World Opinion Turning Against Saudis/Qatar/American Sponsorship of International Terrorists Within Syria

UN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion

 

by FRANKLIN LAMB

 

Homs, Syria

It’s not hard to find critics of the Assad government in the Governorate (Muhafazat) of Homs or for that matter, to varying degrees in Syria’s other thirteen Governorates according to Syrian analysts interviewed by this observer and reports from human rights groups including lawyers representing dissidents in Syria. However, after nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is markedly shifting back in support of the current regime.

One international political result was registered at the United Nations this past week when a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution that was designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly and fell far short of what the Saudi Ambassador to the UN and other US allies predicted would be an overwhelming vote in favor.

Effect of shift in popular opinion in Syria

Over the past four or five months it has become increasingly clear that public opinion in Syria is shifting for reasons that include, but are not limited to the following:

While inflation at the grocery stores in probably the most common complaint heard from a cross-section of society here, the population is adapting somewhat to higher prices and it appears to credit the government for efforts, some successful, to soften the impact of the illegal US-led sanctions that target this same Syrian population for purely political reasons to achieve regime change.

While Syrians demand dignity and freedom from oppressive security forces and an end to corruption, as all people do in this region and beyond, they are witnessing a return to near normalcy with respect to supplies of electricity, benzene, mazout fuel oil, bus schedules, schools, and a host of public services such as garbage collection, street sweeping, park maintenance, and sympathetic traffic cops who are rather understanding of short-cuts taken by drivers and pedestrians due to “the situation”.

In addition, public service announcement and even text messages demonstrate that the government is aware of the degree of suffering among the population, accept partial blame, and are focusing on remedial measure and crucially, ending the crisis with its horrific bloodshed. One observes here a definite trend of the pulling together of a high percentage of Syrians who share a very unique history and culture and who are deeply connected to their country and who are increasingly repelled by the continuing killing from all sides including the recent barbarisms of body mutilations and summary executions videotaped and broadcast on Utube by jihadist elements. The latter who these days come from nearly three dozen countries, paid for and indoctrinated by enemies of Syria’s Arab nationalism and deep rooted pillar of resistance to the occupation of Palestine.

In addition, many among Syria’s 23 million citizens, who initially supported the uprising following government reaction to event in Deraa in March 2011, now have serious second thoughts about who exactly would replace the current government. Events in Syria are also making plain that the army is still loyal to the Assad government, and according to Jane’s Defense Weekly, is actually gaining experience and strength as well as the well-known fact that as western diplomats are admitting, the “opposition militias” are hopelessly fractured, turning one another, many essential mafia outfits, and beginning to resemble their fellow jihadists from Libya, Chechnya and in between.

Opinion in Damascus and surrounding areas visited this past week, confirms this observers experience the past five months of a sharp and fairly rapid shift in opinion that now strongly favors letting the Syrian people themselves decide, without outside interference, whether the Assad regime will stay, and indeed, whether, the Baathist party will continue to represent majority opinion, not through wanton violence but rather via next June’s election. Many express confidence in the run up to this critical vote, noting that the election will be closely monitored by the international community to assure fairness.

Perhaps aided by the current glorious May weather, a certain optimism, that was more scarce in the past, pervades many neighborhoods.

For different reasons, foreign powers, including the USA, Turkey, European Union, the UK Jordan and even the majority population of the six Gulf Cooperation Council family run countries, according to Pew Research, are shifting their earlier positions which were based in part of the US administration, NATO, and Israeli assurances that the Assad government would surely fall quickly, “A matter of days, not weeks” US President Obama promised. That was two years ago.

As noted above, this trend has accelerated since the UN General Assembly vote with last weeks which did not go as planned on the biased and politicized non-binding draft resolution on Syria.

The public reaction in Syria and across the Middle East is substantially that the “Friends of Syria” non-binding GA resolution contradicts the reality on the ground, backs terrorism in Syria and hinders the international efforts to help achieve a political solution to the crisis in this country. Only 107 states voted in favor of the resolution, 12 against while 59 countries, mostly from Africa and Latin America, abstained from voting.

One reason the vote fell short of the 130 favorable votes that the basically same resolution garnered the past two times is that it is widely viewed as ignoring the crimes and atrocities committed by the armed jihadist groups in Syria and the flow of thousands of international terrorists backed by the West, the Gulf states and Turkey who provide them with weapons and money. According to the Russian delegate, backed by several other speakers, “the resolutions ignores all the terrorists’ heinous crimes and denounces what it called the escalation of the attacks by the Syrian government”. Afterward one Latin American Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that the count would have been below 100 if not for some “last minute arm-twisting.” As it turned out, 15 countries didn’t vote at all, opting to “get coffee,” as one African Permanent Representative put it before the vote.

Syria’s Ambassador al-Jaafari exposes a hoax in the Gulf

Syria’s permanent Envoy to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said his country regretted the adoption of a biased and unbalanced UN resolution, thanking the countries that rejected the resolution “for their responsible positions which support the UN principles and the international law articles”. He noted that the decrease in the number of countries that voted in favor and the increase of numbers of those who abstained from voting indicates the growing international understanding of the reality of what is happening in Syria due to the foreign interference, support of terrorism, the spread of extremism and incitement besides the refusal of dialogue.

“We rely on the UN and its member states to support Syria and its people against the culture of extremism and terrorism, and to encourage the comprehensive national dialogue to peacefully resolve the Syrian crisis.” he said. In a statement released after the vote on the UN draft resolution on Syria, al-Jaafari He said that the French delegation had foiled the issuance of a number of UN press releases to condemn the terrorist acts committed by al-Qaeda-linked armed groups in Syria which claimed the lives of thousands of Syrians as it foiled a UN release to condemn the attempt of assassination of the Syrian Premier.

After Qatar’s ambassador spoke in favor of the resolution his country drafted (and re-drafted several time), Ja’afari revealed that there existed an e-mail, from the representative of the Syrian opposition given to Syria’s embassy in Qatar, showing Qatar’s involvement in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. He read out a phone number from the e-mail as several Gulf diplomats grimaced or scowled, and three left the Chamber.

Visibly stunned, the UK Permanent Representative Lyall Grant called the whole matter “deeply confusing”. Another Permanent Representative, from a militia contributing country, said that if true, it’s “very problematic.” The reasons include the fact that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had just thanked Qatar for its roles in the release of the UN Peacekeepers the earlier kidnapping of whom the Qatari government may have planned, paid for and executed.

Meanwhile, Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson Martin Nesirky said he would not disclose any more about the “negotiations to free the peacekeepers or who was behind the crime.”

Score a major diplomatic victory for Syria’s UN Ambassador al-Jaafari as public opinion shifts in favor of the Assad government and both pressure as well as optimism build in the run-up to the Geneva II conference being organized by the White House and the Kremlin.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Syria and Lebanon and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com

“Al-Qaeda” Is Anybody the President Chooses To Call Al-Qaeda

Obama War Powers Under 2001 Law ‘Astoundingly Disturbing,’ Senators Say

 

WASHINGTON — The war authorization that Congress passed after 9/11 will be needed for at least 10 to 20 more years, and can be used to put the United States military on the ground anywhere, from Syria to the Congo to Boston, military officials argued Thursday.

 

The revelations came during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and surprised even experts in America’s use of force stemming from the terrorist attacks in 2001.

 

“This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I’ve been to since I’ve been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution today,” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told four senior U.S. military officials who testified about the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force and what it allows the White House to do.

 

King and others were stunned by answers to specific questions about where President Barack Obama could use force under the key provision of the AUMF — a 60-word paragraph that targeted those responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

 

“I learned more in this hearing about the scope of the AUMF than in all of my study in the last four or five years,” said Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith, who was called by the committee to offer independent comments on the issue. “I thought I knew what the application [of the AUMF] meant, but I’m less confident now,” he added later.

 

Concerns emerged largely from questions by senators who approve of an aggressive strategy to combat terrorism, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who asked if the AUMF gave Obama the authority to put “boots on the ground” in Yemen or the Congo.

 

 
Robert Taylor, the acting general counsel for the Department of Defense said yes, as long as the purpose was targeting a group associated with al Qaeda that intended to harm the United States or its coalition partners.

 

“Would you agree with me, the battlefield is anywhere the enemy chooses to make it?” asked Graham.

 

“Yes sir, from Boston to FATA [Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas],” answered Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense who oversees special operations.

 

Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) later raised the specter of the AUMF being used to intervene in Syria, where the group Al Nusra, believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, is active. Al Nusra has not been linked to 9/11.

 

Sheehan said yes, if defense officials determined the group was becoming a threat. The same criteria applied to other groups, even if they were locally focused and operating in other nations. Taylor confirmed that AUMF also would cover individuals, even those who had not been born by 9/11, if, as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) asked, they someday were to “become associated with a group that associates with Al Qaeda.”

 

When asked about an expiration date for the war authorization, Sheehan said it would be when al Qaeda had been consigned to the “ash heap of history.” “I think it’s at least 10 to 20 years.”

 

While none of the senators suggested dialing back efforts to stop terrorists, they were clearly disturbed at the power being asserted by the military.

 

“I’m just a little old lawyer from Brunswick, Maine, but I don’t see how you can possibly read this to be in comport with the Constitution,” King said, arguing that the defense officials’ interpretation of the AUMF makes the war power of Congress “a nullity.” “Under your reading, we’ve granted unbelievable powers to the president and it’s a very dangerous precedent.”

 

Kaine found the suggestion that the AUMF could be used to go into Syria especially disturbing. “The testimony I hear today suggests the administration believes that they would have the authority to do that,” Kaine said. “But I don’t want us to walk out of the room leaving an impression that members of Congress also share the understanding that that would be acceptable.”

 

The DOD officials repeatedly defended the authority they’ve claimed, noting that al Qaeda is not a traditional enemy, and that it shifts locations and changes its tactics. The broad interpretation of the AUMF, they argued, gives them the flexibility to deal with the changing threat in a lawful, effective manner.

 

But even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who generally agrees with Graham in pursuing a vigorous war on terror, said the AUMF has been stretched past the breaking point.

 

“This authority … has grown way out of proportion and is no longer applicable to the conditions that prevailed, that motivated the United States Congress to pass the authorization for the use of military force that we did in 2001,” McCain said.

 

“For you to come here and say we don’t need to change it or revise or update it, I think is, well, disturbing,” McCain said, noting that the AUMF also is used to justify things like drone strikes that were never contemplated by Congress. “I don’t blame you because basically you’ve got carte blanche as to what you are doing around the world.”

 

No one suggested specific solutions, but did say the Senate will deal with the problem later this year when the committee takes on the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014.

 

The broad assertion of authority by the military is likely to disturb civil libertarians on the left and right who have complained that the AUMF and a previous version of the NDAA give the military power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens. Obama has issued orders banning such practices, but DOD officials apparently believe the law grants them the power to act anywhere.

One of the Terrorists That America Has Contracted To Fight Our “Humanitarian War” Against Syria

When the Hummus Hits the Fan, Israel Will Choose Bashar al-Assad Over Radical Islamists

Peter Chamberlin

Once again (just as in the recent US Embassy bombing in Ankara) a spectacular terrorist attack takes place in Turkey and the government immediately blames another obscure Marxist terrorist group, that they have conveniently resurrected from Turkey’s distant past.  The individual faction of this group has also allegedly been identified, as “Mirhac Ural,” who has recently been named by the Syrian opposition as the man behind the latest alleged “ethnic cleansing” in a town called Banias, along the Syrian coast (SEE:  Syria: Enter the ethnic cleanser of Banias).

Ural was originally a founding member of TPLP-C (Acilciler), a Marxist/Leftist/revolutionary group which was formed to fight US imperialism within Turkey, specifically, to act as a counter-force to US “Gladio”/”Gray Wolves” operations.  The TPLP-C supported its sister organization, the DHKP/C, which was blamed for the recent bombing outside the American Embassy in Ankara.

Ural is also a close friend of terrorist PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.  He allegedly introduced Bashar al-Assad to Ocalan.  It was allegedly Ural who persuaded Assad to play the “Kurdish” card against Erdogan.  Erdogan thought that he had trumped this move when he negotiated the latest peace agreement with the PKK, until Iraq’s government refused to accept the expatriated Kurdish guerillas.  The Kurds cannot be blamed for using Syrian-based assets against Turkey in this terror bombing in Reyhanli over the denial of new sanctuary in northern Iraq, because the attack was clearly intended to help the Turkish Prime Minister to persuade Obama to intervene in Syria on Turkey’s behalf, and this would not help the Kurds in any conceivable way.

It is claimed in the Saudi/Arab press that Bashar Assad has become desperate in his resistance to the Imperial terrorist invasion, choosing at this time to gather his forces to him in the center of his Alawite home turf, as he ethnically cleansing Syria of the majority Sunnis.  They have reinforced this ethnic cleansing theme in the reports emerging from the Imperial press Turkish outfit, Zaman, about an alleged “Banias massacre.”  This massacre supposedly took place the day after Ural was quoted on YouTube, saying, “We need to cleanse Banias of traitors at the earliest.”

From the video, if it is genuine, it seems that Ural could be a legitimate leader of a Syrian counter-terrorist cell.  If that is true, then he would certainly have plenty of reasons to want to close the supply lines from Turkey.  But there is much more to this incident than this simple explanation.  If Ural is an anti-Islamist fighter, then why would he be immortalized in the Islamist press?  The story about an “Alevi rump state” along the coast of Syria, builds upon Sunni fears that they are about to also be ethnically cleansed from around Hatay, Turkey–Giving them a good reason to fight a sectarian war.  This benefits the Saudi-Israeli alliance, up unto the point where the destabilization plot it increases ethnic tensions on the wrong side of the border.  Proper conflict management prevents the various sub-plots from getting out of control and, as a consequence, over-driving the main destabilization plot and thereby, unintentionally causing the opposite effects, instead of the planned reactions.

Always, in these destabilization plots, there are two primary parties working the target–the destabilizing power and a patsy partner within the target entity (corporation, organization, state) that is to be destabilized.  Since the Saudis and Israel are obviously working together to carry-out the Imperial diktat for the Middle East, then it is clear that it is the Saudis who will eventually be the losing party.  Whether they will lose more than they can afford to pay is the risk that they are willing to take to eject Assad.  It is not in Israel’s interests to see an Islamist victory in Syria, but the Saudis and friends erroneously believe that it is in theirs.  It is unlikely that the Saudis would support an effort to divide Syria if it would harm Turkey, or make it harder to get weapons over the Syrian border to the terrorist front.

If the bombing of Turkey is clearly not in the Islamists’ interests, but does no harm to Israeli interests, then it may mean that Israel is using another PKK-related terror group to rein-in Prince Bandar’s Islamist attack dogs, in order to save Assad, in order to maintain the quagmire in Syria.  Consider the points raised in this piece from Zaman (SEE:  Opposition commander: Assad defeated, we are fighting Iran, Hezbollah).  The Gulenist mouthpiece Zaman interviews an alleged Syrian rebel commander,  of the al-Tawhid Brigade, Commander Abdulkader Saleh.  He makes the extraordinary claim that Israel and Iran are secretly working together against the Syrian terrorists:

“Bashar al-Assad’s regime does not have the strength to carry on its battle against opposition fighters, adding that Iran and Hezbollah are the forces behind the protracted war….Iran and Hezbollah are the ones who are continuing the war in Syria,”  

“Furthermore, Iran and Hezbollah are cooperating with Israel to be able to support Assad. Assad has protected Israel’s border for 40 years,”

“The opposition was going to take over arms, so Israel attacked. There is evidence pointing to this. There were some high-ranking officers with whom [the opposition forces] got into contact. [Those officers] were going to defect from [the Assad administration], handing over arms to the opposition. Israel hit these posts in fear that the opposition would take over the arms. The arms included heavy artillery as well as air defense systems. This assault, of course, was intended to support the Assad administration,” Saleh explained.

The first time I read the Saleh interview, I laughed it all off as nonsense, until I read the article in Foreign Affairs magazine, written by former head of Mossad, Efraim Halevy (1998 to 2002).  He affirmed to the world that Bashar Assad is Israel’s Man in Damascus (or “Why Jerusalem Doesn’t Want the Assad Regime to Fall”).

It is obviously in Israel’s interests to preserve the Assad dynasty, as opposed to the radical, unpredictable Islamists.  It may be impossible to determine the truth about Israeli conniving with Arab leaders until someone makes a big messy mistake.  If there were any honest news sources in the Middle East, then maybe we could figure-out just exactly who has benefitted from Israel’s latest bombings of Syria.  Would the Zionist state really have committed an “act of war” against Syria and Lebanon, just to prevent Hezbollah forces from upgrading a few of their missiles?  Was the Syrian military or government informant/traitor warning Israel about the imminent acquisition of “game-changing weapons” by Hezbollah, or by the Free Syrian Army?

If all of this proves to be true, that Israeli bombers were destroying heavy weapons and killing a lot of Syrian soldiers, in order to keep the weapons out of the hands of Syria’s terrorists, or that Mossad manipulated PKK-related killers to murder more than 40 innocent people in Reyhanli, then what does that say to the rest of the world, which is drowning in despair over the Syrian conflict?   What advantage is there in a Saud/Israeli alliance, when the Israelis are there to play the part of “spoiler” to all of the Islamist plans?  Above all else, Mossad/Israeli objectives are constant and unwavering, to establish Jewish dominance over every square inch of the Middle East, as a stepping stone to Jewish world dominance.  This justifies the spoiler role for Israel, support the Goyim’s plans, until the advantage shifts to Jewish interests, at which time all partners are double-crossed.  

the Saudi Gazette (SEE: Israel’s strategy in Syria ).

“But the bigger threat to Israel is the growth of democracy in the Arab world. If the Arab world were ever to become a democracy, it would expose Israel as the democracy fraud that it is.

Israel fears the Arab Spring because the Arab Spring augments the voices of freedom and calls for freedom throughout the region, not just in the Arab world, but in Israel too. And Israel is one of the most oppressive country’s in the Middle East. Although most Jewish citizens of Israel enjoy unprecedented freedoms and benefits from the state, non-Jews suffer simply because they are non-Jews. Christian Arabs and Muslim Arabs are victimized by Israel both as so-called “citizens” and as imprisoned victims in the occupied lands.”

If the Syrian terrorist forces have suffered devastating losses because of Israeli actions, then they will know the truth–That they have just been attacked by “friendly” forces allied to the Arabs and to the West….This can be expected to be reflected in the spirit of the anti-Assad forces and in their communiques to the outside world.  If they have been demoralized by these betrayals, then they can be expected to show that in subtle ways.  Their positive response to Western calls for an international Syrian peace conference, to be organized jointly by the US and Russia, may be just such a sign.

“Syria’s opposition will consult with backers Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey before it decides whether to take part in a peace conference proposed by the United States and Russia, its acting chief said Monday.”  Syria opposition to consult backers on peace talks.  This is a complete reversal to all previous dismissals of negotiations with Assad out of hand.  Such a conference confirms Obama’s complete reticence in expanding the Syrian conflict into a regional war.  If Erdogan was hoping that the terror bombings in Turkey would sway Obama’s opinion about bringing-in American or NATO support against Syria, then he is likely to be disappointed when they meet in DC this week.

As far as the possibility that Turkey will escalate the confrontation with Syria on its own (SEE: Turkey says it won’t be drawn into Syria conflct), there is very little chance that Erdogan will make this misstep, especially when he cannot really be certain exactly who is on his side.

therearenosunglasses@hotmail.com

NAZI AMERICA

 

NAZI AMERICA IMPRISONS CHRISTIANS

aangirfan

 

Sister Megan Rice

On 8 May 2013, “an 83-year-old nun, Sister Megan Rice, who broke into a Tennessee depleted uranium storage facility in 2012 …. exposing a massive security hole at the nation’s only facility used to store radioactive conventional munitions, was convicted and sentenced to a term of up to 20 years in prison.”

83-year-old-nun-gets-20-year-sentence-for-symbolic-nuclear-facility-break-in

Victim of the US government’s depleted uranium.

Victim of the US government’s depleted uranium.

Victim of the US government’s depleted uranium.

Victim of the US government’s depleted uranium.

Victim of the US government’s depleted uranium.

The USA is a Nazi state.

The USA has very bad karma.

If there is a Hell, it will be mainly filled with Americans, especially those from Tennessee.

Tennessee is filled with Nazis.

Lynching of an innocent black kid in the USA. aangirfan: DUMB WHITE PEOPLE

In 1889 the husband of Jessie Woolen confessed that he had killed his wife.

Earlier, in 1886, Eliza Woods, an African-American woman, was lynched in Jackson, Tennessee, after being wrongly accused of poisoning and killing Jessie Woolen.

A crowd of 1,000 was reportedly present when Woods was hanged naked.

Reportedly, the Nazi CIA tortures innocent Moslems to turn them into mind-controlled al Qaeda operatives to fight in Syria.

NOT QUITE HUMANS—Soul-Less American People Silently Accept the Wholesale Dehumanization of Palestinian People

[It should be setting-off loud alarm bells in vast spaces, far wider than just the inside of my own head, that neither English nor any other known language is capable of adequately describing the excesses to which the American people and Americanized people of the world have sunk.  I am not here referring to any great leaps or accomplishments that have been made by Americans, but to the expansive depths to which we have fallen in our lifelong quest to own all things of value.  The word "hypocritical" is too small and confining as a concept, to begin to describe the audacity of American ambition and the willful self-blindness that feeds that ambition, on our chosen road to total world domination.  Despite these shortcomings, hypocritical is the only word we have to describe the American system of double-standards that we have been forcing upon the world, at a deadly cost of millions of innocent lives lost, so far.  What other word can describe a government that allegedly fights for the Rights of All Mankind, yet actively supports the denial of those same inalienable rights to the Palestinian people?  How is it that "We the People of the United States" can accept the central element of American/Israeli/Arab foreign policy, that "Palestinians" are inferior to every other human being on the face of the planet, since they are born without "inalienable human rights"?  By definition, this makes them less than human, or "sub-humans," a concept made infamous by the first Nazis, our predecessors.  If we continue to accept life under neo-Nazism, then all of humankind is moving headlong into a modern Dark Age.  If, on the other hand, enough Americans awaken to what we have become, in time to prevent the Zionist freight train from running over us all, then despair can be turned into hope.  That would be the potential future worth fighting for.]

IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

By Jafar M Ramini

In an unprincipled, ungodly world, a world that is governed by Mammon, when even your brothers deny you, how could you ever begin to hope for justice?

My fellow humans, this very perplexing paradox is so relevant to the Palestinians in a way that makes it almost blasphemous to contemplate. How could one ever hope for justice when the gatekeeper and the people who are supposedly on your side are, in fact, on the side of your enemy?

The people I am alluding to here are the west and in particular the United States of America and our so-called Arab/Moslem brothers. This message is directed at the USA, not the administration, but the God-fearing, ordinary American people.

Mr. Obama is Israel bound. His citizens (American born and bred) are being arrested, interrogated, abused, humiliated and incarcerated at Israel’s entry points and deported.

Their crime is none other than having Palestinian ancestry. And therein lies the core of the problem. To the Zionist occupiers of our land we don’t exist.

The latest victim of this inhumane policy is an American English teacher by the name of Nour Joudah. This is but a small fragment of what she, an American citizen had to say:

“NJ: I think it is very clear that they want as few people with Palestinian origin in what they consider Israel and the occupied territories because they don’t even want the [Palestinians] that are there. So why in God’s name would they want us returning in any form or fashion, even if it’s for a limited period or for a visit? … They consider no one’s citizenship valuable if you have an Arab name, end of story; your citizenship is completely irrelevant to them and they are [indifferent] to any sort of law or alliances with any other countries. They do what they want arbitrarily and the US embassy and State Department know it”.

They certainly do. We Palestinians are not given any due respect and deference even when we have the required papers and documentation to prove that we are human beings. Because to the Zionists, to the western powers, to many of our so-called Arab and Moslem brothers we are not.

Consider this please:

AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is launching its annual conference at its headquarters in Washington DC this coming Sunday 3rd March.

Why is this big news? Because whatever this Zionist propaganda machine does affects us all. It is no secret that this inhumane organization wields a big stick in American domestic and foreign policies. They are twisting arms, intimidating and cajoling American politicians and lawmakers to serve, not the American people, but a foreign power. ISRAEL.

AIPAC has achieved the utmost influence ever exercised by a foreign agent on a sovereign state for the last sixty years. They made the American Congress subservient and compliant to the needs of Israel not its own citizens, the people of the USA.
As a result, the so-called ‘Special Relationship’ was forged to be specially working for the interests of the Zionist apartheid state of Israel, not the American people. Do you think the Zionist occupiers of Palestine are satisfied with all they have achieved so far? Far from it.

In this coming conference, it’s been reported that AIPAC will lobby (read ‘pressure’) the Congress of the USA to upgrade ‘The Special Relationship with Israel’ to a ‘MAJOR STRATEGIC ALLY’. A status that has never been enjoyed before by any other nation friendly to the USA. Not even any of the most compliant, sniveling and subservient Arab regimes.

Are you worried, America? Are you aware, Americans? Well, you should be. It’s the integrity, reputation and independence of your country that is being compromised.

While the President of the USA is paying homage to his masters in Tel Aviv and our so-called leaders in Ramallah wait in anticipation for him to drop in, can I remind Mr. Obama of those infamous words spoken by that war criminal, ex-Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon:

“WE, THE JEWISH PEOPLE, CONTROL AMERICA. AND THE AMERICANS KNOW IT.” October 3 2001. (IAP news)

Now, with hands on hearts, people of the world, especially Americans, please tell me that my search for justice is not in vain.

Jafar M. Ramini
Salam Wa Laisa Estislam
Peace Not Capitulation

4 Saudi Arabians Arrested After “Al-Qaeda” Bombing Of Catholic Church In Tanzania

[All terrorism linked to Saudis is "al-Qaeda," since the international Islamist terror front would not exist without the Saudis, to instigate the terrorist nightmare of Wahhabi "Shariah" attacks.]

Tanzania police: 4 Saudi Arabian nationals arrested after bomb attack on Catholic church

Associated Press

• 
• 

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania –  A police commander in Tanzania says four Saudi Arabian citizens have been arrested following a bomb attack on a Catholic church.Magesa Mulogo said Monday that the four Saudi nationals were among six people arrested.

Mulongo said two people died in Sunday’s bombing of a newly opened church in the northern city of Arusha. Nearly four dozen people were wounded in the blast just before the church’s inaugural Mass, which was attended by the pope’s envoy to Tanzania.

Mulogo said eyewitnesses reported that the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Mulogo said the driver of the motorcycle is among those arrested.

Once Again UN Staffers Prove That the United Nations Is A Terrorist Institution

[If the Syrian Government uses these so-called "weapons of mass destruction," it is crossing a "red line," which will trigger full-scale American intervention.  Somehow, the use of the same weapons by the Syrian terrorist front is not so bad.  This is hypocrisy on an epic scale.  By trying to downplay the significance of the use of chemical weapons by the Terrorist front, the UN and Western powers reveal their innermost beliefs about terrorism itself--terrorism is only "evil," when committed by those who oppose American world domination.  America and Israel are the source of nearly all state terrorism.  Calling Iran the world sponser of terrorism is just an attempt to mislead the rational world.]

UN commission downplays claim Syria rebels used sarin

 

Carla Del Ponte: “I was a little bit stupefied by the first indication of the use of nerve gas by the opposition”

 

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has sought to distance itself from comments made by one of its members that there was evidence of the nerve gas sarin being used by rebels.

 

Carla Del Ponte said testimony from victims and doctors had given rise to “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof”.

 

But the commission stressed that it had not reached any “conclusive findings”.

 

The US said it had no information to suggest rebel fighters had used sarin.

 

In recent weeks, Western powers have said their own investigations have found evidence that government forces have used chemical weapons.

‘Highly sceptical’

In an interview with Swiss-Italian TV on Sunday, Ms Del Ponte, who serves on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said: “Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals.

 

“According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated.”

 

Sarin, a colourless, odourless gas which can cause respiratory arrest and death, is classed as a weapon of mass destruction and is banned under international law.

 

Both the government and opposition said there had been a chemical weapons attack in the Khan al-Assal area of Aleppo province in March

 

Ms Del Ponte did not rule out the possibility that troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad might also have used chemical weapons, but said further investigation was needed.

 

On Monday, the Commission of Inquiry headed by Brazilian Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, issued a statement “to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict”.

 

“As a result, the commission is not in a position to further comment on the allegations at this time,” it said, adding that it would present its findings to the Human Rights Council on 3 June.

 

 

The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the UN was clearly taken by surprise at Ms Del Ponte’s comments.

 

The use of chemical weapons has been described as a “game-changer” – something that could trigger international military intervention – and UN diplomats know evidence of it will have to be cast-iron before they can accuse either side, our correspondent adds.

 

US officials in Washington also played down Ms Del Ponte’s comments.

 

“The fact of the matter is – as we have said, and I have said many times – that we are highly sceptical of suggestions that the opposition could have or did use chemical weapons,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

 

“We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime. And that remains our position.”

 

Last week, the US and UK said their own investigations suggest government forces had used chemical weapons, including sarin. British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the evidence was quite compelling, but that it would need to be incontrovertible before the case for an international response could be made at the UN.

 

 

The main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, warned against the use of chemical weapons by either side, but said it believed only government forces had the capability.

 

“The coalition condemns all use of chemical weapons, whoever uses them, and it will pursue its investigation and collect evidence on this issue to present to the international commission of inquiry,” a statement said.

 

“If the inquiry proves that any party other than the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons, the coalition will take all legal and appropriate measures, whoever the party is and whatever the reason or motive for the usage might be.”

 

A special UN team, appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to look specifically at possible use of chemical weapons, is ready to enter Syria. However, it wants unimpeded access to all areas of the country, to which the government has so far not agreed.

 

In a separate development on Monday, two rockets fired from Syria exploded on the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, without causing casualties or damage, the Israeli army said.

 

The rocket-fire came amid heightened tensions following a series of Israeli air strikes on targets in southern Syria on Friday and Sunday.

 

Israeli security sources said Sunday’s attacks were aimed at preventing the transfer of advanced Iranian-made missiles to the Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, in neighbouring Lebanon.

 

Syria’s government acknowledged that military installations were hit at three different locations between Damascus and the Lebanese border. TV footage of the aftermath showed huge destruction, and unofficial estimates put the number of Syrian soldiers killed at between 40 and 300.

Turkey vs Iraq–We Are Witnessing the Next Regional War Setting-Up In The Middle East

[Obama and all previous American presidents like to lead, until plans go sour, then it becomes advantageous to let our underlings take the heat for us.  We are now letting Turkey "take one for the team" all over the Middle East and in parts of Central Asia, as they become the focal point for the anti-Iranian ambitions of the Gulf/Israeli coalition, who carry the ball for Western interests in the Mideast.  The Sunni Gulf States help provide the black ops financing to the Saudi Islamist project (otherwise known as "al-Qaeda"), which supplies the foot soldiers for Israel's terrorist operations throughout the Muslim world.  The Mossad, helps the CIA and the Pentagon to locate and acquire the weapons needed by this Sunni "Islamist" army, which facilitates CIA plans for a regional war, stretching from Central Africa into Pakistan.  In both Iraq and in Syria, Turkey is fully prepared to accept global oppobrium for having led the charge straight into a grand civil war within Islam itself. 

opprobrium \uh-PRO-bree-uhm\ , noun:
1. Disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt.
2. A cause or object of reproach or disgrace.

Perhaps the saddest part of this grand tragedy is that the tragic civil war unfolding in Iraq was always part of a cleverly crafted plan, a plan designed to amplify the great conflict within Islam, the never-ending argument between the Sunni and Shia faiths.  One side teaches that the Quran's authority and the mantle of The Prophet (PBUH) rests upon the actual bloodline of Mohammad (PBUH), the Shia opinion, the other side teaches that the Muslim elite should choose the most popular scholar of the Quran (Sunni).  The Sunnis even elevate the teachings of these Islamic scholars to a level of prominence equal to that of the Sacred Book itself. 

The American/British/Israeli "Zionist" plan to throw all of our weight behind the Sunnis in this conflict (intending to force a violent resolution of the issue) is obviously immoral, thus necessitating the American need for cover, whenever this ugly fact threatens to be revealed, that Christian/Judaic powers are waging a covert "Crusade" against Islam.  This Judeo-Christian Crusade to destroy Islam would never have been possible without the Sunni collaborators from the Middle East who have actually executed the plan.  Turkey stands at the top of this long list of Islamic traitor nations, who have collaborated intimately with the West to destroy the faith of 1.3 billion Muslims.  As long as the great Muslim majority can be kept in the dark about the Arab/Israeli union at the center of this Crusade they can be expected to allow all of this to continue indefinitely, enabling Turkey to escape that well-deserved popular revulsion for its acts of treachery.]

Saadun al-Dulaimi: Turkey controls Sunni protests against Maliki

BAGHDAD – Acting Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi on Sunday accused Turkey of controlling Sunni anti-government protests in Iraq, saying the demonstrations are a haven for “terrorists and killers.”

“There are foreign agendas controlling these sites,” Dulaimi said of the protests.

“It is like Anbar, or Mosul or Samarra are part of the Ottoman Empire,” he said, referring to Sunni areas in Iraq.

Areas of what is now Iraq were part of the Ottoman Empire, which was governed from Istanbul in what is now Turkey, before the empire’s dissolution after World War I.

Ties between Baghdad and Ankara have been strained by issues including Turkey hosting Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq’s fugitive former vice president who has been sentenced to death on charges including murder.

Dulaimi also had harsh words for the protesters themselves.

“Shame… on those sites that are opening their doors to Istanbul or any other country,” he said.

“Protest sites have become a safe haven for terrorists and killers and those who call for strife, sectarianism and hate.”

The protests broke out in Sunni areas of Shiite-majority Iraq more than four months ago.

Demonstrators have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and criticised authorities for allegedly targeting their community with wrongful detentions and accusations of involvement in terrorism.

On April 23, security forces moved on protesters near the town of Hawijah in Kirkuk province, sparking clashes that killed 53 people.

Dozens more died in subsequent unrest that included revenge attacks targeting security forces, raising fears of a return to the all-out sectarian conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives between 2006 and 2008.

 

 

Irregular Army –the Poisonous Legacy of Donald Rumsfeld’s Privatization Plans

Irregular Army: A Conversation With Matt Kennard

Michael Busch, Lecturer, Departments of Political Science and International Studies, The City College of New York

This past March marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a decade of fighting, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, destroyed an entire country, and destabilized the broader Middle East. As journalist Matt Kennard argues in his new book, Irregular Army, the war in Iraq — as well as that in Afghanistan — also had deleterious consequences for the U.S. military itself. Faced with declining enlistment numbers as fighting dragged on year after year with no clear end in sight, Kennard shows that the American armed forces looked for alternatives to populate its ranks. In the process, regulations were weakened, rewritten and in some cases, not enforced.

The results are disturbing. According to Kennard, the military was suddenly tolerating the open presence of white power extremists and street gang members in the rolls, and actively recruiting physically and psychologically unfit Americans to fill enlistment gaps. While evidence suggests that these lax recruitment standards have already resulted in death and murder on the battlefield, the consequences could prove equally upsetting here at home. If the Sikh temple massacre is any indication of what may be in store, Kennard’s argument that the United States faces an uncertain future as these veterans return from home from war couldn’t be more urgent.

I recently spoke with Kennard about his research into these issues, how government brass has responded to these threats to the integrity of its armed forces, and what the irregular American army might mean for Americans in the years to come.

The 10th anniversary of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq just passed this week. Give us a sense of how the American military has changed in the last decade, and what it looks like today.

What happened to the American military, and I’m not the only one to point this out, during the War on Terror and up to this day constitutes in some ways the biggest change the American military has ever gone through, at least since the beginning of the 20th century. What was implemented during the War on Terror was a massive restructuring of the Pentagon under the aegis of Donald Rumsfeld, who had this plan to eviscerate the civilian U.S. military and replace it with private contractors. This has come to be called “transformation” in specialist circles. He made this famous speech the day before 9/11 where he said that he wanted to “modernize” the military, corporate speak for privatization of the military. “We have to update our enlistment techniques, our training techniques,” and the like. Under all the rhetoric was a plan to really scale down the Department of Defense, and replace it with companies like Blackwater and other groups.

There was also a strategic shift that was part of this transformation that recognized that as the cold war wound down the United States no longer needed large land armies. Many of the so-called neo-conservatives had grown apoplectic during the 1990s with Clinton’s “humanitarian intervention” in Kosovo, and earlier Somalia. They believed that the U.S. military should be used only to secure U.S. national interests, without even the patina of altruism. (Ironically, of course, Clinton’s wars were not the beneficent operations that the neocons made out.) The new threats facing the United States were asymmetrical, they were no longer state-based in nature but came instead from non-state terrorist groups.

Anyway, there were significant disagreements with this new proposed posture. Colin Powell, who had previously been the highest ranking officer in the military, argued that Washington needed to maintain a serious, large land army that could be deployed quickly in the case of emergency. In the end, Rumsfeld won out and the invasion of Iraq happened with many less troops than Powell and Eric Shinseki, chief of staff the army at the time, wanted.

Eventually, after Iraq failed to go as planned, Powell and Shinseki were proved right — that the American army really couldn’t just go into a place like Iraq, smash the place up, and then get out within a couple of years. They were in a quagmire there, and this was shown to be the case again in Afghanistan. As the wars got worse over time, and in the absence of conscription, the military found itself needing more and more personnel — precisely the opposite of what Donald Rumsfeld had wanted or foreseen. In order to do this, to pump up its numbers, the military began to change its regulations. They did this with some groups quite openly. For example, they raised the ceiling age for enlistment, from 35 to 40, and then again to 42, because they didn’t get the numbers they needed the first time.

The stuff that I looked into were the groups that the military was a little more embarrassed about — from white supremacists to street gang members to criminals. For some reason, I’m the only journalist who’s done serious work on the presence of gangs and neo-Nazis in the American military. There’s been quite a lot of work done on criminals in the army. Henry Waxman investigated the presence of serious criminals in the military, and prized important information from the Pentagon that they had been trying to hide. Over the last 10 years, you’ve seen a complete realignment of who can qualify as a soldier in the United States military.

Now, I’ve never been a big fan of the military adventures of the United States, but everyone knows that the standards in the U.S. military were always quite high. This was especially the case after Vietnam — 25 years were spent basically rejigging the military so that the standards were high. During the War on Terror, all of this was completely jettisoned. So what we have now is a military that is not held up as an exemplar of professionalism around the world, but as an example of what happens to a military when there aren’t enough troops and the government is too scared to institute conscription.

There are questions, of course, about how this will play out moving forward. Take the Libya intervention by NATO, for example: the whole debate was rehashed again. Barack Obama and his Defense Secretary Robert Gates actually endorsed the Rumsfeldian idea that the United States needed to slim down, while George Casey, the chief of staff of the Army, warned against “hollowing out” the U.S. military. If some state-based enemy rises again and the U.S. military has to deal with it, you’ll probably see the exact same issues crop up once more. And in fact, if you look into it, you’ll find that many of the standards haven’t been restored to their former levels even though recruiting quality troops has gotten easier with the current economic crisis. The military is unrecognizable now from what it was when the War on Terror started. And that’s not a mistake. It’s basically become exactly how Rumsfeld envisioned it: a hallowed out military replaced by private contractors working alongside special forces. Jeremy Scahill’s new book, Dirty Wars, documents how JSOC, assorted elite units are now carrying out many of the tasks that were previously the responsibility of the American military, often with “black budgets” out of sight of Congress and U.S. citizens. Everyone says that the war on Iraq was a massive personal failure for Rumsfeld, but in fact, in many ways, his vision has won out.

The most disturbing finding of your research is the extent to which white power extremists have penetrated the United States military, something which first came to light as far back as the mid-1970s. How do they get in? What happens when they get discovered? What have been the most immediate consequences of their presence in war zones?

It is important to note that there are a raft of regulations that govern the presence of white supremacists, both during the recruitment phase, and then afterwards if they are discovered within the ranks. But the trouble with these regulations is that they’ve always been reactive. So you have cases where white supremacist cells have been exposed on different bases, dating back to the 1970s. And every time this happens, whether that is a neo-Nazi killing another soldier, or killing someone in a nearby town to a base, every time there is a short-term outpouring of anger, the military responds by saying that they have tightened regulations. The first time something like this happened, in 1976, the military said being in a white supremacist organization was inconsistent with service. That can be interpreted any way you want. To my mind, the ambiguity related to the regulation of white supremacists is deliberate, i.e., the military doesn’t want these people in the military, but in times when they can’t afford to kick troops out, the regulations allow them enough leeway to ignore it, or have enough plausible deniability, to leave these people in.

During the War on Terror, regulations were not adhered at all. So, for example, you had people who were able to get into the military with swastikas tattooed on their skin. I spoke with the head of recruitment for the United States army about this, he said, “well, there’s first amendment rights.” If someone says they like the way swastikas look, or claim that they are Indian symbols which look very similar, then the commander can basically blow it off. So, there are regulations on tattoos — which are frequently the best indicators for recruiters of extremism — that were broadly ignored.

And then you had the other side, when these people are discovered after they are already in, there are other regulations to deal with that. So, if you are caught posting messages on websites like StormFront, or writing racist messages on places like the New Saxon, a sort of neo-Nazi Facebook, you can be disciplined, and maybe even kicked out of the military altogether. But that didn’t happen, either. In fact, I received reports from the Criminal Investigative Command (CID), which is the criminal investigative arm of the Army, about what happened to white supremacists when they were caught. Some of it is really shocking. In one instance, a soldier passed a military explosives manual to the leader of a white supremacist group. In the report I received from the CID, the military terminated the investigation because the soldier in question had been shipped off to Iraq. This is somebody who may have been planning a domestic terrorist attack! Jaw-dropping.

There are obviously first amendment rights. But if you are training, equipping and then sending white supremacists to a country of brown people, I think that really does trump first amendment rights. I focus on the War on Terror, but there is also the case of Michael Wade Page, who carried out the Sikh Temple Massacre last August. He was serving in the 1990s, a period during which there was supposedly a harsh crackdown on white supremacists in the military, by the military, following the Oklahoma City bombing. Well, Stars and Stripes interviewed friends of Page, who told the paper that he was completely open about his Neo-Nazism while in the Army.

But it’s not just white power groups that are populating the military. Other gangs have also colonized the American armed forces. Can you talk about what other gang activity exists within the military?

It’s tempting to focus on the problem of white supremacists in the military when thinking about undesirable elements in the armed forces. It makes sense — these people often have goals which are terrorist goals. They want to kill people to further the cause of racial holy war. But in terms of numbers, and everyday violence, the street gangs problem in the military is much more serious. I have spoken with security experts who estimate that up to 10 percent of the American military is made up of gang-affiliated troops.

During the height of the War on Terror, we saw it all along the border, where active duty soldiers carried out the murders of other soldiers, not to mention of the enemies of local drug traffickers nearby to the bases. Gangs see the military as a good way to traffic drugs — when soldiers are on a base, they are not subject to the same rigorous law enforcement as you are when you are civilian. Cartels look to recruit soldiers who are on bases, or recruit soldiers especially those stationed at Fort Bliss and Fort Hood, both in Texas and hotbeds of this kind of activity.

We’ve seen evidence of this up to this day. Recently, there was a case in which the DEA carried out a sting operation on a group of soldiers. DEA officers posed as a representative of a Mexican drug cartel, and offered the soldiers money in return for carrying out hits against rival factions. The soldiers agreed. The DEA knew this was a good tack to take, because they’re very aware that trafficking groups are in constant contact with active duty personnel.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dragged on, you show that the military increasingly focused on recruiting kids and older adults to serve in the armed forces. How did they go about doing this, and what have been the consequences?

The most serious consequences have been the number of people who have died. I focus on older people and the young in my book. The military has regulation on the issue of age. It used to be that no one over the age of 35 could be recruited into the military. That changed during the War on Terror when the age was raised, first to 40 and then to 42 years of age, because they were struggling to find troops. That regulation wasn’t arbitrary. When soldiers are older than 35, they face higher risks on the battlefield related to psychology and physical fitness. I discuss a couple of soldiers in the book who died during their service, likely as a result of their relatively advanced age. For example, Staff Sergeant William Chaney, a Vietnam War died of a blood clot aged 59 during Operation Iraqi Freedom, after surgery for a medical condition and appendix problem that had necessitated his evacuation from Iraq. Another soldier, Steven Hutchison, who was a veteran of Vietnam and had experienced the Tet Offensive — died in an IED attack in Iraq after being recruited on the “retiree recall” program. He was killed a month shy of his 61st birthday. So that’s the most serious consequence — people have died as a result of these changes.

The other consequence has to do with the moral issue of colonizing the high schools of America. It’s not well-known about, but No Child Left Behind Act — which was passed with great bipartisan fanfare in 2001 — has a small caveat which mandates that schools turn over the phone numbers and addresses of all their students to military recruiters or face funding cuts if they refused. At first, this wasn’t used much because the War on Terror hadn’t yet started. But when troop deficits became a chronic issue, it began to be used all the time. Recruiters spent a decade terrorizing high school students — cold calling them, turning up at their houses, turning up at their schools — trying to persuade them to go to war.

There was one famous case where a high school student recorded a recruiter telling him that his life would be finished if he exited the Delayed Enlistment Program (DEP). Under the DEP, students can sign up for the military while still in high school — basically promising to join the military upon graduation. But it is not binding. But many students aren’t told it isn’t binding. In this case, the student recorded the recruiter telling him that if he failed to honor the DEP, he wouldn’t be able to get loans for college, wouldn’t ever be able to find a job, and the like. It didn’t work on this one kid, because he was smart and decided to record his conversations with the recruiter. But you can imagine how often these sorts of tactics, and this kind of manipulation, do work on young people. And you can imagine how many of these young people were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq, and in all likelihood some of them have died. In combination, then, these two sides of the age issue highlight an overriding moral issue, and that is the fact that tons of people who should have never been sent to war, were — many to their deaths.

You suggest that the full consequences of the irregular army cobbled together by the United States haven’t yet been fully realized. Are we in for an irregular future? If so, how?

In my opinion, the War on Terror — which was fought mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in other places as well — is now coming home. All of the extremists that the Pentagon allowed into the military during the War on Terror are coming back to the United States, and not to become priests. These people have their own goals, and they will spend the next decade or two attempting to bring these goals forward. We see this in smaller scale following the first Gulf War. Take the Oklahoma City bombing, which took place a few years after the United States withdrew from Iraq the first time. These things have a fairly long incubation period. My sense is that because the military has trained so many crazy people in advanced weaponry and tactics over the past ten years, there will be cases — hopefully not as serious as the Oklahoma City bombing — like the Sikh Temple Massacre, cases where the violence of disgruntled veterans with a racial bone to pick, or any other really, will be taken out on random civilians.

We are seeing that slowly. Recently, there was a case in which a group of soldiers had formed their own militia at Fort Stewart in Georgia and were planning to assassinate President Obama and poison Washington State’s apple crop. According to prosecutors the soldiers had spent nearly $90,000 on guns and bomb components. Thankfully, this plan was busted, but we have to ask ourselves: how many similar cells like this are in the United States, and how long will it take for us to see them act out their fantasies? I’m not particularly optimistic about the future on this front. There’s another point that must be made, as well. It is sometimes said that a country’s military is a reflection of the population from which it is drawn. Many problems we witnessed in military during the War on Terror were reflections of a society that was changing under the stress of fear that was inflicted on the American population. We can point to the rising numbers of convicted felons allowed into the military, but that was merely a reflection of the increasing number of people being locked up across the country. We can point to the increasing numbers of overweight soldiers allowed to serve in the military, but again, this is just a reflection of an increasingly obese American society. So in a sense, many of the troubles experienced by the U.S. military right now are a reflection of a society which is going backwards in key respects, not forwards. Hopefully this will change. But there are very few indicators right now to suggest this is likely to happen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-busch/irregular-army-book_b_3135051.html?utm_hp_ref=books

The American Plan To Liberalize “Islam”

[In 2003, long before any hint of an "Arab spring," the RAND Corp. produced the following document (click on title for pdf).  This is the strategy which has been followed by Barack Obama since Day One.  If the strategy is not a crime against humanity, or at least against religion itself, then it should be, since no man has the right to alter someone else's religion.  That is exactly what this strategy proposes and Obama has been fully committed to, changing Islam itself, from the inside out.  Liberalize it, so that it becomes as acceptable to the international community as any other religion.  This means removing all of the bloody parts of Islam, in order to manufacture a new liberalized product which resembles Sufi Islam, which is an acceptable substitute for Wahhabism. 

RAND proposes that we now introduce this Sufi-like anti-Wahhabism, in order to undo what we have done with the CIA's grand experiment in using American military power as a tool for social engineering.  The weaponized "Islam," followed by the weaponization of the Afghan "mujahedeen," who had received the new synthetic "Islam," produced the first generation of "jihadi" "holy warriors."   The incalculable damage which has been done to peace-loving Islam since then, by the introduction of the CIA's weaponized Wahhabi Islam to the Muslim world over the past three-and-a-half decades, is now to be undone in just one "Spring," or a half-dozen?  The scale of the arrogance shown by the American meddlers in purposely doing this, and now attempting to undo what they have done, in order to gain further advantage, is on the level of a Hitler, or a Mussolini. 

When is Obama, or some other evil wise ass going to straighten-out the deficiencies in Christianity, or (God forbid!) Judaism?  We have no right by any stretch of the imagination to do what has been laid-out in the 88-pages of Civil Democratic Islam.]

Civil Democratic Islam

RAND CORP.

2003 RAND Corporation

iii
PREFACE
The Islamic world is involved in a struggle to determine its own nature and values,
with serious implications for the future. What role can the rest of the world,
threatened and affected as it is by this struggle, play in bringing about a more
peaceful and positive outcome?
Devising a judicious approach requires a finely grained understanding of the
ongoing ideological struggle within Islam, to identify appropriate partners and
set realistic goals and means to encourage its evolution in a positive way.
The United States has three goals in regard to politicized Islam. First, it wants to
prevent the spread of extremism and violence. Second, in doing so, it needs to
avoid the impression that the United States is “opposed to Islam.” And third, in
the longer run, it must find ways to help address the deeper economic, social,
and political causes feeding Islamic radicalism and to encourage a move toward
development and democratization.
The debates and conflicts that mark the current Islamic world can make the
picture seem confusing. It becomes easier to sort the actors if one thinks of
them not as belonging to distinct categories but as falling along a spectrum.
Their views on certain critical marker issues help to locate them correctly on
this spectrum.
It is then possible to see which part of the spectrum is generally compatible
with our values, and which is fundamentally inimical. On this basis, this report
identifies components of a specific strategy.
This report should be of interest to scholars, policymakers, students, and all
others interested in the Middle East, Islam, and political Islam.

****************************

Chapter Three
A PROPOSED STRATEGY

The problem of Islamic radicalism—its manifestations, its underlying causes,
and its propensity to meld with other social and political conflicts—makes this
an extremely complex issue. There is no one correct approach or response, and
there certainly is not one identifiable “fix.” Instead, what is called for is a mixed
approach that rests on firm and decisive commitment to our own fundamental
values and understands that tactical and interest-driven cooperation is simply
not possible with some of the actors and positions along the spectrum of
political Islam but that possesses a sequence of flexible postures suitable to
different contexts, populations, and countries.
This approach seeks to strengthen and foster the development of civil, democratic
Islam and of modernization and development. It provides the necessary
flexibility to deal with different settings appropriately, and it reduces the danger
of unintended negative effects. The following outline describes what such a
strategy might look like:
• Support the modernists first, enhancing their vision of Islam over that of the
traditionalists by providing them with a broad platform to articulate and
disseminate their views. They, not the traditionalists, should be cultivated
and publicly presented as the face of contemporary Islam.
• Support the secularists on a case-by-case basis.
• Encourage secular civic and cultural institutions and programs.
• Back the traditionalists enough to keep them viable against the fundamentalists
(if and wherever those are our choices) and to prevent a closer
alliance between these two groups. Within the traditionalists, we should
selectively encourage those who are the relatively better match for modern
civil society. For example, some Islamic law schools are far more amenable
to our view of justice and human rights than are others.
• Finally, oppose the fundamentalists energetically by striking at vulnerabilities
in their Islamic and ideological postures, exposing things that neither the youthful idealists in their target audience nor the pious traditionalists
can approve of: their corruption, their brutality, their ignorance, the bias
and manifest errors in their application of Islam, and their inability to lead
and govern.
Some additional, more-direct activities will be necessary to support this overall
approach, such as the following:
• Help break the fundamentalist and traditionalist monopoly on defining,
explaining, and interpreting Islam.
• Identify appropriate modernist scholars to manage a Web site that answers
questions related to daily conduct and offers modernist Islamic legal opinions.
• Encourage modernist scholars to write textbooks and develop curricula.
• Publish introductory books at subsidized rates to make them as available as
the tractates of fundamentalist authors.
• Use popular regional media, such as radio, to introduce the thoughts and
practices of modernist Muslims to broaden the international view of what
Islam means and can mean.

****************************

Appendix C
STRATEGY IN DEPTH

The following describes, in somewhat more detail, how the recommendations
in Chapter Three could be implemented.
BASIC POINTS OF THE STRATEGY
Build Up a Modernist Leadership
Create role models and leaders. Modernists who risk persecution should be
built up as courageous civil rights leaders, which indeed they are. There are
precedents showing that this can work. Nawal Al-Sadaawi achieved international
renown for enduring persecution, harassment, and attempts to prosecute
her in court on account of her principled modernist stand on issues related to
freedom of speech, public health, and the status of women in Egypt. Afghan
interim minister of women’s affairs Sima Samar inspired many with her outspoken
stance on human rights, women’s rights, civil law, and democracy, for
which she faced death threats by fundamentalists. There are many others
throughout the Islamic world whose leadership can similarly be featured.
Include modern, mainstream Muslims in political “outreach” events, to reflect
demographic reality. Avoid artificially “over-Islamizing the Muslims”; instead,
accustom them to the idea that Islam can be just one part of their identity.1
Support civil society in the Islamic world. This is particularly important in situations
of crisis, refugee situations, and postconflict situations, in which a democratic
leadership can emerge and gain practical experience through local NGOs
and other civic associations. On the rural and neighborhood levels, as well, civic
associations are an infrastructure that can lead to political education and a
moderate, modernist leadership.
______________
1This idea is more extensively developed in Al-Azmah (1993). Al-Azmah is himself a “Euro-Muslim.”

 

Develop Western Islam: German Islam, U.S. Islam, etc. This requires gaining a
better understanding of the composition, as well as the evolving practice and
thought, in these communities. Assist in eliciting, expressing, and “codifying”
their views.
Go on the Offensive Against Fundamentalists
Delegitimize individuals and positions associated with extremist Islam. Make
public the immoral and hypocritical deeds and statements of self-styled fundamentalist
authorities. Allegations of Western immorality and shallowness are
a cherished part of the fundamentalist arsenal, but they are themselves highly
vulnerable on these fronts.
Encourage Arab journalists in popular media to do investigative reporting on
the lives and personal habits and corruption of fundamentalist leaders. Publicize
incidents that highlight their brutality—such as the recent deaths of Saudi
schoolgirls in a fire when religious police physically prevented Saudi firefighters
from evacuating the girls from their burning school building because they were
not veiled—and their hypocrisy, illustrated by the Saudi religious establishment,
which forbids migrant workers from receiving photographs of their newborn
children on the grounds that Islam forbids human images, while their own
offices are decorated by huge portraits of King Faisal, etc. The role of “charitable
organizations” in financing terror and extremism has begun to be more clearly
understood since September 11 but also deserves ongoing and public investigation.
Assertively Promote the Values of Western Democratic Modernity
Create and propagate a model for prosperous, moderate Islam by identifying
and actively aiding countries or regions or groups with the appropriate views.
Publicize their successes. For example, the 1999 Beirut Declaration for Justice
and the National Action Charter of Bahrain broke new ground in the application
of Islamic law and should be made more widely known.
Criticize the flaws of traditionalism. Show the causal relationship between
traditionalism and underdevelopment, as well as the causal relationship
between modernity, democracy, progress, and prosperity. Do fundamentalism
and traditionalism offer Islamic society a healthy, prosperous future? Are they
successfully meeting the challenges of the day? Do they compare well with
other social orders? The UNDP social development report (UNDP, 2002) points
clearly to the linkage between a stagnant social order, oppression of women,
poor educational quality, and backwardness. This message should be energetically
taken to Muslim populations.

Build up the stature of Sufism. Encourage countries with strong Sufi traditions
to focus on that part of their history and to include it in their school curricula.
Pay more attention to Sufi Islam.
Focus on Education and Youth
Committed adult adherents of radical Islamic movements are unlikely to be
easily influenced into changing their views. The next generation, however, can
conceivably be influenced if the message of democratic Islam can be inserted
into school curricula and public media in the pertinent countries. Radical fundamentalists
have established massive efforts to gain influence over education
and are unlikely to give up established footholds without a struggle. An equally
energetic effort will be required to wrest this terrain from them.
SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT THE STRATEGY
Thus, to accomplish the overall strategy, it will be necessary to
• Support the modernists and mainstream secularists first, by
— publishing and distribute their works
— encouraging them to write for mass audiences and youth
— introducing their views into the curriculum of Islamic education
— giving them a public platform
— making their opinions and judgments on fundamental questions of
religious interpretation available to a mass audience, in competition
with those of the fundamentalists and traditionalists, who already have
Web sites, publishing houses, schools, institutes, and many other vehicles
for disseminating their views
— positioning modernism as a “counterculture” option for disaffected
Islamic youth
— facilitating and encouraging awareness of pre- and non-Islamic history
and culture, in the media and in the curricula of relevant countries
— encouraging and supporting secular civic and cultural institutions and
programs.
• Support the traditionalists against the fundamentalists, by
— publicizing traditionalist criticism of fundamentalist violence and
extremism and encouraging disagreements between traditionalists and
fundamentalists
— preventing alliances between traditionalists and fundamentalists

— encouraging cooperation between modernists and traditionalists who
are closer to that end of the spectrum, increase the presence and profile
of modernists in traditionalist institutions
— discriminating between different sectors of traditionalism
— encouraging those with a greater affinity to modernism—such as the
Hanafi law school as opposed to others to issue religious opinions that,
by becoming popularized, can weaken the authority of backward
Wahhabi religious rulings
— encouraging the popularity and acceptance of Sufism.
• Confront and oppose the fundamentalists, by
— challenging and exposing the inaccuracies in their views on questions
of Islamic interpretation
— exposing their relationships with illegal groups and activities
— publicizing the consequences of their violent acts
— demonstrating their inability to rule to the benefit and positive development
of their communities
— targeting these messages especially to young people, to pious traditionalist
populations, to Muslim minorities in the West, and to women
— avoiding showing respect or admiration for the violent feats of fundamentalist
extremists and terrorists, instead casting them as disturbed
and cowardly rather than evil heroes
— encouraging journalists to investigate issues of corruption, hypocrisy,
and immorality in fundamentalist and terrorist circles.
• Selectively support secularists, by
— encouraging recognition of fundamentalism as a shared enemy, discouraging
secularist alliances with anti-U.S. forces on such grounds as
nationalism and leftist ideology
— supporting the idea that religion and the state can be separate in Islam,
too, and that this does not endanger the faith.

The West Masterminded Chechen War to Destroy USSR and Russia

[Armenia's unique history make it highly unlikely that an Armenian would convert to radical Wahhabi "Islam" (SEE: Did 'Misha' influence Tsarnaevs? In Watertown, doubts ).]

The West Masterminded Chechen War to Destroy USSR and Russia – June, 2010

 

It is now known that the twenty year old Islamic insurgency in the Caucasus (according to many experts an Al-Qaeda operation) and the arming of Georgia had been an integral part of a long-term Western plan to wrestle the northern Caucasus region away from Russian control and place it under what some experts refer to as an Islamic Caliphate. Ankara, Baku and Tbilisi, as well as a steady stream of Islamic militants trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, were the active participants in this agenda throughout much of the 1990s. Its funding and organization was carried out by a consortium of special interests in Washington and London and, most probably, in Tel Aviv and Riyadh as well. It is also now known that Western intelligence agencies also conspired to force Russia out of the Balkans (Yugoslavia in particular) and Central Asia by targeting pro-Russian bastions in those regions.

As it has been since the early 1980s, radical Islam was always the readily accessible tool the West exploited to carryout its geopolitical agenda.

Why should this seemingly Russian problem concern us Armenians? Armenians in general, diasporans in particular, seem to be having a hard time accepting that a weakened Russia in the Caucasus poses a serious long-term threat for Armenia. Those amongst us that do not possess clearness of thought regarding this matter, I would just like to say that the Caucasus without an effective Russian presence would prove disastrous not only for Armenia but for the entire Eurasian continent. Joining three important geopolitical zones – Europe, Asia and the Middle East – the Caucasus region is the gateway to Russia’s vulnerable south, its soft underbelly. The region is also a major hub for the strategic transfer of Eurasian energy and trade. Strategic planners have long realized that those who are able to control this region could potentially impact much of Eurasia and beyond.

As we all know, the Caucasus is not a bastion of Christianity or western civilization. The heavily Turkic and Islamic cultural and ethnic makeup of the region in question would not tolerate a non-aligned, a non-Turkic or a non-Islamic power in their midst – without a major outside power acting as a guarantor or as a counter weight. Against this Islamic and Turkic center-of-gravity, the Russian presence has been the only counter-influence in the region for the past two hundred years. And it is precisely because of this geopolitical reality in the Caucasus that we Armenians have been able to establish nation-state.

It is quite frightening that unbeknownst to most Armenians, because our collective attention has naturally been drawn to the Caucasus region’s east-west geopolitical plane, the northern Caucasus was actually on the verge of a radical Islamic/Turkic transformation throughout much of the 1990s. There is no doubt today that had the northern Caucasus fell victim to this agenda it would have been the south’s turn not much long thereafter.

In short, without a Russian presence in the Caucasus, the region in question will eventually transform itself into a Turkic/Islamic cesspool; and not even a million of our “fedayees” would be able to stop it from happening.

Had Western intentions for the Caucasus succeeded not only would we Armenians be lamenting the lose of Nagorno Karabakh today we would most probably be lamenting the lose of our fledgling republic as well. Under such a geopolitical scenario for the region, a best case scenario for Armenia would have been if it simply become politically and economically subordinate to Ankara, Baku and Tbilisi.

Those who complain about Armenia’s current dependence on Moscow need to take this geopolitical prospect into serious consideration.

Although Vladimir Putin’s Russia succeeded in crushing the Islamic terror onslaught in the northern Caucasus in the early 2000s and managed to defeat the Western backed regime in Georgia in 2008, Moscow nevertheless realizes that a potential threat continues to remain in the region. As a result, as long as ethnic Russians run the show in the Kremlin, Moscow will do everything in its power to have a strong presence in the Caucasus. And needless to say, Armenia is pivotal to the Kremlin’s regional agenda. As a result of the major setbacks suffered by Islamists and the West, Ankara has more-or-less abandoned its pan-Turkic agenda in the Caucasus and Central Asia and is currently seeking to move closer to Moscow.

Nevertheless, despite Ankara’s best efforts to befriend the Bear, Turks continue to fear Russia’s resurgence.

The following video presentations and articles deal with this topic. Those interested in learning more about the Islamic insurgency in the Caucasus and the grave threat it posed to the entire Caucasus region should read the following book – Chechen Jihad: http://www.amazon.com/Chechen-Jihad-Qaedas-Training-Ground/dp/0060841702

Arevordi

Dutch Govt. Report On Massacre At Srebrenica

http://www.srebrenica.nl/

Nederlands

English

• Research assignment
• Presentation speech
• Press release
• Summary for the press
• Report

Srebrenica > English > Report >

Print

Below you find the table of contents of the English version of the report. The main items are links to parts of the report. By clicking the link you can open a pdf-file of the part. The complete report is around 26 MB in size.

VOLUME I

Prologue / The history preceding the conflict: Yugoslavia up till 1991

1. The era up till 1945
2. Tito’s Yugoslavia
3. The era after Tito
4. Yugoslavia during the Serbian presidency of Slobodan Milošević
5. The West and Yugoslavia before the crisis

Part I The Yugoslavian problem and the role of the West 1991-1994

Introduction

1. Europe confronted with war in Slovenia: June-July 1991
2. The war in Croatia and the western reaction
3. Recognition of Croatia and Slovenia and the significance of that for Bosnia
4. UNPROFOR and the Dutch contribution
5. The start of the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina: March 1992 – May 1992
6. Emotionalization of the debate following reports about the camps (‘Omarska’): June 1992 – August 1992
7. The Autumn after ‘London’: September 1992 – October 1992
8. Safe Areas as spin-offs from humanitarian action: November 1992 – December 1992
9. The rapes in Bosnia and the Vance-Owen peace plan, January 1993 – February 1993
10. Srebrenica under siege
11. Bankruptcy of the international community – the Netherlands as a catalyser: May to July 1993
12. The Owen-Stoltenberg plan: June 1993 – September 1993
13. Offering the Airmobile Brigade: August 1993 – November 1993
14. Interim balance
15. Problems with implementation

VOLUME II

Part II Dutchbat in the enclave Srebrenica

1. The organizational structure of UNPROFOR
2. The history preceding the conflict in Eastern Bosnia up until the establishment of the Safe Area
3. Srebrenica under UN protection: demilitarized and Safe Area (March – June 1992)
4. Srebrenica in the time of CanBat – the humanitarian situation and the arrival of the NGOs
5. The preparation and dispatch of Dutchbat
6. Operational performance of Dutchbat I, II and III in the Safe Area Srebrenica
7. Dutchbat in the enclave – the local perspective
8. Peacekeeping and humanitarian action
9. How Dutchbat functioned internally until the VRS attack
10. Srebrenica from the national and international point of view

Part III The fall of Srebrenica

1. The military and political situation in the Spring of 1995
2. Air power: Close Air Support and air strikes
3. No air actions on release of the hostages: a deal between Janvier and Mladić?
4. The mood in the enclave: May – July 1995
5. The period from 25 May 1995 to 6 July 1995
6. The Fall of Srebrenica: 6 to 11 July 1995
7. 6 – 11 July 1995 – retrospective accounts
8. Plans to re-take Srebrenica
9. The departure of Dutchbat from Srebrenica

VOLUME III

Part IV The repercussion and the aftermath until the end of 1995

1. The journey from Srebrenica to Tuzla
2. The executions
3. The news of the executions and the mass graves
4. Potočari – Dutchbat and the fate of the local population
5. The debriefings in Zagreb
6. ‘Circus Pleso’
7. The big debriefing in Assen, 4 September 1995 – 4 October 1995
8. The ‘Srebrenica affair’ in the public domain
9. The fate of the other eastern enclaves

Appendices

I – Dutchbat III and the population: medical issues

II – Intelligence and the war in Bosnia 1992 – 1995: The role of the intelligence and security services

III – Chemical weapons used?

IV – History and Reminders in East Bosnia

V – Western Perceptions and Balkan Realities

VI – The Background of the Yugoslav crisis: A review of the literature

VII – Resupply by air

VIII – Background and influence of media reporting of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia during the period 1991-1995: A study of views and methods of Dutch journalists

IX – List of people interviewed

X – Archive Overview

XI – The organization and coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

XII – Defence in a changing world

XIII – Chronology of the Bosnian conflict 1990 – 1995

Last Modified: 19-07-2010

The Saudi Connection To Chechen Islamists

[Wahhabism, Ibn al-Khattab...This is a CIA attempt to rewrite the anti-terrorist narrative, right before our eyes.  We need new terrorist bogeyman, since the Afghan/Pakistani strain of Jihadism is a spent force (most of the memorable terrorists have already been popularized in America'a other "jihads," or they have been eulogized after being killed once or twice in Predator strikes.  We need new "bad guys," so the Wahhabis have produced some for us (SEE: If the Script Calls for Credible “Bad Guys,” Then Invent Some!).  The real problem with these new "Islamist" straw men and with the previous ones, is the Saudi connection.  How des the CIA manage to get two Chechen brothers to kill innocent Americans, and thereby implicate a whole new branch of Wahhabi terrorism without implicating the Saudis? 

The list of Saudi anti-American crimes has grown larger than our capacity for forgiveness.  Since 2001, Americans have stood silent, with their jaws dropped open in disbelief, as one Saudi after another is secreted out of the country under cover of a media blackout, followed by a whitewashing of any wrongdoing or court record documenting it.  If the  CIA command to kill Americans came from Saudi Arabia (even if those commands came in the form of subliminal hypnotic suggestions), then all America will rise-up against the desert kingdom, speaking with one voice, holding high the same clenched right fist.  Even if the CIA is untouchable, Saudi Arabia will be introduced to the infamous "dust bin of history."

According to SLATE, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had his own YouTube site.  He posted videos of a Saudi preacher reciting parts of the Quran. 

It is done with some sort of echo effect, making it sound like the infamous “Juba the sniper” video.  The hypnotic quality of this effect is inescapable to anyone who listens to one of the recitations.  Tsarnaev also posts an Al-Qaeda video of Khorasan, The Emergence of Prophecy: The Black Flags From Khorasan.  Khorasan is allegedly the “al-CIA-da” name for the region from Afghanistan to Central Asia, the site of the first battle won against the Anti-Christ by the jihadi forces of the new Mahdi. 

The emir of “al-CIA-da” in Chechnya was Ibn al-Khattab.  He was a Saudi of Chechen heritage from the Jordanian border region.  There, al-Khattab (whose desire was to study in America, according to his brother) was recruited for higher education of unknown content by Aramco, the Saudi oil giant.  The first suspect in the marathon bombings was a Saudi, Abdul Rahman Ali-Alharbi.  Al-Alharbi has alleged links to “al-Qaeda.”   If this Saudi can be linked to the Tsarnaev brothers, even if there is a photo of them standing near each other in Boston, then it might be the nail in the Saudis’ coffin, or at least the match that will light the fuse on the Islamist powderkeg which they have chosen to sit upon.]

Khattabs real name is Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem.

The Saudi connection linking the Boston Marathon to September 11 

Albeit the dimensions are somewhat smaller, but the pain, fear, and anger are the same. America has again been caught off guard by foreign terrorists seeking to sow destruction and death.

By Ksenia Svetlova

Emergency workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. Photo by AP

Almost 12 years have passed since that “great tragedy,” the attacks of September 11, and the United States has yet again experienced a national tragedy. Albeit the dimensions are somewhat smaller, but the pain, fear, and anger are the same. America has again been caught off guard by foreign terrorists seeking to sow destruction and death.

In September 2001 the terrorists were Saudis (15 out of 19) and Egyptian. This time, the culprits where to Chechen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev. If it turns out that their motivations were religious, the context of their country of origin will not be coincidental. Until now there has not been any testament from the two, neither written nor filmed – which is generally common practice in the case of such attacks – nor has there been any claim of responsibility from Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Al-Qaida also tends to take responsibility for attacks to which it was unconnected at the operational level, if it shares an ideological bond with those responsible. Despite this, it is very likely that there is a strong, ideological and operational connection between the attacks of 2001 and 2013.

Back in the early nineties, Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan became a stronghold in the Caucasus region for the radical stream of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism. Mosques and madrasas were opened; training camps for young combatants were established to prepare them for the “jihad against the infidels.” Until this day, the teachings of Said Buryatsky, a charismatic, Wahhabist radical, are among the most downloaded files in Chechnya.

This radical Islamist movement was founded in the Arabian Peninsula and adopted by tribes that founded a kingdom in the 18 century, which later became Saudi Arabia. This puritan, aggressive movement is considered by orthodox Muslims as heretic. Many approached it with suspicion and rejected it, but the situation changed once the “black gold” began to flow from Saudi Arabia’s soil. Thus the Wahhabists gained their much-wanted recognition, and began to send money to religious institutions around the world, including in Chechnya and Dagestan.

In addition to the money that began to emanate from Saudi Arabia in the late 1980’s, “preachers” began to travel the world as well. Scholars, religious figures, and jihadist combatants, trained in battles against the Soviets began to spread. One of them was Ibn al-Khattab, the well-known military commander of Saudi-Jordanian descent, who was killed by Russian forces in March 2002.

The spread of Wahhabism in Chechnya sparked a great deal of opposition within the local society, the strong ideals of which contradicted the traditional Islam practiced in the area, as well as the way of life in Chechnya and Dagestan. Fierce battles and political conflicts ensued in the 1990’s, and continued after the war in Chechnya. The institutionalization of Wahhabism in Chechnya happened not without a significant amount of force, as its supporters fought both the Chechnyans and the Russians. Despite the efforts of current Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov to prevent his capital Grozny from becoming the “Dubai of the Caucasus,” the Wahhabist extremism attracts many youths from Chechnya and Dagestan.

Only recently, video clips were published featuring Chechen jihadists that traveled to Syria to fighting against President Bashar Assad’s regime. Kadyrov came out with a statement that “no Chechen is fighting in Syria,” later altering his statement by claiming that those fighting in Syria were mercenaries.

The extremist propaganda is functioning as always, and a new generation in Chechnya has grown up with conflict and propaganda. This generation is attracted to the simple ideological base of Wahhabism, and to the murderous romance of the jihad its leaders are calling for. The members of this new generation go to Syria and Iraq. Some of them maybe go to the U.S. and other places in the world in order to join the “army of believers,” according to them. It is not impossible to rule out that the Saudis who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the brothers from Chechnya who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon subscribed to the same radical Wahhabist ideology.

Immediately after reports were published that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were of Chechen origin, Kadyrov tweeted that “terror has no nationality.” Currently, his followers in Chechnya and Ingushetia will once again have to “deal with” the Wahhabist problem in Russia’s backyard. The question is if even a leader as powerful as Kadyrov can dismantle the Wahhabist institution fostering in the Caucasus for decades, receiving monetary and ideological support from Riyadh.

Ksenia Svetlova is a writer and analyst on Arab affairs for Channel 9, and has a doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Middle Eastern Studies.

The Absolute Worst Kind of Terrorists Attack Hospitals and Schools

Suicide attack at Bajaur hospital kills four

Zahir Shah Sherazi

PESHAWAR: At least four people were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a hospital in Bajaur tribal region, officials said.

Administration officials, requesting not to be named, confirmed the suicide bomber walked on foot to the main gate of the agency headquarters hospital in Khar tehsil of Bajaur agency and blew up his suicide vest.

The dead included security personnel. Four other people were also injured.

Officials the bomber apparently targeted security men guarding the hospital.

Photos of Military-Looking Suspects Photographed Carrying Backpacks Before Detonations At Boston Marathon

Excellent source of Boston Bombing photos: 

4chan ThinkTank 

 

Interview With Syrian President Bashar al-Assad–(4-18-2013)

The situation in Syria is better than the beginning of the crisis Great Syrian people do not worry him April 18, 2013 Damascus, (SANA) - Mr. President Bashar al-Assad in an interview with Channel News Syrian about the risks to Syria from global war and developments in the region, we need much more to hold on to the sense of Galaa and meanings of independence to be a holiday Galaa for us past glory and present dignity, pointing out that Syria is exposed to try to colonize new all means and various ways. President al-Assad said .. There are major powers, particularly the Western powers led by the United States historically does not accept that there are countries that have autonomy, even in Europe, how the third world countries. President al-Assad stressed that the Syrian people are a great people do not concern him, and draw optimism from the citizens and particularly the powerful families of martyrs and there is no option we have only a victory, pointing out that the situation in Syria now is better than the beginning of the crisis. President al-Assad pointed out that Erdogan is ready to give all his country against himself, pointing to the losses suffered by the politically inside Turkey against the backdrop of the failure of the so-called policy of zero problems, which turned into a zero policy and zero friends and zero ethics. Kerry’s visit to the region President al-Assad stressed that this shows that the external factor is a key factor in what is happening in Syria since the first day and that whenever we have achieved successes will see a further escalation. President al-Assad said that it is not possible to believe that thousands walk in with their equipment to Syria from Jordan in the time that Jordan was able to stop or arrest a person carrying a weapon one simple resistance in Palestine over the past years. The following is the full text of the interview: Question .. We live festival atmosphere Galaa .. What would you like to Tugeoh of the Syrian people in so on, especially in light of what is going through Syria from the events … Mr. President: It is axiomatic that connects holiday Galaa the withdrawal of foreign troops from any country but the first question we ask in such circumstances and in the Arab general conditions that preceded this crisis .. What if I came out colonizer and took with him the sovereignty and decision … No value to evacuate .. Independence real real Galaa is when Wigley colonized about the land and restore sovereignty with all means of the word meanings .. If there is an occupied land but its people free is much better than that we have liberated land and the people of loss of sovereignty and state devoid of national decision .. So you must understand Galaa and independence .. Galaa and independence in its comprehensive sense .. I think that Syria is in such circumstances are to try new colonization by all means and in different ways .. There is an attempt to invade Syria come from outside forces of different nationalities if they follow a new tactic differs from the traditional tactic of colonization, which we used to call modern colonialism that had come marching into the region and the end of the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan .. There is also an attempt to occupy Syria of cross-cultural point of a two-way intellectual invasion .. Either for Syria to go toward subordination and submission of major powers and the West in particular or the other direction, which undergo forces of obscurantism takfirist. We need much more to hold on Galaa words and meanings of independence I think that on this occasion we need much more to hold on to the sense of Galaa and meanings independence .. Since we were children he meant to us this holiday a lot of pride .. Today should remain this site and rise to be holiday Galaa for us the past glory and present dignity. Question .. Mr. President .. Mention what is going through Syria situations .. Events have evolved in this country from the crisis passed security events and then what Smeetmoh once you say about that war .. Today is exactly what is happening in Syria how Tocefh … Mr. President: In fact what is happening is a war .. It is not a security events .. Perhaps appeared initially in the form of security incidents and some still deal with it until this moment, raises questions and assessments through the fact that what is happening is the security incidents. The truth is war all carry this sense of the word .. There is a major power and specifically the Western powers led by the United States historically does not accept that there be countries that have autonomy, even in Europe .. Europe wants submissive how third world countries .. How small countries … Must be submissive to work for the interests of those countries. At the same time Syria is in a very important geopolitical desire to control Syria is also something historic and traditional policy of the colonial powers .. These countries play a role in this battle through the provision of political and public support in the beginning. There are a group of mercenaries that take money from abroad for certain acts of sabotage And recently moved publicly to provide material and logistical support and we believe that they support them also in the field of armaments. There are countries that regional Arab and non-Arab countries such as Turkey, for example .. These countries, sold and bought a lot and created a position for itself on the Arab and Islamic arena through virtual support for the Palestinian cause and it seems that this role has gone too far in excess of what is allowed by the Masters .. Any major countries was not necessary to undo this role .. Here transparent Syrian role towards various issues, including the Palestinian issue, including the issue of the rights and dignity exposes these countries .. Survival of the Syrian role as embarrassing to them .. It has become the Syrian issue, the Syrian issue, or a matter of the Syrian crisis to embarrass them and a matter of life or death in political terms for these countries Vzjoa the all their strength in order to hit Syria and tons and people. There are internal factors .. There are a group of thieves .. There are a group of mercenaries that take money from abroad for certain acts of sabotage .. And there التكفيريون or rule or Front victory .. All of them fall under the umbrella of an intellectual one. What is happening now is that we are facing mainly powers takfirist Indeed, what is happening now we are faced with basically those expiatory forces .. The first and second elements are practically wounded too harsh strikes Either they ended up in some places, or they have moved forcibly to work under the umbrella of al-Qaeda against their will in order to be part of it .. Fmili We now fight takfir powers. Question .. For as long as you have said, Mr. President, that Syria has become an embarrassment .. They always find new and Tra to it يعزفوا whenever they fail to stage .. Now is a lot of talk about that Syria witnessing sectarian اقتتالا and perhaps ideologically and other phenomena occur here and there .. Frankly .. Mr. President .. Are not you afraid of becoming sectarian sometimes rears its head in Syria .. Mr. President: In every society there are groups of people who carry intellectually limited and narrow horizon and carry a weak sense of national .. These groups appear in all the crises .. Appear on arena Pfla and performance harmful .. May not be detrimental to the broad level but appear in the form of spots .. This is what happened in Syria in the eighties during the crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood, who also used the sectarian thought in spite of the lack of Internet and satellite TV at that time .. Nevertheless managed to marketing thought and sectarian appeared those spots .. But when you defeat the Muslim Brotherhood returned the situation in Syria to the nature of the Syrian society. Syrian people is a great people do not concern it The only thing that bet in this case is the awareness of the people .. And the Syrian people actually proved unprecedented during the two years that the people of conscious .. Otherwise, we would have seen a very different situation in Syria so if entered directly to the answer to the question that I can say without exaggeration that the situation in Syria now better than in the beginning of the crisis .. In the beginning of the crisis use sectarian rhetoric and appeared Albur strongly and there was concern and loss of balance among many on this point .. With time there has been an increase in awareness of the dangers of what is happening and understanding of fraud happening in the media and awareness of the meaning of Syria which we live, but probably do not we see the importance of what we live in safety, security and harmony .. I do not say these words are not coexistence minutes. So I can say that after two years of the steadfastness of the Syrian people in this way in the face of those media attack with satellite channels seeking to deploy Takfir and sectarian discrimination and .. I would say that the Syrian people is a great people do not concern it. Question .. In this sense, Mr. President, do not seem worried never so conversations are promoted and perhaps entrenched … Mr. President: Absolutely .. I say just the opposite .. On the principle of the vaccine .. Vaccine is a bacterium weak .. If kills immune Vsaattiyk. Martyrdom Bouti saddened everyone, without exception, of various denominations We have many examples we experienced and showed national unity .. But another example is the death of Dr. Bouti .. Martyrdom Bouti saddened everyone, without exception, of various denominations and seen it on the boards of solace spontaneous .. The state has no role in this issue .. and Dr Buti did not communicate with a lot of these .. However saw consolation councils and we have seen the grief of the Christian Brothers .. Not only Muslims .. It means that there is a genuine national unity .. These outposts in people with limited sectarian thought does not scare us .. I’m not worried about them at all. Question .. Mr. President .. Frankly .. We hear a lot recently in the media and through the speakers, Arabs and foreigners that there are liberated areas .. Any beyond the control of the state .. We see the situation in Aleppo and tenderness in Homs sometimes .. Is there already areas beyond the control of the state today in Syria … Mr. President: We sometimes deal with this situation in military terms is similar to deal with a traditional enemy .. When the enemy comes in the traditional way to occupy part of the ground, whereupon the national forces to attack the enemy and defend the country and expel the enemy out .. It does not matter if they ruled on the enemy or not rob them of it .. Maybe just come out without eliminating it .. But what is important in this case is the liberation of the land .. In this case we are dealing with a completely different situation .. A new war .. New style .. We are dealing with the intervention groups in cities .. Some of which are non-Syrian .. Arab foreign .. And some of them Syrian intervention in cities and neighborhoods and conducts sabotage. We are now in the process eliminate terrorists At the beginning of military actions carried out by the armed forces to expel terrorists from cities .. Sometimes it takes a few hours work .. We think that these terrorists came out of the place and went to another place to escape or maneuver .. It means to spend the whole time the liberalization process of the land without end. To be precise on this point .. Now we do not do the editing process to talk about the land liberated areas .. We are now in the process eliminate the terrorists .. The big difference between the first and second .. If not overturn the terrorists does not make sense for the Liberation of any region in Syria. If we understand this point we understand what happens on the ground .. There is another side when the armed forces or state military plans they develop or adopt plans on a number of grounds, including for example, the importance of the site in terms of political and media .. Including the human side of any suffering of the citizens and the military side .. Details of military logistics. Always a priority for us is a humanitarian point of view .. Protect the lives of citizens and alleviate the suffering of the areas to which enters the terrorists .. The political and media do not give priority .. Sometimes the benefit of the other party .. It does not matter .. Important fact .. Sometimes neglect the media side they start the process of “tattoo and honk” to show the victories .. This does not concern us, but often imposing nature of the battle that there is no consensus between the priority of military and humanitarian priority .. Of course temporarily and partially in some areas .. There are things that imposed the battle but for us it is a priority of the human hand. Question .. The problem is that there are many conversations promoted .. There are people who are talking about the division of geographic and sectarian division and even doctrinal .. Mr. President .. Is this really true .. Or is it included in the framework of intimidation and psychological warfare which is still a cornerstone of the ongoing war on Syria. I do not think there are real grounds for the division .. He must partition the limits of religious, sectarian or ethnic .. In practice these lines do not exist Mr. President: As long as we are not afraid of sectarianism .. I do not think there are real grounds for division. He must partition the limits of religious, sectarian or ethnic .. In practice these lines do not exist because the Syrian society is integrated in almost every region of Syria .. And sometimes in every village of the small villages .. Sometimes at the level of what we call “farms” It is the smallest of villages and non-existent on the map administrative .. We see this integration at the level of mating and families, it is hard to be there without division lines of this type .. But I think that what is published maps or marketed in different ways and leaking to the Syrians at various levels is part of the psychological war and part of the defeat that always talking about what I call virtual defeat or defeat free .. Any to send a message to the Syrians and Iguenauhm, .. B, “you will not be able anymore to live as you were in the past .. unified country .., you are not able to live with each other .. you people divided by its very nature,” the suggestion process intended to devote this conviction, the Syrians .. Also this argument does not worry me as long as the first IPO a sectarian offering .. It is the most serious has failed .. There is virtually no longer one of the foundations to build upon these maps .. Or any leaks and ideas can be transferred to us similarly. Question .. But, Mr. President, is talk that there may be separation between some major cities and rural areas .. For example, in Aleppo Aleppo season from its countryside .. In areas north and north-east are also talking about the subject of tenderness as well as Qamishli .. Also rumored that there are actually divided lines may be beyond the control of the state and perhaps Bracken is separate and isolated from Syria .. So this applies characterization submitted shortly before .. Mr. President: I do not .. This is not in the framework of the division .. Is not built on the basis of ethnic or sectarian lines .. Built on the places where the terrorists .. In practice if we are even talking about state control of the sense of presence, there is no place I tried to enter the armed forces only managed to enter .. If there is no fixed lines. So I say .. It is for us the humanitarian and military priorities are imposing presence places and military tactics. We must look to Syria as a bloc on the pots المستطرقة way .. If we put fluids in a number of vessels and arrived including Climate pipes, the water level in place affects all other receptacles .. Same thing for terrorists .. When beating in place a positive impact on other places .. Valtktic military sometimes imposes on the State to intervene in another place before that exist in place before that exist elsewhere .. Is a time delay for purely military targets .. But absolutely not linked to the subject of the division .. The issue of buffer zones. Question .. Turkey apparently will be up to the crisis with the Kurdish problem and there is talk that Erdogan might give the State of the Kurds .. As well as possibly waive some of the demands and perhaps access to divide Turkey. If there is a state will be set up for access to the presidency .. What about the situation in Syria and the particular situation of the Kurds … Mr. President: For Erdogan .. Of course he is willing to give all his own for the same .. This is true .. This is for the first part of the question and you are given the answer. But for the Kurds in Syria .. I want to repeat what I always say when I put this subject. Kurds in Syria are a natural and essential part of the Syrian fabric and they are present in this region centuries ago Kurds in Syria are a natural and essential part of the Syrian fabric and they are present in this region many centuries ago, like the Arabs, Turks, Persians, and others were present in this region. Are not guests or Tarin .. Most of the Kurds in Syria are Syrian nationalists .. But always in any society .. There are people who are opportunists trying to use specific addresses for their personal interests .. So we have seen a number of gatherings calling itself the Kurdish parties in Syria and has always been growing on the so-called Kurdish issue or the persecution of Kurds in Syria .. This is not true at all .. They were talking about the subject of naturalization Kurds .. About 110 thousand, which was about two years ago .. They considered the issue .. Naturalization .. Moved to the words of another language for Multi .. Now approved State months ago the subject of the Kurdish language and Kurdish literature as taught in the colleges of Arts in Syria .. And other procedures .. But always discuss from time to time about something that is used in order to find them on the national scene .. This case we see from time to time .. This is something that does not worry because the majority are with the Syrian homeland .. In order not to say words structurally .. I will not return to the role of the Kurds in the Syrian revolution and at different stages of the struggle against colonialism .. But I will talk about current events .. Many of the families of the martyrs who met her are Kurds .. I do not know that they are Kurds or Arabs because I do not care about this subject .. But through their talk they tell us we are the people of the martyr .. We Kurds .. Is it possible for someone who does not believe in the country and seeks to secede .. It also raises from time to time .. To submit his or her life or the lives of his sons for this country .. This is not logical. Question .. But, Mr. President, when we talk about this very sensitive point .. We followed through the policy of the Turkish government recently it has been used a lot of paperwork .. But the paper said that this is probably the last Kurdish securities Erdogan, however, specifically will not be simply indispensable .. It will be more aggressive in order to achieve a result at least in Syria .. At this particular time are seeking to bring about a settlement .. The extent to which monitors the Syrian leadership precisely this point .. And what is in the case has been anything in the face of this country .. Mr. President: This is an important topic .. Can not be simplified .. But Erdogan has a purpose internal and external target. Conditions for the Kurdish issue in Syria is quite different from Turkey in terms of the history of the relationship External goal is to Syria .. Any to embarrass Syria in the subject, taking into account that the conditions for the Kurdish issue in Syria is quite different from Turkey in terms of the history of the relationship .. We did not massacres against the Kurds did Ndthdhm as happened with them since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire stage .. Situation is completely different .. there is homogeneity in Syria and there is a real delay .. And put in the subject Kurdish put in Syria just a few decades ago by some opportunistic forces .. And our relationship Kurds are always a good relationship .. Even with the Kurdish parties, which were struggling for their rights in Turkey .. The other goal for Erdogan is an internal goal .. After the losses suffered by the politically inside Turkey against the backdrop of the failure of the so-called policy of zero problems and which turned out to be zero and zero policy vision and zero friends and zero credibility and zero ethics .. Other zeros in all directions except zero problems .. Losing so much of his loyalists .. Was to be the use of the subject of Kurdish in order to take advantage of the large Kurdish bloc in Turkey in order to get votes probably next in the Constitution through which thought to be the president of the Republic of wide powers .. So we care about this issue because what is happening in any neighboring country will affect us positively or negatively, but without being worried .. Except that there is no credibility to Erdogan in such a subject towards the Kurds and this is what our response to the recent friendly Kurdish forces that work on the Turkish and Syrian arena .. They do not trust Erdogan. Question .. There are also two contradictory points are accused by the Syrian state recently .. Opinion says that the Syrian state is a secular religion fights .. Others say that Syria backed away from secular cope with the recent events on the contrary, become more religious .. What is the truth Thread Mr. President .. Supports secular religions do not stand in the face Mr. President: We always drown terminology and discuss the content .. Drown in the linguistic sense .. But what is important is to practice .. For example was there Achtrakiat .. But all were called socialist .. There are those who practiced as a secular atheism and turn as they were in Turkey at various stages against religion fights religion .. There are secular which we understand .. Some say a secular open an eye for us freedom of religion .. We are a diverse community .. Every followers law or sect them the freedom to follow rituals and يمارسوها of the way that they deem appropriate .. This also means we should not treat as a state based on religion .. When it comes to a number of people to apply to a job, for example .. Do not ask of any religion or race this person belongs .. May not make a distinction on the basis of religion and not on the basis of race .. This is the concept .. I think that this concept is the concept of positive and good citizens .. As long as it is not a secular atheism, it means that it can not be against religion .. As long as we talk about freedom of religion, it means that this supports the secular religions do not stand in the face .. Completely contrary to religion is about morality, we need to morality and therefore we need religion .. The development process, for example .. Had a lot of people ask why stumble upon this process in different places .. I tell them .. Because you do you see the development process in Syria as a set of laws .. While it is built on ethics laws .. When they do not exist in the field of ethics can not develop community .. I secular means not differentiate between persons .. But this does not mean that I am not a Muslim and a Christian believer or a believer .. Quite the contrary, this picture is wrong .. The pictures that have been developed in the past about the conflict between Arabism and Islam .. Either you are a national or Islamic .. No .. I am an Arab and Muslim .. Arabic and Christian .. If the discrepancy between the two is the word incorrectly .. But that being said we moved from a secular direction of religious .. In Syria built since 1970 until today eighteen thousand Mosque .. Had against religion or secular We practice against religion .. How to allow construction of 18 thousand a mosque .. Built 220 schools and secondary legitimacy legitimacy, etc. .. Built dozens of institutes to train preachers .. If the religious side in Syria has always been an important aspect .. More importantly, if we want to say that secularism is atheism, as happens in a number of countries or as interpreted by other countries, it is impossible .. Because the state is the mirror of society .. If the community is committed to his religion must be a state based on religious grounds even though the secular .. Can not be the state does not devout religious and community .. And vice versa .. Can not be a form of state religion and society is not committed to his religion .. If we are a mirror of society .. Thus offering the first and the second offering both incorrect and inaccurate and reflects a lack of understanding of the fact and the meaning of the Syrian state and the meaning of secular Syrian state. Question .. But, Mr. President, we are talking here about the actions and decisions taken during the crisis .. Them to approve the establishment of a religious channel .. To allow advocates to work public advocacy … Committed to their religion in Syria, whether they are Muslims or Christians are the most during this national crisis .. It spoke of sectarianism is not these slides Mr. President: raise this issue both personally and directly with me in conversations with people or through some writings .. This shows the ignorance of the writing on this subject .. Because these things have nothing to do with the crisis at all .. In fact, the first signs or warning signs of danger after the invasion of Iraq began .. And specifically in 2004, when it began to show signs of extremism on the Syrian arena but it was at that time in most of the movement of people and thought extreme transient Syria .. Iraq beginning and later Lebanon .. And began trying to spread in Syria .. At that time basically has control of the security way .. The first disturbing incident was the incident of the attack on the radio and television building in 2006 by some of their seducer who told them the extreme Wahhabi Sheikh that this place is a hotbed of corruption and Kafr .. And they attacked him .. But the biggest warning when he got the first suicide bombing in Syria in 2008 and in the month of Ramadan by the Syrian people .. This was a major warning sign .. Against the backdrop of this explosion you meet with a number of senior clerics in Syria and we discussed the matter and we say that treatment is no longer sufficient security .. This is intellectual terrorism is terrorism primarily and intellectual Mnchoeh not need to fight it .. Can not fight terrorism or religious extremism only true religion .. This is the first treatment .. Come other means as complementary tools .. And put forward several ideas and one of them was Noor Sham TV .. At that time were not called Noor Sham TV .. But we need a way to face takfirist channels that began to sweep the space in the Arab and Muslim worlds .. Why are late in 2008 for the year 2011, a period of three years .. Because the idea was initially to launch this channel by the private sector .. For various reasons delayed .. We took the decision to نطلقها we, as a channel to be Islamic University do not express the thought of a particular religion or a particular religious stream .. For advocates also in 2008 and was one of the same procedures .. Especially that the advocacy work for women at that time was an act of secret gets in homes .. Or not to tell a secret, at least not under the eyes of the state because it is not official .. Was the idea that this is not a political act .. We are with the call .. Call to religion is something positive .. But when this call under the eyes of the state and state is Almsuulh of all sectors of society, including the religious sector, it holds the state responsible and at the same time if there is an attempt to exploit the invitation to targets outside the framework of the religious essence of the call can be for the state to correct this deviation .. And this experience has proven to be a good experience and useful .. These actions and others did not have a crisis, absolutely nothing .. On the contrary .. Crisis came to prove since the first day that religious institutions were the most disciplined .. To prove that committed to their religion in Syria, whether they are Muslims or Christians are the most during this national crisis .. It spoke of sectarianism is not these slides .. But from platoons .. Either of the species deviant religion towards religious extremism .. Or of secularism bidders family .. The moderate and committed nationally fact was .. So these actions are not linked to the crisis. Question .. Mr. President .. If we want to remain in the internal affairs .. If you will allow you to be talking about a political solution .. Since the government commissioned the implementation of the three stages of this solution began implementing the first phase of the boot and an end to violence for dialogue .. Currently consultations are is .. But, Mr. President, so far the street probably does not realize what are prohibitions dialogue and determinants of this dialogue in relation to the subjects as well as persons .. This dialogue with the ultimate … نحاور envious of Syria .. It did not deal with Israel overtly or covertly Mr. President: There is considerable confusion about what is happening now for dialogue for citizens .. First, there is the National Dialogue Conference, which is part of a political solution which I talked about in the “oratorical latter” in January .. This dialogue is not a dialogue between the state and the other party .. Is a dialogue between all the components of the Syrian society .. Private and political components .. About the future of Syria .. What is the political system required .. Parliamentary system .. Or a presidential .. Semi-presidential .. Anything else .. What about the Constitution .. What about the political and media laws, etc. .. Or any other topic .. The State here implemented as agreed upon by the conferees .. There is what is happening now than during a meeting of the Ministerial Committee chaired by the Prime Minister with the various parties in Syria .. Some believe that this is the dialogue .. This is not a dialogue .. These sessions consultations in order to determine how to begin dialogue .. If we want to go to the national dialogue conference .. Invited to the conference and on what basis is called … How is … Do we stand for a person or ten people .. Are you associated with the number of members in the representation of a particular party .. How do we call .. Clans or events .. We call .. There is no perception we do not want to build this conference only on perceptions of the state .. We want everyone to participate, we do these consultations maturation process of dialogue .. How poses Thread .. How to vote for him … And many details of things .. If we went to the national dialogue conference was not mature these grounds it failed before the conference starts .. Another aspect has to do with the state dialogue .. Now we are regardless of this initiative can talk with anyone .. نحاور envious of Syria .. It did not deal with Israel secretly or openly .. Both not flirts Israel .. All of the money not received in order to sell the home .. Each emphasizes the independence of Syria .. These are the basics .. This I consider a national foundation. Question .. Means national opposition .. Mr. President: the national opposition in the sense used become something different .. With every Unfortunately since the beginning of the crisis .. Some have an inferiority complex .. Some feel defeatism from the inside became national distributed free of charge to everyone .. All calls national opposition .. Take the examples .. There are those who appear on television and talking in each screen in a different language .. Speaking at every stage in a different language .. Is this a national opposition … Or oscillatory opposition … Can not be a national unless they are stable .. We have been in the country for the first day of the crisis we spoke one language .. We fight terrorism .. Struggle of trying to interfere in the internal affairs from the outside .. We reject domination .. At the same time the doors open for dialogue .. There are forces refused to dialogue in the beginning .. And later agreed to it .. If they are missed فليتفضلوا and say we were wrong .. Our assessment was wrong .. When we got out of Lebanon delivered a speech in 2005, I said we were wrong .. We had mistakes in Lebanon .. At the beginning of the crisis delivered a speech and said that there were errors .. Those they start just by changing their words .. Do you change speechless .. I do not I set .. For that he was arrested money which specifies the direction of speech … I speak frankly and clearly .. Is it because this person or that side was betting on specific bets that the state will fall within weeks or months, and thus is not interviewing of fall .. Will find a place for himself with the next, as some was thinking .. Some of these were silent when terrorist operations began .. Not denouncing terrorism, which began .. Find even justifications for terrorists .. Some of those did not support the military .. And all countries of all peoples in the world boasts of its armed forces as they express their unity and nation with all its components .. Some of them were attacking the army, rather than to stand with him in the army targeted the crisis before anything else because the address unity and steadfastness address .. All of these oscillations and variegated chameleon can not put it under the national title .. We have to ask questions intuitive .. Someone who was not or barely gets on the profiteers day .. We see today the aircraft moves from one place to another and sits in luxury hotels .. Personal finances this and that side .. Talking away from diplomacy .. No place for diplomacy now .. Funded .. If there is funding this uncertain .. It means that the decision depends on the decision of who pays .. How can a national if his decision in abroad .. Add to it .. All sit in the opposition abroad voluntarily forcibly they will tell you .. But in fact they are sitting abroad voluntarily .. Can not be this human nationally .. Especially in crisis .. If you expatriate in normal circumstances it must come to stand with your country .. Especially when they give lessons on national television .. How can you claim to national and fugitive abroad .. Where is the national … Asking people to move and give them lessons in patriotism They suffer every day in Syria and you are relieved abroad .. Where this convenience God knows .. There are many questions you should ask her so I expand on this topic .. Many questions must be asking before we oppose national .. So in this issue is not a place to compliment no place for hypocrisy .. Will Nnavq any one .. You must tell the traitor a traitor and an agent and client defeatist defeatist .. To Aotunai tell him no national .. Is it true that all opposition is a national opposition .. As for the opposition, it is by definition opposition .. If we had a million people are opposed to Syrian state policies .. Does this mean that these so-called opposition .. Can not نحاور a million people .. Can not share a million people in the government .. For example, practically opposition political sense in all countries of the world are elected opposition has a popular base .. If .. Of themselves that they know where the opposition is the election that determined the size of the opposition .. There are many questions you should ask her to define before these .. So if the question with talk … We have parties in Syria now .. Are still emerging but parties and national parties does not recite .. Not mortgage itself to the outside .. There are forces in the national home .. There are many Syrians national .. Do not stop the case on the issue of who fired on the same or himself enjoys a national opposition, which represents the people .. We know they do not represent only themselves. Question .. If proved determinants as well as the basics of the dialogue will remain a parliamentary regime in Syria, or there will be a presidential Parliament … There is no problem in question will be how Syria .. Presidential parliamentary system … This is determined by the people Mr. President: determinants course open .. Anything can be discussed .. There are no red lines only two things .. Syria’s independence .. This means there is no external interference in any internal affair .. This unresolved issue for us .. And stand with the terrorists .. If you do not tolerated stand with the terrorists, apart from that there is no problem in question will be how Syria .. Presidential parliamentary system … This is determined by the people .. For us, as determined by the people agree with it. Question .. Including the post of President of the Republic … I mean I mean even you, Mr. President … Mr. President: Position thing I do something else .. I mean, the job linked to the political system .. And the political system determines the powers of each position .. When changing the political system must be to change the powers of office in any direction .. This is something self-evident and, of course, this includes everything, even the powers of the president .. The President and ask him this subject is linked to the person and this is different from the powers .. Each person seeking to despise position .. So I see things .. If the job is just a tool and not a goal .. The project goal is provided by the person to the community and the people’s support for this project .. And access to the best condition for Syria .. What was done by hostile media in general .. Arab and other .. Is that they tried to show that the problem is not in the project and external forces come from abroad, not in extremism .. The problem is that the President is rejected by the people and this president adheres to the chair he kills his people for the Holy .. This raises continuously .. Therefore raised the issue of stepping down .. The fact that the job has no value .. If there is no support Popular Vamouncb No offers something for everyone .. What is the administrator must fight for is public support and satisfaction popular .. So I say to be decided by the people in this topic is the basis for the survival of the President or gone. Question .. Some fired term to negotiate with the system .. And no dialogue with the regime .. And our understanding of some Syrian officials that they have rejected this term .. What Vhmtamoh from term to negotiate with the regime and negotiations … Assumes himself as follows to external forces, as is the case for some, it could put the word negotiation Mr. President: I always like a country, state or society or nation family .. When sitting head of the family or family housewife with boys or boys sitting with each other or sit with each family .. They do not negotiate, but to engage in dialogue .. When you sit down with each other Syrians talk .. We say dialogue between the Syrians do not say negotiations between the Syrians .. If suppose the same person that strange “فيستطيع the negotiation call” .. If suppose himself as follows to external forces, as is the case for some, it could put the word negotiate .. But to accept them also therefore the foundations and the determinants of .. You negotiate your peers .. If you state you negotiate state .. The state does not negotiate persons .. If you are a party negotiation parties .. But not negotiate persons .. If you are a party you do not negotiate base people who call themselves the name of the party or stream or anything, but they have no base .. There is a kind of symmetry when put to negotiate .. For poses negotiation to determine the same .. Is it a Syrian dialogue with the Syrians .. Or an alien .. It represents. Question .. A quick tour of the area .. Find a visit to Kerry .. Israel as well as an apology from Turkey .. The resignation of the government of Lebanon and to assign Tammam Salam new government .. Striking is the situation in Daraa and what was said about the role of Jordan these events .. Is what is going on from the events accompanied by diplomatic and political events on the ground are pure coincidence in Syria today .. Mr. President: I think that there is a consensus that what happened recently is not a coincidence .. I think that if you ask anyone in this region and in Syria in particular .. Early and non-followers of the policy .. Will tell you that this things interconnected timetable .. In practice, Mr. who is the master and run one .. Clear this topic in the media .. It is not a secret pursuant .. Obama came and Kerry come to the same countries concerned by this escalation .. Especially what is happening in Daraa .. If things ربطنا with some of this indicates two things .. First indication that the external factor is a key factor as is happening in Syria since the first day .. This was difficult to persuade people to do .. Secondly, that whenever we have achieved successes will see a further escalation .. Because those external forces will not give up .. I am with you that the process is not a coincidence but it is wrong not to expect in advance or not we see clear. Question .. Mr. President .. Increasing talk a lot lately that Jordan has become a fixture in the ongoing war on Syria .. Means training camps .. The headquarters of the meetings .. The military leadership s even for terrorist groups on the ground .. Perhaps entry of large numbers of militants and weapons across the border this might also explain things in Daraa return to square one after a period of calm .. What’s the role played by Jordan .. It is not possible to believe that thousands walk in with their equipment to Syria at a time when Jordan was able to stop or arrest a person and a simple one carrying a weapon for the resistance in Palestine Mr. President: We got a lot of this information formally .. Some of them, of course, via media, قرأناها and heard all .. Some of them through diplomatic channels .. Some security Alakhrabr channels .. And all are in the same direction .. We immediately send a political envoy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in private to Jordan, less than two months ago in order to put these data with Jordan officials and warns of the risks of what is happening will not only affect Syria .. Of course, heard all that would deny these facts .. Then he got in Daraa escalation .. We saw that thousands of militants and terrorists with arms and ammunition come from Jordan .. So we send a security official about a month ago or a little less also met with his counterparts security in Jordan and explained to them our existing data and also heard the complete denial about the involvement of Jordan before them all what is happening .. This is illogical .. Assume first that there are no camps .. Because what to put on the training camps unaudited information for us .. But what is uncertain Checker and confessions of terrorists and those who see us is they come through the Jordanian border .. It is not possible to believe that thousands walk in with their equipment to Syria .. At a time when Jordan was able to stop or arrest a person carrying a weapon one simple resistance in Palestine over the past years .. This talk is not convincing .. We hope some Jordanian officials who are not aware of the seriousness of the situation in Syria and what it means for Jordan .. It also means for other countries .. To be more aware in the estimation of this thing because the fire does not stop at our borders, and everyone knows that Jordan Exhibition him as Syria is exposed to him .. We wish to learn from the lessons we have learned from the stage of the Muslim Brotherhood .. These dangerous phase .. We wish them to learn to teach Iraqi officials who fully understand the importance of stability in Syria .. Regardless of some of the differences that existed between us and them in previous years .. But as a result of this awareness and as a result of the lessons learned that the fire in Syria must be transmitted to the neighboring countries .. This is what we wish. Question .. Mr. President .. Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia .. Most of the Gulf countries .. Of course talking about here is a faction of Lebanon .. There is also the governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen .. Talking about governments are not talking here about people Is it reasonable that they are all wrong and you are right .. Is it possible to be 300 million Arabs are wrong and a few tens of officials on the right Mr. President: Let’s ask the question another way .. These countries were together and we were part of the Arab summits .. At least since the first Arab summit in 2000 against the backdrop of the second Palestinian uprising .. And after the war in Iraq and then with the project of the Middle East and the road map on the back of the victory of America’s invasion of Iraq as it was marketed at that time .. And peaks on the background of the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 and then in 2008 in the war on Gaza .. In all these joints .. You are an Arab citizen and you are a citizen of Syria Do you have confidence in any of these summits summit .. Did not hear from all Arab citizens of all kinds of slander for these peaks and us as officials Arabs sit in that room .. This makes us ask the question from your question .. Is it possible to be 300 million Arabs are wrong and a few dozens of officials in the hall on the right .. This gives us the answer is clearly .. The second point .. these countries we are talking about should not Nlomha the much because it is independent .. The decision is not in her hand .. Some of which the U.S. is strongly Mr. .. Some of which recently came through NATO .. And the other on tipping He lives in a troubled country and its people are not satisfied with him .. They need to before you give us legitimacy legitimacy .. As I said a few days ago .. Arab League are all legitimate need to .. But let’s put aside all this talk and take it in the trash for the simple reason that all these not Aanonna .. Who determines if we are right or wrong is the Syrian people I personally and all the Syrian official responsible to the Syrian people .. The Syrian people is just that we say we were or wrong .. We are right or wrong .. And any other hand does not concern us. Question .. Also if we went from these countries to Iraq’s neighbors .. Al Qaeda in Iraq recently announced that the Front victory affiliates .. and victory contrast Front pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri .. Mr. President .. Fighting in Syria now .. Fight al-Qaeda or terrorist groups or armed fighters fight moderates .. Both carry weapons and assaults on citizens is a terrorist .. Term “moderates fighters” is an American style of justification in front of their own people Mr. President: All of carrying arms and assaults on citizens is a terrorist .. Whether it belongs to the base or any other .. If we want to divide terrorists or base is the base of this is possible and this fact .. Had the tyrant rule is now in Syria under the title victory Front .. The term “moderate fighters” is a method to justify the U.S. in front of their own people .. America fought the Taliban after the events of 2001 and after many years she discovered she did not accomplish nothing in Afghanistan .. فالخسائر many American and hatred for America is becoming increasingly spread over terrorism in the world .. So I wanted to justify the dialogue with these groups and used against each .. Or perhaps to other political objectives .. She said that there is a good Taliban and bad Taliban .. Now they talk about moderate terrorist .. There are no moderate terrorist .. Is a terrorist. They call armed .. They call armed opposition .. This term offers to their people in the media because they have gone away to portray the situation as a conflict between the governor and the governed oppressed .. Thus the picture .. The back of terrorism and later appeared the identity of this terrorism is terrorism extreme western media could not hide this fact .. what then justify support the opposition .. What do you justify sending money, weapons and logistical support under different headings .. Non-lethal support … Non-lethal aid .. Civilian aid .. In the end can only be justified under the title “moderate militants”. Question .. But you said a little while ago that al-Qaeda is the predominant element in Syria now in terms of preparing and gear .. If this sense, the West arming al-Qaeda and funded .. How to understand it .. Mr. President: The truth is that the West always uses any item that appears in the arena even if it is against this element .. Proof that they are fighting al-Qaeda in Mali and support them in Syria and support them in Libya .. The same extremist groups that fought in Syria was supported in Libya, the same support Mali and Qatloha in Mali .. This is called double standards and I’ll call three standards and four standards .. And if there are a thousand standard I do not mind to have .. They use any paper detrimental to any country do not accept him .. Thus in the case of Syria are happy to come Qaeda .. They first dispose of these elements in different regions whether they يحاربونهم in Libya or in Mali or in Afghanistan or anywhere .. These elements come to Syria and this relieves the pressure in other areas .. On the other hand this leads to sabotage in Syria, regardless of who wins .. State or triumphed triumphed al-Qaida or other .. بالمحصلة Syria will pay the price, and the price will be dearly. West does not know or maybe does not realize now that this terrorism will return to the Western press has begun talking about the return of these risks We now see the results of vandalism for infrastructure and for sabotage in Syria thought .. This means that even if you win the state will be a weak state .. This is the aim of the west of this support .. But at the same time that the West does not know or maybe does not realize now that this terrorism will return to the Western press has begun talking about the return of these risks. In fact .. It also financed al-Qaeda in Afghanistan at the beginning and paid the price dearly later .. Now they support in Syria and Libya and elsewhere and pay the price later in the heart of Europe and in the heart of the United States. Question .. Another term heard from him for a period of humanitarian intervention. Mr. President: recently put the term humanitarian intervention, and we have seen examples of this process of humanitarian intervention .. We’ve seen in the west parking with the Palestinian people sixty years ago against the Israelis for the Palestinian people .. We saw humanitarian intervention in Vietnam .. We’ve seen in the Korean War .. In the Korean War, I read several numbers .. At a minimum three million were killed .. There are those who say that the number of fire deaths of nine million U.S. in North Korea alone .. And we have seen in Iraq, and you know better than anyone the results .. And we’ve seen recently in Libya .. And we’ve seen in Syria .. Put in parallel with another term humanitarian intervention now a moral responsibility .. I think that humanitarian intervention sole purpose of human destruction Syrian simply and moral responsibility they are talking about recently is the responsibility of the withdrawal of the moral foundations in the destruction of the moral foundations upon which the Syrian society, particularly the dignity and uphold the rights .. Means to be people خانعا and admit that he can not defeat the big powers .. Dedicate this idea and reinforcing the principle of subservience .. You should know that these terms are dedicated for us something opposite .. That we always say not for the meek ​​or dependency or to surrender or defeat. Question .. Mr. President .. Than two years ago, and the ongoing crisis .. In your opinion, what prolonged the Syrian crisis .. Mr. President: various factors .. There are external factors and internal factors .. External factors we talked about .. The internal factors When you work on the scene the problem you must be a national consensus .. There is no doubt that we had a problem in the beginning to convince many Syrians fact what is happening .. You remember the first oratory in Parliament and the criticism directed at him .. Uncle talking .. Any plot .. Whenever something happens you say it’s a conspiracy .. With that I talked about in a simple and I said at the end of the speech we are ready to face .. They said that the issue emotional issue .. Any that if I went to the shield to the problem solved .. And I said to many at the time that the case did not start to finish fervent affection .. This scheme .. It is true that there are problems and gaps and internal factors built it .. but the issue is essentially external schema .. We were in front of a problem in convincing them that what is happening in the external media and rigging that killed demonstrators is not the state .. And that there are other points of the shooting on both sides in order to inflame feelings .. It was difficult to later convince them that these militants are not free army .. It is linked to Army and not free .. Works with money and kills through the money .. It was difficult to convince them that the bulk of the paid-up demonstrations .. Look at the early stages .. When she appeared Qaeda .. It was hard to convince many people that entered the base on the line until they saw all these things with their own eyes .. Unfortunately with all of our segments see things when it is late too late .. National Valajamaa in many cases necessary .. It is an important point .. How much time we need to convince them that the state does not destroy the mosques .. The last incident at the Omari Mosque .. Seen on YouTube and on TV how they blew up the minaret .. For the massacres .. All were placed massacre draw the Syrian Arab Army .. Unfortunately with all our slice was going versa .. Create a base for chaos in Syria .. If not weapons Fbalvkr .. There are stop with the terrorists without feeling .. I Athmh bad faith, but out of ignorance and without feeling .. Pen-and-modern thought and faulty logic .. They blocked .. Some of them or less vast discovered they are wrong, but some have yet to discover the truth .. This is the biggest obstacle. Question .. These elements of the continuing crisis, Mr. President .. But what about the elements of the steadfastness of the state until now .. In spite of all this mobilization .. Not for this people for everything that is not collapsed weeks as سوقوا but a few days .. Location strength of people’s strength and weaknesses of poor people Mr. President: I did not say the state has withstood .. I tell people survived .. This great nation has stood in this war two years .. Even the people themselves do not know what is the size of the attack .. Many people do not know what is the size of the attack .. But is touching the repercussions .. However withstood .. This fact .. Great people .. This underlines the essence of Syria .. Were it not for this people for everything that is not collapsed weeks as سوقوا .. But a few days .. I do not say that withstood the state .. Location strength of people’s strength and weaknesses of poor people .. And the resistance in Lebanon in 2006, its people triumphed by fighters .. Were it not for the people supporting her and steadfast with them could not stand .. This is the situation in each country .. And Syria is no exception. Question .. Mr. President .. We talked about everything that is political and field .. But let me turn a little to the humanitarian notch .. You father .. Why تشرحون for your children happening in Syria .. What do you say to them … Mr. President: By the way .. I’ve got three sons and not five as some marketed .. To return to the question .. Topic of this year .. I أتشارك the cap with all the parents .. There is no doubt that the events experienced by Syria and its repercussions and its economic, psychological, social and what we’ve seen on our television screens and hear children in the schools of dialogues and discussions are different from what they used before the crisis will leave serious effects and negative on the future of Syria, because they will be the next generation .. This is one of the objectives of the attack .. It is, as I said just before the destruction of human .. The first thing that we need to focus on is that this child out of the Syrian crisis is more faith in God .. Because more than the words used in the sabotage is “Allahu Akbar” .. How can you explain to a child that there is no link between the words “Allahu Akbar” and between absolute evil which is killing an innocent human being .. This issue will not be easy .. We have to explain to them how this word means good and loving and national unity .. Each absolute good in. .. The child must understand this point .. Because it is the basis of this faith, then you can proceed to the other faith, a faith strongly homeland and nation and the unity of the homeland .. If you believe in Allah and the nation have a solid belief in himself and a master .. Then reassure Syria .. I think that the responsibility comes in this framework if we are to maintain our home and work on children is because we we are faced with a generation drink a lot of misconceptions and bad and evil. There is no choice before us only victory Question .. How optimistic you look at the end of the day, Mr. President .. Mr. President: if there is no optimism in Syria in general and especially those who put their lives .. As we say colloquially .. On their palms and fighting for that we should live together .. If there is not what we fought primarily optimism and what صمدنا Syrians .. But this optimism نستمده as officials and a state of the people .. And أستمده I personally meet with citizens .. But particularly from the families of the martyrs .. This powerful families .. Jabara each carry a sense of the word .. When you sit with a mother or father and brothers, sons and say we made ​​the first martyr ready to offer second, third and fourth .. This is a national and boundless .. This is what motivates us to be optimistic .. There is the option of choice but victory .. If we win Syria ends .. I do not think that this is an acceptable option for any citizen in Syria. Broadcaster .. Thank you very much. Mr. President: I also want to thank you again and I applaud all the actors in the Syrian news channel and convey through you salute each Syrian citizen in this precious occasion and the university .. The occasion of Eid Galaa .. Which I hope, God willing, to come in the next year and be Syria has exceeded its crisis and ضمدت wounds.

Drone Attack Upon Pak Showpiece In Sararogha

[The following snapshot (copy-block placed on article) details the latest CIA drone aggression in Sararogha, South Waziristan, the centerpiece of Gen. Kayani's highly-touted "Peace Through Development" puzzle.  The attack upon an alleged camp of Hakeemullah Mehsud in Sararogha took place in an area that has allegedly been free of TTP terrorists since operation "Rahe-Nijat"  (SEE:  The Effort To Disarm and Develop South Waziristan ).  If it was actually a Mehsud terrorist camp in the Sararogha "Quick Development Project" locality then there should have been an immediate reaction from the Pak Army, denouncing the attack, or the American attempt to sabotage Pakistan's peace program in the former FATA.  Lacking any noticeable Army reaction to the CIA penetration of the pacified area (an area described as a series of "ghost towns," because the displaced Mehsud tribes refuse to return to a war zone), it will be reasonable to put the blame for this S. Waziristan attack squarely upon the shoulders of Kayani and the ISI.  If the target was truthfully a "TTP camp," then the CIA drone attack would have been either in response to a Pak Army request to target Hakeemullah's terrorist forces, or another ISI deception like the one which killed Baitullah Mehsud.  The killing of Nazir was the first step in turning the area around Wana into an American "free-fire" zone; this was the second step. 

The heighth of hypocrisy is upon us, just in time for the Pakistani elections.]

http://www.thenewstribe.com/2013/04/17/alleged-ttp-commander-among-five-killed-in-waziristan-drone-attack/

R2P=I2I (“Instigate to Intervene” Disguised As “Responsibility to Protect”)

[SEE: The Obscenity of Humanitarian Warfare ]

“Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) Or “Instigate to Intervene” (I2I)

Anti-Human Rights, Chaosistan, Phenomenon of Terrorism, Syria

By Atul BHARDWAJ (India)

American democracy appears to be in jeopardy. Irrespective of the political dispensation at the White House, the policy of promoting proxy wars and covert military operations across the globe continues to mutate.

Any nation that decides to exercise its sovereign right to protect its citizens from armed insurgents incurs Washington’s wrath. America wants to permanently amend the rules of the game by stating that a nation’s right to protect is subordinate to the international community’s responsibility to Protect (R2P). Syria is the latest in the long list of nations that is suffering to sustain American imperialism.

R2P is the new name for humanitarian intervention, a norm adopted by the UNO in 2005. According to Gareth Evans, R2P equips everyone in the international community to prevent the “catastrophic human rights violations taking place behind sovereign state walls,” with “coercive military action as a last resort, not a first.”

The problem with analysts like Gareth is that their vision permits them to peep through the walls of sovereignty but not through the iron curtain of the empire that adheres to the doctrine of Instigate to Intervene (I2I). It is through use of such dubious norms and instigations that America attacked Libya and is now in the process of destabilizing Syria. Russia, China and Iran are the three countries preventing the Western military juggernaut to roll over Syria completely.

In an open defiance of well established international practices, Washington is blatantly using Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE to lead an armed insurgency inside Syria. As a result the three-year-old dissent in Damascus is now an international problem. The Western media, with an agenda to flare up the situation in Syria began beaming in the misdemeanors of Bashar Al-Assad and his dynastic rule; projecting the opposition as victims of political atrocity.

Political struggle is a part and parcel of any state. The problem begins when political fissures are exploited by external actors. This is exactly what has happened in Syria where the government’s legitimate actions against the opposition-armed militancy are being dubbed as human rights violations.

The branding of Assad as a tyrant is a ruse to plunge the nation into a war of attrition. Since the beginning of January 2012, the C-130 transport aircraft loaded with weapons have been regularly taking off at the American military base in Qatar to land at Turkish airports. From the airports, the arms consignments travel by road to rebel-military camps on the Syria-Turkey border.

The NATO’s encouragement to Syrian rebels is not limited to moral and material support; the NATO countries are also in the forefront to mobilize manpower to augment the foot soldiers of the Free Syria Army (composed of Syrian military officers who have defected from their parent outfit, a bunch of mercenaries and Al-Qaeda terrorists). According to a study by King’s college London, “Hundreds of Europeans have travelled to Syria since the start of the civil war to fight against the country’s President, Bashar al-Assad…600 individuals from 14 countries including the UK, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Germany had taken part in the conflict since it began in 2011. European fighters made up to between 7% and 11% of the foreign contingent in Syria, which ranged between 2,000 and 5,500 people.”

America has anointed the main opposition party, Syrian National Coalition (SNC) to occupy the official Syrian seat at the Arab League. It is perhaps for this reason that Moaz al-Khatib the former leader of SNC, admitted, “We thank all the governments who supported us, but the role to be played by the United States is much bigger.” To democratize the instigation to intervene, and retain American control, the US has appointed Ghassan Hitto, an IT professional from Dallas, US, as the head of the planned interim government.

The imperial American obduracy flows from the ideological belief that the nation-states’ ‘monopoly over organized violence’ is not a right that can be exercised without the approval of the empire. Thereby meaning that the states are authorized to use violence within their own territory, only to protect those people certified as victims by the empire. Any violence against the American certified victims is branded as human rights violations and genocide.

The Western fetish for R2P and their so-called ‘good intentions’ have already caused mayhem in the lives of ordinary Iraqi or Libyan. The Russian President Putin says,

“The state is falling apart, Inter-ethnic, inter-clan and inter-tribal conflicts continue.”

However, the Americans will not abandon R2P because it is a tool to re-order the states in accordance with what Stephen Gill has identified as “new constitutionalism – imposition of new constitutional and quasi-constitutional political and legal frameworks – with respect to the state and the operation of strategic, macroeconomic, microeconomic and social policy.”

Atul Bhardwaj is a researcher at School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi. He can be contacted at atul.beret@gmail.com.

Thatcher/Reagan Destroyed the World Economy for Elitists’ Profit, But Germany Is Still Thriving

Few countries embraced Thatcher’s capitalism

From Mr Marc McDonald.

Sir, In “Right about Britain, Europe and nearly everything” (Comment, April 9), Niall Ferguson writes that Margaret Thatcher was “right about most things”. If this is true, why is Thatcher not fondly remembered today by most British people?

Thatcher’s central economic policy was to deregulate virtually everything, slash social services to the bone and embrace hardcore, dog-eat-dog capitalism. But today who advocates this sort of thing, outside of perhaps a dwindling number of Tea Party extremists in the US?

Prof Ferguson attacks “left-leaning Brits” for being supposedly wrong about Thatcher. But as I recall, Thatcher’s foes predicted that her policies would decimate the middle class. They have been vindicated.

A great deal of the economic prosperity of the Thatcher years was really more because of the North Sea oil bonanza, rather than the Iron Lady’s policies.

Outside of the US, few nations have ever embraced Thatcher’s slash-and-burn methods. In continental Europe today, for example, few people want anything to do with “Anglo-American” capitalism. The same is true of much of today’s Latin America.

As far as Thatcher’s crushing of the unions and deregulating the economy, I would challenge Prof Ferguson as to whether even this was necessarily a good thing.

Germany, for example, still has some of the most powerful unions in the world, as well as a heavily regulated economy. And yet Germany today still has a strong middle class and a world-beating high-technology manufacturing base. Germany is one of the world’s leading capital surplus nations, while Britain runs massive current account deficits. And yet Germany accomplished its enviable economic success by rejecting the Thatcher/Reagan economic model.

Marc McDonald, Fort Worth, TX, US

Documents Reveal “Al-Qaeda” Rarely Targeted Or Killed In Pak Drone Strikes–Out of 482 Pakistanis Killed, Only 6 “Al-CIA-da”

Docs Show CIA’s Mass Drone Death Strikes Killed Few al-Qaeda Leaders

Jason Mick (Blog)

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A broad range of militants were deemed to dangerous to be left alive in recent operations

Under fire over its defense over potential drone killings of Americans deemed as “terrorists” on U.S. soil, the Obama administration’s growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is being intensively scrutinized by both politicians and the media.

I. Deadly, But Not Very Precise

New documents obtained by McClatchy’s reveal that of the 95 drone strikes in the Pakistan region between Oct. 2010 and Sept. 2011, many did not target al-Qaeda and those that did were not as accurate as thought.

The drone campaign managed to kill 482 people, but only 6 were high-ranking members of al-Qaeda.  Analyst Jonathan Landay reports, “At least 265 of up to 482 people who the U.S. intelligence reports estimated the CIA killed during a 12-month period ending in September 2011 were not senior al Qaida leaders but instead were ‘assessed’ as Afghan, Pakistani and unknown extremists.”

_{[Image Source: McClatchy's]}

In the past the Obama administration has claimed that the death strikes by armed Predator and Reaper drones, employed primarily by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, were used only on “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces.”

Micah Zenko, an expert with the bipartisan foreign-relations think-tank Council on Foreign Relations, says that the administration is misleading Americans, commenting, “[The Obama administration is] misleading the public about the scope of who can legitimately be targeted.”

_{Reaper drones have been used in numerous Pakistan and Yemen death strikes.
[Image Source: The Real Revo]}

But White House national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says that the administration does not need to specify explicitly who it is targeting and to make no assumptions.  She remarks, “You should not assume [CIA Chief John Brennan] is only talking about al-Qaeda just because he doesn’t say ’al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces’ at every reference.”

So who was the administration targeting in the 43 out of 95 drone strikes that did not target al-Qaeda?  According to McClatchy’s, the documents indicate that the strikes in question targeted “Haqqani network, several Pakistani Taliban factions and the unidentified individuals described only as ‘foreign fighters’ and ‘other militants.’”

The documents also reveal that U.S. efforts to kill terrorist leaders often accidentally instead killed friends or family members.  Drone strikes were even used to target somber occasions, such as individuals leaving funerals.

II. Is the U.S. Killing Civilians, Allies Accidentally?

One major complaint of the administration’s critics is lack of transparency in the deadly offensive.  The administration has refused to release a list of “terrorist” organizations that it considers “associated forces” of al-Qaeda.  So far only Afghanistan’s Taliban has been officially acknowledged as an al-Qaeda ally.  Also not revealed was whether the administration conducted so-called “signature killings” — killings of locals who met with al-Qaeda or exhibited other behavior deemed suspicious.

_{Survivors pick through the rubble looking for relatives after an Oct. 2012 drone strike in Yemen.
[Image Source: Reuters]}

New CIA chief John Brennan in February acknowledged that the drone strikes sometimes miss the mark and kill innocent civilians, but he defended the program saying the U.S. paid the families of people it accidentally killed.  He commented, “Where possible, we also work with local governments to gather facts, and, if appropriate, provide condolence payments to families of those killed.”

Condolence payments range from $1,000 to $7,500 according to various reports [1][2][3], depending on the circumstances.

_{As CIA director  have grown.
[Image Source: BIJ (top); The Long War Journal (bottom left)}

_{; Reuters (bottom right)]}

Four American citizens with ties to terrorism — Kamal Derwish, Anwar al-Awlaki, 16-year-old Abdulahman al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan — have been killed to date in drone strikes in Yemen.  Family members of the dead American citizens have sued the Obama administration with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In August 2012, a drone strike in Yemen killed a 40-year-old moderate cleric Salem bin Ahmed bin Ali Jaber just two days after he delivered a speech denouncing al-Qaeda.  The irony is that the al-Qaeda officers who were targeted in the strike, reportedly came into town to threaten Mr. Jaber for his support of the U.S. and pacifistic leanings.

_{Some feel the President shouldn’t have the power to order the warrantless killings of Americans on U.S. soil. [Image Source: Drone Wars UK]}

It’s clear more questions need to be asked about the program.  But don’t expect the answers to come easy from an administration who explicitly ordered its Press Secretary to dodge questions about drone strikes.

Source: McClatchy’s

Anti-Christian Attacks Expose “Arab Spring” As Saudi Arabian Euphemism for Ethnic Cleansing–Sunnis Against Everyone Else

Insight: After cathedral clash, Copts doubt future in Egypt

By Ulf Laessing

CAIRO

 

“Egypt is no longer my country,” said the 24-year-old construction worker, standing in the courtyard of the country’s largest cathedral where one Copt and one Muslim died in sectarian clashes this week.

“The situation of Christians is worsening from day to day. I’ve given up hope that things will improve,” he said.

Christians, who make up a tenth of Egypt’s 84 million people, have been worrying about the rise of militant Islamists since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

But after days of fighting at the cathedral and a town outside Cairo killing eight – the worst sectarian strife since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was elected in June – many Copts now question whether they have a future in Egypt.

An angry young fringe of a community that has lived in Egypt since the earliest days of Christianity may also be turning to violence.

“The attack on the cathedral was the crossing of a red line,” said Michael Sanouel, a 23-year old technician in a steel plant. Sanouel rushed to the cathedral “to defend it” when he heard about the clashes that lasted more than five hours.

“I have been looking for a while for a job abroad, in Italy or Germany,” he said, standing next to a piece of charred wood from a tree hit by a petrol bomb hurled over the compound wall.

“I have two children but I don’t want them to grow up under a Muslim Brotherhood regime,” said Sanouel, who slept in the cathedral compound like dozens of others after the clashes, ready to defend it if more confrontations erupted.

The trouble flared after a funeral on Sunday of four Copts shot dead last week in the town of El Khusus, north of Cairo.

President Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood allies were quick to condemn the sectarian violence, the latest turmoil to hit a post-Mubarak Egypt beset by political and economic crisis.

Mursi said the cathedral attack was like an attack on himself but in a rare rebuke, the Coptic Orthodox Pope, Tawadros II, said Christians were tired of promises.

“The president assured us personally that he would do everything to protect the cathedral… but in reality this was not the case,” Tawadros told a private TV station when he called in to a live talk show. “We have seen enough committees being formed. We want action, not words.”

Youssef Sidhom, editor of the Coptic newspaper al-Watani said the pope, elected in November, had chosen strong words because Christians inside the cathedral felt police had abandoned them by withdrawing when the clashes started.

“There is an absence of the state and the rule of law and the violence at the cathedral proves that,” he said.

Police had not stopped attackers throwing petrol bombs and firing bird-shot from neighboring houses into the cathedral compound. Live TV footage showed an almost motionless police cordon while clashes raged for several hours.

The interior ministry said Christians started the trouble by torching some cars after the funeral, angering neighbors, an account confirmed by a Reuters reporter at the scene.

GRIEVANCES

Copts have long complained of discrimination in the job market, before the law and in getting permits to build churches.

Now they say they were better off under Mubarak, who used to jail Islamists, although 23 people died in a bomb attack on a church in Alexandria shortly before his overthrow. Many Copts believe Muslim radicals want to eradicate Christianity, whose roots in Egypt predate the Islamic era.

Some Copts were dismayed that Mursi did not attend the installation of the new pope or Coptic Christmas ceremonies.

Samir Morcos was the president’s only Christian aide until he resigned in November when Mursi gave himself greater powers. “Some people want to destroy our state,” Morcos told Reuters. “The situation has become very dangerous.”

Christians acknowledge that some of their grievances such as access to government jobs are shared by many Muslims struggling to make ends meet in a country rife with corruption and poverty.

But some fear life for Copts will worsen as the Brotherhood extends its control to a growing number of state institutions.

“We are in state of depression,” said Father Metuas Nasr, a priest who said he had abandoned his church outside Cairo after repeated attacks from hardline Islamists. “The Brotherhood is now taking over all state institutions. We don’t have a (neutral) police anymore as you could see at the clashes.

There is no official data but church officials say many Copts have left the country since Mubarak’s overthrow.

“I know so many people who have left or plan to go,” said Peter el-Naggar, a church activist and lawyer.

Western diplomats said that while their countries do not record the religion of visa-seekers, anecdotal evidence suggests a high percentage of those who had left since 2011 are Copts.

The most high-profile departure was billionaire Naguib Sawiris, who settled in Europe after infuriating Muslims by tweeting a cartoon of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Islamic dress.

Compounding their misfortunes, some wealthier Egyptian Copts traditionally deposited their savings across the Mediterranean in Cyprus for safe-keeping, a senior diplomat said.

They may now face large losses since accounts with more than 100,000 euros in the island’s two biggest banks will suffer a “haircut” to help pay for bailing the country out.

FIGHTING BACK

The sectarian strife is a sharp contrast to the harmonious images of the anti-Mubarak revolt in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, when Copts formed protective cordons around Muslims at prayer and Muslims brandished the Koran and the Bible.

Many moderate and liberal Muslims attended the cathedral’s funeral service and others were quick to come the next day after to show their solidarity and denounce Mursi and the Brotherhood.

“The attack is unacceptable to me,” said Ahmed Sharif, a Muslim. “For me, the Coptic Cathedral is a symbol of Egypt like al-Azhar,” he said, referring to the highest Muslim authority.

Sidhom, the Coptic editor, said that while some Christians might be planning to leave the vast majority would stay to confront the Brotherhood in upcoming parliamentary elections. “I am one of those who want to stay and fight back,” he said.

In last June’s presidential poll, many Copts voted for Mubarak’s last premier, Ahmed Shafiq, who came a close second.

Many now hope moderate Muslims fed up with queues at fuel stations, power cuts and a rise in crime will turn against the Brotherhood at the polls, which could take place in October.

But their hopes could be dashed if the weak and fragmented opposition fails to unite or sticks to threats of a boycott.

“I feel frustrated (with the liberal opposition),” Sidhom said. “I hope that… they would wisely reconsider their position and take steps to participate in the elections.”

RADICAL

If the Muslim Brotherhood and more radical Salafist parties gain the upper hand, some church activists have few illusions that their youth will also become more radical.

Some Copts are ready to resort to violence. A Reuters reporter saw two young men with guns and a crate of petrol bombs on the roof of the cathedral during the clashes.

A day after the clashes, the mood was still tense at the cathedral compound which also houses a theological institute, a nuns’ home and a tailor for religious vestments.

Officials kept the doors closed – not just for protection but also to stop angry young Copts arriving as rumors of more violence swirled around.

“We want to get in,” shouted a group of young men, banging at the door. Some showed cross tattoos on their hands but a guard told them: “Nobody is allowed in today.”

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Paul Taylor and David Stamp)

Obama Administration Predetermines That Anyone Killed By An American Drone Is An “Unknown Extremist”

[Murder by drone is simply the next generation of American "Death Squads," with the "Squad" referring to the UAV controller unit, somewhere in the American Southwest, or sitting in an air-conditioned office on the 7th floor at Langley.  The concept of roving bands of semi-autonomous assassins has been replaced by roving "eyes in the sky."  The next logical step are programmable, self-guided terminator drones.  Science Fiction has become reality.  "Future shock" has been replaced by "shock and awe."  America is a Fascist state, seeking to ride to total global domination on the strength of its military technology and the power of its leaders' lies.]

Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders

Pakistani soldiers stand guard at the Shamsi Airbase located some 320 kilometers southwest of Quetta in southwest Pakistan, on December 11, 2011. | Yslb Pak Zhang Qi/Xinhua/MCT

By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.

The administration has said that strikes by the CIA’s missile-firing Predator and Reaper drones are authorized only against “specific senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces” involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks who are plotting “imminent” violent attacks on Americans.

“It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” President Barack Obama said in a Sept. 6, 2012, interview with CNN. “It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”

Copies of the top-secret U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy, however, show that drone strikes in Pakistan over a four-year period didn’t adhere to those standards.

The intelligence reports list killings of alleged Afghan insurgents whose organization wasn’t on the U.S. list of terrorist groups at the time of the 9/11 strikes; of suspected members of a Pakistani extremist group that didn’t exist at the time of 9/11; and of unidentified individuals described as “other militants” and “foreign fighters.”

In a response to questions from McClatchy, the White House defended its targeting policies, pointing to previous public statements by senior administration officials that the missile strikes are aimed at al Qaida and associated forces.

Micah Zenko, an expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, a bipartisan foreign policy think tank, who closely follows the target killing program, said McClatchy’s findings indicate that the administration is “misleading the public about the scope of who can legitimately be targeted.”

The documents also show that drone operators weren’t always certain who they were killing despite the administration’s guarantees of the accuracy of the CIA’s targeting intelligence and its assertions that civilian casualties have been “exceedingly rare.”

McClatchy’s review is the first independent evaluation of internal U.S. intelligence accounting of drone attacks since the Bush administration launched America’s secret aerial warfare on Oct. 7, 2001, the day a missile-carrying Predator took off for Afghanistan from an airfield in Pakistan on the first operational flight of an armed U.S. drone.

The analysis takes on additional significance because of the domestic and international debate over the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan amid reports that the administration is planning to broaden its use of targeted killings in Afghanistan and North Africa.

The U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy covered most – although not all – of the drone strikes in 2006-2008 and 2010-2011. In that later period, Obama oversaw a surge in drone operations against suspected Islamist sanctuaries on Pakistan’s side of the border that coincided with his buildup of 33,000 additional U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan. Several documents listed casualty estimates as well as the identities of targeted groups.

McClatchy’s review found that:

– At least 265 of up to 482 people who the U.S. intelligence reports estimated the CIA killed during a 12-month period ending in September 2011 were not senior al Qaida leaders but instead were “assessed” as Afghan, Pakistani and unknown extremists. Drones killed only six top al Qaida leaders in those months, according to news media accounts.

Forty-three of 95 drone strikes reviewed for that period hit groups other than al Qaida, including the Haqqani network, several Pakistani Taliban factions and the unidentified individuals described only as “foreign fighters” and “other militants.”

During the same period, the reports estimated there was a single civilian casualty, an individual killed in an April 22, 2011, strike in North Waziristan, the main sanctuary for militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

– At other times, the CIA killed people who only were suspected, associated with, or who probably belonged to militant groups.

To date, the Obama administration has not disclosed the secret legal opinions and the detailed procedures buttressing drone killings, and it has never acknowledged the use of so-called “signature strikes,” in which unidentified individuals are killed after surveillance shows behavior the U.S. government associates with terrorists, such as visiting compounds linked to al Qaida leaders or carrying weapons. Nor has it disclosed an explicit list of al Qaida’s “associated forces” beyond the Afghan Taliban.

The little that is known about the opinions comes from a leaked Justice Department white paper, a half-dozen or so speeches, some public comments by Obama and several top lieutenants, and limited open testimony before Congress.

“The United States has gone far beyond what the U.S. public – and perhaps even Congress – understands the government has been doing and claiming they have a legal right to do,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Notre Dame Law School professor who contends that CIA drone operations in Pakistan violate international law.

The documents McClatchy has reviewed do not reflect the entirety of the killings associated with U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, which independent reports estimate at between 1,990 and 3,581.

But the classified reports provide a view into how drone strikes were carried out during the most intense periods of drone warfare in Pakistan’s remote tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Specifically, the documents reveal estimates of deaths and injuries; locations of militant bases and compounds; the identities of some of those targeted or killed; the movements of targets from village to village or compound to compound; and, to a limited degree, the rationale for unleashing missiles.

The documents also reveal a breadth of targeting that is complicated by the culture in the restive region of Pakistan where militants and ordinary tribesmen dress the same, and carrying a weapon is part of the centuries-old tradition of the Pashtun ethnic group.

The Haqqani network, for example, cooperates closely with al Qaida for philosophical and tactical reasons, and it is blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks against civilians and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. But the Haqqani network wasn’t on the U.S. list of international terrorist groups at the time of the strikes covered by the U.S. intelligence reports, and it isn’t known to ever have been directly implicated in a plot against the U.S. homeland.

Other groups the documents said were targeted have parochial objectives: the Pakistani Taliban seeks to topple the Islamabad government; Lashkar i Jhangvi, or Army of Jhangvi, are outlawed Sunni Muslim terrorists who’ve slaughtered scores of Pakistan’s minority Shiites and were blamed for a series of attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including a 2006 bombing against the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed a U.S. diplomat. Both groups are close to al Qaida, but neither is known to have initiated attacks on the U.S. homeland.

“I have never seen nor am I aware of any rules of engagement that have been made public that govern the conduct of drone operations in Pakistan, or the identification of individuals and groups other than al Qaida and the Afghan Taliban,” said Christopher Swift, a national security law expert who teaches national security affairs at Georgetown University and closely follows the targeted killing issue. “We are doing this on a case-by-case, ad hoc basis, rather than a systematic or strategic basis.”

The administration has declined to reveal other details of the program, such as the intelligence used to select targets and how much evidence is required for an individual to be placed on a CIA “kill list.” The administration also hasn’t even acknowledged the existence of so-called signature strikes, let alone discussed the legal and procedural foundations of the attacks.

Leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees say they maintain robust oversight over the program. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., disclosed in a Feb. 13 statement that the panel is notified “with key details . . . shortly after” every drone strike. It also reviews videos of strikes and considers “their effectiveness as a counterterrorism tool, verifying the care taken to avoid deaths to non-combatants and understanding the intelligence collection and analysis that underpins these operations.”

But until last month, Obama had rebuffed lawmakers’ repeated requests to see all of the classified Justice Department legal opinions on the program, giving them access to only two dealing with the president’s powers to order targeted killings. It then allowed the Senate committee access to all opinions pertaining to the killing of U.S. citizens to clear the way for the panel’s March 7 confirmation of John Brennan, the former White House counterterrorism chief and the key architect of the targeted killings program, as the new CIA director. But it continues to deny access to other opinions on the grounds that they are privileged legal advice to the president.

Moreover, most of the debate in the United States has focused on the deaths of four Americans – all killed in drone strikes in Yemen, but only one intentionally targeted – and not the thousands of others who’ve been killed, the majority of whom have been hit in Pakistan.

Obama and his top aides say the United States is in an “armed conflict” with al Qaida and the Afghan Taliban, and the targeted killing program complies with U.S. and international laws, including an “inherent” right to self-defense and the international laws of war. Obama also derives his authority to order targeted killings from the Constitution and a Sept. 14, 2001, congressional resolution empowering the president to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against those who perpetrated 9/11 and those who aided them, they say.

Time and again, the administration has defined the drone targets as operational leaders of al Qaida, the Afghan Taliban and associated groups plotting imminent attacks on the American homeland. Occasionally, however, officials have made oblique references to undefined associated forces and threats against unidentified Americans and U.S. facilities.

On April 30, 2012, Brennan gave the most detailed explanation of Obama’s drone program. He referred to al Qaida 73 times, the Afghan Taliban three times and mentioned no other group by name.

“We only authorize a particular operation against a specific individual if we have a high degree of confidence that the individual being targeted is indeed the terrorist we are pursuing,” Brennan said.

To be sure, America’s drone program has killed militants without risk to the nation’s armed forces.

The administration argues that drones – in Brennan’s words – are a “wise choice” for fighting terrorists. Over the years, the aircraft have battered al Qaida’s Pakistan-based core leadership and crippled its ability to stage complex attacks. And officials note it has been done without sending U.S. troops into hostile territory or causing civilian casualties “except in the rarest of circumstances.”

“Any actions we take fully comport to our law and meet the standards that I think . . . the American people expect of us as far as taking actions we need to protect the American people, but at the same time ensuring that we do everything possible before we need to resort to lethal force,” Brennan said at his Feb. 7 Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing.

Caitlin Hayden, national security spokeswoman for the White House, said late Tuesday that the Brennan speech is broad enough to cover strikes against others who are not al Qaida or the Afghan Taliban. While she did not cite any authority for broader targeting, Hayden said: “You should not assume he is only talking about al Qaida just because he doesn’t say ’al Qaida, the Taliban, and associated forces’ at every reference.”

Some legal scholars and human rights organizations, however, dispute the program’s legality.

Obama, they think, is misinterpreting international law, including the laws of war, which they say apply only to the uniformed military, not the civilian CIA, and to traditional battlefields like those in Afghanistan, not to Pakistan’s tribal area, even though it may be a sanctuary for al Qaida and other violent groups. They argue that Obama also is strengthening his executive powers with an excessively broad application of the September 2001 use-of-force resolution.

The administration’s definition of “imminent threat” also is in dispute. The Justice Department’s leaked white paper argues the United States should be able “to act in self-defense in circumstances where there is evidence of further imminent attacks by terrorist groups even if there is no specific evidence of where such an attack will take place or of the precise nature of the attack.” Legal scholars counter that the administration is using an exaggerated definition of imminence that doesn’t exist in international law.

“I’m thankful that my doctors don’t use their (the administration’s) definition of imminence when looking at imminent death. A head cold could be enough to pull the plug on you,” said Morris Davis, a Howard University Law School professor and former Air Force lawyer who served as chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo Bay terrorism trials.

Since 2004, drone program critics say, the strikes have killed hundreds of civilians, fueling anti-U.S. outrage, boosting extremist recruiting, and helping to destabilize Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government. And some experts warn that the United States may be setting a new standard of international conduct that other countries will grasp to justify their own targeted killings and to evade accountability.

Other governments “won’t just emulate U.S. practice but (will adopt) America’s justification for targeted killings,” said Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations. “When there is such a disconnect between who the administration says it kills and who it (actually) kills, that hypocrisy itself is a very dangerous precedent that other countries will emulate.”

A special U.N. human rights panel began a nine-month investigation in January into whether drone strikes, including the CIA operations in Pakistan, violate international law by causing disproportionate numbers of civilian casualties. The panel’s head, British lawyer Ben Emmerson, declared after a March 11-13 visit to Pakistan that the U.S. drone campaign “involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.”

The administration asserts that drones are used to hit specific individuals only after their names are added to a “list of active terrorists,” following a process of “extraordinary care and thoughtfulness” that confirms their identities as members of al Qaida or “associated forces” and weighs the strategic value of killing each one.

Yet the U.S. intelligence reports show that 43 out of the 95 strikes recorded in reports for the year ending in September 2011 were launched against groups other than al Qaida. Prominent among them were the Haqqani network and the Taliban Movement of Pakistan.

The Haqqani network is an Afghan Taliban-allied organization that operates in eastern Afghanistan and whose leaders are based in Pakistan’s adjacent North Waziristan tribal agency. The United States accuses the group of staging some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Kabul, including on the Indian and U.S. embassies, killing civilians, and attacking U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. But the Obama administration didn’t officially designate the network as a terrorist group until September 2012.

Its titular head is Jalaluddin Haqqani, an aging former anti-Soviet guerrilla who served as a minor minister and top military commander in the Taliban regime that sheltered al Qaida until both were driven into Pakistan by the 2001 U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. U.S. officials allege that the group, whose operational chief is Haqqani’s son, Sirajuddin, closely works with al Qaida and is backed by elements of the Pakistani army-led Inter-Services Intelligence spy service, a charge denied by Islamabad.

At least 15 drone strikes were launched against the Haqqani network or locations where its fighters were present during the one-year period ending in September 2011, according to the U.S. intelligence reports. They estimated that up to 96 people – or about 20 percent of the total for that period – were killed.

One report also makes clear that during the Bush administration, the agency killed Haqqani family women and children.

According to the report, an undisclosed number of Haqqani subcommanders, unnamed Arabs and unnamed “members of the extended Haqqani family” died in a Sept. 8, 2008, strike. News reports on the attack in the North Waziristan village of Dandey Darapakhel said that among as many as 25 dead were an Arab who was chief of al Qaida’s operations in Pakistan, and eight of Jalaluddin Haqqani’s grandchildren, one of his wives, two nieces and a sister.

The U.S. intelligence reports estimated that as many as 31 people were killed in at least nine strikes on the Pakistani Taliban or on locations that the group shared with others between January 2010 and September 2011. While U.S. officials say the Taliban Movement of Pakistan works closely with al Qaida, its goal is to topple the Pakistani government through suicide bombings, assaults and assassinations, not attacking the United States. The group wasn’t founded until 2007, and some of the strikes in the U.S. intelligence reports occurred before the administration designated it a terrorist organization in September 2010.

The U.S. intelligence reports estimated that the CIA killed scores of other individuals in 2010 and 2011 in strikes on other non-al Qaida groups categorized as suspected extremists and unidentified “foreign fighters,” or “other militants.” Some died in what appeared to be signature strikes, their vehicles blown to pieces sometimes only a few days after being monitored visiting the sites of earlier drone attacks, or driving between compounds linked to al Qaida or other groups.

“The first challenge in any war is knowing who you’re fighting, and distinguishing those that pose a credible threat to your interests and security,” said Swift.

The U.S. intelligence documents also describe a lack of precision when it comes to identifying targets.

Consider one attack on Feb. 18, 2010.

Information, according to one U.S. intelligence account, indicated that Badruddin Haqqani, the then-No. 2 leader of the Haqqani network, would be at a relative’s funeral that day in North Waziristan. Watching the video feed from a drone high above the mourners, CIA operators in the United States identified a man they believed could be Badruddin Haqqani from the deference and numerous greetings he received. The man also supervised a private family viewing of the body.

Yet despite a targeting process that the administration says meets “the highest possible standards,” it wasn’t Badruddin Haqqani who died when one of the drone’s missiles ripped apart the target’s car after he’d left the funeral.

It was his younger brother, Mohammad.

Friends later told reporters that Mohammad Haqqani was a religious student in his 20s uninvolved in terrorism; the U.S. intelligence report called him an active member – but not a leader – of the Haqqani network. At least one other unidentified occupant of his vehicle perished, according to the report.

It took the CIA another 18 months to find and kill Badruddin Haqqani.

Palestinian Refugee Camps Flushed Like Toilets, Thanks To Saudi/Qatari/Turkish “Zionist” Hospitality

When Yarmouk Camp Fled to Shatila

Franklin Lamb

Yarmouk Palestinian Camp, Damascus History is nothing if not interesting.  And that it most definitely is. Today, Palestinian refugees are being severely punished in Lebanon and deprived of their most elementary civil right to work or to even own a home. This massive volition of international humanitarian law is partially being inflicted out of revenge for some Palestinian refugees’ alleged short-term involvement in Lebanon’s civil war back in 1975–nearly four decades ago. Today however, Palestinian refugees are being severely punished in Syria out of revenge by jihadst factions and others, for not becoming involved in the current Syrian civil war as they insist on staying out of this incredibly tragic mess. Some Palestinian teenagers here in Damascus call it “Yarmouk-Shatila,” as in: “Our neighbors or friends had to escape from Syria and are now in Yarmouk-Shatila camp” in Lebanon. Shatila was probably the most grotty, tightly packed sardine-canned camp of the 12 in Lebanon and of the 59 in the region, even before 600 more families arrived recently, with more arriving daily. To date, approximately 38,000 Palestinians have fled to Lebanon, another 5,000 to Jordan, 9,000 to Egypt, and thousands more to Iraq and Turkey. Jordan blocked Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria from entering eight months ago and those who did are now essentially incarcerated, according to AUB Professor Rosemary Sayigh and are prevented from moving outside the camp unless they return to Syria, perhaps facing death. In Egypt, Palestinians fleeing Syria have found that the host country is blatantly discriminating against them–a policy left over from the Mubarak era and upheld by the Morsi government. Today, a Palestinian refugee from Syria may only enter Egypt if she or he flies directly from Damascus to Cairo’s airport–an impossible condition given that the Damascus airport is routinely closed. Currently, no passenger airlines are flying out of Damascus airport except sometimes Syria Airline to a few destinations. Any Palestinian refugee arriving from Turkey or Lebanon or anywhere else is detained at the Cairo airport and pressure applied on them until they agree to return to Syria. When Egyptian authorities have forced these refugees onto planes back to Lebanon or Turkey, those authorities refuse entry and force them back to Egypt. Truth be told, Palestinian refugees from Syria are not welcomed in most Arab League countries and particularly not in the Gulf countries, although in past years Palestinian refugees helped build these countries and their economies. They would do the same for Lebanon if allowed to work. Palestinians fleeing to Lebanon are mainly from Yarmouk camp in south Damascus but many also arrive from Syria’s Palestinian refugee camps at Sbeineh, Jaramana and Khan Eshieh, all established in 1948-9 following the massive, criminal ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Virtually all the Palestinian camps in Syria, from Deraa in southern Syria, to Neirab near Aleppo are currently being targeted by occasional random shelling and frequent sniping. Just last week, on the first of April, Grad rockets and mortar shells showered some of the main streets in Yarmouk killing at least 16 Palestinian refugees and wounding more than 30. A Palestinian woman and her four children were also wounded in the near-by Al-Husseiniya refugee camp. As of yesterday, the situation in Yarmouk stands approximately as follows. The south-west corner of the camp is increasingly under the control of “rebels.” Their control appears to be spreading as reinforcements sneak in and their ranks swell a bit from defections from camp “popular committees.” Sniping and clashes appear to be spreading also. The Ahmed Jebril-led  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which  was largely expelled two months ago and their weapon stores taken over by Al Nusra fighters, currently has some fighters back in the camp. The only way to enter Yarmouk currently is from the north side of the camp from the “Melon Square” crossroads. The Syrian army has loosely encircled Yarmouk but in certain places they will allow passage inside with a warning. This observer senses that these increased assaults on Yarmouk, are an effort to get the Palestinians involved in the current crisis which virtually all Palestinians want to avoid. Some of those fleeing for their lives to Lebanon are also from the other Palestinian refugee camps in Syria: Latakia, Ein al-Tal, Qabr Essit, Neirba, Khan Dunoun, Homs, Hama, and Deraa. In addition to seeking refuge in Shatila, they are entering Lebanon’s other camps including Beddawi, Nahr al Bared, Burj el-Barajneh, Burj el-Shemali, Dbayeh, Ein el-Helweh, El-Buss, Mar Elias, Mieh Mieh, Rashidieh, and Wavel, the latter also known as Jalil, near Baalbek in the Bekaa valley close to the Syria-Lebanon border. In addition, according to UNWRA, as well as personal observations, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced inside Syria and are currently living wherever they can, unable to flee to neighboring countries for various reasons including lack of money. These comprise part of the approximately 3.6 million displaced refugees inside Syria. According to the March 8 weekly report of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the number of registered refugees reached 12,000 during the past week, with 262,000 refugees already registered and 140,000 in the process of being registered, for a total of more than 400,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The report said that there are currently 113,000 Syrian refugees in Northern Lebanon, 99,000 in the Bekaa, 28,000 Beirut and 20,000 in Southern Lebanon. Among these figures are thousands of Palestinians. When asked why they have not provided more help for the Syrian and Palestinians refugees, various UN agencies explain that they do what they can, but, typically offer explanations such as the one given on April 5th by Marixie Mercado, spokeswoman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), during a news conference in Geneva: “The needs of the refugees are rising exponentially, and we are dead broke…The number of people fleeing Syria, the world’s worst refugee crisis has repeatedly outrun the UN’s expectations. The 1.25 million refugees, three-quarter of them women and children, is 10 percent higher than had been expected by June with no end in sight.” Concerning UNWRA. It’s an easy target for grousing and it is, in fact, sometimes a bit frustrating to work with due to its cumbersome bureaucracy. For the past five weeks Palestinian refugees from Syria have been camping outside UNRWA’s Lebanon Branch Headquarters across the highway from Shatila camp. They are urging more help as some explained to this observer last week. The tents have signs on them reading “From Palestinians in Syria: We request: That UNWRA Obtain the Housing and Health, Education and Nutrition Services.” The large banner is signed: “The Palestinians Displaced from Syria.” But it’s never been easy for UNWRA which has been in the cross hairs of the Zionist lobby since its creation in 1949. The most recent pledge of groups like AIPAC is to disband it. Elements of the lobby intend to have the US Congress declare that the American government does not recognize any Palestinian refugee but the original ones from the 1947-48 Nakba. At the same time the lobby has organized a campaign to draft legislation to end the automatic transmission of refugee status to the descendants of Palestinians that has been the policy of the international community and the UN since 1948. One of the leaders of this anti-UNRWA project is Daniel Pipes, the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab organizer of CampusWatch which, as Professor Rosemary Sayigh reminds us, has since 2002 mobilized students in US universities to report on faculty and even staff who support the Palestinians. Pipes declared recently that “the current approach by UNRWA creates a narrative of victimhood and leads to extremism”. Some reporters who attended a recent anti-UNWRA conference in New York, reported that the organizers, led by Israel’s envoy to the UN, Ron Prosor, will be urging Congress to enact a law specifying that “the US will only consider as a Palestinian refugee someone who was personally displaced as a result of the 1948 or 1967 Arab-Israeli conflicts, and who is not firmly resettled in another country.” This language is similar to an amendment presented in the Senate last May by Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk. The amendment was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee but did not become law when the larger bill to which it was attached failed to pass in the Senate. AIPAC pledges to continue this campaign. The intention of the initiative is that when the last of these Nakba and Naksa refugees die–the sooner the better–the issue will be solved. Presto! No more of those troublesome Palestinian refugees. When a refugee family arrives in Lebanon and registers for help with UNWRA (the backlog to get an interview in Lebanon at the Lebanon Field Office is currently close to six months and some refugees interviewed by this observer at the Shatila Camp Youth Center on April 2nd reported that, given the delay, they could not wait and have essentially given up on UNWRA–some risking their lives and returning to Syria. Assuming all their documents are in order, a family of four will received $150..a larger family will receive $200. It should be noted that the average taxi fare for Palestinians from Damascus to Beirut is now $110, up from around $16 pre-conflict. War profiteering again. Then there is the $17 per person (children aged 7 and under exempted), 90-day Lebanon “visa fee,” for which no social services are provided by the government of Lebanon. Earlier, UNWRA renewed the cash grants for another month but has recently announced it cannot continue this aid due to lack of cash, leaving Palestinians from Syria now essentially on their own. Palestinians from Yarmouk and elsewhere in Syria are currently relying on their countrymen in Shatila and other camps. UNRWA’s current Response Plan calls for $26.85 million of which only $19.04 million has been received as of April 5th. Even UNWRA schools in Lebanon are now maxed out for those Palestinians from Syria who could adjust to the UNWRA curriculum in Lebanon given that language and methodology are different in Lebanon than the system used in Syria. Most Palestinian refugees from Syria are not enrolled in school. Another UN aid agency, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is also stretched beyond its limits and giving no aid to Palestinian refugees because it claims its mandate excludes Palestinians since UNWRA was set up specifically to help Palestinian refugees until their return to Palestine. But UNWRA, under an increasing barrage of assaults from the Zionist lobby, as has been the case since its founding in 1949, is also out of cash and cannot do much for Palestinians being forced into Lebanon. In fairness to UNHCR, some local administrators do bend the rules and discretely do what they can, as they are, after all, humanitarians and no human being this observer has happened across can witness the carnage being inflicted on innocent civilian victims without wanting to help them, irrespective of their political views or who they hold responsible for the slaughter. Yet, UNHCR’s official policy of not including Palestinian refugees in its mandate should be immediately changed. UNHCR’s current hands-off policy flagrantly violates the international legal principle of “non-refoulement (the act of refusing entry or aid to refugees whose lives are endangered). The refoulement requirement is enshrined in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, is required by the 1967 Protocol and Art 3 of the 1984 Torture Convention and is required by international principles, standards and rules of accepted customary law as well as trucial Law of Nations (forbids the rendering of victims to their persecutors) agreed to by certain tribal states in the Middle East as far back as the 19th century. Professor Rosemary Sayigh, at the beginning of her recent brilliant lecture in Berlin, quoted Thomas W. Hill’s observation: “Palestinians never seem to have the luxury of digesting one tragedy before the next one is upon them.” All too true. But at the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon as well as the other 11, Palestinians are receiving and helping their countrymen to the best of their capacity until they can return to their still-occupied country. That, history teaches us, they will eventually do. Franklin Lamb is doing research in Syria and is reachable c/o fplamb@gmail.com

Remembering When Musharraf Forced Pakistan To Break With the Militant Islamists– May 2004

Pakistani Deobandis Challenge Musharraf BHARAT RAKSHAK MONITOR – Volume 6(6) May July 2004 M. S. Iyengar The past two months have seen a rapid escalation in sectarian violence and general lawlessness in Pakistan. Incidents that merited special attention were the assassination of Maulana Nizamuddin Shamzai in Karachi and the series of bombings that targeted Shiites. Pakistan watchers may recall that these incidents have usually followed participation of the Pakistan Army in US led counter-terrorist actions. The most recent case is the Pakistani operation against suspected terrorists in Waziristan. General Musharraf himself has spoken at great length about the threat to his life from Jihadi groups. Most Pakistani sources, including Gen. Musharraf himself, blame three groups; Jaish-e-Mohammed, Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin-al-Aalmi, and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for all acts of terrorism in Pakistan. These three groups have been accused of collaborating with Al Qaida by the Pakistani government. The Jaish-e-Mohammed is led by Maulana Masood Azhar. He is an influential Pakistani Deobandi preacher in the Jihad community. The Jaish-e-Mohammed is a partner of the Pakistan Army’s intelligence service, the ISI, in its covert war in Kashmir. The Jaish-e-Mohammed came into existence after Maulana Azhar was released from an Indian jail in exchange for the hostages of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999. The Jaish-e-Mohammed was founded in Karachi at the Jamia-ul-Uloom-Islamia – Banuri with the support of the highest ranking Deobandi clerics in Pakistan, including Maulana Nizamuddin Shamzai. A large portion of its initial asset base came from an older Jihadi group called the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin (HuM). After its formation, the Jaish went on to mount a brutal campaign of terror in Jammu and Kashmir. Its penchant for suicide attacks made it a poster boy for the Islamist struggle in Kashmir and attracted it several influential backers including Osama Bin Laden himself. The Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin-al-Aalmi is allegedly an offshoot of the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin.  The Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin was a partner of the ISI in the covert war in Afghanistan. HuM cadre were also involved in terrorism in Kashmir and other parts of India. In the events that preceded the fall of the Taliban government, HuM cadre went to Afghanistan in large numbers to fight against American forces attempting to capture Bin Laden after Sept. 11, 2001.  As readers may recall Gen. Musharraf had committed Pakistan to assisting the US in its war against the Al Qaida after Sept 11, 2001 and a lot of HuM cadre were killed in US offensives against the Taliban. The Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin-al-Aalmi is allegedly made up of elements of the HuM that seek to avenge this. The Laskar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) is an offshoot of the Anjuman Sipaha Saheba Pakistan organization, which was started by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in the Jhang district of Punjab. Maulana Haq Nawaz was a Deobandi preacher who urged poor Sunni farmers to take up arms against Shia landlords in the Jhang. This appeal resonated among the poor in the eighties and soon a number of people joined the Sipaha Saheba Pakistan (SSP). The SSP eventually split up and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was formed under the leadership of Riaz Basra.  Elements of the LeJ participated in the Afghan Jihad, and also fought alongside the Taliban. Domestically in Pakistan the LeJ is believed to have been involved in a vast number of sectarian killings. The LeJ leader Riaz Basra was also involved in an attempt to kill Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with an improvised explosive device outside his hometown of Raiwind. LeJ cadres are generally close to the Deobandi church but they retain a uniquely strong sense of anti-Shia feeling. There have also been reports emanating from the Wana area that a group of Pakistani Army officers have defected to side of the terrorists holed up alongside the late Nek Mohammed’s lashkar in Waziristan. There are also reports of writ petitions being filed against the Pakistan Army leadership on behalf of another group of Pakistani army officers up to the rank of colonel. In these petitions it is alleged that the aforementioned Pakistani officers are being secretly held under arrest, in contravention of Pakistan Army rules, on the orders of General Musharraf. Per ISPR spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, these officers are under investigation for involvement in an attempt to kill Gen. Musharraf. Both these incidents of serious indiscipline highlight that there is considerable opposition to Gen. Musharraf in the officer corps of the Pakistan Army. When the convoy of Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat was challenged in the early hours of the morning in Clifton, it brought considerable public scrutiny on the Corps Commanders committee of the Pakistan Army. As a result of this scrutiny, opinion editorials in newspapers are now openly talking about the cavalier manner in which Gen. Musharraf has filled the Corps Commanders with his relatives. For example, Gen. Shahid Aziz Siddiqui, the Corps Commander of Lahore, is a direct cousin of Gen. Musharraf. Similarly Gen. Hayat is allegedly related to Gen. Musharraf through his wife’s side. This allegation of nepotism could simply have its roots in the minds of disgruntled Pakistani Army senior staff that may have been sidelined in the promotion process. One finds this explanation debatable if one goes through the service records of the people that Musharraf has promoted. What is however beyond debate is that Musharraf needs to surround himself with people whose loyalty is beyond doubt. While this is true for all leaders, in the case of Musharraf and the Pakistan Army Corps Commanders, this takes on a very ominous significance. Before one begins to put all the pieces laid out here together one must recall some key facts about Pakistani Islam. A majority of Pakistan’s population are from the Sunni sect. The Sunnis of Pakistan fall roughly under three sub-sects, the Barelvis, the Deobandis, and the Alhe Hadithis. The Barelvis are a majority of the population. They comprise most of the lower socio-economic sections of Pakistan. The Alhe Hadithis are a minority, but there are very close to Wahhabi groups in Saudi Arabia, and hence their leaders are among the richer people in Pakistan. The Deobandis of Pakistan are somewhere in the middle. It is important to understand where the Deobandis of Pakistan came from. Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband in India is the Islamic equivalent of Harvard or Oxford in the West. Indian Deobandis were a major influence on educated Indian Muslims in British India. The positive effect of their scholarship was felt in better part of the Islamic world. Many social and legal codes throughout the Islamic world were shaped by the thinking of Indian Deobandis.  In British India, the Deobandis formed a political group, the Jamaat-ul-Ulema-e-Islami-e-Hind (JUI-H) to protect their political interests. After partition this organization split up and the Pakistan branch broke away after the Indian branch of the JUI-H opposed partition. After the partition a number of educated Indian Muslims left for Pakistan, and took up very influential positions in government there. The result is that the bulk of the administration, army and judiciary in Pakistan are dominated by Deobandis. Deobandi thinking continues to be a major influence on Pakistani government policy. During the period of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rule of the Pakistani Army dictator Gen. Zia ul Haq, the power of Pakistani Deobandis grew enormously. Several major Deobandi learning centers, such as the Jamia-ul-Uloom Banuri and the Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqania at Akora Khattak, became centers for the promotion of a new brand of militant Islam. Influential preachers from these institutions became respected voices in Pakistan and were given powerful positions on the Council of Islamic Ideology, a body setup by Gen. Zia to shape Pakistani national policy. An infusion of funds and arms from Saudi Arabia and western intelligence agencies, created huge standing armies of radical Deobandis in Pakistan. The role of leading Pakistani Deobandi Ulema in creating the Taliban has been well documented now, and the links between these Ulema and Osama Bin Laden are public knowledge. Major Deobandi organizations in Pakistan like the Harkat-ul-Mujaheedin, dominate the nodal body for the Kashmiri Jihad, the Muttahida Jihad Council. Pakistani elements of a Deobandi religious order, the Tablighi Jamaat which had a great following among some sections of the Pakistani Army was also found to be involved in an attempt to depose the elected Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and to impose Islamic rule in Pakistan. The leader of this coup attempt Maj. Gen. Zaheer ul Islam Abbasi, once the ISI head of station in New Delhi, was jailed for treason in 1995. Gen. Abbasi was released after Gen. Musharraf ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Gen. Abbasi immediately went on to establish a new organization, the Hizb-allah, comprising former military officers that would aim to establish Islamic rule in Pakistan. To summarize in all the Jihads run by the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the Pakistani Deobandis had a major role. After Sept 11, 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power, and to capture Osama Bin Laden. At this time, all Pakistani Deobandi Ulema vociferously opposed the US and condemned Gen. Musharraf’s cooperation with the US forces. Huge rallies were organized and the public sympathy generated in this process for the Islamist cause, brought the Pakistani Deobandi led Islamist political alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal to power in the recent parliamentary elections. Since then almost every single day in the Pakistani National Assembly, MMA legislators have called for the ouster of Gen. Musharraf. Most MMA office bearers publicly challenge the fairness of the referendum that Gen. Musharraf claims to have won.  High ranking Pakistani Deobandi Ulema like Maulana Shamzai had strongly opposed any move by the Pakistan Govt. to participate in the US counter terrorist activity. In the aftermath of the A. Q. Khan nuclear smuggling scandal, the Pakistani Deobandi Ulema once again led the charge against the Govt. of Pakistan for having sold out the Pakistani Nuclear Program. The year 2002 saw the most intense Indo-Pak standoff to date. During this period the Govt. of India succeed in forcing Gen. Musharraf to act against major anti-India terrorist groups in Pakistan. The leaders of several groups were placed under house arrest, and their groups declared terrorist organizations in Pakistan. The ISI unit responsible for coordinating these groups was also asked to curtail its activities. Most of the groups shut down were Pakistani Deobandi outfits. By contrast the Alhe Hadithi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, headed by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was spared the axe and continues to operate with impunity in Pakistan today. From the perspective of people in the Pakistani Army intelligence community, the Ahle Hadithis are a very useful group. Being a minority in Pakistan, they are constantly under the threat of assimilation from the other Sunni sub-sects. As their brand of Islam is very close to the Wahhabi church of Saudi Arabia, these groups usually attract a lot of funding from Saudi sources. In addition to this there are numerous internal fractures, mostly along caste lines within the Ahle Hadith groups in Pakistan, so this makes it easy for the Pakistani intelligence community to leverage groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Before Sept. 11 2001, most Pakistan watchers noted that all the international Jihad operations run out of Pakistan, i.e. support to Arab, Chechen, Bosnian, Myanmarese, Malaysian and Indonesian groups was coordinated by Pakistani Deobandi leaders and groups like the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin, and the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami. At one point of time the ties between the HuM and the Al Qaida were so close that one Indian analyst suggested that the Al Qaida’s Makhtab-al-Khidmat and the HuM were practically indistinguishable entities. After Sept. 11, 2001, one no longer sees this connection. The Lashkar-e-Taiba however seems to be growing in profile and spread. On a daily basis we are treated to reports about American, British, French and Australian Muslims getting trained at LeT camps in Pakistan to commit terrorist acts in western countries. Another interesting fact that came to light recently was that a Pakistani national had been trained at a LeT facility and asked by Al Qaida operatives to participate in Sept 11, but the Pakistani defected and informed the FBI. Tragically this intelligence input did not receive the attention it merited. The LeT has also been involved in promoting terrorism against US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The LeT leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, has been making statements about the possession of nuclear weapons and other WMD. A number of analysts privately admit that the LeT may already have the know-how to make chemical and biological weapons. The involvement of A. Q. Khan with the LeT has been subject to some speculation also. The sudden rise in profile of the LeT in the last three years, led one Indian analyst, Shri. B. Raman to characterize the LeT as the “new standard bearer of the Al Qaida and the International Islamic Front”. This rise in profile of the LeT appears to have come at the expense of the Pakistani Deobandi groups. It is not uncommon for the Pakistani intelligence community to play off one group against another to ensure that a control is maintained on things. While this sort of `friendly football’ would be fine under ordinary circumstances, in the current atmosphere in Pakistan, this is a very bad idea. The Musharraf government is increasingly being perceived as being anti-Muslim. That label attracts all sorts of bad vibes, and it drives the Islamic religious fanatics into a homicidal frenzy. The Indian Deobandis were extremely consistent in their opposition to British colonial rule. Conditions in Pakistan today, are reminiscent of the worst days of colonial power. Pakistani Deobandis must feel a deeply ingrained sense of anger over the perceived failure of the Pakistani Army to protect Pakistan, and Islam from the Americans. Given the extent to which the Pakistani Deobandis penetrate the bureaucracy, the Army and the judiciary, this anger must be quite palpable to Gen. Musharraf.   All this brings us to the events of the last three weeks, namely the assassination of Maulana Nizamuddin Shamzai, the most respected Deobandi cleric in Pakistan, and the attack on Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat’s convoy. Given the sheer spread of Islamist influence and power in Karachi, it is difficult to imagine that the Pakistani Deobandi leadership in Karachi did not know of the attack on Gen. Hayat’s convoy. Given the suspicious circumstances of Maulana Shamzai’s murder, perhaps the Deobandi leadership in Karachi had their reasons for looking the other way? It comes as no surprise to Pakistan watchers that the Pakistani Army has been very circumspect in their investigation. Of the eighty suspects arrested in connection with the attack not one has been identified by group affiliation. The Pakistani Army appears very keen to avoid a confrontation of any sort in Karachi. All of these could make a reasonable person conclude that the attack on the Corps Commander’s convoy in the heart of Karachi is the public expression of a direct challenge from the Deobandi Ulema of Karachi to the leadership of General Pervez Musharraf. Gen. Musharraf can only ignore the implications of such a challenge at his own peril.

Copyright © Bharat Rakshak 2004

The Spread of the Disease of the Cartels–A Virus Cultivated In CIA Laboratories

[If left unchecked, then the penetration of the American heartland by the heavily armed (WE have heavily armed them) Mexican drug cartels will justify whatever level of militarization deemed necessary by the powers that be.  This means that reasonably, and with no stretch of the imagination, Americans can assume that the American Heartland will experience a very real drug war of our own in the immediate future, similar to the ongoing civil war in Mexico.  It will be a war entirely of our own making.  With our creation of the "Los Zetas" cartel (training given by American Special Forces to Mexican Special Forces units, which included Zetas founding members), by our surreptitious provision of military grade arms through "Fast and Furious," and because of misguided policies of taking the Sinaloa Cartel side in Mexico's drug war, cartel outposts have been created in America's major cities such as Chicago, Denver and Dallas.  One needs only to look to the border cities of Texas, to understand the level of violence which is now barely being held back.  The recent cold-blooded murders of district attornies in Texas and a prison warden in Colorado documents how far the seepage of Mexican cartel violence has already gone beyond our border fences.  Both of these examples also illustrate a new, even more troubling development in the spread of the Cartels' tentacles, the embedding of the Zetas organization within the American penal system, where it is merging with the major white supremacist groups, like the Aryan Brotherhood and their Colorado branch, called the "211 Crew." 

American justice officials have little choice, but to eradicate the American foothold of the Zetas and the Sinaloas, before it is too late.  The big problem with this statement is that it seems to speak in support of a military escalation on American soil, which has been the Pentagon/CIA plan all along.  Our only hope, i.e., the hope of Americans who love our Constitution, is that the Cartel onslaught will be handled through a concerted, nationwide police offensive, before it can further escalate into a military problem.  This means that the subversive hand of the CIA must be removed from the equation.  It is the CIA which has been "queering" everybody's fight against the Cartels within Mexico, in order to bring-about their own plans for the total destabilization of the American Homeland.  In this, as in all American policy problems, it is the CIA that is poisoning the well. 

The only thing that can save the United States of America is the fulfillment of JFK's promise to "shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces," as well as the immediate scrapping of every single project that they had in the works.  Compared to that, taming the Cartels should be a piece of cake.]

AP IMPACT: Mexican cartels dispatch trusted agents to live and work deep inside United States

By Michael Tarm, The Associated Press

In this Feb. 14, 2013 photo, Art Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission, left, announces that Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a drug kingpin in Mexico, has been named Chicago’s Public Enemy No. 1, during a news conference in Chicago. Looking on is Jack Riley, right, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago and Peter Bensinger, former Administrator of the United States DEA. Ruthless drug cartels have long been the nation’s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, but in the past, their operatives rarely ventured beyond the border. A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHICAGO – Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States — an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world’s most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.

If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels’ move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.

Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation’s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.

But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.

“It’s probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime,” said Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Chicago office.

The cartel threat looms so large that one of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpins — a man who has never set foot in Chicago — was recently named the city’s Public Enemy No. 1, the same notorious label once assigned to Al Capone.

The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-government agency that tracks crime trends in the region, said it considers Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman even more menacing than Capone because Guzman leads the deadly Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in Chicago and in many cities across the U.S.

Years ago, Mexico faced the same problem — of then-nascent cartels expanding their power — “and didn’t nip the problem in the bud,” said Jack Killorin, head of an anti-trafficking program in Atlanta for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “And see where they are now.”

Riley sounds a similar alarm: “People think, ‘The border’s 1,700 miles away. This isn’t our problem.’ Well, it is. These days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border.”

Border states from Texas to California have long grappled with a cartel presence. But cases involving cartel members have now emerged in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and rural North Carolina. Suspects have also surfaced in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Mexican drug cartels “are taking over our neighbourhoods,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane warned a legislative committee in February. State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan disputed her claim, saying cartels are primarily drug suppliers, not the ones trafficking drugs on the ground.

For years, cartels were more inclined to make deals in Mexico with American traffickers, who would then handle transportation to and distribution within major cities, said Art Bilek, a former organized crime investigator who is now executive vice-president of the crime commission.

As their organizations grew more sophisticated, the cartels began scheming to keep more profits for themselves. So leaders sought to cut out middlemen and assume more direct control, pushing aside American traffickers, he said.

Beginning two or three years ago, authorities noticed that cartels were putting “deputies on the ground here,” Bilek said. “Chicago became such a massive market … it was critical that they had firm control.”

To help fight the syndicates, Chicago recently opened a first-of-its-kind facility at a secret location where 70 federal agents work side-by-side with police and prosecutors. Their primary focus is the point of contact between suburban-based cartel operatives and city street gangs who act as retail salesmen. That is when both sides are most vulnerable to detection, when they are most likely to meet in the open or use cellphones that can be wiretapped.

Others are skeptical about claims cartels are expanding their presence, saying law-enforcement agencies are prone to exaggerating threats to justify bigger budgets.

David Shirk, of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute, said there is a dearth of reliable intelligence that cartels are dispatching operatives from Mexico on a large scale.

“We know astonishingly little about the structure and dynamics of cartels north of the border,” Shirk said. “We need to be very cautious about the assumptions we make.”

In Mexico, the cartels are known for a staggering number of killings — more than 50,000, according to one tally. Beheadings are sometimes a signature.

So far, cartels don’t appear to be directly responsible for large numbers of slayings in the United States, though the Texas Department of Public Safety reported 22 killings and five kidnappings in Texas at the hands of Mexican cartels from 2010 through mid- 2011.

Still, police worry that increased cartel activity could fuel heightened violence.

In Chicago, the police commander who oversees narcotics investigations, James O’Grady, said street-gang disputes over turf account for most of the city’s uptick in murders last year, when slayings topped 500 for the first time since 2008. Although the cartels aren’t dictating the territorial wars, they are the source of drugs.

Riley’s assessment is stark: He argues that the cartels should be seen as an underlying cause of Chicago’s disturbingly high murder rate.

“They are the puppeteers,” he said. “Maybe the shooter didn’t know and maybe the victim didn’t know that. But if you follow it down the line, the cartels are ultimately responsible.”

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/IMPACT+Mexican+cartels+dispatch+trusted+agents+live+work/8177391/story.html#ixzz2PDbHBX1v

 

 

 

 

 

America Destroying Itself In Crusade To “Save Afghanistan”

Delusional Lazy Pedesterian Mediocre Peacocks…blurting out meaningless blurry platitudes and sound bites, which have no clear objectives for massa Joe Fink.

[SEE: New US Commander in Afghanistan: We’re Here to Win ]

In the most corrupt nation on earth according to Transparency International 2013, due to deliberate American policy, so called democratic elections have no meaning . There fore the 2014 presidential elections will not be the key to a meaningful and constructive future for Afghanistan. 

In the Grand Scheme of things Afghanistan will remain a glorified military base, after 2014 for American destabilization and drone wars in Pakistan, Iran, Central Asia and eventually China as part of the East Asian pivot. Afghanistan itself will be neglected and abused, as it has been since the Soviets left in 1989, by the USA.

Afghanistan is a lemon that has to be squeezed, with all its juices and pips, and discarded, for the Americans. 

The racist American military/CIA brought in kill teams into Afghanistan, special ops people, and house to house searches at night, attacks on wedding parties, attacks on funerals, attacks on Friday prayer gatherings, and even village elder meetings………..village farmers innocently fingered as terrorist, then executed with AK-47 dropped next to them to get the body count quota; women raped, children’s testicles crushed in front of their parents…and the strafing of children by helicopter gunships whilst collecting wood for cooking, or simply playing out in the open.

No general faggot peacock neanderthal, in nearly 12 years of “war’ the JEWSA has not won, because there was never a VICTORY to win in the first place………as if he didn’t know; Afghanistan is another manufactured war……with all the pomp and circumstance of searching for 100 or so alleged ‘al-CIA-duh” operatives, and the Taliban which was created by the CIA in 1994 as “Controlled Opposition” with the help of the ISI, WHICH, provided the rational for the later invasion in 2001 and 9/11.

BUT some Americans have won, and are winning…mostly Jews in Wall Street.

Afghanistan has been turned into a giant Opium plantation by the Pentagon/CIA.

The peacock faggot general should know this fundamental urban legend fact. If he does not know he should he fired. If he does then he is merely a faggot peacock neanderthal LAIR…….SMOOTH TALKING HIS SOUND BITES WRITTEN by the Pentagon.

I am of the opinion that if you mistreat the native population, and turn their country, Ariana into a giant opium plantation, and continue with an aggressive occupation….house to house searches…kill teams quotas as with Vietnam..AND is the county as a base to abuse other countries…and don’t undertake any serious development….but instead divert funds to CRIMINALS with the Pentagon/CIA and their bank accounts in the Gulf….promote the worst type of Afghans into positions of power within a narco state……THEN there can be NO VICTORY IN SUCH A SORRY STATE….ONLY UTTER FAILURE…and Vietnam.

The Christian Fundamentalist Pentagon/CIA could try the Japan post WWII model in Afghanistan WITH SINCERITY, and honest effort…this will require character, and great effort in the League of General MacArthur. It means getting rid of the criminals in the Afghan government who coordinate and acquiesce  their work with criminals in the Pentagon and CIA.

The noble Aryan people of Afghanistan are tired of 33 years of war imposed on them unjustly.

The Soviet Invasion 1980–1989, where 1.5 million died, and 5 million became refugees in Iran and Pakistan.

The Civil War of 1991–1996, where criminal warlords came to the fore.

The Bizarre Medieval Taliban rule, coordinated and backed by the CIA/ISI. 1994-2001.

The invasion of Afghanistan by the JEWSA and its dogs in 2001, after Israel carried out 9/11. This has not been an happy experience for the last 12 years so stated by ordinary Afghans and good Americans, where many crimes have been committed, as stated above.

As tired and war weary as the noble Afghans might be, I am quite sure eventually they will eject ALL foreigners from their country. It is a matter of time. Sheer slippery bad faith from the JEWSA guarantees it.

 

CIA Chickens Come Home To Roost–’Phoenix jihadist’s’ dad claims son worked in Syria for CIA

‘Phoenix jihadist’s’ dad claims son worked in Syria for CIA

As US Army veteran Eric Harroun awaits trial in Virginia for allegedly fighting alongside al-Qaeda supporters, the man’s father claims he was working for the CIA and was reporting back to the agency from Syria.

Harroun, a 30-year-old American from Phoenix, Arizona, has been charged by the US government for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (namely a rocket propelled grenade launcher) to conduct an attack against the Syrian government. The US Army veteran dubbed by media ‘Phoenix jihadist’ appeared in numerous videos alongside members of the al-Nusra Front, designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization in December, but which has also been fighting alongside the Syrian opposition to take down the Assad regime. To date, 29 US-backed Syrian opposition groups have linked with al-Nusra, and have signed a petition calling for the support of the Islamist group that the White House believes is a branch of al-Qaeda.

According to FBI documents, Harroun traveled to Turkey last November and joined the fight led by the Free Syrian Army shortly thereafter. His father, Darryl Harroun, on Thursday told reporters that he doesn’t understand why the US government arrested his son, who he says was working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

He referred to his son as a ‘patriotic’ American who would never get involved with al-Qaeda, and claims he was  gathering information for the US government.

“I know he was doing some work for the CIA over there,”  the man’s father said. “I know for a fact that he was passing information onto the CIA.”

After seeing the documents regarding his son’s charges, Harroun told a CBS News reporter that it is all inaccurate and misleading and that the truth will eventually come out, since his son was simply gathering intelligence.

“About 99 percent of that stuff that you read on there is a bunch of bull,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any truth in any of this – he’s very patriotic”

The CIA is known to have contributed to the opposition fighters’ initiatives in Syria. Last week, the New York Times published an article describing how the agency has allegedly been helping foreign governments contribute to the Free Syrian Army. Unnamed US officials told the paper that the CIA has been secretly airlifting arms and other military equipment to Arab governments and Turkey, who provided them to the country’s opposition fighters.

With the agency’s alleged involvement in the conflict, some believe it is very possible for the CIA to also have sent their own agents into Syria. Paul Joseph Watson suggests on InfoWars that Harroun’s arrest may have something to do with the lack of communication and rivalry between the FBI and the CIA.

The FBI affidavit makes no mention of Harroun having any sort of connection to the CIA, but includes transcripts of interviews in which the man describes being treated like a prisoner in the al-Nusra camp and eventually being accepted by the members. Soon thereafter, he was helping them conduct several attacks on the Syrian regime. He also recalled being questioned about why the US government designated the group as a terrorist organization.

But the FBI is worried that while he may have gone into Syria with good intentions, he may also have become radicalized. A main component of the affidavit focuses on a Facebook status Harroun allegedly posted, in which he states that “the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.”

But the man did not seem to try to hide any of his acitivities in Syria. He frequently uploaded pictures of himself in the conflict zone and made opinionated statements regarding the Assad regime. He allowed journalists to interview him over Skype and labeled himself as a “freedom fighter”, working on behalf of the opposition movement that the US supports.

His alleged CIA involvement has so far only been mentioned by the man’s father, but could play a major part in the case as Harroun awaits trial. He faces a maximum of life imprisonment.

Minorities in Pakistan and Islam–(deleted from Dawn)

Minorities in Pakistan and Islam

THE Badami Bagh incident shocked the whole country. A mob radically and illicitly destroyed many houses and shops of Christians on the basis of alleged blasphemy.

Since the implementation of the blasphemy law, many members of minority communities, particularly Christians, have been killed and thousands have been forced to leave the country.

The assassination of Salmaan Taseer was also shocking for the entire world, and even secular Islamic scholars and statesmen preferred not to speak. This further created a situation of complete despondency amongst minorities.

More shockingly the government and authorities concerned did nothing to stop the wrath in the name of blasphemy against the minorities. The government and the media need to stand up and do their respective jobs sincerely.

Islam’s real peaceful image should be implemented and a few countable anti-peace and anti-human people should not be allowed to destroy the image of the country and image of Islam for their vested interests.

Thomas Carlyle in his book Hero and Hero Worship had truly presented the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) as the most exemplary peace-loving personality in the history of mankind.

Hence, we need to present the true picture of Islam and the Holy Prophet, and those countable fanatics should be mutilated and obliterated before they take their roots deep.

SAJJAD RUSTAMANI
Hyderabad

U.S. Army Veteran Charged For Helping Al-Qaeda Terrorists Try To Overthrow Syrian Regime

U.S. army veteran charged for conspiring with Al-Qaeda group to topple Syrian regime

Matthew Barakat, Associated Press

YouTubeEric Harroun of Phoenix was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S. He appears in an online video in which he celebrates bringing down a helicopter in Syria.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A U.S. Army veteran is charged with conspiring with an Al-Qaeda group to wage war against the Syrian regime.

Eric Harroun of Phoenix was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S. An affidavit states Harroun has been engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government. It says he used rocket-propelled grenades in the fighting earlier this year.

On his Facebook page, he claimed credit for downing a Syrian helicopter.

Prosecutors say one of the groups with which Harroun, dubbed “The American” served is the al-Nusrah Front, which is commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Harroun has made an initial court appearance. A public defender was appointed to represent him in a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Harroun served in the military from 2000 to 2003 and was medically discharged after he was in a car accident, the court affidavit reads. A video posted to YouTube and Facebook, and referenced in the affidavit, appears to show Harroun celebrating shooting down a helicopter in Syria.

Harroun also posted photos to Facebook of himself holding machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Darryl, Harroun’s father, told FoxNews.com that his son wasn’t raised Muslim and he’s worried he’ll soon receive a phone call telling him his son is dead.

“We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he’s doing. I told him, ‘You’re never going to change those people’s minds over there,’” Darryl told FoxNews.com from Arizona.

“But he says they treat him like a hero.”

With files from National Post staff