Earlier today President Trump welcomed a visit by Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to the White House.  During the oval office meeting the two leaders took questions from the assembled press pool.  U.S. media asked about the Steve Bannon arrest earlier today. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s great to have the Prime Minister of Iraq, a very highly respected gentleman all over the Middle East, and respected very much by our country, too. I can say that.

And we will be discussing, today, the obvious: defense — and offense, I have to say. But we’ll be discussing military. We’re also involved in many oil projects and oil development within their country, and I think we’ve had a very, very good relationship since we started.

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In case you might have missed the latest faux-controversy assigned by political operatives to the media narrative engineers, the issue surrounds leaked sketchy intelligence reports, to the New York Times, claiming Russians were willing to pay Taliban members to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.  The evidence provided by the Times includes:

(New York Times Graphic Source)

From this tenuous evidence footnoted with “according to multiple officials familiar with the intelligence”, democrat operatives in media desperately clutch their pearls and stake out another batch of apoplexy claiming President Trump is not doing anything about it.

Setting aside for the moment that nothing claimed by media or the DNC political operatives in/around capitol hill has any substantive intelligence to prove the claim, let’s first look at the underlying premise: ‘Russians are paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers.’

First, obviously these same voices need to ignore that in 2010 Iran was paying insurgent fighters in multiple fields of combat including Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, to kill Americans. Those well-documented examples must be overlooked because despite the overwhelming evidence the Obama administration paid Iran over $170 billion in cash and entered a nuclear deal with them.  Once again, in order to retain their left-wing political position the media must pretend not to know things.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan to discuss the negotiated peace agreement between the U.S. and Taliban in Afghanistan.

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The United States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Taliban) have signed a peace agreement to end the nineteen-year war in Afghanistan.  [Details Here]  During the signing ceremony Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the following remarks.
[Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – SECRETARY POMPEO: Good afternoon. I want to start by thanking His Highness Sheikh Tamim for Qatar’s invaluable role as host of these historic talks. His unstinting support, and yours foreign minister, have supported both sides and allowed them to reach this momentous day.
The United States and the Taliban have endured decades of hostility and mistrust. Previous talks have faltered. This effort only became real for the United States when the Taliban signaled interest in pursuing peace and ending their relationship with al-Qaida and other foreign terrorist groups. They also recognized that military victory was impossible. I then asked Ambassador Khalilzad to serve as our lead negotiator to gauge the Taliban’s sincerity.
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President Trump holds a bilateral discussion with the President of the Republic of Iraq, Barham Salih. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s great to be with the President of Iraq, and we are obviously working on a lot of things together. We’re working on military. We’re working on ISIS. We’re working on — we have a whole host of very difficult things to discuss, and some very positive things also. And we’ve been friends, and the relationship is very good. And I just want to thank you very much, Mr. President.
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Obviously there’s a not-so subtle message to Turkey in this bilateral discussion between President Trump and President Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government.  There is no actual country of Kurdistan yet; perhaps that’s the goal. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s great to be with President Barzani of Kurdistan. And we have a meeting scheduled. For a long time, we’ve wanted to meet. We’ve worked together very well.
As you know, we left Syria, from the standpoint of the border, and that’s worked out great with Turkey. It’s worked out far better than anybody ever thought possible. They have the so-called “safe zone,” and I appreciate everything you’ve done to keep it as safe as possible.
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President Trump participates in the third bilateral meeting of the Davos form with Imran Khan, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And it’s great to be with a very good friend of mine, the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
We’re going to be talking about trade and many other things. But trade is going to be of very, very paramount importance. And we’re doing more trade as it turns. And we’re working together on some borders, and we’re talking about Kashmir and the relation to what’s going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping. And we’ve been watching that and following it very, very closely.
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President Trump traveled overnight to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum.  [Livestream Links and Daily Schedule Below] I found it very interesting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was not on the Dec. delegation list.
The U.S. Delegation includes: Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin; Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross; Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia; Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao; U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer; Under Secretary for Growth, Energy and Environment (DoS), Keith Krach; Asst to the President, Ivanka Trump; Asst. to the President, Jared Kushner; and Asst. to the President / Deputy for Policy Coordination, Christopher Liddell.
The 2020 Davos economic conference will be a little more important to watch this year (as it was in 2017) due to the completed U.S. Trade Agreements (S Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and China) and the predicted focus for the Trump administration to pivot from Asia to the EU and U.K. for the next critical phase of the ‘America-First’ global trade reset.
There will likely be a great deal of attention upon the opening remarks by President Trump scheduled to be delivered at 5:30am ET / 11:30am Switzerland.
UPDATE: Video Added

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National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien appears on Fox News Sunday to discuss the recent conflicts with Iran, and the government of Iran blaming the U.S. for their shooting down of Ukraine Airline flight 752.

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While the admission of fault is rather unusual for Iran, they really didn’t have much choice.  Despite their earnest effort to cover-up the cause and deny their involvement, the evidence was overwhelming that Iranian military shot-down Ukraine Airline flight 752 killing 176 passengers and crew.

IRAN – The general staff of Iran armed forces says a Ukrainian plane that crashed on Wednesday was brought down due to human error.  Iran targeted the passenger plane unintentionally, Iran’s Press TV reports. (link)

In a tweet by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the diplomat attempts to blame the U.S. and apologize to the victims families.
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