It should be anticipated the Muslim Brotherhood will intensify calls for further attacks against Egyptian authorities – especially given the el-Sisi support for Israel’s efforts against Hamas.    The Brotherhood and Hamas are ideological brethren.   With Libya in a state of civil war and crisis, the Eastern Libya border to Egypt will be used by the severe Islamists as an incursion zone to attack.   

Remember the most hated man in the region (by the terrorists) is not Benjamin Netanyahu, it is Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi .  President el-Sisi has deconstructed the terror networks, arrested the brotherhood members, and jailed the violent extremists.

VIA BBC – Gunmen have killed at least 15 soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint in western Egypt, security officials say.

The attackers used grenade launchers and heavy machine guns when they attacked the desert post some 390 miles (630km) west of Cairo, officials said.  It is not yet clear who carried out the assault.  Militants have intensified a campaign against the security forces since the Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was ousted from power just over a year ago.  (link)
(more…)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A U.N. expert panel has concluded that a shipment of rockets and other weapons that was seized by Israel came from Iran and represents a violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran, according to a confidential report obtained by Reuters on Friday.
The finding comes just days ahead of the next round of negotiations in Vienna between Iran and six world powers aimed at securing a deal that would gradually lift international sanctions on Tehran — including the arms embargo — in exchange for curbs on the controversial Iranian nuclear program.
Despite Israel’s public statements that the seized arms were destined for Gaza — an allegation that Gaza’s governing Islamist militant group Hamas dismissed as a fabrication — the experts said the weapons were being sent to Sudan.
The experts do not speculate in the report about why the arms were being sent to Sudan, a country which Western diplomatic and intelligence sources have told Reuters has in the past been a conduit for Iranian arms shipments to other locations in Africa, as well as the Gaza Strip. (more…)

….which begs the obvious question:  Then why the heck would you go on TV and tell the kidnappers you know where they are ?

(Via Fox News) Nigeria’s defense chief is claiming that the country’s military has located nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists but cannot go in with force to free them.

Air Marshal Alex Badeh told demonstrators supporting the country’s much criticized military on Monday that Nigerian troops can save the girls, according to The Associated Press. But he added, “we can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.” (more…)

I’m going to outline the soup to nuts case of an Iran-Contra type weapons program that ultimately is at the heart of why President Obama and Secretary Clinton went to such lengths to cover-up the Benghazi operations. [context matters – sorry about the length.  /SD]

In December 2011 the New York Times published an article outlining the U.S. State Department initiative to buy shoulder fired missiles (MANPADS) away from the “rebels” in Libya.   (Story Here)

In February 2012 the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro said:

“Once the stalemate broke [in Libya] and the fighting rapidly shifted in the [Libya’s Transitional National Council] TNC’s favor in August, we immediately deployed a State Department expert from the MANPADS Task Force to Benghazi.

Mark Adams, who you will hear from shortly on the panel, is the head of our MANPADS Task Force and spent considerable time on the ground in Libya … The initial primary objective was to reach an agreement with the TNC to set up a MANPADS control and destruction program that would enable us to set up what we call our Phase I efforts. Phase I entailed an effort to rapidly survey, secure, and disable loose MANPADS across the country. To accomplish this, we immediately deployed our Quick Reaction Force, which are teams made up of civilian technical specialists”.   (link)

Ultimately, The question for the Gowdy Special Committee is what were we doing with those missiles we were purchasing?   Where did they go ?   Was that operation the entire construct of the joint State Dept/CIA objective in Benghazi?…  And if so, was the missile capture an Iran-Contra type weapons scheme to divert missiles from Libya, through Turkey, into the hands of the Syrian “rebels”.

THAT is the substantive issue the Special Committee should seek. (more…)

If Eli Lake leaves the Daily Beast you will see this level of exposition stop immediately.  Despite his leftist leanings on the subject of Libya and Islamic extremism Mr. Lake is perhaps the most accurate of all reporters on the specifics.  We  give him props for swimming against the tide of his colleges and outlining the falsehoods present in the Obama ‘head-in-the-sand’ hypocrisy around Islam.  -SD

(Via Eli Lake – Daily Beast) In 2012, the Obama administration produced a draft National Intelligence Estimate that reached a surprising conclusion: al Qaeda was no longer a direct threat to America. That classified assessment, which has never before been publicly disclosed, was in keeping with the message coming from the White House. President Obama rode to re-election in 2012 partly on the success of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. At rallies and in press conferences, the president and top officials publicly said al Qaeda was on the run.

But some senior U.S. intelligence officials, like Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Flynn, fought hard against that assessment, which amounted to an official pronouncement of the American intelligence community’s collected wisdom. Flynn and his faction won a partial victory, striking the judgment that the terrorist group no longer posed a threat to the homeland. “Flynn and others at the time made it clear they would not go along with that kind of assessment,” one U.S. intelligence officer who worked on the al Qaeda file told The Daily Beast. “It was basically: ‘Over my dead body.’” (more…)

Nigeria – At least 118 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two bomb blasts that caused buildings to collapse in a crowded market area of the Nigerian city of Jos, authorities say.

The massive car bombs on Tuesday, just a few minutes apart, were the latest in a deadly wave of bombings across Nigeria over the past few weeks, raising fears that the extremist group Boko Haram has become powerful enough to expand its terrorist operations far outside its traditional strongholds and into new regions of the country. (link)

Remember, this falls on the heels of over 300 killed last week, and 200 killed and/or wounded in a bombing the week just prior to that.

JOS, Nigeria — Two car bombs exploded at a bustling bus terminal and market in Nigeria’s central city of Jos on Tuesday, and police said at least 46 were killed and dozens were wounded.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the twin car bombs, but they bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group.

The second blast came half an hour after the first, killing some of the rescue workers who had rushed to the scene that was obscured by billows of black smoke.

Dozens of bodies and body parts were covered in grain that had been loaded in the second car bomb, witnesses said. A Terminus Market official said he helped remove 50 casualties, most of them dead. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to give information to reporters. (more…)

Libya is on “the brink of civil war,” Col. Mukhtar Farnana, a prominent commander from Zintan, said in a televised statement, which he said was from the command of the self-declared Libyan National Army.  (link)

In March of 2011 Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power and Susan Rice, together with President Obama, made a specific decision to arm a group of unknown “rebels” in Benghazi Libya.    Those “rebels” were al-Qaeda faction Islamists.

Both the CIA and the Pentagon were against the decision.  Obama and Clinton ignored their advice and chose to send small arms, weapons and portable missiles to the region.

Today the Libyan National Army tried yet again to engage the radical Islamists and crack down on the lawless Eastern Tribal area.   However, the al-Qaeda militants are using those very same U.S. provided weapons (from Hillary and Co.) to fight.   Yes, there’s an Irony there. 

After the initial attack in Benghazi, the fighting quickly spread West to Tripoli where various elements of the Eastern Libyan islamists movement have embedded ready to start a civil war. 

These developments should be watched very closely.  If things escalate, the White House will be *tweeking* because of the political risk….   

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Fierce fighting swept across the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday, a short time after armed men stormed the country’s interim parliament. The violence appeared to be some of the worst since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

At least two people were killed and 66 were injured, according to the Health Ministry.

Residents of Tripoli rushed home Sunday evening. One Libyan who spoke to CNN reported seeing shop owners quickly closing up.

State media LANA reported that lawmakers had already left for the General National Congress when that attack happened as the session was over for the day. Armed men blocked the road that led to the parliament, LANA said, blocking members’ access to their offices. (more…)

• CAIR petitioning Sudanese Government for release/leniency, right ?

• Democrats and Liberals protesting 24/7 outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington DC right ?

• Hollywood has begun a social media / #hashtag campaign, right?  (I mean what good is #BanBossy if..)

• Millions of Moderate Muslims around the world are expressing outrage, right ?

What’s that?    Yeah, thought so…   

(Christian Post) A pregnant Christian woman sentenced to death for apostasy in Sudan will be allowed to give birth before being hanged for apostasy.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, was born to a Muslim father but was raised a Christian by her mother after he walked out on the family when she was just six years old.

She was sentenced to hang for apostasy after marrying a Christian man and was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes for adultery because the court determined that her marriage to a Christian man from South Sudan was void under Islamic law. (more…)

(White House)  Hello everyone, I’m Michelle Obama, and on this Mother’s Day weekend, I want to take a moment to honor all the mothers out there and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

I also want to speak to you about an issue of great significance to me as a First Lady, and more importantly, as the mother of two young daughters.

Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night. (more…)