NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT FRIDAY 2/22/2019

(UPDATES, EDITING, ADDITIONS ETC. POSSIBLE UNTIL 645 AM EASTERN US TIME)

Good Morning.

From the White House backtracking on the planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria.

"A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time"

The direct quote from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

President Trump conveyed this news in a phone call with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It was after a phone call with Erdogan in December that the President announced that US troops were leaving Syria,

But now they are staying with Senator Lindsay Graham saying the troops will be part of "an international stabilizing force".

CNN has been told by an anonymous US official that 100 US soldiers will stay put in southern Syria at Al-Tanf with another group of 100 remaining in northeastern Syria.

Russian officials in recent weeks have expressed doubts about the sincerity of the US announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria.

Turkey is set to take delivery of its first Russian S-400 air defense system in July.    A Turkish arms industry official says the US offer to sell Patriot air defense systems to Turkey has been rejected because it was contingent on Turkey not buying the Russian system.

In Israel three political groupings have come together Telem, Israel Resilience and Yesh Atid to oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party.

Their united political movement is dubbed  "Blue and White", Cacol Lavan in Hebrew.

They pledge never to support a government with Mr. Netanyahu in it and his Likud Party says the new grouping is leftist.   The leadership of the group includes three generals and is described by Netanyahu as a:

"party of left-wing generals"

that would create a Palestinian state.

The Prime Minister cancelled a trip to Moscow Wednesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to shore up the "Right" side of Israeli politics helping the Jewish Home Party to unite various religious factions including supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Netanyahu and Putin had a brief phone conversation Thursday and plan a face to face meeting next Wednesday.

Getting back to Israeli politics, the wild card ahead of the April 9th election an expected decision from Attorney General Avechai Mandleblit on indicting Benjamin Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases.

Instant polling after the development puts Blue and White at 36 seats and Likud at 30 in one poll with Blue and White getting a 35-32 edge in another.     Any political party in Israel that gets 3.25 percent of the vote or more is allocated seats proportionally in the 120 seat Knesset.

In the UK this week a new political group forming from the defection of eight Labor Party MP's and three Conservative Party MP's.

The "independent group" has hard core opposition to Brexit within it plus views that seem to mirror those of French President Emmanuel Macron.

They appear to be the tip of an emerging spear set to drive through the notion of a Brexit without a negotiated deal with the European Union considered to be a sell out of British national sovereignty.

The Brexit deadline is March 29th and there appears to be threats of more defections to this group in Parliament.

Tomorrow in France Week 15 of the Yellow Vests protests with gatherings set in various cities including Rennes and Cleremont-Ferrand  with Yellow Vests activities set to begin in Paris at 11am on the Champs-Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe.

Venezuela closing its border with Brazil after that country committed to being a conduit for humanitarian aid for Venezuela.

Today a "Venezuela Live Aid" concert featuring popular music artists from Venezuela and other Latin American countries being held in Colombia at Cucuta on the border with Venezuela.   On the other side a counter event being staged by the regime of Nicolas Maduro.

The Maduro  government fully committed to resisting plans tomorrow to use volunteers to bring relief aid into the country led by Interim President Juan Guaido, recognized as Venezuela's head of government by more than 50 nations.

A convoy moved out from Caracas Thursday led by Mr. Guaido headed for the Colombian border to meet the relief aid set to come across.    Some scuffles and tear gas but the convoy moved on after being briefly stopped at a point west of the city.

People in the convoy actively resisted the attempt to stop them by the authorities with success....Link to video....HERE

No formal order closing the Colombian border yet but Maduro says he's considering closing the border.

There were some attacks by mobs supporting Maduro along the way as the caravan made its way to the Colombian border according to late reports from Colombia's NTN 24 News with stones hurled at vehicles causing shattering of glass.

Also late news with a source quoted by the EFE news agency in Spain saying Mr. Guaido has made it to the Colombian border to receive the humanitarian aid tomorrow.


There will be a new election in the 9th Congressional District of North Carolina.  The Board of Elections, three Democrats and two Republicans, with a unanimous decision.

Republican Mark Harris won the election but a consultant working for him illegally handled absentee ballots.  Harris denies any knowledge of what was going on. 

Jussie Smollett is free on 100-thousand dollars bail after his felony arrest for filing a false police report about a "racist-homophobic" attack attributed to supporters of President Trump.

Smollett is also said to have written a threatening letter about himself to the studio that he works for.

"You collaborate with our enemies-resign"

That message for Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler Thursday evening as left-wing elements vented in a meeting at a church called a "listening session".    

The anger over communication between a police lieutenant and Joey Gibson, head of the Patriot Prayer Group.

More on the story from "Oregon Live" at this link......HERE

Tommy Robinson is going after FakeNews, media bias and corruption at the BBC.   Robinson will premiere a video called "Panodrama" on Saturday afternoon in Manchester at 2pm UK time.

Undercover footage in the video with a journalist working for the BBC putting down Robinson's Irish working class background.

US officials have told Reuters that President Trump will seek a common understanding of what denuclarization means when he meets North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un next week in Vietnam.

The President is expected to ask Kim to give up all of North Korea's nuclear weapons.


Peter Tork of "The Monkees" is dead at the age of 77.    He and his three partners in the band (Mickey Dolenz,  Michael Nesmith and Davey Jones) were part of music and television history in the 1960's.

And that's the way it really is Friday morning February 22nd, 2019.