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Bad Guys

Agent of chaos: Washington provokes Turkey, widens war in Syria

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
flag graffiti
The Trump administration has drawn Turkey deeper into the Syrian conflict by announcing a policy that threatens Turkey's national security. Washington's gaffe has pitted one NATO ally against the other while undermining hopes for a speedy end to the seven year-long war.

Here's what's going on: On January 18, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the creation of a 30,000-man Border Security Force (BSF) to occupy East Syria. Two days later, January 20, the Turkish Army launched a ground and air offensive against Kurdish troops in the Afrin canton in Northwest Syria.

The media has tried to downplay the connection between the two events, but the cause-and-effect relationship is pretty clear. Tillerson's provocation triggered the Turkish invasion and another bloody phase to the needlessly-protracted conflict. Washington's screwup has made a bad situation even worse.

A five-year-old child could have figured out that Turkey wasn't going to sit-back and let the US establish a Kurdish state on its border without putting up a fight. Keep in mind, the US plans to defend this new protectorate with a 30,000-man proxy-army comprised of mostly Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units or YPG. The Turks, however, believe the YPG is connected to the terror-listed PKK which has prosecuted a scorched earth campaign against the Turkish state for decades. That's why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not allow these groups to dig in along Turkey's southern border, they constitute a serious threat to Turkey's security. Just imagine if Hezbollah decided to set up military encampments along the Mexican border. How long do you think it would take before Trump blew those camps to kingdom come? Not long, I'd wager.


Comment: Hezbollah? Poor analogy. Try ISIS.


Comment: Listen in: Behind the Headlines: Turkey Launches Military Operation Against Syrian Kurdish 'Rebels'

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Fire

'Shocking' FISA memo will be made public - House Intel Committee vote

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:18 UTC
trump flag
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Donald Trump 1 - Deep State 0

In a highly anticipated decision, on Monday evening the House Intelligence Committee voted to make public the memo alleging what some Republicans say are "shocking" surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice regarding the Trump presidential campaign.

In immediate response to the vote, the Committee's top democrat Adam Schiff said that "we've crossed a deeply regrettable line", adding that the "committee voted to put the president's interest above the interest of the country."



Adam Schiff's full post-memo release press conference is below:

Comment: Get out the popcorn. Trump's State of the Union speech might be a doozy.

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Star of David

Struggle for equal rights for Palestinians is 'right choice,' and will lead to 'significant exodus of Jews' — Henry Siegman

Phillip Weiss
MondoWeiss
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Henry Siegman
© Unknown
Everyone should read Henry Siegman's long piece in the National Interest on the "Implications of President Trump's Jerusalem Ploy." Siegman is a great leader because he has bucked the American and Jewish establishment, of which he is a member, to declare that the two-state solution is dead and buried.

He is also a prophet inasmuch as he is counseling American Jewry to give up its attachment to Zionism as a dead letter, no different from a Christian state here, and so prepare itself for a future in which Israel is isolated as a pariah state and there is a "significant exodus of Israel's Jews."

His words are astounding because Siegman, a Holocaust survivor now in his late 80s, was himself a Zionist, and head of the World Jewish Congress. His bravery in renouncing the animating political faiths of his life- it's inspiring.

His intervention is especially meaningful because this week Barack Obama came back for an encore, at a prominent NY synagogue this week, and trotted out his usual b.s. about being Israel's best friend, and softening his good last blow- allowing the Security Council settlements resolution to pass- by saying that settlement construction had "rocketed," so he had to do something. No vision at all, from a person who has some high degree of freedom in his life. Siegman knocks Obama hard in his piece.
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Eagle

Lock them up! How Obama helped orchestrate the deep state coup

Daniel John Sobieski
American Thinker
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Obama Comey Mueller
In any criminal investigation where the suspect is not immediately known, the first question usually asked is who would have the most to gain? As we follow the bread crumbs of the text messages of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and await release of the House Intelligence Committee's memo regarding the collusion between the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DOJ, and FBI to interfere with the 2016, ensure the election of Hillary, and the defeat or impeachment of Donald Trump, the answer to that question is clear -- one Barack Hussein Obama.

Can it be believed that as key players in the Obama administration like Strzok and Page, as well as FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, number 4 at Justice Bruce Ohr, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and many others were linked in a vast criminal conspiracy to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House, that Barack Obama was blissfully unaware of all this? Rather, it can be plausibly argued that he was orchestrating it.

Perhaps not directly or by explicit orders, but rather by discussing the threat to his legacy Trump represented with his progressive minions and then simply saying, as crime bosses throughout history have done, "You know what needs to be done. Do it."

This scandal did not occur in a vacuum any more than did the weaponizing of the IRS to target the Tea Party and other conservative groups before Obama's 2012 reelection campaign occurred in a vacuum. The agencies under Obama's control have been politicized before and used to intimidate and destroy his political opponents.
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Arrow Down

FBI and DOJ sought additional surveillance on Trump campaign adviser from Steele dossier 'findings'


RT
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 22:13 UTC
Carter Page and Rod Rosenstein
© AFP / ReutersCarter Page and Rod Rosenstein
A House Intelligence Committee memo shows Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved extending surveillance on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, based on allegations in the Steele dossier.

The request was made shortly after Rosenstein took office last spring, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the department's Russia investigation, said three people familiar with it, according to the New York Times.

The Republican memo is said to contain allegations that FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials failed to fully explain to an intelligence court judge in seeking the extended surveillance of Page that it was relying in part on research by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, which had been financed by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Comment: 'Shocking' FISA memo will be made public - House Intel Committee vote

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Arrow Up

Pro-Trump Czech president Milos Zeman gets re-elected on populist message and warning of 'organized invasion' of migrants

Adam Shaw
Fox News
Sat, 27 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Czech President Milos Zeman
© ReutersCzech President Milos Zeman defeated challenger Jiri Drahos in a presidential runoff Saturday.
Europe's populist movement was given a shot in the arm on Saturday when Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, running primarily on an anti-migration platform, fended off a challenge from political neophyte Jiri Drahos.

Zeman won 51.4 percent of the vote from the two-day runoff while Drahos won 48.6 percent.

Czech Radio reports that Drahos won in most of the main cities, while Zeman scored big with smaller towns and the countryside, with analysts saying Zeman's "common touch" made the difference.

Zeman, a former left-wing prime minister who ascended to the presidency in 2013, had been widely criticized for what critics described as Islamophobic rhetoric, and had also raised concerns in Western Europe by taking a distinctly pro-Russian approach on questions such as the annexation of Crimea.
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Cell Phone

FBI claims they can't locate McCabe text messages (Video)

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 18:39 UTC
strzok texts
© Fox News
The world's premier intelligence agency just lost another batch of text messages! Does anyone believe this?

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton joined Judge Jeanine Pirro on her FOX News program Saturday night.

Tom Fitton told Judge Jeanine how difficult it was dealing with the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.

Then Tom Fitton dropped this bomb:

The FBI will not turn over Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's text messages!

Comment: RT reports on McCabe resignation:
Andrew McCabe has stepped down effective immediately, NBC News reported citing sources inside the Bureau. He will be on leave until March, when he will officially retire from federal service.

There was no official announcement about McCabe's retirement, only reports via NBC's legal and White House correspondents.

McCabe announced his intent to retire in December, shortly after a closed-doors testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. The announcement said he would be retiring in March, when he became eligible for pension benefits, prompting President Donald Trump to chide him on Twitter.


The deputy director, who headed the FBI between the firing of James Comey in May 2017 and the appointment of new director Christopher Wray in August, had been under fire by the Trump administration over his reported ties to Clinton ally and former Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe. McCabe's wife Jill received substantial funds from McAuliffe's PAC for her 2015 state Senate run, which ended up being unsuccessful.

Emails released by the FBI last November showed McCabe referring to the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as "special." More recently, he was referenced in the text messages between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who talked about a meeting at "Andy's office" in light of discussions about the "insurance policy" in case Trump gets elected.

Another subject of controversy in Washington has been the 4-page memo by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-California), which reportedly accuses the FBI of abusing FISA surveillance warrants to spy on the Trump campaign. Director Wray read the memo on Sunday, according to Fox News.


Following the 2016 presidential election, Democrats called for the resignations of both Comey and McCabe, after the Clinton campaign said the FBI letters about the email investigation shortly before the election "helped depress our turnout and also drove away some of our critical support " and "helped to bolster Trump's turnout."


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Document

House Intel may likely vote on memo release - is Sessions softening his stance?


Washington Examiner
Sun, 28 Jan 2018 04:40 UTC
Sessions
© AP/Steve HelberUS Attorney General Jeff Sessions
The House Intelligence Committee meets at 5 p.m. Monday in the Capitol. The meeting will give the committee its first opportunity to vote on the question of releasing the so-called "FISA abuse" memo that has captured Washington's attention in recent days. Since the GOP holds a 13 to 9 advantage on the committee, the overwhelming likelihood is that if there is a vote, the panel will decide, along party lines, to release the memo.

At that point, House rules call for the committee to await a decision by the president on whether he supports or opposes release of the memo. President Trump has made clear he supports release, so the memo could be made public quickly.

The public might also learn committee Democrats' plans for a counter-memo. Ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff has accused Republicans of cherry-picking and distorting the intelligence underlying the GOP memo, and last Wednesday announced that Democrats would "draft our own memorandum, setting out the relevant facts and exposing the misleading character of the Republicans' document."

Comment: Will it be released? Will it prove definitive? A congressional cliff hanger...!

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Star of David

How Trump is increasing Israel's loss of support

Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
PenceNetanyahu
© FacebookUS Vice President Mike Pence • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Lobby leaders are once again bemoaning the fact that support for Israel is eroding rapidly among key constituencies in the United States, this time young American Jews.

In fact, the Trump presidency may be accelerating the trend as support for Israel becomes increasingly associated with the kind of right-wing and Christian Zionist fanaticism Vice President Mike Pence brought to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, on Monday.

Alan Hoffman, CEO of the Israeli-government backed settler-colonization organization the Jewish Agency, bemoaned the "extremely worrisome" finding that support for Israel among American Jewish college students has plunged 32 percent between 2010 and 2016. This is according to a new survey by the Brand Israel Group, and it confirms trends that the consortium of pro-Israel lobbyists has found in earlier polls.

"In the year since Trump was elected, the situation has only been exacerbated," Hoffman told a gathering of Israel lobby leaders in New York on Monday, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "Jewish college students in the United States, not including those who are Orthodox, see Israel, justifiably or not, as something opposed to their basic liberal and progressive values."

The numbers, Hoffman said, are "like nothing we have ever seen before."

Comment: Another interesting shake-up taking place in the US - wittingly or unwittingly - due to Trump.
See also:

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Beaker

Who's using chlorine as a chem weapon in Syria?

Charles Shoebridge
RT
Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:37 UTC
gasmaskflag
© Sputnik News
Former Scotland Yard detective Charles Shoebridge explains why claims of chlorine attacks in Syria should be treated with caution.

The alleged use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria is back in the news in the US and UK, with fresh incidents reported and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson taking the opportunity within the last few days to condemn Syrian President Bashar Assad over the issue. Unusually, he also later appeared to concede there may be some doubt - but asserted anyway that "whoever conducted the attacks Russia bears responsibility."

So how does the alleged evidence that the Syrian government is carrying out chlorine attacks stack up?

Some years ago I pointed out the still rarely commented upon apparent correlation between the timing of chlorine incidents and the holding of important international gatherings on Syria, such as UN Security Council meetings. If the chlorine claims were true, it seemed that Assad for some reason was deliberately timing his attacks to best hand his opponents a propaganda advantage and to mobilize the world against him. Another explanation, perhaps more likely yet never mentioned in the Western media, was that to achieve this aim these incidents were actually false flags his opponents were fabricating.

The recent allegations seem similar in this respect, coinciding exactly with many world leaders including Tillerson meeting in Paris to discuss chemical weapons, and just as a Syrian government operation to clear eastern Ghouta of US- and UK-backed rebel forces allied with groups associated with al Qaeda is underway.

Regardless of factual basis, claims of chlorine use, along with those of barrel bombs and attacks on hospitals, have been one of the most enduring propaganda memes of the Syria war.

Comment: See also:

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