Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, July 9

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

I. COMEY, LYNCH, AND THE CLINTON E-MAIL SCANDAL

THE FBI AND MRS CLINTON HAVE A "REVIEW" MEETING; HILLARY BRINGS FIVE LAWYERS: Accompanying Mrs. Clinton into the meeting were her lawyer David E. Kendall; Cheryl D. Mills and Heather Samuelson, longtime aides who are also lawyers; and two lawyers from Mr. Kendall’s firm (Williams & Connolly), Katherine Turner and Amy Saharia.

THE FBI DIRECTOR COMEY AND A.G. LYNCH - BLURRING DUTIES: James Comey has submitted his FBI report and made a most succinct televised report in his presentation answering a lot of questions. The FBI did not have a way to retrieve the 20-30,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton and her lawyers scrubbed before releasing her server for public view. “Thousands of work related emails” and three classified emails not submitted by Clinton were found  on email accounts of other officials investigated.

The decision how to enforce the law then fell into the Attorney General’s hands. No matter what she said after the Clinton airplane meeting she could not turn this duty of her office  over to the FBI. She had plenty of disciplinary actions available.  Comey's recommendation was that she not press charges, but other sanctions were available (see his clear statement on that below). Even though she is a woman and Mr. Comey is a man, she should not defer her duties to the obvious dominant male. A good place to start would be to revoke Mrs Clinton's security clearance in the same way that Mr. Clinton’s perjury led to the suspension of his Arkansas law license and his disbarring from the Supreme Court practice. Mrs. Clinton cannot be trusted with the secrets of our country nor the role of protecting our statesmen or soldiers. When there was a decision to safeguard her career or safeguard the country - her choice was clear. That is what the FBI reported in no uncertain terms on July 5, 2016. A day later AG Lynch said the matter is now closed.

Some of Comey’s remarks:

It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they [HER LAWYERS] deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked “classified” in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

Mr. Comey came to public fame with his prosecution of Martha Stewart in 2003. This was part of his statement at that time:

At a news conference announcing the charges against Ms. Stewart, James B. Comey, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said, ''This criminal case is about lying - lying to the F.B.I., lying to the S.E.C., lying to investors.'' Addressing a question that has long hovered over the investigation, he added, ''Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not for who she is, but because of what she did.''

How Republican-appointed Jim Comey became FBI chief in Obama administration.

II. ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST

ISIS IN AMERICA - MINNEAPOLIS SOMALI TRIAL: Scott Johnson of Power Line looks at what the media missed. Mr. Johnson, who attended the trial, is struck by the anti-American insularity of the Somali immigrants and the normalcy of young males picking ISIS as a career choice. For now that meant going overseas, but what will happen when the strategy is to "fight where you are"? According to Mr. Johnson and the Minnesota FBI there are probably 100,000 Somalis in Minnesota.

ISIS SHOOTERS DIDN'T NEED TO GO TO ISIS CALIPHATE TO GET THE MESSAGE; TWO SHOOTERS, TWO TRIPS EACH TO SAUDI ARABIA: From Dow Jones Newswires:

Saudi officials have said that Mateen made two pilgrimages to the country, first in 2011 and again in 2012, to perform Umrah, a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. The trips lasted between eight and 10 days each. Details about the first trip couldn't be learned.

Pilgrims flock to Mecca and Medina year-round for the Umrah. The pilgrimage is optional, and many worshipers prefer to make it during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Around five million people from around the world visit Saudi Arabia every year for Umrah. Commonly known as the lesser pilgrimage, it can be performed at any time. By comparison the hajj, the major Muslim pilgrimage, is mandatory once in every Muslim’s life and takes place at a specific time each year.

Syed Rizwan Farook, the main suspect in a mass shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year, visited the kingdom twice in 2013 and 2014 to perform hajj and Umrah, Saudi officials have said.

DEATHS OUTSIDE OF WAR ZONES: A report on the drone war mostly targeting male groups in Pakistan.

ISIS ATTACK IN MEDINA: The one Ramadan attack which deliberately killed Sunnis was aimed at the Saudi role in guarding the Holy Places. They don’t think the Saudi royal family should control the Holy Places because they are hypocrites. They teach Salafist jihad, but don’t allow it in the kingdom. It is certainly true that the Wahhabi-Salafists of Saudi Arabia should no longer be the keepers of the Holy Places if Muslims around the world want to distinguish following the will of God (ISLAM) from the slaughter of Jews, Shiites, foreigners, and Christians.

BOMBING IN BAGHDAD WAS DELIBERATE RELIGIOUS SLAUGHTER: Iraq reminds the world that Muslims are the chief victims of ISIS, and ISIS reminds Iraq which Muslims they are after. "The raids of the mujahedeen [holy warriors] against the Rafidha [Shia] apostates will not stop."

SALAFIST JIHAD ATTACKS IN TURKEY AND BANGLADESH - TWO LARGE SUNNI NATIONS: If we learn to define the war we are in, there will be Sunni nations who will help us destroy the demonic ideology of the Salafist jihad. Every time a body of Sunnis establish a nation (Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt) with real borders they set themselves against the Salafist jihad ideology. We have not made this clear enough. Islamic civilization, like Christian civilization, has been the soil of many distinct nations. This is in keeping with the will of God and Divine Providence. Those who would destroy the spiritual nature of national entities in the name of Western gender-ideology or Salafist jihad are the natural enemies of religion and the nations.

ISIS GOES OUT OF THE MIDEAST. MESSAGE IN BANGLADESH IS SUNNIS ARE SAFE AND FOREIGNERS WILL DIE: From the NY TIMES report:

“You don’t need to be so tense,” one of the men told them. “We will not kill Bengalis. We will only kill foreigners.” At that, Mr. Barai’s gaze flicked to the floor of the restaurant, where he could see six or seven bodies, apparently shot and then sliced with machetes. All appeared to be foreigners. Even as they killed the foreigners, the attackers were unfailingly polite and solicitous with the restaurant staff and other Bangladeshis, Mr. Barai said.

They took the staff into their confidence, complaining that foreigners, with their skimpy clothes and taste for alcohol, were impeding the spread of Islam. “Their lifestyle is encouraging local people to do the same thing,” a militant said.

“They were all smart and handsome and educated,” he said. “If you look at those guys, nobody could believe they could do this.” In the predawn hours, the militants lectured their captives on religious practices, instructing the kitchen staff to say regular prayers and study the Quran.

Early in the morning, the gunmen released a group of women wearing hijabs and offered a young Bangladeshi man, Faraz Hossain, the opportunity to leave, too, said Hishaam Hossain, Mr. Hossain’s nephew, who had heard an account from the hostages who were freed.

Mr. Hossain, a student at Emory University, was accompanied by two women wearing Western clothes, however, and when the gunmen asked the women where they were from, they said India and the United States. The gunmen refused to release them, and Mr. Hossain refused to leave them behind, his relative said. He would be among those found dead on Saturday morning.

III. THE FOURTH OF JULY

FOURTH OF JULY: Two Georges. John Ireland, Patriarch and Patriot. Fulton Sheen on America as revolution or the sacred.  America the Beautiful - Crowning Brotherhood with Elvis Presley.

THREE WARTIME PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES ON INDEPENDENCE DAY - LINCOLN, WILSON, TRUMAN: From War on the Rocks.

IV. AROUND THE WORLD R&G ROUND UP

CONTROVERSIES IN JERUSALEM ONE STATE AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT: A new Knesset lawmaker and the Temple Mount.

FOREIGN POLICY ELITES URGE ELITES TO REVOLT AGAINST THE IGNORANT NATIONALISTS: In their own words.

CONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUAL ELITES - WHY SUCH HYSTERIA ABOUT TRUMP AND SUCH AMBIVALENCE TOWARD GENDER IDEOLOGY: Who says commentators like George Will, David Brooks, and Charles Krauthammer are the true conservatives? They are all so troubled by Donald Trump. There is something deep here which we have not yet touched. None of them believe in God. Two openly support marriage between males. If Christians think they are losing the culture wars, it might be because the warriors in our front line on the BIGGEST CULTURAL ISSUE are "intellectuals," not men under God. They are not fighting our fight. He who does not see God may have trouble understanding that politics is about brotherhoods under God. There are many men who do not believe in God,  who do believe in murderous brotherhoods. All three of our conservative commentators think ISIS and Hitler and the KKK are outrageous. But they will never understand the fraternal spirit under the Great Patriarch that will defeat those powerful forces.

ECONOMIC ELITES - BREXIT FALLOUT: From the Daily Beast: "The Brexit vote reflected the class aspect of the Rebellion. The London Times post-election analysis , notes socialist author James Heartfield, found the upper classes 57 percent for remain, the upper middle class fairly divided, while everyone below them went roughly two-thirds for leave. It doesn’t get much plainer than that... This dissent reflect the consequences of the globalization celebrated by elites in both parties. Britain’s industrial workforce, once the wonder of the world, is half as large as it was as just two decades ago..."

THE ORTHODOX MEET IN CRETE: Their statement.