WARNING: Reporting is somewhat sketchy.  However, early reports indicates one or two men adorned in Christmas or Santa outfits, and armed with rifles, entered a nightclub in Istanbul Turkey and opened fire on the crowd.  According to current reporting there were as many as 500-800 people in the club when the shooting began.
UPDATE 1100pm EST: At least 35 people have been confirmed killed, with approximately 40 more wounded.  UPDATE 1:00am EST Unfortunately the death toll has now climbed to 39 people killed and 69 people wounded.  There are many foreign nationals missing.  The gunman/gunmen are still at large.
CNN REPORT: Istanbul (CNN) – At least 39 people were killed and at least 69 wounded in an attack in a nightclub early Sunday as they were celebrating the new year, Turkey’s Interior Minister said.
“We are face to face with a terror attack,” Interior minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. Twenty-one of the dead have been identified, he said. Of those, 16 were foreign nationals and five were Turkish”.
US officials also called it a terrorist attack, making it the first of 2017. Soylu also said that “the efforts to locate the terrorist are ongoing. Security forces have begun the necessary operations. God willing soon (the attacker) will be apprehended.” (read more)
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Build that darn wall Donald, BUILD THAT WALL:

[…] And when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.  ~ Donald Trump June 17th 2015

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus that traveled through Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003, records obtained by The Associated Press show.
[…]  Court filings show Martinez-Maldonado has two misdemeanor convictions for entering without legal permission in cases prosecuted in 2013 and 2015 in U.S. District Court of Arizona, where he was sentenced to serve 60 days and 165 days respectively.
A status hearing in the rape case is scheduled for Jan. 10. Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment on the charge, but said, “criminal law and immigration definitely intersect and nowadays it should be the responsibility of every criminal defense attorney to know the possible ramifications in the immigration courts.” (more…)

NBC is reporting that President Obama intends to continue his efforts at creating as much international crisis as possible prior to walking away from office, and leaving President Trump to clean up the aftermath. 
After initiating the latest international crisis with Israel, the former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize now turns his antagonism efforts toward Russia….
(Via NBC) The White House is preparing to announce retaliatory measures against Russia for its role in directing cyber attacks in the United States, two senior officials confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday.
In October, the United States formally blamed Russia for political hacking attacks, saying they were intended to interfere with American elections. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax that the accusations are “nonsense.”
The new actions, which would be an update of a 2015 executive order, could be announced as early Thursday or Friday, the officials said. They would also likely include economic sanctions coordinated by the Treasury department. (more…)

Call me cynical, but this announced speech by Secretary John Kerry only inspires thoughts of the Obama administration laying dangerous ideological land mines the incoming Trump administration will have to navigate.
(CNN) Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a speech Wednesday on the Obama administration’s vision for Middle East peace, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
The speech at the State Department comes as the relationship between the US and Israel frays following the Obama administration’s controversial decision to abstain on Friday from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Kerry said at the time that, “In the coming days, I will speak further to the vote in the Security Council today and share more detailed thoughts, drawn from the experience of the last several years, on the way ahead.” (more…)

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued an advisory bulletin warning of possible Islamic Terror attacks against Churches and Christmas events. Simultaneous to this warning, Arizona federal officials arrest a Phoenix man who was plotting a Jihadist attack in support of ISIS.

Heavily armed police now guard the Nativity in Europe

First the warning:

WASHINGTON – Federal authorities warned Friday that ISIS sympathizers “continue aspirational calls for attacks on holiday gatherings, including targeting churches.” The bulletin was issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and issued to law enforcement agencies and private security companies around the US.

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During the height of the 2016 presidential election a church in Mississippi was burned and the wording “Vote Trump” was painted on the outside of the building.

“The animus of this election cycle combined with the potent racial history of burning black churches as a political symbol makes this event something we must not ignore”.

The media sold the narrative of ‘Trump supporter hate’ as the origin of the crime.  Today, it is revealed the arson was a politically motivated manufactured hate crime.

MISSISSIPPI – An arrest has been made in the Greenville church burning.
Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland, was arrested Wednesday for setting Hopewell Baptist Church on fire and scrawling “Vote Trump” on the side in spray paint, according to Warren Strain with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. McClinton has been charged with one count of first degree arson of a place of worship, Strain said.
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Do the math within the timeline provided in this story and you will find the substance for the headline. Since the 2009 Obama speech in Cairo we have discussed the consequences against the backdrop of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and the larger mid-east.
Within the accompanying research and discussion – years ago Zurich Mike coined the phrase: “Obama killed the Mid-East Zookeepers, unlocked the big cat cages,  and just walked away”…

The coded messaging within the June 2009 speech in Cairo was a message to the Middle East that America would no longer protect the various dictators, and it was safe to attack them.  The Obama administration would accept their replacements, regardless of how they assumed power. The message (speech here) was transparently obvious to those who understood the ramifications.

Well….
(Via Daily Mail) The Tunisian terror suspect wanted in connection with the Berlin Christmas market atrocity spent four years in an Italian jail before moving to Germany, his father revealed today.
Anis Amri settled in Italy after leaving his hometown of Tataouine, *Tunisia seven years ago to travel to Europe as an illegal immigrant, his father claimed in a radio interview. [*note, he would have been 17-years-old]
Amri, who has a €100,000 reward on his head, spent *four years in an Italian jail after burning down a school before leaving the country for Germany last year. [*note, the terrorist would have been 20-years-old at the time].
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Sad update.  The death toll has now climbed to 12 in the Berlin terrorist attack.  It is also being reported the Jihadist was an Afghan “refugee” who arrived in February during one of the numerous waves of refugees accepted by Angela Merkel.

(Via Daily Mail) – A refugee is thought to have been behind the wheel of a 25-tonne articulated lorry which mowed down and killed 12 people – and injured 48 others – as it sped at 40mph through a busy Christmas market in Berlin.
The vehicle laden with steel cargo mounted the pavement at 7pm, before tearing through stalls and shoppers on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital’s main shopping area.
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Reading from partly prepared remarks, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke briefly to state media in advance of a meeting with key officials of the Russian government.
Worth noting is how, within the remarks, President Putin verbally places Turkey between Russia and Iran regarding the Syrian conflict.  Structurally, this is not accidental.

(TRANSCRIPT) “News came today from Turkey where the ambassador of Russia was cowardly killed, Karlov Andrea Genadievich.
First of all I would like to give my sincere condolences to the family and friends of our fallen comrade. I request the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to award him posthumous and offer proposals for making a memorial.  He died on duty. (more…)

This is the second terrorist attack within hours following the recapturing of Aleppo Syria from the control of ISIS and Islamic extremists.
Initial reports from Berlin Germany state at least nine people killed and more than 50 injured after a semi-truck ploughed into a crowd of shoppers at a busy Christmas market. According to European Media German police at the scene indicate the incident is “likely to be a terrorist attack”.
The truck is reported to have originated in Poland.  The attack is similar to the earlier terrorist attack in Niece France.  The jihadist drove into the large crowd at approximately 8pm local time (2pm New York).

(Via Daily Mail) […]  The vehicle sped through a crowd of shoppers at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz Square near the Kurfuerstendamm Avenue in west Berlin.
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