3 Stories You Should Read 10/14/2019: Atatiana Jefferson, Whistleblower, ISIS

October 14, 2019 Confluence

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.

In the category of: The work of a Sociopath

The war against ISIS was all a waste

In less than a week, all that was achieved, and sacrificed, all the lives and treasure expended, has come undone.

Turkish forces, alongside their Syrian allies, are pummeling the SDF, and now the Syrian Army is entering the fray after the SDF cut a deal with Damascus. The US says it will undertake a “deliberate withdrawal from northeast Syria” because, in the words of US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, American forces are “likely caught between two opposing, advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation.”

So the US is cutting and running, abandoning those who fought side-by-side with them to defeat ISIS once and for all — or so we thought. Since last December President Trump has been in an awful hurry to pull US forces out of Syria, seemingly indifferent to the consequences.

Continue

In the category of: Safety first

Adam Schiff Says Whistleblower May Not Testify, Safety ‘Primary Interest’

President Trump has ramped up his attacks on the whistleblower, demanding to know their identity while railing against the impeachment inquiry as a “coup.”

“I think initially, before the president started threatening the whistleblower, threatening others calling them traitors and spies and suggestion that you know, we used to give them the death penalty to traitors and spies, maybe we should think about that again… Yes we were interested in having the whistleblower come forward,” Schiff said Sunday. “Our primary interest right now is making sure that that person is protected.”

In the complaint, which was filed after Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky, the whistleblower said they became concerned after hearing from multiple White House aides that Trump repeatedly pressured his counterpart to investigate a main political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden. The call took place shortly after the president ordered nearly $400 million in military aid that had been appropriated for Ukraine be put on hold.

The White House released a reconstruction of the call last month which showed clear instance of Trump asking for the investigation, and critics have said the demand reflected a clear quid pro quo in exchange for a political favor.

Continue

In the category of: Say her name

#AtatianaJefferson: A List of Questions That Need Answers From Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Krause

The Fort Worth Police Department and its police chief, Ed Krause, have a lot of explaining to do as it pertains to the senseless killing of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her mother’s home early Saturday morning.

A neighbor, James Smith, said he called a police non-emergency number when he noticed that the front door was open and all the lights were on inside the house. He wanted someone to go check and make sure everything was OK with his neighbor.