EGYPT – There has been a large car bomb explosion in the Egyptian capital Cairo, near the city’s police headquarters, officials say.

More photo from the bombing pic.twitter.com/tQ294fq7dl

— Magdy Samaan (@MagdySamaan) January 24, 2014

At least three people were killed and more than 30 wounded, according to officials.

Eyewitnesses speak of smoke rising over the city centre, and there are reports of gunfire after the blast.

Newspaper reports say the front of the police building has been damaged and emergency services are at the scene. (more…)

Most people know al-Qaeda (as a terror entity) has evolved over the past 10+ years.   Recently the Obama administration has doggedly tried to parse and obfuscate around a principle that CORE al-Qaeda has been destroyed.

This claim is essential to framing any success around the Obama administration’s foreign policy and defense effort.     However, the claim is false and the success simply does not exist.

al-Qaeda is NOT on the run.

As a network of affiliated enterprises, with the same ideological goal, it has grown in influence specifically as a direct result of their own evolutionary intentions.

CORE al-Qaeda, or a centralized body from which all decision making stemmed, was never their intent.   al-Qaeda intended for terrorism to be “cellular” or operationally self-sustaining and widespread.    Bin Laden specifically intended the network to be a group of ideologically aligned but unaffiliated franchises all working on a common approach. (more…)

(Via CNN) A video surfaces threatening the Winter Olympics. Russia’s President vows the Games will be safe. Some U.S. lawmakers warn that they won’t be.   One thing was clear as debate over the situation surged on Sunday: security is a top concern, less than three weeks away from the competition…

…As a transcript of his interview with half a dozen national and international broadcasters was posted on the Kremlin website Sunday, a video that surfaced online again highlighted the security situation. (more…)

In the fall of 2012 when the Muslim Brotherhood manipulated the election, and lied to the Egyptian people about the severity of their Islamist intentions, they elected President Morsi.  

John Kerry, President Obama, and former President Bill Clinton were thrilled; and proclaimed it was a joyous Democracy.

Over the next year the Muslim Brotherhood proclaimed Sharia Law would determine their ideological governance.   Morsi visited Iran to align himself with the hardliners.  President Morsi and the radical Islamists began killing Coptic Christians, Crucifying people in front of the President’s palace, and Morsi removed the authority of the judiciary who were trying to stop his ideological advances.   Morsi changed law by dictatorial fiat to allow him to rule as a dictator.

In the fall of 2013 the secular majority of Egyptian people begged the military to rid them of this Islamist regime which was killing it’s own citizens.   They begged for freedom knowing they were duped into exchanging one form of poor freedom governance in Mubarak, for an even worse loss of freedom in Morsi.

The military listened.   They removed Morsi, dispatched the Muslim Brotherood, eliminated radical hardline Islamic extremism, and put al-Qaeda affiliated Muhammed al-Zawahiri back in jail.  

After a period of internal turmoil as the military got the radical jihadists under control, the military leaders then moved to hold elections to vote on a constitution to protect freedom.  This “freedom constitution” was approved by 98% of those who voted in the election. (more…)

CAIRO – More than 98 percent of voters backed a new Egyptian constitution in a referendum this week, authorities said on Saturday, though the turnout was lower than some officials had indicated, with under 40 percent of the electorate taking part.

The vote advances a transition plan that the military-backed government unveiled after deposing Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July following mass unrest over his rule.

“Now that God has supported us in legalizing our constitution, we ask for his aid in achieving the remaining two stages of the road map: the presidential and parliamentary elections,” said Nabil Salib, head of the Supreme Election Committee.

The “yes” vote was 98.1 percent, and 38.6 percent of eligible voters took part, Salib told reporters. (more…)

Absolutely desperate to shield former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from accountability MSNBC goes ‘all in’ to blame Ambassador Stevens for his own death in Benghazi Libya.

https://www.mrctv.org/videos/katty-kay-fallible-ambassador-stevens-blame-his-own-death-hillary-hook

The Democrat chaired Senate Intelligence Committee released an outline yesterday placing the blame and failure to protect the State Dept. Benghazi consulate squarely on the shoulders of the State Dept itself.

As head of the State Department during 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Hillary Clinton carries the burden of accountability. (more…)

I have not had the opportunity to review the entire report – this article below is from the Washington Post.  All Senate Committees are chaired by Democrats.

WASHINGTON DC – A long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday faulted both the State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, about 16 months ago.

The bipartisan report laid out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on a diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the city. It said the State Department failed to increase security at its mission despite warnings, and blamed intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.

The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and that the Pentagon didn’t have the resources in place to defend the State Department compound in an emergency.

“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement. (more…)

Iran and the White House are aligned in their demand the U.S. congress must not issue any further sanctions against the Iranian nuclear ambitions.   However, the more alarming aspect is that the White House is refusing to let congress review the exact terminology of the previously announced arrangement.

Not passing proverbial sniff test….

WASHINGTON DC –  Iran vowed to maintain its nuclear infrastructure and threatened to boost its uranium enrichment capabilities just hours after announcing that it had agreed to a deal to halt some aspects of its contested nuclear program.

Iran and Western nations announced on Sunday that they had agreed to an interim deal to halt portions of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for some $7 billion in sanctions relief.

Secretary of State John Kerry celebrated the interim agreement, which will officially begin on Jan. 20.

However, Iranian officials threatened to ramp up nuclear activities should they feel the West is violating the accord.

“We will in no way, never, dismantle our [nuclear] centrifuges,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the country’s state-run television station on Sunday, according to New York Times reporter Thomas Erdbrink. (more…)

…. another significant percentage would love to see the Islamists jailed, like Egypt.

Tunisia fell victim to dictatorial consequences stemming from economic strain as a result of mass migration.   Like Egypt, the Tunisian Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood) promised great prosperity under Sharia.  However, unlike Egypt, the Brotherhood still holds power. 

TUNISIA – “Ben Ali, they fooled us! Come back soon!” is a slogan one could hear on Tuesday, January 7, in the streets of Tunis, Ariana, Mahdia, Sfax and other cities in Tunisia, as the country prepared to mark the three-year anniversary of the uprising that sent former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali packing.

The protesters were in the street to voice their anger at tax hikes affecting public and agricultural transportation vehicles, but many expressed a nostalgia for the Ben Ali days that seems to be increasingly common.

In the capital, “Vive Ben Ali” can be seen scrawled on walls of buildings, and a Facebook page entitled “Forgive us, Mr. President” has been flooded with messages of affection and tribute. (more…)

Trying to square the circle and winding up deep into pretzel logic.  This follows up to our previous presentation(s). 

WASHINGTON DC – The State Department on Friday for the first time blamed specific groups and militants for the 2012 Benghazi attack, designating them as terrorists — a move that further undermines initial claims the attack was spontaneous.

The department announced that it was labeling Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi and Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah as terror organizations, in part over their role in the Benghazi attack. It applied the same label to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, over a separate attack on Americans in Tunis.

The State Department also labeled as terrorists Sufian bin Qumu, head of the Darnah branch and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, and Ahmed Abu Khattalah, head of the Benghazi branch.  (more…)