Country May Execute Its First Non-Violent Female Activist

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Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution is seeking the death penalty against a female human rights activist for her non-violent activist work.

According to Human Rights Watch, Israa al-Ghomgham is facing the death penalty along with four other activists for charges including “‘participating in protests in the Qatif region,’ ‘incitement to protest,’ ‘chanting slogans hostile to the regime,’ ‘attempting to inflame public opinion,’ ‘filming protests and publishing on social media,’ and ‘providing moral support to rioters.’” All of the activists and one additional activist who is not facing the death penalty, have been held in pretrial detention without legal representation for over two years.

The grounds for execution are reportedly based on ta’zir, a principle of Islamic law that gives a judge discretion over the sentence and definition of what constitutes a crime.

Al-Ghomgham is a Shia and the first female activist to ever face the death penalty, which, if executed, will set a dangerous precedent for other detained activists. She was arrested on December 6, 2015 after participating and documenting the 2011 demonstrations in the Eastern Province and calling for an end against discrimination for Saudi Shias.

In 2014 eight men were sentenced to death for their participating in the 2011 Eastern Province demonstrations, and an additional 14 were sentenced to death in 2016. (Read more from “Country May Execute Its First Non-Violent Female Activist” HERE)

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The Dossier: Is This the Right Plan to Win the Long War in Afghanistan?

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Trump reportedly considering new Afghanistan plan

President Trump has never been particularly happy with the Afghanistan war plan, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he is reportedly entertaining various options on how to reduce U.S. troops’ footprint in the war-torn country.

According to NBC News, Trump has shown “renewed interest” in a plan drafted by Erik Prince, which calls for some private assets to replace American soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of the private military contracting giant Blackwater, has also acted as an unofficial adviser to Mr. Trump. Prince claims his plan, which calls for hiring private military contractors, would significantly reduce costs.

Many have taken to social media to criticize the plan. However, it’s also important to note that the U.S. is now 17 years into the Afghanistan war and the status quo is a complete stalemate, or worse, a slow decline. There is no end to the war in sight, and American soldiers continue to die on a regular basis, fighting to protect what’s left of a highly corrupt foreign government. Moreover, there isn’t much evidence that any of the jihadi groups currently operating in Afghanistan pose much of a threat to the American homeland. There is seemingly no grand strategy to win the war or exit the country in a timely manner.

It’s easy to slam Prince’s plan as radical, unproductive, or morally inappropriate. But at least he has presented a plan to move on from the never-ending, resource-draining, American soldier-killing war in Afghanistan.

South Africa begins seizing white-owned farms

In a deeply troubling development, the South African government has approved the first seizures of white-owned farmland.

Representatives from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) reportedly offered white farmers only ten percent of their land’s value prior to the unilateral seizure. The ANC has endorsed and fanned the flames of a climate of extreme hostility against the nation’s white Afrikaner minority.

Drive-by shooting targeting U.S. embassy in Turkey

At around 5 a.m. local time Monday, a drive-by shooting targeted the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey. The suspects fired several shots before taking off. No one was hurt in the incident.

Tensions continue to increase between the United States and Turkey. The Trump administration and the Erdogan regime are sparring over the imprisonment of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson. The United States government claims he is unfairly detained, while Ankara has claimed, without evidence, that he is a spy. It is believed that Turkey is using the pastor as a negotiating chip in seeking the extradition of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Manafort jury continues deliberations

Now into its third day of deliberations, a jury is currently deciding whether to convict former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort on charges related to tax evasion and bank fraud.

Although the legacy media is covering the case as if it’s the trial of the century, the charges against Manafort have nothing to do with his time on the Trump campaign or matters related supposed Russian collusion. (For more from the author of “The Dossier: Is This the Right Plan to Win the Long War in Afghanistan?” please click HERE)

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan Has Solution to Recent Terror Attacks — It Rivals His Knife Ban for Sheer Brilliance

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London Mayor Sadiq Khan responded to Wednesday’s reported terror attack by suggesting that vehicles be banned in certain parts of the city, particularly near the government buildings where Parliament meets.

Khan told BBC Radio that the important thing was to ensure that the people continued to have access to their government, but that measures to keep members of Parliament safe would benefit everyone.

“I think there would be lots of challenges if we would do the whole square. It is a thoroughfare for cars, vehicles and commercial deliveries going through London. So it’s possible to have a designed solution … in keeping our buildings and people as safe as we can do. And also not losing what is so wonderful about our city that is a vibrant democracy, people can walk around safely.”

Since July of 2016, when a man in a rented truck drove into a crowd in Nice, France, vehicle-based attacks have been on the rise — particularly in Europe where many cities have stricter regulations on guns and knives.

(Read more from “London Mayor Sadiq Khan Has Solution to Recent Terror Attacks — It Rivals His Knife Ban for Sheer Brilliance” HERE)

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After Trump Slams Turkish Government, Turkish Lawyers Accuse U.S. Military Officers of ‘Terrorist Ties’

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According to Stars and Stripes, the court papers accuse the officers of having connections to FETO, a group deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, and call for the arrest of several officers associated with Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, including Col. John C. Walker, Col. Michael H. Manion, Col. David Eaglen, Col. David Trucksa, Lt. Col. Timothy J. Cook, Lt. Col. Mack R. Coker, and Sgts. Thomas S. Cooper and Vegas M. Clark. . .

The organization behind the filing, the Association for Social Justice and Aid, is reportedly a non-governmental organization of supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The legal action comes amid increasing tension between the two countries over Turkey’s refusal to release North Carolina Christian pastor Andrew Brunson, who Turkey claims supported PKK Kurdish militants and assisted a Turkish cleric based in Pennsylvania, who allegedly is responsible for the attempted 2016 coup against Erdogan.

The U.S. later officially imposed financial sanctions on two ministers and doubled steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, resulting in the Turkish currency hitting a record low of 7.23 per dollar.

An American spokeswoman for Incirlik Air Base told Stars and Stripes that the U.S. will continue to carry out their mission at the base and they are “proud of the relationship we have with our Turkish military partners.” (Read more from “After Trump Slams Turkish Government, Turkish Lawyers Accuse U.S. Military Officers of ‘Terrorist Ties'” HERE)

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Radioactive Sheep Bolster Nuclear Weapon Test Claim Against Israel

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Newly discovered data from radioactive sheep provides strong evidence that a mysterious “double flash” detected almost 39 years ago near a remote island group was a nuclear explosion.

Ever since the flash was observed by a U.S. “Vela” satellite orbiting above Earth in September 1979, there’s been speculation that it was produced from a nuclear weapon test by Israel. International researchers in the journal Science & Global Security analyzed previously unpublished results of radiation testing at a U.S. lab of thyroid organs from sheep in southeastern Australia in order to make their determination.

The flash was located in the area of Marion and Prince Edward islands, which are in the South Indian Ocean about halfway between Africa and Antarctica.

“A new publication sheds further light on the Vela Incident of 1979,” said Professor Nick Wilson, of Otago University at Wellington, who highlighted the findings but was not involved with the study itself. “[The research] adds to the evidence base that this was an illegal nuclear weapons test, very likely to have been conducted by Israel with assistance from the apartheid regime in South Africa.” . . .

The researchers conclude that iodine-131, which is an unstable radioactive form of the element iodine found in the thyroids of some Australian sheep, “would be consistent with them having grazed in the path of a potential radioactive fallout plume from a [September 22, 1979] low-yield nuclear test in the Southern Indian Ocean.” (Read more from “Radioactive Sheep Bolster Nuclear Weapon Test Claim Against Israel” HERE)

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Iran, N. Korea Grow Stockpile of Ballistic Missiles Capable of Striking U.S. Troops, Allies, Israel

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Iran and North Korea are growing their stockpile of ballistic missiles, including long-range missiles capable of striking U.S. assets, American allies, and even the continental United States, according to new congressional reports that shine a light on efforts by these rogue nations to advance their military capabilities.

North Korea continues to aid Iran with its advanced ballistic missiles program in defiance of international regulations barring such activity, according to the reports, issued by the Congressional Research Service. This includes an extensive proliferation network and multiple facilities dedicated to constructing short-range, medium-range, and long-range ballistic missiles.

Iran’s missiles, many of which are modeled off North Korean technology, are advanced enough to strike targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel, stoking fears that the next regional war—which many say is imminent—could present Iran an opportunity to show off its newest missile technology.

U.S. officials familiar with the Iranian and North Korean missile programs told the Washington Free Beacon that much of the recent technological progress by these rogue nations is the result of the Obama administration’s efforts to relax international regulations on such activity as part of the landmark nuclear agreement.

In the time since that agreement was reached, Iran has taken significant steps toward building, testing, and improving its ballistic missile technology, including long-range missiles that have been tested under cover of Tehran’s space program. (Read more from “Iran, N. Korea Grow Stockpile of Ballistic Missiles Capable of Striking U.S. Troops, Allies, Israel” HERE)

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The North Korea Denuclearization Could Be Heading in a Terrifying Direction

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By The Blaze. If the U.S. continues to enforce sanctions against North Korea, the regime could forestall its denuclearization efforts, according to a statement by the nation’s foreign ministry. North Korea also criticized the United States for accusing them of secretly continuing work on some secret missile sites.

The North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Thursday that President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has improved relations between the two nations. But North Korean officials also indicated they are also growing weary of the U.S.’s increasing pressure for full denuclearization.

North Korea believes the U.S. is “making baseless allegations against us and making desperate attempts at intensifying the international sanctions.”

“They made public the North Korea Sanctions and Enforcement Actions Advisory and additional sanctions, and called for cooperation in forcing sanctions and pressure even at the international meetings,” the statement reads.

North Korea also noted its goodwill gesture last week of returning the remains of U.S. soldiers of who fought in the Korean War. (Read more from “The North Korea Denuclearization Could Be Heading in a Terrifying Direction” HERE)

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Two Months After Trump-Kim Summit, North Korea Hasn’t Changed at All

By SCMP. After peaking two months ago with the Singapore Summit, hopes for a peaceful resolution of the long-running North Korea nuclear crisis have sunk into the mire of political and historical obstacles. Before 2018, outsiders knew North Korea as a failing and anachronistic political and economic system that had repeatedly cheated its seemingly long-overdue death through a foreign policy of intimidation, stubbornness, playing adversaries against each other, and occasional flashes of conciliation that usually proved insincere.

Despite what looked like an emerging breakthrough based on an unexpected participation in the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea and the improbable meeting between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, North Korea increasingly looks like its old self.

Before this year, Pyongyang was in dire straits. The US government was openly considering a military attack on its missile and nuclear bomb infrastructure. The country’s relationship with China was severely strained; Kim had not even met Xi Jinping. China was enforcing the economic sanctions against North Korea with unprecedented diligence, causing noticeable hardship. Although South Korea had a new government that might be willing to restore economic cooperation with the North, the spike in tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes was an obstacle to a rapprochement with Seoul. (Read more from “Two Months After Trump-Kim Summit, North Korea Hasn’t Changed at All” HERE)

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Video Reportedly Shows Israeli Children Trying to Reach Shelter During Palestinian Missile Strike

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A video reportedly shows Israeli children trying to crowd into a bomb shelter during a Palestinian missile attack on the city of Sderot. . .

Three people were injured in the attack on Sderot. Hamas viewed this attack as retaliation for Israel killing two of its soldiers. Those soldiers were killed during an Israeli strike on a Hamas military post Tuesday, which was in turn an Israeli response to Palestinian militant fire on Israeli troops.

The Israeli military confirmed that Hamas had fired at least 36 rockets from Gaza on Wednesday. Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system reportedly destroyed several of these missiles.

In the video, a rocket can be seen arching across the sky. This rocket appears to be destroyed mid-flight. Moments later, an explosion can be heard, as black smoke billows from what looks like another missile strike. A mob of children, some covering their ears, pushes and shoves each other as they try to enter a small door in what appears to be some sort of a shelter. Some carry infants. . .

According to the Israeli military, these included “an offensive maritime terror tunnel … several terror sites in military compounds throughout the Gaza Strip … rocket manufacturing facilities and a central logistical military complex.” (Read more from “Video Reportedly Shows Israeli Children Trying to Reach Shelter During Palestinian Missile Strike” HERE)

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Ties to China Go Way Deeper Than an Alleged Office Spy

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. . .The story involves China and the senior U.S. senator from California, and former chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Democrat Dianne Feinstein. It was buried eight paragraphs into a recent Politico exposé on foreign efforts to infiltrate Silicon Valley, as a passing example of political espionage:

Former intelligence officials…[said] Chinese intelligence once recruited a staff member at a California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the source reported back to China about local politics. (A spokesperson for Feinstein said the office doesn’t comment on personnel matters or investigations, but noted that no Feinstein staffer in California has ever had a security clearance.)

Later comes additional detail:

According to four former intelligence officials, in the 2000s, a staffer in Senator Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco field office was reporting back to the MSS [China’s Ministry of State Security, its intelligence and security apparatus]. While this person, who was a liaison to the local Chinese community, was fired, charges were never filed against him. (One former official reasoned this was because the staffer was providing political intelligence and not classified information—making prosecution far more difficult.) The suspected informant was ‘run’ by officials based at China’s San Francisco Consulate, said another former intelligence official. The spy’s handler ‘probably got an award back in China’ for his work, noted this former official, dryly.

This anecdote provides significantly more questions than answers. For starters: Who was the spy? For how long was the spy under surveillance? What information about “local politics” was the spy passing back to China? Just how close was the spy to the senator? Did law enforcement officials sweep vehicles and other areas for listening devices? Was there an investigation into whether others in the senator’s circle may have been coordinating with Beijing? (Read more from “Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Ties to China Go Way Deeper Than an Alleged Office Spy” HERE)

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Hard-Liners Push Trump to Ramp up Pressure on North Koreans Over Slow Pace of Denuclearization Talks

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Two months have gone by since the Singapore summit with no serious steps toward denuclearization by North Korea, a reality that has left the Trump administration offering mixed messages on how it plans to proceed in negotiations amid growing concern that Washington is being played by Pyongyang. . .

“We’re not willing to wait for too long,” Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters this week, echoing comments by National Security Adviser John R. Bolton, who complained that Pyongyang has “not taken effective steps” since broadly agreeing to the goal of denuclearization in Singapore.

But Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Mr. Trump’s point man in the outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, have sounded a much more hopeful tone at times. Mr. Pompeo has advocated for patience and stressed that he firmly believes in Pyongyang’s “commitment to denuclearize.”

“We still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters last weekend. He added that “there are lots of conversations taking place,” suggesting a breakthrough may be in the works even with signs pointing to the contrary.

The slow pace of U.S.-North Korean talks stands in contrast with increasingly frequent contacts between North Korea and the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a longtime supporter of engagement with Pyongyang on the divided and heavily armed Korean Peninsula. (Read more from “Hard-Liners Push Trump to Ramp up Pressure on North Koreans Over Slow Pace of Denuclearization Talks” HERE)

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