ISIS Calls on Obama to Take the ISIL “IS Bucket Challenge”

If you have any doubts that this new Crusade will be anything less than a 24 carat Clusterfuck read on about the Ass Stabbers in Ankra:

'Turkey directly supported al-Qaeda in Syria'

Date: September 13 2014



Turkey has directly supported al-Qaeda’s wing in Syria, in defiance of America, the former US ambassador has disclosed.

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, an al-Qaeda offshoot, as well as hardline Salafi Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham. Mr Ricciardone said that he tried to persuade the Turks to close their 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 [being groups] we're not willing to work with." Turkey allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and volunteers heading to support Syrian rebels 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 with its splinter group, Islamic State. But in other respects, it has backfired.

President Barack Obama repeatedly stalled on providing more support to the rebel cause, fearing weapons would fall into the hands of extremists.

Islamic State split from Jabhat al-Nusra in the summer of last year, taking thousands of its recruits and their weapons, along with territory the group controlled in the east of the country. Turkish officials yesterday cited the fact that Isil is 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 Islamic State, 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 Islamic State inside the country and support the American coalition, but without advertising the fact.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, met Turkish leaders on Friday) but noticeably held back from publicly asking Turkey to alter its insistence that US forces could not launch military raids on Islamic Satatepositions from its territory. Turkey is a key NATO ally and host to a major US base at Incirlik, in the south of the country.

Telegraph, London