The DOJ’s Russiagate Probe Just Turned Into a Criminal InvestigationPosted: 25 Oct 2019 07:29 AM PDTWhat began as an administrative review by the Justice Department into the origins of Russiagate has “shifted” to a criminal inquiry, according to the New York Times, citing two people familiar with the matter.The move will allow prosecutor John H Durham the power to subpoena documents and witnesses, to impanel a grand jury, and to file criminal charges. Durham’s progress has been closely monitored by Attorney General William Barr, who appointed the veteran investigator in May, tasking him with looking into FBI and CIA intelligence gathering operations surrounding the 2016 US election.U.S. attorney John H DurhamAs the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross notes, Barr said on April 10 that he believed “spying” had taken place against the Trump campaign, and that he doesn’t buy former FBI officials’ version of how the collusion investigation began.Little is known about Durham’s activities so far in the investigation. The Times report said it is unclear when the investigation took on a criminal element, or what specific crime Durham is investigating.Durham accompanied Barr to Italy late in September as part of an inquiry into U.S. intelligence agents’ activities there during the 2016 campaign. They also inquired about Joseph Mifsud, a mysterious Maltese professor who established contact with Trump aide George Papadopoulos in 2016. –Daily CallerJust over three weeks ago, the Times also reported that President Trump asked the Australian Prime Minister to help Barr uncover the origins of “Russiagate,” a move which Justice Department officials said “would be neither illegal nor untoward for Trump to ask.”And according to NBC News, Durham has set his sights on former CIA Director John Brennan and former national intelligence director James Clapper.Durham’s investigation has been running parallel to a probe by Justice Department Inspector General (and registered Democrat) Michael Horowitz, who told Congress on Thursday that he expects his report to be “lengthy,” but able to be made mostly available to the public.The Durham probe is similar to a Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into the FBI’s surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, told Congress on Thursday that the report of that investigation is “lengthy” and that he anticipates most of it will be made public.Horowitz has been investigating whether the FBI misled the foreign surveillance court in spy applications against Page. Investigators relied heavily on the Steele dossier in the applications, though information in that document was largely unverified. Unlike Durham, Horowitz has not had subpoena power, and cannot use a grand jury as part of his investigation. –Daily CallerAnd of course, with Durham’s administrative review turning into a criminal probe, the Times has already given away the predictable response from the left; Barr is investigating the Obama intelligence community to help Trump win in 2020. Nothing to see here folks, right?Republished from ZeroHedge.com with permissionThe post The DOJ’s Russiagate Probe Just Turned Into a Criminal Investigation appeared first on We Are Change.
Syria Reversal: US May Leave 500 Troops, Deploy Dozens of Tanks to Secure Syrian OilPosted: 24 Oct 2019 08:38 PM PDTJust days after apparently withdrawing US troops from Syria, much to the chagrin of the military-industrial-complex-sponsored Washington establishment, The Wall Street Journal reports that The White House is considering options for leaving about 500 U.S. troops in northeast Syria and sending dozens of battle tanks and other equipment to protect them.The abrupt reversal, reportedly suggested to President Trump by military officials fits with his statement earlier today that he wanted to safeguard the oil fields (seen by Washington as potential leverage in future negotiations over Syria), tweeting:“We will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields!”Syria is now politically more fragmented than ever, as the following chart from Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows, parts of the country are controlled by various faction s (based on Liveuamap data analysed by the German newspaper Handelsblatt). In the north there is a strip about 30 kilometres wide, which Turkey seeks to control as a “safe zone”. The parts into which Turkish troops have already penetrated are coloured purple. The red areas were newly occupied by Syrian-Russian forces, showing how Assad is now gaining influence in the region. The majority of the planned Turkish control zone is still controlled by Kurdish militias (yellow areas on the map).The options for tanks and troops, which The Journal noteshasn’t been decided upon yet, has the smell of a strawman from the neocons – bargaining over troop numbers and logistics – in an effort to gauge the base’s reaction and to then provide some leverage on the president to reverse his position more aggressively.As a reminder, after ordering all U.S. forces out of northeastern Syria in early October, Trump has already modestly reversed his position, agreeing (after Sen. Lindsey Graham outlined the potential importance of the oil) to leave about 200 troops in northeast Syria to safeguard oil fields.Of course, it is still unclear what will be done with the approximately 1,000 troops – mostly special ops – but, as Senator Graham made clear – they’re not coming home any time soon:“There are some plans coming together from the Joint Chiefs that I think may work, that may give us what we need to prevent ISIS from coming back, Iran taking the oil, ISIS from taking the oil,” he said.“I am somewhat encouraged that a plan is coming about that will meet our core objectives in Syria.”Perhaps the Deep State’s grip is a little firmer, and Graham’s marshalling of Senate votes to ‘save’ Trump from impeachment, than the president initially conceived.One thing is for sure, if this reversal takes place, Putin and Erdogan will not be pleased at all, and with Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in Brussels, alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, noting that NATO ally Turkey “put us all in a terrible situation,” one could imagine this strategy is one of stalling while the nukes can be moved from Incirlik to another ‘ally’ ahead of the planned votes next week on additional Turkish sanctions (as questions about the viability of Turkey as a NATO ally so closely aligned with Russia are growing stronger – in rhetoric only for now).Republished from ZeroHedge.com with permissionThe post Syria Reversal: US May Leave 500 Troops, Deploy Dozens of Tanks to Secure Syrian Oil appeared first on We Are Change.
