Lots of people discussing the elimination of ISIS Official Press Officer Abu Mosa.  Few noticing that Mosa was the guy Senator John McCain was supporting in May 2013. 

Back in May 2013 Republican Senator John McCain made a secret trip to Syria to talk to the forces fighting against Assad.

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Hence, as explained yesterday, that’s why the White House released the details of the failed rescue attempt..

(WASHINGTON DC) White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz was asked at today’s press briefing why the administration was unwilling to negotiate with terrorists in James Foley’s case, yet traded five Taliban for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“I think, again, what the president made clear at the time of the Guantanamo transfer was that his commitment to the men and women that serve overseas is a bedrock one, that we will leave no man or woman behind. That’s what he was keeping faith with, and that’s something that’s unshakeable for him,” Schultz said. (more…)

The media claim “it’s not breaking the law when Obama does it”.   And congress does what ?  ((((crickets))))

(Via WFB)  The Obama administration violated federal law when it released five senior Taliban leaders from prison without notifying Congress, as is legally mandated, according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The GAO concluded in a report issued Thursday that the Obama administration failed to provide proper notification of the Taliban release and illegally used taxpayer funds that were not appropriated to enable the inmate transfer, according to the report.
The Obama administration in May secretly struck a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan to free from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba five of its top leaders in exchange for the return of captured U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was later accused by fellow soldiers of having deserted the Army prior to his capture. (more…)

Harf, Let me clear it up for you.
The White House leaked it.
Why ? Because they were petrified of the political optics of contrast. The Obama administration had just used the excuse, “by any means possible” to trade the release of the Gitmo5 terrorists for Private Bergdahl. The White House understood the optic of an American hostage being killed as retaliation for military strikes against ISIL as a risk of the newly created Obama reality – negotiating with terrorists.
The White House leaked the rescue effort in a feeble attempt to show they did try something.

So the White house compromised a covert operation for political cover and gain. It’s how the McDonough team work. The only risk they worry about is the political risk of how it makes them look. All politics all the time. Period.

IRAQ – A new video posted online Tuesday purportedly shows Islamic State militants beheading an American journalist.
The nearly five minute video, titled “A Message to America,” depicts a man believed to be missing photojournalist James Foley being beheaded by a militant.

The video opens with a message from the Islamic State, attacking President Barack Obama for recently directing airstrikes against the terror group.
“Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims,” the video said.
Then the shot pans over to Foley, who speaks into the camera.
“I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers: the U.S. government,” Foley said in the video. (more…)

(Via CNN NEWS) Kurdish forces fired mortars and explosives at extremist militants Sunday as the battle to retake a strategic dam in northern Iraq raged on.

Fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria set up high powered explosives around buildings and detonated them, Kurdish Intelligence chief Masrour Barzani said.

Kurdish forces fought back, sparking clashes. Smoke could be seen rising in the distance.

ISIS, the extremist militant group that calls itself the Islamic State, seized the strategic Mosul Dam this month.

U.S. warplanes joined the effort to retake the dam amid growing concern it is not maintained and could rupture, a U.S. official told CNN. (more…)

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The story below has recently become a familiar mention.   A Christian family living in Mosul whose neighbors turned on them as ISIL approached.

This frustrated Iraqi Christian family repeats a reality being heard from many families who faced a similar situation.   Their experience is more specific evidence that Islam does not have a moderate strain within it.   At the end of the Western Media talking points there’s a sadly divergent reality.

CNS NEWS – An Iraqi Christian who fled for his life from Mosul says that his Muslim neighbors welcomed the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) and told him “this land belongs to Islam.” (more…)

The slow motion U.S. response to the crisis on Mount Sinjar is not only understandable it’s actually quite predictable.

President Obama’s entire ideological outlook and world view is born amid the kitchens, coffee tables, and social organizations of his life.   Together with his compadre’s they view the Gaza conflict through the prism of righteous protests against U.S. engagements in Vietnam.

Bill Ayers famously views armed opposition to the U.S. government as a patriotic and loyal endeavor – what’s a few local bombs intended to do if not to prove a point.   The rockets from Gaza are no more radical in the mind of the radical left than Ayers pentagon bombing of another similarly oppressive entity, the United States.

But something happens at that very specific juncture where the presentation of Hope and Fundamental Change meets the more brutal reality of consequence.  (more…)

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:

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