President Obama dithers and spins, while taking time out for fund raising and a round of golf, while Iraq falls deeper into sectarian violence.
Nassir al Saedi a Shia cleric loyal to cleric Moqtada al Sadr issues a warning that the possible return of US troops saying: "We will be ready for you if you are back."
Al Saedi's threats highlight a potentially dangerous secondary front for US forces heading to Iraq. Moqtada al Sadr's militia fought the Americans in at least two rounds of street warfare during the eight years US troops were on the ground there.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged the Iraqi government and its supporters not to retaliate against Sunni communities in revenge for ISIS' "barbaric attacks".
He warned that any possible airstrikes against the Islamist militants "might have little lasting effect or even be counter-productive" if Iraq's feuding communities fail to unite against the terrorists.
Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has asked the US to launch airstrikes to contain the militant group.
On Thursday, Mr Obama said "targeted" military action remained an option in Iraq, but said US forces on the ground would not take part in combat operations.
Another Sky News piece reports "Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says all Iraqis should join the fight against ISIS as the prime minister comes under increased pressure."
Iraq's senior Shia religious authority has called for a new government for the country as it struggles to stop Sunni militants seizing controls of towns across large areas of the country.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the newly-elected parliament to start work without delay after the results of recent elections were ratified by Iraq's federal court.
Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia Muslim, has come under pressure since Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgents took control of Mosul and began moving south towards Baghdad.Ayatollah Sistani had previously called for Iraqis to join the fight against the militants.
Speaking in the shrine city of Karbala, his spokesman Abdul Mehdi al-Karbalai said the call to arms "was for all citizens, without specifying a religion".
"The goal was to get ready to face the takfiri group called ISIL, which now has the upper hand ... in what is happening in many provinces," he said, using an Arabic word that loosely translates as extremist.
In other news, Yahoo/AFP report "some residents of the northern Iraq city of Mosul feel the clock has been turned back hundreds of years."
Baghdad (AFP) - In the two weeks since it was seized by Sunni militants, some residents of the northern Iraq city of Mosul feel the clock has been turned back hundreds of years.
The militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, have begun imposing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law in the days since they took the city, residents reached by telephone told AFP.
"These militants will return us and our country hundreds of years backwards, and their laws are the opposite of the laws of human rights and international laws," said Umm Mohammed, a 35-year-old teacher.
"We live in continuous fear of being subjected to new pressures," she said. "We are afraid of being prevented from working and contributing to building the community."
The city, known before 2003 for its historic sites and parks and in later years as a hub for deadly violence, fell on June 10 to the militants, who subsequently overran surrounding Nineveh province and swathes of other territory.
Security forces in Mosul, a city of some two million people before the offensive, wilted in the face of the onslaught, in some cases abandoning uniforms and even vehicles in their haste to flee.
Read the rest of the report here
Zero Hedge and others reported "Judge Who Sentenced Saddam Hussein To Death Has Been Executed By ISIS, Local Media Reports"
Back in 2006, after the second US invasion of Iraq culminated if not with the discovery of the WMDs (which were the pretext for the invasion in the first place), but the unearthing (literally) and kangaroo court trial of Saddam Hussein, the US was quick to announce "mission accomplished." Recent events have made a mockery of that claim, however what is truly the straw that broke the back of poetic justice, to mix metaphors, are reports from local media that as part of its blitz-campaign to take over northern Iraq, ISIS found and the promptly executed Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman, the judge who sentenced Saddam to death: a death which to many was the crowning moment of the second US invasion of Iraq, and the confirmation of successful US foreign policy.
It goes without saying that if true, the murder of the man who indirectly did the US bidding in slamming the book shut on the Saddam regime (and with it US claims of Iraqi "liberation") and was responsible for Saddam's death, means the last "Mission Accomplished" posted can now be safely taken down.
As LiveLeak first reported, Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman was the replacement chief judge of the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein in 2006.
More details from Almesryoon.com, google translated.
Iraqi rebels: the execution of Saddam Hussein judge
There were reports the execution of Iraqi judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, who spent the same judgment on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to confirmed the pages on the social networking site, without official confirmation from the Iraqi government.
The pages on social networking sites, including Page MP Jordanian Khalil Attieh on the site "Facebook" to "revolutionaries Iraqis arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein," he said, adding that Rauf tried to escape from Baghdad after wearing uniforms dancers.
She page Izzat al-Douri, vice-president Saddam Hussein, the "Facebook" to the rebels Iraqis were able to arrest the Kurdish judge Rauf Rashid, who issued a death sentence against the former Iraqi leader, which is currently in the "grip of the soldiers of the Islamic State and the men of the Baath Party."
She page address, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, "Judge Rauf Rashid in the grip of Mujahideen equipped Aahalki neck", in reference to al-Maliki, also falling in the hands of insurgents.
The Romanian site Mesager is running a similar story also Google translated "Iraqi rebels say they captured Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman - the judge who in 2006 sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein"
Islamist rebels in the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ethyl) and party members banned "Baas" says their Facebook page that they have captured the judge Rauf Rashid Iraq Abd al-Rahman who in 2006 sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein .
Officials irqiene until now have not denied the news.
Yes all is rosy in Obama's world, his foreign and domestic policies in shambles except to his band of merry delirious followers ...
Or have I been eating paint chips again?
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