President Obama’s ISIS combat strategy involved training, equipping and mobilizing what the administration called “Syrian Moderates”.   The overall ‘strategy’ has been an abject failure as the U.S. has been unable to assemble more than a few handfuls of forces who are willing to engage in such a tenuous plan.  However, today the plan, as poor in concept as designed, suffered a remarkable set-back. 

BAGHDAD — The commander of a group of Syrian fighters trained by the United States has been kidnapped by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, his group said in a statement Thursday.

The commander, Nadeem Hassan, and seven of his fighters were taken by the Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State in Syria, as they were returning from a meeting in Turkey.

A contingent of 54 fighters from Mr. Hassan’s group, known as Division 30, are the only ones who have graduated from a Pentagon program to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Syria. One the fighters taken with Mr. Hassan was his deputy, Farhan Al-Jasem, who commands the fighters who graduated from the American training program. (more…)

Sunlight is slowly creeping over the canopy of the treetops….

~ The Benghazi Brief ~

Judge Andrew Napolitano affirms The Benghazi Brief !

This is a pretty big effen’ deal, considering we have presented this outline for the past year in an effort to get media, any media, to follow, research and refute the content.

Judge Andrew Napolitano – In the course of my work, I am often asked by colleagues to review and explain documents and statutes. Recently, in conjunction with my colleagues Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, I read the transcripts of an interview Ms. Browne did with a man named Marc Turi, and Ms. Herridge asked me to review emails to and from State Department and congressional officials during the years when Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state.

What I saw has persuaded me beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress in a venue where the law required her to be truthful. Here is the backstory. (more…)

ISTANBUL — Turkish news agencies say that authorities have arrested two Georgian citizens who tried to enter the Turkey with radioactive material, including cesium.

State-run Anadolu Agency says a woman identified only as N.K., aged 43, and a man, I.A., 40, were arrested Friday at a border gate in northeastern Turkey. The agency said they entered by foot from Georgia and were acting suspiciously. A search found 1.2 kilos of the cesium.

Authorities later detained a 60-year-old Turk, and all three were brought to court.

The material was delivered to the Turkish Atomic Energy Board. (more…)

On August 28th 2014 President Obama said:  “We still don’t have a strategy against ISIS”

Today, June 8th 2015, Nine Months Later, President Obama says: “We don’t yet have a complete strategy to fight ISIS“:

How many rounds of golf has President Obama played in the last nine months? (more…)

WE NEED YOUR HELP – The mainstream media on both sides of the issue, but mostly on our side, are missing a key point when analyzing the latest release of Hillary Clinton e-mails and the topic of Libya in 2011.  We have exhaustively researched and presented a sourced and cited timeline for the Libyan folly throughout 2011 and 2012 – All covered in the Benghazi Brief.

Everyone is missing the late February 2011 Presidential Finding Memo, , signed by President Obama which authorized the covert CIA/State Department operation.

[…]  The Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.

Everyone is also missing – as a result of that directive the Intelligence Gang of Eight, which included Mike Rogers, was informed of the CIA/State Dept. goal. (more…)

Today Fox News is reporting confirmation that weapons from Benghazi were shipped to Syria. This affirms one of the essential elements outlined in our Benghazi Brief.

Documents Reveal Obama Admin Knew Terrorists Had Planned #Benghazi Attack 10 Days in Advance: http://t.co/nPGPakVBKH via @JudicialWatch

— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) May 18, 2015

The “Benghazi Brief” remains the most controversial research report we have ever produced. The brief contains over two years of research and hundreds of very specific citations supporting it.
The Brief has also been challenged and with extensive vetting factually withstood all scrutiny. The report, while exhaustive in detail, remains the strongest summary of events surrounding the two years leading up to the Benghazi Libya attack on 9/11/12.
We have repeatedly stated The Benghazi Brief, and ALL of the cited information contained therein, is available for use by anyone who has a goal of communicating the truth surrounding the controversial events. (more…)

(Via AP) The Pentagon says U.S. commandos have mounted a rare raid in eastern Syria, killing the Islamic State commander in charge of oil fields in a firefight and capturing his wife.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the raid Saturday, identifying the militant as Abu Sayyaf. He said no U.S. forces were killed or injured.
Syrian state media earlier reported government forces killed at least 40 IS fighters, including a senior commander in charge of oil fields, in an attack Saturday on the country’s largest oil field — held by IS.
It identified the commander as Abu al-Teem al-Saudi.
The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights confirmed an oil field attack, saying at least 19 IS members, including 12 foreigners, were killed. The group did not say who carried out the attack. (more…)

[…] An investigation led authorities to the four people and to raids at the Midamar Corporation, 1105 60th Ave. SW, which bills itself as a leading U.S.-based Halal food brand, and Pizza Daddy, 1539 First Ave. SE…

IOWA – […]  Three Cedar Rapids men and a woman were arrested and each had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Tuesday. They each face two charges of delivering a package or container to a common carrier without knowledge that it contains firearms and ammunition and conspiracy.

The defendants are: Ali Herz, 50; his brother, Bassem Herz, 29; his son, Adam Herz, 22; and Sarah Zeaiter, 24, the spouse of Bassem Herz. All told U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade they were U.S. citizens, except Zeaiter – she was born in Lebanon. Reade also said Zeaiter was unemployed, a “student” and had no assets, according to her financial affidavit for a public defender. Her co-defendants also appeared with public defenders. (more…)

Al Nusra is a front for, and has openly aligned with, al-Qaeda in Syria – which is essentially ISIS.

It is not a secret that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has tried to deliver the maximum benefit to ISIS (in Northern Syria) in direct opposition to the Kurds who are trying to formulate their own independent nation of Kurdistan. Erdogan views Kurdistan as a proxy for Irans’ growing sphere of influence.

Erdogan opposes Iran for many ideological reasons, but arguably most of all because he sees Iran’s growing influence as a threat to his own political ambitions to lead a new Ottoman Empire.

In my opinion Erdogan views his envisioned construct as most possible with a constituency of: ISIS, The Muslim Brotherhood, Al Nusra (al-Qaeda) and various other segments of Sunni Islam including the Palestinian Authority, vis-à-vis Hamas. Erdogan, like Obama, has more grand aspirations than his own territory – all of his prior behavior aligns with this perspective.

So it comes as no surprise to see Turkey’s Erdogan take the opportunity provided by the distractions of both Yemen and Iraq, to act against one of Iran’s benefactors in Syria, namely Assad. (more…)