Obama's Iraq trip.. more than what met the eye?

[OriginalShroom]

Been wondering about this. .. Obama doesn't make trips to Iraq to meet the troops..

Suddenly he goes. .

While there the CIA Station Chief is outed. Shortly afterwards Bergdahl is released.

Coinky-Dinky????

Could the CIA Chief been outed because he was against the trade and was in the way?
It's hard to just fire these guys but outing him is much more effective and gets him out of the way. Plus now his career is taking an unscheduled turn and not for the better.


Molon Labe

 

[waltky]

Iraq imploding...

BOMBS KILL 52 AS GUNMEN STORM UNIVERSITY IN IRAQ
Jun 7,`14 -- A series of car bombs exploded across Iraq's capital Saturday night, killing at least 52 people in a day of violence that saw militants storm a university in the country's restive Anbar province and take dozens hostage, authorities said.

The attacks in Baghdad largely focused on Shiite neighborhoods, underscoring the sectarian violence now striking at Iraq years after a similar wave nearly tore the country apart following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Now with U.S. troops gone, Iraq founds itself fighting on fronts across the country, as separate clashes in a northern city killed 21 police officers and 38 militants, officials said. The first Baghdad attack took place Saturday night in the capital's western Baiyaa district, killing nine people and wounding 22, police said. Later on, seven car bombs in different parts of Baghdad killed at least 41 people and wounded 62, police said. A roadside bomb in western Baghdad also killed two people and wounded six, police said. All the attacks happened in a one-hour period and largely targeted commercial streets in Shiite neighborhoods, authorities said.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details to journalists. The day began with militants killing three police officers on guard at the gates of Anbar University, a police and a military official said. Islamic extremists and other anti-government militias have held parts of Anbar's nearby provincial capital of Ramadi and the city of Fallujah since December amid rising tensions between Sunni Muslims and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The gunmen detained dozens of students inside a university dorm during their attack, the officials said. Sabah Karhout, the head of Anbar's provincial council, told journalists that hundreds of students were inside the university compound when the attack started at the school. Anbar University says it has more than 10,000 students, making it one of the country's largest.

Ahmed al-Mehamdi, a student who was taken hostage, said he awoke to the crackle of gunfire, looked out the window and saw armed men dressed in black running across the campus. Minutes later, the gunmen entered the dormitory and ordered everybody to stay in their rooms while taking others away, he said. The Shiite students at the school were terrified, al-Mehamdi said, as the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to an al-Qaida splinter group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Sunni terror group, fighting in Syria with other rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad, is known for massive, bloody attacks in Iraq as well often targeting Shiites that they view as heretics. The Islamic State did not immediately claim the attack on the school.

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IRAQI KURDS' OIL SALE WIDENS SPLIT WITH BAGHDAD
May 30,`14 -- The split is growing between Iraq's central government and the Kurds after the autonomous Kurdish administration for the first time unilaterally sold oil from their region in the north, a symbolic show of economic independence from Baghdad that could build momentum for an outright break.

The Kurdish north has feuded with the Baghdad government for years over control of oil fields in the autonomous region, but it was not until January this year that the Kurds began exporting its oil to Turkey independently of the central government. A week ago, it went a step further and sold the oil itself from a Turkish port, keeping the revenues. The Oil Ministry in Baghdad this week denounced the sale as "smuggling" and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called it "akin to robbery."

The Kurdish region's prime minister, Nechervan Barzani, vowed to continue sales. The region's policy "is to never take a step backward," he told Kurdish lawmakers this week. He said his government wants a solution with Baghdad, but repeated threats to hold an independence referendum in the north. "We have other alternatives," he said. "We will not stop here."

Pro-independence sentiment has long been strong in the Kurdistan, the three-province territory in the north that is the heartland of Iraq's ethnic Kurds. But since the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led invasion, Kurds have largely sought to carve out a role within a federal Iraq, where they make up 20 percent of the mostly Arab population. Iraq's president is a Kurd, and Kurdish parties have joined ruling coalitions dominated by Shiite parties, despite repeated disputes over lands, resources and power-sharing.

Tensions with al-Maliki have grown sharply since the withdrawal of U.S. forces in late 2011, with Kurds accusing the Shiite prime minister of consolidating power for himself. In parliament elections earlier this month, al-Maliki gained enough seats in theory to form a coalition of Shiite parties without any Kurds. When the Kurds began moving oil to Turkey independently in January, the Baghdad government retaliated by cutting off the 17 percent share of the state budget - some $20 billion in this year's projected budget - that is supposed to be given to the Kurdish region, creating an acute financial crisis there.

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[waltky]

It's all coming undone in Iraq...

Insurgents in Iraq Overrun Mosul Provincial Government Headquarters
June 09, 2014 — Insurgents overran the headquarters of the provincial government in Iraq's northern city of Mosul late on Monday, making further gains in a fourth day of fighting in the country's second-largest city.

Governor Atheel Nujaifi was trapped inside the building but managed to escape while police held back an assault by hundreds of militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and heavy machine guns mounted on vehicles. The western side of Mosul is now in control of militants, who are advancing steadily southwards in the direction of a major army base where a military airport and top-security prison are located, three army officers told Reuters.

Earlier on Monday, Nujaifi made a televised plea to the city's inhabitants to fight militants who have been regaining ground in Iraq and last Friday moved into Mosul. “I call on the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and defend them against the outsiders, and to form popular committees through the provincial council,” said Nujaifi, the Iraqi flag draped behind him. Police and local officials said the militants were using cranes to move blast walls into position and block roads to prevent the army from regaining control.

Several army officers said Iraqi forces were demoralized and no match for the militants from the Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also active across the border in Syria. “Without urgent intervention of more supporting troops Mosul could fall into their hands in a matter of days” said a senior security official from Nineveh operation center, adding that ISIL was only three kilometers from the Ghizlani military camp. The fighting has already forced more than 4,800 families from their homes to other parts of the province and beyond, Iraqi deputy Migration and Displacement minister said.

Insurgents in Iraq Overrun Mosul Provincial Government Headquarters

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Heh? What's dat again?"...

FLASHBACK—Obama: ‘We’re Leaving Behind a Sovereign, Stable and Self-Reliant Iraq’
June 12, 2014 -- When President Barack Obama removed the last U.S. forces from Iraq in December 2011, he announced that—as he had planned—the U.S. was leaving behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government.” It was a "moment of success," he said.

On Feb. 27, 2009, a little more than a month after his first inauguration, Obama gave a speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that the White House entitled, “Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq.” Obama said then that his strategy was based on the “achievable goal” of a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” Iraq--and that he intended to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011, as had been envisioned in the Status of Forces agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration. “Today, I can announce that our review is complete, and that the United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility,” said Obama. “This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant. To achieve that goal, we will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe-haven to terrorists.” “And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011,” said Obama. “We will complete this transition to Iraqi responsibility, and we will bring our troops home with the honor that they have earned.”

Almost three years later, on Dec. 14, 2011, when he was removing the last U.S. troops from Iraq, Obama gave a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Here he said his strategy based on building a sovereign, stable, self-reliant Iraq had succeeded. “It’s harder to end a war than begin one,” Obama said at Fort Bragg. “Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq--all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering--all of it has led to this moment of success. Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.”

In the past seven months, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)—a terrorist group that sprang from al Qaeda—has captured Fallujah and Mosul, and is now intent on capturing the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. In February, CIA Director John Brennan told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that al Qaeda camps on both sides of the Syrian-Iraq border are a threat to the United States. "Do you believe that there are training camps that have been established on either side of the Iraqi or Syrian border for the purposes of training al Qaida operatives?" House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers asked Brennan. Brennan said: "There are camps inside of both Iraq and Syria that are used by al Qaida to develop capabilities that are applicable both in the theater as well as beyond.” Chairman Rogers asked: "Do you believe that that ungoverned space presents a real threat to the United States of America, via al Qaida operations, or the West?” "I do," said Brennan.

Obama had announced on Oct. 21, 2011, that all U.S. troops would in fact leave Iraq by the end of that year. The next day, the New York Times ran a story headlined: "Despite Difficult Talks, U.S. and Iraq Had Expected Some American Troops to Stay." The top of that story said: “President Obama’s announcement on Friday that all American troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year was an occasion for celebration for many, but some top American military officials were dismayed by the announcement, seeing it as the president's putting the best face on a breakdown in tortured negotiations with the Iraqis. And for the negotiators who labored all year to avoid that outcome, it represented the triumph of politics over the reality of Iraq's fragile security's requiring some troops to stay, a fact everyone had assumed would prevail.”

FLASHBACK?Obama: ?We?re Leaving Behind a Sovereign, Stable and Self-Reliant Iraq? | CNS News

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UN: 800,000 Iraq refugees from fighting this year
June 13, 2014 — The U.N. refugee agency says Iraq's refugee population has increased by almost 800,000 this year as the government struggles against rebels and Islamic militants.

The agency says 300,000 people fled for safety this week in Erbil and Duhok as Islamic militants seize control of large areas in northern Iraq.

Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters Friday in Geneva that many of the refugees are arriving with little more than the clothes they wear and have no money and nowhere to go.

Last week, the agency reported that nearly 480,000 people had been driven from their homes by fighting since January between government forces and rebels in western Iraq's Anbar province.

UN: 800,000 Iraq refugees from fighting this year | CNS News