Foreign Policy Focus

On FPF #434, I update the most important news of the last week. I discuss Kim's upcoming end of year deadline and what could happen if the US fails to engage North Korea in meaningful talks. Trump signed the 2020 NDAA this week. The bill will sanction European energy projects like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In Libya, regional powers continue to escalate the civil war. 

Links

• Senator Rand Paul airs his Festivus grievances. Including the US spending $22 million on Serbian cheese and $700,000 on smoking fish. [Link]
• Trump signs the 2020 NDAA. [Link]
• A judge's ruling will allow the US government to seize the money Snowden has made from his book. [Link]
• Daniel Larison explains the Trump travel ban continues to ruin peoples’ lives. [Link]
• ICE is using contractors to detect and arrest illegal immigrants on social media. [Link]
• At least 61 soldiers stationed at a base in Uzbekistan in the early days of the Afghanistan War are suffering or have died from cancer. The vets are struggling to get care from the VA. [Link] 
• Russia extends American Paul Wheelen’s detention another three months. Wheelen is accused of espionage by Russia. [Link]
• Russia and Ukraine come to an agreement on the amount Ukraine will change Russia to transit gas through Ukraine to the rest of Europe. [Link]
• Russia officially opens a rail route from Russia’s two largest cities to Crimea. [Link]
• Russia’s foreign minister says the Nord Stream 2 and Turkstream pipeline will be completed despite US sanctions. [Link]
• Russia says it is willing to include its new hypersonic nuclear missiles in a renewal of New Start. [Link]
• The US and South Korea carry out military drills simulating capturing high value North Korean targets. [Link]
• The Indian government will conduct a census in 2020. [Link]
• At least 13 people have been killed during protests in India. Muslims are protesting a law that discriminates against Muslims by granting citizenship to non-Muslims who live in India. [Link]
• The Taliban kill 15 Afghan government forces in an attack. [Link]
• The Independent Election Commission claims that Afghanistan’s President Ghani won with just over 50% of the vote in the September 28th election. The result is only a preliminary and contested by the second-place finisher. [Link]
• Afghan officials say a runoff in September elections is likely. Preliminary results show Afghanistan’s president won reelection with a narrow majority. Thousands of election complaints have already been filed, that will dip his vote total below 50%. [Link]
• Taliban elders agree to a short term ceasefire that will take effect once a deal with the US has been finalized. [Link]
• The Taliban kill a US soldier in northern Afghanistan. [Link]
• Iran reopens part of its AROK nuclear reactor in compliance with the JCPOA. [Link]
• Iran, Malaysia, Tukrey, and Qatar agree to trade more and discuss the possibility of trading in gold. [Link]
• The bomb sniffing dogs the US sends for foreign countries are subject to mistreatment, leading to death. Ten percent of the dogs sent to Jordan died and ten dogs sent to Egypt died. [Link]
• As Assad’s forces advance on the last major al-Qaeda holdout in Syria, 10,000s of Syrians are fleeing into Turkey. [Link]
• The opposition in Syria fired rockets at Syria’s oil refinery in Homs, causing minor damage. [Link]
• Twitter permanently suspends 10,000s of accounts associated with a Saudi man accused by the US of spying. [Link]
• Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death and three to long prison sentences for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The court ruled it was not a premeditated decision. A top adviser to de facto ruler MbS was not among the punished. Evidence suggests MbS was involved in the planning of the murder. [Link]
• Iraq’s parliament passed a new election law. Under the new law, voters can choose individual members of parliament. Previously, Iraqis could only choose off party lists. [Link]
• Two Iraqi soldiers were killed by a car bomb. [Link]
• Warring parties in Yemen exchange 135 POWs. [Link]
• Twelve aid agencies withdrew from a Yemeni town after their offices came under attack by unknown militants. [Link]
• A car bomb kills seven civilians in Somalia. [Link]
• Haftar’s forces seize a ship with a Turkish crew off of Libya’s coast. [Link]
• Haftar’s government claims that Turkey is moving military equipment into Libya with civilian aircraft. It warned it could shoot down civilian plans with military equipment. [Link]
• Turkey’s parliament recognizes an agreement with Libya’s UN-backed government that allows Turkey to deploy forces to Libya. [Link]
• Israel announces its opposition to Turkey and Libya’s eastern Mediterranean agreement. [Link]
• The US will create an Envoy to Combat Terrorism in Sahel region of Africa. The envoy will coordinate with the intelligence community, State Department, and Pentagon to ramp up the fight against Islamist groups in the Sahel. [Link]

I invited Sam Jacobs on the show to discuss the dark history of the ATF. Sam has a recent article covers the ATF gun-walking operations know as 'Fast and Furious.' Sam explains how the program provided arms to deadly cartels. The weapons were used to kill many Mexicans and a US border agent. Sam covers the ATF murders a Ruby Ridge. During the standoff, AFT's incompetence and blood lust led to a 14-year old boy and an innocent woman to be gunned down. 

Sam Jacobs is the lead writer and chief historian at Ammo.com. Work from Ammo.com's Resistance Library has been featured by USA Today, Reason, Bloomberg's Business Week, Zero Hedge, The Guardian, and National Review as well as many other prominent news and alt-news publications.

Links

Ammo.com - Podcast

Ammo.com - Fast and Furious

Ammo.com - Ruby Ridge

On FPF #432, I explain my view that the Democrats' case for impeaching Trump is very weak. The House passed two articles of impeachment this week, although House leadership is now preventing those from going to the Senate. While everyone is distracted with these potential minor crimes committed by Trump, there are major news stories breaking around the world. I cover several of those stories in the second half of the show. Many of those stories are about actual serious crimes Trump is committing. 

Links

NDAA

• The 2020 NDAA requires the DNI to release a report on who is responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. [Link]
• The Senate passes the 2020 NDAA. [Link]
• Germany believes sanctions passed in the 2020 NDAA could impact their work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. However, the sanctions include a 30 day “cool down” period, and Germany may be able to complete the pipeline during that time. [Link]
• The US national debt increased by $1.2 trillion in 2019. [Link]
• Both houses of Congress introduce bills to push Trump towards renewing New Start. [Link]

Korea

• South Korean and the US were unable to make a deal about South Korea’s payment for US troops deployed to South Korea. South Korea is willing to pay $1 billion a year, the US is demanding $5 billion. [Link]
• DefSec Esper says the US expects North Korea to carry out more weapons tests. [Link]
• Russia and China call for some sanctions to be lifted on North Korea. The US says now is not the time to lift sanctions. [Link]

South America

• Venezuelan children are facing increasingly worse malnutrition. [Link]
• The Trump administration is considering ramping up the pressure on Venezuela. This could include an oil blockade. [Link]
• Trump voices support for the coup government in Bolivia. [Link]
• Bolivia’s coup government issues an arrest warrant for the former president Morales. Morales is now a refugee in Argentina. [Link]

Europe

• NATO receives its second of five Global Hawk spy drones. It hops to have all drones by 2022. The drones cost $1.5 billion and were expected to be delivered by 2017. [Link]
• Spain’s high court finds the leader of Catalonia guilty of disobedience. [Link]
• Germany says it will not retaliate against the US for sanctions in the NDAA that target the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. [Link]
• The US removes sanctions of Latvia's second-largest port. The Latvian government seized the port after the US sanctioned Aivars Lembergs. [Link]

India

• Protests are spreading in India against a proposed law that would grant citizenship to non-muslims from neighboring countries living in India. [Link]
• The Pentagon is dismissing the Afghanistan Papers. [Link]
• Ten members of a Afghan family were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb. [Link]

Middle East

• An Israeli power company is cutting power to some areas of the West Bank for three hours a day over a Palestinian electric company not making debt payments. [Link]
• Israel bars Gazan Christians from visiting holy sites in Israel and the West Bank this year. [Link]
• The Qatari foreign minister says the stalemate between Qatar and the GCC has been broken. [Link]
• Saudi Arabia launches a $1.5 million lobby effort in the US. [Link]
• Secretary of Treasury Munchin said Iran’s attack on Saudi oil infrastructure was an attack on the world economy. [Link]
• In a move likely aimed at pleasing Turkey, the State Department says Trump will not recognize the Armenian Genocide. [Link]
• In the first half of 2020, the US State Department will cut about 130 people from its embassy in Erbil. [Link]
• Secretary of Defense Esper calls on Iraq to stop attacks on bases that house US soldiers. [Link]
• Despite a ceasefire agreement in 2018, 799 civilians have been killed in the city of Hodeida in 2019. [Link]
• The Houthi and Yemeni government will meet for two day talks about Hodeidah this week. The UN is backing the talks and the hope is allowing more humanitarian goods to enter the port at Hodeidah. [Link]

Africa

• A US airstrike killed one person in Somalia. The US claims that the person was a member of al-Shabaab. The airstrike was at least the US 60th in Somalia this year. [Link]
• Turkey will deploy military forces to a base somewhere in Libya. [Link]
• Haftar’s army is advancing on Tripoli. Libya’s capital city is held by the UN-recognized government. [Link]
• Boko Haram militants killed 14 civilians in Chad. [Link]
• Islamist militants in Nigeria killed four humanitarian workers who have been held hostage for several months. [Link]
• Militants in the Congo killed 22 civilians. Militants have killed over 150 people since the government began a crackdown on the militants on October 30th. [Link]
• Ebola cases are on the rise after treatment centers were attacked and shut down. Over 2,200 people have died during the outbreak. [Link]
• Sudan’s former president Bashir has been sentenced to two years in a reform facility for corruption. [Link]

Mike Maharrey returns to FPF to discuss Defend the Guard. Defend the Guard is a bill introduced at the state level that prevents the federal government from using National Guard troops in undeclared forever wars. The movement is growing as more states will consider the bill in 2020. Mike explains how you can help bring Defend the Guard to your state. 

Mike Maharrey is the author of Our Last Hope. He is the host of the Thoughts from Maharrey Head podcast and the Friday Gold Wrap. Mike is the managing editor at Schiff Gold and the communications director at The Tenth Amendment Center. 

Links

Bring Defend the Guard to your state

On FPF #430, I discuss the 2020 NDAA. The bill is filled with funding and approval for more war. An earlier version of the bill actually provided some limitations on the president's war-making powers. However, it was stripped out during the conference committee. I break down my own article about the 2020 NDAA on the show. 

On FPF #429, I discuss the Afghanistan Papers. The large cache of documents were released by the Washington Post via FOIA. The papers show the successive White House administrations and Pentagon generals knew the Afghan War was unwinnable but continued to send Americans to Afghanistan to kill and be killed. 

Links

Scott Horton Show - Sjursen, Hoh, and Davis

On this Foreign Policy Focus and Around the Empire swap cast, Kyle and Joanne discuss the Democrats' efforts to impeach Trump over Russiagate. Statements by Nancy Pelosi and witnesses in the impeachment hearings show the blob's real aim to prevent Trump from adopting a more realistic foreign policy towards Russia. The hosts also cover Attorney General Barr's interview about the FBI IG report on the investigation into Trump's campaign. Barr explains why the media's coverage of the report is misleading and the Durham report could reveal the intelligence community's role in the origin of Russiagate. 

On FPF #427, I explain how the shooting at the US base in Flordia was a part of the war the US is fighting in the Middle East. The shooter was a Saudi officer who was training at the base. Before the shooting, the Saudi posted about American crimes against Muslims being the motivation for his attack. While in the US, this will be presented as an act of terror only preventable by killing more Muslims in the Middle East, the reality is more war in the Middle East will only create more terror attacks in the US. 

Links

• The charges against journalist Max Blumenthal have been dropped. He was accused of simple assault while trying to deliver food to the Venezuelan embassy in DC. No evidence has been produced of the assault and what evidence that may have existed appears to have been deleted. Five months after delivering food to the embassy, Max was arrested and held for two days at the end of October. [Link]
• Jeff Bezos is pushing other tech companies to work with the Pentagon saying, “we are the good guys.” [Link]
• CBP reverses a plan that would have required all US citizens to be photographed leaving and entering the US. [Link]
• The US House votes in favor of a resolution that condemns Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. [Link] 

Mexican Cartels 

• Trump says he will not designate Mexican cartels as terror groups. [Link]
• The Mexican President meets with AG Barr and says he will work with the US to prevent the flow of weapons into Mexico, but would not permit another operation like fast and furious. [Link]

Shootings

• A US sailor killed two civilians Department of Defense employees before killing himself at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard. [Link]
• A Saudi air force officer training in the US shot and killed three people in a US base. Post by the Saudi suggests he carried out the attack in response to US foreign policy. [Link]

NATO

• Turkey says it expects NATO members' support in Syria after it dropped its objection to NATO’s Baltic defense plan. [Link]
• Trump and Canada’s leader clash at the NATO conference. Trump called Trudeau two-faced and complained Canada is not meeting the 2% defense spending target. [Link]
• Trump suggests he could sanction Germany for not meeting NATO’s 2% defense spending target. [Link]
• Hungary says it will block Ukraine’s NATO membership over Ukraine’s language law. [Link]
• Putin says Russia will extend the New Start Treaty without any preconditions or discussions. [Link]

Ukraine

• Ukraine’s president says he will look to swap the rest of the POWs from the Ukrainian Civil War in talks with Russia next week. [Link]
• Trump’s 2020 budget requests $250 million in lethal aid to Ukraine. [Link]

North Korea

• North Korea says it carried out a test at a long-range missile facility. The facility was partially deconstructed when the US and North Korea were making diplomatic progress. [Link] In response to the missile test Trump says North Korea risks losing everything and calls on Kim Jong-un to denuclearize. Trump also warned North Korea against interfering in the 2020 elections. [Link]
• A North Korean official says denuclearization is off the table in talks with the US. [Link]

GCC

• Qatar confirms that it is in talks with Saudi Arabia to resolve the GCC dispute. [Link]

Iran

• Trump is considering a plan that would send an additional 14,000 troops to the Middle East. [Link]
• Japan will deploy 270 sailors to the Middle East to protest its ships. [Link]
• A senior Pentagon official says Iran could act aggressively. [Link]
• Iran says protesters have been killed in recent weeks but far less than the claimed 200 claimed by Amnesty International. [Link]
• Iran’s president calls on all unarmed protesters to be released. [Link]
• The Navy claims to capture a ship carrying advanced missile parts from Iran. [Link]
• The US and Iran exchanged prisoners. The US released an Iranian scientist who was held for violating sanctions. Iran released and American-Chinese student who was accused of espionage with little evidence. [Link]

Iraq

• Masked armed men in Iraq killed at least 23 protesters. The home of influential cleric Sadr was targeted by a mortar fired from a drone. [Link]
• A US official says Iran may have been behind an attack that hit an Iraqi airbase that houses US soldiers. He did not provide evidence and admitted he was still waiting for evidence to come in. [Link]

Syria

• Secretary of Defense Esper says the repositioning of American troops in Syria is complete, and troop levels in Syria will fluctuate around 600. [Link]

Yemen

• The Sudanese leader says his country only has 5,000 troops in Yemen, down from 15,000. [Link]

On FPF #426, I review the recently released on Amazon movie, The Report. The movie tells the story of the CIA torture program after 9/11 and Daniel Jones' effort put together a report on the program. The movie is well done and generally gets the narrative correct. I breakdown some of the best and worst themes in the movie. 

Links

The New York Times publishes drawings by CIA torture victim Abu Zubaydah of the abuse inflicted on him. [Link]

On FPF #425, I explain why NATO should be dissolved. NATO leaders are meeting in London and there are plenty of issues among the members. Turkey is recently purchased Russian made air defense systems and is refusing to sign off on defense plans unless other countries label the Syrian Kurdish militia as a terror group. France is accusing Turkey of using terror proxy groups against the Kurds in Syria. The French president recently called NATO brain dead, identifying the alliance lacks an enemy. Trump said he would not be surprised if Franch leaves NATO and is threatening sanctions on Franch. Trump is also frustrated that many member states are making no progress in meeting the NATO target of spending 2% on defense. 

Links

• Texas is seeking the death penalty against a man who killed someone breaking into the window of his home. The intruder was a SWAT team member in a no-knock raid. The police only found a glass pipe and grinder. [Link]
• Jordan Smith explains fingerprint analysis can be a complex and subjective science. The so called experts who testify in criminal trials have dubious qualifications. [Link]
• Trump is using the PATRIOT Act to indefinitely detain a non-US citizen in the US. Trump is the first president to use this power. [Link]
• The Trump administration is considering adding a regulation that would require all US citizens to be photographed entering and leaving the country. [Link]
• General Dynamics will get a $20 billion contract to build Virginia class submarines. [Link]
• The Navy awards General Dynamics with a three-quarters of a million-dollar contract to supply the ground systems for the Navy’s satellite communications. [Link]
• Singapore is attempting to enforce its fake news law. It claims a blog posted fake information. Singapore first pushed the author to publish a correction. He refused and is not under investigation. Singapore then asked Facebook to post a correction. Facebook has not responded. [Link]
• Julian Assange will testify in a Spanish court about a Spanish company spying on him while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy. The Spanish company is accused of illegally spying on Assange’s privileged conversations with lawyers and passed the intelligence to the US. [Link]

NATO/New Cold War

• NATO countries are working on a plan to pay more of NATO’s budget in an attempt to appease Trump. France has said they will not sign on to the plan and already contribute enough to defense. [Link]
• Russia formally proposes to extend the NEW START Treaty for five years. Russia says it is also open to a shorter extension. [Link]
• Trump says Russia wants to make an agreement on arms control and nuclear. Trump suggested bringing China into the deal. [Link]
• A senior State Department official says Russia is in compliance with the NEW START Treaty. [Link]
• Russia showed US inspectors its hypersonic nuclear missile system under the auspices of the NEW START Treaty. [Link]
• The Trump administration is 100% duties on $2.4 billion in French champagne, cheese, and other products in response to a French tax on digital products. [Link]
• Trump says he can see France leaving NATO. [Link]
• The French president says Turkey is working with ISIS proxies. [Link]
• US Senators, led by Graham, send the White House a letter calling for sanctions against Turkey for buying S-400 air defense systems from Russia. [Link]
• NATO awards Boeing a $1 billion contract to upgrade AWACS recognisances planes. [Link]
• Turkey is refusing to sign off on a NATO defense plan until NATO starts recognize the Syrian Kurdish militia the YPG as a terror group. [Link]
• Turkey says their newly purchased Russian-made S-400 air defense system will not be integrated into NATO’s air defense. Russia says Turkey is looking to purchase more S-400s. [Link] 

Latin America 

• Pompeo says the US will support Latin American countries trying to suppress riots and unrest. [Link]
• Trump will place steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentia. Trump accuses the countries of currency manipulation that is harming American farmers. [Link]

Afghanistan

• Secretary of State Esper says the US withdrawing troops is not necessarily tied to negotiations with the Taliban. [Link]
• The US killed a family of six with a drone strike in Afghanistan. [Link]
• Trump traveled to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving. He said he believes the Taliban would engage in a ceasefire. The Taliban confirmed they have resumed talks with the US. [Link]
• The top US general says peace talks have a higher chance of working this time. [Link]
• Fifteen members of an Afghan family were killed by a roadside bomb on the way to a wedding. [Link]

Israel

• A UN report estimates the Israeli occupation of Palestine has cost the Palestinian economy $48 billion from 2000-2017. [Link]

Syria

• The UAE says it hops Syria stabilizes under Assad. [Link]
• Heavy clashes in Idlib Syria have killed 96 people over two days. [Link]
• A Syrian airstrike killed ten civilians at a market in Idlib. A Turkish airstrike killed ten civilians in a Kurdish region of Syria. [Link]
• Two Turkish soldiers were killed by a mortar attack in southern Turkey near the Syrian border. [Link]
•  

Yemen

• 20 African migrants were killed traveling through Yemen to Saudi Arabia. Reports say they may have been killed by an airstrike. [Link]
• The Red Cross says 128 Houthi prisoners of war have been released by Saudi Arabia. Saudi claims to have released 200 prisoners. [Link]
• The Houthi claim to have shot down a Saudi helicopter. [Link]
• A German court reverses a de facto ban on selling armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia. [Link]