Obama Surrenders Iraq

[American Patriot]

Sunni Militants Seize Crossing on Iraq-Jordan Border

By SUADAD AL-SALHY and TIM ARANGOJUNE 23, 2014






BAGHDAD — Sunni militants seized the border crossing between Iraq and Jordan late Sunday night as they consolidated control of Iraq’s vast western region. The seizing of the crossing, known as Turabil, raised the specter of the insurgency’s becoming a menace not just to Iraq and Syria, where they already control territory, but also to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.


The advance by the militants followed their seizing of an important border crossing with Syria at Qaim, allowing them to move fighters and supplies almost unimpeded between the areas they control in Syria and Iraq. A third border crossing, Al Waleed, was also said to be in militant hands on the Iraqi side, though officials said the Syrian army still controlled the Syrian side of that crossing, indicating that at least for now, the militants could not cross freely there.

The Iraqi government said it had abandoned the Qaim crossing as a “tactical” decision as it concentrates its forces — Iraqi army units and Shiite militias — around Baghdad and in the Shiite heartland of Iraq.

Photo
" data-mediaviewer-credit="Mohammed Sawaf/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images" itemprop="url" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/06/23/world/middleeast/24IRAQ/24IRAQ-articleLarge.jpg">

Iraqi security forces patrolled the outskirts of central Iraq's Shiite holy city of Karbala on Monday.

Credit Mohammed Sawaf/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Monday morning for talks with Iraqi leaders, urging them to form an inclusive government, as they face the grave threat from Sunni insurgents, many of them fighting under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. In recent weeks the militants have gained control of large areas of northern and western Iraq, including Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, as the government’s forces were routed or melted away.

Continue reading the main story Video Play Video|1:35

ISIS: Behind the Group Overrunning Iraq

ISIS: Behind the Group Overrunning Iraq

Background on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Islamist group that gained control of the second-largest city in Iraq.
Credit Uncredited/Militant Website, via Associated Press

Meanwhile, in Hilla, south of Baghdad, dozens of Sunni prisoners were said have been killed as they were being transported by security forces to a more secure prison. As the troubling news emerged about a new sectarian massacre, officials gave conflicting explanations.

Continue reading the main story Iraqi Government Loses Control of All Western Border Crossings
Updated June 23
Beginning on Friday and in a rapid succession, ISIS fighters captured the western border crossings at Qaim, Al Waleed and Trebil. Related Maps and Multimedia »

Security officials said that at least 69 prisoners were killed, many of them senior leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner of ISIS. One account, given by an intelligence officer in Hilla who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the policemen who were transporting the prisoners “just stopped the buses on the highway before they reached their final destination and shot them dead.”

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Graphic: In Iraq Crisis, a Tangle of Alliances and Enmities

However, other security and local officials said the convoy was ambushed by militants, and that some prisoners died during the clashes.
Sadiq al-Sultani, the governor of Hilla, said at a news conference on Monday that “the convoy of prisoners was attacked by militants on the highway,” and that 10 militants and 15 prisoners were killed. “The rest of the prisoners were transported to another jail,” he said.
The episode in Hilla follows the discovery in a police station last week of the bodies of 44 Sunni prisoners who were held by the Shiite-led Iraqi government in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

[American Patriot]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...for-talks.html

Iraq crisis: Convoy attack kills dozens as John Kerry flies in for talks

Sixty-nine people killed in insurgent ambush on vehicles south of Baghdad, as US secretary of state arrives in capital to discuss crisis with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

John Kerry, left, meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad Photo: AP









By Hannah Strange, agencies

11:32AM BST 23 Jun 2014
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The US will provide "intense, sustained" support to Iraqi security forces in their fight against an extremist-led Sunni insurgency, John Kerry, the secretary of state, said after talks with the country's leaders on Monday.



Mr Kerry said Iraq was at a critical moment and faced an "existential threat" from the offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis). He did not give details of the support the US would offer, but said: "The support will be intense, sustained, and if Iraq's leaders take the steps needed to bring the country together it will be effective."



He said that the US would not push for the resignation of Nouri al-Maliki, the embattled Shia prime minister whose allegedly anti-Sunni policies have been widely blamed for fuelling the uprising. But he said the Iraqi leader had affirmed his commitment to a July 1 handover to a new government that is due to be formed following recent elections.

Mr Kerry's visit to Baghdad came as sixty-nine people were killed during an insurgent attack on an Iraqi convoy transporting detainees south of the capital.

At least seven gunmen died in clashes with security forces during the assault, according to a local police captain and a doctor. It was not immediately clear how the detainees died.



Baghdad's forces meanwhile abandoned the border with Jordan, leaving the entire Western frontier outside government control. Officials also said insurgents had driven government forces from the airport at Tal Afar, completing the Isis takeover of the strategic town after days of heavy fighting.


Sunni tribes took the Turaibil border crossing, the only legal crossing point between Iraq and Jordan, after Iraqi security forces fled, Iraqi and Jordanian security sources said. The tribes were negotiating handing the post over to Isis insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who took control of two main crossings with Syria over the weekend. The Jordanian army has been put on alert.


The meeting between Mr Kerry and Mr Maliki was held behind closed doors but Iraqi officials briefed on the discussions said Mr Maliki urged the United States to target the militants' positions in Iraq and neighbouring Syria and hit training camps and convoys with airstrikes. The officials said Mr Kerry responded by saying a great deal of care and caution must be taken before attacks are launched to avoid civilian casualties that could create the impression that Americans are attacking Sunnis.


Isis's victories over the weekend have considerably expanded territory under its control just two weeks after the al-Qaeda breakaway group started swallowing up chunks of northern Iraq, heightening pressure on Mr Maliki to step aside.


The offensive by Isis takes the group closer to its dream of carving out an Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq. Controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, boosting its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.


If the Sunni insurgents succeed in their quest to secure an enclave, they could further unsettle the already volatile Middle East and serve as a magnet for jihadists from around the world.


The militants' battlefield successes in the north and the west of Iraq have laid bare the inadequacies of Iraq's US-trained forces. In the north, troops fled in the face of advancing militants, abandoning their weapons, vehicles and other equipment. In some cases in the west, they pulled out either when the militants approached or when they heard of other towns falling.


Sunday's capture by the militants of crossings bordering Jordan and Syria followed the fall on Friday and Saturday of the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba, all of which are in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where the militants have since January controlled the city of Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi.
In the first information from the Iraqi government on military casualties, Mr Maliki's security spokesman on Monday said that "hundreds" of troops had been killed during the offensive.
A senior State Department official said the insurgents' recent march on Baghdad has been slowed, although concerns remain that Isis will attack the golden-domed Shia shrine to the Imam al-Askari in Samarra. That city, in Sunni territory in north-central Iraq, was the site of a 2006 bombing that triggered the worst of the war's sectarian fighting. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared that Iraq is currently in a civil war.


The official said Mr Kerry would not ask Mr Maliki to resign, as some in the US and Sunni Arab states in the Middle East have demanded, because "it's not up to us". Allegedly discriminatory policies by his Shia-dominated government have been blamed for fuelling the uprising.


Currently, Baghdad is operating under a lame-duck government, as a new parliament that was elected in April has not yet selected its cabinet ministers. It took more than nine months to seat a new government the last time Iraq underwent the process, in 2010. This time around, the State Department official said, Mr Maliki and other Iraqi officials cannot risk exacerbating the political instability, and further inflaming the insurgency, by stalling on the creation of a new and more inclusive government.


Both President Barack Obama and Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also have urged Mr Maliki to quickly form an inclusive government that

[American Patriot]

Unknown planes bomb ISIS positions in N. Iraq, Pentagon denies it’s US

Image | Posted on June 24, 2014 by tomfernandez28

Unidentified bombers have reportedly launched an air strike on ISIS positions in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim. Iraqi television has claimed they are US planes, but the Pentagon has denied responsibility.


US planes were identified by Iraqi television, but the Saudi Al-Arabiya network claims that the raid was carried out by Syria, citing local tribal chiefs.


The radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has taken large parts of the north of the country from the Shia government, pushing Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to request support from the United States and neighboring Shia states.


Syria’s President Bashar Assad is an Alawite, following a branch of Shia teachings.


DETAILS TO FOLLOW

[American Patriot]

Jun 24 2014
Photos of ”World Renounded Politician” Seen With ISIS Leaders in Syria Before Their Rampage Through Iraq

I said no more blogs about America. This is about ISIS the terror group tearing Iraq a new one just now. All along I said certain countries were funding terror groups all over the World. Here we have THE TRUTH. So the UK and her allies went in to Iraq, left it for dead and have left it wide open for terror groups to take over. The UK and her friends also did the same in Libya. When is enough, enough? When will people see this for what it is? I checked and these photos are legit, 100% ok. Not photoshopped. This image here proves EVERYTHING I have been saying for a year. The UK and her friends are crooks. Get my country out of this barbaric crap




http://shaunynews.com/2014/06/24/photos-of-world-renounded-politician-seen-with-isis-leaders-in-syria-before-their-rampage-through-iraq/

[American Patriot]

Syrian warplanes strike in western Iraq, killing at least 50

.
By Ali A. Nabhan and Matt Bradley
The Wall Street Journal
BAGHDAD — Syrian warplanes struck targets in the western Iraqi province of Anbar on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people, as foreign allies of Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government sought to shore up the crumbling Iraqi armed forces and curb the advances of Sunni insurgents.
More than 132 other people were wounded when bombs hit the municipal building, a market and a bank in the district of Al Rutba, according to a provincial official and Mohammed Al Qubaisi, a doctor in the district’s main hospital.
It was the second consecutive day of airstrikes by Syria, which has joined Iran in coming to the aid of the embattled Baghdad government. Tehran has deployed special forces to help protect the capital and the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, which Shiites revere.
In recent days, Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham have seized key towns in Anbar province, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, giving them unchecked sway over hundreds of miles of territory spanning the Iraqi-Syrian border as they fight to carve out an Islamic emirate.
Abdullah Al Shimmari, the member of the Anbar Tribal Military Council, which is aligned with ISIS, denounced Syrian-Iranian involvement in Iraq and vowed retaliation.
“We are now facing aggressive Iranian attacks at Arab hands,” Mr. Al Shimmari said. “Our response to that will be soon.”
As foreign supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki undertook to buttress his government, the country’s local tribal leaders emerged further as key political players in helping to stem bloodshed and restore a modicum of stability in areas of Iraq once controlled by Baghdad.
In the western city of Haditha, tribal leaders were in talks on Tuesday with ISIS militants to negotiate the surrender of Iraqi security forces and to prevent damage to a nearby dam on the Euphrates that generates hydroelectric power for large parts of the country.

ISIS controls towns to the east and west of Haditha, leaving the city and the troops deployed there virtually surrounded.
The rebels were demanding the turnover of dozens of veterans of the U.S.-sponsored forces—known collectively as the Awakening movement—that successfully repelled al Qaeda fighters in 2007 and 2008, local security sources said.
The mediation in Haditha was taking place only hours after local tribal leaders negotiated the peaceful surrender of the last of the Iraqi soldiers trapped in the oil refinery at Beiji.
The agreement between tribal sheiks and ISIS fighters, reached late Monday, ensured the safe passage of government soldiers from Iraq’s largest oil refinery, which fell under the militants’ control over the weekend, a tribal leader in Beiji said by telephone.
As government troops surrendered their weapons to ISIS and left for the semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region, Sunni militants celebrated at the plant and in the nearby town of Beiji, shooting their rifles into the air and using loudspeakers to proclaim their victory, residents said.
State-run Al Iraqiyya television station, in reports aired Tuesday, continued to insist that the refinery was under the control of Baghdad and would “start to operate again within days.”
At least 1,075 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the past 2½ weeks during fighting in the provinces of Nineveh, Diyala and Salah Al Din, the U.N. said Tuesday.
Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@wsj.com

[American Patriot]

Iran Secretly Sending Drones and Supplies into Iraq, U.S. Officials Say

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITTJUNE 25, 2014

Photo

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, in Brussels on Wednesday. Credit Daniel Naupold/European Pressphoto Agency

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Graphic

In Iraq Crisis, a Tangle of Alliances and Enmities

The major players in the Iraq and Syria crisis are often both allies and antagonists, working together on one front on one day and at cross-purposes the next.

OPEN Graphic

BRUSSELS — Iran is flying unarmed surveillance drones over Iraq from an airfield in Baghdad and is secretly supplying Iraq with tons of military equipment, supplies and other assistance, American officials said. Tehran has also deployed a unit there to intercept communications, the officials said.
The secret Iranian programs are part of a broader effort by Tehran to gather intelligence and help Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government in its struggle against Sunni militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, has paid at least two visits to Iraq to help Iraqi military advisers plot strategy. And Iran has deployed about a dozen other Quds Force officers to advise Iraqi commanders, and help mobilize more than 2,000 Iraqi Shiite militia members from the country’s south, American officials said.
“It’s a substantial amount,” said an American official, who declined to be identified because he was discussing classified reports. “It’s not necessarily heavy weaponry but it not just light arms and ammunition.”
The Iranian moves come as the United States is deploying the first of as many as 300 military advisers to assess Iraqi forces and to try to stabilize the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.
The American and Iranian military moves are not coordinated, American officials said. Even though the United States and Iran both oppose the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, they are still competing for influence in Iraq and are backing opposing sides in the civil war in neighboring Syria.
“The Iranians are playing in a big way in Iraq,” Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview.

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Obama on Engaging Iran in Iraq Crisis

The president discussed Iran’s declaration to intervene in Iraq.
Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

The security crisis in Iraq was one of the topics in Secretary of State John Kerry’s meetings with allied officials who have gathered here for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Ukraine and other issues. On Tuesday night, Mr. Kerry reviewed a number of pressing issues with Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, including Ukraine and “the grave security situation on the ground in Iraq,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The Obama administration has sought to open a dialogue with Iran on the Iraq crisis. William J. Burns, the deputy secretary of State, met briefly last week with an Iranian diplomat at the margins of the negotiations in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program.
But Western officials say there appear to be divisions between the Iranian Foreign Ministry, which may be open to some degree of cooperation, and Gen. Suleimani, who was the mastermind of Iran’s strategy in Iraq when Iraqi Shiite militias trained by Iran attacked American troops there with powerful explosive devices supplied by Tehran. The general is also the current architect of Iranian military support in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad.
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“Iran has many different power centers and different elements of Iran are sending different messages and doing different things,” a senior State Department official told reporters on Sunday. “They are definitely extremely interested in what’s happening here, to say the least.”

[American Patriot]

Intel Official: Americans Have Joined Militant Group ISIS

June 25, 2014 6:45 AM
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Iraqi Shiite fighters raise up their weapons as they show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants on June 23, 2014 during a gathering in the southern city of Basra. (credit: HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images)



ERBIL, Iraq (CBS News/CBSDC/AP) — The Sunni militant group in Iraq is a force roughly 3,000 strong and includes some Americans, a senior intelligence official told CBS News on Tuesday.


The majority of fighters in the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, are of Iraqi and Syrian origin.


In all, up to 10,000 are fighting with the group, 3,000 in Iraq and another 7,000 in Syria, the intelligence official said. Between 3,000 and 5,000 are foreigners, though how many of those are in Iraq is difficult to assess.


The fighters view Syria and Iraq as one battlefield and have been able to move swiftly inside Iraq with the help of local Sunnis, ties the intelligence official described as more of a “relationship of convenience” than a formal alliance.


The official said the group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, was well-positioned to keep the territory that it has captured but would be stretched thin if it tried to push south into Baghdad. It has intentions to target U.S. interests, the official said.

[American Patriot]

“There WILL Be Plots To Kill Americans!” — Dianne Feinstein

By wkchild on June 23, 2014 • ( )
from CNN via MOXNEWS & Before Its News:
“We’re on the verge of something serious,” states Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Dianne Feinstein in a CNN interview, shown below.
Several concerning quotes come out in the first six minutes of this interview, specifically Feinstein’s assurance that not only was the intelligence committee blindsided by the speed the militant group ISIS was able to take over a third of Iraq, but she states emphatically that “there will be a plot to kill Americans.”
Feinstein also drops the bombshell that they know of at least 100 Americans that entered the arena, then go to a European country that has Visa waivers, then just waltzing back onto American soil to carry those plots out… The Middle East is literally ready to explode.





Video at the link: http://wchildblog.com/2014/06/23/the...nne-feinstein/

[American Patriot]

US Intelligence: Iraq’s Balad Airbase Is Now In Danger Of ISIS Takeover As Terrorists Push To Seize Their Own Air Force

06/26/2014 ICA Leave a comment Go to comments

Though many ISIS fighters are well educated — its own leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, holds a PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Baghdad – I’m doubtful that many, if any, within ISIS have had any formal training to operate military aircraft. Then again, we don’t know what experience the surging number of foreign ISIS fighters — some holding Western passports — are bringing to the table, not to mention any number of defectors from the Syrian military who may have joined the ranks of their former enemy. All it takes is just one experienced pilot to wreak even more havoc than we’ve already seen …

Qur’an Sura 8:59a, “The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them …”

By Eli Lake and Josh Rogin, The Daily Beast – “In its march to Baghdad, ISIS seized the heavy weapons of a modern army. Now, the jihadists are attacking Iraq’s biggest air base – and could soon be able to attack from the sky.


The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is threatening to take control of Balad Airbase, Iraq’s largest airfield and one of America’s most important military outposts during its occupation of the country.


Today, Balad still has plenty of vehicles and aircraft on the base that any terrorist group would covet, including Russian-made transport helicopters, surveillance planes, and a fleet of pickup trucks fitted with heavy machine guns.


Now, that airbase is coming under fire — and is in danger of falling into the hands of ISIS, according to U.S. intelligence officers, internal reports from Balad, and outside analysts. Reuters reported Wednesday that the base was now surrounded on three sides by insurgents and taking heavy mortar fire.


‘We assess the group continues to threaten the air base and Iraqi Security Force control of the air base as it moves south towards Baghdad,’ a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters Tuesday.


Of course, even if ISIS were to gain control of Balad, there is no guarantee its fighters would know how to operate or maintain the aircraft that are stored there. But an ISIS takeover of Balad would be significant nonetheless. As NBC News reported Tuesday, Iraqi officers say without air support they are on an equal footing with ISIS fighters.


Jessica Lewis — the research director for the Institute for the Study of War and a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served in Iraq — told The Daily Beast, ‘It would mean that ISIS can beat the best that the Iraqi Army can muster, not just the northern units that have been ignored. It would mean strategic defeat for the Iraqi Army.’


Lewis estimates that Balad and neighboring Taji base are likely some of the next targets of the ISIS campaign. ‘Both of these bases are critical military sites for the Iraqi Army. Neutralizing one or both would demonstrate that ISIS can beat the Iraqi Army strategically.’” Read more.

[American Patriot]

Camp Anaconda in Iraq under siege.

Haditha Dam is under attack too.

[Avvakum]

Camp Anaconda in Iraq under siege.

Haditha Dam is under attack too.

ISIL plans on blowing the dam up, from what i've heard. Al-Baghdadi certainly knows his Mesopotamian history; he strikes without mercy and without letup like the Mongols did when they took modern-day Iraq in the 12th century. Ruthless, implacable, skilled, and cunning; that's the aura he's trying to project to his enemies. Thank the US; our form of darwinian natural selection has produced an enemy worthy of our steel there, but they face a demoralized conscript army instead of us anymore. Al-Baghdadi is an Islamist Saddam Hussein, less flamboyant and less bragging, more secrecy and even less mercy.

Im guessing that ISIL will take over most of Iraq except for the Kurdish and Assyrian areas, and then that'll make the Iranians invade to liberate the Shia holy sites from ISIL. We'll be right back to where we were at the start of the Iran-Iraq war, almost as if someone planned it that way....

[American Patriot]

Well, if this guy is like the old mongols then its time we start acting like the knights from the Crusades

[vector7]

Christian Father Commits Suicide After ISIS Members Rape Wife and Daughter in Front of Him Because He Couldn't Pay Poll Tax

By Leonardo Blair , CP Reporter

June 25, 2014|3:08 pm

(Photo: Reuters)
ISIS militants in Iraq.

A Christian father who watched his wife and daughter get brutally raped by members of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) because he couldn't pay them a poll tax in Mosul, Iraq, killed himself under the weight of the trauma this past weekend.

A report from the Assyrian International News Agency said ISIS began enforcing Islamic laws in the northern Iraq city which they overran on June 10.

Dr. Sallama Al-Khafaji of the Iraq High Commission for Human Rights said the incident happened on Saturday after ISIS began asking Christians in Mosul for a poll tax.

"In one instance, ISIS members entered the home of an Assyrian family in Mosul and demanded the poll tax (jizya). When the Assyrian family said they did not have the money, three ISIS members raped the mother and daughter in front of the husband and father. The husband and father was so traumatized that he committed suicide," said the report.

"The Christians have told me that they cannot pay this tax," Dr. Al-Khafaji told AINA, "and they say 'what am I to do, shall I kill myself?'"

Four Christian women were also reportedly shot dead by ISIS members because they were not wearing veils.

U.S. officials told CNN that they believe ISIS now has about 10,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria and the group has been functioning as an "increasingly capable military force."

CNN

According to a spokesman for Iraq's counterterrorism service, two senior ISIS members – an Algerian militant named Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hafsa, self-styled governor of Tikrit – were killed late Monday during airstrikes in Tikrit, famous for being the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani and other officials on Tuesday and Barzani painted a dire picture of security.

"We are facing a new reality and a new Iraq," Barzani told Kerry.

Barzani told CNN Monday that it may now be time for Kurds to push for their independence from Iraq because the country was crumbling.

"Iraq is obviously falling apart," he said. "And it's obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything. Everything is collapsing – the army, the troops, the police."

[vector7]

Infinite Degrees Beyond Stupid – Secretary Kerry: $500 Million To Arm Syrian “Moderates”…

Posted on June 27, 2014 by sundance
There are two main Islamic fighting forces, and six main factions within those fighting forces, inside Syria – all fighting against Assad. None of them are remotely “moderate”. But for context let me remind you of what the John’s (Kerry and McCain) consider “moderate”:



(Left) John McCain meeting with ISIS forces in Syria while he thought he was in the company of the FSA (Free Syrian Army) D’oh. And (right) John Kerry meeting with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood “moderate” Morsi while he was lopping off the heads of Coptic Christians.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled on Friday that the U.S. hopes to enlist moderate Syrian opposition fighters that the Obama administration has reluctantly decided to arm and train in the battle against militant extremists in neighboring Iraq.

Obama sent Congress a $500 million request Thursday for a Pentagon-run program that would significantly expand previous covert efforts to arm rebels fighting both the Sunni extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The move that comes amid increased U.S. concern that the conflicts in Syria and Iraq are becoming an intertwined fight against the same Sunni extremist group.

If approved by lawmakers, the program would in effect open a second front in the fight against militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, that is spilling over Syria’s border and threatening to overwhelm Iraq.


“Obviously, in light of what has happened in Iraq, we have even more to talk about in terms of the moderate opposition in Syria, which has the ability to be a very important player in pushing back against ISIL’s presence and to have them not just in Syria, but also in Iraq,” Kerry said at the start of a meeting with Syrian opposition leader Ahmad al-Jarba. (read more)

[Avvakum]

A religious and political earthquake folks, we could be in the End Times;

Al-Qaida breakaway formally declares Islamic State

By RYAN LUCAS 5 hours ago










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BAGHDAD (AP) — The al-Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of northern Syria and huge tracks of neighboring Iraq formally declared the creation of an Islamic state on Sunday in the territory under its control.
The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, made the announcement in an audio statement posted online. Islamic extremists have long dreamed of recreating the Islamic state, or caliphate, that ruled over the Middle East for hundreds of years.
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said the group's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is the new leader, or caliph, of the Islamic state. He called on those living in the areas under the organization's control to swear allegiance to al-Baghdadi and support him.
"The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph's authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas," al-Adnani said.
He said that with the creation of the caliphate, the group was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq and the Levant.
It was unclear what immediate practical impact the declaration would have on the ground in Syria and Iraq, or among the wider global jihadi community.

[vector7]

Iraq receives fighter jets from Russia, Belarus

Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:5PM GMT


A modernized Sukhoi Su-35S of the Russian Air Force

Baghdad government has received the first batch of Russian-made Sukhoi fighter planes to use them against the militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Iraqi army sources said on Saturday that the fighter jets are expected to be stationed at an airbase in the country's south.

The development follows earlier reports that the country has purchased several used Sukhoi planes from Belarus and Russia.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had earlier said Sukhoi fighter jets will turn the tide against the ISIL and its associated militant groups within days.

The Iraqi premier has also criticized Washington for delaying the delivery of US F-16 jets purchased by Baghdad. Al-Maliki said the al-Qaeda-linked militants’ advance could have been avoided if US jets had been delivered on time.

This is while the Iraqi army continues pounding the ISIL positions after retaking the northern city of Tikrit and killing dozens of militants.

Iraqi officials have also confirmed that the town of Khalis is under full control of army forces. The town is located about 15 kilometers north of Baquba and is one of the six districts of Diyala Province.

On Friday, Iraqi army took full control of all areas in the eastern provinces except for the Sa’adiyah district. The military said a large number of the ISIL militants were killed in the flashpoint province during the army operations.

Soldiers of the Iraqi army have been engaged in heavy fighting with the militants in different fronts and have so far been able to push back militants in several areas.

Premier al-Maliki has vowed that the country’s security forces would confront the foreign-sponsored militants.

[vector7]

ISIS Proclaims They Have Established The Caliphate – Change Name To “The Islamic State” (IS)

Posted on June 30, 2014 by sundance

ISIS jihadists have declared the captured territories from Iraq’s Diyala province to Syria’s Aleppo a new Islamic State – a ‘caliphate.’ They removed ‘Iraq and the Levant’ from their name and urged other radical Sunni groups to pledge their allegiance.


ISIS announced that it should now be called ‘The Islamic State’ and declared its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as “the caliph” of the new state and “leader for Muslims everywhere,” the radical Sunni militant group said in an audio recording distributed online on Sunday.
This is the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 that a Caliph – which means a political successor to Prophet Muhammad – has been declared. The decision was made following the group’s Shura Council meeting on Sunday, according to ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani. (link)

Obama’s Al Qaeda Jayvees Announce Caliphate, 5 Year Plan to Take Over Africa and India

June 29, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 9 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.




This was Obama in January.

Obama compared Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq and Syria to junior varsity basketball players, downplaying their threat as small-league.

New Yorker editor David Remnick pointed out to the president that the Al Qaeda flag is now seen flying in Falluja in Iraq and in certain locations in Syria, and thus the terrorist group has not been “decimated” as Obama had said during his 2012 reelection campaign.

“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama told Remnick. “I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”

ISIS aka Al Qaeda in Iraq, has declared an Islamic State and a Caliphate. It may not be able to hold it, but it has a lot more manpower, territory and firepower than the core Al Qaeda ever had.

It’s also got a 5-year-plan to take over a whole bunch of places.



The plan may be bunk, but ISIS has people who are really good at social media and they know that bold announcements like these drive recruitment and enthusiasm among Muslims.

Its social media campaign is filled with pledges of allegiance. If it can get enough of those, and there’s no reason why it can’t after bringing the Al-Nusra Front on board, it becomes the axis of Jihad.

Its Ramadan timing is solid. And it’s reached the point where it can credibly promise Jihadis more victories. Even if it can’t deliver them, it will have the manpower to at least achieve a stalemate against Shiite militias and whatever Iranian and foreign forces enter Iraq.

“Having greedily drunk the blood of kufr (non-Muslims)/Our khilāfah (Caliphate) has indeed returned with certainty” is the bit of poetry from its announcement.
It’s a message that speaks for itself.

[American Patriot]

Interesting turn....

Russia sends 5 fighter jets to Iraq

By ayo pearce July 1, 2014 Baghdad fighter jets Iraq Moscow Russia Saddam Hussein Su-25 Sukhoi fighter terrorism Warplanes


Five Russian Sukhoi fighter jets have arrived in Iraq, the first of 25 war planes expected to be delivered under a contract between Moscow and Baghdad, the Iraqi Ministry of Defense said in a statement.



A video the ministry released Monday showed the jets, with wings unattached, being pulled toward hangars. “These jet fighters will contribute to increase the combat capability of the air force and the rest of the armed forces in eliminating terrorism,” the ministry said.


The Su-25 has been in service for more than three decades and was part of the Iraqi air force under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Read more on CNN

[American Patriot]

June 30th, 2014
06:33 PM ET


U.S. will send more troops to Iraq

The Pentagon will send a total of 800 troops to Iraq to help the country combat ISIS. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.

[American Patriot]

http://acenewsservices.com/2014/07/0...ce=twitterfeed

#AceNewsGroup 09:17 on July 1, 2014

‘ Barack Obama Depolys 200 More Troops to Baghdad Citing to Protect US Embassy ‘

#AceWorldNews – AFGHANISTAN (Baghdad) – July 01 – President Barack Obama has deployed 200 more troops to Baghdad to protect the US embassy as Iraq’s parliament was set to convene Tuesday to seek a solution to the country’s sectarian crisis (AFP)

“In light of the security situation in Baghdad, I have ordered up to approximately 200 additional US Armed Forces personnel to Iraq to reinforce security at the US Embassy, its support facilities, and the Baghdad International Airport,” Obama said in a letter to Congress released Monday.
“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting US citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat. “The latest deployment which the Pentagon said had arrived in Iraq on Sunday brings the number of US troops and embassy security forces to 800, following the sudden advance of the Sunni militants that has left nearly 2,000 people dead this month.(DAWN)

June 16 2014 – US President Barack Obama has announced 275 US troops will be deployed to Iraq to provide security for the US Embassy in Baghdad as Sunni insurgents continue to test the nation’s security forces in its push closer to the capital.
“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat,” Obama said in a letter sent to House and Senate leaders.“This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.”


June 13 2014 – (Acknowledging that hard-won American gains in Iraq are at risk, President Barack Obama said on Friday that he won’t be sending U.S. ground troops back there to battle al-Qaida-inspired extremists but warned he could soon unleash military strikes there.

#ANS2014