Al Quaeda splinter group sweeping through Iraq

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/08/19/375882/isil-enemy-numberone-of-islam/

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh has strongly condemned Takfiri ISIL terrorists for their crimes in the Middle East and violation of Islamic principles and teachings.

In a Tuesday statement, he described the Takfiri terrorists as “enemy number-one” of Islam, noting that extremism, radicalism and terrorism have nothing to do with Islam.

The well-known mufti also called for a rapid change in the Saudi stance on ISIL and other al-Qaeda linked groups.

Last week, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawqu Allam made similar remarks, saying the ISIL poses a danger to Islam and Muslims, tarnishes its image and spreads corruption.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi cabinet has said in a recent statement that Riyadh is supporting and financing the Takfiri militants of the ISIL.

"We hold it (Saudi Arabia) responsible for what these groups are receiving in terms of financial and moral support," the statement said.
The Iraqi government has also informed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Riyadh must be held accountable for the recent wave of terrorist attacks which have left many dead in Iraq.

The ISIL terrorists have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they took, including the mass execution of civilians and Iraqi army troops and officers.

Senior Iraqi leaders have blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the security crisis and growing terrorism in their country, denouncing Riyadh as a major supporter of global terrorism.

The terrorists have links with Saudi intelligence and are believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.

I bet that isn't too widely reported in the West; apart from anything else, no-one's supposed to criticise Obama's favourite despot in Saudi.

 

Oh Lord....

http://news.sky.com/story/1321581/islamic-state-jihadists-behead-us-journalist

Islamic State Jihadists 'Behead US Journalist'
11:12pm UK, Tuesday 19 August 2014

[video]

Islamic State militants have released a video purportedly showing the beheading of a US journalist who went missing two years ago.

The footage appears to show a masked man - speaking in English with traces of a British accent - killing James Foley, who was seized by armed men in Syria in November 2012.

In the five-minute video, posted on social media sites by Islamic State sources, the group declares that Mr Foley was killed after Barack Obama ordered airstrikes against IS positions in northern Iraq.

The group also claimed to be holding another American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and said his life depended on the US President's next move.

More follows...

That is horrendous. I really feel for him and the other person they have, and their families.

I know, Lily. And you can be sure that whatever Obama and co do next, it will make matters worse. Dave's having a meeting:

http://news.sky.com/story/1321795/pm-returns-from-holiday-after-is-beheading

David Cameron is cutting short his holiday in Cornwall and returning to Downing Street following the beheading of a US journalist.

A No 10 statement said: "The Prime Minister is returning to Downing St this morning. He will meet with the Foreign Secretary and senior officials from the Home Office, Foreign Office and the agencies to discuss the situation in Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by ISIL terrorists."

More follows...

Seeing as how the US, UK, etc., created the situation in both Iraq and Syria, it's a bit too late to be making concerned noises.

http://news.sky.com/story/1321932/who-is-briton-who-beheaded-james-foley

Counter-terrorism police in the UK say they are investigating the British-accented Islamic State fighter who beheaded journalist James Foley.

In a video posted by the militant group to social media sites, the man speaks in English as he says US airstrikes are to blame for the killing of the 40-year-old American.

The killer, who is clad in black and covers his face during the video, appears to have a London accent, appears to be left-handed and is of average height.

The Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command said it was investigating the contents of the video.

More at link.

I have absolutely NO idea what the consequences are going to be of a Londoner murdering an American in a desert somewhere.

  Speechless.

Lord save us, Obama's interrupting his hols to make A Statement. Watch how quickly things get even worse....

Oh, phew, thank goodness for that, it hasn't spoiled his hols! Obungler stayed in Martha's Vineyard to make his Important Statement! Which boils down to,

It's awful and we are going to be Vigilant.

ETA, as one of the Fox commentators has just pointed out, the Prez didn't even bother to put a tie on...  

He's such a good puppet most of the time.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/08/my-enemys-enemy-philip-hammond-on-isis-and-assad/

My enemy’s enemy: Philip Hammond on Isis and Assad

Philip Hammond made quite clear on the Today programme that this government is ‘utterly opposed’ to everything that Isis stands for: it’s difficult to say anything else when militants who clearly luxuriate in evil have beheaded a journalist who was covering their monstrous deeds. The Foreign Secretary was asked whether this country was prepared to ‘wage war’ on Isis. He dodged saying that the West was waging war, but explained that as Isis was doing this, we have to deal with them on that basis. Here’s his full quote:

‘Oh look, it’s far too late for that debate: we are very clear that we are utterly opposed to the evil ideology of this organisation and the barbaric, cruelty that they have displayed. We are opposed to them with every breath in our body and will continue to oppose them, so any kind of threat that they make that if they oppose them, they’ll come after us, frankly we’re long past that point. They are waging war on moderate Islamic opinion, they are waging war against the West and we have to deal with them on that basis.

But then dealing with Isis ‘on that basis’ turns out to be rather less of a clear cut thing, not just in terms of what Britain and other western countries are prepared to do, but also in terms of those who are also ‘dealing with Isis’. As John Humphrys pointed out, this includes the Assad regime: from one year to another we have flipped from mulling assisting those who are fighting Assad to fighting the most dangerous elements of those Syrian rebels. So does that mean that our enemy’s enemy, Bashar al-Assad, is now our friend?

‘I don’t think we’ll be having any liaison with President Assad, but it is perfectly possible that we will find that we are fighting organisations which are also fighting against the Syrian regime, also fighting against the Iranians, for example.’

Hammond added:

‘I don’t envisage us having any kind of relationship with the Assad regime, but that is not to say we may not find ourselves fighting common enemies.’

But the point is that the West is fighting Isis, and whether or not the boots that are going in are aid boots or advisory boots or combat boots (Hammond has been making that distinction elsewhere this morning), Isis sees this as a war.

Effing idiot. If the west had stayed out of Syria, instead of trying to regime-change it and supply and train the 'nice rebels', that civil war would almost certainly have been over long ago. Instead....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-20/all-wrong-us-foreign-policy-one-tweet

All That Is Wrong With US Foreign Policy In One Tweet



Yup.

Got to get his handicap looking good.....

One of the more restrained front pages.

What on earth....?

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/20/world/meast/isis-james-foley/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- The family of American James Foley was contacted a week ago by his captors, who said in an e-mail the journalist would be executed, his employer said Wednesday.
A video released by ISIS on Tuesday showed Foley being beheaded and warned that a second American would be killed if the United States did not end its military operations in Iraq.

"The message was vitriolic and filled with rage against the United States. It was deadly serious," said Philip Balboni, CEO of the online publication GlobalPost.

More at link.

What on EARTH is going on? When did the world turn into a madhouse run by the inmates?

The White House knew the killers sent the e-mail too....there seems to be a pattern going on....

Suddenly, I feel like we aren't getting the whole story. Yet again.

I don't think we are at all.

No, we're not. It was yet another fck-up.

http://news.sky.com/story/1322190/foley-secret-us-raid-failed-to-free-journalist

Foley: Secret US Raid Failed To Free Journalist
Delta Force commandos were dropped by air into Syria and fought with militants, but the hostages had already been moved.

US special forces were sent to Syria this summer in an attempt to rescue US hostages, including journalist James Foley, but the secret raid failed.

Administration officials said the team found, after a fight with Islamist militants, that the hostages had already been moved.

News of the raid followed the release of a gruesome propaganda video by Islamic State (IS) militants that showed Mr Foley being beheaded.

The rescue mission was authorised after intelligence agencies believed they had identified the location inside Syria where the hostages were being held.

Officials had also become convinced that "these hostages were in danger with each passing day", Lisa Monaco, Mr Obama's senior counterterrorism adviser, said in a statement.

"The US government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the President authorised the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens," Ms Monaco said.

"Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present."

Several dozen special operations forces were dropped by aircraft into Syria and engaged in a fight with members of the Sunni militant group.

As they fought their way toward the spot where the hostages were believed to be kept, the US forces realised there were no captives to rescue.

Several militants were killed in the gunfight, administration officials said. No Americans died but an aircraft came under fire and one American sustained a minor injury.

The New York Times said the raid targeted an oil refinery in northern Syria and was carried out by two dozen Delta Force commandos.

The newspaper quoted a Defense Department official as saying missing the hostages may have been "a matter of hours, perhaps a day or two".

News of the beheading of Mr Foley, a 40-year-old American, shocked the public opinion. President Barack Obama and officials around the Western world have expressed revulsion.

The disclosure of the rescue mission marks the first time the US has acknowledged that American military personnel have been on the ground in Syria since a civil war there broke out more than three years ago.

Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said the administration never intended to disclose the mission but was forced to do so because a number of media outlets were preparing to report on it.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said: "As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity.

"In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harm's way to try and bring our citizens home."

IS, an offshoot of al Qaeda that operates in Syria and Iraq, has warned that another captured American, Steven Sotloff, would also be killed unless the US called off airstrikes in Iraq.

James Foley's younger brother Michael has criticised the US government, saying he thought it could have done more to save Mr Foley.

He said, as a result, it needed to do more to free Mr Sotloff.

The US officials have not specified how many Americans are believed to be held captive.

=========

Are they incapable of doing ANYTHING right? Of being honest about ANYTHING? What's coming next - Foley was actually working for the CIA, which is why he was hanging around with the 'nice rebels' - until they turned on him - in the first place?

I am tired of being lied to.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/20/world/meast/isis-james-foley/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

A source who claims to have been held last year with Foley told CNN's Bharati Naik that he, Foley and another journalist were held from March to August 2013 in a prison in the Syrian city of Aleppo near Masha al-Adfaa hospital.
At the time, the source -- who spoke on condition of anonymity -- said they were being held by al-Nusra Front, a Syrian rebel group with ties to al Qaeda in Iraq.



John McCain Says Al Nusra are moderate Muslims

U.S. special operations forces early this summer launched a secret, major rescue operation in Syria to save James Foley and a number of Americans held by the extremist group ISIS, but the mission failed because the hostages weren’t there, senior administration officials told ABC News today.

President Obama authorized the “substantial and complex” rescue operation after the officials said a “broad collection of intelligence” led the U.S. to believe the hostages were being held in a specific location in the embattled Middle Eastern nation.

When “several dozen” U.S. special operation members landed in Syria, however, they were met with gunfire and “while on site, it became apparent the hostages were not there,” one of the officials said. The special operators engaged in a firefight in which ISIS suffered “a good number” casualties, the official said, while the American forces suffered only a single minor injury.

The American forces were able to get back on helicopters and escape.

“Intelligence is not a perfect science,” the senior official said. As to how the intelligence failed and why the hostages were not there, the official said, “The truth is, we don’t know. And that’s the truth. When we got there, they weren’t there. We don’t know why that is.”

Much about the daring mission itself remains a secret -- officials said they did not want to reveal too much about the rescue attempt for fear of spoiling future efforts.

“It was conducted, but was not ultimately successful,” a senior U.S. official told ABC News.

The operation was what senior government officials described as a major undertaking -- involving special operations forces from multiple branches of the military, helicopters, fixed-wing airplanes, and surveillance aircraft.



Much about the daring mission itself remains a secret -- officials said they did not want to reveal too much about the rescue attempt for fear of spoiling future efforts.

What? Do they really think that every maniac snackbar in the Middle East isn't LMAO-ing at this latest collossal fkc-up? What happened, did one of the US's chums in the 'nice rebels' tell the liver-eaters that the Seventh Cavalry was on the way, and to shift the Useful Idiot hostages?

They would have been better employed keeping their mouths shut and sending in a handful of special forces, instead of that three-ring circus.

It's actually even worse than the disaster that was the Iran hostage rescue - at least that one didn't end up with dead hostages.

Sigh....sigh....and sigh again.

I've just seen that lunatic McCain demanding the US puts 'boots on the ground' to both defeat ISIS AND overthrow Assad.

I've a better idea. Why not stop arming maniacs and overthrowing the governments of sovereign nations?

As this latest fkc-up involved special operations forces from multiple branches of the military, helicopters, fixed-wing airplanes, and surveillance aircraft but couldn't even FIND the hostages, never mind rescue them, it might be time for the armchair generals to take a reality check.

Even Carter didn't manage to get the hostages killed.

Even Carter didn't manage to get the hostages killed.

True, and he is considered one of the worst US Presidents ever.

What's the betting we still haven't heard the full story about this latest debacle, and the truth is going to come out in dribs and drabs?

This nonsense about, We shouldn't have revealed we tried to rescue the hostages because then ISIS will know what we're up to and that we failed doesn't really wash. After all, that three-ring circus got into some kind of gun battle with ISIS, and I should think the rest of the snackbar maniacs were somewhere behind a sand dune laughing their heads off as history repeated itself.