Category: Terror War

Thousands of refugees have flowed into Southern and Eastern Europe in the last few weeks. Many are fleeing the civil war in Syria. Although Lebanon and Jordan have shouldered some of the burden of refugees, other countries in the region have turned their backs, preferring the war aspect with no sense of responsibility for the victims of the war.

The media loves to show pictures of the refugees, but mostly they focus on the women and children making their way north. However, the videos of the crowds show that the majority of them are actually military-age males. Males who should be solving the problems in their respective countries rather than fleeing from those problems.

There are reports that ISIS has vowed to take advantage of the refugee crisis to infiltrate Europe and their current “open border” policies.

In addition, Europe already has an economic crisis and they’re hardly prepared for this new burden on their economies. Nor are they prepared for the security concerns and thousands of military age men who will eventually become frustrated by the way Europe will handle this crisis, because nothing good ever happens soon enough for refugees. Especially for this crowd coming from the perpetually outraged Middle East.

Europe would be better off convincing the Saudis and their neighbors, the Gulf states, to pick up their end of the rope. But, fat chance. They’ve never lifted a finger to do anything to alleviate the problems of Palestinian refugees, so it’s not likely that they do anything for this latest bunch. Still, in the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in regards to the treatment of the refugees, “the world is watching”, so why isn’t the “world watching” the Arabs?

According to Fox News, four US troops and two others were wounded by two IEDs last week as part of the Multinational Force and Observer mission in the Sinai. The Multinational Force and Observer mission is charged with keeping Egypt and Israel separated according to the Camp David accords of 1978.

No group has taken responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State has a well-known and active faction in the region, posing a complex security challenge for the peacekeeping force that has been there for decades. While much attention has been paid to the deployment of American troops back to Iraq to help fight ISIS, Americans make up the biggest component of the little-known international mission to Sinai — in place since after the signing of the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty. The roughly 1,700-strong force includes 650 American soldiers.

But with an ISIS offshoot flexing its muscle there, analysts warn they are hardly equipped to defend themselves against major attacks.

You guys probably know more about the MFO than me, but as far as I know, the mission has been left largely untouched by world events until now. Egypt was scared of Israel and Israel was glad Egypt was scared. But, ya know those ISIS guys love every chance they get to kill American troops. I guess that means that they’re going to have to dig into those overseas contingency operation funds one again to beef up security for the MFO guys.

According to Fox News, defense officials have instructed troops to reacquaint themselves with the chemical defense techniques from the Cold War days given reports that ISIS has acquired chemical weapons and shown a propensity for the use of those weapons.

During a briefing Thursday, the Pentagon would not publicly confirm the order but reassured reporters that the military is prepared to handle a chemical attack by ISIS.

“The commanders in the field are making sure their troops are adequately prepared for the threats they may face,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said when asked about the new preparations.

Defense officials recently confirmed that a “mustard agent” was used by ISIS against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in a mortar attack on Aug. 11 in the northern Iraqi city of Makhmur, located southwest of Erbil.

I wonder where they got chemical weapons from. The Fox article mentions three other incidents of ISIS using chemicals against the Kurds. I guess that’s a tradition that Hussein started, shooting chemical weapons at Kurds.

Also, the Pentagon says that they’re investigating whether or not the Russians have deployed troops to Syria to assist their client Assad, according to AFP;

The comments come after images appeared on a social media account linked to Syrian fighters purporting to show Russian aircraft and drones near Idlib province.

Unconfirmed reports suggested the aircraft may have included a Russian Sukhoi 34 advanced strike fighter, which Syria is not thought to own.

A US official confirmed that “Russia has asked for clearances for military flight to Syria,” but added “we don’t know what their goals are.”

“Evidence has been inconclusive so far as to what this activity is.”

Other reports have suggested Russia has targeted Islamic State group militants, who have attacked forces loyal to Russian-backed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Yeah, it’s all quite a mess.

The folks at France24 send us a trailer for their report “Inside Operation Barkhane” which is scheduled for broadcast tomorrow Saturday night at about 7PM. It’s about some reporters who embedded themselves with French anti-terrorist operations in Northern Africa where there are 5,000 French troops engaged with terrorist elements in five countries.

The press release also says that the video will be available at their website.

The New York Times reports that the Department of Defense Inspector General Office is investigating complaints from at least one civilian Defense Intelligence Agency analyst that military officials provided overly-optimistic intelligence reports to policy-makers about the effect of military operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria;

Fuller details of the claims were not clear, including when the assessments were said to have been altered and who at Central Command the analyst said was responsible. The officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity about classified matters, said that the recently opened investigation focused on whether military officials had changed the conclusions of draft intelligence assessments during a review process and then passed them on.

The prospect of skewed intelligence raises new questions about the direction of the government’s war with the Islamic State, and could help explain why pronouncements about the progress of the campaign have varied widely.

This is not my surprised face. The Pentagon has been firing every officer who told them the truth, so, the word has gone out that anyone who gives the White House any information that might indicate that the emperor has no clothes is in danger of losing their jobs. I’m pretty sure that the practice won’t end just because of an IG inquiry.

The Associated Press reports that Ahmed al-Mughassil, reputed mastermind of the June 25, 1996, bombing at Khobar Towers US military housing in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Beirut and transferred to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;

Al-Mughassil, also known as Abu Omran, is one of 13 people named in a 2001 indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, in connection with the bombing. Charges include murder of federal employees and bombing resulting in death. None of the 13 has yet been brought to court to face charges, according to court documents.

[…]

A U.S. federal grand jury indictment named 13 Saudis and one Lebanese man in connection with the bombing, saying they were part of the Saudi Hezbollah extremist group. That group was founded by members of the desert kingdom’s Shiite minority who fled into exile in the 1980s to escape what they said was persecution by the kingdom’s Sunni majority.

The eight story Khobar Towers building was home to the United States Air Force personnel from the 4404th Wing (Provisional) who were performing search and rescue support. 19 were killed and nearly 500 were injured in the attack. The attack has been blamed on Saudi terrorists, al Qaeda and Iran depending on which indictment you want to read, but ultimately, it was a failure of the US government to learn the lessons of the 1983 Beirut bombing.