JORDAN – United Arab Emirates fighter planes roared out of an air base in Jordan on Tuesday to pound Islamic State militant positions, marking a return to combat operations by one of the United States’ closest Arab allies in the fight against the extremists.

The Emirates’ decision to launch fresh airstrikes from the kingdom after a hiatus of more than a month was a strong show of support for Western-allied Jordan, which has vowed a punishing response to the militants’ killing of one of its pilots.
It also is likely to quiet concerns in Washington about the oil-rich Emirates’ commitment to the fight. (more…)

D’oh, essentially Mueller was a victim of believing a life-long liberalist narrative where all dangers of the world can be eliminated if we just hug each other more.   Kayla’s ‘go give-em-hugs’ efforts led her to Syria, where ISIS appreciated  her naiveté, took her as a hostage and sold her to a militant commander to use as a war trophy.
(Via International Solidarity Movement) […] Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the popular committee in the village of Bil’in where Kayla joined the protests, told ISM: “Kayla came to Palestine to stand in solidarity with us. She marched with us and faced the military that occupies our land side by side with us. For this, Kayla will always live in our hearts. We send all our support to her family and will continue, like Kayla, to work against injustice wherever it is.”
Our hearts are with Kayla, her family, friends, and all those who have lost liberty, lives and loved ones in the global struggle for freedom and human rights.
With the ISM, Kayla worked with Palestinians nonviolently resisting the confiscation and demolitions of their homes and lands. In the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Occupied East Jerusalem, she stayed with the Al Kurd family to try and prevent the takeover of their home by Israeli settlers. (more…)

(Washington DC) A Muslim Brotherhood member who recently was hosted at the State Department along with several of the Islamist group’s key allies now claims that a White House official also was present in that meeting, according to recent remarks.

Abdel Mawgoud al-Dardery, a Brotherhood member and former Egyptian parliamentarian, was in the United States late last month along with a delegation of fellow Brotherhood leaders and allies.
The Brotherhood-aligned delegation caused an international stir after the Washington Free Beacon revealed that it had been hosted for a meeting with several State Department officials.
Another member of the group, a Brotherhood-aligned judge in Egypt, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom in which he held up the Islamic group’s notorious four-finger Rabia symbol. (more…)

The first reports of this surfaced several days ago.  It now appears the reports were accurate.  Kayla Mueller was separated from all other hostages and given to an ISIS militant commander as a trophy….
WASHINGTON – With the confirmed death of Kayla Mueller, new details have emerged about the American hostage’s experience in ISIS captivity, including the belief by some officials that she had been given over to a commander in the jihadi group.
“ISIS didn’t see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip,” a counter-terrorism official told ABC News.
“Reflections” in the limited collection of intelligence in Syria — like indirect indications of a person’s presence somewhere, such as ISIS fighters referring to her in calls or spotted guarding a sensitive site where she might have been held — indicated Kayla was still alive and sometimes in the company of an ISIS leader being actively tracked who had custody over her, possibly by forced marriage, officials told ABC News. (more…)

UPDATE: Damage-Control, Damage-Control, Damage-Control: Someone in the insufferable WH messaging team, probably Ben Rhodes, is trying to control the problem of the nation world laughing at them.

WH now says "Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism. POTUS didn't intend to suggest otherwise."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 10, 2015

At briefing earlier, @PressSec said shooting victims "were individuals who happened to randomly be in this deli."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 10, 2015

Beyond absurd – So far beyond absurd, the light from where absurd begins would not reach the White House for a year.
The flim-flam gang is in full spin mode today trying to reconcile with President Obama’s claim that the Islamist attack on the Jewish Market in Paris had nothing to do with Islamists targeting Jewish people. The absurdity starts with Josh Earnest and travels to the State Department.

Yes, finally someone seems to ‘get it’.   The current White House manipulative narrative around the Benjamin Netanyahu speech is entirely the result of Team Obama’s pride, ego and anger about the way Netanyahu was received during his May 24th 2011 speech:

If the Democrats are not careful they will expose their underlying hatred to the entire world…

JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will travel to Washington to speak before the U.S. Congress next month despite calls to cancel his speech.
His remarks Monday at an election rally come amid an uproar over his planned speech about Iran before Congress next month.
Netanyahu said: “A bad deal with Iran is forming in Munich that will endanger Israel’s existence. … Therefore I am determined to go to Washington and present Israel’s position before the members of Congress and the American people.” (more…)

If you thoroughly understand the history of THIS, and you have followed the events OUTLINED HERE, then this next report takes on a whole new dimension of concern.

(The Clarion Project) Muslim Brotherhood-linked television stations based in Turkey have been calling on supporters to use violent means in Egypt in an attempt to overthrow President Sisi and his army-backed government and return the country to Muslim Brotherhood rule.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated as a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The official Muslim Brotherhood representative in Turkey, Ashraf Abdulgaffar, made a similar call, advocating a policy of “an eye for an eye.” He said: “We are now in the retaliation phase. They [Sisi’s government] must taste pain, because there are traitors. My message to the Egyptian people is this: Stand firm and be ready for all sacrifices and prices to be paid.” (more…)

When you won’t admit you have an enemy, and you won’t admit who the enemy is, it goes without saying – You don’t have a “Strategy”, let alone have a possibility of success:

(New York Post) There wasn’t going to be any rescue mission for ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller.
Mueller’s parents asked the Obama administration to negotiate her release instead, Foreign Policy magazine reported, citing a military official familiar with the discussions.
Their wish appears to have run contrary to the stated US policy of never negotiating with terrorists.
ISIS claims the 26-year-old Arizona aid worker was killed Friday in a Jordanian attack near Raqqa in northern Syria, the ISIS capital. (more…)