We thought this was going to be the conversation between Egypt’s Fatah el-Sisi and John Kerry because our ongoing research into the backchannel sources reflected the probability.  It appears, yet again, Occam’s razor proves correct.  In the article below AhramOnline reports El-Sisi warned Kerry not to focus merely on ISIS but all terror groups need to be addressed.
Fatah El-Sisi knows President Obama’s heart is not in the mission to defeat NI-ISIS, because El-Sisi knows young Obama in his 20’s was smitten with the Romance of the Mujahedeen, and then became disillusioned when U.S. policy shifted and made them the al-Qaeda enemy they became years later.   El-Sisi has exceptionally clear eyes – he understands the sympathy President Obama carries to the Sunni tribe, NI-ISIS.
Egypt is also standing as the strongest Muslim nation in condemnation of the NI-ISIS recent beheadings’.  Additionally El-Sisi has convinced the Arab Council to quietly threaten Qatar for their insufferable support of terror networks.  This has led to six “leaders” of the Muslim Brotherhood leaving Qatar – and now El-Sisi asking Interpol to track them down. 

EGYPT – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has stressed the importance of an international coalition to combat not only Islamic State but also all terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa.
He made the comments during a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
The US is taking the lead in an international coalition aimed at defeating Islamist extremists spreading across parts of Iraq and Syria. Militants from the so-called Islamic State have so far murdered thousands and declared a Muslim caliphate.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson also attended the meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo. (more…)

There’s definitely something new afoot with how the western liberal media are selling the Kerry goes to Egypt narrative.

It’s an odd dynamic to think about President Peace Prize Obama needing to put together a coalition of support for his poll tested non-war war on terror; to fight the Non-Islamic Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (NI-ISIS) terror group.
However, the bizarro world is the 2014 new normal.

We are witnessing what happens when the U.S. Sunni President, and 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner, needs to put a non-combat fighting team together to give the appearance of military attacks for optical publication in globally liberal Western newspapers.
The #hashtag campaign didn’t work.
Turkey has already said they will not support fighting against NI-ISIS because, well, essentially they have been supporting NI-ISIS for the past two years with weapons, intelligence and logistical support. So why would they start attacking a group they helped create and are continuing to fund?
Following his visit to Turkey, where he must have reduced the request to: ‘just don’t go on record against us and we’ll keep up appearances for you‘, John Kerry enters Egypt.
Now, keep in mind Egypt already has it’s hands quite full.
In the Northern Egyptian peninsular Egypt’s president, Fatah el-Sisi, has been fighting ISIS (Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) for well over a year. Unlike Obama who calls ISIS “non islamic“, el-Sisi has been willing to call Islamic Extremists, well, Islamic; and not only call them Islamic he’s been fighting them on four fronts. (more…)

Turkey – […] Kerry has been touring the Middle East to build support for President Barack Obama’s plan, announced on Wednesday, to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier to defeat Islamic State Sunni fighters, who control swathes of both countries.
On Thursday, Kerry won backing for a “coordinated military campaign” against Islamic State from 10 Arab countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

But it remains far from clear what role individual nations will play and while he confirmed France’s commitment to use military force in Iraq, Kerry declined to say whether France would join a similar campaign in Syria.
That follows conflicting reports in key ally Britain over its potential role, with Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday saying he has not ruled out military action in Syria after his foreign secretary said Britain would not take part in any air strikes there. (more…)

When you read this, sip slowly, dust off the way-back machine, and think about the 13 Hours in Benghazi show you might have just watched air on Fox.   Yeah, I know, I can sense the puzzlement – but stay with it….

The question posed to the Tree House was: Why are they selecting a retired General John Allen, instead of a current officer?  
Deep breath:   This White House uses personal leverage to their advantage like no other before it.    Example #1: Where’s Bowe Bergdahl?  Example #2: What ever happened to Ahmed Abu Khattala the ‘recently’ captured head of the Benghazi attack ?
See…  you had to think about it.  This White House swamps us so much we  forget to follow-up…..
There is a risk to the political optics of fighting ISIS.  Consequently, this administration needs a competent general Denis McDonough can control, rely on, and possibly bypass the Pentagon.  So who can they leverage?  Yeah, that General John Allen.

Fire Up The Way-Back Machine To Summer 2012 !!

Jill and Dr. Scott Kelley lived in the Tampa / St. Pete area. They were/are active in the military community with support for military families.
The Kelley’s do numerous fundraisers etc. and when Petraeus was assigned to station in Tampa the Kelley’s hosted a meet-n-greet with Holly and David Petraeus.
Mr and Mrs. Petraeus became friends with Mr. and Mrs. Kelley.
So mid-summer 2012 Jill Kelley, a Petraeus family friend, began receiving odd and harrassing e-mails about her relationship with CIA director General David Petraeus:

“More like, ‘Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch,’” according to the source, who was until recently at the highest levels of the intelligence community and prefers not to be identified by name.

Jill Kelley then reaches out to a family friend, who is by profession, in the FBI.  Kelly asks if these unsourced e-mails reach the level of cyber-stalking. (more…)

As previously stated, there is no ideological distance between President Obama and Recep Erdogan.  Absent of plummeting polling numbers, which handcuff his ability to continue domestic agenda items, President Obama would NOT be fighting ISIS.
For seven years we have watched the relationship between Erdogan and Obama as it flourished into a bromance of Sunni favoritism.  As expected Turkey will not participate in attacks against it’s ideological compatriots, ISIS.
Makes you wonder why Secretary John Kerry is even bothering with the trip.

TURKEY – Turkey will refuse to allow a U.S.-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.
“Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The decision echoes the country’s refusal to allow the U.S. to station 60,000 troops in Turkey in 2003 to invade Iraq from the north, which triggered a crisis between the two allies. (more…)

Tonight at 9:00pm Eastern President Obama will deliver a speech to the nation outlining his strategy to defeat a rising Islamic terror threat known as ISIS. Oddly some of the speech has already been leaked by the White House:
UPDATE – FULL SPEECH VIDEO:

FULL WH TRANSCRIPTION OF SPEECH HERE

“With a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.

I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.

Rather, it is a “counter-terrorism campaign” that “will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” he will say. It’s a strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, and is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years”.

It was only a few weeks ago, August 9th, when President Obama told the New York Times it was/is “a fantasy” to support “moderates” within Syria and expect them to be able to defeat radical Sunni Islamists.  Now, it appears, he is reversing course and saying the previous “fantasy” will be his specific approach. (more…)

We pointed this out last night and apparently it was so brutally obvious even Andrea Mitchell had to admit it:

The bigger story is actually who is not present. Within the list of the absent you can identify President Obama’s approach. (more…)

The key issue is not that ISIS is using U.S. made weapons.  Given ISIS geographic conquests it would be expected, vis-à-vis Iraq, they were able to capture weapons and armament.     No, it’s the *type* of weapons, specifically boxed M16’s, which identifies the covert shipments to Syria we outlined within the Benghazi Brief.   

In 2012 those small arms were shipped to Syria as a result of President Obama’s authorization.  Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing the financing, Turkey provided an initial storage base near Adana where the nerve center for supporting what became ISIS was set up.   The UN peacekeeper Kofi Annan was pulled out of Syria, and U.S. weapons were poured in.

On September 5th 2012 a Libyan flag ship called Al Entisar docked in the Turkish port of Iskenderun, it carried small arms and rockets from the U.S. originally destined for the Free Syrian Army.  However, by that point the FSA had collapsed and most of the leaders defected to join what is now ISIS.

(Via Raw Story) Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.

The report said the jihadists disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”. (more…)

Not to put too fine a point on it, yet knowing President Polling is going to deliver a magnanimous prime-time speech in a few days, the Syrian conversation with Chuck Todd needs, or, well, deserves a little e-x-p-a-n-s-i-o-n.

Obama will give a speech to explain the United States’ "game plan" in the fight against #ISIS. http://t.co/HdZ7A9m4qZ pic.twitter.com/zwe45HazQY

— CNN International (@cnni) September 8, 2014

During a rather revealing part of the interview between Chuck Todd and President Obama the specific issue of Syria came up surrounding ISIS.   Viewers should note in the entire dialogue it was not Obama who brought up Syria, it was Chuck Todd. (Video @9:20)
Mr. Todd even seemed a little perplexed with having to do it; albeit reluctantly, as if he knew he needed to. If Chuck Todd’s new role on MTP is to attempt credibility retention he held no choice, he had to bring up the geography.  Todd specifically needed to ask, because Dear Leader avoided mentioning Syria throughout the previous ten minutes:

@09:25 President Obama: “the boots on the ground have to be Syrian”.
Chuck Todd interjects “but WHO”?
President Obama has publicly committed himself to the removal of Syrian head Basher Assad.  His public proclamations to Assad’s removal make getting cooperation from the Syrian National Army a little disingenuous amid the option scale.
Additionally we know the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is little more than a corrupted fractured contingent of ne’er-do-wells, most of which defected to join ISIS.  And then we have Dear Leader’s previous statements saying to the New York Times’ Tom Freidman it is “fantasy” to think “an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth” could battle “a well-armed state backed by Russia, backed by Iran, [and] a battle-hardened Hezbollah.”
So naturally Chuck Todd had to ask the question: Whose boots does Obama plan on supporting?
To wit POTUS puts three groups on the table: The Syrian national army, ISIS, and some weirdly defined “Moderate Opposition” – and then says we should support the moderate opposition who are “pinched between the Syrian Army and ISIS“.

STOP  

{{Insert Scratching Record Sound}}}

Let’s just imagine a REAL REPORTER was sitting in that seat across from POTUS. (more…)

Now that we all know the full scope of the background story behind the State Department and CIA in Benghazi (See: The Benghazi Brief) it might be additionally interesting to watch this exclusive ‘on the ground’ report of 9/11/12 hosted by Bret Baier as he interviews the security team who suffered the consequences of operation Zero Footprint.

(Via Fox) This weekend, Fox News Reporting will bring you a special on the untold story of the Benghazi terror attack.
It has been nearly two years since the fatal attack. Now, hear for the first time from the men who fought that battle.
“Fox News Reporting: 13 Hours at Benghazi” is based off a new book, to be released next week, called “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi” by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team.
The special premieres Friday, Sept. 5 at 10p ET. It re-airs Saturday, Sept. 6 at 1a, 5p and 9p ET, and again on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 12a, 8p and 11p ET.  (link)