President Trump

Qatar Accuses Saudis of “Reckless Behavior” After Military Threat

Qatar wasn’t pleased after being threatened indirectly by Saudi Arabia after a letter reportedly sent from King Salman to France was published in a French newspaper. In the letter, the Saudis threatened military action if Qatar installs a Russian air defense system.

Qatar’s foreign minister told Al Jazeera he did not think the Saudi threat – reportedly made in a letter to France – was serious. But he accused Riyadh of using the letter to try and create a “disturbance” in a region already rocked by a year-long stand-off between Doha and other powers.

France’s Le Monde newspaper reported on Saturday that Saudi King Salman had sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron expressing concern over talks between Doha and Moscow about Russian S-400 missile air defense systems.
The newspaper added that the king had said Saudi Arabia was ready to consider all measures, including military action.
“We are seeking formal confirmation from the French government (about the letter),” Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the English-language channel of Qatar-based Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Tuesday.
“There is no serious military threat out of this, but the way it is being used to justify or to create a disturbance in the region is just unacceptable,” he said. “There is no legitimate grievance behind this letter and threatening Qatar.”
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar a year ago, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar denies the accusation and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.

In the tricky world of Middle East politics, the United States has close ties with both parties in this dispute. Qatar has a base with 11,000 U.S. and coalition troops and they are considered a vital part of the Sunni Muslim alliance. They are countering the Shiite Muslim faction being backed by Iran.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Air Force Cancels $24 Million Refrigerator Contract For Air Force One

The US Air Force has canceled a $24 million contract for new refrigerators for Air Force One, to replace two of five “chiller units in the presidential jet.

The decision to cancel the contract was first revealed in a statement issued Monday by Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat who’s the ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed that the contract had been canceled, adding that there are no plans at the moment to replace the refrigerators through a future contract.

“The Air Force is making the right decision [to] cancel the previously announced sole-source contract and hit restart on this process,” Courtney said in the statement. “Even with the understanding that the Air Force One mission brings with it unique requirements and challenges, a $24 million sole-source contract just didn’t pass the smell test.”
Courtney said the decision to cancel the contract was made jointly by the Air Force and the White House Military Office, according to a letter he received from Heather Wilson, the secretary of the Air Force.
In December, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $23.6 million contract to replace two of the five “cold chiller units” aboard the aircraft used by Trump.
The new $24 million chiller units were intended to replace the refrigeration units being currently used, which, according to the Air Force, were part of “the original commercial equipment delivered with the aircraft in 1990.”
“Although serviced on a regular basis, reliability has decreased with failures increasing, especially in hot/humid environments. The units are unable to effectively support mission requirements for food storage,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told CNN in January, when news of the contract first broke.

While no one expects a refrigerator to last 28 years and it is understood that these have to be custom made to fit inside of the aircraft, so they won’t be cheap. But at almost $12 million per pop to keep the beer cold? That’s excessive. Even in Washington.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

North and South Korea Agree to Hold Military, Red Cross Talks

While the on-again, off-again summit meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un is still in flux, the divided Korean states, both North and South have agreed to conduct military and Red Cross talks later this month. They are trying to finally end the war that began 68 years ago and hopefully set the table for families to be able to reconnect since the war began.

The rivals also agreed at a meeting of senior officials at the border village of Panmunjom to soon establish a liaison office at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and hold sports talks on fielding combined teams in some sports at the Asian Games in August, as they continue to take steps toward reconciliation.
South Korea says building trust with North Korea is crucial amid a U.S.-led diplomatic push to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
The high-level meeting between the Koreas followed talks in New York between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol on a possible summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. American delegations are also meeting with North Koreans at Panmunjom and in Singapore.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reported that “good progress” has been made with North Korea and setting up the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un.

The US is pressing a demand for “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization.” The US has promised the North Koreans security guarantees as well as helping them achieve economic prosperity.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo: screenshot of North and Korean leaders meeting

Assad Vows to Retake Areas of Southern Syria Held by US-Backed Kurds

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has upped the ante and warned Kurdish forces that are trained and equipped by the United States that he wouldn’t hesitate to use force to retake the roughly one-third of the country they currently control.

Assad also tried to sound ominous and said in an interview with Russian television that the U.S should learn the lessons of Iraq and remove their troops from Syria.

“The only problem left in Syria is the SDF,” Assad said, referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which spearheaded battles against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
“We’re going to deal with it by two options: the first one we started now opening doors for negotiations, because the majority of them [SDF] are Syrians. Supposedly they like their country, they don’t like to be puppets to any foreigners,” Assad said.
“If not, we’re going to resort … to liberating those areas by force. It’s our land, it’s our right, and it’s our duty to liberate it, and the Americans should leave. Somehow they’re going to leave,” he added.
“They came to Iraq with no legal basis and look what happened to them. They have to learn the lesson. Iraq is no exception and Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region any more.”
Assad said a confrontation between Russia and US forces over Syria had been narrowly avoided.
“We were close to having direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces,” he said. “Fortunately it has been avoided – not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership.”

Assad in his comments about foreigners neglected to mention the scores of Iranian troops that have been spoiling to start a fight with Israel and have been being hammered …on Syrian soil nor the attack by Syrian and Russian “contractors” on a US base that resulted in a stinging defeat at the hands of the US-backed Kurds.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Putin, Russia Appears Pleased Where the Syrian Conflict Is

The Syrian Civil War is moving towards a stalemate with the government of President Assad regaining control of 60 percent of his territory. The U.S.-led coalition will continue to hold ground in the east and the Turks have made it clear they will not return Syrian territory around Idlib.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin is fine with all of that. He’s already managing similar conflicts like this in Georgia and Ukraine.

Other significant players in Syria, including Israel, the United States, Turkey, and the remaining Sunni Arab rebels, may likewise discover they’d be satisfied with this new reality. The clearest losers, by contrast, would be the Assad regime and Iran.
What are the indications Syria is moving in the direction of frozen conflict? Consider the recent visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Russia to meet with Putin. At the press conference following the meeting, Putin told reporters that, “Following the Syrian Army’s notable successes in fighting terrorism, and with the activation of the political process, the foreign forces based in Syria will start to withdraw from the country.” This seemed to hint that the Russian president wasn’t interested in assisting the Assad regime’s reconquest of the entirety of Syria. And absent the Russian air support that the Syrian military has relied on in major combat operations (including the siege of Aleppo and the destruction of rebel-controlled Eastern Ghouta), such reconquest would be impossible.
Some have speculated that Putin was referring only to the withdrawal of foreign forces opposed to the regime. In the past, Moscow has sought to differentiate between its own presence in Syria (at the invitation of the “legitimate” Syrian authorities) and the uninvited presence of other foreign elements. On this occasion, however, Russia’s Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, clarified that the president was referring to “all foreign military forces stationed in Syria, including American, Turkish, Hezbollah, and Iranian [forces].”
The Russian statement was followed by an angry response from Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told reporters in Tehran that, “No one can force Iran to do anything. … As long as terrorism exists and the Syrian government wants, Iran will have presence [in Syria].” The dueling statements are just one indication among many of differences between Moscow and some of its allies about the future of Syria.
Iran has been pushing for the regime to attempt an assault on remaining rebel enclaves in southwest Syria. The arrival of Iran-supported units to the border, however, brings with it the possibility of a large-scale Israeli response. Russia has no interest in such an outcome, which could plunge Syria into a new war and threaten the gains the Assad regime has already made.

Putin it seems is content with the consolidation of his main ally in the Assad regime and continuing to work with both Turkey and Israel as well as the continuing undermining of the West’s influence in the area.

To read the entire article from Foreign Policy, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

US Air Force Increasing the Airstrikes in Afghanistan

With the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria nearly complete, the U.S. Air Force is quickly turning its attention back to Afghanistan. As the number of close air support missions dwindles in Iraq and Syria, the need in Afghanistan remains constant and the Air Force is stepping up the air campaign.

In April 2017, American and allied jets dropped over 3,000 bombs on ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
But a year later, aircrafts dropped just 254 bombs, a sign of how much the war against ISIS has changed, according to a new strike report released over the weekend from the U.S. Air Force.

Throughout April, the U.S. military dropped the second-highest amount of bombs in Afghanistan in six-and-a-half years, the Air Force report said. The 562 bombs dropped in Afghanistan last month were more than the combined March and April totals in Iraq and Syria.
U.S. Forces Afghanistan released a video showing 28 Taliban fighters getting mowed down by American drones in Farah Province, which borders Iran.
The Pentagon wouldn’t rule out Tehran’s influence.
“I don’t think you can ever rule out how much Iran interferes throughout this region. Iran remains the most destabilizing factor in the Middle East. So no, I don’t think you can ever rule out their mischief,” Pentagon spokesperson Dana W. White said at a press conference at the Pentagon Thursday.
White didn’t offer any specific details about the battle last week.
According to the latest numbers, the U.S. Air Force dropped two-times more bombs in Afghanistan than Iraq and Syria last month, as the Afghan spring offensive against the Taliban ramps up.
The U.S. Air Force said that Afghan jets recently helped destroy 29 Taliban narcotics labs as a way of cutting off a key revenue source for the Taliban.

While a year ago, U.S. Air Force jets fired or dropped 40,000 munitions against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria against about 4000 in Afghanistan, those numbers have changed.

U.S. commanders from the Central Command are no stating that Afghanistan is the “main effort” for American troops in the Middle East.

To read the entire article from Fox News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Senate Confirms Haspel as CIA’s First Woman Director

In the end, the vote to confirm Gina Haspel as the next Director of CIA stayed pretty much divided along party lines with Republicans favoring her nomination and Democrats voting against it. It times it seemed that her nomination was going to fail due to numerous questions over her running an “enhanced interrogation” site in Thailand.

Haspel was confirmed by a 54-45 vote with two Republicans ( Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Jeff Flake of Arizona), voting against her (John McCain was absent) and six Democrats voting for her, including Mark Warner (D-Virginia) the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Gina Haspel is among one of the most qualified people to be nominated to be director of the CIA,” Warner said. “I feel safer knowing the CIA has Miss Haspel at the helm. … I believe Gina Haspel should be confirmed. I look forward to supporting her.”

Haspel has had a 33-year career, most of it as a covert agent and has been a Chief of Station in four different cities in the world. She was also named by Director John Brennan as the acting Director of the National Clandestine Service, which carries out covert operations around the world. Mike Pompeo made her the Deputy Director and since he became the Secretary of State, Haspel has been the Acting Director of CIA.

She worked her way up through the ranks and is widely respected by the rank and file of the agency as a tough, sensible career covert agent who is minus the egos most associate with Washington politics.

Haspel was also endorsed by former Directors of Central Intelligence from both the Republican and Democratic sides of the aisle as the ablest candidate to lead the agency for the foreseeable future.

However, she was dogged by allegations of torture at the CIA’s black site in Thailand where terrorist suspects were interrogated. The site set up in 2002 just after 9/11 was trying to glean as much information out of terrorists to prevent further attacks on U.S. soil.

Although ruled legal at the time by the Justice Department, many of the critics of her and the Agency claim that the site was conducting torture and during her confirmation, her critics were actively trying to derail her nomination based on decisions made that were far above her pay grade at the time.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as usual, was particularly shrill in her criticism of anything put forward by the President

“No matter how you dress it up, torture is torture,” Warren said. “It’s inhumane, ineffective, and un-American. Gina Haspel advocated for torture.”

Haspel was also criticized for destroying the tapes of the interrogations in 2005, something she said was to protect the identity of CIA personnel as many were still in covert assignments.

Haspel is not only the first woman to head CIA but is the first career employee to head the agency since William Colby retired in 1976. Colby was an OSS operative in World War II and joined CIA at its outset, like Haspel, working his way up the ranks to head the agency.

Haspel is uniquely qualified to do the job and will have several difficult tasks to tackle immediately.

The growing tension between the US and China, where the latter is trying to increase its global footprint for the first time in its history by branching out with overseas bases, particularly pushing against the U.S.

The reignition of the Cold War with Russia is a sticky point with both the United States and our allies right now. Supposed Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential election and the midterms right around the corner will be issues that the agency will have to deal with.

The Russians are already under heavy scrutiny for the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, the UK combined with the continued use of chemical agents by their ally in Assad is an issue that is not going away.

With the civil war in Syria all but over and ISIS on the run, the administration has to decide what the next course of action is there. The U.S.-led coalition is in the middle of a bunch of bad actors that the agency will be forced to try to sift through. With the Russians and Syrians on one side, the Iranians and their forces on another. Turkey has entered the fray and considers the SDF, the U.S. trained Syrian Democratic Forces a terrorist organization.

Iran is another matter entirely. The Russians with their air defenses in Syria have yet to lift a finger to help the Iranians who have taken a beating from Israeli airstrikes. The Iranians are looking to expand their influence not only across the Middle East but in South America as well as their Hezbollah proxies are expanding there.

And of course, the United States is having one-on-one nuclear disarmament discussions with Kim Il-Jong of North Korea. The first time a standing U.S. president will meet with a Korean leader from the north since the Korean War started.

So there isn’t much on Haspel’s plate right off the bat. But if there is anyone who can handle all of that and more, it is her. CIA is in good hands.

Photo: Wikipedia

Pakistan Building Fence Along Border with Afghanistan

In order to slow the flow of terrorists from Afghanistan, Pakistan has begun a project to construct border fences along their porous 1500-mile border with Afghanistan.

The project is slated to cost $483 million and the military is hoping it will help in dismantling militant networks in the largely lawless North and South Waziristan regions.

“For the better security of our country and nation, we had to do this work,” a Pakistani army official, Brig. Nisar, who uses only one name, told journalists during a government-organized visit to the border this month.
The barrier has angered the Afghan government, which disputes the location of the boundary and says the fence will tear communities apart.
Construction began last year on two fences that parallel each other as they snake through the remote, mountainous landscape. Standing 13 feet high on the Afghan side and 11 feet on the Pakistani side, sharp spirals of silver barbed wire are cradled at the top of each.
Additional coils of barbed wire have been placed on the ground in the gap between the fences, which are dotted with Pakistani military towers.
The military says it will have 92 percent of the national border fenced before the end of 2019.
However, only three miles of the 789-mile stretch of the border along the remote southwestern province of Balochistan has been fenced so far, according to a military official who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity.
Beyond Balochistan, Pakistani authorities said the other part of the fence, including the portion visited by NBC News, would eventually total 516 miles in length. Around 146 miles of that stretch has been completed, according to officials.
Some parts of the border will not be fenced as they are too mountainous.

The Pakistanis have accused the Afghans of not doing enough to secure the border area and claim terrorists from ISIS use Afghanistan to plan operations. The Afghan government also disputes where the actual border is, put in place by the British during the 19^th century.

To read the entire article from the NBC News, click here:

File Photo courtesy Wikipedia of construction along Pakistan-Afghan border

Israel, Backed Into a Corner, Had No Other Choice

Opinion: No one liked what they saw unfold on television earlier this week. Dozens of people dead, hundreds more wounded in violent clashes along the border between Israel and Gaza. And while the left-wing press continued the lie and called it a “protest”, it was anything but. What could Israel have done differently, everyone asked? Nothing.

This wasn’t a protest but in an invasion of thousands of people. When thousands of people try to cross the border of another country intent on doing the other harm, it isn’t a peaceful protest but an armed invasion, regardless of whether everyone was armed or not.

And the prevailing message that this was a protest about the United States moving its embassy to Jerusalem is the second biggest lie about this entirely orchestrated episode. The biggest lie will post below. Palestinian leaders have turned down several formal U.S. and Israeli offers (the last in 2008) for a permanent statehood in exchange for peace that would have given them a state with its capital in that portion of Jerusalem. But to do so would require that they acknowledge Israel has a right to exist.

Hamas isn’t interested in peace or coexistence but in the destruction of Israel. And they’ll use anything at their disposal to achieve that goal. If there is any doubt as to what the ultimate goal of Hamas was in the border crossing, don’t listen to what Israel or the United States says. Listen to what the leaders of Hamas had to say.

Perhaps cutting the hearts out of the people of Israel is considered “peaceful protest” in some circles. The Israelis know better. And they have every right to defend their border against people sworn to their destruction. If there is blame to be laid, lay it where it belongs, squarely on the head of Hamas.

Hamas doesn’t care about the plight of the Palestinian people. They are completely onboard with inflaming their passion and using women and children as human shields and have done so for a very long time.

When Hamas launches a rocket attack, (which they do frequently), this is why they do so between apartment buildings. They know, Israeli radar will immediately pick it up and their counter-battery artillery fire is on the way before the rockets ever touch the ground.

The Hamas “fighters” are long gone, left are the civilians. Useful pawns in the game for the ultimate goal. They then ensure there are plenty of video cameras to record the results of Israeli aggression. Are those the actions of an organization worried about the people?

Hamas doesn’t represent the best interest of the Palestinians. They represent the ayatollahs in Tehran. That is where the organization gets all of their rhetoric (and most of their money) from. Iran has stated that the state of Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. Iran is moving into Syria to get closer to the border of Israel and the IDF knows what their intent is. They are taking a beating there as the Russians, allies with the Assad regime, have not lifted a finger to protect them from Israeli air strikes. This is just a continuation of their policy.

The Israelis who have arguably the best intelligence services in the world have stated that Iran is funding these “protests” along the border with Gaza. Shin Bet, the intelligence service said they’ve intercepted documents and interrogated detainees stating that Hamas has warned its own members to stay away from the security fence during Gaza’s mass protests, lest they get shot, while actively encouraging Palestinian civilians — particularly children and teens to actively do so. Once the wall is breached, Hamas gunmen will enter Israel to carry out operations.

From the Times of Israel: Yahya Ijlah, a 19-year-old Hamas member who entered Israel on April 29, told Shin Bet interrogators that he had been sent to the border in order to steal a security camera along the fence.

According to the Shin Bet, Ijlah said Hamas “is working to make its activities look like a popular uprising in the media and not a violent operation by its members.”

Are the Israelis always right? Of course not. No one is, certainly not the United States or anyone else. It is imperative that the U.S. keep an open and honest dialogue with the Israeli government and offer constructive criticism. But the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are as strict, if not even more so about limiting civilian casualties than the US is.

Of the 62 dead, that are being reported, Hamas has said that 50 are their operatives. Against a massive influx of people intent on destroying Israeli property and killing its population, it is small wonder how that number isn’t far more than that.

The world, and Hamas must come to the realization that Jerusalem is not “occupied territory” but the capital of Israel and the rightful capital of the country. Can the Palestinians also claim this as their own capital in a sharing scenario? Of course. Will they? Not until they rid themselves of Hamas and recognize that Hamas doesn’t have their welfare at heart.

Which brings us to the biggest lie in this unfortunate series of events is the oft-repeated one, “this will interfere with the peace process.” How in the world can there be peace when one side of the equation wants the other side dead? The only way that Jerusalem will not be the Israeli capital is if the country of Israel ceases to exist and the people wiped from the map. But that is the true goal of Hamas in the first place right? Rewatch the video above and ask who is really to blame here?

Photo: Wikipedia

With the Islamic State on the Run, Al-Qaida Calls For Jihad

Al-Qaida’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged followers to wage war against the US for opening an embassy in Jerusalem. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. While many Middle East experts claim the move is an attempt to capitalize on the fall of its main rival, the ISIS, it is the normal operating procedure to call for jihad against the United States.

President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “was clear and explicit, and he revealed the true face of the modern Crusade,” al-Qaida leader Zawahiri said in a recording circulated on social media this week. “Standing down and appeasement does not work with them, but only resistance through the call and jihad.”
But, despite al-Zawahiri’s new appeal, “reactions thus far don’t show any sort of organized online campaign from either side,” Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, said in a tweet, referring to the social media channels of al-Qaida and the “Islamic State” (often abbreviated as IS or ISIS).
That silence may be indicative of a shift, according to Ian Oxnevad, a Middle East scholar at the University of California, Riverside. He told DW that while there wasn’t much of a backlash, “that does not mean that it is not present.”
“This is a chance for al-Qaida to reinvent itself,” Oxnevad said. “Al-Qaida can co-opt old IS networks and strategies while setting up new cells in Europe,” which provides a “base of potential recruits along with a social infrastructure removed from new realities in the Middle East.”

After the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Al-Qaida took a blow that it has been slow to recover from. But as the US has shifted its focus in counter-terrorism from them to ISIS, they’ve recovered and have looked to expand. And they have, in Asia and other places such as Algeria and Pakistan.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia