Stunningly, Piers Morgan pens an Op-Ed in the Daily Mail today asking: ‘when are people going to begin listening to Donald Trump about Islamic Terrorism’ (link).  However, Morgan stops short of explaining why Trump’s proposals make more sense than anyone else.

For decades the Western World, and the U.S. specifically, have approached The Islamic Jihad as a problem the non-Islamic local and global community can solve. If only we can attract enough Muslim allies to join us in the ideological fight.

It doesn’t work.

The emphasis is on the wrong syllable.

It’s time for a reset.

(more…)

♦ Corrupt progressive union officials control the ports and transit hubs of Oregon.  ♦ This is the same type of missile recently admitted as being “accidentally” shipped to Cuba.  ♦ In a little discussed 2014 article, the Obama administration announced they were sending 5,000 of these missiles to Iraq.  ♦ Is it possible these sketchy transfers are lining up to be a similar problem evidenced in Operation Zero Footprint?

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Serbia’s authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for the U.S. containing two missiles with explosive warheads was found on a passenger flight from Lebanon to Serbia.

N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at Belgrade airport.

Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland, Oregon. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms. (more…)

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…)

There’s no way these media reports are accidental or not directly connected.  And none of this looks the least bit good against the larger dynamic of the Syrian crisis and President Stompy Feet’s prior position on ISIS.

Yesterday, well, actually Friday, the release of the information was yesterday, Vice-President Joe Biden met in Turkey with President Recep Erdogan.  They met for several hours as reported in The Hill and the topic was an escalated U.S./Turkish military footprint against ISIS :

Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the U.S. and regional ally Turkey are prepared to seek a military solution in Syria to try to solve the nation’s five-year-long civil war.

Speaking after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul, Biden stressed that a political solution to the problem would still be preferable.

“But we are prepared if that’s not possible to having a military solution to this operation and taking out Daesh,” he said, according to AFP, using another name for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

(more…)

[…]  We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

“We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals,” Kirby added, without providing details about their number or the circumstances of their disappearance. (link)

(Independent) Three Americans have been kidnapped by militants in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad.

According to Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, well-informed sources in Baghdad have confirmed that the kidnapping took place in the south of the city on Sunday.

The US State Department confirmed it was aware of the reports, and said it was working with Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the missing Americans.  The identities of the kidnap victims or the militias have not yet been confirmed.

The reported kidnapping comes at a time of increased tensions between the predominantly Shia militias of southern Iraq and US-backed Saudi Arabia, following the latter’s execution of prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. (link)

There is a lot of serious discussion squished into this interview with former Director of Intelligence Michael Flynn.  However, that said, the larger umbrella issue is summarized near the end – President Obama’s ideological willful blindness to the larger threat presented by ISIS.

This interview reminded me of  previously encapsulated question:

If President Obama did not want to see ISIS destroyed, what would he be doing differently?

Russia leverages the terror-threat-vulnerability of France to take up measures supporting Putin’s strategic goals in Syria… and it works flawlessly.  Meanwhile President Obama is stomping his feet mad that Islam is being attacked and his only ally in support of the Islamic State is BFF Erdogan…

RUSSIA – The United Nations has called the states to fight “a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security” which is Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL, Da’esh). All 15 members of the UN Security Council voted to adopt the French-proposed resolution.

The resolution “calls upon member states that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures … on the territory under the control of ISIL … in Syria and Iraq.”

IS “constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security,” the resolution says.

Russia has repeatedly called for action to cut the terrorists’ financial lifelines, with President Vladimir Putin revealing on Monday that IS is receiving funding from 40 countries. (more…)

U.S. Special Forces helped rescue 70 ISIS hostages facing “imminent mass execution” early Thursday morning at a prison near Hawijah, Iraq, but one American service member was killed in the operation. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook provided the following statement:

Early today in Iraq, at the request of the Kurdistan Regional Government, U.S. Special Operations Forces supported an Iraqi Peshmerga operation to rescue hostages at an ISIL prison near Hawijah, Iraq.

This operation was deliberately planned and launched after receiving information that the hostages faced imminent mass execution. It was authorized consistent with our counter-ISIL effort to train, advise, and assist Iraqi forces.

The U.S. provided helicopter lift and accompanied Iraqi Peshmerga forces to the compound. Approximately 70 hostages were rescued including more than 20 members of the Iraqi Security Forces. Five ISIL terrorists were detained by the Iraqis and a number of ISIL terrorists were killed as well. In addition, the U.S. recovered important intelligence about ISIL. (more…)

I did not see the CBS 60 Minutes interview with President Obama; so I set about going to look for it.  Before going to CBS’s website I stopped by U-Tube to see if there was an encapsulated segment.

Fortuitously I discovered this presentation.  While it is not the entire interview, it is well worth the watch for greater foxhole-morale value.  Not only is the commentary quite funny, it also provides further evidence that there are many people who understand the situation and feel the same way.  (Salty Language Alert)

NPR has received some preliminary examples of the type of analyst intelligence that was skewed to create a more favorable opinion of President Obama’s foreign policy approach toward ISIS.
In one example the following is noted:

[…]  A military source described the evolution of one report that came out of CENTCOM’s intelligence shop. It was a dispatch on an ISIS attack in Iraq near the Syrian border. The initial CENTCOM report read, “Iraqi forces retreated.” It was sent back for reworking, the source said. Eventually that report came to read that the Iraqi forces had not retreated, but instead had reinforced another Iraqi position. The final draft suggested a strategic decision had been made. But that was not what happened, the source said — the Iraqi forces ran. A second source confirmed the account of the change in wording to put the Iraqi forces in a more positive light. (read more)

In what appears to be a profound sense of professional obfuscation, the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Lloyd Austin, told congress that despite the revisions and/or manipulations currently being investigated by the inspector general, the intelligence did not go directly to President Obama. (more…)