Will U.S. Fight Turkey? American Soldiers Will Not Leave City About to Be Attacked, Says Top General

The U.S. military intends to remain in the northern Syrian city of Manbij despite an incoming offensive backed by Turkey, which, along with Ankara's rebel allies, has launched an assault on nearby Kurdish forces sponsored by the Pentagon.

With the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) mostly defeated in the east, the focus of Syria's nearly seven-year war has shifted west, particularly to the northwestern district of Afrin, where Turkey and the insurgent Free Syrian Army have begun attacking a Kurdish militia known as the People's Protection Units (YPG). The YPG was the primary faction behind the Syrian Democratic Forces that led U.S. efforts to destroy ISIS on the ground, but it also was considered a terrorist organization by Turkey because of its alleged links to a Kurdish nationalist insurgency at home. 

As the complex politics of northern Syria's battlefield erupted into bloodshed between two U.S. allies, Central Command Commander General Joseph Vogel told CNN Monday that withdrawing his troops from nearby Manbij was "not something we are looking into," even as Turkey threatened to advance into the Kurd-controlled city.  

A convoy of U.S. armored vehicles drives on the outskirts of Manbij, Syria, on March 5, 2017. Since ousting ISIS from the mixed Kurdish and Arab city, Manbij has been a flashpoint for intersecting and opposing interests of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army and the Russia-backed Syrian military. DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. has so far stood aside as the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces attempted to defend the northwestern district of Afrin from Turkey, a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, and the formerly CIA-backed Free Syrian Army that has regularly targeted U.S. forces in the area. In November, the Pentagon revealed it had deployed more than 1,700 U.S. personnel to support the Syrian Democratic Forces battling ISIS in Syria. 

While the Pentagon reiterated its support for Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces still battling ISIS in rapidly shrinking pockets of territory in the east, U.S. military leadership warned that the U.S.-led coalition would not support Kurdish efforts to reallocate resources to battle Turkey in the northwest. The U.S. has also warned Turkey that its operation was "impeding the task to eliminate ISIS," and President Donald Trump reportedly urged his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to "exercise caution" in a phone call Wednesday.

Turkish officials, however, denied that Trump made that request, and their forces pressed on with the bombardment of Kurd-controlled towns and villages. Turkey has likened the YPG to ISIS in the danger it posed, as the Kurdish militia was thought to have direct connections to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant organization that has waged a bloody campaign of guerrilla warfare against Turkish security forces for more than three decades.

Erdoğan vowed Friday that his forces would "clean up" Manbij and demanded that U.S. forces leave. Analysts described the city as a red line for the U.S.'s tolerance of the Turkish incursion. 

Turkish soldiers on Mount Bersaya, north of the Syrian town of Azaz, near the border with Turkey, on January 29. Turkey's so-called Operation Olive Branch threatened to put its forces on a collision course with NATO partner the U.S., which backed Kurdish militias fighting ISIS in Syria. NAZEER AL-KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images

The city of Manbij first fell out of the hands of the Syrian government in 2012, when it was seized by rebels fighting to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the support of the U.S., Turkey and Gulf Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In 2014, local insurgents were dislodged by ISIS, which had spread across half of Iraq and Syria and either defeated or absorbed much of the armed opposition in the latter.

The U.S. formed an international coalition to bomb ISIS that year and, as it scaled back support to beleaguered rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army, invested in Kurdish fighters which comprised the Syrian Democratic Forces in October 2015, a month after Russia intervened to assist Assad. The following summer, U.S.-backed rebels ousted ISIS from Manbij as Syrian troops, backed by Russia and Iran, cleared the rest of Aleppo of rebels.

Turkey, outraged at the U.S.'s support for Kurdish militias, launched Operation Euphrates Shield, invading northern Syria to shore up the Free Syrian Army against ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian military. In the first major test of overlapping U.S. and Russian interests in Syria, both countries deployed troops to assist their respective allies in holding parts of Manbij in the face of the Turkish offensive, which ultimately backed down.

Like the U.S., Russia has largely stayed out of the fight between Turkey and the Kurds, seeking to maintain relations with both. The assault on Afrin, however, led Kurdish groups to decline their invitation to the upcoming Syrian National Congress hosted by Russia, which hoped it would serve as a platform for peace in the devastated country. Moscow's main ally, Assad, also has called for international action against the Turkish invasion.

You want fake news? Watch the State of the Union

State of the Union addresses have become Washington kabuki theater at its worst. Everything is for show — the staged applause, the invited guests in the gallery, the self-congratulations, the empty promises. The insincerity on all sides oozes from the chamber. Worst of all may be the chin-stroking pundits who pretend this is significant.

They will intone — if President Trump makes it through the prepared remarks without foaming at the mouth about the Russia investigation — that he was “presidential.” If he could only be like that all the time, they earnestly proclaim. Yes, if Trump were not Trump and spoke others’ words that he likely doesn’t entirely grasp (quick, have him explain what the trade deficit really is), we’d all be better off. But he doesn’t, and we’re not.

Forgotten will be Monday’s events – the reports of a raving Trump calling the wife of acting FBI director Andrew McCabe a “loser;” of the president being irate over the Department of Justice’s attempt to prevent the release of a memo damaging to national security; and of him being determined to fire McCabe, who was told about former FBI director James B. Comey’s conversations with the president, making him a witness to alleged obstruction. Rather than point out that those revelations confirm Trump is temperamentally unfit for the job, and is uninterested in anything other than protecting his own hide, he’ll be patted on the head for reading off a teleprompter.  

The usual play-acting associated with the State of the Union address is bad enough, but with this president it is hard to imagine how it could provide any insight into his thinking. There are two Trumps. The first one can get through a speech in the House chamber or at Davos by sticking to a script written by mainstream conservatives. The second has no interest in policy, no idea how to achieve it, no comprehension of American institutions, and no ability to lead the free world. In other words, we get either an entirely artificial and unrepresentative articulation of his presidency, or a raving, ignorant, race-baiter. The two have nothing to do with one another.

In this respect, we should stop paying attention to the prepared speeches (goodness knows our international allies must have at this point), and focus on his tweets — the exact opposite of what his apologists urge. The authentic Trump voice  — a tangle of prejudices, resentments and urban myths — won’t be heard in his remarks tonight.

The insistence on taking the phony Trump seriously goes beyond his dogged defenders, the ones who decree that character and the Constitution must take a back seat to lowering the top marginal tax rate. Month after month, and now year after year, some members of the mainstream media have kept up the pretense that Trump is a normal president who absorbs material, rationally considers data and propounds policies calibrated to deliver on desired means. Is it some journalistic sin to point out that, for a year, the emperor has had no clothes? 

What is the point, really, in dissecting promises of bipartisanship, when in a day or an hour he’ll create another juvenile slur to hurl at Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)? What service is the media providing when it notes the president is using less confrontational language about immigration than he does when he speaks his mind (fewer brown and black immigrants from “shithole” countries, please)?

There is pomp and tradition, sure. But there is also misleading or deceiving the public by insisting his words are authentic and portend a pivot, a new day, a fresh start, an about-face, or whatever for this president.

We see one saving grace in the State of the Union, though. As with all hypocrisy, it is the compliment vice pays to virtue. A president is supposed to sound generous, sober, high-minded, inclusive and responsible. He is supposed to show fidelity to the rule of law, celebrate our civil liberties and admire democracies around the world. He is supposed to embody our most noble ideas, not our worst biases. So, for a night, the puppeteers around Trump will have him channel the qualities and sentiments we all wished he possessed. It will be an inadvertent admission of Trump’s unfitness. All he can do is fake it at this point. 

At least we will know there are people around Trump who understand what a president should sound like. If only they had the decency to quit their jobs and decry a president who lacks virtually every public virtue.

FEMA to ‘officially shut off’ food and water aid to Puerto Rico

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced Tuesday that it will end free supplies of food and water in Puerto Rico this week as the island's supermarkets and other businesses reopen following Hurricane Maria.

NPR reported Tuesday that FEMA will "officially shut off" aid to the island on Wednesday after providing more than 30 million gallons of drinking water and 60 million meals to its inhabitants.

"The reality is that we just need to look around. Supermarkets are open, and things are going back to normal," FEMA Puerto Rico director Alejandro De La Campa told NPR.

Not all of Puerto Rico's government officials agree with the agency's decision to end aid this week. Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado told NPR that in her town, the number of customers without power restored to their homes is close to 80 percent and that most residents can't afford the cost of a generator.

"There are some municipalities that may not need the help anymore, because they've got nearly 100 percent of their energy and water back," she said. "Ours is not so lucky."

"This is all something that FEMA should contemplate before eliminating its delivery of these supplies," the mayor added.

De La Campa addressed the need for families to go back to supermarkets and boost the Puerto Rican economy.

"If we're giving free water and food, that means that families are not going to supermarkets to buy," he added. "It is affecting the economy of Puerto Rico. So we need to create a balance. With the financial assistance we're providing to families and the municipalities, they're able to go back to the normal economy."

Statistics from Puerto Rico's government claim that power has been restored to about 80 percent of the island, while fresh water has been restored to 96 percent of the territory's residents.

In November, the island's top emergency management official resignedover the slow response to Hurricanes Maria and Irma, which devastated the island last year and left millions without power and drinking water.

Schiff says office has received death threats over 'Republican spin memo'

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said his office has received death threats regarding the GOP-crafted memo alleging what some Republicans say are "shocking" surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice.

Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Axioshis office has gotten obscene calls and death threats regarding what he called the "Republican spin memo."

He also warned that "reckless hyperbole is just so destructive of our democracy."

"They have so hyped this ... that they've led their echo chamber into thinking that this is something extraordinary," he told the news outlet.

"It's incredibly misleading. I don't think it in any way impugns the Russia investigation, or provides any basis for firing any of the personnel involved."

His comments come after the House Intelligence Committee on Monday voted to make public the GOP-crafted document, but voted against making public a Democratic countermemo.

While the panel voted to release that memo to the entire House, Republicans expressed concern that publicly releasing the minority memo would damage sensitive intelligence sources and methods.

The move ended weeks of speculation over whether the memo — which was drafted by staff for committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — would be made public.

It intensifies the dispute over what Democrats say is an all-out assault by Republicans to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election interference and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The precise contents of the memo remain unknown. However, it’s believed to contain allegations that the FBI did not adequately explain to a clandestine court that some of the information it used in a surveillance warrant application for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page came from opposition research partially funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, now commonly known as the “Steele dossier.”

Father buys $64,259 ad calling for police to reopen investigation into son's death

A Wisconsin father spent nearly $65,000 to run a full-page ad in Tuesday's Washington Post to push police to reopen their investigation into his son's death. Michael Bell Jr. was shot and killed by officers in 2004. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty speaks to Michael's father about why he doesn't think his son's death was justified.

According to the Washington Post, police shot and killed almost 1,000 civilians in 2017. So far this year, police have used deadly force against 86 civilians. 

Police reports say Michael Bell Jr. was drunk and uncooperative when he was pulled over by cops early on the morning of November 9, 2004. There was a scuffle. Cops finally had Michael in a hold over a car in the family's driveway when suddenly officer Erich Strausbaugh yelled, "He has my gun."

"He calls out that 'he has my gun.' He's panicked. It was a very high pitched, very emotional voice," said Bell Jr.'s father, Michael Bell.

Another cop rushed in and shot the young man in the head. He died about three hours later.

"Unless you've gone through it, it's a degree of suffering that nobody else can understand," Bell said.

After three days, the Kenosha police chief declared Michael's death "a justifiable homicide" but that didn't make sense to his dad. 

When the Bell family sued the Kenosha Police Department for the "unlawful use of deadly force," they discovered that the stories of the four officers involved didn't match witness statements from family and neighbors, or medical evidence.

As seen in the police reenactment, the officer who fired the shot, Alberto Gonzalez, said he was positioned to the left of Michael and couldn't see if he had a gun. 

Michael's dad disputes that account. A photo recreating what Bell thinks happened based on witnesses at the scene, shows that Gonzalez was positioned between Michael and Strausbaugh. And in fact, the autopsy shows Michael was shot on the right side of his head – not the left.

Bell's attorneys confronted the officers with the evidence in pre-trial depositions. He says that what the police say happened couldn't have because of the medical examiner's report.

Just days before the case was going to trial, the city settled the case for $1.75 million. Still not satisfied, Bell hired Russell Beckman, a retired Kenosha police detective to take a closer look at what might have happened the morning Michael was shot.

Beckman discovered something that appears to have been either missed or ignored in the original police investigation: a broken car mirror that was at the center of the police scuffle. He demonstrated his theory using an unloaded gun and a police holster similar to the one officer Strausbaugh was wearing.

"The gun comes in contact with the mirror and gets caught in the jacket gap," Beckman explained. 

Bell now believes it was the mirror, not his son, tugging at officer's Strausbaugh's belt. 

But when he asked county, state, and federal officials to take a new look, he got nowhere. Michael Graveley, the Kenosha County district attorney, says the chances of bringing charges against any of the officers has passed.

"I think the simplest explanation here is that officers were candid at the beginning of this process. I hope that officer Strausbaugh would have reported  if his holster had been caught," Graveley said.

More than 13 years after his son's death, the former military pilot still soldiers on.

"Nobody understands what it takes to get to this level, to bring this kind of awareness to it," Bell said. "The best way to describe is that it's my duty."

Bell may never get a new investigation into his son's death, but because of a billboard campaign, Wisconsin is now the only state that requires an independent investigation after a police shooting – a law he believes should be enacted nationwide.

It's not just families of the person shot who suffer – so do the officers involved. In 2010, the officer who said Michael had been tugging at his gun, Erich Strausbaugh, took his own life. CBS News reached out to the Kenosha Police Department, but it did not respond to our requests for comment.

Park That Turns Into A Lake For Half The Year

A rare natural phenomenon turns one of Austria’s most beautiful hiking trails into a 10 meter-deep lake, for half the year.

Located at the foot of the Hochschwab Mountains, in Tragoess, Styria, Green Lake is one of the most bizarre natural phenomena in the world. During the cold winter months, this place is almost completely dry, and used as a country park where hikers love to come and spend some time away from urban chaos. But as soon as temperatures rise, the snow and ice covering the mountaintops begin to melt, and the water pours down, filling the basin below with crystal-clear water.

Water levels go from one-two meters at most, to over 10 meters, in the early summer. The waters of Green Lake are highest in June, when this extraordinary place is invaded by divers, curious to see what a mountain park looks like underwater. Fish swimming over wooden benches, a grass-covered bottom, trees, roads, roads and even bridges create a surreal setting that feels like it belongs on dry ground. That’s because for half of the year, that’s exactly where it’s at.

Take a look at the amazing images of the Green Lake, shot during the summer season:

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