Funding Bill Calls For Trump ISIS Strategy !

[DinarThug]

CNN. Broadcasting While The Pentagon Has Already Been Making Quiet, Incremental Additions To The Troop Levels !

 

 

 

(by doodlebug)

Funding bill calls for Trump ISIS strategy

WASHINGTON — The proposed 2017 federal spending bill would withhold billions in defense spending until the Trump administration submits its strategy to defeat the Islamic State group.

Of the $15 billion in supplemental wartime spending in a bipartisan deal reached Sunday, $2.5 billion would be withheld until 15 days after the president provides Congress with the strategy. 

The congressional push for oversight would require the defense secretary and secretary of state update the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Intelligence and Appropriations committees every 90 days. The bill also calls on the president to provide a strategy for Syria, though it does not tie any money to that.

How far the oversight push will go is unclear. Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s election, Congress has had little debate and no vote on an authorization of the use of military force, as lawmakers may be reluctant to record their position or limit the president’s war-fighting ability. The U.S. has been fighting ISIS under the post-9/11 authorization without Congress updating it.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in mid-April that the U.S. plans to focus on defeating ISIS without getting more deeply involved in Syria's civil war. 

In late February, Mattis reportedly presented the White House with a classified plan to defeat ISIS, telling Congress last month the “skeleton plan” includes "economic, diplomatic, military, covert means." 

"We should have this done in the next couple of months, if that long," Mattis said. "It may not even take us another month. But we're still putting it together."

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who appeared with Mattis, said the plan would “fully leverage all the capabilities our nation has: diplomatically, economically and militarily, and now in the 21st century in the information space as well.”

The move comes as the White House has given the Pentagon greater flexibility to determine the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, another move by Trump to shift greater power to his military leaders.

That decision gives Mattis the authority to send more forces into Syria and to assist U.S.-backed local troops as they move to retake Raqqa from ISIS, which has used the city as a de facto capital. It will also let him adjust the force numbers in Iraq, in the ongoing fight to oust ISIS from Mosul and stabilize it as the rebuilding begins.

The Pentagon has already been making quiet, incremental additions to the troop levels in both countries in recent months, adding hundreds of Marines in Syria to provide artillery support and sending more advisers into Iraq to work with units closer to the fight in Mosul. Those moves were done with White House approval but without any formal adjustment to the longstanding troop caps that had been set by the Obama administration.

Defense News

 

[Officiallytook]

Hope this is old 

[DinarThug]

10 hours ago, DinarThug said:

CNN. Broadcasting While The Pentagon Has Already Been Making Quiet, Incremental Additions To The Troop Levels !

 

Elmer Fudd: Shhh ... Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet - We're Hunting Wadicals !  

 

    

 

[DinarThug]

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2.....utin-phone

Putin, Trump talk deescalating Korea tensions, diplomatic solution in Syria

 Tue May 2, 2017 8:3PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump have discussed deescalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula and promoting a diplomatic solution in Syria.

According to a statement released by the Kremlin on Tuesday, the two presidents also agreed to meet in July on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The statement, which referred to the conversation as constructive, added that both Trump and Putin emphasized furthering coordination in the battle against global terrorism.

It added that Putin had called for restraint on the situation in Syria and that both leaders had agreed to work towards deselecting tensions with North Korea.

Tensions between North Korea and the US have soared in recent weeks. Washington has repeatedly warned that "all options are on the table" regarding Pyongyang.

The US has recently deployed aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force. The USS Michigan nuclear submarine joined the strike group earlier this week.

They decided to “activate the dialogue between the heads of the foreign ministries of both countries who will seek variants to secure the ceasefire regime, stabilize it and control it,” added the statement. “The goal is to create the background that would help launch a real peace process in Syria. This means that Russia’s foreign minister and the US secretary of state would inform their leaders about progress in this regard."

For nearly six years, Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored militancy. United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the war until then. The UN stopped its official casualty count in the war-torn country, citing its inability to verify the figures it received from various sources.

Syria's UN ambassador and head of the government delegation Bashar al-Ja'afari  (4th L), Syrian ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad (3rd L) and other delegates attend the third round of Syria peace talks at the Rixos President Hotel in Astana on March 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

"The conversation was a very good one, and included the discussion of safe, or deescalation, zones to achieve lasting peace for humanitarian and many other reasons," said another statement released by the White House.

It added that the US will be sending a representative to the Syrian ceasefire talks set for Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Astana talks have brought representatives from the government in Damascus and opposition groups to the negotiating table. The first round of the Astana talks took place on January 23-24, followed by the second round on February 15-16 and the third round on March 14-15.

"They also discussed at length working together to eradicate terrorism throughout the Middle East. Finally, they spoke about how best to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea," the statement added.

 

[DinarThug]

http://freebeacon.com/national.....-congress/

Obama Admin Hid Details
of Multi-Million Dollar Cash Payout to Iran From Congress

Classified details never disclosed to leading lawmakers on intel committee

The Obama administration took steps to withhold from lawmakers the details of a $400 million cash payout to Iran and continues to rebuke inquiries from Congress for information about how another $1.3 billion in taxpayer funds was awarded to the Islamic Republic, according to multiple conversations with congressional sources apprised of the matter.

U.S. officials familiar with the recent transfer of $400 million in hard currency to Iran withheld details of the exchange from Congress during briefings in classified and unclassified settings, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The disclosure threatens to complicate efforts by the administration to downplay new reports detailing how U.S. officials used an unmarked aircraft to transfer $400 million in "pallets of cash" to Iran on the same day it freed several U.S. hostages.

Lawmakers and others have claimed for months that the payment was part of a "ransom" aimed at securing the release of the hostages. The White House denies this claim and has said the payment was part of a settlement to resolve decades-old legal disputes with the Islamic Republic.

Nearly eight months after congressional officials demanded a formal accounting of this payment–which amounted to $1.7 billion in total–the administration is still declining to provide lawmakers with the full story, sparking outrage on Capitol Hill.

"It has been seven months since President Obama announced that he was giving the Islamic Republic of Iran almost $2 billion," Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Free Beacon on Wednesday.  "And we are just now finding out damning details about how $400 million, which is less than half of the total, was sent to Iran using foreign aircraft and foreign currencies."

Pompeo led several unsuccessful inquiries into the cash payout. He said the administration has been stonewalling efforts to obtain a full readout of the exchange in both classified and unclassified settings since January.

Pompeo expressed anger that the administration is "totally stonewalling congressional inquiries," while leaving it to the press to unearth the details of the exchange.

"That is far too long of a timeline, especially as it is in the face of the Obama administration totally stonewalling congressional inquiries into this matter since January," Pompeo said.

"We still do not know how the other $1.3 billion was sent, and we still have three Americans sitting in prisons in Iran," Pompeo said, explaining that the bulk of the cash to Iran remains shrouded in mystery.

Congressional sources with knowledge of the situation told the Free Beacon that the State Department and other administration officials withheld details regarding the payment for more than three months–and only then provided a barebones accounting of the payout that omitted all mention of the secret cash delivery.

Sources who spoke to the Free Beacon said this was an intentional effort by the administration to keep lawmakers in the dark and prevent them from receiving a full accounting of the $1.7 billion payout.

A timeline centered around these inquires reveals that administration officials stonewalled Congress for months before providing responses that omitted any mention of the hard currency transfer.

Pompeo launched an inquiry  seeking further details in January, when the legal settlement was first announced.

By mid-March, the State Department still had not responded, as was first reported by the Free Beacon.

The State Department informed Pompeo later that month in a hand-delivered letter that the information he was seeking was classified.

A classified briefing was held in late April. Sources familiar with the briefing told the Free Beaconthat administration officials made no mention of the $400 million cash delivery. This information was only made public when the Wall Street Journal reported it late Monday.

One congressional source working on the issue said that the Obama administration could now spend funds set aside for American victims of terrorism on further payments to Iran.

"This just makes you wonder how far President Obama is willing to go to appease the Iranians," the source said. "Iran keeps taking American citizens hostage because it knows the administration will cave. It wouldn’t surprise me if the president has authorized negotiations with Iran over the $2 billion that is meant to go to the families of the victims of Iranian terror."

"Every action this administration has taken toward Iran has been in furtherance of the regime’s interests and at our expense," the source added. "What else is currently being negotiated between the administration and Iran? The American people deserve to know and they should demand full transparency."

A second congressional source involved in the issue told the Free Beacon that obfuscation by the administration has become a pattern and practice when it comes to Iran.

"Congress continues to press the Obama administration on every change and new policy regarding Iran," the source said. "At every turn, we are met with ‘no comment’ and further secrecy, which is why the American people do not like this deal and understand it does not make them safer."

Another source familiar with the administration’s thinking said that administration efforts to downplay the latest disclosures do no comport with the reality that this payment was part of a secret negotiation.

"The Obama admin is hoping to convince people that there’s nothing new in this scandal," the source said. "But they can’t convince members of Congress because members know that they weren’t told all the details about this cash payment for hostages. For instance, the administration has refused to fully disclose all the ways in which it has transferred money to Iran all of the time."

The White House declined on Wednesday to offer further details to reporters.

Can you imagine the amount of money that has been pilfered to them through the Maliki & Associates along with over a billion from the previous president? And are using it to develop the Nuke Program along with massive military buildup