Obama Surrenders Iraq

[American Patriot]

Iraq crisis: U.S. moves firepower to region as ISIS advance continues

By Laura Smith-Spark and Nic Robertson, CNN
updated 8:30 AM EDT, Tue June 17, 2014

Your video will begin momentarily.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: ISIS fighters clash with security forces in Baquba, less than 40 miles from Baghdad
• John Kerry: Airstrikes on Iraqi targets are under consideration
• U.S. secretary of state doesn't rule out cooperation with Iran
• U.N. secretary-general urges Iraqi leaders to come together, avoid reprisals

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- As Islamic militants continue their murderous advance in Iraq, the Pentagon is moving more firepower and manpower into the region to prepare for whatever U.S. President Barack Obama orders.


Already at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, dozens of Marines and Army troops have moved in to beef up security. Another 100 personnel are in the region to provide support if needed, the Pentagon said.


The aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and five other warships are now in the Persian Gulf. More than 500 Marines and dozens of helicopters are on standby.
A top priority: evacuate all Americans at the embassy if it comes to that.
U.S. embassy on alert in Iraq
Kerry: U.S. could partner with Iran
Obama to send 275 U.S. troops to Iraq
Kurdish fighters hold back ISIS



On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview with Yahoo! News, acknowledged that airstrikes on Iraqi targets are under consideration.


"Well, they are not the whole answer, but they may well be one of the options that are important to be able to stem the tide and stop the movement of people who are moving around in open convoys and trucks and terrorizing people," he said.


"When you have people murdering, assassinating in these mass massacres, you have to stop that and you do what you need to do."


Meanwhile, the violence continued unabated.


ISIS fighters advanced Tuesday to the city of Baquba, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Baghdad, where they clashed with Iraqi government forces, eyewitnesses in the city told CNN. ISIS militants stormed the police station there, took control and looted all the weapons before withdrawing.


Government forces have retained control of a number of neighborhoods in Baquba, Iraqi state TV reported. Citing Iraqi military spokesman Qasim Atta, the network reported that Iraqi security forces had killed nine militants near the police station and that ISIS had killed 52 people held in the local jail by throwing hand grenades inside.


Kurdish security sources also reported fighting around Saadiya, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) north of Baghdad, as Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, seek to retake control from ISIS militants there. The two sides are also battling for control of Bashir village, southwest of Kirkuk city, as terrified civilians flee shelling by ISIS.


Opinion: ISIS a fanatical force -- with a weakness
An unpalatable option



Among the options considered by the United States may be the politically unpalatable one of cooperating with Iran to stop militant gains.


While Kerry didn't say that cooperation with Iran is under active discussion, he wouldn't "rule out anything that would be constructive to providing real stability."


"I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together -- the integrity of the country -- and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart," Kerry said.


His comments are the first time such a high-ranking U.S. official has made such a public statement since militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, began an offensive that has seen vast swaths of northern Iraq fall out of government hands.


Iran plays a key role. It's an ally of Iraq's Shiite-led government. The ISIS militants are Sunni.


ISIS photos seem to show mass execution
Photos: Iraq under siege


Map: Unrest in Iraq



General: Don't make deal with the devil
Obama criticized over handling of Iraq

A senior security official in Baghdad told CNN last week that the country had sent about 500 Revolutionary Guard troops to help fight the ISIS militants. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani denied the report over the weekend, but said he would be open to helping if asked.


Given the forces at play, direct talks with Iranian officials are something some analysts favor.


"If we engage in a military action without a political solution, we will be seen as backing Maliki in a Sunni-Shia civil war. And that is exactly the opposite of what we want to do," said Col. Peter Mansoor, retired.


Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser, Ali al Mosawi, told CNN on Tuesday that the Premier's meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Iraq had been "productive" and that the two nations were coordinating to combat the terrorist threat.


The government hopes "there will be more cooperation from the American side to combat terrorism," Mosawi said. "There is cooperation, but we are looking for more support."


Tough choices
The United States and Iran held "very brief discussions" about Iraq and the threat posed by ISIS in Vienna, Austria, on Monday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.


Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is in Vienna for nuclear talks with Iran.


The Obama administration faces some tough choices should it opt to respond.


The U.S. has increased drone surveillance over western and northern Iraq in an effort to gather more intelligence. But using fighter jets to strike at militant targets could be difficult.


"It's the same reason it was so hard to target them when we had 160,000 troops there: They intermingle with the people," said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. "I think the uninitiated might say: 'Hey, What's so hard about that? Let's just drop a couple bombs.' "


Obama has ruled out U.S. troops on the ground -- a stance to which U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona has taken exception.


Approximately a dozen forward air controllers would be needed on the ground before any airstrike, the senator said.


"You need to have people identify the targets in order to really be effective. Remember we're not talking about bombing in towns and cities. There are long stretches of that desert that they have to travel across in their vehicles with their guns on them," McCain told reporters Monday on Capitol Hill.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, that he was "deeply concerned" about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq.
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"I encourage all Iraqi leaders -- political, military, religious and community -- to ensure that their followers avoid acts of reprisal and come together in an inclusive spirit to address this serious threat to the country."


U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday condemned the violence, citing reports that "hundreds of non-combatant men were summarily executed over the past five days," including surrendered soldiers and police.


"Although the numbers cannot be verified yet, this apparently systematic series of cold-blooded executions, mostly conducted in various locations in the Tikrit area, almost certainly amounts to war crimes," she said.


Brutal images
As ISIS continues its violent march, capturing cities along the way, many fear its fighters may reach the capital, Baghdad.


The group, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, has racked up several victories across Iraq in recent days, including the northwestern city of Tal Afar, two villages in Diyala province, and Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul.


Hundreds of thousands have fled. And the crisis is now so dire that the government is pleading for volunteers to help fight the militants.


On Monday, a video surfaced that appeared to show a man in an Iraqi military uniform after he was shot in the face.


A militant fighter boasted on Facebook that he was proud of killing the man and said the video should be passed around to show what could happen to other Shiites.


The new images follow others apparently posted by ISIS to jihadi Internet forums appearing to show the executions of Iraqi security forces and a tweet, on what was claimed to be an ISIS account, saying its members had killed at least 1,700 Shiites.

[American Patriot]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sendi...ry?id=24166190

Sending U.S. Special Ops to Iraq 'A Viable, Potential Course of Action,' Official Says

June 16, 2014
By JONATHAN KARL Jonathan Karl More from Jonathan »

Follow @jonkarl











Obama Under Pressure to Act Fast in Iraq
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Sending a small contingent of US Special Operations Forces to advise the Iraqis "is a viable, potential course of action," a senior White House official told ABC News today.
The official adds: "The key point is that it's one of many options and these would not be combat troops, but additional advisors."
This would be a significant step, for a president who has repeatedly touted the fact that all US troops have left Iraq except for the Marines there to protect the embassy. The White House may say that special operations "advisors" is different than sending "combat troops" -- but they would be advising Iraqi forces in Iraq -- something more than just training -- and it is hard to make the case they would not be in harm's way.
WATCH: Obama on Using Drones in Iraq: 'I Don't Rule Anything Out'
Separately, President Obama sent a War Powers Resolution letter to Congress today noting that he had ordered the deployment of 275 U.S. Armed Forces personnel to provide security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
"This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat. This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed," Obama said in the letter.
Another official, National Security Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said: "The president was very clear that we will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq. That remains the case and he has asked his national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces."
That is the same qualifier President Obama himself used on Friday – "we will not be sending US troops back into combat in Iraq" -- providing an opening to sending troops back to Iraq as long as they are not called "combat" troops. He is no longer simply saying he will not send US troops back to Iraq.
READ: Obama Rules Out Sending American Troops 'Back into Combat' in Iraq
Under the plan being considered, those "advisors" could be involved in field operations with Iraqi forces, ABC News' Luis Martinez reported.

[American Patriot]

Confirmed.

275 special forces to defend the embassy's buildings, spread over several acres.

[American Patriot]

Marines, US Warships Head Toward Iraq

June 16, 2014
By ALI WEINBERG and LUIS MARTINEZ Luis Martinez More from Luis »
Producer

Follow @LMartinezABC




via Good Morning America






Jihadi Forces in Iraq Close in on Baghdad
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About 275 Marines and Army troops were deployed to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today and four warships steamed towards Iraq as tensions rose due to the advance of a radical Islamic insurgency.
The U.S. took the additional precautions as ISIS -- the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- expanded its territory in Iraq by capturing the city of Tal Afar, which is west of Mosul. In addition, fresh details emerged of a massacre carried out by ISIS, including top Muslim clerics who refused to pledge loyalty to the fanatic Islamic group.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and two other ships from the northern Arabian Sea and it has arrived in the Persian Gulf as President Obama considers possible military options for Iraq. A fourth ship, the amphibious ship USS Mesa Verde, was ordered into the Persian Gulf today.
The Mesa Verde carries approximately 550 Marines and about five Osprey planes, tilt rotor craft that can take off and land like helicopters, but fly like planes.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said deploying the USS Bush will give Obama additional flexibility if military action were required to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq.
The Obama administration is also considering talks with its long time nemesis Iran to help with political reconciliation in Iraq. They would take the form of informal discussions on the sidelines of the Iran denuclearization talks currently taking place in Vienna.
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The threat of a massive ISIS attack on Baghdad has prompted the U.S. Embassy to evacuate a significant number of employees to other U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq and bring in the specially-trained Marines, as well as 50 additional Army personnel, State Department officials said.
U.S. travelers in the country were encouraged to exercise caution and limit travel to certain parts of Iraq.
"Due to the relocation of personnel from Baghdad, the embassy will only be restricted in its ability to offer all consular services; but emergency services are always available to U.S. citizens in need at any embassy or consulate anywhere in the world," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Iraq has yet to mount a concerted effort to confront ISIS, a group so radical that al Qaeda disowned it, and roll back the effect of its lightning strikes last week through much of northern Iraq. It is now poised to strike at Baghdad.
Thousands of young Iraqi men have volunteered to fight the militants, including some barely in their teens. A marching band was there for Monday's sendoff as the young men were loaded into open trucks.
The new recruits will face a battle-hardened army that doesn't flinch at atrocities. The jihadist group released graphic images this weekend showing mass executions of Iraqi soldiers. The group is threatening to impose strict Islamic law, killing whoever opposes it.
Fresh reports of massacres emerged today from Mosul and other areas Under ISIS' control.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said "it appears that hundreds of non-combatant men were summarily executed over the past five days, including surrendered or captured soldiers, military conscripts, police and others associated with the Government."

The victims included the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mosul when the imam refused to pledge allegiance to ISIS. Twelve other imams were also executed in front of Al Israa mosque, Pillay said.
ISIS has claimed to have executed 1,700 conscripts after they took over the city of Tikrit.
Iraqi forces have been struck back with helicopters launching rockets at targets near the main road leading to Baghdad. The city was rocked by a string of explosions, with as many as 15 dead, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.
Top Republicans, such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, say action is needed.
"If Baghdad falls, if the central government falls, a disaster awaits us of monumental proportions," Graham said Sunday on "State of the Union."

[American Patriot]

Inside the U.S. Embassy in Iraq Under Threat

June 16, 2014
By COLLEEN CURRY Colleen Curry More from Colleen »

Reporter












Jihadi Forces in Iraq Close in on Baghdad
Next Video ISIS Leader: 'I'll See You in New York'


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Outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, the city is gearing up to fend off the militant Sunni group ISIS, enlisting volunteers to help protect Baghdad from attack.
Inside the embassy's Baghdad compound, U.S. employees are waiting for the arrival of 100 U.S. Marines and army troops to help bolster security in case the capital falls to ISIS' fighters.
The threat of an ISIS attack prompted the evacuation of a significant number of employees, as well as the addition of 50 security personnel this week, State Department officials said. In addition, the warship USS Mesa Verde has been ordered into the Persian Gulf along with three other ships. The Mesa Verde has about five Osprey planes that can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane. Ospreys have been used in other embassy evacuations.
Marines, US Warships Head Toward Iraq
The situation has recalled for many the tense moments during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, when supporters of the revolution stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held U.S. workers hostage.

John Moore/Getty Images

PHOTO: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker speaks with British Deputy Commanding General W.R. Rollo in Crocker's office at the U.S. Embassy, Sept. 5, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq.



Ali Al-Saadi/AFP/Getty Images

PHOTO: Vice President Joe Biden sits along side Gen. Ray Odierno and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill during a meeting at the US Embassy in Baghdad, July 3, 2010.


According to a report on the embassy released by the Office of the Inspector General last year, several security programs are in place to warn employees of any threat. A "sense and warn" system identifies, tracks, and warns employees of incoming rocket and mortar fire, while emergency reaction teams and explosive detection dogs are in place on a day-today basis.

AFP/Getty Images

PHOTO: The new US embassy complex, still under construction, in the heavily fortified Green Zone, on the west bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Oct. 11, 2007.



Lucas Jackson/Reuters

PHOTO: An embassy employee works out in a facilities building inside the compound of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Dec. 14, 2011.


The embassy is the largest U.S. embassy in the world and, at more than $700 million, was the most expensive to construct. It contains housing, conference rooms, cafeterias, recreational facilities, offices, and even gardens for the employees living and working inside.

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

PHOTO: State Department apartments complete with bullet-proof glass windows stand inside the compound of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Dec. 14, 2011.



John Moore/Getty Images

PHOTO: U.S. soldiers throw horse shoes while protected by blast walls from insurgent attacks at the American Embassy, Feb. 6, 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq.


Behind the blast walls of the compound are more than 1,000 employees who rarely venture outside Baghdad's international, or "green," zone. The "red zone," where Baghdad residents live, is considered too dangerous for U.S. employees. The green zone is protected by security forces.
The compound includes employees with the State Department, the Foreign Service, and the branches of the military.

[American Patriot]

Newest leak.... bad guys got stinger missiles, and thus the reason for sending 100 special forces into the area - for training, etc.

275 on the ground for Embassy protection.

another 100 Special operations guys to either train the military in Baghdad or find the missing weapons.

(Basically, we dont know what they are doing....and for the Love of God, neither does Obama know what he's doing!)

[American Patriot]

US forces move into Iraq to secure assets

By Julie Pace and Lara Jakes

| Associated Press June 17, 2014

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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
President Obama is nearing a decision on an array of options for combating fast-moving Islamic insurgents, including airstrikes or a contingent of special forces.

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WASHINGTON — Nearly 300 armed American forces are being positioned in and around Iraq to help secure US assets as President Barack Obama nears a decision on an array of options for combating fast-moving Islamic insurgents, including airstrikes or a contingent of special forces.
The US and Iran also held an initial discussion on how the longtime foes might cooperate to ease the threat from the Al Qaeda-linked militants that have swept through Iraq. Still, the White House ruled out the possibility that Washington and Tehran might coordinate military operations in Iraq.
Obama met with his national security team Monday evening to discuss options for stopping the militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Officials said the president has made no final decisions on how aggressively the US might get involved in Iraq, though the White House continued to emphasize that any military engagement remained contingent on the government in Baghdad making political reforms.
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Still, there were unmistakable signs of Americans returning to a country from which the US military fully withdrew more than two years ago. Obama notified Congress that up to 275 troops would be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for US personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad. The soldiers — 170 of which have already arrived in Iraq — were armed for combat, though Obama has insisted he does not intend for US forces to be engaged in direct fighting.
‘‘We are hard-wired into their system,’’ the fledgling democracy that America helped institute, said Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Baghdad. ‘‘We can’t walk away from it.’’
About 100 additional forces are being put on standby, most likely in Kuwait, and could be used for airfield management, security and logistics support, officials said.
Separately, three US officials said the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission — which has not yet been approved — would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts across the nation’s north and west as the Al Qaeda-inspired insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since American troops left in 2011.
Taken together, the developments suggest a willingness by Obama to send Americans into a collapsing security situation in order to quell the brutal fighting in Iraq before it morphs into outright war.
If the US were to deploy an additional team of special forces, the mission almost certainly would be small. One US official said it could be up to 100 special forces soldiers. It also could be authorized only as an advising and training mission — meaning the soldiers would work closely with Iraqi forces that are fighting the insurgency but would not officially be considered combat troops.
The White House would not confirm that special operations forces were under consideration. But spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that while Obama would not send troops back into combat, ‘‘He has asked his national security team to prepare a range of other options that could help support Iraqi security forces.’’
It’s not clear how quickly the special forces could arrive in Iraq. It’s also unknown whether they would remain in Baghdad or be sent to the nation’s north, where the Sunni Muslim insurgency has captured large swaths of territory ringing Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led government.
The troops would fall under the authority of the US ambassador in Baghdad and would not be authorized to engage in combat, another US official said. Their mission would be ‘‘non-operational training’’ of both regular and counterterrorism units, which the military has in the past interpreted to mean training on military bases, the official said.
However, all US troops are allowed to defend themselves in Iraq if they are under attack.
The three US officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans by name.
Obama made the end of the war in Iraq one of his signature campaign issues, and has touted the US military withdrawal in December 2011 as one of his top foreign policy successes. But he has been caught over the past week between Iraqi officials pleading for help — as well as Republicans blaming him for the loss of a decade’s worth of gains in Iraq — and his anti-war Democratic political base, which is demanding that the US stay out of the fight.
The crisis has sparked a rare alignment of interests between the US and Iran, which wants to preserve Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government. The US and Iran are engaged in sensitive nuclear negotiations and used a round of talks Monday in Vienna, Austria, to hold a separate bilateral discussion on Iraq.
While the US and Iran have similar short-term goals in Iraq, they have different long-term aims. The United States would like to see an inclusive, representative democracy take hold in Iraq, while predominantly Shiite Iran is more focused on protecting Iraq’s Shiite population and bolstering its own position as a regional power against powerful Sunni Arab states in the Gulf.
Crocker said that Iran should ‘‘use all the influence’’ possible to keep the Al Qaeda-style Islamic group from exacerbating the sectarian strife in Iraq.
Appearing Tuesday on ‘‘CBS This Morning,’’ Crocker said if he’d have Secretary of State John Kerry ‘‘on a plane right now for Baghdad.’’
‘‘I would have liked to have seen more sustained, high-level diplomatic engagement with the Iraqis,’’ Crocker said. He said that for the country to have any change at survival there must quickly be a show of ‘‘Kurdish, Shia and Sunni’’ solidarity.
Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Washington must move immediately ‘‘to disrupt their ability to continue their operations.’’ He said the insurgents are holding sway currently and that ‘‘all the ingredients are going into the stew. We see it happening on our watch.’’
Appearing on CNN, Rogers said he believes there still is time for the United States to make a difference, but that Washington must move now.
While the White House continues to review its options, Iran’s military leaders are starting to step into the breach.
The commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, was in Iraq on Monday and consulting with the government there on how to stave off insurgents’ gains. Iraqi security officials said the US government was notified in advance of the visit by Soleimani, whose forces are a secretive branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that in the past has organized Shiite militias to target US troops in Iraq and, more recently, was involved in helping Syria’s President Bashar Assad in his fight against Sunni rebels.

[American Patriot]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06...officials-say/

And this one:

How the Taliban got their hands on modern US missiles

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

June 8, 2014 | 3:55am
Modal Trigger
Taliban militia stand in the back of a pickup truck with heat-seeking Stinger missiles. Photo: Getty Images

In his new book, “Dark Forces: The Truth About What Happened in Ben*ghazi” (Broadside Books), writer Kenneth R. Timmerman explains how the US government’s efforts to arm the Libyan rebels backfired, flooding weapons into Syria, and as he *reveals here, Afghanistan:

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The Obama administration isn’t only giving the Taliban back its commanders — it’s giving them weapons.
Miliary records and sources reveal that on July 25, 2012, Taliban fighters in Kunar province successfully targeted a US Army CH-47 helicopter with a new generation Stinger missile.
They thought they had a surefire kill. But instead of bursting into flames, the Chinook just disappeared into the darkness as the American pilot recovered control of the aircraft and brought it to the ground in a hard landing.
The assault team jumped out the open doors and ran clear in case it exploded. Less than 30 seconds later, the Taliban gunner and his comrade erupted into flames as an American gunship overhead locked onto their position and opened fire.
The next day, an explosive ordnance disposal team arrived to pick through the wreckage and found unexploded pieces of a missile casing that could only belong to a Stinger missile.
Modal TriggerThe Taliban took out a US Chinook helicopter in 2012 with a Stinger missile signed out by the CIA around the time of the attack.Photo: Reuters

Lodged in the right nacelle, they found one fragment that contained an entire serial number.
The investigation took time. Arms were twisted, noses put out of joint. But when the results came back, they were stunning: The Stinger tracked back to a lot that had been signed out by the CIA recently, not during the anti-Soviet *jihad.
Reports of the Stinger reached the highest echelons of the US command in Afghanistan and became a source of intense speculation, but no action.
Everyone knew the war was winding down. Revealing that the Taliban had US-made Stingers risked demoralizing coalition troops. Because there were no coalition casualties, government officials made no public announcement of the attack.
My sources in the US Special Operations community believe the Stinger fired against the Chinook was part of the same lot the CIA turned over to the *Qataris in early 2011, weapons Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department intended for anti-Khadafy forces in Libya.
Modal TriggerU.S. Army Staff Sgt. Luis Trochez demonstrates how to use a Stinger on the National Mall in 2005.Photo: Getty Images

They believe the Qataris delivered between 50 and 60 of those same Stingers to the Taliban in early 2012, and an additional 200 SA-24 Igla-S surface-to-air missiles.
Qatar now is expected to hold five Taliban commanders released from Guantanamo for a year before allowing them to go to Afghanistan.
But if we can’t trust the Qataris not to give our weapons to the Taliban, how can we trust them with this?

[American Patriot]

Pentagon moves USS Mesa Verde nearer Iraq. What can it do?


Anna MulrineThe Christian Science MonitorJune 16, 2014






With Islamist militants bearing down on Baghdad, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered yet another ship to the Persian Gulf Monday. The USS Mesa Verde will join a US aircraft carrier strike group and give President Obama “additional options to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, should he chose to use them,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Monday.
The Pentagon is also providing some 50 to 100 US troops to help with security at US diplomatic facilities in Baghdad, which could include the temporary relocation of some embassy personnel in the face of possible attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The USS Mesa Verde comes with quick-reaction forces and a complement of MV-22 Ospreys, which come in particularly handy during, say, evacuation operations because of their ability to land and takeoff vertically, like a helicopter.
Pentagon officials, however, sought to play down the image of airlift evacuations for embassy personnel, with its echoes of the Vietnam War.
Ospreys “can do a lot of things,” Rear Admiral Kirby said. “Evacuation would be to read way too far into that.”
But there is no doubt that the situation on the ground in Iraq is dire, with reports that ISIS is engaged in mass executions of Iraqi security forces, who rather than fighting are often shedding their uniforms and fleeing when they can.
Pentagon officials say that they do not yet have independent confirmation of ISIS massacres, but that ISIS is a “very dangerous organization,” Kirby said Monday. “That they are violent should be self-evident to everybody.”
Lawmakers have raised the possibility of US airstrikes in response to ISIS advances. After years of war, Al Qaeda and many Taliban fighters heave learned not to mass in one place for fear of providing US forces with easy targets, but ISIS fighters do not seem to share this approach. Some defense officials say that could make B-1 bomber strikes a possibility.
There are also Reaper drones stationed at bases throughout the region. Defense officials said last week that the US has stepped up surveillance flights over Iraq with unarmed drones. Pentagon officials would not say Monday whether the decision has been made to arm those drones or not.
There is some concern that US-made shoulder-fired stinger missiles may have fallen into the hands of ISIS fighters, as well. Pentagon officials could not confirm those reports. Curiously, they also couldn't confirm whether the US had provided stinger missiles to Iraq. ISIS has reportedly seized Humvees and other US-made equipment from Iraqi security forces.
For now, the Pentagon is weighing “near-term options” for Mr. Obama “to try to help [Iraqi security forces] break this momentum” of advancing ISIS fighters.


Pentagon officials say that they are working with the Iraqi military through official channels as well, namely the Office of Security Cooperation out of the US embassy in Baghdad, which has directed foreign sales of US military equipment to Iraq since the end of the war in 2011. Some former US commanders in Iraq are even receiving unofficial calls from former Iraqi counterparts, asking for advice.
Communication between the American and Iraqi militaries “remains very open,” Kirby said, “and very active.”

[American Patriot]

http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/report-isi.../News/37447887

REPORT: ISIS REBELS SHOOT DOWN IRAQI HELICOPTER WITH US STINGER MISSILES

17.06.14 | 01:59 Uhr | 89 mal gelesen | So gefunden auf thegatewaypundit.com Allahu Akbar! Back in 2013 Syrian Islamic rebels screaming “Allahu Akbar!” shot down a helicopter using US stinger missiles. The Islamists are using US weapons to attack American allies. U.S. officials with access to the latest U.S. intelligence on Iraq … Continue reading →


Nachricht von nbcnews.com: Al Qaeda offshoot ISIS is getting stronger within Iraq, and now the militants have Baghdad in their sights. weiterlesen ...
msnbc.msn.com schreibt dazu: Conservatives take to the Sunday talk shows beating the drum for yet another war in Iraq, due to rising tension from ISIS. Ed Schultz, Congressman Jim McDermott and General Wesley Clark (Ret.) discuss. (The Ed Show) weiterlesen ...
forbes.com berichtet dazu: Pennsylvania man Anthony Elonis has historically enjoyed saying outrageous things on Facebook, such as how he would like to murder his estranged wife; shoot up an elementary school; sneak into an amusement park he was fired from to wreak havoc; slit the throats of a female co-worker and a female FBI agent; and use explosives on the state police, the sheriff's department, and any SWAT team that might come to his house. He never acted on the threats. Should he have spent 44 months in prison for weiterlesen ...
Dazu schreibt macleans.ca weiter: Lincoln was the worst actually! He suspended habeas corpus, killed elected officials and plummeted the USA into a Civil War that had over 100,000+ dead within 3 years. He of all people knows how dark things can get. Iraq was engaged in open war long before the US invasion, and it will be long after. This current ISIS activity is funded by the ISI Don't know what it is? Google it! The long term plan is to make an MU - Mideast Union, but before they can do that, they need to weiterlesen ...
Dazu meldet news.sky.com: New video appears to show troops being made to chant an ISIS slogan, as an army helicopter is shot down in clashes near Fallujah. weiterlesen

[American Patriot]

Gunmen Attack North of Baghdad as Obama Weighs Options for Iraq

By Khalid Al-Ansary Jun 17, 2014 6:09 AM MT 26 Comments Email Print

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June 17 (Bloomberg) –- Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote reports the latest on the escalating violence in Iraq and the deployment of U.S. troops to help with embassy security. He speaks to Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television’s “Countdown.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Related

• ISIL Raiding Millions From Banks in Iraq

Iraq’s military said it repelled an attack by an al-Qaeda breakaway group about 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Baghdad as the U.S. weighed options to stem an offensive that threatens to fracture the country.
Gunmen from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant last night attacked a prison in the city of Baquba, killing 43 inmates, said Basem al-Samarraie, a spokesman for the eastern Diyala province where the city is located. The raid puts Baquba on the frontline of a Sunni guerrilla campaign that poses the gravest threat to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki since he took power.
Militants stormed the city from two directions and “security forces repelled both attacks and forced the gunmen to retreat,” al-Samarraie said in a phone interview. The assault created a “state of fear and panic,” he said earlier.
The conflict between the Sunni-Muslim militants and Maliki’s Shiite-led government is drawing in the U.S. and regional powers including Iran, which said it will fight ISIL should it get closer to its border. President Barack Obama will send about 275 U.S. military personnel to protect diplomatic posts in Iraq, the White House said yesterday.
Small teams of special forces may be also sent to advise Iraqis on operations, said Colin Kahl, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington who oversaw Middle East affairs at the Pentagon in Obama’s first term.

Photographer: Mohammed Sawaf/AFP via Getty Images

Newly-recruited Iraqi volunteers, wearing police forces uniforms, take part in a... Read More

Iran Talks

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told Iraqiya TV that foreign countries shouldn’t interfere in Iraq’s internal affairs. The government received requests from 2 million volunteers to fight the insurgents, and has turned down many because there’s no need for such large numbers, he said.
U.S. and Iranian officials spoke briefly on Iraq in an initial conversation on the sidelines of talks in Vienna on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. State Department official who commented on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday the U.S. was “open to discussions if there is something constructive that can be contributed by Iran.”
The conflict in Iraq flared after ISIL fighters captured Mosul, Iraq’s biggest northern city, last week and advanced toward the capital, raising the specter that OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer was on the brink of a sectarian civil war.
Syria War

Oil prices dropped today, with Brent crude falling as much as 0.7 percent to $112.16 a barrel amid speculation the Iraqi army will halt ISIL’s advance. Government troops killed 23 ISIL fighters in an operation on the southern border of Mosul, state-sponsored Iraqiya television said.

Photographer: STR/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi tribesmen carry their weapons as they gather to show their willingness to join... Read More

Iraqi military spokesman Qassim Ata said security forces killed nine ISIL fighters in Baquba. The gunmen used mortars and hand grenades in their attack on the prison, he told Iraqiya. He put the death toll among inmates at 52.
ISIL also is among the mostly Sunni groups fighting to topple Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. It established semi-permanent encampments in desert areas of western Iraq, especially in Anbar and Nineveh provinces, to provide secure bases for its fighters in Syria, the U.S. State Department said in an April report.
As they captured Mosul, militants from ISIL raided the Turkish consulate in the city and kidnapped 49 people, including diplomats, prompting the Turkish government to urge its citizens leave northern and central Iraqi towns.
Turkish Captives

The Foreign Ministry yesterday told Turkish citizens in the southern oil port of Basra to leave. “It has been decided to updated our security warning to include Basra province due to new evaluation of the security situation,” the ministry said.
The violence is worrying Iraq’s neighbors. In its first public comment on the crisis, Saudi Arabia yesterday said that the tensions in Iraq were due to “sectarian policies” which threatened its “stability and sovereignty,” according to the official Saudi Press Agency, which cited a cabinet statement.

Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images

Kurdish Peshmerga forces look at a checkpoint held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the... Read More

Iraq today said in a statement that Saudi Arabia was responsible for “moral and material support” for the militants.
To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Mark Williams, Karl Maier

[American Patriot]

http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq...k-up-1.1348628

Fighting nears Baghdad as UN warns of Iraq break-up

Government defies Western calls to reach out to Sunnis and accuses Saudi Arabia of promoting ‘genocide’

• Gulf News Report
• Published: 18:51 June 17, 2014

Dubai: Fighting erupted at the northern approaches to Baghdad Tuesday as Iraq accused Saudi Arabia of promoting “genocide” by backing militants who have seized swathes of its territory in an offensive the UN says threatens its very existence.



The swift advance of the militants has sparked international alarm, with UN envoy to Baghdad Nickolay Mladenov warning that Iraq’s territorial integrity was at stake “Right now, it’s life-threatening for Iraq but it poses a serious danger to the region,” Mladenov told AFP.



A UN commission on Syrian war crimes sounded the alarm that the entire region is on the brink of war. In its latest report yesterday to the UN Human Rights Council, the commission said “a regional war in the Middle East draws ever closer” as Sunni insurgents advance across Iraq to control areas bridging the Iraq-Syria frontier - drawing in Washington and Tehran.



Washington deployed some 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has sent troops to Iraq since it withdrew its forces at the end of 2011 after a bloody and costly intervention launched in 2003.




In the latest bloodshed, scores of Iraqis were killed yesterday during a battle for a provincial capital, and fighting shut the country’s biggest oil refinery, starving parts of the country of fuel and power.



The battle lines are now formalising, with the insurgents held at bay about an hour’s drive north of Baghdad and just on the capital’s outskirts to the west.



State television said Iraqi security forces repelled attacks on three neighbourhoods overnight in Baquba, capital of Diyala, an ethnically and religiously mixed province that saw some of the worst violence of the 2003-2011 US occupation. It left 44 prisoners dead at a police station, marked the closest that fighting has come to the the capital.



The government, meanwhile, defied Western calls to reach out to Sunnis to defuse the uprising in the north, declaring a boycott of Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc.



But the government has moved in the opposite direction, announcing a crackdown on politicians and officers he considers “traitors” and lashing out at neighbouring countries for stoking militancy.



The latest target of his government’s fury was Saudi Arabia which funds fighters in neighbouring Syria but denies it is behind Isil. “We hold them responsible for supporting these groups financially and morally, and for the outcome of that - which includes crimes that may qualify as genocide: the spilling of Iraqi blood, the destruction of Iraqi state institutions and historic and religious sites,” the Iraqi government said of Riyadh in a statement.



Hassan Sunaid, a close Al Maliki ally, said the governing Shiite National Alliance should boycott all work with the largest Sunni political bloc, Mutahidoon.

[American Patriot]

ISIS moving seized US tanks, Humvees to Syria

By Bill Gertz
Published June 17, 2014Washington Free Beacon


208





Monday, June 9, 2014 image taken from video obtained from the Iraqi Military, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, an Iraqi army tank fires towards militants during clashes in in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. Insurgents on Tuesday pressed their efforts to seize effective control of Iraqs second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts and militants overran the provincial government headquarters and other key buildings, dealing a serious blow to Baghdads attempts to tame a widening insurgency in the country.AP


Syrian and Iraqi terrorist forces obtained significant numbers of tanks, trucks, and U.S.-origin Humvees in recent military operations in Iraq and those arms are being shipped to al Qaeda rebels in Syria, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. intelligence agencies reported this week that photos of the equipment transfers were posted online by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, the ultra-violent terror group that broke away from al Qaeda but shares its goals and philosophy.
Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Speaks confirmed the weapons transfers and expressed concerns about the captured arms.
“We’re aware of reports of some equipment—namely Humvees—and the pictures that have been posted online,” Speaks said in an email. “We are certainly concerned about these reports and are consulting with the Iraqi government to obtain solid confirmation on what assets may have fallen into ISIL’s hands.”
Speaks added that the loss of the equipment to the terrorist group is “really a matter for the Iraqi government to speak to publicly” because “it is their equipment.”
Exact numbers of captured arms and equipment are not known. The insurgents raided all the arms depots and vehicles belonging to Iraq’s Second Division, based in Mosul, which included a motorized brigade and several infantry brigades.
A defense official warned that ISIL claims that they have captured advanced weaponry, such as Blackhawk helicopters, are suspect.
“We do know that they made false claims last week, particularly with Blackhawk helicopters, which have never been sold to Iraq,” the official said.
Click for more from The Washington Free Beacon

[Avvakum]

Apparently we're working with Iran now. To stop terrorists.

WTF is wrong with the world?

The world is what's wrong with the world. We Americans have lived in a complacent bubble/fantasy world of our own making, confident that we had won the Cold War while ignoring the literal monsters we unleashed in order to bring down our Soviet enemy. Islam is the new 'communism' in the new war being fought, and we're losing, because we decided to fight the war with a volunteer military while the rest of our society mobilized to do what they do best; shop. We see the fighting on video screens and it all is rather distant, at most it effects us mainly at the gas pump.

Meanwhile, outside the bubble, people are dying and killing for or against some iteration of an Islamic New World Order; Al-Baghdadi claims to be a descendant of the 'prophet' Mohammed-a claim the 'Madhi' will make-and boldly strikes to unite Islam, abolish the Shiite heresy, and establish a Caliphate with it's capital in Jerusalem.

And as he makes these lightning strikes to consolidate his regime, the West rots from within, lauding degenerate performers and political 'heroes' like 'Pussy Riot' and wondering what the Kardashians are up to next, and the Vatican resounds with islamic prayers in direct denial of Christ and the Holy Trinity, in the interests of an earthly peace that will never come in this age. Not that 'official' Orthodoxy is much better; the alleged Patriarch of Constantinople regularly gives islamic blessings on Ramadan and Eid, and promotes one-world religion initiatives also, even as the Christian flock is slaughtered in the lands of it's historic birth.

I thought that 9-11 would wake up America, but if anything it made us even more delusional as a Nation. Not all of us, but most. Obama's election was a direct consequence of this psychotic denial of reality, and the whole world is paying for it now.

In short, sad as it is, it's come to this;




We supported him to contain militant Islam and Iran; now we wish he was back as we try to contain miltant Sunni Islam WITH Iran. This is the very reason why I opposed the second Gulf War in the first place, I saw we would be opening Pandora's box getting rid of the Baathists in Iraq, and then Obama compounds the error with his overthrow of Mubarak and Ghaddafi, and attempted overthrow of Assad. They were the only ones who could contain this zoo of wild political animals called the Middle East, and we destroyed them in our insane attempts to turn the Moslem world into copies of us.

[American Patriot]

17 June 2014 Last updated at 12:02 ET

Iraq's central government suffers mortal blow

By Fawaz A Gerges London School of Economics Demonstrators shout slogans in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Mosul


Regardless of whether the Iraqi government in Baghdad rolls back the recent military advances by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the central authority has suffered a mortal blow.
ISIS's takeover of most of the so-called Sunni Triangle, as well as Mosul, the second largest city with almost two million people, hammers a deadly nail in the coffin of the post-Saddam Hussein nation-building project.
Fragile Iraqi institutions now lie in tatters.
It is doubtful if Baghdad could ever establish a monopoly on the use of force in the country, or exercise authority and centralised control over rebellious Sunni Arabs and semi-independent Kurdistan.
The best-case scenario for Iraq is devolution of power from the centre in Baghdad to local Shia, Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurdish communities; the worst is splintering of the country to three separate entities.
ISIS's swift advance has exposed the state's structural and institutional weaknesses, as well as a deep ideological and sectarian rift in society.
After eight years in office and monopolising power, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has delivered neither security nor reconciliation and prosperity.

Iraqi security forces, which number hundreds of thousands of men, almost disintegrated under a stunning sweep of only a few thousand, lightly armed al-Qaeda-linked fighters.
More than a decade after the Americans removed Saddam Hussein from power and dissolved his army, the reconstituted military lacks a unifying identity and professionalism, and is riddled with corruption.
For example, in Mosul, ISIS militants had a joy-ride through the city because senior and junior officers had already deserted their positions and weapons, and ordered soldiers to flee home.
A security force in Mosul made up of tens of thousands melted away.
Shia volunteers have rallied to defend the state and holy sites
Coming to the rescue of a sinking ship, a representative of the highest Shia authority in the land, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said the "defence of Iraq and its people and holy sites is a duty on every citizen who can carry arms and fight terrorists".
A parallel army of an estimated 100,000 volunteers, mainly Shia, has joined the fray, increasing the risks of sectarian strife.
Concerned about misinterpretation of his call to arms, Ayatollah Sistani's office subsequently qualified his statement by warning his supporters against "any behaviour that has a sectarian or a nationalist character that may harm the cohesion of the Iraqi people".
Broken system It is misleading to exaggerate ISIS military prowess and exploits as many reports in the Western media do.
Its strength stems not only from the weakness of the Iraqi state, but also from the communal and social cleavages that are tearing society apart; it is a manifestation of a bigger revolt by (tribal) Sunni Arabs against what they view as Mr Maliki's sectarian authoritarianism.
Soldiers and police retreated en masse as the militants swept into Mosul last week
At the very heart of the fierce struggle raging in Iraq is a broken political system, one based on "muhasasa", or distribution of the spoils of power along communal, ethnic and tribal lines, and put in place after the US invaded and occupied the country in 2003.
Sunnis Arabs, particularly in the last four years, have felt excluded and disfranchised by what they view as Mr Maliki's sectarian-based policies.
When the US left Iraq in 2011, the al-Qaeda brand was in decline, unpopular among Sunnis.
Three years later, ISIS has revived by finding a "hadana shaabiya", or social base, among dissatisfied and alienated Sunni Arabs.
Devolution Seizing the opportunity afforded by the Syrian armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi expanded his activities to the neighbouring country and established a powerful base which has yielded new recruits and precious financial and operational assets.
ISIS has aligned itself with insurgent Sunni groups, such as officers of Saddam's dissolved army, and co-opted hundreds of these skilled fighters to its ranks, a turning point in its ability to plan and execute complex operations in both Iraq and Syria.
In Falluja, Mosul, Tikrit and other towns, Sunnis welcomed al-Qaeda militants as liberators and armed men joined the advancing units.
The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Nineveh province
More alarming, Sunni officers who deserted their bases are reported to have said that they would not fight for Mr Maliki's government, a development that shows the gravity of the sectarian-political rift in Iraq today.
This helps explain the shattering collapse of Iraqi security forces.
Sunni tribes and disgruntled former army officers sealed the fate of the Sunni Triangle.
ISIS is only a powerful vehicle for Sunni Arab grievances, though a vehicle that could ultimately crush both Sunnis' aspirations and the Iraqi state. The writing is already on the wall.
In Mosul, ISIS has already laid out its iron law which caused disquiet and alarm among its religious-nationalist and tribal allies who advised caution and prior consultation.
Even if the Iraqi state recaptures the cities seized by ISIS, it would be unable to pacify the population without decentralisation of the decision-making and devolution of power to the local level.
Old order dead Various communities should be empowered to govern themselves and feel invested in the national project, a vital task to rescue the fragile Iraqi state and rid the country of ISIS and other insurgent groups.
The old order is dead. There is an urgent need to reconstruct the broken political and social system along new lines of citizenship and the rule of law.
The ISIS assault has allowed Kurdish Peshmerga forces to seize control of Kirkuk and its oil reserves
Neither reconciliation nor institution-building would occur without a new social contract based on the decentralisation of power and an equitable sharing of resources.
There is no assurance of success given the widening fault-lines among Iraqis and the lack of trust.
Emerging as the biggest winner, the Kurds might be reluctant to surrender the gains recently made with their occupation of the strategically important, oil-producing city of Kirkuk and the consolidation of their Kurdistan borders.
In a similar vein, the Sunni Arab leadership has not come to terms with the new realities of post-Saddam Iraq and still entertains illusions about ruling the country.
Tribal chieftains have acted as cheerleaders for ISIS and seem intoxicated by a Pyrrhic victory.
Shia monopoly Mr Maliki, along with the Shia leadership, bears a greater responsibility for Iraq's failure.
Western countries have urged Mr Maliki to reach out to Sunnis to rebuild national unity
Having taken ownership of the country after the US occupation and overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Shia leadership has treated Sunni Arabs like second-class citizens and has equated its numerical majority with a licence to monopolise power.
Iraq's future depends on the willingness of the dominant social classes to rise up to the historical challenge and prioritise the national interest over the parochial.
If history is a guide, the ruling elite might once again fail the Iraq people with catastrophic repercussions for the war-torn country and the regional and international system.
Fawaz A Gerges holds the Emirates Chair in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of several books, including The New Middle East: Social Protest And Revolution In The Arab World.

[American Patriot]

Americans may be fighting alongside ISIS terrorists, officials believe

Posted: Jun 16, 2014 6:29 PM MST Updated: Jun 16, 2014 6:46 PM MST


An ISIS terrorist propaganda video shows a burning American flag. (Source: CNN)


(CNN) - There's growing concern that Americans may be joining militant groups fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Additional Links

US exploring ways to slow brutal terrorist advance in Iraq




U.S. officials say jihadists with American passports could make it easier for terrorists to attack America.
A terrorist video looks like a movie trailer.
It says 'coming soon' and shows an American flag burning and a passport burning.
One billboard reads: 'The story of an American muhajir in Sham'- which is 'Syria'.
The militant's blurred image appears, and then you hear him talking about 'haq'- which means divine obligation.
"It is haq on you to protect your brothers and oppress. It is haq' on you to fight," he says.
A U.S. intelligence official says the man with the blurred face is Moner Mohammad Abusalha - a 22-year-old jihadist from Vero Beach, FL, who blew himself up in a truck-bomb attack in Syria last month, killing 36.
"The point the group is trying to make is that, despite that the United States is leading the war on terror, 'We welcome Americans. We have Americans. We actually would rather Americans, because they are the best poster-boys for propaganda," said Laith Alkhouri with Flashpoint Global Partners.
According to a source in U.S. intelligence, it stands to reason that some Americans who've joined the broader fight in Syria have linked up with ISIS, the brutal terrorist group now targeting Baghdad, Iraq.
The official could not say whether those fighters are in Iraq right now, or in Syria.
U.S. lawmakers and analysts warn that the next 9/11-style attacks could come from Iraq or Syria. Militants there with American passports could have an easier path to attacking America's homeland, and ISIS might soon have the motivation to do that.
"Direct U.S. engagement against ISIS does raise this question about whether they will turn to the U.S. and attempt to attack the homeland, certainly more than they have today," said Seth Jones of the RAND Corporation.
And the shadowy, vicious leader of ISIS may have already warned about that.
Col. Ken King was the U.S. commander at Camp Bucca in Iraq when U.S. forces released Abubakr al-Baghdadi in 2009.
"He looked over to us and, as he left, he said, 'See you guys in New York,'" King said. "Today I believe there is some merit in his words, in the fact that he has a significant force, he has a significant amount of money, after going through Mosul and Tikrit, and he has gained some momentum in his movement south."

[American Patriot]

Not good... though I think they are already here.

ByRebecca KaplanCBS NewsJune 16, 2014, 6:00 AM
Will ISIS plan a 9/11-style terror plot against the U.S.?

Republicans are sounding the warning that the next 9/11-like terror plot could emerge from the regions of Iraq and Syria that are currently dominated by an extremist group bearing down on Baghdad.


As the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - which has already captured the cities of Tikrit and Mosul and is threatening to take the capital city as well - grows in strength and numbers, will it pose an immediate threat to the United States homeland as well?

Play Video
Islamic militants sweep through northern Iraq

Experts say the group's increasing power and reach is concerning, though it's not entirely clear when they might be able to threaten the U.S.


"You've got motivation mixed with opportunity, ideology and foreign fighters and all of that looks like a very extreme version of Afghanistan in the '90s, plus what was happening in Iraq after the Iraq war," said CBS News National Security Analyst Juan Zarate. "This is a cauldron of future terrorist threats to the west."


The bigger danger, Zarate said, is that the U.S. does not yet know exactly what the group will look like once it evolves. While ISIS might not launch an attack on U.S. soil tomorrow, he said, "I think the grave threat here is that you have the seeds of a new terrorist movement emerging very aggressively."

Play Video
Lindsey Graham: "Seeds of 9/11" being planted in Iraq, Syria

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that U.S. officials have warned the next major attack on U.S. soil could emanate from the region.


"The seeds of 9/11s are being planted all over Iraq and Syria," Graham said. "They want an Islamic caliphate that runs through Syria and Iraq...and they plan to drive us out of the Mideast by attacking us here at home."


Graham's concerns were echoed on ABC's "This Week" by Ret. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who said that "all Americans should be concerned" by ISIS' quick rise and success in Iraq. And on "Fox News Sunday," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said, "I guarantee you: this is a problem that we will have to face and we're either going to face it in New York City or we're going to face it here."


"These are not monkey bar terrorists out in the desert somewhere planning some very low-level attack. These are sophisticated, command and controlled, seasoned combat veterans who understand the value of terrorism operations external to the region, meaning Europe and the United States. That is about as dangerous a recipe as you can put together," he said.

Play Video
What options does the U.S. have to thwart ISIS?

There have been some indications this might be the group's intent. Army Col. Kenneth King, who was the commanding officer of a U.S. detention camp in Iraq, told the Daily Beast recently that when current ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released in 2009, he said, "I'll see you guys in New York."


But Michael Morell, the former acting CIA director and a CBS News analyst on intelligence, national security and counterterrorism issues, predicted it's at least a year before ISIS might pose more of a serious threat to the U.S. The current major threats to the homeland still come from al Qaeda groups in Pakistan and Yemen, he said.
But, Morell added, if it looks like the U.S. influence in Iraq is increasing once again, the threat from ISIS could also rise.


"That's one of the downsides of U.S. involvement," he told CBS News. "The more we visibly get involved in helping the [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki] government fight these guys, the more we become a target."

Play Video
Obama: Iraq violence a "wake up call" for Iraqi leaders

President Obama said Friday that he has asked his national security team to "prepare a range of other options" for U.S. involvement, though he is not considering putting U.S. troops back on the ground there.

Play Video
ISIS posts photos claiming mass killing of Iraqi soldiers

For now, Morell said that ISIS is principally targeting the Iraqi government. Over the weekend, the group posted graphic photos that appeared to show its fighters brutally killing scores of captured Iraqi soldiers. But Zarate warned about the influence of senior al Qaeda figures who traveled to Syria and could be working to turn ISIS' attention toward the west.


"You do have very senior al Qaeda figures who have migrated to the Syrian conflict to provide strategic guidance and direction and to me that's incredibly dangerous because you have operatives and strategists who have had squarely in mind to turn the attention of these groups toward the west," he said.


One of Rogers' principal concerns is the threat posed by American and European fighters who traveled to what he called "jihadist Disneyland" in eastern Syria and have been radicalized. Just last month, a U.S. citizen linked to al Qaeda terrorists carried out a suicide bombing in Syria.


ISIS "is an al Qaeda-inspired group that certainly has al Qaeda ties, that now has the capability to tap people with Western passports to send them back to Europe and the United States for terrorist activity. That's a problem for us," Rogers said.


In February, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the U.S. was "very focused" on the problem of fighters from the U.S., Canada and Europe who traveled to Syria.


FBI Director James Comey estimated in early May that the number of foreign fighters traveling to the region has grown by a few dozen since the start of the year. Several months before, he had said there were dozens of Americans trying to travel to Syria.


Morell said such fighters are a "growing concern" to the U.S., but that they pose more of a threat as one-man operations at present than a large 9/11 style attack.


ISIS has also been a separate entity from al Qaeda after it was cut off from the main group in February.


The question that remains is whether the U.S. would be able to thwart an attack if one materialized.


Zarate said the country is better prepared to deal with the threat of a terror attack, having built up its counterterrorism capabilities since 9/11. But, he added, "we are, in some ways, blind to a lot of the threats that may be emerging and unable to impact the momentum that some of these extremist groups have."


As the groups grow in strength, "we in some ways then have to play defense, which is a lot harder to do if we're not playing offense at the same time," he said.

[American Patriot]

ISIL extremist militants threaten US, UK with terror attacks

11 hours ago Brief Terror alerts, 9/11-style bombings and murders of British citizens will soon come to London’s streets

Terror alerts, 9/11-style bombings and murders of British citizens will soon come to London’s streets, according to chilling threats from UK citizens fighting alongside with the so-called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the most violent terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.

The threat comes from British nationals fighting for the ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

According to the Sunday Times, they promise that after they’re done there, Britain is next. The message comes from three such fighters, all youngsters in their teens and twenties.

According to the Times, these aren’t regular disenchanted youths at all: one is a 20-year-old hacker from Birmingham, who once stole Tony Blair’s details and posted them online, later serving time for an unrelated violence charge.

The “black flag of jihad” will fly over Downing Street, Junaid Hussain warned on June 4, spelling out the horrors to come. He’s been fighting in Syria for over a year now.

Another, 19-year-old Muhammad Hassan, from Portsmouth, was a student at a prestigious school. He warned on Twitter that if the US doesn’t cease threats over drone strikes on ISIL positions, 9/11-style attacks on America would follow.

The third, also from Portsmouth, promised a “killing spree” of British citizens if he were ever to return to Britain.

“Imagine if someone were to detonate a bomb at voting stations or ambushed the vans that carry the casted [sic] votes. It would mess the whole system up,” came another tweet from Junaid Hussain, before he re-tweeted a warning from a like-minded countryman for British people to “watch out,” because “we’ll come back to the UK and wreak havoc.”

Among his other offenses, Hussain has also been seen posting bomb-making advice on the internet, as well as tips on how to smuggle explosive devices through airport security.

Getting to Syria from Britain isn’t as difficult as some would think: the youths simply travel to Turkey, then crossed the border. One of them was caught by CCTV cameras at the time, traveling on a holiday flight from London Gatwick airport to Turkey’s Antalya. Hassan’s group (not including the aforementioned tweeters) had three other people, all in their mid-twenties. After reaching Turkey, they headed over to Syria by car.

This is nowhere near the first time the public has seen British nationals fighting alongside Middle-Eastern terrorists. There have been numerous threats, government monitoring of scores of returnees and reports that British extremists use Syria as a training ground before taking the battle to home soil.

What’s more striking is how news of their particular cruelty is widespread in Syria itself: Britons comprise an overwhelming majority of foreigners inside ISIL, an organization who are labeled ‘terrorists’ for their bloody campaign of ruthless executions and body mutilations even by other elements of the Syrian militant groups.

Further illustrating the scale of foreign involvement in ISIL operations, Mike Rogers, the US chairman of the Intelligence Committee, speaking to Fox News said that there are “thousands” of American and European volunteers and mercenaries fighting for ISIL, which “has the capability to tap people with Western passports to send them back to Europe and the United States for terrorist activity.”

“This is as dangerous as it gets,” said the Republican politician, who urged Barack Obama to use his influence with Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to rein in ISIL – which is likely partly funded by powerful sympathizers within those countries.

The current threats take place amid a fearsome escalation of violence in Iraq, which has been spiraling out of control the closer ISIL got to Baghdad. Army desertions abound as militants storm through the country, capturing hundreds of millions of dollars in American weapons and equipment and parading them in videos.

The ISIL terrorists are currently storming through the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit, continuing to post videos of beheadings on their way to the capital.

Britain has been taking steps to curb the spread of extremism on its soil. Over the weekend, Twitter blocked all ISIL-related accounts and the accounts of its supporters at home in the UK.

This is a sensible move, given most of the communication between worldwide supporters of the war cause is done on social networks, where the above British-born terrorists all use new Islamic names.

Prime Minister David Cameron is also ringing alarm bells, asserting that Britain has become too tolerant for its own good, bringing about a rise in extremism

"In recent years we have been in danger of sending out a worrying message: that if you don't want to believe in democracy, that's fine; that if equality isn't your bag, don't worry about it; that if you're completely intolerant of others, we will still tolerate you,” the PM asserted.

[American Patriot]

‘Black flag of jihad will fly over London’: Alarm over UK-born Iraq fighters' threat

Published time: June 16, 2014 11:42
Edited time: June 17, 2014 09:57 Get short URL

An image grab taken from a propaganda video released on March 17, 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows ISIL fighters driving on a street in the northern Syrian City of Homs. (AFP Photo)

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Terror alerts, 9/11-style bombings and murders of British citizens will soon come to London’s streets, according to chilling threats from UK citizens fighting alongside Islam’s most violent terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq.
The threat comes from British nationals fighting for the Sunni militant group calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) in Syria. According to the Sunday Times, they promise that after they’re done there, Britain is next. The message comes from three such fighters, all youngsters in their teens and twenties.
According to the Times, these aren’t regular disenchanted youths at all: one is a 20-year-old hacker from Birmingham, who once stole Tony Blair’s details and posted them online, later serving time for an unrelated violence charge.
The “black flag of jihad” will fly over Downing Street, Junaid Hussain warned on June 4, spelling out the horrors to come. He’s been fighting in Syria for over a year now.
Another, 19-year-old Muhammad Hassan, from Portsmouth, was a student at a prestigious school. He warned on Twitter that if the US doesn’t cease threats over drone strikes on ISIS positions, 9/11-style attacks on America would follow.
The third, also from Portsmouth, promised a “killing spree” of British citizens if he were ever to return to Britain.
“Imagine if someone were to detonate a bomb at voting stations or ambushed the vans that carry the casted [sic] votes. It would mess the whole system up,” came another tweet from Junaid Hussain, before he re-tweeted a warning from a like-minded countryman for British people to “watch out,” because “we’ll come back to the UK and wreak havoc.”
Among his other offenses, Hussain has also been seen posting bomb-making advice on the internet, as well as tips on how to smuggle explosive devices through airport security.
Getting to Syria from Britain isn’t as difficult as some would think: the youths simply travel to Turkey, then crossed the border. One of them was caught by CCTV cameras at the time, traveling on a holiday flight from London Gatwick airport to Turkey’s Antalya. Hassan’s group (not including the aforementioned tweeters) had three other people, all in their mid-twenties. After reaching Turkey, they headed over to Syria by car.

A fighter from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the city of Raqqa (Reuters)

This is nowhere near the first time the public has seen British nationals fighting alongside Middle-Eastern extremists. There have been numerous threats, government monitoring of scores of returnees and reports that British Sunni jihadists use Syria as a training ground before taking the battle to home soil.
What’s more striking is how news of their particular cruelty is widespread in Syria itself: Britons comprise an overwhelming majority of foreigners inside ISIS, an organization who are labeled ‘terrorists’ for their bloody campaign of ruthless executions and body mutilations even by other elements of the Syrian opposition.
One Free Syrian Army General spoke in horror of what some 400 British extremists fighting there were capable of doing. He pointed out that ISIS’s already dark record did not originate from actions by local fighters alone.

A picture taken on March 1, 2014 shows the wreckage of a Syrian army helicopter after al-Qaeda-linked group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s fighters allegedly destroyed it. (AFP Photo / Mohammed Al-Khatieb)

Further illustrating the scale of foreign involvement in ISIS operations, Mike Rogers, the US chairman of the Intelligence Committee, speaking to Fox News alleged that there are “thousands” of American and European volunteers and mercenaries fighting for ISIS, which “has the capability to tap people with Western passports to send them back to Europe and the United States for terrorist activity.”
“This is as dangerous as it gets,” said the Republican politician, who urged Barack Obama to use his influence with Sunni Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to rein in ISIS – which is likely partly funded by powerful sympathizers within those countries.
The current threats take place amid a fearsome escalation of violence in Iraq, which has been spiraling out of control the closer ISIS got to Baghdad. Army desertions abound as militants storm through the country, capturing hundreds of millions of dollars in American weapons and equipment and parading them in videos.
The rebels are currently storming through the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit, continuing to post videos of beheadings on their way to the capital.
Britain has been taking steps to curb the spread of extremism on its soil. Over the weekend, Twitter blocked all ISIS-related accounts and the accounts of its supporters at home in the UK. This is a sensible move, given most of the communication between worldwide supporters of the jihadist cause is done on social networks, where the above British-born terrorists all use new Islamic names.

An image made available by the jihadist Twitter account Al-Baraka news on June 9, 2014 allegedly shows Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah. (AFP Photo)

Prime Minister David Cameron is also ringing alarm bells, asserting that Britain has become too tolerant for its own good, bringing about a rise in extremism. The PM has called on several occasions for the protection and promotion of “British values” as a counterweight to the perceived malignant Islamization of Britain. He now believes the government has been too soft in a number of ways, according to a recent public address.
“It isn’t enough simply to respect these values in schools. They’re not options, they’re the core of what it is to live in Britain,” Cameron told the public.
"In recent years we have been in danger of sending out a worrying message: that if you don't want to believe in democracy, that's fine; that if equality isn't your bag, don't worry about it; that if you're completely intolerant of others, we will still tolerate you,” the PM asserted.
“That's not just led to division; it has also allowed extremism – of both the violent and non-violent kind - to flourish. We need to be far more muscular in promoting British values and the institutions that uphold them,” he said, shortly after a major scare involving an alleged Trojan Horse plot to Islamicize certain British schools, which prompted an investigation and much bickering within the government.

[American Patriot]

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27844749

16 June 2014 Last updated at 11:24 ET Share this page

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ISIS militants with US passports?

What in the world? Pieces of global opinion Former state department official Andrew Doran worries the US homeland could be vulnerable to an ISIS attack
A review of the best commentary on and around the world...
Today's must-read
There is something particularly concerning about the "masked, sociopathic murderers" who fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), writes former state department official Andrew G Doran for the National Review.
Some of them, he says, are Western citizens who have travelled to Syria to fight President Bashar Assad's government - and have passports or other immigration paperwork that would allow them to return to their home countries whenever they want.
In fact, he says, citing the Daily Beast's Greg Sargent, perhaps a dozen are already in the US.
He continues:
These veterans of al-Qaeda and its affiliates constitute a fundamentally different threat than that which America faced in 2001: they are Western (at least in nationality); they are seasoned combat veterans; they are known, but perhaps too numerous to track.
Mr Doran writes that the Syrian revolution, in which the US has sided with those seeking to topple Mr Assad, has taken the focus away from the real enemy: al-Qaeda.
"If these Islamist veterans of the Syrian conflict succeed in pulling off a terrorist attack against the United States, the problem with America's policy in Syria will come into focus immediately," he says.
He says US idealism is to blame for our current Syrian policy.
"Unable or unwilling to distinguish between mere Machiavellian evil (Assad) and globally ambitious sociopaths (ISIS), America may have left itself vulnerable," he writes.
If the US government officials are smart, he concludes, they're currently scrambling to track down all the ISIS-affiliated individuals who may be returning to the US from the Middle East. "Let us hope those efforts are successful," he writes.
A number of US politicians echoed Mr Doran's concerns on Sunday's political talk shows.
"The seeds of 9/11s are being planted all over Iraq and Syria," Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham said on Face the Nation. "They want an Islamic caliphate that runs through Syria and Iraq ... and they plan to drive us out of the Mideast by attacking us here at home."
On Fox New Sunday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said: "This is a problem that we will have to face, and we're either going to face it in New York City or we're going to face it here."
The political rhetoric in the US over the ISIS is growing. The question, however, is whether it will translate into US public support for increased intervention in Iraq.
Iran A peaceful nuclear programme - Writing in the Washington Post, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says that he is confident his nation can reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement with the Western negotiators by next month's deadline.
He says that the Western powers must accept that Iran will have a peaceful nuclear programme, however, and will not "abandon or make a mockery of our technological advances or our scientists".
The West insists on perpetuating a "dangerous myth" of an Iranian nuclear weapons on the verge of "breakout", he contends. In order for Iran to build a nuclear weapon, it would have to expel United Nations inspectors and reconfigure its production systems to handle a "complex weaponisation processes". That would take several years, he writes.
Iran had the opportunity to move forward with nuclear weapons development in previous years but refrained, he says. Negotiators cannot pass up the opportunity to reach an agreement and put in place "long-term confidence building measures, as well as extensive monitoring and verification agreements".
North Korea Time for a Kim Jong Un to go - The US, China, South Korea and Japan have engaged in a policy of containing North Korea because they fear that the consequences of the Kim regime's demise would be grave, writes Columbia University's Sue Mi Terry. In reality, she says, the long-term benefits of the end of the Kim dynasty outweigh the short-term risks.
A new government could lead to the release of the 80,000-120,000 prisoners currently in North Korean slave-labour camps, she contends, and reduce the North Korean military threat to its neighbour to the south.
It would also free China from the financial obligations of supporting the North Korean people and open the north to South Korean investment. Eventual reunification would be a "demographic jolt" for the south, whose population is much older than the north's.
Rather than continue to prop up the North Korean government, she concludes, the US should increase sanctions and containment efforts, with the intent of bringing about regime change
Russia Rethinking the Russian empire - On June 12, Russia celebrated its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. The significance of the day, however, remains clouded in confusion, writes Ivan Sukhov for the Moscow Times, as "nobody has ever really understood from what or from whom Russia gained independence".
Despite some of the drawbacks of daily Soviet life, many Russians fondly remember the era, a time "when full employment was the norm and the state's military, political and scientific might awed the world", writes Sukhov. Even President Vladimir Putin has described the dissolution of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th Century".
These "unresolved and contradictory attitudes" indicate that the legacy of the Soviet Union continues to thrive, Sukhov says. For example, the recent strife in Ukraine shows "that the Soviet empire did not just collapse and get filed neatly away in the archives of history", but rather that the conflict is only the "most recent in a long series of events marking the collapse of the Soviet Union".
Regardless of the impression of a continuous, underlying empire, "common values are in even greater disarray now than when the Soviet Union rapidly collapsed", Sukhov concludes. During the age of the Soviet Union, its citizens "sincerely believed they were part of a grand and global experiment to build a humanitarian socialist society". But, Mr Sukhov asks, what do they believe now?
China US should open its doors to Chinese investment - The prospect of Chinese investors buying US businesses is threatening to some Americans, writes USA Today's Ted C Fishman, but it shouldn't be.
China is a growing economic force, and tying it closely to the US economy is essential, he says. Such investment creates jobs in the US and makes it less likely that China will ever abruptly cash out the $1.3tn (£770bn) in US Treasury debt it currently holds.
While politicians in Washington, DC worry about Chinese investment, he writes, local and state governments are doing whatever they can to attract Chinese companies, which he says pay 30% more than the average US job.
"If we are smart about letting Chinese investment in," he says, "we can grow richer still as China continues to prosper, and economic ties dispel scarier inclinations."
BBC Monitoring's quotes of the day Iranian commentators are watchingdevelopments in Iraq closely, as calls for Iranian military involvement with its neighbour grow.
"Considering the evidence and reports about the US role in creating terrorist groups and its support for Baathists to create the crisis in Iraq, the question now is: why are the Western media seeking to show that Iran and America should co-operate in the fight against terrorism in Iraq?... The Western media, through allegations about Iranian and American co-operation in the fight against ISIS, are seeking to minimise American crimes, as well as to show a positive image of America and the UK." - Qasem Ghafuri in Siyasat-e Ruz.
"If the Iraqi government asks for help, any country can help them, because if the host country is willing, there will be no problem. The government could only do so if the Iraqi Constitution gave relevant authorisation to the prime minister, however. As it is, he must get the approval of the parliament. Cunningly, ISIS has initiated their actions at a time that the governance of the prime minister is over and the new cabinet has yet to receive its vote of confidence from the parliament." - Yusof Mola'i in Arman.
"It is clear to everyone that the formation and continuation of ISIS terrorist activities depend on direct and indirect support from the West to this terrorist group. Therefore, the recent approach of the US Democrats in campaigning for confronting ISIS should be studied realistically. The reality is that during recent years, the US has not only been aware of ISIS's activities, it has also intelligently managed and supported these activities." - Sa'id Sobhani in Resalat.
"ISIS did not have the power to occupy and conquer Mosul by itself. What has happened is the result of security-intelligence collaborations of some regional countries with some extremist groups inside the Iraqi government. In other words, it is necessary to consider the elements of time and location of ISIS entering Iraq at this point. The defeats they endured in Syria pushed them towards Iraq." - Sabah Zanganeh in Khorasan.‎