Thread: Obama Declares End to Iraqi War

Shiite cleric urges Iraqis to defend country
Iraq's Shiite clerical leadership Friday called on all Iraqis to defend their country from Sunni militants who have seized large swaths of territory, and a U.N. official expressed "extreme alarm" at reprisal killings in the offensive, citing reports of hundreds of dead and wounded.
1 hr ago | By SAMEER N. YACOUB and ADAM SCHRECK of Associated Press

U.S. President Barack Obama said he is weighing options for countering the insurgency, but warned Iraqi leaders that he would not take military action unless they moved to address the country's political divisions. Fighters from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant made fresh gains, driving government forces at least temporarily from two towns in an ethnically mixed province northeast of Baghdad. The assault threatens to embroil Iraq more deeply in a wider regional conflict feeding off the chaos caused by the civil war in neighboring Syria.

The fast-moving rebellion, which also draws support from former Saddam Hussein-era figures and other disaffected Sunnis, has emerged as the biggest threat to Iraq's stability since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It has pushed the nation closer to a precipice that could partition it into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish zones. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose Shiite-led government is struggling to form a coherent response to the crisis, traveled to the city of Samarra to meet with military commanders late Friday, according to state TV.

Militants earlier in the week overran military bases and several communities including the second-largest city of Mosul and Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. Samarra, the site of a prominent Shiite shrine 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, sits between Tikrit and the capital.

A representative for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite spiritual leader in Iraq, told worshippers at Friday prayers that it was their civic duty to confront the threat. "Citizens who can carry weapons and fight the terrorists in defense of their country, its people and its holy sites should volunteer and join the security forces," said Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie, whose comments are thought to reflect al-Sistani's thinking.

He warned that Iraq faced "great danger," and that fighting the militants "is everybody's responsibility, and is not limited to one specific sect or group."

In Geneva, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay warned of "murder of all kinds" and other war crimes in Iraq, and said the number killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, while the wounded could approach 1,000. Pillay said her office has received reports that militants rounded up and killed Iraqi army soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul.

Her office heard of "summary executions and extrajudicial killings" as ISIL militants overran Iraqi cities and towns this week, the statement said. "I am extremely concerned about the acute vulnerability of civilians caught in the cross-fire, or targeted in direct attacks by armed groups, or trapped in areas under the control of ISIL and their allies," Pillay said. "And I am especially concerned about the risk to vulnerable groups, minorities, women and children."

Obama did not specify what options he was considering, but he ruled out sending American troops back into combat in Iraq. "We're not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which, while we're there we're keeping a lid on things, and after enormous sacrifices by us, after we're not there, people start acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and prosperity of the country," Obama said on the South Lawn of the White House.

Administration officials said Obama is weighing airstrikes using drones or manned aircraft. Other short-term options include an increase in surveillance and intelligence-gathering. The U.S. also is likely to increase aid to Iraq, including funding, training and both lethal and non-lethal equipment. Al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders have pleaded with Washington for more than a year for additional help to combat the growing insurgency.

Neighboring Shiite powerhouse Iran signaled its willingness to confront the growing threat from the militant blitz.

Former members of Tehran's powerful Revolutionary Guard have announced their readiness to fight in Iraq against the Islamic State, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iranian state TV quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying his country will do all it can to battle terrorism next door. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will apply all its efforts on the international and regional levels to confront terrorism," the report said Rouhani told al-Maliki by phone.

Iranian officials denied their forces were actively operating in Iraq, however. Mansour Haghighatpour, who sits on an influential Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, told The Associated Press that Baghdad is capable of fighting the militants, but Tehran would consider other options if asked.

Iran has built close political and economic ties with postwar Iraq, and many influential Iraqi Shiites have spent time in the Islamic Republic. Iran this week halted flights to Baghdad because of security concerns and said it was intensifying security on its borders.

Police said Sunni militants driving machine gun-mounted pickups entered the two newly conquered Iraqi towns in Diyala province late Thursday — Jalula, 125 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Baghdad, and Sadiyah, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital. Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts there without any resistance, they said.

Jalula residents said the gunmen issued an ultimatum to the soldiers not to resist and give up their weapons in exchange for safe passage. After seizing the town, the gunmen announced on loudspeakers that they have come to rescue residents from injustice and that none would be hurt. The gunmen later disappeared from Jalula, only to be replaced with the Kurdish security forces known as peshmerga. They raised the Kurdish flag over government buildings and transferred abandoned Iraqi military equipment back to the Kurds' self-ruled northern region, according to two police officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, and the residents declined to give their names out of fears for their safety.

The Islamic State has vowed to march on Baghdad, but the capital would be a far more difficult target with its large Shiite population. The militants would face far stronger resistance from government forces and Shiite militias.

So far, they have stuck to the Sunni heartland and former Sunni insurgent strongholds where people are alienated by al-Maliki's government over allegations of discrimination and mistreatment. Iraq's former Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, told the AP in Istanbul that while the Islamic State was one player in the uprising, they are not the driving force. "They are not involved in the decision-making," he said, adding that the Sunni tribes in Mosul and Anbar are "behind this Iraqi spring."

Baghdad considers al-Hashemi a fugitive after he was found guilty in absentia in terrorism-related cases — charges he dismisses as politically motivated. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Shiite militia have vowed to defend Shiite holy sites, raising the specter of street clashes and sectarian killings. Still, authorities have tightened security around the capital and residents stocked up on supplies.

Hundreds of young men volunteered for military service at a recruiting center Thursday, and more were being urged to join by cars playing Shiite religious songs that roamed Shiite neighborhoods Friday after the cleric's call. The Islamic militants in Mosul declared they would impose Shariah law and trumpeted their success in a parade of seized armored vehicles that was captured on online video.

A fighter with a loudspeaker urged the people to join the militants "to liberate Baghdad and Jerusalem." The Islamic State's black banners adorned many of the captured vehicles. Some in the crowd shouted "God is with you" to the fighters.

The video appeared authentic and consistent with AP reporting of the events depicted. The U.N. refugee agency reported that local authorities say 300,000 people fleeing from Mosul have sought safety in the Erbil and Duhok governorates in the Kurdistan region. UNHCR monitoring teams report many arrived with little more than what they were wearing, although some are staying with relatives and in hotels, the agency said.

Kurdish security forces filled the power vacuum caused by the retreating Iraqi forces, taking control of the ethnically mixed oil hub of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. The advances by the Sunni militants are a heavy defeat for al-Maliki. His Shiite-dominated political bloc came first in April parliamentary elections — the first since the U.S. military withdrawal — but failed to get a majority, forcing him to try to build a governing coalition.

The U.N. envoy in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, urged the Federal Court to certify the election results before the current parliament's mandate expires Saturday. "There is a need to guarantee the continuity of the parliament, representing all Iraqis, is in place and will continue to address urgent decisions of national importance," Mladenov said.

Iraq's government began blocking access to websites like Facebook and Twitter, according to Renesys, a New Hampshire-based Internet analysis firm. The outages, reported Thursday and Friday, appeared to coincide with government efforts to disrupt the militants' offensive and mirrored other past efforts by Middle East countries to block Internet access.

Internet access routed through Kurdistan into neighboring Turkey appeared to continue functioning, said Jim Cowie, the head of research and development at Renesys. Iraq also accesses the Internet through providers in Jordan and via submarine cables. "There can always be battle damage but in this particular case it's government directed," Cowie told the AP.

http://news.msn.com/world/shiite-cle...snews11&stay=1

ISIS butchers leave 'roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers': Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government's call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital
By Sam Greenhill and Jill Reilly and Kieran Corcoran
Published: 02:15 EST, 12 June 2014 | Updated: 18:43 EST, 12 June 2014

U.S. today changed tone on intervention; President Obama said: 'I don't rule out anything... Iraq will need more help'

Crucial vote to grant emergency powers was delayed because MPs did not turn up, leaving Iraqi government paralysed

Disruption in Iraq could add 2p to the price of a litre of petrol within a fortnight as ISIS insurgents take key oil fields

Kurdish forces are in full control of Iraq's oil city of Kirkuk after the federal army abandoned their posts

Iran has sent special forces and a unit of elite troops to Iraq to assist the Iraqi government halt the advance

Iraqi air force is bombing insurgent positions in and around Mosul - 1.3million citizens still remain in the city

Middle East experts raised the prospect of Iraq being carved into three - Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite - by the conflict

The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen.

Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad. They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the roadside with a pistol to the back of his head. The extent of the carnage came as:

Images from captured cities such as Mosul and Tikrit showed deserted streets, burnt out vehicles and discarded uniforms left by government troops fleeing the brutal fanatics;

ISIS leaders urged their bloodthirsty followers to continue their march and warned that battle would rage in Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala;

Thousands of residents in the capital answered a call to arms to repel the invaders amid fears the government’s own troops were not up to the job;

Aid groups warned of a new refugee crisis after half a million terrified Iraqis left their homes to escape the jihadists.

In the swathe of captured territory across northern Iraq, ISIS declared hardline Sharia law, publishing rules ordering women not to go outside ‘unless strictly necessary’, banning alcohol and smoking, and forcing all residents to attend mosques five times a day. BBC correspondent Paul Wood said one woman from Mosul, Iraq’s second city, had spoken of seeing a ‘row of decapitated soldiers and policemen’.

The refugee woman told how the victims’ heads were placed in rows – a trademark, trophy-style execution favoured by ISIS militants.

The fanatics captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, by overrunning an army base and rounding up hundreds of soldiers and police. Dozens of members of a police special forces battalion were paraded on the back of a truck in the city.

As the balaclava-clad militants took Mosul and Tikrit, thousands of Baghdad’s residents young and old queued at recruiting stations to form a ‘Dad’s army’ to defend the capital.

Trucks carrying volunteers in uniform rumbled towards the frontlines to defend the city, with many chanting slogans against the ISIS militants.

Meanwhile the Iraqi air force carried out at least four bombing raids on insurgent positions in and around Mosul. State television showed targets exploding in black clouds.

Britons working in Baghdad’s Green Zone where most of the foreign embassies are based were on high alert. The lightning advance of ISIS has caused alarm in London, Washington and across the Middle East.

Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used belonging to the American military. They also seized £350million-worth of dinars by robbing a bank in Mosul.


According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.


One said: ‘Our leaders betrayed us. The commanders left the military behind. When we woke up, all the leaders had left.’


Last night Barack Obama said America would help with ‘short-term immediate actions… militarily’ to push back the insurgents, but ruled out sending troops.


Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would not get involved militarily because Iraq was now a democracy.


Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed: ‘We are not going to allow this to carry on, regardless of the price. We are getting ready. We are organising.’


As the situation spiralled out of control, even Iran was said to have deployed two battalions from its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government retake Tikrit.


The development was likely to enrage Washington, which has been steadfast in its determination for Baghdad not to cosy up to Tehran.


It also emerged that members of Saddam’s old guard were joining the insurrection. Fighters loyal to his disbanded Baath Party were said to be actively supporting the rebels. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham but has also been referenced as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Its insurgency is the biggest threat to Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011.


ISIS commanders issued chilling warnings to any police officers or soldiers to ‘repent or be killed’.


In a sinister video, the extremists urged followers to ‘march to Baghdad – we have a score to settle’. They also pledged to take the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

‘Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging,’ a voice said to be that of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani says. ‘It will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. So be ready for it. Put on your belts and get ready.’


But taking Baghdad would be much tougher for ISIS than the towns where they have triumphed so far. The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors last night to discuss the crisis.


Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking in London, insisted the government had halted the rebel advance and even claimed insurgents were ‘on the run’.


But at Baiji, near Kirkuk, insurgents surrounded Iraq’s largest refinery. And the fighters have reached Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad.


About a quarter of Mosul’s two million residents have fled. The flood of terrified families escaping the fighting there was described as ‘one of the largest and swiftest mass movements of people in the world in recent memory’. Many have headed east into the autonomous region of Kurdistan.


Aid groups fear a new refugee crisis. Neighbouring countries already struggling to look after 2.8million refugees from the Syrian civil war now face the prospect of a new influx of displaced people desperately seeking a safe haven.


Meanwhile Iraqi Kurds seized control of the major northern oil city of Kirkuk today after the central government's army abandoned its posts.The Kurds - a semi-autonomous ethnic group based in the north - have their own 250,000-strong military, but have not used them to engage ISIS.

Footage emerged yesterday evening from TIkrit, which appears to show a long line of captured men and boys, being forcibly marched down a highway in the city.

The minute-long video, uploaded to YouTube, showed a snaking column of men stretching the entire visible length of the stretch of road. A voice captured by the recording describes a great Islamic 'family' and later an 'army', suggesting a possible intention to recruit the captives.

Most of the men and boys have both hands on their heads, while others - some wearing head coverings and some bare-faced - move up and down the column encouraging the march.


The startling developments raise the spectre of Iraq being carved up and divided into several states. Respected commentators have raised the prospect that, with Kurdish forces holding the north, the Sunni ISIS militants taking parts of the north and west, leaving the central and south-eastern to the Shiite population who currently run the government and military.

Yesterday the Iraqi Ambassador to Washington warned the ‘integrity of Iraq is in question’, while Dr Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister of Iraq, added that a break-up was ‘not impossible’.

The governor of Mosul, who escaped the city and is now in Erbil in the Kurdish north, said that Iraq must be divided as centralisation had 'failed'.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Atheel al-Nujaifi said prime minister Nouri al-Maliki 'didn't devolve authority to us before, but now we must do it. Now we are saying his centralisation policies have failed,' Mr Nujaifi said.

Repercussions from the conflict are also being felt in global oil markets, where prices shot to a three-month high. The RAC said disruption could add more than 2p to the price of a litre of petrol.

The price of Brent crude rose $2 to a three-month high of more than $112 on fears about supply from the second-biggest producer in the Opec oil cartel.


The RAC said: ‘The worsening situation in Iraq is causing a knee-jerk reaction in the global fuel market with wholesale prices going up one pence over Wednesday and Thursday.’


This was likely to push the pump price of both petrol and diesel up by 2p per litre in the short term, the RAC said, ‘and this could well go much further’.


Iraq has insisted sectarian violence will not spread to the south, from which the vast majority of oil output comes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz34Yqb03pV

LATEST: U.S. weighs Iraq airstrikes, Obama says he won't send combat troops

> http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/us-weighs-iraq-airstrikes

Iraqi Air Force evacuating besieged U.S. contractors -
200 U.S. contractors surrounded by jihadists in Iraq
No help from America's military as escape routes cut off
Published: 1 day ago

NEW YORK – A U.S. contractor in Iraq told WND the Iraqi Air Force has begun evacuations from Balad Air Force Base, where 200 American contractors were trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad.

A contractor with Sallyport Global, who asked not to be named, told WND through a Skype instant message that he was transported from Balad to Baghdad and was communicating from a C-130 preparing to take off to Dubai.

He said 300 in total have been evacuated from Balad, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, and another 100 are still awaiting airlift. He said the Iraqi Air Force is trying to evacuate everyone by midnight local time.

WND previously reported Friday that private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq said their former colleagues effectively had been abandoned by the U.S. military and were fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The U.S. contractors were at Balad to help the Pentagon prepare the facilities for the delivery of the F-16 aircraft the Obama administration has agreed to provide the Iraqi government.

The surrounded Americans said they were under ISIS fire from small arms, AK47s and rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs.

The contractors had been able to hold the base, but those on the scene reported it was only a matter of time before the ISIS terrorists succeeded in breaking through the perimeter. The sources confirmed the contractors were still under siege, despite an Associated Press report Thursday, citing U.S. officials, that three plane loads of Americans were being evacuated from Balad.

WND learned from sources that the jihadists closed down escape routes, and the U.S. Air Force was in a stand-down position. U.S. forces were not assisting even with air cover so a private extradition flight could land for a rescue, the sources said.

Privately scheduled exit flights had fallen through, sources said, as several private pilots originally scheduled to make the flights quit.

The sources contended the U.S. military could provide the necessary air cover to protect C-130s or other air transport craft sufficient to make the evacuation, but so far officials had refused to get involved.

Balad Air Force Base has been under attack since Wednesday, when ISIS rebels seized the nearby town of Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.

The attacking ISIS forces approached the base in trucks Wednesday and called through loudspeakers for all private security forces and Iraqi special military to leave immediately or die.

The U.S. private contractors in touch with WND reported that after hearing the broadcast, the private security forces and the Iraqi military defending the base dropped their weapons and ran.

The American contractors collected the weapons left behind and were able to hold off further immediate advances.


http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/200-u-s-c...dLvA0jLauX9.99

In 2007, Romney Predicted Current Events In Iraq So Accurately He Must Have Had A Time Machine
By Justen Charters

At a campaign event in 2007, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney shared his views on what could happen in Iraq if the situation was not handled with care. He said:

“You could see in the Shia south, the Iranians reaching over and grabbing to take power. You could see in the Sunni northwest, the Al-Qaeda folks taking power and leadership in that area.”

“You could see the unrest among some of the Kurd populations and surrounding countries, perhaps destabilize the border of Turkey. And it’s even possible that you might think a regional conflict in the Middle East may occur.”

Romney’s predictions are so accurate, it’s almost eerie. And here’s why:

1. In the last 48 hours the Iranian government sent 2,000 troops to Iraq to help quell the current insurgency.

2. The Al-Qaeda linked group ISIS composed of Sunni militants have successfully captured the northwestern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit.

3. The Arab Spring has created unrest in 17 nations with an Islamic majority.

I guess that’s what happens when you gaze into the crystal ball of common sense. You see things as they really are.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/06/1476...-time-machine/

Romney was not an acceptable POTUS for two truly ridiculous reasons. 1. He knew how to make money and therefore became rich....ohhhh--Bad Romney Bad Romney--prospering! 2. He didn't know how to blow the proverbial smoke up people's butts with charm and panache--he was a straight shooter--too square! A serious loss to the people of the US. Now all we have is a dude that blows smoke up our collectives butts while keeping his hands buried DEEP in our pockets funding anything that will BLOW this country to hell! To maintain PC let me remember to say, IMHO!

..

I've long thought if Romney wasn't a rich white guy he would have win that election. Obama used income disparity to a very successful end even though it is largely BS After all, BO isn't a rich white guy. Well, half of him, anyway.
[/I]

Love Him or Hate Him, He was Right About This

June 13, 2014 By TPNN Staff Writer

While not the perfect president, having lost his previous commitment to conservatism with the federal overreach of No Child Left Behind followed by an abandoning of his free market principles to ‘save the free market’, George W. Bush was right about one thing.

Iraq.

The typical excuse making machine, also known as the Obama administration and his protectors, claim that no one could have know what would happen in Iraq after the United States military pulled out. This despite the fact that Obama basically gave the terrorists our game plan thereby allowing them to prepare a plan of action to go on a full scale attack of the region.

Back in 2007, George W. Bush, described by the left as a cowboy who was too stupid to understand foreign policy, said this:

I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region, and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/06/13/love-...ht-about-this/

06.14.14

ISIS Leader: ‘See You in New York’

When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi walked away from a U.S. detention camp in 2009, the future leader of ISIS issued some chilling final words to reservists from Long Island.

The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009.




“He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’” recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca.

King didn’t take these words from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a threat. Al-Baghdadi knew that many of his captors were from New York, reservists with the 306 Military Police Battalion, a unit based on Long Island that includes numerous numerous members of the NYPD and the FDNY. The camp itself was named after FDNY Fire Marshal Ronald Bucca, who was killed at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

King figured that al-Baghdadi was just saying that he had known all along that it was all essentially a joke, that he had only to wait and he would be freed to go back to what he had been doing.

“Like, ‘This is no big thing, I’ll see you on the block,’” King says.

King had not imagined that in less that five years he would be seeing news reports that al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS, the ultra-extremist army that was sweeping through Iraq toward Baghdad.

“I’m not surprised that it was someone who spent time in Bucca but I’m a little surprised it was him,” King says. “He was a bad dude, but he wasn’t the worst of the worst.”

King allows that along with being surprised he was frustrated on a very personal level.

“We spent how many missions and how many soldiers were put at risk when we caught this guy and we just released him,” King says.

During the four years that al-Baghdadi was in custody, there had been no way for the Americans to predict what a danger he would become. Al-Baghdadi hadn’t even been assigned to Compound 14, which was reserved for the most virulently extremist Sunnis.




“A lot of times, the really bad guys tended to operate behind the scenes because they wanted to be invisible,” the other officer says.

“The worst of the worst were kept in one area,” King says. “I don’t recall him being in that group.”

Al-Baghdadi was also apparently not one of the extremists who presided over Sharia courts that sought to enforce fundamentalist Islamic law among their fellow prisoners. One extremist made himself known after the guards put TV sets outside the 16-foot chain-link fence that surrounded each compound. An American officer saw a big crowd form in front of one, but came back a short time later to see not a soul.

“Some guy came up and shooed them all away because TV was Western,” recalls the officer, who asked not to be named. “So we identified who that guy was, put a report in his file, kept him under observation for other behaviors.”

The officer says the guards kept constant watch for clues among the prisoners for coalescing groups and ascending leaders.

“You can tell when somebody is eliciting leadership skills, flag him, watch him further, how much leadership they’re excerpting and with whom,” the other officer says. “You have to constantly stay after it because it constantly changes, sometimes day by day.”

The guards would seek to disrupt the courts along with and any nascent organizations and hierarchies by moving inmates to different compounds, though keeping the Sunnis and the Shiites separate.

“The Bloods with the Bloods and the Crips with the Crips, that kind of thing,” King says.

The guards would then move the prisoners again and again. That would also keep the prisoners from spotting any possible weaknesses in security.

“The detainees have nothing but time,” King says. “They’re looking at patterns, they’re looking at routines, they’re looking for opportunities.”

As al-Baghdadi and the 26,000 other prisoners were learning the need for patience in studying the enemy, the guards would be constantly searching for homemade weapons fashioned from what the prisoners dug up, the camp having been built on a former junkyard.

“People think of a detainee operation, they think it’s a sleepy Hogan’s Heroes-type camp,” the other officer says. “And it’s nothing of the sort.”

Meanwhile, al-Baghdadi’s four years at Camp Bucca would have been a perpetual lesson in the importance of avoiding notice.

“A lot of times, the really bad guys tended to operate behind the scenes because they wanted to be invisible,” the other officer says.

King seemed confident that he and his guards with their New York street sense would have known if al-Baghdadi had in fact been prominent among the super-bad guys when he was at Camp Bucca.

King had every reason to think he had seen the last of al-Baghdadi in the late summer of 2009, when this seemingly unremarkable prisoner departed with a group of others on one of the C-17 cargo-plane flights that ferried them to a smaller facility near Baghdad. Camp Bucca closed not along afterward.

Al-Baghdadi clearly remembered some of the lessons of his time there. He has made no videos, unlike Osama bin Laden and many of the other extremist leaders. The news reports might not have had a photo of him at all were it not for the one taken by the Americans when he was first captured in 2005.

That is the face that King was so surprised to see this week as the man who had become the absolute worst of the worst, so bad that even al Qaeda had disowned him. The whole world was stunned as al-Baghdadi now told his enemies “I’ll see you in Baghdad.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-new-york.html

President Obama’s address today about the deteriorating conditions in Iraq not only had its share of bad optics, but it also lacked a certain measure of self-awareness. http://twitchy.com/2014/06/13/defini...-hits-the-fan/

National Review’s Jonah Goldberg spelled it out:

Jonah Goldberg ✔ @JonahNRO

Obama says it's a big problem when Iraqi soldiers abandon their posts.
Bergdahl's comrades think it's a problem when Americans do it too.


12:03 PM - 13 Jun 2014

http://twitchy.com/2014/06/13/doesnt...reality-check/

TEXT FROM BAGHDAD EMBASSY: "Too Late Alamo"
INTERNET SHUT DOWN AT BAGHDAD'S US EMBASSY

Just minutes ago news came from within the United States Embassy in Baghdad that the Iraqis have shut down internet service for those barricaded inside. Limited text messages via private cell phones are still coming through. United States Marines as well as private contractors from security firms based in the U.S. are in charge of securing the facility. Many of those employed by the private security agencies come from the U.S., as well as African countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya.

It is unknown how many of the more than 5,000 U.S. civilians in Baghdad are actually taking refuge inside the embassy compound. NBC war correspondent, Richard Engel reported last night that civilians in and around Baghdad have boarded up residences and businesses. The embassy lockup is a reminder of when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August of 1990 and U.S. civilians were held hostage for months, including those from the State Department and Department of Transportation.

This week ISIS terrorists operating in Iraq have toppled Fallujah, Ramadi, Tikrit, and Mosul, robbing the Bank of Mosul for more than $450 million dollars. ISIS leaders now claim they are the richest terror group in the world, topping al Qaeda and Hamas. This militant group has vowed to overrun Baghdad, the nation's capital, and eliminate the Shiite ruling party.

A three word text was released from inside the Embassy about six hours ago: “Too late Alamo.” That message is open to interpretation.

Examiner's Note: This Examiner has personal contacts within the walls of the embassy. Those contacts will remain anonymous for their own safety. More information as I am able to get through.

Page Admin Note: ADMIN NOTE: The US EMBASSY IN IRAQ is the largest US embassy in the world, at a cost of $750 MILLION. Plans for the layout were posted online by the US architectural firm that designed it, (giving insurgents a complete layout for any future plans!) and the plans stayed up for a short time before the State Dept. had them removed.

http://www.examiner.com/article/brea...mbassy-baghdad

Cameron Gray ✔ @Cameron_Gray

While #ISIS poses a mortal threat to Americans in Iraq,
Obama is golfing and Kerry is tweeting Leo DiCaprio about oceans - We’re so f**ked

10:17 AM - 14 Jun 2014

Sure, Iraq is swimming in an ocean of devastation. But that’s not the ocean Secretary of State John Kerry wants to talk about.

John Kerry ✔ @JohnKerry

Look fwd to having @LeoDiCaprio at #OurOcean2014.
He's been an important advocate/partner to protect the health of our ocean.

9:56 AM - 14 Jun 2014

On Monday, Kerry will welcome attendees to the State Department’s “Our Ocean” conference. http://ourocean2014.state.gov/

And squee! Leonardo DiCaprio is on board. Maybe he can get an autograph!

John Kerry ✔ @JohnKerry

Look fwd to having @LeoDiCaprio at #OurOcean2014.
He's been an important advocate/partner to protect the health of our ocean.

Leonardo DiCaprio ✔ @LeoDiCaprio

It’s an honor. This issue is very important: http://ourocean2014.state.gov/
RT @JohnKerry: Look fwd to having @LeoDiCaprio at #OurOcean2014.

10:17 AM - 14 Jun 2014

Anyway, Kerry is all over this “intensive diplomacy” stuff. http://twitchy.com/2014/06/13/is-tha...raq-photoshop/

John Kerry ✔ @JohnKerry

As POTUS said, we’re accelerating security assistance
& pursuing intensive diplomacy inside Iraq & across region.

Top priority is our people

3:50 PM - 13 Jun 2014

Intensive Diplomacy You Guys. And laser-like focus on fish and dreamy Leo while Iraq burns. http://twitchy.com/2014/06/12/you-tw...-beam-on-fish/

Razor @hale_razor

@StateDept
Russia is annexing Ukraine.
Radical Islamists are taking Iraq.
Iran wants nukes.
And you're focused like a laser beam
... on fish.

8:24 AM - 12 Jun 2014

Priorities? Check!

#OurOcean2014? Ah, the “promise of hashtag.” Is the State Department sure it doesn’t want to go with #BringBackOurFish to really drive home the pressing importance of this effort?

“Our ocean today is at grave risk, and the damage is not happening by accident,” according to Secretary of State John Kerry.




You know what else is at grave risk?

Cameron Gray ✔ @Cameron_Gray

Are you out of your f**king mind, you robotic dolt - LOOK AT IRAQ!!!!!!! -
RT @JohnKerry: Look fwd to having @LeoDiCaprio at #OurOcean2014.

10:11 AM - 14 Jun 2014

Bobbi Jo Rohrberg @BobbiJoR

“@JohnKerry:Look fwd to having @LeoDiCaprio at #OurOcean2014"
Shouldn't you focus on more pressing issues like escalating situation in Iraq?

10:27 AM - 14 Jun 2014

windflwr @windflwr

@JohnKerry @LeoDiCaprio
Forget about the f'n ocean, try paying attention to Iraq.
The World is in crisis and you continue to dick around.

10:01 AM - 14 Jun 2014

Lolo Gray @LoLoGray6979

Seriously Sec. @JohnKerry ... a party with Leo? #priorities

10:21 AM - 14 Jun 2014

rbee @rbeestweets

@LoLoGray6979 @bostonrandy @JohnKerry Appropriate since this regime is going the way of the titanic...

10:28 AM - 14 Jun 2014

http://twitchy.com/2014/06/14/iraq-c...ardo-dicaprio/

Cry havoc and let slip the hashtags of war!

jon gabriel @exjon

Look out ISIS: Stone Cold Barack Obama's about to open a can of "intensive diplomacy" on yer ass!

11:03 AM - 13 Jun 2014

New York Times World @nytimesworld

The U.S. will pursue intensive diplomacy in Iraq and throughout the region, President Obama says.

11:03 AM - 13 Jun 2014

PETER MAER ✔ @petermaercbs

Pres. Obama promises, "intensive diplomacy inside Iraq and throughout the region."

11:04 AM - 13 Jun 2014

joncelli @joncelli

Intensive diplomacy.

He really said that.

Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is breathing a sigh of relief and an ayatollah is laughing.

11:09 AM - 13 Jun 2014

Savannah the Bossy @thesavvy

Intensive diplomacy, you guys.

Because diplomatic people decapitate men and women
and leave their bodies in the street.


11:06 AM - 13 Jun 2014

angela walker @angelarwalker

Obama and intensive diplomacy, in other words look for lots of new hashtags.

11:08 AM - 13 Jun 2014