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October 1, 2014
Syria: Turkey’s Plans And Other Confused Thinking

Under U.S. pressure the Turkish parliament will vote tomorrow on joining the coalition against the Islamic State. But that will only be a disguise. The real aim of the Turkish president Erdogan is to install a puppet Islamist regime in Damascus. That is the price he is asking for:

Turkey will not allow coalition members to use its military bases or its territory in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) if the objective does not also include ousting the Bashar al-Assad regime, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hinted on Oct. 1.

Erdogan's Turkey is cooperating with the Islamic State, partly for ideological reasons, partly out of fear the Islamic State fighters in Turkey would attack within the country.

Erdogan is now planning for some Turkish controlled border zone in Syria where he could train anti-Syrian forces and continue to deal we the Islamic State out of the eyes of interested observers. The likely false pretense for a Turkish invasion in Syria will be a tomb under Turkish protection which has been for some time surrounded, but never attacked, by IS fighters:

Yeni Safak, a pro-government daily, said that as many as 1,100 fighters of the Islamic State, which now controls more one-third of Iraq and one-third of Syria, had deployed around the shrine of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. […] Turkey maintains an honor guard and protective detachment of 36 troops at the tomb, which lies about about 15 miles inside Syria.

Another reason to occupy a border zone within Syria are the Kurdish held areas within Syria under control of the YPG, a sister organization of the Kurdish PKK which is fighting for Kurd rights within Turkey. The area around Kobane is currently under attack by the Islamic State and neither Turkey nor the U.S. is doing anything to prevent a takeover there:

[I]n recent days, the Islamic State has been advancing, and the U.S. coalition, no doubt spurred on by Turkey’s fears that the YPG is allied with its own Kurdish separatist insurgents, hasn’t come to the rescue. When Turkish Kurds tried to send in fighters, the Turkish government stopped them, using tear gas.On Tuesday there was no sign of more volunteers, and none of the two dozen or so returning Kobane residents said they intended to join the militia, and a sense of hopelessness swept those who’d fled.

Russia has given warnings to Turkey to not proceed with its plans. Moscow surely has contingency plans for further support of Syria should the U.S. or Turkey attack the Syrian government.

During the last week the Islamic State has pulled back some of its fighters around Damascus. This has allowed the Syrian army to widen its protection zone around the city. But the last time the Islamic State pulled back, then in north-west Syria, the planned retreat was followed by the big attack on Mosul. The current retreat around Damascus is therefore likely in preparation for yet another big push against an unknown bigger target.

The U.S. acting against the Islamic State seems to be without any strategic framework. It has none to little intelligence about the targets it attacks and the lack of care of civilian casualties is quite astonishing. If this continues the U.S. will again end up as the one party hated by all other parties of the conflict.

The confused thinking is not limited to the White House. For the last three years the Washington Post's David Ignatius has propagandized for a united "moderate opposition" in Syria. That pink pony has yet to arrive. But he today has a new great idea of how to finally reach that aim: "Bomb Christians and more civilians":

[I]f U.S. airstrikes and other support are seen to be hitting Muslim fighters only, and strengthening the despised Assad, this strategy for creating a “moderate opposition” will likely fail.

Posted by b on October 1, 2014 at 17:26 UTC | Permalink
Comments

to guest77 at 97
IMHO “pumpkin full of donkey piss” has a nice ring to it.
to zico at 94
You’re probably right about the Kurds getting used again, they hope the reward for their recent utility to the Am. Imperium will be independence. As Mrs. M and I have joked since the first Gulf War, “The Kurds are (again) in the way.” Too many oxes would be gored for them to get their own state, I think.
I think you’re right about the critical role of Erdogan and Turkey (I can’t recall on which thread I saw it, but other’s have pointed out his duplicity re: Gaza flotilla). His plan to destroy the public park in Istanbul and re-create an Ottoman barracks is a small but telling sign..

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 0:58 utc | 101

Folks —
Just came across this by Nicholas J.S. Davies at Alternet, don’t recall seeing it posted here, my apologies if so.
Why the Showdown with Islamic Extremists Is the War the Pentagon Was Hoping For
The imperial game continues.
My favorite bit — “If the President gets his way, the Third Gulf War, like the First, will forestall serious cuts in the U.S. military budget or any reorientation of the militarized U.S. economy to address the pressing needs of the American public. Any small reduction in weapons sales to the Pentagon will be balanced by the marketing value of a high-tech bombing campaign to generate a surge in U.S. weapons exports, as in the 1990s, adding fuel to a world on fire.
“Another disquieting parallel between 1990 and 2014 is that Saddam Hussein and ISIS were both creations of the CIA. These monsters are undoubtedly “our” monsters. What does it say about our leaders that they reserve their most self-righteous fury for those who do their dirty work but then turn to bite the hand that feeds them, a select club that also includes Manuel Noriega and Osama Bin-Laden?”
And while I’m at it, see Chris Hedges there as well, more a meta-analysis prompted the targeting of DC’s latest Two Minute Hate.
America’s ‘Death Instinct’ Spreads Misery Across the World: War and national security are used to justify the surrender of citizenship, the crushing of dissent and expanding the powers of the state.
“Violence as a primary form of communication has become normalized…. Democrats are as infected as Republicans. The war machine is impervious to election cycles…. It dispenses with humans around the globe as if they were noisome insects. No one dares lift his or her voice to protest against a war policy that is visibly bankrupting the United States, has no hope of success and is going to end with new terrorist attacks on American soil. We have surrendered our political agency and our role as citizens to the masters of war.”
I would qualify it — a few, but far too few, are raising their voices. Like many of my fellow Barflies.
“Here’s mud in your eye.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 1:26 utc | 102

Folks —
Just came across this by Nicholas J.S. Davies at Alternet, don’t recall seeing it posted here, my apologies if so.
Why the Showdown with Islamic Extremists Is the War the Pentagon Was Hoping For
The imperial game continues.
My favorite bit — “If the President gets his way, the Third Gulf War, like the First, will forestall serious cuts in the U.S. military budget or any reorientation of the militarized U.S. economy to address the pressing needs of the American public. Any small reduction in weapons sales to the Pentagon will be balanced by the marketing value of a high-tech bombing campaign to generate a surge in U.S. weapons exports, as in the 1990s, adding fuel to a world on fire.
“Another disquieting parallel between 1990 and 2014 is that Saddam Hussein and ISIS were both creations of the CIA. These monsters are undoubtedly “our” monsters. What does it say about our leaders that they reserve their most self-righteous fury for those who do their dirty work but then turn to bite the hand that feeds them, a select club that also includes Manuel Noriega and Osama Bin-Laden?”
And while I’m at it, see Chris Hedges there as well, more a meta-analysis prompted the targeting of DC’s latest Two Minute Hate.
America’s ‘Death Instinct’ Spreads Misery Across the World: War and national security are used to justify the surrender of citizenship, the crushing of dissent and expanding the powers of the state.
“Violence as a primary form of communication has become normalized…. Democrats are as infected as Republicans. The war machine is impervious to election cycles…. It dispenses with humans around the globe as if they were noisome insects. No one dares lift his or her voice to protest against a war policy that is visibly bankrupting the United States, has no hope of success and is going to end with new terrorist attacks on American soil. We have surrendered our political agency and our role as citizens to the masters of war.”
I would qualify it — a few, but far too few, are raising their voices. Like many of my fellow Barflies.
“Here’s mud in your eye.”

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 1:26 utc | 103

ps to mine at 102/103 —
Not so nice I had to post it twice — don’t know how I did that. Now off to wind up the Victrola and listen to a few platters.

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 1:28 utc | 104

VICE (apt name) is a media that has surfaced in places like Ukraine and covere the events there (usually from a pro-imperial/antirussian perspective)…but guess what:
Vice accused of bowing to big corporations, sacrificing journalism for business
http://rt.com/usa/192676-gawker-vice-brand-tweets/

Posted by: brian | Oct 3 2014 1:32 utc | 105

A little o/t (not very, since Iran is involved):
Russia and Iran Lock NATO Out of Caspian Sea

Iran and Russia have built unanimous consensus among the Caspian states, which also feature Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, over the inadmissibility of a foreign military presence in the Caspian Sea, ruling out any future possible deployment of NATO forces in the basin.

That link is worth following just to see a photo of Putin posing with four Eastern-looking gentlemen.

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 1:32 utc | 106

@brian #105:
Vice also has a man crush on ISIL:

By now, you may have already seen Vice News’s extraordinary documentary “The Islamic State.” (As of this writing, it’s been viewed on YouTube more than 3 million times and counting since mid-August.) Vice boasts that “reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.” Dairieh’s access is indeed unprecedented, and the product is gripping. He is shown traveling with ISIS fighters, interviewing Muslims who migrated to the caliphate, speaking with prisoners in an ISIS jail who proclaim their repentance and gratitude to the caliphate, and bouncing around the Syrian city of Raqqa in the jeep of the new “morals police” (hisba), who are also, in the video at least, met with the profuse gratitude of the locals. It is a journalistic score that would make any ambitious reporter or news organization envious, and a feat now almost impossible for Western journalists after the executions of James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

I saw the first part of that documentary, and its level of fawning was incredible. Vice seems to like anything exotic – East European gays, Ukrainian fascists, Wahhabi terrorists – so long as it is not Russian.

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 1:47 utc | 107

@ RM 102–103: Link doesn’t work for me. Would appreciate a re-link. Thanks.

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2014 2:02 utc | 108

Second link, please.

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2014 2:03 utc | 109

@ben
To find the origin of any quote on the web, including a title, put a quote ” in front of it and you’ll get it in an instant like this here (as somebody would say).

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 3 2014 2:14 utc | 110

..and slap it into google, I should have said

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 3 2014 2:14 utc | 111

Ben @ 108/9 —
Glad to oblige, probably a typo in my html tag
America’s ‘Death Instinct’ Spreads Misery Across the World: War and national security are used to justify the surrender of citizenship, the crushing of dissent and expanding the powers of the state.

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 2:17 utc | 112

Thanks to Don and Rufus!

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2014 2:44 utc | 113

From Truthdig on the latest US war:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/10_myths_about_obamas_latest_war_20141001

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2014 3:10 utc | 114

Ben @ 114 —
Back at you, man. I liked no. 7 esp. “The U.S. fights to defend human rights and the rule of law, not oil.” No. 4, “The U.S. has formed a viable coalition to defeat Islamic State” was pretty interesting as well.

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 3 2014 3:44 utc | 115

@ben #114:
That article is a helpful primer. But right at the start, it says this: “IS is a vicious, un-Islamic, ultra-right-wing group”. I am sick and tired of Westerners claiming that jihadist forms of Islam are un-Islamic. Unlike Christianity, Islam and Judaism are political religions, with military conquest playing a central role in their narratives. As I noted earlier, Muhammad was a highway robber before he became a prophet/military leader. ISIS imitates Muhammad by stealing wheat and petroleum. So yes, IS is perfectly Islamic.
I don’t like Christian fundamentalism, but its being repulsive doesn’t prompt me to whitewash Christianity and say that fundamentalism is “un-Christian” (even though I do consider fundamentalism to be heretical).

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 3:52 utc | 116

@ 116: Forgot the author,but, one of my favorite quotes..
” Religion is the greatest fomentor of hatred the world has ever known.”

Posted by: ben | Oct 3 2014 4:00 utc | 117

demian,
i notice you or someone with the same name as you is posting in the comment section of the kiev post.. if it is you, be prepared to get banned.. intelligent and balanced commentary will not be allowed on that site..

Posted by: james | Oct 3 2014 4:15 utc | 118

Posted by: Demian | Oct 2, 2014 11:52:40 PM | 116
A simple google search for “are Mormons Christians” and “evangelicals unchristian” proves you wrong.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 3 2014 4:15 utc | 119

Speaking of Islam, can you imagine a Roman Catholic or Protestant priest saying this:
Russian archpriest: The future belongs to Muslims

Recalling an experience shared with him by an elderly woman in his congregation, he mentioned that Muslim drivers never took money when taking her to church, whereas Christian drivers were only interested in making money.
‘A child doesn’t take money from his mother, especially if she is going to pray,’ the Archpriest said, quoting Muslim drivers, adding that Christian drivers would say ‘This is my job.’
‘A Muslim bringing you to Easter or anything else is closer to the Messiah (Jesus Christ) than a Christian who wants money,’ Smirnov told his congregation, ‘because the Christian driver has no mercy, pity or kindness in his heart.’
‘A Muslim is not interested in gaining benefit from the old woman. Rather, the Muslim offers to take her around, take her to the landrette, pay her bills, take her to the market, carry her bags up to her floor or to her elevator (if she has one),’ he said.
Smirnov went on to say: ‘For this reason, the future will belong to the Muslims. The future is theirs. They will plough this land, because today’s Christians are not in need of these things.’

I haven’t seen anyone mention World Bulletin here before. It seems to be the main Turkish international news service. Worth checking out:
Worldbulletin – News on Turkey, Middle East, Muslim World, Latest News, Culture & Islamic History

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 4:16 utc | 120

@james #118:
I would not sully my name by posting at the Kyiv Post. And I avoid that site as much as possible, since the transliteration of Russian names using their Ukrainian spellings is deeply offensive to me, so I find the very term “Kyiv” repulsive and fascist. But I appreciate the heads up.
@somebody #119:
I don’t need to do a Google search to be aware of the facts that both Mormonism and Islam are Christian heresies. The claim that Christian fundamentalism is heretical is more problematic, and should perhaps be viewed more as a provocation than a serious statement. This is because, although evangelical Christians don’t pay much attention to the Nicene Creed (or other creeds for that matter), evangelical theologians consider evangelicals to accept it. The argument for considering fundamentalists to be heretical is that, by claiming the Bible to be infallible, evangelicals in effect raise it to the same level as Jesus Christ. But to Christians, the Bible does not have the status of being divine, unlike the status of the Quaran for Muslims. So in that respect, Christian fundamentalists have more in common with Muslims than they do with orthodox (small ‘o’) Christians.

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 4:34 utc | 121

Turkish troops inside Syria is such a fucking provocation. This is not going to end well.

Posted by: Crest | Oct 3 2014 6:44 utc | 122

Posted by: Crest | Oct 3, 2014 2:44:22 AM | 122
No. Öcalan said if Kobane falls war with PKK is back on. IS seems to know what it is doing.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 3 2014 7:01 utc | 123

Iranian Kurdish groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan fighting Iran

Despite the concerns of the KRG, which has allowed KDPI and other Iranian Kurdish opposition groups to use the region as a base for decades, KDPI senior official Omer Balaki announced the group will not retreat from the Iranian Kurdistan.
He said KDPI’s fighters “have been inside Iranian Kurdistan and they are conducting political activities. It is very normal that the Iranian government won’t stand for this. We will continue our path,” Balaki added.

Something in Kurdish politics has to give.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 3 2014 8:44 utc | 124

By the way, the Vice video on ISIS from August 15 is a classical propaganda video.
Turns out that – until last year – Germany “strongly encouraged” German Islamists known to be violent “to go abroad”.
In Britain, ex-Guantanomo Moazzam Beg cooperated fully with MI5 on his Syria visits.
There is a strong likelihood that ISIS recruitment in the West was/is done by our very own Western secret services.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 3 2014 9:01 utc | 125

WW3 + a worldwide epidemy? Shall we get ready for reducing the world population by half?
http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/21833

Posted by: Mina | Oct 3 2014 9:27 utc | 126

If the President gets his way
I stopped reading at that point. You know already, if it leads with this line, it’s an absolutely false narrative, but the carrot-topped professor believes it’s still relevant. Don’t tell us what E.F. Hutton says, tell us what you think — if you’re capable of thinking. Instead of being the ball, be the source.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Oct 3 2014 10:24 utc | 127

There is a strong likelihood that ISIS recruitment in the West was/is done by our very own Western secret services.
Posted by: somebody | Oct 3, 2014 5:01:29 AM | 125
Jesus f christ
Welcome to where the smart people were 5 years ago
If you hurry you might catch up with where they are today in about another 5 yrs time.

Posted by: anonymous | Oct 3 2014 10:30 utc | 128

This is not going to end well.
There is no end — only new beginnings. Take Vietnam, for example. I’m sure the same thing was said about that jungle escapade, but look at it today — it’s a bustling example of how Communism and Capitalism are Siamese twins.
Some have conjectured that America will become ISIS. I think they have the direction wrong.
I think it’s more likely ISIS will become us, whatever “us” is. Everyone does, eventually. Look at Russia. Centralized Capitalism and Communism are Siamese Twins. Have you seen Vietnam today? It’s a Centralized Capitalist wet dream. Three to five million Vietnamese sacrificed to Moloch when the result would have been the same either way. Think of all the Russians sacrificed in the 20th century — and for what? It would have ended the same way. Hell, ISIS is already an equal-opportunity terrorist organization, and no doubt, they’ll have an IPO arranged by Goldman Sachs in a year or two. Everything’s possible in this increasingly queer world we live in.
http://youngcons.com/these-two-teenage-girls-left-their-homes-in-austria-see-what-they-look-like-now-as-isis-fighters/
http://www.citylab.com/design/2013/07/watch-vietnam-transition-communism-capitalism/6167/

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Oct 3 2014 10:33 utc | 129

Vice accused of bowing to big corporations, sacrificing journalism for business
“>http://rt.com/usa/192676-gawker-vice-brand-tweets/
Anyone not see the irony here? I think it’s a fair statement, but the statement is sourced to a pot calling a kettle black. Why not just say it yourself rather than pointing to a source that is identical to that which it decries?
I’ll tell you why. You want to radicalize naive and vulnerable Westerners who have not developed a capacity for free and independent thought, so you point them to a Russian propaganda publication to stoke their dissent. Next step, get them to a local mosque. It sounds like something Western intelligence would do in efforts to aid in ISIS recruitment. Weird, that.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Oct 3 2014 10:42 utc | 130

Posted by: anonymous | Oct 3, 2014 6:30:06 AM | 128
It is a huge issue. Germany is just finding out that its NeoNazis were groomed by its very own secret services. None of these activities are the wish of any electorate. Either taxpayers get control of their secret services or they don’t.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 3 2014 11:33 utc | 131

Philip Stevens writing in the Financial Times has a good article on Turkey, “Turkey’s strategy of zero problems with neighbors, turned into problems with all neighbors. And..“For Turkey and Saudi Arabia regime change in Damascus and settling scores with Iran take precedence over any such accommodation between Shia and Sunni. Yet the moderate Syrian opposition ready to replace Mr Assad is a threadbare fiction.”
“The west is left leading an intervention that lacks a clearly defined political ambition and a military exit strategy. Stemming the jihadi tide to prevent the collapse of Iraq was one thing; waging an open-ended war against Sunni extremists in Syria quite another.”
The FT article is behind a pay wall, but a good summary is here http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=174381&cid=31&fromval=1&frid=31&seccatid=91&s1=1

Posted by: harry law | Oct 3 2014 13:35 utc | 132

LOL.
The Pope’s Right Hand Man, good friend of “Israel” and America, Opus Dei Warrior, proud misogynist and PM of Australia-Tony Abbott has, after much careful deliberation, decided that Oz will allow its FA-18 Hornets to bomb and strafe Iraqis (for America, “Israel” and Big Oil).
This is absolute proof that whatever entities are being attacked in Iraq (from a safe distance) in the Fake War on ISIS, they can’t defend themselves from air attacks or shoot back. Oz is nothing more than a US lapdog. If there was even a remote chance that the “enemy” could shoot down fighter planes then the Australian Air Force wouldn’t be there.
It’s a Vietnam All Over Again redux. You know your politicians are in one Hell of a bind when it’s easier to send the Air Force to kill unidentified “suspects” for your FakeWar Mongering “friends” than to say NO to O’Bomber.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 3 2014 15:02 utc | 133

Mr Abbott has assured us that Oz’s Air Force won’t be involved in the Syria “mission” which suggests that he (or someone else in Oz) CAN tell the difference between real perils and imaginary perils. The big difference between ISIS in Iraq and ISIS in Syria is that the Yankees couldn’t find any officers in the Syrian Army to bribe into pretending they were so afraid of ISIS that they headed for the hills, leaving all their Materiel for ISIS – which is what happened in Iraq.
Bur then the Syrian Army wasn’t ‘trained’ by the Yankees, was it?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 3 2014 15:19 utc | 134

@132 harry.. thanks
@133/134 hoarsewhisperer.. there is much truth in your rant..

Posted by: james | Oct 3 2014 16:01 utc | 135

(Reuters) – Australian special forces troops will be deployed in Iraq to assist in the fight against Islamic State militants, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday, and its aircraft will also join U.S.-led coalition strikes.
Abbott said in a nationally televised news conference the Australian troops would be engaged in an “advise and assist” capacity to support the Iraqi army in their battle against the militant Islamist group.
The United States has been bombing Islamic State and other groups in Syria for almost two weeks with the help of Arab allies, and hitting targets in neighboring Iraq since August.
European countries have joined the campaign in Iraq but not in Syria.
Last month, Abbott sent aircraft and 600 personnel to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for joining the coalition. He has since said it was likely Australian aircraft would join the strikes to combat Islamic State, which he described as a “murderous death cult”.
While the involvement of Australian aircraft had been flagged, the use of Australian troops on the ground in Iraq was not as widely anticipated.
“Today, cabinet has authorized Australian air strikes in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi Government and in support of the Iraqi government,” Abbott said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/03/us-mideast-crisis-australia-idUSKCN0HS05520141003

Posted by: okie farmer | Oct 3 2014 16:02 utc | 136

abbott is a joe boy for the western financial system.. what else is new.. his dishonest response to the mh17 downing is one small example…

Posted by: james | Oct 3 2014 16:23 utc | 137

The point of the bloody videos is that Salafism is very much a “kickstarter” type of movement. The groups or leaders who are able to make a strong positive impression get reinforced by more bodies and more money – the more splash they make.
This is a very clear reinforcement cycle to ever more outrageous acts – a literal workmanlike use of the same media effect as coverage of mass murders accomplishes.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 3 2014 16:41 utc | 138

Stop Putin Now!
Top German Editor: CIA Bribing Journalists
This is Germany’s largest, most serious newsweekly. The headline reads “Stop Putin Now”, and shows pictures of the victims of MH17. Their coverage of Russia over the years has read like a US state department memo.Members of the German media are paid by the CIA in return for spinning the news in a way that support US interests, and some German outlets are nothing more than PR appendages of NATO, according to a new book by Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany’s largest newspapers.
Ulfkotte is a serious mainstream journalist. Here he is on Germany’s leading political talk show a couple of years ago. The book is a sensation in Germany, #7 on the bestseller list. Its political dynamite, coming on the heels of German outrage of NSA tapping of their phones.
Here at Russia Insider, it has long been apparent to us that there is something distinctly odd about the German media regarding Russia. We follow it, and it is much more strident than even the anglo-saxon media regarding Russia, while German public opinion is much more positive towards Russia than in other countries.
Another interesting thing about it is that it is very disparate. Some major voices are very reasonable about Russia, but most are negative, and some are comically apocalyptic. This is what one would expect if there was some financial influence ginning the system.
We’ve been talking about this for a while now. German public opinion is becoming more and more fed up with the what they increasingly believe to be a rigged media, and its starting to come out everywhere.
The allegations, while shocking, are consistent with the CIA’s long and well-established history of media infiltration.
Operation Mockingbird, which began in the 1950s, was a secret CIA operation which recruited journalists to serve as mouthpieces for the American government. The program was officially terminated after it was exposed by the famous Church Committee investigations, but evidence of ongoing CIA influence over the media continues to accumulate.
Just last week the Glenn Greenwald’s (of Edward Snowden fame) new groundbreaking investigative website, The Intercept, charged that the CIA leveraged its considerable influence – some might even say friendship – with media in order to discredit Gary Webb, the fearless American journalist who uncovered CIA cocaine trafficking as part of the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
From The Intercept (emphasis our own):
On September 18, the agency released a trove of documents spanning three decades of secret government operations. Culled from the agency’s in-house journal, Studies in Intelligence, the materials include a previously unreleased six-page article titled “Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and the Drug Conspiracy Story.” Looking back on the weeks immediately following the publication of “Dark Alliance,” the document offers a unique window into the CIA’s internal reaction to what it called “a genuine public relations crisis” while revealing just how little the agency ultimately had to do to swiftly extinguish the public outcry.
Thanks in part to what author Nicholas Dujmovic, a CIA Directorate of Intelligence staffer at the time of publication, describes as “a ground base of already productive relations with journalists,” the CIA’s Public Affairs officers watched with relief as the largest newspapers in the country rescued the agency from disaster, and, in the process, destroyed the reputation of an aggressive, award-winning reporter.
It’s as if Operation Mockingbird never ended.

Posted by: okie farmer | Oct 3 2014 16:52 utc | 139

@okie farmer #139:
Will you please stop copy pasting articles without giving a link to the article! And there is no need to copy paste huge walls of text, when someone who wants to read the article can just follow the link.
Link: Russia Insider: Top German Editor: CIA Bribing Journalists

Posted by: Demian | Oct 3 2014 21:59 utc | 140

“7 reasons why Turkey joined up to fight ISIL”
http://www.juancole.com/2014/10/surprising-reasons-entering.html
Sounds very credible, even if coming from Juan Cole.

Posted by: Willy2 | Oct 3 2014 22:18 utc | 141

Ray McGovern:
– Israel has pushed the US to get involved militarily in Syria. Assad was starting to win in Syria and that was not to the liking of Israel. Because Israel wants to see “no outcome” in Syria.

Posted by: Willy2 | Oct 3 2014 23:46 utc | 142

@139 okie.. i agree with demian @ 140..

Posted by: james | Oct 4 2014 2:52 utc | 143

to demian @ 121 —
Due to divorce, my family was successively Catholic and then Southern, later Independent, Baptist. In both cases, fairly devout. Myself, lost the faith, tx to pharisees….
In any case, oddly, more comfortable with theology than higher-order philo. I agree with you on Mormonism as a christian heresy. Might see “Book of Mormon,” I’m overdue for some live theatre. Don’t see it with Islam, though it has some relationship to the earlier monotheism of the Jews and their Christian heretics.
As a matter of textual interpretation, evangelical protestant is a perfectly legitimate one. To the degree that the Gospels are literally or figuratively “the Word of God,” and represent what he expects from humanity, they would be like their “speaker” infallible.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God…. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:1,2,4).
Where the approach strays, IMHO, is in literalism, Genesis says six days, and so no evolution, just a very productive week on the part of the Deity.
Protestantism generally encourages a sort of one-on-one relationship with the Deity, mediated by prayer and the study of scripture. The problem is interpretation of the text. Given that it is (for the New Testament) a 2000 yr. old document, relating in its own way to an older tradition, some context is needed. Literalism rather simplistically ignores the complexity.
Fundamentalism of various degrees is a common feature of social & polit. movements; zealots are inevitably a presence in any sort of environment. Some are more dangerous than others, of course.
Somehow I’m reminded of “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand” by
“Primitive Radio Gods” “We sit outside and argue all night long/About a God we’ve never seen/But never fails to side with me….” Great soundscape at the end.
@139 okiefarmer —
I have to agree with demian and james….

Posted by: rufus magister | Oct 4 2014 4:19 utc | 144

@ 140 & 143.
Posting ‘great walls of text’ doesn’t happen often and isn’t quite as annoying as cryptic links posted without offering a clue to the subject or content.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Oct 4 2014 4:35 utc | 145

@rufus magister #144:
I have no quarrel with any of the points you made. I concede that calling Islam a Christian heresy is tendentious. But I am somewhat zealous in my defense of Christianity, even though I am an atheist, and I do think that from a serious Christian point of view, Islam must be understood as a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of Christianity. This is because in Islam, Jesus is considered to be a prophet. I see Mormonism and Islam as pretty analogous. Both are adaptations of Christianity to a non-European culture. For pragmatic, not theological, reasons (avoiding social and international tension), it is not worth insisting on the point that Islam is a Christian heresy. When I have my Lutheran hat on, I am intolerant of Islam; when I have my Russian Orthodox hat on, I am tolerant of it.
You wrote that you are “more comfortable with theology than higher-order philo.” The reason I became fascinated with Christianity was Hegel’s interpretation of it, so with me, it is the other way around. In this connection I will, despite what I said before, object to one of your points: “About a God we’ve never seen”. But we have seen God. God revealed himself to humanity as Jesus Christ, and there are enough written records that have been preserved to make it virtually certain that Jesus was a real, not a mythical, person. (Paul met Peter, and Peter knew Jesus; since Paul is a historical figure, that means that Jesus is real.) Since “we” are the church, the community of believers with its tradition passed on from Jesus and the apostles, we have seen God.
Nevertheless, I will try to track down that song.
And finally, here’s what I wanted to say that’s on topic: it’s a strange world we live in.
Biden Accuses Saudis, Turkey of Starting Syria Proxy War

In comments yesterday at the Kennedy School, Vice President Joe Biden said the United States’ biggest problem in the Syria war has been their allies, singling out Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Biden said those nations had “poured hundreds of millions of dollars” into trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad and in the process had created a “proxy Sunni-Shia war” in the region.

Posted by: Demian | Oct 4 2014 5:31 utc | 146

making a pact with Great Satan…..saddam tried that….
Turkish sources speaking on condition of anonymity’:
“The no-fly zone in practice will be aimed at stopping the Syrian air force from entering the area. That is likely to create new fault lines in the region, as Syria has been in a civil war for the last three years that actually helped lead to the establishment of al-Qaeda-affiliated radical Islamist organizations like al-Nusra and ISIL.
Asked why Turkey wants so much to secure an international effort to stop flights by the Syrian regime, a ranking Turkish official told HDN that Syrian jets and helicopters had previously bombed Free Syrian Army (FSA) positions whenever the FSA engaged in clashes with ISIL, in order to let the latter dominate the region and sweep the Western-supported FSA away. “ISIL couldn’t have grown so fast without the help of the Syrian air forces,” the official claimed. “We do not want to have the same scenario repeated
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-to-bargain-with-us-over-no-fly-zone.aspx?PageID=238&NID=72478&NewsCatID=409

Posted by: brian | Oct 4 2014 23:49 utc | 147

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