President Obama’s ISIS combat strategy involved training, equipping and mobilizing what the administration called “Syrian Moderates”.   The overall ‘strategy’ has been an abject failure as the U.S. has been unable to assemble more than a few handfuls of forces who are willing to engage in such a tenuous plan.  However, today the plan, as poor in concept as designed, suffered a remarkable set-back. 

BAGHDAD — The commander of a group of Syrian fighters trained by the United States has been kidnapped by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, his group said in a statement Thursday.

The commander, Nadeem Hassan, and seven of his fighters were taken by the Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State in Syria, as they were returning from a meeting in Turkey.

A contingent of 54 fighters from Mr. Hassan’s group, known as Division 30, are the only ones who have graduated from a Pentagon program to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Syria. One the fighters taken with Mr. Hassan was his deputy, Farhan Al-Jasem, who commands the fighters who graduated from the American training program. (more…)

Team Clinton has a lot to fear. However, this movie makes them “tremble” more than if they had to release medical records Clinton is refusing to provide….

Director Michael Bay is notorious for mounting massive-scaled blockbusters crammed wall to wall with explosions, twisted metal, swaggering heroes and supermodels. The director’s next movie, however, is shaping up to be a lot more serious because the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, is anything but the stuff of pure entertainment. Due to hit theaters Jan. 15 (more)

Philippe Reines, Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin all used non State Dept. email accounts during their tenure within the Clinton led State Department. It appears all of them joined with Hillary Clinton to avoid FOIA investigative inquiry into their activity.  Reines turns over 20 boxes of hand-selected emails for review.

…To clarify, the judge asked Hackett if Reines was “asked to produce in his personal email system, federal records… and he produced 20 boxes of emails in his personal emails. Is that” your understanding?

Hackett said it was.

Philippe Reines is a nasty piece of work. SEE HERE for history.

(Via Politico) Long-time Hillary Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines handed the State Department 20 boxes of work-related emails taken in part from a personal email account, State officials said Wednesday, calling into question the extent to which top aides to the former secretary of state also engaged in controversial email practices.

State Department top document official John Hackett, who heads Freedom of Information Act requests for the agency, told a federal judge in a court hearing Wednesday that Reines was among several officials asked to turn over any any work-related documents in his possession. (more…)

…The wind began to switch – the house, to pitch – and suddenly the legal hinges started to unhitch.

What happened then was rich. The lie began to pitch; the lawyers sniffed a snitch.  The courtroom took a slitch; landing on the Wicked Witch while hiding in her ditch.

Which was not a healthy sit-u-ation for the Wicked Witch….

Via Judicial Watch […] During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.”

He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.” Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt. Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt.”

Judge Sullivan then immediately issued a “Minute Order“: (more…)

You just can’t make this stuff up. Two weeks ago President Obama took fellow Democrat Congressional Representatives with him to Philadelphia where he gave a policy speech outlining a need to reform the criminal justice system.

@vj44 on Air Force One with @POTUS on another history shaping day in the life of the world. pic.twitter.com/Ek3kSHyDgE

— Chaka Fattah (@chakafattah) July 14, 2015

Today Congressman Chaka Fattah was arrested on federal charges. (more…)

This is what happens when an administration circumvents the treaty process in an effort to work around congress.

Alrighty then. Well, um, I guess it’s good we’ve got that little aspect all cleared up….

(more…)

What this article outlines is, in fact, the termination clause within the Iranian nuclear deal. A full analysis shows how the language used to craft the deal gives Iran the easy out, ‘the-exit-ramp’ as soon as the sanctions are lifted.

WASHINGTON DC – Last Tuesday, a 159-page PDF of the Iran nuclear agreement dropped into my inbox. Scrolling down to page 19, I checked out Paragraph 36. I suggest you do the same.

Plenty of provisions in the Vienna agreement will get attention in the coming weeks, but Paragraph 36 may be the most important of all.

Paragraph 36 tells us when and how the agreement might end. Both friend and foe have touted this deal as “historic” and promised (or moaned) that its provisions will stay in place for the long term. But in practice, this is not a ten-year agreement or a fifteen-year agreement or an eternal agreement. Paragraph 36 tells us the truth: Any party—be it Iran or a future U.S. president—can essentially ditch the Iran nuclear deal with 35 days’ notice. (more…)

The Benghazi Brief <- Will these facts finally be made public?

(Via KTLA) Hillary Clinton will publicly testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Oct. 22, her spokesman said on Saturday.

Clinton was invited to appear before the committee investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack earlier this week, Nick Merrill told CNN, and the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate accepted that invitation on Friday.

Merrill said Clinton was “pleased” to receive the invitation to a public hearing from committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy. (more…)

The intended outcome here is two-fold.  ♦ #1 Any Inspector General will now have to ask a white house appointed cabinet head for approval to access investigative material; obviously this gives an automatic heads’ up to the White House.  ♦ #2 The investigative material is now subject to being hidden from the investigators; obviously this allows unlawful conduct to remain hidden.

WASHINGTON DC – The Obama administration formally announced that inspectors general will have to get permission from their agency heads to gain access to grand jury, wiretap and fair credit information — an action that severely limits the watchdogs’ oversight capabilities, independence and power to uncover fraud.

An opinion, issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, says the Inspector General Act of 1978 — which was written by Congress to create the government watchdogs in order to help maintain integrity within their agencies — does not have the authority to override nondisclosure provisions in other laws, most notably in regard to grand jury, wiretap or fair credit information. (more…)