I would like to thank the only other website/blog -I have found- wise enough to connect the dots, and brave enough to talk about them.
Before doing so I must share a daily prayer we have repeated for two years:

Father please afford Your strength and protection; guide our naked journey; sharpen our insight; strengthen our influence; accept our willingness; be confident in our faith; afford us the ability of unguarded vision; and deliver us to the highest place where we may look over the horizon.
Guide us there to see, and remove our fear and nervousness so that we may accept and bear witness – Amen.

From a position of faith we have traced all the connections we can find, and we are now beginning to notice we are not alone.
There are others who have followed their own journey, from separate directions, and are destined to arrive at the same overlook.

SEE HERE

EGYPT – In his speech to the United Nations on Wednesday, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that the world has begun to understand the reality of the extremism that Egyptians revolted against last year.

“The world has started to grasp the reality and understand why Egyptians revolted against extremism that wanted to break the unity of the nation,” said El-Sisi.
At the beginning of his speech, El-Sisi saluted UN officials and also Egyptian expats who came from different cities to the UN headquarters to “say that a new Egypt is coming.”
El-Sisi said that since his election last June, he and other Egyptians have been working to build “a civil democratic state” by following the roadmap announced last year by different political forces soon after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
He also stressed the need for an inclusive state that respects the law, the judiciary and human rights. (more…)

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron does an effective job  describing the danger of “extremism“, not just “violent extremism“, all extremism.  (Cameron Speech Here)
However, anyone interested in actually following, researching and analyzing international action, against radical Islamist extremism, must also note that Egypt’s President Fatah El-Sisi is about two years ahead in confronting the extremist ideology.

Almost everything both Obama and Cameron have stated in the past month can be viewed curiously against their unwillingness to hold such public views while El-Sisi was pushing back against extremism, and doing something about it.
Readers and visitors to the Treehouse community know full well we have watched Egypt intently.  We continue to share that no international leader has done more to confront ALL the tentacles of radicalism than El-Sisi.
Yet he has also been the recipient of marginalization – at best, and admonishment – at worst, as he has carries out a challenging mission to provide secular stability not only to Egypt, but also to the entire region.
When David Cameron says “all extremism” must be confronted, he need to look no further than Egypt to see it confronted not only on the streets but also in politics, in the media, and within the places of worship where hatred is the tenet that fuels the congregation.
Both Cameron and Obama correctly identify and define extremism yet fail to acknowledge the root.   Extremism stems from a culture of hatred, that culture exists because the West will not confront it.   El-Sisi confronts the culture of hatred head-on.
El-Sisi is by no means perfect, nor is Egypt as a whole; however, the intellectual and cultural center of the Middle-East is once again rising like a Phoenix thanks -in no small part- to the grit and policy of one principled man. A man thoroughly committed to the stability of his nation, and to the broader, predominantly Muslim, nations surrounding it.
(more…)

Because hundreds of beheadings, horrific crucifixions, mass murder, rape, brutality and tens of thousands of Ferguson refugees have been seen fleeing Missouri for the safer venues of the Illinois mountains…..  or something.

One of the inconvenient truths liberals and progressive-minded Obama supporters seem to be overlooking is the 2001 and 2002 Authorization’s for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), that President Obama is now using to justify his 2014 attacks inside Syria, was a direct result of President George W Bush going to congress and asking for authorization (ie. a vote) prior to launching attacks on terror entities.
Despite the anxiety it produces for Democrats the fact remains. George W Bush never went to war, or used the military as an offensive weapon, without consulting with congress and seeking approval. Regardless of opinion, no amount of spin can remove this obvious fact.
When Obama uses the military for his versions of “the war on terror” he does not consult with congress.
President Obama used the U.N. to authorize his military campaign in Libya, and never did consult congress even after the legally required 30 day timeline of the War Powers Act. And for Syria, well, President Obama is relying on the Bush AUMF’s without further consult.
For this reason we find ourselves in agreement with the New York Times.

Wrong Turn on Syria: No Convincing Plan – President Obama has put America at the center of a widening war by expanding into Syria airstrikes against the Islamic State, the Sunni extremist group known as ISIS and ISIL. He has done this without allowing the public debate that needs to take place before this nation enters another costly and potentially lengthy conflict in the Middle East. (more…)

Tomahawks into Syria as Turkey remains chicken

Just so we are clear on this – There is a HUGE difference between President George W. Bush attacking al-Qaeda (‘War on Terror’) within Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, and what President Obama is doing now.
The most notable difference is President Bush had authorization and agreement, with each sovereign nation, to attack the terror entity within it’s border; Obama has no such agreement with Syria.
And remember, according to President Obama 2013, the “2003 George Bush war on terror is over“.   OVER!   Not to mention the post 9-11 AUMF was specifically only for al-Qaeda, and ISIS is admittedly, by Obama and al-Qaeda, not al-Qaeda.   So what exactly is the “legal authority” President Obama is using?

Secretary of State John Kerry would not answer that question to congress last week. Senior White House National Security and Foreign Policy advisor Susan Rice would not answer that question last Friday. White House spokesperson Josh Earnest would also not answer that question last Friday.  President Obama’s chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, would not answer that question on Saturday, and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power would not answer that question on Sunday.
The mysterious “legal authority” is said to exist, but has never been outlined.
Yet on Monday the attacks began.
Under what legal authority? We are not under attack, this is not a defensive decision. This is 100% offensive. (more…)

The Pentagon is announcing U.S. Tomahawk missiles are being launched from U.S. combat vessels to strike ISIS targets in Syria.
A group of coalition fighter jets (fighter and bomber units) may also participate. Initial reports did not indicate U.S. airplanes are involved, however there are some contradictions. It is being reported that 25 initial targets are being announced. 
Bombers, drones, missiles and fully equipped F-18 fighter bombers.  The UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are also reported to be participating.


WASHINGTON — The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, and along the porous Iraq border.
VIDEO ADDED:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd7Zj6Dem8E
American fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants known as the Islamic State. American military officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from United States Navy ships in the region.
(more…)

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the media seem to be avoiding a rather obvious question:

Under what authority is President Obama claiming to be able to fly into Syria to attack NI-ISIS?

You might have noted a few, well, probing flights recently outlined by media of Russian incursions into U.S. and NATO qualified defense zone airspace. Yet interestingly no-one seems to be connecting the dots between the Russian pokes, and Obama’s proclaimed Syrian strategy. Remember, Russia is an ally the “state of” Syria, and Bashir Assad.
The U.S. State Department, and the U.S. White House team, have been very careful to note they will not be coordinating any offensive NI-ISIS engagements with Iran or Syria.
For all current intents and purposes the matter with Iran is a non-issue, however the matter with Syria is an entirely divergent situation altogether.
As far as we can tell there is no precedent for hostile U.S. action into the sovereign territory of another nation, even to target terror threats, without a specific agreement in hand before the action. (more…)

We thought this was going to be the conversation between Egypt’s Fatah el-Sisi and John Kerry because our ongoing research into the backchannel sources reflected the probability.  It appears, yet again, Occam’s razor proves correct.  In the article below AhramOnline reports El-Sisi warned Kerry not to focus merely on ISIS but all terror groups need to be addressed.
Fatah El-Sisi knows President Obama’s heart is not in the mission to defeat NI-ISIS, because El-Sisi knows young Obama in his 20’s was smitten with the Romance of the Mujahedeen, and then became disillusioned when U.S. policy shifted and made them the al-Qaeda enemy they became years later.   El-Sisi has exceptionally clear eyes – he understands the sympathy President Obama carries to the Sunni tribe, NI-ISIS.
Egypt is also standing as the strongest Muslim nation in condemnation of the NI-ISIS recent beheadings’.  Additionally El-Sisi has convinced the Arab Council to quietly threaten Qatar for their insufferable support of terror networks.  This has led to six “leaders” of the Muslim Brotherhood leaving Qatar – and now El-Sisi asking Interpol to track them down. 

EGYPT – Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has stressed the importance of an international coalition to combat not only Islamic State but also all terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa.
He made the comments during a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
The US is taking the lead in an international coalition aimed at defeating Islamist extremists spreading across parts of Iraq and Syria. Militants from the so-called Islamic State have so far murdered thousands and declared a Muslim caliphate.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson also attended the meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo. (more…)

We could not help but notice something absent from the NATO summit being held in Wales this year.
Apparently the U.K. Security Team has figured out a way to keep the pesky professional anarchists away from the conference.

They call it a “Ring of Steel”
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