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A man walks next to a road sign directing to the U.S. embassy, in the area of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. (Credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)

My recent diaries to remove all doubt:

○ Lebanon's Choice: Colonial West or Shia Terror
○ Completing the Neocon PNAC Project
○ Mercer's Cambridge Analytica Files for Bankruptcy

[Update-1]

Trump's team snooped on Obama officials. That's gutter politics | The Guardian Opinion – Jill Abramson |

Trump has actually exceeded them in paranoia and low political tactics. The Observer’s scoop about Trump aides practicing the black art of opposition research against the Obama administration officials who led the negotiations on the Iran deal reveals an outrage of immense scope. The Trump team hired a notorious Israeli spy outfit, Black Cube, to snoop into the personal lives of two former Obama officials, Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl.

… it recalls the worst of Nixonian tactics, including treating principled political adversaries as dangerous enemies to be destroyed. Nixon had his famous Enemies List, filled with the names of some of the most revered journalists Washington ever produced, including the late columnist and Pulitzer prize winner Mary McGrory. Nixon was also behind the attempt to steal the psychiatric files of Daniel Ellsberg, who served in Johnson’s Pentagon and leaked the Pentagon Papers. Black Cube is the worthy inheritor of these kinds of heinous reputational hit jobs.

Coming off the Observer story, The New Yorker revealed that Black Cube may have sent emails to the wives of Rhodes and Kahl via the same shell companies it used on behalf of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein in an effort to discredit his accusers. You can tell a lot about a president by the company he keeps, although Black Cube has denied any connection to Trump.

Trump has labeled the Iran deal the “worst deal ever”. If it’s really so bad, why do the president’s aides have to sink this low to torpedo it? That’s the key question.

The only leader who has tried harder than Trump to kill the Iran deal is Benjamin Netanyahu, which is why, no doubt, the Israeli firm was hired shortly after Trump visited Tel Aviv and met with the Israeli prime minister to discuss it.

This kind of gutter politics is also signature Netanyahu, who, like Trump, is facing an epic corruption investigation that could cost him his job.

No surprise, have predicted and followed the developments from the year 2012. The US State Department and the Pentagon have provoked Russian aggression with the Kiev coup d’état in February 2014. The new enemy image was created. The only disappointment is that Putin killed off the Islam extremist terror in the Levant, specifically in the populated region of West Syria. Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and killing off Obama’s legacy of the Iran deal is Binyamin Netanyahu’s revenge on the Democrats and Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in 2016. Future generations of the Jewish State of Israel will revere today’s leader Bibi as one of the greats in securing Eretz Israel. History in the making.

○ Obama's FP Legacy: On Verge of Reaching Iran Nuclear Deal
○ Obama Turncoats: CNN Facilitates UANI Advocate Pro-Israel
○ Coalition of the Willing Against Iran: US Justice Dept, Ungar, UANI and Mossad
○ WINEP’s Clawson Advocates U.S. Sinking Iranian Sub to Provoke War | Tikun Olam – Oct. 2012 |

US Justice Dep't Successfully Shields Anti-Iran Group's Files In Court

by Oui on Tue Mar 31st, 2015

See my earlier extended diary - Coalition of the Willing Against Iran: US Justice Dept, Ungar, UANI and Mossad .

Where is U.S. Foreign policy drafted? In think-tanks, billionaires, political friends and business alliances? WTF

• U.S. Anti-Iran Lobby Group Accused of Mossad Ties | Tikun Olam |

• Justice Dept. Moves to Shield Anti-Iran Group's Files | Pakistan Defence |

  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has gone to court to protect the files of an influential anti-Iran advocacy group, saying they likely contain information the government does not want disclosed.

  The highly unusual move by the Justice Department raises questions about the connections between the American government and the group, United Against Nuclear Iran, a hard-line voice seeking to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The group has a roster of prominent former government officials and a reputation for uncovering information about companies that sometimes do business with Iran, in violation of international sanctions.

  The Justice Department has temporarily blocked the group from having to reveal its donor list and other internal documents in a defamation lawsuit filed by a Greek shipping magnate the group accused of doing business with Iran. Government lawyers said they had a “good faith basis to believe that certain information” would jeopardize law enforcement investigations, reveal investigative techniques or identify confidential sources if released.

• The Restis group denies the allegations by the US anti-Iran lobbying group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), claiming that none of its ship visits to Iran violated international sanctions because they were carrying humanitarian aid as permitted by the US government.

A follow-up @Emptywheel …

[Update-2]

Five lessons from the de-listing of MEK as a terrorist group | The Guardian – Opinion Sept. 2012 |

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The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, is an Iranian dissident group that has been formally designated for the last 15 years by the US State Department as a "foreign terrorist organization". When the Bush administration sought to justify its attack on Iraq in 2003 by accusing Saddam Hussein of being a sponsor of "international terrorism", one of its prime examples was Iraq's "sheltering" of the MEK. Its inclusion on the terrorist list has meant that it is a felony to provide any "material support" to that group.

Nonetheless, a large group of prominent former US government officials from both political parties has spent the last several years receiving substantial sums of cash to give speeches to the MEK, and have then become vocal, relentless advocates for the group, specifically for removing them from the terrorist list. Last year, the Christian Science Monitor thoroughly described "these former high-ranking US officials - who represent the full political spectrum - [who] have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK." They include Democrats Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Wesley Clark, Bill Richardson, and Lee Hamilton, and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Fran Townsend, Tom Ridge, Michael Mukasey, and Andrew Card. Other prominent voices outside government, such as Alan Dershowitz and Elie Wiesel, have been enlisted to the cause [cached] and are steadfast MEK advocates.