UPDATE – (Politico) — NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production team were released today after being held captive for five days inside Syria, the network announced today.

In an interview with NBC’s Today show, Engel said the captors were members of a Shiite government militia loyal to Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and allied with Hezbollah

This has all the potential to NOT END WELL.   We have tracked Syrian activity closely for over two years.   Currently the leader of the Syrian *resistance* is the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi al Husseini al Qurshi (a.k.a. Abu Du’a), in control of The Al Nusra Front.   Almost all of the well armed contingents associated within Syria are now various factions of al-Qaeda affiliates.   Pray for Richard Engel – Just pray….

SYRIA – Turkish media is reporting that veteran journalist Richard Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent and Middle East bureau chief, and his Turkish colleague Aziz Akyavaş are currently missing in Syria.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports that Engel and Akyavaş haven’t been in contact with NBC News since Thursday morning. (more…)

Let’s pause for a moment and evaluate recent events and recent claims by this President Obama [aka Dear Leader] of a Safe/Secure America under his watch:

Last night North Korea successfully launched their first ever 3-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missile placing “something” in near earth orbit. North Korea has nuclear weapons ya’ know.

Yesterday from the border region of Afghanistan/Pakistan al-Qaeda’s #1 Ayman Al Zawahiri sent a video message to the salafists in Egypt to rise up off their prayer mats and support the sharia constitution by Muslim Brotherhood leader President Morsi.  “You must meet the request of the Egyptian people for Sharia rule in order to attain dignity and pride,” Zawahiri said in his video

That’s the same Egypt we just approved to get twenty brand spanking new F-16 fighter jets.

Also yesterday in West Africa, specifically in Mali, the freedom reform Prime Minister was forced to resign after al-Qaeda forces took control of the military and performed a coup de ta. al-Qaeda now controls the country.  Soldiers carried out a late-night arrest of Mali’s prime minister at his home here, forcing his resignation early Tuesday and casting new doubt on plans to chase out radical Islamists who control much of this troubled West African nation. (more…)

It is a desperate situation for minority moderates and Coptic Christians in Egypt. I hope the beacon of freedom can provide them a measure of hope.

(Reuters) – Egyptian army tanks deployed outside the presidential palace on Thursday in streets where supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Mursi had clashed into the early hours of the morning in violence that killed five people.

Armored troop carriers also moved into the roads around the palace, in what Egypt’s state news agency said was a measure to secure the palace. The area had become a chaotic battleground between Mursi’s Islamist backers and their opponents.

The soldiers’ badges identified them as members of the Presidential Guard and Republican Guard, whose duties include guarding the presidency. At least five tanks and nine armored personnel carriers were seen near or around the palace. (more…)

SYRIA – Syrian forces have mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs in  preparation for possible use on President Bashar Assad’s own people, Fox News  confirms.

A senior U.S. official told Fox News that bombs were loaded with components  of sarin gas, a deadly nerve gas. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs  until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed.

NBC News,  which first reported this latest escalation in the Syrian civil war, cited  sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto  planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons  against civilians pending orders from Assad.

The United States has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and  would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict. (more…)

“So, look,I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that I think goes hand-in-hand with the suspicion. So, yes, there is more that the Israelis need to do to really demonstrate that they do understand the pain of an oppressed people in their minds, and they want to figure out, within the bounds of security and a Jewish democratic state, what can be accomplished.”  – Hillary Clinton

Turns out the guy on the dead end of the rope wasn’t an Israeli collaborator at all….  Apparently he was a Salafist – A “rival” to Hamas.   A *more* rabid Islamist than the rabid Islamist Crusading Horsemen Motorcyclists…

GAZA – Tearful and scared, the three-year-old girl knows little of what lies behind the tension and turmoil gripping her homeland.  She merely holds tight a picture of her father the way she will want to remember him.

The youngster will certainly do best to forget the images that so shocked the world last week.  For even in a land synonymous with violence, the way her father died seemed unusually inhumane.

Publicly executed minutes earlier as an alleged ‘spy for Israel’, his body was dragged through Gaza City by men on motorcycles, waving pistols triumphantly in the air. (more…)

We’ve been tracking this for more than 3 years…. No-one is paying much attention, but they will – VERY SOON.    Without a doubt the “rebels” in Syria are now fully engaged al-Qaeda, or radical Islamist operatives, from multiple geographies.

We have highlighted some Syrian ground reports which outline how their cause was hijacked in Jan/Feb 2012 by the flood of al-Qaeda operatives flowing from the previous conquest(s) in Egypt/Libya.

Now the First of Two reports which should alarm EVERYONE.

First…. BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels strengthened their hold Thursday on an oil-rich province bordering Iraq, activists said, capturing a key military base that was considered one of the last bastions for President Bashar Assad’s loyalists in the strategic region.

The reported fall of the Mayadeen base, along with its stockpiles of artillery, caps a series of advances in Deir el-Zour including last week’s seizure of a military airport. (more…)

Watch these two videos – this is EXACTLY the approach needed when you accept what faces the next candidate for President with common sense principles.   Bill Whittle describes it with humor filled indignation – and he is keenly articulate…..

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a brokered peace deal by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi after meeting with US SOS Clinton.  This, despite 70% Israeli support for continued self-defense against attacks from Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  The cease fire was set for 9pm Tel Aviv time (3pm EST) – during first hour rocket attacks from Gaza Strip continued.

WH says Pres Obama urged Netanyahu to agree to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal while reiterating Israel's right to defend itself.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 21, 2012

FUBAR – Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said the deal included an agreement to open all border crossings with the Gaza Strip, including the important Rafah crossing with Egypt. A copy of the deal obtained by The Associated Press appeared to be somewhat vague about the details on the crossings. (more…)

HatTip StellaP