Archive for the ‘Second Amendment’ Category

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN: Signing of Protocol of Amendment to the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement with Greece – US Embassy in…

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

October 14, 2021

Signing of Protocol of Amendment to the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement with Greece

Alongside Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, today I signed an amendment to the U.S.-Greece Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement (MDCA). The MDCA is the bedrock of our defense cooperation and has helped strengthen our common defense for more than three decades. This second amendment to the MDCA in as many years demonstrates the continued ability and resolve of the United States and Greece to address the security challenges of today and tomorrow through our strategic relationship.

The amendment to the MDCA deepens and expands on our partnership to maintain strong, capable, and interoperable militaries. The MDCA has allowed for U.S. forces to train and operate within Greek territory since 1990. Todays amendment extends the MDCAs validity, making it consistent with other bilateral defense cooperation agreements between NATO Allies and durable enough to allow for Greece and the United States to advance security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.

The United States welcomes Greeces continued investment in defense capabilities and its commitment to fulfilling the pledge it made at the NATO Wales Summit. Our defense relationship is rooted in a common history and shared values and interests going back more than two centuries. Our shared values extend to efforts beyond our defense cooperation and include a partnership in addressing climate change, increasing bilateral investment and trade opportunities, and strengthening educational and cultural connections. These efforts ensure that the U.S.-Greece relationship is stronger than ever.

I am pleased to update the MDCA and hope that the Hellenic Parliament quickly approves this Protocol of Amendment.

By U.S. Embassy in Athens | 14 October, 2021 | Topics: Featured Event, U.S. & Greece | Tags: #USGreeceStrategicDialogue2021

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN: Signing of Protocol of Amendment to the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement with Greece - US Embassy in...

Lauren Boebert Gloats that Norway Mass Killing Occurred Without Gun – Second Nexus

Far-right congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado hasn't been secretive about her obsession with firearms.

Boebert owns Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado, where servers are encouraged to open carry firearms. During her campaign, Boebert vowed to bring her glock with her into the halls of Congress (she didn't). Further into her term, she went viral for the slapdash display of guns serving as her Zoom background.

So it's no surprise that Boebert's one of the many Republicans who consider any regulation of firearms, or even studies on gun violence, to be a violation of the Second Amendment, claiming that firearms are necessary to rise up against a government with a $700+ billion defense budget if the need arises.

Boebert recently used a tragedy in Norway to bolster her case.

There, a man launched a bow and arrow attack that killed five senior citizens, the deadliest multi-homicide in the country in a decade.

Boebert took to Twitter to gloat that a mass casualty event occurred without a gun.

A man in Norway just killed a bunch of people with a bow and arrow.Norway has some of the strictest gun laws arou https://t.co/WjSDaCVByI

Boebert absurdly claimed that a multi-homicide event occurring without a gun is proof that gun laws don't do anything to prevent mass murders. The Congresswoman said this in a country where Americans have access to automatic weapons, which are designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.

What's more, there were 31 murders in Norway in 2020the highest number for the country in seven years. For comparison, there were 12,891 murders from guns alonealone in the United States the same year.

Boebert's statement was completely idiotic, and people made sure to let her know.

I'd say that Lauren needs to understand the difference between 'once a decade' and 'a couple of times a week', and https://t.co/HM3av7kqyL

You say what?!! It was a bow and arrow!And in regards to their strict gun laws, per 100,000 people, Noway-1.75 gun https://t.co/0CyCLVYz1z

Dumbest member of congress https://t.co/wBahF6iiYm

Soon, people were bringing receipts.

2018 murders:Norway: 25USA: 15,498Strict gun laws work. https://t.co/vvCtZNTY6f

There were a total of 25 murders in Norway in 2018; in America, 16,214 people were murdered in 2018, mostly with gu https://t.co/pPzpI2l8jY

In Norway, 5 people were just killed by bow and arrow.In Las Vegas, Stephen Paddock shot and killed 60, while ano https://t.co/FSL2LiCbx8

Boebert is up for reelection next year.

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Lauren Boebert Gloats that Norway Mass Killing Occurred Without Gun - Second Nexus

OPINION EXCHANGE | If the free world valued press freedom, it would finally free Assange – Minneapolis Star Tribune

As comedian Dave Chappelle said to nervous laughter in his 2019 Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech, "The First Amendment is first for a reason."

"The Second Amendment [right to bear arms]," Chappelle added, "is just in case the first one doesn't work out."

Free expression is the alternative to violent coercion, a path to consensus and justice.

So congratulations to Nobel Peace Prize recipients Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa and to journalists worldwide who indirectly share their prize, along with the risks of a profession forever under siege ("Freedom of expression a 'precondition of democracy and lasting peace,' " Opinion Exchange, Oct. 9).

Free speech is foundational. Whatever policy goals are closest to your heart, your advocacy is dependent upon being able to access and share truthful information.In America, it all rides on the First Amendment.

The groundwork was laid in 1735 when New York publisher John Peter Zenger was jailed for printing truthful but critical information. His lawyer Andrew Hamilton secured his freedom with a landmark oration:

"... It is a right [that all] are entitled to complain when they are hurt. They have a right publicly to remonstrate against the abuses of power to put their neighbors upon their guard against the craft or open violence of men in authority."

The antagonism between journalism and authority has remained unchanged across centuries. A publisher quoted May Sarton in accepting the Sydney Peace Medal recently: "'You have to think like a hero, in order to act like a merely decent human being.'"

He continued: "We are objective, but we are not neutral. We are on the side of justice. Objectivity is not the same as neutrality. We are objective about the facts when it comes to reporting and not distorting facts. But we are not neutral about what kind of world we would like to see [which is] a more just world."

This publisher was, of course, Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks. Assange was arbitrarily detained on America's behalf in early December 2010 after publishing truthful but critical information about war crimes and other malfeasance in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over the past decade, Assange has been isolated, tortured, denied due process, denied medical treatment, had his lawyers spied on, had his infant children targeted, been caged in Britain's notorious Belmarsh, been displayed in a glass box during trials, and been broadly smearedas someone who"hid in Ecuador's embassy to avoid Swedish sex charges."

About the latter, where to begin? Assange was granted political asylum from American persecution. Ecuador does not grant asylum for sex crimes (does any country?). There were no "Swedish charges" there was instead a preliminary investigation that was manipulated to immobilize Assange.

Behind the scenes, it gets worse.

Late last month, Yahoo! news released a 7,500 word investigative report revealing plans at the CIA and "the highest levels" of the Trump administration in 2017 to kidnap or kill Assange while he was in Ecuador's London embassy.

Former director Mike Pompeo seemingly confirmed the report in a subsequent interview, saying that the 30 sources should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified CIA activity.

The Assange indictment does not allege anyone was harmed by his publications of classified material. Assange is charged with 17 counts under the Espionage Act charges which would essentially criminalize investigative journalism. The charges are made under an archaic law that allows no "public interest" defense. Assange risks a potential sentence of 170 years.

The Espionage Act prosecution of a publisher is unprecedented and caused widespread pushback. Prosecutors later added emphasis to an 18th charge conspiracy to hack. A key witness here is a convicted Icelandic fraudster who in June admitted to fabricating key accusations following a promise of immunity. On Sept. 24, this witness was jailed in Iceland amid an ongoing crime spree (per Icelandic biweekly Stundin).

The case against Assange appears to be in shambles. Earlier, the Swedish investigation was closed days after a U.N. report showed the Swedish government shopped prosecutors, manipulated evidence, disregarded exculpatory evidence, refused to question Assange, and refused to guarantee non-rendition.

Other reports have shown repeated abuse of process in Sweden and the U.K. related to Assange's imprisonment. And the embassy spying revelations now look disturbingly like a nascent field operation related to the CIA's kidnap/kill planning.

Where does this end?As Reporters Without Borders, the ACLU, and other major press freedom groups have said, the CIA report underscores the grave threat to press freedom represented by the Assange case.

The Assange indictment was issued during the Trump administration and bears some of its worst characteristics: bureaucratic volatility, vicious score-settling and a dead-eyed willingness to break norms. And the longer this continues, the more the damage and blame accrues to Trump's successor.

President Joe Biden, please intercede. Drop the charges. Free Julian Assange.

Drew Hamre lives in Golden Valley.

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OPINION EXCHANGE | If the free world valued press freedom, it would finally free Assange - Minneapolis Star Tribune

WV man to spend 5 years in federal prison in case involving machine gun parts provided to Boogaloo members – WVNS-TV

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. Chief U.S. District Judge Gina Groh sentenced a man from West Virginias eastern panhandle to five years in federal prison for unlawfully possessing a firearm silencer, United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld announced.

Timothy Watson, 31 of Ranson, pleaded guilty in March 2021 to one count of Possession of Unregistered Firearm Silencer. Watson admitted to having an unregistered silencer in November 2020 in Jefferson County.

U.S. Attorneys presented evidence Wednesday that Watsons conduct also involved his manufacture and transfer of hundreds of machinegun conversion devices for AR-15 style rifles, also known as drop in auto sears, to nearly 800 individuals including individuals whom he had reason to believe were adherents to an extremist political movement referred to as Boogaloo, a term referencing an impending civil war or violent uprising against the government for perceived incursions on U.S. Constitutional rights, including the Second Amendment, according to Ihlenfelds office. From those sales, the FBI opened matters involving 58 individuals, resulting to date in three firearms-related arrests and one conviction. Many of the investigations remain ongoing, said a news release.

Watson was ordered to forfeit the silencer, all 3D-printed items that the government will argue are machinegun conversion devices, the 3D printers, 3D printer parts, and 3D printer supplies, as well as a U.S. Postal Service package containing the same conversion devices. All items were seized during a search in November 2020.

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service continues its investigation in the case.

Watson remains in the Eastern Regional Jail awaiting a transfer to a federal facility.

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WV man to spend 5 years in federal prison in case involving machine gun parts provided to Boogaloo members - WVNS-TV

House Witness on Extremism Accuses Madison Cawthorn of Not Listening to Testimony – Newsweek

An expert on U.S. militias has accused Representative Madison Cawthorn, a Nort Carolina Republican, of not listening to her testimony at a House hearing on extremism before offering a discordant condemnation of her views a short time later.

Dr. Amy Cooter, a Vanderbilt University professor, testified during a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on extremist militia members recruiting veterans on Wednesday. During the opening statement of her testimony, Cooter noted that she was a gun owner and had extensively interviewed militia members.

Cooter said that her research had found "the majority of militia members are law-abiding citizens" before expressing concerns about violent "extremist units" seeking recruits that include "some disenchanted veterans." Minutes later, Cawthorn condemned what he called a "disgusting" hearing while singling out Cooter's testimony for allegedly "attacking the idea of having militias."

"I just heard Dr. Amy Cooter with her opening statement start attacking the idea of having militias in our country," Cawthorn said. "I understand that she used some special words and things to say that 'oh no, I'm not against all militias.' But unfortunately having a militia is a protected right within our constitution under the Second Amendment. And I believe it is disgusting to say that there is extremism and that we need to root out extremists inside our military, inside our veterans."

"For you to come here and members of Congress to say, 'oh well, you know whatit's actually a high likelihood that people who are veterans who are in militias are actually extremists,' that is disgusting," he later added. "Dr. Cooter, I would like to point a question to you: Are you anti-militia?"

Cooter responded to Cawthorn by saying that she suspected he had "actually missed all of our opening statements," while pointing out that she has been accused of being a "militia apologist" but was speaking specifically about a minority of extremists within militias.

"Mr. Cawthorn, I believe that you actually missed all of our opening statements and I would encourage you to review the film on that," said Cooter. "If you would have heard me, you would have heard me say I've been a gun owner since I was 21. I grew up in the foothills of Appalachia and I have very close personal contacts with militia members across the country."

"I'm frequently accused of being a militia apologist because I actually try to focus very frequently on how many of them are law-abiding folks," she added. "But the focus today is on that extreme element and the potential danger that that extreme faction specifically can pose to our veterans and to our country."

Cawthorn thanked Cooter for "saying that you don't think many members of militias are extremists" and remarked that he was "glad" she was a gun owner. The congressman then insisted that he did watch Cooter's opening comments before saying that he was "saddened" the hearing was taking place at all, due to it being "about finding extremists inside of our veterans."

After the hearing, Cooter tagged Cawthorn on Twitter while sharing a link to the text of her testimony, once again encouraging the congressman to review her statements. The professor also said that Cawthorn allegedly condemning her speech without having listened to all of it reminded her of behavior she sometimes encounters from students.

"I think I will wrap up my tweeting spree by using just a few more 'special words' to note that, as a professor, I am well accustomed to people having not done the readings, but I'd suggest at least looking to context cues before staking a claim on any given debate," Cooter tweeted.

Newsweek reached out to Cawthorn's office for comment.

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House Witness on Extremism Accuses Madison Cawthorn of Not Listening to Testimony - Newsweek