[ April 25, 2024 ]
Human shields are illegal. So why does the left support Hamas? Because Islam trumps all.
The State Department is said to be opposed to the legislation due to its hesitance to sanction groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the United States continues to provide massive amounts of military aid that has repeatedly made its way to Hezbollah forces. No surprise. Is there any Islamic terror group State doesn’t like?
State Department Working to Kill Sanctions on Terrorist Use of Human Shields
New bipartisan legislation receives opposition from Trump administration
Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, July 26, 2018:
Story continues below advertisementThe Trump administration’s State Department is working to quash new legislation that would sanction international terror groups for using human shields, a battlefield tactic employed Hezbollah and Hamas, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the administration’s behind-the-scenes effort to nix the legislation.
A bipartisan team of lawmakers, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), recently introduced new legislation that would enable the United States to impose harsh sanctions on any foreign person or group caught using human shields during combat. The bill is the first of its kind to be introduced in the United States.
Human shields, which are routinely used by terror groups, enable terrorists to inflate the number of civilian casualties and avoid military reprisals from more conventional forces. The U.S. and Israeli governments are one of a number of countries who have been dealing with the use of human shields by these terror groups for years.
While the new legislative effort to target terrorists who force civilians into dangerous combat zones quickly won bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration’s State Department has quietly been working for months to kill the bill and prevent lawmakers from moving the legislation, multiple U.S. officials told to the Washington Free Beacon.
The State Department is said to be opposed to the legislation due to its hesitance to sanction groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the United States continues to provide massive amounts of military aid that has repeatedly made its way to Hezbollah forces.
U.S. officials in the State Department ignored formal requests from lawmakers for months as they tried to mount the new legislative effort, sources said, and tensions are said to have boiled over earlier this week as the State Department continued efforts to block the bill.
The State Department objected to the public dissemination of the number of rockets Hezbollah currently has aimed at Israel, according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Free Beacon. Findings in the bill say the rockets number around 150,000.
U.S. officials familiar with the situation expressed outrage over the State Department’s behind-the-scenes effort to kill the legislation, particularly in light of President Donald Trump’s tough rhetoric on terrorists and efforts to thwart the regional groups.
“The list of grievances is so haphazard and random, it feels like they just flipped through the bill looking for things to object to,” one U.S. official familiar with the State Department effort told the Free Beacon. The source would only speak on background about the sensitive and ongoing situation.
“So when you read their concerns, at the top are these huge things about the structure of the bill itself, then a random bullet point where they say we shouldn’t tell people how many missiles Hezbollah has because that’s scary, then back to saying that the whole bill is impossible,” the source explained.
A second U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed the State Department’s opposition to the legislation, telling the Free Beacon that officials in the department’s legislative affairs office should have done a better job at responding to lawmakers’ repeated requests pertaining to the bill.
Other sources familiar with the State Department’s efforts against the bill wondered if bureaucrats are working to undermine Secretary Mike Pompeo, whom they view as a likely supporter of the effort.
The State Department’s opposition is similar to separate efforts to suppress the publication of a major report on the number of Palestinian refugees that is believed to be a potential game changer in how the United States allocates millions in funding in the region.
Pro-Israel organizations and prominent advocacy organizations have already thrown their support behind the human shields legislation.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the nation’s leading pro-Israel group, is one of numerous groups backing the bill.
“This legislation is needed because terrorist groups—including Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIS—are blatantly violating international law by placing their terrorist infrastructure amongst civilian populations and hiding behind innocent civilians as they carry out armed attacks,” an AIPAC spokesperson told the Free Beacon.
Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, another large pro-Israel group, has been lobbying in favor of the bill as it holds its annual conference this week in Washington, D.C.
Scores of CUFI activists recently took to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to back the bill.
The State Department declined Free Beacon requests for comment, saying that it is the department’s official policy not to comment on pending legislation.
Cruz’s bill—which is already backed by Sens. Joe Donnelly (D., Ind.), John Cornyn (R., Tex.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), among others—outlines how regional terror groups continue to employ human shields in a bid to inflate the number of civilian casualties.
In addition to Hamas and Hezbollah, the bill would target companies that work with these terror groups to build facilities where they store munitions. Any international terror group would be subject to sanctions under the bill if caught employing human shields.
“America, Israel, and our other allies are engaged in a fight against radical Islamic terrorist organizations, from Hamas and Hezbollah to al Qaeda and ISIS, who cynically use human shields against us,” Cruz said in a statement when the legislation was introduced.
“Unfortunately, organizations like the United Nations incentivize this barbaric tactic by blaming civilized countries, who do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, for whatever civilian casualties that do occur,” Cruz said. “The United States should hold accountable the monsters who commit these war crimes. This bill will impose consequences on those who enable and facilitate the use of human shields.”
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24 Comments
5 years ago
Shoot anyway, they are Muslim kids!
5 years ago
Reply to
TopAssistant
Although moslems breed with goats, the majority of their offspring aren’t “kids”, they’re piglets.
5 years ago
To not back this bill would, to me, be the height of stupidity, and is completely contrary to all the moves being made by Trump and Pompeo. If Obama holdovers in the state department are really the reason for this attitude that is discussed in this article, those who oppose these very reasonable and responsible proposals should be removed from their positions of influence. Do not they realize that our first line of defense against the crazies out there is monetary sanctions and other relevant sanctions to make our point and stop what would and probably will result in a military conflict which would draw the U.S. onto the battle. Sanctions are the first tools available to us and they should be used with gusto whenever we see the enemy of the free world at work.
5 years ago
And I thought the State Department was getting straightened out. Needs more work I guess.
5 years ago
Reply to
NotTheMama
most of the State Dept are Obama holdovers. Dump them and you start draining the swamp. Obama weaponized The FBI, DOJ, NSA and others: if they came in during Obama-dump them as they are the hair in the drain for the swamp. Rosenstein is a RINO, Sessions is a wasted dream. Return all the people McMuffin fired like Rich Higgins etc. Seems like “Dennis” has it right. Time for a congressional revolution when Democrats are driving the country backwards.. Anyone agree that it is time for a third or fourth party?
5 years ago
Reply to
Dave
We have no shortage of political parties, just none of them can make it onto the ballot box. Politics is a paid for game, if you can’t buy support and grease the wheels so to speak, you do not stand much of a chance.
Perot was our shot at creating a legitimate 3rd party, and he was a nutcase , and made wild accusations of threats against his daughter or something silly and pulled out of the race to announce the next day he is back in the race.
And can you just trust a billionaire? Today we have Mark Cuban, do you really want that leftist billionaire running as a 3rd party candidate and winning? We would end up with 3 equally terrible parties, 2 on the hard left, and one on the cusp of being Far Right.
5 years ago
Reply to
Dave
There is no reason why our representatives can’t pass legislation to close loopholes and end the madness. They DON’T. In fact they WANT the invasion in our country to keep on going.
CHEAP LABOR, and CHAIN MIGRATION to satisfy their donors an special interest donors is more important that VOTERS and the WILL OF THE PEOPLE! It’s not just the DEMS. It is the GOPe too!
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Our 2-party system is a long drawn out lie
They will never allow a serious 3rd party to be formed–Have you seen how the ‘libertarian’ party does?
5 years ago
Smooth swamp boy, Ted is looking for attention again! He is having a tough time against DEM.
Just how will they IMPLEMENT this? I see he is teaming up with Rubio too. Don’t people SEE THROUGH THIS CRAP YET?
Why isn’t TED more vocal on the WALL and ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION that is directly affecting our country? Why doesn’t Ted HELP Trump? All of this FAKE CONCERN for FOREIGN KIDS doesn’t fool me when at HOME we have HUGE problems with ILLEGAL ABANDONED KIDS. The US is not an orphanage! These kids are being used for CHAIN MIGRATION! These kids join GANGS for “family”.
5 years ago
State department needs to be cleaned out of all Carter, Clinton, and Obama hold overs. It has become one of the 5th column against the United States and Israel.
5 years ago
Reply to
Nefarious420
Scrape off the barnacles left over from the Clinton/Bush and especially Soebarkah eras from the Ship of State!
5 years ago
Reply to
Covadonga
State Department has been severely infiltrated the last 40+ years by anti American Pro Islam traitors seeking to take down our country and import Sharia. It is amazing and scary that successive administrations have done this, Bush Sr, Clinton, Dubya, Obama orchestrated these treason acts against America, and should be hung for high treason along with their treasonous appointees.
Trump may be our last great hope, which is a sorry state of affairs when we rely on a real estate mogul more known for his reality tv show and womanizing then his words of wisdom. Our political system is irreparably broken.
5 years ago
Reply to
Nefarious420
Agree with you completely, except when you say “irreparably”. It is certainly so badly broken that fixing it is a daunting and uncertain task, but we are just getting started, so will have to try before we know whether it is possible.
Our civilization, from Marathon and Salamis to Washington’s long retreat across New England, his crossing the East River to Manhattan under the guns of British warships, which was successful only because of a “providential fog”, to MacArthur liberating the Philippines from the Japanese, has made a specialty of free peoples, the good guys, defeating the bad guys only at the last possible moment.
And as an expert recently said, Communism is like AIDS, the new thing that comes along and destroys the immune system, while Islam is like the head cold that has been around forever and always attacked off and on, but that finally kills the patient off after his immune system has been weakened by the AIDS.
Our national case of AIDS started in the early 20th century, and took an acute turn on November 16th, 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt officially recognized the Soviet Union, a regime dedicated to our destruction. The Soviet penetration of Washington and American institutions during his long administration, never fully reversed, created the situation where the Islamic penetration became possible.
Diana West went to write a book about the Islamic penetration you are referring to, and came away with an understanding that its success couldn’t be explained without reference to the Communist infiltration that started before. So she started studying that earlier case of treason, and the result is her masterpiece American Betrayal.
5 years ago
Reply to
Covadonga
It is irreparably broken to the point of not being fixable, so it needs to be replaced. If Trump were to set in motion the mass firings needed to clean out the State Department, Republicans and Democrats would turn on him.
Only way to fix the State Department is to end things like Citizens Unites, or as I like to call it “The Buy A Politician Ruling”. Our founders knew that money and extended terms corrupts government, and now the Supreme Court says money is speech, how unAmerican of them to take action against the constitution and our founding fathers.
Until the courts, congress and senate are under sane control, we stand no chance at re-staffing the current State Department or starting anything new. So barring a civil war, I do not see much changing, unless of course you mean for the worse.
5 years ago
Reply to
Nefarious420
Good points about how hard it is to fix.
As for Citizens United.,, be careful what you wish for.
Making campaign donations, as I see it, is a little like keeping guns in the following respect: everybody has a right to them, but when the government puts in laws to control them anyway, the only people who can stay competitive are the ones who do things illegally.
So in France, where no civilian can get a carry permit (citizen carry permits don’t exist) the Muslims who deal drugs shoot each other up by sending crews who are all wielding fully-automatic AK-47s.
And in America, politicians who are corrupt get unlimited funding from Gaza (e.g. Soebarkah in 2008), China (e.g. al-Gor in 2000, via Indonesia and California Buddhist monastery), or any other rotten place.
Campaign finance laws raise lots of Constitutional, legal, and ethical problems. They were put into place by Democrats after Watergate, at a time when Republicans still raised more money than Dems.
Watching Herr Müller’s slow motion coup in progress, and seeing the scandal of FISAgate, do you think there is any credible chance that any Republican presidential candidate will be able to take a dime in illegal funds in the foreseeable future?
Having seen Shady James’ exoneration of Hillary in the classified email non-investigation, do you think there is any credible hope that any Democrat presidential candidate will be prosecuted for taking huge sums from Riyadh, Tehran, Moscow, or wherever?
5 years ago
Reply to
Covadonga
Declaring Corporations Are People Too is a major issue. Corporations do not have Criminal Liability, people do. If they want to open up campaign finance I am very cool with dropping maximum contributions, as long as the politicians dress like NASCAR so we know who owns them and pulls their strings, at the very least a website that shows who gave what.
Allowing foreign companies to wash their money by throwing it into NGOs who donate to pacs is something that should be regulated and investigated, but Jeff Sessions would rather recuse himself from pressing matters, or go after pot, what a dope.
Trump said he would drain the swamp, instead he doubled down on swamp monsters, still waiting for the cleanup to occur, I have very low expectations ever since Jeff Sessions is still AG.
5 years ago
Reply to
Nefarious420
Bye Bye Susie Spammer, Flagged and Blocked! why would i waste my time chasing after chump change.
5 years ago
Reply to
Covadonga
“Finally, we have Stanley Ann Soetoro’s 1968 application to extend her 1965 passport (now destroyed) for an additional two years, as shown in Figure PPA.
On the second page of the application, Ann moved to exclude her son Barack Hussein Obama (Soebarkah) from her passport, but the item has been crossed out — perhaps on the advice of the consulate in Jakarta, as this would have left seven-year-old Barry passportless — so it didn’t happen.
The appendage “(Soebarkah)” has never been satisfactorily explained by anyone, and I certainly don’t know what “Soebarkah” means, but it does seem to indicate a name change or change in citizenship status for the boy.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/01/barack_hussein_soebarkah.html
5 years ago
Reply to
livingengine
Soebarkah is his religious name from an Indonesian Muslim cult that he joined. Soetoro, of course, was the surname of Stanley Ann Dunham’s Indonesian Muslim husband.
Everyone joining this particular small cult took a new name. Another member was the lady in charge of issuing birth certificates in Hawaii.
When her coreligionist ran for president, and the birth certificate she issued became a hot issue in some circles, she died flying from one Hawaiian island to another, in a plane crash in which she was the only fatality.
5 years ago
Such cowardice is standard of Islam. It would be more shocking if they did NOT use civilians in their holy war.
5 years ago
Why pussyfoot around, just make it against the law for rich arabs to force poor arabs into ‘palestine’
5 years ago
SOLUTION? Declare the State Department enemies of the state. Threaten their pension, but not their pay, should fix it.
5 years ago
The DOS is the quintessential shithole/rat’s nest that needs some serious cleaning out.
Has been forever and thinks they are their own government.
