former British spy who created the debunked Steele Dossier in 2016.

The infamous dossier was paid for by Democrats and published during Trump’s first presidential bid against Hillary Clinton. It contained uncorroborated allegations and rumors designed through mainstream media outlets and among critics in an effort to sway the 2016 election. Trump denied the legitimacy of the dossier’s contents from the beginning however the claims sparked an investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

“There are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial,” Judge Karen Steyn said of the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Trump alleged Orbis violated British data protection laws and sought damages. He also wanted a judge to definitively rule the claims were false.

Fox News has more:

Trump’s legal team argued the former president “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” because his data protection rights were violated. Trump’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson argued the dossier “contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump.” Trump’s case “is that this personal data is egregiously inaccurate.”

Conversely, Orbis said the lawsuit should be thrown out because the dossier, which was published by BuzzFeed, was never meant to be made public. It was done so without the permission of Steele or Orbis, they claim. They also said Trump’s lawsuit was filed too late.

The judge seemed to agree, saying Trump had “chosen to allow many years to elapse – without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction – since he was first made aware of the dossier.”

Anti-Woke ‘Radical Libertarian’ Wins Argentine Election, Trump Plans Visit

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

ANALYSIS – In another extremely positive political development overseas, a ‘far-right’ populist, better called an anti-woke radical libertarian, has won the presidency in Argentina.

The leftist-hating, free market advocate, Javier Milei, hopes to shake up South America’s highly statist second-largest economy and its extreme socialist politics.

While Argentina and the U.S. are very different political animals, and former President Trump and Milei don’t share similar views on a lot of things, Trump congratulated Milei on his landslide victory, saying he would “Make Argentina Great Again!”

According to a statement by Milei’s press office after the two spoke on Thursday, Trump will also visit Buenos Aires to meet with the Argentine president-elect.

One thing they do have in common is their hatred of the left and love of incendiary language (read to the end).

A hundred years ago Argentina was one of the six wealthiest countries in the world, but thanks to the socialism of Juan and Evita Perón, and their Peronist party, the beautiful country has dropped to a dismal to 66th place, below Mexico and just above Russia.

Milei, who leads the country’s La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances) party, won the presidential run-off with some 56% of the vote, well ahead of left-leaning Peronist Economy Minister Sergio Massa’s 44%. Milei will take office Dec. 10.

The self-described anarcho-capitalist is pledging economic shock therapy, by among other things, slashing bloated government spending, shuttering the central bank, and ditching the thoroughly devalued peso for the U.S. dollar.

These potentially painful reforms resonated with voters angry at the economic malaise. Still, as Fortune noted, Milei’s “party controls only a handful of seats in congress, and policies like dollarization would be an incredibly complex undertaking even with broad political support.”

Meanwhile, many “investors think Milei is the best shot at salvaging the economy after years of market pain.”

Fortune added:

While Milei gained attention for quirks that were atypical for a potential head of state — his unusual hairdo, love of his cloned dogs and a penchant for campaigning with a chainsaw — he won fans among investors for his promise to usher in a business-friendly era for Argentina. Economic growth is elusive, the peso has lost more than 90% of its value in four years, and around 40% of the population lives in poverty.

John Fund writes in National Review:

Milei, a free-market economist, is an ally of both the U.S. and Israel and a sworn adversary of China and Latin American leftists. His plan to dollarize the Argentine economy will blunt China’s effort to undermine the U.S. currency. As analyst Juan P. Villasmil puts it: “Argentina’s economy is the second most powerful in South America, so having it led by an openly pro-US leader in a continent filled with socialists isn’t bad news.”

Milei describes himself as an Austrian economist, but there is also some Chicago School influence. He named two of his dogs after Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas, and a third after Murray Rothbard.

Elon Musk and other U.S. business leaders are already looking forward to an open and more free Argentine economy. Milei has a strong team of advisers from free market think tanks and has forged an alliance with establishment conservative parties to help him govern.

And Milei is a firebrand and fighter much like Trump. Expect him to take a wrecking ball to the socialists. The UK’s Express quoted Milei as saying:

“You can’t give s**t leftards an inch. All collectivists, all kinds of collectivists. […] They are s**t!

“If you think differently from them they will kill you. This is the point. You can’t give s**t leftists an inch, if you give them an inch they will use it to destroy you.

“You can’t negotiate with leftards. You don’t negotiate with trash because they will end you!

Milei added: “And since they can’t beat us with real arguments, they just use the repressive apparatus of the state with loads of taxpayer money to destroy us and yet they’re still losing!”

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Trump Calls To Ban US Entry for Immigrants Against Israel

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President Donald J. Trump is presented with a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade challenge coin following an air assault and gun rain demonstration at Fort Drum, New York, on August 13. The demonstration was part of President Trump's visit to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) to sign the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which increases the Army's authorized active-duty end strength by 4,000 enabling us to field critical capabilities in support of the National Defense Strategy. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Scaggs) 180813-A-TZ475-010

Former President Trump said there is no room in America for those who want to abolish Israel.

On Saturday, Trump told the crowd at the Florida Freedom Summit that he wants to ban entry into the United States for immigrants who support abolishing Israel, one of America’s strongest allies in the mid-East.

Fox News has more:

“If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihadists, and then you don’t want your country to do well, you don’t want your country to be successful, you’re just not going to get in, you’re not getting in, you’re not coming into our country,” Trump said.

Trump also proposed ideological screening for immigrants.

“On day one, I will restore the Trump travel on entering from having people that like to blow up our shopping centers and kill our people and do lots of bad things. Entry from plagued countries. We will not allow people to come in and will implement strong ideological screening for all immigrants,” Trump said. 

Trump called for ideological screening for immigrants during his 2016 campaign as well, stating that “extreme vetting” needs to be in place.

Trump’s comments come after he promised to deport immigrants who are publicly supporting Hamas during an Iowa campaign speech in October.

‘DeSantis Airways’ – Florida Governor Evacuates 300 Americans from Israel

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Ron DeSantis via Gage Skidmore Flickr

ANALYSIS – ‘DeSantis Airways’ – Nonstop migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard and return flights from Israel.’ In an act more befitting a president than the governor of a state, Republican Ron DeSantis ordered Florida state-funded flights to quickly rescue nearly 300 Americans, including 91 children, stranded in war-torn Israel. 

At least 30 Americans are listed as murdered by Hamas so far. Another 13 remain missing. Florida officials estimate that around 20,000 U.S. citizens (AMCITS) remain in Israel unable to return home.

DeSantis chided Joe Biden for not doing enough to rescue stranded Americans.

“There was a devoid [sic] of leadership so we stepped up and led,” DeSantis said Sunday night in a video posted on X.

“Today we welcomed nearly 300 Americans who have been in Israel since last week, when the violent attacks by Hamas terrorists began,” DeSantis wrote.

The Republican presidential hopeful authorized the Florida Department of Emergency Management to carry out “logistical, rescue and evacuation operations” for Florida residents still in Israel.

Florida officials partnered with Project Dynamo, an international search and rescue non-profit, to organize the flights.

One plane carrying seven evacuees landed late night Sunday in Orlando and the other in Tampa, where DeSantis was on hand to meet with over 270 evacuees and four of their dogs. This the first of a planned series of evacuation flights.

The DeSantis executive order also enables the department to transport “necessary supplies” to Israel.

The state’s move supplements slow-going federal efforts to evacuate U.S. citizens from Israel due to the limited availability of commercial flights leaving the country. 

Commercial airlines have canceled hundreds of flights out of Israel as Hamas wages war against Israeli civilians. 

Only a trickle of charter flights has been going in and out regularly.

DeSantis also said this weekend that the U.S. should refuse to take refugees from Gaza, claiming during a campaign event in Iowa that, “They are all anti-Semitic” and that Palestinians should go to the “Arab states.”

While I may not agree that all the residents of Gaza are anti-Semitic, the Hamas brainwashing there is intense and systematic. And thanks to Biden, our immigration system is overwhelmed.  DeSantis is right to have fellow Arab states take in those refugees. 

Team Biden belatedly began arranging chartered flights on Friday for U.S. citizens trapped in Israel to head to Europe, not the U.S., but they will be required to repay Uncle Sam. And no pets allowed.

Meanwhile, the swiftness of the DeSantis effort should be applauded. 

“I am proud of how quickly we have been able to activate resources and do what the federal government could not — get Floridians and other Americans back home,” DeSantis said in a statement.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also confirmed on Thursday that in addition to chartered flights, the federal government would explore the possibility of evacuating citizens “by land and by sea.”

American citizens in need of assistance in Israel who want to wait for Biden’s help can complete an intake form found at travel.state.gov and standby.

Some have criticized former president Donald Trump for not sending his own 757 airliner, dubbed ‘Trump Force One’ to Israel to bring back Americans. That would have been a great gesture and a major media coup. 

But Trump has been dealing with blowback to his earlier comments calling Hezbollah terrorists ‘very smart’ and bashing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a personal squabble.

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Ex-Porn Star, Now ‘Only Fans’ Performer Celebrates Hamas Terror Attacks 

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ANALYSIS – While most of us don’t care much about what a deranged former porn star turned ‘Only Fans’ webcam model (‘cam girl’) says, it’s a sign of our times that this is news. 

Mia Khalifa is a 30-year-old Lebanese American born in Beirut and raised Catholic. But her previous life choices and current words and actions are far from Christian.

Once PornHub’s highest-ranked adult star, Khalifa left the hard-core porn business to focus on ‘Only Fans.’

Khalifa, who has long called Israel an apartheid state, provoked outrage with her enthusiastic support for Hamas terrorists following their horrific surprise attack on Israel which has taken over 800 Israeli lives, mostly civilians.

Her support for the terrorists was shameless calling them ‘freedom fighters’ — even urging the brutal murderers to “flip their phones and film” their murderous rampage on Israel in the “horizontal.”

When criticized for her horizontal comment, she responded, “I just wanna make sure there’s 4k footage of my people breaking down the walls of the open air prison they’ve been forced out of their homes and into so we have good options for the history books that write about how how they freed themselves from apartheid.”

Fox News reported:

She also reposted a message that said, “Babe wake up Palestine is getting liberated,” and mocked video of Israelis fleeing from attackers. Khalifa reposted anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages throughout the multipronged terrorist attack that left hundreds dead. Khalifa celebrated as terrifying videos, which included footage of Hamas kidnapping women and children while groups of young partygoers were tied up and taken into Gaza, shocked most onlookers.

In a separate, apparently now-deleted post on X, Khalifa reportedly called a photo of Hamas terrorists in a pickup truck a “Renaissance painting.”

Her support for Islamists terrorists is ironic considering that the pornographic performer also made headlines for claiming she received ISIS death threats as recently as 2018 over a sex scene she filmed wearing a hijab.

Her current online rantings seem to also be hurting her pocketbook.

Earlier, Khalifa doubled down amidst the backlash: “I’d say supporting Palestine has lost me business opportunities, but I’m more angry at myself for not checking whether or not I was entering into business with Zionists. My bad,” she wrote.

But maybe the online backlash has finally caused her to backtrack, with the disgraced porn actress apparently shifting from being pro-Hamas, to simply being pro-Palestinian.

Monday morning Khalifa posted on X:

Hamas is not Palestine’s army, their actions do not reflect the Palestinian people. Hamas formed in 1987, 20 years AFTER the occupation, as a means of resistance to ethnic cleansing and apartheid. They are an extremist group calling on other extremist groups that also do not represent the masses of people.

While no one should really care what Khalifa says, she can be seen as a bellwether of certain online opinions. And it is important to read them and counter outrageous opinions like hers wherever we find them.

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.