The United States trained terrorists from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Jordan
Aaron Klein wrote an article entitled “Blowback! U.S. Trained ISIS at Secret Jordan Base” which was published by WND on June 17, 2014. The reporter explained that members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also referred to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) were being training in 2012 by the United States at secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials.
These officials said that dozens of ISIS terrorists were trained at the time as part of assisting the rebels fighting against the Syrian dictator by Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Turkey and Jordan were running training bases for the Syrian rebels. If this report is true, it is another indication that President Obama has switched sides in the War against Terror, as documented by the Citizens’ Committee on Benghazi.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rapid invasion of Iraq
As a result of President Obama gun-running operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has now established a caliphate over the territory that stretches from the Syrian city of Raqqa through Iraq’s Nineveh province to the outskirts of Baghdad. Due to the danger of fighting in Baghdad, President Obama sent 275 troops to protect the American Embassy in Baghdad.
Anita Kumar wrote an article entitled “300 U.S. advisors are headed to Iraq” which was published on The Miami Herald on June 20, 2014. She explained that the president announced on June 19, 2014, that the United States will send up to 300 military advisers to Iraq in response to that nation’s request for military assistance. The military advisers will be deployed in small teams over a dozen or so to assess the situation. The president also announced that the United States will set up joint operations centers to coordinate intelligence and planning with the Iraqis, send more equipment to the region and secure diplomatic facilities. The reporter wrote that Gordon Adams, a senior White House national security budget official in the Clinton administration and a professor at American University “was skeptical that 300 advisors would be able to quickly turn around the Iraqi military.”
There are more than 30,000 troops at sea and on land under the Pentagon Central Command which oversees the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush has arrived in the Arabian Gulf with additional escort warships. The amphibious transport USS Mesa Verde includes more than 500 Marines onboard. Two destroyers had been previously scheduled to the area.
President Obama stated that there is no chance that the United States would put boots on the ground, although he had allowed the possibility of future airstrikes. The president said on June 19, 2014, that the Iraqi government needs to bring unity between the Shiite and Sunni population. President Obama stated the following: “American combat troops in are not going to be fighting in Iraq again. We do not have the ability to simply solve this problem by sending in tens of thousands of troops… Ultimately, this is something that is going to have to be solve by the Iraqis. We will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if we conclude the situation on the ground requires it.”
The president’s weak actions and statements did not intimidate the brutal Sunni terrorist ISIS Army as it continued to advance towards Baghdad while the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate. Obama sent Secretary of State John Kerry to Europe and the Middle East to try to find some support among our allies for any joint effort regarding Iraq. However, no United States allies in Europe have offered to join the United States in helping the Shiite government of Iraq.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky, stated that “the president has weakened the national security posture of the United States.” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate stated the following: “Although a political solution to Iraq’s troubles might have been an appropriate goal in 2005 or 2011, it simply may not be feasible in 2014. The time for this sort of argument would have been three years ago, when America was a most influential voice in Baghdad.”
Representative Ed Royce, Republican from California and chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee stated on June 19, 2014 that President Obama’s response underestimate the seriousness of the threat. Congressman Royce stated the following: “The steps the president announced are needed but fall short of what is required to stop this al Qaeda offshoot from gaining more power, which must include drone strikes. Yes, Iraq is most solve their differences on their own, but this crisis comes as the administration has disengaged from Iraq and willfully ignored well known threats.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki has proven to be a complete failure and the chaos in his country is due to his incompetent leadership. Nouri-al Maliki is now a puppet of Iran and a traitor to our nation. And worst of all, ISIS and other al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups are stronger than ever and believe that the United States is a paper tiger.
President Obama´s diplomacy failed completely in stopping Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik repressing the Sunni minority and his exclusion of Sunnis and Kurds from his government. Since the withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces in late 2011, the corrupt Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik began to oppress and exclude Sunni politicians and leaders from his government. While the president did not call for the resignation of the incompetent Nouri al-Malik, he said the following: “Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through the crisis. We’ve said publicly, that whether he (al-Maliki) is prime minister or any other leader aspires to lead the country, that there has to be an agenda in which Sunni, Shiite and Kurd all feel that they have the opportunity to advance their interests through the political process.”
Due to the current turmoil there is a campaign in Iraq to force the resignation of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik. Several names of prominent Shiite politicians are being currently discussed as a replacement for the corrupt Prime Minister.
All the efforts of the American armed forces to eradicate al Qaeda from northern Iraq had been in vain. The ISIS savages rapid advance through northern Iraq has liquidated all the gains we made at a high cost of American blood and treasure during that war. The United States lost 4,500 members of our Armed Forces and spent over a trillion dollars in the war in Iraq. The United States spent $17 billion in military training of Iraqi Armed Forces and provided them with $ 15 billion in military equipment. Now most of the U.S. equipment has been captured by ISIS.
An article in Wikipedia explained that ISIS has captured and currently uses American weapons, vehicles and uniforms in its operations. It stated the following: “ISIS members have been seen wearing the standard U.S. Army Combat Uniform along with Interceptor body armor. For night raids, AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles worn with PASGT helmets are used. Some of the weapons used are M16 rifles, M4 carbines, M203 grenade launchers, M60 machine guns, M240 machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and vehicles used include Humvees, MRAPs, M113 APCs and several T-55 tanks. During the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, ISIS raided an Iraqi Army base and captured numerous Type 59-1 artillery guns, DShK guns mounted on trucks and several ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns.
When ISIS captured Mosul Airport in June 2014, it seized a number of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there. However, according to Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, it seems unlikely that ISIS would be able to deploy them since it has no trained pilots in its ranks.”
In retrospect, it is now obvious that pulling all of the United States Armed Forces from Iraq was a terrible mistake. Many Republicans in Congress told President Obama that he should have left some troops in Iraq to prevent al Qaeda from moving in again. However, the arrogant Obama never listens to good advice.
Is President Barack Obama going to tolerate a caliphate of terrorists controlling territory in Syria and Iraq?
Almost all of the territory that ISIS now control is desert area. Obama needs to use our Air Force to destroy all the U.S. military equipment, including tanks, that was abandoned by the inept Iraqi army and is now in the hands of brutal ISIS Sunni killers who are committing massive assassinations of captured Shiites. Perhaps, the President does not want to attack his former allies.
Barry Shaw wrote an article entitled “The ISIS Conquest of Iraq Leads to Jerusalem” which was published by American Thinker on June 18, 2014. Shaw explained that the terror organization ISIS brutalization of Iraq will result in an Islamic march of death to Jerusalem. The reporter pointed out that the call of the people in the Arab world for the overthrow of unsatisfactory leaders has resulted in their cause being hijacked by jihadist terrorists.
Sadly, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda-linked organizations to overthrow Qaddafi in 2011. At that time Qaddafi was our ally in the War of Terror. Literally, the United States Air Force became the al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood Air Force in Libya.
Later President Obama sent heavy weapons from Libya to Turkey to Syria and most of them ended up being captured by al Qaeda linked organizations such as ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, which later merged into one larger, powerful, and bloody terrorist army. As in Libya and Egypt, the effort to overthrow dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria was hijacked by different jihadist terrorist organizations including ISIS. For those actions against our national security interest, President Barack Obama should be impeached and Hillary Clinton indicted since both of them are guilty of treason, dereliction of duty, and criminal negligence.
President Barack Obama was instrumental in assisting the Muslim Brotherhood achieve power in Egypt by betraying our long-term ally President Hosni Mubarak. The President’s own brother, Malik Obama, was denounced by the Vice President of the Supreme Court of Egypt as “being the architect of the finances of the Muslim Brotherhood.” The President has also allowed operatives for the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate his government thus endangering seriously one more time our national security.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This savage terrorist has transformed ISIS into the most brutal and lethal jihadist organization in the world. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the leader of ISIS after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in 2010.
When al Qaeda in Iraq was under the leadership of Abu Al Zarqawi, this terrorist wrote a letter to Ayman Al-Zawahiri a stating the goals of this organization which were as follows:
1. Drive the United States out of Iraq.
2. Create a caliphate in Iraq.
3. Use the caliphate as a base to attack other countries.
4. Attack and destroy Israel.
Unfortunately, the first three goals have been achieved due to the failure of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. Hillary Clinton was a complete failure as Secretary of State.
Barry Shaw explained that when both Abu Al Zarqawi and Abu Omar al Baghdadi were killed by American forces it looked as if al Qaeda had been decimated in Iraq. However, this was not the case.
Shaw wrote the following: ” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reformed a weakening terror group by leading it in battle, honing its fighters’ training and experience in Iraq and Syria, and by using political savvy to link his growing group to local and tribal demands and interests. It became both a fighting force and a social benefactor, winning local hearts and minds along a bloody part of victory. He absorbed the al-Nusra Front terror group in Syria into his ranks, demanding their obedience. Seeing the growing threat, al Qaeda’s al-Zarqawi, from his hiding place somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan, criticized ISIS for not concentrating on Iraq. In response, a confident ISIS hit back, accusing the “al Qaeda chief of Sheikh Osama (bin Laden) gathered all the mujahedeen with one word, but you divided them and tore them apart.”
Now ISIS has incorporated thousands of foreign fighters to its ranks, increasing its power and size. The Obama administration was once again surprised by the ISIS blitzkrieg in capturing the towns of Mosul, Tikrit, and Fallujah in northern Iraq. Once again, the president has no idea what to do. Besides being a traitor to our nation, President Obama is incompetent, or perhaps, he welcomes the victory of a powerful Sunni terror organization in Iraq.
Wikipedia excellent article on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (alternatively translated as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) further explained the following:
“The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (alternatively translated as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham) is an unrecognized state and active jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria. In its unrecognized self-proclaimed status as an independent state, it claims the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant, including Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, and Southern Turkey.
The group was composed of and supported by a variety of insurgent groups, including its predecessor organization, the Mujahideen Shura Council, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura etc., and other clans whose population profess Sunni Islam. Its aim was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni majority regions of Iraq, later expanding this to include Syria. In February 2014, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIS.
At the height of the Iraq War, its forerunners enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi provinces of Al Anbar, Ninawa, Kirkuk, most of Salah ad Din, parts of Babil, Diyala and Baghdad, and claimed Baqubah for a capital city. In the ongoing Syrian Civil War, the group has a large presence in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo.
In addition to attacks on government and military targets, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. Despite significant setbacks for the group during the latter stages of the coalition forces’ presence in Iraq, by late 2012 the group was thought to have renewed its strength and more than doubled the number of its members to about 2,500.
A letter and then an audio recording by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, were leaked to Al Jazeera in 2013, disbanding the Syrian faction of ISIS. However, the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made it clear that he contested this ruling on the basis of Islamic jurisprudence, and the group has since continued to operate in Syria. Starting in April 2013, the group made rapid military gains in controlling large parts of Northern Syria, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described them as “the strongest group”.
In early June 2014, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, ISIS is reported to have seized control of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, a large part of the surrounding Nineveh province, and the city of Fallujah. ISIS has also taken control of Tikrit, with the ultimate goal of capturing Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. ISIS was believed to have only 2,000â3,000 fighters up until the Mosul campaign, but during that campaign it became evident that this number was a gross underestimate.”
Wikipedia further explained the following: “In October 2004, the group’s then leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden. In January 2006, the group merged with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council.
On 12 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council joined with four other insurgent factions and representatives of a number of Iraqi tribes and participated in a traditional Arab oath of allegiance known as the “Oath of the Scented Ones.” During the ceremony the participants declared: “We swear by Allah ⌠that we will strive to free the prisoners of their shackles, to end the oppression to which the Sunnis are being subjected by the malicious Shiites and by the occupying Crusaders, to assist the oppressed and restore their rights even at the price of our own lives ⌠to make Allah’s word supreme in the world, and to restore the glory of Islam”. The following day, 13 October 2006, the establishment of the “Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)”, was announced.
On 9 April 2013, after the group expanded into Syria, it adopted the name “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”, also known as “Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham”. It is abbreviated as ISIS. In Syria, ISIS’s seat of power is in Ar-Raqqah Governorate. Top ISIS leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, are known to have visited its provincial capital, Raqqah.
Analysis
According to some analysts, ISIS is increasingly being viewed as a militia rather than a terrorist organization. “This is not a terrorism problem anymore”, says Jessica Lewis, an expert on ISIS at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, “This is an army on the move in Iraq and Syria, and they are taking terrain. … They have shadow governments in and around Baghdad, and they have an aspirational goal to govern. I don’t know whether they want to control Baghdad, or if they want to destroy the functions of the Iraqi state, but either way the outcome will be disastrous for Iraq.”
Lewis, who was a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, calls ISIS “an advanced military leadership.” She says, “They have incredible command and control and they have a sophisticated reporting mechanism from the field that can relay tactics and directives up and down the line … They are well-financed, and they have big sources of manpower, not just the foreign fighters, but also prisoner escapees.” Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, who monitors jihadist activity for the Middle East Forum says, “They are highly skilled in urban guerrilla warfare while the new Iraqi Army simply lacks tactical competence.”] Other seasoned observers also pointed to the Iraqi army’s systemic corruption, its being little more than a system of patronage, for its spectacular collapse in June 2014 as ISIS and its allies took over large swaths of Iraq.
During the Iraq War, the U.S. Armed Forces had never faced an organized militant force as good as ISIS. Douglas Ollivant, a former Army Cavalry officer who later handled Iraq for the White House National Security Council, says, “They were great terrorists. They made great car bombs. But they were lousy line infantry, and if you got them in a firefight, they’d die. They have now repaired that deficiency.” Like other analysts, Ollivant credits the civil war in Syria for their striking improvement in battlefield ability since the Iraq War: “You fight Hizballah for a couple of years, and you either die or you get a lot better. And these guys just got a lot better.”
The Economist reported that “ISIS may have up to 6,000 fighters in Iraq and 3,000-5,000 in Syria, including perhaps 3,000 foreigners; nearly a thousand are reported to hail from Chechnya and perhaps 500 or so more from France, Britain and elsewhere in Europe.” Some sources believe that the group has about 15,000 people performing secondary roles.
ISIS currently runs a soft-power program, which includes social services, religious lectures and da’wahâproselytizingâto local populations. It also performs civil tasks such as repairing roads and maintaining the electricity supply. Other armed opposition groups have turned against ISIS because the group considers itself a state with its own courts, not “a faction among factions”, not allowing other opposition groups to take benefits from smuggling weapons and drugs between Syria and Turkey or to take penalties from border-crossers.
The group is also known for its effective use of propaganda. ISIS’s main media outlet is the Media Foundation, whose use of social media has been described by one expert as “probably more sophisticated than [that of] most US companies
Finances
In mid-2014, Iraqi intelligence extracted information from an ISIS operative which revealed that the organization had assets worth $2 billion, making it the richest jihadist group in the world. About three quarters of this sum is represented by assets seized after the group captured Mosul in June 2014, including perhaps $429 million looted from Mosul’s central bank as well as a large quantity of gold bullion. That will “buy a whole lot of Jihad”, regional analyst Brown Moses wrote on Twitter, adding, “For example, with $425 million, ISIS could [recruit and] pay 60,000 fighters around $600 a month for a year.”
ISIS has routinely practiced extortion, by demanding money from truck drivers and threatening to blow up businesses, for example. Robbing banks and gold shops has been another source of income. The group is widely reported as receiving funding from private donors in Gulf states. Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS, although there is reportedly no evidence that this is the case.
The group is also believed to be receiving considerable funds from its operations in Eastern Syria, where it has commandeered oil fields and engages in smuggling out raw materials and archaeological artifacts. ISIS also generates revenue from producing crude oil and selling electric power in northern Syria. The crude oil is reportedly sold back to the Syrian government. Since 2012, ISIS has produced annual reports giving numerical information on its operations, somewhat in the style of corporate
History
Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihadâoften abbreviated as “JTJ”, was started in about 2000 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and a combination of foreigners and local Islamist sympathizers. Al-Zarqawi was a Jordanian Salafi who had traveled to Afghanistan to fight in the Soviet-Afghan War, but he arrived after the departure of the Soviet troops and soon returned to his homeland. He eventually returned to Afghanistan, running an Islamic militant training camp near Herat.
Al-Zarqawi started the network with the intention of overthrowing the kingdom of Jordan. For this purpose he developed a large number of contacts and affiliates in several countries. Although it has not been verified, his network may have been involved in the late 1999 plot to bomb the Millennium celebrations in the United States and Jordan. However, al-Zarqawi’s operatives were responsible for the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan in 2002.
Following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi moved westward into Iraq, where he reportedly received medical treatment in Baghdad for an injured leg. The 2006 Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq concluded: “Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi.”
Following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, JTJ developed into an expanding militant network for the purpose of resisting the coalition occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. It included some of the remnants of Ansar al-Islam and a growing number of foreign fighters. Many foreign fighters arriving in Iraq were initially not associated with the group, but once they were in the country they became dependent on al-Zarqawi’s local contacts. In May 2004, JTJ joined forces with Salafiah al-Mujahidiah, an obscure Islamist militant group.
Goals and tactics
The stated goals of JTJ were: (i) to force a withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq; (ii) to topple the Iraqi interim government; (iii) to assassinate collaborators with the occupation regime; (iv) to remove the Shia population and defeat its militias because of its death-squad activities; and (v) to establish subsequently a pure Islamic state.
JTJ differed considerably from the other early Iraqi insurgent groups in its tactics. Rather than using only conventional weapons and guerrilla tactics in ambushes against the U.S. and coalition forces, it relied heavily on suicide bombings, often using car bombs. It targeted a wide variety of groups, especially the Iraqi Security Forces and those facilitating the occupation. Groups of workers who have been targeted by JTJ include Iraqi interim officials, Iraqi Shia and Kurdish political and religious figures, the country’s Shia Muslim civilians, foreign civilian contractors, and United Nations and humanitarian workers. Al-Zarqawi’s militants are also known to have used a wide variety of other tactics, including targeted kidnappings, the planting of improvised explosive devices, and mortar attacks. Beginning in late June 2004, JTJ implemented urban guerrilla-style attacks using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. They also gained worldwide notoriety for beheading Iraqi and foreign hostages and distributing video recordings of these acts on the Internet.
The U.N. headquarters building in Baghdad after the Canal Hotel bombing, on 22 August 2003
It conducted numerous attacks against U.S. military personnel throughout 2004, and audacious suicide attacks inside the high-security Green Zone perimeter in Baghdad. Al-Zarqawi’s men reputedly succeeded in assassinating several leading Iraqi politicians of the early post-Saddam era, and their bomb attack on the United Nations mission’s headquarters in Iraq led the U.N. country team to relocate to Jordan and continue their work remotely.
The group took either direct responsibility or the blame for many of the early Iraqi insurgent attacks, including the series of high-profile bombings in August 2003, which killed 17 people at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, 23 people, including the chief of the United Nations mission to Iraq SĂŠrgio Vieira de Mello, at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, and at least 86 people, including Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, in the Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf. Included here is the November truck bombing, which killed 27 people, mostly Italian paramilitary policemen, at the Italian base in Nasiriyah.
The attacks connected with the group in 2004 include the series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala which killed 178 people during the holy Day of Ashura in March; the failed plot in April to explode chemical bombs in Amman, Jordan, which was said to have been financed by al-Zarqawi’s network; a series of suicide boat bombings of the oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf in April, for which al-Zarqawi took responsibility in a statement published by the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist website; the May car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council president Ezzedine Salim at the entrance to the Green Zone in Baghdad; the June suicide car bombing in Baghdad which killed 35 civilians; and the September car bomb which killed 47 police recruits.
A screenshot from the 2004 hostage video where Nick Berg was beheaded by JTJ fighters.
Foreign civilian hostages abducted by the group in 2004 include: Americans Nick Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley; Turks Durmus Kumdereli, Aytullah Gezmen and Murat Yuce; South Korean Kim Sun-il; Bulgarians Georgi Lazov and Ivaylo Kepov; and Briton Kenneth Bigley. Most of them were beheaded using knives. Al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg and Armstrong, but Yuce was shot dead by al-Masri and Gezmen was released after “repenting”.
Goals and umbrella organizations
In a letter to Ayman al-Zawahiri in July 2005, al-Zarqawi outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling U.S. forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authorityâa caliphateâspreading the conflict to Iraq’s secular neighbors, and engaging in the ArabâIsraeli conflict. The affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq which were consistent with their stated plan, one example being the 2005 Sharm al-Sheikh bombings in Egypt, which killed 88 people, many of them foreign tourists.
In January 2006, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) created an umbrella organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), in an attempt to unify Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Its efforts to recruit Iraqi Sunni nationalists and secular groups were undermined by the violent tactics it used against civilians and its extreme Islamic fundamentalist doctrine. Because of these impediments, the attempt was largely unsuccessful.
According to a study compiled by U.S. intelligence agencies, the ISI had plans to seize power and turn the country into a Sunni Islamic state. This group was most clearly associated with foreign Jihadi cells operating in Iraq and had specifically targeted international forces and Iraqi citizens; most of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)’s operatives were not Iraqi, but were coming through a series of safe houses, the largest of which was on the Iraq-Syrian border. According to the report, Iraqisâmany of them former members of Hussein’s secret servicesâwere now effectively running Al-Qaeda in Iraq, with “foreign fighters’ roles” seeming to be “mostly relegated to the cannon fodder of suicide attacks”, although the organization’s top leadership was still dominated by non-Iraqis. They claimed responsibility for a series of mosque bombings in the same month in the city of Khanaqin, which killed at least 74 people.
Private Byron Wayne Fouty, U.S. (left) and Specialist Alex Ramon Jimenez, U.S. (right) were captured along with Private First Class Joseph John Anzack by the Islamic State of Iraq in May 2007 and all subsequently executed.
The attacks blamed on or claimed by AQI continued to increase in 2006. In one of the incidents, two U.S. soldiersâThomas Lowell Tucker and Kristian Menchacaâwere captured, tortured and beheaded by the ISI. The U.S. troops surge supplied the military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed. Al-Qaeda seemed to have lost its foothold in Iraq and appeared to be severely crippled.
AQI has long raised money, running into tens of millions of dollars, from kidnappings for ransom, car theftâsometimes killing drivers in the processâhijacking fuel trucks and other activities. According to an April 2007 statement by their Islamic Army in Iraq rivals, AQI was demanding jizya tax and killing members of wealthy families when it was not paid According to both U.S. and Iraqi sources, in May 2008 AQI was stepping up its fundraising campaigns as its strictly militant capabilities were on the wane, with especially lucrative activity said to be oil operations centered on the industrial city of Bayji. According to U.S. military intelligence sources, in 2008 the group resembled a “Mafia-esque criminal gang”.
Operations outside Iraq and other activities
On 3 December 2004, AQI attempted to blow up an IraqiâJordanian border crossing, but failed to do so. In 2006, a Jordanian court sentenced al-Zarqawi in absentia and two of his associates to death for their involvement in the plot. AQI increased its presence outside Iraq by claiming credit for three attacks in 2005. In the most deadly of these attacks, suicide bombs killed 60 people in Amman, Jordan on 9 November 2005. They claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks that narrowly missed the USS Kearsarge and USS Ashland in Jordan, which also targeted the city of Eilat in Israel, and for the firing of several rockets into Israel from Lebanon in December 2005.
This history of the brutal organization that eventually became ISIS described above clearly indicated the immense threat to our national security. It is very sad that the Obama administration trained ISIS terrorist in Jordan and the gun-running operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria also assisted ISIS.
ISIS captures Iraq’s biggest oil refinery
The flag of ISIS was pictured flying above Iraq’s biggest oil refinery on June 19, 2014, an image that suggested the Sunni militant group had taken control of the refinery in their quest to take over Iraq. The image at the Baiji refinery was taken from a video obtained by the Associated Press, which quoted a witness saying that the refinery was now controlled by ISIS. The refinery is about 150 miles north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi government has stated that over the two days of fighting at the refinery it has maintained control of the vital facility and has used attack helicopters to blunt the attack. However, a man who identified himself by the alias Abu Anas claimed to be a member of ISIS told the Associated Press by phone that they had failed to capture the refinery because of the helicopters’ firepower. But the AP noted that there was no way to verify the man’s identity or his location.
The Baiji facility provides electricity to the capital Baghdad. Gas prices in the U.S. spiked Wednesday in response to the news, hitting a six-year high. Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the ISIS militants, but President Obama has said the strikes are not imminent.
Conclusion
Former Secretary Clinton and President Obama foreign-policy in the Middle East has been an absolute failure and the turmoil in that region is worst than ever. Probably, it is the beginning of the end of Iraq and perhaps the nation will be split into three countries, a Sunni, a Shiite, and a Kurd. The Syrian war is now a Middle Eastern war. The bloody conflict has spilled into Lebanon, Iraq, and Kurdistan, which now has emerged as a new nation. It could easily spread to Turkey, Jordan, and Israel before it’s over.
The failure of the foreign policy of Barack Obama is worldwide. In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll only 37% of Americans approve the president’s foreign policy, while 57% disapprove. Only 30% of Americans agreed with the misguided exchange of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl for the five high ranking and dangerous Taliban terrorist from GuantĂĄnamo. The poll indicated that Obama has an overall job approval of 41%, a drop of 3% from the previous poll.
President Obama entered into a war in Libya violating the Constitution since Congress did not authorize it. Later Obama had been engaged in a Middle Eastern gun-running operation without Congressional authority and in violation of United States laws. If the Select Committee does its job properly, it will uncover what my investigative research and that of others found months ago.
The president violated his oath of office and multiple laws by sending or allowing weapons from Qatar to enter Libya and for supporting and working with terrorist groups during the civil war in Libya. He continued to violate laws by later sending weapons from Libya to Turkey knowing that those weapons would eventually fall into the hands of al Qaeda-link terrorist groups fighting in Libya such as ISIS and al-Nusra Front. Moreover, Obama worked with the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and Muslim nations to engaged in a cover-up on the Ansar al Sharia terrorist attack in Benghazi. This was astounding and alarming. President Obama is a traitor who should be impeached by the House of Representatives and prosecuted by the Senate.
President Obama committed treason, dereliction of duty, and criminal negligence in Libya during the civil war against Qaddafi and for his refusal to save our diplomats and Navy SEALs in Benghazi. President Barack Obama is unfit to be our commander-in-chief and must be impeached by the House of Representatives and the Senate must hold a trial.
