NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT WEDNESDAY 11/20/2018  NEWSDUMP WEEK EDITION

(EDITING EXPANSIONS, UPDATES ETC. UNTIL 7AM)

"It's a mean nasty world out there"

US Secertary of State Mike Pompeo On Close US-Saudi Relationship Continuing After Khashoggi Murder 11/20/2018

In an announcement clearly designed to happen during the Thanksgiving Week, President Trump has stressed the important economic relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia and Iran as a security threat in saying the US relationship with the Saudis will continue in spite of the brutal murder of  Saudi Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul October 2nd.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran Tweeted:

"Mr. Trump bizarrely devotes the FIRST paragraph of his shameful statement on Saudi atrocities to accuse IRAN of every sort of malfeasance he can think of. Perhaps we're also responsible for the California fires because we didn't help rake the forests-just like the Finns do?"

Pompeo met with Turkey's Foreign Minister who was told the US position on Saudi Arabia and he reacted with disappointment.

An anonymous State Department official told ABC News that its "blindingly obvious" that the order to kill Khashoggi came "from the top" in Saudi Arabia.

Last evening the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations, Chairman outgoing Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey have asked the Trump Administration for an investigation into whether Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing under an international sanctions law.

They must get a response within 120 days.

President Trump says he was submitted written answers to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's questions.

The President told reporters that he has sent in his answers to:

"the witch hunt"

The "New York Times" reports that President Trump wanted to see Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey prosecuted.  

The "Times" reported that he told this to the Office of White House Counsel.   Lawyers at the counsel's office are said to have prepared a list of possible consequences for the President of such action.

DO NOT EAT ROMAINE LETTUCE.

That is the official word from the Centers for Disease Control.

There are some 50 cases of people being sickened by e-coli bacteria in romaine lettuce in the United States and Canada and the source can not be traced.

Any peace plan that President Trump may have in mind, some say he will announce it next week, is a "waste of time" according to Israel's Justice Minister.  Ayelet Shaked spoke before diplomats in Israel and she said the differences between Israel and the Palestinians are too wide.

Police in Israel have recommended charges of fraud, breach of trust, tax offenses, obstruction of justice, perjury and money laundering against the Interior Minister Arye Dery.

Dery is chairman of the Shas, an ultra-orthodox religious party, who also served as Interior Minister from 1988 to 1993.

He was convicted of bribery and fraud in 2000 and served 22 months in prison.

"Axios" has reported that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a closed hearing that Russia has approached Israel and the United States regarding Iranian presence in Syria.  Russia's proposal was that Iran would get relief from some sanctions in return for a pullout of Iranian forces and their associated militias from Syria.

US envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, told reporters in a conference call Tuesday that all other foreign forces in Syria would be ready to leave if the Iranian forces left and there were a political settlement.

Jeffrey said that Russian military presence should be the only foreign presence in the country since it predates the civil war that started in 2011.

Iraq says 40 Islamic State fighters were killed in air attacks launched Tuesday against ISIS positions in eastern Syria.

A new head of Interpol picked today in a vote moved forward from its scheduled date to prevent a Russian official from getting selected.

Kim Jong Yang of South Korea won the vote.

British Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels today meeting with European Union officials tweaking her Brexit proposal to meet opposition within her own government and from other quarters.

The leader of the pro-Brexit United Kingdom Independence Party Gerard Batten is not impressed with her activities tweeting yesterday:

"I hear Mrs. May is going to Brussels tomorrow to meet Jean Claude Juncker.  No doubt to give a Brexit Betrayal update and to get fresh instructions.  How much worse can it get"

A federal district judge in Mississippi has ruled against a state law designed to limit abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. 

Judge Carlton Reeves denounced the law as an attempt to create a legal challenge to the US Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade. decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

No immediate word if Mississippi intends to appeal the ruling.

Word from Washington is that the Trump Administration intends to appeal a federal district judge's ruling against rules for asylum seekers as soon as possible.  US District Court Judge Jon Tigar ruled against the President late Monday.

The former president of Michigan State University is charged with lying to police investigating the sex abuse case of Dr. Larry Nassar, who worked for the university and was a doctor for the USA gymnastics team.

Lou Anna Simon is charged with two felony and two misdemeanor counts.

And there's been a legal settlement in Palm Beach County, Florida in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against tennis star Venus Williams over a fatal accident last year when a 78-year old man was killed.

The estate of Jerome Barson reached agreement with Williams last week that includes an undetermined amount of money changing hands to cover certain expenses.