Photo Controversy Engulfs Sen. John McCain

[Brian4Liberty]

Alleged ISIS Photo Controversy Engulfs Sen. John McCain
by Matthew Boyle - 18 Sep 2014

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his aides swear the Syrian “rebels” he was pictured last year with weren’t ISIS members or supporters, and the mainstream media is by and large buying the 2008 GOP presidential nominee’s story.
...
But a closer look at the situation tells perhaps a different story than McCain’s office or the mainstream media have pushed.

The criticism of McCain centers around how the Arizona senator met with Syrian rebel leaders in May 2013 when he visited the country. McCain posed for photographs with those people, and since then rumors have sprouted up across the Internet that he met with ISIS or some other terrorist kidnappers or nefarious forces.

“The people in the pictures with Senator McCain in Syria included General Salim Idris, then-Chief of Staff of the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Mouaz Moustafa, the Executive Director of the DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force (which supports the moderate opposition and helped arrange some of the trip), and fighters and commanders from the Northern Storm Brigade, a FSA-aligned group,” McCain’s spokesman Brian Rogers told Breitbart News.
...
Just last year, however, McCain’s office had no clue who the senator met. When allegations surfaced that the senator may have met with terrorists who kidnapped someone, Rogers—McCain's communications director—went on the record to multiple media outlets to say he didn’t know who he was meeting with, and if he did meet with kidnapper terrorists, that would be regrettable.

"None of the individuals the senator planned to meet with was named Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim," Rogers told CNN in late May 2013, right after the trip. "A number of other Syrian commanders joined the meeting, but none of them identified himself as Mohamad Nour or Abu Ibrahim.”

Rogers added later in his statement to CNN that he and the senator did not know who he was meeting with.
...
Of course it’s ludicrous to suggest that McCain would condone the act of kidnapping, and nobody serious is suggesting that. The point many critics of McCain’s policies—including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)—are making is that Americans have no way of knowing which team any one of these figures is on.
...
Despite this pile-on by the media and political establishment, Paul has a serious point here, though. McCain really didn’t know who he was meeting with, and even if they were the supposedly “moderate” Free Syrian Army, who’s to know that they aren’t elements of the Free Syrian Army working alongside ISIS?

Patrick Poole, an esteemed national security reporter and expert on radical Islam for PJ Media, has reported that the Free Syrian Army’s commanders have admitted in public to working alongside ISIS. “As President Obama laid out his ‘strategy’ last night for dealing with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and as bipartisan leadership in Congress pushes to approve as much as $4 billion to arm Syrian ‘rebels,’ it should be noted that the keystone to his anti-Assad policy — the ‘vetted moderate’ Free Syrian Army (FSA) — is now admitting that they, too, are working with the Islamic State,” Poole wrote on Sept. 10.

Poole cites the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star, which quotes a Free Syrian Army brigade commander as saying he is working with the “Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s official Syrian affiliate — both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations."
...
Paul said that America can't be sure—since supposedly “vetted moderates” are working alongside ISIS—who any of them are. He added that even if some might be loyal now, they could change their allegiances in a heartbeat—saying that some officials estimate that more than half of FSA forces have defected to ISIS.
...
And maybe there is no formal “truce” between FSA and ISIS, but the reports of mass defections and quotes from FSA leaders and brigade commanders on record saying they are working with ISIS makes this much more complicated than the clear cut-and-dry issue the mainstream media have made it so as to rip Paul. When McCain’s office won’t name who exactly he met with, who exactly he’s photographed with—after last year admitting in public they didn’t know who he greeted in Syria—are we supposed to just take his word for it that some of those FSA leaders aren’t now working with ISIS—or maybe have outright joined ISIS, like that other FSA commander Poole and the Daily Star quote?
...
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...SIS-Photo-Controversy-Engulfs-Sen-John-McCain

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

Alleged ISIS Photo Controversy Engulfs Sen. John McCain

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...SIS-Photo-Controversy-Engulfs-Sen-John-McCain

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his aides swear the Syrian “rebels” he was pictured last year with weren’t ISIS members or supporters, and the mainstream media is by and large buying the 2008 GOP presidential nominee’s story.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has endured brutal criticism—media fact checkers, reporters, and political figures have shredded him—for questioning just who McCain posed with.

But a closer look at the situation tells perhaps a different story than McCain’s office or the mainstream media have pushed.

 

[limequat]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...SIS-Photo-Controversy-Engulfs-Sen-John-McCain

It's an unwritten rule of the Beltway, "thou shalt not question a pol's motives".
Once it gets out that they're all bought and paid for, the curtain is lifted.

 

[RonZeplin]

This source says that he met with the head honcho of ISIS.

The man of real interest in the photo is the same one John is looking at and speaking with, the seated man in the dark shirt. His name is Ibrahim al-Badri most commonly known by the nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("ISIS") and now the self-proclaimed Caliph Ibrahim, leader of all the Muslims in the world.

http://www.dailypaul.com/325124/bus...et-with-isis-head-caliph-ibrahim-back-in-2013

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

2 days ago in the Washington Post... known propagandist and previous caught lying establishment rag printer: Glenn Kessler
A very devious/disenginuos way for Kessler to write an article on Rand and the Syrian/ISIS gameplan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...claim-that-mccain-met-with-the-islamic-state/

Fact Checker
Four Pinocchios for Rand Paul’s claim that McCain met with the Islamic State
Comments 111
By Glenn Kessler September 18



(Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

“Here’s the problem. He [Sen. John McCain] did meet with ISIS, and had his picture taken, and didn’t know it was happening at the time.”
–Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in an interview with The Daily Beast, Sept. 16, 2014
Just because it’s on the Internet, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Yet here’s a U.S. senator, repeating a rumor about one of his GOP colleagues, as if it were an actual fact. Paul cited it as part of his argument that U.S. funding of attacks against the terrorist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, will be problematic because it “really shows you the quandary of determining who are the moderates and who aren’t.”
The Fact Checker takes no position on whether it is necessary to fund the Syrian rebels. But for the benefit of Paul, and others who may have heard this rumor, here’s what didn’t happen.


The Facts
On May 27, 2013, McCain slipped across the Turkish border to spend a few hours in Syria with members of the Free Syrian Army. Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, who helped arrange the visit and was with McCain, said many soldiers were members or commanders of the Northern Storm brigade, which serves under the army’s Supreme Military Council. One man was Gen. Salim Idriss, who at the time was chief of staff of the Supreme Military Council.

“These guys, the Northern Storm brigade, are bitter enemies of ISIS,” Moustafa said, in part because they were so effective. As a result of the photos of the fighters with McCain, ISIS declared that “everyone in this picture needs their head chopped off,” he said. “After the meeting, many of the Northern Storm were completely killed by ISIS.”
In October, Reuters reported on an audio message from the Islamic State, which “accused the Northern Storm brigade of ‘opening a front’ against them in the Azaz area and of conspiring with ‘the American pig, John McCain’ to fight against the Islamists.”
Moustafa said his own movements in the country were curtailed because of fears that guards at checkpoints would have copies of the photographs. “It is just ridiculous to me that a U.S. senator would pick this up,” Moustafa said.
So how did this meeting become fodder for Internet rumors? McCain traces it originally to a report by a Lebanese television station linked to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that is also part of the Lebanese government, which two days after the meeting claimed that McCain had met with rebels responsible for kidnapping Shiite pilgrims. That story turned out to be false.
But from there, rumors about McCain’s meetings spread across the Internet and even into mainstream discourse. (It didn’t help that an Islamic State recruit from Minnesota, who was killed in Syria, was called Douglas McAuthur McCain.)
A variety of Web sites began to claim that Islamic State posted photographs of McCain posing with its members, news sources of dubious value called Weasel Zippers, Counter Current News, Atlas Shrugged and Socio-Economics History Blog. Usually, the accounts provided limited or no sourcing, just photographs of McCain with alleged Islamic State members circled. Socio-Economics, which says it presents news in a satirical way, also suggests that the head of the Islamic State is a Mossad agent and has two Jewish parents.

Socio-Economics History Blog

This dubious provenance didn’t stop Wonkette in June from picking up on the Internet chatter, with the warning that “you might want to get your skeptic hat on.” The left-leaning Web site added: “Even so, we’re happy to pass it along, if for no other reason that it’s yet more evidence that John McCain loves him some military intervening, regardless of who it is that we’re intervening for, just as long as we’re bombing somebody.”
Finally, the liberal group VoteVets.org, which opposes arming Syrian rebels, in August sent out an e-mail to supporters that included this line about McCain: “While he was there (in Syria), he paused for some photos — including some with ISIS militants.” VoteVets claims more than 400,000 supporters and has a board of advisers that includes distinguished members such as Douglas J. Band, counselor to former president Bill Clinton; Richard Beattie, chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark.

“Senator McCain did not pose with ISIS,” VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz acknowledged in a lengthy statement to The Fact Checker. “However, he did meet with representatives of the Free Syrian Army, which worked with Islamic extremists and contained extremists that splintered off elements that became ISIS. At times, trying to state that in fewer words, we’ve probably fed the wrong impression that John McCain is somehow aligned with ISIS. He isn’t.”
Soltz added that, within the murky world of the Syrian rebels, there is some evidence that various groups once aligned with moderate forces have begun to cooperate with more radical groups. “He cannot deny he met with leaders of an army that was coordinating with the same people who killed the men and women I served with, in Iraq,” Soltz said. “That point has been lost in the debate over whether or not he posed with ISIS.”
Just last week, The New York Times published an article about the difficulty McCain has had with the rumors, under the headline: “Try as He May, John McCain Can’t Shake Falsehoods About Ties to ISIS.” Last time we checked, the Times is still a more credible source than Weasel Zippers.
We asked Paul’s office for an explanation. We were initially provided with a clip of McCain’s appearance on the Sean Hannity Show on Sept. 15, in which McCain, in a slip of a tongue, suggested he had met with ISIS, when he meant to say the Syrian Free Army. “Has Rand Paul ever been to Syria? Has he ever met with ISIS? Has he ever met with any of these people?” McCain asked, trying to rebut Paul’s claim that weapons given to moderates end up in the hands of the Islamic State. “I know these people. I know these people. I’m in contact with them all the time. He is not. He is not.”
But then we didn’t hear anything more.

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Glenn Kessler has reported on domestic and foreign policy for more than three decades. He would like your help in keeping an eye on public figures. Send him statements to fact check by emailing him, tweeting at him, or sending him a message on Facebook.

You decide

Louie Gohmert: John McCain 'Supported Al Qaeda'

 

[CPUd]

Yeah, that photo was shopped. Here's the original photo:

 

[Shane Harris]

It wasn't ISIS or Baghdadi but they were veterans of the northern storm brigade in Iraq and had fought against the US in Iraq. Therefore it is still treason, ISIS or not.

 

[Zippyjuan]

This source says that he met with the head honcho of ISIS.

The man of real interest in the photo is the same one John is looking at and speaking with, the seated man in the dark shirt. His name is Ibrahim al-Badri most commonly known by the nom de guerre Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("ISIS") and now the self-proclaimed Caliph Ibrahim, leader of all the Muslims in the world.

The guy can grow hair fast if that is him. The McCain pic is from late May and this is from a clip of a sermon he gave in July:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27801676

 

[Influenza]

The guy can grow hair fast if that is him. The McCain pic is from late May and this is from a clip of a sermon he gave in July:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27801676

No... May 2013 and July 2014. I don't know if it's the same guy nor do I really care. ISIS and John Mccain are both evil anyway

 

[Zippyjuan]

Thanks for the date correction. Two guys still don't look alike.

 

[twomp]

Looks the same to me. This is a problem that only the GOP can fix. If the rank and file don't want to remove this traitor from office, they have no right to complain. Does anyone expect the DNC to not vote for Clinton? Team red needs to fix this problem if they cant, there is no reason to hate on Team blue because in essence you both are the same. Yes, I'm talking to the Team Red cheerleaders on this forum.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Nose is different.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Is McCain stepping down to allow unbiased investigation photos to be completed?

 

[enhanced_deficit]

To be devil's advo, has MSM investigated if the photo is real and not doctored?

Photo can be fake sometimes

 

[Zippyjuan]

The photo is probably real. The question is who is actually in the picture.

 

[AngryCanadian]

To be devil's advo, has MSM investigated if the photo is real and not doctored?

Photo can be fake sometimes

Doubtful, the only one whom stated that it was Photoshopped was the expert himself JOHN MCCAIN.
The Mainstream Media just repeated his line in the defense of him.

 

[devil21]

Looks like the same guy to me (Baghdadi) and those photos were circulating before 'ISIS' even was introduced into the media cycle. Considering that it's mostly an open secret that 'ISIS' and the 'rebels' are the same group, it makes perfect sense in that context that the anointed head of 'ISIS' would be present for that meet. The part I find stranger is the reports circulating for the last couple weeks that Baghdadi was killed by a US airstrike. Seems to me that they tried to covertly get Baghdadi back off the radar as soon as those pictures started getting wider attention and reports that Baghdadi is actually a Mossad agent named Simon Elliott.