Boots on the Ground 06-13-14

U.S. had ISIS leader in custody in 2009, let him go

Yet another triumph of Obama’s myopic, post-American foreign policy. Islam is a religion of peace, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is an “ex-preacher,” so he must have been peaceful, right? Release him! Respect it!


“Iraq crisis: the jihadist behind the takeover of Mosul – and how America let him go,” by Colin Freeman, the Telegraph, June 11, 2014:
The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it.
Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement.
Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to topple President Bashar al-Assad and starting a fresh campaign of mayhem against the Western-backed government in Baghdad.

Iranian troops cross border, join Iraqis in Islamic civil war

In what could never be described in clear cut terms, the fall of the American-backed Iraqi government to al-Qaeda forces cold possibly be delayed by Iran now doing what it can to shore up the Baghdad government. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on June 12, 2014 that Iranian Special Forces have joined Iraqi government troops in the face to rebel ISIS fighters.
Unlike the Second World War where there were clear lines of delineation between Allied and Axis forces, the battlefield of the Middle East more closely resembles a plate of spaghetti thrown against the wall. But as time goes by and the situation constantly evolves and mutates, many agree that this particular conflict isn't between conventional governments, but fought by the two major branches of Islam.
As the Iraqi cities Fallujah and Ramadi before them, the north-central Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit have just fallen to the al-Qaeda-allied forces of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), the Iranian government has deployed at least two battalions of the al-Quds Revolutionary Guards to fight side-by-side with the troops loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. As the overseas branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the al-Quds forces are looked upon as their nation's version of the US


Iraq unrest drives up oil; equities slip

NEW YORK/LONDON, (Reuters) - Escalating violence in Iraq drove oil higher and sent stocks lower on Friday, putting a global equity index on track for its first weekly loss in five weeks.

Wall Street was little changed, but U.S. averages were set for their first loss in four weeks, while European shares .FTEU3 were set to interrupt eight weeks of gains. The MSCI All World Index fell 0.2 percent and is down 0.5 percent for the week.

Despite the decline in riskier assets, benchmark U.S. bond prices fell, pushing yields slightly higher. Sterling surged on Friday after the Bank of England hinted at an interest rate rise this year.

Financial markets' focus was on the violence in Iraq where Sunni Islamist militants have surged out of the north this week to menace Baghdad and want to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria. President Barack Obama on Thursday threatened U.S. military strikes in Iraq against the insurgents.

"The market was looking for an excuse to take profits after a rally to new highs and tensions in Iraq gave investors an opportunity to trim their positions," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.

Oil rose, with Brent crude at one point touching a nine-month high of $114.69. It was last up just a few cents to $113.05. U.S. crude CLc1 touched an intraday high of $107.68 before pulling back, up 19 cents to $106.71. The benchmark is up about 4 percent this week.

"There was a big market reaction and then the IEA (International Energy Agency) said it did not see a risk to supplies so the volatility is reflecting this," said Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix consultancy.

The IEA played down fears over the possible sudden loss of oil exports from Iraq in its monthly oil market report.

ISIS just stole $425 million, Iraqi governor says, and became the ‘world’s richest terrorist group’

Of the many stunning revelations to emerge out of the wreckage of Mosul on Wednesday — 500,000 fleeing residents, thousands of freed prisoners, unconfirmed reports of “mass beheadings” — the one that may have the most lasting impact as Iraq descends into a possible civil war is that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria just got extremely rich.
As insurgents rolled past the largest city in northern Iraq, an oil hub at the vital intersection of Syria, Iraq and Turkey, and into Tikrit, several gunmen stopped at Mosul’s central bank. An incredible amount of cash was reportedly on hand, and the group made off with 500 billion Iraqi dinars — $425 million.
The provincial governor of Nineveh, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said that the radical Islamists had lifted additional millions from numerous banks across Mosul, as well as a “large quantity of gold bullion,” according to the International Business Times, which called ISIS the “World’s Richest Terror Force.”
The declaration isn’t an easy one to fact-check. Not only is the definition of “terrorist” nebulous — are murderous but wealthy Mexican cartels terrorists? — it’s also exceedingly difficult to quantify a terrorist organization’s finances. One of the closest stabs anyone has made comes from the well-versed Money Jihad.
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Bombshell: Benghazi Filmmaker CONFIRMED To Be An Agent Of Eric Holder Justice Department

Editor's Note: Earlier this week, we brought you news about the producer of the film that was at the heart of the Obama administration talking points on Benghazi admitting to being a Muslim, not a Coptic Christian as he had been portrayed to America. Now Walid Shoebat, Ben Barrack and Keith Davies confirm he is an agent of Eric Holder's Justice Department.
The producer of the anti-Muhammad video the Obama administration blamed for the Benghazi attacks is actually a confirmed agent of Eric Holder's Justice Department.
The damning trail of evidence begins when a fictitious narrative was concocted by the FBI to lure the courts that Nakoula (the Filmmaker, aka Yousef) was supposed to help the FBI catch Eiad Salameh, his partner in crimes for many years. Yet, the deal was never fulfilled and Eiad was let go by the Feds in 2011 as Shoebat.com revealed in a firsthand account never before reported, including a recorded conversation between Nakoula and Shoebat.com in which the filmmaker defended Eiad, the very man he was supposed to help the FEDS catch!
Bolstering the case (aside from the Feds letting two criminals go) is how the filmmaker became an agent of Eric Holder. After Nakoula's arrest, there was a very curious development at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, which was handling his case through an Assistant U.S. Attorney who suddenly was pulled off the case and replaced by a full bird -  Chief of the office's Criminal Division, Robert Dugdale.

US Intel Knew in Real Time Benghazi Attack was Terrorism from Intercepted Phone Calls

There was no failure of intelligence. There was no period in which anyone thought that it was a protest. They knew all along.
They knew and they lied.
Eric Stahl, who recently retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander and pilot of the C-17 aircraft that was used to transport the corpses of the four casualties from the Benghazi attacks – then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – as well as the assault’s survivors from Tripoli to the safety of an American military base in Ramstein, Germany.
In an exclusive interview on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Stahl said members of a CIA-trained Global Response Staff who raced to the scene of the attacks were “confused” by the administration’s repeated implication of the video as a trigger for the attacks, because “they knew during the attack…who was doing the attacking.” Asked how, Stahl told anchor Bret Baier: “Right after they left the consulate in Benghazi and went to the [CIA] safehouse, they were getting reports that cell phones, consulate cell phones, were being used to make calls to the attackers’ higher ups.”
A separate U.S. official, one with intimate details of the bloody events of that night, confirmed the major’s assertion. The second source, who requested anonymity to discuss classified data, told Fox News he had personally read the intelligence reports at the time that contained references to calls by terrorists – using State Department cell phones captured at the consulate during the battle – to their terrorist leaders. The second source also confirmed that the security teams on the ground received this intelligence in real time.

MITT ROMNEY ON VA, IRAQ: I TOLD YOU SO

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that during the 2012 election he argued for VA reform and that the violence in Iraq would come to pass as a result of the withdrawal of U.S. troops. When Romney was asked for his take on the VA scandal, he stated “as you may recall during the campaign I suggested we ought to give veterans vouchers if they want to go to a regular public hospital, regular private hospital, they ought to have that opportunity. Some people just aren’t able to get the care they need from our VA system and that’s got to change.” At the time, Romney’s VA proposal was strongly criticized by Democrats.

“I Told You This Would Happen” Angry McCain Blasts Inept Obama on Senate Floor

Senator John McCain, speaking on the Senate floor says, “If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry,” as he recounts the efforts and admonishments he made to try to persuade the Obama regime not to completely abandon Iraq for political expediency.
After describing the missed opportunities for success and the blunders made by the Obama regime in Iraq, McCain has some suggestions as to what, in his view, needs to be done now.
He says that now, with ISIS, the most radical Islamist terrorist group sweeping across Iraq and now threatening Baghdad, our options become fewer and fewer by the hour.
McCain says those who succeeded in Iraq need to be called out of retirement and the Obama national security team needs to be replaced. He says the he, along with Lindsey Graham and four named military leaders predicted this current situation as well as the one that is similarly now being created with similar short-sighted declarations of victory in Afghanistan.
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Hillary Clinton unwilling to turn over her Benghazi notes

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$3 million waste? Patrol boats intended for Afghan forces sit in Virginia base

Patrol boats U.S. taxpayers sunk $3 million on in 2010 that were supposed to beef up the Afghan National Police presence along its border are collecting dust inside a Virginia Navy base.
The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, released the report last Friday and said these eight rigid-hulled inflatable boats were at one time considered a priority for the Afghan forces. Afghanistan already utilizes four similar boats, and these eight were intended to deter smuggling on its north and west border, the report said.
The total cost of the eight boats -- including transportation and training -- was slightly more than $3 million, the report said. The Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, or CSTC-A, which includes multinational military counterparts, canceled the requirements for the boats, but the boats were nearly completed and shipped to the Cheatham Annex in Yorktown, Va., where they have remained since 2011, the report said.
Each boat was more than $375,000 and The Washington Post reported that similar boats are typically sold in the U.S. for $50,000. The paper questioned how the country would manage to repair the boats since the nearest port is in Pakistan, about 1,000 miles away.
"There are no current plans for utilizing the patrol boats in Afghanistan," CSTC-A said, in a written response in May to a SIGAR inquiry. The responsibility of these boats now rests with the Navy, according to the response. An April review board, which included the transition officials, determined that these boats "do not fill a valid requirement in Afghanistan," according the response.

Citizen Calls on Congress to De-Fund Michelle Obama”

What role, exactly, does Michelle Obama play in the execution of the day-to-day tasks of running this great nation? The short answer, is of course, none.
Michelle Obama has made a killing as the First Lady, turning the privilege of being married to the president into a legitimate career move, despite the fact that the Constitution does not give the “position” any real authority.
The First Spouse isn’t supposed to be a taxpayer funded political activist getting a paycheck to travel the world on diplomatic missions or push for legislation such as a school lunch program.

Read more at http://conservativetribune.com/citizen-defund-michelle-obama/#8P318u0pQfqaOdEI.99

What role, exactly, does Michelle Obama play in the execution of the day-to-day tasks of running this great nation? The short answer, is of course, none.
Michelle Obama has made a killing as the First Lady, turning the privilege of being married to the president into a legitimate career move, despite the fact that the Constitution does not give the “position” any real authority.
The First Spouse isn’t supposed to be a taxpayer funded political activist getting a paycheck to travel the world on diplomatic missions or push for legislation such as a school lunch program.

Conan O’Brien Mocks President Obama on George H.W. Bush’s Birthday:

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