ISIS destroyed Jonah's tomb and other historical sites

[gigabytelord]

Apparently Pres. Obama ordered a rescue attempt in July that failed because the hostages weren't there.

The U.S. military launched a secret mission this summer to rescue a number of Americans held captive in Syria by the Islamic State but failed to find them, senior Obama administration officials said Wednesday night.

The mission was carried out by several dozen special operations troops who were on the ground inside Syria for a short period of time.

Announcement of the complicated mission came a day after the beheading of an American photojournalist James Wright Foley by the IS. He was one of the hostages the mission had hoped to extract from Syria.

Officials said the rescue mission was authorized after intelligence agencies believed they had identified the location inside Syria where the hostages were being held. But the several dozen special operations forces dropped by aircraft into Syria did not find them at that location and engaged in a firefight with Islamic State militants before departing.

The operation “involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL,” said Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby in a statement. ISIL, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a name previously used by the Islamic State.

“The U.S. Government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the President authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens,” said Lisa Monaco, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, in a statement. “Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present.”

The mission, authorized by President Barack Obama, took place in early July, the New York Times reported. Administration officials would not say specifically when or where the operation took place, citing the need to protect operational details in order to preserve the ability to carry out future rescue missions. They said that nearly every branch of the military was involved and that the special forces on the ground were supported from the air by fixed wing, rotary and surveillance aircraft. There were no plans to discluse the mission, but it was made public "when it was clear a number of media outlets were preparing to report on the operation and that we would have no choice but to acknowledge it,” according to a statement from the National Security Council.

[FaxModem1]

Addicting Info

So, after this video



The WBC have called his bluff.

This Should Go Well: Westboro Baptist Church Says It’s Going To Iraq To Protest ISIS
Author: Jameson Parker August 22, 2014 10:58 am
via Twitter

via Twitter

Westboro Baptist Church, the hate group that masquerades as a religious organization, is known for their publicity stunts, but they may have bit off more than they can chew with this one. After a comedian offered to pay for them to fly to Iraq so they can protest real Christian persecution at the hands of Islamic militants, the group tweeted that they have accepted his offer. They want to take their picket signs and head over to a country currently occupied by a group that beheads Christian children without hesitation – this ought to go well.

To bring you up to speed: Last week, Australian comedian Adam Hills gave an brilliant, hilarious proposal to the WBC after learned that they planned to – surprise, surprise – picket Robin Williams’ funeral. On his show, The Last Leg, Hills pointed out that the infamous “God Hates Fags” group is quick to march around with signs protesting American hedonism, but don’t have the courage to protest the daily persecution Christians in Iraq are facing at the hands of “the people threatening to behead Christians if they don’t convert.”

Hills tells the group:

“If you really believe in standing up to those threatening the christian way of life, Westboro Baptist Church, how about putting your money where your mouth is, taking a direct flight to Iraq.”

He also nails a couple Robin Williams impressions. Give the video a watch:

Well it appears that the WBC have seen Hills’ show and take his offer very seriously. Yesterday, when someone asked them if they were aware of it, the church tweeted that not only had they heard of it but had already accepted the offer.

They also claim to have picketed in Iraq before, although the picture they used in the tweet is decidedly not in Iraq.

I took up their suggestion to “Google it” but couldn’t find a single mention of their being in Iraq aside from their own website’s claim. It’s possible that they’ve been to Iraq before, but if they have it was not well advertised.

It appears that Hills’ show has also learned that the WBC has taken up their offer.

If the two sides manage to work something out and the WBC winds up in Iraq, it’s safe to say that their lives would very much be in danger. Iraq, especially large swaths of it now occupied by IS militants, is extremely unfriendly to American citizens, Christian, but most particularly American Christians carrying signs reading “Muslims Die, God Laughs.”

Just this week an American journalist was beheaded by ISIS and they are threatening to do the same to another one. At the same time, ISIS has exiled thousands of Iraqi Christians, killing those who don’t leave.

From Think Progress:

ISIS has been targeting Christians ever since it first got started. As a militant group fighting against both the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups in Syria’s civil war, ISIS wreaked havoc on Syrian Christians, torching churches in the historic Christian city of Maaloula and kidnapping bishops. Still, Mosul’s large Christian population remained determined to remain in the city where their ancestors have lived for 1,600 years.

That all changed when ISIS issued a statement last Thursday ordering the city’s Christians to convert, pay a hefty religious tax, or face execution on Saturday.

Since then, there have been reports of mass killings and targeted murders of Christians in Iraq. If the Westboro Baptist Church chooses to walk into that, it would be the first time in the church’s history that they would actually be protesting something worth protesting. It may also be short lived. Depending on where they chose to stage their protest, they may need to start planning a protest of their own funerals.

[Darth Yoshi]

Yeah, there's no way that can end but horribly. As much as I find their beliefs and practices to be abhorrent, I'd rather they not die horrible deaths.

[Broomstick]

Goddamn, I love Adam Hills, he really nailed that.

Frankly, I will shed no tears if the WBC goes to Iraq, tries to face ISIS, and gets killed for their trouble. I'm OK with religious nutjobs offing each other. While I would not condone actively hunting down and killing WBC asshats neither will I stop them walking off a cliff of their own accord.

The only thing I worry about is Mr. Hills getting a backlash from his part in it.

[Grumman]

Yeah, there's no way that can end but horribly. As much as I find their beliefs and practices to be abhorrent, I'd rather they not die horrible deaths.

Eh, when you choose "professional asshole" as a career, when you make it your life's work to make the world a little bit worse, I'm not going to mourn your passing.

[Darth Yoshi]

I wouldn't mourn their deaths either, but that doesn't mean I think they should be tortured or messily beheaded like what would probably happen.

[Broomstick]

I'm on the hit list of both of those groups. I don't cry when my enemies turn on each other.

[Ralin]

I'm on the hit list of both of those groups. I don't cry when my enemies turn on each other.

"Hit list."

Westboro Baptist has killed how many people?

On an unrelated note I somehow thought Darth Yoshi's post was by Mister Coffee and I was all "...What?"

[Broomstick]

Granted WBC hasn't killed anyone, but I'm definitely on the list of people they want the world to be rid of. Yes, their actions are less evil than those of ISIS, but their thoughts are pretty repulsive.

[Ralin]

Yeah, and the odds of them doing so are about as likely as Nepalese Maoists seizing Wall Street and lining the executive fat cats up for the firing squads or me passing a constitutional amendment banning Christianity.. Especially since they actually are scrupulous about obeying US law.

[Broomstick]

Right. Because people willing to agitate for a change in laws to restrict and punish those they disagree with are nothing to be worried about. I remember a time in the US when people were a lot less equal under the law than they are now. I don't want to return to that.

That aside - no, I don't have a problem with religious fanatics going to other parts of the world and getting themselves killed on account of it.

[K. A. Pital]

Frankly, many of the jihad radicals are also fairly harmless right until the point where they get money, weapons and political assistance.

However, the difference is that the WBC will never get it from anyone.

[Ralin]

Right. Because people willing to agitate for a change in laws to restrict and punish those they disagree with are nothing to be worried about. I remember a time in the US when people were a lot less equal under the law than they are now. I don't want to return to that.

"Agitating." Yes, I definitely believe that Westboro Baptist is actually working to change the law as opposed to just pissing people off

That aside - no, I don't have a problem with religious fanatics going to other parts of the world and getting themselves killed on account of it.

Well, I suppose that is more or less how this country began.

[K. A. Pital]

Well, I suppose that is more or less how this country began.

By religious fanatics coming to another continent and ruthlessly exterminating whatever was left of the natives after the diseases wiped out more than a half of the locals? What is that supposed to prove?

[Ralin]

Well, I suppose that is more or less how this country began.

By religious fanatics coming to another continent and ruthlessly exterminating whatever was left of the natives after the diseases wiped out more than a half of the locals? What is that supposed to prove?

It's called a joke, Stas.

[Channel72]

Goddamn, I love Adam Hills, he really nailed that.

Frankly, I will shed no tears if the WBC goes to Iraq, tries to face ISIS, and gets killed for their trouble. I'm OK with religious nutjobs offing each other. While I would not condone actively hunting down and killing WBC asshats neither will I stop them walking off a cliff of their own accord.

WBC will never arrange for transport to Iraq, or any other Muslim country. Their "acceptance" of this challenge is just posturing. They obviously realize that they'll be killed instantly - unless they're seriously insane enough to believe that they'll be afforded some kind of divine "protection", in which case... well, I'm certainly not going to try and stop them.

[Channel72]

Also... most of the Iraqi Christians being slaughtered in Mosul are Chaldeans or Assyrians, which means they're Catholic. So Fred Phelps probably hates them just as much as Muslims, anyway.

[Irbis]

Meanwhile, One in six French people say they support ISIS.

In any case, the big, scary, surprising, number here is France: 16 percent of those surveyed say they support ISIS. That's an awful lot. And that number gets even larger as the demographics get younger, as shown in this by-age breakdown.

This is alarming, in part because a growing number of Europeans, often from predominantly Muslim immigrant communities, are not just expressing their support for ISIS in polls: they are traveling to Syria and Iraq to join up. The ISIS fighter who killed American journalist James Foley on video last week spoke with a strong London accent. European governments are rightly worried about the implications of this for their own national security.

The good news here may be the Gaza poll numbers. While 13 percent is exactly 13 more than what it should be, 85 percent of polled Gazans said they oppose ISIS. That's awfully high, especially considering that Europeans were much less likely to say they held an unfavorable view of the group.

Ah, them wacky third worlders and their inborn TERROR support. Oh, wait...

[Simon_Jester]

Is it not a matter of concern when people from your country are leaving to join international brigades attached to a violent, brutal, fanatical revolutionary movement that expresses hatred and contempt of your country?

[Irbis]

Is it not a matter of concern when people from your country are leaving to join international brigades attached to a violent, brutal, fanatical revolutionary movement that expresses hatred and contempt of your country?

Yes. It is. My post was a mockery of dumb right-winger statements of just how EVIL MUSLIM ARABS are solely responsible for terrorism (oh, look, Palestinians are the strongest opposed group) and showing first world has big problems too. Problems which, if ignored, not addressed, can bite us in the ass. Need explaining anything else?

[Ralin]

Is it not a matter of concern when people from your country are leaving to join international brigades attached to a violent, brutal, fanatical revolutionary movement that expresses hatred and contempt of your country?

Yes. It is. My post was a mockery of dumb right-winger statements of just how EVIL MUSLIM ARABS are solely responsible for terrorism (oh, look, Palestinians are the strongest opposed group) and showing first world has big problems too. Problems which, if ignored, not addressed, can bite us in the ass. Need explaining anything else?

I'm pretty sure that said right-wingers would view the pro-ISIS Europeans as some sort of Trojan horse fifth column Muslim infiltrators who are an outgrowth of the evil Muslim Arabs in general?

[General Mung Beans]

First American fighting for ISIL dies: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world ... -news&_r=0

Mr. McCain moved back and forth from Minneapolis to San Diego and then abroad. Officials now know he ended up in Syria, where three days ago, Mr. McCain became the first American to die while fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He was 33.

The rebels who killed him were fighting for the Free Syrian Army, a rival group backed by the United States, and they went on to behead six ISIS fighters — but not Mr. McCain — and then posted the photographs on Facebook.

His name...

[Borgholio]

So the Syrian rebels are beheading people now? That's news to me...

[Thanas]

ISIS are part of the Syrian rebels, or more accurately one faction out of many fighting over the carcass.

[K. A. Pital]

IS is the largest and most powerful and well-organized organization among the rebels.