The Hemingway Report

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Iran Says New U.S. Visa Rule Violates Nuclear Pact

You can't make this stuff up. This comes on the heels of two missiles launched by Iran in direct violation of the UN resolution.

Iran missile launch violated UN resolution

Meanwhile Iran hasn't even signed the deal yet!

http://www.newsmax.com/DeroyMurdock/Barack-Obama-Iran-Middle-East/2015/12/17/id/706199/

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Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran in September. In a letter, Mr. Kerry said new visa restrictions would not affect the nuclear agreement. Craig Ruttle/Associated Press

TEHRAN — A new United States visa restriction that applies to Europeans and others who have visited so-called high-risk countries has led to angry reactions in Iran, where some leaders say the decision is a violation of the nuclear agreement reached in July.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, told state media on Monday that the visa restriction was an “obstacle, placed by some individuals,” that he hoped would soon be resolved. Mr. Zarif referred to a letter sent by Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, asserting that the restriction would not affect the nuclear agreement.

The letter, obtained and leaked by the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group based in Washington, hinted that President Obama would use his executive authority to exempt Iran from the visa restriction, which was passed almost unanimously in Congress. Mr. Obama signed it into law on Friday.

The restriction, a security step arising from the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., prohibits visa-free travel to the United States for anyone who has visited or holds citizenship in Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Iran.

Precisely why Iran was included on the list is unclear, since it is a foe of the Islamic State, the militant extremist group accused of organizing or fomenting the attacks.

Iranian politicians, especially hard-liners who harbor great antipathy toward the United States, are saying the measure will be an obstacle to trade after the implementation of the nuclear agreement and the lifting of the first sanctions against Iran, scheduled in late January.

Mr. Kerry is now promising that this will not be an outcome of the visa restrictions. “We will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,” he wrote in the letter.

The restrictions are part of an amendment to the current visa-free arrangement among 38 countries, including members of the European Union and the United States. It will mean that tourists, businesspeople and others from friendly countries in Europe as well as Australia, Japan and South Korea, who have visited Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Iran will soon be forced to apply for a United States visa, instead of traveling freely.

Many of these countries are expected to take countermeasures because the visa-free arrangement is based on reciprocity.

Iranian state radio on Saturday called the amendment the first “American, anti-Iranian measure” since the signing of the nuclear agreement. An influential member of Parliament, Allaedin Boroujerdi, said the move violated the nuclear agreement, which was supposed to ease or end many sanctions.

“The U.S. Congress’s bill is in contradiction to the deal, because they promised us not to impose any restrictions on Iranian nationals,” Mr. Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency in Iran on Sunday.

Iranians have reacted with shock to the amendment, pointing out that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were not on the list of high-risk countries, though 15 out of 19 participants in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were from Saudi Arabia. The San Bernardino couple who killed 14 people on Dec. 2 had ties to both nations. Others said the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks in November, is an ideological enemy of Iran, and Shiites, the predominant strain of Muslim faith in Iran.

On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, blamed Israeli groups for having pushed to include Iran in the visa measure.

“There is a large opposition to the nuclear deal with Zionist lobbyists spearheading the efforts that have been made for the deal not to come to fruition,” he was quoted as saying by Press TV, an English-language news agency backed by the government. “What was done in the U.S. was on the back of the Zionist lobby pressure that was opposed to the agreement with Iran.”

Some Iranians sought to play down the problem, pointing to Iran’s recent missile tests that angered the United States government but did not appear to endanger the nuclear agreement.

“The United States complains, but that’s it, everybody wants to move forward,” said one analyst who preferred not to be identified because he did not want to jeopardize his job. “This is just an obstacle, that’s it.”

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Here's a story you don't see everyday

Muslims shield Christians when Al-Shabaab attacks bus

Their M.O. is a tried and terrifying one: Launch a raid, single out Christians, and then spray them with bullets.

But when Al-Shabaab militants ambushed a bus Monday, things didn't go according to plan.

A group of Kenyan Muslims shielded the Christian passengers and told the attackers they were prepared to die together.

The Muslim passengers who were mostly women told the Islamic militants to kill them all or leave them alone, witnesses said.

Police escort breaks down

The bus was headed to the city of Mandera, near the border with Somalia and Ethiopia.

The journey is such a security risk that most buses travel with a police escort.

In this case, however, the police car broke down and the bus continued on its journey, Joseph Nkaissery, Kenya's interior cabinet secretary, said.

A few hours later, the militants attacked.

Brutal acts

Al-Shabaab, a Somali group the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, wants to turn Somalia into a fundamentalist Islamic state. It has launched a series of attacks in Kenya, since Kenyan forces went into Somalia to battle the extremists in 2011.

Its goal: sow division in the border regions of Kenya and Somalia, where many of the people are ethnically Somali, analysts say.

Among Al-Shabaab's most brutal acts was the raid on Garissa University College in April that left nearly 150 people dead. Witnesses described how gunmen asked students to recite verses from the Quran. If they couldn't, they were killed.

The group regularly storms buses, particularly this time of the year -- one of the busiest travel seasons in the nation. Throngs make their way to relatives' homes for the holidays, with buses and other public transportation packed.

In one such attack last year, they raided a bus and shot dead 28 people who failed to recite Quran verses.

'We are not separated by religion'

In the Monday attack, the gunmen ordered Muslim passengers to come out of the bus and separate themselves from the Christians.

There were more than 100 passengers on board.

The Muslim passengers refused.

They gave the Christian women their hijabs and helped others hide behind bags in the bus, passenger Abdiqafar Teno told CNN.

"They told them, 'If you want to kill us, then kill us. There are no Christians here," he said.

A Christian man who tried to run away was captured and shot dead, Teno said. The driver of a truck, which was trailing the bus, was also killed.

The gunmen left, but warned they would return.

Nkaissery, the interior cabinet secretary, told reporters security forces were in "hot pursuit of the criminals."

Then he commended the actions of the Muslim passengers.

"We are all Kenyans, we are not separated by religion," he said. "We are one people as a nation. And this is a very good message from my brothers and sisters from the Muslim community."

Sunday, December 20, 2015

COIL OF RAGE

Think this isn't true?

Contrast the Charleston shooting vs San Bernardino. Which one got all his attention?

There are dozens of examples...these are just two.

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Ed Kilbane

Everything you need to know about absolute zero is contained in his two books (coauthored by Bill Ayers). There was plenty of ammo in them that the MSM could have used 8 years ago to expose him for what he really is. But they turned a blind eye just as they have done with every other shady and mysterious aspect of his past.

Subject: COIL OF RAGE

All I can add is "DOES ANYONE HEAR " DOES ANYONE CARE?"

When you've read to the end, come back and read this first paragraph again.

A Coil of Rage

The character of any man is defined by how he treats his mother as the

years pass… need I say more about this person below other than there

is no character, no integrity but there is a ton of attitude and

arrogance that defines his shallow past and hollow future...

I rest my case.

I bought and read Obama's book, Audacity of Hope. It was difficult to

read considering his attitude toward us and everything American. Let me

add a phrase he used to describe his attitude toward whites. He harbors

a "COIL OF RAGE." His words, not mine.

Everyone of voting age should read these two books by him: Don't buy

them, just get them from the library.