Neil Diamond
Cherry Cherry
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Washington Free Beacon:
MISSING LIBYAN JETLINERS RAISE FEARS OF SUICIDE AIRLINER ATTACKS ON 9/11
MISSING LIBYAN JETLINERS RAISE FEARS OF SUICIDE AIRLINER ATTACKS ON 9/11
Egypt set for military intervention as Libya spirals toward failed state
BY:
They're probably all in the same place right now.
AND THEN THERE'S THIS:
Islamist militias in Libya took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in terrorist attacks across North Africa.So now they have 12 airliners. The 11 from Libya and the one from Malaysia.
Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.
“There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,” said one official. “We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes.”
The official said the aircraft are a serious counterterrorism concern because reports of terrorist control over the Libyan airliners come three weeks before the 13th anniversary of 9/11 attacks and the second anniversary of the Libyan terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the Benghazi attack, which the Obama administration initially said was the result of a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Muslim video.
A senior State Department counterterrorism official declined to comment on reports of the stolen jetliners.
A second State department official sought to downplay the reports. “We can’t confirm that,” he said.Meanwhile, officials said Egyptian military forces appear to be preparing to intervene in Libya to prevent the country from becoming a failed state run by terrorists, many with ties to al Qaeda.
Libya remains an oil-rich state and if the country is taken over completely by Islamist extremists, U.S. counterterrorism officials believe it will become another terrorist safe haven in the region.
The officials said U.S. intelligence agencies have not confirmed the aircraft theft following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport in late August, and are attempting to locate all aircraft owned by two Libyan state-owned airline companies, as security in the country continued to deteriorate amid fighting between Islamists and anti-Islamist militias.
Video surfaced on Sunday showing armed fighters from the Islamist militia group Libyan Dawn partying inside a captured U.S. diplomatic compound in Tripoli. The footage showed one fighter diving into a pool from a second-story balcony at the facility.
Tripoli airport and at least seven aircraft were reported damaged during fighting that began in July. Photos of the airport in the aftermath showed a number of damaged aircraft. The airport has been closed since mid-July.
The state-owned Libyan Airlines fleet until this summer included 14 passenger and cargo jetliners, including seven Airbus 320s, one Airbus 330, two French ATR-42 turboprop aircraft, and four Bombardier CJR-900s. Libyan state-owned Afriqiyah Airways fleet is made up of 13 aircraft, including three Airbus 319s, seven Airbus 320s, two Airbus 330s, and one Airbus 340.
The aircraft were reportedly taken in late August following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport, located about 20 miles south of the capital, by Libyan Dawn.
Al Jazeera television reported in late August that western intelligence reports had warned of terror threats to the region from 11 stolen commercial jets.
In response, Tunisia stopped flights from other Libyan airports at Tripoli, Sirte, and Misrata over concerns that jets from those airports could be on suicide missions.
Egypt’s government also halted flights to and from Libya.
Military forces in North Africa, including those from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt have been placed on heightened alert as a result of intelligence warning of the stolen aircraft.
Egyptian military jets reportedly have conducted strikes inside Libya against Libyan Dawn positions recently, and U.S. officials said there are signs a larger Egyptian military incursion is being planned.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi was quoted as denying Egyptian air strikes into Libya have taken place but suggested that military action is being considered.
Secretary of State John Kerry last week told his Egyptian counterpart that the United States would speed up the delivery of Apache attack helicopters, although it is not clear the Apaches would be used in any Libyan operations.
Egypt’s military-backed government appears to be seeking a more significant role in regional security after the Obama administration helped engineer the ouster of Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi in 2011. Since then, the Obama administration, through its announced policy of “leading from behind,” has stood by while Libya gradually has spiraled into chaos.
The Libyan government announced Sunday that it no longer controlled the capital of Tripoli.
“We announce that the majority of the ministries, institutions, and associations in the capital Tripoli are no longer under its control,” a government statement said.
Libya’s parliament in August declared both Ansar al Sharia and Libyan Dawn as terrorist organizations working to overthrow the government.
Ansar al Sharia, which is based in Benghazi, recently publicized on social media that it has obtained large numbers of more sophisticated weapons, including SA-6 surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, assault rifles, and armored vehicles. The group is closely aligned with al Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria.
Abderrahmane Mekkaoui, a Moroccan military expert, told Al Jazeera television, which first reported the airline theft Aug. 21, the alert regarding the stolen jetliners was preventive and covers the region from Cairo to Lagos Nigeria.
Mekkaoui said the jets being held by the Libyan group called Masked Men Brigade that was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in December.
The Masked Men Brigade is linked to al Qaeda and Ansar al Sharia—the group behind the Benghazi terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2012.
Until the Libya Dawn takeover of the airport, announced Aug. 24, two other militia groups, known as Al Qaqa and Al Sawa controlled the airport and all aircraft belonging to Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways.
Mekkaoui said “credible intelligence” reports given to states in the region indicated the Masked Men Brigade “is plotting to use the planes in attacks on a Maghreb state” on the 9/11 anniversary.
Counterterrorism expert Sebastian Gorka said that if the theft is confirmed, the stolen aircraft could be used in at least two ways.
“The first would be how commercial airliners were used on Sept. 11, 2001, literally turning an innocent mode of mass transit into a super-high precision guided missile of immense potency,” said Gorka, who holds the Maj. Gen. Charles Horner chair at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va.
“The second tactic could be to use the airframe with its civilian markings as a tool of deception to insert a full payload of armed terrorists into a locale that otherwise is always open to commercial carriers,” he said.
Michael Rubin, a counterterrorism specialist with the American Enterprise Institute, said commercial jetliners in the hands of terrorists could be formidable weapons.
“Who needs ballistic missiles when you have passenger planes? Even empty, but loaded up with fuel they can be as devastating,” Rubin said.
“Each plane could, if deployed by terrorists to maximum devastating effect, represent 1,000 civilian casualties.”
Among the potential targets are urban areas and economic targets, like Saudi Arabia’s oil fields.
“Anyone who has ever flown over Saudi Arabia at night can see refineries like Yanbu lit up like Christmas trees against the blackness of the desert,” Rubin said. “One Saudi security officer once told me that they would only have about 90 seconds to shoot down a hijacked plane from the time it left international airspace to impact in one of the region’s most important refineries.”
Rubin said in 2003 a Boeing 727 went missing in Africa fueling concerns about a terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi.
“What is striking is that more than a decade later, the United States hasn’t taken the need to safeguard what are effectively giant guided missiles seriously,” he said.
A former Libyan general, Khalifa Haftar, has been leading anti-Islamist forces. His group has access to Libyan air force MiG jets that have conducted strikes on Libyan Dawn positions in recent days. Haftar also has conducted military raids in Benghazi.
The United Nations Security Council on Aug. 27 announced plans for new sanctions on Libyan militias and terrorists. In a resolution the U.N. warned of the “growing presence of al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups and individuals operating in Libya.”
They're probably all in the same place right now.
AND THEN THERE'S THIS:
BREAKING: ISIS Beheads American Reporter Steven Sotloff – Update: Beheaded By Same British Jihadist Who Executed James Foley…
BEIRUT (AP) — An Internet video purports to show the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State group.Update: Via Daily Mail:
Sotloff, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had last been seen in Syrian in August 2013 until he appeared in a video released online last month by the Islamic State group that showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley.
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against the backdrop of an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq.
In the video distributed Tuesday and entitled “A Second Message to America,” Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
…Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against the backdrop of an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq.
In the video distributed Tuesday and entitled “A Second Message to America,” Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The video appears to show the same British fighter who killed James Foley. He threatens a new hostage, Briton David Haines.
Game Over: One In Three Men In Devout Muslim Pakistan Say Raping Boys Is Acceptable
From the Daily Mail:
Ijaz, a bus conductor in his early twenties, spends his days travelling through the bustling streets of Peshawar in northern Pakistan, working hard to scrape a living. The pay is low and the hours are long, and Ijaz, like many of his colleagues, remains unwed and has no family.
Instead of going home come nightfall, he, and many others, spend their time with street children, paying them as little as 75p for sex and when they have no money, brutally abusing them.
‘Once, there was a boy on the bus and everyone had sex with him,’ confesses Ijaz who admits to raping 12 different children during his career as a bus conductor. ‘I did it too but what else could I do? They invited me. And he was that kind of boy anyway.’
Sexual abuse in Pakistan is rife. An estimated four million children in the country are forced into work from an early age due to poverty and of those, more than a million live on the streets where they are easy prey for men like Ijaz.
A recent survey of 1,800 men found that a third believe that not only is raping little boys not a crime, it’s not even a bad thing to do.
Oh, and by the way, you're insensitive to the child molestors, so it's re-education camp for you!
It almost seems the bigger crime is identifying the criminals rather than committing the crime itself. Welcome to the twenty-first century, everybody! It's gonna be a nightmare.
From The Daily Caller
UK Social Worker Given Diversity Training After Exposing Pakistani Sex Ring
9:06 PM 09/01/2014
A British social worker says her boss forced her to take a two-day
diversity training class and that she was told to never mention race in
her reports after she documented that Pakistani men had committed
hundreds of acts of sexual abuse in Rotherham, a town of around 250,000
in northern England.
Working as a researcher for the British Home Office in 2002, the female social worker told the BBC that she was intimidated after she turned in a report documenting 270 cases of sexual exploitation involving men of Pakistani or Kashmiri heritage.
“You must never refer to that again. You must never refer to Asian men,” the social worker was told by a superior, she told the BBC. “And her other response was to book me on a two-day ethnicity and diversity class.”
The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, came forward a week after a disturbing report released by Prof. Alexis Jay who found that at least 1,400 girls were groomed for sex between 1997 and 2013.
In her investigation, Jay found numerous social workers who said that they were told to avoid mentioning the race and ethnicity of the predators.
The whistle-blower said that after she sent her report to the Home Office and the Rotherham Council, her office was broken into and her records were stolen.
“They’d gained access to the office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets there was one drawer emptied and it was emptied of my data,” she told the BBC.
“It had to be an employee of the council.”
The woman said that only social workers were able to get the young victims to open up about what had happened to them. Along with those interviews, the whistle-blower told the BBC that she was collecting information on the men.
“I was collecting data on who the perpetrators were, what cars they were using, their grooming methods, their offending methods, and what I was also collecting, was information on professional responses,” she said.
In her final report on the exploitation and the cover-up, Prof. Jay said that the 2002 report could have prevented later abuses. (RELATED: British Social Workers ‘Downplayed’ Ethnicity of Sexual Abusers)
“Had this [2002 draft] report been treated with the seriousness it merited at the time by both the police and the council, the children involved then and later would have been better protected and abusers brought to justice,” Jay’s report read, according to the BBC.
“I was subjected to the most intense personal hostility – there were threats made from a range of sources,” the social worker told the BBC. “I’ve never seen back-covering like it and I still feel extremely angry about that.”
In her report, Jay noted that police and local senior officials “downplayed” the racial and ethnic dimensions of the perpetrators.
“Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so,” Jay’s report found.
It also notes that too much reliance was placed on imams to serve as “conduits” to Pakistani community.
Working as a researcher for the British Home Office in 2002, the female social worker told the BBC that she was intimidated after she turned in a report documenting 270 cases of sexual exploitation involving men of Pakistani or Kashmiri heritage.
“You must never refer to that again. You must never refer to Asian men,” the social worker was told by a superior, she told the BBC. “And her other response was to book me on a two-day ethnicity and diversity class.”
The woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, came forward a week after a disturbing report released by Prof. Alexis Jay who found that at least 1,400 girls were groomed for sex between 1997 and 2013.
In her investigation, Jay found numerous social workers who said that they were told to avoid mentioning the race and ethnicity of the predators.
The whistle-blower said that after she sent her report to the Home Office and the Rotherham Council, her office was broken into and her records were stolen.
“They’d gained access to the office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets there was one drawer emptied and it was emptied of my data,” she told the BBC.
“It had to be an employee of the council.”
The woman said that only social workers were able to get the young victims to open up about what had happened to them. Along with those interviews, the whistle-blower told the BBC that she was collecting information on the men.
“I was collecting data on who the perpetrators were, what cars they were using, their grooming methods, their offending methods, and what I was also collecting, was information on professional responses,” she said.
In her final report on the exploitation and the cover-up, Prof. Jay said that the 2002 report could have prevented later abuses. (RELATED: British Social Workers ‘Downplayed’ Ethnicity of Sexual Abusers)
“Had this [2002 draft] report been treated with the seriousness it merited at the time by both the police and the council, the children involved then and later would have been better protected and abusers brought to justice,” Jay’s report read, according to the BBC.
“I was subjected to the most intense personal hostility – there were threats made from a range of sources,” the social worker told the BBC. “I’ve never seen back-covering like it and I still feel extremely angry about that.”
In her report, Jay noted that police and local senior officials “downplayed” the racial and ethnic dimensions of the perpetrators.
“Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so,” Jay’s report found.
It also notes that too much reliance was placed on imams to serve as “conduits” to Pakistani community.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/01/uk-social-worker-given-diversity-training-after-exposing-pakistani-sex-ring/#ixzz3C9fbI3I3
Watch video at link
Monday, September 01, 2014
The UN Asked Filipino Military to Surrender To Jihadists in Syria - They Said, Fuck You, and Saved Their Own Asses
From the Times of Israel:
The Philippine military said Monday that a UN peacekeeping commander in the Golan Heights should be investigated for allegedly asking Filipino troops to surrender to Syrian rebels who had attacked and surrounded their camp.
Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said he advised the 40 Filipino peacekeepers not to lay down their arms, and they defied the UN peacekeeping commander’s order. Instead, they staged a daring escape from the Golan camp over the weekend, ending a tense, dayslong standoff.
The Beslan Massacre
The Beslan Pieta
Today is the 10th Anniversary of the Beslan Massacre, when Scuzlims took 1200 hostages, mostly women and children, at an Elementary school in Beslan, Russia.
The children were sexually molested, deprived of food and water, forced to drink urine.
By the time the siege was over the Scuzlims had murdered 331 people, 186 of them children.
As bad as 9/11 was, to this day, I am convinced that the Beslan Massacre was the most overt and disgusting display of Islamic terrorism to happen during my lifetime.
I have never heard any Muslim political organization, government, Academic Institution, or Media outlet of any considerable size, anywhere in the world, ever, offer outright condemnation of the Scuzliims involved in the Beslan Massacre.
Raping For Allah
From Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
From the days of Prophet Muhammad, sexual terror has been an integral part of Islamic Jihad.
The siege of the Beslan School by Islamic Jihadis in 2004 was no exception as reveals Dr. Schurman-Kauflin. — Editor, MA Khan Excerpt from Chapter 1, “Disturbed: Terrorist Behavioral Profiles” (2008)
On September 1, 2004, terrorists stormed a school in Beslan, Russia, and perpetrated one of the most heinous terror attacks in history. Though many people may have heard of this attack, it is very likely that most do not know what really happened there.
The reality is so dark that few dare speak of what went on. There are predators in wait lurking everywhere searching for unsuspecting victims. If a person has a proclivity or a secret desire, that inclination can easily come out if an opportunity arises. And that is what happened at Beslan.
The terrorists immediately killed the men because they wanted no resistance for their plans. Then, when they saw the helpless girls in front of them, the temptation became too much.
Their perverse dreams came true. Beslan was clearly a sexual homicide/sexual suicide. That is, the offenders wanted more than simple terrorism. Some of the terrorists at Beslan were hired guns who did not plan on dying that day. They had not thought things through and did not realize that the Russians would not let them out alive.
Then, once they were inside, and the realization dawned on them, plans changed. Things had deteriorated when the media reported that there were only 354 victims. Wanting to have a dramatic impact, the terrorists exploded with anger.
There were 1200 victims, and the Russians were trying to down play the incident. The terrorists said they would have to eliminate victims to fit with what the media had reported. Their demeanor worsened, and they got really mean.
It was then that they began raping the girls. They wanted sex as they killed, and this is sexual homicide. A sex killer gets excited when he thinks about forcing himself inside an unwilling victim, but the rape itself does not produce the ultimate excitement. It is the rape followed by the killing that is arousing. This is what happened at Beslan.
One by one, females were targeted. The sex killers looked for the perfect victims, and after zeroing in, they grabbed and disrobed the little girls in the middle of the gym. There were muffled cries as the girls were humiliated in front of everyone. They were stripped, raped, and sodomized by several men.
Not content to simply rape, the terrorists used their guns and other objects to penetrate the screaming victims while the other hostages were forced to watch. And the terrorists laughed. They laughed as they violated the children and made them bleed.
What few people know is that some of the girls died as a result of being raped with objects. The internal damage was so severe that without immediate medical attention, the girls bled to death. Those who managed to survive required extensive reconstructive surgery and painful recoveries. But raping the girls was not enough for the deviants who had entered the school. The terrorists beat the other children.
In fact, beatings took place regularly, and as they pummeled the little ones, the terrorists smiled and laughed. It was said that they would strike a child and then watch the child cringe. When the youngsters recoiled, their captors laughed. This says the offenders enjoyed inflicting the suffering. They wanted their victims to suffer. Such behavior is sadistic.
Bringing others pain brings the sadist pleasure. And the terrorists tortured the victims in many ways. Along with causing paralyzing fear, the terrorists had an ally in the weather. It was extremely hot outside, but the school had no working air conditioner. As the heat raged, the hostages begged for water, and at first, some was given. Time crept on, and the terrorists became increasingly cruel.
They drank in front of the hostages and mocked the children who were crying out for water. Things got so bad that the victims were forced to drink their own urine. In some cases, the hostages poured urine over one another in a feeble attempt to keep cool. Seeing the suffering enhanced the joy of the perpetrators.
In a twisted, ghoulish game, the terrorists put water in front of the children who were desperately thirsty and told them if they reached for the water, they would be killed. Still, this horror wasn’t enough for the hostage takers.
Raping, beating, torturing, and mocking were just not evil enough. Thus, to further frighten the victims, one terrorist stated “we came here to die.” Russian Tagirovich Khuchbarov was called the “colonel.” When the children asked for water or to use the restroom, he simply stated “I’m not your uncle, I’m a terrorist … I came here to kill."
Up until this point, the hostages most likely believed they could survive, but then…hearing these words…it meant they were to die too. This surely would have made the victims scream in their minds. If they cried out loud, they risked being beaten or shot. As a crowd gathered outside the school, several terrorists goaded the townspeople. It was said that they “took delight” in egging the crowd on. They fired shots. They taunted. And again, they laughed.
This psychopathic, sadistic behavior continued into the night as they ordered hostages to throw naked dead bodies out to the west yard. Yet, the Russian government did not want to negotiate with these offenders. Russian officials knew what they were dealing with: men intent on murder. However, in any hostage event, negotiations are necessary, but negotiations at Beslan were very difficult.
When offered food, the terrorists refused because they feared poisoning. They had learned from Nord Ost and other terrorist standoffs. They would not make the same mistakes at Beslan. Knowing that the elite Alpha and Vympel (Russia Special forces) would be called, the terrorists made it clear that if gas was used or electricity shut off, they would kill hostages immediately.
The offenders had studied prior attacks and Russian counteroffensive techniques. So, they knew that Russia would stop at nothing to end the siege. With this knowledge, the terrorists had brought amphetamines with them to help stave off fatigue. This made them more wild and unpredictable.
At one point, the terrorists allowed some hostages to leave. They told some mothers that they could get out with their babies and leave behind an older child or stay with both children. Those who left a child behind will certainly be tormented for the rest of their lives.
At least one child who had been left behind survived the ordeal. One can only imagine that she could develop feelings of anger and maybe even hatred for the parent who abandoned her with psychopathic sexual sadists. Russian Special Forces stormed the school using various techniques. Tanks were fired. Guns were fired.
There were explosions. Alpha and Vympel members risked their lives to go into the school to save the children. In the end, nothing but bloodshed was achieved that day at Beslan. There were 330 people who died. Of those, 186 were the children. Blame has been tossed back and forth between the Russian government and the terrorists. Critics have argued that evidence points to the fact that several of the terror attackers had been in Russian police custody prior to the attack.
There were questions as to how these people managed to get out of jail to commit the atrocity, casting suspicion on the government itself. Conspiracy theories follow most big terror attacks. But there is no doubt that hostilities between the terrorists and the Russian government were not quieted. In fact, due to the horrific ending, anger has grown. In the end, this wretched act accomplished nothing but mass murder. So why bother with such attacks? Who are these people ready to lay down their lives for their cause?
“We need a national conversation…”
I felt that this post at HotAir hits the nail on the head about the need for a 'national conversation on (fill in the blank)' because that's what blogs - like IBA - and news article posts have been doing for decades.
Here that media and political elitists?
When Robin Williams took his own life, we needed a national conversation on depression. In the wake of the Ferguson riots we had to have a national conversation on race, not to mention the pressing need for a national conversation on police brutality. There are even calls for a national conversation on airline seats. (What we really need is somebody to invent a teleportation device.) And, of course, every tragic accident involving a weapon requires a national conversation on getting rid of guns.
The funny thing about this grossly overused and exhausted snippet of language is that it inevitably comes from politicians and televised talking heads… precisely the people who are not in a position to have a conversation with anyone. You see, the entire concept behind a “conversation” is the back and forth aspect of it, with multiple people contributing to the discussion. But the people barking at you from podiums and news set desks are broadcasting, not conversing. What they really mean is that they don’t like the way that far too many of the hoi polloi are thinking and they want to correct you.
I’ve got news for the high and mighty rulers in government and the chatterboxes on the national news. We already have national conversations. We have them every day around dinner tables and in bars and in the break room at work and with our neighbors when we’re out mowing our lawns and – yes – in the comments sections of blogs and discussion forums on the web. We offer solutions or point out the shortcomings in yours. We share our hopes and dreams We rant and we rave. Some of us troll. Some just lurk and take it all in. And it would probably benefit you to realize that we don’t always agree with whatever genius idea you’ve cooked up to solve the latest hysterical crisis of the day. If you really want to have a national conversation on anything, maybe a good starting point would be to begin listening to what we’re already saying.
Here that media and political elitists?
It's About Freekn' Time!! Finally, a Western Leader
Britain's Cameron asks for tough anti-terrorism laws to defeat 'scourge of extremism'
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday proposed sweeping legislation to combat the “scourge of extremism,” amid the fast and powerful rise of the extremist group Islamic State.Cameron officially asked the House of Commons to agree to several temporary measures he proposed late last week, including the power to seize passports of suspected British jihadists leaving the country and controlling where they can move within the country.
He said his proposed legislation would give police officers temporary power to seize passports at the border. Secondly, he said it was key that Britain work to keep out foreign fighters who return from the Middle East and pose a threat to the nation, which recently upgraded its terror alert from substantial to severe.
Read the rest here.
The Refrain on the denouement of Barack Obama: “If he can’t do it no one can”
UPDATE AT BOTTOM
For any of you like me who can hardly STAND to turn on the news, and cringe as a headline break is announced, expecting anything from terrorists in our swimming pools (today in Libya), to a dirty weapon in Houston, or on Wall street ….and are relieved when it turns out to be naked pix of Ms Lawrence ..
It is going to be claimed that the USA is now ungovernable, attacking the basis for the nation itself rather than admit the party nominated a ‘light skinned black with no negro dialect’ (thanks Harry Reid) in a GIGANTIC ERROR with good intentions, and that 53% of the voting public was FOOLISH.
It is already being claimed that Obama failed in the foreign domain because we can’t solve the world’s problems and no one can manage our responsibilities, and neither the USA nor the world was ready for such as Barack Obama.
Brett Stephens from the cover article of Commentary:
Zbig, leader of that set of policies which was blind to the ENTIRE situation that lead to mujahideen, and Al Qaeda says this?
And right on cue 8 hours later….Joan Walsh whining at Salon?
For any of you like me who can hardly STAND to turn on the news, and cringe as a headline break is announced, expecting anything from terrorists in our swimming pools (today in Libya), to a dirty weapon in Houston, or on Wall street ….and are relieved when it turns out to be naked pix of Ms Lawrence ..
It is going to be claimed that the USA is now ungovernable, attacking the basis for the nation itself rather than admit the party nominated a ‘light skinned black with no negro dialect’ (thanks Harry Reid) in a GIGANTIC ERROR with good intentions, and that 53% of the voting public was FOOLISH.
It is already being claimed that Obama failed in the foreign domain because we can’t solve the world’s problems and no one can manage our responsibilities, and neither the USA nor the world was ready for such as Barack Obama.
Brett Stephens from the cover article of Commentary:
If anything, the international situation Obama faced when he assumed the presidency was, in many respects, relatively auspicious. Despite the financial crisis and the recession that followed, never since John F. Kennedy has an American president assumed high office with so much global goodwill. The war in Iraq, which had done so much to bedevil Bush’s presidency, had been won thanks to a military strategy Obama had, as a senator, flatly opposed. For the war in Afghanistan, there was broad bipartisan support for large troop increases. Not even six months into his presidency, Obama was handed a potential strategic game changer when a stolen election in Iran led to a massive popular uprising that, had it succeeded, could have simultaneously ended the Islamic Republic and resolved the nuclear crisis. He was handed another would-be game changer in early 2011, when the initially peaceful uprising in Syria offered an opportunity, at relatively little cost to the U.S., to depose an anti-American dictator and sever the main link between Iran and its terrorist proxies in Lebanon and Gaza.This is more than a replay of Obama’s greatest foreign policy hits ..
Incredibly, Obama squandered every single one of these opportunities. An early and telling turning point came in 2009, when, as part of the Russian reset, the administration abruptly cancelled plans—laboriously negotiated by the Bush administration, and agreed to at considerable political risk by governments in Warsaw and Prague—to deploy ballistic-missile defenses to Poland and the Czech Republic. “We heard through the media,” was how Witold Waszczykowski, the deputy head of Poland’s national-security team, described the administration’s consultation process. Adding unwitting insult to gratuitous injury, the announcement came on the 70th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet pact, a stark reminder that Poland could never entrust its security to the guarantees of great powers.
And this was just the beginning.
Relations would soon sour with France, as then-President Nicolas Sarkozy openly mocked Obama’s fantasies of nuclear disarmament. “Est-il faible?”—“Is he weak?”
And there was Israel: “We thought it would be the United States that would lead the campaign against Iran,”
As for Syria, perhaps the most devastating assessment was offered by Robert Ford, who had been Obama’s man in Damascus in the days when Bashar al-Assad was dining with John Kerry and being touted by Hillary Clinton as a “reformer.”
“I was no longer in a position where I felt I could defend the American policy,” Ford told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in June, explaining his decision to resign from government. “There really is nothing we can point to that’s been very successful in our policy except the removal of about 93 percent of some of Assad’s chemical materials. But now he’s using chlorine gas against his opponents.”
Often the damage has been vivid, as in the collapse of the Israel–Palestinian talks in April followed by the war in Gaza. More frequently it can be heard in the whispered remarks of our allies. “The Polish-American alliance is worthless, even harmful, as it gives Poland a false sense of security,” Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister and once one of its most reliably pro-American politicians, was overheard saying in June. “It’s bullshit.”
But perhaps the most telling indicator is the collapsing confidence in the president among the Democratic-leaning foreign-policy elite in the United States. “Under Obama, the United States has suffered some real reputational damage,” admitted Washington Postcolumnist David Ignatius in May, adding: “I say this as someone who sympathizes with many of Obama’s foreign-policy goals.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, warned in July that “we are losing control of our ability at the highest levels of dealing with challenges that, increasingly, many of us recognize as fundamental to our well-being.” The United States, he added, was “increasingly devoid of strategic will and a sense of direction.”
Zbig, leader of that set of policies which was blind to the ENTIRE situation that lead to mujahideen, and Al Qaeda says this?
And right on cue 8 hours later….Joan Walsh whining at Salon?
ACORN: Eric Holder's $17 Billion Settlement With Bank of America Funds Leftist Bank Shakedown Artists
By Investor's Business Daily:
Extortion: Radical Democrat activist groups stand to collect millions from Attorney General Eric Holder's record $17 billion deal to settle alleged mortgage abuse charges against Bank of America.
Buried in the fine print of the deal, which includes $7 billion in soft-dollar consumer relief, are a raft of political payoffs to Obama constituency groups. In effect, the government has ordered the nation's largest bank to create a massive slush fund for Democrat special interests.
Besides requiring billions in debt forgiveness payments to delinquent borrowers in Cleveland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago and other Democrat strongholds — and up to $500 million to cover personal taxes owed on those checks — the deal requires BofA to make billions in new loans, while also building affordable low-income rental housing in those areas.
If there are leftover funds in four years, the settlement stipulates the money will go to Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account (IOLTA), which provides legal aid for the poor and supports left-wing causes, and NeighborWorks of America, which provides affordable housing and funds a national network of left-wing community organizers operating in the mold of Acorn.In fact, in 2008 and 2009, NeighborWorks awarded a whopping $25 million to Acorn Housing.
In 2011 alone, NeighborWorks shelled out $35 million in "affordable housing grants" to 115 such groups, according to its website. Recipients included the radical Affordable Housing Alliance, which pressures banks to make high-risk loans in low-income neighborhoods and which happens to be the former employer of HUD's chief "fair housing" enforcer.
BofA gets extra credit if it makes at least $100 million in direct donations to IOLTA and housing activist groups approved by HUD.
NBC's Richard Engel: US Military is "Apoplectic" Over Obama's "No Strategy" Comment - "America-Trained Iraqi Military Disgraced Itself" By Not Fighting Back Against ISIS
Think about that.
The Iraqi Military did not even fight back against ISIS when they took over the city of Mosul and hauled in a huge weapons cache (many of them probably America-supplied weapons). Why would that be?
It's almost like all those Iraqi's we trained desire for ISIS to have more weapons, and to become a stronger Army.
Just watch, next thing you'll hear is that Iraqi Military will be defecting en masse to ISIS.
Just watch.
The Iraqi Military did not even fight back against ISIS when they took over the city of Mosul and hauled in a huge weapons cache (many of them probably America-supplied weapons). Why would that be?
It's almost like all those Iraqi's we trained desire for ISIS to have more weapons, and to become a stronger Army.
Just watch, next thing you'll hear is that Iraqi Military will be defecting en masse to ISIS.
Just watch.
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