The Middle East Problem

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Germany and the U.K. on Thursday ruled out carrying out air strikes on Islamic State militants in Syria, a day after President Barack Obama authorized the start of U.S. air strikes there.

“We haven’t been asked, nor will we do it,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters when asked about German participation in air strikes against the Islamic State, known as ISIL or ISIS, in light of Mr. Obama’s speech.

“We need to be honest with ourselves in the current situation, we don’t yet have a final, blanket strategy which guarantees that we’ll be successful against ISIS and similar groups,” the German minister said in Berlin.

His U.K. counterpart Philip Hammond explicitly ruled out air strikes in Syria, after the U.K. parliament struck down such a move last year.

Mixed International Reaction to Obama Plan on Islamic State - WSJ

Retired US general John Allen, the hawkish ex-commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan who also led troops in western Iraq, was named Friday to lead the international effort against Islamic State extremists.

Allen, 60, is on record saying that IS "is an entity beyond the pale of humanity and it must be eradicated. If we delay now, we will pay later."

Both the White House and the Pentagon stressed that the United States is now "at war" with the group that has seized large chunks of Iraq and Syria.

But Kerry appeared reluctant to use the term in a series of television interviews, speaking instead of a "major counterterrorism operation" as Washington expands its campaign against IS.

"The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with Al-Qaeda and its Al-Qaeda affiliates all around the globe," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, using another acronym by which the group is known.

Earlier Friday, French President Francois Hollande travelled to war-torn Iraq while Washington's top diplomat Kerry was in neighbouring Turkey, ramping up efforts to address what they now see as the global threat posed by the jihadists.

Hollande thus became the first head of state to visit Iraq since the militants seized large parts of the country in June, and he said France was ready to step up its military involvement.

Kerry, speaking to reporters in Ankara, spoke of "a broad-based coalition with Arab nations, European nations, the United States and others."

Turkey is a fellow NATO member but has so far refused to open its air bases to US forces and other members of the coalition Washington is trying to put together against jihadists.

He held a two-hour meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But a Turkish official told AFP that Ankara's hands were tied because of the fate of 49 Turks, including children and diplomats, kidnapped by militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June.

The previous day in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Kerry secured the backing of 10 Arab states for a global push to weaken IS, whose appeal has drawn volunteers from around the world.

Washington plans to help revamp the Iraqi army, which withered under the IS-led onslaught in June, and has announced it would fly combat aircraft from an airbase in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

Three years after the end of the nearly nine-year US military presence in Iraq, which some observers say birthed what is now IS, Obama has been careful to stress to the war-weary American public that he would not send ground forces into combat.

Efforts also focus on tackling what is considered the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet, which has created more three million Syrian refugees and displaced up to 1.8 million in Iraq, with the continued conflict taking a daily toll.

Hollande, who flew to Iraq with 15 tonnes of aid on his plane, stopped in Arbil to visit displaced Christians in a camp.

France was quick to offer taking displaced Christians in, but Hollande said "the first duty we have is to fight against terrorism, it is not to give in to terrorism by drawing people" out of their homeland.

Germany, which has ruled out taking part in air strikes against IS, outlawed providing active support to IS, warning that the group poses a threat to Europe.

Kerry drums up support for US 'war' on IS jihadists

tl;dr - America is on it's own "fixing"(euphemism for actually making it worse) the problem it created in the first place

[Monty]

m.inquirer.net/globalnation/111158/

UN troops withdraw from Syrian Golan–AFP reporter

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ISIS/ISIL terrorists commuting in public trains in Turkey.

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So we've heard all month about US bombing campaign, what about the other side?

Mr. President,

Many events and significant transformations have taken place since I stood hare last year. Those events and transformations surprised many of the countries present here with us, but they didn’t surprise us, because we have been, over the past three and a half years, warning and reiterating our warning in order to avoid what we have come to now.

Speeches from this platform were about economic and political crises that we have been waiting for the international community to solve them, but, maybe speaking about these issues now is no longer a priority. What we are witnessing for few months is much more dangerous than all the political and economic crises that have happened in the world.

We have spoken on more than one occasion and on more than one international platform about the grave danger of the terrorism striking Syria. We said that this terrorism will not be confined within the borders of my country because terrorism recognizes no boundaries. This extremist ideology does not acknowledge anything but itself, and does not recognize anything but slaughter, murder and torture. You are witnessing today what the ISIS, the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world at all in terms of funding and brutality, is doing to Syrians and Iraqis of all spectra and religions. This terrorist organization is enslaving women, raping them and selling them in slave markets; it is cutting heads and limbs, and it is teaching children slaughter and murder, besides destroying historical and cultural monuments, as well as Islamic and Christian Symbols.

All of this is happening before the entire world and the countries that have always said they are fighting terrorism. Furthermore, some of them have tasted the scourge of terror.

Today, I stand here to ask the following: is it not due time, ladies and gentlemen, for all of us to stand as one in the face of this serious menace of terrorist takfiri ideology worldwide? Has not the moment of truth arrived for us all to admit that ISIS, Al-Nusrah Front and then rest of the Al-Qaeda affiliates, will not be limited within the borders of Syria and Iraq, but will spread to every spot it can reach, starting with Europe and America? Should we not learn the lesson from what happened in previous years and bring together full international efforts to stand in the face of those organizations? Those organizations, themselves, rallied extremists from all corners of the earth and brought them to one spot to train and arm them, and later to re-disseminate their ideology and terrorism through those extremists back to wherever they originated from.

Someone might say that, recently, a resolution under Chapter VII was passed unanimously to stop the expansion of this, and other, terrorist organizations, and to eliminate them.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is true that to arrive late is better than never. Indeed, this UN resolution, adopted on 15/08/2014, came too late, but the question asked here is whether everyone is serious and resolute about its implementation? But since its adoption, we have not seen any serious move to implement this resolution. Furthermore, we have not felt any real sense of the danger to work on its basis on the part of the regional states that were and are still providing all kinds of support to these terrorist organizations. On the contrary, what we see on the part of the US administration is a double standard policy and alliances to score certain political agendas, particularly through supporting with money, weapons and training of groups they call moderate. This is a real recipe for the increase of violence and terrorism, shedding of Syrian blood, prolonging of the Syrian crisis and demolishing of the political solution at its basis. This behavior creates a fertile ground for the growth of these terrorist groups that commit the most heinous crimes on the Syrian territory, which requires all of us to seriously and effectively address and eradicate terrorism, and re-establish security and stability in Syria and the region.

Today, the enslaved women are looking forward to us to see what we will do for them, their sisters and their children. The sons and daughters of the victims beheaded by ISIS are waiting for our actions, and for our reaction in the face of the atrocities committed daily by this terrorist organization, “Al-Nusrah Front” and others.

snip only; full here: Al-Moallem: Syria supports any international effort to combat terrorism as long as it preserves civilians? lives and sovereignty | Syrian Arab News Agency

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The leader of al-Nusra militant group has met with two CIA officers as well as Saudi deputy minister of defense Prince Salman bin Sultan in Jordan capital city of Amman.

According to former Austrian general, Matthias Ghalem, who was leading international troops in occupied Golan Heights, al-Nusra Front leader Abu-Mohammad al-Jolani signed a financial-military contract to confront upcoming military and security challenges in southern Syria in near future.

According to Ghalem who quoted Colonel Ahmed al-Naameh, head of the rebel Revolutionary Military Council in southern Syria, two deputies of Robert Stephen Ford, US former ambassador to Syria, were also presented in the meeting.

Saudi deputy minister of defense Prince Salman bin Sultan also participated in the meeting on behalf of his brother Bandar Bin Sultan who is in charge of surveying Syria developments and scheming new operations in this regards.

In the meeting it was also decided that the militant group of al-Nusra Front only to be joined with so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) to fight against Syrian army.

CIA operatives have been secretly providing the Syrian militants with training on the use of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons for months, The Los Angeles Times reported earlier.

Since the opening of a new US base in the desert in southwest of Jordan in November 2012, the CIA operatives and US special operations troops have covertly trained the militants in groups of 20 to 45 at a time in two-week courses.

The militants receive training with Russian-designed 14.5-millimeter anti-tank rifles, anti-tank missiles, and 23-millimeter anti-aircraft weapons, according to a militant commander in the Syrian province of Dara’a.

The training program has also been conducted in Turkey, the report said.

The report comes weeks after President Barack Obama ordered the CIA to directly provide the militants in Syria with weapons.

Al-Nusra leader meets CIA officials

So, something as diabolical as Al Nusra is considered "moderate". Oh I know! Let's invent another group to make Al Nusra look more moderate!

As the Obama Administration prepared to bomb Syria without congressional or U.N. authorization, it faced two problems. The first was the difficulty of sustaining public support for a new years-long war against ISIS, a group that clearly posed no imminent threat to the “homeland.” A second was the lack of legal justification for launching a new bombing campaign with no viable claim of self-defense or U.N. approval.

The solution to both problems was found in the wholesale concoction of a brand new terror threat that was branded “The Khorasan Group.” After spending weeks depicting ISIS as an unprecedented threat — too radical even for Al Qaeda! — administration officials suddenly began spoon-feeding their favorite media organizations and national security journalists tales of a secret group that was even scarier and more threatening than ISIS, one that posed a direct and immediate threat to the American Homeland. Seemingly out of nowhere, a new terror group was created in media lore.

The unveiling of this new group was performed in a September 13 article by the Associated Press, who cited unnamed U.S. officials to warn of this new shadowy, worse-than-ISIS terror group:

While the Islamic State group [ISIS] is getting the most attention now, another band of extremists in Syria — a mix of hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe — poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States, working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target U.S. aviation, American officials say.

At the center is a cell known as the Khorasan group, a cadre of veteran al-Qaida fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan who traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.

But the Khorasan militants did not go to Syria principally to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials say. Instead, they were sent by al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to board a U.S.-bound airliner with less scrutiny from security officials.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...bombing-syria/

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lol, 30 years. Great job, 'murica!

Washington D.C.- What was supposed to be the wind down of over a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan has suddenly morphed into a new war with ISIS. A war that according to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could last up to 30 years.

To most Americans, a new 30-year war would sound like bad news, but not to everyone. It is music to the ears of defense contractors who up until a few months ago were facing serious cuts. They are not looking at cuts anymore.

According to the L.A. Times, three days after U.S. warships fired 47 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Sunni militant targets in northern Syria, the Pentagon signed a $251 million dollar deal to buy more Tomahawks from Raytheon.
Tomahawk cruise missiles cost $1.5 million dollars a piece. According to the AP, as of October 6th, the Pentagon had spent as much as $1.1 billion on U.S. military operations against Islamic state militants in Iraq and Syria.
Shares of major military contractors including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics have been trading at near all-time highs.
Of course, it is not just the big military contractors who are reaping a windfall. Thousands of military subcontractors who had begun laying off workers because of defense cut-backs are scrambling to rehire staff.
While guest anchoring at RT America this week, Ben Swann spoke with Robert Levinson, a Senior Defense Analyst at Bloomberg Government and Stephen Miles, Advocacy Director for “Win Without War”. You can see their interview in the video above.

Who Wants 30 Years of War With ISIS? Defense Contractors | Ben Swann Truth In Media

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'murica dropping SUPPLIES to ISIS

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bwahahaha. WHY. AM. I. NOT. SURPRISED?

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Callous: Kurdish sources familiar with the movement of ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq identified this unnamed killer from the latest ISIS beheading video as a Filipino national

Read more: Abdelmajid Gharmaoui is discovered among ISIS killers | Daily Mail Online
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I've said before, and I'll say it again. 'Muhrica's pets in Syria are rebranding to ISIS.

Up to 3,000 Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have defected from the organization and given ba’yah (religious payment; servitude) to the self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in the Qalamoun Mountains of the Rif Dimashq Governorate – these fighters belonged to multiple brigades that formed the conglomeration of the FSA.

As ISIS continues to spread their presence on the border of Lebanon and Syria, many rebel groups have found this organization more appealing than their predecessors due to their success in eastern and northern Syria. The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) – who fought ISIS in Deir Ezzor – has seemingly repaired relations in eastern Lebanon and western Syria. The 2 militant groups have been spotted working together during armed engagements with loyalist forces in ‘Assal Al-Ward and Rankous.

The FSA groups who pledged allegiance to ISIS are the following:
1. Liwaa Al-Farouq – Approximately 300 fighters
2. Liwaa Al-Qusayr – Approximately 600 fighters
3. Liwaa Al-Turkomen – Approximately 400 fighters
4. Liwaa Al-Haqq – Approximately 400 fighters
5. Kataeb Al-Mouqna – Approximately 200 fighters
6. Liwaa Matfareeq – Approximately 500 fighters
7. Suqour Al-Fatih – Approximately 200 fighters
8. Liwaa 77 – Approximately 400 fighters

3,000 FSA Fighters Defect to ISIS in the Qalamoun Mountains