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."

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

How Obama, Clinton, McCain and Kerry own Libya, Syria & ISIS



JUDICIAL WATCH BACKGROUND:


The Truth about Benghazi

Judicial Watch Unravels Benghazi Scandal with New Documents
Mexican Government Helicopter Crosses Into U.S. and Attacks Border Agents

Obamacare Lawlessness to the Supreme Court?

Judicial Watch Unravels Benghazi Scandal with New Documents
Judicial Watch has blown open the Benghazi scandal yet again. We forced the release of new smoking-gun documents that show that the Obama administration knew almost from the outset that the attack on the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, was coordinated and pre-planned. The news about these documents was broken by Catherine Herridge of Fox News.

Your JW obtained more than 100 pages of previously classified “Secret” documents from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of State revealing that DOD almost immediately reported that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was committed by the al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood-linked “Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman” (BCOAR), and had been planned at least 10 days in advance. Rahman is known as the Blind Sheikh, and is serving life in prison for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist acts.

These just-released documents were not given voluntarily, but forced out of the secretive Obama administration thanks to a court order that followed a May 15, 2014, Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against both DOD and State asking for communications between the two agencies and congressional leaders “on matters related to the activities of any agency or department of the U.S. government at the Special Mission Compound and/or classified annex in Benghazi.” The documents provide us with the first official confirmation that the U.S. government was aware of arms shipments from Benghazi to Syria. The documents also include an August 2012 analysis warning of the rise of ISIS and the predicted failure of the Obama policy of regime change in Syria. (Interestingly, it is not clear if the information was ever shared with Congress, even though the documents were responsive to a request about communications with Congress.)
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith were both killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack on September 11, 2012. Several hours after the initial assault, a second terrorist attack took place targeting a different compound located just one mile away. Two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed in this second attack and 10 others were injured.

Let’s see how Obama and Clinton operatives (such as George Stephanopoulos) explain away a Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, which details that the attack on the compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.” This document was sent to Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted DOD “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ [al Qaeda] ideologies:”
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.
“A violent radical,” the DIA report says, and “the leader of BCOAR is Abdul Baset ((AZUZ)), AZUZ was sent by ((ZAWARI)) to set up Al Qaeda (AQ) bases in Libya.” The group’s headquarters was set up with the approval of a “member of the Muslim brother hood movement…where they have large caches of weapons. Some of these caches are disguised by feeding troughs for livestock. They have SA-7 and SA-23/4 MANPADS…they train almost every day focusing on religious lessons and scriptures including three lessons a day of jihadist ideology.”
The Defense Department reported that the group maintained written documents in “a small rectangular room, approximately 12 meters by 6 meters…that contain information on all of the AQ activity in Libya.”
It should be noted that Azuz is again blamed for the Benghazi attack in an October 2012 DIA document.

The DOD documents provide confirmation that the Obama administration knew weapons were being shipped from the Port of Benghazi to rebel troops in Syria. This had been the source of much speculation, as many have asked, including Judicial Watch, just exactly what we were up to in Benghazi that would require a rushed facility that was unsecured (the Benghazi Special Mission Compound). Some darn big clues are in the October 2012 DIA report:
Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155mm howitzers missiles. 
During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the ((Qaddafi)) regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The Syrian ports were chosen due to the small amount of cargo traffic transiting these two ports. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo.
The DIA document further details:
The weapons shipped from Syria during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s and 125mm and 155mm howitzers missiles. The numbers for each weapon were estimated to be: 500 Sniper rifles, 100 RPG launchers with 300 total rounds, and approximately 400 howitzers missiles [200 ea – 125mm and 200ea – 155 mm.]
The heavily redacted document does not disclose who was shipping the weapons. The level of detail presented suggests that the Obama administration, in the least, was in a position to stop any transfers.

Why is the weapons transfer issue important? Because the Libya fiasco was allowing weapons to move into a jihadist madhouse in the Syria-Iraq region.
Another DIA report, written in August 2012 (the same time period the U.S. was monitoring weapons flows from Libya to Syria), said that the opposition in Syria was driven by al Qaeda and other extremist Muslim groups: “the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.” The growing sectarian direction of the war was predicted to have dire consequences for Iraq, which included the “grave danger” of the rise of ISIS:
The deterioration of the situation has dire consequences on the Iraqi situation and are as follows:
This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters. ISIS could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.

Some of the “dire consequences” are blacked-out, but the DIA presciently warned one such consequence would be the “renewing facilitation of terrorist elements from all over the Arab world entering into Iraqi Arena.”

It turns out the DIA warnings were right on the nose. In a recent crushing victory, ISIS terrorists took over Ramadi. The Iraqi military cut and ran. And now the murderous Islamic radicals, with volunteers courtesy of Obama’s Libya creation, have embarrassed America and taken many American military assets that we gave to the Iraqi military!

From a separate lawsuit, the State Department produced a document created by Hillary Clinton’s offices and the Operations Center in the Office of the Executive Secretariat the morning after the Benghazi attack, which was sent widely through the agency, including to Joseph McManus (then-Hillary Clinton’s executive assistant). At 6:00 am, a few hours after the attack, the top office of the State Department sent a “spot report” on the “Attack on U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi” that makes no mention of videos or demonstrations:
Four COM personnel were killed and three were wounded in an attack by dozens of fighters on the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi beginning approximately 1550 Eastern Time….
The State Department has yet to turn over any documents to Judicial Watch from the secret email accounts of Hillary Clinton and other top State Department officials. However, the State Department released some of these secret emails recently – again thanks in no small measure to our oversight pressure. For corrupt politicians, the long Memorial Day weekend is the best time to release damaging information in the hopes most miss it during the holiday.

These documents show that the Benghazi cover-up has been in motion for years and is only unraveling through our independent lawsuits. The Benghazi scandal just got a whole lot worse for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

These documents are jaw-dropping. No wonder we had to file more FOIA lawsuits and wait over two years for them. If the American people had known the truth – that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other top administration officials knew that the Benghazi attack was an al-Qaeda terrorist attack from the get-go – and yet lied and covered this fact up – Mitt Romney might very well be president. And why would the Obama administration continue to support the Muslim Brotherhood even after it knew it was tied to the Benghazi terrorist attack and to al Qaeda? These documents also show connections between the collapse in Libya and the ISIS war – and confirm that the U.S. knew remarkable details about the transfer of arms from Benghazi to Syrian jihadists.

38 comments:

  1. IG Report On Hillary Due Out Soon (May)

    DOJ Inspector General’s Report On Hillary Email Probe To Be Released In May
    JOHN SEXTONPosted at 7:21 pm on April 16, 2018


    Fox News‘ Catherine Herridge reports today that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz will release his long-awaited report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation in May.

    SEE ALSO: “Walking Dead” grumble thread: Bring on the civil war

    Horowitz addressed the timing in a letter to Senator Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

    He wrote that the report, which began in January 2017 with bipartisan support, has been extended due to “potentially important additional information and documents that recently came to our attention, and the interviews they have required us to conduct.” Horowitz continued, “my expectation is that we will issue our report in May, absent any new developments.”…

    The IG is thought to be looking at everything from political bias to how evidence was handled in the Clinton email case. Information has continued to emerge in recent months relevant to that case.

    So what’s going to be in this report? The IG has been very tight-lipped but a report published in January by the Washington Post indicated Horowitz was looking at McCabe’s apparent failure to pursue a probe involving Hillary’s email server:

    The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, has been asking witnesses why FBI leadership seemed unwilling to move forward on the examination of emails found on the laptop of former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) until late October — about three weeks after first being alerted to the issue, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

    A key question of the internal investigation is whether McCabe or anyone else at the FBI wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the Nov. 8 election, these people said. It is unclear whether the inspector general has reached any conclusions on that point.

    Horowitz was also looking into why an investigation into the Clinton Foundation also seemed to stall at McCabe’s desk:

    At the same time, the FBI was facing a new set of questions, this time about McCabe’s role in a stalled probe into the Clinton Foundation. Some within the FBI felt McCabe had repeatedly moved to hamstring that probe and were suspicious of his motives for doing so, according to people familiar with the matter.

    It was a report about McCabe’s possible lack of impartiality which led him to leak information to the Wall Street Journal. IG Horowitz released a report last week which showed conclusively that McCabe had lied under oath to FBI investigators about having approved those leaks. According to that report, a WSJ reporter had information claiming McCabe had issued a stand-down order related to the Clinton Foundation probe. McCabe wanted to rebut that story by showing that he had fought (on the phone) to keep the Clinton probe open. The leak effectively confirmed that an investigation into the Clinton Foundation was underway, information seen as harmful to Clinton.

    Do the leaks prove that McCabe was not seeking to help Clinton by slow-walking investigations behind the scenes? Or do they just prove he wanted to a) defend himself and b) avoid being pegged as Clinton’s defender and potentially being forced to recuse himself from any investigations involving her? McCabe’s impartiality is one of the big questions the IG report will hopefully sort out when it is released next month.

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/16/doj-inspector-generals-report-hillary-email-probe-released-may/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I recall O'bozo going on the tellie and telling Americans he didn't know what had happened at Benghazi but he was 'going to get to the bottom of it' and report back to us.

      And, that was all we ever heard from O'bozo about the 'incident'.

      Delete
    2. I think an IG Report is about the only reliable source we urban and rural peasants have back in Washington, D.C.

      Delete
    3. Rosenstein didn't make the House Committee's deadline of Monday for turning over the unredacted Comey memos.

      Delete
    4. Catherine Herridge of Fox News is a wonderful reporter.

      Delete
  2. Libyan Update

    Libya eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar has already allowed the C.I.A. to establish a base in Benghazi — a low-key American return to the city after Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed there in 2012 — and a handful of American Special Forces operators are present at an air base near the city, American officials said, reported New York Times.

    NYT added that the nomination of the C.I.A. director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state could further align General Haftar with the United States. Mr. Pompeo, whose confirmation hearing took place Thursday, and Haftar, a onetime C.I.A. asset, are avowedly hostile to all forms of political Islam.

    Libyan Update 2

    Libya warlord Khalifa Haftar has died in Paris Libyan Express |Friday 13 April 2018

    ReplyDelete
  3. Libyan Update 3

    Despite confirmations from prominent leaders in east Libya that veteran military commander Khalifa Haftar is in good health, it is uncertain what future lies ahead for him.

    Last week Haftar reportedly slipped into a coma after suffering a stroke, but a spokesman denied the claims and said he's well.

    It was later reported in local media that he passed away, while medical sources told his family that Haftar was in a critical condition, according to Libya Al Ahrar TV channel.

    But sources close to Haftar-led Operation Karama, or "dignity" confirmed to Al Jazeera that he is well, saying that he had a setback but has now recovered.

    The uncertainty around Haftar's well-being has stirred speculation about who will succeed him, and the possible outcomes if he is out of the picture.

    Haftar, who controls east Libya except for the city of Derna, is one of the main players in the Libyan political scene due to his ties with foreign and regional countries.

    A former ally of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Haftar, 75, returned to Libya seven years ago from the United States to join the NATO-backed revolution that ended four decades of one-man rule.

    After a protracted military campaign in Libya's second city, Benghazi, he promised to "liberate" the capital Tripoli, which split from the east in 2014.

    Over the past years, Haftar had monopolised negotiations with the prime minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, through international mediators, while preventing military and security leaders from dealing with GNA, claiming it is illegitimate.

    Mohammad al-Darrat, a member of the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives (HOR), told Al Jazeera that Haftar is the political and military representative of east Libya for the UN Support Mission, and his absence would cause division.

    Al-Darrat's projection was echoed by Journalist Abdullah Ezzeddine who predicts armed clashes between tribes in eastern Libya in the events an alternative candidate to replace Haftar is not agreed upon.

    Restoring influence

    According to observers in Libya, the Awaqir tribe, one of the largest tribes in east Libya, will regain its influence after it had been marginalised and sidelined by Hafter.

    Faraj Aqim, an Awaqir tribesman and former GNA official in Benghazi, had accused Haftar of trying to assassinate him before he was arrested in November last year.

    He also accused Haftar of being involved in assassinating and arresting some of the tribes' chiefs, which is making the Awaqirir tribe members feel they had been used by Haftar for his personal gains.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Moonbeam has decreed that his California National Guard won't take part in guarding the nation, declares The Donald a 'totalitarian', while a wave of cities, counties and jurisdictions in California are joining lawsuits against Moonbeam, and pledging to cooperate with ICE, and are siding with The Donald, and the movement to break California up into three states gains support....

    Meanwhile in Venezuela the oil workers are quitting as the starvation wages are starving them to death, the military is put in charge while the workers are voting with their feet fleeing to Colombia and other points, Trudeau aka Turdeau aka Turd-O in Canada doesn't seem to mention Venezuela much any longer, nor do the Hollywood and coastal elites, nor B.S. (Bernie Sanders) and news about oil production in Venezuela can read here:

    Collapse: Venezuelan Oil Workers Voting … With Their Feet
    ED MORRISSEYPosted at 8:41 am on April 17, 2018

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/17/collapse-venezuelan-oil-workers-voting-feet/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Then Representative Mike Pompeo rips Hillary, Kenyatta new assholes over Benghazi -

    VIDEO

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TqkocJIHg0

    ReplyDelete
  6. God Bless My Pillow/Ace Hardware -

    Boomerang: Since Left’s Boycott Began, Ingraham Viewership Up 20%

    As of Friday, April 13, 27 companies had announced they would pull their advertising from the show, but one — Ace Hardware — announced it would resume its sponsorship of the Ingraham Angle, citing the “incomplete” information it had when it originally announced its withdrawal.

    Other advertisers, such as MyPillow, issued statements defying the boycott and announcing their continued support for Ingraham’s show.

    Ingraham’s viewers apparently feel the same way. Since Ingraham returned from vacation on April 9, total viewership of her program has averaged about 2.7 million (Monday through Thursday; Friday’s numbers are not available).

    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/04/boomerang-since-lefts-boycott-began-ingraham-viewership-20/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One must admit, Mike Lindell knows how to advertise and sell a shit product. And himself. I suspect Q-Ads out of Detroit, Michigan is the power behind the throne.

      Mike Lindell Website | Watch The Mike Lindell Story | michaeljlindell.com‎
      Adwww.michaeljlindell.com/‎
      Everything About The Author, Inventor and Entrepreneur Mike Lindell!
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      Delete
  7. A possible answer to the question as to how Assad could be so stupid as to launch chemical attacks when he has won the war -

    April 17, 2018
    Assad and the Art of Survival
    By Alexander G. Markovsky

    Conversely, if Moscow and Washington were able to establish common goals to which both countries manifested their desire to work toward eradication of terrorism and solving some of the Middle East's problems, that evolution could leave Assad politically dispensable, perhaps even available to be used as an exchange currency in a grand bargain. The prospects of American withdrawal would leave Assad one on one with Putin, who will reduce him to servitude.

    With little subtlety and a lot of daring, Assad, by ordering the chemical attacks and thereby provoking international indignation, has been achieving his objective of driving a wedge between Russia and the United States, preventing their coalescence and ensuring continued American engagement....




    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/assad_and_the_art_of_survival.html#ixzz5CwaY9ZmW

    ReplyDelete
  8. Has anyone checked Jef Sessions' pulse lately?

    Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Breitbart News Tonight on Monday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should withdraw his recusal from the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump associates — at least as far as it considers President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
    Dershowitz offered his remarks during a Monday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

    Dershowitz said, “Sometimes you should un-recuse yourself, and I think Attorney General Sessions should un-recuse himself when it comes to the New York investigation because it’s not part of the Russia investigation. He’s not a witness or a potential subject there. He’s the attorney general of the United States. He ought to be in charge of supervising the New York investigation, not Rosenstein.”

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sessions has to be a deep state plant or at a minimum a potted plant.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Trump really was naive, he had two hard-assed prosecutors in Christie or Giuliani and he picked Sessions. He would have been better off keeping Eric Holder.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So We’re Going To Ignore That An Ex-Clinton Staffer Interviewed Comey On The Clinton Email Scandal?

    ....After all, Stephanopoulos, whose knee-jerk response to the Clinton email scandal was to say, “we’ll also see if her critics overreact on this one,” is a “well-respected” member of the press; he’s “one of the biggest stars” on television.

    If you think it’s strange that a former Clinton aide and Clinton Foundation donor should be assigned the task of interviewing Comey on the Clinton email scandal, you’re probably not alone. It’s strange indeed that no one at his network seems to care....


    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2018/04/going-ignore-ex-clinton-staffer-interviewed-comey-clinton-email-scandal/


    Stephanopoulos is a shabby paid male political prostitute.

    ReplyDelete
  12. .

    Supreme Court Justices are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get until a history of decisions is booked.

    Neil Gorsuch recently added to his history with his decision on an immigration case.

    The Void for Vagueness Doctrine

    During oral argument on the first day of the 2017 term in October, Gorsuch wondered how the court could define a crime of violence if Congress did not.

    "Even when it's going to put people in prison and deprive them of liberty and result in deportation, we shouldn't expect Congress to be able to specify those who are captured by its laws?" Gorsuch asked Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler.

    The vagueness doctrine is meant to apply in cases where the criminal or civil penalty is severe, and during oral argument, Justice Samuel Alito wondered how to define severity. Gorsuch had a ready answer.

    "Life, liberty or property," he said. "It's right out of the text of the Due Process Clause itself."

    The court's ruling followed a similar one in 2015, when Scalia wrote an 8-1 decision declaring a key section of criminal law targeting armed violence unconstitutionally vague. The clause had allowed past convictions to be treated as violent felonies if they involved "conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another..."


    .




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The guy wasn't an illegal alien. He wasn't a USA citizen either. He had permanent residency status.

      That fact had a bearing on the case, though exactly what I am uncertain. The Supreme Court almost always takes a case to settle some uncertainty in the law. Maybe this was one of the times they were just rectifying an individual wrong ?

      Delete
    2. .

      Right.

      I'm also sure that Trump would agree with you.

      .

      Delete
  13. If the up thread speculation that Assad wants to keep the Rooskies around in Syria this article indicates the Israelis might want to keep the USA around in Syria -

    After Iran Threatens Israel With Attack The Israeli Air Force Has The Best Response Ever
    Posted at 4:00 pm on April 17, 2018 by streiff



    While most of our attention was focused on the airstrikes carried out by US and allied forces on targets associated with Syrian chemical weapons production last Friday night, tensions between Israel and Iran are escalating. Unlike our airstrikes, the Israel-Iran conflict could result in a rather nasty little war.

    For the most part, Israel had limited its military targets in Lebanon to those manned by Hezbollah. Even though it is well-known that Hezbollah is nothing more or less than an Iranian proxy, the fiction was maintained that Hezbollah was acting alone. In February, Israel shot down an Iranian drone over Israeli territory. Instead of being a reconnaissance vehicle, this one was armed with explosives. An attack was carried out against the Iranian drone facility at an airbase near Homs, Syria. No one claimed immediate responsibility, but they have now:

    Initial reports were that the Iranian drone was purely on a reconnaissance mission. But the official Israeli Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, said Friday that the drone’s flight path and Israel’s “intelligence and operational analysis of the parts of the Iranian unmanned vehicle” indicated that “the aircraft was carrying explosives” and that its mission was “an act of sabotage in Israeli territory.”



    “This is the first time we saw Iran do something against Israel — not by proxy,” a senior Israeli military source told me. “This opened a new period.”

    (Save this link. This may be the first Tom Friedman column in years that has contained news and hasn’t involved praising dictators, or their high-speed rail systems, or involved a colloquy with a foreign cab driver.)

    Iran has vowed to retaliate:

    Iran has threatened to punish Israel for its airstrikes in Syria, after reports emerged that an unnamed Israeli military official had confirmed his country was behind an attack on an Iranian drone base in Homs province.

    Bahram Ghassemi, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has now warned “Tel Aviv will be punished for its aggressive action. The occupying Zionist regime will, sooner or later, receive an appropriate response to its actions,” Haaretz reported.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Earlier this month, at least seven Iranian military personnel were killed in the missile strike on the T4 airfield, including Colonel Mehdi Dehghan, who led the drone unit. Syria, Iran and Russia all blamed Israeli forces.

      Israel has said if that happens, it will return the favor:


      Matt
      @Place2029
      Israel ‘ready to strike Iranian bases in Syria’ | World | The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/israel-ready-to-strike-iranian-bases-in-syria-6g5qjcv7l …

      6:57 AM - Apr 17, 2018

      Israel ‘ready to strike Iranian bases in Syria’

      Israel has issued a threat against Iranian forces in Syria, releasing satellite footage and details of their bases, as the conflict draws the rivals deeper into the war. Israel’s military has also...

      thetimes.co.uk
      2
      See Matt's other Tweets
      Twitter Ads info and privacy

      And Israel has released aerial images of Iranian facilities along with pictures of their commanders just to underscore the vulnerability of the Iranian command structure and facilities:

      View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

      Anshel Pfeffer

      @AnshelPfeffer
      Israeli security establishment now publishing satellite photos of IRGC Air Force bases in Syria and Tehran, along with the commander's mugshot - basically saying to them "we know where you live"

      1:59 AM - Apr 17, 2018

      Iran can’t afford to not retaliate and it may be at the point where it has to retaliate itself and not use a proxy actor. If that happens it is difficult to see how Netanyahu doesn’t carry through on his pledge.

      From Israel’s standpoint, if the US is looking at trying to disengage in Syria, then provoking an open fight with Iran in Syria and Lebanon has a lot to recommend it. They could extract a heavy price from Iran and Hezbollah and they could do it while the US still has a military presence in the region.

      https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/04/17/iran-threatens-israel-attack-israeli-air-force-best-response-ever/

      Delete

  14. The case, Sessions v. Dimaya, saw Justice Neil Gorsuch -- President Donald Trump's appointment to the high court -- cast the deciding vote, as he sided with the panel's more liberal justices


    Still a couple of months until the punchline


    ReplyDelete
  15. .

    Confusion?

    Sunday, Nicki Haley said new sanctions on Russia (as a result of actions on Syria) where pending.

    Donald Trump said 'not so fast'.

    This morning, Larry Kudlow said there appeared to be some confusion. Word out of the White House seemed to imply Haley had gotten out in front of the issue.

    This afternoon, Haley said, "I don't get confused".

    Just might get interesting. I don't like Haley's attitude and tone. She kind of reminds me of Samantha Powers when she was at the UN. That said, I doubt she will put up with much shit. Unlike Trump toadies like Sanders and Pence, She seems to have a mind of her own and a short fuse.

    Just the latest of the Trump loyalist he has left out there twisting in the wind.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. "Kudlow said that the Treasury Department has prepared a package of additional sanctions against Russia, but that nothing has been finalized.

      He also later called Haley to apologize over the "confused" comments.

      "She was certainly not confused," Kudlow told The New York Times. "I was wrong to say that — totally wrong."

      http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/383634-haley-fires-back-at-white-house-i-dont-get-confused

      Delete
    2. Trump taught Kudlow to follow in his footsteps and learn how to assert how wrong he had been.

      Delete
  16. A consensus emerged Tuesday at the White House and Mar-a-Lago about how to clean up the administration's suddenly muddled plans to crack down on Russia: Blame Nikki Haley.

    Several administration officials said the US ambassador to the United Nations got ahead of President Donald Trump's decision-making when she hit the Sunday talk show circuit and said the US would level new sanctions the next day targeting Russian companies that facilitated the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program. The sanctions have yet to come.

    ...

    Privately, Trump was "annoyed" at the confusion, a senior administration official said, one of the rare instances in which Haley has drawn his ire. It's not clear whether Trump has spoken directly to her since the White House said Haley had overstepped.

    ...

    "How many other things do you want to mention have been rolled out that way?" Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, told reporters Tuesday. "I didn't think much about it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Southwest landed with gear down, later ends up on ground.
    Puzzling.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=southwest+engine+explosion&rlz=1CAACAO_enUS720US720&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF2q6mzMLaAhVP62MKHUONArAQ_AUICigB&biw=1200&bih=536#imgrc=_

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks like it's still on it's gear to me.

      Delete
    2. Thanks.

      Fake news NYTimes fooled me:

      https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/04/18/business/18AIRPLANE/merlin_136973334_299bd7a6-7834-496f-9094-95a7d052d9f9-master768.jpg

      Delete
    3. 727 and 737 low to ground design:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKtvAWxjF4k

      Delete
  18. DANA WHITE, PENTAGON CHIEF SPOKESPERSON: What happens next has everything to do with what the Assad regime decides to do?

    NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: I spoke with the president this morning, and he said if the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded. When our president draws a red line, our president enforces the red line.

    ...

    WALLACE: Jennifer, thank you.

    Joining us now from New York, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

    Ambassador, I want to start with President Trump's tweet after the military action against Syria. Here it is: A perfectly executed strike last night. Could not have had a better result. Mission accomplished!

    A lot of people say that echoes President Bush 43's premature claim of mission accomplished back in 2003. Isn't President Trump's claim of success just as premature?

    HALEY: Well, first of all, mission accomplished is a military term, and as a military spouse, I know that mission accomplished means you have one task currently in front of you and when it's completed, it is mission accomplished.

    Politically, mission accomplished means something broader. And I think the president was referring in military terms.

    ...

    WALLACE: So, which is it? A one-time shot or a sustained response?

    HALEY: That is totally up to Assad. What I can tell you is the president has made it very clear when it comes to weapons of mass destruction, we have no tolerance for it.


    Syria Strategy

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