In response;
BREAKING: Jordan to execute "within hours" jailed woman militant it had sought to swap for pilot killed by Islamic State: security source
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 3, 2015
Hopefully, just the first shot.
Update: Jordan executes two in response to pilot’s slaying
According to unnamed officials, Washington “has given the Iranians 80 percent of what they want” out of the negotiations…
Syria: too little, too late.
Nobody saw THIS coming: Cuba leaves talks on US ties insisting it won’t make major changes to its system
Richard Fernandez (on FB): “Reality is grading the president. Events are demonstrating whether and to what degree he can actually anticipate threats. The fact that he’s been blindsided over and over again suggests something is wrong, He never sees it coming. Yemen was his model and now poof, it looks to be gone.”
#WhiteHouseSleeperCell MT @MaxBoot anti-ISIS campaign so ineffective that many Iraqis think US in cahoots w/ISIS. http://t.co/E1dpVQ4Q7U …
— Katewerk (@katewerk) January 15, 2015
Brought to you by the Guardian, who are apparently, also on the inside.
Abu Ahmed was an essential member of the earliest incarnation of the group. He had been galvanised into militancy as a young man by an American occupation that he and many like him believed was trying to impose a power shift in Iraq, favouring the country’s larger Shia population at the expense of the dominant Sunnis. His early role in what would become Isis led naturally to the senior position he now occupies within a revitalised insurgency that has spilled across the border into Syria. Most of his colleagues regard the crumbling order in the region as a fulfilment of their ambitions in Iraq – which had remained unfinished business, until the war in Syria gave them a new arena.
An interesting article, nonetheless. (h/t Frank)
ISIS setting up training plants in Libya;
Correspondents say that in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted Gaddafi, many rebel fighters left to fight with militant groups in Syria, and some are believed to have returned home.
The elected government has lost Libya’s three main cities amid the political crisis.
Benghazi, the country’s second city, is in the hands of Islamist fighters, and the internationally recognised parliament is now based in the coastal town of Tobruk in the east.
U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence personnel have been warned that they could be targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A new security bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI advises that U.S. intelligence has seen ISIS figures overseas calling for individuals in the U.S. to attack above mentioned groups.
Federal officials warned U.S. personnel to limit their online postings, so as to not give out any information that would leave them vulnerable to attacks.
Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union.
Beauty.
AP News: An Islamic State group video released Sunday purports to show extremists beheading a dozen Syrian soldiers and ends with a militant claiming to have killed U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, the latest slaughter proudly broadcast by the group on the Internet.
Related.
When the Taliban lost control of Afghanistan between Oct. 7, 2001, and Dec. 23, 2001 — a period of 75 days — U.S. aircraft flew 6,500 strike sorties and dropped 17,500 munitions. By contrast, between Aug. 8, 2014, and Oct. 23, 2014 — 76 days — the United States conducted only 632 airstrikes and dropped only 1,700 munitions in Iraq and Syria…
Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front just surrendered to Al Qaeda in Syria.
Most people have never heard of either organization, though they’ve been sort of quietly backed by the US since they oppose the Assad regime, the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and the Islamic State. Now they may be effectively finished.
Heckuva job, Barry: ISIS has captured an advanced Chinese-made surface-to-air missile
The #IslamicState launched rockets into the Green Zone in #Baghdad. Ambulances being rushing to the area and helicopters deployed.
— AbuUmar8246 (@Abu_Umar8246) October 21, 2014
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
November, 2009: “I think that we’ve restored America’s standing in the world, and that’s confirmed by polls”
October, 2014: Turkish officials categorically denied that they’d agreed to allow their bases to be used against the terror group.
“ALLAHU AKBAR” IS JUST A DIVERSIONARY TACTIC: ‘Nothing whatsoever about ISIL that is related to Islam.’
It’s a disaster. By involving American forces half-heartedly, with an eye toward no objective beyond bumping up his poll numbers before the midterm elections, Obama has set ISIS up to brag about how they’re beating the Great Satan – not just holding their own under air assault, but actually making progress, taking ground, and retaining the strategic initiative.
[…]
The report also says an Islamist group in Egypt “has been staging ISIS copycat beheadings and is thought to have declared de facto loyalty to the group.” An editorial at al-Arabiya News claims the threat of the Islamic State spreading into Libya is one reason Egypt didn’t get involved in the Nameless Non-War, specifically mentioning the parade in Derna depicted above. Another reason is that our debonair internationalist Smart Power President Obama has been treating the Egyptians poorly ever since they overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood:
More here: How Syria policy stalled under the ‘analyst in chief’
Obama’s ‘war’ on ISIS remains strangely nameless.
Right now, there is no specific budget request for Obama’s promised long-term effort to “degrade and destroy” ISIS. A tell-tale sign. Given Obama’s record on veracity, this would seem to indicate “long-term” in his mind means at least through Nov. 5.
Funds for this campaign are being borrowed from other Pentagon accounts. Can a president have a serious war with no budget and no name?
Sure he can. If he’s on the other side.