Blog Heap of Links for the day 17 June 2014

From the first outbreak of the crisis in the southern city of Deraa to apocalyptic forecasts of a Middle East soaked in blood, many combatants on both sides of the conflict say its path was set 1,400 years ago in the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers.

Among those many thousands of sayings, or hadith, are accounts which refer to the confrontation of two huge Islamic armies in Syria, a great battle near Damascus, and intervention from the north and west of the country.

The power of those prophecies for many fighters on the ground means that the three-year-old conflict is more deeply rooted - and far tougher to resolve - than a simple power struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his rebel foes.

Mohamed Elibiary… A member of President Obama’s Homeland Security Advisory Council known for controversial Twitter posts that seem to support the Muslim Brotherhood wrote Friday that it is “inevitable that ‘Caliphate’ returns.”

More British citizens joined the jihad in Syria and Iraq than signed up for the Army Reserves over the last twelve months

U.S. Special Operations forces captured one of the suspected ringleaders of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in a secret raid in Libya over the weekend… Ahmed Abu Khattala… captured Sunday near Benghazi by American troops, working alongside the FBI… apprehension is a major victory for the Obama administration, which has been criticized for having failed so far to bring those responsible for the Benghazi attacks to justice. [A major victory? For someone the New York Times was able to track down? This of course is not something which could have been done anytime in the past two years, and is only being done now because everything else in Obama's foreign policy is major fail? No, not at all.]

Two weeks later, she said the drive had been sent to a forensic lab for a final attempt, and a few days after that Ms. Wilburn delivered the fatal news: “The sectors on your hard drive were bad which made your data unrecoverable.”

Ms. Lerner replied with thanks, and her philosophical take that “sometimes stuff just happens.” [May it happen to you, you traitorous hag!]

President Obama announced Tuesday his intent to make a broad swath of the central Pacific Ocean off-limits to fishing, energy exploration and other activities. [The Hell you say!]

The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco… it's his duty to uphold traditional views of marriage even if such views are unpopular. He also challenged his critics to practice what they preach, writing that Americans who oppose same-sex unions have become targets of discrimination and intolerance.

California is currently experiencing a whooping cough epidemic… more than 800 new cases of pertussis… reported in the last two weeks. …3,458 cases of whooping cough… as of June 10 – more cases than were reported in all of 2013… [No mention of the unvaccinated Americans or the influx of diseased illegal immigrants flooding So Cal.]

"President Obama should immediately direct the Department of State to suspend assistance to the Palestinian Authority until the PA recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and takes specific and affirmative steps to renounce and eradicate terrorism. This most recent vicious attack on innocent young civilians demonstrates beyond any doubt that the PA is not fulfilling these conditions, and not one more U.S. taxpayer dollar should be sent to support them until they do." -Ted Cruz