Tag Archives: terrorism

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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How Obama is Using the Grossly Unconstitutional “No Fly List” to Push Gun Control, by Michael Krieger

Posted on December 8, 2015 | 1 comment

From Michael Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

The faux “liberal” who holds the White House was at it once again last night. As he’s accommodated to doing, he presented a radically undemocratic and unconstitutional practice as a common sense appeal to the American public to accept gun control. What I am referring to specifically is the following passage from last night’s speech:

To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security.

Obama is not stupid. He knows exactly how shady the no fly list is, yet he’s pushing on national television as a way to enact gun control. The effectiveness of his bullshit depends on an unbelievably ignorant voter base, as well as the cultish, thoughtless devotion from what’s left of his zombified supporters.

To explain what I mean, it’s important to understand what the “no-fly” list actually is. As relates to a lawsuit it filed against the government on behalf of veterans placed on the list without notice, the ACLU notes the following:

In a motion for partial summary judgment, the ACLU asked the court to rule that the inadequate redress process for people on the list violates the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. The court partially granted that motion in August 2013, holding that the Constitution applies when the government bans Americans from air travel. In June 2014, the court struck down the government’s redress process as unconstitutional, and it ordered the government to tell the ACLU’s clients why they are on the No Fly List and give them the opportunity to challenge their inclusion on the list before the court. In October 2014, the government finally informed seven of the 13 plaintiffs that they were not on the list, and it then provided the remaining six plaintiffs with unclassified “summaries” of the reasons for their placement on the list. However, the government still keeps its full reasons secret. It also withholds evidence and exculpatory information from our clients and refuses to give them a live hearing to establish their credibility or cross-examine witnesses. Because of these and other serious problems, the ACLU has challenged the revised process as unconstitutional.
Until the government fixes its unconstitutional new process, people on the No Fly List are barred from commercial air travel with no meaningful chance to clear their names, resulting in a vast and growing group of individuals whom the government deems too dangerous to fly but too harmless to arrest.

Just in case you still aren’t aware of how egregiously the “no-fly” list flies in the face of the Bill of Rights, here’s the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The “no-fly” list since inception has without question deprived American citizens of life and liberty without due process. In fact, the government made slight improvements only after being sued by the ACLU. Furthermore, were the San Bernardino shooters on the “no-fly” list? Where any of the other highly publicized mass shooters on it?

To continue reading: How Obama is Using the “No Fly List” to Push Gun Control

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San Bernardino Attack Eye-Witness: “Three Tall White Men Did It, by Shephard Ambellas

Posted on December 7, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Shephard Ambellas at Intellihub.com, via zerohedge.com:

A few interesting details have surfaced regarding Wednesday’s mass shooting dubbed ‘terror attack’ which killed 14 and injured 17 others. One of the most interesting comes from an eyewitness.

We now know that ATF investigators recovered police issued firearms from the alleged shooters. This key detail was leaked by 2016 GOP Presidential Candidate Carly Fiorina during a press interview after she had overheard a newsroom report that doesn’t fit the official narrative.

We also know that active shooter drills actually took place near the crime scene just days before and possibly even on the same day of the mass shooting as reported by Mac Slavo.

Additionally details from an eyewitness, who came forth on the day of the shooting, may have been overlooked by investigators and suggest that there were actually ‘three white shooters’ instead of the radicalized husband and wife natural-born killer team portrayed in some mainline reports.

The witness, Sally Abdelmageed, worked at Inland Medical Center where the attack took place and saw it all unfold firsthand. It’s also important to note that Abdelmageed is likely not lying and that this quite possibly might be the most accurate eyewitness account publicized to date. After all how can two shooters, a man and a petite woman, be mistaken for three white military men with athletic builds?

In a phone interview with CBS Abdelmageed explained:

“I heard shots fired and it was from you know an automatic weapon. […] very unusual. Why would we hear shots? As we looked out the window a second set of shots goes off […] and we saw a man fall to the floor. Then we just looked and we saw three men dressed in all black, military attire, with vests on they were holding assault rifles. As soon as they opened up the doors to building three […] one of them […] started to shoot into the room.”

To continue reading: San Bernardino Attack Eye-Witness

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Security Theater: Customary Federal Pointlessness, by Fred Reed

Posted on December 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Fred Reed on a guest post on theburningplatform.com:

A few cheering thoughts on terrorism. This column specializes in cheering thoughts.

Terrorism by Moslems in America and Europe cannot be stopped. If attacks do not occur, it will be because nobody tried very hard. Stopping them would require excluding Moslems, deporting them, or controlling them by totalitarian methods. Or, improbably, minding our own business in the Middle East.

What you think of the foregoing approaches doesn’t matter, since none of them will be used. In France the result would be a civil war. America is too divided to do anything about anything.

The notion that the government can prevent terrorism suggests studied inattention to the obvious. To begin, the intelligence agencies have proved useless. NSA did not prevent the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993, nor the successful one. French intelligence did not prevent the recent attacks in Paris, nor Russian intelligence the downing of the airliner over Syria. On and on.
The idea that terrorism can be prevented must include the idea that a package containing ten pounds of C4 (or Semtex, or RDX, or….) and a blasting cap can be kept out of a country with long and almost open borders. America can exclude neither tons of prohibited substances nor tens of thousands of prohibited people. C4 is not hard to use. I learned in infantry training at Camp Lejeune long ago. Nothing to it.

Exercise for the reader: Think of five ways a terrorist cell with the resources of the Nine-Eleven attackers could get a small suitcase into America. Think how you could do it.

What goes on at airports is not security. It is Security Theater. When the government’s own agents try to smuggle “weapons” aboard airliners to test the system, they succeed ninety-five percent of the time.

Further, a terrorist doesn’t need to get aboard an airliner to blow up spectacularly. At many airports, hundreds of people line up at ticket counters during peak hours. A carry-on bag of explosive would easily create enough slaughter to shut down air travel and to make international headlines for weeks.

The willingness of a suicide bomber to die makes him almost unstoppable. If he has assembled enough explosive for a car bomb, he has only to find a large number of people together, pull up to them, and push the button. An AK, a thirty-round magazine, and a Fourth of July crowd would serve well. Ten pounds of C4 in a shoulder bag in a crowded movie theater would also work. Suicide would not be necessary: “Would you watch my bag for a minute while I go to the john?”

Warnings at airports that unattended vehicles will be ticketed, towed, and perhaps destroyed are also Security Theater. By the time the vehicle was noticed, and somebody sent to check it out, an easy five minutes would have passed and the driver would be somewhere else. Boom.

Tim McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma using ammonium-nitrate fertilizer. He didn’t need to smuggle anything into the US. How do you watch fertilizer?

To continue reading: Security Theater: Customary Federal Pointlessness

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Paris is Prologue, by Worth Wray

Posted on November 30, 2015 | 1 comment

From Worth Wray at evergreengavekal.com:

“Europe only succeeds if we work together.”
~ Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany since 2005

SUMMARY

– The recent attacks in Paris evoke strong emotions for many people, but investors need to look through those feelings to the short, medium, and long-term implications. I believe Paris may mark an important turning point for Europe and the global business cycle… but for different reasons than you may think.

– The immediate impact on France’s economy will be minor and short-lived as long as it proves to be an isolated incident. There are significant downside risks to economic growth if terror attacks in Europe become the new normal.

– Europe’s Muslim population faces an unemployment rate around 50% compared to the EU average of 10% and xenophobia is rising after the Paris attacks. From that perspective, Europe is becoming a breeding ground for radical Islam.

– As refugees flock to Europe from Middle East, the foundations of modern Europe are breaking down. Walls, fences, and security checkpoints are going up all over the continent and countries are becoming more isolated from one another.

– While Angela Merkel’s leadership has proven invaluable in preserving the Euro Area over the last decade, her position on accepting refugees is incredibly unpopular in Germany and across Europe. Her political weakness in the wake of the Paris attacks now puts the European establishment at greater risk just as anti-establishment parties are on the rise and a number of political crises are emerging in Spain, Portugal, and Greece.

– With no politically palatable option for restoring stability in Syria and Iraq, there is no end in sight for Europe’s refugee crisis. And if there is no end in sight for Europe’s refugee crisis, the xenophobic shift toward anti-establishment parties can only escalate from this point forward.

– The European Central Bank has no choice but to extend and expand quantitative easing. This will weigh on the euro (likely bringing EUR/USD from $1.06 today to well below $0.90) at the same time the Federal Reserve is driving the US dollar higher.

– The main investment takeaway here is that more policy divergence is on the way between the United States and the rest of the world, meaning a stronger US dollar, lower commodity prices (although energy prices could spike on Middle East instability), and another wave of panic for emerging markets. It also means more pressure on Japan to follow suit in an escalating currency war and on China to allow a market-driven fall in its currency.

– There is a chance that the slow disintegration of Europe will drive more capital onto US shores, boosting valuations and fueling a blow-off top in the US equity market; but beware global shocks and take any rally as a chance to get defensive.

To continue reading: Paris is Prologue

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Posted in Collapse, Financial markets, Geopolitics, Government

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Two Reasons The ‘War On Terror’ Will Always Fail, by Justin Pavoni

Posted on November 30, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Justin Pavoni at ronpaulinstitute.org:

If we want to get to a world where terrorism isn’t such a regular tragedy, governments need to start recognizing the fact that the so-called “War on Terror” is a self-fulfilling prophecy destined to foment one thing and one thing only: more terrorism.

The Big Picture: The problem arising in the wake of the recent mass-murder event in Paris and the subsequent French bombing of the Islamic State (also a mass-murder event) is that the two acts (and hundreds like them) serve as justification for more of the same from the other side. They provide fuel for each other’s fire and the situation, not surprisingly, continues to metastasize.

The great paradox at play is that as the West continues to attack the Islamic State, the organization’s appeal continues to grow among those who view the West as an adversary. Nobody knows exactly what causes radicalization but my best guess is that its appeal will continue to increase as the West continues to respond to violent events with exponentially more violence in turn. Such has been the trend thus far.

Why Terrorism? Terrorism is likely to spawn from a number of things, such as a bankrupt ideology, a sense of injustice, and disenfranchisement with the status quo. Regardless of the exact origins in any particular case, there are two primary reasons that the “war on terror” will continue to fail (assuming the goal is to reduce the number of terrorist attacks and the rampant increase in radicalization). Reason #1: Western violence (the principal prescription for fighting terrorism) is also the primary motivation behind successful terrorist recruiting efforts. Reason #2: Western attempts to overthrow heads of state under the guise of fighting terrorism provide an incredible opportunity for terrorist organizations to take root in a more institutional fashion. Let’s discuss these two phenomena in more depth.

To continue reading: Two Reasons The ‘War on Terror’ Will Always Fail

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Drone Whistleblower Claim – Pilots Often High on Drugs; Refer to Children as “Fun Size Terrorists, by Michael Krieger

Posted on November 24, 2015 | 1 comment

From Michael Krieger at libertyblitzkrieg.com:

I’ve highlighted the plight of several brave drone whistleblowers over the years who came forth to decry the barbaric and likely illegal nature of the U.S. drone program. Recently, four of them came together to denounce it more forcefully and provide more disturbing information. They also wrote a letter to Obama.

The Intercept published a powerful story on them the other day, here are a few excerpts:

U.S. DRONE OPERATORS are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing today in New York.

The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.

In addition to Haas, the operators are former Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis. The men have conducted kill missions in many of the major theaters of the post-9/11 war on terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We have seen the abuse firsthand,” said Bryant, “and we are horrified.”

Recall Bryant was the guy who quit after a supervisor tried to tell him a little kid they killed was just a dog.

To continue reading: Drone Whistleblower Claim

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Declare Victory, Come Home? by Stanley L. Cohen

Posted on November 24, 2015 | 1 comment

Not a bad idea. From Stanley L. Cohen at antiwar.com:

I have no idea who was involved in the latest atrocity in Paris, the Russian airplane bombing in the Sinai, the attacks in South Beirut or recent siege in Mali, but I’m pretty sure there will be a long line of those only too willing to take credit for the mayhem; and even more talking heads assigning blame based upon their “experience,” source information, or six figure paychecks from main stream media, as token resident “terrorism” experts for sale. Who cares.

The real issue is what, if anything, can be done to stanch the mindless bloodletting that has become routine in many corners of the world today. The answer is simple- as was successfully done in Vietnam, declare victory and get out.

Putting aside, for the moment, the lawlessness of it all, the days of identifying the “bad guy” and simply taking him or her out are long gone. Other than Israeli slaughters of Palestinians, the all too simplistic notion that there are tight- knit hierarchical organizations or a calibrated theology ultimately responsible for massacres of civilians, be it in France, Tunisia, Baghdad or Kenya, may sell to a now clearly numbed and frightened public, but ultimately it’s just so much fool’s gold. We all see how successful the targeted drone murders of “key” terrorists throughout the Middle East and Africa have been and, of course, the assassination of Osama Bin Laden did prove to be a watershed moment in turning back the clock to the warm comforting days of TV’s “Father Knows Best.” The bottom line: it’s all too little, too late, and if it wasn’t so damned deadly, downright silly.

For far too long, the civilian body count has grown higher and higher throughout the world, piled mostly with the remains of Muslims… some of whom just don’t seem to appreciate the superior Judeo/Christian traditions of peace and love which, to some degree, have fueled it… and who have long been the favorite targets of the marauding faith-based West and its surrogate states. Of course, when the mayhem is caused or viewed by the West as necessary to protect its own claimed interests or that of friends, or to fulfill so-called treaty obligations with other neocolonial powers, the bombs, drones, and water-boarding they use are just fine; always, of course, carried out in the name of democracy and security. The bottom line: the West needs to get out of the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia completely leaving the folks on the ground to decide their own fate, in their own countries, in their own ways, as they, alone, determine their course for existence

For generations the West carved up foreign regions where most of the fighting is ongoing today, stealing their natural resources, anointing archaic despotic regimes and promoting or turning a blind eye to human rights violations by regimes who host meaningless conferences in exotic ports with marching bands that can’t play their own national anthems yet are adept playing those of Western leaders who attend to protect their own colonial self-interests… even as those very interests crash and burn.

Unfortunately, at its core, the imperial notion continues that the “first” world has the best laid plans, the finest of motives and, of course, all the answers to dampen, if not extinguish, revolutionary fervor by hundreds of millions of mostly principled and determined women and men throughout the “third-world”, seeking nothing more than true independence and the ability to chart a future for themselves and their families… removed from shadows of world capitals thousands of miles from the streets and fields they call home. Tragically, it seems the cultural, religious and racial arrogance of the West is reason enough to cause an endless stream of alienated and angry youth to throw themselves under the proverbial bus and, in so doing, drag a bunch of other innocents along with them. To view today’s violence in a vacuum and simply the result of an age-old messianic religious call, is to guarantee future generations of death and destruction leading to continued head-scratching and failure to figure out reasons behind it.

To continue reading: Declare Victory, Come Home?

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ISIS Is a Monster of Our Own Creation, by Bill Bonner

Posted on November 21, 2015 | 1 comment

From Bill Bonner, Chairman, Bonner & Partners, at bonnerandpartners.com:

We were living in Paris in 2003 when President George W. Bush and his team decided to attack Iraq.

Our misgivings were recorded in the Daily Reckoning e-letter we were writing at the time. As we put it:

The U.S. invasion was arguably the best thing that ever happened to jihadists. It challenged them. It forced them to grow and adapt. Like an oversupply of antibiotics in a New Delhi hospital, U.S. interference has wiped out the weakest of the terrorists and forced others to mutate into much more lethal varieties.

The war in Iraq led to dozens of experiments and innovations — in the art of insurgency as well as in organizational skills and management. What was just a handful of nut-job jihadists a few years ago, under pressure from the U.S. military, has become far more powerful and much less amateurish.

But the worst thing that could come from an aggressive attack, we warned, would be victory. It would encourage even more stomping around where we have no business.

We reported that the French had wisely, in our view, decided to stay out of it and suggested that Americans might be better off out of it too.

This view so infuriated readers that thousands canceled their free subscriptions. One wrote to say he hoped the U.S. would “bomb Paris on its way to Baghdad.”

To continue reading: ISIS Is a Monster of Our Own Creation

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