Turkish President Recep Erdogan is the ultimate ‘wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing’ when it comes to hiding his Muslim Brotherhood affiliation from western media.   The majority of the media, is essentially complicit and willfully blind in allowing his transparent disguise to remain unexposed.

The Muslim Brotherhood is ISIS.  Period.  Trying to parse distinctions is like trying to separate the Occupy Wall Street affiliates from the Anarchists’ amid the Democrats.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish jets struck camps belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, authorities said Saturday, the first strike since a 2013 peace deal as Ankara also bombed ISIS positions in Syria.

The strikes in Iraq targeted the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, whose affiliates have been effective in battling ISIS. The strikes further complicate the U.S.-led war against the extremists, which has relied on Kurdish forces making gains in both Iraq and Syria. (more…)

Sunlight is slowly creeping over the canopy of the treetops….

~ The Benghazi Brief ~

ISTANBUL — Turkish news agencies say that authorities have arrested two Georgian citizens who tried to enter the Turkey with radioactive material, including cesium.

State-run Anadolu Agency says a woman identified only as N.K., aged 43, and a man, I.A., 40, were arrested Friday at a border gate in northeastern Turkey. The agency said they entered by foot from Georgia and were acting suspiciously. A search found 1.2 kilos of the cesium.

Authorities later detained a 60-year-old Turk, and all three were brought to court.

The material was delivered to the Turkish Atomic Energy Board. (more…)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, aka President Obama’s BFF, has been working earnestly trying to recreate the Ottoman Empire with himself as the proclaimed head of the Islamist Empire.

Toward that end Erdogan built himself a grand and opulent palace, aligned himself with ISIS radicals, and provided a safe-harbor for exiled Muslim Brotherhood leadership after Qatar kicked them out for advocating extremist violence.  Yes, even Qatar, home of the GITMO 5, realized the Brotherhood leadership were essentially ISIS sycophants.  However, Erdogan viewed them as ideological brethren deserving of more than a little sympathy.
Erdogan is ‘all-in’ toward his goals of recreating a modern Ottoman Empire.  Nothing was going to stand in his way; even if it meant killing journalists who were exposing his extremist plans.  Erdogan even jails people who make fun of him, and shut down Twitter just because it posed a threat to his power. However, today he suffered a significant, well, actually a devastating, setback.  (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama will not use the word “genocide” to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians in his annual statement commemorating the historic atrocity later this month.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes informed an official from the Armenian National Congress of America of the decision in a meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
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• *Greece has signaled its willingness to default on its upcoming IMF payment
• *Sets in place a plan to shift from Euros to a new issue of Greek controlled Drachmas
• *Tspiras boards a plane for Moscow
• *Seeks alternative creditors in Russia and China
• *A “Grexit” would be the de facto end of NATO and shift alliances in the Aegean from Europe to Russia
• *IMF formally withdraws staff from Athens….

Greece arrives at an existential fork in the road:  which way to turn? Continue to go West or strike out for an unknown path heading East ——————————————————————————————————————————–

The far-Left Syriza party of Greece, contrary to assertions of the European Monetary Union (EMU) has not agreed to further “austerity” measures, but has decided to double down on its threats to default on its IMF payments and align itself with Russia.

The Telegraph explains some of the backstory for Syriza’s popularity and rejection of “austerity” measures that don’t include significant debt write-offs (forgiveness).

“…One might righteously protest at what amounts to open blackmail by Mr Tsipras, deeming such conduct to be a primary violation of EU club rules. Yet this is to ignore what has been done to Greece over the past four years, and why the Greek people are so angry…

An apartment building for “middle class” Athens residents, in a “decent” part of Athens, 1 block from our 4 star hotel  (Jan 2015).  According to local social workers, 50% of the population of Greece has migrated from the countryside to Athens in an effort to find work and pool resources with other like-impoverished family members. (Click to embiggen detail)

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Al Nusra is a front for, and has openly aligned with, al-Qaeda in Syria – which is essentially ISIS.

It is not a secret that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has tried to deliver the maximum benefit to ISIS (in Northern Syria) in direct opposition to the Kurds who are trying to formulate their own independent nation of Kurdistan. Erdogan views Kurdistan as a proxy for Irans’ growing sphere of influence.

Erdogan opposes Iran for many ideological reasons, but arguably most of all because he sees Iran’s growing influence as a threat to his own political ambitions to lead a new Ottoman Empire.

In my opinion Erdogan views his envisioned construct as most possible with a constituency of: ISIS, The Muslim Brotherhood, Al Nusra (al-Qaeda) and various other segments of Sunni Islam including the Palestinian Authority, vis-à-vis Hamas. Erdogan, like Obama, has more grand aspirations than his own territory – all of his prior behavior aligns with this perspective.

So it comes as no surprise to see Turkey’s Erdogan take the opportunity provided by the distractions of both Yemen and Iraq, to act against one of Iran’s benefactors in Syria, namely Assad. (more…)

It is interesting, and not incidental, to see CNNi (CNN International) lead the shift in leftist talking points about Egyptian President Fattah el-Sisi by focusing on their collectivist opinion that el-Sisi is “a hardliner”.

However, actions -what CNN would like to avoid- of Sisi speak louder than the CNN words. Sisi has shown over the past two years his willingness to insure minority protections within Egypt yet he has simultaneously taken a zero tolerance position toward Islamic extremism.

The Muslim Brotherhood, as a political construct, is the extremist bane of all mid-East moderates. The Muslim Brotherhood is essentially the larger construct within ISIS; and yet the Muslim Brotherhood is discussed on leftist news media as if they are not a terrorist entity.

Because of the frequency and scope of this specific media narrative it simply cannot be coincidental; someone is driving this false narrative.

CAIRO (AP) – Arab League member nations formally announced on Sunday an agreement to form a joint military force. While details of how such a force would actually operate remain thin, the agreement is a telling sign of a new determination among Saudi Arabia, Egypt and their allies to intervene aggressively in regional hotspots, whether against Islamic militants or Iran-backed groups.

(more…)

We often say ‘we accept the world as it is rather than as we wish it to be’. Because to do anything else only creates frustration from projecting our own perspectives, dreams, wishes and hopes into a situation that may not -heck, often doesn’t- evolve to provide a better outcome.
Today, Susan Rice delivered a speech outlining the Obama administration’s 2015 National Security Strategy. The full 35pg pdf. is available here and below is the introduction by President Obama himself.

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Quite a significant difference from President Obama’s strongly worded letters....

However unfortunate the horrifying origin, this is actually a very fortuitous opportunity for King Abdullah (pictured middle and below) to go full wolverine against ISIS.  Anyone who follows Mid-East events well know the next target of ISIS was going to be Jordan, it is merely a matter of time. 
The question of ISIS attacking Jordan is not “if”, but rather “when”, and ISIS has the full support of Turkey’s Erdogan toward that end.
We had predicted ISIS to launch cross border attacks against Jordan within the next year, and we are absolutely certain President Obama would not lift a finger to assist.  The only military support Jordan could expect would be from Egypt who has vowed to assist if Jordan was attacked.  That pledge from Egypt is part of the reason ISIS has now expanded its operations into Libya and the Sinai region. 
ISIS leadership know they need several front’s to keep Egypt occupied hence the recent alignment with Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood and Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.  King Abdullah knows the window of opportunity to launch attacks against ISIS -and not incur problems from tenuous extremist internal political issues- is right now. 
(Reuters) – Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed a “relentless” war against Islamic State on their own territory on Wednesday in response to a video published by the hard-line group showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive in a cage.
Jordan hanged two Iraqi jihadists, one a woman, on Wednesday and vowed to intensify military action against Islamic State.
“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” state television quoted the king as saying during a security meeting. (more…)