Puppet Masters
Ukraine's current nation-building effort puts it at odds with other nations because Kiev seeks to glorify different forces that wanted an independent Ukrainian state, regardless of what crimes they may have committed. The most awkward legacy comes with the radical Ukrainian nationalists, who were active in the first half of 20th century.
They started by targeting Polish officials in what is now western Ukraine with a campaign of terrorism. Later they sided with Nazi Germany during World War II hoping that Adolf Hitler would make Ukraine independent, but then turned against him after their expectations proved wrong.
The undercover Israeli forces, who participated in a failed raid in November 2018, were detained and questioned by Hamas forces for 40 minutes prior to their cover being blown, Haaretz reported citing an unnamed Qatari news site, which in turned cited an anonymous Hamas source. The group of Israeli undercover agents was travelling in a van, pretending to be members of welfare association, Al-Basma Club for the Disabled and using fake IDs.
According to the media, after questioning the agents at the checkpoint in the southern part of the Gaza strip, Hamas' senior officer Nur al-Din Barakeh, suspected they were imposters and ordered to escort them to a command post, forcing the Israelis to break cover and shoot their way back. Barakeh and his deputy as well as a senior Israeli officer were killed in the subsequent gunfire exchange.
"Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him," Trump tweeted on Friday. "His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn't have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn't get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell."
The FBI has to provide sentencing recommendations and the reasons supporting them, which will give us some clues as to not only what it has, but also any potential exposure for President Trump.
The sentencing process will be complicated due to several of the defendants having broken their plea agreements by lying to the FBI or withholding information which kills their original plea deals. A good defense attorney will always explain this carefully to a client so he does not expose himself to more charges, perjury and/or obstruction of justice.
Also keep in mind that, with Trump savaging those making pleas, claiming they are lying to get a lighter sentence, Mueller will not be using their contributions without being in possession of supporting evidence like emails, phone call intercepts or corroborating testimony from others in the case. Someone with Mueller's stature does not go into court on a wish and a prayer.
Clinton Foundation CFO Andrew Kessel made the admissions to investigators from MDA Analytics LLC - a firm run by "accomplished ex-federal criminal investigators," who have been probing the Clinton Foundation for some time.
Kessel told MDA "There is no controlling Bill Clinton. He does whatever he wants and runs up incredible expenses with foundation funds, according to MDA's account of the interview. "Bill Clinton mixes and matches his personal business with that of the foundation. Many people within the foundation have tried to caution him about this but he does not listen, and there really is no talking to him."
Comment: More from Fox News: Clinton Foundation whistleblowers have come forward with hundreds of pages of evidence, Meadows says
Three people have come forward with hundreds of pages of evidence of potential wrongdoing by the Clinton Foundation, including misappropriation of funds and allegations of quid-pro-quo promises made to donors during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Fox News on Thursday.
Meadows, the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is also the chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations. The panel is set to hold an investigative hearing next week on the status of the Foundation case.
U.S. Attorney John Huber was tasked to investigate the foundation last year by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The Clinton Foundation consistently has maintained that it is a charity, and never traded on Hillary Clinton's position as America's top diplomat, which she held from 2009-2013. The organization has a four-star rating from the watchdog site Charity Navigator and has touted its mission "to create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service."
Last week, Fox News reported that newly filed tax documents showed donations to the Clinton Foundation plunged in the wake of Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The filings showed that the foundation took in $26.6 million in 2017, a 58 percent drop from the $62.9 million it received the previous year.
A spokesman for the foundation told The New York Post the drop was "largely attributable to the absence of sponsorship and membership contributions for [the Clinton Global Initiative]", which wrapped up in 2016. However, Meadows said that the donation drop "raises grave concerns their operations were not above board as the American people have been led to believe.
"Whenever we look at the possibility of 'pay to play' by government officials, current or former, it demands answers," Meadows added, "and anyone who uses public office to sell access for their own financial benefit must be held accountable."

A woman lies on a stretcher after a toxic gas attack in Aleppo, Syria November 24, 2018. Picture taken November 24, 2018.
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has decried the allegations by the US State Department which said on Friday that Moscow and Damascus were behind the shelling of civilians in Aleppo with a toxic substance on November 24.
The MoD called the statement "an attempt to whitewash terrorists in Idlib... who pulled the rug out from under their Western patrons with this provocation."
In a heavily redacted court filing on Friday, Mueller's prosecutors argue that Manafort breached his plea agreement by making false statements, which were "not instances of mere memory lapses."
One of the issues Manafort allegedly lied about were his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian citizen living in Kiev. In June, Mueller named Kilimnik as a co-conspirator in Manafort's alleged attempts to tamper with two unnamed witnesses in the probe. Those charges of witness tampering led to a judge ordering Manafort be held in jail.
Comment: Still a big nothing burger from Mueller: Limbaugh lays it all out: Mueller's intricate coverup of deep state spying on Trump is the real scandal
"The recent exercises on the eastern border of NATO, the presence in the Baltic States and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated the success of the Russian strategy of electronic warfare (EW). Both the potential of electronic attacks (for example, suppression) and electronic support (for example, target detection) show that the existing NATO tactical communications infrastructure is vulnerable to EW and will face serious threats," the document for research of the NATO Scientific and Technical Organization says.
Asked whether he thinks the arrest will spill over into the trade talks, Larry Kudlow said during a post-jobs-report interview on CNBC that he "rather doubts it," adding that China has agreed to talk about the security concerns (ie China's pervasive cyberespionage) raised during last weekend's meeting. He also hinted that Trump might be willing to extend that 90-day period set for negotiations, while he believes car tariffs "will come down rapidly."
Now, Rudy Giuliani is out joining the criticism of Mueller because it's apparent from Jerome Corsi and Manafort that what Mueller is doing, which we discussed last week, is trying to force people to say what Mueller wants them to say. He's trying to force people to lie in order to make the case that Mueller wants to make. And Giuliani is now calling Mueller out on this as well. So Cohen apparently has done this. Cohen has apparently told Mueller what he wants to hear about some things, particularly his Trump Tower meeting.
And again, folks, I can't stress enough here, this is so crucial and so important to illustrate how actually literally bogus all of this is. The original Russian collusion story that the media and the deep state reported for now two years is that the Russians and Trump got together and conspired - they really want to use conspiracy instead of collusion, but they don't dare. And they haven't needed to. Collusion people are interpreting it to meet conspiracy anyway. See, conspiracy is a crime. Collusion isn't. And that's why they have to be very careful in not using the word "conspiracy" 'cause there isn't any crime here.
They have literally created the impression in nearly half this country's population that the Russians tampered with votes and that Trump was aware of it and agreed to let them do it in order to benefit from it, i.e., being elected president, Hillary losing. This is what they made the American people think the Mueller investigation is.
Comment: An impressive connecting of the dots. Accuracy? Very likely close to it.














Comment: Awkward indeed, for Ukraine and for their American sponsors. The U.S. will go down in history as the great democracy that lent its support to Nazi collaborators and Wahhabi jihadists. As for Ukraine, future generations will only look back and laugh.