Flynn once confirmed the authenticity of a leaked 2012 Pentagon document that revealed how the U.S. and other NATO nations were deliberately backing al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later morphed into ISIS, and other Islamic extremist groups to overthrow Syrian president Bashir al-Assad.
“The Salafist [sic], the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria,” the Pentagon document stated. “The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support [this] opposition, while Russia, China and Iran ‘support the [Assad] regime.’”
He also revealed it was “a willful decision” by the Obama administration to support ISIS and al-Nusra.
Secretary of State Kerry tried to convince the Russian that al-Qaeda should not be attacked during the cessation of hostilities. But the Russian’s did not agree. Al Qaeda is a UN recognized international terrorist organization which, under UNSC resolutions, must be fought. The U.S. only succeeded in downgrading the permanent ceasefire the Russians had preferred to into a temporary cessation hostilities. It thought to use the time to rearm and to regroup its proxy forces.
But then thing went wrong. An offensive along the Turkish border to push away the Islamic State and to seal the border between the Islamic State and Turkey failed. Al-Qaeda convinced other groups, including directly U.S. supported CIA assets, to prematurely attack Syrian government forces south of Aleppo on Tal el-Eis. The attack mad only little progress before it was stopped.
The men who led the official investigation into the September 11 attacks are fighting back against charges their commission did not delve deep enough into Saudi Arabia’s involvement.
More than a decade after the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States filed its report, a new push has erupted in Washington to force the administration to released the so-called “28 pages.”
These pages on purported Saudi involvement were withheld by the George W. Bush administration from a report by a special joint congressional committee that pre-dated the commission.
The commission co-chairmen, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, put out a lengthy statement on Friday. They said their investigators worked off leads in those 28-pages, but could find no evidence that the Riyadh Islamic government was involved in the al Qaeda attack by 19 hijackers, 15 of them Saudi nationals.
“We believe it important the public understand what the commission did with regard to the 28 pages,” the two said in their statement.
They portrayed the secret passages, not as confirmed, smoking-gun findings, but “raw, unvetted material that came to the FBI.”
Yet, Western militaries have killed infinitely more innocent civilians in the Middle East than Russia has. Then why won’t Western officials and media cite retaliation for that Western violence as a cause of terrorist attacks on New York, Paris and Brussels.
Instead, there’s a fierce determination not to make the same kinds of linkages that the press made so easily when it was Russia on the receiving end of terror. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Obama Ignores Russian Terror Victims.”]
For example, throughout four hours of Sky News’ coverage of the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, only the briefest mention was made about a possible motive for that horrific assault on three Underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people. But the attacks came just two years after Britain’s participation in the murderous invasion of Iraq.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the Iraq War’s architects, condemned the loss of innocent life in London and linked the attacks to a G-8 summit he’d opened that morning. A TV host then read and belittled a 10-second claim of responsibility from a self-proclaimed Al Qaeda affiliate in Germany saying that the Iraq invasion was to blame. There was no more discussion about it.
I am sure a frightened population will find government promises of perfect security attractive and may be willing to allow more surveillance of their personal lives. They should pause a little beforehand and consider what their governments have done so far to keep them “safe.”
The government of France, for example, has been particularly aggressive in its Middle East policy. Then-French President Sarkozy was among the most determined proponents of “regime change” in Libya. That operation has left the country in chaos, with much of the territory controlled by an ISIS and al-Qaeda that were not there before the “liberation.” As we learned last week from Hillary Clinton’s emails, Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were much more concerned with getting their hands on Libya’s oil after the overthrow of Gaddafi. The creation of a hotbed of terrorism that could easily make its way to Europe was not important. They wanted to secure enormously profitable deals for well-connected French and English energy companies.
At least six armed men attacked beach goers outside three hotels Sunday in Grand-Bassam, sending tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town.
Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara said that 14 civilians and six assailants have been killed.
Immediately after the attack, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) took responsibility for the attack, jihadist monitoring organization SITE Intelligence Group said.
Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach in photos apparently taken at the scene and posted on social media. It is unclear whether any attackers got away.
CBS News Sarah Carter reports the attackers started on the beach and moved up to a hotel popular with expats and middle-class Ivorians before moving on to others.
A witness told CBS News guns, grenades and ammunition clips were found lying around one of the hotels.
Josiane Sekongo, 25, said shots rang out Sunday afternoon
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters on Monday there are detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison who are so dangerous that it would not be safe to transfer them outside the care of the United States.
Carter and President Obama have drawn up a plan to move many of the remaining 91 detainees into the custody of foreign governments. Detainees not cleared for transfer overseas—those who Carter describes as too dangerous to go elsewhere—would be moved stateside in an effort to close the detention facility.
Carter made his comment while holding a press briefing at the Pentagon along with Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A reporter asked Carter if the United States is thinking of transferring the Guantanamo Bay naval base back to the Cuban government, which he denied while drawing a distinction between the naval base and the detention facility.
“The base is separate from the detention facility,” Carter said in response. “The base is in a strategic location. We’ve had it for a long time. It’s important to us, and we intend to hold onto it.”
Carter then turned his attention to the detention center within the naval base, which he said is the specific focus of the Obama administration’ closure plan.
“With respect to the detention facility at [Guantanamo], which is what the president was speaking about last week … there are people in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility whom it is not safe to transfer to any other—they have to stay in U.S. detention,” Carter said. “Safety is the top priority for me, the chairman, and for the president.”
Carter then said that because some detainees are too dangerous to release, there needs to be an alternate facility in the U.S. for these individuals to go if Guantanamo is closed, which is at the heart of Obama’s proposal.
The Pentagon is reportedly looking at send prisoners to either the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., the military prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, or the Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C.
The Obama administration is coming under pressure to explain why it cleared for release a former Guantanamo Bay prison camp inmate who has become a senior Al Qaeda operative since being released from American custody.
Ibrahim al Qosi, a former Gitmo inmate who the Obama administration released to Sudan in 2012 after clearing him as a low-level risk, has recently reemerged as a top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to congressional leaders.
The Obama administration has released as many as 37 inmates from Guantanamo since 2015 as it pursues an effort to shut the prison down; as many as 17 detainees were freed in January alone. Fewer than 100 inmates remain imprisoned at the facility.
Al Qosi’s appearance in a new series of al Qaeda propaganda videos has prompted backlash on Capitol Hill from lawmakers who accuse the administration of not properly vetting inmates as it rushes to shutter Gitmo.
“The transfer of terror detainee Ibrahim al Qosi from Gitmo to the Sudanese government has resulted in a new frontman for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and reminds us that no facility in the world can detain terrorists as securely as Guantanamo,” Sen. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) told theWashington Free Beacon on Thursday.
The administration needs to explain why they would transfer al Qosi and two other known terrorists to Sudan, a state sponsor of terror,” Kirk said.
Senior Pentagon officials have admitted to Congress that at least 30 percent of the detainees freed from Gitmo have rejoined terrorist groups.
It is illegal for the Obama administration to transfer any Gitmo detainees into the United States, according to measures included by Kirk and other lawmakers in the 2016 omnibus spending bill. The administration also is barred from constructing any facility on U.S. soil meant to house these inmates.
Ibrahim al Qosi, a former Gitmo inmate who the Obama administration released to Sudan in 2012 after clearing him as a low-level risk, has recently reemerged as a top leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to congressional leaders.
The Obama administration has released as many as 37 inmates from Guantanamo since 2015 as it pursues an effort to shut the prison down; as many as 17 detainees were freed in January alone. Fewer than 100 inmates remain imprisoned at the facility.
The Long War Journalfirst reported that al-Qosi, one of the first detainees at the military prison in Cuba, appears as one of the senior leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in a video released by the terror group this week.
Al-Qosi was transferred to his native country of Sudan in July 2012 after striking at deal with U.S. military prosecutors and pleading guilty to conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist. His 14-year sentence was shortened, and he left the detention facility after a decade of imprisonment.
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