On FPF #427, I explain how the shooting at the US base in Flordia was a part of the war the US is fighting in the Middle East. The shooter was a Saudi officer who was training at the base. Before the shooting, the Saudi posted about American crimes against Muslims being the motivation for his attack. While in the US, this will be presented as an act of terror only preventable by killing more Muslims in the Middle East, the reality is more war in the Middle East will only create more terror attacks in the US. 

Links

• The charges against journalist Max Blumenthal have been dropped. He was accused of simple assault while trying to deliver food to the Venezuelan embassy in DC. No evidence has been produced of the assault and what evidence that may have existed appears to have been deleted. Five months after delivering food to the embassy, Max was arrested and held for two days at the end of October. [Link]
• Jeff Bezos is pushing other tech companies to work with the Pentagon saying, “we are the good guys.” [Link]
• CBP reverses a plan that would have required all US citizens to be photographed leaving and entering the US. [Link]
• The US House votes in favor of a resolution that condemns Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. [Link] 

Mexican Cartels 

• Trump says he will not designate Mexican cartels as terror groups. [Link]
• The Mexican President meets with AG Barr and says he will work with the US to prevent the flow of weapons into Mexico, but would not permit another operation like fast and furious. [Link]

Shootings

• A US sailor killed two civilians Department of Defense employees before killing himself at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard. [Link]
• A Saudi air force officer training in the US shot and killed three people in a US base. Post by the Saudi suggests he carried out the attack in response to US foreign policy. [Link]

NATO

• Turkey says it expects NATO members’ support in Syria after it dropped its objection to NATO’s Baltic defense plan. [Link]
• Trump and Canada’s leader clash at the NATO conference. Trump called Trudeau two-faced and complained Canada is not meeting the 2% defense spending target. [Link]
• Trump suggests he could sanction Germany for not meeting NATO’s 2% defense spending target. [Link]
• Hungary says it will block Ukraine’s NATO membership over Ukraine’s language law. [Link]
• Putin says Russia will extend the New Start Treaty without any preconditions or discussions. [Link]

Ukraine

• Ukraine’s president says he will look to swap the rest of the POWs from the Ukrainian Civil War in talks with Russia next week. [Link]
• Trump’s 2020 budget requests $250 million in lethal aid to Ukraine. [Link]

North Korea

• North Korea says it carried out a test at a long-range missile facility. The facility was partially deconstructed when the US and North Korea were making diplomatic progress. [Link] In response to the missile test Trump says North Korea risks losing everything and calls on Kim Jong-un to denuclearize. Trump also warned North Korea against interfering in the 2020 elections. [Link]
• A North Korean official says denuclearization is off the table in talks with the US. [Link]

GCC

• Qatar confirms that it is in talks with Saudi Arabia to resolve the GCC dispute. [Link]

Iran

• Trump is considering a plan that would send an additional 14,000 troops to the Middle East. [Link]
• Japan will deploy 270 sailors to the Middle East to protest its ships. [Link]
• A senior Pentagon official says Iran could act aggressively. [Link]
• Iran says protesters have been killed in recent weeks but far less than the claimed 200 claimed by Amnesty International. [Link]
• Iran’s president calls on all unarmed protesters to be released. [Link]
• The Navy claims to capture a ship carrying advanced missile parts from Iran. [Link]
• The US and Iran exchanged prisoners. The US released an Iranian scientist who was held for violating sanctions. Iran released and American-Chinese student who was accused of espionage with little evidence. [Link]

Iraq

• Masked armed men in Iraq killed at least 23 protesters. The home of influential cleric Sadr was targeted by a mortar fired from a drone. [Link]
• A US official says Iran may have been behind an attack that hit an Iraqi airbase that houses US soldiers. He did not provide evidence and admitted he was still waiting for evidence to come in. [Link]

Syria

• Secretary of Defense Esper says the repositioning of American troops in Syria is complete, and troop levels in Syria will fluctuate around 600. [Link]

Yemen

• The Sudanese leader says his country only has 5,000 troops in Yemen, down from 15,000. [Link]

 

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