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IS top command dominated by ex-officers in Saddam’s army (aka ISIS, ISIL, DAESH)
Associated Press ^ | Aug 8, 2015 2:59 AM EDT | Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra

Posted on 08/08/2015 9:08:28 AM PDT by Olog-hai

While attending the Iraqi army’s artillery school nearly 20 years ago, Ali Omran remembers one major well. An Islamic hard-liner, he once chided Omran for wearing an Iraqi flag pin into the bathroom because it included the words “God is great.” “It is forbidden by religion to bring the name of the Almighty into a defiled place like this,” Omran recalled being told by Maj. Taha Taher al-Ani. […]

Now al-Ani is a commander in the Islamic State group, said Omran, who rose to become a major general in the Iraqi army and now commands its 5th Division fighting IS. He kept track of his former comrade through Iraq’s tribal networks and intelligence gathered by the government’s main counterterrorism service, of which he is a member.

It’s a common trajectory.

Under its leader, Iraqi jihadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State group’s top command is dominated by former officers from Saddam’s military and intelligence agencies, according to senior Iraqi officers on the front lines of the fight against the group, as well as top intelligence officials, including the chief of a key counterterrorism intelligence unit. The experience they bring is a major reason for the group’s victories in overrunning large parts of Iraq and Syria. …

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: idiotsblamebush; iran; iraq; isis; israel; lebanon; rop; russia; saddam; syria; waronterror
Obama “owns this”, as the modern-day neologism puts it.
1 posted on 08/08/2015 9:08:28 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

No...I think it goes back farther than that. I believe Herbert Walker owns this, at the insistence of that effing RINO Colin Powell.

We had a chance to stop that sh!t back in Desert Storm. We had them running, screaming like little girls all the way from Kuwait back to Baghdad. And, because of things like those two F-15Es taking out the trash on the highway of death out of Kuwait, pussy Colin Powell convinced Herbert to stop the carnage - because of international optics. Colin is where the blame should start.


2 posted on 08/08/2015 9:12:55 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Olog-hai
Under its leader, Iraqi jihadi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State group’s top command is dominated by former officers from Saddam’s military and intelligence agencies

I've heard this stated before and it's possible. ISIS didn't appear out of thin air.

3 posted on 08/08/2015 9:20:35 AM PDT by McGruff (Eat a snickers...)
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To: Olog-hai

4 posted on 08/08/2015 9:22:50 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Olog-hai
IS top command dominated by ex-officers in Saddam’s army (aka ISIS, ISIL, DAESH)...no kiddin' - ISIS rose from the remnants of Saddam's army driven out of Iraq and into Syria while we still had an effective army under the guidance of the US in Iraq - Obama destroyed that by withdrawing the remainder of our troops and our influence from Iraq to "end" the war, and ISIS came roaring back - Obama is solely responsible for the mess in the middle east, and growing it every day....
5 posted on 08/08/2015 10:40:29 AM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Olog-hai
IS top command dominated by ex-officers in Saddam’s army (aka ISIS, ISIL, DAESH)

Thanks Paul Bremer and George W. Bush. The very day I heard you announce that you were disbanding the Iraqi Army, and banning Bathe party members from government, I was screaming at my radio that this was the sort of thing that would happen.

Good Job Bremer and Bush! Good Job!

We didn't make such a bone head move with the Nazis in World War II, but you guys were so much smarter than the Allies which had just won F***ing World War II!

Yeah, you guys were real geniuses with that move.

6 posted on 08/08/2015 10:58:17 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Intolerant in NJ
Obama destroyed that by withdrawing the remainder of our troops and our influence from Iraq to "end" the war, and ISIS came roaring back -

Obama is President because he's black. Not because he's intelligent or knowledgeable, just because he's "Black", and the thought of electing a "black" President gave the media people orgasms, and so they through an extra Billion dollars worth of their own personal influence into the election of 2008.

Unfortunately they didn't pick an intelligent and knowledgeable Black Man, they picked a d@mn fool. He is an affirmative action moron. He is lazy, ignorant, stupid, mouthy and arrogant. He is exactly the sort of man for which the "N-word" was invented to describe.

Yes, he screwed up Iraq, but had George W. Bush and Paul Bremer not screwed it up first, Dumb Obama wouldn't have been able to screw it up.

7 posted on 08/08/2015 11:04:39 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

Saddam Hussein presided over an unstable minority Sunni regime in a majority Shiite country - so unstable that he had to murder tens of thousands of his own people in a reign of terror every year to hang on to power - so unstable that had we not gone in and removed him, he very probably would have been gone by now anyway with Shiite Iran having invaded and taken control of Iraq - the path after Saddam left was naturally uncertain and clearly the US underestimated the difficulty in bringing its various factions together, especially with the bloodlust for revenge of the previously suppressed Shiite population. But by the time he left office Bush had almost achieved the improbable, installing as premier Maliki, who, without a power base of his own going into office, was willing to follow the US lead, especially in controlling his Shiite urge to deter and remove Sunni elements from the Iraqi government wherever he could - in return, the Sunni portion of the country for the most part was pacified and trying to work with the new government toward some stability and mutual benefit - with the US influence in the government and our troops aiding guidance and backbone for the Iraq military, the country was on the way to becoming a buffer which well could have helped tone down the animosity and violence now occurring throughout the region - Bush can maybe be blamed for the temporary setbacks and detours on the path to establishing an independent and viable Iraq, but he all but achieved that goal before Obama arrived and threw it all away.....


8 posted on 08/08/2015 8:59:45 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Intolerant in NJ
Saddam Hussein presided over an unstable minority Sunni regime in a majority Shiite country - so unstable that he had to murder tens of thousands of his own people in a reign of terror every year to hang on to power.

I am becoming increasingly of the opinion that no other form of government will be accepted by an Arab Islamic society.

Even Shah Pahlavi had to imprison and kill trouble makers to remain in power. It is as a result of people like Jimmy Carter telling him to stop abusing his power that he was deposed, much to the detriment of both Iran and the rest of the world too.

9 posted on 08/09/2015 5:55:16 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

You might be right - the centuries-old Sunni-Shiite split just goes on and on and attempts to meld the two into any sort of enduring, peaceful togetherness seems doomed to failure - it’s scary to think, but Biden might have had the best solution years ago when he suggested that Iraq should be split into three independent sections: Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd - might be where it’s heading now any way.....


10 posted on 08/09/2015 9:15:32 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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