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Do you remember two years ago when Iraq was going to fight the Kurds in a different part of Syria. Many people wanted us to fight with the Kurds against Iraq, who we just fought for. I said no, and the Kurds left the fight, twice. Now the same thing is happening with Turkey...... .....The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years. Turkey considers the PKK the worst terrorists of all. Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them! We are monitoring the situation closely. Endless Wars! Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC...

President Trump’s decision to withdraw our few troops from the Syria-Turkey border area earned him considerable criticism from allies. Senator Lindsey Graham said the decision is “a catastrophe in the making.” Representative Lin Cheney said it’s “a catastrophic mistake.” Former UN Secretary Nikki Haley said, “We must always have the backs of our allies.” President Trump has answered these critics. The Kurds were engaged in a contractual relationship fighting the Islamic State (ISIS). They were well paid and equipped for their fighting, much like any mercenary group. Further, they were given three years to consolidate eastern Syria to feed their...

CAIRO (REUTERS) - ARAB League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday led Arab foreign ministers in lambasting Turkey's military operation in northeast Syria as an "invasion of an Arab state's land and an aggression on its sovereignty". Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim, president of the current Arab League session, also condemned Turkey's offensive into Syria during an emergency meeting of the body, called by Egypt. The offensive "will exacerbate humanitarian crises, increase the suffering of the Syrian people, and strengthen the ability of terrorists to reorganize their remnants," Alhakim said. Alhakim and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called...

Five Isis militants have reportedly broken out of a prison in northern Syria following Turkish mortar strikes nearby. The detainees fled from a jail in Qamishli city, according to a spokesman in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as reported by the Independent. It follows earlier reports that the SDF had stopped operations against the terror group to defend against the Turkish advances. As more Kurdish fighters left their posts, makeshift prisons holding Islamic State fighters would become vulnerable to escapes, they warned. Separately, women affiliated with the extremist group attacked security officers at a camp in one of the...

PARIS—As police intelligence agents in Paris tracked Islamist radicals over the summer, one of their longtime colleagues was quietly embracing a more extreme version of his Muslim faith. While away from the office, Mickaël Harpon, a 45-year-old convert to Islam, had begun dressing in more religious garb and established ties with followers of Salafism, a fundamentalist strain of Islam, according to prosecutors. At work, he appeared to avoid physical contact with women, colleagues would later tell prosecutors. During his lunch break last week, Harpon bought two knives, returned to the office and stabbed four of his colleagues to death. He...

British jihadi Jack Letts may have been staying at an ISIS jail which the Kurds say was shelled by Turkey last night in a 'clear attempt' to liberate locked up fighters. Explosions in the town of Qamishli, near the Iraqi border, rocked the Chirkin prison where militants from some 60 countries are being kept, guards said on Thursday... Mustafa Bali, spokesman for Kurdish forces in northern Syria, said today the Chirkin prison is where 'the most dangerous jihadists' are held... A senior Kurdish official warned today that ISIS militants could break out of prisons in northeast Syria as fighting intensifies...

BBC Video At least two people were shot dead on a street in the German city of Halle on Wednesday, police said, with witnesses saying that a synagogue was among the gunmen's targets as Jews marked the holy day of Yom Kippur. One suspect was captured but with a manhunt ongoing for other perpetrators, security has been tightened in synagogues in other eastern German cities while Halle itself was in lockdown. "Early indications show that two people were killed in Halle. Several shots were fired," police said on Twitter, urging residents in the area to stay indoors. Police said the...

Gunmen wearing military fatigues opened fire outside synagogue in the German city of Halle on Wednesday At least two people, including one woman, were killed in the attack and several more were injured Police say they have arrested one man and urged people to 'stay alert' while the manhunt continues Shocking video shows one man dressed in black tactical gear and wearing a helmet firing on the street Attack happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which is traditionally spent fasting and praying At least two people have been killed after gunmen attacked a synagogue in Germany on...

President Trump has announced that he is withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria. The reaction to this decision has raised cries of alarm across the political spectrum. I claim no expertise in international affairs but will share some thoughts on this latest noisy crisis of faith (and unfaith) in our president. Although it is easy to pick and choose quotes from America's founders and original thinkers, President Trump's actions seem to line up with the thinking of several of these men. Thomas Jefferson described what he saw as America's role in the world thus: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all...

Some Republicans, including Trump allies such as Sen Lindsey Graham, have joined Democrats in sharply criticizing the president's decision to withdraw an unannounced number of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) strongly supports the president's move, even if the "neocon war caucus of the Senate" -- Paul's words -- does not. "We haven't been able to find peace for 18 years in Afghanistan," Paul told Fox News's Neil Cavuto in a telephone interview on Monday. "So I certainly don't think we're going to find peace in Syria. But I do think a couple of hundred people...

President Trump has clearly been itching to leave Syria for months, once dubbing it nothing but "sand and death." As Trump himself was at pains to point out, he was elected on a promise to get out of "these ridiculous endless wars." But the speed of his decision to withdraw US forces from northern Syria threatens to wreck almost every goal the US has in the Middle East just now. Firstly, the sudden withdrawal of US forces -- designed to leave their erstwhile allies the Syrian Kurds as exposed to a Turkish advance as possible -- comes just as a...

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul knocked fellow Republican senators who criticized President Trump's move to pull troops from northern Syria, calling them the "neocon war caucus." "A lot of people in your own party -- Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Nikki Haley, and on and on and on — say this is a tragedy, it’s a bad move, it emboldens our enemies," Fox News host Neil Cavuto told Paul on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" Monday. "It sounded like you listed the neocon war caucus of the Senate," Paul responded, adding, "They always want to stay at war." Trump vigorously...

We’ve had more than 36 hours to absorb the news that President Trump was pulling our troops out of the way of an anticipated Turkish incursion into northern Syria. (And possibly out of the country entirely.) The response has been rapid and generally brutal across the board. Has any of this sunk in with the President yet, potentially leading him to reconsider this decision? As of last night, it certainly didn’t sound like it. (Associated Press) “I held off this fight for almost 3 years, but it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars,...

Turkish jets struck a Kurdish base near the Iraq-Syria border late Monday night, the first grim fruits of President Trump’s decision to order US forces out of the way — a decision we fear Trump will come to regret. We’ll grant that the president is delivering on a campaign promise here: Like most Americans, he doesn’t want this nation serving as the world’s policeman; other countries should share more of the burden when it comes to both troops and money. Or, as he tweeted Monday, “it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars.” He has...

UK: Holocaust memorial removes references to Jews, highlights Muslim role in saving people OCT 7, 2019 4:30 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER What did you expect in today’s shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain, where the next Prime Minister could be openly antisemitic and pro-jihad? The UCU has apologized, but would it have done so if no one had said anything? “Why did UK’s Holocaust memorial events remove references to Jews?,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, October 4, 2019: The University College Union in the United Kingdom sent an email to branches that excluded mention of Jews among the groups persecuted during...

The US decision to withdraw forces from northern Syria in anticipation of Turkish assault is only the most recent betrayal Kurds have faced A popular saying goes that Kurds have "no friends but the mountains". ****snip*** The decision on Monday by US President Donald Trump to withdraw American troops from northern Syria in anticipation of a Turkish invasion is only the latest in a long line of betrayals. *****snip**** In 2016, the Turkish military and allied Syrian forces launched Operation Euphrates Shield and entered northern Syria with the express aim of defeating the so-called Islamic State (IS) group that still...

WikiLeaks has released an email exchange between employees of Stratfor, the US-based global intelligence company, which reveals Israel and Russia made a deal to swap access codes for defense and surveillance equipment. According to the leaked document, Israel gave Russia the "data link codes" for unmanned aerial vehicles that the Jewish state sold to Georgia, and in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for Tor-M1 missile defense systems that Russia sold Iran. In a document by a Stratfor employee dated February 2009 she says that she had met with a "Mexican source/friend" who told her that Israel and Russia had...

China National Petroleum Corp has pulled out of a deal to develop Iran’s South Pars field. Photo: APChina National Petroleum Corp has pulled out of a deal to develop Iran’s South Pars field. China National Petroleum Corp has pulled out of a deal to develop Iran’s South Pars field. Photo: AP Chinese state-owned oil company China National Petroleum Corporation has pulled out of a US$5 billion deal to develop a portion of Iran’s massive offshore natural gas field, the Islamic Republic’s oil minister said on Sunday, after France’s Total SA earlier withdrew from the agreement over US sanctions. The South...

Australia’s most decorated soldier has accused Nine of being “malicious”, saying the company is commercially motivated to tear him down. Ben Roberts-Smith has accused Nine of being commercially motivated and malicious when it alleged the former soldier was engaged in war crimes. Australia’s most decorated soldier has hit back at claims he handcuffed and kicked an Afghan prisoner named Ali Jan off a cliff during a military operation in Afghanistan in 2012. The prisoner was then allegedly shot dead by another soldier. “I want Australians to know that I absolutely deny these hurtful allegations,” Mr Roberts-Smith said in a statement...