Weird story and even more weird explanation/apology. Ego, I guess.

(Via The Hill) Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald falsely claimed that he served in a military special forces unit, he admitted to the Huffington Post.

When a homeless veteran told McDonald in a conversation captured by CBS that he had served in special forces, the head of the VA replied that he had, too. The conversation aired during a CBS News story chronicling how the agency is working to house homeless veterans.

“I have no excuse,” McDonald told The Huffington Post. “I was not in special forces.”

He added that he “reacted spontaneously” and “wrongly [with] no intent in any way to describe my record as any different than it is.” (more…)

This argument was made by all reasonable people back when the White House decided it was more politically opportune to trade GITMO detainees for Bowe Bergdahl. The newsworthy aspect is the confirmation from the other hostage’s family.

WASHINGTON DC – The brother of an American woman who was killed after spending months as a hostage of Islamic State militants says Kayla Mueller’s situation worsened after the government [Obama] traded five Taliban commanders for a captive U.S. soldier.

The militants increased their demands after the May swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Eric Mueller told NBC’s “Today” in an interview that aired Monday.

“That made the whole situation worse because that’s when the demands got greater,” he said. “They got larger. They realized that they had something.”

Mueller’s death was confirmed Feb. 10 by her family and U.S. officials. The Islamic State group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but U.S. officials have not confirmed that. The Pentagon said it didn’t know how she was killed. (more…)

The Associated Press is outlining the construct of the final negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. In essence, the short version is that Iran is going to be able to produce nuclear weapons, period.

GENEVA (AP) – The United States and Iran are shaping the contours of a deal that would initially freeze Tehran’s nuclear program but would allow it to slowly ramp up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms over the last years of the agreement’s duration. (read more)

Despite the incredible ramifications, and the very predictable arms race now virtually certain in the region, this should not come as a surprise.

Iran had to work swiftly, while President Obama was still in office and the U.S. is in a weakened state, due to the specifically intentional policies of the Obama administration. There have been many indicators of this outcome over the past several months and years.

Last August the reality of Iran gaining a nuclear weapon became assured when President Obama told the New York Times oh well, “we tried“. (more…)

Senator Cotton is really making a name for himself as an individual thinker, strong conservative, and articulate voice amid the chaos that is Obama’s ‘Hoax and Chains’. Well done sir, well done.

“It’s very mystifying why this administration would reveal potential plans to retake Mosul.”
[…] “If a private in Iraq had revealed this kind of planning inadvertently by leaving a plan in the channel hall of the gym, he might have faced a court-martial, but now it’s now become a matter of policy this administration is going to announce war plans in advance, it only increases risks.”

(more…)

On first review this makes no sense. Why would any military officials give so much detailed and advanced notice of the intents to attack ISIS in Mosul Iraq?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from Islamic State militants will likely begin in April or May and will involve about 12 Iraqi brigades, or between 20,000 and 25,000 troops, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday.

Laying out details of the expected Mosul operation for the first time, the official from U.S. Central Command said five Iraqi Army brigades will soon go through coalition training in Iraq to prepare for the mission. Those five would make up the core fighting force that would launch the attack, but they would be supplemented by three smaller brigades serving as reserve forces, along with three Peshmerga brigades who would contain the Islamic State fighters from the north and west. (more…)

As CEO of the Grievance Industry, and also head of all law enforcement, Attorney General Eric Holder threatens to file a lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department if the department does not stop holding black residents accountable to laws.

Holder is essentially threatening to try and get a “consent decree” established which would require the Ferguson Police to have complete Civil Rights Division oversight for the duration of the decree.
If Holder proceeds, and the Ferguson PD does not back down, you can expect the DOJ to use the tenuous legal concept of “Disparate Impact” to advance their charges. (more…)

Putting former Harvard University Professor Ashton Carter in charge of the U.S. Military for the last two years of President Obama’s tenure will show what happens when a person with ZERO military experience becomes Defense Secretary.

Carter is an academic policy wonk of the same mindset and world view as Samantha Power (now UN Ambassador and wife of former Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein). That comparative will become more evident as the next two years progress. There is nothing about Aston Carter, nor his individual opinion of the military, which would lend a person to believe there is any inherent qualification which would benefit the Defense Department.
To the contrary, Carter should be fully anticipated to weaken the Military, through policy, in the same way that Samantha Power has influenced foreign policy to diminish U.S. influence globally. He begins the process immediately with a decision to have a civilian, non-military, spokesperson represent the public face of the Pentagon. (more…)

Ansar al-Sharia was one of the benefactor al-Qaeda organizations in Libya 2011 who benefited from the weapons given by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N Ambassador Susan Rice, and White House advisor Samantha Power. Clinton, Rice and Power convinced President Obama to intervene in Libya and support “the rebels”.

The “rebels” were later admitted to be members of Ansar al-Sharia in the coastal region of Benghazi toward Derna, in Eastern Libya.  In the summer of 2011 this was one faction within what was called the ‘Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’ (LIFG).
After several years of turmoil and factional fighting, in 2014 the LIFG rebranded -and united- most of the Libya Islamist groups under the term “Libyan Dawn”. Libyan Dawn was the name used as the civil war raged and by mid-summer Tripoli came under Islamist control.
In December of 2014 Libyan Dawn, aka LIFG, aka Ansar al-Sharia, aka Hillary’s Rebels declared allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS). It was this group, now considered ISIS in Libya who executed the Coptic Christians last weekend. (more…)

The White House released a statement yesterday regarding the brutal murder of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. Within the statement itself you’ll note the absence of the word “Christian” which continues the administration’s avoidance narrative:

WHITE HOUSE – The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens in Libya by ISIL-affiliated terrorists.  We offer our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Egyptian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens.  ISIL’s barbarity knows no bounds.  It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity.  This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region, including the murders of dozens of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai, which only further galvanizes the international community to unite against ISIL.

(more…)