Rise And Fall Of ‘The Westies,’ New York’s Last Irish gang, As New TV Series Charts Their Murders And Shakedowns

I watched the first episode of The Westies on MGM +.  

The TV series is a fictional retelling of the Irish American New York City street gang. Although I would have preferred to watch a series closer to the true history (which is dramatic enough, I would think) the series was interesting and I liked two of the lead actors, J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver. 

Michael Kaplan at the New York Post offers a piece on the new series. 

Thousands of families visit the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center every year for events like the Westminster dog show, Comic Con and International Auto Show.

Very few of them realize the blood spilled, extortion extracted and dead bodies connected with the exhibition space, as it rose from the ashes of former rail-yards to host such jazzy gatherings.

These days, the Javits Center is the spot for glitzy conventions and gatherings.  

During construction between 1979 through 1986 and in the early years of operation, the burgeoning Center on the very West end of 34^th Street was a cash cow for New York’s criminal elite.

It also limned the rise and fall of a violent Hell’s Kitchen-based Irish gang, the Westies. Those gangsters and the Javits Center play key roles in a new scripted crime series,

“The Westies felt like they owned the neighborhood where the Javits Center was,” series co-creator Chris Brancato, who specializes in historically inspired crime dramas, told The Post. 

“Cops were on the pad [payroll] and the Westies felt a sense of freedom to do what they wanted, whether it was legal or not,” such as bookmaking, loan sharking, drug dealing and contract killings. 

Underhand opportunities abounded at the New York City signature construction project of the ‘80s, which required the use of workers from a wide swath of unions, who already had mobsters rifling their coffers. "Everyone understood  that the Javits Center was going to be an unprecedented bounty of criminal rackets," T. J. English, author of the definitive book on the gang, "The Westies" (not part of the series, which is more a "historical fiction," according to Brancato) told the Post. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below: 

Rise and fall of 'The Westies,' New York's last Irish gang, as new series charts their murders and shakedowns

'Jurassic Park’ Star Sam Neill Dead At 78 After Cancer Recovery

The New York Post reports that actor Sam Neill has died.

Sam Neill, the star of the 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park,” died at 78 on Monday, his family announced. 

“It is with immense sadness that the whānau [family] of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” the late actor’s loved ones wrote via Instagram. 

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the statement continued. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

'Jurassic Park' star Sam Neill dead at 78

Although Neill was best known for Jurassic Park, his best role, in my view, was as Sidney Reilly, a real-life spy, in the PBS series Reilly: Ace of Spies. 

I plan to rewatch the series. 

‘Reilly: Ace of Spies’- A Review | HistoryAccess.com

Reilly Ace of Spies | PBS 

'The Big One Is Coming': Trump Says US Strikes On Iran Are About To Kick Into Even Higher Gear

The New York Post reports that President Trump on Monday vowed to step up strikes on Iran — warning, “The big one is coming.”

The president also told The Post that he won’t shy away from sending American ground troops into the Islamic Republic “if necessary” — though he did not believe they would be needed.

Trump pledged to continue the US campaign against the Islamist regime until it was completely defanged, despite the costs. He previously suggested it could last four weeks.

So far, six US service members have been killed — all in Iranian strikes on Kuwait, and America lost three advanced, $31 million F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets after they were accidentally shot down by the gulf country’s air defenses.

Iran has also attacked all of the US’s allies in the region in retaliation for its assaults, launching drones and ballistic missiles at every nation in the Persian Gulf, as well as Iraq, Israel and even Cyprus.

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

Trump says US strikes on Iran are about to kick into even higher gear: 'The big one is coming'

Gene Hackman’s Friend And Legendary NYPD mentor, Randy Jurgensen, 91 — The Last Living ‘French Connection’ Detective

Philip Messing at the New York Post offers a piece on the last French Connection detective, Randy Jurgensen (seen in the above photo). 

The death of Hollywood icon Gene Hackman saddened millions — and a legendary ex-NYPD detective who tutored him in his most famous screen role in “The French Connection”: is feeling his loss more than most.

“We were friends for more than 50 years,” retired NYPD detective Randy Jurgensen, 91, said.

Jurgensen met the actor at a warehouse on East 125th Street with a mandate: to turn him and his similarly little-known co-star, Roy Schieder, into believable undercover narcotics cops.

The tutorial resulted in a 1971 Hollywood blockbuster that would win five Academy Awards, including “Best Actor” for Hackman, “Best Picture” and “Best Director” for William Friedkin. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

Exclusive | Gene Hackman's NYPD mentor is last living 'French Connection' detective

Note: I've interviewed Randy Jurgensen several times over the years. You can read my Washington Times On Crime column on Randy Jurgensen via the link below:  

Paul Davis On Crime: The Real French Connection Cops: My Washington Times 'On Crime' Column On Legendary Detectives Sonny Grosso And Randy Jurgensen

Below are two photos of Randy Jurgensen from the film The French Connection:

Mexican Drug Kingpin ‘Narco of Narcos’ Faces Judge Wearing Cuffs Of DEA Agent He Tortured, Killed In 1985

The New York Post offers a piece on Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the man convicted of murdering DEA Special Agent Kiki Camarena.

A Mexican drug kingpin who was depicted in Netflix’s gritty crime drama “Narcos” was hauled into Brooklyn court Friday — wearing the handcuffs that belonged to the DEA agent he was convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering in 1985.

Rafael Caro Quintero, a founding member of the Guadalajara cartel, pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in front of a packed room of more than 100 Drug Enforcement Administration agents and other members of law enforcement.

The white-haired Quintero, 72, who wore tan pants and a blue and orange shirt, was brought into the courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back and answered questions in Spanish.

A source confirmed to The Post that the cuffs he wore belonged to DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, whose kidnapping, torture and murder Caro Quintero was convicted for.

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

 Mexican drug kingpin 'Narco of Narcos' faces judge in cuffs of DEA agent he killed in 1985

You can also read my Threatcon column on the drug lord via the link below:

Paul Davis On Crime: Justice For Kiki: My Threatcon Column On the Capture Of Mexican Drug Lord Caro-Quintero 

Trump’s ICE Raids Turn Up Pedophiles, Gangbangers, And NY-Based Suspected Terrorist As 538 Migrants Arrested: ‘Heinous Crimes’

The New York Post offers a piece on illegal immigrant criminals rounded up by ICE. 

You can read the piece via the below link:

Trump's ICE raids turn up pedos, gangbangers, and NY-based suspected terrorist as 538 migrants arrested

CIA Official With Top Security Clearance Charged For Leaking Highly Classified Docs About Israel’s Plans To Strike Iran

 The New York Post reports that a CIA officer has been charged with leaking classified information:

A CIA official has been charged with leaking highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s potential plan to retaliate against Iran for a missile strike earlier this year.

Asif W. Rahman (seen in the above photo), who worked overseas for the agency and held a top-secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia on Tuesday and indicted under the Espionage Act, the New York Times reported.

His arrest comes after the top secret materials started circulating online last month detailing Israel’s apparent intention to hit back at Iran after the country launched a barrage of missiles back on Oct. 1.    

The official was charged with leaking highly classified documents about Israel’s plans to strike Iran.

The files, which were prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, in part detailed satellite imagery tied to the potential Israeli strike, as well as the various kinds of missiles on hand. They were posted by a telegram account called “Middle East Spectator.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

CIA official with top security clearance indicted for leaking highly classified documents about Israel's plans to strike Iran

You can also read the Justice Department’s press release below:

U.S. Government Employee Charged with Two Counts of Unlawfully Transmitting National Defense Information

A U.S. government employee working overseas was charged with unlawfully transmitting two highly sensitive classified documents last month.

According to court documents, Asif William Rahman, 34, held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) security clearance as part of his role working for the U.S. government. According to an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia on Nov. 7, Rahman, on or about Oct. 17, retained without authorization two documents classified at the Top Secret/SCI level, which contained information relating to national defense, and transmitted those documents to a person not entitled to receive them.

Rahman made his initial appearance in federal court in Guam on Nov. 14. The court ordered Rahman’s continued detention and removal from the District of Guam for further court hearings in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The FBI is investigating the case with valuable assistance from the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Inside The Cartel Coup That Saw El Chapo’s Son Lure Rival Drug Kingpin ‘El Mayo’ To The US To Be Arrested: ‘Once-In-A-Lifetime Caper’

Dana Kennedy at the New York Post offers a piece on the capture of Mexican drug lord El Mayo.

Somewhere in solitary at the Florence Supermax prison in Colorado where he’s jailed for life, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán must be smiling.

That’s because US officials say Guzman’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, apparently tricked the world’s savviest and most powerful drug kingpin Sinaloa cartel founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, into boarding a small plane in Hermosillo, Mexico that ultimately landed in the US — where both were arrested.

It was a dramatic end to Zambada’s career as a cartel kingpin. Ismael Zambada Garcia, better known as "El Mayo," arguably the world's most powerful and savvy drug kingpin, was apparently duped by Joaguin Guzman Lopez, the son of his one-time partner in crime. 

He was once El Chapo’s greatest ally and co-founded the cartel with him — but then turned on him. When El Chapo was arrested, Zambada’s son and brother both turned state’s witness and testified against Guzmán. 

Zambada’s arrest was also a coup for Guzmán López and his brother, both of whom may be hoping to get their sentences shortened in exchange for cooperating with the US in the case against Zambada, one source told The Post.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Cartel coup saw El Chapo's son lure rival drug kingpin 'El Mayo' to the US (nypost.com) 

Bond. Rodney Bond: According To New Bio Of James Bond Author Ian Fleming, 007 Almost Had A Different First Name

“Bond. James Bond,” is the iconic introduction that the late, great Scot actor Sean Connery, appearing as James Bond in Dr. No, gave to a woman (and the world) at a gambling table in the opening scenes of the first James Bond film in 1963. 

The New York Post reports that Ian Fleming’s iconic character may have had a different first name. 

007’s iconic name was almost completely different, a new book claims.

According to “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man,” MI6 superspy James Bond was nearly called Rodney. 

That surprising revelation, first reported by the Times of London, was discovered in author Ian Fleming’s old papers that the book’s writer Nicholas Shakespeare was given access to.

Rodney Bond, it turns out, was a real person who saved the life of Fleming’s brother Peter in 1941. 

Peter, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army who died in 1971, was on a training mission in Greece during World War II. 

When Germany invaded Athens, Peter attempted to escape with his friends Nancy and Harold Caccia and 70 people from the British Embassy, but he was badly injured by an explosion. 

The Caccias’ daughter Clarissa, who was fleeing with them, recalled, “Peter and Dad from there sent a Morse message to Crete to see if anyone was prepared to come back into enemy-occupied territory and get us.” 

The message was received by a Secret Intelligence Service officer — Lt. Rodney Clarence Mortimer Bond. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 James Bond almost had a wildly different first name (nypost.com) 

You can also read my Crime Beat column on Ian Fleming via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Beat Column: A Look Back At Ian Fleming's Iconic James Bond Character

"Bond. Rodney Bond" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Bond. James Bond." 

Thankfully, Ian Fleming had an interest in the birds near Goldeneye, his famous Jamaican villa. 

So the late, great thriller writer went with the name of the author of Birds of the West Indies, James Bond. 

Note: You can watch a video of the classic Bond introduction via the below link:    

Bing Videos 

Michael G. Vickers: From Green Beret To CIA Covert Operations: A Fascinating Career

Gavin Newsham at the New York Post offers a piece on former Green Beret, CIA officer and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G Vickers (seen in the bottom photo) and his new memoir.  

Michael G. Vickers was 17, he decided he might like a career in the CIA.

“I imagined myself doing things that only a James Bond could do,” he writes in “By All Means Available – Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Specials Operations, and Strategy” (Alfred A. Knopf).

“Diving headfirst through a window and coming up shooting.”

Fast forward half a century, and Vickers can look back at a remarkable career in the intelligence services, where he served under six Presidents, including two years working directly for George W. Bush and six with Barack Obama as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

From his time as a Green Beret to taking charge of the CIA’s covert operations against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the book recounts his extraordinary life and career, including the operation to find and eliminate the al-Qa’ida leader Osama Bin Laden.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 From Green Beret to CIA covert operations: A fascinating career (nypost.com) 

License To Edit: Ian Fleming's James Bond Books Scrubbed By ‘Sensitivity Experts’ Ahead Of 70th Anniversary

I recently reread an old short story by one of my favorite writers, Ernest Hemingway. In My Old Man, Hemingway called one of the characters “the wop.”

Even though I’m half-Italian and I grew up and currently reside in a predominantly Italian American neighborhood in South Philadelphia, I did not take offense. I knew that was the way people spoke in the early part of the Twentieth Century. I also knew that Hemingway loved Italy and loved Italians.

Just as I knew that Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn used authentic language from his time. I also knew that Mark Twain's sympathies lay with the black slaves of his time, despite the fact that he was a Southerner.     

I don’t believe we should judge those from an earlier time based on today’s prevalent attitudes. One should consider historical context before passing judgement.   

The same with the late, great thriller writer Ian Fleming, another one of my favorite writers. 

Even as a pre-teen, when I first read his James Bond thrillers, I knew that his racial descriptions and attitudes towards women were typical of those of his generation and the British class system. 

I was not offended.

Easily offended readers are not Ian Fleming’s core readership, then or now.         

The New York Post reports that the Ian Fleming Foundation, run by Fleming’s family, have decided to edit Flemings’ novels from the 1950s and early 1960s.  

It’s a move that might leave some fans shaken.

Ian Fleming’s James Bond books have been rewritten with modern audiences in mind, with so-called sensitivity experts removing a number of racial references ahead of 007’s 70th anniversary this spring, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The changes come as books by Roald Dahl have also been scrubbed of potentially offensive language, including “fat” or “ugly” characters — and tweaked so as to make the Oompa Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” gender-neutral.

All of Fleming’s thrillers — from “Casino Royale” to “Octopussy” — will be re-released this spring after Ian Fleming Publications, the company that owns the literary rights to Fleming’s work, commissioned a review by “sensitivity readers.”

The altered texts will come out this April ahead of 007’s 70th anniversary The altered texts will come out this April ahead of 007’s 70th anniversary

©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection

The new versions of the classic novels will include a disclaimer that reads: “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

James Bond books scrubbed by 'sensitivity experts' ahead of 70th anniversary (nypost.com)

Thankfully, I have all of Ian Fleming’s original fiction and non-fiction books in my library.  

America's Withdrawal From Afghanistan: Gold Star Families Blast Biden For Checking Watch During Ceremony For Fallen

The New York Post offers a cover story on President Biden’s disrespectful actions of repeating check his watch during the ceremony as the remains of the military members killed in Afghanistan returned to America. 

Family members of the US Marines killed in last week’s suicide terror attack at the Kabul airport are slamming President Joe Biden for his behavior at the dignified transfer ceremony over the weekend — with one Gold Star father accusing the commander-in-chief of “the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen,” as he repeatedly looked at his watch during the ceremony.

Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Biden checked the time every single time a flag-draped coffin was removed from the hold of the Air Force C-17 Globemaster plane during Sunday’s ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in the president’s home state of Delaware.

“They would release the salute and he looked down at his watch on every last one,” Hoover said. “All 13, he looked down at his watch.”

Mark Schmitz — whose 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, died in the attack — corroborated Hoover’s story.

“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and I said, ‘I swear to God, if he checks his watch one more time …’,” Schmitz recalled, “and that was only probably four times in. I couldn’t look at him anymore after that, just considering, especially, the time and why we were there. I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Biden blasted by Gold Star dads Darin Hoover, Mark Schmitz for checking watch during ceremony (nypost.com) 

Taliban Leader Was Freed From Guantanamo Bay In 2014 Swap By Obama

Paul Sperry at the New York Post reports that a terroristic leader of the Taliban was released by President Obama in exchange for an American deserter in Afghanistan. 

When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan. 

In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday’s sacking of Kabul. 

Soon after gaining their freedom, some of the notorious Taliban Five pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan and made contacts with active Taliban militants there. But the Obama-Biden administration turned a blind eye to the disturbing intelligence reports, and it wasn’t long before the freed detainees used Qatar as a base to form a regime in exile. 

Eventually, they were recognized by Western diplomats as official representatives of the Taliban during recent “peace” talks. 

Earlier this year, one of them, Khairullah Khairkhwa, actually sat across the table from President Biden’s envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Moscow, where Khairkhwa was part of the official Taliban delegation that negotiated the final terms of the US withdrawal. The retreat cleared a path for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo in 2014 swap by Obama (nypost.com) 

President Biden Will Own The Fall Of Kabul — When The Real Killing Begins

Former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted famously in his memoir that Joseph Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."

Biden is nothing if not consistent, as he is once again wrong with his hasty and dangerous decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. 

I recall the gut-punch I felt when the Congress cut off funds to South Vietnam in 1975, ensuring a Communist victory after America had expended so many lives and funds to hold the North Vietnamese aggressors at bay. Once again, to our shame, we are abandoning a country where we have expended many American lives and funds. 

Kenneth R. Timmerman offers a piece at the New York Post on Biden and Afghanistan. 

For decades, Joe Biden has touted himself as a foreign policy genius. As a United States senator, he never had to make a decision or bear responsibility for running off at the mouth. As vice-president, he was given backwaters such as Ukraine that he reportedly turned into a family piggy bank. 

But now he is president. He owns the utter disaster that Afghanistan has become; and the sudden about-face of the Pentagon to send 3,000 fully armed combat troops back into the fray shows that even the woke military bosses Biden installed can wake up and smell the coffee. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

President Biden will own the fall of Kabul — when the real killing begins (nypost.com) 

How ‘Hill Street Blues’ Made Us Care About The Police

Michael Starr at the New York Post looks back at a TV cop drama that I and my wife enjoyed watching, Hill Street Blues. 

By the end of its first season in May 1981, “Hill Street Blues” was already a television classic — renowned for breaking barriers and forging a new path in police procedurals that still resonates 40 years later. 

The series, created by Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, set the gold standard for its “docudrama” approach: its innovative use of handheld cameras and quick-cut editing and the way in which it portrayed the personal and professional lives of cops in an unnamed metropolitan city. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Gritty police TV show 'Hill Street Blues' turns 40 (nypost.com) 

The Real Reason WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Shouldn’t Be Pardoned

Kyle Smith at the New York Post offers a piece on why Julian Assange should not be pardoned.

For years, Julian Assange was an icon to the cultural and political left. Benedict Cumberbatch played him as a kind of sexy superspy for the cyber age in “The Fifth Estate,” back in 2013. Assange was depicted as a dashing “whistleblower” and hero. A French fashion magazine called him one of the 20 best-dressed men in the world, and Time magazine hailed him as one of the most influential people in the world in 2011. 

That was back when Assange was BFFs with the extreme left. What he was mainly known for at the time, apart from being charged with rape in Sweden, was publishing a trove of documents and videos from a disillusioned Army specialist named Bradley Manning (today living as a woman named Chelsea and enjoying life as a free person after being pardoned by President Obama) on his WikiLeaks site with no editing or redacting whatsoever. There may be a public interest in some classified military information, but news organizations that receive such leaks generally weigh the public interest against the potential to do harm to military people who have done no wrong. Assange, however, scoffs at journalists as being too weak-kneed to risk pushback from powerful forces. Assange is to journalism what the Joker is to comedy. 

On Jan. 4, Assange is facing an extradition hearing in London to determine whether he can be dragged back to the United States to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which makes it a felony to publish classified information but has never been used in a similar situation before. If extradition succeeds and Trump doesn’t pardon him, Assange will claim he has an absolute right to publish true information under the First Amendment. We’ll see about that. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

The real reason WikiLeaks' Julian Assange shouldn't be pardoned (nypost.com)

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Assange via the below link:

 Paul Davis On Crime: Assange Is A Spy Not A Journalist: The Case Against WikiLeaks Founder Juilan Assange 

Rich Lowry: No, Edward Snowden Doesn’t Remotely Deserve A Pardon From President Trump

Rich Lowry offers his take on a pardon for Edward Snowden in his column at the New York Post. 

No one will ever accuse President Trump of being overly careful in his exercise of his pardon power. 

So it makes sense that advocates of Edward Snowden, the man responsible for the most damaging classified leak in US history, are mounting a last-minute push to get the president who pardoned Sheriff Joe and Roger Stone to issue his most outrageous and indefensible pardon yet.

It’s a transpartisan alliance. Glenn Greenwald, Snowden’s journalistic partner and foremost advocate, has, of course, been banging the drum. Rose McGowan has urged Trump to be “punk as f - - -” and pardon Snowden in defiance of “DC Cult Leaders a k a politicians” who “hate the truth.” 

Renegade Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is on board, as are libertarian Trump loyalists Rand Paul and Matt Gaetz. 

As Trump’s presidency winds down and his clout on Capitol Hill diminishes, his sweeping power to grant clemency will be even more alluring to him, and he said over the summer that he’s considering a Snowden pardon. 

If the pardon can be sold to Trump as a way to stick it to the Deep State on his way out the door, anything is possible. Why go to the trouble of firing CIA Director Gina Haspel or FBI Director Christopher Wray if he can signal his contempt for their ilk by bringing a bête noire of the US national-security apparatus in from the cold with a stroke of his pen? 

Working for a National Security Agency contractor, Snowden stole massive amounts of classified material and began sharing it with journalists in 2013. When the Justice Department filed criminal charges, he fled to Russia, which kindly provided him asylum and then permanent residency. 

Snowden is a self-styled whistle­blower. He says he was motivated by his constitutional qualms about an NSA bulk-data-collection program and his disgust with official deceptions about the program. 

None of this holds up. If Snowden wanted to be a genuine whistleblower, he could have pursued concerns about the NSA program through lawful avenues, instead of fleeing the country and purloining so many documents that authorities still can’t be sure how much he stole. 

…The Snowden disclosures were much more wide-ranging than the NSA program, in fact so wide-ranging that it’s almost impossible to keep track. 

It’s also naive to believe that Snowden was allowed to make a home in Vladimir Putin’s Russia without the government exploiting his trove of secrets. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

No, Edward Snowden doesn’t remotely deserve a pardon from President Trump (nypost.com) 

You can also read my Washington Times piece on Snowdon via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Edward Snowden's True Permanent Record: My Washington Times Piece On NSA Leaker Edward Snowden 

Israeli Operatives Killed Al Qaeda’s No. 2 Leader In Iran In August: Report

 The New York Post reported that the al Qaeda number two terrorist was killed by Israel operatives.

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, accused of helping to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, was killed in Iran in August by Israeli operatives acting at the behest of the United States, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing intelligence officials.

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was gunned down by two men on a motorcycle in the streets of Tehran on Aug. 7, the Times reported.

The killing of Masri, who was seen as a likely successor to al Qaeda’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was kept secret until now, the newspaper said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/israeli-operatives-killed-al-qaedas-no-2-leader-in-iran-in-august-report/ 

The Late Sean Connery Was The Greatest James Bond, But He Was Much More

With Sir Sean Connery passing at age 90, the tributes to the great Scot actor are flying across the printed press and the Internet. 

Yes, he was the first and best film actor to portray Ian Fleming’s iconic character James Bond (American actor Barry Nelson first portrayed Bond in a poor TV adaptation of Casino Royale), but he was much more. 

He offered many other fine and memorable roles in such films as The Hill, The Offense, The Great Train Robbery, The Molly Maguires, The Rock, The Anderson Tapes, The Hunt for Red October and many other great films. 

Kyle Smith at the New York Post touches on three other Sean Connery films, two of which are favorites of mine, The Man Who Would be King and Robin and Marion, and a film I didn’t care for, The Untouchables, but agree that Sean Connery was great in his role. 

Sean Connery may have been the ultimate British adventurer-rogue, but when I think of great Sean Connery portrayals, my mind goes right to Danny Dravot, aka “The Man Who Would be King.” 

Connery and Michael Caine had the time of their lives playing two scrappy British sergeants out to retrace the steps of Alexander the Great and conquer Afghanistan in the exhilarating 1975 John Huston film based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel. At one point Danny and Caine’s Peachy Carnahan are trapped on a mountain with no possible means of escape. And what do they do? They have a laugh about all the good times they’ve known. A big, roaring, boisterous laugh. Such a laugh that the two men touch off an avalanche which creates a bridge of snow over a chasm that allows them to escape. That was Connery and Caine throughout their careers — two working-class blokes bluffing themselves to one great big merry laugh of a life. 

… Two other great death scenes displayed Connery’s range, his emotional warmth, his vitality: in “Robin and Marian” (1976), in which Connery plays Robin Hood at the end of his life and an incandescent Audrey Hepburn plays his lady fair in what turned out to be her final great performance, on his deathbed Connery’s Robin delivers an indescribably beautiful farewell: “I love you. More than all you know. I love you more than children. More than fields I’ve planted with my hands. I love you more than morning prayers or peace or food to eat. I love you more than sunlight, more than flesh or joy.” 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/31/sean-connery-showed-us-the-way-things-ought-to-be-done/