Eleven years and six months later, Steve finally gets his wish

Finally, eh?

A small deployment of 100 "special ops" at first to be sure, but still a significant addition to the ongoing campaign to fund and arm the Mujihadeen, al Qaeda, Al Nusra, ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State, and whoever comes after them next. Blowback. It's a never-ending job. 

Here John bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran McCain poses with Free Syrian Army rebels in 2013, in photos purportedly released by ISIS . McCain disputes claims these men are IS-related. McCain press secretary : "If the individual photographed with Senator McCain is in fact Mohamed Nour, that is regrettable."

"I believe there are ways to get weapons to the opposition without direct United States involvement,” McCain said in 2012 during his Mideast tour with Lindsay Graham. "The bloodshed must be stopped, and we should rule out no option that could help to save lives. We must consider, among other actions, providing opposition groups inside Syria, both political and military, with better means to ... to fight back against Assad’s forces."

In Syria, you see, IS are the good guys fighting against Basher Assad, while across the border in Iraq, they are the bad guys. 

Here they are rolling across the Iraq border in their column of 43 shiny yellow Toyota Hiluxes, allegedly a gift to 'moderates' from the US, in another photo of disputed origins.

Top GOP Senator Lindsey Graham warns of 'inevitable' next attack :

 "The seeds of 9/11s are being planted all over Iraq and Syria". 

Yup. Although technically you're still working off having invaded Iraq after the last one.

"Speaking to reporters at the NATO summit on Friday, Harper condemned the "barbaric acts" of ISIS, the jihadist group behind recent beheadings of American journalists."

Harper offered no comment on the 19 beheadings committed by our ally Saudi Arabia last month - some of them for "sorcery and witchcraft" - presumably because Canada has "two contracts totalling $14.8-billion awarded to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada of London, Ontario for the 2013-14 fiscal year to supply Saudi Arabia with military armoured vehicles."

"The Canadian government hopes that over time, ISIS could be pushed back into Syria"  

where they will be our friends again.

Durka, durka, durka, Steve.

Monday Update : ‘Property of US Govt’: Islamic State jihadists armed with US military weapons

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia.

 ... “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”.

It also found that anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria were “identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013″.

.

Blame Canada!

"Well, some of the 9-11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday."

He was defending U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who made similar, now deemed "mis-spoken", allegations a few days ago.

So, the current head of Homeland Security and the guy who came alarmingly close to being the President of the US are both getting their intel from South Park now?
.

Republicans and Cons - just one big happy family

G&M :

"Americans living in Calgary are being asked to help fund Republican efforts to elect John McCain through the visit of an influential Republican senator who doubles as one of Mr. McCain's campaign co-chairs.
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is being invited to the city in August by a well-known Tory supporter and lawyer, Gerry Chipeur, who also has significant links to the U.S. Republican Party.
The funds raised by Americans attending the event will be used to help defray costs incurred by the Republican nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September, as well as help elect a Republican the next president, said Mr. Chipeur in an interview.
Those wanting to hear Mr. Brownback speak at a dinner will be asked to pay $1,000, said Norman Leach, executive director of the Western Canadian division of the American Chamber of Commerce, which is helping Mr. Chipeur organize the event.
About 80,000 Americans live and work in Calgary, he said."

Possibly the best part is that the proceeds from the proposed $1000 a plate Brownback dinner will go to Friends of Science, Tim Ball's oil industry-funded anti-Kyoto "charity", whose funding was laundered through the University of Calgary by Harper's buddy, Prof. Barry Cooper, before the U of C put a stop to it.

Gerry Chipeur, a dual citizen himself, is an anti-SSM ReformaTory Alliance lawyer and supporter with ties to the evangelical movement on both sides of the border.

Here he is, for instance, on the US talk show, The O'Reilly Factor

Once upon a time however, Chipeur was much more coy about Canadian Con ties to US Republicans :

From: Paul Weyrich
[co-founder of the Moral Majority and the Heritage Foundation]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:38 AM
To: Bob Thompson
[a staffer at Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation]

Subject: Message from Canada
Importance: High

Please get this message to the Stanton, Family Forum and Wednesday lunch groups:

I received a call last night from Gerald Chipeur, an important figure in Canada’s Conservative Party. He told me that Conservatives are with-in striking distance of electing an outright majority in Parliamentary elections Monday.

He said the Canadian media, which is trying to save the current Liberal government, has a strategy of calling conservatives in the USA in the hopes that someone will inadvertently say something that can be hung around the Conservatives.

Canadian voters have been led to believe that American conservatives are scary and if the Conservative party can be linked with us, they perhaps can diminish a Conservative victory. Chipeur asks that if Canadian media calls, please do not be interviewed until Monday evening at which point hopefully there will be reason to celebrate.

Many thanks.

When contacted by Canadian Press about the email, Weyrich denied any personal involvement but later on his website, he bragged about his "small victory" in the Canadian elections, recounting the entire email incident as true after all.

More recently Chipeur was credited with introducing Republican Frank Sensenbrenner to Canadian embassy officials at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, attended by Stockwell Day, Alberta MP Jason Kenney and John Reynolds, co-chair of the Tory 2006 election campaign.

Sensenbrenner had attended Reform party conventions and Stockwell Day insisted he be hired by the Canadian Embassy. Sensenbrenner was subsequently accused of leaking the Canadian memo which wounded Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama in the Naftagate leak.

Republicans and Cons - just one big happy party.

h/t files from Polunatic, Tilting at Windmills, Toe at Bread 'n Roses