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from the the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The view among the national security officials was unanimous: Military aid to Ukraine should not be stopped. But the White House's acting chief of staff thought otherwise.
That was the testimony of Laura Cooper, a Defense Department official, whose deposition was released Monday in the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
"My sense is that all of the senior leaders of the US national security departments and agencies were all unified in their - in their view that this assistance was essential," she said. "And they were trying to find ways to engage the president on this."
Cooper's testimony was among several hundred pages of transcripts released Monday, along with those of State Department officials Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson.
Cooper told investigators that, in a series of July meetings at the White House, she came to understand that Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was holding up the military aid for the US ally.
[...] When she and others tried to get an explanation, they found none.
[...] She said it was "unusual" to have congressional funds suddenly halted that way, and aides raised concerns about the legality of it. The Pentagon was "concerned" about the hold-up of funds and "any signal that we would send to Ukraine about a wavering in our commitment", she said.
Cooper told investigators that she was visited in August by Kurt Volker, the US special envoy to Ukraine, who explained there was a "statement" that the Ukraine government could make to get the security money flowing.
[...] "Somehow, an effort that he was engaged in to see if there was a statement that the government of Ukraine would make," said Cooper, an assistant defence secretary, "that would somehow disavow any interference in US elections and would commit to the prosecution of any individuals involved in election interference."
For a handy reference to the documents that have been released concerning this, npr has posted Trump Impeachment Inquiry: A Guide To Key People, Facts And Documents:
Written words are central to the Ukraine affair. The significance of the whistleblower's original complaint and the White House's record of its call with Ukraine are debated, but the text is public. Here are the documents to refer to as the inquiry proceeds:
Texts and memos
- Call:The White House memorandum (Sept. 25)
- Aid:The Pentagon letter on military aid to Ukraine (Sept. 25)
- Complaint:The whistleblower complaint (Sept. 26)
- Texts:Batch of texts between diplomats released by House Democrats (Oct. 4)
The whistleblower's complaint has largely been corroborated by witness testimony, public statements and media reports. See how the document checks out — with a detailed annotation of the text.
Testimony released by Congress following closed depositions
- Christopher Anderson, former special adviser for Ukraine negotiations
- Laura Cooper,deputy defense secretary
- Catherine Croft, former Ukraine adviser on the National Security Council
- Fiona Hill, former White House adviser on Russia
- George Kent, deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs
- Michael McKinley, former State Department adviser
- Gordon Sondland,U.S. ambassador to EU
- William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine
- Alexander Vindman, top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council
- Kurt Volker, former Ukraine envoy
- Marie Yovanovitch, ex-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @12:58AM (6 children)
It's a term invented by the right. It mocks an assumption made by the left.
The left welcomes immigration from places with very non-left values. (no rights for women, kill the LGBT, etc.)
The left likes to claim that these very non-left values will not be a problem. Diversity is a strength! We must not dare demand assimilation, yet somehow these immigrants will become enlightened and then willingly adopt our values.
It's crazy. Evidence shows that our values are not being adopted. We're being conquered. The idea that transplanting a foreigner to a modern nation would suddenly change values (why?) is the magic dirt theory. The theory goes that western nations are decent places simply due to location (the magic dirt) rather than due to the population that is being diluted and replaced.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:21AM (1 child)
You could improve our values by leaving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @04:59AM
And where is a right-wing fascist racist douche-bag supposed to go to, these days? South Africa is out. Franco is still dead. Zanzibar coup by Brit mercs failed. Really no where in the world to go! Except, maybe, Hungary? Orban? Will you let our poor Nazi AC in? He's a refugee, you see.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @01:44AM (3 children)
Yeah? And? When my grandparents came to this country, they left behind their homeland which had recently been taken over by a bunch of thugs who thought that the world must be conquered by the "superior blue-eyed, blond-haired Aryan race"; some time later these thugs decided that all inferior races needed to be exterminated. No one in my family brought this ideology with them when they came to the USA. So, what's your point?
Again, what do you think my (our) essential core values are? You have made a bald claim without explaining what you think those core values are. Please be specific. Then we might be able to actually address your claim that the "evidence shows that our values are not being adopted".
So, yours is a "blood and soil" ideology. Sad, but unfortunately, not surprising to see. Fuck off, nazi!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @09:37AM (2 children)
Presumably your grandparents did not immediately then setting about a micronation pushing for a blue-eyed, blond-haired super race? I don't really think people mind immigration at all. I used to think it was the lack of integration that's the problem, but that's also clearly not it. There are, for instance, Chinatowns are pretty much everywhere in major US regions and everybody's pretty cool with that. So what is it?
I think the issue is when people come from these regressive countries and then try to impose their regressive values on other folks. Pretty much everywhere you see a large Muslim population you start to see pushes for things like Sharia law being enshrined in legal law. It also frequently comes with separatist movements once the population reaches a critical mass. Islam of course also tends to be associated with some pretty radical terrorism. For instance in the US only 1% of the population is Muslim, yet that's enough to generate a fairly substantial list of incidents. For instance this [wikipedia.org] is a limited list of terrorism incidents in the US since 2000. Hasan's and Muhammad's should, all other things being equal, make up 1/100 incidents. In practice, those names are pretty much everywhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @07:10PM (1 child)
Did you actually bother to read the link you posted? While there are indeed some "Hasans" and "Muhammads" in there, your link doesn't quite support your claim that they are "pretty much everywhere".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 13 2019, @07:57PM
There are 87 incidents listed on that page since 2000. The expect Muslim incident rate, all other things being equal, would be a bit less than 1. They are dramatically over-represented. If we only consider the incidents where people actually die, they are even more dramatically over-represented.