Obama Lies – There Never Was A “Siege Of Mount Sinjar”

August 14, 2014

“We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar,” Obama said.

“We do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain, and it’s unlikely we’ll need to continue humanitarian air drops on the mountain,” Obama continued.

This “broke the siege” statement is a lie. There never was a “siege” on the Sinjar mountain range. The Yazidi who had fled there were quickly welcomed and evacuated to Syria by the Kurdish PKK and YPG forces. There are now some 15,000 of Yazidis in the Kurdish part of Syria. Some thousand refugees may still be in the mountains but the nomadic shepherds who live there will likely help them along.

The PKK was already there doing the job three days before the first U.S. action took place.

On August 6 GulfNews reported:

“The PKK fighters have reached the Jabal Sinjar area, where they are protecting the Sinjaris from attacks” by militants, Penjweny said.

But another PUK official warned it could be some time before the civilians can be rescued.

“The PKK is working to open a safe passage for the displaced; it is not easy and it will require days,” Harem Kamal Agha said.

Here is video uploaded August 8 headlined “YPG and PKK rescue people from Sinjar” which shows part of the evacuation. Notice the tanker trucks with water and/or gasoline to keep the refugees going.

Herbert Maddison tweeted pictures from the area:

#HPG [#PKK] guerrilla in mount #Shingal / #Sinjar vicinity with trapped Ezidis, #Kurdistan #Iraq August 9, 2014

The PKK did even more than just rescue the Yazidis:

60 PKK guerrillas arrived to Lalesh, the sacred place of #Yazidis, in order to defend pic.twitter.com/oJ8qEp1wnM #ISIS #ISIL #Kurdistan

When U.S. jets started bombing a few ISIS positions near to Erbil most Yazidis were already safe and on their way out of the mountains. The U.S. announced its first airstrikes on Friday the 8th while the PKK had started its operation to help the Yazidis on Tuesday the 5th. There was never a blockade or a siege and always a safe way out towards Syria which the refugees were helped along by the PKK.

But that good deed was done by the socialist from the PKK and YPG. The U.S. State Department officially designates the PKK as a “terrorist group” for its fight against the Turkish state. Unlike the pesh merga under the Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani these people know how to fight and have the discipline and training to achieve successes against ISIS and other Jihadi organizations.

But that is a story Obama does not want to tell. He needs an excuse to reintroduce U.S. forces back into Iraq, to secure the oil U.S. companies are pumping from there and to pressure for regime change in Baghdad. The Sinjar mountain “siege” was an easy excuse. Nearly as good as the sinking of the Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Posted by b on August 14, 2014 at 18:07 UTC | Permalink

Comments

And Tony Abbott, leader of Oz’s inane, (neo)Liberal, behind-closed-doors govt is laughing along with Obama – sending Oz Air Force Planes to drop ‘aid’ to the imaginary refugees.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 14 2014 18:33 utc | 1

“We broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar,” Obama said.
——————————————–
More like broke wind…sad.

Posted by: really | Aug 14 2014 18:34 utc | 2

But that is a story Obama does not want to tell. He needs an excuse to reintroduce U.S. forces back into Iraq, to secure the oil U.S. companies are pumping from there and to pressure for regime change in Baghdad. The Sinjar mountain “siege” was an easy excuse. Nearly as good as the sinking of the Maine and the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Yes, and in the other thread I noted that the same players are at the narrative-building once again especially one Ben Rhodes who originally helped draft the official 9/11 Commission Whitewash and the Iraq Study Group Whitewash as a mere baby.
Here are some gems from little Ben’s post on whitehouse.gov from 3 days ago:

Airstrikes in Iraq: What You Need to Know
1. What exactly did the President do?
On August 7, 2014, President Obama authorized two operations in the northern region of Iraq. First, he authorized the military to use limited airstrikes to protect American diplomatic and military personnel serving in the city of Erbil. Second, the United States is delivering humanitarian aid to thousands of Yezidis, Iraqi civilians, who have been forced to flee their homes and are now stranded on a mountainside — facing near-certain death without our assistance.
snip
7. Is ISIL more dangerous than al-Qaeda right now?
While both are terrorist forces, they have different ambitions. Al-Qaeda’s principal ambition is to launch attacks against the west and U.S. homeland. That’s the direct threat that we have taken direct action against for many years. Right now, ISIL’s primary focus is consolidating territory in the Middle East region to establish their own Islamic State. So they’re different organizations with different objectives.
8. Are we at war with ISIL? Will we be sending troops back to Iraq?
No. There is no U.S. military solution to the larger situation in Iraq. The United States’ chief goals are to protect our personnel and facilities, and to prevent a potential act of genocide. That is the scope of these operations. As the President said, we will support Iraqis as they take the fight to these terrorists, but no American combat troops will be returning to fight in Iraq.

So, we should STILL be crapping our pants about AL-CIAda but we shouldn’t worry about ISIS?
But Netanyahoo, Lindsey Graham and others have told us recently that ISIS DOES want to attack the US/Israel just like Al-CIAda and Hamas.
I’m confused.
Wait a second…is that the point?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 18:37 utc | 3

Fascinating stuff. Yes, it’s muddy water all around … From France 24
False images used to ‘prove’ slavery, genital mutilation under ISIStwo
It’s part of why that slaughter of 500 including 50 children, the 50 dead children on the mountain and the 200 women taken as “slaves,” “sex slaves”, and/or to be sold into (sex) slavery must be followed up.
Yes, there has been well-documented savagery … but I’ve been startled by the lack of claimed new incidents in the last few days … as older, already reported claims have been repeated as new.
While savagery can be used effectively to intimidate a population and discourage resistance, it can quickly becomes a liability, if/when it spurs people who believe they have nothing to lose to resistance. Again, many of these young jihadis have been raised on youtube videos of atrocities. If TPTB within ISIS can enforce some kind of discipline (in hopes of wooing back moderate Iraqi Sunnis who in one scenario may flock to the central government for safety in the face of ISIS atrocities), they may be a more formidable force that previously reckoned with.
Can never known if the apparent ‘lull’ in reported crimes is real or manufactured by our MSM self-censoring/prioritizing of “important issues for our viewers” … Those kidnapped Boku Haram schoolgirl sure left the news quickly when there it was discovered the government was putting limits on the help it would agree to receive from “us.”
Apparently at least some, possibly much of the now in-flux the Kurdish areas used to be Sunni/Arab as part of Saddam’s arabization campaign that the Kurds reclaimed fairly recently, displacing the Arabs, also expanding the territory under Peshmerga protection considerably, territory expansion that the size of the force may well have not been fully adjusted to accommodate. Random notes.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14 2014 18:43 utc | 4

Adding:
On, Aug 8th, head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee – Dianne Feinstein (D – MIC) – had THIS to say about ISIS:

“It takes an army to defeat an army, and I believe that we either confront ISIL now or we will be forced to deal with an even stronger enemy in the future,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
The group is “operating with military expertise, advancing across Iraq and rapidly consolidating its position,” she added.
“Inaction is no longer an option,” according to Feinstein.
The senior lawmaker also said it had “become clear” that the group is recruiting and training fighters from Western countries and possibly sending them back to cities in the U.S. and Europe in order to “attack us in our backyard.”
“We simply cannot allow this to happen,” Feinstein warned.

Hmmmm, that sure sounds like “the smoking gun is gonna be a mushroom cloud to me”!!
Wait a second, are we being good-cop/bad-copped once again? Or is someone being hung out to dry?
I mean, if the WH’s official position is that of “incompetence/ignorance” of ISIS’s threats against the US/Israel, when we/they suffer yet another false flag attack will Obama et al be able to say that a la Condi they just had NOOOO idea that ISIS was going to blah blah blah so as to escape accountability?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 18:51 utc | 5

Hhhmmm the sinjar mountain was a hoax, there were no wmds in 2003. Ghadafi didn’t hand out viagra. They didn’t toss Kuwaiti babies out of incubators. The Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened. German troops did not cut off the hands of Belgium school kids. The Spanish did not sink the Maine. Mexican troops did not cross the Rio Grande into Texas. Is there a pattern here?

Posted by: Lysander | Aug 14 2014 19:14 utc | 6

Didn’t Jsore make a sarcastic reference to the msm idea of ISIS being everywhere, even under your bed?
Well lookie here Isis is trying to get in your beer…
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/08/13/ISIS-Plot-To-Attack-Carlsberg-Brewery

Posted by: really | Aug 14 2014 19:26 utc | 7

Seriously, the creation of the ISIS back story is in overdrive on the “progressive” web. Either writers seek to wow us with history lessons about earlier formations/versions of the Caliphate throughout history so that we won’t really question the “impossibility” of the rapid rise of ISIS as seen here today at Counterpunch:

Meanwhile, the caliphate has returned with a vengeance. In what seems an impossibly short time, the Islamic State (IS) has challenged the borders of three nation-states—Syria, Iraq, and now Lebanon—and established its own caliphate in this territory. It has no patience for “our Western principles of national sovereignty and self-government” that The Economist proclaimed victorious 90 years ago. It doesn’t even subscribe to the de facto multiculturalism that intermittently held sway during the previous Ottoman caliphate, under which Shi’ites, Christians, Jews, and members of other faiths lived in some approximation of tolerance for long stretches of time. Even al-Qaeda, which shares IS’s contempt for existing governments in the Middle East, hesitated to declare a caliphate because it hadn’t yet prepared the necessary groundwork. IS is nothing if not presumptuous.

OR like Cockburn they seek to paint this all as some sort of “surprise/mistake” – again with elite “incompetence” front and center once again – best summed up in the following statement that is laughable:

For America, Britain and the Western powers, the rise of Isis and the Caliphate is the ultimate disaster. Whatever they intended by their invasion of Iraq in 2003 and their efforts to get rid of Assad in Syria since 2011, it was not to see the creation of a jihadi state spanning northern Iraq and Syria run by a movement a hundred times bigger and much better organised than the al-Qaida of Osama bin Laden. The war on terror for which civil liberties have been curtailed and hundreds of billions of dollars spent has failed miserably.

So, like good – but unwitting? – fifth-columnists the Western fake left is doing it’s part to make sure that it’s audience – i.e., the educated bourgeoisie – is “informed” about what is going on with ISIS meaning they will NOT ask deeper questions about all of this nonsensical narrative building that is ludicrous on its face. TPTB understand that to control the bourgeois fake left all they have to do is provide their listeners/readers with enough “back story” for whatever nonsense they dream up and those people potentially educated enough to call “bullcrap” on the whole shebang will instead be satisfied, smug and smarmy at their weekend faculty cocktail parties.
Smithers: Dunston, did you know that ISIS is really a neo-manifestation of the Islamic Caliphate the ended in 1924? Would you like some more cognac?
Dunston: Thank you. Why, yes I heard that on NPR yesterday. Fascinating. Isn’t it terrible that our government is so inept that it didn’t see it coming? Dreadful saps.
Smithers: Quite.
The same exact thing happened with Ukraine. Instead of people IMMEDIATELY seeing Maidan etc as a neo-Nazi putsch, they were treated – days/weeks later – to descriptive “back-story” tales as to how “complex” the history of the region was, how there were many factors involved in this “surprise” move on the part of the “protestors” and on and on. Anything but call the Western-backed/instigated neo-Nazi coup EXACTLY what it was: a Western-backed/instigated neo-Nazi coup.
What will it take for people to reject the nonsense output of these writers/analysts who – after all of the purposeful death and destruction we have witnessed for 10+ years – cannot or will not allow ONE OUNCE of critical cynicism to enter their consciousness when they are being fed horsecrap narratives by the US government?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 19:26 utc | 8

…this brewery actually exists?
http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/isis-brewing-company/13272/

Posted by: really | Aug 14 2014 19:30 utc | 9

NYTimes, Aug 14

Speaking from her hospital bed here, Vian Dakhil, an Iraqi member of Parliament and a Yazidi leader who was injured in the crash of a helicopter delivering aid to the mountain on Tuesday, said she was aware of the American claims and had discussed them with Yazidi leaders still in the area.
“It’s better now than it had been, but it’s just not true that all of them are safe — they are not,” Ms. Dakhil said. “Especially on the south side of the mountain, the situation is very terrible. There are still people who are not getting any aid.”
She estimated the number of Yazidis trapped on the southern flanks of Mount Sinjar at 70,000 to 80,000.
Ms. Dakhil’s assessment of the seriousness of the Yazidis’ plight was supported by United Nations humanitarian officials, who on Thursday were unequivocal that there remained a major crisis among the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 14 2014 19:39 utc | 10

Stripes, Aug 14

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday that U.S. humanitarian teams assisting members of the Yazidi sect in northern Iraq will be pulled from the country within days following a successful mission.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 14 2014 19:49 utc | 11

It appears that the Kurds — who know they own the hearts and minds of many in the American government and business community exaggerated the crisis in order to spur American aid and extra-legal arm shipments (which I gather were not permitted, because of arming the Kurds =looks like= destabilizing the central government by supporting/arming for Kurdish independence.
Apparently there’s also a Kurdish oil tanker in the Gulf that we are refusing to off-load (and several others around the world where we have used our influence to “discourage” their offloading of Kurdish oil.
Reuters: 08/12/2014:
Oil tankers in limbo show Kurds losing access to U.S. market.
Looks like the Kurds won this time. Apparently (I’ve both heard and read this a couple of times in the last few days) the Peshmerga has not needed to demonstrate its prowess for quite a while and may have become plaqued with many of the problems of the Iraqi army … I have no way of knowing, but lots of speculation that they aren’t what they used to be … and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, apparently the territory and the nature of the territory (much more urban area, rather than the traditional mountain terrain) has changed.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14 2014 19:59 utc | 12

Obama, Showbama. It’s all for public consumption. POTUS is just a ceremonial position. He is clueless and inert out of fear for…I dunno personal safety; his legacy? Ever since Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, the 1st Branch of government has lost everything except the bully pulpit.
He has either connected the dots, or he hasn’t. It doesn’t matter because he can’t do anything as the fix has been in long before his election.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article185074.html

Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 14 2014 20:25 utc | 13

Originally from the Times of Israel:
Syrian Rebel Commander says he Collaborated with Israel

Following the meetings, Israel began providing Safouri and his men with “basic medical support and clothes” as well as weapons, which included 30 Russian [rifles], 10 RPG launchers with 47 rockets, and 48,000 5.56 millimeter bullets.
While opposition websites denied that Safouri was a collaborator, claiming his entries into Israel were for medical purposes alone, regime media celebrated Safouri’s confession as proof of the Free Syrian Army’s treachery. On August 1, dozens of demonstrators took to the streets of the village of Hayt, Safouri’s hometown near Syria’s borders with Jordan and Israel, to protest his abduction, condemning Al-Nusra Front for the act.

I probably should just think this is a one-off, right?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 20:28 utc | 14

Wag the Dog 2 : Rescue Kids

Posted by: zohiloff | Aug 14 2014 20:29 utc | 15

Fresh off of their years of shameful/disgusting/war criminal cheering-leading for the destabilization of Syria, Murdoch’s VICE tells us that the US “created” ISIS…but only because we invaded Iraq and NOT b/c we directly help to create/fund/train them:

When I say the United States “created” the Islamic State (or “ISIS” as it’s sometimes known), one may very well think I’m also about to tell you that jet fuel can’t melt steel and that Bush knocked down the towers. But this is no convoluted conspiracy involving holograms and crisis actors. It’s quite simple and tragic: The United States invaded Iraq, killed an ungodly amount of people who had friends and family who loved them, unleashed a wave of terrorism across the Middle East—turns out, watching one’s mother die in a US airstrike does not nurture moderation—then installed and armed a sectarian Shiite leader in Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, who proceeded to kill, torture, and generally alienate the Sunni population of Iraq, which is now, not coincidentally, lending support to the Islamic State’s vicious brand of Sunni extremism.
By arming Iraq’s military, the United States also effectively armed ISIS, which captured much of Iraq’s high-powered weaponry when it swept through the north of the country. The US also facilitated the shipment of weapons to a hodgepodge of rebel groups fighting in Syria, with some of those weapons no doubt finding their way into the hands of those whose commitment to liberal democracy is no stronger than dictator-for-life Bashar Assad’s. Add all that up and you have, as with the Taliban and al-Qaeda before, another instance of the United States arming a future foe and then creating the conditions necessary for them to thrive.

Why, this story would sound totally plausible if I was a horny teenager who just happened upon this piece as I was looking for some T&A pics on the rest of the VICE site, right?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 20:40 utc | 16

Jeezum what a sad sack- the way he repeatedly emphasizes mountain makes me feel like Brennan frog marched him up there

Posted by: Nana2007 | Aug 14 2014 20:49 utc | 17

thanks b and lysander @6 for the depressing reminder..

Posted by: james | Aug 14 2014 20:57 utc | 18

JSorrentine, I think you are right to point out the sudden shock and alarm at the incredible potency of ISIS. But in fairness to Cockburn, he does say that ISIS would not be where it is today without critical Saudi funding in 2012-2013. I’m with you though, I do not buy into the ISIS as Frankenstein Monster theme that is prevalent. If it were, all those rotten Gulf emirates would be absolutely freaking out now and going to Capitol Hill and lining up public pledges for U.S. troops, as they did in the aftermath of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.
Cockburn’s prediction of ISIS pivoting back to Aleppo appears to be coming true. ISIS could stay busy in Syria for some time.
Susan Sunflower, I think the refugee flows into Kurdistan were real and significant. I read the dispatches posted on Syria Comment by a guy named Matthew Barber who was on the ground in Kurdistan and they ring true. For instance, he was skeptical about the jihadis controlling Mosul Dam, but he said the lack of info tended to create a lot of fear and uncertainty which tended to stampede people. Not Sunnis so much as Christians and Yazidis.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 14 2014 21:07 utc | 19

Maliki steps down, says intelligence apparatuses behind strife in region.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 14 2014 21:41 utc | 20

Gee Mike, I never said there was no humanitarian crisis, just that it was being exaggerated for effect, to get the United States to reverse its position. It worked.
Having the same claims amplified by their reappearing several days in a row as breaking news was a clue. Having the number of stranded varying wildly between 20-30 thousand to over 100,000 also smelled. Having 40,000 of these stranded for days, dehydrated, unfed, overheated (temperatures hovering around 125 degrees) people march off the mountain once the coast was clear did not jibe with the nightmare scenario that had been painted.
I have no particular reason to doubt that ISIS is savage. I have no fascination with such reports and avoid the stories — however, but we were told that 500 were slaughtered (oh, with some buried alive) including 50 children — and yet there’s been no followup that I’ve seen.
I noticed in all the reports –here’s one from 08/10/2014: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-crisis-islamic-militants-buried-alive-yazidi-women-and-children-in-attack-that-killed-500-9659695.html — that the name of the town or village wasn’t specified. In this report it’s 300 women abducted. The bodies were found in a mass grave, location unmentioned.
After ISIS’s mass killing of Shiia men a few weeks back, it certainly seems within the realm of possibility … but almost everything reported was “reportedly” often single-source and based on cell-phone conversations.
What of their relatives, neighbors? See also the mothers, fathers, and siblings of the 200 abducted women. If abduction of women as sex slaves and/or to be sold as same has been a practice of ISIS in Syria, I missed that news. To my knowledge it has not been an Iraqi insurgency practice.
I don’t really care much about the ruse … though I can’t help wonder who knew early on and happily used the “crisis” opportunistically.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14 2014 21:42 utc | 21

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 14, 2014 2:33:33 PM | 1
australias politial parties are like FUKUS ones: essentially the same and subservient to imperiao power elites

Posted by: brian | Aug 14 2014 21:46 utc | 22

creating strife , chaos etc is the american way of control: to imperil an independent governemnt using local and imported patsies..and sunnis make very good patsies

Posted by: brian | Aug 14 2014 21:48 utc | 23

@17
That seems to be the new narrative … the poor Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is just not in control, Israel Obtains US Arms Without White House Approval. Of course the flip side of that is ‘there’s been a coup!’
I suppose that’s supposed to ‘preserve’ the NPPL’s ‘image’ among the self-deluded in America, as Obama and Holder now play Abbas and the PLO to the black American Gazans in Ferguson MO.

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 14 2014 21:54 utc | 24

Actually it’s all the cries of “genocide” that really stick in my craw … I’ve never recovered from 100,000 missing Serbian men who were used to justify the NATO war on Bosnia … no one ever found them … or evidence that they had ever existed … Saddam’s jack-booted brutes stomping to death premature babies wrenched from incubators … another classic.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14 2014 22:00 utc | 25

As mentioned here before…. the first food drops went like this. If at all true then why should anyone consider that type of “drop” to be anything but intent to kill people?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11024037/Iraq-crisis-It-is-death-valley.-Up-to-70-per-cent-of-them-are-dead.html
Two American aid flights have also made it to the mountain, where they have dropped off more than 36,000 meals and 7,000 gallons of drinking water to help the refugees, and last night two RAF C-130 transport planes were also on the way.
However, Iraqi officials said that much of the US aid had been “useless” because it was dropped from 15,000ft without parachutes and exploded on impact.

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Aug 14 2014 23:05 utc | 26

Don’t forget the “rape rooms” of Gaddafi, Susan.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 14 2014 23:07 utc | 27

@27
Weren’t those “rape rooms” Saddam’s sons’?
With all the Viagra Ghadaffi’s men were being fed, rooms didn’t come into it. I may be wrong. It is so hard to keep track of lies that tell us a lot more about the propagandists inventing them than they do about the victims of their fantasies.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2014 23:14 utc | 28

The only reason Obama sent troops and jets to the area was to protect the city of Erbil with its CIA station, the international airport and the local headquarters of various “western” oil companies.
It wasn’t the only reason, but it was certainly part of the reason. Let’s face it, he was being pushed and shoved by the press to act in some way, so, he took the Clinton approach. Remember how Clinton handled Iraq? Obama’s dealing with it in a very similar manner, albeit Iraq is an entirely different beast than it was in Clinton’s day.
Maybe it’s a set-up for a conservative ass-kicker to come into office in 2016 and fight five wars on ten fronts — you know, a George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan hybrid on steroids with a Kissinger-McNamara-Lemay Fog of War cherry on top. If so, Russia, Syria and ISIS better watch out because they have no idea what’s coming their way.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 14 2014 23:17 utc | 29

#28. Ghaddafi was a monster. He took schoolgirls and boys out of class and had his way. All this talk about his progressive reforms makes me ill.

Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 14 2014 23:21 utc | 30

I think the “rape rooms” moved around via tractor trailer like the mobile anthrax labs that Colin Powell said Saddam used to foil the weapons inspectors. They drove from Bosnia to Kosovo to Iraq then on to Libya. Possibly their was a stop along the way in Kuwait City to steal the incubators.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 14 2014 23:23 utc | 31

According to a live video conference I listened to the economic damage to Kurdistan is likely to be significant and long-standing. Kurdistan thrived because it was perceived as safe and the foreign companies came and expanded and an enormous service industry sprang up to meet their needs — can you say trickle down? — but now most of the foreign personnel have left and the economy is flat on its back — hotels are near-empty … nothing is moving and there are virtually no flights coming in or out, no flights further than say Turkey …
Even if ISIS evaporated overnight, the insurance underwriters and boards of directors (and investors) are likely to be slow to repopulate their facilities to anywhere near the same level, much less expand. See also the United States (and friend) refusing to deal directly with Kurdistan, not wanting to undermine/enrage Baghdad).
All that “safety” was clearly an illusion anyway … my guess is that financial interests are behind Libya calling for outside military assistance as well.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14 2014 23:27 utc | 32

“… they will NOT ask deeper questions about all of this nonsensical narrative building that is ludicrous on its face.” @8
Do you ask deeper questions? I’ve seen none of them, if you do.
The only question you ask is why Cockburn, for example-and the list of those you call gatekeepers, fake leftists or hasbara is very long- doesn’t report that the Jews are behind it, the ones who tell the US government what to do and control the world.
That’s your beef with all these stories suggesting that there may be more to ISIS than robots carrying out orders from Langley, doing what Tel Aviv and AIPAC want.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2014 23:30 utc | 33

@29.. cold – thanks for giving us the warmongers sermon… it isn’t even sunday morning! you could be one of those hellfire freak preachers from the usa… you might get a better following too!

Posted by: james | Aug 14 2014 23:58 utc | 34

ISIS threatens WH with picture on Twitter.
Nope, this doesn’t sound like a bunch of effing nonsense. Not at all.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 0:52 utc | 35

‘Robots’ killed plenty of US occupiers in the Iraq War.

Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 15 2014 0:55 utc | 36

Wait a second…ISIS isn’t like Al-CIAda.
ISIS is MORE like Occupy!!!
ISOccupy the Levant!!!
ISOccupy Kurdistan!!!
ISOccupy Erbil!!!
ISOccupy Syria!!!
What do you say, “progressives/fake lefties” and Millenials? Do you think US/Zionist intel have created a boogeyman that you can relate to?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 1:01 utc | 37

Great article from Sept of 2002, written four months prior to the Invasion of Iraq. Some may be familiar with it’s content but it is certainly worth another read in helping to sort out what has happened over the last decade as well as what’s currently going on.
Question: Could the Islamic State sought by ISIS be a “Hashemite monarch-decendants of the Prophet Muhammad who rule Jordan”?
“Playing skittles with Saddam”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/03/worlddispatch.iraq

Posted by: Skoalbrother | Aug 15 2014 1:32 utc | 38

@38
Obviously what we are witnessing HAS NOTHING whatsoever to do with any of the detailed long-term plans as spelled out in that article as every reasonable person fully understands that our elite are so incompetent that they couldn’t plan their way out of a paper bag much less years down the line. To think otherwise, obviously means that you are an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.
From the article:

One of the curious aspects of this neo-conservative intrigue is that so few people outside the United States and Israel take it seriously. Perhaps, like President Mubarak, they can’t imagine that anyone who holds a powerful position in the United States could be quite so reckless.

That was in 2002. NOW in 2014 one of the curious aspects of this neo-conservative intrigue is that so few people INSIDE the United States and Israel seem to take it seriously.
Funny how that works, huh? It must be all the scary Twitter photos going around that have people scared and muddle-headed, right?
#ISOccupy Twitter

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 2:02 utc | 39

@24 I’ll the risk the opinion that the deep state owns Obama and their European flunkies outright-what kind of dirt could they have on Merkel to make her tank their economy to spite Russia?
“The only hope for life and truth is that the world unite against these two criminal governments, isolate them diplomatically and economically, and make it impossible for their government officials to travel abroad without being arrested and placed on trial.
Why does the world need Washington and Israel? Unless the world has a death wish, the world does not need Washington and Israel.”http://www.paulcraigroberts.org

Posted by: Nana2007 | Aug 15 2014 2:47 utc | 40

@40 “what kind of dirt could they have on Merkel to make her tank their economy to spite Russia?”
debt??
The Only 5 Countries In the World Living Debt Free
Palau
Liechtenstein
Brunei
British Virgin Islands
Macao
http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/rich-countries/the-only-5-countries-in-the-world-living-debt-free/5/
Think about that. Every “dollar” owed must have someone that owns that debt, only 5 countries are debt free. The US debt alone is $17.6 TRILLION. Who are the debtors?
Napoleon
“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”

Posted by: Skoalbrother | Aug 15 2014 4:14 utc | 41

@Nana2007 #40:

what kind of dirt could they have on Merkel to make her tank their economy to spite Russia?

I’ve wondered about that myself. Here’s one possible explanation. Consider for a moment, as a purely speculative hypothesis, that the official account of the Holocaust was a hoax, the purpose of which was to morally subjugate the German people. All post-war German chancellors would have had to have been in on this hoax. In that case, that they collaborated in a phenomenal lie against their own people would be something that USG could always hold over the heads of German chancellors.

Obama Lies

In other news, a dog bites a man.

Posted by: Demian | Aug 15 2014 4:39 utc | 42

Re @41 Meant “Who are the creditors?”

Posted by: Skoalbrother | Aug 15 2014 5:37 utc | 43

Damian you are a rascal!

Posted by: Nana2007 | Aug 15 2014 6:04 utc | 44

@Demian The French Colonel Mantout shreds your hypothesis.
“He had collected evidence showing that on ONE DAY in April 1943 1,200,000 people were liquidated in the various camps at Auschwitz.
Colonel Mantout said that the figure of 26,000,000 (methodically exterminated) was if anything well below the actual total of people put to death.
“These are facts about which there is no longer any possibility of doubt” he said. – Reuter”
“26,000,000 Were Liquidated”
http://fotos.fotoflexer.com/8448e38f7bbbcab2ed0f7874e58e5a34.jpg

Posted by: Skoalbrother | Aug 15 2014 6:24 utc | 45

Demian @42
Here’s a fantasy letter to Chancellor Mrs. Merkel:
Dear Angela Merkel,
Because of your known education honors and demonstrated competence in your physics/scientific career, all before entry into politics, there must have also been great capacity to think with logic and sense on all matters.
By now, surely it is obvious there are activities that not only defy logic and sense, they can often overwhelm wisdom, critical thinking, and the best of intentions.
Intimidation, in all its forms, is such an activity. Intimidation, by a skilled practitioner, will overwhelm wisdom, logic good sense and critical thinking by bending them so one’s free-will is brought under another’s control.
Consider the event of July 2006, at the Group of 8 in St. Petersburg. The America president broke all diplomatic protocol by suddenly, from behind, putting his hands at the back of your neck and “rubbed” it, in front of cameras and with apparent glee.
His act could only have been done with complete confidence that you were already “under control” and there would be no repercussions. He displayed obvious pleasure at your humiliation both as a woman and Germany’s elected Chancellor. He knew with confidence, before his action, that you would not protest. He had no ability to care about his own foolishness. Thus, he was free to humiliate without limits, because his “superpower” minions had earlier successfully applied intimidation to lessen your free-will as Germany’s elected leader.
Now it is 2014. Please act now, sober and wise, to demonstrate your own wisdom and critical thinking by letting-go any past shackles of “superpower” tentacles that once attempted to bind you. Your contribution to world sanity is needed. Promote justice and fairness. Anything else means more chaos.

Posted by: Kieler Schleuse | Aug 15 2014 7:26 utc | 46

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 14, 2014 6:00:49 PM | 25
A centenary reminder:
The Bosch are eating Belgian babies!
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Aug 15 2014 9:26 utc | 47

de ja vu!
Russian Market ‏@russian_market 2h
How a Polish man’s website became an Isis propaganda tool http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/15/-sp-polish-man-website-isis-propaganda-tool …
recalls out friend in coventry:
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/wests-syrian-narrative-based-on-guy-in.html

Posted by: brian | Aug 15 2014 9:49 utc | 48

Now that I think more on it, I think ISIS is almost more Anonymous, don’t you?
I mean if you squint/from far away, their flags/logos are almost identical: black background with a white circular logo in the middle.
And what about those “warnings”?
Here’s ISIS from the above ZeroHedge article I linked to yesterday:
We are in your state
We are in your cities
We are in your streets
What’s Anonymous’ slogan again? That’s right:
We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
Expect Us
ISOccupy or AnonymIS?
Tough call.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 11:29 utc | 49

b, there was/is a genuine “siege of Sinjar”. I watched the videos of the Iraqi helicopters supply/rescue efforts. The degree of panic was evident. But it wasn’t the US who supplied the route out – that was the Syrian Kurds, the border not being far north of Jabal Sinjar. That was the part that was inaccurate in Obama’s claim.
It is only now that narrative is evolving, because the KRG is trying to ramp up its demands to get armed. They cry, and exaggerate the crisis, because they want the arms, and think they have a chance of getting them.

Posted by: Alexno | Aug 15 2014 12:19 utc | 50

@48 brian
Well are they try to imply this guy created justpaste.it ? Because this app is pretty slick. Besides if ISIS was posting images on justpaste.it, why wasn’t the GWOT anti terror apparatus all over this guys bedroom after the first images appeared?
Link from Jan.2010:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7281/share-text-images-the-easy-way-with-justpaste.it/

Posted by: really | Aug 15 2014 12:28 utc | 51

Obama sent troops and jets to the area was to protect the city of Erbil with its CIA station, the international airport and the local headquarters of various “western” oil companies.
Terrified of another Benghazi!
That is all. 😉

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 15 2014 13:08 utc | 52

Its no longer about “news” any more.
Its more like perception management.
At least President Obama and company could have declared “mission accomplished”
and then done some kind of media friendly thing
such as reunite some poor little Yazidi girl with her toy doll.
(the media loves that sort of thing).
However, that thing about providing arms and training to Kurdish peshmerga
is total BS.
Kurds dont need arming—-they’ve been fighting themselves,Turks
and Saddam, amongst others for the best part of the past 20-30 years.
The Kurds should be providing training to every one else.

Posted by: chris m | Aug 15 2014 13:13 utc | 53

Why, lookee here! Supposedly, ISIS has a new ally in Pakistan – Abdul Maulana Aziz who is allied to the ISI, natch – (Flashback Friday, anyone?) – which means Trouble with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “C” and that stands for China!
Uh oh, China you’ve ALSO got an ISIS problem on your hands!!!
Why, together with the Chechen ISIS leader the “Ginger Jihadist of Mosul” it looks like not only is America being “threatened” by dastardly ISIS but AMERICA’S TWO LARGEST RIVALS might ALSO be feeling the ISIS pinch soon.
Why, I hope ISIS doesn’t start destabilizing THOSE countries now too!

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 13:20 utc | 54

Fear of ‘Another Benghazi’ Drove White House to Airstrikes … New York Times ‎- 6 days ago
snip — “” “The situation near Erbil was becoming more dire than anyone expected,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the White House’s internal deliberations. “We didn’t want another Benghazi.”””

BBC says that those now off-the-mountain are moving into inadequately provisioned/prepared areas of northern Iraq/Syria so it’s now a voluntary, movable “humanitarian crisis” to which the local authority, who was interviewed at length, says — send guns and money. His local bakery is working 24/7 and is unable to keep up with demand … (this is the low-level of coordination that the capacity of single local bakery is even mentioned)… oh, and he blames much on the now-gone Maliki … but they need millions of dollars and foreign soldiers because they’re overwhelmed — he actually said that to provide for so many refugees they would need a a month or two to prepared. Someone is unclear of dynamics here and it sounds like someone needs to keep the Yazihdi’s from roaming aimlessly creating a crisis wherever they stop to rest.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 15 2014 13:43 utc | 55

Oh my. Take a gander at this homage to the creation and funding of Isis. Very good analysis…
Christians Are Being Slaughtered By Islamic Terrorists … But Sadly, the U.S. Is Supporting the Terrorists
8/11/2014
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/fellow-christian-brothers-sisters-know-government-supporting-islamic-terrorists.html

Posted by: really | Aug 15 2014 14:07 utc | 56

Mike Whitney wrote a piece today that included this note that I wanted to briefly comment about:

(Note: It’s easy to see that–while ISIS may not be directly under US control–its presence in Iraq certainly serves Washington’s overall strategic aims.)

Putting aside the fact that I disagree with MW’s note here in that I do think that ISIS is – at the very least – under the control/leadership of people who understand and acquiesce to the demands/strategic aims of the Zionist West – if it looks like a duck and the whole observable facts spiel – I want to talk about the severing of reality with Spectacle.
Let’s assume for sake of argument that at one point in time ISIS – or Al-Qaeda, for that matter, as it may be a better example here – was indeed a real legitimate group of angry jihadists who plotted harm against the West and all the rest. They had a real history, real leaders, a real track record, the whole nine yards.
At some point in time, through the machinations of the Western Establishment – i.e., intelligence, media, etc – these real groups – i.e., Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc – begin to lose their “reality” and become VEHICLES that the Zionist West uses for its own aims. Thus, we as intelligent observers as we watch the supposed potency/reach/power of these groups grow must begin to jettison/abandon thinking about these vehicles as having ANY correlation to whatever “reality” – my note: if any – they may have had at their inception.
For example, there is ZERO – and I mean ABSOLUTELY ZERO – possibility that Al-Qaeda pulled off any of the events of 9/11, however, due to the fact that people accepted the narrative of Al-Qaeda the world had to suffer through the next decade+ of murder and bloodshed as we “hunted down” these shadowy figures and which has led us to the present state.
The current level of media saturation etc in regards to ISIS I believe is approaching that of AQ at its height and that is why I at the very least think that we should all need to start abandoning worrying about the historical details/political motives etc of ISIS: they have – note: I believe they always were – become a vehicle for future Western Zionist crimes and should always be spoken about as thus.
ISIS will be deemed responsible for sundry crimes – even IMPOSSIBLE ones – going forward and we can’t be stuck trying to decipher their mythical past as we deal with the Spectacular present.
None of us here would dare think of the Western-backed Ukrainian neo-Nazi putschists as “freedom fighters” or “democratic aspirants” as we knew from the beginning that the narrative was a bunch of effing nonsense, a VEHICLE by which to promote the ends of the Imperial West vis a vis Russia.
I don’t think we should give the murderous war criminals of the West any benefit of the doubt especially as it appears that they are working from the same playbook once again.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 14:09 utc | 57

@29
LOOOOL easy there, Cold Hole…keep your Republican masturbatory fantasies to yourself, mkay? For the sake of decency.
While you’re at it you can have Rambo as your Sec. Def. and all the poor black, white and Hispanic kids you need to wage war forever…or for as long as our Imperial Corporate Overlords see fit.
Russia, Syria and ISIS better watch out…(shaking with terror) for some conservative shit-kicker to bring about Armageddon? God, you must be a miserable, lonely and unhappy piece of shit to want that for the world and successive generations of life on Earth. Like the Russians and Syrians are no better than ISIS terrorists? Right, dickweed. Sure.
We can have all sorts of multi-front wars, still you sure as Hell won’t get out from behind your keyboard and go and fight yourself, because you are a putrid pile of radioactive gas and pus. Like Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Bill Kristol, and your husband GW Bush, windbag war pimps like you don’t actually ever do any real fighting. You sit there with one hand on your crotch and the other on your keyboard watch the blood of other’s kids spilled in the fight for the profits of the elites.

Posted by: Farflungstar | Aug 15 2014 14:17 utc | 58

@57
I agree with you statement Jsore…The isis narrative is at fever pitch and that’s why I feel your last three sentences are the most poignant observances about what tptb’s isis creation and narrative is all about. A tool and means to cause mass destruction against their rivals and foment fear and hysteria within their own subjects in order to get public support for tptb’s militaristic western/zionist agenda and its implementation.

Posted by: really | Aug 15 2014 14:34 utc | 59

J Sorrentine @ 57
I thought you may appreciate this newsy bit
From Foreign Policy and I quote!
“”The question now becomes how the Pentagon’s expansive, weeklong surveillance mission over northern Iraq — as many as 60 manned and unmanned air ‘sorties’ per day — apparently gave the United States government highly inaccurate information”
“highly inaccurate information”
Laugh very loud!!
How could this have happened? 😉
Incompetence?
Well that is certainly the meme pushed
But—-
Sound familiar?

Posted by: Penny | Aug 15 2014 14:42 utc | 60

The US has always supported foreign militants who advance US interests. They might be fascist, jihadist, whatever. In Europe after WWII it was the Italian and Greek fascists, in Afghanistan it was Islamic jihadis, etc.
Syria and Iraq* are allies of Iran so ISIS has been supported and its anti-government activities facilitated in both countries. In Iraq, the US didn’t lift a finger to stop ISIS advances for six months until the recent highly-publicized supposed attacks which the Pentagon has said will be largely useless in stopping ISIS. Bottom line: If it’s anti-Iran, it promotes US interests.
*It is never admitted in Washington that Operation Iraqi Freedom created an Iran ally at great cost to the US (and Iraq, but who cares about that).

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 15 2014 14:43 utc | 61

The latest US talking point on ISIS is presented by Eli Lake with this headline: “ISIS Baffling U.S. Intelligence Agencies”
Imagine that, tens of billions of dollars sucked up annually by email readers, satellite operators etc. and they are “baffled” by a foreign invading military force, the story goes. It’s classic Obama: Well, I tried so it’s not my fault I failed.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 15 2014 15:10 utc | 62

(CNN) — U.S. authorities arrested an American man returning from overseas who they say is a sympathizer of the terrorist group ISIS. –(It was not Obama, oddly enough.)

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 15 2014 15:13 utc | 63

@50 alexno.. thanks for that alternative viewpoint..

Posted by: james | Aug 15 2014 16:17 utc | 64

@50 alexno – that some people were panicking on the mountains may tell us something about what they believed the situation to be. It does not tell us anything about the real situation. All these people have heard of the ISIS savages, and have seen videos where ISIS chops of dozens of heads. Of course they panic when they fear that ISIS might be right behind them.
The PKK/YPK did not have to do much fighting, if any at all, to reach the people. It then can not have been a siege. The ISIS people were on one side of the mountain plateau, they never had it surrounded. I am pretty sure that the Pentagon was aware of that situation.

Posted by: b | Aug 15 2014 17:05 utc | 65

Yes, no one seems to remember that part of the aim of “terrorism” is to terrorize the population, make them run away or surrender quickly and completely. It doesn’t take a lot of severed heads or mass killings. I’m mostly surprised by the near-helpless response by not only the Yazihdis (who have been persecuted for centuries) but also the locals in a country which has had waves of refugees and displaced persons for at least the last decade (and, of course, before)… ISIS attacked Mosul/Tikit in early JUNE. One does not need to be educated or literate to be able to run for your life … and many of these people (as we saw in twitter photos) have cell phones and automobiles … It feels rather Python-esque. Yes, I believe they are frightened and miserable and that people have died … but I’m not seeing much leadership. Yes, terror can be paralyzing, but having escaped … people predicting their own “genocide” as if inevitable try my patience – Run Forrest Run

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 15 2014 17:25 utc | 66

re 65. b, I’m not making a big thing out of it, but Yazidi refugees have said today, interviewed in Zakho or somewhere in the east, that what happened was that the local Sunnis sided with ISIS when it attacked. They were supposed to be defended by the Peshmerga, but in the middle of the battle the Peshmerga departed and left the Yazidis in the lurch. At which point, the Yazidis fled up the mountain. It was a critical situation, as there isn’t too much water on the mountain.
Was it the word siege you objected to? It is true that the mountain was probably never surrounded, though in ancient and medieval times, sieges could occur where the target was not fully surrounded.
At any rate it was a major crisis, which had to be resolved rapidly. It was, by the Kurds themselves.

Posted by: Alexno | Aug 15 2014 17:42 utc | 67

IMHO, the abandonment by the Peshmerga deserves some scrutiny … or at least a credible explanation. Yes, being abandoned is psychologically and logistically very very different from dealing with an advancing threat for which you know you have no protection/defense.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 15 2014 17:50 utc | 68

Pentagon, Aug 13

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 13, 2014 – The U.S. military conducted a sixth airdrop last night of food and water for thousands of Iraqi citizens threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Mount Sinjar, Iraq, U.S. Central Command officials said…..To date, in coordination with the Iraqi government, U.S. military aircraft have delivered nearly 100,000 meals and more than 27,000 gallons of fresh drinking water, providing much-needed aid to the displaced Yezidis, who fled to the mountain to escape ISIL terrorists.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 15 2014 17:51 utc | 69

Susan 68
The Peshmerga simply saw that the Yazidis did not need any help – they weren’t under siege, they weren’t “under attack” – I’m beginning to believe fled to get out of harms way, but once they fled the only evidence they were “pursued” or “sieged” comes from dubious sources I’m not saying there wasn’t danger for them if they stayed put – just that this looks a lot like a curious kind of false flag.

Posted by: okie farmer | Aug 15 2014 18:53 utc | 70

It could be something even worse than that which would a matter of deliberately inciting panic in a civilian population to create a “humanitarian crisis” — in which case the Yazhidis would be completely honest in their belief that they were in mortal danger because, say, the radio told them so. Someone said they wanted their money back for the billion spent creating the Iraqi army. I’m a bit doubtful that there was no civil defense type of communication system — ISIS rolled into Mosul and Tikrit in JUNE, this is an “endangered minority population” … I also have wondered if in fact no one cared much about the Yazihdis.
Various Christian websites are perpetually apoplectic about the treatment of Christians in Muslim countries, and China … etc. This was a well and long recognized at-risk population (as also less-so the Kurds) – basically I think (hope) some of this apparent “helplessness” is feigned.
Exaggerating atrocities is a problem because it reinforces the idea that “this is how bad-assed jihadis act” to the world — which can become “this is how bad-asses act” elsewhere … youtube can be a dangerous thing in this respect … there are a lot of dumb young men in the world eager to prove their bad-assedness, see also drive-by shootings as initiation rites here in the U.S.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 15 2014 19:18 utc | 71

re 70
The Peshmerga simply saw that the Yazidis did not need any help – they weren’t under siege, they weren’t “under attack”
I can’t see that that works at all. You don’t leave in the middle of a battle, and leave the people you are supposed to be defending. The Yazidi interview (now with video from Lalesh) says that the Peshmerga pulled out in the middle of the fighting. When you actually listen to the translation of a witness talking, he says it was Peshmerga officers who trained them who left. The first version I heard said the Peshmerga had heavy weapons, and left with them.
It seems to me that for the moment, we have to accept what these people say. In any case, it is obvious that in general the Peshmerga did flee from all the Mosul region, and didn’t stop running, until the US started air strikes, a few kilometres from Erbil. Notice that the counterattacks, which the Kurds have proudly announced, haven’t actually made much progress – they’ve taken a couple of towns and villages, not far from Erbil.

Posted by: Alexno | Aug 15 2014 20:38 utc | 72

WINEP/Israel are out pushing their agendas in full force again with another Michael Knights’ bullet-point piece on their site.
To say that WINEP/Israel seem to really really like the new potential Iraqi PM Abadi might be a wee bit of an understatement. From the piece:

Without rehashing Abadi’s biography, it is clear that this Baghdad-born engineer and veteran Dawa Party politician is a very different animal from Maliki. Notable differences include:
Limited Iranian contact. Unlike Maliki and other senior Dawa oppositionists, Abadi spent his decades in exile almost exclusively in the United Kingdom rather than Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. Whereas many Shiite oppositionists fled to Iran in the early 1980s, al-Abadi went directly to Britain in 1977. His ties to Iran are reputedly very limited, and he has not visited the Islamic Republic in the years since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Openness to Sunnis. Although Abadi lost two brothers to Saddam Hussein’s regime, he has displayed relative openness toward Iraq’s Sunnis. Having skirted around the rougher aspects of opposition politics, he now has an outlook that is less dour and brutal than Maliki’s. He shares common ideological ground with many Sunni Arab nationalists but also understands the Shiite and Kurdish tolerance levels for rehabilitating former Baathist elements.
Broader focus beyond security. Abadi spent more than twenty years in Britain’s private sector, running successful consultancies and engineering projects. He is interested in practically every facet of Iraq’s economic and human development but has no track record in security. This makes him the polar opposite of Maliki, who was uninterested in most aspects of governance and myopically focused too much of his time on security affairs. Under Abadi, security will shift from a one-man show to a team effort — with all the positives and negatives that entails.
Approachable English speaker. It has been eight years since Iraq was led by a prime minister able to converse in English. Maliki’s particularly Arab brand of charisma came through in his words, and he was famous for his love of conversation. The language barrier therefore distanced him from U.S. leaders and made him personally inscrutable in a way that Abadi will never be. Iraq may now get a premier who can form relationships with senior U.S. and world leaders.
Although Abadi will be surrounded by strong factional leaders, chief executives typically amass more influence and control than their partners intend. In that case, his personal and professional characteristics are broadly encouraging. If ratified by parliament and provided with strong support from international partners, Abadi probably has the best inherent leadership potential of Iraq’s post-Saddam prime ministers.

What’s not to like, eh, Zionists?

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 20:44 utc | 73

re 73 from the WINEP article
Abadi spent more than twenty years in Britain’s private sector, running successful consultancies and engineering projects.
That’s somewhat of a euphemism. He had a company that maintained the elevators at the BBC. None of the Arabic language service had ever met him, he was so discreet.

Posted by: Alexno | Aug 15 2014 20:54 utc | 74

@74
Yeah, when I read his wikibio this is what they had to say about his work in exile.

– DG of a small high tech vertical and horizontal transportation design and development firm in London, (1993–2003).
– a top London Consultant to the industry in matters relating to people movers, (1987–2003).

I don’t know about you but I always try to avoid using the vertical transportation people mover in my building.
Instead, I prefer to get some exercise using the graduated ambulatory ascent and descent mechanisms provided.
LOL.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 15 2014 21:03 utc | 75

http://rudaw.net/english/world/14082014
Well the Germans just had an isis sympathizer ‘attack’ against a yazidi owned pizza shop owner. Take a gander.

Posted by: really | Aug 15 2014 22:37 utc | 76

really@76
I wonder what a Yatzi pizza is like, do they draw a pentigram on it with pepperoni or anchovies?

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 15 2014 23:35 utc | 77

Somehow, if you believe ISIS doesn’t do exactly what the Formidable Conspiracy tells it to do in any instance, you are giving “the murderous war criminals of the West the benefit of the doubt.”
(You wouldn’t be really-in fact you could condemn them all the more for their ineffectual interventions, but you WOULD be adhering to Truther cult orthodoxy, which is more important than fighting American-Israeli imperialism generally.
Why should you believe ISIS will continue as lockstep robots?
“At some point in time, through the machinations of the Western Establishment – i.e., intelligence, media, etc – these real groups – i.e., Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc – begin to lose their “reality” and become VEHICLES that the Zionist West uses for its own aims. Thus, we as intelligent observers as we watch the supposed potency/reach/power of these groups grow must begin to jettison/abandon thinking about these vehicles as having ANY correlation to whatever “reality” – my note: if any – they may have had at their inception.”
Because the Conspiracy is Unbeatably brilliant in its machinations and takfiris are helpless before it.
In fact every Iraqi insurgent who fought the occupier and killed and wounded US troops who also believe in some
version of salafism or kindred was really just a robot playing a part in Truther conspiracy theory. Certainly not actually fighting American imperialism to a quagmire standstill.
And the tautological proof?
“For example, there is ZERO – and I mean ABSOLUTELY ZERO – possibility that Al-Qaeda pulled off any of the events of 9/11, however, due to the fact that people accepted the narrative of Al-Qaeda the world had to suffer through the next decade+ of murder and bloodshed as we “hunted down” these shadowy figures and which has led us to the present state.”
More complete casuistry. Even assuming Israel is in better strategic position than on 9-10-2001 and that the US
has increased power and stability in the Mideast and at home than on 9-10-2001. Which you shouldn’t assume in either case.
Buet yes Sorrentien, it’s absolutely true that if American majority had accepted the theories of Richard Gage and Jim Fetzer, they would have not allowed the Iraq war.
If they also had accepted the far more plausible arguments of Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan and Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader and Jim McGovern they would not have allowed it either.

Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 15 2014 23:52 utc | 78

Re the WINEP piece, I assume Sorrentine believes also the Zionists hope and assume, contrary to appearance, Abadi will conspire to allow the Kurds to separate, ditto the Sunnis, because JS is several times on record saying the US Elite did not in fact want to, and as all assume believed it quickly could, install a pro-Zionist puppet when it invaded Iraq, but in fact wanted only to expend much blood and treasure, leaving a temporary and very unstable Iranian dominance (the proof of course being this is what happened) and ultimately wanted permanent fissure as according to the Yinon Plan.
All Bush’s hurried attempts being a con on Americans at a sham election process (vetoed by Sistani) where candidates were vetted according their pro-American, pro-Israel credentials.

Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 16 2014 0:22 utc | 79

I love the way Boyle just throws it out there. And he’s done.
” The Islamic State (IS) is a covert intelligence operation by the United States which aims at setting a predicate for further escalation in Iraq, Francis Boyle, a constitutional scholar and law professor at University of Illinois, told RIA Novosti.
“All the implications so far in the public record are that ISIS [IS] is a covert US intelligence operation,” Boyle told RIA Novosti Tuesday. “Head of ISIS Abu Bakr Baghdadi spent five years in an American detention facility, and also three of the four military commanders were also in detention by the US forces. So, my guess is that ISIS is indeed a covert US military intervention to set precedent for US escalation in Iraq.” http://en.ria.ru/politics/20140813/191982447/Islamic-State-Is-US-Covert-Intelligence-Operation—Law.html

Posted by: TikTok | Aug 16 2014 5:20 utc | 80

Damn, the US had to curtail their bombing of Afghanistan because of this. What’s the world coming to?

Navy jets are again at the tip of the spear, striking targets inside Iraq. But they had to break off air support operations over Afghanistan to do it, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert said.

This is from the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in the Persian Gulf.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 16 2014 17:22 utc | 81

Today from Juan Cole — Voices from Mosul

All the points where citizens used to be able to cross into Iraqi Kurdistan have closed now that the IS group is attacking the Kurdish, Ahmed says, and Mosul is more like a big prison for the around 1 million who still live there.
His main concern, which is shared by many ordinary people in Mosul, is that US strikes will help the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Kurdish military return to Mosul. If they do, they will take revenge on the people of Mosul because they welcomed the IS group at first, he says.

ISIS is bad and must be removed, but — oh noes — if they do, the Iraqi Kurdish Army enter the fray (in theory anyway) to do its job of fighting ISIS and protecting Iraqi sovereignty — and that would be bad news for the Kurds … well, gosh, obviously — send in the Marines … but the Marines ain’t coming. …
It’s rather pathetic all these varied calls for “international boots on the ground” because that cavalry is not coming … largely because it no longer exists, the United States having utterly destroyed the likelihood of any future “coalitions of the willing” and so many countries, with exactly the damned if they do, damned if they don’t “dilemma” posed for those in Mosul.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 16 2014 17:35 utc | 82

OT and by the way, re: #81, the Bush is the only USA carrier (of ten) that is not currently in port. A single new carrier costs $14 billion (the Gerald Ford now being constructed) to build plus $7 million a day to operate. Plus accompanying ships.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 16 2014 17:39 utc | 83

oops, “and that would be bad news for the Kurds” should be “and that would be bad news for the people of Mosul, particularly the Sunni” — although I’m not sure how much the Iraqi Army “likes” anyone in Mosul at this point … demands for Kurdish independence and all.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 16 2014 17:42 utc | 84

The US policy of ‘when in doubt, bomb’ is of course counterproductive. Aerial bombing is notoriously ineffective despite the ‘precision bombing’ propaganda, and only stirs up the bees. Even the Pentagon has discounted it recently.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Aug 16 2014 17:51 utc | 85

Boyle. Possible.
I wonder if he also believes Israel still controls Hamas’ every move.

Posted by: truthbetold | Aug 16 2014 19:40 utc | 86

@ ” the US had to curtail their bombing of Afghanistan because of this. “‘
…. and because we wouldn’t let Iraq have an air force … because we wanted our SOFA … our generosity comes with strings and codicils and handcuffs… kind of like we wouldn’t send aid until Maliki was “deposed” —
We also wanted to intervene “officially” so that Iran’s role could be limited … god only knows what else lurks in the fine print.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 16 2014 22:06 utc | 87

Turkish support for ISIS
http://www.danielpipes.org/14486/turkey-isis
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2014/06/more-on-turkish-support-for-isis

Posted by: sumi | Aug 17 2014 4:58 utc | 88

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