Tag: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group

Ms. Cat

Disclosure: it’s a reprint of an article by Eli Clifton from The Responsible Statecraft and The Intercept. If you have a problem with that, this is for you.

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group (archived)

Much of the cash in the fund — he has raised over $400,000 — comes from sources one might anticipate. New Jersey and New York donors with various business and political interests in his home state, including the real estate firm led by Jared Kushner’s family, have given the fund money. There are, however, many lesser-known donors. One is Ahmad Moeinimanesh, an electronic engineer from Northern California. Another is Hossein Afshari, also from California.

Related:

Iranian exiles, DC lobbyists and the campaign to delist the MEK

The Iranian American Community of Northern California. It paid $400,000 over the past year to a Washington lobby group, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, to work on Capitol Hill to work for the removal of the MEK from the list of foreign terrorist organisations. The company assigned several former members of Congress to the account. The IACNC has also organised events in support of unbanning the MEK with appearances by Ros-Lehtinen and other prominent members of Congress as well as former White House officials.

Its director, Ahmad Moeinimanesh, has made personal financial donations to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chair of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee even though her congressional district is on the other side of the country in Florida, as well as to her reelection committee. She has accepted more than $20,000 in political contributions from activists who support the MEK’s delisting.

The IACNC’s registered address is at a photocopying shop in Albany, California, owned by Behnam Mirabdal who has made financial donations to Ros-Lehtinen and Dana Rohrabacher, a subcommittee chairman who is among the most vigorous proponents of unbanning the MEK.

The American mainstream media suppresses the assassination of six US advisors by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)

Biden administration tells Congress it intends to sell Turkey F-16s after Erdogan approved Sweden’s NATO membership

Ms. Cat

Biden administration tells Congress it intends to sell Turkey F-16s after Erdogan approved Sweden’s NATO membership

During a trip to Turkey in February 2023, Blinken met with Erdogan, who stressed the need for the US to give Turkey the F-16s before he would approve Sweden’s membership into the alliance. Blinken, in turn, told the Turkish president multiple times that members of Congress would not approve the sale of jets until Turkey allowed Sweden to join NATO.

Deep Dive into the 2020 Guyanese Election & Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute

Ms. Cat

Regarding the recent ICJ ruling (presided over by former State Department employee, Judge Joan Donoghue) on the Venezuela-Guyana border dispute and the 2020 Guyanese general election: I have come to the conclusion, based on my research, that the USG—along with the UK Foreign Office and Canada—interfered in the 2020 election, in order that their favored candidate (Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic) would become President, and that disputed territory, of Essequibo, rightfully belongs to Venezuela.

Research:

Part 2 (Rough Draft):

2020 Guyanese Election + Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute.pdfDownload
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Menendez’s New Jersey: Global power hidden in plain sight

Ms. Cat

Menendez’s New Jersey: Global power hidden in plain sight (archived)

During the Monday press conference, Menendez implied that he was also one of the many fleeing Communism. He called himself the “son of Cuban refugees,” and said that the cash found by the FBI was “from my personal savings account, which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” But Menendez was born in New Jersey years before Castro’s revolution, to a family of working-class immigrants who had left Cuba under the previous, capitalist dictatorship. Menendez’s Senate office did not respond to a question about what confiscation his family faced.

AOC-Led Delegation Can Push for New Approach to Latin America

Ms. Cat

You might not know it by the relatively scant news coverage, but the U.S. congressional delegation, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that visited Brazil, Chile, and Colombia in August marked a big step forward in the development of a new U.S. approach to Latin America and highlighted the important role that the U.S. progressive left has to play in it.

AOC-Led Delegation Can Push for New Approach to Latin America

Related:

AOC urges US to apologize for meddling in Latin America: ‘We’re here to reset relationships’

Asked if the left needs to build a counterweight network, Ocasio-Cortez, whose trip to Latin America was branded “AOC’s socialist sympathy tour” by Rupert Murdoch’s conservative Wall Street Journal newspaper, replied: “I absolutely believe that the battle for democracy must be transnational and it must be global, and it especially must be hemispheric.

Henry Kissinger makes surprise visit to China, meets defense minister

Ms. Cat

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the 100-year-old who was at the heart of the United States’ rapprochement with China half a century ago, has made a surprise visit to Beijing.

Henry Kissinger makes surprise visit to China, meets defense minister

Video via Activist News Network

Related:

At 100, Kissinger still razor-sharp on China-US relations

Senior Chinese diplomat meets with Henry Kissinger

Chinese defense minister meets with Henry Kissinger in Beijing