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Anonymous ID: 6174c0 Jan. 23, 2019, 12:40 p.m. No.4877049   🗄️.is đź”—kun

Maduro Says Venezuela Breaking Diplomatic Ties With United States

 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday that the United States attempted to stage a coup in the country.

 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Wednesday that the country is breaking diplomatic and political relations with the United States. Maduro stressed that US attempted to stage a coup in the country and added that all US diplomats will be expelled from Venezuela.

 

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of the country, after Guaido, the president of the disempowered National Assembly took the oath of office as Interim President of Venezuela. The news come after on Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly adopted a statement accusing Maduro of "usurping" power and that all his decisions rendered void. Maduro replied he would hold the National Assembly accountable for ridiculing the country’s constitution.

 

Meanwhile, media reports have suggested that the United States may impose an oil embargo against Venezuela if Maduro takes severe actions. Later, Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he was considering sending the US military to the country, that all options were on the table for Venezuela.

 

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201901231071757829-maduro-breaks-ties-with-usa/

Anonymous ID: 6174c0 Jan. 23, 2019, 12:45 p.m. No.4877121   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>7151 >>7191 >>7463 >>7526

Syria Ceasefire On Brink Of Collapse As Russia Blames Turkey For Terrorist Growth

 

Four months after Syria and Russia agreed to call off its joint attack on HTS/al-Qaeda held Idlib province, opting amidst US threats to cut a ceasefire deal mediated with Turkey, Moscow now says Ankara has failed to live up to its end of the bargain, which included agreeing to clear Idlib of terrorists and extremist groups. This means a joint Syrian Army-Russia assault on Idlib could again be on the horizon, which was a major source of tension and threats with the United States previously in September.

 

The collapse of the prior 'deescalation' agreement comes at a time when the White House has vowed to stick to the planned US pullout, however, this could be yet a another major development to complicate or delay any possible withdrawal timeline. FT described current Turkish-Russian talks in Moscow as follows:

 

Russia has accused Turkey of failing to live up to a promise to clear Syria’s Idlib of extremist militant groups and admitted that a landmark ceasefire agreement made last September had failed. Ahead of crunch talks between the leaders of the two countries in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign ministry said the Islamist extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had “full control” of Syria’s last remaining major opposition stronghold. The damning assessment came four months after Moscow agreed to postpone a planned military assault on the city in exchange for a promise from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to clear it of militants.

 

HTS is of course the rebranded coalition dominated by former Nusra Front militants, which is Syrian al-Qaeda. Russia has called the situation "rapidly deterioration" and this week pointed to growing numbers of ceasefire violations and incidents and threats against Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Syria. Russia's Foreign Ministry cited that "65 people have been killed and more than 200 injured in more than 1,000 recorded breaches of the agreement," according to FT. This despite Erdogan previously agreeing to keep militants away from a 15km to 20km deep buffer zone established between HTS and pro-Damascus forces.

 

Turkey for its part has predictably laid blame on Assad, saying Damascus had for years purposefully facilitated the resettling of al-Qaeda terrorists in the northwest Syrian province. Russian spokesperson Maria Zakharova described that the Idlib ceasefire zone had “essentially been taken under the full control of militants from the al-Nusra alliance, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, through the ousting of moderate armed opposition units.”

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-23/idlib-ceasefire-brink-collapse-russia-blames-turkey-terrorist-growth

Anonymous ID: 6174c0 Jan. 23, 2019, 12:48 p.m. No.4877157   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>7191 >>7333 >>7463 >>7526

Judicial Watch: Senate Ethics Committee Gives Sen. Cory Booker a Pass for Purposely Violating Rules to Try to Torpedo Kavanaugh Nomination

 

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics has refused to take action against Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who admitted to willfully violating Senate rules by releasing confidential records regarding then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time as a White House counsel. The documents were marked “Committee confidential,” meaning they were not for public distribution.

 

Judicial Watch’s September 2018 complaint to the chairman and co-chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics called for an investigation after Sen. Booker admitted to violating Senate rules in releasing the confidential material. Ethics Committee Chief Counsel and Staff Director Deborah Sue Mayer responded last week:

 

The Select Committee on Ethics (the Committee) has reviewed the complaint you filed against Senator Cory A. Booker, dated September 12, 2018. The Committee carefully evaluated the allegations in the complaint and, based on all the information before it, determined that no further action is appropriate. Thank you for your correspondence with the Committee.

 

Sen. Booker admitted breaking Senate rules when he issued a tweet on Friday, September 7 saying:

 

Weds—I broke committee rules by reading from “Committee confidential” docs.

 

Also, Sen. Booker then posted the following entry on his Facebook account on Sunday, September 9:

 

And the classification of many documents as “Committee confidential” is a sham… I willfully violate these sham rules. I fully accept any consequences that might arise from my actions including expulsion.

 

Judicial Watch noted in its complaint that Sen. Booker also uploaded “Committee confidential” records to a publicly accessible Dropbox account with the heading “Booker Confidential – Kavanaugh Hearing Documents”.

 

By violating the rules in releasing Committee confidential records, Sen. Booker appeared to have violated provisions 5 and/or 6 of Rule 29 of the Standing Rules of the Senate (Rev. Jan. 24, 2013), which stipulate that he should be subject to expulsion from the Senate:

 

Any Senator, officer or employee of the Senate who shall disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees and offices of the Senate shall be liable, if a Senator, to suffer expulsion from the body; and if an officer or employee, to dismissal from the service of the Senate, and to punishment for contempt.

Whenever, by the request of the Senate or any committee thereof, any documents or papers shall be communicated to the Senate by the President or the head of any department relating to any matter pending in the Senate, the proceedings in regard to which are secret or confidential under the rules, said documents and papers shall be considered as confidential, and shall not be disclosed without leave of the Senate.

 

(See pp. 48-49: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-113sdoc18/pdf/CDOC-113sdoc18.pdf )

 

The Senate Ethics Committee is evenly split, with three Republicans and three Democrats. The Committee members are Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Brian Schatz (D-HI), James Risch (R-ID), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).

 

“It is an absolute disgrace that the Senate Ethics Committee is giving Senator Booker a pass for willfully violating Senate rules by leaking confidential information to smear Justice Kavanaugh,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Senate continues the abuse of Kavanaugh and his family by refusing to act against a Senator who, pretending to be Spartacus, violated the rule of law and our Constitution in trying to destroy him.”

 

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-senate-ethics-committee-gives-sen-cory-booker-a-pass-for-purposely-violating-rules-to-try-to-torpedo-kavanaugh-nomination/