Turkey's Target in Syria 'Not the American Soldiers:' Turkish President

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that his military will try to avoid clashes with U.S. troops during a planned operation in Syria against U.S.-backed Kurdish militias fighting ISIS.

"Our target is not the American soldiers. It is the terror organizations that are active in the region," Erdogan said at a defense industry conference in Ankara, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency and other Turkish outlets.

Erdogan said the Turkish military would move into Syria "within days" to clear the town of Manbij and other areas of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops were manning observation posts in an effort to stabilize the region.

U.S. troops also recently began running joint patrols with the Turkish military in Manbij, a flashpoint town that Turkey claims harbors elements of the YPG (People's Protection Units).

The Kurdish YPG has been a main contingent within the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove ISIS from Raqqa, once the capital of the "caliphate," and is now pressing the last ISIS pocket in the town of Hajin on the Syria-Iraq border.

In an informal session with Pentagon reporters last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis rejected Turkey's charges that the YPG was allied with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S.

Mattis said the Turks "don't like our relationship" with the YPG, "and I understand where they're coming from. But we do not say that YPG is the same as PKK."

Mattis also used the informal session to announce that small units from among the estimated 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria would move north to set up observation posts near the Turkey-Syria border.

He said the main purpose of the posts was to provide Turkey, a NATO ally, with early warning of potential threats, but Turkey viewed the move as an effort to protect the YPG. In October, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) suspended the offensive against Hajin when the Turkish military shelled the YPG in northeastern Syria.

In his remarks Wednesday, Erdogan charged that the U.S. was "not being honest" in describing the purpose of the observation posts.

"We know that the aim of the radar and observation posts set up by the United States is not to protect our country from terrorists, but to protect the terrorists from Turkey," Erdogan said.

The alarming statements from Erdogan marked the latest sign of friction between the U.S. and Turkey, which has drawn close to Russia and Iran in seeking an end to Syria's civil war.

Turkey also has angered the U.S. and other NATO allies with its agreement to purchase advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.

At the Pentagon Tuesday, spokesman Army Col. Rob Manning said in a statement that the U.S. had completed setting up the observation posts at Mattis' direction "to address the security concerns of our NATO ally Turkey."

"We take Turkish security concerns seriously and we are committed to coordinating our efforts with Turkey to bring stability to northeastern Syria," Manning said.

He quoted Mattis on the purpose of the mission: "We want to be the people who call the Turks and warn them if we see something coming out of an area that we're operating in."

Also at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Col. Jonathan Byrom, commander of the Army's 3rd Cavalry Regiment and deputy commander of Joint Operations Command-Iraq, said that artillery units from his command have been using a firebase in Iraq for cross-border fire into Syria against ISIS targets and in support of the SDF offensive against Hajin.

Soldiers from Bravo Battery, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, part of Task Force Rifles, have been using M777 towed 155mm howitzers in the fire missions from Iraqi Firebase Saham on the border, Byrom said in a video conference from Baghdad to the Pentagon.

The U.S. battery has been joined at Firebase Saham by French artillery units using CEASAR 155 self-propelled howitzers and Iraqi Security Forces units using M109 Paladin self-propelled 155mm howitzers, Byrom said.

The fire missions have been "fairly intense, more intense than others I've seen in the past," Byrom said, "and they're directly contributing to the protection of the Iraqi border."

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/12/turkeys-target-syria-not-american-soldiers-turkish-president.html

Former U.S. Government Contractor Indicted for Allegedly Selling Falsified Resumes and Counterfeit Training Certificates to Individuals Seeking Employment on U.S. Government Contracts in Afghanistan

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-government-contractor-indicted-allegedly-selling-falsified-resumes-and-counterfeit

Former Congressional Staffer Sentenced to Prison for Extensive Fraud and Election Crimes Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-congressional-staffer-sentenced-prison-extensive-fraud-and-election-crimes-scheme

Paul Ryan’s Last Act: Protecting Barack Obama’s Illegal War in Yemen with Democrat Votes

Lame-duck Speaker Paul Ryan managed to shepherd through a motion protecting President Barack Obama’s illegal war in Yemen, thanks to five Democrats who joined the Republican majority to pass the measure.

Speaker Paul Ryan attached a rule on Tuesday night to the Conference Report for the 2018 Farm bill which would block a potential War Powers resolution vote on America’s involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The rule passed through the House 206-203, featuring strong Republican support for the rule, along with five Democrats who voted for the measure. Eighteen Republicans and 185 Democrats against the measure.

Ryan’s actions serve as a rare instance in which matters of foreign policy were attached domestic policy; although, Ryan blocked a resolution by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) in November by including language in the Manage Our Wolves Act that would block a vote on America’s involvement in Yemen.

Khanna called Ryan’s move this week “unprecedented” and contended that Congress abdicated its constitutional responsibility to authorize or de-authorize military conflict.

The five Democrats who voted for the measure are Reps. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MA), David Scott (D-GA), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Jim Costa (D-CA), and Al Lawson (D-FL).

Had the Democrats not joined Republicans in voting for this rule, Ryan’s rule would have failed and Ryan’s ploy would have failed on the House floor. There were enough Republicans to tank the rule– five Democrats saved the rule.

Prominent Republican conservatives such as Reps. Dave Brat (R-VA), Justin Amash (R-MI), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Scott Perry (R-PA) voted against Ryan’s motion.

Massie, in an interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday, said that American involvement in Yemen was not “America First.”

Massie told Breitbart News:

This is definitely not America First. We shouldn’t be spending our blood and treasure in the Middle East, and furthermore on another level, we shouldn’t be jeopardizing the passage of domestic policy and domestic spending with a foreign policy/ war issue. In other words, if you’re putting America First, why would you jeopardize passage of the Farm bill by sneaking in the War in Yemen through the Farm bill?

Khanna said:

Not only are the Republicans turning off the privileged status for H. Con Res 142, breaking the rules of the House, they are turning off the privileged status for all War Powers Resolutions related to Yemen for the rest of this Congress. This is unprecedented. Speaker Ryan is preventing Congress from conducting our constitutional duty and once again, breaking the rules of the House. While this is happening, the United States Senate is debating and voting on this issue.

Khanna wrote in a tweet on Wednesday:

Once again the GOP is using parliamentary tricks to block our effort to end the devastating war in Yemen. Every 10 minutes a Yemeni child is dying. @SpeakerRyan is using his remaining power to protect the Saudis who are aligned w/ al-Qaeda and murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/12/paul-ryans-last-act-protecting-barack-obamas-illegal-war-yemen-democrat-votes/

UK Commitment to UN Migration Pact ‘All But Violates’ Govt Immigration Pledge: Think Tank

A leading immigration think tank has said that the United Kingdom’s adoption of the UN’s migration pact “all but violates” the government’s pledge to cut immigration.

On Monday, the UK and 163 other nations committed themselves to the United Nations’ Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration — the first attempt at the “global governance” and institutionalisation of migration.

The UK’s delegate at the UN conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, the Foreign Office’s minister of state Alistair Burt heralded the compact, claiming it “tackles” illegal immigration.

Migration Watch UK fired back at the assertion, saying, “This is the wrong move. The word ‘control’ does not appear in the final text of the Compact.”

“The Government committed, 3 times in election manifestos, to reduce immigration by a lot (a goal supported by 73% of the public according to one poll).

“How is signing a Compact which binds the UK into ‘enhanc[ing] the availability… of [migration] pathways’ compatible with that?”

Alp Mehmet, Vice Chairman of Migration Watch UK, told Breitbart London, “This Compact is misguided and one that the UK should not have signed.

“No government serious about reducing migration should be committing to it. As for our government, by signing up to the Compact, they are all but violating a manifesto promise to reduce immigration substantially.”

Migration Watch UK outlined in a briefing document published late November that the UN’s pledge “would stand in direct contradiction to the government’s three election manifesto commitments to reduce the level of net migration from the current 270,000 per year to less than 100,000.”

The document added, “The Compact appears to have been drafted by diplomats whose aim seems to be to ‘normalise’ mass immigration from the developing world to the West at a time when the public are very clear that they find the scale and pace of such flows to be unsustainable and unacceptable.

“The Government needs to reconnect with voters and demonstrate that they are serious about honouring their election promise.”

The think tank also urged the Government to debate a petition calling for the UK to not sign the controversial document, which has gained more than 125,000 signatures.

The compact aims to protect the “human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants”, and combat “xenophobia, racism and discrimination” towards migrants.

Critics have said that the compact will lead to media criticism of mass or illegal migration being made illegal, and while proponents claim the terms are not legally binding, European lawyers warn the wording exists in a “legal grey area” that could be used to interpret national laws.

Several eastern European countries as well as Israel and Australia pulled out of backing the compact in recent months following the lead of President Donald Trump who rejected the compact in December 2017, saying,“The global approach in the [UN] declaration is simply not compatible with U.S. sovereignty.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/12/uk-commitment-un-migration-compact-violates-govt-pledge-cut-immigration-think-tank/

HUGE! Judge Sentencing General Flynn Demands to See FBI 302 Documents on Flynn Ambush Interview

Judge Sullivan, who is assigned to General Flynn’s case is demanding to see the FBI summary 302 report about the ambush Flynn interview according to a new court filing.

Counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok showed up to the White House on January 24th, 2017 along with Special Agent Joe Pientka to interview General Flynn; the meeting was arranged by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Flynn was told not have his lawyer with him and soon after the FBI agents began to question him he realized he was being ambushed over his phone calls to Russian Ambassador Kislyak.

The FBI agents who ambushed General Flynn on January 24th, 2017 didn’t write their 302 reports on their interview until 7 months later on August 22nd — this is also AFTER Rosenstein wrote his August 2nd memo expanding Mueller’s scope.

Congressional investigators have long suspected the 302 summary notes on Flynn were altered to make it appear he was lying.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe previously testified to Congress that the two agents who interviewed Flynn didn’t detect any deception.

The 302 report may not be released to the public because it may be filed under seal.

The American people deserve answers as to why the 302 summary report on the Flynn interview wasn’t taken at the time of the ambush –or was it rewritten several months later to exclude Peter Strzok since he was removed from Mueller’s team?

Comey, Yates, Strzok and McCabe set General Flynn up to not only remove him from his post as NatSec Advisor, but to catch him in a perjury trap.

The Special Counsel must file its reply to Wednesday’s court filing by December 14th.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/huge-judge-sentencing-general-flynn-demands-to-see-fbi-302-report-on-flynn-ambush-interview/

France In A Nutshell: "The Government Stopped Listening To The People 20 Years Ago"

he elites' clever exploitation of politically correct cover stories has enthralled the comatose, uncritical Left, but not those who see their living standards in a free-fall.

A family member who has lived in France for decades summarized the source of the gilets jaunes protests in one sentence: "The government stopped listening to the people 20 years ago. It would be difficult to deny the generalization of this: many if not most governments stopped listening to their people decades ago, preferring instead to listen to financial and political elites and entrenched cultural elites who view commoners with disdain.

Legions of commentators are weighing in on the economic and cultural sources of France's distemper. Many have characterized the protests as working class, broadly speaking, the multitudes who have seen an erosion in the purchasing power of their wages or pensions while France's financial, political and cultural elites have feasted on whatever meager gains the French economy has registered in the past 20 years.

The protesters rightly perceive that they are politically invisible: the ruling class, regardless of its ideological flavor, doesn't believe it needs the support of the I>politically invisible to rule as it sees fit. The ruling class has counted on the cultural elites to marginalize and suppress the politically invisible by dismissing any working-class dissent as racist, fascist, nationalistic and other words expressly intended to push dissent into the political wilderness.

The cultural elites reckoned their ceaseless depiction of working-class dissent as racist-fascist populism would continue marginalizing the commoners, but the worm has turned: the financially, politically and culturally marginalized classes are fed up.

Despite the usual squabbles between factions, the ruling class has long been united behind a simple tool of control: buy complicity with government benefits. Should dissent boil up in a broad-based movement, the solution is buy the protesters off with some new state subsidy or benefit.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-12/france-nutshell-government-stopped-listening-people-20-years-ago

>>4283367

Optics, it's Obama war. Trump will fix it.

CHUTZPAH: CIA/Mossad Instigate Chemical Attack in Syria, Accuse Syria of Doing It

While it received almost no coverage in the Western media, the United States Department of State has made its final determination on the November 24, 2018 chemical attack in northwestern Aleppo.

In case you have forgotten, on November 24, 2018, as reported on Sputniknews, the Russian military stated that "terrorist groups" had fired 120 mm mortars at neighbourhoods on the north-west side of Aleppo. The mortars were fired from a location in the demilitarized buffer zone between rebel and government forces. According to Sputnik, the 120 millimetre shells appear to have been filled with chlorine and resulted in the hospitalization of 94 civilians including women and children. This resulted in actions by Russian forces which claimed to eliminate the rebels responsible for the attack.

A number of rebel groups denied involvement including Nour al-Dien al-Zenki as shown here:

https://russia-insider.com/en/chutzpah-ciamossad-instigate-chemical-attack-syria-accuse-syria-doing-it/ri25644

No matter what the Assad regime or the Russian forces do, they simply cannot win in the eyes of Washington. It is also a particularly cynical stance given that Washington is quite clearly in breach of international convention by using white phosphorus munitions against civilians in Syria as shown here.

Kikey Tucker Carlson show