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/New from Linux Beach now back in Venice Beach:/
Was ISIS "leader" Abu Sayyaf promoted posthumously by Obama?
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/05/was-isis-leader-abu-sayyaf-promoted.html>
> In the *White House* statement
> <https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/16/statement-nsc-spokesperson-bernadette-meehan-counter-isil-operation-sy-0>
> announcing the *US Special Forces* operation in *Syria* yesterday, NSC
> spokesperson *Bernadette Meehan*, said the man they got, *Abu Sayyaf*,
> was the intended target of the raid:
>
> Abu Sayyaf was a senior ISIL leader who, among other things, had a
> senior role in overseeing ISIL’s illicit oil and gas operations –
> a key source of revenue that enables the terrorist organization to
> carry out their brutal tactics and oppress thousands of innocent
> civilians. He was also involved with the group’s military operations.
>
> The funny thing about Abu [meaning father of] Sayyaf is that nobody
> that has been studying ISIS leadership seems to have ever heard of him
> before. I've been writing about ISIS since
> <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-current-military-situation-in-syria.html>
> July 2013, almost a year before it took Mosul and declared itself a
> /"caliphate."/ That doesn't make me an expert, so it really doesn't
> mean much that I've never heard of him, but I do know experts that
> should have heard of him, and when they say they've never heard of
> him, I know this guy was not that important.
>
> The hands down best book I know of on the subject of ISIS is *ISIS:
> Inside the Army of Terror*, by *Michael Weiss* and *Hassan Hassan*.
> Now, they are experts, and I've followed the work of both of them for
> a long time, so when I hear Michael Weiss say he's never heard of Abu
> Sayyaf, I know there is something fishy about the Pentagon story
> <http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128832&source=GovDelivery>.
> Besides, if this guy is really as important as they now say he is, why
> did they not already have a price on his head like they do for the
> other top ISIS leaders? If this was like the hunt for the Baathists in
> Iraq a decade ago, some of which are now in ISIS, I'd have to conclude
> they weren't playing with a full deck, because before this raid, Abu
> Sayyaf didn't have his own card.
>
> I think the Pentagon is trying to put lipstick on a pig.
>
> I think this guy is pretty low-level, and not the kind of target that
> they would risk US soldiers on the ground for. I think they were after
> a really important target, maybe the leader *Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi*,
> maybe somebody else in top leadership or responsible for Kayle
> Mueller's captivity, but definitely a big cheese, and they missed.
> Maybe Obama was looking to distract attention from questions about the
> accuracy of his tale around the *bin Laden* mission with another
> daring US Special Ops kill or capture. I don't know about that, but I
> know one thing for sure: Abu Sayyaf is no bin Laden!
>
> The *Syrian Observatory for Human Rights* [SOHR] is saying
> <http://www.syriahr.com/en/2015/05/u-s-led-coalition-operation-kills-abo-omar-al-shishani-assistant/>
> 32 IS militants were killed by US air strikes and by a /"dropping off
> operation in al-Omar oil field near al-Besera east of Der-Ezzor."/
> They say among them, /"4 commanders 3 of them were Moroccan including
> the assistant of Abo Omar al-Shishani the military chief in IS."/ Abu
> Sayyaf isn't mentioned but that's just a nom de guerre anyway. I don't
> think Obama put US boots on the ground in Syria to kill an /"assistant."/
>
> It is interesting that the Syrian Army is also claiming credit for
> these kills, raising the curious question of to what degree this
> operation was co-ordinated with the Assad regime. After all, They did
> openly acknowledge they had /"the full consent of Iraqi authorities"/
> and and acted /"consistent with domestic and international law."/ If
> consistent with international law meant respect for Syrian
> sovereignty, that would imply the knowledge and consent of the Assad
> regime, but according
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/world/middleeast/abu-sayyaf-isis-commander-killed-by-us-forces-pentagon-says.html?_r=0>
> to the *New York Times*:
>
> The White House rejected initial reports from the region that
> attributed the raid to the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of
> Syria. /“The U.S. government did not coordinate with the Syrian
> regime...,”/ said Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council
> spokeswoman.
>
> I strongly suspect Abu Sayyaf was not the real target, he was just the
> best they could do, so now, in death, he has been promoted by the
> Pentagon, the CIA, the White House and the tame media, to top ISIS
> leadership and the story is the raid was a great success because they
> got the man they were after all along.
*More...*
<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/05/was-isis-leader-abu-sayyaf-promoted.html>
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