The Democrat Senate committee reviewed more than 6 million pages of top-secret CIA documents and found that the architect of the interrogation program was a retired Air Force psychologist named James Mitchell, an agency contractor who — according to news reports — personally waterboarded alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Senate report does not identify Mitchell by name.
Mitchell has a signed a non-disclosure agreement with the CIA and was unable to discuss his alleged role in the agency’s enhanced interrogation program, but VICE News met up with him in suburban Florida to discuss the Senate’s report and one of the darkest chapters of the war on terror. This is the first time Mitchell has ever appeared on camera:

A really insightful paper written about the current status of Kobane Syria.  Quite a remarkable glimpse into the status, thoughts, hopes and prayers of those who are there. I hope you find it both reflective and enlightening…

Planting Trees In Kobane

After two months of restless nights, we are all finally starting to sleep a little better.  The siege of Kobane is drawing to a close in the form of an historic and complete victory for the towns undaunted defenders.

The Daesh gangsters are exhausted, demoralised, and cut off from their supply routes.  The road from Kobane to Raqqa is severed now, and the 200 or so daeshbags remaining in southern and eastern Kobane are short of food and ammunition, and their morale is failing.

Those remaining have descended into the sewers “literally, on this occasion”. (more…)

Sunday, December 7th, 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him.
When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The President told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.
(more…)

President Obama made the right call.  President Obama approved the best chance to rescue Luke Somers.  Period.

There are voices angry at the outcome because unknown to the rescue unit there was a second hostage, held by al-Qaeda terrorists, in the same building.  A South African hostage was also being held with Somers – both died as a result of the terrorists shooting them as the rescue was underway. 
Reports are now saying, according to the employer of the South African hostage, Pierre Korkie, he was scheduled to be released as ransom had been paid.
Obviously the outcome is tragic.  However, regardless of outcome, President Obama made the right decision.  The details are outlined below. 
(CNN) — Al Qaeda militants killed two Western hostages in Yemen — an American photojournalist and a South African who was employed by an aid group — during a raid conducted by U.S. forces, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday.
President Barack Obama ordered Friday’s mission to save the American, Luke Somers, because “there were compelling reasons to believe Mr. Somers’ life was in imminent danger,” Hagel said.
A U.S. official said that during the raid, one of the terrorists ran inside the compound and shot the hostages.
A video of Somers pleading for his life was released earlier this week by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The U.S. was given three days to comply with unspecified demands made by the terror group; that time was due to run out.
During the raid, the militants with AQAP also killed South African hostage Pierre Korkie, according to his employer, the relief group Gift of the Givers. (more…)

Thoughts and prayers for his family.

The media reported recently on an al-Qaeda video threatening to kill U.S. hostage Luke Somers in Yemen.  Early this morning his family announced he was killed in a failed rescue attempt:

CAIRO (AP)– The sister of American photojournalist Luke Somers says he has been killed in a failed rescue attempt in Yemen.

Lucy Somers told The Associated Press on Saturday that she learned of her 33-year-old brother’s death from FBI agents. There was no immediate comment from Washington.

Lucy Somers said:  “We ask that all of Luke’s family members be allowed to mourn in peace.”

Luke Somers was abducted in September 2013 in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. This week, the Pentagon confirmed it launched an earlier failed raid to rescue him. (link)

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson is rumored to be on a very short list of people being considered to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
So with Secretary Jeh Johnson in mind, here’s two aspects toward that end which both align with the proposition, yet you won’t find them openly discussed amid the pages of the Pretorian guard media.

FIRST ISSUE: Back in 2011 when President Obama was s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g his constitutional boundaries and taking us to {*cough*} war in Libya, via the non-war, war, position and R2P -I digress-there was this pesky little fact of executive overreach with a non-declared war, and Obama’s refusal to request approval from congress.   Perhaps you remember it.
At the time, June 2011, a little known attorney existed inside the Pentagon, Jeh Johnson.  Johnson was the legal counsel for the Pentagon, and as a consequence was also part of the administration’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).   Jeh Johnson was part of the OLC who told President Stompy Feet his executive foundation for military engagement was illegal.
(more…)

No surprise really.  The laziest, and doofiest, defense secretary ever – just got axed by the laziest president ever.  Go Figure.

Chuckie’s greatest hits:  “ISIS, ISIS Baby” –  “GITMO 5 All You Brother” – “The World Is All Splodey” – “Love Letters From Rand Paul” – “Me and My Friends of Hamas” – “What Dis Confirmation?” – “I Really Didn’t Want This Job“.
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and a beleaguered national security team that has struggled to stay ahead of an onslaught of global crises.
The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel’s resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary — the sole Republican on his national security team — to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said. (more…)

The Mike Rogers/Dutch Ruppersberger report was predictable in the extreme; anyone who has researched the surrounding issues of the Benghazi backstory knew to expect it:

…”with Rep Trey Gowdy’s Chairmanship of a Select Committee on Benghazi anticipated to start up again in January, and with House Intel Chair Rogers exiting from congress, the authors of this report hold a motive to undercut Gowdy’s investigation into the missing 2011/2012 intelligence oversight that would normally be part of Rogers/Ruppersberger’s responsibility.”…

In addition, the media skipping gleefully in circles while waving the Rogers/Ruppersberger report, was similarly predictable – as seen here in this recent CNN interview.

However, despite how much the media want to avoid the sunlight there are too many people who understand the motives of Mike Rogers, including his own financial stake in the Benghazi security contract. Here’s a great op-ed outlining some of that understanding. It is well worth reading: (more…)

The Purge Mentality Comes To Saint Louis

Many people are alarmed that the FBI has announced an expectation for “extremist protesters” with a specific intent for violence in/around Saint Louis/Ferguson Missouri.
However, this is not the first time this year such an alarming declaration has been made.  After the ABC article spotlighting the Ferguson/Saint Louis unrest, we’ll share the earlier episode everyone seems to forget:

SAINT LOUIS – As the nation waits to hear whether a Missouri police officer will face charges for killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the FBI is warning law enforcement agencies across the country that the decision “will likely” lead some extremist protesters to threaten and even attack police officers or federal agents.
Peaceful protesters could be caught in the middle, and electrical facilities or water treatment plants could also become targets. In addition, so-called “hacktivists” like the group “Anonymous” could try to launch cyber-attacks against authorities. (more…)

BREAKING NEWS: New ISIS video purportedly shows beheading of American hostage http://t.co/3pyj3Tc8fU

— Fox News Alert (@foxnewsalert) November 16, 2014

Before becoming an aid worker, Kassig was an Army Ranger. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007, and later honorably discharged for medical reasons.

The video shows a black-clad man with a British accent standing over a severed head.

“This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country,” the man says to the camera. “Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American army doesn’t have much to say.”

Kassig is a humanitarian aid worker who converted to Islam while in captivity. He also changed his name from Peter to Abdul-Rahman. He was en route to Deir Ezzour, in Syria, while working for his aid organzation when he was first “detained.”
[…]  The new video is both longer and far more gruesome than others released by the terror organization. (more…)