Islamic State releases video showing beheading of US hostage Kassig

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

The video is here. Warning: it is extremely graphic, and will not be up long. If you catch it while it is still up and want to skip the beheadings (there are many, not just of Kassig, then stop watching around the 9:30 mark, as the beheadings are shown in full, and then Kassig’s severed head at the feet of the British Muslim who issues the final warning. I put the link here because the video shows the Islamic State’s global aspirations, and how it justifies them by reference to Islamic teachings, and indeed how the Islamic State jihadis explain and justify everything they do by reference to Islamic texts and teachings — for example, the beheader says that Kassig fought against the Muslims as a U.S. soldier in Iraq, which means he is an “American Crusader” and can be lawfully put to death, despite his subsequent conversion to Islam.

To continue to ignore the Islamic State’s stated motives and goals, and to pretend that they are other than what they are, is nothing short of suicidal. This ideology has to be confronted, and it is held by more people than just the members of the Islamic State.

“US army veteran Peter Kassig ‘murdered by Isil,'” by Andrew Marszal, Rob Crilly and Louisa Loveluck, the Telegraph, November 16, 2014:

Islamic State fighters have issued a new video apparently showing the murder of US hostage Peter Kassig and threatening “slaughter” on Western streets.

The 15-minute long grisly video shows the horrific beheading a group of Syrian military prisoners and then the decapitated head of Mr Kassig at the feet of a masked man.

The man, who appears to be the same militant known as Jihadi John who has appeared in other beheading videos, says: “This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen.”

He also denounces David Cameron as a puppet of the United States president:

He says: “To Obama, the dog of Rome. Today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers and with Allah’s permission we will break this final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, begin to slaughter your people on your streets.”

TERRIFIC NEWS! Matty’s back – Army soldier gets his missing war dog back

 

‘Stolen’ hero war dog has been located and is finally back with his rightful owner. Thank you BNI readers for all your calls and emails for Matty.

Bare Naked Islam

ORIGINAL STORY: u-s-army-soldiers-hero-war-dog-stolen-by-the-army

 

REUNITED! Army Spc. Brent Grommet and 

his best friend Matty

NY Post (h/t ADHD)  Days after The Post exposed the military’s wrongful, 16-month-long separation of injured Army Spc. Brent Grommet and his war dog, Matty, the two were finally reunited on Friday. “I’m about the happiest I’ve ever been,” Grommet, 23, told The Post.

 

Grommet and Matty, who specialized in detecting IEDs, were injured when one exploded near them in Afghanistan. Grommet came back with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, migraines, severe chronic back pain and breathing problems.

 

Under Robby’s Law — signed by Bill Clinton in 2000 — military dog handlers have the first right to adopt their animals if injured together. Upon returning from Afghanistan in July 2013, Grommet and Matty were separated by the Army, and Grommet never saw Matty again. “It’s like someone took your kid in front of you — and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Grommet said.

On Friday, Grommet and his parents drove 17 hours from Fort Campbell, Ky., to South Carolina, where Matty had been living since 2013. (Grommet had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep the identity of the South Carolina “owner” secret).

 

Grommet stopped about 25 feet away from Matty’s kennel, too nervous to see him. “I was a little worried he forgot me,” Grommet said. Then he called his name. When the kennel door opened, Matty charged. “He jumped all over me,” Grommet said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better response. I knew then that he remembered me, and truly wanted to be with me.”

 

Grommet told The Post that Matty will be the best medicine for all his war injuries. “It’s very hard to be upset around him,” Grommet said. “He brings a lot of light into everything.”

Walmart bows to Sharia, introduces halal meat after 50 Muslims sign petition

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

If 50 non-Muslims petitioned Walmart for anything — anything! — do you think Walmart would immediately cave? Neither do I. But when it comes to Muslims and the cruelty of halal slaughter, Walmart knew they would be facing headlines: “Islamophobia at Walmart!” “Walmart racist!” And who knows? Maybe even a visit from Obama’s DoJ would have been in their future.

“Walmart Just Bowed To Islamic Sharia Law To Appease Angry Muslims,” Mad World, November 13, 2014 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

As America veers towards Islamic Sharia law in order to cater to the demanding minority of Muslims, citizens are seeing not only an attempt to include and appease Muslims, but an infringement...

Read the whole entry »

     

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Smuggler says he sends Islamic State jihadis to Europe via Turkey

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

 “The Western world thinks there is no ISIS in their countries — that all the jihadis have gone to fight and die in Syria. But this man said, ‘No. We are sending our fighters to take their places.’”

“Smuggler Says He Sent ISIS Fighters To Europe,” by Mike Giglio and Munzer al-Awad, BuzzFeed, November 11, 2014:

ISTANBUL — Extremist fighters have been brought into mainland Europe, hidden amid boatloads of Syrian refugees, according to a veteran smuggler who claims to have done so himself.

The smuggler, who has been given the pseudonym Hassan here, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News that since the summer he has sent more than 10 Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters into Europe.

Hassan’s claim was impossible to verify — and Western officials said they’d seen no evidence that such a scenario was taking place. His testimony, plus that of a second human trafficker who offered a similar account, marked the first time someone claiming direct involvement has said publicly that such a plan is underway.

Hassan has worked in the trade for more than three years. He charges $2,500 for each refugee he sends to Europe from Turkey, shipping them by boat to Greece. He said he views it as “humanitarian work,” on top of the profit he makes. But he said he had grown uncomfortable with the dark turn this work has taken since he began allowing ISIS fighters to mix with the refugees on his crowded speedboats.

Hassan said the fighters were all Syrian or Iraqis posing as refugees. He believed they remained loyal to ISIS and were prepared to launch terrorist attacks in Europe. “They are waiting for their orders,” Hassan said. “Just wait. You will see.”

Fears of an ISIS attack in Europe have centered on the danger posed by the continent’s own citizens. Around 3,000 Europeans have joined ISIS, according to the European Union’s counter-terrorism chief, and there are longstanding concerns that some may return to sow terror at home. Recently, there have also been rumblings of an ISIS threat among the unending torrent of Syrian refugees. Some Western officials reportedly believe that ISIS has considered the same plot that Hassan described.

One official with the British government stressed that any potential threat from ISIS should be kept “in perspective.”

“We’re talking about millions of people that need help,” the official said. “We should not get to the stage where we start to fear Syrian refugees as a terrorist threat in Europe.”

Hillary Clinton's 'Confrontational' Side Illustrated in New Transcripts

NEWSMAX

Hillary Clinton "just tore everybody a new *******." That's how Leon Panetta recalled former White House legislative affairs director Pat Griffin describing how the former first lady responded when she wasn't pleased with the staff in her husband Bill Clinton's presidential administration.

Little Rock, Ark., is abuzz this weekend with Bill and Hillary Clinton holding court at a 10th anniversary celebration for the Clinton Presidential Center that's also a sort of pre-union for Hillary Clinton's anticipated 2016 run. But if insights into Hillary Clinton from her husband's former aides and advisers are what you're looking for, turn instead to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, which on Friday released a series of transcripts from interviews for its Clinton oral history project.

Panetta, who was Bill Clinton's chief of staff long before his stints in the Obama administration, offers some of the more colorful observations in his interview, which was conducted in 2003:

There's no question that she was smart, she was dedicated, she understood the issue and people were a little intimidated by her. There were several meetings where she basically walked in and let everybody have it, very different from what the president would do. If she thought something was going wrong, she'd say it. She was much more confrontational in that sense.

I'll never forget, Pat Griffin came out of that meeting and his eyes were that wide and he said, 'You will not believe what I've just been through.' I said, 'What are you talking about?' I had been at another staff meeting. He said, 'I can't believe it, I can't believe what I've just been through.' I said, 'What's the matter?' He said, 'The first lady just tore everybody a new *******.' I said, 'Really?' It was that first experience.

When I became chief of staff, recognizing that she was an important factor, I went out of my way to make sure I briefed her on what was going on as chief of staff. But if she ultimately believed that you had the capacity to do a job, she backed off. She served as what I would call a chief of staff-in- waiting, in the sense that if she felt the chief of staff or whoever was not doing the job, she was prepared to protect the president. And she was very good at that.

Liberals are Already Trying to Re-write the History of the Obama Presidency

John C. Goodman / Townhall Columnist

The Obama presidency is a failed presidency. He has presided over one of the slowest economic recoveries in history. His foreign policy has been a disaster. ObamaCare is a mess. And it’s hard to lay the blame off on anyone else. The president didn’t make Republicans part of any of his decisions and most of the time he ignored congressional Democrats as well.

To make matters worse, Barack Obama is the most polarizing president we have had in the past 60 years. What makes that so strange is that we were all promised something completely different.

Charles Blow, writing in The New York Times said it best:

"The president came to Washington thinking he could change Washington, make it better, unite it and the nation."

On the campaign trail he [Obama} promised to:

"… turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington, so we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass an agenda that works for the American people."

In his first inaugural address, he [Obama] said:

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."

Here We Go Again: Glitches Spur Shutdown of Washington State Health Care Exchange

Cortney O'Brien / Townhall Tipsheet

 

Saturday proved that the second time is not the charm for Obamacare. As the Affordable Care Act's second open enrollment got underway in Washington state, customers again found themselves unable to progress past the system's technical errors. The Guardian has the unfortunate, yet unsurprising, news:

Washington’s state’s healthcare exchange shut down after the first few hours of open enrollment on Saturday, as state officials and software engineers tried to resolve a problem with tax credit calculations.

Because of these glitches, officials at the Washington Healthplanfinder decided to shut the site down after just a few hours.

Washingtonians were perhaps hoping that their attempts to sign up for health care would go more smoothly than last year, when the system rejected people for minor errors like hyphens in their last names.

In case you missed last year's national Obamacare debacle, all you need to know is that healthcare.gov was a mess. Errors were apparent from start to finish. The website was so poorly designed and unprepared for visitors, that Health and Human Services Committee Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was grilled on Capitol Hill before she eventually decided to step down in April. If technical problems like these persist this year, I guess the new HHS secretary isn't going to escape the hot seat, either.

Another interesting tidbit I noticed regarding Washington's exchange site:

About a thousand people who bought insurance the first time around are still having problems getting their payments credited and that money transferred to their insurance companies.

All the government can say is, "Thanks for your patience."