In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election President Obama was quick to dismiss the growing threat of ISIS as a “junior varsity team”.
However, in 2016 with no reelection needed, a rather stark and somber forecast is delivered by the Department of National Intelligence head, James Clapper.
Prior to delivering testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, James Clapper submitted a summary of intelligence analytics describing the scope of threat. (more…)
Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair previously gave testimony to an investigative panel of Parliament regarding the decision-making in/around the 2011 overthrow of Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi. Blair was acting as an intermediary trying to resolve the crisis. As a result of that testimony a transcript of a February 25th, 2011, phone call has also been released.
It is important to remember on the date of this phone call, the U.S. decision to intervene in Libya was very much undecided. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was working with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K Prime Minister David Cameron.
President Obama was specifically, and at the time, notoriously, absent from publicly commenting one-way or the other. Pressure was building on the White House to weigh in on the Libyan issue. The interventionist activity was the original construct of Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and Senior White House adviser Samantha Powers. (more…)
The devolution of Libya into the hands of radical Islamists has been going on ever since Hillary Clinton talked President Obama to war. History will show it was an Islamist Spring, not an Arab spring.
MISURATA, Libya — Iraqi commanders have been arriving from Syria, and the first public beheadings have started. The local radio stations no longer play music but instead extol the greatness of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
When the Libyan arm of the Islamic State first raised the group’s black flag over the coastal city of Surt almost one year ago, it was just a bunch of local militants trying to look tough.
Today Surt is an actively managed colony of the central Islamic State, crowded with foreign fighters from around the region, according to residents, local militia leaders and hostages recently released from the city’s main prison. (more…)
As this meeting takes place – France begins leveling Raqqa, for all intents and purposes the HQ, Capital of ISIS operations and the Islamic Caliphate.
UPDATE: So far 30 airstrikes have pounded #ISIS stronghold of #Raqqa. No end in sight.
— Conflict News (@Conflicts) November 15, 2015
Readers here will note the geopolitical partnership with President Obama and President Erdogan is based on their mutual friendship, very close friendship, and common ideological world view.
The mostly secular Muslim nation of Egypt took control (through general Fattah El-Sisi) of their nation and dispatched the Muslim Brotherhood (the political outreach division of ISIS). Several key leaders of the Brotherhood were exiled, they sought safety in Qatar. Jordan, Bahrain, and Saudi-Arabia eventually joined with Egypt and pressured Qatar to stop being a safe-haven for the Muslim Brotherhood and by extension ISIS.
Exiled yet again the five primary leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist network found a home in Turkey – where they remain today.
By action, not words, Recep Erdogan has shown he is in alignment with the Brotherhood, and their military apparatus that is now ISIS. Erdogan, head of a NATO nation, refused to allow NATO operations to launch in defense of the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds.
Erdogan refused to allow or assist coalition rescue operations to save the Yazidi people in Northern Iraq. Erdogan also strenuously and violently blocked any assistance from reaching Kurds during the siege of Kobane (Kobani).
This is the factually accurate and historic backdrop for the following: (more…)
We have discussed the potential for SAAMS (Surface to Air Missiles) MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense Systems) being used against passenger planes, specifically in the North Africa region, amid these pages for over 4 years.
ISIS is claiming responsibility for the loss of a Russian passenger aircraft killing 224 passengers and crew:
The Russian jet which crashed in Sinai killing all 224 people on board did not lodge an SOS call before it hit the ground, it has emerged.
[…] The Islamic State group affiliate in Egypt has claimed it downed the aircraft, but has not said how it might have done so. Cairo and Moscow, however, have denied any possible terrorism link in the incident, one of the deadliest Airbus crashes in the past decade. (link)
Here’s the case for how this can connect to the Libyan Uprising and Clinton’s Rebels.
In 2011 thousands of SAAM’s (Surface to Air Assault Missiles), and MANPADS went missing during the Libyan Islamist uprising. Some went West and South, further into Africa as noted by Chad’s President Deby (asking for help), and some went East into Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
These points are not disputed. They are widely accepted. Here’s a few data images from the 2011 time-period when these missiles went missing. (more…)
A recent article at Real Clear Politics hits on one of the key aspects of the Benghazi fiasco that recent media are hell-bent on hiding; Hillary Clinton, not President Obama, is actually the person responsible for the crisis in Libya.
Watching the House Select Committee on Benghazi hearings, it was interesting to note how no-one really went ‘there’ to give Clinton full ownership of the 2011 Libyan Intervention. So let’s review Clinton’s ownership.
It’s as if both congress and the media have forgotten those ridiculous 19-days in 2011 when Hillary was flying back-and-forth to meet with French Prime-Minister Sarkozy and plan their endeavors.
In the U.S. presidential adviser Samantha Power was bending Obama’s ear with declarations of a “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) the Eastern Libyan citizens from the boogie man narrative assigned to Gadaffi.
Meanwhile in New York, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was answering calls from her British and French counterparts who were similarly selling an interventionist message. Back in the White House, President Obama was reluctant to engage. It was Secretary Clinton working overtime to bring the President into the same line of thinking as herself. (more…)
When we wrote the Benghazi Brief we walked through almost two years of research data from February 2011 through September 2012. The brief describes the who’s, what’s, where, when and why of everything up to 9/11/12.
However, we did not have the specific “why” of the actual attack itself. Recent document releases fill in that aspect:
At 10:00am Eastern Time the House Select Committee on Benghazi will hold Hearing #4 – “The Testimony of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton”. (advisory)
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00am and may run until 6:00pm depending on depth of questioning. Here is a live Stream Link:
“I don’t recall” – In a world where journalists were in-tune with events and stories, and in a world where journalists were driven to tell the truth behind events, those three words from Speaker of the House John Boehner would have caused every DC reporter to grab their steno pads and head immediately to his offices.
Alas, few people beyond the inhabitants of the “new media world” (internet) have an understanding of how consequential those three intentionally obtuse words actually are.
“I don’t recall”…
Those words are massive when contrast against a March 2011 President Obama finding memo which authorized a covert State Dept./CIA operation in Libya. That operation ultimately culminated 18 months later in the Benghazi attack, Sept. 11th 2012.
Speaker of the House John Boehner is, as a consequence of his position, a member of what’s called the “Intelligence Gang of Eight”. The finding memo would begin a process where then CIA head, Leon Panetta, would have briefed the “Gang of Eight” because specific congressional leadership would have the automatic position of oversight for the operation.
Key word “OVERSIGHT” !
In 2011 the Congressional Gang of Eight was: (more…)
CBS is a good reference to show the media obfuscation attempts because CBS holds a vested self-interest in deflections around the various Benghazi narratives. You might remember it was Ben Rhodes who wrote the Benghazi talking points; Ben’s brother David is President of CBS News.
In addition, you might also remember it was CBS, via 60 Minutes, who withheld/embargoed a broadcast pre election 2012 where President Obama denied al-Qaeda’s terrorist involvement.
A claim Obama denied making in the Candy Crowley debate against his opponent Mitt Romney. CBS covered Obama’s ass allowing the lie to go undiscovered until after the November 2012 election. It was also CBS who refused to allow Sharyl Attkisson to continue investigative reporting on the Benghazi story.
Here’s the current presentation of the Elijah Cummings report by CBS: (more…)