Italy’s leftist government allows two NGO ships to offload 121 migrants

Italy’s leftist government has allowed the NGO migrant transport vessels the Alan Kurdi and the Ocean Viking to offload 121 migrants at the Sicilian ports of Messina and Pozzalo.

The news comes about a week after the Alan Kurdi, operated by the German NGO Sea-Eye, and the Ocean Viking, a ship operated jointly by the SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) picked the migrants up off of the Libyan coast, Infomigrants reports.

Initially, after picking up the migrants in the Libyan search and rescue zone, the Alan Kurdi was instructed to take the migrants to the port of Tripoli. The NGO ship refused, however, and headed north towards Italy.

“The European Commission has started the procedure of distributing the 61 migrants on the Alan Kurdi and the 60 aboard the Ocean Viking,” a spokesperson for Italy’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“Some European countries, including Germany and France, have offered to accommodate some of these migrants.”

Earlier this year in September, the interior ministers of France, Germany Italy, Malta, and Finland agreed on an arrangement which for newly disembarked migrants to be relocated across the five countries.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/italys-leftist-government-allows-two-ngo-ships-offload-121-migrants/

UK: 79 illegal migrants cross English Channel in a day

79 illegal migrants have successfully crossed the English Channel between Wednesday and Thursday morning, marking the second-highest number of illegal immigrants to cross the Channel in a single day.

On Wednesday, 48 people in three boats were intercepted by the UK Border Force off the coast of Kent, while another dinghy carrying 11 was rescued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Later the same day Home Office officials detained another 20 people after a fifth dinghy was found abandoned on a beach in Kingsdown, the BBC reports.

Early the next morning, the UK Border Force intercepted another vessel carrying 19 illegal immigrants – 11 men, four women, and four minors – who claimed to be from Iraq and Iran.

The event represents the second-highest number of illegal migrants to cross the English Channel in twenty-four hours, with 86 arriving on the 10th of September.

So far this year, over 1,700 migrants have successfully crossed the English Channel in small boats. To put things into perspective, just 297 were caught trying to cross the Channel during the entire year of 2018. That’s a 500 percent increase in successful crossings in just one year.

Illegal migrants crossing the Channel have become so emboldened that they often refuse to be rescued by any authorities other than those from the UK. There have even been instances of illegal migrants calling the UK Border Force to pick them up and take them to England.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/12/uk-79-illegal-migrants-cross-english-channel-in-a-day/

US State Department denies Netanyahu talked Jordan Valley annexation with Pompeo

PM had explicitly said that he and the US Secretary of State discussed the possible move in a meeting last week; senior US official says no such plan was presented

A senior US State Department official rejected on Saturday the claim made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had discussed the possible annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting between the two last week.

“I can tell you that there was no annexation plan, full or partial, for any part of the West Bank presented by Israel to the United States during the meeting, and that has long been the US government position, that the ultimate disposition of territory is to be determined between the parties,” Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told reporters in an official State Department briefing.

Netanyahu, speaking on Thursday at the end of a two-day trip to Portugal where he and Pompeo met, had explicitly said that the two had discussed the possible annexation plan.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-state-department-denies-netanyahu-talked-jordan-valley-annexation-with-pompeo/

Judiciary panel releases report defining impeachable offenses

The House Judiciary Committee on Saturday released a report explaining the constitutional grounds for the impeachment of President Trump.

The report comes after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced earlier in the week that the House would be moving forward with drafting formal articles of impeachment. The articles could be released and voted on as soon as this coming week.

The report, titled "Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment," was written by the committee's majority staff and describes impeachment as “the Constitution’s final answer to a President who mistakes himself for a monarch.”

Additionally, it details the "history, purpose and meaning of the Constitution’s Impeachment Clause" and "addresses legal questions about the impeachment process and rebuts false claims about impeachment."

Specifically, the report clarifies impeachment processes that had been scrutinized by GOP House lawmakers throughout the public committee hearings and addresses six issues of potential relevance:

"The law that governs House procedures for impeachment."

"The law that governs the evaluation of evidence, including where the President orders defiance of House subpoenas."

"Whether the President can be impeached for abuse of his executive powers."

"Whether the President’s claims regarding his motives must be accepted at face value."

"Whether the President is immune from impeachment if he attempts an impeachable offense but is caught before he completes it."

"Whether it is preferable to await the next election when a President has sought to corrupt that very same election."

"The Framers' worst nightmare is what we are facing in this very moment," Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. "President Trump abused his power, betrayed our national security, and corrupted our elections, all for personal gain.

"The Constitution details only one remedy for this misconduct: impeachment," he continued. "The safety and security of our nation, our democracy, and future generations hang in the balance if we do not address this misconduct. In America, no one is above the law, not even the President."

https://www.scribd.com/document/438700279/Judiciary-Impeachment-Process#from_embed

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/473515-house-judiciary-committee-releases-staff-report-on-constitutional-grounds-for

Erdogan invited to attend Victory Day Parade in Moscow in 2020 — media

The Victory Day Parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War will be held in Moscow on 9 May 2020

MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Ankara has extended an official invitation to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on 9 May 2020, the Izvestiya newspaper reported on Saturday.

The administration of the Turkish president and the Turkish Embassy in Moscow have not yet responded to Izvestiya's request for comment at the moment of publication.

The Victory Day Parade to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War will be held in Moscow on 9 May 2020. Russia has also extended invitations to US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un , leaders of the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), European leaders. Among those who confirmed participation in the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow are the leaders of India, Cuba, France, Czechia, Venezuela, Belarus, Armenia, Bulgraria, Serbia.

https://tass.com/world/1096843

UK Media investigates Clintons & Epstein. Virginia Giuffre exposes Andrew & Maxwell (Video)

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the BBC Panorama interview of Virginia Giuffre who says Epstein trafficked her to the Prince Andrew, bringing her to London in 2001 when she was 17-years-old.

Ghislaine Maxwell was also accused of being Epstein’s handler during the interview. Guiffre has called on the British public to “stand up beside me” in a BBC interview.

https://theduran.com/uk-media-investigates-clintons-epstein-virginia-giuffre-exposes-andrew-maxwell-video/

Some False Statements Made in the Trump-Impeachment Hearings

In the December 4th statement that was made by Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan was this:

We have become the shining city on a hill. We have become the nation that leads the world in understanding what democracy is. One of the things we understand most profoundly is it’s not a real democracy, it’s not a mature democracy if the party in power uses the criminal process to go after its enemies. I think you heard testimony, the Intelligence Committee heard testimony about how it isn’t just our national interest in protecting our own elections. It’s not just our national interest in making sure that the Ukraine remains strong and on the front lines so they fight the Russians there and we don’t have to fight them here.

It’s also our national interest in promoting democracy worldwide, and if we look hypocritical about this, if we look like we’re asking other countries to interfere in our election, if we look like we’re asking other countries to engage in criminal investigations of our President’s political opponents, then we’re not doing our job of promoting our national interest in being that shining city on a hill.

She said: “We have become the shining city on a hill.” Here is a list of just a few of the democratically elected presidents and prime ministers in foreign countries whom the U.S. regime overthrew, by coups, in order to install brutal dictatorial regimes there that would do sweetheart deals with America’s international corporations. Also, unsuccessful, merely attempted, U.S. coups are discussed there.

Furthermore, the scientific studies of whether the U.S. Government is controlled by the public (a democracy) or is instead controlled only by its very wealthiest (an aristocracy) are clear: this country is an aristocracy, not a democracy at all, except, perhaps, in the purely formal senses of that term — our great Constitution. Far-right judges have recently been interpreting that Constitution in the most pro-aristocratic, anti-democratic, ways imaginable, and this might have something to do with why the scientific studies are finding that the U.S. is now a dictatorship. And this fact, of America’s now being a dictatorship, was blatantly clear in America’s last Presidential election, which was actually a s‘election’ by Americas’ billionaires — not by the American public.

How, then, can Professor Karlan be respected about anything, if she lives in a dictatorship (by its aristocracy) and is deluded to think that it’s still (which it never was completely) a democracy?

Furthermore: her statements about Ukraine are equally deluded. She is obviously unaware that the Obama Administration started planning its coup against Ukraine in 2011 and started implementing it in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine on 1 March 2013, and started in June 2013 soliciting bids from U.S. companies to renovate at least one building in Crimea for use by the U.S. Navy to replace Russia’s main naval base — which Russian naval base was and is in Crimea — by a new U.S. naval base to be installed there.

The craziest thing of all about Karlan’s statement, however, is this part: “It’s not just our national interest in making sure that the Ukraine remains strong and on the front lines so they fight the Russians there and we don’t have to fight them here.”

Imagine if someone said, “It’s not just our national interest in making sure that the Mexico remains strong and on the front lines so they fight the Americans there and we [Russians] don’t have to fight them here.”

https://thesaker.is/some-false-statements-made-in-the-trump-impeachment-hearings/

Greece expels Libyan ambassador over agreements with Turkey

Greece has given Libya’s ambassador to Athens 72 hours to leave the country, in protest against agreements with Turkey, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias announced on Friday.

According to Anadolu Agency, Dendias confirmed that the decision indicated Greece’s dissatisfaction with Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli, and was taken because of the country’s failure to comply with rules previously proclaimed by Greece on the issue.

Dendias also clarified that the decision did not mean Athens was breaking diplomatic ties with Libya.

On 27 November, Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) signed a bilateral memorandum demarcating the countries’ exclusive economic zones in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The document reaffirmed the rights of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, to resources in the Eastern Mediterranean in the face of unilateral drilling by the Greek Cypriot administration.

The memorandum was signed by Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following its passage in parliament, with the GNA also ratifying the deal later on Thursday.

According to Anadolu Agency, Libya has announced that expelling the Libyan ambassador is “unacceptable”.

Speaking to Reuters, Libyan foreign minister, Mohamed Siyala, affirmed that his country would have reciprocated if Greece had diplomatic representation in the country.

He added: “It is Greece’s right to go to the International Court of Justice and to the legal channels to remove any confusion. But to take the stand of expelling the ambassador, summoning him and escalating the situation, this is unacceptable to the Libyan government.”

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that Siyala stressed that Libya has the right to sign agreements with whoever it wants, noting that Greece had procrastinated to agree with Libya regarding the demarcation of maritime borders since 2004.

Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, also condemned expelling the Libyan ambassador.

“Expelling an ambassador just because of the agreement that we signed is not a mature behaviour in diplomacy. This is outrageous,” Reuters reported Cavusoglu speaking to reporters in Rome.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191207-greece-expels-libyan-ambassador-over-agreements-with-turkey/

Navy, Pentagon to Review Base Security Following 3 Deadly Incidents in a Week

The Navy pledged Friday to find ways to upgrade security procedures and prevent future attacks following two shootings and a fatal gate runner incident at naval bases in Virginia, Hawaii and Florida in the last week.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper also announced he is "considering several steps to ensure the security of our military installations and the safety of our service members and their families," although he did not give details.

Investigations are underway by the Defense Department, FBI and State Department, as well as local and state officials in Florida, into the shootings at Naval Air Station Pensacola early Friday, allegedly committed by a Saudi national pilot in training, officials said.

"These acts are crimes against all of us," Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said of the incidents, which began Nov. 30 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia when Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Oscar Temores, 23, was killed when his patrol car was struck by a gate runner.

Related: 3 Dead, 7 Injured After Shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola; Shooter Killed

On Wednesday, a sailor identified as 22-year-old Gabriel Romero allegedly shot to death two civilian workers at the shipyard at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam before taking his own life.

In a statement, Modly said it is the "solemn duty" of the service to carry out a review to determine the causes of the three incidents and "work together to prevent them."

The incident at Pensacola was possibly the most concerning from a security perspective as it involved a Saudi national in the kingdom's Air Force who was training with other foreign nationals at the base in Florida's Panhandle.

"There's obviously going to be a lot of questions about this individual being a foreign national, being a part of the Saudi Air Force and then to be here training on our soil," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a base news conference.

"Obviously, the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims," he added.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said that Saudi King Salman Abdulaziz al-Saud had called to express his condolences and give assurances that the shooter did not represent the Saudi people.

"The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people," Trump said in a tweet.

At the Pensacola news conference, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said his office got the call at about 6:50 a.m. to respond to shootings in a classroom on the base. Three people were killed and eight more wounded or injured, including two sheriff's deputies, before the shooter was killed by a deputy, officials said.

Morgan said the shooter used a handgun, and a main focus of the investigations will be how the foreign national obtained the weapon and managed to get it on base.

Capt. Timothy Kinsella, the base commander, said personal weapons are not allowed on the base. "You can't bring a weapon on base unless you're part of the security forces," he said.

Since World War II, Pensacola has served as a flight training base for service members from allies and partner nations. The Navy could not immediately give a breakdown for how many foreign nationals are currently training at the base.

Local officials and the Navy would not immediately describe the Pensacola shootings as a terrorist act, but Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, said it may have been.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, was more definitive.

"We can safely call this an act of terrorism, not an act of workplace violence," Gaetz told local TV station WEAR.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/12/07/navy-pentagon-review-base-security-following-3-deadly-incidents-week.html

How Did Lying Adam Schiff Obtain Phone Records on Trump’s Attorney and Ranking Member Nunes? And Did FBI Director Wray Help Him?

Looks like Rep. Adam Schiff has some explaining to do. The phone records he released in his bogus impeachment report may have been obtained illegally. Who would have guessed that?

Career Leo Rosco Harris shared a Twitter thread on the Schiff sham impeachment report and he identified what may likely be illegally obtained phone records in the report. Below are some of the tweets –

What the hell is going on with the phone records lying Schiff shared in his sham report? This does not pass the smell test.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/how-did-lying-adam-schiff-obtain-phone-records-on-trumps-attorney-and-ranking-member-nunes-and-did-fbi-director-wray-help-him/

Democrat Doomsday: DOJ Inspector General's Report Will Lead to Party's Implosion, Humiliation in 2020

The Democrats have always been the party of political pathology. In the 1850s, it was defending slavery. Now, their agenda is sexual deviancy, mass surveillance and infinity war. Will Russiagate finally undo them?

The last time the Democratic Party blew up in a presidential election year was 1860. It had evolved from Jefferson’s 1800 bloc of yeoman farmers to Andrew Jackson’s rowdy caucus of frontier populists in the 1830s, and settled into a slough of pro-slavery apologists by the 1850s, including two do-nothing Democratic presidents, Pierce and Buchanan. The party held a nominating convention in the spring of 1860 and couldn’t come up with a candidate when a claque of southern “fire-eaters” walked out. They tried again a few months later and cracked up into three separate parties with three nominees — and of course Mr. Lincoln won the election. The result was the bloodiest war in US history.

That’s one way to drain a swamp. Historical obfuscators might say the Civil War was a lofty, legalistic quarrel over “state’s rights,” but of course it was really about the intolerable depravity of slavery. A hundred years later, the mysterious inversions of history converted the old slaver’s party into the Civil Rights party. That had a good fifty-year run. It included a hearty side-dish of anti-war sentiment, and a general disposition against the Big Brother treatment of citizens, including especially the overreach of the CIA and the FBI.

What is the Democratic Party today? Well, it’s the cheerleading squad for “seventeen” government agencies that add up to the craftily-labeled “intel community,” a warm-and-fuzzy coalition of snoops, false witnesses, rogue lawfare cadres, seditionists, and bad-faith artists working sedulously to hide their previous misdeeds with ever-fresh ones. They’re the party against free speech, the party against due process of law, the party determined to provoke war with Russia. They’re the party of sexual confusion, sexual hysteria, and sexual conflict, the party of kangaroo courts, cancel culture, erasing boundaries (including national borders), and of making up rules for all that as they go along — like the Nazis and Soviets used to do. The ideas and policies they advocate are so comprehensively crazy that their old support of slavery looks quaintly straightforward in comparison.

https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/democrat-doomsday-doj-inspector-generals-report-will-lead-partys-implosion-humiliation-2020

Moral Injury & America’s Endless Conflicts

When an announcement of a “Moral Injury Symposium” turned up in my email, I was a bit startled to see that it came from the U.S. Special Operations Command. That was a surprise because many military professionals have strongly resisted the term “moral injury” and rejected the suggestion that soldiers fighting America’s wars could experience moral conflict or feel morally damaged by their service.

Moral injury is not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis. It’s not on the Veterans Administration’s list of service-related disabilities. Yet in the decade since the concept began to take root among mental health specialists and others concerned with the emotional lives of active-duty soldiers and military veterans, it has come to be fairly widely regarded as “the signature wound of today’s wars,” as the editors of “War and Moral Injury: A Reader,” a remarkable anthology of contemporary and past writings on the subject, have noted.

For those not familiar with the tag, moral injury is related to but not the same as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which is a recognized clinical condition. Both involve some of the same symptoms, including depression, insomnia, nightmares and self-medication via alcohol or drugs, but they arise from different circumstances. PTSD symptoms are a psychological reaction to an experience of life-threatening physical danger or harm. Moral injury is the lasting mental and emotional result of an assault on the conscience — a memory, as one early formulation put it, of “perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”

The idea remains controversial in the military world, but the wars that Americans have fought since 2001 — involving a very different experience of war fighting from that of past generations — have made it increasingly difficult for military culture to cling to its old manhood and warrior myths. Many in that military have had to recognize the invisible wounds of moral conflict that soldiers have brought home with them from those battlefields.

More

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/06/moral-injury-americas-endless-conflicts/