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…)
This Brief has been updated to include the newly spotlighted research on Syria and ISIL. Most importantly the previously unknown “Second Presidential Finding Memo” to the CIA in 2012 specifically directed to arm/aid ISIL in Syria. The new information from the month before the Benghazi attack explains the motive of the Turkish delegation toward Chris Stevens.
Grab a cup of coffee and you’ll see how the Trey Gowdy special committee is really a waste of time. There is no benefit to be gained from house hearings that will never be allowed to disclose the operational aspects of covert CIA intelligence ops.
We know from the Bret Baier interview with Hillary Clinton that she was physically located at her 7th floor office in Washington DC on the night of the attack. Unfortunately we also know during the November 2012 Thanksgiving holiday a mysterious fire took place in that building. Well, actually directly above her exact office – cause undetermined.
A “fire” which preceded an unfortunate slip and fall for the Secretary, resulting in a concussion, which led to the discovery of a blood clot, that ultimately delayed her congressional testimony before a Senate Hearing into the events of the night in question.
We know the Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.
We also know of a Second Presidential Finding Memo authorizing additional CIA covert action in 2012, this time in Syria. However, unlike the 2011 Libyan operation we do not know the operational name of the second action in 2012 Syria.
We know the Libyan “rebels” were positioned in two strategic places. Benghazi, and the port city of Darnah, both located in Northeastern Libya.
We know this 2011 Libyan covert operation came to be known as “Operation Zero Footprint“, and fell under the military command authority of NATO not (important to repeat), NOT, the U.S. Military. (more…)
Let’s get the McCain story out of the way first….
Back in May 2013 Republican Senator John McCain made a secret trip to Syria to talk to the forces fighting against Assad.
(Via PJ Media) Another classic from the “promise of hashtag” crowd.
During today’s State Department press briefing, deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf addressed the unfolding crisis in Iraq.
That crisis has many sources, but its chief source is ISIL. ISIL has taken hold of a large swath of northern Iraq and is killing anyone and everyone who gets in their way, or who refuses to bow to their take on Islam. Currently ISIL has about 40,000 men, women and children holed up on top of a mountain, starving them to death.
A reporter asked if there is a “confrontation to stop” ISIL’s spread.
Harf: “It’s not just a humanitarian crisis. I mean, that’s certainly a key piece of particularly what we’ve seen over the last 48 hours, certainly. But there’s a huge security challenge – if you talk about the Mosul dam, if you talk about other places.
ISIL is a threat not just because they kill innocent civilians because of their religion, but because they’re a huge security threat to the stability of certain parts of Iraq. And that’s why throughout this conflict you have seen us continue to ramp up our support and continue to look very urgently at other things we could do to help fight this threat, because at the end of the day we can help the Iraqis, but the Iraqis also have to stand up, they have to pull themselves together, with our help, because this is a threat that certainly they but no one else in the region wants to see grow any more.”
Bookmark this one for Trey Gowdy – This is like a reverse operation Zero Footprint. Egyptian military forces locate a weapons cache’ located in the upper Egyptian mountainous region near Aswan. Why this is important is several fold:
Firstly, because of their location these are most likely 500 U.S. missiles (MANPADS) and 25 Iranian Rockets – both bound for Gaza in support of Hamas.
Secondly, because most likely the U.S. provided these missiles in the former Clinton / Panetta operation “Zero Footprint” in Libya and then Syria.
So think about it. Hamas and the Brotherhood are using Clinton’s Libyan missiles against Israel to kill Jewish people. Meanwhile, Egypt -through el-Sisi- intercepts the brotherhood, destroys Gaza border tunnels, removes rockets and missiles and fights the radical islamists on both sides of the country.
Is it any wonder why Egypt tells John Kerry and President Obama to stay out. And yet pundits wonder why Egyptian’s don’t like this administration ?… go figure.
EGYPT – Egyptian security forces have seized a large number of anti-aircraft rockets and missiles in a mountainous area in the southern governorate of Aswan, state news agency MENA reported.
Forces found 25 anti-aircraft rockets and 500 missiles early on Monday in Wadi Al-Naqra, northeast of Aswan, MENA said without elaborating.
Since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last summer, Egypt has been hit by an Islamist insurrection, based mainly in the border Sinai Peninsula, adjoining Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. (more…)
(Via Pam Geller) A Filipino Christian nurse in Libya was abducted by Muslims from her home and gang raped by up to six Muslim men. According to one report:
A Filipino nurse has been kidnapped and gang-raped in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
The woman was seized outside her residence on Wednesday and taken to an unknown location, where she was sexually abused by up to six men, the Philippines’ Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose told reporters.
She was released about two hours later and taken to hospital for treatment.
The incident took place only a few days after a Filipino construction worker was beheaded, amid allegations he was killed for not being a Muslim.
Following the latest incident, the Filipino government called for the evacuation of its 13,000 citizens in Libya, which has been rocked by violence in the last few months.
A recent report explains how the Filipino government is now escorting all of its people from Libya: (more…)
EGYPT – Washington announced on Tuesday that it might join the talks between Israel and the Palestinians brokered by Egypt with the aim of reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
“I think it is possible we participate in those talks (in Cairo),” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “As for who, how or when, we still haven’t decided that,” Psaki added. (more…)
Yes, he really believes this. In this recent speech to the African Summit leaders John Kerry tells the audience Africa should not start farms to feed its people. Unreal.