Though the U.S. and Canada are not part of the “OPEC Plus” group, President Trump has  been leading negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to broker a deal and stop their price war.  Today President Trump announces an agreement between the major petroleum exporting countries to curb oil production by approximately 10 million barrels per day:

Additionally, there was a loggerhead within the negotiations as Mexico did not want to cut their production by the requested amount of 400,000 barrels daily.  Mexico relies on oil as a large part of their economy. AMLO stated his economy could not withstand such a significant drop in state revenue.  Economic security is, after all, national security.

President Trump broke the OPEC+ stalemate by agreeing to decrease U.S. production by 300k/barrels allowing Mexico to drop a more manageable 100k/barrels.  Trump and AMLO reached an undisclosed agreement where Mexico will reimburse the U.S. later on.

I suspect the “reimbursement” will be more, well, strategically geopolitical than financial.  [*nudge-nudge*, *wink-wink*, *say-no-more/say-no-more*]  President Trump has an uncanny knack of collecting leverage for later, more strategic, purposes.  Just sayin’.

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Earlier today U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced the results of a criminal investigation into the December terrorist attack at Pensacola Naval Air Station.  The AG answered press questions at the end of his remarks.
Accompanying AG Bill was FBI Deputy Director David Bowditch.  Interestingly, Mr. Bowditch, as SanFran field office head, was the lead investigator of the San Bernadino terrorist attack prior to returning to Washington DC. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – BILL BARR: Good afternoon, and thank you for coming.
We are here to discuss the results of the investigation into the shooting that occurred on Dec. 6, 2019 at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
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HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff appears on Face the Nation to justify his corrupt political efforts to construct a soft coup within the government.  Mr. Schiff begins the interview by saying President Trump is an asset of Saudi Arabia, and implying President Trump supported the Saudi terrorist attack in Pensacola, Florida.
Toward the end of the interview Schiff attempts to justify his publication of private phone records, which turned out to be inaccurate, by claiming his subpoena to CNN parent company AT&T [*nudge/nudge*-*wink/wink*] wasn’t technically looking for Devin Nunes phone records…. that he published, falsely, anyway.

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Following a possible terrorist shooting early this morning at Pensacola Naval Air Station, six Saudi nationals have been arrested.  Three of them were reported to have been filming the shooting. The shooter was armed with a handgun and was killed by sheriff’s deputies responding to the dawn incident at NAS Pensacola.

(Via Daily Mail) – Six Saudi nationals have been arrested after an Air Force trainee – also from Saudi Arabia – opened fire at a naval base in Florida, killing three people and injuring eight.
The men were detained near the scene of the shooting, which took place at Naval Air Station in Pensacola early Friday morning. It is currently unclear why they have been taken into custody.
Three of the six Saudis were seen filming the entire incident as it unfolded, a source told The New York Times on Friday evening.

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President Trump prefers to use targeted economic weapons instead of the U.S. military forces against foreign adversaries.  This is especially true if foreign actions are taking place amid the complex circle of geopolitical interests, against the interests of allies.
Today the White House has released a letter sent by President Trump to President Erdogan of Turkey dated October 9th.   The letter was sent two days after President Trump made the decision to pull 28 members of the U.S. military out of harms way; two days before President Trump outlined the sanctions against Turkey; and five days before President Trump initiated those sanctions through Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The warning is clear.  President Trump is clear-eyed about the motives and intentions of the Turkish president, and Ergodan’s ideological alignment with political Islam, via The Muslim Brotherhood.
One of the reasons this strategy is better than any military action is simply because Turkey is a unique NATO ally, and the NATO alliance within Europe is insufferably incapable and unwilling to take action to defend their interests.
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The background protestations, grumbles and sounds of the insufferable Chuck Todd while his ‘Share Blue’ talking points are being deconstructed is actually a little funny.
In this interview Senator Rand Paul explains the pragmatic policy of withdrawing 50 U.S. troops from Northern Syria to avoid them becoming victims to a cross-border incursion by a NATO ally, Turkey, while the ridiculously pontificating European collective does nothing except criticize the U.S. for not defending their interests.  Chuck Todd is flummoxed.
Additionally, Senator Paul creates a ‘splodey head when the conversation turns to the Ukraine and Rand Paul points out the hypocrisy of Democrats trying to impeach President Trump for political foreign policy the Democrats initiated.  Quite Funny:

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On the Saudi troop support, Rand Paul misses the bigger picture of a simple policy that President Trump is maintaining. Remember during the 2017 Trump visit to the 50 nation Arab-American Summit, President Trump asked them to “drive out” the extremists within political Islam and said the U.S. would support their efforts.
The Arab coalition has been doing exactly what President Trump requested; the GCC confrontation with Qatar was a specific outcome of that request. The U.S. troops to support the ongoing “drive out” is simply President Trump keeping his word with Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). [Big Picture Here]
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox News Sunday to discuss the latest act of aggression by Iran and the Trump administration response.

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Against the backdrop of Iranian attacks on Saudi oil fields, earlier today President Trump delivered remarks with Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khaifa of Bahrain in the oval office; and held an impromptu press conference. [Video and Transcript below]

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[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with the Crown Prince of Bahrain. He is a friend of mine, and the country is a friend of ours. We’re always going to be with them, and I know they’re always going to be with us. We have a tremendous relationship militarily, but we have also a tremendous economic relationship — trade. And we’re going to be discussing all of those things. We’ll certainly be discussing what took place over the last two days in Saudi Arabia.
CROWN PRINCE SALMAN: Absolutely.
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Iranian backed Houthi terrorists used ten drones to attack Saudi oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province.  The attack caused Saudi Arabia to shut down half of their crude production facilities; repairs are underway.

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In response to the attack President Trump called Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MbS) to offer his support:

White House – Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to offer his support for Saudi Arabia’s self-defense. The United States strongly condemns today’s attack on critical energy infrastructure. Violent actions against civilian areas and infrastructure vital to the global economy only deepen conflict and mistrust. The United States Government is monitoring the situation and remains committed to ensuring global oil markets are stable and well supplied. (read more)

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To honor the memory of those lost on September 11th/12th 2012:

The Benghazi Brief

The “Benghazi Brief” remains the most controversial research report we have ever produced. The brief contains over two years of research and hundreds of very specific factual citations supporting it. Five years after it was originally written, and not a single aspect outlined within the brief has ever been identified as inaccurate.
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