NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT THURSDAY 12/27/2018

(THIS SUMMARY POSTED AT MIDNIGHT EASTERN WEDNESDAY WITH UPDATES, EDITING POSSIBLE INTO THURSDAY MORNING)

President Trump paid a visit to the US military in Iraq for Christmas,  Word of his visit came out Wednesday afternoon US time a few hours after a Twitter post of an Air Force One picture taken during the day Wednesday over England.

The President spent three hours at an airbase west of Baghdad but a planned meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi did not come off because of disagreement over how to conduct the meeting.

The two leaders spoke by phone.

The President expressed his belief that those who disagree will come around to his point of view regarding the US military withdrawal from Syria.

President Trump also got a chance to greet members of the military during a refueling stop at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on the way home.

Sources who support Syria's government say the US is setting up two new bases in western Iraq with one less than 100 miles from the Syrian border.

Syrian government troops and Russian military police are moving eastwards towards the western portion of the Kurdish area soon to be vacated by US troops.   The Syrian force is said to be just west of the city of Manbij.

A high level Turkish delegation including its Foreign Minister and presidential spokesman is headed for Moscow on Sunday to discuss Syria.    A Turkish backed Syrian militia force and Turkish military units are massed on the Turkish side of the border with Syria opposite the Kurdish area.

The Israeli airstrike on Damascus Tuesday evening Christmas Day has been condemned by Russia as a serious violation of Syrian sovereignty that endangered civilian aircraft landing approaching the Damascus and Beirut airports

The Russians say six F-16's fired 16 missiles at Damascus with air defenses shooting down 14 of them.   They add the Syrian air defenses were not able to fully engage because of the civilian aircraft, which was diverted to a Russian military base for safety.

A US defense official claimed several Hezbollah officials were injured in the attack, something that the Iranian back Lebanese movement denies.  There are many stories out there about the attack but what's worth noting is the size of the attack, six aircraft and 16 missiles.   It's a larger than usual attack.

And an Israeli official, speaking on anonymity, acknowledged for the first time Wednesday night that Israel was behind the Christmas night attack on Damascus.   The official said Iranian targets were attacked and a Syrian anti-aircraft battery was taken out in the attack when it fired at the Israeli planes.

A Hezbollah tunnel was destroyed on Israel's northern border Wednesday night.  This would be the fifth tunnel destroyed on the Lebanese border in recent weeks by Israel.

There's plenty of electioneering going on Israel with Monday's call for new elections on April 9th.

Tipzi Livni, the leader of the opposition in Israel says its time to put ego's aside and unify in opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu.  Livni is involved in the Zionist Union party, which used to be Israel's once mighty Labor party before she joined it and the name was changed.   Avi Gabbay, the party leader, insists he will lead the party into the election.

A Jewish Home party parliament member, Betzalel Smotrich, is shocked that some Jewish settlement leaders from settlements in Judaea and Samaria are meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what amounts to a campaign appearance.

Smotrich says Netanyahu has ignored the settlements saying in part:

"All the demands from the settlements were rejected by Netanyahu's requests....almost no roads, no construction and no budget"

A poll was released Tuesday in Israel saying if the election were held today Netanyahu's Likud would lead with 30 seats while the new party of retired Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz is in second place at 13 seats.   The secularist Yesh Atid party at 12 seats,  the Arab dominated Joint List at 11, the Jewish Home also at 11, with the Zionist Union at 9.

In all 13 parties are shown in the "Maariv" newspaper poll getting seats under Israel's proportional system for the 120 seats in the parliament.

And Israel's Army Radio reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu advanced the notion of changing the electoral law to affect the upcoming election with a thresh hold lower than four percent to get seats in the parliament.   Netanyahu's office denied that report.

French judges dropped a probe into the shooting down of a plane carrying Rwanda's then president Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994.

The French inquiry was on behalf of the French crew members of the plane who were also killed

A French judge accused the Tutsi rebel faction of involvement.   That faction is led by Rwanda's current President Paul Kagame.   Arrest warrants had been issued for people close to Kagame.

In October prosecutors recommended that the charges be dismissed because there was no enough evidence.

The plantiffs in the case are appealing.

The alert level has been raised by Indonesia around the Krakatoa volcano with a 5 kilometer exclusion zone and the rerouting of airliner traffic.   There are continuing fluctuating eruptions, but a government official says the trend is towards increasing volcanic activity.

Last Saturday the volcano triggered a tsunami that killed at least 430 with hundreds still missing.

Dozens of injuries after a 4.8 magnitude earthquake on the Italian island of Sicily where the Mt. Etna volcano erupted on Monday.

Its the strongest tremor of the dozens since the eruption.

A  great day on Wall Street Wednesday with a massive rally as the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up over 1086 points, the NASDAQ jumping over 361 points.    The price of oil rose to 46 dollars, 14 cents a barrel.

The former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak testified Wednesday at a retrial for ex-Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi who too over when Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

Mubarak limited his answers saying he could not answer some of them until current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave him permission because they would reveal information related to national security.

While Mohamed Morsi's death penalty conviction was overturned, he has received life plus additional years of prison sentences related to his rule.

Russia tested its new hypersonic Avanguard missile system successfully Wednesday.   Russia says the system that can deliver nuclear weapons without being detected will be deployed in 2019.

A Russian Soyuz carrier rocket has been launched from the Vostochny spaceport.

Its delivering Russian Kanopus-V remote sensing satellites and foreign spacecraft to orbits around the Earth.

A symbolic ceremony held in the North Korean border town of Kaesong Wednesday to begin re connection of the railroad that once ran between North and South Korea.   Plans are for railroads and highways between the two Koreas to be reconnected, but sanctions prevent work from taking place on the northern side of the border.

And that's the way it really is for Thursday morning December 27th, 2018.