(6.3.2017) Eingerichtet werden soll das Mini-Hauptquartier im bereits bestehenden EU-Militärstab in Brüssel. Dieser wird den Planungen zufolge auch die ersten 30 bis 35 Mitarbeiter stellen. „Wenn es notwendig ist, wird sich Deutschland gerne daran beteiligen“, kommentierte von der Leyen.

(6.3.2017) Die EU-Außenbeauftragte Federica Mogherini sieht die EU nicht auf dem Weg zum Aufbau einer eigenen Armee. Ein geplantes Führungszentrum für militärische Auslandseinsätze sei zwar „ein großer Schritt nach vorne, aber es ist nicht die europäische Armee“, sagte Mogherini heute Früh in Brüssel.

According to The New York Times: “Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given ‘incomplete information’ regarding a telephone call he had with the [Russian] ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.”

How was it discovered that Mr. Flynn gave this “incomplete information?” Because either a transcript or actual recording of the call were overheard by FBI officials and leaked to reporters.

Trump’s approach to crisis management continues to be guided by the Roy Cohn playbook. “This is McCarthyism!” Trump said, as he attacked Obama for supposedly wiretapping him, on Saturday. There was great irony to this. Cohn, after all, was Joe McCarthy’s chief counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during the early 1950s. Two decades later, he became one of Trump’s biggest mentors during a formative phase of his life.

Der Irak ist nicht mehr betroffen. Visa- und Greencard-Inhaber können weiter in die USA reisen.

In light of the Ninth Circuit‘s observation that the political branches are better suited to determine the appropriate scope of any suspensions than are the courts, and in order to avoid spending additional time pursuing litigation, I am revoking Executive Order 13769 and replacing it with this order, which expressly excludes from the suspensions categories of aliens that have prompted judicial concerns and which clarifies or refines the approach to certain other issues or categories of affected aliens. (…)

c) To temporarily reduce investigative burdens on relevant agencies during the review period described in subsection (a) of this section, to ensure the proper review and maximum utilization of available resources for the screening and vetting of foreign nationals, to ensure that adequate standards are established to prevent infiltration by foreign terrorists, and in light of the national security concerns referenced in section 1 of this order, I hereby proclaim, pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), that the unrestricted entry into the United States of nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. I therefore direct that the entry into the United States of nationals of those six countries be suspended for 90 days from the effective date of this order, subject to the limitations, waivers, and exceptions set forth in sections 3 and 12 of this order.

(…)

(c) No immigrant or nonimmigrant visa issued before the effective date of this order shall be revoked pursuant to this order.
(d) Any individual whose visa was marked revoked or marked canceled as a result of Executive Order 13769 shall be entitled to a travel document confirming that the individual is permitted to travel to the United States and seek entry.

Trump signed the new ban out of public view, according to White House officials. The order will not take effect until March 16, officials said.

The new guidelines name six of the seven countries included in the first executive order but leave out Iraq.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today that she doesn‘t think President Trump accepts the FBI’s reported denial of his claims about being wiretapped in New York last year, adding she didn‘t know whether he had spoken to the law enforcement agency about the matter.

Answering a question from ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” about whether Trump accepted FBI Director James Comey‘s reported denial of his claims, Sanders replied, „You know, I don’t think he does, George.“

Woodward said on “Fox News Sunday” that “you’ve got to understand that as President Trump has this vast espionage establishment as his disposal, $50 billion a year plus, even in the CIA they call him the First Customer. So he can get the information he wants. He’s the only one in the government.”

But is he really a customer? Or is he in this case a victim?

If the intelligence community is trying to bring down a duly elected government of the United States, it is a story that must be told. Will the media tell this side of the story, or will they protect their anonymous sources and a $50 billion espionage establishment they collude with to make a living?

The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

A CNN expert on crime and justice conceded on Sunday that “no one” in law enforcement “knows what Donald Trump was talking about”…

(2.3.2017) Working from a 24th-floor office in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, Felix Sater spent years trying to line up lucrative deals in the United States, Russia and elsewhere in Europe with Donald Trump’s real estate organization.

For much of that time, according to court records and U.S. officials, Sater also worked as a confidential informant for the FBI, and — he says — U.S. intelligence.

(28.2.2017) The former British spy who authored a controversial dossier on behalf of Donald Trump’s political opponents alleging ties between Trump and Russia reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement.

Syrische Truppen schieben sich in Absprache mit den syrischen Kurden und Russland zwischen türkischen Truppen und Manbij

The northern Syrian city of Manbij is under the protection of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State after an increase in „Turkish threats“ against the city, a Kurdish-allied militia that controls the city said.