Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
August 26, 2014

Quiz: "Not Restricted By Borders"

Who said this?

“We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat and we’re not going to be restricted by borders.”

Possible answers:

  1. Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin, deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation with regards to Fascists gangs in Ukraine.
  2. Benjamin J. Rhodes, U.S. deputy national security adviser with regards to Jihadi gangs in Syria.
  3. Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates with regards to Muslim Brotherhood gangs in Libya.

Answer

Posted by b on August 26, 2014 at 14:32 UTC | Permalink

Comments
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sounds like an american talking.. my guess is 2.. now, i will go see how much egg i have on my face!

Posted by: james | Aug 26 2014 14:41 utc | 1

None of the above.

Israeli defence ministry spokesman regarding reports that Iran had shot down a surveillance drone near its Natanz nuclear site.

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Aug 26 2014 14:48 utc | 2

Sorry, Israel doesn't comment on such matters.

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Aug 26 2014 14:49 utc | 3

Well, at least he was being honest unlike Putin's Russia that has claimed consistently it is not intervening in Eastern Ukraine (and by virtue of that restricted by sovereign borders) until today when it was caught with its pants down.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 14:50 utc | 4

In the same piece, Rhodes said, "If you come after Americans, we’re going to come after you, wherever you are” except if you're Rachel Corrie or Furkan Dogan...

A couple sources have implicated McCain in the rise of ISIS. It was known that McCain met with Syrian terrorists a year ago. A photo of the meeting purports to show al-Baghdadi talking to McCain.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article185085.html

Since 1993 McCain has been chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), which receives the majority of funds allocated by USAID to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Robert Parry describes NED as "a $100 million U.S. government-financed slush fund that generally supports a neocon agenda often at cross-purposes with the Obama administration’s foreign policy."
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/27/a-shadow-us-foreign-policy/

Essentially McCain can run his own covert foreign policy using IRI funds. Is this what he is doing with ISIS in cooperation with Gulf Arabs?

As such, the whole ISIS phenomenon would be part of a McCain strategy to balkanize Iraq and Syria into Shi'a, Kurd, and Sunni Arab mini-states with eastern Syria and its oil going to the Sunnis. Such a balkanization harkens back to the old Biden plan for Iraq, which but didn't overtly include eastern Syria at the time.

US bombing allegedly only takes place when the ISIS oversteps the previously agreed upon territorial boundaries.

Such an explanation would resolve the apparent conflict between the US arming the Sunnis on the one hand and bombing them on the other. It would also explain why the US has shown little concern about Erdogan's coddling of ISIS.

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 26 2014 14:53 utc | 5

I have to admit, that is excellent work by Thierry Meyssan at the Voltairnet.org link. It's an excellent article and analysis. Very damning and evocative.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 15:07 utc | 6

Cold A-hole does it again, showing his true troll colors, vete al Diablo.

Posted by: Fernando | Aug 26 2014 15:07 utc | 7

Just talking heads, all. Nothing ever changes in our beloved verklempt democratic republic.


=============

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see a replay in what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq — the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.

I knew why, because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.”

*snip* and here’s the punch-line…..

“And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26 2014 15:37 utc | 8

How come the troll cold n holefield isnt banned yet?

Posted by: Anoynmous | Aug 26 2014 15:50 utc | 9

@Anonymous 9

I don't think he's a troll. He's just some guy with white supremacist leanings (based on links he's posted) who really hates Putin.

Posted by: Crest | Aug 26 2014 15:52 utc | 10

"Not going to be restricted by borders" appears to be no longer just the hegemonic prerogative of the U.S. Good story about how United Arab Emirates jets bombed the Islamist militias in a failed attempt to keep them from controlling the airport in Tripoli, Libya. With Afghanistan headed for anarchy, expect similar bombing runs in Kabul in the not too distant future.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Aug 26 2014 16:00 utc | 11

5

Your mischaracterisation of the Voltaire.org article, and conclusion that McCain is somes sort of Lone Wolf, with his own private slush fund, is just plain silly since people can click on the link and read the opening paragraph

"John McCain is known as the leader of the Republicans and unhappy 2008 US presidential candidate. This is, we will see, only the real part of his biography, which serves as a cover to conduct covert actions on behalf of his government."

which is a substantially different conclusion than the one you and Parry, with his gatekeeper statement :"$100 million U.S. government-financed slush fund that generally supports a neocon agenda often at cross-purposes with the Obama administration’s foreign policy." are now spinning

Theres no evidence that McCains actions nor NEDs actions are at all in any way at cross purposes with Obamas foreign policy. Their actions seem to gell quite well with the obombers FP

But gatekeeper Parry needs to insert it anyway, to qualify for his gatekeeper badge I guess

Posted by: JFC | Aug 26 2014 16:13 utc | 12

Black Sabbath – War Pigs Lyrics

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out and fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'till their judgment day comes
Yeah!

Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgment, God is calling
On their knees the war pig's crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
Oh lord yeah!

Songwriters: F. IOMMI, W. WARD, T. BUTLER, J. OSBOURNE
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/black+sabbath/war+pigs_20019418.html

Posted by: really | Aug 26 2014 16:27 utc | 13

@2

Yup, I had been wondering how the completely ludicrous ISIS narrative could actually go full-bore efftard and yesterday I think we all may have gotten a preview.

So, the Iranians shoot down an Israeli - though unmarked - drone near their nuclear site. Then there's this story provided by the known hasbara outlet Vocativ which states that ISIS has drone technology now.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking the Zionists/Israelis are thinking?

AWWWWH YEAAAAHHHH, ISIS is now going after the Iranians!!!

I mean since ISIS has told us that killing Shia is MORE IMPORTANT than killing Zionists why it makes just perfect sense, doncha think?

DEFCON level?

Efftard.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 26 2014 16:32 utc | 14

Regarding the voltaire article on McCain:

Then there are MY FAVORITE sentences in the piece:

In May 2013, Senator John McCain made his way illegally to near Idleb in Syria via Turkey to meet with leaders of the "armed opposition". His trip was not made public until his return to Washington. [6]

This movement was organized by the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which, contrary to its title, is a Zionist Organization led by a Palestinian employee of AIPAC [7]

Gosh, lucky AIPAC was so buddy buddy with the mercenary jihadists in Syria that they could secretly smuggle a US Senator out of the country and into a war zone, huh?

Lone wolf all right.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 26 2014 16:37 utc | 15

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 26, 2014 10:53:39 AM | 5

It is certainly looking that way. Just - as usual - with major miscalculations - one of them being that US Gulf allies are not amused.

Gulf leaders are also concerned about citizens still living in their home countries who are sympathetic to the group. Citing Gulf officials, Mr Karasik said that senior Kuwaiti clerics have held meetings with Islamic State representatives in Syria and Jordan to coordinate the delivery of funding.

“There is a certain allure of another type of governance that is appealing to some of these people, particularly in sub-tribes that are not in good standing with their governments. You find that in Kuwait and northern Saudi Arabia.”

Mr Karasik said that these factors have given governments a particular resolve to combat the Islamic State.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at Emirates University, said the immediate response to the Islamic State must be to help Iraq and Mr Al Abadi.

“The unity of Iraq is important,” Mr Abdullah said. “Once you have an Iraqi government that is accepted by everyone that is almost halfway. It is a good thing there is a regional effort.”

The current GCC dispute between Qatar and the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain was expected to be discussed at a separate meeting on Sunday, reported Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al Aswat.

Foreign ministers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain would meet “to formulate the final positions of the three countries regarding Qatar,” according to the newspaper.

Some analysts believe that sanctions could be imposed on Doha because the other countries say it has continued to interfere in their internal affairs.

Posted by: somebody | Aug 26 2014 16:40 utc | 16

JFC--yes, that is the question, isn't it? Is McCain the point man for a covert, subversive foreign policy? Or has Obama fully bought in? And does he support this arrangement so he can appear to want to avoid more foreign wars, only leading from behind when "forced?"

If you recall, when Obama first took office, Zelaya was overthrown in Honduras. Obama was in Colombia at the time and said, "We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the President of Honduras."

McCain had a conniption fit, took Obama to task, and Obama never breathed the word 'coup' again. This would suggest that McCain was part of a subversive action that Obama had not been made aware of. With his position at IRI and on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, he is well positioned to run his own independent action, as part of a deep state.

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 26 2014 16:42 utc | 17

Well it is Rhodes, but I first thought, Obama. It sounded very like him, specially the weird use of ‘we’ and the use of ‘actively’ and ‘necessary’, usual Orwellian BS, but very representative of his discourse. Borders, as we all know, are relative, they count in some places but not in others. So there is an unsurprising holding of hands.

Posted by: Noirette | Aug 26 2014 16:53 utc | 18

I think it's apropos to remind people of Mr. Rhodes's meteoric rise to the heights of power. From failed scribbler to co-authoring the official 9/11 narrative, the Iraq Study Group papers, Obama's speeches earlier in this career in the Muslim world/Israel and the Benghazi talking points.

Don't be fooled by his boyish good looks and his familial ties to the MSM - his older brother is President of CBS News - this kid is the effing Charles Dickens of the American war criminal elite and deserves his own cell/noose.

Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 26 2014 17:05 utc | 19

Now the msm talking about they found a dead american fighting for isis...

Posted by: really | Aug 26 2014 17:25 utc | 20

@20

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/american-douglas-mcauthur-mccain-dies-fighting-isis-syria-n189081

His Douglas Mcarthur Mccain? The USG propagandists have a sense of humor don't they....

Posted by: really | Aug 26 2014 17:32 utc | 21

@21

American Caesar and Mercan 'sleezer' is a good fit. Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy...

Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26 2014 17:48 utc | 22

His Douglas Mcarthur Mccain? The USG propagandists have a sense of humor don't they....

Posted by: really | Aug 26, 2014 1:32:01 PM | 21

Oh My God! That name is too funny.... It can't be serious, can it? I wonder if he's a rapper too? Maybe it will finally be the end of Rap music and we can move onto something that requires musical skill and talent.

How about this?

Even the Islamists of ISIS are obsessing over Ferguson

They're hoping to use black disenchantment as a recruiting tool.

You can understand if President Obama would rather talk about the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq, where he has scored some victories, than talk about the unholy mess in Ferguson, Mo. Surprisingly, though, ISIS militants are following developments in the St. Louis suburb, and some of them would rather focus on that. According to interviews and social media, members of the group and sympathizers with its jihadist ideology are closely tracking the events in the St. Louis suburb, where protesters and police have clashed. In it, they see opportunity.

Partly, the focus is strategic: Officers in Ferguson have used military transports and weapons similar to those used by U.S. troops in Iraq. But militants are also claiming vindication — that their arguments about American oppression were right all along. “Well this clearly shows that all this talk about democracy and equality of people in the west is just hypocrisy,” said Abu Sameer after a private autopsy sought by the family of Michael Brown showed that the 18-year-old had been shot at least six times. Abu Sameer lives in France and identifies himself as a member of the Islamic State, a group that has conducted a campaign of mass killings and other atrocities in northern Iraq.

The Islamic State and other jihadist movements are using the events outside St. Louis as propaganda against the West. One argument they’ve been making for years is that racism and discrimination are rampant in some parts of the West, and they’re hoping the Ferguson riots could help recruit black Americans. “In Islam there is no racism, and we think black people will wake up and follow the example of Malcolm X and others who understood that this way is the only way to justice,” said Abu Mansour, who lives in Germany and is also a follower of the Islamic State.

All of the jihadists interviewed said Brown’s death confirms their beliefs that blacks are seen as second-class citizens by whites and especially by the police. “I think that blacks in the U.S. will look more towards Islam,” said Anjem Choudary from Great Britain, co-founder of the banned “al-­Muhajiroun” group. (Choudary’s teacher, Omar Bakri Muhammad, was barred from Britain and is currently in a Lebanese jail for his alleged support of jihadist movements in Syria and Iraq.) “The only way of life today that does not look at race is in fact Islam. Islam only distinguished people by whether they are Muslim or not. The color of their skin does not play a role,” Choudary said in a phone interview.

Some self-described supporters of fighters of the Islamic State have also taken the discussion to social media platforms using the hashtag “#FergusonUnderIS” and “ISISHERO.”

According to Site Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks the online activity of terrorists, the accounts have mainly addressed the black community, arguing that blacks are victims of “democracy while promising less discrimination under Shari’ah law.”

Site Intelligence Group also pointed out the now-deleted Twitter account of Mujahid Miski, who claims to be a jihadist fighter from the United States and posted under the #FergusonUnderIS hashtag: “I thought u guys back in Ferguson were supposed to be Free & that u had equal rights. I’d really like to know what changed?” He also said, “Justice and Equality is under the Shari’ah law. You’ll never get it under Democracy.”

Abu Mansour in Germany and Abu Sameer in France asked not to be identified by their real names because they fear arrest for their affiliation with the Islamic State. But both also stated that Ferguson would also teach Muslims in Europe a big lesson about the rise of right-wing and racist movements there, too. “What has happened in Ferguson today, can also happen anytime in France, Germany or Britain,” said Abu Sameer. “The anti-Muslim sentiments are there and became normality and we tell the youth, communism has failed, the Islamic State is your only solution.”

This is why 40 FBI agents were in Ferguson. I wonder how many IS Jihadist recruiters are contributing to the comment sections of blogs critical of America? Quite a few, no doubt. Maybe even a few here, who knows? For those who aren't, don't be chumps.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 17:51 utc | 23

@14

I was thinking the same thing soon after ISIS popped up.

Just logical after reading Hersh's The Redirection> and The Red Line and the Rat Line

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 26 2014 18:12 utc | 24

Wasn't it the Mexican president Pena Nieto that said that, regarding the amount of guns coming in to Mexico from Yanquistan that fuel the "drug war".

Posted by: Candy | Aug 26 2014 19:13 utc | 25

Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26, 2014 11:37:57 AM | 8

It is the Middle Eastern clients of the Soviet Union / non aligned state list.

From the Soviet Union to the Axis of Evil and the War on Terror.

Adam Curtis: The Power of Nightmares

Posted by: somebody | Aug 26 2014 19:14 utc | 26

JFC--yes, that is the question, isn't it?

Posted by: JohnH | Aug 26, 2014 12:42:25 PM | 17

And the answer to that question can be found by looking at the reaction of the Obomber Admin to the allegedly rogue shenanigans of MacCain and the NED. What is the reaction? No reaction whatsoever. Ergo your 2nd question is also answered:

Is McCain the point man for a covert, subversive foreign policy?

Clearly he is, since the Obomber Admin has done SFA to curtail these actions of MacC and the NED, The Admin after all control the purse strings for NED-funding and therefore the purse strings to MacC's little IRI operation

Or has Obama fully bought in?

Clearly he has, see above

And does he support this arrangement so he can appear to want to avoid more foreign wars, only leading from behind when "forced?"

Clearly he does, see above

If you recall, when Obama first took office, Zelaya was overthrown in Honduras. Obama was in Colombia at the time and said, "We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the President of Honduras."

McCain had a conniption fit, took Obama to task, and Obama never breathed the word 'coup' again.

You're confusing words with actions - once again. Who cares what the Admin says - it's what they DO that counts - and they have done nothing to curtail any of MacC/NED shenanigans, and in fact those shenanigans have been repeated time and time again since Honduras.

So at this stage only a gullible fool would continue to believe that the Admin doesn't fully approve

This would suggest that McCain was part of a subversive action that Obama had not been made aware of

This is nonsense - see above etc

With his position at IRI and on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, he is well positioned to run his own independent action

more nonsense - hollywood fantasy MegaBlockbuster nonsense, Starring Nick Cage as Ned Ryan with Ed Harris as the "rogue" Mad Dog MacCain

as part of a deep state.

oh ffs. inserting "the deep state" at the end doesn't make it look any less nonsensical or less of a Hollywood Mega-Blockbuster Ed Harris-as-the-villain fantas

Posted by: JFC | Aug 26 2014 19:36 utc | 27

@ #23

According to Site Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks the online activity of terrorists, the accounts have mainly addressed the black community, arguing that blacks are victims of “democracy while promising less discrimination under Shari’ah law.”

SITE Intel Group ???

Poor Rita Katz, after the death of OBL, there aren't anymore faked videos to dump on the CIA and now she has found another trail to make money and to spread mayhem. Yep IS ( or ISIS or ISIL) is a good excuse - wonder when she will link Assad to Al-Baghdadi

Posted by: Yul | Aug 26 2014 19:37 utc | 28

@ #23

SITE Intel Group ???

Poor Rita Katz, after the death of OBL, there aren't anymore faked videos to dump on the CIA and now she has found another trail to make money and to spread mayhem.
Posted by: Yul | Aug 26, 2014 3:37:13 PM | 28

It's the SAME pig - they just slapped some red lipstick on it

Posted by: JFC | Aug 26 2014 19:41 utc | 29

Douglas Mcarthur Mccain? The USG propagandists have a sense of humor don't they....

Posted by: really | Aug 26, 2014 1:32:01 PM | 21


J F'n C - it's the Cryptonomicon!

  • Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe (named after General Douglas MacArthur), Robert Shaftoe's and Glory Altamira's half-Filipino, half-American son.

    He is introduced near the end of the World War II storyline as a toddler, when he meets his father, who tries to explain Shaftoe family heritage during the Liberation of Manila. In the modern-day storyline, Douglas is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL officer and U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who lives in the Philippines and operates Semper Marine, an underwater survey business with his daughter, Amy, conducting treasure hunts as a sideline.

  • Posted by: JFC | Aug 26 2014 19:46 utc | 30

    somebody | Aug 26, 2014 3:14:05 PM | 26


    Interesting beginning, then the audio went to zero.

    Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26 2014 20:06 utc | 31

    Cryptonomicon indeed. Wow. I guess head US state dept spokesperson Psaki hasn't lost her ability and or stomach for pouring propaganda swill down the mental gullets of Americans. Good one Jen. Douglas Mcarthur Mccain, american jihadist....that's better than Harf's propaganda swill....not boring at all....

    Posted by: really | Aug 26 2014 20:17 utc | 32

    @23. You are so right! Judging from the way rebellious aspiring rappers keep turning up we should all be careful of what we say and wary of anyone offerring employment opportunities that include foreign travel free drugs and sex. Thanks Tommy!

    Posted by: Nana2007 | Aug 26 2014 20:28 utc | 33

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26, 2014 1:51:13 PM | 23

    Maybe if your beloved Amerikkkan police state stopped gunning down African-Americans in the street like dogs, ISIS wouldn't have such bright recruiting prospects.

    Posted by: Matt | Aug 26 2014 20:33 utc | 34

    It wasnt the rapper that killed foley (even though that rapper is in Syria fighting).

    Posted by: Anoynmous | Aug 26 2014 20:36 utc | 35

    Has anyone noted the resemblance between 'John' the beheader and Sacha baron Cohen, especially his incarnation 'Ali G'?

    The Zionist has a double, or......

    Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26 2014 20:51 utc | 36

    Maybe if your beloved Amerikkkan police state stopped gunning down African-Americans in the street like dogs, ISIS wouldn't have such bright recruiting prospects.

    Mad rabid dogs usually get shot or put down. You attack a police officer and then charge him again after attacking him once as is alleged, you've sealed your fate.

    They're just plain old Americans to me. No need for the African descriptor. That's racist.

    I don't believe for a second IS has bright recruiting prospects as you do. I know you're one witnessed by your violent threats against me and my family at this space, but the Americans in Ferguson aren't a match with IS.

    Although, that may not stop the FBI from conjuring a Ferguson Four like they did in Newburgh.

    Newburgh Sting

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 21:04 utc | 37

    Has anyone noted the resemblance between 'John' the beheader and Sacha baron Cohen, especially his incarnation 'Ali G'?

    I did think that at first, but upon closer inspection I'm pretty certain it's Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Check out the link for his photo and tell me they're not the executioner's eyes.

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 21:09 utc | 38

    @38 No, it's not comparable. Do you think Judaism is the same as Zionism?

    Posted by: Ben Franklin | Aug 26 2014 21:13 utc | 39

    ISIS Is Increasing Enrollment
    To Ferguson Recruiters Are Sent
    What ISIS Will Discover
    Even Though Some Blacks Suffer
    Most Aren't Like Their President

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26 2014 21:53 utc | 40

    itry to avoid the NYT where possible,...
    but the answer had to be the worlds most belligerent democracy, while claiming not to be

    Posted by: brian | Aug 26 2014 22:15 utc | 41

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26, 2014 5:09:21 PM | 38


    khamenei isnt semitic

    nice try tho

    Posted by: brian | Aug 26 2014 22:16 utc | 42

    Maybe even a few here, who knows? For those who aren't, don't be chumps.

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26, 2014 1:51:13 PM | 23


    has Langley put a boot up Colds bleak back side?

    Posted by: brian | Aug 26 2014 22:17 utc | 43

    Well, at least he was being honest unlike Putin's Russia that has claimed consistently it is not intervening in Eastern Ukraine (and by virtue of that restricted by sovereign borders) until today when it was caught with its pants down.

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 26, 2014 10:50:59 AM | 4


    what does Cold know of honesty? other than how to spell it? in one thread attacks Iran and Syria..spells USrael intel(?) agent

    Posted by: brian | Aug 26 2014 22:19 utc | 44

    Colden is a Zionist.His concerns are theirs.That's why he's intimating black recruitment here in America by Isis.I don't think the black man on the street is on the side of those people,know they are our toys and Israel's,and I know they don't like Israel too much,they remind them of Bull Connor.
    All three as to the question?
    And good ol' Ozzie has a Jewish wife,and Jewish children,so I'm not sure those lyrics apply to Israel any more.

    Posted by: dahoit | Aug 26 2014 22:28 utc | 45

    “We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat and we’re not going to be restricted by borders.” American exceptional way of life, or rather, death.

    Another Quiz: Who said: "All options are on the table"?
    1. John Kerry
    2. Jo Biden
    3. Obomber
    and which countries are targeted?

    Posted by: slirs | Aug 26 2014 22:53 utc | 46

    "..."At the start the Americans and some Europeans rather welcomed (Islamic State) on the basis it was fighting agains Bashar al-Assad.

    They welcomed it as they welcomed the mujahideen who later created al Qaeda, and then al Qaeda struck like a boomerang on September 11, 2001," Lavrov said.

    "The same thing is happening now," he said, adding that," the United States had only started fighting the group after it began rampaging across Iraq and approaching the capital Baghdad."

    The United States has conducted more than 90 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, and Washington is considering taking its fight against the militants to neighboring Syria. Damascus said on Monday it must be involved in coordinating any air strikes on its territory.

    Backing this stance, Lavrov said: "If... there are plans to combat Islamic State on the territory of Syria and other countries, it is indispensable that it is done in cooperation with legitimate authorities (there)."

    Having long been denounced by Washington and others for protecting Assad, Lavrov made clear that Russia now feels vindicated.

    "At one time we were accused of supporting Bashar al-Assad and preventing his overthrow.... Now no one is talking about that," he said.
    http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0GP14J20140825?irpc=932

    Posted by: really | Aug 26 2014 23:39 utc | 47

    In order, then:

    #1. Of course the Russians would love to clean out that unclean nest of filthy birds (viz, neoliberals and fascists) but their way is not talk but action.
    #2. Sounds like the Obomber but he has already ruled out doing anything to "help" Assad.
    #3. Ta Da! By elimination it's the new, improved, totally unpredictable House of Saud & Associates.

    PS The only way to get rid of Colden Holefield (sic) is to TOTALLY ignore each and every one of his obnoxious ravings.


    Posted by: rackstraw | Aug 26 2014 23:49 utc | 48

    @rackstraw #48:

    I think most visitors to MoA are used to him by now. It's not a bad thing to have a "dissident" loony pro-USG voice at MoA. That prevents the impression that MoA is a monoculture.

    Posted by: Demian | Aug 27 2014 0:08 utc | 49

    "Robert Parry describes NED as "a $100 million U.S. government-financed slush fund that generally supports a neocon agenda often at cross-purposes with the Obama administration’s foreign policy."
    http://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/27/a-shadow-us-foreign-policy/"

    Actually NED got $134 Million of US taxpayer money...

    Posted by: Popsmoke | Aug 27 2014 0:22 utc | 50

    http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-sold-advanced-s-300-ship-killing-missiles-syrian-president-bashar-assad-say-us-officials

    Hmmm...if this is true this is no bueno for US air force over syria.

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 1:08 utc | 51

    @51 - Wait - that's a little confused (not that I'm an expert on military hardware). Isn't the S-300 the anti-aircraft system? But then the article talks about the Yakhont anti-ship missiles:

    The 300 Yakhont antiship missiles are an advanced version of the S-300 antiship cruise missiles that are fitted with an advanced radar system. The missile sale to the regime is considered an affront to the U.S. and its allies' attempts to bring peace to the region.

    I could be wrong, but I think someone didn't do their homework.

    Posted by: guest77 | Aug 27 2014 1:19 utc | 52

    Come on Demian. Cold Hole is hardly the only pro-USG voice here on MoA.

    He's just the only one with enough "decency" to use a single screen name, unlike some Jerks, Fiends, and Creeps around here who change theirs daily.

    Posted by: guest77 | Aug 27 2014 1:22 utc | 53

    There is no doubt the Syrians have the Yakhonts, that's a certainty.

    Posted by: guest77 | Aug 27 2014 1:28 utc | 54

    @52

    Yeah I notice that slip in the article but it was one I could find claiming the s300 missle sales to syria. The s300 is an anti aircraft missle system. It seems to be a multi purpose platform.


    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-22688894

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 1:29 utc | 55

    Why Osborne's lyrics are lame:

    Generals gathered in their masses
    Just like witches at black masses...

    Generals don't gather in masses. By definition they are few.
    But we need a rhyme for the next line. Very well, carry on lame-o.

    Posted by: ruralito | Aug 27 2014 1:33 utc | 56

    @49, that's right, Demian, Troll-in-the-Hole is our hedge against accusations of bias.

    Posted by: ruralito | Aug 27 2014 1:43 utc | 57

    Troll-in-the-Hole is our hedge against accusations of bias.

    Just as Jsore is our hedge against accusations of ambiguity, intellectualism, and geniality.

    Posted by: Malooga | Aug 27 2014 1:58 utc | 58

    @58

    Look, FL, you effete ineffectual passive/aggressive little toss, it's not enough now that everyone here now knows you actually defend and converse with the very war criminals in the US Establishment - working within the system is great fun!! - you have to repeatedly show everyone how utterly unaware you are of your own miserable/pitiable existence.

    Let's talk about intellectualism/intellectuals, shall we?

    Yes, in former fascist regimes, the intellectuals were often some of the very first ones to be rounded up and jailed/killed.

    HOWEVER, there was a SECOND set of "intellectuals" - notice the quotes now, FL - who somehow survived these purges, co-existed with said fascist war criminals of yesteryear, were amply rewarded and were employed to write the fascist-dictated histories for posterity.

    Hmmm, I wonder why that second set of "intellectuals" was able to survive?

    Any guesses, FL?

    Gee, could it possibly be that the "intellectual" nonsense that they consistently spewed WAS OF ABSOLUTELY ZERO THREAT to said fascist leaders and their power? That even though those fake "intellectuals" THOUGHT they were making a difference - such as yourself - they had their pointy-heads SO FAR up their asses that they couldn't see that they were actually supporting if not outright COLLABORATING with the people they mistakenly believed they were taking a stand against? Sad isn't it. I mean really.

    So, FL, bearing in mind all of the dialogues you have and have had with Establishment members, all the letters you write to them and all of the fake left and very much Establishment "intellectuals" you so admire - Chomsky, Parry, etc etc - please tell us which camp of minds do you fit into: the one that THREATENS the murderous status quo of the current war criminal elite or the one that is allowed to play the part of the delusional handmaiden to power?

    No, really take some time to think about it.

    Seriously, you're a joke and the worst part is that you don't even know it.

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 27 2014 2:12 utc | 59

    Backing this stance, Lavrov said: "If... there are plans to combat Islamic State on the territory of Syria and other countries, it is indispensable that it is done in cooperation with legitimate authorities (there)."

    Having long been denounced by Washington and others for protecting Assad, Lavrov made clear that Russia now feels vindicated.

    Vindicated my ass. Russia's gone and done the same thing in Eastern Ukraine by importing mercenary terrorists to hold an entire region of Ukraine hostage and use the population as cover in its fight with Ukraine proper.

    For the record, I've never supported in word or deed what The West has done in Iraq, in Libya or in Syria, and remaining consistent, I don't support what Russia's doing in Eastern Ukraine and what it's done in Chechnya and Georgia before that.

    How consistent are the rest of you when it comes to all of that? I'm guessing not very.

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 27 2014 2:14 utc | 60

    "...Earlier this year, Eric Harroun, a former U.S. soldier, made headlines when he posted videos of himself online in which he purported to be fighting with rebel groups, holding weapons, and driving with fighters through contested parts of Syria. He was arrested by the FBI when he returned to the United States from Syria in March and accused of fighting with the al Qaeda–linked rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra. In an earlier interview with FBI agents in Istanbul, Harroun had said that he was opposed to al Qaeda and had been fighting only to help topple Assad..."

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/31/american-woman-killed-in-syria.html

    So this guy was arrested by the FBI and released. What gives...did they release him because he was retired army? I mean this guy was fighting with the terrorist group jabhat al-Nusra. This stinks...maybe the FBI released him because he was probably training al-Nusra for the USG.

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 2:22 utc | 61

    @58

    Now, please copiously quote/paraphrase us some of your favorite writers/thinkers, y'know, the ones that you THINK are your brothers-in-arms, the ones who have passed the flame of the unseeable/ethereal "resistance" directly into your hands, into your all-seeing mind whose written output regales reader after reader with its comprehensive yet utterly banal catalog of non-threatening ideas that form the basis for any even - if possible - MORE non-threatening call to action - namely - to carry on conversations with the very murderers and thieves who are destroying our planet.

    Yes, maybe some Livy or Seneca? Arendt? Please tell us - at length, of course - how you were a young man in Tanzania sipping rum coolers on a dock one evening discussing Edward Said with your university friends and contemplating how you could feel the nebulosity of the resistance forming within your very soul even then. How those evenings haunt you as you come to terms how the narratives of mankind have rolled out before your very eyes.

    It will be awesome. I can't wait.

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 27 2014 2:22 utc | 62

    @61 continued...
    ..."The government's terrorism case against Harroun fell apart when it became plain they had confused two different resistance groups in Syria's complicated menagerie of guerrilla forces. Harroun had fought with one that was not waging jihad for al Qaeda..."

    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/eric-harroun-us-army-vet-fought-syria-died/story?id=23273218

    So al Nusra is not waging jihad for al qaeda. But al Nusra is al qaeda. Oh...that makes total orwellian doublespeak sense. In other words harroun was working for the USG sponsored anti assad al qaeda terrorist group.

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 2:40 utc | 63

    could you just ban Cold N. Holefield ? They're clearly trolling. I just come here to find any additional scoops people find in the news, not to endure a stream constant contrarian bull shit!

    Posted by: jisdj | Aug 27 2014 2:53 utc | 64

    Obama Wants $500 Million to Train and Equip Syrian Opposition The sum comes out of the president’s new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund
    http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/obama-wants-500-million-to-train-and-equip-syrian-opposition-20140626

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 3:19 utc | 65

    @ Really #51--

    The article you link is from May 2013. It states--from US sources--that the contract for Russia to supply S-300 anti-ship missiles to Syria was signed in 2007, but delivery did not begin until 2011, when partial delivery did begin. The article then says delivery continued in 2013, and as of the date of the article is complete or nearly complete.

    This is all before the Syrian War run-up and walk-back of August 2013.

    We note that the missile sale had been reported in other places, but for the US to report it amounts to an admission.

    Which means we really do believe it.

    That in turn implies that the no-fly zone over Syria--which would have had to have been supported from the Mediterranean Sea--was an impossible tactic even before the US proposed it three months later.

    At the time--back in May 2013--I missed this article and never saw an American article conceding that deliveries of the missile had actually taken place. That is, the American public was not supposed to know in August 2013 that the military operations being proposed were already a dead item: All strategic players knew they could not be carried out without bringing on an American military catastrophe.

    Into this situation Turkey sets up the sarin false-flag to sucker the US into military operations anyway. And--according to Seymour Hersh--it nearly works.

    Hersh obviously thinks Obama is even more stupid than we do. Equally obviously, Hersh is giving voice to one of the factions of the Dark State that does not want to gamble uncontrolled war nor massive military losses. One should not be lulled into thinking that they are nice guys, nor that they are sane, but they do oppose the crazies that want to push directly toward global nuclear war.

    A year later, the US is ready to begin a new campaign in the Middle East but the strategic position is no better. In fact it is much worse, in that the US can no longer give the impression of being in control of events--an illusion that it previously maintained fairly well.

    Can the US launch ground-based airstrikes? I guess it depends on what surface-to-air missiles the Syrians have. But in a hot war--which it would be--the eastern Mediterranean would still be a no-go zone for the US.

    The Syrians are right to be wary. The Americans could be bombing Daash (ISIS) one day and Damascus the next. It could even be the plan--a way to redo last year's fizzled war.

    Either way, the Russians are still active players, and it would be very rash to assume they will be distracted by the Ukraine War (which they really view as just another theater, anyway).

    --Gaianne

    Posted by: Gaianne | Aug 27 2014 3:57 utc | 66

    @ myself at #66--

    Oops: Looks like its both anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles.

    The no-fly zone is no more feasible this year than last year. If the US strikes Daash in Syria (a big if, 24 hours goes by and the talk switches to arming them instead of fighting them) the Syrians will complain formally but do nothing, but if the US goes after Syrian targets than the Syrians will use their missiles.

    I gather the Russians are still ready to help with reconnaissance and targeting.

    --Gaianne

    Posted by: Gaianne | Aug 27 2014 4:05 utc | 67

    @66

    On the topic of bombing daash to bombing Syria, it's so jarring to see newscasters ask questions of military experts like "why can't we just bomb Syria right now?" And the expert having to explain the concept of borders and sovereignty.

    Posted by: Crest | Aug 27 2014 4:45 utc | 68

    @66 Don't underestimate cognitive dissonance. Many U.S. elites really believe the CNN footage of targeted bombing and the number of terrorist and Vietcong killed by our bombs with minimal civilian casualties.

    Sam Grant was unemployed drunk who couldn't get a commission in April 1861 despite 30% of the officer corp leaving and his own combat experience. He didn't accept Lee's surrender (technically it was Chamberlain) because he was so gifted. He advanced because half the officers are fighting their grandfather's war. The other half are fighting their father's war.

    The idea that U.S. air power isn't invincible or ready at a moment's notice (example everyone asking why Obama isn't just bombing ISIS isn't smithereens right now; moving assets takes time especially after our pivot to Asia began) is unthinkable.

    Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Aug 27 2014 4:54 utc | 69

    US hopes for Baathists to do their anti-ISIS footwork now.

    I think Baathists want Kuweit first.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 6:19 utc | 70

    @Jsore:

    Oh boy, we’re playing slow pitch today!

    how you were a young man in Tanzania sipping rum coolers on a dock one evening discussing Edward Said with your university friends and contemplating how you could feel the nebulosity of the resistance forming within your very soul even then. How those evenings haunt you as you come to terms how the narratives of mankind have rolled out before your very eyes.

    I was not “a young man in Tanzania,” I was a fucking redneck oil refinery worker, and union shop steward and activist, on an all-black island in the West Indies. I researched our injury record and calculated statistically that operators in my refinery had a 1 in 12 chance of being killed or maimed in a twenty year career in the field. Obviously, that information did not endear me to management. (I was almost killed 6 times in a five year field career.) When I discovered that the water table of the island was being permanently polluted by leaks, and that the EPA was bought off, I began a campaign. My pet was brutally murdered, my life was threatened multiple times, I was put in the most difficult and dangerous jobs 24/7 at work in order to break me; and everyone -- including all of my friends -- on the Island turned against me because I was threatening “the job market.” To make a long story short, I didn’t have the guts or support system needed to be a Karen Silkwood and backed down, my life and career destroyed. Ironically, the game of global capitalism closed the refinery down several years later anyway: all the jobs lost, water table was polluted, and there was now no hope of recompence.

    I hope that doesn’t destroy your cinematic treatment of me, because I’d love to see the film. “I had a farm in Africa...," and all that rot. Anyway, that is what real life is like, you fool!

    Since you are so interested, here’s some more detail: Never went to University (although I was recruited by Princeton), college dropout with one years worth of credits after two years in college -- half of which I already had under my belt from AP in high school. I have no University friends, and it doesn’t bother me. Taught for five years at two of the largest Universities in the Boston area. (BU, Clark -- Yes, without a degree!) Owned and ran several multi-million dollar businesses. Trainer in second largest oil refinery in the Western hemisphere. Other skillsets/experiencess: Co-op management, organic Foods, museum designer, floristry, woodworker, master carpenter, sailor, Buddhist monk, herbalist, forager, gardener, hunter, animal trainer, animal tracker, animal rescue, folklorist, published poet, started renowned poetry journal in NYC, many years in community radio, activist. Loving caregiver to a mentally disabled family member for many years. Hitchhiked across Canada, and jumped freight trains from Portland to SF. And yes, I’ve spent a good deal of time around Chomsky and Zinn from my work in radio. Nationally aired, helped produce, and syndicated the first (award-winning) radio program about Palestine from a Palestinian point of view, now running over ten years and counting. Currently: unemployed, stone-broke, living in the slums of a small city of 100,000. My neighbors are mostly unemployed too. Lucky ones are on disability. No one’s planning revolution. We live day-to-day around here. Collect cans and scrap metal when the going gets tough. In the last year, I have been through the death of a life companion and a best friend.

    Perhaps that is why I am more of a humanist, and less of an strident, self-absorbed absolutist than you. I’ve live a real life, imperfect as it may be, and remain vulnerable to all human frailties and vices. There is nothing theoretical about my life.

    What thinkers do I like? First of all, I think for myself. I understand that all historical personages are human, and therefore flawed, like myself. Anyone brave enough to commit his thoughts to paper (as b well knows) is bound to make a few mistakes. Each time period and locale has its own particular historical challenges. I try to take something from every one, if possible. I do not believe that there exists any single system of thinking without contradictions. In that sense, perhaps, I am a Hegalian.

    I consider myself a radical leftist, in the sense that radical means going to the roots of things/causes, and leftism is more concerned about providing for the neediest of us rather than providing for the most talented of us.

    My motto is, “We all have to find a way to live together here.”

    Of course, anything I say in a single sentence short treatment like this is, by necessity, a glittering generality.

    I confess that I found Arendt difficult: There were many quotes and references in many languages that I do not possess reading ability in. I was a little disappointed in the level of her insight, but I was equally concerned that perhaps I did not understand her. At the time, she was somewhat beyond me; she is back on the list to re-visit someday.

    Thinker who is perhaps closest to me: Michael Parenti, for his realism, his understanding of history, his innate sense of justice, and his refusal to get caught up in suicidal leftist internecine squabbles. (Hi, Louie!)

    Yes, Chomsky was a “gateway drug” for me, in helping me break through mainstream propaganda and see the imperial system in all its naked horror, but his refusal to countenance false flag strategies, and his (admittedly) soft Zionism, are fatal flaws.

    Person closest to where I am at in growing up Jewish: Paul Eisen, despite our many differences in background and lives, and smaller difference in beliefs. I consider religion to be a series of evolving group cultures. For me, religion is (as are all human conditions, like sexual identity) a continually changing, ever evolving struggle as I grow and change. I do not support the existence of the State of Israel.

    I have tried to read every philosopher, political scientist, anthropologist, sociologist, etc. I can get my hands on. The list runs easily into the several hundreds. Being involved in radio, I’ve listened to tens of thousands of hours of audio. These days, I do more reading on the right than the left.

    I consider Putin to be the greatest politician of my lifetime (followed by Castro, Mao, and Chavez). Yet, if we lived in a multi-polar world, I would oppose him relentlessly from the left. Such are the contradictions of realpolitik.

    Perhaps, that is why I see things so differently from you. I am not an absolutist. I see things with more humanity and understanding of others in their journey, wherever they may be.

    Now to you: I sense a smell of (is it Bob Avakian?) the righteous radical, about you -- a sense of holy-roller, revolutionary vanguardism. Let me elaborate on what I sense in you from your written record:

    Everything is corrupt. (I agree with you here.) Reform is evil; Revolution is good. Everything must be overthrown -- all human order and hierarchy. The human costs of overthrowing corruption must not be taken into account. Human lives are irrelevant in achieving true and perfect justice.

    Humans are either good or bad. There is no middle ground. The bad must be brought to justice -- preferably by death. Individual human growth is irrelevant to the process. There is no room for humans to make mistakes, and to repent and learn from them. “Understanding” is a liberal trait, to be extinguished as inherently evil. Restorative justice, a farce.

    Humans, being immutable, having once proposed a plan, are incapable of recanting, changing, amending, or even rejecting that plan.

    Bad humans cannot be taught -- after all they are evil -- therefore, they should be ridiculed and ostracized from society. The quicker and more thorough, the better. Bullying and gatekeeping on blogs is one way of quickly and efficiently separating the vital germ from the chaff. Make no mistake -- this is no idyll -- but an essential moral mission.

    Society’s elan -- its pure, vital fluid -- must be preserved at all costs, and the best way to do this is to ruthlessly crush anything threatening to adulterate it.

    Anyone having any position of power or privilege within society, especially intellectuals -- understanding that society is ultimately corrupt -- is corrupt. They cannot be trusted, must not be trusted, have nothing to add to any discussion, and must be dismissed and firmly dispensed with.

    What others call “ambiguity” or “complexity,” is merely the fig-leaf society accords to moral degeneration, to be wiped out before its infection spreads.

    Knowledge equals intellectualism, which equals moral relativism, i.e., making deals with the devil. Anyone with knowledge has a vested interest, and therefore cannot work for the greater good of society, as I can.

    Only the true revolutionary can save society. The true revolutionary is pure. Because he has no attachments to society, he has no prejudices; and therefore, only he can be trusted to administer society impartially.

    Revolutionary purity cleanses and washes away the dirty life-and-death trials and tribulations of the masses.

    Justice is not a gradual and continual process of adjustment, but a one-time upsetting and resetting of the scales.

    The revolution is the true end of history, for once the scales of justice are upset and a just order is instituted, change becomes obsolete and anti-revolutionary.

    *****

    In short, we have a conflict between moral absolutism and moral relativism, the peacock, and the pig.

    *****

    Oh, before I go, here is a true story for your film treatment of me -- I hope you include it:

    After a night on the town in St. Barts, my sweetie and I retired to a small bar on the quay overlooking the harbor. Being that we were officially in France, even if really in the Carribean, I suggested we order French drinks. She agreed, and ordered a snifter of the famous orange liquor -- Grand Marinier; I ordered a shot of Calvados -- the fiery apple brandy of Normandy. Looking at the gaily lit sailboats bobbing up and down in the harbor, we slowly sipped our drinks in silent reverie. She interrupted my thoughts, “Let’s switch drinks. I’ve never tried Calvados.”

    We switched, sipped, and continued our reverie.

    After a time, she spoke up, “Which do you like best?”

    I thought for a while, and then replied judiciously, “It’s kind of like comparing apples to oranges.”


    Yes, and every story has its moral.

    By the way, your much promised and awaited geo-political “Mein Kampf” never appeared. No worry, I believe that I can guess what it would have said. A nasty man cannot have a humane epistemology.

    Posted by: Malooga | Aug 27 2014 6:29 utc | 71

    more on the US footwork army that does not step forward

    The Limits of U.S. Air Power in Iraq

    What U.S. air power cannot do is drive ISIS and the other Sunni militant groups out of northern Iraq without a complementary ground force of some kind. The Obama Administration is absolutely right that the ideal ground force would be a reconstituted Iraqi military working in conjunction with Sunni tribes and other politically-moderate paramilitary forces (and perhaps the Peshmerga as well). But that is only possible if there is dramatic political change in Baghdad, and change that goes well beyond a new prime minister. The events transpiring overnight have further called into question whether we will see such change.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 6:39 utc | 72

    @Gaianne 66;

    Never thought of that. Nice!

    PS-


    about Robert Parry-

    I do consider him sort of a democratic apologist, and limited hang-out gatekeeper -- but, like Sy Hersh, he does perform useful purposes, as he did with mh17: he is not allied with the true (Curtis Lemay) crazies.

    I wrote him once with some concerns about an article he had written, a long time ago, soon after he had begun the "blogging thing" -- and to his credit, he replied promptly, and answered every concern I had to my complete satisfaction. That doesn't mean I will agree with him, but it does mean I have a certain respect for him. Heck, I've written bloggers who were begging for money (Arthur Silber, for one) about where to send it, and they never got back to me!

    Posted by: Malooga | Aug 27 2014 6:45 utc | 73

    If the 10 lost paratroopers didn't say this, they should have.

    Posted by: YY | Aug 27 2014 6:55 utc | 74

    @Malooga #74:

    Yes, I find it very heartening that Parry keeps on pointing out the duplicity of the corporate media when it comes to the former Ukraine.

    Posted by: Demian | Aug 27 2014 7:21 utc | 75

    More on Iraqi Baath Jordan asks for coordination with Iraq Baath against ISIS

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 7:42 utc | 76

    The true liberal (as opposed to the Soros/Power liberal veneer r2p social engineering ghouls) segment of the US intelligensia, represented by Hersh, Parry, Stephen Cohen, etc. (along with many on the realist right: Kissinger, Mearsheimer, etc) are truly scared of the very real possibility of world ending nuclear war instigated by the crazy neo-cons. (See: Stanislav Petrov, 1983) Thus, they want an accommodation with RF ASAP, while the US still has the standing to negotiate the best terms. They recognize that the longer they wait, the more US power wanes, the worse the ultimate terms of accommodation will be.

    It is complicated to understand for those who insist on seeing Jews as a single united block.

    Posted by: Malooga | Aug 27 2014 7:50 utc | 77

    Is it just me, or was all this IS hokum cooked up by the Good Friends of Israel crowd to deflect attention from Bibi's mass destruction and mass murder in Gaza?
    The "not recognising Syrian borders" meme is nothing more than US 'self-stimulation' (masturbation). There's absolutely no chance of the precious Yankees risking their precious Superpower Myth in Syria (with Vlad ready to make Syria a no-fly Zone for the hysterically indignant girlie-boys of the US/NATO flounce-fest).

    Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 27 2014 7:58 utc | 78

    IS is there to stay, if intended or not.

    As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June. The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland. In a few weeks of fighting in Syria Isis has established itself as the dominant force in the Syrian opposition, routing the official al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor and executing its local commander as he tried to flee. In northern Syria some five thousand Isis fighters are using tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army in Mosul to besiege half a million Kurds in their enclave at Kobani on the Turkish border. In central Syria, near Palmyra, Isis fought the Syrian army as it overran the al-Shaer gasfield, one of the largest in the country, in a surprise assault that left an estimated three hundred soldiers and civilians dead. Repeated government counter-attacks finally retook the gasfield but Isis still controls most of Syria’s oil and gas production. The Caliphate may be poor and isolated but its oil wells and control of crucial roads provide a steady income in addition to the plunder of war.

    Basically, it is the summer holidays. Wars are always timed for the summer holidays.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 8:42 utc | 79

    72

    J f'n C

    The king of pompous windbaggery is clearly malooga


    The pompous windbag wankfest that is the fake left at moa has another recruit for thier evening fireside soggybiscuit get-togethers.

    Juainne and gimp77 WILL be pleased. They were getting fed up of bevin always winning

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27 2014 9:41 utc | 80

    foff J***** Fried Chicken:

    If I'm the "fake left" (whatever that means), and you are presumably THE REAL LEFT, then what are you so upset about? It's a free blog, and no one is preventing you from making your case here about anything you want.

    No one forces you to read what I wrote -- so why are you wasting your time? To throw off a snide one-liner? Is that what you consider a critique? Well, so be it.

    Take away all the posters that you and your twin brother Jsore don't like, and all you have is Jsore rantings and a bunch of not-so-funny 4th grade put-downs. Which, I guess, is what you want this blog to be.

    By the way, do you guys consider our host, to be a member of THE REAL LEFT? I'm certain he does not see himself that way, at all.

    Posted by: Malooga | Aug 27 2014 10:05 utc | 81

    who's "upset"?

    I love having an opportunity to laugh at pompous windbags such as yourself and bevin.

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27 2014 10:21 utc | 82

    Vijay Prashad on Islamic Baathism

    The second thing they did, because of that, as a consequence of that, was that they basically removed the officer corps from the military, because they were Baath Party members. So you’ve cleansed the military of their most sophisticated people. Well, these are the people, we know, that then formed the insurgency. Many of them will run into Syria, where they will basically regroup and come back and attack the Americans in Fallujah, Ramadi, Tal Afar, these cities in Anbar province. Now, what happens is that at the same time, the most important deputy of Saddam Hussein, who was not captured, Mr. Ibrahim al-Douri, who was the leader of the Naqshbandi sect in northern Iraq—Mr. al-Douri, who’s an interesting, also mercurial character, makes an alliance in about 2006 with the Islamic State. Now, this guy is a career Baathist. And Baathists are fundamentally opposed to Islamism. He reconfigures a very weird kind of Islamic Baathism, makes a link with the Islamic State, and provides the Islamic State, therefore, with the sophisticated battlefield experience of the Baath Party officers. And that ups the game.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 10:57 utc | 83

    Islamic Baathism

    It's Official!!!

    There really is no MSM-bullshit so idiotic and preposterous that even "somebody", Mr Dis-info himself, wouldn't pimp at MOA

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27 2014 11:05 utc | 84

    :-))

    More from Patrick Cockburn

    A fourth reason why conspiracy theories have such currency is that a proportion of them are true. This is particularly the case in Iraq and Syria with their long traditions of Baathist governments which came to power through military conspiracies and were always seeking to detect similar plots against their own rule.

    I was speaking last week to a Syrian Kurd asking him about the current Isis offensive which is taking over eastern Syria, capturing oil-rich Deir Ezzor province and assaulting the Kurdish enclaves in the north. We agreed that, given the international furore in the three weeks after Isis captured Mosul on 10 June, there was astonishingly little reaction to or publicity about Isis’s successful new offensive in Syria. The reason for this is that this time international attention is focused on the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

    “Do you think it possible,” asked my Syrian friend tentatively, “that Isis might have arranged to have the three Israeli teenagers killed – it certainly has militant cells on the West Bank – knowing that this would provoke an Israeli assault on Gaza and divert attention from its own operations?” I pooh-poohed the idea at the time as one more conspiracy theory based on no real evidence, but thinking it over I am not so sure.

    I remember how in June 1982 the Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov was critically wounded in London by three assassins working for the Abu Nidal movement directed by Iraqi intelligence. The aim, successfully accomplished, was to provoke the Israelis to invade Lebanon and become engaged in a war with Syria which was allied with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and a hated enemy of Saddam Hussein. Israel knew Iraq was behind the assassination attempt but even so used it as an excuse to invade Lebanon to crush the PLO.

    Could somebody in Isis, reputedly filled with former cadres of Saddam’s regime, have hatched a somewhat similar plot? For all those ludicrous theories, there are real conspiracies out there.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 11:57 utc | 85

    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/eric-harroun-us-army-vet-fought-syria-died/story?id=23273218

    So everyone is acting all surprised about the alleged Isil affiliation of Douglas Mcarthur Mccain, but what about the whitwashed case of retired army soldier eric harroun who was fratenizing with al qaeda terrorist group al nusra front in syria? The USG let this guy walk. The USG said they could not prove its case but the USG had twitter pics of harroun posing with al nusra terrorists holding rocket propelled grenades. I know the story is from 2013 but I figure it is revelent since all the recent hysteria about american jihadists possibly attacking the fatherlan......oops.... I mean homeland. Anybody on moa got any comments?

    Posted by: really | Aug 27 2014 12:15 utc | 86

    LOL

    Good ol Patrick

    As reliable a bullshit-artist/gatekeeper as any I spose

    I remember how in June 1982 the Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov was critically wounded in London by three assassins working for the Abu Nidal movement directed by Iraqi intelligence

    Google "Abu Nidal Mossad"
    About 27,800 results (0.33 seconds)
    Search Results:

    • Abu Nidal, notorious Palestinian mercenary, 'was a US spy ...
      www.independent.co.uk › News › World › Middle East
      The Independent
      Oct 25, 2008 - His biographer Patrick Seale, who suggests that for some time Abu Nidal even worked for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, has written of ...

    • Abu Nidal – Mossad terrorist
      www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=7042
      Aug 1, 2007 - Abu Nidal began his long and bloody career in the PLO, only to become a bitter rival of Yasser Arafat. It was a situation that the Israeli Mossad, ...
      Northerntruthseeker: The Munich 1972 Olympic Games ...
      northerntruthseeker.blogspot.com/.../the-munich-1972-massacre-was-psy...
      Jul 23, 2012 - A former senior Jordanian intelligence officer said: "Scratch around inside Abu Nidal's organization and you will find Mossad." (The Truth ...

    • Abu Nidal reportedly worked for the CIA and MOSSAD
      aangirfan.blogspot.com/.../abu-nidal-reportedly-worked-for-cia-and.htm...
      Oct 25, 2008 - A former senior Jordanian intelligence officer said: "Scratch around inside Abu Nidal's organization and you will find Mossad." (The Truth ...

    • The Two Deaths of Abu Nidal » CounterPunch: Tells the ...
      www.counterpunch.org/2002/.../the-two-deaths-of-abu-ni...
      CounterPunch
      Aug 20, 2002 - ... worked for Mossad, Israel's equally incompetent intelligence service. Abu Nidal was the beast before the beast before Osama bin Laden.

    • Abu Nidal, A Gun for Hire, by Patrick Seale - American Buddha
      www.american-buddha.com/lit.abunidalpatsealetoc.htm
      He had been sparring with the Mossad for a quarter of a century, and since the early 1980s, he had begun to suspect that the Israelis had infiltrated Abu Nidal's ...

    • Operation Wrath of God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wrath_of_God
      Wikipedia
      This was accomplished with the aid of PLO operatives working for Mossad, and with ..... This attack was either the work of Mossad or the Abu Nidal Organization.

    What is it you always smarmingly tell us?

    Oh yeah - "google is your friend" ;-)

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27 2014 12:22 utc | 87

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 26, 2014 1:05:33 PM | 19

    Don't be fooled by his boyish good looks and his familial ties to the MSM - his older brother is President of CBS News - this kid is the effing Charles Dickens of the American war criminal elite and deserves his own cell/noose.

    Rhodes and Obama are a couple of very conventional-thinking lightweights who've bonded for the obvious reason that they're both very conventional-thinking lightweights. Neither has any deep book understanding of or insight into foreign policy, but both understand that that's not part of their job. Their job is just PR: to persuade the public to acquiesce to or support whatever is next on the neoliberal imperialist agenda.

    They're doing a pretty good job considering, but the MH-17 and the ISIS thing _are_ challenges. Nice that you don't have to deal with a free press, that helps.

    Posted by: fairleft | Aug 27 2014 12:23 utc | 88

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27, 2014 8:22:00 AM | 88

    Yes that is an interesting story. You also have to read not just google you know.

    Iraqi secret police believed that the notorious Palestinian assassin Abu Nidal was working for the Americans as well as Egypt and Kuwait when they interrogated him in Baghdad only months before the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Hitherto secret documents which are now in the hands of The Independent – written by Saddam Hussein's brutal security services for Saddam's eyes only – state that he had been "colluding" with the Americans and, with the help of the Egyptians and Kuwaitis, was trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qa'ida.

    ...

    Abu Nidal was no stranger to Iraq. He had operated from Baghdad, Damascus and the Libyan capital of Tripoli when the regimes wanted to use him as a "gun for hire". It was Iraq which paid him to organise the attack on the Israeli ambassador to London, Shlomo Argov, in 1982, an attempted assassination which prompted Israel to accuse Yasser Arafat of responsibility and to begin its disastrous invasion of Lebanon ...

    Above is by Robert Fisk. So if not true it is a generally shared urban myth.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 12:35 utc | 89

    From Lang's site since he would never let me post a reply to him there. The guy requires every commentator at his space to lick his ass repeatedly. Habakkuk, to whom he is replying in this comment, is one of the worst intellectual sycophants I've run across on the internet. The guy quite literally is so far up Mustard's ass, only his feet are showing.

    turcopolier said... David Habakkuk

    I AM emotional about this and have personally intervened in situations like this to stop this filthy behavior. pl

    Reply 25 August 2014 at 02:20 PM

    You helped create it Mustard by providing rationalization and justification for it with your Putin coddling. You've encouraged and justified the faux rebellion in Eastern Ukraine from the get-go, and now you're miffed because the "terrorists" are showing their true colors. I'll give you credit for one thing Mustard and one thing only. At least you've been decent enough to give the one sane voice at your blog, Margaret Steinfels, a platform, but even that is questionable when it appears your motivation for doing so is for you and your goons to pillory her. Cowardly, if you ask me — just as is your stance with Putin.

    Why does Mustard obviously like Putin so much? Because they're birds of a feather, that's why. Putin likes his ass kissed up and down and he believes in squashing any and all dissent as does Lang at his blog. Imagine Mustard as the leader of America — he'd be a Putin clone, but with one tenth, if that even, the cleverness and savvy.

    Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Aug 27 2014 12:53 utc | 90

    @72 FL

    Sorry, I don't have the time to respond to ALL of your tome-post - y'know, working in a coal mine takes up most of my time (does that burnish my blue collar credentials in your eyes enough? nice touch, huh!) - but I will address some points for even though the post in general once again vindicated everything I have said about you, you have provided us some with valuable insights.

    1) You've provided us all with more data in helping answer the eternal question: are fake left gatekeeping Establishment whores REALLY such clueless nimrods or are they consciously bought-off. Thanks to your response I think we can all safely now lean more towards they are clueless nimrods who have so drunk the pseudo-intellectual nector of their Establishment betters that they have no idea that they are now living and breathing relics, out-moded and obsolete automata that mouth pretty things with the intention of keeping the "debate/discussion" is still alive in the US and one not to be missed.

    2) So you aren't EVEN a credentialed pseudo-intellectual but of the armchair variety. Gee, if I had the perverse desire to pick apart your older posts I'm sure I could piece together a nice profile but - meh - why bother the end's the same. Birds of a feather.

    3) I guess you could call "moral absolutism" what I and others would more likely label NOT TALKING TO FUCKING MASS MURDERING WAR CRIMINALS AND THEIR WILLING ACCOMPLICES YOU THICK-HEADED DOOFUS but if that's what keeps you plugging along more power to you.

    4) Seriously, just go to Wordpress, set up a effing blog, write out in their entirety - don't worry we won't miss you - each of your tome-posts - or is it really just one long epic-post? - and then - now listen up - LINK to said new FL BLOG when you want to cite some of your pearls - or string after string as the case may be - of wisdom with which you are attempting to enlighten us all with here and then if we so desire - yow - to read your musings in all of their glory we can go there instead of having the simple back-and-forth exchanges you have with people here at MOA serving - somehow - as the thinly-veiled launching pads for the USS Fake Left every time you feel the spirit filling your veins with its sweet sweet ichor. What do you think you're passing your fake left orals here or something?

    Sorry, gotta get back to the dude ranch, oops, I meant coal mine. I did like the Mein Kampf reference that sure was a hoot. Pathetic.

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 27 2014 13:03 utc | 91

    Above is by Robert Fisk. So if not true it is a generally shared urban myth.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27, 2014 8:35:54 AM | 90

    yes, and how you love your "urban myths" and your "urban-myth makers"

    The job of the gatekeeper is of course to keep alive those "urban myths" people like you send so much time trying to con everyone into believing

    Posted by: JFC | Aug 27 2014 13:04 utc | 92

    Adding:

    Should be "pretty things with the intention of keeping the "debate/discussion" still alive in the US and one not to be missed."

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 27 2014 13:04 utc | 93

    Great idea, the next step in the anti-neoliberal revolution: Communists say Russia should throw off ‘strangling noose’ of WTO (August 25, 2014)

    Communist Party MP Valery Rashkin:

    Those who had actively lobbied the entry promised that it would open new markets and give access to the latest technologies, the much needed modernization, but instead we got a sharp fall in GDP growth in just two years – from an acceptable 3.4 percent to a puny 0.2 percent. Capital outflow has intensified as well as the inflow of imports that destroy domestic production. The investment activity has plunged and even the most powerful enterprises and industries are suffering from gigantic losses.

    Currently Russia’s foreign “partners” are violating the WTO’s foundation ideals and general guidelines as they introduce economic sanctions that limit free trade. In view of this we see no possibilities, neither for modernization through importing technology, or for opening new markets for Russian producers.

    Posted by: fairleft | Aug 27 2014 13:29 utc | 94

    Malooga @ 72

    i'll ignore for now the psychosomatic implications of your interminably boring, self-indulgent, show-and-tell bromide (er, i guess that would be just "tell"), but...

    "master carpenter?"

    now i'm not saying it couldn't have been doable, in amongst your litany of other triumphs, travails, and travels that is, but perhaps you're parlaying terms somewhat? i mean, we wouldn't want to make lite of the MANY years of practice, devotion, and perseverance which typically define the work of the truly accomplished (master) artisan, would we?

    Posted by: john | Aug 27 2014 14:04 utc | 95

    Some days it seems, MoA has become a jobs program for Trolls. Still in all, a worthwhile clearing house for information. Thanks b.

    Posted by: ben | Aug 27 2014 14:08 utc | 96

    @97 It's quite amazing the time and energy that goes into anonymous internet feuding. Must be some kind of cyber satisfaction in it I guess.

    Posted by: dh | Aug 27 2014 14:44 utc | 97

    on topic - not restricted by borders

    The official spokesman of the Endowment & Religious Affairs Ministry in the Kurdistan Region, Mariwan Naqshbandi, revealed that more than 400 youths from the Kurdistan Region are among Islamic State (IS) militants. None of them are from Duhok province.


    “According to statistics gained from security sources in the Kurdistan Region, more than 400 Kurdish youths have joined IS insurgents,” said Naqshbandi to BasNews.

    ...

    “Before, Kurdish youths were encouraged through Mullahs and mosques to become IS militants, but now Facebook has replaced that role. IS supporters from inside and outside of the Kurdistan Region encourage Kurdish youths to join IS.”


    Naqshbandi stated that tens of youths have been arrested by Kurdish security because of their use of social media, whilst many have succeed in entering IS group in this way.

    Posted by: somebody | Aug 27 2014 15:03 utc | 98

    @72 malooga to @92 jsore... i will take the honesty @72 rather then all the 'you' statements @92 any day of the week.. one is open, the other afraid and hiding behind the 'you' statements..

    Posted by: james | Aug 27 2014 15:35 utc | 99

    Well, it's break-time here at the iron works/medical marijuana co-op - thanks, union organizers! - so I guess I have time to address one last point concerning how I know that you're such an Establishment phony, FL.

    I mean, besides the fact that I think it's suspicious that as a "former" Jew your first responses to me were attacking my anti-Zionism and that you're not beneath tossing out Nazi references at people.

    And besides the fact that as a "former" redneck you wrote long posts exonerating the murderers of minorities as merely the conflicted "tools" of the state all the while you were being cheered on by supporters of the uber-Zionist apartheid American South - yes, I noticed you, Snake Arbusto!!

    Besides all that I think what really is the definitive trait of your fake - meaning, once again, Establishment - "leftism" is this:

    Malooga just LOOVVVVVEESSSS Malooga! He thinks that he is - note: loaded word coming in 3...2...1...- EXCEPTIONAL!!

    You think I have a cinematic view of your life?!!! Bull-effing-crap. Nothing could even approach your own exalted estimation of yourself, FL.

    Why, like every good brainwashed, Establishment - i.e., egocentric, narcissistic, etc - American you, FL, ALREADY BELIEVE that you ARE STARRING in your own real-life movie. You really believe that you are the freaking Patrick Swayze/Kurt Russell character of the American Left. Tough but sensitive, the well-read ass-kicker, the guy's guy chick magnet. A real Road House meets Point Break. Yikes.

    Contrary to the transparent aw-shuckism that you try and use in a feeble attempt to cover over each one of your 3,000 word odes to your own storied past, your picaresque life and - most importantly - your great mind, what is inherent in your posts is your extremely exceptional - i.e., American - view of yourself.

    Now, as I pointed out earlier, as you like most brainwashed Americans seemingly are unable to SEE the confines of your own existential prison - i.e., your commodified dissent, etc - what does really that make you, FL?

    Why, if we take the tenor from your own postings on the cops and Ferguson, I believe that you would inevitably have to call yourself an UNWITTING TOOL of the Establishment, a human weapon, if you will, that has been spoon-fed so much narcissistic/ego-centric propaganda that they don't have the ability anymore to do anything but - like the cops with their violence - act out in ways that are in reality contrary to that which they may have originally wanted.

    Isn't that just terrible, FL? There probably is a pithy statement along the lines of pot and kettle involving tools somewhere but I'm sure you get my drift and break's almost over.

    Anyways, contrary to how you deal with tools of the Establishment, I don't believe that society should in any way excuse/mitigate the actions of said tools due to systemic influences and THAT is why I always so vehemently go after you: you are a tool - albeit a non-violent one as far as I know - of the Establishment - i.e, fake left - as you are promulgating a course of action that takes the anger/frustration of people of conscience and attempts to deflect/redirect it into utterly impotent avenues such as carrying on dialogs with the very criminals we should be hunting down but all in the name of good old fashioned American exceptionalistic moral "relativism" - y'know - that same type of thinking that equates destroying the lives of millions of innocent people with the "humanitarianism" and such.

    Well, back to work. Hey, FL, once the cops are off their beat, I'm sure they'd love to have a beer with ya!!You guys could trade stories!!!

    Posted by: JSorrentine | Aug 27 2014 16:05 utc | 100

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