NSA John Bolton chaired anti-Muslim think tank
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jsteele
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/john-bolton-chaired-anti-muslim-think-tank-n868171
"John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory, an NBC News review found." ... "From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based advocacy group that warns of a looming 'jihadist takeover' of Europe leading to a 'Great White Death.'" ... "Alina Polyakova, a Brookings Institution fellow who studies far-right populism and disinformation campaigns in the European Union, said Gatestone is 'putting out content that was clearly anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and was echoing some of the Russian disinformation propaganda' being spread by internet trolls and on social media." ... "Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Party for Freedom and a prominent critic of Islam who is listed as a Gatestone author, was on an RT broadcast last month saying Europe lacks strong political leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Trump. In a May 2017 post on Medium, Gatestone contributor Yves Mamou called Macron France's 'useful idiot of Islamism.'" ... "Gatestone has also received financial backing from Robert and Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire father-daughter team who have supported conservative candidates in the U.S. including Cruz and Trump. The Mercers also co-founded Cambridge Analytica, the data company being scrutinized by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia." There is a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the fact that the Islamophobic chairman of an Islamophobic organization is now Trump's National Security Advisor. This is unacceptable and represents the mainstreaming of Islamophobia. Second, this is a great illustration of how pro-Trump bigots produced anti-Muslim propaganda that was amplified by Russian trolls and RT Television with assistance from the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica. Consider this report in conjunction with the tape recorded remark by the CEO of Cambridge Analytica: "'Of course, Hitler attacked the Jews. He didn't have a problem with the Jews at all, but the people didn't like the Jews ... so he just leveraged an artificial enemy,' Oakes told British academic Emma Briant. 'Well, that's exactly what Trump did. He leveraged a Muslim.'" http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/383488-ceo-of-cambridge-analytica-parent-company-compared-trump-campaign-to Bolton chaired an organization that was a cornerstone in an effort by Trump to treat Muslims the way that Hitler treated Jews (in the words of the Cambridge Analytica CEO). Now he sits in the White House advising Trump on national security. |
Anonymous
| Once a neocon forever a neocon i guess. Hard to imagine this cretin gaining a conscious. |
Anonymous
This is beyond neocon. Not all neocons are anti-Islamic. |
Anonymous
| Not to bleed threads together, but it certainly does seem like conservatives are motivated by fear and anger. |
Anonymous
Bolton wasn't really a neocon, the neocons like Kristol, Kagan, etc wanted to rebuild Iraq, Bolton wanted to bomb and have done with it. Plenty of the neocons are prominent never trumpers. |
Anonymous
Not so sure about that. That might have been their stated rational but the end result was chaos. |
Anonymous
| I think this is a feature, not a bug, for the current administration. |
Anonymous
Disgusting |
Anonymous
| Emma Briant is an academic moron |
Anonymous
| OP, if Bolton hated Muslims, as you claim, how do you explain his past support for our troops in the region? Why did Bolton support any military action in the region at all if he was fine with the way the people were mistreated? |
Anonymous
Protecting Christians would be way more satisfying for him, but beggars can't be choosers. He'll take ANY military action over NO military action. |
Anonymous
Are you the OP? |
Anonymous
That was in part because their project was unrealistic, and in part because elements of the admin under resourced it - but the firmer ideological neocons I think really did want it to succeed. |
Anonymous
Our troops are in the region to advance what America thinks are its interests, not to correct any mistreatment of Muslims by other Muslims. You're an idiot if you think America goes into the Middle East to make the lives of Muslims who live there any better. |
Anonymous
I am the PP who said he was not really a neocon, and I would expand on that. He wanted to destroy Saddam, as an adversary of the US, and an Arab with (well, you know) WMDs, but was not supportive of rebuilding Iraq. The neocons who wanted to do so were either to selfless, or too pro muslim, or both, for him. https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/23/17155830/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump-mcmaster The word neocon is being tossed about a lot, but Bolton isn’t really a neocon because he doesn’t seem to care about promoting democracy abroad; he just wants to use American power to advance American interests, including waging preventative wars. Tom Nichols You’ve got it exactly right: Neocons are about using American force not just for interests, but to establish certain values and changes around the world. I don’t think Bolton is a neocon because he doesn’t seem to care about democracy promotion; he’s an advocate of preventive war, which means acting way in advance to stomp out a perceived threat — that’s significantly different than preemptive war, which is about neutralizing an imminent threat. Bolton’s approach to war is preventive, and I think it’s extremely dangerous. |