Gaetz withdraws from Attorney General consideration – National & International News – THU 21Nov2024

Gaetz withdraws from Attorney General consideration.

ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas’ Deif.

New intrigues over “sabotage” of Baltic undersea cables.

NATIONAL NEWS

Gaetz withdraws from Attorney General consideration

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida announced today that he would no longer seek appointment as Attorney General under the incoming Trump administration. Trump’s nomination of Gaetz was controversial from the beginning, even among Republicans in Congress. Gaetz has managed to create enemies even within his own party, and many doubted whether he would have sufficient support even among Senate Republicans to secure the nomination. Sen. J.D. Vance, soon to be vice president, had been meeting with his colleagues in hopes of firming up support. However, Trump reportedly told Gaetz yesterday that he didn’t have the votes.

Possibly the biggest strike against Gaetz are the allegations that he had sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017, during his first year in Congress. While the Justice Department had previously declined to press charges against Gaetz due to concerns over the credibility of some of the witnesses, the House Ethics Committee opened its own investigation. For years, the committee continued taking testimony and issuing subpoenas.

The committee’s report on Gaetz’s misconduct was apparently due to come out a few days after the election. Gaetz headed that off by resigning from the House. He also reportedly will not resume his seat in the House in January, despite having just been reelected. The committee considered releasing the report anyway, but could not come to an agreement after several rounds of votes.

Upon the news of his withdrawal, both Gaetz and Trump issued statements to the effect that Gaetz did not want to be a distraction for the new administration.

What’s next?

Trump has already named Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of the State of Florida, to replace Gaetz as Attorney General nominee. Bondi took on controversial issues during her tenure as Florida’s AG. She opposed same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights issues.

In 2018, Bondi and 19 other Republican AGs sued to overturn the provision of the Affordable Care Act that bars private insurers from denying coverage or demanding higher premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Protections for people with pre-existing conditions are one of the few provisions of the ACA that have been consistently popular among voters of all political persuasions.

As for Gaetz, he has said that he would not take his seat in the 119th Congress in January. He could change his mind, but that would mean the release of the Ethics Committee’s report would be back on the table. If the contents of that report are damning, fellow members of the House could vote to expel him.

If Gaetz doesn’t rejoin the House, Trump could potentially appoint him to a position in his administration that does not require Senate confirmation. Another possibility is that Gov. Ron DeSantis could appoint Gaetz to the Florida Senate seat that will soon be vacated by Marco Rubio, who has been nominated to be Trump’s Secretary of State.

Pete Hegseth

With Gaetz’s withdrawal, some are now wondering whether Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host Trump nominated for Secretary of Defense, could also withdraw. Hegseth also has serious allegations of sexual assault against him. The police report was released today. No charges were filed against Hegseth, but he did pay an undisclosed amount to his accuser to head off a lawsuit. Hegseth has maintained that the encounter was consensual.

There is another matter that could potentially come up Hegseth’s confirmation hearings in the Senate. In 2021, Hegseth was one of 12 National Guardsmen whose deployment to Washington DC for President Biden’s inauguration was canceled. This was due to concerns about tattoos which Hegseth displayed in a social media post. The tattoos evoked Crusader slogans and imagery which have been co-opted by certain far right white supremacist movements. Because of these associations, and the fear of extremist violence after Jan. 6, Hegseth was deemed a potential “insider threat“. After learning the reason for his deployment being canceled, Hegseth left the Minnesota National Guard for good.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

International Criminal Court issues warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, Mohammad Deif

Earlier this year, chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for various war crimes against the Palestinian people.

The ICC’s pre-trial panel of three judges found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant we’re responsible for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

The ICC has no enforcement arm that can arrest Netanyahu and Gallant. However, they would be in danger of arrest if they were ever to visit any of the 124 Nations who have recognized the ICC. That includes nearly every European country, including the UK, France, and Germany who have been staunch allies of Israel and some of its biggest weapons suppliers. However, it does not include the United States, which is Israel’s single biggest weapon supplier.

Khan also sought warrants in May for three Hamas figures. These were General Secretary Ismael Haniyeh, Hamas-Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, and Mohammad Deif, leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades. The application was related to crimes committed on October 7, 2023, as well as the subsequent captivity of Israeli hostages. Israel has since assassinated both Haniyeh and Sinwar. Deif is believed to have been killed in an airstrike in July.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

New intrigues over “sabotage” of Baltic undersea cables

Earlier this week, two undersea fiber optic cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea. These cables are used in telecommunications and internet connectivity. One of the damaged cables stretches between Germany and Finland, and the second connects Sweden and Lithuania. Internet services in these countries were only marginally affected.

There are over 500 publicly-known submarine cables crisscrossing the world, and probably many more that aren’t publicly known. According to the Finnish security intelligence service, there are about 200 instances of cable breakages each year (this figure seems to include other types of undersea cables as well as telecoms cables). These are mostly caused by the actions of ships passing over the cables, such as dragging anchors or fishing.

Given the recent escalation in tension with Russia, all four countries are investigating these incidents as potential acts of sabotage. Investigators have stressed that it is much too soon to reach any firm conclusions yet as to who was responsible and whether or not the damage was accidental or purposeful. The incidents took place this past Sunday and Monday. Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius was less cautious, saying, “No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged”

However, that has not stopped investigators and the countries’ respective naval assets from zeroing in on a “suspect” vessel. This is the Yi Peng 3, a Chinese flagged, owned, and operated cargo ship. Investigators say that the ship was passing in the vicinity of the cables when they believe they were damaged. The ship had recently departed a Russian port.

Room for doubt

US officials have reportedly thrown cold water on the idea that this was a deliberate act of sabotage. Instead, they believe that this was most likely an accident, possibly a ship dragging its anchor, as has happened in the past. While the timing is suggestive, the timeline is not very firm as to exactly when the cables were damaged. Repair crews have also not yet located the exact point at which they were severed.

It is also not unusual for a Chinese ship to be leaving a Russian port. Trade relations between the two countries have intensified since Western countries imposed sanctions on Russia. Russian companies frequently take advantage of China’s massive merchant naval fleet to ship their goods all over the world.

Following the three explosions on the undersea Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, Western nations rushed to blame Russia. This was somewhat counterintuitive as Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom had recently spent billions building the pipeline, along with other European nations. The pipeline also delivered hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of natural gas each day, which remained a crucial source of funds for Russia.

According to recent reporting, it was actually a privately-funded Ukrainian team that sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines. The Washington Post reported on this as far back as 2023. In an August 2024 article, The Wall Street Journal reported that before the explosions, the CIA caught wind of the plan to sabotage the pipelines and asked Ukraine to call it off. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had initially approved the plan, tried to stop it but was unsuccessful.

Despite these highly credible reports, Ukraine continues to deny any involvement in the NordStream affair, and various sources continue to imply that Russia was responsible.