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Posted on 01/01/2012 5:51:39 PM PST by MestaMachine
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Emirates, too, are looking over their shoulders. As reported early October. Old news getting a refresh. Interesting quote about anyone who advocates for Muslim Brotherhood. Can’t mean much to the executive branch, though, they’ve been foreign agents since they moved in.
From http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3370/muslim-brotherhood-united-arab-emirates
Last April, the United Arab Emirates started cracking down on Islamists operating there, and eventually arrested 60 of them. Shortly after that, Dhai Khalfan, Dubai’s Police chief, started publicly warning of an “international plot” to overthrow the governments of Gulf states, saying the region needs to be prepared to encounter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran”. Is the Muslim Brotherhood now ready to expand its dominance to oil-rich Arab nations after taking control of Egypt, the Arab country with the largest population?
In August — in one of his many statements about the matter — Khalfan said, “There is an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general.” Khalfan was clear about the reason he thought the Muslim Brotherhood wanted to control Gulf states: Wealth. “This is preplanned to take over our fortunes…the bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries.”
Khalfan also posted on his Twitter account that, “since the Muslim Brotherhood has ‘become a state,’ anyone advocating its cause is considered a foreign agent.”
Until last April, the existence of Islamist opposition groups in rich nations such as the UAE had not been an issue of attention to either the global media or even the UAE government itself; Khalfan admits he too — as Dubai’s top cop — did not realize there were so many Muslim Brotherhood members in the Gulf states.
finally........ the truth is outed
Freepers will not believe there are Moslems and then there are fanatic Moslems
Like Baptists, there are several different kinds
Thanks so very much for your kind words and advice. Physically, he is able to toilet, feed and dress himself. He is not ready for hospice yet.
His mental state is another story. He has a form of dementia which causes aberrant/episodic sexual behavior. In other words, he kept “hitting on” the little old ladies in his facility. He denies it, of course, and cannot remember anything about it, which is why he can no longer stay at those facilities. I totally understand the reason that he had to leave.
I love him dearly and will keep him here as long as I can.
Dad joined the 7th Cavalry in Fort Bliss, Texas. He knew how to ride horses. After that, he went into the Army/ Air Corps. WWII, served at Iwo Jima, and then to Germany during the Berlin Airlift. He has a remarkable history and remains a real patriot to this day. I treasure his service to our country and his great fatherhood.
I'm feeling like I hoisted myself on my very own petard.;^)
Mali was known as a laid back moderate muslim country and now is facing a likely radical islam takeover, too.
You can always tell who the moderate muslims are in an idealogical dispute. They're at room temperature.
Emirates got some decisions facing them soon.
Adding thread with some great links:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2944081/posts
Let the leaks begin
American Thinker ^ | October 12, 2012 | Rosslyn Smith
Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012 8:45:07 PM by Snuph
Vice President Biden doubled down on the bad intelligence excuse in last night’s debate when the question of the deaths of American personnel in Libya was raised. Among other stories today, Senator Bob Corker and The Daily Beast’s Eli Lake apparently seem to know at lot more about what happened in Benghazi that night than the President and Vice President.
Senator Corker will become the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee next year. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin reports: This week he had extensive meetings with the FBI and intelligence officials on the ground in Benghazi as well as officials from the Libyan government. He was emphatic: “What I know is our intelligence officials on the ground in real time and also in Washington within 24 hours knew what had happened.” How much was known at the time of the attack? Eli Lake reports: In addition to the footage from the consulate cameras, the U.S. government is also poring over video taken from an overhead U.S. surveillance drone that arrived for the final hour of the night battle at the consulate compound and nearby annex. One doesn’t have to be a world class analyst to make the distinction between the random acts of a mob and a coordinated attack. And if a drone was sent in when it became known the consulate was under attack, why wasn’t it an armed drone that could have tried to stop the assault?
I expect more damaging information to come out in coming days.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/10/let_the_leaks_begin.html#ixzz298SJwsk6
More:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2944163/posts
Benghazi: Osama’s Revenge on Obama
American Thinker ^ | October 13, 2012 | James Lewis
Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012 3:01:26 AM by neverdem
Talk about chickens coming home to roost. Talk about the Mother of All Fiascos. It’s the revenge of Osama bin Laden from the bottom of the ocean, and the message is plain: al-Qaeda is very much alive, and America is a paper tiger.
The Middle East is beginning to fall apart — Iran just sent a spy drone over Israel’s sensitive defense installations, and the IDF waited hours to react; Turkey forced down a Syrian arms plane, and al-Qaeda’s Al Zawahiri openly assaulted the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in a six-hour attack, working through al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), while the glorious Libyan friends did nothing as our ambassador was being raped and murdered. The guards called for help, and nobody responded. A police car fled the scene. The other ten cop cars requested by the consulate never showed up.
The Libyan regime knew. It had to know.
In Afghanistan, our soldiers are being murdered by the same Afghan troops we are training to take over after we leave. They can see the weak horse and the strong horse, and they are trying to tell the strong horse what side they are on. These folks used to be on our side, but they know which way the storm is blowing.
Remember: host governments are always responsible for the safety of accredited diplomats and soldiers. Always, always, always. Embassies have a U.S. Marine color guard — not for protection, but for a symbolic presence. Host governments have overwhelming power: armies, cops, and a huge intelligence apparatus. In Afghanistan, believe it or not, we are the guests of the regime. If Afghan soldiers are killing us, it’s because the regime is trying to save its butt, now that we have bowed down to the Taliban.
When Ayatollah Khomeini staged the takeover of\...
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THE REST OF THE STORY:
(Because articles disappear)
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/10/benghazi_osamas_revenge_on_obama.html
When Ayatollah Khomeini staged the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, he denied any responsibility. Jimmy Carter was weak enough to do nothing for a whole year, when the answer is right in the textbooks: the host government is always responsible for the security of diplomats. As soon as Reagan beat Carter, the U.S. hostages were released pronto, because Khomeini was not ready to die. His point was made.
Interesting footnote: Khomeini’s runner to the embassy terrorists was a kid named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was a big career move for him.
America may not have a memory, but the Islamists do. They’ve got our number, and they knew how far to push. They are not interested in you and me — not yet — but in the 1.4 billion Muslims who are quietly loving the revenge of Allah. This is how al-Qaeda gets notorious, wealthy, and powerful. This is how Islamists make recruits all over the world, including the West. Now Islamist throwbacks own Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Gaza. America is asleep at the switch, and Islamic fascists are on the march. Women in the millions are putting on chadors, niqabs, and black tents, not because they want to, but because they are afraid not to. They are right to be afraid. Our raving feminists are silent as the grave.
Remember: both our Cairo Embassy and our Benghazi Consulate were attacked, with a black al-Qaeda flag waving over the ruins for the international cameras. Al-Qaeda’s signature is simultaneous attacks in different places. This was the biggest victory for AQ since 9/11/01. We handed it to them. Obama bowed down to King Abdullah in public. Hillary has been videoed a thousand times walking with Huma, both wearing head scarves.
Signals. In the Muslim world, if you send an openly gay ambassador to Libya, you might as well paint a target on him. If you make Hillary — the betrayed wife of President Bill — your secstate, expect the outraged patriarchal pride of the throwbacks to take revenge. You think Hillary being secstate is wonderful and progressive, and they take it as a personal insult and demand bloody revenge. They are laughing at her now — a weak woman with a weaker president.
In Egypt and Libya, our glorified “Arab Spring” buddies did nothing while our sovereign territory went up in flames, our diplomats were shot and abused, and our national security secrets were stolen. So-called “spontaneous protests” exploded in fourteen Muslim countries at the same time as the Cairo and Benghazi assaults. Our diplomats have now been pulled out of a reported 20 Muslim countries, including Tunisia, Mali, Algeria, Libya.
It was the eleventh anniversary of 9/11/01, and our State Department idiotically pulled the U.S. Marines and military contractors out of Libya — in favor of radical Islamists hired at $13,000 per year. Instead of U.S. Marines to guard the embassies with machine guns those State Department moneys went to Green Chevy Volts.
To show them we mean no harm. How they must be laughing at us.
Hours before the Benghazi attack on Ambassador Chris Stevens, al-Qaeda released a web video from Ayman Al Zawahiri — bin Laden’s second in command. According to the Israeli intelligence-linked news site Debkafile.com:
Zawahiri called on the faithful to take revenge on the United States for liquidating one of the organization’s top operatives, Abu Yahya al-Libi in June by a US drone in Northwestern Pakistan. Its release was a “go signal” for the hit team to attack the US diplomats in Benghazi.
Why Benghazi? Because al-Libi means “the Libyan.” Obama’s U.S. predator killed Yahya al-Libi in Pakistan, and al-Qaeda takes instant revenge on our top diplomat in Libya.
Why the timing? It was 9/11, hours after the United States held memorial ceremonies for the victims, broadcast around the world.
It may not make sense to us, but it makes all the sense in the world to radical Muslims, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Salafists, Wahhabis, suicidal Twelvers, martyrdom freaks of Hezb’allah, and neo-Ottomans. There are hundreds of these little sects around the world, all whipped up every Friday by the local imam, sheikh, or other revenge fantasist.
Signals. They understand them. We have a media and political class that throws sand in our eyes. They are screaming at us, and we are pretending not to hear.
We now know why the administration has been running like hell from the assaults in Benghazi and Cairo. Weeks of flimsy lies, day after day, starting with Obama’s speech to the United Nations, where he blamed a shoddy web video made by a Christian Copt from Egypt (”a resident of Southern California”) who was promptly put in jail, presumably to protect his life. The BBC instantly blamed the video on 100 Jews — or was it 500? — who paid for the cruddy video. Anything to deflect blame in those crucial hours. Then the BBC “corrected” its lie after it went around the globe.
Our U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is still running the same lies Obama told weeks ago. Hillary and the State Department are telling different lies every day; Obama is blaming the intelligence agencies, who are leaking right back; and somebody is blaming the Pentagon today.
This would be a scream if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat is an Arab newspaper published in London, and it’s found a Libyan guard who survived that night, named ‘Ali. (Translation by MEMRI.org; formatting in original.)
... Ali was part of a Special Protection Unit, which comprises members of the February 17 Brigade, a Libyan militia comprising radical Islamists which was established following the Libyan revolution.
Back in March 2012, the U.S. Consulate had hired members of the Special Protection Unit to guard its compound.
‘Ali and others in his team describe ... the embassy’s poor cooperation when, following the June 2012 attack on the embassy, (when a bomb exploded outside the Benghazi consulate) they requested upgrades to their weapons and improvement of the security tools at their disposal.
‘Ali said that during the attack, after the embassy was stormed by some 50 men, ... his team’s calls for backup, in Arabic and English, went unanswered by both the Americans inside the embassy and by the February 17 Brigade headquarters less than two miles away.
... Police Vehicle Outside Consulate “Fled The Scene”; No Response To Libyan Guards’ Call For Backup
‘Ali ... was taken by surprise by the attack, which he said “seemed to come out of nowhere.” He said that he first noticed that the police car outside the consulate - an additional layer of security provided by the Libyan government - “took off quickly, fleeing the scene.”
He then saw some 50 men, mostly unarmed, approaching the consulate by foot on the dirt road leading up to it, headed by eight masked men, two of whom carried RPGs. ... Shortly thereafter, one of the attackers fired three (RPG) rounds at the main gate, while others stormed the consulate wall.
...the great majority of the attackers were Libyans from Benghazi, and some of them were masked. ... four of the attackers, all apparently masked, were the leaders of the group, because ... all the others seemed to listen to them and to follow their orders.
... one of the four leaders had worn a Pakistani-type garment, and carried a golden pistol. A second, whom he described as a “short, fat, irritable” man about 5’4” with a beard visible under his mask carrying an AK-47, asked him about where the Americans were inside the consulate. A third man, he said, who was about 5’7”, wore a long robe.”
This is the age of the web, and the U.S. State Department must have been following every moment of the six-hour attack. They knew about September 11. They knew about Zawahiri’s video. They knew Al-Libi was assassinated on President Obama’s direct orders in Pakistan. They had received distress calls from the U.S. ambassador in Libya.
They knew. If they didn’t know, they should resign en masse.
If the State Department knew, Hillary must have known. If Hillary knew, Obama must have been told. This is the age of instant communication. Didn’t somebody have a cell phone?
They knew and did nothing.
It was 3 am, and nobody picked up the phone.
If Americans can’t figure this out, the bad guys will. They already know. Only the ignorant and foolish don’t get it.
The 09/11/01 in common with the 09/11/12.......is the Clinton leadership fail that preceded both.
clinton on gaddafi:
“We came, we saw, he died.”
What we now face in Libya:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2944175/posts
Al Nusrah Front seizes Syrian base in joint operation with Free Syrian Army
The Long War Journal ^ | October 12, 2012 | By Bill Roggio
Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012 3:55:56 AM by Brad from Tennessee
The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group that is fighting Bashir al Assad’s regime in Syria, has seized control of an airbase near Aleppo in a joint operation with the supposedly secular Free Syrian Army. Video of the fighters at the airbase has appeared on the Internet.
The Al Nusrah Front and Free Syrian Army captured the airbase in al Ta’aneh near Aleppo yesterday after heavy fighting with the Syrian military. Scud tactical ballistic missiles as well as anti-aircraft missiles were housed at the airbase.
“A few hundred fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, Fajr al-Islam and a few members of the FSA [Free Syrian Army] took part in the operation which lasted for more than five hours,” according to a statement attributed to “Abu Firas of the Revolutionary Council in Aleppo” that accompanied the video posted on a YouTube site.
“The airbase was completely destroyed. The fighters were able to control the whole base after a long fight in which many Syrian soldiers killed, some fled, and others were captured,” the statement continued. “The fighters have set up many checkpoints around the base and were able to confiscate 20 different rockets.”
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The REST of the story and video:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_nusrah_front_seiz.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rd1HK1X2a90
The Al Nusrah Front is known to conduct joint operations with the Free Syrian Army, the main group in Syria that is held up as the secular opposition to the Assad regime. In August, Al Nusrah said it attacked a police station outside of Damascus along with the Al Sahaba Battalion, a unit of the Free Syrian Army that operates in the capital. According to The Guardian, jihadist groups such as Al Nusrah have become more appealing to Syrian rebels as they are better organized and have expertise from waging jihad in Iraq and elsewhere, and have integrated their operations with the Free Syrian Army.
Background on Al Nusrah Front activity in Syria
The Al Nusrah Front has conducted numerous suicide attacks and complex military operations against the Syrian military over the past 10 months. Additionally, Al Nusrah has claimed credit for hundreds of conventional attacks.
The group has now claimed credit for 27 of the 34 suicide bombings in Syria that the The Long War Journal has tallied since December 2011. Since the end of August, Al Nusrah has claimed credit for launching nine suicide attacks. For more information on the suicide attacks in Syria, see LWJ reports, Suicide bombings become commonplace in Syria , and Al Nusrah Front claims 5 suicide attacks in Syria in past month.
The al Qaeda-linked group has conducted several sophisticated attacks in Syria since it announced its presence earlier this year. Al Nusrah has claimed it executed the June 1 suicide assault on the Syrian military at a camp in Idlib, as well as a complex attack at the airport at Abu Kamal on Sept. 4.
The last complex suicide attack occurred on Oct. 9, when Al Nusrah forces attacked the Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta on the outskirts of Damascus. Two suicide bombers struck the base within 25 minutes of each other, then Al Nusrah fighters launched a mortar attack as recovery operations were underway. The previous complex attack took place on Sept. 26, when an assault team detonated a suicide car bomb outside the Army headquarters in central Damascus and a five-man team then entered the headquarters and battled with security guards. Also, on Oct. 3, Al Nusrah launched two suicide attacks and two car bomb attacks against different military targets in Aleppo.
Besides the Al Nusrah Front, other al Qaeda-affiliated groups, such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, also operate in Syria. In addition, still other al Qaeda-style groups, such as the Al Baraa Ibn Malik Martyrdom Brigade, which has claimed that it will use suicide attacks, and the Omar al Farouq Brigade, have appeared in Syria as well.
Foreign jihadists have begun to pour into Syria to wage jihad against Assad’s regime. Fighters from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and the Palestinian Territories are known to have been killed in Syria.
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http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/08/suicide_bombings_bec.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/al_nusrah_front_clai_4.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/al_nusrah_front_clai_4.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_nusrah_front_laun.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/al_nusrah_front_clai_5.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_nusrah_front_clai_6.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/06/abdullah_azzam_briga.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/07/omar_farouq_brigade.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/09/african_jihadists_killed_in_fi.php
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/fatah_al_islam_emir.php
Excuse me.
What we now face in Libya:
SHOULD READ:
What we now face in SYRIA:
Scroll comment links down to #20.
GREAT LINK! Thank you!!!
Thanks, maggief.
Senior Libyan security official survives assassinationEurope13.10.2012By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Benghazi, Libya (dpa) - The police chief in Libya‘s eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday survived an assassination attempt, security sources said.
The car of Colonel Mohammed bin Haleem exploded when he remotely switched it on. The blast caused no injuries, the state-run news agency reported.
“The bomb was carefully placed inside the car,” it quoted an unnamed source as saying.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, which comes a month after the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi in an assault by suspected Islamist militiamen.
Attempts by Libya‘s new rulers to establish security have proven difficult. The country is awash with weapons from the armed revolt that ended the rule of Moamer Gaddafi last year.
Libyan authorities last month ordered illegal militias to disband and launched a disarmament drive. dpa str raf jln Author: Ramadan Al-Fatash
“He is here with us for a while.”
“Plus, they want me to sign over all his financial assets to keep him there. I refuse.”
HOORAY RR!
“Is it time for catch up?”
Yes, it is. (caught up back to 750 note)
Thanks to all posters/linkers/researchers/historians/educators on this thread.
OUTSTANDING! Be informed, be prepared BUMP!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2944272/posts?page=1
My post synopsis from the thread:
This interview is explosive and mind-blowing.
As COUNTrecount said on the other thread when he posted the link:
“Col. Hunt ...explains how at least 12 command centers get IMMEDIATE info when the embassy was attacked.”
Hunt said that from the moment the call went in to Lamb, all of those command centers were instantaneously notified.
Hunt said that as soon as he heard Lamb’s testimony he was stunned. Said this is the elephant in the room the media refuses to report. He said none of what I am saying is my opinion. It is fact and standard operating procedure, but the WH refused to act or issue an order to help save our people there. They watched and listened for 6 hours and did NOTHING.
MissMagnolia sums it up (post 15)
Immediately communicated when embassy under attack, satellites & drones looking at this while it happened & the ambassador & 3 others were killed. Hundreds knew this was going on, watched/listened for 6 hours while the consulate was under attack & decision-makers were being constantly updated and DID NOTHING.... then lied about it for 8 days. Biden KNEW this was not an intelligence failure and lied during the debate about it.
This interview is devastating --- a must listen.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2944369/posts
Panetta: U.S. sends forces to Jordan amid tension on Syria border
CBSNEWS ^ | October 10, 2012
Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012 3:40:47 PM by yoe
BRUSSELS The United States has sent military troops to the Jordan-Syria border to help build a headquarters in Jordan and bolster that country’s military capabilities in the event that violence escalates along its border with Syria, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday.
Speaking at a NATO conference of defense ministers in Brussels, Panetta said the U.S. has been working with Jordan to monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and also to help Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border from Syria.
But the revelation of U.S. military personnel so close to the 19-month-old Syrian conflict suggests an escalation in the U.S. military involvement in the conflict, even as Washington pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in Syria.
It also follows several days of shelling between Turkey and Syria, an indication that the civil war could spill across Syria’s borders and become a regional conflict.
“We have a group of our forces there working to help build a headquarters there and to insure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so that we can deal with all the possible consequences of what’s happening in Syria,” Panetta said.
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The development comes with the U.S. presidential election less than a month away, and at a time when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has been criticizing President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, accusing the administration of embracing too passive a stance in the convulsive Mideast region.
The defense secretary and other administration officials have expressed concern about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s arsenal of chemical weapons. Panetta said last week that the United States believes that while the weapons are still secure, intelligence suggests the regime might have moved the weapons to protect them. The Obama administration has said that Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that would change the U.S. policy of providing only non-lethal aid to the rebels seeking to topple him.
Pentagon press secretary George Little, traveling with Panetta, said the U.S. and Jordan agreed that “increased cooperation and more detailed planning are necessary in order to respond to the severe consequences of the Assad regime’s brutality.”
He said the U.S. has provided medical kits, water tanks, and other forms of humanitarian aid to help Jordanians assist Syrian refugees fleeing into their country.
Little said the military personnel were there to help Jordan with the flood of Syrian refugees over its borders and the security of Syria’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
“As we’ve said before, we have been planning for various contingencies, both unilaterally and with our regional partners,” Little said in a written statement. “There are various scenarios in which the Assad regime’s reprehensible actions could affect our partners in the region. For this reason and many others, we are always working on our contingency planning, for which we consult with our friends.”
A U.S. defense official in Washington said the forces are made up of 100 military planners and other personnel who stayed on in Jordan after attending an annual exercise in May, and several dozen more have flown in since, operating from a joint U.S.-Jordanian military center north of Amman that Americans have used for years.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the mission on the record.
In Jordan, the biggest problem for now seems to be the strain put on the country’s meager resources by the estimated 200,000 Syrian refugees who have flooded across the border — the largest fleeing to any country.
Several dozen refugees in Jordan rioted in their desert border camp of Zaatari early this month, destroying tents and medicine and leaving scores of refugee families out in the night cold.
Jordanian men also are moving the other way across the border — joining what intelligence officials have estimated to be around 2,000 foreigners fighting alongside Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad. A Jordanian border guard was wounded after armed men — believed trying to go fight — exchanged gunfire at the northern frontier.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II: Clock ticking on Syrian political transition.In August, Jordan’s King Abdullah II talked to “CBS This Morning” about the refugees fleeing across the border into Jordan.
“The clock is ticking on a political transition and if we don’t find ourselves a way out by the end of the year, then you are going to see a spike in sectarian violence and I think it’s going to be a full-out civil war and I think calamity for years to come,” he said.
More +Video at link
For some historical background on Syria:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2944389/posts
The Alawites and the Future of Syria
Gatestone Institute ^ | October 12, 2012 at 6:00 am | Harold Rhode
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3394/alawites-syria
Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012 4:18:51 PM by Zhang Fei
|Assad and the Alawites cannot give in. They are fighting for their very existence. The only way to end this civil war is to let them have control over their destiny — either as an autonomous region in Syria or as an independent entity.|
The Alawites are a small, historically oppressed people, whose political future will determine whether Syria remains united in some form or disintegrates into even smaller ethnic and religious entities.
As they will play such an important role, America, Israel, and other forces interested in the future of Syria might do well to get to know them, their concerns, and how others can best come to terms with them.
Syria’s non-Sunnis have historically lived in apprehension of what the Sunnis might do to them. Although Arab Sunnis are the largest religio-ethnic group in Syria, non-Sunni Arabs make up upwards of 40% of the population. Historically, until the end of Ottoman rule after World War I, the Sunnis assumed they were the region’s natural rulers, and by and large controlled the destinies of the large numbers of non-Sunnis who lived among them. The non-Sunnis seem to have “known their place” in Syrian society – second class citizens. The Sunnis determined the rules.
In the 19th century, Western concepts of nationalism and equality for all people began to appear in the Middle East. The idea that everyone – irrespective of ethnicity or religion – is equal before the law has seemed anathema to the Sunnis: such an idea would contradict the basic Islamic principle that non-Muslims – known as dhimmis, or second-class, barely-tolerated citizens – could live in an Islamic society only if they accepted their place as unequal and unworthy of political and social equality. However, even though all Sunnis might consider themselves equal, in reality, clans, tribes, or ethnic identities, not to mention gender, usually prevail.
After World War I, when the French ruled Syria, they tried to introduce the concept of equality of all people before the law – a principle that never took root. During French rule, the people today known as Alawites – and who today rule Syria – begged the French to allow them to set up their own state in their ancient homeland along the Mediterranean coast between today’s Lebanon and Turkey. One of those who most passionately supported this option was the grandfather of the ruler of Syria today: Suleyman al-Assad.
This is because Syrian Sunnis have historically referred to individual Alawites as “abid” [slave], and treated the Alawites as such. The Alawites were servants in Sunni households. Alawite tradition is filled with horror stories of Sunni abuse, both working in Sunni households and in other areas of as well.
The Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, were terribly discriminated against under Sunni rule. The Sunnis attitude towards the Alawites – and towards the other non-Muslims – was “noblesse oblige,” or an attitude of condescension, if not outright hostility.
According to Alawite religious beliefs, the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law – Ali – was a deity. That a human could be a deity is anathema in Islam. Moreover, even though Christians are officially regarded as dhimmis, or second-class citizens, by the Muslims, many also refer to Christians as pagans: Christians deify Jesus who, in Muslim eyes, was a merely a prophet, born to a human mother and father.
Under the French and in the early years of Syrian independence after 1946, wealthy and respectable Sunnis did not want to have their sons serve in the military. Their Alawite servants, however, recognizing the military as a way to advance, persuaded their Sunni masters to sign recommendations to allow the children of their Alawite servants enter the military. Gradually, the Alawites rose in the ranks. Eventually in 1966, they overthrew the existing order to took over the country, and have dominated it since.
Many of these military officers, like their Christian counterparts, embraced Arab nationalism, perhaps hoping through nationalism to gain the equality that had eluded them in religion under the Sunni-dominated, society. These officers did their best to put their non-Sunni identities aside, and hoped – at times even demanded – that their Sunni fellow-Arabs do the same.
As the Alawites rose in the military, they also rose to senior positions in the Ba’ath Party, the basic tenant of which is militant Arab nationalism. But even as militant anti-Israeli Arab nationalists, these Alawites still feared that the majority-Sunnis would lie in wait, and pounce on the Alawites if the Alawites showed any weakness. The Alawites never allowed themselves forget that the Sunnis hated them; and that even though they controlled Syria, they had better come to an agreement with the leading Sunni families to provide them with stability and enable them to make money – in return for the Sunnis allowing the Alawites to control the country militarily and also make money.
During the so-called peace talks between Syria and Israel, the Alawites, according to their own admission, appointed Sunnis – and not Alawites – to negotiate with the Israelis – so that Alawites would not to be held responsible if any concessions were made to the Israelis. The Alawites were most likely concerned that if they had given in even ever so slightly to any Israeli requests, the Sunnis would have used that as an excuse to claim that the Alawites were not “true” Arabs.
Many Alawites have believed that the Arab-nationalist route of being accepted by the majority-Sunnis was doomed. According to discussions with people who have escaped Syria, as well as many still there, they feared, in their heart of hearts, that, just has the President Syrian President Assad’s grandfather had warned, whatever they did, the Sunnis would never accept them. For these Alawites, the only solution would be a separate Alawite state, or entity, where they could control their destiny and not be under the dreaded Sunni yoke.
Many Alawites, who, quietly, had long opposed Assad’s rule, are again, like Assad’s grandfather in the 1930’s, trying to put forward the idea of creating an independent Alawite state. Every day they can see around them that Middle Eastern culture places a high value on revenge, so that the Sunnis would never forgive them for having been ousted from power 46 years ago. The Alawites would be wise to fear that whatever happens in Syria, the Sunnis will massacre them for having governed Syria and for having killed so many Sunnis during the current war.
The concept of compromise simply does not exist in the Middle East – one either wins or loses. Compromise, because it invariably entails a partial loss, is evidently seen as bringing shame on oneself – to be avoided at all costs. Syria’s Alawite regime therefore probably sees no alternative other than to keep fighting the Sunni-dominated opposition – which itself is succumbing to Turkish, Saudi, and Qatari-inspired Islamic fundamentalist leadership – and to try to ethnically cleanse the Alawite areas of all Sunnis in the hope of retreating to that area with the help of outside allies – be they Iranians, Russians, or other non-Sunni Arabs in the area – and barricading themselves in against the Sunnis.
Consequently, it is hard to imagine any settlement in which Syria remains a centralized and unified state. One could imagine local autonomous regions, where the Alawites could finally control their own destiny. Maybe other groups – such as the non-Arab Kurdish Sunnis in the north – might also have their own entities to throw off the yoke of Arab rule. Whatever the eventual outcome, the Kurds know that their Sunni Arab neighbors, even though they all share the same faith, will never let bygones be bygones. Just as the Muslims in general are relentless in pursuing Israel, they would never accept any solution where they do not eventually take over the entire area.
Therefore, if there is ever to be some sort of peace-like arrangement – albeit temporary – in what is Syria today, there is no way that Syria can remain a centralized state, with new rulers, whoever they might be, who would continue to oppress other Syrians . Of all the ethnic and religious groups in Syria, the Alawites have the most to lose, which they undoubtedly know and which is why they must have control over their own destiny. They would have no alternative other than to remain well-armed; if not, the Sunnis would again take them over and subject them to the slave-like status they had in the past.
Assad, therefore, cannot give in. He and the Alawites – whether they support or oppose Assad – are fighting for their very existence. They only way to end this civil war is to let them have control over their destiny – either as an autonomous region in Syria, or as an independent entity. Whatever happens, they will insist that they remain well-armed. They – like other minorities in the Middle East – will continue to live in eternal fear of the Arab Sunnis. As the concept of overlooking past grievances is alien to the culture of that region, true peace between the Alawites and the Arab Sunnis – or, for that matter, Arab Sunnis and non-Arab Sunnis – is sadly out of the question.
Reponding to your great post #807. I believe all of it and also that many knew it was going to happen including Brennan, Clapper, and Petraeus. I’ve been interested in the motives, which keeps making me want look back, to Yugoslavia. Did they begin their greedy, murderous, destructive path with that country, and if so why? Per history it was a country that saved Europe for centuries from the Jihadi Salafists-Wahhabis Caliphate-ists. The country was already weakened financially, weakened further by having their paid Jihad Salafist-Wahhabi assassins create a ground war in advance, then the NGO media made it appear like was a genocide against Muslims by the Serbs. When it was a country trying to save itself from them. NATO - Clinon, Westley Clarke et al then bombed it to save them from socalled genocide. The MSM covered it mostly by what they were told by the NGO’s on the ground, to include websites of the NGO’s - ICG/ICC/HRW/IRC - then they setup even more local nonprofit sites to echo their stories. The NGO’s work hand in hand with the MSM...some pay their airfare and the journalists stay with the NGO’s while they’re there - almost like the days when they had a USSR tour guide. Journalists are on the board of many of these nonprofits - true. They eventually Balkanized the country and gave Islam a state of their own and even supplied them with a Grand Mufti...forget his name...Certe or something. Anyway they now have a country in which to train their “army” of jihad assassins and Kosovo is where many of them train as we speak. So there’s now an almost a clear route to Europe. In the end Serbia etc. were easily pressured into selling away their land, oil, mineral, water rights...the globalists got it cheap. If any refused NATO- our govenment/globals created a scandal and the leader was deposed. They also use the threat of no free trade...play ball...or else. It’s really why they hate us. UN-NGO’s have control of the schools, all schools will be taught the same globally, thank George Schultz for signing the US treaty with Russia. They’re standardizing everything from education to healthcare to redistribution to law and order with peace controlled by the tip of the assassin sword. We’ll each have a carbon footprint etc., will live and work in an assigned zone...currency and banking will be the sharia approved microfinance. We’ll have a universal religion...they’re banking on sufi/gnosticism/occultism. They hate those who practice Judeo-Christianity because it gives us a faith with REASON because faith without reason is dead. I guess it’s mostly Agenda 21.
Why did the UN permit Turkey to illegally occupy North Cyprus? Greece is on it’s knees as we speak, Spain next, a naneth from the ground, and so on. When one looks at the map, Israel is the only country left in that region, protecting us from the Globalists!!! What we give them in money is pittance. They’ll probably also Balkanize the Islamic bloc countries, easier to control for the jihadists who’ve been brainwashed into thinking it’s a great thing. And as for us, we’ve got California on it’s last legs, with Jihad Salafists within and without our borders. One could go on...Georgia and their Orange Revolution etc., pipelines everywhere.
I found this on a ME site exactly as written below:
“Sam Basile is here http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/04/07/idUS214510+07-Apr-2009+PRN20090407
and remember that one of the diplomats killed in Libya!!!! this week was
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/gamers-mourn-american-killed-libya-995476 “
That both Basile and Smith were into *games* appear too coincidental thus invited some research...
I looked them up and can’t find a link between either company, i.e., Aruze Gaming America Inc. where Sam Basile was made VP, and CCP’s Eve online where Smith *played games*. There’s been a name game w/ alias’ similar to each other when it came to Sam... Was Nikoula, or was it Sam Basile, taken into protective custody rather than into police custody, for using the computer while on probation? Nikoula = Basile? Nikoula denies it. The others, Klein, Sadek, the preacher...just Christian red meat for the Islamists and perhaps fodder for us to investigate. I still find it difficult to believe that the Coptics would jeopardize their relatives in Egypt in this way.
Just found this...Sam Basile but there’s also a Samantha Basile:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Samantha/Basile
Is Sam Basile a woman? Samantha...NOTE her affiliations:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/samantha-basile/a/a4b/383
Then found this...
“Why did a Saudi Wahabi Al Naas TV Channel take the Arabic translation of the clip from a well known radical Coptic Christian, Maurice Sadek madman, and broadcast it into the homes of 50% illiterate Egyptians knowing what the response would be?
If it were not for the Saudis the movie would never have been shown in the region.
What was their motive?”
Did Maurice Sadek pass it to Khaled Abdullah? Dunno.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2932402/posts
http://gawker.com/5942651/the-filmmaker-who-made-the-anti+islam-video-that-sparked-violent-mideast-protests-is-a-ghost
Dunno any of it really...just thoughts...
September 12th via AP...
This is about the best initial report I’ve read - nowhere does it mention Basile was Jewish - just that he was a real estate developer...no mention of al-Sharia...Nakoula denied he had posed as Basile...
http://www.theprovince.com/news/AntiIslam+filmmaker+hiding+remains+defiant+after+violent+protests/7227267/story.html
September 12th, 6:24am CBS via AP
“One of the groups to emerge in post-revolution Libya, Ansar al-Sharia, claimed responsibility Wednesday for the attack in Benghazi, which has been condemned by the country’s new government.”...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57511043/assault-on-u.s-consulate-in-benghazi-leaves-4-dead-including-u.s-ambassador-j-christopher-stevens/
Al-Sharia initially claimed responsibility and within a day or two was emphatically denying it...what was all that about?
Was it AP or WSJ who got the Jewish real estate developer story going?
WSJ - 12th September, 12:59
By MATT BRADLEY in Cairo and DION NISSENBAUM in Washington
“The man who claimed to be the filmmaker, said he posted the trailer for his film on YouTube in early July. But it had largely escaped attention until recent days, when ACTIVISTS ON TWITTER pointed to clips that included actors in anachronistic costumes, near flimsy sets and often stumbling through lines. Egyptian clerics began widely condemning the footage.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444017504577645681057498266.html
So they twittered it into infamy. The article didn’t mention the Jewish developer BUT - WSJ added this addendum at the bottom of the report:
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article included claims by the person who identified himself as Sam Bacile that he is an Israeli-American and that he raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors to fund the film. Those claims weren’t confirmed and should not have been included in the article. In addition, the article has been updated to note that the name used by the person appears to be a pseudonym, based on subsequent reporting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444017504577645681057498266.html
...NPR appeared to be the only one, or one of a very few who picked up the Jewish story from the WSJ beginning with “according to the Journal”, they then changed when WSJ made their correction a couple of hrs later BUT (the damage was done) the link to their AP source isn’t working so can’t find the article - later still in their ongoing reports - NPR mentions it yet again by pointing to the WSJ - stating that “Bacile repeated what he told the Journal to the AP”...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/12/161003427/what-we-know-about-sam-bacile-the-man-behind-the-muhammad-movie
Both NPR and the NYTimes spell it Bacile.
Would be interested to discover which medium initiated the story first as it really ignited the fuel - not that it takes much.
September 15th - 5:05 pm
“He took sharp issue with the statements of the deputy interior minister, Wanis Al-Sharif, who has blamed both Gaddafi loyalists for the attack and criticized U.S. security guards who he said had inflamed demonstrators by firing at them. Magarief says pro-Gaddafi elements were not involved in either the attack on the consulate or later on another building a mile away where consulate staff sought safety. But U.S. intelligence sources aren’t convinced that an al Qaeda–affiliated group was behind the attack. “You have to draw a distinction between al Qaeda aligned or sympathetic and an actual affiliate,” says a U.S. official reached by email.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/15/despite-arrests-in-consulate-attack-confusion-persists-in-libya.html
Wanis Al-Sharif was fired a few days later...think the 18th. One wonders why they’re so emphatic it wasn’t any of Qaddafi’ ex-military. They’re some of the few, who could have been skilled enough in training, to have pulled off such a sophisicated attack.
Just found this EXCELLENT article on the blame the Jews, unfortunately it doesn’t say who first published the claim:
Blaming the Jews: Old Wine in a New Bottle
“Admittedly, I’m a bit touchy about false reports that Jews are involved in sinister activities, like the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press reports that a Jewish real-estate developer in California, having raised five million dollars from “more than 100 Jewish donors,” created the anti-Islam video that touched off riots throughout the Arab world and became the pretense for killing American diplomats in Libya. A cursory knowledge of history, conspiracy theories, and stereotyping — from international banking conspiracies to the Holocaust and its denial to present-day hate groups — can make you feel that way. But normally responsible sources like the Journal and the AP needn’t play into the hands of reactionaries, as they did in the initial reports that Jews were at the bottom of the worldwide furor.”...
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2012/09/20/blaming-the-jews-old-wine-in-a-new-bottle/
Good initial report on the background:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/world/middleeast/attack-by-fringe-group-highlights-the-problem-of-libya-militias.html?pagewanted=all
Video From Benghazi Consulate Shows Organized Attack
Oct 12, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Footage from the night of Sept. 11 might be the clearest evidence yet of a military-style assault on the consulate in Benghazi. Eli Lake reports.
Video footage from the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya, taken the night of the Sept. 11 anniversary attacks, shows an organized group of armed men attacking the compound, according to two U.S. intelligence officials who have seen the footage and are involved in the ongoing investigation. The footage, which was recovered from the site last week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, offers some of the most tangible evidence yet that a military-style assault took place, according to these officials.
The Obama administration has been studying the videos, taken from closed-circuit cameras throughout the Benghazi consulate’s four-building compound, for clues about who was responsible for the attack and how it played out. The two officials tell The Daily Beast that analysts are hoping to decipher the faces of the attackers and match them up with known jihadists.
The videos could also play into an expanding investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that is looking at whether security steps could have been taken that would have saved the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans killed that day. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is one of the Republicans leading the House investigation, says he hasn’t been given the footage.
In addition to the footage from the consulate cameras, the U.S. government is also poring over video taken from an overhead U.S. surveillance drone that arrived for the final hour of the night battle at the consulate compound and nearby annex.
Video from the compound’s cameras debunk the initial line from the Obama administration that there was a protest in front of the consulate on the night of the attacks, according to one of the U.S. intelligence officials who has seen the footage, and a senior Obama administration official familiar with what they show.
The videos were filmed from multiple closed-circuit cameras throughout the compound, and are at times grainy and hard to decipher. There are also some gaps. There is no footage, for example, of Ambassador Chris Stevens going into the safe room where he eventually died from smoke inhalation. The footage at the gate of the compound is taken from an angle that filmed the attackers from the side, so the people in the crowd can mostly be seen in profile.
The Daily Beast first reported that the intelligence behind the initial public assessment that the attack was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islam film was based in part on a single intercept between one of the attackers and a middle manager in al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group’s North African affiliate. In the call, the alleged attacker said the locals went forward with the attack only after watching the riots that same day at the U.S. embassy in Cairo. But that intercept was one of many that suggested an al Qaeda link to the attack, none of which were mentioned in the initial eight days.
In addition to the intercept, the Central Intelligence Agency based its first assessment on open press reports and statements from Libyan politicians with jihadist sympathies. A U.S. intelligence official said there was also information from one of the Libyan nationals saying there was a protest that evening.
Analysts are hoping to decipher the faces of the attackers and match them up with known databases of jihadists.
At the same time, there was evidence that countered this assessment. An initial investigation by congressional Republicans alleged that the families of local Libyans serving for a contractor to provide security at the consulate were urged in the days before the attack to have the guards not show up to work on Sept. 11. U.S. intelligence officers also knew of four suspects within 24 hours of the attack that had links to Ansar al-Sharia, a local jihadist organization with some ties to al Qaeda’s regional affiliate for north Africa.
The video footage also supports the accounts of four diplomatic-security officers who were at the Benghazi compound and who initially responded to the attack. On Sept. 17, these officers told State Department investigators in formal briefings that there was no spontaneous protest the night of the attack, U.S. officials tell The Daily Beast. This information was what led the State Department to conclude there was no protest at the consulate on the day of the attacks, according to these officials.
Nonetheless, White House spokesman Jay Carney continued to say until Sept. 20 that the Benghazi assault resulted from a protest over the Internet film.
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