The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump: A Study In Political Psychology, Political Criminology, and Psychohistory, and as the aid for the General, Criminal and the Counterintelligence Investigations of Donald Trump - by Michael Novakhov, M.D. (Mike Nova): Web Research, Analysis, Hypotheses, and Opinions | Current News | Reviews of media reports | Selected reading lists | Site: http://trumpinvestigations.org/
Palmer Report: The end of Donald Trump’s presidency - 12:52 PM 2/22/2019
The House is expected to pass the measure rejecting the president’s bid to beef up border wall funding, but its prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate remain uncertain.
On Feb. 12, Germany’s investigative police force arrested two former high-ranking members of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) allegedly involved in crimes against humanity. The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) had issued arrest warrants for 56-year-old Anwar R. and 42-year-old Eyad A. on Feb. 7, chargingthe Syrian citizens with crimes against humanity, torture and murder between 2011 and 2012. Federal police arrested the two men in Berlin and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. A third man was arrested by French authorities in Paris.
The German police allege that Anwar R., former head of the GID’s investigation department, was involved in the torture and physical abuse of detainees between April 2011 and September 2012 in Damascus. Specifically, Anwar R. headed the investigations section of “Branch 251” and later “Branch 285.” According to the Commission for International Justice and Accountability’s deputy director, Nerma Jelacic:
These two branches are the most notorious ones. One of our witnesses has described Branch 251 as the most effective, dangerous and secretive branch, and responsible for 98 percent of the violence committed. That branch was not only receiving people into detention but also carrying out raids and searches for individuals wanted for organizing the protests [against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule].
Meanwhile Eyad A., a member of the Syrian intelligence service, is alleged to have assisted in the killing of two people and the torture and physical abuse of at least 2,000 people between July 2011 and January 2012. Both men left Syria in 2012 and applied for asylum in Germany.
According to the German court, the Paris prosecutor, as part of a joint investigation team, also arrested a former employee of Anwar R.’s intelligence department near Paris. French prosecutors have not yet released any information on that arrest.
As Emma Broches highlighted on Lawfare, this is not the first time European prosecutors have arrested or prosecuted individuals for crimes committed in Syria. In June 2018, the German Federal Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Jamil Hassan, head of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate, for his alleged involvement in torture, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Germany recently asked Lebanon for help extraditing Hassan, who reportedly entered Lebanon for medical treatment. Similarly, in November 2018, a French judge issued arrest warrants for Hassan and two other senior Syrian officials, Ali Mamlouk, director of Syria’s National Security Bureau, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, the official in charge of the Air Force Intelligence Investigative Branch at Mezzeh military airport, for alleged involvement in torture, enforced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes. For a collation of some of the national criminal proceedings stemming from war crimes committed in Syria, see here.
Torture in Syria and the General Intelligence Directorate
According to the U.N.-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence “strongly suggest” that the Syrian government detains tens of thousands of people at any one time, and that thousands more have disappeared “after initial arrest by State forces or while moving through Government-held territory, or have gone missing after abduction by armed groups.” Forms of torture includedulab (placing detainees inside a wheel before beating them), shabeh (hanging detainees from the ceiling by their wrists), beatings with objects and electrocution. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said that it had documented the names of 13,608 people who died between March 2011 and August 2018 from torture inside Syrian regime detention centers.
Most deaths in detention have been documented as occurring in locations that the Syrian intelligence services control. The GID, of which Anwar R. was a high-ranking employee, is one of four intelligence agencies that are part of the Syrian security apparatus. The other agencies are the Military Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and the Political Security Directorate. Main detention facilities that the GID controls include Interior Security Branch 251 and Investigations Branch 285, located west of central Damascus.
Based on more than 621 interviews and documentary material, and given the reporting procedures in place at the branches, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry says that those people who exercised effective control over the detention facilities must have known about the high number of deaths from poor prison conditions, torture or medical neglect. Thus, the commission says that there are reasonable grounds to believe that high-ranking officers and their civilian superiors—who knew of the vast number of deaths occurring at detention facilities under their effective control, and who failed to take actions to prevent the abuse, investigate allegations or prosecute those responsible—are individually criminally responsible under international law for the crimes committed in those detention centers.
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction for Germany and France
Germany’s 2002 Code of Crimes Against International Law (CCAIL) (see here for unofficial English translation) incorporates the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court into German domestic law. CCAIL Section 1 provides German courts “pure” universal jurisdiction over the crimes enumerated in the code, which include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Germany, Sweden and Norway are the only European countries that recognize “pure” universal jurisdiction, meaning universal jurisdiction that requires no specific link to those countries in order for them to prosecute certain crimes, even if the crimes were committed outside those countries’ territories and neither the alleged perpetrator nor the victims are nationals of those countries nor present in those countries’ territories. This allows countries with “pure” universal jurisdiction to exercise jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide even when there is no link between those countries and the crime. Investigations into these cases can even take place when the suspect is neither present in their territory nor a resident. Notably, Belgium and Spain once had statutes recognizing “pure” universal jurisdiction that their governments have since narrowed.
While France does not have the same sort of legislation as Germany, its ability to prosecute is drawn from its own universal jurisdiction law. Article 689 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure incorporates the Rome Statute and extends French court jurisdiction to include genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. For more information on the legal framework for universal jurisdiction in France, see the Human Rights Watch report on the subject, here.
What’s Next?
While it’s likely that trials stemming from these arrests will take place in both France and Germany, it remains to be seen what arguments the defense will raise and how the domestic courts will interpret or shape the international law surrounding foreign official immunity and prosecution for jus cogens crimes. As a matter of customary international law, foreign heads of state and certain other senior officials have traditionally been accorded immunity as a way to preserve interstate comity and the stability of international relations. This immunity, however, has proven controversial where it limits domestic claims concerning egregious violations of international human rights law.
For its part, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) upheld the immunity of certain high-ranking foreign officials as a “firmly established” rule of customary international law in its 2002 judgment in the Arrest Warrant case, though it acknowledged that this immunity did not continue after the official left office or thereafter apply to private acts even while he or she was in office.
Of the three former Syrian officials who have been arrested, Anwar R. is the most senior and thus the most likely to try to claim some form of jurisdictional immunity. Prior national court decisions provide some guidance on how German courts may seek to navigate Arrest Warrant in order to defeat this claim.
In Khurts Bat, the U.K. High Court of Justice distinguished Arrest Warrant by virtue of the seniority of the defendant’s position, noting that “[the defendant’s] status as an administrator is far removed from the narrow circle of those who hold the high-ranking office to be equated with the State they personify and with those identified by the [ICJ in Arrest Warrant].” Alternatively, in A v. Ministère Public, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court cited Arrest Warrant’s acknowledgement that foreign official immunity cannot protect a former official from criminal prosecution for offenses committed while in office that are not connected to the official’s public functions and held that this prevented immunity from extending to jus cogensviolations such as torture and unlawful killings, as the international system fundamentally prohibits such actions.
With Syria not a party to the Rome Statute, and with Russia and China having vetoed attempts at referring the situation to the ICC, European courts like those in Germany and France seem to offer the best hope of accountability for torture and other international crimes in Syria. The arrests of Anwar R., Eyad A., and the third unnamed official may be a step in that direction.
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A 19-year-old who was 15 when she left East London to travel to ISIS in Syria made headlines last week, as she pleaded via a newspaper interview to return to the United Kingdom. The case illustrates the dilemmas countries face in repatriating citizens who traveled to ISIS at its height. It also raises questions surrounding the connection between trafficking and terrorism, including whether ISIS child recruits themselves were trafficked.
The United Nations Security Council has considered the relationship between trafficking and terrorism and other transnational criminal activities in recent years, adopting a presidential statement in 2015 and two resolutions on the topic — resolution 2331 in 2016 and 2388 in 2017. Earlier this month, the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) released a report exploring the linkages between human trafficking and terrorism. The analysis focused on trafficking as a means to raise funds for terrorist purposes.
With the increasing emphasis on this trafficking-terrorism nexus, a number of legal and policy issues should be considered. They include — but are not limited to — how trafficking is used to support terrorism; how to assist victims in these contexts; how to determine whether recruits might also have been trafficked; how to handle punishment when an alleged terrorism perpetrator is also a victim of trafficking; and how counter-terrorism tactics might backfire to ensnare more victims in trafficking. Trafficking for terrorism purposes
Various U.N. Security Council actions have considered how terrorists benefit from transnational organized crime (e.g., resolutions 2195 (2014), 2253 (2015), 2322 (2016), 2347 (2017) and 2368 (2017)). On at least three occasions, the Council has specifically examined the relationship of trafficking and sexual violence in armed conflict with terrorism and other transnational criminal activities (presidential statement (2015), resolutions 2331 (2016) and 2388 (2017)). And in resolution 2242 in 2015, the Council explored how acts of sexual and gender-based violence are part of the strategic objectives and ideology of certain terrorist groups.
Taken as a whole, these resolutions tend to emphasize that terrorist groups use human trafficking as a driver for recruitment (e.g., using female trafficking victims to attract and retain fighters); to increase financial flows; and to strengthen influence, including by controlling or destroying communities involved in or affected by the trafficking.
Repeated examples indicate the use of trafficking to benefit terrorist groups. They include reports of trafficking of organsby ISIS and affiliated armed groups for financing; Boko Haram’s use of child beggars for fundraising; forced marriages in Timbuktu, Mali by Ansar Dine and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; forced marriages of females abducted by Boko Haram involving sexual exploitation; kidnapping of Eritrean migrants in Libya by ISIL for sexual exploitation, including in forced marriage; and trafficking of Yazidi women and girls by ISIS for sexual exploitation and slavery.
Yet a policy framework that tackles trafficking solely in relation to armed conflict and terrorism nonetheless has risks. It can minimize attention to trafficking outside of the terrorism and conflict contexts, as well reduce understanding of how victims’ experiences in conflict or extremism relate to their experiences in times of peace (see more here). I have explained elsewhere how the post-9/11 trafficking-terrorism nexus can securitize anti-trafficking efforts by prioritizing law enforcement responses (e.g., tightened border security, greater sharing of financial intelligence) over human rights. It also tends toward a focus on sex trafficking against foreign women and girls in moments of extreme crisis over other forms of trafficking and victims (e.g., labor trafficking, domestic trafficking, trafficking of men and boys). Assistance for victims of trafficking connected to terrorism
Characterizing certain activities by terrorist groups as “trafficking” does have the potential for positive consequences for victims. It reinforces that, under international human rights and anti-trafficking law, they are entitled to a remedy, including protection and assistance, regardless of whether perpetrators ultimately are identified or prosecuted or the perpetrators are family.
This shift can help overcome gaps in the current level of assistance given to victims, as well as in its rationale. There can be a tendency to treat assistance to victims, such as Yazidi female victims of ISIS, as charity when it is instead legally required even if action on prosecuting the perpetrators themselves is stalled.
Current levels of assistance to victims of trafficking by terrorists presently fall far short of the full remedy for victims under international law, which includes compensation and measures aimed at the full social inclusion of victims. The latter is particularly important given the stigma and backlash faced by victims—and often their children, also—of trafficking and other abuses by terrorist groups. Classifying individuals linked to terrorist groups as trafficked persons
One of the most complicated aspects of exploring the human trafficking and terrorism nexus is understanding when persons linked to terrorist groups might themselves be trafficked.
Take the case of individuals, male or female, who have traveled to ISIS. Each individual has very different circumstances for why and how they traveled to the caliphate and their experiences while there, as well as varying motivations for potentially wanting to return to home countries. Governments need to examine this whole timeline, because under the U.N. Trafficking Protocol, trafficking can occur through an exploitative process or when an exploitative situation results or is maintained without a preceding exploitative process.
Depending on the facts, for example, there might be an exploitative process if individuals from Central Asia were falsely promised jobs that then led to involuntary recruitment or if women who traveled to Syria were genuinely deceived about conditions in the caliphate. And because trafficking can occur due to changed circumstances, if women linked to ISIS originally agreed to a marriage that instead became “domestic servitude or sexual slavery” this might change voluntary travel to the caliphate to an involuntary stay.
The issue of ISIS child recruits under 18 poses particular legal questions. Under the U.N. Trafficking Protocol, child trafficking occurs if there is an “act” (e.g., recruitment or transportation) with the specific intent or “purpose” to exploit. Unlike trafficking of adults, it is not required to show “means,” such as actual deception or “grooming,” because a child cannot give informed consent to their own exploitation even if they understood what was happening.
The case of Shamima Begum, who traveled to ISIS in 2015 at the age of 15 and who is now seeking to return to the United Kingdom is illustrative. For authorities, whether Begum was trafficked to ISIS turns on whether, as a child, she was subjected to some act, such as recruitment or transport, the purpose of which was her exploitation. This assessment does not hinge on her reported lack of remorse, the security threat she might pose, or even the sensational details of how she was “groomed” before travel, although the latter might shed light on the purpose for which she was recruited and transported.
Under domestic, regional, and international anti-trafficking law, these questions are incredibly complicated, requiring governments to identify victims on a case-by-case basis, avoiding reductive gender and age stereotypes. Yet a hands-off approach to citizens abroad and a blanket policy of non-repatriation—including because of a lack of consular presence in Syria—makes this difficult, if not impossible, to assess. And governments that do not have a system in place to identify whether trafficking occurred are prima facie in violation of States’ obligations under international law, including human rights and anti-trafficking regimes. How trafficking affects punishment of those affiliated with terror groups
When it comes to prosecuting alleged crimes of terrorism, including those of foreign fighters and others affiliated with ISIS, investigating whether the case is one of human trafficking is consequential. In particular, the principle of non-punishment would apply, meaning that trafficking victims should not be detained, charged, or prosecuted for activities that are a direct consequence of their having been trafficked. Indeed, the U.N. Security Council has explicitly noted that trafficking victims should be “treated as victims of crime and in line with domestic legislation, not penalized or stigmatized for their involvement in any unlawful activities.”
While the outer limits and the mechanics of the non-punishment principle will vary under different domestic laws, the determination of whether someone is a trafficking victim will be mitigating. It could mean, in some instances, the difference between whether someone is fully prosecuted or reintegrated into their communities.
And in cases of reintegration, the acknowledgement that the person is a victim as well as a perpetrator can help in designing and implementing a more effective plan for their rehabilitation and recovery. The dual role of victim and perpetrator is particularly complex and produces a unique stigma and backlash in the person’s community. The challenges of reintegrating child soldiers can be a useful analogy. The ramifications of sanctions when trafficking provides minimal revenue
Research has shown that, as CTED notes, “human trafficking does not represent a key source of revenue for terrorist groups.” The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) found the same in its 2018 analysis of financial flows from trafficking. So, what does that mean for efforts at the U.N. Security Council to strengthen counter-terrorism financing sanctions based on the assumption that the terrorism-trafficking nexus is stronger than evidence now shows?
The Security Council has regularly called for stiffer counter-terrorism financing measures (e.g., resolutions 2199 (2014), 2253 (2015), 2331 (2016), 2368 (2017)), as does the new CTED report. But these exhortations can miss the mark, at best. At worst, they risk giving more teeth to an architecture that our research at Duke Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, with the Hague-based Women Peacemakers Program, shows actually undermines women’s rights and women’s organizations, including because it is misused by governments to crack down on civil society. Backfire: Counter-terrorism steps can actually contribute to trafficking
Unless carefully analyzed, claims about the connection between trafficking and terrorism and actions taken with the intent of breaking the cycle can actually backfire. For example, CTED’s report instructively assesses how conflict such as the one that has displaced millions of Syrians and restrictions on legal migration actually make more people vulnerable to exploitation, including trafficking. But in some cases, those contributing factors are a direct result of measures to counter terrorism, and these security measures can also make it harder to address the suffering of victims.
For example, increased border controls in the name of national security encourage riskier and clandestine movement that can increase vulnerability to trafficking. And our research, including some of the same cited earlier, has found that rules designed to stem financing for terrorism have actually made states and donors risk-averse to supporting victims of terrorism, including trafficking victims. What’s next?
Trafficking and terrorism are clearly linked. But the connection needs to be considered cautiously and in the context of the robust international, regional, and domestic legal regimes already in place to combat trafficking and secure human rights. Such an analysis produces fundamental policy and legal questions that need to be addressed urgently. These include:
How can victims of trafficking in the context of terrorism be assisted most effectively?
How does the definition of trafficking apply, on a case-by-case basis, to assess whether someone is a perpetrator and/or a victim and to determine how they should be treated subsequently?
What steps can authorities take to reduce the use of trafficking to finance terrorism without imposing counter-terrorism regimes that undermine women’s rights?
And finally, how can authorities avoid counter-terrorism measures that may inadvertently worsen the conditions that lead to trafficking, and instead take actions that constructively address trafficking?
IMAGE: Women and children who fled the Islamic State (IS) group’s embattled holdout of Baghouz on Feb. 14, 2019, wait in the back of a truck in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. Kurdish-led forces were closing in on the small town, where IS fighters and their relatives were hunkered down, and met famished and disheveled people turning themselves in. (Photo FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)
Appalachia wasn’t always conservative. In Virginia’s coal country, a long history of grassroots organising is inspiring a new wave of activism. By Elizabeth Catte
When my grandfather was a child, his stepfather would bring him along as he sold moonshine to poor working men in south-west Virginia coal country. The men adored my grandfather, who was not yet even school age, for his talent for mocking Democrats. He told me this story on a few occasions to explain, I think, the inevitability of his later affiliation with the Republican party. He was a Republican in much the same way that I am a Democrat – voting with little enthusiasm every few years and sometimes not at all.
When I consider that story now, I find myself thinking less about my grandfather and more about the men who laughed at his jokes. What were their politics? Not all were the predecessors of today’s Republicans, as we might imagine them to be. In Appalachia, so-called “mountain Republicans” comprised an old vanguard of anti-secessionists, who opposed slavery and the Confederacy. They saw themselves as heirs to the enlightened legacy of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. My grandfather belonged (or at least aspired to belong) to that tradition. His audience might have consisted of Democrats, who enjoyed hearing their abuses repeated in the mouth of a child. But it is more likely that they would describe themselves as without politics, just laughing at the powerful and self-important. For a long time, it did not occur to me there were other possibilities.
Related: How much is an hour worth? The war over the minimum wage Continue reading… Donald Trump | The Guardian
Bullies always reveal themselves to be cowards in the end. Roger Stone, who is essentially Donald Trump with more proverbial clown paint and less real clown paint, spent forty years corruptly running roughshod across the American political landscape. Yet there he was yesterday, a pathetic and broken man, begging a federal judge for mercy. It’s a roadmap for where Donald Trump is heading.
We still don’t know how accurate these major media reports are about Special Counsel Robert Mueller issuing a report next week about Donald Trump’s crime spree. We don’t know precisely how quickly thereafter House Democrats will initiate the impeachment process. We still don’t know the exact timetable in which entities like SDNY and the Attorney General of New York might move on Trump’s kids in relation to this report. But it’s becoming more clear by the day that these things are all happening sooner rather than later. This is the part where Trump cracks.
Trump thinks he can throw down with the best of them. But all he really does is try to isolate his adversaries so he can very publicly pick on them one at a time, either because they have a particular vulnerability he thinks he can exploit, or because they’re in a position where they can’t publicly fight back. Trump’s approach is that of a coward. He never even tries to fight all of his adversaries at once, because, well, he’s never had to. That’s about to change wholesale.
Donald Trump is the kind of attention deficit brute force bully who can just barely manage to focus on one simplistic tactic at a time. How do you take down the big dumb ogre? You attack him from all sides, all at once, not simply to overpower him, but to leave him confused and thus unequipped to properly fight back at all. That attack is coming soon. In the end, Trump will be just another Roger Stone: broken, pathetic, and begging for mercy. Bring it on.
Josh Campbell is a CNN analyst covering national security issues. He previously served as a supervisory special agent with the FBI, special assistant ...
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Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. The KOREAN PENINSULA President Trump appears keen to declare an end to seven decades of war on the Korean Peninsula when he meets North Korea Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam next week, while his advisers seem more focused on hashing out a road map for Pyongyang’s denuclearization. U.S. officials insisted yesterday that disarmament remains Trump’s “overriding goal,” with one projected outcome being an agreement that would trade a peace declaration for a North Korean commitment to open up and dismantle a handful of nuclear or missile facilities, Mark Landler reports at the New York Times. Trump and Kim are planning to meet one-on-one during their summit in Vietnam, senior administration officials announced yesterday. Speaking to reporters on a background call, a senior administration official claimed that more details on the exact format were still to come, but that “it’s going to be similar in format to what you saw last June 12 in Singapore … there will be an opportunity for the two leaders to see one another one-on-one, to share a meal and engage in expanded meetings of their respective delegations,” Rebecca Kheel reports at the Hill. Democratic lawmakers leading key House national security committees yesterday alleged that Trump is keeping Congress in the dark about the upcoming talks with the North and the status of Pyongyang’s weapons program. “There is no legitimate reason for having failed to provide regular, senior-level briefings to the relevant committees of jurisdiction on a matter of such significance to our national security,” Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Adam Schiff (D-Schiff), chairs of the House foreign affairs, intelligence and armed services committees, wrote in a letter to the president, adding “our ability to conduct oversight of U.S. policy toward North Korea on behalf of the American people has been inappropriately curtailed by your administration’s unwillingness to share information with Congress,” Dan De Luce reports at NBC. North Korea claims it has been forced to reduce rations by half after facing a food shortfall of 1.4 million tons this year,pointing to harsh weather and U.N. sanctions as reasons for the deficit. “The [North Korean] government calls on international organizations to urgently respond to addressing the food situation,” read a two-page memo from North Korea’s mission to the U.N., also claiming that the country’s food production last year was 4.951 million tons, 503,000 tons down from 2017; analysts have commented that the upcoming Trump-Kim summit may be part of the reason for Pyongyang’s decision to release the memo now, The Daily Beast reports. China is extending its influence over the upcoming Trump-Kim summit, just as it did last July in Singapore. Katrina Yu explains in an analysis at Al Jazeera. SYRIA The U.S. will retain “a small peacekeeping group” of 200 American troops in Syria for a period of time after a U.S. pullout, the White House announced yesterday, as President Trump rowed back from promises of a complete withdrawal. Yesterday’s decision came after a phone call between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during which the two leaders reportedly agreed to continue working together to try to create a “safe zone” in Syria the White House said, Annie Karni and Thomas Gibbons-Neff report at the New York Times. Trump in December ordered a withdrawal of all 2,000 American troops in Syria, claiming they had defeated Islamic State group (I.S.I.S.) militants there; since then, Trump has been under pressure from multiple advisers to adjust his policy to ensure the protection of Kurdish forces, who supported the fight against Islamic State group and who might now be threatened by Turkey, Reuters reports. A car bombing claimed by the I.S.I.S. hit U.S.-backed forces in eastern Syria yesterday as they attempted to negotiate the release of civilians trapped in the militant’s last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (S.D.F.) are working towards evacuating civilians remaining in the holdout, so they can finish off the dying I.S.I.S “caliphate” through either an assault or a surrender deal; the car bomb killed 14 oil workers and six of the Kurdish-led alliance’s conscripts near the Omar oil field that it uses as its main base in the region, according to the S.D.F. and a monitor, AFP reports. A substantial number of trucks loaded with civilians left Baghouz today, according to a witness near the area on the Iraqi border. It was not clear whether any civilians remained in the I.S.I.S.-held zone, which U.S.-backed Syrian forces want to clear of non-combatants before finally capturing the area, Reuters reports. The father of Alabama woman Hoda Muthana – who joined I.S.I.S. and is now seeking a return to the U.S. – yesterday filed a lawsuit against President Trump and other senior officials after the president said he had moved to prevent her from re-entry. Ahmed Ali Muthana filed the lawsuit in Washington D.C. federal district court on behalf of his daughter; Muthana has claimed she is a U.S. citizen, but the Trump administration says her status as the daughter of a Yemeni diplomat means she is not a naturalized citizen and thus not entitled to the Constitutional rights of an U.S. citizen, Brent D. Griffiths reports at POLITICO. U.S.-led airstrikes continue. U.S. and coalition forces carried out 199 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 9. [Central Command] IRAN The Iranian navy launched “large-scale” drills in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman in a display of its naval force amid escalating tensions with the U.S. Commander of Iran’s navy Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzad stated that the maneuvers began yesterday and will run for a week, featuring submarine-launched missiles for the first time; earlier this week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani opened the “state-of-the-art” and domestically produced submarine Fateh (“Conqueror,”) Al Jazeera reports. There is a desperate need for Congress to revisit the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, Edit0r-in-Chief Steve Vladeck and Senior Editor Tess Bridgeman comment at Just Security, providing a critique of Monday’s Washington Times “exclusive” report titled “Iran-al Qaeda Alliance May Provide Legal Rationale for U.S. Military Strikes.” VENEZUELA Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro yesterday ordered his country’s vast border with Brazil to be closed, making the order just days before opposition leaders plan to bring in foreign humanitarian aid he has refused to accept. Maduro also stated that he is considering closing the border with Colombia, making the announcement on state T.V. surrounded by military commanders, the AP reports. Opposition leaders led by U.S.-backed self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó had vowed to bring in U.S. supplies of emergency food and medicine to highlight the country’s humanitarian crisis under Maduro, who has said the nation does not need such help; “what the U.S. empire is doing with its puppets is an internal provocation,” Maduro commented, adding “they wanted to generate a great national commotion, but they didn’t achieve it,” the AP reports. Former chief of Venezuela’s military intelligence Hugo Carvajal broke with Maduro yesterday, pledging support for Guaidó amid the escalating political crisis in the country. Carvajal called for authorities to allow into Venezuela the humanitarian aid that the U.S. is stockpiling on the Colombian border, stating: “people of Venezuela, we find ourselves in the worst humanitarian crisis of our modern history … it’s been more than enough, Nicolás … assume your responsibility,” Ana Vanessa Herrero and Nicholas Casey report at the New York Times. Carvajal also addressed active Venezuelan troops, many of whom have appeared in propaganda videos meant to rouse nationalist sentiment against what the Maduro regime claims is an imminent U.S. invasion. “Today we do not have the technical capacity to confront any enemy,” Carvajal said, adding “he who says otherwise lies,” Ryan Dube and Kejal Vyas report at the Wall Street Journal U.S. Vice President Pence will travel to Colombia on Monday to demand that Maduro steps down and allow Guaidó take power. Pence will be in Colombia to “voice the U.S.’ unwavering support for interim President Juan Guaidó and highlight the Venezuelan people’s fight for democracy over dictatorship,” the vice president’s office said in a statement, Tal Axelrod reports at the Hill. “The aid showdown puts in stark relief the choice in Venezuela between a dictator who wants to block aid for the people … and the Guaidó government that wants to deliver it,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board writes. A roadmap for President Trump to speed up Maduro’s exit is provided by José R Cárdenas at Foreign Policy, who suggests that the president should maintain a multilateral and bipartisan consensus; keep a close watch; and pursue an inclusive transition. TRUMP-RUSSIA U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III yesterday scheduled former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to be sentenced March 8 for financial malfeasance in Virginia. Darren Samuelsohn reports at POLITICO. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) promised yesterday that Congress would subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the investigation into Russian electoral interference and alleged collusion with the Trump campaign if lawmakers do not receive a comprehensive summary from the Justice Department. Justin Wise reports at the Hill. Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson yesterday “dramatically” restricted longtime Trump associate Roger Stone’s ability to speak publicly about his criminal case after he published an Instagram post with what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun drawn behind her head. Stone now cannot speak publicly about the investigation or the case or any participants in the investigation or the case, Katelyn Polantz reports at CNN. “The U.S. legal system is withstanding the Trump onslaught,” David Brooks writes in an Op-Ed at the New York Times. An explainer on how events could unfold when the Mueller report is wrapped up is provided by Philip Ewing at NPR. NATIONAL EMERGENCY AND BORDER WALL The Pentagon yesterday indicated that it has asked the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) for a priorities list to justify using military funds to build President Trump’s long-promised border wall. “We’ve asked D.H.S. for input facts, data, priorities; we are waiting to receive those,” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters, adding “when we do, we will then … match that with our mission analysis and begin the process I think I’ve described to many of you,” Ellen Mitchel reports at the Hill. “If I had been directed, when I was Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Defense … to implement the bulk of this plan … I don’t believe that that I would have concluded it was legal” Micahel McCord comments at Just Security, regarding the president’s proposal to take funds available to the Departments of Defense and Treasury and expend them on functions that are the responsibility of the D.H.S. “The President’s use of an emergency declaration in this case poses profound challenges and raises profound risks to our system of government,” McCord writes. OTHER DEVELOPMENTS Russian President Vladimir Putin stated yesterday that Russia is militarily ready for a Cuban Missile-style crisis if the U.S. wants one and threatened to position hypersonic nuclear missiles on ships or submarines near U.S. territorial waters. “[Tensions] are not a reason to ratchet up confrontation to the levels of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s … in any case, that’s not what we want,” Putin commented, adding “[but] if someone wants that, well O.K. they are welcome,” Al Jazeera reports. The Supreme Court’s decision to curtail power to seize property “is being cheered by advocates on the left and right.” The Economist provides an analysis.
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Joe Lockhart: ‘Trump Was Running a Criminal Enterprise Out of the Trump Organization’ – Mediaite.
CNN contributor and former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart offered harsh words for President Donald Trump and the company he ran before becoming commander in chief.
The context was based on news that broke Thursday that Michael Cohen will be appearing on Capitol Hill next week to appear before a number of Congressional hearings, one of which will be broadcast publicly.
The CNN New Day panel of contributors assembled to opine on what sort of information they expected to be revealed by the former Trump Organization lawyer under oath and Lockhart believes, like many that “it will be really interesting to see where he can talk and where he can’t. I think all of the things that he’s pled guilty to we’re going to hear about, and that’s going to be fascinating. That’s going to be the hush money, maybe the Moscow project.”
Host John Berman interjected saying “I don’t think Russia,” in an apparent reference to the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Maybe the Moscow project, but not the Russia collusion,” Lockhart said, adding “But there’s — if you believe, as I do, that Trump was running a criminal enterprise out of the Trump organization, that’s really where the mother load is.”
Watch above via CNN. Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
The U.S. will maintain a small peacekeeping force of about 200 troops in Syria despite President Trump’s earlier decision to remove all American troops, the White House said.
Former Israeli spies get involved in US elections as information warriors - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists thebulletin.org/2019/02/traine… via @BulletinAtomic
Posted by mikenov on Friday, February 22nd, 2019 2:59pm
Democrats have compared the president’s fixation on the federal inquiry to Watergate, but legal experts say it’s worse than that
It was yet another bombshell report for a president already ensnared in multiple investigations against his campaign, administration and family members.
This time it had to do with hush money paid to women to silence them from speaking about alleged affairs they had with Donald Trump. According to a New York Times report published this week, Trump asked Matthew Whitaker, his controversial acting attorney general, if he could install a loyalist at the helm of the investigation into the hush money. Continue reading...
White House says US will keep 200 troops in SyriaNBC MontanaThe Trump administration, which abruptly announced in December that it was pulling out of Syria, said Thursday that it will keep 200 U. S. troops in the country ...
Veteran journalist and Donald Trump biographer David Cay Johnston weighed in on the president’s mental health and fitness for office in an interview with The Intercept published Thursday.
According to Johnston, Trump is a “clear and present danger” to the United States, and to the world. The journalist — who has been covering Donald Trump since the 1980s — said that Trump believes that he is genetically superior and smarter than everyone else, which is why he has long held the belief that he should be running the entire world, and not just the United States.
“Donald has always been deeply mentally ill. He literally believes that he should be running not just the U.S. but the whole world, that the rest of us are all fools and idiots, and that he is genetically superior.”
Johnston explained that the Trump family believes in the “horse race breeding theory of genetics,” which is why the president frequently claims to be an expert on various subjects he is actually not at all familiar with.
The bigger danger, according to Trump’s biographer, is the fact that many of the president’s supporters believe that he is indeed an expert and the fact that the majority of Americans — unlike Canadians or Europeans, for instance — do not have critical thinking skills.
Johnston also suggested that Donald Trump might be abusing drugs. The journalist noted that he has no proof to back up his claims, but explained that the president’s behavior — during the 2016 presidential debates, for example — indicates that he may be on drugs.
“He often talks like somebody who seems to be under the influence of drugs beginning with his repeated sniffling during one of the presidential debates to when he goes off in sing-song fashion as he did in the Rose Garden a few days ago,” Johnston said.
The journalist added that he thinks Donald Trump’s mental health has deteriorated, along with his cognitive abilities, claiming that the president is no longer capable of “keeping together a long string of thoughts.”
Johnston also discussed Trump’s closest allies, like Vice President Mike Pence, opining that none of them are stepping up and opposing the president or his agenda because Trump has surrounded himself with yes-men who are not willing to stand up to him. None of them, Pence included, are qualified for their positions, according to the journalist.
The writer concluded the interview by explaining that Donald Trump lives in his own parallel reality, that he “never learns anything,” and doesn’t care for objective facts.
“Donald has a completely unstructured mind. He never studied. He never learns anything,” he said.
David Cay Johnston is not the first person to publicly warn about Donald Trump’s allegedly deteriorating mental health and unfitness for office. As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee has long urged that U.S. lawmakers seek help from mental health experts in order to properly deal with Donald Trump and counter his worst impulses.
Austrophobia, or the traditional, historical since mid-19 Century Anti-Austrian Sentiment in politics and military affairs (can be considered as the specifically indicative, "pathognomonic sign")
Photo: Ernst Urhlau, former chief of BND and later the "consultant on geopolitical risks" for the Deutsche Bank, and the political ally of Gerhard Schroeder. Uhrlau was the chief of the Hamburg police when the core group of 9/11 hijackers, the so called Hamburg Cell, lived and received training there. He was uncooperative and hostile towards 9/11 Investigationinquiries.
»German Intelligence Chief Wilhelm Franz Canaris 24/01/19 06:17 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Warfare History Network. Adolf Hitler’s spymaster, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, was actually a dedicated anti-Nazi who did everything he could to frustrate the Führer’s plans. by David…
»Canaris and Heydrich – Axis History Forum 24/01/19 06:16 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Canaris and Heydrich #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 21:37 GFM2001 Member Posts: 55 (8/20/01 12:32:55 pm) Reply Canaris and Heydrich ————————————————————…
»Service record of Reinhard Heydrich 24/01/19 05:43 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks Michael_Novakhov shared this story . SS- service record cover of Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich The service record of Reinhard Heydrich was a collection of official SS documents maintained at the SS Pers…
»Heydrich’s homosexuality? – Axis History Forum 24/01/19 04:52 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Heydrich’s homosexuality? #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 19:03 HannahR New Member Posts: 1 (5/26/01 5:43:01 pm) Reply Heydrich’s homosexuality? ————————————————…
M. N.: The New Abwehr enjoys and employs the deep and intimate connections with the criminal Underworld which go back to the early 1920-s, the conditions after the Germany's defeat in the WW1 and the resulting "Restrictions" (I almost typed "Sanctions") which made the symbiotic and sometimes parasitic relations with Police and Criminals the matter of survival for the Abwehr which based itself at that time at the Military Police Stations. Money Laundering is another, related sub-specialty which was a matter of survival and necessity at that time, and the Abwehr under Canaris (which really is the Abwehr we are talking about) made both areas the traditional historical "fields of excellence". Money Laundering , from Deutsche Bank to Chabad dealers to Oligarchs, e.g. Lev Leviev and others, and most notably by our pretty laundry girls and boys from the Trump-Kushner Crime Family , was and is one of the truly heart felt activities for the Abwehr, and
How did these 650,000 emails get into the Abedin -Weiner laptop? This question remains open for almost three years now, and no answer in sight. - 6:35 AM 2/17/2019 Lawyers: Teen girl Weiner sexted wanted to affect election – Bowling Green Daily News Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠ hoax - Google Search Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Anthony Weiner: It was a hoax - Google Search Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Anthony Weiner: It was a hoax - Google Search Michael_Novakhov shared this story from "Anthony Weiner: It was a hoax" - Google News. A nude-photo hoax was supposed to silence Alexandria Ocasio ... Washington Post - Jan 10, 2019 Circulating nudes — real or fake — is one of the oldest and ... The Daily Caller changed the headline of its story to “ Anthony Weiner Mistress ... The Latest Smear Against Ocasio-Cortez: A Fake Nude Photo New York Times - Jan 10, 2019 Nude-photo hoax to silence Ocas
Inoreader The Trump Investigations created by Michael Novakhov • Jan 23 2022 The Trump Investigations - Review Of News And Opinions - Blog by Michael Novakhov The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump: A Study In Political Psychology, Political Criminology, and Psychohistory, and as the aid for the General, Criminal and the Counterintelligence Investigations of Donald Trump - by Michael Novakhov, M.D. (Mike Nova): Web Research, Analysis, Hypotheses, and Opinions | Current News | Reviews of
9:37 AM 7/19/2019 - Melania Knauss Trump is a lesbian Melania Trump poses naked for Max magazine | Daily Mail Online Friday July 19 th , 2019 at 9:31 AM News | Mail Online 1 Share Naked pictures from lesbian-themed photoshoot emerge of Donald Trump's wife Melania posing for a French men's magazine at the age of 25 Photos appeared in the January 1996 issue of now-defunct Max magazine One shows Mrs Trump just in heels with her hand over her private parts French photographer Alé de Basseville took the photos in Manhattan Slovenian-born Mrs Trump was then taking her modeling career to the US Appears under her stage name Melania K, short for maiden name Knauss By Daniel Bates In New York For The Daily Mail and Clemence Michallon For Dailymail.com Published: 00:27 BST, 1 August 2016 | Updated: 14:05 BST, 1 August 2016 e-mail 3.8k shares 3.9k View comments She has said that she admires her
Inoreader Trump Investigations News Review at 9 a.m. created by Michael Novakhov • Mar 25 2022 The Trump Investigations News Review at 9 a.m. EST Daily Review Of News And Opinions - Blog by Michael Novakhov The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump: A Study In Political Psychology, Political Criminology, and Psychohistory, and as the aid for the General, Criminal and the Counterintelligence Investigations of Donald Trump - by Michael Novakhov, M.D. (Mike Nova): Web Research, Analysis, Hyp
The Latest Posts - The Trump Investigations - Review Of News ____________________________________________________ Pages - The Trump Investigations - Review Of News Home Shared Links Links - On The Road... America On The Road To Dictatorship: Trump, Trumpism, FBI, and the New Abwehr - By Michael Novakhov - Last Update: 3:10 PM 5/1/2019 On The Road To Dictatorship: FBI + Facebook. "Like? No Like!" - By Michael Novakhov - Page The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump - Outline and Links The Operation Trump and The New Abwehr | Recent Tweets | Shared Links - Twitter - Facebook The Operation Trump and The New Abwehr The Manifesto Of The American Socialism: SOCIALISM IS HEALTH, SOCIALIST SOCIETY IS THE HEALTHY SOCIETY, in all respects; as the SOCIAL ORGANISM. Political Criminology - The Outline Trump Investigations News In 25 Posts Trump Investigations News In Brief All Saved Stories News Review - 25 Trump Investigations News Review - Saved Stories - 250 All Blogs In 2
Inoreader Trump Investigations News Review at 9 a.m. created by Michael Novakhov • Feb 22 2022 The Trump Investigations News Review at 9 a.m. EST Daily Review Of News And Opinions - Blog by Michael Novakhov The New Abwehr Hypothesis of The Operation Trump: A Study In Political Psychology, Political Criminology, and Psychohistory, and as the aid for the General, Criminal and the Counterintelligence Investigations of Donald Trump - by Michael Novakhov, M.D. (Mike Nova): Web Research, Analysis, Hyp
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠ American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search American Nazi and Abwehr - Google Search German Espionage and Sabotage Nazi Espionage: The Abwehr and SD Foreign Intelligence (Chapter 4) - U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis U.S. indicts 54 in Aryan group - 9:02 AM 2/13/2019 NJ's Chris Christie: 'I Was Almost Trump's Chief of Staff' - The Jewish Voice - 8:50 AM 2/13/2019 "We were never going find a contract signed in blood saying, 'Hey Vlad, we're going to collude,'" one Democratic aide said - Recent Posts on Facebook - 8:18 AM 2/13/2019 Trump Investigations News In 25 Posts - 8:11 AM 2/13/2019 Russian Oligarch Connected to Psy-Group (Wikistrat) to Israel and Into America as Facebook Collapses – Abel Danger - 8:00 AM 2/13
Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsLinks℠
mikenov on Friday, February 22nd, 2019 4:23pm
Trump Investigations.
Joe Lockhart: ‘Trump Was Running a Criminal Enterprise Out of the Trump Organization’ – Mediaite.
Google Alert - mueller.
The Inquisitr.
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