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© FRN
This map is an up-to-the-minute representation of the present situation in Libya. The Red dots represent areas held by Haftar/Benghazi, the Green dots represent either Tripoli's forces or various warlords.

Haftar's forces have been routing the Tripoli government's forces without major problems, followed by today's call for a march to the capital.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guteres, who arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday, called for restraint from both sides, warning the growing danger of a new major confrontation.

After an emergency meeting on April 5, the council warned that the military activity of Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) was putting the country's stability at risk. German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, who currently holds the Security Council presidency..."called on LNA forces to halt all military movements." The council said it would hold accountable those responsible for any further violence.

The council's statement came hours after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Haftar in Benghazi as part of efforts to forestall an outright assault on Tripoli and avoid a bloody civil war. "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," he said on Twitter after his meeting.

Earlier, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7)...expressed their "deepest concern" about the renewed fighting and urged an immediate end to military activity. "We urge all involved parties to immediately halt all military activity and movements toward Tripoli, which are hindering prospects for the UN-led political process, putting civilians in danger, and prolonging the suffering of the Libyan people," a statement said

Russia, which has provided Haftar with backing in the past, claimed it was not helping the commander's forces in the offensive and that it supported a negotiated political settlement that ruled out any new bloodshed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies on April 5 that Moscow was monitoring the situation.

The U.S. State Department also sounded the alarm about the new fighting.

Reuters and other news agencies said Haftar's forces took the town of Gharyan, about 80 kilometers south of Tripoli after fighting against forces allied with Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, who is based in Tripoli.

Tripoli-allied forces also reportedly took dozens of soldiers from Haftar's units prisoner in a town west of the capital.

Late on April 5, area residents said fighting was going on near the former international airport outside Tripoli and that the LNA had taken control of the facility. The Tripoli-based interior minister, Fathi Ali Bashagha, later said central government forces had retaken the airport.

"We firmly believe that there is no military solution to the Libyan conflict," the foreign ministers of France, Britain, Germany, United States, Italy, Japan and Canada said in a joint statement. The ministers added that "any Libyan actor or faction that precipitates further civil conflict are harming innocent people and standing in the way of the peace that Libyans deserve."

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's forces say they have taken full control over the former Tripoli International Airport, 34km from the city. It comes amid reports that the UN-backed government used airstrikes against his troops. His troops were filmed driving through the largely defunct Tripoli International Airport on Saturday.

Meanwhile, several reports from local officials said forces loyal to the government in Tripoli launched air raids on two separate positions of Haftar's troops.

At least 14 LNA soldiers have been killed, yet airstrikes from the Tripoli-based forces have inflicted no damage on Haftar's troops. LNA "avoids" the use of aviation against enemy forces, to minimize collateral damage.

LNA said it was declaring a no-fly zone for military aircraft in the east of Libya, Al Arabia reported. It said it would conduct strikes on airbases, from which their opponents would try to launch further sorties.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday called on all sides in the conflict to refrain from using military force, including warplanes, and seek a peaceful resolution of their differences. "We have been sending the same signal to all political forces in Libya. We never tried to favor either of them." Moscow has called for a cessation of strikes in the escalating conflict, and for its sides to sit down for talks.

Alleged FISA abuse is now the subject of a revamped investigation by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who last month demanded from the Justice Department a wide array of documentation related to the surveillance of Page and other members of the 2016 Trump campaign.

"[T]he Committee is concerned that the Woods procedures and a full presentment of material and relevant facts may not have occurred with regard to the applications for FISA warrants for (and the opening of the underlying investigations on) Carter Page and other individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump," Graham wrote in a letter. Enacted in 2001, the Woods Procedures were intended to protect U.S. citizens from improper surveillance by the government, seeking to "ensure accuracy with regard to the facts supporting probable cause."

For years there has been suspicion of intelligence agencies waging a political campaign against candidate and then President Trump. Allies of Trump often seize on a breadcrumb trail of odd activity, such as the infamous 2016 tarmac meeting between Obama-era Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton when his wife Hillary Clinton was a presidential candidate and under investigation for her unauthorized email server. Also fueling speculation are comments such as that from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who in January 2017, just before Trump's inauguration, warned the president-elect that intelligence officials "have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you."

By now everyone knows there were two parallel operations, two investigative paths, at work in the 2016 election. There was an official government investigation, Crossfire Hurricane via the FBI; and an unofficial investigation, dossier assembly via Chris Steele and Fusion GPS. Both operations originated in synergy with the vast Russian conspiracy narrative.

One operation was a function of elements outside the traditional framework of government via Fusion GPS. The second operation was specifically happening inside government spurred by CIA Director John Brennan and with the delivery of his "EC" officially creating the Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation.

Crossfire Hurricane, began on July 31st, 2016. Later in the year, the FBI investigation merged with the Fusion GPS investigation through the use of the Steele Dossier; and that led to the FISA application on Carter Page as a way to enmesh the two tracks.

Devin Nunes does an excellent job explaining the Fusion-GPS network, which includes: Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr, Christopher Steele and eventually DOJ official Bruce Ohr. Bruce was the bridge to import opposition research (The Dossier) from the private sector and inject it into the FBI intelligence apparatus.

This Fusion-GPS operation, as Nunes correctly describes, culminated with the Steele Dossier being transferred into the FBI. Again, I strongly urge everyone to read the Op-ed.

However, there is a stark absence within Nunes outline; there is something completely missing, "the second operation". The operation that originated from within the U.S. government in early 2016. The CIA operation started by John Brennan.

The external team, Glenn Simpson and Nellie Ohr et al, could not instruct Joseph Mifsud (Maltese Professor, FBI/CIA asset), or Alexander Downer (Australian Diplomat), or Stephan Halper (U.K. Academic and FBI/CIA asset), or Charles Tawil (Israeli CIA asset) to make contact with George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn or Carter Page. Those contacts were covert and (un)official government missions for the weaponized U.S. intelligence apparatus.

I can understand why Devin Nunes would want to avoid attention on the second 'inside government' operation due to collateral damage that might hit our intelligence capabilities, ie. FISA. Indeed, with Mr. Nunes in charge of keeping those intelligence capabilities intact, he has somewhat of a conflicted professional interest in full exposure.

However, let me state clearly I'm very concerned the U.S. intelligence system is going to take the same approach toward defending their conflicted interests that Devin Nunes is taking inside this op-ed.

Heck, it would not be a leap to anticipate CIA Director John Brennan, ODNI James Clapper and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe counting on exactly this inherent conflict helping their own escape from accountability.

The Steele Dossier did not originate Crossfire Hurricane. CIA Director John Brennan ran an operation from February through July 2016 to create the Crossfire Hurricane investigation run by FBI Agent Peter Strzok. The Dossier was on an entirely different track.

Devin Nunes has been a solid and trustworthy patriot throughout. Unfortunately, while many people might not notice the gaping hole inside his op-ed, those of us who do notice have a reason to be concerned....

Do not let the Deep State bad actors escape by only holding outside conspirators accountable.

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European leaders unimpressed by May's Brexit extension request

Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, said the request "raises many questions" and the letter is not enough to grant a further extension. Rutte added that he hopes the UK will give more clarity before the next EU summit on April 10.

"We, as the European Union, have set very clear deadlines and there is no reason to further extend those deadlines," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told the Straubinger Tagblatt newspaper.

"Unless the facts in Britain change. But we have not yet reached this point."

Those comments were echoed by Germany's Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, who said that there are "many questions still to clarify in London".

"We will come together with our European colleagues at the next council meeting and come to an opinion over the question of an extension and how long such an extension should be," Maas said.

This prompted a pointed remark from a diplomatic source close to French President Emmanuel Macron, who decried the rumors of Brussels granting Britain another extension to the deadline for leaving the union as "clumsy" and "premature."

"[There is a] need for a credible alternative plan justifying this request. We're not there today," the source told Reuters. "In any case, we need a clear plan from London by Tuesday."

'Be careful what you wish for'

The European Parliament's Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, also cast doubt on Brussels' appetite for prolonging the Brexit crisis by referencing a tweet from prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg which argued that the UK should be "as difficult as possible" if an extension leaves it stuck in the EU. "Be careful what you wish for," Verhofstadt quipped.

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