Foreign Policy

Former AP Reporters: Wire Service Suppressed 'World-Changing' Story on 2008 Israeli Peace Offer
By Tom Blumer | November 30, 2015 | 12:23 PM EST

In predictably disingenuous fashion, the Associated Press claimed in a November 18 story that "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has shined new light on the breakdown of a potentially history-altering round of 2008 peace talks." Abbas acknowledged that Israel offered Palestinians 93.5 percent of the West Bank and other significant concessions.

The "light" isn't "new" at all. The wire service had the news almost seven years ago, and, according to former AP reporters, refused to publish it. An AP reporter who "discovered the Israeli peace offer in early 2009, got it confirmed on the record and brought it" to the AP in Jerusalem has substantiated the assertion that it "suppressed a world-changing story for no acceptable reason." It is perhaps the most damming validation yet that prudent people should never trust establishment press reports out of the Middle East — particularly in regards to Israel — because of their "pattern ... of accepting the Palestinian narrative as truth and branding the Israelis as oppressors."

CBS’ ‘Madam Secretary’ Explains How Hillary Would Have Prevented Iraq, if Only She Had Been Allowed To
By Dylan Gwinn | November 30, 2015 | 12:27 AM EST

On Monday night, CBS’ Madam Secretary revealed how Hillary would never have allowed us to get involved in Iraq, and could have prevented the entire disaster had she only been in a position of power to stop it.

Carly Fiorina Slams ‘Delusional’ Obama, Left for Pushing Climate Change as National Security Threat
By Curtis Houck | November 29, 2015 | 11:24 AM EST

Appearing on November 29's Fox News Sunday, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina slammed President Barack Obama and his allies as “delusional” for continually pushing the notion that climate change is a chief national security threat for the United States and the world at-large. 

AP: Japan Is in a Recession, But Still Trying to 'Pump Up (a Non-Existing) Recovery'
By Tom Blumer | November 27, 2015 | 11:24 PM EST

Twenty years of economic growth averaging less than 1 percent have failed to convince Japan's leaders — and apparently its citizens — that Keynesian-style government spending and handouts are not the answer to turning that long-suffering nation's economy around.

So the Shinzo Abe government, fresh from learning that the country is in yet another recession — its fifth since 2008 — is doing more of the same, while counting on press shills around the world like the Associated Press's Elaine Kurtenbach to be gentle in their coverage. Kurtenbach cooperated as expected early Friday morning (bolds and numbered tags are mine):

ABC’s Stephanopoulos Praises Obama’s ‘Forceful Rhetoric’ on ISIS, Paris Attacks
By Curtis Houck | November 25, 2015 | 1:43 PM EST

While awaiting President Barack Obama’s remarks on Wednesday concerning national security as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, ABC News chief anchor, former Clinton staffer, and Clinton Foundation donor George Stephanopoulos couldn’t help but repeatedly gush over the President’s supposedly “forceful rhetoric” on ISIS following the Paris terror attacks.

Goldberg: Japanese Internment Was Racist, Irrational; Denying Syrian Refugees Rational
By Michael McKinney | November 25, 2015 | 1:10 PM EST

Tuesday Night on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly and Bernie Goldberg discussed the ‘morality play’ created by NBC's Harry Smith on the Syrian refugee crisis, complete with Bible verses, as was previously documented on NewsBusters. Smith had tried to compare the Japanese internment with the refugee crisis. Bernie set fire to the idea when he said, “He [President Roosevelt] only interned Japanese Americans, and let's emphasize they were Americans, because they weren't white."

Tom Brokaw Goes Tom Friedman: Raise Gas Taxes to Fight Terror
By Mark Finkelstein | November 25, 2015 | 8:19 AM EST

You name the problem, Tom Friedman's got the answer: raise taxes on gasoline. Looks like Tom Brokaw's caught Friedman's gas-tax raising fever.

On today's Morning Joe, Brokaw proposed, as part of fighting the war on terror, raising gas taxes by five cents per gallon. Brokaw argued that it is wrong that the burden of fighting falls on just 1% of Americans, and that the result of his tax increase would be that "every time you go to the pump you have to think about what's going on elsewhere."  For liberals, any event is a good excuse to do the thing they love best: raising taxes.

CBS: Syrian Refugees Face ‘Another Brewing Problem’ with GOP Opponents After Fleeing War
By Curtis Houck | November 25, 2015 | 7:47 AM EST

Following in the footsteps of Monday’s CBS This Morning, the CBS Evening News featured on Tuesday a segment sounding the alarm on opposition to the U.S. accepting Syrian refugees with the comparison that those Syrians who have settled in the U.S. are facing “another brewing problem” in those opposed to their settlement (after having survived the horrors of the Assad regime). 

'Victim' of 'Islamophobia' Three Years Ago Arrested in Turkey as Part of ISIS Cell
By Tom Blumer | November 24, 2015 | 9:49 PM EST

There are plenty of problems with the government's "no-fly list," and especially the plans by some congressmen and senators to abuse it. That said, it appears, almost three years later, to have gotten one name right.

In late 2012 and early 2013, leftists like Chris Hayes at MSNBC, Glenn Greenwald and Kevin Drum at Mother Jones were upset that Saadiq Long, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was living in Qatar, had been put on the no-fly list. After making a stink, Long's name was apparently removed so he could fly into Oklahoma to see his ailing mother, only to see his no-fly listing reinstated so he couldn't leave. He returned to Qatar, but only after taking a bus down to Mexico City and flying from there. End of story? Hardly, as PJ Media's Patrick Poole reports:

Terrorists As 'Tourists'
By Cal Thomas | November 24, 2015 | 8:47 PM EST

President Obama has put a new twist on the Islamic invasion now taking place across Europe and the United States. Speaking to reporters last week during his visit to the Philippines, the president compared Syrian refugees to "tourists," saying they are no bigger a threat than people who come to sightsee and visit attractions.

Seriously?

NBC NN Frets Turkey Shooting Down Russian Jet ‘Managed to Overshadow’ Obama/Hollande Meeting
By Curtis Houck | November 24, 2015 | 8:36 PM EST

In NBC Nightly News’s coverage of President Obama’s Tuesday meeting with French President Hollande, the newscast complained that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet had “managed to overshadow” the “crucial meeting at the White House” and further “derailed” an attempt to forge a more cohesive coalition to fight ISIS with Russia.

On CNN, The Blaze's Sexton Schools Liberal Marc Lamont Hill on Islam
By Matthew Balan | November 24, 2015 | 6:08 PM EST

On Monday's CNN Tonight, Buck Sexton of The Blaze exposed the left's special treatment of the Islamic faith, after liberal commentator Marc Lamont Hill attacked Bill Maher for his views on Islam. Hill claimed that "Islam is premised on some very basic fundamental values that are in line with what America articulates as its own value." Sexton countered by underlining that a "large portion" of Muslims subscribe to "ideas that, under normal circumstances, would be considered bigoted by American liberals."