NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT FRIDAY 1/4/2019

(EXPANSION, UPDATES, EDITING ETC. POSSIBLE UNTIL 8AM EASTERN)

Yellow Vests protester Eric Drouet says he attempted to stage a protest in Paris Wednesday night to:

"show the French that we are not free"

Police released Drouet Thursday after he was arrested enroute to a protest in Paris  Wednesday evening.

Sharp reaction from the Yellow Vests movement with mobilization for an 8th round of protests tomorrow.

 LATE WORD IS THAT THE CHAMPS-ELYSEES AND PARIS CITY HALL ARE DESIGNATED PROTEST SPOTS TOMORROW.  ERIC DROUET WILL LEAD A PROCESSION AT THE CHAMPS-ELYSEES.

The French Left and National Rally parties have reacted stating that Drouet's arrest is politically motivated.

Marine Le Pen of the National Rally tweeted Thursday that opponents of President Emmanuel Macron are experiencing:

"systematic violation of the political rights"

In Washington the political change with a new session of Congress Thursday and the Democrats using their majority in the House to pass spending bills that do not fund a southern border wall.

President Trump calling for a meeting at the White House today so differences with Democrats can be worked out.

But the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi saying there will be no border wall funding.

Failure to pass funding for the border wall has caused a government shutdown involving five federal departments.

Seven are dead and eight injured, some critically, after a fiery accident on I-75 near Gainesville, Florida Thursday.     Two tractor trailers and two passenger cars collided in the southbound lanes at mile marker 394.  

Northbound lanes were opened last evening but the southbound lanes remained closed this morning as the accident investigation continues.

A longtime legendary Chicago machine politician is under federal indictment for attempted extortion.

Democrat Alderman Edward Burke was arrested an appeared in federal court Thursday in Chicago.

He was released on 10-thousand dollars unsecured bail.    As a condition of his bail Burke, a former Chicago cop, ordered to surrender any firearms within 48 hours.

A group of 11 men are being tried in Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

State media gave only limited details about the trial that began in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Thursday with word that the death penalty is being asked by the prosecutor for five of those on trial.

Turkey had requested the extradition of 18 individuals in Khashoggi's murder but Saudi Arabia refused.

The United States had imposed sanctions on 17 individuals for their involvement in the murder.

Israel's Attorney General Avechai  Mandelblit says:

"I am working with the Chief Prosecutor and spend day and night trying to get the truth.   I let the evidence speak"

Mandelblit is working to decide if he will follow police recommendations and indict Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases.

The investigation continues in the midst of an emerging election campaign in Israel ahead of the April 9th election.    If a decision is made to indict Netnanyahu, a hearing will be held before the indictment or indictments can move forward.

The grave of Mandelblit's father was recently desecrated and Prime Minister Netanyahu has complained about leaked information indicating prosecutors want to indict him in two of the cases.

A few days after meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in Brazil, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a message to the nation Israel considers its greatest adversary.

In his "Warning to the Iranian Regime on Space Launches...." Pompeo says that Iranian plans to launch three satellites into orbit violate a United Nations Security Council resolution that called on Iran not to engage in activities related to ballistic missiles.

Iran's government saying the resolution is void at this point with President Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal with Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif tweeting that his country is 'NOT in violation' of the UN resolution.

The "New York Times" reporting that the US appears to be laying ground for diplomatic, covert or military action against Iran with the Pompeo statement.


In an interview with Newsmax, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said America's "mission set" in Syria as it plans a withdrawal of military forces includes:

"The importance of ensuring that the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds"

And from Syria on Twitter this video was posted of a meeting between US soldiers and Syrian soldiers just outside of Manbij which is the westernmost area occupied by Kurdish fighting units.   Its shot from the waist down with no faces visible.

It is said that the Americans asked for the Syrian flag to be taken down and the Syrians said no and the Americans left.   An American sounding voice can be heard saying 'no pictures' on the video.

Its here at the link.....LINK

The NFL is in action in Syria, no not that NFL but the Turkish backed National Front for Liberation is fighting in the Idlib region of northern Syria against the HTS group, formerly Al-Qaeda.    HTS has been shelling Syrian government held areas in an around Aleppo in violation of a Turkish and Russian brokered deconfliction zone.

And its a nasty fight with HTS posting video online of NFL members it ambushed and killed.

Canada's foreign affairs ministry says 13 Canadians have been detained in China since Canada arrested Chinese business executive Meng Wanzhou in early December.

At least eight of them have been released.

Meng was arrested at US request for extradition on charges of violating Iran sanctions.

The US, meanwhile, has issued a travel advisory for Americans warning that US visitors may face arbitrary action by Chinese authorities and urging them to "exercise increased caution".

There's a big brouhaha in Germany with the convening of a cyber security task force this morning following online revelation on Twitter of some personal details involving German politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Some celebrities and other prominent figures are reported involved in the leak which appeared in the form of an advent calendar during the Christmas season.   Omitted from the hacking attack revelations were members of Germany's anti-mass immigration political party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Of course the AfD gets nasty publicity constantly from mainstream media in Germany and the German internal intelligence agency is spying on some AfD youth groups plus criminal investigations into AfD's campaign financing are underway in a number of cases.

So I guess this hack attack helps to even the score a bit on digging up information on  politicians in Germany.

And that's the way it really is, Friday morning January 4th, 2019.