Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Whitey Bulger can no longer testify against Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller

Ex-con claims feds ‘wanted to get rid of’ James ‘Whitey’ Bulger



Prison guards almost certainly allowed inmates to fatally assault James “Whitey” Bulger following his arrival at a West Virginia lockup — and high-ranking federal officials probably transferred the notorious Boston gangster there to “get rid of him,” an ex-con-turned-journalist told The Post on Wednesday.
“It just seems impossible to me that this could have happened without awareness, not only at the level of the guards on the tier,” writer and producer Richard Stratton said.
Stratton said it was inconceivable that Bulger, an infamous FBI informant who helped the feds decimate his Mafia rivals, wouldn’t be placed in protective custody at the Hazelton penitentiary, where two inmates were killed in separate incidents earlier this year.
“He’s going to be exposed in a way where he can easily be killed, and then one day later he’s murdered,” Stratton said.
Stratton, who co-produced the 2002 HBO documentary “Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder,” also noted that the federal Bureau of Prisons reportedly transferred Bulger out of an Arizona prison in 2014 over allegations of an improper relationship with a female psychologist there.
“It’s not like Whitey’s going to stop f–king scamming because he’s in prison,” Stratton said.

“It’s so obvious that they wanted to get rid of him, that he was a pain in the ass to them.”
Stratton, a former drug smuggler who served eight years in federal prison, said he once sought help from Bulger when the Mafia tried to muscle in on a scam in which he was sneaking hashish from Lebanon through Boston’s Logan Airport.
After refusing to cough up $1 million and half of whatever drugs he brought into the US, “I heard they put out a contract on me,” said Stratton, who also recounted the episode in his 2016 memoir, “Smuggler’s Blues: A True Story of the Hippie Mafia.”
“I went to Whitey and Whitey squashed the whole thing,” he said.
“Then I had to move a load of pot for him.”
Stratton, a Massachusetts native, wrote two articles about Bulger for Playboy magazine and most recently directed the A&E network’s documentary miniseries “Gotti: Godfather & Son.”
A spokesman for the Hazelton penitentiary referred questions to BOP headquarters in Washington, DC, which didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Democrats: Address Records Show Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Still Lived With Her First Husband Throughout Marriage To Her Apparent Brother

In this June 5, 2018, file photo, State Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to a state legislature, files to run for the 5th district congressional seat that U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is vacating to run for Minnesota attorney general, at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office in St. Paul, Minn. (Lacey Young/Minnesota Public Radio via AP, File)
In recent days, Minnesota state Representative Ilhan Omar (D-60B) has campaigned with Minnesota Attorney General candidate Keith Ellison (D-MN). Omar is the Democratic nominee for the federal House seat, MN CD-5, that Ellison is vacating. She is the assumed favorite to win the seat.
Win or lose, however, a Department of Justice investigation into her past appears inevitable. A remarkable -- and growing -- amount of evidence implicates her in multiple federal and state felonies.
The allegations stem from Omar’s 2009 marriage to British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, her apparent brother. Below, exclusive new evidence backs the claim that this marriage was fraudulent. Also, this new evidence suggests that student loan fraud and immigration fraud were Omar’s motivations for marrying Mr. Elmi.
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In 2016, shortly after Rep. Omar defeated 44-year incumbent Phyllis Kahn in the Democratic primary for MN House District 60B, someone anonymously posted the initial allegations on the SomaliSpot.com message board. The poster claimed Omar had been granted a Minnesota marriage license in 2009, and subsequently married her brother Ahmed Elmi while she was still Islamically married to Ahmed Hirsi -- with whom she had two children at the time.
Long-time Minnesota reporter/attorney Scott Johnson investigated the allegations, and surprisingly discovered that they were supported by government records.
Minnesota reporter Preya Samsundar investigated further, uncovering much more supporting evidence.
Pressured by local and national media, Omar soon released a statement. It failed to address much of the evidence. Her statement included this passage:
In 2002, when I was 19 years old, Ahmed Hirsi … and I, applied for a marriage license, but we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married. In 2008, we decided to end our relationship in our faith tradition after reaching an impasse in our life together.
I entered into a relationship with a British citizen, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, and married him legally in 2009. Our relationship ended in 2011 and we divorced in our faith tradition. …
Since 2011, I am happy to say that I have reconciled with Ahmed Hirsi, we have married in our faith tradition and are raising our family together. (Emphasis added)
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I have extensively searched publicly available address records with the assistance of a legal researcher. We have found that Rep. Omar’s first claim -- that she and Ahmed Hirsi underwent an Islamic divorce “to end [their] relationship” in 2008 -- can not be reconciled with their official address records. Further, her claim can not be reconciled with her own words from an interview she gave in 2013.
-- From 2002 until 2009, Ilhan Omar lived in a series of apartments in Minneapolis with Ahmed Hirsi.
-- In 2009, Ilhan Omar married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.
-- In August 2009, records show that both Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi left Minnesota, moving to 2608 Pacific Dr. South, Apt. 4, Fargo, North Dakota 58103. (The record we found for Elmi did not include the apartment number.)
-- However, records show that Ahmed Hirsi moved there, too.
In August 2009, Ahmed Hirsi is recorded at 2608 Pacific Dr. South, Apt. 4, Fargo, North Dakota 58103.
Ilhan, her Islamically divorced first husband, and her second husband are all recorded to live at the same apartment at the same time.
-- In February 2010, both Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Hirsi are recorded as having moved to 2438 18th St. South, Fargo, North Dakota 58103.
-- Records show that Ahmed Elmi, her legal husband, appears at this new address in November 2010, nine months later.
To summarize:
-- Address records show that Ilhan Omar lived at the same address with the man she claimed to have divorced and the man she was legally married to -- concurrently. And that she did this twice.
-- Ilhan Omar stated that her relationship with Ahmed Elmi only lasted from 2009 until 2011. But address records show she spent more of that time living with Ahmed Hirsi.
Indeed, she may have lived with Hirsi continuously during her entire marriage to Ahmed Elmi.
Years before this scandal was publicized on the Somali message board, Ilhan herself confirmed that Ahmed Hirsi was with her in North Dakota.
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The following passage appeared in a local Minneapolis news outlet in 2013 within an article titled “Refugee Parent Finds Sense of Home in Minneapolis Neighborhood School”:
After having started their daughter, Isra, in kindergarten in Minneapolis, Omar and her husband, Ahmed Hirsi, moved to North Dakota so that Omar could finish her bachelor’s degree in political science.
From 2009 to 2011, Ilhan Omar was enrolled at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo.
British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi was also enrolled at NDSU during this period.
And, although they did not legally divorce until 2017, this two-year stretch covers virtually the entire period during which Omar claims she and Elmi were in a relationship.
Federal student aid applications, or FAFSAs, are treated differently by loan officers if an applicant is married.
Loan officers are not allowed to consider the assets of a married applicant’s parents when constructing the loan terms.
Fewer assets shows greater need, and likely will result in loan terms more favorable to the applicant.
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On Friday, October 26, I sent the following email to Rep. Omar, the Minnesota DFL chairman, and the CD-5 DFL chairman. I offered three full days to respond before publication:
I have not received a response.
This is consistent with her past behavior. Since 2016, Omar has refused to address specific evidence, and has repeatedly referred to myself, Scott Johnson, and Preya Samsundar as “bigoted.”
On October 23, I published an article that included new evidence -- including official public school records archived by the city government of St. Paul, MN -- showing that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi appears to have been raised by Ilhan’s father. Prior to publication I sent her the below email, offering the same three days to respond:
I have not received a response.
Except for this indirect tweet, which she posted to her verified Twitter account:
I immediately offered to retract any errors:
I have not received a response.
On August 8, I published an article including new evidence -- including official court documents signed by Omar under penalty of perjury, and pictures which she and Ahmed Elmi had posted on their respective, verified social media accounts -- that Rep. Omar perjured herself in 2017 during their divorce proceedings.
One remarkable court document from that article shows Omar answering nine questions; seven of her nine answers conflict with the evidence from her own social media account. She then signed that document, her signature immediately beside an explicit warning of Minnesota state penalties for perjury.
For that August 8 article, I gave Omar a full five days to respond prior to publication.
She did not.
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Minneapolis/St. Paul’s major news outlet, the Star Tribune, has remained virtually silent for two years on the growing evidence implicating the leading candidate for the state’s high-profile federal House seat. Last week, Scott Johnson repeatedly emailed the Star Tribune's head news editor, Rene Sanchez; Johnson presented an eloquent case that the paper has catastrophically failed its readers with its dismissive coverage of Ilhan Omar's scandals.
On Friday night, the Star Tribune saw fit to publish an article on Rep. Omar that included this bizarrely compliant reporting:
During an interview, Omar showed a reporter cellphone photos of documents from her family’s U.S. entry in 1995 after fleeing Somalia’s civil war. She declined to provide copies of the papers, which included refugee resettlement approval forms and identification cards, but they appeared to list her father, siblings and Omar by order of birth, with Omar as the youngest of seven children. No one named Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, who is three years younger than Omar, could be seen listed in the documents.
These cellphone pictures were presumably Omar’s attempt to rebut my October 23 article. Yet Omar did not address any published evidence, nor that of anyone else who has investigated and published about Omar’s past.
Remarkably, the Star Tribune reporter saw fit to accept and publish, as Omar’s rebuttal, unverified documents photographed on a cellphone -- even though Omar refused to turn them over, or even to let the reporter take a picture of the picture of the document.
It gets worse.
The Star Tribune reporter did not know to ask about when Rep. Omar’s campaign team, in 2016, demanded that local outlet CityPages change its reporting on the number of Omar’s siblings.
CityPages had published that Omar was one of seven, with five brothers and a sister. And Rep. Omar’s camp told them seven was incorrect! 

Nutty and evil: Former TV CEO Says U.S. Should Ban ‘Straight White Males from Voting’

Voters cast their ballots early for midterm elections
Voters cast their ballots early for midterm elections at the Government & Judicial Center in Noblesville, Ind., on Oct. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
WASHINGTON – Steven Clifford, author and former CEO of the King Broadcasting Company and National Mobile Television, told PJM that the federal government should “prohibit straight white males from voting” in U.S. elections as a way to “save” democracy.
“I think it’s the only hope for democracy in America and I will be leading a great movement to prohibit straight white males, who I believe supported Donald Trump by about 85 percent, from exercising the franchise and I think that will save our democracy,” Clifford said during an interview after speaking at the forum “Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism,” which was organized by the Center for Study of Responsive Law – a group former independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader founded in 1968.
Clifford, author of the book CEO Pay Machine: How it Trashes America and How to Stop iturged Democrats to explain their policy proposals to voters rather than focus on the reasons they oppose President Trump.
“I’m not a campaign consultant and I think they have to get off the fact that Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Every voter knows that Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton spent $450 million to say every day that Donald Trump is Donald Trump,” Clifford said, referencing the 2016 presidential election campaign.
“I think they’ve got to tell the voters why they’re going to be better off with a Democratic House or a Democratic Senate rather than just say Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump every day... 'Anti' doesn’t get people out to vote enough,” he added. "It's got to help me."
During the forum, Ralph Nader suggested that public schools teach contract law and tort law to students, given the rising rate of Internet use among young people.
“Young people have to sign these agreements, fine-print agreements, or click on to Facebook and so on, Instagram. It’s not like it’s foreign to their experience, and we don’t teach it so I think we’ve got to make lawlessness a political issue – an election-year issue because in a state of lawlessness, the people who have the most money and the corporations with the most raw power are going to run the country into the ground as they already are,” Nader said.
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“Half the country’s population is poor,” he added. “Forget all the other statistics, half of the county’s families are told to make it under $50,000 per year gross for a family of four – that’s before deductions – two parents, two children, in the land of the free and the richest land in the world.”

moral relativism in search of power

Clyburn Announces Plans to Campaign With Dem Candidate Accused of Spousal Abuse

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) said back in May that Democratic congressional candidate Archie Parnell should “end his campaign” following revelations of past spousal abuse, but Clyburn is now scheduled to join the embattled candidate for a final campaign event before election day.

Watch: Leftist reportedly tore down GOP campaign signs in Texas, approached witness with knife...

Watch: Leftist reportedly tore down GOP campaign signs in Texas, approached witness with knife


Watch: Leftist reportedly tore down GOP campaign signs in Texas, approached witness with knife
A known Democratic activist was caught on video cutting down Republican campaign signs in Texas. (Image source: Video screenshot) 
A known liberal activist was reportedly caught on video cutting down campaign signs for Republican candidates in Mesquite, Texas.
“This is why you must vote straight Republican,” state Sen. Bob Hall (R) wrote Friday when he shared the video in a Facebook post. “The true nature of the Democrats is beginning to show. Yesterday a well known Democrat activist showed up in Mesquite and started cutting down signs that support one of my fellow Republicans.
“We must not tolerate this bad behavior. For the sake of our children I urge all Republicans to turn out and vote straight Republican,” he continued.

What happened?

The first part of the video was shot by Republican supporter, Sylvia Guzman, who happened to be driving by when the man was taking down campaign signs.
Sitting in a car, she confronted him about his actions.
“You know that’s against the law, don’t you?” Guzman asked.
The man became upset and, at one point, walked toward her with the knife in his hand.
Guzman warned him that she had him on video on her phone.
“Why don’t you just go away, you and your dumbass Republican friends,” he yelled at her.
Hall said the man left but later returned to pass out literature, according to KTVT-TV.
In the second part of the video, which Hall said he recorded, the man became angry again when someone in the video asked him about the incident.
He admitted taking down the signs but claimed it was because the Republican signs were placed in front of the Democrat signs.
“Why can’t we have a simple election without everybody getting all in a big tear about it,” the man asked. “You can take your phone and shove it up your f***ing ass.”
“Come and try it,” Hall responded.

Who is the activist?

According to Deanna Metzger’s Facebook page, the man taking down the signs is Gary Ward, who serves as president of the Mesquite Firefighters Association and serves on the City of Mesquite Veterans Affairs Board.
TheBlaze has not confirmed the man’s identity.

What else?

Hall told WBAP radio that the problem is more than a battle between the parties.
“This is a battle between good and evil,” he said.

Migrant caravan member admits he committed attempted murder, hopes for pardon in U.S.


Migrant caravan member admits he committed attempted murder, hopes for pardon in U.S.


Migrant caravan member admits he committed attempted murder, hopes for pardon in U.S.
A member of the migrant caravan told Fox News' Griff Jenkins that he committed attempted murder in his home country, Honduras. (Image source: Fox News video screenshot) 
A member of a migrant caravan traveling from Honduras to the United States admitted that he was fleeing his home country due to a serious crime he committed.
Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins was interviewing some people in the caravan over the weekend when he met a man named Jose.
Jenkins asked him why he was making the arduous journey across Mexico with the slim hope of getting into the U.S., and Jose admitted that “In my country, Honduras, I got in trouble.”
Pressed on specifically what type of trouble it was, Jose told Jenkins through a translator that he committed the third-degree felony of attempted murder. 
Here’s video of the interview:

Innocent or invasion?

Jose’s story adds to fears about potential criminals who might be attempting to get into the U.S., mixed in with some women and children.
President Donald Trump has been criticized for saying that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” the caravans.

Fox News host Shepard Smith recently pushed back against Trump’s characterization that the caravan represented an “invasion” of the United States.
“There is no invasion. No one’s coming to get you. There’s nothing at all to worry about,” Smith said on his program Monday. 
Smith believes the caravan, which has already shrunk by about 3,000 members from its peak as some have given up on the journey, won’t amount to much when it reaches the U.S.-Mexico border. 
“When they did this to us, got us all riled up in April — remember? — the result was 14 arrests. We’re America, we can handle it,” Smith said. “But like I said, a week to the election.”

Charter buses?

As of Monday, the lead caravan was about 900 miles from the U.S., a distance which could take them months to cover on foot.
They may be sped up, however, by charter buses. Fox News reported Tuesday that migrants in the Mexican state Oaxaca were getting rides from a volunteer “organized bus operation.”
“We’ve seen the 5,000 strong caravan walking to the border but now they’re waiting for a ride to the border,” Jenkins reported.


Insurgents freed by Obama in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl now back with Taliban

Insurgents freed by Obama in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl now back with Taliban

Insurgents freed by Obama in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl now back with Taliban
The five Taliban members the U.S. freed in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release are back with the Taliban in Qatar. (J.H. Owen-Pool/Getty Images) 
The five members of the Afghan Taliban who former President Barack Obama freed in exchange for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have rejoined the Taliban in Qatar, according to The Associated Press.
Their release was considered somewhat controversial when the exchange took place in 2014, as some feared that it was too dangerous to let Taliban leaders linked to American and Afghan deaths out of military prison.
“Taliban are bringing back their old generation, which means the Taliban have not changed their thinking or their leadership,” Haroun Mir, an Afghan political analyst, said to the AP.

What are they doing?

Mohammed Fazl, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Abdul Haq Wasiq, Mullah Norullah Nori, and Mohammad Nabi were released from Guantanamo Bay into Qatari custody under security restrictions and a one-year travel ban in 2014 as the price of the release of Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009.
Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman said the five have joined the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, where they will be among representatives in peace negotiations between the group and the Afghan government.
Some Afghan representatives believe the status of the five freed prisoners gives weight to the Taliban’s peace negotiations.
“These people are respected among all the Taliban,” said Hakim Mujahed, a member of the Afghan peace council.

What’s their background?

Fazl was arrested in 2002, accused of overseeing the massacre of thousands of Shiites in 2000.
Khairkhwa was reportedly close to the founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, as well as Osama bin Laden.
Wasiq is the Taliban’s deputy intelligence minister, Nori is a Taliban leader who fought against U.S. forces, and Nabi is a Taliban communications officer.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who was head of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of the prisoner exchange, said in 2014 “I have little confidence in the security assurances regarding the movement and activities of the now-released Taliban leaders, and I have even less confidence in this administration’s willingness to ensure they are enforced.”
“I believe this decision will threaten the lives of American soldiers for years to come,” Rogers said.