Let me say this about Donald Trump.

Donald Trump's style is to accept people at face value. He has stated, "I think the Tea Party are great people." His statement was because it involved Americans. The Tea Party has needed a strong leader that can actually live up to the ideology and be free from corporate tethers that effect elections. The Tea Party wants a stronger leader for their value system. This is America and people are allowed to have the value system they want and if a political party is their either best or only route than so be it.

When I have seen Donald Trump campaign he excludes no one who comes to his rallies and believes he can answer their ambitions for a government. He receives well and listens with an open mind and considers every word spoken to him. I can easily see him in a line of people with one person insisting there was an answer needed with Muslims the way that person understood it. So, because of his approach to his public and his open and come hither friendliness, he is going to be that person who will solve the problem. He is easy prey. That is unfortunate for a journalist who chronically pushed him into a corner.

I am not interested in destroying anyone's reputation, but, then journalism is SUPPOSE TO BE about the truth. The reporting I saw and heard on Rachel Maddow was not the truth and it was an opportunist to insight a feeding frenzy and to promote JEB! once again.

Donald Trump doesn't know me but I have opposed him when building a golf course in Scotland. So, I could easily hate the man and attempt to sink his candidacy, but, that isn't fair. That would be revenge and I am not that person. And when he announced, immediately, he was being dragged through the mud to end his candidacy as soon as he began it. I simply don't see why a loyal member of the Republican Party completely disillusioned with the field can't be respected for his lengthy investment in other men. He has made his campaign himself. He has promoted himself and done so without linking arms with Plutocrats.

Can he be commander and chief. Yep. He has a real respect for the lives of soldiers when he states he is not interested in jumping into a war in the middle east when the country has no relationship to the USA in any way. Why is that controversial?

I sometimes reflect on Walter Cronkite who is a legend. He never leveraged anyone that I can remember. I was mostly young in those years, but, I remember the Kennedy assassination and Cronkite deserves to be a legend. What has happened to this country's media is horrible. And just for the record I opposed Cronkite, too. He didn't want an offshore wind farm near his home and he was wrong.

I so much want an election where the issues are front and center and the USA has real answers to it's problems. I want my Middle Class back and I want my Unions back.

NBC and MSNBC is promoting Jeb Bush. Yesterday there was an NBC reporter that tried to promote the idea Donald Trump had a policy to do all sorts of things to Muslims starting with a data base. It was entrapment. The report continually approached Donald Trump with more and more bizarre content. The reporter appeared on Rachel Maddow and told his story. Today, Jeb Bush is repeating the lies as truth. What else is new with corporate media and war mongers?

MSNBC is adopting losers, I guess. Why else would a Bush be on a liberal media station. MSNBC is attempting to attract Republicans by dangling a Bush in front of their eyes.

Donald Trump should make Jeb Bush's dream come true. This is JEB! big chance to take down the leader in the primaries. I'm just sayin'.

Now. Do you understand why SHE was chosen to be a suicide bomber for Daesh.

It is the facts surrounding the actions of violent Islamists that are more interesting than the fact they are violent. The women was chosen because she was Moroccan. She was made into a suicide bomber because after all, "If women are going to preach like a man they can die like a man." I do believe she volunteered to die while partially destroying a building and killing others. I believe the act to force her into it was racist.

Who in USA intelligence knew why it was a Moroccan women that was forced into compliance with a suicide bombing?

The women in Jordan that was found alive with a detonation device on her person was a wife and she was suppose to follow her husband to death. She didn't detonate the weapon for whatever reason she didn't. But, If I were a wife of a violent Islamist I would stand at a safe distance from the husband while he committed suicide.

The Islamic State Goes After  Morocco's Islamists (click here)

July 24, 2015

By Vish Sakthivel

l-Sham (ISThe Islamic State of Iraq and aIS) (click here) recently declared itself simply "the Islamic State" (IS), announcing a "return to the caliphate." And despite its nominal focus on the Levant and Mashreq, it clearly has its sights set on the Maghreb too. In a video released earlier this month, various members of the group denounced key Moroccan Islamist figures, highlighting the potentially far-reaching ripple effects of the crises in Iraq and Syria.
Surprisingly, King Muhammad VI, a perennial target of jihadist rhetoric -- most recently by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) -- was not mentioned in the IS video sermon. Yet the Moroccans who were chosen for reproach are hardly a surprise.
The first was Omar Haddouchi, formerly of the Moroccan group Salafia Jihadia. Over the past several years, in a bid to integrate radical Salafists, the king has shown clemency to imprisoned Salafists implicated in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, including Haddouchi. In turn, these Salafists have relaxed -- even reversed -- their criticism of the monarch (for more on this trend, see "Are Morocco's Political Salafists Committed to Peace?"). Haddouchi, in newly monarchist fashion, has often spoken out against young Moroccans' involvement in the "jihad in Syria." And on July 1, to demonstrate the illegitimacy of any allegiance made to IS "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he also quoted a hadith of the Prophet that says "anyone pledging allegiance to a stranger without approval from, or consultation with, the entire Muslim community, is eligible for the death penalty."...

The US State Department should have a close relationship with King Muhammad VI and empower Morocco to respond to violent Islamists. The USA should be celebrating his birthday along with the people of Morocco.

Morocco is in negotiations for a natural gas pipeline with Algeria and Algeria had a protest recently in their Parliment when an entire half of it's members walked out. Algeria has been doing well, but, with the most recent demonstrations it is a concern.

Morocco is an anchor to the stability in northwest Africa, that should be important to the USA and Europe.

After I published this entry there was a near immediate response from USA's corporate media that the suicide bomber was not a woman but a man. Amazing. 

There is inherent violence with Islamists. It is known and the cultural society wants to address it.

France is receiving support from EU member states.

November 20, 2015
By Vasudevan Sridharan

Cyprus, the closest European Union member (click here) state to Syria, has offered its airbase to France to pound Islamic State (Isis) targets in the region. The Mediterranean island is just 105km from Syria and officials said they will be happy to offer assistance to French forces.

The former British colony, already used by western powers for humanitarian missions, added that French authorities have not yet reached out to them to use the facilities. "I want to make clear that we will wait for the French authorities, if they want to ask [for] something from us, particularly our location and our facilities we would be very glad to provide them with this solidarity and assistance," Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides told reporters....

Americans don't think and dialogue about government instability. The only instability Americans worry about is that of Wall Street. Yet, the world is awash of waxing and waning instability every day. 

November 19, 2015
By AP

Nicosia, Cyprus (AP) — Britain's foreign secretary (click here) says the world's "best brains" could be recruited to assist complex negotiations aimed at reunifying ethnically-split Cyprus.
Philip Hammond said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart on Thursday that these experts could also help in finding ways to financially support a peace deal.
Hammond said he's confident that the international community, including the European Union, will provide support to a negotiated settlement of the island's long-standing division.
Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup aiming to unite the island with Greece....

A northern fly zone in Syria is not going to work. That is the Kurds.

To begin with that is a border with Turkey, a country that is a NATO ally. I would expect it to handle it's own no fly zone.

It is also where the Kurds call home. PKK lives there. I am sure the PKK is assisting the Kurds more than anyone might think and they should. 

November 20, 2015
By the editorial board

...Since the war began in 2011, (click here) the Obama administration has rejected proposals for a no-fly zone because they would require a significant military commitment: knocking out Mr. Assad’s air defenses, mounting an extended American air patrol and stationing ground troops to protect the zone and the refugees....

There is an international understanding of a Kurdistan in imaginary borders that overlap with actual sovereign borders of other countries in the region.

The No Fly Zones worked in Iraq, but, the longest border is shared with Iran. The No Fly Zones actually prevented a larger war from developing with Iran over and over again.

Northern Syria is a very different issue. What happens when Turkey comes to the USA and states, "What do you think you are doing, we can't run jets out there to handle the build up of PKK?" What then? The USA would have a UN mandated No Fly Zone and Turkey is complaining because it makes things too cozy for PKK.

And, yes, Turkey runs jet raids to its borders because of PKK. And then there is going to be that commander that isn't as savvy as the rest of his peers and orders strikes against PKK without clearing it with the USA.

If the USA is going to protect the northern reaches of Syria, why not all of Kurdistan?

Countries have to take care of themselves and at this point Syria's future is too strange to even estimate how a No Fly Zone would impact the country. It just isn't workable. 

I have addressed this before and I think the events in France clearly illustrate how diffuse the SUPPORT for Daesh is where Muslims are somewhat disenfranchised in their societies.

July/August 2005
By Robert S. Leiken

 ...The Pentagon (click here) wages war in the Middle East to stop terrorist attacks on the United States. But the growing nightmare of officials at the Department of Homeland Security is passport-carrying, visa-exempt mujahideen coming from the United States' western European allies.

Jihadist networks span Europe from Poland to Portugal, thanks to the spread of radical Islam among the descendants of guest workers once recruited to shore up Europe's postwar economic miracle. In smoky coffeehouses in Rotterdam and Copenhagen, makeshift prayer halls in Hamburg and Brussels, Islamic bookstalls in Birmingham and "Londonistan," and the prisons of Madrid, Milan, and Marseilles, immigrants or their descendants are volunteering for jihad against the West. It was a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan descent, born and socialized in Europe, who murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam last November. A Nixon Center study of 373 mujahideen in western Europe and North America between 1993 and 2004 found more than twice as many Frenchmen as Saudis and more Britons than Sudanese, Yemenites, Emiratis, Lebanese, or Libyans. Fully a quarter of the jihadists it listed were western European nationals -- eligible to travel visa-free to the United States....

The woman that committed suicide with a bomb in France was Moroccan and socialized in Europe. I find her very interesting. It sort of confirms what I have been thinking about recruits by Daesh of foreign citizens.

Other than she, there was a foreign citizen talking to the internet for one reason or another. He was unarmed. Behind him were at least four people (couldn't see their faces) with assault rifles.

USA military and intelligence stated the foreign citizens recruited by Daesh first are approached for conversation and then taken deep into a electronic chamber to complete the estrangement from that person's national culture. That is not volunteering. That is kidnapping.

Once a person commits to Daesh in the open web it is still a distant reality. What happens after that is primarily wealth to bring that person to Syria. Once they are in Syria they have no way out. A few have traveled back and forth and that is an issue, but, I am not convinced all of those removed to Syria are carrying out their acts voluntarily so much as 'managed' into violence.

It doesn't matter, taking a trip to Syria to kill, no matter who it is, is criminal. But, there are those that realize once they get to Syria they have been deceived and manipulated and want to return home. I don't think that plea of innocence should be rewarded by allowing people to return home. And, the borders of Syria are porous enough people can leave without any problem. Whether or not they are accepted back home is another issue.

I state that because I don't believe Daesh has power over their recruits in the way The West believes it does. It probably doesn't make much difference except on the home front and the ability of a sovereign power to shut down aspects of the internet to protect vulnerable citizens. THERE ARE THOSE RECRUITS THAT ARE NOT AS INVESTED as countries may think. And there are recruits that do come and go from Syria with no other ambition than to fight within Syria for 'the cause.'

The best example of a foreign citizen fighting for the cause is John Walker Lindh. This has gone on for a long time. Until Daesh decided to imagineer a caliphate the fighting was in places the USA had no real interest. The foreign citizen was simply there to fight in jihad believing they were vital to protecting Muslims unable to take care of themselves. John Walker Lindh has sat in a room with bin Laden and sure as heck didn't expect the USA military to drive down roads in tanks or otherwise.

Morroco has a population of about 33 million people. About 99 percent of people are Sunni Muslims. As a Sunni she would be welcomed by Daesh. With so many others in the apartment I am not convinced she was manipulated into being a disposable person for the violence the men needed and wanted.

17 November 2015
By Jack Lang

...Invited to address the topic of the danger (click here) of foreign funding of Islam in France, Jack Lang hailed Morocco as “very friendly country” and a model of “Islam of enlightenment and peace.”

“Foreign funding come in general from countries that very respectful of an Islam of enlightenment and peace. I refer especially to Morocco. If the conception of the Moroccan Islam were applied nowadays in the whole Islam world, we would live in peace,” Lang said.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco was among the first world leaders to send his condolences to French President Francois Hollande and express his solidarity with the French people and his willingness to cooperate with the French government in the fight against ISIS.

“I offer my most saddened condolences to you, to the innocent victims’ families and to the entire French people as well as my earnest wishes of prompt recovery to the wounded,” King Mohammed VI said in a message sent to the French President on Friday night.

“I would like to condemn in the strongest terms on behalf of the Moroccan people and in my own name these vile terrorist acts and express our full solidarity and support to France and its people in this ordeal,” the Royal message concluded....

Morroco is about 172 thousand square miles; about the size of California. 

Morocco is not in Europe. It is in North Africa and does not share it's borders with Mali, but, with Algeriaand Mauritania. I'd like to say Morocco is a stable and Western friendly country, but, there has been some instability in Algeria.

I'll continue this later. 

This is exactly why every country has to develop it's national security.

Eighteen people are dead from the terrorist group deciding today was a good day to act out their particular type of control. It is my understanding American forces were in the area and assisted. But, what if they weren't? What happens then, something similar to the Westgate mall attack in Kenya? 

The security forces of any size country has to be prepared for these events and neutralize them. Each country has to have secure borders to be sure their security forces aren't overcome by people they don't even know are within the country. 

Americans think nothing of hoping a plane and traveling for a variety of reasons. They never stop to think that an event like this might happen and then what? A phone call home to tell the spouse they love him or here?

If countries want to grow economies and be part of trade and tourism they have to develop their national security also.

The video is interesting. All kinds of silhouettes to keep it in the abstract. Does any American domestic or on excursion out of the country believe they can defeat violent Islamists armed with assault capacity? Do they? 

The Small Gun Treaty needs to be ratified by all countries and the availability of LOOSE firearms ended.

The USA Middle Class is being priced out of the housing market.

It wasn't long ago the housing market bottomed out, but, it wasn't the wealthy that experienced the greatest price, it was the USA Middle Class. They lost their homes and possessions as Wall Street contracted and jobs were lost. Neighborhoods became empty with lost community culture.

At the same time the wealthy saw a huge opportunity before them. They bought up houses at depleted prices and waited. They had the luxury to wait.

Today those that bought up housing and property are catering to the wealthiest of our society.

So.

Now, that the USA Middle Class has their jobs back be they new or rehired, they still cannot return to their status of ten years ago when owning three homes was a requirement to express the opportunity the Bush economy provide. The illusion of wealth caused people to remortgage their homes and invest in what they believed would be a future of luxury.

Do the privileged ever suffer from demoralizing life events, it would seem not.

In New Zealand when a citizen suffers devastating events in their lives they get help from the government to keep their lives intact knowing their future will be returned to them. In the USA when events occur out of control of citizens they are shown the street to become homeless. Does recovering to a status of the past have the same rewards? No. The recovering American has a life permanently damaged with the only hope being to accept defeat at the hands of irresponsible Plutocrats and find a simpler life to hold onto.

November 21, 2015

Washington(AP) " It's still possible in Boston (click here) for a mail carrier, an accountant and a Harvard-trained psychiatrist " basically, the crowd from "Cheers" " to live as neighbors.
That finding by the real estate brokerage Redfin makes the capital of Massachusetts a rarity at a time when neighborhoods in most U.S. cities are increasingly isolated from each other by income and home values. Redfin analyzed home sales over the past 24 months in 20 major U.S. cities, breaking down the data by neighborhood.
San Francisco, for example, enjoys the benefits of tech fortunes, but its homes are largely unaffordable for the police officers, firefighters and teachers the city needs. And while housing in Baltimore seems affordable, low and unstable incomes there have depressed home ownership rates. Ribbons of highways have also ferried the middle class out of cities such as Detroit, leaving behind concentrations of poverty....

When a government is responsible for the quality of life of their citizens Wall Street isn't provided impunity.

New Zealand is one of the countries that want the TPP. There are some that are convinced the TPP will deliver a life they can only dream of. New Zealand has to lower it's standards in governing to allow the TPP to take hold in their country. Why is it a country that values its citizens more than the wealth brokers making the biggest mistake of their generations.

And let's get the nonsense out of the news reports. Hillary Clinton did NOT state the USA is going to war in Syria. She said she thought other countries had to stand up and take control of their national defense, but, the USA would lead wherever necessary. The very last thing the USA should do is enter another war theater and hold the hand of the sovereign country.

And if news media played a trap of words with Trump when he never made statements 'of worry' then it doesn't matter. Every candidate in this election can easily agree with someone while they are suggesting a way forward for the USA, but, to hold that candidate responsible for those words is nonsense. If it isn't in a policy or a speech it doesn't matter. Entrapment is not legitimate political fodder.

Either Europe wants the borders opened or closed, which is it?

Europe has to visit their border policies. Turkey does as well. There is no formal border crossing policies in Turkey and that is where it begins.

Harmonizing rules and procedures (click here)

Thousands of Syrians (click here) cut through a border fence and cross into Turkey, fleeing intense fighting in northern Syria.

Tehran (AFP) - Iran denied claims (click here) it had closed its main border crossing into Turkey Wednesday after an Iranian truck was torched in a fresh attack on vehicles entering from the Islamic republic.

A country's borders exist as the very basic definition to national defense. Some countries' borders are easier to defend than others. The USA borders are porous and nearly impossible to completely control. Besides continental borders, the USA has very long shorelines, then there is Hawaii and Alaska. So, the idea the USA has an easy time protecting it's borders is unrealistic.

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Members of two Syrian families (click here) had turned themselves in to U.S. authorities in Laredo, Texas, at the Mexican border, and were being processed by immigration officials, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Thursday.

Two men, two women and four children who "presented themselves" Tuesday at the port of entry were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents and then turned over for immigration processing, DHS said in a statement.
"Due to privacy issues, no additional information will be provided at this time," DHS said in a statement....

US Homeland Security wants everyone to be witnesses.

"If You See Something, Say Something™" (click here) is a national campaign that raises public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity to state and local law enforcement. Informed, alert communities play a critical role in keeping our nation safe. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is committed to strengthening hometown security by creating partnerships with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments and the private sector, as well as the communities they serve. These partners help us reach the public across the nation by aligning their messaging with the campaign’s messages and distributing outreach materials, including Public Service Announcements (PSAs)....
 

That is a nice sentiment, but, how realistic is it? There may be times when it might actually work, but, how much noise is there going to be in the policing of the USA that will result in nothing but tying up police on calls that don't matter. 

Have you seen (click here) the latest release from the Interior Department. Beautiful. Zion National Park. I thought I'd take a look at it rather than watching out for terrorists.

Did you see the news about the three people dead in the USA from severe weather? 

 No? I didn't think so because these poor souls weren't terrorist or terror victims. But, I'm sure if someone was able to interview them if they had survived they would say it was rather terrifying.

November 18, 2015
By Nicholas K. Geranios 

Spokane, Wash. (AP) — Cleanup crews (click here) took to the streets Wednesday in Washington state after a powerful storm killed three people, cut power to more than 350,000 residents and flooded rivers.
The winds on Tuesday exceeded 100 mph in some areas of the Inland Northwest, where fallen trees were blamed for the deaths.
A woman in her 50s was killed when a tree fell in Spokane. Another woman died after a tree landed on her car on Highway 904 about 15 miles southwest of Spokane, and a man in his mid-20s died when a tree crushed his car as he was driving in Snohomish County, authorities said.
The identities of the three people were not immediately released.
Crews in Spokane were working to clear at least 175 fallen trees that blocked streets and slowed the morning commute....

Ya know, worrying about European, Turkish borders and where there is enough control at every border crossing really isn't my responsibility. It is above my pay grade. 

I think the global community has to address what national security is and what it isn't because it seems to me if countries were vigilant at its borders there would not be citizens flyng to be a member of Daesh. If citizens are on their way to enter a war theater and they aren't soldiers of the country to defend it, then charge them, take their passport or "Border Crossing ID" and send them to prison. It is treason in most countries I was aware of. But, if the international community thinks their economies are better off with permissive rules to speed travelers along, then expect terrorists to be among them.

We will squash Daesh like bug.

Quake in fear, the USA has been blessed by Pope Francis.

They use too much explosive.

We'd be happy to send the body parts back to the family as a courtesy. The family would only have to pay for postage and handling.

An explosion has rocked a building (click here) in central Paris today causing it to partially collapse and leaving numerous casualties, Paris firefighters said.
It is believed the cause of the blast, which occurred at 9.52am UK time, may have been a gas explosion.
The building is on the Rue d'Uzes, close to the Paris Stock Exchange building and the headquarters of Agence France-Presse, in the second arondissement.
Around 140 firefighters were on the scene to help free victims from the building, which contained offices for businesses including lawyers, accountants and telecommunications firms.
A state of red alert for the emergency services has been declared.

"You can't win Darth. Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Deash states it will turn the White House black with fire.

It won't be the first. I always thought it needed a paint job anyway.

August 24 1814

On this day in 1814, (click here) during the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1812.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that President James Madison and his first lady Dolley had already fled to safety in Maryland. Soldiers reportedly sat down to eat a meal made of leftover food from the White House scullery using White House dishes and silver before ransacking the presidential mansion and setting it ablaze....

It was a long time ago before the USA had killer drones. See, now a days the USA can attack Daesh without causalities. So, we send President Obama and his family and the White House Staff on vacation and we put drones all over Washington DC. Should be interesting. Everyone tune in and watch a new definition of the Grateful Dead.

Addiction is not allowed in the Muslim faith. A person is suppose to maintain a healthy mind and body to honor god.


...The following is quoted from his book  Practical Laws of Islam: (click here)

“Question 1392: What is the ruling  in the matter of using narcotics, such  as hashish, opium, heroin, morphine,  and marijuana, be it by way of eating,  drinking, smoking, injecting or applying  them anally? And what is the view on  selling, buying, and dealing in them  in general, i.e., carrying, transporting,  storing, or smuggling?

A[nswer]: It is  haram [religiously forbidden] to use  narcotics in any way because it results  in considerable adverse effects in terms  of personal health and social cost. By  the same token, it is haram to deal in  narcotics in any way, i.e., carrying, transporting,  storing, selling, buying, etc.”

Sayyid Ali Sistani, another popular  religious authority currently residing in  Iraq who oversees the Islamic Seminary  in Najaf (Shi'ite) , was asked about hashish.  Hashish is a drug which is derived from  the same plant as marijuana. Marijuana  is derived from the dried flowering tops  of the cannabis plant while hashish is  made from the resin and is more potent.  They are both classified as cannabis.  On his website he is asked about the  Islamic ruling of the consumption of  hashish. He states: “It is impermissible.”...

It is another Afghanistan. Drug economy. Amphetamine. Opium from Afghanistan and amphetamine from Syria. What could be better?

How about a free trade agreement with these countries? Iran and Iraq can be worked into it. The USA should not let all that nation building go to waste.

I think I know why the USA vetting process didn't go well.

Lookey thar. Prepackaging for your ease and convenience.

Generics probably sell cheaper:  amphetaminoethyltheophylline

FAQ:

How do we send packages? (click here)

We pack the packages carefully with tungsten and carbon papers to skip through customs x-ray machines at airports. Parcels are beautifully packed with gift papers from outside

And it requires no paperwork for customs. I haven't found the description as to whether it makes a person feel sexy or oppressed. Thinking of Daesh, it is probably oppressive to handle that Sharia Law and brutality.

Help me feel like a Syrian.

November 18, 2015

As The Post's Liz Sly (click here) recently noted, the war in Syria has become a tangled web of conflict dominated by "al-Qaeda veterans, hardened Iraqi insurgents, Arab jihadist ideologues and Western volunteers."

On the surface, those competing actors are fueled by an overlapping mixture of ideologies and political agendas.

Just below it, experts suspect, they're powered by something else: Captagon.

A tiny, highly addictive pill produced in Syria and now widely available across the Middle East, its illegal sale funnels hundreds of millions of dollars back into the war-torn country's black-market economy each year, likely giving militias access to new arms, fighters and the ability to keep the conflict boiling, according to the Guardian.

“Syria is a tremendous problem in that it’s a collapsed security sector, because of its porous borders, because of the presence of so many criminal elements and organized networks,” the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) regional representative, Masood Karimipour, told Voice of America. “There’s a great deal of trafficking being done of all sorts of illicit goods — guns, drugs, money, people. But what is being manufactured there and who is doing the manufacturing, that’s not something we have visibility into from a distance.”..

....................................................................................

13 January 2014
By Jon Henley

...Separate investigations (click here) by the news agency Reuters and Time magazine have found that the growing trade in Syrian-made Captagon – an amphetamine widely consumed in the Middle East but almost unknown elsewhere – generated revenues of millions of dollars inside the country last year, some of which was almost certainly used to fund weapons, while combatants on both sides are reportedly turning to the stimulant to help them keep fighting....

I've always said, the proper way of using the USA military is to allow the drug economies flourish while weeding through the al Qaeda base in the country and call it a mission.