This is one big PR campaign. Orange jumpsuits – I think someone already mentioned in another thread as well – is such a “dog-whistle” for the American people. It brings up memories not just from Guantanamo (though that is very important) but also to common criminality.
Of course maybe its just a happy accident…

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 29 2014 1:00 utc | 4

Sorry, but I’m just not going to look at gruesome photos but the NYT says they videotaped hours …
NYT: ISIS Said to Kill 150 Syrian Captives in 2 Days, Videotaping the Horror.
Hours of video tape, but apparently they didn’t release the executions (firing squad) just video of the dead bodies all in a row. The article actually discusses ISIS’s use of the media. This incident is causing much protest by Assad supporters that the military is not doing enough — enough to protect its own.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 1:26 utc | 6

http://www.voltairenet.org/article185085.html
Just ask Senator John McCain (R) – AZ. I am sure he knows how to deactivate the runaway “beast” ISIL.
*As far as initial seed money for ISIL the msm might want to question former Viceroy to Iraq Paul Bremer.

Posted by: really | Aug 29 2014 1:42 utc | 8

I actually think ISIS is fruit borne of the same Saudi charity, literally tithing, that spawned the Madrassas and supported the Mujahadeen (against the godless communists) and then the Taliban (against the godless warlord)
I’ve always been amused at how much “reestablishment of the caliphate” resembles the Jewish “nest year in Jersusalem” that concludes the Seder since the Middle Ages. Did “reestablishing the caliphate” become some Muslim longing for that ancient homeland. See also: comparisons between ISIS, and before that Al-Qa’ida to the crusades and crusader …
I’ve wondered just how many hyperactive itchy-trigger-fingered European Jihadis the grown-ups at ISIS have to “keep occupied” (and their blood lust satisfied) or, iow, if there is a My-Jihadi-Junior-Year Abroad kiddy corp that the grownups have to manage. I’m guessing the a fair number of the Europeans and Southeast Asians arrive with plenty of cash — too good to pass up. Yes, LeCarre’s “Little Drummer Girl”

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 3:25 utc | 10

UN warns of escalating ISIL violence against Syrians

The United Nations has warned that the violence by ISIL Takfiri terrorists against Syrian civilians has reached “to a new level.”

Where’s the UN’s concern about the people of Novorossiya? The violence by neo-nazi terrorists from Nulandistan has long-since reached “to a new level”.
‘Strangely’ silent on Ukraine … vocal, of course, on IS/ISIL/ISIS who (may) have slipped the CIA’a leash.
And of course it is Barack the Nobel Peace Prize Obama who is the fomenter of both … and more to come.
Obama’s remarks at West Point

For the foreseeable future, the most direct threat to America at home and abroad remains terrorism. But a strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is … unsustainable. I believe we must shift our counterterrorism strategy … to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold. …
So we have to develop a strategy that … expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin … And empowering partners is a large part of what we have done and what we are currently doing …
… I asked my national security team to develop a plan for a network of partnerships from South Asia to the Sahel. Today, as part of this effort, I am calling on Congress to support a new Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion … And these resources will give us flexibility to fulfill different missions …
… we’re now working with NATO allies to meet new missions – both within Europe, where our Eastern allies must be reassured; and also beyond Europe’s borders, where our NATO allies have to pull their weight to counterterrorism and respond to failed states, and train a network of partners …
… the U.N. provides a platform to keep the peace in states torn apart by conflict. Now we need to make sure that those nations who provide peacekeepers have the training and equipment to actually keep the peace … We are going to deepen our investment in countries that support these missions. Because having other nations maintain order in their own neighborhoods lessens the need for us to put our own troops in harm’s way. It’s a smart investment. It’s the right way to lead.

Unspoken is ‘plan b’ … “and if the the forces we fund, arm, and promote only succeed in devastating the countries they operate in and creating chaos, well that’s OK too”.
The TNCs are very happy to operate where there is no government and cash is king. It’s the libertarian wet dream.

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 29 2014 5:06 utc | 12

@Susan Sunflower #10:

I actually think ISIS is fruit borne of the same Saudi charity, literally tithing, that spawned the Madrassas and supported the Mujahadeen (against the godless communists) and then the Taliban (against the godless warlord)

Yes, I have run across this theory. It’s an intermediate position between “we have no idea where they came from” and “ISIS is a creation of the CIA and Mossad”. I have barely followed what the US is doing with respect to ISIS, but I do get the impression that there might be genuine ambivalence.
It is not helpful to USG to have this crisis in the Middle East while it is trying to put pressure on Russia. It’s hard to avoid the impression that the US has created more chaos than it can keep track of. (ISIS may be the Saudis’ baby, but Britain and the US must have known what the Saudis were up to, and didn’t do anything to stop it.)

Posted by: Demian | Aug 29 2014 6:17 utc | 14

Posted by: JFC | Aug 29, 2014 2:32:32 AM | 15
I agree.
Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 28, 2014 11:25:47 PM | 10
I don’t think Saudi madrassas have anything to do with it. Austria has something like 100+ Jihadi teenagers fighting in Syria.
They are recruited in streets and parks – pretty much like scientology used to recruit. Typical recruiting pitch “Do you want to change your life and immerse into a different world?”
Promises are power, adventure and action, a meaningful life, an enemy that will be legitimately killed, money. Recruiters avoid the Muslim communities and work outside of mosques.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 29 2014 9:10 utc | 16

Here’s a bit of naïveté (I’m honored b went to the trouble to Google search this word and copy and paste it just for me — it made me feel special and actually made my day) from your local troll.
If you research it further, you’ll also find these cretins walk and breath. I wonder who taught them those nasty little tricks? That’s right, America.
Whatever these scum do, you can be sure they learned it from America — even their quaint British accents.
America is exceptional. The entire universe revolves around it. Anything you can think of, good or bad, it starts and ends with America.
Where did Putin learn how to conduct his proxy invasion of Ukraine? From America, of course. There are American videos all over YouTube with step by step instructions on how to decimate your neighbors garden and home with all manner of invasive insects and mold diseases until your neighbor sells his home on the cheap and you pick it up in that fire sale.
No one can imagine a world without America and that’s because of America’s greatness — the concept of it pervades all things. Foreign policy, regardless of the sub-topic, cannot be discussed without mentioning and giving credit to America so great and awesome is its reach.
Thanks for making America great and perpetuating its Exceptionalism.
PS: If the Foley video was fake, as has been asserted at this space by the blog author himself and then expanded upon by his troll brigade in the comment section, then how is this account somehow real? Once again, the American Exceptionalists contradict themselves in their love for all things American.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 29 2014 10:19 utc | 18

Castrating China, Russia, BRICS, etc. is the ultimate goal.
I’d say the goal is the exact opposite from the looks of things. America has made both China and Russia players on the Capitalist scene. Without America’s beneficence, both countries would still be digging grubs out of the soil for their daily sustenance.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 29 2014 10:24 utc | 20

@25
Yeah you have a point.Maybe my point came across as totally disregarding Patreaus. I should have worded my response more clearly. I am talking about the foundation of the USG makings of ISIL. ISIL in my opinion is nothing more than another chapter of PNAC’s neo-con/neo-lib long term ME chaos plan for war profiteers and energy companies.

Posted by: really | Aug 29 2014 11:42 utc | 22

I frequently wonder whether the young post college all brimming with enthusiasm boys and girls in the state department and elsewhere in the government are sat down in rooms and shown countless hours of the vilest forms of human bestiality. Good obedient students they not like the rest of us malcontents who sat glumly in the back rows cursing our fate that we have to live in a world with such people in it!
Then like modern day Alex’s they be reformed and come brow beat us all for our betterment the imperative of pursuing an American way of life that actually contributes to said hearts of darknesses, even while excusing their own hypocrisy in the matter as little white lies. It could almost be funny, the coming full circle just like in “the lion king,” that they watched in their youth.
Well I suppose they could just use youtube or twitter attrocities for their reform that seems to be where they acquire the gyst of their knowledge and experience of the natural world anyway?

Posted by: geoff29 | Aug 29 2014 12:54 utc | 24

Where, one wonders, did they learn such shit?

The short answer is at their old alma maters, where the clothing you see was the school uniform.
The longer answer goes like this:
The first question is why radical Islam?
The US/Anglo joint plan to create and foster the Takfiri apostasy commonly referred to as “Radical Islam” may be thought of as the Middle East counterpart to Operation Gladio in Europe. They both shared the same goals:
*Destabilize societies in order to render them compliantly governable, without democratic demands.
*Provide a right-wing identity and fear based alternative to (often radical) nationalism, or leftist movements and their demands for an improved life.
In Europe, the plan was put into effect after WWII; the Middle East plan begun at about the same time, and was enacted in the 1950‘s due to the emergence of Nationalist leaders like Nasser in Egypt (‘52) and Mohammad Mossadegh (‘53) in Iran, later ousted in a coup directed by Kermit Roosevelt. In other words, it was a conscious long-term US plan to eschew allying itself with the secular forces of progress in the Middle East and the Arab world, and instead foster the most heinous, coercive, and undemocratic alternatives in order to maintain US post-war dominance of the world.
The British first used covert support for pre-radical Islamic Identity movements in modern history in the partition of India, which created the separate state of Pakistan — a classic example of their divide-and-conquer tactics. The partition was responsible for the forced relocation (ethnic cleansing) of 15 million people, and another 75 years of strife which at times threatened to wipe out a good deal of the planet in nuclear war. Later, the British intensified their methodology by employing the radical Pakistani-based Jamiat-e Ulema-e Islam (JEI) — a schism of an earlier anti-colonial, nationalist group, which became the Godfather of most later radical pan-islamic (globalized) movements. JEI has been used to destabilize India’s sphere of influence: Bangladesh, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka, and to control Pakistan and India by pitting them against each other.
Another long-term purpose for creating and fostering these monsters was the desire to destabilize the Soviet Union by attacking its soft multi-national Islamic underbelly. This plan was formally put into effect in Afghanistan in the 70‘s, where according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. During the 1980s, the JEI supported some of General Zia ul Haq’s policies, including his anti-Soviet Jihad in Afghanistan.
The second question is how did radical Islam initially take hold and spread?
There are several strains of radical Islam, the two most important globally being the JEI, and the initially less radical, although equally insistent on apartheid and genocidal policies, Muslim Brotherhood (MB). They often play a good cop (MB)/bad cop(JEI) dynamic in global Muslim geopolitics. Both parties were initially funded by the Saudis, who were essentially functioning as cut-outs in a classic “lead from behind” strategy for the Anglo-Americans in return for being allowed to keep a greater share of their oil revenue than usual for puppet states.
By 1939, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal was to eliminate foreign intrusions and establish an Islamic state, had become one of Egypt’s largest and most influential organizations. The MB’s next principal theoretician was the Egyptian-born Sayyid Qutb, who spent several years studying in the US, in DC, Colorado, and at Stanford, during the late 40’s into the early 50’s. When first formed in the 1930s, the party was dedicated to Islamic revivalism and social, economic, and political equity; under Qutb’s influence, it began taking a more autocratic, pan-islamic, and anti-nationalist turn. In 1954, Qutb’s party attempted to assassinate Nasser, leading to his imprisonment, and execution some ten years later. Anwar Sadat brought the Muslim Brotherhood back to Egypt in the 70‘s — a move that would lead to his assassination after signing a peace deal with Israel. The MB developed a vast worldwide-network of thousands of schools, charities and social services. Saudi funding was eventually largely replaced by Qatari patronage — essentially pitting those two countries against each other in a bid for influence in the Islamic world.
In Afghanistan, the Islamist Movement originated in 1958 among faculties of Kabul University. The founders were largely professors influenced by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The liberalization of government attitudes following the passage of the 1964 Constitution ushered in a period of intense activism among students at Kabul University. Professors and their students set up the Muslim Youth Organization (Sazmani Jawanani Musulman) in the mid-1960s at the same time that the leftists were also forming many parties. Initially communist students outnumbered the Muslim students, but by 1970 the Muslim Youth had gained a majority in student elections. The MB membership was recruited from university faculties and from secondary schools in several cities such as Mazari Sharif and Herat. Some of these professors and students became the leaders of the Mujahideen rebels in the 1980s. This conflict between communists and Muslims was a manifestation of the proxy battle for influence in Afghanistan between the US and the Soviets, with the Soviets supporting left wing nationalists and the West supporting right-wing religious fundamentalists under the direction of Osama Bin Laden. Bin laden, in many ways, represented a synthesis of MB and JEI thought.
There are websites that have pictures of Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan in the 60‘s and 70‘s. It was a beautiful place, not the over-grown shithole it is today. People got along, the educated classes were integrating into the world, there were factories opening, and it was an agricultural paradise.
In the early 1980s, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided funding to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies to develop textbooks (more than 200 titles) in the Dari and Pashtu languages for distribution in Afghanistan. These textbooks sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm in Islamic militancy. During Soviet occupation, regional military leaders helped the U.S. smuggle millions of copies of these primers into Afghanistan. The textbooks are filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings — talk of jihad and drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers, and mines — to stimulate resistance against invasion. Students were taught to count, for example, with illustrations showing tanks, missiles, and landmines. They exhorted Afghan children to “pluck out the eyes of the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs”. The books have served as the Afghan school system’s core curriculum ever since, steeping a generation of schoolchildren in violence and hatred. The White House and USAID spokespersons are unapologetic about both the violent and religious content of the textbooks. “I think we were perfectly happy to see these books trashing the Soviet Union,” said Chris Brown, head of book revision for USAID’s Central Asia Task Force. Although taxpayer funds may not be used for religious instruction overseas, USAID spent $51 million on the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994. These textbooks can still be found in the book bazaars in Rawalpindi and Peshawar, in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, official Pakistani patronage and financial support for JEI madrassas during the Zia years allowed them to build thousands of madrassas, especially in the NWFP. By 1998 Deobandi madrassas across the country had risen to 2,333 and currently the JUI madrassa network is among the largest in Pakistan. This network was largely funded by Saudi and UAE contributions.
The third question is, how have the second generation of radical terrorists been inculcated?
The answer here lies in two networks of training camps. Think of it as the prep school network and the public school network.
The public school network consists of a global network of training camps around the Muslim world. These camps can be set up quickly without large investments and dismantled and moved as needed for political expediency. An example of these camps was the camp in Afghanistan where Clinton “missed” killing Osama Bin Laden a few years before 9-11. These camps, established in impoverished areas, serve a multiplicity of functions: outreach centers, social service agencies, summer camps for kids, local gun clubs, social clubs, etc. They interface with the public, present a benevolent front, teach basic warfare and terrorist skills (even to kids), and normalize terrorism, while indoctrinating people. They also serve as travel agencies when the battles to be fought are elsewhere: Terrorism is glamorized with videos, new foreign friends, and a steady supply of weapons, drugs and sex. Plus there are no school uniforms: Jihadi chic is a highly individualized aesthetic, as long as you have a modicum of facial hair.
After all, terrorism, is the flip side of the coin of political resistance — and if you do not understand geo-politics, it is easy to believe that you are fighting for greater justice in some form. We see this time and time again, as terrorists who have been caught often do not what they are fighting for or against, or even what country they are in. Israel never gets attacked. (Similar methods have been used with the Ukrainian fascists, who believe they are killing Russians. There are numerous videos on the web of their convulsive remorse at finding out that they were killing their own innocent countrymen.)
The prep school network, the big league, is where the trainers of the “public school” camps, and the elite leadership of jihad international are trained. This network consists primarily of the vast global gulag of US military bases. Three of the more important of these bases are Guantanamo, Camp Bucca in Iraq, and Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. They are the modern day replacement for the School of the Americas, now renamed as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).
The cover story, or legend, is that these are not schools but reformatories, and that unfortunately, despite our best efforts, there has been some, shall we say, “recidivism.” Even wikipedia lists over 80 former Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have returned to terrorism. We have all seen how detainees are broken down by being illegally held for years on end without charge, by alternating sensory deprivation with sensory overload, by isolation, and by torture. After being broken down, rebuilding and reprogramming the psyche into a murderous non-feeling pathological automaton is easy. We can be sure that one of the skills they learned was waterboarding. And any picture of the “detainees” at any of the three camps shows them wearing their school uniform, proudly displaying their school colors: orange on orange, looking like modern day Rajneesh disciples, denied of sex and ecstatic self-indulgence.
Under the auspices of Camp Bondsteel, the Syrian terrorists were trained by the KLA in Kosovo.
According to Thierry Meyssan, “The plan provided that the initial Western terrorist actions would create a cycle of provocation / repression justifying international intervention on the model of the KLA terrorism and repression by Slobodan Milosevic, followed by the NATO intervention.” This camp is also used for the more European Muslims, like those meant to destabilize certain parts of the Russian Federation.
Camp Bucca, of course, is notorious for being the alma mater of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ostensible head of the jihadist terror group now known as the Islamic State—formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. According to an article which appeared in Mother Jones magazine, “In short order, Baghdadi has become Iraq’s most prominent extremist leader. But for much of his adult life, Baghdadi did not have a reputations as a fiery, jihadist trailblazer. According to the Telegraph, members of his local mosque in Tobchi (a neighborhood in Baghdad) who knew him from around 1989 until 2004 (when he was between the ages of 18 and 33) considered Baghdadi a quiet, studious fellow and a talented soccer player. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Baghdadi was earning a degree in Islamic studies in Baghdad.”
They continue, “The details of Baghdadi’s time in Camp Bucca are murky. Some media reports note that he was held as a “civilian internee” at the prison for 10 months in 2004. Others report that he was captured by US forces in 2005 and spent four years at Camp Bucca.” Clearly, this is where the studious lad learned some of the many skillsets needed for running a large 4th generation terrorist army.
Camp Bucca is another camp where we have been given great insight into the type of mind control indoctrination these “Manchurian Candidates” go through — a program initiated at Guantanamo. In a technique known as the limited hangout, Mother Jones informs us that “James Skylar Gerrond, a former US Air Force security forces officer and a compound commander at Camp Bucca in 2006 and 2007, says that he believes Baghdadi’s stay at the prison contributed to his radicalization—or at least bolstered his extremism. After Baghdadi proclaimed the Islamic State a new nation and himself its leader, Gerrond tweeted, “Many of us at Camp Bucca were concerned that instead of just holding detainees, we had created a pressure cooker for extremism.” Gerrond is now a civilian working for the Department of Defense.”
And, “Gerrond notes that US military officials in charge of the prison fretted that prisoners could be radicalized at the facility: “This was something that everyone in the chain of command [for Camp Bucca] (and other detention facilities) were always concerned with.” Maj. General Douglas Stone, the deputy commander for detainee operations in 2007, told Newsweek that year that potential radicalization was a “very real concern” at Camp Bucca.”
I am not yet sure which facility had the media studies curriculum. But clearly, somewhere, there were classes in video, web design, communications, and propaganda, among other such elements of the “soft” curriculum. So, there is still a lot we don’t know. But we do know where detainees were turned, trained, and sent back to the field from. That is indicting enough.
After that, school colors and hobbies, are self-evident.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29 2014 13:06 utc | 26

@ somebody 16:
I see we were thinking alike. In the interest of brevity, I left out the CIA and Eisenhower stuff, but I forgot about Qutb being tortured. Yes.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29 2014 13:18 utc | 28

Malooga @ 31- may be thought of as the Middle East counterpart to Operation Gladio in Europe. They both shared the same goals:
I have been hammering away at exactly that for some time now at my place- But,since *brand*- operation gladio was Italy specific, many times I call *brand* ISIS, a left behind army- most of the time
Because that is what they are
*Destabilize societies in order to render them compliantly governable, without democratic demands.
Yup, the left behind agenda as envisioned by the NATO global tyranny
A small quibble with this statement
“*Provide a right-wing identity and fear based alternative to (often radical) nationalism, or leftist movements and their demands for an improved life”
The left behinds will pose as right or left. The Red Brigades which were minimally ‘left behind’ infiltrated, were supposed to be leftists. The use of fear/terror is accurate, but, it can be presented from either side of the coin
Left and right is just another divisive tool and is best left in the garbage heap

Posted by: Penny | Aug 29 2014 13:19 utc | 30

Susan Sunflower
“I see ISIS as a new iteration … and I question its durability”
ISIS isn’t a new iteration and it’s durability has already been shown to be lasting

Posted by: Penny | Aug 29 2014 13:29 utc | 32

@ Posted by: somebody | Aug 29, 2014 5:10:01 AM | 17
I meant that ISIS is the fruit of an evangelical movement — not all Saudi financed, not all Wahabbi — going back more than 20 years … they aren’t “new,” they didn’t spring fully formed … the radicalization of kids in Australia and England is also a seamless part … as is the problem (grossly exaggerated but real) of forced marriages and FGM — Muslims happily living in the West and visiting their extended family in their home countries have been placed under extreme pressure to conform to ever stricter codes of conduct or be shunned. See the proliferation of hijabs in your local neighborhood — sometimes on the basis of religious guilt (being a good and observant Muslim), sometimes on the basis of nationalism (being a good and proud Arab). No, it’s not that black/white simple, none of it exists in isolation

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 13:52 utc | 34

@ penny,
Yes, I largely agree with you. I should have replaced “right-wing” with the more accurate “religious” in that sentence. Also, I was talking about the 50’s, when nationalism was considered “left-wing.” Now it is considered “right-wing.” The concepts have less meaning these days, and I see more and more “syncretic” ideologies, mix-and-match from wherever you like. (Gaddaffi, Dugan, etc.) Politicians always need some sort of ideology to sell to the masses; it’s like fashion.
Also, it is often easier speak in terms of functional or moral or who benefits and who loses from an action or policy.
“Left and right is just another divisive tool and is best left in the garbage heap”
Sometimes yes. Sometimes they are just very approximate descriptors: Left being more generally concerned with equality of outcome, like single payer universal healthcare, Right more generally concerned with freedom of choice and liberty, like choosing everything about your healthcare. But, yes, esp. in the MSM they are used to divide needlessly, incite hate, and pit people against each other. Which is why I have no TV. On a daily basis, I have friends of all persuasions (very few interested in the stuff we do on the web, though) without any problem. And collectivism and individuality, in real life, are very mixed. Like a in a family, some decisions have to be made for the collective (where to live), but there is ample space (in a healthy family) for alone time and individuality. Hope that makes sense. I’m a little punchy and off to bed.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29 2014 14:09 utc | 36

And yes, Gladio was the name for Italy. Each countries operations had their own unique name, according to Danielle Ganser, but I don’t remember the other names or have his book in front of me.
@ Susan Sunflower:
Yes, any description is a simplification. There is that evangelical element to ISIS. Even if something is initially artificially created, like in the fairy tales, it takes on a life of its own afterwards.
Let’s not forget that the US was founded on Puritan evangelism, and that the country went through 4 full-blown evangelic movements over the years. It’s hard on those who are not part of the movements. Some people think that is why we are so messed up.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29 2014 14:27 utc | 38

@ b
“Where, one wonders, did they learn such shit?’
Well, quite a few countries were working on behalf of the US/CIA during the rendition program of John Yoo /Cheney after 9/11, even Bashar Al-Assad ( reference Maher Arar).
Who is to say that those who were trained by the CIA are now “advisors” to ISIS?
Remember that when Ian Henderson left Kenya (where he tortured those who participated in uprisings against “HM The Queen” government) , he went to Bahrain to start the torture chambers of the Emir and then he trained his successors – looks like it is a Jordanian who has taken over and the lackeys are Pakistanis’ torturers on loan.
So who ever got trained for extraordinary rendition may be selling their ‘in situ in visu” training to Al-Baghdadi. Mercs training killer thugs for $$$$

Posted by: Yul | Aug 29 2014 14:35 utc | 40

@Malooga #31:

We see this time and time again, as terrorists who have been caught often do not what they are fighting for or against, or even what country they are in. Israel never gets attacked. (Similar methods have been used with the Ukrainian fascists, who believe they are killing Russians. There are numerous videos on the web of their convulsive remorse at finding out that they were killing their own innocent countrymen.)

I don’t understand what your point is. You seem to be saying that it is right and proper for Ukrainians to kill citizens of Russia. Also, what are these “numerous videos on the web of their convulsive remorse”? I have not run across a single video which matches that description. I have seen absolutely no remorse on the part of Ukrainians for killing Novorossians, Russians, or “innocent” Ukrainians, for the glory of Ukraine.
And you forgot to mention that most western Ukrainians appear to have totally swallowed the propaganda that any person in the territory of the former Ukraine who does not support the fascist junta is a terrorist, and hence has no right to live, by definition. The only dissent I have seen in the western Ukraine is family members of western Ukrainians not liking their men to be sent into a meat grinder. What they don’t want is for their own men to get killed; I have never heard them say that killing people who don’t support the junta is wrong.
There may come a time when Ukrainians will feel remorse at inflicting genocide upon their fellow citizens, but it is only going to come when their society collapses, and they gradually come to realize that they were suffering from a collective madness.

Posted by: Demian | Aug 29 2014 14:50 utc | 42

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29, 2014 9:52:37 AM | 41
I consider ISIS a reconfigured Al Qeida.
This here is the way Bin Laden was marketed according to Wikipedia.

Osama bin Laden (1957 – 2011) was a founder of al-Qaeda.[1] In conjunction with several other Islamic leaders, he issued two fatwas—in 1996 and then again in 1998—that Muslims should fight those that either support Israel or support Western military forces in Islamic countries, stating that those in that mindset are the enemy, including civilians and military personnel from the United States and allied countries. His goal was for Western military forces to withdraw from the Middle East and for foreign aid to Israel to cease as it reflected negatively on Palestinians.[2][3] Bin Laden’s ideological guides have proven to be Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, and Sayyid Qutb. Although perceptions to the contrary abound, bin Laden has not been influenced greatly by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab or the Wahhabi school of thought, and he is not a good example of contemporary Wahhabi Islam as practiced in Saudi Arabia.

This here is ISIS as marketed by Wikipedia

Salafists such as ISIS believe that only a legitimate authority can undertake the leadership of jihad, and that the first priority over other areas of combat, such as fighting against non-Muslim countries, is the purification of Islamic society. For example, when it comes to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, since ISIS regards the Palestinian Sunni group Hamas as apostates who have no legitimate authority to lead jihad, it regards fighting Hamas as the first step toward confrontation with Israel.

So while Al Qaida has been a tool to draw Western armies to the Middle East, ISIL has the added value of anti Muslim Brotherhood, anti Shia death squads though the alliance with the Naqshbandi seems counterintuitive.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 29 2014 15:14 utc | 44

Posted by: JFC | Aug 29, 2014 9:40:52 AM | 39
You sure the weapons did not go to Shia death squads? Petraeus was using the El Salvador option on a Sunni insurgency.
Though of course he might have also equipped Sunnis to battle Shia, US troops being safe as long as both did not turn their guns against US troops.
It does not seem to have worked – 2007 was the year of max US casualties and 2008 was the year US withdrawal was agreed.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 29 2014 16:00 utc | 46

Well, let’s just say it’s a start.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29, 2014 10:29:11 AM | 46
How could you so easily betray your own people?
Either way, being the master carpenter you are (haha — that was a good one — you had me in stitches and still do), did you fasion your own cross? Did you make any extras?
IS could use a few. Maybe you can start up a new business venture — you know, get down off that cross and start making them instead of hanging on them.
Being productive will cheer you up and give you a sense of worth. You’re much too young to throw in the towel. You still have plenty of earning potential and much happiness ahead, but you have the pick that low-hanging fruit from the tree of prosperity — it won’t just fall in your lap.
There’s no charge for this valuable advice. It’s free as everything should be, most importantly expression.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 29 2014 16:13 utc | 48

Don’t forget all of the “new” Al-Qa’ida’s that have been declared — Boku Haram, several Ansar al’Sharias and AQAP and others the newspapers never bothered to memorialize. Al-Qa’ida has been largely a “banner” for more than a decade … Al-Zawahiri went from a respected elder during that time to a out-of-touch crank — insisting Al-Qa’ida was the vanguard when it was obviously hobbled and OLD, OLD, OLD. Al-Qa’ida was hide-bound, bossy and dismissive — disowned ISIS and didn’t think much of Al-Awlaki either …
FWIW, my theory is that we killed bin Laden as a favor to the Saudis and his family (and by extension, his children, though they may not have seen it that way) so they could all get on with their lives (and financials, and travel)

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 16:55 utc | 50

@57 The franchised Al Qaedas were the perfect examples of how the cult of Bin Laden and revenge kept the focus on U.S. symbolic targets such as embassies instead of grabbing oil refineries and dams and declaring a state.

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Aug 29 2014 17:57 utc | 52

I see that, what is being called, Baghdadi Denial Syndrome is still in the feverish stage here and across the ME. While many here and elsewhere are consumed by proving he is just a pawn, the Caliph is ignoring this distemper and getting on with the conquest of the Muslim World and maybe more.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 29 2014 18:45 utc | 54

Posted by: JFC | Aug 29, 2014 2:55:35 PM | 62
I am not the only one who thinks Petraeus used Shia death squads to beat the insurgency – from Democracy now on a Guardian/BBC documentary

This is the only known Iraqi video footage of Steele, a shadowy figure, always in the background, observing, evaluating. The man on his left is his collaborator, Colonel James Coffman. He reported directly to General David Petraeus, who funded this police commando force from a multibillion-dollar fund.
The thousands of commandos that Steele let loose came to be mostly made up of Shia militias, like the Badr Brigades, hungry to take revenge on the Sunni supporters of Saddam Hussein. Steele oversaw the commandos, mostly made up of militias. They were torturing detainees for information on the insurgency.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 29 2014 19:24 utc | 56

@63 I doubt Bagdhadi would have been able to organize or gain so many followers without an established reputation or connections to the original Sunni uprising in Iraq.

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Aug 29 2014 19:36 utc | 58

Jim@63
From what I have gleaned about Baghdadi’s history he was arrested by US forces for being a civilian member of ISI and already an Islamist cleric. While in prison, which was an ideal enviornment for recruiting, he developed the personnel who would become the core of ISIS.
The nonsense about him being turned into a US zombie with mind-control or torture is pure Hollywood fantisy with a little, the US is indispensable and Arab Muslims are weak minded Sand Ni&&@#$ thrown in to make some people believe we still control the world.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Aug 29 2014 19:44 utc | 60

here: Opening paragraph

When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up an apparent hanger-on, an Iraqi man in his early 30s whom they knew nothing about.

sorry to sully this site with a NYT link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/world/middleeast/us-actions-in-iraq-fueled-rise-of-a-rebel.html

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 20:09 utc | 62

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Aug 29, 2014 3:36:22 PM | 66
Do we know he is the leader? Or just employed.
The torture stuff is interesting.

At least officially, the CIA ended its behavioral science program in the mid-1960s, before scientists and operatives achieved total control over a subject. “All experiments beyond a certain point always failed,” an operative veteran of the program said, “because the subject jerked himself back for some reason or the subject got amnesiac or catatonic.” In other words, you could create a vegetable or a zombie, but not a robot who would obey you against his will. Still, the CIA had gained reliable information about how to derange and disorient a person who was reluctant to cooperate. An enemy could quickly be made into a confused and desperate human being.

However Derren Brown seems to have proven that you can make people act against their intentions.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 29 2014 20:20 utc | 64

something completely different from slate: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/08/29/digitalglobe_worldview_3_sharpest_ever_commercial_satellite_images_show.html
commercial satellite images — yes you could probably detect mass movement of people (see the bottom image with distinct cars

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 21:19 utc | 66

@demian 49:
“I don’t understand what your point is. You seem to be saying that it is right and proper for Ukrainians to kill citizens of Russia. “
No. I am saying that ignorant people can be easily used to work against their real interests.
“Also, what are these “numerous videos on the web of their convulsive remorse”? I have not run across a single video which matches that description.“
POWs are debriefed. Artillery squads especially are shown video evidence of the innocent people they have killed. Many break down from seeing up close the carnage and suffering they have caused. There are one or two such scenes in the movie, “Ukraine Crisis: Donbass, Chronicle of Genocide.” But there was another specific one I saw in the past week with an artillery team bawling like babies. Unfortunately, I can’t seem locate it now. I probably saw it at Cassad’s, but it could have been at Sakers, or one of the youtube channels, like Anti-Maidan or elektropostman. Sorry, I can’t find it — it was the example I had in mind while writing. But you are right — up until now there has been far less remorse, and far more personal concern about being killed.
It is my belief, although I can’t substantiate it, that perhaps the majority of Ukrainians have never been behind this junta, they just want to live their lives. As the tide turns in battle, I expect many of this silent majority to recognize a dead end and make pragmatic choices. The average person is too poor to not be wondering which side of the slice of bread has more butter.

Posted by: Malooga | Aug 29 2014 21:44 utc | 68

Syria’s population is 22.4 million (Iraq 32.5) according to google; 3 million have fled it borders, another 6.5 million internally displaced … and then there’s ISIS
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28977117

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29 2014 22:51 utc | 70

OT but…
http://rt.com/usa/183744-elizabeth-warren-gaza-israel/
Liberals’ darling Elizabeth Warren defends Israeli attacks on Gaza schools and hospitals

Israel has the right to shell Palestinian hospitals and schools out of self defense as long as Hamas stores rocket launchers next to them, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during a town hall meeting in Massachusetts this week.
Warren, darling du jour of American liberals, defended her vote to send more defense funding to Israel in the middle of its recent fierce offensive on Gaza, saying she believes civilian casualties are the “last thing Israel wants,” according to the Cape Cod Times.
“But when Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to schools, they’re using their civilian population to protect their military assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself,” she said. [emphasis mine]

Well, no hope for this one. Look at the language: But when they put rockets in hospitals, then Israel “has the right to defend itself”.
It’s all slithery snake language. If you removed the euphemisms and newspeak, she is saying:

• Israel should not hesitate to kill young children and/or the sick and infirm if it means destroying some part of Hamas’ rocket arsenal.
• Israel should kill innocent children to attack these rockets, even though Israel has other means – means funded directly by the taxes of American citizens – to prevent these same attacks.
• There is no risk, however small, that Israel should accept should the option of killing Palestinian children alleviate it. Even if it means killing 100 Palestinian children to eliminate a 1/1,000,000 chance that an Israeli should be injured or killed, it is acceptable behavior for the Israelis.

There is absolutely no way this woman has a heart for anyone if she can express such sentiments. She is another phony like Obama. Another counterfeit. Another decoy.
And this is the best hope for America – it has come to this.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 30 2014 0:05 utc | 72

Look Jerko F. Clown,
Once again you’ve loused up a thread with 95% jackoffery and lies, 4% phony pandering to anyone you can leech onto (like you used to do to Pragma, and even he still called you an asshole), 1% banal content like: “the CIA and Hollywood lie to you!” You think? Thanks, dumbass.
Everyone knows precisely where you’re coming from – and it isn’t from a place of actually giving a fuck about what is happening in the world, or in telling the truth about events. You’re pushing the agenda of the CIA and their proxies every fucking time. You spend 90% of your time attacking people here and you add nothing.
So no one gives a fuck about your entirely phony posturing, nor your pathetic insults. Everyone knows your purpose is just to troll.

Posted by: guest77 | Aug 30 2014 0:23 utc | 74

@85 You shouldn’t be.
Much like Obama, people thirsty for any kind of leadership latched onto a bit of honesty when it came to Warren discussion of 1980’s credit card legal changes.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/01/the-problem-with-massachusetts-and-elizabeth-warren/
Massachusetts is full of reactionary pricks. Where else would a family of sexual predators, slum lords, war hawks, and Ted Kennedy gain status as arch liberals? Bobby was on the HUAC committee and made Joe McCarthy godfather to his kids.
The recent shenanigans in Gaza have put the issue in the spotlight, but like all the people who were betrayed by Obama despite his aggressive support of thugs such as Joe Lieberman, you only saw what you wanted to see.

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Aug 30 2014 0:33 utc | 76

@88
yup. just wishful thinking…

Posted by: really | Aug 30 2014 0:45 utc | 78

What’s Left’s interpretation of the baloney coming out of the West about Syria:
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/western-leaders-fear-monger-to-mobilize-support-for-air-strikes-on-syria/#comments

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 30 2014 3:34 utc | 80

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 29, 2014 4:23:49 PM | 76
That is the interesting part of Bagdadi’s biography.

Reports suggest that he was a cleric at the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal Mosque in Samarra at around the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003

US knowledge from 2003

What’s institutional Islam for Iraq’s Sunnis?
It refers to the official network of Sunni mosques, charities, and schools in Iraq. Unlike Iraq’s Shiite clergy, who were persecuted by Saddam, Sunni clergy were largely employed and controlled by the Baathist government. Sunni imams, or preachers, were led by an official mufti, or grand Sunni authority, paid by the Ministry for Religious Endowment, experts say. Some Sunni clerics trained at the elite Saddam University in Baghdad. The recent collapse of this system of patronage has apparently left many clerics searching for sources of funds, Jabar says. Fundamentalist Islamic movements, such as the Wahhabi faction based in Saudi Arabia, appear to be offering money to newly impoverished clerics, which may be increasing support for Sunni fundamentalism.

So Saudi Wahhabis (not necessarily the Saudi state) might have picked up the tab for unemployed Baathist clerics, presumably for Baath military and secret service, too, if they could speak in correct religious code?
Now, what went on in Camp Bucca?

The first time Abu Wissam, 58, was arrested by US troops was in a roundup in December 2003. He was arrested again in September 2007. He has spent most of the latest detention in Bucca’s Camp 26, which is known as a takfiri camp, since takfiris–Sunni Muslim extremists who consider Shiites to be heretics and non-Muslims–have been allowed to run it. “Sometimes they wanted to punish a prisoner,” Abu Wissam said. “They would put someone in the camp and tell the takfiris, ‘This guy worked with the police.’ The takfiris hate anyone who works with the Iraqi government or the Sahwa or the police.”
“The Sahwa people were scared to sleep inside,” Abu Wissam said, referring to the movement of former Sunni resistance fighters who have made a marriage of convenience with the US military since late 2006 to battle Al Qaeda. He and other prisoners I interviewed said interrogations mostly focused on general questions. For Abu Wissam it was things such as “did you fight against Israel?” during the 1973 war–apparently considered a mark of suspicion by US interrogators but something that a member of the Iraqi army would have been shot for refusing to do. Abu Wissam said he was given a paper to sign, admitting guilt to a list of charges that included murder, attacking US troops, kidnapping and sectarian cleansing. In July the US military admitted that Islamic extremists had been running courts inside Bucca for years and even carrying out killings inside the prisons.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 30 2014 6:03 utc | 82

As of April 7 2008, the United States was holding 251 fighters at Camp Bucca, Iraq.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria contributed each 19 percent ….

Posted by: somebody | Aug 30 2014 7:18 utc | 84

@ So where did the Takfiris running part of Camp Bucca suddenly come from?
It would depend on how official that “running” was — was it like the Aryan Brotherhood versus Mexican Mafia in California prisons. In many prisons, the authorities rely on intra-group leadership to provide someone they can negotiate with and someone who can act as an enforcer (since leaders usually have a cadre of lieutenants). Part of the rationale for extreme solitary isolation/containment prisons is to avoid the formation of alliances in a general population.
Per “The Power of Nightmares” and elsewhere, the rise of Muslim Brotherhood because religious assembly and ‘good works’ could not made “forbidden” when all other organizing was, so they became, sort of “the underground” … (see also all the outrage — now passed — about accommodating Muslim religious observances — Friday prayers which are supposed to be group services — in U.S. prisons)

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 30 2014 16:10 utc | 86

Seems the US divided Iraqi prisons like the Iraqi government “roughly by sect or nationality”. And the takfiri camp is almost a form of torture.

Our protagonist is embedded with Iraqi troops as a war correspondent in 2003 when he is brought to Boca with just a notepad and pencil in his pocket.
He quickly learns the order of things at the prison and methodically observes that there are 30 to 35 prisoners per tent, 100 per camp, and they are roughly divided by sect or nationality. The guards move around the prisoners as a form of agitation, with the journalist remarking that to be in the takfiri camp is almost a form of torture.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 30 2014 16:53 utc | 88

This here is from the Hindustani Times in 2009

Abu Mohammed, a 35-year-old labourer who was arrested after the bombing of a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra in February 2006, offered a similar insight into Bucca’s extremists.
“The Takfiris focused on those around the age of 24. They welcomed them warmly, questioned them about the motives which had led to them being imprisoned, their relationship with religion,” said Mohammed, who spent three years at the camp.
“Then they indoctrinated them by encouraging them to grow a beard, dress like the Salafists, including killing policemen and soldiers,” he said referring to a group that seeks a purer form of Islam.
Abu Yasser, a teacher aged 45 who was also arrested in Samarra, said he was convinced the Americans were aware of the brainwashing carried out by members of Al-Qaeda.
“The people of Al-Qaeda used to persuade them that suicide operations against the infidels would lead them to paradise. There were youths from Samarra who were quite moderate but did not to speak to me because they considered me a traitor,” he said.
But Captain Kimberly insists the allegations are unfounded.
“Actually, our theatre internment facilities are some of the best schools to give detainees the tools they need to succeed and contribute to Iraqi society,” he said.
“Detainees who enter our facilities are kept segregated from the more extremist detainees specifically because we want to ensure the low-threat detainees are not influenced by those who have no issue in perpetrating attacks against the Iraqi people or coalition forces,” said the US spokesman.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 30 2014 17:22 utc | 90

Does this reflect the absolute disregard for Muslim lives — amount to racism imho — we’ve seen again and again in a war where years into it politicians laugh that they can’t tell Sunni from Shiia … and where we think we can “bomb ISIS” as if our bombs can tell what’s in someone’s heart and/or as if ISIS will not “hide behind” the civilians they live behind (as wars were still being fought on battlefields by soldiers in uniform) …
A lot of Americans, in uniform and out, seem to advocate letting them kill each other and any attempt to interfere as a fool’s errand … and not worth American resources. Iraqi “hearts and minds” weren’t the only ones lost … Yeah, it seems unbelievably self-defeating — to be propping up Maliki on one hand and demonstrating benign neglect to Al-Qa’ida recruitment in the prison camps … “unbelievable” — but not unusual.

Posted by: Susan Sunflower | Aug 30 2014 18:18 utc | 92

@somebody
Thanks for digging up all that background on the prison camp at which the leader of the IS was imprisoned by the US occupation of Iraq. The quote @93 is very interesting. Is ‘Stone’ CIA or M16? I wasn’t allowed to read the article at the financial times.
Ever since I’d read that Bagdadi had been imprisoned by the CIA I’d assumed he was ‘one of theirs’ … one of their long line of disasters. I think the CIA has sold their incompetence as a ‘feature’ and not a bug. When they mess up, things get even worse than they were already … and that has become their ‘master plan’ : if you cannot subvert it, break it. Leave no nation standing that ‘we’ do not control. The resulting chaos is just what the TNCs have ordered as plan b to their TPP and TTIP … actually it seems to be plan a, with the TPP and TTIP as plan b.

Posted by: john francis lee | Aug 30 2014 19:57 utc | 94

Tomdispatch comprehensively outs the US-ISIS axis and puts it into chillingly comprehensive context/perspective…
The Escalation Follies
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175888/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_escalation_follies/

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 3 2014 5:23 utc | 96

I don’t think this will happen and that is because it is logical and geo-political logic does not fit into the west’s grand scheme of global domination.
http://journal-neo.org/2014/09/03/us-and-russia-possible-cooperation-over-the-isil-threat/

Posted by: really | Sep 3 2014 11:23 utc | 98

“Head of ISIS Abu Bakr Baghdadi spent five years in an American detention facility, and also three of the four military commanders were also in detention by the US forces.”
Islamic State Is US Covert Intelligence Operation – Law Professor
http://en.ria.ru/politics/20140813/191982447/Islamic-State-Is-US-Covert-Intelligence-Operation—Law.html

Posted by: Markus | Sep 5 2014 21:40 utc | 100