MOSCOW — Declaring that Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine, President Petro O. Poroshenko on Thursday canceled a planned visit to Turkey and convened a meeting of the national security council to focus on the “marked aggravation of the situation” in the southeast of his country.
This represents Obama’s foreign policy in a nutshell. In 2012 we armed ISIS in Syria with the goal to destroy President Assad. In 2014 we are giving President Assad the intelligence information to destroy ISIS, and the weapons we gave them to kill him.
(Hat Tip WeaselZippers) You just can’t make this stuff up.
WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. has begun reconnaissance flights over Syria and is sharing intelligence about jihadist deployments with Damascus through Iraqi and Russian channels, sources told AFP on Tuesday.
“The cooperation has already begun and the United States is giving Damascus information via Baghdad and Moscow,” one source close to the issue said on condition of anonymity.
The comments came a day after Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Syria was willing to work with the international community against the jihadist Islamic State group, and U.S. officials said they were poised to carry out surveillance flights over Syria. (more…)
The “rebels” who benefited from Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton’s R2P intervention in Libya are now in control of the primary international airport in Tripoli.
In essence this means al-Qaeda now has access to internationally capable 747’s. Um, well, heads’ up.
LIBYA – Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli’s battered international airport after many days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.
The claim followed a setback the previous night when a mystery warplane raided Islamist positions, killing at least 10 fighters, a Fajr Libya spokesman said.
If independent sources confirm the airport has changed hands, it would be a major defeat for the nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli who have held the airport since the fall of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: “Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport.” (read more)
Harf, Let me clear it up for you.
The White House leaked it.
Why ? Because they were petrified of the political optics of contrast. The Obama administration had just used the excuse, “by any means possible” to trade the release of the Gitmo5 terrorists for Private Bergdahl. The White House understood the optic of an American hostage being killed as retaliation for military strikes against ISIL as a risk of the newly created Obama reality – negotiating with terrorists.
The White House leaked the rescue effort in a feeble attempt to show they did try something.
Well, if that’s true – ya might want to rethink that whole concept of “strategy”, no?
President Obama’s entire ideological outlook and world view is born amid the kitchens, coffee tables, and social organizations of his life. Together with his compadre’s they view the Gaza conflict through the prism of righteous protests against U.S. engagements in Vietnam.
Bill Ayers famously views armed opposition to the U.S. government as a patriotic and loyal endeavor – what’s a few local bombs intended to do if not to prove a point. The rockets from Gaza are no more radical in the mind of the radical left than Ayers pentagon bombing of another similarly oppressive entity, the United States.
But something happens at that very specific juncture where the presentation of Hope and Fundamental Change meets the more brutal reality of consequence. (more…)
President Barack Obama pledged during the 2012 campaign, and since, that he will not let Iran develop nuclear weapons. This is one of the potentially broken promises that can have massive geopolitical consequences.
Last Friday he seemed almost resigned toward that end:
Put this into the memory file that holds evidence of why the White House was so totally disconnected when they decided to arm Libyan and Syrian al-Qaeda rebels in 2011.
Here’s John Brennan in June of 2011 about three months after the White House began arming the Libyan “rebels”:
“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics. I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”
~John Brennan, White House Senior Advisor to The President (for counterterrorism and national security) June 29th 2011
EGYPT – A court in Egypt has dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing.
The ruling will effectively prevent the banned Islamist movement from formally participating in parliamentary elections expected later this year.
The government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group in December.
It was accused of orchestrating a wave of violence to destabilise the country after the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.
The Brotherhood has denied any connection to the jihadist militants based in the Sinai Peninsula who have killed hundreds of security personnel.
At the same time, more than 1,400 people have been killed and 16,000 detained in a crackdown by the authorities on Mr Morsi’s supporters.
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, a former military chief who was elected head of state in May, has vowed to wipe out the group. (more…)