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Fox & Friends: Twitter banning extremists like QAnon is ‘very scary’ because you can’t make decisions ‘based on truth’
January 15, 2021
"Fox & Friends" is defending what it is calling "conservative voices" and "conservative speech" by denouncing Twitter expunging 70,000 accounts tied to extremist groups like QAnon. Friday morning the Fox News morning show declared these extremists peddling often dangerous conspiracy theories and lies about the election are important voices of "truth" in the national conversation, which is false.
"It's very scary as to how this is going to affect you," co-host Ainsley Earhardt told viewers, "because they're trying to shut down voices so that you don't know the full story, and you can't make a decision based on truth."
QAnon conspiracy theorists believe "the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are plotting against [President] Trump while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring," The New York Times reports.
"Many of them also believe that, in addition to molesting children, members of this group kill and eat their victims in order to extract a life-extending chemical from their blood."
That's just a small portion of what QAnon followers believe.
Earhardt also ginned up fear by telling Fox News viewers that "they're not going to give contributions, campaign dollars to certain Republicans anymore."
"They" appears to be the dozens of corporations that have announced they will no longer donate to any of the 147 congressional lawmakers who voted try to overturn the free and fair presidential election last week. And although Earhardt neglects to tell Fox News viewers, a number of companies have also announced they are stopping all political campaign donations for the time being.
Watch:
Ainsley Earhardt on "an extremist group" (maybe QAnon) removed from Twitter: "It's very scary as to how this is going to affect you, because they're trying to shut down voices so that you don't know the full story, and you can't make a decision based on truth." pic.twitter.com/awBbfB0bY8
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 15, 2021
'Stupid and cowardly' GOP House members hammered for sticking by Trump until the​ bitter end
January 15, 2021
In a column for the Wall Street Journal commending Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for standing up to Donald Trump and voting for his impeachment, longtime conservative columnist Peggy Noonan dropped the hammer on Cheney's GOP House colleagues who couldn't muster up the courage to join her.
In two words she described the president's enablers in the House as "cowardly" and "stupid" -- with the emphasis on "stupid."
<p>Noonan began her column by quoting Cheney accusing the president of inciting insurrection against the U.S. government on the House floor, where she told her colleagues on both sides of the aisle, "The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president. The president could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not," before adding, "There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution." </p><p>According to Noonan, that is what leadership looks like in contrast to GOP lawmakers who tried to excuse the storming of the U.S. Capitol by hordes of right-wing extremists who support Trump.</p><p>As Noonan explained, Cheney gave fellow Republicans cover to join her in condemning the president but the majority of GOP House members "were stupid and cowardly."</p><p>"They claimed high-minded concern for the nation's well-being, but they didn't seem to believe their own arguments; some rushed through their statements, some gestured wildly as if hoping their arms could convince their brains they were sincere," the conservative columnist suggested.</p><p>She pointed out that, instead, Cheney's words led Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to condemn her and state she should be stripped of her senior leadership position.</p><p>"The distinguishing characteristic of the House Republican Caucus right now is that whenever you say, 'Could they be that stupid?' the answer—always—is, 'Oh yes!'" Noonan wrote. "<em>That </em>is how to kill the party in American national life—the men make it clear that the woman can't be brave, that they rough her up because she stood on principle. This week, before the vote, Mr. Jordan was awarded the Medal of Freedom. I am not sure that great honor will ever recover. No press were allowed, but I'm sure the ceremony was elevated, like P.T. Barnum knighting Tom Thumb with a wooden sword in the center ring of the circus."</p><p>Noonan then delivered a warning to Republican senators who now hold Trump's impeachment in their hands: Be better than their House counterparts.</p><p>"It's time to demystify <a href="https://www.wsj.com/topics/person/donald-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>. He leaves the presidency disgraced. He is a diminishing asset: postpresidential power always wanes, and will especially in this case. He can't tweet his insta-attacks," she wrote. "In running in fear from him you are running from a corpse. And you'll never be safe anyway. Something wild has been let loose. So be brave. The Democrats want you tied to Mr. Trump forever. Stop, now.</p><p>You can <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cheney-shows-what-leadership-looks-like-11610666627?mod=hp_opin_pos_2" target="_blank">read more here </a>(subscription required)</p>
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Five judges at Scotland's highest court of criminal appeal on Friday upheld the conviction of the only man found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after a posthumous legal challenge.
The family of former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, which brought the case, said they were "heartbroken" at the decision, their lawyer Aamer Anwar said.
<p>They will apply to appeal to the UK Supreme Court within 14 days, he added.</p><p>The ruling at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh comes just over 32 years after what remains Britain's worst terrorist attack, with long-held doubts about Megrahi's involvement.</p><p>Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison after his conviction in 2001 for the mass murder of 270 people, when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town on December 21, 1988.</p><p>The Libyan regime of Moamer Kadhafi officially acknowledged responsibility in 2003, and paid $2.7 billion in compensation to families of the victims.</p><p>Megrahi was released and returned to Libya in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died in 2012, protesting his innocence.</p><p>An initial appeal against his conviction and sentence was rejected, while a second was abandoned after his diagnosis. </p><h1>'Suffered enough'</h1><p>Anwar said Megrahi's son Ali and the family would still fight to quash the conviction.</p><p>"All the Megrahi family want for Scotland is peace and justice, but as Ali stated today their journey is not over, Libya has suffered enough, as has family for the crime of Lockerbie, they remain determined to fight for justice," he said.</p><p>The family wants the British authorities to declassify documents that are said to allege that Iran used a Syria-based Palestinian proxy to build the bomb that downed the Boeing 747.</p><p>The documents are thought to allege a Jordanian intelligence agent within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) built the bomb.</p><p>The PFLP-GC has been designated a terrorist group by several countries, including Britain and the United States.</p><p>The Lockerbie bombing is alleged to have been carried out in retaliation for the downing of an Iranian passenger jet by a US Navy missile in July 1988 that killed 290 people.</p><h1>Identification evidence</h1><p>The case came back to court in November last year after an independent criminal case review body said a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred on the grounds of "unreasonable verdict" and non-disclosure of evidence.</p><p>But the judges rejected both grounds of appeal.</p><p>"The appeal against conviction is refused," they said in a 64-page ruling.</p><p>Central to his family's case was the testimony of Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper, who identified Megrahi as the man who bought clothes found in the suitcase that contained the bomb.</p><p>Lawyers argued his eye-witness evidence should have been discounted and was "highly prejudicial" because he had earlier seen a photograph of Megrahi as a suspect in a newspaper.</p><p>They said Gauci was motivated by reward money, that there was no proof Megrahi bought th clothing, and that dates of his supposed visit to Malta did not fit the timeline.</p><p>The suitcase was loaded onto a plane from Malta to Germany, then transferred to the ill-fated flight that left London Heathrow bound for New York.</p><p>The government's case was that Megrahi used a false passport to travel to the Mediterranean island, and that Gauci did not receive any remuneration.</p><p>Crown lawyers said the three judges who tried and convicted Megrahi were entitled to infer he was involved, and the fake document was part of a "significant chapter of evidence" supporting that.</p><h1>New suspect</h1><p>On the 32nd anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing in December, the US Justice Department announced a new indictment against another former member of Kadhafi's intelligence services.</p><p>It alleges that Abu Agila Mohammad Masud assembled and programmed the bomb.</p><p>The investigation was relaunched in 2016 when Washington learned of his arrest after Kadhafi's ouster and death in 2011, and his reported confession of involvement to the new Libyan regime in 2012.</p><p>Investigators also relied on his travel records, including a flight from the Libyan capital Tripoli to Malta.</p><p>Masud is currently being held in Libya for his alleged involvement in a 1986 attack on a Berlin nightclub that killed two US soldiers and a Turkish citizen.</p><p>Tripoli in 2004 also agreed to compensate the families of the victims of that attack.</p>
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