I hope you already saw
this:
House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Monday dug in after
Democrats warned Republicans that "they will be held accountable" for
damaging the FBI and Justice Department
during their probe into possible government surveillance abuse.
“We’re
not gonna be threatened by the Democrats. They are the ones that have
all this blood on their hands,” Nunes told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on
“The Ingraham Angle.”
“They're
the ones who completely destroyed the FBI and DOJ. How did they do
that? They did that by digging up dirt, the Clinton campaign dug up
dirt, put it into a dossier, fed into the
FBI and the FBI used our counterintelligence capabilities against a
political campaign,” he said.
The ones he is not going to be threatened by? U.S. House Representative Adam Schiff.
I am getting really tired of prissy
Adam Schiff. He needs to worry far more about protecting the American
people and far less about ways he can try to divert an ongoing
investigation.
Included
in the list, sent to House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy,
R-S.C., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is
former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan
Winer, who in February
admitted that the author
of the infamous “Trump dossier," ex-British spy Christopher Steele,
gave him intelligence reports claiming to show collusion between
President Trump’s campaign and the Russians.
The
dossier has become a flash point of controversy among Republicans. A
memo released by House Intelligence Committee Republicans in February
alleged the DOJ and FBI sought the authority to spy
on Trump campaign aide Carter Page using the dossier, which had been
funded in part by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National
Committee. While the GOP memo found that agents failed to disclose to a
federal judge that Steele's research had Democratic
benefactors, a Democratic rebuttal memo argued that the FBI did tell
the judge that Steele was likely looking to "discredit" Trump.
Also
on Nunes' list is Shailagh Murray, who served as an adviser to former
President Barack Obama. Murray's husband, Neil King Jr., left the Wall
Street Journal in late 2016 and
migrated to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned
the dossier.
This is C.I.'s "
Iraq snapshot" for today:
Tuesday, July 3, 2018. Chaos and violence continue as US troops remain
on the ground in Iraq, the drought continues, and the never-ending 2018
election sees ballots recounted today.
AFP reports:
Standing
on his farm in southern Iraq, Amjad al-Kazaali gazed sorrowfully over
fields where rice has been sown for centuries -- but which now lie bare
for lack of water.
For the first time, this season Kazaali has not planted the treasured amber rice local to Diwaniyah province.
What's going on? The drought that's being caused by Iran and Turkey diverting water.
Patrick Cockburn (INDEPENDENT) notes, "Dams built upriver in
Turkey,
Syria and
Iran
since the 1970s have reduced the flow of water that reaches Iraq by as
much as half and the situation is about to get worse." Last month,
Joshua Levkowitz (MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE) explained last month:
Iraq is in a drought, and with warming temperatures, declining
rainfall and ongoing dam construction, “the situation will only become
more serious,” says Ali Alkarkhi, a member of Iraq’s Save the Tigris
campaign. In the run-up to Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary elections, water
policy has been noticeably omitted. It is problematic yet understandable
that water has become a secondary concern in the wake of Iraq’s
declared victory over ISIS in 2017. This is particularly urgent given
that violent disputes related to water scarcity have flared up across
Iraq and will only intensify, according to Alkarkhi. All this
underscores the vital importance of water security in Iraq.
Hassan Janabi, Iraq’s Water Resources minister, said the amount of
water flowing in Iraq’s rivers has fallen by at least 40 percent in
recent decades, largely due to irregular rainfall and the construction
of dams. The Waterkeeper Alliance’s Iraq branch conducted a threat
assessment and found that dams were one of the major threats to the
lower Zab River’s ecosystem. According to Musa, “While rivers have
historically connected us, dams are dividing us.”
Of Iraq’s water resources, 70 percent come from rivers and marshes
shared with its neighbors. Turkey, Syria and Iran control the flow of
water into Iraq, and all three countries have plans to build dams that
will further decrease water flow to Iraq, exacerbating the water crisis
further.
As we noted last week,
"Summer has already begun and summer, for Iraq, is especially hot. In
July 2017, there were eight days where the temperature reached 122
degrees Fahrenheit. Imagine a water shortage when the temperature hits
122." As I dictate this, the temperature in Iraq is 117 degrees
Fahrenheit and tomorrow the high is expected to be 199 degrees
Fahrenheit.
The war has destroyed Iraq in countless ways. And, yet, the war continues.
Yesterday afternoon the US Defense Dept issued the following:
Strikes in Iraq
On July 1, coalition military forces conducted a strike
consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets near Asad. The
strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three ISIS caves.
On June 30, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets.
-- Near Makhmur, a strike engaged one ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building.
-- Near Qaim, two strikes destroyed two ISIS supply routes.
There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on June 28-29.
On June 27, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets.
-- Near Rutbah, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two ISIS vehicles.
-- Near Jalawla, a strike destroyed an ISIS-held building and three ISIS caves.
On June 26 in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of eight engagements against ISIS targets.
-- Near Asad, a strike destroyed 15 ISIS caves.
-- Near Hawijah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building.
There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on June 25.
And the US troops continue to battle on the ground.
On Monday evening's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR) this was noted:
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
We go now to Iraq, where there are still roughly 5,000 U.S.
troops even though ISIS has been largely driven out. NPR's Jane Arraf
traveled with the U.S. military for an exclusive look at one of the more
remote American bases near the Syrian border.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: To get to the firebase, you fly by helicopter
over Mosul, the city retaken from ISIS a year ago after nine months of
fighting along Sinjar Mountain, where minority Yazidis fled to escape
genocide in 2014. And then just a little more than a mile from the
Syrian border, there's a collection of tents and armored vehicles in the
desert. For the last month, that's been home to about 150 American
soldiers and Marines working with Iraqi forces to fire artillery at ISIS
in Syria.
SERGEANT JASON POWELL: This is the M777 Alpha 1. It shoots the
155 round as we have here. They weigh about a hundred pounds each. And
sometimes we get up to 12-round fire missions. So with your gear on and
hauling these rounds, these guys are fricking animals.
As the war continues, so does the long, drawn out process of post-election counting.
May 12th, Iraq held national elections. Ahead of the elections, there had been big hopes -- these hopes included a large turnout.
Ali Jawad (ANADOLU AGENCY) noted, "A total of 24 million Iraqis are eligible to cast their ballots to elect
members of parliament, who will in turn elect the Iraqi president and
prime minister."
RUDAW added, "Around 7,000 candidates have registered to stand in the May 12 poll, with 329 parliamentary seats up for grabs."
AFP explained that the nearly 7,000 candidates includes 2014 women.
THE SIASAT DAILY added, of the nearly 7,000 candidates, "According to the electoral commission, only 20 percent of the candidates are newcomers."
Ali Abdul-Hassan and Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reported, "Iraqi women account for 57 percent of Iraq’s population of over 37
million, according to the U.N. Development Program, and despite
government efforts to address gender inequality, the situation for Iraqi
women has declined steadily since 2003. According to the UNDP, one in every 10 Iraqi households is headed by a
widow. In recent years, Iraqi women suffered further economic, social
and political marginalization due to decades of wars, conflict, violence
and sanctions." On the day of the election, the big news was how so few were turning out to vote.
NPR reported, "With more than 90 percent of the votes in, Iraq's election commission
announced voter turnout of 44.5 percent. The figure is down sharply from
60 percent of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the last
elections in 2014."
AP pointed out the obvious, "No election since 2003 saw turnout below 60 percent."
AFP broke it down even more clearly "More than half of the nearly 24.5 million voters did not show up at the ballot box in the
parliamentary election, the highest abstention rate since the first multiparty elections in 2005 [. . .]."
Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr came in first, the
militias led by Hadi al-Ameri came in second, Hayder al-Abadi (current
prime minister) came in third. The three have no formed an alliance to
form the next government.
Who'e left in the cold? Former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki.
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR reports:
Iraq’s Prime Minister and Leader of
Al-Nasser Coalition (Victory Alliance), Haider Al-Abadi, has been trying
to avoid making a coalition with his predecessor, Nouri Al-Maliki, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed
reported on Monday. Working with the Sa’eroon Coalition leader Muqtada
Al-Sadr, Al-Abadi has been exerting efforts to avoid such a deal.
Al-Nasser and Sa’eroon are the largest coalitions in the new Iraqi
parliament.
Meanwhile, another Coalition, Al-Fateh,
formed mainly by Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (the Popular Mobilisation Forces),
has been trying to bring Al-Maliki closer to the largest groups.
“Al-Fateh Coalition, headed by Hadi Al-Ameri, is trying to bring the
ex-Prime Minister closer to the coalition of Sa’eroon, Al-Nasser and
Al-Fateh,” explained one Sa’eroon official. He noted that such an effort
“will bring the Shia home together again.”
The official, who refused to give his
name, said that all three groups have the same stance towards Al-Maliki,
but they have set conditions for him to join the coalition. One of
these, he explained, is that he will not be given any of the sovereign
ministries to run. This and other conditions are expected to be
unacceptable to him.
Nouri fueled the rise of ISIS via his persecution of the Sunnis. That's
why then-president Barack Obama stopped speaking to him in late 2012
(going so far as to refuse to take Nouri's call of congratulations the
day after the 2012 elections, Barack insisted the call be passed over to
then-Vice President Joe Biden). By June 2014, Barack knew Nouri had to
go and by August he was gone.
Corrupt and inept, Nouri still has dreams of becoming prime minister again. It's not working out for him.
The following community sites -- plus LATINO USA, PACIFICA EVENING NEWS and BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- updated:
AFP).
