Nothing distracts like fear. And today, former DHS chief Elaine Duke invoked one of the most traumatic episodes in US history to remind complacent Americans that Al Qaeda and ISIS are still out there, plotting deadly terror attacks meant to kill as many American civilians as possible.
Submitted by Elijah Magnier, Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media
After a US-backed coalition of Kurds, Shiite militias and Iraqi forces pushed ISIS out of Mosul earlier this year, a similar coalition of US-backed Arab and Kurdish fighters – supported by US airstrikes – has declared victory over ISIS in Raqqa, reclaiming the terror group’s de facto capital for the first time since ISIS first rose to prominence in 2014.
Last November Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country “won’t allow Islamic State figures or other enemy actors, under the cover of the war in Syria, to set up next to our borders,” but it appears this has already happened, to the point that a sizable ISIS training camp has been set up just across the Golan Heights border with Israel. Though Syrian al-Qaeda has long been a mainstay in southern Syria along Israel's border, this constitutes the first widespread public acknowledgement and confirmation of a significant ISIS base of operations in the Golan regio
During a dinner with military leaders tonight, President Trump gave an ominous warning seemingly out of the blue: "You guys know what this represents? Maybe it's the calm before the storm," he said: "It could be the calm... before... the storm."
A reporter quickly asked what the storm might be -"Is it Iran, ISIS, what's the storm?" to which he replied... "...you'll find out."