Iraq

Inside the world's most dangerous dam

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/middleeast/inside-the-mosul-dam/index.html

Hillary Clinton Received Secret Memo Stating Obama Admin ‘Support’ for ISIS

 by Patrick Howley14 Jun 20167,558

WASHINGTON, DC — Hillary Clinton received a classified intelligence report stating that the Obama administration was actively supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the terrorist group that became the Islamic State.

The memo made clear that Al Qaeda in Iraq was speaking through Muhammad Al Adnani, who is now the senior spokesman for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Western and Gulf states were supporting the terrorist group to try to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, who was being propped up by the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese.

In August 2012, a “SECRET” classified memo was sent to various top Obama administration officials and agencies, including to the State Department and to Clinton’s office personally.

“The document is an IAR, an intelligence information report,” said Christopher J. Farrell, who serves on the board of directors of Judicial Watch, which obtained the document. “It is produced by somebody within the Defense intelligence agency (DIA). It is reporting from the field by an intelligence agent” who could be a U.S. government agent, a defense attaché, or a source.

“It’s a report from the field back to headquarters with some intelligence that somebody is willing to bet their career on,” Farrell said.

Farrell confirmed that the report was sent to Clinton’s office, based on the recipient marking “RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC.”

The report identifies Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as being one of the principal elements of the Syrian opposition, which the West was choosing to “support.”

The intelligence report contains an extensive backgrounder on AQI and its methods and capabilities, noting that AQI was speaking through the spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq Muhammad Al Adnani.

Al Adnani is now the chief spokesman for the current version of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Here is a great little video explaining why 93% of Iraqi's think of the US as their enemy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVVW2clM1o

Reuters reported:

The United States will send around 600 new troops to Iraq to assist local forces in the battle to retake Mosul from Islamic State that is expected later this year, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday.

The new deployment is the third such boost in U.S. troop levels in Iraq since April, underscoring the difficulties President Barack Obama has had in extracting the U.S. military from the country.

 

The United States has gradually increased the number of U.S. troops in Iraq this year, and moved them closer to the front lines of battle. Obama approved sending 560 more troops to Iraq in July, three months after the United States said it would dispatch about 200 more troops there.

 

To send the new troops, the White House will raise its cap on U.S. forces in Iraq from 4,647, to 5,262 troops, a senior U.S. defense official said. 

What Reuters didn’t report, is that various Iraqi state militias, known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), are preparing for violent resistance against these U.S. troops, which they see as an occupying force.

Al Monitor reports:

Retaking Mosul Prompts More Questions Than Answers

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/iraq-kurdistan-mosul-humanitarian-a...

"Humanitarian chiefs in Iraq's Kurdistan region claim they are being 'ignored' as coalition prepares for the operation to retake Mosul"

Admit It. Canadian Troops in Iraq Aren't Just Advising. They're Fighting. Walkom

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/10/10/admit-it-canadian-...

"It has always been a myth that Canada's soldiers in Iraq don't do combat. Now the myth is even harder to sustain. On Thursday, a senior general acknowledged that over the last few months, Canadian special forces operating in northern Iraq - have been increasingly involved in front-line skirmishes against Daesh fighters.

'The mission has changed, said Brig-Gen Peter Dawe. 'We are more engaged on the line...The risk has increased..."

Mosul Eye

https://mosuleye.wordpress.com

Prepare the bodybags and 'highway of heroes'. This is going to be a big bloody mess. The Guardian is standing by ready to confuse and point you in the wrong direction once again...

Loud & Clear...(podcast)

http://theduran.com/loud-clear-radio-broadcast-dissects-the-battle-to-re...

"Radio broadcast dissects the battle to retake Mosul and the role Erdogan's Turkey will play."

Canada is there...

DEBKAfile’s military sources count six assorted military groupings taking part in the liberation of Mosul. They have nothing in common aside from their determination to drive the Islamic State out.

They are utterly divided on the two main aspects of the offensive: How to achieve their common goal and what happens to Mosul after the Islamist invaders are gone.

The underlying US rationale for embarking on this high-wire operation is President Barack Obama’s aspiration to achieve Mosul’s liberation before his departure from the White House in January, in the hope that this landmark success will provide a major distraction from his administration’s failed policies in Syria.

The Islamic State might have been expected to take advantage of the prior warning of the offensive for a stand in defense of the Iraqi capital of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s caliphate and so exploit the conflicting interests of the invading force.

But ISIS leaders decided against waiting for the combined offensive. Indeed, according to DEBKAfile’s sources, thousands of jihadis made tracks out of the city two or three months ago, relocating the bulk of their combat strength and institutions in two new locations: in the western Iraqi desert province of Anbar at a site between the Jordanian and Saudi borders and eastern Syria. Several hundred fighters were left behind in Mosul to harass the US-Iraq-Kurdish armies as they advance into the city and exploit the invaders’ discord to retain a foothold in Mosul.........

....my only question relates to Obama's reasons....not to support Clinton's agressive military preparations?

US Bombs Hit Hospital and Children

https://t.co/ynZuOU8bxM

Disturbing videos emerging from village near Mosul, while West's liberal interventionists only notice Russian/SAA 'warcrimes' in Aleppo.

US 'Relocated' ISIS Terrorists Out of Iraq and Into Syria To Fight Assad

http://theduran.com/the-us-plan-for-isis-out-of-iraq-into-syria-to-fight...

"As the Iraqi military with US support closes in on Mosul it is becoming clear that the US plan is to transfer the ISIS troops defending the city to Syria as part of the regime change plan there."

The Aleppo/Mosul Riddle  -  by Pepe Escobar

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/21/the-aleppo-mosul-riddle/

"The real question is the conflicting motivations of the large 'who's who' doing it; The Iraqi Army's 9th Division, the Kurdish Peshmerga, under the baton of wily, corrupt opportunist Barzani...Now that's a certified recipe for trouble."

Canadian Troops Supporting Kurds in Fight To Free Mosul From ISIS

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harjit-sajjan-supporting-troops-iraq-1.3...

"Defence Minister says he is 'very proud' Canadian troops have been able to aid in Mosul operation....Officials have since clamped down on the amount and type of information provided about the mission."

60 Civilians Killed, 200 Injured as US-Led Coalition Strikes Mosul Residential Areas - MOD

https://www.rt.com/news/364045-mosul-airstrikes-civilians-killed/

We won't hold our breath awaiting the same hue and cry used to shield Western jihadi assets in Aleppo.

The US-led coalition offensive for liberating Mosul from ISIS suffered two ominous downturns on its 10th day

Friday, Oct. 28, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. One: Pro-Iranian Iraqi Shiites stand ready to assume a lead role, sparking the threat of sectarian violence in the mainly Sunni city; and, two, the Islamic State is poised to launch surface missiles with a range of 500km against Baghdad, as well as Jordan and Israel.

Friday, a spokesman for the Iraqi Shiite paramilitary groups the Bader Brigades and the Population Mobilization Force announced that their advance toward the Islamic State-held town of Tal Afar, about 55 km west of Mosul, was imminent.

These militias are fighting under the command of the Iranian Al Qods chief, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who takes his orders from Tehran.

The capture of Tal Afar - a mix of Sunni and Shiite ethnic Turkmen until the Islamic State's takeover two years ago - would cut off ISIS-held Mosul from Syria.

Turkey, Iraq’s northern neighbor, and the Kurds are seriously alarmed by the Shiite groups’ initiative.

The Shiites, who are not part of the main coalition fighting body preparing to storm Mosul, are about to strike ISIS from the north.

...this of course from Debka...I´ve also read confirmation on this from the Iranian FNA

Raqqa Now Key To US Strategy in Syria and Wider Region  -  by John Wight

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/364818-raqqa-key-us-syria/

"Keeping the Syrian and Russian military forces bogged down in eastern Aleppo is key to allowing the US-led coaltion to complete the operation currently underway to take the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS, before continuing an east-east advance across the Syrian border to take Raqqa.

Raqqa will then be established as the de facto capital and so-called moderate Syrian forces which will regroup there..."

Canada's Kurdish Allies Accused Of War Crimes By Unlawfully Destroying Arab Homes as Islamic State Retreats

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-kurdish-allies-figh...

"Canada's Kurdish allies in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq are being accused of war crimes by destroying large numbers of Arab homes and sometimes entire villages as they reclaim territory from the jihadi group.

The human rights group [Human Rights Watch] is calling on Western allies of the Kurds, including Canada...to publicly speak out and seek an end to what are violations of international law..."

The dismemberment of Iraq and the occupation/transfer of territory to the corrupt USRAELI sponsored KRG petro-proxy has long been a planned component of the Iraq operation. Don't hold your breath waiting for Canadian 'progressives' to tear themselves away from their fulminations about Russia in Syria and smell this coffee on our own filthy activities in this...

Michael Den Tandt: Time For Straight Talk About Canada's Iraq Mission - It's War

http://www.canada.com/news/national/michael+tandt+time+straight+talk+abo...

"...For just as Canada's soldiers in Iraq are not acknowledged to be at war by the Trudeau government, neither were they acknowledged as being at war - on the ground anyway - by the Conservative government. How this can continue, month after month in a democracy that is ostensibly transparent about its military, is anybody's guess."

Baghdad, Kurds At Odds Over Control of Post-ISIL Mosul

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/baghdad-kurds-odds-control-post-is...

"Backed by US-led coalition air strikes, [but NO civilian casualties otherwise the same that howl about Russian/Syrian bombing of rebel-held E Aleppo would be howling, no?] Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the northern city on October 17, with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters also playing a major role in the offensive.

The military push has seen the autonomous Kurdistan region [USraeli petro-proxy] gain or solidify control over swaths of disputed territory in northern Iraq.

And in recent days, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani and Iraqi PM Haider al Abad, have given contrasting interpretations of understandings on who will control territory in the Mosul area after the city is retaken.

'We are in agreement with the US on not withdrawing from the areas of Kurdistan,' Barzani said on Wednesday during a visit to Kurdish Peshmerga frontline fighters in the recaptured town of Bashiqa. 'These areas were liberated by the blood of 11,500 martyrs and wounded from the Peshmerga,' Barzani said.

'It is not possible after all the sacrifices to return them to federal control..."

The dismemberment plan for  Iraq and Syria goes forward, with Canadian help.

He's been freed, thank God,' Says Mother of former Canadian soldier detained after fighting ISIL

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/hes-been-freed-thank-god-says-mother-o... said -isil

"...The Kurdish Regional Governent (KRG) has a history of arresting anti-ISIL volunteers as they are leaving Syria through Iraq. Officially they are held for visa violations, but some believe it has more to do with tensions between Iraqi and Syrian Kurds.

'The Kurdistan government is aligned with Turkey [also USA, Canada, Israel and Saudi Arabia], which is fighting the Syrian YPG militia and its sister the PKK,' said Guillaume Corneau, a Laval University student who has been studying the foreign fighters with Kurdish forces..."