Showing posts with label The Mideast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mideast. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Bulletin: U.S.State Department 01/13/2016

"US. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned counterparts in Tehran, convinced the Iranians that the ships' movement was an accident and was not an intentional violation of Iran's territorial waters." - @NBCNews

UPDATE: James Taylor in route to Tehran with written apology, the newest porn releases and will serenade Iranian Military Commanders........ Developing.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

State Department Orders Crash Course on Negotiatin'

 Training is Meant to Increase Understanding and Effectiveness 

"Mr. Secretary Would You Like to Lead the Class in the Pledge of Allegiance?"

After disastrous negotiations with Iran in which they were allowed to run the table and call the shots, the Obama State Department has decided it just might be time to learn the fine art of not getting the floor mopped with their faces when dealing with adversaries.  

"Less than a week following the framework of a nuclear deal with Iran that allows the Islamic Republic to continue operating core aspects of its program, the State Department is looking for a new training course on how to negotiate.  The agency released a solicitation for “Negotiations” on Wednesday, revealing that the State Department is seeking a class for U.S. diplomats on “making and receiving concessions wisely.”
“The overall course teaches the essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes for U.S. diplomats to succeed in any of 275 overseas posts performing the full spectrum of political and economic work,” the solicitation said. “This module will focus on the complex art of negotiating across diverse cultures to find common ground for advancing mutual interests.”
The training is meant to increase “understanding and effectiveness” of negotiations between foreign powers.
The State Department said upon completion of the course diplomats will be better able to describe “basic, universal negotiating concepts and vocabulary,” and identify “objectives and underlying interests of negotiating parties. Preparing relevant strategies for diplomatic persuasion,” and “analyzing ‘Lessons Learned’ through debriefing to improve future outcomes,” are other goals of the course."
The three-week course also seeks for State Department diplomats to understand “cultural considerations” and “building trust” between their foreign counterparts."
READ MORE 

I guess this should come as no surprise to any of us that this bunch have no skills and couldn't negotiate their way out of an open box, considering the previous Secretary of State spent 5 years doing nothing but fly around wearing out government aircraft, having cocktails with world leaders and reminiscing about the Bill Clinton years....


Saturday, August 9, 2014

Charging Hell With a Water Pistol

Obama's incompetence meets its greatest challenge to date.



by Robert Janicki
If President Obama thinks he can get away with pin prick attacks on the ISIS terrorists storming into Iraq creating murder and mayhem among the various minority populations and then call it a day, he is seriously mistaken.  Obama is in over his head like at no other time in his presidency.  Obama has fewer options available to confront the current terrorism than he has had at any point in the past.  Millions will suffer from Obama's many failures, while hundreds of thousands will die.  Meanwhile, Obama will vacation at Martha's Vineyard, barnstorm to fund raise, and then give stump speeches across America to blame everyone else for the failures of his foreign policy around the world. 
Of all of Obama's many foreign relations failures, and there are many, Iraq is coming back to illustrate his most substantial failure in simply walking away from Iraq in 2011.  Obama was driven ideologically and politically to withdraw from Iraq to satisfy the far left anti war radicals in the Democrat Party.  
Obama's intransigence in dealing with Iraq to establish a "status of forces" agreement to leave residual U.S. forces in Iraq and his stubborn determination to turn his back on Iraq, will result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of minorities in northern Iraq, which we are already beginning to see as ISIS terrorists reign over the northwestern portion of Iraq.  Make no mistake.  Obama walked away from Iraq and simply used Iraq's Prime Minister refusal to accept only a small training force in Iraq, as an excuse to completely withdraw from Iraq.  It didn't have to happen and all serious political and military analysts acknowledge that tact.
But that's just the obvious tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Netanyahu Schools Barack on Mideast Peace

  “What we want is peace – not a piece of paper”


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Monday, pushing back against pressure from the White House to swiftly cut a deal with the Palestinians as the president warned time was running out for peace.
“Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t,” Netanyahu said to Obama, in front of the press. “The people of Israel know that it’s the case.”
“What we want is peace – not a piece of paper,” he said.
Netanyahu called for a “real peace… based on mutual recognition,” and chided his Palestinian counterparts for promoting “incessant violence” against the Jewish state.
“Israel, the Jewish state, is the realization of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination,” Netanyahu said. “I think it’s about time they recognized a nation state for the Jewish people. The time frame that we have set up for completing these negotiations is coming near and some tough decisions are going to have to be made." 
"We’ve only been here for about 4,000 years.”  
Read More

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Juxtaposition: The Situation Room

 Situation Room - August 31, 2013 as Obama meets in council with advisors 
to plan strategy to extricate his ass from the box to which his ego put 
him in over blustering threats to Syria.

*Note- Eric Holder is in attendence - there must be a lie in there somewhere.



The Situation Room as it would have appeared the night of September 11, 2012  as the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi was under attack
and 6 Americans were being killed.
h/t The Velvet Hammer


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

He's Wrecked America. Time to Turn Towards the Middle East

A senior Syrian official has warned that Israel will “come under fire” should the United states pursue any military aggression against the Assad regime. As reported by the Israeli news site Ynet, Halef al-Muftah, a leading member of the Syrian Ba’ath national council, and a former aide to the Syrian media minister said today that the Syrian government has “strategic weapons aimed at Israel.”Making the comments on an American Arabic radio station, Muftah added that Damascus views Israel as being “behind the aggression” and therefore will be retaliated against should the US strike Syria.The official also stated that the Syrian government would not be beholden to threats from the US, and added “If the US or Israel err through aggression and exploit the chemical issue, the region will go up in endless flames, affecting not only the area’s security, but the world’s.” 
Read More

Saturday, June 15, 2013

America, Meet Our New Syrian Rebel Allies

Talk Straight: 

When a 14-year-old boy from the Syrian city of Aleppo named Mohammad Qatta was asked to bring one of his customers some coffee, he reportedly refused, saying, “Even if [Prophet] Mohammed comes back to life, I won’t.”
According to a story reported by two grassroots Syrian opposition groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Media Center, Qatta’s words got him killed. A group of Islamist rebels, driving by in a black car, reportedly heard the exchange. They stopped the car, grabbed the boy and took him away.
Qatta, in refusing to serve a customer coffee – it’s not clear why – had used a phrase that the Islamist rebels took as an insult toward the Prophet Mohammed, the most important figure in Islam. That offhand comment, made by a boy, was apparently enough for these rebels to warrant a grisly execution and public warning.
The rebels, according to ABC News’ reconstruction of the Syrian groups’ reports, appear to have whipped Qatta. When they brought him back to where they’d taken him, his head was wrapped by a shirt.
The rebels waited for a crowd to gather; Qatta’s parents were among them. Speaking in classical Arabic, they announced that Qatta had committed blasphemy and that anyone else who dared insult the Prophet Mohammed would share his fate. Then, the shirt still wrapped around the boy’s head, the rebels shot him in the mouth and neck.
As Islamist groups continue to take territory in the Syrian civil war, more Syrians are coming under the control of armed extremists who enforce an austere and sometimes violent version of sharia law. The Washington Post’s Liz Sly has reported on other such punishments in Aleppo, where the al-Qaeda-allied group Jabhat al-Nusra is thought to lead the newly established sharia enforcement authority.
Such incidents are a sign of the rise of extremism within a rebel movement that began, over two years ago, largely unified behind the goals of ousting President Bashar al-Assad and establishing democracy.
Say hello to your new allies, courtesy of Barack Obama-the most inept, naive American President we have ever seen.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Nothing Says Main Street America Like Detroit...or Al Jazeera

"Our intention is to cover the Main Street stories. We don't believe there is a channel covering the American Main Street."

"The original Arabic-language Al Jazeera, which is aimed at a Middle Eastern audience, has been accused of anti-American and anti-Israeli bias, and of being a mouthpiece of terrorist propaganda such as al-Qaida videos from Osama bin Laden aired by the network in the 2000s. Other critics say the network, which has been on the air since 1996, is too pro-Western. 
The new cable network, which is separate from its Arabic-language counterpart in the Mideast, will be staffed by Americans and aimed at a U.S. audience with domestic news coverage. It will air on the former Current TV channel, which had been home to ex-Gov. Jennifer Granholm's left-leaning political talk show. 
It picked Detroit because of news value, not specifically because of the area's large Arab-American population or the potential advertising dollars from the three local automakers, executives said.
Emphasis will be placed on long-form and investigative reporting and grassroots-based coverage of domestic news, including lifestyle and cultural topics.
The new channel has launched a "heavy, intensive outreach" tour of its bureau cities, meeting with local civic, business, media and political leaders and groups. That includes the three Detroit automakers, which the channel is expected to target for advertising. 
Al Jazeera America's leadership said it has a multi-pronged strategy for overcoming any stigma, with the foremost tactic being that the network will be non-ideological journalism, with editorial independence, run by Americans for a U.S. audience."
Read More

Detroit joins other cities like Chicago - home of the Nation of Islam and growing Arab population - in having the honor of a Al Jazeera news bureau.

Just a few facts about Detroit:

Unemployment rate: 18.0% (Feb 2013)

Black or African American population - 775,772 - 81.55%

Persons under 18 years -  percent 2010 - 26.7%  

Old Arabian proverb: "If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow."

Friday, February 15, 2013

Egyptian Human Rights Activist: ‘Your Support For Muslim Brotherhood Has Led to Gang Rape, Torture & Murder’


From Bahieddin Hassan’s (Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies) open letter to Barack Obama as published in Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram:

To President Barack Obama:
 "Three years ago, I had the honour of meeting you in the White House as part of a delegation of some 50 human rights defenders from around the world. I was one of three rights defenders who were asked to speak during the 40 minutes out of the 90-minute meeting during which you and your advisors were present.
When it was my turn to address those gathered, I urged you to consider the gulf between the content of your speech to the Arab and Islamic worlds in Cairo in June 2009 and the reality of American policy in February 2010, noting that they seemed separated by much more than simply a few months. In Cairo, you promised to stand by peoples of the region and engage with them, but eight months later your administration's policy was to turn its back on the people and work instead with local regimes.  
Rape, which is recognized internationally as a weapon of war, is now used in Egypt as a political weapon to deter opponents from gathering in Tahrir Square. According to multiple testimonies in recent weeks, the assaults differ radically from the forms of sexual harassment prevalent in Egypt in previous years. According to victims and video footage, female protesters are separated from the demonstrations, taken to other locations, and raped, in what appear to be organised, previously planned attacks. The faces of the assailants show no signs of emotion or sexual excitement. The objective appears to be to break the political will of the victims through profound degradation, whether they are raped, sexually mauled, or stripped entirely of their clothes — if they manage to escape the mob. In more than one case, a knife was used to penetrate the victims’ vaginas, and multiple women underwent hysterectomies after being assaulted. In this context, we can understand the attempted rape of a 70-year-old woman known for her political affiliation as well as the sexual assault of a number of men.
Mr President, when I spoke with you in 2010, I asked why the US administration condemns repressive practices in Iran while remaining silent when Arab regimes engage in the same violations. Over recent months, statements by your administration have similarly failed to address violations and have even blamed protesters and victims for violence committed in the context of demonstrations. Indeed, the stances of your administration have given political cover to the current authoritarian regime in Egypt and allowed it to fearlessly implement undemocratic policies and commit numerous acts of repression.
Is it a coincidence that the statements issued by your administration reflect the same political rhetoric used by the new authoritarian regime in Egypt? But when these statements come from the world’s superpower — the one most able to have a positive or negative impact on policies in Egypt and the region, not to mention the biggest donor and material supporter of the Egyptian regime for the past 35 years — they become lethal ammunition, offering political protection to perpetrators of murder, torture, brutality and rape.
Please, ask officials with your administration to stop talking about Egypt for a while, at least until we can bury our dead, comfort their grieving families, treat the victims of rape and torture, find the disappeared, and read the wills of a new generation of young people who plan not for their weddings but for their funerals."

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Obama Foreign Policy Problem


By Rosemary L.



Barack Obama brought to the presidency the foreign policy experience of a community organizer, that is to say, none. And it shows. Then turned it over to an incompetent ex- president's wife. If there is such a thing as an Obama Doctrine, it might be this: React slowly to a foreign crisis and, in a conflict, pick a side hostile to U.S. interests.

America's Foreign Policy Disastrous Dynamic Duo

Libya: Without the U.S. taking the dominant military lead, NATO’s feeble effort was exposed as a shocking weakness in the military alliance. And Obama still hasn’t explained why Gaddafi’s troops shooting into crowds warranted retribution, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could do the same with impunity. What an ill-conceived effort, with no real leadership and no clear goals. And the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month and the aftermath just shows the the Obama impotence.

Iran:  In 2009, when Tehran protesters looked to Washington for help, Obama offered little support as he held on to the ludicrous dream that his magical words could sway Iran’s Islamist leaders. His naive stance snubbed the masses of people hoping for democratic reform while ensuring that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will continue his march on to make Iran a dangerous armed nuclear power.

Egypt:  First, Joe Biden says longtime U.S. ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was not a dictator, then the administration calls for him to step aside. By withdrawing support for Mubarak, Obama sent shock waves to other U.S. allies in the Middle East, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and gave an opening for the Muslim Brotherhood rise to power.

Israel:  Obama’s speech seeking a return to Israel’s 1967 borders undercut America’s only reliable ally in the region. His attempt to broker any kind of accord between Israel and the Palestinians is in disarray. Israel is rightfully concerned with Obama’s hard-line on Israeli borders and his fondness for the Arab world. And with the “Arab Spring” sweeping Islamists into power, Israel has been further isolated in the region.

Pakistan: This supposed U.S. ally has consistently undermined U.S. anti-terror efforts, as its intelligence service seemingly is supportive of anti-American jihadists. Pakistan either allowed safe harbor for Osama bin Laden or was totally incompetent despite billions of dollars of U.S. aid. The mixed signals from the Obama administration following the Osama bin Laden raid only further damaged the relationship with Pakistan, a nuclear power.

Russia: Obama’s clumsy attempt to push the reset button with Russia had the U.S. making concessions on missile defense and nuclear arms without gaining anything in return. Instead of moving closer to the U.S., Russia is aligning with China, Brazil, India and other developing nations on key issues. Putin sees him as a wimp.

Apologizing:  Obama’s apology tour shortly after taking office sent the message that he didn’t really think all that highly about America. Not only wasn’t America exceptional, but it was guilty of heinous offenses. No thank you, Mr. President, we honor those who died for our country, we can be proud of the causes they served and families they left behind. 
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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Stumbling into Waterloo

Diogenes

Jimmy Carter would be pleased with Barack Obama’s foreign policy/national security record, mostly because it’s helping his foreign policy/national security record look almost respectable.
The reality is that both men ignored reality. 

Carter’s policies are best described as appeasement.  In Obama's case, willingness to look the other way during the civilian riots after Iran’s rigged elections, treating Russia like a trusted ally, and the administrations apologies to a terrorist organization for the actions of a third party half a world away is what appeasement looks like.

This map of the Middle East shows 9 nations where violence has either broken out this week or where tensions are rising by the hour.

In 2008, John McCain’s campaign sunk when he badly mishandled the credit crisis. This year, Obama is badly mishandling the Middle East in a time of extreme panic.

If this administration made a mistake on an isolated incident, it’s possible the American people could overlook the mistake. It isn’t likely that they’ll ignore a president's misstatements at a time when an entire region of the world simultaneously erupts in violence. What’s happening now isn’t a misstep. It’s a crisis brought on by wrongheaded thinking over an entire presidential term. Any administration that thinks terrorist attacks are “man-caused disasters” and wars are “overseas contingency operations” is living in fantasy land anyway.

An administration that reads terrorists their rights is woefully weak. An administration that refuses to call Maj. Nidal Hassan’s shooting spree at Ft. Hood a terrorist attack is woefully weak.

Presidential administrations can get through international situations. It’s difficult getting through international crises of their own making.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Faulty Suicide Bomber Belts Recalled

Middle Finger News - With increasing instances of "work place accidents" al Qaeda terrorist leaders have announced the recall of 5,000 suicide bomb belts to correct a problem they say could either cause the bombs to detonate unexpectedly or fail to detonate at the proper time.  The recall covers all 120 series and 120b series bombs with a manufacture date between August and December of this year.

"The safety of our  suicide bombers are of a very high priority and pivotal to the success of the al Qaeda organization" a spokesman for the terrorist group,  Gezzer al-Ybama  told Middle Finger News. "We want to be assuring our al Qaeda personnel worldwide that encountering such a problem is of a rare occurrence  For those who lost their lives improperly due to the faulty bombs, we offer of our heartfelt apologies to your families who now must live with the shame," said al-Ybama. "As reparations to our fallen comrades, al Qaeda will be offering each terrorist martyr ten extra virgins and a camel upon their arrival in heaven."

It's too early to say whether this will hurt recruitment numbers going forward, even though there was a strong class to come out of al Qaeda summer camp  last year, but  al Qaeda  will have to undertake more community outreach programs if they want to avoid the inevitable public backlash. As it is, The "Big Brothers, Big Martyrs" and "Terrorism is FUNdamental" programs have shared some limited success in recent years, helping at-risk terrorist youths on the path to Jihad.
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Friday, December 2, 2011

Muslim Brotherhood Takes Elections

Islamist parties are expected to control Cairo's parliament by the spring with the Muslim Brotherhood projected to be in the driver's seat.

Israel National News.com - Judges overseeing the vote count in Egypt's parliamentary elections say Islamist parties have won a majority of the contested seats in the first round. They say the Muslim Brotherhood could take 45 percent of the seats up for grabs. The liberal Egyptian bloc coalition and the ultra-fundamentalist Nour party are competing for second place.


Together, Islamist parties are expected to control a majority of parliamentary seats by March. This week's vote was the first of six stages of parliamentary elections that will last until then. Continued success by Islamists will allow them to give Cairo's government and constitution a decidedly Islamist character.

It could also lead Cairo to shift away from the West towards the Iranian axis. t will also diminish the influence of Cairo’s caretaker junta, which has sought to maintain the Mubarak-era status quo and keep US foreign aid dollars – running into the billions per annum – flowing. Analysts say Islamists may also seek to annul the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which could prompt Israel to seize the Sinai Peninsula for the fourth time in its history to create a strategic buffer zone.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which birthed the virulently anti-Israel Hamas terror militia, might also seek to effectively annex Gaza. Should Hamas be triumphant in future PA elections, they would also gain a foothold in Judea and Samaria.

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Israel Should Rethink Plans for Air Strikes on Iranian Nuke Facilities

Looks Like Iran is doing a good job 
of blowing themselves up.

Mysterious explosion rocks Iranian city of Isfahan:
JPOST.COM 11/28/2011 - A large explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan, semi-official FARS news reported Monday afternoon. According to the report, the blast occurred shortly after 2:00 p.m. FARS did not reveal the cause of the explosion, which was large enough to be heard throughout Iran's third largest city.

 The cause of explosion unknown. The explosion occurred two weeks after a massive explosion west of Tehran which killed 17 troops, including an IRGC officer responsible for the development of some of Iran's most advanced weapons.
Iran claimed it occurred when soldiers were moving explosives between bases. Isfahan is home to nuclear experimental reactor, uranium enrichment sites.


Military research caused missile base blast:
REUTERS 11/16/2011- A massive explosion that killed 17 troops including an officer regarded as the architect of Iran's missile defenses last week took place during research on weapons that could strike Israel, the armed forces chief of staff said on Wednesday.  Iranian news sites identified one of the dead as Brig.- Gen. Hassan Moghadam, a top IRGC officer responsible for the development of some of Iran’s most advanced weapons. The explosion took place inside a base called Bid Ganeh, west of Tehran, which is reportedly used to manufacture and store Iran’s long-range ballistic missiles.

The cause of the explosion was unknown. It was not the first time that mysterious explosions struck in Iran. In recent years, a number of scientists have been killed and dozens of IRGC officers have also been killed in various plane crashes.
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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Bin Laden Videos Leaked

As I reported earlier about Government leaks of Osama Bid Laden computer information  and stories of a porn video stash, today inside sources leaked several videos captured in the raid on the Bin Laden compound, including a tape of the late terrorist leader watching DVDs of canceled UPN series, Moesha. According to English  translations provided with the tapes, Bin Laden asks someone off-screen why Moesha, played by Brandy Norwood, doesn't have numerous children as she appears to be 'fertile as the river Nile.' 
The series which ran from 1996 to 2001 was apparently a Bin Laden favorite along with the MSNBC prime time lineup. Bin Laden believed MSNBC was actually an Al Jazeera news parody program like the Daily Show where actors mocked and criticized former President Bush for several hours a night. Bin Laden is heard to say in one tape he actual thought that Ed Schultz's head was going to explode like a car full of suicide bombers.
 
But the strangest tape showed Bin Laden arguing with a camera operator as they seemed to be attempting to film an infomercial for something called The Beard Club for Men. Bin Laden holds up an unlabeled plastic tube filled of liquid. The camera operator complains that without a label the liquid, thought to be a beard thickener, won't 'read.' Bin Laden is seen arguing they need the close up for a split screen image. They'll show both the liquid and Osama sporting a rich luxuriant beard fluttering like a flag. Bin Laden explains he'll then voice over, 'I'm not just the Beard Club president, but I'm also a client by the will of Allah, may the prophet be praised. Now shoot it the way I want or you're scorpion meat.'
 
Other tapes consist of short vignettes including one of Bin Laden laughing maniacally while playing a joke on a guard by putting goat turds in his boots. 

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 Image: Mad,Mad World
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Is Bin Laden's "Porn Stash" Story CIA PsyOp?

Did Reuters get Punked?

Rumors of an alleged discovery of “a stash of pornography” in Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan have spread like wildfire since Friday, when Reuters published an “exclusive” report   on the subject. The report, written by Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria, cites “current and former US officials [...] who discussed the discovery [...] on condition of anonymity”. 

According to the allegations, “the pornography recovered in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive”. The report was almost immediately picked up by several news outlets, including The New York Times, which notes that the disclosure “will be welcomed by counter-terrorism officials because it could tarnish the al-Qaeda founder's legacy and erode his appeal”. Indeed. It appears that only Danger Room‘s Spencer Ackerman thought it wise to air a brief disclaimer to the effect that the “welcomed disclosure” may in fact be “a CIA information operation”. He has a point.

‘Information operations’ is a technical term that includes a variety of tactics, such as psychological and deception operations, aimed at distorting enemy information and information systems. The history of information operations is as long as spying itself. Spreading rumors of alleged sexual impropriety to encourage disillusion among adherents of adversary ideologies was used by the Allies and the Axis alike during World War II —most effectively by Nazi media propagandist Julius Streicher. Soon afterwards, it was turned into a science by the Cold War’s principal adversaries. After the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet KGB circulated countless stories about Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong’s alleged preference for underage virgins from the Chinese countryside, supposedly delivered to him every evening by his trusted advisers. According to the Mitrokhin Archive, the Soviets were also instrumental in encouraging rumors about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s alleged homosexuality.

In more recent times, allegations of sexual impropriety have been used extensively against North Korean strongman Kim Il Sung by South Korean intelligence, as well as by the Malaysian secret services against the country’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, in an attempt to sabotage his political career. The history of American secret services, particularly as revealed in the post-Watergate investigations of the Church and Pike Congressional committees, reveals that they frequently employ information operations in the pursuit of strategic goals. Observers of such methods can point to several post-9/11 “news stories” of alleged sexual impropriety by members of al-Qaeda and other militant Islamist groups. In one recent example, a news report alleged that “Islamic terrorists rape young men as a means of recruitment for suicide bombings”. According to that highly improbable story, which first surfaced in British tabloid newspaper The Sun, “[r]ape creates a social stigma and fear [...] that leave Muslims prepared to die”.

Of course, the allegations about bin Laden’s “porn stash” may well prove to be true. However, considering the nature and mission of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies involved in the “war on terrorism”, news outlets must exercise caution in swallowing every “anonymous revelation” about the intelligence ramifications of Osama bin Laden’s assassination. This is indeed a “wilderness of mirrors”, and news reporters ought to know better by now.

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Victory Lap is Over.... Now What?

The death of Osama Bin Laden and recent intelligence treasures being found on Bin Laden's captured computer hard drives gives the appearance we've struck a major blow to al Qaeda and international terrorism. Let's hope that's true. But when taken as part of the totality of the Middle East we may be looking at a vastly different and much more dangerous landscape soon.

If what the government is telling us is true, al Qaeda has split in half on religious grounds with a more radical factions ignoring Bin Laden's leadership. It looks to me as consistent with what we've seen in Egypt and Libya where more radical factions have pushed for the removal of less strident or weaker leaders.  Whether international terrorist groups are leading the charge or going with the flow is immaterial. The real issue is the further radicalization of the Middle East and its impact on the war on terrorism. Dealing a severe  blow to al Qaeda, or at least a portion of it, is a good thing, but if we leave it at that we're setting ourselves up for failure yet again. A failure larger and more deadly then 9/11.

Our fearless leader can do as many victory laps as he wants, no one is really impressed with his arrogance. But he's already come out supporting the forces in Egypt and Libya, both of whom have clear ties to radical Islam. 



Doesn't it bother anyone else how quickly the Obama Administration sided with these more radical elements in North Africa? It's not like they have hidden their agenda or their hatred of America. Yet, we're content to give them cover and let them do the dirty work in getting rid of corrupt leaders we no longer "need" in power. If they succeed, something will have to fill the vacuum and I don't think it's going to be filled by Muslims who want Walmarts or Starbucks everywhere much less peacefully co-existence with the civilized West.


We can all breathe a sigh of relief that Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes, but the war on terrorism isn't over by that one act.  And if recent history and the enemy's perceived incompetence and weakness of our present leadership are any indication, there is a bigger storm on the horizon, and we're not ready for it.
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Friday, March 4, 2011

Clinton: We're Going With the Winning Side.

The U.S. State Department issued its strongest message to date about the developing situation in the Middle East by making absolutely clear their intentions "to stand by whichever side winds up winning". 

President Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the press conference where she made clear, "We are vigilantly standing on the sidelines and offering the strongest possible monitoring of events from a distance.”
The pro-winning-side message, articulated by Secretary Clinton, was intended to send a clear signal that the United States is willing to put all of its power, might and prestige on the line as soon as matters are settled.

The President, speaking without the luxury of a teleprompter stumbled through a repeat of Clinton's statement and added Uh......The administration backs  Secretary Clinton’s mixed message...uh ...one hundred percent.  The President then went on to apologize to the owners of a middle eastern restaurant down the street from the White House for any perceived  hostile posturing by the U.S.  

Secretary Clinton seemed to rule any possible change in policy concerning the present situation in the future, “We will remain consistent in our policy of issuing meaningless statements at random intervals.”

 Clinton also strongly urge dictators to resist the temptation to pass power on to their sons buy reminding them: “If that had happened on ‘The West Wing,’ that would have been Charlie Sheen.”
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Earl of Ketchup Goes Hawkish

U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass), Duke of Heinz, Earl of Ketchup today said the U.S. Military should set up and maintain a No Fly Zone over Libyian airspace.
Sen.Kerry, a [Navy] veteran turned anti-war activist and critic of the use of the military by Reagan, Bush 41 and campaigned for the presidency in part against Bush 43's efforts at waging of war on terror (while never criticizing the bombing of civilians during Clinton's misuse of the air force in Kosovo and ignoring the rivers of Rwanda running red with blood and headless bodies) now wants to inject us into a senseless operation and endangering our fighter pilots over Libyan airspace. 

NO, Senator Kerry! This is a problem better addressed by NATO, the European forces of NATO! Europe imports more of their oil from Libya then America and  could be confronted by mass immigration that could come their way from north Africa, so let them let deal with it.
It's their backyard. 

Let the French Italians, Germans and  Belgians pilots take the high risk operations of disabling the Libyan air defenses, which must be done first . We have more important things to tend to, like fighting the war on terror for them! 

 And is it just me, or is it coincidental that anti-war demonstrations tend to disappear and some democrats get all brave, gutsy and hawkish when their guys occupy the White House? Just a thought.
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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Jimmy Carter Says The Brotherhood is Cool. That Outa Worry You Right There.

When we talk about the President's ability to influence events, we saw that was incredibly limited even within the context of Egypt. And now if this starts spreading abroad, it’s going to be so far beyond what the United States can influence here.Monica Crowley, Washington Times


"While the pliant liberal and American news media coo over the so-called “freedom” demonstrations in Egypt, there are riots and protests breaking out all over North Africa and beyond Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain, Tunisia." Jane Jamison
*Update 2/17- “Charismatic” Imam Returns to Egypt From Exile
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