Nearly two and a half years after the Benghazi attacks, it’s finally being reported that ISIS has joined with Ansar al-Sharia in Libya. It should not be considered news that Islamic terrorists joined forces but unfortunately, it is. As Shoebat.com reported months ago, all anyone had to do was examine the flags that were being paraded around the Middle East and North Africa in the days after September 11, 2012 in response to the Innocence of Muslims video. They match exactly, the ISIS flags (h/t GWP):

Now that ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia are officially partners, Barack Obama should be asked if Ansar al-Sharia is Islamic.

For the record, Fox News Channel’s Catherine Herridge is a true journalist and is very good at her job but in the interest of getting all t’s crossed and i’s / j’s dotted when reporting, journalists in general are missing the elephants in the room when it comes to Islamic terror groups. Ansar al-Sharia and ISIS never should have been viewed as separate groups to begin with. These are games Islamic terrorist groups play. Have you ever noticed how many differently named groups there are? Yes, part of it has to do with turf but a huge part of it is tactical.

Can you spot the difference in the photo below? Hint: ISIS is on the left and Ansar al-Sharia is on the right.

ISIS (L) and Ansar al-Sharia (R)

Failure to lump Islamic terrorists groups together under the same umbrella has also gotten an untold number of Americans killed, to include four in Benghazi. The relationship between Ansar al-Sharia and February 17 Martyrs Brigade (F17MB) may provide the clearest example; it is incestuous. Yet, F17MB was hired to provide security at the Benghazi Special Mission Compound (SMC). The only thing different was the name. Had F17MB been officially designated as being synonymous with ISIS, al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia, et. al. there is no way it would have been politically viable to pay them to protect Americans.

This should have become more than apparent on May 8, 2013 at a House Oversight Committee hearing when Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) asked the Deputy to Ambassador Christopher Stevens Gregory Hicks and Diplomatic Security Official Eric Nordstrom why the State Department would hire F17MB at all, even saying he was ‘stunned’ at such a prospect:

As Shoebat.com reported long ago, it was Osama bin Laden who suggested changing al-Qaeda’s name to Ansar al-Sharia. Why? He thought it would be more effective in getting terrorists to join if they were fighting against those who had declared war on the “Followers of Sharia law” (Ansar al-Sharia) instead of on “The Base” (al-Qaeda).

Does this not make Ansar al-Sharia synonymous with al-Qaeda? Uh, Mr. President, is al-Qaeda Islamic? How about F17MB

ISIS = Ansar al-Sharia = Al-Qaeda = F17MB

The west needs a bucket with the word ‘Islamic terrorist enemies’ on it. Then, in they go, all equal. Once in the bucket, military strategists can determine differences in tactics used by the differently named groups. The problem is that the west has essentially created a bucket that can only hold a few groups in it at one time. The label on the outside of the bucket just says ‘bad guys’. Since the bucket can only hold a few, the worst of the worst is placed in the bucket. Old ones are taken out and new ones put in due to which ones pose the most immediate threat.

As a result, Ansar al-Sharia has all but taken a back seat to ISIS when in reality, there’s no difference worth defining.

To illustrate the point, here is the ISIS flag:

ISIS flag

Does it look any different from these flags, hoisted up and being waved in Benghazi, just days after the attacks?

10,000 Ansar al-Sharia supporters with ISIS flags in Benghazi to protest video on 9/21/12

When American colonists saw ships coming into the harbor flying the Union Jack, do you think they gave a rip what strain of the British Empire those flags represented?

Did American colonists make a distinction between ships flying this flag?