Ah, That British Welfare State Keeps Paying The Danegeld

Welfare For Jihad, UK style: The Telegraph : Cleric said to be behind Tunisian beach massacre is living on benefits in Britain

In addiiton to Sibai, the British welfare system also funds jihadist Anjem Choundary and many others.

During the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, it was often said the IRA would be hosed and would immediately lose the fight if the Brits ever suspended welfare payments to the families of the IRA members as they'd have to go out and get jobs rather than attacking squaddies.

Now the British welfare system has switched away from the Irish and is busily at work distributing welfare payments for funding Jihad.

You really can't make this stuff up. No one would believe it if it was fiction.

ISIS' Goebbels Living It Up In Dearborn

The Detroit Free Press: Judge orders Dearborn cleric popular with ISIS to talk

One of the big mysteries is who is paying this felon - convicted of 42 counts of fraud - to spread Islamist propaganda? Well, he's not talking, at least not yet.

Yes, the most inspirational cleric providing aid and comfort to Islamic terrorists is comfortably living in Dearborn and lying to the court.

The Obama Administration is fundamentally unserious about dealing with Islamic Terrorism and ISIS, heck they can't even say the I word, so dealing with a propagandist for the same is likely beyond their ken, and this will not end well.

The Outpost: A Gripping Read Of Americans In Battle In Afghanistan

Just finished reading an account of the Battle of Combat Outpost Keating - The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper.

The book covers the founding of the Combat Outpost through its demolition and abandonment after the October 3, 2009 Battle of Kamdesh, when a force of 300 Taliban insurgents attacked the outpost of 60 Americans of Bravo Troop, 3d Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment and Two Latvians and a handful of Afghanistan National Army members that almost entirely either ran away or joined the insurgents. Outnumbered 5 to 1, the Americans and Latvians held and defeated the attack.

8 Americans were killed, 27 wounded and over 150 Taliban were killed. The surprise attack was repulsed even after the Taliban managed to overrun a portion of the outpost.

The book points out the folly of the location of the outpost, established to house a Provincial Reconstruction Team - on a mainly unusable road in a valley dominated by three mountains controlled by the insurgents. The book then points out the greater folly of leaving the outpost open after it was decided that the road was not unusable because of its bad condition, and the constant insurgent attacks made it unusable as a PRT base even as soldiers at the base were continually ambushed, wounded or killed. Multiple commanders of the outpost were killed, including one by an IED assassination. Conditions at the base were beyond difficult and the hardships the men faced were grave indeed.

Politics and dithering caused the lack of sufficient troops in Afghanistan for the mission of combatting the insurgents, which is quite fairly pointed out to be the fault of both Bush and then later Obama.

Politics and dithering then compounded to lead to the battle, as the troops of the outpost would have avoided being there at the time of the attack had the closing gone ahead as scheduled, but a series of delays in the closing of the base during the feud between Obama and McChrystal occurred, leaving it vulnerable to attack even after the decision to close it had been made and announced (including to the enemy) but no definitive timetable set due to the political issues.

Interestingly, the book, written in 2012, notes that Bowe Berghdahl walked away from the base he was stationed on in June 2009, after leaving an angry email to his parents, and the efforts to search for him diverted needed helicopters and other assets needed to have shut down the outpost, delaying its closure until after the attack on October 3, 2009.

The book is a gripping read that tells of the amazingly heroic acts of troops stationed at the outpost, including many who won Medals of Honor for their actions at the Base such as Sergeant First Class Jared Monti, killed while on a mission near the outpost and awarded the medal posthumously for his gallantry that day, and Sergeant Clinton Romesha, and Staff Sergeant Ty Carter who earned their Medals of Honor in the Battle of Kamdesh itself. Take the time to read their citations and reflect on their outstanding acts of selflessness and bravery beyond all expectation.

In addition, nine other soldiers earned the Silver Star in the pivotal battle, and eight Distinguished Flying Crosses were awarded to the pilots that bravely risked themselves to provide vital air support to help beat back the attack.

Vividly written and detailed, the book is highly recommended for its detailed look at Combat Outpost Keating and its narrative of events from its founding through the Battle of Kamdesh, and its telling of the valor of the troops there whose stories certainly deserve to be read and remembered.

Is It Blowback If It Never Left?

Vodkapundit has a post up on the expected blowback from Syria - volunteer Islamist fighters having been trained in terrorist tactics returning to their homes in Europe and America will likely not just resume whatever they were doing before they left to fight on foreign shores but instead will likely launch jihadi attacks locally on their return.

I'd question use of the term blowback - it's not like we're supporting Al Qaeda/Salafi fighters. Instead we're just, in Obama's infinite wisdom, not supporting the more "normal" opposition to Assad, leaving them to get their butts kicked by both Assad and the Salafis, and it's resulting in Syria being locked into an Aliens vs Predator war where regardless of whoever wins, we'll have a heckuva foreign affairs problem for the foreseeable future.

Let's hope the NSA is doing, you know, their actual job of watching these foreign fighters and their movements rather than busily surveying little Timmy's online pron stash or Fred's Tea Party email list.

Meanwhile, back in America, and in Dearborn, Michigan in particular, there's a source of inspiration and terrorist advocacy for them waiting upon their return.

The Detroit Free Press: Dearborn cleric cited as most inspirational leader for militants from West in Syria

Just a few weeks after he was released from federal prison in March 2012 on fraud convictions, Dearborn cleric Ahmad Jibril told his followers in a fiery sermon posted online:

“When your brothers in Syria speak, everyone today needs to shut their mouth and listen, because they’re proving themselves to be real men.”

Jibril’s talk was the beginning of a number of videos and online comments that have made him an internationally known inspirational figure for militants in Syria. Over the past two years, Jibril has become the most popular religious leader online for Westerners who’ve joined the battle against the Syrian government, according to a new report by a security center in England.

And most of his followers online among the Western fighters surveyed are with groups related to al-Qaida, the report said.

Jibril, 43, acts as a “cheerleader ... a benevolent father figure” to foreign fighters motivated by Islam, said the report released last month by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. Based in London, the center is a partnership with five universities and for the past year has been studying the role that fighters from the West are playing in the Syrian war.

He's also quite the anti-American extremist:

Jibril has a history of making what prosecutors said were extremist comments, dating to at least 1995, according to a 2005 sentencing memo from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit. In November 1995, he sent a fax to CNN praising the bombing by terrorists of a building in Saudi Arabia used by U.S. military and civilian personnel, prosecutors wrote. The blast killed four Americans.

On a radical website he operated, “Ahmad Jebril encouraged his students to spread Islam by the sword, to wage a holy war, to hate and kill non-Muslims,” prosecutors said in the memo.

Maybe it's time to apply the RICO act to terrorists and their ideological enablers, as while Jibril may not be the guy pressing the button when the time comes, but he'll be one of those who set it in motion.

Some Brits Still Got It.

If you don't know, considering the media isn't covering it now that it's Obama's Good (and Forgotten) War, we're still fighting over there in Afghanistan, as are our allies the Brits.

A British medic was recently awarded the Military Cross for working to save lives under fire on two separate occasions in Afghanistan, and saving an Afghan soldier.

Even better in that Islam-dominated conflict, the medic is female:

The Telegraph: Female medic awarded Military Cross for bravery

The Daily Mail: 'Oh, Kylie! What did you do? Next time, please don’t...': What mother told Military Cross hero daughter who twice braved hails of bullets to tend war wounded

Both stories are worth reading and both give slightly different coverage of the events that led to L.Cpl. Kylie Watson being awarded the Military Cross for both saving lives and engaging the enemy while doing so.

Both stories clearly show that she deserves the award.

Nicely done indeed.