Why Did Joe Biden Pardon His Son?
Which of Joe Biden's crimes did Hunter Biden threaten to reveal to thereby extort his father into pardoning him?
Biden Pardons Son
President Joe Biden had earlier pledged not to take clemency on Hunter.
President Joe Biden gave his son, Hunter Biden, a full and unconditional pardon Sunday night.
The younger Biden had been found guilty on three felony charges in June in a federal case surrounding his acquisition and possession of a firearm, and pleaded guilty (..) to federal tax evasion charges in September.
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Prior to the pardon, Hunter was facing up to 25 years in prison on firearms charges and up to 17 years in prison on tax charges.Biden had earlier pledged not to pardon his son. “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” the president stated in June, after his son’s conviction in his federal gun trial. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
Just asking ...
Palestine Open Thread 2024-289
News & views related to the war in Palestine ...
Ukraine Open Thread 2024-288
News & views related to the war in Ukraine ...
The MoA Week In Review - OT 2024-287
Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
Empire:
- Nov 27 - How The New Russian Missiles Are Changing The Game
Related:
- How Russian hypersonic missiles work (pdf) - JP Petit
- The Yeonpyeongdo Stage, "Oreshnik," and the North Korean factor - Marat Khairullin
- Speech at a restricted attendance meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council - Kremlin.ru
- Nov 28 - State Of The War For Palestine
Related:
- The ‘Ceasefire’ in Lebanon is a Ticking Bomb - Dropsite News
- Lebanon’s Unbalanced Ceasefire Teeters on the Brink - Craig Murray
- Israeli strikes continue amid cease-fire deal with Hezbollah - Washington Post
- Independent Inquiry Blames Israeli Leaders for Oct. 7 Failures - New York Times
- Nov 28 - To The Last Ukrainian
Related:
- Desertion threatens to starve Ukraine’s forces at a crucial time in its war with Russia - AP
- ‘Like dealing with cornered rats’: The men who force Ukrainians to the front lines - Telegraph
- Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba: 'If it continues like this, we will lose the war' (archived) - Financial Times
- Over 100K Ukrainians Return to Russian-Occupied Donbas as Economic Hardship Grows - Kyiv Post
- Boris Johnson: 'Mate, let's face it... We're waging a proxy war!' (video) - Telegraph
- Atlanticists mobilise to salvage NATO as Russia toughens its stance - Indian Punchline
- Russian Intel. Elaborates on Western Plans to ’Freeze’ the Ukrainian Frontlines with NATO Troop Deployments: Preparing For a Second War - Military Watch Mag
- Nov 30 - U.S., Allies Reignite War On Syria
Related:
- As Lebanon’s battlefield closes, Syria’s reignites. Why is Turkey opening Aleppo front now - Al Arabia
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review - OT 2024-287
U.S., Allies Reignite War On Syria
It seems that this earlier assessment of mine of the situation in Syria was wrong:
As the conflict in Lebanon subsides Israel and the U.S. have reignited the war in Syria. There have been signs for a while that this was going to happen. Yesterday Al-Qaeda affiliated HTS fighters, which has been rebuild and sponsored with CIA money, have relaunched their attacks on Syrian government forces west of Aleppo. Syrian and Russian air force attacks have for now stopped their progress. Hizbullah's Rudwan forces have yet to intervene but are deployed to defend Aleppo.
I do not expect the situation to Syria to escalate further.
As of now the situation continues to escalate. I had underestimated the role of Turkey in this.
President Erdogan seems to have taken control of HTS and is using it to pursue his aims. These include to widen Turkish control over Syrian land, to further damage the anti-Turkish resistance movement within the Kurdish population of Syria and to impress on president-elect Donald Trump that he can be a reliable ally in a fight against Iranian influence.
Jihadists under Turkish control have attacked Syrian government position on the western side of Aleppo city and diversion commandos seem to have infiltrated the city itself. A large part of this operation is the (fake) news onslaught accompanying it. Current information from the area is way too confused to state with some certainty what exactly is under who's control.
There are several forces fighting in Syria. The Turkish 'rebel' side, supported by Israel, Turkey and the U.S., includes two distinct groups. The former al-Qaeda Jihadists in Hayat Tarhir al-Sham [HTS] under Abu Muhammed al-Jolani were, and likely still are, financed and armed by the CIA through proxy actors in Qatar. HTS includes a significant number of Turkmen and Uighur jihadists from Central Asia. The second group is the so called Syrian National Army which is a group of Sunni Syria mercenaries paid for and controlled by Turkey.
These 'rebels' immediately distinguished themselves through their depraved behavior:
Hala Jaber @HalaJaber - 17:40 UTC · Nov 29, 2024🔴IMPORTANT🔴
I have just watched a most gruesome footage of the so called Erdogan-backed “freedom fighters,” beheading a Syrian soldier they captured. A POW in western military terms.
I thought those days of ISIS evilness were over, but here we are again as history repeats itself while we are again being told that these are the good “liberators.”
The footage shows a Syrian soldier surrounded by ‘rebels.’
He pleads with them & pleads to their Islamic faith.
They pull his hand away from his neck & one guy with a huge jaggered knife proceeds to slice his throat. When it gets stuck, he pounds the knife into the neck a few times, then proceeds to continue with the slaughter to the cries of “Allahahu Akbar.”
Whoever in the western world is supporting these NATO-Israeli backed extremists should really think again. ...
On the other side of the conflict are the Syrian Arab Army (which seem to have forgotten all the lessons it had to learn during the previous phase of the conflict). It is supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps which has trained and is financing several groups of Shia fighters in Syria. This is done in strong coordination with Hizbullah in Lebanon which has some units of its Rudwan special forces stationed in Syria. Russia is backing the Syrian government in Syria and is currently using its air power to interrupt further attacks from the 'rebel' side.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) is an anti-Turkish movement. It forms a major part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which has been supported, on and off, by the Pentagon in east-Syria. It is currently fighting on the side of the Syrian government but has in own interest in securing areas with significant Kurdish populations.
While it was known that the conflict in Syria was soon to be revived the immediacy seems to have come as an surprise:
Sharmine Narwani @snarwani - 9:10 UTC · Nov 30, 2024Russian newspaper Izvestia: The major terrorist attack on #Aleppo was coordinated between Turkish, Ukrainian and French intelligence with Israeli support and American approval. The planning was two months ago and the attack was supposed to be next March, but the events in Lebanon contributed to the urgency.
As said above there is no information yet that lets one make an unbiased assessment which side is really in control of what part of Aleppo or areas surrounding it. My impression is that many of the claims of Jihadist control here or there are only media operations without military significance.
But what can be said so far is that the Syrian government has obviously failed to secure its lines in the field and to prepare its army for a renewal of the conflict. The Syrian Arab Army seems to have given up many positions without a significant fight.
It will cost a lot of blood and treasure (again!) to regain control of them.
Palestine Open Thread 2024-286
News & views related to the war in Palestine ...
Ukraine Open Thread 2024-285
News & views related to the war in Ukraine ...
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-284
News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine ...
To The Last Ukrainian
The U.S. is willing to (proxy-)fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian.
White House presses Ukraine to lower draft age to meet manpower needs against Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18.A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The official said “the pure math” of Ukraine's situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight.
"Pure math" also says that following the advice order from Washington will guarantee that there will be no future Ukrainians left to fight for:
Cont. reading: To The Last Ukrainian
State Of The War For Palestine
Pressed by their allies Lebanon and Israel have agreed on a cessation of fire.
The 13 points of the ceasefire agreement are reinstating UN Security Council resolution 1701. Thus the status quo ante has been restored.
I do regard as a pause in fighting, not as an end to the war.
Both sides are in need of a pause.
The Israeli Defense Forces are depending on reservists. It is organized to fight short, high intensity wars. But it has now been in the field for over 14 month. Many of its reservists simply fail to show up when they are recalled for another round of fighting. High material and human losses at the front in Lebanon, where little to no progress was made, have further weakened the force.
The Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah is likewise in need of a time-out. The Israeli attacks on its leadership have seriously weakened its organization. Its local fighters have managed to resist Israeli attacks on the frontline and its missile forces were able to hit Israel where it hurts. But the utter destruction caused by Israeli air attacks were threatening its support within the wider population of Lebanon.
Both sides will claim to have won the war. Hizbullah has managed to resist against a very capable Israeli enemy which is in itself a victory. Israel has managed to dampen the support of the resistance for the population of Gaza.
But neither side has achieved any of its aims. Israel has failed to destroy Hizbullah. It has failed to capture any new land. Its settlers will still reject to return to the north. While the population in south Lebanon will return to its villages it will take several years for it to rebuild all the places that Israel has destroyed.
The original UNSCR 1701 had kept a semblance of peace between Lebanon and Israel since 2006. Its reinstatement is very unlikely to hold that long.
As the conflict in Lebanon subsides Israel and the U.S. have reignited the war in Syria. There have been signs for a while that this was going to happen. Yesterday Al-Qaeda affiliated HTS fighters, which has been rebuild and sponsored with CIA money, have relaunched their attacks on Syrian government forces west of Aleppo. Syrian and Russian air force attacks have for now stopped their progress. Hizbullah's Rudwan forces have yet to intervene but are deployed to defend Aleppo.
I do not expect the situation to Syria to escalate further.
The Axis of Resistance had promised to support Gaza. The cessation of fire in Lebanon has for now blocked one way of doing so. It will have to activate new vectors of attacks to prevent Israel from finishing its genocide in Gaza.