Eight years ago Zurich Mike penned an analogy of the ‘Islamist Spring’ that still rings true today, when he said: President Obama helped kill the zookeepers and unleashed the big cats…. The Turkish movement into Syria is all part of this continuum.
When President Obama ignited the “Islamist Spring” with his speech in Cairo Egypt, what he really articulated was a shift in U.S. foreign policy to support The Muslim Brotherhood.

Political Islam, writ large, is represented by The Brotherhood.  Turkish President Recep Erdogan sees himself as the modern leader of political Islam using the Brotherhood to recreate the Ottoman Empire.
Ben Ali (Tunis), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) and Khadaffi (Libya), were the first zookeepers removed.  Obama’s U.S. foreign policy supported Muslim Brotherhood replacements like Mohamed Morsi in Egypt.  However, Obama failed in the effort to remove Bashir Assad in Syria; as a result all extremist factions of the Brotherhood gathered to form ISIS.
Factions like al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and ISIS all fall under the umbrella of The Muslim Brotherhood.  The exiled Brotherhood leaders initially fled Egypt to Qatar until they were further driven-out by the Gulf Cooperation Council and ultimately given safe-harbor in Turkey, by Recep Erdogan.
(more…)

In the bigger picture… Within the trade team, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is positioned with primary responsibility toward the EU and India. Ross clear-cuts through the politics, explains Trump’s objectives amid the trade proposals, and paves a path for U.S. Trade Rep Bob Lighthizer to engage his counterparts.
India has always been a key strategic nation within the global trade-realignment taking place by the Trump administration.  Under all of the banter, the “Indo-Pacific” strategy is structurally the decoupling of the U.S. from China. As a part of the strategy President Trump has positioned the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as benefactors in manufacturing & trade as an outcome of the U.S. decoupling from China.

However, India has genuine concerns about the global dynamic. Specifically, India is worried about allowing the multinationals to have influence over their economy and social structure. In this regard India is not wrong; their concerns are not unfounded.
We can all see, heck we’ve lived through, massive multinational corporations quickly gaining too much influence; including -eventually- corporate influence over the politics of a nation. That inherently leads to corruption.
When Americans see it in other nations we call it “bribery and corruption”, but when it happens in Washington, DC, we call it “lobbying”; the process is exactly the same.
(more…)

White House trade and manufacturing policy advisor Peter Navarro appears on Fox Business to discusses the World Trade Organization ruling granting the U.S. $7.5 billion in annual tariff countermeasures against the EU.

Jumpin’ ju-ju bones – The Trump administration via U.S. Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross won a massive $7.5 billion award as an outcome of the World Trade Organization agreeing with the U.S. against the EU and Airbus subsidies.  The WTO arbitrators decision is final and cannot be appealed.
This win sets the stage for President Trump to deploy $7.5 billion in countervailing duties against products from the EU.  Keep in mind, a final WTO ruling means the EU cannot retaliate against any WTO-authorized countermeasures.  The downstream ramifications are very significant. Think about it: at 25% the U.S. could tariff $30 billion in EU goods.

Man, talk about serendipitous timing… But first, here’s the press release from Robert Lighthizer:

Washington, D.C.–  The United States has won the largest arbitration award in World Trade Organization (WTO)  history in its dispute with the European Union over illegal subsidies to Airbus.  This follows four previous panel and appellate reports from 2011-2018 finding that EU subsidies to Airbus break WTO rules.
Today’s decision demonstrates that massive EU corporate welfare has cost American aerospace companies hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue over the nearly 15 years of litigation.

(more…)

More evidence is surfacing showing how the CIA ‘whistle-blower’ complaint was a purposefully constructed political hit-job. Yes, Muh-Ukraine is much like Muh-Russia.
The New York Times reports today the CIA operative approached the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) prior to filling out a ‘whistle-blower’ complaint form.  The CIA gossiper contacted staff of HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff.

According to the report (written to defend the interests of Schiff et al), the CIA gossiper contacted the HPSCI after the top lawyer for the CIA would not advance his cause. We still suspect the ‘whistle-blower” is Michael Barry. Obviously the Times puts the customary spin on the information:

WASHINGTON — The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a C.I.A. officer’s concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint, according to a spokesman and current and former American officials.

(more…)

When reports first surfaced that AG Bill Barr had traveled to Italy recently, we surmised the trip was likely related to Joseph Mifsud; specifically related to an audio-taped deposition that Mifsud gave to Italian police about being a western intelligence asset who was enlisted by the CIA (Brennan) to run a covert intelligence operation against the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.
If accurate, well, there’s the motive for the latest “CIA whistle-blower” approach.

The Daily Beast is now reporting that Bill Barr’s visit to Italy was exactly for that reason:

ROME–When Attorney General William Barr showed up at the U.S. embassy’s Palazzo Margherita on Rome’s tony Via Veneto last week, he had two primary requests. He needed a conference room to meet high level Italian security agents where he could be sure no one was listening in. And he needed an extra chair for U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut who would be sitting at his right hand side.

(more…)

In the same way the 2016-2019 Trump-Russia Collusion Conspiracy was a vehicle; a tool toward the end goal of an “obstruction” impeachment; so too is the 2019 Trump-Ukraine narrative a vehicle; a means to an end: “corruption of office”, impeachment
Both Trump-Russia (obstruction) and Trump-Ukraine (corruption) have similar footprints because they both held the same end-goal purpose, impeachment. [BACKGROUND]
Trump was framed for stealing a horse; Trump was subsequently accused of trying too hard to avoid hanging for it. Mueller eventually conceded that Trump didn’t steal the horse; however, by then the focus was on his efforts to avoid hanging.  Eventually Mueller testified; it surfaced there was never a horse to begin with… Impeachment was stalled.

We would be well served to avoid focusing on the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call, and subsequent anonymous whistle-blower complaint narrative, to understand their objective.
The background facts are not the priority for those who are constructing the impeachment articles.  Like the Russian horse, the Ukraine horse never existed. Pelosi’s political committee needs center around exploiting a manufactured corruption narrative.
We see this today in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Engel, and the demands upon Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Last Friday afternoon, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, issued a subpoena demanding a slew of Ukraine-related documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by Oct. 4th. The committees also scheduled depositions with five State Department officials between Oct. 2 and Oct. 10.
(more…)

Senator Lindsey Graham played a round of golf with President Trump last Saturday.
Curiously on Monday night, Sean Hannity asked Graham if he believed the U.K., Italy and Australia participated in a covert scheme with U.S. intelligence to subvert U.S. laws and target the Trump campaign?   Graham’s response was a little surprising:

[03:30]…”I don’t know, but I know we’re going to find out about that in two weeks.”

As we keep saying: chopper pressers are the best pressers.
In response to a chopper presser by President Trump on May 24th, 2019, the Australian government sent U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr an unsolicited letter saying they would “fully support” Barr’s investigative “efforts”:

(Source Link)

Earlier today the New York Times attempted to construct a narrative that Bill Barr requested President Trump to contact the Australians on his behalf.  This letter refutes the construct of the New York Times report which was based on Lawfare leaks and spin.
(more…)

Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham must be right over the target.  The Washington Post (via allies in Lawfare) is quick to the typeset to assist the collective effort.  However, there’s good news therein.  Obviously WaPo and The Times (via journolist-type cooperation) divided up the narrative angles.
Based on the severity of “small group” risk exposure, it must be assumed the halls of Main Justice in Washington DC are filled with corrupt allies for the administrative state.

One only needs to read a few paragraphs to see the corrupt Lawfare Main Justice “sources” (ie. embeds still operating) are urgently leaking details of the Durham/Barr investigation. (emphasis mine):

(Washington Post) Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

(more…)