POLITICO Playbook: What’s on Pompeo’s mind

SUNDAY SHOW PREP … SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO, who will seem on all the main Sunday exhibits this week, was on “HANNITY” final night time, and this provides a superb perception into his mindset in the meanwhile: “I spent the final day and a half, two days, speaking to companions within the region, sharing with them what we have been doing, why we have been doing it, in search of their help, they’ve all been implausible. And then speaking to our partners in other places that haven’t been quite nearly as good. Frankly, the Europeans haven’t been as helpful as I wish that they might be.

“THE BRITS, THE FRENCH, THE GERMANS all have to perceive that what we did -- what the People did -- saved lives in Europe as properly. Qassem Soleimani … and his IRGC led assassination campaigns in Europe. This was an excellent factor for the complete world and we are urging everybody on the earth to get behind what america is making an attempt to do: To get the Islamic Republic of Iran to easily behave like a traditional nation.”

STATE DEPT. READ OUT of a name between POMPEO and SERGI LAVROV Friday: “Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo spoke at the moment with Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov. Secretary Pompeo discussed President Trump’s current choice to take decisive defensive motion to guard U.S. personnel overseas by killing Qassem Soleimani in response to imminent threats to American lives. The Secretary made clear that the USA stays committed to de-escalation.”

-- RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY readout of the same name: “Sergey Lavrov confused that targeted actions by a UN member state to remove officers of one other UN member state, and on the territory of a third sovereign nation with out its information grossly violate the rules of worldwide regulation and deserve condemnation.

“The Russian Minister identified that this act by the United States is fraught with grave penalties for the regional peace and stability, doesn't facilitate efforts to seek out options to the difficult points which have constructed up in the Middle East however, on the contrary, results in a brand new round of escalation. Moscow urges Washington to give up unlawful army actions to realize its objectives on the worldwide area and to settle all issues at the negotiating desk.”

QUITE THE THREAD … RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, who covers ISIS for the NYT: “1. I’ve had a chance to examine in with sources, together with two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani. Here is what I’ve discovered. In line with them, the proof suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is ‘razor skinny’.

“2. The truth is the proof pointing to that got here as three discrete information: a) A sample of travel displaying Suleimani was in Syria, Lebanon & Iraq to satisfy with Shia proxies recognized to have an offensive position to the US. (As one source stated that’s just ‘business as ordinary’ for Suleimani)” The full thread, from this morning

HMMM … LAT: “Pence falsely links Iranian general to 9/11 attacks”

THE TICK TOCKS …

-- WAPO, by Missy Ryan, Josh Dawsey, Dan Lamothe and John Hudson: “Why Trump chose this second to explore an operation towards the chief of Iran’s Quds Pressure, after tolerating Iranian aggression within the Persian Gulf for months, was a matter of debate inside his own administration. Officials gave differing and incomplete accounts of the intelligence they stated prompted Trump to behave. Some stated they have been surprised by his choice, which might lead to warfare with considered one of America’s oldest adversaries within the Center East. …

“At his resort in Florida, the president was advised the Iranian leader was going to be coming to Baghdad; senior officials felt he was taunting the USA by displaying up in the Iraqi capital, implying he might transfer round with impunity.

“Calls between the nationwide safety principals have been convened by the vice chairman all through the week after initial discussions on Sunday to kill Soleimani, a senior administration official stated.

“Officers reminded Trump that after the Iranians mined ships, downed the U.S. drone and allegedly attacked a Saudi oil facility, he hadn’t responded. Appearing now, they stated, would send a message: ‘The argument is, in case you don’t ever respond to them, they assume they will get by with something,’ one White House official stated.

“Trump was also motivated to behave by what he felt was adverse protection after his 2019 choice to name off the airstrike after Iran downed the U.S. surveillance drone, officers stated. Trump was also annoyed that the small print of his inner deliberations had leaked out and felt he appeared weak, the officers stated. The USA tracked Soleimani’s actions for several days, preserving Trump apprised, and determined that their greatest opportunity to kill him can be close to the Baghdad airport, the senior administration official stated.”

-- LAT, by David Cloud: “When President Trump’s nationwide security workforce came to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, they weren’t expecting him to approve an operation to kill Gen. Qassem Suleimani.

“Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, had gone to Palm Seashore to temporary Trump on airstrikes the Pentagon had just carried out in Iraq and Syria towards Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia teams.

“One briefing slide shown to Trump listed several follow-up steps the U.S. might take, amongst them concentrating on Suleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Drive, in line with a senior U.S. official conversant in the discussions who was not approved to speak concerning the assembly on the report.

“Unexpectedly, Trump selected that choice, the official stated, including that the president’s choice was spurred on in half by Iran hawks among his advisors. … [B]ehind the scenes, Trump’s determination set off a furious effort by the Pentagon, CIA and others to locate the Iranian common and put in place army belongings to kill him.

“U.S. intelligence businesses, which had been monitoring Suleimani for years, knew he was on an extended Middle East journey that had taken him to Lebanon and Syria. He can be flying from Damascus to Baghdad within days, they discovered.

“He seemed unusually unconcerned about overlaying his tracks, officers noted. He was touring from Syria to Baghdad on a flight that was not secret, Iranian officers stated Friday, ostensibly for meetings with Iraqi officials.”

-- POLITICO, by Daniel Lippman, Wesley Morgan, Meridith McGraw and Nahal Toosi: “For a person U.S. officials have portrayed as a terrorist mastermind, an evil genius answerable for the deaths of lots of of People, Soleimani typically flaunted his affect as he jetted between Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut for meetings with local potentates.

“‘I don’t assume it was so onerous [to find him] as a result of he was not under the radar within the final two or three years,’ stated a former senior Israeli government official, who noted that Soleimani had previously moved round beneath strict operational secrecy. ‘However the last two or three years, he labored in the open.’”

IN BAGHDAD … WAPO: “At Baghdad funeral procession for Qasem Soleimani, calls for retaliation against the United States”

… THE POLITICS: DAVID SIDERS: “Trump’s Iran strike reverberates across Democratic primary”

DES MOINES REGISTER entrance web page: “Major Mideast Escalation” … CHARLOTTE OBSERVER: “Thousands of Fort Bragg Soldiers head to Middle East”

WSJ: “Oil Firms Tighten Security After U.S. Strike on Iranian Commander,” by Benoit Faucon, Summer time Stated and Sarah McFarlane: “Oil corporations in the Middle East are tightening safety as U.S. officials say American power infrastructure in the area is a possible target for Iranian retaliation following the killing by the U.S. of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani.

“A name by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for all U.S. residents to go away Iraq is predicted to affect staffing at Exxon Mobil Corp., which operates amenities in the country’s risky southern region. The corporate should have the ability to keep manufacturing with local staff, analysts stated.

Exxon Mobil is intently monitoring the state of affairs and has packages and measures in place to offer security to protect its individuals, a spokeswoman stated.

“The corporate produces around 400,000 barrels of oil a day on the West Qurna 1 subject in Iraq. Amid rising tensions in the country, talks between Iraq and Exxon Mobil to build a roughly $50 billion oil operation have been stalled for months, according to individuals acquainted with the matter.

“BP PLC declined to comment on safety or staffing. The company is a companion in the improvement of Rumaila, the world’s third-largest producing area, in southern Iraq. Chevron Corp., which operates in Iraqi Kurdistan, an space thus far unaffected by the unrest, stated the security of its individuals and amenities is a precedence.”

Good Saturday morning.

IF YOU’RE KEEPING TRACK AT HOME: TENNESSEE GOP REP. PHIL ROE announced he wouldn't search re-election. He’s the 26th Home Republican to pack it on this cycle. Republican officials will inform you that this is not regarding, because Roe’s seat will go to another Republican. But when more than two dozen Republicans retire, that’s very notable.

KYLE CHENEY: “Indicted Giuliani associate close to sharing proof with Intel Committee”: “The House Intelligence Committee is on the verge of acquiring a trove of latest proof in its impeachment investigation, following a federal decide’s order permitting an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani to start sharing supplies with lawmakers.

“J. Paul Oetken, a federal decide in the Southern District of New York, on Friday approved Giuliani affiliate Lev Parnas to begin offering materials held by prosecutors, together with the contents of an iPhone taken during his Oct. 9 arrest.” POLITICO

ICYMI … BURGESS EVERETT: “Impeachment trial in limbo as Senate leaders trade blows”

DEPT. OF SECRECY … NYT: “White House Withholds 20 Emails Between Two Trump Aides on Ukraine Aid,” by Charlie Savage and Eric Lipton: “The Trump administration disclosed on Friday that there were 20 emails between a prime aide to President Trump’s appearing chief of employees and a colleague at the White Home’s Workplace of Administration and Price range discussing the freeze of a congressionally mandated army assist package deal for Ukraine.

“But in response to a courtroom order that it swiftly process these pages in response to a Freedom of Info Act, or FOIA, lawsuit filed by The New York Occasions, the Workplace of Management and Finances delivered a terse letter saying it might not flip over any of the 40 pages of emails — not even with redactions.

“‘All 20 documents are being withheld in full,’ wrote Dionne Hardy, the workplace’s Freedom of Info Act officer. The Occasions’s info act request sought e-mail messages between Robert Blair, a prime aide to Mr. Trump’s appearing chief of employees, Mick Mulvaney, and Michael Duffey, an official in the White House’s Workplace of Administration and Price range who was in cost of dealing with the process for releasing $391 million in weapons and security help Congress had appropriated to assist Ukraine resist Russian aggression. …

“David McCraw, a lawyer for The Occasions, stated the newspaper would problem the blanket withholding of the documents and would ask the decide overseeing the lawsuit, Decide Amy Berman Jackson, to approve an expedited schedule for briefs and arguments given the urgent public interest in studying extra concerning the dispute.”

TRUMP INC.: “Potential buyer emerges for Trump’s D.C. lodge lease,” by WaPo’s Jonathan O’Connell: “D.C. actual estate investor and developer Brian Friedman says he will bid to acquire the lease to President Trump’s 263-room luxurious lodge in downtown Washington, a challenge that has generated moral controversies for the president since he entered office.

“Friedman stated he want to companion with Hilton to turn the Trump Worldwide Lodge into a Waldorf Astoria, or with Rosewood, a Hong Kong-based chain that has 9 resorts in the United States, together with one in Georgetown. …

“Friedman’s company, Friedman Capital, owns two D.C. lodges: the Line Lodge, in Adams Morgan, and Kimpton Glover Park. Spokespeople for Hilton and Rosewood declined to remark. Officials at JLL, the corporate handling the sale for Trump, didn't respond to a request for remark.” WaPo

WAPO’S DEVLIN BARRETT, JONATHAN O’CONNELL and BETH REINHARD: “FBI raids residence, workplace of lobbyist Michael Esposito”: “FBI brokers investigating a lobbyist who has claimed to have shut ties to President Trump and his family searched the person’s Northern Virginia house and D.C. workplace early Thursday on the lookout for evidence of potential fraud, in accordance with individuals accustomed to the matter.” WaPo

2020 WATCH …

-- NYT’S REID EPSTEIN in North Conway, N.H.: “D.N.C. Tells Pollsters to Do More Polls”

-- NATASHA KORECKI in Dubuque, Iowa: “How Biden stopped his Iowa tailspin”

-- ALEX THOMPSON in Concord, N.H.: “Warren ends wine cave offensive”: “Wine caves are out. Common youngster care, scholar loan debt, and political corruption are in. After Elizabeth Warren’s bumpy experience as a front-runner this previous fall — her fundraising has slipped and she’s stalled in national and state polls — the Massachusetts senator is completed with the assaults towards former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and reverting to the strategy that helped power her initial rise in the polls.”

TRUMP’S SATURDAY: The president is in Palm Seashore with no public occasions scheduled.

CLICKER – “Wuerker Cartoons Yr in Assessment”: “We look again on a yr filled with political drama, brouhahas, kerfuffles and malarkey with the perfect of Matt Wuerker’s 2019 cartoons.” 23 funnies

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):

-- “Contained in the U.S. army’s raid towards its own safety guards that left dozens of Afghan youngsters lifeless,” by USA As we speak’s Brett Murphy in Azizabad, Afghanistan: “In Aug. 2008, the U.S. army referred to as in an airstrike on its own security guards in Afghanistan. Dozens of youngsters have been killed.” USA Today

-- “The Sidney Awards: My favorite long-form essays of 2019,” by NYT’s David Brooks: “Once I learn these essays at the finish of the yr, I feel like I’ve been given presents and a deeper appreciation of the truth around us. Once I spend the remaining of the yr following impeachment on Twitter, not a lot.” NYT ... Tevi Troy’s top 2019 books in NR

-- “Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of ache,” by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee in NatGeo’s Jan. problem: “With the opioid crisis, the search to know the biology of ache and explore new ways to deal with it has taken on recent urgency.” NatGeo

-- “A Faculty Massacre and Poisonous Heroism,” by Joel Christensen in Sententiae Antiquae: “Achilles prays for his individuals to die in the first e-book of the Iliad; Odysseus slaughters 108 suitors upon his return residence. Herakles murders his own wife and youngsters and, among his labours, commits many horrors absent any type of advantage. The capacity to trigger struggling is central to the id of Greek heroes.” Sententiae Antiquae (h/t TheBrowser.com)

-- “‘No blondes allowed’: 50 years after a junior excessive experiment, college students say it had ‘a huge impact,’” by WaPo’s Diane Bernard: “After getting into by means of the aspect entrance, she saw an enormous ‘No Blondes Allowed,’ banner strung across the staircase leading to her residence room. Hall screens jeered at her, directing her to the blonds-only stairwell. In school, her academics didn’t name on her. At lunch, she was pressured to take a seat at a separate desk from her brunette pals, segregated based mostly on the shade of her hair.” WaPo

-- “The decade has ended, however it can never be over,” by WaPo’s Dan Zak: “You'll be able to measure time in prison phrases or in presidential phrases. You possibly can divide it into light-years, generations, target-date retirement funds. You possibly can estimate it utilizing more summary variables: followers, elements per million, unique views, gigabytes, gunshots, the thickness of sea ice. A simple, lazy method to make sense of recent American history is to measure it in many years. The revolutionary ’60s, the paranoid ’70s, the artificial ’80s, the alternative ’90s, the high-speed aughts.” WaPo

-- “Lost in Summerland,” by Barrett Swanson in Atavist – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “A brother is comatosed for every week after a mugging, is feared lifeless, recovers consciousness, returns to a workaday life in the tech business — and claims to have acquired psychic powers, including an ability to converse with the lifeless.” Atavist

-- “I requested my college students to turn of their cell telephones and write about dwelling with out them,” by Ron Srigley in the Jan./Feb. situation of Know-how Evaluate: “Without their telephones, most of my students initially felt misplaced, disoriented, annoyed, and even frightened. ... But after just two weeks, the bulk started to assume that their cell telephones have been in reality limiting their relationships with other individuals, compromising their very own lives, and one way or the other chopping them off from the ‘real’ world.” Technology Review

-- “How The 2010s Killed The Movie star Gossip Machine,” by BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen – per ALDaily.com’s description: “Because of social media, celebrities now out-paparazzi the paparazzi. But self-surveillance comes at a steep value.” BuzzFeed

-- “Can monoculture survive the algorithm?” by Kyle Chayka in Vox – per ALDaily.com’s description: “From Spotify to Netflix, we eat culture that has been algorithmically shaped to our taste. But artwork is most potent when sudden.” Vox

-- “There’s No Feta in Crete,” by Saveur’s Katherine Whittaker: “Welcome to the land of misplaced cheeses, the place a band of shepherds and farmers resist industrialization.” Saveur

MEDIAWATCH -- Shira Ovide is joining the NYT to write down its tech publication. She at present is a tech columnist at Bloomberg Opinion.

-- Deanna Paul might be a courts reporter for the WSJ. She presently is a national and breaking news reporter for WaPo. Talking Biz News

-- DANIEL LIPPMAN and TINA NGUYEN: “The Hill’s proprietor seeks potential consumers, buyers”: “Jimmy Finkelstein, proprietor of The Hill, is buying his publication, whose op-eds alleging numerous conspiracy theories about Ukraine have been at the middle of Donald Trump’s impeachment scandal, to varied media house owners, either as buyers or potential consumers, in line with six individuals acquainted with the matter.

“The asking worth for The Hill, which was co-founded by Finkelstein’s father over 25 years in the past, is $100 million, in response to two of the individuals. Finkelstein informed another individual that he ideally needs rather more — as much as $300 million. … Finkelstein, in an interview, referred to as the premise of the story ‘not true’ but wouldn't elaborate.” POLITICO

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

TRANSITIONS -- Abbey Dennis will probably be assistant director of communications/advertising and supervisor of external affairs for the Tennessee Division of Commerce & Insurance. She at present is deputy press secretary at FEMA. … Morgan DeWitt is now an affiliate at Ballard Partners. She was beforehand deputy White House liaison at HHS.

ENGAGED -- Rina Wulfing, legislative director for Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), and Tim Wilt, a Dennis Ross alum, received engaged on Friday at Crystal Mountain in Washington. The couple met at a D.C. Entire Meals. Pic

BIRTHDAYS: Doris Kearns Goodwin is 77 … Ben Mayer, government..

Src: POLITICO Playbook: What’s on Pompeo’s mind
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