Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Occupation Iraq: ISIS Be Dammed

Whose agenda are they advancing?

"The videotaped beheadings and threats by the Islamic State — which have followed its lightning conquest of broad swaths of Syria and Iraq — have transformed the jihadist group into one of the most urgent threats facing a president who is wrestling with crises from Ukraine to Gaza." 

There they go again.

Related: The CIA's GlobalPost Assets

What is most disturbing is the mocking(bird) of us all with staged and scripted psyops, be they fabricated hoaxes or the traditional false flag variety, being presented as real by the propaganda pre$$ while real scandals (like the vaccine-autism link the CDC has known about for years and covered up, but don't let that get in the way of believing they are there to protect you) are trashed and buried. That really alters ones perceptions of what they see through the ma$$ media pri$ms, and reminds me of what the great Jean De La Bruyere once said: 

"The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth."

"Kurds retake 2 towns from militants in Iraq" by Rod Nordland and Helene Cooper | New York Times   August 11, 2014

Ah, the lead propagator of AmeriKan myths.

GWER, Iraq — With US strikes beginning to show clear effects on the battlefield, Kurdish forces counterattacked Sunni militants in northern Iraq on Sunday, regaining control of two strategic towns with aid from the air.

We are SOOOOOO being played by these lies! ISIS is MAGICALLY EVERYWHERE and yet NOWHERE!

The US airstrikes, carried out by drones and fighter jets, were intended to support the Kurdish forces fighting to defend Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, according to a statement by the US Central Command. They destroyed three military vehicles being used by the militant group, the Islamic State, and damaged others, the statement said, adding that the warplanes also destroyed a mortar position.

It's now a no-fly zone, and Maliki has been removed.

The wreckage of three heavily armed trucks lay twisted and scorched in Gwer, one of the recaptured towns, a few hours after the strikes, and body parts from at least three militants were scattered nearby. Kurdish militiamen, known as peshmerga, confirmed seeing the airstrikes, and celebrated Sunday afternoon near the still-smoldering wrecks.

The US air support encouraged the Kurdish militiamen to reverse the momentum of the recent fighting and retake Gwer and the other town, Mahmour, both within a half-hour’s drive of Erbil, according to General Helgurd Hikmet, head of the peshmerga’s media office. Hikmet said some peshmerga fighters had pushed on beyond the two towns, which lie on the frontier between the Arab and Kurdish areas of Iraq.

The developments came as political tensions mounted in Baghdad. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went on state television early Monday and redoubled his demands for a new term.

Gone.

US air power in the north also appeared to alter the situation at Mount Sinjar, where members of the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority have been driven into rough country by an Islamic State dragnet.

Turns out that was all a hoax (keep reading).

Four US airstrikes on the extremists surrounding the mountain Saturday, along with airdrops of food, water and supplies, helped Yazidi and Kurdish fighters beat back militants and open a path for thousands of Yazidis to escape the siege. The escapees made their way Sunday through Syrian territory to Fishkhabour, an Iraqi border town under Kurdish control.

Tens of thousands more Yazidis remain trapped on the mountain, and US officials cautioned that the limited airstrikes alone could not open a corridor to safety for them. Neither, they said, would the US airstrikes be the decisive factor in the fight to stop the Islamic State.

“This is a focused effort, not a wider air campaign,” said Colonel Ed Thomas, spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin E. Dempsey. “It’s important to understand that our military objectives are limited in purpose.” 

Days later damn Dempsey will be saying we need to go into Syria to get the U.S.-created and supported terrorists.

President Obama and other US officials have said that more ambitious US support would be predicated on the Iraqi political leadership breaking a long political deadlock and appointing a new prime minister, one who would head a more inclusive government than the Shi’ite-dominated administration of Maliki, and could reach a political settlement with Iraq’s disaffected Sunni population. But the political crisis deepened at midnight Sunday as a deadline expired for President Fouad Massoum to choose a nominee for prime minister. Maliki angrily accused Massoum of violating the constitution by not choosing him. 

Okay, you got what you wanted, he's gone.

Peshmerga forces retook Gwer around midday, pushing through the town center and methodically searching for snipers, stragglers, and booby traps that the Islamic State might have left behind. The main threat turned out to be north of the town. In three spots a mile apart, Islamic State fighters had concealed trucks of a type used by the Iraqi army, mounted with machine guns.

According to peshmerga accounts, when those trucks emerged around 3 p.m. from hiding places in farmhouses and barns near the highway in an apparent attempt to attack the Kurds from the rear, American jet fighter-bombers streaked in and blew up the trucks with cannon fire and bombs.

Both Gwer and Mahmour are about 20 miles from Erbil, and advances by the militants last week briefly panicked residents in Erbil, which had been regarded as a safe haven. The US airstrikes seemed to have quickly restored confidence, with international flights into Erbil resuming after a pause, and business returning to normal.

OMG!

Still, a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said Sunday that some staff members from the consulate in Erbil had been relocated to Basra, in southern Iraq, and Amman, Jordan, because of the security situation.

"With the support of the Air Force of the United States, we are winning now," said Taha Ahmed, a Kurdish volunteer fighter and an activist with the Kurdish Democratic Party. 

"Your country has saved the Kurds twice," said Yassin Mustafa Ahmed, a farmer from Gwer who had fled the militant takeover, referring to the no-fly zone imposed in 1991 and the American invasion in 2003. "Now you have to save us again." 

I think it is time for you USraeli assets and base to save yourselves.

American
military officials were uncomfortable with that view, and cautioned on Sunday that there were no plans to expand the air campaign

You get tired of the daily LIES from the military after a while. This is reminiscent of Vietnam.

At Mount Sinjar, Pentagon officials said, breaking the siege would require a longer ground campaign by the Yazidis, Kurds and others fighting ISIS, and the strikes were only a start. Establishing a corridor to get the Yazidi civilians to safety could take days or weeksthey said."

That was in my print, but the web.... sigh.

Maliki once enjoyed US support, becoming prime minister in 2006 largely because of backing from Washington.

Now, though, his government is buckling under the assault from the Islamic State, and much of his support among the parties representing Iraq’s Shi’ite majority has turned away, including some members of his own bloc, State of Law. US officials have been working behind the scenes to oust him. Even so, he has continued to cling to power and seek a new term.

They didn't like him because he told US troops to leave after rejecting a US troop immunity clause in the agreement that even Bush didn't demand. 

This was ANOTHER U.S.-SPONSORED COUP, folks!

State of Law won the most seats in the national election in April, but not a majority, and opposing Shi’ite factions have been wrangling since then over whom to back. The Parliament has managed to agree on a Sunni, Salim al-Jubouri, to be speaker, and on Massoum, a Kurd, to be president, but it has not been able to elect a prime minister, the country’s dominant official.

One senior Iraqi official said Maliki had also positioned more tanks and extra units of special-forces soldiers loyal to him in the fortified green zone of government buildings in Baghdad overnight. The official said Maliki had “gone out of his mind, and lives on a different planet — he doesn’t appreciate the mess he has created.” A Kurdish news agency reported that presidential guards were “on high alert to protect the presidential palace,” and the capital swirled with rumors about what might happen next.

We already know, sorry I'm late with the post but there is a certain order to the world.

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I'm told Iraqis’ future hinges on unified country, and even if an American bombing campaign in the north of Iraq succeeds, that will do little good. Must be why they keep waving the women and children at us.

"Rebels keep captured Iraq dam running" by Mahmoud Habboush and Aziz Alwan | Bloomberg News   August 12, 2014

BAGHDAD — Islamic State militants who last week captured the Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest, had one demand for workers: Keep it going. 

(Blog editors exhales a snorted laugh)

Arriving in their Toyota pickup trucks, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and wearing a patchwork of military uniforms, robes, and turbans, jubilant militants from the Al Qaeda breakaway group told workers hiding in management offices they would get their salaries as long as the dam continued to produce electricity for the region under their control, according to a technician who was at the dam when nearly 500 militants drove off Kurdish troops.

Islamic State’s rampage through northern Iraq has inspired terror as stories spread of beheadings and crucifixions. At the same time, its fighters are capturing the strategic assets needed to fund the Islamic caliphate it announced in June and strengthen its grip on the territory already captured.

They are really laying it on thick!

‘‘These extremists are not just mad,’’ said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center in Qatar. ‘‘There’s a method to their madness, because they’ve managed to amass cash and natural resources, both oil and water, the two most important things. And of course they are going to use those as a way of continuing to grow and strengthen.’’

They just lost to the Kurds, but beyond that it is an incredible insight into what is important to the forces behind the damned propaganda pre$$.

The dam is the most important asset the group captured since taking Nineveh province in June. The group controls several oil and gas fields in western Iraq and eastern Syria, generating millions of dollars in daily revenue.

No boycott on ISIS oil exports? 

WTF? Why are they still pumping? 

What kind of terrorist with a golden opportunity to really hurt AmeriKa (and its allies), that cut off of oil, doesn't so it? 

US fighter jets and drones were flying over the dam on Aug. 9 without hitting it, said the technician at the dam.

Yeah, you don't want to do that.

The group, which used to call itself Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, is using the dam as a hideout because it knows it wouldn’t be bombed, he said, declining to give his name out of fear for his safety.

Don't be too sure; Nixon said he wasn't doing dams in Vietnam, and they were.

The dam was completed in 1986 and its generators can produce as much as 1010 megawatts of electricity, according to the website of the Iraqi State Commission for Dams and Reservoirs.

Aziz Alwash, an environmental adviser to the Water Resources Ministry, said he’s concerned the militants will use the dam to blackmail the government. The dam needs cement injections as part of its maintenance, he said.

Or to provide a pretext for Maliki's resignation along with the entry of US forces.

‘‘Mosul city would drown within three hours’’ if the dam broke, he said Sunday in a telephone interview. Other cities down the road to Baghdad would also be inundated while the capital would be under water within four hours. The dam has a capacity of 20-30 billion cubic meters, he said.

The dam ‘‘provides the group with leverage against the Iraqi government and shows that they’re a serious threat to the stability of the Iraqi state,’’ Natasha Underhill, a political scientist at Nottingham Trent University, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. ‘‘The group is rapidly developing its ideal of creating a caliphate.’’

It just got beat out of two cities.

The dam had been under the federal government’s control and the peshmerga fighters stepped in to fill the gap when the Islamic State captured Nineveh province, Alwash said.

In a video posted on YouTube on Aug. 9, an Islamic State militant can be seen pointing to an abandoned military uniform and a switched-on TV in a small room at the dam saying that the Kurdish peshmerga forces had ‘‘left everything behind and ran for their lives.’’

Oh, yeah, I'm believing that.

Once their excitement over their latest gain subsided, the militants asked an engineer to bring electricians from town, the technician said. He came back with three. They fixed power generators that had stalled in the four days of fighting that preceded the dam’s takeover, he said. They also tried to get engineers running a dam in Syria to Iraq to help with the maintenance of the Mosul Dam’s power plant.

‘‘Islamic State is trying to present itself as a state rather than just a militia,’’ said Hassan Hassan, an analyst with the Abu Dhabi-based Delma Institute. ‘‘These dams and oilfields have a strategic benefit, because the militants think they’re there to stay. They’re the ones providing services to people.’’

They are calling it a Stasis!


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"Siege in Iraq broken; many able to escape" by Helene Cooper and Michael D. Shear | New York Times   August 14, 2014

(Blog editor laughing)

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials said late Wednesday that US airstrikes and Kurdish fighters had broken the siege on Mount Sinjar, allowing thousands of Yazidis trapped there to escape.

An initial report from about a dozen US Marines and special operations troops who arrived Tuesday and spent 24 hours on the northern Iraqi mountain said that “the situation is much more manageable,” a senior Pentagon official said in an interview.

They are NOT, I repeat, NOT, ground troops.

“A rescue effort now is much more unlikely,” the official said.

OMG!

Defense officials could not say how many Yazidis remained on the mountain, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was expected to make a statement later Wednesday night.

The announcement came after US military advisers landed on Mount Sinjar early Wednesday to begin assessing how to organize the evacuation. The United States had said it would consider using ground troops to assist in the rescue if recommended by the military team.

They just did!

Hagel said it was “far less likely now” that the United States would undertake a rescue mission because the assessment team reported far fewer refugees than previously thought and said those still on the mountain were in relatively good condition. 

OMG, the WHOLE THING was a CONCOCTED FRAUD (complete with pictures and video)!!!!!!

Several thousand Yazidis remain on the mountain, a senior US official said, but not the tens of thousands who originally were believed to be there.

In other words, WE WERE ALL LIED TO AGAIN by our governments and their ma$$ media mouthpieces.

Some of the people who remain on Mount Sinjar indicated to US forces that they considered the mountain to be a place of refuge and a home and did not want to leave, a second US official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. 

(Blog editor still astonished at the outrageous level of lying and propaganda).

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that “the team has assessed that there are far fewer Yazidis on Mount Sinjar than previously feared, in part because of the success of the humanitarian airdrops.”

It's home. (??????)

He credited US airstrikes, as well as the “efforts of the peshmerga and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate from the mountain each night over the last several days.” Defense officials said the evacuations were done in secret with the help of the Kurdish peshmerga fighters. 

(Blog editor exclaimed to himself "This is incredible")

The latest twist came just hours after Benjamin J. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama is on vacation, that the president was likely to receive recommendations about how to mount a rescue operation in the next several days. He said those recommendations could have included the use of US ground troops. 

Oh, the LATEST TWIST from Rhodes while Obummer is stroking something, huh?

But Rhodes made those comments as the secret team of Marines and special operations forces were already on the ground on Mount Sinjar in the middle of a 24-hour trip to talk to the refugees and peshmerga fighters on the mountain.

(Blog editor laughs a guttural laugh in awed disbelief at the lies and contradictory garbage rolling off the pages of my paper)

Earlier Wednesday, France, Britain, and Germany all said they would increase their efforts to aid the people stranded on the mountain, where reports indicated the Yazidis were baking in the heat and near starvation, and to fight militants from the Islamic State group.

I'm hoping the put-upon populations of those nations are happy being drawn back into Iraq on the basis of this bullish**.

France, which opposed the Iraq invasion in 2003, said it would send arms to Kurdish fighters to help alleviate what it called a “catastrophic situation.” Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, who had been under pressure to take more action, said his government would continue the humanitarian aid it had been providing but would now also ship munitions from Eastern Europe to the Kurdish forces. Germany, which also did not support the US invasion a decade ago, said it would send nonlethal aid — heavy trucks, bulletproof vests, bedding, and tents — to the Kurds.

Now you, citizens, give back some of your social welfare benefits.

Steffen Seibert, a German government spokesman, called the Islamic State fighters “bloodthirsty extremists” and said their advances were “something which offends us all.”

I don't need to tell you what is offending me, do I?

The German Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Martin Schäfer, said the militant group was “an existential threat to refugees, the state of Iraq, and the whole region.”

Why stop there?

The leading option before the siege was broken was to rescue the Yazidis with a combination of ground troops: mostly Kurdish peshmerga, but with help from US special operations forces and Marines. The United States was also discussing using airlifts that could include American V-22 Ospreys, which are hybrid aircraft that can take off and land like helicopters but which have the speed and range of propeller planes.

But both of those options came with a host of complications, including increased risks that Islamic State militants could attack the Ospreys, which could result in casualties to both American pilots and evacuees. Some Iraqi and Kurdish helicopters had managed to carry a few dozen refugees to safety, but officials said the aircraft had frequently been fired upon by Islamic State fighters. 

Yeah, amazing how ISIS started getting beaten back after the bogus reports that got the US back in!

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Back to the dammed:

"Buoyed Kurds try to retake strategic dam" by Azam Ahmed and Ben Hubbard | New York Times   August 18, 2014

ALQOSH, Iraq — Seizing on the momentum of focused US airstrikes in recent days, Kurdish forces moved to retake the strategic Mosul Dam on Sunday night, in their most significant challenge yet to the Sunni militants’ advance in northern Iraq.

In the past two days, US military forces have conducted 30 airstrikes across Iraq, officials said, with many of them focused around the dam, which militants captured after routing the Kurdish forces 10 days ago.

Didn't kill a soul, huh? Talk about antiseptic airstrikes.

The White House said Sunday that President Obama has notified Congress the United States is expanding its air campaign in Iraq with attacks aimed at helping Iraqi forces regain control of the dam, the Associated Press reported.

And they all applauded, in the spirit of true biparti$an$hip.

Obama said the widened mission would be limited in duration and scope. 

That is a CONTRADICTION in TERMS! The "widening" will be "limited?"

COME ON!

The White House said ‘‘the mission is consistent with the president’s directive that the US military protect US personnel and facilities in Iraq, since the failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians and threaten US personnel and facilities, including the US Embassy in Baghdad.’’

I thought we had to go in for Yazidis who were, turns out, doing fine.

The latest round of US airstrikes in Iraq against the Islamic State extremist group includes the first reported use of land-based bombers in the military campaign, the AP said.

Meaning US forces are now OPERATING a BASE in IRAQ?

On Sunday alone, the US air assaults hit 10 armed vehicles, seven Humvees, two armored personnel carriers, and one checkpoint belonging to the Islamic State, according to the US Central Command.

On Saturday, the United States carried out nine airstrikes near the dam, destroying four armored personnel carriers, seven armed vehicles, two Humvees, and another armored vehicle, the command said.

Really risking things, isn't it?

The dam on the Tigris, about 30 miles from Mosul, is the largest in Iraq and supplies electricity to a large part of the country. It also is a control point for the water supply for a large area.

After the dam fell to the insurgents this month, officials worried that if it failed, a 65-foot wave of water could be released over northern Iraq. But rather than use the dam as a weapon against residents of the region, the militants continued to produce electricity and maintain the site.

As of late Sunday, Kurdish government officials said fighting around the dam complex, Iraq’s largest, was continuing, despite early reports that the site had been retaken.

“We do not control the entire dam yet,” Fuad Hussein, a spokesman for Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, said in a televised statement.

Did the "militants" ever really have it? Is it possible my paper could be lying about Iraq like they have for, oh, well.... forever!

The air campaign has seemed to check the militants’ move against the semiautonomous Kurdish region, an offensive that sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing for safety and at one point threatened the Kurdish capital, Irbil.

PFFFFT!

By hammering the militants with warplanes and drones, the Americans have severely curtailed the freedom of movement enjoyed by the fighters of the Islamic State group.

They KILL ANYONE?

It remains to be seen how the Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, may fare if the air support is halted. Having lost significant ground during the Islamic State fighters’ sudden advance this month, Kurdish forces have shown that they may not be able to go it alone.

Here that, Americans? Your troops are needed.

The forces pushing into the Mosul Dam area are believed to include the Iraqi Special Forces, making the operation a hybrid of US, Kurdish, and Iraqi commands.

Kurdish officials acknowledge that the airstrikes have been vital to their recent success. For their part, peshmerga officials have complained bitterly about inferior arms compared with those used by the Islamic State militants, who have claimed powerful US munitions abandoned on the battlefield by the Iraqi military.

Also were SUPPLIED WITH THEM while being trained by the CIA in JORDAN! 

Hello, NYT?!! 

And you wonder why the business model is caving and no one reading even the web?

“The aircraft have handicapped” the Islamic State forces. “They cannot move easily,” said Hariam Agha, a local commander for the Kurdish forces in Dohuk. “They killed a lot of their fighters.”

Since Saturday, 13 militants had been killed in airstrikes and 46 had been wounded, medical officials in the area said.

All those airstrikes and that's it? Even with all the civilians around?

According to Kurdish officials, Islamic State fighters appeared to be falling back on several fronts, as peshmerga forces approached both the dam and the city of Mosul, which is the capital of Nineveh province.

This is.... like I said, everywhere and yet nowhere!

In their retreat, they have left mines to slow the progress of Kurdish and Iraqi government forces. The Kurdish advance appeared to have been halted Sunday afternoon, as local fighters and officials said they were awaiting teams to clear the way to the dam.

Still, in Alqosh, at the military base from where the operations to retake the dam originated, there was a decidedly optimistic attitude among the government fighters. Several offered to speak to reporters visiting the area but only if they were not identified because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The soldiers boasted that the Islamic State fighters were not retreating from the dam and spoke of an imminent victory there as military vehicles passed in and out of the checkpoint area.

Yaaaaaay, "we" -- whoever the hell that is -- are winning!!!!

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"Aided by US air support, Iraqis retake key dam; Obama reminds Baghdad of need for political steps" by Helene Cooper and Mark Landler | New York Times   August 19, 2014

WASHINGTON — Iraqi and Kurdish ground troops overran Sunni militants and reclaimed Iraq’s largest dam Monday, President Obama said, as US warplanes unleashed a barrage of bombs in an expansion of the limited goals laid out by the president in authorizing the military campaign in Iraq.

Oh, now I have an EXPANSION of the LIMITED!!

Who writes this sh.... oh, yeah.

Obama, who interrupted a family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard to meet Monday with his national security team in Washington, maintained that the airstrikes around the Mosul Dam were within the constraints of what he initially characterized as a limited campaign meant to break the siege of stranded Yazidis on Mount Sinjar and protect US personnel, citizens, and facilities in Iraq.

He then flew back, gassing up the planet as he went at taxpayer expense. 

Btw, you can drop the Yazidi fig leaf.

In announcing the seizure of the strategically critical dam, Obama mixed his message with a warning to Iraqi leaders not to use the heightened US military support as an excuse to slow down political reconciliation.

I get them all the time from my propaganda pre$$.

“Don’t think that because we’ve engaged in airstrikes to protect our people that now is the time to let your foot off the gas and return to the kind of dysfunction that has so weakened the country generally,” the president said.

??????????????????????????????

Obama credited Iraqi and Kurdish forces with moving swiftly to take advantage of US airstrikes on the Islamic State militants around Mosul Dam over the past two days. It was the first time Kurdish and Iraqi forces had worked so closely together to defeat the Islamic State.

Halgurd Hekmat, a spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga forces fighting alongside Iraqi army troops, confirmed full control of the dam and its vicinity had been reestablished after two days of fierce clashes, the Associated Press reported.

Lieutenant General Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi army spokesman, said troops were still working Monday to dismantle mines laid by the militants. The recapture of the strategically important dam from the Islamic State is the government’s most significant success against the Sunni militants since they began their sweep through northern Iraq more than two weeks ago.

The dam, which is on the Tigris River about 30 miles from Mosul, is a critical source of electricity for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Destruction of the facility could have discharged a 65-foot wave of water that would have wiped out several areas of northern Iraq, including Mosul, and flooded areas as far south as Baghdad.

They didn't destroy it as they were fleeing? What kind of "terrorists" are they? 

Didn't use it as a weapon to swamp the enemy? WTF?!!!

While there were no indications that the militants planned to use the dam as a weapon, according to Iraqi officials, the threat was enough to persuade Washington to launch a concerted campaign of airstrikes to assist the joint effort.

After a while, the entertainment value of this stuff is amusing. The actions it advances are not, but this is a real breaded log roll.

US warplanes and drones unleashed 35 strikes near the Mosul dam in the last two days, more than half of all the attacks conducted countrywide since Obama authorized the use of military force on Aug. 8, the same day the dam fell to the Islamic State.

The impact of the US involvement has been decisive, Kurdish officials acknowledged. They were optimistic that coordination between the Iraqi forces and the Americans would deepen, now that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to step aside, as the Obama administration had demanded.

Well, they didn't get off to a very good start with their new US-appointed puppet. We will see how long he lasts.

“The circumstances in Iraq are very different from the circumstances just a week ago because of political changes,” said Fadhil Merani, the political secretary of the Kurdish Democratic Party, whose military forces have supplied most of the troops in the Mosul Dam operation. “The effort to coordinate with our new acting prime minister is very different from our friend Mr. Maliki.”

Such is the euphoria among the peshmerga that Kurdish officials have openly talked in recent days about positioning themselves for a potential push towards Mosul itself, though such discussion remains highly speculative.

The rout of the Islamic State forces comes after a string of successes since the US military unleashed jet and drone attacks on the militants, stopping an advance that threatened the major Kurdish city of Irbil and the lives of thousands of Yazidi refugees. Now, the US intervention seems to be backstopping a major Kurdish effort to reclaim lost territory.

We are BACK at WAR in IRAQ, and what did I say about the Yazidids?! 

What does it say about the NYT to continue to promote the narrative?

The strikes aimed around the city of Mosul and the dam have severely hampered the Sunni militants, reducing their freedom of movement and forcing them to retreat from areas they once dominated.

The smoke from what appeared to be fresh airstrikes was visible from the town of Badriya, northwest of the dam, where the peshmerga forces were running a checkpoint. More than a dozen armored personnel carriers full of Kurdish fighters came through, heading to the dam.

The forces manning the checkpoint were on edge, forcing cars to turn back and even challenging the ability of peshmerga forces to enter the area.

A large truck passed through the checkpoint at midday from the direction of the dam, carrying more than two dozen metal cylinders, strewn with wires. Idris Mohammed, a Kurdish military officer, said they were bombs that Kurdish military engineers had removed from a village near the dam.

The decision to launch airstrikes marked the first direct US military intervention in Iraq since the last American troops withdrew in 2011 and reflected growing international concern about the Islamic State.

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"Impact of US airstrikes evident at retaken Iraqi dam" by Azam Ahmed | New York Times   August 20, 2014

MOSUL DAM, Iraq — The two bodies lay festering in the midday sun on Tuesday, some of the only remnants of the Sunni militant force that until Monday night controlled the strategically important Mosul Dam.

Related: Racein in the Sun

Around them was the evidence of not just a fierce battle but also a different sort of fight: buildings reduced to rubble; cars churned into twisted metal; mammoth craters gouged from the road.

All bore testament to the deadly effect US airstrikes were having on the militants of the Islamic State, who until this month were marauding over northern Iraq with little resistance and who two weeks ago seized control of the dam.

When Assad did it he was excoriated.

It was not until President Obama authorized airstrikes by the US military on Aug. 7 that the Sunni fighters’ advance was halted. Two days of concerted air assaults starting Sunday around the dam then paved the way for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim the site.

So that is what they do with all the rubble.

On Tuesday, Kurdish military officials gave reporters a tour of the dam, to showcase Monday night’s victory and offer journalists a look at the facility.

A public relations propaganda tour!

The dam itself, backed by a turquoise lake and surrounded by dun-colored mountains, was in fine condition, with little evidence of damage either from the fighting or from two weeks in militant hands.

But about an hour into the visit, gunshots erupted from the western edge of the dam complex, as militants who were dug into the side of a neighboring mountain harassed a convoy of vehicles making its way up a hill to a secondary dam. A minor gunfight ensued, with the government laying down the majority of the fire from mounted machine guns and artillery.

After an hour of sporadic fire, the confrontation ended and the convoy resumed its trip. The hundreds of Kurdish peshmerga fighters arrayed along the dam, proudly posing for photos and videos, scarcely moved. It was almost exclusively troops with the Iraqi Special Forces, at the head of the convoy, who engaged with the militants. 

Is it possible the airstrikes and everything that preceded them never happened? Is this all nothing more than more staged and scripted propaganda?

The peshmerga have received the majority of the credit for retaking the dam. But the Iraqi Special Forces troops who worked alongside them, who were created in the image of their US counterparts, have gotten far less attention. Known as the Golden Force, fighters interviewed Tuesday said they came from Baghdad and were called into the fight several days ago. One Special Forces group, stationed by a cluster of homes close to the site’s power plant, said they were the first to enter the area after a series of airstrikes Monday afternoon.

Yup, it's ultimately a U.S. success story after the U.S.-trained Iraqi Army allegedly fled and left their stuff behind. Doesn't get any better than this.

Muhammad Karim, one of the soldiers, said that when they arrived at the first abandoned militant checkpoint they discovered a woman, naked and bound, who had been repeatedly raped. Farther into the neighborhood, the Iraqi forces discovered another woman in the same state.

I have to tell you, that is SO UNLIKE the ISIS groups, what with the insistence of burkas and such and their criticism of western morality. 

The PROPAGANDA is GETTING in its OWN WAY, hey! 

COME ON, NYT!!!!!

The Islamic State militants “are bad people,” he said, standing beside a demolished compound that hugged the road. “They are raping girls.”

U.S. military has a problem with that, too, but beyond that here we are with the waving of the women at us, meaning the propaganda is not working and they are falling back on that old bottom-of-the-barrel attempt to gets us into wars. 

When the AmeriKan jew$media starts waving women and children from Gaza in our faces maybe I'll take notice then. Until them they can f*** off.

Stories of women kidnapped by the militants have filtered through various minority communities, but Karim’s firsthand account, corroborated by colleagues interviewed separately, seemed to confirm the troubling rumors.

Whatever happened to those poor Nigerian girls from that other filmed fraud? They didn't catch Ebola, did they? Or has that crisis finally abated?

Until recently, the militants enjoyed relatively free rein in northern Iraq and northern Syria, moving freely with vehicles and weapons seized from the Iraqi military units that had crumbled in the first days of the attack on Mosul and surrounding areas. But with the Americans now engaged, their freedom of movement has been sharply curtailed.

“When I came here three weeks ago, they were moving fast and easy with armored vehicles,” said Mansour Barzani, the commander of the ground forces who reclaimed the dam. “Now, they don’t dare to move anymore.” The next step for the Iraqi and Kurdish forces remains unclear, though skirmishes between them and militants were reported Tuesday in Tikrit, a militant-controlled city.

--more--"

You know what happens when ISIS melts, right?

"Mosque attack kills 64 in Iraq" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press   August 23, 2014

BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 64 people and prompting Sunni lawmakers to freeze talks on forming a new government — a move that presents a major challenge to efforts to create an administration that can confront extremists who have seized large sections of the country.

When you consider that the actual agenda and goal is to carve up Iraq, it all makes sense.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was carried out by Shi’ite militiamen or extremists of the Islamic State group.

The Islamic State fighters have been advancing into mixed Sunni-Shi’ite areas in volatile Diyala province and have been known to kill fellow Sunni Muslims who refuse to submit to their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

But they are popular!

Related: Occupation Iraq: Divide and Conquer 

Yeah, who are the "terrorists" again?

However, Sunni lawmakers quickly blamed the carnage on powerful Shi’ite militias out to avenge an earlier bombing, and two major Sunni parliamentary blocs pulled out of talks on forming a new Cabinet.

The move creates a major hurdle for prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi as he struggles to reach out to disaffected Sunnis to form a government that can confront the Islamic State extremists.

Calling the U.S., calling the U.S.

Both Abadi and outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attack and called for an investigation.

Also Friday, US Central Command said it conducted three new airstrikes around the Mosul Dam, where clashes with militants continue nearly a week after Iraqi and Kurdish forces retook the sprawling facility with US air support.

The onslaught on the Musab bin Omair Mosque in the village of Imam Wais began with a suicide bombing near its entrance, followed by a raid by gunmen who stormed the building, opening fire on worshippers, security officials said.

Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militiamen raced to the scene to reinforce security but stumbled on bombs planted by the militants, which allowed the gunmen to flee, according to officials in Imam Wais, 75 miles northeast of Baghdad.

(Blog editor issues sharp ha)

At least 64 people were killed, including four Shi’ite militiamen, and more than 60 people were wounded, according to medical officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

In pointing the finger at Islamic State fighters, village officials said the Sunni extremists have been pressuring two prominent Sunni tribes in the area — the Oal-Waisi and al-Jabour — to join them, but so far they have refused.

However, local Sunni lawmakers in Diyala province blamed Shi’ite militiamen for what they said was a revenge attack for a bombing earlier Friday.

In that attack, a roadside bomb hit the convoy of a local Shi’ite militia leader, wounding three of his bodyguards, Sunni lawmaker Raad al-Dahlaki said. He said the militia leader survived, and out for revenge, entered the mosque along with fellow Shi’ite gunmen and opened fire.

Shi’ite militias then surrounded the general hospital in Baqouba, Diyala’s provincial capital, vowing to attack relatives of the dead, Dahlaki said.

In announcing their pullout from talks on forming a new government, Sunni parliamentary blocs affiliated with Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al-Mutlak demanded that the main Shi’ite parliamentary bloc hand over the perpetrators within 48 hours.

They also demanded that the Shi’ite bloc compensate the families of victims ‘‘if they want the political process and the new government to see the light of day.’’

The Obama administration condemned Friday’s ‘‘vicious attack,’’ and said it underscores ‘‘the urgent need for Iraqi leaders from across the political spectrum to take the necessary steps that will help unify the country against all violent extremist groups,’’ State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Yeah, uh-huh. 

Cui bono?

If the mosque attack proves to have been carried out by Shi’ite militiamen it would deal a major blow to Abadi’s efforts to reach out to the country’s Sunni minority, whose grievances are seen as fueling the Islamic State insurgency.

Even though they are butchering their own supporters.

--more--"

"42 die in bombings in Baghdad, Kirkuk" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press   August 24, 2014

BAGHDAD — Bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 42 people in Iraq on Saturday as the government investigated a deadly attack on a Sunni mosque the day before that has heightened sectarian tensions amid a fragile political transition.

Seen this movie before.

In Kirkuk, an oil-producing city long disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, three bombs went off in a crowded commercial district, killing 31 people and wounding dozens, Kirkuk deputy police chief Tarhan Abdel-Rahman said.

A witness said he heard ‘‘an explosion between the cars, and then we started carrying out the dead bodies from there while people were burning inside the shops and cars.’’ The witness asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber had earlier driven an explosives-laden car into the gate of the intelligence headquarters in Karrada district, killing six civilians and five security personnel, a police officer said. He said 24 other people were wounded.

A medical official confirmed causality figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

The attacks came after Parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri said that a committee of security officials and lawmakers were investigating Friday’s attack against a village mosque in Diyala province, northeast of the capital, which killed more than 60 people. The results of the inquiry are expected in two days.

It remained unclear whether the attack in the village of Imam Wais was carried out by Shi’ite militiamen or insurgents from the Islamic State group who have been advancing into mixed Sunni-Shi’ite areas in Diyala and have been known to kill fellow Sunni Muslims who refuse to submit to their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

You buyin' that?

The attack led two major Sunni parliamentary blocs to pull out of talks on forming a new government. The move creates a major hurdle for Shi’ite prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi as he struggles to reach out to Sunnis to form a government by Sept. 10 that can confront the Islamic State extremists.

--more--"

"Car bombing kills at least 11 people in Baghdad" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press   August 27, 2014

BAGHDAD — A car bomb exploded on Tuesday in a busy Shi’ite area in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks to shake the Iraqi capital as the Shi’ite-led government struggles to dislodge Sunni militants from areas in the country’s west and north.

The explosives-laden car went off during the morning rush hour in the main commercial area of the New Baghdad district. It was parked close to outdoor pet and vegetable markets and a traffic police office, a police officer said.

The attack also wounded 31, he added. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The bombing came a day after a wave of attacks targeted Shi’ite areas in several cities, including Baghdad, killing at least 58 people. Among them were 15 worshipers who died in a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in the same New Baghdad neighborhood where Tuesday’s car bomb struck.

In online statements, the Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for Monday’s mosque attack and another in the Shi’ite-majority district of Utaifiya in Baghdad, where two car bombs tore through a busy commercial area near a crowded restaurant and killed at least 15 people.

Online, huh? NSA knows which server they are using then.

And in two separate tweets, it took credit for car bombings in Karbala and the nearby Hillah city south of Baghdad that together killed at least 23 people on the same day.

Now they are f***ing tweeting!

--more--"

"Backed by US, militias help break siege of Islamic State; Iran, Pentagon on same side as Iraqi battle rages" by Tim Arango and Azam Ahmed | New York Times   September 01, 2014

Some have suggested Obama is doing a jujitsu move on the elite, but I'm not seeing it.

BAGHDAD — With US bombs raining down from the sky, Shi’ite militia fighters aligned with Iran battled Sunni extremists over the weekend, punching through their defenses to break the weekslong siege of Amirli, a cluster of farming villages whose Shi’ite residents faced possible slaughter.

How long has Israel had Gaza under blockade with no world action like this?

The fight in northern Iraq appeared to be the first time US warplanes and militias backed by Iran had worked with a common purpose on a battlefield against militants from the Islamic State, even though the Obama administration said there was no direct coordination with the militias.

That has to have Israel and all the Jewi$h neo-cons shitting their pants.

Should such military actions continue, they could mark a dramatic shift for the United States and Iran, which have long vied for control in Iraq. They could also align the interests of the Americans with their longtime sworn enemies in the Shi’ite militias, whose fighters killed many US soldiers during the long occupation of Iraq.

World Wars are strange things.

The latest expansion of US military operations reflects how seriously Iraq has deteriorated since the withdrawal of US forces in 2011. But any decision to support the Shi’ite militias, who have proven more adept than the American-trained Iraqi army, would come with its own set of challenges.

The militants from the Islamic State were able to storm into Iraq in recent months in part because Sunnis felt so disenfranchised by the Shi’ite-led government of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Well, he's gone and everything is all right now.

If the United States is seen to be strengthening the hand of militias that terrorized Sunnis during the sectarian war of 2006 and 2007, the minority Sunnis might balk at participating in America’s long-term goal of establishing a unity government.

Like they haven't done that by training Al Qaeda and ISIS. 

Who wrote this? Oh, right!

Or, in a worst-case scenario, more Sunnis could align with Islamic State fighters.

Even as ISIS executes them?

David Petraeus, a former top US military commander in Iraq who led the US troop surge in 2007, months ago warned against such possibilities as the Obama administration, reeling from the fall of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, weighed military action against the Islamic State.

“This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight,” he said at a security conference in London in June. “It has to be a fight of all of Iraq against extremists, who do happen to be Sunni Arabs.”

Related: Petraeus Turns to Private Equity

The United States was careful to note on Sunday that it was working in Amirli with its allies: Iraqi army units and Kurdish security forces, which the United States has been supporting with air power since President Obama authorized airstrikes weeks ago.

“Any coordinating with the Shi’ite militias was not done by us — it would have been done by the ISF,” a senior administration official said Sunday, referring to the Iraqi Security Forces. But it is well known that the Shi’ite militias have been fighting alongside the army in recent months as the threat from the Islamic State became clear.

A second administration official, meanwhile, said the United States is not working directly with Tehran.

“We are working with the Iraqi government and with the Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq,” the official said. “That’s it.”

They expect to be believed?

Security officials on Sunday said Amirli, a town about 105 miles north of Baghdad whose estimated 15,000 residents are mostly Shi’ite Turkmen considered infidels by the Islamic State, was not fully liberated but that the combined forces had cleared several villages from the militants.

Last year the Islamic State exploited the chaos of the Syrian civil war to take control of large swaths of territory there, before sweeping into Iraq, its birthplace, as a greater force and erasing the border between the two countries. Its explosion onto a turbulent region has threatened the breakup of Iraq and forced a reluctant Obama to re-engage more fully in the Middle East.

BLAH-BLAH-BLAH!

For overwhelmingly Shi’ite Iran, the rise of the Islamic State — and its aim of creating a Sunni caliphate in the region — was alarming because of the possible threat to Iran itself. The militants’ sudden successes also posed a more immediate threat of further destabilizing two countries — Iraq and Syria — that have been close to Tehran and helped it extend its power in the region.

Yeah, interesting how the whole crisis has actually served USraeli interests.

In a reflection of the region’s increasingly tangled politics, the Obama administration is considering taking the fight against the Islamic State to Syria.

Do I have to type it?

Related: 

"The officials, who asked not be named while discussing sensitive internal deliberations, said they expected that Britain and Australia would be willing to join the United States in an air campaign, and countries likely to be enlisted to provide support for possible US military operations include Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, officials said. The officials said they also want help from Turkey, which has military bases that could be used to support an effort in Syria. Turkey is a transit route for foreign fighters traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State

Why are they not stopping them?

Administration officials said they are asking Ankara to help tighten the border. The administration is also seeking intelligence and surveillance help from Jordan and financial help from Saudi Arabia, which bankrolls groups in Syria fighting President Bashar Assad.

Related: Saudi king warns of terrorist threat to Europe, US

I guess he would know

Kinda makes you laugh were it not so serious.

On Monday, the Pentagon began surveillance flights over Syria to collect information on possible Islamic State targets as a precursor to airstrikes, a senior official said.... 

Thought that was something worthy of note so you know where we are headed, readers.

Obama’s top military advisers have said the Islamic State cannot be defeated unless the United States also goes after the group inside Syria. The president did not rule out that possibility, but said that if he were to expand the military mission, he would consult with members of Congress, who are due to return to Washington in early September; however, the president did not commit to seeking a vote from Congress if he were to decide to proceed with military action."

Won't Syria have something to say about that even if Congress does not? 

No sense going through the same hassle as last year this time, huh? 

I think the AMERICAN PEOPLE are going to have a LOT TO SAY come NOVEMBER? 

Or has the nuclear false flag that will destroy Obama's hometown on September 11th, 2014, lead to martial law and the cancellation of elections?

The United States and Iran have opposite goals there: Iran has been an important supporter of President Bashar Assad, while the United States has sought his ouster by supporting moderate rebels. But any US military action against the Islamic State in Syria could end up bolstering Assad.

Or providing the pretext to bomb him in the name of fighting ISIS, chi bono?

The Obama administration has tried to avoid being seen as taking sides in a sectarian war, because the Shi’ite militias are especially feared by Iraq’s Sunni population.

But for one day at least, the realities on the ground appeared to override any concerns of effectively supporting the militias. 

For one day, at least.

The Islamic State has been rampaging through Iraq, beheading prisoners, carrying out massacres of Shi’ites, and expelling hundreds of thousands of residents.

And winning them over at the same time!

The Shii’te militias have been accused of some recent abuses against Sunnis, but so far have avoided large-scale revenge killings.

Among the militias fighting for Amirli are Asaib Ahl al-Haq, considered the most fearsome of the Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, as well as Badr Corps, a group linked to the Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who was one of the Americans’ most unyielding enemies during the occupation. Those groups are supported by Iran.

--more--"

More booga-booga!

"UN backs inquiry of Islamic State’s alleged crimes" by John Heilprin | Associated Press   September 02, 2014

GENEVA — The United Nation’s top human rights body on Monday overwhelmingly approved the Iraqi government’s request for an investigation into alleged crimes against civilians committed by the Islamic State group in its rampage across northeastern Syria and parts of Iraq.

Diplomats agreed by unanimous consent to approve a nearly $1.2 million UN fact-finding mission at a special session of the 47-nation Human Rights Council that focused on Iraq and the extremist group.

Iraq’s request for the United Nations to investigate alleged abuses by the militants was included in a resolution that more broadly condemns the group’s severe tactics but also calls on Iraq’s government to protect human rights.

Its aim is to provide the Geneva-based council with a report and evidence next March that could shed further light on Iraqi atrocities and be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution.

Related: 

"Hanan Ashrawi, gave one of the clearest signals yet that the Palestinians would use their observer status at the United Nations to join the International Criminal Court and seek the prosecution of Israeli behavior in the occupied territories. That prospect has caused deep concern in Israel and the United States. “We are intending to take Israel to the ICC,” Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told reporters at a news briefing at UN headquarters." 

We will see if they take up that one.

The session Monday focused on the threat posed by the militants, who have seized cities, towns, and vast tracts of land and carried out a number of massacres and beheadings.

Amazing how the narrative stays the same despite the previous reporting.

‘‘We are facing a terrorist monster,’’ Iraq’s human rights minister, Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, said shortly before the vote.

Created by the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other allies!

He said his country needs the world’s support because the group ‘‘is not an Iraqi phenomenon, it is a transnational organization that is an imminent danger for all countries of the world.’’

The false flag attack on AmeriKa is well into the planning stage and is ready to go!

‘‘Their movement must be curbed. Their assets should be frozen and confiscated. Their military capacities must be destroyed,’’ he said. 

At least shut down their -- ha-ha-ha-ha-ha -- media wing

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! 

The propaganda doesn't get any better than that!

Flavia Pansieri, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, said the militants’ widespread, systematic persecution of ethnic and religious groups likely amounts to a crime against humanity. She said Iraqi government forces’ execution of detainees and its shelling of civilian areas may also amount to war crimes.

That government has been dissolved.

During the special meeting of the Human Rights Council, the top UN advocate for children afflicted by war said Monday that the Islamic State was using them as informers, checkpoint sentries, and, in some cases, suicide bombers.

The advocate, Leila Zerrougui, also said that the United Nations had received reports that the Islamic State had abducted girls from minority communities and forced them into marriage but that it had been unable to verify those reports.

OMG! They are trying to run the Nigerian narrative in Iraq. 

Was that the point of that scripted and staged psyop hoax?

In Iraq on Monday, Nouri al-Maliki, the outgoing prime minister, pledged to turn his country into ‘‘a big grave’’ for Sunni militants from the Islamic State group and commended security forces who achieved a rare victory over insurgents by ending the siege of a Shi’ite town. 

It already is a massive grave littered with millions of dead from the U.S. invasion and hundreds of thousands during Saddam's reign as U.S. ally and under sanction.

Maliki made the comments during an unannounced visit to the northern community of Amirli, where he was greeted with hugs.

You are always more popular when you leave office.

A day earlier, Iraqi forces backed by Iran-allied Shi’ite militias and US airstrikes broke a two-month siege of the town where some 15,000 Shi’ite Turkmen had been stranded. 

It's a seven-year siege of Gaza, but whatever.

In footage aired on state television, Maliki was shown sitting at a wooden desk in front of a large poster of Shi’ite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, ordering promotions and awards for those who fought in the battle.

‘‘I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers,’’ he told a gathering of fighters. Hours before the visit, humanitarian aid began flowing to the town.

Four trucks loaded with food and medicine arrived after being sent by the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Red Crescent, according to Ali al-Bayati, who heads the aid organization called the Turkmen Saving Foundation.

Soldiers began bringing food to families in their houses Sunday night.

‘‘The situation is getting back to normal, but gradually,’’ Bayati said. ‘‘Some people have come out from their houses and walked in the street. Shops are still closed, but people are happy to see their city secured by Iraqi security forces.’’

Shi’ite Turkmen lawmaker Fawzi Akram al-Tarzi said the US airstrikes and Iranian support for Iraqi forces ‘‘have played a positive role in defeating the terrorists,’’ although he said the airstrikes ‘‘came late’’ in the battle.

I have been told that is what turned the tide.

On Monday, Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militiamen retook the nearby town of Suleiman Beg after fierce clashes with Sunni militants, Tarzi said.

‘‘The brave people of Amirli have made their town a new Stalingrad,’’ he added, referring to the former name of the Russian city of Volgograd, famous for resisting a long siege by the German military during World War II.

Well, we are in WWIII now so I suppose the analogy is correct -- even if it was a THREE-YEAR SIEGE then.

Since early this year, Iraq has faced a growing Sunni insurgency led by the Islamic State, an Al Qaeda-breakaway group.

They broke away from Al-CIA-Duh and went rogue, huh?

With help from allied militants, they have taken over territory in the country’s north and west and created Iraq’s worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.

In June, a summer offensive stunned Iraqi security forces and the military, which melted away and withdrew as the Islamic State group overran the northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit, as well as small towns and villages on their path.

And now ISIS has vanished!

--more--"

"Report accuses Islamic State group of war crimes" by Sinan Salaheddin and Diaa Hadid | Associated Press   September 03, 2014

BAGHDAD — An international rights group accused the extremist Islamic State group on Tuesday of systematic ‘‘ethnic cleansing’’ in northern Iraq targeting indigenous religious minorities, as well as conducting mass killings of men and abducting women.

In a new report, Amnesty International said militants abducted ‘‘hundreds, if not thousands’’ of women and girls of the Yazidi faith. The extremists also killed hundreds of Yazidi men and boys, Amnesty said. In at least one incident, the report said, militants rounded them up on trucks, took them to the edge of their village, and shot them.

Yup, just like the Nazis used to do during WWII, and yet somehow these actions have engendered massive support across the region. Yup.

The 26-page report adds to a growing body of evidence outlining the scope and extent of the Islamic State group’s atrocities since it began its sweep from Syria across neighboring Iraq in June.

This is starting to stink.

The militants since have seized much of northern and western Iraq and have stretched to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Pushed back since, but don't let that spoil the propaganda pre$$ narrative.

On Monday, the United Nations’ top human rights body approved a request by Iraq to open an inquiry into suspected crimes committed by the Islamic State group against civilians. Its aim would be to provide the Human Rights Council with evidence on atrocities committed in Iraq, which could be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution.

In its report, Amnesty detailed how the advance of Islamic State group fighters expelled an estimated 830,000 people — mostly Shi’ites and those belonging to tiny religious minorities that barely exist outside of Iraq. They include Aramaic-speaking Christians, Yazidis, a faith that traces to ancient Mesopotamia, the Shabak, an offshoot of Islam, and Mandeans, a gnostic faith.

Most fled as extremists neared their communities, fearing they would be killed or forcibly converted to the group’s hard-line version of Islam.

Thousands of Christians now live in schools and churches in northern Iraq. Yazidis crowd into a displaced persons camp and half-finished buildings. Shi’ites have mostly drifted to southern Iraq.

The sudden displacement of the minority groups appears to be the final blow to the continuity of those tiny communities in Iraq. Their numbers had been shrinking since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which triggered extremist violence against them.

That last sentence the one sentence of truth in the article. Every piece of propaganda has a shit lining.

“Minorities in Iraq have been targeted at different points in the past, but the Islamic State [group] has managed, in the space of a few weeks, to completely wipe off of the map of Iraq the religious and ethnic minorities from the area under their control,” said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

Such CHARGED TERMINOLOGY meant to evoke SO MAY IMAGES and MANIPULATE YOUR EMOTIONS! AmeriKa's jew$media sucks!

The Yazidis, in particular, were harshly targeted as Islamic State militants overran their ancestral lands in August.

If you have made it this far you know what is above. 

What is with the distorted narrative being repeated and repeated, huh?

In one incident, the report said possibly hundreds were killed in the village of Kocho on Aug. 15 after militants told residents to gather in a school.

I mean they are just laying it on with a bucket loader these days!

‘‘They separated men and boys from women and younger children. The men were then bundled into pickup vehicles — some 15 to 20 in each vehicle — and driven away to different nearby locations, where they were shot,’’ the report said.

Islamic State fighters also systematically seized Yazidi women and children, some as the group rounded up villagers, others as they tried to flee the militant onslaught, the report said. Their fate is unclear.

The report said they had obtained the names of ‘‘scores of the women and children’’ seized by the group. It said ‘‘hundreds, possibly thousands,’’ were likely being held. 

There they go again, waving women and children at you. 

Never mind all those killed in service of all this crapola.

Some captive women are secretly communicating with their families on cellphones, Amnesty said. 

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! 

It IS the NIGERIAN SCRIP all over again!!! 

OMG!!!!!! 

How SHAMELESS is the propaganda pre$$ of AmeriKa!!!! 

Well, NSA has COLLECTED the DATA so GO GET 'EM!!!!

They told their families that some girls and young women were separated and taken away, Amnesty said.

--more--" 

The ma$$ media propagandists have run out of story lines, folks. They are desperately trying to shovel all the old regurgitations at us and it just isn't working anymore. It's really PATHETIC!

As for those militias:

"Iraq premier-designate says militias must follow state" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press   August 26, 2014

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister-designate called Monday on the country’s numerous Shi’ite militias and tribes to come under government control and stop acting independently, as violence killed at least 58 people in areas where the Muslim sect dominates.

They killed their own again?

The comments by Haider al-Abadi came at his first press conference since accepting the nomination to be Iraq’s next prime minister, underlining how he is attempting to address the worries of the country’s Sunnis, who say that Shi’ite militias are targeting them in religiously-mixed areas.

He added that discussions between political rivals to form a new government were ‘‘constructive and positive.’’

‘‘We will never allow any armed group to operate outside of the framework of the state,’’ Abadi told reporters at the presidential palace in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. ‘‘They all should be within the state framework and under the control of the security forces.’’

Unless it is the U.S.

Several Shi’ite militias have answered a call by influential Iraq-based cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to support the Iraqi military, after large divisions fled rapidly advancing militants from the Islamic State group in the key northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit earlier this summer. A number of Sunni tribes also oppose the militant group.

Abadi expressed optimism that he will meet the Sept. 10 deadline to form a new government.

‘‘Several meetings and dialogues were held with the political blocs to form a unified vision for our governmental program, he said. ‘‘The negotiations were generally positive and constructive. I hope we will agree to form a unified vision for the governmental program in the next two days.’’

Also Monday, separate attacks in several cities, including Baghdad, killed at least 58 people and wounded dozens in Shi’ite-majority areas.

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden vest among Shi’ite worshippers leaving a mosque after noon prayers in the capital’s eastern New Baghdad area, killing at least 15 and wounding 32 others, a police officer said.

Later, officials said two car bombs tore through a busy commercial area near a crowded restaurant in the Utaifiya district of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding another 21.

In the city’s southern Dora district, a roadside bomb missed a police patrol but hit a civilian car, killing three and wounding 11 others. Two other civilians were killed and 10 wounded in another bomb explosion in an outdoor market in the northern Shaab neighborhood.

In Karbala, an explosion killed 12 civilians and wounded 31 others. In Hillah, two car bombs went off in separate areas, killing 11 people and wounding 26 others.

Iraq has faced a growing Sunni insurgency as the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants have taken over areas in the country’s west and north. The crisis has worsened since June, when the group declared an Islamic state, or caliphate, in territory under its control.

--more--"

"Iraqis in Besieged Town Appeal to Army for Help" by SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press, Aug 20, 2014

Members of a minority Iraqi Shiite community whose town has been besieged by Sunni militants appealed to Iraq's military and the international community to intervene to end the siege, a lawmaker said Wednesday as the U.N. started a massive aid push to help Iraqis uprooted by the extremists.

Took 'em about two weeks.

Also Wednesday, scattered attacks killed at least 11 people in and near Baghdad. The city has not been spared the almost daily violence even as the country grapples with the onslaught by the Islamic State group and their militant Sunni allies.

The siege of the northern town of Amrili, populated by Shiite Turkmens, is part of the Islamic State's offensive, which seized large swaths of western and northern Iraq this summer and also pushed further in neighboring Syria.

Speaking of Syria:

"Even by the group’s usual brutal standards, the videos of jihadist fighters taunting humiliated, nearly naked men as they were led to their deaths were horrifying, sending shock waves through Syrian communities that have stood by President Bashar Assad through more than three years of civil war....  Among “the most disturbing developments,” Pinheiro said, was the creation of large Islamic State camps training children, mostly boys around the age of 14 but sometimes as young as 10, for armed conflict."

They have recruiting offices like the US military (and if true, it is a sign the terrorists are losing. That is what losing sides do. Think Germany, 1945)?

What a fustercluck in Syria, huh? 

I'm surprised to see the NYT mention all the USraeli bombs that have been dropped.

The militants' rampage, however, suffered a major setback this week when Iraqi and Kurdish troops backed by U.S. airstrikes dislodged the Islamic fighters from a strategic dam near Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city which militants overran in June.

Turkmen lawmaker Fawzi Akram said nearly 15,000 Turkmens in Amirli, about 105 miles north of Baghdad, have been besieged for the past two months by militants affiliated with the Islamic State.

The siege has left the residents in a dire situation, despite of recent army airdrops of weapons, food and medical supplies. The town has no water or electricity, yet the residents are putting up a fierce resistance, al-Tarzi said.

"Amirli is besieged from all sides and calls for help are falling on deaf ears," he said, urging the U.S. to consider airstrikes on militant targets around the town.

Resident Jaafar Kadhim al-Bayati, a 41-year-old father of three, told The Associated Press over the phone that children in Amirli are getting sick and that the town needs more help.

"We are starving, we ran out of food and the only clinic is not functioning now due to lack of medicines," he said. He added that a pregnant woman died while in labor this week, she was brought to the clinic but there was no one to help her there.

Like other religious minorities in Iraq such as the Christians and the Yazidis, the Turkmen community has also been targeted by the Islamic State, which considers them to be apostates. Thousands of Turkmens have been uprooted from their homes since the Islamic State took Mosul, the northern city of Tikrit and a spate of towns and villages in the area.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi held talks with outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the premier-designate, Haider al-Abadi, during a one-day visit to Baghdad. Al-Abadi has until Sept. 11 to submit a list of Cabinet members to parliament for approval.

Doesn't his country have it's own problems?

In Rome, Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said that Italy intends to supply light, portable arms for the Iraqi Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State. She said there would be checks in place in Iraq "to control that the arms get where they are supposed to go." 

Like in Syria?

In Baghdad, six civilians were killed and 12 were wounded when a parked car bomb ripped through Palestine Street, a police officer said.

Nice touch. 

Mortar rounds in the northern Sabaa al-Bour neighborhood killed three and wounded nine, another police officer said.

And in the town of Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed two people and wounded five, according to police officials there. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

 The Islamic State blitz has forced some 1.5 million people to flee their homes since June while thousands more have died, prompting the U.N. to declare its highest level of emergency last week.

On Wednesday, the U.N. refugee agency launched a massive air, road and sea 10-day operation to help the displaced, including a four-day airlift with Boeing 747 planes that will bring in aid from Aqaba, Jordan, to Iraq's northern Kurdish region.

Meanwhile, Gazans continue to wait for such an event.

The first flight landed on Wednesday afternoon in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital of Irbil, carrying 110 tons of emergency aid, the UNHCR said.

That is where the print ended. 

 Shoko Shimozawa, the UNHCR representative for Iraq, welcomed the first cargo flight.

"This is by large, by far, one of the largest relief operations we are doing," she said. "But this is also comparative because of the enormity of the situation. And the crisis that we are facing."

Adrian Edwards, a UNHCR spokesman, warned that "conditions remain desperate" in many places.

"Many are still coming to grips with the tragedy they've been through in recent weeks — fleeing homes with nothing, and many trying to cope with the loss of loved ones," he said.

The gains made by the Islamic State have brought U.S. forces back into the conflict for the first time since American troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. America's renewed involvement on the battlefield was a reflection of the growing international concern over the Sunni extremists' blitz. Washington began carrying out dozens of airstrikes in Iraq on Aug. 8.

Those Islamist extremists really acting like a bunch of Nazis, huh?

But in a horrifying act of revenge for the U.S. airstrikes, the Islamic State released a grisly video on Tuesday showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley who went missing in Syria in November 2012. The militants have also threatened to kill another hostage, U.S. officials said.

That brings us full circle, doesn't it?

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What, article not found on the web?

Won't find this in BG print, either:

"Why Does ISIS Fit In So Perfectly With The PNAC Plan?

by Bernie Suarez
Activist Post

Here are some simple burning questions whose answers can only be described by the globalist plans for a new world order. These questions strike at the root of the question all of humanity is asking: Who is ISIS?

1. Where do they bank? Or do they have a money tree?

2. Where do they get their guns from? Bullets? Knives?

3. Where do they eat, how do they get their food?

4. Where do they sleep, where do they get toiletries?

5. Where is their military base? They DO stick together right?

6. Since we know where they are why can't they simply be rounded up in a way that doesn't involve any nation attacks? But wait ...

7. Who is their leader and how did he learn to outsmart the world's greatest military and outperform all generals in U.S. history?

8. How does ISIS avoid NSA surveillance?

9. How do they communicate and avoid all communication systems at the same time?

10. How do they avoid military and government satellite surveillance and tracking?

11. How does the mainstream media and all the CIA pundits on TV like Colonel Anthony Shaffer know so much about how dangerous ISIS is yet they know nothing else like where they got their weapons from or how they were created? Oh wait, how did Shaffer obtain his knowledge about them? Who specifically did he speak to?

12. Why is the (CIA) chain of command that ISIS responds to not reported by mainstream media?

13. When did the first ISIS meeting take place and why?

14. Why is the simple facts about the creation of ISIS so clear and documented in the alternative and worldwide media except in the tiny circle of Zionist companies that control Western media?

Here are a few more burning direct questions that all of humanity is really asking.

15. Why does everything ISIS does fit in so perfectly with the Bush Neocon Project For A New American Century?  - Why does it fit in so perfectly with the globalist new world order plans like a perfect fitting shoe or glove??

16. Should this wide disconnect about the reporting of who ISIS is and how they were created and funded be the last straw for mainstream media?

17. Can the world afford to live in the Western mainstream media paradigm anymore?

As we contemplate these questions let us remember that the mainstream media in America is controlled by only 6 companies and all of them are on the same page when it comes to Israel, the global government agenda, the U.S./U.N. led new world order plans, the Project for a New American Century, the wishes of the Council on Foreign Relations and all CIA (Mossad) backed operations. It's all part of the same story and the same paradigm.

So while the mainstream media continues to lie and spin stories designed to make you think that ISIS is a mysterious and dangerous gang whose defeating can only occur with more bombing of Iraq and illegal invasion of Syria, don't forget that no "army" exists to make headline news that challenges massive empires without massive support. There are no trees that grow guns, bullets and other weapons, they must be supplied by someone. The same can be said about all resources including money, food, shelter, water and other basic needs of life. Everyone who works for a living and anyone who is struggling or has struggled financially to survive can appreciate this.

Let us not be fooled by artificially engineered Western media narratives that not only fit in perfectly with the globalists stated goals of taking over the Middle East clearly outlined in the Project For A New American Century paper titled Rebuilding America's Defenses. From a common sense point of view, it isn't very difficult to see how the ongoing mainstream media narratives about ISIS no longer makes any financial or practical sense from a day-to-day/daily-living point of view.

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NEXT DAY UPDATES:

"Slain reporter was also Israeli citizen" by Tia Goldenberg and Julie Pace | Associated Press   September 04, 2014

JERUSALEM — Israel confirmed on Wednesday that slain American journalist Steven Sotloff was also an Israeli citizen, while President Obama vowed to build a coalition to ‘‘degrade and destroy’’ the extremist group that carried out the videotaped death.

Sotloff’s Jewish faith and Israeli citizenship were not widely known before his death — in part because Israel’s military censor apparently kept a lid on the story for his safety — and his killers may not have known about his background either, since they made no mention of Jews or Israel in the footage released Tuesday.

Translation: He's a Mossad agent. 

That's where he learned his craft, huh, and now we have this appearing in our papers?

Sotloff, 31, of suburban Miami freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines before he was captured in Syria a year ago. He became the second US reporter to be beheaded by Islamic State militants in two weeks, killed in retribution for US airstrikes against the group.

The video horrified Americans and journalists around the world and touched a nerve in Israel, where news that Sotloff had connections there dominated newscasts and brought condolences from Israelis who knew him.

News is they tried to buy back their man but it did not work.
‘‘Steve was part of a group of young Jewish Americans who are enamored with Israel and enamored with the Arab world,’’ said Ehud Yaari, an Arab affairs commentator for Israeli Channel 2 who met Sotloff.

This guy is stinking of spy.

The killing put pressure on the Obama administration to act more forcefully against Islamic State, which has conquered a swath of Syria and Iraq. 

The constant advancement of the agenda with conventional myth to boot!

‘‘Our objective is clear, and that is to degrade and destroy ISIL so that it’s no longer a threat,’’ Obama said during a visit to Estonia, using an acronym for the group.

‘‘We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists,’’ the president said. ‘‘And those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget, and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.’’ 

F*** you, you war-mongering sphincter and tool.

During an appearance in Maine, Vice President Joe Biden declared that the United States will pursue the militants to ‘‘the gates of hell.’’

They are open for you and the rest of your ilk, Joe.

Obama also sought to clean up the damage inflicted when he said last week that ‘‘we don’t have a strategy yet’’ for dealing with the Islamic State.

‘‘It is very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job, that we know that this is a mission that’s going to work, that we’re very clear on what our objectives are, what our targets are,’’ the president said.

Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said on his Twitter account that Sotloff held Israeli citizenship. Israel’s censor cleared the information for publication Wednesday, suggesting the country had tried to conceal the news to protect Sotloff.

Related: Israeli Censors Cleared This New York Times Report

They clear everything you see in an AmeriKan paper.

The Sotloff family could not be reached for comment on his citizenship. 

I wonder which crisis actors they hired for those roles?

Tech companies rushed to scrub the web of the gruesome footage after its release, deleting a YouTube video and closing accounts on Twitter and other sites, according to two Silicon Valley insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Translation: It's such a bad piece of production it needs to be hidden. I didn't watch it and do not need to. I have already read enough from people who have watched it and reported it to be a ridiculous offering. 

This is all psyops sh**, folks. Mind-manipulating, psyops garbage.

Sotloff’s family, friends, and colleagues remembered him as an adventurous man who was fascinated with the Middle East. Friends said he moved to Israel in 2005 as a student.

Outside his parents’ home in the Miami suburb of Pinecrest, family friend Barak Barfi read a statement late Wednesday that said Sotloff was torn between living a normal American life watching ‘‘South Park,’’ playing golf, and eating junk food and going to the Middle East’s trouble spots as a journalist.

So that is what a "normal American life" is, according to this piece of Zionist sh**?? 

Talk about prejudicial stereotypes. My paper full of Jewish supremacism is the worst of all.

‘‘He was no war junkie.  He did not want to be a modern day Lawrence of Arabia,’’ Barfi said.  “He merely wanted to give voice to those who had none.  From the Libyan doctor in Misrata who struggled to provide psychological services to children ravaged by war, to the Syrian plumber who risked his life by crossing regime lines to purchase medicine, their story was Steve’s story.  He ultimately sacrificed his life to bring their story to the world.’’

Did he?

Michael Sapir, a former rugby teammate in Israel, said he last saw Sotloff in July 2013, shortly before he was kidnapped.

The two watched a rugby match in Israel at the Maccabiah games, the Jewish Olympics.

They have to have their own because they never win a damn thing in the real ones. 

Odd coming from the crowd that is pushing perverse diversity amongst the rest of us.

He said Sotloff shared stories from his adventures in the region. Sotloff, he said, was a true freelancer who reported what he saw because he was interested and only later found places to publish the stories.

‘‘He was fascinated with the Middle East,’’ Sapir said. ‘‘He’s a remarkable man with a great amount of courage, and I don’t mean courage like that his life is in danger, but very courageous to take on the adventure that he embarked on.’’

And now he is "gone."

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UPDATE: ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE ASSET BEHEADED BY ISIS