Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
July 07, 2014

Syria: ISIS Against The States

This New York Times op-ed by Matt Atkins is another propaganda piece for the moderate cuddly homegrown al-Qaeda:

[C]an the West meaningfully influence the military situation in Syria while continuing to eschew Islamist groups, now that they are dominant among the rebels? “The Free Syrian Army has been weak and divided,” said Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence official. “And so the Islamic Front is really the only game in town if you want to attack ISIS in Syria.”
...
If Washington and its partners want to push back against both Assad and ISIS at once, they will have to be less squeamish about picking allies in Syria. Otherwise, they may not find any left at all.

The only game in town if one wants to attack ISIS is the Syrian Arab Army under Bashar al-Assad. Anything else is just wishful thinking.

In a few month the Islamic Front will no longer exist. It will vanish like that phantasy of a Free Syrian Army. Parts of it will swear allegiance to the Islamic State, parts will give up fighting and parts will change over to the government side. Then the real war against ISIS will start.

As there is no alternative in sight Iraq will then likely still be ruled by Prime Minister Maliki despite U.S. demands for regime change. He will receive weapons, intelligence and advice from Russia and Iran. Unlike Syria Iraq will even be able to pay for those. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps will help Maliki to build up a force of strong (religiously) motivated national guard battalions which will be the manpower needed to reconquer and hold the cities ISIS has so far taken.

By the end of the year ISIS will be squeezed from the west, south and east by Syrian and Iraqi government forces and from the north by the Kurd. The ISIS (or IS) will meanwhile implement the Management of Savagery (recommended) before it really starts to consolidate its caliphate.

While ISIS has plundered lots of weapons and resources it still lacks the political and military dimensions of a nation state. With overwhelming air and artillery power the Iraqi and Syrian government sides can and will win the bloody and ferocious war.

Posted by b on July 7, 2014 at 17:19 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Well as I recall the "total shock and awe" American army could not being the the unyielding Sunnis in northern Iraq to heal. Ultimately, they had to cut an economic (money) deal with various 'tribes' and split the Sunni population.
So if the Sunni's stay united this time it is not an unreasonable inference to deduce that by the end of the year IS will be more formable than it is now. In short, there is no reason to believe that the Syrian/Shia Iraq/Iran military will bring to bear more military might than the Americans.

Posted by: TomV | Jul 7 2014 17:41 utc | 1

@TomV

Well, yes and no. What the US lacked was ground troops. The iraqi government will have them in abundance. That's much more important than lots of flying machines.

But you're right. This will not be easy. Retaking Mosul is a herculean and bloody task and if they can pay someone to switch sides, it's a bargain at any price

Posted by: Lysander | Jul 7 2014 17:52 utc | 2

I don't know, b. I think Islamic Front we'll around for a while, assuming that is that Obama can get his $500 million authorization through Congress. IF is too useful; the fiction must be maintained.

Also, I don't think it is a safe bet that al-Maliki will survive as PM. You have Al-Ahrar, the Sadrists, the second largest bloc in the Council of Representatives, who basically ran on a single issue -- dump Maliki. Then you have stories saying Sistani wants Maliki gone. Believe it or not the names one keeps seeing mentioned are Chalabi and Allawi.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jul 7 2014 18:15 utc | 3

that is a pretty interesting prediction b. thanks for sharing your view on this. i am more inclined to agree with mike maloney in that isis is a useful tool of the us/saudi/israel game plan which is destabilization of the whole area with negative implications for the continuation of syria/iran as well..

Posted by: james | Jul 7 2014 18:33 utc | 4

@3
Mike, I'm inclined to agree about Maliki. The guy has proved to be a total disaster, corrupt, sectarian and incompetent. He has had all the power in his hands for years now and it would appear that he has staffed the military with incompetent cronies and used Iraq's oil revenues in ways that would make Saddam blush.
It is hard to believe that the shia, who are under grave threat from ISIS would entrust their safety to a government headed by this loser.
Hard to believe that Iran would want to work with him, militarily too or that the Syrian Arab Army is not dismayed by the complete collapse at Mosul.
As to Chalabi he might serve as a figurehead but a less trustworthy man would be hard to find, whereas Alawi is, notoriously, a CIA man!

Posted by: bevin | Jul 7 2014 18:35 utc | 5

@3 Those are the names in the western media because the relevant reporters know who they are. Iraq is otherwise a mystery wrapped an enigma. Allawi and Chalabi were tossed and are too linked to the U.S. They need divisions of NATO troops to win, and anyone who enters into a coalition with them will collapse.

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Jul 7 2014 19:16 utc | 6

@Mike @Bevin

whatever you can say about Maliki he isn't corrupt - at least not on the level other candidates are.

Sistani today gave an explicit declaration that he did NOT call for Maliki to step down. The rumor that he did, plus the Chalabi and Alawi names put out, are simply U.S. propaganda. These guys have no chance to get elected. The U.S. had called for regime change but Malikis party has won the election (though not a clear majority). He has no reason to step down. The next parliament seating has now been pushed to August. Maliki will stay for now.

As for incompetent generals Maliki put on. He did exactly what the U.S demanded and demands: reconciliation. He put Sunni generals and Sunni troops into the army and (the big mistake) stationed those in the Sunni areas. It were these generals and troops that didn't fight and left their weapons for ISIS to take. You can be sure that Maliki will not repeat that mistake.

Posted by: b | Jul 7 2014 19:19 utc | 7

Possible scenario: What if the Iranians persuade Maliki to stand down, but then just replace him with another pro-Iranian politician from the same party, Dawa? That would outwardly satisfy America's demand that Maliki step down, while frustrating their desire to replace him with one of their own stooges.

Just a thought...

Posted by: Seamus Padraig | Jul 7 2014 19:33 utc | 8

Interesting prediction and statements. What do you make of Patrick Cockburn's article very favorable to Chalabi and harshly critical of Maliki?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/ahmed-chalabi-right-man-wrong-time-for-iraqs-onceexiled-opposition-leader-9585859.html

Cockburn also indicated Sistani's spokesman called for Maliki to step down. Can someone provide ref to story indicating this is not true?

Posted by: rick sterling | Jul 7 2014 19:36 utc | 9

I've noticed that Cockburn's reporting on Iraq, as opposed to stories he wrote about Syria last year, hew closely to the pro-Sunni line found in the MSM.

I think Malaki will be around for a while because it is not clear to me that the Sunnis and Kurds have any interest in forming a new government. First the Sunnis have to decide on a speaker. Last week they apparently had done so only to have the deal fall apart. Then the Kurds have to choose a president.

What I have read about Chalabi -- and, yes, it could all be disinfo since the story was in the NYT, but by a decent reporter, Rod Nordland -- is that Chalabi actually has a solid rep with Sistani and parts of the Iranian government. So he can't be categorically ruled out.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Jul 7 2014 19:58 utc | 10

From the article you referenced:
"Nouri al-Maliki is frustrated at the lack of military help from America IRAQ’S beleaguered prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is threatening to tear up a defence agreement with America and build closer links with Iran and Russia instead."

"His cancellation of the deal would be a further blow to Obama’s standing in the region. 'If Maliki revokes the agreement, Obama will see both Russia and Iran step in to fill the gap, especially where military contracts and logistics are concerned,' said one source."

"While there has been no confirmation from Tehran itself, it is believed that Iranian pilots are flying the Sukhois, while Iraqi pilots are being given flight training by the Russians."

Imagine the embarrassment when Russia and Iran has to step in to clean up the mess the U.S. has made. I knew there was something going on when Pepe Escobar reported that al-Maliki was present in Shanghai back in June:

"One day before the clinching of the Russia-China gas deal, President Xi Jinping called for no less than a new Asian security cooperation architecturee...echoing Putin, Xi described NATO as a Cold War relic....And guess who was at the announcement in Shanghai, apart from the Central Asian “stans”: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and crucially, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani."

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2014/05/60469-the-future-visible-in-st-petersburg/

Posted by: madisolation | Jul 7 2014 20:11 utc | 11

Alexander Cockburn is usually pretty good. Not as familiar with Patrick's writing. Is he a media whore?

Chalabi is a self-serving crook. Is that not true? Is that not important? Is it true that Chalabi (and Judith Miller) was an important "intelligence asset" (stovepiping the scary Saddam WMD stories) prepping the Cheney Admin's Iraq attack?

Or was that propaganda and Chalabi is actually a fine upstanding fellow who happened to have fleeced a couple of banks for a few mil?

Posted by: Fast Freddy | Jul 7 2014 20:12 utc | 12

as Chussodovsky argues in this interview, ISIS is part of a wider strategy for the destruction of states

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103872

Posted by: Cu Chulainn | Jul 7 2014 20:22 utc | 13

Not a chance. Maliki's toast. What a dunderhead he is — appointing his son in lieu of his former army chiefs. Shades of Saddam — a sure sign it's the end of his rope.

Maliki Removes Key Army Chiefs, Appoints Own Son

All that time and money the West spent, especially America, training top notch Iraqi security teams and Maliki undid it all in a few short years and now this — he appoints his son to take on ISIS. Sweet Mother of Allah.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jul 7 2014 21:05 utc | 14

Has it occurred to any that appointing your own son to a position of power is the natural thing to do in most parts of the world. Consider the bush clan and Kennedy's I could go on. This is called monarchy and its the natural state of mankind at all levels. Democracy only works if ALL participants play by the rules, good luck with that.

Posted by: bridger | Jul 7 2014 21:45 utc | 15

@14 Maybe top notch American training and 'primitive' people don't mix too well Cold. But keep trying.

Posted by: dh | Jul 7 2014 21:57 utc | 17

ISIS has taken over huge parts of Syria and Iraq and are considered more ruthless than their counterpart AlQaeda. So far the US has not fired one shot in anger at them, nor has it offered any help in money or arms to any opponents of it.The recent delay in sending those F16's [already paid for] is proof positive that no help will be forthcoming. The small number of US troops deployed in Iraq are to protect the US embassy and other US assets only. ISIS [IS] doing a useful job for the US because it is attacking the resistance Syria,Hezbollah and the Shia in Iraq with the longer term aim of weakening Iran. While these Jihadis attack the resistance the US will do nothing, in that they have the support of the satraps in the GCC, If the Jehadis did turn their sights on Jordan or Saudi Arabia, they know they will be confronted by the West, so they will not do it, this policy of backing the Sunni [so called moderates] against the resistance has been evident for some time, Seymour Hersh wrote about it years ago, in the long term it cannot succeed the majority Sunnis certainly do not want to be ruled by the sword and it is with their help that the intolerant sectarian vermin of ISIS will be defeated, it will be a tough battle.

Posted by: harry law | Jul 7 2014 22:21 utc | 18

with 1 billion + sunni muslims, the IS has plenty of human resources to draw upno, all keen to enter paradise

Posted by: brian | Jul 7 2014 22:27 utc | 19

Posted by: rick sterling | Jul 7, 2014 3:36:40 PM | 9

favoursble to Chalabi? one of the arhictects of ther war on iraq? Cockburn proves to be on the same page as Judith Miller

Posted by: brian | Jul 7 2014 22:40 utc | 20

Re: By the end of the year ISIS will be squeezed from the west, south and east...

Where will ISIS go then? I know a good place. And no, it is not north.

P.S. – What would Arabia be called if it was not ruled by the al-Saud family?

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 7 2014 23:48 utc | 21

@13 Cu - Thanks for that. Chossudovsky is always excellent on Guns and Butter. Faulkner does a good job of just letting her guests speak.

I think we still have to consider that Israel's main goal is to somehow plant an unfriendly state between Hezbollah and Iran. IS certainly fits the bill, especially if the Israelis can bribe the Kurds into preventing the movement of weapons through their area. This was Israel's purpose in the Syrian war, along with the destruction of Syrian society. What is important is that a passage still remains so that weapons and man power can make their way into Syria and Southern Lebanon.

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 7 2014 23:50 utc | 22

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 7, 2014 7:48:10 PM | 21

"Where will ISIS go then? I know a good place. And no, it is not north.

P.S. – What would Arabia be called if it was not ruled by the al-Saud family?"

:D

Posted by: scalawag | Jul 8 2014 0:16 utc | 23

@21

Free?

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 8 2014 1:48 utc | 24

ISIS Hits 3 Shells Inside Saudi Arabia’s Arar
http://en.shiapost.com/2014/07/08/isis-hits-3-shells-inside-saudi-arabias-arar/

"RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Monday reported three shells hit the Arar area inside the country along its border with Iraq, where jihadist-led terrorists of so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have gone on the offensive."

I believe this is the first time we have seen any sort of attack taking place inside either Jordan or Saudi Arabia.

Posted by: Jen Psaki | Jul 8 2014 2:03 utc | 25

e: By the end of the year ISIS will be squeezed from the west, south and east...

Where will ISIS go then? I know a good place. And no, it is not north.

P.S. – What would Arabia be called if it was not ruled by the al-Saud family?

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 7, 2014 7:48:10 PM | 21

Response:

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 7, 2014 9:48:03 PM | 24

"@21 Free?"

Like what, New York Israeli? Not sufficiently "fire Island" bent over the

Posted by: scalawag | Jul 8 2014 2:07 utc | 26

Iraqis Sunnis opposition are making the same mistake as the Syrian opposition did and are paying a heavy price. They believe that once ISIS has helped them remove Al Maliki, they can easily deal with them.


Interview
Anbar Tribal Leader: Maliki Is ‘More Dangerous’ Than ISIS

...
Rudaw: How confident are you that you can stop ISIS?

Sheikh Hatem al-Suleiman: Our experience in expelling Al-Qaeda in 2006 is the best evidence. The ISIS issue will end easily once we get rid of Nouri al-Maliki.

Incidentally, ISIS doesn’t even represent 7 or 10 percent of the fighters. The only thing ISIS has ownership of is suicide bombers.

http://rudaw.net/english/interview/06072014

Posted by: Virgile | Jul 8 2014 2:29 utc | 27

What the fuck are you trying to say, scalajerk? You're so pissed off you can't even type? What a fucking jack off you are.

Call me an Israeli - who the fuck are you, dickhead?

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 8 2014 2:40 utc | 28

You're still sore I called you crone's boyfriend? Get over it, dickhead.

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 8 2014 2:43 utc | 29

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 7, 2014 10:43:17 PM | 28

"You're still sore I called you crone's boyfriend? Get over it, dickhead."

I didn't see that childish Israeli gayness of yours, but it express the sort of Israeli mentality you come from very well.

Blow me, queen.

Posted by: scalawag | Jul 8 2014 2:53 utc | 30

guest - scalawag says the same thing to me when i challenge him.. he's completely predictable..ignore the doofus. maybe b will follow thru one day on his words from before..

Posted by: james | Jul 8 2014 3:01 utc | 31

Posted by: guest77 | Jul 7, 2014 10:43:17 PM | 28

"You're still sore I called you crone's boyfriend? Get over it, dickhead."

Sorry, my response was inadequate. The sort of closet gay put down of women expressed by Israel's special bugger, guest77 demands more exposure. This is the sort of attack rightwing rednecks use to attack humans. Go to any forum and it will be filled with these "guest77" types posting the same sort of adolescent insults. Most people outgrow this shit after their teenage years. Neocons and redneck anals never do.

Bur the zionist queen, and his reactionary bullshit, is an insult to anybody to the left of J.Edgar Hoover.

Posted by: scalawag | Jul 8 2014 3:06 utc | 32

Posted by: james | Jul 7, 2014 11:01:09 PM | 30

Right one que, Israeli.

Posted by: scalawags | Jul 8 2014 3:11 utc | 33

and that is what i mean by predictable, lol..

Posted by: james | Jul 8 2014 3:31 utc | 34

Someone wanted collateral on Al-Sistani's refutation of the story he was against Al-Maliki. It's one of the links in Bhadrakumar's latest analysis today, and I've clicked through, definitely solid. IOW, Sistani does NOT call for Maliki to go:

I don't know how people rate Bhadrakumar, I'm a little new to ME analysis, but it seems pretty good to me: Iran corners US in Iraq

~~

Also there's this: "interview conducted by pan Arab Al-Maydeen TV with Sheikh Nabeel Naiem, who was introduced by the TV presenter as: ‘the former founder of Jihad Organization...'" The interview very matter of factly and clearly reveals the US creation of Daash (the impeachment idea comes from subsequent commentators).

Transcript: ISIS: The Bombshell Interview to Impeach Obama

YouTube w/ English subtitles: Exposing Obama Regime's Support to Al Qaeda

~~

[All the above btw courtesy of Mindfriedo and comments in his latest SitRep at Saker]

Posted by: Grieved | Jul 8 2014 3:33 utc | 35

Iraq is partitioned.

Daash a.k.a. ISIS will not be able to hold ground in Shiite areas. Conversely, the government in Baghdad has no hope of retaking Anbar nor other Sunni areas, nor the Kurdish regions.

Daash itself will continue to exist at least as long as the US and the Saudis keep funding it, and that could be quite a while. Even if the US ends its support--as it might well do--the Saudis have their own reasons to keep the war going.

--Gaianne

Posted by: Gaianne | Jul 8 2014 5:02 utc | 36

Good analysis b, and i agree. Like "the free syrian army", these usefull idiots will vanish in the near future.

Posted by: Paty Kerry | Jul 8 2014 6:02 utc | 37

"While ISIS has plundered lots of weapons and resources it still lacks the political and military dimensions of a nation state. With overwhelming air and artillery power the Iraqi and Syrian government sides can and will win the bloody and ferocious war."
Posted by b on July 7, 2014 at 01:19 PM

They will indeed - thanks mainly to the Yankees' insane obsession with Base & Bunker-ism (with insufficient 'boots on the ground' to breathe life into the theory of Clear & Hold (aka their Afghan Debacle)).
To describe Yankees as military fuckwits would be to damn them with faint praise.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 8 2014 6:11 utc | 38

Sunni tribes rise against ISIL in northern Iraq

Sunni tribes in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin have risen against the Takfiri ISIL militants, killing 30 terrorists, Press TV reports.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/370291.html

Posted by: Paty Kerry | Jul 8 2014 6:12 utc | 39

@ 7 b: you missed what bevin is trying to sell - he claims that it is actually Iraq where the revenues go. Which is obvious nonsense, since we know who gets the lion's share those revenues.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 6:41 utc | 40

"with 1 billion + sunni muslims, the IS has plenty of human resources to draw upno, all keen to enter paradise

Posted by: brian | Jul 7, 2014 6:27:23 PM | 19"

How convenient that what the terrorists support is not sunni at all, although they always claim it in the media. The wahhabis/salafis are no moslems at all, but simple heretics and barbarians. Both were created and are still controlled by the british intelligence, so it's just the expected result.

Their belief is literally against islam, since salafis believe in an antropmorphic version of god as a metrial being, a giant who sits in his actual throne in heaven. As opposed to that, real islam (sunnis are abundant in Turkey for example, much less so in Saudi Arabia nowadays) has the same views as christianity regarding god.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 7:08 utc | 41

"Alexander Cockburn is usually pretty good. Not as familiar with Patrick's writing. Is he a media whore?"
Posted by: Fast Freddy | Jul 7, 2014 4:12:03 PM | 12

Alexander Cockburn died 2 years ago.
Why are trolls so effing dopey AND lazy?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 8 2014 7:13 utc | 42

from b's link, managing savagery:

This is the likely strategy facing the government of Iraq. Nouri al-Malaki is busy assembling and preparing a vast Shi’a army. Most likely he initially will concentrate on halting ISIS’ momentum, and, by delivering a sharp military defeat, will hope to break Da’ish’s magic spell for the many Sunnis who have been dazzled by its bold advance across Iraq.

He has sought to re-take Takrit, leaving the much more difficult task of digging them out from Mosul to a later time. (Those who remember the siege of the Naher al-Barad Camp in northern Lebanon will recall that it took the Lebanese army three and a half months — at the loss of more than 300 men — to clear this Palestinian refugee camp from no more than a hundred odd ISIS-type jihadists.Naher al-Barad was utterly destroyed in the process).

The success (or failure) of al-Maliki’s defense — against Da’ish – will pivot around the issue of polarization. Too much force, too many civilian casualties, too much heavy weaponry will polarize the Sunni population to Da’ish’s advantage; but too little – may risk adding to ISIS’ inflated reputation.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 8 2014 7:46 utc | 43

Chilean court rules US played key role in Pinochet murder of Americans
http://rinf.com/alt-news/usa-news/chilean-court-rules-us-played-key-role-pinochet-murder-americans/

Posted by: brian | Jul 8 2014 7:56 utc | 44

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8, 2014 3:08:39 AM | 40

the jihadis claim to be true muslims and shia are not...hence their war ON shia in syria
Your use of 'heretics and barbarians' is itself medievel...you'd fit right in!

Posted by: brian | Jul 8 2014 7:58 utc | 45

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8, 2014 3:08:39 AM | 40
in islam allah is presented with male atributes.. he is already anthropomorphised.

just like his predecessor Yahweh

Posted by: brian | Jul 8 2014 8:00 utc | 46

I should add that Management of Savagery is a good read, and provides important info to understand what's going on in Iraq precisely, and the ME in general.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 8 2014 8:08 utc | 47

@ brian: you're badly informed. Exactly that is the reason why salafists etc. are being viewed as heretics by true muslims. That's also why muslims are forbidden to make pictures of Allah.

Here's a good source for you: http://www.correctislamicfaith.com/salafiblasphemosbelief.htm

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 8:39 utc | 48

re 46 and post. I see that the Management of Savagery was translated - or perhaps written - by a guy from the Haim Saban center at Brookings. You can imagine how reliable it must be.

There are no publication details on the Arabic cover.

Posted by: Alexno | Jul 8 2014 8:51 utc | 49

re b 7.

As for incompetent generals Maliki put on. He did exactly what the U.S demanded and demands: reconciliation. He put Sunni generals and Sunni troops into the army and (the big mistake) stationed those in the Sunni areas. It were these generals and troops that didn't fight and left their weapons for ISIS to take.

Others, with some knowledge of the situation, say there were very few Sunni troops in Mosul. I don't know what the truth was.

Posted by: Alexno | Jul 8 2014 9:01 utc | 50

@ brian: "the jihadis claim to be true muslims and shia are not...hence their war ON shia in syria"

Salafists and Shia are both heretics from the Sunni POV. I explaines the former, while Shia see a different line of successors to Mohammed and worship only Ali as the right one.

"Your use of 'heretics and barbarians' is itself medievel...you'd fit right in!"

I don't see how you come up with that, besides senselessly trying to be an ass. I have proven in reality that it is not the case, by declining to join the slaughter in an actual war. I'm the guy who did not fit in, nor ever wanted anything such.

The "barbarians" part should be rather obvious, all it takes is the videos on Youtube posted by the jihadis themselves (for example the well-known heart-muncher in Syria). They're cheap crazy killers for the most part, with an IQ way below 90. And they do not make war against Shia in Syria specifically, but against everyone who doesn't accept their perverted version of faux-Islam.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 9:28 utc | 51

re 14 CNH

Not a chance. Maliki's toast.

Citing a Kurdish source is hardly the best way of convincing us that Maliki is finished.

Posted by: Alexno | Jul 8 2014 9:32 utc | 52

An ISIS invasion of Saudi Arabia would be a complete disaster. Saudi has one of the highest inventories of advanced weaponry in the world. If that, and the largest oil reserves on earth fall into the hands of ISIS, we would have an Islamic World War with Syria and Iraq rolling over very quickly, Israel kaput and Iran on the ropes. Also note that oil prices would spike dramatically, Europe would probably drop dead and Eurabia will be born amidst this chaos. The U.S ironically would become the worlds superpower once again since it has 1.) Multiple sources of oil (Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, itself) and 2.) A militarily challenging geographical location. That is not what I wan't. ISIS must be stopped now.

Posted by: Igwe | Jul 8 2014 9:54 utc | 53

Nothing against US being a superpower, if it only could get rid of the ruling parasitic british mafia and the BAR Code that replaced the rule of law.

Way better than say China being in that role.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 10:29 utc | 54

"Way better than say China being in that role."

oh yeah, and why, pray tell, is that?

Posted by: john | Jul 8 2014 10:52 utc | 55

My understanding is, ISIS has been tremendously bolstered in Iraq by elements of Saddam's former Bath party, which has ideology in common with Assad as much as a relationship of convenience with ISIS in the ever shifting strange bedfellows that is the middle east (the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' thing.)

This points to an eventual Sunni civil war, Bathists versus ISIS, within Iraq's larger Sunni-Shia civil war that had been set up by David Petraeus:

http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/05/26/counterfeit-coin/

The thing with these intelligence sources quoted by the Times is, the reporters don't do investigative field work, rather relying on intelligence persona who stick to alibis for everything that they've f'd up-

Posted by: Ronald Thomas West | Jul 8 2014 11:13 utc | 56

BREAKING:
Cylinders found in rebel-controlled area in Syria contained prohibited gas - OPCW
Laboratory tests performed in the middle of June, 2014, showed that the cylinders seized by Syrian government troops in August 2013 in an area controlled by anti-Assad rebels had contained sarin, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his letter to the Security Council, the ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

Two 'abandoned' cylinders seized in Syria contained sarin - U.N. – Reuters
‘Abandoned’ barrels containing deadly sarin seized in rebel-held Syria
– RT
Two cylinders seized by regime held sarin: U.N. – The Daily Star, Lebanon
Two cylinders seized by Syria forces contained sarin: UN – PressTV

Meanwhile in Western media:
On foreign policy, Obama is succeeding – Boston Globe

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 8 2014 11:20 utc | 57

@Petri Krohn | 55

The letter said the cylinders were "reportedly seized by the armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic in August 2013 in an area reportedly under the control of armed opposition groups."

In other words, it will be spinned by West media and politicians as a set-up by "the evil dictator" against peace-loving cuddly jihadis.

Even if there was irrefutable evidence, it would be swept under rug and largely ignored by mainstream, like a group of jihadis seized in Turkey with sarin, whatever happened to that story?..

Posted by: Harry | Jul 8 2014 11:36 utc | 58

54;Yeah,as the Chinese have always concerned themselves with China,and have no history of imperialism(other than the description of their pre Communist leadership)just why is China singled out?Sheesh,maybe with them in charge instead of our bellicose wackos,civilization might ensue and Ghandis ghost made happy.

Posted by: dahoit | Jul 8 2014 12:13 utc | 59

@ john - let me guess: you never experienced a totalitarian communist dictatorship on your own skin? I have and no, thanks, I can't need it.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 12:17 utc | 60

Alexno, there's a link in Crook's article that gives Bakr's original text (translated), Crook didn't misrepresent anything. Like Cole, Landis, and others, even a blind squirrel occassionaly finds and acorn.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 8 2014 12:43 utc | 61

The fightback begins, Sunni provinces in Iraq organizing battalions to fight ISIL,
The Head of Scholars of Iraq Group Sheikh Khalid Al-Mulla said that battalions are being organized in the Sunni provinces to fight against the terrorists of the so-called group “Islamic State in Ira and Levant” (ISIL).http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=160224&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=24&s1=1

Posted by: harry law | Jul 8 2014 13:21 utc | 62

Syria's Iraqi Sunnis operators in Iraq

Let us not forget that Bashar Al Assad has given asylum to many pro-Saddam high grade Iraq army officers who ran away from the US crackdown.
Syria was highly criticized by the US and its allies for that. It turned out to be a very smart move that is paying off now.

These Sunni operators are now back in Iraq and have infiltrated ISIS in order to manipulate them to fulfill some of Syria's immediate goals.

- Push ISIS to crush once for all the rebels Islamist Syrians and their Nusra allies on Syria's borders.

- Attract the Islamists fighting in Syria to their duty to protect and expand the Islamic Caliphate thus allowing the Syrian army to easily free the rebels held areas in Syria

- Break the Iraqi Kurds arrogance by weakening them militarily and politically (Both Sunnis and Shias have no sympathy for the Kurds allied with Turkey and the USA).
ISIS is now at Kurdistan's door and they can ignite violence at any time, especially in Kirkuk where Sunnis resent the Kurds occupation. Barzani ( and Turkey) are falling in the trap of antagonizing ever further Arabs and the USA over their intention to allow a Kurdish state on Iraqi soil.

- Push ISIS to perform terrorists attacks in Turkey so as to weaken Turkey's economy by making trading with Kurdistan more hazardous. That could affect negatively Erdogan's election.

The reward

As a reward for all that, Syria will make sure that Al Maliki give these Sunni operators a leading role in the Iraqi government, thus reconciling Sunnis and Shias.
Then the war against ISIS will start away from Syria and at the borders of Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

In a way, yes, we can say that ISIS is been manipulated by Syria and by its Sunni operators into playing Syria's game.

If this turns out to free Syria from Islamists extremists and shifting the terrorist threat toward USA allies, i.e Jordan and Saudi Arabia, then no one could deny the genius of Syria's military strategy.

Posted by: virgile | Jul 8 2014 13:42 utc | 63

@ dahoit: noone "singled out" China, it's just the next probable "superpower" according to many anal-ysts. Take sowiet Russia instead if you wish, or former east Germany or whatever pleases you. None of those was friendly to their OWN people, none of them was ever capable of any progress and creativity as a whole and they were all utterly genocidal. Mao killed many millions of Chinese, the Cheka killed many millions of Russians and so on. And it's not like China is nowadays the shining light of freedom and democracy and will embrace us all with open arms - China always was and still is an empire.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 8 2014 13:52 utc | 64

@56 RT West
"My understanding is, ISIS has been tremendously bolstered in Iraq by elements of Saddam's former Bath party, which has ideology in common with Assad as much as a relationship of convenience with ISIS in the ever shifting strange bedfellows that is the middle east (the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' thing.)

"This points to an eventual Sunni civil war, Bathists versus ISIS, within Iraq's larger Sunni-Shia civil war that had been set up by David Petraeus:..."

The natural course would be for these baathist "remnants" to ally themselves with the shiah majority in Iraq. There is no equivalent amongst the shiah to the takfiris behind ISIS, who, as you say are not going to be allied with the baathists for long.
Back when Allawi and the US (with The Black Watch watching) were engaged in their first major massacres in Fallujah, the Sadrists were very publicly sending aid to their fellow muslims. It was then that the US inspired (at least) attacks on shia shrines took place and the civil war between sunni and shiah- part of the El Salvador option- was set in motion.
There is no real reason why, in these desperate times, the baathists, who merely want, at this stage, national independence, toleration and the use of oil revenues for national/social purposes (yes, idiot NAZI watchers I did use the two words together) should not join Baghdad.

Except that the de-baathification procedures, designed to disenfranchise anyone arbitrary government chose and to reinforce sectarian tendencies, make this natural alliance-which would spell doom for ISIS and similar wahhabist organisations- unlikely.

Chalabi, of course was the first proponent of de-baathification, and, with Sistani, the ideologist of the campaign to ethnically cleanse sunni residents from Baghdad.

On another matter:
b doubts that Maliki is particularly corrupt. He may be right, my point was that he was making no effort to use Iraq's immense oil revenues to repair the damage done by the war. For example the fact that Mosul's electricity supply system is barely functioning is likely to have soured residents on the Baghdad regime and opened the way for ISIS. Similarly Maliki seems to have made no effort to rally the population, across sectarian and ethnic lines, behind his government. He appears to be very conservative, narrow minded and hidebound, with an authoritarian's contempt for the poor and no perspective of revolutionary change, without which Iraq can never develop the energy needed to re-build itself while under constant pressure from its imperialist enemies.

Posted by: bevin | Jul 8 2014 14:08 utc | 65

"...Take sowiet Russia instead if you wish, or former east Germany or whatever pleases you. None of those was friendly to their OWN people, ..."

They were a lot friendlier to their own people than the regimes thayt either succeeded or preceded them.
As to the nonsense about Mao killing millions. And the "Cheka"-which did not survive the 1920s so far as I know-killing millions of Russians, this hoary cold war propaganda is long overdue for retirement. There is no room here for a detailed refutation but suffice it to say that the casualties from Mao's economic policies (which I presume are being blamed) were small compared to the daily, indeed current, toll of capitalism's victims. While the cheka, the NKVD and the KGB together never came close to the carnage and cruelty overseen by the US in such campaigns as Phoenix, Condor and the still current campaigns in Iraq ("Enduring Freedom"?) and Afghanistan.
In there are no grounds for believing that any other potential power on earth contains the genocidal germs to be found in US culture.

Posted by: bevin | Jul 8 2014 14:18 utc | 66

Correction:
"In other words,there are no grounds for believing that any other potential power on earth contains the genocidal germs to be found in US culture."

Posted by: bevin | Jul 8 2014 14:20 utc | 67

T2015 @ 60:

let me guess: you never experienced a totalitarian communist dictatorship on your own skin? I have and no, thanks, I can't need it

well, "totalitarian communist dictatorship" doesn't really describe China, but no, i haven't. i also haven't experienced having my own skin shredded by white-hot metal from one of those democracy loving hellfire missiles.

Posted by: john | Jul 8 2014 15:41 utc | 68

re61

Alexno, there's a link in Crook's article that gives Bakr's original text (translated)
I was talking about the translation, not about Crook, whom I quite like. Google the translator, as I did, being suspicious. A translation is not always much like the original, and certainly not in the jihadi world, where the mediators often "improve" the originals to make them seem more threatening and frightening to the West.

Posted by: Alexno | Jul 8 2014 15:48 utc | 69

They were a lot friendlier to their own people than the regimes thayt either succeeded or preceded them.

Good grief! But thanks for admitting Putin isn't very friendly to his own people and Merkel isn't owning up to her friendly DDR past by renouncing Verizon's spying activities.

Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police

The people of the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), the German Democratic Republic, as the state had called itself for forty years, were clamoring for instant revenge. Their wrath was directed primarily against the country's communist rulers—the upper echelon of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei (SED), the Socialist Unity Party. The tens of thousands of second-echelon party functionaries who had enriched themselves at the expense of their cocitizens were also prime targets for retribution.

Particularly singled out were the former members of the Stasi, the East German secret police, who previously had considered themselves the "shield and sword" of the party. When the regime collapsed, the Stasi had 102,000 full-time officers and noncommissioned personnel on its rolls, including 11,000 members of the ministry's own special guards regiment. Between 1950 and 1989, a total of 274,000 persons served in the Stasi.

The people's ire was running equally strong against the regular Stasi informers, the inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (IMs). By 1995, 174,000 had been identified as IMs, or 2.5 percent of the total population between the ages of 18 and 60. Researchers were aghast when they found that about 10,000 IMs, or roughly 6 percent of the total, had not yet reached the age of 18. Since many records were destroyed, the exact number of IMs probably will never be determined; but 500,000 was cited as a realistic figure. Former Colonel Rainer Wiegand, who served in the Stasi counterintelligence directorate, estimated that the figure could go as high as 2 million, if occasional stool pigeons were included.

"The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people," according to Simon Wiesenthal of Vienna, Austria, who has been hunting Nazi criminals for half a century. "The Gestapo had 40,000 officials watching a country of 80 million, while the Stasi employed 102,000 to control only 17 million." One might add that the Nazi terror lasted only twelve years, whereas the Stasi had four decades in which to perfect its machinery of oppression, espionage, and international terrorism and subversion.

To ensure that the people would become and remain submissive, East German communist leaders saturated their realm with more spies than had any other totalitarian government in recent history. The Soviet Union's KGB employed about 480,000 full-time agents to oversee a nation of 280 million, which means there was one agent per 5,830 citizens. Using Wiesenthal's figures for the Nazi Gestapo, there was one officer for 2,000 people. The ratio for the Stasi was one secret policeman per 166 East Germans. When the regular informers are added, these ratios become much higher: In the Stasi's case, there would have been at least one spy watching every 66 citizens! When one adds in the estimated numbers of part-time snoops, the result is nothing short of monstrous: one informer per 6.5 citizens. It would not have been unreasonable to assume that at least one Stasi informer was present in any party of ten or twelve dinner guests.

One has to laugh at Merkel's "taken aback" stance as it relates to the NSA tapping her phone considering she was herself, once upon a time and maybe still is, a Stasi informant. And we're to believe these pieces of shit just went away — evaporated since most of them were not adequately brought to justice? Hardly. They're still at it, just now more clandestine than ever since they have official West German cover and immunity and they're thankful to have the likes of bevin carrying their water in perpetuity voluntarily without any thought of remuneration for his/their services.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jul 8 2014 16:12 utc | 70

@69

They're still at it, just now more clandestine than ever...

yeah, even shirking around the Old Executive Office Building.

Posted by: john | Jul 8 2014 16:44 utc | 71

Posted by: virgile | Jul 8, 2014 9:42:54 AM


"Break the Iraqi Kurds arrogance by weakening them militarily and politically (Both Sunnis and Shias have no sympathy for the Kurds allied with Turkey and the USA).
ISIS is now at Kurdistan's door and they can ignite violence at any time, especially in Kirkuk where Sunnis resent the Kurds occupation. Barzani ( and Turkey) are falling in the trap of antagonizing ever further Arabs and the USA over their intention to allow a Kurdish state on Iraqi soil."


This could not possibly be viable, because we have been told by the Formidable Conspiracy crew that the Kurds have already built a stable
pro-Israel state, and in fact more than a few conspiracy theorists have already had Kurdish oil flowing to Israel for several past years.
We can be sure that the fully controlled ISIS puppets and any others so intended will never be allowed to break the already
formidable Kurd-Israeli alliance.

Posted by: truthbetold | Jul 8 2014 22:40 utc | 72

"well, "totalitarian communist dictatorship" doesn't really describe China, but no, i haven't. i also haven't experienced having my own skin shredded by white-hot metal from one of those democracy loving hellfire missiles."

What do hellfire missiles have to do with the former topic? So China is the good guy because a handful of american criminals are bad? Your "logic" escapes me, sorry.

Feel free to go to China today, it is not like under Mao, but it's still not a nice place to live. Just ask the Chinese.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 6:10 utc | 73

@ bevin: "They were a lot friendlier to their own people than the regimes thayt either succeeded or preceded them."

How insane is this? Either you're trying to pull a bad joke here or your history knowledge is so pitiful, that you should never even join any discussion on those topics.

Russia killed over 60 Million of their own people, Mao killed over 50 Mio. I'm talking mass executions in an almost industrialized manner here. Now please show me where the former regimes or the successors (wherever you see a "regime" in all those countries nowadays?) did anything that even nears this.

Or did you confuse that with those 20+ Mio. killed by the western criminal cabal since the WW2?

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 6:19 utc | 74

Oh man... you are seriously talking about the alleged indirect "victims" of capitalism and hunger? As compared to well-documented mass murder, with loads of film material, real, material evidence etc. And you're expecting me to take you seriously, really? What a joke...

I'm asking myself if you ever saw real life outside what you read online or in the third-hand accounts in regime-approved books.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 6:24 utc | 75

@ cold #70: it's way worse than that. The western allies got all the Stasi archives after the re-unification. Which is precisely why you now have many eastern communist politicians in the current german government - they are easy to blackmail/control due to the abundance of material about their past from those archives.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 6:28 utc | 76

T2015 @ 73

What do hellfire missiles have to do with the former topic?

brute economic and military force on behalf of our feedom loving democracy have secured all that cheap gas and easy credit that you so evidently covet.

and your logic suggests that at only 20 million dead it's been a real bargain.

good minion.


Posted by: john | Jul 9 2014 9:29 utc | 77

Ahh there he comes back without real content but with illogic and insults... and there goes your credibility...

Again, what does ANYTHING related to drones, gas etc. have to do with the fact that both China and Soviet Russia were totalitarian genocidal regimes who killed millions of their own people?

What you are doing is called a diversion, you're steering away from the topic with totally unrelated arguments about a completely differnt topic. That doesn't work with me, I've been beyond that childisch level of fallacy decades ago.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 11:22 utc | 78

The Islamic Caliphate is Qatars' revenge for the destruction of the Moslem Brotherhood, its political and military operators in Egypt and Syria

Qatar has not digested been thrown out of Egypt and Syria by Saudi Arabia with the agreement of the USA. Qatars' representation in the Syrian opposition is now almost null. The election of yet another Saudi puppet at the head of the so-called opposition is a proof that Qatar has been expelled and that the Saudis want to "possess" Syria the way they "possessed" Egypt after throwing out Qatar's operators..

It is quite possible that Qatar has understood that the Western-backed Syrian opposition and the rebel fighters on the ground are dead horses. They may have decided that it is their interest that Bashar Al Assad stay in power at least temporarily and that Erdogan, their favorite, should be elected instead of Ihsanoglu, Saudi Arabia's favorite.

Their strategy is now to weaken Saudi Arabia as much as possible. Therefore they have decided to finance and support ISIS in order to directly threaten Saudi Arabia and Jordan who have been crushing the Moslem Brotherhood. Syria is no more the battle ground. It is Iraq who has borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan

We can see that this strategy unraveling. Most Syrian rebel fighters are joining ISIS or quitting. Saudis is now obliged the increase the pay scheme for the rebels otherwise there would be none left.

The Islamic Caliphate is a direct threat not to Syria or Iraq but to Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Therefore the Saudis are obliged to deploy militarily to protect not only their borders but their legitimacy. Qatar and Turkey's objective is thus to trap Saudi Arabia and its operators in Iraq and abandon Syria to Qatar and Turkey. They have huge business ambitions of reconstructing Syria and building gas pipelines.

It will not be surprising to see the Syrian army liberating all the areas held by the rebels, while leaving the North East to ISIS.
In Qatar and Turkey's view, ISIS's fate will be dealt with later. They hope to revive the Moslem Brotherhood on the ashes of ISIS as 'moderate' moslems.

In order to boost Erdogan's chances of election, Qatar is now negotiating with ISIS about releasing the 49 Turkish diplomats kept as "hostages" by ISIS just before the election. If this happens, it will only confirm the collusion between Qatar and ISIS.

Qatar has obviously made a tactical change by supporting ISIS but the aim it shares with Turkey is still to have the Moslem Brotherhood get back some power in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Libya, even it is not full power.

Their main ambition is business in these countries, in particular the huge business of reconstructing Syria and building a gas pipeline crossing Syria.
All their foreign policy is based on expanding their economical power, even if they have to side with the devil.

Posted by: virgile | Jul 9 2014 12:02 utc | 79

T2015 @ 78

no, fuckwits, what i'm doing is suggesting that perhaps there could be better alternatives to US global domination. if it's too much of a stretch for you to connect the dots between cheap american gas and US imperialism, well, maybe you should pay more attention.

so, pee-wee, what was your topic anyway?

Posted by: john | Jul 9 2014 12:48 utc | 80

Hello you autistic (or illiterate?) moron - I WAS NEVER TALKING ABOUT THAT, but about communist dictatorships. Stop derailing the discussion.

I know what my topic was, as opposed to you, who didn't even bother properly reading before going crazy with some totally unrelated nonsense.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 13:00 utc | 81

And still I'll meet you half-way: even if we look at the current British Empire (that you falsely call american), even that is better than Mao or Stalin "socialism". WAY better.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 13:03 utc | 82

oh yes, of course, American is actually British, now i get it. thanks for clarifying everything.

now fuck off, pee-wee.

Posted by: john | Jul 9 2014 13:22 utc | 83

If you should some day decide to start reading reality-related stuff instead of crazy fiction, here's a good start for you: http://larouchepac.com/british_empire

As for your bad manners and your autism, I can't think of anything really helpful there, sorry for you.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 13:50 utc | 84

... and by the way if you don't like it in evil 'murrica, you can always move to the freedom-loving China. It takes less than a week to get that organised - maybe you should give it a shot? At least you could then speak from real experience.

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 9 2014 13:52 utc | 85

T2015 @ 84

man, there's no end to your presumptuousness, is there? actually i've been living in italy for 11 years now and have in fact lived about 2/3 of my 60 years outside the US.

as a curious aside, i lived in Hong Kong for 3 and a half years back in the late 70s...my roaring 20s...and i gotta say i had no problem with those chinamen. or women.

Posted by: john | Jul 9 2014 15:15 utc | 86

Sure, as a foreigner with enough cash, it's quite nice...

Head explodes.

Back on topic (sort of):

"Under pressure in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has begun to regroup abroad. It is becoming increasingly evident that it has chosen Londonistan as its new HQ. Following Egypt's crackdown against the group after the army overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July, hundreds of Brothers came into Britain, ostensibly protected under the wings of the British intelligence. Since then, the Brotherhood has procured an office in London in an area known as Cricklewood, and has assembled around an outfit, World Media Services, set up in 1999 by the Brothers.

Comings and goings of the individuals clearly established the Cricklewood office as the center of the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist organization and banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, among other countries, but not in Britain, the founding nation of this murderous sect. Only after January, following the publication of a Daily Mail article that identified the office as "the center of operations for Egypt's once-mighty Muslim Brotherhood", did the Cameron government take note of it and move to provide it a cover.

As his first step in providing such cover, David Cameron said that Sir John Jenkins, the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, would examine the Brotherhood's "philosophy and values and alleged connections with extremism and violence" alongside state security chiefs. The launch of the inquiry meant the search for evidence of the Brotherhood's British operation was on.

Almost six months later, the Saudi news daily, Asharq al-Awsat, published from London, pointed out today, citing Abrar El-Sayed, the Brotherhood's London-based media relations officer, that the Brotherhood has not at all been affected by the UK probe. El-Sayed, beside denying that the organization has established a headquarters in London, said: "The Muslim Brotherhood's activities in the UK have not been affected by the investigation. The Brotherhood has no headquarters outside of Egypt. In London, the Brotherhood has a press office that remains to operate from London. The press office has not been affected by the investigation and has not reduced its activities." "

http://larouchepac.com/node/31215

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 10 2014 5:50 utc | 87

Oh and just for laughs - Hong Kong was british back then by the way, nothing like socialist China...

Posted by: T2015 | Jul 10 2014 5:52 utc | 88

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