1. Pentagon contradicts Kerry: “Make no mistake. We are at war with (the Islamic State)
2. White house spokesman stammers and obfuscates on the matter of being at war with the Islamic State
3. Iran ‘sending troops’ to fight Islamic State in Iraq
(The US fought alongside Stalin against the Nazis. So I suppose…)
(Maybe if we publicize this enough we can get Obama to explain how this has nothing to do with Islam’s apostasy law)
5. Foley family claims Obama admin threatened them with enforcing the law
For once I find myself 4 square on side with the US administration. I am sorry but people do not have the right to go out adventuring and then find themselves in a position where they have to advantage an enemy of the United States.
Yes, Foley had the right to go and risk his own life reporting on Islamic savages under the mistaken impression that they are other than the kinds of people who would behead them publicly. However that does not give the family the right to raise funds to aid a genuine geopolitical threat to American, and for that matter, all non Muslim nations and cultures’ interests and security.
I get that lots of people do not like the Obama admin. I certainly count myself among their number. But its for reasons, not just an overall aversion to it. When they do something right that has to be added to the calculation or else the dislike really is irrational. And it was right to warn the Foley family that paying ransom to the Islamic State for someone who went their voluntarily is a crime. Perhaps it would be different if the US govt. had sent them there to do a job for us all, like a spy or a diplomat. But an adventuring journalist who went for his own reasons must take his own risks and not expect the US treasury to back him up when it doesn’t go as planned. I am sorry for what happened to Mr. Foley and I understand the grief his family must feel. But you cannot be permitted to risk the rest of our lives to bail out someone who took a risk none of us asked him to take.
Eeyore for Vlad
6. A sermon in an Egyptian mosque that should be of some concern to the authorities there
Almost the same sermon in Syria. Go figure!
Thank you M, Wrath of Khan and lots of dedicated people who sent in material. More to come. Its already quite busy for a Saturday.
ISIS eyeing up Egypt as its next target, experts say
After the lightning advance of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants this summer, Egyptian experts say that the extremist group – which aims to redraw the map of the Middle East – may have its eyes on Egypt.
“There is definitely a threat from ISIS to Egypt,” Mohammed Badr, a professor of political science at the University of Germany told Al Arabiya News, adding that the group has the country in its “line of sight.”
“All extremist groups represent a danger for Egypt,” Badr said, adding that “ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis [an Islamist militant group] are all dangerous for Egypt but the level of their threat is different.”
In recent weeks, the Islamist group started showing notable signs that it might be interested in expanding its influence in Egypt.
One alleged ISIS militant took to social media to warn Egypt that it should be expecting a “surprise” soon.
“Except a surprise in Egypt within days,” alleged ISIS member Abu Siyaf al-Masry wrote on his personal Twitter account, according to the Cairo-based daily al-Masry al-Youm.
These online threats are seen by some analysts as a means to mark their presence in Egypt, despite their absence on the ground.
“They don’t have any presence in Egypt until now, which is why they use the internet and social media platforms to interact with Egyptians and spread their influence,” Mohssen al-Faham, a political analyst and commentator for Cairo-based daily al-Gomhuria, told Al Arabiya News.
more on the page :
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2014/09/13/ISIS-eyeing-up-Egypt-as-its-next-target-experts-say.html
ISIS, Syria rebel group sign pact of ‘non-aggression’
Syrian rebels and jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have agreed a non-aggression pact for the first time in a suburb of the capital Damascus, a monitoring group said on Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the ceasefire deal was agreed between ISIS and moderate and Islamist rebels in Hajar al-Aswad, south of the capital.
Under the deal, “the two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime.”
Nussayri is a pejorative term for the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
Syria’s armed opposition initially welcomed jihadists including Islamic State members in their fight against Assad.
[…]
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/09/13/ISIS-signs-non-aggression-pact-with-Syrian-group.html
Yeah, brother, cool. Let’s make sweet treaties – but – please keep your hands where I can see them all the time.
So let me get this straight. Obama will be arming the “moderate” Syrian rebels while at the same time fighting ISIS, while both those groups are joining forces to fight al-Assad, who is the only one fighting both of them. Hey Big Ears! You should join forces with Assad, send the “moderates” on their way – if they are indeed moderates – and then get down the the business of shutting down ISIS and its Caliphate…
Obama is attacking ISIS with one hand and giving them aid with the other, typical behavior of the left.
Will President Obama’s ISIS Strategy Work?
Studio audience debates the president’s plan.
Fox News: Hannity
Calgary imam target of alleged racist attack
CALGARY— A prominent Canadian Islamic leader says he was the victim of a hate-fuelled attack in a Calgary parking lot Friday.
The alleged incident happened early Friday afternoon, as Syed Soharwardy, the 59-year-old head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, was walking through the Genesis Centre parking lot in Calgary’s southeast to lead prayer.
Atthar Mahmood, the ISCC vice-president, said a grey four-door car struck the imam hard enough to knock him to his knees, once and then a second time, as the person inside hurled insults at the outspoken Muslim community figure.
He said the person inside shouted, “Terrorist, go home,” and, “You do not belong here,” at Soharwardy and drove off after striking him twice.
Despite being knocked to the ground twice, Mahmood said, Soharwardy was uninjured save for a few scuffs and bruises.
But Mahmood said he’s worried this is merely the start.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2014/09/12/21938511.html
Hope our Don L gets a chuckle from this.
#5 I am with you, they had no right to endanger everyone else in the nation to save their son, this is a fact that way too many people ignore these days.
Plus- Make those who get lost stupidly pay for the ensuing rescue.
They are starting to do this, most of the mountain states are sending bills to the people they have to rescue from the mountains.
#3 Yes we fought along side Stalin in WWII and the useful idiots decided he was our friend who posed no danger to the US, now those same types are saying that Iran must be left alone to destroy ISIS. They refuse to accept that Iran is as bad as ISIS.
Right. We haven’t a dog in this race.
Yes we do have a dog in this fight, it is called civilization, however we need to understand that there are very few if any good guys besides Israel, unfortunately the LSM has to have a good guy and a bad guy in all fights.
I’m can’t feel abstractions. It’s straightforward self-defense for me and mine. We can take on only so much, so we must make choices.
We can define ourselves as “civilization” and make it as inclusive or exclusive as resources permit.
“We” for America has to include Israel – why? – just because.
The blood of the Armenians demands that the collective “we” rescue Yazidi. By means of the Kurds, as it happens. Fairly distant cousins, but still.
What’s next?
I don’t know, I know that I am sick and tired of the US fighting wars and then having the left betray our native allies. It happened in Nam and now they are doing it again.
Me too. Drives me crazy.
No, not crazy. Disillusioned with a democracy that may be fatally flawed.
al-Qaida’s Syrian cell alarms US
While the Islamic State group is getting the most attention now, another band of extremists in Syria — a mix of hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe — poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States, working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target U.S. aviation, American officials say.
At the center is a cell known as the Khorasan group, a cadre of veteran al-Qaida fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan who traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.
But the Khorasan militants did not go to Syria principally to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials say. Instead, they were sent by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to board a U.S.-bound airliner with less scrutiny from security officials.
In addition, according to classified U.S. intelligence assessments, the Khorasan militants have been working with bomb-makers from al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate to test new ways to slip explosives past airport security. The fear is that the Khorasan militants will provide these sophisticated explosives to their Western recruits who could sneak them onto U.S.-bound flights.
The Obama administration has said that the Islamic State group, the target of more than 150 U.S. airstrikes in recent weeks, does not pose an imminent threat to the continental U.S. The Khorasan group, which has not been subject to American military action, is considered the more immediate threat.
Because of intelligence about the collaboration among the Khorasan group, al-Qaida’s Yemeni bomb-makers and Western extremists, U.S. officials say, the Transportation Security Administration in July decided to ban uncharged mobile phones and laptops from flights to the U.S. that originated in Europe and the Middle East.
The Khorasan group’s plotting with al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate shows that, despite the damage that years of drone missile strikes has done to the leadership of core al-Qaida in Pakistan, the movement still can threaten the West. It has been rejuvenated in the past year as al-Qaida offshoots have grown in strength and numbers, bolstered by a flood of Western extremists to a new terrorist safe haven created by Syria’s civil war.
That Yemen affiliate, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been able to place three bombs on U.S.-bound airliners, though none has succeeded in downing the aircraft.
“The group’s repeated efforts to conceal explosive devices to destroy aircraft demonstrate its continued pursuit of high-profile attacks against the West, its increasing awareness of Western security procedures and its efforts to adapt to those procedures that we adopt,” Nicholas Rasmussen, deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently told a Senate panel.
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, first disclosed during a Senate hearing in January that a group of core al-Qaida militants from Afghanistan and Pakistan was plotting attacks against the West in Syria.
But the group’s name, Khorasan, or its links to al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, which is considered the most dangerous terrorist threat to the U.S., have not previously been disclosed.
Khorasan refers to a province under the Islamic caliphate, or religious empire, of old that included parts of Afghanistan.
Many U.S. officials interviewed for this story would not be quoted by name talking about what they said was highly classified intelligence. Some lawmakers who have been briefed on the Khorasan group threat were willing to discuss it in general terms. One congressman who declined to be identified in order to discuss intelligence matters used the group’s name in conversations with a reporter.
The CIA refused to confirm the group’s name or any details in this story.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, declined to name the group. But he described concerns among intelligence officials about “an unholy mix of people in Iraq and Syria right now — some who come from AQAP, some who come from Afghanistan and Pakistan, others from the Maghreb” in North Africa.
“They can combine in ways that could pose a greater threat than their individual pieces. And that’s something we worry about,” said Schiff, D-Calif.
U.S. officials have identified some members of the Khorasan group, but would not disclose the individuals’ names because of concerns they would hide from intelligence-gathering.
Intelligence officials have been deeply concerned about dozens of Americans and hundreds of Europeans who have gone to fight for various jihadist groups in Syria. Some of those Westerners’ identities are unknown and therefore they are less likely to draw the attention of intelligence officials when they purchase tickets and board a crowded jetliner heading for European and American cities.
AQAP’s master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, is believed to have built the underwear bomb that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate on a passenger jet over Detroit in December 2009.
Al-Asiri is also believed to have built two bombs hidden in printer cartridges placed on U.S.-bound cargo jets in 2010, and a body bomb that was acquired in a 2012 operation involving Saudi, British, and U.S. intelligence agencies.
U.S. intelligence suggests al-Asiri and his confederates are constantly trying to tweak their bomb designs so that the explosives can get past airport security and also detonate successfully.
The TSA ban on uncharged laptops and cellphones stemmed from information that al-Qaeda was working with the Khorasan group to pack those devices with hard-to-detect explosives, a U.S. official said.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-enterprise-al-qaidas-syrian-cell-alarms-us
Wouldn’t be so alarmed if they paid attention to briefings by Mossad.
U.S. officials have identified some members of the Khorasan group, but would not disclose the individuals’ names because of concerns they would hide from intelligence-gathering.
I bet you’ll find the honchos include more than one whose name is “Mohammed”.
“rebels ” in Lattakiah Syria Sep 13 2014 –
can’t figure what he’s shooting at
SYRIA – QUNEITRA – GOLAN – mosque-stronghold
video 2 Quneitra – golan – mosque/stronghold – on the rooftop
GOLAN – Rebels seize most of Syrian side of Golan truce line: NGO
Rebels including Al-Qaeda loyalists have seized most of the Syrian side of the armistice line with Israel on the Golan Heights, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and its allies launched a major offensive against government forces in Quneitra province last month, capturing the sole crossing point over the armistice line to the Israeli-occupied sector of the strategic plateau.
“The regime is on the retreat before the advancing rebels,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
“The regime has now lost control of about 80 percent of towns and villages in Quneitra province.”
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/110660/World/Region/Rebels-seize-most-of-Syrian-side-of-Golan-truce-li.aspx
CNN – Fmr. Iraq General: U.S. mishandled ISIS
Two retired Colonels: Obamas ISIS plan is too little too late
http://www.westernjournalism.com/two-retired-colonels-arent-buying-obama-selling/
Exactly. They’re just refraining from saying, “He wants us to lose. Let IS germinate a couple years, they’ll be begging him to be their Caliph.”
Or maybe duke it out with Erdogan, that wretched little weasel.
True, although more and more pundits are starting to (slowly) say that Obama is working to destroy the US and we have to stop him. I think they are paying attention to history and know what happened to Churchill, they don’t want to be kicked out of their jobs after the war is fought and won.
Turkeys Frankenstein Monster
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4698/turkey-frankenstein-monster
Excellent article!
Burak Bekdil does a great story justice. Wickedly told, I’m still smiling.
How’s Erdogan going to end up?
He will either be Caliph or dead.
Yep. They play for keeps.
The Case for Israel’s Just War Against Hamas – Chapter 1
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4696/hamas-terror-tunnels-chapter-1
His bio doesn’t include his years-long tenure as regular columnist for Playboy Magazine.
He’s actually not so bad. A neighbor for years and years.
Dersh does a weekly column for the Jerusalem Post. It’s syndicated everywhere. He gathers a pile of these columns into books at regular intervals.
No he isn’t that bad, he is an honest man who I often disagree with politically but he will not defend the crooks on the left unless he things their actions aren’t criminal.
THE TELEGRAPH – Turkish government co-operated with al-Qaeda in Syria, says former US ambassador
Officials supported the extremist group’s Syrian wing in a failed attempt to moderate extremists, according to Francis Ricciardone
Turkey has directly supported al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria in defiance of the United States, the former American ambassador to Ankara has said.
The Turkish authorities thought they could work with extremist Islamist groups in the Syrian civil war and at the same time push them to become more moderate, Francis Ricciardone, who was until late June the US ambassador to Ankara, told journalists in a briefing.
That led them to work with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s branch, as well as hardline Salafi Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham. Mr Ricciardone said that he tried to persuade the Turkish government to close its borders to the groups, but to no avail.
“We ultimately had no choice but to agree to disagree,” he said. “The Turks frankly worked with groups for a period, including al Nusra, whom we finally designated as we’re not willing to work with.”
Turkey allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and volunteers heading for the Syrian rebel cause from the start of the uprising, and there have long been accusations that it did not do enough to distinguish between “moderate” groups and extremists.
But this is the first time a senior American official – albeit one no longer in service – has said openly that Turkey was working with al-Qaeda.
Ironically, the Turkish policy has been effective in one way – Jabhat al-Nusra is now seen as relatively moderate compared to its splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). But in other respects, it has backfired.
President Barack Obama repeatedly stalled on providing more support to the rebel cause, fearing weapons would get into the hands of extremists.
Then Isil split from Jabhat al-Nusra in the summer of last year, taking thousands of its recruits and their weapons with it, along with territory the group controlled in the east of the country.
Turkish officials yesterday cited the fact that Isil are holding hostage 49 Turks sized from the country’s consulate in Mosul in northern Iraq as a reason not to take part in the US-led military coalition to take on the group.
Turkish analysts say the government is also worried about a wider backlash by Isil, which now has recruiting stations and supporters entrenched in the country.
“For a long time the Islamic State militants have operated under the policy of ‘benign neglect’,” said Sinan Ulgen, a former diplomat and head of the Istanbul foreign policy think-tank Edam.
He said that the authorities would now start to move against Isil inside the country and support the American coalition, but without advertising the fact.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, met Turkish leaders yesterday but noticeably held back from publicly asking Turkey to alter its insistence that American forces could not launch military raids on Isil positions from its territory.
Turkey is a key Nato ally and host to a major US base at Incirlik, in the south of the country.
President Barack Obama’s new determination to intervene in the multi-pronged civil war in Syria, attacking Isil from the air and supporting “moderate” rebels on the ground, continued to come under fire.
In particular, doubt has been cast on the potential effectiveness of the non-militant rebels, fighting on two fronts against both Isil and the regime. A new CIA estimate revised the figure for the number of fighters for Isil in Syria and Iraq as 20,000-31,500. […]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11093478/Turkish-government-co-operated-with-al-Qaeda-in-Syria-says-former-US-ambassador.html
It’s all coming out. But watch: We’re going to end up saving Erdogan’s scrawny little neck. A pity.
At least he may shut up about making the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Unless POS becomes caliph and Erdogan offers it as an inaugural gift…
Maybe, but both he and Obama know that the losers in the race to be Caliph will always be a danger to the new Caliph so they will have to be executed. Remember they are playing by 7th Century rules not 21st Century rules.
Deliciously gruesome.
‘Qatar paid ransom for release of Fijian peacekeepers’
Syrian opposition sources say 45 Fijian UN peacekeepers were freed after Qatar paid $20 million to captors from the al-Qaeda-linked group Nusra Front in Syria.
The report comes a day after the Qatari Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that it had helped to secure the release of the peacekeepers following “the request of the government of Fiji”.
“The efforts of the State of Qatar led to the successful release of the Fijian soldiers… who had been held for two weeks,” the Gulf emirate said in a statement.
Qatar said it had acted on “humanitarian” grounds, and that did not hesitate to mobilise all its means and diplomatic channels to save lives”.
A UN spokesman previously said the abductors had made no demands to secure their release, “and there were no concessions”.
The Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper further reported that Qatar had paid the Islamist organization $1 million for the release of each soldier. However, an official confirmation regarding this information has yet to be obtained.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570447,00.html
This is in one pocket out the other!
Egypt’s Brotherhood leaders to quit Qatar
Amr Darrag, a leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, said several members were relocating to “spare Qatar embarrassment”, in a statement posted on his Facebook page late Friday.
http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-brotherhood-leaders-quit-qatar-110521853.html
Yup and they hope it will buy them good will from the west.
LEBANON – Man Held after Threatening 3 Children with ‘Slaughter’ in Video
A 30-year-old man was arrested Friday after he appeared in a video in which he terrorizes three young boys and threatens to slaughter them with a knife.
“The Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces has managed to arrest 30-year-old Lebanese suspect M. F. in the Nabatiyeh town of Ebba, after he threatened three toddlers with slaughter in a video circulated on social networking websites,” LBCI television reported.
“Who shall we slaughter first?” the man asks in the video, in which only his knife-wielding hand appears.
“Put your hand here or else I will sever your head,” he tells one of the terrified boys, who cry their lungs out throughout the video.
“You, come here … Do you belong to Daesh?” the man says, using an acronym for the full Arabic name of the extremist Islamic State group, which has recently beheaded two Lebanese soldiers.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/147250-man-held-after-threatening-3-children-with-slaughter-in-video
I’d like to kill him!
Wouldn’t it be great to just keep kicking him ’til he stopped making noise?
Don’t sink to his level, kill him quick and go on about your business, torturing him would be sinking to near his level.
Uganda on alert over ‘foiled al-Shabab plot’ (BBC, Sept 13, 2014)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29193649
“The authorities in Uganda have uncovered a terrorist cell which they believe was planning an imminent attack, the US embassy in Kampala says.
It said the cell belonged to Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, but this has yet to be confirmed by Ugandan police.
The embassy earlier warned US citizens in the capital to stay at home during a police operation to uncover the cell.
Ugandan police say they have increased security in public places across Kampala, and made several arrests.
Earlier this week, the US embassy warned of possible revenge attacks against US targets by al-Shabab in response to the US air strike that killed the group’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane on 2 September….”
This “war” or “kinda war-ish” is interesting.
Israel’s just gone through this terminology tug-of-war.
It started as an operation – “Operation Protective Edge” – and remained just that, even after the ground offensive began. Bibi insisted on limiting the objective to “sustained calm” not “defeating Hamas” — and the characterization spoke to his intent more than anything else.
It was a message first to Israelis: We can’t do a full-bore ground war now, we will stop well short of an optimal outcome. Don’t get your hopes up, we’re going in just to stop the madness, then we’re out.
Infuriating as it is, I understand why and agree with him [now, anyway]. But most Israelis were disappointed and angry. For the southern third of the country it sure felt like war. Less affluent and more Russian-speaking, they resented as disparaging this purely verbal de-escalation.
The message to the outside world was more readily understood, I think: Our intentions and pursuit of them are defensive and will remain so. Response will be calibrated to provocation.
Even so, the world came down on Israel and Jews everywhere like a ton of bricks. The unspeakable was spoken and it can’t be taken back.
Obama shut down Ben Gurion Airport. Look at a map, it can’t get more isolating than that.
3. We don’t have any more business in Iraq. We used to, now we don’t. Let Iran and IS go at it. If there’s a Yazidi here or there, we’ll help out. Otherwise, we can drop some expiring MREs.
Or Turkey or Egypt, for that matter.
5. Foley’s family is grieving, of course. Their expectations were way out of line, but I’m sorry for their loss. The guy was a jerk, but no one should suffer like that.
6. Twin sermons, how about that!
President Sisi must have many ears on Fridays. Some of these imams get carried away with fantasies about flying carpets, rutting goats, and trembling khilafahas. Settle them down with a nice warm glass of camel urine.
Morally we do have business in Iraq, our President pulled us out early and left a government that wasn’t yet ready to defend themselves, this makes the current mess his problem and by extension ours. However we will not do what is needed while he or others of his ilk are in power, we will continue to mess around pouring gas on the fire and letting the people we should protect be killed or enslaved.
You’re right.
Our Dear Leader left them high and dry. Been there, done that. Rotten thing to do to our own soldiers.
Too bad there’s no requirement that a candidate for POTUS should serve in the armed forces.
Of course Kerry did, even served the enemy while he was at it.
Am I the only one that thinks these “hostages” were killed together weeks ago?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2754934/ISIS-release-video-claiming-beheading-British-hostage-David-Haines.html
I bet you’re right, Tasha.
All the evidence says they were, including IS apologizing for releasing the second video early.
SAUDI ARABIA – EBOLA + Pilgrims
Stringent Ebola checks for 3 million Haj pilgrims