Friday, March 1, 2019

NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT FRIDAY 3/1/2019



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


The talks with North Korea are done but the talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan continue tomorrow after a break.    New energy added to the talks earlier this week between the US and Taliban with the addition of top Taliban leader Mullah Bardar.

The negotiations going on in the Persian Gulf oil state of Qatar with the US pushing for a pledge that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for terrorist attacks and the Taliban pushing for withdrawal of US and other foreign military forces.

The fighting is still on in Afghanistan this Friday morning with nine Taliban reported killed including three suicide bombers as they attacked a government military base in the south of the country,

Israel's Attorney General moving forward with indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three corruption cases.

Netanyahu's reaction is that he is being targeted by the "left-wing" and that the case against him will:

"collapse like a house of cards"


A judge must confirm the indictments and that will not happen until after the April 9th General Election.

The Israeli AG has opted not to indict the Prime Minister's wife, Sara Netanyahu, who was also being investigated.

Meanwhile the leader of the political party putting up a strong challenge to Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud, retired IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz of the "Blue and White" Party, is suing a woman for 140-thousand dollars.

The woman has alleged that Gantz exposed himself to her when they were in school years ago and she went to prominent Likud politician Miri Regev for help in getting her story out to the media.

Latest political polling in Israel's proportional system for the April 9th General Election showing "Blue and White" at 38 seats  with Likud trailing at 29.    The United Right Party at 9 seats and the New Right Party at 8 with the Labor Party at 7 seats.   All parties passing 3.25 percent of the popular vote are allocated some of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

The leader of the opposition in Canada calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign.

Andrew Scheer of  the Conservative Party of Canada spoke following Wednesday's testimony before  the House of Commons justice committee from former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybold.

The Conservative Party is also requesting an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Wilson-Raybold told the committee that she and her aides were called into repeated meetings where they faced:

"a barrage of people hounding me and my staff"


including Prime Minister Trudeau, his top aides, officials of the Ministry of Finance and a top bureaucrat.

She says they were pressuring her office to refrain from prosecuting the Quebec based construction company SNC-Lavalin.

Wilson-Raybold told the committee she felt like she was being threatened and felt the threat was carried out when she was shuffled to another cabinet post in January.

Prime Minister Trudeau says he disagrees with her testimony and that he and his aides did nothing improper.

Trudeau is considering Jody Wilson-Raybold's status in the Liberal Party caucus in the House of Commons and planning a cabinet reshuffle in the coming hours.


Nine votes in favor of a US resolution calling for humanitarian aid and free and fair elections for Venezuela in the UN Security Council.    But opposition from China and Russia meaning a veto of the resolution.

From Colombia word that well over 500 members of the Venezuelan military and police have crossed the border since last Saturday.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wants a judge to decide on his guilt or innocence to prostitution charges.

Kraft has pled not guilty to the two charges in what Florida authorities call a "human trafficking investigation".   They have video of Kraft engaging in sex acts on two occasions.

The US State Department announcing a one million dollar reward for information about Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden.   Hamza bin Laden is considered an important figure leading terrorist activities in the name of the "Al Qaeda" movement.

President Trump's son-in-law touring the homeland of Osama bin Laden this week.    Jared Kushner met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Tuesday working on financial details of a proposed "Deal of the Century" by President Trump to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.     65 billion dollars worth of investment including 25 billion in Gaza and the "West Bank" territories of Judea and Samaria is said to be part of the plan.

The Kushner tour included the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.   He also visited with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

Two Saudi sisters are trying to escape Saudi Arabia and had hoped to reach Australia but are in limbo in Hong Kong.

They are appealing for help after being intercepted by Saudi authorities and stripped of their passports by the Saudi government.

The two have been in Hong Kong for more than six months passing the deadline for being deported from that territory for overstaying.

More on their story from the BBC.....LINK

And that's the way it really is this Friday morning March 1st, 2019.

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