Zika virus confirmed in California, but state’s climate likely to block spread

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="story-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> <h1 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: 'McClatchy Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 52px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 10px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"> <br /><img alt="The Yellow fever mosquito: From Africa, Aedes aegypti can carry the Zika virus, along with the dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses. More common in urban areas, it likes to dwell indoors and bite during the day." data-preload="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/yellowfever2" src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/yellowfever2" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin: auto; max-height: 536px; max-width: 780px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); vertical-align: middle;" title="The Yellow fever mosquito: From Africa, Aedes aegypti can carry the Zika virus, along with the dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses. More common in urban areas, it likes to dwell indoors and bite during the day." /></h1> </div> <div class="row story-rail-wrapper" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: -20px; margin-right: -20px; padding-bottom: 20px;"> <div class="wide-rail" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative; width: 820px;"> <div class="story-gallery " style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div class="mi-slick-gallery-container clearfix" id="slick-gallery-container-29504920" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px; visibility: visible;"> <div class="preroll-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> <div class="slick-gallery slick-initialized slick-slider" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; position: relative; touch-action: none;"> <div aria-live="polite" class="slick-list draggable" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px);" tabindex="0"> <div class="slick-track" style="box-sizing: border-box; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: relative; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(-780px, 0px, 0px); width: 3120px; zoom: 1;"> <div aria-hidden="true" class="gallery-item image slick-slide" data-slick-index="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 536px; min-height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 780px;"> <span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/yellowfever2" data-width-320="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_480/yellowfever2" data-width-480="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/yellowfever2" data-width-640="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_768/yellowfever2" data-width-768="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/yellowfever2" data-width-960="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/qoipal/picture56968388/ALTERNATES/FREE_1140/yellowfever2" data-width-1140="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span></div> <div aria-hidden="true" class="gallery-item video slick-slide slick-cloned" data-slick-index="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 536px; min-height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 780px;"> <div class="wf-media posterframe-wrapper gallery-video id-29504920" data-ad-preroll-client="googima" data-ad-preroll-tag="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?hl=en&sz=400x300&vpos=preroll&gdfp_req=1&iu=/7675/SAC.site_sacbee/Lifestyle/HealthMedFit/HealthMedFit/Health&env=vp&url=[referrer_url]&output=vast&cust_params=sect%3Dhealthy_choices%26id%3D57025618%26eid%3D56963613%26pl%3Dstory&impl=s&correlator=[timestamp]&unviewed_position_start=1" data-auto-advance="true" data-autoplay="false" data-mediaid="Rk319x2I" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/article57025618.html/mediaInfo" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: 438px; left: 0px; margin: auto; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 780px;"> <div id="player_3" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gallery-counter-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: center;"> <div class="gallery-counter" style="background: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #aaaaaa; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 13px; position: relative; width: 200px;"> <span class="current-slide-number" style="box-sizing: border-box;">1</span> of 2<button class="slick-prev" style="background: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-radius: 50%; border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: 24px; height: 45px; left: 0px; line-height: 45px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 45px;" type="button"></button><button class="slick-next" style="background: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-radius: 50%; border: none; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: 24px; height: 45px; line-height: 45px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 45px;" type="button"></button></div> </div> <div class="current-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 40px; padding: 10px 0px; transform: scale3d(1, 1, 1);"> <span class="caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The mosquito-borne disease has raged in South America and other regions for months. The World Health Organization said it continues to spread. </span><span class="credits" style="box-sizing: border-box;">McClatchy</span></div> </div> </div> <div id="story-body-items" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 80px;"> <div class="byline element-spacing-small" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: 'McClatchy Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; text-transform: uppercase;"> <span class="ng_byline_name" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;">BY SAMMY CAIOLA</span></div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5em;"> <span class="ng_byline_email" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><a href="mailto:scaiola@sacbee.com" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76ba; text-decoration: none;" title="">scaiola@sacbee.com</a></span></div> </div> <div class="share-tools-wrapper sticky-tools" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -80px; position: fixed; top: 50px; width: 33px; z-index: 1;"> <div id="sharebar-story-top" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div> </div> <div class="ndn_embed" data-config-distributor-id="90482" data-config-height="9/16w" data-config-width="100%" id="ndn-video-player-1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div> <div class="dateline-storybody" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div class="clearfix" id="story-target" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div id="content-body-16194260-56963613" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> While a case of Zika virus was reported in California this week, health officials say the state’s dry Mediterranean climate and pest control efforts make it an unlikely home for the mosquitoes that carry the tropical disease.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Two species of Aedes mosquito can transmit the virus, but neither is found in high concentrations in California. Some mosquitoes, however, have been detected as far north as Hayward and Menlo Park in the Bay Area and in Central Valley cities such as Madera, Fresno and Clovis. The mosquitoes have been found in the greatest numbers in Southern California, particularly near the U.S.-Mexico border, said local mosquito control officials.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Most people who contract Zika virus don’t even know it – only one in five people show mild symptoms such as fever, rashes and joint pain, and few end up hospitalized. But since the global Zika outbreak began in Brazil last spring, about 4,000 babies have been born with microcephaly – a serious neurological birth defect that makes an infant’s head abnormally small and causes brain damage. Disease experts suspect mothers are transmitting the virus to babies during pregnancy, and officials in El Salvador and Brazil have advised women not to conceive until the outbreak abates.</div> <div class="teaser " style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div class="inline-link" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; float: left; margin: 10px 20px 10px 0px; max-width: 40%; padding: 13px 0px 10px;"> <h4 class="title " style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/world/article57000098.html" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76ba; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">UN: UP TO 4 MILLION CASES OF ZIKA VIRUS PREDICTED</a></h4> </div> </div>  <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The virus is active only during the first week after infection, and can only be transmitted from person to person via mosquito bite. An adolescent girl in Los Angeles County who traveled to El Salvador last year was diagnosed with the virus but recovered. Officials expect more Zika cases will appear as people travel to and from affected countries. In Hawaii, a baby with microcephaly was born to a mother who had recently visited Brazil. There has not been any Zika transmission reported within the United States.</div> <div class="tt-wrapper inread " id="tt-wrapperf06bb1f" style="backface-visibility: hidden; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; height: 0px; left: -999em; margin: 0px auto 15px; max-width: 550px; min-width: 230px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; perspective: 1000px; position: absolute; text-align: center; transform: initial; transition: all 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.65, 0.52, 0.73, 0.43); width: auto;"> <div class="tt-mention inread " id="tt-mentionf06bb1f" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 10px !important; height: 15px; margin-bottom: 3px; text-transform: uppercase; width: 230px;"> </div> <div class="tt-container inread " id="tt-containerf06bb1f" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: auto !important; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 129.375px; position: relative; width: 230px;"> <div class="tt-player inread " id="tt-playerf06bb1f" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: 129.375px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 230px;"> </div> <div class="tt-controls inread " id="tt-controlsf06bb1f" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </div> <div class="tt-viewport-top inread " id="tt-viewport-topf06bb1f" style="box-sizing: border-box; left: -999em; margin-top: 64.5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 5px;"> </div> <div class="tt-viewport-bottom inread " id="tt-viewport-bottomf06bb1f" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; left: -999em; margin-bottom: 64.5px; position: absolute; width: 5px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Researchers are still looking into the exact cause of the strange birth defect. There are not currently any vaccines or treatments for the virus.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “The relationship between the virus and the mosquito is very specific,” said Matt Baur, associate director of the federally funded Western Integrated Pest Management Center. “It’s a pretty tight link, and it would be unusual for it to jump into another mosquito and be as competent.”</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> The striped, aggressive Aedes mosquitoes are known for attacking during the day. They thrive in humid climates and tend to breed in standing water. They’re also responsible for spreading tropical diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, which have not been major problems in California.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> No Aedes mosquitoes have been detected in Sacramento and Yolo counties in the last five years, said Luz Maria Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District. Still, there is always a chance the mosquitoes will migrate. Her department is always on the lookout for the exotic insect, and encourages anyone who spots or gets bitten by one to report the incident immediately.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “It would be easy for them to make their way over,” she said. “They’re very prolific backyard breeders, and they like to breed in common household containers like potted plants or a bit of water. All it would take would be someone relocating from So Cal to our area and bringing their potted plants with them, that’s how they’d move in.”</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> People can keep their homes free from mosquitoes by dumping out standing water, closing windows and cleaning their gutters, bird baths and pet bowls.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> In response to the global outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued travel warnings for pregnant women and women trying to conceive, suggesting they postpone any planned travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. The California Department of Public Health followed suit this week with its own warning.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Expectant mothers who already have trips planned to affected regions may want to consider other destinations, said Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious disease at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> If women do travel to areas where the virus is rampant, they should take special care to avoid mosquito bites, even if it means staying indoors during the day. They should also use Environmental Protection Agency-approved insect repellants, which Blumberg said are safe for use while pregnant.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “There’s enough to worry about when you’re pregnant about what to eat and what you might be exposed to, and here’s one more thing that could have an adverse effect for the newborns,” he said.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> There may be more people traveling between the U.S. and Brazil due to the upcoming Carnival holiday and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Since 2013, visitors from Central America (excluding Mexico) to California have increased by 54 percent, and visitors from South America have grown by 9 percent, according to a 2015 California Office of Tourism report.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> State and Sacramento County health officials are asking physicians to stay on the lookout for people who have recently traveled from Zika-affected areas by asking patients, especially those with fevers, about their travel history.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> Dr. Jorge Parada, medical advisor for the National Pest Management Association, said he expects to see the most Zika transmission in Southern U.S. states with gulf climates. Though California will likely see travel-associated cases, he said he doesn’t expect many local infections.</div> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;"> “Nobody needs to freak out,” Parada said. “As a health system, I think the CDC and other entities are correct to have their antennas up for any cases. ... The caveat is if it does start having local transmission, things can turn very quickly. Mosquito control isn’t easy.”</div> <div class="ng_mm_link1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <img alt="Graphic of potential for Zika virus spread" class="media-object adaptive" src="http://media.sacbee.com/static/newsroom/graphicsembeds/zika012816.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; vertical-align: middle; width: 700px;" /> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-stretch: normal; height: 1px; line-height: normal; overflow: hidden; width: 1px;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/healthy-choices/article56963613.html#storylink=cpy</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Zika virus confirmed in California, but state’s climate likely to block spread

1  of 2 The mosquito-borne disease has raged in South America and other regions for months. The World Health O...

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Yahoo Again Considers Selling Itself as Investor Pressure Rises

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="headline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 32px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 36px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <span style="font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px;">Marissa Mayer Defends Yahoo Strategy</span></h1> <div id="content-area" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <div id="story-body" readability="119.55632432432" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="lede-container" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <figure aria-label="media" class="promo media video lede layout-large-horizontal " data-adsensitivity="" data-autoplay="false" data-embedded="false" data-live="false" data-media-action="modal" data-share-options-url="" data-videoid="100000004185442" role="group" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><figcaption class="caption" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="caption-video" readability="6.2740740740741" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="summary-credit" readability="8.2159090909091" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="summary" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The chief executive of the Internet pioneer said that Yahoo is coming from a position of strength in its plan to listen to offers, shed assets and lay off 15 percent of its workforce.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span class="credit video-credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SAN FRANCISCO — It is game on once more for a potential Yahoo deal — maybe.</span></div> </div> </div> </figcaption></figure></div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="246" data-total-count="325" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In acknowledging that it is exploring “strategic alternatives,” which is Wall Street’s favorite way to say “putting itself up for sale,” Yahoo finds itself in a familiar place. In 2008, Microsoft tried and failed to buy the web company.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="271" data-total-count="596" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Three years after that effort, as activist investors like Daniel S. Loeb hovered, speculation ran wild that the company might get sold. Then competing groups of investors prepared for the chance to buy a minority stake in Yahoo — only to see that opportunity disappear.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="777" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Now it is 2016, and Yahoo is reluctantly weighing a sale of its core Internet operations as hedge fund activists like Starboard Value once more criticize the company’s management.</div> <aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia marginalia-item nocontent robots-nocontent" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" module="RelatedCoverage-Marginalia" role="complementary" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="nocontent robots-nocontent" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <header style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="module-heading" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Related Coverage</h2> </header></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> </aside><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="398" data-total-count="1175" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It is clear that Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive, would prefer her own self-help plan of cutting costs, businesses and employees. Both Ms. Mayer and people close to the company have said that the current focus on a so-called reverse spin, where it would spin off into a separately traded company Yahoo’s core business along with its stake in its Japanese affiliate, makes the most sense.</div> <figure class="interactive promo has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large" id="marissa-mayer-yahoo-timeline" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Continue reading the main story<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/16/technology/marissa-mayer-yahoo-timeline.html" readability="3" style="border: 0px; color: #266db0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <figcaption class="interactive-caption" readability="6" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h3 class="interactive-kicker" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Timeline</h3> <h2 class="interactive-headline" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Milestones in Marissa Mayer’s Tenure as Yahoo’s C.E.O.</h2> <div class="interactive-summary" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As Yahoo’s chief executive, Ms. Mayer has acquired more than 20 companies, but is now facing a spinoff of the company’s core business in an attempt to rejuvenate the once-dominant Internet giant.</div> </figcaption><div class="interactive-image-container" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="interactive-image" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/01/16/technology/yahoo-mayer-timeline-poster/yahoo-mayer-timeline-poster-master495-v2.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 98%; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span class="interactive-overlay-text" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />OPEN Timeline</span></i></div> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </i></div> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></i></a><i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/16/technology/marissa-mayer-yahoo-timeline.html" readability="3" style="border: 0px; color: #266db0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><br /></div> </i></figure><i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="215" data-total-count="1390" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But pressure from Starboard and others have finally forced Yahoo into weighing alternatives in the name of getting the most for long-suffering shareholders. In the company’s words, it is leaving no stone unturned.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="296" data-total-count="1686" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The company’s announcement on Tuesday sought to make clear that it would consider “qualified strategic proposals” — language aimed at preserving whatever negotiating leverage it can with potential suitors. That may be difficult, given how stagnant its stock has been over the past decade.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="247" data-total-count="1933" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Public market investors still assign no value to Yahoo’s core Internet operations. The company’s stake in the Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, alone comes to about $26 billion, or virtually all of Yahoo’s current market value.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="322" data-total-count="2255" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But clearly what remains — including Yahoo’s mail, sports, finance and search operations — has some value, a point that both management and investors agitating for a sale have argued. The company says that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for its core units should amount to $1 billion.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="410" data-total-count="2665" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Verizon Communications, often mentioned as a likely suitor for Yahoo, valued AOL, a similarly stagnant business, at roughly 7.5 times Ebitda in its $4.4 billion takeover of the onetime Internet giant last year. Analysts and investors have speculated that putting AOL and Yahoo together, a combination dreamed of for some time, could yield advertising efficiencies that could compel Verizon to pay up for Yahoo.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="186" data-total-count="2851" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Both corporate suitors and private equity firms have expressed interest in a potential deal, as varied as Verizon, TPG Capital or Bain Capital, according to people briefed on the matter.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="353" data-total-count="3204" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But it is early days yet, with several potential buyers cautioning that their plans are in the preliminary stage. The slowdown in the debt markets may put a dent in the ability of private equity firms’ ability to buy Yahoo, though bankers said that the company’s relatively steady revenues would support the financing required in a leveraged buyout.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="328" data-total-count="3532" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Yahoo may yet forgo a sale, at least if it had its way. It certainly has the experience in doing so. The trick now will be in convincing shareholders that sticking to its plans will pay off in a way that an outright sale will not — an argument that may be harder to make with irate investors prepared to wage battle once more.</div> </i></div> </div> </div>

Yahoo Again Considers Selling Itself as Investor Pressure Rises

Marissa Mayer Defends Yahoo Strategy The chief executive of the Internet pioneer said that Yahoo is coming from a position of stren...

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Obama Is Pressed to Open Military Front Against ISIS in Libya

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="headline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 32px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 36px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Militia fighters aligned with the forces that took over the government in Tripoli, Libya, fired an artillery piece at Islamic State militants near Surt last year." data-mediaviewer-credit="Goran Tomasevic/Reuters" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/02/04/world/04military-web/04military-web-superJumbo.jpg" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/02/04/world/04military-web/04military-web-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/02/04/world/04military-web/04military-web-master675.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #444444; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 98%; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></h1> <div id="content-area" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <div id="story-body" readability="204.58224622911" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="lede-container" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <figure aria-label="media" class="media photo lede layout-large-horizontal" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000004186623" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/02/04/world/04military-web/04military-web-master675.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Militia fighters aligned with the forces that took over the government in Tripoli, Libya, fired an artillery piece at Islamic State militants near Surt last year.</span><br /><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span class="visually-hidden" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Credit</span><br />Goran Tomasevic/Reuters </span></figcaption></figure></div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="197" data-total-count="197" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> WASHINGTON — President Obama is being pressed by some of his top national security aides to approve the use of American military power in Libya to open up another front against the Islamic State.</div> <aside class="ad middle-right-ad paid-post-ad hidden nocontent robots-nocontent" id="middle-right-paid-post-container" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="marginalia-heading" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> </h2> </aside><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="448" data-total-count="645" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But Mr. Obama, wary of embarking on an intervention in another strife-torn country, has told his aides to redouble their efforts to help form a unity government in Libya at the same time the Pentagon refines its options, which include airstrikes, commando raids or advising vetted Libyan militias on the ground, as Special Operations forces are doing now in eastern Syria. The use of large numbers of American ground troops is not being considered.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="204" data-total-count="849" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The debate, which played out in a meeting Mr. Obama had with his advisers last week, has not yet been resolved, nor have the size or contours of any possible American military involvement been determined.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="219" data-total-count="1068" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “The White House just has to decide,” said one senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The case has been laid out by virtually every department.”</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="421" data-total-count="1489" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The number of Islamic State fighters in Libya, Pentagon officials said this week, has grown to between 5,000 and 6,500 — more than double the estimate government analysts disclosed last fall. Rather than travel to Iraq or Syria, many new Islamic State recruits from across North Africa have remained in Libya, in militant strongholds along more than 150 miles of Mediterranean coastline near Surt, these officials said.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="416" data-total-count="1905" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The top leadership of the Islamic State in Syria has sent half a dozen top lieutenants to Libya to help organize what Western officials consider the most dangerous of the group’s eight global affiliates. In recent months, United States and British Special Operations teams have increased clandestine reconnaissance missions in Libya to identify the militant leaders and map out their networks for possible strikes.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="338" data-total-count="2243" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Military planners are still awaiting orders on whether American involvement would include striking senior leaders, attacking a broader set of targets, or deploying teams of commandos to work with Libyan fighters who promise to support a new Libyan government. Any military action would be coordinated with European allies, officials said.</div> <div class="ad moses-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="Moses" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story</div> <figure class="interactive interactive-embedded has-adjacency limit-xsmall layout-medium" id="libya-isis-control" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Continue reading the main story<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <figcaption class="interactive-caption" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="interactive-headline" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Where the Islamic State Is Active in Libya</h2> </figcaption><div class="interactive-graphic" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="ai2html" id="g-isis-libya-box" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /><br /><br /><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> </div> </figure><aside class="marginalia related-coverage-marginalia marginalia-item nocontent robots-nocontent" data-marginalia-type="sprinkled" module="RelatedCoverage-Marginalia" role="complementary" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="nocontent robots-nocontent" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <header style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="module-heading" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Related Coverage</h2> </header></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> </aside><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="361" data-total-count="2604" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Teams of American Special Operations forces have over the past year been trying to court Libyan allies who might join a new government in a fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But commanders say they are dealing with a patchwork of Libyan militias that remain unreliable, unaccountable, poorly organized and divided by region and tribe.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="264" data-total-count="2868" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “How long will the United States and the Europeans wait until they say, we have to work with whatever militias we can on the ground?” said Frederic Wehrey, a Libya specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who frequently visits the country.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="318" data-total-count="3186" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> When Mr. Obama assembled his national security advisers last Thursday to discuss escalating the fight against the Islamic State, he asked them to prepare whatever military measures were necessary to combat the militants in Libya while not undercutting the international effort to help form a national unity government.</div> <div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent" id="MiddleRight1" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="308" data-total-count="3494" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> For Mr. Obama the challenge is to avoid embarking on yet another major counterterrorism campaign in his last year in office while also moving decisively to prevent the rise of a new arm of the Islamic State that if left unchecked analysts say could attack the West, including Americans or American interests.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="282" data-total-count="3776" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter summed up the balancing act between nurturing the fragile and fitful political process and gearing up for what would most likely be a Special Operations war this way last week: “We’re looking to help them get control over their own country.”</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="232" data-total-count="4008" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But, he added, “We don’t want to be on a glide slope to a situation like Syria and Iraq. That’s the reason why we’re watching it that closely. That’s the reason why we develop options for what we might do in the future.”</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="186" data-total-count="4194" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> A dozen American and European military, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said in interviews that they had little doubt that the Islamic State in Libya posed an ominous threat.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="341" data-total-count="4535" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “You could see a very large holding, an area that is effectively governed by ISIS in Libya, and Libya’s proximity to serve as a gateway into southern Europe,” Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said this week in calling for military strikes against Islamic State leaders.</div> <figure class="interactive promo has-adjacency layout-large" id="map-isis-attacks-around-the-world" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Continue reading the main story<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/17/world/middleeast/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world.html" readability="2.5" style="border: 0px; color: #266db0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <figcaption class="interactive-caption" readability="5" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h3 class="interactive-kicker" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Graphic</h3> <h2 class="interactive-headline" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> Recent Attacks Demonstrate Islamic State’s Ability to Both Inspire and Coordinate Terror</h2> <div class="interactive-summary" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> More than a dozen countries have had attacks since the Islamic State, or ISIS, began to pursue a global strategy in the summer of 2014.</div> </figcaption><div class="interactive-image-container" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="interactive-image" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/15/world/middleeast/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world-1434502994040/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world-1434502994040-master495-v7.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 98%; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><span class="interactive-overlay-text" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />OPEN Graphic</span></i></div> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </i></div> <i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></i></a><i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/17/world/middleeast/map-isis-attacks-around-the-world.html" readability="2.5" style="border: 0px; color: #266db0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;"></a><br /></div> </i></figure><i class="icon sprite-icon interactive-overlay-icon" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="411" data-total-count="4946" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Secretary of State John Kerry said in Rome this week that the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State must intensify its efforts to thwart the group from gaining a “stranglehold” in oil-rich Libya, mainly by backing the creation of a national unity government there. “The last thing in the world you want is a false caliphate with access to billions of dollars of oil revenue,” Mr. Kerry said.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="345" data-total-count="5291" id="story-continues-7" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Forming a unity government would most likely lay the groundwork for the West to provide badly needed security assistance to the new Libyan leadership. Options under discussion include sending Italian and other European troops to Libya to establish a local stabilization force and reviving a Pentagon plan to train Libyan counterterrorism troops.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="339" data-total-count="5630" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> There is no functioning government now in Libya, where a NATO bombing campaign helped overthrow Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi nearly five years ago. Warring factions are far more focused on fighting one another than on battling the Islamic State, and Libya’s neighbors are all too weak or unstable to lead or even host a military intervention.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="237" data-total-count="5867" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Lawmakers in Libya’s internationally recognized Parliament last week overwhelmingly rejected a proposed United Nations-backed unity cabinet, dealing a blow to diplomatic efforts to swiftly reconcile the country’s splintered factions.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="355" data-total-count="6222" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Senior administration officials say the parallel tracks of supporting the political process in Libya while fighting the Islamic State are “mutually reinforcing.” But at some point, current and former administration officials said, the United States may have to act unilaterally or with allies if faced with a credible threat from the Libyan franchise.</div> <div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent" id="MiddleRight2" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story</div> <div class="ad text-ad middle-right-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="MiddleRightN" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Continue reading the main story</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="335" data-total-count="6557" id="story-continues-8" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Weighing our actions based on how it impacts the Libyan political environment is an almost impossible juggling act,” said Juan Carlos Zarate, a former top counterterrorism official under President George W. Bush. “We may not have a choice if ISIS continues to control greater swaths of territory and assemble more terrorists.”</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="349" data-total-count="6906" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> While no decision has been reached about when the United States and its allies will formally expand action in Libya against the Islamic State, administration officials said this week it could come very soon. A decision will probably be made in “weeks,” Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late last month.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="250" data-total-count="7156" id="story-continues-9" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “It’s fair to say that we’re looking to take decisive military action against ISIL in conjunction with the political process” in Libya, General Dunford said. “The president has made clear that we have the authority to use military force.”</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="274" data-total-count="7430" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Indeed, the United States killed a senior Iraqi leader of the Islamic State — Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, also known as Abu Nabil, who was also believed to be the group’s top commander in Libya — in an airstrike in November near the eastern Libyan city of Darnah.</div> <div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="379" data-total-count="7809" itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “They’re welcoming foreign fighters to flock there, the way, in years past, they did in Syria and Iraq,” Mr. Carter said of the Islamic State in Libya last week. “And they’re trying to take over the reins of the economy and tax it the way you see ISIL doing — you see the same kind of ambitions on their part that you see realized in full flower in Syria and Iraq.”</div> </i></div> </div> </div>

Obama Is Pressed to Open Military Front Against ISIS in Libya

Militia fighters aligned with the forces that took over the government in Tripoli, Libya, fired an artillery piece at Islamic State mi...

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Celine Dion speaks for 1st time about late husband

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="content-area" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <div id="" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h2 class="h-big h-slacker h-light h-normal" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed', sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"> <div class="drawer block-generous" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="drawer_main bar-sep-overunder t-small" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">LAS VEGAS (AP) — Celine Dion said her husband kept her grounded and protected her from the gritty business details of her superstar career.</span></div> </div> </div> </h2> </div> <div readability="82.623796033994" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The singer, who spoke for the first time publicly since Rene Angelil died, paid tribute at a Wednesday night memorial at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. People gathered to celebrate the life of her late husband and manager credited with striking the deals that have defined her status as one of the most popular voices in the world, from saying “yes” to her defining hit from the “Titanic” when critics doubted the movie to her glitzy Las Vegas Strip residency.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “I was never part of any of the meetings that he had where he had to say yes or no. He protected me from Day 1 to for the rest of my life, I am pretty sure of that,” Dion said in a nearly 20-minute speech.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Angelil died on Jan. 14 after a long battle with throat cancer in the suburban Las Vegas home that he shared with Dion and their three children. He was 73.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> At his Jan. 22 funeral at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal, their son, René-Charles, gave the eulogy to a crowd of nearly 700 people before Angelil was buried at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in a private graveside ceremony. The family on the previous day had spent nearly seven hours greeting fans and mourners at a public visitation at the same Canadian church.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dion, wearing a shoulder-baring black dress and her hair in a soft bun, didn’t sing during the Las Vegas memorial but her famous discography was on display throughout the night. An instrumental version of her 1990s hit “Because You Loved Me” played as one of the interludes between speeches at the event that ran for more than two hours. Longtime friend and collaborator David Foster sang “The Color of My Love,” a nod to the couple’s song at their wedding 21 years ago, which left Dion in tears.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mother and son sat on stage along with Angelil’s other children from previous marriages and his brother, as memories were shared from guests ranging from Dion’s longtime agent and friends in the music business to Caesars executives and a Las Vegas charity for people with disabilities.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> They all described a man who was kind, generous and completely devoted to his wife and her talent. Angelil loved his family, gambling and dining and entertaining.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Born in Montreal to a Canadian mother and Syrian father, Angelil was a former-singer-turned-manager who discovered a 12-year-old Dion and mortgaged his house to finance her first album.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He guided her career most of her life, most critically as she learned a new language to sing in English to become a widespread international success. By the late 1990s and 2000s, her soaring voice had become dominant on the radio.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> And to underscore his influence, longtime associate and friend Paul Farberman said at the memorial that the “Titanic” deal was far from certain when Dion was first approached to sing the theme song. She rolled her eyes when she first heard it played on the piano, and there were questions about the negative press the movie had gotten on reports that it was over budget and had on-set fighting.</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “It didn’t look like this was going to be a big success story,” Farberman said of the movie. “And I’ll never forget how Rene literally stood up from the table and he said ‘I’m a gambler and I’m going to bet on this one.’ And of course, the rest is history.”</div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</div> </div> </div> </div>

Celine Dion speaks for 1st time about late husband

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Celine Dion said her husband kept her grounded and protected her from the gritty business details of her superstar c...

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Mob assaults, strips Tanzanian woman in Bengaluru; Burns down car (Watch Video

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="h1" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Titillium Web', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 27px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 18px; line-height: 21px;">The Tanzanian student claims to have been assaulted, stripped and humiliated by the mob who burnt down the car as she was misunderstood of involved in committing an accident</span></h1> <div class="clear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: 'Titillium Web', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <section class="authors-m eventtracker" data-event-sub-cat="Author" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Titillium Web', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25px;">Bengaluru, Feb 3:</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">The horrific incident took place in the sub-urban part of the would remind the 21-year-old Tanzanian woman for her entire life. The Tanzanian student claims to have been assaulted, stripped and humiliated by the mob who burnt down the car as she was misunderstood of involved in committing an accident. However, the legal adviser had quashed all reports of the students involved in the accident.</span></section><section class="content-wrap eventtracker" data-event-sub-cat="Article Internal Links" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Titillium Web', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div itemprop="description" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"> <div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"> Speaking to the media about the psychological situation of the foreign students, Legal adviser of All African Students Union, Bosco Kaweesi said, “They saw the mob attacking the guy who had caused the accident, the girl had no connection with him. This girl arrived at the spot 30 minutes after the accident from a different route.” Adding more on the ill-treatment and the inaction, Kaweesi said, “The situation is still not safe for these students. Driver who caused accident was already in hands of mob and police, why did police ask this group to get that guy?” <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">(ALSO READ: <a href="http://www.india.com/whatever/omo-a-rare-white-giraffe-spotted-in-tanzania-takes-the-internet-by-storm-see-pictures-898159/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0784d3; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Omo, a rare white giraffe spotted in Tanzania takes the internet by storm! See Pictures</a>)</span></div> <iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" data-tweet-id="694816945573646336" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" style="border-style: none; border-width: initial; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 712.141px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 500px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"> <br /></div> <iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" data-tweet-id="694816300829425665" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" style="border-style: none; border-width: initial; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 295.75px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 100%; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 500px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"> According to the media reports and the eyewitnesses, the Tanzanian girl was allegedly beaten, stripped and a car was burnt in the outskirts of Bengaluru. The reports also say that the reason for the assault was a car — that was being driven by a Sudanese national — ran over a 35-year-old local woman resident a few minutes before she landed there. Though, the driver escaped, this 21-year-old student had to face the anger of mob.</div> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OoSunpB3hck" style="box-sizing: border-box; width: 701px;" width="100%"></iframe></div> <div class="clear" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <section class="video-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"> Modified Date: February 3, 2016 5:14 PM</div> </section></section></div>

Mob assaults, strips Tanzanian woman in Bengaluru; Burns down car (Watch Video

The Tanzanian student claims to have been assaulted, stripped and humiliated by the mob who burnt down the car as she was misunderstood of...

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Hilary Clinton’s Israel, Iran, Iraq & Libya Record Indicates She’s A Proven Warmonger

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="lsingle_header font-5" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; float: left; font-family: titlinggothicfb_compmedium, 'Arial Narrow', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 54px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 810px;"> <h1 style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 54px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></h1> </div> <div class="lsingle_excerpt font-6" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Palatino Linotype', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Looking back over Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy record, it’s clear that she is neither a progressive nor a liberal, but a proven warmonger whose record has contributed greatly to war, bloodshed and destruction in the Middle East and North Africa.</div> <div class="lsingle_author font-6" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Palatino Linotype', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 22px; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 810px;"> <br /></div> <div class="lsingle_content font-6" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Palatino Linotype', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1875em; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_213130" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 810px !important; padding: 4px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1610px;"> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 0.67em; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at BR Miller Middle School in Marshalltown, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)</div> </div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">LOS ANGELES — (ANALYSIS) </b>Ever since Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president, she has tried to present herself <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-progressive_us_561dafabe4b050c6c4a35c32" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">as a progressive</a> whose “inevitable” election will be a historic moment for the United States, and perhaps even the world. After Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders entered the race and began talking about his relatively progressive agenda, Mrs. Clinton tried to outdo him and take on positions that not only completely contradict her history as first lady, U.S. senator from New York, and secretary of state, but force her to make totally ridiculous statements that only demonstrate the facts that she believes in no principle and is only hungry for power.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> A good example of this was when she tried to explain <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/why-wall-street-loves-hillary-112782" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">her cozy relations with the Wall Street</a> and the millions of dollars that <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/13/investing/hillary-clinton-wall-street/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she has either made as a speaker</a> or received <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00000019&cycle=Career" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">as campaign contributions</a>. During her second debate with Sanders and other Democratic candidates, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCFsCQavaDw" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">senator from Vermont said</a>:</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="456" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/anLKwQ7Aa84?start=79&feature=oembed" style="background: 0px 0px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="810"></iframe></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I have never heard of a candidate, never, who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military-industrial complex, not one candidate say, oh, these campaign contributions will not influence me. Why do they make millions of dollars of campaign contributions? They expect to get something. Everybody knows that.”</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton retorted:</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I represented New York on 9/11, when we were attacked. Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan, where Wall Street is. I did spend a whole lot of time and effort helping them rebuild. That was good for New York. It was good for the economy, and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.”</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> This is on par Sarah Palin’s 2008 response to a question about her foreign policy experience. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGSJCDw3ZBw" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Palin said</a>that because “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska” she is experienced in foreign policy. If elected president, Mrs. Clinton would be as much of a fighter for the ordinary Americans against the Wall Street as Palin would have been as a politician with experience in foreign policy.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/seven-hillary-clintons-biggest-accomplishments/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">has been bragging</a> about her achievements as first lady, and what her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/18/hillary-clinton-just-declared-bill-clinton-fair-game-in-the-2016-campaign/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">husband accomplished in that era</a>. So it is only fair to recall the terrible things that also happened during Bill Clinton’s “co-presidency” with Hillary. Oddly, what is not mentioned, for example, is that in 1996, Bill and Hillary Clinton <a href="http://billmoyers.com/2014/05/12/how-bill-clintons-welfare-reform-created-a-system-rife-with-racial-biases/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">gutted the welfare program</a> for the poor in the name of reform, just to appease the right and ensure that Bill’s re-election. The <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/clinton-touts-welfare-reform-heres-how-it-failed/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">program failed miserably</a>. It cut off help to millions of poor people, but delighted many on the right who had not been able to accomplish it themselves.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton didn’t move to offer her full support to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbnKGopT0Uc" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">same-sex marriage</a> until 2013. Though she voiced some support for civil unions throughout the early 2000s, in both 2000 and 2004 she defined marriage as a union “<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/17/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-change-position-same-sex-marriage/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">between a man and a woman</a>.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Regarding punishment for violent offenders and criminals <a href="http://www.issues2000.org/Domestic/Hillary_Clinton_Crime.htm" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she said in 1994</a>, “We need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets.” But in April last year she declared that, “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance,” calling for an <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-baltimore-riots-to-end-the-era-of-mass-incarceration/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">end to mass incarceration</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> How about the economic sanctions that were imposed on Iraq by the Clinton administration, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/01/world/iraq-sanctions-kill-children-un-reports.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">which killed at least 576,000 Iraqi infants and children</a>? If Hillary Clinton wants to brag about her husband’s work as president, she should also accept the responsibility for his misdeeds. But, then again, perhaps we shouldn’t expect that from someone <a href="http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/familiar-bedfellows/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who admires a war criminal like Henry Kissinger</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> There are many other social and political issues about which <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/07/21/hillary-clinton-no-progressive" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton was either aligned with the right wing, or at most centrists</a>, in the past, but is now running to the left to catch up with Mr. Sanders. Her social progressivism is phony and it undergoes changes all the time just for her expediency. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbnKGopT0Uc" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">She has lied so many times</a> about so many issues that she has lost track of what she has said, and where and when she’s said it.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But what I would like to discuss is Hillary Clinton’s record on foreign policy, and what she would do if elected president. As an Iranian-American I am particularly concerned about her views on the Middle East and Iran. The review below indicates that she is neither a progressive nor a liberal (a label that <a href="http://www.creators.com/opinion/joseph-farah/what-is-a-progressive.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she would like to avoid</a>), but a proven warmonger whose record has contributed greatly to war, bloodshed and destruction in the Middle East and North Africa.</div> <div class="clearfix" id="watch7-headline" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div id="watch-headline-title" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="yt watch-title-container" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="watch-title " dir="ltr" id="eow-title" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Hillary Clinton: A Lying Compilation">Watch Hillary Clinton | A Lying Compilation:</span></span></div> </div> </div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="456" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PbnKGopT0Uc?feature=oembed" style="background: 0px 0px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="810"></iframe></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <h2 style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> An Israel-Firster</h2> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> To begin with, Hillary Clinton is an Israel-firster. Every policy that she espouses and every pronouncement that she makes on any part of the Middle East benefit Israel in one way or another, at the expense of the rest of that region. To see this, just consider recent history.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> After Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu did everything in his power to prevent the nuclear agreement between Iran and P5+1 – a historic diplomatic breakthrough for President Barack Obama for which<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/23/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-says-she-helped-usher-iran-negotia/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton also takes credit</a> – and after Netanyahu “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/netanyahu-center-for-american-progress_us_56301482e4b0631799100532?ir=Homepage" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">sacrificed much of his popularity with the Democratic Party by crusading against the Iran nuclear deal</a>,” Clinton tried to rehabilitate Netanyahu’s image.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Center for American Progress and its president, Neera Tanden, invited Netanyahu during the second week of November. Tanden and CAP founder John Podesta are both very close to the Clintons. Just before Netanyahu’s visit to the CAP, <a href="http://forward.com/opinion/national/324013/how-i-would-rebuild-ties-to-israel-and-benjamin-neta/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton penned an article</a> published by the Jewish daily Forward, explaining how she would reaffirm the unbreakable bond with Israel <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and Netanyahu</i>. And, in a speech at the Saban Forum of Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 6, she promised that, if elected, <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/bragging-clinton-praises?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=91b0bd72f7-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-91b0bd72f7-398517281" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">on her first day in office</a> she would “extend an invitation to the Israeli prime minister to come to the United States hopefully within the first month, certainly as soon as it could be arranged.”</div> <div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_210770" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 810px !important; padding: 4px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 970px;"> <img alt="Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Haim Saban (left), the biggest giver on the Democratic side, saying that she will be speaking out publicly against BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign aimed at Israel, and will work “across party lines” to oppose it. –" class="size-full wp-image-210770" height="541" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" src="http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/saban-clinton.jpg" srcset="http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/saban-clinton-300x169.jpg 300w, http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/saban-clinton-800x451.jpg 800w, http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/saban-clinton.jpg 960w" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 5px 5px 0px; max-width: 795px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="" width="960" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 0.67em; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Hillary Clinton wrote a letter to Haim Saban (left), the biggest giver on the Democratic side, saying that she will be speaking out publicly against BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign aimed at Israel, and will work “across party lines” to oppose it.</div> </div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Consider Mrs. Clinton’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. <a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/hillary_clinton_taking_the_u.s._israel_relationship_to_the_next_level" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">In a Jan. 6 article</a> published by the Jewish Journal, she talked about “taking the U.S.-Israel relationship to the next level.” But what is the next level? Is $4 billion per year for Israel not enough? And, she wrote, “I’m especially concerned about the new wave of violence inside Israel itself – brutal stabbings, shootings, and vehicle attacks that seek to sow fear among the innocent.” Mrs. Clinton did not write a single word about Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, attacks that have killed many Palestinians, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/01/world/middleeast/west-bank-arson-palestinian-toddler.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">including toddlers</a>, attacks that have been<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/24/video-jewish-extremists-mocking-death-of-toddler-wedding-israel" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">celebrated by Israeli extremists</a>. Even U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro <a href="http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/330564/us-ambassador-to-israel-blasts-2-standards-of-law-in-west-bank/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said in a conference in Tel Aviv on Jan. 18</a>, “Too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes on unchecked.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Regarding the movement in Europe to pressure Israel to evacuate the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Mrs. Clinton wrote:</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“</i><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We must continue to fight against global efforts to delegitimize Israel. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, is the latest front in this battle. BDS demonizes Israeli scientists and intellectuals – even young students – and compares Israel to South African apartheid. That’s wrong and this campaign should end.”</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> On Jan. 18, Shapiro also told the conference: “At times it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to rule of law in the West Bank – one for Jews and one for Palestinians.” This is precisely the definition of an apartheid system.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton also distorts <a href="http://bdsmovement.net/bdsintro" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">the nature of BDS</a>, which targets Israeli products produced in the West Bank and entities that invest there. This is not a movement to “de-legitimize” Israel, rather to force it to behave like any other state, abide by international laws and U.N. Security Council resolutions, and evacuate the territories it has been occupying and exploiting for almost 50 years.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton is even willing to completely distort established facts and fabricate new ones in order to “prove” her support for Israel. In a speech to Council on Foreign Relations on Nov. 19, she equated <a href="http://www.cfr.org/radicalization-and-extremism/hillary-clinton-national-security-islamic-state/p37266" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Hamas, Iran and Daesh</a> (an Arabic acronym for the group commonly known as ISIS or ISIL). Yet Iran has been fighting tooth and nail against Daesh, and despite some terrorist operations in the past, Hamas is a liberation movement of the Palestinian people (and elected by the people of Gaza) with no ambitions whatsoever outside the historical Palestinian territories.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The fact is, one can write books on Mrs. Clinton’s blind support for Israel that even many true Israeli progressives <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/10/hillary-clinton-no-friend-israel" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">totally reject and consider as counterproductive</a> to their nation.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <h2 style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Iran</h2> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> At a time when the Middle East is changing due to the nuclear accord between Iran and the P5+1, the slow rapprochement between Iran and the U.S., and revelations which have made crystal clear the role of Saudi Arabia and its allies in supporting terrorism in the region, Mrs. Clinton is still espousing the same failed policies toward Iran: more sanctions, more military threats, and more diplomatic pressure. Of course, this is nothing new.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Clintons have always been Iran’s number one enemy in the U.S., on par with the neocons and the Israel lobby. When it comes to Iran, there are few politicians, if any, more hawkish than the two.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It was Bill Clinton <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/06/world/clinton-signs-bill-against-investing-in-iran-and-libya.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who imposed the total trade embargo</a> on Iran (and Libya) in 1996. This embargo came after Iran made a gesture of reconciliation toward the U.S. by awarding the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/07/world/iran-signs-oil-deal-with-conoco-first-since-1980-break-with-us.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">American oil company Conoco a major contract</a> to develop a large offshore oil field in the Persian Gulf in May 1995, even though a European oil company had actually won the contract. When asked during her first Democratic presidential debate in October “which enemy are you most proud of,” <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2015/10/clintons-iranian-enemies" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton included</a> “<i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the</i> Iranians” (emphasis mine) among them. This was truly disturbing. Was she talking about 80 million Iranians? If she meant the Iranian government, why did she not say so?</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As a senator Hillary Clinton supported every resolution by Congress to impose more unilateral sanctions on Iran that had not been approved by the Security Council. As the secretary of state she helped assemble the coalition of nations that imposed “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran that hurt the lives of tens of millions of ordinary Iranians, which is something that <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/how-hillary-clinton-helped-enact-toughest-sanctions-history-iran/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">her campaign brags about</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> During her first run for president in 2008, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-iran-idUSN2224332720080422" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she threatened in an interview</a>: “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.” This statement truly demonstrates the warmongering nature of Hillary Clinton. She did not say that if Iran attacked Israel, which is highly unlikely if not impossible, she will <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">defend</i> Israel. No, she threatened to obliterate Iran, the land of an old civilization that’s made many contributions to humanity. Her threat to “obliterate” Iran means only one thing: She is willing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAO4fH6g0g0" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">to attack Iran with nuclear weapons</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Even though she supported the nuclear accord with Iran, Mrs. Clinton still demonizes and belittles Iran. <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/events/2015/09/09-clinton-iran/20150909_clinton_iran_transcript.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">In a speech at the Brookings Institution</a> in September, Mrs. Clinton declared, “I don’t see Iran as our partner in implementing this agreement. I believe Iran is the <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">subject</i> of the agreement” (emphasis mine), as if Iran is a banana republic that is subject to U.S. orders. In her aforementioned article in the Jewish Journal <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/15/hillary-clinton-israel-first/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she threatened Iran again</a>:</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We have to send Iran an unequivocal message. There can be no doubt in Tehran that if Iran’s leaders violate their commitments not to seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons, the United States will stop them. They will test our resolve with actions like their provocative ballistic missile test, for which we should impose new sanctions designations. They need to understand that America will act decisively if Iran violates the nuclear agreement,</i><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> including taking military action if necessary</i></b> (emphasis mine)<i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton is always looking for new ways to impose new economic sanctions on Iran in order to carry favor with the pro-Israel lobby and its rich donors. After Iranian hardliners in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who oppose the nuclear accord tried to provoke the U.S. by carrying out some missile tests, Mrs. Clinton <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/266173-clinton-calls-for-new-sanctions-on-iran" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">quickly called for new sanctions</a>.</div> <div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_206998" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 810px !important; padding: 4px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1610px;"> <img alt="Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, right, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah, left, stand together prior to a group photo" class="size-full wp-image-206998" height="899" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" src="http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AP_120331113510.jpg" srcset="http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AP_120331113510-300x169.jpg 300w, http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AP_120331113510-800x450.jpg 800w, http://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AP_120331113510.jpg 1600w" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 5px 5px 0px; max-width: 795px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="" width="1600" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; font-size: 0.67em; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, right, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah, left, stand together prior to a group photo before a US- Gulf Cooperation Council forum at the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, March 31, 2012.</div> </div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane Bauer and two friends were arrested by Iranian border guards in July 2009, after the trio had apparently drifted into Iran from Iraq. They were held until September 2011. Bauer, now a senior reporter with Mother Jones, criticized Mrs. Clinton for calling for more sanctions on Iran after four Iranian-Americans were released from jail in Tehran on Jan. 16. <a href="https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/688557584102461440" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">He tweeted</a>: “Seriously, why would Hillary call for more sanctions now? As far as we know, 4 of the Americans are still in Iran. [It is] totally irresponsible.” <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/iran-prisoner-shane-bauer-slams-hillary-clinton-217891?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Politico-TopStories+%28POLITICO+-+TOP+Stories%29" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">He also tweeted that when he was in jail in Tehran</a>, “whenever I heard Hillary’s voice, my heart would sink. All she ever does with Iran is inflame tensions.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton has never given up her imperial ambitions to reshape the Middle East in Israel’s image, making the region as safe for Israel’s expansionist policy as possible, and she views Iran as the main impediment to achieving her goal. She has also been itching for years to start a war with Iran. If that happens, not only her Israeli patron will be delighted, weapons makers that donate to her campaign <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Clinton-Tops-List-of-Arms-Company-Donations-20151214-0002.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">more than any other candidate</a>will be ecstatic. Mrs. Clinton <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/hilary-clinton-and-the-is_b_8627042.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">is a good loyalist</a> of the military-industrial-intelligence complex.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton’s enmity toward Iran and Iranians, and her unconditional and blind support for Israel, are not surprising. Her biggest donors, Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/hillary-clinton-super-pacs-joint-committee-2016-election-120862" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">have given $2 million to the super PAC Priorities USA Action</a> that finances Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Saban is the man <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/business/yourmoney/schlepping-to-moguldom.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who has bragged</a>, “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He has also professed his support for Hillary Clinton. “I have told her [Clinton] and everybody who’s asked me, ‘Whatever it takes, we’re going to be there.’ I think she would be a fantastic president for the United States, an incredible world leader and one under whom I believe – deeply – the relationship with the U.S. and Israel will be significantly reinforced,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/billionaires-adelson-and-saban-at-odds-in-campaigns-unite-on-israel-and-hit-obama/2014/11/09/92a40f68-6835-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Saban told the Washington Post</a> in November 2014. He has also called<a href="http://www.thewrap.com/hollywood-mogul-haim-saban-more-scrutiny-muslims-profiling-hillary-clinton/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">for more scrutiny</a> of Muslims in the U.S.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Most recently, the Clinton campaign has been slamming Sen. Sanders’ suggestion that the U.S. and Iran should have closer relations. Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s senior policy adviser, <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/21/clinton-slams-sanders-iran-views-as-naive-and-dangerous/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said on Jan. 21</a>: “This proposal [by Sanders] to more aggressively normalize relations and to move to warm relations with Iran not only breaks with President Obama’s policy, it breaks with the sober and responsible diplomatic approach that’s been working for the United States.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Thus, Mrs. Clinton is a strong ally of Iranian hardliners <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/feature/irans-deep-state-has-the-most-lose-opening-the-west-14297" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who also do not want any rapprochement</a> with the U.S., and have been doing everything they can to prevent it.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton’s warmongering toward Iran has alarmed many. Many Iranian-Americans are terrified by the possibility of her presidency, during which she may either re-impose the economic sanctions under another name, or go to war with Iran.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Iraq and Daesh</b></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> That <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkS9y5t0tR0" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sen. Clinton voted in 2002 to go to war with Iraq</a> is old news. The vote contributed to her defeat in her first presidential run in 2008. Most likely, she voted for war with Iraq <a href="http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/iraqwar.shtml" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">because the Israel lobby in the U.S. wanted it</a>, although <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15447-dont-blame-the-iraq-debacle-on-the-israel-lobby" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">many other factors contributed</a> to that catastrophic war. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/opinion/paul-krugman-errors-and-lies.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">We were lied into war</a>, and as a senator, she played an important role in it.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But, even though <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/hillary-clinton-iraq-war-vote-mistake-iowa-118109" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she has admitted that the vote was a mistake</a>, she does not appear to have learned anything from the mistake. In a House hearing on the Benghazi attack during which U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/22/hillary-clinton-says-libya-chaos-shows-consequence/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton said</a>: “We have learned the hard way when America is absent, especially from unstable places, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, aggressors seek to fill the vacuum and security everywhere is threatened, including here at home.” In other words, she believes that U.S. forces should be everywhere. What she does not concede is that it was the invasion of Iraq which was the catalyst for the present chaos and bloodshed in the Middle East, and it was the imperialist intervention in Libya (and elsewhere), which she has supported, that led to the murders of the four and <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/libya-from-africas-wealthiest-democracy-under-gaddafi-to-terrorist-haven-after-us-intervention/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">transformed Libya</a> from the wealthiest, most economically advanced nation in Africa under Moammar Gadhafi to <a href="http://www.africa.com/newsletter/daily-news/libya-becomes-terrorist-hub/58919/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a hub for terrorists</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In addition to Mrs. Clinton’s absurd notion of lumping in Daesh with Hamas and Iran, she is also calling for doubling down on the previous disaster in Iraq. <a href="http://time.com/4120295/hillary-clinton-foreign-policy-isis/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">In her aforementioned speech</a> at the Council on Foreign Relations <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/politics/hillary-clinton-isis-speech/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she called</a> for “more allied planes, more airstrikes and a broader target set” to combat Daesh in Iraq and Syria, urging Congress to approve a new authorization of the use of military force against Daesh. So, what is the lesson that she has learned from her mistake in voting for war in Iraq?</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <h2 style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Libya</h2> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> One of the most despicable moments in Hillary Clinton’s political career was when she bragged about what happened in Libya and to Gadhafi. “We came, we saw, he [Gadhafi] died,” Mrs. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Clinton said to an aide</a> after learning of Gadhafi’s death, <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/juliuscaes125995.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">echoing Julius Caesar</a>, the Roman general and statesman. These six words demonstrate the imperialist nature of Hillary Clinton’s views better than any book or article or speech on her foreign policy.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="456" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fgcd1ghag5Y?feature=oembed" style="background: 0px 0px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="810"></iframe></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton forcefully supported the NATO attacks on Libya and the so-called “humanitarian intervention” there. It was she <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hillarys-war-how-conviction-replaced-skepticism-in-libya-intervention/2011/10/28/gIQAhGS7WM_story.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who convinced many skeptical members</a> of NATO that the alliance must support the intervention, and it was she <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19policy.html?pagewanted=all" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">who convinced the president</a> that the U.S. must intervene in Libya, impose a no-fly zone there, and bomb the government’s troops and positions, in addition to<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110331" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">arming the Islamic groups</a> that were fighting with Gadhafi’s army. She “sold” the policy because it was supposedly “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hillarys-war-how-conviction-replaced-skepticism-in-libya-intervention/2011/10/28/gIQAhGS7WM_story.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">an opportunity for the United States to respond to an Arab request for help; it would increase U.S. standing in the Arab world, and it would send an important signal for the Arab Spring movement</a>.” Yes, destroying an economically-advanced Arab nation would bolster U.S. standing with the Arab masses, most of whom <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-koppman/endless-us-support-for-di_b_6821136.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">despise other Arab dictators</a> that we support in Saudi Arabia and the Arab nations of the Persian Gulf<a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/foreign-actors-and-libyan-civil-war-878614656" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">that were after Gadhafi’s head</a>.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Mrs. Clinton was advocating the intervention in Libya while the Pentagon was opposed to it. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-undercut-on-libya-war-by-pentagon-/?page=all" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">It has been reported that</a> top Pentagon officials so deeply distrusted Mrs. Clinton about the war in Libya that they opened their own channels of communications with Gadhafi. Tapes recovered in Tripoli describe the conversations between the Pentagon’s emissary (apparently sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and a son of Gadhafi.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Further, <a href="http://original.antiwar.com/Brad_Hoff/2016/01/05/new-hillary-emails-reveal-propaganda-executions-coveting-libyan-oil-and-gold/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">secret intelligence emails by Sidney Blumenthal</a>, an adviser to the Clintons, to Mrs. Clinton’s private email account clearly show that NATO was committing war crimes in Libya; that there was racial cleansing by the U.S.-supported rebels against black Libyans; that special forces from Egypt, Britain, and France that were training the rebels knew of their links with al-Qaida; that the <a href="https://www.foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_DecWebClearedMeta/31-C1/DOC_0C05782401/C05782401.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">main goals of then French President Nicolas Sarkozy</a>, who was at the forefront of the intervention, were to obtain Libyan oil, improve his own reputation, and assert French military power, not any noble humanitarian goal; and that many rumors about Gadhafi’s alleged crimes against his people <a href="https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_DecWebClearedMeta/31-C1/DOC_0C05782390/C05782390.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">were just that, baseless rumors</a>. <a href="https://www.foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_DecWebClearedMeta/31-C1/DOC_0C05779612/C05779612.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Blumenthal also reported to Mrs. Clinton</a>that Gadhafi had 143 tons of gold and a comparable amount of silver valued at $7 billion, which were supposed to be used for the creation of a pan-African currency, so that France’s former colonies in Africa would not use the French franc, and this motivated Sarkozy to attack Libya.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gadhafi offered <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-undercut-on-libya-war-by-pentagon-/?page=all" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">to negotiate an end to the war</a>, and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/gaddafi-resigning-libya-resignation_n_832578.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">even resign and leave Libya</a> in order to avoid bloodshed in his country, but the goal of Mrs. Clinton <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-undercut-on-libya-war-by-pentagon-/?page=all" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">was regime change</a> and removing Gadhafi from power. Toppling Gadhafi and transforming Libya into a terrorist hub are not the only “achievements” of Mrs. Clinton’s disastrous policy. Unlike Western propaganda about Gadhafi’s rule, Libya was, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/libya-from-africas-wealthiest-democracy-under-gaddafi-to-terrorist-haven-after-us-intervention/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">in fact, a democracy</a> that was more advanced than those in many other nations. As Harvard University scholar <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/libya-from-africas-wealthiest-democracy-under-gaddafi-to-terrorist-haven-after-us-intervention/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Garikai Chengu explained</a>:</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“</i><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Far from control being in the hands of one man, Libya was highly decentralized and divided into several small communities that were essentially ‘mini-autonomous States’ within a State. These autonomous States had control over their districts and could make a range of decisions including how to allocate oil revenue and budgetary funds. Within these mini autonomous States, the three main bodies of Libya’s democracy were Local Committees, Basic People’s Congresses and Executive Revolutionary Councils.</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Basic People’s Congress … was essentially Libya’s functional equivalent of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom or the House of Representatives in the United States.</i><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </i><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Libya’s People’s Congress was not comprised merely of elected representatives who discussed and proposed legislation on behalf of the people; rather, the Congress allowed all Libyans to directly participate in this process. Eight hundred People’s Congresses were set up across the country and all Libyans were free to attend and shape national policy and make decisions over all major issues including budgets, education, industry, and the economy.”</i></div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Even <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/world/africa/20libya.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The New York Times conceded that</a> Libya’s direct democracy was functioning. But, to paraphrase Mrs. Clinton, “the U.S. came, the U.S. saw, Libya died.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <h2 style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Syria</h2> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As usual, Mrs. Clinton’s positions are subject to change without notice. The same person who advocated U.S. troops on the ground in the Middle East during the House hearing on the Benghazi attacks, changed her position again. Back in October, during the first debate among the Democratic candidates for president, when the subject of Syria and U.S. direct intervention there came up, <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/debate_clinton_slams_iran_putin_supports_syrian_rebels_sanders_20151014" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton said</a>: “We don’t want American troops on the ground in Syria. I never said that.”</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> If that were her position and she could consistently stick to it, we would at least have some idea where she stands. But <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/hillary-clinton-arming-syrian-rebels-memoir" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">she has repeatedly called</a> for <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-history-with-arming-syrian-rebels/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">arming the opposition</a> in Syria and imposing <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-calls-no-fly-zones-syria" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a no-fly zone there</a>. The no-fly zone in Syria is a totally insane idea, because if the target is Daesh, it has no air force. So, who is the target? The Russian air force? What if Russian bombers and fighters entered the U.S.-imposed no-fly-zone?<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/12/hillary-clintons-insane-plan-for-a-no-fly-zone.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mrs. Clinton apparently believes</a> that the no-fly zone will give the U.S. and its allies leverage over Russia, an utterly absurd notion. She also seems to believe that such a zone does not necessarily imply that the U.S. would go to war with Russia, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/10/23/hillary-i-support-syria-no-fly-zone-but-that-doesnt-mean-shooting-at-aircraft-that-violate-it/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">nor does it imply that the U.S. might shoot at Russian aircraft</a>. The universe in which she lives is magical; anything is possible. Unfortunately, though, it runs parallel to our universe with no connection between the two.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Even if Daesh had a sort of rudimentary air force, has Mrs. Clinton not learned anything from the no-fly zone in Libya and the resulting catastrophe? Is it possible to arm the opposition in Syria, if most, if not all, of whom are terrorists, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25aDP7io30U" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">according to Vice President Joe Biden</a>, and impose the no-fly zone without the presence of any U.S. military and intelligence advisers?</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In Mrs. Clinton’s view, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/hillary-clinton-i-still-believe-in-american-exceptionalism/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">America is “exceptional,”</a> which means that it should be able to intervene in any country it wishes, abide by international treaties when they suits American interests, and abandon them when it wants to. She presented us with a good example of this “exceptionalism” during the October presidential debate, <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/debate_clinton_slams_iran_putin_supports_syrian_rebels_sanders_20151014" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">when she said</a>: “I think it’s important too that the United States make it very clear to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that it’s not acceptable for him to be in Syria creating more chaos, bombing people on behalf of Assad.” This is a politician who has been itching for a war with Iran for a long time, the same senator who voted for the Iraq War, and the same secretary of state who orchestrated the war in Libya. The latter two events have brought incredible destruction, bloodshed and chaos to the Middle East, but because she believes in “American exceptionalism,” she wants to lecture Mr. Putin on the virtues of non-intervention.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Never mind that regardless of whether one supports or rejects intervention in other nations, Russia is in Syria because its government, still recognized by the United Nations as the representative of the Syrian people,<a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/30/444679327/russia-begins-conducting-airstrikes-in-syria-at-assads-request" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">invited it</a>. As far as we can tell, the White House has not received such an invitation. And do not forget that Mrs. Clinton called Syrian President Bashar Assad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WztY-BFMMSc" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a reformer</a>, and Secretary of State John Kerry referred to him as “<a href="http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/kerrys-cozy-past-with-assad-hes-very.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a very generous man</a>” and “<a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/american-society/would-john-kerry-be-a-suitable-secretary-of-anything/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">my dear friend</a>,” whom he <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/article/kerry-frequent-visitor-syrian-dictator-bashar-al-assad/690885" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">visited several times</a>. On the other hand, the U.S. is supporting the opposition in Syria, which is an act of war.</div> <div style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px !important; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> No true progressive advocates the type of imperialist wars that Hillary Clinton has championed. She is truly <a href="http://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2015/11/04/the-mistress-of-deception/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #743399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a mistress of deception</a>, changing her positions all the time, hoping that she can deceive the people and present herself as progressive. She is a phony progressive, but a proven warmonger. If she is elected, we should expect war with Iran, as well as deeper intervention in Iraq and Syria. A vote for her would be a vote for more war.</div> </div> </div>

Hilary Clinton’s Israel, Iran, Iraq & Libya Record Indicates She’s A Proven Warmonger

Looking back over Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy record, it’s clear that she is neither a progressive nor a liberal, but a proven warmo...

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