@davereaboi #Silly. As I've said b4 inevitable that "Caliphate" returns. Choice only whether we support #EU like Muslim Union vision or not.
— Mohamed Elibiary (@MohamedElibiary) June 13, 2014WASHINGTON—Amid growing signs of instability in Iraq, President Barack Obama authorized a secret plan late last year to aid Iraqi troops in their fight against Sunni extremists by sharing intelligence on the militants' desert encampments, but devoted only a handful of U.S. specialists to the task.More.
So few aircraft were dedicated to the program, which also faced restrictions by the Iraqis, that U.S. surveillance flights usually took place just once a month, said current and former U.S. officials briefed on the program.
Instead of providing Iraqis with real-time drone feeds and intercepted communications from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the militant group that has overrun parts of Iraq, U.S. intelligence specialists typically gave their Iraqi counterparts limited photographic images, reflecting U.S. concerns that more sensitive data would end up in Iranian hands, these officials said.
Political and security sensitivities for leaders in both countries led the U.S. move cautiously to secretly set up the so-called fusion intelligence center in Baghdad. But Mr. Obama's announcement Thursday that the U.S. will deploy up to 300 military advisers and set up two joint operations centers shows the extent to which U.S. and Iraqi leaders are racing to catch up to an ISIS threat they had already identified but were slow to counter.
As Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, struggles with the Sunni insurgency and the sectarian divisions that spawned it, support for his own leadership came under fire on Friday by the country's most influential Shiite cleric. Mr. Maliki, who is trying to assemble a governing coalition following April elections, should consider stepping aside, a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said during a Friday sermon.
To battle ISIS, U.S. and Iraqi leaders are taking steps proposed but not taken over the past months and years, including setting up larger intelligence operations and deploying teams of special operations forces. The small team set up last year "wasn't a priority and nobody thought it was a serious effort," said a senior U.S. official.
Administration and congressional officials say the U.S. also miscalculated the readiness of Iraqi forces: The White House's limited investment in the intelligence center was driven at least in part by the assumption that Iraqi forces would be more competent, the official said. Then, at the end of April, the Pentagon dispatched a team of special-operations personnel to assess the capabilities of Iraq's security forces, a defense official said.
The assessment they brought back was bleak: Sunni Army officers had been forced out, overall leadership had declined, the Iraqi military wasn't maintaining its equipment and had stopped conducting rigorous training. The response in Washington, summed up by a senior U.S. official, was: "Whoa, what the hell happened here?"
Q Just very quickly, do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?Perhaps one could see how President Liar might have a little wiggle room with his response, considering Iraq's concerns on troop levels or what have you (although remember, once the administration lowered the residual force levels to 3 to 5,000 troops, Maliki just said forget it). But then, again, President Liar campaigned on keeping his 2008 promise to wind down the war. Here's the transcript from President Liar's speech at an Ohio campaign rally, at Bowling Green State University, September 26, 2012. See, "Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event -- Bowling Green, OH":
THE PRESIDENT: Well, keep in mind that wasn’t a decision made by me; that was a decision made by the Iraqi government. We offered a modest residual force to help continue to train and advise Iraqi security forces. We had a core requirement which we require in any situation where we have U.S. troops overseas, and that is, is that they're provided immunity since they're being invited by the sovereign government there, so that if, for example, they end up acting in self-defense if they are attacked and find themselves in a tough situation, that they're not somehow hauled before a foreign court. That's a core requirement that we have for U.S. troop presence anywhere.
Now, obviously, Governor Romney and I have a lot of differences when it comes to domestic policy, but our prosperity here at home is linked to what happens abroad. Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq. We did. (Applause.)Well, clearly, the American public made the wrong choice. Of course, they were lied to throughout the entire campaign. That's the only way President Liar could possibly be reelected.
I said we would responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan, and we are. You've got a new tower that's rising over the New York skyline, and meanwhile, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead. (Applause.) We made that commitment. (Applause.)
But as we saw just a few days ago, we still face some serious threats in the world. And that’s why, as long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we're going to maintain the strongest military the world has ever known. (Applause.) And when our troops come home and they take off their uniform, we're going to serve them as well as they’ve served us, because nobody who fights for America should have to fight for a job when they come home. I believe that. (Applause.)
My opponent has got a different view. He said the way we ended the war in Iraq was “tragic.” He still hasn't explained what his policy in Afghanistan will be. But I have, and I will. And one more thing, I will use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and to put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways -- (applause) -- because after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation-building right here in Ohio, right here at home. (Applause.)
So this is the choice that you face; it's what this election comes down to...
BAGHDAD—Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric called on Friday for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step aside, breaking ranks with the leader of the Shiite-dominated government after nearly two weeks of fighting with Sunni militants that has left the country's military humiliated.More.
In a sermon to worshipers in the holy city of Karbala, a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani didn't mention the prime minister by name. But Ahmed al-Safi said it was time for a different administration in Iraq, which is beset by a powerful Sunni insurgency led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
"It is necessary for the winning political blocs to start a dialogue that yields an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis," Mr. al-Safi said.
Were Mr. Maliki to heed the grand ayatollah's call, it would mark a stunning reversal of fortune for the Iraq's premier, who had been planning for a third, four-year term after his electoral coalition won a plurality of votes in parliamentary elections only a few weeks ago.
Friday's declaration by Ayatollah Sistani came one week after he issued a call to arms to defend Iraq against the Sunni rebellion and a day after U.S. President Barack Obama blamed Mr. Maliki and his sectarian policies for the two-week-old conflict that has eroded Baghdad's authority throughout the country.
In a speech in Washington on Thursday, Mr. Obama said only an "inclusive agenda" will end the crisis facing Mr. Maliki's government.
Iraq's pro-government satellite television station on Friday played up Mr. Obama's support for Baghdad's fight against Sunni Muslim militants but overlooked what the U.S. president suggested was the Iraqi prime minister's sectarian and authoritarian governing style.
Iraqiyya television, which was created by U.S. forces following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 but has since become an important mouthpiece for Mr. Maliki, cast the turmoil in Iraq as a religious conflict and focused its reports on the necessity to rise to the militant Sunni challenge to the Baghdad government.
Mr. Obama, in his speech on Thursday, signaled some limited support for Iraq's fight against Sunni rebels but made clear he wouldn't launch airstrikes against the insurgents or deploy U.S. ground troops to the country. He said, however, that he would send 300 military advisers to assist the Iraqi military.
Recent developments contributing to the ongoing debate about immigration include Obama's delay of a review of deportation policies by the Department of Homeland Security in the hope of striking a legislative deal on immigration reform with Congress. Also, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's recent primary loss was widely viewed as a defeat rooted in Cantor's perceived stance on immigration. The primary loss and subsequent shakeup in House leadership could spell greater challenges for Obama as he tries to work with Republicans. Additionally, the media has recently enlarged its spotlight on the increasing numbers of unaccompanied Central American children who have crossed the U.S. border, seeking their already immigrated family members and a generally better life.Notice how Gallup is clueless on "the bottom line" at the entry.
Obama's approval on immigration has dropped since last August across all political affiliations, even among those in his own party....
.@y_alibhai although #Delingpole is UKIP and not Tory, I am mortified by the abuse you are receiving from right-wing men #feminism
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 20, 2014
Belly up and plant a flag, because there's no way of settling this debate. Still, it doesn't mean that an argument can't be made that Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday provided baseball with its greatest pitching performance.Keep reading.
Not this season, but ever. As in the history of the game. Impossible to prove? Sure, but not to argue. It's all subjective, especially when you mix eras and different ballparks.
But consider this: Kershaw no-hit the Rockies while striking out 15 and not walking a single batter.
There have been 283 no-hitters in baseball history, but Kershaw is the only one to have at least 15 strikeouts and no walks.
Only one other pitcher has even thrown a no-hitter with at least 15 strikeouts. Nolan Ryan managed it in three of his record seven no-hitters, but accompanied them with walks of four, eight and two.
Kershaw was a model of precision Wednesday. He needed only 107 pitches. He averaged less than four pitches per batter. Only one batter made it to a three-ball count...
In international politics, influence is a function of power, and commitment is a prerequisite to achievement. If Mr. Obama were serious about the threat posed by ISIS and the possible breakup of Iraq, he would not be making the token commitments he made Thursday. It may take some of our liberal friends a while to understand that what the President proposed isn't a strategy; it is a feint. America's enemies in Mosul and Tehran will have spotted it right away.
The Sunni radicals’ dream of establishing an Islamic caliphate–modeled on the first reign of the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century–has no place for Shi’ites. That’s why Iraq’s leading Shi’ite cleric responded to ISIS’s advance by summoning men of his faith to battle. So begins another Iraqi civil war, this one wretchedly entangled with the sectarian conflict that has already claimed more than 160,000 lives in Syria. Poised to join the fighting is Iran, whose nearly eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s cost more than a million lives.
To Americans weary of the Middle East, the urge is strong to close our eyes and, as Sarah Palin once put it so coarsely, “let Allah sort it out.” President Obama has kept a wary distance from Syria’s civil war and the turmoil of postwar Iraq. But now that the two have become one rapidly metastasizing cancer, that may no longer be possible. As long as the global economy still runs on Middle Eastern oil, Sunni radicals plot terrorist attacks against the West and Iran’s leaders pursue nuclear technology, the U.S. cannot turn its back.
“There is always the danger of passing the buck,” says Vali Nasr, a former Obama State Department official and an expert on Islam. “Not to say the region doesn’t have problems or bad leadership. It does. But these things won’t go away. They are going to bite us at some point.” What Leon Trotsky supposedly said about war is also true of this war-torn region: Americans may not be interested in the Middle East. But the Middle East is interested in us.
****
Barack Obama first ran for President, in large measure, to end the Iraq War, and he takes pride in having done so. It surely wasn’t easy, then, to announce that some 170 combat-ready soldiers were headed to Baghdad to secure the U.S. embassy. The White House insists that Obama won’t re-enter a ground war, though military planners are exploring possible air strikes. (For now, limited intelligence and ill-defined targets have put bombing on hold.) The likelier option is a small contingent of special forces to advise Iraq’s military. But Obama wants to leverage any possible U.S. help to force al-Maliki into major political reforms. A new governing coalition giving Sunnis real power could offer the country’s only hope for long-term survival. Whether something the U.S. couldn’t accomplish when its troops were still in Iraq is feasible now is another question.
Clearly, Obama was mistaken in declaring, after the last U.S. troops departed in 2011, that “we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq.” But while Washington plunged into the blame game, fair-minded observers could see that the U.S.’s road through the region is littered with what-ifs and miscalculations. What if we had never invaded Iraq? What if we had stayed longer? What if Obama had acted early in the Syrian civil war to put arms in the hands of nonradical rebels? “We would have less of an extremism problem in Syria now, had there been more assistance provided to the moderate forces,” Obama’s former ambassador to Damascus, Robert Ford, told CNN on June 3.
Yet on a deeper level, the blame belongs to history itself. At this ancient crossroads of the human drama, the U.S.’s failure echoes earlier failures by the European powers, by the Ottoman pashas, by the Crusaders, by Alexander the Great. The civil war of Muslim against Muslim, brother against brother, plays out in the same region that gave us Cain vs. Abel. George W. Bush spoke of the spirit of liberty, and Obama often invokes the spirit of cooperation. Both speak to something powerful in the modern heart. But neither man–nor America itself–fully appreciated until now the continuing reign of much older spirits: hatred, greed and tribalism. Those spirits are loosed again, and the whole world will pay a price.
BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces detained 12 men in a Beirut hotel on Friday, in what local news media reported was a move to capture members of the Sunni militant group ISIS who were suspected of plotting to assassinate a leading Shiite political figure.More.
Security forces blocked off numerous streets in Hamra, the main commercial district of West Beirut, and surrounded the Napoleon Hotel. Outside the hotel, in a neighborhood of narrow streets full of shops, apartments and midrange hotels, dozens of armed security officers forced pedestrians off the streets, then led 12 men, their heads covered, out of the hotel.
According to Lebanese news channels, security forces were still hunting down other militants believed to be at large in the Hamra neighborhood. The channels said that the militant cell comprised mostly foreigners, including Syrians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and others, and that as many as 17 men had been arrested or were being sought.
Earlier on Friday, the Amal movement, a Shiite political party, canceled a conference at a United Nations building downtown, citing security concerns. NOW Lebanon, a local news website, reported that the ISIS members arrested were suspected of planning to assassinate Amal’s leader, the parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, and Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, the commander of Lebanon’s general security agency.
mal is an ally of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite party and militant group that has provided decisive military help to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria against insurgents, including Sunni jihadist groups.
Continuous support for ISIS flooding from all over the world.
#AllEyesOnISIS
pic.twitter.com/wo4FJ7MDKv
— أيوب (@_ayoub82_) June 20, 2014
⭕️ س ؛ ماذا يجب عليّ كمسلم في :
#حملة_المليار_مسلم_لنصرة_الدولة_الإسلامية ؟
#AllEyesOnISIS
ج : سبعة أمور 👇 : pic.twitter.com/DojftwZ6VZ
— #رابطة_اﻷنصار (@ansaar999) June 20, 2014
#AllEyesOnISIS
New way & new life with ISIS . Only enjoy (: it's coming !! pic.twitter.com/1vnv7Inx55
— #باآاقية ¿? تركي (@f_r_a_g_1) June 19, 2014
This was her chance to have spoken out against radical Islam, and Saba Ahmed did not.
— Brigitte Gabriel (@act4america) June 20, 2014
