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All from Salena Zito:
From Columbus: https://www. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Fitton and Judicial Watch clean up voter rolls: Good news for voters and elections in California. Los Angeles County removed 1,207,613 ineligible voters from its rolls since last year under the terms of a settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit we filed in 2017 (Judicial Watch, Inc., et al. v. Dean C. Logan, et al. (No. 2:17-cv-08948)). We sued on behalf of four lawfully registered voters in Los Angeles County and the Election Integrity Project California, Inc., a public interest group involved in monitoring California’s voter rolls. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Los Angeles County sent almost 1.6 million address confirmation notices in 2019 to voters listed as “inactive” on its voter rolls. Under the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), voters who do not respond to the notices and who do not vote in the following two federal elections must be removed from the voter rolls. The settlement also required an update to the state’s online NVRA manual to make it clear that ineligible names must be removed and to notify each California county that they are obliged to do this. In the most recent of a series of progress reports to us, Los Angeles County confirmed that 1,207,613 ineligible and inactive voters were recently removed from the rolls. Los Angeles County confirmed last year that more than 634,000 of its inactive voters hadn’t voted in at least 10 years. We previously detailed that Los Angeles County had allowed more than 20% of its registered voters to become inactive without removing them from the voter list. This long overdue voter roll clean-up is a historic victory and means California elections are less at risk for fraud. Building on this success, we will continue our lawsuits and activism to clean up voter rolls and to promote and protect cleaner elections. We are a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. We have assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who have stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements. We recently settled a federal election integrity lawsuit against New York City after the city removed 441,083 ineligible names from the voter rolls and promised to take reasonable steps going forward to clean its voter registration lists. Kentucky also removed hundreds of thousands of old registrations after it entered into a consent decree to end another Judicial Watch lawsuit. In February 2022, we settled a voter roll clean-up lawsuit against North Carolina and two of its counties after North Carolina removed over 430,000 inactive registrations from its voter rolls. In March 2022, a Maryland court ruled in favor of our challenge to the Democratic state legislature’s “extreme” congressional gerrymander. In May 2022, we sued Illinois on behalf of Congressman Mike Bost and two other registered Illinois voters to stop state election officials from extending Election Day for 14 days beyond the date established by federal law. Robert Popper, Judicial Watch senior attorney, leads our election law program. Popper was previously in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, where he managed voting rights investigations, litigations, consent decrees, and settlements in dozens of states Judicial Watch Sues DHS for Records on Election Censorship We’re back in court in our continuing quest to unearth the federal government’s election-related censorship. The more we learn, the more concerning it becomes. We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records of communication related to the work of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) that could detail coordinated censorship activities (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:23-cv-00384)). We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA), a component of the Department of Homeland Security, failed to comply with an October 27, 2022, FOIA request for: 1. All emails, direct messages, task management alerts, or other records of communication related to the work of the Election Integrity Partnership sent via the Atlassian Jira platform between any official or employee of the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency and any member, officer, employee, or representative of any of the following: The Election Integrity Partnership The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public Stanford University’s Internet Observatory The Center for Internet Security The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center The National Association of Secretaries of State The National Association of State Election Directors Graphika The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Laboratory Any social media company 2. All memoranda of understanding, guidelines, or similar records related to the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency’s use of the Atlassian Jira platform for work related to the Election Integrity Partnership. Based on representations from the Election Integrity Partnership (see here and here), the federal government, social media companies, the EIP, the Center for Internet Security (a non-profit organization funded partly by DHS and the Defense Department) and numerous other leftist groups communicated privately via the Atlassian software platform called Jira. In a February 8, 2023, hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) revealed information about federal agencies, social media companies, nonprofits and other organizations communicating “their version of misinformation using Jira.” Luna pointed out to Yoel Roth, then-Twitter’s head of trust and safety who helped suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story: On this chart, I want to annotate that the Department of Homeland Security, which has a following branches, cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, also known as CISA Countering Foreign Intelligence Task Force … [were] used against the American people. The Election Partnership Institute or Election Integrity Partnership, EIP, which includes the following, Stanford Internet Observatory, University of Washington Center for Informed Public, Graphika and Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. And potentially according to what we found on the final report by EIP, the DNC, the Center for Internet Security, CISA- a nonprofit funded by DHS, the National Association of Secretaries of State, also known as NASS and the National Association of State Election Directors, NASED. And in this case, because there are other social media companies involved, Twitter, what do all of these groups though, have in common? And I’m going to refresh your memory. They were all communicating on a private cloud server known as Jira. Now, the screenshot behind screenshot behind me, which is an example of one of thousands shows on November 3rd, 2020, that you, Mr. Roth, a Twitter employee, were exchanging communications on Jira, a private cloud server with CISA, NASS, NASED, and Alex Stamos, who now works at Stanford and is a former security of security officer at Facebook to remove a posting. Do you now remember communicating on a private cloud server to remove a posting? Yes or no? Well, I’m going to tell you right now that you did and we have proof of it. The Elon Musk ‘Twitter Files’ are the tip of the iceberg, as the federal government ran a massive, secret censorship op against the American people. That the DHS is hiding these censorship records in violation of FOIA law shows the agency still has something to hide. We have been quite active in exposing unlawful election interference. We are suing the DHS for all records of communications between the CISA and the EIP, which was reportedly active during the 2022 midterm elections. Among the news outlets flagged by EIP were websites for Just the News, New York Post, Fox News, Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Epoch Times and Breitbart. We recently sued the DOJ for records of communications between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story. In September 2022, we sued the Secretary of State of the State of California for having YouTube censor a Judicial Watch election integrity video. In May 2022, YouTube censored a Judicial Watch video about Biden corruption and election integrity issues in the 2020 election. The video, titled “Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security,” was falsely determined to be “election misinformation” and removed by YouTube, and Judicial Watch’s YouTube account was suspended for a week. The video featured an interview with me. We continue to post our videos on its Rumble channel (https://rumble.com/vz7aof-fitton-impeach-biden-corruption-threatens-national-security.html). In April 2021, we published documents revealing how California state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election. In May 2021, we revealed documents showing that Iowa state officials pressured social media companies Twitter and Facebook to censor posts about the 2020 election. In July 2021, we uncovered records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that Facebook coordinated closely with the CDC to control the COVID narrative and “misinformation” and that over $3.5 million in free advertising given to the CDC by social media companies. Biden Issues Second Order to ‘Further’ Advance Governmentwide Racial Equity The Left’s use of the word “equity,” meaning equal outcomes for different groups, is reminiscent of Karl Marx’s “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” And Marxist “equity” is the official policy of the Biden administration, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports. Although the U.S. has already implemented a governmentwide plan to advance racial equity and support underserved communities under a 2021 Biden executive order, the president has issued a second directive to strong arm federal agencies into launching more initiatives that will further tax Americans. Under the recently issued mandate government agencies have 30 days to establish an “Agency Equity Team” and conduct proactive engagement with members of underserved communities through culturally and linguistically appropriate listening sessions. Biden is also creating a White House Steering Committee on Equity composed of senior officials who will coordinate the government’s sweeping efforts to promote his leftist agenda. “By advancing equity, the Federal Government can support and empower all Americans, including the many communities in America that have been underserved, discriminated against, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality,” Biden writes in the new document, adding that “equitability” will rebuild trust in government. “This order builds upon my previous equity-related Executive Orders by extending and strengthening equity-advancing requirements for agencies, and it positions agencies to deliver better outcomes for the American people,” according to the president. As examples the commander-in-chief offers building a strong, fair, and inclusive workforce and economy, investing in communities where federal policies have historically impeded equal opportunity, mitigating economic displacement, rooting out discrimination in the housing market, advancing equity in health, environmental justice and ending “unjust disparities” in the nation’s criminal justice system. Additionally, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will update directives to “support equitable decision-making, promote equitable deployment of financial and technical assistance, and assist agencies in advancing equity, as appropriate and wherever possible,” the new executive order says. This is important because OMB plays a pivotal role in government by developing and executing the federal budget, overseeing federal agencies and executive branch operations, and coordinating all significant federal regulations. The new order also includes a blueprint to make equity part of the official federal budget process and specifically prevent discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. “My Administration has embedded a focus on equity into the fabric of Federal policymaking and service delivery,” Biden writes, bragging that his presidency is the most diverse in our nation’s history. This month’s executive order is part of a robust movement by the administration to incorporate racial equity across all federal agencies. The president launched the plan on his first day in office with the lengthy executive order to advance racial equity and support for underserved communities through the government. The 2021 document claims that “entrenched disparities” in laws, public policies, and private institutions have denied equal opportunity to individuals and communities and that the health and climate crises have exposed inequities while a “historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.” Therefore, the original order states, the federal government should pursue a “comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.” It further says that “by advancing equity across the Federal Government, we can create opportunities for the improvement of communities that have been historically underserved, which benefits everyone.” Many key federal agencies have taken major steps to implement racial equity plans as per Biden’s first mandate. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formulated a strategy to “advance equity for marginalized and underserved communities” that, among other things, directs federal prosecutors to ignore maximum sentencing under the law to “avoid unwarranted disparities.” The Department of Labor has dedicated $260 million to promote “equitable access” to government unemployment benefits by addressing disparities in the administration and delivery of money by race ethnicity and language proficiency. The Treasury Department named its first ever racial equity chief, a veteran La Raza official who spent a decade at the nation’s most influential open borders group. The Department of Defense (DOD) is using outrageous anti-bias materials that indoctrinate troops with anti-American and racially inflammatory training on diversity topics. The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created an equity commission to address longstanding inequities in agriculture. The nation’s medical research agency has a special minority health and health disparities division that issued a study declaring COVID-19 exacerbated preexisting resentment against racial/ethnic minorities and marginalized communities. Until next week … ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hunter Biden Business Partner Cooperating With House GOP Investigators, Comer Says By Ryan Morgan One of Hunter Biden’s business partners is cooperating with congressional investigators, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) In an interview with Just The News, Comer said attorneys for Eric Schwerin—a business associate of President Joe Biden’s son—have been in communication with the congressional committee about turning over information about his business dealings. This comes as Comer and the Republican-led committee have sought records pertaining to the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and tax affairs. “He is cooperating with us. His attorneys and my counsel are communicating on a regular basis,” Comer said. “Now, I feel confident that he’s going to work with us, and provide us with the information that we have requested.” Comer predicted Schwerin “is going to be a very valuable witness for us in this investigation.” On Feb. 8, Comer asked Schwerin in a letter (pdf) to provide records of any communications he had with members of the Biden family or other known Biden family business partners. Comer sent similar letters (pdf) to Hunter Biden and James Biden, one of Joe Biden’s brothers. Comer asked all three of the recipients to respond by Wednesday, Feb. 22. Schwerin’s Connection to the Biden Family In November, Comer and other House Oversight Committee Republicans published a report (pdf) laying out allegations of foreign influence peddling involving members of the Biden family. According to the report, Schwerin and Hunter Biden “made increasing references to Joe Biden” in the course of their business communications and Schwerin had frequent access to the White House when Joe Biden was the vice president during Barack Obama’s administration. Schwerin allegedly visited the White House at least 27 times between 2009 and 2016. In 2015, Obama named Schwerin to serve on the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Hunter Biden’s ex-wife said Schwerin “managed almost every aspect of our financial lives.” The GOP investigative report raised allegations Schwerin also had access to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s bank accounts while Schwerin also served as president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC, a company founded by Hunter Biden. Communications on a laptop Hunter Biden allegedly abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019 included an email in which Schwerin alluded to Joe Biden owing his son money and Schwerin transferring funds from Joe Biden’s bank account to Hunter Biden. Republicans have repeatedly questioned the level of involvement Joe Biden had in his family’s business dealings. Joe Biden had claimed throughout the 2020 campaign cycle that “I’ve never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” Comer and other Republican lawmakers have sought a range of business records from the Biden family for months, including so-called “suspicious activity reports” (SARs) which are generated by banking institutions to flag potentially criminal financial activity. According to the November Republican report, there are at least 150 SARs associated with Biden family members’ financial transactions. Comer has requested the U.S. Treasury Department to hand over those SARs on multiple occasions, including most recently in January. Biden Claims GOP ‘Conspiracy Theories’ Hunter Biden has been under investigation for at least two years. In December 2020, the president’s son revealed the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office in Delaware were investigating his taxes but said he is confident that the review will show he handled his “affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.” To date, no charges have been filed against the president’s son. Following the release of the November Republican investigative report, the Biden White House claimed Republicans were investigating debunked claims. “Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans’ top priority is to go after President Biden with politically-motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories,” said White House spokesman Ian Sams. NTD Television reached out to an attorney for Hunter Biden but did not receive a response before this article was published. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Even Democrats Like Me Are Fed Up With San Francisco A homeless person with a red blanket covering their head sits by a corner as steam emerges from a vent By Michael Moritz (Mr. Moritz is a partner at Sequoia Capital.) Few subjects please Tucker Carlson more than sticking a shiv into the city of his birth — San Francisco. Sadly, Mr. Carlson has plenty of reasons for portraying San Francisco as a crippled city, hence his fondness for broadcasting clips of homeless encampments and drug addicts. But Mr. Carlson and his ilk have less interest in understanding why these problems exist. Like it or not, San Francisco has become a prize example of how we Democrats have become our own worst enemy. Causes that we have long espoused — respect for human rights, plenty of housing that’s within reach for most people, care for the mentally ill, fair pay, high-quality public education, a dignified retirement — have all been crippled by a small coterie who knows how to bend government to its will. This astonishing city that I have been lucky enough to call home for more than 40 years has become subject to the tyranny of the minority. For several years, I have tried hard to figure out the reasons for our civic confusion. San Francisco’s problems didn’t occur overnight. And they don’t bode well for other cities, long considered Democratic fortresses, where the consequences of the fentanyl epidemic, homeless encampments, housing that is unaffordable for most, deteriorating school systems and high tax rates are also evident. Here, janitors, nurses, teachers and bus drivers are forced to endure 90-minute commutes; two-income families cannot afford to start families; young children have become increasingly rare sights; and the Police Department cannot fill its ranks. Charles Schwab, founder of the brokerage giant and one of the city’s most patient and generous philanthropists, moved to Florida, and his company relocated its headquarters to Texas. Even major figures who hail from San Francisco, and who in many parts of the country are viewed as irredeemable leftists, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, seem at times embarrassed by the condition of their hometown. For the past three decades there has been consistent tinkering with the armature of government by officeholders and their staffs, many of whom do not seem animated by a sense of great purpose but rather by doing whatever it takes to maintain power and influence. Others peddle radicalism: One city supervisor is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (whose nationwide membership would fail to fill the larger Big 10 stadiums). These crafty legislators have the time and resources to deceive voters with what, on the surface, might appear like insignificant tweaks to the city’s operating instructions or by rule changes written in language that seems to be deliberately opaque. The core of the issue, in San Francisco and other cities, is that government is more malleable at the city level than at higher levels of government. While there have been just 16 amendments to the U.S. Constitution since 1800, there have been 106 changes to San Francisco’s City Charter since 1996. If the U.S. Constitution requires decades and a chisel and hammer to change, San Francisco’s City Charter is like a live Google doc controlled by manipulative copy editors. These copy editors have driven seismic shifts over the past 50 years. The first is the ascendance of the 11-person Board of Supervisors. While perceived by the electorate as possessing responsibility for the state of their city, mayors have been stripped of much authority while remaining convenient heat shields for the board. (The pandemic was a rare exception, which explains why the city’s Covid response was so spectacular.) In normal times, the board can make adjustments to the city’s budget, while the control of appointments to the commissions that oversee city departments is a perpetual tussle between the mayor and the board. San Francisco mayors are not free to pick their own police chiefs. The disarray that results is apparent. Another sea change came with the introduction in 2002 of ranked-choice voting that put an end to elections where the top candidates went on to a runoff election if they did not win an outright majority. Since then, in races where there is no absolute majority, the winner is only selected after successive rounds of tabulations, known as instant runoffs, in a confusing process that can readily be gamed by backers of particular candidates. Many of these changes have been triggered by referendums that are a staple of the city’s elections and which have often been controlled by the board. Since 2000, 321 initiatives have appeared on the city’s ballots. This process spawned eight different business taxes in the last decade that have doomed many small businesses, as well as large companies whose headquarters are now located in less hostile settings. This has resulted in a sharp drop in projected tax revenue which, as usual, will result in cutbacks in city services for those most in need. Then there is the matter of San Francisco being a one-party town. The nominating committee of San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee has an impressive record in backing candidates seeking their first electoral victory as members of local transportation and educational boards. These slots put candidates on the conveyor belt to higher office. Inbreeding is not healthy — particularly for politicians. Even Superman equipped with a light saber would not be able to govern San Francisco. The state of San Francisco — mirrored by conditions in other cities around the country — has much to do with the way machine politics, with its many defects, has given way to a splintering of power in City Hall. This makes it much harder for there to be old-style fights between a well-defined machine and an equally animated reform movement. The hollowing-out of city newspapers, in our case The San Francisco Chronicle, also contributes to poor governance. And San Francisco, like a growing number of blue cities, suffers a dearth of minority, middle-class voters who could offer steadying influences. Fortunately, there is increasing agitation for changes to the mechanics of San Francisco city government. In 2020, frustrated by the condition of the city, I helped start and finance TogetherSF, which is now an active organizer of community events and has started to play a role in election contests through its sister organization, TogetherSF Action. Several parents’ action groups are also clamoring for improvements. Last November, an elected incumbent supervisor was not re-elected for the first time in 20 years. The district attorney and three of the city’s school board members were also recalled last year. I am optimistic about San Francisco’s long-term prospects, in part because of some of the changes that I have seen since arriving in 1983. At that time, warehouses and railroad yards occupied the area now known as Mission Bay — today the area houses one of the world’s leading medical centers, mixed-use housing, the home of the Golden State Warriors and Visa’s new world headquarters. This example, powered by civic pride and a combination of private and government money, shows what is possible — even while many other proposed changes that would have a positive impact on the city have been nixed and delayed. There are plenty of reasons to believe that Democratic San Francisco can again become a bellwether for the nation — this time by turning around a city that’s been held hostage by the political classes. There’s an increasing recognition that voters have been repeatedly duped. And there is a growing clamor for change. It won’t be easy. It will take time, tenacity, magnanimity and the contributions of many. But eventually Tucker Carlson will be made to eat his words, and San Francisco will work better for everyone. Michael Moritz is a partner at Sequoia Capital. He also funded Crankstart, a San Francisco-based foundation, and the San Francisco Standard, an online news organization. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks to Obama's 'Nuclear Deal,' Iran Now a Major Arms Exporter by Majid Rafizadeh In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies, including a drone assembly line in Russia. Pictured: An Iranian drone that was shot down near Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Image source: Ukrainian Armed Forces) The Biden administration is still attempting to revive the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran, which paved the way to lift the arms embargo on the country and helped the Iranian regime to currently become a major global arms exporter. Among the many gifts that the Obama Administration offered to the Iranian regime was one setting October 18, 2020 as the date when the arms embargo on Iran would be removed, allowing the regime to export, import, buy and sell weapons legally, as it might wish. The arms embargo for Iran had been previously placed on it by the five members of the United Nations Security Council in 2007, during the Bush administration. The embargo encompassed a wide range of weapons, including large-caliber artillery, drones, combat aircraft, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, attack helicopters, some missiles and missile launchers, and warships. Thanks, however, to the Obama-Biden administration, after the arms embargo was lifted, the Iranian regime, which the US Department of State has called the world's "top state sponsor of terrorism" unsurprisingly ratcheted up its import and export of weapons. In addition to non-state actors such as the Houthis, the Iranian regime is increasingly supplying kamikaze killer drones to Russia, an act that led to the Ukrainian foreign ministry stripping Iran's ambassador in Kyiv of his accreditation and reducing the embassy's diplomatic staff, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry's press service. The EU also acknowledged that Iran is indeed "provid[ing] military support for Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine," by means of the "development and delivery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Russia". "By enabling these strikes," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly noted in a statement, "these individuals and a manufacturer have caused the people of Ukraine untold suffering." In the next phase of Iran's dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies, including a drone assembly line in Russia. According to the Wall Street Journal: "Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations, said officials from a country aligned with the U.S. "As part of their emerging military alliance, the officials said, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site for the factory and hammer out details to get the project up-and-running." Iran's ruling mullahs are also currently bragging that China is another customer for their domestically made drones. "Our power has grown to levels where China is waiting in line to buy 15,000 of our drones," a senior official from Iran's Intelligence Ministry recently said at the Imam Khomeini International University in Qazvin. "Since the day we turned to the East," he added, "the West could not bear it and an example was the war in Ukraine." "Today we have reached a point that 22 world countries are demanding to purchase unmanned aircraft from Iran," Iranian Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi boasted at Imam Hussein Military University in Tehran. Iran's regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles. According to a report by Forbes: "Russia also wants Iran's Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) with ranges between 186 and 435 miles, respectively. A large order of such missiles could give Russia some substitution for its arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, which has reportedly dwindled, enabling it to sustain its bombardment of Ukrainian cities." Iran currently possesses the largest and most diverse ballistic missile program in the Middle East. It is worth noting that no country other than Iran has acquired long-range ballistic missiles before obtaining nuclear weapons. While ballistic missiles can be used for either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons. Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Assassinations continue: Two Israeli brothers shot dead in West Bank terror attack — IDF Officials say gunman opened fire at Israeli-owned car in Huwara, killing Hillel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19; troops launch manhunt for attacker By Emanuel Fabian Two Israeli brothers were shot dead in a terror attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday, the military and medics said. The Israel Defense Forces said a Palestinian gunman opened fire from close range at an Israeli-owned car on the Route 60 highway, then fled the scene, apparently on foot. The two were named as brothers Hillel Yaniv, 21 and Yagel Yaniv, 19, residents of the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha. Graphic footage from the attack in Huwara showed the victims’ car riddled with bullets. Troops at the scene found 12 nine-millimeter shell casings, indicting the attacker used a handgun or makeshift submachine gun. An initial probe of the shooting suggested the gunman took advantage of a traffic jam on the highway to carry out the attack. The Magen David Adom ambulance service initially said its medics were treating two men who were critically hurt and were taking them by helicopter to a hospital. However, they were later announced to have died. The IDF said it had launched a manhunt for the gunmen, closing off several roads in the area. On Sunday evening, after holding a situation assessment with top defense officials, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the military to ramp up operations in the West Bank to locate the gunman. “Gallant directed the security forces to focus operational and intelligence efforts to capture the terrorists, while taking any necessary action, including offensive actions, to prevent further attacks,” his office said in a statement. Gallant also approved a bolstering of military forces in the West Bank, “with the aim of expanding defense operations in the settlements and on the roads,” his office added. Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank as it is just about the only Palestinian town through which Israelis regularly travel in order to reach settlements in the northern West Bank. There have been several shooting attacks against Israeli motorists on Route 60 in Huwara. In recent months, Palestinian gunmen have repeatedly targeted military posts, troops operating along the West Bank security barrier, Israeli settlements and civilians on the roads. Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks. A string of Palestinian terror attacks in Jerusalem in recent weeks left 11 people dead and several more seriously hurt. Over 60 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated. The attack on Sunday came as Israeli and Palestinian officials sat down for a meeting in Jordan in a bid to restore calm to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip amid deadly violence. +++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
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