Thread: The slaughter of apostates

The slaughter of the Yazidi
William A. Jacobson Thursday, August 7, 2014 at 9:41am

Finally the story is being told.



While over 700 journalists were covering the Gaza conflict, few paid attention to the mass slaughter in Iraq of the Yazidi, who are on the verge of a true genocide at the hands of ISIS. http://www.timesofisrael.com/day-30-...-entry-1043874

Finally the impending massacre is getting coverage, but it may be too late.

The Washington Post reported two days ago: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...064_story.html

Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst.

Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.

Unable to dig deep into the rocky mountainside, displaced families said they have buried young and elderly victims of the harsh conditions in shallow graves, their bodies covered with stones. Iraqi government planes attempted to airdrop bottled water to the mountain on Monday night but reached few of those marooned….

Most of those who fled Sinjar are from the minority Yazidi sect, which melds parts of ancient Zoroastrianism with Christianity and Islam. They are considered by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State to be devil worshippers and apostates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNoP...layer_embedded

WaPo updates today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...5c4_story.html

Politicians appealed Wednesday for emergency aid for thousands of minority Iraqis who have been stranded with little food on a mountaintop in the country’s northwest, surrounded by al-Qaeda-inspired rebels.

For nearly two months, Kurdish forces had managed to protect the area from the Sunni extremists who have rampaged through much of northern Iraq, slaughtering opponents, destroying ancient shrines and demanding that people of other religions convert or die. But last weekend the famously tough Kurdish fighters suffered their first setbacks in the Sinjar region, prompting hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee.

An estimated 10,000 to 40,000 of them sought refuge on the craggy peaks of Mount Sinjar — largely members of the minority Yazidi sect. They fear death if they descend into areas controlled by the extremist rebels, who consider them apostates. Kurdish forces have so far failed to break through the militants’ lines to reach them, despite launching a counteroffensive early this week.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08...di/#more-95474




Thousands of Iraqi children face death after ISIS advance;
where’s the liberal hashtag campaign?

Written by Allen West on August 7, 2014



just love liberal progressive hypocrisy. Leftists want to monitor Christian sermons but radical Islamic imams and mullahs are ok. It is a human rights violation for a sovereign nation to defend itself against an Islamic terrorist organization but then again the terrorists are actually humanitarians. And it is tragic that Gazans used as human shields are killed, but you hear not a peep about Christians in Mosul being told to convert, pay a jizya submission tax or die.

Americans against the illegal immigrant invasion are told they are not compassionate — after all the “children” are trying to escape crime and violence. So I wonder if we’ll hear anything from the liberal progressive media about this report from CNS News: “A humanitarian tragedy is looming in northwestern Iraq, where up to 25,000 children, mostly from the minority Yazidi community, are among those who fled ahead of advancing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) jihadists and are now stranded without water or supplies in arid, mountainous terrain.”

The U.N. Children’s Fund in Iraq said Tuesday at least 40 children were already reported to have died, “as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration over the past two days.”

I’m just waiting for the #campaign from the First Lady and all the Hollywood types. Maybe Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz will write a letter to Emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and accuse him of genocide — since they feel Israel was guilty of it. Do any of you think America doesn’t have the capability to find where these Yazidi children are and get them safe passage into Kurdish controlled areas — namely Kirkuk?

Nah, you see, for liberal progressives, compassion is tied to their political agenda. That agenda extends only to illegal aliens that they want in America, since they don’t believe in sovereign borders anyway. Or their agenda allies with Islamic terrorists and the propaganda spewed forth with pictures of hurt little Palestinian children – who were intentionally placed in harm’s way as human shields.

CNS reports that tens of thousands of people fled as ISIS seized control of the town and district of Sinjar west of Mosul at the weekend, pushing back Kurdish “peshmerga” forces who had been providing security there. “Families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children who are now stranded in mountains surrounding Sinjar and are in dire need of humanitarian aid including drinking water and sanitation services,” said UNICEF’s Iraq director, Marzio Babille.

Sorry, it’s not politically advantageous for liberal progressives to care about what happens to Iraqi children — after all, Iraq was George W. Bush’s fault. And since they hate Bush so much, then by default you Yazidis must suffer and die so that it can all be blamed on George W. Bush.

As the progressive trolls blather on at this site, “so you want to go back and fight in Iraq” – no, I want to destroy an Islamist army. And that’s not something for which I feel compelled to apologize. As a matter of fact, I would be more than happy to “strap on the gear” and personally go back.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power on Tuesday condemned ISIS (also known as ISIL), for its recent attacks and voiced concern about the situation in the Sinjar region, according to CNS News. “ISIL’s reported abuse, kidnapping, torture and executions of Iraq’s religious and ethnic minorities and its systematic destruction of religious and cultural sites are appalling,” she said.

However, the authorities in Baghdad have been appealing to the U.S. for months –since last August, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) – to carry out airstrikes against ISIS forces. The appeals were repeated in recent weeks by the Iraqi ambassador to Washington — but of course President Obama has not obliged — after all, it’s Bush’s fault.

The hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me. And I know my brothers and sisters in the military — they want to eliminate this enemy. They just want to be able to do it without having one arm tied behind their backs.

When I was in Afghanistan, nothing pleased us more than seeing little girls going to school. We are compassionate, just not selectively so.

http://allenbwest.com/2014/08/thousa...htag-campaign/

Militant takeover of Iraq’s largest Christian city, mountaintop siege fuel calls for aid
Published August 07, 2014

Iraqi militants seized control Thursday of the country's largest Christian city -- reportedly telling its residents to leave, convert or die -- while members of another religious minority remained trapped on a mountain without enough food or water, circumstances that fueled calls for the U.S. and U.N. to get more involved.

In response, Pentagon officials told Fox News the administration is considering humanitarian aid drops for the families stuck on the mountain in northern Iraq, and noted they have been "urgently and directly" working with officials to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to those in need. The New York Times reports that officials also are considering airstrikes.

The takeover in Qaraqoush is the latest in a basket of foreign policy crises testing the Obama administration. Secretary of State John Kerry dropped into Afghanistan unannounced Thursday to meet with feuding presidential candidates, on the heels of a U.S. general's murder at an army training post -- while the White House plots its next move in a tense chess match over Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, one U.S. lawmaker is warning that the latest developments in Iraq could become a "genocide," as the Islamic State (IS) -- the militant group formerly known as ISIS -- continues its march through the north, imposing its brand of Islam on Christians and other minorities.

"Genocide is taking place before our eyes -- and on your watch -- in Iraq," Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., wrote in a letter earlier this week to Obama.

France on Thursday called for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting on the crisis.

In the latest development, IS militants overran a cluster of predominantly Christian villages alongside the country's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, sending tens of thousands of civilians and Kurdish fighters fleeing from the area, according to several priests in northern Iraq.

The capture of Qaraqoush, Iraq's biggest Christian city, and at least four other nearby hamlets, brings the group to the very edge of the Iraqi Kurdish territory and its regional capital, Irbil.

The Islamic State has already seized large chunks of northern and western Iraq in a blitz offensive in June, including Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. The onslaught has pushed Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Last week, the Islamic State also seized the northwestern town of Sinjar, forcing tens of thousands of people from the ancient Yazidi minority to flee into the mountains and the Kurdish region.

According to the U.N., between 35,000 and 50,000 fled to nearby Mount Sinjar and other areas, "reportedly surrounded by ISIS armed elements" and lacking water and other aid.

The Washington Post detailed dire circumstances, reporting Thursday that thousands of families hiding on Mount Sinjar are desperate for help and that Iraqi government airdrops of aid are not sufficient. According to the Post, some water bottles also cracked open during the drop.

Reuters reported Thursday that a rescue is underway, and some of the thousands trapped on the mountain have been brought to safety.

But Wolf, in his letter to the president, said the situation deserves higher-level involvement from the Obama administration.

"Time is running out," Wolf wrote. He called for a senior official to be appointed as the "lead person" to coordinate government resources, and greater cooperation with NGOs like UNICEF to channel food and other aid to the victims.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the U.S. is supporting the Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces defending these areas. He said joint operations centers -- set up after ISIS first started making significant gains across the region -- in Irbil and Baghdad are sharing information.

Earnest said U.S. and Iraqi officials are discussing a "coordinated approach to the humanitarian situation in that region of the country."

"We urge all Iraqi authorities, civil society and international partners to work the United Nations and its partners to deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance," he said.

The highest level statement on the matter has come from Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Power condemned the attacks "that have reportedly led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people, many from vulnerable minority communities, deepening Iraq's already acute humanitarian crisis." She urged all parties to allow "safe access" to the U.N. and its partners to deliver aid, including to families stuck on Mount Sinjar.

"The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront the security and humanitarian challenges in their fight against [IS]," she said, urging Iraq's leaders to swiftly form a "new, fully inclusive government."

But the Hudson Institute's Nina Shea earlier this week criticized Obama and Kerry for not personally speaking out on the "epic humanitarian and human-rights catastrophe" in this part of Iraq, where Christians and other minorities have lived for hundreds of years.

In a column for National Review, she urged the U.S. to respond to the Kurds' plea for arms to defend the region, aid resettlement efforts for displaced minorities and try to help warn "local populations of impending attacks."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...uel-calls-for/

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ISIS Places Heads of Children on Sticks in Mosul Park
August 8, 2014


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CNN delved into a shocking interview about what is really happening to Christians in the Middle East.

Mark Arabo, a California businessman and Chaldean-American leader, revealed gruesome details about the atrocities Muslims are committing in Iraq. http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/ba...stian-genocide





ISIS kills children in hopes that these shocking atrocities will intimidate their opponents.

“Christianity in Mosul is dead, and a Christian holocaust is in our midst.” Arabo said that a “Christian genocide” is occurring and “children are being beheaded, mothers are being raped and killed, and fathers are being hung.”

“Right now, three thousand Christians are in Iraq fleeing to neighboring cities,” he said, calling the world to follow France’s example and open their borders to the hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees.

CNN’s Jonathan Mann interrupted in disbelief, “You’re startling me with the severity of what you’re describing. You said they are — beheading children?”

“They are systematically beheading children,” Arabo confirmed, “and mothers and fathers. The world hasn’t seen an evil like this for generations.”

Muslims beheading children is not unheard of. When photos surfaced of a small Syrian girl’s headless body, Muslim sympathizers screamed “Photoshop.” http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/0...-photoshopped/ However, they were silenced when the source released graphic video footage proving the unspeakable atrocities were reality. http://www.watnnews.net/NewsDetails....3&NewsID=60911

“There’s actually a park in Mosul where they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick… this is crimes against humanity. They are doing the most horrendous, the most heart-breaking crimes that you can think of.”


The park Arabo is describing was reported by Catholic Online, which has posted graphic photos of the slaughter ISIS is exacting. http://www.catholic.org/news/interna...y.php?id=56481 The Islamists in Mosul and other communities in Syria and Iraq have created music videos of their militants murdering these civilians. The sheer glee the terrorists display while killing is utterly disturbing, and not for weak constitutions.



Children still lie where ISIS Islamists have slaughtered them.

Mann also asked Arabo if ISIS’s warning to Christians in Mosul to pay the jizyah, convert, leave or die is true, and “are Christians managing to escape by paying a fine?”

Arabo explained that after Christians would pay the fine, the insurgents would take the “wives and daughters and make them their wives. So, it’s really convert or die.”

Still, the reports of those who’ve been captured and forced to convert are subsequently killed after converting.

“They are absolutely killing every Christian they see,” Arabo said. “This is absolutely a genocide in every sense of the word. They want everyone to convert, and they want sharia law to be the law of the land.”


Kurdish men carry the bodies of Yezidi children who died of starvation & thirst after being driven into the mountains.


Around 300,000 Yezidi children from Mosul have managed to escape to northern Iraq, taking refuge in the mountains, but have died from lack of food and water.

Catholic Online has published horrific photos of these atrocities. Warning: they are extremely graphic. Click here to view them.

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/isis-beh...stian-children

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/isis-beh...stian-children

http://madworldnews.com/graphic-isis...ks-mosul-park/

The last Christians in Iraq
'Convert, pay the jizya tax, or die,' means, quite simply, that there is little alternative but to flee.
By Lela Gilbert Published July 22, 2014

Car by car, family by family, frightened Iraqi Christians by the thousands fled their ancient Iraqi homeland over the weekend. With broken hearts and little more than the clothes on their backs, they’ve left behind their houses, businesses, and churches – everything they’ve known.

The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group announced through their mosques on Friday afternoon that local Christians must either convert to Islam, pay an exorbitant Muslim tax – the jizya, which amounts to protection money – or leave the city. If they did not conform to these demands by noon on Saturday, July 19, there would be “nothing for them but the sword.”

Christianity is not new to the region. It was introduced by two of Jesus’ own disciples – St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) in the 1st Century. But the ancient roots of Iraq’s Christianity have now been violently ripped out of the country’s spiritual soil.

Most of the Nineveh Plain’s Christians – once numbering more than a hundred thousand – had already fled to Erbil and other destinations in Kurdistan before ISIS’s recent declaration, seeking the protection of the Kurdish Peshmerga’s warriors.

Now the rest of the refugees – many of the last Christians in Iraq – have joined them.

It’s not surprising that the vicious tactics of the IS/ISIS terrorists horrify most observers. As is often reported on social media – with substantial videographic evidence – they have beheaded, mutilated, raped, stoned and even crucified those whose behavior is “unIslamic” or whose religious convictions displease them.

The West has managed to muster a tepid response. For example on Sunday, a statement emanating from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s spokesman

“...condemned in the strongest terms the systematic persecution of minority populations in Iraq by Islamic State (IS) and associated armed groups. He is particularly disturbed by reports of threats against Christians in Mosul and other IS-controlled parts of Iraq, including an ultimatum to either convert, pay a tax, leave, or face imminent execution…”

The UN, US, EU and numerous others have all denounced IS/ISIS.

But the various powers’ “strongly worded” official condemnations seem to be little more than indignant complaints.

President Obama, for example, has demonstrated no inclination to apply American muscle to ISIS. Speaking about their activities in Syria, he explained, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-to-americans/

"What we can't do is think that we're just going to play Whac-a-Mole and send U.S. troops occupying various countries wherever these organizations pop up…."

Rather than fighting fire with fire, western leaders apparently imagine that diplomatic endeavors – including “strongly worded” denunciations – will stop zealous murderers in their tracks.

Really?

Obama and his cohorts seem to have an astonishingly high regard for their persuasive skills.

At the same time, they demonstrate only a dim awareness of the terrorists’ fierce religious fervor.

Devoutly committed to radical Islamist ideology – whether of the Sunni or Shia variety – fanatics like ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Iran’s ayatollahs quite sincerely view the West as the primary force of evil in the world.

Why would such “holy warriors” negotiate with western evildoers?

Only, perhaps, to deceive them.

In Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere, it is abundantly clear that such niceties as “dialogue” are of little interest to bloodthirsty savages.

In the meantime, as American strength diminishes around the globe, the dangers posed by radical Islamist groups like ISIS are exploding exponentially.

And where does this leave the Iraq’s Christians and other minorities whose lives are at stake? Sadly, they are well aware that no host of valiant defenders is going to come to their rescue. In fact, the Iraqi Army virtually melted away when ISIS appeared.

So for the Christians, “Convert, pay the jizya tax, or die,” means, quite simply, that there is little alternative but to flee -- except in a small number of villages over which Kurdistan has extended a protective umbrella.

Thus, most Christians have fled.

Still, some intrepid Iraqi Christians refuse to give up. “If we all leave, it sends the message that there is nowhere safe for Christians to live in Iraq — and this worries me,” Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche, told the Washington Post. “I’m not a vagabond. This is my home, and I will die here if necessary.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...9-3012c1cd8d1e

Such fortitude is inspiring. And yet courage and determination cannot eclipse such excruciating losses. Whether Iraq’s Christians stay or go, nothing can remove the devastating sense of injury and injustice they are experiencing.

“Many Christians interviewed expressed a sense of utter abandonment and desolation,” the New York Times reported. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/wo...osul.html?_r=2 They remarked that the sound of church bells mingled with the Muslim calls to prayer – a symbol of Mosul’s long-standing religious tolerance – “would likely never be heard again.”

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/...tians-in-iraq/

Big Three Networks Avoid Calling ISIS 'Terrorists;' Label Them 'Rebels' and 'Militants'
By Matthew Balan | August 9, 2014


The Big Three networks steered clear of labeling the Islamist group ISIS "terrorists" on their evening newscasts on Friday. Instead, ABC's World News and CBS Evening News labeled the genocidal radicals "militants." NBC Nightly News used the more benign "rebels" in their coverage of the group's latest attacks on the Kurdish part of Iraq.

The closest that a journalist at ABC, CBS, or NBC got to using the "terrorist" label was Scott Pelley's teaser at the very top of CBS Evening News http://www.newsbusters.org/sites/def...-ISIS_Iraq.mp3

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/big-thre...-and-militants

SCOTT PELLEY (teaser): Tonight, back in battle: The President orders U.S. warplanes to attack Sunni Muslim extremists in northern Iraq to stop a campaign of terror. But he makes Americans this promise:

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.

Brian Williams introduced correspondent Jim Miklaszewski's report on NBC Nightly News by noting that "a violent group called ISIS has swept across Iraq. They have civilians and religious minorities on the run, and threatened with death." Miklaszewski twice referred to ISIS as "rebels" during the segment. He did include a clip of President Obama using the "terrorist" label in reference to the group:

JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: ...In his nationwide address Thursday night, President Obama said the airstrikes are necessary to protect American lives at the U.S. consulate in Erbil.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I've directed our military to take targeted strikes against ISIL terrorist convoys should they move toward the city.

MIKLASZEWSKI: The airstrikes are also aimed at supporting Kurdish Peshmerga fighters – U.S. allies overrun by ISIS rebels this week. President Obama cautioned, however, any U.S. airstrikes would be limited. Critics accuse the President of playing domestic politics, and that limited airstrikes will do little to stop the relentless advance of ISIS rebels.

The NBC journalist later underlined that

"ISIS...has seized a large section of east and northern Iraq, with unspeakable brutality that includes mass executions and beheadings."

On World News, ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz repeatedly used the "militant" term during her report on the U.S. airstrikes against the Islamists:

MARTHA RADDATZ: Good evening, David. The U.S. military now has a green light to launch airstrikes as needed in Iraq – today, pounding multiple targets, trying to stop the militants from advancing and from threatening American lives and the lives of thousands of Iraqi families trapped on that mountain.

The first strike...two heavily-armed F-18 fighter jets launching from the carrier U.S.S. Bush in the Persian Gulf – roaring high above northern Iraq, where ISIS militants were at work shelling forces trying to defend the critical city of Erbil....Then, four hours later...an armed drone launching a Hellfire missile at a mortar position. When militant fighters returned to the site, the drone struck again. 6:20 P.M., four more F-18s, targeting a seven-vehicle militant convoy – the Pentagon says a total of eight bombs dropped – neutralizing the convoy and a mortar launcher....

Meanwhile, that other mission: to save lives on that mile-high mountain. At the top: tens of thousands of members of a religious minority – trapped for days by the ISIS militants, threatening them with death.

Journalist David Martin used the same labeling during his report on CBS Evening News:

DAVID MARTIN: ...Five hundred-pound laser-guided bombs hit a field gun Islamic militants were using to shell the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, where scores of American military personnel and diplomats are based. The F-18 jet fighters, which dropped the bombs, returned to the carrier George H.W. Bush in the Persian Gulf. Later in the day, U.S. aircraft carried out two more strikes against militant forces on the outskirts of Erbil....

The militants are known as ISIS, but are, in essence, the successors to al Qaeda in Iraq, and they have caught everyone by surprise with the effectiveness of their attacks and swiftness of their advance. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes, and the Pentagon now estimates 35,000 are stranded on a mountain surrounded by militant fighters....Getting the refugees off the mountain could require more U.S. airstrikes to help Iraqi or Kurdish forces establish a safe passage corridor through militant lines.

CBS correspondent Holly Williams then followed Martin, and used the same "militant" term. However, she included a detail often omitted by the Big Three networks: the fact that ISIS is also targeting Iraqi Christians for persecution.

HOLLY WILLIAMS (voice-over): ISIS is on Erbil's doorstep, as the militants extend the boundaries of what they call their own Islamic state. Erbil is a Kurdish stronghold, and Kurdish soldiers are the only ones still fighting ISIS on the ground in northern Iraq, after the Iraqi army ran away two months ago. But ISIS launched a new offensive this week, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing for their lives, many of them religious minorities – include Yazidis and Christians.

Yesterday, Kurdish fighters helped some Yazidi families escape the barren mountaintop where they've taken refuge from ISIS. Many say they were given a stark choice by the militants: convert to their strict version of Sunni Islam, leave their homes, or face death....

SCOTT PELLEY (live): Holly's joining us now. Holly, what's it like in Erbil tonight? Is there panic?

WILLIAMS: Well, Scott, people here tell us that two days ago, there was panic, in the sense that Erbil might soon fall to ISIS. Some people even fled the city. But now, people here seem to be more relaxed – and even hopeful – because they think that the U.S. airstrikes will give the Kurdish fighters the time and space they need to regroup, and then, push the militants back.

On Thursday, the MRC's Dan Gainor pointed out that the Big Three networks have followed a simple pattern with regard to the Islamic extremist group Hamas: "ABC, CBS and NBC journalists referred to Hamas as 'militants,' 'fighters' or 'soldiers' 13 times more often than they called them 'terrorists.' (65 stories to 5 stories.)" http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-ci...rs-factor-13-1


http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew...#ixzz39uu4YeG4

Islamic Slaughters and Short Memories
August 7, 2014 By Alan Caruba

“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”

Obama said that on August 20, 2012 in remarks to reporters. Realizing that he was close to having to engage in some kind of military action against Bashar Assad, Syria’s dictator, he was bailed out by the Russians who stepped in to remove the stores of poison gas and then, except for the “red line” gaffe, everyone promptly forget about it.

The insurrection against Assad began in March 2011 and by September 2013 there were an estimated 120,000 dead Syrians and a million or more refugees. The conflict turned from local to regional as the extremist Islamic State (IS) emerged. It is backed by Iran and Turkey, but only for the purpose of defeating Assad, not for declaring itself the new caliphate.

IS is now in control of much of Syria’s northern region and has taken control of central Iraq, challenging Baghdad as well as its Kurdish sector. On Sunday Islamic State fighters overtook the Lebanese city of Arsal where 100,000 Syrian refugees had fled. There were attacks in Tripoli as well. There is no accounting for how many have been slaughtered by IS at this point.

On August 4, The Daily Star, Lebanon, reported “The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) group executed seven members of a single family from the Ismaili minority in the central Syrian province of Hama overnight, state media and an activist group said Monday. ‘An armed terrorist group committed a massacre in the Mzeiraa area near the town of Salmiya, killing seven people, including two aged 13 and 15 years old,’ Syrian state news agency SANA said.”

Three days earlier Breitbart News reported “The Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, told Palestine the terrorist group will join its fight against the ‘barbaric Jews’ but urged patience until ISIS is finished in Arab countries.”

So, according to the Islamic State, it is the Jews of Israel who are “barbaric” for defending themselves and their Arab citizens against rocket attacks from Gaza; land given to the Palestinians by Israel in 2005.

During the months when Hamas was firing thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza there was a low level of coverage, but when Israel responded with Operation Protective Edge, it became front page news. Dead Palestinians always seem to be more important than dead Israelis even if they were forced by Hamas to serve as human shields for their rockets and their elaborate matrix of tunnels into Israel which exist solely to carry out its goal of destroying it.

Being Christian in the Middle East has proven to be deadly. When the Islamic State took control of Mosul, a city in which Christians had lived for centuries, they were given the choice of converting, paying a tax, or dying. The Islamic State has swiftly gained a reputation for murdering prisoners of war and anyone else they determine to be “hypocritical” or “apostate” Muslims. So being Muslim does not protect one from more fanatical Muslims and being Christian can be a death sentence.

In an August 4 Washington Post article, Ilias al-Hussani, 27, told its reporter, “They are savages. We’ve seen what they’ve done to people of their own faith. Imagine what they would do to us non-Muslims.” The article noted that Islamic State “now controls resources and territory unmatched in the history of extremist organizations.”

Who remembers the 246 girls kidnapped in April by Boko Haram in Nigeria and forced to convert? Or hears of their further attacks?

Despite having troops stationed in Afghanistan and having fought in Iraq, for Americans the Middle East is still someplace far away filled with people who are little more than statistics, but the Muslim jihad still poses a threat.

It is less far away for Europeans who have slowly awakened to the changes occurring and being demanded by the Muslims who emigrated there, many of whom to escape life in their own nations. As the Muslim population has grown in various European nations, it has begun to pose a threat to native-born citizens. Even so, the Israeli military operation unleashed a lot of Europe-based anti-Semitism and some showed up in the U.S. as well.

Does anyone know who the real enemy is any more?

There is going to be more news of slaughters in the Middle East because the Islamic State is going to challenge every nation there. Assad retains control over an estimated 40-60% of Syria. Iraq has been halved with just the south remaining. Lebanon will likely fall under IS control and that is bad news for the Christians who have lived there for centuries.

Jordan is girding for an attack. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are watching the situation with increasing apprehension.

The present Syrian conflict began in 2011 with an effort to remove Bashar Assad as other Middle East nations, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, had done with their despots during the so-called Arab Spring. In addition to Syria’s Assad, Iran supports Hamas, but Iran is a Shiite nation and the Islamic State is Sunni. The Sunnis are the majority of the Middle East’s Muslim population.

The Islamic State has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., the U.K, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and the United Nations. It does not give much evidence of being concerned. It has access to millions in oil wealth and a growing military capability thanks in part to all the U.S. weapons that were abandoned by the Iraqis when they came under attack.

We cannot expect President Obama to engage the Islamic State. The term “Commander-in-Chief” has never been more misapplied to him than any President.

What we can expect is the continued expansion of the Islamic State and more news of the slaughter of Muslims and Christians.

Once Israel is through destroying Gaza’s tunnels and its store of rockets, it will have to turn its attention to the ISIS threat to Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and perhaps Turkey as well. It will make Gaza look like a picnic.

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/07/islam...hort-memories/

FLASHBACK VIDEO: Obama brags about leaving behind a ‘stable, self-reliant’ Iraq.

How’s that working out?


Remember when Barack Obama was going to wind-down the War in Iraq in a responsible fashion? Well, that was the promise, at least…

Conservatives have been one step ahead at every turn of Obama’s disastrous presidency. We warned that Obamacare is not sustainable, that people would lose their healthcare plans. We warned that borrowing trillions of dollars would lead to economic disaster. We warned that continually bowing to Democrats’ demands to raise the debt ceiling would only embolden them further.

And yes, we warned that announcing a departure from Iraq and Afghanistan without leaving behind an able-bodied, stable regime would undo the progress we made in the region over the course of the previous decade.

I hate to say “I told you so,” but here we are…

In a 2007 Associated Press piece, Obama claimed that genocide is not a good enough reason to engage in Iraq. The piece reads:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

“Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Obama also notes that it’s important to not abruptly pull-out from Iraq as doing so would cause bloodshed. The piece continued:

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, said it’s likely there would be increased bloodshed if U.S. forces left Iraq.

“Nobody is proposing we leave precipitously. There are still going to be U.S. forces in the region that could intercede, with an international force, on an emergency basis,” Obama said between stops on the first of two days scheduled on the New Hampshire campaign trail. “There’s no doubt there are risks of increased bloodshed in Iraq without a continuing U.S. presence there.”

However, if we fast-forward a few years, we can see President Obama announcing the end of the Iraq War and bragging that “We’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq.”

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/flashbac...f-reliant-iraq

Obama will do and say anything so long as it advances his political agenda. Whether right or wrong, we have dedicated years of fighting, thousands of American lives and a fortune in taxpayer money to creating a stable Iraq and through a complete dearth of leadership, this president has offered to the terrorists a haven for genocide and terror.
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/08/flash...-reliant-iraq/

‘Something’s going down in Baghdad': Reports of possible coup
Iraqi police, army and counter-terrorism forces are being deployed in strategic locations in Baghdad

Reports Maliki will not step down. Tense situation in Baghdad.
Security force deployment in Baghdad, Green Zone, pres. Palace.

Posted at 6:59 pm on August 10, 2014

http://twitchy.com/2014/08/10/someth...possible-coup/

Islamic State Killed 500 Yazidis, Buried Some Victims Alive
U.S. weighs options to evacuate desperate Yazidis from Iraqi mountain

The United States is exploring options to evacuate thousands of Iraqi civilians trapped on a barren mountain in northern Iraq by Islamic militants, after four nights of humanitarian relief airdrops, U.S. officials said on Sunday.


While the airdrops appear to have provided urgently needed aid, the harsh conditions of the Sinjar mountain range in mid-summer have taken scores of lives among Iraq's Yazidi minority, who are threatened by hardline militants from the Islamic State.

Proposals for a risky mission to save the group underscore the limits of the airdrops, ordered last week by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Photos: Battle for Iraq

"We're reviewing options for removing the remaining civilians off the mountain," deputy U.S. national security adviser Ben Rhodes told Reuters. "Kurdish forces are helping, and we're talking to the (United Nations) and other international partners about how to bring them to a safe space."

The U.N. mission in Iraq has also said it is preparing a humanitarian corridor to permit the Yazidis to flee to safety.

The group are followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism. They are viewed as "devil worshippers" by the Sunni militants of Islamic State who tell them to convert to Islam or face death.

More than 30,000 Yazidis, mainly from Sinjar, have already crossed into an area of northern Iraq controlled by Kurdish security forces after a week-long journey that took them through Syria after they left the mountain retreat that had become a graveyard for many, according to Yazidis and U.N. officials.

Yet any mission to evacuate the remaining Yazidis from the mountain is likely to be perilous, and could test Obama's pledge to limit U.S. involvement in Iraq's latest chaos.

"That’s going to be a very big operation,' said Ken Pollack, a former CIA and White House expert on the region, now at the private Brookings Institution. "They can't stay on the mountain. They have to leave."

On Sunday night, four U.S. cargo aircraft dropped food and water in the latest delivery, the U.S. military's Central Command said in a statement. U.S. forces have dropped a total of more than 74,000 meals and more than 15,000 gallons of fresh drinking water so far to those trapped on the arid mountain.

SAFE PASSAGE?

Islamic State militants have seized large swathes of northern Iraq since June, breaking out of their original operating areas in nearby Syria.

Rhodes said the airdrops have been effective, and noted that U.S. aircraft have also attacked Islamic State fighters who have laid siege to Sinjar mountain.

Still, the plight of the Yazidis, which prompted a reluctant Obama to intervene militarily in Iraq last week, remains acute.

"They are in dire need of everything. Food, water, non-food items, hygiene and sanitation," said Eliana Nabaa, spokesperson for the U.N. mission in Iraq.

Pollack said there are just two options for securing safe passage for the Yazidis off the mountain.

One, he said, is for U.N. representatives to convince Islamic State to let them go or be pummeled by American airstrikes. The second is a corridor secured by Peshmerga or Iraq army troops and U.S. airpower.

To establish a humanitarian corridor, the United Nations and any nations that participated would have to overcome the Islamic State's military advantage over Kurdish security forces known as the Peshmerga.

"Security would have to be provided by the Iraqis, especially the Kurds, with air cover from the U.S. and possibly the British and the French," a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity.

Obama has insisted that he will not send U.S. combat troops back to Iraq, saying the U.S. military response will be limited to protecting the Yazidis and the Kurdish city of Arbil, where numerous U.S. advisers are present.

For now, many Yazidis appear to prefer contending with the Sinjar mountain than taking their chance with the Islamic State.

Iraqi Human Rights Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Sunday Islamic State fighters killed hundreds of Yazidis after seizing Sinjar, burying some alive and taking women as slaves. [ID:nL4N0QG092]

Fred Hof, a former senior State Department official now at the Atlantic Council, said the U.S. strikes could help by enabling the Peshmerga, who have suffered recent defeats at Islamic State hands, to regain the advantage.

"The key to rescuing tens of thousands of Yazidis is for the Peshmerga - with tactical air support from U.S. Naval Aviation and Air Force assets - to clear the Sinjar area of (Islamic State) fighters and make it possible to rescue and resettle these terrified people and allow truck loads of emergency humanitarian aid to reach them," he said.

http://news.msn.com/world/us-weighs-...ocid=ansnews11

You know, I bet our enemies wish Obama could have a third, 4-year term.
He keeps giving them so many words of encouragement:
http://allenbwest.com/2014/08/great-...erence-anyway/