Peters makes this point:
There is a very good chance our embassy will be attacked before Obama does a thing.
And he conveys this appalling message:
I’ve been hearing from friends inside the system. They’re horrified. They’re mortified. The intelligence community has been briefing Obama and his team, his NSC team for months on this, Megyn, and a friend of mine was just distraught when he spoke to me; he said, We still – and this is as of today – we still cannot convince the president that this is serious.
Then comes this exchange at the end (emphasis added):
Kelly: We are getting reports out of the Pentagon tonight that those in the embassy – that some are very concerned about their own safety…that they are not being evacuated. That the way it’s been put is that it’s too politically sensitive to evacuate them.
Peters: Yeah, well, this could make Benghazi look like chump change.
And one reason for that is the growing body of evidence that ISIS has it in for America. I wrote two days ago about the ISIS video (which was posted in January) in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issued a specific warning to America:
This is a message that we address to America.
You should know O protector of the cross, that the proxy war in Ash-Sham will not benefit you just as it has not benefited you in Iraq, and you shall soon be forced to be in direct confrontation by the permission of Allah, and the sons of Islam have been waiting for this day.
{So wait; for indeed we along with you are waiting.} (9:52)
And, as noted in last night’s post, U.S. officials have known about the video (a State Department officer briefed it to Congress) since at least early February.
Widely reported today was a story recounted by the former Army commander of the Camp Bucca detention facility in Iraq, where al-Baghdadi was held for several years before being released to the Iraqi government in 2009. According to Colonel Kenneth King, al-Baghdadi turned to the Americans when he was departing and said, “I’ll see you guys in New York.”
This probably seems more threatening in hindsight than it did at the time. But the tenor of the latest flight of rhetoric from ISIS, which was posted on 12 June after the fall of Mosul, is unmistakable right out of the gate.
MEMRI translated the clip, in which an ISIS leader whips up a crowd of supporters in Mosul
What’s notable is what the ISIS orator makes a point of: alluding to America in his recitation of the ISIS victory. (Emphasis added.)
Masked ISIS commander, waving a rifle: By Allah, we embarked on our Jihad only to support the religion of Allah.
Crowd (capturing the events on video with their smartphones): Allah Akbar.
ISIS commander: We have defeated the Americans and their allies…
Crowd: Allah Akbar.
ISIS commander: Allah willing, we will establish a state ruled by the Quran and the Sunna.
Crowd: Allah Akbar.
This all seems like it can’t mean what it sounds like: that a real, catastrophic upheaval is developing in Iraq, and probably the greater Middle East – one that will place Americans along with millions of other people in grave peril – and the U.S. administration is doing nothing urgent or proactive to even prepare for it.
But it would be very dangerous to rely on that complacent assumption at this point. Given the simple facts to date, there is no explanation for the lack of observable action by the Obama administration. There’s no secret magic going on that we can’t see: nothing that would mean a rabbit will be pulled from a hat at some point. This is real.
Check Out Liberty Unyielding, /J.E, Dyer.