For more than two years, Pastor Saeed Abedini has been held unjustly in an Iranian jail, simply for meeting with Christians in a private home.
Despite his ordeal, Abedini has maintained his strong Christian faith. Never has that faith been more evident than in an inspiring Christmas letter that he sent his family:
Rajai Shahr Prison 2014

Merry Christmas!

These days are very cold here. My small space beside the window is without glass making most nights unbearable to sleep. The treatment by fellow prisoners is also quite cold and at times hostile. Some of my fellow prisoners don’t like me because I am a convert and a pastor. They look at me with shame as someone who has betrayed his former religion. The guards can’t even stand the paper cross that I have made and hung next to me as a sign of my faith and in anticipation of celebrating my Savior’s birth. They have threatened me and forced me to remove it. This is the first Christmas that I am completely without my family; all of my family is presently outside of the country. These conditions have made this upcoming Christmas season very hard, cold and shattering for me. It appears that I am alone with no one left beside me. (more…)

Yeah, apparently Congress is well, not too terribly concerned about the missing AUMF.   Either that, or, well, they were quite comfortable relying on Hank “Tippy Guam” Johnson to ask all of the insightful questions….

If you were to review the participation at today’s House Armed Services Committee for the testimony and Q&A of Defense Secretary Hagel or Joint Chief’s Martin Dempsey, you might walk away thinking our military were not in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and dealing with Ebola in West Africa.  Russia invading Ukraine, Iran getting nuclear weapons, Libya in a state of civil war, U.S. Embassy evacuated in Yemen, terrorists on the border…..
…Yeah, three effen’ hours of their time is just too much to ask for.  Oh, but they’ll parade around the military like some kind of optical pawn of patriotism.  And, yet people wonder why events like Benghazi and operation zero footprint are possible.  Seriously.

Keep in mind this is CBS, who is the employer of Ben Rhodes brother, CBS President David Rhodes.  Meaning, the edits -which are obvious- and the construct of the interview itself is designed to broadcast President Obama in the “best possible” light.
Despite all the ideological advantages from having your image protected by the national news media, several aspects within the interview itself show what’s going on behind those eyes:

RE: Iraq – Schieffer Should we expect more troops will be needed?
Ans: “As Commander and Chief I’m never going to say “never””…
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(Commentary Magazine)  One of the most important sidebars to the furor over the decision of two “senior administration officials” to tell columnist Jeffrey Goldberg that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a “chickenshit” coward was their boast that he had missed his chance to prevent them from making a weak deal allowing Iran to become a threshold nuclear state.
Aside from the general discussion about an administration that is diffident about criticizing actual enemies of the United States choosing to lob outrageous insults at America’s sole democratic ally is the question whether this was a part of an effort to pre-empt Israeli criticism of a weak Iran nuclear deal or was merely just another instance of the Obama foreign policy team’s lack of discipline and incompetence. The Washington Post editorial page has weighed in on behalf of the latter point of view. But unfortunately there is good reason to think this latest administration attack on Israel was part of a calculated strategy on Iran. (more…)

WASHINGTON – Deputy National Security Adviser and MFA in creative writing Ben Rhodes likened an Iranian nuclear deal to Obamacare in a talk to progressive activists last January, according to audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon (below).
The remarks, made at a since-discontinued regular meeting of White House personnel and representatives of liberal interest groups, reveal the importance of a rapprochement with Iran to President Obama, who is looking to establish his legacy as his presidency enters its lame-duck phase.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/174586449″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
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We were wondering why the White House put out last week’s meeting of the National Security Council so quickly – they never do that, ever.  Reading this lengthy Politico article the urgent optics now make sense…. there’s always a reason with this crew.

(Via Politico) When President Obama, after months of equivocation over how to respond to the takeover of parts of Iraq and Syria by radical militants, announced in September that the United States would “lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat,” the White House swung quickly into action, sending proposed legislation to train and equip Syrian rebels to Capitol Hill that same day.
Unfortunately, the White House failed to consult with the Pentagon—which would be doing most of the rolling back—on the timing or details of the announcement. (more…)

Lost amid the reality we must bathe ourselves in chlorine to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of West Africans is the invisible policy discussion of an illegal war being carried out in Syria.

President Hopey Changey has proclaimed both The War Powers Act, and a 2002 congressional authorization (AUMF) intended against al-Qaeda in Iraq, as the baseline for his legal approach to bombing in Syria.
Apparently, we are to ignore the fact the War Powers Act expired after 30 days, and the AUMF was never granted for Syria.
Of course the actual legal route would require congressional leadership to actually do, well, you know, leadership-type things. Currently neither Senator Turtle, nor the House Crier are willing to interrupt election season -or tanning appointments- to put Syrian authorization measures in front of the peoples representatives for a vote.

Unfortunately those pesky details are not lost on Russia, who reminded Secretary Ketchup as such during a recent chat.
Only in 2014’s fundamental change world does our President put constitutional types in a position where we actually end up in agreement with our arch nemesis, Russia.
(CNSNews.com) – Russia is not a member of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition because its military actions are “paradoxical” and not in line with international law, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week. He pointed out that the coalition and Russia were arming opposing sides in the Syrian civil war. (more…)

The insufferable Leon Panetta has a new book revealing how President Obama, Denis McDonough, Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes constructed every encountered policy, including defense, through a domestic political lens.  Duh! 
This short-sighted and naïve world view is why the foreign policies of the Obama administration -from Libya and the support for al-Qaeda, to Iran and the almost certain nuclear bomb they will acquire- have been catastrophic in consequence. But it really doesn’t matter now does it?

The value in Panetta’s public push back -against the amateur crowd occupying the White House- would have been important when those disastrous policies were being debated, planned and executed. But now, not so much – the Rubicon has been crossed, and hundreds of U.S. military have been killed.
It should also be remembered that Panetta the Prog is responsible for constructing ‘Operation Zero Footprint’ with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. A State Dept. and CIA operation which eventually led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Neither Clinton nor Panetta have been held to account.
(Via Washington Post) Tell-all memoirs can be tough when they actually, well, tell all. But it would be hard to surpass the shot that Leon Panetta, President Obama’ s former CIA director and secretary of defense, takes at his former boss and the White House foreign policy team in his new book: “Worthy Fights.” (more…)

I would like to thank the only other website/blog -I have found- wise enough to connect the dots, and brave enough to talk about them.
Before doing so I must share a daily prayer we have repeated for two years:

Father please afford Your strength and protection; guide our naked journey; sharpen our insight; strengthen our influence; accept our willingness; be confident in our faith; afford us the ability of unguarded vision; and deliver us to the highest place where we may look over the horizon.
Guide us there to see, and remove our fear and nervousness so that we may accept and bear witness – Amen.

From a position of faith we have traced all the connections we can find, and we are now beginning to notice we are not alone.
There are others who have followed their own journey, from separate directions, and are destined to arrive at the same overlook.

SEE HERE

George Stephanopolous is horrible for obvious reasons. Again, WHAT LEGAL BASIS ?

“universal support” for strikes in Syria ?
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