Re: REPORTS ON ISIS

Admin Thu 03 Sep 2015, 11:58 am

How the ISIS’ demolition of a Syrian temple impacts the world
POSTED 1:24 PM, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015, BY CNN WIRE
Syria's antiquities chief told CNN on Monday, August 31, 2015, that officials were working to confirm the reports with sources in the city. Maamoun Abdulakarim decribed the Temple of Bel as "the most important temple in Syria -- and of the most important in the whole Middle East."
Syria's antiquities chief told CNN on Monday, August 31, 2015, that officials were working to confirm the reports with sources in the city. Maamoun Abdulakarim decribed the Temple of Bel as "the most important temple in Syria -- and of the most important in the whole Middle East."
SYRIA — With hundreds of people dying in Syria every week, why should the world care that ISIS strapped barrels of explosives to the Temple of Bel?
Because the terror group did much more than just blow up a 2,000-year-old temple. It annihilated a significant piece of religious and cultural history, not just for Syria but for the entire world.
And ISIS’ destruction affects not just the past; it also has big ramifications for the present and future. Here’s how:
It helps ISIS’ mission
ISIS is on a murderous campaign to wipe out the histories of Iraq and Syria and replace them with an Islamist state and its brand of Sharia law.
Blasting away the temple in Palmyra, Syria, helps ISIS do just that. It’s part of the terror group’s “staged cultural desecration,” wrote Sturt W. Manning, chairman of the Department of Classics at Cornell University.
“The West’s response should be to remember — and to provide educational resources to keep the rich and plural histories of Syria and Iraq alive and available, especially to those presently trapped under ISIS’ enforced umbrella of ignorance.”
One elderly man who tried to protect Syria’s ancient artifacts from ISIS paid for his bravery with his life.
Khaled al-As’ad, the 82-year-old Palmyra antiquities chief who spent his life painstakingly preserving relics there, was beheaded because he refused to reveal where various irreplaceable relics were hidden.
Al-As’ad’s body was later hung out in public for everyone to see.
It destroyed a symbol of religious tolerance
“We’ve lost a great amount. This was one of the best-preserved temples of the ancient world,” said Erin Thompson, professor of art crime at John Jay College.
She said the temple was dedicated in A.D. 32, “when Jesus may have still been walking the earth.”
“It was used as a Christian church … and then as a mosque until the 1920s,” Thompson said. “So it’s really an example of the type of synchronism of religion that ISIS is seeking to destroy.”
Manning said the temple was “a tolerant home to different faiths and ethnic groups where Greco-Roman and local cultures merged.”
“Usually ISIS justifies destruction by claiming representative art to be idolatrous and pre-Islamic religious objects or structures sacrilegious,” he wrote.
“It seeks to destroy diversity and enforce narrow uniformity. Evidence of a tolerant, diverse past is anathema.”
It can be used to recruit more ISIS members
In true ISIS form, the terrorists released a slickly produced video showing off how it has dismembered sacred sites.
“This sends a very important propaganda message for ISIS,” Thompson said. “They are using, essentially, the media to convey to potential recruits this idea that the West is powerless to defend against ISIS’ destruction of things that are so important to us.”
It threatens the future of Syrians’ livelihoods
Syrians are suffering not just from the murderous rampage of ISIS, but from a 4-year-old civil war that has left 300,000 people dead.
For those near Palmyra, the temple has been a vital source of tourism income for the community, “which is now going to be deprived,” Thompson aid.
“It is going to find it is so much harder to recover from the conflict without this source of income.”
It could portend more destruction
If the world has learned one thing about ISIS, it’s that the terrorists tend to trump their acts of horror and destruction with even more brutal acts of violence.
The gruesome beheading of a foreigner was followed by the ghastly beheadings of others. The destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin in Palmyra a week ago was followed by the annihilation of the Temple of Bel.
“They said they would destroy the statues, but not the structures themselves inside Palmyra,” Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said. “They lied.”
“We need (the) international community to help us, because this battle is not just for the Syrian people,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “It is also (an) international battle. It is a cultural battle.”
And now, ISIS has another source of income to fuel its terrorism: valuable antiquities.
Such relics are “soon to be on sale on the black market,” Manning wrote. “Looted antiquities provide key funds to ISIS.”
CNN’s John Vause, Nick Paton Walsh and Lonzo Cook contributed to this report.

Admin Sun 16 Aug 2015, 7:32 pm

ISIS CHIEF BAGHDADI USED AMERICAN HOSTAGE KAYLA MUELLER AS SEX SLAVE
Kayla Meuller
by MARY CHASTAIN14 Aug 20153,776
ABC News is reporting that Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi repeatedly raped American hostage Kayla Mueller while she was under ISIS control. The terrorist group murdered the young woman earlier this year.

Her parents, Carl and Marsha, told the news outlet that officials confirmed the gruesome news to them.

“We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of al-Baghdadi. We were told that in June by the government,” they stated.

It turns out it was the leader who imprisoned the young woman. From ABC News:

Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi who calls himself “Caliph” as ruler of the Islamic State, personally brought the enslaved 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, to be imprisoned inside the home of Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian in charge of oil and gas revenue for the group, counter-terrorism officials have told ABC News over the past several months.

“Baghdadi was at the house of Sayyaf. He delivered Kayla Mueller, live and in person,” one of several counter-terrorism officials briefed on the case told ABC News.

The top terror leader later regularly visited the compound to meet with Sayyaf and to repeatedly sexually assault Mueller, officials said.

ISIS captured Kayla Mueller in August 2013. The jihadists claimed an airstrike by Jordan killed her, but have only published a photo of rubble in Syria as proof of her death. A few days later, though, her parents in Arizona confirmed her death. The terrorists sent them pictures to prove she was gone. Officials told ABC News that no one truly knows how Mueller died.

In February, The Daily Beast reported that President Obama waited almost a month after British intelligence told him the location of American hostages to launch a rescue mission. Obama received the reports in June 2014, , but by the time he acted on July 4, ISIS already moved the hostages, which included Mueller, James Foley, and Steven Sotloff, to another location. ISIS executed Foley and Sotloff in August and September.

Admin Sat 15 Aug 2015, 9:42 pm

Libya: ISIS executes 22, hangs them on crosses, burns Medical Center down, “A real massacre is taking place” 200 dead
ByPAMELA GELLER on August 15, 2015
The human toll and unimaginable fallout from Obama, the wrecking ball, continues. Was this Obama’s plan for Libya when he ousted Gaddafi? Where was the statecraft? What was the objective? The jihadis have wreaked havoc on that nation. Gaddafi not only contained the jihad threat in Libya, but in the region as well.

Obama’s “JV” team is taking over Libya.

Tripoli – Islamic State group jihadists have beheaded 12 people and hung them on crosses during a battle for the coastal city of Sirte, the national news agency LANA reported on Saturday.

The fighting for control of Sirte, hometown of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been raging since Tuesday, with one top Libyan diplomat warning of a “massacre” in the city.

LANA said the 12 people beheaded were local gunmen who had been battling IS in the eastern Sirte district known as “neighbourhood three”.

The agency also reported that IS militants executed 22 other Sirte residents who had taken up arms against the jihadist group as they lay wounded in a city hospital.

It said the jihadists also set the hospital on fire.
A Sirte city council official told AFP that clashes continued to rage on Saturday.

- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/08/libya-isis-executes-22-hangs-them-on-crosses-burns-medical-center-down-a-real-massacre-is-taking-place-200-dead.html/#sthash.ooI0TTvI.dpuf

Admin Sat 15 Aug 2015, 10:00 am

Islamic State releases 22 captured Christians
Wed 12 Aug 2015
By Antony Bushfield
A group of Christians has been released by Islamic State more than six months since they were kidnapped by the militants.
Dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted from villages in north-eastern Syria in February.
The head of a Syrian Assyrian group in Sweden confirmed the release to Reuters and said all of the freed captives were elderly men and women.
In total 22 were released but it's thought they continue to hold more than 150 Christians taken at the same time.
More than 200 Christians were captured by the group when it overran the Hasaka region.
The head of a Syrian Assyrian group in Sweden, Afram Yakoub, told Reuters: "Some have health issues, so we believe they released them because of health issues and because they are old.
"The release is a small sign of hope. It gives us some hope that someday those remaining will be released."
It's not known is a ransom was paid.
Syrian priest Revd Nadim Nassar told Premier's News Hour it wasn't a sign the terrorists were becoming more compassionate.
"What compassion?," he questioned. "After beheading thousands of people? So because they released 20 Christians it means they are showing compassion?"
He added: "It could be a political deal, an economic deal so that they released them and they got money from the other hand.
"I don't see any compassion, I see monsters leashing their evil in my country."
Revd Nadim Nassar speaking to Antony Bushfield on Premier's News Hour:

Admin Tue 11 Aug 2015, 2:22 pm

60 Christians kidnapped as IS takes Syrian town
Fri 07 Aug 2015
By Hannah Tooley
A Human Rights report shows that Islamic State militants (IS) has abducted around 230 people, including 60 Christians.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that IS militants abducted the civilians after capturing Qaryatain in the south west of the country.
A photograph has emerged that is thought to show names of Christians captured by the jihadis, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The monitoring group have reported that the civilians were taken on Thursday: "Daesh (IS) kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, during a sweep through Qaryatain," observatory chief Rami Abdurrahman said.
Many of the Christians had fled from the north of Syria to seek refuge in Qaryatain.
He suggested that those abducted were wanted by IS for 'collaborating with the regime'.
Families that had tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the jihadis, he added.
Syria researcher for Amnesty International Neil Sammonds, described it as "very worrying".
He said: "This does sound credible.
"The Syrian Observatory is a reliable source most of the time.
"This is larger scale than usual, but, in different parts of the country where they have been operational, IS have picked up large groups of civilians, but often people flee before IS arrives.
"It is rare that they get into towns where thousands of people are still living."
"We know that Christians and 'collaborators' are a target of IS.
"They are at the highest risk either for some kind of summary justice or for Christians in particular, some kind of high ransom demand or exchange."
The area had a pre-war population around 2,000 Syrian Catholics and Orthodox Christians, that number has now dropped to around 300 according to a Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from Qaryatain.
About the Author
Hannah Tooley
Hannah works as a multimedia journalist at Premier.

Concern increases for captured Syrian Christians
There are increasing fears for the safety of around 60 Christians kidnapped by Islamic State in Syria on Friday.
The believers were captured from the central town of Qaryatain, when IS militants seized the area.
Their whereabouts or wellbeing is still unknown and there has been no demands from the jihadists.
Around 230 residents were taken in total, all accused of working with the Syrian regime.
It's thought the majority were Sunni Muslim.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria-based activist Bebars al-Talawy said they have no information where the militants took the residents after overrunning the heavily populated town.
READ MORE

Admin Tue 21 Jul 2015, 12:15 pm

Islamic State's captured Christians identified
Mon 20 Jul 2015
By Antony Bushfield
The identities of three Christians, kidnapped by Islamic State in Libya, have been released by the extremist group.
They are from Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana and were abducted by the organisation in its stronghold city of Sirte.
Bekhit Nageh Efrank Ebeid, Sekyere Kofi Frimpong and Aedola Ibrahim are being held in an unknown location and IS has not made any demands for ransom.
Passport images of the group have been posted online by the militants.

Sekyere Kofi Frimpong

Adeola Ibrahim

Bekhit Nageh Efrank Ebeid

Islamic State is feared to be expanding its presence beyond the Middle East and into parts of Libya.
In April the group released two videos showing the murder of 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
15 of them appeared to be beheaded on a beach, whilst the other 15 were shot in the head in a desert.

Admin Fri 17 Jul 2015, 9:42 pm

‘My son is a dog, an animal. He can go to hell': Father of Jihadi John breaks down in tears as he admits he is ashamed of son
MAR 04, 2015by ADMINin DIASPORA
Ashamed father of Mohammed Emwazi disowns son in emotional outburst
Jaseem Emwazi had row with the killer over his decision to go ‘for jihad’
Family members say: ‘We hate him. We hope he will be killed soon’
Evil Islamic State executioner got married recently, according to friends
Security chiefs desperate to identify bride as they track down butcher
Believe she may hold clues as to the terrorist’s whereabouts in Syria
Mohammed Emwazi was last week unmasked as man behind Jihadi John
Jihadi John’s father has disowned his terrorist son in an emotional outburst, calling him ‘a dog, an animal and a terrorist’.
Jaseem Emwazi blasted his killer son Mohammed – who was last week revealed as the notorious Islamic State executioner – and said: ‘To hell with my son’.
In an phone call to a colleague yesterday, Jaseem is said to have broken down in tears and confessed he was ‘ashamed’ of his son.
Abu Meshaal, 40, who works with Jaseem in a supermarket depot in rural Kuwait, told the Telegraph that Mr Emwazi disowned his son when he telephoned his family to tell them he was fleeing to Syria in 2013 and to beg for their forgiveness.
Mr Meshaal revealed: ‘Mohammed called his father and said ‘I’m going to Syria to fight jihad, please release me and forgive me for everything’. Jassem said, ‘F*** you. I hope you die before you arrive in Syria’.’
Jaseem is said to be too ashamed to return to his job as a storekeeper after his son’s identity was revealed last week.
He appeared drawn but did not display any signs of emotions when he visited his lawyer in Kuwait today, the BBC reported.
His lawyer said he was in a ‘state of shock’ after being questioned by the Kuwaiti authorities about his son’s actions.
A second colleague – who spoke anonymously to Kuwait’s Qabbas newspaper – said: ‘All I know is that he was talking about his son whose behaviour he was not able to control. He was so tired and kept on repeating that my son is not a good son.’
Other appalled relatives of Emwazi condemned his actions and said they would welcome his death.
A Kuwaiti cousin, who would not give his name, said: ‘We hate him. We hope he will be killed soon. This will be good news for our family.’
Yesterday, it was revealed that Emwazi’s mother Ghania screamed out in shock when she realised that her son was Jihadi John after watching a beheading video.
She was described as ‘absolutely devastated’ when she discovered he had fled to Syria, and a friend said she had been ‘crying ever since. She keeps asking her friends to pray for her son, pray for him to come back and so on.’
Jaseem was a member of the ‘Bidoun’ group of stateless people denied citizenship by countries in the Gulf.
He worked as a police officer in Kuwait until he found his loyalties questioned after Saddam Hussein’s 1990-1 invasion of the Gulf State because his family was originally from Iraq.
His family was reportedly accused of collaborating with the Iraqi army during the seven-month occupation.
Mr Emwazi took his wife and his children to live in London in 1993.He was awarded British nationality in 2002 and returned to Kuwait the next year, the Arab Times reported today.
It is not known when he settled in his native country, and he is thought to have regularly travelled back and forth between the UK and Kuwait.
Local sources say he has been living and working in Kuwait for at least two years.
MailOnline today visited a house in the dusty Kuwaiti suburb of Al-Ayoun said to be linked to the Emwazis.
But a Kuwaiti woman who answered the door said she had never heard of the family and insisted she had lived there for many years.
Meanwhile, it was also revealed today that Jihadi John is understood to have taken a bride in Syria after becoming Islamic State’s most feared executioner.
A family friend said the masked butcher is believed to have married since joining the terror group in 2013.
It is unclear whether the British intelligence services are aware who his bride is.
But once she is identified, security chiefs will be desperate to investigate her and her family’s background for clues that could help them locate the feared terrorist.
Emwazi, from Queen’s Park, north-west London, was born in Kuwait in 1988 but moved to Britain with his parents and younger siblings in 1993 after the Gulf War.
He went to school and university in the UK before returning to Kuwait to work in 2009.
While living in the Gulf State, he became engaged to a local woman and found a job as a salesman for a computer software company.
Emwazi was banned from re-entering Kuwait in May 2010 after the British authorities raised concerns about his links to extremism.
He claimed this cost him his job and his fiancée in the Gulf State.
A family friend said Emwazi was thought to have married after joining IS in Syria.
‘I heard from a few friends that he had gone to fight, and when I asked a family member about it, she said, ‘Oh he’s moved to Syria to work and has gotten married’,’ he told The Times.
A video emerged this week which is believed to show Emwazi ranting on camera shortly after he arrived in Syria from the UK.
The footage is of two bands of fanatical fighters joining forces in 2013 under the command of notorious terrorist Omar al-Shishani.
At the front stands a man thought to be Emwazi – the west Londoner last week unmasked as the killer of Western hostages in a series of videos which have shocked the world.
New tapes also revealed today that the killer told MI5 he was a ‘moderate Muslim’ as he desperately tried explain why he had been picked up in terror-plagued east Africa.
Cage, the campaign group criticised for blaming the ISIS killer’s actions on Britain, released a recording of a 2009 interview they carried out with Emwazi.
FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2977461/Who-MRS-Jihadi-John-ISIS-executioner-got-married-Syria-friends-claim.html
READ A FULL REPORT
Jihadi John family's 20 years on benefits: How it's cost taxpayers up to £400k to house fanatic and his relatives in upmarket areas Mohammed Emwazi's family granted asylum in 1996 after leaving Kuwait
They have since lived in five homes, one of which was worth £450 per week
Neither his father Jasem, 51, nor mother Ghaneya worked while in Britain
Westminster City Council is still paying rent on family’s £600,000 flat
One landlord described the family as ‘parasites’ and ‘tenants from hell’
MPs blasted family for 'abusing hospitality' and say payouts are 'disgrace'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2978334/Jihadi-John-family-s-20-years-benefits-s-cost-taxpayers-400k-house-fanatic-relatives-upmarket-areas.html#ixzz3gAWRIOhn

Admin Thu 16 Jul 2015, 9:43 pm

URGENT: Military Officials Confirm Obama is Sabotaging the Fight Against the “Islamic State”
APR 09, 2015by ADMINin DIASPORA
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The war against the Islamic State could be one of the most important wars America will fight, as there’s not much doubt about their intentions to eventually carry out attacks against Americans and other Western countries on their own soil. With that being known, especially and obviously to the Obama administration – why are they making it so difficult for U.S. military leaders to fight the Islamic State? (H/T TheDailyBeast)

According to a growing number of U.S. military leaders, the White House is making sure that the commanders conducting the air campaigns against the Islamic State and other top brass who are attempting to train Syrian rebels are being kept within ridiculously tight constraints by micromanagement tactics from the National Security Council, led by Susan Rice. According to multiple reports, the NSC and the White House are doing more harm than good by their lack of ability to make what should be easy, straight-forward decisions – essentially crippling military leaders’ ability to be successful in fighting Islamic State terrorists on the ground.

The White House also refuses to work with a key force on the ground in Syria – the moderate rebels who know and understand the enemy better than anyone else. Obama has insisted that military leaders train a new army that will be needed to help end the war, but is refusing to work with the moderate rebels on the ground cripples the U.S. military commanders from making that happen.

FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK LINK
http://conservativetribune.com/obama-sabotaging-us-military/

Admin Wed 15 Jul 2015, 1:55 pm

Jewish Man Who Fled Nazis Funds Rescue of 2,000 Christians From ISIS to Repay ‘Debt’
JULY 14, 2015 3:52 PM
A Jewish man in the U.K. is funding the rescue of up to 2,000 Christian families from Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq to show his gratitude for the Christians who saved him from Nazi persecution, The Independent reported on Tuesday.
The resettlement project, named Operation Safe Haven, last week arranged the flight of 150 Syrian Christians to Poland, where they will seek refugee. The group aims to provide 12-18 months of paid support to the refugees, according to The Independent.
The man behind the project is Lord Weidenfeld, 94, a former publisher who said he has “a debt to repay” to Christians because they provided him as a child with food and clothing, and helped him reach Britain after he fled Nazi-occupied Austria. In 1938, a year before the start of World War II, he arrived in Britain by train as part of the Kindertransport rescue effort that brought thousands of Jewish refugee children to the U.K.
“I had a debt to repay. It applies to so many young people who were on the Kindertransports,” he said. “It was Quakers and other Christian denominations who brought those children to England.”
“It was a very high-minded operation and we Jews should also be thankful and do something for the endangered Christians,” he added.
Lord Weidenfeld said he hopes to repeat the work of Sir Nicholas Winton, who organized Kindertransport trains that saved 669 youths from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The famed humanitarian died on July 1.
Operation Safe Haven has faced criticism for its exclusion of Muslims, who have also been persecuted and forced from their homes by ISIS.
Lord Weidenfeld defended the project’s focus on Christians saying, “I can’t save the world, but there is a very specific possibility on the Christian side. Let others do what they like for the Muslims.”

Admin Sat 11 Jul 2015, 11:12 pm

Missionary Report: ISIS Trainer ‘Sick of the Killing’ Asks Taxi Driver for Bible
July 11, 2015 |
A jihadist trainer for the barbaric Islamic group ISIS, which identifies itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria, recently requested a Bible from a taxi driver, explaining that he is “sick of the killing.”
An Operation Mobilization missionary to the Middle East who simply identified himself as Julian relayed the story on a recent Voice of the Martyrs radio broadcast. He said that the trainer, a sheikh, was traveling from Lebanon when he asked a taxi driver for a Bible.
“The taxi driver knew a Christian in Beirut who was very happy to give the guy with the beard a Bible,” Julian said.
But then the driver asked why the man wanted one.
“[H]is response was, ‘I’m from Saudi. I’m a sheikh,’ which means a teacher of Islam. ‘I’ve been in Syria teaching the ISIS fighters jihad 101. I’m sick of the killing. There must be something better than this.'”
The missionary said that a number of Muslims, including some members of ISIS, are having encounters with the gospel. He stated that one ISIS fighter came to Christ after meeting a Christian in Turkey. Prior to the meeting, the man had a vision of the cross, which began to trouble him.
“So he goes online,” Julian explained. “He’s looking for a good Muslim site to bolster his faith, and inadvertently he stumbles into a Christian site and gets kind of interested and more interested, and reads, and the doubts grow.”
“He leaves Syria, goes into Turkey and meets a believer who’s able to share the gospel, and he comes to faith,” he continued. “And he was at a church conference in Lebanon in October and shared that personal story.”
Radio host Todd Nettleton said that the violent acts that characterize ISIS are causing Muslims to question Islam.
“And it’s not the effect necessarily that they want. What it is forcing Muslims to do is it is forcing them to examine their own faith,” he stated. “Many Muslims look at ISIS and they look into the Koran and they say, ‘Wait a minute. If that’s Islam, I don’t want that. I don’t want to do that; I don’t want to be that.'”
Some missionaries have come into contact with Muslims who state that they have had visions of Jesus.
“God in his sovereignty is able to turn what is evil, and what the enemy intends for evil, into something that’s good,” Julian declared.
He said that Christians need to pray for the salvation of those involved with ISIS rather than wishing their demise.
“These are people who have been deceived. They’re lost. They’re headed for a Christless eternity,” Julian stated. “At this prayer conference that I was at in Egypt, we were told about a prophetic word … which said that ‘I have another Saul on the road to Damascus (the capital of Syria), and I have an Ananias and a Barnabas ready, and I intend to raise up apostolic figures out of these fighters.’ … We need to pray for God to call forth those apostolic figures out of ISIS.”

Admin Fri 10 Jul 2015, 7:32 pm

Following Obama Pentagon speech, Israel introduces elite unit to fight ISIS
JUL 09, 2015by ADMINin ISRAEL
A local Egyptian branch of Isis issued a new video threatening to launch “150 rockets” into Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. The group, calling it self Wilayat Sinai, made the threat in response to what it claimed were Israeli assaults on Palestinians…

While President Barack Obama during his Pentagon visit on Monday explained his approach to fighting and defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with the statement that “Ideologies are not defeated by guns; they’re defeated with better ideas,” Israeli political officials and their security commanders announced their own plans for a specially trained brigade.

According to an Israeli source, Geoff Gotfield, a former member of a police counterterrorism team, the new unit — created and trained in secret — was also formed to deal with the threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, despite Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry enthusiastically trying to “sell” their attempt to achieve a nuclear agreement with Islamic Republic.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, on Tuesday during an Armed Services Committee hearing, criticized President Obama’s comments at the Pentagon on Monday about his progress against ISIS as being delusional. “President Obama’s comments today reveal the disturbing degree of self-delusion that characterizes the Administration’s campaign against [ISIS],” McCain said. Others said they were disappointed that some of the military leaders at the Pentagon showed no “backbone” and stood behind Obama while he pontificated about a non-existent coalition of 60 nations.

Admin Tue 30 Jun 2015, 10:32 pm

http://news.chennaionline.in/Stop-Calling-Terror-Group-Islamic-State-Cameron-Tells-Media--513782
LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron has called on the BBC and other media outlets to avoid using the term Islamic State in reference to the terror outfit, saying it gives undue credibility to the "poisonous death cult".
"I wish the BBC would stop calling it 'Islamic State' because it is not an Islamic state," he told the BBC's 'Today' programme.
Cameron believes it gives undue credibility to the "poisonous death cult" that is "seducing" young Britons to go and fight for the terrorist organisation in Syria and Iraq.
The Prime Minister preferred the use of the term ISIL –- the abbreviation of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
"What it is, is an appalling barbarous regime that is a perversion of the religion of Islam and many Muslims listening to this programme will recoil every time they hear the words. 'So-called' or Isil is better," he said. Cameron was speaking after it emerged that the number of Britons dead in the attack by an Islamist gunman on a beach resort in Tunisia on Friday could go upto 30.
He warned that the fight against the barbaric terrorist organisation was "the struggle of our generation."
"We have to fight it with everything we can," he asserted.Cameron also pledged a "full spectrum" response to the attack by Seifeddine Resgui, who was gunned down himself by police after his murderous rampage that left a total of 38 people dead on the Sousse beach resort.
British officials have already confirmed 17 of his victims are British but Cameron said the country should be prepared for the news of more UK casualties as officials continue to identify those killed on the beach. He announced that UK home secretary Theresa May will travel to the country today for talks on how to address the extremist threat and to pay condolences at the scene of the attack.
An RAF C17 transport plane is also being deployed to help bring stranded tourists home, and potentially repatriate bodies.

http://pamelageller.com/2015/06/jihadi-warned-non-muslims-to-leave-beach-tunisian-authorities-arrest-othershunt-for-accomplices-in-bloody-beach-jihad.html/
Jihadi warned Muslims to leave beach: Tunisian authorities arrest others, hunt for accomplices in bloody beach jihad
Above: ISIS twisted a tourism slogan used by Tunisia [TWITTER] before the mass slaughter on Friday.

Let’s be clear, there are no “lone wolves” in the jihad war. There are millions of devout Muslim soldiers all over the world who are all following the same playbook – the Quran – and the same ideology – Islam and the same “perfect model” – Muhammad.

Above: Tunisia’s interior ministry put out a request on its Facebook page on Monday evening, asking the public to give any information it had on two people it believes may have assisted Rezgui. Their names were given as Mohamed bin Abdallah and Rafikhe Taiari.

Muslim terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui dropped off in a by a small boat, by whom? He then walked along the beach talking with his Kalshnikov rifle hidden in an beach parisol. He chatted with people in order to identify non-Muslim and Western targets while warning Muslims to leave. A little over ten minutes after arriving on the beach Rezgui opened fire on the infidels.

He reloaded several times during the attack. Tourists fled from the beach into the Imperial Marhaba Hotel but were followed by the jihadi who stalked his way into the complex. He then left the Imperial Marhaba and fired shots into the neighbouring hotel Rui Bellevue as loud explosions from what are believed to have been grenades also ring out.

And while the enemedia is lauding the “bravery of the hotel staff”, reality is much different:

Tunisia’s interior minister Najem Gharsalli has said that the operation to eliminate terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui could have taken place more quickly if there had been better coordination between hotel staff and the security forces. (source)

Gharsalli said that the security staff at Sousse’s Imperial Marhaba Hotel did not call the police during the first minutes of the attack.

Daily Telegraph Warren Allott Theresa May arrives at the The Hotel Imperial Marhaba, where Gunmen carried out a terrorist attack at the holiday destination in Sousse protected by tunisian military and police personnel.
An armed soldier on the beach at Sousse (Warren Allott for the Telegraph)

AOL: While Tunisian authorities fatally shot the man who killed at least 38 people at a beach resort in Sousse, the investigation is far from over.

Tunisia’s interior minister says they’ve already arrested a group of suspects associated with the gunman.

Now they’re looking for anyone who helped him organize the attack.

ISIS has claimed gunman Seifeddine Rezgui as one of its own, and authorities say he likely had accomplices. Nevertheless, Rezgui seems to have flown under the radar of Tunisian intelligence.

Of the 38 or more people Rezgui killed, the BBC reports at least 30 of them were from the UK, making it the deadliest single terrorist attack on Britons since the July 7 bombings in 2005.

See photos from the horrific attack in Tunisia:

Screen Shot 2015-06-29 at 2.59.40 PM

SOUSSE, TUNISIA – JUNE 26: A suspect man is arrested after an armed attack on a tourist hotel in Sousse, east Tunisia, left at least 27 people dead, including foreigners, and injured six others , on June 26, 2015. (Photo by Med Amine Ben Aziza /Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

“The authorities in Tunisia have promised to step up security at tourist locations, and sensitive sites, but after two deadly attacks in just three months, many may wonder why this didn’t happen sooner,” the BBC’s Orla Guerin reported.

That other attack she’s referring to happened when several gunmen opened fire at the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis, killing 22 people.

The museum is another popular tourist destination, with most of the victims in that attack reported to be tourists. It shows a trend in these attacks targeting Tunisia’s vital tourism industry.

So far, Rezgui’s parents have reportedly been detained for questioning. Rezgui’s father told ITV he was completely unaware of who had influenced his son to commit the attack.

- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/06/jihadi-warned-non-muslims-to-leave-beach-tunisian-authorities-arrest-othershunt-for-accomplices-in-bloody-beach-jihad.html/#sthash.jfkWIZMy.dpuf

Admin Sun 28 Jun 2015, 11:47 pm

US Officials Warn of ISIS Attacks on July 4
What a way to live. Everyone is waiting for the shoe to drop, or should I say the bomb to drop, all the while attacking any and all of us who oppose jihad. Vicious cowards.
“US Officials Warn of ISIS Attacks on July 4,” By Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu, Jewish Press, June 27th, 2015 (thanks to Claude):
Americans’ fear of the ISIS is turning terror into the major election issue
ISIS prepares for U.S. Independence Day.
American police forces from coast to coast are on alert from federal officials that the Islamic State (ISIS) is planning to terrorize the country during the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center sent an intelligence bulletin to law enforcement agencies.
No specific plots were spelled out, according to CNN, but there was a general warning because of the holiday and the upcoming visit of Pope Francis.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Friday, following multiple ISIS-linked attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia:
Particularly with the upcoming July 4th holiday here in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI continue to communicate with state and local law enforcement about what we know and see.
We are encouraging all law enforcement to be vigilant and prepared. We will also adjust security measures, seen and unseen, as necessary to protect the American people.
In Britain, the ISIS targeted the annual Armed Forces Day parade on Saturday, but intelligence officials foiled the plot, which was discovered by an undercover British agent who was recruited by the terrorist group.
The ISIS had told the investigator, according to the London Sun, “It will be big. We will hit the kuffar (unbelievers) hard InshAllah. Hit their soldiers in their own land. InshAllah. Soldiers that served in Iraq and Afghanistan will be present. Jump in the crowd and detonate the bomb.
“They think they can kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan then come back to the UK and be safe. We’ll hit them hard InshAllah.”
The multiple attacks on Friday indicate, whether coordinated or not, are clear signs that the Islamic State’s declared war on the world is more than rhetoric.
Dismissing the murderers as “lone wolves,” as some of Israel’s security officials and leftist media try to do in order to play down Palestinian Authority-incited terror, is not going to satisfy the nationwide American fear of the ISIS.
- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/06/us-officials-warn-of-isis-attacks-on-july-4.html/#sthash.bQSvBPcg.dpuf

Admin Thu 25 Jun 2015, 9:01 am

ISIS Turning Tomb of Biblical Prophet Jonah into Amusement Park
By Lea Speyer June 24, 2015 , 12:30 pm
“For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” (Psalm 5:4)

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/isis-destroyed-tomb-jonah-prophet.jpg
Aftermath of the destruction of the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq at the hands of ISIS. (Photo: YouTube Screenshot)

As if destroying the tomb of the Biblical prophet Jonah is not enough, ISIS is planning on constructing an amusement park over the holy site, Al Arabiya reported.
Last July, shortly after conquering Mosul in Iraq, where the tomb is located, ISIS blew up the tomb amid celebrations by the terror group. Local sources told Al Arabiya that ISIS has begun to level off the area for construction.
A special budget has been allocated by ISIS for the project and “specialized companies” have won bids to begin turning the former tomb area into a park.
Responding to the report, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Antiquities and Tourism Qais Hussain to Al-Sumaria News that ISIS intends to deface the holy site and “the tomb into a park and fun city which is another crime against Iraqi heritage.”

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/147-IranPetition2-600WIDE.jpg

Hussain added that a special committee in his ministry is coming up with “a plan after liberating conquered cities from ISIS…to minimize damages being done to heritage sites.”
Despite repeated attempt, Iraqi forces with the aid of US airstrikes and Iranian militias have been unable to recapture Mosul.
The capture of Mosul was a large victory for ISIS last June, as it allowed the terror group to expand its territory by capturing large areas of the country and parts of Syria.
In each new city captured by ISIS, jihadists have a policy of destroying non-Muslim or Shi’ite sites in their attempt to eradicate other religions and cultures.
Following the destruction of Jonah’s Tomb last July, jihadists also destroyed the tomb of the Jewish prophet Daniel which is located in the Mosul area.

Admin Tue 23 Jun 2015, 8:28 pm

Iran's Forces and U.S. Share a Base in Iraq
209 JUN 22, 2015 1:37 PM EDT
By Josh Rogin & Eli Lake
The U.S. military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are getting closer and closer in Iraq, even sharing a base, while Iran uses those militias to expand its influence in Iraq and fight alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in neighboring Syria.
Two senior administration officials confirmed to us that U.S. soldiers and Shiite militia groups are both using the Taqqadum military base in Anbar, the same Iraqi base where President Obama is sending an additional 450 U.S. military personnel to help train the local forces fighting against the Islamic State. Some of the Iran-backed Shiite militias at the base have killed American soldiers in the past.
Some inside the Obama administration fear that sharing the base puts U.S. soldiers at risk. The U.S. intelligence community has reported back to Washington that representatives of some of the more extreme militias have been spying on U.S. operations at Taqqadum, one senior administration official told us. That could be calamitous if the fragile relationship between the U.S. military and the Shiite militias comes apart and Iran-backed forces decide to again target U.S. troops.
American critics of this growing cooperation between the U.S. military and the Iranian-backed militias call it a betrayal of the U.S. personnel who fought against the militias during the 10-year U.S. occupation of Iraq.
“It’s an insult to the families of the American soldiers that were wounded and killed in battles in which the Shia militias were the enemy,” Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain told us. “Now, providing arms to them and supporting them, it’s very hard for those families to understand.”
The U.S. is not directly training Shiite units of what are known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which include tens of thousands of Iraqis who have volunteered to fight against the Islamic State as well as thousands of hardened militants who ultimately answer to militia leaders loyal to Tehran. But the U.S. is flying close air support missions for those forces.
The U.S. gives weapons directly only to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces, but the lines between them and the militias are blurry. U.S. weapons often fall into the hands of militias like Iraqi Hezbollah. Sometimes the military cooperation is even more explicit. Commanders of some of the hard-line militias sit in on U.S. military briefings on operations that were meant for the government-controlled Iraqi Security Forces, a senior administration official said.
This collaboration with terrorist groups that have killed Americans was seen as unavoidable as the U.S. marshaled Iraqis against the Islamic State, but could prove counterproductive to U.S. interests in the long term, this official said.
The militias comprise largely Shiite volunteers and are headed by the leader of the Iraqi Hezbollah, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. He was sanctioned in 2009 by the Treasury Department for destabilizing Iraq. Al-Muhandis is a close associate of Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, who has snapped selfies with the militia leader at key battles.
Other militias that have participated in the fighting against the Islamic State include the League of the Righteous, which in 2007 carried out a brutal roadside execution of five U.S. soldiers near Karbala. The group to this day boasts of its killing of U.S. soldiers. In an interview in February, a spokesman for the militia defended the killings and said his militia had killed many more American soldiers.
Members of these groups have also been deployed by Iran to defend the Assad regime in neighboring Syria. James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, confirmed in a June 3 letter to seven Republican senators, which we obtained, that "Iran and Hezbollah have also leveraged allied Iraqi Shiia militant and terrorist groups -- which receive training in Iran -- to participate in pro-Assad operations."
The Washington Institute in 2013 identified three militias -- the League of the Righteous, Iraqi Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada -- as sending elite fighters to Syria to fight for Assad. All three help to lead the popular mobilization committees that fight the Islamic State in Iraq.
These militias also stand accused of gross human rights abuses and battlefield atrocities in Sunni areas where they have fought. The State Department heavily criticized Iran’s support for the Iraqi militias and those militias’ behavior in its annual report on worldwide terrorism, released late last week.
“Despite its pledge to support Iraq’s stabilization, Iran increased training and funding to Iraqi Shia militia groups in response to ISIL’s advance into Iraq. Many of these groups, such as Iraqi Hezbollah, have exacerbated sectarian tensions in Iraq and have committed serious human rights abuses against primarily Sunni civilians,” the State Department reported. “Similar to Hezbollah fighters, many of these trained Shia militants have used these skills to fight for the Assad regime in Syria or against ISIL in Iraq.”
Accounts of the number of Iraqi Shiite fighters at Taqqadum vary. One senior administration official told us there are “only a few” militia representatives at the base, to coordinate with Iraqi Security Forces, while the bulk of the popular mobilization forces are deployed in the field, mostly around Ramadi, which is held by the Islamic State. A different senior administration official told us that there were hundreds of Shiite militia fighters at the base recently and that they flow in and out of the base for operations in the area.
The U.S. government has sought and received formal assurances from the government of Iraq that the Shiite militias on the base would not interfere with American military personnel. But there’s widespread skepticism that the politicians in Baghdad exert any real control over the hard-line militias. So far, in the 11 months since U.S. special operations forces have been in Iraq, Iranian-supported militias in Iraq and U.S. personnel have not clashed while fighting a common enemy.
“There’s no real command and control from the central government,” one senior administration official said. “Even if these guys don’t attack us … Iran is ushering in a new Hezbollah era in Iraq, and we will have aided and abetted it.”
With the deadline approaching for a nuclear deal that would place up to $150 billion in the hands of Iran, the U.S. is now openly acknowledging in its annual report on international terrorism that Iran is supporting a foreign legion, comprising Afghans, Iraqis and Lebanese fighters, to defend Iranian interests throughout the Middle East.
But the U.S. response to this is inconsistent. In Iraq, America is fighting alongside Iranian-backed militias. In Syria, U.S.-supported forces are fighting against these same militias. The tragedy of this policy is that the Islamic State has been able to hold and expand its territory in Iraq and Syria, while Iran has been able to tighten its grip on Baghdad.
To contact the authors on this story:
Josh Rogin at joshrogin@bloomberg.net
Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor on this story:
Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net

Admin Tue 09 Jun 2015, 7:27 pm

Al-Qaeda veteran steers Europe’s youths away from jihadMourad Benchellali, a former inmate at Guantanamo, has made it his mission to dissuade young men from joining extremist groups
BY ELAINE GANLEY June 8, 2015, 12:51 am
Former Guantanamo detainee and al-Qaeda trainee Mourad Benchellali talks during an interview with the Associated Press in Gennevilliers, suburban Paris, France, on May 13, 2015. (AP/Remy de la Mauviniere)
PRIS (AP) — He learned warfare in an al-Qaeda training camp, did time at Guantanamo and more time in a French prison. With such a resume, Mourad Benchellali may seem an unlikely youth counselor— but he is telling his story to young Europeans, warning them against the lure of jihad.
The 33-year-old Frenchman is one of a small number of Europeans presenting their jihadi past as an example for others not to follow. Many see men like him as a powerful tool to deter youth from heading to Syria — while Western governments are wary of them.
Benchellali meets with young audiences at least once a week in France, Belgium and Switzerland to persuade them of the folly of flying off to join the Islamic State or other groups waging holy war in Syria and Iraq.
“There are kids who are tempted, who’ve been approached,” Benchellali told The Associated Press. “They come to listen, they are curious and the fact that I’m a former Guantanamo (prisoner), that speaks to them… I give them tools to understand.”
A practicing Muslim, Benchellali above all strives to take the glamour out of jihad. As a 19-year-old, he viewed the voyage to al-Qaeda’s training camp in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as a romantic adventure. The reality, he tells youths, was a shock: grinding physical exercises in blazing heat, weapons training and propaganda videos in the evening, along with mind-numbing organization rigorously enforced — and a compulsory 60-day minimum stay.
Then came the September 11 attacks, followed by US bombings in Afghanistan and mass flight from Kandahar. He escaped through the mountains to Pakistan, only to be arrested and turned over to American forces — and sent to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, he languished for two and a half years in a small cage. He filed a lawsuit against the United States for torture and sequestration.
In his meetings with youth, Benchellali does not preach against jihad, saying that would discredit him with his young audience. He claims he was not a real jihadi because he never took up arms in a conflict.
European officials are creating parental hotlines and other tools to stem the flow of hundreds of youth to Syria, but lack the know-how to contain the exodus. Yet they remain suspicious of men like Benchellali, fearing returnees may have a secret mission to pull youths into extremism rather than steer them away.
Hamid Benichou, a Belgian police officer in contact with a group of mothers whose children went to Syria, worries that former jihadis may “carry within them the germ of Islamization.” And Lassouri Ben Hamouda, whose 15-year-old son went briefly to Syria, claimed that Benchellali is just trying “to buy himself back” into society.
But many analysts say these men — dubbed “formers” — are just what is needed to counter the attraction of jihad. Returnees have street credibility that officials and mainstream counselors cannot offer.
Benchellali clearly had the ear of some Muslim youths at a recent meeting in the immigrant-heavy Paris suburb of Gennevilliers.
“You are loaded into a machine, a very organized system,” he told his rapt audience. “You are thrown into another dimension.”
After the meeting, one 18-year-old said he had thought last year about going to Syria with a friend, after being contacted on Facebook, and hadn’t fully buried the idea. He said he paid heed to Benchellali’s message because he “has lived it” and “is advising against it.” The young man spoke on condition he not be identified by name because he did not want authorities to know he had toyed with the idea of jihad.
Britain has small projects using “formers,” including an online global network, Against Violent Extremism, open to former radical extremists, survivors of terrorist attacks and anyone else who wishes to join. The network grew out of the 2011 Summit Against Violent Extremism launched by Google Ideas.
Despite concerns about returnees, there is general agreement that an alternate narrative to the Islamic State siren calls is needed to keep kids at home.
“Right now it’s only Islamic State who is telling a story, and I think to have a counter-story being told by a former fighter itself would be potentially very powerful,” Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at London’s King’s College, told The Associated Press.
Benchellali is perhaps the only returnee in France now offering a reality check to those tempted by jihad, a stark story of misguided youth that may mirror the naive impulses of those setting off for Syria today.
More than 1,200 French have traveled or are planning to travel to Syria to wage jihad, the largest group among Western nations. But in the eyes of French officialdom, Benchellali says, a checkered past makes the former extremist more of a threat than a resource.
Benchellali’s parents and two brothers were convicted in 2006 on terrorism-linked charges, suspects in an alleged plot to attack Russian interests in France in support of fighters in Chechnya. At one point, his older brother Menad, considered the group’s chemicals expert, was mixing toxic potions containing ricin in his mother’s face-cream jars. His mother and father, an imam in a makeshift mosque in a grim Lyon suburb, were expelled to their homeland in Algeria. The brothers served time in prison and are now free in France.
John G. Horgan, head of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said officials should overcome their fear of tapping people like Benchellali.
“There’s fear that, well maybe, if we invite people in… they may inadvertently serve as a beacon for radicalization or recruitment to others, may actually have a reverse effect,” said Horgan. But “the tales of disillusionment (among returnees) are very real, and we seem to be unable to harness them with any kind of momentum.”
Still, Horgan said, not everyone back from the battlefields is a good candidate for prevention work. He and other experts said candidates must be vetted, protected and supported financially — but with as small a government footprint as possible.
“You may face reprisals from your community for doing this kind of work,” said Magnus Ranstorp of the Swedish National Defense College.
Yet he, too, emphasized the importance of teaching by example: “If you really want to reach youth, prevent them from taking drugs, the best person you can put out there is a former drug addict.”
For Benchellali, lending a hand at a critical time is a “collective responsibility.”
He recalled an encounter with a cellmate at France’s Fleury-Merogis prison who told him it was cool that he had been a jihadi — and said he wanted to become one, too.
“Hearing that, I knew I had to explain,” Benchellali said. “Explain that this was a mistake.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press

Admin Tue 09 Jun 2015, 10:41 am

ISIS Won’t Find Nuclear Weapons in Iraq or Syria, Thanks to Israel
By Louis Rene Beres June 8, 2015 , 10:30 am
Credo quia absurdum. “I believe because it is absurd.”
As President Obama continues to legitimize a nuclear Iran with his surrender-based negotiations, he also worries incongruously about regional nuclear proliferation. Ironically, it is only because of Israel’s own earlier renunciations of such pretend diplomacy, and because of Jerusalem’s corollary preemptions against both Iraqi and Syrian nuclear facilities, that the Middle East is not already awash in Arab nuclear weapons.
It’s not complicated. Precisely because of Israel’s singularly courageous and correspondingly lawful self-defense operations in Iraq and Syria, America and its allies do not currently face Islamist nuclear weapons technologies. Thankfully, especially as portions of these countries continue to crumble before advancing Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces, murderous terrorist armies will not discover any nuclear weapons or supportive infrastructures along the way.
The reason is clear: Thanks to Israel’s Operation Opera on June 7, 1981, and also its Operation Orchard on Sept. 6, 2007, neither Iraq nor Syria will be able to provide ISIS with certain game-changing kinds of destructive technology. To be sure, nuclear weapons in these areas could conceivably have made the Sunni terror organization’s End Times theology a grotesquely palpable reality.
On June 7, 1981, and without any prior forms of international approval, Israel destroyed Osiraq near Baghdad. Left intact, this Saddam Hussein-era reactor would have been able to produce enough fuel for an Iraqi nuclear weapon. Moreover, had Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin first pleadingly sought formal approvals from the “international community” — retrospectively, exactly the sort of self-defeating posture that would have been favored by Obama — that residually vital expression of self-defense would have failed.
Under international law, war and genocide need not be mutually exclusive. Although it had been conceived by Begin as an indispensable national security corrective for Israel, one desperately needed to prevent an entirely new form of Holocaust, Operation Opera ultimately saved the lives of thousands or perhaps even tens of thousands of Americans — U.S. soldiers fighting in subsequent Iraqi wars.
During the actual attack on Osiraq, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor before it was ready to go “on line.” Immediately following the attack, the general global community reaction was overwhelmingly hostile. The U.N. Security Council, in Resolution 487 of June 19, 1981, indicated that it “strongly condemns” the attack, and that “Iraq is entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered.”
Even the United States, not yet aware that it would become a primary beneficiary of this unilaterally defensive action, issued multiple statements of conspicuously stern rebuke. Today, of course, particularly as we worry about unceasing ISIS advances, matters look very different.
International law is not a suicide pact. Israel did not act illegally at Osiraq. Under the longstanding customary right known as anticipatory self-defense, every state is entitled to strike first whenever the danger posed is “instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means and no moment for deliberation.” For such manifestly compelling action, it does not require antecedent approval by the United Nations.
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/19-HebrewNameCertificate-Tzvi-600WIDE.jpg
For the record, it was the United States, not Israel, that issued a unilateral policy statement, in 2002, declaring that the traditional right of anticipatory self-defense should be expanded. Washington’s strategic and jurisprudential argument hinged, correctly, on the unique dangers of a nuclear-endowed enemy. Significantly, The National Security Strategy of the United States was issued by the most powerful country on earth.
In comparison, Israel, which had claimed a substantially more narrow and conservative view of anticipatory self-defense back in 1981, is small enough to fit into a single county in California.
In comparison, Israel, which faces indisputably existential threats from any nuclear adversary, could fit at least twice into Lake Michigan.
Most readers are more or less familiar with what happened at Osiraq in 1981. But what about what took place in Syria, during Operation Orchard, in 2007? In this second and later case of an Israeli preemption designed to prevent enemy nuclear weapons, the operational details are much more hazy.
In brief, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, consciously reasserted the 1981 “Begin Doctrine,” this time within the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria. Several years later, in April 2011, the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) authoritatively confirmed that the bombed Syrian site had indeed been a nuclear reactor. Olmert’s decision, like Begin’s earlier on, turned out to be the right one.
International law is not a suicide pact. All things considered, Israel’s 1981 and 2007 defensive strikes against enemy rogue states were not only lawful, but distinctly law-enforcing. In the absence of any truly centralized enforcement capability, international law must continue to rely upon the willingness of certain individual states to act forcefully on behalf of the entire global community. This is exactly what happened on June 7, 1981, and, again, on Sept. 6, 2007.
Israeli Operations Opera and Orchard are exactly the reason that U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria do not now have to worry about ISIS forces equipped with nuclear weapons.
Oh yes, but what about Iran? Here, lamentably — where permissible acts of preemption were renounced while they had still been operationally plausible — it will be back to pretend diplomacy. In essence, this most relentless state exporter of Shiite terrorism will thus become the jihadist nuclear power in the next few years.
Should Tehran agree to provide surrogate Hezbollah militias with some of its associated or derivative nuclear technologies, Iran could find itself marshaling considerable and potentially decisive influence in regional terror wars. These endlessly sectarian conflicts throughout Iraq, Syria and other places could then continue to rage until every remaining flower of human society is irremediably crushed. If that happens, a difficult question must inevitably arise: How should America and Israel choose between barbarously warring sides?
Reprinted with author’s permission from The Hill

Admin Mon 08 Jun 2015, 10:41 pm

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
Obama on ISIS: 'We do not yet have a complete strategy'
PAMELA ENGEL
JUN. 8, 2015, 4:07 PM 22
At a news conference after the G7 summit in the Bavarian village Krün, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the US did not have a complete strategy to counter the Islamic State militant group.
"When a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people," Obama said. "We don't yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well."
Obama laid out a four-point strategy in September, but critics have slammed his strategy — or lack thereof — in recent weeks as the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) has made territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.
"They're nimble, they're aggressive, and they're opportunistic," Obama said of ISIS militants.
The strategy Obama described in September included airstrikes, increased support to allied ground troops such as the Iraqi security forces, counterterrorism methods to cut off ISIS funding and the flow of foreign fighters, and humanitarian support to groups ISIS is targeting.
Obama said the "commitments on the part of the Iraqis" include how training and recruitment, especially of Sunni soldiers and tribesmen, take place.
Sunnis haven't been as involved in the fight against ISIS, a Sunni extremist group, as the US would like. Some experts say the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad is reluctant to arm and train Sunnis out of fear that the Sunnis might one day turn on them.
Barack Obama Haider AbadiREUTERS/Kevin LamarqueObama with Abadi during the Group of Seven (G7) Summit.
Obama emphasized that the US and other allied forces have "made some progress but not enough" in preventing foreign fighters from entering Syria and Iraq.
"We're taking a lot of them off the battlefield, but if they’re being replenished, it doesn't solve the problem in the long-term," he said.
The relaxed border policies Turkey adopted between 2011 and 2014 allowed extremists to easily travel to Syria and join the rebels in their fight against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. And though Ankara is cracking down, fears of blowback mean the problem remains.
Obama said in September that the goal was to "degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL," but that goal still seems far off.
From the CEO and editor of Foreign Policy Group:
Several pundits and experts have questioned Obama's strategy in the Middle East and in Iraq specifically.
J.M. Berger, who recently coauthored a book on ISIS, wrote in Politico last month that Obama's repeated references to "tactical" setbacks for US-supported Iraqi forces and lucky breaks for ISIS in capturing territory "is code for saying that the enemy is not 'strategic,'" which does not seem to be the case with ISIS.
Middle East experts have pointed out that ISIS is using religion and Islamic law to establish a social contract with the Muslims living in its territory, demanding taxes and adherence to its strict version of Sharia law in exchange for goods and services.
These policies indicate that ISIS' strategy is rooted in long-term dominance rather than short-term gains.
Here's a video of Obama's statements on Monday:
Obama On ISIS Strategy: “We Don’t Yet Have A Complete Strategy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVDN1wmcYw ).25 SECONDS

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Admin Mon 08 Jun 2015, 10:07 am

ISIS: A Four-Letter Household Word
By Jonathan Feldstein June 7, 2015 , 9:30 am
Unfortunately ISIS has become a four-letter household word with which most westerners and Arabs are quite familiar.
The past several months, ISIS has been in the news for a variety of brutal acts including burning, beheading, crucifixion, and shooting to death of captives, and rape, slavery, and many other acts of cruelty. Despite ISIS’ well-known and dubious deeds, not many are familiar with its history and specific ideology.
Recently, I read two books that shed light on this and complement one another spectacularly. Erick Stakelbeck’s ISIS Exposed is the product of several months of research by an authority on global Islamic terrorism. The Third Target was written byNew York Times best-selling novelist Joel Rosenberg. “ISIS Exposed” is a factual book based on numerous sources, and “Third Target” a novel based on current events. I will write about them separately as a two-part series.
I’ve known Erick Stakelbeck for a few years and, as much as I respect him, I’d like to see him out of work. In a perfect world, it’d be nice not having the need to have an authority on such things. However, as long as there’s a need, I’m glad that he is a watchman on the wall, and exposing ISIS and their ideological brethren for what they are.
I think of myself as someone well versed in Middle Eastern affairs, including the rise of ISIS and other Islamic extremists. Studying Mideast politics in college and living in Israel, it’s literally very close to home. But, ISIS Exposed taught me numerous things I didn’t know that I really need to know.
I found Stakelbeck’s narrative raising questions as I was absorbed in his book, and the organization of the book wisely answered many of the questions in the pages that followed, as if projecting the questions and providing the answers accordingly.
There are many elements of the rise of ISIS in specific, and Islamic terror in general, but one underlying pillar of ISIS is the conquering of all areas that were ever part of previous Islamic caliphates, stretching across the Middle East and Europe. Imposing of an intransigent Islam globally is the ultimate goal, but “in the short term, ISIS will settle for expanding the current borders of the Islamic State into the countries in its immediate backyard: Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia …”
While ISIS is a Sunni Muslim brand of terrorism, they not only fight and kill other Sunni Muslims and have their targets on other Sunni states, but they also hate and are at odds with Shia Muslims and Shia states, the most influential being Iran. These sects may have the same end game, the global dominance of Islam, but they fight one another and each differs about under whose domination that caliphate will be. This all gives veracity to the notion that the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy. Indeed, whether it is Sunni ISIS or Shia Iran and Hamas, both are enemies of the western and non-Islamic world.
Stakelbeck discusses ISIS activities, recruitment, and threats in numerous countries with a specific emphasis on western countries and the United States. Writing about the U.S., he says its borders are “a disaster waiting to happen.” But the problem is that we only know of those who have been stopped at, or after crossing, the borders. We don’t know who came through and slipped through. It may be a disaster that’s already happened. The concern is beyond sleeper cells, but the use of terrorists or mules to transport WMD across the US’ “beyond porous” borders.
Among the important myths that Stakelbeck debunks is the notion that poverty or lack of meaningful career opportunities are the direct cause of sowing terrorism among young people. He introduces one section with a quote from Secretary of State John Kerry, “And so we have a common interest in dealing with this issue of poverty, which in many cases is the root cause of terrorism….”
He then documents that, “The alleged brain behind ISIS’s cutting edge social media and video operation was not raised in a dilapidated Afghan hut or a squalid Baghdad slum. Instead, (Ahmad) Abousamra, a dual Syrian-American citizen, was reared in leafy Stoughton, MA, a highly desirable Boston suburb that boasts no shortage of affluent professionals – including Abousamra’s own father, a leading endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Opportunities abounded for the younger Abousamra, who made the honor roll at a prestigious catholic high school and later the Dean’s List at Northeastern University.”
Not all threats come from a terrorist mastermind. Stakelbeck refers to “chip away” attacks. This is not a new kind of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream or Pillsbury cookie, but Stakelbeck’ s insightful awareness of one of the ISIS strategies to encourage “smaller-scale, low-tech acts of terrorism that chip away at America’s psyche and security.”
Stakelbeck references his book, The Terrorist Next Door, where Islamic terrorists like ISIS prey on wayward, lost, social outcasts as recruits. Americans tend to think of the threat to America. But with long borders, threats in Texas, New York, Minnesota, and California are unique.
America and all countries need to be aware, and prepared. Like a 12-step recovery program, the first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem and to call it by its name and certainly not to dismiss the threat as “jayvee” or fail to note it is 100 percent Islamic.
Threats in other countries and other parts of the world are no less relevant because by not counteracting these, ISIS is emboldened. The more ISIS gains strength in other countries, the more it can fan out and threaten the rest of the world, including America.
ISIS Exposed ends with a call to action. It’s not just a recounting of the threats and wringing one’s hands. He lists strategies to combat ISIS and other Islamic terror groups that make sense. This makes it required reading. I am working on a way to provide a copy of ISIS Exposed to every U.S. presidential candidate, every member of Congress, all 50 governors, the entire U.S. Cabinet and other world leaders to they can be informed and asked what’s their plan is to counteract ISIS. (If you’d like to join me in sponsoring a copy as a gift, please be in touch directly.)
This is not reading for the faint of heart. ISIS Exposed reads as the making of a plot of a horror movie that could be our lives, or a novel, as we will see in the Third Target.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Charisma News

Admin Sun 07 Jun 2015, 10:34 pm

BOSTON FUNERAL HOME: Refuses To Handle Dead Muslim Terrorist And We Love It
Posted on June 6, 2015
Burial of Boston terror suspect delayed after funeral home refuses to take his body. What would you do with this body?
The funeral of Boston terror suspect Usaamah Abdullah Rahim is being held up because a local cemetery refused to take his body.
Rahim, 26, was fatally shot on Tuesday after investigators said he wielded a military-style knife as they sought to question him about ‘terrorist-related information.’
He was allegedly planning to behead the controversial anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller and police officers and was under surveillance by authorities.
The Knollwood Memorial Park funeral home in Canton, Massachusetts, refused any part in his burial, which his family hoped to hold today.
‘They wouldn’t take him because he was a suspected terrorist,’ Abdullah Faruuq, Imam of the Mosque for Praising Allah in Roxbury, told CNN.
Another unnamed funeral home has now agreed to take the body, he said.
Read more: Daily Mail

EXTRACT
Once the funeral has take place, police will release the surveillance video of Rahim's shooting to the public, after holding it back per the family's request.
Police have said the video shows officers backing up and Rahim moving toward them before they fired.
Rahim's brother Ibrahim Rahim, a well-known imam in Boston, originally hit out at police, claiming Usaamah had been shot three times in the back.

Admin Sat 06 Jun 2015, 11:23 pm

Reuters Taliban Isis Syria
ISIS is reportedly using chlorine as a weapon
Reuters
MORAG MACKINNON, REUTERS
JUN. 6, 2015, 5:31 AM 56
PERTH (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have used chlorine as a weapon and are recruiting highly trained technicians in a serious bid to develop chemical weapons, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop warned.
In a speech to an international forum of nations that works to fight the spread of such weapons, Bishop said the rise of militant groups such as ISIS, also known as Daish, posed “one of the gravest security threats we face today.”
“Apart from some crude and small scale endeavors, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention to acquire and weaponize chemical agents has been largely aspirational,” Bishop told a meeting of the Australia Group in Perth. The speech on Friday was posted online.
“The use of chlorine by Daish, and its recruitment of highly technically trained professionals, including from the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development,” she said.
“Daish is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons,” Bishop said.
The comments follow allegations by Iraqi Kurdish authorities that they have evidence that ISIS used chlorine gas against their peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq in January.
The Kurdish allegations that soil and clothing samples taken after an ISIS car bombing attempt contained levels of chlorine couldn't be independently confirmed.
Chlorine is a choking agent whose use as a chemical weapon dates back to World War One. It is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits all use of toxic agents on the battlefield.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has been investigating allegations of dozens of recent chlorine gas attacks in Syrian villages, but it is being refused access to the sites by President Bashar al-Assad's government.
(Editing by Kim Coghill)
Read the original article on Reuters. Copyright 2015
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Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-isis-is-using-chlorine-as-a-weapon-australias-foreign-minister-says-2015-6?r=US#ixzz3cJiBP2gy.

Admin Sat 06 Jun 2015, 10:06 pm

Christian family in ancient Iraqi city of Nineveh prepare to defend 2,700 year-old tomb of Jewish prophet, as ISIS armies advance to just 10 miles away
Asir Salaam Shajaa says grandfather was tasked with defending monument
The duty has passed down through generations but now looks perilous
Ancient Nineveh stood in what is now the northern Iraqi town of Al Qosh
ISIS recently captured nearby Ramadi in hugely significant territorial battle
By JACK CRONE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 17:09, 5 June 2015 | UPDATED: 20:08, 5 June 2015

A Christian family in the ancient city of Nineveh is preparing to defend the 2,700 year-old tomb of a Jewish prophet as ISIS advance to within 10 miles.
Asir Salaam Shajaa claims his grandfather was tasked with watching over the monument to the prophet Nahum, which is in the northern Iraqi town of Al Qosh, when Jewish people left the region for good.
His family had promised the Jewish residents more than 60 years ago that they would preserve the Hebrew site but the job is looking increasingly perilous as ISIS's murderous troops close in.
Scroll down for video and photos CLICK HERE FOR PAGE

Asir Salaam Shajaa, an Assyrian Christian, told The Christian Post: 'When the last Jewish people in Al Qosh left, they asked my grandfather to watch over the tomb, to keep it safe. I don't know much more than that.

'Nahum is not our prophet, but he is a prophet, so we must respect that. He's a prophet, it is simple
'I'm not sure how long my family will continue to stay in Iraq, we want to leave, most of the Christians want to leave. My brother says he will stay though, if my family gets to leave Iraq my brother and his children will look after the tomb. It will stay in the family, God willing.'
Al Qosh, the city built over the ancient Nineveh, is a treasure trove of history, containing both the early origins of Christianity and the Assyrian empire, along with its Hebrew heritage.

Nahum the prophet is known for predicting the fall of Nineveh in the seventh century BC, and his remains are believed to be kept at the tomb of 'Nahum the Elkoshite' in the city.

PHOTO Closing in: ISIS are moving closer to the ancient city of Nineveh after their recent conquest of Ramadi. Militants recently posted pictures online showing off guns and vehicles claimed from defeated enemies
Mindless destruction: An ISIS militant uses a power tool to destroy a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity at the Nineveh Museum in Mosul in February
Mr Shajaa says the last two generations of his family have been taking care of the tomb, located in one of the few synagogues still standing in Iraq.

The Jewish people were forced to flee in the early 1950s after government policies sought to purge Iraq from their presence.
Mr Shajaa said he's confident that ISIS will not conquer the city, despite its recent conquests of other Iraqi towns.
Nineveh was once the largest city in the world, with a population of as many as 150,000 people in 700BC. Although it now lies ruins, it is still surrounded by a mostly intact 7.5-mile brick rampart.
In January ISIS threatened to destroy the walls of the ancient capital city. Since rising to power the group has vandalised and stolen countless artifacts.
PHOTO A jihadi was notoriously pictured using a power tool to destroy a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity at the Nineveh Museum in Mosul in February
And following their capture of Palmyra last Thursday, ISIS militants destroyed a famous statue of a lion which dated back to the first century AD.

VIDEO ISIS using gune and sledgehappers to destroy ancient site
Twisted belief: The militants' see such sites as targets because of their desire to wipe out all traces of 'non-Islamic' history and what they regard as the idolatrous antiquities, icons and carvings they have
The militants' see such sites as targets because of their desire to wipe out all traces of 'non-Islamic' history and what they regard as the idolatrous antiquities, icons and carvings they have.
ISIS' conquest of Ramadi back in May was its most significant territorial victory in Iraq since the US-led coalition forces began targeting the terror group with airstrikes.
Earlier this week militants destroyed a bridge on the Euphrates river north of the city with a car bomb, to cut off Ramadi's northern entrance, locals said.
The fall of the city has prompted questions about whether the US is losing the war in Iraq and Syria, though President Barack Obama has denied those claims.
US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that over 10,000 ISIS fighters have been killed since the military campaign began nine months ago.
On the march: The fall of the city of Ramadi prompted questions about whether the US is losing the war in Iraq and Syria
READ MORE & PHOTOS
http://m.christianpost.com/news/christian-family-defending-2700-year-old-tomb-of-jewish-prophet-as-isis-army-advances-on-nineveh-139953/

Admin Wed 03 Jun 2015, 8:01 pm

Islamic State loyalist shot dead by Hamas security forces in Gaza
A Salafist leader who has pledged allegiance to the jihadists was killed amid a crackdown by the Strip's Islamist rulers on extremist opponents believed to be behind a string of small explosions
By Agencies5:43PM BST 02 Jun 2015
A Palestinian Salafist leader who has sworn loyalty to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was shot dead in Gaza City on Tuesday during a confrontation with Hamas security forces, as tensions mounted between the Strip's Islamist rulers and its extremist opponents.
The incident occurred during an arrest operation in the northern Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood with Gaza's interior ministry identifying the gunman as local Salafist leader Yussef al-Hanar, 27. Hamas spokesman Eyad al-Bozum said that he died "during an attempt to arrest him."
He said the leader refused to surrender, then opened fire at Hamas forces and planted explosives in the house where he was holed up. Hanar also tried to blow himself up with a suicide vest but was shot dead before it detonated, Mr Bozum told AFP.
A completely destroyed house and a wrecked car are seen in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, yesterday
The death came hours after Isil supporters gave Hamas a 48-hour ultimatum to end a crackdown on extremist militants and release dozens of suspected Isil loyalists rounded up in recent months.
Hamas blames local Salafists who have pledged allegiance to Isil for a recent string of small explosions that have targeted government installations, often causing no casualties.
Police found "explosive belts, explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades" inside the house where Hanar was killed, the Hamas spokesman said.
Pictures of the weapons were posted on the ministry's Facebook page.
• US accuses Assad regime of working with Islamic State
• Syria rebels blame US for failing to strike advancing Isil militants in Turkey border town
• Iraq plan for swift assault on Isil-held Ramadi 'laughable'
• Isil will be more violent than ever in order to survive
Since last summer, when Israel and Hamas fought a deadly 50-day war in and around Gaza, there have been growing signs of internal unrest in the territory between Hamas security forces and extremist splinter groups.
Experts have warned that the growing appeal of jihadist groups, particularly among Gaza's disaffected youth, could trigger a new explosion of violence in the enclave which has been ravaged by three wars with Israel in the past six years.
Since last summer's war, there have been a growing number of small-scale explosions in Gaza targeting officials and buildings affiliated with Hamas, the rival Fatah movement and international organisations.
Although there have been few claims of responsibility, they are believed to be the work of radical Salafists who have made a name for themselves as unafraid to challenge Hamas, seeking to outbid them in the fight against Israel and the defence of Islam.
Salafists are Sunni Muslims who promote a strict lifestyle based on the traditions of early "pious ancestors". In Gaza they have made no secret of their disdain for Hamas over its observance of a tacit ceasefire with Israel and its failure to implement Islamic law.
There have also been attacks claimed by groups purporting to be from an IS branch in Gaza, although such claims have so far been largely discredited by online jihadist forums.
Last week, militants from a group called "Supporters of IS in Ansar Beit al-Maqdis" claimed responsibility for three separate attacks in May, including a rocket attack on a Khan Yunis base of Hamas armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
It also said its militants had fired a rocket at the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod on May 26, in defiance of a tacit truce observed by Hamas and prompting Israel to retaliate with air strikes.
A third attack targeted the car of a senior Hamas security official, who was unharmed. The group warned Gazans to keep away from all Hamas installations for their own safety.

Admin Wed 27 May 2015, 4:41 pm

ISIS to smuggle its first nuclear weapon from Pakistan, mulls attack on US: Report
By PTI | 24 May, 2015, 04.19PM IST
LONDON: There is an "infinitely" greater chance of the cash-rich Islamic State smuggling its first nuclear weapon from Pakistan to attack the US within a year, according to the latest edition of the dreaded group's propaganda magazine.
In what seems to be an exaggerated article in the IS' new edition of Dabiq, its English-language online magazine, attributed to British journalist John Cantlie, the outfit has suggested a unification of militant Islamist groups across the Middle East,
, Africa and Asia to create one global movement.
The terror group that has executed a number of Westerners in the past months said it can use the "billions of dollars" in its coffers to purchase its first nuclear acquisition within a year.
It has used photojournalist Cantlie - held hostage for over two years by the terror group also acronymed as ISIS or ISIL - regularly in its propaganda.
The article titled 'The Perfect Storm' reads: "The Islamic State has billions of dollars in the bank, so they call on their wilayah (chapter) in Pakistan to purchase a nuclear device through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region."
It raises a "hypothetical" possibility under which ISIS operatives in Pakistan bribe an official to provide them with a nuclear device which is then smuggled into America via Libya, Nigeria and Mexico, The Telegraph reported.
The article presumed to be written under pressure but in his hallmark style combining hyperbole, metaphor and sarcasm, Cantlie says that US President Barack Obama's policies for containing the group have demonstrably failed and increased the risk to America.
It comes at a time when the Islamic State group fighters have gained grounds in Syria and Iraq, storming the museum in the ancient city of Palmyra and capturing Ramadi, capital of Iraq's largest province.
The loss of Ramadi has been termed as a "tactical setback" by Obama, who has insisted that the US-led coalition's campaign againt the terror outfit is "not losing".
Cantlie says it is no secret that the ISIS is planning to attack America on a large-scale, having transcended its roots as "the most explosive Islamic 'group' in the modern world" to evolve into "the most explosive Islamic movement the modern world has ever seen" in less than twelve months.
"Perhaps such a scenario is far-fetched but it's the sum of all fears for Western intelligence agencies and it's infinitely more possible today than it was just one year ago.
"And if not a nuke, what about a few thousand tonnes of ammonium nitrate explosive? That's easy enough to make," he writes.
Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47404608.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Admin Mon 25 May 2015, 10:21 pm

Islamic State Lines Street with 400 Dead Women and Children
By Pamela Geller
The Obama strategy facilitated the rise of the Islamic State. His administration saw the Islamic terror group as a “U.S. strategic asset.”
ISIS slaughters 400 mostly women and children in ancient Syria city of Palmyra where hundreds of bodies line the street

State TV reporting victims are believed to be government loyalists
Follows execution of 300 pro-government soldiers in historic settlement
Jihadi fighters previously warned residents against sheltering troops
Black ISIS flag hoisted over an ancient citadel after taking over city
By Kate Pickles For Mailonline, (thanks to Religion of Peace)
Islamic State militants have executed at least 400 mostly women and children in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra.
Eye-witnesses have reported the streets are strewn with bodies – the latest victims of the Islamic State’s unrelenting savagery – on the same day photographs of captured Syrian soldiers have emerged.
It follows the killing of nearly 300 pro-government troops two days after they captured the city, now symbolised by a black ISIS flag flying above an ancient citadel.
Takeover: ISIS raised their flag over an ancient citadel in Palmyra while state television is reporting they have killed hundreds of women and children

ISIS has also strengthened its position in neighbouring Iraq with Jihadi fighters killing more than 500 people when they captured the city of Ramadi, last week.
Syrian state television announced the most recent massacre, quoting residents inside the city, which is known as Tadmur in Arabic.
‘The terrorists have killed more than 400 people.. and mutilated their bodies, under the pretext that they cooperated with the government and did not follow orders,’ Syria’s state news agency said.
It added that dozens of those killed were state employees, including the head of nursing department at the hospital and all her family members.
Harrowing pictures have also emerged of Syrian army troops captured during the fierce fighting as the city fell. The 20 soldiers, in military clothing, look disheveled as they kneel before cameras.
Officials say the Syrian army is deploying troops in areas near to the ancient town in apparent preparation for a counter-attack to retake the city from the Islamic State group.
Photos
Captured: Syrian soldiers that were taken after ISIS took control of the ancient city of Palmyra
Seized: Members of the Syrian army crouch before cameras after they were seized by ISIS
Distressing: The photographs show 20 Syrian soldiers, dressed in full uniform, on their knees, days after 300 were killed in Palmyra
Governor Talal Barazi of the central province of Homs, which includes Palmyra, said that IS members have ‘committed mass massacres in the city of Palmyra’ since its capture.
He said IS fighters took civilians, including women, to unknown destinations.
But he said retaliation was imminent, adding: ‘there is planning, God willing, for a military action in the surroundings of Palmyra’.
It comes as a former head of the Army called on the Government to ‘think the previously unthinkable’ and consider sending ground troops to combat Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff, told the Mail on Sunday he felt air strikes had failed to stop the advance of the extremist organisation and urged Parliament to debate deploying up to 5,000 infantry soldiers.
‘In light of this terrifying scenario, how much longer can Britain and the US continue to show such a lack of commitment to defeating IS mililtarily? Their default option of air strikes and limited assistance to indigenous forces has failed thus far,’ he said.
Sickening: A picture sent by activists to a Western journalist showed a row of men in a street in Palmyra — known locally by its Arabic name Tadmur — lying in a pool of blood. At least four had been decapitated PHOTO BEEN BLURRED OUT.
Jail break: This picture shared on several pro-ISIS Twitter account claims to show prisoners celebrating with their liberators after being freed from the notorious Tadmur prison by ISIS fighters in the city of Palmyra
We have now reached a point when we must think the previously unthinkable and consider that British troops, acting as part of an international coalition, may be required to mount a ground campaign in Iraq and Syria.
‘I am no gung-ho general who says ‘just send the boys in and don’t worry about the body bags’, far from it, but faced with such a lethal and uncompromising enemy as IS – and with the lack of political and diplomatic solutions at our disposal – we can no longer rule out ‘boots on the ground’.’
Meanwhile, US defence secretary Ash Carter criticised Iraqi forces for not having the ‘will to fight’ after the Islamic State group’s takeover of Ramadi.
What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered.
Ash Carter, US defence secretary
Mr Carter said the United States can provide training, weapons and air support in the fight against the Islamic State extremists but he said the Iraqi forces will have to show a willingness to fight for their country.
‘What apparently happened is the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered,’ he said.
‘In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves.’
Now the terror group also has full control of Palmyra, putting the world heritage site and its priceless 2,000-year-old artifacts at risk of destruction.
The city is home to renowned Roman-era ruins including well-preserved temples, colonnades and a theatre.
Opposition activists have said on social media that hundreds of bodies were in the streets of the city after it was seized by the ultra hardline group on Wednesday. They said they were believed to be government loyalists.

Archaeological jewel: PHOTO The city is home to a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jihadi fighters have been stalking homes and shops looking for survivors, using loudspeakers to warn residents not to shelter any troops
Battle: Islamic State fighters take cover during a battle against Syrian government forces on a road between Homs and Palmyra on Wednesday, shortly before they seized the city

Ancient site: PHOTO
Islamic State militants overran the famed archaeological site at Palmyra, just hours after seizing the central Syrian town The jihadis have been stalking homes and shops looking for survivors, using loudspeakers to warn residents not to shelter any troops.
- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/05/islamic-state-lines-street-with-400-dead-women-and-children.html/#sthash.e8vXZVCf.dpuf

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