Biden Offers $20 Million for Iranian Guard While Pressing Israel for De-escalation
Plus, $100 million gift to U. Chicago; Adams indictment; “Harvard Failed”
The Department of State announced Thursday that it is offering a $20 million reward “for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Shahram Poursafi…a uniformed member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who is believed to be working on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC- QF) to arrange the transnational murder-for-hire of former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton.”
“From October 2021 to April 2022, Iran-based Poursafi attempted to hire criminal elements within the United States to murder Mr. Bolton in Washington, D.C., or Maryland in exchange for $300,000,” the reward announcement says. The plot has been reported on previously, but the $20 million reward is new.
Also Thursday, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, went on television and, instead of praising the Israel Defense Forces and Prime Minister Netanyahu for killing a lot of Hezbollah terrorists, called for a ceasefire and negotiations. On September 25, Blinken issued a joint statement with the ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council and expressed “support for diplomatic efforts aimed to promote de-escalation.”
On September 23, Secretary of Defense Austin called the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and issued a readout that was less than enthusiastic. Austin “stressed the importance of finding a path to a diplomatic solution that will allow residents on both sides of the border to return to their homes as quickly and safely as possible, as well as reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal that will bring all the hostages home. The Secretary made clear that the United States remains postured to protect U.S. forces and personnel and determined to deter any regional actors from exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict,” a Pentagon statement said. The “postured to protect U.S. forces and personnel” phrase seemed to signal that the U.S. wasn’t postured to help Israel in taking the fight to Hezbollah.
Also Thursday, the IDF released a video saying that Hezbollah is responsible for bombing the U.S. embassy and barracks in Beirut in 1983, and for attacking a U.S. Air Force housing facility at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996.
It seems like a mixed message. The $20 million reward offer talks about “actionable information that has helped resolve threats to U.S. national security.” It sure would seem like Israel’s killing a lot of Hezbollah terrorists, as it’s done over the past few days, would qualify? Yet, rather than issuing thank yous or rewards, the Biden administration seems publicly eager for Israel to stop.
They must be laughing in Tehran. Every time Israel starts inflicting real pain on Iranian proxies, Washington cranks up the pressure on Israel for a “ceasefire.” No wonder the Iranians were trying to assassinate Bolton and Secretary of State Pompeo. They, at least, were threats to the Iranian regime. That is more than can be said for the current U.S. national security team.
Adams indictment: The indictment of Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat of New York, is a reminder of three larger points.
First, it’s the regulation that breeds the corruption. The indictment says Turkey wanted approval from the fire department and the buildings department for a newly constructed building in Manhattan. The more onerous these required approvals are, the greater the temptation to bypass the bureaucracy or grease it with a gratuity. Why not let the Turks and their insurance company decide for themselves, without government involvement, whether their building is safe? I guess you can argue that the neighbors or city firefighters might be endangered if things go wrong. But a corrupt regulatory system doesn’t provide any more protection; it just offers politicians and bureaucrats an opportunity to shake down people who want to build in New York City.
Second, the prosecutors will find a way to overcharge. Adams got hit with a federal charge of wire fraud but also with “conspiracy to commit wire fraud.” This is a kind of double jeopardy in which a defendant is charged not only with the underlying crime but also with the thought crime of planning the crime, or conspiring. In a lot of cases, it’s just a prelude to a bargain in which the government agrees to drop one of the charges in exchange for a guilty plea. Congress should step in and repeal or revise some of these statutes to make it more difficult for prosecutors to charge a defendant with both a conspiracy and the underlying crime.
Third, there’s the law of unintended consequences. New York established a campaign finance system with an eight-to-one public match of contributions up to $250. That was supposed to counteract the influence of wealthy interest groups and large donors. Instead, it created an irresistible incentive to manufacture “straw donors,” breaking up large gifts into smaller chunks to multiply their effect by capturing the matching funds. Adams’ predecessor as mayor, Bill de Blasio, also had donors who did this, though in de Blasio’s case the criminal charges were directed at the donors rather than at de Blasio. A campaign finance “reform” intended to clean up political giving wound up being an invitation to corruption.
The New York Times has run articles advocating for noncitizen voting in municipal elections, and the City Council even passed a law allowing noncitizens to vote in New York City municipal elections. If Turks can vote for mayor, what’s the logical consistency of preventing them from making campaign contributions? If they were Haitians donors instead of Turks, the Times, instead of calling for Adams’ resignation, would be denouncing the whole thing as xenophobia.
A lot of the indictment is about how Adams, while Brooklyn Borough President, was upgraded to business class or to a hotel suite without paying extra. The prosecutors use the face value of the business class tickets or the suite without acknowledging that those full-price rack rates are rarely paid. Maybe the Feds will eventually come up with more in their anti-Adams fishing expedition. He certainly wouldn’t be the first crooked New York politician or the last. But if this is all they have, it’s underwhelming.
Chicago Gift: The University of Chicago announced it has received a $100 million gift “from an anonymous donor to support UChicago’s leadership on the principles and practice of free expression, and to advance the work of the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.” The results will bear watching.
There’s some online chatter that such a large anonymous gift is somehow sketchy, but Harvard announced a $100 million gift in 2018 without disclosing the name of the “1990s alumnus of the College” and his wife. It’s a little unclear from the University of Chicago announcement, but presumably someone there knows the identity of the donor and has just agreed to be discreet about it.
Maybe if the gift works well enough, eventually people will be able to donate large sums to support free inquiry and expression at the University of Chicago without any concern that the disclosure of their identity will subject them to attack.
“Harvard Failed, End of Story,” Says Chairman Foxx: The chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Virginia Foxx, is faulting Harvard for refusing to impose meaningful discipline on disruptive anti-Israel protesters.
“New documents provided to the Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into campus antisemitism show that Harvard failed to discipline the overwhelming majority of those involved in the protests, and none of those found responsible for the spring encampment were suspended. Failure to punish these students for their antisemitic actions amounts to a likely failure to provide a safe learning environment for Jewish students, a violation of Harvard’s responsibilities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” a press release from the Committee says.
“Harvard failed, end of story. These administrators failed their Jewish students and faculty, they failed to make it clear that antisemitism will not be tolerated, and in this case, Harvard may have failed to fulfill its legal responsibilities to protect students from a hostile environment,” Foxx said. “The only thing administrators accomplished is appeasing radical students who have almost certainly returned to campus emboldened and ready to repeat the spring semester’s chaos. Harvard must change course immediately.”
The committee released somewhat detailed if redacted information about a lot of the disciplinary cases. The students who occupied University Hall, disrupted classes with megaphones, and camped out in Harvard Yard seem mostly to have been given warnings or probation and then returned to good standing, rather than being required to withdraw for a semester or more. Even repeat offenders had punishments reduced on appeal. One student, according to the documents, referred the administrators to his column in the Crimson. Another, as Steve McGuire notes, “commented on the fact that every faculty member who has mentored and taught her over the past four years has told her that she did a brave and principled thing, and they are so proud of her.”
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Even more relevant to the Lebanon fighting is the "reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction of Hizballah key leader Ibrahim Aqil" offered by the State Department in April 2023. As noted in the "reward offer", "Aqil was a principal member of Hizballah’s terrorist cell the Islamic Jihad Organization, which claimed responsibility for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel."
Aqil was killed by Israel on 20 September in the fighting that Secretary Blinken thinks should be stopped.
If we had a proper campaign for president, each candidate would be asked an opinion on the campaign against Hizballah.
Some may quibble that Ira Stoll referred to Virginia Foxx in different places as "Chairman" and "Chairwoman" of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Both terms are correct, and their juxtaposition illuminates the history of the words man and woman, as detailed in a 22 November 1991 letter in the New York Times titled "In Linguistic Eden, the Sexes Were Equal" (https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/06/opinion/l-in-linguistic-eden-the-sexes-were-equal-182591.html).
The writer, Adam Redfield, commenting on an op-ed, noted that "The professor is incorrect to assume that "man" as a suffix denotes the male gender. "Man" used this way is genderless and precedes the use of "man" in a gender-specific way by centuries. In Old English or Anglo-Saxon, the word "man" was universal and referred to all humans equally. The word for a male human was "waepman," and the word for a female human was "wifman." The use of "man" as a suffix can thus be seen as gender neutral, and it was applied this way throughout the language. This gender-free meaning is operative in such words as "chairman." As English evolved, the prefix to wifman was altered, and the prefix to waepman was dropped. This created a new gender-specific word for adult males that is, incidentally, identical to the original gender-free word in spelling and pronunciation. But, this only adds a word to English. It should not, and until recently did not, corrupt the meaning of the original word."