[PAULYPOKER]

According to multiple reports on a closed-door Saturday event with Jewish donors, Bush offered his harshest public assessment of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin reported that Bush said Obama had caused the US to “retreat” around the world and that Obama had charted the wrong course in his nuclear negotiations with Iran.
“He also said Obama was misreading Iran’s intentions while relaxing sanctions on Tehran too easily,” Rogin wrote of Bush’s remarks at a Nevada event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition. “Bush said that Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at any time was not plausible.
“He also said the deal would be bad for American national security in the long term: ‘You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal.'”
Bush further criticized Obama for pulling US troops out of Iraq too quickly in 2011, though Obama has insisted his hands were tied on the matter. Both Rogin and The New York Times reported that Bush quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and said, “Pulling out of Iraq was a strategic blunder.”
“Several attendees sensed a tacit critique of Mr. Obama and his failure to follow through on his threats to use force when Mr. Bush said ‘you gotta mean it’ when talking tough, and that America’s allies and enemies needed to know where an American leader stood,” The Times’ Jason Horowitz and Maggie Haberman wrote.


Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/b...#ixzz4UN4oTNQG

[PAULYPOKER]

Obama under pressure to prove Russian hacking

Fri Dec 30, 2016 3:9AM

This combination of AFP file photos shows US President Barack Obama (L) speaking at the White House on December 16, 2016 and Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow on December 23, 2016.

The outgoing administration of US President Barack Obama is under extreme pressure to release evidence confirming allegations of cyber attacks by Russia to influence the presidential election before leaving office.The Obama administration has only provided little documentation to support its official assessment in October that Moscow was attempting to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.The White House has also failed to confirm subsequent leaks from anonymous officials contending that the CIA believes Moscow’s interference was an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to help President-elect Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.Obama has ordered the intelligence community to conduct a full review of alleged hacking by the Russians before he leaves office on January 20.

The White House has said it will make as much of the report public as it can. But officials have warned that the document will contain “highly sensitive and classified information” and it is unclear how much evidence it will be able to release.Trump has rejected assertions that the Russian government was involved in the hacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.Julian

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which published the stolen emails, has denied that the Russian government provided the files. The US claim has also been rejected by Moscow.

On Thursday, Obama ordered a series of economic sanctions against Russia, as well as expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over hacking allegations."I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at the US election," Obama said in a statement.According to statements from the White House and the Treasury Department, the sanctions target Russia's FSB and GRU intelligence agencies, four individual GRU officers, and three companies who allegedly provided support to the GRU, and two Russian individuals for using cyberattacks to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.

[jjgold]

Stop

It's getting old

[PAULYPOKER]

Top Trump aide denounces US sanctions against Russia

Fri Dec 30, 2016 5:25PM

Donald Trump (right) talks with Kellyanne Conway (file photo)

US President-elect Donald Trump’s senior aide Kellyanne Conway has denounced outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama's decision to impose harsh economic sanctions against Russia.On Thursday, Obama announced a series of economic sanctions against Russia, as well as expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, over allegations that it interfered in the 2016 presidential election through cyberattacks."

I don't think at the height of the Cold War that this country expelled that many operatives," Conway told CNN on Thursday night, describing the sanctions as "unprecedented."She suggested that President Obama took these measure against Russia in order to "box in" Trump over the country when he takes office on January 20."Even those who are sympathetic to President Obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to quote 'box in' President-elect Trump," said Conway, the former Trump campaign manager who was last week appointed counselor to the president in the next US administration."That would be very unfortunate if politics were the motivating factor here. We can't help but think that's often true,” she stated.

The White House said in a statement on Thursday that there was the consensus from the US Intelligence Community that Russia's intervention in the US election via cyberhacking as "unacceptable and will not be tolerated."As part of retaliation for alleged Russian efforts to interfere with the US presidential election, Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 diplomats from the Russian embassy in Washington and closing down of two Russian facilities in the United States.President-elect Trump has repeatedly called for better relations with Moscow. He has rejected claims that Russian intelligence agencies were responsible for the alleged hacking.Talking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Wednesday night, Trump downplayed the allegations of Russian intervention in the election and stressed the need to move forward. He also turned down talk of imposing sanctions against Russia.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would consider retaliatory measures to the sanctions.But on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to expel US diplomats in reprisal for the Obama administration's hostile actions. "We will not expel anyone," Putin said in a statement.'Obama trying to create problems for Trump'

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani

Meanwhile, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani also criticized the sanctions against Russia as “petty little actions” intended to create problems for the Republican president-elect.“There's a certain pettiness that I hadn't seen before. I mean, to do this after 18 months, when you could have prevented it 10 months ago,” said on Friday.“Petty little actions like this don't mean very much. It's almost a mockery to say this is too little too late. It should have been done 10 months ago, 11 months ago, 12 months ago. If it is really true, the response should be much stronger,” stated Giuliani, who worked as a top surrogate and adviser to Trump during his campaign.

The US sanctions target Russia's FSB and GRU intelligence agencies, four individual GRU officers, and three companies who allegedly provided support to the GRU, and two Russian individuals for using cyberattacks to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.Under Thursday's actions, the US also shut down two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland that the United States says are used "for intelligence-related purposes."In addition, Obama announced that the State Department will expel 35 Russian diplomats, declaring them as "persona non grata". The diplomats were ordered to leave the country within 72 hours along with their families.

[chico2663]

I think Trump is the Manchurian Candidate. By the way why would anyone care what Bush said. Asshole got us in a war over a lie. Wonder how much of Saddam's gold ended up in the Bush family.