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Russia and Saudi Arabia Saturday stressed the importance of preserving Syrian and Iraqi territorial integrity after talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah. Riyadh and Moscow have opposing positions on the conflict in Syria, with Russia backing President Bashar Assad and Saudi Arabia supporting the rebels seeking to topple him for more than three years. But Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov said they had agreed "to work together to apply the Geneva I agreement that provides for a peaceful transfer of power in Syria," a Saudi spokesman said after the meetings. The ministers also...

Like Birkenstocks and ironic t-shirts, blaming Bush has never gone out of style on the left. When Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Iraq became so obvious that even the media, which had been pretending that Obama’s claims about a successful withdrawal were true, could no longer ignore them, their talking points were all lined up and ready. It was all Bush’s fault.Defenses of the war by pivotal figures like Dick Cheney and Tony Blair only enraged them further. “Why wouldn’t they admit it was all their fault?”But the left’s lazy talking points about Iraq, like their talking points about the economy,...

JERUSALEM – Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials. The officials said dozens of ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The officials said the training was not meant to be used for any future campaign in Iraq. The Jordanian officials said all ISIS members who received U.S. training to fight in Syria were first vetted for any...

Here is the full replay video and transcript of President Barack Obama’s speech on the situation in Iraq. He delivered the statement on Friday, June 13, 2014 at the White House. The text and complete video are below, after the jump. See more at: http://www.shallownation.com/2014/06/13/president-obama-iraq-speech-video-transcript-june-13-2014/#sthash.y7VTvu2d.dpuf

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars - the equivalent of $429m (£256m) - from Mosul's central bank, according to the regional governor. Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish televison reports that Isis militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen. Following the siege of the country's second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati,...

US Ambassador Robert Ford resigned from his State Department post a month ago, after a long and difficult time as the envoy to Syria. Ford showed great personal courage in his service while Bashar al-Assad instigated attacks on Western embassies and eventually provoked a massive civil war which has turned into a regional threat, thanks to the collapse of his power in large regions of Syria. The collapse of American policy in Syria over the past year was presumed to have prompted Ford’s departure, which he confirms with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview today.This is interesting for more...

The FBI says more Somali travelers have left Minnesota, possibly to fight for al-Shabaab in Syria. Investigators believe Somalis who left to fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria were motivated by radical ideology, not nationalism. The FBI asking the Somali community in the Twin Cities for more information on anyone who may have left to fight overseas. If you know anyone who is planning to and/or has traveled to a foreign country for armed combat or who is being recruited for such activities, please contact www.fbi.gov/fttips or call (763) 569-8020. All information will be kept completely...

In a move that would expand America’s involvement in Syria’s civil war, President Obama is close to authorizing the U.S. military to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight the regime of Bashar Assad and al Qaeda-linked groups, according to reports. U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal Tuesday that the new military program would supplement a small training effort led by the CIA, which Mr. Obama authorized a year ago. At the White House Tuesday, Mr. Obama declined to answer a reporter’s question about the U.S. sending more advisers to train the rebels. In a commencement address at the U.S....

VIDEO AT LINKThursday on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said that the administration's missteps in Syria would eventually come to the shores of the United States. He argued Syria is the new breeding ground for al Qaeda terrorists and said U.S. citizens have gone to Syria to train and are returning to possibly carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. “No one should believe that we will be immune to what is happening in Syria," he said. "The tide of war does not recede simply because we wish it so.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House officials have been holding private meetings this week aimed at soothing lawmakers' concerns over the U.S. posture in Syria, the future of the American military presence in Afghanistan and defense spending. The meetings come as a frustrated White House seeks to push back at criticism of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. But the White House outreach appeared to be having little effect on some lawmakers' concerns. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Tuesday night's White House meeting with chief of staff Denis McDonough and national security adviser...

One of the militant Syrian rebel groups provided access to advanced U.S. missiles said that it is seeking “the return of all Syrian land occupied by Israel,” a stance that could potentially complicate U.S. military support to the armed rebel group. The leader of an official rebel group sanctioned by the Syrian Military Council and in possession of sophisticated U.S. arms expressed his opinion in an interview published over the weekend by the Syrian news organization Tahrir Souri. Ahmad Al-Sa’oud, who heads the rebel unit Division 13, was asked by the interviewer to explain “your stance, as an armed opposition...

American, British and French Intelligence services are convinced that Assad continues to use chemical weapons against his people. As I’ve previously noted, for the Obama Administration, this is a triple disaster: strategic (the Russian-brokered WMD deal has been rendered a tragic farce), political (domestic perceptions of Obama’s leadership have suffered), and humanitarian (Syrians continue to choke to death). Still, for three reasons, I believe Obama might soon enforce his ‘‘red line’’ with US military force. 1) Obama doesn’t need Congress to approve military action. Nor would America have to act alone. Since September 2013, when Obama withdrew his Syria authorisation...

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander reportedly made a revealing remark last week, saying Syrian President Bashar Assad is "fighting this war (in Syria) as our deputy." The comment, made by Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, clearly implies that Iran is orchestrating what happens in Syria. Hamedani further said 130,000 Iranian fighters are "ready to be deployed" in Syria if the war rages on. Hamedani's statements were reported by the Iranian state-controlled Fars News last Sunday, but were quickly removed from the website. Naame Shaam, an independent news site opposing Assad's regime, revealed the deleted report last Thursday.

The Syrian government will receive 36 Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainers from the Russian state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport. According to Defense News: Russia’s state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport will deliver the first batch of nine Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainers to the Syrian government by the end of this year. The contract for 36 aircraft is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, a source close to the deal told local business daily Kommersant. Under the plan, Rosoboronexport will deliver 12 aircraft in 2015, and a further 15 jet trainers in 2016. “Thus, we will fulfill the obligations under a previously...

While the opposition Syrian National Coalition, headed by Ahmad Jarba, has been meeting with US officials this week in Washington in an effort to secure further support, including more funding and additional antitank and antiaircraft weapons, news from Syria indicates that some advanced US-made weapons are already being used in various Syrian provinces by rebel fighters. Over the past few weeks, media reports have stressed that US officials have begun a "pilot program" of providing small quantities of advanced weapons, including TOW missiles, to vetted "moderate" groups, and specifically the Harakat Hazm, which fights in a newly formed coalition called...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) announced it had executed seven prisoners in its bastion in north-eastern Syria yesterday, two of them by crucifixion. ISIL, which has been disavowed even by al-Qaeda, said it held the seven responsible for a grenade attack on one of its fighters earlier this month in the Euphrates Valley city of Raqa, which it rules with an iron fist. "Ten days ago, attackers on a motorbike threw a grenade at an ISIL fighter at the Naim roundabout. A Muslim civilian had his leg blown off and a...

Illegal arms were shipped to Syrian rebels from Libya and this could be the reason Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton lied and claimed the attack on the consulate was the result of a video. Seymour Hirsch published an investigative report stating that there is an addendum to the Senate Intelligence Committee report which explains what the CIA was doing in Benghazi. Our government was shipping arms from Libya through Turkey to Syrian rebels before we realized they were al-Qaida. The reason the government lied was probably to conceal an illegal operation to arm Syrian rebels. Ambassador Stevens was the coordinator....

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's president marked Easter with a tour Sunday of an ancient Christian village recently recaptured by his forces, state media said, as the country's Greek Orthodox Patriarch vowed that country's Christians "will not submit and yield" to extremists. Syrian state TV and the country's official SANA news agency said President Bashar Assad visited the hilltop hamlet of Maaloula, inspecting the damage done in recent fighting to its monasteries and churches. Rebels, including fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, seized Maaloula several times late last year, most recently in December. Government troops swept through the village on Monday,...

The household cleaning agent chlorine, in heavy concentration is purchased by Iran and and fitted with detonators, to provide President Bashar Assad with a vehicle for cheating on his undertaking to surrender Syria’s chemical arsenal under the year-old US-Russian chemical disarmament accord. And Assad is indeed getting away with using chlorine bombs, with crippling effect, especially on children, every few days. On April 7, Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon offered chapter and verse to prove that the Syrian army had perpetrated a chemical attack on civilians in he town of Harasta on March 27, causing scores of serious injuries and...

In the aftermath of the disastrous, for both the US and Saudi Arabia, false flag campaign to replace the Syrian regime with one which would be amenable to allowing a Qatari gas pipeline to pass underneath the Al-Qaeda rebel infested country, there were numerous rumors that the reign of Saudi's infamous former ambassador to the US and current intelligence chief, Prince Bandar "Bush" bin Sultan - the man who we suggested was the puppetmaster behind the entire failed operation - had come to an end. Some two months ago, Shia Post reported that "News sources announced that the chief of...