Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAN
“I have decided,” President Trump repeated three times when asked yesterday about the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but not revealing what he intends to do when faced with the Oct.… continue »
Unlike the statements from Kushner and Trump Jr., which I’ve previously dissected, the statement of Michael Cohen is awkwardly written and does not appear to have any clear strategy. Large portions of it read more like a political speech than a document written by lawyers in response to a request for testimony. … continue »
On Sunday, Peter Baker and Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times reported on strains within the White House Counsel’s Office about strategy in responding to the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
That White House lawyers would differ on strategy is commonplace.… continue »
Facebook should be treated like a crime scene. The social media company likely has troves of data that could provide critical leads for the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The effort to investigate possible coordination between the Trump team and Russia has so far centered on the growing number of meetings and interactions between the campaign and Kremlin-linked figures.… continue »
The International Criminal Court very recently issued an arrest warrant for a militia leader in Libya which should catch the attention of U.S. policymakers, diplomats and prosecutors because of the possibility that his most senior commander—an American citizen by the name of Khalifa Haftar—ordered soldiers to commit war crimes.… continue »
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THE PRESS AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE
Trump again suggests both sides were to blame for Charlottesville violence. The administration takes the next step in its leak crackdown, and the press secretary suggests a journalist should be fired for criticism of the president.… continue »
On Tuesday, the Trump administration formally announced its decision to end one of President Obama’s signature immigration accomplishments—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA). Designed to protect Dreamers, that policy has insulated from deportation as many as 800,000 young people who were brought to the United States as children.… continue »
This article is cross-posted at Shugerblog.
After President Donald Trump pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, observers feared that the president was just warming up his pardon pen for his inner circle who may be targets of criminal investigations. Many legal experts have said there would be no recourse other than impeachment, but at least these pardoned defendants would lose their 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and, as a result, they’d be forced to testify against Trump in some forum.… continue »
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR WEAPONS TEST
“The U.S. will receive more ‘gift packages’ from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations,” North Korea’s ambassador to the U.N.… continue »
(Editors’ note: This article first appeared as a three-part series. We are reproducing it here in full.)
Twenty-four years ago this month, President Bill Clinton, a first-term commander in chief with no military or foreign policy experience, approved a request from his military commanders to deploy several hundred special operations forces to Somalia.… continue »
