SYRIA:
THE VULTURES ARE CIRCLING

By: Justin Raimondo

The way she talks, one would think Hillary Clinton is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian rebels:

There is Gen. Hillary, Amazonian warrior-goddess, directing her Hellions to take this town, seize that territory, and get on with "further actions" – such an inspiring sight for feminists and warmongers the world over! At last, a woman who can muster as much blood-lust as any man! So what are these "further actions" our Secretary of State anticipates with ill-concealed glee?

According to a briefing by the BND to the German Diet, Al Qaeda has pulled off "around 90" terrorist attacks in Syria since the fighting began. And their success isn't limited to suicide bombings: their anti-Christian terror campaign is taking off by leaps and bounds. Der Spiegel reports:

Kind of reminds me of another Clintonian production – Waco. There, too, Christians were slaughtered as the whole world watched, sending a message unmistakable in its ominous implications. Unfortunately for the Khouris of this world, the fashion in Washington isn't defending Christians where they face persecution, but Muslims – well now, that's a different matter.

This taking up of Islam's cause is highly selective: only Sunnis need apply. The Sunni "turn" was initiated by George W. Bush at the height of the Iraq war and taken up by the Obamaites with a vengeance. The dumping of Hosni Mubarak, the Libyan operation, and now Syria have taken this strategy to its "logical" conclusion: a de facto alliance with Al Qaeda.

When a suicide bomber blasted the Syrian Defense Minister into the next world, along with Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and several other top officials, the US refused  to condemn the act – a terrorist attack almost certainly carried out by jihadists close to bin Laden's boys, if not Al Qaeda itself.

One of the big criticisms of the Iraq war was that, prior to the US invasion, Al Qaeda had no presence in Iraq, and bin Laden had no links to Saddam's regime -- this in spite of the efforts of an entire mini-industry to create one where none existed. Syria is replicating this well-known history, while the very people who invoked it to criticize a Republican administration are following in the Bush's footsteps.

Yet the Obamaites are going several steps beyond anything the Bushies ever imagined: their attempt to hijack the "Arab Spring" and cultivate "moderate" Islamists, including the various national sections of the Muslim Brotherhood, has turned into an aggressive military campaign to topple governments from the shores of Tripoli to those of the Persian Gulf – and some conservatives are balking. They began asking questions when Washington and its NATO allies bankrolled the Libyan Islamists, and now that Al Qaeda is acting as the fighting vanguard of Hillary's Hellions in Syria, they are beginning to ask some of the right questions, such as: what role does Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, play in this tilt toward the Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere?

That a flake like Michele Bachmann is raising this question doesn't invalidate the need for an answer. Andrew McCarthy, writing in National Review online, links Abedin's mother, Saleha Abedin, a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, to two organizations run by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood's chief jurist and an ardent advocate  of suicide bombings. The Sheikh has a regular program on Al Jazeera, which is run by the ultra-conservative Qatari emirate, where he commands a substantial audience, one highly receptive to his message that the murderers of Jews and American soldiers will be amply rewarded by Allah.

The Qaradawi-State Department connection is nothing new: he was our go-between during the Obama administration's efforts to negotiate with the Taliban. Did Abedin use her family connections to recruit Qaradawi for the job? And, by the way, what exactly has been Abedin's role in turning the administration toward a de facto alliance with radical Islamists in their efforts to topple Assad – and take Tehran? These are entirely legitimate questions that a lot more people than Rep. Bachmann and her fellow McCarthyites over at National Review ought to be asking.