John Kerry says that “President Obama has prosecuted al-Qaeda with unprecedented intensity”.   I swear; he did, he said that – we have video to prove.
Yet, al Nusra Front (aka al-Qaeda in Syria) are now considered on “our team”, and Kerry says they are the “best fighters”.   In Afghanistan, at Obama’s behest, we are now negotiating with Taliban (aka. al-Qaeda in Afghanistan).  And lest we forget Benghazi, Libya, and our dead Ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans, where not a single al-Qaeda terrorist has been held to account.
…. President Obama is prosecuting al-Qaeda?   Uh-huh.   And Chris Christie is “Conservative”.   Gotcha.

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Via Weasel Zippers – who shares: So knowing she’s a liar, knowing that she’s in bed with the “rebels”, that she put out conflicting accounts, that she whitewashed the “rebels” into a more “moderate” force, this woman is worthy, according to John McCain, of being hired to his staff.   This is so unbelievable, it makes one think that there is some greater personal underlying reason operating here.

WASHINGTON DC – Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain hired the Syria analyst in favor of U.S. intervention who was fired for fabricating her Ph.D., Foreign Policy reported.
Elizabeth O’Bagy, formerly of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), will start Monday as a legislative assistant in Sen. McCain’s office.
McCain told Foreign Policy that “Elizabeth is a talented researcher, and I have been very impressed by her knowledge and analysis in multiple briefings over the last year.” The senator’s office said they would not make any further comment on O’Bagy’s employment. (more…)

(UK Independent)  While the Assad regime in Damascus has denied responsibility for the sarin gas missiles that killed around 1,400 Syrians in the suburb of Ghouta on 21 August, information is now circulating in the city that Russia’s new “evidence” about the attack includes the dates of export of the specific rockets used and – more importantly – the countries to which they were originally sold.
They were apparently manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1967 and sold by Moscow to three Arab countries, Yemen, Egypt and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya. These details cannot be verified in documents, and Vladimir Putin has not revealed the reasons why he told Barack Obama that he knows Assad’s army did not fire the sarin missiles; but if the information is correct – and it is believed to have come from Moscow – Russia did not sell this particular batch of chemical munitions to Syria. (more…)

It’s another version of the “depends on what your definition of ‘is’, is”….

I’m still betting the decisions ultimately came from Denis McDonough and Tom Donilon during those critical hours….   both Obama and Biden were indisposed.

Washington DC – On Thursday, while denying that a “stand-down order” was given to Special Forces members ready to help Americans who were under siege at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September, one of the heads of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) admitted that a “hold in place” order was in fact given.
Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the direction given to Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col Gibson was to “hold in place” on the night of the attacks.
Gibson is the boss of Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya who had testified that a “stand down” order was given to Special Forces who wanted to help Americans who were under assault in Libya.  (continue reading)

UNITED NATIONS — Careful not to blame either side for a deadly chemical weapon attack, U.N. inspectors reported Monday that rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin had been fired from an area where Syria’s military has bases, but said the evidence could have been manipulated in the rebel-controlled stricken neighborhoods.
The U.S., Britain and France jumped on evidence in the report – especially the type of rockets, the composition of the sarin agent, and trajectory of the missiles – to declare that President Bashar Assad’s government was responsible.
Russia, Syria’s closest ally, called the investigators’ findings “deeply disturbing,” but said it was too early to draw conclusions. The Syrian government’s claims that opposition forces were responsible for the attack “cannot be simply shrugged off,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted. (more…)

Something really odd just came on the radar.    Let me begin by saying it’s probably nothing, just a mere coincidence – but odd nonetheless.
2 years ago a local library finished upgrading to computer based reference material.   As a shot in the dark I called and asked if I could buy all the reference cards, along with the wonderful little wooden 3×5 drawers they were all in.  They said yes, and so I did.
I use the blank back of the alphabetized cards to jot down new reference material.   Names in the news, countries, events, places, etc
As I was putting one back from research into the La Belle nightclub bombing, something struck me as oddly connected.   An hour later and I find myself sitting at a desk looking at 20 to 30 reference cards that all seem to associate.    Again, it’s probably nothing, but…. (more…)

Riddle Me This:

If the Syrian “Rebels” are not *TERRORISTS* then why does President Obama need to provide a Terrorist Waiver for the ‘Armed Control Export Act’ to provide them weapons?

WASHINGTON DC – President Obama waived a provision of federal law designed to prevent the supply of arms to terrorist groups to clear the way for the U.S. to provide military assistance to “vetted” opposition groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Some elements of the Syrian opposition are associated with radical Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, which was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., in 2001. Assad’s regime is backed by Iran and Hezbollah. (more…)

Willing, and arguably desperate to get out from under his own inept Syrian bus, Dear Leader proclaims victory and moves along.   Next Up – Asia
The White House on Saturday released a statement from President Obama after it was announced that Secretary of State John Kerry had helped broker a deal with Russia for the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons.

Here’s the full statement:

“I welcome the progress made between the United States and Russia through our talks in Geneva, which represents an important, concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria’s chemical weapons under international control so that they may ultimately be destroyed. This framework provides the opportunity for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in a transparent, expeditious, and verifiable manner, which could end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to the region and the world. The international community expects the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments. (more…)

(Via Fox News) Elizabeth O’Bagy, a pro-Syrian opposition analyst whose credibility has come under fire, might have even more explaining to do – as court documents show she once vouched for a rebel group whose website displayed extremist and anti-American images.
Among the pictures was one showing a burning U.S. Capitol.

O’Bagy was fired earlier this week by the Institute for the Study of War for allegedly lying about her academic credentials. Her writings had been used by U.S. officials to bolster their case for military action against the Assad regime.
O’Bagy discussed the rebel group in question in a June 19, 2013 signed affidavit filed in the case of American Eric Harroun, who was indicted for fighting alongside the terror group al-Nusra in Syria. (more…)

Due to the graphic nature of the content of this post a substantive backdrop is needed.

A few years ago, against the backdrop of Tunisia ablaze and a visible ember headed to Egypt, we hosted a discussion post about the Middle East.
It is one thing to understand the structural framework for the U.S. Rivkin Project, it is quite another thing to see it actually being implemented.   The latter leads those who understand the globalists within the Obama administration to recognize we were about to bear witness to horror.
The formative discussion was based on the context of President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech where he stated his policy toward Islam in general, and the Middle East in particular.
Within the Obama speech, he proclaimed the approach outlined in the Rivkin Project.  He denied the cries of the Iranian Green Party movement for freedom, and he advocated or an “unclenched fist” toward Iran.  The Salafists saw the opening.
Those of us who have travelled in the Middle East, and those who have followed Mid-East events, knew immediately how this “open-handed” message would be received by Islamist Ideologues who conflate Political Islam toward Muslim considerations.
Those minority ideologues are the people who would advocate for Islam and Sharia Law implementation, the politicization of Islam, upon a religious Muslim majority.
Those ideologues view moderation as weakness, and they know how to use extremist views toward the West in their favor.
Obama’s weak appearances opened the door, allowing the Islamist ideologues to express years of anger and hatred toward the Zookeepers, Mubarek, Gaddaffi et al, who held a tenuous controlling grip on their behavior and radical intent.
As we discussed the predictable unintended consequences, Zurich Mike provided the exceptional analogy of:  [President Obama] Opening the ‘Big Cat’ cages within the greater Zoo that was the Middle East.   A more apt and encompassing analogy has never been written.
What has followed from that early 2010 prediction to today, is bearing out right now.  We are all witness to the consequences from the “unclenched fist”.   First with the crushing of the Iranian Green “Student” Party;  Later with the rise of the Salafist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt;  Then the manipulation of the moderate cause in Eastern Libya turning to radical al-Qaeda fighters flooding back from Iraq and Afghanistan;  And now to today in Syria.
The content you are about to read is GRAPHIC in the extreme, and I caution you to consider whether or not you want to Bear Witness.   But this is, in its purest form, the visible outcome from an academic leftist Western approach exhibited by President Obama, Samantha Powers, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Again, I caution WHAT FOLLOWS IS GRAPHIC and Unsettling !

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