Sunday, November 22, 2015

ISIS Who’s Your Daddy? Part II – Saudi Puppet Master vs. American JV Team



President John F. Kennedy said “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan” by that standard one could say ISIS with its recent victorious terrorist attacks in France, has a thousand fathers.  Well at least 40 fathers according to the calculation of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.  From Mint Press:


Excerpt:


During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.


“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.


“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.


Imagine that, the United States has been bombing ISIS in Syria for over a year, and ISIS still has refueling convoys stretching “beyond the horizon” in clear view from space.  And these aren’t just any junk heaps that ISIS has.  From Global Research:



Excerpt:


Where Does ISIS Get All Those Tanks, Weapons And Shiny New Toyota Trucks?


Yikes! Those evil, marauding terrorists from ISIS are still at large, but fear not: ISIS can’t escape from the U.S. and our allies for long. And when we get ’em, we’re going to kick their cartoonist/woman/gay/Christian-hating Jihadi butts from here until Sunday.


There’s just one problem. If we’re at war with ISIS, why do we keep supplying them with tanks, weapons, Humvees and shiny new Toyota trucks?  CNN reports:


“They’re hard to miss. Packed with ISIS fighters and heavy weapons, Toyota pickup trucks and SUV’s are featured prominently in ISIS propaganda videos.”


According to ABC, the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Terror Financing unit has finally taken notice of the endless parades of shiny, new Toyota trucks starring in ISIS’s propaganda videos, and they’ve launched an investigation….


Toyota trucks aren’t all ISIS has managed to buy, capture or scavenge from us. In June, CNBC reported that so far we’ve accidentally furnished the Islamic State with at least $219.7 million worth of weapons, vehicles and other military supplies and gear — and that’s just the stuff we know about.


Based on various reports, CNBC came up with the following laundry list of supplies the U.S. has so kindly provided to ISIS so far.


2,300 Humvee armored vehicles at $70,000 each: $16 million

40 M1A1 Abram tanks at $4.3 million each: $172 million

52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems at $527,337 each: $2.7 million

74,000 Army machine guns at $4,000 each: $29 million

TOTAL: $219.7 MILLION in military weapons, vehicles, and other supplies and gear for ISIS.


How does the Islamic State get hold of all these U.S. weapons? We deliver them, either directly or through the tattered remnants of Iraq’s military. Jeremy Salt, a political analyst in Ankara, Turkey, gives RT.Com quite the scathing earful:


“Do you think the Islamic State’s advance would have been so successful without access to this U.S. military hardware…?


And one of our main allies in the illegal bombing and attacks on the sovereign nation of Syria is none other than Saudi Arabia.  That’s right, Saudi Arabia who also provided the funding for the terrorists who attacked the United States of America on September 11, 2001. 


But in the United States, we’re not allowed to see the 28 pages of the 9-11 report and those who have seen the 28 pages aren’t allowed to talk about it as 9-11 commission member, Senator Bob Graham found out.


Given the brutal attacks on France that took place on November 13, 2015 that we are told ISIS has claimed responsibility for, maybe we should see those 28 pages from the 9-11 report.  From LaRouche.com


Excerpt:


In the Wake of Paris:  Release the 28 Pages Now!


Nov. 17—On Jan. 7, 2015, just hours after terrorists staged an assault on the Paris offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and killed a dozen people, former U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) joined House of Representatives Members Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and representatives of the 9/11 families, in a Capitol Hill press conference, convened to demand the immediate release of the 28-page chapter from the original 2002 Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11, which documented the role of the Saudi Royal Family in financing the hijackers….


Sen. Graham’s words are even more profound and timely today, in the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris massacres by Islamic State-allied butchers. Graham told the standing-room only crowd:


The Saudis know what they did. They are not persons who are unaware of the consequences of their government’s actions. Second, the Saudis know that we know what they did!


Sen. Graham was absolutely right on Jan. 7. His words now take on even greater significance, as the entire world is still in shock over the Friday events in Paris, and the prospect that it can happen again.


ISIS has already issued a new threat of similar blind terror attacks, this time targeting Washington, D.C. and other American cities. The Russian government, after a careful investigation, has concluded, as of Nov. 17, that the Metro Jet plane that blew up over Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was downed by a terrorist bomb planted on board. ISIS has claimed credit for that atrocity, in which 224 people were killed. ISIS also took credit for a pair of suicide bombings in southern Beirut on Nov. 12, which killed and wounded hundreds of innocents….


The shock of the Paris attacks has forced the Obama Administration, for the moment at least, to abandon its hate campaign against Russia and President Putin, and at least formally accept the urgency of collaboration with Moscow to crush the Islamic State…


Had the full scope of the Saudi Monarchy’s bloody hands behind 9/11 come out at the time, no American President could have gotten away with the coddling of the Saudis that has been the hallmark of both the Bush and Obama Administrations, post-9/11. To this day, President Obama openly praises the Saudis for their role in the “coalition” fighting ISIS….



Odd isn’t it?  Why would the Obama Administration continue to demand that they won’t agree to any kind of peace agreement in Syria unless the elected President of Syria, Bashar Assad goes, which would leave a power vacuum in Syria.  That is something only Saudi Arabia is demanding.  Just seems odd, Obama’s Syria strategy doesn’t make any sense.  From The Atlantic:


Excerpt:


Saudi Arabia, for example, believes ISIS cannot be defeated unless Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is removed from power. Turkey has just convinced NATO nations that the war against ISIS can only be won if Turkey’s traditional Kurdish opponents are neutralized first. Israel sees only one way to defeat ISIS: destroy Iran’s nuclear program and clip its wings regionally….


Saudi Arabia proposes first dislodging President Assad in Syria, one of ISIS’s principal enemies, which will in turn strengthen the Islamic State. That may seem like a step backward, but fear not: There’s more.


The Saudis will then attack Yemen to defeat the Houthis, who are allied with Iran. This will distract Iran in its fight against ISIS. The Kingdom will also draw other Arab countries away from U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq so that these states can participate in Saudi-led strikes in Yemen. Where, you ask, does defeating ISIS fit into all this? You may have missed it: Please return to the start of this paragraph….


America’s strategy is substantially different from everyone else’s. President Barack Obama wants to defeat ISIS by not appearing to be the force defeating ISIS. This is a difficult task, particularly when your air force is the one carrying out most operations against ISIS targets.


But Obama is an astute strategist. His plan centers on supporting Kurdish factions as he also supports Turkey which is now attacking the Kurds while also supporting Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen which upsets Iran whom U.S. forces are collaborating with in fighting ISIS in Iraq as he simultaneously yields to pressure from allies to weaken Assad in Syria which complicates things further with Iran which he pacifies by signing the nuclear deal upsetting America’s traditional friend Israel whose anger is absorbed with shipments of advanced weapons escalating the arms race in the region.


Jeebus, what a circle jerk and Obama is sending American troops in there to die, while Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states plan to abandon Obama’s JV team in Syria to obliterate Yemen.  From The Intercept:

Sana'a, a living museum, was declared a World Heritage City by the United Nations in 1986


Excerpt:


SHARDS OF BLUE, RED, AND GREEN stained glass, remnants of an intricate crescent window that is a 4,000-year-old Yemeni art form, glitter in the sunlight before crunching underfoot. Atop a mound of dust and mud stands the shell of an ancient tower-house, sliced in half like a cake by an airstrike.


In addition to the growing number of civilian casualties in the country’s seven-month-long war, U.S.-made bombs dropped by fighter jets from a Saudi Arabian-led coalition are pulverizing Yemen’s architectural history, often referred to as a living museum. These airstrikes are tearing villages apart, forcibly displacing thousands and erasing the country’s inimitable heritage, possibly in violation of international humanitarian law, according to the world heritage body, UNESCO….


Yemen’s time-honored homes are part of the country’s rich social fabric, embodying the culture of the families who have lived in them for centuries. The Middle East’s poorest nation is famous for constructing the world’s first skyscrapers, often up to 100 feet high, with as many as 11 stories designed to keep extended families and their livestock safely under one roof.


The violent assault on the country’s history over the past seven months began in March after a political power struggle between incumbent president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels backed by soldiers loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, descended into civil war.


But Yemen’s internal conflict has also landed the country’s 26 million people in the middle of the regional struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, already at loggerheads over the war in Syria….

The al-Hadi mosque in Saada City, Yemen, before the bombing on May


On May 8 the Saudi-led coalition declared Saada City, home to some 50,000 people, a “military zone,” which Human Rights Watch says is a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and gave civilians a few hours’ notice to leave.


Many of those who did not heed the coalition’s warning were forced to flee their homes by the ensuing airstrikes. The village of Rahban, on the outskirts of the city, was razed. It consisted entirely of historic, centuries-old multistory homes with thick rammed-earth walls, rainbow-colored stained-glass windows and hand-carved wooden doors. Timber joists that supported families for tens of generations now protrude from piles of rubble. More than 30 homes were wiped out.


Ibrahim al-Sabra, 23, and his relatives were one of more than 100 families who fled their homes to escape an apparently deliberate tactic of forced displacement of civilians that could amount to a war crime under Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The bombardment that destroyed his home started just after 3 a.m. and killed two of al-Sabra’s cousins….


The destruction of historical sites and Shiite mosques is not unique to Yemen. One of Saudi Arabia’s coalition partners, Bahrain, demolished or vandalized at least 35 Shiite mosques during the country’s political uprising against minority Sunni rule in 2011, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, all with Saudi backing. The Saudi Kingdom has shown very little, if any, regard for its own historical sites. The former director of the Mecca Hajj Research center previously stated that by 2008, more than 300 ancient sites had been destroyed in Mecca and Medina alone….


American and British support for the bombing campaign continues despite calls from human rights organizations to halt weapons supplies to the Saudi-led coalition in the wake of what Amnesty International called “damning evidence of war crimes.” Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, however, managed to delay the latest planned transfer from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia of precision-guided weapons….


The world-famous Great Marib Dam was bombed for the first time in May. Dating back to the eighth century B.C., the dam was 50 feet high and 2,100 feet wide, almost twice the width of the Hoover Dam. It was a wonder of the ancient world, watering the region for 1,000 years. Marib was the capital of the Sabaean Kingdom, ruled by the Biblical Queen of Sheba. Last month the province became the latest front-line battleground for coalition troops and the Houthi forces…


A second ancient temple to the god of thunderstorms and rain, At har dhu-Qabd, was also mostly lost to the aerial assaults. The joint Italian-Yemeni team excavated and painstakingly restored both temples as part of a 25-year project that ran from 1990. The shrines were cultural treasures for the whole Arabian Peninsula….


A small museum housing the most precious finds from the team’s excavations was similarly reduced to piles of shattered stone in September, says Fedele. On September 17, Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO, deplored “the senseless destruction of one of the richest cultures in the Arab region….”


Given the horrific attacks that have taken place in Paris, what is the response of American President Barack Obama and France’s President Francois Hollande?  From The Independent:



Excerpt:


Francois Hollande's 'war' with Isis won't stand in the way of France's arms deals with Saudi Arabia


…The country which lent its Sunni-Wahhabi creed to the Isis killers of Paris will care nothing for François Hollande’s huffing and puffing about war….


The Saudis are far too busy blowing up bits of Yemen in their crazed war against the Shia Houthis to worry about the Sunni-Wahhabi crazies of Isis. Their enemy remains America’s new best friend – Shia Iran – and they are as keen as ever to dethrone the Alawite-Shia President of Syria, even if Isis is in the front line against Bashar al-Assad.


They know that French foreign policy has favoured Saudi trade as fervently as it once opposed the Iranian nuclear agreement – and that billions of dollars’ worth of US military supplies will still flow to the kingdom despite their countrymen’s links to the cult which destroyed 129 lives in Paris…


It has largely stopped bombing Isis – surprise, surprise –but desperately needs more weapons after burning up its arms inventories on the poverty-stricken Yemenis. The proposed weapons deal – already approved by the US State Department – includes Boeing direct attack munitions and Paveway laser-guided bombs from Raytheon…


The Houthis, needless to say, still control a lot of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, even though the Iranian military assistance to them – much trumpeted by the Saudis – is mythical. Human rights groups have long accused the Saudis’ air strikes of indiscriminately killing civilians – the UN put the total civilian dead at 2,355, each one, of course, as precious as the 129 lives destroyed in Paris on Friday.


The Americans – and the French – would presumably like the Saudis to kill 2,355 members of Isis, but that is not to be. The US Congress has already permitted Obama to sell another 600 Patriot PAC-3 air defence rockets – putting £5.4bn in Lockheed Martin’s pocket…


As for France’s new emergency laws, they will bother neither the Saudis nor any other Arab nation. In a Middle East in which the local dictators, kings and emirs – almost all of them the West’s allies – regularly spy on their citizens, tape their telephones and torture their own people, no one is going to care if the new Hollande laws restrict the egalité or liberté of the people of France


And of far more interest to France will be its own lucrative arms deals with Saudi Arabia, where Hollande still hopes – forlornly, one might add – to supplant the US as the kingdom’s main arms supplier. He may think he’s “at war” with Isis – but the spiritual mentors of the so-called Caliphate will be left untouched.


Are there any sane voices in the world’s governments to stop the Saudi Puppet Masters against the JV team of the West? From Mint Press




Excerpt:


Jeremy Corbyn Calls For Sanctions Against Countries Funding ISIS, Including Saudi Arabia


“Surely a crucial way to help defeat Isil is to cut off its funding, its supply of arms, and its trade,” Corbyn said Wednesday.


The UK should be more proactive about imposing sanctions on banks and countries suspected of funding or supporting the militant group Isis, the leader of the Labour party has said.


Jeremy Corbyn told David Cameron to push for an economic crackdown with the rest of the European Union, claiming the terror group was being provided with “vital infrastructure”….


In the immediate aftermath of the Paris terror attacks Mr Corbyn had named Saudi Arabia as a country that was not doing all it could to fight the militant group.


He argued that “Saudi Arabia, maybe not at Government level, but certainly at aid-level, has been providing support to Isil”.


David Cameron replied to Mr Corbyn the UK was already playing a “leading role” in cutting off support…


Both Mr Cameron and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon have SAID THEY WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND BRITISH AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ TO SYRIA, where Isis is also operating.

David Cameron receives a sash from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia


Mr Corbyn in particular has said that SUCH AIRSTRIKES COULD SIMPLY BRING MORE “MAYHEM” and has called for a negotiated political solution to the conflict involving major regional players, including Iran and Turkey.


So what is the latest plans of the JV team against the Saudi Puppet Master?  Well let’s see what the captain of the JV team has to say.  From Huffington Post:  


Excerpt:


Obama: Russia needs a "strategic adjustment" on ISIS


KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States and its international partners "will not relent" in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and that the world would not accept the extremists' attacks on civilians in Paris and elsewhere as the "new normal."


"The most powerful tool we have is to say we are not afraid," Obama said…


The president also pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to align himself with the U.S.-led coalition….


He called on Russia todrop its support for Assad…


Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda.  So the answer to “ISIS who’s your daddy?” is….



By Patricia Baeten

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