Really Mr. Gates? Really? You were surprised and disturbed by this?
…. another significant percentage would love to see the Islamists jailed, like Egypt.
Tunisia fell victim to dictatorial consequences stemming from economic strain as a result of mass migration. Like Egypt, the Tunisian Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood) promised great prosperity under Sharia. However, unlike Egypt, the Brotherhood still holds power.
TUNISIA – “Ben Ali, they fooled us! Come back soon!” is a slogan one could hear on Tuesday, January 7, in the streets of Tunis, Ariana, Mahdia, Sfax and other cities in Tunisia, as the country prepared to mark the three-year anniversary of the uprising that sent former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali packing.
The protesters were in the street to voice their anger at tax hikes affecting public and agricultural transportation vehicles, but many expressed a nostalgia for the Ben Ali days that seems to be increasingly common.
In the capital, “Vive Ben Ali” can be seen scrawled on walls of buildings, and a Facebook page entitled “Forgive us, Mr. President” has been flooded with messages of affection and tribute. (more…)
WASHINGTON DC – The State Department on Friday for the first time blamed specific groups and militants for the 2012 Benghazi attack, designating them as terrorists — a move that further undermines initial claims the attack was spontaneous.
The department announced that it was labeling Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi and Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah as terror organizations, in part over their role in the Benghazi attack. It applied the same label to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, over a separate attack on Americans in Tunis.
The State Department also labeled as terrorists Sufian bin Qumu, head of the Darnah branch and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, and Ahmed Abu Khattalah, head of the Benghazi branch. (more…)
[…] “The temptation to stand up, slam the briefing book shut and quit on the spot recurred often,” Gates writes. “All too frequently, the exit lines were on the tip of my tongue: ‘I may be the secretary of defense, but I am also an American citizen, and there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that. I quit. Find somebody else.’
It was, I am confident, a fantasy widely shared throughout the executive branch. And it was always enjoyable to listen to three former senators — Obama, Biden and Clinton — trash-talking Congress.” (more…)
Washington Post […] The State Department is expected to tie Qumu’s group to the Benghazi attack when it designates three branches of Ansar al-Sharia, in Darnah, Benghazi and Tunisia, as foreign terrorist organizations in the coming days. (link)
When (Muslim-Brotherhood-Aligned) Mohammed al-Zawahiri, brother to CORE al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, was released from Egyptian prison in March 2011, he began to construct a network between Egypt and Eastern-Libya radical Islamist affiliates. Part of that structure was contact with a Libyan islamist called Abu Bin Qumu. As a consequence CORE al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri sent experienced jihadists to help in Libya.
Today the U.S. State Department claims CORE al-Qaeda has no connection to the Benghazi 9/11/12 attack carried out by Ansar al-Sharia. While simultaneously saying:
“Militiamen under the command of Abu Sufian bin Qumu, the leader of Ansar al-Sharia in the Libyan city of Darnah, participated in the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans”.(link)
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ARE PROPAGANDA – PERIOD
The U.S. State Department, and the water-carrying U.S. media are working diligently to separate CORE al-Qaeda from Ansar al-Sharia (al-Qaeda in Libya).
The State Department is claiming there is ABSOLUTELY no connection between CORE al-Qaeda, which operates out of Afghanistan and is headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Ansar al-Sharia (17th Feb Brigade) which operates out of Libya and is well referenced as the group which attacked the U.S. compound in Benghazi.
(left) al-Qaeda #1 Ayman al-Zawahiri – – – (right) His brother Mohammed al-Zawahiri
However, this is a fundamental misnomer and pure obfuscation.
CORE al-Qaeda is headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri (he became #1 when Bin Laden was killed). Ayman’s brother is Mohammed al-Zawahiri.
Ayman’s brother, Mohammed al-Zawahiri, was released from Egyptian prison during the turmoil which resulted in the legalization of The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (early March 2011). (more…)
It appears the strategy to deflect away from the brutal outlines in Robert Gates’ book is to frame Gates as an angry man with an axe to grind. Top Ten Takeaways from “Duty” (Via WallStreetJournal)
1. Contempt for Congress Mr. Gates expresses open disdain for Congress and the way lawmakers treated him when he testified at hearings. “I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.” Mr. Gates said he fantasized about storming out of hearings and quitting. “There is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that,” he writes of his fantasy.
2. Contempt for Vice President Biden Mr. Gates expresses particular dissatisfaction with Vice President Joe Biden. He describes Mr. Biden as a “man of integrity” who “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Specifically, Mr. Gates said he opposed Mr. Biden’s proposed limited strategy in Afghanistan to focus on counter-terrorism: “Whac-A-Mole hits on Taliban leaders weren’t a long term strategy,” he writes. (more…)
Serendipity strikes again 😀 – Generally the large media conglomerates, who operate on a self identity of liberal alignment, get it wrong. However, every once in a while they can set their ideology on a side table and construct quality information.
The White House is probably definitely having fits right now, because this USA Today outline destroys the Obama administration’s false claims of “al-Qaeda being on the run“.
[…] The chaos of the Arab Spring revolutions, al-Qaeda’s shift to a more bottom-up structure and a perceived pullback of U.S. influence in the Middle East are behind the spread of America’s No. 1 enemy in the world, say several analysts who study the core group in Pakistan and affiliates who swear allegiance to it.
The latest and most stark example came this week in Iraq, where al-Qaeda militants seized control of government buildings and districts of Fallujah and Ramadi, cities that were liberated from jihadist control by American troops during the Iraq War. (link)
Excellent interactive and informative article – CLICK HERE
(Via Washington Post) Gates offers a catalogue of various meetings, based in part on notes that he and his aides made at the time, including an exchange between Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he calls “remarkable.”
He writes: “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.” (continue reading)
The origin of the Arab Spring did not begin on December 17th, 2010 in Tunisia with the self-immolation Mohamed Bouazizi.
Bouazizi’s decision to douse himself with gasoline and light himself on fire was an outcome of an economic and social reality in Tunisia at a very specific moment in time – the origin for that event happened many years earlier in Europe.
Understanding the earlier origin helps to set the stage to understand Libya in 2011, the rise of al-Qaeda, and Obama’s short-sighted folly leading NATO intervention.
A basic tenet of humanity is freedom, a natural yearning to be free. To be able to move, decide, act and strive, is as natural as the flow of water through the path of least resistance.
When Europe formed a collective Union there were multiple political, social, and socio-economic factors which aligned to create an environment where the formation was constructed.
A tireless movement of Fabian Socialists with a history of long-term strategy were behind the rise of the EU as a collective union. (more…)