Cape Verde Court Approves Extradition of Maduro’s Ally to the US

A court in Cape Verde ruled on Monday that Colombian businessman and Venezuela’s special envoy Alex Saab can be extradited to the United States where is facing money laundering charges in connection with a bribery scheme allegedly related to President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Alex SaabAlex Saab, controversial Colombian-born businessman. (Photo: Wikimedia, public domain)U.S. Prosecutors filed in 2019 money laundering charges against Saab in connection to a scheme to pay bribes to take advantage of Venezuela’s government-controlled exchange rate.

According to prosecutors, Saab and his associate Alvaro Pulido Vargas obtained a government contract to build low-income housing units which. This allowed them to take advantage of Venezuela’s government-controlled exchange rate under which they could obtain U.S. dollars at a favorable rate by submitting false import documents for goods they never imported.

They bribed Venezuelan government officials to approve those documents and transferred approximately US$350 million out of Venezuela, through the United States, to their overseas accounts, according to the indictment.

At the same time, the US Department of Treasury put Saab and a number of his associates under sanctions for their alleged involvement in a food-aid distribution corruption scheme. Saab allegedly ran a complicated network of shell companies that laundered money earned from overvalued government contracts meant for food subsidies.

The 48-year-old Colombian, often described as President Maduro’s front man, was detained last June on an Interpol “red notice” when his plane stopped on the African archipelago to refuel. He was heading to Iran as Maduro’s special envoy to negotiate food, medical supplies, and other goods.

Jose Pinto Monteiro, Saab’s lead attorney, whose office confirmed the court ruling in a press release, compared the case to Julian Assange’s.

A U.K. judge blocked the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder on the same day Cape Verde approved Saab’s, although the Madrid-based law firm that represents both of them used the same arguments.

“A significant number of the arguments we raised in our defense have been accepted today by a U.K. court in its ruling refusing to extradite Julian Assange to the United States,” Pinto Monteiro said Monday. “However, those same arguments have fallen on deaf ears in Barlavento (Cape Verde),” he added.

Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Office had asked Cape Verde in December to allow Saab to celebrate Christmas with his family and respect the decision of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and put him under house arrest.

“There is no doubt that the detention of Special Envoy Alex Saab is part of the obsessive siege campaign, orchestrated by the agonizing outgoing government of the United States against Venezuela, with the aim to inflict more suffering to the Venezuelan people and to destabilize its institutions and internal order,” the statement of the Office said.

Saab’s lawyers will appeal the extradition ruling before the West African country’s Supreme Court of Justice and said they will take any necessary action, both nationally and internationally, to set him free.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13580-cape-verde-court-approves-extradition-of-maduro-s-ally-to-the-us

Iran Begins Large-Scale Drone Drill, As USS Nimitz Remains In Persian Gulf

On January 5th, the Iranian army is set to begin a “joint and large-scale” drone drill with its different divisions.

It is expected to take place in central Iran.

The two-day drill will involve “hundreds of operational drones of the army’s ground, air and navy forces in the general area of Semnan (province) and different parts” of the country, state news agency IRNA reported.

Deputy Commander of the Army Brigadier-General Mohammad-Hossein Dadras on January 4th said that Iran today has become a regional and transregional superpower in producing drones.

🎥 : #_ ‌ pic.twitter.com/fXaSS9P9uV

— 🇮🇷 (@Tasnimnews_Fa) January 5, 2021

Despite imposed sanctions, Iran has made significant progress in designing, manufacturing, and producing various defense equipment, particularly in the field of drones, Dadras underlined.

The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran always, in accordance with the threats of transregional countries and enemies, takes initiatives to update equipment and hold military exercises, he underscored.

The Iran-manufactured drones will undertake “combat, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare” in short- and long-distance flights, the agency added.

IRNA said the army will also showcase its “achievements” regarding drone manufacture in an exhibition with the presence of high-ranking military commanders.

The announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions with the United States, and a day after Iran marked the first anniversary of the assassination of revered Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

On January 3rd, the United States decided to reverse its decision and actually keep the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf. It earlier reported that it was withdrawing it back.

According to the United States there were “threats” originating from Iran, and in response the USS Nimitz will remain in the region.

Acting US Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said on January 3rd that he changed his mind about sending the aircraft carrier home from the Middle East and instead will keep the vessel on duty.

He cited Iranian threats against President Donald Trump and other US government officials as the reason for the redeployment, without elaborating.

An unnamed Defense Department official told Al-Awsat that the Nimitz will lead military drills with its regional partners in the coming days.

The exercise will take place in the operating zone of the US Fifth Fleet that is based in Bahrain.

He explained that the drill is aimed at ensuring the participants’ ability to respond together to any crisis or emergency.

Earlier in 2020, back in July, and in September, Iran also held large-scale drills in the region.

https://southfront.org/iran-begins-large-scale-drone-drill-as-uss-nimitz-remains-in-persian-gulf/

Biden to pick Iran nuclear deal negotiator Wendy Sherman for deputy secretary of state: report

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate a chief architect of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Wendy Sherman, to serve as deputy secretary of state, Politico exclusively reported Tuesday.

Presently, Sherman has a senior counselor role at the Albright Stonebridge Group, the same firm where Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the president-elect’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, worked as a senior counselor too.

Two people familiar close to the presidential transition told Politico that Biden will pick the seasoned diplomat to serve under his nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, another Obama administration alumnus. Under former President Barack Obama, Sherman was under secretary of state for political affairs and was a chief negotiator during the controversial Iran nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

MORE ON BIDEN FOREIGN POLICY: ‘That would be a mistake’: Nikki Haley urges Biden not to ditch all Trump foreign policies

President Donald Trump, a major critic of Iran and the JCPOA, withdrew the United States from the agreement and cranked up sanctions on the authoritarian state, much to the frustration of U.S. allies in the multilateral agreement.

“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Trump argued in his May 8, 2018 announcement of the U.S. withdrawal. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”

MORE ON IRAN:

Iran will begin 20 percent uranium enrichment ‘as soon as possible’

Ex-Israeli ambassador advises Biden against re-entering the Iran nuclear deal

Since leaving the Obama administration, Sherman has been a vocal critic of President Trump’s foreign policy. She has especially gone after him for his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a July 2020 article in Foreign Policy titled “The Total Destruction of U.S. Foreign Policy Under Trump,” Sherman, while also attacking Trump for his handling of Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, wrote: “Years from now, we will hopefully discover the exact nature of Trump’s personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin beyond mere envy of power.”

Prior to serving under President Obama, Sherman also served in the Clinton administration as its policy coordinator for North Korea. Her role at the time has received scrutiny, with President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker and Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton have both accused Sherman of “appeasement” toward the hostile totalitarian dictatorship.

https://saraacarter.com/biden-to-pick-iran-nuclear-deal-negotiator-wendy-sherman-for-deputy-secretary-of-state-report/

Report: Vice President Mike Pence Does ‘Not Believe’ He Has ‘Power to Block Congressional Certification’

Vice President Mike Pence reportedly told President Trump Tuesday that he does not possess the power to block the certification of the election — a remark that followed Trump asserting the vice president, who is presiding over Wednesday’s joint session of Congress, has the “power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”

According to a report from the New York Times, Pence reportedly told Trump “he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the presidential election despite Mr. Trump’s baseless insistence that he did, people briefed on the conversation said.”

The report follows an earlier tweet from the president, who said that the vice president “has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors”:

Congress will formally count the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. Objections from at least one lawmaker in both the House and Senate would trigger debates in both chambers — a phenomenon that is expected to happen, with over 100 GOP members of the House and over a dozen GOP senators signaling their intention to object to electors in disputed states.

Per the Times:

When the results from all of the states have been considered, Mr. Pence, who as vice president also serves as presiding officer of the Senate, will be called on to read out the Electoral College votes for each candidate, formalizing Mr. Biden’s victory.

…

Mr. Pence has spent hours with parliamentarians and lawyers in recent days. His allies said they expect him to carry out his constitutional duties on Wednesday.

If Mr. Pence were for some reason unable or unwilling to carry out his role as president of the Senate, that role would fall to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the chamber’s longest-serving Republican member.

However, Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said on Saturday that the vice president “welcomes the efforts of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people,” noting that Pence shares “the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities.”

“Some have speculated that the vice president could simply say, ‘I’m not going to accept these electors,’ that he has the authority to do that under the Constitution,” Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said this week, adding “I actually don’t think that’s what the Constitution has in mind.”

“If that were the case, any vice president could refuse any election,” Sekulow said. “It’s more of ministerial procedural function.”

Pence, during a campaign rally in Georgia on Monday, told the crowd that “come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/05/report-vice-president-mike-pence-does-not-believe-he-has-power-to-block-congressional-certification/