Meet Yossi at Cafe Milano (for the first time)

 Senator Collins ranks twelfth in Senate seniority and is the most senior Republican woman. She chairs the Senate Aging Committee and the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee. She also serves on the Intelligence Committee as well as the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Known for her Maine work ethic, Senator Collins has never missed a vote in her 23 years in office. In June 2019, she cast her 7,000th consecutive roll call vote. She holds the longest perfect voting record in the history of the U.S. Senate. Senator Collins is recognized as a skillful legislator, which is one reason why Elle magazine named her one of the most powerful women in Washington. Her record demonstrates significant legislative accomplishments in such critical areas as homeland security, national defense, disaster response, education, business development, health care, and issues of particular interest to our nation’s seniors. Along with Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Collins authored a major overhaul of our nation’s intelligence community after the September 11th attacks and also led the successful effort to repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that prohibited gay and lesbian Americans from serving openly in the military. Senator Collins is the founder of the Common Sense Coalition, a bipartisan group of senators who wrote the framework of the plan that ended the 16-day government shutdown in October 2013 as well as the shutdown in February 2018. For the past seven consecutive years, she has been ranked as the most bipartisan Senator by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University.

Senator Susan Collins

The New York Times reported in November that al-Masri was shot to death on the streets of Tehran. Today, I can confirm, for the first time, his death on August 7th of last year. The Times wrote, quote, “That he had been living in Iran was surprising, given that Iran and al-Qaida are bitter enemies,” end of quote. It could not be more wrong. It wasn’t “surprising” at all. And more importantly, they’re not enemies. Al-Masri’s presence inside Iran points to the reason that we’re here today. It’s what I want to talk about in these remarks. al-Qaida has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a result, bin Laden’s wicked creation is poised to gain strength and capabilities. We ignore this Iran-al-Qaida nexus at our own peril. We need to acknowledge it. We must confront it. Indeed, we must defeat it.

Mike Pompeo

Una foto dell'incontro non avrebbe comunque reso credibili le tesi del segretario di stato.

A Mike Pompeo, quando era direttore della CIA, deve essere stata raccontata la storia di operazioni come quella delle quattro città o dello scambio di Arsal. Trattative che hanno visto protagonisti gruppi terroristici, capi d'intelligence, diplomatici. Personaggi di estrazione varia appartenenti a formazioni sempre in guerra tra loro. E che non sarebbero state possibili senza un livello di relazioni cordiali (quello tra Iran e Al Qaeda viene solitamente definito matrimonio di convenienza) fatte di scambi e appoggi logistici. Questo è ciò che accade in qualunque zona di guerra.

Ha fatto molto sorridere sui social, il resoconto dell'invasione di Capitol Hill fatto dal senatore Collins che a un certo punto ha ricordato :

My first thought was that the Iranians had followed through on their threat to strike the Capitol, but a police officer took over the podium and explained that violent demonstrators had breached the entire perimeter of the Capitol and were inside. Several of us pointed out that the doors to the press gallery were unlocked right above us. That tells you how overwhelmed and unprepared the Capitol Police were, although many, many of them were very courageous.

La sintesi della politica estera dell'amministrazione Trump e dello spazio lasciato al lavoro di lobby.

Se per Arabia Saudita e Israele ha funzionato (punto interrogativo) la tattica del nemico del mio nemico, non necessariamente questa può diventare un principio per altri .