Syrian terrorists being trained by US

Obama must think there isn't enough anarchy in the Middle East already, and that it's short of madmen with guns.

He is now considered the worst president since WWII. Does he want to start III?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/14/us-usa-qatar-idUSKBN0FJ2M820140714

U.S. signs agreement for $11 billion arms sale to Qatar
WASHINGTON Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:14pm EDT

Reuters) - The United States signed an agreement with Qatar on Monday to sell the Gulf Arab ally Apache attack helicopters and Patriot and Javelin air-defense systems valued at $11 billion.

"Today's signing ceremony underscores the strong partnership between the United States and Qatar in the area of security and defense and will help improve our bilateral cooperation across a range of military operations," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.

The agreement was signed at the Pentagon by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Qatar's defense minister, Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah.

It was the biggest U.S. arms sale so far this year, according to media reports.

Hagel visited Qatar in December when he and al-Attiyah signed a 10-year Defense Cooperation Agreement to govern interaction between U.S. and Qatari forces and enable the continued assignment of American troops to installations in the area, including the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base.

"This is a critically important relationship in the region," said Kirby. "And the secretary is pleased to be able to continue to make it stronger."

Qatar is holding for a year five Taliban prisoners released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive in Afghanistan.


Nothing smelly, dodgy or dirty about any of that, is there?

From:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/26/us-evacuates-embassy-in-libya-amid-clashes-in-tripoli/

US evacuates embassy in Libya amid clashes in Tripoli

The United States shut down its embassy in Libya Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.

"Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya," spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

The withdrawal underscored the Obama administration's concern about the heightened risk to American diplomats abroad, particularly in Libya where memories of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in the eastern city of Benghazi are still vivid and the political uproar over it remain fresh ahead of a new congressional investigation into the incident. A senior military official told Fox News the Pentagon has been advising the State Department leave the post for weeks.

"Securing our facilities and ensuring the safety of our personnel are top department priorities, and we did not make this decision lightly," Harf said. "Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions."

American personnel at the Tripoli embassy, which had already been operating with limited staffing, left the capital around dawn and traveled by road to neighboring Tunisia, according to Harf. Roughly 70 embassy staffers were driven out of the city in a caravan by 80 Marines, Fox News has learned.

"At the request of the Department of State, the U.S. military assisted in the relocation of personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli," a spokesman from the U.S. Department of Defense said.

"During movement, F-16's, ISR assets and an Airborne Response Force with MV-22 Ospreys provided security," the statement said. The evacuation was not announced in advance in order to ensure the staffers safe departure.




All that hopey-changey stuff is working out really well. But at least the embassy staff didn't have to scramble to get into the last helicopter this time.

You can bet that it was better organized this time, Bonny.

It's insanity, frankly. The US keeps staging coups in other people's countries, looting their assets, arming whichever local thugs will 'support' them (generally the worst of the whole lot) and wondering why it all keeps going wrong and no-one thanks them for it.

It always ends with said local thugs joining forces briefly to throw the US out.

I've little time for the British Empire, but at least it built something resembling nations - the very fact there are 70+ nations in the current Commonwealth Games is testimony to that.

The old Soviet Union built hospitals, schools, etc., in client states. Communist China may exploit locals, but it does build infrastructure at the same time, without causing civil wars.

The US acts like the old Spanish empire, looting wherever it goes, killing the locals and then wondering why it all goes horribly wrong, time after time.

I do hear you , Bonny. I'm glad the civilians got out.

It's a sign of how far things have degenerated that no-one is even paying attention to the fact that most of Libya's civil airliner fleet has now gone up in flames, Lily.

Remember the good old days when the PLO hijacked planes, took the passengers off, and THEN blew the planes up? That used to shock people; now, it would barely be noticed, as the barbarity spirals ever downward.

I do remember those days, Bonny. We thought them horrendous.

We've lost our way morally and spiritually.

No bad day is complete without Bimbo Harf being wheeled out to lie through her capped teeth:

Marie Harf ✔ @marieharf
Follow
To be clear, our embassy in Tripoli is not closed. We have temporarily suspended operations. Difference is an important one.

She sounds like Morais trying to explain why no-one is allowed to say LIBEL.

OMG. Speak to the hand.......

Lily, if the State Department wanted the rest of the world to point and laugh at Washington, they couldn't have chosen betten than Harf and Psaki. They should be on E! talking about Kim Kardashian's bum, or shoes, or something.

That's it! Then we should have the Kardashians speaking politics.....  

Frankly, the Kardashians couldn't do a worse job than those two bimbos.

Now that is an embarrassing truth.

I congratulate the Libyan people on the conclusion of the elections for a new Council of Representatives, a milestone in their courageous efforts to transition from four decades of dictatorship toward a full democracy.

Guess which world leader said that a month ago. Here's a clue - the transitioning and democracy stuff is going so well, his embassy's just been evacuated.

Oh yes, I remember that. The name of the speaker will come to my mind in a minute.........  

http://news.sky.com/story/1308452/british-embassy-convoy-attacked-in-libya

British Embassy Convoy Attacked In Libya
The Foreign Office urges all Britons to leave as further attacks on foreigners are likely amid a "greater intensity of fighting".

A British Embassy convoy in Libya has been fired at during an attempted carjacking, as UK nationals were urged to leave the country immediately.

All staff escaped unscathed from the attack, which happened on the road between the capital Tripoli and Zawiya, which is en route to the Tunisian border.

Michael Aron, the UK's ambassador to Libya, wrote on Twitter: "There was an attempted carjacking on a British Embassy convoy this morning.

"Shots were fired at our vehicles but all staff safe."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has updated its travel advice to state: "British nationals in Libya should leave now by commercial means."

The Libyan government said around 150 people have died in the country's two biggest cities during two weeks of fighting.

Rival armed militia groups have clashed in the capital Tripoli trying to control the main airport, leaving nearly 100 dead.

A large plane on the tarmac was destroyed in the violence.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, more than 50 have been killed, including many civilians, as security forces battled Islamist militants.

It has been the deadliest violence since the 2011 war that ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, with the central government unable to impose order.

The United States shut its embassy on Saturday and safely evacuated its diplomats by road to neighbouring Tunisia, escorted by F16 fighter jets.

It's all worked out really well, hasn't it? What a pity Gaddafi and Saddam were both barking mad psychos, if they'd just been more run-of-the-mill dictators like Assad, with one wife and one family, wearing business suits, maybe none of this would have happened.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/28/inspector-general-report-says-pentagon-cant-find-more-than-40-percent-firearms/

Report says Pentagon has lost track of thousands of firearms given to Afghan forces

The Pentagon has been unable to locate more than 40 percent of the firearms it has provided to Afghan security forces at a cost of $626 million, according to a report by a government oversight agency made public Monday.

The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) states that the Defense Department's two information systems that track weapons sent to Afghanistan are full of errors. That has sparked fears that at least some of the weapons may be available on the black market, with militants among the potential purchasers.

According to the report and an article in The Washington Times, the Pentagon has sent 747,000 weapons and auxiliary equipment, mostly small arms, to Afghan forces over the past decade. The paper reported that of the 474,823 serial numbers recorded in the tracking database, 203,888 -- approximately 43 percent -- had missing or duplicate information. The Times reported that auditors had discovered that 24,520 serial numbers were repeated at least once in the database, and 50, 304 serial numbers had no shipping or receiving dates recorded for them.

Jeffrey Brown, senior audit manager for SIGAR, told The Times that the agency has "no evidence" that the weapons have made their way to militant hotspots, such as neighboring Pakistan. However, he added, "That wasn’t really in the scope of our audit."

So, I take it the arms are now with Al Quaeda, or whatever they're calling themselves this week, in Pakistan? There's more of this tale of incompetence at the links

The short version is, Yet another fck-up, just like the 'nice rebels' fck-up, and all the other fck-ups.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/27/pentagon-running-out-of-time-to-find-mass-of-missi/?page=all#pagebreak

In addition, Mr. Kugelman said, if the Pentagon does not resolve issues with its tracking system in the near future, weapons could end up in the hands of Afghan warlords or make their way to the tribal areas of Pakistan.
Even though the U.S. has a good security relationship with Afghanistan, “we do have to worry that there are quite a number of members of the Afghan security forces that would be willing to share these weapons with people they should not be shared with,” he said.


No sh*t, Sherlock.   

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/07/28/report-pentagon-has-lost-track-thousands-firearms-given-afghan-forces

The Pentagon has been unable to locate more than 40 percent of the firearms it has provided to Afghan security forces at a cost of $626 million, according to a report by a government oversight agency due to be made public Monday.

The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) states that the Defense Department's two information systems that track weapons sent to Afghanistan are full of errors. That has sparked fears that at least some of the weapons may be available on the black market, with militants among the potential purchasers.

Awesome deductive powers on show there.

It seems that they are forever taking the pee out of the taxpayers.

http://www.infowars.com/all-of-the-countries-which-the-u-s-regime-changed-iraq-afghanistan-and-libya-have-descended-into-brutal-chaos/

ALL OF THE COUNTRIES WHICH THE U.S. “REGIME CHANGED” – IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN AND LIBYA – HAVE DESCENDED INTO BRUTAL CHAOS

Well worth reading.

As is this:

http://www.infowars.com/photos-emerge-of-10-active-militia-teams-securing-the-us-mexico-border/



That's not Ukraine or the Middle East. That's Texas.

Texas, 2014. This is going to end very badly, IMO.