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…)

It’s an interesting interview from the perspective of direct questions.
What are your thoughts?

If you’ve been wondering why the progressive side of the political continuum have been a little soft on the terror group ISIS in Syria/Iran, you only need to look at what they do when ISIS takes control of a municipality.
A strong argument can be made that ISIS leaders are merely Mid-east variants of Bloomberg, Clinton and Obama type progressives.

• Nanny Statist Bloomberg wants laws to ban soda freedom to advance physical health;   Nanny ISIS invokes strict non-alcohol laws to advance physical health.

• Nanny Statist Michelle Obama want laws to control school lunch menus for the health of the collective;  Nanny ISIS invokes strict no-smoking laws for the health of the collective.

https://twitter.com/MsIntervention/statuses/477052551213613056
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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

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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…. 

Remember what we shared before? CLICK HERE

Sometimes you just have to shake your head:

U.S. and Iran hold “very brief discussions” about Iraq and ISIS threat, State Department spokeswoman tells CNN. http://t.co/vE9Sr9IDMn

— CNN International (@cnni) June 16, 2014

State Official emphatic that US won't engage in military coordination or strategic determinations with Iran about Iraq’s future.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 16, 2014

There is a MASSIVE amount of speculation about the actual capability of ISIS to engage effectively in combat operations.

It is prudent to pause for a moment.

While we certainly don’t know the composition of the forces that might now be aligned with ISIS, it’s a bit of a stretch to say they would be capable of effectively using advanced technological military weaponry; the key word is “effectively”.

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Y’all already know the topic of this captured moment.  However, in case anyone needs a reminder (more…)