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Representatives of Daesh insist that they aren’t deliberately selling oil to Israel, but the “black gold” ends up there nonetheless, while millions continue to line the terrorist group’s pockets.
It’s widely recognized that Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the terrorist group often called IS, ISIS or ISIL in the West) depends on oil sales to fuel its armies. Until recently, it’s been less clear who is buying Daesh’s oil, and how it ends up in their hands.
However, recent reports suggest that the oil flows to Europe and Asia through a complex process that implicates allies of the United States like Turkey and Israel. The U.S. is also facing increasing criticism for its failure to target the terrorist group’s oil infrastructure in a serious way until recently.
Cam Simpson and Matthew Philips, writing in November for Bloomberg Businessweek, called recent U.S. attacks on oil trucks an attempt by the Obama administration to “quietly” fix a “colossal miscalculation.” Government experts now argue that the U.S. dramatically underestimated Daesh’s oil profits:
“The Obama administration ‘misunderstood the [oil] problem at first (sic), and then they wildly overestimated the impact of what they did,’ says Benjamin Bahney, an international policy analyst at the Rand Corp., a U.S. Department of Defense-funded think tank, where he helped lead a 2010 study on [Daesh’s] finances and back-office operations based on captured ledgers.”
U.S. intelligence officials now believe Daesh is making at least $500 million from oil sales each year, $400 million more than previous official estimates. “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,” Bahney told Bloomberg.
Officials also cited potential civilian casualties to explain their reluctance to go after truckers transporting oil from Daesh-controlled territories. That reluctance apparently ended on Nov. 16, when the U.S. destroyed 116 oil trucks after airplanes “first dropped leaflets warning drivers to scatter.”
Reluctance to harm civilians hasn’t prevented the U.S. from creating high civilian death tolls on other fronts of the “global war on terror.” In August, Airwars, a coalition of independent journalists, estimated that at least 459 civilians had been killed in U.S. airstrikes on Daesh, and those numbers are continuing to rise, with the group’s most conservative estimate of civilian casualties now standing at least 682. Additionally, U.S. drone strikes have proven especially ineffective, hitting more civilians than members of al-Qaida, according to a September report from the United Nations.
Recent developments suggest that U.S. allies directly benefit from the flow of cheap terrorist oil and, given the United States’ role in the creation of Daesh, this could suggest that the reluctance to target Daesh’s oil profits prior to the Paris attacks may be motivated by self-interest.
How ISIS Oil Reaches Israel
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Nov. 26, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a London-based media outlet focusing on the Arabic world, published a detailed investigation tracing Daesh’s oil from the massive oilfields in Iraq and Syria to refineries in Israel, where it’s ultimately exported to Europe.
The enormous scale of Daesh’s oil production infrastructure in the Middle East is further evidence of the importance of energy exports to the group. The oil is first extracted from captured oil fields:
“IS oil production in Syria is focused on the Conoco and al-Taim oil fields, west and northwest of Deir Ezzor, while in Iraq the group uses al-Najma and al-Qayara fields near Mosul. A number of smaller fields in both Iraq and Syria are used by the group for local energy needs.
According to estimates based on the number of oil tankers that leave Iraq, in addition to al-Araby’s sources in the Turkish town of Sirnak on the border with Iraq, through which smuggled oil transits, IS is producing an average of 30,000 barrels a day from the Iraqi and Syrian oil fields it controls.”
Unfortunately, like many reports on the topic, many of Al-Araby’s sources remain anonymous for their own safety. A member of the Iraqi intelligence services informed the reporters about the complex path the oil takes, traveling in dozens of tankers at a time into Zahko, a city controlled by Iraqi Kurds near the border with Turkey:
“After [Daesh] oil lorries arrive in Zakho – normally 70 to 100 of them at a time – they are met by oil smuggling mafias, a mix of Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, in addition to some Turks and Iranians,” the colonel continued.”
The gangs compete in sometimes deadly bidding wars to purchase and smuggle the oil onto the next stage, and “[t]he highest bidder pays between 10 and 25 percent of the oil’s value in cash — US dollars — and the remainder is paid later, according to the colonel.”
These “oil mafias” then bring the product to rudimentary refineries for simple processing from crude into oil, “because Turkish authorities do not allow crude oil to cross the border if it is not licensed by the Iraqi government,” the colonel explained.
Kurdish Smugglers and Turkish elite transport Daesh’s oil
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Kurdish fuel trucks are seen in northern Iraq. (photo by REUTERS/Azad Lashkari)
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Al-Araby’s sources reported that from Turkey the oil flows through three ports — Mersin, Dortyol and Ceyhan — into Israel. And from Israel, the oil seeps into Europe:
“According to a European official at an international oil company who met with al-Araby in a Gulf capital, Israel refines the oil only ‘once or twice’ because it does not have advanced refineries. It exports the oil to Mediterranean countries – where the oil “gains a semi-legitimate status” – for $30 to $35 a barrel.”
Reports also suggests that Daesh’s oil is not just passing through Turkish soil on its way to Israel, but also being aided in its journey by the country’s elite. A July investigation by AWD News accused Bilal Erdoğan, son of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of owning one of the maritime companies responsible for shipping this contraband oil:
“Bilal Erdoğan who owns several maritime companies, had allegedly signed contracts with European operating companies to carry Iraqi stolen oil to different Asian countries. Turkish government unwittingly supports ISIS by buying Iraqi plundered oil which is being produced from the Iraqi sized oil wells. Bilal Erdoğan’s maritime companies own special wharfs in Beirut and Ceyhan ports transporting [Daesh]’s smuggled crude oil in Japan-bound oil tankers.”
However, an anonymous writer on ZeroHedge, an economic news website, noted on Nov. 30 that while Bilal Erdoğan does seem to be moving Kurdish oil in his tankers, “we’ve yet to come across conclusive evidence of Bilal’s connection to [Daesh].”
In a Nov. 19 investigation, international security scholar and journalist Nafeez Ahmed, documented the mounting evidence of direct ties between Turkey and Daesh, noting that a Turkish daily reported that Daesh fighters had 100,000 fake Turkish passports, a number the U.S. Army’s Foreign Studies Military Office reported was likely exaggerated even as it corroborated reports of the flow of fake passports. Digging further, Ahmed cites a number of other credible reports, from a November Newsweek report that Daesh “sees Turkey as an ally,” to accusations of oil sales in Turkey from June 2014 by a member of Turkey’s opposition party, and leaked Turkish-language documents that show Saudi royalty shipped weapons to Daesh through Turkey.
An August report from Financial Times supports Al-Araby’s assertion that massive quantities of oil flow through the hands of Kurdish sellers into Israel. According to David Sheppard, John Reed and Anjli Raval, “Israel turns to Kurds for three-quarters of its oil supplies”. They allege that Israel purchased about $1 billion in oil from the sellers between May and August of 2015.
In his analysis of the flow of oil, Shadowproof’s Dan Wright noted that Daesh seems “embarrassed” by the reports of oil sales to Israel. Al-Araby reported that “someone close to [Daesh]” reported via Skype:
‘To be fair, the organisation sells oil from caliphate territories but does not aim to sell it to Israel or any other country,’ he said. ‘It produces and sells it via mediators, then companies, who decide whom to sell it to.’”
Even without the potential ties to Daesh, Kurdish oil trading has proven controversial. The Iraqi government is struggling to put an end to the trade that they claim circumvents deals that were made to limit sales, while Kurdish officials claim the sales are necessary to maintain their financial independence. Iraq’s leaders are also threatening lawsuits against maritime shipping companies that accept Kurdish oil.
Russia weighs in on Erdogan oil smuggling
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen Turkey shot down a Russian jet on Nov. 24, Russia responded by claiming the jet had been involved in an anti-terror mission targeting Daesh’s oil transportation infrastructure near the Turkey-Syria border:
“According to a press release from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, [Sergei] Lavrov pointed out that, ‘by shooting down a Russian plane on a counter-terrorist mission of the Russian Aerospace Force in Syria, and one that did not violate Turkey’s airspace, the Turkish government has in effect sided with [Daesh].”
… The Russian Minister reminded his counterpart about Turkey’s involvement in the [Daesh’s] illegal trade in oil, which is transported via the area where the Russian plane was shot down, and about the terrorist infrastructure, arms and munitions depots and control centers that are also located there,”
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Russian warplanes attacked oil extraction, transport and refinement facilities in areas controlled by ISIS militants. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service)
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Further complicating the tense international incident, WikiLeaks noted that a pseudonymous whistleblower on Twitter known as Fuat Avni claimed in October that Turkish President Erdogan was considering shooting down a Russian jet plane in order to leverage the resulting international tensions to boost his popularity both before and after recent elections.
RT reported that on Dec. 2, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov offered what he claimed was “proof concerning the illegal oil trade by [Daesh] and Ankara’s ties to it”:
“‘According to our data, the political leadership of the country [Turkey], including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in this criminal business,’ Antonov told the journalists in Moscow.”
Watch “Erdogan & his family involved in ISIS oil trade – Russian MoD” from RT:
Erdogan & his family involved in ISIS oil trade – Russian MoD
The defense minister also offered satellite images showing three routes the oil takes through Turkey.
On Dec. 1, Newsweek reported Erdogan offered to resign if Russia could prove ties between his government and Daesh. But in his presentation of evidence, Lavrov said he doubted the promise:
“The Turkish leadership, particularly Erdogan, won’t resign and won’t acknowledge anything even if their faces will be smeared with the stolen oil.”
On Dec. 5, RT reported on the United States’ reluctance to acknowledge the involvement of Turkey, its ally in the region, in smuggling Daesh’s oil into Europe:
“‘[O]ur colleagues from the State Department and the Pentagon have confirmed that the photo-proof, which we presented at a briefing [on December 2], of the origin and destination of the stolen oil, coming from the areas controlled by the terrorists, is authentic,’ Major General Igor Konashenkov, a [Russian] Defense Ministry spokesman, told a media briefing on Saturday.
‘However, the U.S. claim that they ‘don’t see the border crossings with tanker trucks crossing the border,’ raises a smile, if only, because the photos are still images,’ he added.”
Konashenkov suggested the U.S. had too much to lose from accusing one of its own allies in the fight against Daesh of financially supporting the terrorist group:
“So when US officials claim that they do not see oil smuggled by terrorists to Turkey, this is already not dodging the issue, but smacks of a direct patronage.”
In November, John Pilger, an award-winning foreign affairs journalist, wrote an incisive analysis of Daesh for WikiLeaks, where he argued that Daesh can only be defeated through support for the traditional enemies of the United States, and a confrontation with some of our closest regional allies:
“The only effective opponents of [Daesh] are accredited demons of the west — Syria, Iran, Hezbollah. The obstacle is Turkey, an ‘ally’ and a member of NATO, which has conspired with the CIA, MI6 and the Gulf medievalists to channel support to the Syrian ‘rebels,’ including those now calling themselves [Daesh].
Supporting Turkey in its long-held ambition for regional dominance by overthrowing the Assad government beckons a major conventional war and the horrific dismemberment of the most ethnically diverse state in the Middle East.”
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Featured Comments
+14# Activista 2015-12-18 15:21
-13# Shades of gray matter 2015-12-18 19:04
+17# WBoardman 2015-12-18 19:27
official propaganda traducing the Houthis,
which is not surprising given the available
media coverage.But Shades still seems hung up on the idea that,
like rape victims of old,
for a long time, rebelled.The US is committing and abetting war crimes
in a civil war in which it does not belong
on behalf of an alliance of terror governments,
mounting a naval blockade that is close to
starving 20 million Yemenis of all ethnicities,
which is a monstrous crime against humanity,
By what proportion,
in what order of priorities,
is any of what the world is doing to Yemen OK?
-8# MidwestTom 2015-12-18 20:52
-7# Shades of gray matter 2015-12-18 21:24
+8# Farafalla 2015-12-18 21:51
-1# elkingo 2015-12-19 01:37
0# 179bennettave 2015-12-19 08:18
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Pentagon Blames Russia for Its Airstrikes on Syria’s Military
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=by= Stephen Lendman
Syria’s Deir Ez Zor—a pile of rubble. Would you live here? This is what US foreign policy does wherever it casts its criminal shadow. Large portions of the Middle East look like this, unfit for human or animal habitation, while the rain of death continues. (Click on image to fully appreciate the reality.)
A previous article explained Syria’s Foreign Ministry reported US-led warplanes bombed its army camp in Deir ez Zor province – killing three soldiers, injuring 13 others, as well as destroying three armored vehicles, four military vehicles, an arms and ammunition depot, as well as 23mm and 14.5mm machine guns.
The Pentagon denied being caught red-handed in its latest attempt to push back on Russia’s effective intervention against ISIS and other terrorists groups in Syria.
It blamed Moscow for its provocative aggression. An unnamed Pentagon spokesman lied, claiming it’s “certain” a Russian warplane carried out the attack. “We’ve got a radar track showing a Backfire bomber flying directly over the town that the Syrians named a few minutes before the first claims that we killed some Syrian troops.”
Rubble, rubble everywhere. This is what exported “democracy” looks like to those at the receiving end. But the distracted and terminally ignorant American public doesn’t know and probably could care less.
Who knows what Washington has or doesn’t have. It’s “certain” it bore full responsibility for the incident. Russian airstrikes are directed solely against ISIS and other terrorist groups with pinpoint accuracy, shown by photographic evidence each time.
A US-led anti-Assad coalition statement claiming attacks were conducted “against oil well heads” about 35 miles from the Syrian base was a bald-faced lie – compounded by saying its warplanes struck no “personnel targets…We have no indication any Syrian soldiers were near our strikes.”
The dead, injured and destruction tell another tale. Even the pro-Western, London-based, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights surprisingly reported US-led airstrikes attacked a Syrian military post near Ayyash in western Deir al-Zor on Sunday.
[box]
The Independent filed by Patrick Cockburn seems to confirm most of Steve Lendman’s assertions, but we do not bring this up because we think Lendman needs validation by Cockburn, if anything, quite the opposite. And while this dispatch by Cockburn is, on balance, helpful, it still carries the characteristic insidious vagueness and outright embedded lies that mar much of his testimony. Declares Cockburn:
Eastern Syria is mostly held by Isis, but the Syrian Kurds have taken much of the northern border area, cutting Isis off from Turkey. Ankara is adamant that it will not allow the Kurds to attack west of the Euphrates to close Isis’s last access and exit point to the outside world. The US is pressuring Turkey to seal the border to Isis by sending up to 30,000 troops to close off the area from the north. The Russians have increased their bombing of the border area in north-west Syria to seal off non-Isis Syrian opposition forces from Turkey.
The Big Lie, which Cockburn in all likelihood knows, is simply this gem:
If the US had wanted Turkey to close this damn border, Ankara and its tinpot puppet Erdogan would have done so long ago. Washington does not need to plead with the Turks, as the Pentagon owns the Turkish top brass, supplies most of the advanced weaponry, and the would-be sultan Erdogan is an eager partner in NATO crimes in the region.
[/box]
It bears repeating, the Pentagon was caught red-handed. Russia so far hasn’t commented on the incident or false accusations claiming its warplanes were responsible.
US, UK, French and other coalition partners continue bombing Syrian infrastructure and government targets. Sunday’s attack was the first known one directed at Assad’s military – suggesting more provocative actions to come.
So far, they’ve included a Turkish warplane downing a Russia Su-24 bomber in Syrian airspace – OK’d by Washington, Ankara obstructing Russian sea traffic through the Bosphorus Strait and Dardanelles in either direction, international waterways in northwest Turkey connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Erdogan is involved in stealing, smuggling, transporting, refining and black market selling industrial scale quantities of Iraqi and Syrian oil.
He’s illegally bombing Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and Iraq – on the phony pretext of combating ISIS. His troops operate illegally in northern Iraq, violating its sovereign territory – perhaps to keep oil smuggling routes open and aiming to expand Turkish borders, incorporating parts of northern Iraq and Syria.
Washington is sending more specials forces to Syria on top of thousands already there, along with additional numbers illegally to Syria, perhaps many more to follow.
Fars News reported “US experts” intend turning a “desolate airport…controlled by Kurdish forces in Syria’s Hasaka region…into a (US) military base.”
Runways are being constructed to accommodate US warplanes – the operation entirely illegal, uninvited on foreign soil.
The area is close to the Turkish border, in Northern Syria, a region in which NATO criminal designs and biblical prophecies seem to intersect with the aim of causing Armageddon. (Click on image)
Washington is upping the stakes, escalating things dangerously toward direct confrontation with Russia, a reckless act – complicit with Turkey, Britain and other coalition partners.
Obama earlier promising he’ll “not put American boots on the ground” proved false – one of his many Big Lies. Will full-scale US invasion follow – with thousands of US special forces and perhaps other combat troops, protected by US warplanes?
War winds are blowing dangerously toward gale force. Possible US instigated nuclear war is humanity’s greatest threat.
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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vile corporate media?
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“Moderate” Head Choppers As Defined By Brookings Doha
//
MOON OF ALABAMA
ateline: November 28, 2015
Ryadh is the most likely paymaster for the Wahabi crazies, of which ISIL is the most notorious, and Washington knows it.
Charles Lister, a propagandist at Brookings Doha which is financed by the Wahhabi regime of Qatar, has been tasked to sell Islamist radical head choppers in Syria as “moderate” rebels. He isn’t good at it but the “western” media love him as a talkative”expert” from a formerly reputable think tank.
As diplomatic efforts for Syria gain pace and as Saudi Arabia prepares to host a major conference bringing together 60-80 representatives of a broad spectrum opposition, the definition of “moderate” has been shifting. The most effective definition now must be based upon a combined assessment of (a) what groups are acknowledged as being opposed to ISIL and (b) what groups our governments want, or need to be involved in a political process.
He says that a group is “moderate” when:
The first fits for everyone who claims to be not ISIS including al-Qaeda. The second part is just dependent on who the sponsor of a specific groups is. If Saudi Arabia sponsors al-Qaeda and wants it “moderate”, al-Qaeda is “moderate”. If Turkey sponsors the Turkistan Islamic Party its head-choppers are “moderate”. The Lister definition is completely independent of the observable actions of these groups and of the believes or plans such groups openly or secretly hold. It is bollocks.
Lister goes on to lists two handful of groups, some existing, some mere fantasy, and adds imaginary numbers of how many fighter belong to each of the various groups. Add them up and there you have the 70,000 Cameron was trolling about.
Lister lists, for example, Asala wa-al-Tanmiya with 5,000 fighters as “moderate”. It is an Islamist gang sponsored by Saudi Arabia. Its main allies on the battlefield, according to its Wiki entry, are the Islamic Front and the al-Nusra Front. But they do fight the Islamic State and have a government backing them. Thus these al-Qaeda allies are now “moderate”.
Lister’s original “moderate” table tweeted by him here (backup) even includes Jaish al-Islam with allegedly 12,500 fighters and Ahrar al-Sham with 15,000 fighters. Both of these groups follow the same ideology as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and commit (incl. video) similar atrocities:
The largest Islamist rebel group “Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham” has posted a video on their multiple social media accounts that show their fighters mutilating the head of a wounded militant from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) in the northern Aleppo countryside.
[dropcap]H[/dropcap]arakat Ahrar Al-Sham has attempted to promote themselves as a “moderate” rebel group after their Op-Ed in the Washington Post; however, their behavior and their numerous crimes in northern Syria have made them appear closer to ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra in ideology, rather than a “moderate” Islamist group that is simply fighting for the interests of the Syrian people.
These literal head choppers are “moderates” on Lister’s list.
Support for al-Qaeda and similar groups is illegal under several UN resolutions. U.S. law is even more stringent. Al-Qaeda allies like the groups Lister lists as “moderate” would surely be guilty under 18 U.S. Code § 2339A – Providing material support to terrorists. The “material” as defined by that law includes “intangible, or service” and “expert advice or assistance”. How far from those categories are Lister’s propaganda pieces and actions?
Lister ones worked as analyst at IHS Janes, a well known military journal, and did a decent job. He then followed the smell of Qatari money to Brookings Doha and threw away his reputation. It can only go downwards from there.
Posted by b on November 28, 2015 at 02:12 PM | Permalink
=COMMENTS=
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here exists a great determination to expel Assad and break apart Syria at any cost. Syria must be one of the “seven countries in five years” marked for destruction that General Silver Hair was talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Posted by: fast freddy | Nov 28, 2015 2:27:01 PM | 1
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hat is this b, are you suggesting that the guiding ethical principle of the United States is “if it get us what we want, we do it”?
Here’s where we were on Sept 11th, 2014:
U.S. Pins Hope on Syrian Rebels With Loyalties All Over the Map
President Obama’s determination to train Syrian rebels to serve as ground troops against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leaves the United States dependent on a diverse group riven by infighting, with no shared leadership and with hard-line Islamists as its most effective fighters.
After more than three years of civil war, there are hundreds of militias fighting President Bashar al-Assad — and one another. Among them, even the more secular forces have turned to Islamists for support and weapons over the years, and the remaining moderate rebels often fight alongside extremists like the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
“You are not going to find this neat, clean, secular rebel group that respects human rights and that is waiting and ready because they don’t exist,” said Aron Lund, a Syria analyst who edits the Syria in Crisis blog for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It is a very dirty war and you have to deal with what is on offer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/world/middleeast/us-pins-hope-on-syrian-rebels-with-loyalties-all-over-the-map.html?_r=0
It’s clear things have only gotten worse in these regards. Hence the fact that every US news outlet divides the Syrian War factions into “Government”, “ISIS”, and “Rebel” groups – they are forced to blur any distinction between the al Qaeda and their moderates for the simple fact that there is none.
The US: from Global War on the Terrorists to Global War with the Terrorists in just over a decade. There hasn’t been an American switch of allegiance that fast since we rehabilitated the Nazi war criminals in our efforts to destroy our Soviet allies following the Second World War.
Posted by: guest77 | Nov 28, 2015 3:51:45 PM | 2
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]lease bear in mind that if the US and its vassals deviate from their position that their support is for “moderate rebels” and not for the jihadist or Al Qaeda-associated forces, world opinion would compel them to support the Syrian Army (and therefore, the arch-enemy, Russia) as the ONLY force opposing ISIS.
Posted by: chet | Nov 28, 2015 4:08:56 PM | 3
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he only moderate opposition exists in western propaganda. In Syria itself there is none.
Posted by: Casowary Gentry | Nov 28, 2015 4:19:38 PM | 4
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]erhaps this Charles Lister is a scion of the British Lister clan.
In the 19th Century, a US chemist named a new germicidal solution after Joseph Lister, aka “1st Baron Lister”, a renowned pioneer in antiseptic surgery.
This product named for an icon eventually became the iconic “Listerine” mouthwash, a popular commercial success to this day.
Here, Young Charles appears to be manufacturing a new kind of Listerine: a brainwash.
Posted by: Ort | Nov 28, 2015 4:24:18 PM | 5
@5 Here is some info on Charles. One wonders if he has discussed the insurgency with the Syrian government.
http://www.brookings.edu/experts/listerc
Posted by: dh | Nov 28, 2015 4:32:48 PM | 6
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o much propaganda and so little time… the picture sums it up perfectly.. those are the kind of ”moderates” the usa and the west are in favour of.. if the west profit off arms sales to these same ”moderates” all will continue to be well… people are seeing thru the msm’s smoke and mirrors..
Posted by: james | Nov 28, 2015 4:53:39 PM | 7
@2 The UK and US started working against the Soviets from about 1941/42. They withheld information gained from german POWs about pending German military strikes against Soviet positions. The position was to use the two to destroy each other.
Posted by: Yonatan | Nov 28, 2015 4:55:56 PM | 8
@8 That was true until the reversal at Stalingrad. After that the British furnished Stalin with a lot of useful information via Lucy. Date and time of Kursk battle for instance.
Posted by: dh | Nov 28, 2015 4:58:41 PM | 9
@2 guest
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Great Wager on Terrorism. It’s their last, desperate bet. It’s failing, in any case. I’m encouraged by Tulsi Gabbard’s and Austin Scott’s rumored anti-Asad-War bill. I say rumored because the vile media never give a bill number when ‘reporting’, on it, ensuring that we cannot actually read the bill and find our what it actually says. Nonetheless, in a desperate, not-so-Great Wager against Terrorism of my own, I sent them a letter of encouragement, and I humbly suggest that all of you – regardless your nationality – do so as well. Reduced to last, desperate wagers as we are. As Blaise Pascal said of desperate bets, Whaddawe got to lose? compared to what we got to gain.
Posted by: jfl | Nov 28, 2015 5:13:51 PM | 10
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The Islamic State: Is History Rhyming?
//
By Felix Imonti
Geopolitical Monitor | First iteration: November 26, 2014
ISIS fighters in a well circulated propaganda photo.
The Islamic State has a library of ancient myths and prophecies it uses to lure warriors in a march towards the thirteenth century, where they will defeat the infidels in a great final battle in northern Syria. Whether they die and are rewarded with paradise or survive to enjoy the coming Utopia under divine rule, they will be the victors; and this is the appeal of the Islamic State.
On the 4th of July, Ibrahim ibn Awwad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri, alias Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi took center stage in the Grand Mosque in Mosul for the first time as Caliph Ibrahim, the Emir of the Faithful in the Islamic State. He wore the black robes of the Abbasids Caliphate that reigned from 750 to 1258.
Abu Mohammed Adnani, a spokesman for Islamic State, announced to Muslims worldwide in a commentary titled “The Promise of God” that other organizations would have to acknowledge the supremacy of Caliph Ibrahim or face the wrath of the IS. Caliph Ibrahim declared that the Islamic State would encompass in five years the lands from India to Southern Europe. That would include Mullah Omar’s caliphate in Afghanistan, which has links to Al-Qaeda. Neither organization has pledged its allegiance to Abu Bakr Baghdadi. The head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and many other Islamic scholars are also rejecting the demands of Abu Bakr Baghdadi to acknowledge his supremacy, but not the Islamic principles being promoted and not the idea of a caliphate.
The Dictates of History
This is why the Islamic State does not hesitate to display the mass killing of prisoners or speak openly of enslaving Yazidi women and others. Their practices were approved thirteen centuries ago and are supported by other Salafists. Time has not modified those ancient teachings.
Believers are being offered a Utopian promise and the opportunity to reap revenge upon all of those infidels and false Muslims who have suppressed righteous Muslims throughout the world and over the centuries. “Revenge, revenge, revenge,” is the battle cry; and it has all been heard before.
Sheikh Wahhab Is Still Speaking
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]y whatever name we call him, the words of the new self-proclaimed caliph are taken straight out of the mouth of Shaikh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, who walked this road of revolution and reform through much of the eighteenth century. Because Caliph Ibrahim draws upon historical sources, he can be replaced with another candidate by the Shura Council if the need arises, thus representing an institutionalized succession procedure.
Sheikh Wahhab was a fundamentalist that rejected what he saw as the corrupting of the Faith. The practices of many Bedouins of praying to saints, giving a spiritual meaning to particular places, celebrating the birthday of Muhammad, and constructing monuments were all viewed as idolatry. True believers accept only God and his word.
The Sheikh invoked the practice of Takfir. The rule states that any Muslim who fails to uphold the Faith should be put to the sword, his property seized, and his wives and daughters violated. Under this practice, Shia and Sufis were not considered to be Muslims and not deserving of life.
The Turks and Egyptians who came on their pilgrimages to Mecca were considered to be particularly abhorrent. They traveled in luxury, smoked, and were declared to be Muslim pretenders. The sect substituted for nationalism and was directed against the foreign corrupt rulers before pan-Arab identity began to unite the tribes.
Ibn Saud, the leader of a minor tribal group in the Nejd saw in the sect a vehicle that could be used to forward his ambitions. Banditry could be transformed into jihad; and the defeated tribes could be given the choice of converting to the sect and to benefit in the spoils or die. If they died in battle, they would enjoy a direct move into paradise.
What the Wahhabi Sect added to Islamic practice and what appealed to Ibn Saud was the requirement of the followers to give absolute loyalty to the political leader. To question the teaching or to fail submitting to the leader was cause for execution with the loss of property and the violation of wives and daughters.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the success of Saud was evident with much of the Arabian Peninsula under his control. His raid upon the important Shia center of Karbala in 1801 saw an estimated five thousand Shia slaughtered and their religious sites destroyed. That was followed two years later by the capture of Mecca and later Medina. [The House of Saud, so esteemed by Washington, was born in self-serving, brutal and cunning medievalism.—Eds]
The Ottomans could no longer ignore the carving up of their colonial territory by a desert tribe. An army of Egyptian troops was sent to settle the matter. The Wahhabi capital of Dariyah was seized and destroyed in 1818. Wahhabism receded into the Arabian Desert.
Yet it did not disappear. It remained the core philosophy of the Saud tribe and would become the core belief of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from where it began to spread throughout the Middle East.
FILE – In this Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, file mage released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd right first row, poses with Shura members at consultative Shura Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s new monarch isn’t wasting time. Since assuming the throne Jan. 23, King Salman has elevated some of his closest relatives and sidelined previous power-brokers, tightened decision-making and promised lavish payouts designed to win early goodwill. (AP Photo/Saudi Press Agency, File)
Wahhabism arose at a time when the foreign Ottomans were enjoying the benefits of being colonial rulers, which left a religious and political vacuum that Wahhabism eventually filled. Exactly one century after it was defeated, it arose anew with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and its dismembering by the British and French.
The tribes went from one colonial rule to another without having any say in what form their lands would take or what type of government would rule. After World War II, the European rulers were replaced mainly by autocrats. Where oil was exploited, the autocrats had riches that gave little benefit to the masses.
The destruction of the Saddam regime and the dismantling of the state structure by the United States in 2003 created the next vacuum that would give a new reform movement the opportunity to grow.
Revenge and Utopia
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he strength of the Islamic State is that it gives the millions of impoverished people who see themselves as oppressed the opportunity to ride their 21st century tanks back to the promised Utopia, where the religious pure will reap all of the benefits and the disbelievers will receive their rewards at the end of a modern version of the sword.
If you believe, then all of the events that are converging in Syria were prophesized by Mohammad thirteen centuries ago, when he told the future generations that a great battle between Islam and the infidels would be fought out in northern Syria at the town of Dabiq near the Turkish border. That is where the old world will come to an end. It will precede the arrival of the Mahdi and the end of the world. Only the purest of the pure from the ranks of Muslims will enjoy the new state of peace and prosperity.
It has all been foretold, and the falling bombs on Islamic State positions in northern Syria are giving credibility to the ancient script for those who believe.
All that is needed to fulfill the prophecy is the arrival of an infidel army. The taunting of the United States by killing American citizens publically is intended to draw that army onto the battlefield to unite Muslims against the return of the Crusaders. If the United States rejects the challenge, it will be declared a coward and will confirm to followers of the Islamic State their strength. This is sure to give the movement even more appeal in the eyes of potential jihadists.
Felix Imonti studied international relations at UCLA, where he was in the African Studies Program. He focused as well upon South and East Asia. He has traveled widely and has lived in seven countries. Recently, he returned to Canada after living for ten years in Japan. While in Japan, he was the director of investment strategies for a private equity firm. He has published a history book, Violent Justice, and has published many articles in a wide variety of publications. He has been interviewed on radio stations in the U.S. and in Australia. You can reach him at feliximonti@gmail.com, and his blog can be found at: www.watchinggeopoliticalgames.wordpress.com.
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