Barzani's Failed Kurdistan Project: A Deathblow To The Partition Of Iraq And Syria

Submitted by Elijah Magnier, Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media

The project to divide Iraq was dealt a deathblow by a decision of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi to send the Army and the security forces to recover all Iraqi territories controlled by the Kurds of Massoud Barzani. The Kurdish leader was riding the horse of Iraqi partition (in fact, a lame horse) to establish a Kurdish state in the northern part of the country. Following the failure of Barzani’s project in taking advantage of the fight against ISIS and therefore declaring his “state”, every country in the Middle East is abandoning him because no one likes to be associated with failure.

Barzani sent envoys (I personally met some) around the globe who returned with apparently promising results: “over 80 countries promised to recognise the new State of Kurdistan”. These promises turned out to be false (“no friends but the mountains”), other (existing) political alliances turned out to be stronger and Barzani was left alone with his empty promises and unreliable advisers.

Iraq forces in the office of the departed Kirkuk Governor, October 16, 2017. The photo spread widely on social media after Iraqi national forces entered Kirkuk city.

Countries of the region – France, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates to start with – are now establishing a clear and unambiguous relationship with Baghdad’s government. Abadi, following an authorization of parliament, used a fist of iron to fragment the partition project – not only of Iraq – but of the entire region, that was supposed to be sparked off by the Kurds in Iraq and in Syria and via the regime change attempt in the Levant.

In less than 48 hours, the Iraqi army, with all its security services (army, popular mobilization units, Counter-Terrorism, Federal Police), extended its control over Kirkuk, Khanaqin (Diyala), Bashiqa, Makhmour (Nineveh) and Sinjar - the city that leads to the borders with Syria. All territories that were established for Baghdad’s control under the US administrator Paul Bremer in 2003-2004 (with the limits of Kurdistan) are back now in place.

Abadi forced the Kurdish Peshmerga to return to the old areas they controlled in 2003 after they took advantage of the “Islamic State’s” (ISIS) occupation of large Iraqi territories in the north and north-east and north-west of Iraq in 2014.

Most importantly, the Baghdad government has started its recovery of territory (following Kurdistan referendum) from the rich province of Kirkuk – which produces more than 65 percent of Iraq’s northern oil (about 500,000 bpd) - a region which accounts for about 40 percent of Iraq’s total national oil production. Kirkuk includes the oil fields of Tawke, Peshkabir, Atrush, Shaikan, TaqTaq, Khurmala Dome Avana Dome, Bab Jambur, BaiHasan: all were recovered and are now under Baghdad’s central government control.

Thus, by recovering Kirkuk (and its oil fields), Abadi stopped the rise of the “State of Kurdistan”, which cannot exist with the remaining northern oil without substantial financial support from Baghdad to pay the salaries of the army (Peshmerga) and official employees, and this as long as Erbil delivers the full production of oil: in exchange 17% of its revenue will be due to Kurdistan. Massoud Barzani will have to withdraw from the political scene because he will be unwilling to beg for the return to the archaic relationship with Baghdad government and obey the Prime Minister- this might prove just too humiliating.

Pavel Talabani, the son of the Iraqi ex-President Jalal Talabani, declared that the Kurdish army in the eastern regions of Khanaqin-Sulaymaniyah was under the command of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, thus taking his distance from Erbil, further isolating the Kurdish Leader Masoud Barzani: who is in fact the biggest loser today in Iraq.

The first to abandon Barzani was Turkey, which has announced that it will close its border (after days of hesitation awaiting the concrete results of Massoud’s separatist rejection of biding by the constitution and Baghdad’s reaction to it) with Kurdistan and handed over the main crossing point between the two countries to the central government in Baghdad and its forces. Saudi Arabia followed immediately with direct contact with King Salam, who offered his congratulations to Abadi and rejected Barzani’s rebellion.

With the collapse of the Barzani project, the United States had much less hope than before of pushing Syrian Kurds towards independence from Damascus. Baghdad has regained control of the crossings between Iraq and Syria in Sinjar – Rabi’a. Two more crossings remain outside of Baghdad’s control: Tanf under US control temporarily and al-Qaem under ISIS. This means no support, no exit and no entrance will remain legally available to the Syrian Kurds. The new situation will lock down the airspace from Syrian al-Hasaka which is surrounded by Turkey in the west, by the forces of Damascus in the south and by the regular Iraqi forces in the east.

Nope. Recent events dealt a deathblow to partition:

The Sykes-Picot agreement, which divided the Levant in the wake of World War I, was revived after analysts and diplomats called for the redrawing of the borders of the Middle East region, especially Iraq and Syria, the creation of a new state called Kurdistan (Iraq and Syria), a new Sunnistan (for Sunni in Anbar-Iraq and Idlib – Syria) and Shiistan in south of Iraq.

Turkey has begun to review its policy with Iraq and it will certainly find common ground with Baghdad so that it withdraws its troops from Bashika and other areas now that Abadi has showed his teeth against Erbil’s decision and his willingness to wage war against those who want to divide Iraq (and without considering the cost).

The attractive commercial relationship, that has been at the centre of the attention of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will prevail, and will encourage Iraq and Turkey to re-establish good neighbourly relations ( Turkish-Syrian relationships will certainly follow after the war ends in Syria).

The US will be forced today to reconsider its presence in the north-east of Syria because such a presence has now become meaningless. The US forces are stationed in al-Tanaf without any strategic purpose and in al-Hasaka/Raqqah with the Kurds, whereas ISIS has been defeated in its Syrian capital. In fact, it is possibly easier for its own proxies – the Syrian Kurds – to give up this alliance in time, before this same US drops them. Kurdish interests don’t lie with Washington but with Damascus, ready to establish a constructive dialogue with them if they stop being seduced by the US’s temporary interest in the Levant.

And lastly, Haider al-Abadi gave himself the political impetus he had missed in recent years. Yes, Iran played a key role in warning Masoud Barzani, a day before the start of the Iraqi operation to recover all territories from the Peshmerga: the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Qasem Soleimani alerted Barzani to the gravity of the situation (but in vain). He pressed the Iranian-Talabani ally to stand down and take distance from Barzani, and to support Abadi in countering Kurdistan’s “partition plans”.

But it was Abadi’s final decision to act. He rendered a huge service to Syria and to his own country. Abadi has secured himself a strong place in the Iraqi political arena and the upcoming elections as a Prime Minister for a second term. It will be very difficult to compete with him, he who destroyed ISIS but, above all, the “hero” who exploded the biggest danger of all: the partition of Iraq … and Syria.

"A Dangerous Move": Masoud Barzani Either Burned Or Paved The Way For The Syrian Kurds

Submitted by Elijah Magnier, Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media

The decision of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani to hold a referendum for Kurdistan independence will define the future of the Kurds in north-east Syria. The international community (headed by the US with numerous military bases in Syria) is directly concerned with the reactions, verbal threats, and measures announced by the countries with a Kurdish majority and bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, i.e. Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.

So far Tehran, Ankara and Baghdad have reacted harshly to the Iraqi Kurds’ unilateral wish to divide the country, but Iraq and Iran took the first measure by closing their air space to all flights from and to Erbil. Iraq asked all airlines to stop flying over the country and to cease using Erbil airport. Lebanon abided by the Iraqi central government request and halted all flights in and out of Erbil (flights scheduled daily in the normal situation). Egypt and the Emirtes followed Lebanon’s step. Turkey is increasing its threats (“the Kurds will go hungry”) but did not take any practical steps: scheduled flights from Turkey to Erbil are landing and taking off despite what Turkish officials otherwise declared, but above all, its trucks are still travelling backward and forward into the Kurdish territory.

Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani (left) and Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi (right)

Baghdad went a lot further when its Prime Minister Haidar Abadi was given full power by the government and the Parliament to take “all necessary measures”, including the use of military force, to ensure the unity of the country. This is what encouraged Haidar Abadi to give an ultimatum to Erbil to deliver the control of all airports and border crossings to the Federal Police, as stated by the constitution. This means that the central government is expected to increase sanctions against Kurdistan by this coming Friday and may use military force to impose control over all contested areas in the north, north-west and east of the country. Any such move will inevitably spark violence in the country and an immediate revelation of the International community’s real intention towards Erbil and Baghdad. The US and Europe have large business, oil, and military intelligence bases in Kurdistan and would be directly concerned.

A delegation from Kurdistan visited Baghdad a few days before the announcement of the referendum. Iraqi Sources in Baghdad who participated in the meeting reveal to me “the Kurds came with three clear intentions: 1. To show the world the Kurds are trying to find a way out before the referendum. 2. It is important to continue the dialogue and avoid any repressive measures after the referendum.” 3. And most importantly, “the delegation was trying to find out what would be the measures Baghdad may adopt as retaliation for the referendum”. The source believes “there was no attempt to postpone or renounce the call for the referendum: Barzani has decided and is confident of his step”.

So the decision has been made and Barzani was aware of the consequences: personal representatives of the Kurdish leader visited various capitals (Beirut, Tehran, Ankara, Tel Aviv, Baghdad…) to understand what would be the reaction. Kurdish representatives I met were particularly concerned about the position of Hashd al-Sha’bi (the Popular Mobilisation Units – PMU) and their possible intervention. It seems the PMU are the main source of concern because of their reputation (track record) and because they include the battalions of Nineveh (who are involved in the referendum but who reject it).

The following step Baghdad is planning is to ask Erbil to present all its accounts in all official matters and expenses related to Oil Revenue (900,000 barrels per day pumped under KRG of which 600,000 b/d exported via Turkey) and also with reference to Communication Revenue (Erbil’s established Communication Company is under investigation and international arbitration for refusing to pay the Iraqi Ministry of Communication billions of dollars due for 3 years). Baghdad will certainly send forces to all disputed areas to protect these cities and prevent Kurdish forces (Peshmerga) from imposing their control over contested cities. In this state of insecurity for Erbil, the Peshmerga will be on continuous alert on all borders with the rest of Iraq, exhausting Erbil’s already strenuous and indebted finance.

Abadi won’t attack the city of Erbil but will limit the Kurds to a confined territory and will ask the international community to fulfil its commitment to reject the independence of Kurdistan, halting all economic cooperation.

Barzani masked the deterioration of his popularity and the critical financial situation of Kurdistan (due to the corruption of its leaders) and replaced it with a controversial referendum: he managed to brush away from Baghdad the oil and all other revenues already disposed of, and brought most of the Kurds under his umbrella by tickling their dream of an independent state, boosting again his popularity. But the price seems very high.

The Syrian Kurds of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military branch, the People’s Protection Units (YPG and YPJ) will stand beside Erbil and will open their “borders” with Iraq: this in turn will violate the sovereignty of Damascus. But how this would help Erbil or “Rojava”, the “Kurdistan Syria”? Already the Syrian Kurds, in their situation, occupy an embattled position due to their accepting the position of US proxies. And they can’t open sea or air access to Erbil to boost Kurdistan’s economy, let alone compete with what the central government in Baghdad can offer.

The Syrian Kurds are waiting to see how the world will react to Iraqi Kurdistan to draw conclusions about their own next move. The US will have to think carefully what to do with Iraqi Kurdistan before taking any irrevocable step, since all decisions will have repercussions on its tenure in Syria and the occupation of north-east Bilad al-Sham.

Barzani’s only solution – if Turkey abides by its threat and the international community retreats from its previous position in favour of the central government in Baghdad – is to enjoy the referendum and its result: and do nothing at all. However if the Kurdish leader has received enough promises of protection from the international community and Turkey he, in this case, only needs to wait for few more weeks before making a final decision.

Germany: Infectious Diseases Spreading As Migrants Settle In

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• A new report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government"s central institution for monitoring and preventing diseases, confirms an across-the-board increase in disease since 2015, when Germany took in an unprecedented number of migrants.


• Some doctors say the actual number of cases of tuberculosis is far higher than the official figures suggest and have accused the RKI of downplaying the threat in an effort to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.


• "Around 700,000 to 800,000 applications for asylum were submitted and 300,000 refugees have disappeared. Have they been checked? Do they come from the high-risk countries?" - Carsten Boos, orthopedic surgeon, interview with Focus magazine.

A failed asylum seeker from Yemen who was given sanctuary at a church in northern Germany to prevent him from being deported has potentially infected more than 50 German children with a highly contagious strain of tuberculosis.

The man, who was sheltered at a church in Bünsdorf between January and May 2017, was in frequent contact with the children, some as young as three, who were attending a day care center at the facility. He was admitted to a hospital in Rendsburg in June and subsequently diagnosed with tuberculosis — a disease which only recently has reentered the German consciousness.

Local health authorities say that in addition to the children, parents and teachers as well as parishioners are also being tested for the disease, which can develop months or even years after exposure. It remains unclear if the man received the required medical exams when he first arrived in Germany, or if he is one of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have slipped through the cracks.

The tuberculosis scare has cast a renewed spotlight on the increased risk of infectious diseases in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed in around two million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

A new report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the federal government"s central institution for monitoring and preventing diseases, confirms an across-the-board increase in disease since 2015, when Germany took in an unprecedented number of migrants.

The Infectious Disease Epidemiology Annual Report — which was published on July 12, 2017 and provides data on the status of more than 50 infectious diseases in Germany during 2016 — offers the first glimpse into the public health consequences of the massive influx of migrants in late 2015.

The report shows increased incidences in Germany of adenoviral conjunctivitis, botulism, chicken pox, cholera, cryptosporidiosis, dengue fever, echinococcosis, enterohemorrhagic E. coli, giardiasis, haemophilus influenza, Hantavirus, hepatitis, hemorrhagic fever, HIV/AIDS, leprosy, louse-borne relapsing fever, malaria, measles, meningococcal disease, meningoencephalitis, mumps, paratyphoid, rubella, shigellosis, syphilis, toxoplasmosis, trichinellosis, tuberculosis, tularemia, typhus and whooping cough.

Germany has — so far at least — escaped the worst-case scenario: most of the tropical and exotic diseases brought into the country by migrants have been contained; there have no mass outbreaks among the general population. More common diseases, however, many of which are directly or indirectly linked to mass migration, are on the rise, according to the report.

The incidence of Hepatitis B, for example, has increased by 300% during the last three years, according to the RKI. The number of reported cases in Germany was 3,006 in 2016, up from 755 cases in 2014. Most of the cases are said to involve unvaccinated migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The incidence of measles in Germany jumped by more than 450% between 2014 and 2015, while the number of cases of chicken pox, meningitis, mumps, rubella and whooping cough were also up. Migrants also accounted for at least 40% of the new cases of HIV/AIDS identified in Germany since 2015, according to a separate RKI report.

The RKI statistics may be just the tip of the iceberg. The number of reported cases of tuberculosis, for example, was 5,915 in 2016, up from 4,488 cases in 2014, an increase of more than 30% during that period. Some doctors, however, believe that the actual number of cases of tuberculosis is far higher and have accused the RKI of downplaying the threat in an effort to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.

In an interview with Focus, Carsten Boos, an orthopedic surgeon, warned that German authorities have lost track of hundreds of thousands of migrants who may be infected. He added that 40% of all tuberculosis pathogens are multidrug-resistant and therefore inherently dangerous to the general population:

"When asylum seekers come from countries with a high risk for tuberculosis infections, the RKI, as the highest German body for infection protection, should not downplay the danger. Is a federal institute using political correctness to conceal the unpleasant reality?

"The media reports that in 2015, the federal police registered about 1.1 million refugees. Around 700,000 to 800,000 applications for asylum were submitted and 300,000 refugees have disappeared. Have they been checked? Do they come from the high risk countries?

"One has the impression that in the RKI the left hand does not know what the right one is doing."

Joachim Gauck, then Germany"s president, speaks to doctors in the infirmary of a reception center for migrants on August 26, 2015 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany. (Photo by Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung via Getty Images)

German newspapers have published a flurry of articles about the public health dimension of the migrant crisis. The articles often quote medical professionals with first-hand experience of treating migrants. Many admit that mass migration has increased the risk of infectious diseases in Germany. Headlines include:

"Refugees Often Bring Unknown Diseases to the Host Country"; "Refugees Bring Rare Diseases to Berlin"; Refugees in Hesse: Return of Rare Diseases"; "Refugees Often Bring Unknown Diseases to Germany"; "Experts: Refugees Bring "Forgotten" Diseases"; "Three Times More Hepatitis-B Cases in Bavaria"; "Cases of Tapeworm in Germany Increased by More than 30%"; "Infectious Disease: Refugees Bring Tuberculosis"; "Tuberculosis in Germany is on the Rise Again, Especially in the Big Cities: Caused by Migration and Poverty"; "Refugees Are Bringing Tuberculosis"; More Diseases in Germany: Tuberculosis is Back"; "Medical Practitioner Fears Tuberculosis Risk due to Refugee Wave"; "Significantly More Tuberculosis in Baden-Württemberg: Migrants often Affected"; "Expert: Refugee Policy to Blame for Measles Outbreak"; "Scabies on the Rise in North Rhine-Westphalia"; "Almost Forgotten Diseases Like Scabies Return to Bielefeld"; "Do You Come into Contact with Refugees? You Should Pay Attention"; and "Refugees: A Wide Range of Disorders."

At the height of the migrant crisis in October 2015, Michael Melter, the chief physician at the University Hospital Regensburg, reported that migrants were arriving at his hospital with illnesses that are hardly ever seen in Germany. "Some of the ailments I have not seen for 20 or 25 years," he said, "and many of my younger colleagues have actually never seen them."

Marc Schreiner, director of international relations for the German Hospital Federation (Deutschen Krankenhausgesellschaft), echoed Melter"s concerns:

"In the clinics, it is becoming increasingly common to see patients with diseases that were considered to have been eradicated in Germany, such as scabies. These diseases must reliably be diagnosed, which is a challenge."

Christoph Lange, a tuberculosis expert at the Research Center Borstel, said that German doctors were unfamiliar with many of the diseases imported by migrants: "It would be useful if tropical diseases and other diseases that are rare in our lives played a bigger role in the training of physicians."

The German Society for Gastroenterology, Digestive and Metabolic Diseases recently held a five-day symposium in Hamburg to help medical practitioners diagnose diseases which are rarely seen in Germany. Those include:

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  Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF): During the past two years, at least 48 people in Germany were diagnosed with LBRF, a disease that was unheard of in the country before the migration crisis in 2015, according to the RKI report. The disease, which is transmitted by clothing lice, has been prevalent among migrants from East Africa who have been travelling for months to reach Germany on a single set of clothes. "We had all forgotten about LBRF," said Hans Jäger, a Munich-based doctor. "It has a mortality rate of up to 40% if it is not recognized and not treated with antibiotics. The symptoms are like in malaria: fever, headache, skin rash."

  
  


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  Lassa fever: In February 2016, a patient who had been infected in Togo, West Africa, was treated and died in Germany. After his death, a Lassa virus infection was confirmed in another person who had professional contact with the corpse of the deceased. The person was treated at an isolation facility and survived the disease. This was the first documented transmission of the Lassa virus in Germany.

  
  


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  Dengue fever: Nearly a thousand people were diagnosed with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease, in Germany during 2016. This is up 25% from 2014, when 755 people were diagnosed with the disease.

  
  


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  Malaria: The number of people diagnosed with malaria jumped sharply in 2014 (1,007) and 2015 (1,063), but declined slightly in 2016 (970). Most of those affected contracted the disease in Africa, particularly from Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo.

  
  


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  Echinococcosis: Between 2014 and 2016, more than 200 people in Germany have been diagnosed with echinococcosis, a tapeworm infection. This represents in an increase of around 30%. Those affected contracted the disease in Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Iraq, Macedonia, Morocco, Syria and Turkey.

  
  


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  Diphtheria: Between 2014 and 2016, more than 30 people in Germany have been diagnosed with diphtheria. Those affected contracted the disease in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

  
  


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  Scabies: Between 2013 and 2016, the number of people diagnosed with scabies in North Rhine-Westphalia jumped by nearly 3,000%.

  
  

Meanwhile, Germany currently is in the throes of a measles outbreak that health authorities have linked to immigration from Romania. Around 700 people in Germany have been diagnosed with measles during the first six months of 2017, compared with 323 cases in all of 2016, according to the Robert Koch Institute. The measles outbreak has spread to all of Germany"s 16 federal states except one, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a state with a very low migrant population.

The epicenter of the measles crisis is in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany"s most populous state and also the state with the highest number of migrants. Nearly 500 people have been diagnosed with measles in NRW during the first six months of 2017; most of the cases have been reported in Duisburg and Essen, where a 37-year-old mother of three children died from the disease in May. Outbreaks of measles have also been reported in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Frankfurt, where a nine-month-old baby was diagnosed with the disease.

On June 1, 2017, the German Parliament approved a controversial new law that requires kindergartens to inform German authorities if parents fail to provide evidence that they have consulted a doctor about vaccinating their children. Parents who refuse to comply face a fine of €2,500 ($2,850). "We cannot be indifferent to the fact that people are still dying of measles," said German Health Minister Hermann Gröhe. "That"s why we are tightening up regulations on vaccination."

Some say the new law does not go far enough; they are calling for vaccinations to be made compulsory for everyone in Germany. Others say the law goes too far and infringes on privacy protections guaranteed by the German constitution; they add that parents, not the government, should decide what is best for their children. The fallout from Chancellor Merkel"s open-door migration policy continues.

Brazilian President Temer Officially Charged With Corruption

Just over a month after O Globo newspaper first brought the world"s attention to the fact that Brazil"s President Michel Temer was "allegedly" involved in "hush money" payments, then vehemently denied by him; and just a week after the police confirmed it had evidence that Temer received bribes, O Globo, reports citing court documents, that President Michel Temer was formally charged with corruption by Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot.

As we noted last week, almost exactly one month after Brazil"s stock market crashed, and the Real plunged after the country"s never-ending political drama made a triumphal return following accusations that president Michel Temer had encouraged a "hush money" bribe to former House Speaker Eduardo Cunha in return for not getting dragged into the Carwash scandal, Brazil’s federal police force said it has found evidence that the embattled president received bribes to help businesses, Brazil"s O Globo reported.

Then earlier today, Brazil’s federal police confirmed it had found evidence that President Michel Temer allegedly committed three crimes, according to local media reports. As Bloomberg reports,

Federal police sent full report to the Supreme Court regarding allegations gathered through plea bargains from executives at meat-packer JBS.

In the report, police found evidence of corruption, obstruction of justice and failure to report a crime.

Police also said there was no evidence of tampering with the audio of the meeting of Temer and the then-head of JBS, Joesley Batista, secretly recorded by the latter.

While Temer has repeatedly denied the accusation, Bloomberg reports that the accusations are based on JBS"s Joesley Batista"s plea bargain.

Brazil’s Temer was officially charged with corruption by the chief prosecutor on Monday evening, in a highly-anticipated development that may put the embattled president of Latin America’s largest economy on trial.

Rodrigo Janot charged Temer in a case in which the president was accused of corruption and obstruction of justice, according to documents filed at the Supreme Court. The charges need to be approved by two-thirds of Brazil’s chamber of deputies to proceed. It is not yet clear how long that process will take. The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

As a reminder, trying a President in Brazil is not an easy feat:

Step One - Supreme Court

The prosecutor’s case is delivered to the Supreme Court which notifies the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia.

Step Two - House Speaker
Maia must formally notify Temer of the charges against him. From that moment on, the president’s lawyers have ten lower house sessions to present their defense. At the same time, Maia sends the paperwork to the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee, which must then appoint a sponsor for the case.

Step Three - Constitution and Justice Committee, or CCJ
After Temer presents his defense, the committee has five sessions to discuss the charges. The sponsor then presents a final report with his recommendation on the case that the whole 66-member committee must vote on.

Step Four - Plenary
Regardless of the outcome of the committee hearing, the report goes to a vote in a plenary session of the lower house. The report can be read the very next day after the hearing or on a date of the speaker’s choosing.
At least two-thirds of lawmakers, or 342 legislators, need to agree for a trial to go ahead at the Supreme Court.
Each lawmaker must cast his or her vote aloud via microphone.

Step Five - Supreme Court
If approved by the lower house, a trial will take place at the Supreme Court. Temer would be obliged to stand down as president for 180 days while the court case goes ahead. If the trial lasts for longer than that, Temer would return to office while the case continues.
If convicted, Temer would be stripped of office and his political rights. He may also be imprisoned.
The house speaker would become president for 30 days before Congress votes for a new head of state via an indirect election.

Contacted by Bloomberg, Presidential Palace wasn’t immediately available to comment.

For now, no markets are open to see if this is affecting anything for now, we will be monitoring the IBOVESPA funds in Japan once they open for any reaction.

"Brazil Now Facing A Major Crisis": Police Says It Has Evidence President Temer Received Bribes

Update: and right on time, the Brazilian house speaker confirmed that the worst case scenario - for Temer - is on the table:

• BRAZIL NOW FACING MAJOR CRISIS: HOUSE SPEAKER MAIA


• BRAZIL JUDGE REJECTS TEMER CRIMINAL COMPLAINT VS JBS’S BATISTA

* * *

Almost exactly one month after Brazil"s stock market crashed, and the Real plunged after the country"s never-ending political drama made a triumphal return following accusations that president Michel Temer had encouraged a "hush money" bribe to former House Speaker Eduardo Cunha in return for not getting dragged into the Carwash scandal, on Tuesday afternoon, Brazil’s federal police force said it has found evidence that the embattled president received bribes to help businesses, Brazil"s O Globo reported.

Investigators said in a preliminary report published Tuesday by Brazil’s top court that Temer deserves to be investigated for passive corruption, a process that would likely culminate with his impeachment. Temer has denied any wrongdoing and has already pledged not to resign.

The news comes hours after a defiant Senate committee voted down a key anchor of Temer"s proposed reform platform, the landmark labor reform bill, whose passage in the lower house in April prompted widespread protests by labor unions who are against the proposed legislation which would abolish mandatory payment of union dues by Brazilian workers. The vote was seen as a blow to the government, amid other political noise embroiling President Temer.

Even before today"s police announcement, Brazil"s Attorney General Rodrigo Janot said last month there were enough preliminary indications of wrongdoing for Temer to be investigated for corruption and obstruction of justice. And if Brazil’s top prosecutor agrees with the federal police recommendation, Congress will decide whether Temer should be investigated by the country’s Supreme Court. The court is the only body that can formally investigate the president.

If two-thirds of Congress votes to allow the investigation, Temer would be suspended from office pending trial, suffering the same fate as his predecessor Dilma Rouseff whose vice-president Temer was originally, and eventually managed to overthrow with an elaborate plot "exposing" her corrupt activities. Karma, it turns out, is a bitch in all jurisdications, including Latin America.

Who Will Really Pay? Mexico Plans Retaliation Over Trump's Border Wall But Ted Cruz Has A Cunning Plan

As President Trump appears to fold on his funding request for a border wall, though tweet-xclaiming "it will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking etc.," a top Mexican official on Tuesday said that Mexico may consider charging a fee for Americans entering the country in what could be seen as a retaliation to President Trump"s posturing.

Trump has asked congress to include a down payment on the wall in the spending bill but because of scrutiny from both sides, the President announced Monday that he’d be willing to wait until September to revisit the issue of funding; however, his stance on Mexico’s role in paying for the wall hasn’t changed. And as Fox News reports, Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, in a meeting with Mexico"s top legislators, called Trump"s plan an "unfriendly, hostile" act, and called on his colleagues to consider the entry fee.

"We could explore - not necessarily a visa, that could impede a lot of people from coming to Mexico - but we could perhaps (have) a fee associated with entry,” Videgaray said. “This is something that I"m sure will be part of our discussion, and I believe we can find points of agreement."

Videgaray went on to say that Mexico would not pay a cent towards the wall. He said if talks between the U.S. and Mexico fail to satisfy both countries, the Mexican government would consider reducing security cooperation. 

"If the negotiation on other themes — immigration, the border, trade — isn"t satisfactory to Mexico"s interests, we will have to review our existing cooperation," Videgaray said. "This would be especially in the security areas ... and that involves the national immigration agency, the federal police and of course, the armed forces."

So, trade deficits, tax plans, and budget decisions aside, who will really pay for the wall? American tourists via a transfer tax on entry to Mexico? Well Ted Cruz has an even more cunning plan. As RT reports, President Donald Trump’s much vaunted Mexican border wall could be built using the fortune of a notorious drug kingpin, according to Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who has proposed the ‘El Chapo Act’.

Cruz, a one time political rival to Trump, has backed the president’s desire to build a 1,000 mile-long (1600km) barrier between the US and Mexico.

Cruz has now gone a step further by proposing the so-called ‘El Chapo Act’, or the Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order, which would use any of the $14 billion being sought by the US government in a case against Mexican drug boss Joaquín Guzmán, to construct the barrier.

The US indictment alleges the 59-year-old, who was previously given a 20-year sentence in his homeland for murder and drug offences, led the violent Sinaloa Cartel and amassed “$14 billion from narcotics sales throughout the United States and Canada.”

“Fourteen billion dollars will go a long way toward building a wall that will keep Americans safe and hinder the illegal flow of drugs, weapons, and individuals across our southern border,” Cruz said in a statement.

“Ensuring the safety and security of Texans is one of my top priorities. We must also be mindful of the impact on the federal budget. By leveraging any criminally forfeited assets of El Chapo and his ilk, we can offset the wall’s cost and make meaningful progress toward achieving President Trump’s stated border security objectives.”

Now that is a border wall funding plan we suspect many could get behind.

Germans Concerned After 270,000 Syrian Refugees Granted Permission To Bring Family Members

With worries about mass migration having largely faded from Germany"s consciousness after a record surge in 2015, and an angry popular reaction, prompted Angela Merkel to curb the inflow of refugees, there is renewed concern in Germany following a report that up to 270,000 Syrians in Germany have the right to bring in their family members, a "revelation" that could refuel the debate about migration less than six months before a national election. Germany"s Bild cited a government paper showing that a total of 431,376 Syrians applied for asylum in Germany in 2015 and 2016 and said that of those 267,500 are allowed to bring their families to Germany.

As Reuters observes, Germany blessing such a material migration could play into the hands of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has lost support in recent months as the refugee issue has receded from the headlines ahead of a Sept. 24 election.  Sure enough, senior AfD member Alexander Gauland condemned the figures, saying it was "absolute madness" to allow so many people to bring their families to Germany: "Billions and billions of tax money are being swallowed and the social state is being steered toward breakdown while our eyes are wide open."

In 2016 Germany suspended family re-unifications for two years for migrants who get "subsidiary protection" - granted to people who are not considered as being persecuted individually but in whose home country there is war, torture or other inhumane treatment.

According to Reuters, Syrians are the biggest group of asylum applicants in Germany. They are increasingly being granted subsidiary protection rather than refugee status and that means they are only granted the right of residence for a year, although this can be extended. But Chancellor Angela Merkel"s Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party - the Christian Social Union (CSU) - and the Social Democrats (SPD), their junior coalition partner, decided last week to make exceptions for people with subsidiary protection status in hardship cases.

More than a million migrants flocked to Germany in 2015 and 2016 but arrivals have dropped significantly.

The AfD, which has made immigration one of its key rallying points, is currently on between 7 and 11 percent in opinion polls, above the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament. CSU leader Horst Seehofer told German magazine Stern tackling the AfD was a main aim.

"If we govern the country sensibly and don"t attack each other personally in the election campaign, we can push the AfD under 5 percent," Seehofer said. However, while his party is behind Merkel in the election campaign he said it was sticking to its demand for a cap on the number of migrants coming here - a proposal which the chancellor has rejected.

In 2016, some 280,000 migrants arrived in Germany, a sharp drop compared with 890,000 the previous year. Bild said while there were no numbers for 2017 yet, the federal police had already caught more than 20,000 illegal migrants on the borders in the first three months of this year.

Disturbing Video Shows a Cop Kneel on Handcuffed Man, As Another Cop Kicks Him in the Face

Disturbing Video Shows a Cop Kneel on Handcuffed Man, As Another Cop Kicks Him in the Face

Pomona, CA — An abusive officer was publicly exposed this week after a vigilant citizen recorded him kicking a handcuffed man in the face. The man was no threat, on his stomach, and completely subdued when this federal officer decided to waylay his foot across the man’s face.

The man who filmed this deprivation of rights, Alex Garcia, gave the video to CBS2 in Los Angeles. The video shows a cut and dry case of police brutality.

“One of the officers started handcuffing him. The other one was on top of him and socked him on the back,” Garcia said.

According to CBS 2, these officers were not local Pomona cops. They were actually federal officers who report to the Department of Homeland Security. Federal officers protect buildings like Social Security offices, which happens to be the place in front of which this arrest took place.

Garcia told CBS 2 that he pulled out his phone and began recording because he felt like the officers were using excessive force during the arrest — prior to one of them kicking the subdued man in the face.

“They were chasing him or whatever ,” said Garcia, “he starts to back off. He starts backing away, they pull out their Tasers, he said don’t shoot, don’t shoot. So they shoot him, they Tase him and he falls to the floor.”

After tasing the man, for apparently no reason according to Garcia, the officers were able to quickly place cuffs on the unidentified man before assaulting him further.

“Walked up to his face and just kicked him, like, in the face. The guy was already in handcuffs on the floor. There was no need. He wasn’t struggling, he wasn’t resisting arrest. He’s Tased on the floor in handcuffs,” Garcia said.

This is the second such instance just this month of cops caught on video either kicking or stomping handcuffed suspects when the suscpects pose no threat.

Concerns over excessive force only intensified earlier this month after Hartford, Connecticut, police released dash camera footage of a controversial arrest — showing an officer in street clothes walk up to a handcuffed suspect sitting on the curb, and kick his head into the ground — for no apparent reason.

“That there is obviously of serious concern to the police department and now to the state’s attorney’s office,” Hartford Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley asserted, according to WFSB.

Ricardo Perez’ mugshot — eyes bruised and one swollen shut, a large bandage on his forehead, and his right jaw alarmingly distended — was sufficiently disturbing to spark an immediate internal investigation, even before the department viewed the video.

As long as these videos continue to catch cops acting so brutal and reckless, the divide between police and the policed will continue to grow.

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit