A recent report into the inside contacts surrounding a Hamas / Israeli negotiated ceasefire confirms –with exact precision– what we predicted was happening at the time.

(Via WFB) Secretary of State John Kerry offered numerous times to fly to Cairo or Jerusalem to assist in cease-fire negotiations but was told that the sides “didn’t need American mediation,” according to an account of events by Haaretz.
Senior Israeli officials told Haaretz that Kerry offered to come to directly join the talks in each and every call during the attempted brokering of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas on Monday, but was “politely rejected” by all sides.
Egypt wanted to prove that it could play its traditional diplomatic role with regards to Gaza without U.S. assistance. Israel thought that a visit by Kerry would make it look like the United States pressured Israel to make a deal, which would have been a public relations victory for Hamas. (more…)

#BREAKING #Hamas armed wing rejects #Egypt ceasefire proposal as 'surrender': AFP

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) July 15, 2014

No doubt the fact that Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s Egyptian government was the peace-broker for this deal had something to do with Hamas refusal to engage. Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood despise el-Sisi.

BREAKING NEWS: Hamas reportedly rejects proposed Gaza cease-fire http://t.co/b9JgqwAznv

— Fox News Alert (@foxnewsalert) July 15, 2014

http://t.co/b9JgqwAznv

Al Marj is located just North of Benghazi on the road to Darnah…
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Faraj al-Shibli, who was suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been found dead, a Libyan source and locals in the town of Marj said.

Al-Shibli, whose name is also spelled Chalabi, was last seen being detained by local militia in Marj two days ago, a Libyan source said.

It is unclear what happened to al-Shibli since then, but his body was found on Monday in Marj, which is in eastern Libya.

  Locals in Marj also confirmed that al-Shibli’s body was found Monday.  (read more)

Cleaning up Zero Footprint ?

This question highlights the actual substance of the policy issue.
Who would be the best broker, considering each side’s position, for peace?

USA’s Obama/Kerry, or Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ?

[polldaddy poll=8185601]
(more…)

The dynamic and contrast could not be more stark.   The majority secular Egyptian people continue to spotlight freedom principles and identify terrorists as just that, terrorists.

Admittedly there are ideological elements inside Egypt, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood, which are aligned and supportive of Hamas.   Fortunately, they are in the minority and being diminished daily.   The bright light comes from the majority Egyptian people who worked diligently to remove the terror network from their own political constructs, and now continue to push back against the terror in surrounding countries, including Hamas. 
Egyptian people intelligently know who the terrorists are; they have lived through them. This makes them uniquely well skilled at putting the sunlight upon the shadow dwellers because they have lived through survived the propaganda.    In addition, were it not for the Western trained and secular Egyptian military, the Brotherhood would still rule over them.
Watching the evolution of Egypt in the past 4 years has been the single brightest ray of hope for a region severely lacking in it.    (more…)

(Via The Hill) A federal judge on Wendesday ordered that the suspected ringleader in the 2012 Benghazi attacks be held in prison without bond.

…“did knowingly and intentionally conspire and agree with other conspirators, known and unknown to provide material support and resources to terrorists, that is personnel including himself and others.”  (link)

Federal prosecutors said Ahmed Abu Khattala needed to be detained because of his extremist connections and his expressed desire to harm U.S. citizens.
“Given the defendant’s proclivity for violence as well as his ability to readily communicate with other similar-minded individuals, as demonstrated by his status as a commander of an extremist brigade, his detention is the only means available to neutralize that threat,” prosecutors said in a court filing late Tuesday.  (more…)

BREAKING NEWS: Benghazi terror suspect pleads not guilty http://t.co/b9JgqwAznv

— Fox News Alert (@foxnewsalert) June 28, 2014

WASHINGTON DC – Ahmed Abu Khatalla, the Libyan militant accused of directing the 2012 attack on Benghazi, was indicted Saturday on a charge that could lead to the death penalty, the Justice Department said.
Abu Khatalla pleaded not guilty on Saturday, the Associated Press said, after being flown to Washington by helicopter early Saturday morning and then taken to the federal courthouse. U.S. special forces captured him about two weeks ago, and authorities have since been questioning him offshore aboard the USS New York. (read more)

Note – interesting choice of venue to hold the Benghazi terror suspect “Washington DC”. 

WASHINGTON – Ahmed Abu Khatallah, one of the men accused the deadly Benghazi attack is now on U.S. soil, officials confirmed Saturday to Fox News.
Khatallah is being held at a federal courthouse in D.C. amid tight security, Department of Justice spokesman William Miller said.
Khatallah is accused of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Libya that lead to the deaths of former U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. (more…)

….Make sure you note the comments from C.A.P. (Center for American Progress).  For them to be critical of Obama’s Libya policy is ironic considering Denis McDonough, an institute fellow, was a central character in the policy used.
WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. diplomats arrived in Libya three years ago to a memorable reception: a throng of cheering men and women who pressed in on the startled group “just to touch us and thank us,” recalled Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser.
The Libyans were emotional because the U.S. and its allies had toppled leader Moammar Gadhafi in a military campaign that averted a feared slaughter of Gadhafi’s foes. Obama administration officials called the international effort, accomplished with no Western casualties, a “model intervention.”
But in three years Libya has turned into the kind of place U.S. officials most fear: a lawless land that attracts terrorists, pumps out illegal arms and drugs, and destabilizes its neighbors.
Now, as Obama considers a limited military intervention in Iraq, the Libya experience is seen by many as a cautionary tale of the unintended damage big powers can inflict when they aim for a limited involvement in an unpredictable conflict. (more…)

Apparently the four people killed were not his kind of “smidgens”…

However, if we can push the TRUTH behind the “BENGHAZI BRIEF” into the consciousness of the electorate and industrial media complex – there might be an opportunity to wipe that smidgen smirk off his face.

WASHINGTON DC – President Obama charged that his Republican opponents had “nothing to offer except cynicism and fear and frustration” during a fundraiser Thursday in Minnesota.
The fundraiser capped off a day Obama spent with Rebekah Erler, a working mother who wrote the president to detail her financial struggle.
“It moved me,” Obama said of the letter, adding that he only went into politics to help people like her. (more…)