Friday, September 05, 2014

ISIS Using Snowden Leaks To Evade U.S.

by JASmius

Back when Edward Snowden was emptying out all of America's national security secrets on the world stage for everybody and half the planets in the quadrant to see, I opined that he had an accomplice in this biggest-ever state security breach: Barack Hussein Obama.  It was one of the comparatively early manifestations of what has become my relentless contention: No sentient being - hell, no anencephalic being - could possibly be that incompetent.  It was not a leak, in no uncertain terms, but a deliberate dissemination.  I thought then, and believe heartily now, that it came right out of the Obama Doctrine: bring America down.  Remove America from its place as the world superpower, the benevolent global hegemon that has preserved civilization on this dustball for the past seventy years.  Because it's just not "fair" that the U.S. should be exceptional, that the U.S. should be bigger, richer, and stronger than every other country on the planet.  The Framers' America is the focus of evil in Obama World, and humanity would be better off if the U.S. was "fundamentally transformed" into a gargantuan Luxembourg(istan).  Accordingly, we did not deserve, and were not entitled to, ANY national security secrets whatsodamnever, and so The One either turned Snowden loose, or did nothing to impede his "muckraking".

Either way, all our cats were out of the bag.

And you just knew that sooner or later, for somebody, that would most definitely come in handy:

The Islamic State (ISIS) is able to evade U.S. intelligence and is harder to catch because the terrorist group has "clearly" capitalized on the huge leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, a former top NSA official said Thursday....

Much of the information Snowden leaked disclosed how the NSA eavesdrops, Inglis said. This included spying on Internet communications as well as on social media.

Some of the data he provided to the Guardian in London and to the Washington Post, for instance, provided precise details on how the U.S. tracks al-Qaida, according to the Times.

ISIS relies heavily on the Internet for its internal communications and to publicize its propaganda. The terrorist group, also known as ISIL, posted videos of the beheadings of two American journalists, James Foley, 40, of Rochester, New Hampshire, and Steven Sotloff, 31, of Miami.

Snowden "went way beyond disclosing things that bore on privacy concerns," Inglis told the Times. "'Sources and methods' is what we say inside the intelligence community, the means and methods we use to hold our adversaries at risk — and ISIL is clearly one of those [adversaries]."

Inglis, who retired in January, continued: "Having disclosed all of those methods, or at least some degree of those methods, it would be impossible to imagine that, as intelligent as they are in the use of technology, in the employment of communications for their own purposes, it's impossible to imagine that they wouldn't understand how they might be at risk to intelligence services around the world, not the least of which is the U.S."

Don't flip out, folks, I'm not going to attempt to tie Red Barry's loosey-goosey intelligence safeguards, or lack thereof, directly to informing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of every last scrap of classified American security information, all the way down to what sort of pie they're serving in the CIA commissary - it's apple pecan, by the way - because that would fall into the "running up the score" category.  Nor did his infernal majesty need to be a clairvoyant about the rise of the Islamic State.  Why?  Because there is always a next enemy, always a next war, especially when the War Against Islamic Fundamentalism Barack Obama has repeatedly and alternately crowed about having either "won" or "ended" is still very much ongoing - and hangs very much in the balance.  He knew America's treasure trove of secrets would be useful to somebody.  And that would put a big, fat check on, impose a great big counterbalance to, what he sees as the REAL "Evil Empire," and eventually punish us for all our collective "sins".

O's latest "mission accomplished" banner is but a few mushroom clouds away.

But please, don't get the idea that King Hussein is completely bereft of state discretion; he knows very well and is ruthlessly diligent about protecting secrets from the REAL enemy.

Who?  You know who:

The Obama administration is scheduled to brief members of Congress about the Islamic State (ISIS) on Friday after the beheading of two American journalists, but several Republicans on key committees involved told Newsmax on Thursday that they knew nothing about the classified session....

"I've received no notice of any such briefing," Pennsylvania-10 Representative Tom Marino told Newsmax. "As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I am disgusted that this administration refuses to engage with Congress on a critical national-security issue where we could potentially agree.

"Unfortunately, that's nothing new," Marino added. "We know that this president would rather use and abuse executive power than have discussions with the elected representatives of the American people."

Kevin Fogarty, a spokesman for New York-4 Representative Peter King, said that "the congressman was not informed of the meeting or briefing." King sits on the Intelligence Committee.

A spokesman for a GOP member of the Armed Services Committee told Newsmax that the congressman was not told of the briefing.

No House Republican that Newsmax contact indicated that they'd been invited to this "classified White House briefing".  The only two answers were either, "This is the first I've heard of it," or "no comment," which is pretty much the same thing, only more fratricidally infuriating.

Now why, pray tell, would the White House seek to brief only Democrat members of Congress on its absence of strategy vis-a-vie the Islamic State, and keep their Republican "colleagues" in the dark not only about the contents of said briefing but about its very existence?  Yes, I'm sure The One's trademark "governance by double-extended middle fingers" SOP is part of it.  But it could not be more obvious, at least to me, that this is an intra-party woodshed session as well.  Recall that even Democrats - up to and including Senator Al F'ing Franken, for heaven's sake - have been riding the ragged edge of blasphemy against their demigod in highly affrontive "No strategy?  Severed American heads flying all over the place for every last voter to grisly see, and you can't pull your [BLEEP]ing putter out of your [BLEEP]ing ass for five minutesHave you lost your [BLEEP][BLEEP] mind?!?" fashion of late.  This "classified White House briefing" is, at the very least, a "Don't worry, folks, you've got me!" reassurance gesture - unlikely, IMO, because at this late date this wouldn't reassure anybody outside the Pelosi insane asylum - and, more likely, a communal spanking and command to sit down, shut up, and get back to towing the Obamunist party line - or else.

"Or else what?" is anybody's guess.  He won't show up at Donk campaign rallies?  Dems are already avoiding him and his 38% approval rating like ebola.  He won't headline fundraisers?  Please; what else would he do with his time?  Even Tiger Woods doesn't play THAT much golf.  But though none of them will ever admit it publicly, it might be starting to dawn on Democrats the magnitude of just what a metaphorical Frankenstein's monster they've foisted not just on the country, but on themselves as well.

When ISIS's first mass-casualty attack hits a major American city - hopefully not near you -  it will be as fascinating to watch how rank & file Dems react as it will be tiresomely predictable to sit through The One's response: "It's Bush's fault" stutteringly bloviated in several thousand words.

Assuming his rectally impacted Big Bertha doesn't get in the way.

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