Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) initiated a massive anti-corruption operation last year.  Today, just as a Qatari delegation arrives in DC and concedes to the terms of the alliance, Reuters is reporting the resulting Saudi asset seizures total more than $106 billion.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s government has arranged to seize more than $100 billion through financial settlements with businessmen and officials detained in its crackdown on corruption, the attorney general said on Tuesday.
The announcement appeared to represent a political victory for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the purge last November and predicted at the time that it would net about $100 billion in settlements.

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Imagine that despite your always knowing the DC swamp was deep (dangerous and full of terrors), corrupt, and generally horrible, you decided to do it anyway. You “just had to”.
Imagine you have spent years thinking about it; thinking about every angle within it; thinking and talking to people who know almost everything about it, well, from their perspective anyway; and ultimately you decided to do it.
Imagine that even though you knew it was bad, it wasn’t until you actually began running that you discovered the depth of the corrupt nature with it. –SEE HERE– You see things in the campaign you never expected; things no-one ever talked about.
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Well, this is good news.  Chairman Devin Nunes, and House Speaker Paul Ryan have had ample time to discuss the larger ramifications to “The Big Ugly”.
Late last week Ryan and Nunes traveled together to Saudi Arabia to review the new Saudi Counter-Extremism Intelligence Center *cough* that President Trump, Saudi King Salman, MBS and Egyptian President Fattah al-Sisi *cough* opened last year.   Obviously Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan and their collective senior staffs would have a lot of time during travel to discuss the intelligence committee memo release.

*nudge*nudge*wink*wink*say-no-more*say-no-more*

According to Byron York when the House comes back into session tomorrow, the Intelligence Committee has a meeting scheduled for 5:00pm.  Likely that’s when the vote will happen to ‘release the memo’.

WASHINGTON DC – The House Intelligence Committee meets at 5 p.m. Monday in the Capitol. The meeting will give the committee its first opportunity to vote on the question of releasing the so-called “FISA abuse” memo that has captured Washington’s attention in recent days. Since the GOP holds a 13 to 9 advantage on the committee, the overwhelming likelihood is that if there is a vote, the panel will decide, along party lines, to release the memo.

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Interesting.  Visible support for a position 180° from prior administration.
“transition of government” supported by U.S.

State Dept – We are following reports of multiple peaceful protests by Iranian citizens in cities across the country. Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos. As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people.
The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters. We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.
On June 14, 2017, Secretary Tillerson testified to Congress that he supports “those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of government. Those elements are there, certainly as we know.” The Secretary today repeats his deep support for the Iranian people. (link)

In a stunning display of international transparency, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley presents actual, physical, incontrovertible and, yes, uncomfortable, evidence of Iranian weapons that have been used by proxy fighters against allied nations.  The presentation takes place at joint base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, DC and consists of formerly classified intelligence gathering presented openly to the international community.
Ambassador Nikki Haley presents an assembly of actual Iranian missiles and weapons that have been fired against mid-east allies within the peace coalition.  After a brief speech outlining the material on display, Mrs. Haley takes questions from international media.

The TDS-media are fraught with misinformation on this issue.
In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, requiring the movement of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The act said that Jerusalem should be undivided and be recognized as the capital of Israel. The legislation passed 93-5 in the Senate, and 374-37 in the House of Representatives. (link)
Following passage, all subsequent Presidents’ never carried through with the law; each signing national security waivers to delay moving the U.S. Embassy.
The most recent waiver lapsed at midnight last night; President Trump did not extend another waiver. It is now reported that President Trump has been in discussions with various mid-east leaders to notify them of his plan to follow through on the Jerusalem Embassy Act with a six month phase-in. President Trump will deliver a speech tomorrow outlining the plans.
Ironically, the opposition to President Trump is now claiming such a move will undermine his efforts at negotiating a peace-resolution between Israel and their Arab neighbors. The irony stems from those same voices claiming for a year that any Trump effort to negotiate a peace-deal was an exercise in futility. How can President Trump derail a peace-plan those same voices previously claimed never existed? See the pretzel-logic?

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – President Donald Trump told Arab leaders on Tuesday that he intends to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that breaks with decades of U.S. policy and risks fueling violence in the Middle East.
Senior U.S. officials have said Trump is likely on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital while delaying relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, though he is expected to order his aides to begin planning such a move immediately.

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Swamp Guardian and Fox News primary Decepticon, Brett Baier, interviews former Obama CIA Director Leon Panetta and President Trump’s current CIA Director Mike Pompeo during a Reagan Defense Forum summit at the Reagan Library.
Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton worked hand in hand over the horrific policy execution in Libya and Syria.  The joint CIA/DoS mission, Operation Zero Footprint, was an outcome of President Obama’s finding memo authorizing the covert mission in Libya.
Panetta is 100% full-on Deep State/Deep Swamp.  Current CIA Director Mike Pompeo is a bridge leading away from the larger Deep State apparatus. The distinction between the two comes out in buckets.

CTH has been looking, unsuccessfully, for China SME’s who have insight on the DC lobbying angle by Chinese foreign nationals and the hidden story of how the Trump administration might be confronting that aspect.
Gordon Chang briefly touches on that note during a discussion segment on the overall outcome of President Trump’s 12-day visit to Asia.
Apparently, if Chang’s sources are accurate (likely they are), the notification by POTUS Trump toward Chairman Xi Jinping, of the lobbyist warning did take place [Video 02:25].

There’s an interesting interview within the New York Times written by Thomas Friedman who interviews Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the current changes taking place within Saudi Arabia and MbS’s intense drive to modernize and engage.  The article is well worth reading.
CTH would be remiss if we didn’t draw attention to the level of jaw-dropping weasel linguistics that Friedman uses to jump on the MbS bandwagon.  If you have never read Friedman’s interviews of President Obama –EXAMPLE HERE– you might not see it.
However, if you have watched the decade of fawning idolatry expressed by Friedman toward the Chicago lightbringer you’ll immediately notice the tell-tale signs of a pontificating liberal [shallow-minded simpleton] attempting to retain relevance by claiming proximity toward perspectives that are 180 degrees away from his previous prose.
There’s a particular level of inauthentic weaselistics that goes beyond the normal level of liberal snobbery.  If you’ve ever experienced the shallow pinky-raised elites, group-talking about their sensitive wine palates while the Sommelier tricks them with $10 vino; or if you’ve heard stories of the cloistered-clutch waxing philosophically at art exhibitions which were actually switched for Kindergarten scribbles… well, then you know Friedman’s tribe.
In real terms there’s a level of profound irony within this interview.  The changes within Saudi Arabia are directly supported by a U.S. president empowering Saudi Arabia to manifest its own destiny.
President Trump has reshaped mid-east policy, and formed a strong coalition, based on a partnership among co-equals.  This is not about the U.S., this change is about Saudi Arabia.
That Trumpian outlook is a complete reverse of the Bush/Obama Doctrine of forcing their personal definition of ‘Western values‘ to provide support.   Yet Friedman can’t even see that paradigm shift; his ideology is so mired in selfishness it is invisible to him.
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Holy Cats… things are moving exponentially fast now…
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is now disclosing the nature of his resignation, and why he left Lebanon to spend time in Saudi Arabia.  It appears the Saudi and regional partners provided evidence that Iran and Hezbollah were planning an assassination targeting Hariri and his family.
Saad Hariri traveled to France for a meeting with French President Emanuel Macron.
Yesterday President Trump and President Macron had a phone conversation where they agreed on the need for continued cooperation and partnership with regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf States and coalition members to confront the destabilizing efforts of Iran and Hezbollah:

JEDDAH: US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday agreed on the need to partner with allies to respond to the destabilization activities of Hezbollah and Iran in the region.
The two leaders’ telephone conversation came in the aftermath of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation, which he announced during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
“Both presidents agreed on the need to work with allies to counter Hizballah’s and Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region,” a statement from the White House said.

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