Syria’s chemical arms match Israel’s nuclear arsenal: defected general.

Syria’s chemical arms match Israel’s nuclear arsenal: defected general.(AA).The Syrian regime has a large arsenal of chemical weapons, which matches up to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the defected former head of Syria's chemical warfare program told Al Arabiya on Monday.
Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected from the regime earlier this year, was party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.
He told Al Arabiya where the Syrian regime has stored its chemical weapons in specific cities across the war-torn country, highlighting chemical warehouses in the city of Homs and weapons stored also in scientific research center in Aleppo.
“Syria’s chemical arsenal has reached similar levels to Israel’s nuclear weapons,” he said in the interview. Israel is believed to be one of the world’s largest nuclear superpowers.
Sillu, who once led the army’s chemical weapons training program, said in June that the main storage sites for mustard gas and nerve agents are supposed to be guarded by thousands of Syrian troops but that they would be easily overrun.
“Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over,” he said.
Recently, U.N. peacekeeping troops on the Golan Heights have said they were prepared in the event of Damascus using chemical weapons amid mounting unrest between the Syrian regime and the armed opposition.
Meanwhile, United Nations ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told U.N. leaders in letters circulated Monday that opposition fighters might use chemical weapons against against civilians, and try to blame the regime of President -Assad.
The Pentagon has drawn up plans for responding to possible scenarios involving Syria’s chemical arms, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday during a visit to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, about 60 miles from the Syrian border.Read the full story here.

via mfs-theothernews.com

al-Qaeda, Chemical weapons, free syrian army, Israel, Syria, Syrian muslim brotherhood

Ed Koch on Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary: “It Would be a Terrible Appointment”

In a recent interview with The Algemeiner, former New York Mayor and staunch backer of President Obama’s re-election, Ed Koch, strongly opposed the possible appointment of former senator Chuck Hagel as America’s next defense secretary, due to the latter’s perceived hostility towards Israel. “I believe it would be a terrible appointment,” he said, “and so do apparently most of the Jewish leaders who have expressed themselves.” Explaining his opposition to the appointment, which is looking increasingly likely to materialize, Koch said that it would lead Arab states to believe that President Obama was seeking to create distance between his administration and Israel. “Such an appointment would give great comfort to the Arab world that would think that President Obama is seeking to put space between Israel and his administration,” Koch said, “I hope he doesn’t go forward with that appointment.” Koch says that since his election, Obama has acted in support of Israel. “He has been stalwart since the election, nobody has stood up as well as he in support of Israel, I hope he continues with that,” he said. But the appointment of Hagel, he concluded, “would be a great mistake.” Hagel has been roundly criticized by Jewish leaders and groups from across the political spectrum for his policies relating to Israel and the Middle East. In a September interview with The Algemeiner, Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein said, “He is one of the most hostile critics of Israel that has ever been in the Senate.” “There is only a handful of senators that have been openly hostile to Israel and Chuck Hagel is one of them,” Klein added. In 2007 the National Jewish Democratic Council listed on its website a number of instances where Hagel’s positions relating to Israel have appeared to be hostile. The Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks said in a statement Friday that choosing Hagel would be “a slap in the face for every American who is concerned about the safety of Israel.” Last week The Algemeiner reported that “Sen. Chuck Hagel has met with both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and is the front runner for the Secretary of Defense position soon to be vacated by Leon Panetta.” One Democratic source with knowledge of the process told CNN that Hagel’s nomination is “almost a done deal.”
algemeiner

via searchlight-germany.blogspot.com

Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan under investigation, scandal widens

via reuters.com

(Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for allegedly inappropriate communication with a woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director David
Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The shocking revelation threatens to fell another one of the U.S. military's biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving Petraeus - a former four-star general who had Allen's job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year - could expand much further than previously imagined.
The U.S. official said the FBI uncovered between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of communications - mostly emails and spanning from 2010 to 2012 - between Allen and Jill Kelley, who has been identified as a long-time friend of the Petraeus family and a Tampa, Florida, volunteer social liaison with military families at MacDill Air Force Base.
It was Kelley's complaints about harassing emails from the woman with whom Petraeus had had an affair, Paula Broadwell, that prompted an FBI investigation, ultimately alerting authorities to Petraeus' involvement with Broadwell. Petraeus resigned from his job on Friday.
Asked whether there was concern about the disclosure of classified information, the official said: "We are concerned about inappropriate communications. We are not going to speculate as to what is contained in these documents."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement given to reporters flying with him to Australia that he asked that Allen's nomination to be Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe be delayed "and the president has agreed."
Allen, who is now in Washington, was due to face a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, as was his slated successor in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford.
The FBI referred the case to the Pentagon on Sunday and Panetta directed the Defense Department's Inspector General to handle the investigation. Panetta informed the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee during the flight to Australia. The House Armed Services Committee was also notified.
The U.S. defense official said that Allen denied any wrongdoing and that Panetta had opted to keep him in his job while the matter was under review, and until Dunford can be confirmed to replace him - a process that gains urgency given the potentially lengthy review process and the cloud it could cast over the mission in Afghanistan.
"While the matter is under investigation and before the facts are determined, General Allen will remain commander of ISAF," Panetta said, referring to the NATO—led force in Afghanistan.
Only hours earlier, Panetta had said he was reviewing Allen's recommendations on the future U.S. presence in Afghanistan after most troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
Commending Allen's leadership in Afghanistan, Panetta said in his statement: "He is entitled to due process in this matter."
At the same time, he noted that wanted the Senate to act "promptly" on Dunford's nomination.
The U.S. official said Panetta was informed of the matter involving Allen on Sunday, as he flew to Hawaii, after the Pentagon's top lawyer called Panetta's chief of staff. The White House was informed next.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Obama sends US forces to protect Jordan, bypasses Congress to fund Iraq

October 11, 2012 by creeping
U.S. borders, U.S. embassies and consulates – fugettaboutit. Protecting the ummah, from itself, done. via Panetta: US sends forces to Jordan – Yahoo! News.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States has sent military troops to the Jordan-Syria border to bolster that country’s military capabilities in the event that violence escalates along its border with Syria, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.

Speaking at a NATO conference of defense ministers in Brussels, Panetta said the U.S. has been working with Jordan to monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and also to help Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border from Syria. The troops are also building a headquarters for themselves.

But the revelation of U.S. military personnel so close to the 19-month-old Syrian conflict suggests an escalation in the U.S. military involvement in the conflict, even as Washington pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in Syria.

It also follows several days of shelling between Turkey and Syria, an indication that the civil war could spill across Syria’s borders and become a regional conflict.

“We have a group of our forces there working to help build a headquarters there and to insure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so that we can deal with all the possible consequences of what’s happening in Syria,” Panetta said.

The development comes with the U.S. presidential election less than a month away, and at a time when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has been criticizing President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, accusing the administration of embracing too passive a stance in the convulsive Mideast region.

Congress? What Congress. via Pentagon finds funding to continue Iraq training – KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Pentagon says it will be able to fund the training of Iraqi security forces for the next 90 days, even though Congress did not include money for the program in its temporary budget resolution that took effect Monday.

Pentagon press secretary George Little says $1.7 million will be used from a special combatant commanders initiative fund to continue the training. Officials say there are roughly 160 military personnel doing the training in Iraq.

The money will also allow the U.S. to continue a separate program that trains Iraq’s counterterrorism forces.

The funding is a temporary solution while officials seek a longer term fix in the 2013 budget bill.

Congress has left Washington until after the election. Lawmakers were only able to pass a six-month stopgap spending measure.

What’s that? You didn’t hear anything in the U.S. media about Obama sending troops to yet another country nor the bi-partisan budget resolution – an absolute gift by so-called “conservatives” including Paul Ryan to a failed president during the most critical point in the election.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

creepy. I'm reminded of the threats of the Samantha Power to occupy Israel if her royal feminist doesn't get what she wants.

Dempsey's remark regarding IDF's inability to destroy Iran's nuclear capability meant to show Israel who's boss

(ynet) Israel can "delay but not destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities," he said while sitting next to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who visited Israel a few weeks ago to allay the concerns of the leadership in Jerusalem.
Dempsey's comments should be taken seriously, as should the stern message conveyed by Panetta, the White House and the American security establishment: If we can't reason with you, the Israelis, we will have to get tough.
The general's remark was not a slip-of-the-tongue. It was a calculated statement from a general of Irish descent and character. His words constituted a slap in Israel's face, a punch in the face, and a kick to the most sensitive part of the body. To be more precise, the US slammed Israel's head against the wall and said: "Shut up. Stop babbling about Iran. Without us there is not much you can do, and don't assume for a second that we are dancing to your tune. You shouldn't do anything stupid, and stop driving the entire world crazy."

Bryen - The Incredible Shrinking US-Israel Security Cooperation

Shoshana Bryen..
Gatestone Institute..
27 June '12..
In light of increased sensitivity to intelligence leaks, it seemed innocuous – or even admirable – when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) asked the Senate to remove a few words from the US-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act: the "sense of the Senate" part of the bill included the sentence, "Expand already close intelligence cooperation, including satellite intelligence, with the Government of Israel;" ODNI wanted the words "including satellite intelligence" to go.
An ODNI spokesman said it was "simply a matter of clarifying the intelligence aspects of the bill and being sensitive to the level of specificity of the language…nothing nefarious here, just more clear language."
Yeah, right.
This is just the latest example of the Obama Administration making clear that it does not want to be seen as Israel's partner in regional affairs – several of them predicated on Turkish desires. Despite Israel's status as a Major Non-NATO ally, a NATO "partner" country, and a member of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, Turkey is increasingly insistent that Israel be isolated and cut out. This surrender to Turkey -- which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years been aggressively making ever more fundamentalist -- coincides nicely with the Administration's increasingly open courtship of Turkey's Islamist-leaning and virulently anti-Israel Prime Minister and what appears to be the desire of the Administration to enhance security relations in the Arab-Muslim world as it dials back visible cooperation with Israel.
This is no small matter. Israel's security is threatened -- above all by the refusal of the Arab States to accept that it is a legitimate, permanent part of the region in which it lives. For the U.S. or Turkey -- formerly a partner in regional security – to distance themselves from Israeli security is to raise hopes among enemies that they will ultimately be able to threaten Israel without fear of a U.S. or NATO-allied response.

Turkey bluntly objects to sharing intelligence information with Israel – specifically the intelligence from NATO's Turkey-based, U.S.-run X-Band early warning radars. At a NATO meeting in Brussels, Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz told reporters, "We need to trust states' words. This is a NATO facility and it shouldn't be used beyond the scope of this purpose." The "state" in question was clearly the U.S., and "beyond the scope" referred to sharing information with Israel. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta replied, "Clearly, the NATO members are the ones that will participate in the program and access information produced by the missile defense system." In a meeting in February, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen parroted the Turkish formula. "We do stress that data within this missile defense system are not shared with a third country. Data are shared within our alliance, among allies, it is a defensive system to protect the populations of NATO allies," Rasmussen said.
Agreeing publicly to keep intelligence information from Israel – a more likely target of Iran than Europe/NATO – at the behest of Turkey is a serious diminution of the U.S.-Israel security relationship as well as the Israel-NATO relationship, and elevates Turkey to the role of spoiler.
According to one source, Turkey assured Iran that the X-Band radars were not aimed at the Islamic Republic and that a Turkish military officer was in charge of receiving the intelligence information. Here the U.S. appears to have balked, telling Israel that Americans were in charge of the information, but not reassuring Israel on the subject of information sharing. Further, since the station in Turkey also acquires information from the X-Band radar based in Israel, it raises Israeli concerns that Turkey will have access to security information from Israeli skies.
Turkey also demanded the exclusion of Israel from Anatolian Eagle, a NATO exercise conducted every few years to enhance aerial cooperation. The Turkish decision caused Italy and the U.S. to pull out, and the exercise was canceled – "postponed," according to US sources as was the planned U.S.-Israel missile defense exercise, Austere Challenge, which would have had a strong intelligence-sharing component.
NATO's snub of Israel at the meeting in Chicago in May was simply waved away: "Israel is neither a participant in ISAF nor in KFOR (Afghanistan and Kosovo missions)," said Rasmussen, even as he acknowledged that 13 other "partner" nations would attend because, "In today's world security challenges know no borders, and no country or alliance can deal with most of them on their own."
It was said then that Turkey used its NATO veto. But Israel was similarly not invited to the inaugural meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum in Istanbul -- not a NATO meeting.
Coming on the heels of Eager Lion 2012, a Special Operations exercise involving 12,000 troops from 19 countries (excluding Israel and including several countries at war with Israel), the counterterrorism forum was designed by Secretary of State Clinton to "build the international architecture for dealing with 21st century terrorism." The State Department was responsible for the invitations, so Turkey had no veto. If the Administration had wanted to make the point that Israel is a valued partner in counterterrorism activities, it could have insisted that Israel be there or else moved the meeting.
Perhaps as compensation, a U.S. delegation visited Israel separately. But private bilateral meetings are no substitute for leading by example so that other countries – particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and Southwest Asia – understand that the United States sees Israel as a legitimate partner in solving regional problems, including terrorism, and that U.S.-Israel security cooperation is a priority of the American government.
Turkey is riding high with the Administration right now; and President Obama welcomed the Turkish Prime Minister in March as an "outstanding partner and an outstanding friend on a wide range of issues" -- including, apparently, in reducing relations with Israel.
ODNI's determination to remove language about satellite intelligence from the Senate bill was most likely intended to ensure that the State Department and Pentagon were not caught between the Senate's interest in keeping U.S.-Israel security relations strong, and Turkey's interest in wedging Israel out of its place as an American security partner.
What an odd place for a U.S. intelligence agency to find itself. What an odd place for the Administration to find its intelligence agency -- or what an odd place to put it.
Link: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3133/us-israel-security-cooperation
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center. She was previously Senior Director for Security Policy at JINSA and author of JINSA Reports from 1995-2011.

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

One would think that Obama could keep the economy running well to justify his bold changes in foreign policy.

Leon Panetta Admits the U.S. At War With Iran?

The US barely mentions Syria. Obama denies we are at war with Libya--whom we are bombing. But the US is at war with Iran--whom we are not bombing: The United States is engaged in a deadly but seldom mentioned proxy war with Iran. In a rare act of candor, two senior Obama administration defense officials have addressed the open secret of Iran’s active support for insurgent groups fighting U.S. troops overseas. New Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says this war is in response to the increasing violence of Iran's Shiite militia groups and their military support for Iraqi extremists. More via Daled Amos

CIA chief Leon Panetta

Defense Secretary nominee, CIA Director Leon Panett

The next great battle America faces is likely to involve cyberwarfare, Leon Panetta, the Central Intelligence Agency director, warned senators Thursday, predicting that “the next Pearl Harbor that we confront could very well be a cyberattack that cripples" America’s electrical grid and its security and financial systems.

Panetta – who as CIA director has stepped up the number of US drone strikes on insurgents in Pakistan – said relations with Pakistan remain “one of the most critical – and yet one of the most complicated and frustrating – relationships that we have.” He added, “They are a nuclear power and there is a danger those nuclear weapons could end up in the wrong hands.’
In Iraq, Panetta told lawmakers he believes it would be wise to support the request of Iraqi leaders for US troops to stay beyond their scheduled December pullout date, if they ask. “I have to tell you, there are a thousand Al Qaeda that are still in Iraq,” Panetta said. “It continues to be a fragile situation, and I believe that we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress is made there.” via csmonitor.com

The Obama administration recently unveiled its proposal for global cybersecurity. Statements from the Pentagon have also indicated that the government will consider cyberattacks originating from foreign countries to be equivalent to acts of war meriting military response.

via huffingtonpost.com

This Time The Threat May Be For Real

Robert Gates

Gates threatens Europe.  Says pay for your own shit or stop bitch'n.  Free loaders that do nothing but complain can protect themselves from Qaddaffi who they enabled anyway.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is retiring on June 30 and therefore his visit to Europe was a chance for him to express his frustration with some members of the NATO alliance while allowing his successor Leon Panetta to backtrack if necessary or inherit the new policy. Gates essentially warned the Europeans that US patience was wearing thin.

Gates claims that the national restrictions were hampering operations in Afghanistan and premature European troop withdrawals linked to domestic political considerations were debilitating to the common effort.

The Libyan mission against a 3rd rate opponent in Europe's backyard and with no ground troops involved was similarly languishing due to a lack of will and a lack of available resources. This was a reflection of the fact that most NATO countries do not even devote a meager 2% of their budgetary outlays to defense spending.

The United States could not live with a situation where it primarily foot the bill:

"Some two decades after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the US share of Nato defence spending has now risen to more than 75 percent – at a time when politically painful budget and benefit cuts are being considered at home,"

There was growing resentment over the freeloaders:

In the past, I’ve worried openly about NATO turning into a two-tiered alliance: Between members who specialize in “soft’ humanitarian, development, peacekeeping, and talking tasks, and those conducting the “hard” combat missions. Between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership - be they security guarantees or headquarters billets - but don’t want to share the risks and the costs. This is no longer a hypothetical worry. We are there today. And it is unacceptable.

Such a disparity has long existed in NATO and one could hear such American mutterings since the 1960s when the United States believed that Western Europe had sufficiently recovered from the devastation of the Second World War and had become economically prosperous under the American security umbrella. The Europeans however grew accustomed to disregarding the American dissatisfaction because during the Cold War they knew that the United States could not risk the loss of Europe to the Soviet Union.

This time around they would be advised not to underestimate the seriousness of Defense Secretary Gates' remarks.

First of all as Gates remarked that the Cold War is a receding memory. Mutual suspicion still exists between the United States and Russia, as witness the antimissile shield that the United States wants to construct in Eastern Europe against Russian opposition. However, this is a far cry from the Cold War. Russia's main pressure point is not tank battalions crashing across the Fulda Gap into West Germany but oil and gas pipelines to Western Europe and European dependence on Russian energy.

The United States, since the Great Depression of the 1930s, has not been in as parlous an economic condition as it is today and many American citizens as illustrated by recent polls ascribe the yawning deficits partially or primarily to the defense expenditures.

The growing importance of the Asia-Pacific area in the world economy means that that region is increasingly supplanting the European Union as a hub of economic activity. The same considerations that ensured the American defense of Europe now apply at least to the same degree in the Pacific region. Gates made this clear to the Europeans as well

President Obama and I believe that despite the budget pressures, it would be a grave mistake for the U.S. to withdraw from its global responsibilities. And in Singapore last week, I outlined the many areas where U.S. defense engagement and investment in Asia was slated to grow further in coming years, even as America’s traditional allies in that region rightfully take on the role of full partners in their own defense.

While Gates did not specify whom the Asian countries had to be defended against, it is no secret that a growingly assertive China preoccupies the United States economically and militarily. The United States would like to see the Europeans acting more like India, Vietnam and South Korea. If that will not happen then the United States will not prop up NATO on its own.

by Amiel Ungar via israelnationalnews.com

Rumsfeld: There Was No Waterboarding of Courier Source

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells Newsmax the information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden was obtained through “normal interrogation approaches” and says the notion that terrorist suspects were waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay is a “myth.”Rumsfeld also claims that elements of Pakistani intelligence could have been complicit in hiding the terrorist mastermind, asserts that his killing exonerates George W. Bush’s approach to fighting terrorism, and warns that terrorists will likely try to avenge bin Laden’s death with new attacks against America or its allies.

Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, then under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, and as a member of the Bush administration was one of the chief architects of America’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
His new book, “Known and Unknown: A Memoir,” was released in February.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Rumsfeld was asked how important was the killing of bin Laden after all these years.
“It is important,” he responds.
“He had become the face of terrorism, radical Islamists in the world, and I think the fact that the coalition of countries shared intelligence and worked the problem seriously for a number of years and were successful, ought to be a signal to other terrorists that while manhunts are difficult, they’re not impossible. The world’s a better place with him gone.
“It’s a good signal that the United States, thanks to George W. Bush’s administration, put in place some structures that put pressure on terrorists and led to this event. And thanks to the Obama administration for continuing those approaches and procedures, we’ve now been successful.”
Asked if harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay played a role in obtaining intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts, Rumsfeld declares: “First of all, no one was waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. That’s a myth that’s been perpetrated around the country by critics.
“The United States Department of Defense did not do waterboarding for interrogation purposes to anyone. It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.”
Rumsfeld reiterated that the killing of bin Laden exonerates the Bush administration’s response to 9/11.
“It certainly points up the fact that the structures that President Bush put into place - military commissions, Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, indefinite detention, and humane treatment, but intensive interrogation to be sure - all contributed to the success we’ve had in the global war on terror.
“The fact that we’ve not had another attack on America for close to a decade, I don’t think anyone would have been bold enough to predict that 10 years ago.
“And certainly the killing of bin Laden is a testimony to our intelligence community. We’ve always had the ability to capture or kill Osama. What we didn’t have was the intelligence that was needed.”
Asked if Pakistan played a role in hiding bin Laden, Rumsfeld tells Newsmax: “I think it’s a fair question to ask the extent to which, probably not the Pakistani government but possibly some people connected to the Pakistani intelligence services, may or may not have had information about his location.”
In light of the fact that Pakistan has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid, what does the possible hiding of bin Laden say about the trustworthiness of Pakistan, Rumsfeld was asked.
“We don’t know yet. What we do know is it’s a Muslim country, they have nuclear weapons, they have been enormously helpful to us, particularly under the Musharraf regime, in allowing us access into Afghanistan and being with us from a military standpoint.
“We always knew there were people in Pakistan who have supported the Taliban and al-Qaida. That’s true in a number of countries. But the assistance we’ve provided to Pakistan has in my view been well spent.”
Rumsfeld says he doesn’t think the killing of bin Laden “will have any bearing at all” on destabilizing the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
He adds: “We do know that al-Qaida has sought out chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and we do know they’ve alleged that in the event that Osama bin Laden is killed or captured, they would undertake some additional terrorist attacks on America and on our friends and allies around the world.”
Referring to new CIA Director Leon Panetta’s warning that terrorists’ attempts to avenge bin Laden’s death are inevitable, Rumsfeld says: “I think it’s likely they will try.” via {Newsmax/Matzav.com and image via wired.com

No Signs of Intelligence

That America’s Marxist Muslim in chief surrounded himself with utterly clueless moonbats and Islamic advisors, some (if not all) directly connected with the Muslim Brotherhood, is no accident:

• CIA Director Panetta’s Intelligence Briefings Provided by… ‘Media Broadcasts’?
• ‘Largely Secular’: US Intelligence Director Says Muslim Brotherhood Is Secular Hours After Senior Member of Muslim Brotherhood Admits Ultimate Goal Is Sharia Law in Egypt
• Intel Director‘s Office Tries to Backpedal on Clapper’s Shocking Statement Government

“…he is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.” Read More »

• Implausible Deniability: MSNBC’s Mitchell is Warned by Ex Muslim Brotherhood Member They Want Sharia Law The Next Day Mitchell Says Brotherhood Not Extremists
• U.S. Intel Director Also Refuses to Recognize Muslim Brotherhood As Extremist Government

“a very heterogeneous group, largely secular”   Read More »

Friday Afternoon Roundup – No Signs of Intelligence

After the CIA director began reporting intelligence he obtained from his TV set and the Director of Intelligence claimed the Muslim Brotherhood was a secular organization, it’s obvious that there isn’t a trace of intelligence in the Obama Administration.
Peanut Khadr is delighted, sends his congratulations to Egyptians

Egypt receives the curse of Jimmy Carter…

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter is congratulating the people of Egypt on taking the first steps toward a new era of democratic legitimacy. (ZIP)

To recap Obama’s foreign policy triumphs, he snubbed England, tried and failed to intimidate the little country of Honduras, picked a fight with Israel over some houses in Jerusalem, tried to budge China on its currency and got nowhere, got played by Russia on the START treaty and now helped overthrow a pro-American government in order to replace it with an anti-American government. It seemed impossible that anyone in the White House could ever top Carter– but Barack Hussein Obama has done it in only 2 years. What he will do in his remaining time doesn’t bear thinking about.

Even if the American people manage to drive him out of the White House in 2012, he will leave behind an ugly mess to clean up. American prestige is at its lowest point in history. Our allies don’t trust us. Our enemies are slapping us around. The United States was fortunate to have a Reagan to replace Carter, a strong leader who restored and burnished the nation’s standing. The situation wouldn’t have been salvaged nearly as well if Howard Baker or George H.W. Bush had won instead. A Republican who ran for the presidency in 2008 only had to carry on, but in 2012 he will have clean up duty. And there’s no telling how much he will have to clean up. We will need a strong leader who can think on his or her feet, and has the courage to make a clean break with the last 4 years.

Obama finally got his Carter moment, and went him one better. This turned out to be that 3 AM phone call, but it would have been far better if he had slept through it. The country and the world would be better off if he just spent the rest of his term playing golf or playing with his model train set. But that isn’t happening. And we will all have to live with the consequences.
Egypt’s future after Mubarak’s exit will be either as a military dictatorship or an Islamic state. That’s the sum total of the achievements of the Soros sponsored revolution. Either way life will get harder and uglier. Economic reforms will go out the window and a civil war is not out of the question.
There are two paths here. Either Suleiman and the military will maintain control of Egypt with a few sidebar reforms. These reforms will increase the power of the Muslim Brotherhood, without giving them a direct line to take over. The other will occur if the military gives in to Obama’s pressure tactics and either allows ElBaradei to form a transition government or opens up the system all the way. The ElBaradei route will mean a repetition of the Aoun-Hezbollah alliance in Lebanon. A completely open system will repeat the ugly events of Iran in 1979. And then it’s time for the US embassy to start torching papers.
So in the “best case scenario”, Egypt will reverse Mubarak’s economic reforms and will have a less open system. In the worst case scenario, it will have an Islamic state. That is the great flag waving achievement here. And this is what Obama will go on claiming credit for, until the heads start rolling, and then he’ll figure out a way to blame Bush for it. But the real credit goes to his Nazi collaborator puppetmaster, György Soros.
With the 2012 election, Soros saw that he couldn’t count on Obama. He had already been expressing impatience with Obama. It may be a while till we know how much money and resources were poured into this effort to overthrow pro-American governments in the Middle East. And the neo-conservatives who allowed themselves to be used to cheer on his campaign have a lot to answer for.
Ironically, Soros’ campaign outwardly seemed to share some common elements with the Bush era neo-conservative campaign to bring down evil regimes. These tactics were denounced as unilateral and imperialistic by the same media enthusiastically cheering and participating in the Egyptian coup. But the Bush era campaign had targeted anti-American states with a history of supporting terrorism. And there was the difference.
Obama’s refusal to pressure Iran during the protests there, varied sharply with the intensity of the pressure he applied to Egypt. The same difference was there. Iran is anti-American. Egypt was pro-American under Mubarak. And Obama, like his boss, kicks his allies and gives our enemies the benefit of the doubt.
At CPAC, Rick Santorum said that he thinks, Obama doesn’t believe in evil. I think he’s wrong. Evil is all that Obama believes in.
The alliance between Western leftists and regional Islamists is threatening to dramatically change the Middle East. Soros and his ilk are carrying on the work of the Soviet Union. The new “people’s revolutions” toppling regimes no longer come from Moscow, instead they come from 1060 Fifth Avenue and 175 Rue de la Loi. The Soviet Union has fallen, but there are successors carrying on its work, from the Red Baroness Ashton to Soros.
Carter’s man, Zbigniew Brzezinski pushed the Green Belt strategy against the USSR. The Obama Administration appears to have picked it up, but it is no longer directed against the Soviet Union. It exists for its own sake. Islam not as a weapon, but Islamism for the sake of Islamism. Because it is held to be a good by men who don’t know what good is. Who believe reflexively in evil.
The least that any responsible administration should do is make it clear that no Egyptian government that incorporates or allies with the Muslim Brotherhood will receive any aid. But the Obama Administration actually supports a political role for the Muslim Brotherhood.
But what of Egypt’s Christians, ask Lisa Graas? If any group in Egypt should have been encouraged to participate in the political process, it should have been Egypt’s disenfranchised Christians. The media has hardly mentioned them among all this. When it has, it insisted that the overthrow of Mubarak would be good for them.

“I think Mubarak’s resignation is a good thing for Coptic Christians, and other Egyptians. If he had not done so, there would likely have been riots and violence and a descent into chaos,” said Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., to The Christian Post.

No mention is made of the rights of Egypt’s Christians. Instead it’s suggested that they should be happy that the protesters and their violence didn’t further endanger them.
A single cautionary note comes from the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein

“The current situation for the Copts stinks, but [longtime Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak is the best of the worst for us,” said the Rev. Paul Girguis of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Fairfax County, which has about 3,000 members. “If Muslim extremists take over, the focus will be extreme persecution against Copts. Some people even predict genocide.”

Arguably the genocide has already begun. The Christians of the Middle East are an interruption in the narrative of Muslims who want to wipe out all traces of other peoples and religions from the region.
Pervasive vandalism and destruction of ancient artifacts from previous civilizations, whether it is Muslim looting and destruction of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Taliban’s bombing of the Buddhas of Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia which actually has a fatwa forbidding the preservation of historical sites… punishable by death.
Egypt’s Copts, like Israel’s Jews or Turkey’s Armenians, are holdouts against a tide of Muslim genocidal violence with the aim of ethnically cleansing regions under their control.
The Iranianization of the Egyptian revolution has been well under way. Stories like this should be painfully familiar from 1979

In the process many have formed some unusual bonds that reflect the non-ideological character of the Egyptian youth revolt, which encompasses liberals, socialists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
”I like the Brotherhood most, and they like me,” says Sally Moore, 32, a psychiatrist, a Coptic Christian and an avowed leftist and feminist of mixed Irish-Egyptian roots. ”They always have a hidden agenda, we know, and you never know when power comes how they will behave. But they are very good with organising, they are calling for a civil state just like everyone else, so let them have a political party just like everyone else – they will not win more than 10 per cent, I think.”
Many in the circle met during their university days. Islam Lotfi, a lawyer who is a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Youth, says his group used to enlist others from the tiny leftist parties to stand with them in calling for civil liberties, to make their cause seem more universal. Many are now allies in the revolt, including Zyad al-Elaimy, 30, a lawyer who was then the leader of a communist group.

Quotes like this are altogether familiar from Iran. But you don’t need to worry about Dr. Sally Moore being forced to don a burqa. Moore came from London, when things get hairy, she’ll go back together. For now she reps the Popular Campaign in Support of ElBaradei, which is part of the Youth of the Egyptian Revolution, along the Muslim Brotherhood Youth.
The Muslim Brotherhood is explicitly using the Iranian model (see Atlas Shrugs) for Kamal Helbawi’s statement to Iran’s news agency.

Iran revolution example to follow, says Egyptian scholar London, Feb 10, IRNA – The Islamic revolution in Iran over three decades ago has set an example for others to follow, according to a prominent Egyptian scholar.
“It has had an impact not only on Egypt but all over the Muslim world,” Kamal Helbawi said on the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the 1979 revolution in Iran.

Kamal al-Halbavi, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, expressed gratitude to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei for his support of the revolution. Al-Halvavi said he hoped that Egypt would have a “a good government, like the Iranian government, and a good president like Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is very brave.”

Helbawi was the Muslim Brotherhood’s “spokesman to the West”. So much for the ’split’ between Sunnis and Shiites.
And if Egypt falls to the Brotherhood, then the timeline to the Caliphate is shortened. Already ominous developments are beginning. And the news is only getting worse

The two-ship Iranian task force, consisting of two British-built vessels, Vosper Mark V-class frigate Alvand and supply ship Kharg, left Iran on 26 January, according to Iranian news sources. The next day, a senior naval officer announced that the task force, deployed as the 12th Naval Group, “would enter the Red Sea and the Mediterranean waters.” The prospect of a Mediterranean deployment is as unprecedented as the Saudi port visit. There is no guarantee it will actually happen, but the timing is interesting.
While the Mubarak regime was in power, there was little possibility of Egypt permitting an Iranian naval task force to transit the Suez Canal. I’m not convinced any Egyptian authority will agree to such a transit before the country’s political future is sorted out – I certainly don’t think the Iranians know their warships are approaching a Canal that will be opened to them by a specific, expected change in political conditions. But what I do perceive is a bold move by Iran.

Iran is throwing its weight around and daring anyone to stop them. The Mullahs and Ahmadinejad are confident that no one will. We’re quickly approaching an endgame.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that a new Middle East is being created which would be free of the United States and Israel, as he backed the Arab uprisings but warned Egyptians to be watchful of America’s “friendly face.”
Massive crowds of Iranians, waving flags and chanting “Death to Mubarak!” and “Death to America!” descended on Tehran’s Azadi Square (Freedom Square) to listen to the hardliner who lashed out at the West and Israel in a speech marking the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
“We will soon see a new Middle East materialising without America and the Zionist regime and there will be no room for world arrogance (the West) in it,” Ahmadinejad told the cheering crowds who gathered despite the cold and cloudy weather.

And yes there’s talk of an apocalypse a-coming

In his fiery style, Ahmadinejad, showed his messianic beliefs on Friday, saying the world was witnessing a revolution managed by Imam Mehdi, the 12 Shiite imam who disappeared as a five-year-old in the 10th century and who Shiites believe would return on the judgement day.
“The final move has begun. We are in the middle of a world revolution managed by this dear (12th Imam). A great awakening is unfolding. One can witness the hand of Imam in managing it,” said Ahmadinejad, wearing his trademark jacket.

The combination of Obama’s domestic unpopularity and his international weakness means that Iran knows that they have to rack up as many gains as they can, before he can be potentially replaced by an American leader. The closer we get to the election, the worse it will get. And there are too many enemies positioning themselves to take advantage of an Obama-ridden country.
But there’s no need to worry. Everything will work out. Incidentally, over the last four years, Pakistan has doubled the size of its nuclear arsenal. Just one of those things that happened to happen.

Nuclear proliferation analysts from the Federation of American Scientists and the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) assess that since 2006, Pakistan has increased the size of its nuclear arsenal from 30-60 atomic bombs to approximately 110. That makes Pakistan the world’s fifth largest nuclear power ahead of Britain and France.
As for delivery systems, according to The Washington Post, Pakistan has developed nuclear-capable land- and air-launched cruise missiles. Its Shaheen II missile, with a range of 2,400 kilometers, is about to go into operational deployment.

Yes, the sponsors of the Taliban now have over a 100 nuclear missiles. Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than its former colonial masters in London do. How many will it have 10 years from now, while we keep on cutting our own arsenal? While we place Europe’s missile shield in Turkey, another Islamist state.
Pakistan’s missiles can’t reach London yet. Depending on where they launch from. But they will be able to. And then New York and Washington D.C. If they dispense with the warheads, they have enough to destroy every city in the US with a population above 200,000.
Again nothing to worry about. Just be very afraid of.
You know how afraid our governments are of Muslims, when all they can do is stage the occasional small scale of mass murder. How afraid are they going to be when they can kill 50 million people in a single day?
And how long do you think freedom of speech and religion will last when that day comes that the Muslim world forces the free world to choose?
Think about it, while there’s time. And think about how much US money given as payback for Pakistan’s on and off efforts against Al Qaeda was diverted to build those weapons.
Endgame.
Moving on back to America, Senator Kyl’s retirement is unfortunate. There is talk of Giffords running for the seat, but I think that’s still wishful thinking. Not only does Giffords have a long road ahead of her, rehab is a long journey after a traumatic injury. And the speculation doesn’t originate from her.
It’s not inconceivable that Democratic operatives could get her into the race, but that would also lose her much of the sympathy they want to cash in on. Being shot in the head is not a qualification for the Senate. Of course there are plenty of counterexamples.
‘Senator’ Evita Carnahan is a great example of a public willing to vote for a completely unqualified wife of a governor because her husband had died in a plane crash. (Even more insanely her dead husband actually won the election, which should have led to his corpse being propped up in the Senate.) Then there’s Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy who was elected to congress because her husband was among a group of passengers shot by Colin Ferguson. McCarthy is a single issue congresswoman who long ago fell out of step with national trends against gun control and doesn’t exactly represent her district which isn’t exactly faced with a major gun violence problem, but there she sits. And she can’t be moved. Because she successfully commodified her husband’s shooting death into a permanent widow’s sinecure in public office.
In the roundup, a trajectory of the pleasure principle and the weapons of mass distraction from Cliffs of Insanity (via Western Rifle Shooters)

We are texting and walking through the mall. We are so absorbed in ourselves, our toys, our tech, our own little world that we neglect even the most fundamental of tasks. It never occurs to us that something may be ahead of us. That the smooth, level walking surface may change. Or that anything might change. When we reach that first indicator of trouble, we’ll try to step over it-even though it’s totally wrong. Our brain is so absorbed that we literally cannot even walk right. And so, we’re headed for disaster on the big screen while unseen viewers will laugh at our misfortune and stupidity.
Execpt that in reality, we’re walking not into a tame pool of water a foot deep , but over The Cliffs of Insanity. There’ll be no “hot coffee” lawsuits after this fall.

No, the people who will run things then won’t be putting up with those.
IsraelGirl considers the prospects in Gaza after the events in Egypt in Is there hope for the people in Gaza?

Now the Arab world is a flame with riots and protests demanding political reforms. Is there hope for freedom and democracy in Gaza? Just like Hitler won a democratic election in Nazi Germany, Hamas came to power in Gaza in a democratic fashion. Sadly democracy and freedom stopped there.
People in Gaza have had enough. Gaza’s youth are venting anger on Facebook calling for an end of Hamas’ brutal regime. Hamas security forces are breaking up solidarity rallies arresting protesters. Hamas police and internal security forces have been arresting and summoning for investigation Fatah members and Facebook activists in the Gaza Strip, to prevent them from holding a demonstration against Hamas in Gaza on February 11. Many voices in Fatah, long time rivals of Hamas, are calling on the people in Gaza to stand up and revolt against the “dictatorship that restricts their freedoms.”
People’s experience of poverty, unemployment and lack of freedom is identical all over the Arab world. But due to Israel’s constant aid, the people in Gaza are often living in better conditions than in neighboring Arab countries. Check out the pictures below – these images of daily life in Gaza prove there is no hunger in Gaza. But people are beginning to realize that freedom is worth fighting for. All of us in Giyus.org are sending a message of hope and strength to people in Gaza – you deserve to be free of Hamas’ brutal regime.

We’ll see.
Lemon Lime Moon accuses the Virginia Military Institute of going soft on Islam

The flag of Sardina is interesting as it bears the severed head of a Moor on it. When the Moors tried to invade Sardinia, they beheaded them. The heads were stuck on pikes around the island as a warning to the Mohammedans not to try it again. They didn’t.

Finally at INN, Dr Mordechai Nisan asks if Obama will go down at the Godfather of the Islamic Revolution

But a paradigm which fits Obama’s record suggests that the tempo and turmoil of regional events fit his agenda, and may be a result of his policies. As a son of a Muslim father, Obama is on course to promote Islamization at home and abroad. In the Middle East, where popular religious forces threaten authoritarian regimes, Obama has placed America on the side of Islam. His is a historical role in furthering the expansion of radical Shari’a Islam from his Oval Office in Washington. Hamas, while defined as a terrorist organization, received U.S. aid for the Gaza Strip under its rule.
Obama’s agenda is succeeding brilliantly with the very list of events considered his failures in foreign policy in facthighlighting his successes. Islamic takeovers in Lebanon and perhaps Egypt, maybe in Tunisia and Yemen, then Jordan, fulfill his vision in full glow. Thus, Egypt as a base of American strategy in the Middle East may be replaced by Egypt as a foundation for the spread of radical Islam in the world. When Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia in April 2009, he was not showing respect for the monarchy but deference to the Guardian of the Holy Cities of Islam. Maybe over a few generations Washington will be added, along with Rome, to the list of Islamic sacred sites.

What do you think?

via sheikyermami.com

'Systemic failures' led to attack, CIA says

This 1997 photo released Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010, by Keith Country Day School shows Elizabeth Hanson. Hanson is one of the seven CIA employees killed in a suicide bombing at a remote base near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Hanson, 30, along with the other CIA employees died Dec. 30 in Khost after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device. (AP Photo/Keith Country Day School)

via newsaboutterrorism.com

The CIA was cautioned last year that a self-proclaimed al-Qaeda turncoat might be luring the agency into an ambush, a warning that came weeks before the man killed seven agency operatives in a suicide attack in Afghanistan, an internal investigation has found.

The warning from a Jordanian intelligence officer was never passed along, one of a chain of lapses that ultimately allowed a double agent to penetrate the base, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Tuesday. Panetta provided an overview of the agency's still-classified report, which he said points to multiple failures but stops short of recommending disciplinary measures against any individuals.
Standard procedures used in dealing with informants - including proper vetting and security precautions - were relaxed amid an eagerness by CIA officers to meet Humam al-Balawi, a Jordanian physician who promised he could deliver al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Panetta said.
"There was a systemic breakdown with regard to the kind of judgment and scrutiny that should have been applied here," the CIA director said in reviewing the key findings with reporters at the agency's headquarters in McLean.

via washingtonpost.com

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