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Posts tagged ‘Turkey’

The World Is Paying A Deadly Price For Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy Legacy


BY: DAVID HARSANYI | APRIL 16, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/16/the-world-is-paying-a-deadly-price-for-barack-obamas-foreign-policy-legacy/

Joe Biden and Barack Obama

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If a belligerent state launched 186 explosive drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles from three fronts against civilian targets within the United States, would Joe Biden call it a “win”? Would the president tell us that the best thing we can do now is show “restraint”? What if that same terror state’s proxy armies had recently helped murder, rape, and kidnap more than 1,000 American men, women, and children? What if this terror state were trying to obtain nuclear weapons so it could continue to agitate without any consequences?

This is what Joe Biden and the Barack Obama acolytes, Iranian dupes, and Israel antagonists he’s surrounded himself with demand of Jewish State. And by “Iranian dupes,” I don’t only mean the Jake Sullivans and Antony Blinkens of the world, who worked to elevate the mullahs over Sunni allies and the Israelis, or even a Hamas-bestie like Rob Malley or Israel-hater like Maher Bitar. I mean assets of the Islamic State who promised the Iranian government to help out in any way possible.

Their worldview is a cancer that’s metastasized within the Democratic Party. To these people, Israel will always be the villain. And if the Iranian regime’s murder of more than 600 American servicemen couldn’t cool that bromance, 1,300 dead Jews certainly aren’t going to do the trick.

To begin with, Jared Kushner’s Middle East policy efforts were, by every measure, more successful than not only Obama’s efforts but the decades of Brookings Institute-endorsed failures the region has endured. The Trump administration undercut Palestinian terror efforts, stifled Iranian ambitions, and created space for the Gulf States and Israel to enhance ties.

Biden immediately reversed those gains, reverting to Obama-era Iranian boosterism. We’re now experiencing the consequences of pacifying Islamic ideologues. Obama might have sent the mullahs pallets of cash in the middle of the night, but the Biden administration openly subsidized the Revolutionary Guard with a $6 billion ransom payment, at least $25 billion in sanction relief, including $10 billion via a waiver, and so on.

Let’s also remember that one of Biden’s first foreign policy decisions was to overturn Trump-era policy by releasing millions to Gaza that would be sifted off by Hamas, releasing funding to Hamas-allied UNRWA, and removing the Iranian-backed Houthis from the terror list.

But to truly comprehend how demented our foreign policy has become, consider this: Iran reportedly informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, and the U.S. told Iran through Ankara that the attack should be “within certain limits.” This is a longtime ally of the United States we’re talking about — and a foe that’s murdered and kidnapped Americans for decades.

It should be mind-boggling that Biden likely knew Iran was moving forward with its attack but still gave his goofy and impotent “don’t” when asked about it by the press.

Indeed, the Biden administration’s position seems to be that Israeli military and defense forces exist to allow Iran to have a hissy fit and save face. The Iranian attack is only “symbolic” because it failed. According to officials, the attack, indiscriminately aimed at civilian centers, was designed to cause “mass casualties.”

Just because you shoot at someone, and miss doesn’t mean you’re not trying to kill them. Yes, the Iranians were embarrassed. But they almost surely view this as a win. And they also crossed a red line by firing on Israel from their own territory. Yet Israel is apparently the only nation on Earth that is permitted to fully defend itself only if its enemies succeed.

Then again, virtually every conflict against Israel unfurls the same way: Its enemies threaten or attack the country. Israel responds and heads for a victory. Only then does the world demand “restraint.” Finally, the antagonists demand Israel rewind history to a more convenient spot. (Modern Democrats demand that Israel show restraint before it even has a chance to respond. That’s a new twist.)

Those, for instance, who contend that Israel started the conflict when it hit a “diplomatic mission” in Syria last week are engaged in restarting the historical clock when it suits them. There are no Iranian diplomatic missions in Syria. There are buildings where IRGC terror leaders coordinate attacks on civilians — against Arabs as well as Jews. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the “general” Israel killed last week, helped plan the barbarism of Oct 7.

Recall that the United States atomized Qasem Soleimani at a neutral nation’s airport. Though, of course, Obamaites protested that killing as well.

Now, it is something of a cliché to contend that Israel must be right 100 percent of the time while its enemies only need to be right once. It also happens to be true. The lo-fi Hamas attack last year was a devastating failure for the Jewish state and its leadership. Israel, a country the size of New Jersey with a dense population area, relies on deterrence and preemption.

Democrats blamed their strawman, Benjamin Netanyahu, not Hamas or Iran, for trying to “drag” the world into war. The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, perhaps the wrongest person ever to tread on this planet, theorized that the prime minister wanted “a war to shore up his own crumbling political base.”

Meanwhile, Axois reports that Netanyahu was reluctant to strike back while his cabinet wanted to move immediately. Anyone who’s paid five minutes of attention to Israeli politics knows that Netanyahu is frustratingly cautious. The “war hawk” perception of him is a myth, created by the left because of the prime minister’s open opposition to Obama’s mullah bootlicking.

We have no idea what Israel will do. Maybe caution is the best policy. The notion that the Jewish state simply lashes out in revenge and doesn’t rationally consider all its options is preposterous. Whatever happens, it should be Israel’s terms, not Iran’s.

Despite what Obama’s retreads demand.


David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.

Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco


A.F. Branco Cartoon – Speechless

A.F. WHITE | on October 29, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-speechless/

Democrats appear to be sticking by Joe Biden as their only presidential candidate for 2024 and don’t seem interested in any debates involving Robert F Kennedy or Dean Phillips of Minnesota. How’s that for upholding democracy? Shouldn’t voters have the ability to hear the opposition in order to make an informed choice within their own party?

There’s a lot of rigorous debating going on within the Republican Party that more closely resembles what democracy actually looks like, as opposed to the Democrats running their party like a communist politburo out of the former Soviet Union or Communist China. Democrats always seem to be in lockstep with each other, especially when it comes to policies that hurt Americans and their constitutional freedoms at large.

Silencing Dean Phillips
A.F. White Cartoon ©2023

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Surrounded

A.F. BRANCO |  on October 30, 2023 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-surrounded/

Israel is totally surrounded by the Muslim world and is constantly threatened with genocidal rhetoric, along with rockets being constantly fired on their innocent citizens every day from Gaza. The threat is instigated primarily by the Islamic Republic of Iran, a well-funded state sponsoring terrorism across the globe with the help of their branches, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sadly, whenever Israel acts to defend their population against this barbarism surrounding them, the left in America and much of the world defend Hamas and these bloody acts of Terrorism. Many of the LGBTQ-XYZ groups are also protesting against Israel and defending the Hamas attacks against innocent civilians without any understanding that they themselves would be killed for being gay, lesbian, or trans in Gaza or in much of the Muslim world.

Israel Is Surrounded
Cartoon by A.F. Branco

NATO Chief: Erdogan Agrees to Send Sweden’s Accession Protocol to Parliament


NEWSMAX | Monday, 10 July 2023 04:04 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/nato-turkey-sweden/2023/07/10/id/1126589/

VILNIUS, Lithuania — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to send Sweden’s NATO accession protocol to the Turkish Parliament “as soon as possible.” Stoltenberg made the announcement after talks with Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the eve of a NATO summit in Lithuania. Sweden’s NATO accession has been held up by objections from Turkey since last year.

Earlier Monday, Erdogan said his country might approve Sweden’s membership in NATO if European Union nations “open the way” to Turkey’s bid to join the EU. It was the first time that Erdogan linked his country’s ambition to join the EU with Sweden’s efforts to become a NATO member.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

NATO Formally Invites Sweden, Finland To Join After Big Breakthrough with Turkey


Reported by SHELBY TALCOTT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT | June 29, 2022

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/29/nato-invites-sweden-finland-join-turkey-ukraine-russia-summit/

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto react during a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo
REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance on Wednesday after Turkey dropped its opposition to the move. World leaders, including President Joe Biden, gathered in Madrid earlier in the week for the NATO Summit. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Finland President Sauli Niinistö and Sweden Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Tuesday to hash out details of the two countries’ push to join NATO – a move that came after Russia invaded Ukraine and which Turkey originally said it would not support.

“In that meeting, the leaders agreed a trilateral memorandum to address Turkey’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership,” a NATO statement posted late Tuesday read.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg oversaw the meeting and later praised the result. (RELATED: US Issues Warning To Russia As Finland, Sweden On Cusp Of Joining NATO)

“I strongly welcome the signing of this trilateral memorandum, and I strongly welcome the constructive approach all three countries have shown during the negotiations. Finnish and Swedish membership of NATO is good for Finland and Sweden, it is good for NATO, and it is good for European security,” Stoltenberg said.

The official invitation paves the way for the alliance to bolster up to 32 member nations.

The trilateral agreement between Turkey, Finland and Sweden includes an extradition request for 33 terror suspects in the two Nordic countries, according to CNN. The agreement also addresses concerns from Turkey “around arms exports, and the fight against terrorism,” according to Stoltenberg.

“We [Turkey] will ask them to fulfill the requirements of our applications after this memorandum of understanding,” Turkish Justice Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters shortly after the news, according to CNN. “We have already applied for extradition. The files of six PKK and six FETO terrorists in Finland and 10 FETO and 11 PKK terrorists in Sweden.”

“Our ministry will write about their return and remind them again … Once again, we ask them to fulfill their promises,” Bozdag added.

Support in Finland and Sweden for joining NATO skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion in February, according to Business Insider. Should the deal officially go through, Russia’s border with NATO countries would more than double. Turkey’s reversal is a major loss to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has vehemently opposed increasing NATO and vowed to retaliate in May after Finland announced its intention to seek membership.

“Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop threats to its national security arising,” Russia’s foreign ministry said at the time.

Rand Paul Blocks Vote on House Measure Condemning Trump’s Syria Withdrawal


Written by Joshua Caplan | 

URL of the original posting site: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/rand-paul-blocks-vote-on-house-measure-condemning-trumps-syria-withdrawal/

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., walks to the Senate as an 11th-hour Republican rescue mission to keep President Donald Trump from a Senate defeat on his signature issue of building barriers along the southwest border seems near collapse, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 13, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of Congress’s most prominent non-interventionists, blocked a move on Thursday to bring a House-approved measure formally condemning President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) attempted to gain consent to introduce the measure to the upper chamber’s floor, but because it requires unanimous consent, any senator has the ability to thwart it.

“The most important thing we can do right now is send President Trump a message that Congress, the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans, demand he reverse course,”Schumer said.

Paul argued Schumer was attempting to circumvent the U.S. Constitution by bringing the measure to a vote.

“He should come to the floor and say that we are ready to declare war. We are ready to authorize force, and we are going to stick our troops in the middle of this messy, messy, five-sided civil war where we would be ostensibly opposed to the Turkish government that has made an incursion,” he said.

The House had passed a resolution Wednesday condemning President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in a 354-60 vote.

The move by Paul comes as U.S. officials said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to stop its offensive in Syria, signaling an end to a military campaign that has so far killed dozens of Kurdish fighters and drawn international condemnation.

Vice President Mike Pence announced the agreement for a five-day cease-fire after hours of bilateral meetings in Ankara among U.S. and Turkish officials — which included Erdogan and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The situation will be re-evaluated at the end of the five-day deal.

Erdogan’s forces began Operation Peace Spring a week ago in northeast Syria, to clear border territories of Kurdish fighters so Ankara can send back Syrian refugees who fled to Turkey. The Turkish leader has previously insisted he would accept no cease-fire.

“The United States and Turkey have both mutually committed to a peaceful resolution and future for the safe zone, working on an international basis to ensure that peace and security defines this border region with Syria,” Pence stated.

The UPI contributed to this report. 

American pastor freed; ‘tenacious’ Trump team thanked


Reported by Jody Brown (OneNewsNow.com) | Friday, October 12, 2018

Andrew Brunson released (Oct 2018)An American pastor who has been held in prison by the Turkish government for two years should be on his way home to the U.S. by the end of the day.

The bottom line: Pastor Andrew Brunson, a North Carolina native, is free to leave Turkey and return home. In his own words today: “This is the day our family has been praying for – I am delighted to be on my way home to the United States. My entire family thanks the president, the administration, and Congress for their unwavering support.” (Image shows Brunson arriving at home on Friday after his release.)

Brunson, 50, had suffered for his faith in prison and then house arrest at the hands of Turkey, America’s NATO ally, since October 2016. During a hearing today, a Turkish court convicted him on an alleged “terror charge” before releasing him; a charge of espionage against him was dropped. He had faced charges that could have resulted in 35 years in prison.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins attended today’s hearing this morning.

“The prayers of thousands were answered today when Pastor Brunson was released by the Turkish government and told he could go home to the United States. Those prayers – combined with the unwavering resolve of President Trump, Vice President Pence, Secretary Pompeo and Ambassador Brownback – brought tangible help to Pastor Brunson and hope to those around the globe who are being persecuted because of their faith.

“Pastor Brunson was also well represented legally by our friends at the American Center for Law and Justice,” Perkins adds, “and we commend them and their attorneys for the outstanding work they did on behalf of Pastor Brunson.”

The American Center for Law and Justice had been working in the U.S. and abroad to secure Brunson’s release. “President Trump and his team have been tenacious in seeking the release of Pastor Brunson,” says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.

“We’re grateful to the President, members of Congress and diplomatic leaders who continued to put pressure on Turkey to secure the freedom of Pastor Brunson. The fact that he is now on a plane to the United States can only be viewed as a significant victory for Pastor Brunson and his family.”

Dr. Jerry A. Johnson, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters, also is crediting the Trump administration for its role in obtaining the pastor’s release. He singles out the president, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ambassador Sam Brownback, and Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina). “[They] refused to take ‘no’ for an answer for this man’s release,” says Johnson. “This administration stayed true to its citizen.”

“May the Lord strengthen Pastor Brunson and his family as they work to turn the page on this difficult chapter in their lives,” Johnson adds. “And may God protect and give peace to our other brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to endure hardships and severe persecution around the world because of their faith in Him. Let us never forget them!”

Dede Laugesen, director of Save the Persecuted Christians, strikes a similar tone in her remarks today.

“This has been a long road of persecution for Pastor Andrew Brunson,” says Laugesen. “We are joyful and so thankful for Pastor Brunson’s long-awaited freedom. We praise God for this wonderful turn of events and thank the many people who worked on his behalf, including high-ranking officials within the Trump administration and influential and committed attorneys.

“Despite the joy we feel today, we must never forget there are millions of Christians who are not free to believe in Christ. Many remain jailed, persecuted in their own communities or even shunned in their own homes. We pray all will someday experience the freedom Andrew Brunson is savoring today.”

Background

Today’s was the fourth hearing of the case against Brunson. The evangelical pastor had been accused of terror-related charges and espionage, facing up to 35 years in jail if convicted. Brunson, who had lived in Turkey for more than two decades, rejected the charges and strongly maintained his innocence. He was one of thousands caught up in a wide-scale government crackdown that followed a failed coup against the Turkish government in July 2016.

Prosecutors accused Brunson of committing crimes on behalf of terror groups, linking him to outlawed Kurdish militants and a network led by a U.S.-based Turkish cleric who is accused of orchestrating the coup attempt. The U.S. maintained he was being held unjustly and had repeatedly called for his release.

Brunson told the court he is “an innocent man. I love Jesus. I love Turkey.” He again denied accusations that his church – a small congregation in the Izmir Resurrection Church – aided Kurdish militants, saying he had handed over a list of Syrian refugees whom the congregation had helped and adding that Turkish authorities would have identified any terrorists.

“We helped everyone, Kurds, Arabs, without showing any discrimination,” he said.

William Devlin, an evangelical pastor from New York spoke to reporters outside the Turkish prison, saying hundreds of thousands of Christians were praying for Brunson’s release.


Associated Press contributed to this report.

Turkey’s Currency Plummets After Trump Sanctions Hit for Jailing American Pastor


Reported By Hanna Bogorowski | August 7, 2018 at 9:37am

Turkish currency, the lira, hit a record low Monday after efforts by the country’s central bank to curb the drop by reducing the amount of foreign currency it holds in its reserves and their efforts to bolster the banking sector failed.

The currency has fallen nearly 30 percent this year already and is currently down 3.8 percent against the U.S. dollar, with $1 buying about 5.277 lira, according to The Wall Street Journal.

After months of decline, the lira fell 2.2 points on Sunday after policymakers in Turkey announced adjustments to the reserve policies of the central bank — CBRT — that were supposed to result in giving the banking sector $2.2 billion in liquidity.

The CBRT claimed it would do this by lowering the “upper limit for the FX maintenance facility within the reserve options mechanism” by 5 percentage points to 40 percent, per a statement on its website.

This helped temporarily, the Financial Times reported, but the lira continued to fall.

Recent actions by the CBRT have alarmed investors who are increasingly concerned by the amount of control Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds over monetary policy, The Wall Street Journal said.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office announced Friday that it would be looking into Turkey’s duty-free access to the U.S. market, which came after Turkey hit the U.S. with tariffs on U.S. goods in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminum.

U.S. President Donald Trump also hit Turkey with sanctions on Wednesday over the country’s bogus detainment of an American pastor.

“Pastor Brunson’s unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately,” Mnuchin added.

Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu were the targets of the sanctions because they played a large role in imprisoning Brunson and “serve as leaders of Turkish government organizations responsible for implementing Turkey’s serious human rights abuse,” the statement reads.

Improving relations with the U.S. and raising interest rates, two things Turkey has so far declined to do, would help stabilize the country’s currency, analysts told The Wall Street Journal.

Turkey’s inflation rate also hit a 14-year high in June, reaching 15.39 percent.

Video: Bro Hands Out Bibles In Public – Then The MUSLIMS Show Up


Published by ClashDaily.com | on December 28, 2017

URL of the original posting site: https://clashamerica.com/video-bro-hands-bibles-public-muslims-show/

 

The Muslim guy is bold enough to openly threaten the life the man handing out Bibles publicly.

Un-freaking-believable.

Just a few minutes later, the man had the table overturned and was attacked by several men.

Coincidence?

Probably not. 

It’s so strange to me that the ‘tolerant’ leftists are so keen to jump to the defense of the intolerant Muslims. Come to think of it, it’s not really a surprise. Leftists aren’t tolerant either.

State Department Rejects Erdogan’s Plan For Releasing American Pastor Jailed On Bogus Charges [VIDEO]


Reported by Photo of Chuck Ross Chuck Ross | Reporter | 12:12 AM 09/29/2017

 

The State Department poured cold water on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal to swap an American pastor jailed in his country for Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the U.S.

“I can’t imagine that we would go down that road,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Nauert was responding to a question about Erdogan’s surprise admission earlier in the day that his government would release Pastor Andrew Brunson from jail if the U.S. extradited Gulen, his main political foe. (RELATED: Erdogan Admits Using Jailed American Pastor As Bargaining Chip Against U.S.)

“The U.S. wants a pastor from us. You have a pastor of your own; you give him to us, then we return pastor to you,” Erdogan told a group of police officers at the presidential palace in Ankara on Thursday.

 

Erdogan accuses Gulen, his former ally, of masterminding last July’s failed coup attempt. He has pleaded with Presidents Trump and Obama to extradite Gulen, who lives in self-exile in Pennsylvania. The U.S. government has so far rebuffed the requests.

Brunson, a North Carolina native, has been in jail on bogus terrorism charges since Oct. 7. He was initially arrested along with his wife, though she has since been released. Turkish authorities have not laid out a case against Brunson, who has been accused in Turkish media of being a follower of Gulen, a sympathizer of Kurdish radicals, and a CIA operative. Gulen’s network of followers and the Kurdish separatist group PKK are both considered terrorist groups in Turkey.

“We continue to advocate for his release. He was wrongfully imprisoned in Turkey, and we’d like to see him brought home,” Nauert said Thursday.

 

Nauert said that U.S. diplomats have stayed in touch with Brunson, who operated a small Christian church in the coastal city of Izmir. She revealed that Brunson was last visited on Sept. 18.

“This is a very serious issue for us trying to get Pastor Brunson to home. This is a subject that President Trump had raised with President Erdogan not too terribly too long ago,” said Nauert.

Trump and Sec. of State Rex Tillerson have both pressed Erdogan to release Brunson. Erdogan brought up the issue with Trump during a meeting last week. Erdogan was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Nauert said she had no updates to offer on the extradition request for Gulen. Despite Erdogan’s lobbying of his American counterparts, Trump and Obama, the process of removing the cleric would go through the federal court system. The Justice Department, which would handle any extradition move, has refused to comment on Gulen.

WATCH:

https://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4684025

Follow Chuck on Twitter

NATO ‘Ally’ Turkey Is NOT Our Friend … Reveals US Troop Positions


Published by ClashDaily.com | July 22, 2017

URL of the original posting site: http://clashdaily.com/2017/07/nato-ally-turkey-not-friend-reveals-us-troop-positions/

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

(To be fair, most Turks assume — rightly or wrongly — that Obama’s administration backed the failed coup attempt in Turkey last year, so any ‘friendship’ we have with them is somewhat strained.)

Things have been changing in Turkey in the last year or so since the coup attempt. They’ve become less secular and more Islamist since then.

Our supposed ‘NATO Ally’ isn’t quite the friend we thought they were.

Turkey’s state-owned media outlet has published the locations of U.S. military bases inside Syria, showing a stunningly betrayal to the national security of a supposed ally.

The report contained the locations of 10 American bases and outposts in Kurdish-held northern Syria, which is under the control of the YPG (Kurdish) militia. Turkish security sources confirmed the details of the story, which even included specific troop numbers and details of the capacity of some of the bases, according to Al-Monitor.

The report also revealed the locations of some French forces in the region.

Turkey has for some time been angry with America for its support of the Kurdish YPG forces. The YPG is the militia of the Kurdish regions of Syria and is a partner with the United States in the battle against the Islamic State terrorist group. However, they are also affiliated with the PKK, a Kurdish separatist militia and political party which fights for self-rule in the Kurdish areas of Turkey. Therefore Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group and as a national security threat.

The U.S. government is understandably angry about the leaks. — Clarion Project

There are other changes as well…

Turkey has been heading in a more radical direction for some time. Since March they have prevented humanitarian aid from being transported into Kurdish areas across the Turkish border. They accuse humanitarian organizations of secretly supplying the YPG.

Turkey has also made alarming changes domestically. The new school curriculum for the 2017-2018 school year will no longer teach evolution, but teaching the concept of jihad has been added to the curriculum. Clarion Project

Evolution and Jihad? Culture can have whatever origin story they want, and still get along with the world just fine. (See Hindus or native religions for example.) But teaching Jihad? That’s a big deal. 

Add to that, overtures from Russia (who still want a warm-water port) and a possible relationship with Iran, and you’ll see the regional balance of power tipping in a new direction.

What should we make of that? What about the political instability 10,000 immigrants a day are causing in Italy? Ranging in discussions of Austria’s army lining up on Italy’s border, to Czech calls for attacking Libya, the source of the immigrant influx and we have a destabilization of Europe.

There’s a discussion about why partnership with Iran is a big deal here.

UPDATE: Russian Ambassador Assassinated in Turkey


waving flagAuthored by John Hayward, 19 Dec 2016

URL of the original posting site: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/19/russian-ambassador-turkey-shot-speech-ankara/

Hurriyet quotes the Russian embassy saying it believes “radical Islamists” were behind the attack, and notes that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is due in Moscow tomorrow for talks on the Syrian crisis with Russia and Iran.

CNN Turk is running a photo that appears to show the gunman:

rusamb01Update, 11:40 EST: Russia’s TASS news agency reports the exhibit Karlov was speaking at was a photo exhibit called “Russia in the Eyes of Turks.” The perpetrator is said to have fired shots in the air and shouted “Get out!” at the crowd.

Hurriyet Daily News had a reporter on the scene who confirmed the crowd ran after the gunman fired in the air, then Karlov was shot.

Update, 11:45 EST: According to Ragip Soylu, a reporter for the generally pro-Erdogan Daily Sabah, the attacker bypassed security by showing a police ID badge, and shouted something about Aleppo and Syria before he opened fire. More specifically, he is said to have shouted, “We die in Aleppo, you die here.” 

Soylu also reports Karlov was shot “four or five times.” He has posted a photo that may be of the attacker, although noting this has not been confirmed by the authorities as yet:

ushamb02

Update, 11:55 EST: An Associated Press photographer who was in the auidence reports the gunman shouted “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire, as well as saying something in Russian, and fired at least eight shots. Karlow was several minutes into his prepared remarks before the attack began.

Turkish media is reporting that the gunman has been neutralized. CNN Turk is reporting that special forces entered the building and ended a “brief hostage situation.”

Another photo of the gunman in action:

rusamb03Update, 12:00 EST: The gunman has reportedly been killed by Turkish security forces:

rusamb04Update, 12:05 EST: Turkish media are reporting that Ambassador Karlov has died of his wounds.

Update, 12:15 EST: Daily Sabah’s Ragip Soylu has posted video of the gunman during the attack:

rusamb05Although the identity of the shooter has not been confirmed at the time of this writing, there have been claims he really was a plainclothes policeman, and possibly even a member of the Ambassador’s security detail.

Update, 12:20 EST: Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with his Foreign Minister and the heads of Russian security services about the attack. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Russians were in contact with Turkish authorities.

Hurriyet Daily News has updated its report to quote the attacker shouting to the crowd, “I will not leave here alive, do not approach me.”

Update, 12:25 EST: Chilling video of the attack as it happened:

rusamb06Update, 12:45 EST: Turkish media are reporting that the gunman has been identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, a serving police officer in the Ankara special operations unit.

rusamb07His cries during the assassination have been translated, according to a report at Business Insider. At first, he shouted in Arabic: “We’ve made an oath to Mohammed to die in martyrdom, [it is] revenge for Syria and Aleppo.”

Altintas then switched to Turkish and shouted, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria… You won’t be safe. Only my dead body will leave here.”

He was described as speaking Turkish with an “educated, Istanbul accent” with “no trace of foreign accent, Arab or otherwise.”

Update, 12:55 EST: Below is a better-quality video of the assassin’s rant after shooting the ambassador. More explicit videos capturing the moment of the shooting have also been posted; one such video can be found here. (WARNING: graphic content.)

Update, 13:15 EST: The BBC quotes Turkish security sources who confirmed the assassin was a police officer, but they claimed he was off-duty when he attacked.

“We condemn this act of violence, whatever its source. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” said U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby, while U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power took to Twitter to “strongly condemn the savage attack.”

“I condemn in the strongest terms the heinous attack on Ambassador Karlov tonight,” said the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, John Bass.

“Shocked to hear of despicable murder of Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey. My thoughts are with his family. I condemn this cowardly attack,” said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Update, 13:20 EST: According to a report from Turkey’s Andalou Agency, Andrey Gennadyevich Karlov was born in Moscow in 1954. He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976, and then from the Diplomatic Academy in 1992. He has been Russia’s ambassador to Turkey since July 2013. He was married, and has a son.

Update, 13:30 EST: A reporter for Russia Today offers a different account of the jihadi’s status with the Turkish police than what we’ve been hearing until now:

rusamb08RT.com also reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone after the assassination.

Another remarkable, chilling image from Ankara: Ambassador Karlov looking at a painting in the art gallery, while his killer looms out-of-focus in the background behind him.

Update, 13:45 EST: Statement from the Turkish embassy in Russia, as related by Russia’s TASS news agency: “An inhumane tragedy occurred today with our distinguished colleague Andrey Karlov. There is no person in their right mind who would not condemn this evil act. We grieve with all our hearts. We bring our deepest condolences to the people of Russia. This is our shared pain and loss.”

Some unredacted photos of the dead gunman have emerged. (WARNING: very graphic image of bloodshed at the link.)

Update, 13:50 EST: According to Middle East Monitor, Ambassador Karlov “had been part of discussions between Turkey that led to an evacuation of east Aleppo getting underway late last week.”

Social media accounts linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda are reportedly celebrating the assassination, even though neither organization has formally claimed Altintas as a member.

Update, 14:05 EST: Statement from National Security Council spokesman Ned Price at the White House on the assassination in Ankara:

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack this morning in Kayseri, Turkey, which killed more than a dozen people and wounded many more.  This cowardly attack appears to have targeted off-duty Turkish soldiers who were traveling on a public transit bus that was also transporting civilians.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and loved ones, and to all the people of Turkey.  As President Obama told President Erdogan in their phone call on December 15, we stand united with Turkey, our NATO Ally, in our determination to confront and defeat all forms of terrorism.”

Update, 14:30 EST: There have been some accusations in Turkey that Altintas carried out his attack at the behest of Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric currently living in Pennsylvania who has been accused of masterminding the July coup attempt against President Erdogan. Turkey has been pressing the United States to extradite Gulen.

Perhaps the most prominent voice to openly accuse Gulen of involvement in the Karlov assassination thus far is Melih Gokcek, the mayor of Ankara.

“Russian Ambassador to Turkey got attacked basely. The only goal of this assassination is to ruin the relationship between Russia and Turkey,” Gokcek said on Twitter, as related by the UK Express. “Turkish and Russian officials will definitely find whoever responsible from this attack. But it is for sure, the ones who were responsible for downing of Russian Jet in the past, are responsible for this attack as well.”

This was a reference to the downing of a Russian warplane along Turkey’s border with Syria last November. Erdogan has accused the Turkish pilots who shot down the Russian plane of being linked to Gulen’s organization.

“Assailant is a policeman. According to what I have heard, he is a FETO member. The slogans of the assailant are just perception management,” Gokcek added. FETO stands for “Fethullah Terrorist Organization,” the Turkish government’s name for Fethullah Gulen’s followers.

The Express notes that Gokcek has a history of floating conspiracy theories, including an accusation that the British BBC news service was complicit in the terrorist bombing of Istanbul earlier this month. However, he’s not the only source for the theory that Altintas was a Gulenist.

Update, 14:45 EST: The mother and sister of gunman Mevlut Mert Altintas have reportedly been detained in the southwestern province of Aydin. Another report from Turkey says Altintas’ home has been searched, and his roommate has also been detained, as well as his father.

Update, 16:15 EST: Reuters quotes a senior security official in Turkey who said there are “very strong signs” the gunman belonged to Gulen’s organization.

Turkey trying to conceal illegal military activity on Syrian border – Russian military


waving flagPublished time: 4 Feb, 2016 14:02Edited time: 4 Feb, 2016 17:51

© Umit Bektas

© Umit Bektas / Reuters

Konashenkov called the cancelation of the Russian observation flight over Turkish territory “a dangerous precedent and an attempt to conceal illegal military activity near the border with Syria.”

The violation of the Open Skies Treaty by Ankara won’t go without a proper response from Moscow, he said. Konashenkov also said Russia has boosted all kinds of intelligence and surveillance activities in the Middle East.

“So if someone in Ankara thinks that the cancelation of the flight by the Russian observers will enable hiding something then they’re unprofessional.” 

The spokesman reminded that 32 foreign observation flights took place in Russian air space in 2015, in accordance with the treaty, with four of them carried out by Turkish observers. The earlier agreed observation flight over Turkish territory was canceled on February 3, after Russian experts revealed the route, which would have included airfields and areas near the Turkish-Syrian border.

The spokesman recalled that Moscow had previously provided the international community with irrefutable video evidence of Turkish artillery firing on Syrian populated areas in the north of Latakia Province. Turkey is also supplying manpower and weaponry to terrorists in the Syrian cities of Idlib and Aleppo, Konashenkov said.

The spokesman showed the media a photo of the Reyhanli checkpoint, saying that “through this very border crossing – mainly at nighttime – the militants, who seized the city of Aleppo and Idlib in northwestern Syria, are being supplied with arms and fighters from the Turkish territory.”

The terrorists in northern Syria are suffering losses and retreating to the Turkish border, the Defense Ministry spokesman said. According to Konashenkov, terrorist commanders have made major efforts to evacuate injured fighters and regain control of their units.

Turkish airspace violation claims ‘poorly-orchestrated provocation’

Russia still hasn’t received any data from Turkey concerning the alleged incident with the Russian warplane, which Ankara accused of violating its airspace, Konashenkov said.

“Just a few minutes ago, another Turkish official said the data was passed to Moscow… No materials were passed to us by either military or diplomatic channels,” he stressed.

The spokesman said that false statements from the Turkish side “once again confirm that the whole story of the alleged violation of Turkish airspace was made up and is a poorly-orchestrated provocation.”

Turkey claimed that a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber violated its airspace on January 29, which was immediately denied by Moscow.

Relations between Russia and Turkey have been strained since November 24 last year, when Turkish Air Force downed a Russian Su-24 bomber for allegedly violating its airspace. The incident, in which one Russian pilot was killed, saw Moscow imposing a set of sanctions on Turkey and boosting the security of its Khmeimim airbase in Syria with S-400 missile systems.

Russian aviation has been carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups in Syria since September 30 at the request of President Bashar Assad. The Russian Air Force carried out 237 sorties and hit nearly 900 terrorist targets in Syria on February 1-4, Konashenkov said. The airstrikes took place on Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Hama and Deir ez- Zor provinces.

Picture2 Indenification of Obama Picture1 In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Obama’s ISIS Oil Scandal Deepens As Russia Produces Stunning Photographic Evidence


waving flagReported by

URL of the original posting site:http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/12/obamas-isis-oil-scandal-deepens-as-russia-produces-stunning-photographic-evidence/#71kiF4X212zo6E2u.99

How is Barack Obama going to get out of this one? On Tuesday, thewas Russian military produced an impressive array of evidence that clearly shows that ISIS oil is being smuggled into Turkey on an industrial scale. The evidence included photographs taken by satellite and during aerial reconnaissance missions. What the Russians have shown the world is extremely compelling, and it raises some very disturbing questions. First of all, how involved is the Turkish government in all of this? There is no way in the world that a endless parade of trucks carrying ISIS oil could have marched through Turkish border checkpoints without the cooperation of the central government. Secondly, what did Obama know and when did he know it? The U.S. military has far better surveillance capabilities than the Russians do, and so it seems absolutely absurd to suggest that Obama didn’t know what was going on.

This new Russian evidence was presented to the world by Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, and he says that “thousands of oil trucks” have been going back and forth over the Turkish border…

According to Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Russia is aware of three main oil smuggling routes to Turkey.

“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Antonov said, adding that this oil “in large quantities” enters the territory of Turkey via “live oil pipelines,” consisting of thousands of oil trucks.

But Antonov didn’t stop there. He went on to publicly accuse President Erdogan of Turkey and his family of running the entire operation

“Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we’ve received, the senior political leadership of the country – President Erdogan and his family – are involved in this criminal business,” said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov.

“Maybe I’m being too blunt, but one can only entrust control over this thieving business to one’s closest associates.”

“In the West, no one has asked questions about the fact that the Turkish president’s son heads one of the biggest energy companies, or that his son-in-law has been appointed energy minister. What a marvelous family business!”

“The cynicism of the Turkish leadership knows no limits. Look what they’re doing. They went into someone else’s country, they are robbing it without compunction,” Antonov said.

And he is right.

The Erdogan family is knee deep in this scandal, and Barack Obama has known about it the entire time. For much more on the involvement of the Erdogan family in the smuggling of ISIS oil, please see my previous article entitled “The Biggest Obama Scandal? He Knows That Turkey Is Buying Oil From ISIS And He Is Doing Nothing To Stop It“.

During his presentation, Antonov gave us a lot of specifics. He even claimed that the Russians know precisely where much of this stolen oil ends up. The following comes from an Infowars report

“The western route goes to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean coast, the north—to the refinery Batman in Turkey and the east—to the largest transshipment base in the village of Cizre,” the Russian Ministery of Defense web page states.

Oil from fields near the Syrian city of Raqqa—said to be the capital city of the Islamic State—is transported at night through the border town of Azaz, Syria and Reyhanli, Turkey to the port of Iskenderun and Dörtyol where the stolen oil is loaded on tankers.

The Russians claim the convoys are under the control of al-Nusra, the terror group funded by the Gulf Emirates and that cooperates with the Islamic State and supposed moderates in the Free Syrian Army.

Posted below is one of the charts that Antonov used during his presentation. As you can see, the Russians are not just making “vague accusations”…

Oil-Smuggling-From-Syria-And-Iraq-To-Turkey
If you would like to watch video of Antonov’s entire presentation, you can do so right here. What Antonov is saying in the video has been translated into English, so you will be able to understand it.To me, one of the most striking things about the presentation was when Antonov accused the Turks of supplying fighters, ammunition and vehicles to ISIS and Al-Nusra. The following comes from an RT article

ISIS is containedUp to 2,000 fighters, 120 tons of ammunition and 250 vehicles have been delivered to Islamic State and Al-Nusra militants from Turkish territory, chief of National Centre for State Defense Control Lt.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev said.

“According to reliable intelligence reports, the Turkish side has been taking such actions for a long time and on a regular basis. And most importantly, it is not planning to stop them.”

If any of these allegations are true, Turkey should be immediately kicked out of NATO.

And if Barack Obama knew about any of this and refused to stop it, he should be facing impeachment proceedings.

For the moment, the official position of the U.S. government is that nothing that the Russians are saying is true

Following Russian accusations, the US has again defended Turkey, denying any ties between Ankara and Islamic State.

“We flatly reject any notion that the Turks are somehow working with ISIL. Preposterous. And really very, kind of ridiculous,” Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman, said.

Really?

As an American, I am utterly embarrassed that our “leaders” would continue to try to deny what Turkey is doing after everything that has come out. By flat out lying to the world, we are losing any credibility that we had left.

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen oil has been smuggled into Turkey, and our government still has the audacity to try to tell us not to look behind the curtain?

No wonder why most people over in Iraq are convinced that the U.S. is actually on the same side as ISIS. They don’t trust anything that we have to say anymore. The following comes from the Washington Post

muslim-obamaOrdinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.

“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.

The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”

If we are going to continue to lie about the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stolen oil that has been smuggled into Turkey, why should anyone believe anything else that we have to say? The Obama administration and the Turkish government have been caught in a massive, massive lie. In the end, this is the kind of scandal that could potentially bring down the Obama administration, leaders in Congress, and many among the top brass in the U.S. military.Partyof Deceit Spin and Lies

So what do you think about this emerging scandal?

About Michael Snyder

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael and his wife, Meranda, believe that a great awakening is coming and are working hard to help bring renewal to America. Michael is also the author of the book The Beginning Of The End

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Turkish F-16s shoot down Russian fighter jet near Syria border


waving flagPublished November 24, 2015, FoxNews.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian warplane near Turkey’s border with Syria is a “stab in the back” and it would have “significant consequences” for its relations with Turkey, as NATO called an emergency meeting over the incident. Putin said the Russian Sukhoi-24 jet was shot by a missile from a Turkish jet over Syria about just over a half-mile away from the Turkish border, which he described as a “stab in the back by the terrorists’ accomplices.” Turkey said it warned the jet several times that it was in its airspace.

Putin was meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi. Prior to the meeting, The New York Times said Putin was “speaking slowly and clearly angry.”

NATO called an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday after the incident.

“The aim of this extraordinary North Atlantic Council meeting is for Turkey to inform allies about the downing of a Russian airplane,” NATO’s deputy spokesperson Carmen Romero told the Associated Press.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition based out of Baghdad said the U.S. indeed heard Turkey on “open channels” issue 10 warnings to the Russian jet before the incident. Reports out of Russia also say a military helicopter was shot at in Syria, killing one serviceman. The helicopter was reportedly on a rescue mission.

Rebels said they fired at the two parachuting pilots as they descended, and that one had died. A rebel spokesman said they would consider releasing the body in exchange for prisoners held by Syria. The fate of the second pilot was not immediately known.

VIDEO: Raw footage of Russian jet being shot down

U.S. defense official said that two Turkish F-16s fired heat-seeking air-to-air missiles at the Russian aircraft. “This will get complicated,” the official said.

Tuesday’s incident is the first time since the 1950s that a Russian or Soviet military aircraft has been publicly acknowledged to have been shot down by a NATO country, according to Reuters.

President Obama, at a joint press conference with French President François Hollande, cautioned that information about the incident was still emerging and discouraged escalation. He added that Turkey had a “right to defend its territory and its airspace.”

The president said the shoot-down underscored an “ongoing problem” with Russia’s military operations in Syria, where the Russians have been targeting groups near the Turkish border. The incident also shows a need to move forward quickly on a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Syria, he said.

Russia said the Su-24 was downed by artillery fire, but Turkey claimed that its F-16s fired on the Russian plane after it ignored the warnings.

Putin warned that the incident would have “significant consequences” for its relations with Turkey and criticized Ankara for turning to NATO to discuss the incident instead of first explaining to Russia what happened.

VIDEO: John Bolton on significance of shooting

A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the Russian Su-24 was downed north of the Syrian port city of Latakia. The official told Fox News that the Su-24’s two pilots parachuted and were last seen attempting to evade capture. Two Russian helicopters were airborne to attempt a rescue mission.

A video that was later released by Syrian rebels showed one of the pilots dead, while the fate of the other one is unclear.

Jahed Ahmad of the 10th Brigade in the Coast, a rebel group, told The Associated Press that the two Russian crew members tried to land in their parachutes in government-held areas after they ejected, but came under fire from members of his group. He added that rebels shot one of the pilots, who landed dead on the ground on Tuesday.

The group released a video showing gunmen standing around a blond pilot whose face was bruised and appeared dead. Ahmad said his group would consider exchanging the body of the pilot with prisoners held by the Syrian government. “This is the body of a Russian member of the military who was killing Syrian people,” he said. “We have the body and we will see what to do with it.”

Video footage of the incident showed the Russian plane on fire before crashing on a hill.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the warplane crashed in the Turkmen Mountains region in the coastal province of Latakia. The region has been subjected to an offensive by Syrian government forces over the past several days under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The area is controlled by several insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and the 2nd Coastal Division that consists of local Turkmen fighters.

A Turkish military statement said the plane entered Turkish airspace over the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province. It said the plane was warned 10 times within the space of 5 minutes.

Russia denied that the plane ever crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies.

“We are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet,” the country’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “The Ministry of Defense would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight.”

A statement from Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said the Turkish leader spoke with Turkey’s military chief and foreign ministry about the incident. It said Davutoglu would start “initiatives” within NATO and the United Nations.

tusk tweet

On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador demanding that Russia cease operations in Syria targeting Turkmen villages, saying the Russian actions did not “constitute a fight against terrorism” but the bombing of civilians. Ambassador Andrey Karlov was warned during the meeting that the Russian operations could lead to serious consequences, the ministry said.

Turkey changed its rules of engagement a few years ago after Syria shot down a Turkish plane. According to the new rules, Turkey said it would consider all “elements” approaching from Syria an enemy threat and would act accordingly.

Following earlier accusations of Russian intrusion into Turkish airspace, the U.S. European Command on Nov. 6 deployed six U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters from their base in Britain to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to help the NATO-member country secure its skies.

Despite harsh words, some analysts believe that Russia and Turkey have reasons not to let the incident escalate.

“Relations have been very strained between Russia and Turkey of late so Moscow will be trying its utmost to contain the damage this might cause,” said Natasha Kuhrt, lecturer in International Peace and Security at King’s College London. “It’s a serious incident in anybody’s book,” added Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network, a London think-tank.

The European Command said the deployment was “in response to the government of Turkey’s request for support in securing the sovereignty of Turkish airspace.”

In October, NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, had warned Moscow it was courting “extreme danger” by sending planes into Turkish air space.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEE FOX NEWS BROADCAST OF THIS REPORT BELOW:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4629676070001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>&#8221; href=”http://http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4629676070001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript>”&gt;http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4629676070001&w=466&h=263<noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a></noscript&gt; aligncenter wp-image-21097″ src=”https://mrb562.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/nato.jpg&#8221; alt=”nato” width=”869″ height=”629″ />

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WOUNDED COMBAT VET: Here’s How Obama Is Building and Training Up A Muslim Army


waving flagWritten by Omar Avila on September 24, 2015

URL of the original posting site: http://clashdaily.com/2015/09/combat-vet-heres-how-obama-is-building-and-training-up-a-muslim-army/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:9760859&utm_campaign=Here%E2%80%99s%20How%20Obama%20Is%20Building%20and%20Training%20Up%20A%20Muslim%20Army

Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 6.04.32 PM

Division 30 is a U.S. training program assigned by President Obama for Syrians in Turkey, also known as the “Moderate” Muslim Rebels. The program is designed for them to learn our tactics, maneuvers for combat against ISIS, and we even issue and teach them how to use our weapons.

The second class of the “Moderate” Muslims Rebels graduated from the program two days ago. Yesterday they returned to Syria to take the battle to the enemies that are overrunning their country. Well, at least that was the plan; instead they handed over all of the weapons that we gave them to an Al-Qaeda affiliate by the name of Jabha Al-Nursa. The program is so bad that congress recently reported that only 4-5 American-trained Syrians remained on the battlefield against the Islamic State group.

The leader of Division 30, Anas Ibrahim Obaid, issued a statement repudiating the division and people who trained the “Moderate” Muslim Rebels. But of course he did, because the program has been funded $500 million dollars. He knows exactly how many troops they can train, how many weapons they can be issued with that kind of cash, and we all know that our resources will make it into the hands of the enemy to be used against the “infidels”.

muslim-obamaYou would think that the President would shut down the program, especially when the Chief of Staff resigned a week before the class graduated; or when he released a statement saying he left because the program was “not serious” and suffered “a lack of accuracy and method” in the selection of Division’s 30 cadre’s. But we know he will ignore all his military advisors to shut it down because he loves arming his Muslim brothers – and in my opinion, he’s building himself an army to destroy everything we stand for.

This isn’t the first time that this has happened, the President has been indirectly handing weapons to our enemies since he took over. How does he keep getting away with this? He needs to be impeached NOW while we still have time to save our country.

Obama Muslim collection Islamapologist against America In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Pentagon Trained “Rebel” Group in Syria Pledges Allegiance to ISIS-aligned Al-Nusra


waving flagPosted By Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com On August 16, 2015

Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/pentagon-trained-rebel-group-in-syria-pledges-allegiance-to-isis-aligned-al-nusra

Pentagon Trained “Rebel” Group in Syria Pledges Allegiance to ISIS-aligned Al-Nusra

Division 30, also known as the New Syrian Forces, was created by the United States as part of a propaganda campaign to counter the fact virtually all of the mercenaries in Syria have gone over to the Islamic State.

On May 8 Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced 90 mercenaries had begun training with the Pentagon and would be trained at camps in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. “These trainees are recruited, they’re vetted, and only then are they put into training,Carter said. In early July two-thirds of the Division 30 mercenaries, including the groups’s commander Nadim al-Hassan, were captured in Syria north of Aleppo by Jabhat al-Nusra fighters.

Jabhat al-Nusra is described by the corporate media as an al-Qaeda affiliate sworn to take down the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. In June, 2014, the group reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS at Albu Kamal on the Syria-Iraq border.Picture5

The leader of al-Nusra, Abu Mussab al-Makdessi, said the ISIS fighters “remain our brothers” and the “ideological bond between us is stronger than anything. We are ready to fight by their side … our blood is their blood.”

Late Saturday it was reported seven members of Division 30 were released by al-Nusra and it was hoped Nadim al-Hassan would be released soon.

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The Division 30 statement described al-Nusra as “brothers” and went on to declare the Pentagon trained group is on the “same page with all holy warriors in Syria.”

Division 30 represented the last “vetted” non-jihadi mercenary group fighting to overthrow al-Assad in Syria. In November the Syrian Revolutionary Front handed over bases and weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra in the Idlib province.

“The Free Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council, the vaunted bulwarks of the moderate opposition, only really exist in hotel lobbies and the minds of Western diplomats,” Ben Reynolds wrote in November. “There is simply no real separation between ‘moderate’ rebel groups and hardline Salafists allied with al-Qaeda.”

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” The New York Times reported in April 2013.

The fate suffered by Division 30 demonstrates that the United States is not sincerely interested in forming a viable, non-jihadi paramilitary group in Syria. Division 30 was in effect a propaganda tool used to give the impression there are secular rebels in Syria dedicated to overthrowing al-Assad.

The game plan now calls for the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria under the ruse of protecting civilians. On August 11 the prime minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, called for a no-fly zone that will prevent Syria from conducting air raids against ISIS and other assorted radical Salafist groups. Russia and Iran have vowed to oppose the establishment of a no-fly zone over sovereign Syrian territory. Instead of a no-fly zone the United States and Turkey have agreed to establish a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border.What did you say 06.jpg

The Washington Post reported on July 26:

The agreement includes a plan to drive the Islamic State out of a 68-mile-long area west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo that would then come under the control of the Syrian opposition. If fully implemented, it would also bring American planes in regular, close proximity to bases, aircraft and air defenses operated by the Syrian government, and directly benefit opposition rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.What did you say 04.jpg

As previously noted, there are virtually no moderate mercenary groups inside Syria.

The agreement will establish a safe haven for jihadist groups that represent the only viable force — short of direct U.S. military involvement and boots on the ground — capable of turning Syria into the next Libya, a failed state that does not challenge or resist the hegemony of the United States and Israel in the Middle East. Picture5


ObamaIranian-Flag-WORD-ART In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Turkish ship shelled off Libya coast, officer killed, several crew injured


waving flagPosted By RT On May 11, 2015

Article reblogged from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.infowars.com/turkish-ship-shelled-off-libya-coast-officer-killed-several-crew-injured/

A Turkish dry cargo ship has been attacked near the Libyan port city of Tobruk, the Foreign Ministry in Ankara says. A ship officer was killed and several crew members injured. The incident took place Sunday night. The ship was first shelled from the shore as it was approaching the area, the Turkish ministry said Monday. It was then attacked twice from the air as it was trying to leave the area.

The MV Tuna 1, sailing under the flag of Cook Islands, was carrying a cargo to the Libyan port from Spain and came under attack when it was in international waters, the ministry said. The man killed in the incident was the ship’s third officer.

The ministry condemned the assault, but did not specify who was behind it.

We condemn strongly this contemptible attack which targeted a civilian ship in international waters and curse those who carried it out, it said.

A Libyan military spokesman responded to condemnations from Ankara, saying the vessel came under attack after ignoring a warning not to approach the city of Derna, some 145 km west of Tobruk.

A ship was shelled about 10 miles from Derna coast. We have warned before about approaching Derna port,” Mohamed Hejazi, a spokesman for forces with Libya’s internationally recognized government, told Reuters. He confirmed one member of the crew was killed, but said that only one other sustained injuries.

A military source also told Reuters the vessel caught on fire and was towed to Tobruk terminal.

Screenshot from Google Maps

Libya remains in turmoil after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in the popular uprising of 2011 and NATO bombing campaign. At the moment, two separate governments both claiming to be legitimate exist.

The country has been riven by factional fighting and impoverished by the economic decline that followed the hostilities. It has also become a hotbed of international terrorism, with Iraq and Syria-based group Islamic State sending its fighters to Libya.

Back in January, a Libyan warplane attacked a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored off the coast. The attack by forces loyal with the internationally-recognized government of Libya was motivated by factions fighting for control over Libya’s oil export. Two crewmembers of the ship were killed.

While Turkey objected to the attack on its vessel, other countries are unlikely to be vocal about the incident, said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based news website Rai Al-Youm. The international community is mostly supporting the government in Tobruk and they are not happy with Turkish and Qatari involvement in the Libyan conflict. I believe they will be silent,” he told RT. “They recognize the problem in Libya and they know they are part of that problem. They sent their warplanes and aircraft carriers to bomb Libya and changed the situation there and created a vacuum that was filled by the armed militia and the Islamists,” he said.Picture1


OARLogo Picture6

Noah’s Ark Found: Why Keep Us In The Dark?


Posted by Baron Von KowenhovenJanuary 2, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site:  http://joeforamerica.com/2015/01/noahs-ark-found-keep-us-dark/

Exhaustive, detailed information on discovery of The Ark

Has Noah’s Ark been found? Is it real? You won’t even see those headlines or questions in the mainstream anytime soon because it just doesn’t fit with their narrative:

In the Book of Genesis, God set about destroying a “corrupt” and “violent” world just as Noah was putting the finishing touches on The Ark – a massive wooden vessel to hold his family and two of “all living creatures, from all flesh.”

The Bible specifies that Noah’s Ark came to rest on “the mountains of Ararat” as the waters reseeded. The modern day location is in eastern Turkey – a volcanic mountain, having erupted several times since the Flood, the last major eruption being in 1840.

Since then, ancient Roman scholars, medieval travelers, contemporary explorers and Ottoman soldiers all claim to have spotted Noah’s Ark amid the region’s peaks — most recently in 2006, when a Colorado-based archaeologist claimed to have uncovered the ark, petrified within Iran’s Alborz mountain range along the Turkish border.

Why does the major media refuse to even look into this? Why not just refute it? Does the cover-up have something to do with confirming the Bible’s teachings? Methinks so..

The story of the flood is closely connected with the story of the creation, in which the ark plays a pivotal role.

Not exactly in line with evolution. The information would be better off not “discovered”. If Noah’s Ark really existed, we may have to adjust some of our other thinking and that may not be a real pleasant prospect for liberals in the press.

From Dan Eden at The Viewzone:

The Gilgamesh Epic (650 BC) gives Mt. Nisir as the landing place of the Ark. The local name for the town where the Ark was found is Nasar.

Theophilus of Antioch (115-185 AD) said the Ark could be seen in his day in the Arabian mountains. Later Church Fathers also mention the Ark as late as the mid 7th century. In the 13th century, Willam, a traveler, stated for the first time that Mt. Masis was the Ark location (present-day Mt. Ararat).

Ptolemy’s Geographia (1548) mentions the mountains of Armenia as the place of landing. So does the traveler Nicolas de Nicolay (1558).

Pilgrims to the site would gather bits and pieces of the petrified wood which would be used as charms to ward off evil. When they encountered the anchors, they had no doubt about their association with the Ark. They often carved one big cross to represent Noah and smaller crosses representing his family.

 

The huge anchors would have been suspended from the keel of the ship. This was a common practice among ancient mariners to stabilize a heavy ship and ensure that the bow is always facing the on-coming waves.

Members of a Hong Kong expedition conducted several missions to Mount Ararat since 2003 and shot footage of what appears to be a solid wooden wall, entombed within layers of glacial ice and volcanic rock. A gnarled beam runs suspended from one part of the cavern to another. There’s straw and bits of old rope on the ground; a structure is taking shape.

What is it? According to the explorers, it’s Noah’s Ark, literally frozen in time.

Army Captain Ilhan Durupinar, identified the final resting place of Noah’s Ark in a Turkish Air Force aerial photo taken during a NATO mapping mission in October 1959. Photographs of the site were published in Life magazine in 1960,

The shape looked like hull of a ship. One end was pointed as you would expect from bow and the opposite end was blunt like a stern. The distance from bow to stern was 515 feet, or exactly 300 Egyptian cubits. The average width was 50 cubits. These were the exact measurements mentioned in the Bible.noahs ark found

 

Geological mapping indicates that there is a fault right along the western edge of the boat-shape and other faults in the valley floor. It is thus significant that this boat-shape first came into view as a result of an earthquake in 1948, and then its relief compared to the surrounding terrain was enhanced as a result of a further earthquake in 1978.

Then there’s the history of the Ark in other forms, languages and passages handed down and across time. Many other cultures also told of a great flood and a ship being built. It is not a story unique to The Bible:

The flood has echoes in legends from Central America to South Asia, and it almost certainly predates Judeo-Christian times. Scholars believe it was most likely transmitted to the Israelites from Mesopotamia: in the far older Epic of Gilgamesh, we encounter Utnapishtim, a man chosen by the gods to live alone in a boat full of animals while the world around him ended in a deluge. Just like Noah, as the rains stopped he sent out both a dove and a raven to gauge whether the waters had receded.

A British scholar around a years ago found that a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet from what is now Iraq contains a story similar to the biblical account of Noah’s Ark.

The newly decoded cuneiform tells of a divinely sent flood and a sole survivor on an ark, who takes all the animals on board to preserve them. It even includes the famous phrase “two by two,” describing how the animals came onto the ark.

Skeptics say differences in the story prove it’s false, but anyone in law enforcement will tell you if the stories are the same, it’s for sure a lie. Different accounts of the same basic theme indicate truth. And yes there are multiple different Mesopotamian versions, and there are multiple different biblical versions of the story of Noah’s Ark.

They share a basic outline, and some central themes. But they each relate the story in their own way.

From The Viewzone:

Ground Penetrating Radar

The human eye needs to see reflected light to recognize an object. To visualize what remains below the earth, scientists use microwaves which can penetrate the ground and bounce back when they hit something solid. This technique is commonly used to locate oil and other minerals. Called Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), the apparatus us made from an antenna that transmits, then listens to receive the “echo” and prints the result on a piece of paper. The delay and strength of this echo tell the geologists how solid and at what depth the objects are under the earth.

The team of geologists didn’t scan the entire object. Instead, they marked out lines that crossed the object with yellow tape. Then they dragged the antenna (about the size of a lawnmower) over the lines and watched the output on the paper recorder. When they got a strong “hit” — meaning there was something solid underneath — they would record the position on the tape [above]. Later, when they made a map of the object, the tape and the location of the “hits” they realized that there was indeed a structure underneath the mud.

“This data does not represent natural geology. These are man made structures. These reflections are appearing too periodic… too periodic to be random in that type of natural pace.” – Ron Wyatt of SIR Imaging team

The radar cans revealed this structure [above] under the mud. The symmetry and logical placement of these objects shows that this is unmistakably a man made structure, most likely the Ark of Noah.

Artifacts Retrieved From The Ark

Using the GPR, Ron Wyatt discovered an open cavity on the starboard side. He used an improvised drill to make core sample inside this cavity and retrieved several very interesting objects. Below you can see the artifacts which were sent for laboratory analysis. On the left is the bore hole [see below], followed by what turned out to be petrified animal dung, then a petrified antler and lastly a piece of cat hair.

Perhaps the most significant find from the Ark itself is a piece of petrified wood. When this was first found it appeared to be a large beam. But upon closer examination it is actually three pieces of plank that have been laminated together with some kind of organic glue! This is the same technology used in modern plywood. Lamination makes the total strength of the wood much greater than the combined strength of the pieces. This suggests a knowledge of construction far beyond anything we knew existed in the ancient world.noahs ark found

Tests by Galbraith Labs in Knoxville, Tennessee, showed the sample to contain over 0.7% organic carbon, consistent with fossilized wood. The specimen was once living matter. Photo: http://www.viewzone.com/noahx.html

Examination reveals the glue oozed from the layers. The outside of the wood appears to have been coated with bitumen.

Even more surprising were laboratory analyses which not only revealed that the petrified wood contained carbon (proving it was once wood) but there were iron nails [above right] embedded in the wood!

We like to imagine that humanity evolved in a neat sequence of eras, each named after the technology that was discovered. We have the Stone Age (where man developed arrows and stone tools), the Bronze Age (where metals were combined and heated to make tools and household items) and lastly the Iron Age (where iron and steel objects were made by heating iron ore and adding other material — like charcoal — to strengthen it). The Iron Age is usually placed at 1200-1000 BC, yet we have iron nails being used in this extremely old construction

By WhatDidYouSay.org

By WhatDidYouSay.org

– WND – http://www.wnd.com – Obama doubles down on U.S. troops in Iraq


Posted By author-imageGarth Kant On 11/07/2014

Article republished from WND: http://www.wnd.com

URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/obama-doubles-down-on-u-s-troops-in-iraq/

Peshmerga fighters to get U.S. help

Peshmerga fighters to get U.S. help

The additional U.S. troops also will perform non-combat roles, primarily to advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish troops and to help build “capacity and capability.”

According to a White House statement, the U.S. military will establish several sites to train nine Iraqi army brigades and three brigades of Peshmerga, the Kurdish fighting force. The news should be especially welcome to the Peshmerga, according to what Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, told WND Friday. The congressman just returned from Iraq where he was escorted by the Peshmerga to within a few miles of the front lines with ISIS, the Muslim terrorist army the U.S. has been targeting with airstrikes. Stockman said from what he saw, the Peshmerga were eager to fight but appeared severely untrained and under-equipped.

The congressman told WND, “They don’t even have enough equipment and ammunition to practice shooting.”

In contrast, he was told ISIS had now captured 6,000 pieces of military equipment from Iraq, pieces that originally came from the U.S. military. Kurdish fighters would be willing to fight ISIS forces in both Iraq and Syria, but Stockman was told neighboring Turkey had, so far, only allowed some 50 Peshmerga fighters to enter Syria.

The White House announced the U.S. military will establish two operations centers, one outside the Kurdish capital of Erbil and another outside the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The centers will be supported by what the administration called “an appropriate array of force protection capabilities.”

The Iraqi army has appeared in desperate need of training ever since its ranks were overrun in June by ISIS forces, which captured large swaths of the country and marched within miles of Baghdad.

The White House plans to ask Congress to provide $5.6 billion for efforts in Syria and Iraq, including $1.6 billion for the new “Iraq Train and Equip” fund.

By WhatDidYouSay.org

By WhatDidYouSay.org

Turkish Airstrike Hits Kurds, Not ISIS


Obamacare

Turkey wants ISIS to conquer Syria

by RT | October 14, 2014

http://www.infowars.com/turkish-airstrike-hits-kurds-not-isis/

Turkish Airstrike Hits Kurds, Not ISIS
Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets near the country’s border with Iraq. Image Credits: Ronnie Macdonald / Flickr

Imperial Islamic President ObamaThe strikes highlight rising tensions in Turkey over Ankara’s perceived unwillingness to aid besieged Kurdish fighters in the Syrian town of Kobani.

The Turkish General Staff dispatched F-16 and F-4 jets to the southeastern village of Daglica in Hakkari province on Monday, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reports.

The daily says the airstrikes caused “heavy damage” to the PKK.

The PKK’s military wing, however, said in a statement on its website that its forces had not suffered casualties during the strikes, Reuters reports.

Turkey says the bombings came in response to three days of attacks on the Daglıca military guard post with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. PKK insurgents for their part blamed the Turkish military of violating the ceasefire.

Monday’s strikes were the first to be conducted since the Kurdish rebel group declared a ceasefire with Turkey in March 2013.

The incident underlines simmering anger among Kurds in southeastern Turkey over Ankara’s failure to intervene against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants, who launched a massive offensive on the predominately Kurdish town of Kobani – not far from Syria’s border with Turkey – on September 16.

At least 35 people were killed throughout Turkey’s Kurdish majority south-eastern provinces last week after protests against Ankara’s inaction descended into violent street clashes.

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of PKK, has threatened to call off peace talks to end nearly three decades of insurgency if Ankara does not act by Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a “symbolic” amount of military supplies sent from Iraqi Kurdistan to Syrian Kurds is stuck in Syria’s northeast after Turkey refused to open an aid corridor, German daily Deutsche Welle cites Syrian Kurdish official Alan Othman as saying on Tuesday.

“It is a symbolic shipment that has remained in the Jazeera canton,” Othman said, using the Kurdish name for northeastern Syria.

On Monday, Turkish officials denied a previous announcement by the Obama administration that Ankara had authorized US fighter jets to use the Incirlik Airbase as a launching point to conduct bombing campaigns against IS (Islamic State) militants.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that any military operations conducted from its territory should be done with an aim of removing Syrian president Bashar Assad from power.

Earlier this month, Erdogan said that IS and the PKK are equally worthy of contempt in the eyes of Turkey.

“It is wrong to consider them [IS and PKK] in different ways,” Erdogan said. “We need to handle them all together on a common ground.”

 

Article collective closing

Russia threatens to retaliate against U.S. military


Obamacare

Posted By author-imageAaron Klein On 09/28/2014

URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/russia-threatens-to-retaliate-against-u-s-military/

Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-34TEL AVIV – Russia has delivered a behind-the-scenes threat to retaliate if airstrikes carried out by the U.S. or its allies target the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle Eastern security officials told WND.

The security officials said Russia complained Sunday in quiet talks with United Nations representatives that the Obama administration’s current aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria is a violation of international agreements regarding control of Syrian airspace.

The officials said Russia warned it could potentially retaliate if U.S. or Arab airstrikes go beyond targeting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and instead bomb any Syrian regime targets.

Imperial Islamic President ObamaThe officials told WND they do not have any information about the seriousness of the Russian threat or whether Moscow meant it would retaliate directly or aid Assad’s air force in a military response.

The officials said Russian diplomats asserted terms regarding Syrian airspace were agreed upon last September as part of a sweeping deal to disarm Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons by the middle of 2014.

At the time, the international community feared Assad could target chemical weapons inspectors acting in Syria. That fear in part lead to a deal in which Moscow says it was provided with significant responsibility over the skies of Syria, purportedly to insure against Assad’s air force acting against the international disarmament effort.

The officials further said that both the Russia and Iranian militaries are on heightened alert amid the ongoing situation in Syria.

On Saturday, U.S.-led coalition warplanes for the first time reportedly struck ISIS targets in Syria near the Turkish border as well as positions in the country’s east, according to activists and a Kurdish officials speaking to the Associated Press.

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, told the AP the strikes targeted Islamic State positions near the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani.

U.S.-coalition strikes also reportedly targeted a local ISIS headquarters in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad along the Turkish border, setting an oil refinery ablaze.

“Our building was shaking and we saw fire, some 60 meters (65 yards) high, coming from the refinery,” local businessman Mehmet Ozer told Time Magazine.

Time reported the strikes were also confirmed by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and were reported by Turkey’s Dogan news agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article collective closing

$100 million mega-mosque coming to this state


WND EXCLUSIVE // http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/100-million-mega-mosque-coming-to-this-state/

‘We will show our friends in the U.S. who we actually are’

 

 

author-image Chelsea Schilling About | Email | Archive

Chelsea Schilling is a commentary editor and staff writer for WND, an editor of Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert and a proud U.S. Army veteran. She has also worked as a news producer at USA Radio Network and as a news reporter for the Sacramento Union.
 
Turkey’s Islamist government is constructing a massive $100 million, 15-acre mosque in Lanham, Md., that is expected to “become the largest and most striking example of Islamic architecture in the Western hemisphere” by October 2014.

In May, Turkey Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan placed a ceremonial stone at the construction site. Now the five-building project known as the Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center is well underway in the town just outside Washington, D.C., with a population of about 10,000.

As the Clarion Project explains, mosques have been springing up all over the U.S. in recent years. As many as 80 percent of the mosques in America have been built in the last 12 years – since the 2001 terror attacks.

“A large majority of mosques in the United States are led by Wahhabi clerics,” the Project explains. “Wahhabism is an extreme brand of Islam practiced dominantly in Saudi Arabia. According to Muslim estimates, up to 80 percent of mosques in the U.S. are owned, operated and led by Wahhabis.

“These radical mosques often promote the installation of Sharia law, an extreme ideology that considers ‘non-believers’ to be infidels. According to Wahhabis, jihad or support of jihad is a Muslim duty. They believe that suicide bombers and martyrs are worthy of the highest praise and reward. And radicals are anticipating the day when an Islamic state will one day span the U.S.”

How can you defend America against Islamic supremacist encroachment? In “Stop the Islamization of America,” renowned activist Pamela Geller provides the answer, offering proven, practical guidance on how freedom lovers can stop jihadist initiatives in local communities.

As many as four studies have independently concluded that 80 percent of U.S. mosques “were teaching jihad, Islamic supremacism, and hatred and contempt for Jews and Christians,” Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch has reported.

Spencer noted, “We are increasingly seeing Muslim patrols in the proximity of mosques saying to passers-by that they can’t walk a dog, wear a skirt, drink alcohol.”

But Dr. Yasar Colak, president of the Turkish American Community Center, told the World Bulletin his organization has special plans for the new mega-mosque, which will be designed in accordance with 16th century Ottoman architecture:

“We will show our friends in the U.S. who we actually are and the main principle of our civilization,” he said. “We will present our peaceful culture. We will try to erase the bad reputation of Muslims and Islam created following September 11 attacks.”

In 2009, WND was one of the first to report plans for a new Islamic mosque just steps from Ground Zero where Muslim terrorists murdered 2,751 people in the name of Allah on Sept. 11, 2001. The New York Daily News recently reported the same developer now “controls three adjacent properties on Park Place, leaving neighbors wondering whether the mysterious owner has a mega mosque planned for the block.”

According to the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, the Turkish American Culture and Civilization Center will include facilities for activities relating to:

  • Religious services and education
  • Turkish language education
  • Turkish history lectures
  • Turkish culinary arts classes
  • Cultural exchange
  • Recreation, sports, and health
  • U.S. immigration and citizenship
  • Women’s equality and empowerment education
  • Civic engagement and public advocacy
  • Business, commerce and trade development
  • Spiritual wellness

“There are 19 [Turkish American Community Centers] nationwide,” the Assembly states. ”TACCs represent a board spectrum of Turkish American society, promoting secular democracy and respect towards diverse lifestyles.”

As the Clarion Project reported, the Turkish mosque groundbreaking ceremony was attended by the leaders of two U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities: Naeem Baig, president of the Islamic Circle of North America, and Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America. A 1991 memo links both organizations to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Page 7 of the memo states that the Brotherhood’s “work in America” is “a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Also in May, President Obama welcomed Erdogan, who has been a constant advocate for Hamas in Gaza, to the White House. Erdogan brought with him Mavi Marmara, the father of an Islamic jihadist killed in the 2010 raid on a Gaza flotilla. Marmara has indicated he wants the Obama administration to sue Israel over the raid.

Erdogan has said, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.”

At the May ceremony for the new mosque, he warned of groups promoting “Islamophobia,” and just one month earlier, he called Zionism and “Islamophobia” “crime[s] against humanity.”

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Judicial Watch noted, “During the recent visit to the mosque construction site in Maryland, Erdogan’s deputy prime minister, Bülent Arınç, slipped away from the delegation for a day, according to a newspaper that covers Turkish affairs abroad. Arınç reportedly visited an ‘Islamic scholar’ who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.”

Americans overwhelmingly opposed the Ground Zero mosque, but why was it being built in the first place? WND’s Molotov Mitchell explores what’s really going on in his exclusive in-depth, investigative documentary, “The Mosque.”

British planning lawyer Gavin Boby, an expert on zoning permissions who has successfully blocked the construction of more than 16 mosques in the U.K., explained that the significance of mosques extends far beyond religious purposes:

This is the Islamic doctrine, every mosque is instructed to be based upon the original mosque in Medina, where Muhammad originally in the 7th century set up his religious-political doctrine of social control, and the mosque is a place of government, it is a place where treaties are made, death sentences are passed, armies are blessed and dispatched, it is primarily about political control and it is very much used as a tool of advance. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey talked about that, the Muslim Brotherhood compared their mosques to battalions and to beehives, where Muslims will gather and then advance, and there’s nothing new about this, it goes back to the 7th century.

In his 2010 exclusive WND column, William Federer, author of “What Every American Needs to Know About the Quran: A History of Islam and the United States,” listed dozens of historical cases in which mosques were erected as signs of Muslim conquest.

In 630 A.D. after he captured Mecca, Muhammad himself converted the Ka’aba, a pagan pantheon, into a mosque.

Boby, who runs the Law and freedom Foundation, also explained that the word “mosque” is strategically omitted during the application process:

“The method is very simple,” he said. “A planning application gets submitted for a mosque in an area, and it will never be called a ‘mosque.’ It will be called a community center; an inter-faith center; a public community, harmony-building outreach center, and then the neighbors contact us, and it’s usually people who have never been involved in politics before, are shy of politics and officialdom and ask us to help them to resist it.”

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