WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is withdrawing a dozen warplanes from a Turkish air base, barely a month after they arrived to help Turkey protect its air space and to conduct strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, officials said Wednesday.
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The decision was announced by U.S. European Command in Germany one day after Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Incirlik Air Base, where the six F-15 Eagles and six F-15 Strike Eagles arrived last month from their home base in Britain. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, told reporters that the timing was a coincidence.
During his visit Carter made no mention of the plan to withdraw the F-15s. He said the U.S. is looking for ways to do more to hasten the defeat of the Islamic State group, including by urging coalition partners to play a greater role.
European Command’s announcement said the F-15s were returning to Britain on Wednesday.
Davis said the withdrawal should not be seen as a change in the U.S. commitment to Turkey or to the counter-IS campaign.
“I wouldn’t read anything into us moving these out of there as any sort of less combat capability … to be able to strike in Syria,” Davis said.
The U.S. still has 12 A-10 close-air support aircraft based at Incirlik, as well as drone aircraft and refueling planes. The U.S. intends to replace six of the departing F-15s with a like number of additional A-10s, according to a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment has not been announced.
Some coalition partners have expressed a willingness to send more planes to Incirlik before the end of January, the senior U.S. defense official said. That would push the total number of coalition warplanes at Incirlik back to, and possibly above, the total of 59 that were based there before the F-15s began leaving Wednesday, the official said.
When Turkey agreed earlier this year to permit the U.S. to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State with planes based at Incirlik, the Pentagon touted the decision as an important milestone. It shortened the time and distance required to conduct airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, compared with strikes flown from bases in the Persian Gulf area.
At the beginning of September there were 15 coalition aircraft based at Incirlik as part of the counter-IS coalition.
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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Baghdad.
ISIS show off TANKS and devastating hi-tech weapons looted from Iraqi army and bought from West
The militants showed off their military power as part of their slick PR campaign – but rarely use their armored vehicles because they are an easy target.
IMAGE VIA TWITTER: Armoured: ISIS released pictures of their devastating – but rarely used – weaponry
As Written By Sam Webb For The Mirror UK:
SIS propagandists have released pictures of the sophisticated and devastating weapons it wields as part of its campaign of terror across the Middle East – including heavy TANKS.
The militants showed off their military power as part of their slick PR campaign – but fail to mention they rarely use their armoured vehicles because they are an easy target for the warplanes of Russia, America, Britain and France.
They were featured on Terrormonitor’s Twitter feed and were reportedly taken during fighting at Deir Ezzor military airport.
Britain, France, Russia and the United States provided most of the weapons being used by ISIS to carry out appalling war crimes, a new report claims.
As the UK joins its allies in carrying out airstrikes in Syria, the Government has come in for renewed accusations of having sown the seeds of conflict itself.
A new study by Amnesty International claims much of the weaponry used by Islamic State (IS) fighters was supplied by the same Western powers now trying to bomb it out of existence.
Read more: Pig’s heads left at Muslim prayer sites in Islamophobic attacks
Twitter
Firepower: ISIS proudly displayed their anti-aircraft weapon
Twitter
Blast: A tank opens fire with its cannon
Huge supplies of guns, rifles, mortars and missiles have been flowing into Iraq for years as the state struggled to retain control after British and American forces withdrew.
Oliver Sprague, Amnesty UK’s Arms Programme Director, said: “Decades of free-flowing arms into Iraq meant that when IS took control of these areas, they were like children in a sweetshop.
“The fact that countries including the UK have ended up inadvertently arming IS, should give us pause over current weapons deals.
Explosive: A militant opens fire with an rocket launcher
Twitter
Warfare: The pictures were released by ISIS propagandists
“The UK was one of the key supporters of a global Arms Trade Treaty, intended to prevent the proliferation of arms and their use in horrific abuses like IS are committing.”
“Risks need to be far more carefully calculated, and we shouldn’t wait for this worst-case-scenario to happen before acting to prevent sales of arms which could fuel atrocities.”
Although Soviet Kalshnikovs are the most commonly used, the oldest piece of kit in the IS arsenal is believed to be a British World War One rifle.
Matt Cetti-Roberts/info@frontlinepictures.com
Guns: A Chinese-made Kalashnikov and American M4 rifle, the latter captured from ISIS militants Mortars: ISIS fund their arms shipments through taxation and illicit oil sales
Amnesty says IS fighters acquired a windfall of internationally manufactured arms after taking control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June, 2014.
They included US-manufactured weapons and military vehicles which they then used to take control of other parts of the country.
longwarjournal.org
Afghanistan: At least 40 Islamic State recruits can be seen in the Sheikh Jalaluddin training camp
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed at least six people outside a Shi’ite mosque in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, according to police and medical sources, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Seven others were wounded in the attack, which took place in the mainly Shi’ite Ubaidi neighbourhood of eastern Baghdad and targeted worshippers leaving the mosque, police said.
“The suicide attacker was trying to enter the mosque before a guard stopped him, but he blew himself up,” said one policeman near the scene of the attack.
Paul Craig Roberts
UPDATE: A friend, George Abert, suggested a reason why the Turks shot down the Russian fighter-bomber over Syria. The Russians have a technology that they recently demonstrated against the newest US missile cruiser and Israel’s US jet fighters. The technology shuts down the communication systems of hostile forces, leaving them blind. He wonders if the Russian aircraft was shot down in order to encourage the Russians to use its unknown technology whenever Russian aircraft are in the vicinity of NATO and Israeli aircraft. He bets that the US has sent every Raven and ELINT specialist to the area in hopes that Russia’s use of the technology will allow them to learn enough about the system to duplicate it or learn how to block it.
Turkey’s unprovoked shoot-down of a Russian military aircraft over Syria raises interesting questions. It seems unlikely that the Turkish government would commit an act of war against a much more powerful neighbor unless Washington had cleared the attack. Turkey’s government is not very competent, but even the incompetent know better than to put themselves into a position of facing Russia alone.
If the attack was cleared with Washington, was Obama bypassed by the neocons who control his government, or is Obama himself complicit? Clearly the neoconservatives are disturbed by the French president’s call for unity with Russia against ISIL and easily could have used their connections to Turkey to stage an event that Washington can use to prevent cooperation with Russia.
Washington’s complicity is certainly indicated, but it is not completely out of the question that the well-placed Turks who are purchasing oil from ISIL took revenge against Russia for destroying their oil tanker investments and profitable business. But if the attack has a private or semi-private origin in connections between gangsters and military, would Turkey’s president have defended the shoot-down on such spurious grounds as “national defense”? No one can believe that one Russian jet is a threat to Turkey’s security.
Don’t expect the presstitutes to look into any such questions. The presstitutes, such as the BBC’s Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford, are spinning the story that the loss of the Russian aircraft, and earlier the airliner, proves that Putin’s policy of air strikes against iSIL has backfired as Russians are not safer.
The responses to the shoot-down are also interesting. From what I heard of Obama’s press conference, Obama’s definition of “moderate Syrian rebels” includes all the extremist jihadish groups, such as al Nursa and ISIL, that are the focus of the Russian attacks. Only Assad is an extremist. Obama, following the neocon line, says that Assad has too much blood on his hands to be allowed to remain president of Syria.
Obama is not specific about the “blood on Assad’s hands,” but we can be. The blood is the blood of ISIL forces fighting the Syrian army. Obama doesn’t refer to the blood on ISIL’s hands, but even the presstitutes have told us the horror stories associated with the blood on ISIL’s hands, with whom Obama has allied us.
And what about the blood on Obama’s hands? Here we are talking about a very large quantity of blood: the blood of entire countries—Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and the blood that Obama’s puppet government in Kiev has spilled of the ethnic Russian inhabitants of Ukraine, not to forget the Palestinian blood spilled by Israel using US supplied weapons.
If the blood on Assad’s hands disqualifies Assad from office, the much greater quantity on Obama’s hands disqualifies Obama. And Cameron. And Hollande. And Merkel. And Netanyahu.
Throughout the entire Washington orchestrated conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Ukraine, the Russian government has spoken reasonably and responded in a diplomatic manner to the many provocations. The Russian government relied on European governments realizing that Europe does not benefit from conflicts generated by Washington and separating themselves from a policy that is against their interests. But Europe proved to be a collection of American vassals, not independent countries capable of independent foreign policies.
In its campaign against ISIL in Syria, the Russian government relied on the agreement made with NATO countries to avoid engaging in the air. Now Turkey has violated this agreement.
I will be surprised if the Russian government any longer places any trust in the words of the West and any hope in diplomacy with the West. By now the Russian government and the Russian people will have learned that the Wolfowitz doctrine means what it says and is in force against Russia.
From the Ukrainian attack on Crimea’s power supply and the blackout that is affecting Crimea, the Russian government has also learned that Washington’s puppet government in Kiev intends further conflict with Russia.
Washington has made it clear from the beginning that Washington’s focus is on overthrowing Assad, not ISIL. Despite the alleged attack on France by ISIL, the US State Department press spokesperson, Admiral John Kirby, said that Russia cannot be a member of the coalition against ISIL until Russia stops propping up Assad.
To the extent that the shoot-down of the Russian military aircraft has a silver lining, the incident has likely saved the Russian government from a coalition in which Russia would have lost control of its war against ISIL and would have had to accept the defeat of Assad’s removal.
Each step along the way the Russian government has held strong cards that it did not play, trusting instead to diplomacy. Diplomacy has now proven to be a deadend. If Russia does not join the real game and begin to play its strong cards, Russia will be defeated.
While the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate 1,000 ISIS-tied individuals in the united States, there are at least 22 paramilitary Islamic communities in the US that they know of, but are not doing anything about. Now, the stage has been set for more Islamic jihad attacks on US soil under the watchful eye of the FBI.
The groups are operated by Jamaat al-Fuqra, a Pakistan-based group, who main front group is Muslims of the Americas.
Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, a Pakistani cleric, heads up the group in Islamberg, New York. The communes operated by the organization are in mostly remote areas of California, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and other states.
The Clarion Project reported on these camps:
The organization says it has a network of 22 “villages” around the U.S., with Islamberg as its main headquarters in New York. Clarion Project obtained secret MOA footage showing female members receiving paramilitary training at Islamberg. It was featured on the Kelly File on FOX News Channel in October. A second MOA tape released by Clarion shows its spokesman declaring the U.S. to be a Muslim-majority country.
A 2007 FBI record states that MOA members have been involved in at least 10 murders, one disappearance, three firebombings, one attempted firebombing, two explosive bombings and one attempted bombing. It states:
“The documented propensity for violence by this organization supports the belief the leadership of the MOA extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government. Members of the MOA are encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive religious and military/terrorist training from Sheikh Gilani.”
The document also says that, “The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.”
Other FBI reports describe the MOA in similar ways, with a 2003 file stating, “Investigation of the Muslims of the Americas is based on specific and articulate facts giving justification to believe they are engaged in international terrorism…”
MOA members believe the holiest Islamic site in the country is located at their Islamville commune in South Carolina. Other MOA entities include the International Quranic Open University, United Muslim Christian Forum, Islamic Post, Muslim Veterans of America and American Muslim Medical Relief Team.
An Islamic commune in Mahmoudberg, Texas has been around since the early 1980s and one member of the group was shot and killed in a reported “accident,” as one member returned fire to what they claim were people harassing them. Several members have used false aliases, Social Security numbers and birth certificates, according to two FBI documents from 1992.
Pamela Geller, author of Stop the Islamization of America, says that the communes are mostly made up of Blacks who converted to Islam while in federal prison and have operated “under the not-so-watchful eye” of the FBI since the early 80
However, the real question is why are they allowed to operate? At the time of the writing of the Clarion Project’s article, MOA was designated as a terrorist organization. In 2005, Jamaat ul-Fuqra was also listed by Homeland Security as a possible sponsor of a terrorist attack on the US, and in 1998, the State Department’s Patterns of Global Terrorism report described the group as an “Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence.”
In January 2002, the State Department was asked why MOA was no longer listed in their annual terrorism reports. Here was the reply:
“Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under ‘other terrorist groups,’ i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group’s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.”
The obvious question is why have these groups, with anti-American sentiments and violent intentions been allowed to grow under the supervision of the FBI?
I’ll venture a guess that it is because the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the federal government in a similar manner to Communists and are working hand in hand for the destruction of America.
The next San Bernardino, Garland, or Oklahoma is just waiting to happen, but will it occur in your city or state, and are you prepared to deal with the Islamists when they strike? Or, are you more willing to take the Constitutional approach to cut Islam off at the knees and deal with those that adhere to it as those engaged in sedition? The choice is yours.
Take a look at Jihad in America: The Grand Deception for more on this topic.
98 Year-Old Couple Recreate Their Wedding Day After 70 Years
Every wedding anniversary is worthy of celebration, but a 70th anniversary is one that deserves something truly special. Chinese couple Wang Deyi, 98, and Cao Yuehua, 97, were married in 1945 at Northern Hot Springs Park in Chongqing. They had four children who, this year, helped them to recreate the wedding photo from so long ago.
“My parents are 98 this year,” the couple’s youngest son, 60-year-old Cao Pangpei told CNN. “They have been together for so long, going through the war, the political turmoil and diseases, and can still stay with each other and love each other. We want to help them to commemorate their love.”
More info: chinanews (h/t: cnn)
Cao Yuehua and Wang Deyi got married in 1945
70 years later, they decided to recreate their wedding photos with the help of their 4 children
“They can barely remember many things in their life, but they can recite the love poems they wrote to each other during the wartime”
“They’ve lived through tough times [being separated during the war], but they never stopped loving each other”
“My dad asked my mom for a dance and they fell in love with each other almost at first sight,” said the youngest son
“That’s how my father met my mother”
“We want to help them preserve their memories of the love they’ve shared”
“When we are both 100-years-old, we will come back again, ok?” added the happy wife
Will we ever hear if these Muslims were affiliated with Islamic State?
Check it out:
Earlier Wednesday, our own Faye Higbeewondered if the tragic shooting in San Bernardino, California, was related to terrorism. A report cited by Pamela Geller would seem to make the question even more relevant.
Citing Vocativ, Geller said that ISIS sympathizers praised the attack on Twitter.
Devout Muslims, she said, are rejoicing.
According to James King and Adi Cohen, ISIS radicals on Twitter celebrated the shooting with the hashtag #America_Burning. The terror group, however, has not taken credit for the shooting.
Three lions made us proud. They are still alive, one supporter tweeted in Arabic.
The Twitter account has since been suspended.
King and Cohen added:
God is great and he the one to be praised for that, another supporter posted in the forum in Arabic. This is hell with gods will. But the hashtag was primarily used on Twitter where one ISIS extremist taunted the United States with a tweet that read Let America know a new era #California #America_burning.
The tweet is still live as of this writing.
God is the greatest, another person added. May god spread fear in the homes of the Crusaders.
According to reports, one shooting suspect was identified as Syed Farook a father, husband and devoutly religious Muslim.
