Posts Tagged ‘Syria’

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CIA Covering Up Benghazi?

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

This appears to be the case.

CNN reports that there were allegedly “dozens” of CIA operatives on the ground during the Benghazi attack and the agency is doing its utmost to conceal its involvement.

CNN’s sources say that, since January, some operatives that were involved in the agency’s mission in Libya are being polygraphed monthly to determine who, if anyone, is talking to Congress or the media. Sources describe the efforts as pure intimidation, and say there are threats to end the careers of unauthorized leakers.

This makes Benghazi an ever bigger scandal than we thought, with a government agency actively undermining legitimate congressional oversight in order to cover up either real crimes or its own incompetence.

It also suggests that the CIA was carrying out one (or possibly both) of the secret (and possibly illegal) operations that been widely rumored to be the real reason behind the Benghazi coverup:

  • They were already running arms (including surface-to-air missiles) to Syrian rebel, well in advance of Obama’s public declaration, or
  • Benghazi was an extrajudicial center for “harsh interrogation methods” of the sort Obama theoretically banned, as suggested by former CIA Director David Petraeus’ former mistress Paula Broadwell.

    • Either way, Obama lied, and Americans died to cover up Obama’s lies, and now even more people are being forced to lie, or at least refrain from talking to investigators seeking the truth, in order to cover up the coverup.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Obama Scandals | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for June 28, 2013

    Friday, June 28th, 2013

    It’s supposed to hit a 106° in Austin today. Sadly, not all of these links will help you keep your cool…

  • 12 different IRS offices targeted conservatives.
  • Over 1,100 patients were starved to death at NHS hospitals in the UK. Funny, I don’t remember that being mentioned in the Olympic tribute to how awesome NHS is…
  • Marco Rubio aide: We need illegal alien amnesty because American workers suck.
  • Blue collar Americans having trouble finding jobs. I’m sure that has nothing to do with our ruling political elite’s decision to allow unlimited illegal immigration of unskilled workers…
  • Every Republican voting for amnesty better get ready for a primary challenge.
  • Obama camapign workers convicted of voter fraud in Indiana. This was for the 2008 Democratic primary, so it will likely be many years before see starting seeing convictions for the Obama campaign’s various 2012 voting fraud efforts…
  • Noam Chomsky attending the opening of Hezbollah’s “Death to Israel” theme park.
  • People told me that if I voted for Romney, the U.S. military would start blocking access to liberal news sources. And they were right!
  • The Atlantic says that Obama “succeeded” in Libya but is failing in Syria. If Benghazi was success, I’d hate to see what failure looks like.
  • And speaking of Benghazi, Libya just let one of the suspected attackers walk. Thank God we have Obama’s smart, sophisticated diplomacy in the Middle East…
  • Beer now unaffordable in Greece. And you thought they had riots before…
  • Second Colorado Democrat faces a recall election over gun control.
  • Magpul to give away 1,500 30-round magazines just two days before Colorado outlaws them.
  • By the way, there’s a Facebook page to show support for bringing Magpul to Texas. But most of the rumors I hear have them moving to Wyoming.
  • The Amarillo Globe-News has a message for gun manufacturers thinking of relocating to Texas: Come on down!
  • Texas executes its 500th murderer. Don’t mess with Texas. Or we will end you.
  • Speaking of ending you: Don’t try to commit armed robbery in a concealed carry state.
  • Nurse Bloomberg continues to underwrite anti-gun ads, shoot himself in the foot. (Hat tip: Alphecca.
  • In order to prove vegans aren’t a creepy cult, website seeks to out and harass lapsed vegans.
  • The Onion channels Jay Carney: “Well, Time To Go Out In Front Of A Bunch Of People And Lie To Them.”
  • The mystery of Lori Ruff, AKA Becky Sue Turner. No one know who she actually is…

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    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Guns, Jihad, Obama Scandals | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for June 21, 2013

    Friday, June 21st, 2013

    And now the traditional Friday LinkSwarm on Friday!

  • “Detroit is expecting its creditors to take less than 10 cents on the dollar for having been foolish enough to lend money to the collection of misfits, miscreants, and criminals who govern that poor city….The problem is that the same political leadership that brought Detroit to this sorry pass remains in power…Detroit cannot be trusted with its own money, it cannot be trusted with its creditors’ money, and it certainly cannot be trusted with federal taxpayers’ money.”
  • “The federal government has been spying and lying. The only comfort is that, apparently, it’s been largely incompetent at both.”
  • Daily Kos founder joins the chorus of liberal concern trolls saying Republicans had darn well better embrace amnesty or be doomed. It’s like Microsoft telling Goggle what it’s investment strategy should be.
  • And no, Republicans are not doomed if they don’t vote for amnesty.
  • In the amnesty proposal, it takes three DUIs before they consider kicking an illegal alien out of the country.
  • Spengler: Egypt and Syria have already failed.
  • Father shoots thug attacking daughter. But the father is the one liberals want to disarm.
  • Gender studies professor and FBI most wanted sex offender Walter Lee Williams captured in Mexico. Not to be confused with awesome economics professor Walter E. WIlliams of George Mason University.
  • USS Enterprise (CVN-65), America’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, takes its final voyage.
  • Out on my ass? I guarantee it! (Also, I think The Men’s Warehouse’s problems are less “unable to connect with Gen Y” and more “nobody wants to wear a suit unless they have to and fewer and fewer men have to.” Go casual or go extinct.)

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »

    A Quick LinkSwarm on Syria

    Monday, June 17th, 2013

    So Obama is (maybe) going to be shipping arms to Syrian rebels. I think this is a remarkably bad idea for a number of reasons, none of them that Bashar Assad isn’t a murderous thug who oppresses his own people, supports terrorism, and attacks and destabilizes neighbors like Lebanon and Israel. All that is true, and Assad certainly deserves a bullet in his head for his sins.

    But there’s zero compelling evidence that toppling him is in the United State’s best interests, that America has any vital interests at sake in the Syrian civil war, or that al Qaeda-related Islamslist thugs won’t come out on top, impose Sharia law, and export Sunni-branded terrorism every bit as vicious and deadly as Assad’s Shia-backed variety. Indeed, the history of Libya and Egypt suggests that they are likely to be considerably worse. And predicting that Sunni Islamists are likely to come out on top of a post-Assad power struggle is like predicting that guys are going to wake up with no memory of last night in a Hangover sequel: we’ve seen this movie before.

    Anyway, here are a few links for the current situation in Syria.

  • Who makes up the opposition to Assad in Syria? “An array of rebel militias heavily infiltrated by radical Islamists and al Qaida loyalists with no central command.” In other words: exactly who those of us paying attention have said they are.
  • Victor Davis Hanson makes the case that intervention in Syria is a bad idea. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
  • Michael Totten can’t make heads or tails of Obama’s plans for Syria…including whether we’re actually arming the rebels or not.
  • Speaking of Totten, he links to this piece that argues. “The Islamic Republic[of Iran]’s headlong intervention in Syria is akin to Nazi Germany’s surge of military forces into the Battle of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942 – an operationally competent, strategic blunder of epic proportions.” Not buying it, especially the part that says “Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ultimate defeat is a foregone conclusion.” His argument of Irnaian-backed losses being unsustainable also sounds remarkably like the “flypaper strategy” some said would kill off the supply of radical Islamists by drawing them to the insurgency and killing them in Iraq, and we all know how well that theory turned out…

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | No Comments »

    Syrian Headlines One Year From Now

    Friday, June 14th, 2013

    New Syrian President Greets American Ambassador

    “A New Era”

    Syria Pledges Cooperation in Iraq, Lebanon

    Israel Claims New Syrian Government Shipping Arms to Hamas

    Damascus Under Sharia
    “They beat my wife,” claims distraught shopkeeper

    Syrian chemical weapons missing?

    Sunni, Shia Clashes in Lebanon Intensify

    They’re Back: How Hezbollah Survived the Fall of Assad

    New Round of Rocket Attacks Hit Tel Aviv, 2 Dead

    Iran Withdraws From Nuclear Weapon Talks

    American Solider Missing in Damascus
    Syrian government pledges “full cooperation”

    Hostage Video Released for Kidnapped Smith

    Mother issues tearful plea for Smith’s return

    Sunni Mosque Bombed in Karbala
    Iraqis blame Iran

    Alawite Insurgency Flares Again

    Syrian military talks end without agreement

    Clashes in Lebanon Spread, 31 Dead

    Syria Denies Involvement in Preschool Bombing

    Egyptian-Syrian Cooperation Pact Signed

    KLM 411 Flight Kuwait Missing

    KLM 411 Wreckage Found in Dessert

    Investigators Say KLM 411 Shot Down
    Iraq Denies Its Planes Were in Area

    Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for KLM 411
    “This is only the beginning.”

    Syrian Government Denies Supplying MANPADS to Al-Qaeda

    Jerusalem Hospital Bombed
    18 dead, more feared in wreckage

    IDF Invades Gaza
    Fierce Fighting
    First Large Incursion Since 2012

    More Lebanese Rockets Hit Tel Aviv

    UN Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

    Israel Displays Cache of Hamas Weapons, Claims Syrian Origin

    Syria Denies Shipping Weapons to Hamas
    “More lies from the criminal Zionist entity”

    Six months after kidnapping, few leads on Pvt. Smith
    Mother: “I pray every night.”

    U.S Embassy in Damascus Overrun; Ambassador, 12 Others Feared Dead

    Obama: Embassy overrun by protesters of anti-Islamic cartoon

    Lebanese Civil War Heating Up Again

    (Related.)

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for May 6, 2013

    Monday, May 6th, 2013

    Time for another LinkSwarm!

  • Silly Joanne Chesimard. If she had just served her time, she’d have tenure by now.
  • Europe is “bleeding out”. Youth unemployment? “59.1% of those under 25 are unemployed in Greece, 55.9% in Spain, 38.4% in Italy, 38.3% in Portugal, 26.5% in France.” More: “Hope and Change economies are crony capitalist systems which pick winners and losers. They maintain the status quo at all costs — and reward those who have captured government over those who innovate.”
  • So which is funnier, violence against women, or intimidating crime witnesses? Mountain Dew puts both in the same ad! Hilarity ensues! (Oh, and some people think it’s racist. It is, but not any more than a random gangsta rap video.)
  • People don’t like being bossed around by the political class. But that’s the Democratic Party’s entire model!
  • Will the welfare state dstroy democracy?
  • Did the Boston Bombers kill illegal alien amnesty?
  • “We found 15 Trial Court cases, and 12 Appellate Court cases, where Shariah was found to be applicable in these particular cases. The facts are the facts: some judges are making decisions deferring to Shariah law even when those decisions conflict with Constitutional protections.”
  • Another day, another green car bankruptcy filing.
  • According to the IRS, the sins of the mothers are, in fact, the sins of the sons.
  • War on terror? What war on terror?
  • Israel hits Syrian weapons bound for Hezbollah. World yawns.
  • And just in case it wasn’t clear before, Syria’s army sucks at fighting Israel. Though they seem quote adequate for killing their own people…
  • Gun businesses continue to leave Colorado.
  • Former New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson says that Ted Cruz isn’t allowed to be a Hispanic because he opposes illegal alien amnesty. Maybe they should just declare that you can’t be Hispanic unless you’re a Democrat and be done with it.
  • Speaking of Cruz, here’s a piece in The New Republic that, when stripped of standard TNR talking points, boils down to “Yes, Ted Cruz could be elected President.”
  • Another day, another another 20 dead in an Islamist attack on a Christian church.
  • Obama vows to stick hands into the open flame even longer this time.
  • Three year old black girl is the NRA’s youngest lifetime member.
  • China’s new Communist Party headquarters looks like a wang.
  • There are some Williamson County elections coming up May 11. None I’m voting in, but lots of city and ISD elections.
  • Nothing says “confidence” quite like insulting the genitalia of a stranger’s 11-year old child on the Internet.

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    Posted in Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Guns, Welfare State | 3 Comments »

    LinkSwarm for March 14, 2013

    Thursday, March 14th, 2013

    This week we’ll do it Thursday rather than Friday:

  • Obama is trying to work the same magic on America’s economy that a half century of Democratic rule has worked in Detroit. More details here.
  • And Detroit’s former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is going to prison.
  • Since 2002, total federal spending has increased 89% while median household income has dropped 5%.
  • In Iran, 5 of top 10 porn search terms are for gay porn (no nudity, but NSFW-ish terms, and the usual warning that it’s (ick) Gawker).
  • Thanks to ObamaCare, your veterinarian bills are going up as well as your medical bills.
  • Thomas Friedman hates the Keystone pipeline because the oil is dirty, but loves China, where industry is a thousand time dirtier than here in the U.S. And where will that oil go if the pipeline isn’t built? China. Maybe Friedman just wants all the jobs to be in China. That, or actual checks from the Chinese government or their business subsidiaries, would explain an awful lot of Friedman’s writing over the last few years…
  • “Most developed nations are fundamentally broke.”

    The degrees of broke-ness varies: from completely and utterly broke, like Greece or Italy; to wobbly, like the U.K., France, the U.S., or Japan; to getting poorer like Germany. But all of them are going to have to raise the percentage of gross domestic product they collect in tax — and many of them very significantly.

    The U.S. deficit is more than 7% of GDP. The U.K.’s deficit is just as high. There is very little sign that spending cuts to close gaps of that magnitude are on the cards, nor is there any sign that growth will be sufficiently strong to make up the difference — certainly not in countries like the U.K. or Japan.

    Huge sums of additional revenue will have to be raised.

    Willie Sutton once famously remarked that he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.”

    In the same way, governments will look to raise more tax from companies because that’s where the money is.

    Or they could, you know, actually cut spending…

  • I’ve not been following the Prenda Law case closely. Fortunately, Ken over at Popehat has. Exceptionally brief background: Scumbag copyright troll lawyers operate shakedown operation, filing dubious (at best) copyright infringement lawsuits. Then they compounded the problem by suing bloggers and lawyers in an attempt to silence them. As you might expect, that strategy isn’t working out very well for them… (Hat tip: Dwight)
  • Florida Democrats want mandatory anger management classes for people buying ammo.
  • From Popcap Games, the makers of Plants vs. Zombies, comes Trees vs. Rockets. Wait, did I say Popcap Games? I meant the Israeli Defense Forces.
  • White House journalists as Ring-Wraiths.
  • Third round of Climategate documents released?
  • Michael Totten says that Lebanon is ready to explode from the spillover effect of the Syrian Civil War.
  • News of the horrific 5-year old terrorist who brandished her fearsome Hello Kitty assault bubble gun (link fixed).

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, ObamaCare | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for March 5, 2013

    Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

    Had a busy weekend, so here’s a late LinkSwarm:

  • Liberals are casting their greedy gaze on your 401K,
  • Charles Krauthammer: Hail Armageddon!
  • As Mark Steyn put it: “those Mayan guys only hold an apocalypse every few thousand years. Washington now has a Mayan apocalypse every six weeks, whether it’s the fiscal cliff or the debt ceiling, or now the sequestration…it’s talking about $44 billion dollars, or about what the United States government borrows every nine days.”
  • Americans speak English, but Washington speaks a strange dialect where increasing spending by $1 trillion dollars is “holding the line on spending”.
  • Obama’s weak hand on the sequester (though I disagree than gun control is a long-term winning issue).
  • News flash: ObamaCare is still unpopular.
  • The idea that there are more black men in prison than college? Bunk. (via Instapundit)
  • Student suspended for brandishing gun, threatening to shoot someone. Oh wait, no, the student was suspended for tackling the gunman. What the hell, Florida?
  • Syrian rebels take city of Raqqa.
  • The MSM idea of objectivity: quoting a Paul Sadler employee as a neutral observer on Ted Cruz.
  • Speaking of Cruz, he continues to garner a superb list of enemies.
  • Cruz will also be the keynote speaker at CPAC.
  • Groupon’s gun-hating, money-losing CEO got fired.

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    Posted in Budget, Crime, Democrats, Guns | No Comments »

    Syria and Guns

    Thursday, November 29th, 2012

    OK. Thanksgiving break over.

    I’ve come across a couple of blogs from the world of international conflict you may want to take a look at:

  • Brown Moses tracks developments in the Syrian civil War, with a special focus on the ordinance expended and captured there.
  • The Gun follows the more general word of international military arms, including transfer and use in combat.

    • Both are worth checking out.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Military | No Comments »

    Egypt’s High Court Declares Parliment Invalid

    Thursday, June 14th, 2012

    “Egypt’s highest court declared the parliament invalid Thursday, and the country’s interim military rulers promptly declared full legislative authority.”

    Well, things are about to get very interesting indeed. Does the Muslim Brotherhood think it can take on the army in a full-blown civil war? I tend to doubt it, if only because potential sources of money and arms outside the country are somewhat preoccupied with the Syrian civil war right now (on both sides). On the other hand, this is as close to real power as the Muslim brotherhood has ever tasted; they may not want to give up without a fight.

    The Guardian is providing live updates.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | 2 Comments »

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