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Banner headline events almost always flow from quieter real-life causes, and the worst attack on Israel in fifty years is not an exception. The coordinated raids and massacres on October 7 were possible only because of more subtle interventions over two and a half years in rooms at the State Department and the White House, with indirect help from nonprofits like the Soros-funded International Crisis Group. These interventions were driven by a small network of government and interest group insiders whose actions have gone unreported in establishment media. Though their further consequences aren’t yet clear, they’ll almost certainly involve a...

Lawmakers want to know if suspended Iran envoy was compromised by the Iran Experts Initiative Republican leaders on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees have opened a joint investigation into Biden administration Iran envoy Robert Malley's links to a secret Iranian government influence network that reportedly includes several of his closest associates, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Sen. James Risch (R., Idaho) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas)—the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively—are asking the State Department for information on whether Malley was compromised by the...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia is signaling it isn’t willing to pump more oil and won’t push for changes to an agreement with Russia and other producers that has kept a lid on oil production levels. This has Washington concerned as gasoline prices rise and tensions with Russia over Ukraine fuel market uncertainty. The Biden administration dispatched Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s Middle East coordinator, and the State Department’s energy envoy, Amos Hochstein, to Riyadh on Wednesday to talk about a range of issues — chief among them the ongoing war in Yemen and global energy...

Following Turkey and America’s agreement on a “permanent ceasefire” in Syria, President Trump lifted the sanctions placed on Turkish officials. The sanctions were put in place when Turkish forces were plunging into Syrian territory held by the Kurds, who were U.S. partners in the fight against ISIS. The new ceasefire agreement would set up a buffer zone on the Syria-Turkey border that Kurdish forces couldn’t occupy.The ceasefire marks a stark turn of events from where things stood earlier this month, when the entire Washington political and media establishment was lambasting Trump for daring to pull troops out of northern Syria.Yet at...

Trump faces growing GOP revolt on Syria BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 10/09/19 06:00 AM EDT Trump faces growing GOP revolt on Syria Republicans are in a full-out revolt against President Trump over his decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, a move broadly seen as putting the lives of Kurdish allies at risk. The overwhelming opposition from GOP lawmakers is putting increasing pressure on Trump to reverse course. And it comes at a time when Democrats are moving full steam ahead with an impeachment inquiry. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s loudest congressional supporters, on Tuesday demanded a senators-only...

U.S. President Donald Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the Middle East by handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State, in Syria in a move that poses both a risk/opportunity for Turkey, Israeli Haaretz newspaper wrote. Trump was expected to warn the Turkish president over his plan to launch a third crossborder attack targeting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, namely the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northeast Syria, during a phone call 2-weeks ago. However, something unexpected happened, Haaretz said.Trump is reported to have asked if Ankara can ‘’clean up ISIS?’’ if the U.S. withdraws, with Turkey’s strongman responding  Turkish forces were...

A narrow majority of U.S. voters support President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and reduce the country's military presence in Afghanistan, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they back the moves in Syria and Afghanistan, which came as a surprise to the president's own national security advisers when it was announced last week. By contrast, 48 percent said they oppose the troop withdrawals and reductions, the poll found. Trump announced he would completely remove the approximately 2,000 troops in Syria battling ISIS, while he said he...

**SNIP** Kerry, in a tweet, also said it was "pathetic" and "demoralizing to public servants everywhere," that Trump would, "defame a public servant who joined the Bush Administration and stayed on the last two years to help Iraq & defeat ISIL." Kerry worked with McGurk during his time as secretary of state for the Obama administration. As mentioned by Kerry, McGurk served in the George W. Bush White House and was appointed to his most recent anti-ISIS role in 2015 under Obama. McGurk resigned amid the fallout in Washington from Trump’s recent, abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria...

President Donald Trump reacted Monday to critics who had rallied around former U.S. envoy Brett McGurk, noting that he was the Obama administration official responsible for sending pallets of cash to Iran for U.S. hostages. [cut] For all of the sympathizers out there of Brett McGurk remember, he was the Obama appointee who was responsible for loading up airplanes with 1.8 Billion Dollars in CASH & sending it to Iran as part of the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal (now terminated) approved by Little Bob Corker.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2018

On Saturday, Brett McGurk submitted his resignation and is leaving the Trump administration. McGurk served as the US envoy in a global anti-ISIS coalition and reportedly resigned amid President Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria—a decision which also reportedly led to the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.

A Saudi contribution of $100 million to U.S.-backed stabilization efforts in Syria arrived in American accounts Tuesday, just as State Mike Pompeo touched down in Riyadh to discuss the missing Saudi journalist, an anonymous U.S. official told The New York Times. The source said the timing of the two events is no accident. He said Saudi Arabia originally pledged its contribution in August, and U.S. officials were expecting to receive it by the fall. But Brett McGurk, a U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria, played down the significance of the timing with Pompeo’s visit.

The U.S. military must figure out how to keep Iraq from breaking apart while also preventing neighboring Iran from turning Iraq into a proxy state.. It makes no sense for a nation to treat its enemies kindly and its allies harshly. Any nation that tries this foolish approach will see its enemies grow stronger and more dangerous, and will lose its allies when it abandons them. ... The man most responsible for the failure of the U.S. to give adequate support to the Kurds is Brett McGurk, President Trump’s special envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS. He held...

“ISIS is trapped. … Any of the fighters left in Mosul, they’re going to die there,” Brett McGurk said in a conference in Baghdad late Sunday... “So we are very committed to not just defeating them in Mosul, but making sure these guys cannot escape,” McGurk stated.

A former senior investigator with the State Department´s criminal investigative unit has turned whistleblower and alleged to both the media and Congress that senior staff within State Department covered up investigations into appalling behavior committed by members of Hillary Clinton´s security staff and our ambassador to Belgium. One of those alleged to have interfered was Cheryl Mills, Hillary´s chief of staff. The case in which Clinton enforcer Mills allegedly intervened centered upon Brett McGurk, Obama’s nominee to be US ambassador to Iraq. McGurk’s expected nomination fell apart after a computer hack exposed

U.S. Signed Secret Document to Lift U.N. Sanctions on Iranian Banks Administration backed measures on the same day Tehran released four American citizens from prison By Jay Solomon and Carol E. Lee Sept. 29, 2016 8:02 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS WASHINGTON—The Obama administration agreed to back the lifting of United Nations sanctions on two Iranian state banks blacklisted for financing Iran’s ballistic-missile program on the same day in January that Tehran released four American citizens from prison, according to U.S. officials and congressional staff briefed on the deliberations. The U.N. sanctions on the two banks weren’t initially to be lifted...

President Obama announced Friday that he was replacing retired Marine Gen. John Allen with lawyer and diplomat Brett McGurk as his special envoy for Iraq and Syria with a wide-ranging portfolio that includes holding together a coalition against ISIS. Allen, who reportedly had clashed with the military over the now-defunct $500 million effort to create an army of Syrian volunteers, was departing after 13 months as special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, another name for the terrorist group.

The Obama administration official most likely in line to become the next U.S. envoy to the Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) has falsely presented himself as an official U.S. ambassador by the administration for the last five months, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Brett McGurk, a deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition who serves under General John Allen, was temporarily appointed by the administration as an ambassador on Oct. 18, 2014. He was conferred this rank through a little-known legal loophole that allows the administration to...

John Kerry has assembled a three-person team to lead the State Department’s efforts against ISIS. Two of the members — Gen. John Allen and Brett McGurk — seem unobjectionable. The third, Anne Patterson, is another matter. In announcing her central role, Kerry praised Patterson as “one of our nation’s top diplomats deeply respected in the region.” But Patterson is not respected in Egypt, where she served as ambassador during the period when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power. Bridget Johnson at PJ Media reminds us that Patterson stood firmly behind the Brotherhood as it persecuted opponents and attempted to consolidate...

State Dept IG leaked an internal memo citing derailed probes under then-Secy of State Hillary Clinton. Records show staffers who were known sex abusers were given cushy govt jobs or allowed to retire... The bombshell memo accuses ex-Belgium Amb Howard Gutman and members of Clinton’s security detail of hiring prostitutes....Gutman had apparently also solicited sexual favors from "minor children.” Gutman was allowed to retire in July. •Chuck Lisenbee, a former Beirut security officer who was being probed for allegedly sexually assaulting local guards, is now a special agent in Washington for the Office of Diplomatic Vehicles, Enforcement and Outreach, according...

President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife. Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart." "I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another...