Ignored by Liberal Mainstream Media: Iranian Regime Bribed Funeral Attendees with Free Meals

The Gateway Pundit

"The liberal pro-Iranian mainstream media could not stop talking about the size of the crowds at the “popular” and “loved” Qassem Soleimani funeral today."

Ali Safavi‏Verified account @amsafavi

@dam00r @mohamad43854922 @Sbweb_twiter @Reyhan33861172 @Sohail72182596 @ZahraSa18631314 Proof of free lunch? Here: Official news agency IRNA: "Khalil Najafi, head of reconstruction of holy sites in Central Prov.: 40K plates of warm food for lunch, breakfast & snacks distributed.

Don’t believe Iranian propaganda about the mourning for Soleimani  "Over the next few days, it will be hard to escape footage of huge crowds gathering in Iranian cities to mourn the death of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a U.S. drone strike. For anyone watching, I have one piece of advice: Don’t take what you’re seeing at face value.

"This past November, thousands of Iranians took to the streets across the country to protest against the regime, in the biggest challenge to the clerical rule in 40 years. According to Reuters, more than 1,500 people were killed by security forces, including units of Soleimani’s Revolutionary Guard, and at least 7,000 have been arrested. The Internet was shut down for five days. Tehran has yet to release official figures of its own, which suggests the death toll may have been even higher.

"The protesters had harsh words for Soleimani and his foreign adventures, chanting against Iran’s involvement in Syria and its support of Hezbollah. That came as a shock to the regime, which portrays Soleimani as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adopted son.

"Of course, people across the political divide are concerned about war. Nobody wants President Trump to bomb Iran’s cultural or historical sites as he threatened in a tweet on Saturday. I myself denounced the tweet on Fox News on Sunday.

"But what to make of the crowds of flag-waving mourners streaming across TV screens? Without doubt, Soleimani had support among hard-liners and regime loyalists. The regime is not taking any chances, though. In the city of Ahvaz, where large numbers of people turned out to mourn Soleimani, the government has forced students and officials to attend. It provided free transport and ordered shops to shut down. According to videos sent to me by people inside the country, the authorities are making little kids write essays praising the fallen commander. First-graders who didn’t know how to write were encouraged to cry for Soleimani.

"Some Iranians have compared the funeral services for Soleimani to those held for the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague, killed by Allied agents during World War II." . . .

Chevy truck hauls Soleimani’s corpse through Iranian crowd

Asaad Hanna‏Verified account @AsaadHannaa Jan 4MoreSo funny
The body of #Soleimani in the funeral carried by a Chevrolet American car, the military guys around the car suited up an American uniform with an American M16 rifle , and the crowds shouting “Death for America”

Why the Left (Hollywood, MSNBC, CNN, Democrat Party) sides with Iranian Terrorists Over America

. . . "I mean, the deep state IC. But this guy, the Revolutionary Guard that general Qassem Soleimani, his body is being flown back to Tehran in a cardboard box with his picture on it across three coach seats on an Iranian airline. The New York Post has the picture. He’s in a cardboard box. Of course there’s not much of him left, just his finger with the ring on it. That’s how he was identified. But still, and they’ve got his picture on the cardboard box. But he was a bad dude, folks." 

. . . 

"But if you let these people run things, there will never be any serious defense of Americans or American interests because they believe to do so is to escalate. I’ll give you an example, I’ll give you an analogy. The first Gulf War with Saddam to liberate Kuwait. George H. W. Bush was the president. I will never forget Sam Donaldson on ABC News warning Americans that the end was near, that we had no business conducting a desert war because we were not qualified, we didn’t know how to win, how to conduct a desert war. Saddam, that’s his lair, that’s his natural habitat. Saddam was gonna wipe us out.

"Sam Donaldson did a feature on the number of body bags that would be needed. The war was over in 18 hours with the vaunted desert rat army of Saddam Hussein surrendering and waving the white flag in a matter of six hours. And so these people haven’t changed. The U.S. is not able to win. All we’re doing is escalating. And the bad guys are far superior. And the bad guys are far smarter. And the bad guys are far more capable. And the bad guys are not gonna take this.

"We have destroyed a fundamental war-making element of the Iranian government by taking this guy out. You’re not gonna see it anywhere in the news, but Iran has been leveled in a sense here strategically with the assuming of room temperature of Qassem Soleimani." 

Or "Salmonella" as Rush often pronounces his name. 

Conservative Firing Line

The Trump Doctrine Humiliates Both Foreign Enemies and Domestic Liberals

Tony Branco

Townhall  "This has been a really difficult time for Ben Rhodes, John Kerry, and the rest of the geniuses who zombie Neville Chamberlain recently hailed as “a flock of insufferable sissies crowded around the behind of America’s enemy, shamelessly smooching their dignity away.” Zapping Qassam Soleimani ruined an Iranian offensive that had started with such promise. When the dirtbag catspaws of the dirtbag Iranian mullahs surrounded the American embassy in Baghdad, American liberals were more excited than the old Weekly Standard’s staff would have been upon discovering that it was sharing one of its cruises with a pool boy and sexy gardener convention. Libs and their Fredocon submissives were practically salivating at the thought of fellow Americans being murdered by scuzzy foreigners and the opportunity such a tragedy would present for blaming Donald Trump. This was Trump’s Benghazi test, they chortled on social media." . . .More

Ever wonder who the Democrats like more, our President or any Ayatollah?

Any way you look at it, we are here because Obama and Europe forgot or preferred to ignore that Iran is an apocalyptic messianic regime bent on exporting terrorism and Shi’itism to intimidate its enemies, and should never be allowed to develop or possess nuclear weapons. Giuliano Maciocci

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

And now it's the War Powers Act! "The clown show over at Nancy's House keeps puttering along." . . .
  . . . "Maybe that's the next article of impeachment?  Another "abuse of power"?  Or even better, another "obstruction of Congress"?
"To be fair, I'm not a fan of presidents getting us into wars without a congressional vote, i.e. Korea, or the skinny Tonkin Gulf Resolution on Vietnam. I prefer what Bush 41 and Bush 43 did by putting the Congress on record.
"Congress should be involved.  However, this is not about the U.S. Constitution, but just another excuse to attack President Trump.

Iran's political advisor

"Nancy's clown show is getting really boring!" . . . More

Iran's miscalculation "It is hard to understand Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei’s blunder in attacking the US Embassy in Baghdad. He either believed Trump was weakened by his impeachment, as western liberal Media breathlessly and continuously reported, or he might have been misled by John Kerry’s (pictured, right) incompetent advice (apparently Kerry met again with Khamenei’s emissaries in Paris just few weeks ago). Whatever the reasons, his goal of triggering a limited war with America to rally his people around the regime has failed miserably." . . .  More

Bernie compares Soleimani to a Russian dissident

Hollywood needs to change its messaging on fatherhood

The same way producers are copying Hallmark-style movies to cash- in on their popularity, there is a gold mine awaiting producers of movies and TV shows that restore fathers to their rightful position.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American  "During his heartfelt Golden Globes speech, Tom Hanks said his five children are braver, stronger, and wiser than him.  Please do not think I am beating up on Tom Hanks.  I am simply pointing out that Hanks downplaying his fatherly position is a mindset we see reflected in practically every family movie and sitcom today.
"We have gone from TV shows like Father Knows Best to countless shows in which Father is portrayed as an idiot — the butt of jokes, spoken to with disrespect from his wife and children.
"As a child, my black family loved watching The Andy Griffith Show.  Like Andy's son Opie in the show, my four siblings and I had great fun with our dad.  And yet, we knew our place, never daring to speak to him with disrespect.
"I have turned off movies and TV shows because I could not stomach the disrespectful way children speak to their fathers, lecturing Dad and displaying arrogant disobedience.

Hollywood, Democrats, and fake news media believe that children are wiser than their parents, especially their heterosexual white fathers.  Children are told to steal their parents' guns and turn them over to schoolteachers.  Michelle Obama told students to monitor family discussions for racism.  Leftist school administrators say children should be allowed to have abortions and even pretend to change their sex through bodily mutilation without parental consent.
"California leftist lawmakers believe that due to the backward, outdated thinking of parents, government must make homeschooling illegal.  Leftist demand that children be handed over to government schools for LGBT indoctrination, taught to hate America, instilled with guilt for their white privilege, and taught to hate Christianity." . . . 
Full article.

The woke folk of note

They’ll Hex You J. K. R.: J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books and creator of the Voldemort guy mentioned above, has been a fountain of anti-Trump venom on social media, delighting those who venerate celebrity Trump bashers. The love she earned this way, however, proved insufficient to ward off a woke witch hunt when she dared defend Maya Forstater, a British tax expert who lost her position with the Centre for Global Development for tweeting that “men cannot change into women” and “it is unfair and unsafe for trans women to compete in women’s sport.”

American Spectator

                        "Notions of fair of decency and fair play are receding for good."

"Now that 2019 has ended with the impeachment of President Donald Trump, let’s push aside the memory of an accuser, who, like Harry Potter’s Voldemort, couldn’t be named, and who, in a rejection of justice dating back to Magna Carta, couldn’t be confronted by the accused. Let’s cast aside secret hearings, selective leaks, hearsay and hearsay about hearsay, years of media caterwauling, and high crimes that aren’t even knee-high to an impeached grasshopper. Being “woke” is now more important than fair play, so let’s look at a few of the woke folk of note of 2019.

Rowling

"A Politically Correct Reason to Be Overweight
"America has an obesity problem. Cheap, abundant, tasty food combined with sedentary lifestyles produces millions of citizens who strain the chairs they sit upon. Medical professionals tell us that healthy eating and increased activity can save the chairs, but we find following that advice hard. We make excuses. We don’t have time to prepare healthful meals or exercise. High-calorie foods are impossible to resist. We may claim to be “big boned” or have a “gland problem.” In October, in an episode of Black Women OWN the Conversation, a program on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Brittney Cooper, a professor of gender studies at Rutgers University, declared there was another reason one portion of society is overweight: President Trump.
“ 'We are living in the Trump era,” Cooper, who is African-American, said, “and look, those policies kill our people. You can’t get access to good health care, good insurance.” Not pausing to address the issue of Obamacare increasing health insurance costs, she insisted that stress caused by racism changed black women’s metabolisms, making it more difficult for them to lose weight. “I hate when people talk about black women being obese,” she said. “I hate it because it becomes a way to blame us for a set of conditions that we didn’t create.' ” . . .

Michael Moore Sends Iran Leader a Direct Message: Let Me and Millions of Americans Remove Trump

Breitbart  "Far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has begged the Iranian regime not to respond with violence to the drone strike that killed the country’s terror chief Major General Qasem Soleimani, promising that he and millions of Americans will get rid of President Donald Trump at the ballot box in November.

"Soleimani and at least three other militiamen were killed by an American drone strike last week at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, responded by pledging “harsh vengeance” against the United States, raising fears about a potential war between the two countries.

"In an “Emergency Podcast” to his listeners and the Iranian people, Moore said that although he does not favor theocratic regimes, he sympathizes with Iran because of the way they have been treated by the United States.

“ 'I would like to ask you, as much as you have the right to and as much as you want to, I would like you, the leadership of the country of Iran, to not respond with violence to the United States,” Moore said.

"The 65-year-old filmmaker went on to urge the Iranian leadership to not play into Trump’s hands with violent retaliation, but instead wait for Congress or the American electorate to remove Trump through impeachment or an election.

“ 'I am asking you to try what Martin Luther King and Gandhi said requires the most amount of courage which is to respond with non-violence,” he continued. “I am asking you to leave this up to me, give me all of 10 months and I and millions of Americans will remove Trump from the White House." . . .

Golden Globe Awards host Ricky Gervais tears into Hollywood elite, Disney, Amazon, Apple

"You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything," he declared. "You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg."

Fox News  "The biggest stars in TV and film gathered in Beverly Hills in the hopes of kicking off the 2020 awards season with a highly coveted Golden Globe award, and notoriously controversial host Ricky Gervais wasted no time laying into the Hollywood elite vying for a big win.
"Stars from films like “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Rocketman” and “The Irishman” as well as shows like "Big Little Lies," "The Crown" and "Barry" were in attendance but the comedian and host was undeterred by the many famous faces staring back at him.
"He called out the many stars in the room for their relationship to large corporations like Apple, Amazon and Disney.
. . . 
"Gervais concluded his scathing monologue by warning the celebrities not to make any political or "woke" statements when accepting their awards.
" 'You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything," he declared. "You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg." . . .

Los Angeles Times television critic Lorraine Ali was not pleased.  . . . "Ali penned a disapproving opinion-editorial slamming Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais for roasting Hollywood elites on Sunday evening.

"According to Ali, Gervais’s roasting of A-list celebrities felt unoriginal because his searing jokes pointed at the award show’s attendees were expected, which immediately canceled any possibility that he would be the evening’s “funniest guy in the room.” She also lashed at the comic for calling on award-winners to avoid politics while Congress weighs impeachment and Iran is threatening retaliation for the death of top general Qasem Soleimani."

Thanks to Trump, the Forty-Year Appeasement of Iran Is Over

. . . Trump's assassination of Soleimani is taking us out of this diplomatic quagmire. He is signaling that the years of appeasement of Iran are over. Hiding behind terrorist proxy groups has worked for Iran since the ayatollahs took over in the 1970s. This strike against the head of the Revolutionary Guards may cause the cowardly leaders of Iran to reconsider their modus operandi on the world stage, or it may lead to a lashing out. Whichever path they take, our resolve to stop participating in the cycle of terror attacks and subsequent appeasement of a rogue state is now affirmed. . . .

http://www.terrellaftermath.com/

American Thinker   "The assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani is an unusual, possibly aberrant, event.  The killing of this individual leader of a sovereign state may lead to all-out war between Iran and the U.S. — or, on the other hand, the assassination may bring an end to the cycle of Iranian violence countered by U.S. and world diplomatic flatulence and appeasement.

"Assassinating the leaders of terrorist organizations — i.e., non-state actors, such as Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — did not lead to a greater war footing against the USA because, as terrorist organization leaders, not heads of state, they are automatically considered rogue, even by sovereign state leaders sympathetic to their goals.  Al-Qaeda and ISIS, despite any claims to territorial governance, are non-state actors.  Thus, despite ISIS's former control of land areas, ISIS was despised for its aggressions but was not considered a serious threat to the power of leaders of other Muslim-dominant states within the region.  The Middle Eastern Muslim states that may, to a certain degree, be sympathetic to ISIS's dreams of a re-established caliphate such as existed for hundreds of years nevertheless did not intend to defer to the leader of ISIS as that caliph.  Despite Islam's socio-political backwardness in today's world, the glories of Islam's earlier history loom large in the consciousness of most Islamics.  ISIS did not appear to Islamics as the proper heir of that presumed glorious history.

"Iran's listing as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department puts it into a special category.  Iran is a behind-the-scenes puppeteer of Hamas operating in Gaza, Hezb'allah operating in Lebanon, and the Houthis operating in Yemen as well as a variety of groups in Iraq.  Not only did Iran held 52 Americans hostage for over a year after the ayatollahs overthrew the Shah in the  1970s, but the Iranians were crucial in the bombing of the U.S. military barracks in Lebanon (1983), the bombing of the Khobar Towers and American troops in Saudi Arabia (1996), the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (1998), the bombing of the USS Cole (2000), and the attack on the World Trade Center (2001).  With this nefarious history, acting through proxies to undermine the security of the West and the U.S. in particular, Iran's designation as a terrorist state — living in the gray area between sovereign legitimacy and terrorist aggression — is warranted and necessary." . . .

. . . We can see, then, that appeasement of the Iranian fanatics did not begin with the sell-out Iran deal completed by President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry.  Rather Obama's deal with Iran was full blown appeasement and bribery of Iran the likes of which have taken place since the administration of Pres. Jimmy Carter."

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Julián Castro Tries to Remain Relevant by Endorsing Elizabeth Warren

Legal Insurrection

"Former HUD secretary Julián Castro ended his presidential campaign a few days ago, but has shown no attempts to remain out of the limelight.

"Castro announced this morning he endorses Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for president. He plans on campaigning for Warren starting this week in Brooklyn, NY.

Julián Castro

✔@JulianCastro

Today I'm proud to endorse @ewarren for president.

Elizabeth and I share a vision of America where everyone counts. An America where people⁠—not the wealthy or well-connected⁠—are put first. I'm proud to join her in the fight for big, structural change.

"Castro gained 15 minutes of fame at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and serving as HUD secretary under President Barack Obama.

"It looks like the fame did not stick because Castro’s campaign never really took off. He rarely cracked 2% in any of the polls.

"Some of the flames remained as he received praise from the progressive and far-left side of the Democratic Party. His socialist ideas and views jive with the likes of Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).


Warren praised Castro’s immigration plan last May and June, which includes decriminalizing border crossings:

The Achilles heel of Iran

On those Obama pallets of cash: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, when asked about the payment by a local Denver, Colorado, television station, said it was "old news."

Peter Skurkiss "When it comes to Iran, most analysts and commentators speak as if the country were a homogenous monolith comprising Persians.  It is not.  In fact, the seldom mentioned Achilles heel of Iran is its diverse ethnic and religious make-up.  This is highlighted by Brenda Shaffer of Georgetown University, who is a leading expert on Iran's ethnic minorities.

Shaffer projects that Iran's current population of more than eighty-five million is made up of forty-two million Persians, an estimated twenty-seven million Azerbaijanis, and roughly eight million Kurds, five million Arabs, two million Turkmen, and one-and-a-half million Baluch.

 . . .
 "As luck would have it, there is civil unrest in the Khuzestan province, which is located at the center of Iran's oil production.  This gets the regime's attention. 

To get an idea of how fragile Iran might be, Berman writes that average Iranians are so fearful of national fragmentation that they mute their criticisms of Tehran's brutal treatment of the non-Persians in the outer provinces even as they themselves suffer under the regime's lash.

"It does not take a geopolitical genius to see that Iran is internally vulnerable.  Its enemies could take the county's ethnic divide as an opportunity to sow the seeds of rebellion within Iran.  This would be poetic justice.  Since the 1970s, Iran has been attempting to export its Shia Islamic revolution to other countries in the region, creating murderous mischief in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, and the Gulf countries through its proxies. 

"To date, these countries have spent their energy and resources responding to Iranian initiatives.  This has essentially been a one-way street and a draining exercise for those on the receiving end.  A country with resources — say, Israel — could decide that it is time to return the favor and take serious aim at destabilizing Iran.  The rationale here is clear.  If Iran is tied up with armed civil resistance at home, it will be far less capable of causing trouble far afield.  Given the current environment, this might not be that hard to accomplish."

Double Exposure: The Dems Coddling of Criminals and Iranian Terrorists

Clarice Feldman  "This week, the Democrats have been revealed as the party that exposes us to (1) criminal mayhem (often anti-Semitic) on the streets of New York and (2) terrorism everywhere as they consistently ignored it, indeed, paid off the perpetrators with pallets of airlifted unmarked bills and praised the worst of its perpetrators. The President has the magical power, it seems, to get idiots and criminals to expose themselves.. . . 

Toon added by TD

"Precision bombings in Iraq Expose the Democrats’ Love Affair with Iranian Terrorism

Precision bombing in Iraq killed the number-one terrorist in the world, far more dangerous to U.S. personnel and interests than Osama bin Laden was when he, a frail, isolated old man, was killed: Qassem Suleimani. 

“General Suleimani was the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades, and his death was a staggering blow for Iran at a time of sweeping geopolitical conflict.”

"Also killed, according to Iran, were General Hussein Jaafari Naya, Colonel Shahroud Muzaffari Naya, Major Hadi Tarmi, and Captain Waheed Zamanian. Other reports include Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi paramilitary leader, who attacked American and Western embassies and was the founder of a group responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq.

. . . "Back in 1992, Obama’s friend Professor Skip Gates warned of the dangers of Black anti-Semitism,  Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan and Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright have been leaders in stirring this pot and yet no Democratic leader has called them on it. Indeed, most seek their endorsement and support. Linda Sarsour, the new anti-Semite on the block, is an ally of Mayor de Blasio. Obama named her one of his “Champions of Change.” Don’t look to the media to report honestly about this Democrats' tradeoff of black underclass votes for Jewish votes. Don’t expect leftists of any background to call them on it. 

"People like Farrakhan are not “fringe figures,” they are key players in the Democratic effort to round up votes. As by online friend Alex Bensky writes:

He comes to Detroit every year or so and fills the arena with twenty thousand people, while local black leaders jostle for prominent seats. A black guy I know decided to see for himself a couple of summers ago when fifteen thousand filled an outdoor theater. He said the crowd was very enthusiastic, equally so when Farrakhan went into the Jew stuff, applauding and cheering as for anything else he said.
Both local gazettes limited themselves to observations at the end of their stories that Farrakhan has sometimes said things "that some people consider anti-Semitic." The local black weekly gives him extensive and admiring coverage and doesn't mention the Jew-hatred at all.
Imagine a comparable situation -- a caucus of Republicans in Congress has close and longstanding ties with an out and out racist who can command the presence of thousands wherever he goes. My guess is the media's coverage would have a different tone.. . . 

Advertisement Iran threatens the WHITE HOUSE: Tehran ups the ante by promising a 'crushing and powerful retaliation on American soil' and US military sites and calls Donald Trump a 'terrorist in a suit' for warning he will attack 52 Iranian targets

"Iran has threatened to attack the White House in response to Donald Trump's warning that any strike on American interests in the region will bring massive retaliation as Iranian leaders brand the president a 'terrorist in a suit'. On Sunday, Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi (left) said: 'We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time.’ Abutorabi went on to say that 'this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose. When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head.' Abutorabi came during an open session of parliament in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, and just days after Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani (top right), the architect of Tehran's overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was killed on Friday in a US drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport. Following massive funeral marches in Iraq, Soleimani's body was flown to the city of Ahvaz in southwest Iran on Sunday. His casket (center) was wrapped in an Iranian flag as it was unloaded from a plane as a military band plays and the crowd angrily chanted 'Death to America'. On Saturday, Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami promised 'a strategic revenge which will definitely put an end to the US presence in the region'. However, Trump threatened to hit 52 critical targets in Iran in retaliation if Tehran strikes any American interests in the region, upping the stakes after Iran said it had identified 35 targets for potential strikes and raised its red 'flags of revenge' over a key mosque."

'Iranian hackers' breach US government website operated by the Federal Depository Library Program in retaliation for airstrike  . . . "It followed the similar hacking of websites for a number of obscure, non-governmental entities, including the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, the Taiwan Lung Meng Technology Company, and the Human Rights Protection Association of India.
"The website for a British company called Bigways was also struck in the cyber attacks.

Security experts have already warned that cyber attacks could be part of Iran's retaliation for the U.S. airstrike on Friday that killed Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, a top official in Iran and beloved there. 

"Iran's state-backed hackers are already among the world's most aggressive and could inject malware that triggers major disruptions to the U.S. public and private sector.

"Potential targets include manufacturing facilities, oil and gas plants and transit systems. A top U.S. cybersecurity official is warning businesses and government agencies to be extra vigilant." . . .