Showing posts with label al-Qaeda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label al-Qaeda. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
CIA ramps up role in Iraq to 'help' government defend against al-Qaeda elements the CIA actively supports in Syria & Libya
Any takers for "Ambassador to Syria"?
(The West Point report on the Libyan CIA mercenaries who constitute "al-Qaeda in Iraq", and now AQ Syria, here.
Washington: The Central Intelligence Agency is ramping up support to elite Iraqi anti-terrorism units (ie. Death Squads -AI) to better fight Al Qaida affiliates, amid alarm in Washington about spillover from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, according to US officials.
The stepped-up mission expands a covert US presence on the edges of the two-year-old Syrian conflict, at a time of American concerns about the growing power of extremists in the Syrian rebellion.
Al Qaida in Iraq, the terrorist network’s affiliate in the country, has close ties to Syria-based Jabhat Al Nusra, also known as the Al Nusra Front, an opposition militant group that has attacked government installations and controls territory in northern Syria. The US State Department placed Al Nusra on its list of foreign terror organisations in December, calling the group an alias for Al Qaida in Iraq. [In Full]
Tags:
Al Nusra,
al-Qaeda,
CIA,
CIA Mercenaries,
Death Squads,
Destabilization,
Foreign Fighters,
Iraq,
Libya,
LIFG,
Mujahideen,
Syria,
Terrorism,
War On Iraq
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The 'Syrian National Council' Is Desperate... News Flurry follows:
Syrian National Council chief Moaz al-Khatib declares the Syrian revolution has failed (wayback machine)
Syria top opposition leader says willing to negotiate with Assad
Syria opposition chief al-Khatib appeals in Munich for action
Syria Opposition Leader Meets with Russian FM in Munich
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Years Resolution... "Keep Perspective": *Terrorism Still Less Deadly in US Than Lack of Health Insurance*
.H/t to Firedoglake
"Since we still seem to be having a national freakout over some loser who got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear, which was apparently worthy of a presidential address, it might be a good idea to put the actual danger posed by terrorist attacks in some numerical perspective..."
.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thirteen Expendable US Soldiers - Fort Hood Shooter Tried to Contact al Qaeda, U.S. intelligence knew...
H/t: The Gates of Hell
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.Also see this post at "Tremble The Devil" for a little forensic psychology and a comparison to another 'Joker' in the deck:
According to the officials, the Army was informed of Hasan’s contact, but it is unclear what, if anything, the Army did in response.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused...
In Full with linkage to more
In one of the more pivotal scenes of The Dark Knight, Alfred descends into a strictly ordered halogen-lit Batcave as Bruce Wayne is doggedly patching himself up. After helping his employer with some stitching, Alfred realizes that Master Bruce doesn't fully comprehend this new halcyon violence that the Joker has brought to Gotham City:Alfred: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never found anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.It's a fantastic scene from a cinematic standpoint, but a problem occurs when you pull the Joker out of the movie as one crazy-ass allegory for chaos and death. And especially when you make the leap of trying to fit terrorism into the framework provided by the Joker, to use the Joker's rubric on terrorists.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
No one better proves this than the Ft. Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan.
Because we lose any chance of gaining useful insight when we label Hasan a terrorist, stuffing him into a box of our choosing. Instead of trying to see the box that he saw himself in, and carefully crafted for himself...
Details at "Tremble the Devil" by... well... 'no name'... but impeccable 'creds'.
Anonymous received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, where he studied Comparative Middle Eastern Government under some of the university’s most renowned professors and minored in Arabic
He was employed by the Department of Defense for five-years, and worked in some of the DoD's most sensitive and salient missions.
He finished his career in Counterterrorism, where he produced analysis on some of the most ruthless and well-trained terrorists in the world.
He left to write Tremble the Devil, to help every American understand the true face of terrorism.
Tags:
Al Qaeda,
al-Qaeda,
CIA,
Fort Hood,
Islam,
Muslim,
Nidal Hasan,
Pentagon,
Serial Killer,
Set Up,
Straw Man,
U.S. Military,
US Intelligence
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Still "...hoping for change..." (but expecting none) - ARAR REDUX? (Bill Fisher)
(but expecting none)
Our new president, president Obama, has no major problem with 'rendition' either.
But in certain countries of Europe Justice trumps 'hope'.
See: "CIA verdict in Italy challenges Obama on renditions".
ARAR REDUX?
November 09 2009
By William Fisher
On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only Congress and the executive branch of government – not the courts -- can interfere with government-sponsored “extraordinary rendition, ” a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn’t OK to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months.
The citizen is Amir Meshal, 24, the son of Muslim immigrants from Egypt.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the lawsuit in Meshal’s behalf, after fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Meshal was arrested, secretly imprisoned in inhumane conditions and subjected to harsh interrogations by U.S. officials over 30 times in three different countries before ultimately being released four months later without charge,
"This case challenges the US government’s effort to evade accountability for illegal detention and interrogations in counter-terrorism operations by masking and hiding its involvement," Jonathan Hafetz, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, told IPS.
According to the ACLU, Meshal was studying Islam in Mogadishu, Somalia, in December 2006, when hostilities broke out. With the airport disabled by bombing, Meshal fled to neighboring Kenya, where he wandered in the forest for three weeks seeking shelter and assistance before being arrested. Following his arrest, he was detained and repeatedly interrogated by U.S. officials who threatened to harm him, denied him access to counsel and accused him of receiving training from al-Qaeda, which Meshal denied.
Following his arrest and detention in Kenya, the suit says Meshal was illegally rendered to Somalia and then to Ethiopia where he was imprisoned in secret for over three months. There, U.S. officials subjected him to harsh interrogations while denying him due process and access to a lawyer, his family or anyone else in the outside world...
[In Full at 'The World According To Bill Fisher]
Friday, August 1, 2008
John McCain appears to value nothing beyond sheer military might-- even if it has shady contacts to al-Qaeda - Juan Cole
From Juan Cole's Informed CommentFriday, August 01, 2008
ISI Linked to Indian Embassy Bombing;
McCain client Musharraf Likely Implicated
How much of the $10 billion in aid Bush and Cheney gave to Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf after September 11 ended up being used to kill US, NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan?
NYT reports that US intelligence intercepted communications between elements of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's military intelligence division, indicating that they gave support to the Haqqani group of Pushtun guerrillas in bombing the Indian embassy in Kabul.
There have long been suspicions that the Pakistani military was using Pushtun guerrillas to project power into Afghanistan, even as they fought them inside Pakistan itself. The NYT was told by US government officials that this intercept was the first smoking gun proving that active-duty ISI officers were complicit with violence in Afghanistan (and therefore with attacks on US and NATO troops.)
The Pakistani military has tight command and control. ISI's collaboration with the neo-Taliban and other guerrilla groups could not occur without the knowledge and acquiescence of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who was chief of staff until last fall. That is, Cheney, Bush and McCain have backed to the hilt a military dictator who has continued the old 1980s and 1990s policy of supporting Pushtun guerrillas as a way of a) dominating Afghanistan and b) training other guerrillas to hit Kashmir.
Here is what McCain said about Musharraf last winter:
' "I continue to believe Musharraf has done a pretty good job, done a lot of the things that we wanted him to do . . . I would remind some of my fellow Americans that Benazir Bhutto and [former prime minister Nawaz] Sharif presided over failed states, there was corruption, there was a failed state in Pakistan when Musharraf took charge...I would like to give Musharraf some credit for taking the measures that we asked him to do." 'Musharraf's 'successful state' involved dismissing the Supreme Court, provoking massive and repeated demonstrations, violating the constitution, interfering with free and fair elections, and presiding over a virtual national meltdown on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto late last December. McCain appears to value nothing beyond sheer military might-- even if it has shady contacts to al-Qaeda!
In Full
Thanks For Stopping By
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Today's US Election News - Zawahiri endorses McCain Plan For Iran; McCain seeks Endorsement of Catholic-Haters; 8% Percent of Pakistanis Back McCain
Does America believes in justice for the people of Iraq? An Open Response To Matthew Walleser’s Informed Comment Guest Editorial on Imperilled US Allies (Iraqi Collaborators)Nevertheless, this is too funny to let slide out of a false sense of Buffalo pride.
My perhaps unpublished 2nd try at commenting on Genocide follows.
Zawahiri endorses McCain Plan to Bomb Iran; McCain seeks Endorsement of Catholic-Haters; 8 Percent of Pakistanis Back McCain
Senator John McCain, who seeks endorsements from haters of Roman Catholics, is alleging that Hamas has "endorsed" Barack Obama. He darkly suggests that this means something.
It is a despicable, dirty campaign trick. Who do you think the Ku Klux Klan will be endorsing? And if the Grand Dragons plump for McCain, does that tell us anything about McCain except that he is pasty faced? You can't logically read off anything at all from an unsolicited endorsement.
Actually it occurred to me to ask who is endorsing McCain in the Muslim world.
Well, it turns out that al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri has declared that he is actually on McCain's side in wanting to destroy Iran. Al-Zawahiri is hurt that McCain keeps confusing hyper-Sunni al-Qaeda with radical Shiism: "Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda wants to see the destruction of Iran - a Shiite nation battling the terrorists . . . "The dispute between America and Iran is a genuine struggle, and the possibility of the US striking Iran is real," al-Zawahiri said. . ." Al-Zawahiri hopes that the US struggle with Iran will destroy the latter and weaken the former, putting al-Qaeda in a position to administer the coup de grace.
In essence, al-Zawahiri is endorsing McCain's plan to "bomb, bomb, bomb/ bomb, bomb Iran."
Then, it turns out that 8 percent of Pakistanis support McCain. 30 percent support Hillary Clinton, and she leads in this Muslim country over Obama (13%). But surely it is Pakistani liberals who are favoring Hillary, the sort people who supported Benazir Bhutto.
So which Pakistanis are supporting McCain?
Presumably the conservative Muslims who can't accept the leadership of a woman....
Then, Professor Cole goes on to cover the background of some of John McCain's more 'ardent' U.S. supporters:
But lets consider the people from whom McCain has actively sought an endorsement. Many of them seem to engage in a lot of hate speech against Catholics, Muslims and others.
John McCain's spiritual guides:
John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain actively sought, compares the Roman Catholic Church to Hitler and depicts it as drinking the blood of the Jews through history:
[Video]
John McCain praised Rod Parsely as a spiritual guide; he is caught on camera below:
[Video]
Parseley accuses the federal government of enabling a genocide against African-Americans.
That's where I attempted to comment, on the casual dismissal of the charge of genocide against African Americans, no matter WHAT the accuser's political background.
I second anonymous' comment in regard to Parsley's statement about Planned Parenthood & Margaret Sanger AND I also am here to say the genocide continues, with more than 40% of male African Americans having been incarcerated in their lives (over 90% of California's prison population is African American and Latino), chemical warfare on their communities in the form of Heroin and Crack Cocaine, much of it imported into the US over the years with the witting or unwitting (I'd be glad to state which I think, but one post on this has already been 'moderated') assistance of the US military and CIA... cf. "The French Connection" Heroin pipeline from the "Golden Triangle" of SE Asia to Marseilles France with the PUBLICLY KNOWN assistance of US Special Forces and the CIA, to the US communities of color in the sixties.
Who would believe that it ever even slowed down since then... and now, the dismemberment of their communities en masse... cf. New Orleans Katrina "reconstruction" (gentrification) and the mass forced relocation of the people who live on 'Hurricane Alley" along the Mississippi coast.
Pardon my analysis...
...but sometime I think we're all actors in an American B Movie
...and we would have much rather had John Wayne...
Y' All know darn well we would have rather had John Wayne than any of the cast of blindly US policy supporting characters currently feeling 'presidential'.
In Full, with videos, at Informed Comment
Thanks For Stopping By
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
...And In Our OTHER Dirty Little War - Mogadishu Somalia, "...the really frightening part of it was the lack of people."
Eerie silence in empty Mogadishu
By Mark Doyle BBC News world affairs correspondent, Mogadishu
7 Apr 7, 2008 - 9:45:10 AM
The streets north of the ruins of the Old Parliament in Mogadishu stretch out like alleyways bulldozed through a rubble dump.
Parts of some of the buildings are still standing - a wall here, a section of collapsed roof there.
But the overall impression in this part of the Somali capital is one of massive destruction. I did not see a single house there without shell damage or bullet holes.
However, the really frightening part of it was the lack of people.
After covering several wars, I have come to be wary of empty places.
If, in a war zone, you turn a corner and see no shops open and no people going about their business - beware.
It usually means that some military activity has recently taken place there - so the people have fled - or that the people fear an imminent attack.
And the local people almost always know best.
As I drove through parts of Mogadishu on a patrol with Ugandan soldiers of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, there was an eerie lack of human beings.
Blasted buildings aside, this ghostly absence of people was a sure sign that this place is going through a period of terrible violence.
The United Nations estimates that in the past year at least half of the population of Mogadishu - or over half a million people - have fled the fighting between the Ethiopian-backed transitional government and its Islamist and clan-based opponents.... In Full
It's obvious to even the uninterested observer that Ethiopian and AU troops are in country, but the main players in this bush war (double entendre absolutely intended) are the Islamic Court Union, the people who tried to put the Somali warlords out of the western extractive industries protection business...
A family photo the CIA's Somali warlord mercenary army leadership.
They were "extracted" by US SEALS the first time their "government" collapsed.
...with air support and advisory services courtesy of DynCorp
Click the image for specifications and history (GlobalSecurity.org)...and in the near future AFRICOM, the US military command in Africa will be directly involved, upping the US military casualty ante considerably.
Where the same terror and intimidation tactics will be used, as seen by the civilian population of Iraq...
Click for a description via the 361st PsyOps Co. IraqSpeaking of terror...
This on the latest fashionable mayhem creations specifically designed for the AC130, and (if it DOES work) undoubtedly intended for Horn of Africa deployment... Because if we CALL THEM al Qaeda (and we DO call the ICU that), they are no better than animals in our government's view, subject to torture, EMF radiation strong enough to cook flesh... whatever.
From DefenseTech's archive
Pimp My Gunship 2: Directed Energy
The AC-130U Spectre is a byword for high-precision fire support. But equipping it with directed energy weapons (DE) will take close air support to an entirely new level. The technological breakthrough needed to get there is a radical $22m superconducting generator which the Air Force will demonstrate by 2009 and which is specifically indended to fit on a C-130.
[In Full]
This on the latest fashionable mayhem creations specifically designed for the AC130, and (if it DOES work) undoubtedly intended for Horn of Africa deployment... Because if we CALL THEM al Qaeda (and we DO call the ICU that), they are no better than animals in our government's view, subject to torture, EMF radiation strong enough to cook flesh... whatever.
From DefenseTech's archive
Pimp My Gunship 2: Directed EnergyThe AC-130U Spectre is a byword for high-precision fire support. But equipping it with directed energy weapons (DE) will take close air support to an entirely new level. The technological breakthrough needed to get there is a radical $22m superconducting generator which the Air Force will demonstrate by 2009 and which is specifically indended to fit on a C-130.
[In Full]
There Have Been
Thanks For Stopping By
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Because If You Can't Nervously Laugh About Global Mayhem, What CAN You Laugh About? - Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?
Opening this weekend, an new movie by Morgan Spurlock, creator of "Super Size Me". Tipped by SilentPatriot @ Crooks and Liars
Did he FIND Osama? More Here
But he'd better hurry up if he hasn't !
The Obama Girl is... Hot... on UBL's trail:
“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” - G.W. Bush, 9/13/01
“I want justice…There’s an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive,’” - G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI
“…Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a county [sic]. Now he’s maybe in control of a cave. He’s on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we’re going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that’s what’s happening. He’s on the run, if he’s running at all. So we don’t know whether he’s in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open — we just don’t know….” - Bush, in remarks in a Press Availablity with the Press Travel Pool, The Prairie Chapel Ranch, Crawford TX, 12/28/01, as reported on official White House site
“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” - G.W. Bush, 3/13/02
“I am truly not that concerned about him.” - G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden’s whereabouts, 3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)
Friday, March 28, 2008
War on Terror in the Caribbean and Central America - Early Warning, WaPo
William M. Arkin
March 28 2008
Fighting the War on Terror in the Caribbean and Central America
Here's an odd news story that puts meat on the bones of the phrase "global war on terror": The United States is fighting that war in the Caribbean and Central America.
My assumption was that "Operation Enduring Freedom -- Caribbean and Central America," a formal military operation I'd never heard of before yesterday, is oriented toward Cuba and Venezuela. But it is not. The U.S. military is indeed engaged in a global war, and the terrorist threat, at least in the eyes of the counter-terror warriors, extends to our backyard.
I don't know whether the actual threat necessitates such an "operation," but its bureaucratic existence says a lot about our overreliance on the military and the belief of many in government that the GWOT is a real war, equivalent to the Cold War, and is one that the United States should and will be fighting for decades.
[Note: The following links are now "This page moved to here" ... ...the bitbucket]
The Rhode Island media this week was filled with the news that a unit of the state's National Guard, an organization called Special Operations Detachment -- Global (SOD-G), is deploying this week in support of something called Operation Enduring Freedom -- Caribbean and Central America.
Working for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), SOD-G is moving to an airbase in Homestead, Fla., where it will take up contingency counter-terrorism planning responsibilities for the region, seeking to characterize how al Qaeda and other terrorists might exploit drug trafficking routes and patterns or other gaps in American defense to infiltrate into the United States.
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