Is Barack Obama considering a major policy shift in Syria and Iraq?
Steiff (Diary) wrote an article entitled “Bashar al-Assad: Obama’s new ally” in Red State on August 24, 2014. He explained the erratic foreign policy of the Obama administration. At the beginning the Obama administration Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a “reformer” before demanding his overthrow. Now it seems that Obama has made the decision that the America must cooperate the dictator of Syria to attack the Islamic State Caliphate, also known as ISIS and ISIL.
The reporter wrote that General John Allen, who served as the top commander in the Afghanistan War, and Richard Clarke, a former top counterterrorism White House adviser, appearing on ABC’s This Week, and said that the effort to downgrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State Caliphate or ISIS would require some form of partnership with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. General Allen was less committal about such a partnership, saying that the Assad government had helped ISIS’ rise with its brutal campaign to crack down on insurgents that had radicalized sections of the Sunni population. However, he admitted that for an operation against ISIS to be successful, it would require to attack ISIS in Syria, and therefore, an informal collaboration with the Assad regime would be needed.
Is the Obama administration contemplating a policy shift? The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey stated recently the following: “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated. Can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization that resides in Syria? The answer is no.”
The reporter explained the following: “General Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who appeared beside him during a Pentagon news conference, deflected questions about whether the United States military would pursue the Sunni militants from Iraq into Syria, an issue that many defense experts say lies at the heart any attempt to defeat ISIS. While many in the media have interpreted this as Dempsey advocating U.S. military operations in Syria, he clearly doesn’t say so and could just as plausibly be acknowledging the new direction the administration is taking.”
The reporter wrote that the United Kingdom newspaper The Independent said that the United States may already be assisting the Assad regime by giving Syria intelligence information that allows the regime to strike at ISIS. A source has told The Independent that the United States has already covertly assisted the Assad regime by passing on intelligence about the exact location of jihadi leaders through the BND, the German intelligence service. This could explain why Syrian aircraft and artillery have been able on occasion to target accurately rebel commanders and headquarters.
While the Obama administration is assisting Syria with covert intelligence, the president has requested more than $500 million in covert aid to assist the to “moderate” rebels fighting Assad. Congress still has not acted upon Obama’s request. On which side is the Obama administration? It is illogical to be fighting and assisting the Syrian regime at the same time. This sounds crazy!
President Obama helped the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Morsi until he was overthrow by Egypt’s military. It is not well known that Obama secretly helped the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida-linked terror organizations to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi, who was at the time an ally of the United States in the Global War on Terror. Obama’s actions went against the national security interests of America. Later Obama engaged in a secret and illegal Middle Eastern gunrunning operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria and most of the weapons fell into the hands of ISIS, the al-Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front and other Sunni terror groups. I will elaborate in great detailed below. Thus Obama sided with the Sunni terrorists.
Is Obama now going to switch sides to help the Shiites and Iran? His own brother Malik Obama is a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Obama has allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate in his government. The Muslim Brotherhood is allied with al-Qaida and Hamas is a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Obama sends Hamas over $500 million a year in aid, even though it is a terrorist group that is at war with our ally Israel. This too is crazy! Is Obama now being pressured by the Pentagon and members of Congress to attack ISIS, the Sunni terrorists that received his help before?
ISIS is advancing in Syria
The Associated Press wrote an article entitled ” ISIS seizes Syrian air base after violent battle: reports” on August 25, 2014.
U.S. warned – no airstrikes on ISIS without Syrian approval.
The AP article explained that the White House refused to say on August 25,2014 whether President Barack Obama will ask congressional authority for military strikes on ISIS militants inside Syria. On the same day Syria’s foreign minister warned the U.S. not to order airstrikes inside Syria without permission of the Syrian regime, even as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized control of a major air base. Walid al-Moallem stated such an act “by anyone,” without the approval from President Bashar al-Assad’s government, would be a violation of Syrian sovereignty and would be considered an aggression.
The article pointed out that General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking on a military plane en route to Afghanistan, did not rule out strikes for any other critical reasons, but listed a homeland threat as one of the key triggers for any military action in Syria. General Dempsey also told reporters travelling with him that he believes that key allies in the region — including Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia — will join the U.S. in attacking ISIS. He said that “I think ISIS has been so brutal, and has wrapped itself in a radical religious legitimacy that clearly threatens everybody I just mentioned, that I think they will be willing partners.”
A Tabqa city resident waves an Islamist flag to celebrate after ISIS militants reportedly seized control of the Tabqa air base, in nearby Raqqa city on Monday.
The AP story explained that General Dempsey comments were made after the capture by ISIS of a major military air base in northeastern Syria.. A video showed ISIS fighters clashing with Syrian forces at Tabqa airbase. An Al Jazeera report said the militants later captured the base in a battle where more than 500 died. The Obama administration remains concern of getting involved into the bloody and complex Syrian civil war that the United Nations says has killed more than 190,000 people.
The New York Times editorial: A Necessary Response to ISIS
On August 24, 2014 The New York Times wrote the following editorial ;
“The United States cannot go it alone in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the extremist group known as ISIS whose ruthlessness and killing has dumbfounded and horrified the civilized world.
American airstrikes and other assistance from the United States have brought some measure of relief to religious minorities and others that ISIS has threatened. But defeating, or even substantially degrading, ISIS will require an organized, longer-term response involving a broad coalition of nations, including other Muslim countries, and addressing not only the military threat but political and religious issues.
The recent persecution of Christians and Yazidis and the murder of James Foley, an American journalist, has brought ISIS’s savagery into full view. On Thursday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said ISIS posed an “immediate threat” to the West, in addition to Iraq, because thousands of Europeans and other foreigners who have joined the group and have the passports to travel freely could carry the fight back to their home countries — including the United States.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was equally emphatic. ISIS, he warned, is “beyond anything that we’ve seen” because it is extremely well-financed
and has demonstrated sophistication and tactical skill in its campaign to impose an Islamic caliphate by brute force. Other analysts have gone so far as to describe ISIS as one of the most successful extremist groups in history because of its ability to seize and hold large sections of two countries — Iraq and Syria — with what seems like blinding speed.
While the group poses a risk to the United States and the West, those paying the biggest price are Muslims… The response to the immediate crisis has been prudent. The United States has insisted that Iraq’s government and army set aside longstanding rivalries and work with the pesh merga militia of Kurdistan to back up American airstrikes by fighting ISIS on the ground. Germany, Italy, Britain and France have promised weapons…
The prospects of defeating ISIS would be greatly improved if other Muslim nations could see ISIS for the threat it is. But, like Iraq, they are mired in petty competitions and Sunni-Shiite religious divisions and many have their own relations with extremists of one kind or another. ISIS has received financing from donors in Kuwait and Qatar. Saudi Arabia funneled weapons to Syrian rebels and didn’t care if they went to ISIS. Turkey allowed ISIS fighters and weapons to flow across porous borders. All of that has to stop.
But they must go further and begin a serious discussion about the dangers of radical Islam and how ISIS’s perversion of one of the world’s great religions can be reversed.”
Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional actions in Libya
Doug Hagmann of the Canadian Free Press, James Robbins of the Washington Times, and Aaron Klein of WND explained that the Obama administration was engaged in a massive gun-running operation to al-Qaeda, which included transporting heavy weapons from Libya to Turkey to Syria. In addition to these three reporters, two brave Americans, Roger Aronoff and Tom Fitton, may have changed the history of our nation. These two patriots may have saved this country from the abyss created by the traitor who lives in the White House. Both of them have exposed the many crimes and cover-ups committed by President Barack Obama in Libya and Syria.
Roger Aronoff, Editor of Accuracy in Media, has worked as a journalist, television producer, director, writer and distributor. He has written, produced and directed the award-winning documentaries. Aronoff set up a powerful panel of distinguished high-ranking retired members of the Armed Forces, former CIA officers, and experts on defense and national security issues to investigate the United States involvement in the war in Libya, the gun-running operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria, the terrorist attack on Benghazi, and the subsequent cover-ups. After several months of arduous work the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi produced an alarming report entitled “How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror” which was published on April 22, 2014.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, heads an organization that promotes transparency, integrity and accountability in government, politics and the law. He prepared a Special Investigative Report entitled “The Benghazi Attack of September 11, 2012 Analysis and Further Questions from a Diplomatic Security Service Regional Security Officer and Special Agent” which was published on January 22, 2013. This report included the analysis of Raymond Fournier, a recently retired diplomatic security service special agent with more than 30 years of experience.
Judicial Watch, similar to Aronoff’s Citizens Committee on Benghazi, opened its own investigation on the Benghazi terrorist attack. Judicial Watch employed its staff of investigators and researchers which included former intelligence officers, analysts, military officers, attorneys, and journalists. Judicial Watch initiated more than 10 Freedom of Information Act requests with various executive departments and agencies seeking all records related to the attack. The organization filed separate lawsuits in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the Obama administration to comply with the Freedom of Information Act law and release the records requested.
Judicial Watch announced on April 18, 2014, it had obtained 41 new Benghazi- related State Department documents. The documents included an email showing then White House Deputy Strategic Communication Adviser Ben Rhodes and other of Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” Other documents showed that State Department officials initially described the incident as an “attack” and a possible kidnap attempt.
The Obama administration fought to keep the Benghazi-related emails from seeing the light of day. However, the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed on June 21, 2013, by Judicial Watch was successful and Congress and the American people found out that the White House engaged in an illegal cover-up.
Ben Rhodes sent an email on September 14, 2012, to United States United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice to prepare her to lie to the American public on five Sunday television appearances. The goal of email sent by Ben Rhodes was “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video”. Ben Rhodes stated the following: “We’ve made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government has nothing to do with it. We reject its message and its contents. We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But it is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence…”
The Ben Rhodes communications strategy email also included instructions to portray Obama as “steady and statesmanlike” throughout the crisis. President Obama behaved like a coward and committed criminal negligence for not helping our people at Benghazi. The day after the assassinations in Benghazi, he went to campaign in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on Sunday, September 16, 2012, on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News and CNN claiming the assaults occurred “spontaneously” in response to the “hateful video.” For willful and deliberately lying to the American people, Ambassador Susan Rice did not receive Senate confirmation when President Obama wanted to name her secretary of state following the resignation of Hillary Clinton.
Susan Rice was then named national security advisor at the White House. She should be indicted for lying to Congress which is a felony. Unfortunately, many high ranking officials of the Obama administration routinely lie to Congress and the American people. After all there is a president at the White House who is a pathological liar.
Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi interim report entitled “How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror.”
A Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi was set up in September 2013 to investigate the Annex in Benghazi, Libya. The members of the commission included former CIA officers, retired military from the different branches of the Armed Forces, journalists, and defense consultants.
Among the members are Roger Aronoff, editor of Accuracy in Media, Brigadier General Charles Jones (Ret.), Admiral James Lyons (Ret.), General Thomas McInerney (Ret.), former CIA officer Clare Lopez, former CIA officer Wayne Simmons, former CIA officer Kevin Shipp, General Paul Vallely (Ret.), former Congressman and Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Allen West, Captain Larry Bailey (SEAL Ret.), and John A. Shaw, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security.
After many months of investigation and research which involved interviews with several knowledgeable sources, the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi issued on April 22, 2014 an interim report entitled “How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror.”
This is a summary of the alarming findings:
“1) The war in Libya was unnecessary, served no articulable U.S. national security objective, and led to preventable chaos region-wide. In the period since 2011 revolution in Libya, the country has remained fragmented, poorly governed, and overrun with violent militias, the majority of which are jihadist al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) affiliates. Yet, at the time of his overthrow, Muammar Qaddafi was an ally of the United States in the Global War on Terror.
On March 17, 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1973 for a “No Fly Zone,” and record ostensibly to protect Libyan civilians caught up in the hostilities between the Libyan government forces and the rebel forces, which were dominated by the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. The following day in London, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced U.S. government support for the Muslim Brotherhood-led Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) in its revolt against Qaddafi.”
The commission found out that the civil war in Libya could have been avoided and would have saved thousands of lives and the enormous turmoil that followed the fall of the dictator Muammar Qaddafi. After a few days of the Obama administration declaration that the United States would support the Libyan rebels, Qaddafi wanted to enter negotiations to discuss his possible resignation and exile.
On March 20, 2011 General Abdulqader Yusef Dibri, head of personal security of Qaddafi, contacted Rear Admiral (Ret.) Chuck Kubic. Upon receiving this information, Rear Admiral Kubic telephoned Lieutenant Colonel Brian Linvill in Stuttgart, Germany, the U.S. AFRICOM officer point of contact for all military matters involving Libya.
Lieutenant Colonel Linvill immediately notified the head of AFRICOM, General Carter Ham, stating that the Libyan dictator was ready to establish communication with the Africa military command. General Ham was quite interested. However, the Obama administration did not give permission to General Ham to proceed with the negotiations.
The opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Libya did not interest President Obama. The war continued and tens of thousands of lives were lost. It was absolutely appalling that the White House and the State Department did not even consider entering into negotiations with Qaddafi to avoid bloodshed since President Obama and Secretary Clinton wanted to pursue the unconstitutional and unnecessary war in Libya supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the al-Qaeda-linked rebels. Both Obama and Clinton need to explain to the American people and to Congress why both of them wanted to empower jihadists and the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya which went against the national security interest of our nation. Libya has become a failed nation with a terrible civil war going on. Obama is the architect of the destruction of Libya.
“2) Changing sides in the War on Terror: Even more disturbingly, the United States was fully aware of and facilitating the delivery of weapons to the al Qaeda-dominated rebel militias throughout the 2011 rebellion. The jihadist agenda of AQIM, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and other Islamic terror groups represented among the rebel forces was well known to U.S. officials responsible for Libya policy.
The rebels made no secret of their al-Qaeda affiliation, openly flying and speaking in front of the black flag of Islamic Jihad, according to author John Rosenthal and multiple media reports. And yet, the White House and senior Congressional members deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terrorist organizations in order to topple a ruler who had been working closely with the West actively to suppress al-Qaeda. The result in Libya, across much of North Africa, and beyond has been utter chaos, disruption of Libya’s oil industry, the spread of dangerous weapons (including surface-to-air missiles), and the empowerment of jihadist organizations like al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“3) The weapons flow: An American citizen source trusted by the Citizens Commission on Benghazi who has long experience in the Middle East described the flow of weapons from Qatar to the Libyan rebels and the diversion of some of those arms. After Qaddafi’s regime had been ousted, a delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) traveled to Libya to collect payment for the weapons that the UAE had financed and Qatar had delivered to the Transitional National Council (TNC) during the war.
During their visit to Tripoli, the UAE officials discovered that half of the $1 billion worth of weapons it had financed for the rebels had, in fact, been diverted by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the Muslim Brotherhood head of the Libyan TNC, and sold to Qaddafi. Furthermore, according to information learned during the UAE visit to Tripoli, when Jalil learned that Major General Abdel Fatah Younis, Qaddafi’s former Minister of the Interior before his late February 2011 defection to the rebel forces, had found out about the weapons diversion, he ordered Abu Salim Abu Khattala… to kill him. Abu Khattala, later identified as the Ansar al-Shariah commander who led the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, accepted the order and directed the killing of General Abdel Fatah Younis in July 2011.
The key significance of this episode is a demonstration of a military chain-of-command relationship between the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood leadership of the TNC and the al- Qaeda-affiliated militia (Ansar al-Shariah) that has been named responsible for the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Ahmed Abu Khattala is under a Department of Justice sealed indictment. His brigade merged into Ansar al-Shariah in 2012, and he was positively identified to the FBI in a cell-phone photo from the scene of the attack.”
On June 15, 2014, Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured south of Benghazi by a U.S. Special Forces. His capture marks the first time the United States has caught one of the suspects in the 2012 assault on Benghazi. Khattala’s capture came 642 days after he led the attack that killed the four Americans. Khattala is in jail in the United States awaiting a trial.
The future ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was sent to Benghazi as a Special Envoy from the Department of State to coordinate the assistance provided by the Obama administration to the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida-linked terrorist organizations. Once he became the U.S. Ambassador, Stevens continued working with the jihadist terrorists. Somehow a dispute must have arisen and he was assassinated by Ansar al-Shariah, the terrorist group that he had been assisting during the civil war and later working with Ansar al-Shariah jihadists to send weapons to Syria. Some have speculated that the terrorists wanted to kidnap ambassador Stevens to trade him for the blind Sheik who is imprisoned in the United States.
Many of these weapons fell into the hands of al-Qaida-link terrorist groups trying to overthrow the Syrian dictator. Perhaps Obama let him die to avoid a future Congressional investigation or that the gun-running operation could have come to light just before the 2012 presidential election.
The Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi also investigated the White House cover-up on Benghazi
The Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi also investigated the White House cover-up on Benghazi. It stated the following: “The White House campaign appears to have been well-coordinated with U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations as well as Islamic nations members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, who all joined in condemnation of the video, and, even more troubling, issued calls for restriction on Americans’ free-speech rights. The Obama administration officials knew that the YouTube video had nothing to do with the terrorist attack in Benghazi, yet for two weeks President Obama and members of his administration deliberately falsely claim that a protest had preceded the attack on our Benghazi mission.”
There is no question in my mind that President Obama committed treason, dereliction of duty, and criminal negligence in Libya during the civil war against Qaddafi, for his refusal to save our diplomats and Navy SEALs in Benghazi, and his repeated lies and cover-up with the assistance of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and the Organization of Islamic States (OIS). Hillary Clinton is also guilty of treason and criminal negligence since she supported assisting the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadists to overthrow Qaddafi and later her State Department denied repeated requests from Ambassador Chris Stevens for protection and for her lies and participation in the cover-up.
Hillary Clinton needs to be indicted and brought to trial for assisting the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya and al Qaeda-linked organizations in the war in Libya, her criminal negligence in not sending additional soldiers to protect our ambassador and other personnel, and for her continued lies to Congress and the American people and her participation in the cover-up. She is as guilty as the president for her actions in Libya. And she is certainly unfit to run for president in 2016.
The Middle East gun-running operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria, the terrorist attack at Benghazi and President Obama’s executive orders allowing him fund terrorist organizations should be grounds for impeachment
As stated earlier, Doug Hagmann of the Canadian Free Press, James Robbins of the Washington Times, Aaron Klein of WND, Roger Aronoff’s Citizens’ Committee on Benghazi, and Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch have fully explained that the Obama administration was engaged in a massive gun-running operation to al Qaeda, which included transporting heavy weapons from Libya to Syria. Ambassador Stevens was in charge of this operation, which also involved recruiting jihadists to fight against the dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
At 9:40 p.m. on September 11, 2012, a group of approximately 150 heavily armed jihadist militia members attacked the Special Mission Compound (SMC) and the nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. The terrorists used small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortars against Americans at the two separate facilities, the Special Mission Compound (also referred as the Benghazi consulate) and the CIA Annex. Immediately Ambassador Stevens contacted Greg Hicks in Tripoli and told him, “Greg, we are under attack!” and requested assistance. Hicks immediately notified all agencies so that they could initiate an emergency response plan.
There were soldiers at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, as well as soldiers in all the Western embassies and consulates of countries, such as Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, that upon request by President Obama would have sent their military personnel immediately to Benghazi to provide assistance to our diplomat and other personnel. Yet nothing was done!
The Benghazi scandal involved criminal negligence and dereliction of duty as the Obama administration allowed Ambassador Chris Stevens, two former Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith, a U.S. Foreign Service computer specialist to die for political reasons when the United States had forces nearby that could have saved them.
As stated, the Special Mission Compound (SMC), also known as the Benghazi Consulate, and CIA Annex were attacked at approximately 9:40 p.m. For eight hours, a small group of brave Americans fought approximately 150 terrorists while notifying our government and repeatedly requesting help. There were two squadrons of F-16s at Aviano Air Base in Italy. The F-16 aircraft is armed with 500 20 MM rounds and other weapons and they are able to fly at 0.92 mach speed. A Marine detachment was at U.S. Navy Base in Rota, Spain. U.S. forces were also stationed in Greece. The ensuing cover up was disgraceful and is completely unacceptable. It violated our armed forces Code of Conduct which states that we do not leave someone behind.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order on July 26, 2013 which allowed him to send $500 million to fund Muslim terrorists in the West Bank. In the executive order the president wrote the following: “I hereby certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 7040 (a) of part II of the foreign assistance act, as amended, to the Palestinian Authority.” A 2012 executive order in which Obama waved a congressional ban on funding the Palestinian Authority and sent the Hamas terrorist organization $147 million.
The president signed a third of executive order on September 16, 2013 waiving a ban on arming terrorists to allow aid to the Syrian rebels, many of which are supporters of al- Qaeda. In essence, with these three executive orders, President Obama has exempted himself from any laws, such as the Patriot Act, that prohibits anyone from giving weapons to a terrorist organization. These executive orders should be grounds for impeachment.
In reality, Obama has been secretly shipping weapons from Libya to Turkey for a few years. The weapons were being given to the rebels fighting the Syrian regime, which included al-Qaeda-linked rebels groups. One of the largest al-Qaeda group is the Al Nusra Front. Abu Mohammed al Golani is the leader of this al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group and he has an army of 10,000 soldiers under his command in Syria. Additionally, some of those weapons ended up in the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) which now calls itself the Islamic State Caliphate. This terrorist army devastated Iraq and conquered much of its territory.
Tom Fitton’s Judicial Watch Special Investigative Report raised the question why Ambassador Chris Stevens went to Benghazi so close to the anniversary of 9/11 in a place that had experienced 20 terrorist attacks including one at the U.S. Special Mission Compound. It is now known that the Ambassador met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin on the evening of the attack.
The purpose of that meeting has not been disclosed. Some experts believe that the Ambassador’s work in Benghazi may have been related to the Obama administration’s efforts to transfer arms to Syrian opposition groups. Frank Gaffney, former deputy assistant secretary of state, stated the following: “One of the places in Libya most awash with weapons in the most dangerous of hands is Benghazi. It now appears that Stevens was there-on a particularly risky day, with no security to speak of and despite now copiously documented concerns about his own safety and that of his subordinates-for another priority mission: sending arms recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the opposition in Syria.”
Judicial Watch wrote that the newspaper Times of London published an article on September 14, 2012, entitled “Syrian Rebels Squabble Over Weapons as Biggest Shipload Arrives from Libya.” The Times of London pointed out that the Libyan ship, The Intisaar or The Victory, arrived at the Turkish port of Iskenderun after leaving from Benghazi. It explained that “more than 400 tons of cargo arrived in Syria carrying SAM-7 surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), which Syrian sources said could be a game changer for the rebels.”
Republicans in Congress criticize Obama over his handling of ISIS
Keith Laing wrote an article entitled “GOP demands ISIS plan from Obama” which was published in The Hill on August 24, 2014.
He wrote that Republicans are pushing President Obama to explain his plans for combating the Islamic State Caliphate, also known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), following the beheading of an American journalist James Foley. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Vice Presidential candidate in 2012 (Republican from Wisconsin) said the following on CBS’s Face the Nation: “I get the sense that [Defense] Secretary [Chuck] Hagel and [Joint Chiefs] General [Martin] Dempsey understand the gravity of the situation. Candidly … I don’t want to hear from the president how he’s reacting to events like the Mosul Dam. What I want to hear from our Commander-in-Chief is that he has a strategy to finish ISIS off. If we don’t deal with this threat now thoroughly and convincingly, it’s going to come home to roost.”
Senator John McCain criticized Obama’s foreign policy dealing with ISIS
Keith Laing explained that Paul Ryan, the former GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012 was hardly the only Republican to criticize President Obama’s handling of ISIS. Senator John McCain (Republican from Arizona and former GOP presidential nominee for 2008) speaking on Fox News Sunday asked President Obama to expand U.S. airstrikes to Syria so the militant group does not have a base of operation. He stated the following: “There is no boundary between Syria and Iraq. One of the key decisions the president is going to have to make is to use airpower in Syria. We cannot give them a base of operations. And we have got to help the Free Syrian Army. This is an administration, which the kindest word I can use is ‘feckless,’ where they have not outlined a role that the United States has to play. And that is a leadership role. No more ‘leading from behind,’ no more ‘don’t do stupid stuff.”
Fox news.com published an article on August 21, 2014 entitled “Sen. McCain on ISIS threat: Obama still doesn’t get it.”
The article explained Arizona Senator John McCain on August 21, 2014, called President Obama’s remarks on the execution of American journalist James Foley “moving” — but also said his policy on the Islamic State terror group is failing. Senator McCain stated that President Obama had said that the United States need to contain ISIS. Senator McCain, as other European leaders have stated, said the following: “We don’t have to contain ISIS. We have to defeat ISIS, and we have to do whatever is necessary. Failures of policies have consequences, and we’re paying [for] those consequences in enormous cost of human blood. It’s a debacle, and he still doesn’t get it.”
The Fox News article pointed out that Senator McCain said that the growing chaos in Iraq was “predictable” after Obama’s “huge mistake” of not leaving a residual U.S. force behind.”This didn’t have to happen,” he said. “This is an abject failure.”
The Fox News article explained that McCain said he wants to see a “comprehensive strategy” explained to the American people with the goal of defeating ISIS “wherever they are.” Senator McCain said “It’s more than pinprick airstrikes, we’re gonna need more boots on the ground — and that does not mean combat troops — but it does mean a significant increase.” Senator McCain hopes Foley’s death will send a “strong message” to Americans that ISIS could stage an attack on U.S. soil. “They will be coming to America unless we stop them,” he warned.
Republicans Mike Rogers and Lindsey Graham agree with John McCain
Republicans said the threat of an ISIS attack inside the U.S. was viable because the group has thousands of members who hold western passports. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (Republican from Michigan) said the following during an appearance on NBC’s Meet The Press: “One of the problems is it’s going unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain, across Europe, even the United States to go and join the fight. They see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy and they want to be apart of it, and that’s what makes it so dangerous. They are one plane ticket away from U.S. shores and that’s why we’re so concerned about it.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican from South Carolina) encouraged Obama to target ISIS leaders in Syria during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. He said the following: “It’s about time to assume the worst about these guys. They’re not the JV team anymore, they’re the most prominent terrorist organization in the world. There’s no way you can solve the problem in Iraq without hitting them in Syria.”
Retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney thinks the United States should “go to DEFCON 1, our highest state of readiness and be prepared as we lead up to 9/11” to fight ISIS. General Thomas McInerney served in the Citizens’ Committee on Benghazi and he is a contributor to FoxNews.
Conclusion
I certainly believe that the Islamic State Caliphate or ISIS is an existential threat to the United States. However, I agree with The New York Times editorial that stated the following: “The United States cannot go it alone in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But defeating, or even substantially degrading, ISIS will require an organized, longer-term response involving a broad coalition of nations, including other Muslim countries, and addressing not only the military threat but political and religious issues.” NATO European and Turkey allies should be involved. It is dangerous for America to get involved in a religious war between Sunnis and Shiites.
The United States has now launched more than 90 airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS. It is uncertain what the Obama admistration will do about ISIS. Will Obama attack ISIS in Syria and cooperate with Iran to defeat ISIS in Iraq?
Unfortunately, we have an incompetent Commander-in-Chief who has already committed treason with his illegal assistance to the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida-linked terror organizations to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi, who was at the time an ally of the United States in the Global War on Terror. Later Obama engaged in a secret and illegal Middle Eastern gunrunning operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria and most of the weapons fell into the hands of ISIS, the al-Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front and other Sunni terror groups. Thus Obama sided with the Sunni terrorists.
Obama’s actions went against the national security interests of America. and are impeachable offenses.
