BAGHDAD — Supporters of an Iranian-backed militia began to withdraw from the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, following an order from senior militia leaders to end their siege of the facility.
Supporters of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, who converged on the embassy to protest U.S. airstrikes that had killed 25 fighters Sunday, had spent the night camped outside it. They began dismantling their tents and leaving the area, saying they had won a victory and would now seek the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq through the nation’s parliament.
Their retreat signaled a potential end to a crisis that had seen thousands of angry militia supporters attempt to storm the embassy on Tuesday to protest the deaths of 25 militia members in U.S. airstrikes on Sunday. The strikes were in turn conducted in retaliation for the death of a U.S. contractor in a rocket attack last week that the U.S. military blamed on Kataib Hezbollah.
The assault on the embassy prompted the Pentagon to dispatch additional troop reinforcements to the region and raised fears that a wider war could erupt between the United States and Iran.
Some of the demonstrators began withdrawing from the area earlier in the afternoon after an order issued by the senior leadership of the Popular Mobilization Forces, or Hashd Shaabi, the umbrella organization that groups scores of Shiite militias. The order was issued, the leadership said, “out of respect” for an instruction issued the previous day by the Iraqi government.
But several hundred supporters of Kataib Hezbollah and another Iranian-backed group, Harakat Nujaba, initially refused to comply, saying they took orders only from their own leadership.
A top Kataib Hezbollah official then showed up outside the embassy and instructed the remaining demonstrators to leave the area. “You have won a victory,” said Mohammed Mohyee, the group’s political spokesman, addressing the crowd through a loudspeaker. “We will take our fight to expel U.S. troops from our land to parliament, and if we don’t succeed, we will return.”
The last demonstrators began dismantling the tents they had erected in preparation for what could have become a long siege, intended to pressure the United States to pull its troops and diplomats out of Iraq. They said they planned to relocate to an area on the opposite bank of the Tigris River and establish a protest camp there. The area is outside the fortified Green Zone, where the embassy is located, and does not pose a direct threat to the facility.
The apparent end to the siege came as U.S. troop reinforcements headed to the region. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said 750 soldiers from the Immediate Response Force of the 82nd Airborne Division were en route to the Middle East and additional soldiers are expected to follow in the coming days.
The U.S. military had earlier released photographs showing a contingent of around 100 Marines landing in the grounds of the embassy compound to reinforce the existing protection force there.
KIM JONG UN kicked off the new decade as only a North Korean dictator with a growing arsenal knows how: By making threats. Pyongyang will no longer commit to limiting its nuclear and ballistic-missile development, he said, and is planning to unveil a new strategic weapon (read: nukes) “in the near future.”
Reading between the lines, it sounded to many like Kim was offering the U.S. one final chance to meet his demands. If America doesn’t make concessions, he warned, North Korea “will shift to a shocking actual action.”
PRESIDENTDONALD TRUMP seems to have interpreted Kim’s message in the spirit of the season. Amid the New Year’s festivities at Mar-a-Lago, POTUS replied like so, per the White House transcript:
“I have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I know he's sending out certain messages about Christmas presents and I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase. That's what I'd like, a vase, as opposed to something else.
“Look, he likes me, I like him, we get along. He's representing his country. I'm representing my country. We have to do what we have to do. But he did sign a contract, he did sign an agreement talking about denuclearization, and it was signed.
“Number one sentence: denuclearization. That was done in Singapore. And I think he's a man of his word. So, we're going to find out, but I think he's a man of his word.”
BETWEEN IRAN AND NORTH KOREA, the United States sure has its hands full right now. And many will certainly argue that, by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and engaging in failed summitry with Kim, Trump has made a bad situation worse. But keep in mind that the U.S. has been facing these two wily and dangerous foes for decades -- starting with the Korean War in the early 1950s, and picking up with the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s.
No president has figured out a magical formula for dealing with either country, and yet here we are. And if Democrats think they can do better, they’re going to have to make that case to voters in 2020.
MEANWHILE, IN IRAQ -- “U.S. Troops Fire Tear Gas as Protesters Swarm Embassy in Iraq Again,” by NYT’s Falih Hassan and Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad: “For a second day, demonstrators swarmed outside the United States Embassy in Iraq on Wednesday and troops fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, but after a few hours the militia leaders who had organized the demonstration called on the crowd to leave.
“Unlike on Tuesday, protesters did not get inside the compound. By midafternoon all but about 200 had dispersed, taking their tent poles with them.” NYT
AND/BUT: The U.S. dispatched more troops to the Middle East yesterday, including forces that “come from the very unit that was created in the wake of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi attack to rapidly come to the aid of embattled embassies in the Middle East.” Like it or not, he’s getting involved. More on Trump’s fears of a Benghazi redux
Good Wednesday morning and Happy New Year. Here’s to the 2020s, and to the thousands of Americans serving in harm’s way today. (It’s me, Blake Hounshell, filling in for one last day before Jake and Anna come back.)
CLICKER -- Invariant’s Heather Podesta is out with her annual holiday card of funny New Year’s resolutions.
LETTER FROM PALM BEACH -- “Trump cuts loose with unpredictable characters at Mar-a-Lago,” by Daniel Lippman: “Alan Dershowitz, the liberal lawyer who now volubly defends Trump on TV, ran into the president on Christmas Eve. The two were waiting to get food, and Dershowitz said he offered the president an empty plate — Trump declined and instead picked up his own — as the two discussed holiday plans.
“‘He was in a very good mood,’ Dershowitz said. ‘People were talking to him, people were high-fiving him. These are his people.’”
SPOTTED last night strolling the red carpet on their way to having New Year's Eve dinner in a grand ballroom at Mar-a-Lago: Rudy Giuliani, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric and Lara Trump, Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos, Lou Dobbs, Charlie Kirk, Sergio Gor, Hogan Gidley, Mike Lindell and Michael Greenwald and Nolan Wein. (h/t Daniel Lippman, Tuesday’s travel pooler)
-- “From the Brig to Mar-a-Lago, Former Navy SEAL Capitalizes on Newfound Fame,” by NYT’s Dave Phillips: “A year ago, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was wearing drab prison scrubs at a brig near San Diego, facing murder charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. Now he is modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand, endorsing nutrition supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with close ties to the man who helped clear him — President Trump.” NYT
TRUMP’S WEDNESDAY: The president has nothing on his public schedule.
PLAYBOOK READS
SENATE TRIAL TEA-LEAF READING … JOSH GERSTEIN: “Chief Justice John Roberts warns about dangers of fake news”: “Chief Justice John Roberts — who’s on the verge of an extraordinarily high-profile balancing act presiding over the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump — issued a warning on Tuesday about the dangers of misinformation in the internet era.
“In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital,” Roberts declared in his annual New Year’s Eve message summing up the work of the federal judiciary.
“Roberts was not explicit about whether his call for increased civics education was intended as a rebuke of Trump, although some quickly read it that way.” POLITICO … Roberts’ message
-- NYT’s ADAM LIPTAK: “The two men have a history of friction, and Chief Justice Roberts used the normally mild report to denounce false information spread on social media and to warn against mob rule. Some passages could be read as a mission statement for the chief justice’s plans for the impeachment trial itself. … The report seemed to continue a conversation with Mr. Trump about the role of the courts.”
FOR YOUR RADAR … AP/PERTH: “Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide and sent thousands of residents and holidaymakers fleeing to the shoreline.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- “FDA to Ban All E-Cigarette Pod Flavors Except Tobacco and Menthol,” by WSJ’s Jennifer Maloney and Thomas M. Burton: “The Food and Drug Administration plans to ban the sale of fruity flavors in cartridge-based e-cigarettes, but the restriction won’t apply to tank vaping systems commonly found at vape shops, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The action is seen as a compromise between Trump administration officials who want to address a rise in teen vaping and those concerned about the impact on small businesses and the possible political fallout for President Trump, these people said. Polls commissioned by the vaping industry have shown an outright ban would be unpopular in key states for the 2020 election. Federal officials are expected to announce the new plan as soon as Friday.” WSJ
TRUMP, INC. -- “Trump Organization fires more undocumented workers — a year after its use of illegal labor was revealed,” by WaPo’s Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold in Charlottesville, Va.: “Nearly a year after the Trump Organization pledged to root out undocumented workers at its properties, supervisors at the Trump Winery on Monday summoned at least seven employees and fired them because of their lack of legal immigration status, according to two of the dismissed workers.” WaPo
BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- “U.S. Ushers In 2020 With Slate of New Laws,” by WSJ’s Jacob Gershman: “Hundreds of state laws across the country take effect on Jan. 1., with new measures changing rules dealing with everything from hiring practices to felon rights and grocery bags.
“The nation’s most stringent data-privacy law takes effect on Wednesday, when hundreds of thousands of businesses will have to start complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act. The state’s business community is also bracing for another law that sets a higher threshold for classifying workers as independent contractors.
“A number of criminal-justice changes are set to take effect. New York will eliminate cash bail for defendants charged with minor offenses and nonviolent felonies, curtailing pretrial detention.
“Starting Jan. 1, employees of colleges and universities in Texas, including the University of Texas, Austin, could face criminal penalties for failing to report incidents of sexual assault, harassment or dating violence.
“California will limit the circumstances under which police may use deadly force. Starting on Wednesday, lethal force against a suspect is justified only when necessary in defense of human life.” WSJ
CHAPO TRAP HOUSE READING -- “Why Pete Buttigieg Enrages the Young Left,” by Derek Robertson in POLITICO Mag’s Chicago bureau: “The unspoken truth about the furor Buttigieg arouses is that his success threatens a core belief of young progressives: that their ideology owns the future, and that the rise of millennials into Democratic politics is going to bring an inevitable demographic triumph for the party’s far left wing.” POLITICO Magazine
HART RESEARCH ASSOCIATES is out with its annual list of polling findings for 2019, ranging from 100% (general-election Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren voters who don’t think Trump has the right goals and policies) to less than 0.1% (the Nationals’ chances of winning the World Series back on May 28). A couple of other notable stats: 49% of Americans think we need a complete overhaul of, or major changes to, democracy … 45% of independents believe climate change necessitates immediate action … 71% of suburban Americans think parents should have to get their kids vaccines like MMR. All the stats
IN MEMORIAM -- “The Historian of Moral Revolution,”by David Brooks in The Atlantic: “Gertrude Himmelfarb argued that a great deal is lost when a society stops aiming for civic virtue and is content to aim merely for civility.”
-- “Gen. Paul X. Kelley, Top Marine Tested by a Bombing, Dies at 91,”by NYT’s John Cushman Jr.: “Gen. Paul X. Kelley, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who rose to become commandant of the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987 and endured the devastating bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 service members in 1983, died on Sunday at a care facility in McLean, Va. He was 91.
“His wife, Barbara Kelley, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. At a time when the nation’s military was rebuilding both equipment and morale, a decade after the Vietnam War, General Kelley, regarded as politically adept and well connected, was trusted by President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle.”
-- “Sonny Mehta, literary tastemaker who long reigned at Knopf, dies at 77,”by WaPo’s Emily Langer: “Sonny Mehta, a literary tastemaker and kingmaker who spent more than three decades at the helm of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, where he courted critical acclaim, profits and sometimes both at once with a lineup of books that included works by a stable of Nobel laureates, the memoirs of presidents and prime ministers, and page-turning crime and love stories, died Dec. 30 at a hospital in Manhattan.”
SPOTTED: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jared Kushner, Chris Ruddy and Michael Lindell having coffee on the Mar-a-Lago terrace on Tuesday. … Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in row 11 on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Boston.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Kelsey Philie, communications director at the Foundation for Government Accountability, and Mathieu Philie, a U.S. Army company commander, welcomed Mason James Philie on Dec. 24.
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) is 66 … European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is 64 … Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) is 55 … Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) is 46 … BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti is 46 … WaPo’s Brady Dennis … Dana Klinghoffer of NBC News communications … James Glassman is 73 (h/t Tim Burger) … Rob Johnson, founder of Johnson Strategies … Dan Koh … Google’s Tomer Ovadia … former New Jersey Gov. and Sen. Jon Corzine (D) is 73 … former Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) is 55 … former Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas) is 78 … Stephanie Penn … Kevin McGrann, assistant VP for federal relations at AT&T … Todd Webster, SVP at Cornerstone Government Affairs (h/t Jon Haber) … Nirmal Mankani … Paul E. Singer Foundation’s Daniel Bonner is 3-0 … Andrew Greene is 3-0 … Dan Weiss is 5-0 …
… Shannon Watts … Josh Nanberg, president of Ampersand Strategies, is 46 … Katie Lee … Ted Bridis, who teaches investigative reporting at the University of Florida … Jeremy Bates … J.D. Bryant, director at Bully Pulpit Interactive … Kara Kearns … POLITICO Europe’s Giulia Chiatante … Ken Toltz … Hannah Schwartz of Joe Biden’s campaign … Michael Kelly … Meagan Vargas … Margot Friedman … POLITICO’s Alex DiNino … Sally Slater … Caroline Buck … Victor Ashe … Alison Howard … Kate Beale Maguire … Brian Frederick … Lauren Hagen … Yama Noori … James Donnelly is 3-0 … C-SPAN’s Nicole Ninh … Max Richtman … Zach Howell … Jay Kahn … Jennifer Hall … Justin Bartolomeo, SVP at HDMK … Rocky Disabato … Hugh Delehanty … Tony Esoldo (h/t Teresa Vilmain)
Protesters were seen trying to climb the embassy's exterior walls, an eyewitness -- who asked not to be named for security reasons -- told CNN.
Others said the protesters were hurling rocks at the building and trying to set fire to its walls and to the security booths at the main entrance.
It marks the second day of mass demonstrations outside the building in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, in response to US airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia group on Sunday.
The US carried out airstrikes on five facilities in Iraq and Syria that it says are tied to the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah, killing dozens of people.
US officials hold Kataib Hezbollah responsible for a growing number of rocket attacks against American facilities in Iraq.
The death of a US contractor in one such attack last week was the last straw for the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump blamed Iran for both the US contractor's death and Tuesday's attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and warned Iran's leaders they would be held responsible for any deaths or destruction at the embassy.
"Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities," Trump tweeted. "They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat."
But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by tweeting that the US "can't do anything."
"If you were logical -- which you're not -- you'd see that your crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan... have made nations hate you," Khamenei added.
Paramilitary groups who have been protesting at the embassy on Wednesday asked their supporters to "withdraw" from the area and respect the Iraqi government, according to a statement released by the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
It was not immediately clear if supporters were heeding the call by the PMU, and local media reports suggested some factions within the group had rejected the request.
Eyewitnesses also told CNN that local law enforcement forces around the embassy had not been seen doing anything significant to stop the protestors demonstrating in front of the compound, or from throwing stones at it.
In the wake of Tuesday's attack on the US Embassy, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US would send approximately 750 soldiers to the Middle East.
"This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today," he said in a statement.
"The United States will protect our people and interests anywhere they are found around the world," Esper added.
Trump insisted in a tweet Tuesday that the embassy was safe. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also told Fox News that there are currently no plans to evacuate the embassy or pull US troops out.
The weekend's airstrikes have strained relations between Washington and Baghdad. Iraqi officials accuse the US of attacking without sufficient evidence, of violating Iraqi sovereignty and of threatening the country's security.
The militia targeted by US airstrikes
The Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah is militantly anti-American. In 2017 and 2018, its fighters in Syria tried to attack the US-supported garrison at al-Tanf on the Iraqi border.
It has provided hundreds of fighters for the Assad regime in Syria -- part of a broader Iranian effort to help stamp out the insurgency there -- and is an important element in Iranian efforts to extend its influence through northern Iraq and into Syria. The US strikes, notably, were against targets along the main route between Iran and Syria.
A spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah told CNN that the embassy protests were only a "first step."
"The American administration should understand the following: the first step was to protest near the American embassy, we are waiting their reactions to determine the second step," Mohamad Mouhiye said, calling for the US to shut down the embassy and withdraw from Iraq.
"First, close the doors of the evil embassy, which we consider a spy building and an operations room to administer and sabotage Iraq's well-being," Mouhiye said. "We also call on the US to withdraw their military forces which are in Iraq illegally."
CNN's Arwa Damon, Jeremy Diamond, Pamela Brown, Ryan Browne, Caroline Kelly and Tim Lister contributed to this report.
Pope Francis has apologized for hitting the hand of a well-wisher who grabbed him and yanked him toward her.
In his new year's wishes to the public in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, Francis confessed to losing his patience with the woman while he was strolling in the square Tuesday night to admire the Vatican's Nativity scene.
Cameras captured the scene when the woman, from behind a barrier, reached out and grabbed the pope's hand, pulling him violently toward her. Francis reacted sharply, exclaimed something and then slapped her hand so she would let him go. Frowning in anger, he turned and strode away.
In his impromptu remarks Wednesday, Francis said "so many times we lose patience. Me, too." He then added "I say 'excuse me' for the bad example" he gave in the incident Tuesday.
Pope Francis grew visibly angry and even swatted at the hand of a woman who tugged his arm as the head of the Roman Catholic Church greeted pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on New Year's Eve.
In video of the incident, Francis walks down a line of admirers separated by fencing, clasping their hands, waving and smiling with the basilica and the Vatican obelisk in the background.
Just as the pope appears to turn to walk away from the crowd, a woman reaches out, grabs his hand and then jerks him forcefully toward her.
Francis immediately recoils and swats at her hand to free himself as the pope's security detail also moves to intervene.
The woman made the sign of the cross just before the incident. It's not clear what she said to the pope as she grabbed him.
Earlier in the day, Francis had attended the private funeral of a friend, showing up without notice at the Roman parish of San Giuseppe al Nomentano to pay his respects to María Grazia Mara, the Vatican said, confirming reports in Italian media.
Mara, a professor emerita at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome, died Monday at 95. She was a noted scholar of the history and theology of the Roman Catholic Church's founders whom Francis visited at her home in 2018 and then singled out for special praise during a visit to the college in early 2019.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he sees no reason to continue his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, warning the world will soon see "a new strategic weapon" unveiled by his country in the near future.
However, in the comments published Wednesday, Kim also appeared to leave the door open to diplomacy, suggesting that tests would only resume if Washington did not change its policies.
North Korea has suspended nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests since an unprecedented flurry of activity in 2017. But during that time, negotiations that Washington hoped would lead to Kim giving up his nuclear arsenal have fallen apart.
In the comments released Wednesday, Kim complained that his country's suspension of nuclear and ballistic missile tests had been repaid by the U.S. holding military drills with South Korea and imposing more sanctions on his isolated country.
He said that "under such conditions" there was "no ground" to continue suspending tests. "This is chilling our efforts for worldwide nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation," he said.
The remarks were made at a four-day meeting of his Workers' Party’s Central Committee and reported by North Korea's state-controlled news agency, KCNA.
Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.
Dec. 26, 201905:56
Late Tuesday, President Donald Trump urged Kim to stick to an agreement signed at a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018. It was the first time sitting leaders from these historical enemies had met in person, but their agreement for North Korea to "denuclearize" was widely criticized by experts as vague to the point of being almost meaningless.
"Look, he likes me, I like him, we get along," Trump said at a New Year's party at Mar-a-Lago. "But he did sign a contract, he did sign an agreement talking about denuclearization ... I think he’s a man of his word so we’re going to find out, but I think he’s a man of his word."
Previously, North Korea had threatened to deliver a "Christmas gift" to the U.S. — raising the possibility of another weapons test. On Tuesday, Trump said, "I know he's sending out certain messages about Christmas presents and I hope his Christmas present is a beautiful vase. That's what I'd like, a vase."
According to state-media's report of the four-day meeting, Kim "confirmed that the world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future," referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It did not provide details about what this weapon might be.
Kim also said his country would take "shocking actual action to make [the U.S.] pay for the pains sustained by our people."
Many analysts and officials think that Kim will never give up his nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to contain up to 40 warheads and is seen by the repressive, authoritarian country as key to the survival of the Kim dynasty that has ruled it for more than 70 years.
However, there were elements in Kim's remarks that suggest his regime is willing to discuss the extent and power of this arsenal in exchange for sanctions relief.
"The scope and depth of bolstering our deterrent will be properly coordinated depending on the U.S. future attitude to the DPRK," he said.
Vipin Narang, a politics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who focuses on nuclear weapons, tweeted the potential to negotiate on this issue is "the door we should urgently push on."
Others noted that although Kim said he saw no reason to continue suspending tests, he had not resumed them yet.
"We should be grateful that he’s all talk and no action at this point; the subtext: Kim is leaving room for diplomacy," tweeted Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the Wilson Center.
Alexander Smith
Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.
