Qatar? Today's News for June 5th

In accordance with my policy to not cover terrorist incidents, there will be no mention of the incident this past weekend. If you must rubberneck, here is your link to the story.

In today's lede story:

CNN:

UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain cut off relations with fellow Gulf state Qatar

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates have broken diplomatic relations with Qatar, rattling a powerful 36-year-old Gulf states union, over what they say is the country's support of terrorism. Egypt has also cut off relations with the tiny Gulf state.

...The move comes two weeks after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt blocked several Qatari media outlets over comments allegedly made by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Hamad Al Thani. Al Thani reportedly hailed Iran as an "Islamic power" and criticized US President Donald Trump's policy towards Tehran.

The Emir's comments appeared on Qatar's official news agency, but Qatar claimed that the website was "hacked," the report fabricated by the culprits.

..."There are two competing theories," Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations says about the origin of the spat.

"One is that Saudi Arabia felt emboldened after Donald Trump's visit, and Trump's administration has had a strong stance on Iran, which is backed by Qatar.

"Another theory is that this is a product of month's tension, all brought to a breaking point after the Qatar news agency hacking story."

Note the framing of the Trump visit as a possible cause of this. Then look at how Fox News covered it:

Fox News:

Tillerson urges calm after 4 Arab nations sever diplomatic ties with Qatar

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the Gulf nations to work out their differences after four countries severed ties with Qatar Monday for allegedly embracing several terrorist groups and its ties with Iran.

Tillerson, speaking alongside Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Sydney, said he did not believe the diplomatic crisis would affect the war against the Islamic State.

"I think what we're witnessing is a growing list of disbelief in the countries for some time, and they've bubbled up to take action in order to have those differences addressed," Tillerson said. "We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences."

 Then we get an interesting quote at the end of the article:

At that Saudi conference, Trump met with Qatar's ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

"We are friends, we've been friends now for a long time, haven't we?" Trump asked at the meeting. "Our relationship is extremely good."

This quote is not in the CNN article at all.

So what is the TRUTH here?

Considering it has been two weeks since Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Hamad Al Thani made his comments about Iran, assuming he made them at all (based on their excuse of having had their website "hacked"), it is curious that Trump made his visit to the Middle East during that two weeks. Then again, why would Trump have said what he said about Qatar being America's friend during his trip?

One thing is clear: Somebody is throwing their diplomatic weight around. Four nations don't just decide to target one small nation for a diplomatic faux pas after two weeks. Words have been exchanged somewhere. Whether it is the United States or Saudi Arabia communicating the anti-Qatar message remains to be seen.

In other news...

Circa:

Comey refuses to answer bipartisan questions from senators, saying he's a private citizen

Former FBI director James Comey is formally refusing to answer questions submitted to him by a bipartisan group of senators, suggesting he no longer must do so as a private citizen.

Comey sent an email from his private account last week rebuffing the seven questions that had been submitted to him by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and the committee’s ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein after Comey’s final testimony as FBI director to the panel last month. Comey was fired by President Donald Trump shortly after his appearance.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., joined in the request in a show that lawmakers in both parties believed the questions were important enough to demand answers.

Comey's  short email specifically cited his status as a private citizen as a reason for declining to answer the questions.

The  “private citizen “excuse was considered unusual by the senators since numerous former government officials have testified before Congress in recent weeks.

They included former CIA Director John Brennan, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates (who like Comey was fired by Trump) and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

And Comey himself is appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, raising senators’ fears he is “venue shopping” to avoid hard questions the Judiciary Committee is likely to ask about the FBI’s use of NSA surveillance data and conflicts between Comey’s past testimony and new evidence in the public domain.

While that is speculation there at the end, it does seem like a valid speculation considering the facts reported.

This leads to the question of why would Comey shop venues? Because he knows he is every bit as legally culpable for covering for Mike Flynn as Trump was. If Trump asked Comey to end the FBI's investigation of Flynn, and Comey did not report that, then Comey was complicit in the cover-up.

Then again, was Flynn actually guilty of anything serious?

Reuters:

Putin's dinner with Michael Flynn: 'I didn't even really talk to him'

Russian President Vladimir Putin hardly spoke at all with former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn when they sat together at a Moscow dinner in 2015, NBC News quoted the Kremlin leader as saying on Sunday.

Flynn's ties to Moscow are under scrutiny in the United States amid allegations of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. An oft-published photo of him sitting next to Putin at a gala dinner seems to hint he had close relations.

Flynn has declined to testify to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee about his Russian ties, invoking his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

Putin, speaking to NBC News' Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, said he recalled the dinner in question as a routine event.

"I made my speech. Then we talked about some other stuff. And I got up and left. And then afterwards I was told, 'You know there was an American gentleman, he was involved in some things. He used to be in the security services'," Putin said.

"That's it. I didn't even really talk to him. That's the extent of my acquaintance with Mr Flynn," he added.

The December 2015 dinner was in honor of the Russian television network Russia Today (RT), a Russian government-funded global network that U.S. officials consider a state-run propaganda outlet and purveyor of disinformation about the U.S.

Putin isn't known for his honesty, so take that for what it is worth. On top of that, how does Putin sit next to someone at a dinner and not discuss who they are? The Flynn story is still suspicious, and Putin's comments here didn't help it any.