Trump Instructs Pentagon to Curb Watchdogs’ Access to Secret Military Reports

Transparency groups decry move as hindering the work of inspectors general.

President Trump, in a nationally televised Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, instructed acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to withhold classified battlefield reports from inspectors general, a move that brought objections from transparency advocates.

“I can tell you [a] story when I got here about our military that I don’t even want to talk about,” Trump said. “We do these reports on our military. Some IG goes over there, and he goes over there and they do a report on every single thing. We’re fighting wars and they’re doing [a] report and releasing it to the public. The public means the enemy. Those reports should be private reports.”

The president continued: “Let them do a report, but they should be private reports and be locked up … [Giving the reports] out to the enemy is insane. And I don’t want it to happen anymore, Mr. Secretary. You understand that?”

Observers interpreted Trump’s remarks to refer to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General.

A year ago, SIGAR John Sopko criticized the Pentagon’s refusal to allow publication of details from certain classified battlefield reports. “For the first time since 2009,” he wrote, the military “classified the exact strength figures for most Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, another vital measure of…. reconstruction. Meanwhile, for the second consecutive quarter, DoD also classified or otherwise restricted information SIGAR had previously reported including such fundamental metrics of ANDSF performance as casualties, attrition, and most capability assessments.”

By May, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan had softened their stance and released some of the data.

https://www.defenseone.com/politics/2019/01/trump-instructs-pentagon-curb-watchdogs-access-secret-military-reports/153930/

DHS releases more than 2000 immigrants citing lack of detention space

The Department of Homeland Security will be releasing over 2000 migrants over the course of the next few weeks after facilities became packed full with border-crossing men, women, and children who seek refuge in the United States.

From Breitbart:

A DHS official confirmed to Breitbart News that the U.S. Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is releasing more than 2,000 family units caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, citing a lack of detention space.

The border-crossing adults and the children they arrived at the border with will be released and given a court date for an immigration hearing. The adults will be given ankle monitors, though the DHS official says the process of keeping track of border-crossers via ankle monitors is not effective.

According to the report at least four major border crossing locations have been inundated with migrants.

Please comment below and share this post on Facebook and Twiter.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/70127/dhs-releases-more-than-2000-immigrants-citing-lack-of-detention.html

US Airstrikes to Continue in Syria Against ISIS Despite Announced Withdrawal

U.S. forces have continued air and artillery strikes in Syria against Islamic State targets and will conduct them indefinitely despite President Donald Trump's announcement Dec. 19 that U.S. troops would withdraw from the country, the U.S. military regional command said Friday.

In a release, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said that U.S. and coalition forces conducted 469 strikes with either air or artillery in Syria between Dec.16 and Dec. 29 against a range of ISIS targets and in support of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria.

The strikes were carried out using a variety of platforms, including fighters, attack aircraft, bombers, rotary-wing and remotely piloted aircraft, rocket-propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery, the task force said.

There is no immediate cutoff date for the air and artillery strikes, CJTF-OIR said.

U.S. forces "will continue to target ISIS" and "will remain committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS to improve conditions for peace and stability in the region," the release stated.

In addition to the U.S. and coalition strikes, Iraqi fighter aircraft have also attacked ISIS targets inside Syria in recent days.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command in Baghdad said Monday that Iraqi F-16s hit a house near the Iraqi border that was being used for meetings by ISIS leaders. The attack Monday came a day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he had no objections to Iraqi cross-border strikes that were limited to the remnants of ISIS in eastern Syria.

Commanders of the SDF, which has driven ISIS out of most of eastern Syria, initially charged that Trump's withdrawal announcement amounted to a betrayal that would leave them prey to threatened attack by Turkey, but SDF fighters have continued to press the offensive against ISIS near the Iraqi border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Turkey considers the Kurdish YPG (People's Protection Units), the main fighting force within the SDF, to be linked to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been labeled a terrorist group by the U.S., Turkey and the European Union.

In another sign that the U.S. is continuing to support the SDF, the Observatory said Friday that U.S. troops were conducting patrols in the flashpoint town of Manbij in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey has demanded that elements of the SDF in Manbij leave the town and withdraw east of the Euphrates River.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/01/05/us-airstrikes-continue-syria-against-isis-despite-announced-withdrawal.html

Atlanta Prosecutor Sues DOJ For Blocking Investigation Of Incident Where Cops Shot A Man 59 Times

A case that involves some shocking numbers has resulted in a lawsuit against the DOJ. An investigation into a raid that ended with law enforcement officers putting 59 bullets into the body of an Atlanta resident has dead-ended and it appears to be because the DOJ doesn't want to talk about it.

Jamarion Robinson, a 26-year-old student and football player at Clark Atlanta University, was shot and killed by a team of local and federal officers who broke down the door to his girlfriend’s apartment on Aug. 5, 2016, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Atlanta federal court by the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.

The DA says he has repeatedly attempted to work with the DOJ to obtain the personnel files and training materials of the officers responsible for Robinson’s death, all to no avail.

“It has now been 875 days since the officers killed Mr. Robinson, and the DOJ has yet to provide any of the documents or evidence requested and has failed to provide any investigative reports relating to Mr. Robinson’s death,” the complaint states.

The opening of the DA's lawsuit [PDF] doesn't explain what Atlanta prosecutors did for the first 275 days, but it does point out the DOJ has been blocking this investigation for nearly two years at this point.

Having been stymied for more than 600 days from receiving any documents from the Department of Justice related to the shooting of Jamarion Robinson, Plaintiff Office of the Fulton County District Attorney (“Plaintiff” or “the District Attorney”) brings this action against Defendant United States Department of Justice (“Defendant” or “the DOJ”) to compel compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (“FOIA”).

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190101/07485141312/atlanta-prosecutor-sues-doj-blocking-investigation-incident-where-cops-shot-man-59-times.shtml

Syrian forces tell Britain to take back the 'filth' who fled the UK to fight for ISIS and say the war-torn country is not 'landfill' for foreign jihadis who are considered a risk in their homelands

Syrian forces say captured British jihadis should be sent back to UK for trial

Britain has so far refused to take any back, instead stripping them of citizenship

Senior Government sources believe there is enough evidence to achieve convictions in British courts on terror charges

MORE

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6558911/Syrian-forces-tell-Britain-filth-fled-UK-fight-ISIS.html

ADL, Terrorist and Mafia connected and Defending a Pedophile Rapist and Murderer from its inception

Many of you know that a B’nai B’rith organization gave birth to the ADL while defending its chapter chairman Leon Frank who raped and murdered a 13 year old girl who he was also employing along with many other teens, against child labor laws. Leon Frank ran a pencil factory and often flirted with his illegal underage employees. The ADL was formed to defend him when he murdered Mary Phagan. The detail were disgusting. Her underwear was ripped and bloody and she was strangled to death with a wire. She went to get her paycheck of a meager $1.20 and never returned home. She was raped and murdered and then her body was dragged to the basement. Police found strands of her hair and blood on the floor above right across from Frank’s office. Frank nervously revealed the victims name in front of police before they had given him any such details. Frank was killed in prison by inmates who took justice into their own hands. The ADL was going to get him released. They would like one to belive that he was innocent with fake news history and will tell you so on Wikipedia which has Israelis paid to edit it. Leon admitted on the witness stand to the jury that he was “unconsciously” at the scene of the crime when the murder occurred. He was convicted. What we don’t know is if he raped her before or after killing her.

The ADL itself was created with Jewish mafia money. With connections to Meyer Lansky, Moe Dalitz, Bugsy Siegal, and illegal arms trafficker Hank Greenspun. The ADL gave Jewish gangster Moe Dalitz the Torch of Liberty Award. Dalitz was partnered with Galvastan’s Sam Marceo and his brother Rosario of international narcotic trafficking fame. Dalitz and Sam began with a bootlegging gig. And it was the Maceo brothers who with Dalitz financed the Desert Inn Casio (where Frank Sinatra got his first Vegas gig). Interesting note, Sam’s sister Olivia married Joseph Fertitta. You probably know the famous former owners of the UFC Frank III and Lorenzo Fertitta. They’re all “family”. Maceo died only a year after purchasing the casino and it quickly went into the Fertitta side of the family. Dalitz not only did business with Maceo, he ran with the Mayfield Road gang in Ohio who had a branch dubbed the Collinwood Crew nicknamed the Young Turks. This is a very fitting name considering that the ADL denies the Armenian genocide. They even fired a New England Director Andrew H. Tarsy because he broke rank and called it a genocide. See killing 1,500,000 people isn’t genocide because nothing is allowed to compete with the Holocaust victimhood.

http://www.ancreport.com/report/adl-is-mafia-connected-and-defended-pedophile-rapist-and-murderer-leon-frank/

1/2

>>4611636

2/2

Veteran Who Started Border Wall GoFundMe Tries to Meet With Nancy Pelosi

The triple-amputee veteran who started a GoFundMe fundraiser that’s garnered more than $19 million for President Donald Trump’s border wall tried meeting with the top Democratic leader to ask why she can’t compromise and meet Republicans in the middle.

Brian Kolfage started the “We the People Will Fund the Wall” fundraiser, which circulated widely and as of Jan. 5, had raised more than $19 million from more than 315,000 people.

“As a veteran who has given so much, 3 limbs, I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today. Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society,” he wrote.

“I have grandparents who immigrated to America legally, they did it the correct way and it’s time we uphold our laws, and get this wall BUILT! It’s up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/veteran-who-started-border-wall-gofundme-tries-to-meet-with-nancy-pelosi_2757664.html

Iran raps British FM's 'meddlesome' remarks on Zaghari's case

Iran has lashed out at British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for making "hasty and false" remarks against Tehran, saying his claims are an example of interference in the internal affairs of an "independent country."

In a statement on Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi expressed regret over Hunt's “meddlesome and absurd” remarks and his wrong terms and claims about Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari, who is currently serving her term in Iran on espionage charges.

"Unfortunately, the British foreign secretary has made hasty and false remarks several times in recent days about an issue which has basically nothing to do with his country," Qassemi said.

He added that the British foreign secretary's claims indicated his lack of knowledge on the case.

Britain's foreign minister claimed on Friday that Iran had denied medical care to Zaghari, who has now gone on hunger strike, and said it was "shameful" for Tehran.

"I was given a clear assurance that she would be given access to all the doctors that she needed. That hasn't happened," Hunt said.

Iran’s intelligence authorities arrested Zaghari at Imam Khomeini International Airport in April 2016 as she was on her way back to London. She was subsequently put on trial and handed a five-year jail term after being found guilty of spying and spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

In November 2017, Iran’s Judiciary released documents to local media outlets which challenge Western accounts that the Iranian national had merely traveled to the country from Britain for a family visit.

As per the released documents, Zaghari had played an active and leading role in holding training courses for recruits at BBC World Service Trust and the ZigZag Academy.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/05/584950/Qassemi-Nazanin-Zaghari-Jeremy-Hunt-Yemen

Bolsonaro Unveils Mass Privatization Plan for Brazil While Slashing Taxes for Rich and Wages for Poor

Ending his first week in office by quickly putting into action the far-right agenda he promoted during his campaign, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday unveiled economic proposals that critics says will worsen inequality across Brazil, putting corporate profits above the well-being of middle- and lower-class families.

Privatization of airports and seaports, tax cuts for the rich, pension cuts, and a minimum wage set lower than Bolsonaro's predecessor had planned were among the economic reforms the new president has in store for the country, as it moves toward what the new right-wing government calls a "minimal state."

Finance Minister Paulo Guedes indicated that the administration has plans to privatize Eletrobras, the government-run power firm, while Bolsonaro took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce his plan to privatize 12 of the country's airports and four seaports, claiming Brazil is burdened by "hundreds of bureaucratic governing bodies" and that the move will make available $1.85 billion in private investments.

The president eventually plans to privatize 44 airports, according to the Center for Aviation, a move that could end operations for Infraero, the country's national aviation authority.

Guedes also expressed the need for "tax simplification and reduction"—a sign that the administration will worsen the already-regressive tax code which has slashed taxes for the rich while leaving low-income families paying more each year, proportionally, than rich households.

of course, brazil's actual problem is not its tax burden, but how regressive the tax system is. That will, naturally, remain unaddressed. No wonder the very rich are happy. The far right everywhere exploit popular discontent for the benefit of the 1%, and Brazil's is no different https://t.co/VasAypfifS

— Bernardo Jurema🌹 (@bernajurema) January 2, 2019

At TeleSUREnglish, Ignacio Limas reported that there is speculation in Brazil "that the restructuring of the pension system may take the shape of the Chilean retirement system," which is heralded by conservatives in the U.S. but has been blamed for helping to usher in some of the worst wealth inequality in the developed world.

Bolsonaro has also unveiled plans to raise the minimum wage to a rate lower than that which was recommended by Michel Temer's outgoing government, bringing it to about $260 per month—eight dollars less than previously planned.

The difference "may seem insignificant," said Limas, "but is equivalent to a bag of beans or lentils or rice or corn for families with less financial resources—something that would have a large impact on the overall budgets of families."

The privatization plans and reductions in social spending were condemned by the Workers', Communist, and Socialism and Liberty Parties in a joint statement on Thursday, according to TeleSUREnglish.

The parties proposed "that there must not be just opposition to proposals, but they must form an opposition that is critical actively of Jair Bolsonaro as he wages his social and economic attacks" on Brazilians.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/04/bolsonaro-unveils-mass-privatization-plan-brazil-while-slashing-taxes-rich-and-wages

The Path to Give California 12 Senators, and Vermont Just One

Maybe the two-senators-per-state rule isn’t as permanent as it seems.

In 1995, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared, “Sometime in the next century the United States is going to have to address the question of apportionment in the Senate.” Perhaps that time has come. Today the voting power of a citizen in Wyoming, the smallest state in terms of population, is about 67 times that of a citizen in the largest state of California, and the disparities among the states are only increasing. The situation is untenable.

Pundits, professors, and policy makers have advanced various solutions. Burt Neuborne of NYU has argued in The Wall Street Journal that the best way forward is to break up large states into smaller ones. Akhil Amar of Yale Law School has suggested a national referendum to reform the Senate. The retired congressman John Dingell asserted here in The Atlantic that the Senate should simply be abolished.

There’s a better, more elegant, constitutional way out. Let’s allocate one seat to each state automatically to preserve federalism, but apportion the rest based on population. Here’s how.

Start with the total U.S. population, then divide by 100, since that’s the size of the current, more deliberative upper chamber. Next, allocate senators to each state according to their share of the total; 2/100 equals two senators, 3/100 equals three, etc. Update the apportionment every decade according to the official census.

More

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/heres-how-fix-senate/579172/

Who Runs Our World?

ur world is run by oligarchs, the holders of vast wealth from monopolies in banking, resource extraction, manufacturing, and technology. Oligarchs have such power that most of the world doesn’t even know of their influence over our lives. Their overall agenda is global power — a world government, run by them — to be achieved through planned steps of social engineering. The oligarchs remain in the background and have heads of state and entire governments acting in their service. Presidents and prime ministers are their puppets. Bureaucrats and politicians are their factotums.

Who are politicians? Politicians are people who work for the powerful while pretending to represent the people who voted for them. This double-dealing involves a lot of lying, so successful politicians must be good at it. It’s not an easy job to make the insane agenda of the powerful seem reasonable. Politicians can’t reveal this agenda because it almost always goes against the interests of their constituents, so they become adept at sophistry, mystification, and the appearance of authority. For example, wars for Israel have been part of the agenda of the powerful for years. Since 2001, wars for Israel have been sold as “the war on terror” and lots of lies had to be made up as to why the war on terror was a real thing. The visible faces promoting the war on terror were neoconservatives in the US, almost all of whom were advocates for Israel, or Zionists. Zionists are not the only members of the oligarchy, but they seem to be its lead actors.

With this perspective we may judge all kinds of world events, such as the many false flag terror attacks which have been perpetrated in one country after another to bring about political objectives. False flag attacks range from Operation Gladio to demonize leftists, 9-11 to demonize Arabs and Muslims, and the shooting down of the MH-17 airliner to demonize Russia. Under an atmosphere of terror, with citizens clamoring for revenge, all kinds of political goals can be achieved.

Propaganda is also vital. Control of information through a likewise controlled media has facilitated mass brainwashing. To control the narrative, whistle blowers and truth tellers must be isolated and destroyed, preferably in the open, so as to warn others away. This is what is happening with Julian Assange.

The attack on Gilad Atzmon is an other example. Atzmon has been a major critic of the role of Jewish political power in our world — not just in Palestine, but all over the western world. When he says “we are all Palestinians” he is making the observation that Europe and North America are being Israelified. For example, some police in the US go for training in Israel, where they learn to view the US public, particularly African Americans, the way the Israeli military views Palestinians — as enemies to be shot in the streets and abusively treated. In the US, people are not allowed to question or discuss Jewish power, when it is evident that AIPAC, the lobby for Israel, completely controls both houses of the US Congress. We recall the members of Congress giving Benjamin Netanyahu 29 standing ovations during his denunciation of Iran in 2011. In Britain, mass insanity has taken hold, at least in the media, in the demonization of Russia via the Skripal affair and Luke Harding’s MI6 journalism in The Guardian. This is taking place solely because of Russia’s thwarting of Israel in its attempt to destroy Syria. For the neocons, the agenda is always war — the stick to bring recalcitrant states in line with the New World Order. This behavior is so dangerous that it would be crazy if we did not speak about who is doing this, and why.

In December 2018 Atzmon was banned from playing a jazz gig in Islington, north of London, because a powerful entity — the Zionist Herut Likud UK — initiated a character assassination and attack on his livelihood through Richard Watts, leader of the Islington Town Council. The Council created the lie that in banning Atzmon it was protecting the citizens of Islington from “antisemitism.” In fact, it is only protecting organized Zionists — supporters of the racist state of Israel — from one of their most effective critics.

https://alethonews.com/2019/01/04/who-runs-our-world/

Is the Vatican trying to recast McCarrick abuse of teen as ‘consensual’?

In a shocking reversal, the Vatican reportedly indicated that it deemed the allegations of sexual abuse by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick against an altar boy, found to be credible by the Archdiocese of New York, to be “not credible,” essentially nullifying the grievous testimony upon which the Holy See’s case against the prelate was being built.

The former altar boy, 16 years old at time the abuse occurred in 1972, had testified that in preparation for Christmas Mass at New York’s venerable St. Patrick’s Cathedral, McCarrick sexually abused him in the Cathedral’s sacristy and then again a year later in a lavatory.

“The credible evidence has been dropped because the altar boy went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to solicit sex from McCarrick,” according to James Grein, another man whom McCarrick had abused as a boy. As a newly ordained priest, McCarrick had baptized Grein when he was an infant and then molested him repeatedly for 18 years beginning when Grein was just 11 years old.

“He was 16 years old,” so “he was a consensual adult,” added Grein in his recent interview with Taylor Marshall. “There was no crime.”

Despite the fact that the United States views a 16 year old as a minor, Canon law views a young person of that age as having reached the age of majority.

“The Vatican is attempting to recast the molestation as somehow ‘consensual sex,’” noted Church Militant’s Michael Voris in a video report.

Voris also pointed out that this echoes a notion promoted by Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting in November, that consensual homosexual sex involving priests with young men is somehow not all that egregious.

The Vatican’s apparent attempt to discredit and downplay the charges against McCarrick raises a “big red flag,” said Voris, who asserted, “The Vatican is more concerned with cover-up than the truth.”

“Many are thinking that all of this is just one huge smoke screen,” said Voris, who suggested “Rome has no real concern about this issue, too easily adopts a ‘blame the victim approach,’ and is content to treat this scandal as just an ‘American thing’ that will be forgotten soon enough.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/stunner-vatican-said-to-have-deemed-mccarrick-sex-acts-with-16-year-old-alt#When:01:20:00Z

Netanyahu tells Putin: Israel will continue fight against Iran in Syria

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will continue working against “Iranian military repositioning in Syria”.

Netanyahu’s comments were made in a phone call between the two leaders, Anadolu Agency reported, with Netanyahu’s office also sending a written statement about the issue to its Russian counterpart.

The statement – a copy of which reached Anadolu – said that both leaders discussed the latest developments in Syria, while “Netanyahu agreed with [Putin] to continue cooperation between the armies of the two countries [in Syria]”.

“Israel insists on continuing its efforts aimed at undermining the Iranian military’s repositioning in Syria,” Netanyahu said, according to the statement.

Over the past few years, Israel has struck scores of Iranian targets in Syria, despite its official policy of non-involvement in the Syrian Civil War which has been ongoing since 2011.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190105-netanyahu-tells-putin-israel-will-continue-fight-against-iran-in-syria/

Ukrainian Il-76 Airlifter That Was Tracked Across U.S. Delivered Radar Asset To Utah Air Base

A radar from Ukraine would allow American personnel to assess how much of a threat it, or similar systems that potential enemies use, might pose.

A Ukranian Air Force Il-76 'Candid' cargo plane has appeared at an Air National Guard facility attached to Salt Lake City International Airport. We now know that it has delivered an unspecified mobile radar system as part of a U.S. Air Force contract.

Online plane trackers first noticed the Il-76, of which the Ukrainian Air Force has around five in service in total, traveling westward from Ottawa/Macdonald–Cartier International Airport in eastern Canada on the morning of Dec. 3, 2019. The Candid was on the ground in Salt Lake City before 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Curiously, at the same time, information from our friend and intrepid plane tracker @CivMilAir indicated that the aircraft was showing up as 737 airliner with the registration UR-IVK, which belongs to Ukranian airline Dniproavia. But Dniproavia does not fly any routes to the United States at all and a 737 from that airline would be a very long way from home. @CivMilAir also noted that this could be an error with the tracking software or an issue with the aircraft's transponder—one made by mistake or otherwise.

More

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25786/ukrainian-il-76-airlifter-that-was-tracked-across-u-s-delivered-radar-asset-to-utah-air-base

>>4612006

I'd prefer tried and executed. Rule of law

>>4612016

BASED AF BAKER

What a difference you make!

ThanQ