Another 50,000 flee ISIS in Iraq

The Northern Iraqi city of Qaraqosh is effectively empty now as 50K flee to the Northern Kurdish regions.  How many more refugees will there have to be before we start talking about the underlying problem that is causing all this human crisis, namely Islam.  How many more must die before we recognize the dangers within currently held Islamic doctrine?

From AINA June 26

50,000 Assyrians Flee Fighting in North Iraq

(AINA) -- Nearly all of the population of Qaraqosh, 50,000 Assyrians, has fled the city amid fighting between ISIS and Kurds. Syrian Catholic Archbishop Mar Youhana Boutros Moshe attempted to negotiate with ISIS and the Kurds to convince them to leave the city, but the negotiations failed. ISIS and the 'Revolutionary Tribes' (Sunnis) are set to storm the city.

According to Bishop Yousif Habash of the Syriac Orthodox Church in New Jersey, Qaraqosh (also known as Baghdede) is now almost completely abandoned. A source reporting from Qaraqosh told AINA the population has fled to Arbel, Dohuk, Alqosh, Tel Kepe, Telsqop and Ankawa. Monasteries and churches are filled with displaced Christian refugees from Baghdede. There is an urgent need for food, water, medical aid and blankets.

Kurdish forces and ISIS pounded each other with mortars. The Kurds have positioned themselves on the east side of Qaraqosh, ISIS and the 'Revolutionary Tribes' have stationed themselves on the west and south side, near the villages of Tawajna and Qurtaba-Arab and south of Balawat.

ISIS has given the Kurdish forces an ultimatum to leave by 7 P.M. else face an attack.

The city is known by three names: Baghdede in Assyrian, Hamdaniya in Arabic and Qaraqosh in Turkish.

University professor quits position after school refuses to help him squelch Islamic radicalization in his class

Aaron Hughs now teaches in the US, but his ordeal is not unique on college campuses either here or abroad.  DR. Hughs has a PhD in Islamic studies and yet had to flee the University of Calgary because his fellow teachers, staff and administration did not want to support him in his claims of radicalization and anti-semitism he was experiencing from students both within and outside of his classes.

This is but another example, in the ever-expanding pantheon of examples that shows how Islam spreads through intimidation, fear and the not so veiled threats of violence.

We will continue to see more of this.

From the Calgary Herald June 25 by Reid Southwick

Students' extremist views pushed professor out of U of C

A former professor at the University of Calgary says he left his tenured position after colleagues refused to respond to his concerns with students spreading radical Muslim views.

Aaron Hughes, a prolific author on religion who holds a PhD on Islamic studies, said he once found a message scrawled in Arabic across his classroom’s chalkboard endorsing Islamic Jihad and Hamas, widely considered a terrorist group by western countries.

Hughes, who is Jewish, said he interpreted the message as anti-Semitic, but he said the university declined to remove the offending student from his class.

“I would have to go teach this class as a victim staring my aggressor in the face,” he said.

Hughes, who now teaches at the University of Rochester, said he’s not surprised by reports of Calgarians travelling abroad to fight with extremist groups, given what he experienced. He wondered whether influences on university campuses are helping to fuel this movement of young men waging jihad in Syria and Iraq.

The professor and researcher said he also saw a young Muslim stand up during a University of Calgary memorial service for the 9/11 terrorist attacks to say, “Islam will always stand up for those who are dispossessed.” Later, he saw a student wearing a Hamas headband.

Hughes’ comments have again highlighted fears of homegrown radicalization in Calgary and raised questions about the line that divides freedom of expression from hate speech.

While a local Muslim leader denounced radical calls for violence against other religions, the University of Calgary said it promotes free and open debate of ideas and provides a safe environment for students, faculty and staff on campus.

In a written statement, the university said its student code of conduct and a new office of diversity and protected disclosure are designed to help people who believe they are being harassed or threatened.

“Campus security steps in when there is an issue of safety and work directly with Calgary police,” the statement read.

“To ensure the fastest action, we also encourage anyone with concerns regarding illegal or terrorist activity to contact Calgary police or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service directly. These agencies are in the best position to assess and act on any perceived risks to public safety.”

But Hughes said the university did nothing when he reported he was uncomfortable teaching religion in what he considered a hostile environment before he left the university in 2009. He said he had also become concerned with conservative views he heard in his Islamic studies classes where he said students advanced a narrow view of Islam, decrying scholars as heretics and certain fields of study as non-Muslim.

Hughes said he had asked his department to allow him to teach another subject, but officials declined his request.

“Ultimately, the reason I left the University of Calgary is because my colleagues gave me no support.”

Muslim murders prostitute near mosque

He told her she had to leave, she refused, now she is dead.  No matter your view on the sex trade she did not deserve to be killed.  Islam said otherwise, and Farooq Shah followed the edicts of his religion.

But don't say anything, that would be Islamophobic.

From the Daily Mail June 27 by Julian Robinson

Muslim man murders pregnant prostitute because she was working near a mosque

A Muslim who stabbed a pregnant Romanian prostitute to death after warning her not to work near a mosque was jailed for at least 29 years today.

Farooq Shah, 21, plunged a knife into Mariana Popa’s chest while riding his bicycle along a stretch of road notorious for sex workers.

Miss Popa, 24, had been in Britain for just three weeks and was trying to earn the money to support her family when she was stabbed in Ilford, Essex.

She staggered into Chicken & Pizza 4U in Ilford Lane and collapsed in a pool of blood as her killer rode away on his bike.

The mother-of-one was six weeks pregnant with her second child when she bled to death.

CCTV footage showed Shah waiting on the forecourt of a BP garage close to where prostitutes were working on Ilford Lane late on October 28.

Miss Popa could then be seen to walk towards him and speak to him before he stabbed her twice in the chest.

Prosecutors believe Shah was warning Miss Popa to leave the area - and she paid with her life when she refused.

ISIS rise caused by global warming?

Now wait a minute.  We know that the doctrine and ideology that drives ISIS comes directly from the Qur'an and Islamic tenets, but there is some validity to the claim that climate change does cause societal fluctuations which include war and conquest.  Whether that is true in this case remains to be seen, but it is food for thought.

From SLATE June 27 by Eric Holthaus

Is climate change destabilizing Iraq?

This winter was not a good one for farmers in the Fertile Crescent.

A punishing drought hit most of Syria and northern Iraq during what’s normally the wettest time of the year. In the mountains of eastern Turkey, which form the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, snow and rain were less than half of normal. The region has seen one of the worst droughts in decades.

Drought is becoming a fixture in the parched landscape, due to a drying trend of the Mediterranean and Middle East region fueled by global warming. The last major drought in this region (2006-2010) finished only a few years ago. When taken in combination with other complex drivers, increasing temperatures and drying of agricultural land is widely seen as assisting in the destabilization of Syria under the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Before civil war broke out there, farmers abandoned their desiccated fields and flooded the cities with protests. 

A series of U.N. reports released earlier this year found that global warming is already destabilizing nation states around the world, and Syria has been no exception.

With the ongoing crisis in Iraq seemingly devolving by the day, it’s not a stretch to think something similar could already be underway just next door.

Read it all

ISIS 2.0: Baghdad

Within 6 miles of Baghdad and slowly closing the noose.  ISIS is not only well-equipped with US weapons and material but they know tactics and procedures that will enhance their operative capabilities.  Mosul, Tikrit, Sammarah, Beiji and other small villages are under the control of Islam, others will fall and soon those purple fingers of democracy that we saw on the news a few years ago will be replaced with the red of blood spilling from severed heads.

A fools errand brought us to this precipice, and rest assured we will jump.

From the Miami Herald June 24 by Mitchell Prothero

Islamist fighters reportedly attempting to encircle Baghdad

IRBIL, Iraq -- Iraq’s dire situation has gone from bad dream to nightmare in two weeks of fighting that have seen Sunni Muslim gunmen assert control over a growing area, including, Kurdish officials said Tuesday, at least two towns that lie on a crucial supply route linking Baghdad, the capital, with the mostly Shiite Muslim south.

The fall of towns in an area that American troops knew as the “triangle of death” because of its propensity for violence provided an ominous signal, the Kurdish officials said, that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its Sunni allies are working to encircle Baghdad.

“The picture is no longer scary,” said Shafin Dizayee, the spokesman for the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil. “It has become close to a nightmare scenario, where we see Daash expanding and taking control of its borders.” “Daash” is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Another Kurdish official, Jabbar Yawar, the spokesman for the Kurdish peshmerga militia, said ISIS fighters apparently had seized control of the towns of Iskandariya and Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, and were reported in some instances to be just six miles from Baghdad.

“This area controls access to southern Iraq, and it appears as if they might try to push into Baghdad or even south towards the city of Hilla,” he said.

Southern Iraq is mostly Shiite, and it supports the embattled government of Prime Minister Nouri al Malaki. Thousands of young men from the south have flocked to Baghdad to bolster the flagging army, and many observers have assumed that the flow of southern militiamen would help stem an ISIS advance that’s captured much of northern and central Iraq in the weeks since the city of Mosul fell under ISIS control June 10.

But the loss of the southern approaches to the capital would change that calculus and add to the sense that Baghdad was gradually being isolated. On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers lost control of the last major crossing point to Syria, while gunmen allied with ISIS took control Monday of Tirbil, Iraq’s only land crossing to Jordan. Anbar province, to Baghdad’s west, has been largely under ISIS’s sway since last year, and the group is now contesting government forces in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, to the capital’s north and east.

As one town after another has fallen, the Iraqi government has insisted that most of the lost territory remains in government hands.

Yet our own CIA was blindsided by ISIS takeover and occupation of towns and cities.  Iraq doesn't know, neither does the CIA.

Read it all

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/24/4199224/islamist-fighters-reportedly-attempting.html#storylink=cpy

Nigeria: Boko Haram return 200 kidnapped girls...wait, what?

They kidnapped 91 more, including 60 girls, one only 3 years old.  No mainstream media reports, no follow-up, just another in an endless stream of Islamic atrocities that is ignored by our MSM.

There will not be any kind of questioning of Islamic doctrine that allows for slavery, because to do so would be Islamophobic.

From Yahoo/AP June 24 by Aruna Umar And Michelle Faul

Witnesses: Extremists abduct 91 more people in Nigeria in deadly weekend attacks

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Extremists have abducted 91 more people, including toddlers as young as 3, in weekend attacks on villages in Nigeria, witnesses said Tuesday, providing fresh evidence of the military's failure to curb an Islamic uprising and the government's inability to provide security.

The kidnappings come less than three months after more than 200 schoolgirls were taken in a mass abduction that embarrassed Nigeria's government and military because of their slow response. Those girls are still being held captive.

The most recent victims included 60 girls and women, some of whom were married, and 31 boys, witnesses said.

A local official confirmed the abductions, but security forces denied them.

There was no way to safely and independently confirm the report from Kummabza, 150 kilometres (95 miles) from Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and headquarters of a military state of emergency that has failed to curtail near-daily attacks by Boko Haram fighters.

Vigilante leader Aji Khalil said Tuesday the abductions took place Saturday in an attack that killed four villagers. Khalil lives in Maiduguri but gets reports daily from other vigilante groups that have had some success in repelling Boko Haram with primitive weapons.

Obama will arm and support jihadists in Syria and now Iraq, but not a peep about supporting true innocents at the mercy of Islam.

Read it all

France: Muslims attack man for eating a ham sandwich

Absurd?  You bet.  Portent of things to come?  Absolutely.

From Jihad Watch June 21 by Robert Spencer

“Vive Le Vibrancy! In France Muslims Will Assault You For Eating A Ham Sandwich”

NB – Google Translate – The case seems absurd, but it is being treated with the utmost seriousness by the police from Reims (Marne). A 23 year old man filed a complaint on June 8, after being attacked, around 21:30 on a tram in the city by two strangers.

They hit the victim repeatedly in the face because he was eating a ham sandwich. The two attackers, who claimed to be Muslims, said they were offended by the consumption of pork in their presence and so attacked the young man...

ISIS lays siege to largest oil refinery in Iraq

But not to worry, America is once again on guard, evacuating the majority of personnel from the embassy in Baghdad, making ready drones and aircraft while condemning the jihadists in Iraq as the WH arms the jihadists in Syria.

Bravo, Obama.  You now have a foreign policy that is completely incoherent.

From NBC June 18

ISIS Militants Besiege Iraq's Largest Oil Refinery

BAGHDAD — Islamist militants laid siege to Iraq's largest oil refinery Wednesday, threatening a facility key to the country's domestic supplies as part of their ongoing lightning offensive, a top security official said.

The attack comes as militants have seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq — and as the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart and the doubts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion now haunt those trying decide how to respond.

The official said fighters of the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 155 miles north of Baghdad late Tuesday night. The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with fighters targeting it with mortar shells. A small fire started on the facility's periphery, he said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

The Beiji refinery accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country's entire refining capacity — all of which goes toward domestic consumption for things like gasoline, cooking oil and fuel for power stations.

Any lengthy outage at Beiji risks long lines at the gas pump and electricity shortages, adding to the chaos already facing Iraq.

Dearbornistan Imam calls for censorship of blasphemy after Qur'an burning

Now, I uphold the first amendment fully and support the absolute right to ones own opinion, as long as it stops at the tip of my nose.  I also support, but do not agree with the burning of books.  The fact that this Imam is calling for censorship based on his being insulted that someone set alight three Qur'ans outside an Islamic center in Dearbornistan is telling; only Islam wants all expressions of free speech regarding Islam restricted or outright banned.

From the Press and Guide June 17 by Aysha Jamali

(UPDATED) Qurans burned at Dearborn mosque; imams consider new law

DEARBORN — Several Qurans were burned in front of a mosque at about noon Tuesday in possible connection with anti-Islam Pastor Terry Jones’ expected visit to the city Saturday.

The three copies of the Quran, Muslims’ holy book believed to be the word of God, were set on fire and left to burn at the curb in front of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, 15332 W. Warren Ave.

The imam of the mosque, Sheikh Husham Al-Husainy, confirmed that the incident occurred and that police are investigating.

Al-Husainy said he met with public safety officials Thursday including the FBI and the city’s police chief.

“I’ve been in this mosque for 20 years, and this never happened,” he said. “It’s the first time.”

The mosque is the center of Dearborn's Iraqi Shi'a community and is often visited by people interested in its history. Al-Husainy said visitors come each week and for group tours.

People were beginning to gather for the afternoon prayer when they saw a fire in front of the mosque, he said. When they went to put it out, some people trying to use their bare hands, they saw it was copies of the Quran, he said.

A group of local imams convened Thursday at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn to discuss how to handle the situation. Although a connection of Jones’ visit was not confirmed in this incident, the imams discussed his visit and agreed to continue to ignore it.

Jones said the Quran burnings had no direct connection with him or his organization, Stand Up America Now.

“But, of course, we will support the Quran burnings under expression of First Amendment rights,” he said.

Jones is visiting Dearborn again to rally against Islamic Sharia law. The Florida native is the featured guest speaker at the Dearborn Freedom Rally, an event held by the American Patriotic Bikers.

Jones plans to speak in front of the Islamic Center of America on Ford Road but, because he did not obtain a permit from the city, spoke in front of City Hall, one of Dearborn’s designated “free speech zones.”

Imam wants new law banning burning of holy books

Several attorneys also met with the imams at Thursday’s meeting. Al-Husainy said they helped with legal advice in his plan for a new law making it illegal to burn or desecrate holy books.

“We want all of the religions to cooperate with us to bring respect to the word of God, whether the Quran, Bible, or Torah,” he said.

He said he understands it will be a challenge.

“But again, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step,” he said.

ISIS takes another town in Iraq

Looks like the Islamic nation-building is moving along just fine.

From NBC June 18

ISIS Militants Seize Iraq's Strategic Town of Tal Afar

BAGHDAD -- Sunni militants captured a key northern Iraqi town along the highway to Syria early on Monday, compounding the woes of Iraq's Shiite-led government a week after it lost a vast swath of territory to the insurgents in the country's north.

The town of Tal Afar, with a population of some 200,000 people, was taken just before dawn, Mayor Abdulal Abdoul told The Associated Press.

The town's ethnic mix of mostly ethnic Shiite and Sunni Turkomen raises the grim specter of large-scale atrocities by Sunni militants from the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), who already claim to have killed hundreds of Shiites in areas they captured last week.

Tal Afar's capture comes a week after Sunni militants took Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in a lightning offensive that has plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

A resident in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, confirmed the town's fall and said over the telephone that militants in pickup trucks mounted with machineguns and flying black jihadi banners were roaming the streets as gunfire rang out.

The local security force left the town before dawn, said Hadeer al-Abadi, who spoke to the AP as he prepared to head out of town with his family. Local tribesmen who continued to fight later surrendered to the militants, he said.

"Residents are gripped by fear and most of them have already left the town for areas held by Kurdish security forces," al-Abadi said.

Read it all and watch the videos

ISIS video: 1 hour of Islamic cruelty

If there is one constant about Islam, it would be their unwavering dedication to terror.  The media, ever fearful of being labeled Islamophobic or worse, continues to downplay the brutality and madness that is the religion of Islam.

We see in the video the world of Islam through the lens of ISIS.  It is a blend of propaganda, horror, education, coercion, symbolism, idealism and inhumanity, neatly packaged to be accessible, easily understood and readily digested.  It is Islam 2.0 with enhanced graphics and high-speed controls, it is digital da'wa in what was once a vast wasteland of sand and sky.

It is difficult to watch the entire production in one sitting, the images are quite graphic and frankly, after 20 minutes of executions, drive-by shootings and IED blasts one will get tired of all the carnage.  It is important to understand that the slick nature of the production itself shows a much higher level of cogent thinking on the part of the jihadists that previously shown, and their obsession with presenting their story wrapped within Islamic doctrine is eye-opening.

Everyone in the Obama White House should be made to watch this, and then tested to make sure they got it.  This is ISIS.  This is Islam.

From The Federalist Papers June 13 by Steven Straub

ISIS Video: We Will Conquer Jerusalem, Hostility And Hatred Until You Believe In Allah Alone

Warning: this video is extremely graphic, with lots of killings. There is a beheading that occurs between 51:00 and 53:00, warning if you do not want to see it:

Be warned this is exceedingly graphic, it is important to see what ISIS is all about, and what these people stand for.

They threaten Jerusalem, they threaten Rome, and I promise you, they threaten all of us!

ISIS leader says direct confrontation with America is coming

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, once held by US authorities and upon his release told his captors he would soon see them in New York, now tells the US there will be war between two civilizations, saying "Our last message is to the Americans. Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day".  But remember that his actions have nothing to do with Islam, and anyone who says so is an Islamophobe.

From CNS News June 13 by Terence P. Jeffrey

ISIS Leader to USA: ‘Soon We Will be in Direct Confrontation’

(CNSNews.com) - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), issued a rare audio message back on January 21 in which he flatly stated his group’s intention to march on Baghdad and move into “direct confrontation” with the United States.

“Our last message is to the Americans. Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day,” Baghdadi said. “So watch, for we are with you, watching.”

When the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on February 5 on al Qaida’s resurgence in Iraq, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and Iraq Brett McGurk presented written testimony explaining the agenda of ISIS (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL), and discussed Baghdadi’s audio message to Americans.

ISIL, McGurk said, focuses on “an aim to carve out an Islamic caliphate stretching from Baghdad to Lebanon.”

“ISIL has also made its intentions clear: move from a new base of operations in Fallujah to Baghdad--a distance of under 30 miles,” McGurk said in his written testimony. “Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had this to say in a rare audio statement issued on January 21: ‘As for ISIS in Iraq: Be in the frontlines against the Shia, and march toward Baghdad and the South, keep the Shia busy in their own areas. Know that the entire Sunni population and the brothers in Syria are watching you.’”

McGurk then noted that Baghdadi went on to conclude his audio statement by issuing a direct threat to the United States. Specifically, Baghdadi said: “Our last message is to the Americans. Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have prepared for such a day. So watch, for we are with you, watching.”

“We take such threats seriously and through cooperation with this committee and the Congress, we intend to help the Iraqis in their efforts to defeat ISIL over long term,” McGurk told the committee in his spoken testimony.

A real separation wall in Iraq

The "Apartheid Wall" in Israel was built for one reason: stop homicide bombers from blowing up innocents at cafes and theatres.  The "Apartheid Berm" being built by ISIS in Iraq is for one reason: delineate the new caliphate from which to launch jihad against the West and all who stand in the way.

The greatest insult is that ISIS is using American equipment, abandoned by the US-trained Iraq Army.

From Yahoo News June11

Jihadists 'bulldoze berm' dividing Iraq from Syria

Baghdad (AFP) - The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant posted pictures online of militants bulldozing a berm dividing Iraq and Syria, symbolising its goal of uniting its forces in the two countries.

The jihadists could be seen clearing a road through the berm, before trucks drove through as a militant stood nearby holding the group's black flag, in photos shared on websites and Twitter.

Creating a cross-border Islamic state is one of the group's main aims.

The first shot was dated June 10 and carried the title of the photo series, "Smashing the Sykes-Picot border" -- a reference to the agreement between Britain and France that carved up the Middle East after World War I, with the former taking Iraq and the latter Syria.

Another photo showed a militant standing in front of Iraqi army Humvees and trucks, suggesting the shots were taken after the launch of a jihadist offensive this week in which large numbers of military vehicles were captured.

But the authenticity of the photos could not be independently verified.

Islam threatens Judaism at Temple Mount, stones thrown at police

Israel gives in to the threat of violence and refuses Jews entry to the Western Wall.  The Muslims had, as is the usual case just come from Friday prayers and were fired up to show those uppity Jews just who was in charge.  This is a regular occurrence at the Wall and a sad statement of Israels capitulation to Islamic intimidation, in the name of "peace".

From Arutz Sheva June 13 by Ari Yashar

Muslim Rioters Stone Police on Temple Mount

Twenty masked Muslim rioters on Friday pelted police forces with stones on the Temple Mount. The attack occurred at the Rambam (Mughrabi) Gate, the only point of access for Jewish visitors to the holiest site in Judaism.

The twenty launched their rock barrage at the end of Muslim prayers on Friday.

Police forces broke in through the Gate, pushing the rioters back into the Al-Aqsa Mosque where they took cover.

The situation is currently reported as being under control, with visitors being dispersed from the site.

Muslim violence on the holy site has seen a sharp skyrocketing this week, with police responding each time by blocking Jewish access.

On Sunday, Jewish visitors were removed from the site by police through the Chain Gate on the western side of the Temple Mount, after Muslim rioters threw stones and shoes at them from the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The script repeated itself on Monday, when police removed a Jewish group consisting of a groom and his entourage through the Gate of the Tribes, after Muslim visitors tried to corner them from different sides in a threatening manner.

Then on Tuesday, Muslims visitors to the Temple Mount formed a riotous mob on the inner side of the Rambam Gate, prompting Israeli police to submit to their violent outbursts and ban Jewish entry.

Read it all

Jewish teens in Paris escape jihad attack by four men

While the jihad against France and Jews continues, Obama stays the course with justifying trading 5 jihadists for one possible deserter and neo-Muslim.

It is a world turned upside-down.

From Forward June 8

Jewish Teens Escape Axe Attack Near Paris

Two Jewish teenagers told police they narrowly escaped an attack near Paris by a hatchet-wielding man and three others.

The attack occurred late at night on June 4 in Romainville, a northeastern suburb of the French capital, according to a report by the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA.

The teens, aged 14 and 15, said they were walking to the Lilac Synagogue with their grandfather to attend Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a custom in which Jews study scripture all night. While crossing the town’s Market Square, the two boys and their grandfather, all wearing kippahs, said they were followed by a tall man in his 20s wearing a long beard. They described the man as having an athletic figure and an Arab appearance.

Producing a hatchet, the man began to chase the two boys, according to the BNVCA report, then whistled to three other men who joined the chase. The boys and their grandfather filed complaints with police, BNVCA President Sammy Ghozlan wrote.

Read it all

Jerusalem; 1888

A telling picture of the land of the Jews in the late 19th century.  Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford recounts what life is like in the land of Palestine in 1888.  Islamic hatred and subjugation of Jews and others is claimed to be a recent invention, in reality it has been around and practiced for millenia.  Her stories are more proof of the lies of the "Palestinian" people and their leaders.

From Israel Daily Picture June 9

Life in Palestine 1830-1880 as Described by a Very Unusual Woman, Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford

We never heard of Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford (1855-1917) until we came across several clippings in a New Zealand archive from the 1880s.

She was born in Jerusalem to a Russian family, apparently Jewish, according to historian Ron Bartur. She spoke Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, German, and French. The family converted to Christianity and it appears she later became aMormon. She was a popular actress, missionary, and news correspondent. She traveled to the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand presenting Bible-based plays. She filed news reports on the German Emperor's visit to Jerusalem in 1898, and probably appears in the bottom left of this picture with a reporter's pad in hand.

One of her most interesting articles appeared in theAroha News (New Zealand), October 24, 1888, entitled "PALESTINE FIFTY YEARS AGO AND PALESTINE TODAY." Her observations about life in the Holy Land for Christians and Jews are fascinating, and we present excerpts below in blue:

About fifty years ago, with the exception of some Polish Jewish families, and a few Latin monks, there were no European residents in Jerusalem. At that period the Jews did not contribute either to the civilisation of the inhabitants or the improvement of the city, but adapted themselves to the manners of the people and the exigencies of the place. The monks confined themselves to their daily avocations in the convents, and to the entertainment of wealthy pilgrims and travellers, whose visits, like those of angels, were few and far between.

The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder's fancy. The local Government authorities would occasionally, when in need of funds, levy blackmail to the amount of hundreds of pounds on the Jews and native Christians, threatening them with massacre and plunder in default of payment. Consequently, Jews and native Christians dared to make any display of wealth only at the risk of losing life or property, and often both....

... With the advent of the American and English missionaries came the dawn of a brighter day tor the Holy City, and indeed for the whole country. On account of Moslem fanaticism and prejudice, these messengers of the Gospel, and consequently pioneers of civilisation, were obliged for a certain period of time to adopt the Oriental dress for safety....

Read it all

4 out of 5 released Taliban agree: resume attacks on America

"A top intelligence official told lawmakers in a classified Senate briefing last week that he expected four out of the five Taliban leaders released by the Obama administration to eventually return to the battlefield"

When one of the released jihadists kills or is responsible for the death of an American, will Obama apologize to the American people for the mistake of trading five murderers for one convert to Islam, deserter and as far as this writer is concerned, a traitor.

From The Daily Beast June 9 

4 of ‘Taliban 5’ Will Likely Fight Again, U.S. Spies Say

A top intelligence official told lawmakers in a classified Senate briefing last week that he expected four out of the five Taliban leaders released by the Obama administration to eventually return to the battlefield.

According to a pair of U.S. officials, the briefing from Robert Cardillo, a deputy director of national intelligence, represented the latest community-wide U.S. intelligence assessment on these Taliban Five, completed in 2013.

It also means that President Obama was faced with a particularly excruciating choice as he weighed whether or not to swap these five for American hostage Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The government of Qatar, which agreed to look after the five Taliban leaders as part of the deal for Bergdahl, warned that factions within the Taliban were growing impatient, and campaigning to kill Bergdahl instead of trading him.

5 years with the Taliban and now he is in danger of losing his life?  I have a hard time believing this.

“Time is not on your side,” they told U.S. negotiators, according to two senior defense officials. They described a growing split within Taliban and Haqqani Network (which held Bergdahl) over how to best use the soldier—a split confirmed by multiple Taliban and Afghan sources in the region.

Making matters more desperate for Bergdahl was the fact that in September a CIA drone killed Mullah Sangeen Zadran, the Haqqani Network commander who first captured Bergdahl, a move that could have scuttled any chance at all for a prisoner swap.

It all added up to a painful dilemma for the White House: free Taliban leaders who might return to the fight—or risk losing America’s last service member held abroad. Obama ultimately chose to make the deal, despite his intelligence services’ estimate that four of the five Taliban detainees would ultimately resume their struggle against American allies.

The presidential election of 20216 cannot come soon enough.

Read it all

Iraq: Jihadists take control of Mosul

Despite the "democracy" and the purple fingers, Iraq was destined to slide back into the 7th century once our nation-building was done.  Now that one of the largest cities in Iraq is controlled by  Al-Qaeda, I wonder if Obama will finally admit that his suppression of any talk of Islam as the driving force behind Al-Qaeda has enabled the jihadists to take over Mosul?

...crickets...

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty June 11

Islamic Militants Take Control Of Iraq's Mosul

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is asking parliament to declare a state of emergency after Al-Qaeda-linked militants seized control of one of the largest cities in the country.

State TV said parliament will convene on June 12 to discuss the request.

Fighters believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized key buildings in the northern city of Mosul late on June 9.

Officials said dozens of heavily armed insurgents seized the provincial capital's headquarters, occupied police stations, overran the airport, and freed prisoners from jails.

The governor of the northern province of Nineveh, Athil al-Nujaifi, said the military and police forces abandoned their positions.

Residents were quoted as saying that black flags associated with jihadist groups were flying from buildings and that the militants had announced over loudspeakers that they had come to "liberate"

the city of nearly 2 million people.  

Map of territories in Iraq o

Earlier on June 9, Governor Nujaifi made a televised plea to the city's inhabitants to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked militants who have been regaining ground in Iraq.

Nujaifi escaped Mosul unharmed before the provincial government's headquarters fell.

His brother, parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, called on the Iraqi government and the regional government of Kurdistan to send reinforcements to Mosul. He also said he had asked the U.S. ambassador for help.

"When battles intensified inside the city of Mosul, the [Iraqi] forces abandoned their weapons and the commanders fled, leaving behind weapons and armored vehicles -- their positions were easy prey for terrorists, even the Mosul airport," parliament speaker Nujaifi said in Baghdad.

"Planes and command positions -- all of them have fallen in addition to weapons caches. Also prisons were stormed and criminals have been set free. What happened is a catastrophe by any measure."

Read it all

SCOTUS Kerry says Taliban 5 threat to kill Americans "baloney"

I hear but do not listen

Down the rabbit hole we go, ever deeper into the world of wonderland.

It is as if the real world doesn't exist for the administration.  They are being led by Alice (Kerry/Obama) to a world of...what?  In what universe does any of this make sense?

I believe impeachment proceedings should be started against Obama.  After all, if Clinton can be tried for impeachment because of a small stain on a dress (and ruined cigars...) then Obama and his dilettantes, through their utter contempt and disregard for the safety and liberties of the American people need to be tried in court.

How dare Kerry insult my intelligence by assuming I won't think for myself.

From the Bangor Daily News June 9 by David Lerman and Greg Giroux

Kerry calls threats of swapped Taliban prisoners to resume war ‘a lot of baloney’

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said threats by the five freed Taliban prisoners swapped for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl to return to war and kill Americans are “a lot of baloney.”

Defending the swap that secured the release of the last American prisoner of war in Afghanistan, Kerry said the movements of the five Taliban prisoners released to Qatar will be closely monitored.

“No one should doubt the capacity of America to protect Americans,” Kerry said from France in a taped interview for CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday.

Except in the cases of Benghazi, Beirut, NYC, Boston, Texas, Afghanistan...

Bergdahl, held captive for almost five years, was released May 31 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held by the U.S. at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. The deal requires that the five men remain in Qatar for at least a year.

“They’re not the only ones keeping an eye on them,” Kerry said of the Qataris, while declining to elaborate.

“We have proven what we are capable of doing with al-Qaida,” he said.

And Al-Qaeda has proven, time and again what they are capable of doing to the West.

The threats by the Taliban prisoners to resume fighting in Afghanistan and kill Americans amount to propaganda, Kerry said. “They’ll say whatever they want to stir the waters,” he said.

With the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan coming to an end and most troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2016, opportunities for Taliban to kidnap Americans will dwindle, Kerry said.

Is Kerry implying that until the end of 2016, opportunities to kidnap Americans will increase?

Whether or not Bergdahl deserted his post in eastern Afghanistan, as some of his former fellow soldiers claim, “it would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind,” Kerry said. 

No context of what would, or should have occurred if indeed Bergdahl is a deserter and walked away from his combat unit.  Reports that he went looking for the Taliban, converted to Islam and statements that he was ashamed to be an American would be grounds to ignore the sentiment of no soldier left behind.  I see nothing offensive or incomprehensible in leaving Bergdahl where he was, at least in this mans humble opinion.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and former Vietnam prisoner of war, criticized the deal on the same program.  The five Taliban prisoners “were evaluated and judged as too great a risk to release,” McCain said.

“I’m sad to tell you I’m afraid they’re going to re-enter the fight,” he said.

Thank you Captain Obvious.  Now if someone could only convince Obama that this decision was the worst thing he could have done to the country, and for the good of the people he needs to resign now.

Read it all

Released Taliban jihadist vows to never blow up an infidel again...wait, what?

Well, at least for a year, according to the conditions of his release/swap.  I imagine on the first day of the second year he will have laid plans and on that day will have them put into action.  Not to worry, Obama and Hagel have told us that the five will be monitored to assure their non-jihad ways.

No explanation as to how this will be accomplished was forthcoming.

From NBC June 6 by Mushtaq Yusufzai

Freed Taliban Commander Tells Relative He'll Fight Americans Again

SHAWAR, Pakistan - One of the five Taliban leaders freed from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release has pledged to return to fight Americans in Afghanistan, according to a fellow militant and a relative.

"After arriving in Qatar, Noorullah Noori kept insisting he would go to Afghanistan and fight American forces there,” a Taliban commander told NBC News via telephone from Afghanistan.

Noori pushed to return to Afghanistan after learning that the U.S. had provided written assurances that no country would arrest any of the five freed for a year as long as they lived peacefully, one of his relatives told NBC News by telephone from Afghanistan.

Under the terms of the deal, the former commanders would remain under the control of the government of Qatar for one year and be subject to “restrictions on their movement and activities," a senior U.S. official has told NBC News –- including a one-year travel ban. A diplomatic source later told NBC News thattheir movements within the Arab emirate are not restricted.

The news comes amid a fierce debate on Capitol Hill over whether the Obama administration should have traded Bergdahl for the five commanders held at Guantanamo. Former members of Bergdahl’s platoon have described him as a deserter who walked away from his outpost.

Among the Taliban, the commanders’ release was treated as a victory.

"We thought we may not see them again as once you land in the hands of Americans, it's difficult to come out alive,” Noori’s relative said. “But it was a miracle that Allah Almighty gave us Bergdahl and we got back our heroes.”

All of the five -- Mohammad Fazl, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Noori – were suffering from bad health after their imprisonment and currently being treated in a hospital in Qatar, the relative added.

A senior Taliban commander in the Pakistani city of Quetta said that 12 years of incarceration had also caused some psychological problems for Noori and Fazl.

Noori's relative admitted he was having some health issues, but denied he was suffering from any mental disorders.

No mental health issues?  Western Islamic apologists routinely tell us jihadist like the Taliban are radical extremists who are crazy and misunderstand the peaceful nature of Islam, so Noori must be a true practitioner of the real Islam.

Read it all

Taliban says after swap; more kidnappings to come

Obama said the released Taliban jihadists were "absolutely" a threat to America yesterday, and today we have confirmation.  How the man sleeps at night is beyond me.

From TIME June 5 by Aryn Baker


Taliban Commander: More Kidnappings to Come After Bergdahl Deal

A Taliban commander close to the negotiations over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told TIME Thursday that the deal made to secure Bergdahl’s release has made it more appealing for fighters to capture American soldiers and other high-value targets.

“It’s better to kidnap one person like Bergdahl than kidnapping hundreds of useless people,” the commander said, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “It has encouraged our people. Now everybody will work hard to capture such an important bird.”

The commander has been known to TIME for several years and has consistently supplied reliable information about Bergdahl’s captivity.

The U.S. agreed on May 31 to exchange five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for Bergdahl, America’s only living prisoner of war. Following the deal, the outpouring of relief by those who had long lobbied to “Bring Bowe Home” was soon eclipsed by accusations and recriminations as Republican lawmakers accused the administration of making a dangerous precedent.

“What does this tell terrorists?,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said on ABC’s This Week the day after Bergdahl’s release. “That if you capture a U.S. soldier, you can trade that soldier for five terrorist prisoners?”

Indeed.

Exclusive Report: Bergdahl converted to Islam, calls himself a Mujahid

I recommend this article is taken with a grain of salt; we know nothing of the original source nor any bias or agenda of the reports.  However, if these reports are true then it is obvious to me that Obama should be tried for treason.

The more information that comes out, the less likely it is that Bergdahl is just an innocent American soldier kidnapped by the Taliban after falling behind while on patrol.

From FoxNews June 5 by James Rosen

EXCLUSIVE: Bergdahl declared jihad in captivity, secret documents show

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a "mujahid," or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News.

The reports indicate that Bergdahl's relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, "he became much more of an accepted fellow" than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.

The documents show that Bergdahl at one point escaped his captors for five days and was kept, upon his re-capture, in a metal cage, like an animal. In addition, the reports detail discussions of prisoner swaps and other attempts at a negotiated resolution to the case that appear to have commenced as early as the fall of 2009.

The reports are rich in on-the-ground detail -- including the names and locations of the Haqqani commanders who ran the 200-man rotation used to guard the Idaho native -- and present the most detailed view yet of what Bergdahl's life over the past five years has been like. These real-time dispatches were generated by the Eclipse Group, a shadowy private firm of former intelligence officers and operatives that has subcontracted with the Defense Department and prominent corporations to deliver granular intelligence on terrorist activities and other security-related topics, often from challenging environments in far-flung corners of the globe.

The group is run by Duane R. ("Dewey") Clarridge, a former senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1980s best known for having been indicted for lying to Congress about his role in the tangled set of events that became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992 while on trial.

Clarridge counts a number of achievements in his spy career as well, including a prominent role in the establishment of a national counterrorism center at CIA, a move widely copied around the world by foreign intelligence agencies. A New York Times profile of Clarridge published in January 2011 disclosed the contractual relationship Eclipse had with the Pentagon, through subcontractors, and reported further that Clarridge's activities had included efforts to help find Bergdahl.

Clarridge told Fox News his group enjoyed a subcontract through the assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict from November 2009 through May 31, 2010, and that after the contract was terminated, he invested some $50,000 of his own money to maintain the elaborate network of informants and handlers that had yielded such detailed accounts of Bergdahl's status.

Clarridge further told Fox News that by the end of 2010, he had furnished at least 13 of these detailed SITREPs, or situation reports, that his network generated about Bergdahl to Brig. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr., who in April 2010 was named director of intelligence, at the J-2 level, at U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

Clarridge said Eclipse SITREP # 3023, dated Aug. 23, 2012 -- in which a member of the Haqqani network, said to be close to Bergdahl's captors, reported that the American prisoner had declared himself a "mujahid" -- was among the reports provided to Ashley.

The latter is now commanding general at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, where a message left with the public affairs office was not immediately returned.

The documents obtained by Fox News show that Eclipse developed and transmitted numerous status reports on the whereabouts of the errant American soldier, spanning a period from October 2009, roughly three months after Bergdahl reportedly walked off his base in Afghanistan and fell into custody of the Haqqani network, up through August 2012.

There is much more, read it all

March against Islamophobia in Texas

Oh the humanity!  Less than 100 showed up to sympathize with local Muslims to denounce discrimination and the blight of "Islamophobia".

I find it interesting that throughout the article it is assumed that the acts of discrimination are against Muslims, and that it is purely an anti-Muslim bias.  To be against jihad, the sharia and Islamic doctrine is not being against Muslims, but it is easier to demonize with a broad brush that to address the real problems Islam has.

Maybe the bacon in the drink was a bit too far, but the victimization is there for all to see.

From the Dallas News May 31 by Hannah DeClerk

Muslim activists walk in Dallas to raise awareness

More than a decade after the 9/11 attacks inspired widespread animosity toward the Islamic faith, many Muslims say they continue to experience bias, hate and misunderstanding.

On Saturday, a group of about 80 Muslim activists gathered at Reverchon Park in Dallas’ Oak Lawn area for a walk to raise awareness about the issue.

Walk Against Islamophobia was hosted by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a group of young Muslim activists called Enlightened Generations.

Yvonne Munoz, a lawyer with a Christian upbringing, converted to Islam in 2008. Proudly wearing a black head scarf, she said she regularly said she faces discrimination at work.

“I deal with Islamophobia on a regular basis with clients all the time,” Munoz said. “Automatically my clients will not want to meet with me and want somebody else. Once they meet with me and find that I am kind and helpful and ... they change their idea.”

Munoz took part in the walk with the group American Muslim Professionals.

Although the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists loyal to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, some people associate all Muslims with terrorism. Munoz and others hope events like Saturday’s walk might help break that connection in people’s minds.

“Islam brought peace in my life,” Munoz said. “I was able to put myself through a lot of struggles I would not have been able to do if I didn’t find a peace.”

Before the walk began, participants heard speakers share personal experiences of discrimination. One speaker, Dallas activist Nicole Queen, said that during a recent lunch with a friend, someone put bacon in her drink as a joke.

“They were hoping I would slurp it or eat something I am not supposed to eat,” Queen said. “I did not have anything like that happen before until I chose to be a Muslim. It was eye-opening to me,” Queen said.

Wes Magruder, senior pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, said he began advocating for Muslim rights after attending an anti-Muslim rally in downtown Dallas.

“I went to the rally, and I have to say I was absolutely shocked,” Magruder said. “I was not prepared for what I heard or what I saw. I heard and I saw the reality our Muslim brothers and sisters live with all the time.”

I don't know if Magruder is aware of the genocide against Christians in places like Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria and other jihad hotspots, but if he is I would ask if he denounces these acts of religious murder as strident as he denounces the false narrative called "Islamophobia"?

Read it all

Online book now available free!

My first book, "From the Mouths of our Enemies" is now available online for free at issuu.com.  Just type in the name of the book in the searchbar and there you go...perfect reading in the dead of night when all is quiet and cold.  Scroll down to the book, there is no cover or picture, you will see the content page.  Click on it and viola!

Thank you all for your support over all these years.

http://issuu.com/search?q=From+the+Mouths+of+our+Enemies

Trading Private Bergdahl

From the minds at Mad Magazine

http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2014/06/03/barack-obamas-unfortunate-new-movie

Bergdahl tried to contact the Taliban, says Army team leader

"Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban"

Traitors need to be shot.  If Obama didn't know then we have a serious chain of command problem.  If Obama knew, he too should be tried as a traitor.  This is unacceptable in America, yet here we are, in the middle of something with a very real chance of tearing our society apart.  

The country I grew up with is gone, replaced with a dithering, nonsensical, dangerously misled and deliberately ignorant government that threatens the peace and security of the world.  This is not my fathers United States.

From CNN June 3 by Jake Tapper

Bergdahl's team leader: Intercepted radio chatter said he sought talks with the Taliban

(CNN) - Former Army Sgt. Evan Buetow was the team leader with Bowe Bergdahlthe night Bergdahl disappeared.

"Bergdahl is a deserter, and he's not a hero," says Buetow. "He needs to answer for what he did."

Within days of his disappearance, says Buetow, teams monitoring radio chatter and cell phone communications intercepted an alarming message: The American is in Yahya Khel (a village two miles away). He's looking for someone who speaks English so he can talk to the Taliban.

"I heard it straight from the interpreter's lips as he heard it over the radio," said Buetow. "There's a lot more to this story than a soldier walking away."

The Army will review the case of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "in a comprehensive, coordinated effort," Secretary of the Army John McHugh said Tuesday.

The review will include speaking with Bergdahl "to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity," he said.

The night Bergdahl disappeared, says Buetow, the platoon was at a small outpost, consisting of two bunkers and a perimeter of military trucks. Buetow was in one of the bunkers, and Bergdahl was supposed to be in a tent by one of the trucks.

Then a call came through on the radio.

"I'll never forget that line, 'Has anyone seen Bergdahl?'" says Buetow.

Firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon say Bergdahl disappeared while he was on guard duty.

Buetow says Bergdahl was about to go on guard duty, but when a fellow soldier went to wake him, he was not in his tent. He had left behind his weapons, his bullet-proof vest, and night vision gear.

"I immediately knew, I said, 'He walked away. He walked away,'" said Buetow.

Bergdahl walked off the observation post with nothing more than a compass, a knife, water, a digital camera and a diary, according to firsthand accounts from soldiers in his platoon.

Buetow was involved in the immediate search for Bergdahl, pushing a patrol into a nearby local village.

"Immediately as we left the base, two small boys walked up to us, and they told us that they saw an American crawling in the weeds by himself," said the former Army sergeant. The search followed that lead, and others, for months.

"For 60 days or more, I remember, just straight, all we did was search for Bergdahl," said Buetow, "essentially chasing a ghost because we never came up with anything."

At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for him, according to soldiers involved in those operations.

The Pentagon was not able to provide details on specific operations in which any soldiers were killed during that time were involved.

Read it all

Suprise! Taliban leader Mullah Omar calls release of Gitmo detainees "Victory"

"I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire Afghan Muslim nation"

Mullah Omar on the release of 5 Taliban leaders.

From the BBC June 1 by David Loyn

 

Taliban's Mullah Omar celebrates prisoner-swap 'victory'

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a rare public statement hailing the exchange of five Guantanamo Bay detainees for a Taliban-held US soldier as a "big victory".

Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, 28, was handed to US forces in Afghanistan on Saturday.

The White House has defended the swap amid criticism from Republicans who said the deal was soft on terrorism.

Sgt Bergdahl's parents said their son's recovery would take a long time, in an emotional address on Sunday.

They said they had not yet spoken to the soldier, who is in a good condition and currently undergoing medical care at a US military hospital in Germany.

"Bowe's been gone for so long that it's going to be difficult to come back," his father, Robert Bergdahl, told journalists at a news briefing in Idaho, the family's home state.

Jani and Bob Bergdahl spoke of their love and pride for their son, Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, and said he would need time to ''decompress''

"It's like a diver going deep on a dive and [having] to stage back up through decompression to get the nitrogen bubbles out of his system. If he comes up too fast, it could kill him."

The parents earlier revealed that Sgt Bergdahl had trouble speaking English. He was the only US soldier being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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Nigerian update...as if anyone cares since it is not about the kidnapped girls

Dozens have been murdered yet there is nary a peep, especially from those who roundly condemned Boko Haram for their brutal kidnapping and enslavement of innocent teenage girls.  The elite protest against the Sultan of Brunai over his instituting of the sharia law but now, the gleam is off the apple and there will be no more "righteous indignation" from the left...or the right.  Life returns to normal and there will be no more talk of death, or Islam, or subjugated girls.

Carry on, nothing to see here now...

From The Times of Israel June 2 by Ibrahim Abdulaziz

Dozens feared dead in Nigeria blast

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Dozens of people were feared dead following an explosion on Sunday evening in northeastern Nigeria, with Boko Haram militants believed to be behind the attack, officials said.

The attack took place near a primary school where there are also a number of beer halls in the town of Mubi in Adamawa state, one of the three states under a year-old emergency rule imposed by President Goodluck Jonathan to fight Boko Haram, which seeks to impose Islamic rule in Nigeria.

Othman Abubakar, a spokesman for the Adamawa state police, confirmed the explosion but he couldn’t say how many people had been killed or injured.

David Dauda, who witnessed the blast, said he saw at least 30 bodies following the explosion.

“The blast occurred shortly after people are dispersing from a football playing ground. People gathered there to watch a football competition and just few minutes after soldiers patrol vehicle left the place then we heard a blast,” Dauda said.

The explosion occurred at around 6:45 p.m. local time when many people were headed home to make a 7:00 p.m. curfew imposed in the wake of earlier attacks.

Nigeria’s northeastern region has suffered five years of increasingly deadly assaults by Boko Haram, whose fighters have targeted towns and villages in a string of bomb and gun attacks.

At least 2,000 civilians have been killed in such attacks this year alone.

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"the soldier’s father, Bob Bergdahl, recited the most frequent phrase in the Koran — “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” —which means “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

At which point Obama hugged him.

We are doomed.

From The Daily Caller June 1 by Neal Munro

Obama Submits To Taliban Demands, Allows Praise For Allah

President Barack Obama apparently traded five jailed jihadis held in Guantanamo for one American soldier, despite federal law, which requires Congress to be notified before prisoners are transferred.

Obama used a Rose Garden press event to tout the surprise trade — which he won by making critical, last-minute concessions — while the parents of the freed soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, stood alongside.

At the end of the brief event, the soldier’s father, Bob Bergdahl, recited the most frequent phrase in the Koran — “Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim” —which means “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate.”

After Bergdahl finished his statement and his praise for Allah, Obama hugged him.

The Taliban echoed Bergdahl, saying the trade happened “due to the benevolence of Allah Almighty and the sacrifices of the heroic and courageous Mujahidin of the Islamic Emirate.”

The United States intervened in Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the Taliban’s Islamic theocracy, which sheltered al Qaida’s jihadis during their preparation for the 9/11 atrocity and afterwards.

The al Qaida jihadis who killed 3,000 Americans justified their attack as an Islamically-approved jihad against “crusaders” said to be invading Islamic-controlled territory.

However, Obama has repeatedly argued that al Qaida are “extremists” — not Islamists. He has redefined the campaign as only a war against al Qaida — not the Taliban — and has repeatedly announced he intends to end the campaign, regardless of the consequences.

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Bergdahl the Jihadist?

The Stockholm Syndrome came to mind after reading the articles below, but I am more inclined to believe that he had Islamic leanings long before his "kidnapping" in 2008.  His father had converted to Islam as early as 2002 and there is very good evidence that Bergdahl may have been "...an active collaborator with the enemy"  Now the question becomes; what did Obama know and when did he know it?  Did we trade five jihadists for one jihadist?  

The articles below chronicle what we know so far, it appears that Bergdahl is not an innocent victim in all this but likely a willing participant.

From The Daily Beast June 2 by Nathan Bradley Bethea

We Lost Soldiers in the Hunt for Bergdahl, a Guy Who Walked Off in the Dead of Night

It was June 30, 2009, and I was in the city of Sharana, the capitol of Paktika province in Afghanistan. As I stepped out of a decrepit office building into a perfect sunny day, a member of my team started talking into his radio. “Say that again,” he said. “There’s an American soldier missing?”

There was. His name was Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, the only prisoner of war in the Afghan theater of operations. His release from Taliban custody on May 31 marks the end of a nearly five-year-old story for the soldiers of his unit, the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

On the night prior to his capture, Bergdahl pulled guard duty at OP Mest, a small outpost about two hours south of the provincial capitol. The base resembled a wagon circle of armored vehicles with some razor wire strung around them. A guard tower sat high up on a nearby hill, but the outpost itself was no fortress. Besides the tower, the only hard structure that I saw in July 2009 was a plywood shed filled with bottled water. Soldiers either slept in poncho tents or inside their vehicles.

The next morning, Bergdahl failed to show for the morning roll call. The soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Blackfoot Company discovered his rifle, helmet, body armor and web gear in a neat stack. He had, however, taken his compass. His fellow soldiers later mentioned his stated desire to walk from Afghanistan to India.

The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey later wrote that "[w]hether Bergdahl…just walked away from his base or was lagging behind on a patrol at the time of his capture remains an open and fiercely debated question.” Not to me and the members of my unit. Make no mistake: Bergdahl did not "lag behind on a patrol,” as was cited in news reports at the time. There was no patrol that night. Bergdahl was relieved from guard duty, and instead of going to sleep, he fled the outpost on foot. He deserted. I’ve talked to members of Bergdahl’s platoon—including the last Americans to see him before his capture. I’ve reviewed the relevant documents. That’s what happened.

Then there is this from the New York Post May 31 by Michael Gartland

The bizarre tale of America’s last known POW

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last known American POW, was freed after five years in captivity — an ordeal that began and ended in Afghanistan under a shroud of mystery.

The Taliban turned over Bergdahl Saturday morning to US special forces in exchange for five notorious Islamic militants who had been held at Guantanamo Bay and will be sent to Qatar, where they will stay for a year under the terms of the trade.

At least one of the prisoners, ranking Taliban leader Khairullah Khairkhwa, had direct ties to Osama bin Laden.

Bergdahl was picked up by helicopter in western Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.

After climbing aboard, the 28-year-old Idahoan, trying to communicate with his rescuers over the roar of the rotors, scrawled “SF?” on a paper plate — asking his rescuers whether they were special forces.

“Yes,” one of the men shouted. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

The Army infantryman — himself nicknamed “SF” by his comrades for his gung-ho interest in special-forces tactics — began to weep.

Bergdahl’s parents, who had lobbied continuously for his ­release, had not seen him by Saturday night, but intimated that he faces an arduous recovery from his ordeal.

(.) But in the weeks before his capture, Bergdahl had made murky statements that suggested he was gravitating away from the soldiers in his unit and toward ­desertion, a member of his platoon told Rolling Stone.

“He spent more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon,” former Spc. Jason Fry told the magazine in 2012.

From Breitbart June 2 by Charlie Spiering

FORMER OFFICER: SOLDIERS WERE 'THREATENED' IF THEY QUESTIONED BERGDAHL STORY
A former U.S. officer who served in Afghanistan with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl claims that soldiers were threatened by U.S. authorities if they questioned his story.

After he was captured, Bergdahl said on a video from his captors that he lagged behind on patrol, although other sources in the military suggested anonymously that he walked away from his post.

“Not only has this nebulous non-story been put out for years but you know these soldiers of 4th Brigade 25th Infantry Division were threatened with legal repercussions if they spoke about Bergdahl. Everybody officially mandated silencing of what we saw has been so frustrating,” Bethea explained on BBC World Service Radio today.

(.) Bethea explained that now he was safe, more soldiers would be trying to tell the truth of his disappearance.

BBC interviewed Bethea after he wrote an article for the Daily Beast, asserting that Bergdahl was a deserter.

“He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth,” he wrote. “And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.”

Bethea admitted that it would probably be unlikely that Bergdahl would face a court martial, because it would cast doubt on the deal the United States made with the Taliban to secure his release.

“I would at least like to see an official statement on what happened,” he said, referring to the Department of Defense.

Bergdahl is currently at an American military hospital in Germany, where he is being evaluated.

And from FoxNews June 2 by James Rosen

Sources: Intelligence community investigated Bergdahl’s conduct

A senior official confirms to Fox News that the conduct of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl -- both in his final stretch of active duty in Afghanistan and then, too, during his time when he lived among the Taliban -- has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. intelligence community and is the subject of "a major classified file."

In conveying as much, the Defense Department source confirmed to Fox News that many within the intelligence community harbor serious outstanding concerns not only that Bergdahl may have been a deserter but that he may have been an active collaborator with the enemy.

The Pentagon official added pointedly that no relevant congressional committee has sought access to the classified file, but that if such a request were made, key committee chairs would, under previous precedent, likely be granted access to it. Separately, the Pentagon confirmed Monday that it is looking into claims Americans died during the search for Bergdahl.

The administration announced over the weekend that Bergdahl's release had been secured, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. President Obama was joined by the soldier's parents in making a public statement on the release Saturday evening from the Rose Garden.

Sources told Fox News that many officials in the Executive Branch are "quite baffled" by the White House's decision to allow the president to stand alongside Bergdahl's father this past weekend, given the father's history of controversial statements, emails and online posts.

Asked Monday about reports that Bergdahl's father was communicating on Twitter with a man described as a Taliban spokesman, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on those reports but defended the administration's handling of the release.

"The fact is they are the parents of Sergeant Bergdahl. Their son was held in captivity for five years," he said. "And it was absolutely the right thing to do, for the commander in chief, for this administration to take action to secure his release, the last prisoner of war from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars."

Read the full articles at the linked sources