I hope this isn’t true

8 Comments / 8 Comments

1. @Peloni Maybe there should be a rule that legislators should have to pass an overview quiz before being allowed to vote on bills?

2. @Sebastien
   The source for Pipe’s tweet goes back to a series of articles by Sam Westrop which originated in 2019 where he states that

   funding to Islamist organizations has not been reduced under the Trump administration. In fact, it has increased: In 2018, 40 grants and contracts worth over $13 million were distributed to organizations controlled or influenced by radical movements; two years earlier, under Obama, only 35 grants worth a mere $3.6 million were handed out to radical-linked institutions.

   Westrop notes that this claim is based upon data from https://www.usaspending.gov/ which tracks government payments. Hw lists a number of awarded parties over the years including

   The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), for instance, received over $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief work in 2016 and 2018. ICNA is the U.S. representative body of Jamaat-e-Islami, which was recently banned by the Indian government in the Kashmir region because of its involvement with “extremism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere.”

   Outside of Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) payments made during 2020-21 thru Small Business Loans which were ultimately forgiven, I haven’t been able to confirm any payments listed in Westrop’s report, but it is likely due to the fact that the awards are under some other name or spelling.

   Presuming Westrop’s claim about the increase in payments to Islamists during the Trump presidency are accurate, it is noteworthy that the payments skyrocketed out of reason during 2018. This was an important year because this was the year that the irresponsible 2018 Omnibus bill was passed. Trump notably nearly vetoed the bill and only signed it to gain the funding for the military. The 2200 page bill was likely never read by a single congressman before being signed, given that Paul Ryan only released it, as per usual in Washington, just before being passed. Of course claims are made that the parties receiving the grants are not known to be Islamist organizations, but the reality is that Qatari money, as well as funding from other Islamist lobbying groups, is what brings these choices of Islamist recipients to be listed in these terror supporting tax-payer schemes – it is no mere accident.

   Hence, whereas Pipes attributes this funding to Trump, the reality is that the Omnibus bill was not representative of any of Trump’s policies, far from it actually. It was a Neocon bill prepared by a Neocon congress supporting Neocon policies. The bill was only signed by Trump because he recognized he would lose his Republican majority in the House at the end of 2018 and would have no chance of gaining the funding for the military which was so badly needed. But it was a bad bill, and Trump both recognized this and stated as much when he signed it.

   So, to answer your question, if Trump were to return to office and he had a MAGA controlled congress, I would suggest that this would not be repeated. If, however, the RINOs maintain control of the congress as they did in 2018, I would suggest that this would likely be repeated in the future. Recall that the congress controls spending and Trump’s first unfounded impeachment was a direct result of him trying to forestall funding approved by the congress in this same bill.

   1

3. Here’s another one from today’s JNS quoting Daniel Pipes. True, false, or true but wouldn’t happen again.

   “ The bad news: [U.S. President Joe] Biden sent $2 million of taxpayer money to U.S. Islamist groups in 2022. The good news: That’s way down from the $16 million Trump sent them in 2018,” tweeted Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum. “Yes, Trump sent more money to them than any other U.S. president. Puzzling but true.”

   https://www.jns.org/new-research-2-million-in-federal-grants-went-to-domestic-islamist-groups/

   1

4. @Sebastien
   I agree with Ted & count it as complete malarkey. That book was written by senior staff members of The New York Times and the new Yorker each of whom are remknoned for reports based on their own imaginations rather than actual factuual sources. Also it has no confirmation from any one of the reports from the actual people who took part in the negotiations at the time, from Kischner to Friedman to Dormer or any of the others who have authored their recollection of the events in which they were the primary actors. Just more antiTrump fake news.

5. Final occupation of our land…

6. @SEB
   That’s an old story. I don’t believe it for a minute.

7. “Trump offered the West Bank to Jordan’s king, according to a new book. The territory was not his to give away.”
   John Haltiwanger Sep 14, 2022, 7:31 PM EDT

   https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-offered-the-west-bank-to-jordans-king-book-2022-9

   In 2018. Is this disinformation or is there any truth to it., do you suppose? Just popped up in my Google newsfeed after I read this on Israpundit.

8. Mudar told me to ignore him.