BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE
CRANKY CLINTON WANTS GAYS AND LESBIANS TO VOTE FOR HER, SHE JUST DOESN'T WANT TO RECOGNIZE THEIR FAMILIES.
REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS AND ASKED WHAT SHE WOULD DO ABOUT THE FAMILY CAM, MITCHELL AND LILY ON "MODERN FAMILY," CRANKY REPLIED, "I WOULD DEPLOY A PREDATOR DRONE TO KILL THEM. I WOULD KILL LILY FIRST BECAUSE SHE'S A CHILD AND SHE WAS PROBABLY DAMAGED THE MOST. SO IT WOULD BE GRACE AND MERCY. THEN I'D GO AFTER MITCH BECAUSE HE'S A RED HEAD AND, WELL, THAT SAYS IT ALL. I'D SAVE CAM FOR LAST SO HE COULD SUFFER THROUGH THE DEATHS OF THE OTHER TWO. WOW, THIS IS FUN, LIKE WHEN I DID MY INTERVIEW WITH LENA DUNHAM. YOU KNOW WHY I DID THAT, RIGHT? SITTING NEXT TO HER MADE ME LOOK SO PRETTY BY COMPARISON."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
As part of Haider al-Abadi's continued visit to the United States, the prime minister of Iraq sat down with Margaret Warner (PBS' The NewsHour -- link is text, audio and video) for an interview. Excerpt.
MARGARET WARNER: Another thing, of course, that happened over the last few days was news that Iraq had entered an intelligence pact with Russia and Iran and Syria to share intelligence about ISIS. Why did you join that?
HAIDER AL-ABADI: ISIL is an international terrorist organization. As far as the intelligence is concerned, we can only gather information about ISIL inside Iraq.
We need the help of other countries. Russia now considers ISIL as a national threat to them. It is a national threat to Syria. And, of course, it is a threat to Iran as well. Now, to share this intelligence with these countries is going to help us. I will do whatever it takes to protect the Iraqi people.
And there are many terrorist networks all over the world and fighters coming across different countries, to Syria, to Iraq. I need the help of that intelligence, as well as the intelligence of the international coalition, which is…
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET WARNER: But doesn’t most of your intelligence in fact come from the Americans? And are you worried that the U.S. will become more wary and less forthcoming sharing intelligence with you if they know it also goes to Iran and Russia and Syria?
HAIDER AL-ABADI: No, we will be careful not to share this information which comes from other parties with another party.
Some have little faith in Haider al-Abadi's ability to self-censor. It was on another US trip, for instance, when he created an international incident by declaring he had intel about planned attacks on American targets including the NYC subway system.
It was a year ago when Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Allen (Reuters) reported:
Iraq has "credible" intelligence that Islamic State militants plan to attack subway systems in Paris and the United States, the prime minister said on Thursday, but U.S. and French officials said they had no evidence to back up his claims.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's comments were met with surprise by security, intelligence and transit officials in both countries. New York's leaders scrambled to ride the subway to reassure the public that the nation's largest city was safe.
As his heavily reported claims were rebuked by both US and French government officials, Haider was left standing alone on the world stage and returned to Iraq an object of both ridicule and scorn.
The man who can't trust his own mouth now says he can handle top secret intelligence and not pass it on to Russia?
Noting that Iraq has long allowed Russia to fly over the country, in Iraq air space, David L. Phillips points out at CNBC:
Iraq's Shiite-led government appears to be more loyal to Iran than the United States. Iran's Quds Force is fighting alongside Shiite militias against the Islamic State in Anbar and other western provinces of Iraq. Iran's political support and security assistance are critical for the survival of Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government.
Iraq's Shiite-led government appears to be more loyal to Iran than the United States. Iran's Quds Force is fighting alongside Shiite militias against the Islamic State in Anbar and other western provinces of Iraq. Iran's political support and security assistance are critical for the survival of Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government.
Further demonstration of Iraq's non-cooperation with the United States surfaced over the weekend: Iraq has reached an understanding with Russia, Iran and Syria to share intelligence about the Islamic State. Iraqi officials kept Washington in the dark during negotiations.
The Obama administration should be able to influence the government of Iraq. Washington supported Abadi's bid to become prime minister. The Pentagon has an extensive equip-and-train program bolstering the Iraqi Security Forces. Between 2005 and 2013, the U.S. spent $25 billion on security assistance to Iraq. U.S.troops were indispensable in toppling Saddam Hussein, which created conditions for Shiites to ascend in Iraq.
Should be able to but apparently the puppet pulls the strings.
Operation Inherent Failure we dubbed it.
And the final grades keep rolling in.
Take this week's [PDF format warning] Foreign Fighter Task Force report from the House Homeland Security Committee.
The report explains:
One jihadist group in particular saw an opening. The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), a successor organization to al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), called for sectarian war and the creation of a regional Islamic state. AQI was a terrorist group whose leadership had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden in 2004 and which led an insurgency against U.S. forces in the country. After the group's leader Abud Musab al-Zarqai was killed in a 2006 U.S. airstrike, it rebranded as ISL. The terror outfit was weakened by the surge of U.S. troops into Iraq, the Anbar awakening, and later the death of its two top leaders in 2010. With the eventual withdrawal of American forces, however, ISI took advantage of the security vacuum and Sunni disenfranchisement with the central government to ramp up attacks. Its new leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, oversaw the escalation in violence.
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi declared the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (hereafter, ISIS). He sought to merge his forces with those of al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, but al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahirl rejected the merger, creating a schism between the groups. Nevertheless, ISIS expanded its operations in northern and eastern Syria, claiming territory and creating tension with other rebel factions. The momentum allowed ISIS to attract additional resources, especially more foreign fighters.
On New Year's Day 2014, ISIS convoys stormed Falluja and Ramadi, Iraqi cities which only a few years earlier had been liberated by U.S. forces. The Iraqi army crumbled as the fighters arrived in convoys of 70-100 trucks, armed with heavy weapons and anti-aircraft guns. The group's growing success resonated with Islamist radicals across social media. ISIS launched another major offensive in June 2014, capturing Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, and taking control of others towns as it pushed south toward Baghdad.
Further in, the report offers this stark assessment:
The United States conducted its first series of coordinated airstrikes against ISIS in August 2014. The strikes focused initially on curbing ISIS advances in nothern Iraq and protecting religious minorities but eventually shifted to supporting offensive operations against the militant group in both Iraq and its Syrian territory. In September, President Obama declared the aim of degrading and ultimately destroying the group. The United States has since conducted more than 5,000 airstrikes against ISIS.
Airstrikes, however, do not appear to have kept aspiring foreign fighters away. When the strikes began, counterterrorism officials estimated the total number of extremists was around 15,000. However, fighters continued to enter Syria at a rate of 1,000 per month. In December 2014, intelligence officials pegged the total at more than 18,000 and by February 2015 it surpassed 20,000. Today the figure stands at 25,000-plus foreign fighters, more than triple the number from just a year ago. The majority of these fighters still come from the Middle East and North Africa, with Tunisia as the most significant source country. But the total also includes 4,500 Westerners and more than 250 Americans, figures which have surged since 2014.
Indeed, foreign fighters have helped ISIS to remain strong. Nearly 10,000 of the group's foot soldiers have been killed by airstrikes, but they have been replaced by new foreign and domestic fighters almost as quickly as they are taken off the battlefield. There has been "no meaningful degradition in their numbers," according to one defense official, as estimates place ISIS's total fighting force at 20-30,000 -- the same as it was last fall.
Operation Inherent Failure continues on, doing the same thing with no real results.
Some call it a 'plan,' some call it stupidity.
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