Turkey – […] Kerry has been touring the Middle East to build support for President Barack Obama’s plan, announced on Wednesday, to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier to defeat Islamic State Sunni fighters, who control swathes of both countries.
On Thursday, Kerry won backing for a “coordinated military campaign” against Islamic State from 10 Arab countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
But it remains far from clear what role individual nations will play and while he confirmed France’s commitment to use military force in Iraq, Kerry declined to say whether France would join a similar campaign in Syria.
That follows conflicting reports in key ally Britain over its potential role, with Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday saying he has not ruled out military action in Syria after his foreign secretary said Britain would not take part in any air strikes there. (more…)
When you read this, sip slowly, dust off the way-back machine, and think about the 13 Hours in Benghazi show you might have just watched air on Fox. Yeah, I know, I can sense the puzzlement – but stay with it….
The question posed to the Tree House was: Why are they selecting a retired General John Allen, instead of a current officer?
Deep breath: This White House uses personal leverage to their advantage like no other before it. Example #1: Where’s Bowe Bergdahl? Example #2: What ever happened to Ahmed Abu Khattala the ‘recently’ captured head of the Benghazi attack ? See… you had to think about it. This White House swamps us so much we forget to follow-up…..
There is a risk to the political optics of fighting ISIS. Consequently, this administration needs a competent general Denis McDonough can control, rely on, and possibly bypass the Pentagon. So who can they leverage? Yeah, that General John Allen.
Fire Up The Way-Back Machine To Summer 2012 !!
Jill and Dr. Scott Kelley lived in the Tampa / St. Pete area. They were/are active in the military community with support for military families.
The Kelley’s do numerous fundraisers etc. and when Petraeus was assigned to station in Tampa the Kelley’s hosted a meet-n-greet with Holly and David Petraeus.
Mr and Mrs. Petraeus became friends with Mr. and Mrs. Kelley.
So mid-summer 2012 Jill Kelley, a Petraeus family friend, began receiving odd and harrassing e-mails about her relationship with CIA director General David Petraeus:
“More like, ‘Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch,’” according to the source, who was until recently at the highest levels of the intelligence community and prefers not to be identified by name.
Jill Kelley then reaches out to a family friend, who is by profession, in the FBI. Kelly asks if these unsourced e-mails reach the level of cyber-stalking. (more…)
The State Department and White House avoid the word “war” because they’ve already declared the “war on terror” over, so naturally they cannot take military advice to combat a terror threat…
WASHINGTON DC – As he laid out his strategy to combat the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, President Obama rejected the “best military advice” of his top military commander in the Middle East.
Quoting two U.S. military officials, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said “that his best military advice was to send a modest contingent of American troops, principally Special Operations forces, to advise and assist Iraqi army units in fighting the militants.”
Austin’s recommendation was taken to the White House by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. The White House rejected CENTCOM’s “advise and assist” contingent due to concerns about placing U.S. ground forces in a frontline role. (more…)
As previously stated, there is no ideological distance between President Obama and Recep Erdogan. Absent of plummeting polling numbers, which handcuff his ability to continue domestic agenda items, President Obama would NOT be fighting ISIS. For seven years we have watched the relationship between Erdogan and Obama as it flourished into a bromance of Sunni favoritism. As expected Turkey will not participate in attacks against it’s ideological compatriots, ISIS. Makes you wonder why Secretary John Kerry is even bothering with the trip. TURKEY – Turkey will refuse to allow a U.S.-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.
“Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will entirely concentrate on humanitarian operations,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The decision echoes the country’s refusal to allow the U.S. to station 60,000 troops in Turkey in 2003 to invade Iraq from the north, which triggered a crisis between the two allies. (more…)
Turkey wants to see Syrian Head Bashir Assad removed from power. Turkey made the decision in 2012 to put it’s full support behind the Syrian Rebels who evolved into what is now ISIS. These facts will not easily disappear just because they are uncomfortable admissions for the current U.S. administration. Turkey, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not a free western secular nation, nor do they draw distinct seperation from ISIS objectives in that regard. The same Turkey who would not participate in the rescue of the Yazidi people in the Northern Iraq mountains, is the same Turkey who will not commit to the elimination of ISIS. Western media attempt to obfuscate the NATO country of responsibility under the auspices of their reluctance being attached to Turkish prisoners being held captive by ISIS fighters. But honest reviews of the behavior of Turkey in relationship to Syria would evidence a greater alignment with ISIS than any moderate Islamic entity. It was Turkey who coordinated the arming of the ISIS jihadists in 2012/2013 and coordinated the flow of U.S. weapons in that regard. This ideological alignment is why Turkey refused to join a communique with Arab nations to distance themselves from ISIS and the Sunni extremists, and it is not without notice that Erdogan and President Obama hold similar views and internal dispositions. JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — Arab nations vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to confront and ultimately destroy the Sunni extremist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The promise came after the nations’ foreign ministers met here behind closed doors with Secretary of State John Kerry.
A joint communiqué issued by the United States and 10 Arab states endorsed a broad strategy to stop the flow of volunteers to ISIS, curtail its financing and provide aid to communities that had been “brutalized” by the militants. (more…)
Tonight at 9:00pm Eastern President Obama will deliver a speech to the nation outlining his strategy to defeat a rising Islamic terror threat known as ISIS. Oddly some of the speech has already been leaked by the White House: UPDATE – FULL SPEECH VIDEO:
“With a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.
I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.
Rather, it is a “counter-terrorism campaign” that “will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” he will say. It’s a strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, and is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years”.
It was only a few weeks ago, August 9th, when President Obama told the New York Times it was/is “a fantasy” to support “moderates” within Syria and expect them to be able to defeat radical Sunni Islamists. Now, it appears, he is reversing course and saying the previous “fantasy” will be his specific approach. (more…)
√ Step One – Tell New York Times : “It’s always been a fantasy,” he said, “this idea that we could provide some light arms or even more sophisticated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth.”
√ Step Ten – Construct marketing plan to sell the previously dismissed approach. We will now “provide some light arms or even more sophisticated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth.” in Syria.
√ Step Eleven – Call in congressional leadership to inform them his MSNBC team has “got this” plan, are ready to sell it, and he doesn’t need congress. (link)
Step Twelve – Tell American electorate in prime-time speech to the nation how providing arms to the “moderate Syrian forces” will insure success in Syria.
The key issue is not that ISIS is using U.S. made weapons. Given ISIS geographic conquests it would be expected, vis-à-vis Iraq, they were able to capture weapons and armament. No, it’s the *type* of weapons, specifically boxed M16’s, which identifies the covert shipments to Syria we outlined within the Benghazi Brief.
In 2012 those small arms were shipped to Syria as a result of President Obama’s authorization. Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing the financing, Turkey provided an initial storage base near Adana where the nerve center for supporting what became ISIS was set up. The UN peacekeeper Kofi Annan was pulled out of Syria, and U.S. weapons were poured in.
(Via Raw Story) Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.
The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.
The report said the jihadists disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”.(more…)
Not to put too fine a point on it, yet knowing President Polling is going to deliver a magnanimous prime-time speech in a few days, the Syrian conversation with Chuck Todd needs, or, well, deserves a little e-x-p-a-n-s-i-o-n.
During a rather revealing part of the interview between Chuck Todd and President Obama the specific issue of Syria came up surrounding ISIS. Viewers should note in the entire dialogue it was not Obama who brought up Syria, it was Chuck Todd. (Video @9:20)
Mr. Todd even seemed a little perplexed with having to do it; albeit reluctantly, as if he knew he needed to. If Chuck Todd’s new role on MTP is to attempt credibility retention he held no choice, he had to bring up the geography. Todd specifically needed to ask, because Dear Leader avoided mentioning Syria throughout the previous ten minutes:
@09:25 President Obama: “the boots on the ground have to be Syrian”.
Chuck Todd interjects “but WHO”?
President Obama has publicly committed himself to the removal of Syrian head Basher Assad. His public proclamations to Assad’s removal make getting cooperation from the Syrian National Army a little disingenuous amid the option scale.
Additionally we know the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is little more than a corrupted fractured contingent of ne’er-do-wells, most of which defected to join ISIS. And then we have Dear Leader’s previous statements saying to the New York Times’ Tom Freidman it is “fantasy” to think “an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth” could battle “a well-armed state backed by Russia, backed by Iran, [and] a battle-hardened Hezbollah.”
So naturally Chuck Todd had to ask the question: Whose boots does Obama plan on supporting?
To wit POTUS puts three groups on the table: The Syrian national army, ISIS, and some weirdly defined “Moderate Opposition” – and then says we should support the moderate opposition who are “pinched between the Syrian Army and ISIS“.
STOP
{{Insert Scratching Record Sound}}}
Let’s just imagine a REAL REPORTER was sitting in that seat across from POTUS. (more…)
