Obama’s Middle East

Egypt has seen 3 leaders in 3 years.  During the events surrounding Hosni Mubarak’s regime change, a few rhetorical “Why’s” were on my mind.

Why did Obama and many in our Congress turn mostly a blind eye to the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Egypt for years and also while not officially designated as a terrorist organization by the US, there was enough questionable ties which made it worth watching?

Why did they ignore the violence done to Coptic Christians, and why didn’t they urge the people to wait until the national Election with a promise to help oversee to ensure a fair election when elections were to take place in less than 8 months?

Once Morsi was propped up, he changed Egypt’s Constitution so the Brotherhood-controlled university and mosque in Cairo, Al Azhar, would have final say in interpretation of the Constitution and in doing so, Morsi instituted a Sharia loving, terrorist supported power in the nation’s law making.

Morsi ended up being ousted by the Military, against Obama’s wishes, and sent to prison. Obama is still siding with the Brotherhood, yet he’s calling for peaceful protests and an end to violence. Last year however, Obama didn’t seem to care about peaceful protests when US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson asked Pope Tawadros “to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.

Now we’re seeing more violence, and much of it is being done, once again, by jihadists, Muslim Brotherhood followers and supporters of Morsi. Obama has threatened to cut off aid, and has halfheartedly condemned the violence, ignoring the fact that Al Qaida and other jihadist groups have been participating in the demonstrations calling for Morsi’s release and an end of Military rule.

There are new assertions of definite ties between Obama’s half-brother Malik Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood, which would explain Obama’s support for the Brotherhood in recent years. Walid Shoebat’s site has reported that Malik Obama is a member of the Islamic Da’wa Organization, an arm of the Sudanese government, which is led by President Omar al-Bashir, a member of the Brotherhood.

Claims from Egypt lend credibility to this. It was reported that the former Chancellor of the Constitutional Court of Egypt and current adviser, Tahani Al-Jebali stated that the Egyptians wanted “…to inform the American people that their president’s brother Obama is one of the architects of the major investments of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood…  We will carry out the law… The Obama administration cannot stop us; they know that they supported terrorism. We will open the files so these nations are exposed, to show how they collaborated with them [the terrorists]. It is for this reason why the American administration fights us.”

The violence has by and large been directed at Coptic and other Christians mostly by the Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other Jihadist, yet most of the focus has been on retaliation by the Egyptian military.  We’ve seen reports of burned churches and Christian schools burned, Christian business being torched and the owners beaten, Nuns abused and paraded through the streets and Christians murdered.

There were 25 Egyptian police who were recently murdered execution-style in Sinai.  According to the report, the men were off duty when militants, including Al Qaida, forced their vehicles to stop and the men to get out.  There have been attacks almost daily in the Sinai by suspected militants of the Brotherhood and, according to a recent WorldNet Daily report, Al Qaida linked groups.  An Egyptian official stated Al Qaida-linked jihadist “have been making their way to the Sinai Peninsula as part of a Muslim Brotherhood effort to accumulate its own independent force and it’s being coordinated with the Brotherhood’s main ally, the Salafist group.”   A few days ago the Egyptian police arrested Mohammed al-Zawahiri, leader of the Salafist group and brother to al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. They have been also actively helping rebels construct underground tunnels into Gaza and to advise the jihadists on using some of the same kinds of tools Hamas has used against Israel.

During his vacation, Obama said of the violence, “We appreciate the complexity of the situation…  The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt’s interim government and security forces. We deplore violence against civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest.”  He fails to mention the violence done by the Jihadists, not by the military, against hundreds of Christians and ant-Morsi supporters.

Obama also canceled a U.S.-Egypt biannual joint military exercise, which was scheduled for next month. Yet in doing this, Egypt is turning to Russia and Russia is offering the Egyptian government fighter jets and other military equipment. Putin even said, “Russia will arrange for joint military exercises with the Egyptian army.”

Now Senator McCain has claimed the US has lost credibility on Egypt because of Obama’s failure to act.  He also accused the interim Egyptian rulers of preaching “anti-Americanism” and condemned them for the violence.  McCain has taken another photo op by going to Egypt as he did when he went to Syria to talk with the terrorist rebels and is speaking out of both sides of his mouth, condemning violence, yet supporting the same groups Obama has been supporting, which cause the violence. “We are much more hated and much less respected than we were in 2009, in the Middle East region, “McCain said.

Thanks in part to McCain and others, the situation in both Egypt and Syria don’t bode well either for Israel. All of what’s happening is potentially precarious for Israel, as they worry about a possible Russian presence in the south and in the northeast in Syria.  Debkafile reported that “Israeli and Egyptian armies strictly limit their cooperation to counterterrorist action in Sinai against al Qaeda, Salafist and other terrorists threatening both countries… Even then, the IDF does not go beyond responding to Egyptian requests in cases of mutual security concern. Israel has absolutely no involvement in Gen. El-Sisi’s war on the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Yet on Aug. 17, El-Sisi remarked “This is no time to attack the US and Israel, because our first priority is to disband the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Obama has been saying that Al Qaida has been weakened, when clearly they are becoming more organized not only in Egypt but also Syria.  The Telegraph in the UK recently linked an article by the New York Times from December of last year, showing that Al Qaida linked groups were joining rebel forces in Syria.  It was also reported that the crisis in Syria is spilling into neighboring Iraq and threatening other states as well, and US and European officials have said that there have been noticeable improvements in the effectiveness of Syrian rebel groups in the past few weeks.  The Jerusalem Post reported,“Security experts say al-Qaida is reaping funds, recruits and better morale on both sides of the (Iraqi) border, reinvigorating it after years of losses against US forces and their Iraqi allies.”

It has been now reported that a chemical attack may have killed some 1300 people near Damascus, Syria. The rebels are blaming the Assad regime, yet the Assad regime denies this claim saying, “Allegations of the use of chemical arms by the Syrian Arab Army today in areas of Damascus province… are null, void and totally unfounded…  The army will continue on its national mission, by facing terrorism across Syrian territory…to protect the nation from these armed terrorist groups.”

According to Debkafile, the rebels claim nerve gas canisters were dropped by Syrian Air Force fighter planes which were seen flying over the area after the attack but the claim hasn’t been verified but Assad has said if the Syrian capital Damascus came under threat, he would resort to chemical warfare and the entire Middle East including Israel would go up in flames.

The rebels in both Egypt and Syria are made up of groups from all over the world.  Considering that the Obama administration and many in Congress have been aiding and siding with many of the groups and the Brotherhood, knowing that we have troops in other regions fighting against many of the same groups, what would you call it?