President Trump

Turkish Offensive Kills 260 Kurdish Fighters in Afrin

Turkey claims to have killed at least 260 Syrian Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants in its on-going and open-ended offensive into the Kurdish-dominated Afrin region of northwest Syria, Turkish military officials said on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to raise concerns with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call expected on Wednesday about Ankara’s offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG forces in Afrin, a senior U.S. official said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also voiced disquiet, a few hours after Turkey’s foreign minister said it wanted to avoid any clash with U.S., Russian or Syrian government forces during its offensive but would do whatever necessary for its security.
The air and ground operation has opened a new front in Syria’s multi-sided civil war and could threaten U.S. plans to stabilize and rebuild a large area of northeast Syria – beyond President Bashar al-Assad’s control – where Washington helped a force dominated by the YPG to drive out Islamic State militants.
Ankara has been infuriated by the U.S. support for the YPG, which is one of several issues that have brought ties between Washington and its Muslim NATO ally close to breaking point.
“The future of our relations depends on the step the United States will take next,” Cavusoglu said.
Turkey’s military, the second largest in NATO, has conducted air strikes and artillery barrages against targets in Afrin, and its soldiers and allied Syrian rebels tried to thrust into the Kurdish-held district from west, north and eastern flanks.
With heavy cloud cover hindering air support in the last 24 hours, advances have been limited and Kurdish militia have retaken some territory. Turkish troops and the Syrian fighters have been trying to take the summit of Bursaya Hill, overlooking the eastern approach to Afrin town.

Turkey’s intentions not only lie in Afrin but in driving out the YPG from the nearby town of Manbij to the east, where the Turks claim artillery shots are constantly launched into Turkish territory.

The Kurds dispute the claim that Turkey is fighting Islamic State fighters in Afrin only them. The Turkish government considers YPG to be a terrorist group.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

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NFL Rejects AMVETS Super Bowl Program Ad

AMVETS, the veterans organization is crying foul and corporate censorship on the part of the NFL after the league rejected its one-page ad for the NFL’s Super Bowl program with the message “Please Stand.” According to an AMVETS spokesman, similar ads were accepted by both the NHL and NBA for official programs produced for their respective All-Star games.

“The Super Bowl game program is designed for fans to commemorate and celebrate the game, players, teams and the Super Bowl,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA TODAY Sports by email. “It’s never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement. The NFL has long supported the military and veterans and will again salute our service members in the Super Bowl with memorable on-field moments that will be televised as part of the game.”
Joe Chenelly, executive director of AMVETS, said players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem are exercising their free speech and that AMVETS only wanted to do the same.
“The protests are very much out of our purview,” he said. “We were not looking to comment on those. This is part of our Americanism program” in which the organization conducts seminars in schools and with youth groups on the proper way to display, care for and respect the flag.
“We looked to work with the organization and asked it to consider other options such as ‘Please Honor our Veterans,’” McCarthy said. “They chose not to, and we asked it to consider using ‘Please Stand for Our Veterans.’ Production was delayed as we awaited an answer. As the program was going to production, the organization asked about including a hashtag” — as in #PleaseStand — “and was informed that approval would not be provided in time and was asked to approve the ad without the hashtag. The organization did not respond, and the program ultimately went into production to meet deadlines.”

The kneeling protests have been a hot-button issue all year, but since early in the NFL season, the protests have subsided. However, AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk wrote a letter to the Commissioner of the NFL Roger Goodell saying that freedom of speech works both ways.

“We respect the rights of those who choose to protest as these rights are precisely what our members have fought — and in many cases died — for. But imposing corporate censorship to deny that same right to those veterans who have secured it for us all is reprehensible and totally beyond the pale.”

To read the entire article from USA Today, click here:

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US to Increase Military Funding for the War in the Philippines

The U.S. military beefing up support for the Filipino military fighting their own counterterrorism fight against the Islamic State, making operations there eligible for the same funding used to finance the long-running wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The decision by the Trump administration to elevate the U.S. mission to an Overseas Contingency Operation, or OCO, was made last September in response to a Philippines government request for more support to fight extremist groups, officials said. The U.S.-backed Philippine military in October ousted Islamic State-affiliated insurgents from a city on the southern island of Mindanao after a five-month battle, but faces an enormous rebuilding task.
Between 200 and 300 American troops are currently serving in advisory roles in the country and officials said that number is likely to remain unchanged for now. In addition to advisory troops, technical support and equipment, the mission is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance by drone.
The administration’s decision reflects improving ties between Washington and Manila, which soured after former President Barack Obama criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte over human-rights violations allegedly committed during a violent crackdown on drug use. Mr. Duterte responded by lobbing repeated verbal attacks on the U.S. and publicly cursing Mr. Obama in local Tagalog. President Donald Trump has sought common ground with Mr. Duterte, inviting him to the White House and saying the two had a “great relationship.”
The Philippines has been home to various insurgent groups for decades, but security challenges escalated last May when an extremist group known as the Maute seized control of the city of Marawi. The U.S. military supported the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its campaign to oust the insurgents. At least 165 Philippine security personnel and 47 civilians died during the five-month battle. Officials estimate around a 1,000 militants were also killed.
The operations in the Philippines represent “a new phase of our C-T cooperation,” said Joe Felter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia.

The US and Filipino militaries have long enjoyed a close relationship, however President Duterte has gone out of his way to blast the US, its policies and downplay US support while courting the Chinese.

To read the entire article from the Wall Street Journal, click here:

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US Long-term Syria Presence Signals Intentions on Assad, ISIS, Iran

United States military forces will remain in Syria in a long-term presence as part of a broader strategy from the Trump administration to achieve three goals, officials announced on Wednesday. First to prevent any resurgence by the Islamic State, to prepare diplomatically for the eventual departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to curb the Iranian influence which is growing in the entire area.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a speech at Stanford University, called for “patience” on Assad’s departure – the clearest indication yet of an acknowledgment that Russia and Iran have bolstered Assad and that he is unlikely to leave power immediately.
Billed as the Trump administration’s new strategy on Syria, the announcement will prolong the risks and redefine the mission for the U.S. military, which has for years sought to define its operations in Syria along more narrow lines of battling Islamic State and has about 2,000 U.S. ground forces in the country.
“But let us be clear: the United States will maintain a military presence in Syria, focused on ensuring ISIS cannot re-emerge,” while acknowledging many Americans’ skepticism of military involvement in conflicts abroad, Tillerson said.
U.S. forces in Syria have already faced direct threats from Syrian and Iranian-backed forces, leading to the shoot-down of Iranian drones and a Syrian jet last year, as well as to tensions with Russia.

The speech by Tillerson reinforces what the administration’s policy is going to be. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had spelled out parts of it earlier. Trump as a presidential candidate had promised to steer clear of long-term US commitments in the Middle East but as events have shown in Afghanistan and now in Syria, the situation on the ground is a more difficult one than thought.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

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Erdogan: “The US is Building a Terror Army in Syria”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan minced no words as he called Washington’s plan to establish and train a 30,000-man Kurdish security force in Syria along the Turkish border a “terror army.” The area in question runs along the southern border of Turkey with Syria.

The U.S. plans to heavily recruit its force from the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) of which a large part of them are from the People’s Protection Units (YPG). That organization (YPG) considered by Turkey to be a “terrorist group” with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). That has Erdogan infuriated.

“What we are supposed to do is to drown this terror army before in comes into being,” he said in an address in the capital, Ankara, on Monday, calling the Kurdish fighters “back-stabbers” who will point their weapons to the US in the future.
His comments came after reports revealed Washington’s plan to establish a 30,000-strong new border security force with the involvement of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
Erdogan said that Turkey’s armed forces had completed preparations for an operation against the Kurdish-controlled region of Afrin in northwest Syria and the town of Manbij.
Warning Turkey’s allies against helping “terrorists” in Syria, he said: “We won’t be responsible for consequences”.
In a statement late on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry had called “wrong and objectionable” any cooperation with the YPG.
“The establishment of the so-called Syria Border Protection Force was not consulted with Turkey, which is a member of the coalition,” it said.
“To attribute such a unilateral step to the whole coalition is an extremely wrong move that could harm the fight against Daesh,” the ministry added, using an alternative acronym for ISIL.

This has caused extreme high tension between the US and Turkey, who prior to this were considered staunch allies. President Trump said in November that Washington would no longer supply weapons to the YPG. This news has to be disconcerting to Ankara.

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish officials said on Sunday that fighting between the YPG and Turkish forces was already underway.

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

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US Will Reinvestigate Hezbollah for Suspected “Narcoterrorism”

The US Justice Department has announced that they will create a task force and investigate alleged drug trafficking by Hezbollah, the terrorist group that is state-sponsored by Iran.

Justice Department officials are trying to crack down on what they labeled “narcoterrorism” by the terror group that is based in Lebanon. The announcement follows reports that the Obama administration had dropped the probe during talks for the Iran nuclear deal.

The unit will be made up of specialists in money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorism, the department said. It will seek to target Hezbollah’s entire sprawling network, which is thought to reach from Africa to as far as Central and South America.
“The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organizations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “The team will initiate prosecutions that will restrict the flow of money to foreign terrorist organizations as well as disrupt violent international drug trafficking operations.”
The move comes on the back of a December report published by US news magazine Politico, which accused the Obama administration of stymieing a probe into Hezbollah’s drug trafficking operations for fear of jeopardizing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
In 2011, the Obama administration said it had uncovered billions of dollars worth of laundered money that had been filtered through the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank, a supposed “primary money laundering concern.” Meanwhile, funds from overseas operations were laundered through Panamanian shell companies.
According to Derek Maltz, a former official at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the proceeds were used by Hezbollah to buy weapons for its operations in Syria and to support Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, who are fighting Saudi-sponsored government forces over control of the country.

This latest move against Hezbollah, whose power is growing in the Middle East, could signal that President Trump is looking to move away from the Iran nuclear deal. This deal that the Obama administration was behind and that the President during the 2016 election was so critical of has been a contentious thorn in Trump’s side.

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

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Taliban Seeking New Financing As Drug Trade Suffers

The change in tactics under the Trump Administration of conducting airstrikes on the Taliban’s narcotics processing labs is having an adverse effect on the group’s ability to finance their insurgency in southern Afghanistan and they’re having to find new ways to raise money, including checkpoints on highways, extortion, kidnapping, and smuggling.

Taliban officials say they have established a new customs house in the Delaram district of southern Nimruz province in the southwestern part of Afghanistan. The new effort to collect revenue follows joint Afghan-Coalition airstrikes on Taliban narcotics processing labs in the Helmand province last November. The U.S-led coalition says such attacks will continue.
A Taliban statement says it will begin collecting a transit tax in the southern Nimruz and southwestern Farah provinces on Jan. 13.
Desperate to finance their insurgency, the Taliban has been using many illegal ways of making money, including kidnapping and extortion, and smuggling drugs, minerals and precious stones, according to Afghan officials.
“They tax the transiting commercial vehicles and finance their insurgency in the southern Helmand and Farah provinces through this money,” said Gul Bahar Mujahid, police chief of Farah province.
“[The Taliban] has repeatedly engaged in extortion and looting in the route of the Delaram and Khashrwod districts, and we are using military force to prevent their vicious actions,” said Khwaja Jelani Abu Bakr, police chief of Nimruz.

US officials claim that the Taliban receive about 60 percent of their income to conduct their insurgency from the drug trade and the airstrikes on their drug processing labs are hitting home.

Resolute Support Mission Commander Gen. John Nicholson says the interdiction operations are working, targeting the 400-500 drug processing labs. “We’re hitting the Taliban where it hurts, which is their finances,” he said.

To read the entire article from The Voice of America, click here:

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Two Russian Troops Killed in Shelling of Syrian Airfield

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that two military servicemen were killed during a shelling of a Syrian airfield on December 31 by militants according to the official news agency Tass.

“On December 31, 2017, at nightfall, the Hmeymim airfield came under a sudden mortar fire from a mobile militant subversive group. Two military servicemen were killed in the shelling,” the ministry said.
Ministry also stated that reports on seven aircraft destroyed by militants at the Hmeymim airbase in Syria on December 31 are not true. “A report in the Kommersant newspaper on the alleged destruction of seven Russian warplanes at the Hmeymim airbase is fake. Russia’s air group in Syria is combat ready and continues to accomplish all its missions in full,” the ministry said.
The Kommersant newspaper earlier wrote citing some sources that on December 31 militants from one of terror groups shelled the Hmeymim airbase with mortars destroying four Sukhoi Su-24 bombers, two Sukhoi Su-35S fighter jets, one Antonov An-72 transport plane and an ammunition depot. According to the paper, more than ten military servicemen could be injured.

On January 3, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the December 31 Russia’s Mi-24 helicopter crash was due to a technical malfunction during a flight to Syria’s Hama airfield and not enemy fire as militants later claimed. Both pilots were killed in the crash and a technician injured. The ministry denied reports that the Mi-24 had been in the line of fire.

According to official Defense Ministry reports 41 Russian troops have been killed in action during the Syrian operation which began on September 30, 2015, at the request of the Assad government. On December 11, President Putin claimed victory and said a sizable number of Russian troops will be soon withdrawn.

To read the entire article from Tass, click here:

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Trump Withholding US Aid to Pakistan, citing “Lies and Deceit”

Never one to mince words, especially on Twitter, President Trump will, according to The White House, that the U.S. will continue to withhold $255 million in military aid to Pakistan out of frustration over what it has characterized as Islamabad’s reluctance in confronting terrorist networks.Bottom of Form

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he posted on Twitter. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”

“The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 foreign military financing for Pakistan at this time,” a National Security Council spokesman said. “The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists and militants on its soil, and that Pakistan’s actions in support of the South Asia strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assistance.”
The administration first said in August it was temporarily withholding the $255 million, which was part of a $1.1 billion aid package authorized in 2016 by Congress. The money was put on hold until Pakistan agreed to do more to combat terrorist networks.
The National Security Council official said the administration would continue to review Pakistan’s level of cooperation in security areas.

The Pakistanis bristle at Trump’s comments and continuously say that they have suffered more at the hands of terrorists than the US has. In response to this latest tweet by the President, the Pakistani government summoned the US ambassador David Hale to explain this.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s tweet was met with praise from Pakistan’s foe, India while China, who are close to Pakistan, defended their history of dealing with terrorism.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

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Beginning Monday, Transgender People May Now Join the Military

Beginning on Monday, January 1, transgender individuals are now allowed to join the U.S. military, after the Pentagon was forced to comply with a federal court ruling issued last month. During the summer, President Trump went to Twitter to declare that transgender individuals would not be allowed in the military “in any capacity” because of the high medical costs and disruption of the normal deployment schedule.

In December, the Pentagon began preparing how to let transgender individuals join the military, using court-ordered guidelines issued by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter in 2016 when he lifted the ban on transgender service members in the military.
The Pentagon’s compliance on Monday only applies to allowing transgender individuals seeking to join the military. Separate court actions have temporarily halted the implementation of the ban on current transgender service members set to take place this spring.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told ABC News on Friday that the panel of experts established by Defense Secretary James Mattis will continue and provide a recommendation to the secretary, who will then report to the president by March 23 when an implementation plan is supposed to go into effect.
Under the guidelines effective Monday, applicants will be allowed to join the military if a medical provider certifies they have been stable without “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning” for 18 months.

Also included in the guidelines, a licensed medical provider must certify that the candidate for military service has completed all medical treatment associated with gender transition, has been stable in the preferred gender for 18 months, and if presently receiving cross-sex hormone therapy post-gender transition, the individual has been stable on such hormones for 18 months.”

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

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