Obama's Iran Scammer Apologizes to Muslim Brotherhood for Syria Policy
May 16, 2016
Daniel Greenfield
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262876/obamas-iran-scammer-apologizes-muslim-brotherhood-daniel-greenfieldBen Rhodes, Obama's foreign policy guru, recently in the news for boasting how he was able to scam all the stupid reporters on the Iran deal who, in his words, "literally know nothing.” Then he was being honored by MPAC. The Muslim Public Affairs Council is properly spelled Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood bet everything on Obama pulling off regime change operations that would let them take power across the Middle East. Political coups succeeded temporarily in Egypt and a few other countries, but they were mostly rolled back. The Brotherhood has gained some power in Morocco. But its attempts to take power in Libya, Yemen and Syria by force haven't worked out too well.
Syria still remains a major Brotherhood focus, but it's been thoroughly outmaneuvered by its ISIS and Al Qaeda spinoff groups. And Obama switched from backing Sunni Jihadists to backing Iran and its Shiite Jihadists leading to an uncomfortable encounter for Rhodes at a Muslim Brotherhood hangout.
Senior White House official Ben Rhodes told Syrian-American activists at a gathering on Wednesday that he was “not proud” of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, according to three people who participated in the interchange.
“We aren’t proud of our Syria policy—but we don’t have any good options... nothing we could have done would have made things better,” Rhodes said, according to three individuals present: Ibrahim Al-Assil, a fellow at the Middle East Institute; Kenan Rahmani, a policy adviser with the Coalition for a Democratic Syria, and a third individual, who requested to stay anonymous.
The three activists, as well as a fourth activist, the Syrian American Council’s Omar Hossino, were present for various parts of the conversation with Rhodes. Hossino told The Daily Beast that he began to weep as he told Rhodes about the cost in human life that had taken place as a result of the war, and excused himself from the conversation.
The SAC was a major pressure group. Its links are exactly what you would expect.
Investigation of SAC’s board members reveals various troubling associations. SAC’s chairman is Hussam Ayloush, a resident of Los Angeles. As Ayloush’s own webpage announces, he is the southern California chapter leader for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a consistently radical organization with its origins in the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation (HLF) terrorism financing trial. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) documents, the 2012 Democratic National Convention delegate Ayloush is no exception to CAIR’s extensive history of Islamic militancy.
Similar to Ayloush is SAC board member and Florida CAIR chapter head Hassan Shibley of Tampa. Shibley has similarly merited his own IPT dossier documenting how he has often defended Hamas and Hezbollah as “resistance” movements against an Israel compared with apartheid South Africa and the Third Reich, and he has even expressed willingness to fight in the ranks of Hezbollah. Shibley has also favored implementing Islamic sharia as opposed to secular laws.
Additionally, some Brotherhood-affiliated figures denied they were part of the group and joined the SNC as "independents." These include Nahas, the London-based director of the Levant Center; Louay Safi, a Syrian-American fellow at Georgetown University and former chairman of the Syrian American Council (SAC); and Najib Ghadbian, a political science professor who also works at the SAC.
What's This?
Anyway it wouldn't be an Obama scandal if it didn't involve crazy lies and denials that it ever happened.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council disputed the activists' characterization of the conversation. Rhodes “in no way indicted or distanced himself from our Syria policy,” Price said.
Following the publication of this article, Price sent The Daily Beast another statement, saying that Rhodes “in no way indicted or distanced himself from our Syria policy. He has consistently explained U.S. policy toward the conflict, which is what he did in this case (as evidenced by the other quotes). What is true is that he lamented the level of suffering the Syrian people have endured. “
I suppose Matt Lee can spend 5 minutes trying to get somebody to acknowledge that Ben Rhodes said that he wasn't "proud". Though which part of Obama's foreign policy can you be proud of?
1. The rise of ISIS
2. Weapons and money for Iran
3. Wrecking the Middle East
