We noted yesterday how General David Petraeus recently warned the Iranian Militias were a greater threat than the Sunni ISIS fighters they oppose. Fighting to aid the Shiite Militia is -for all intents and purposes- direct aid to agenda of Iran. FUBAR.

BREAKING: US airstrikes underway in stalled Iraqi battle to retake Tikrit from Islamic State group.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2015

Meanwhile the Kurdish people who could really benefit from our efforts, and who pose no threat to U.S. interests, are left without support and/or weapons to fight.

(Via Long War Journal) The US-led military Coalition in Iraq is openly supporting Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Iraqi forces who are battling Islamic State fighters entrenched in Tikrit. Many of the Shiite militia commanders are listed by the US as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, and one militia is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Many of the commanders and militias are responsible for killing US, Coailition, and Iraqi troops and civilians during the occupation of Iraq.

Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) announced today that “operations to support Iraqi Security Forces in Tikrit have commenced after a request from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al Abadi,” in a press released issued by the US-led command. (more…)

(Via Al Arabia) Warplanes of the Royal Saudi Air Force bombed the positions of Yemen’s Houthi militia and destroyed most of their air defenses, Al Arabiya News Channel reported early on Thursday.

Arab Gulf states had announced that they have decided to “repel Houthi aggression” in neighboring Yemen, following a request from the country’s President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

In their joint statement Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait said they “decided to repel Houthi militias, al-Qaeda and ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] in the country.” (more…)

No details yet, but this essentially destroys the Obama claim the U.S. was not working with Iranian army.

BREAKING: US airstrikes underway in stalled Iraqi battle to retake Tikrit from Islamic State group.

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2015

@JenGriffinFNC confirms US to do airstrikes over Tikrit

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) March 25, 2015

FUBAR NUTS – not only is the U.S. facilitating the Iranians to gain the capability for nuclear weapons – but our U.S. Air Force is now conducting air strikes to benefit the Shia Army of Iran and General Qasem Soleimani. Why it was only a few days ago when Petraeus was asked:

QUESTION – What are your thoughts when you see Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC’s Quds Force commander who funded and armed the militias who blew up U.S. troops [killing and wounding thousands of U.S. soldiers] and shelled the U.S. Embassy while you were in it, taking battlefield tours like you used to?

[…]  I have several thoughts when I see the pictures of him, but most of those thoughts probably aren’t suitable for publication in a family newspaper like yours. What I will say is that he is very capable and resourceful individual, a worthy adversary. He has played his hand well. But this is a long game, so let’s see how events transpire.

(more…)

BREAKING: Residents are looting Yemeni presidential compound in Aden vacated hours earlier by President Hadi: witnesses

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2015

State Dept. confirms Yemen's president has left his house, but doesn't know where he is http://t.co/AKHz5Sgulq pic.twitter.com/jcAbABF9Bk

— Noema Magazine (@NoemaMag) March 25, 2015

ISIS is claiming victory in Yemen, the Yemeni President has fled, the U.S. air base has been abandoned, the U.S. embassy was evacuated.   However, despite these troubling facts and reports the White House is sticking by their former assertions that Yemen is a success story.  Watch Josh Earnest today: (more…)

Sorry to go so deep on a weekend, but seeing Brennan broadcast in a 22 minute interview is enough to blow the blood pressure cuff:

I have never been more certain of something, yet simultaneously never able to prove it, as I am about two events. The first is that Jack Lew and the White House in 2010/2011 coordinated the DOJ attack, with Eric Holder, against political opposition using the IRS.

The second event is that journalist Michael Hastings was killed by the dispatch of CIA Director John Brennan.

Director John Brennan spent almost his entire formative career inside the CIA and intelligence community. 25 Years inside the CIA prior to 2008.

Mr. Brennan spent most of his C.I.A. career as an analyst, but during the 1990s served a tour as the chief of the CIA station in Saudi Arabia, the rumored financier of a now famous Harvard Law Review editor.

Prior to the 9/11 attack (from 1999 to early 2001) Brennan was chief of staff to George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, as the position was then called. At the end of that period of his C.I.A. service, in the world created by the patriot act and homeland security (2004 and 2005), Mr. Brennan set up what is now the U.S. Counterterrorism Center.

John O. Brennan, later became candidate Senator Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser while also being owner of a company called  The Analysis Corp. (more…)

Follow-up to last night’s madness in New Orleans – It appears the machete wielding nutter (who I think could still be an Allahu Ackbar candidate), Richard White, was planning on something larger than just chopping up people in the airport….

(Via Fox) The machete-wielding man who attacked two Transportation Security Agency workers at a New Orleans airport was carrying a bag holding six Molotov cocktails, officials said.

Officials said they don’t know what suspect Richard White intended to do with the homemade bombs or what triggered the incident.

“As you know this was unexpected incident involving a clearly troubled and disturbed individual,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu at a Saturday afternoon press conference.

White, 62, chased the two Transportation Security Agency workers at New Orleans International Airport with a machete and wasp spray late Friday. He was shot multiple times by an officer, police said.

Officials said they noticed White had been carrying a bag when they checked surveillance video after the incident. (more…)

Today’s construct of the pending Iranian “nuclear deal” is essentially the same construct that was outlined over a month ago. All sanctions are lifted and in turn Iran keeps centrifuges (around 6,000). The leaked details indicate under the retained ability it would take Iran approximately a year to fully weaponize enough material to build a bomb – and Iran has agreed not to build the actual nuclear weapons for approximately 10 years.

Obama/Kerry are relying on a point that U.N. inspectors will insure the Iranians do not build a nuclear weapon prior to the agreed timeframe.

Democrats and Nancy Pelosi will soon to the microphones to reassure the American electorate by claiming:

“we have to actually see the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, before we can, …well, um.. tell what is on them”

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The United States and Iran are drafting elements of a nuclear deal that commits Tehran to a 40 percent cut in the number of machines it could use to make an atomic bomb, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. In return, the Iranians would get quick relief from some crippling economic sanctions and a partial lift of a U.N. embargo on conventional arms.

Agreement on Iran’s uranium enrichment program could signal a breakthrough for a larger deal aimed at containing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities. (more…)

An excellent article in the Washington Post today includes written Question and Answer exchange with General David Petraeus after a recent re-visit to Iraq and the region.

General Petraeus: […] I think Iraq and the coalition forces are making considerable progress against the Islamic State. In fact, I would argue that the foremost threat to Iraq’s long-term stability and the broader regional equilibrium is not the Islamic State; rather, it is Shiite militias, many backed by — and some guided by — Iran.

These militia returned to the streets of Iraq in response to a fatwa by Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Sistani at a moment of extreme danger. And they prevented the Islamic State from continuing its offensive into Baghdad. Nonetheless, they have, in some cases, cleared not only Sunni extremists but also Sunni civilians and committed atrocities against them.

Thus, they have, to a degree, been both part of Iraq’s salvation but also the most serious threat to the all-important effort of once again getting the Sunni Arab population in Iraq to feel that it has a stake in the success of Iraq rather than a stake in its failure. Longer term, Iranian-backed Shia militia could emerge as the preeminent power in the country, one that is outside the control of the government and instead answerable to Tehran. (more…)

After failing in a not very covert effort to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu at the ballot box, President Obama and his ideologically likeminded cohorts change strategy.

Every policy advisor in the White House has the same outlook toward Israel; they view our relationship with the Jewish state as the basis for our needed mid-East interventions.  According to U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power’s belief Israel is an occupying force which should be viewed as adversarial to U.S. policy. 

Power’s opinion is shared by the overall White House foreign policy team.  Now that Benjamin Netanyahu has won re-election, the most damaging thing the administration can do is to threaten removal of our protective relationship – which would signal to Hamas and other terror groups that it’s open season to attack.

(Via Politico) In the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisive re-election, the Obama administration is revisiting longtime assumptions about America’s role as a shield for Israel against international pressure.

Angered by Netanyahu’s hard-line platform towards the Palestinians, top Obama officials would not rule out the possibility of a change in American posture at the United Nations, where the U.S. has historically fended off resolutions hostile to Israel.

[…] While saying it was “premature” to discuss Washington’s policy response, the official wouldn’t rule out a modified American posture at the United Nations, where the U.S. has long fended off resolutions critical of Israeli settlement activity and demanding its withdrawal from Palestinian territories. (more…)

Tunisia was the original economic and cultural tinderbox that ignited the 2010 “Islamist Spring” – as the Tunisian economy could not support the seemingly endless flow of N African nationals trying to reach Europe. When Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Libya’s Quackdaffy took the 2009 €5 Billion EU bribe to close the immigration gates it was only a matter of time before Tunisia erupted.  It took less than 2 years.

However, since their original cultural crisis, and removal of Ben Ali, Tunis has been trying to avoid getting pulled into the Islamist nightmare that has taken over neighboring Libya. Today an ISIS terror attack took place in the heart of the capital – 19 foreign nationals reported killed so far. ~ Details Developing ~

(Via Reuters) Gunmen in military uniforms stormed Tunisia’s national museum, killing 17 foreign tourists and two Tunisians on Wednesday in one of the worst militant attacks in a country that has largely escaped the region’s “Arab Spring” turmoil.

Visitors from Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain were among the dead in the noon assault on the Bardo museum near parliament in central Tunis, Prime Minister Habib Essid said. (more…)