Difference between revisions of "Tom Cotton"
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− | '''Tom Cotton''' is a member of the U.S. Senate from [[Arkansas]], joining congress after two combat tours in the [[War in Iraq]] and the [[Invasion of Afghanistan]]. <ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/10/18/is-there-a-more-dangerous-member-of-congress-than-tom-cotton/</ref> One of the most vocal US senators, Cotton was already known as [[lieutenant]] back in the [[2000s]] for requesting prosecution of journalists. Noted as " | + | '''Tom Cotton''' is a member of the U.S. Senate from [[Arkansas]], joining congress after two combat tours in the [[War in Iraq]] and the [[Invasion of Afghanistan]]. <ref>https://theintercept.com/2017/10/18/is-there-a-more-dangerous-member-of-congress-than-tom-cotton/</ref> One of the most vocal US senators, Cotton was already known as [[lieutenant]] back in the [[2000s]] for requesting prosecution of journalists. Noted as "hawkish<ref>https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-06-14/Tom-Cotton-The-new-face-of-old-school-hawks-Hw07XtdDri/index.html</ref>" and being mostly backed and guided by [[AIPAC]] since his initial senate election campaign, he has advocated a "two strikes" war against [[Iran]] and jailing entire families up to grand-kids and aunts of foreign enemies of the U.S, for Russian sanctions, banning Chinese students from the [[U.S]] and [[war crimes]] against [[Americans]].<ref>https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9pZk4WSvDhYJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/04/tom-cottons-ugly-screed-hints-terrible-backlash-come/+&cd=9&hl=nl&ct=clnk&gl=nl&client=firefox-b-d</ref>. He's been named numerous times as a potential [[CIA]] director<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/state-department-tillerson-pompeo-trump.html</ref> or cabinet<ref>https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/20/trump-next-defense-secretary-mattis-replacement-1049135</ref> candidate already since being a key figure relied on by [[Steve Bannon]] back in [[2017]].<ref>https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/13/is-tom-cotton-the-future-of-trumpism</ref> |
+ | ==Activities== | ||
+ | ===Military Career=== | ||
+ | Cotton voluntarily enlisted in [[2005]] going to [[Iraq]], after deeming [[Harvard]] and that world too sedentary. He was an infantryman in his third year of law school while watching live news coverage of [[9/11]]. In October [[2008]], Cotton was deployed to eastern [[Afghanistan]]. He was assigned within the Train Advise Assist Command – in the Laghman Province as the Operations Officer of a Provincial Reconstruction Team, where he planned daily "[[counter-terrorism]]" and reconstruction operations. He was admired for being one of the captains to refuse to join the Judge Advocate General's Corps on the back of his Harvard history. | ||
− | + | In June [[2006]], while stationed in Iraq, Cotton gained international public attention after writing an open letter to the editor of The [[New York Times]] about the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program or TFTP set up by [[George W. Bush]] and his administration in the "[[war on terror]]", after Treasury Secretary [[John W. Snow]] first called for the prosecution of journalists of [[The Los Angeles Times]], [[Wall Street Journal]] and the NYT.<ref>http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/10/a-fateful-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-times.php</ref>, arguing three journalists violated "espionage laws" by publishing articles detailing classified government operations (that got a response from multiple [[EU]] countries calling it a violation of EU privacy laws as the US companies cooperating were headquartered in the | |
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− | In June [[2006]], while stationed in Iraq, Cotton gained international public attention after writing an open letter to the editor of The [[New York Times]] about the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program or TFTP set up by [[George W. Bush]] and his administration in the "[[war on terror]]", after Treasury Secretary [[John W. Snow]] first called for prosecution of journalists of [[The Los Angeles Times]], [[Wall Street Journal]] and the NYT.<ref>http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/10/a-fateful-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-times.php</ref>, arguing three journalists violated "espionage laws" by publishing articles detailing classified government operations (that got response from multiple [[EU]] countries calling it violation of EU privacy laws as the US companies cooperating were headquartered in the | ||
[[Europe]]) about "[[terrorists]]" and their finances (bear in mind that his program let [[Eliot Spitzer]] slip through<ref>http://overlawyered.com/2012/04/structuring-who-can-get-away-with-it-and-who-cant/</ref>). | [[Europe]]) about "[[terrorists]]" and their finances (bear in mind that his program let [[Eliot Spitzer]] slip through<ref>http://overlawyered.com/2012/04/structuring-who-can-get-away-with-it-and-who-cant/</ref>). | ||
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− | == | + | ===Political Career=== |
− | The American Israel Public Affairs Committee or [[AIPAC]] certainly likes Tom Cotton. The [[US Journal]] investigated Cotton and discovered he already was supported by AIPAC during his run for senator, being | + | {{YouTubeVideo |
+ | |code=TX7oNh7EqX0 | ||
+ | |authors=Tom Cotton | ||
+ | |caption=According to Cotton, [[slavery]] was just something we needed to do folks. Don't get it twisted. | ||
+ | |align=left | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | The American Israel Public Affairs Committee or [[AIPAC]] certainly likes Tom Cotton. The [[US Journal]] investigated Cotton and discovered he already was supported by AIPAC during his run for senator, being one of the youngest members in congress at all, was nevertheless chosen ''' specifically''' to sit in the Senate Intelligence Committee while refusing to allow many other senators to join, which is strange as the committee (which calls for a high level of management experience), requested Cotton, who has no experience in managing big organizations. The Journal revealed his main special advisors are in fact [[Iran Contra]] [[deep politician]] [[Elliott Abrams]] that pushed heavily for his election and Bob O'Donnell.<ref>https://en.mehrnews.com/news/133811/Who-are-Tom-Cotton-s-advisers</ref> Tom Cotton actually received $4,5 million in his race for senator from AIPAC. Among others, his campaign was also financed by [[Paul Elliot Singer]] and [[Sheldon Adelson]]. An anonymous security analyst told media; | ||
− | “Given the young age of Cotton compared with other American politicians | + | “Given the young age of Cotton compared with other American politicians and his commitment to Tel Aviv, the Israeli authorities have tried to use him as an influential factor in US domestic security and foreign policy. AIPAC has always named Cotton as a trend-making agent in its calculations. This Zionist lobby’s recent attempts for Cotton’s presence as the CIA Director can also be analyzed in the same vein.” Cotton is indeed called the "main piece" of AIPAC in the U.S. He called the [[Israeli Defence Force]] “the most moral, humanitarian fighting force in the world.”<ref>https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg88835/html/CHRG-113hhrg88835.htm</ref><ref>https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/04/25/tom-cotton-whats-the-reason-for-aipacs-4-5-million-support-for-the-young-senator/</ref> |
− | ==Iran== | + | ====Iran==== |
− | The Iran Nuclear Deal was called similar to the " | + | The Iran Nuclear Deal was called similar to the "appeasement of Nazi-Germany".<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr3BD2dm6CA</ref> |
− | Cotton was the leading figure in a letter signed by 47 of 53 | + | Cotton was the leading figure in a letter signed by 47 of 53 Republican senators to the leaders of [[Iran]], that seemingly implied and warned Iran that congress and the [[revolving door]] that includes congress will be longer around than [[Barack Obama]] and could revoke any executive deal they would make regarding the [[Iran nuclear deal]]. The letter was publicized numerous times in [[commercially-controlled media]] and attacked at numerous angles; according to [[CNN]] it violated the Logan Act<ref>https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/tom-cotton-iran-letter-logan-act/index.html</ref><ref>https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/03/sen-tom-cottons-letter-to-iran-is-plainly-stupid-the-arkansas-freshman-and-his-senate-republican-colleagues-have-embarrassed-themselves-badly.html</ref>, having a surprisingly poor Farsi translation<ref>https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/30/sen-tom-cottons-farsi-version-of-his-explosive-letter-to-iranian-leaders-reads-like-a-middle-schooler-wrote-it</ref>, with Foreign Minister of Iran [[Javad Zarif]] and his ministry officially responding "the senators letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments". Cotton wrote the letter mostly himself and discussed with it figures like [[Bill Kristol]]<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/politics/gops-israel-support-deepens-as-political-contributions-shift.html</ref><ref>http://en.mfa.ir/index.aspx?siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&pageid=1997&newsview=330948</ref> |
− | Cotton did not | + | Cotton did not go back-tracking but doubled-down instead calling for a vigorous bombing campaign and punishing the family members of those who violated sanctions on Iran with up to 20 years in prison in [[2013]], saying that punishment should apply to “parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grand-kids, great grand-kids", calling it "a corruption of blood" with the remark that "I sympathize with their plight if they are harmless, innocent civilians in Iran. I doubt that that is often the case" for a good [[enemy image]] and even proposing a bill which would be a violation in the U.S of the 3rd article of the U.S constitution and the 5th, 6th and 14th amendment. Cotton later withdrew the bill.<ref>https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/tom-cotton-corruption-of-blood_n_3322251.html</ref> |
{{SMWQ | {{SMWQ | ||
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Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics. For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then—perhaps decades. | Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics. For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then—perhaps decades. | ||
− | What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by | + | What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time." |
|source_name=Tom Cotton | |source_name=Tom Cotton | ||
|source_URL=https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=120 | |source_URL=https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=120 | ||
− | |subjects=extremism, terrorists, FISA, | + | |subjects=extremism, terrorists, FISA, revolving door, Waterboarding |
}} | }} | ||
+ | ====Whistleblowers==== | ||
+ | Cotton has been an advocate for more aggressive prosecution of [[whistleblowers]] and is a strong supporter of the indefinite extension of the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] or FISA-act. In particular, he was pushing for permanently enabling Section 702 which grants US Intelligence monitoring of US citizens without warrants.<ref>https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/who-is-tom-cotton-cia/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACTXf6-kM6HdN1bAipj-dD0FHVXjt26ySEu6q8tFMJDsHr4P6QNUp8RTefnSe69YYFT-sIoNEouCQCaYkoPXMGEmWyEZeMR5yBwsL8hZd1PCws5AOxHe1DZP4wInDJmkdZ6yqWsNp01AxpVjZV8ej8ZJGQPhKX7k1S46j1BKQOox</ref> | ||
− | == | + | |
− | + | ====War Crimes==== | |
+ | {{YouTubeVideo | ||
+ | |code=GwG07p230O4 | ||
+ | |caption=Chinese students should be banned from studying in the U.S according to Cotton, as he suspects them of stealing vital knowledge for various parts of the Chinese government. Note that he tried to pass a bill on this in [[2019]], which is.... quite ironic hailing from the state of [[J. William Fulbright]].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwG07p230O4</ref> | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | Cotton called for the U.S. military to give “no quarter” to those who engage in theft and property destruction amid demonstrations against [[police]] brutality and the Minneapolis Police Department’s alleged murder of [[George Floyd]]. [[Judges]], scholars and [[activists]] responded<ref>https://lawandcrime.com/george-floyd-death/republican-senator-called-for-no-quarter-military-response-to-looters-lawyers-note-thats-a-war-crime/</ref> that "a no quarter order is a war crime, prohibited even in actual insurrection since Abraham Lincoln‘s signed the Lieber Code in 1863" (...) “Such an order is banned by international law and would, if carried out, be murder under American law and a violation of the Fundamental Guarantees of [[Geneva]] in Article 4, Rule 46 of Customary International Humanitarian Law, and section 5.5.7 of the [[Department of Defense]] Law of [[War]] Manual. Noted here must be his scary love and advocating for more use of police drones in the OP-ED in The Washington Times.<ref>https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=op_ed&id=741</ref> Cotton did not retract the statements, but accused the people that responded of twisting his words and calling out [[twitter]] as a "low-level" employee called his office and tried to [[censor]] him by threatening to ban his account. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The staff at the [[New York Times]] actually protested the op-ed (after the publisher and chairman Arthur Ochs Sulzberger issued a statement they ''supported<ref>https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2OcupXLc6vkJ:https://deadline.com/2020/06/new-york-times-editorial-page-editor-removed-for-tom-cotton-op-ed-1202950847/+&cd=5&hl=nl&ct=clnk&gl=nl&client=firefox-b-d</ref>'' a piece that calls for war crimes on their own citizens, quite the newspaper) and the NYT promised this "rushed editing" would be reviewed to prevent such pieces from being released, which... drew more attention, as multiple editors resigned not clearly explaining how Cotton keeps getting published in the NYT.<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-17/gop-s-cotton-says-twitter-threatened-to-lock-account-over-tweet</ref><ref>https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-tom-cotton-rushed-process/</ref> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Cotton also seems to have a [[permanent war mentality]]. His opinions on waterboarding are troubling to say to least; | ||
{{QB|'''CNN's Wolf Blitzer''': (...) Torture is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and International Law..<br/> | {{QB|'''CNN's Wolf Blitzer''': (...) Torture is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and International Law..<br/> | ||
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{{SMWQ | {{SMWQ | ||
− | |text= | + | |text=The only problem with Guantanamo Bay is that there are too many empty cells... as far as I’m concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell. But as long as they don’t do that, then they can rot in Guantanamo Bay. |
|source_name=US Congress | |source_name=US Congress | ||
|source_URL=https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2015/02/06/tom-cottons-bizarre-speech-on-guantanamo | |source_URL=https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2015/02/06/tom-cottons-bizarre-speech-on-guantanamo | ||
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{{SMWQ | {{SMWQ | ||
− | |text= | + | |text=Waterboarding isn’t torture. We do waterboarding on our own soldiers in the military. |
|source_name=Techcrunch | |source_name=Techcrunch | ||
|source_URL=https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/who-is-tom-cotton-cia/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACTXf6-kM6HdN1bAipj-dD0FHVXjt26ySEu6q8tFMJDsHr4P6QNUp8RTefnSe69YYFT-sIoNEouCQCaYkoPXMGEmWyEZeMR5yBwsL8hZd1PCws5AOxHe1DZP4wInDJmkdZ6yqWsNp01AxpVjZV8ej8ZJGQPhKX7k1S46j1BKQOox | |source_URL=https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/who-is-tom-cotton-cia/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACTXf6-kM6HdN1bAipj-dD0FHVXjt26ySEu6q8tFMJDsHr4P6QNUp8RTefnSe69YYFT-sIoNEouCQCaYkoPXMGEmWyEZeMR5yBwsL8hZd1PCws5AOxHe1DZP4wInDJmkdZ6yqWsNp01AxpVjZV8ej8ZJGQPhKX7k1S46j1BKQOox | ||
− | |subjects=extremism, terrorists, FISA, | + | |subjects=extremism, terrorists, FISA, War on Terror, Waterboarding, Copper Green |
}} | }} | ||
− | == | + | ====COVID-19==== |
− | + | Cotton has been part of the movement in the [[US Congress]] for the [[official opposition narrative]] that implicates the [[Wuhan Institute of Virology]] for [[COVID-19]]. Among other alarming statements he argued "[[China]] made a conscious choice not to close off its country to prevent the virus’s spread, but rather to let it spread “to ensure the Chinese economy wasn’t the only one to suffer", wants "more midrange missiles in [[Asia]], based on American territory in [[Guam]] and perhaps in allied countries as well, to counter Chinese midrange missiles" as well as "accelerate arms sales to [[Taiwan]]" and "pharmaceutical and medical-supply companies to move manufacturing out of China and back to the U.S., in part by allowing them to immediately write off capital expenditures made in doing so.", also labeling China an "evil empire".<ref>https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-06-14/Tom-Cotton-The-new-face-of-old-school-hawks-Hw07XtdDri/index.html</ref><ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-cotton-has-a-china-coronavirus-attack-plan-11589204375</ref> | |
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− | Cotton has been part of the movement in the [[US Congress]] for the [[official opposition narrative]] that implicates the [[Wuhan Institute of Virology]] for [[COVID-19]]. Among other alarming statements he argued "[[China]] made a conscious choice not to close off its country to prevent the virus’s spread, but rather to let it spread “to ensure the Chinese economy wasn’t the only one to suffer", wants "more midrange missiles in [[Asia]], based on American territory in [[Guam]] and perhaps in allied countries as well, to counter Chinese midrange missiles" as well as "accelerate arms sales to [[Taiwan]]" and "pharmaceutical and medical-supply companies to move manufacturing out of China and back to the U.S., in part by allowing them to immediately write off capital expenditures made in doing so.", also | ||
+ | ====NATO==== | ||
+ | Cotton supported [[Finland]] and [[Sweden]] joining [[NATO]].<ref>https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-finlands-intent-to-join-nato/</ref> | ||
==Protection== | ==Protection== | ||
− | Tom Cotton's | + | Tom Cotton's Democratic opponent for the senate election actually dropped out, giving Cotton a red carpet for a new term as senator well into the [[2020s]]. |
Latest revision as of 04:51, 4 August 2022
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Born | Thomas Bryant Cotton 13 May 1977 Dardanelle, Arkansas, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | US | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Harvard University, Claremont Graduate University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Religion | Christian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse | Anna Peckham | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Member of | House and Senate Taiwan Caucus, International Republican Institute/Board and Staff | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Victim of | Permanent war/Mentality | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interests | • Foreign Policy • Iran nuclear deal • China • Taiwan • Israel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interest of | Sheldon Adelson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Party | Republican | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The most Hawkish senator in US Congress. Elected, funded and guided by AIPAC, advocates war crimes, jailing kids and aunts for "corruption of blood". Tried very infamously to sabotage the Iran Nuclear Deal.
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Tom Cotton is a member of the U.S. Senate from Arkansas, joining congress after two combat tours in the War in Iraq and the Invasion of Afghanistan. [1] One of the most vocal US senators, Cotton was already known as lieutenant back in the 2000s for requesting prosecution of journalists. Noted as "hawkish[2]" and being mostly backed and guided by AIPAC since his initial senate election campaign, he has advocated a "two strikes" war against Iran and jailing entire families up to grand-kids and aunts of foreign enemies of the U.S, for Russian sanctions, banning Chinese students from the U.S and war crimes against Americans.[3]. He's been named numerous times as a potential CIA director[4] or cabinet[5] candidate already since being a key figure relied on by Steve Bannon back in 2017.[6]
Contents
Activities
Military Career
Cotton voluntarily enlisted in 2005 going to Iraq, after deeming Harvard and that world too sedentary. He was an infantryman in his third year of law school while watching live news coverage of 9/11. In October 2008, Cotton was deployed to eastern Afghanistan. He was assigned within the Train Advise Assist Command – in the Laghman Province as the Operations Officer of a Provincial Reconstruction Team, where he planned daily "counter-terrorism" and reconstruction operations. He was admired for being one of the captains to refuse to join the Judge Advocate General's Corps on the back of his Harvard history.
In June 2006, while stationed in Iraq, Cotton gained international public attention after writing an open letter to the editor of The New York Times about the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program or TFTP set up by George W. Bush and his administration in the "war on terror", after Treasury Secretary John W. Snow first called for the prosecution of journalists of The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and the NYT.[7], arguing three journalists violated "espionage laws" by publishing articles detailing classified government operations (that got a response from multiple EU countries calling it a violation of EU privacy laws as the US companies cooperating were headquartered in the Europe) about "terrorists" and their finances (bear in mind that his program let Eliot Spitzer slip through[8]).
The New York Times did not publish the letter, but three conservative lawyers did. Cotton called for the journalists to be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law", and incarcerated along with a lawsuit against the newspapers that is for "gravely endangering the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis." Cotton was deemed quite hawkish as the espionage act had never been used against journalists.[9][10]
Political Career
According to Cotton, slavery was just something we needed to do folks. Don't get it twisted. |
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC certainly likes Tom Cotton. The US Journal investigated Cotton and discovered he already was supported by AIPAC during his run for senator, being one of the youngest members in congress at all, was nevertheless chosen specifically to sit in the Senate Intelligence Committee while refusing to allow many other senators to join, which is strange as the committee (which calls for a high level of management experience), requested Cotton, who has no experience in managing big organizations. The Journal revealed his main special advisors are in fact Iran Contra deep politician Elliott Abrams that pushed heavily for his election and Bob O'Donnell.[11] Tom Cotton actually received $4,5 million in his race for senator from AIPAC. Among others, his campaign was also financed by Paul Elliot Singer and Sheldon Adelson. An anonymous security analyst told media;
“Given the young age of Cotton compared with other American politicians and his commitment to Tel Aviv, the Israeli authorities have tried to use him as an influential factor in US domestic security and foreign policy. AIPAC has always named Cotton as a trend-making agent in its calculations. This Zionist lobby’s recent attempts for Cotton’s presence as the CIA Director can also be analyzed in the same vein.” Cotton is indeed called the "main piece" of AIPAC in the U.S. He called the Israeli Defence Force “the most moral, humanitarian fighting force in the world.”[12][13]
Iran
The Iran Nuclear Deal was called similar to the "appeasement of Nazi-Germany".[14]
Cotton was the leading figure in a letter signed by 47 of 53 Republican senators to the leaders of Iran, that seemingly implied and warned Iran that congress and the revolving door that includes congress will be longer around than Barack Obama and could revoke any executive deal they would make regarding the Iran nuclear deal. The letter was publicized numerous times in commercially-controlled media and attacked at numerous angles; according to CNN it violated the Logan Act[15][16], having a surprisingly poor Farsi translation[17], with Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif and his ministry officially responding "the senators letter in fact undermines the credibility of thousands of such mere executive agreements that have been or will be entered into by the US with various other governments". Cotton wrote the letter mostly himself and discussed with it figures like Bill Kristol[18][19]
Cotton did not go back-tracking but doubled-down instead calling for a vigorous bombing campaign and punishing the family members of those who violated sanctions on Iran with up to 20 years in prison in 2013, saying that punishment should apply to “parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grand-kids, great grand-kids", calling it "a corruption of blood" with the remark that "I sympathize with their plight if they are harmless, innocent civilians in Iran. I doubt that that is often the case" for a good enemy image and even proposing a bill which would be a violation in the U.S of the 3rd article of the U.S constitution and the 5th, 6th and 14th amendment. Cotton later withdrew the bill.[20]
““It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system. Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution—the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices—which you should seriously consider as negotiations progress.
First, under our Constitution, while the president negotiates international agreements, Congress plays the significant role of ratifying them. In the case of a treaty, the Senate must ratify it by a two-thirds vote. A so-called congressional-executive agreement requires a majority vote in both the House and the Senate (which, because of procedural rules, effectively means a three-fifths vote in the Senate). Anything not approved by Congress is a mere executive agreement.
Second, the offices of our Constitution have different characteristics. For example, the president may serve only two 4-year terms, whereas senators may serve an unlimited number of 6-year terms. As applied today, for instance, President Obama will leave office in January 2017, while most of us will remain in office well beyond then—perhaps decades.
What these two constitutional provisions mean is that we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time."”
Tom Cotton [21]
Whistleblowers
Cotton has been an advocate for more aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers and is a strong supporter of the indefinite extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA-act. In particular, he was pushing for permanently enabling Section 702 which grants US Intelligence monitoring of US citizens without warrants.[22]
War Crimes
Chinese students should be banned from studying in the U.S according to Cotton, as he suspects them of stealing vital knowledge for various parts of the Chinese government. Note that he tried to pass a bill on this in 2019, which is.... quite ironic hailing from the state of J. William Fulbright.[23] |
Cotton called for the U.S. military to give “no quarter” to those who engage in theft and property destruction amid demonstrations against police brutality and the Minneapolis Police Department’s alleged murder of George Floyd. Judges, scholars and activists responded[24] that "a no quarter order is a war crime, prohibited even in actual insurrection since Abraham Lincoln‘s signed the Lieber Code in 1863" (...) “Such an order is banned by international law and would, if carried out, be murder under American law and a violation of the Fundamental Guarantees of Geneva in Article 4, Rule 46 of Customary International Humanitarian Law, and section 5.5.7 of the Department of Defense Law of War Manual. Noted here must be his scary love and advocating for more use of police drones in the OP-ED in The Washington Times.[25] Cotton did not retract the statements, but accused the people that responded of twisting his words and calling out twitter as a "low-level" employee called his office and tried to censor him by threatening to ban his account.
The staff at the New York Times actually protested the op-ed (after the publisher and chairman Arthur Ochs Sulzberger issued a statement they supported[26] a piece that calls for war crimes on their own citizens, quite the newspaper) and the NYT promised this "rushed editing" would be reviewed to prevent such pieces from being released, which... drew more attention, as multiple editors resigned not clearly explaining how Cotton keeps getting published in the NYT.[27][28]
Cotton also seems to have a permanent war mentality. His opinions on waterboarding are troubling to say to least;
CNN's Wolf Blitzer: (...) Torture is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and International Law..
Sen. Tom Cotton: On this one, I disagree (...) anything that American troops volunteer for, and radio DJs volunteer for, is not torture. If it has to be done to save American lives, that's a tough call[29].
“The only problem with Guantanamo Bay is that there are too many empty cells... as far as I’m concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell. But as long as they don’t do that, then they can rot in Guantanamo Bay.”
Tom Cotton [30]
“Waterboarding isn’t torture. We do waterboarding on our own soldiers in the military.”
Tom Cotton [31]
COVID-19
Cotton has been part of the movement in the US Congress for the official opposition narrative that implicates the Wuhan Institute of Virology for COVID-19. Among other alarming statements he argued "China made a conscious choice not to close off its country to prevent the virus’s spread, but rather to let it spread “to ensure the Chinese economy wasn’t the only one to suffer", wants "more midrange missiles in Asia, based on American territory in Guam and perhaps in allied countries as well, to counter Chinese midrange missiles" as well as "accelerate arms sales to Taiwan" and "pharmaceutical and medical-supply companies to move manufacturing out of China and back to the U.S., in part by allowing them to immediately write off capital expenditures made in doing so.", also labeling China an "evil empire".[32][33]
NATO
Cotton supported Finland and Sweden joining NATO.[34]
Protection
Tom Cotton's Democratic opponent for the senate election actually dropped out, giving Cotton a red carpet for a new term as senator well into the 2020s.
Events Participated in
Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bilderberg/2017 | 1 June 2017 | 4 June 2017 | US Virginia Chantilly | The 65th Bilderberg Meeting |
Halifax International Security Forum/2014 | 21 November 2014 | 23 November 2014 | Canada Halifax Nova Scotia | Spooky conference in Canada in November 2014 |
Munich Security Conference/2013 | 1 February 2013 | 3 February 2013 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 49th Munich Security Conference |
Munich Security Conference/2016 | 12 February 2016 | 14 February 2016 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 52nd Munich Security Conference |
References
- ↑ https://theintercept.com/2017/10/18/is-there-a-more-dangerous-member-of-congress-than-tom-cotton/
- ↑ https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-06-14/Tom-Cotton-The-new-face-of-old-school-hawks-Hw07XtdDri/index.html
- ↑ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9pZk4WSvDhYJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/04/tom-cottons-ugly-screed-hints-terrible-backlash-come/+&cd=9&hl=nl&ct=clnk&gl=nl&client=firefox-b-d
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/state-department-tillerson-pompeo-trump.html
- ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/20/trump-next-defense-secretary-mattis-replacement-1049135
- ↑ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/13/is-tom-cotton-the-future-of-trumpism
- ↑ http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/10/a-fateful-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-times.php
- ↑ http://overlawyered.com/2012/04/structuring-who-can-get-away-with-it-and-who-cant/
- ↑ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tom-cotton/
- ↑ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/tom-cotton-arkansas-new-york-times>
- ↑ https://en.mehrnews.com/news/133811/Who-are-Tom-Cotton-s-advisers
- ↑ https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg88835/html/CHRG-113hhrg88835.htm
- ↑ https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/04/25/tom-cotton-whats-the-reason-for-aipacs-4-5-million-support-for-the-young-senator/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr3BD2dm6CA
- ↑ https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/tom-cotton-iran-letter-logan-act/index.html
- ↑ https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/03/sen-tom-cottons-letter-to-iran-is-plainly-stupid-the-arkansas-freshman-and-his-senate-republican-colleagues-have-embarrassed-themselves-badly.html
- ↑ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/30/sen-tom-cottons-farsi-version-of-his-explosive-letter-to-iranian-leaders-reads-like-a-middle-schooler-wrote-it
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/politics/gops-israel-support-deepens-as-political-contributions-shift.html
- ↑ http://en.mfa.ir/index.aspx?siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&pageid=1997&newsview=330948
- ↑ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/tom-cotton-corruption-of-blood_n_3322251.html
- ↑ https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=120 Tom Cotton
- ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/who-is-tom-cotton-cia/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACTXf6-kM6HdN1bAipj-dD0FHVXjt26ySEu6q8tFMJDsHr4P6QNUp8RTefnSe69YYFT-sIoNEouCQCaYkoPXMGEmWyEZeMR5yBwsL8hZd1PCws5AOxHe1DZP4wInDJmkdZ6yqWsNp01AxpVjZV8ej8ZJGQPhKX7k1S46j1BKQOox
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwG07p230O4
- ↑ https://lawandcrime.com/george-floyd-death/republican-senator-called-for-no-quarter-military-response-to-looters-lawyers-note-thats-a-war-crime/
- ↑ https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=op_ed&id=741
- ↑ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2OcupXLc6vkJ:https://deadline.com/2020/06/new-york-times-editorial-page-editor-removed-for-tom-cotton-op-ed-1202950847/+&cd=5&hl=nl&ct=clnk&gl=nl&client=firefox-b-d
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-17/gop-s-cotton-says-twitter-threatened-to-lock-account-over-tweet
- ↑ https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-tom-cotton-rushed-process/
- ↑ https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/09/politics/tom-cotton-waterboarding-torture/index.html
- ↑ https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2015/02/06/tom-cottons-bizarre-speech-on-guantanamo US Congress
- ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/30/who-is-tom-cotton-cia/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACTXf6-kM6HdN1bAipj-dD0FHVXjt26ySEu6q8tFMJDsHr4P6QNUp8RTefnSe69YYFT-sIoNEouCQCaYkoPXMGEmWyEZeMR5yBwsL8hZd1PCws5AOxHe1DZP4wInDJmkdZ6yqWsNp01AxpVjZV8ej8ZJGQPhKX7k1S46j1BKQOox Techcrunch
- ↑ https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-06-14/Tom-Cotton-The-new-face-of-old-school-hawks-Hw07XtdDri/index.html
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/tom-cotton-has-a-china-coronavirus-attack-plan-11589204375
- ↑ https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-statement-on-finlands-intent-to-join-nato/