#IRS Official Whose Emails Were 'Lost' Visited White House More Than 30 Times

It's Nikole Flax, former chief of staff to former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.

See Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall. (At Memeorandum.)

And a YouTube clip of Jay Sekulow on Megyn Kelly's yesterday: "IRS Official Whose Emails 'Vanished' Visited White House 35 Times."

VIDEO: Shiite Jihadists March on Baghdad — Shiite!

According to BuzzFeed, these are the militia forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, who called for jihad against American troops in 2004, after Provisional Regent Paul Premer branded him an "outlaw."

See, "Shiite Militia Marches Through Baghdad In Massive Show of Force."

And watch, "Militants march in Sadr City, Baghdad."

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Sadr followers march in Iraq as Sunni militants capture two towns."

Middle East Holds Few Attractive Options for Obama

From Victor Davis Hanson, at Town Hall:

Two and a half years ago, the U.S. pulled every soldier out of a mostly quiet Iraq. In the void, formerly al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists calling themselves "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" are now tearing apart the country, leaving medieval savagery in their wake.

Obama partisans are blaming the Bush administration for going into Iraq in the first place. But critics counter that Obama wanted out of Iraq before the 2012 election at all costs. The result of that reckless skedaddle is that we have thrown away the hard work of the 2007-2008 surge that finally broke the back of both al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed Shiite terrorists...

Outstanding analysis.

Keep reading.

The Brilliant Brothers Who Left British Suburb for #Jihad in Syria

At the Telegraph UK.

VIDEO: Commingled, Unidentified Illegal Alien Remains Found in Mass Graves in Brooks County, Texas

Hundreds of illegals have died in Brooks County, trying to enter the United States in 100 degree weather. The local county sheriff's office has been overwhelmed and it looks like the funeral services that was contracted dumped multiple bodies into single body bags and discarded personal items in Glad trash bags, throwing those in along with the corpses.

An important report at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, "Mass graves of migrants found in Falfurrias (+ Video)":

FALFURRIAS - Unidentified migrants who died entering the United States were buried in mass graves in a South Texas cemetery, with remains found in trash bags, shopping bags, body bags, or no containers at all, researchers discovered.

In one burial, bones of three bodies were inside one body bag. In another instance, at least five people in body bags and smaller plastic bags were piled on top of each other, Baylor University anthropologist Lori Baker said. Skulls were found in biohazard bags — like the red plastic bags in receptacles at doctors’ offices — placed between coffins.

“To me it’s just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it’s just as disrespectful,” said Krista Latham, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis.

Bodies that were not already skeletonized before burial were found in varying states of decomposition, Baker said.

The bodies are believed to have been buried by a local funeral home since 2005 in the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Brooks County.

The discovery came in the last two weeks as the pair of anthropologists and their students continued an all-volunteer, multiyear effort to identify migrants who have died of exposure while evading Border Patrol checkpoints in remote South Texas, where temperatures reach more than 100 degrees in the summer and there is little water and shade. Hundreds of people have died in just the last few years in Brooks County alone, where the discovery of the mass graves was made in the county-owned portion of the cemetery in Falfurrias.

The researchers and their students exhumed remains of 110 unidentified people from the cemetery in 2013. This summer they performed 52 exhumations, but more than 52 people were buried in those spaces.

Because remains were commingled, and not all of the body bags were opened on-site, further study will be needed to determine the number of people recovered, Baker said.

The researchers expect to return next year to exhume more remains.

The mass graves are yet another sign of U.S. immigration systems and policies overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and of their difficulty coping with the humanitarian aspects of illegal migration. Since October, the nation has struggled to house and process record numbers of minors fleeing civil and political unrest in Central America, many traveling alone. Migrants from Central America travel north along freight train lines in Mexico, leading to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and on to Brooks County.

More.

Australian Foreign Minister Warns Aussie Jihadists Joining #ISIS in Iraq

Following-up from earlier, "Slick #ISIS Propaganda Video Recruits Western Youth: 'No Life Without Jihad...'"

Now at Australia's ABC News, "Number of Australians fighting with militants in Iraq and Syria 'extraordinary', Julie Bishop says." And at the Guardian UK, "Militant Australians join Sunnis in global conflicts, including Iraq: Bishop":

About 150 Australians are fighting with Sunni militants in conflicts around the world, and the government is particularly concerned about jihadists joining the Iraq conflict, the foreign affairs minister has revealed.  

Julie Bishop said her most recent intelligence briefing, on Thursday morning, estimated there to be about 150 Australians involved, most of them based in Syria. Her comments came as the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, would not rule out cancelling the citizenship of Australians who fought with the militant groups.

“It is extraordinary. There are about 150 Australians who have been or are still fighting with opposition groups in Syria and beyond. In Syria it seems that over a period of time they have moved from supporting the more moderate opposition groups to the more extreme and that includes this brutal extremist group, Isis [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant],” she told ABC Radio National, referring to the group that has taken northern and central parts of Iraq in recent weeks.

The director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), David Irvine, told Senate estimates last month it was believed 10 to 12 Australians had died in the Syrian conflict.

Bishop said the jihadists posed a threat to Australia if they return, and the government was “deeply concerned” about Australians joining Isis.

“These are brutal people. The executions and the killings and their boasting of it on social media makes this a particularly virulent form of terrorism. And these people are so extreme that al-Qaida is even distancing itself from them,” she said.

Also, "Australian militants Abu Yahya ash Shami and Abu Nour al-Iraqi identified in ISIS recruitment video."

It's all over the Western world. Jihad is attracting criminals and bums from all over.

PREVIOUSLY: "Calgary Police Service Issues Warning on Canadian Muslims Joining #ISIS Jihad in Iraq."

The French (Jihad) Connection

Remember the Jews fleeing France for Israel?

Well, it's largely due to the threat from Islamic jihad.

More on that from Theodore Dalrymple, at City Journal:

If cannabis were legal in France, Mehdi Nemmouche would be safely in Algeria, instead of under lock and key awaiting extradition to Belgium. Nemmouche was on his way to his father’s native Algeria when French customs agents in Marseille searched the bus on which he had travelled from Amsterdam. They were looking for drugs.

What they found instead in Nemmouche’s possession was a Kalashnikov rifle, a revolver, lots of ammunition, a gas mask, a short video of the weapons in his possession accompanied by a verbal commentary (probably in his voice) on the recent murder of four Jews at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, clothing similar to that worn by the perpetrator of that attack, and a white flag with the words Islamic State of Iraq and of the Levant in Arabic inscribed on it. No man is guilty until proven so in a court of law, of course, but the prosecuting authorities allowed themselves to say that the presumptive evidence against Nemmouche was very strong...

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Continue reading.

Saba Ahmed a 'Friend of the Family' to Oregon Terror Suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud

The quote's from Getty Images, "19-Year-Old Somalian Car Bomb Suspect Appears In Federal Court Caption":

PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 29: Saba Ahmed, a friend of the family of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, speaks to the media after Mohamed Osman Mohamud appeared in court on November 29, 2010 in Portland, Oregon. Mohamud, a Somali-born teenager, was arrested and charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction when he allegedly attempted to set off a car bomb during Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon. It was reported that civilians were not at risk because the bomb was supplied to him by undercover federal agents and the explosives were inert. (Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images)

She refused to renounce jihad on national TV, and Brigitte Gabriel hammered her mercilessly, here and here.

And now here's this, at Ironic Surrealism, "Saba Ahmed (Who Pals Around With Terrorists) In Talks With Obama Regime About Presidential Appointment."

And following the links takes us to BuzzFeed, "Muslim Woman at Center of Heritage Kerfuffle Says She’s In Discussions for a Presidential Appointment."

Well, she'd be at home in Obama's DHS. See, "Obama DHS Adviser Mohamed Elibiary’s Anti-American Tweets Celebrated by Brutal #ISIS Jihadists."

Michael O'Hanlon #Iraq Analysis on CBS 'This Morning'

"Maliki is the Shia Saddam."

Watch:



An excellent analysis that overlaps quite closely with Charles Krauthammer's essay,"In #Iraq, Abdication Has a Price."

In #Iraq, Abdication Has a Price

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post, "Abdication has a price":

Yes, it is true that there was no al-Qaeda in Iraq when George W. Bush took office. But it is equally true that there was essentially no al-Qaeda in Iraq remaining when Barack Obama took office.

Which makes Bush responsible for the terrible costs incurred to defeat the 2003-09 jihadist war engendered by his invasion. We can debate forever whether those costs were worth it, but what is not debatable is Obama’s responsibility for the return of the Islamist insurgency that had been routed by the time he became president...

No one is more clear on this complete cluster.

RTWT.

About Those Missing #IRS Emails

From Kim Strassel, at the Wall Street Journal, "About Those Missing Emails" (at Memeorandum):

Lois Lerner's emails are lost, and they need finding. In the meantime, their very disappearance tells us that Congress is sniffing down the right trail.

A year into congressional investigations of IRS targeting, we know two things beyond a doubt. We know from the public record that starting in 2010 the most powerful leaders of the Democratic Party—President Obama, Senate chairmen, House Democrats—ran a ceaseless campaign pressuring the IRS to silence conservative groups. We also know from internal IRS emails that Ms. Lerner, the former head of exempt organizations, was at the epicenter of an agency effort to silence those very groups, in the precise same time frame.

What we don't know is the interaction between the two. The IRS's deliberate withholding for a year of Lerner emails allowed the press and liberals to crow that there was no "there" there—zero evidence of Lerner collusion with anybody in the Democratic Party. At the very worst, went the explanation, Ms. Lerner and her IRS pals were zealous bureaucrats, primed to crack down on campaign money, and therefore eager to interpret the Democratic campaign as an order to act.

But the alleged disappearance of Ms. Lerner's hard drive—and the fact that the missing conversations are those the former IRS director had with people outside the IRS—has suddenly resurrected, with force, the explosive possibility that she was chatting with Democrats who mattered.

There's plenty of reason to believe she was. Just last week Congress discovered (via a subpoena to the Justice Department) emails showing that Ms. Lerner had conversations with Justice prosecutors about investigating conservative nonprofits. Who else in the Obama administration was Ms. Lerner talking to?

Continue reading.

Also see Walter Olson, at CATO, "Kim Strassel and the WSJ on the Lost IRS Emails."

Boko Haram Threat Spreads Into Cameroon

At Sky News.

Slick #ISIS Propaganda Video Recruits Western Youth: 'No Life Without Jihad...'

At Mirror UK, "British jihadi ISIS fighters post chilling YouTube video urging Muslims to 'sacrifice your family for Allah'." And New York Daily News, "Australian and British jihadists urge Muslims to join jihad in Syria and Iraq in new video."

And at CNN:



Live Leak has the video, "ISIS recruitment video No Life without Jihad."

More at London's Daily Mail, "'You don't keep the devil in your house': Furious father says he has BINNED family pictures of British medical student, 20, who went to fight jihad and appeared in chilling ISIS recruitment video."

Is #Israel Overreacting to the Kidnapping?

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

Eight days into the search, Israeli troops have still apparently found no trace of the three teenagers kidnapped last week by Hamas terrorists. Though the army continues to claim that it is tightening the noose around the kidnappers, as the country welcomed the Sabbath, there was no sign that the government’s faith that the victims could be still be rescued would be vindicated in the coming days. Instead, prayers for the safe recovery of the boys are being drowned out in the court of international public opinion by complaints from Palestinians that Israel’s efforts to ferret out the terrorists are an overreaction or that it is inflicting “collective punishment” on innocents even if those complaining about disproportionate use of force are also the same people who have been promoting a social media campaign supporting the kidnapping and mocking its victims.

The purpose of Israel’s West Bank offensive is to find the boys and to take down Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure that made the kidnapping possible. But the problem the country faces is that if another few days go by without results, international pressure to stand down and to even release some of the Hamas personnel that have been arrested in recent days will begin to grow. Those who are lighting an extra three candles tonight for the three boys are holding onto hope that they will soon be found alive, the sobering fact is that the Israel Defense Forces have never yet rescued a Hamas kidnapping victim alive. The prayers of decent people around the world are focused on the desire to see the three boys being the first such victims returned home without Israel being forced to pay a ransom in the form of released killers. But the problem facing Prime Minister Netanyahu this evening is what he will do if by this time next week, the IDF is no closer to bringing this episode to a successful conclusion as it is today...

Keep reading.

Rising French Anti-Semitism

Don't know how "new" this is, considering France's history going back to the Dreyfus affair, to say nothing of Vichy. But it's nevertheless extremely bad right now.

At the Washington Post, "A ‘new anti-Semitism’ rising in France."

And at the New York Times, "Number of French Jews Emigrating to Israel Rises."

Hillary Clinton 'Took Me Through Hell'

From Josh Rogin, at the Daily Beast, "Exclusive: ‘Hillary Clinton Took Me Through Hell,’ Rape Victim Says."



More at Twitchy, "‘For women?’ Must-read quotes from rape victim who says Hillary ‘took me through Hell’," and "‘The victim, probably’: Who cares that Hillary defended an accused rapist in 1975?'"

And see Alana Goodman, at Free Beacon, "Clinton Donor Bans Free Beacon From University of Arkansas Archives," and Matthew Continetti, "Hillary’s People."

Finally, from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Hillary Gets the Vetting She Deserved in 2008."

Mothers of Kidnapped Teenagers #EyalGiladNaftali

From the IDF:



RELATED: At London's Daily Mail, "Two Palestinians, including 13-year-old boy, killed during West Bank raids linked to search for three 'abducted' Israeli teenagers."

Round 2 with Heritage Questioner Saba Ahmed on #Hannity

Following up from yesterday, "Heritage Questioner Saba Ahmed on #Hannity."

Chinese Police Kill 13 Islamic Jihadists in Xinjiang

These are Muslim attackers, although from most of the headlines I'm seeing, you wouldn't know it.

See Pamela Geller, "Jihadists Bomb Police Station in West China."

Chinese police shoot dead 13 attackers who bombed a police station - official media http://t.co/l4IzGSF16t pic.twitter.com/iSWup4vGQW

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 21, 2014

Professor William Jacobson on the Larry Elder Show

At Legal Insurrection, "On the Larry Elder Show talking anti-Israel boycott movement."

And check the audio here.

PREVIOUSLY: "William Jacobson Speaks at Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, Los Angeles."