NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT SUNDAY- MONDAY 2/18/-2/19/2019

(A WORK IN PROGRESS WITH UPDATES AND ADDITIONS, EDITING ETC. POSSIBLE UNTIL 830 AM MONDAY MORNING)

( WARNING: OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE IN LEAD STORY)

Protests all weekend in France on the third month anniversary of the Yellow Vests.

Protesters around the Eiffel Tower, on the Champs-Elysees and at the Place of the Republic in Paris on Sunday.

On Saturday nationwide protests from the center of Paris to traffic circles in towns and at toll booths on the many highways being operated by private companies in the country.

The Yellow Vests own estimate of their numbers Saturday is 101-thousand while the government says only 41,500 protested.

Much attention from government officials and the media paid to profane insults directed at a Jewish academic on the sidelines of Saturday's protest who was called "big Zionist s***" among other things.  

Government officials including President Emmanuel Macron quickly putting blame on the Yellow Vests for the incident.

But word is that police have identified a suspect in the tirade who is connected to an Islamic movement, more specifically a "Salafist movement" within Islam.

The Polish Prime Minister cancelling his visit to Israel for a Holocaust related summit following last week's controversial comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Polish collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.   The leaders of three other nations coming to Israel for bilateral talks instead of a formal summit meeting.

Netanyahu made his comments in Warsaw during the  Middle East 'peace and security' summit which was dominated by US and Israeli demands that other nations take a tougher line on Iran.

As the election campaign rolls on in Israel the man nominated to be Foreign Minister by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Yisrael Katz repeated criticism of Poles in an interview with Israel's "Channel 13":

"Poles cooperated with the Nazis"

Katz also attacking the leader of the party leading the polls among opposition forces, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, saying Gantz opposed attacking Iran and wanted a negotiated deal with the Iranians.

Last week when Netanyahu referenced Polish collaboration with the Nazis, a sensitive issue in Poland and Israel,  Polish leaders responded saying that it was the Poles who were victimized by the Nazis.

Netanyahu also insisted the conference in Warsaw last week was about Iran with the Polish Foreign Minister saying the meeting was about other issues in addition to Iran.

Discipline against a French military officer is being considered after he wrote an article critical of the tactics being used to defeat ISIS in Syria.

Colonel Francois-Regis Legrier, the commander of artillery assisting Kurdish forces in Syria, wrote for the "National Defense Review" among other things:

"...by refusing ground engagement, we unnecessarily prolonged the conflict and thus contributed to the increasing number of casualties  in the population.  We have massively destroyed the infrastructure and given the populations a disgusting image...."

He said that as few as 1,000 ground troops would have have defeated ISIS more effectively in the recent Battle of Hajin.

Russia's Sputnik news agency reports that the Syrian military is planning a limited military operation against the Hayat Tahrir-al Sham (HTS) jihadists, at one time Al-Qaeda in Syria.    The jihadists in Idlib province have repeatedly violated a demilitarized zone set up in the region under Russian and Turkish supervision.

The Russian report quotes Syrian military sources.

Former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is out of federal prison after serving 15 months of a 21 month sentence.   Weiner pled guilty to sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year old girl asking her to undress on camera.

He is now in a halfway house in Brooklyn heading for a May 14th release.

Weiner was married to a close aide of Hillary Clinton,  Huma Abedin, with Clinton related emails  found on his laptop during the law enforcement investigation.

A barrage of tweets from President Trump over the weekend many related to Robert Mueller's investigation and the assertions of former Deputy FBI Director and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, interviewed on CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday night.

US Senator Lindsey Graham calling for Senate hearings into Mr. McCabe's assertion that there was an attempt to find grounds to remove the President from office immediately after the firing of FBI Director James Comey in 2017.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew her name from consideration to be the next US Ambassador to the UN.  Nauert says she was grateful for the trust President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo placed in her but it was in the best interests of her family that she pull out of consideration for the job.

The State Department says that the President will announce a new nominee soon.

Police in Chicago want to talk to actor-singer Jussie Smollett about the alleged "racist and homophobic" attack on him that left him wearing a noose and alleging people using President Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan were his attackers.

Last week the police detained for questioning and released two Nigerian men who were close to Smollett around the time of the attack with sources leaking to the media those men allege being paid by Smollett to stage the incident. 

Humanitarian aid is arriving in Colombia carried by US military aircraft.

Its bound for delivery in Venezuela whose Interim President Juan Guaido has called on volunteers to prepare to carry the food across the border next Saturday (February 23rd).  On Saturday Guaido tweeted that there will be volunteers inside and outside the country distributing the aid.

Speaking to the media in Colombia the director of the US Agency for International Development, Mark Green, said:

"Children are going hungry, and nearly every hospital in Venezuela is experiencing serious medicine shortages"

Nicolas Maduro and his government say the relief aid is part of a US plot to invade Venezuela.

Mr. Guaido is also laying plans for relief goods to be distributed through Brazil and the Dutch island territory of Curacao in the Carribean Sea.

In Barcelona, Spain Saturday 200-thousand protesters in the streets supporting Catalan leaders being tried for sedition.

12 people on trial for their involvement in a referendum that voted to make Catalonia independent from Spain.    The Spanish government declared the referendum void and assumed direct control in its aftermath.

If convicted, some of the defendants could be jailed for 25 years.


Seven MP's from the Labor Party in the UK announced their departure Monday over the policies of leader Jeremy Corbyn saying they wanted him to support a new Brexit referendum and saying the party has failed to deal with Anti-Semitism in its ranks.

The "second referendum" notion for Brexit an idea pushed by former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.   The seven forming a new political grouping arguing for a "new politics".

Pakistan rolled out the red carpet for a visit from the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman representing a nation with financial power and Pakistan reported to have financial difficulties as characterized by the BBC.

20 billion dollars in deals announced between the two countries Monday.

Bin-Salman also set to visit China and India.

Meanwhile India imposing 200 percent tariffs on Pakistani goods as it ends most favored trading status following last weeks suicide bomb attack that killed 46 Indian soldiers in Kashmir.

India holds Pakistan responsible.

On Monday four Indian soldiers and two terrorists killed in a military operation in Kashmir with a civilian also reported dead.

A British House of Commons committee report accuses Facebook of spreading false news from foreign powers, attacks its founder Mark Zuckerberg for failure of leadership or responsibility.

The report urges far more stricter regulation of Facebook and Facebook's response was that it was open to "meaningful regulation".

And who did it for what purpose is unclear but the Russian flag was flying over Salisbury Cathedral in England this weekend for a brief time.   The flag hung from scaffolding on the cathedral in the town where an attack alleged to have been perpetrated by the Russian government occurred last year involving the agent "Novichok" with one person killed and three sickened.


The Russian News Agency Tass quotes a diplomat at the Russian Embassy in London saying:

"we believe it looks like a well thought out provocation"

And a man who was a pollster for former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and moved on in more recent times to be supportive of Donald Trump is dead.

Pat Caddell passed away Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina from complications of a stroke at the age of 68.

And that's the way it really is as we come into this Monday morning January 18th, 2019.