VIDEO: Rubio Lied Big Time About Iraq Invasion

Trump Cabinet Picks -- Flavors of Crusaders

Thanks to

Decensored News

for the video above of Marco Rubio at a February 2016 debate. Just after the debate, I wrote the piece “Face It: Trump is Right About Iraq -- and that Should Sink Clinton” and highlighted:

Marco Rubio was perhaps the most priceless -- "Saddam Hussein was in violation of UN resolutions, in open violation, and the world wouldn’t do anything about it." That's a total lie. Iraq had disarmed and the U.S. did everything it could to prevent the UN from verifying that disarmament so that the draconian sanctions would continue on Iraq indefinitely and they could have their regime change war, see my timeline: accuracy.org/iraq. 

(See twitter thread.)

I put out this news release today, Thursday via accuracy.org:

Trump Cabinet Picks: Rubio, Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Gabbard -- Interviews Available 

COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan@earthlink.net @ColeenRowley

    Rowley can speak about some of Trump's picks for various positions. She is a retired FBI agent and was named one of TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002 for exposing and sharing some of the FBI's 9/11 intelligence with official congressional investigations. She has spoken at numerous academic and other professional venues with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. She is a long-time member of Women Against Military Madness and Veterans for Peace and is most recently affiliated with the Eisenhower Media Network. 
 
    She said today: "Since Trump campaigned at times as some sort of a peace candidate, but is now choosing a host of warmongers to nominate for key positions, it won't be surprising if this 'freaks out' his own MAGA support base, many of whom believed his campaign promises. At least you couldn't blame them for some confusion!"

    Trump has said he'd nominate Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State and Fox pundit and former Guantanamo prison guard Pete Hegseth to head the Pentagon. Rubio lied about the invasion of Iraq (see video) and has called for regime change in Venezuela and elsewhere. 

    Hegseth is characterized by his long support for war which he sees as an American Crusade -- the title of one of his books, see excerpt: "If you’re going to crusade, you need to know the totality of your mission."

    Said Rowley: "Hegseth was actually disinvited in 2008 from staging a military pep rally at his own high school in Forest City, MN, which was aimed at reviving support for the (by then very unpopular) Iraq War which had long proven to be based on false pretexts of WMD and connection to 9-11."

    Dan Cohen reports that Hegseth once toured the Al-Aqsa mosque area in Jerusalem with Rabbi Chaim Richman, "a U.S.-born Israeli rabbi who leads the Temple Institute, which is dedicated to destroying the Dome of the Rock." He has voiced support for the establishment of a Jewish temple on the site.

    Trump said he would also nominate John Ratcliffe to serve as the director of the CIA. AntiWar.com notes that he is a "supporter of sweeping government surveillance powers as he lobbied for the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law that allows the government to spy on American citizens without a warrant. In 2023, Ratcliffe and several other former Trump officials, including Mike Pompeo and Bill Barr, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to support the extension.

    "Ratcliffe is known as a Trump loyalist for pushing back against unfounded allegations about Russian election interference in his role at the DNI. Recently, he has been pushing claims about Iran allegedly hacking the Trump campaign and plotting to kill the president-elect, a charge Tehran has strongly denied. Ratcliffe has used the allegations to call for the U.S. to join Israel in taking a harder line against Iran.

     "Ratcliffe is also a China hawk and has called for the U.S. to prepare for a 'confrontation' with Beijing."

    Rowley said: "Finally there's Tulsi Gabbard, slated to be Director of National Intelligence, who was frequently called a tool of Putin by the establishment (including by Hillary Clinton). By contrast with those preposterously false accusations, and sadly enough whether due to political opportunism or some other reason, she's become an actual tool of Netanyahu."

---

From Wednesday:

Huckabee: "No Such Thing as a Palestinian" -- Interviews Available

[Drop Site News published the piece "As Infested Flour Becomes a Staple, State Dept 'Still Assessing' Israel’s Aid Restrictions to Gaza" by Abubaker Abed who is in northern Gaza.] 

Mike Huckabee, who Trump says he will nominate to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, has said: “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. ... There is no such thing as a West Bank; it's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement; they're communities ... neighborhoods ... cities ... There's no such thing as an occupation. ..." Huckabee has also said "there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian." 

[Trump also nominated Fox pundit and former Guantanamo prison guard Pete Hegseth to head the Pentagon. He wrote the book American Crusade -- see excerpt.]

DON WAGNER, dwag42@gmail.com
    Rev. Dr. Don Wagner is a retired member of the Presbyterian clergy, professor and a human rights activist. He is the author of the memoir Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land and other books including Anxious for Armageddon. 

    He said today: "Huckabee will be fully supportive of Israel annexing the rest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem because he erroneously believes God gave all of historic Palestine to the Jewish people, as if God were a real estate agent who believed in redlining and ethnic supremacy." 

    Haaretz recently published an editorial entitled "Netanyahu's Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza Is on Display for All to See." Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election provides an “important opportunity” for Israel to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank.

    Wagner wrote the piece "Netanyahu abuses Bible to impress U.S. evangelicals." See his talk: "The Widespread Influence of Christian Zionism and Growing Backlash Inside American Churches."