There is a lot more to this story surrounding the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, A LOT MORE.

Hopefully by now you’ve been able to digest the revelations within “Operation Zero Footprint“.  If not, you might want to read this first before continuing.
The substantive issues with Khattala surround known associations in the lead up to September 11th 2012, and the almost simultaneous issues in Egypt around President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The explosive events in Egypt and Libya, leading up to the night of the Benghazi attack, cannot be detached from each other because the Islamist participants in the events are inherently linked.
Where the real story forks is how the Libyan crisis evolves immediately after the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12.  That’s where the arms shipment(s) to Syria via Turkey become the primary problem for the administration.
While Ahmed Abu Khattala carried out his role in the operation in Libya, he is of Egyptian origin and speaks with an Egyptian dialect.  His ideology and associations spring from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Top Row: Muhammed al-Zawahiri, Abu Khattala, The Blind Sheik
Middle Row: Cairo Protest 9/11/12 for Blind Sheik release, Egyptian President Morsi
Bottom Row: Morsi with Kerry, Morsi with Hillary, Morsi with Bill Clinton

I’m working on tying it all together so people can have a greater understanding of what role Khattala played not only in the Benghazi attacks, and why he was such a central figure to the Benghazi State Dept./CIA operatives, but how he was such a central figure in the years previous to carrying out the Ansar Al Sharia operation. (more…)

Sorry to be so cynical – – but against the backdrop of Ahmed Abu Khatallah’s arrest, and reports he is giving intel to interrogators, and knowing what White House risk is potentially present within that intelligence, it’s a little curious that half of the “Gang of Eight” would be summoned to the White House.

President Obama is notorious for ignoring congressional leadership.  As a matter of historical reference he *rarely* (twice in six years) summons them for conversation.   Consequently, amid the slow boat back from Benghazi, the transparency of this takes on a whole new meaning…

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama told Capitol Hill’s “Big Four” leaders Wednesday afternoon that he doesn’t intend to seek congressional authority for any action in Iraq.

Returning to the Capitol after huddling with Obama at the White House for about an hour, both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the president had pledged to keep Congress in the loop. But McConnell said that the president won’t ask lawmakers to weigh in on whatever course of action he chooses.
“We had a good discussion,” McConnell said, adding that Obama “indicated he didn’t feel he had any need for authority from us for steps that he might take. And indicated he would keep us posted.” (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – The United States told the U.N. Security Council early Wednesday that the suspected ringleader of a deadly 2012 attack on its diplomatic compound in Benghazi was planning more terrorist attacks specifically targeting Americans.
That alone justified his capture, U.S. authorities said.
In a letter obtained by Reuters early Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, notified the council of the capture on Sunday of Ahmed Abu Khatallah by U.S. special forces in Libya after an investigation identified him as a key figure in the 2012 attack that killed four Americans. (more…)

Yesterday, it was announced the Obama administration had moved on Sunday to arrest a Benghazi al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Abu Khattala.   Many people, including Fox’s James Rosen pointed particular questions to the State Dept. about “why now”?

As unbelievable as this might sound, the most likely answer has little to do with what’s currently being pondered as a motive for this administration, “squirrel”.    The reality is within the Bergdahl deal, and the GITMO-5 to Qatar, there is a far more likely reason.
Ahmed Abu Khattala is directly connected to the covert transfer of U.S. arms from Qatar to Libya in the initial 2011 decision to arm the Benghazi “rebels”.
Against the backdrop of recent discoveries about Qatar giving some of the aforementioned arms, specifically stinger missiles, to the Taliban in Afghanistan – Khattala became a risk of exposure to the White House.
They needed to throw a bag over him.
Bear with me through the complexity and I’ll outline the events with all citations included for reference.
On March 30th 2011 Reuters News Agency reported that President Obama had already signed a secret order authorizing the CIA to provide covert support to the Libyan opposition, an operation that would become known as “Zero Footprint”.

2011- U.S. officials also have said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, whose leaders despise Gaddafi, have indicated a willingness to supply Libyan rebels with weapons. (link)

Ultimately a joint decision between the State Department (Hillary Clinton) and CIA (Leon Panetta) [*Note General David Petraeus did not take the position until Sept 2011] was reached to use friendly nations as cover for direct shipment of U.S. arms into Libya as part of Operation Zero Footprint. (more…)

Because the lie is so solidified in the mind of the electorate, she has to keep repeating it – even when it seems absolutely absurd to do so.

“This was the fog of war. My own assessment careened from the video had something to do with it, the video had nothing to do with it. It may have affected some people. It may have not affected other people. I think the conclusion to draw is we were not just monitoring what was happening in Benghazi, but remember we also had a very dangerous assault on our embassy in Cairo.”

FLASH BACK TO 2012

(more…)

Against the backdrop of Obama’s bumbling Mid-East policy exploding on the Global Headlines, and considering Ahmed Abu Khattala had been living quite openly in Benghazi for the past two years, the timing of this arrest seems more than a little suspect.

Abu Khattala (pictured above)  spent two leisurely hours on Thursday evening at a crowded luxury hotel, sipping a strawberry frappe on a patio and scoffing at the threats coming from the American and Libyan governments.   (New York Times – 2012)

Abu Khattala was the commander of an Islamist militia group called the Abu Obaida bin Jarrah Brigade.  His Arabic dialect is of Egyptian origin, and it would be reasonable to assume he coordinated the Benghazi attack with his Egyptian counterparts.
Abu Khattala was/is closely associated with an Egyptian radical named Tarek Taha Abu Al-Azm. 
Azm is a terrorist operative in the Jamal network, ignored by Western Media yet within Egypt widely believed responsible for directing the Benghazi attack.  Azm, was formerly imprisoned in Egypt, and released by the Morsi government as soon the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power in the early spring of 2011.   
Occam’s Razor infers Abu Khattala (in Libya) collaborated with Abu Azm (network leader in Egypt) on the events of 9/11/12.  Azm spearheaded the Cairo Embassy protest under the auspices of the Blind Sheik release (which was fronted by Mohammed al-Zawahiri), while Khattala attacked the joint State Dept/CIA compound in Benghazi.   (more…)

I will admit to initially brushing off reports of ISIS directly attacking Baghdad.  It just doesn’t make strategic sense -even for a terrorist group- for them to bog down in such a metropolitan geography with the citizen majority against them.
However, considering the aspect of unconventional warfare, there is some serious PR value in cutting off Baghdad from the outside world and slowly eating away at their capability to maintain stability.
ISIS now controls the rivers and dams upstream which feed into, and maintain, the Baghdad water supply.   And this recent video shows ISIS moving -what appear to be- Iraqi “Type 59” field artillery guns toward the outer perimeter of Baghdad central.

Does anyone know what the effective range on these are ?   I count about 8 of them in the segment of the convoy recorded.  Generally, they would be used in a battery of four, with intermittent fire toward a singular objective.   But who knows….

VP/Kerry/Hagel/Holder/McDonough/Rice/Podesta/Power/Eggleston/Clapper/Brennan/Dempsey/Winnefeld/Blinken/Monaco/Rhodes/McGurk/Beecroft

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 17, 2014

• Vice President Joe Biden
• Sec. of State John Kerry
• Sec. of Defense Chuck Hagel
• Attorney General Eric Holder
• Chief of Staff Denis “fixer” McDonough
• Senior White House Foreign Policy Advisor Susan Rice
• Senior Advisor to the President John “skippy” Podesta  (representing Hillary Clinton’s interests)
• UN Ambassador Samantha Power
• White House Chief Legal Counsel Neil Eggleston
• Direction of National Security James Clapper
• Director of CIA John Brennan
• Chairman of Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey
• Vice-Chair Joint Chiefs Admiral James Winnefeld
• National Security Advisor Tony Blinkin
• Asst. To the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco
• White House Communications Director Ben Rhodes
• Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan, National  Security Council Brett McGurk
• U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Robert Stephen Beecroft

That's the list of who was in POTUS's Iraq options meeting tonight.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama told Congress on Monday the United States was deploying up to 275 military personnel to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the country’s embassy in Baghdad after militants seized control of the north of the country.

“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat,” Obama said in a letter to lawmakers. “This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.”   The president said he was notifying Congress under the War Powers Resolution (read more)

I guess Donilon, McDonough, Blinkin and Rhodes don’t have as much political confidence as they did with the Libyan R2P fiasco.  Then again, I’ve never been able to figure out the filter they use for application of the “Responsibility To Protect” doctrine…. 

To round up the basic positioning taking place within the U.S. administration vis-a-vi Iraq, it’s useful to look at similarly minded influential ideologues in and out of the current administration.   Once you understand the mindset of the fellow travelers you can predict what the White House will do.

We start with Mike Morell, and his current position.

All Politics All The Time – Mike Morell was the CIA interim replacement for General Petraeus after Benghazi (and the affair that took Petraeus out of the picture with the help of FBI [Eric Holder]).   Morell is a like-minded fellow traveler to Clinton/Obama and currently under Clinton employ while working for CBS.  Morell was the sympathetic receipient of WH Communication Director Ben Rhodes evolutionary talking points around Benghazi and defender of all things Hillary during Senate Hearings.

Remember too – as you watch this – Morell’s Benghazi cohort, Ben Rhodes, is the brother to current CBS News President, David Rhodes.   In addition to his Clinton employment, David Rhodes (CBS) employs Morell as a Senior Security Analyst:

So there, we essentially have the framework outlined this morning for the current White House position.

So, is that indeed the message the day delivers? (more…)