President Barack Obama pledged during the 2012 campaign, and since, that he will not let Iran develop nuclear weapons. This is one of the potentially broken promises that can have massive geopolitical consequences.
Last Friday he seemed almost resigned toward that end:
WASHINGTON DC – Kentucky GOP senator and likely 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul is “not saying [he’s] completely opposed” to “maybe even bombing” the genocidal Islamist terrorists known as ISIS. But Paul also isn’t saying that he supports bombing ISIS. Politico reports Paul has “mixed feelings”:
“I have mixed feelings about it,” the senator said Monday evening of the recent strikes against ISIL targets. “I’m not saying I’m completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government.”
“So a year ago, the same people who want to bomb ISIS wanted to bomb Syria last year,” he continued in remarks were first reported by WBKO.
It’s not true, as Paul implies, that everyone who wants to take military action against ISIS supported military action last year against the Syrian regime. (read more)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is weighing a military mission in Iraq to rescue thousands of Yazidi refugees, a move that risks putting American forces in direct confrontation with Sunni fighters for the Islamic State.
The proposal is still under development and hasn’t been approved by President Barack Obama. U.S. officials said the rescue mission is one of many options the U.S. military is weighing after dropping food and water to dying refugees over the past six days.
“People are looking at ways to do something more than just drop water and supplies,” one senior U.S. official said. “You can only do that for so long.” (more…)
Solid evidence exists that both Secretary Clinton and President Obama were both heavily engaged in joint State Dept. / CIA operations in Libya and Syria.
Two Presidential Authorization Findings were signed by President Obama. One in March 2011 for covert CIA action in Libya, the second in the early part of 2012 for covert CIA action in Syria. Both operations were to provide weapons to “rebels” in both countries.
We have outlined the entire construct in The Benghazi Brief
The Libyan operation was called “Zero Footprint”, the name of the Syrian operation is unknown. Saudi Arabia (financier) and Qatar (intermediary) were used in both operations with the end destination for Zero Footprint being Benghazi, and the destination for the second operation being Turkey. Both Hillary Clinton and President Obama were simpatico in both of these covert operations. What’s going on now between them is parseltongue.
WASHINGTON DC – Hillary Clinton called President Barack Obama on Tuesday to clarify she did not mean to “attack him, his policies, or his leadership” in an interview with the Atlantic published last weekend wherein she made her first major, public criticism of the White House since leaving her position as secretary of state last year. (more…)
Put this into the memory file that holds evidence of why the White House was so totally disconnected when they decided to arm Libyan and Syrian al-Qaeda rebels in 2011.
Here’s John Brennan in June of 2011 about three months after the White House began arming the Libyan “rebels”:
“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics. I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”
~John Brennan, White House Senior Advisor to The President (for counterterrorism and national security) June 29th 2011
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – You know a situation is bad when a pope calls for an armed response. Pope Francis, widely appreciated as a practical and realistic man, is not just calling for a cease-fire or negotiations. Instead, he is inviting an armed response to the terrorism of the Islamic State.
Such a call is virtually unprecedented for a pontiff in modern times, but our age is an extraordinary one and the Islamic State has no interest in a bargaining table. Instead, the Islamic State is bent on genocide and barbarism, ruthlessly exterminating anyone who opposes them.
On Sunday, Pope Francis said he held “dismay and disbelief” over what is happening in Iraq. He called the Islamic State fighters terrorists and said there was a need for “a professional, well-equipped army.” “The situation is going from bad to worse,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad said, “There is a need of international support and a professional, well-equipped army. The situation is going from bad to worse.” (more…)
TURKEY – Transfixed by the chaos engulfing swathes of the Middle East, it is no surprise that the West has not given Turkey’s first direct presidential election the attention it merits – and would have received in more peaceable times. This is a pity because the tectonic plates are shifting fast in the country, which is a crucial link between East and West, and the changes may be both permanent and troubling.
TURKEY – Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz has ruled out any support from Turkey for the US military airstrike that began on Friday targeting artillery belonging to the al-Qaeda splinter group, the terrorist “Islamic State” (IS), near Arbil, in Iraq.
Speaking to journalists on Saturday in the province of Sivas, Yılmaz said: “We are not providing any kind of support [to the US military strikes on the IS in Iraq]. The US, using its own means, with its military aircraft launched from warships [in the Gulf area], is bombing IS positions that the US sees as a threat.”
Turkey is sensitive about becoming involved in the US military hitting IS targets in Iraq due to a hostage crisis. (more…)