Tag Archives: terrorism

He Said That? 2/12/16

Posted on February 12, 2016 | 2 comments

From Mustaf Amin, a political leader of Levant Front, which has received US weapons and is one of the largest rebel alliances fighting Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah for control of Aleppo, Syria.

The rebels now have a responsiblity to change the way they fight. If we don’t get support from our allies in a major way, it will need to transform into guerrilla warfare.

The Wall Street Journal, “Rebels Switch to Guerrilla Tactics,” 2/12/16.

The article states that the rebels “have already started turning to guerrilla tactics such as assassinations, ambushes and hit-and-run attacks.”

If the Levant Front was a US enemy instead of an ally (and it may be, one can never tell in the Middle East) the US government and The Wall Street Journal would label their new tactics terrorism, not guerrilla warfare.

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Saudi Arabia’s Phony War on Terror, by Brahma Chellaney

Posted on December 22, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Brahma Chellaney at project-syndicate.org

BERLIN – Containing the scourge of Islamist terror will be impossible without containing the ideology that drives it: Wahhabism, a messianic, jihad-extolling form of Sunni fundamentalism whose international expansion has been bankrolled by oil-rich sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia. That is why the newly announced Saudi-led anti-terror coalition, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism, should be viewed with profound skepticism.

Wahhabism promotes, among other things, the subjugation of women and the death of “infidels.” It is – to quote US President Barack Obama’s description of what motivated a married couple of Pakistani origin to carry out the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California – a “perverted interpretation of Islam,” and the ideological mother of jihadist terrorism. Its offspring include Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and the Islamic State, all of which blend hostility toward non-Sunnis and anti-modern romanticism into nihilistic rage.
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Saudi Arabia has been bankrolling Islamist terrorism since the oil-price boom of the 1970s dramatically boosted the country’s wealth. According to a 2013 European Parliament report, some of the $10 billion invested by Saudi Arabia for “its Wahhabi agenda” in South and Southeast Asia was “diverted” to terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Western leaders have recognized the Saudi role for many years. In a 2009 diplomatic cable, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton identified Saudi Arabia as “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” Thanks largely to the West’s interest in Saudi oil, however, the Kingdom has faced no international sanctions.

Now, with the growth of terrorist movements like the Islamic State, priorities are changing. As German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said in a recent interview, “We must make it clear to the Saudis that the time of looking the other way is over.”

This shift has spurred the Kingdom to announce a “crackdown” on individuals and groups that fund terror. But, according to a recent US State Department report, some Saudi-based charities and individual donors continue to fund Sunni militants.

From this perspective, Saudi Arabia’s surprise announcement of a 34-country anti-terror alliance, with a joint operations center based in Riyadh, is a logical step, aimed at blunting growing Western criticism, while boosting Sunni influence in the Middle East. But, of course, the alliance is a sham – as a closer look at its membership makes clear.

To continue reading: Saudi Arabia’s Phony War on Terror

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Technology Is a Mysterious Enemy to Politicians, by Lucy Steigerwald

Posted on December 18, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Lucy Steigerwald at antiwar.com:

The most recent Republican debate for the 2016 election was unsurprisingly dominated by the shadow of terrorism and war. The Paris attacks that killed more than 130 people, plus the 14 deaths in San Bernardino, California seem to have brought about a new-old sentiment among Republicans. The year is now somewhere between 2001 and 2005 again.

One thing that has changed since the height of Bush-and-Cheney paranoia? Technology. The Internet is our lives like it wasn’t in the pre-iPhone days. And with great dependence comes great(er) government-induced fear-mongering.

Encryption is often the big boogeyman, a sentiment which Ohio Gov. John Kasich expressed at the debate. As always, details of who used what to plan what terrorist attack never seem to matter so much as frightening hypotheticals. The NSA’s dragnet spying is vital. We are in danger every moment one legal justification for that program is down, and we must bring it back. So said Sen. Marco Rubio at the debate, a point that is generally echoed by every candidate on stage except for Sen. Rand Paul (and Sen. Ted Cruz on a good day).

These presidential candidates are pandering to the right, powerful people. Feds constantly say they cannot afford to “go dark.” Meaning, they need on-demand backdoor access to servers and mobile devices and cannot let technology leave them powerless to spy and snoop.

Apple and Google have responded to the question of how much they should oblige law enforcement by taking the decision out of their own hands altogether. Full device encryption is standard on all Apple and Android devices sold with the current operating systems. The keys for this encryption is stored locally and not held by Apple or Google. That’s one way to get around certain requests, and it is a way that ticks off many of the people who are dying to be the so-called leader of the free world.

Former Hewlett-Packer CEO Carly Fiorina spoke critically about tech at the debate as well. (She also he told the vaguest Tom Clancy novel plot summary of all time about the time she happily shared technology with the NSA, so they could more easily implement the STELLARWIND wiretapping.) She may be the most adamantly anti-technology, anti-Fourth Amendment of the Republican candidates, speaking about the PATRIOT Act not in terms of its horrible legacy, but in terms of something nice that needs a serious tune-up in 2015. In her mind, government’s job is to keep pace with each new method of communication, or new technological toy. The idea that anonymity has value has not occurred to her. Not when terrorists are out there. And companies shouldn’t need to be forced to comply, they should do it anyway.

Naturally, the idea that cyber-terrorists are a serious threat but also the government needs to be able to force backdoor access into devices is one that government officials can hold flawlessly in their compartmentalized minds. Even if the latter would make life much easier for any malevolent hacker. And even if law enforcement still has many other options when it comes to snooping out data and communications.

To continue reading: Technology Is a Mysterious Enemy to Politicians

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News Channels Are Terror Delivery Systems; Politicians Are Terror Exploitation Specialists, by Paul Rosenberg

Posted on December 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:

Terrorists need news channels and vice-versa. Politicians need terrorists and vice-versa. There’s a symbiosis between these three that works like this:

Terrorists create and feed off of fear.

News channels deliver fear to the masses.

Politicians use fear to get what they want.

Some people may object to these facts being specified, but they’re true just the same.

Private and Public Opportunism

In this symbiosis, we see the rapacious natures of both the public and private sectors. I’ll begin by picking on the private sector.

I believe deeply in free markets, but if the participants don’t bring morality and decency into their markets, plenty of ugliness will remain. Free markets, after all, are ad hoc mechanisms of interaction, and nothing more. A market contains only the morality that its participants carry into it.

Now, the truth is that mom-and-pop operations tend to be remarkably decent and moral. There are occasional exceptions, but they are exceptions.

Big commerce, however – and by that I mean the “pay politicians for laws and regulations” kind of commerce – tends to run after anything that brings in more money or pumps its stock. Such corporations seldom bring morality into their markets. And if governments try to enforce law in their markets, it’s a good bet that they can be paid off. (Where’s Jon Corzine these days?)

News channels are this second type of operation. Frightening stories are the engine of their profits. They scour the Earth for terrifying images and fearful possibilities. And then they deliver them to huge swaths of humanity, who have an innate weakness for such things. It’s like selling sugar donuts to the obese.

As for the public sector, these are the people who deliver various types of monopoly rights in return for “contributions.” Multi-billion dollar industries are devoted to this, after all.

Politicians are also the people who say, in their forthright moments, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

All of the above being so, we see this at the end of the line:

For news channels, terrorism means profits.

For politicians, terrorism means the steamrolling of dissent.

Terrorism furthers the goals of both these groups, and so they run greedily after it.

To continue reading: Terror Delivery Systems, Terror Exploitation Specialists

 

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Did Saudi Arabia Just Clear The Way For An Invasion Of Syria And Iraq? by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

And now, a further turn for the absurd…

While it’s still far from common knowledge among the Western public that Washington’s closest allies in the Mid-East are funding, arming, and otherwise enabling the Sunni extremists (including ISIS) battling for control of Syria and working to destabilize Iraq, the massacre that unfolded earlier this month in San Bernardino has managed to focus some much needed attention on the role Saudi Arabia plays in promoting extremism.

As we noted in the immediate aftermath of the California mass shooting, the fact that Tashfeen Malik spent 25 years in Saudi Arabia living with a father who, according to family members who spoke to Reuters, adopted an increasingly hardline ideology as time went on, underscores the fact that the puritanical, ultra orthodox belief system promoted by the Saudis is poisonous. That’s not a critique of Islam. It’s a critique of Wahhabism and the effect it has on the minds of those who are inculcated by Saudi culture.

Here’s an excerpt from “Saudi Arabia Is Underwriting Terrorism. Let’s Start Making It Pay,” by Charles Kenny:

For years since 9/11, U.S. and Western officials have mostly looked the other way at all this ideological support for extremism: Saudi oil was just too important to the global economy, even though many of these Saudi petro-dollars were underwriting repression at home and the growth of Salafist fundamentalism abroad.

This support for radicalism abroad should come as little surprise given that Islamic State is an ideological cousin of Saudi Arabia’s own state-sponsored extremist Wahhabi sect—which the country has spent more than $10 billion to promote worldwide through charitable organizations like the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. The country will continue to export extremism as long as it practices the same policies at home.

More, from “Saudi Arabia: An ISIS That Has Made It,” by Kamel Daoud:

Black Daesh, white Daesh. The former slits throats, kills, stones, cuts off hands, destroys humanity’s common heritage and despises archaeology, women and non-Muslims. The latter is better dressed and neater but does the same things. The Islamic State; Saudi Arabia. In its struggle against terrorism, the West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other. This is a mechanism of denial, and denial has a price: preserving the famous strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia at the risk of forgetting that the kingdom also relies on an alliance with a religious clergy that produces, legitimizes, spreads, preaches and defends Wahhabism, the ultra-puritanical form of Islam that Daesh feeds on.

Consider that, and consider the following headline from Reuters which surely qualifies as the most tragically ironic thing you’ll read all day: “Saudi Arabia announces 34-state Islamic military alliance against terrorism”

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, you no longer have anything to fear from Sunni extremists because the undisputed king of promoting Sunni extremism is on the case. “The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations center based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations,” a statement from state-ruun SPA said.

But it gets better. Much better.

To continue reading: Did Saudi Arabia Just Clear The Way For An Invasion Of Syria and Iraq?

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Saudi Arabia Is Underwriting Terrorism. Let’s Start Making It Pay. By Charles Kenny

Posted on December 9, 2015 | 1 comment

From Charles Kenny at politico.com:

We don’t know yet what happened to San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik during her many years living in Saudi Arabia, or what her U.S.-born husband and accomplice, Syed Farook, might have experienced during his two recent visits to the country. But it isn’t news that Saudi Arabia, a supposed U.S. ally, has a long record of promoting religious extremism at home and exporting it abroad. According to a Reuters report, relatives of the Pakistani-born Malik say she and her father appeared to have become more radicalized during years they spent in Saudi Arabia. Between 1,500 and 2,500 Saudis have joined the fighting in Iraq and Syria in part thanks to the close relationship between the ideology of the Islamic State and of Saudi Wahabism. In the last month alone, Saudi Arabia has declared its intent to behead 50 people across the country and has threatened legal action against any who suggest beheading is “ISIS-like.”

For years since 9/11, U.S. and Western officials have mostly looked the other way at all this ideological support for extremism: Saudi oil was just too important to the global economy, even though many of these Saudi petro-dollars were underwriting repression at home and the growth of Salafist fundamentalism abroad. But today, two things have changed: first, the global cost of Saudi-backed extremism has continued to climb—with the rise of ISIS and Boko Haram, the bombings in Beirut and Paris and the shootings in San Bernardino.

The other factor that has changed is that there is no longer as much economic justification for America to kowtow to the Saudi regime. With Saudi Arabian dominance of the global oil market declining, and the United States moving itself closer to energy independence—and the deal to halt Iranian nuclear weapons technology moving ahead, neutralizing for the moment at least the threat of a Mideast arms race—there has never been a better time to reconsider America’s close relationship with the House of Saud. That means moving toward a regime of sanctions designed to pressure the ruling royal family toward respecting rights at home and peace abroad. Other major nations appear to be recognizing the same thing: “We have to make clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over,” Sigmar Gabriel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

It’s long past time, in other words, to make Saudi Arabia pay for its ideological support of extremism. The United States should be pressuring Saudi Arabia to reform and—if necessary—move on to targeted sanctions modeled on those the United States has applied to Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Such sanctions block the sale or transfer of money, goods or services owned by specifically named individuals, and prevent those named from entering the United States.

To continue reading: Time to Take on the Saudis Over Terror

 

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We Have Nothing To Fear Except Fear-Mongering Politicians, by David Stockman

Posted on December 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

From David Stockman at davidstockmanscontracorner.com:

During the past year Sonya Jones was killed picking blueberries; Carla Grow was killed on a family picnic; Megan Nickell died playing volley ball on a beach; and Gage McFadden met the same fate playing disc golf. William Clevenger was struck down rounding up cattle, as was Frankie Roberts walking some dogs.

The killer in all of these cases—–lightning!

In fact, since September 11, 2001 there have been more than 400 people killed by lightning in America, according to the national weather service.

And while we are at it, here are some more facts. During the 14 years between the horrific but flukish events of 9/11 and last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, there had been just six civilians killed on American soil by jihadist oriented terrorists. Two were killed at the El Al counter at LAX airport in 2002 and four at the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013.

There were also four deaths from the unsolved anthrax attacks of 2002 and also the murderous 2009 rampage at Ft Hood and the killings at the Chattanooga military centers last summer. But most Americans have never set foot on a military base nor do they have any risk of exposure to the special propensity for violence that may be kindled at such facilities.

Yes, we clearly had a lone wolf(s) event last week or what some oafish CNN war storm-chaser described as “do it yourself terrorism”.

But the best thing that 318 million Americans can do about that danger is to tune out every single word that politicians have to say about it.

To continue reading: We Have Nothing To Fear Except Fear-Mongering Politicians

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