Eight years ago Zurich Mike penned an analogy of the ‘Islamist Spring’ that still rings true today, when he said: President Obama helped kill the zookeepers and unleashed the big cats…. The Turkish movement into Syria is all part of this continuum.
When President Obama ignited the “Islamist Spring” with his speech in Cairo Egypt, what he really articulated was a shift in U.S. foreign policy to support The Muslim Brotherhood.

Political Islam, writ large, is represented by The Brotherhood.  Turkish President Recep Erdogan sees himself as the modern leader of political Islam using the Brotherhood to recreate the Ottoman Empire.
Ben Ali (Tunis), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) and Khadaffi (Libya), were the first zookeepers removed.  Obama’s U.S. foreign policy supported Muslim Brotherhood replacements like Mohamed Morsi in Egypt.  However, Obama failed in the effort to remove Bashir Assad in Syria; as a result all extremist factions of the Brotherhood gathered to form ISIS.
Factions like al-Qaeda, al-Nusra and ISIS all fall under the umbrella of The Muslim Brotherhood.  The exiled Brotherhood leaders initially fled Egypt to Qatar until they were further driven-out by the Gulf Cooperation Council and ultimately given safe-harbor in Turkey, by Recep Erdogan.
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper discusses and defends President Trump’s smart decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria in advance of Turkish forces launching an assault into Syria against Kurdish forces and the SDF.
The background here goes back to Turkish President Recep Ergodan, a gatekeeper between the middle-east and Europe; and his intention to use his ideological alignment with political Islam, via the Muslim Brotherhood, to recreate the Ottoman Empire.

In a series of tweets today, President Trump explains the U.S. position toward the current quagmire in Northern Syria:

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Things are about to get very interesting and very uncomfortable for NATO.  President Trump has announced that Turkey is about to launch a unilateral invasion into Northern Syria… There is going to be a scramble amid many geopolitical interests.

First, the announcement:

[White House]  –  Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey by telephone. Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria.
The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial “Caliphate,” will no longer be in the immediate area.

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After disclosing his prayers of death for the infidels; and after telling investigators he was acting on behalf of his “evil side”; and after finding out his brother is a member of ISIS in Iraq; and after finding pro-ISIS propaganda videos on his cell phone celebrating ISIS mass murders, which he shared with friends and family; well, U.S. justice officials and the FBI now suspect a more “disturbing” motive behind airline employee Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani who was caught tampering with the American Airline GPS system.
Gee, ya think?
Top men.
The DOJ and FBI are on the case, folks.  They have “suspicions”.

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge cited new evidence of potential terrorism sympathies Wednesday in denying bail for a longtime mechanic charged with sabotaging an American Airlines jetliner that prosecutors say could have caused it to crash with 150 people aboard.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley imposed pretrial detention for Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani at the hearing in Miami federal court.

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To honor the memory of those lost on September 11th/12th 2012:

The Benghazi Brief

The “Benghazi Brief” remains the most controversial research report we have ever produced. The brief contains over two years of research and hundreds of very specific factual citations supporting it. Five years after it was originally written, and not a single aspect outlined within the brief has ever been identified as inaccurate.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox News for an interview with swamp gatekeeper Chris Wallace.  Geopolitical topics include the cancelled Taliban negotiations; the ongoing nuclear ambitions of Iran; and Pompeo’s political career.

Wow. This secret meeting is surprising on many levels….

Big Picture:  President Trump wants to get out of Afghanistan.  Pakistan is on the supportive side of the Taliban terrorists. India is on the supportive side of the Afghanistan government. China is the biggest financial supporter of Pakistan government. India is big  financial supporter of the Afghanistan government.
U.S. President Trump has told Pakistan he expects them to bring the Taliban to the table of negotiation with the Afghanistan government.  To stimulate this outcome the U.S. has withdrawn financial support for Pakistan, pending progress. However, Pakistan replaced U.S. support with larger financial investment by China.
So in the background the Taliban terrorists are hiding behind the skirt of China; while the U.S. and India try to drag the Taliban out of that safe place.  It’s a mess; but now we know the motives behind why this was happening…
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This is disturbing.  Two Somali refugees in the U.S. have been arrested for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.

(VIA DOJ)  John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Michael Bailey, the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, Michael McGarrity, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, and Sean Kaul, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Phoenix Field Office, announced that on July 26, Ahmed Mahad Mohamed and Abdi Yemani Hussein, were arrested for conspiring to provide material support and resources to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
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Iran reports they have seized another oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, in an apparent effort to increase hostilities in the region and make a larger conflict with the U.S. and western allies.  All of this activity has a ring of familiarity to it from the late 1980’s.
In ’87 and ’88 the U.S. took over patrolling the strait to afford safe passage for Kuwait tankers and western-flagged ships. Eventually, following the Iranian attack on a U.S. frigate (USS Samuel B Roberts), there were several U.S-Iran military fights.
It looks like Iran is attempting to provoke a similar scenario today.  Only this time former President Obama and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appear to be assisting the Iranian government in their political efforts.  As incredible as it might sound at first blush, if Iran kills or captures any American military members in the modern version of the conflict – Obama and Kerry will be working directly for the enemy.  FUBAR:

WASHINGTON – Tehran, Iran — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has seized British oil tanker, the Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. The announcement comes one day after the U.S. said it destroyed an Iranian drone.
The military branch said the tanker over “non-compliance with international maritime laws and regulations” and has transferred the vessel to an Iranian port.

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