Re: Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq

**bb1** Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:54 pm

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2014/08/obama-reversed-his-policy-iraq-20148817920630807.html

Has Obama reversed his policy on Iraq?
The US began air strikes against the Islamic State to prevent 'genocide'

He has a policy? Who knew? More bewilderment at link.

**bb1** Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:16 pm

**lily** Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:45 pm

Sigh....again.

**bb1** Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:31 am

Worth a read when trying to untangle the various factions:

http://www.infowars.com/implausible-deniability-wests-isis-terror-hordes-in-iraq-2/

Billions in cash have been funneled into the hands of terrorist groups including Al Nusra, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), and what is now being called “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” or ISIS. One can see clearly by any map of ISIS held territory that it butts up directly against Turkey’s borders with defined corridors ISIS uses to invade southward – this is because it is precisely from NATO territory this terrorist scourge originated.

ISIS was harbored on NATO territory, armed and funded by US CIA agents with cash and weapons brought in from the Saudis, Qataris, and NATO members themselves. The “non-lethal aid” the US and British sent including the vehicles we now see ISIS driving around in.

They didn’t “take” this gear from “moderates.” There were never any moderates to begin with. The deadly sectarian genocide we now see unfolding was long ago predicted by those in the Pentagon – current and former officials – interviewed in 2007 by Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Seymour Hersh.

If anyone is in any doubt....

Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq - Page 16 Mccain-alnusra-1

Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq - Page 16 Mccain-alnusra-1

The 'brave freedom fighters' that warmongering half-wit McCain is so proudly posing with are actually Al-Nusra.

**bb1** Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:26 pm

Some very welcome good news from Iraq:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/kurds-rescue-yazidis-from-iraq-mountain-201489135227783157.html

Kurds rescue Yazidis from Iraqi mountain
Kurdish forces tell Al Jazeera they have opened a road to Sinjar, reaching more than 5,000 Yazidis besieged by IS group.

Iraqi Kurdish security forces have opened a road to Sinjar Mountain in northwestern Iraq, rescuing more than 5,000 Yazidis trapped there after running away from fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group, a Kurdish army spokesman has told Al Jazeera.

"I can confirm that we succeeded in reaching the mountains and opening a road for the refugees," said Halgord Hikmet, a spokesman for the peshmergas the Kurdish security forces.

ikmet said that recent airstrikes on the IS targets by US warplanes had allowed the peshmergas to open a route to the mountain.

The IS, which has captured large areas of Syria and Iraq, see Shia Muslims and minorities such as Christians and Yazidis, a Kurdish ethno-religious community, as infidels.

The Yazidis, a minority that follow a 4,000-year-old faith, had taken cover in Sinjar Mountain for the past five days in searing heat, and with no supplies, after fleeing advancing IS fighters.

Two Kurdish officials, Ekrem Hasso and Juan Mohammad, told the AP news agency that the Yazidis fled across the border from Iraq to seek refuge with the Kurds of northeastern Syria.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also said thousands of people have fled from Iraq into Syria but had no exact number.

US warplanes have launched several waves of airstrikes against IS group fighters in northern Iraq since Friday.

Aerial drones and F-18 fighter jets have attacked fighter positions close to the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

The airstrikes seek to allow the federal and Kurdish governments to claw back areas lost in two months of conflict.

On Friday and Saturday, the US also dropped food and water for the Yazidis hiding on Sinjar Mountain. The UK is also delivering aid and has announced it is sending medics to northern Iraq.

More at link, mainly concerning Obama's speech of yesterday.

The Kurds seem to be the only people involved in this ghastly mess who know what they were doing, and can operate without massacring the wrong people, or making matters even worse.

**Lamplighter** Sun Aug 10, 2014 8:26 am

The Kurds seem to be the only people involved in this ghastly mess who know what they were doing, and can operate without massacring the wrong people, or making matters even worse.

The Kurds in Iraq and Syria have been trying for many years to get their own state. Their resistance army are called Peshmergas.

Peshmerga or Peshmerge. literally "those who confront death") is the term used by Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters. The Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan have been in existence since the advent of the Kurdish independence movement in the early 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman and Qajar empires which had jointly ruled over the area. Peshmerga forces include women in their ranks. Many Kurds will say that all Kurds willing to fight for their rights are Peshmerga. The term remains in contemporary usage, sometimes written as pesh merga in Anglophone media. The Peshmerga has proven to be an effective army, providing security to all ethnicities. During the US led invasion of Iraq the Peshmerga was directly responsible for the capture of Saddam Hussein. They also captured al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden's messenger in 2004, which led to the slaying of Bin Laden.

It seems ISIS are now selling captured Christian girls and women in the market place to their own fighters. LL

**bb1** Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:53 am

I wish I could say I am surprised at that, LL, but sadly, I'm not.

Video here of RAF dropping aid:

http://news.sky.com/story/1316098/raf-makes-first-aid-drop-to-iraqi-refugees

I am uneasy, to be honest - ISIS has an awful lot of US equipment, possibly including the missing Stingers and certainly including MANPADS, and Hercules make very big targets.

Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq - Page 16 British-aid-1-522x293

Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq - Page 16 British-aid-1-522x293

British aid is loaded onto a plane destined for Iraq

**Lamplighter** Sun Aug 10, 2014 1:18 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1316257/iraqi-militants-execute-500-some-buried-alive

**bb1** Sun Aug 10, 2014 3:21 pm

From your link:

Officials earlier said at least 20,000 of those trapped in the mountains had managed to escaped into Syria and been escorted by Kurdish fighters back into Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Kurds are clearly the only capable, honest people in all this mess, and if anyone deserves their own nation, it's them.

So why, you may ask, is the US not only doing little to help them, but is actively screwing them over?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-the-us-got-mixed-up-in-a-fight-over-kurdish-oil--with-a-unified-iraq-at-stake/2014/08/04/4a00a6e2-1900-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html

There's an awful lot of dirty work going on in the background here. And as I said from the start, I simply do not believe a large army of jihadists, well-equipped, with a fleet of Toyotas and a PR department, just sprung up out of the sands of the Levant without anyone noticing.

The CIA's latest Frankenstein, created in Syria, went rogue and turned on its creators, more like.

**bb1** Sun Aug 10, 2014 5:37 pm

Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq - Page 16 Article-2721125-206926C400000578-562_306x653

Killed: Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, was one of an estimated 500 Britons who went to Syria to fight

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721125/British-jihadi-went-fight-ISIS-sacked-Primark-killed-Syria.html#ixzz3A1HkESNO
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Ar@e.

**lily** Sun Aug 10, 2014 6:10 pm

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:57 am

Strange stories circulating today. It appears the US is directly arming the Kurds:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/11/us-reportedly-sending-arms-to-iraq-kurds-in-battle-against-militants/

Meanwhile, the Iraq PM is clinging on by his fingernails, with talk of military coups swirling around:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/iraq-pm-defiant-face-resignation-calls-20148114439740669.html

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has resisted growing calls for his resignation and accused the country's new president of violating the constitution, plunging the government into political crisis as it battles the Islamic State group.

Shortly before his defiant speech on Sunday, Maliki deployed security forces and armed groups across the capital Baghdad, the AFP and Reuters news agencies reported.

"There is a huge security presence, police and army, especially around the Green Zone," a highly-protected district that houses Iraq's key institutions, a high-ranking police officer told AFP.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-10/coup-iraq-prime-minister-maliki-refuses-step-down-orders-security-forces-alert

Just days after the US launched a campaign that implicitly aides the current regime headed by the supposedly outgoing PM, al-Maliki, it appears that latest US intervention has already led to "unexpected" consequences, this time with the prime minister appearing to have just staged a coup overthrowing Iraq's president President Fouad Massoum moments ago.

Reuters reports that the prime minister "indicated that he will not drop his bid for a third term and accused the president of violating the constitution in a tough televised speech likely to deepen political tensions as a Sunni insurgency rages. Maliki, seen as an authoritarian and sectarian leader, has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi'ites and regional power broker Iran to step aside for a less polarising figure who can unite Iraqis against Islamic State militants.

The days of Iraq's president appear numbered:

More at links.

I am sure the Iraqis appreciate all this freedom'n'democracy, and consider the millions of casualties well worthwhile.

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:03 am

I confess to getting deeply irritated by remarks such as this one on CNN:

NoLefty • 3 minutes ago
The problem in the middle-east is simple : Arabs don't care about human life, even if it concerns their own people. And the West cares about human life so much, that it becomes powerless to act.

Pity all the bloodshed in the Middle East has been caused by the West and Israel then, isn't it? Everyone had more or less managed to rub along together for centuries until first the British Empire, and then the US, decided to meddle in the region and cause millions of casualties and create countless refugees.

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 12:41 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1316641/oz-jihadists-son-9-poses-with-severed-head

Oz Jihadist's Son, 9, Poses With Severed Head
Politicians express shock and revulsion as a terrorist fighting with Islamist extremists in Syria posts the image on Twitter.

Undeniably disgusting - but where was the international outcry when this, and worse, was going on previously? It cannot be said often enough-

OBAMA, CAMERON, HAIG, KERRY AND OTHER WARMONGERS VERY NEARLY DRAGGED US INTO A WAR SUPPORTING THESE CRAZIES.

There never were any 'nice rebels'. The CIA was/is training these crazies in 'secret' bases in Jordan, and now their creation has gone rogue, suddenly, there is Official Outrage.

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:40 pm

Iraq appears to have a new PM:

http://news.sky.com/story/1316536/iraq-pm-calls-for-unity-against-barbaric-isis

Iraq's new prime minister has called on Iraqis to unite against the "barbaric" Islamist insurgency which has swept across the north of the country.

Iraq's president asked deputy parliament speaker Haider al Abadi to form a government after he was nominated by the country's main Shia coalition as its candidate for the post - putting an end to months of political wrangling.

The National Alliance chose Mr al Abadi as the man to unite the country after Nouri al Maliki was criticised for deepening sectarian divisions and steering the country towards all-out civil war.

He's doomed - Kerry's been meddling:

The US congratulated Mr al Abadi after Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Australia, had warned Mr al Maliki not to obstruct efforts to form a new government.

He said: "We believe that the government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining the stability and calm in Iraq - our hope is that Mr Maliki will not stir those waters."

sustaining the stability and calm in Iraq - excuse me, but what 'stability and calm'? Iraq's had neither since it was invaded in 2003.

**lily** Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:50 pm

He's a lovely Secy of State........ Rolling Eyes

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:56 pm

I don't think there is a single situation, anywhere in the world, requiring tact and diplomacy, that he hasn't succeeded in making worse, Lily. It's awesome in its own incompetent way.

**lily** Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:00 pm

We are supposed to look up to people such as these? Shocked

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:01 pm

I don't think it's possible to 'look up' to Kerry, Lily - more sort of, Look on and marvel, and try to stifle the horror...

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:26 pm

As I was saying....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-11/anyone-control-iraq-post-coup-confusion-deepens-0

After Washington endorsed Masoum's attempts to break three months of post-election political deadlock that have hamstrung Baghdad's response to the Islamic State, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Maliki not to resort to force or "stir the waters" when Iraqis were seeking a change of leader.

In pointed remarks, he said: "The government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining stability and calm in Iraq and our hope is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters.

"There will be little international support of any kind whatsoever for anything that deviates from the legitimate constitution process that is in place and being worked on now."

As police and elite armed units, many equipped and trained by the United States, locked down the capital's streets, Kerry added: "There should be no use of force, no introduction of troops or militias in this moment of democracy for Iraq."

He must be talking about some other Iraq, one that's having a 'moment of democracy', instead of being over-run with maniacs, even by snackbar standards, decapitating and crucifying anyone that gets in their way...

**lily** Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:34 pm

He's on a parallel universe, Bonny. In that one he is an amazing truthful politician. Eek

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 8:58 pm

He's not the only one...

I am very optimistic about Iraq. I think it’s gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re gonna see 90,000 troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re gonna see a stable Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government…I’ve been impressed by how they’ve been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.”

~ Joe Biden, US vice president whose son, Hunter, has been handed a big chunk of the Ukrainian oil business.

**lily** Mon Aug 11, 2014 9:08 pm

That's what we like to see. Honest, reliable, moral politicians. biggrin

Er.....where are they?

**bb1** Mon Aug 11, 2014 9:13 pm

Their dishonesty wouldn't be so bad, if they weren't STUPID at the same time, Lily. They seem to think they can do as they please, anywhere in the world, and no-one is ever going to disagree with them.

**lily** Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:00 pm

So very true Bonny. As always, am astounded.

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