HatTip Weasel Zippers – This is the same thing that happened in Egypt under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
IRAQ – One of the last Christian strongholds in Iraq came under attack this week, and its last remaining citizens are making a desperate plea to the United States for help.
Until this week, Qaraqosh was a town where Christians from other parts of Iraq could find refuge. But late Wednesday night, ISIS rebels started shelling Qaraqosh, provoking a mass exodus on Thursday.
According to various reports, anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 citizens have fled. The Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche, has remained behind with around 1,000 of the town’s inhabitants who do not have cars or other means of leaving. (more…)

BREAKING NEWS: Benghazi terror suspect pleads not guilty http://t.co/b9JgqwAznv

— Fox News Alert (@foxnewsalert) June 28, 2014

WASHINGTON DC – Ahmed Abu Khatalla, the Libyan militant accused of directing the 2012 attack on Benghazi, was indicted Saturday on a charge that could lead to the death penalty, the Justice Department said.
Abu Khatalla pleaded not guilty on Saturday, the Associated Press said, after being flown to Washington by helicopter early Saturday morning and then taken to the federal courthouse. U.S. special forces captured him about two weeks ago, and authorities have since been questioning him offshore aboard the USS New York. (read more)

Note – interesting choice of venue to hold the Benghazi terror suspect “Washington DC”. 

WASHINGTON – Ahmed Abu Khatallah, one of the men accused the deadly Benghazi attack is now on U.S. soil, officials confirmed Saturday to Fox News.
Khatallah is being held at a federal courthouse in D.C. amid tight security, Department of Justice spokesman William Miller said.
Khatallah is accused of being involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Libya that lead to the deaths of former U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. (more…)

….Make sure you note the comments from C.A.P. (Center for American Progress).  For them to be critical of Obama’s Libya policy is ironic considering Denis McDonough, an institute fellow, was a central character in the policy used.
WASHINGTON — A group of U.S. diplomats arrived in Libya three years ago to a memorable reception: a throng of cheering men and women who pressed in on the startled group “just to touch us and thank us,” recalled Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser.
The Libyans were emotional because the U.S. and its allies had toppled leader Moammar Gadhafi in a military campaign that averted a feared slaughter of Gadhafi’s foes. Obama administration officials called the international effort, accomplished with no Western casualties, a “model intervention.”
But in three years Libya has turned into the kind of place U.S. officials most fear: a lawless land that attracts terrorists, pumps out illegal arms and drugs, and destabilizes its neighbors.
Now, as Obama considers a limited military intervention in Iraq, the Libya experience is seen by many as a cautionary tale of the unintended damage big powers can inflict when they aim for a limited involvement in an unpredictable conflict. (more…)

This will throw a pickle in the grand scheme of Ketchup Kerry.  With al-Qaeda essentially conceding the more radical ISIL Army is the more powerful Islamist force – the Ideological alignment within Syria leaves barely a ‘smidgen’ of room for moderation.   Of course this merge begs the question how long will Russia stay de-facto aligned to Assad? 

SYRIA – A Syrian rebel group closely aligned with al Qaeda’s official central leadership has switched sides and is now supporting an ultra-violent offshoot, following the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s blitzkrieg attack on Iraq, according to U.S. officials and reports from the region.
A local unit of the Al Nusra Front—the official rebel group of al Qaeda in Syria—agreed to back the ISIL on Wednesday.
The merger of one portion of al Nusra with ISIL is being viewed by government intelligence analysts and others as a troubling indicator that the inner battle between the two groups may be shifting in ISIL’s favor. (more…)

There are two main Islamic fighting forces, and six main factions within those fighting forces, inside Syria – all fighting against Assad.   None of them are remotely “moderate”.   But for context let me remind you of what the John’s (Kerry and McCain) consider “moderate”:

(Left) John McCain meeting with ISIS forces in Syria while he thought he was in the company of the FSA (Free Syrian Army) D’oh.   And (right) John Kerry meeting with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood “moderate” Morsi while he was lopping off the heads of Coptic Christians.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled on Friday that the U.S. hopes to enlist moderate Syrian opposition fighters that the Obama administration has reluctantly decided to arm and train in the battle against militant extremists in neighboring Iraq.
Obama sent Congress a $500 million request Thursday for a Pentagon-run program that would significantly expand previous covert efforts to arm rebels fighting both the Sunni extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The move that comes amid increased U.S. concern that the conflicts in Syria and Iraq are becoming an intertwined fight against the same Sunni extremist group. (more…)

For *this* specific White House to make such a claim, against the visible history of their previous positions, one can only reasonably conclude the “Bathtub Principle” is being applied to the current al-Qaeda situation in Iraq.
This administration only feigns ignorance when feigning ignorance benefits their position and is part of their larger strategy.  “Wha,.. who… us”?  
WASHINGTON DC – Senior Obama administration officials’ closed-door briefing to senators Tuesday night revealed that the White House did not anticipate and was not prepared for the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), which has wreaked havoc in Iraq and seized many key cities in recent weeks.

Top State Department and Defense Department officials joined senators Tuesday evening for a briefing on the quickly developing chaos in Iraq and future U.S. plans for a response.
Sources familiar with the brief said that the administration officials repeated talking points issued over the past several days in both open and closed door meetings and had trouble communicating a concrete plan for response. (more…)

About 10 days ago we were discussing the following video:

We were going back and forth about whether those eight field artillery units were M198 (U.S. modern service), or Type59 (Iraqi army).
Unfortunately the answer comes today from Zero Hedge who has better pictures of the units during a recent ISIS parade in Mosul.

Definitely U.S. Military M198’s.   Unfortunately meaning they can hit Baghdad, or any other target, accurately from around 10 miles out.
(source)

IRAQ – In its march to Baghdad, ISIS seized the heavy weapons of a modern army. Now, the jihadists are attacking Iraq’s biggest air base – and could soon be able to attack from the sky.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is threatening to take control of Balad Airbase, Iraq’s largest airfield and one of America’s most important military outposts during its occupation of the country.
Today, Balad still has plenty of vehicles and aircraft on the base that any terrorist group would covet, including Russian-made transport helicopters, surveillance planes, and a fleet of pickup trucks fitted with heavy machine guns. (more…)

As with all complex stories the valuable discoveries come with time.

We now have a pretty good understanding of who, what, where, and why surrounding the 9/11/12 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi Libya. We are also better positioned to understand why, or perhaps more importantly why not, certain actions were taken before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the attack itself.

We know from the Bret Baier interview with Hillary Clinton that she was physically located at her 7th floor office in Washington DC on the night of the attack. Unfortunately we also know during the November 2012 Thanksgiving holiday a mysterious fire took place in that building. Well, actually directly above her exact office – cause undetermined.
A “fire” which preceded an unfortunate slip and fall for the Secretary, resulting in a concussion, which led to the discovery of a blood clot, that ultimately delayed her congressional testimony before a Senate Hearing into the events of the night in question.
We know the Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.
We know the “rebels” were positioned in two strategic places. Benghazi, and the port city of Darnah, both located in Eastern Libya.
We know this covert operation came to be known as “Operation Zero Footprint“, and fell under the military command authority of NATO not (important to repeat), NOT, the U.S. Military. (more…)

Marie Harf is rapidly making a name for herself. Unfortunately it might not be quite the name she had in mind.

Always proud of @statedeptspox; she deals in facts #attacksareabadgeofhonor

— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) June 8, 2014