Imho, it all tracks back to Syria.
"Fears in Iraq that ‘Maliki will not go quietly’; Iran seen as key in pressuring prime minister" by Liz Sly | Washington Post June 21, 2014
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not readily surrender power and is unlikely to do so unless chief ally Iran insists that he go, Maliki’s foes and supporters are warning as pressure mounts on the embattled Iraqi leader to make concessions to rivals or step aside.
Yeah.
Look at the WaPo lay all of this at the feet of Iran now. That's the help they want. Tell "your guy" to go or it's all Iran's fault. What delicious spin.
The pressure intensified Friday with an appeal by Iraq’s most revered Shi’ite cleric for the swift formation of a new government capable of uniting Iraqis against the threat posed by Sunni militants who have seized large chunks of Iraqi territory over the past 10 days.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani did not directly mention Maliki, but he called for the creation of a government that has ‘‘broad national support,’’ a clear reference to Maliki’s failure to win the confidence of the country’s Sunnis during his eight years in office. The message was delivered by his representative Ahmed al-Safi in the holy city of Karbala.
Sistani’s message echoed one delivered by President Obama on Thursday that hinted at a withdrawal of US support for Maliki, whose authoritarian style and discriminatory behavior toward Iraq’s Sunni minority are widely blamed for the bloodshed threatening to tear the country apart.
Narrative received.
‘‘Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis,’’ Obama said while announcing the dispatch of as many as 300 US troops to assist Maliki’s forces in their battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria extremist group.
He said NO TROOPS!
He sent them to help(?) when they were meeting in secret and hoping to get rid of him?
SOP for the CIA and all the rest, the big double cross whenever expedient, to hell with the consequences.
Persuading Maliki to step down could be difficult, say his political foes, who have long sought to persuade the United States that Maliki is a liability but have repeatedly failed to form a viable coalition against him.
‘‘This is not going to be easy,’’ said Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni who has led many fruitless efforts to build parliamentary coalitions against Maliki in the past. ‘‘Maliki will not go quietly.’’
Previous bids to oust Maliki through constitutional means have foundered on the inability of his foes to unite around an alternative candidate. According to the parliamentary system of government spelled out in Iraq’s constitution, drawn up under US supervision in 2005, whoever commands a majority of seats in the Parliament forms the government, making it theoretically possible to replace any leader by mustering the support of enough lawmakers.
Oh, "WE" are responsible for this MESS!
A bigger obstacle to forcing Maliki’s departure, however, could be the support of Iran, which has shown no sign that it is preparing to dilute its backing for the prime minister. The support includes funding and training for the private militias that back Maliki, many of whose members have taken to the streets in recent days in response to a call to arms.
Uh-hmmmm.
‘‘The only outside power that could get rid of Maliki is Iran,’’ said Kenneth Pollack of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. ‘‘And even if the Iranians decided they wanted him out, I am not sure they could do it. Maliki has the loyalties of the security forces and the loyalty of the militias, and it is going to be extremely hard to get rid of him.’’
Wasn't he one of the lead liars and experts way back in the 1990s and leading into the 2003 invasion? I seem to recognize the name? WTF is with the dragging out of all the discredited neo-cons and their astute advice? Puzzler.
The question of replacing Maliki is timely because his second four-year term has expired. Elections in April produced a new Parliament, and the constitution says a new government must be formed with the support of a majority of the 328 new lawmakers.
The question is one of growing urgency because there is a constitutional vacuum in the country. Within days of the Islamic State’s seizure of the northern city of Mosul, the current Parliament’s mandate expired.
Thus the amount of print and attention it has recently received.
Until the new one meets, Maliki is effectively governing unchecked by any law or oversight, and that is raising concerns about a continued concentration of power.
It's funny, because there are really no concerns about the same situation on these shores.
In an example of how he can use the vacuum to increase his hold on power, Maliki announced salaries Thursday for the mostly Shi’ite volunteers who have flocked to private militias in recent days, responding to a call from Sistani to confront Islamic State militants.
Sistani, a moderate who is regarded as the world’s most influential Shi’ite figure, expressed remorse in his Friday address for earlier remarks seen as inspiring the rush to arms by Shi’ites.
The appeal ‘‘was not only about one sect,’’ he said.
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Another mouse created by the U.S.:
"ISIS militants capture key Syrian town" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press June 21, 2014
BEIRUT — A powerful truck bomb exploded Friday in a government-held village in central Syria, killing at least 34 civilians and wounding more than 50, as an Al Qaeda breakaway group captured a major town to the east, near the Iraqi border, activists said.
I just finished a Syrian sweep, so go scroll.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria stormed the town of Muhassan on the Euphrates river after rebels from the Western-backed Supreme Military Council defected to the jihadi group, activists said. The village is in the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour where the Islamic State has been on the offensive since late April against rival jihadi and Islamist groups.
Yeah, whatever. Getting their butts beat, and yet.... SIGH!
Any wonder, really, why I am so sick of this after more than a decade?
The capture of Muhassan, about 60 miles from the Iraqi border, and two nearby villages, comes a week after the group swept across wide areas in northern and central Iraq, capturing that country’s second largest city of Mosul, and carving out a large region straddling the border.
So we were told, but then again, I was told they were heading towards Baghdad before stalling. And no word on the oil refinery today?
‘‘The capture of Muhassan is one of the biggest victories for the Islamic State in Deir el-Zour because it is home of the main center of the military council in the province,’’ said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
An activist based in the province who goes by the name Abu Abdullah said residents told him that Islamic State fighters raised their black flags around the town. He added via Skype that many of the rebels in Muhassan expressed loyalty to the group.
The Islamic State’s seven-week offensive in Deir el-Zour against rival groups including the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham has killed more than 640 people and uprooted at least 130,000, according to activists.
Winning over the locals, huh?
Earlier Friday, state news agency SANA said the truck bomb exploded in Horrah village in the countryside near the central city of Hama. It quoted an unnamed official in the Hama police command as saying that the truck was loaded with about three tons of explosives.
The attack ‘‘caused the destruction of a large number of houses and buildings in the village,’’ the report said.
But it was done by the "good terrorists," so that's you know.
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And you know mice; where there is one there are many, and they get in everything:
"Lebanese capture 12 ISIS members; Men accused of plotting death of political figure" by Anne Barnard and Mohammad Ghannam | New York Times June 21, 2014
BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces detained 12 men in a Beirut hotel Friday in what local news media reported was a move to capture members of the Sunni militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who were suspected of plotting to assassinate a leading Shi’ite political figure.
What you have here, obscured by the Jew York Times, is the hand of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon.
Security forces blocked off numerous streets in Hamra, the main commercial district of West Beirut, and surrounded the Napoleon Hotel. Outside the hotel, in a neighborhood of narrow streets full of shops, apartments, and midrange hotels, dozens of armed security officers forced pedestrians off the streets, then led 12 men, their heads covered, out of the hotel.
According to Lebanese news channels, security forces were still hunting down other militants believed to be at large in the Hamra neighborhood. The channels said that the militant cell comprised mostly foreigners, including Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, and others, and that as many as 17 men had been arrested or were being sought.
Earlier Friday, the Amal movement, a Shi’ite political party, canceled a conference at a United Nations building downtown, citing security concerns. NOW Lebanon, a local news website, reported that the Islamic State members arrested were suspected of planning to assassinate Amal’s leader, the Parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, and Major General Abbas Ibrahim, the commander of Lebanon’s general security agency.
Amal is an ally of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite party and militant group that has provided decisive military help to President Bashar Assad of Syria against insurgents, including Sunni jihadist groups.
As the events unfolded in Beirut, there were reports of a suicide car bombing at a Lebanese army checkpoint on the main Beirut-Damascus highway in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. Lebanon’s Interior Ministry announced that two members of the security forces were killed and at least six were among the many wounded in the bombing.
The authorities said they were investigating whether the Bekaa car bomb had been an attempt to target Ibrahim.
The Islamic State’s members have been threatening for months to expand their campaign to establish an Islamic state into Lebanon, and Syrian insurgents have threatened a new wave of attacks on Hezbollah-related targets after the group helped push them out of areas in Syria close to the Lebanese border in the past several months.
I'm sure the butchering and murdering of people will swing them to your side.
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"Turmoil in Iraq is pushing up US gasoline prices" by Jonathan Fahey | Associated Press June 20, 2014
NEW YORK — Violence in Iraq is helping to make gasoline in the United States more expensive, depriving drivers of the usual price break between Memorial Day and July Fourth.
That, and the Fed printing pre$$ that keeps on printing. Ever notice inflation is always caused by anything and everything but that in my banker's paper?
Global oil prices have risen 5 percent since insurgents took over two Iraqi cities.
The US average price of $3.68 per gallon is the highest for this time of year since 2008, the year gasoline hit its record high. The good news is that gasoline is not likely to spike above $4, as it did 6 years ago, experts say, or even cross $3.90, as in 2011 and 2012.
Not likely, but you never know! They have been wrong more often than not!
‘‘You are going to pay a little more than we thought you were going to pay,’’ said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service and GasBuddy.com. ‘‘But you are not going to see any apocalyptic numbers.’’
Gasoline prices typically fall in the weeks after Memorial Day.
So who will benefit, manufactured crisis or no?
**************
This year, the average has risen every day for a week and is now higher than it was on Memorial Day — with more increases sure to come.
A 10-cent rise costs a typical driver only an extra $1.50 to fill up a tank, but if that rise is sustained over a year it costs the US economy $13.5 billion.
Yeah, it's no big deal when they are picking your pocket at the pump, but the big pile it's $ucked into that the get to play with..... now it's a problem that needs addre$$ing.
The average gas price so far this year, however, is still 5 cents cheaper than it was last year over the same period.
Oh, yay!
Even before violence in Iraq broke out, gasoline prices were falling more slowly than expected because of rising US fuel demand and maintenance at some Gulf Coast refineries that reduced output.
Uh-huh.
None of Iraq’s oil fields have been targeted, and oil exports have continued to flow. But Iraq is OPEC’s second-largest exporter, so concern that oil production might be affected has been enough to send oil prices up $6 to about $115 per barrel.
The average price of gas rose 3 cents per gallon during the past week, and analysts expect more increases over the next couple of weeks.
In many countries, gasoline prices are subsidized, so drivers don’t see the effects of price changes quickly.
Why can't I live in one of those?
Instead, my nation $ub$idizes the oil and gas companies!
In other nations, especially in Europe, fuels are taxed so heavily that a moderate change in the underlying price is hardly noticed.
I gue$$ they are used to the gas nozzle up the ass.
Analysts note that the global market is well-supplied with oil and fuels. Morgan Stanley wrote in a recent report that the potential for a significantly higher sustained oil price was ‘‘limited without a major disruption’’ and that ‘‘the conflict will likely be contained primarily North of Baghdad, limiting the impact on oil exports.’’
Really? I was told they lost their biggest refinery.
But the US national average will probably soon surpass this year’s high of $3.70 per gallon, set April 28. Kloza thinks it may get close to last year’s high of $3.79. And the chances of it crossing $4? ‘‘The [last-place] Mets have a better chance of winning the World Series.’’
They have not been eliminated from wild card contention yet, and won't be for months.
Remember the Miracle Mets of the 1970s?
The GAS LINES of the time could be coming back, too!
I can predict violence in the lines, and government declaring martial law. Cui bono?
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Remember so long ago when we were told taking over Iraq would give us cheap gas for decades to come?
"Condoleezza Rice makes speech in Vt." by Wilson Ring | Associated Press June 20, 2014
NORTHFIELD, Vt. — Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the United States must continue to lead the world because it represents an ideal of democracy.
The arrogance of these people along with the dogma is sickening.
Rice, one of the architects of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, told a crowd at Norwich University that the United States should use counterterrorism operations, including the possible use of aerial drones, to keep the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria from making territorial gains.
Makes her a war criminal then.
‘‘We do not want these people in charge of a swath of land the size of Indiana,’’ said Rice, national security adviser and secretary of state under George W. Bush.
But Rice also noted the country’s appetite for military operations in Iraq is not strong.
‘‘I understand Americans are not going to support boots on the ground,’’ she told the crowd, many of whom are military officers attending an on-campus residency as part of Norwich’s College of Graduate and Continuing Studies.
We got 'em anyway.
Rice said the invasion of Iraq was not meant to promote democracy, but to prevent Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction, even though none were found.
What's that?
In retrospect, she said, it was a mistake for the United States to try to rebuild Iraq from Baghdad outwards after Hussein was toppled.
But the mass-murdering exercise based on lies she was out front in telling was not.
What a MONSTER!
Rice was initially shouted down by protesters before they were removed from the venue.
It was just nice seeing the sentence.
Related: "Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Saturday backed out of delivering the commencement address at Rutgers University after protests by some faculty and students over her role in the Iraq War. Rice said she informed Rutgers president Robert Barchi that she was declining the invitation to speak at the May 18 ceremony (AP)."
She went to Vermont, huh?
‘‘Democracy is noisy,’’ Rice quipped.
Yeah, she's real funny.
She said the United States has to lead, not just because of its military and economic might, but because of its democratic ideals.
And we will overthrow anyone who doesn't think so!
‘‘Democracy takes time,’’ she said. ‘‘We more than anyone need to be patient’’ with those who are embarking on the path to self-governance.
I have been patient for over ten years, lady, so shove it!!
She called President Vladimir Putin of Russia ‘‘a humiliator and an intimidator’’ who is using all means to restore Russia to the greatness of the now-defunct Soviet Union. The danger is Putin’s actions could collide with the interests of countries of the former Soviet Union the United States is committed to defending.
‘‘He has to be stopped,’’ Rice said of Putin.
You are a pip-squeak compared to him.
Norwich University spokeswoman Daphne Larkin said after the event that eight protesters were escorted from the field house. No one was arrested.
God bless 'em!
Crystal Zevon of Barre said she was one of the people escorted from the event.
‘‘We feel that Condoleezza Rice led us into one illegal war, and had that not happened, we wouldn’t be beating the drums of war that are being beaten right now to go back into Iraq,’’ Zevon said.
Yeah, her and the whole war criminal Bush cabinet.
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That item was placed at the bottom of page B12 in my printed paper, below the obituaries. Seems appropriate since Condi's lies led to graves of millions of Iraqis and thousands of Americans and other foolish allies.
I never wish it on anyone; however, since I have no control over events regarding heaven and hell we can only hope to one day see her in the grave -- although I will settle for a permeant room at the hotel Gitmo she helped create. NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Sunnis, army expand offensives in Iraq; Fighting spreads broadly over the north and west" by Rod Nordland | New York Times June 22, 2014
BAGHDAD — The violent struggle over Iraq on Saturday consumed cities and towns widely spread over the north and west of the country, with both Sunni militants and the Iraqi Army claiming gains.
An Iraqi security official and eyewitnesses, meanwhile, said a deadly gun battle near Kirkuk had broken out between two of the most powerful Sunni militant groups.
Just like in Syria.
The battle, they said, pitted the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which is leading the battle with the Shi’ite-dominated government, against its Ba’athist allies and left 17 dead, according to the official.
In Baghdad, the day’s violence had a more familiar sectarian cast.
Yes, it's nice to settle into the same old script.
A bomb exploded in a market in the predominantly Shi’ite Zafaraniya area, killing four shoppers. Three hours later, two men were found dumped nearby, handcuffed and shot to death. The victims were most likely Sunnis since the area is controlled by Shi’ite militiamen.
It's the same old strategy we have seen time and again, and I'm no longer buying. Someone is trying to instigate a situation.
Elsewhere, the battles were between government supporters and the Sunni militants trying to press forward with their offensive.
Been a week now, and I know they are consolidating and all that, but....
In the insurgent-held city of Tikrit, in Salahuddin province, the morgue at the hospital reported that it had received 84 bodies of police officers, soldiers and government employees who had been executed. Seven of them had been beheaded, according to an official there who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Why did Vietnam-era body counts suddenly enter my head? I guess the insurgents are winning. NYT says so.
In western Anbar province, two more towns fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, near the border town of Qaim, which fell to the rebels Friday.
A local government leader, Muthana al-Rawi, said the two towns taken Saturday, Ana and Rawah, were captured after troops and police officers fled Qaim and “sleeper cells of the militants showed up to fill the gap and take control.”
Hmmm.
Eyewitnesses from another border town, Al Waleed, said the Syrian air force had bombed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria troops on the Iraq side who were trying to capture it as well.
U.S. thanked them for the help, right?
If Al Waleed fell, that would leave the Iraqi government without control of a single border crossing to Syria and would deal a blow to both Syria and Iraq.
A two-fer! And who benefits at bottom, really? That Shi'ite crescent and triumvirate dissolves.
The ISIS has been fighting the Syrian government for months and a loss of control over the border would allow the militants to move its fighters and equipment more freely between the two countries.
The ISIS is trying to create an Islamic caliphate in a vast area of both countries, wiping out the border in between.
Hey, that's what this government has done down South.
The government also said it was still battling to hold on to the Beiji oil refinery, the country’s biggest, not far from Kirkuk, and to retake the town of Tal Afar.
Oh, I was told they lost it.
The prime minister’s top military spokesman, General Qassim Atta, gave a news briefing in which he again insisted that the initiative had shifted to Iraqi government forces, contradicting most reports from the field so far.
Huh.
Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, fell to the militants on June 10, and in the next three days they pushed to within about 60 miles of Baghdad, conquering most of the provinces of Nineveh and Salahuddin, as well as much of Diyala province.
In the past week, however, they appear to have concentrated on consolidating their gains, attacking cities and towns on the margin of the territory they overran, but not advancing closer to Baghdad.
It was Saudi Arabia that moved covert forces of manpower to the region. It was an attempt by the AmeriKans and their allies to respond to recent losses in Syria and put increasing pressure on Iran.
Man, I have to stop watching those WWII programs on the AHC.
The fighting between Sunni militants near Kirkuk, if confirmed, could pose a challenge to the militant coalition, which was able to advance so quickly into Iraq in part because of the combined forces. The Ba’athist group denied any such clash on its website.
Sigh. The Ba'athists have a website, huh? Nothing like giving the NSA a heads up on things.
And this whole idea of Al-CIA-Duh ISIS working with Ba'athists when SYRIA is GOVERNED by ONE -- I know they don't tell you that in the reports -- is ludicrous.
I mean, eventually the naked propaganda reaches a point where the webs they weave to deceive get all criss-crossed and stuff.
It's actually rather sad. Once fine institutions turned to shit.
According to the security official, who was in Kirkuk and spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Sunnis battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were from the Men of the Army of Naqshbandia, a group made of former Saddam Hussein loyalists, or Ba’athists.
The two groups are allies of convenience with very different ideologies; the Ba’athists’ nationalistic, Sufi philosophy is completely at odds with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s extreme Islamist beliefs.
(Snort, sharp laugh, disgust, feel insulted)
The battles took place in Hawija, one of the strongholds of the Naqshbandia. The security official said the fighting had broken out when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria tried to disarm the Naqshbandia, but an eyewitness from Hawija said they had been fighting over control of gasoline and oil tanker trucks captured from the refinery at Beiji.
It's like the dark side, and seems that trying to take your guns away anywhere isn't going over to good in the face of government tyranny and oppression along with manufactured terror.
The Naqshbandia group was active in antigovernment demonstrations in Hawija last year that ended when the Iraqi Army tried to disperse protesters.
AmeriKan media picking up their protest flag today?
They have become a major component of the extremist Sunni coalition, at least partly because of their past military experience and the Ba’ath Party’s deep roots in the Sunni community.
That's about to fall apart. CIA-Duh never liked them, and they never liked CIA-Duh.
On its website, the Naqshbandia denied any problems with its allies.
Thank you for keeping the NSA up-to-date.
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You can go on to read the limited hangout if you want, as the Globe makes it clear who will not be helpful.
