COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, November 16, 2015

Isis Cannot be Contained, It Must be Destroyed to a Man

Putin Makes the Case on Who Created ISIS/DAESH



Is Daesh/ ISIL a modern Raiding Pirate state?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
Some analysts trying to understand Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) had suggested that it differs from al-Qaeda in its emphasis on taking and holding territory, thus becoming a state– something that al-Qaeda was largely uninterested in. They expected the self-proclaimed “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to concentrate his resources on local statebuilding.
The Daesh attack on Paris, assuming that was what it was, contradicts the state-building model and looks more like the tactics of al-Qaeda. How to understand this paradox?
Al-Qaeda from the late 1990s had scattered cells in numerous countries but held no territory on its own. It had a doctrine that terrorist strikes could initiate the popular overthrow governments or make them withdraw from the fray. It thus put its efforts into hitting the “far enemy” (i.e. the United States) rather than the “near enemy,” since it had tried striking local states but found them propped up by the US. Thus, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad of Ayman al-Zawahiri joined the Islamic Grouping to assassinate Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat in 1981, hoping the act would lead to a popular uprising on the model of Iran. But the US was giving Egypt $2 bn. a year after Camp David and helped stabilize it. When al-Zawahiri joined Usama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda in northern Pakistan, he was convinced of the “far enemy” strategy. Al-Zawahiri succeeded Bin Laden after the US killed the latter and is now the head of core al-Qaeda.
The contrast between the state-building model and the terror-cell model can easily be exaggerated. The some 5,000 Arab al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan became the 55th Brigade of the Taliban after 1994, and so were in a way a part of a state. But they sacrificed the Taliban state for the opportunity to hit the US and draw it into what they were sure would be a ruinous war in Afghanistan, on the model of their anti-Soviet holy war of the 1980s.
And, Daesh has routinely conducted bombings and other acts of terrorism in Baghdad and elsewhere, as an adjunct to its standing militia and state-building in al-Raqqa and Mosul, attempting to weaken its enemies through terrorism.
Even so, the Paris attacks are clearly a dangerous tactic for a state with territory and a return address (al-Qaeda’s cell structure meant that it did not really have a return address, despite its bases in southeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan). How to think about Daesh’s current strategy?
I would argue that Daesh is analogous to the pirate enclaves of the early modern period. Al-Raqqa, Palmyra, Mosul, Falluja and Ramadi function for it as desert ports, as Tortuga and Port Royal did for pirates in the Caribbean and St. Mary’s on Madagascar did for pirates in the Indian Ocean. It is easy to be misled by the organization’s language of “state.” It is a militia of some 25,000 fighters who conduct raids. They don’t actually do much governing of the places they dominate, and mainly extract resources from them. Tribal raiding states in it for the loot have been common in Middle Eastern history, as with Nadir Shah in the eighteenth century. Looting one city pays for the raid that lets you loot the next. They even make the people who want to emigrate and escape their rule pay a sort of exit ransom.
Pirates liked island strongholds, as Louis Sicking has argued. He says that they used them to shelter their ships from storms, to take on food and water, as dwelling-places, especially in winter, as points from which to intercept cargo ships, as places to store and hide their looted treasure, and as places to keep hostages for ransom.
If we think of the armored vehicles, humvees and other conveyances Daesh captured from the Iraqi army at Mosul as analogous to pirate ships, and of the towns they have taken over as island settlements, we can see that Daesh functions as desert pirates. They captured oil refineries and smuggle gasoline and kerosene (black gold) to Turkey. They take hostages for ransom and store them in their desert ports until they receive payment. With regard to foreign hostages, if they aren’t paid, as is typically the case with US hostages, they execute them very publicly so as to increase the likelihood of payment for the next hostages. They actively seek hostages as a means of money-making. They also capture young women and engage in human trafficking and forms of sex slavery, just as the pirates used to. And, they loot conquered populations, just as the pirates did.
Pirates primarily preyed on the shipping trade, but as an organized naval force they could be enlisted in para-military actions on occasion, as with Pierre Lafitte’s participation on the American side against the British in 1814 as part of the War of 1812. Barataria Bay in Louisiana was Lafitte’s al-Raqqa. It had a population of as many as 1,000 marauders. Since the US population is about 80 times greater today than then, this is like a population of 80,000 in today’s US. That is roughly the pre-Daesh population of al-Raqqa in Syria, the organization’s current capital. Barataria Bay was deployed as a base to attack British vessels coming from Jamaica with the intent of overwhelming New Orleans. It is not so different for Daesh to use its desert ports as bases from which to attack sovereign states like Syria, Iraq and France.
It might be objected that pirate strongholds were typically dens of iniquity whereas Daesh is running a hyper-puritan state. But pirate captains often imposed puritan codes of behavior on their crews. And, the actual behavior of Daesh fighters, who capture, buy and sell slave girls for sex, and loot households, is less puritan than hedonistic, despite their religious slogans.
Seen through this lens, the Daesh attack on Paris was similar to a pirate raid in the past. Modern transportation networks open inland cities to such attacks. Although it was not a direct act of theft in the way most pirate raids would have been, it did have material benefits for the phony caliphate. Daesh leaders hope that such horrific spectacles will help in recruiting foreign fighters with some military experience, the most valuable fighters on Mesopotamian battlefronts (and for whom it has to compete with the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate, the Support Front or Jabhat al-Nusra). Its wealthy Salafi oil tycoon supporters in the Gulf are also likely to send it more money if it is seen as actively taking on the Christian imperial powers of the North Atlantic world. To some extent, the attack was expected to attract men and money, just as a pirate raid of the past would have. Pirate raids often involved forms of brutality and the infliction of humiliation on the adversary. These actions intended to make royal navies chary of frontally attacking the pirates. Likely the Paris attacks also were intended to function as the Madrid bombings of 2004 did, pushing a country out of the Middle East (Spain got out of Iraq after that).
The analogy, as with all analogies, is inexact. But seeing Daesh as a set of raiding pirate strongholds rather than as a conventional state makes sense of its various activities, which include local brigandage, oil and drug smuggling, human trafficking, and raids abroad. The policy implication of this way of viewing it is that President Obama’s containment strategy won’t work. As a raiding state, Daesh can’t be contained. It has to be rolled up, and political concerns about the image of Kurdish or Shiite allies of the US on the ground conquering Sunni Arab populations simply have to be set aside.

150 comments:

  1. And fuck the supporters, enablers and self serving opportunistic states that abet ISIS in any form: Saudi Arabia, The Emirates, Turkey and Israel.

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  2. And that goes for The GOP Likuds Force and all the Neocons and Israeli-firsters in the US media that balance every action on how it supposedly benefits Israel.

    “Do you realize what you have done?”

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    Replies
    1. Officials say training rebels has not been effective in combatting ISIS

      Defense officials say the Obama administration will end the program to train and equip Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

      The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reports that the program, which cost $500 million, has not been found to be effective in combating the terrorist group. Training in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will cease, and a smaller operation in Turkey will instead focus on teaching maneuvers to already-existing groups that oppose Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Training could include learning how to call in airstrikes.

      The Pentagon is expected to make the announcement on Friday as Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s visit to Michael Fallon, his counterpart in the U.K., comes to an end. Carter said in an earlier news conference with Fallon that he “wasn’t happy with the early efforts” of the program and that new approaches would soon be announced.

      http://time.com/4067817/obama-administration-syrian-rebel-training-end/

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    2. This has been widely reported

      Oil revenues

      Ediboglu said: “$800 million worth of oil that ISIS obtained from regions it occupied this year [the Rumeilan oil fields in northern Syria — and most recently Mosul] is being sold in Turkey. They have laid pipes from villages near the Turkish border at Hatay. Similar pipes exist also at [the Turkish border regions of] Kilis, Urfa and Gaziantep. They transfer the oil to Turkey and parlay it into cash. They take the oil from the refineries at zero cost. Using primitive means, they refine the oil in areas close to the Turkish border and then sell it via Turkey. This is worth $800 million.”

      Is Turkish intelligence helping fighters?

      Ediboglu further stated: “Fighters from Europe, Russia, Asian countries and Chechnya are going in large numbers both to Syria and Iraq, crossing from Turkish territory. There is information that at least 1,000 Turkish nationals are helping those foreign fighters sneak into Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) is allegedly involved. None of this can be happening without MIT’s knowledge.”



      Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/tr/business/2014/06/turkey-syria-isis-selling-smuggled-oil.html#ixzz3reTka3jG

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    3. And let us not forget the most loathsome, Hillary Clinton.

      Flashback 2011: Hillary Clinton Laughs About Killing Moammar Gaddafi: "We Came, We Saw, He Died!"

      Delete
  3. The alternative press has noted for months that Israel is supporting jihadis in Syria. But Israel has consistently denied these allegations … until now.

    The Times of Israel reported 3 weeks ago:

    Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Monday that Israel has been providing aid to Syrian rebels, thus keeping the Druze in Syria out of immediate danger. Israeli officials have previously balked at confirming on the record that the country has been helping forces that are fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    ***

    “We’ve assisted them under two conditions,” Ya’alon said of the Israeli medical aid to the Syrian rebels, some of whom are presumably fighting with al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. “That they don’t get too close to the border, and that they don’t touch the Druze.”

    Al Nusra is Al Qaeda, and closely affiliated with ISIS. And remember, there have NEVER been any “moderate Syrian rebels” … only Islamic Sunni jihadis.

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    Replies
    1. Why Did Israel Decide to Support Syrian Rebels?

      After four years of fighting in Syria, signs indicate that Israel has chosen to support the Sunni rebels.


      Feb. 27, 2015 | 12:08 p.m. EST + More

      By: Jacky Hugi, Contributor for Al-Monitor
      Al-Monitor

      Not a soul could help but be outraged by the two recent atrocities that the Islamic State (IS) has unleashed upon the world. The first of these was the immolation of Jordanian fighter pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh on Feb. 3, followed a short time later by the ceremonial execution of 21 Egyptian captives in Libya. This last horror show not only gave IS bonus points for wreaking fear among the general public, but also embedded images in the international community's awareness of a new arena taken over by the group. So far we have seen Syria, Iraq and the Sinai Peninsula, and now there is also Libya. Traces of IS can be found in each of these places, and if not IS per se, then at least its corrupt legacy.

      [READ: Netanyahu Has Rejected a Two-State Solution]

      While this terrorism is essentially homegrown, the West cannot be absolved of its contribution to encouraging it. In three out of the four current hotspots, at least one Western country was involved in laying the groundwork for it. The Americans ousted Saddam Hussein in Iraq; France instigated the military operation against Moammar Gadhafi of Libya; and the rebels who aspire to topple the Syrian regime have long enjoyed the steady support of France, Great Britain and the United States.

      Thus, this Sunni terrorism benefits from a gradual yet constant process of weakening the regimes of the Middle East, or prompting their collapse — a process to which the West has generously contributed. In such a reality, Jerusalem should calculate its every move with the most extreme caution. In December 2014, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, which maintains peace in the Golan Heights, released an intriguing report on contacts between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Syrian rebels. The report disclosed, if only in part, that the two parties have held dozens of meetings, and that Israel transferred certain unidentified objects to anonymous individuals across the border fence. Furthermore, rebels on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights know that if they are injured in battle, they can receive medical care in Israel. According to official IDF sources, some 1,500 wounded individuals arrived at the border fence over the past two years and then received treatment in Israel. These included innocent women and children, but there were also many men who were injured in battle, or in other words, fighters. Not one of these was a soldier in the Syrian army. And their arrival is coordinated in advance, meaning that someone is informing the Israelis that they are on the way.

      What this shows is that after four years of fighting in Syria, Israel apparently is no longer sitting on the fence. These facts indicate that Israel is ostensibly taking a side in the crisis, and between the two sides, it chose to support the Sunni rebels. But who are these rebels, and what do they want? It is hard to tell, because, unfortunately, there is no public discourse in Israel about these contacts, nor is there any discussion about our new partners across the fence.

      http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/27/why-did-israel-decide-to-support-syrian-rebels

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    2. Oh the crime, giving medical assistance to wounded rebels.

      By that standard should israel stop giving medical care to gazans?

      Delete
    3. "O"rdure now, after over a year of vehement denials, admits that Israel is aiding the Islamic State

      Delete
    4. Michael Oren was correct when he said Israel would accept al-Qeada operatives taking power in Syria.

      Proving, once again, that "O"rdure, by spouting the Israeli propaganda was wrong.

      Delete
    5. No, once again you leap and use disinformation.

      I said "h the crime, giving medical assistance to wounded rebels.

      By that standard should israel stop giving medical care to gazans?"

      If anything I asked is Israel guilty of supporting Hamas by not allowing their wounded to die.....


      Jack your re a twisted mess...

      Stop taking the weed....

      Delete
    6. Jack what is this ""O"rdure" you say?

      is it a pet name you want to use for me?


      if so I should change your name from Jack Hawkins to Jack "the murderer" Hawkins as you have admitted to killing civilians in south america....

      Hmmm

      yeah...

      I wonder do the folks at the AZ FBI KNOW that you are a domestic terrorist?

      That you run guns and drugs to Mexico?

      Delete
  4. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Saturday that his country would continue to support Syrian rebels if President Bashar al-Assad could not be removed through a political process.

    "We will support the Syrian people," Adel al-Jubeir told journalists on the sidelines of international Syria peace talks in Vienna.

    “We will support the political process that will result in (Assad) leaving, or we will continue to support the Syrian opposition in order to remove him by force."

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/14/us-mideast-crisis-syria-saudi-idUSKCN0T31A320151114

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  5. Putin is correct in every word spoken in that news conference.

    I have posted this since it first appeared and at least ten times since:

    In October, 2007, Gen. Wesley Clark gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (seven-minute excerpt in the video below) in which he denounced what he called “a policy coup” engineered by neocons in the wake of 9/11. After recounting how a Pentagon source had told him weeks after 9/11 of the Pentagon’s plan to attack Iraq notwithstanding its non-involvement in 9/11, this is how Clark described the aspirations of the “coup” being plotted by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and what he called “a half dozen other collaborators from the Project for the New American Century”:

    Six weeks later, I saw the same officer, and asked: “Why haven’t we attacked Iraq? Are we still going to attack Iraq?”

    He said: “Sir, it’s worse than that. He said – he pulled up a piece of paper off his desk – he said: “I just got this memo from the Secretary of Defense’s office. It says we’re going to attack and destroy the governments in 7 countries in five years – we’re going to start with Iraq, and then we’re going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”

    Clark said the aim of this plot was this: “They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.” He then recounted a conversation he had had ten years earlier with Paul Wolfowitz — back in 1991 — in which the then-number-3-Pentagon-official, after criticizing Bush 41 for not toppling Saddam, told Clark: “But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region – in the Middle East – and the Soviets won’t stop us. And we’ve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes – Syria, Iran [sic], Iraq — before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us.” Clark said he was shocked by Wolfowitz’s desires because, as Clark put it: “the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments? It’s not to deter conflicts?”

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  6. Obama chose to have Clinton represent the US. Obama approved every decision regarding Syria and Libya. Obama folded to the Neocons lock, stock and rifled barrel. Netanyahu shoved it up Obama’s ass but Obama let him get away with it.

    Now we know.

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  7. Early Monday morning, The Guardian reported French anti-terrorism forces conducted raids in Toulouse, Grenoble, Calais, and Jeumont, a commune close to the French border with Belgium, where Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve claimed ISIS commissioned “some persons” to execute the attacks.

    Raids were also reported in the Parisian suburb Bobigny, with about 20 police vehicles present. France’s iTélé reported that at least three people were taken into custody in the Toulouse raids, and weapons were also seized in this area. At about 1 a.m. local time, a French local media outlet reported weapon seizure and at least six arrests in Grenoble. The newspaper also reported an amount of cash was seized by police across 15 houses in Grenoble. The raids came just a few days after terrorists killed at least 129 people and injured hundreds more in a series of attacks in Paris on Friday evening. (Update: On Monday morning, French officials confirmed that 168 anti-terrorism raids took place across the country overnight. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there were 23 people arrested, 31 weapons seized, and an additional 104 people put under house arrest, according to Agence France-Presse.)

    French police are currently searching for Salah Abdeslam and others allegedly responsible for orchestrating Friday's attacks. However, it remains uncertain whether or not these anti-terrorism raids were directly linked with the terror attacks, although they were carried out under the national state of emergency declared by President François Hollande. Agence France-Presse reported that raids in Toulouse were part of a broader anti-terrorism operation.

    According to The Guardian, the forces conducting the raids were RAID (Recherche Assistance Intervention Dissuasion), and GIPN (Groupes d’Intervention de la Police Nationale), both of which were tactical units of the French national police force.

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  8. ...Early Monday morning, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said France had the “legitimacy” to take action against ISIS after Friday’s terror attacks in Paris, The Guardian reported. However, ISIS has since claimed the airstrikes resulted in no casualties, and that the targets struck were “abandoned sites”.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is choice:

    The US promised it will work with France to intensify air strikes against Isis in Syria and Iraq, US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Sunday. Rhodes said getting arms directly to fighters on the ground in Syria and Iraq seemed to be working in the fight against Isis.

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  10. The mother of one of the Paris suicide bombers has claimed her son “did not mean to kill anyone”, as his family said that he may have blown himself up because of stress. Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, detonated a suicide vest outside the Comptoir Voltaire café, yards from the Bataclan concert hall where more than 80 people died on Friday night. Abdeslam was one of three brothers, from Belgium, being suspected of being linked to the attacks which killed 129 people. Salah Abdeslam, 26, became France’s most wanted man after being stopped and let go by police.

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://controversialtimes.com/news/russia-responds-to-isis-with-banned-white-phosphorus-attack-video/

    Following the now confirmed bombing of a Russian passenger plane by ISIS, Russia has taken the gloves off.

    A video has surfaced showing white phosphorus being dropped on ISIS outposts.

    Known as Willie Pete, white phosphorus is banned from use against people, it is allowed to be used as to create a smoke screen, leaving a lot of gray area for “inaccurate” placement of bombs. WP also has the effect of igniting just about anything it touches (trees, homes, clothes, people):


    Any outrage here that CIVILIANS are being hit with these weapons?


    Naw....


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those attacks, not funded by US largess, is not of any material interest to most of US.

      Those attacks against civilians do not sully US, as the Zionist attacks on civilians in Palestine do.

      Delete
    2. Where is this place you call "palestine"?

      I say it still doesn't exist.

      Try again jackoff

      Delete
    3. Palestine, the the area of the Middle East that the 19thvcentury Zionists of Europe coveted for their Jewish colony.

      Delete
    4. Ah, are you alluding to the historic lands of the Jewish people that the League of Nations had set aside for them?

      But there is no "arab" Palestine, it was a still born adventure at best.

      Now the arab nationalistic group that calls it's self "Palestinians" is fractured for all intense purposes. Just as the other fake national arab movements are dissolving...

      The Fakistinians, at last look are having a low grade civil war inspite of their so called "Hamas-PA" unity government.

      BTW you can help the Fakistinians, send them cash to purchase a P....

      Delete
  12. There are over 1 million arabs under arms as we speak....

    And yet none are fighting in Syria......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "O"rdure now tells us that there are no Arabs fighting in Syria.
      The Muslims combatants there, we are led to assume, from the Kingdom of the Khazars?

      Delete
    2. Sorry jack your lack of ability to read english,

      So I will say it again, for you the retarded...

      there are numerous arabs under numerous arab nations, under arms, and none are fighting.

      Please keep your Jew hatred fantasies to yourself. It's high time (not talking about your pot smoking) that you learn to converse like an Ameircan.


      Delete
    3. Arabs are Arabs and nation states are nation states, to conflate the two, just another one of "O"rdure sloppy use of English.

      Delete
    4. Maybe it's time to call the AZ FBI again to report you as a domestic terrorist again Jack?

      In these days of heighten awareness your behavior is quite anti-social.

      Were you questioned and released in the sniper attacks in your fair city?

      You have often bragged how you were a sniper and loved to shoot at 300 yards +...

      Did you see the faces of your victims in Central America when you "took out" the target?

      Delete
    5. He gets so irritated when called on his lack of writing skills.
      Perhaps it is because his writing mirrors his thinking, sloppy is as sloppy does..

      Delete
    6. You cannot leave out entire words, such as 'nation' and still convey the message, "O"rdure.

      The word 'nation' is integral to the idea you were trying to convey.
      It is obvious, though, that the Arab nations are supporting the Islamic State, as is Israel.

      Another piece of evidence confirmng the Saudi-Israeli alliance

      In broad daylight, a Saudi-Israeli alliance
      ---------------------------------
      Saudi Israeli alliance forged in blood
      ---------------------------------
      Understanding the Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi alliance

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    7. Most native born folks understand me just fine.

      Maybe you are still translating from Arabic in your mind?

      Delete
    8. Talk about sloppy?

      LOL Jack "the murderer" Hawkins look in the mirror...

      We all remember how you made a fool out of your self with sloppy lies about those 3 Jews that Hamas kidnapped that started a war..

      Sloppy typing may be my crime, but sloppy IDEAS is your crime..

      Delete
  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jack the rat never had a cattle ranch, and he was never in the Army, is what I conclude.

      He lives in his mom's basement amid his fantasies.

      She lets him out once in a while to go bowling with the his recovery/learning group, then its back to the basement, and the meds

      Delete
    2. Ah the cut and paste of out of context shit starts again..

      What does it say about an adult would pend the time saving these 400x posts nonsense?

      Delete
  14. November 16, 2015
    Comey Can Nail Hillary - But Will He?
    By Jonathan F. Keiler

    FBI Director James Comey probably holds the fate of the presumptive Democrat nominee, Hillary Clinton, in his hands, as his agency investigates her use of a private server for official government emails. Whether Comey will handle the matter as a principled and honest policeman or as a conniving politician is the great unknown. Leaks demonstrate either possibility, depending on how one evaluates them. Comey’s actions so far, at least as reported through these leaks and some other slender reeds of information, suggest that he is either likely to do nothing, or go in for the kill.......................


    . ............ It would be difficult for Justice to ignore an FBI referral for obstruction, and even if it declined to indict, that would still badly hurt Hillary’s presidential hopes.

    Hillary, who worked as a junior Congressional staffer during the Watergate hearings, knows that the cover-up is usually worse than the crime, which is why the Clinton gang follows a code of omerta, backed by blandishments and coercion that would make a don blush. Getting her on obstruction will be tough, but doable. If that is what Comey is up to, Hillary may finally get what’s coming to her. But that assumes that Comey really is a principled guy. We shall see.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/comey_can_nail_hillary__but_will_he.html


    Well I should certainly hope so. It's far past time that Hillary gets hers. She's an embarrassment to all Americans, and the human race, too.




    ReplyDelete
  15. Boy, that $15.00 / hr. minimum wage is just destroying jobs in San Francisco:

    The Unemployment Rate is, now, 3.2%.

    Unemployment Rate - San Francisco

    ReplyDelete
  16. U.S. Warplanes Strike ISIS Oil Trucks in Syria

    By MICHAEL R. GORDONNOV. 16, 2015


    ISTANBUL — Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said.

    According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria that is controlled by the Islamic State.

    The airstrikes were carried out by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships based in Turkey.

    Plans for the strike were developed well before the terrorist attacks in and around Paris on Friday, officials familiar with the operation said, part of a broader operation to disrupt the ability of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to generate revenue to support its military operations and govern its territory.

    American officials have long been frustrated by ability of ISIS to generate tens of million of dollars a month by producing and exporting oil.

    To disrupt that source of revenue, American officials said last week that the United States had sharply stepped up its airstrikes against infrastructure that allows ISIS to pump oil in Syria.

    Until Monday, the United States had refrained from striking the fleet used to transport oil, believed to include more than 1,000 tanker trucks, because of concerns about causing civilian casualties. As a result, the Islamic State’s distribution system for exporting oil had remained largely intact.

    The new campaign is called Tidal Wave II. It is named after the World War II effort to counter Nazi Germany by striking Romania’s oil industry. Lt. Gen. Sean B. MacFarland, who in September assumed command of the international coalition’s campaign in Iraq and Syria, suggested the name.

    To reduce the risk of harming civilians, two F-15 warplanes dropped leaflets about an hour before the attack warning drivers to abandon their vehicles, and strafing runs were conducted to reinforce the message.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The area where the trucks assemble in Syria has been closely monitored by reconnaissance drones. As many as 1,000 trucks have been observed there, waiting to receive their cargo of illicit oil.

      On Monday, 295 trucks were in the area, and more than a third of them were destroyed, United States officials said. The A-10s dropped two dozen 500-pound bombs and conducted strafing runs with 30-millimeter Gatling guns. The AC-130s attacked with 30-millimeter Gatling guns and 105-millimeter cannons.

      The pilots saw several drivers running to a nearby tent and did not attack them, an American official said, and there were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.

      Col. Steven H. Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the American-led coalition, confirmed that A-10s and AC-130s had been used in the attack and that 116 tanker trucks had been destroyed.

      “This part of Tidal Wave II is designed to attack the distribution component of ISIL’s oil smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their military operations,” Colonel Warren said.

      The strike comes just days after Kurdish and Yazidi fighters, backed by American airstrikes, cut an important road, Highway 47, that ISIS has used to move supplies and fighters between Syria and Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which was captured by the militant group last year.

      That road was cut on Thursday, and Kurdish and Yazidi fighters retook the Iraqi city of Sinjar the next day.

      The American operation against the oil trucks followed a French on raid Sunday on two Islamic State targets in Raqqa, Syria, which allied officials identified as a headquarters building and a training camp.

      More than 20 bombs were dropped by French planes in the attack, an allied official said. It is not clear how much damage was caused, and no secondary explosions were observed.

      HuffPost

      Delete
    2. "Until Monday, the United States had refrained from striking the fleet used to transport oil, believed to include more than 1,000 tanker trucks, because of concerns about causing civilian casualties. As a result, the Islamic State’s distribution system for exporting oil had remained largely intact."

      Delete
  17. The Donald wants to put the oil fields from which they get their money out of business. Blow up the wells.

    This makes some sense to this observer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Secure the border, blow up the ISIS wells, export America fossil fuels..

      all good

      Delete
  18. Bernie Sanders thinks we can't get a handle on any of it until we stop global climate change in its tracks, because climate change is creating the terrorists.

    This makes no sense whatsoever to this observer.

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    Replies
    1. If there is anyone here, some Bernie supporter perhaps, who believes climate change is the driving force behind the creation of these terrorists, please raise your hands so the rest of us can single you out for due mockery for the rest of the campaign.

      Ash ?
      Deuce ?
      Rufus ?
      Anyone ?

      Delete
    2. Quirk ?

      Anyone ?

      Or is Bernie just crazy as hell ?

      Delete
  19. rufus - galopn2 interesting series of posts regarding the Paris bombing:

    "galopn2Sat Nov 14, 11:33:00 AM EST

    Am I the only one that doesn't really give a fuck that some people got killed in France?


    galopn2Sat Nov 14, 11:38:00 AM EST

    The French have spent the better part of the last thousand years fucking with other people, invading their countries, and attempting to steal their resources.

    Now, someone treats'em to a typical Chicago Friday Night? Fuck'em; bring on the football.


    galopn2Sat Nov 14, 02:07:00 PM EST

    Why would I get my panties in a wad over a shooting in France, when we lose 32,000 Americans / Year to Gun Deaths.


    galopn2Sat Nov 14, 02:29:00 PM EST

    The French have been fucking with the Arabs for hundreds of years. They spent the entire 20th Century occupying Arab lands (see: Algeria, Chad, etc.) and stealing their oil. Their planes are bombing in Iraq, Today.

    Now, some young men are killing some Frenchmen. And, I'm supposed to give a shit? Sorry, it ain't happening."






    Four different posts with similar thoughts... Tell me, is that how you felt about 911 as well - no biggie, deserved almost?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me make this simple for you, Ash. If someone bombs Ontario, I don't give a fuck. If they bomb Detroit, I do.

      Delete
    2. Why? Because the dead would be mostly exceptional Americans?

      Delete
    3. People in Detroit pay taxes to support my Social Security, and VA. Those in Canada don't.

      I'm an American, Ash; I don't give two flying fucks or a holler about France, Canada, or any other non-U.S. taxpaying assholes, anywhere.

      Delete
    4. hmmm, US taxpayers are the deciding factor - interesting set of ethics there old man. Reminds of the way our pal Bob likes to carve up the world.

      Delete
    5. Unless the French were to ask for help, from their NATO allies, invoking Article 5 of the Alliance Treaty, the US has no business in France.

      Delete
    6. There are Republicans that are urging the French 'Surrender Monkeys' to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.

      Republican lawmakers suggested Sunday that France use NATO powers to retaliate against the Islamic State group that killed at least 129 people during a weekend terror attack that French President Francois Hollande has called “an act of war.”

      They specifically want France to use the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Article 5, which essentially states that an attack on one member of the group is an attack on all members and sets in motion a coordinated military response.

      “Hopefully, President Hollande will call Article 5 of NATO. And maybe we'll put together a coalition that can for once attack this horrific terrorist element before they have ability to carry out another coordinated attack like this,” North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”


      http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/15/republican-lawmakers-urge-france-to-use-nato-powers-to-help-in-fight-against/

      Another reason to oppose the Republicans in the net election cycle.

      Delete
    7. I distinctly remember the Republicans in Congress deleting French Fries from the Congressional menu.
      They preferred to eat 'Freedom Fries'.

      Now they would volunteer US soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to die to enforce French law, in Iraq and Syria.

      Delete
  20. This is interesting. Obama's Approval is surging.

    51 - 44

    Gallup

    ReplyDelete
  21. TRUMP: We need to look at mosques in USA...

    Consider shutting them down...............Drudge


    Excellent idea. They adhere to a male dominated female subservient death cult and want to abolish the Constitution and install Sharia Law on us all.

    The Constitution isn't a suicide pact.

    In Hamtramck, Michigan the first words out of the newly elected moslem majority were:

    First we show the Poles, then everybody else

    Wake up, America.

    I am in the beginnings of the planning for a nice lean-to tepee for Quirk and family out at the farm, near a water source too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stop Moslem Immigration To The United States Now !

      Delete
    2. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

      Delete
    3. What’s Next After ISIS’s Paris Massacre?
      A call to action.
      November 16, 2015
      Joseph Klein


      The darkness of evil descended on the City of Light last Friday night as eight jihadists conducted coordinated attacks at six Paris locations. They slaughtered at least 129 people in cold blood. It was the worst such massacre in France since World War II and the deadliest jihadist incident in the West since the Madrid train bombings slightly more than a decade ago.

      The Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) claimed responsibility. In a statement it posted online, ISIS boasted that the eight “brothers” acted “in the name of Allah and Allah strengthened the hands of the warriors and put fear and terror in the hearts of the crusaders.” ISIS adherents had already jumped the gun before the official ISIS statement, creating the hashtag “Paris in flames” as the attacks were unfolding. French President Francois Hollande called the coordinated deadly attacks a "cowardly act of war" and declared a state of emergency. He promised that France “will be merciless against Islamic State's barbarians."

      The death tally included at least 89 persons attending a rock concert. Many were gunned down by four of the jihadists shouting “Allahu akbar.” More innocent civilians were killed when three of these murderers blew themselves up as the police raided the concert venue. The fourth jihadist was killed by the police. Suicide bombers also took several innocent lives outside the Stade de France national stadium, where French President Francois Hollande was in attendance for a soccer game. Other innocent civilians were gunned down as they sat in restaurants and cafes.

      ISIS warned of more carnage to come:

      “France and those who follow its ways should know that they remain at the top of the Islamic State hit list and that the smell of death will not leave their noses as long as they continue on their crusade and continue to insult the Prophet and boast their war on Islam in France while attacking Muslims in the land of the caliphate.”

      The day before the Islamic State’s horrific attacks in Paris took place, President Obama said during an ABC interview that he did not think the Islamic State was gaining strength. "From the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq.” This self-deluded puffery is consistent with Obama’s whole approach to ISIS.

      When ISIS first emerged as a potential threat and could have been rather easily stamped out before it spread, he referred to ISIS as a JV team. He did nothing then to counter them. As ISIS expanded the territories under its control, Obama reluctantly decided to undertake a slow incremental military approach that relied on a limited number of airstrikes, supplemented over the following months by a limited number of non-combat ground forces. Not until Russian President Vladimir Putin intervened in Syria with his own airstrikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against ISIS and against “moderate” rebel strongholds did Obama move towards stepping up the pace of U.S. airstrikes. He decided to send 50 special-operations troops to Syria in support of airstrikes which will soon be ramped up according to a senior U.S. military official cited by the Wall Street Journal. On Thursday, November 12th, a drone strike reportedly killed the infamous ISIS executioner known as Jihad John in the ISIS de facto capital of Raqqa.

      Delete
    4. The juxtaposition of Obama’s ISIS containment statement with ISIS’s successful multi-pronged Paris attacks demonstrates how out of touch the president is with the enemy we are fighting. In all likelihood President Obama was thinking of the tactical victory by Kurdish and Yazidi fighters, backed by U.S. airstrikes, who managed to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar from Islamic State occupation. He may also have had in mind the reported killing of Jihad John. As positive as those developments are, however, Obama thinks tactically and not strategically. He misses the big picture. The Islamic State is not contained. To the contrary, just within the last two weeks or so, it has managed, with the support of its “brothers” operating outside of its declared caliphate, to down a Russian jet over Egypt with an explosive device, to conduct a double suicide bombing that killed more than forty people in Beirut Lebanon, and to successfully carry out the coordinated Paris attacks.

      Hillary Clinton tried to distinguish herself from President Obama, saying during the November 14th Democratic presidential debate that ISIS “cannot be contained, it must be defeated.” But following in the footsteps of Obama’s failed “leading from behind” foreign policy, she declared that “this cannot be an American fight.” If not America firmly in the lead, then whom Madame Secretary?

      President Obama decried the Paris massacres as “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.” He promised full support to France, without specifying exactly what that meant.

      Obama still believes we are dealing with deviant violent extremists who are defying “universal values.” He still does not connect what happened in Paris to the ideology of Islam, which rejects “the universal values we share” as posited by Obama and offers an alternative worldview based on global jihad and Islamic supremacy.

      In her comments during the Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton also refused to use descriptions of the enemy that included the words “Islam” or Muslim.” She hesitated to even embrace the phrase “radical Islamists.” Just like President Obama, Hillary talked instead more generically about “violent extremism,” although at one point she did describe ISIS as “a barbaric, ruthless, violent jihadist terrorist group.” She said that we are at war with “people who use their religion for purposes of power and oppression” and referred obliquely to “the kind of radical jihadist ideology that motivates organizations like ISIS.” Her analysis of the root causes of ISIS’s rise went no further than blaming oppressive dictatorships and the “increasing globalization without any real safety valve for people to have a better life.” ISIS’s “behavior is so barbaric and so vicious,” she said, “that it doesn't seem to have any purpose other than lust for killing and power.”

      Erroneous diagnoses of the fundamental roots of the problem lead to faulty solutions. ISIS is not motivated by a “lust for killing and power” for its own sake. It does not consist of just a bunch of violent extremists steeped in nihilism. They do reject modernity (except its technological tools such as social media). In its place, however, they operate on the basis of a wholly alternative paradigm of their own, which represents for them the perfect society. ISIS’s purpose is to build and expand its caliphate to make Islam supreme globally.

      As Graeme Wood wrote in his thorough analysis of ISIS’s ideology in The Atlantic:

      Delete
    5. “There is a temptation to rehearse this observation—that jihadists are modern secular people, with modern political concerns, wearing medieval religious disguise—and make it fit the Islamic State. In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh -century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse…the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.”

      Jihadists committed to Islamic supremacy adhere to a literal reading of Sharia law, which stands in opposition to the sacredness of life for all human beings regardless of belief. They reject the idea that all human beings are entitled to be treated with equal dignity and have inalienable rights. They respect only Allah’s divine law and the teachings of their prophet Muhammed, which separates believers from non-believers, sanctioning inferior status, if not outright death, for the latter. Belief in the validity of man made law, whether enacted through a democratic process or a dictator’s edict, is heresy. Self-government is anathema.

      To believe, as President Obama does, that more jobs, economic opportunity and inclusive pluralistic governance will defeat ISIS’s ideology demonstrates the president’s utter naivete. Hillary Clinton’s reference in the debate to the need for “development aid” to help counter the ISIS threat is equally misguided. ISIS adherents are not looking for development aid from the West. They are looking for its destruction and the death of all “infidels.” Their apocalyptic vision of a global caliphate is to strip all lands of “unbelievers” or subjugate them under the caliphate’s rule.

      ISIS is spreading, not only by recruiting Westerners to fight for its caliphate in Syria and Iraq, but also to launch terrorist attacks in their own homelands. One of the attackers in Paris was reported to be a Frenchman whom had spent time in Syria nearly two years ago.

      ISIS is also using the cover of migration to enable jihadists from Syria and elsewhere to enter Europe under the guise of asylum seekers. According to a report in The Guardian, while several of the jihadists responsible for the Paris attacks may have had ties to Belgium, one was “said to be Syrian who passed through Greece on refugee route.” A Syrian passport was found near his body. The article quoted a Greek deputy minister in charge of policing, who said: “The holder of the passport passed through the island of Leros on 3 October 2015, where he was identified according to EU rules.” According to subsequent reporting, it appears that a second jihadist registered as a refugee on Leros last August.

      Delete
    6. A Syrian operative working for ISIS has claimed that thousands of ISIS jihadists have already taken advantage of the “refugee” disguise and entered Europe. "It’s our dream that there should be a caliphate not only in Syria but in all the world," he said, "and we will have it soon, God willing." Perhaps that explains why the majority of “refugees” from the Middle East and North Africa migrating to Europe are males of fighting age.

      As Robert Spencer wrote: “Migrant Jihad has begun.”

      Admitting masses of self-declared “refugees” from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan into Western countries starts us down the path towards national suicide. It conflicts with the primary responsibility of every national government to protect its own citizens against invasion. The jihadists are invading. Yet the Obama administration actually intends to expand and accelerate the “refugee” admission process.

      The Obama administration had previously announced its plan to admit at least 10,000 Syrian refugees next year, a six-fold increase from present numbers. And Reuters reported on November 6th that the administration is “moving to increase and accelerate the number of Syrian refugees who might be admitted into the United States by opening new screening outposts in Iraq and Lebanon.” Two senior administration officials told Reuters they are seeking ways to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States from the 10,000 figure. "We want to be in a place where we can push out really ambitious goals," said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

      During Saturday night’s Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton went so far as to propose that the United States admit as many as 65,000 Syrian refugees. Yes, she said they must first be very carefully vetted. However, considering that many of those claiming to be “refugees” have no documentation or are carrying false papers, successful screening will be an impossible task.

      The Paris massacre should be a call for real action on multiple fronts. These include sharply stepped up military offensives concentrated against ISIS, coordinated with Russia as necessary. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not a strategic threat to the United States. ISIS is the strategic threat. ISIS can only be defeated by understanding its animating jihadist ideology, and then undermining it by doing whatever is necessary to strip ISIS of its existing caliphate territory. ISIS’s strategy to export its jihad to the West must also be stopped in its tracks. Migration to the West from the sectarian cauldrons of the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere should be discouraged by all means necessary. Exceptions should only be made in the most serious and obvious humanitarian cases, starting with Christian and Yazidi women, children and the elderly fleeing the ISIS killing fields.

      French President Hollande seems to have gotten the message. Hopefully, his decision to control France’s borders and invoke emergency powers to go after the home-grown jihadists will last more than a few days and be followed by other European countries. President Obama and the leading Democratic candidate for president, however, are still trapped in political correctness and risk aversion, which leads to paralysis in the face of evil.


      About Joseph Klein

      Joseph Klein is a Harvard-trained lawyer and the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom and Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations & Radical Islam.

      http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260794/whats-next-after-isiss-paris-massacre-joseph-klein

      Delete

  22. Spain 'issues arrest warrant' for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ...

    The Independent - ‎

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven other former and current government officials are at risk of arrest if they set foot in Spain, after a Spanish judge effectively issued an arrest warrant for the group, it has been reported.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. The other men named in the issue are former defence minister Ehud Barak, former foreign minister Avigdor Leiberman, former minister of strategic affairs Moshe Yaalon, former interior minister Eli Yishai, minister without portfolio Benny Begin and vice admiral maron Eliezer, who was in charge of the operation.

      The case – which was put on hold by Judge de la Mata last year – was brought against the men following an attack by Israeli security forces against the Freedom Flotilla aid ships in 2010, which was trying to reach Gaza.

      It concerns the Mavi Marmara ship, the main civilian vessel in a fleet of six that were attempting to break an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The six ships were carrying around 500 passengers, humanitarian aid and construction materials. The Israeli Defence Force stormed the ship in a raid that left nine human rights activists dead. A tenth activist died later that month due to wounds sustained in the raid.

      Delete
    2. and construction materials for tunnels

      They should have stopped, turned around, and gone the other way, those 'human rights activists'.

      Delete
    3. No, "Draft Dodger" Peterson, if the passengers of those ships were breaking a law, they should have been arrested.
      But the ships were in international waters, when the Israeli attacked.

      Just like the USS Liberty was.

      Delete
    4. The Zionist regime has no respect for the law.

      Delete
    5. I wonder; what exactly are "Construction Materials for Tunnels?"

      Delete
    6. How would you differentiate those from, say, "Construction Materials for Houses," or "Construction Materials for Hospital Basements," or "Construction Materials for Water Wells?"

      Delete
    7. Since Jack "I murdered civilians" Hawkins cites Spain as a source, what else does Spain say?

      Spain Recognizes Israel as Jewish Homeland, for First Time

      FM Jimenez's UN speech is particularly dramatic since Spain is considered a leading EU country to support Palestinian rights.
      read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/spain-recognizes-israel-as-jewish-homeland-for-first-time-1.386587


      So I guess Jack "I murdered civilians" Hawkins also accepts Spain's position on Israel being a Jewish state?

      Delete
  23. ISIS carried out 2 large bombings in Beirut, killing 50 or more citizens of that fair city. Why would I spend more time worrying over the French than I do the dead Lebanese?

    Do I want to watch 3 days of nonstop tv coverage of either? Hell, No.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no pressing need for the United States to respond to crimes in foreign lands, especially if help is not asked for.

      Delete
    2. No, but listen to the "news," today. The Media, and the MIC are creaming their jeans at the prospect for "action."

      The NSA, and FBI are crying about encryption.

      Everybody is breaking out their wishlist.

      Time to "watch out."

      Delete
  24. As for "Ethics": I dropped that class the 1st week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dropped, or got kicked out ?

      Delete
    2. Bob Sun Jun 22, 01:42:00 PM EDT

      When did I ever say I was a scholar??

      I don't recall saying that.

      I have a college degree in English Lit. from U of Washington.


      To avoid being drafted in part. ...

      Delete
    3. Your psychological counselor told you no more than 10, 15 minutes blogging a day, max. You are slipping back to the bad habits you were warned about. It is harmful to your reality testing, and functioning, you were told.

      Does your mother know what you are doing ?

      Best get home to the basement now, right now.

      Delete
    4. Poor Robert, giving commands as if his fantasies were connected to reality.

      Delete
  25. We spent almost the entire 20th Century fucking around with those people in the Middle East. Now, we're going to spend another couple of hundred years paying for it.

    This mess won't "go away" just because we break the back of this particular terror group. Something else will pop up. And, after that . . . . . yeah, bet on it. Fuck ups of this magnitude won't be paid for in a day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yet you've been a keen supporter of the program all along - 'but what about the poor Yazidi?' you would cry, or, 'we gotta 'cause of the oil'. Nothing like the lament of a hypocrite.

      Delete
    2. Yep, we got ourselves hooked on their oil, so . . . the withdrawal, if we could accomplish it at all, would be tough.

      And, yes, I said I'm not big on "ethics," I didn't say I wasn't a hypocrite.

      Delete
    3. If the US was serious about fighting the Islamic State, well, we would be supporting Assad and his regime in Syria.

      But the US is not serious about fighting the Islamic State.
      The US did not attack the Islamic State after the Iraqi Army's debacle in Mosul.

      The US has not supported the Iraqi government with the war materials that were promised.

      In the locales where US close air support was supplied to those fighting the Islamic State, the Islamic State has been defeated on the field.

      Delete
    4. If we were truly "serious" we would have knocked out those oil trucks a long time ago.

      Oil Rules - even when it's terrorist oil. (see: Saudi Arabia)

      Delete
  26. HUMA: HILLARY 'OFTEN CONFUSED'......Drudge

    Jim Webb Blasts Hillary 'Marines Story'..............Drudge

    POLL: Just 15% of Active and Retired Military View Clinton Favorably......Drudge

    ReplyDelete
  27. We must really be a bunch of stupid f-ers -

    Denial, global warming and the slaughter in Paris: James Robbins

    James S. Robbins 3:17 p.m. EST November 14, 2015


    What will the White House say caused the terrorist massacre in Paris? Will it be lack of job opportunities for an at-risk population?


    (Photo: Jeff Pachoud, AFP/Getty Images)


    What will the White House say caused the terrorist massacre in Paris? Will it be lack of job opportunities for an at-risk population? Will it be outrage over an offensive Youtube video? Or maybe we are starting to see the practical national security effects of global warming? Whatever the administration says was the cause, they will never blame radical Islam, and that is why we cannot win the war.

    The Islamic State has claimed credit for the Paris attacks, calling them “the first of the storm.” Earlier on Friday, hours before a small band of allegedly ISIS-linked jihadists took over 150 innocent lives in Paris, President Obama downplayed the terror threat. “I don’t think [the Islamic State is] gaining strength,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “we have contained them… you don’t see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain.” This assessment betrayed a certain type of intelligence failure, the inability to understand the transnational aspect of the threat. ISIS is an adaptive unconventional enemy that has built a potent international network of highly motivated killers. We cannot simply draw a red line on a map and hope they stay inside it.

    President Obama also said “we’ve made some progress in trying to reduce the flow of foreign fighters,” referring to international jihadist recruits heading into Syria. But what about the flow of foreign fighters out of the region? It is significant that Syrian and Egyptian passports were found near the bodies of suicide bombers in Paris. Earlier this year ISIS threatened to send 500,000 refugees to Europe to sow chaos, and this year there have been over 700,000 asylum claims filed in Europe alone. It is unknown how many of these might be ISIS infiltrators, but recent experience has shown – whether in Paris, Madrid, London, Boston, or with the 9/11 attacks – that it only takes a small number of committed terrorists to wreak havoc.
    President Obama makes a statement about the violence

    President Obama makes a statement about the violence in Paris. Obama said the U.S. is prepared to provide whatever assistance France needs in the wake of the terrorist attacks. (Photo: Andrew Harrer, epa)

    This is not just Europe’s problem. The first 10,000 refugees from Syria began arriving in New Orleans last week. Last month FBI Director James Comey warned Congress that the incoming refugees cannot be adequately vetted, and if ISIS is weaponizing them we have no way of knowing it.................


    http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/14/denial-global-warming-paris-terrorism-column/75780112/


    And Bernie Sanders is the dimmest of the dim.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The Gamblers are giving Bernie Sanders a 5% chance of being President.

    Hillary 59% Chance

    Predictwise

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot depends on whether or not Hillary gets indicted. It is possible she might get indicted.

      She certainly has richly earned the privilege.

      Delete
    2. As have you, Robert "Bank Fraud" Peterson.

      Delete

  29. The Blog
    Huma: Hillary 'Often Confused'
    11:31 AM, Nov 16, 2015 • By DANIEL HALPER


    In new State Department emails obtained by Judicial Watch, Hillary Clinton's close personal aide, Huma Abedin, is seen warning another aide that Clinton is "often confused."

    The watchdog organization Judicial Watch explains in a press release:

    Judicial Watch today released more than 35 pages of emails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin revealing that Abedin advised Clinton aide and frequent companion Monica Hanley that it was “very important” to go over phone calls with Clinton because the former Secretary of State was “often confused.” The emails, from Abedin’s “Huma@clintonemail.com” address, also reveal repeated security breaches, with the Secretary’s schedule and movements being sent and received through Abedin’s non-governmental and unsecured Clinton server account. The emails document requests for special State Department treatment for a Clinton Foundation associate and Abedin’s mother, a controversial Islamist leader.

    The Abedin email material contains a January 26, 2013, email exchange with Clinton aide Monica Hanley regarding Clinton’s schedule in which Abedin says Clinton is “often confused:”


    Abedin: Have you been going over her calls with her? So she knows singh is at 8? [India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh]

    Hanley: She was in bed for a nap by the time I heard that she had an 8am call. Will go over with her

    Abedin: Very imp to do that. She’s often confused

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/huma-hillary-often-confused_1064726.html



    Could be Alzheimer's Onset

    Would a fully functioning Hillary, or an Alzheimer's Hillary, be the greater danger to the Nation ?

    Good topic for conversation.

    ReplyDelete
  30. .

    You new it was coming.

    At this point they know very little about the Paris terrorist attacks and what was involved in the plan; yet, Dianne Feinstein and others on the intelligence committees have resurfaced their demands that Silicon Valley modify their encryption efforts and provide the government with a back door to all their systems.

    If you give any government a back door, they will all want it and its just a matter of time before they get it. As a matter of fact, the US, who is demanding this, will be handing out keys right and left to our 'friends'. If you give anyone a key, its just a matter of time before the bad guys get it. Those who will suffer? Anyone who uses the internet.

    I see Hollande is now asking for changes to the French constitution to grant him more power to declare war on his own.

    The same as the raison d'etre of a bureaucracy is to survive and grow, the raison d'etre of those in power is to grow their power and to keep it.

    Never let a tragedy go to waste. The same arguments that gave us the abuses of the WOT.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Lest there be any confusion, Hollande is asking for 'more power to declare war on his own initiative'.

      .

      Delete
  31. :) Interesting numbers at Predictwise:

    The Dems are at 58%, but Hillary is at 59%

    hmm . . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know where you get such numbers. RCP has had poll after poll showing all the Republicans beating Hillary except maybe Cruz.

      Delete
    2. Are you too fucking stupid to even click on a link, turdkicker?

      Delete

  32. Scarlett Johansson And Reasons To Avoid SodaStream International


    Summary

    We thought we'd look in on the shares of SodaStream International Inc. ourselves because we've found no celebrities offering us guidance on the valuation of the shares.

    It turns out that SodaStream is a relatively poor investment, in spite of having an excellent product.

    The company makes less profit relative to the capital employed than the risk free rate and the valuation is extraordinary in light of the unique risks here. Avoid SodaStream International.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Conclusion

      We believe that any company that earns less than the risk free rate is a poor investment. We believe that any company that has such optimistic growth forecasts embedded in the current share price is a poor investment. We believe that any company subject to the peculiar political risks present should compensate investors for taking on that risk. Any of the above would be reason to avoid the name. When combined investors are faced with a particularly troublesome combination. We will continue to enjoy the product because Scarlett Johansson told us to do so, but we recommend avoiding the shares.

      Delete
  33. Poor Jack " i murder civilians" too poor to invest in SodaStream.

    Great company, great product...

    No matter what the speculators say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not speculators, "O"rdure, but folks that understand numbers ...
      Folks that can qualify for a re-fi

      Delete
    2. The market valuation of Sodastream has nothing at all to do with its product line.

      Delete
    3. It has more to do with retail sales

      Which have cratered

      Delete

    4. The question is why those sales have cratered, when the Sodastream product is reasonably good.

      Delete
    5. His mom is concerned about the sugar content, and how it jacks him up at bedtime.

      Delete
    6. How much of Sodastream's challenges can be laid at the BDS Movement's campaign against Sodastream.

      Sodastream has remarked upon the campaign, how unfair it has been.
      But certainly do not deny that there has been a campaign against the company by the BDS Movement.



      The campaign seems to have been very effective in damaging the market value of the company.

      Delete
    7. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson now reports that he hears the voices of the dead.

      Delete
    8. Jack "I murdered civilians in Central America" Hawkings you just don't understand the concept of INVESTMENT.

      The BDS movement failed to harm SodaStream, but it did motivate SodaStream to MOVE (with 110 million in tax abatements) to the Negev.

      The GOOD news about BDS? There are 500 more palestinians out of a job!

      Can you say "UNEMPLOYED"?

      Those arabs that were working at Soda Stream were making as much as 3 times the average west bank arab wage...

      And now, according to you, they are on the street...

      No jobs..

      LOL

      Karma is a bitch...

      Delete
    9. And investors in Sodastream have hundreds of millions in the market valuation of the company.

      Delete
    10. ... have lost hundreds of millions ...

      That you find joy in the misfortune of Israelis ...

      Telling

      Delete
  34. The Democratic Debate: Incoherent on ISIS

    Joe Klein @JoeKleinTIME

    Nov. 15, 2015
    DEM 2016 Debate
    Charlie Neibergall—AP Hillary Rodham Clinton talks as Martin O'Malley looks on during a Democratic presidential primary debate in Des Moines, IO on Nov. 14, 2015.
    The debate was a classic example of how the American left lives in a hermetically sealed bubble, just as the American right does
    More
    Syrian Refugee Policy Takes Focus in U.S. 2016 Politics
    Hillary Clinton Attacks Republicans, While Martin O’Malley Attacks Clinton
    How Bernie Sanders Lost the Debate Before the Debate

    The three Democrats who debated in Iowa last night were very, very concerned about the Paris terror attacks and the growing evidence that ISIS—or Da’esh, as it is called in the region—has metastasized into a true global threat. Very concerned. Bernie Sanders even thought that this barbaric challenge to civilization should be “eliminated”…although it was not as great a threat as global warming, he allowed, which—hold on, here—causes terrorism. You know, droughts and floods set people in motion and…well, never mind.

    Sanders’ utter lack of proportion on this issue—and yes, climate change is a serious problem, but not the immediate threat to our security that Islamic terror is—is a classic example of how the American left lives in a hermetically sealed bubble...............

    http://time.com/4113665/democrats-debate-isis/?xid=homepage

    ReplyDelete
  35. And, for those that are smart enough to understand this (turdkickers excepted,) Pay No Attention to Any Horserace Poll that isn't at least 65% Cellphone Generated.

    Any poll that has more than 35% of its responses from landlines will over-poll the elderly, and underpoll the 18-29 Crowd (and, the18-29 Cohort accounts for more Voters than does the "Over 65" contingent.)

    That's why polls such as Quinnipiac, Fox, and Gravis return results that are 10 or more points higher than real polls such as ABC/Wash. Post, and McClatchy/ Marist.

    ReplyDelete
  36. If you go here:

    How They Voted

    You will see that the 18-29 Cohort made up 19% of the Electorate, and voted for Democrats by a net 23%.

    The "Over 65" Crowd, on the other hand, were only 16 percent at the poll, and supported Pubs by a lesser net of 12%.

    ReplyDelete
  37. SOUTHWEST ASIA, November 16, 2015 — U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

    Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

    Strikes in Syria

    Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10 strikes in Syria:

    -- Near Abu Kamal, one strike destroyed 116 ISIL fuel trucks.

    -- Near Hasakah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

    -- Near Hawl, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed five ISIL buildings and an ISIL vehicle.

    -- Near Raqqah, one strike struck an ISIL storage depot.

    -- Near Ayn Isa, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle, an ISIL vehicle and two ISIL fighting positions and wounded an ISIL fighter.

    -- Near Mara, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

    -- Near Palmyra, one strike struck an ISIL staging area.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

    -- Near Baghdadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL homemade explosives cache.

    -- Near Albu Hayat, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    -- Near Fallujah, one strike destroyed an ISIL building.

    -- Near Kisik, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

    -- Near Qayyarah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL weapons cache.

    -- Near Ramadi, five strikes destroyed six separate ISIL command and control nodes, damaged an ISIL building and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Sinjar, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed four ISIL vehicles.

    DOD

    ReplyDelete
  38. Jack HawkinsMon Nov 16, 04:14:00 PM EST
    Not speculators, "O"rdure, but folks that understand numbers ...
    Folks that can qualify for a re-fi


    You told us you do not own anytime or land, that it is in a trust..

    Are you now saying you are in fact an occupier of native lands (bottom lands)?

    Which is it Jack "I murdered civilians in Central America" Hawkins?

    Trust or Occupier?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is "Occupation" Fri Oct 03, 10:16:00 AM EDT
      I have been turned down repeatedly for a REFI.
      The system is screwed.


      No, the 'System' is working as designed ...
      You have made choices that have precluded you from financial success.

      Quotable statements, on file.

      Delete
    2. rat never had any cattle, or any land

      rat's on mental disability payments that go to his mom for his upkeep

      Delete

    3. “You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you?
      Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me now.”


      ― W. Somerset Maugham

      Delete
    4. Jack, why do you take out of context statements?

      Are your arguments so weak that you cannot stand for the reader to make up his or her own mind?


      BTW still stalking the wrong Chocolate Shop in Cleveland?

      LOL

      Delete
  39. REPUBLICANS MOVE TO HALT OBAMA'S REFUGEE PROGRAM FUNDING......Drudge


    Well I'd hope so.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Well of course they would. They are Republicans. They had no problem supporting programs and wars that created refugees, but now that the chaotic consequences of their criminal idiocy is apparent, they want no part of a fix. It’s probably a Christian thing. (Not the real left winger compassionate Jesus from the Bible kind) but the Klan Kinda Krispy Kreame Kristians.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anyone with a functioning brain would realize that the vast majority of people that lost everything would treasure an opportunity to have a normal safe life and if there were a few amongst them that had other ideas, they would know about them, identify them and turn them in. They would do that for selfish reasons and to do the right thing.

    The 19 , mostly saudis that attacked us in 911 were not refugees. None of them were. Any terrorist that wants to get into the US can do so fairly easily and in the US, they will have no problem buying as many AK 47s as they want and plenty of ammo.

    The numbers are interesting: 24 Americans killed in the US by foreign terrorists since 911 but over 300,000 Americans have been killed in gun violence, the vast majority not by Jews, Not by Muslims, Not by Persians, not by refugees but by Christians of every god-fearing Jesus loving stripe and type.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice try but basically fail. Without Obama there would be no ISIS.

      But we've gone over that before.

      Let them all go to Hamtramck then, where they will first show the Poles, then everybody else.

      Delete
    2. Don’t let facts fuddle you up. It was Christian pilots, Christian tankers and Christian artillery men that terrorized and broke Iraq releasing the crazies to first attack the indigenous Muslims who have lost everything except their lives and are fleeing for shelter and safety. Imagine the indignity of some wanting to get even and dish out paybacks.

      Even a hayseed English major who was never private should be able to comprehend that. Maybe not.

      Delete
    3. And McCain, too.

      Then you switched parties.

      Same with Rufus.

      Delete
  42. Fourteen years later, the 9/11 attacks and the thousands of innocents killed represent international criminality and immorality of the first order. On that, Americans are clear, but—most improbable of all—no one in Washington has yet taken the slightest responsibility for blowing a hole through the Middle East, loosing mayhem across significant swathes of the planet, or helping release the forces that would create the first true terrorist state of modern history; nor has anyone in any official capacity taken responsibility for creating the conditions that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, possibly a million or more people, turned many in the Greater Middle East into internal or external refugees, destroyed nations, and brought unbelievable pain to countless human beings.

    In these years, no act—not of torture, nor murder, nor the illegal offshore imprisonment of innocent people, nor death delivered from the air or the ground, nor the slaughter of wedding parties, nor the killing of children—has blunted the sense among Americans that we live in an “exceptional” and “indispensable” country of staggering goodness and innocence.

    Fourteen years later, how improbable is that?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Obama took the troops out too soon. What am I supposed to do about that ?

    I just don't want them in Boise. Moslems end up causing trouble where ever they go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies


    1. World Affairs

      The Crisis Is Islam
      If we're not talking about theology we're not really talking about the problem.
      David Harsanyi
      By David Harsanyi
      November 16, 2015
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      Why is it that so many of the same people who are skeptical about exporting liberalism (count me as one) are perfectly content with the idea of importing illiberalism?

      Even as the terrorist attacks in Paris were happening, a predictable debate broke out over the millions of Islamic refugees now pouring into the West from the Arab world. We were once again asked to pretend that Islamic terrorism materializes in a vacuum that has absolutely nothing to do with theological beliefs of the majority of people in the Middle East and thus nothing to do with brutality and oppression that prevail in the region.

      One of the most common talking points regarding refugees has been this:

      From the Vox piece:

      Again, we still don’t know who’s to blame for the Paris attacks, whether a jihadist group was involved, or the motives involved. But if a jihadist group is the culprit, these kinds of terrorist organizations are exactly the kind of danger that many Syrian refugees are fleeing from. It is ISIS, after all, that has terrorized so much of Syria — and forced people to flee their homes to avoid violence.

      This kind of emotional appeal avoids some very inconvenient facts. For starters, it looks like at least one of the attackers was a refugee from Syria. Put another way: he was a terrorist posing as a refugee — one of the most potent arguments refugee opponents offered.

      Whatever the case, it’s true that most refugees are fleeing genuine and horrifying violence. But it is also true that many refugees bring with them — through their culture, ideology, and faith — the same conditions that bred the violence in the first place. It has nothing to do with what immigrants “look” like or how many superb and moral Muslims there are in the world (because there are many) and everything to do with what these refugees believe.
      Many refugees bring with them — through their culture, ideology, and faith — the same conditions that bred the violence in the first place.

      The vast majority of Muslims aren’t terrorists, but in the contemporary world nearly all movements and ideas that produce political terrorism are birthed in Islamic communities that house mostly peaceful people. Mass immigration bolsters those communities with millions of new, unassimilated adherents in the middle of secular nations with belief systems that grate against Islamic worldview. How can Europe not expect some of them will embrace the radicalism and fundamentalism adopted to some extent in nearly every other major Islamic community?......................

      http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/16/the-crisis-is-islam/

      Delete
    2. November 16, 2015
      Democrats going to the mat over taking in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees
      By Thomas Lifson

      Is it time to put the Democrats – the three presidential candidates plus the Obama administration – on suicide watch? For some reason, all of them agree that the United States must take in tens of thousands of so-called refugees from Syria, even as it is clear that at least one of the Paris attackers came from the group.

      It is inconceivable to me that anything close to a majority of American voters wants to put ourselves at risk from ISIS infiltrators in the name of compassion for draft age males streaming into Europe from ISISland. Yet at Saturday night’s truncated Democrat presidential debate, all three candidates supported continued acceptance of “refugees” (or invaders and colonizers, as Carol Brown terms them). Dara Lind of Vox notes that Martin O’Malley and Hillary Clinton agree that 65,000 is the right number for starters:

      …the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees has a clear goal for how many refugees they want to resettle permanently in other countries by the end of 2016: 130,000.

      The US has historically resettled half or more of the world's refugees who end up living permanently in a third country. That's why advocacy groups, and O'Malley and Clinton, settled on 65,000 Syrian refugees as the target they wanted the Obama administration to hit.

      Bernie Sanders comes in for progressive upbraiding for maintaining that, while we should take in more invaders and colonizers, he maintained that there is “no magic number.”

      Following the Dems’ Saturday night endorsement of more “Syrians” (in the sense of carrying Syrian documents – after ISIS has captured the equipment for manufacturing them and is able to make just about any Arabic speaker into a “Syrian refugee”), White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes went on Sunday talks shows, and in the words of Patrick Poole, “Spreads Lies About Vetting Syrian Refugees.” Poole’s piece should really be read in its entirety, but here is the gist:..............................

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/democrats_going_to_the_mats_over_taking_in_tens_of_thousands_of_syrian_refugees.html


      Deuce can always find room for another house guest or ten....and he's got the transport to haul them to Wal-Mart, too.

      Just not in Boise, not in Idaho. The people here don't want them. And it's our state.

      Delete
  44. Those people that are coming here are going through 12 to 14 months of intensive screening, and only 2% are military age men w/o families.

    Our Republicans are an embarrassment to humanity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Send them to Canada.

      Ash is right below, let's see if he'll joyously take 'em.

      Delete
  45. Ole bobbo keeps wailing "Obama took the troops out"

    So what? We are where we are.

    Are you suggesting we re-occupy Iraq? Occupy Syria?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is what I am going to ask Deuce, Ash.

      Deuce asserts:

      Isis Cannot be Contained, It Must be Destroyed to a Man

      Exactly what steps are you going to take to accomplish this feat ?

      Do you want to re-occupy Iraq ? Occupy Syria ?

      Good questions there, Ash.

      Let's hear what Deuce has to say.

      Delete
    2. No stupid, it is not necessary. Hezbollah, the Kurds, the Iranians, have demonstrated the willingness and capability to fight ISIS. They are alll Muslims. The Christian ground troops in Iraq did enough damage to last a few lifetimes. Tell the shit birds, the Turks, the Saudis, the Israelis to quit killing the enemies of the heroic forces fighting ISIS.

      Quit arming ISIS. Give the support required to help the Muslims mitigate the incredible carnage done tothem by Bush , Blair and his Christian soldiers led from afar by the Neocons, which by the way is their battle position of choice.

      Keep your Christians home in the shallow end of the gene pool in Idaho.

      Delete
  46. Ipsos Reuters - 76% Oppose sending ground troops to Syria/Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Oh, and for the idiot, republican turdkickers, among us: Your State Governor doesn't have dick to say about whether refugees come to your state.

    It's strictly a Federal call.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Put them all on the Cherokee Reservations, make good gaming employees out of 'em.

      Delete
    2. 4 milliion 'Syrians' on the Cherokee Reservations.....that would do it.....

      Delete
    3. I bet there would be a big piss and moan and the war drums would be a-beating.....

      Delete
    4. The millions of refugees are victims of Christian terror, led by the Neocons who to a man are primarily American Jews. No human being ever, became a refugee except at the hands of another. Surviving, after losing everything but your life is a tragedy.

      We get the boo hoo hoos that Jews, when made refugee by christian Europeans were rejected by Christians in Europe and the Christians in the USA. Once again, the human tragedy of being a refugee is being rejected by the US Bible Belt. The lesson learned from the refugees of WW2 has not been learned.

      You think it amusing that the native American victims who also were made refugees, by the transplanted European Christians like you, should now be forced to give up their lands so that Christian god fearing assholes like you have to do nothing consequential for what your tribe did to them.

      Delete
    5. WOULD YOU CARE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF CHRISTIAN TERROR? ALLOW ME:

      The United States was responsible for the decision to target the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. By its own admission, the U.S. Department of Defense “knew the Ameriyya facility had been used as a civil-defense shelter during the Iran–Iraq War."

      Changes in the protected status of such a facility require warning, and Human Rights Watch notes that, "The United States' failure to give such a warning before proceeding with the disastrous attack on the Ameriyya shelter was a serious violation of the laws of war."

      Charles E. Allen, the CIA's National Intelligence Officer for Warning, supported the selection of bomb targets during the Persian Gulf War. He coordinated intelligence with Colonel John Warden, who headed the U.S. Air Force’s planning cell known as "Checkmate."

      On 10 February 1991 Allen presented his estimate to Colonel Warden that Public Shelter Number 25 in the southwestern Baghdad suburb of Amiriyah had become an alternative command post and showed no sign of being used as a civilian bomb shelter However, Human Rights Watch noted in 1991, "It is now well established, through interviews with neighborhood residents, that the Ameriyya structure was plainly marked as a public shelter and was used throughout the air war by large numbers of civilians."

      Satellite photos and electronic intercepts indicating this alternative use were regarded as circumstantial and unconvincing to Brigadier General Buster Glosson, who had primary responsibility for targeting. Glosson's comment was that the assessment wasn't "worth a shit." A source in Iraq, who had previously been proven accurate, warned the CIA that Iraqi intelligence had begun operating from the shelter. On 11 February, Shelter Number 25 was added to the U.S. Air Force's attack plan.

      Bombing

      At 4:30 a.m. in the morning of 13 February, two F-117 stealth fighter/bombers each dropped a 2,000 pound GBU-27 laser-guided bomb on the shelter. The first cut through ten feet of reinforced concrete before a time-delayed fuse exploded. Minutes later the second bomb followed the path cut by the first bomb. People staying in the upper level were incinerated by heat, while boiling water from the shelter's water tank was responsible for the rest of the fatalities.

      At the time of the bombing, hundreds of Iraqi civilians were sheltering in the building. More than 400 people were killed; reports on precise numbers vary and the registration book was incinerated in the blast. The blast sent shrapnel into surrounding buildings, shattering glass windows and splintering their foundations.

      The shelter is maintained as a memorial to those who died within it, featuring photos of those killed. Not all who died died immediately; black, incinerated hands of some victims remain fused to the concrete ceiling of the shelter. According to visitors’ reports, Umm Greyda, a woman who lost eight children in the bombing, moved into the shelter to help create the memorial, and serves as its primary guide.

      Delete
    6. Now keep reading stupid and you will learn something else about the concussion of a bomb. If you are in a closed shelter and survive the initial blast, the concussion from the initial blast wave drives the entire air out of your lungs. If you survive that, your body regroups and after what seems like forever, the lungs of women , children and men alike desperately kick in to provide life giving air, except in this case the air is super heated and toxic and vaporized the lining of your nose, throat and lungs.

      Would you call that terror?

      Delete
    7. Too much truth for your loathsome excuse for a brain to process?

      Delete
    8. That was the result of two Christian bombs, made in the USA. How many more were dropped?

      Nick Turse / AlterNet November 14, 2011


      In 1991, the United States unleashed a bombing campaign of staggering proportions against Iraq: 120,000 sorties were launched and 265,000 bombs dropped. From then on, the missions never stopped.

      From 1991 to 2003, the U.S. and its allies conducted a low-level air war to enforce no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, while attacking Iraq’s air defenses and other targets. In February 2003, the U.S. would, again, conduct a blistering “shock and awe” campaign and, by mid-April, Iraq had been subjected to 41,000 sorties and 27,000 bombs dropped. The U.S. air war would continue on as, year after year, U.S. planes attacked targets, killing enemy fighters and civilians alike.

      But at the end of this year, according to the top Air Force general in Iraq, two decades of American sorties and bombings -- the longest air war in the history of the world -- will finally come to end.

      Delete
    9. The lucky ones survived and became refugees and fled for their lives.

      Delete
    10. Muslims want revenge? After two decades of Christian bombings we are surprised and horrified. Or as Vladiir Putin asked,”Do you realize what you have done?”

      In the late 1960’s I lived in a quaint German village outside of Kassel, Hessen. It was built on a hill and had the name of Höhenkirchen. Höhenkirchen translates to high churches. My neighbor were friendly, hardworking and the village was charming and immaculate.

      It was less than 25 years after the end of the war and there were many men in their mid forties who had fought. To a man, none of them fought an American, they all fought Russians. I think that they could not face up to what they had done. They were refugees from reality.

      That was in the Cold War. I never doubted our righteousness in how we conducted ourselves in the Cold War. We kept it cold and it ended.

      At the same time of the Cold War , we were engaged in the Viet Nam disaster, a needless waste of human life. Any of us that were actually in Viet Nam realized that it was wrong. For some bizarre human reason, the Chicken Hawk Neocons lusted for war when they were past the age when they would actually have to fight it. It is no surprise to me that the two laptop warriors on this blog never served a day in the military but are keen for battle, war and destruction, bombing and killing and ignoring the consequences and responsibilities of our wars.

      Delete
    11. And the irony i that we now have to do more bombing to support the Muslims who are fighting the Muslim terrorists created by our destabilization and Neocon wars.

      Delete
  48. The new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 60 percent of Americans think the United States should be doing more to attack Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. A small majority said they support using airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but about 65 percent oppose sending special forces to the region, a move that has already been taken by Obama.

    When asked about regular ground troops, the opposition grew stronger with 76 percent opposing deploying troops.


    Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/16/us-france-shooting-usa-poll-idUSKCN0T528Y20151116#XCogJHqzM0zXGYlx.99

    Clickable

    ReplyDelete