Donald Trump has accused President Obama and Hillary Clinton of being the “co-founders of Daesh” on three separate occasions eliciting questions about his sanity. He has since backtracked saying he was being sarcastic, an excuse he has offered many times when faced with a backlash over some of his most ridiculous statements.
That said the Obama administration has given its backing to numerous militias in both Syria and Iraq whose brutal actions belie their “moderate” tag and, according to the Washington Times, “the State Department approved a weapons shipment from a California company to Libyans seeking to oust Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, even though a United Nations arms ban was in place . . .”
Moreover, Julian Assange says WikiLeaks has over 1,700 emails proving that Clinton was aware that weapons transferred to Syria via the CIA’s Benghazi base may have reached the hands of Daesh fighters, which contradicts the then Secretary of State’s testimony before Congress. Sen. Rand Paul wants her imprisoned for lying under oath.
In Iraq, US Special Forces and Marines have partnered with Iraqi-government to support pro-Iranian militias to assist in ousting Daesh from key Iraqi cities such as Mosul, including those involved in bitter fights against US troops following the 2002 invasion.
But not all Iraqi Shiites are grateful. The influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr is angry at seeing US military personnel back on his country’s soil, considering their presence as a second US occupation force. “They will be our target,” he has warned.
Obama and Clinton also interfered in Egypt; firstly supporting the toppling of Hosni Mubarak and subsequently blessing the rule by the Muslim Brotherhood with which alleged deals were struck. The White House fought tooth and nail to keep Mursi in power against the will of over 30 million Egyptians and subsequently punished the country by withholding aid and deliveries of F16s and Apache helicopters. The then US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, reportedly told Mursi not to worry because the US holds the key—a key that turned out to be rusty.
At one time, several pro-Brotherhood figures were employed in top-level positions within the administration. It’s also well-known that Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, has generational ties to the Brotherhood, while former Brotherhood spokesman Gehad Al-Haddad was a former Clinton Foundation employee.
The policy of supporting the Brotherhood is set out in Presidential Study Directive-11, according to those who’ve had sight of it, but efforts under the Freedom of Information Act to divulge its contents have been blocked.
Obama and the State Department have been widely criticized by numerous Republican senators for their continuing relationship with Brotherhood leaders, who, until recently, received a welcome mat notwithstanding the organization has been banned as terrorist by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, among others.
Last year, a bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz requesting the State Department to report to Congress as to whether the Brotherhood has met the criteria to be designated terrorist and, if not, to outline which criteria hasn’t been met. Since May this year, the bill appears to have stalled.
Britain’s former prime minister commissioned a probe of the Muslim Brotherhood’s origins, ideology and activities in the UK only to delay its findings. The report was damning accusing the Brotherhood of supporting a proscribed terrorist group, carrying out clandestine activities and being contrary to the UK’s values, national interests and national security.
The UK was warned by the Brotherhood’s UK leadership not to brand the organization terrorist at pain of potential attacks—and David Cameron clearly heeded that threat.
Shockingly, we now hear that the new government is actually inviting Brotherhood leading lights, activists and propagandists to apply for asylum in the UK! Given the report, not to mention the fact that one of the main motivation for those who voted for Britain’s exit from the EU was to curtail immigration, this new Home Office memo is mindboggling.
The country has only agreed to take-in a token number of Syrian refugees fleeing war and is out to reduce the numbers of Europeans who’ve made Britain their home, yet is virtually telling the Muslim Brotherhood, ‘Come here! Our door is open for you.’
The reason behind this strange invitation remains opaque. Senior Brotherhood members get the VIP treatment in certain regional states and, as far as I’m aware, they aren’t risking their lives in dinghies attempting to cross the Mediterranean or sleeping rough hoping for EU countries to open their border crossings.
This is another British poke in Cairo’s eye following Cameron’s curtailment of flights to Sharm El- Sheikh that started the ball rolling with many other countries following suit even though other countries that have lost passenger planes and/or suffered terrorist attacks on their airports or city centers get tea and sympathy. Was this an attempt to bring Egypt to its economic knees in order to bring it under Western control I wonder?
Neither Obama nor Ms. Clinton founded Daesh, but there’s no doubt they’ve cemented dodgy alliances, while Britain has evolved into an extremists’ haven where Daesh’s black flags are seen fluttering freely.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Cementing dodgy alliances
Posted on August 17, 2016 by Linda S. Heard
Donald Trump has accused President Obama and Hillary Clinton of being the “co-founders of Daesh” on three separate occasions eliciting questions about his sanity. He has since backtracked saying he was being sarcastic, an excuse he has offered many times when faced with a backlash over some of his most ridiculous statements.
That said the Obama administration has given its backing to numerous militias in both Syria and Iraq whose brutal actions belie their “moderate” tag and, according to the Washington Times, “the State Department approved a weapons shipment from a California company to Libyans seeking to oust Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, even though a United Nations arms ban was in place . . .”
Moreover, Julian Assange says WikiLeaks has over 1,700 emails proving that Clinton was aware that weapons transferred to Syria via the CIA’s Benghazi base may have reached the hands of Daesh fighters, which contradicts the then Secretary of State’s testimony before Congress. Sen. Rand Paul wants her imprisoned for lying under oath.
In Iraq, US Special Forces and Marines have partnered with Iraqi-government to support pro-Iranian militias to assist in ousting Daesh from key Iraqi cities such as Mosul, including those involved in bitter fights against US troops following the 2002 invasion.
But not all Iraqi Shiites are grateful. The influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr is angry at seeing US military personnel back on his country’s soil, considering their presence as a second US occupation force. “They will be our target,” he has warned.
Obama and Clinton also interfered in Egypt; firstly supporting the toppling of Hosni Mubarak and subsequently blessing the rule by the Muslim Brotherhood with which alleged deals were struck. The White House fought tooth and nail to keep Mursi in power against the will of over 30 million Egyptians and subsequently punished the country by withholding aid and deliveries of F16s and Apache helicopters. The then US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, reportedly told Mursi not to worry because the US holds the key—a key that turned out to be rusty.
At one time, several pro-Brotherhood figures were employed in top-level positions within the administration. It’s also well-known that Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, has generational ties to the Brotherhood, while former Brotherhood spokesman Gehad Al-Haddad was a former Clinton Foundation employee.
The policy of supporting the Brotherhood is set out in Presidential Study Directive-11, according to those who’ve had sight of it, but efforts under the Freedom of Information Act to divulge its contents have been blocked.
Obama and the State Department have been widely criticized by numerous Republican senators for their continuing relationship with Brotherhood leaders, who, until recently, received a welcome mat notwithstanding the organization has been banned as terrorist by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, among others.
Last year, a bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz requesting the State Department to report to Congress as to whether the Brotherhood has met the criteria to be designated terrorist and, if not, to outline which criteria hasn’t been met. Since May this year, the bill appears to have stalled.
Britain’s former prime minister commissioned a probe of the Muslim Brotherhood’s origins, ideology and activities in the UK only to delay its findings. The report was damning accusing the Brotherhood of supporting a proscribed terrorist group, carrying out clandestine activities and being contrary to the UK’s values, national interests and national security.
The UK was warned by the Brotherhood’s UK leadership not to brand the organization terrorist at pain of potential attacks—and David Cameron clearly heeded that threat.
Shockingly, we now hear that the new government is actually inviting Brotherhood leading lights, activists and propagandists to apply for asylum in the UK! Given the report, not to mention the fact that one of the main motivation for those who voted for Britain’s exit from the EU was to curtail immigration, this new Home Office memo is mindboggling.
The country has only agreed to take-in a token number of Syrian refugees fleeing war and is out to reduce the numbers of Europeans who’ve made Britain their home, yet is virtually telling the Muslim Brotherhood, ‘Come here! Our door is open for you.’
The reason behind this strange invitation remains opaque. Senior Brotherhood members get the VIP treatment in certain regional states and, as far as I’m aware, they aren’t risking their lives in dinghies attempting to cross the Mediterranean or sleeping rough hoping for EU countries to open their border crossings.
This is another British poke in Cairo’s eye following Cameron’s curtailment of flights to Sharm El- Sheikh that started the ball rolling with many other countries following suit even though other countries that have lost passenger planes and/or suffered terrorist attacks on their airports or city centers get tea and sympathy. Was this an attempt to bring Egypt to its economic knees in order to bring it under Western control I wonder?
Neither Obama nor Ms. Clinton founded Daesh, but there’s no doubt they’ve cemented dodgy alliances, while Britain has evolved into an extremists’ haven where Daesh’s black flags are seen fluttering freely.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.