Whether you love or hate Trump's "Muslim ban" (it's actually a temporary 3-month ban, except for Syrians), there's a bigger picture ...

CNN notes:

The seven Muslim-majority countries targeted in President Trump's executive order on immigration were initially identified as "countries of concern" under the Obama administration.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Sunday pointed to the Obama administration's actions as the basis for their selection of the seven countries. Trump's order bars citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S. for the next 90 days.

"There were further travel restrictions already in place from those seven countries," Spicer said on ABC's "This Week."

6 out of the 7 countries on the list - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria - were targeted for regime change by the U.S. 25 years ago. Specifically, (Indeed, the U.S. previously carried out coups to implement regime change in these countries numerous times in the past.)

The White House is looking into how embarrassing details of President Donald Trump's recent tense phone conversations with his counterparts in Australia and Mexico were leaked to news organizations, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Fox News Channel.

"The president takes these leaks very seriously," Spicer said in an interview with Fox News Channel, which on Friday provided a transcript of a segment set to air on Saturday.

Trump cut short a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after an acrimonious discussion about a refugee swap deal, a conversation that threatened ties between the two allies after details appeared in The Washington Post.

In an earlier call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto about paying for a wall on the southern U.S. border, Trump said he might send the U.S. military to Mexico to stop drug cartels - details from a transcript obtained by a Mexican news organization Aristegui Noticias and the Associated Press. The White House later said the comments were meant to be lighthearted.

At a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted that Iran had attacked a U.S. naval vessel. This statement was taken as part and parcel of his argument defending the Trump administration's decision to put Iran "on notice."

However, as the Intercept confirmed directly with Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood, the attack in question actually took place on a Saudi warship, and the suspected perpetrators of the attack are the Houthi rebels currently leading an insurrection in Yemen, not Iran.

But Iran is allegedly backing the Houthi rebels in Yemen. So surely, any attack committed by those rebels against the U.S. or its allies can be deemed and [an] Iranian assault by way of proxy, right? Not according to the U.N. experts, who presented a report to the U.N. Security Council just this past weekend. It stated:

"The panel has not seen sufficient evidence to confirm any direct large-scale supply of arms from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, although there are indicators that anti-tank guided weapons being supplied to the Houthi or Saleh forces are of Iranian manufacture."[emphasis added]

Even without an official White House title, Ivanka Trump is proving to be a power player.

Just this past week, the first daughter joined President Donald Trump at a policy meeting with business executives and accompanied him on a trip to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen. She hosted CEOs at her home to talk policy and used her influence behind the scenes at the White House.

These efforts have focused attention on the role Ivanka Trump, 35, expects to play after resigning executive positions with the Trump Organization and her own lifestyle brand, and moving to Washington. For now, though, it's her husband, Jared Kushner, who is officially working in the administration.

"My father will be president, and hopefully, I can be there to support him and to support those causes I've cared about my whole professional career," Ivanka Trump told ABC's "20/20" last month.

President Donald Trump's nominee for Army secretary, businessman Vincent Viola, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was disappointed but understood and respected Viola's decision, a Pentagon statement said. Mattis will recommend to Trump another candidate soon, the statement said.

A Trump administration official confirmed Friday night that Viola had withdrawn. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

The Military Times reported that Viola said in a statement he was "deeply honored" to be nominated but cited his inability to successfully navigate the confirmation process and Defense Department rules concerning family businesses.

Following in the footsteps of Obama's precedent-setting record signing one executive order after the next, in his first couple weeks as president, Donald Trump is resorting to using the same nonstop, end-around executive orders that willfully defy, undermine and violate our constitutional checks and balances system requiring both Congressional approval and judicial oversight. Moreover, Trump's actions in his first few days in power reflect a dangerous level of aggressive, in-our-face extremism, an unwillingness and hubris to even bother negotiating, compromising or otherwise cooperating with those who disagree or oppose him. Reacting to the Orlando false flag last June, Trump said he'd impose an immigration ban on Muslims. When his future secretary of defense then retired General James Mattis was asked about Trump's reactionary hardline stance, Mattis replied that it would cause our allies in the Islamic world to conclude that:

We have lost faith in reason.... They think we've completely lost it. This kind of thing is causing us great damage right now, and it's sending shock waves through this international system.

With a history of both Democrat and Republican establishment together with mainstream media vehemently challenging, lying and opposing his every move, the Donald is smart enough to be fully aware that his direct assault on Muslims, his unabashed advent of "bringing back" torture (as though it ever really left), including the heinously illegal practice of waterboarding and other enhanced "interrogation" techniques, would be guaranteed to generate massive pushback from all corners of the globe. With his signature he instantly left thousands of Muslims stranded at airports and around the nation and world holding green cards and US visas in a state of shock and limbo. Up to a half million permanent residents in the US from those seven countries are affected. Adding further insult to injury, that same executive order calls for sending more Islamic prisoners to Guantanamo. Yet President Trump went ahead with his over-the-top agenda anyway, almost as if he's following orders from the powers-that-shouldn't-be to intentionally create global havoc and chaos right out of the gate, something the ruling elite's been bent on materializing for numerous decades now.

Hostile rhetoric and actions of the new US president will not be left unanswered, a senior Iranian official told RT, adding that Iran seeks stability and peace in the region and only tests new weapons to bolster the country's security and to protect allies and friends.

Recent Iranian ballistic missile tests were not conducted to intimidate or threaten any country in the region, but solely for the purpose of bolstering the country's defensive capabilities, Iranian Parliamentary Director General for International Affairs and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told RT in an exclusive interview.

"The defense policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is an internal matter. Given the complexity of today's world, we are carefully working to improve the level of our defense. I consider maneuvers and advanced rocket tests an internal affair, with the aim of strengthening the country's defense structures."

"Iran's military programs are designed to protect the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Abdollahian told RT. "Furthermore, they also exist to protect our friends in the region. There are some who are hostile to the West Asia region, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf."

Iran has conducted missile and radar tests, with the military vowing to fire "roaring missiles" if the country is threatened. It comes as the US hits Iran with more sanctions and the Pentagon brands Tehran the biggest state sponsor of terrorism.

The latest exercise took place in Semnan Province on Saturday, covering 35,000 square kilometers, and the Revolutionary Guards website said the drills took place to "showcase the power of Iran's revolution and to dismiss the sanctions."

The drills are aimed at testing home-made missile systems, radars, command and control centers, and cyber-warfare systems, Iranian state news agencies reported, as cited by Reuters.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi slammed the idea of 'safe zones' in Syria, saying he does not "see the conditions" to create such areas in the war-torn country.

"Let's not waste time planning safe zones that will not be set up because they will not be safe enough for people to go back," Grandi said Friday, as cited by Reuters.

Grandi urged instead to "concentrate on making peace so that everything becomes safe. That should be the investment."

"Frankly, I don't see in Syria the conditions" to set up such zones in the country, "with the fragmentation, the number of actors, the presence of terrorist groups," he added.

"It's not the right place to think of that solution," the official concluded.

The old journalistic maxim, "report what you know and stick to the facts," has been difficult to honor during the Ukraine conflict. Because while every military confrontation has a "fog of war," this firefight has gone further.

It has a sort of "cloud of war." And a big thick and grey one at that, which envelopes everyone who tries to penetrate it in all sorts of mud, grime and manure.

At this point, almost all observers who've touched it have shipped a soiling or six, and that's why everyone - except the poor, unfortunate locals caught up in the battlegrounds - felt relieved when the matter appeared to have become frozen after the Minsk accords. And a nod seemed as good as a wink for quite some time.