Hillary The Likability Candidate! Gitmo Release an Act Of Arrogance?

If, on occasion, you receive a memo more than once I apologize but I send so much I am often blocked and get confused as to who received what.

===

===
Hillarious is apparently on a charm campaign to overcome her lack of likability.  She is out to prove that she does not have horns. I have never accused her of having horns.  If anyone in the Clinton family is 'horny' it is Billy Goat Bill.

The problem with Hillarious is that she is an unmitigated liar, and utterly incompetent when judged by her avowed accomplishments. The fact that she has been in the public view for decades does not equate with experience.

When, after being in the public eye for so long and you feel a need to increase your likability that alone should suggest you are simply not likable.  Rather than try and upgrade her likability score her handlers need to ask why is she not likable?  If they do they will find Hillarious is not liked because she is not trustworthy, not funny, is contrived and stiff and  not someone most would like to be isolated with even on a beautiful island in the Pacific.  Maybe if she moved to Libya they would like her better.

Can you envision Obama and/or Hillarious being in this audience:  https://www.youtube.com/embed/n6mbW-jMtrY?rel=0
====
Is the Saudi coalition for real or just hype?  I suspect it is more hype like Obama's coalition.  Let's face it, every time the Arabs get together it ends in more fighting with each other than the adversary and we know their results against an effective force like Israel's.

Time will tell. (See 1 and 1a below.)
===
I understand, in a fit of extreme pique, Obama was furious, as was Valerie Jarrett, with the head of the FBI who went public, without clearing with The White House, his revelation that San Bernadino was caused by "terrorists" thus, undercutting Obama being able to pin the tail on his anti-gun rhetoric donkey.

This independent act on the part of the FBI's head does not bode well for Hillarious should those investigating her conclude she is indictable for breaking various laws. I have raised the 'Saturday Night" episode in previous memos and it could blow the Democrat Nomination wide open at an unpropitious date and create all kind of 'legacy' problems for Obama and his party.

Now we are about to have the largest release from Gitmo.

I am not saying the two are related but it does reveal how arrogant Obama is in the face of evidence that more than one third of past releases have returned to terrorism. (See 2 below.)
===
Dick
========================================================================
1)

Saudi Arabia forms alliance of 34 Muslim nations to fight ISIS and tackle 'the Islamic world's problem with terrorism'

By Julian Robinson

• Coalition to include members from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia
• Saudi Arabia has called it a bid to 'save international peace and security'
• The group includes powerful gulf states Egypt and Turkey – but not Iran

Saudi Arabia has formed an alliance of 34 Muslim nations to fight ISIS and tackle 'the Islamic world's problem with terrorism'.

The Saudi-led coalition, which will be based in Riyadh, includes powerful gulf states Egypt and Turkey but excludes Iran.

Alliance members from the Middle East, Africa and Asia will work from the capital 'to coordinate and support military operations to fight terrorism', according to the SPA state news agency.

Saudi Arabia has formed a coalition of 34 countries to fight terrorism including powerful Gulf states, Egypt and Turkey but excluding Iran (file picture)

Saudi defence minister and crown prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud said the aim was to tackle 'the Islamic world's problem with terrorism and will be a partner in the worldwide fight against this scourge.'

Arrangements would be made for 'coordination with friendly peace-loving nations and international bodies for the sake of supporting international efforts to combat terrorism and to save international peace and security', SPA added.

More than 10 other 'Islamic countries' had expressed support for the coalition, including Indonesia, it said.

The United States has called for broader international participation in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

It said Turkey needed to do more to control its borders with Syria, and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states had been distracted by the conflict in Yemen.

The announcement said the alliance is being established because terrorism 'should be fought by all means and collaboration should be made to eliminate it.'

The United States has called for broader international participation in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria (file picture)

The statement said Islam forbids 'corruption and destruction in the world' and that terrorism constitutes 'a serious violation of human dignity and rights, especially the right to life and the right to security.'

The new counterterrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen.

African nations that have suffered terrorist attacks such as Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria are also members.

Saudi Arabia's regional rival, Shiite Iran, is not part of the coalition. Saudi Arabia and Iran support opposite sides of in the wars raging in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia is currently leading a military intervention in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels and is part of the U.S.-led coalition bombing ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

'Currently, every Muslim country is fighting terrorism individually … so coordinating efforts is very important,' the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince said.

Smaller member-states included in the coalition are the archipelago of the Maldives and the island-nation of Bahrain.

Other Gulf Arab countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are also in the coalition, though notably absent from the list is Saudi Arabia's neighbor Oman.

But Iraq and Syria whose forces are battling to regain territory taken by ISIS and whose governments are allied with Iran are not in the coalition.

Benin, while it does not have a majority Muslim population, is also a member of this new counterterrorism coalition.

All the group's members are also part of the larger Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia.

1a) Analysis: Saudi Arabian-led efforts on terror are all talk, no action

by Ariel Ben Solomo

“The regime continues to embrace clerics who propagate open hatred toward Shi’ites, Christians, Jews, women, homosexuals and the West,” says Gulf expert.

The greatly hyped new Saudi-led Islamic coalition against terrorism is meant more for Western ears rather than actual action on the ground against Sunni jihadist groups Islamic State and al-Qaida.

The expectation that Sunni Saudi Arabia is going to lead a 34-state coalition against fellow radical Sunni groups when it sees them as a bulwark against advancing Iranian and Shi’ite allies across the region, should not be great.

Predictably, Shi’ite-ruled Iran and Iraq were not part of the new alliance, and of course Syria was also absent.

The centuries-deep Sunni-Shi’ite divide is raging across the region and is much more important than any intra-Sunni rivalries or threats.

US administration officials admitted this difficulty, saying they want more contributions from the Saudis, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey, according to a report in The New York Times on Monday.

Arab allies have pulled back from the US-led campaign, and one Pentagon official involved in the fight against Islamic State told The Washington Times in a report at the end of last month that the Saudis have not used their air force against the group in nearly three months.

The official said Jordan also stopped flying missions against the group in August and UAE since March.

It is more likely that attacks by the coalition, if it is even able to get off the ground, would target Shi’ite forces in the region, and less Sunni ones.

David Andrew Weinberg, a specialist on Gulf affairs and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Jerusalem Post the idea that the Saudis are going to lead an anti-terrorism alliance with what the Saudi defense minister says is a focus on Syria and Iraq is downright outrageous given that the kingdom almost entirely dropped out of coalition airstrikes there against Islamic State since March.

“All this talk about a more assertive Saudi foreign policy is also somewhat hard to believe,” he said, noting that the country is already bogged down in Yemen, preventing any major military assault elsewhere.

“Saudi Arabia got Sudan to deploy hundreds of troops to Yemen, after pledging billions in aid and investment to Khartoum, but what else has it elicited in terms of Arab unity against shared threats?” The Yemen war has allowed al-Qaida and Islamic State the space to enjoy a new renaissance inside Yemen, continued Weinberg.

Of course the Iran-backed Houthis pose a risk to the region, Israel and the US, “but that doesn’t excuse Riyadh dropping all of zero bombs against al-Qaida on any of their round-the-clock air-strikes inside Yemen,” he said.

Similarly, Saudi policies in Syria are turning a blind eye to the threat posed by al-Qaida, which is part of the Army of Conquest, which also includes other Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham.

Weinberg pointed out that Riyadh has refused to arrest Abdul-Majeed al-Zindani and Abd al-Wahhab al-Humayqani, who are prominent Yemenis who have been sheltering in public view on Saudi territory.

They have been under sanctions for years by the United States on charges of funding or providing other logistical support to al-Qaida, and Zindani is also supposed to be under a travel ban due to similar sanctions from the United Nations.

“Just because Saudi Arabia decrees new measures against terrorism doesn’t mean it is really doing anything about it,” he added.

“Despite Saudi pledges to combat the ideological underpinnings of ISIS, the regime continues to embrace clerics who propagate open hatred toward Shi’ites, Christians, Jews, women, homosexuals and the West,” noted Weinberg, arguing that “there has to be a cost for allowing such ongoing incitement.”

=================================================================================
2)

Largest Gitmo Transfer Since 2007 Underway

By Matt Vespa 
President Obama said he’s gunning to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and he’s starting by emptying the cell blocks that have housed suspected terrorists since it opened in 2002. Right now, the administration is on the verge of the largest detainee transfer in a single month since 2007 (via NYT):

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has notified Congress in recent days that he has approved 17 proposed transfers of lower-level detainees, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters that have not yet been made public. Congress has required Mr. Carter to certify that security standards have been met at least 30 days before any transfers.

President Obama wants to close the Guantánamo prison in Cuba before he leaves office in a little over a year. His administration has stepped up efforts to find countries to take 48 detainees on a transfer list and moved to speed up the work of a parole-like board that might approve the release of others who are currently recommended for indefinite detention.

The Republican-led Congress, however, has shown little interest in lifting a ban on bringing any detainees to a prison inside the United States, which is Mr. Obama’s plan for those who are either facing trial or are deemed too dangerous to release.

[…]

The commander who oversees the military base, Gen. John F. Kelly, has created new rules that will limit reporters to four “media day” trips a year in which large groups will come and depart the same day. Reporters will generally no longer be permitted to go inside the prison camp’s walls.

In a telephone interview, General Kelly connected his decision “to tighten things up a little bit, particularly on the scheduling” for news media visits, in part to what he described as a sharp rise in visits by delegations from foreign governments that are considering resettling detainees.

The operational strains of handling such visitors, he said, formed the backdrop to an episode in October that focused his attention on rules for visits. He said that a journalist, whom he would not identify, was “extremely impolite” during an interaction with a service member who worked at a detainee library.

The problem is that there's little supportto bring those detainees deemed to risky to release onto U.S. soil due to security concerns. Intense political pressure forced then-Attorney General Eric Holder to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and four other conspirators by a military commission, instead of the planned civil trial in New York City. Those feelings haven't subsided, as a judge refused to allow Mohammed to testify in a terror trial involving Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law in 2014. In Kansas, residents are already voicing their opposition to having such detainees transferred to Fort Leavenworth.

Moreover, it doesn’t help the Obama administration’s case that a former detainee is now the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, along with 20-30 detainees, some of whom were released as little as three years ago, joining the Islamic State.

===========================================================