IRAQ/USA: Ha ha ha! In the spirit of Christmas ( Love Thy Enemy? US Plot to Evacuate Top Jihadis From Ramadi Uncovered)

Love Thy Enemy? US Plot to Evacuate Top Jihadis From Ramadi Uncovered

Posted: 28 Dec 2015 09:16 PM PST

A US plot to evacuate Daesh leaders from the strategic city of Ramadi in central Iraq has reportedly been disclosed by a volunteer forces commander.

The disclosure comes as the Iraqi army and popular troops are attempting to secure victory over the jihadist group in Ramadi.

FARS quoted Imam Khamenei Battalion Commander Haidar al-Hosseini al-Ardavi as saying that “the delay in operations to liberate the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar province has been the result of US interference.”

I have always said... 

OIL: IS IT A CURSE, I WONDER?!!!

The Most Important Question About ISIS That Nobody Is Asking

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/19/2015 23:49 -0500

The question of how the Islamic State funds its sprawling caliphate has been discussed in the past: we first broke down the primary driver of ISIS revenue well over a year ago, in September 2014, when we explained that "ISIS uses oil wealth to help finance its terror operations."

Daily Signal's Kelsey Harkness explained the breakdown as follows:

According to the Iraq Energy Institute, an independent, nonprofit policy organization focused on Iraq’s energy sector, the army of radical Islamists controls production of 30,000 barrels of oil a day in Iraq and 50,000 barrels in Syria. By selling the oil on the black market at a discounted price of $40 per barrel (compared to about $93 per barrel in the free market), ISIS takes in $3.2 million a day. 

The oil revenue, which amounts to nearly $100 million each month, allows ISIS to fund its military and terrorist attacks — and to attract more recruits from around the world, including America.

Most importantly, we added that to be successful in counterterrorism efforts, "the U.S. and its allies must “push the Islamic State out of the oil fields it has captured and disrupt its ability to smuggle the oil to foreign markets."

None of this was surprising to anyone, but what was quite surprising is that it took the allied forces over a year to take the oil revenue threat seriously and begin targeting the Islamic State's oil infrastructure in earnest.

Today, in an article titled "Why US Efforts to Cut Off Islamic State's Funds Have Failed" Bloomberg tries to explain just how it is that despite a more than a year long campaign, ISIS funding remains as strong as ever, and notes that "the latest round of airstrikes are directly related to the administration’s new math. “You have to go after the oil, and you have to do it in a serious way, and we’ve just begun to do that now,” citing Benjamin Bahney, an international policy analyst at the Rand Corp., a U.S. Department of Defense-funded think tank.

To be sure, there are other sources of revenue: Bloomberg correctly notes that "even if the U.S. finally weakens the group’s oil income, Bahney and other analysts in the U.S., the Middle East, and Europe contend, Islamic State has resources beyond crude—from selling sex slaves to ransoming hostages to plundering stolen farmland—that can likely keep it fighting for years."

Still, without a doubt, the dominant source of funds for the terrorists is oil, and not just oil, but a well-greased logistical machine that keeps thousands of barrels moving from unknown pumps to even refineries, and ultimately to smugglers who operated out of Turkey and other countries.

Here is Bloomberg:

Most often refined in Syria, the group’s oil is trucked to cities such as Mosul to provide people living under its black banner with fuel for generators and other basic needs. It’s also used to power the war machine. “They have quite an organized supply chain running fuel into Iraq and [throughout] the ‘caliphate,’  ” says Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, using the militant group’s religiously loaded term for itself. Because the U.S. apparently believed the real money for Islamic State came primarily via selling refined oil, rather than crude, last year’s strikes heavily targeted refineries and storage depots, says Bahney. He and other experts say that strategy missed an important shift: Militants increasingly sell raw crude to truckers and middlemen, rather than refining it themselves. So while Islamic State probably maintains some refining capacity, the majority of the oil in IS territory is refined by locals who operate thousands of rudimentary, roadside furnaces that dot the Syrian desert. 

Here is where it gets interesting: Bloomberg cites Pentagon officials who acknowledge "that for more than a year they avoided striking tanker trucks to limit civilian casualties. None of these guys are ISIS. We don’t feel right vaporizing them, so we have been watching ISIS oil flowing around for a year,” says Knights. That changed on Nov. 16, when four U.S. attack planes and two gunships destroyed 116 oil trucks.

So any qualms about vaporizing "innocent civilians" promptly disappeared when the Pentagon realized that its 1+ year long campaign had been an epic debacle, that a suddenly surging ISIS was stronger as ever, and most importantly, that its critical revenue lifelines had been largely untouched for years. Perhaps they weren't innocent civilians after all.

It is still unknown if this recent crackdown on "dumping oil", or crude which dramatically lowers the price of oil in global markets - it certainly is an odd coincidence that the price of Brent and WTI began its tumble last fall, just when the Islamic State made its dramatic appearance on the world scene - will have an effect and cut off the primary source of funds to ISIS.

But what we have been wondering for months and what we hope some enterprising journalist will soon answer, is just who are the commodity trading firms that have been so generously buying millions of smuggled oil barrels procured by the Islamic State at massive discounts to market, and then reselling them to other interested parties.

In other words, who are the middlemen.

What we do know is who they may be: they are the same names that were quite prominent in the market in September when Glencore had its first, and certainly not last, near death experience: the Glencores, the Vitols, the Trafiguras, the Nobels, the Mercurias of the world.

To be sure, funding terrorist states is not something that some of the most prominent names in the list above have shied away from in the past.

Which one (or ones) are the guilty parties - those who have openly breached terrorism funding laws - we don't know: it may be one, or more of the above, or someone totally different.

At this point, however, three things are certain: whoever the commodity trading house may be that is paying ISIS-affiliated "innocent civilians" hundreds of millions of dollars for their products, they are perfect aware just who the source of this deeply discounted crude is. Crude so deeply discounted, in fact, it results in massive profits for the enterprising middleman who are engaging in openly criminal transactions.

The second certainty: whoever said middleman is, it is very well known to US intelligence services such as the NSA and CIA, and thus to the Pentagon, and thus, the US government.

The third certainty is that while the US, and Russia, and now France, are all very theatrically bombing something in the Syrian desert (nobody really knows what), the funding of ISIS continues unabated as someone keeps buying ISIS oil.

We wonder how long until someone finally asks the all important question regarding the Islamic State: who is the commodity trader breaching every known law of funding terrorism when buying ISIS crude, almost certainly with the tacit approval by various "western alliance" governments, and why is it that these governments have allowed said middleman to continue funding ISIS for as long as it has?

TURKEY/RUSSIA: Erdoğan Calls Putin’s Bluff: Russia Backs Down

Erdoğan Calls Putin’s Bluff: Russia Backs Down

Posted on December 1, 2015 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

A few days ago Russia, displeased with Turkish leadership’s refusal to publicly apologize for the premeditated downing of their fighter jet, said they had “more evidence” that Turkey was engaged in buying the stolen Syrian oil from ISIS™ and they promised to release the evidence to the public.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the Justice and Development (AK) Party, immediately reiterated that he knew nothing of any program, official or not, involving Turkey buying this oil and challenged Russia to produce it. Erdoğan said it’s well known who is really buying the oil from ISIS™ (which I have covered in previous articles) but if it turned out that the Russian evidence was solid and Turkey had been buying some, he would resign immediately.

It should be noted, aside from my article and those that I referenced showing Turkey was not buying oil from the thing called ISIS™, it’s also a pretty well established fact for those paying attention.

Most analysts agree that Turkey is not buying oil directly from ISIS, but it ispossible that some distributors are buying oil from ISIS and selling it in Turkey. Russia Today and Reuters and APA (Azerbeijan) and Guardian (London)  Breitbart

Yes, that is war-mongering, neocon-loving, Erdoğan-hating Breitbart that had to admit, Turkey is not directly buying stolen oil from Syria. But someone is. And that is who Erdoğan was referring to in his statement.

As to those “distributors”? Well… let’s just say it’s no wonder the MSM and  most “alternative” websites out there aren’t really talking about them.

Israel has bought as much as three-quarters of its oil from Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

According to the report, which cited shipping data, trading sources and satellite tanker tracking, Israeli refineries and oil firms have imported more than 19 million barrels of Kurdish oil over the course of three months, from the beginning of May to August 11. Haaretz

—

IS sells Iraqi and Syrian oil for a very low price to Kurdish and Turkish smuggling networks and mafias, who label it and sell it on as barrels from the Kurdistan Regional Government.

It is then most frequently transported from Turkey to Israel, via knowing or unknowing middlemen, according to al-Araby‘s investigation…

Al-Araby has obtained information about how IS smuggles oil from a colonel in the Iraqi Intelligence Services who we are keeping anonymous for his security.

The information was verified by Kurdish security officials, employees at the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, and an official at one of three oil companies that deal in IS-smuggled oil.

The Iraqi colonel, who along with US investigators is working on a way to stop terrorist finance streams, told al-Araby about the stages that the smuggled oil goes through from the points of extraction in Iraqi oil fields to its destination – notably including the port of Ashdod, Israel. …

Once in Turkey, the lorries continue to the town of Silopi, where the oil is delivered to a person who goes by the aliases of Dr Farid, Hajji Farid and Uncle Farid.

Uncle Farid is an Israeli-Greek dual national in his fifties. Al-Araby

Someone did want Russia to stop bombing those oil convoys heading out of Syria with the stolen oil. That’s IS why the Turkish military shot down the Russian fighter. All of that is true. But who was behind it?

When President Erdoğan told the Russians he would resign if it turned out that Turkey had been purchasing the ISIS™ oil, what was he really doing? If he knew it was happening and Turkey was benefiting from it, seems to me he giving the Gulenists all the ammo they needed to get him, and more importantly, his political party out of power.

It seems to me that he already knew they didn’t have evidence showing Turkey was buying the stolen oil and he also knew who was really buying it. So he invited Russia to release their evidence.

His bluff worked. Russia backed off their threat this morning:

Information about Ankara’s oil purchases from the terrorist organization calling itself Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) is crucial to fighting against terrorism, and not finding faults with the Turkish leadership, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked if Moscow would make public evidence at its disposal Ankara had been purchasing crude oil from the Islamic State.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that should any such evidence come to the surface, he would be prepared to resign.

“This is not a new statement. In this case it is most important to have information at one’s disposal and to use it in efforts focused mostly not on proving something but on the struggle with terrorism. And this information is being used precisely for the struggle with terrorism,” Peskov said without elaborating. TASS, Dec. 1, 2015

If it’s true what everyone suggests, that the real driving force behind the CIA’s creation ISIS™, is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (as ridiculous as that sounds) and he’s the one who plotted to shoot down the Russian jet in order to protect his son’s oil-stealing business (even more ridiculous considering who’s really profiting from the oil), then why wouldn’t Russia provide the proof and get Erdoğan out of the way?

After all, it was Erdoğan who staged the Sarin gas attack in Syria a couple years back to provide Obama with his “red-line”… right?

And it was Erdoğan who was sending “ebil Islamists” into Russia to destabilize that country (a close ally of Turkey’s) for some unknown reason… right?

Wasn’t that Erdoğan I saw in that video from Rita Katz’ production studio where they made all those fake beheading videos? I bet it was.

Heck, I bet if you look close enough, you’ll find Erdoğan’s passport in the Paris nightclub.

So wouldn’t that be consistent with Russia’s stated goal of using the intel in their “struggle with terrorism” if they produced the evidence and ran Erdoğan out of town on a rail? He’s the ISIS™ kingpin, right?

Perhaps Russia didn’t produce the evidence they have because it shows exactly what that report from Al-Araby shows. That the oil runs from areas where the Kurds are supposedly “fighting ISIS™” directly to Iraqi Kurdistan where it is heated up, slightly processed and then transferred to Kurdistan Regional Government tankers and drums so it can cross into Turkey, on route to places like Israel, without being flagged by Turkish officials. Indistinguishable from oil taken from Kurdistan in Iraq legitimately.

Whatever the reason was that Russia backed off their threat to expose those really profiting from the stolen oil, it’s my contention that President Erdoğan made that offer in order to protect the Justice and Development (AK) Party. If he were to take the blame and step down, it would be harder for the Gulenists to use the current turmoil in the country to demand a full on regime change, ousting the recently re-elected AKP from power.

Whatever the motives involved in this ongoing drama, the result is that President Erdoğan called the Russian’s bluff and for whatever reason, they decided to keep their evidence secret. Personally I think the Russians should publish everything they have on the stealing of Syrian oil showing exactly who is profiting from it and where it is going.

As a side note:  I found an interesting article on the Wall Street Journal from back in October of 2013.

Frankly, I am no supporter of President Erdoğan’s policy toward regime change in Syria. Whether or not it’s he who is running the support system to a number of terrorists in Syria or his CIA-linked intelligence services or his NATO-linked military leadership… is beside the point. He personally has the political clout to put an end to it, and for that reason alone (no, he’s not sending “Islamists” to Russia and he didn’t use Sarin gas in Syria, that was Brennan you idiots) it’s hard for me to do what I do in support of his continued influence in Turkey. But of course, I always er on the side of democracy and his party was re-elected and things are getting better for the average Turk. So to that end, I stand against this growing regime change propaganda agenda.

Now, that said, let’s take a quick peek at what was written in the Wall Street Journal 2 years ago.

Mr. Erdogan wanted to remove Mr. Assad not only to replace a hostile regime on Turkey’s borders but also to scuttle the prospect of a Kurdish state emerging from Syria’s oil-rich northeast, political analysts say…

Syrian Kurdish leaders, meanwhile, charge that Ankara allowed arms and support to reach radical groups that could check the expanding power of Kurdish militia aligned with Turkey’s militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2010

Greater Kurdistan anyone?

 Bluff, bluffed, bluffed, 

bluffing

CHOMSKY: I respect Noam Chomsky, but the truth has to be said.

Fuck Noam Chomsky: The Sellout is Helping Push for Regime Change in Turkey for Israel’s Greater Kurdistan Project.

Posted on November 22, 2015 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

Noam Chomsky can kiss my ass. I’ve tried to be forgiving when the guy says what he says about 9/11 or JFK for far too long. I gave him credit for a lifetime of activism and some of the most important critical writing regarding the inner working of deep state politics any US writer has ever produced. But it’s time I gave up on the notion that he is anything more than a scared, old sellout who isn’t even a shadow of the man he once was.

I write this today because I came across an article written by Chomsky and some globalist hack and UNESCO Mockingbird named Christophe Deloire which used almost every single regime change buzzword they could come up with in order to demonize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for cracking down on the inflammatory, destabilizing “journalism” being produced in Turkey by globalist, for-profit media outlets serving the West’s regime change agenda.

Look, I believe in free press. Obviously. But when these globalist assets start using their media outlets to incite internal discord by publishing outright lies in order to make the popular government look evil, you don’t get to screech about the loss of the “free press”

This is what institutions pushing Hillary Clinton’s “soft power” did in places like Iran during the Green Revolution, Russia in the lead-up to the last election and in Ukraine just prior to the neo-Nazis taking over the country with the help of the likes of George Soros.

And if anybody understands how this fucking shit works, it’s Noam Chomsky. He literally wrote the book on “Manufacturing Consent”

Recent developments have made it perfectly clear that the Obama administration has decided to give up on the 4-year-old regime change operation in Syria with the caveat that they be allowed to bust off a piece of the country, the north eastern part, as a “safe zone” for the Kurds.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s one third of the Greater Kurdistan project right there and next, they have to take a little piece of Turkey to see it completed.

Enter the piece of shit Noam Chomsky to prepare the fake left for that regime change operation.

This is disgusting. Let’s take his little ideological treason one step at a time, shall we?

“Sidelining opposition media has become a bad habit in Turkey, which is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. ..” Noam Chomsky

First of all, this report was published by the UNESCO program, Reporters Without Borders, that is run by the globalist Mockingbird, Christophe Deloire. Check here as Chris extols the heroism of “Pussy Riot“. Check here to read how Chris demonizes Assad back in 2013 for arresting some globalist shill journalist trying to stir up regime change in that country.

Do you know who they list at the bottom of that press freedom ranking list? Just all of the governments in the world who stand opposed to our globalist agenda, that’s who.

152 – Russia

154 – Libya (after the election)

168 – Yemen (new Yemen)

169 – Cuba

173 – Iran

174 – Sudan

176 – China

177 – Syria

179 – North Korea

Anyone seeing a pattern developing here? Want to see who’s doing well in terms of press freedom according to this list?

12 – Germany

13 – Czech Republic

25 – Australia

34 – UK

38 – France

39 – South Africa

49 – United States

Here’s the kind of “evidence” that they use to justify this extremely disingenuous propaganda piece: “On Nov. 17, 18 editors and publishers will go on trial for “terrorist propaganda” because of a photograph. They face up to 7½ years in prison. One of these journalists, Cumhuriyet editor Can Dundar, already stood accused of “spying” by Erdogan, who has vowed that Dundar “won’t get away with it.” His paper published evidence that Syria-bound trucks leased by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization had, as suspected, been carrying arms.…” Noam Chomsky

I wrote about this propaganda when it happened. They took photos of some NGO’s trucks being loaded up with medical supplies and possibly weapons on route to support our “moderate” terrorists in Syria and used them to imply that it was Erdogan sending weapons to ISIS. The propaganda was ridiculous and certainly designed to be inflammatory to the local population of Turkey.

Used to be in this country it was illegal to publish deliberate lies in the media. They changed that. Said the media corporations were “persons” and thus they had a right to free speech, which includes lying to their audience.

That’s not “freedom of the press” people. And just because it’s a privately owned corporation doing this shit targeting “the evil statists” doesn’t make it right or just.

How many fucking times do we need to explain FASCISM?

Making up outrageous lies about a popular government or political party in order to foster a climate for regime change is not something I defend or condone. And that’s what these media companies were doing. They do it in all sorts of places that we wish to change for the sake of “stability”

Just ask Reporters Without Borders. They’ve been publishing pro-regime change propaganda with regard to Syria and Libya for years now.

“… The metastasizing Syrian conflict and the resumption of fighting with Kurdish rebels have accentuated governmental paranoia about critical journalists…” Noam Chomsky

The Syrian “conflict”? There’s not a “conflict” in Syria. It’s a regime change operation via irregular warfare. It’s terrorism. Not a “conflict” as Mr. Chomsky puts it.

“Kurdish rebels“? You mean like the Syrian rebels we are supposed to love? Like the Contra “rebels“? Or for that matter the al Qaeda “rebels” fighting in Afghanistan during the 80s?

And what is that about governmental “paranoia” regarding them trying to defend themselves against this kind of color revolution agitation? Is it paranoia what we did in Ukraine? How about Russia before the election? Does the Green Revolution in Iran ring any bells?

How the hell did Chomsky think he could get away with publishing this kind of blatant neoliberal regime change propaganda without being called out for it?

But if you think that’s bad, just check this out: “They need a stable Turkey to help limit the spread of the Syrian chaos and to guarantee its people’s security and prosperity. The Turkish government must stop fueling tension and, for this, it is essential that the truth can be told. Reopening the space for democratic debate is essential for stabilizing the country. Freedom of information is part of the solution.” Noam Chomsky

This seems to be taken straight from Neoliberal Regime Change Propaganda 101. It’s got everything.

Yes, it’s all about “stability” from the “chaos” and protecting the people’s “security and prosperity”, isn’t it?

Fucking bullshit. It’s about forcing a regime change so they can secure various assets for various globalist institutions and their prosperity!

The Turkish government must stop fueling tension? Is that a joke? The Kurds are starting up their terrorism campaign in Turkey once again while the globalist media outlets are doing their level best to frame Erdogan for acts. And of course, the Western MSM is busy linking him to ISIS™ every chance they get while alternative sellouts like Tarpley and others do the exact same thing.

The key to understanding major propaganda campaigns as they unfold is taking a look at how they reach across the artificial political divide in real time. Like the build-up to the illegal invasion of Iraq back in 2002 and 2003, when everyone starts running with the same bullshit propaganda, you know it’s an important objective to the masters of the universe.

In this case, they already have Iraqi Kurdistan and are in the process of invading, occupying and relocating the indigenous population of north eastern Syria.

The formation of Greater Kurdistan is a major objective to the U.S. and Israel alike.

"Divide, rule" is their game.

MISCELLANEOUS: 5 important articles

Iraq war. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Afghanistan.

Gatekeepers or fifth columnists?

Given that Fox so eagerly waved the flag of a foreign military power and was a man with dangerous beliefs and demonstrably weak judgement, how could those who appointed him not see that he was unemployable as a minister of the British Crown – unless they were similarly tainted?

When the Werritty relationship came to light Fox jumped before being flung from the battlements. But the good people of North Somerset, in their wisdom, re-elected him at the general election last May. He’s already on the road to political rehabilitation among the Conservative high command.

Gould’s new job as head of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA) involves giving strategic direction to cyber security and information assurance for the UK. This includes  internet crime, working with private sector partners on exchanging information, and engaging with international partners in improving the security of cyber space and information security. Does it seem right for such a person to be in charge of crucial security matters at the heart of our government? What was in fellow Zionist David Cameron’s mind when he appointed him?

Well, here’s a possible clue. In March of this year Francis Maude, the previous Cabinet Office minister responsible for cyber security, announced three UK-Israel academic collaboration ventures with cyber research funding, the partnerships being University of Bristol/Bar Ilan University, University College London/Bar Ilan University and University of Kent/University of Haifa. They’ll be working together on six specific areas of research:

identity management

governance: regulating cyber security

privacy assurance and perceptions

mobile and cloud security

human aspects of security or usable security

cryptography.

This builds on existing UK-Israel cooperation. Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on digital cooperation in March 2014.

Still sitting comfortably? Only this week the Cameron government was lecturing us on threats to national security and announcing plans to trawl through our personal emails and web browsers in order to “keep us safe”. The question is, who trawls Gould’s private emails

Blair and the other sucker

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 05:09 PM PST 

Undeniably, Saddam was a brutal dictator. But the war, the preceding economic blockade and Netanyahu’s promised “enormous reverberation on the region” are causing more human deaths than Saddam ever did, with a cost of between two to six trillion dollars to U.S. taxpayers. 

By JAMAL KANJ 

I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” Tony Blair told Fareed Zakaria during a CNN interview. The TV interview came ahead of the much delayed British Chilcot – expected now by next summer – report investigating Iraq war.

He also apologized “for some of the mistakes in planning” the war. It didn’t however come clear from the interview what were “some of” the correct decisions made in planning for the war. The war was neither a mistake, nor “wrong” intelligence. It was well thought of by those who cooked the intelligence book and sold it to two suckers named George W Bush and Tony Blair. The plan intended to break up Iraq, destroy the know-how by assassinating Iraqi scientists and to dismantle the Iraqi army. Not because Iraq was a threat to America, but it was an Israeli agenda.

On February 21, 2003, Jeffrey Steinberg wrote in the Executive Intelligence Review that Blair’s infamous dossier on Iraq’s WMD included 11 pages copied “verbatim, from an Israeli journal Middle East Review of International Affairs.” According to Steinberg, the Blair dossier was “cooked-in-Israel propaganda” to drive the US to invade Iraq.

Complementing Blair’s hoax, US Zioncons waged a misleading campaign to influence American public opinion and to deceive officials on the cost of war and its aftermath.

On July 11, 2002, Richard Perle a Pentagon official, who was on Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s payroll in mid-90s, professed the war will end “after the first whiff of gunpowder.”

His ex-boss, Netanyahu, gave a Congressional testimony two months later where he promised America, “If you take out Saddam regime, I guarantee it will have enormous positive reverberation on the region.”

About a month before the war, Israeli firster and American official Kenneth Adelman published an Op-ed in the Washington Post, positing that the war “would be a cakewalk.”

In briefing the Armed Services Committee on February 25, 2003, General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the US Army, warned that “several hundred thousand soldiers” would be needed to secure postwar Iraq. Days later, civilian Zioncon Paul Wolfowitz countered: “The notion that it will take several hundred thousand troops are wildly off the mark.”

In his book Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward wrote that Secretary of State Colin Powell used to refer to the Office of Special Plans – war bureau – as “a separate government.” The Office was led by Zioncos: Lewis Libby, Wolfowitz and according to Powell, it was run from Douglas Feith’s “Gestapo” office. Soon following the invasion, Wolfowitz assured the House Appropriations Committee and American taxpayers that the war cost and rebuilding “doesn’t have to be US taxpayer’s money.” We have “a country that can really finance its own reconstruction.” 

Wolfowitz’s statement cost the taxpayers between two to six trillion dollars. 

After the Zioncons WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) was exposed, Wolfowitz offered a new fallacious assessment. He claimed that removing Saddam would help in the peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Zioncons’ undue influence came under FBI. There were public reports in July 2004 of a probe by the FBI into potential Israeli spies in the Pentagon who might have influenced US decision on the war. The FBI suspected the Israeli mole was a senior analyst closely associated with two senior officials: Zioncons Wolfowitz and Feith. It believed that “highly sensitive information” was passed to Israel via “the pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee.”

The FBI inquiry was quashed and Americans never discovered the Israeli spies who blundered America and Britain’s human and financial resources on a “made for Israel war”.

Hence, Chilcot has an opportunity now to bisect the Israeli “sacred cow” and identify the source of the “wrong” intelligence. It should start by deciphering the palpable link between US Zioncons’ ideologue and Israel. 

Undeniably, Saddam was a brutal dictator. But the war, the preceding economic blockade and Netanyahu’s promised “enormous reverberation on the region” are causing more human deaths than Saddam ever did.

The world might be better with one less Arab dictator, though it would have been a much better place without Bush and his British toady.

The Little Boy and the Goats !

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 11:46 AM PST

Biting on my teeth I got up laming and I was handcuffed, blinded and dragged silently to the “offices”, the hell! They call them the “offices”. A well-equipped block for interrogation. Whatever they need is there; clubs, ropes, cold water, hot water, chairs, hooks, metal chains, electric heaters. (the hell ! they “heated” the leg of one of the children till it was almost burned) whips, handcuffs, blinders

by Sami, The Bedouin

I saw the flicker, the glimmering haze shooting and then hitting the jeep broken, illuminating a strong beam that lit the hill opposite. It was a few minutes after the sunset, almost dark at that late summer day. I knew the whole story then and my heart was full of fear and excitement.

What to do? To run away and leave the goats? There was no time to think, and I herded the goats, almost pushing them to cross that dam road. No time, I had to go home to get the goats feed their awaiting babies and then milk them.

That was a damn day for me that I will never forget, and will keep getting the fresh picture of all what had happened as if I am looking at it now and still living it. “Nothing happened to the goats. We got them home later that night, the problem was what happened to you.” My brother told me later on when I got out of jail.

I had no time to think, I didn’t even think but in one thing; to take the goats home safely. While I was pushing the goats to cross the road horridly they came running heading right at me. I ran away among the goats that were scattered in all direction, I jumped off the road, to the opposite hill, to the same direction from which the flickering koctail molotove glasses hit them. The jeep was flaming and shades of giant soldier ghosts were trying to set it off. Two Zionists soldiers chased me, I shrieked of horror when they came close and fell on the ground: “It is not me! I did nothing!” but before I complete the two of them attacked me beating everywhere. One of them pulled my by the hand, the other hit my leg with the rifle and then, as if I hear something broke, I fell on the ground not able to move. I was dragged to the jeep and each one of the furious shouting soldiers hit me. It was a complete “party”.

The fire was set off and the jeep wasn’t really hurt. I was thrown into the back floor of the jeep and stepped on, kicked and beaten by the soldiers on both sides. I couldn’t cry, I was moaning feebly feeling the pain of my fractured leg.

The goats! What happened with them? Everybody has his own world and I was filled with mine, the goats, as if nothing in the whole world is more important than taking the goats back to their babies at the end of the day.

Soon, I was blinded even before we arrived the jail, and I was dragged and beaten again as we arrived. I was lucky that the blinders almost fell and I remember, it was a wide square full of jeeps and tanks, I was dragged between them dirty and bleeding all over, and when they arrived to the “offices” happily one of the soldiers hailed: “Hey! We got the little terrorist!”

Sometimes it is even beyond crazy to think: ‘what the hell I am doing here, what the hell these ghosts are, where am I, what will happen, the goats, soldiers, tanks’  and all of that I didn’t even got to know the interrogation yet. Smiling officers talking happily to the soldiers and signing papers as if nothing happened to me, as if I wasn’t bleeding … as if the goats didn’t go home to their babies yet. Why in hell all of that? I was too little to think properly, it was a brutal world that I just got to know for the first time at the age of 14; the bloody world of the occupation machine! And why in heavens sake? Just because it happened I was there? No, no I realize it wasn’t that simple; I was occupied and tortured since I was born, but I felt it only then. Am I not a refugee in the first place?

I was thrown into a tight cell, I couldn’t stretch my legs fully and I was given a tattered bed and a half blanket. Did I sleep? Could I sleep? Why? How? I couldn’t believe what I was in, I thought it was just a nightmare and that I was still among the goats playing the flute. Oh, God! Can you believe, I started to pinch my fractured leg, to rub my thighs and to hit my head, and even to pull my ear to keep realizing that it was reality, and it was a reality that I had to face ever since.

I stared at the harsh wall of the cell and felt it with my trembling fingers to restore my lost reality; YES! I am already in jail, the goats and childhood are gone forever. From now on, I am no longer that child, I turned overnight into a man, an old tattered man.

I don’t know why they didn’t take me to interrogation that night, were they busy with others? Or was the interrogator sleeping with his wife and children?

At late night I felt the horror and shrank to the corner of the cell covering myself with the blanket; loud screaming, shrieking, clubbing and shouting. ‘What’s that?’ I though, beating another boy? Was he there? Is it my turn now?

It was stifling hot at that oven of a cell but I was trembling, shivering, feeling the pain in my leg as I pulled it shrinking in the corner. I don’t know if I slept but soon I woke up my head bent over my pulled knees, it was still dark, very dark.

You can imagine how it is sweet to watch the morning rising, I did. First it was an utter silence that is broken every now and then by the clinging of iron gates, or a jeep arriving or departing. Then the birds, Oh, the birds singing. The birds seemed noisily quarreling that morning, I was piled in the cell. Then a voice of somebody saying “good morning”. I didn’t know who was that, the garbage collector, the prison chef, or the interrogator. Oh my gash! They are coming to get me! And I started trembling again.

“Don’t show your pain or fear to others.” I remembered what my mom used to tell me, “Be a man and don’t cry or fear anybody.” I felt the courage as if my mom was there with my right then, and bit on my teeth to feel the inner strength, to hide the pain in my fractured leg, when the door cracked open, and I was shaking inside: “Get up!” an angry jailor ordered. “Where to?” I asked. “Shut up!”

The horror, I know, the horror!

Biting on my teeth I got up laming and I was handcuffed, blinded and dragged silently to the “offices”, the hell! They call them the “offices”. A well-equipped block for interrogation. Whatever they need is there; clubs, ropes, cold water, hot water, chairs, hooks, metal chains, electric heaters. (the hell ! they “heated” the leg of one of the children till it was almost burned) whips, handcuffs, blinders (blinders? Jesus! You don’t know what blinders mean! They were big bags that are put on your head to go down over your shoulders and then are tied on your neck) hooks stuck on the walls, hooks dangling from the sealing! The “offices”? We called it the butchery with the feeling of horror every time we uttered it; the butchery.

Source: Sami, the Bedouin.

Look who’s in charge of UK government cyber security

Posted: 08 Nov 2015 09:04 AM PST 

by Stuart Littlewood 

A chilling remark from a House of Lords debate just caught my eye.

Column GC355 in Hansard, the verbatim report of proceedings of the UK parliament, dated 4 November 2015, said: Lord Mendelsohn: We welcome the appointment of the former British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, who will have a key role in cyber security inside the Cabinet Office – a very useful and important position.

Sure enough, the UK government’s website confirms that Gould is now director of cyber security and information assurance at the Cabinet Office. “He and his team are focused on keeping Britain safe from cyber attack, through delivering the UK’s Cyber Security Strategy.”

Passionate Zionists

They must think we have very short memories. As Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel, Gould described himself as a “passionate” Zionist and while in Tel Aviv he was instrumental in setting up the UK-Israel Tech Hub. In the words of MATIMOP (the Israeli Industry Centre for Research and Development), the hub was established

to promote partnerships in technology and innovation between Israel and the UK, and is the first initiative of its kind for the British government and for an embassy in Israel. The hub’s creation followed an agreement between prime ministers David Cameron and Binyamin Netanyahu to build a UK-Israel partnership in technology. 

Three years ago Cameron appointed venture capitalist Saul Klein as the UK Tech Envoy to Israel with the task of promoting the partnership, leading UK technology missions to Israel, bringing Israeli start-ups to Britain, and hosting technology events in both countries.MATIMOP quotes Britain’s National Health Service as an example of successful UK-Israel technology collaboration. The NHS has now formed strong collaborations with Israeli life sciences companies conducting clinical trials in the UK. The cooperation was made as part of the burgeoning partnership between Israel and Britain’s life sciences industries initiated by the UK-Israel Tech Hub. 

Driven by the Israel lobby 

Four years ago Craig Murray, a former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, argued that British policy was being driven in an underhanded fashion by the Israel lobby. He linked Gould with the Fox-Werritty scandal and raised questions about meetings between disgraced former Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Fox’s friend/adviser, Adam Werritty (who was backed financially by Israel lobbyists but had no security clearance and therefore no authorised role) and Gould.

Murray wrote to Gould asking when he first met Werritty, how many times he had met him, and how many communications of every kind had passed between them. He was told these questions would be answered in Cabinet Secretary O’Donnell’s investigation. “But Gus O’Donnell’s report answered none of these questions,” wrote Murray. “It only mentioned two meetings at which Fox, Gould and Werritty were all three present…”

This prompted Murray to dig further. “There were at least six Fox-Werritty-Gould meetings, not the two given by O’Donnell… Matthew Gould was the only British Ambassador who Fox and Werrity met together. They met him six times. Why?”

Murray, with many useful sources from his days as an ambassador, claimed to have serious evidence connecting Gould with a secret plan to attack Iran, but the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Secretary blocked questions. Murray published his story, “Matthew Gould and the plot to attack Iran”, here.  

In it he pointed out that, 

Matthew Gould does not see his race or religion as irrelevant. He has chosen to give numerous interviews to both British and Israeli media on the subject of being a jewish ambassador, and has been at pains to be photographed by the Israeli media participating in Jewish religious festivals. Israeli newspaper Haaretz described him as “Not just an ambassador who is Jewish, but a Jewish ambassador”. That rather peculiar phrase appears directly to indicate that the potential conflict of interest for a British ambassador in Israel has indeed arisen.

He went on to say that Gould stood suspected of long term participation with Fox and Werritty “in a scheme to forward war with Iran, in cooperation with Israel”. The stonewalling by O’Donnell and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office led Murray to conclude that “something very important is being hidden right at the heart of government”.

Labour Member of Parliament Paul Flynn remarked that no previous ambassadors to Israel had been Jewish so as to avoid conflict of interest and accusations of going native. He immediately came under intense flak. Flynn too asked about meetings between Werritty and Gould, as some reports suggested that Gould, Werritty and Fox discussed a potential military strike on Iran with Mossad. “I do not normally fall for conspiracy theories,” said Flynn, “but the ambassador has proclaimed himself to be a Zionist and he has previously served in Iran.”

Fox had earlier made the idiotic claim: “Israel’s enemies are our enemies” and “in the battle for the values that we stand for… Israel’s enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we all stand together”. The Jewish Chronicle hailed him as “a champion of Israel within the government”. Furthermore, Fox continually rattled the sabre against Iran which, of course, was no threat to Britain but is regarded by Israel as a bitter enemy. Iraq too was Israel’s enemy, not ours. Yet Fox, according to the theyworkforyou.com, voted “very strongly” for the Iraq war. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of the war in Afghanistan.  

Gatekeepsrs or fifth colimnists? 

Given that Fox so eagerly waved the flag of a foreign military power and was a man with dangerous beliefs and demonstrably weak judgement, how could those who appointed him not see that he was unemployable as a minister of the British Crown – unless they were similarly tainted?

When the Werritty relationship came to light Fox jumped before being flung from the battlements. But the good people of North Somerset, in their wisdom, re-elected him at the general election last May. He’s already on the road to political rehabilitation among the Conservative high command.

Gould’s new job as head of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA) involves giving strategic direction to cyber security and information assurance for the UK. This includes  internet crime, working with private sector partners on exchanging information, and engaging with international partners in improving the security of cyber space and information security. Does it seem right for such a person to be in charge of crucial security matters at the heart of our government? What was in fellow Zionist David Cameron’s mind when he appointed him? 

Well, here’s a possible clue. In March of this year Francis Maude, the previous Cabinet Office minister responsible for cyber security, announced three UK-Israel academic collaboration ventures with cyber research funding, the partnerships being University of Bristol/Bar Ilan University, University College London/Bar Ilan University and University of Kent/University of Haifa. They’ll be working together on six specific areas of research: 

identity management
governance: regulating cyber security
privacy assurance and perceptions
mobile and cloud security
human aspects of security or usable security

cryptography. 

This builds on existing UK-Israel cooperation. Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on digital cooperation in March 2014.

Still sitting comfortably? Only this week the Cameron government was lecturing us on threats to national security and announcing plans to trawl through our personal emails and web browsers in order to “keep us safe”. The question is, who trawls Gould’s private emails

now that I have set aside my bias, and been willing to consider the facts as they are, I realize I can’t support Israel and still be faithful to Jesus. 

A Letter to an Israeli: Kindness and Postage Stamps are not Enough

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 01:13 PM PST 

by Iman Najjar-Annab 

Dear on-the-fence-about-the-Occupation, two-state-solution Israeli,

Please stop posting warm fuzzy photos and articles that show moments of kindness between Israelis and “Arabs”. Please, do not post that Belgian postage stamp showing the beginning of a bad joke, a priest a rabbi and an imam. Please stop pontificating about Arab/Muslim extremism being the root of the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Please do not laud Yitzhak Rabin as a good man who would have achieved peace had he not been assassinated. He was a murderer and signed the removal and dispossession of over 700,000 Palestinians and the death warrant of hundreds.

Please do not talk about Palestinian leadership being weak because those in power now do not represent us. Our young lions, men and women both, are either behind bars or on the streets risking death so others may have a chance at a dignified life. They resist with stones against the fourth most powerful army in the world with little hope.

Do not. DO NOT. Do not talk about dialogue with the Palestinians. We have nothing to negotiate with. We live under the boot.

Do not. Please, for the love of God, do not say that Arabs have 22 countries and Jews have just one. You insult me and millions of others when you reduce our diversity to “Arab”. From Syria to Morocco to Sudan we are all different, our spoken Arabic is different, dialects and vocabulary, cultures and customs as diverse as the universe. We are also Jews, Christians, Muslims, Agnostics and Atheists.

Would you ever ask a Brazilian to move to Argentina because they are anyway all Latin American?

What stands in the way of peace is the Occupation and your clinging to the racist idea of a state for Jews. Israel is a colonial project no less violent than any other because violence is the very fabric of colonial projects.

Palestinians are kind people and you will most often encounter kindness. I would like to believe the average Israeli is kind too.

But kindness and postage stamps are not enough.

For real change its time to put the IDEA of a Jewish state down, humanely, and opt for a pluralistic, secular democracy based on human rights for all inhabitants of historic Palestine, including you if you wish to be part of such a society.

Please do not say that Israel today is just that, a secular democracy. It isn’t. It is a Judeo-supremacy. Please do not say Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East because it has much work to do.

Please do not say that Israel is a beacon of light amongst oppressive “Arab” states. Israel is just as oppressive against Palestinians. If you cannot acknowledge this, it means you are still on the fence about human rights and you need to get off on the right side of history.

________________________________

About the author

Iman Najjar-Annab a second generation Palestinian in exile, was born in London and lived most of her life in Europe and the Middle East. She is a professional researcher interested in community engagement and an activist for Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Territories. Iman is currently based in Toronto where she is completing an M.Ed in Social Justice Education. She hopes to return to Palestine to educate young people on matters of social justice.

5 Reasons Why I’m A Christian Who Stopped Supporting Israel

Posted: 07 Nov 2015 02:48 AM PST

by Benjamin L. Corey

Growing up conservative Evangelical, we loved Israel as much as we loved America– probably even more.

And why not, right?

We truly believed that among the world’s nations, God actually has a favorite– and that he will curse anyone who doesn’t blindly support his team.

When you sincerely believe that, there’s little room left for actually thinking, because anything you see is filtered and given meaning by the narrative we were given at church. This false narrative we’re told about Israel makes it almost impossible to see the situation fairly or clearly, because we become victims of confirmation bias– we’re only willing to consider evidence that verifies the narrative we were taught.

As an adult at seminary studying theology and international culture, I finally broke free from the confirmation bias that had caused me to support Israel and ignore Palestinian suffering. As such, I now see the Israel and Palestinian conflict in a completely different light– one where my Christian faith itself dictates that I cannot stand with Israel and still be faithful to Jesus.

Here are 5 reasons why I stopped supporting Israel:

I realized that loving Jewish people was completely different from supporting the modern, secular state of Israel.

Many quickly confuse loving Jewish people with supporting Israel– but areligion/people group and a secular nation state are not the same thing. For example, one can be opposed to US policy without being “anti-American.” In the same way, one can look at Israel and say, “Wow, this is absolutely wrong” without being anti-semitic (though that’s the first thing you’ll be accused of).

I love the Jewish people because as a Jesus follower, I love all people. But I do not– I cannot– support Israel as a nation, precisely because I love all people.

I realized Israel was a violent military occupation, much like the one Jesus lived under.

I used to think the Israel was a peaceful nation who just wanted to mind their own business but couldn’t because those darned Muslims wouldn’t leave them alone, but that’s not the case at all. Israel is a violent military occupation, with no end in sight.

Where Palestinians once lived in peace and security, they now live under military rule by a foreign military that controls nearly all aspects of their daily lives.  Their access to water is tightly restricted, their movement is restricted, and they are denied security in their homes by military forces who often stage middle-of-the-night raids under the accusation of “rock throwing.”

Furthermore, children are often Israeli targets and are imprisoned and tortured by Israeli solders. There have even been cases of Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinian children for sport. How a Christian can support this is literally unfathomable to me.

I realized Palestinians weren’t terrorists, but a frustrated people living under apartheid.

Imagine it this way: what if you woke up one morning and world leaders had given the Southern United States to Russia, to be a country for displaced Russians? The Russians arrive, kick you off the land that’s been in your family for generations, confiscate your homes and possessions, burn your farms, and put everyone into refugee camps or segregated into ghettos, which are then policed by the Russian military.

Would it not be understandable that once in a while you’d attack the Russian soldiers? In fact, if that were in America, most conservatives would call it self defense.

While I am against all violence, it’s important to understand why violence happens, and in this case it is quite understandable that such an oppressed people would resort to violence against the oppressors. However, this violence is not about Muslims hating Jews– it’s about people being tired of an occupying army taking their homes, their land, and harming their children. Truth be told, as wrong as I believe it is, I’d be tempted to throw a few rocks too.

I realized Israel continues to steal land and violate international law.

I once thought that Israel just wanted to peacefully exist, but the truth is they are on a violent conquest to take all the land they can get– even though it is a total violation of international law.

Day by day new Israeli settlements crop up on land that still belongs to Palestinians. Quite often the Israelis will burn down Palestinian crops  before harvest (this is in the news often), and try to take Palestinian land by terroristic force. Illegal settlers have firebombed Palestinian homes, most recently burning a baby and mother to death. Settlers recently even attacked a Rabbi who had previous work with Christian Peacemakers, showing they’re willing to not just attack Palestinians, but even their own peacemakers.

This reminds me of someone who once said, “Oh Jerusalem! You who kill the prophets and stone those God sends to you.” (That was Jesus, BTW.)

Until Israel stops violently and unapologetically violating international law by their conquest for more land, they could never have my support.

I realized Christians were being persecuted and oppressed, and I choose to stand with them.

One of the ways Evangelicalism continues selling support for Israel is by painting this as a Muslim vs Jew situation– but that’s not reality. This is a situation of a violent, secular nation state, who is oppressing a group of people that include Christians.

Palestinians include both Muslims and Christians, and Christians are being just as persecuted as the rest of Palestinians. Israel has targeted Christian schools while Christians in the West remained silent. Christian churches and institutions have a long history of being burned and vandalized by the Israelis. Furthermore, Christians have lamented that the Israelis spit on them as they walk down the street, with many Christians ultimately accepting that being spat on in Israel is part of daily life. (Can you imagine if it were the Muslims doing that? Conservative leaders would be calling for war.)

And this is perhaps the top reason why I no longer support Israel: to do so would be acomplete betrayal of my Christian brothers and sisters who suffer under anti-Christian persecution in Israel.

So, your pastor growing up taught you to support Israel.

I get it. Mine did too. As a result, I blindly supported Israel for many years– even to the point of voting for candidates I thought would be the most pro-Israel.