It was not so silly when I saw this in front of my Boston Globe.
Related: Obama Announces Wider Invasion of Middle East
This is what the Globe gave me about it on page A3:
"US, Arab allies strike militants in Syria; Launch campaign from air and sea on a range of Islamic State targets" by Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt | New York Times September 23, 2014
WASHINGTON — The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border.
The war in Syria, like the war on Libya, are all yours, Obummer -- just as is the third invasion of Iraq. War criminal.
US fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants, known as the Islamic State.
Did they have the Syrian government's permission? Did they even bother to ask the U.N.?
US defense officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks, and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from US Navy ships in the region.
“I can confirm that US military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber, and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles,” said Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, using an alternate name for the Islamic State.
Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates took part in the strikes, US officials said, although the Arab governments were not expected to announce their participation until later Tuesday.
Is it lying cover or can we add the list of war crimes charges to them, too?
The new coalition’s makeup is significant because the United States was able to recruit Sunni governments to take action against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State. Groups and citizens from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have been accused of financially and logistically supporting the militants.
Yeah, I sure wish Qatar and Saudi hadn't helped create, fund, and staff the groups they are now bombing.
The operation also unites the squabbling states of the Persian Gulf.
The strikes are a major turning point in President Obama’s war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of a military campaign.
Even the NYT says it: OBAMA'S WAR!
Until now, the administration had bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against targets in Syria.
What, we were misled again?
The strikes came less than two weeks after Obama said in an address to the nation that he was authorizing an expansion of the military campaign against the Islamic State.
War criminal. I thought he was going to wait until the elections were over but he obviously doesn't care about Democratic prospects in the Senate. That's over now.
Unlike US strikes in Iraq over the past month, which have been small-bore bombings of mostly individual Islamic State targets — patrol boats and trucks — the salvo on Tuesday in Syria was the beginning of what was expected to be a sustained bombardment at targets in the militant headquarters in Raqqa and on the border.
The strikes began after years of debate within the Obama administration about whether the United States should intervene militarily or should avoid another entanglement in a complex war in the Middle East. But the Islamic State controls a broad swath of land across both Iraq and Syria.
I'm reading the PNAC neo-con battle plan here!
Been PLANNING THIS for YEARS, huh?
Defense officials said the goal of the air campaign was to deprive the Islamic State of the safe havens it enjoys in Syria.
And overthrow the Assad government.
The administration’s ultimate goal, as set forth in the address Obama delivered on Sept. 10, is to recruit a global coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the militants, even as Obama warned that “eradicating a cancer” like the Islamic State was a long-term challenge that would put some US troops at risk.
I can't describe the absolute rage I'm feeling towards this president right now. I now condemn him for all time. It's obvious impeachment is going nowhere in that shit-fooley town, and look at Obama start dumping missiles and bombs as soon as they left!
US warplanes had been conducting aerial surveillance flights in Syria for more than a month in anticipation of airstrikes, but it had been unclear just how much intelligence the Pentagon had managed to gather about the movements of the Sunni militant group.
Unlike Iraq, whose airspace is controlled by the United States, Syria has its own aerial defense system, so US planes have had to rely on sometimes jamming the country’s defenses when crossing into Syria.
Then it is a VIOLATION of INTERNATIONAL LAW!
According to US officials, the strikes in Syria occurred without the approval of President Bashar Assad of Syria, whose government, unlike Iraq, did not ask the US for help against the Islamic State.
Then the military action ordered by Obummer is a WAR CRIME!
Defense officials said Assad had not been told in advance of the strikes.
Why would they tell him of all people?
Syria officials disputed that, according to the Associated Press, saying US officials alerted Syria’s UN envoy of the impending attack.
Oh, how nice of them.
Obama has repeatedly called on Assad to step down because of chemical weapons attacks and violence against his own people.
I'm tired of this hypocritical propaganda and tripe from the liar-and-thief, sorry.
Administration officials acknowledge that US efforts to roll back the Islamic State in Syria cannot help but aid Assad, whose government is also a target of the group.
In Iraq, the effectiveness of six weeks of American airstrikes has been mixed.
WHAT?!!!
The Iraqi government’s forces have scarcely budged the Sunni extremists from their hold on more than a quarter of the country, in part because many critical Sunni tribes remain on the sidelines.
Although the airstrikes appear to have stopped the extremists’ march toward Baghdad, the Islamic State is still dealing humiliating blows to the Iraqi army.
On Monday, the government acknowledged it had lost control of the small town of Sichar and lost contact with several hundred soldiers who had been besieged for nearly a week at a camp north of the Islamic State stronghold of Falluja, in Anbar Province.
By midday, there were reports that hundreds of soldiers had been killed in battle or mass executions.
A lawmaker from the governing alliance, Ali Bedairi, said more than 300 soldiers had died after the loss of Camp Saqlawiya.
A military spokesman put the death toll at 40 and said 68 were missing.
Behind the government’s struggles on the battlefield is the absence or resistance of many of the Sunni Muslim tribes that officials in Washington hope will play the decisive role in the course of the fight.
It's the 2006 need for surge all over again.
The Sunni tribes of Anbar and other areas drove Al Qaeda-linked militants out of the area seven years ago with US military help, in what became known as the Sunni Awakening.
But the tribes’ alienation from the subsequent authoritarian and Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad opened the door for the extremists of the Islamic State to return this year.
I'm sick of the bullshit narrative.
--more--"
Also see:
Obama’s ISIS strategy most viable option, but still carries risks
Obama’s calm approach on ISIS will keep America safer
Now going back about a week to see the same tired analogies for the same self-created problems that have to be "fixed":
"Amid Sept. 11 remembrances, dark shadows" by Marc Santora and Tatiana Schlossberg | New York Times September 12, 2014
13 years after thousands of people died in the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, the ceremonies to memorialize them once again played out across the country Thursday morning.
But this year, it was not the work that has been finished but what lies ahead that was shadowing the solemn day.
Also see:
National Guard Told to Stand Down on 9/11
USIS Security Check Missed ISIS Terrorist
Terrorists Taking Direct Flight to Boston
That's all the Khorasan want.
Even as two blue streams of light pierced the New York City skyline Wednesday night, President Obama was laying out his case for a stepped up military campaign to defeat a terrorist organization bent on causing more destruction.
“We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm,” Obama said. “That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today.”
Yeah, like all you mass-murdering leaders.
Why don't you all do the world a favor and end your lives honorably?
At 8:46 a.m. Thursday, the time the first plane struck the north tower on Sept. 11, 2001, there was a moment of silence. In Washington, Obama, joined by his wife, Michelle, and Vice President Joe Biden, stood on the White House lawn, heads bowed.
At 9:03, a second pause was taken for the moment a plane hit the south tower. There were four more moments of silence interrupting the annual reading of the names of those who had died at the World Trade Center — for when each tower fell and for the attack on the Pentagon, also hit by a plane, and the crash of Flight 93 into a field in Pennsylvania, which killed all 40 passengers and crew members.
Worship the conventional myths and lies. Bow down at the altar of false flags and odes to war.
At the Pentagon, the Navy Brass Quartet played the national anthem as Obama, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and General Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, turned to face an American flag that hung on the rebuilt wall of the Pentagon.
Obama began his remarks with Scripture and remembrances after laying a wreath at the site where the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Department of Defense building, killing 184 people.
I don't even want to get into it today. Suffice to say that whatever you believe happened that day, the official story put out by authority is a piece of crap.
“Thirteen years since the peace of an American morning was broken,” he said, speaking to family members of victims and a few survivors. “Thirteen years of moments they would have shared with us.”
But he also chose to look forward, and added some positive remarks, despite the solemnness of the occasion.
How ill.
“There are now teenagers, young adults, who were born after 9/11. It’s remarkable,” he said. “Generations from now, no matter the trial, no matter the challenge, America will always be America.”
The rhetoric is disgusting, and how many lives has his missiles and bombs taken since?
In New York, families gathered in Lower Manhattan to read aloud the names of all those killed when the towers fell. Danielle Kousoulis was on the 104th floor of the north tower when the first plane hit. She was 29 years old.
Her parents, Zoe and George, said that while time had not healed the wounds of that day, they had figured out how to live with the pain.
But they do not know how to feel about America once again stepping up its military fight against a band of extremists. “I can’t understand how there can be so much hate. I don’t know why we can’t have world peace,” said Zoe Kousoulis.
Only a band now?
Btw, we know why there is not world peace: it doesn't serve the interests of the EUSraeli Empire and its banking backers.
--more--"
Related: Social media helps ID photo found near ground zero
Social media also helped expose all the lies and frauds coming from this government.
"As Boston remembers, Americans worry about Islamic State" by Laura Crimaldi | Globe staff September 11, 2014
Diane Hunt left a “penny from heaven” for her son Thursday at Boston’s Sept. 11 memorial in the Public Garden, where the Kingston mother has found peace since the terrorist attacks.
But the world around her, she says, is still imperiled and faces new threats from the Islamic State.
“I need to see some action,” said Hunt, whose son William Christopher Hunt was 32 when he died at the World Trade Center. “These people murdered our loved ones. They just murdered two journalists.”
You got it, accessory.
Hunt was among the relatives of Sept. 11 victims who marked the 13th anniversary of the attacks at a wreath-laying ceremony Thursday morning. The event was one of many held across the state to commemorate 9/11.
The anniversary came one day after President Obama outlined a broad plan to defeat the Islamic State, including US airstrikes in war-torn Syria and an expanded American military advisory role in Iraq.
“I’m sorry; I think just go in and bomb everybody,” Hunt said. “They don’t care about life. They don’t care about their own children. They don’t care about anything, except beheading people and killing people and maiming them, raping women. They’re just horrible people.”
What is horrible is continuing to read this horrible slop propaganda.
Norwood resident Maureen Gilligan, whose younger brother died at the World Trade Center, said the threat from the Islamic State is “frightening.”
“It’s very worrisome to me; it really is,” Gilligan said. “They’re very dangerous and powerful.”
--more--"
Related: Let Congress authorize war against ISIS
They did. It's where the political shit-show fooley of parti$an$hip ends.
"Party leaders support call to train, equip Syrian rebels; Votes expected in Congress before fall recess" by David Espo and Bradley Klapper | Associated Press September 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — Bending for once to the will of the White House, Republicans and Democrats coalesced Thursday behind President Obama’s call to train and arm Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants and pointed toward votes in the heat of a midterm election campaign.
‘‘We ought to give the president what he’s asking for,’’ said House Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, although he swiftly added that many Republicans believe the Democratic commander in chief’s strategy is too tepid to crush militants who have overrun parts of Iraq and Syria and beheaded two American journalists.
On the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he expected legislation ratifying Obama’s request to clear Congress by the end of next week when lawmakers hope to wrap up their work and many go home to campaign for reelection.
I can't imagine the war-hating public is going to like this one bit, regardless of what the war-promoting propaganda pre$$ ma$$ media says.
Congress’s other two top officials, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, also said Obama would get the support he seeks.
Congress is in the midst of a two-week session that had been set to focus on domestic issues, principally legislation to extend routine government funding beyond the end of the Sept. 30 budget year.
First I've seen about that in the midst of all the worthless votes.
That agenda changed abruptly on Wednesday night, when Obama delivered a prime-time speech from the White House seeking ‘‘additional authorities and resources to train and equip’’ rebels. The forces are simultaneously trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad and defeat militants seeking to create an Islamist caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.
Obama says he already has the authority to order airstrikes against militants in Syria. So far, those attacks have come only in neighboring Iraq.
The White House and many lawmakers say deployment of US troops to train and equip Syrian rebels — activity planned to take place in Saudi Arabia — would require additional congressional approval.
And he's got it.
On the morning after Obama’s speech, the administration deployed a battalion of officials to brief lawmakers, including General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to testify next week at hearings before any votes in Congress.
There was a strong political subtext to the developments, eight weeks before voters pick a new House and settle a struggle for Senate control.
‘‘We do not want to go home without voting on some measure that goes toward destroying and defeating ISIS wherever it exists,’’ said Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, using an alternate acronym for the militants.
At the same time, candidates seeking reelection will be required to vote on the president’s request, and challengers will be on the spot to state their positions.
More rigged elections coming your way, and the war-weary American people are going to vote in the war-starting incumbents when the country is anti-incumbent. That's the narrative being prepared.
Republicans served notice they will seek a broader debate, although not before Congress leaves Washington next week.
McConnell, a frequent critic of Obama, said Congress will work quickly on the White House’s immediate request. Beyond that, he said, Congress must consider ‘‘what this multiyear campaign will mean for the overall defense program’’ — from US nuclear forces on land, sea, and air, to a need to ‘‘retain dominance’’ in the Pacific.
Meaning he better be putting forth a massive increase in military spending and cutting budgets everywhere else!
Boehner, the leader of the Republican-controlled House, said it could take years to train and equip rebel forces, yet the militants’ “momentum and territorial gains must be halted and reversed immediately.’’
That's the plan.
He added, ‘‘An F-16 is not a strategy, and airstrikes alone will not accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish. And the president’s made clear that he doesn’t want US boots on the ground. Well, somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.’’
Already there. Being called "advisers."
As a president who came to office promising to end wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama has been adamant that he is not now leading the nation into a new ground conflict.
Those wars are still going and he's added Libya, Syria, and Ukraine to the list while expanding the mission in Africa.
There were scattered objections to Obama’s request from within both political parties.
Arming and training Syrian rebels ‘‘could backfire and be counterproductive to our goal of eliminating’’ the extremists, said Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut.
Representative John Fleming, a Tea Party-backed Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, said he preferred ‘‘all-out war’’ by the United States.
Then YOU GO FIGHT IT, ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--more--"
"US general won’t rule out US ground forces in Iraq; Says stopping ISIS may take more than airstrikes" by MARK LANDLER and JEREMY W. PETERS | New York Times September 17, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s top military adviser said Tuesday that he would recommend deploying United States forces in ground operations against Islamic extremists in Iraq if airstrikes prove insufficient, opening the door to a riskier, more expansive American combat role than the president has publicly outlined.
The airstrikes have been mixed, and thus.... !!!!!!!
General Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that while he was confident an American-led coalition would defeat the Islamic State, he would not foreclose the possibility of asking Obama to send US troops to fight the militants on the ground — something Obama has ruled out.
Let's get something straight: U.S troops are ALREADY on the GROUND!
“My view at this point is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove true,” Dempsey said. “But if it fails to be true, and if there are threats to the United States, then I, of course, would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of US military ground forces.”
Boehner just went limp.
Dempsey acknowledged this would run counter to the president’s policy, but said, “He has told me as well to come back to him on a case-by-case basis.”
Then we have BEEN LIED TO AGAIN by THIS PRESIDENT!
The general’s statement lays bare the challenge the president will face in selling an expanded military campaign to a war-weary American public.
We are not weary; after more than a decade of wars based on lies, we HATE THEM!
Obama, seeking to allay fears of another Iraq war, has promised that US ground troops will not be involved in fighting the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS.
Liar. They already are involved.
In a sign of the administration’s mixed message, the president pointedly did not call it a war, while his advisers later did.
What's in a name? A mass-murdering exercise, by any other name, is a.... well, you know the rest.
But the realities of a prolonged campaign, Dempsey said, could make such a hands-off approach untenable, particularly if the battle against the militants moves into densely-populated cities where airstrikes are less effective and the chances of civilian casualties are much higher. His candid testimony, hours before a divided House of Representatives began debating whether or not to approve Obama’s request for authority to arm the Syrian rebels, drew expressions of concern from antiwar groups and could further complicate the political dynamic for the president.
The left-liberals and the kids will be staying home this year.
Hello, Republican Senate.
The White House insisted on Tuesday that Obama was not shifting his policy and that Dempsey was not out of synch with his commander in chief.
Then WTF? Ground troops later, liar?
“It’s the responsibility of the president’s military advisers to plan and consider all the wide range of contingencies,” the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said to reporters. “It’s also the responsibility of the commander in chief to set out a clear policy.”
On Wednesday, Obama is scheduled to get a briefing from his military commanders at the Pentagon’s Central Command headquarters in Tampa. The rare visit is described by White House officials as part of his effort to mobilize public support for the mission. But it is also calculated to soothe tensions with the military over who is in charge of the operation after Obama named retired General John R. Allen to be his special envoy to the coalition of countries fighting the Islamic State. Allen will be based at the State Department.
This stinks of a losing Army if all I am told of WWII is to be believed.
Already, Obama’s policy has been tested by his commanders. Dempsey said General Lloyd J. Austin III, who oversees Central Command, had recommended putting special operations troops on the ground to direct airstrikes during a recent campaign by Iraqi and Kurdish forces to retake the Mosul Dam from the extremist militants.
THEY DID! It has already been reported that they did that!
Obama rejected that recommendation, and Dempsey said the United States used technology — a drone known as a Rover — to compensate for not having its own advisers on the ground. The US advisers remained in the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
The challenge will come, Dempsey said, when Iraqi and Kurdish forces try to drive the militants out of densely populated urban areas like Mosul.
I'm told they did that.
In those cases, Dempsey said, he might recommend deploying special operations troops to provide “close combat advising,” essentially working alongside Iraqi commanders in the field and helping them direct their troops to targets.
While the Americans would not fire weapons themselves, military experts said there was little practical distinction between the role Dempsey described at the hearing and actual combat.
We see where all this going, goddamn you bastards.
“We’ve already got ground forces introduced and they are performing combat missions,” Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army general who helped train the Iraqi security forces and is now a senior adviser to the National Security Network, said Tuesday. “I applaud the general for his candor. That will help the president and the debate greatly “
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testified along with Dempsey, but their appearance appeared to do little to dispel concerns on Capitol Hill.
What concerns?
They said the campaign would include the training and equipping of 5,000 Syrian fighters, the involvement of more than 40 coalition nations, including 30 that have pledged military support.
But members of the Armed Services Committee sounded far from convinced that the plan would succeed. Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, said he doubted 5,000 Syrian fighters, who could not be trained for months, would be able to fight off more than 30,000 Islamic State combatants. “To many of us that seems like an inadequate response,” he said.
Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who votes with Democrats, said he was concerned about what appeared to be a “Whac-A-Mole” approach to the threat.
That's what happens when U.S. intelligence agencies create the exact problem they need to fight. I thought Senators were supposed to be smart.
A House vote on funds to train and arm the Syrian opposition is possible Wednesday.
--more--"
Look, it's controlled-opposition Code Pink in the picture, giving us and the world the illusion of dissent and freedom.
And you can forget about your combat troops:
"Iraq prime minister rules out US ground troops" by Vivian Salama and Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press September 18, 2014
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s new prime minister ruled out stationing US ground troops in his country, chiding the international community Wednesday for inaction in Syria and lamenting the ‘‘puzzling’’ exclusion of neighboring Iran from the coalition being assembled to fight the Islamic State group.
Problem is they are already stationed there, about 3,000 of them, and once you know the PNAC plan the exclusion of Iran is not puzzling at all.
Haider al-Abadi has been embraced by the West as a more inclusive leader who might heal the internal rifts that have dismembered Iraq.
As the same forces try to dismember Iraq.
But his forthrightness in an interview with The Associated Press — his first with international media — suggested a man capable of parting ways on vision and holding his ground.
Then the U.S. will get rid of him like they did Maliki.
Abadi praised the US aerial campaign targeting the militants who have overrun much of northern and western Iraq and carved out a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border, saying it has helped efforts to roll back the Sunni extremists.
But he stressed that he sees no need for the United States or other nations to send troops into Iraq to help fight the Islamic State.
‘‘Not only is it not necessary,’’ he said, ‘‘We don’t want them. We won’t allow them. Full stop.’’
Uh-huh.
Instead, Abadi urged the international community to expand its campaign against the extremists in neighboring Syria, noting that militants coming under pressure in Iraq are retreating back into Syria.
Got your wish, and I was told the ISIS hasn't budged above!
The comments provided a sharp rebuttal to remarks a day earlier by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee that American ground troops may be needed to battle Islamic State forces in the Middle East if President Obama’s current strategy fails.
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House voted to give the US military authority to train and arm moderate Syrian rebels, with final approval expected in the Senate as early as Thursday.
No nasty partisanship when it comes to war!
However, Obama emphasized anew that American forces ‘‘do not and will not have a combat mission’’ in the struggle against the militants. ‘‘As your commander in chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq,’’ Obama told troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
He just lied to the troops.
Last week, Obama outlined a plan that includes a broader military campaign in Iraq, increased support and training for Syrian rebel groups, and expanded airstrikes against the militants in Syria.
Abadi, a veteran Shi’ite lawmaker who spent 20 years in exile in Britain prior to the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, faces the enormous task of trying to hold Iraq together amid the growing security and political challenges.
The Iraqi premier said that the Iraqi military will choose and approve targets, and that the US will not take action without consulting with Baghdad first. Failure to do so, he warned, risks causing widespread civilian casualties as has happened in Pakistan and Yemen, where the United States has conducted drone strikes for years.
War crimes all.
‘‘The only contribution the American forces or the international coalition are going to help us with is from the sky,’’ al-Abadi said. ‘‘We are not giving any blank check to the international coalition to hit any target in Iraq.’’
How you going to stop them? Stand out there waving a sign?
Oh, missile was a "mistake" anyway. Sorry.
The Islamic State was established in Iraq but spread in early 2013 to Syria, where it grew exponentially in the chaos of that country’s civil war. Following its success in Syria, the group’s fighters rampaged across northern and western Iraq in June, sending tremors across the Middle East.
The group now controls territory stretching from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad, where it has established an Islamic state, or caliphate, ruled by its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
That's the narrative even if not true or contradicted tomorrow.
--more--"
"Iraq parliament rejects interior, defense nominees" by Qassim Abdul-Zahra | Associated Press September 17, 2014
BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s nominees Tuesday to lead the defense and interior ministries, leaving the crucial Cabinet posts unfilled as an emerging US-led coalition intensifies its air campaign against Islamic State extremists who have seized a third of the country.
Control over the two powerful security portfolios has long been a source of tension among Iraq’s feuding political factions, and the failure to agree on the candidates marked the latest in a series of delays in forming a unified government that can confront the Islamic State extremist group.
The Parliament session was held as the United States carried out an airstrike near Baghdad for the first time since launching an aerial campaign in early August, and French warplanes flying from the United Arab Emirates began reconnaissance missions over Iraq.
The air campaign expanding all over the place.
This is it. Turn all the recalcitrant countries into rubble for the Jew World Order.
**************
Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki held both the defense and interior minister posts himself after his reelection in 2010 because lawmakers could not reach an agreement on them. That fueled concerns that he was monopolizing power....
Who?
Mohsen Laftah Asfour, a lawmaker with Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc, was the only lawmaker approved in Tuesday’s session and will become Water Resources Minister.
Maliki, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, and former speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujeifi were given the largely ceremonial posts of vice president. Kurdish politician and former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was named one of three deputy prime ministers, while former premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari was named foreign minister.
The United States and other countries have been pushing for a more representative government that can reach out to Sunnis, who felt marginalized by Maliki.
Sunni discontent is widely seen as having fueled the Islamic State extremist group’s dramatic advance since June.
US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the delay in filling the security posts was ‘‘part of the normal democratic process.’’
But it's a problem when they can't get confirmed over here in a timely fashion.
Un-f***ing-believeable!
--more--"
"Divided House votes to arm Syrian rebels" by Bryan Bender and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff September 18, 2014
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to arm moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State, but sizable opposition in both parties highlighted doubts about the US strategy against the terrorist group and fears of being drawn deeper into a sectarian war.
So much for those. It's full steam ahead.
The measure passed by a vote of 273 to 156, empowering President Obama to ship weapons and provide training to the Free Syrian Army and other participants in Syria’s civil war that are considered friendly to the United States. The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on the measure as part of a spending bill.
The all-Democratic Massachusetts delegation highlighted the divisions: 7 of 9 members voted against it, citing doubts the rebels can be trusted and calling for a fuller debate about the overall US military strategy in both Syria and Iraq.
Supporters saw little choice but to try to strengthen elements inside Syria that could help confront the militant Sunni Muslim group — especially since Obama has ruled out sending US combat troops.
“This is evil that is on the march. It’s unyielding in its brutality, and all the president is asking for here is a very measured approach,” Representative Richard Neal of Springfield, the dean of the Bay State delegation, said in an interview.
What a DICK!!!!!!!!!!
Neal was joined by Representative Stephen Lynch of South Boston in voting for the measure.
Massachusetts members voting no were Representatives John Tierney of Salem; James McGovern of Worcester; Katherine Clark of Melrose; Niki Tsongas of Lowell; William Keating of Bourne; Michael Capuano of Somerville; and Joseph P. Kennedy III of Brookline.
Tsongas, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said she opposed the measure on grounds that a far more comprehensive debate is needed about the administration’s strategy.
“I just think this is a back- door vote to lead to an expanded and open-ended commitment spilling into future administrations,” Tsongas said in an interview.
Kennedy said in a statement that the vote was a step “towards escalating a costly, complex, and currently open-ended military engagement overseas.”
The Islamic State is blamed for beheading two American journalists and waging a brutal campaign that has killed thousands of civilians in Iraq and Syria. US intelligence officials have reported it has recruited Americans and Europeans among its ranks, raising the prospect it could mount terrorist attacks in the United States.
The amendment, sponsored by Representative Howard P. McKeon, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, authorizes the Pentagon and Department of State to support “appropriately vetted elements” of the Syrian opposition who have been seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashir Al-Assad.
Overall, Republicans voted 159 to 71 for the measure, part of a spending bill, and Democrats 114 to 85 for it.
The administration was criticized by some lawmakers — on both the left and right — who fear a quagmire, and by some Republicans who worried that Obama is limiting his options by ruling out ground troops. That tension was on display at an often-testy Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, at which Secretary of State John F. Kerry faced tough questions.
Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the panel, accused the administration of lacking a coherent plan, and failing to demonstrate international participation.
“You’re asking us to approve something that we know the way you’ve laid it out makes no sense,” Corker said.
Kerry insisted that the United States was building an international coalition that included Arab nations and that Syria’s moderate opposition has already made progress.
OMG!
“I really find it somewhat surprising that you suggest that as the president of the United States talks to the nation, that commits to take strikes in order to deal with [the Islamic State], as we have come back from a week of very serious meetings with nations around the world, all of whom are committed to this, that you sit there and suggest that it is not serious,” Kerry said.
Oh, I am taking the mass murder based on lie seriously, sir.
For many lawmakers in the Massachusetts delegation , concerns about getting drawn further into a wider sectarian conflict loomed large.
McGovern, who has been a leading critic of using military force to confront a movement that by definition is fueled primarily by ideology, called the Syria measure a poor substitute for a more comprehensive debate about the expanded military mission announced by Obama last week.
He's mine.
“This is just a tiny piece of that policy,” McGovern said in an interview. “There have been multiple air strikes [in Iraq], the number of [military advisers] has increased and is continuing to rise. We are told we should expect airstrikes in Syria soon and we are told whatever we are doing is going to last years. For Congress to sit on its hands while all this is unfolding is an abrogation of our constitutional responsibility.”
Wouldn't be the first time they have stood aside and failed to fulfill the oath. Impeach.
Clark said in a statement she voted no because “there are no clear answers yet to how we would vet these rebels” or “how we would prevent our arms from falling into enemy hands.”
Like they have?
In a sign of the unusual split within both parties, Bay State lawmakers were on the same side as a sizable number of Republicans.
I just thought you might like to see where the AMERICAN PEOPLE REALLY ARE!
Representative Tom McClintock of California pointed out the Free Syrian Army’s main goal is defeating Assad, not the Islamic State, while Assad, no matter how unpalatable to the United States, is also fighting the Islamic State. He said it is possible US arms would be turned against Assad and in the process actually help the Islamic State.
“This proposal runs a great risk of backfiring,” McClintock said during the House debate.
That's the plan.
But Obama praised the bipartisan vote and repeated that ground troops would not be necessary, saying in a statement that the United State has learned “it is more effective to use America’s unique capabilities to take out terrorist targets in support of our partners’ efforts on the ground to secure their own future.”
Repeating lies really looks bad, tool.
--more--"
"Senate votes to support Obama on rebel aid" by David Espo and Donna Cassata | Associated Press September 19, 2014
WASHINGTON — In the heat of an election campaign, Congress cleared the way for the US military to train and equip Syrian rebels for a war against Islamic State militants on Thursday, reluctant ratification of a new strategy that President Obama outlined scarcely a week ago.
Then they are accessories and enablers to war crimes.
The 78 to 22 Senate vote sent Obama legislation that also provides funding for the government after the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, eliminating any threat of a shutdown.
Wow, look at that vote in this age of rancorous partisanship when it comes to what the American people want and need.
The House approved the bill on Wednesday. The Syria measure split Republicans and Democrats alike and created new fault lines for this fall’s elections for control of the Senate as well as the 2016 race for the White House. Both Massachusetts senators, Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren, voted against the measure.
Markey praised efforts by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to build an international coalition to fight the militants, yet he worried about the perils of stepping into a complex civil war. “There are unintended consequences that may come from arming one of these factions to fight against another, including the very real risk of American weapons falling into the wrong hands,” he said, adding that he also was concerned that military leaders have not ruled out the potential use of US ground troops in combat.
Warren voiced similar concerns.
“I am deeply concerned by the rise of ISIS, and I support a strong, coordinated response, but I am not convinced that the current proposal to train and equip Syrian forces adequately advances our interests . . . even if we could guarantee that our support goes to the right people, I remain unconvinced that training and equipping these forces will be effective in pushing back ISIS,’’ she said.
“I do not want America to be dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, and it is time for those nations in the region that are most immediately affected by the rise of ISIS to step up and play a leading role in this fight,” she said.
Related: Senator Warren’s progressive supporters demand accountability for her rightwing pro-Israel positioning
Also see: SILLI Inside the United States
What cost your soul, 'eh?
Just another bourgeois politician, and I can't describe my disappointment.
In an appearance at the White House soon after the vote, Obama said he was pleased that a majority of both Republicans and Democrats had supported the legislation.
‘‘I believe we’re strongest as a nation when the president and Congress work together,’’ he said.
Noting the killing of two Americans by the Islamic State group, he said that ‘‘as Americans we do not give in to fear’’ and would not be put off by such brutal tactics.
Stop the stroking and emotional manipulation, you sphincter.
For a second straight day, the administration dispatched top-ranking officials to reassure lawmakers — and the public — that no US ground combat operation was in the offing. Obama made the same promise in an address to the nation eight days ago laying out his new policy.
LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told one House committee that Obama ‘‘is not going to order American combat ground forces into that area.’’
Unless Dempsey says.
Oh, wait, they are already there!
Appearing before a different panel, Kerry said the administration understands the danger of a ‘‘slippery slope.’’ Obama’s general plan is to have US troops train Syrian rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia, a process that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, said could take a year.
Leaders in both political parties supported the Senate legislation, draining the debate of all suspense. Asked about approving Obama’s plan in the wake of the war in Iraq, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said, ‘‘Iraq was a mistake. I was misled and I voted wrong.
“But this is not Iraq, this is a totally different thing.’’ Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also favored the legislation, yet said it must be followed by a top-to-bottom review of the administration’s global military strategy.
Actually, it is not. It an extension of the plan all along!
But Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, laying down a marker for Republican presidential primaries still more than a year away, said, “Intervention that destabilizes the Middle East is a mistake. And yet, here we are again, wading into a civil war.’’
Related: Presidential Primary Post
Since when has the propaganda pre$$ cared how far away that is?
Stop waving women at us, too.
Senator Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat in a difficult reelection campaign, said, ‘‘I disagree with my president’’ on the wisdom of having the US military become involved. ‘‘It is time for the Arab countries to step up get over their regional differences’’ and be more aggressive in the fight against terrorists,’’ he said.
Senator Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent, conceded the threat posed by forces seeking an Islamic State.
But he said countries in the Middle East most threatened had not yet joined the international coalition that Obama is assembling.‘‘Not only are countries in the region not stepping up in the fight . . . but believe it or not several of these Gulf states are empowering’’ Islamic State forces as well as Al Qaeda allied groups with financial contributions, he said.
I can't imagine who he means.
But Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, said Obama proposed a moderate, middle course between doing nothing in response to a terrorist threat and refighting the Iraq war. ‘‘Every civilized person has to stand up against this,’’ she said.
And if I sit back and observe I'm with "them," right?
Whatta....!
--more--"
"Syrian rebel training may take 12 months, general says" by Robert Burns | Associated Press September 19, 2014
PARIS — Moderate Syrian rebels, once they are made battle-ready by a US-led coalition, may be asked to help restore the border between Syria and Iraq that Islamic State group militants have effectively wiped out, the top American military official said Thursday.
Army General Martin Dempsey cautioned, however, that it may be a year before the Syrian rebel force that President Obama calls a key element of his strategy for destroying the Islamic State group is ready for action.
‘‘We think if we can restore the border, it goes a long way to beginning to put the kind of pressure on ISIL that will lead to its ultimate defeat,’’ Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, using a common acronym for the group that US intelligence officials estimate has up to 31,000 fighters.
Speaking to a small group of reporters after meeting with his French counterpart, Dempsey said it will take three or four months to begin the $500 million training program, which the House approved on Wednesday and sent to the Senate, where it passed last night.
(More money stolen from the neglected American citizen and shoveled onto the altar of war. F*** this)
Top Democratic and Republican leaders supported Obama despite reservations that his strategy of arming moderate rebel groups could backfire or won’t be enough to blunt the advance of Islamic State forces. Obama has pledged airstrikes as well but is adamant that he will not send US ground troops to battle the Islamic extremists.
Are you sick of the repetitive bullshit yet?
Obama was briefed on the military’s overall campaign plan for Syria and Iraq when he met in Tampa Wednesday with General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command.
I thought it was his policy not theirs.
Dempsey said Obama has not yet approved the plan, which Dempsey said includes options for airstrikes in Syria and is integrated with a political and diplomatic effort to undermine the finances and recruiting power of the Islamic State.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama received a detailed and thorough briefing on plans that have been in the works for some time. ‘‘He was pleased with their work. But their work is ongoing and continues,’’ Earnest said.
Central Command announced on Thursday that one of its airstrikes near an ISIS training camp southeast of the Iraqi city of Mosul overnight Thursday destroyed what it described as a large ISIS ground force, and two ISIS-occupied buildings and an armed vehicle.
We're winning!
--more--"
At least the terrorists aren't coming here:
"Justice Dept. establishing programs to ID extremists; Plan will call on leaders in cities; Terrorist group recruits targeted" Associated Press September 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is launching a series of pilot programs in cities around the country to help identify American extremists intent on joining the fighting in countries such as Syria and Iraq, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.
The programs are designed in part to detect American extremists who are looking to join terror organizations, including the Islamic State militant group, and will bring together religious leaders, prosecutors, and community representatives.
Should be easy since they are all intelligence agency assets, framed patsies, or those who did not want to cooperate with an FBI set-up.
‘‘Today, few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL, and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately,’’ Holder said in a video message Monday, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The Justice Department did not immediately reveal which cities will be part of the pilot programs.
The White House is scheduled to host a summit next month on the topic of countering violent extremists.
More booga-booga!
American law enforcement and intelligence officials have for months expressed concerns about Westerners who have traveled to Syria to take part in the fighting there.
This is sinking while that border is wide-f***ing open!!!!!!!!!!!
Last week, a 19-year-old Colorado woman pleaded guilty to trying to help the Islamic State group. Her plea deal requires her to give authorities information about other Americans with the same intentions.
New York and New Jersey are among the states facing a daunting domestic terror threat because of hostilities between the United States and the Islamic State, federal and state officials warned Monday.
‘‘We would be in a state of denial if we did not say with what’s going on internationally that the risk of a threat to us has increased,’’ Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York told reporters after the meeting in Manhattan with Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York.
This looks like they are ALL LAYING the GROUNDWORK for a NEW FALSE FLAG ATTACK!
Cuomo and Christie said they have directed their homeland security advisers and top police officials to review security measures for the region and make recommendations for how best to respond to new threats.
Other countries have proposed or taken actions to deal with the problem of foreign fighters.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain has proposed new laws that would give police the power to seize the passports of Britons suspected of having traveled abroad to fight with terrorist groups.
And German authorities recently banned all activity on behalf of the Islamic State group, including the distribution of propaganda material and the display of its symbols.
I know I could go find links, but why bother?
Officials say more than 400 people from Germany have joined jihadist groups fighting in Syria since the start of the conflict there. Some are converts to Islam, but many come from Muslim families that have settled in Germany.
In Washington, lawmakers raced to authorize an expanded mission to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels before heading back to the campaign trail. House Republicans prepared legislation Monday backing the training mission, a central plank of President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State.
The Obama administration says the training operation is needed to establish credible, local ground forces to accompany US airstrikes against the militants who have conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria, beheaded two American journalists, and become a top US terrorism threat in the region and beyond.
The House and Senate are both on a tight schedule, looking to wrap up work Friday before an almost two-month recess in preparation for November’s midterm elections.
ALL INCUMBENTS OUT!!!!!!!!!!
The authorization under consideration will probably be included as an amendment to a spending bill Congress must pass to keep the government open until mid-December. That would give lawmakers the opportunity to hold a separate debate and vote on the matter — something members of both parties want.
That passed.
The measure would not authorize US combat troops in Iraq or Syria or explicitly ban them, reflecting a congressional divide between hawks seeking tougher action than that proposed by Obama and lawmakers weary from more than a decade of US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In other words, Obama just got a blank check to wage war.
It also would compel the Pentagon to present Congress with a plan 15 days before any training begins, said a summary released by House Armed Services Committee chairman Howard ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon, Republican of California.
Democrats are reviewing the proposal, which would enable the military to take over what has previously been a limited, covert operation to beef up rebels battling extremist groups and President Bashar Assad’s army.
Say what?
The administration is not likely to protest the conditions. It has sent more than 1,000 troops to Iraq to provide military assistance and bolster security of US diplomatic facilities and personnel.
Looks like GROUND TROOPS to ME!
But Obama, too, opposes any US ground offensive.
--more--"
No mention of the Khorasan??!!
Related: Mass. must take steps to comply with federal driver’s license law
Also see: Things Getting UnREAL
"US general says Arab nations must help in assault on Islamic State" by Robert Burns | Associated Press September 22, 2014
ZAGREB, Croatia — The US-led military campaign plan to retake Iraqi territory held by the Islamic State group calls for attacking the extremists from several directions simultaneously, and its success depends on getting more Arab help, the top American military officer said Sunday.
Uh-oh.
‘‘We want them to wake up every day realizing that they are being squeezed from multiple directions,’’ Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters, referring to the Islamic State group, which also is known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS.
Is that why the EUSraelis created ISIS? To keep pressure on Arab governments to toe the line?
‘‘If we can get ISIL looking in about five different directions, that’s the desired end state,’’ he added in an interview with reporters traveling with him to Croatia from Lithuania, where he discussed Iraq and other issues with his NATO counterparts.
Dempsey stressed the importance of gaining more Arab participation in the effort, suggesting that without it the military campaign might not move to its next phase. He called wider Arab participation a prerequisite for President Obama’s approval of the military campaign plan. Obama was briefed on the plan last week but has not OK’d it.
He must have signed off on it overnight.
In an opinion column published Sunday in the Tampa Bay Times, Obama wrote, ‘‘This is not and will not be America’s fight alone. That’s why we continue to build a broad international coalition.’’ He said Arab countries have offered to help but he mentioned none by name and did not describe their specific roles.
He sounds just like George W. Bush.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said the administration is pleased with its progress in building a coalition.
‘‘The commitments are coming in every day,’’ she said on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press.’’ However, she, too, did not name individual Arab countries that have promised to participate in military action, saying it was up to them to describe their roles.
Another....
UPDATE: Obama’s UN Ambassador Admits Fight Against ISIS Designed to Take Out Assad in Syria
Obama’s signature on the military campaign plan for Iraq and Syria operations would move the effort into a new phase, Dempsey said, enabled by a larger number of coalition aircraft that would allow for a more persistent presence over the battlefields of Iraq and improved prospects for rebuilding key elements of the Iraqi army.
Without mentioning specific provinces or towns, the United States in recent days has announced airstrikes on areas south of the Iraqi capital.
On Saturday, it said one strike southwest of Baghdad destroyed an Islamic State group boat ferrying supplies across the Euphrates River. And on Friday it said it hit a small Islamic State ground unit southwest of Baghdad.
Bombs and mortar fire killed 13 people in Shi’ite areas in and around Baghdad on Sunday, as Iraqi security forces said they succeeded in breaking a siege on soldiers who had been surrounded by Islamic State militants west of Baghdad.
Which is strange because one day later I would be told something completely different.
Three mortar shells landed on a residential area in Sabaa al-Bour, a town just north of Baghdad, killing six, officials said. Later, a bomb blast in a commercial street killed four people in the capital’s northeastern district of Shaab. At night, a bomb explosion in the Baghdad district of Bayaa killed three people.
Dempsey said last week that only about half of Iraqi army brigades, which originally were trained by the United States, are suitable partners now.
What a FAILED EFFORT and WASTE of TAX LOOT!
On Sunday he said one of the major problems with the other half is that they have been infiltrated by extremists.
Now we know from WHERE the WEAPONS are COMING!
‘‘We want to go from being episodic with our offensive operations to sustained,’’ he said, adding that no one should expect a dramatic increase in airstrikes but rather a series of increases calculated to match Iraq’s ability to retake territory with its ground forces. Obama has ruled out US troops fighting another ground war in Iraq.
A day later, Syria is being struck.
Obama authorized US airstrikes in Iraq on Aug. 8, and earlier this month he announced Washington would lead an international effort linked to the formation of a more inclusive government in Baghdad.
That plan includes the prospect of US airstrikes in neighboring Syria, but Dempsey has said the Pentagon’s first priority is pushing the military campaign in Iraq.
Do these guys EVER STOP LYING????!!!!!!!!
A number of Iraq’s Arab neighbors, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have said they support the US effort but have not publicly committed to taking any offensive role in Iraq. France is the only ally that has joined thus far in airstrikes in Iraq.
--more--"
Now back to where we were:
SILLI Monday
"Turkey reluctant to arm Kurds in battle against Islamic State" by Desmond Butler | Associated Press September 23, 2014
SURUC, Turkey — Fierce fighting Monday between the Islamic State militant group and Kurdish forces just over the border in Syria brought the battle closer to Turkey, triggering a surge of tens of thousands of refugees and raising pressure for the government to step up efforts to take on the Sunni extremists.
Turkey is resisting because it fears that arming Kurdish men to fight the group could complicate peace talks with Turkish insurgents within its own borders.
The Islamic State group’s offensive against the Syrian city of Kobani, a few miles from the border, has sent 130,000 refugees to seek safety in Turkey in the last few days. The conflict in Syria had already led to more than 1 million people flooding over the border in the past 3½ years.
But in addition to the refugee crisis, hundreds of Kurds in and around this city near the frontier have clashed with Turkish police, who fired tear gas and water cannons. The Kurds say Turkey is hampering their efforts to let them cross into Syria and help their brethren.
An 18-year-old Turkish citizen in Suruc said he wanted to join the Kurdish fighters in Syria. He identified himself only by his first name of Azam for fear of reprisal from authorities.
‘‘The Islamic State is on the other side of the border and moving freely, slaughtering people, but they are just sitting and watching,’’ he said of the Turkish authorities. ‘‘If I get a chance to get a weapon, I’ll go to help our brothers by end of the day,’’ he said. ‘‘Kobani is our land, too, and people there are our people.’’
Syrian Kurdish fighters were crossing back and forth over the border, while other Syrian Kurds were seen selling livestock to raise money for weapons.
Near the border, the black flag of the Islamic State could be seen flying in a captured Syrian village.
Spillover from Syria poses a problem for Turkey. The only local fighters capable of resisting the Islamic State group are Syrian Kurds aligned with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey’s ambivalence about the fight between Kurds and the Islamic State, which could leave the PKK either drained or emboldened, could further complicate its participation in a US-led coalition against the Islamic State.
While joining the coalition, Turkey had declined to take part in combat, citing the Turkish hostages held by the Islamic State group in Mosul, Iraq. But even after the 46 Turks and three Iraqis were freed, Turkey has not changed its stance.
More failed propaganda.
Turkish government officials have not revealed how they managed to secure the release of the captives. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied paying a ransom but has been vague on whether there was a prisoner swap.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington now expects Turkey to step up in the fight against the militants.
You see this and you know the hostage thing was a total hoax to get the U.N. off the Golan and to put pressure on Turkey.
Erdogan has said that Turkey will discuss its participation in the coalition during this month’s UN General Assembly.
Did they approve any of this? Where they even asked?
The US ally and member of the NATO military alliance has made commitments of only limited help in the fight against the Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and rules by its harsh version of Islamic law.
Winning people over the whole way.
President Obama has pledged that no American troops will be involved in combat missions against the group, and the United States expects nations in the region to provide those.
And IF THEY DO NOT?!!!!!!!!
--more--"
And why are they worried about ISIS, who is not a threat to the homeland, and not the Khorasans!!????
"At least 340 killed in Yemen’s week-long fighting" Associated Press September 23, 2014
SANA, Yemen — A Shi’ite militia that overran the Yemeni capital seized tanks and armored vehicles from military headquarters on Monday and raided the home of a powerful army general, as officials reported that a week of fierce fighting in the city has killed at least 340 people.
And a U.S. puppet regime is collapsing!
The heavily armed Hawthi fighters occupied the house of Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a Sunni tribal leader, and set up checkpoints across the capital, Sana, as the general and his allies went into hiding.
The move against Ahmar consolidated the Hawthis’ grip over Sana, now fully under rebel control. The militia had earlier seized a series of strategic installations and key state buildings in Sana, though it later handed most of them over to military police.
It was the latest development in the Hawthi blitz, which has plunged volatile Yemen into more turmoil.
Sana’s northern and western districts, the scenes of fierce battles, were damaged by relentless shelling, their buildings pockmarked by gunfire. Bodies of fighters were left in the streets.
That is where my printed copy ended.
The fighting was initially reported to have killed 140 people, but health ministry official Ali Sayria told state-run news agency SABA that 200 bodies were retrieved on Monday from the streets where ambulances could not reach them during the clashes.
Resident Ahmed al-Hamdani said he saw Red Crescent staff carrying away bodies from the street he lives on. He said some ‘‘were torn, with no limbs,’’ a testimony to the intensity of the fighting.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, succeeded in mediating a deal on Sunday, and the fighting between the Shi’ite Hawthis and pro-Islamist Sunni militiamen subsequently died down.
Sana was mostly quiet on Monday but thousands of Hawthi fighters, including many youths, were on the streets, the only visible force except military police guarding state institutions.
Thousands of residents had fled the city; the rest remained in their homes, fearful of new clashes, looting, and robberies. Long lines of cars loaded with suitcases and food were seen leaving the capital for the countryside.
The Hawthis signed the UN-brokered deal on Sunday, an agreement that gave them unprecedented influence in the presidency and over the Cabinet.
Oh, so this is an APPROVED COUP and the puppets are not going quietly into that good night!
It calls for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a technocratic government within a month after consultations with all political parties.
According to the deal, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is to appoint key advisers, from both the ranks of the Hawthis and the pro-separatist factions in the south.
However, the Hawthis abstained from signing a ‘‘security appendix’’ to the deal that stipulates they withdraw from Sana and other northern cities and surrender their weapons to the government.
The UN-brokered agreement sets Yemen on a new political path, one in which longtime power centers such as the Islah party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood group, and its key ally, the Al-Ahmar tribe, as well as loyal generals are forced out of the power-sharing scheme.
It's another western coup!
--more--"
More SILLIness:
"Islamic State group calls for attacking civilians" by Diaa Hadid | Associated Press September 23, 2014
Yeah, that will win people over.
What a western propaganda operation!
BEIRUT — The Islamic State’s spokesman said its fighters are ready to battle a US-led military coalition, casting it as a historic clash between Muslims and their enemies and calling for attacks at home and abroad.
So WHEN and WHERE is the IMMINENT FALSE FLAG!?
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani’s 42-minute audio statement, which appeared to be a rallying cry, was the group’s latest response to efforts by President Obama to form a global coalition against it. It was released before the United States and allies launched an air attack against the militants in their Syrian strongholds.
Adnani said the group welcomed the possibility of a ground war with the United States, and he called on Muslims worldwide to kill civilians of nations that join the coalition.
Well, you are going to be disappointed because I have been told on numerous occasions no ground troops.
‘‘Oh, believer, do not let this battle pass you by, wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tyrants. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members,’’ Adnani said in the statement released Sunday.
‘‘If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that joined a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way, however it may be.’’
Adnani promised that the expected battle against the US alliance would be the final chapter of a war that he cast as centuries old, dating to the medieval Crusades.
Militants in Algeria seized a French citizen on Sunday and issued a statement saying the kidnapping was in response to Adnani’s appeal.
PFFFFFFFTTT!
In a video that appeared on social media, a masked member of an Al Qaeda splinter organization calling itself Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, said he would kill his captive within 24 hours if France did not withdraw from the coalition seeking to destroy the Islamic State group.
Also, as the US-led airstrike began on Tuesday, the Islamic State issued a new installment in its “lecture series” delivered by a British hostage, John Cantlie.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!
This is SO ABSURDLY LAUGHABLE PROPAGANDA that NO ONE CAN TAKE IT SERIOUSLY ANYMORE!
At least the NSA is collecting all the server data!!!
In the propaganda video, Cantlie is again seated at a table wearing an orange jumpsuit, in a reference to the outfits worn by Muslim prisoners at US detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He reads from a prepared script, explaining how the US involvement in the Syrian conflict will mirror its misadventures in Vietnam.
“In this program, we’ll see how the Western governments are hastily marching towards all-out war in Iraq and Syria without paying any heed to the lessons of the recent past,” Cantlie says.
And we can't do what the "terrorists" want, so.... SIGH!!!!!!!!!
“Not since Vietnam have we witnessed such a potential mess in the making.”
Once again, a situation of the U.S.'s own making!!
The 5-minute, 55-second forced “lecture” is the second in a week, following the first circulated on Thursday. Of interest is how the Islamic State seems intent on using Western figures to try to sway US opinion.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
OMG, this is SUCH TRANSPARENT PROPAGANDA it is LITERAL GARBAGE!!!
As part of the effort to galvanize the world’s nations against the Islamic State threat, the UN Security Council is expected to adopt a binding resolution this week that would require nations to bar their citizens from traveling abroad to join terrorism organizations.
Obama administration officials said the measure would be a significant step in their strategy against the group and other militant organizations that are drawing Europeans and Americans into their orbit.
Hey, White House, monitor THIS!
--more--"
