Beltway Insider: Obama Visits Saudi King; ISIS Murders Japanese Hostage; Auschwitz Liberation
- Details
- Category: Beltway Insider
- Published on Sunday, 01 February 2015 18:35
- Written by Janet Walker
President Obama and the global counter-ISIS coalition has seen very little progress in stopping the terror group as a second Japanese citizen is murdered in the latest demands for financial ransom, global recognition and vengeance against United States remain the rhetoric.
According to Gallup, President Obama's job approval, over the past week, decreased one percentage points to 47% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President decreased one percentage point to 47%.
Obama, Delegation Travel to Saudi Arabia
President Obama and an official delegation that included First Lady Michele Obama traveled to Saudi Arabia this week to offer condolences to the newly inaugurated government of King Salman, the half brother of the late King Abdullah who passed away at 90 of Pneumonia.
The Presidential delegation included members of the present and former administration including current Secretary of State John Kerry, former Secretary of States, James Baker who served under President George H.W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, who held the position under President George Bush as well as four other former administration officials.
Senators John McCain (R) Arizona and Mark Warner (D) Virginia, and U.S. Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Ami Bera, M.D of California and from New York Eliot Engle and Joseph Crowley. Various other officials and cabinet members were also part of the official presidential delegation including John Brennan Director of the CIA and Susan Rice, Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor.
The Presidential delegation spent a total of four hours in Saudi Arabia. After a brief ceremony, the entire delegation was hosted to a dinner. The dinner program was followed by a bi-lateral meeting with King Salman, his senior advisors and President Obama along with Sr. Cabinet officials.
Released information indicated the bi-lateral was used to solidify the continued support of Saudi Arabia as an ally of the United States in matters of sensitivity and global concern including the dismantling of ISIS and the eradication of terrorism. Oil of course was a discussion the contents of which were not released.
ISIS Murders Second Japanese Citizen
Kenji Goto, the Japanese journalist held hostage by the terror organization, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has been murdered by the organization.
Goto, last seen alive kneeling dressed in Orange prison uniforms hands bound with handcuffs, silent while, the terrorist, is explaining the murder is to punish the Japanese government for its support of the "Satanic" coalition.
Leading with black screen with "A Message to the Government of Japan," the video of Goto's murder was released closer to real time than any of the others. The video is chilling and ate the end extremely graphic as it, like the others, display a headless body with the severed head, face up lying on the victims back.
To date, ISIS has murdered every person shown to the world in video.
The counter-ISIS coalition, of which up to 50 nations are now taking part, may have dented Iraq's infrastructure, but has not damaged the terrorist organization loyal to the ideology of Osama bin Laden,
Obama appears less than singularly dedicated to the destruction of the extremely dangerous group has been echoed from Sr. Administration officials and his own actions. The other possible objective behind the slow handling of the ISIS emergency from the Obama's administration would be political.
Allowing the terror group to continue to send shock waves through the world with global hits such as the stunning Paris attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, coalition leaders suffering the beheading of hostages and the continued advancement toward the capture of the Iraqi city Mosul, of which ISIS is claiming control now, would be the strategy of staying further military involvement, capture or serious destruction until summer 2016 with the belief the Presidential election will need to boost of a solid democratic foreign policy win.
President Obama refusal to stand with the global leaders who stood unified, safety and security of person laid aside for the greater good, against terrorism in the Paris Unity March, sent very different messages to leaders within the terrorist regimes of the world.
Hearing from the White House spokesperson reiterate enemies of the state should be well aware of the intentions of the United States are all good and clearly spoken in strongest possible terms. The actions that follow those words directly contraindicate the statements. This flip flop has also been a consistent through line in the dealings of ISIS supporter Basher al-Assad.
Violation of the Sovereign State of Iraq
ISIS in carving out portion of Iraq and is violating the territorial sovereignty of the host country, Iraq.
Granted ISIS did not cross the border with military might, the group that receives shelter, haven, weapons, from Basher Al-Asaad in neighboring Syria, is attempting to take with terror and force cities for annexation forming essentially a third country with portions of Iraq and Syria, loyal to Asaad.
For more than six month, ISIS has made its intentions of establishing a caliphate, a form of government led by a descendent of Muhammad and taking a portion of each country Iraq, by force and Syria, by apparent choice so the people will have a place, a country.
ISIS is lead by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and has been declared caliph, the inheritor of the Prophet Muhammad's spiritual wisdom and temporal authority, which requires all Muslims of the world to pledge allegiance to him.
The declaration of sovereignty by al-Baghdadi has inflamed local muslins, territorial leaders and global muslin leaders. Those of the Islamic faith and Muslim following denounce al-Baghdadi.
American Response
The failure to deploy stronger military solutions to dismantle the leadership, while maintaining the airstrikes which over the course of the last 48 hours had hit 76 targets, not necessarily targets that will dismantle or cripple the ever increasing black flagged terror organization, continues to reverberate globally with every beheading.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, explained throughout his tenure ISIS was in fact the most dangerous terror organization the United States have ever encountered. And the response from the Obama administration to Hagel's comments was to build a spread the blame and/or credit coalitions. Therefore should the mission fail he will not be seen as the single determining factor in its failure.
President Obama has yet to announce any single initiative that will deconstruct the organization who has taunted world leaders with the murder of citizens who, in if it were any other administration, would face the wrath and full weight of the united States government.
Under Obama's coalition, American citizens and allies can be freely murdered as if it is table stakes in the select group of coalition members. To remain in good favor with the United States one must adhere to particular philosophies one of which is the strict refusal to negotiate with terrorists.
"The United States condemns the heinous murder of Japanese citizen and journalist Kenji Goto by the terrorist group ISIL. Through his reporting, Mr. Goto courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people to the outside world. Our thoughts are with Mr. Goto's family and loved ones, and we stand today in solidarity with Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese people in denouncing this barbaric act. We applaud Japan's steadfast commitment to advancing peace and prosperity in the Middle East and globally, including its generous assistance for innocent people affected by the conflicts in the region. Standing together with a broad coalition of allies and partners, the United States will continue taking decisive action to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," the President said in a released statement.
The release video shows the black clothes terrorist, with tan American made work boots, standing beside a kneeling Goto. As others Goto was brave to the end, as this Jihad, who spoke with a different English accent. Other difference which would lead one to believe the prison camp has been moved, the hills in the background and the pebble rock bed where the decapitated body rests.
Terror Group by Classification
The distinction between the Taliban and al Qaeda is defined by strategy. The Taliban has resorted to terror tactics, but those terror tactics have principally been focused on Afghanistan.
The Taliban is a very dangerous organization. And what the President has pursued is a clear strategy for building up the central government of Afghanistan and the Afghan Security Forces so that they could be responsible for security in their own country and take the fight to the Taliban.
Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization that has aspirations that extend beyond just the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda and their affiliates around the globe have sought to carry out terror attacks against Americans and American interests all around the globe. And that explains the difference in classification.
ISIS, obviously, is a terrorist organization that has aspirations that extend beyond the borders of it current state both Syrian boundaries and those created by the violations of territorial sovereignty of Iraq.
70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp, the words alone remain poignant even as the memories fade and a generation of survivors slowly passes away, the Holocaust for generations it is a blanket void of meaning.
I once wrote "The years have passed and the righteous anger over the atrocities committed by a regime of terror to a young girl that was found, miraculously alive, under a pile of dead bodies, lives on. This determination to keep the memories alive of the souls that cry out from the ashes and from the graves, and from the memories of those who are left still to bear the burden of survival has never died. The Holocaust is ordinary in 2008. It is an ordinary term, a black and white piece of history in a high def world."
Today, seven years later, even more. Few, outside of the second generation of Jewish survivors, are dedicated to keeping the memory alive.
This week the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau arrived. Many of the great battles and moments of World War II and the world greatest generation have arrived and the elderly understanding time will move on and death is inevitable, for all.
Stories from Auschwitz circulated the web this week, elderly with engraved remembrances stolen childhoods, single pictures faded and worn reminders of families, siblings, parents who entered the camps or somehow separated never to be seen again were shown by those still alive, carrying the torch.
70 years have passed since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest death camp under Hitler's régime. 70 years since American soldiers stormed the gates witnessing unimaginable atrocities. 70 years since the world finally understood the rumors crossing the oceans of gas chambers, of 6million Jews, of the plan to exterminate peoples from the face of the earth, true and 70 years of carrying the shame of sending those begging for political asylum back to face a sure death
"We commemorate all of the victims of the Holocaust, pledging never to forget, and recalling the cautionary words of the author and survivor of Auschwitz Primo Levi, "It happened, therefore it can happen again. . . . It can happen anywhere." Today we come together and commit, to the millions of murdered souls and all survivors, that it must never happen again," the President said in a released statement.
"Today, Jill and I join the American people in remembering the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the millions of Poles, Roma, LGBT people, and so many others whose lives were extinguished by the Nazi regime. Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who served with honor in the United States Congress, used to say, "The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians. We can never rest." We have to reclaim the words "never again." It must be more than a lament. It must remain our commitment, "Vice-President Biden said in a released statement.
Holocaust illiteracy is at its highest. For the generations who see rituals instead of meaning, fabrication instead of fact, with the world united possibly the cries from the graves will be heard anew and the torch of truth will be passed to a new generation.
For more information on President Barack Obama: www.whitehouse.gov
Sources: Whitehouse.org, Wikipedia.com,
