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General Odierno Says ISIS was AvoidableGen. Raymond Odierno said he believes the Islamic State’s creation was avoidable during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Host Joe Scarborough asked Odierno, who commanded the Multi-National Forces in Iraq for about two years, if ISIS and the current state of Iraq were avoidable when the United States ended formal combat operations there. “Did it ever have to begin? Was ISIS avoidable?” Scarborough asked. “I think it is, and I’m not one for revisionist history,” Odierno said. “Actually, I was, on 1 September 2010, that’s when I gave up command in Iraq and that...

Israel’s defense minister announced his resignation on Friday, saying the governing party had been taken over by “extremist and dangerous elements” and that he no longer trusted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following reports that he was to be replaced. Moshe Ya’alon’s departure removes a strong voice of moderation in the Cabinet and deepens the rift between the security establishment and the hardline politicians. Ya’alon told reporters that “Israel is a healthy society” with a “sane majority” that is tolerant of minorities and strives for a liberal and democratic society. “But to my great dismay extremist and dangerous elements have taken...

ISIS has executed 25 people in Mosul, northern Iraq, by lowering them in a vat of nitric acid, according to several local news reports. The men had been accused of spying on ISIS on behalf of Iraqi government security forces. According to witnesses, the 25 alleged 'spies' had been tied together with a rope and lowered in a large basin containing nitric acid until their organs dissolved.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry met in Cairo on Wednesday with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a day after the Egyptian leader called for a renewal of the Middle East peace process. Even before Sisi raised the issue, Kerry had planned a visit to discuss the Libya and Syria crises and to raise concerns about Egypt's harsh crackdown on dissent, and those issues were discussed in the meeting, according to AFP. But Kerry was also keen to hear more from the Egyptian leader about how he intends to help broker peace between his Israeli and Palestinian neighbors. "He's interested...

Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted by Islamic militants of Yemen on March 4, could be released soon, a Malayalam newspaper reported May 17. The Malayala Manorama based its story on an interview that Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia Bishop Paul Hinder gave to the “Bild-Zeitung,” (picture newspaper), a German tabloid. The vicariate covers Yemen also. The German tabloid quoted Bishop Hinder as saying that the Fr Uzhunnalil’s release was imminent. Suspected Islamic militants took the 57-year-old priest into custody after they raided a Missionaries of Charity aid center in Aden, a southern port city of Yemen. The terrorists...

The US State Department has approved a request by Egypt to purchase 20 Harpoon Block II encapsulated missiles for submarines as well as related equipment and training, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced in a statement. In addition to the Harpoon missiles, the proposed sale, worth approximately USD 143 million, includes two encapsulated harpoon certification training vehicles, technical assistance, personnel training and logistics support provided by the US. The missiles will be used by Egypt’s new Type 209 submarines, built by the German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, according to military intelligence and analysis website IHS Jane’s 30. “The proposed sale...

Perhaps the Carter administration was comparably hostile to Israel, but the passive-aggressive, honor-deficient Obama administration has both caused and acceded to greater danger to the Jewish State than any other U.S. administration since 1948.Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he would not be attending the Mideast conference to be held in Paris on May 30, which was organized by France's socialist President Francois Hollande.According to State, Kerry is simply too busy.As a result, Hollande has postponed the conference and no alternative date has been set.Eager to force Israel towards negotiations with the bifurcated, terror-supporting Palestinian leadership, Hollande had...

Iran has launched a new crackdown on social media, arresting fashion models active on photo-sharing websites and a blog website manager after Tehran's top leader declared war on un-Islamic thoughts on the Internet. Eight members of a modeling network were arrested and accused of publishing photos of women without the obligatory hijab headscarf on the picture-sharing application Instagram, Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.

GSM31 will be out of town on Thursday, so we recorded this early.

Shipment meant to support Egypt's fight against terrorism, U.S. officials say ___ The first shipment of U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles arrived in Egypt Thursday. The 762 armored vehicles were provided to the Egyptian military at no cost as part of the Pentagon's Excess Defense Articles program, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

In April, the Islamic Republic of Iran conducted another rocket launch, ostensibly to put an Iranian satellite into orbit, which fell far short of its mark. Many analysts speculated that its purpose had nothing to do with satellites. Those paying attention to Iran’s recent activities & skeptical of the Islamic Republic suggested that this latest launch was yet another example of Tehran’s ongoing effort to test its long-range ballistic missile program. About two weeks later, these suspicions were confirmed when the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, boasted that the launch had been a successful...

Islamic State fighters have recently arrived in the Gaza Strip to train with their Hamas counterparts, a senior IDF official said in an Arabic interview published Friday.

Israel's decision to honor a controversial Greek Orthodox priest at its official Independence Day ceremony is driving a wedge in the country's tiny Christian Arab community as the government recognizes him for his efforts to encourage Christians to enlist in the Israeli military. Father Gabriel Naddaf's recruitment drive has deeply divided Israel's Christian Arabs, who make up just 2 percent of Israel's population. His inclusion in a ceremony tinged with sadness for many of the country's Arabs, along with new allegations accusing him of sexually harassing young people he helped, has only added to the anger and risks overshadowing what...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday took part in the Seventh International Bayt al-Maqdis Islamic Conference in Ramallah, Samaria, in which he aired libel against Israel apparently on the background of its counter-terror actions. In his speech, he called on the international community to get involved in order to "defend" the Arab residents of Jerusalem who are dealing with "illegal" activities from Israel "that oppose international law and human rights." Hamdallah's call to take action against Israel urged international pressure so as to end the "occupation" and establish an independent Palestinian state along the 1949 Armistice lines,...

Hamza Bin Laden, the son of former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, is calling for the targeting of Jewish and Western interests and the building of an army to “liberate Jerusalem.” US Jewish institutions on alert following calls for attacks from bin Laden’s son.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon weighed in on Memorial Day, negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the possibility of a unity government on Tuesday, in a special interview with Army Radio. "The bravery of bereaved families is invisible but very significant," Ya'alon stated. "They overcome the pain, overcome the hole in their lives. This is true heroism." Ya'alon also addressed rumors of a unity government, .... Those challenges include pressure from Paris to begin negotiations with the PA, which he confirmed have failed before due to the PA refusing to cooperate. "They slammed the door to President [Barack] Obama and...

Israeli threats, not Obama's entreaties, saved embassy staff in Cairo during 2011 crisis. Speaking at a Foreign Ministry ceremony on the eve of Yom HaZikaron, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed that Israel had threatened Egypt during the 2011 Cairo embassy crisis. During the event on Tuesday, held to honor the memory of 16 Foreign Service members who were killed in the line of duty overseas, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was willing to go anywhere and take any action to protect the lives of its servicemen and women. The Prime Minister noted that during the siege of Israel’s embassy in Cairo...

Now that his administration has reached its final months, and little can be done to him personally, Barack Obama is pushing a harder line against Israel in an upcoming report about the 'settlements.' The report, which is likely to be released in late May or early June, will focus heavily on Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem, senior diplomats told AP. The Quartet’s report will also take Israel to task for the demolition of illegal Arab buildings – many of which were built with the support of the European Union. While in the past the US worked to...

Eight months ago, in September 2015, when every pundit opined that Donald Trump was a laughable candidate, I wrote that: “In short, get ready for a President Trump. But, more importantly, Trump, and only Trump, has the guts to erase Obama, and the vestiges of Obama's traitorous Iran-First policies, like Obama never existed. Just call Trump the Eraser-Man. America will elect Trump because they want to erase Obama, and all of his domestic and national security policies. After one year of President Trump, Obama and his policies will be just a bad dream.” As for the Middle East, real estate...

The attacks on US targets culminating in the September 11 suicide hijackings were only a fraction of the onslaught planned by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, it emerged yesterday. Over the past three years, US intelligence detected plots against US embassies in 14 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, and there were over 600 more "credible threats" of attacks. Some were thwarted by arrests or stepped up security. Others appear to have been suspended or may still be pending. The global extent of al-Qaida's terrorist ambitions is revealed in a new book by Peter Bergen, CNN's terrorism analyst, who interviewed ...