U.S., Fearing Terrorists, Provides Them With Weapons

January 10, 2014

The U.S. government has some rather amazing contradictions in its policy towards the foreign sponsored insurgents in Syria. While one piece in the New York Times today is fear mongering on Syria Militants Said to Recruit Visiting Americans to Attack U.S. another one has officials say that the U.S. Considers Resuming Nonlethal Aid to Syrian Opposition even if that aid goes to the same Islamists that turn U.S. citizen to potential terrorists.

From the first piece:

The Obama administration is considering the resumption of nonlethal military aid to Syria’s moderate opposition, senior administration officials said on Thursday, even if some of it ends up going to the Islamist groups that are allied with the moderates.
…
Administration officials insisted that no aid would be directly supplied to the Islamic Front, an umbrella for half a dozen rebel groups who favor the creation of an orthodox Islamic state in Syria. Aid would continue to be funneled exclusively through the Supreme Military Council, the military wing of moderate, secular Syrian opposition.

But a senior administration official said: “You have to take into account questions of how the S.M.C. and the Islamic Front are interacting on the ground,” adding, “There’s no way to say 100 percent that it would not end up in the hands of the Islamic Front.”

The U.S. is of course currently continuing to provide weapons and training to some of the insurgent outfits. The discussion about "aid" is only about the "civilian" part (which includes some weapons) that the State department provides. What the CIA and the Pentagon provide is not under discussion. The piece is bit revealing in that when it describes the FSA warehouse with U.S. goods the Islamist had raided:

The administration has also struggled to learn what precisely happened in the early hours of Dec. 7, when the Islamic Front seized control of warehouses in Atmeh, in northern Syria, that contained the American-supplied aid, including food rations, medical kits and vehicles.
…
Mr. Ford has told analysts, the Islamic Front has returned the warehouses and their contents, with the exception of light arms and ammunition.

Also mentioned in this piece is that the Islamic Front and other FSA outlets are cooperating with the Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra:

The risk, some analysts said, is not that the American aid would end up in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but with the Nusra Front, another powerful rebel group that the United States believes has links to Al Qaeda but which many rebels view as an effective combatant against Mr. Assad. The Nusra Front is not a part of the Islamic Front, but it has close ties to some groups that are under the front’s umbrella.

The Nusra Front is also the group that is allegedly training U.S. citizens to become terrorists. From the first piece:

Islamic extremist groups in Syria with ties to Al Qaeda are trying to identify, recruit and train Americans and other Westerners who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home, according to senior American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
…
Eric G. Harroun, a former Army soldier from Phoenix, was indicted in Virginia by a federal grand jury last year on charges related to allegations that he fought alongside the Nusra Front, one of the Syrian opposition groups linked to Al Qaeda. In September, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge involving conspiracy to transfer defense articles and services, and was released from custody.

The Obama administration is now planing, and announcing such in the NYT, to do exactly what Eric G. Harroun pleaded guilty to do. To provide defense articles and services to Syrian insurgents well knowing that these are quite likely to end up with the Nusra Front and other Jihadi outlets. It provides these while knowing that they will probably be used to train U.S. citizens to commit terrorist acts in the United States.

One could attribute this to divergent streams of incompetence within the Obama administration. But the two pieces side by side in today's NYT are more like a big stinking finger shown to the U.S. people: "You better fear those terrorists and now watch us how we create more of them." How will the people feel about that?

Posted by b on January 10, 2014 at 14:28 UTC | Permalink

Comments

On the other hand, a little collateral damage caused by Jihadists returning to the US might be just what is needed to stifle criticism of NSA spying and justify a further crackdown on civil liberties.

Posted by: Gareth | Jan 10 2014 14:41 utc | 1

The arms manufacturers don’t mind (for the time being). There’re only in the business of selling weapons.

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 10 2014 14:50 utc | 2

Crumbs of carrot before Geneva, after being beaten with an almighty stick during the last two weeks.

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Jan 10 2014 15:42 utc | 3

@#1
Some syrian terrorists who get caught just the second before they blast something, that might come in handy. Or maybe an attack that can be attributed to intelligence deficits directly linked to “Snowden”. Just to prove the point that privacy actually endangers (or even kills) real american innocent people. There’s certainly some baddies out there in a cave who are plotting an evil plan that will eventually and in the long term help the NSA achieve their goals. It’s easy to argue against total surveillance when terrorism seems remote, but not so much when it’s an actual threat.

Posted by: peter radiator | Jan 10 2014 16:20 utc | 4

The first article from the Zionist propaganda rag reeks of narrative creation for the next false-flag “terror attack” in the US. It cites foiled horsesh!te US-backed intelligence plots like the NYC subway and Times Square plots as evidence what we might expect from those “Syrian” returnees with nary a word as to how much shady nonsense involving US intel there was in both cases. Jihad Jane? GMAFB.
The second article has this choice quote: “But there is also a political risk for the administration. Critics on Capitol Hill would most likely protest any decision to supply aid to the Islamic Front.”
Let me get this straight. So, even though now 58 US (AIPAC traitors) Senators are backing the AIPAC sponsored anti-Iran bill in the face of the POTUS’ diplomacy efforts we’re supposed to be led to believe that they give a flying eff about doing the bidding of Israel to the detriment of the United States?
Don’t worry, Congressional peabrained whores, the piece ends with a lovely quote from a WINEP (read:Israeli) mouthpiece to assuage your fears and tell you what your marching orders are (hint: STFU): “Given where we are, given the state of the war, given that it’s nonlethal in nature, there’s less downside risk,” said Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Syria and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It could lead to bigger and better things.”
Bigger and better things, huh, WINEP? Like a more lavish false flag in Syria? At the Olympics? Or do you really mean smaller and more shattered things, y’know, like sovereign states a la the Yinon Plan?
Oh, and Zionist traitors, don’t forget to vote for dual Israeli-American citizen and ardent anti-Iranian Zionist Stanley Fischer to be the Number Two man at the US Federal Reserve and who Obama just nominated today.
2014: The Year – once again – of Unbridled in Your Face Zionist Treachery in the USA!!!

Posted by: JSorrentine | Jan 10 2014 16:26 utc | 5

What makes this story hilarious is that the only thing it proves is that Yankee plots can be overcome by anyone who can fight and isn’t as stupid & cowardly as Yankees. You only need to ponder the MSM-reported death toll (recently updated to 135,000 to 145,000 civilians to see what’s been happening since this SNAFU began.
According to the MSM,
– 140,000 civilians have died.
– Obama’s pet rebels are described as civilians and no distinction is made between genuine(non-combatant) civilians and Obama’s ‘rebels’
– We also know that reports of ‘rebels’ winning pitched battles with the SAA are few and far between and likewise the number of SAA cambatants killed are similarly small.
– Reports of damage to Syrian military installations and infrastructure are also few and far between.
– You don’t have to be a genius to deduce that the ‘rebels’ are as cowardly and incompetent as Yankees and that their job is to avoid the SAA like the plague (which is amply confirmed in hundreds of ‘rebel’ videos showing them “heroically” blazing away at empty streets or unseen targets) and to target civilians and civilian infrastructure.
– One can imagine how the SAA treats these curs when it catches them killing civilians…
Imo, there’s enough evidence in the MSM’s misreporting of casualties to make it a safe bet that ‘rebels’ make up circa 33% to 50% of the ‘civilian casualtis’ and that figure will only get worse for Obama’s ‘rebels’
All these extraordinarily complex scenarios are just a by-product of Yankee pig-headed stupidity, incompetence and wishful thinking. Their pseudo-military plot never really had much chance of success from the outset and the longer Obama supports it the stupider he’ll look when Assad (and Putin) declare Game Over.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 10 2014 16:27 utc | 6

“But the two pieces side by side in today’s NYT are more like a big stinking finger shown to the U.S. people: “You better fear those terrorists and now watch us how we create more of them.” How will the people feel about that?”

but wait, have we not been reliably informed, time and time again BLT, by the wise owls that inhabit there, that the Empire is just too darned incompetent to successfully engage is such duplicity?

Posted by: stfu | Jan 10 2014 16:29 utc | 7

Since most Americans get their information from the MCM (Mainstream Corporate Media, well and truly informed by the government as to what they ought to report, with only a few exceptions allowed and then to not be emphasized), precious few will even understand the meanings of the contradictions revealed by these two NYTimes articles.
Those who do understand will be studiously ignored in the MCM. And, given the reach of blogs which point out what is being missed by the MCM is not that far reaching, few will gain access to that information.
Operation Mockingbird of the 21st C. is well ensconced and working to the satisfaction of the MIC.
And those favoring Israeli interests.
The only thing going for those who do not favor unending wars is that the majority of US people have a gut understanding that all these wars are not doing much good for the general population. However, that’s where the need for false flag and other terrorist activities on US soil come into play. A couple bombings and a few deaths and injuries will serve to sway many in that majority to reluctantly accept more wars, more violations of their Constitutional rights.

Posted by: jawbone | Jan 10 2014 17:18 utc | 8

Nusra has a very consistent recent record of two-facedness. I’m sure the media can lose the plot.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 10 2014 17:24 utc | 9

@6: Have a look at Benetech Inc. and its offspring Human Rights Data Analysis Group. They provided the numbers.
http://www.innercitypress.com/ohchr1benetech010213.html
http://innercitypress.com/ohchr2benetech010213.html
http://innercitypress.com/ohchr3benetech010213.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/ohchr1hrdag061313.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/ohchr2hrdag061313.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/ohchr3hrdag061313.html
http://www.innercitypress.com/ohchr4hrdag061313.html
http://innercitypress.blogspot.de/2013/06/uns-new-syria-fatality-report-is-by-sf.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-how-many-people-have-been-killed-the-procurement-of-un-figures/5317891

Posted by: g_h | Jan 10 2014 17:29 utc | 10

F.U.B.A.R.

Posted by: Mark | Jan 10 2014 17:32 utc | 11

@b u say “are more like a big stinking finger shown to the U.S. people”
We are and will always be under there control. I am learning to except that unfortunately. We are just to busy in our day to day life to stand up and take action.Off to work I go to make my next dollar!

Posted by: nini | Jan 10 2014 18:06 utc | 12

The US is desperately trying to avoid facing the reality they have denied for 3 years.
The media and many politicians keep repeating that the situation in Syria is such today only because the West has not helped enough militarily the so-called ‘secular’ revolutionist in toppling Bashar al Assad. That’s a ridiculous excuse.
If Assad had resigned when the US asked for it, 3 years ago, Syria would have been in the same situation now as Libya is because of the absence of a legitimate and strong opposition, a political void, a desintegrated army and the door open for armed islamic militias to take over the country.
The situation would have been even more desperate than it is today for minorities. Massacres would have obliged the West to intervene militarily in mass as there would have been no Syrian army anymore.
The resilience of the Syrian governement has be rewarded. Most institutions are still working and while many areas are under foreign control, contrary to Libya, there is a national army who, with proper support, can get rid of the Al Qaeda terrorists that have invaded north-east of Syria.
It is becoming clear that without the aerial military power of the Syrian army, the so-called moderate rebels associated with Al Qaeda “moderate” islamists of Al Nusra have no chance to eradicate the Al Qaeda extremists of ISIL.
Therefore sooner or later, after seen the rebels decimating each other without been able to stop ISIL or Al Qaeda, the West will start to beg Bashar al Assad to attack the AlQaeda stronholds. They will also discreetly help by proving drones and intelligence…
The problem is that the West need to see more death and destruction to accept the obvious reality: They failed all along in trying to change Syria’s regime.

Posted by: Virgile | Jan 10 2014 18:08 utc | 13

Also in today’s NYT is a decent story about the deepening estrangement of U.S. Marines who fought in Falluja.
Maybe I’m being too optimistic and naive but I don’t think these obvious contradictions in U.S. policy — i.e., it is against the law to support Al Qaeda yet the government is provisioning them — can be maintained indefinitely. Look at Senator Bob Menendez, the corrupt machine pol from New Jersey who is blocking the Apache helicopters being sent to Iraq. Who is he doing that for? Israel I would assume. I’m sure there are plenty of his constituents who are agitated by this and taking note.
And for JSorrentine, in case it was missed, a few lines from today’s Amiri Baraka’s obit:

[S]hortly after he was appointed the New Jersey poet laureate, Mr. Baraka gave a public reading of “Somebody Blew Up America,” a poem he had written in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. In it, he suggested that Israel had prior knowledge of the attacks:
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away?

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jan 10 2014 18:08 utc | 14

They do it again and again.
From the past

In the 1980s Washington’s secret services had assisted Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. Then, in 1990, the US fought him in the Gulf. In both Afghanistan and the Gulf, the Pentagon had incurred debts to Islamist groups and their Middle Eastern sponsors. By 1993 these groups, many supported by Iran and Saudi Arabia, were anxious to help Bosnian Muslims fighting in the former Yugoslavia and called in their debts with the Americans. Bill Clinton and the Pentagon were keen to be seen as creditworthy and repaid in the form of an Iran-Contra style operation – in flagrant violation of the UN security council arms embargo against all combatants in the former Yugoslavia.
The result was a vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling though Croatia. This was arranged by the clandestine agencies of the US, Turkey and Iran, together with a range of radical Islamist groups, including Afghan mojahedin and the pro-Iranian Hizbullah. Wiebes reveals that the British intelligence services obtained documents early on in the Bosnian war proving that Iran was making direct deliveries.
Arms purchased by Iran and Turkey with the financial backing of Saudi Arabia made their way by night from the Middle East. Initially aircraft from Iran Air were used, but as the volume increased they were joined by a mysterious fleet of black C-130 Hercules aircraft. The report stresses that the US was “very closely involved” in the airlift. Mojahedin fighters were also flown in, but they were reserved as shock troops for especially hazardous operations.
…
Iranian and Afghan veterans’ training camps had also been identified in Bosnia. Later, in the Dayton Accords of November 1995, the stipulation appeared that all foreign forces be withdrawn. This was a deliberate attempt to cleanse Bosnia of Iranian-run training camps. The CIA’s main opponents in Bosnia were now the mojahedin fighters and their Iranian trainers – whom the Pentagon had been helping to supply months earlier.
Meanwhile, the secret services of Ukraine, Greece and Israel were busy arming the Bosnian Serbs. Mossad was especially active and concluded a deal with the Bosnian Serbs at Pale involving a substantial supply of artillery shells and mortar bombs. In return they secured safe passage for the Jewish population out of the besieged town of Sarajevo. Subsequently, the remaining population was perplexed to find that unexploded mortar bombs landing in Sarajevo sometimes had Hebrew markings.

Today

There is a certain disappointment in Washington. We counted on the EU being sufficient motivation to get the leaders in Bosnia started, Hill said, adding that the US was considering the possibility of being more active in Bosnia after the period in which it had left the initiative up to the EU, which had been ineffective.
Hill said Washington was constantly evaluating the situation and that now was the right moment to analyse the effects of the approach so far.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 10 2014 18:31 utc | 15

@14
Yup, and the rest of the story for those non-Americans here. After reading the poem 10 months after 9/11 they asked him to step down as Poet Laureate of New Jersey and when he refused they abolished the effing position. Land of the free!!!Home of the Zionist! I looked for a fairly accurate/brief description to post of what went on that didn’t snidely dismiss him as a anti-Semitic nut and surprisingly wikipedia’s was best.

Baraka said that he believed Israelis and President George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks,[35] citing what he described as information that had been reported in the American and Israeli press and on Jordanian television. He denied that the poem is antisemitic, and points to its accusation, which is directed against Israelis, rather than Jews as a people.[5][6] The Anti-Defamation League though, denounced the poem as antisemitic,[36] though Baraka and his defenders defined his position as anti-Zionism.
After the poem’s publication, then-governor Jim McGreevey tried to remove Baraka from the post of Poet Laureate of New Jersey, to which he had been appointed following Gerald Stern in July 2002. McGreevey learned that there was no legal way, according to the law authorizing and defining the position, to remove Baraka. On October 17, 2002, legislation was introduced in the State Senate to abolish the post which was subsequently signed by Governor McGreevey and became effective July 2, 2003.[37] Baraka ceased being poet laureate when the law became effective. In response to legal action filed by Baraka, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that state officials were immune from such suits, and in November 2007 the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear an appeal of the case.[38]

Posted by: JSorrentine | Jan 10 2014 18:40 utc | 16

Re: McGreevey’s actions noted in #16 —
Oh, my. How pols try to remain in power, then get some comeuppance, such as the Israeli McGreevey hired for his administration who then turned on him and outed him as gay.
Heh. See Golan Cipel portion of McGreevey’s Wikipedia entry.

Posted by: jawbone | Jan 10 2014 19:24 utc | 17

this article says it all, no BS. Thanks to Sharmine Narwani.
http://notthemsmdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/the-reactionary-essence-of-the-syrian-insurgency/

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 0:13 utc | 18

@ somebody | Jan 10, 2014 1:31:14 PM | 15
Although the author of the Guardian’s article mention that large quantities of weaponry (not only weaponry, food, clothing, building material etc.) had to stay in Croatia as a “tax” one still can get impression, given logistics involved, of significant amount of weaponry get trough into Bosnia. Which is very far from the truth. While everything was valuable, it was noting that could bring breakthrough.
Second article is ridiculous, It should be shown to the Syrians and the Syrian Gov. officials, as a living example, what would happen to them in aftermath of the war, or even worse like Somalia, Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 0:40 utc | 19

“And let me tell you about American leaders. In power, they don’t think the way you and I do. They don’t feel the way you and I do. They have supported “awful jihadists” and their moral equivalents for decades. Let’s begin in 1979 in Afghanistan, where the Moujahedeen (“holy warriors”) were in battle against a secular, progressive government supported by the Soviet Union; a “favorite tactic” of the Moujahedeen was “to torture victims [often Russians] by first cutting off their nose, ears, and genitals, then removing one slice of skin after another”, producing “a slow, very painful death”.”
http://williamblum.org/aer/read/124
This is what happens in Bosnia. The US primarily, with the EU, has installed the worst kind of people on power. They dismantled progressive government and policies and have brought pure fascists. With or without the EU the country is lost case.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 2:29 utc | 20

US-backed insurgents is fighting Al-Qaeda insurgents
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/01/500-killed-syria-rebel-infighting-201411013826596225.html

Posted by: mir | Jan 11 2014 2:53 utc | 21

There has not been terrorism in zusa, nor is there, nor will there be (other than their regimes terrorist actions).
So, why does the nyt, a tool of the propaganda arm of the same entity of which obama is a tool of the daily management arm, make up and propagandize what thy wrote?
Simple, and not at all plain stupid.
– keep both, Syria/ME, and terrorism in zamericans minds
– open up a line that will come down to “better to ‘support democracy’ in yet another country by instigating unrest and fights – and keeping those fighters busy – than having them over here, at home.
– keep the “non-lethal help” business going
– open a potentially useful line that might come down to “We feel sorry that, so it seems, many of those terrorist affiliates moved to Sochi, creating mayhem there”.
– keep zaudi arabia over the flame to possibly grill them.
The really interesting point is another one:
With the Sochi games coming closer, so comes closer the end of Sochi – and of a by far less sensitive Russia.
I assume that quite soon after the Sochi games two things will happen:
– Putin will swiftly and severly hunt down caucasia terrorists
– creating a link to both Syria and zaudi arabia Russia will help Assed in their desinfection operation, and serve some really hot (as in pepper) surprise dish to za.
Furthermore, if zusa doesn’t get the hint (“get lost and repair your own country. As a superpower you are out of business”) Putin might say Thanks for Afghanistan by setting a trap for zusa. Then the zamericans can think hard about what to fight with against a real enemy … their coward soldiers whose strong side it is to excitedly radio for help or to torture and kill unarmed civilian? Their “superiority” jets that do not even need to be shot at to fall out of the sky? Their navy that showed the smartest thing to do was to avoid an encounter with jachont (and other) russian missiles? Their air defense that is known to be expensive but worthless crap and hardly more than meaningless toys against Russia Suchoi jets?
2014 will be a good year. A year with lots of pain, problems, and humiliation for zusa and increasing pressure for izrael.
Ceterum censeo israel americanamque delenda esse.

Posted by: Mr. Pragma | Jan 11 2014 3:08 utc | 22

Here’s some fairly clever Nusra propaganda, presented deadpan by Mr Radwan Mortada, a Shi’a investigative who pads around very impassively because he values his sources inside the mad mad world of the Salafi-Jihadis, and they value him too. I have left one of my typical, brutal comments there, though it won’t appear for a few hours. In it I first ridicule the stock disinfo claim that ISIS is secretly run by Ba’athist officers, then I point to the final bit: how are they going to deal with Zawahiri’s role in all this? Are they ready to admit, perhaps, that Zawahiri is a CIA stooge? That would be to throw out the disinfo baby with the Baa’athwater, so to speak. So they create a complex tale for their donkey which I cannot be bothered to decypher. To me, the interesting thing is that this is more elaborate than most Salafi disinfo and raises the possibility of professional psyops help. But from whom? CIA, maybe? Mossad, even?

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 11 2014 3:19 utc | 23

Still, as other experts noted, the aid in question includes food rations and pickup trucks, not tanks and bullets. None of it is likely to change the trajectory of the conflict

The providing of “non-lethal” aid is just as good as handing the terrorists weapons of course. There is no benefit to those Syrians who live under the thumb of the radicals, they just order more weapons with the savings. But it does give the Obama administration a chance to cover their ass. And I have a feeling that’s what’s really important to those moral mice anyway.
As for Harroun – I highly doubt he ever seriously faced charges. If Harroun was not in contact with the CIA before he went, do we have any doubts that he would have been during his time there? It wouldn’t be the first time the CIA has quietly pulled the “Justice” Department aside and asked them to go easy on “one of theirs.”
But even if he wasn’t a part of the CIA, the United States wouldn’t put a red blooded American boy into prison just for the minor fact that they travelled to a foreign country to murder its citizens while fighting along side Islamic Extremists. We have to save that cell in case another slight, queer whistleblower tries to do something really dangerous.
Of course when more attacks do come, they won’t have to be “false flag”. The government merely sets the stage, ‘loses track’ of a few dangerous radicals, and the next thing you know surprise surprise its Tragedy in America™. Despite all those billions poured into the FBI, it seems to be common knowledge among security state profiteers that the “arrogant” G-Men’s hearts just aren’t in it anymore – no one even wants to work the terror cases any more:

“According to a reliable inside the beltway investigative journalist that covers national security affairs, the RCMP is up in arms over several pending requests to the FBI on terrorist suspects on the loose in Canada and the U.S. that the FBI has failed to respond back on. Reportedly, MI5 has expressed similar frustrations w/leads dying in the FBI in-box.
There is a meeting today at Foggy Bottom in which the FBI declined to attend on UK/Canada/US cooperation on CT [counter-terrorism] investigations. Note – The arrogance continues…I attribute the dysfunction to mis-management (or lack of supervisors at Hqs) since nobody wants to work CT cases.” stratfor via wikileaks
Of course, who would want to follow around a couple of poor, young men, from mosque to home, from home to mosque when you could be “stopping” (or perhaps committing) some real crimes?
….
Meanwhile, despite news of the possibility of large numbers of American terrorists being trained alongside Islamic fundamentalists in a gruesome civil war, the Boston Bombings seem to have vanished entirely from the view of our media.
I can’t imagine a better time for the media to start to ask serious questions to the FBI like “seeing how our foreign policy seems to be generating large numbers of radicalized Americans who may soon return home, have you improved your methods since you ‘somehow missed’ those two radicalized young men?” Or “Is the FBI decided to begin paying attention to flashing red *danger* signs and direct warnings by foreign governments about possible terrorists, or are those still considered ‘too vague’?”
Where is Mr. Tsarnaev by the way? We haven’t heard a word out of him since he mysteriously had his throat shot out by the federal government, have we…
I suppose I don’t expect we will.

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 11 2014 4:14 utc | 24

@24. All following wiki leaks link should not be part of the block quote.

Posted by: guest77 | Jan 11 2014 4:25 utc | 25

You want to know what I think? I think all the bourgeois governments, or at least their intelligence services, are fully aware of the fact that AQ is totally phony, that 9/11 was phony, and the whole GWOT that flowed from it is nothing but a ceaseless sham fight against pseudo-gangs. Putin knows, Khamenei knows, Xi knows, etc, but none of them say so. Why? Because this is the game they play as bourgeois governments, alongside the US which invented this game, and to blow the whistle on it would be to finally leave the bourgeois club of governments, which none of them wish to do. Contrast this with Lenin, who on his accession to power published all the secret documents found in the chancelleries of all the nations represented in Petrograd as it was then, and in Moscow, and all the secret treaties and minutes of all the previous Russian governments. This is what a real revolutionary should do, but there are none of these among the governments of today. Still you may say as Hegel said of Schelling: “To give out the Absolute as the night in which, as we say, all cows are black, that is the very naïveté of emptiness of knowledge.”

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 11 2014 6:36 utc | 26

#21 “US-backed insurgents is fighting Al-Qaeda insurgents”
I remember an interview (or probably several interviews) with german journalist Scholl-Latour around the time of 9/11 where he’s questioning even the existence of “al-quaida”. I don’t know if the guy is known to the non-german folks here or under which label he’s filed, but I for one think he was (at that time) still pretty much in touch what was going on in the middle east an central asia and also a somewhat stubborn and (my opinion) even honest correspondent. Given that he (and that, at that time was _not_ a fashionable opinion) had never heard of such an organisation before, and looking at how “al-quaida” is a welcome cause for so many an american intervention, I just can’t get over assuming that “al-quaida” is a not even subtle creation of american/nato strategists.

Posted by: peter radiator | Jan 11 2014 7:33 utc | 27

SOW, PRNK is apparently planning another ‘nuclear test’ (sic), because reports from inside the kingdom indicate extreme starvation and brutal winter conditions.
Cold Warriors have flogged the ‘nuclear’ PRNK horse for fully SIXTY years now, that’s two generations of Cold Warriors retired on full military pensions over this blatant and egregious fraud. Let me explain.
PRNK doesn’t have nukes. They have AN-FO. By the tanker load. Clinton was famous for sending tanker after tanker of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and more tanker loads of Fuel Oil to the Kim Dynasty, enough for 10,000s of tons of AN-FO.
Google ‘Divine Strake’. And Google ‘Minor Scale’. Large tonnage AN-FO bmobs were developed in the 1960s by the Pentagon, then shelved because it’s unstable and not particularly useful as air-drop munitions (as opposed to fuel:air bmobs).
PRNK ‘nuclear tests’ generated no more than 0.5kT yield according to FAS experts. This requires only 500Ts of AN-FO, the amount carried in just a few railroad tank cars! These tank cars were observed by NSA spy satellites on rails leading into the underground test bunker. Any high school kid could have ignited that bmob, the same way that Mc-Veigh ignited his. Our own observers and also those in neighboring nations reported ZERO radioactivity release.
So who came up with the ‘nuclear’ PRNK schtick? John McCain and Lindsay Graham.
PRNK also doesn’t have an ICBM. FAS correctly predicted the Taipo Dong missile can’t successfully be strengthened to support both a third stage, and a nuclear payload. PRNK was said to have successfully launched a satellite into orbit, but a ‘satellite’ can now be as small as a car battery with today’s micro-circuitry, therefore they have neither the payload, nor the range to hit another continent.
You might be thinking to yourself, with the miasma in MENA, “Who cares about PRNK? What difference does it make?” But then ask yourself how many times that PRNK Trope has been flogged every time it’s Defense ReAuthorization time. Ask yourself how many 100s BILLIONS of our last life savings (that are never coming back again) have gone to flog that PRNK horse. And still are.
Then ask yourself, hey, if they’re willing to lie about PRNK for SIXTY YEARS, what other lies DoD spins up every … single … day. $600,000,000,000 worth!
Psst, pass it on. I know elders who are petrified about PRNK, …for nothing!

Posted by: Chip Nihk | Jan 11 2014 7:57 utc | 28

And speaking of the ULTIMATE trerror, with bankruptcy of an entire nation’s middle class, the current $1 TRILLION annual Federal over-spending deficit, with perpetual INTEREST-ONLY $23 BILLION in debt fees,…FOREVER, can be more easily understood with a simple homily:
The Fed reports there are about 10,000 banks in the USA, more or less.
The FBI reports that the average bank robbery is about $10,000, give or take.
That means the Federal over-spending deficit theft of our last life savings (that are never coming back) is equivalent of an armed bank robbery, at every bank in the entire US, every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month, throughout the entire year.
Something to think about on your long slog commute Monday, as the Feds laugh off their promise to audit the Pentagon by 2014, and instead plan for a 2014 National Carbon Tithe.
Hey, HRH Hillary is gonna need a Royal Slush Fund when she ascends to the throne in 2016!
(Memoria Del Saqueo 2004) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CzS6eHqtnQ Required viewing.

Posted by: Chip Nihk | Jan 11 2014 10:09 utc | 29

Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 — an increase from the previous year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate. (There is currently one vacancy in Congress.)
Last year only 257 members, or about 48 percent of lawmakers, had a median net worth of at least $1 million.
Members of Congress have long been far wealthier than the typical American, but the fact that now a majority of members — albeit just a hair over 50 percent — are millionaires represents a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/01/millionaires-club-for-first-time-most-lawmakers-are-worth-1-million-plus.html
“democracy”, “right to vote”, “constitutional rights”?

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 13:05 utc | 30

Off Topic
Ariel Sharon, colonialist, war criminal and butcher is rotting in hell. The man wasn’t worth the electricity of his life support machine.

Posted by: Colm O’ Toole | Jan 11 2014 13:06 utc | 31

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

“gender rights”, “sexual rights”, racism and extreme chauvinism, cutting Food Stemps for kids?
Any good Android apps, lately?

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 13:10 utc | 32

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility.. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

https://www.change.org/petitions/charley-reese-s-final-column
The late Charley Reese wasn’t part of a “leaks”. Nor, will any of his sort is going to be. Charley did not like obfuscations and fog.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 13:13 utc | 33

after this article Charley was silenced. He announced retirement. I only could imagine what “they” did to him it or what he was told.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 13:21 utc | 34

ariel sharon the warcriminal dies
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ex-israel-pm-sharon-dies-123620139.html#30BF3va
🙂

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 11 2014 13:39 utc | 35

http://mythfighter.com/2014/01/09/misdirection-how-the-rich-win-their-war-against-our-democracy/

One stands in awe at the fervor displayed by voters in arguing about which political party is better. How, one wonders, can any person favor either party so mightily, when both parties take part in our defeat and the defeat of democracy?
And the answer is: Misdirection.
To any voter, the biggest issue should be well-being. A rational voter should ask himself, “What is this party or this politician doing (not just saying) to improve my life and the lives of those for whom I care?
But that is not what we non-rich are asking. The rich have misdirected us into fighting lesser battles.
They have misdirected us into battling about abortion and exactly how many days or months of gestation make a sentient human.
They have misdirected us into battling about guns and “stand your ground” and what the Second Amendment really means by “well-regulated militia”.
They have misdirected us into battling about gay marriage and gay adoption and gays in the military.
They have misdirected us into battling about whether the unemployed are clever slackers, and who would rather sleep than work.
They have misdirected us into fighting over creches and crosses on public land, and whether religion should be taught in the public schools.
They have misdirected us into worrying about which politician had an affair and which was divorced and which smoked marijuana in college and which still does, and whether the President was born in Hawaii and who put their genitilia on YouTube.
They have misdirected into fighting about the details of becoming an American citizen and should it take ten years or seven years or three years, and if the parents are not citizens but the children were born here so should they be sent back? And how many border guards are needed between us and Mexico.
They have misdirected us into fighting about jail terms for different kinds of cocaine use and heroin use, and whether jail is appropriate at all.
And the rich love it. Misdirected, we don’t pay attention to the fact that the rich are stealing our lives.
We neither care nor even notice that their (not our) bribed government is giving us less and less, while giving them more and more.
We don’t seem to have much passion about the fact that the gap between the rich and the non-rich keeps growing.
As long as the rich keep us fighting about relative minutia, we won’t have energy or attention to fight for our lives. So the battle will be won, done and over – and we still will be battling over silliness, when we already have lost the war.
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves stealing from a victim without their noticing. It requires misdirection.
And that is how the vastly outnumbered rich are picking our pockets, stealing our wallets and winning their war against our democracy.

While this guy suffers from syndrome “we-used-to-have-democracy,-but-not-any-more”, which is what Grenwald, Snowdeen at al. the government’s patsies narrate his writing clearly show us what is going on. I used to think that “all people think in this way”. Now it appears that takes intelligence and perhaps courage to figure out this thanks to engineered school curriculum which lead towards bamboozled nation.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 13:55 utc | 36

Apple as a part, major part, of brain-washing machinery.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/paid-books/

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 14:11 utc | 37

my search for normal country is ongoing. leaving this downright horrible country is the dream which I am dreaming for a decade.
Any Android apps for this above?

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 14:39 utc | 38

Maybe change my mind.
I am considering to start programming company, applications for iPhone. Looking for iOS developers, only bright people from MIT needs to apply.
He, he, he…

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 14:52 utc | 39

They Thought They Were Free (The Germans, 1933-45) The Americans ? – 2014

“What no one seemed to notice,” said a colleague of mine, a philologist, “was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.
“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.
“You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time.”
“You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time.”
“Those,” I said, “are the words of my friend the baker. ‘One had no time to think. There was so much going on.’”…

…http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 15:17 utc | 40

“The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

“Who wants to think?” Anyone?
“Decent people” reads decent books http://www.apple.com/itunes/charts/paid-books/, and watch decent shows The Mentalists

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 15:34 utc | 41

27 :-)) Peter Scholl Latour is the German version of Robert Fisk.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 11 2014 16:03 utc | 42

Who?

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 16:46 utc | 43

By copying the model of a societal order from the West, Russia is showing signs of a diseased society called, liberal-democracy, or rather, oligarchical-nationalistic-totalitarism. I’ve noticed this for a long time in one or another form – lets call them “standard forms” of control. Now when they secured its borders, reasserts its role on international scene, that is the Russian oligarchy consolidates its grips on society, a new forms of control are emerging – lets called them “matrixed” one. Their security apparatus are “looking” into the future.
На здоровье!
“Russia’s FSB/FSO will monitor ‘negatively minded citizens’ through blogs and social networks”
http://stratrisks.com/geostrat/17430
So does China – according to the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinese-journalists-face-tighter-censorship-marxist-re-training/2014/01/10/6cd43f62-6893-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 16:47 utc | 44

The other day while standing in the line at local hardware store to pay what I brought, out of boredom I looked up at very high ceiling. I saw the spherical object hanging from the ceiling, a size of smaller football ball, lower semi-sphere is dark glass. Like 25-30 of them constantly 24/7/365 monitoring what is going on down bellow.
Next day, at intersection, the same thing and solar-powered, this, a orange thing http://www.jessan.com/construction.cfm. but no construction work there.
At sopping center for quite some time this: http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2006/11/23/nypd-installs-portable-watchtower-in-harlem/ they move it around, but it’s always there.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 17:10 utc | 45

http://www.jessan.com/construction.cfm

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 17:13 utc | 46

“Ford VP: ‘We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing'”
http://rt.com/usa/ford-vp-auto-surveillance-382/
Yes, in the US is mandatory for a new cars to have “black box”, like in airplanes. It monitors everything.
Where’s GG when you need him?

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 17:23 utc | 47

http://rt.com/usa/ford-vp-auto-surveillance-382/
Ford VP: ‘We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing’

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 17:23 utc | 48

Business Proposal: an iPhone apps for auto-surveillance, solar-powered.
SWOT Analysis.
S – It is going to save money to society it won’t have to be 1 camera per 11 citizens. Secondly, this is a “lean” investments.
W – Some folks will stay without job. But in Ayn Rand’s world that is huge plus. But that folks might find job in implementation of new TCP/IP protocol which will be required for huge needs of IP addresses.
O – It arises for the very fact that our freedom and deranged society required for constant
surveillance. There will be no needs for ID because every Android will have an IP address.
T – Some of Human Androids will find this unacceptable like G.G. because this is against the
Constitutional rights. But a progress is measured by quantity and quality of technological
advancements. Every self-conscience and security savvy citizen will be eager to participate in
the endeavor. Because if “they don’t do anything wrong they have nothing to hide”. Therefore I do
not anticipate significant threat.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 18:07 utc | 49

The human tragedy is that each generation has to repeat the mistakes of earlier ones. When propaganda replaces culture and education is privatized; when the imprinting of youngsters is divorced from history, science and reality; the lessons learned will kill you. It is a kick in the gut to realize your buddies died for no good reason. It is worse when it keeps repeating in your lifetime.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, the trans-national Elite lost all fear of the rabble. This seems disconnected but it isn’t. The Elite only care about money, power and fleecing the people.
This week we learned that the staff of the governor of New Jersey, for political retribution, closed lanes on the George Washington Bridge for four days screwing his constituents stuck for hours and hours on the bridge; and that the USA is providing assistance to the very same Jihadists that American Marines fought a few years back for nothing and who, by the way, are the terrorists used to justify the imposition of the surveillance state on us.
Not one of the Elite has been jailed for the 2008 economic crash that Wall Street caused.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Jan 11 2014 21:22 utc | 50

“The human tragedy is that each generation has to repeat the mistakes of earlier ones.”
Somewhat I agree. However, “When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.” Charley Reese
One more time “…what exists is what they want to exist.” Nothing in politics is result of accident.
This for example is clearly result of oligarchy will: The War on Kids.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37346.htm

Posted by: neretva’43 | Jan 11 2014 22:31 utc | 51

Any group that is violent, criminal, ready to go, plus can be bought / funded is to the taste of the US – Isr. and now out in public the KSA.
For what? Always crossed and contradictory interests, but destabilizing, destroying, murdering, bombing, killing off ordinary ppl and creating a kind of apocalyptic level playing field, in the interest of Corps, Warlords, drug / other traffic, banks, finance, agriculture (see Iraq), the Top Mafiosi at home, etc. is welcome, nay sought out. (At the end the day there is the negotiating table.)
Isr is set against Iran as is KSA, both are posturing because they have too many enemies, within and without, and are terribly insecure and are appalled at what they feel to be the recent lack of support from Barry (or Kerry ?), they thought they were doing the Hegemon’s biz against Iran … (or pretend that) and now, argh.
All the guff about islamists, Al Q, and so on, is window dressing for the public. At some point the contradictions become stark and have to be explained away with nonsensical ‘good rebel’ – ‘bad rebel’ discourse.
KSA wants to maintain the Royal Dictatorship, oligarchic, vicious, slave master, petro-rentiers, who fund and export ‘terrorism’ to keep it away from the ruling class, meddling to sit on top of the heap. (See Bandar.) Isr. needs to conserve its special victim status and US funding and backing, without that it cannot survive. Nor can KSA without the US. So they do what will please the US, except now they are angry and disappointed and can’t figure. More killing and meddling is the usual response, to make a show of ‘power’ and be taken ‘seriously’…
So all the sides fund ‘terrorists’ in the proxy wars they are waging, and they don’t even know really who or what etc. is going on the ground.
Yeah, short.

Posted by: Noirette | Jan 12 2014 18:21 utc | 52

(On Hollande’s affair)
US 1/France 0

Posted by: Mina | Jan 12 2014 21:31 utc | 53

I’ve collected a whole lot more stories, as I do each morning (my time), and I’ve arrived at the following tentative conclusion: I think what’s happening is, the Dems really want a deal with the Shi’a, on a regional level, whereas the GOPs and the Brits are against it. Or to put it the other way round, the Brits and the GOPs are OK for Bandar and AQ to run the region, contra the Dems. And that’s before you factor in Israel, Turkey, NATO HQ in Belgium, the West Euro NATO partners, the Balkan and East Euro NATO puppets, etc. The Dems may be on their own with this whole idea of treating the Shi’a like civilised human beings.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Jan 13 2014 7:37 utc | 54

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