Turkey – […] Kerry has been touring the Middle East to build support for President Barack Obama’s plan, announced on Wednesday, to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier to defeat Islamic State Sunni fighters, who control swathes of both countries.
On Thursday, Kerry won backing for a “coordinated military campaign” against Islamic State from 10 Arab countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
But it remains far from clear what role individual nations will play and while he confirmed France’s commitment to use military force in Iraq, Kerry declined to say whether France would join a similar campaign in Syria.
That follows conflicting reports in key ally Britain over its potential role, with Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday saying he has not ruled out military action in Syria after his foreign secretary said Britain would not take part in any air strikes there. (more…)
When you read this, sip slowly, dust off the way-back machine, and think about the 13 Hours in Benghazi show you might have just watched air on Fox. Yeah, I know, I can sense the puzzlement – but stay with it….
The question posed to the Tree House was: Why are they selecting a retired General John Allen, instead of a current officer?
Deep breath: This White House uses personal leverage to their advantage like no other before it. Example #1: Where’s Bowe Bergdahl? Example #2: What ever happened to Ahmed Abu Khattala the ‘recently’ captured head of the Benghazi attack ? See… you had to think about it. This White House swamps us so much we forget to follow-up…..
There is a risk to the political optics of fighting ISIS. Consequently, this administration needs a competent general Denis McDonough can control, rely on, and possibly bypass the Pentagon. So who can they leverage? Yeah, that General John Allen.
Fire Up The Way-Back Machine To Summer 2012 !!
Jill and Dr. Scott Kelley lived in the Tampa / St. Pete area. They were/are active in the military community with support for military families.
The Kelley’s do numerous fundraisers etc. and when Petraeus was assigned to station in Tampa the Kelley’s hosted a meet-n-greet with Holly and David Petraeus.
Mr and Mrs. Petraeus became friends with Mr. and Mrs. Kelley.
So mid-summer 2012 Jill Kelley, a Petraeus family friend, began receiving odd and harrassing e-mails about her relationship with CIA director General David Petraeus:
“More like, ‘Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch,’” according to the source, who was until recently at the highest levels of the intelligence community and prefers not to be identified by name.
Jill Kelley then reaches out to a family friend, who is by profession, in the FBI. Kelly asks if these unsourced e-mails reach the level of cyber-stalking. (more…)
As previously stated, there is no ideological distance between President Obama and Recep Erdogan. Absent of plummeting polling numbers, which handcuff his ability to continue domestic agenda items, President Obama would NOT be fighting ISIS. For seven years we have watched the relationship between Erdogan and Obama as it flourished into a bromance of Sunni favoritism. As expected Turkey will not participate in attacks against it’s ideological compatriots, ISIS. Makes you wonder why Secretary John Kerry is even bothering with the trip. TURKEY – Turkey will refuse to allow a U.S.-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.
“Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The decision echoes the country’s refusal to allow the U.S. to station 60,000 troops in Turkey in 2003 to invade Iraq from the north, which triggered a crisis between the two allies. (more…)
Tonight at 9:00pm Eastern President Obama will deliver a speech to the nation outlining his strategy to defeat a rising Islamic terror threat known as ISIS. Oddly some of the speech has already been leaked by the White House: UPDATE – FULL SPEECH VIDEO:
“With a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.
I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.
Rather, it is a “counter-terrorism campaign” that “will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” he will say. It’s a strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, and is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years”.
It was only a few weeks ago, August 9th, when President Obama told the New York Times it was/is “a fantasy” to support “moderates” within Syria and expect them to be able to defeat radical Sunni Islamists. Now, it appears, he is reversing course and saying the previous “fantasy” will be his specific approach. (more…)
The key issue is not that ISIS is using U.S. made weapons. Given ISIS geographic conquests it would be expected, vis-à-vis Iraq, they were able to capture weapons and armament. No, it’s the *type* of weapons, specifically boxed M16’s, which identifies the covert shipments to Syria we outlined within the Benghazi Brief.
In 2012 those small arms were shipped to Syria as a result of President Obama’s authorization. Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing the financing, Turkey provided an initial storage base near Adana where the nerve center for supporting what became ISIS was set up. The UN peacekeeper Kofi Annan was pulled out of Syria, and U.S. weapons were poured in.
(Via Raw Story) Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.
The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.
The report said the jihadists disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”.(more…)
Not to put too fine a point on it, yet knowing President Polling is going to deliver a magnanimous prime-time speech in a few days, the Syrian conversation with Chuck Todd needs, or, well, deserves a little e-x-p-a-n-s-i-o-n.
During a rather revealing part of the interview between Chuck Todd and President Obama the specific issue of Syria came up surrounding ISIS. Viewers should note in the entire dialogue it was not Obama who brought up Syria, it was Chuck Todd. (Video @9:20)
Mr. Todd even seemed a little perplexed with having to do it; albeit reluctantly, as if he knew he needed to. If Chuck Todd’s new role on MTP is to attempt credibility retention he held no choice, he had to bring up the geography. Todd specifically needed to ask, because Dear Leader avoided mentioning Syria throughout the previous ten minutes:
@09:25 President Obama: “the boots on the ground have to be Syrian”.
Chuck Todd interjects “but WHO”?
President Obama has publicly committed himself to the removal of Syrian head Basher Assad. His public proclamations to Assad’s removal make getting cooperation from the Syrian National Army a little disingenuous amid the option scale.
Additionally we know the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is little more than a corrupted fractured contingent of ne’er-do-wells, most of which defected to join ISIS. And then we have Dear Leader’s previous statements saying to the New York Times’ Tom Freidman it is “fantasy” to think “an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth” could battle “a well-armed state backed by Russia, backed by Iran, [and] a battle-hardened Hezbollah.”
So naturally Chuck Todd had to ask the question: Whose boots does Obama plan on supporting?
To wit POTUS puts three groups on the table: The Syrian national army, ISIS, and some weirdly defined “Moderate Opposition” – and then says we should support the moderate opposition who are “pinched between the Syrian Army and ISIS“.
STOP
{{Insert Scratching Record Sound}}}
Let’s just imagine a REAL REPORTER was sitting in that seat across from POTUS. (more…)
Now that we all know the full scope of the background story behind the State Department and CIA in Benghazi (See: The Benghazi Brief) it might be additionally interesting to watch this exclusive ‘on the ground’ report of 9/11/12 hosted by Bret Baier as he interviews the security team who suffered the consequences of operation Zero Footprint.
(Via Fox) This weekend, Fox News Reporting will bring you a special on the untold story of the Benghazi terror attack.
It has been nearly two years since the fatal attack. Now, hear for the first time from the men who fought that battle.
“Fox News Reporting: 13 Hours at Benghazi” is based off a new book, to be released next week, called “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi” by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team.
The special premieres Friday, Sept. 5 at 10p ET. It re-airs Saturday, Sept. 6 at 1a, 5p and 9p ET, and again on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 12a, 8p and 11p ET. (link)
Unfortunately such is the state of current affairs. A prominent Egyptian official is telling his constituency, and the world, the reason Egypt and U.S. relations are so poor is because President Obama and John Kerry demand the Severe Islamists be included in policy decisions. Egypt categorically rejects the considerations of radical Islamic extremism, and will not bow to pressure from the United States to be more accommodating toward the radicals within the Muslim Brotherhood. Fatah el-Sisi is going to be speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 25th. I’m thinking that David Cameron and President Obama should be forced to sit in the front row and listen to a real leader who understands the extremist problem.
(EGYPT) Nabil Fahmy, the former Egyptian foreign minister and a previous ambassador to the US, said that relations between Cairo and Washington remain strained because of the US’s insistence of allowing Islamists to participate in the political process.
In an Egyptian television interview on Sunday evening, Fahmy said that “the Americans have not appropriately learned the lesson of dealing with terrorism” and that they “contacted us constantly in order to integrate streams of political Islam into the political process,” the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported.
He added, however, that Egypt “pursued the will of the people” and did not give in to outside pressure. (more…)
The American Thinker article cited below is a keenly well aware and insightful dot connection. The basic question throughout the article is: “was President Obama the origin of the Arab Spring”? Those of you who have followed our mid-east research know full well we believe the answer is a resounding yes. However, it has only been in the past fourteen months we have been able to understand the entire scope, the larger and specific intent, of the non-spoken agenda which began unfolding immediately after the 2009 Obama Cairo speech. Most Refuge Readers can review the summary discussion and see a the larger encapsulated insight. And, as you know, we make no apologies for our support of Egypt’s Fatah el-Sisi who is indeed a secular leader within a modern Islamic nation. What sets el-Sisi apart from the other mid-east leaders is his core principle, backed up by his actions – not words, that affirm the freedom rights of minority citizens being protected. Simultaneously, he’s not blind to the radicalization that can exist within contingencies of minority beliefs who use democrat principles of minority protections to advance religious hatred. That keen insight and solid understanding is what empowers el-Sisi’s brilliant yet precarious needle threading. In essence Prime Minister David Cameron of the U.K. has recently become awakened to this very principle. Islamists will use minority protections as hosts – just like cancer cells use healthy organs to grown to their destructive size. Once cancer cells reach a point of critical mass, they no longer need to hide within healthy organisms; they expand exponentially. The end result is a dying organ as the cancer metastasizes throughout the host. This is the same process radical islamists use to hide within a host society while slowly deconstructing the elements which make the society viable in the first place.(more…)
