USA: Washington DC rally in support of 6 January rioters falls short of expectations | US Capitol attack

A few hundred protesters turned out. They said such low turnout was the result of government intimidation and press scaremongering.

A series of speakers told of family members arrested by the FBI who were now “political detainees”. One woman spoke about her boyfriend in solitary confinement. She read a letter from him.

Read more at: Washington DC rally in support of 6 January rioters falls short of expectations | US Capitol attack | The Guardian

USA - A Trump Coup ? : ‘This is not America’: Europe reacts as Trump supporters wage chaos in US capital – by Emma Anderson

European politicians expressed concern over “highly disturbing” scenes as supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building and clashed with police in Washington amid a push to overturn the U.S. president’s electoral defeat.

The breach of the Capitol building came as Congress members were in the midst of counting Electoral College votes in the election — the final step toward certifying Joe Biden’s win. Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the proceedings, was among those evacuated from the Senate chamber and Getty images broadcast on national television appeared to show an armed standoff at the door of the House of Representatives’ floor.

“In the eyes of the world, American democracy tonight appears under siege,” Borrell tweeted, saying the November election results must be respected. “This is an unseen assault on US democracy, its institutions and the rule of law. This is not America. The election results of 3 November must be fully respected.”

Read more at: ‘This is not America’: Europe reacts as Trump supporters wage chaos in US capital – POLITICO

USA:" "Evel Knievel" Donald Trump cuts Florida holiday short, returns to White House earlier-"up to no good" ?

President Donald Trump is cutting short his Florida holiday and returning to Washington on Thursday, one day earlier than expected, for reasons the White House didn't explain.

The White House announced the abrupt change in the president's schedule late Wednesday, hours after Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said he will raise objections next week when Congress meets to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November election.

Read more at: Donald Trump cuts Florida holiday short, returns to White House earlier - NZ Herald

USA: Trump's military parade in Washington may cost $92 million

The estimated cost of the military parade requested by President Donald Trump has risen again, this time to as much as $92 million, according to a defense official.

The cost of the parade, scheduled for Nov. 10 in Washington, was initially reported as $12 million, and was based on the cost of the victory parade held in the capital after the 1991 Gulf War, said the officials.

The Washington Post estimated the cost of the 1991 victory parade as $8 million.

In February, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told Congress the price could be $10 million to $30 million.

The defense official told NBC News that the internal estimate of the cost of this fall's parade rose to $25 million after adjusting for more than 25 years of inflation. But that estimate did not take into account expenses borne by other federal agencies and some nonmilitary line items.

The $92 million figure, first reported by CNBC, is the current uppermost estimate, said the official, and includes security, transportation and other expenses.

As NBC News first reported, serious planning for the parade began in June, four months after Trump directed the Defense Department to organize it.

"There is only one person who wants this parade," said a senior U.S. official at the time, referring to Trump.

Trump got the idea for the parade while viewing France's Bastille Day Parade in July 2017.

"We're going to have to try to top it," he later told French President Emmanuel Macron.

By January, Trump was floating the idea with military leaders and in late February, he made it official with a memo to Defense Secretary James Mattis.

A March memo laid out the skeleton of a plan: a parade from the White House to the Capitol to include only wheeled vehicles (because tanks could damage the streets), capped by a big display of air power and vintage aircraft, with themes including veterans, women in the military and medal of honor recipients.

Read more: Trump's military parade in Washington may cost $92 million

USA: Rally by White Nationalists Was Over Almost Before It Began - by Richard Fausset

After weeks of hype, white supremacists managed to muster just a couple of dozen supporters on Sunday in the nation’s capital for the first anniversary of their deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., finding themselves greatly outnumbered by counterprotesters, police officers and representatives of the news media.

But even with the low turnout, almost no one walked away with the sense that the nation’s divisions were any closer to healing.

Rally by White Nationalists Was Over Almost Before It Began - The New York Times

USA: Trump’s Washington: Drowning In Conflicts of Interest? - by Frank Vogl

Not a single day passes without new tales of the ganefs in the Trump Administration. “Ganef” in Yiddish means swindler. These are mostly small-time crooks, but not always.

The New York Times just highlighted the activities of Elliott Broidy, the deputy finance chairman of the Republican Party National Committee and a wealthy old friend of Donald Trump.

Broidy seems to have taken some lucrative payments for helping friends associated with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to see that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is fired (he was), to influence U.S. foreign policy against Qatar, and to strengthen personal ties for the Saudi and UAE rulers with Trump.

When it comes to lobbying and the expense accounts of government officials, not to mention conflicts of interest, U.S. law — which is generally described as very tough in many other domains — is often as flexible as a rubber band.

At a minimum, the Trump team is unified by questionable ethics – small, big and sometimes ridiculous.

The Veterans Affairs Administration runs U.S.-based hospitals. Nevertheless, its chief, David Shulkin, needed to go on business to London and Copenhagen last summer with his wife. One of the highlights was a day watching tennis at Wimbledon.

The entire trip was billed to the Veterans Administration at a cost of over $100,000. When the details leaked, Shulkin first claimed that there were misunderstandings. Then he agreed to make a reimbursement.

Efforts at excuses or repayments are not, however, the style of his Trump cabinet colleagues, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency chief Administrator Scott Pruitt. They just feel entitled.

Note EU-Digest:  Sad - Corruption in Government circles now not only seems limited to Dictatorships, Third World Counties, or Banana Republics

Read more: Trump’s Washington: Drowning In Conflicts of Interest? - The Globalist

USA: March on DC - Students lead March for Our Lives and single out "NO-ACTION" politicians

"Since the time that I came out here, it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds," she said finally. "The shooter has ceased shooting, and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest."

She added: "Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job."

In the 39 days since the shooting in Parkland, Florida, Gonzalez and her fellow student survivors have galvanized a nationwide movement for gun reform.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of students gathered in the nation's capitol and at sister marches across the country and around the world to deliver a powerful, unified message: Enough is enough.

For Photo reportage click here: Photos: Students lead March for Our Lives

Turkey: Erdogan-Trump DC meeting:“The mountain gave birth to a mouse” - Turkish proverb

Mission Impossible

In the aftermath of the Trump-Erdogan meeting at the White House, the conclusion certainly can be: that the mountain didn’t even give birth to a mouse. It didn’t give birth to anything.

As far as Heads of States visits go during the short Trump Administration, the Erdogan - Trump meeting has now overtaken the disastrous Merkel-Trump meeting, when it comes to calculating a failure rate.

Erdogan’s White House meeting with Trump was trumpeted as a “turning point” in Turkey’s relations with the United States. There are three major issues to assess the success of the visit and thereby come to a conclusion of whether it was a turning point:

• a change of Washington’s position on the YPG;
• the extradition of Turkey’s public enemy No. 1, Fethullah Gulen, to Turkey; and
• the release of Reza Zarrab, the pivotal character of Turkey’s corruption case of 2014, which is seen as the biggest potential headache for Erdogan.

None of these objectives were met.

The 22-minute “turning point” summit in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, was followed by a joint press conference that lasted about the same length, with Trump speaking less than five minutes and saying nothing significant and Erdogan reading a text that reiterated Turkey’s stand on the thorny issues.

During the joint press conference, both tried to be cordial to each other, but they were unable to conceal the mundane atmosphere dominating the Roosevelt Room, where the joint press conference was held. While Erdogan was talking, Trump’s body language gave the impression that he was somewhere other than next to his Turkish counterpart.

Mr. Erdogan, however, can claim one feather on his cap, given that Trump did not retract his earlier endorsement of the Turkish referendum, making Turkey manifestly less liberal; the speed with which it was offered; the way it differs from the stated views of key American allies, or the lack of any expression of concern about the process.

Nobody, unfortunately, from the American media was really interested in the divergences between Turkey and the United States, and they behaved as if the president of Turkey was not even in the room.

Interestingly sideline, during the press conference, the discrepancy in Erdogan’s Turkish and the English translation that Trump heard was noted and circulated on social media within an hour. That means what Trump heard in English was different in meaning or what Erdogan intended to mean.

The joint press conference was followed by a working lunch where the delegations took part. After the lunch, Erdogan’s visit — which was advertised by his team as “a turning point” in Turkish-American relations — ended - a total failure and unprecedented in this regard.

The worst part of the Erdogan visit probably came when Kurdish-American activists were holding a demonstration at the Turkish ambassador’s residence protesting Erdogan’s visit to Washington, and it turned into a battleground, where Erdogan’s bodyguards and his supporters violently attacked the demonstrators. Nine people were wounded, and American police had difficulty taking control of the situation.

Halil Mutlu, a cousin of Erdogan’s, and a board member of the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), was spotted on the sidelines of the fray. At one point he was seen leading a pro-Erdogan chant aimed at the Turkish government critics.

On this visit to the US Erdogan opted to use his own armored official Mercedes car brought from Turkey by a Turkish military cargo airplane. He also took along a large number of bodyguards, who as they have done on many other occasions around the world, took unauthorized provocative action on foreign soil, against peaceful local demonstrators.

Turkish autocratic President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan enjoys the trappings and lifestyle of an aspiring dictator. He lives in a lavish official residence about 30 x the size of the White House, called the White Palace he had built on the outskirts of Ankara, the capital, at the expense of his ever generous taxpayers and a dwindling Turkish economy.

Following Mr. Erdogan's unsuccessful trip to the US,  it seems that one of the most surprising revelations by outside observers was the fact that little or no negative reactions came from the local US Turkish Diaspora during the visit.. Not a word about the deplorable undemocratic political situation in Turkey, regardless of the fact that some 87% of the Turks living in the US voted no in the latest Turkish referendum.

Not even the ATAA, representing over 60 local chapters and 500,000 Turkish Americans throughout the United States used the occasion of the Erdogan visit to voice their protest against the present undemocratic developments in Turkey or at least tried to get their members motivated to take some action.

As one longtime US citizen of Turkish descent, attending a cultural meeting organized by the Florida Turkish American Association in Florida remarked, "we Turks like to talk a lot, but when it comes to taking political action, fear for reprisals seems to overtake reality.

EU-Digest 

Terrorist Financing: Gulf Donors Remain Important Source of Terrorist Financing says US Treasury

Criticism of Saudi Arabia has mounted in recent weeks on Capitol Hill, after one of the authors of a congressionally-commissioned report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks called for the declassification of 28 pages he says show that the kingdom was involved..

Iraq has called on Saudi Arabia for explanation after a senior official admitted fundraising in the kingdom for ISIS terrorists fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

The call by Iraq’s Foreign Ministry came after Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said earlier this week that Iraq’s current offensive against Daesh has sparked a flurry of new fundraising campaigns in Saudi Arabia.

“You cannot control the sympathies of people,” Turki said before acknowledging that those were potentially fake campaigns to raise money in the name of the “children of Fallujah” that actually funds terrorism.

"They are focusing on any event that results in a humane crisis, like the one going on in Fallujah now in Iraq," he said.

"This is now heavily being used by many to encourage people to give money for the children of Fallujah," Turki added during a conference call with reporters on terrorist financing.

In a statement on Saturday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced the case as “an obvious violation of the Security Council’s decisions.”


Saudi Arabia threatened to pull out several hundreds of billions of dollars in assets held in the US if the country was incriminated in the attacks.

Hence, US Treasury officials have said their concerns about wealthy Saudis funneling money to terrorist organizations have largely abated.

Riyadh is widely viewed as one of the major supporters of Daesh, mainly operating in Syria and Iraq.

EU-Digest

 

Air France Airbus A-380 starts service at Dulles

Just before two Monday afternoon, the world’s largest passenger jet, an Air France Airbus A-380, rolled down the runway at the Washington-Baltimore Dulles Airport.

Rob Yingling, of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said a new fueling pit was installed to accommodate the extra fueling capacity on the Airbus. A few taxi-way signs were moved as well.

One of the things they also had to change at Dulles were the jet ways. Since the Airbus has two floors, there are now two separate jet ways for both the lower and upper levels.

For more: Airbus A-380 starts service at Dulles | WJLA.com