If you listen to the answers given by Leon Panetta in this interview regarding the CIA talking points you will note his discomfort at O’Reilly attaching General Petraeus to the Benghazi talking points.

Panetta continues to say “the CIA” talking points when pushed, because he knows Petraeus did not construct them, Deputy CIA Director Mike Morell did.
It was Mike Morell and Ben Rhodes who formulated the political strategy Susan Rice was sent forth to sell. That’s why Petraeus became a risk prior to the November 2012 election and needed to be removed. That’s why Petraeus’s relationship with Paula Broadwell was leveraged for his removal.
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When it mattered, when it could have made a difference, he was willfully blind and silent.
Now, post facto, he’s filled with President Obama should have’s…

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(@03:45 Video) John Kerry: […] One of the issues that we’re going to discuss today, no doubt, is the situation in Hong Kong. And as China knows, we support universal suffrage in Hong Kong accordant with the Basic Law, and we believe in open society with the highest possible degree of autonomy and governed by rule of law is essential for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity. And we have high hopes that the Hong Kong authorities will exercise restraint and respect for the protestors’ right to express their views peacefully.

(@09:09 Video) Minister Wang: […] Secretary Kerry mentioned Hong Kong. The Chinese Government has very firmly and clearly stated its position. Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs. All countries should respect China’s sovereignty. And this is also a basic principle governing international relations. I believe for any country, for any society, no one will allow those illegal acts that violate public order. That’s the situation in the United States, and that’s the same situation in Hong Kong. We believe that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s government has the capability to properly handle the current situation in accordance with the law.
(Full Transcript HERE)

Reports are now surfacing that ISIS has an advantage formerly and exclusively held by Western military – night vision and laser targeting technology.  Gee, I wonder where ISIS would have acquired such tactical advantage?

Western media continue to use the term “coalition airstrikes” despite the fact not a single Arab country has assisted an attack against ISIS (in Syria) since September 21st – the first day of airstrikes (political optics). 

(Reuters) – Islamic State raised its flag on a building on the outskirts of the Syrian frontier town of Kobani on Monday after an assault of almost three weeks, but the town’s Kurdish defenders said its fighters had not reached the city centre.

A black flag belonging to Islamic State was visible from across the Turkish border atop a four-storey building close to the scene of some of the most intense clashes in recent days.
The radical al Qaeda offshoot has been battling to seize the predominantly Kurdish town after taking over large swathes of territory in northern Syria and Iraq in recent months.
Air strikes by American and Gulf state warplanes have failed to halt its advance on Kobani, which it has besieged from three sides and pounded with heavy artillery. (more…)

The insufferable Leon Panetta has a new book revealing how President Obama, Denis McDonough, Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes constructed every encountered policy, including defense, through a domestic political lens.  Duh! 
This short-sighted and naïve world view is why the foreign policies of the Obama administration -from Libya and the support for al-Qaeda, to Iran and the almost certain nuclear bomb they will acquire- have been catastrophic in consequence. But it really doesn’t matter now does it?

The value in Panetta’s public push back -against the amateur crowd occupying the White House- would have been important when those disastrous policies were being debated, planned and executed. But now, not so much – the Rubicon has been crossed, and hundreds of U.S. military have been killed.
It should also be remembered that Panetta the Prog is responsible for constructing ‘Operation Zero Footprint’ with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. A State Dept. and CIA operation which eventually led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Neither Clinton nor Panetta have been held to account.
(Via Washington Post) Tell-all memoirs can be tough when they actually, well, tell all. But it would be hard to surpass the shot that Leon Panetta, President Obama’ s former CIA director and secretary of defense, takes at his former boss and the White House foreign policy team in his new book: “Worthy Fights.” (more…)

If anyone has sources in Turkey, or knowledge of current dynamics in Turkey, or insight we would really like to hear from you.
The intents, inclinations, sympathies and motivations of Recep Erdogan are brutally obvious. What’s lesser known is how far the underpinning of Turkish politics is willing to allow his ideology to advance. After all, Erdogan is one man – leading one party – and there are opposition forces within Turkey which could, if pressured, become a danger to him.

Our current working theory, given known players, ideology and research into actual behaviors, is this:
The ISIS trade for the 49 Turkish hostages was made without payment. So what would the Quid-pro-quo involve?
Given all of the sympathies and tendencies two things are obvious. Erdogan is essentially more adverse to Bashir Assad then he is to ISIS, and ISIS is politically savvy – far more so than al-Qaeda was, and more in line with the political expertise of The Brotherhood (founded in 1928).
Given that, would the quid pro quo involve an acceptance of, and unwillingness to stop (per se’), the ISIS driven exodus of Kurdish refugees upon the nation of Turkey? If so, how far -and how many refugees- would Turkey allow ISIS to drive into the border region, before Turkey would view the inbound masses as a risk to the societal constructs and domestic objectives of Erdogan? (more…)

Having recently given safe haven to the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood terrorists exiled from Qatar, Turkey’s President Erdogan delivered a speech at the United Nations in defense of the Sunni extremists ISIS and The Brotherhood – while simultaneously attacking Egypt and Fattah El-Sisi.

Let there be no doubt the NATO member Turkey is not only willing to stand on the sidelines, but is, in actuality, supporting the Sunni extremists with direct support (financial and military).  Erdogan is also supporting with non-action, such as refusing to allow coalition forces to use NATO bases in Turkey.   The reasoning is not complex Erdogan is supporting his ideological ally ISIS against his arch nemesis, Syria’s Bashir Assad.
To deflect attention away from his actual support of ISIS Erdogan chooses another target for his attack.
Defending his friend, jailed and former Egyptian President – Muslim Brotherhood leader – Mohammed Morsi, President Erdogan removed the sheep’s cloak, yet most of the western media avoid peering into the dark eyes of the wolf laying underneath.
Perhaps the media avoid because it is too brutal a reality to admit, or perhaps because Western media suffers from a severe case of willful blindness, you will find few news outlets actually getting to the heart of the reasoning for Turkey’s unwillingness to support the removal of The Islamic State of Iraq and Syrian, ISIS.
Erdogan supports the overall ISIS objective. President Erdogan hates Bashir Assad beyond all else; and the Sunni ISIS methods, while concerning, are, in his mind, effective. (more…)

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron does an effective job describing the danger of “extremism“, not just “violent extremism“, all extremism. (Cameron Speech Here)
However, anyone interested in actually following, researching and analyzing international action against radical Islamist extremism, must also note that Egypt’s President Fatah El-Sisi is about two years ahead in confronting the extremist ideology.

Almost everything both Obama and Cameron have stated in the past month can be viewed curiously against their unwillingness to hold such public views while El-Sisi was pushing back against extremism, and doing something about it.

~ At the root of all extremism lies the fertilizer of hatred ~

Hatred is an outcome of evil manifested.   Readers and visitors to the Treehouse community know full well we have watched Egypt intently. We continue to share that no international leader has done more to confront ALL the tentacles of radicalism than Fattah El-Sisi.
Yet he has also been the recipient of marginalization – at best, from both Obama and Cameron; and significant western political admonishment.   Through the past two years Sisi has consistently carried out a challenging mission to provide secular stability not only to Egypt, but as a direct consequence, also to the entire region. (more…)

I would like to thank the only other website/blog -I have found- wise enough to connect the dots, and brave enough to talk about them.
Before doing so I must share a daily prayer we have repeated for two years:

Father please afford Your strength and protection; guide our naked journey; sharpen our insight; strengthen our influence; accept our willingness; be confident in our faith; afford us the ability of unguarded vision; and deliver us to the highest place where we may look over the horizon.
Guide us there to see, and remove our fear and nervousness so that we may accept and bear witness – Amen.

From a position of faith we have traced all the connections we can find, and we are now beginning to notice we are not alone.
There are others who have followed their own journey, from separate directions, and are destined to arrive at the same overlook.

SEE HERE