Obama’s Terrorist Friend Visits DC

Image via news.yahoo.com

 

Independent Sentinel

A new report notes that Labib al Nahhas, a senior official of Ahrar Al-Sham, visited Washington in December 2015, State Department spokesman Mark Toner cited “privacy concerns” on Monday and said he would follow up.

“I do know this individual certainly did not have any meetings that I’m aware of at the State Department,” he said on Tuesday. “I can’t speak to whether we were aware or not aware of his visit or entry into the country. I just don’t have that information.”

What makes this so interesting is that al Nahhas is the leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate that we support — Ahrar al-Sham.

“Ahrar al-Sham is not a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” Toner said when Russia recently tried to have them declared a terrorist group. Russia wants them to have a “yellow card”, a terrorist designation, partly because they are against Bashar al-Assad which is exactly the reason the US and the West supports them.

The group is a coalition of multiple Islamist and Salafist units. The group aims to create an Islamic state under Sharia law, and is openly allied with Al-Nusra Front (the branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria) with which it carries out joint operations. Syria, the United Arab Emirates,Russia, Iran and Egypt have designated Ahrar ash-Sham as a terrorist organization and won’t issue the ‘yellow card’ as requested by the UN. That, however, is in support of al-Assad.

It’s hard to believe anyone cares about the massacre of villagers, especially the Christian ones or Alawites (al-Assad is an Alawite) like the people in al-Zara.

On May 13, Al-Sham fighters raided the village of al-Zara, killing and capturing scores of inhabitants in what was described as a massacre.

Ahrar al-Sham has emerged as not just a populist revolutionary force and the most powerful non-ISIL rebel faction in Syria, but allegedly they are questioning the Islamist movement, but I wouldn’t take that to the bank.

Where are the “President lied, people died” protestors now?

Family Security Matters

by DR. ROBIN MCFEE

 

As friends and I got together writing letters for the troops, it struck us how many of our contemporaries are unaware Americans are fighting a war, or that some of military will not return to their native soil alive. I can’t think of any other major conflict where there has been such a disconnection between those who serve, and those who are served. At this time of year, with Memorial Day just a week away, the sacrifice made by so few for so many should be front and center in our consciousness. Alas it may just be another inconvenient truth.

Coming home, the flag that draped my father’s casket as backdrop to reading the newspaper which no longer talks about the military, unless a local person is killed, or a photo op from a Memorial Day service, is in stark contrast from our early days in Iraq and Afghanistan. You’d think there wasn’t a war being waged or Americans in harm’s way, based upon the media coverage, or more accurately, lack thereof.  It made me think of how far we have come as a nation – the good, and the bad, and how the political winds of fortune play a role in the lives of people who risk their security for ours.

Would it surprise anyone to know that more US servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan on Obama’s watch than during the W Bush presidency? The government data on US servicemen/women deaths are clear. Yet where is the public outrage? Where are the protests with clarion calls “Obama Lied, Soldiers Died” being chanted in the streets the way they were when George W. Bush was POTUS? Where is the righteous indignation and concern over military deaths from Code Pink, or the other anti-war protestor groups? Where are the daily front page news items about our brave men and women in uniform who remain in harm’s way?

Sadly the number of flags folded at funeral services over the last 7 years, with the all too familiar phrase “on behalf of a grateful nation” has been greater than the years beforehand, in no small measure due to Obama’s foreign policy in Afghanistan, and even sadder, it does not define or inform his foreign policy either. As an aside, one could of course argue that the number of people – civilians, allies, enemies, and troops – killed due to Obama’s foreign policy errors has eclipsed what has occurred under Bush’s watch.  Beyond the idiotic misnomer Arab Spring which saw allies brought to the brink, is the emergence of ISIS (NOT a JV team!) whose efforts towards Christian genocide has resulted in incalculable deaths. ISIS’ ambition towards extra-regional caliphate has led to untold suffering, loss of irreplaceable historic treasures, and death from the Middle East, to Europe and beyond. Instead of one major group of radical killers and their franchisees (Al Qaeda) we now have two major non state sponsors of terrorism, in addition to a more deadly form of state terrorism sponsor – Iran on Obama’s watch. Then there are deaths associated with Putin unchecked, and Syria unchecked, and Palestinians unchecked, and Iran unchecked (which includes Hezbollah), and, well you get the idea. There’s a lot of bloodshed on his watch, not that you would read about it in the major papers, or see it on the major networks. Clearly there are no “Obama Lied, People Died” protests.