BLUF: [LA Times] Last summer, when Chagoury planned a trip to Los Angeles, he applied at the U.S. embassy in Paris for a visitor’s visa and was refused, according to interviews and government documents. Based on the FBI report and other allegations from intelligence and law enforcement sources, the State Department denied the application. It cited terrorism-related grounds, a broad category that can apply to anyone believed to have assisted a terrorist group in any way, including providing money.
Chagoury has denied ties to Hezbollah. Two years ago, he helped pay for a conference in Washington on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East; some attendees supported Hezbollah, but the director of the group that organized the conference said that didn't mean Chagoury or other conference organizers were among them. "Hezbollah is part of the political reality of the country," Andrew Doran told the National Review.
Corallo did not answer questions about the visa denial, but said Chagoury "has been a friend and supporter of America all his life" and that "any allegation that Mr. Chagoury is involved in any way with providing material support to any terrorist organization, of any stripe, is false, outrageous and defamatory." He said Chagoury has no business interests in Lebanon.
The visa decision process is opaque and provides little recourse for those who are denied entry. Typically, the person is told of the grounds for refusal, but not the details. The secretary of State can grant a waiver, but that is often difficult when the evidence used to block entry is terrorism-related.
For the last three decades, Corallo said, Chagoury spent at least a few months each year in Beverly Hills, where he owns an 18,000-square-foot estate, once the home of actor Danny Thomas, with commanding views of West Los Angeles and the ocean.
A year ago, after his visa application was denied, Chagoury’s mansion was put on the market, with an asking price of $135 million. It’s still for sale.
[SABC] Former President FW De Klerk says his new Centre for Unity in Diversity will encourage white South Africans to comprehend the hurt caused to black people by apartheid. He was speaking at the launch of the centre in Johannesburg. You'll be impressed, boss. Per your instructions, no tentage or wire in Phase-One.
The launch was attended by human rights lawyer George Bizos and former human rights Commissioner, Rhoda Kadalie.
De Klerk says the centre will go a long way in fostering race relations and reconciliation.
De Klerk says he fears that if South Africans are not careful, race relations in the country could deteriorate to worrying levels.
He says, in as much as white South Africans feel marginalised by government's empowerment policies like Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action and that their languages and culture are under threat, they need help in building a prosperous South Africa.
The FW De Klerk Foundation, in conjunction with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, launched the Centre for Unity in Diversity to promote constitutional rights of all South Africans.
He says the centre will enable whites to understand the pain that apartheid caused to their black counterparts and help them to live peacefully as countrymen and women.
"It should encourage white South Africans to understand the depth of the hurt that was caused to non-whites by the politics of the past. The expression of views that might interpreted as patronising should be avoided at all times and white South Africans should make it clear through words and deeds that they are dedicated to building a better united South Africa. This centre needs to work on white South Africans to change, in many instances, their attitudes and to become sensitive towards the needs and the fears and the anger of Black South Africans but also of coloreds and indian South Africans." More at the link, if you have the stomach. Hat tip to Mike Smith's blog.
"You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
-- Inigo Montoya, "The Princess Bride"
[Telegraph] 8/25: Labour left humiliated after G4S turns down last ditch plea to provide conference security despite boycott because of their work in Israel
Posted by: Bov Flimbers ||
08/28/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Wow!, now that's a turn of a phrase "Well-hoisted on their own petard". I'll have to work that in with my general conversation with people. Well-hoisted on their own commode, himmm. Sounds like a Hilly story. She gives bombs to her cohorts but they have to press the button to activate.
#2
Sources close to the company warned that the short notice it was given and previous incidents at the event, including staff being spat at and verbally abused, made it impossible for G4S to accept the offer. --from the article
Basic common courtesy does not seem to be any part of the modern Leftist's makeup.
Hillary Clinton cemented her union support Friday, picking up a major endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters unanimously voted to endorse Clinton in a blow to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has campaigned for the union vote.
The Teamsters were slow to endorse Clinton, even as many other unions rallied around her. She has already received endorsements from groups including the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, and more recently, the AFL-CIO.
But when the Teamsters declined to make an endorsement last fall, reports emerged that the group was trying to set up a meeting with Trump.
Trump has continued to lobby for the support of the Teamsters and other unions.
In addition, Hoffa appeared at a pension rally with Bernie Sanders last year, stoking speculation that the Teamsters were considering endorsing him over Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries.
And reports last year said the Teamsters were interested in backing Vice President Biden if he entered the race. He eventually decided not to run.
The Teamsters’ support of the Keystone XL pipeline could be a wedge between the group and Clinton. The union has said the pipeline would create high-paying union jobs. Clinton came out against the controversial oil pipeline last fall.
The Teamsters are also opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that has drawn criticism from Clinton, Sanders and Trump. Trump has stoked speculation that Clinton secretly supports the trade deal and would enact it as president, which she has denied.
#5
Unfortunately Blossom, you Union will be certain to donate part of your dues to support her, and pay for phone banks, door to door soliciting, and general bullying of its membership to support a criminal...
#7
You get that $15 an hour federal minimum wage and it means hefty increases for all the union wages as well. That must be hard to resist. Just pay no mind to the inflation and unemployment that will result.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/28/2016 15:31 Comments ||
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#8
HillaryClinton cemented her union support . As in over shoes? Heh.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[SABC] 
