Thread: Iraqi Air Force evacuating besieged American contractors No help from U.S. military

WND EXCLUSIVE

Iraqi Air Force evacuating besieged American contractors

No help from U.S. military as escape routes cut off

Published: 8 hours ago

Jerome R. Corsi

Evacuated American contractors aboard a C-130 aircraft in Baghdad Friday (WND photo)

NEW YORK – A U.S. contractor in Iraq told WND the Iraqi Air Force has begun evacuations from Balad Air Force Base, where 200 American contractors were trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad.
A contractor with Sallyport Global who asked not to be named told WND through a Skype instant message that he was transported from Balad to Baghdad and was communicating from a C-130 preparing to take off to Dubai.
He said 300 in total have been evacuated from Balad, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, and another 100 are still awaiting airlift. He said the Iraqi Air Force is trying to evacuate everyone by midnight local time.
WND previously reported Friday that private contractors who have recently returned to the U.S. from Iraq said their former colleagues effectively had been abandoned by the U.S. military and were fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
The U.S. contractors were at Balad to help the Pentagon prepare the facilities for the delivery of the F-16 aircraft the Obama administration has agreed to provide the Iraqi government.
The surrounded Americans said they were under ISIS fire from small arms, AK47s, and rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs.
The contractors had been able to hold the base, but those on the scene reported it was only a matter of time before the ISIS terrorists succeeded in breaking through the perimeter. The sources confirmed the contractors were still under siege, despite an Associated Press report Thursday, citing U.S. officials, that three planeloads of Americans were being evacuated from Balad.
WND learned from sources that the jihadists closed down escape routes, and the U.S. Air Force was in a stand-down position. U.S. forces were not assisting even with air cover so a private extradition flight could land for a rescue, the sources said.
Privately scheduled exit flights had fallen through, sources said, as several private pilots originally scheduled to make the flights quit.
The sources contended the U.S. military could provide the necessary air cover to protect C-130s or other air transport craft sufficient to make the evacuation, but far officials had refused to get involved.
Balad Air Force Base has been under attack since Wednesday, when ISIS rebels seized the nearby town of Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.
The attacking ISIS forces approached the base in trucks Wednesday and called through loudspeakers for all private security forces and Iraqi special military to leave immediately or die.
The U.S. private contractors in touch with WND reported that after hearing the broadcast, the private security forces and the Iraqi military defending the base dropped their weapons and ran.
The American contractors collected the weapons left behind and were able to hold off further immediate advances.

More to come …

http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/06/200-u-...dists-in-iraq/

Washington’s Iraq “Victory” — Paul Craig Roberts

June 14, 2014


Washington’s Iraq “Victory”
Paul Craig Roberts
The citizens of the United States still do not know why their government destroyed Iraq. “National Security” will prevent them from ever knowing. “National Security” is the cloak behind which hides the crimes of the US government.
George Herbert Walker Bush, a former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who became President courtesy of being picked as Ronald Reagan’s Vice President, was the last restrained US President. When Bush the First attacked Iraq it was a limited operation, the goal of which was to evict Saddam Hussein from his annexation of Kuwait.
Kuwait was once a part of Iraq, but a Western colonial power created new political boundaries, as the Soviet Communist Party did in Ukraine. Kuwait emerged from Iraq as a small, independent oil kingdom. http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/iraqkuwait.html
According to reports, Kuwait was drilling at an angle across the Iraq/Kuwait border into Iraqi oil fields. On July 25, 1990, Saddam Hussein, with Iraqi troops massed on the border with Kuwait, asked President George H. W. Bush’s ambassador, April Glaspie, if the Bush administration had an opinion on the situation. Here is Ambassador Glaspie’s reply:

“We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary [of State James] Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960’s that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America.”
According to this transcript, Saddam Hussein is further assured by high US government officials that Washington does not stand in his way in reunifying Iraq and putting a halt to a gangster family’s theft of Iraqi oil:
“At a Washington press conference called the next day, State Department spokesperson Margaret Tutweiler was asked by journalists:
‘Has the United States sent any type of diplomatic message to the Iraqis about putting 30,000 troops on the border with Kuwait? Has there been any type of protest communicated from the United States government?’
“to which she responded: ‘I’m entirely unaware of any such protest.’
“On July 31st, two days before the Iraqi invasion [of Kuwait], John Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, testified to Congress that the ‘United States has no commitment to defend Kuwait and the U.S. has no intention of defending Kuwait if it is attacked by Iraq’.”
(See here among other sources: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1102395/posts )
Was this an intentional a set-up of Saddam Hussein, or did the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait produce frantic calls from the Bush family’s Middle Eastern business associates?
Whatever explains the dramatic, sudden, total change of position of the US government, the result produced military action that fell short of war on Iraq itself.
From 1990 until 2003 Iraq was acceptable to the US government.
Suddenly, in 2003 Iraq was no longer acceptable. We don’t know why. We were told a passel of lies: Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that were a threat to America. The spectre of a “mushroom cloud over an American city” was raised by the National Security Advisor. The Secretary of State was sent to the UN with a collection of lies with which to build acceptance of US naked aggression against Iraq. The icing on the cake was the claim that Saddam Hussein’s secular government “had al Qaeda connections,” al Qaeda bearing the blame for 9/11.
As neither Congress nor the US media have any interest to know the reason for Washington’s about face on Iraq, the “Iraq Threat” will remain a mystery for Americans.
But the consequences of Washington’s destruction of the secular government of Saddam Hussein, a government that managed to hold Iraq together without the American-induced violence that has made the country a permanent war zone, has been ongoing years of violence on a level equal to, or in excess of, the violence associated with the US occupation of Iraq.
Washington is devoid of humanitarian concerns. Hegemony is Washington’s only concern. As in Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan,Yemen, Ukraine, Syria, and Iraq, Washington brings only death, and death is ongoing in Iraq.
On June 12, 500,000 residents of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, benefactors of Washington’s “freedom and democracy” liberation, fled the city as the American trained army collapsed and fled under al Qaeda attack. The Washington-installed government, fearing Baghdad is next, has asked Washington for air strikes against the al Qaeda troops. Tikrit and Kirkuk have also fallen. Iran has sent two battalions of Revolutionary Guards to protect the Washington-installed government in Baghdad.
(After this article was published, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the widespread news reports–Wall Street Journal, World Tribune, The Guardian, Telegraph, CNBC, Daily Mail, Times of Israel, etc.–that Iran has sent troops to help the Iraqi government. Once again the Western media has created a false reality with false reports.)
Does anyone remember the propaganda that Washington had to overthrow Saddam Hussein in order to bring “freedom and democracy and women’s rights to Iraqis”? We had to defeat al Qaeda, which at the time was not present in Iraq, “over there before they came over here.”
Do you remember the neoconservative promises of a “cakewalk war” lasting only a few weeks, of the war only costing $70 billion to be paid out of Iraqi oil revenues, of George W. Bush’s economic advisor being fired for saying that the war would cost $200 billion? The true cost of the war was calculated by economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes who showed that the Iraqi war cost US taxpayers $3 trillion dollars, an expenditure that threatens the US social safety net.
Do you remember Washington’s promises that Iraq would be put on its feet by America as a democracy in which everyone would be safe and women would have rights?
What is the situation today?
Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, has just been overrun by al Qaeda forces. These are the forces that Washington has claimed a number of times to have completely defeated.
These “defeated” forces now control Iraq’s second largest city and a number of provinces. The person Washington left in charge of Iraq is on his knees begging Washington for military help and air support against the Jihadist forces that the incompetent Bush regime unleashed in the Muslim world.
What Washington has done in Iraq and Libya, and is trying to do in Syria, is to destroy governments that kept Jihadists under control. Washington faces the prospect of a Jihadist government encompassing Iraq and Syria. The Neoconservative conquest of the Middle East is becoming an al Qaeda conquest.
Washington has opened Pandora’s Box. This is Washington’s accomplishment in the Middle East.
Even as Iraq falls to al Qaeda , Washington is supplying the al Qaeda forces attacking Syria with heavy weapons. It is demonized Iran that has sent troops to defend the Washington-installed regime in Baghdad! Is it possible for a country to look more foolish than Washington looks?
One conclusion that we can reach is that the arrogance and hubris that defines the US government has rendered Washington incapable of making a rational, logical decision. Megalomania rules in Washington.
This article is published jointly with the Strategic Culture Foundation http://www.strategic-culture.org/new...q-victory.html

About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014...craig-roberts/

Let's see ...

When millions of Egyptians rallied in the streets to overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood, which side was Obama on?
When a Muslim Brotherhood army that included a strong al-Qaida element set out to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, which side was Obama on?
When presented a deal that included releasing five top Taliban commanders from Gitmo, what did Obama do?
See a pattern yet?

BETWEEN THE LINES

Why isn't air power lighting these guys up?

Exclusive: Joseph Farah on why Obama is reticent to smoke al-Qaida terrorists

Published: 16 hours ago Joseph Farah

About Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators News Service.. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.



No one seems to know what to do as al-Qaida masses an irregular Black Flag army and heads toward Baghdad for a final showdown.
What am I missing here?
When the bad guys come out of the shadows, out of their holes, out of their hiding places, and into the light, you eradicate them with air power.
What’s happening in Iraq right now is not really a crisis. It’s an opportunity!
It’s the best opportunity we’ve had to set back al-Qaida in years.
Of course, Obama is conflicted.
Look at his history.
When millions of Egyptians rallied in the streets to overthrow Muslim Brotherhood warlord Muhammad Morsi as president, Obama suspended aid he had earmarked for the tyrant he helped bring to power.
When a Muslim Brotherhood army that included a strong al-Qaida element set out to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, Obama sought congressional approval for airstrikes to support the insurgents – and he did help arm them.
He can’t wait to turn Afghanistan over to the “Tallybon,” as he likes to call them. He even released five of their top commanders from Guantanamo Bay using the excuse of bringing home an American captive. Of course that “prisoner of war” turned out to be a deserter and a Taliban collaborator.
There’s a pattern here. If you can’t see it, check your lenses. Obama supports the Muslim Brotherhood. To expect him to come to Iraq’s aid with air power that can blow away much of the al-Qaida terrorist army amassing on the road to Baghdad would be foolhardy. It’s against all his instincts.
There’s another reason Obama has hesitated to take this obvious action. This will be hard to believe for some, but the facts are becoming more apparent everyday: Obama fosters chaos.
Experience more of Joseph Farah’s no-nonsense truth-telling in his books, audio and video products, featured in the WND Superstore
We don’t think about government being empowered by chaos – at home and abroad. But it is. It’s simply the Cloward-Piven strategy on steroids. Choosing the right option, the obvious action, at home or abroad, is never going to be easy for Obama. Because the right option will reduce the chaos. Obama’s ideology embraces chaos because it eventually leads to bigger and more powerful government.
There’s another reason Obama has difficulty ordering the destruction of an al-Qaida army. he had already told Americans al-Qaida was on the run. Now we know the truth. Al-Qaida is on the run to Baghdad. And where it runs after that is anyone’s guess.
You don’t think we’re missing a big opportunity in Iraq every day?
I would like to remind you, visually, of what an opportunity it is.
This was what we did to Saddam Hussein’s army in the first Gulf War. Remember? Saddam had declared he was going to defeat U.S. military forces in the “mother of all battles.” This is what his army looked like after U.S. air power took care of it. Toast!

This is what U.S. military air power can do to that Black Flag al-Qaida army right now – today – before it reaches Baghdad.
We can eradicate them. We don’t have to worry about nation-building. We don’t have to worry about what will happen afterward. One thing we know for sure, al-Qaida will truly be on the run after this kind of setback.
I know Obama is not going to listen to me.
I doubt he will listen to Congress. I doubt he will listen to the American people, who are genuinely and understandably tired of foreign wars without end.
But I marvel at the talking-head pundits who are wringing their hands, wondering what we can possibly do to stave off an al-Qaida takeover of Iraq after we poured so much blood, sweat, tears, not to mention billions of dollars, into “nation-building.”
Forget nation-building. What is needed in Iraq right now is a big fiery wrecking ball that hits the bad guys deliriously waving the Black Flags.
What do YOU think: Should the U.S. use air power to wipe out Iraq’s terrorist army? Sound off in WND’s poll!
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact media@wnd.com.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/the-oppor...uVztEqmIqaU.99

Air Force in 'Stand Down' Position as 100 American Contractors Attacked by ISIS Jihadists

Suzanne Hamner 1 hour ago
0 Comments

As of yesterday, WND reported that 100 American contractors are awaiting airlift from Balad Air Force Base in Iraq. According to one contractor, who spoke with WND via Skype, as many as 300 contractors had already been evacuated from Balad while another 100 were awaiting to be airlifted out. It was reported that the Iraqi Air Force was attempting to evacuate everyone out by midnight local time.

The information provided by returning contractors to WND reported that those colleagues left behind were in essence "abandoned by the US military and were fighting for their lives against an army of jihadists surrounding the base who belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS." American contractors were in Balad to help the Pentagon in the delivery of F-16 aircraft promised to Iraq by the Obama administration by preparing the facilities for acceptance of the fighter jets. According to the contractors that had returned, Americans were under attack by ISIS from small arms fire, AK47s and rocket propelled grenades (RPG).
The sources reported to WND that American contractors were able to hold the base so far, but many still there admit it is only a matter of time before they are overrun by ISIS jihadi terrorists. Returning contractors told WND that jihadis had closed all escaped routes, the US Air Force was in a stand-down position (not even assisting with air cover for private extradition) and that private exit flights had fallen through as many private pilots quit prior to the scheduled flights.
According to WND in a reported filed June 13, 2014:

The attacking ISIS forces approached the base in trucks Wednesday and called through loudspeakers for all private security forces and Iraqi special military to leave immediately or die.

The U.S. private contractors in touch with WND reported that after hearing the broadcast, the private security forces and the Iraqi military defending the base dropped their weapons and ran.

The American contractors collected the weapons left behind and were able to hold off further immediate advances.

WND indicated an update to the story would be coming in the future.
Balad is located approximately 50 miles north of the capitol of Iraq, Baghdad. Business Insider reported that a US official stated that "a few hundred" Americans were being relocated to Baghdad for security reasons. The report filed on June 12, 2014, does not cite any reference to Americans being left behind.
According to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, "We can confirm that US citizens under contract to the government of Iraq in support of the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program in Iraq are being temporarily relocated by their companies due to security concerns in the area."
Psaki did stress that the US embassy operating in Baghdad was still open and "the status of staffing at the US embassy and consulates had not changed."
One US official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Business Insider that the Balad evacuation was being handled by the companies and "did not involve the US government."
"It's their people. It's their planes," the unnamed defense official reportedly remarked.

Knowing Obama and the people in his administration, this flippant response by the unnamed defense official goes to show the total disdain for the American people that runs rampant in our government. No, these individuals were not on the government payroll, but were not the companies participating in a US government sales program? So, according to all the "officials" empty heads, the companies participating in this "program" sanctioned by the US government are to go into potentially hostile regions with their employees under contract with a foreign government and basically "be on their own" should the proverbial stuff hit the fan or be left at the mercy of a foreign government.
Yeah, that sounds like a job I would certainly run to take – NOT! How many company heads are Ross Perot? As far as I know, there was only one company head willing to risk it all to get his people out from a hostile area when the government abandoned them; that was Ross Perot.
Obama, saying no to Iraq, basically said no to helping American citizens under contract with a foreign government through our own government's sales program. More importantly, Obama said, "yes" to the insurgency of ISIS jihadi terrorist to take what they want. What can you expect from the Muslim-in-Chief? Oh yes, that's right, Obama will negotiate to release high-level terrorists, to the count of 5, for one American soldier, who might be a deserter, traitor and Muslim convert, but will not protect American contractors participating in a government run program.
Reports have surfaced that indicate these ISIS terrorists have left the countryside littered with the severed heads of the dead. Is this what awaits Americans that are left behind if they cannot or will not be extracted? One can almost guarantee it when it involves the supposed "religion of peace."
As usual, nothing will be forthcoming about this in the mainstream media as they are complicit in covering only the propaganda issued by this lawless, corrupt, killing machine administration run by Obama and his ilk. More blood will be on the hands of Congress, Obama and everyone associated with the branches of the federal government should these Americans fail to make it to safety.
I am not one who is in favor of military action for every problem in a foreign country or interference in internal conflicts within foreign countries. However, when the lives of Americans are at stake, whether on the government payroll or not, the government should have some responsibility in their safety even when under contract to a foreign government. It is not acceptable to abandon Americans to terrorist insurgents when they are participating in a government run program such as Foreign Military Sales or expect a foreign government to guarantee the safety of Americans. It is not acceptable either to expect a private company to be responsible for an extraction in an area of combat, which is what is happening in Balad. These individuals are not CIA nor Special Ops, nor are they Blackwater that can be "plausibly denied" in the event of problems or be determined "rogue." And, let's not forget all the lives of American soldiers lost and those permanently injured, who served in Iraq to make the headway that was made there. This is not an internal conflict between sects wanting control of government. This is an invasion of insurgents, terrorist, into a sovereign country for the sake of unseating its government placing civilian Americans in harm's way. Since that government's forces have failed to protect our American citizens, should it not then fall to America to protect her own?
But, our own government will not protect America's own borders and sovereignty from invasion from insurgents in the form of illegals. It stands to reason they would leave civilian American contractors to being over-run by foreign terrorist insurgents in a foreign country when that country has failed to protect Americans. After all, who has funded these terrorists by supplying arms and probably financing as well? It is no secret that the Obama administration has been supplying arms to Syrian rebels, who, in fact, are members of ISIS and al-Alqaeda. Obama himself announced the end date of troops in the area making it easy pickings for these armies of the devil.
Hopefully, these left behind American contractors will find their way out and into safe harbor.
Should that not be the case, Obama will have to spin some sort of lie or blame it on something; he will certainly not be at fault for any of this. In this case, it can't be a video. It will probably be Bush, Republicans or some official willing to be thrown under the bus as it cannot be because of foreign policy of "no real foreign policy."
Let's face it America, we are looking at a total failure when it comes to the actions of our current government. They deserve a rating of worse than negligent – treason comes to mind. The question still remains, "what are we going to do about it?"

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