Tag Archive for: Iraq

Iran-Backed Militia Fires Rockets at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad Air Base Housing U.S. Troops

World War III is rolling out and no one knows who is running the country. Biden is MIA and Harris is a big dope.

This is not the first time one of our bases was attacked by Iran-backed proxies. Back in January Iran launched one of the largest-scale ballistic missile attacks to date on our bases.

Just days ago, Iraqi authorities and US forces tightened security measures inside and around Ain Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province in western Iraq, and Harir base in Erbil province in the north, where American forces are stationed, Iraqi military sources said.

The enhanced security measures come after the US troops targeted the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) known as Hashd Al-Shaabi in Jurf Al-Sarf in Babil province. Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is a paramilitary network composed of about 67 armed factions that are mostly Shia (Iran) Muslim groups (backed by Iran.)

Pro-Iran factions were expected to strike back after the attack.

Iran is not afraid to strike America.

Rockets fired at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase housing US forces, security sources say

By Reuters, August 5, 2024:

Two Katyusha rockets were fired at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, security sources say.

It is not clear whether the attack caused any casualties or damage inside the base, the sources say.

One security source says the rockets fell inside the base.

Read more.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: On June 7, 1981 Israel attacked Baghdad here’s IAF General David Ivry’s Story about ‘Operation Opera’ with Tom Trento

On June 7, 1981, Israel Israel launched “Operation Opera” (Hebrew: אופרה) and destroyed Saddam Hussain’s nuclear bomb capability.  Operation Opera prevented Saddam Hussein from developing and using nuclear weapons to destroy the state of Israel.

On June 7, 1981 Israel launched “Operation Opera” (Hebrew: אופרה) attacking Baghdad.

Here’s General David Ivry the IAF commander of Operation Opera’s story with Tom Trento from the United West.

Reread that sentence because the globally condemned actions of Israel in Iraq have proven to be the right decision, at the right time and those countries which condemned, soon after, praised Israel for their bold, daring, very dangerous attack, that has kept the world safe from a madman’s apocalyptic delusions.

Did I say, “a madman’s apocalyptic delusions?”

Clearly, that description causes your brain to see the insane, satanic leaders of Iran, specifically, the Ayatollah Khamenei.

Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian Twelver Shia and politician who has been the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989

Ayatollah Khamenei wants to destroy all of Israel because Allah told him to do that and he can’t go against Allah & Mohammad.

Give this Saddamesque madman a big bomb and the World is in a helluva mess.

So, here are a few questions to ponder as Muslims worldwide, energized by Iran, continue destructive demonstrations against Jews and Israel, especially here in America.

QUESTIONS:

  1. Will the Shia leaders of Iran find “Jesus” and change their ways?
  2. Will the Shia leaders of Iran realize that their apocalyptic dreams are the delusions of madmen?
  3. Once the Mullahs get their nukes, will they finally realize it would be a mistake to bomb and destroy Israel?
  4. Are there any countries that have the guts to unilaterally attack Iran and destroy their nuclear capability thus protecting the entire world?

If you answered “NO” to these questions, then shut your mouth!

When the 7.5 million Israeli’s, once again, risking their blood and treasure, attack and destroy Iran’s nukes, which should really be done by a coalition of the billions of citizens in the free countries, too afraid to fight unadulterated evil.

WATCH BONUS 2.00 MINUTE VIDEO!

In 2015, The United West tried to STOP, President Obama’s “deal” with Iran, designed to slow down their nuclear bomb program but in fact, did the opposite. Instead of a bogus deal, the West (and several Arab countries) should have bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. If that was done in 2015, The World would NOT have the problem of Iran as the number one global terrorist threat.

RELATED ARTICLE: Iranian Regional Strategy Moves Forward While the West Sleeps

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Sarah Idan, from Iraq to California running for Congress in the 30th Congressional District

Sarah Idan is a former Miss Iraq who is now an American citizen. She is running for Congress from the 30th Congressional District in California, hoping to replace Adam Schiff, who is running for Senator. She is more than just a pretty face.


When she announced in March that she would be running for Congress, she had a few exchanges on Twitter with Ilhan Omar, responding to one of Omar’s tweets with this:

“I don’t stand for your anti-American, antisemitic, Muslim Brotherhood agenda, using this democracy to further your…Islamic socialism goals of dividing and weakening our country.”

And in announcing her candidacy for Congress, she said: “I would just be the opposite of Ilhan Omar. I’m a Democrat and liberal, but I don’t think like her – I don’t hate this country.”

Given her allure, both mental and physical, she promises to be an articulate and mediagenic opponent of “The Squad”; it’s not hard to imagine that, whether she wins or loses, she will be given massive media coverage, which she could put to good use by educating the American public on Islam, terror groups, and the need to defend Israel’s right, and support its fight, to exist against those who would, if they could, obliterate the Jewish state.

Of course, we don’t know whom she will be facing in the Democratic primary, it might be someone even more impressive. Nor do we know what Republican might be running against her.

She said it makes her sick to her stomach to hear students on US campuses say the Hamas attack was an act of self-defense.

“I want them to see the horror that caused the war on Gaza. The world is shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and it was never about freeing Palestine. This is not about freeing Palestine — killing innocent families and burning them alive. This is not freeing Palestine, this is terrorism,” she told Channel 12 on Tuesday [Dec. 26].

Idan has prior experience with jihadists. In 2008, at age 18, Idan, having taught herself English while a refugee in Syria from the war in Iraq, offered her services as a translator to US forces in Iraq. During her military service, as she recounted in a recent X post, she aided US troops in fighting Hamas of Iraq, an extremist group separate from the Palestinian terror organization.

Running as a Democrat, Idan intends to be “the anti-squad,” she told Channel 12, referring to the group of hard-left Democrat progressives that have staked out positions highly critical of Israel, among them Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar.

“It’s not just about Israel. My Iraq is already lost. I lost my Iraq to the Iranian regime and to the radical Islamists and I could never live there. So the US is my only home and I need to protect my home and sadly, The Squad, when it comes to the Middle East, I feel like they have no experience, they’re being told what to say.”

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Here Are All The Times US Troops Have Shot Down Drones And Missiles Launched By Iran-Backed Groups Since October

  • U.S. forces in the Middle East have shot down at least 50 drones and 11 missiles since the Oct. 17 escalation in attacks by Iran-backed militias, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation tally.
  • U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have come under attack at least 106 times, a Department of Defense official told the DCNF.
  • Meanwhile, naval forces in the Red Sea have defended against 46 attack drones and saved commercial shipping vessels from ballistic missiles the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group fired.

U.S. troops in the Middle East have engaged more than 50 drones and at least 11 missiles, including ballistic missiles, fired by Iranian proxy groups, since the Oct. 17 escalation in attacks, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation tally.

The Iran-backed militias conducting drone and missile attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria and on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have framed their activities as a means of opposing Israel in its war on the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, and Washington’s alleged underwriting of the conflict that began Oct. 7. In the process of defending against those attacks, U.S. forces have downed dozens of drones and missiles targeting or nearing American personnel, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) statements, media reports and claims by the militia groups show.

The Pentagon says it aims to prevent a wider war from cascading across the Middle East and has moved to bolster air defenses at bases throughout the region.

A Department of Defense (DOD) official told the DCNF on Friday afternoon the Pentagon has counted at least 106 attacks on U.S. forces Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. CENTCOM has confirmed only six drones successfully intercepted during those attacks, but media reports suggest the number could be much higher.

The Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a coalition of various Iran-backed militant groups, through its semi-official Iraq War Media social media channel issued another claim on Friday accompanied by footage of rocket launches.

The first attack took place on Oct. 17, when the U.S. military and coalition forces fended off three explosive-laden drones bearing down on U.S. troops stationed in Iraq in two different incidents, CENTCOM said in a press release. The next day, two sites in Syria hosting American and partner troops came under attack; one of the drones was shot down before it could cause damage, while the other one caused minor injuries to personnel at the al-Tanf coalition garrison.

Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed Iraqi militia, had threatened to attack U.S. military bases with missiles, special forces and drones if the U.S. intervened militarily in support of Israel, Reuters reported.

Rockets and drones pummeled the Ain al-Asad air base near Baghdad later on Oct. 19. On Oct. 23, U.S. troops shot down two more kamikaze drones in Syria with unspecified defensive systems, Pentagon officials confirmed. Rockets rained down at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad again on Oct. 24, Reuters reported, citing two Iraqi security sources.

The Pentagon warned Iran and its proxy militias in the Middle East intended to further escalate conflict by attacking U.S. troops based in the region.

Dozens of troops have sustained minor injures, and one American contractor died during a false alarm.

On Oct. 25, one attack was recorded at a location in northern Syria on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported, citing U.S. officials. Three rockets were aimed at the outpost and one landed inside, although no troops were injured.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed dozens of attacks, not all of which have been verified as successful. They continued through November and December.

Christmas day saw the most significant casualty of all the attacks when an explosive drone apparently crashed into Erbil Air Base in Iraq, wounding two American service members and leaving a third in critical condition, the Pentagon said. In retaliation, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes on “Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups focused specifically on UAV activities,” damaging facilities used to make drones and likely killing or wounding multiple militants.

It was the fourth round of airstrikes Biden ordered on facilities associated with the militant groups and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which oversees Tehran’s proxy operations, since Oct. 27.

Additionally, U.S. and coalition forces have defended bases as militants were planning or in the process of conducting strikes, recording casualties.

Separately, U.S. Naval forces in the Red Sea have downed at least 46 attack drones and 11 missiles the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched, according to a DCNF tally. The USS Carney guided-missile destroyer intercepted three land-attack cruise missiles and eight drones that appeared intended to strike Israel on Oct. 19, USNI News reported, citing a preliminary Pentagon after-action report.

Since then, CENTCOM has documented 23 attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according to a statement. U.S. destroyers and fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier scrambled to respond.

In the latest incident, Houthi rebels on four small boats fired small arms and crew-served guns at U.S. helicopters while attempting to board a Maersk container ship early Sunday, the first time the Pentagon has confirmed Houthi militants directly targeted American military personnel. U.S. helicopters fired back, killing militants and sinking three of the skifs, the military said.

Saturday night, the Gravely shot down two more anti-ship ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis, according to CENTCOM.

The Pentagon is documenting attacks on international shipping on a case-by-case basis, the DOD official told the DCNF.

“Often times if multiple munitions are fired in quick succession, that would count as once ‘incident.’ However, it really depends on the timing and sequence of events during a period of time,” the official said.

U.S. warships downed drones twice in November and responded to an attempted strike on commercial ship with anti-ship ballistic missiles, CENTCOM has said. Incidents increased in frequency in December; on one occasion, the USS Carney shot down 14 attack drones that came at the destroyer in a wave, without any evidence of warship nearby.

Dec. 3 proved an especially tense day as the UUS Carney guided-missile destroyer responded to three separate distress calls as the commercial ships came under attack from an onslaught of drones and ballistic missiles from areas occupied by the Iran-backed militant group, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. In the process of rendering support to the ships, the Carney downed three Houthi drones but CENTCOM said it was too early to determine whether a U.S. Navy vessel was also a target.

“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security. They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world. We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran,” CENTCOM said in the statement.

U.S. naval assets downed a dozen suicide drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land-based cruise missiles the Houthis fired toward the Red Sea over a 10-hour period on Dec. 26, the military said in a statement.

In a statement, the Houthi military spokesperson affirmed the group’s “continued support and support of the Palestinian people as part of their religious, moral and humanitarian duty” and reiterated intentions to attack any commercial vessel tied to Israeli owners or destined for Israel.

Shipping in the Red Sea has decreased dramatically to the Houthi threat, as successful strikes have sparked fires on board merchant vessels and tankers, while U.S. forces continue to take down missiles.

The Pentagon announced Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational task force aimed at safeguarding shipping through the critical waterway, on Dec. 18. Major freight companies say they still plan to reroute around Cape of Good Hope, CNN reported.

So far, the Pentagon has not confirmed whether the Houthis aimed for any drones heading directly for U.S. warships to impact on those ships, reportedly to avoid provoking further tensions as the region is simmering over the war between Israel and Gaza. The Biden administration has also refrained from directly targeting Houthi launch sites.

“President Biden’s perceived weakness by our enemies is leading to escalating attacks against our servicemembers and lawful commercial shipping. These attacks will continue until these terrorists understand that their actions will have severe consequences.” Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter, defense.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Iraqi PM Meets With Iranian Leadership, Praises Hamas One Day After Meeting With Antony Blinken

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani met with Iranian leadership in a show of support for Hamas one day after he met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to multiple reports.

Blinken traveled to Baghdad on Sunday to express concerns to al-Sudani about increased attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups on U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, according to the State Department. al-Sudani met with Iranian leadership one day later in Tehran to praise Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and denounce Israel’s counteroffensive, according to a press release from Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office.

al-Sudani met with Khamenei in Tehran on Monday to jointly condemn Israel’s counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a press release from Khamenei’s office. During their meeting, al-Sudani described Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks as a “heroic operation.” “Despite this joy [referring to the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks], we are all deeply devastated by the brutal massacre in Gaza, which is a collective revenge on the people of this small region,” al-Sudani said.

al-Sudani also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and criticized the U.S. for supporting Israel’s “crimes against humanity and genocide,” according to a press release from Raisi’s office. The two agreed that a broader regional conflict could only be avoided if Israel halts its counteroffensive. “Those who want the scope [of] this crisis not to expand to all over the region, must put pressure on the Zionist regime to stop this aggression and organized killing,” al-Sudani said on Monday.

During his visit with Blinken a day prior, al-Sudani “made very clear” that he condemns attacks by Iranian-backed militias against U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Georgia. There have been 47 attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, since Hamas carried out its attacks against Israel on Oct. 7.

“I had a good, productive, candid meeting with Prime Minister al-Sudani,” Blinken told reporters on Sunday. “It was very important to send a very clear message to anyone who might seek to take advantage of the conflict in Gaza to threaten our personnel here or anywhere else in the region: don’t do it.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JAKE SMITH

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Two Dozen U.S. Soldiers Injured in Iran-Backed Attacks Last Week

The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check hasn’t arrived.

The ayatollahs are getting impatient that their $6 billion check hasn’t arrived in the mail. And they do like celebrating the 40th anniversary of their great triumph… the Marine Barracks bombing.

So they spent a little time trying to kill American soldiers. Again.

At least two-dozen American military personnel based in Iraq and Syria were injured in drone attacks last week that officials said were launched by Iran-backed proxy groups.

The largest attack carried out against a US base was on Oct. 18 when 20 troops suffered “minor injuries,” after numerous one-way drones targeted al-Tanf Garrison in southeastern Syria, US military officials said, according to the Washington Post.

On the same day, multiple drones also targeted the US and its allies in two different attacks on Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq that left four people with minor injuries, the Washington Post reported. Those injured also returned to duty.

A US citizen working as a contractor died the same day after he went into cardiac arrest during a shelter-in-place order at the base.

The Pentagon has said the groups behind the attacks are supported by Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It’s natural to assume that this is a response to the current situation in the region, but the depressing thing is that it’s not even new.

The two elements that jump out at most people (1. Iran launching attacks on U.S. bases and (2. the White House not even mentioning it… have been around for quite a while.

Here’s my article on it from Jan 2022.

Two more terror drones targeted American forces deployed to fight ISIS at the Al Asad air base. The base has been repeatedly hammered by Iran-backed rocket attacks over the past year, most notably when 14 rockets struck the base over the summer causing several injuries.

There were repeated Iran-backed rocket strikes against Americans in Iraq throughout the last year totaling an estimated 25 separate attacks under the Biden administration.

On September 11, two drones launched an attack on U.S. forces at Erbil International Airport.

Then, as now, the Biden administration limited American military personnel to defensive preventative air strikes against the Shiite terror groups carrying out the attacks.

This was going on long before the current Hamas attack and the Israeli response. Or before we directed more forces to the region.

American soldiers have been killed and worse still, we’re funding their killers. And I don’t just mean with that $6 billion.

While some U.S. conflicts with Jihadists in the region are old news, Kataeb Hezbollah fired rockets at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in 2019, and has bombed U.S. bases in recent years. Kataeb Hezbollah killed two American soldiers in 2020: Army Spc. Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias and Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts.

Politicians and the media have mostly ignored the fact that Americans are continuing to be killed in Iraq, that the Iraqi government is funding their killers, and that we’re funding Iraq.

While Iraq funds Iran’s terror militias, the United States funds the UN Development Programme to “stabilize” Iraq and has invested over $100 million into “conflict, peace and security” funding.

The United States has spent over $1 billion financing the nation’s military while Iraq spends billions financing the Iranian PMU terror militias which are expected to approach a quarter of million Jihadis.

Did you hear any mention of Air Force Staff Sgt. Marshal D. Roberts?

On March 14, 2020, Roberts lost his life when enemy fire engaged with his unit at Camp Taji. With rockets flying, Roberts and his friend took cover. They discussed running to a bunker but not without considering if they could make it to safety. Roberts told his fellow Airmen to go and get her body armor. As his friend left, a rocket landed, taking his life. In losing his own, Roberts saved another.

Her body armor.

Do we talk about any of this? No. And then suddenly we notice it and wonder what’s going on. Iran keeps attacking us and trying to kill us. And Biden keeps trying to cut a deal while warning against offending Iran.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Chaos Erupts In Middle East As Israel-Hamas Conflict Surges

In the wake of Israel’s attacks on Hamas, U.S. forces in the Middle East have endured several attacks as violent protests decrying Israel ensue throughout the region.

Israel is carrying out a sweeping counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip after Hamas killed over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped over 100 civilians, including children, during mass terrorist attacks that began on Oct. 7. Protests and violence have flared up in surrounding Middle Eastern nations – despite the Biden administration claiming days before the Hamas attack that the region is “quieter” than it has been in decades.

Mass protests are taking place in Arab nations surrounding Israel, including Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, the latter of which houses the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah. U.S. military forces in regions including Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea have recorded rocket and/or drone attacks from a number of groups, including Islamic Resistance and Houthi forces.

Several of the groups involved in the attacks against U.S. forces are supported and backed by Iran. While Tehran’s role in helping plan the initial Oct. 7 attacks against Israel by Hamas is disputed, it heavily supports the terrorist organization.

“Tehran is bringing various elements of its proxy network online and in place to bail out Hamas, distract Israel, and deter the U.S. from standing with Israel,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior researcher on Iranian security and political issues at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The more Tehran greenlights the involvement of its proxies, the more it is attempting to create a new security architecture in the region to keep America out and Israel bogged down.”

To the northeast, Iranian-backed militants fired rockets at the Ain al-Asad air base hosting Americans in Iraq on Thursday, and a search and rescue operation was subsequently launched by the Iraqi military; it is not immediately clear if casualties or injuries were sustained during the attacks. Another base was attacked via rocket fire near the international airport in Baghdad on the same day.

The al-Asad base came under attack earlier in the week after U.S. troops staved off incoming kamikaze drones on Tuesday. In Syria, two U.S. military sites housing American and allied troops fell under attack from drones on Thursday; incoming drones were shot down by personnel at the al-Tanf coalition garrison, with one servicemember sustaining injuries. Militants also fired rockets at the Conoco base in the Deir al-Zor region of Syria after it fell under siege from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Thursday.

A U.S. naval destroyer operating in the Red Sea shot down an incoming hive of drones and cruise missiles launched by Houthi terrorist forces in Yemen on Thursday, the AP reported. The drones were “potentially” headed for Israel, according to Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

“These small-scale attacks are clearly concerning and dangerous,” Ryder said on Wednesday. “We’re going to do everything necessary to ensure that we’re protecting our forces. And  if and when we choose to respond, we’ll do so at a time of our choosing.”

Hezbollah has warned the U.S. against increasing its support of Israel, and has launched several small-scale attacks over its southern border, including missile attacks and gunfire toward IDF, according to Fox News. IDF has increased its presence at the border with troops and tanks as tensions with Hezbollah rapidly escalate, according to The Associated Press.

Hezbollah warned Israel on Wednesday it is “thousands of times stronger” than it was before, according to Reuters; the Iranian-backed terrorist group consists of approximately 100,000 fighters, leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah claimed. It also has a stockpile of weaponry and boasts precision-guided missiles that could hit any target in Israel.

After it was reported without evidence that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza, Hezbollah called for a “day of unprecedented anger” and violent protests ensued near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon starting Wednesday. Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons into crowds of protestors who broke through barbed wire and fencing leading to the embassy, according to Reuters.

Mass Palestinian protests are occurring in several Arab nations surrounding Israel, including Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Turkey and Jordan, according to the Associated Press. The State Department issued a “Worldwide Caution Security Alert” to U.S. citizens traveling overseas on Thursday amid the risk of further terrorist attacks and violence.

Demonstrations also took place in Iran, where protestors can be seen burning the Israeli flag and chanting “death to Israel,” NBC News reported on Tuesday. All of the unfolding chaos, from attacks against U.S. forces to the ongoing protests against Israel, can be traced back to Tehran, according to Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Jewish Policy Center.

“Iran is the center of the conflict. The religious leadership believes it is destined to control Islam, and then the rest of the world. They’re not ‘crazy,’ they’re believers,” Bryen told the DCNF. “Without an international determination to thwart Iran’s goals, the region will not see peace regardless of the outcome of Israel’s present war in Gaza.”

Bryen said that when the war between Israel and Hamas concludes, the chaos will reflect poorly on the Biden administration, which has been accused by lawmakers and foreign policy experts of taking a concessionary stance toward Iran.

“When the history of the current horror in Israel is written, it will be clear that the administration’s oil sanctions waivers, unfreezing assets, ignoring Iranian arms sales to Russia, and ignoring the suffering of the Iranian people under the mullahs gave Tehran the sense that it was driving events,” Bryen told the DCNF. “And Hamas had the same sense in Gaza.”

The Biden administration said on Oct. 7 – two days before the brutal Hamas terrorist attacks – that the Middle East is “quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

JAKE SMITH

Contributor.

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GARRETT EXNER: Has Iran Compromised The Biden Administration?

‘Pandora’s Box For Other Aggressors’: Blinken Insists On Linking Israel Aid To Ukraine

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Iraqi Shi’ite top dog al-Sadr: ‘We are also waiting for the fall of the American entity, led by senile old Biden’ [Video]

So is Biden himself, and his henchmen.

Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr: Jihad against the Zionist Enemy Brings Glory; We Also Await the Fall of the American Entity, Led by the ‘Senile Old Man’ Biden

MEMRI, October 10, 2023:

Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr said in an October 10, 2023 video posted on his YouTube account that Jihad against the Zionist enemy brings glory and honor, even if the people carrying it out are not Shiite. He added: “We are also waiting for the fall of the brutal colonialist American entity, which is led by that senile old man Biden.” Al-Sadr said he was not surprised that the “oppressive” Western countries support the “Zionist enemy.”

Muqtada Al-Sadr: “It is not important whether the heroic Palestinian resistance fighters and mujahideen are Shiites or Sunnis. They do not even need to be Muslims for us to support them. Jihad against the Zionist enemy brings glory and honor.

[…]

“I am not surprised by the position of the oppressive West, which supports the Zionist enemy. America, the most evil of all, and its lackeys like France that oppresses rebels, and Germany the promotes obscenity, have gotten us accustomed to their oppression, arrogance, violation of sanctities, and defiance of the Heavens.

[…]

“Today, we are also waiting for the fall of the brutal colonialist American entity, which is led by that senile old man, Biden.”

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Can a President Who Can’t Tell Apart Iraq and Ukraine Make Decisions About Them?

Biden slipped up twice in 24 hours, confusing Iraq with Ukraine.

What is the standard for competency for presidents? At the very least, the ability to tell apart two major conflicts that affect the United States.

President Joe Biden slipped up twice in the last 24 hours by confusing the US war in Iraq with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been weakened by a shocking mutiny by a mercenary group that’s played a critical role in his war with Ukraine.

“He is clearly losing the war in Iraq,” Biden said of Putin, evidently meaning to refer to Ukraine. “He’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world.”

At least he didn’t call Putin, George W. Bush.

Biden made a similar mistake while speaking to donors Tuesday evening at a campaign fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Maryland, about his efforts to galvanize US allies in support of Kyiv.

“If anybody told you — and my staff wasn’t so sure, either — that we’d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get NATO to be completely united, I think they would have told you it’s not likely,” the president said, again meaning to say Ukraine.

He also spoke about his “new best friend” being the “prime minister of a little country that’s now the largest in the world, China,” before correcting himself that he meant to say India.

Back in November, Biden also mixed up Iraq and Ukraine during a speech in Florida while defending his policies from accusations they have fueled inflation.

“Inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of a war in Iraq and the impact on oil, and what Russia is doing,” the president said.

He quickly caught the mistake. “I mean, excuse me, the war in Ukraine,” he said.

When the president can’t tell apart Ukraine and Iraq, it’s a major problem. Biden keeps flashing back to the Iraq War which defined the final phase of his Senate career and his vice presidency.

Even Bloomberg is forced to notice that Biden is unfit, not only because of corruption, but because his mind is untethered from the realities of the moment.

How long can this go on?

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

IRAQ: Multiple Long-Range Ballistic Missiles Fired at U.S. Consulate in Erbil

UPDATE: Iran Fires 12 Missiles at US Consulate in Iraq claims to target ‘Israeli spy base’

The attack targeted the new US consulate in the Kurdish city of Erbil.

According to MENA:

US officials, speaking to AFP, said the origin of the missiles was from Iran, echoing a similar ballistic missile attack aimed at US facilities in Iraq in January 2020.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The ballistic missile attack caused powerful explosions, which were captured on social media.

Iranian state media claimed the missile strike targeted “secret Israeli bases” in Erbil, and also reported the arrest of members of an alleged Israeli spy cell.

To read more, click here and here.


The Islamic Republic of Iran is likely behind this. The mullahs know that Biden’s handlers want the nuke deal above all things, so as to vindicate Obama and repudiate Trump, and so they’ll stand this as well. Weakness invites aggression.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Iraqi government blocked Jews from attending pope’s interfaith service, Vatican silently went along

Associated Press reported Saturday: “The Vatican said Iraqi Jews were invited to the event but did not attend, without providing further details.”

Now we know the rest of the story. And so it is clear yet again: interfaith outreach and dialogue all go one way, and result in the Christian side becoming mute about Muslim persecution of Christians, and ultimately becoming less Christian altogether, and more accepting of Islamic mores it should know better than to accept, such as deeply-rooted Islamic antisemitism. The pope didn’t dare say anything about this, because speaking out might have jeopardized his meeting with Sistani and whole visit to Iraq. So what did that visit accomplish? Nothing and less than nothing.

“Iraq Bars Jews From Pope’s Interfaith Event,”

by Jules Gomes, Church Militant, March 8, 2021 (thanks to Tom):

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (ChurchMilitant.com) – Jewish leaders are slamming Pope Francis’ silence on Iraq’s anti-Semitic policies after it emerged that the Iraqi government blocked Jews from attending the pontiff’s interfaith service at the birthplace of Abraham.

A delegation of Jews was unable to attend the “Abrahamic” event even though the Vatican had invited the representatives to be present because “the Iraqi government stymied efforts for any Jews to travel to Iraq,” the Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.

Multiple Jewish sources confirmed to Church Militant the veracity of the Jerusalem Post’s report explaining that Iraq may have barred the Jewish delegation because Iraq does not officially recognize Israel and there are no relations between the two states.

Vatican Questioned for Its Silence

Freddie Dalah, an Iraqi Jew who fled Iraq for Britain years ago, asked Church Militant why “the pope, using this great opportunity, did not take the Iraqi government to task regarding the conspicuous absence of any prominent Jews as a delegation for their community?”

“The absence of Jews from the event confirms the Vatican’s historic silence when it comes to the ethnic cleansing of the Jews not only from Europe but from the Middle East as well,” Dalah observed. “Sincerely, a bit more shrewdness in managing the diplomatic situation regarding the absence of the Jewish community would not have gone amiss.”

Speaking to Church Militant, Iraqi-born Edwin Shuker, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said he “genuinely believed that the Vatican was misled by the Iraqi government into thinking that there will be a Jewish presence in Ur.”

“The Iraqi government, who intended to do so, recently changed their mind in case the Jewish delegation has links with Israel,” Shuker said, “but they could not find local Jewish representatives and ended up with a wasted opportunity.”

Shuker and his family fled to the United Kingdom in 1971 amid rising tensions, with dozens of Iraqi Jews executed on spurious charges, but regularly travels back to Iraq, working to preserve Jewish shrines and sites to maintain links between Iraq and its displaced Jewish community.

The Vatican “made it a point of telling journalists” that it had invited representatives of Iraq’s Jewish community to attend “despite the fact that Muslims violently purged the Jews from the country decades ago,” wrote Yakir Benzion.

“The Vatican didn’t bother telling the reporters why none showed up,” remarked Benzion, from United with Israel — the world’s largest pro-Israel online community.

“I am sad that the Iraqi government prevented Jews, Abraham’s children, from participating in what was meant to be a prayer for peace,” lamented well-known Rabbi Elchanan Poupko of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Asking why a rabbi was not present at the birthplace of Abraham as part of the papal event, Middle East analyst, writer and peace activist Yoni Michanie said Francis should have spoken up and also remembered the “tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews who were ethnically cleansed in the late 1940s.”

On Saturday, Church Militant reported the conspicuous absence of Jews from the Ur event, quoting Jewish anthropologist Karen Harradine, who said she found it “insulting to us Jews that we were not included by those who used the birthplace of our first patriarch, Abraham, to virtue signal and mumble meaningless platitudes about healing.”…

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Baghdad Embassy Siege: Did the Iranian Mullahs Think Donald Trump Would React Like Jimmy Carter?

My latest in PJ Media:

The Islamic Republic of Iran, facing demonstrations at home that threaten its very existence and more in Iraq that threaten that country’s Shi’ite proxy government, is resorting to a tested and true strategy. Fox News reports that “crowds of angry Iraqis protesting America’s recent airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia have laid siege to the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad Tuesday, chanting ‘Down, Down USA!’ and storming through a main gate, prompting troops to fire back tear gas in response.”

President Trump tweeted: “Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”

Whether the pro-Iranian Shi’ite regime will take any serious steps to protect the embassy is an open question, and the Iranian mullahs may be assuming that Trump will talk tough and then let the whole thing blow over. After all, as The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran explains in detail, there is a significant precedent for this that occurred right at the time the Islamic Republic was founded.

On January 16, 1979, a tearful Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and his family left Iran after being betrayed and abandoned by Jimmy Carter. Two weeks later, on February 1, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned to Iran after fourteen years of exile and set out to establish the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khomeini had made abundantly clear that the Islamic Republic would consider the United States a mortal enemy when he enabled the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. American diplomats would be held hostage for well over a year.

The immediate pretext for the invasion of the Embassy was Jimmy Carter’s reluctant decision to allow the gravely ill Shah to enter the United States on October 23, 1979, for medical treatment. Carter asked his advisers, “What are you guys going to advise me to do if they overrun our embassy and take our people hostage?” Nonetheless, he had no plan when a group calling itself Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line (that is, Khomeini’s line) entered the embassy compound and took hostage the skeleton staff of sixty-six that was still serving there after the fall of the Shah.

There is much more. Read the rest here.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.

VIDEO: President Trump’s inspirational speech to our troops in Iraq

President Trump and the First Lady spent Christmas with our troops in Iraq. While there he made important statement to our forward deployed soldiers.

President Trump made these key points:

  • ISIS is destroyed.
  • Regional nations must step up and take responsibility for security.
  • America shouldn’t be doing the fighting for others. They must also pay the price.
  • America is no longer “suckers.”
  • Our soldiers are the greatest in the world.

Here is his full speech.

Troops shout “USA!” during POTUS IRAQ Visit.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column with images and video is courtesy of the White House.

How has Delaware dodged the refugee bullet for decades? Answer: Joe Biden

There is a short news item at Delaware Public Media about how a Jewish refugee agency in Delaware is waiting for seven families (likely Muslim families based on their country of origin) they hope they will soon be settling in Delaware—the First State.  So I thought I might revisit a topic I haven’t discussed for a long time and that is the origin of the Refugee Act of 1980.

Senators Biden and Kennedy are responsible for the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. See list below of other Senators deeply involved in 1979.

But, first here is a portion of the short piece at Delaware Public Media:

The state of Hawaii’s stay on Trump’s second travel ban suspends the FY17 cap for refugees – currently set at 50,000.

That opens the door for refugee families from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Eastern African country of Eritrea in line to come to the First State, but none of them have travel plans in place yet.

Jewish Family Services of Delaware Refugee Resettlement Coordinator Sarah Green says that currently, the families are stuck in Jordan and Ethiopia.

“It’s hard to know what’s happening,” Green said. “We just have to wait and see. We get a very limited view of what’s happening over there.”

She says her agency is taking the approach that these families could arrive any day – and working to ensure they’ll be comfortable when they reach Delaware.

[….]

There’s reason to expect they could arrive soon. According to the U.S. State Department, 900 flights for refugees to the U.S. are being scheduled every week.

As of this morning, 831 new refugees arrived in the US in the past week (5/5-5/12) according to Wrapsnet. And, that puts us at 44,072 this fiscal year.

At this rate the Trump Administration will hit 50,000 in about 7 – 8 weeks. Will they stop at 50,000 which should happen around the first week of July? That is the question!

Delaware, in some ways, is more interesting to me than some of the other very low refugee admission states (LOL! including Hawaii).  See chart below.

And that is because then Senator Joe Biden was one of the chief sponsors of the Senate-generated Refugee Act of 1979 (S.643) which became the Refugee Act of 1980 when Jimmy Carter signed it in to law the following year.  You can learn more about it here.  Pay special attention to the part about how states were NOT to be burdened with welfare costs of refugees.

Here are the co-sponsors of S.643 another of Senator Ted Kennedy’s swamp-America-with-immigrants bills:

So how is it that Delaware is in the bottom ten locations for refugee seeding when then Senator and now former Vice President Joe Biden is that state’s most prominent political figure?  Did he welcome refugees to America in 1979, but keep them from swamping Delaware with diversity for decades?

Wrapsnet data only goes back to FY2003, but that gives us enough years to see a pattern. (For researchers more diligent than I am, you can go back through all the previous annual reports and put the data together from the very beginning, but I expect the pattern is similar in the early years.)

So from FY03 through today (in FY17) we admitted 886,324 refugees to America (not including asylum seekers) and Delaware got a whopping 139 of them!

In the years Joe Biden was Vice President, Delaware got only 50 refugees.

Here are the last ten locations for refugee placement from FY03 to the present. What the heck is “Unknown State?” Does that mean 68 refugees were placed secretly somewhere? Yikes!

If Delaware Public Media really wanted to do some important work, reporters there should try to find out exactly why and how Delaware dodged a bullet for so many years when their claim to fame, Veep Joe Biden, sponsored the original law and then apparently kept diversity-seeding from the state! (It is not because of the state’s small size since Rhode Island got thousands more than Delaware).

For new readers, this post is filed in mywhere to find information’ category and in ‘Refugee statistics.’

Jared Kushner, an advisor with eyes on ISIS who Trump can actually trust

My father liked to say that a man’s judgment is only as good as his information — and that was decades before the era of “fake news.”

President Trump clearly understands that he needs multiple sources of information on sensitive issues, from the intentions of the Republican caucus on the Hill, to the status of our war on ISIS.

Bad information leads to bad decisions. This is the main reason why the Republican plan to reform ObamaCare failed.

Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner

By dispatching his trusted son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to Iraq in the company of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump is telling us that he is not entirely happy with the information he has been getting from Special Envoy for ISIS, Brett McGurk, an Obama holdover. Nor does he entirely trust the information he has been getting from the intelligence community, a raging elephant that has shown itself to be totally outside of his control.

The problem is the politicization of intelligence, a phenomenon that has afflicted Republican presidents more than Democrats in recent years.

LTG Mike Flynn understood this problem well. As director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he felt it was his duty to give unvarnished advice to the president and the Congress, instead of dressing up his assessment to meet the wishes and policies of his political bosses.

Flynn’s truth-telling enraged Obama, who fired him in 2014 after he testified to Congress that the war on radical Islamic terrorism wasn’t all peaches and cream, as the White House was telling the American public.

In particular, Flynn warned that the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan would embolden the Taliban, that al Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP) “remains resolute in targeting the (U.S.) Homeland,” and that al Qaida in Iraq, “also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant … probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014.”

All three of these predictions turned out to be accurate.

Even worse, Flynn had the audacity to tell Congress that Obama’s Iraq pullout at the end of 2011 had emboldened ISIL “to increase its operations and presence.”

During his brief stint as National Security Advisor for President Trump, Flynn was careful to establish his own channels of communications to field intelligence officers, in order get “ground truth” instead of politicized analysis.

His pick as liaison to the intelligence community, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, shared his skepticism of the Washington-based analysts and reportedly angered many of the old guard at the CIA, who tried to get Flynn’s successor, LTG H.R. McMaster, to fire him.

According to Politico, Cohen-Watnick kept his job after he appealed to top White House advisors Steve Bannon and Jared Kusher, who got the president to over-rule McMaster and the Agency mandarins.

Cohen-Watnick also reported to Jared Kushner on his review of requests by the Obama White House to “unmask” top Trump transition officials, arguably the only “crime” committed in the whole Russian-related investigation.

Bloomberg’s Eli Lake reported on Monday that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice made “multiple requests to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports that related to Trump transition activities,” and that Cohen-Watnick relayed that information to House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes.

Any wonder now why Kushner has been sent to Iraq? President Trump has good reason to not to trust intelligence bureaucrats who owe their jobs to former CIA director John Brennan, a highly-partisan pol, and wants a second opinion on the information he’s been getting through official channels.

Here are some of the questions that Kushner will likely be asking:

  • How well are the various elements of the coalition against ISIS actually fighting? Are the Kurdish peshmerga as effective as they claim to be? Are regular Iraqi army forces fighting at all?

  • What role are Iranian forces playing on the ground? Are they seeking a permanent presence in northern Iraq? How deeply do they influence the Baghdad government?

  • How effective are the newly-formed Christian militias in the Nineveh Plain?

  • How close to implosion is Iraq as a unitary state? Can the Kurdish Regional Authority successfully conduct a referendum on independence without exploding Iraq and provoking a Turkish invasion?

  • How can the U.S. neutralize an increasingly aggressive Turkey, and in particular, keep them from shooting in the backs of our Kurdish allies in northern Syria?

The president will be making life-and-death decisions in the weeks to come that will impact his presidency for years to come. No wonder he wants a trusted advisor on the ground to provide him with an independent assessment.