Really? A “rocket launcher”. Perhaps it would be a tad to disconcerting to admit that ISIS actually has multiple surface-to-air missiles courtesy of, well, you know.

(Via Sky News) Fighters from the Islamic State extremist group have used a rocket launcher to shoot down an Iraqi military helicopter, say officials.
The pilot and co-pilot of the Mi-35 aircraft were reportedly killed in the attack which happened between the towns of Beiji and al Senniyah in northern Iraq.
The shooting down of the helicopter showed the insurgents’ ability to hit back against air operations by Iraqi authorities and the US-led coalition. (more…)

It appears the fulcrum of Turkish sensitivity and support for ISIS has been identified.  The tipping point reached.

As we previously outlined, the action of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan reflected a tacit alliance with the overall goals of ISIS. However, also as previously discussed, we anticipated a forced political shift as the Kurdish populations continued to be driven in greater numbers toward the Turkish borders.

Our educated hunch was the quid-pro-quo (which led to the quiet release of the 49 Turkish hostages) included an acceptance by Erdogan to allow the Sunni jihadists, ISIS, a certain amount of, well, ‘Islamic discretion in genocide’, consequently creating refugees that Turkey would have to deal with.

However, eventually as ISIS killed more and more Kurds, the Sunni campaign was going to force too heavy an exodus of Kurdish people toward, and into, Turkey. 
Ideally if ISIS could kill the Kurds off quickly, Erdogan would not have to face a difficult decision; at least that appeared to be the overall strategy the western media was avoiding.
In order for our analysis to be correct the question became: “how many Kurds Erdogan would accept, and how long those attacks against them -which created the border crisis- would be accepted”? The answer therein would be the tipping point to a change in Erdogan’s position.
It appears -much to the dismay of Erdogan- the ISIS fighters have been unable to kill off the Kurds quick enough, and now his internal political dynamic, his parliament, has stepped in to debate and allow military intervention. (more…)

Will Erdogan be forced to push back against ISIS by his own internal political forces?  Or will his Sunni sensibilities overpower any political pressure.

Irbil, Iraq (CNN) — A day after Britain’s military launched its first airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, the question is who will be next to join the U.S.-led coalition in its air campaign against the extremists who have seized a swath of Iraq and Syria.
As Turkish soldiers and tanks took up position along the border with Syria on Tuesday, Turkey’s government put a motion before Parliament asking for authorization to take military action against ISIS.
Lawmakers are expected to debate the measure in a special session on Thursday before voting, according to Anadolu, Turkey’s semi-official news agency. (more…)

Anyone who knows anything about the logistics of moving 2,200 U.S. military personnel into “contingency positions”, knows there are equivocal amounts of “support personnel” from other branches -within the military apparatus- assigned to supportive roles.

YAHOO NEWS – The US Marine Corps plans to deploy 2,300 troops to the Middle East for a new unit designed to quickly respond to crises in the volatile region, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
It will include several aircraft and be prepared to move rapidly in the case of “contingencies,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters. (more…)

https://twitter.com/Blazingcatfur/status/516639082798010368
(Reuters) – Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles took up positions on a hill overlooking the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani on Monday as shelling by Islamic State insurgents intensified and stray fire hit Turkish soil, a Reuters correspondent said.
At least 15 tanks were positioned, some with their guns pointed towards Syrian territory, near a Turkish military base just northwest of Kobani. Plumes of smoke rose up as shells hit both the eastern and western sides of Kobani. (more…)

Um, yeah, we’ll take “BS” for $1000 Alex….

WASHINGTON DC – Nearly eight months ago, some of President Obama’s senior intelligence officials were already warning that ISIS was on the move. In the beginning of 2014, ISIS fighters had defeated Iraqi forces in Fallujah, leading much of the U.S. intelligence community to assess they would try to take more of Iraq.

But in an interview that aired Sunday evening, the president told 60 Minutes that the rise of the group now proclaiming itself a caliphate in territory between Syria and Iraq caught the U.S. intelligence community off guard. Obama specifically blamed James Clapper, the current director of national intelligence: “Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that, I think, they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” he said. (more…)

If you’ve followed along for any substantive amount of time you’ll note our prior positions on CNNi.

If my hunch is correct, and if CNNi is accurately doing what we have identified them doing in the past, then Turkey will announce joining the U.S. coalition, or allowing us to use Turkey’s NATO base, within the next 48 hours – maybe as early as today.
CNNi sent this out on 9/28.
The article contained in the link – is from 9/25 ? (more…)

Public Law 107-20 is the 2002′ AUMF authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein and Iraqi forces which, as you can see above, is referenced by Obama as his authorization to attack Syria.  (?)  No-where in 2002 was attacking Bashir Assad part of the discussion.
The White House is fully aware they do not have a legal basis to attack Syria.  Watch Tony Blinken obfuscate, deflect and attempt to reconcile the disparity.

(more…)

If anyone has sources in Turkey, or knowledge of current dynamics in Turkey, or insight we would really like to hear from you.
The intents, inclinations, sympathies and motivations of Recep Erdogan are brutally obvious. What’s lesser known is how far the underpinning of Turkish politics is willing to allow his ideology to advance. After all, Erdogan is one man – leading one party – and there are opposition forces within Turkey which could, if pressured, become a danger to him.

Our current working theory, given known players, ideology and research into actual behaviors, is this:
The ISIS trade for the 49 Turkish hostages was made without payment. So what would the Quid-pro-quo involve?
Given all of the sympathies and tendencies two things are obvious. Erdogan is essentially more adverse to Bashir Assad then he is to ISIS, and ISIS is politically savvy – far more so than al-Qaeda was, and more in line with the political expertise of The Brotherhood (founded in 1928).
Given that, would the quid pro quo involve an acceptance of, and unwillingness to stop (per se’), the ISIS driven exodus of Kurdish refugees upon the nation of Turkey? If so, how far -and how many refugees- would Turkey allow ISIS to drive into the border region, before Turkey would view the inbound masses as a risk to the societal constructs and domestic objectives of Erdogan? (more…)

Just like the fictional Unaccompanied Alien Children ruse the White House created to sell a comprehensive immigration reform strategy, so too is the Khorosan group a purely fictional political construct designed to avoid ideological embarrassment.     
Andrew McCarthy exposes the same fraud we have continued to share. In a recent column for NRO McCarthy explains how the White House had come up with the “Khorosan” al-Qaeda group as nothing more than a political ploy to avoid being ridiculed for their inept and detached prior espousals. After the McCarthy article we’ll show you the timeframe when the Denis McDonough ruse was designed:
Andrew McCarthy – We’re being had. Again.
For six years, President Obama has endeavored to will the country into accepting two pillars of his alternative national-security reality. First, he claims to have dealt decisively with the terrorist threat, rendering it a disparate series of ragtag jayvees. Second, he asserts that the threat is unrelated to Islam, which is innately peaceful, moderate, and opposed to the wanton “violent extremists” who purport to act in its name.
Now, the president has been compelled to act against a jihad that has neither ended nor been “decimated.” The jihad, in fact, has inevitably intensified under his counterfactual worldview, which holds that empowering Islamic supremacists is the path to security and stability. Yet even as war intensifies in Iraq and Syria — even as jihadists continue advancing, continue killing and capturing hapless opposition forces on the ground despite Obama’s futile air raids — the president won’t let go of the charade.
Hence, Obama gives us the Khorosan Group.
The who? (more…)