Archive for Al Qaeda

The O’Reilly “Fiction:” Setting the Factor Straight

July 2, 2014 Al Qaeda Comments Off on The O’Reilly “Fiction:” Setting the Factor Straight

Against my better judgment, I decided to watch a segment of “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News to hear his points on the latest developments in Iraq. In O’Reilly’s defense, he has been a brilliant talk show host and highly successful writer and businessman. However, at the end of the day, O’Reilly is still a journalist with limited real world expertise on many of the topics he provides commentary on. Specifically, O’Reilly poses as an expert, but is totally lacking in experience when it comes to matters of military application and foreign affairs. O’Reilly has never served in combat, is not an intelligence analyst, and so far has not demonstrated himself as a policy maker. So to no surprise, when I tuned in, O’Reilly was expounding his usual pompous, ill informed, bomb them all rhetoric with respect to the Islamic extremist army dubbed ISIL or ISIS. Within thirty seconds of listening to O’Reilly’s poorly informed diatribe, I remembered why I had stopped watching Fox. As such, I feel as though Fox News and Bill O’Reilly needed some better informed input to ensure Fox lives up to its “fair and balanced” moniker and openly challenge O’Reilly to a debate on Iraq policy.
First of all, I want to make it clear we lost in Iraq. Bill O’Reilly is still grasping to a false reality and believes we actually accomplished strategic objectives (won) in Iraq before our retreat. The fact the US was defeated is tough to deal with, but nonetheless fact. It in no way diminishes the honor of our veterans. Suggesting otherwise to those that cannot dissect honor from the success or failure of an army in battle is ridiculous. The notion that loss in battle or war dishonors our troops is no more logical than suggesting soldiers of losing armies across thousands of years of recorded history had no honor. For example, the many British army units fought with the utmost honor in the American Revolution, soldiers fighting for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War fought with great honor, and Rommel’s Afrika Corps has been distinguished again and again for its honor by historians, but all of the above armies ultimately lost their respective wars. In fact, honor is not hinged upon whether one wins or loses, but in how one conducts himself in combat. Iraq was never pacified and never made safe for Americans, but we maintained our honor. The US certainly isn’t calling the shots across the nation now. The end state achieved was a strategic setback for US interests across the region by strengthening our foes. No matter how much the Obama Administration whitewashes our retreat from Iraq, the enemy was still fighting and still holding ground when we left.
For those of you who did not fight in Iraq and have not visited Iraq since our retreat, you should know that Mosul was never pacified and maintained its status as a hotbed of Al Qaeda (AQ) activity. Neither President Bush nor President Obama finished the war. To the present day, Mosul has been a part of the ratline of jihadists making their way to fight in Syria. In fact, US intelligence has been well aware that Mosul has been a key staging point for AQ training and equipping jihadists en route to joining ISIL for years. Mosul has also been effectively “no-go” territory for westerners and has been controlled since before the US retreat by Sunni extremists. As such, the fear and panic that ISIL has “captured” Mosul is overstated. It is true they kicked out the token government forces, but the Iraqi military never controlled anything beyond the ground below their feet hiding behind the walls of abandoned US military bases. Beyond kicking out the token Iraqi forces, the only difference appears to be ISIL formally cemented their previous control of that city and surrounding regions with the execution of anyone supporting the Iraq government. So, if O’Reilly was consistent and well informed, he would have recognized that Mosul and neighboring cities like Tikrit with a large presence of Sunni extremists “falling” to ISIL was not in and of itself a game changer.
Second, O’Reilly fails to remember that it was the Sunnis, during the “Awakening,” that allied with US forces to fight the Shia militias attacking and killing Americans daily. In fact, I distinctly remember Sadr’s brigades of Shia militia backed by Iran attacking US military personnel with zeal throughout the war. I also remember the Shia going from house to house in what was originally mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods of Baghdad and ethnically cleansing the population. The Shia death squads brutally murdered any Sunni they found and turned Baghdad into a Shia city. However, it is now the Sunni extremists that O’Reilly has repeatedly called “savages” that deserve to be bombed. I would argue to O’Reilly that both factions have lived up to the pejorative term savage and have demonstrated their eagerness to kill Americans before their fellow Iraqi time and again and as such, we should be happy to leave them to their demise. In short, they are getting what they deserve and I see no reason Americans need to be again placed in the line of fire and paying to “save” savages that want us dead while they are busy killing one another.
Third, O’Reilly has totally forgotten that it was Maliki and the Iraqi government that refused to grant the US a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that would have protected our troops and allowed them to remain in Iraq beyond their set date of retreat. True, President Obama used the SOFA as a means to justify the US retreat out of Iraq, but nonetheless, the Iraqis wanted American forces out of their country. O’Reilly should perhaps volunteer himself for military service in a country that he is not invited and where killing, even in self-defense, will be deemed murder. Perhaps he does not realize the very real legal dangers our troops will be faced with as they return to Iraq. O’Reilly’s insistence on the deployment of military forces creates a conundrum for the troops because they are being deployed outside of war, to a sovereign nation, and violating its laws. Does O’Reilly actually believe Maliki’s word that our troops will now receive immunity and that President Obama will do whatever is necessary to ensure Maliki is held to his word? I think not.
Third, O’Reilly just doesn’t seem to get the fact that the war as fought under Bush was a disaster and later under Obama was also a disaster. I guess O’Reilly missed the fact that when the war began, Saddam Hussein was killing extremists for free and had nothing to do with 9/11 beyond being the fall guy for Saudi Arabia. It was Saudi Arabia, not Iraq, which was responsible for carrying out a state sponsored act of war against the US on 9/11. This fact is why Representative Walter Jones from North Carolina wants the classified 9/11 Report released so that the public will know the truth and the lies perpetrated by the US government. If US strategy was effective, there would be LESS, not more extremists. Of course it is overwhelmingly clear our strategy failed judged by this bar. O’Reilly also seems to forget that by toppling Saddam’s regime, we created the vacuum that allowed these extremists to flourish to the point they now occupy their own autonomous Islamic state. When this point is made, O’Reilly flies into defense mode and charges the person as an “apologist.” O’Reilly solely blames the Islamists, but fails to recognize the very clear order of events of cause and effect leading to this situation. O’Reilly can believe what he wants, but is not allowed to create his own facts and cherry pick from his arbitrary timeline of events. For example, O’Reilly makes the point that we invaded Iraq to rid the country of Saddam and for humanitarian purposes. On this point alone, O’Reilly must have deleted his memory files much as the IRS seems to have deleted emails. We did not invade Iraq for the purposes O’Reilly states. We invaded Iraq because we were made to believe that Iraq was an existential threat that possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that it would not turnover to U.N. inspectors, was going to use the WMD against the US, and was supporting AQ. Nothing short of creating this existential threat would have brought American into the war. As the invasion kicked off and the contrived lies became clear, the Bush Administration had to save face. The Administration then made a deliberate policy decision to change the motive for the war effort to regime change and humanitarian issues. As such, O’Reilly’s stated purpose for the war is completely fictitious. Further, O’Reilly has chided every democratic administration for humanitarian military operations, but somehow thinks he can hang on to that rationale to defend the disaster Bush created in Iraq.
O’Reilly claims we did Iraq a great favor by ridding the country of Saddam, but again, suspends logic by implying that a full invasion was the only way to “rid” Iraq of Saddam. O’Reilly has to know that there were numerous opportunities and plenty of other options to eliminate and or contain Saddam and any threat he could have possibly posed to the US. In stating this, O’Reilly totally undermines the deaths of near 1,000,000 Iraqis throughout both wars with Iraq. More importantly to me, he also dishonors the American veterans that fought in Iraq by incorrectly believing that perpetuating political lies and propaganda he somehow brings honor to their unnecessary injuries and deaths. Only by telling the truth and prosecuting the political liars within our own government that sent them out to fight a senseless war would he actually do these honorable men and women justice. However, O’Reilly continues to pander to his establishment masters to the disgrace of all who served. Although the likes of Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney may applaud O’Reilly, Bill becomes vile in the eyes of veterans those traitors sent to an illegal war. I am positive that very few of the million dead Iraqis posed even the slightest threat to America and would be much happier if they were alive for starters. I am also confident that the thousands of Americans who lost loved ones or that were horribly wounded would also be better off alive and well today, even if Saddam was still in power. No matter what O’Reilly believes from his ivory tower about how we improved the lives of the average Iraqi, the millions of wounded, displaced, starved, and dead would find comfort in knowing the US would never come to “help” Iraq again.
Fourth, our bombing didn’t work, yet, O’Reilly is adamant about the positive effects “heavy bombing” would have for the US against ISIL. O’Reilly seems to think that if we just carpet bomb one more convoy we will win. He seems to “know” that our pilots can positively identify targets flying at nearly the speed of sound or faster and often from above 35,000 feet as long as the “bad guys” are in the open desert. I would laugh, but he is actually serious…and using his own words, a buffoon. I guess he fails to understand how the fact ISIL is operating with the same US provided military vehicles that the Iraqi military is using can complicate targeting. If perhaps, O’Reilly had actually served in combat as a Joint Tactical Air Controller, he would know that his line of logic is ridiculous, but since he did not, let me enlighten him. Just because there is a convoy of trucks with guns in the Middle East does not positively identify the convoy as “bad guys.” In fact, the factions fighting often look indistinguishable even from the ground and much less so from the air. Without good intelligence and legitimate boots on the ground observing, identifying, and marking targets for air, O’Reilly’s airstrikes will not only be futile, but 100% counterproductive. I also think that O’Reilly must have somehow shelved the knowledge that ISIL possesses “Stinger” missiles. Even though I would argue that the likelihood is the bulk of these man portable, surface-to-air missiles are advanced Soviet designs smuggled into Syria by our very own CIA from Libya (hello Benghazi), the missiles nonetheless exist and pose a significant threat to our aircraft operating at low altitudes. I wonder if the loss of an American pilot and an F-16 is worth it to O’Reilly?
Finally, O’Reilly went on to say that ISIL does not recognize the Iraq-Syrian border and that we must pursue ISIL into Syria. I do not disagree that the border has long since ceased to exist and that to prosecute an effective campaign, you must not allow the insurgent sanctuary. Too bad we didn’t use this same logic in Afghanistan where even the dullest of officers recognized that to decisively defeat the Taliban, one must either secure the border or cross into Pakistan, but I digress. Moving back to bombing ISIL in Syria, O’Reilly completely demonstrates his hypocrisy and wins the award for pinhead. Time and again, O’Reilly has been on air demanding President Obama support the rebels in Syria and has attacked the Administration repeatedly for not doing enough, yet, he fails to realize that he is simultaneously demanding we bomb ISIL and support ISIL. O’Reilly is naïve and or ignorant if he fails to make the connection that we have been covertly organizing, arming, training, and equipping the rebel forces in Syria to fight President Assad and it is these same forces, which are now rampaging throughout Iraq. The savages that O’Reilly demands we bomb are the savages we created just like in Afghanistan and Libya. In fact, if we bomb ISIL at their points of origin as O’Reilly suggests… in their training camps in Syria (Jordan and Turkey too O’Reilly), I wonder if he realizes we will be killing American special forces and CIA ground branch officers currently training these terrorists. So I ask O’Reilly, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys because I am very confused.

By Guiles Hendrik
All rights reserved.

PM Maliki Accuses Qatar and Saudi Arabia of Waging War against Iraq

March 19, 2014 9/11, Al Qaeda, News and Intelligence, Terrorism Comments Off on PM Maliki Accuses Qatar and Saudi Arabia of Waging War against Iraq

As we have reported for some time, the US support to Al Qaeda affiliated jihadist groups waging an insurgent war in Syria would cause the conflict to spread beyond Syria’s borders. Specifically, we pointed out that the Qatari and Saudi backed insurgents would threaten the Shia dominated (Iranian leaning) government in Iraq. This came to fruition after anti-government militants seized control of the city of Fallujah in December. Since then Iraqi forces have been unable to get the city back from the rebel fighters. Further proof of our predicted regionalization of the war came recently after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of declaring war on Iraq and supporting global terrorism. The Iraqi leader blamed the two countries for orchestrating the latest wave of bloody violence to hit Iraq this year, which continues unabated and at levels not seen since the height of the bloodshed during the US occupation. Of course you will never hear this in a White House briefing or on the CNN and Fox propaganda networks.
Prime Minister Maliki placed the blame for the increasing terrorist violence in Iraq on Qatar and Saudi Arabia in an interview with France 24. He said both countries are supporting extreme sectarian groups within Iraq, with a view to destabilizing the country and are “attacking” Iraq through Syria. “I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and in the media, of supporting them with money and by buying weapons for them. I accuse them of leading an open war against the Iraqi government,” said Maliki, adding that Saudi Arabia and Qatar not only supported terrorism in Iraq, but also sponsor terrorism worldwide. Maliki made it clear that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are causing the violence when he said both countries are “buying weapons for the benefit of these terrorist organizations.” Maliki also echoes our warnings over US policy supporting known terrorists in Syria when he warned the Gulf States that their support of global terrorism “will turn against them.” Let’s consider for a minute that the leader of Iraq just squarely blamed Saudi Arabia and Qatar for terrorism worldwide. If it is true, would it not mean the entire war on terrorism has been one of the largest and misguided scams? How can it be that after a decade of fighting terrorism all around the globe that US intelligence and our leaders missed evidence that showed Saudi Arabia and Qatar were supporting terrorists? After all, aren’t Saudi Arabia and Qatar solid allies and friends of the US? The fact is Maliki is a politician suddenly caught in a rare candid moment of truth telling and the US has for decades turned a blind eye to Saudi Arabia’s blatant and deliberate support to terrorism against Americans.
If only the US government was as honest as Maliki we might actually make some headway against Islamic extremism. It should come as no surprise that one of the primary reasons we have been unsuccessful in the war on “terrorism” is because we have never attacked its real epicenter within Saudi Arabia. In fact we have criminally turned a blind eye to the terrorist acts of the Saudi government, which have led to the deaths of thousands of Americans. According to the leaked and still classified congressional report on 9/11, senior Saudi government officials were directly involved in the funding, planning, and execution of the 9/11 attacks; yet, our government has covered it up and kept it from the American people that deserve the truth. Instead of attacking Saudi Arabia for carrying out an act of war against the US, the US falsely accused and attacked Iraq under false pretenses. Instead of telling the truth to Americans, two presidents have now sent Americans to fight and die in foreign lands far removed from the real problem. Unlike Maliki, the US government has consistently misled and lied to the American people to protect THE terrorist state of Saudi Arabia. In the land of laws, this is called aiding and abetting terrorism and it is still a federal felony crime. This is nothing short of treason.

By Guiles Hendrik
March 14, 2014
All rights reserved.

Truth Trickles Out: Afghanistan troop cuts will likely lead to Taliban surge, study warns (Surprise…exactly as we predicted)

March 3, 2014 Al Qaeda, Terrorism Comments Off on Truth Trickles Out: Afghanistan troop cuts will likely lead to Taliban surge, study warns (Surprise…exactly as we predicted)

March 3, 2014: Our track record continues its pristine record of accurately cutting through the lies and deception and correctly forecasting the impact of United States’ policy.  In one of the most recent reveals, it took a gold star panel of overpaid, retired bureaucrats and generals (forgive me if I am redundant) to “discover” that NATO’s optimistic predictions for Afghanistan’s future, contrived at its 2012 Chicago summit, were ridiculously flawed.  The study conducted by the “nonpartisan” think tank CNA concluded that stability in Afghanistan will require tens of thousands more troops costing billions more dollars than NATO envisioned at its 2012 summit.  The review,conducted at the behest of the Pentagon’s policy directorate, found that the Taliban insurgency is likely to swell in the years following the upcoming US and NATO military withdrawal, which contradicts the expectations set at NATO’s May 2012 summit. The review also saw widespread deficiencies in NATO’s planning for Afghanistan manpower, logistics, air support and ministerial strength.

As we reported previously, it was readily apparent to anyone willing to take an unbiased look at the situation in Afghanistan that our counterinsurgency strategy “coined” (pun intended) by strategic snake oil salesmen like disgraced General David Petraeus, Australian “fiction author” David Kilcullen, and RAND Associate Director/Mental Incompetent Seth Jones was an abject failure.  In particular, sealing the border connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, the single most critical element required to win in Afghanistan, was not even attempted and discounted by the brain trust listed above.  Further, the brain trust relied nearly exclusively on financial aid (bribes which ultimately funded the Taliban) and training of the Afghan police and military (soon to just be a well trained and equipped Taliban army), which has again proven to have no historical precedent for success in warfare.  The damning Government Accountability Office (GAO) study (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1166.pdf) sums up this situation succinctly stating: “The Afghan government and international community have set an objective of having the Afghan army and police lead and conduct security operations in all Afghan provinces by the end of 2014. As of September 2010, no ANA unit was assessed as capable of conducting its mission independent of coalition assistance.”  After a decade and almost a trillion dollars of direct and indirect spending the US had effectively trained a whopping 0% of the Afghan Army to operate on its own!  Anyone that thought just a few hundred billion more dollars and a couple more years would change this was stupid or lying…perhaps both.  I am honestly sick of listening to these idiots create policy after policy on how to “win” in Afghanistan when none of them have a lick of sense, have been in an actual firefight firsthand, or can show that a single policy they recommended led to a decisive US victory.  Of course many excuses were put forth, but the reality was something much deeper as those with functional brains recognized.  The fact was that victory was impossible without the will to actually fight a war to decisive ends, which required the US to have a coherent strategy, competent leadership, the ability to unilaterally run the Afghan government, and the “US” military (not the Afghan enemy) to prosecute a war of attrition across the border into Pakistan and wipe out millions of Pashtuns.  None of these necessary conditions were in place, which created an insurmountable situation in Afghanistan in respect to achieving a decisive victory.

Not so ironically, the review comes as the US policy makers realize they must retreat out of Afghanistan in defeat and will need an alibi to cloak their failure.  Dusting off the Iraq playbook, it should come as no surprise the US, after “exhausting all options with an intractable President Karzai,” will have to pull its troops out of Afghanistan because he won’t sign a status of forces agreement (SOFA).  The spin will be used to justify Bush and now Obama’s military defeats, but don’t expect anyone to question Jay Carney about why after invading, occupying, killing over a hundred thousand people, and placing our puppet in charge that we somehow are now unable to stay because of minor bureaucratic red tape.  The weakness of the public mind knows no bottom.

The CNA review panel at least is correct in recognizing the persistent Taliban insurgency will mount an increased threat to the Afghan government for years after the envisaged NATO withdrawal. The CNA team’s prediction of an increased Taliban threat to Afghanistan through 2018, supported by a recent US intelligence assessment, “stands in direct contradiction to the assumption of a reduced insurgent threat made at the Chicago Summit,” the report states. This is about as much credit as I can give the CNA team.  Beyond this, their analysis becomes pure garbage and it is nauseating to think how many tax dollars were spent on this trash.

The problem with the study is the CNA panel falls short on accurately getting the present facts right and thus, utterly blows their long term forecasted endstate, which predicts a stalemate.  “We conclude that this force is not likely to defeat the Taliban militarily, but that if it can hold against the Taliban insurgency through 2018, the likelihood of a negotiated settlement to the war will increase,” the CNA review found.  The reality is that every province that has been turned over to the Afghan military has effectively been turned over to Taliban control.  The Taliban have outlasted the US, NATO, and the Afghan military for over a decade.  The Taliban will make short work of the Afghan military one on one.  To think they will be looking for a “negotiated settlement” is utter insanity.  The Taliban will defeat and absorb the Afghan army rapidly.  As the last US forces pull out of Afghanistan the Taliban will mount a full scale assault on Kabul to retake the country.  This will leave the situation on the ground almost the same as the US found it in 2001 with the difference being the Taliban are far more numerous, better trained, better armed, better organized, and with an earned hatred of the US.  In a laughable twist to counter this, the CNA team advises (remember, the team is made of “senior” policy makers and generals) the Pentagon to keep international military advisers in the Afghanistan ministries of defense and interior through “at least” 2018 to mitigate long-term problems, including corruption and incompetence.  After reading this, I was left with zero doubt why the Taliban have outlasted the US military.  Our leaders are idiots.  It is a joke to propose that a few advisors will save the day.  Equally blind is the notion that corruption and incompetence, not a viable enemy at the gates will be the big problem for the encircled Karzai regime.  Even with a large number of troops and advisors in country right now, the US has failed to accomplish defeating the military or rooting out corruption.  After thousands of Americans have been killed in this useless war, there still is not even the slightest spark of logic or integrity within the senior echelon and the apathetic public remains in a mute, trance like state when it comes to calling out President Obama and his mob of derelict morons driving the US off a policy cliff.

To conclude, make no mistake of these facts and further predictions.  One, the US suffered a strategic defeat in Afghanistan.  Two, the US will use the failure, albeit an intentional failure, to sign a SOFA (agreement) as a means to save face as it retreats.  Three, the Taliban will retake the country and will be more powerful than they ever could have been if the US did not invade back in 2001.  Four, the Karzai puppet regime will not last to 2018 and Karzai will most likely be killed or flee back to Europe where he hid billions of US aid in complicit Swiss and Dubai banks.  Fifth, in absence of a war in Afghanistan and a failing domestic economy, the US will start wars elsewhere to feed the coffers of the Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex and distract the unemployed masses back in the US.

By Guiles Hendrik

March 3, 2014

All rights reserved.

The Rise of the Islamic State of the Levant: As Iraq fractures so does the Middle East

February 1, 2014 Al Qaeda, Iran, Israel, Syria, Terrorism Comments Off on The Rise of the Islamic State of the Levant: As Iraq fractures so does the Middle East

Al Qaeda(AQ) is more powerful today than it was over a decade ago when then President George W. Bush declared his nebulous, ill-fated war on terrorism. Ironically, one could strongly argue it was the war against AQ that made AQ more popular and resilient than it could have ever hoped to be autonomously operating in the shadows. Nothing is more demonstrative of this than the situation today in Iraq. AQ has become a conventional military force and effectively dissolved the border between Iraq and Syria merging it into the Islamic State of the Levant almost completely absent of media attention in the west. In fact, in its first major test as a state like entity, the Iraqi Army conducted a full scale assault on the AQ held portions of Ramadi and Fallujah only to suffer a decisive defeat leaving AQ firmly in control of the traditional Sunni areas of Iraq. The ramifications of this transformation of AQ from a stateless terrorist organization to a conventional army with a defined geographical territory right in the heart of the Middle East are extremely dire even if the Western Media has all but ignored the disaster borne of Bush and Obama’s failed foreign policies.
President Obama has cited again and again how AQ has been defeated and dismantled, yet AQ has repeatedly proven the president either ignorant or a liar as we predicted. As a result of the US conducting its insane policy of intervening in the Syrian Civil War (not to mention creating the war) and then providing military grade weapons to AQ aligned rebels in Syria, AQ fighters now have a conventional military capability compliments of the US taxpayer whether directly supplied by the CIA or indirectly via Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In fact, the heavily armed AQ rebels have crossed into Iraq for sanctuary and taken over large stretches of the western portions of Iraq. As I warned, the insurgencies in Syria and Iraq could merge and create massive unrest in the Middle East. This perfect storm has emerged. With the firepower supplied by not just the US, but Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, the AQ elements are not stopping in western Iraq and instead have pushed on toward Baghdad. The Shia controlled Iraqi government has so far been unable to retake the areas already captured by AQ and has now been defeated in direct conventional combat operations in both Fallujah and Ramadi. If the Iraqi military is unable to check the advance and growth of the AQ Army, it is indeed possible that portions of Baghdad will be captured by AQ. This in effect will mean that Iraq has effectively splintered into three autonomous nations, one Sunni, one Kurd, and one Shia as I have predicted for years. It will also herald the emergence of the AQ organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, into the actual Islamic State of the Levant.
Even if Baghdad is not taken by AQ the situation is already quite dire. An all-out sectarian proxy war has begun between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The battlefield to date has been confined to the Middle East, but it soon will spill over onto other continents with Africa already suffering the worst from growing Islamic extremism. Each side has gained victories and neither is done fighting. Iran has so far managed to maintain its ally Syria against the concerted efforts of the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and even Turkey. Iran maintains strong influence over the Iraqi government, which remains predominantly Shia. Iran has also diplomatically outmaneuvered the US, which based on the accomplishments of Secretaries Clinton and Kerry should not come as any surprise, and forced a deal over its nuclear program to include reducing sanctions. However, Hezbollah leaders have been assassinated in Lebanon and AQ backed Sunnis have taken over western Iraq.
This sets the stage in Iraq for a winner takes all fight that will become very bloody. Iran has strategic interests in maintaining its newly minted proxy government in Iraq, compliments of the shortsighted US policy that toppled the Sunni-Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. In particular, the Iraqi government allows Iran to move weapons and troops through its territory to support President Assad’s forces in Syria and is colluding with Iran on oil production to undercut Saudi oil revenues. However, Iraq’s government is vulnerable so Iran will support the Iraqi military with Iranian units against AQ. Iran is well aware that by defeating these AQ elements in Iraq, it will severely weaken the rebel forces fighting its traditional ally Syria. Saudi Arabia knows that an Iranian win in Syria or Iraq will most likely mean a strategic win across the board for Iran. Saudi Arabia will view a nuclear Iran with control of both Iraq and Syria as an existential strategic threat that it won’t be able to ignore. As such, Saudi Arabia has to escalate the proxy war it in part created by doubling down and backing the AQ aligned Sunnis in an attempt to weaken Iran. This will lead to greater, prolonged bloodshed throughout the Middle East, a disintegration of borders, and further destabilization of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen.
Dangerously, almost any conceivable conclusion to the Iran-Saudi proxy war now seems to point to greater war in the Middle East that will be difficult to deescalate. A stalemate or major breakthrough in favor of Iran may force the countries into direct conflict. Saudi Arabia may also lobby for and overtly support a devastating Israeli strike against Iran, which will have global repercussions. It will also signal Saudi Arabia to move forward with purchasing its own nuclear weapons from Pakistan setting off the dreaded cycle of proliferation across the region. However, if Iran is defeated, the results could be far worse. An Iranian defeat means an AQ victory. In the event of victory, AQ will solidify what amounts to the Islamic State of the Levant. This newly emerged state will turn on the corrupt regimes that spawned it and attack Jordan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia potentially toppling those regimes. Further, AQ would solidify their control of the region and make it effectively off limits for any US interests short of another war. The new Islamic State of the Levant would be a breeding ground for attacks against the US and a safe haven for terrorists that have emerged into a legitimate army. Saudi Arabia, in particular, will be very vulnerable to the AQ fighters and could be destabilized to the point oil production is severely disrupted. Israel will come under even greater pressure as the Palestinians receive increased support from AQ leadership. These are just a few of the first order regional effects without even touching the greater global implications and how it would affect major powers like the US, Russia, and China.
The US will regret that it armed, trained, and equipped AQ elements in Syria for short sighted policies designed to undermine Iran. The ramifications of the chain reaction Washington’s policy set in motion will be dire and far reaching. Already, the world must begin to recognize it created a defacto AQ state in the Levant even if the western media has not grasped this new reality. Nonetheless, one cannot predict with certainty how this will end, but one can be certain that much greater blood will be shed before this new regional war concludes.

By Guiles Hendrik
January 31, 2014
All rights reserved.

As We Predicted: Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars Merge as President Obama’s Claims of a Defeated Al Qaeda Crumble

January 10, 2014 Al Qaeda, Global War, Iran, Israel, Military, News and Intelligence, Terrorism Comments Off on As We Predicted: Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars Merge as President Obama’s Claims of a Defeated Al Qaeda Crumble

Disturbing news continues to poor out of Iraq as it appears Al Qaeda forces in Iraq have transformed from an insurgent force to conventional military force.  This is considered the last stage of a guerilla war by Mao Tse-Tung’s guide to guerrilla warfare.  The successful takeover of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi by Al Qaeda forces prove they have continued to organize and gain strength contrary to the lies emanating from President Obama respective of Al Qaeda being nearly destroyed.  None of this should come as a surprise.  For years I have been tracking this trend and warning that the Islamic radicals fighting in Syria would soon destabilize Iraq and merge the wars.  Reference:

If not already bad enough, the Sunni extremists have gained much of this power by way of Washington’s covert aid.  Using arms and money from Saudi Arabia and Qatar funneled through Jordan and Turkey the CIA has covertly provided a host of supplies, equipment, and weapons to the rebels.  Further, CIA officers on the ground are advising Al Qaeda affiliated rebel factions and providing them with command and control support.  With this added lifeline the rebels have regrouped across the non-existent border in Iraq and gained a foothold by seizing the major cities of Anbar Province as well as numerous border towns in Northern Iraq.  This sets the stage for a pan-Sunni front rising against Iranian backed Shia forces for a large scale outbreak of warfare in the Middle East.

Make no mistake, by no means is this Iraqi Al Qaeda uprising an organically generated situation.  It is merely a symptom of much bigger strategic issues at play in the Middle East.  These divisions are deep, complex, and overlapping.  Some of these divisions are political, some are economic, some are religious, some are ethnic, but all are divisive.  Sunni versus Shia; Saudi Arabia and Qatar versus Syria; Kurd versus Iraqi; Turkey versus Kurdistan versus Syria; Iran versus Israel versus the United States versus Saudi Arabia; the United States versus Russia; and so on.  The Middle East has become a chessboard of pawns being manipulated by strategic players from around the world in a very dangerous high stakes game.

The result of this will be, as I have previously predicted, ever increasing violence and bloodshed across the Middle East.  Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki will most likely be forced to open up greater political and military cooperation with Iran to put down the Sunni uprising in the western portion of the country.  This will allow the Kurds to further cement their autonomous nation to the north and possibly absorb Kurdish portions of Syria.  This would ethnically redraw the map of the Middle East much to the fear of Turkey, which under those circumstances, might militarily intervene to prevent such a Kurdish unification.  Contrary to Washington’s plans to weaken Iran by toppling Assad, the rise of Obama’s Sunni proxies will cause the plan to backfire.  Maliki’s requests for support will actually lead to increased Iranian influence and potentially new and more direct military supply lines through Iraq to Iran’s besieged ally Bashar Assad in Syria.  This will force Saudi Arabia to become even more overt in its support to Sunni extremists, which will fuel even greater global terrorism and bloodshed in Syria.  Saudi Arabia will begin importing greater numbers of foreign jihadists for the fight and likely buy its own readymade nuclear arsenal from Pakistan, which will greatly increase world instability and increase the chances of a larger regional war.  Nonetheless, Assad’s government forces will most likely continue to maintain the upper hand for at least the next six months dealing Washington a decisive strategic setback that will weaken Washington’s alliances with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, and Turkey.  This will also weaken Washington’s negotiating position with Iran on its nuclear program forcing Obama to pursue appeasement.  A peace deal with Iran is not in and of itself disastrous and likely good, but Israel will see this as the last straw and likely initiate unilateral strikes against Iran designed to set back its nuclear progress while forcing the US into an unwanted and unnecessary war.  This will be an unparalleled disaster for the US.  See:

As for the biggest players, the US and Russia, Russia will continue its unbeaten streak of foreign policy victories against the amateurish American lineup.  Obama and John Kerry are simply outclassed by Putin and Sergei Lavrov.  Specifically, Russia and its grand chess master Putin will continue to play all sides against each other for its maximum political and economic profit.  Russia will continue to pick off long time US allies such as Egypt as Obama continues to alienate everyone.  Russia will also handsomely profit and leverage any outbreak of war to further corner the oil and gas market while enjoying a spike in prices before global economies crash taking the price of oil to lows not seen in years.  For Russia, losing Syria is not optional as long as the threat of a Qatari-Saudi gas pipeline through Syria to Europe exists.  Russia would lose immense geopolitical leverage over Europe and billions in revenue in the event Assad was deposed without hard guarantees Washington is not likely able to deliver.  In the event Obama doubles down and provides enough military support to bring about Syrian regime change, expect the Russians to triple down and bait the US into another disastrous war in the Middle East designed to economically break the back of the US and force us out of the Middle East.

All considered, 2014 is shaping up to be a violent and climatic year across the Muslim Crescent.  The civil war in Syria will likely reach a tipping point and Iran’s nuclear program will have to be accepted or destroyed.  Iraq will descend into full scale civil war.  Jordan will be weakened by growing unrest and Lebanon could once again be split by sectarian violence.  As for Americans, expect an increase in Islamic terrorism against US targets.  This is a near certainty since vast numbers of radical Islamists have been recently armed, trained, equipped, and organized to fight in Syria by our very own CIA.  This latest generation of jihadists will be armed with much more advanced weaponry compliments of the US taxpayer and will ultimately go on to attack the US after they have had their fill of fighting in Syria.  Specifically, expect to see the use of improvised nerve gas manufactured by Syrian rebels, man portable surface to air missiles smuggled out of Libya, and antitank missiles provided by Saudi Arabia against US targets.  These are just some of the highlights to expect in 2014 so make sure you buckle your seat belts.

For further reading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/04/al-qaeda-iraq_n_4541855.html

http://www.dw.de/al-qaeda-allies-take-over-fallujah-iraq/a-17341342

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10320523/Al-Qaeda-linked-group-takes-over-Syrian-border-town.html

 

By Guiles Hendrik

January 10, 2014

All rights reserved.

What American Military Intervention in Syria really means in plain language

August 27, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, Israel, Syria Comments Off on What American Military Intervention in Syria really means in plain language

Americans are keen to want to go out and save the world.  The problem is that we can’t.  Lofty goals and ideologies must be tempered by reality.  Not only are there obvious financial limits to these kind of interventionist policies, but these policies have historically shown a near zero success rate.  In fact, in nearly every case of US intervention, we made the situation far worse.  Not only are more people often killed, but the suffering is made to last sometimes for decades.  So now President Obama is faced with somehow selling a war with Syria, which is a necessary pretext for a war with Iran, neither of which are in America’s best interests, and the best he can do is recycle the humanitarian argument for intervention and Iraq War era chemical weapons propaganda.

This would be a laughable justification if US Special Forces and CIA paramilitary officers weren’t already on the ground in Syria leading the proxy armies they trained and setting the groundwork for coming air strikes.  Unfortunately, the reality is that the US has been lobbied into fighting what will prove to be a disastrous war that is neither in America’s interests nor necessary.  The case currently being put before the American people is that President Assad has allegedly used chemical weapons against the rebel forces.  It would be worth noting that nothing about the actual validity of this chemical attack claim has been verified by independent and reputable sources or that it may actually be in our interests to allow Assad to kill what we know to be Al Qaeda avowed terrorists; however, it would side track the primary argument that our idea of “help” means we will kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Just as our “help” in Iraq led to the death of over a million Iraqis in order to “liberate” them from oppression, I have the strong feeling that our “help” in Syria will lead to the deaths of over one hundred thousand Syrians.  Considering this, it is hard to square the logic of how killing a hundred thousand more Syrians equates in any way to improving their life.  In fact, one would have to use the insane Iraq logic that destroying the nation’s infrastructure and killing a million people was the right thing to do to “help” the Iraqis.  Now I am pretty sure that most Iraqis would disagree that the US helped them, but then that wouldn’t make for good propaganda being generated by the White House, which its zombie mass media outlets parrot without so much as a thought.

Understanding that our “help” is anything but actual help allows one to understand the real mechanisms at work.  Supporting Syria to “stop the bloodshed” will turn out to be the exact opposite, but that’s okay because most Americans have proved to be mindless lemmings and will believe whatever the savior Obama tells them.  In the end, this will lead to a costly war that will bankrupt the US and kill untold numbers of people across the Middle East all while bringing about no peace.  Only the bankers that financed the war and the military-industrial complex that supplied it will profit from this foolish endeavor.  Even Israel, which has demanded this war with all of its lobbying might, will find that it will not like what it ordered.  If you are dumb enough to actually believe this looming war with Syria and Iran (and perhaps Russia and China) is in our best interests, please do everyone a favor and volunteer for service with the infantry on the front lines and remain far from policy work.

By Guiles Hendrik

August 26, 2013

All rights reserved.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN SYRIA: US Proxies Enter Syrian Civil War with US Advisors

August 27, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, Israel, Syria Comments Off on BOOTS ON THE GROUND IN SYRIA: US Proxies Enter Syrian Civil War with US Advisors

News of US Special Forces and CIA paramilitary officers entering Syria leading proxy fighters began to trickle out around August 23, 2013.  Naturally, the US is denying these reports, but as with Libya, it will only be a short matter of time before photos of US military forces leading rebels in combat begin to surface on the web.  This means that it will only be a short amount of time before American bombs begin to drop on Syria.  Just as in Libya, these ground troops will be the leading edge of full scale US military involvement in Syria and will act as forward air controllers for air strikes.  Make no mistake; the US has now entered overtly into the Syrian Civil War allied with Islamic extremists loyal to Al Qaeda.

Contrary to what the Pentagon and White House are admitting, the information has been available for some time that we planned all along to enter the war against Syria just as we have reported.

In July the Los Angeles Times reported that the Central Intelligence Agency and US special forces have been training Syrian rebels at a new US base in the desert in southwest Jordan since November 2012.  One such US covert training session, conducted by American, Jordanian, and French, has allegedly been taking place in Jordan for the last month or so, the newspaper cited Brig. Gen. Yahya Bittar, the head of intelligence for the Free Syrian Army.  The training covers the use of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons and has been carried out at bases in Turkey as well, the newspaper reported.  This training is not being done for fun, but because the US fully intended to lead these rebels into battle at least a year before any false pretext (use of chemical weapons) was created to justify the US entrance into the war.

Further, last month, the Pentagon said that F-16 jet fighters and a Patriot missile battery deployed to Jordan for the “Eager Lion” military exercise that ended weeks ago would remain in the desert country.  Again, the US did not keep these advanced weapon systems in Jordan because it didn’t feel like moving them back to the US.  Instead, just as our analysts predicted, the US has from the beginning intended to launch a full scale attack against Syria and only delayed to allow the rebels time to do the bulk of the fighting and generate propaganda (use of chemical weapons) that could be used as a false pretext to justify the US entrance into the war.

What is clear is that the US and some key allies have been building up for a war with Syria and training a proxy army in neighboring countries for at least a year.  This sets that actually planning and execution of this operation “years” prior to the current date.  This is long before any actual pretext to justify US involvement materialized and is demonstrative of how the US all along has planned to enter the war under false pretenses whether or not real cause existed.  This war is as phony, illegal, unconstitutional, and unnecessary as the Iraq War and will be far more costly since it ultimately aims to destroy not just Syria, but specifically, Iran.  Considering this, one would be well justified in calling into question the faux chemical attack pretexts now circulating and being used as grounds for overt US military action.  Further, it is of no irony that the very same countries (US, France, United Kingdom, Israel, etc.) that have been training and covertly supporting this war against Syria for years are the same countries that immediately “confirmed” that the most recent alleged chemical weapons attack was launched by the Syrian government.  It should then come as no surprise these countries are racing to “take action” before any real investigation of the alleged attack and verifiable, “independent,” conclusions can be reached.

Washington and Tel Aviv are acutely aware that they are running out of time to execute their war plan against Iran.  Their terrorist proxies in Syria were never supposed to “lose” and now the US has had to create a false pretext to overtly enter the war to save their rebel army from total defeat while Iran continues to expand its nuclear programs.  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu knows he is almost out of time if he wishes to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.  As such, he is willing to do nearly anything to force the US into fighting another disastrous war on behalf of Israel.  If our analysts are correct, there is a reasonable chance that full scale regional war will break out in the Middle East between the US, Syria, and Iran before winter.  It is of absolute necessity that all of our readers contact their elected officials immediately and demand a complete exit from actions in Syria and that no war with Iran will be fought.

 

By Guiles Hendrik

August 26, 2013

All rights reserved.

 

For more reading:

http://rt.com/news/usa-cia-train-syria-rebels-087/

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/22/amman-denies-cia-training-syria-rebels-in-jordan/

 

Al Qaeda Rebels in Syria Begin Killing Kurds

August 27, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, Syria Comments Off on Al Qaeda Rebels in Syria Begin Killing Kurds

Throughout 2013, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the primary rebel organization fighting a civil war against President Assad’s Syrian Army forces, has become predominately manned by Al Qaeda avowed jihadists.  These terrorists have now turned their guns on Syrian Kurds, which up until recently have attempted to remain neutral in the fight.  As Kurds have been increasingly slaughtered by Islamic extremists in Syria, the number of refugees fleeing to Kurdistan in Iraq has massively increased.  Some estimate well over 100,000 Kurdish refugees have now fled Syria.  The murder of Kurds by the FSA marks another dark turn of events that will soon undermine US positions in the region.

Kurdistan and its capital of Erbil have remained the one region of the Middle East where Americans have enjoyed relatively good relations and security.  In fact Americans are not even required to have a visa to enter Kurdistan where both Muslims and Christians live together in relative peace.  Further, Kurdistan is a region seeing significant investment and business growth.  The relative peace that has been maintained in Kurdistan has driven the oil and tourism markets currently fueling Kurdistan’s growth in a region where security is all too rare.  The capital Erbil is a vibrant cosmopolitan city arising in the shadows of the distant snowcapped mountain peaks where westerners can find all of the trappings of modern day living.

Unfortunately, the relative peace and security Americans have enjoyed in Kurdistan will no doubt be coming to an end soon.  The Kurds are acutely aware that the US is now actively supporting the FSA, which is massacring their people.  As the Kurds flee death in Syria at the hands of Sunni Jihadists armed and trained by Americans they carry that knowledge to overflowing refugee camps now forming in Kurdistan and Turkey.  These refugees have lost everything but their lives and are rightfully angry.  It will only be a short period of time before they correctly identify the US as the primary catalyst behind their suffering.  As anti-American sentiment solidifies, Americans will be targeted inside Kurdish regions, which until now, have been peaceful and supportive of Americans.  In what will prove to be another policy disaster, this will force the one ally Washington still retains in the Middle East directly into the camp of the Iranians.

Turning the Kurds against the US will have dire second and third order effects for the US.  Kurds will now have no choice but to join with Assad’s government forces.  The Kurds are relatively good fighters when compared with other ethnic groups in the region and will no doubt prove to be a potent ally for Assad.  This will significantly swell the number of fighter’s Assad has at his disposal and hasten the defeat of the rebels.  This will force Washington to directly enter the Syrian conflict to avert a complete route of its proxy army.  Further, this will accelerate the regionalization of this conflict beyond the borders of Syria as Iraqi Sunnis battle Iraqi Kurds in Iraq and Iran consolidates the Kurds as their new ally against the Arabs.  Americans in Turkey will also become much more likely to be targeted by Kurdish groups seeking revenge and to force an end to US support of Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria.  This destabilization will force Turkey to take a more adversarial role toward US policy in the region, which can only complicate matters more for the US.

By Guiles Hendrik

August 25, 2013

All rights reserved.

Syrian Rebels Continue to Lose Ground against Government Forces

August 27, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, News and Intelligence, Syria Comments Off on Syrian Rebels Continue to Lose Ground against Government Forces

Syrian government forces reinforced by Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been consolidating their control over the strategic rebel held district of Homs, which is Syria’s third largest city.  Homs has been controlled by rebels in part since 2011.  The recent military success by the Syrian military and Hezbollah fighters has left the rebels in retreat and Washington’s battle plan for Iran disintegrating.

As of July, Syrian government forces appeared to be on the verge of retaking most of the northern neighborhoods in Homs and were continuing to advance on the remaining crumbling rebel positions.  In addition to its symbolic value, Homs is a strategic lynchpin in Syria.  Homs controls the main highways from Damascus to the north and the coast.  The government offensive has already successfully expelled rebels from a 13th century landmark mosque in Khaldiyeh the rebels controlled for more than a year.  Previous to this, government forces captured the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border in June.

The danger of these victories is not that Assad and his government forces will prevail, but that Washington and its allies will now be forced to take more drastic measures to make sure their Al Qaeda proxies are not defeated.  In light of this, it foreseeable that the White House will soon authorize more overt support to include providing military weapons and advisors to train rebel fighters outside of Syria in Turkey and Jordan.  However, it is unlikely this level of support will turn the tide in favor of the rebels.  Instead, for a rebel victory to be engineered, Washington will be forced to put Americans (most likely in the form of CIA and Special Forces) in Syria and institute a no-fly zone coupled with air strikes on Syrian government targets.  False flag attacks and copious applications of war propaganda will be necessary to justify these ill-fated operations.   This action will cement the US entrance into another undeclared, unconstitutional war that historians will point to as a disastrous misstep in US Foreign Policy that will ultimately eclipse the US strategic defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Guiles Hendrik

July 29, 2013

For more information:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201372817314489545.html

Media Missed the Biggest Coup in the Middle East and it wasn’t in Egypt

August 1, 2013 Al Qaeda, News and Intelligence, Politics, Syria Comments Off on Media Missed the Biggest Coup in the Middle East and it wasn’t in Egypt

Tuning into the Fox and CNN “entertainment” networks, one would be lucky to catch a small bit of news between the brain numbing, around the clock reports on the Trayvon Martin Case and Anthony Weiner’s perverse antics.  Nonetheless, a close follower may have gathered that “former” Egyptian President Morsi was overthrown in a broadly supported coup that has pitted the Muslim Brotherhood against the Egyptian military.  However, at about the same time, a much quieter and potentially more dangerous coup for the US took place in Syria.  In fact, Al Qaeda just accomplished its latest “hostile government takeover” by effectively decapitating any last vestige of a secular Free Syrian Army (FSA).  If not bad enough, President Obama has announced commencement of an insane US policy to arm these well-known terrorists.  This can ONLY end in disaster for the US.

By July 12, 2013 news of the assassination of Kamal Hamami began appearing in foreign press.  Kamal Hamami, a member of the FSA’s Supreme Military Council, known as Abu Basir, was killed in the Turkmen mountains near the northern city of Latakia, spokesman Louay Meqdad reported to Al Jazeera.  Hamami was killed by fighters from an Al Qaeda-linked group in Syria and was one of the most senior leaders of the Western- and Arab-backed Free Syrian Army.  Another FSA spokesman Qassem Saadeddine told Reuters, “The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Basir and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council.”  Al Qaeda should be taken at its word as it does appear to have continued to carry out its threat and has operationally assumed control of the rebel army.

The leader of the Al Qaeda organization that claimed responsibility for Hamami’s killing, the Islamic State of Iraq, is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi arrived in northern Syria to take control over Al Qaeda operations in the country and has apparently wasted no time in consolidating power under Al Qaeda’s banner.  This organization has effectively assumed control of the Islamist Al-Nusra Front, which was officially declared a “terrorist group” by the US in May, and is considered to be the most effective opposition group battling Assad.  As such, any notion of secular, nationalist forces fighting Assad evaporated with Al Qaeda’s coup within the FSA.

Analyzing these events further, one will note that Abu Bakr is a violent Al Qaeda terrorist leader from Iraq and epitomizes how this conflict has already gone regional.  The US created civil war in Syria has now fully spilled over into neighboring Iraq just as our analysts predicted and warned.  Violence in Iraq, which now is killing hundreds weekly, has reignited the Sunni-Shia civil war in Iraq removing any notion that the US succeeded in bringing about a more peaceful and democrat Iraq.  Incidentally, Abu Bakr cut his teeth on killing Americans, not Syrians, and now Obama IS arming his organization in what must be considered one of the dumbest policy moves an American president has ever made.

Middle East analysts recognize the fact that the Syrian Civil War will continue to spread and engulf more countries in the Middle East counter to Washington’s claims.  The situation is out of control.  Longtime US ally Jordan is in a particularly perilous spot.  In fact, secretly, Washington is so worried Jordan will be the next government to be toppled by the Al Qaeda terrorists the US is backing, Washington has quietly deployed a military force numbering over 2,000 in Jordan to attempt to contain the fighting should it begin spilling across the border.

Collectively assessing this information, it is clear the US has placed itself into an untenable paradox.  On one hand we are trying to defeat Al Qaeda and protect the US while simultaneously arming and training Al Qaeda on the other.  Al Qaeda has made no question that it will target the US as soon as its fighters finish in Syria.  By arming these terrorists, our nation is effectively creating, aiding, and abetting its very own enemy to kill Americans.  Not only is Obama’s policy a violation of US anti-terrorism laws, but it violates every core element of common sense and self-preservation.  This conclusion is so obvious and the intelligence so overwhelming, Obama is literally using our tax dollars to kill Americans.

This policy of fighting Al Qaeda while simultaneously arming Al Qaeda that the Obama Administration has engineered screams of amateur hour, is out of control, and is as dangerous as it is schizophrenic.  The only groups to benefit from this lunacy will be the money lending institutions and the defense industry (military industrial complex).  However, in the interim, hundreds of thousands of people have been wounded and killed with many more surely to follow.  There is simply no way the Obama Administration can claim that by arming KNOWN AL QAEDA TERRORISTS, the US will benefit.  This Al Qaeda coup in the FSA leadership proves that any arms provided to the FSA WILL ultimately end up in the hands of Al Qaeda radicals.

Please contact your representatives in Congress, petition the White House, organize your neighbors to political action, and contact your media.  Demand this insane policy of arming terrorists in Syria cease immediately.  Failure to force Congress and the President to act will ultimately suck the US into another disastrous war, economically destroy our nation, and lead to untold numbers of dead and wounded Americans.

 

By Guiles Hendrik

July 29, 2013

All rights reserved

 

For more information:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23283079

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/20137127710849717.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2361814/Al-Qaeda-linked-rebels-assassinate-Free-Syrian-Army-leader-followers-immediately-vow-revenge.html

http://rt.com/news/qaeda-militants-kill-fsa-commander-979/

USA Enters War Allied with Al Qaeda

June 26, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, Israel, News and Intelligence, Syria, Terrorism Comments Off on USA Enters War Allied with Al Qaeda

On June 13, 2013, President Obama announced authorization for the arming of the Syrian rebels last week amidst a string of growing scandals rocking the White House.  President Obama’s action authorized without congressional debate or public justification the United States’ entry into another war.  Not only has the US now picked a side in a bloody civil war where both sides are hostile to the US, but committed the US to a war in a country where the US has little national interest.  At best, this action is constitutionally unsound and a gross abuse of the powers prescribed to the Commander-in-Chief.  At worst, this is an illegal war that will ultimately result in the single greatest foreign policy disaster of Obama’s administration to date and bankrupt the US.

Contrary to the Administration’s claims, the only security threat Syria poses to the US will be the one we create by arming Al Qaeda affiliated rebel groups that openly espouse destruction to the US and Israel.  The White House rationale for this undeclared and unnecessary war was that President Assad used chemical weapons.  In the midst of growing public scandals, does President Obama’s hypocrisy know no end?  First, it was then Senator Obama that openly attacked the Bush administration’s entry into what he deemed an illegal war in Iraq on fabricated intelligence even though the international community did believe Saddam Hussein still possessed weapons of mass destruction.  Yet now, President Obama wants the US to enter another war in the Middle East again on very dubious claims of chemical weapons and when no good argument for US interests exist.  Not only is Obama’s “intelligence” on chemical weapons suspect, but the investigations done by the United Nations, which are available for public scrutiny conclude that “if” chemical weapons were used, they were used by the “rebels” and NOT Assad’s forces.  This glaring contradiction to the Administration’s official spin was dismissed by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.  The White House departure from its long history of walking in lock step with the U.N. is certainly telling.  The problem this time is even the Washington Post which, known for its overt support of liberal policy and President Obama, called the Administration’s claims into question.  In the Post’s article it states; “Despite months of laboratory testing and scrutiny by top U.S. scientists, the Obama administration’s case for arming Syria’s rebels rests on unverifiable claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people, according to diplomats and experts.”  It goes on to say, “If you are the opposition and you hear” that the White House has drawn a red line on the use of nerve agents, then “you have an interest in giving the impression that some chemical weapons have been used,” said Rolf Ekeus, a Swedish scientist who headed up U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq during the 1990s.

Things are sounding an awful lot like the Bush-era false war propaganda about Iraqi chemical weapons with a touch of President Clinton’s policy of bombing “terrorist” targets at the height of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal.  Hopefully, the American people have finally learned their lesson and will demand to see the actual evidence and be given a legitimate reason why war is “necessary” this time, what our strategy is, and what is the desired end state.

One need not be a fortune-teller to foresee how U.S. involvement in Syria will go down as one of America’s greatest foreign policy disasters.  After being defeated in Iraq and now Afghanistan, the U.S. should have learned a few lessons about the folly of interventionist policy.  In the least, it should not be committing the U.S. to another war before it has at least finished its fight in Afghanistan.  In this regard, the hubris of the Obama Administration in this regard is staggering.  Now, not only has the U.S. entered a war against a nation, but it has entered a sectarian war between Shia and Sunnis that has split Islam since the seventh century.  This war extends far beyond Syria’s borders and is engulfing the entire Muslim world.

Currently, approximately 1,100 Marines and possibly up to a few thousand “advisors,” are in Jordan.  This is in addition to a small cadre of Special Forces and CIA case officers working closely with rebel elements in and out of Syria.  Further, U.S. forces are positioned to the north of Syria in Turkey and have been clandestinely supporting rebel training camps, NATO airbases, and air defense facilities.  As Washington’s plan to arm the rebels fails to save their strategy to overthrow Assad, Obama will be forced to increase American intervention.  This will likely involve the implementation of a “no-fly zone” and will be the next step towards a hot war with Syria and Iran.

Obama is no doubt in a dilemma.  He foolishly thought the he could use proxies to topple Assad in order to destroy Iran’s fifth column in the preliminary phases of the ongoing cold war with Iran.  The failure of the rebels means Washington must either face humiliation as its policy to remove Assad collapses or now openly enter into a war on the side of rebels previously known as terrorists, insurgents, and jihadists.  Obama has doubled down on the rebels.  Of the rebel forces, Jordanian intelligence estimates upwards of 80% of their combat power and front line fighters are jihadists that have avowed the destruction of both the US and Israel.  In fact, even US allies in the Middle East have openly called into contention the notion the CIA can distribute advanced military weapons only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria.  Supporting this skepticism is the fact the most powerful element within the Syrian rebel force is the al-Nusrah Front, which is allied to al-Qaeda.  As such, the thought that the US can arm these jihadists turned rebels and not directly endanger American lives is so foolish; the mere suggestion is an absolute bald face lie.  Therefore, the sudden policy shift and use of the chemical weapons rationale to arm the rebels exposes the true nature of Washington’s intent to use Syria as a stepping stone toward an ultimate showdown with Iran.   As Obama’s administration is forced toward war with Iran by special interests, he will now have to demonstrate greater and greater involvement.

Moving forward, the US now owns the civil war in Syria.  Obama has joined forces with known Al Qaeda terrorists to fight an equally nasty dictator.  Neither of which support US interests.  The newly armed and resurgent rebels will not hesitate to attack US interests at the first opportunity.  American’s will die because of this policy disaster.  Washington and by default, the American people, will now be blamed every time the rebels commit an atrocity.  These Sunni extremists are the same brand that attacked the US on 9/11 and there is no reason to expect them to act any differently in the future.  We are indeed creating our own enemies.

The violence has now fully spilled over into a regional conflict.  Hezbollah in Lebanon has now committed fully to the war.  Iran has committed to support Assad as well and has sent thousands of troops to support Assad’s military.  Qatar and Saudi Arabia are sending billions in arms and equipment.  Turkey’s streets are on fire with protests.  Egypt is now warning of outright civil war.  Israel is on high alert and dealing with daily cross border fire from the conflict in Syria.  Iraq is now fully re-engulfed with sectarian violence as we previously warned would occur.

How President Obama believes that any good for the US can come of providing US military weapons and equipment to a motley collection of known terrorists, international jihadists, and Sunni extremists is beyond rational logic.  No matter how the conflict ends in Syria, the party that takes or retains power will be openly hostile to the US.  Not only are our analysts predicting greater bloodshed, but we now see all of the signs of a full-blown regional conflict that has the potential to rapidly draw the US back into a full-scale disastrous war that will likely be the final blow to America’s global economic and political dominance.

 

By Guiles Hendrik

June 26, 2013

All rights reserved

Syria Becomes Battleground for Global Proxy War

June 12, 2013 Al Qaeda, Iran, Israel, Military, News and Intelligence Comments Off on Syria Becomes Battleground for Global Proxy War

The Syrian Civil War is poised to explode into full scale sectarian violence that will engulf the region as a global proxy war is played out on Syrian soil.  Recent news reports cite Iraqi Shia fighters trained by Iran have been joining ranks with Hezbollah militants in Syria.  These combined forces are supporting Syrian President Assad’s legitimate government forces against a Syrian rebel army that is comprised mainly of Sunni Muslims.  Like the Syrian government’s forces, the rebel army is also comprised of a large contingent of foreign fighters.  As we have repeatedly warned, the vanguard rebel fighters are Sunni extremists from around the globe, which include a large contingent of Sunni Iraqis and others waging global jihad.  These rebel fighters have sworn allegiance to Al Qaeda, support the Muslim Brotherhood, and have announced that when they are done fighting in Syria, the USA will be next.  As such, one would think the US would want to see President Assad prevail.  Ironically, though, this is not the case.  This article will review the regional and global competitors in this conflict and why the US is worried Assad will defeat the Al Qaeda led rebels.

At the regional level, as discussed in part above, a Shia versus Sunni war has developed in the Middle East and Syria is ground zero.  On the rebel side you have countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia sending large sums of money to finance the rebel army while they look the other way when their citizens leave their country to wage jihad in Syria.  Jordan and Turkey are actively providing training facilities and logistical support to the rebel armies.  Iraq’s population is split down sectarian lines in its support of the rebels.  The US, Israel, and EU have all aligned against President Assad and have covertly been supporting the rebels by procuring weapons and medical equipment, was well as providing training and intelligence.  Finally, you have countries from around the world like Chechnya and Libya whose citizens have flocked to Syria to fight with the rebels.  These jihadists once united in combat become infinitely more radicalized, better trained and equipped, and very well organized.  Ultimately, they become very dangerous terrorists that will attack the US and their former host countries.  This same pattern played out during the Soviet War in Afghanistan where a little known Saudi named Osama bin Laden began financing jihadists and organizing what became known as Al Qaeda.

Opposing this rebel jihadist army are equally dedicated Shia fighters.  This includes Iraqi Shia and perhaps Kurds and Lebanese based Hezbollah fighters.  Hezbollah is backed by weapons and money from Iran.  Specifically, Iran has provided state level support to Syria, which includes weapons, advisors, and most likely fighters.  However, it is Russia that is ultimately President Assad’s most powerful and persuasive supporter.  Russian President Putin has to date successfully prevented the US, Israel, and the EU from directly attacking Syria and has been providing advanced weapons systems to Syria.

Based on the nationality and religious allegiance of the fighters in Syria, one can clearly see how the entire Middle East is represented and could be pulled into the Syrian conflict.  As we have previously reported, Iraq, the central lynchpin of the Middle East, is being ripped apart by this conflict.  Sectarian violence has reemerged with a vengeance across Iraq as happened during their previous civil war and the one now raging in Syria will metastasize into one giant regional Sunni-Shia showdown.  If President Assad is not successful in routing the Sunni jihadists, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia will without doubt become the next targets of this growing terrorist army.  Make no mistake, this is a fight for keeps and the winner takes all.  Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has stated publicly that the group’s existence depends on defeating the Sunni rebel army against Assad.  “Hezbollah is fully engaged in the battlefield.  And this is a major shift.  It’s no longer them trying to protect villages along the border in Lebanon; it’s waging battle alongside the Syrian government forces … willing to sustain casualties and shoulder the consequences,” said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.

At the global level, Russia has moved naval forces into the region not seen since the height of the Cold War.  The Russian show of force includes various warships and submarines armed with nuclear weapons.  Russia is no doubt signaling to the US that it is not willing to accept a loss of its only warm water port in Syria and will back its most trusted regional ally.  The EU wants a pipeline from Qatar to break the Russian monopoly on European energy supplies, so has at least tacitly thrown its support behind the rebels.  China sees the US as a threat and realizes that another US war in the region will further weaken Washington.  As such, China is positioning itself to exploit the chaos at the expense of the US.  This includes making deals with both sides all while staying out of the fight.

However, the US has been the driving force behind the civil war that has led to the deaths of over 80,000 people.  To accomplish this, the US has been covertly organizing, training, equipping, and advising the rebel forces from Jordan, Turkey, and now Syria proper.  Per our previous reports, factions within the US are determined to attack Iran and recognize Syria as a critical stepping stone in achieving this war.  As the war plan goes, Syria and Hezbollah must be taken out first to insulate Israel from counter attacks.  When Syria and Hezbollah are seen as sufficiently degraded, a pretext would be used to launch an overt military strike on Iran, which would include using an air corridor opened through eastern Syria.  However, this could not be achieved through a direct attack by the US, which would polarize the world against the US and be seen even by Americans as too egregious, so proxies were chosen to do the dirty work as per Cold War unconventional war doctrine.  This plan has been implemented to assuage Israeli fears of the US doing nothing about a nuclear Iran in hopes of at least delaying Israel from striking Iran and sucking the US into a disastrous war.  Ironically, it will make the situation far worse for the US and Israel.  Nonetheless, the US has responded by moving its own naval forces into the region.  The US has stationed an aircraft carrier battle group in the Mediterranean and recently deployed approximately 1100 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit into Jordan where they will meet up with Special Forces and other US military units already on the ground.  This deployment is using the cover of being a routine annual military exercise with Jordan codenamed, Operation Infinite Moonlight.  Further, in Turkey, the US has positioned Patriot II air defense missiles and set up CIA supported training camps for rebel fighters while threatening greater NATO escalation should Syria try to fight back.  Finally, Israel has repeatedly provoked and flagrantly violated Syria’s sovereignty by launching repeated air strikes against various targets throughout Syria.

The combined Syrian government forces are winning against all the covert efforts of Washington and this scares the White House.  In fact, the Syrian Army is now poised to launch a large scale counteroffensive around Damascus designed to route rebel forces and drive them out of the suburbs.  “Planes are dropping off fully armed fighters from Hezbollah and the Iraqi Fadl Brigades,” said opposition activist Abu Yasser.  Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based terrorist group and the Fadl Brigades are Iranian-trained Shiite Muslim militants from Iraq.  According to USA Today, both groups are likely destined for the fight in al-Qusayr, a town near the Lebanese border that is at the center of the rebels’ supply routes for ammo and fighters, Yasser said.  What one must understand from this is that Syria has now become the battleground for a proxy war being waged by regional and global competitors and Washington’s rebel army is not winning.  This likely means the White House will need to execute more overt and risky interventionist strategies to bring about the desired rebel victory.  The rationale is that failure for Washington to engineer a rebel victory will force a complete recalculation of the Iranian War Plan.

If Washington’s proxy army in Syria loses, the US will be forced to enter the war directly.  To do this, Washington must engineer a situation that forces unilateral military action in Syria, which the American people are firmly against.  This overt action will not only cause a violent regional response, but also trigger a Russian response.  Even a limited Russian response such as providing increased military support to the Syrian army will make any US efforts incredibly costly if not futile.  Already, repeated staged crises have failed to pull the American public behind any intervention.  These attempts include Turkey trying to invoke a NATO response after provoking Syrian air defenses to shoot down a Turkish military jet violating its airspace and blaming the Syrian army for what likely was rebel mortar fire into Turkey.  Further, Assad was blamed for using chemical weapons against the rebels until the truth came out that it was in fact the rebels that had used the chemical weapons.  Other blatant propaganda such as staging and doctoring photos of the injured and dead have also failed to convince the average American that they have joint interests in Syria.  As a result, the US and EU will likely begin massive covert arming of the rebels, which may or may not turn the tide of battle, but will certainly lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.  If this too fails, Israel will likely demand direct US action in Syria or launch its own attack on Iran.  This will be a choice of two evils.  Both will ultimately be too costly for the US, which has painted itself into a corner.  If the rebels win, Muslim extremists will control a large military with advance weapons on Israel’s border, which will destabilize the entire region and threaten the US.  If the rebels lose, Iran will be firmly established as a regional player on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons capability.

Washington’s interventionist policies have created a situation where the US is in a lose-lose situation.  Israeli interests have hijacked US foreign policy for the worst leading either to a disastrous war with Iran or the rise of extremist Muslim nations.  In conclusion, we have passed a point in the Syrian Civil War where we could have cut our losses.  Instead, we doubled down and are now in a position that virtually assures the US will be drawn into another costly war before the end of 2013.

 

By Guiles Hendrik

June 11, 2013

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Assessing the Success of the War on Terror Part II: Return on Investment and Perpetual War

February 25, 2013 9/11, Al Qaeda, Big Brother, Terrorism Comments Off on Assessing the Success of the War on Terror Part II: Return on Investment and Perpetual War

Part II of our series continues to evaluate the success of the War on Terror.  It is our thesis that not only has American policy and strategy failed to defeat terrorist threats to the United States from radical Islam, but it has in fact exasperated them.  Today, Al Qaeda and terrorism have become the new boogie men, replacing the Communist menace of the Cold War.  This manufactured threat has now taken on a persona of its own and has been used to justify endless war across the world.  Ultimately, it will be America’s downfall as the evidence is clear the US is losing the strategic war.

To illustrate this slide, consider the following.  On September 10, 2001, few Americans had ever heard the name Osama bin Laden (UBL) or were aware of the organization that came to be known as Al Qaeda (AQ).  Today, UBL and AQ are household names.  At the turn of the century, AQ consisted of perhaps a couple hundred fighters at most and was not broadly operational.  Today, AQ has branched into a franchise like organization recruiting operatives from Detroit, Michigan to Jakarta, Indonesia and numbering in the thousands.  In 2003, Al Qaeda didn’t exist in Iraq, but today it operates with near impunity in cities such as Mosul where it has established facilities for training and arming terrorists ready to conduct jihad in Syria and the greater Middle East.  In Afghanistan, the Taliban, which was once at least partially hostile to AQ, has fully integrated its operations with AQ extremists.  Further, the Taliban has spread beyond its original Kandahar region all throughout Afghanistan.  This includes regions previously controlled by the “Northern Alliance” and considered “immune” from the Taliban according to snake oil hacks like David Kilcullen and has now even spread over the borders into Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  Other areas to include the Philippines, Indonesia, the Balkans, the Caucuses, and Western Europe have all seen steady growth of Islamic extremism.  Considering the above, one need not dig deeper than the blatantly obvious to realize that the War on Terror has not been won and in fact, has gone horribly wrong for the US.

Operationally, AQ has shown that it is not only resilient, but growing.  The fact that AQ is still operationally capable of killing an American Ambassador over a decade into this war is not only massively embarrassing for the US, but it proves US  senior leadership and strategy have been a failure.  Simply tracking the number and location of drone strikes one can quickly conclude that not only has the theater of AQ’s operations expanded from Afghanistan to one of global influence, but that AQ’s numbers are growing faster than the United States can target and kill its leaders.  Just as discussed in Part I of this series, limited targeted assassinations and strikes have been tried over and over throughout military history and have never yielded decisive gains.  Worse, the US appears to be living in ignorance of reality.  The progressive agenda during the most recent presidential campaign wanted to proclaim Obama defeated AQ and led US leaders to a naïve sense of security as a result of whitewashing the actual threat respective of the spread of AQ.  These ideological blinders led to the death of four Americans including an ambassador in Libya at the hands of AQ affiliated fighters on no less than September 11th when America should have been at its maximum state of readiness.  Associated with this fallout is the spread of Islamic extremism, terrorism, and insurgency now throughout the northern half of Africa.  This event was accurately predicted by our analysts and has now come to fruition as the weapons looted from Gadhafi’s arsenals have fallen squarely in the hands of extremists and AQ affiliated groups.  This includes more than 20,000 advanced man portable surface-to-air missiles, which we continue to predict will soon be used against a commercial airliner.

If Libya wasn’t a big enough disaster, the US has now begun to dig itself into an even broader war in Mali and other African countries from Nigeria to Somalia.  This has already cost innocent American lives in Algeria after Islamic terrorists attacked an oil facility in retaliation for America’s support to the French in Mali.  Nonetheless, the press does not hold President Obama, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or any other senior policy maker accountable for the blood on their hands.  If American policy makers think Algeria was an isolated incident, they are ignorant and in denial of reality.  Americans appear quick to forget how well our operations in Somalia turned out and are again conducting the same type of operations clandestinely over a region thousands of times larger.  There simply is no need to involve the US in these local fights.  The blowback will be severe and certainly far outweigh any benefit except for the very few elites getting oil and mineral rights to the newly acquired lands wrought from disturbingly imperialistic motives.

Looking at AQ’s spread is not sufficient to capture the bigger strategic picture.  Not only has AQ, with the help of the US (most recently in Libya and Syria), globally expanded, but it has accomplished what even Pan-Arabism and Nasserism could not.  The “Arab Spring,” has taken down one former pro-American regime after another.  The dictators like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak that have acted as America’s brutal puppets for decades are being toppled by Islamic extremists now routinely.  In the vacuum, the Muslim Brotherhood is consolidating power and moving the Middle East and North Africa firmly toward a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and obliterating any vestige of a secular government.  This cataclysmic reordering of the geopolitical balance of the Middle East and North Africa is far from over as history is being made before our eyes.  We predict that with covert support from the US, Qatar, Turkey, and other nations, Syria will be the next regime to fall.  This is being done for the shortsighted goals of checking Iran’s regional dominance, but will lead to one of America’s greatest policy disasters in the region.  In effect, this will allow extremists to encircle the relatively friendly nation of Jordan and the US ally of Israel.  The monarchy in Jordan will then be threatened and could be toppled and reset the Middle Eastern stage to 1973 on the eve of Yom Kippur.  If Jordan falls, a final sweep of the region for extremists will be within reach.  In fact, it is then entirely likely UBL’s originally long term goal of toppling the Saudi regime will be realized.  This would allow Sunni extremists to form an unprecedented block of power throughout the Middle East and all but eliminate US influence in the region.

In conclusion of Part II of this series, we looked at how AQ has spread from a little known entity of a few individuals to a worldwide franchise.  Only through America’s disastrous self-defeating policies has this been possible.  Now, more than a decade into a war being fought against rebels that at best are third rate, the purportedly most powerful military in the world has been checked and strategically defeated.  The US is broke just as UBL intended and Washington is being forced to make painful cuts to domestic programs that may very well lead to massive social unrest.  In the end, the Islamists hold the ground from Asia to Africa as the US is forced to pull its forces back as the debts of tax dollars vainly wasted over the last decade come due.  As such, AQ still holds the battlefield as America retreats.  Based on this and using one of the oldest measures of victory in warfare, the Islamists have won and the US has been defeated thus far in the war of East versus West.

Part III will conclude this series and discuss the return on the investment of trillions of dollars in defense and security spending.  Most disturbingly, it will look at how the “terrorist” threat is now being used to declare American soil a battleground, justify the creation of a police state, and declare citizens threats and order their assassinations in secret all while bankrupting our nation.

 

By: Guiles Hendrik

Assessing the Success of the War on Terror Part I: Pakistan and the Failure of the Drone Strategy

February 17, 2013 Al Qaeda, Department of Defense, News and Intelligence, Politics, Terrorism Comments Off on Assessing the Success of the War on Terror Part I: Pakistan and the Failure of the Drone Strategy

As the never ending War on Terror drags on into the fourth consecutive presidential term without any decisive gains, one must question not only the effectiveness and strategy, but also our very leadership.  Nowhere is the ground truth more palpable than in western Pakistan.  Since President Obama took office and significantly increased drone strikes against alleged terrorist targets, America’s ability to safely operate and influence events in the country in a manner favorable to the United States has inversely deteriorated.  This is a direct result of America’s flawed drone strategy, which has strategically weakened the U.S. in Pakistan.

According to Gallup’s poll just released, more than nine in 10 Pakistanis (92%) disapprove of U.S. leadership and only 4% approve. Remarkably, this is the lowest approval rating Pakistanis have ever given the U.S. and its leadership.  This is noteworthy as President Obama’s ratings in Pakistan have sunk far below even those of the much criticized President George W. Bush.  Further, and more ominous, 57% of Pakistanis aged 15 to 29 and 53% of those 30 or older, deem interaction with the West as a threat.

Numerous explanations for this near total disdain for the U.S. have been suggested.  What is clear is that prior to the U.S. prosecuting the War on Terror via drones inside Pakistan, Americans enjoyed relative safety and warm relations.  As such, only a fool would be unable to make the connection between drone strikes, the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, and growing hatred of the U.S.  Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S.  Sherry Rehman makes this much explicit in her comments to reporters two days before President Obama’s nominee to be the next head of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan’s, Congressional Testimony.  Ambassador Rehman expressed Islamabad’s view that America’s continued deployment of drones was a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and was strategically counter-productive.  Specifically, she stated “We need to drain this swamp and instead it [the drone campaign] is radicalizing people.”  Rehman went on to say “It creates more potential terrorists on the ground and militants on the ground instead of taking them out.  If it’s taking out, say, a high-value or a medium-value target, it’s also creating probably an entire community of future recruits.”  Her statements are corroborated by a Pew research poll conducted last year that showed 74% of Pakistanis termed the U.S. as an “enemy.”

Our senior policy makers have failed to grasp strategy at the strategic level.  At best, they are fighting a tactical war.  Our leaders have proven themselves amateurs that are unable to mitigate and defeat even the lowest echelon of threats facing the U.S.  Further, they have no appreciation of the historical precedent respective of the use of limited cross-border strikes against insurgent type threats.  Had they done their homework and studied cross-border insurgencies, they would know that these limited surgical strikes are counter-productive just as Ambassador Rehman states.  In fact, no matter how great the tactical gains achieved are, they never result in decisive strategic gains and in fact, result in a sum net strategic loss.  Thus, war strategies reliant on limited cross-border strikes, such as our drone strikes in Pakistan, have a near perfect correlation with the counterinsurgent’s failure or better stated, the insurgent’s victory.  No further proof of this need be generated than a simple review of the contemporary hostile sentiment towards America in Pakistan.

In our Part II of this series, we will look in more detail at the results of America’s flawed strategy that has caused the spread of radical Islam across the globe, made Al Qaeda franchise, and perpetuated a fear culture to fuel unending war.

 

Sources:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/160439/2012-pakistani-disapproval-leadership-soars.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=All%20Gallup%20Headlines%20-%20USA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21389200

Confirmed! Clinton Admits to Supplying Terrorists with Weapons

January 27, 2013 Al Qaeda, Department of State, News and Intelligence, Politics, Terrorism Comments Off on Confirmed! Clinton Admits to Supplying Terrorists with Weapons

“Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropThere is no doubt that the Algerian terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the Malian remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a hearing on the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Just as our analysts had predicted from “BEFORE” the start of overt American intervention in Libya, weapons have fallen into the hands of terrorists and have now again been used to kill American citizens in Algeria.  We repeatedly warned of the grave dangers created by supporting known Islamic terrorists in the overthrow and murder of former Libyan dictator Gadhafi.  However, Clinton acted in the stereotypical fashion and claimed she took full responsibility for the growing number of deaths related to her incredibly flawed policy in Libya, but in reality took no responsibility and sought to blame the nebulous “Arab Spring.”  I guess Mrs. Clinton forgot that it was US aircraft and drones bombing Gadhafi’s forces, which directly allowed the rebel forces, stocked full of known terrorists, to capture and loot hundreds of thousands of advanced military weapons to include over 20,000 unaccounted man portable surface-to-air-missiles similar to the infamous US manufactured “Stinger” missile used against Soviet low altitude aircraft in Afghanistan.  If Mrs. Clinton fails to connect the dots between her horrendously flawed Libya policy and the deaths of Americans, she should, as Senator Rand Paul suggested, be immediately relieved of her post due to gross incompetence.  However, I don’t believe Mrs. Clinton is that naïve…she is just a liar.

http://endthelie.com/2013/01/23/clinton-testifies-algerian-terrorists-got-weapons-from-libya/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EndTheLie+%28End+the+Lie%29#axzz2IqgkTwXd

 

By Guiles Hendrik

U.S. Government Actively Supplying Chemical Weapons to Al Qaeda Terrorists in Syria

December 26, 2012 Al Qaeda, Big Brother, Big Government, Constitution, Danger Alerts!, Department of Defense, Department of State, Domestic Terrorism, Iran, Israel, Liberty and Freedom, Military, News and Intelligence, Syria, Terrorism Comments Off on U.S. Government Actively Supplying Chemical Weapons to Al Qaeda Terrorists in Syria

The US Government and mass media would like the public to believe that Syrian President Assad is a threat worth committing US forces to war.  However, it is in fact the US Government that has recklessly endangered the security and safety of millions of lives.  This will include the lives of not just Syrians, but Israelis, Europeans, and Americans.  In what may prove to be one of the greatest foreign policy disasters, the US has not only allowed known Al Qaeda terrorists to capture and take control of one of the largest Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles, but actively aided it in doing so.  Contrary to the media threats and warnings about President Assad using chemical weapons, it is in fact the US backed Al Qaeda terrorists that pose, by far, the greatest threat to US interests.

The US is directly responsible for fomenting the chaos and bloodshed in Syria by covertly backing known Al Qaeda terrorists in a bid to overthrow President Assad.  This same playbook was used in Libya resulting in the disastrous proliferation of over 20,000 manportable surface-to-air missiles that have yet to be recovered and the spread of Al Qaeda to Libya.   By “backing,” one should recognize this includes providing weapons, equipment, training, medical aid, facilities, money, intelligence, and advisors to known terrorists.  Initially, this unconventional warfare was being carried out from across the border in Turkey and Jordan, but now is being actively waged on the ground inside Syria.  As we have repeatedly warned, the conflict in Syria has always been and is still aimed at creating the conditions necessary to expand the endless wars in the Middle East to Iran.  In fact, the initial targets that the “rebels” targeted in exchange for US support were Syrian air defense installations.  The seizure and destruction of these air defense facilities laid the groundwork for opening an air corridor from Israel directly into Iran once the next phase of the US engineered conflict is entered.

Most worrisome is the fact that known Al Qaeda terrorists now have chemical and possibly biological weapons under their control as a direct result of US support.  The threat this poses to America is massive.  Those responsible for allowing this have committed the gravest of dereliction in their responsibilities and duties to protect America.  This situation nearly guarantees that at least one of the belligerents in Syria will use a weapon of mass destruction and will provide the long sought pretext for US intervention and a greater war with Iran.  No matter who the weapons are used against, the result will be spun to support the “necessity for military action.”

For perspective, consider if a citizen actively aided terrorists in acquiring chemical weapons.  That person would not only be treated as a terrorist, but likely targeted and executed in a drone strike without due process.  However, when our political leaders acting in secret for dubious special interests commit the same traitorous acts, we are told that they are heroes and their aims are in our best interests.  It is time for the public to demand answers and accountability.  Please write your elected individuals, press, and collectively organize to put an end to this treasonous policy.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebels-attack-base-near-military-factories/

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/12/23/279711/syria-militants-use-chemical-weapons/

http://rt.com/news/syria-chemical-weapons-plot-532/

The Final Presidential Debate: Lies, Truth, and the Collapse of US Foreign Policy

October 21, 2012 Al Qaeda, Big Brother, Big Government, Constitution, Economy, Liberty and Freedom, Politics, Terrorism Comments Off on The Final Presidential Debate: Lies, Truth, and the Collapse of US Foreign Policy

President Obama and Mitt Romney find it amusing you believe anything they say.

At first it might be hard to decide what candidate for president to believe, but the answer in truth is easy.  NEITHER.  Both have been part of the lies and corruption too long to provide any real positive substance to the debate.  Beyond more of the same political spin on old failed policies, you will hear no new ideas, many excuses, lots of finger pointing, and most importantly, no real strategy that departs from the failings of at least the last 11+ years.

For almost four years President Obama has continued many of the Bush-era policies while adding his own flavor of failure.  Libya is just one of the most recent examples of an Obama owned foreign policy disaster as the return of four dead Americans can attest.  By arming and supporting known jihadists, he set the stage for greater bloodshed throughout Africa and the Middle East.  Even worse, Obama also quietly sold American sovereignty down the river to push an internationalist agenda.  By allowing the United Nations Security Council and not Congress to be the single authoritative body to send Americans to war and placing Americans under foreign command without objection, Obama intentionally set a new precedent in international law that further erodes American sovereignty.  Obama just recently was stating how Al Qaeda was decimated, but unfortunately for him and his propaganda machine, reality reared its ugly head all across North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.  To illustrate his colossal failure in the Middle East and beyond it is worthwhile to highlight some key events from just a couple short weeks in September.  During this very short timeframe a US diplomatic motorcade was blown to pieces in Peshawar, Pakistan wounding an American diplomat, four Americans to include an Ambassador were assassinated in Libya, numerous NATO forces were killed and wounded in Afghanistan by “friendly” troops and the Taliban, our embassies and consulates were attacked and torched in countries like Egypt and Sudan, Syria continued to deteriorate, and bomb blasts ripped through Iraq to name just SOME of the major events that affected Americans.  Moving beyond our unending wars with Islam, Japan and China moved closer to war, Russia reinforced units with elite combat troops on the border with Georgia, North Korea threatened America and South Korea with a nuclear attack, and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant continued to release massive amounts of radiation…again, to just identify a few highlights.  On the economic front a near imminent disaster is facing Europe that will certainly collapse the global economy and take the US down with it.  Further, the US debt has spiraled past 16 Trillion and is picking up speed with no end or even cuts in sight for spending.  The true magnitude of the impending economic disaster will only be seen after the election and the temporary Band-Aids placed on the world economy to support President Obama’s re-election fall away.  No Mr. President, Al Qaeda is not on the run, we are.  No Mr. President, the world is not safer.  No Mr. President, our debt and spending have not decreased.  No Mr. President, our economy has not recovered.  No Mr. President, you do not deserve another term!

As for Romney, this is a man with no foreign policy credentials.  He is the man who somehow managed to already offend even the British before he was in the U.K. for a day.  This is a man who has already kissed the ring of Netanyahu and sworn allegiance to a foreign power in exchange for political support.  This is a man who thinks the policy era of George Bush was a success and should be brought back.  So much so, his advisors and potential appointees are all Bush-era retreads reshuffled.  To think America would allow Bush-era policy “experts” back into the White House after what we already lived through and expect anything to improve is simply beyond comprehension and must be put squarely in the court of idiocy.  In respect to Romney’s stated Middle East policy, war mongering would be an understatement.  Even though Romney is nothing more than a well-endowed draft dodger, he apparently thinks nothing of putting your sons and daughters lives in danger as he plots an even more disastrous round of wars with Syria and Iran for Israel’s security.  I guess he didn’t get the memo regarding how “well” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq went.  Nonetheless, he seems to think he can start a war with Iran and that somehow will benefit America although I would challenge him to justify this argument in the upcoming debates.  Further, he somehow believes that by giving more tax dollars to the incredibly over funded Department of Defense and starting a war with Iran he can simultaneously balance the budget.  In one of the rare cases of Bill Clinton being right, Romney’s numbers just don’t add up.  As a purported businessman, Romney must know this flaw in his arithmetic so it is fair to conclude he is stupid or lying to the public.  Beyond the Middle East, Romney has also managed to pick a premature fight with Russia and risks restarting the Cold War.  If Romney can’t even understand the consequences of wars in the Middle East, he is woefully unprepared to take on the likes of Russia and China in strategic policy.

America, your candidates chosen for you by the elites will not return peace and prosperity as they claim.  Instead, you will get greater debt, a worse economy, unending bloody and costly wars, and further destruction of your freedom and liberties at home.  We have seen both parties’ policies and they are abject failures, ignore the rule of law, and trash the Constitution.  Neither is acceptable.  Only by ditching the two very unqualified candidates and their establishment parties en masse can America hope to avert total disaster during the next four years.  The Democrats and Republicans do not represent your best interests unless of course you are an extremely wealthy donor, financial institution, or mega corporation.  Whether you disagree or agree, you, the citizens of the United States of America, will get the government you collectively deserve come November so choose wisely.

 

Below are links to a few recent articles illustrating the US strategic failure in Afghanistan:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/21/al-qaeda-in-afghanistan-is-attempting-comeback/

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/06/insurgents-kill-2-us-troops-in-eastern-afghanistan-bombs-kills-2-afghan/?intcmp=obinsite

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/13/blasts-in-southern-afghanistan-kill-2-afghan-policemen-3-intelligence-officers/?intcmp=obinsite

US Diplomatic Core Massacred in Libya

September 12, 2012 9/11, Al Qaeda, Danger Alerts!, Department of State, News and Intelligence, Terrorism, Uncategorized Comments Off on US Diplomatic Core Massacred in Libya

Massive Libyan Mob Sacks US Diplomatic Posts in Libya

Headlines today have carried graphic footage and accounts of the chaos in Libya resulting in the death of the US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and at least three other Americans.  Piecing together what transpired is still in the initial stages, but a review of the known evidence is telling.

First, two of the Americans killed were highly trained members of the Diplomatic Security Service and an unknown number wounded.  Although details of whether they were Security Protective Specialists (SPS) or Special Agents remains unknown, these security officers typically have over a decade of law enforcement and military expertise with elite special forces units and combat experience.  Their deaths show beyond any doubt that the retaking of the compound was intense, high level combat against a well-armed and coordinated enemy.  The firefight included enemy use of heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled-grenades (RPGs), machine guns, improvised explosive devices, and potentially even mortars and raged for hours.  These are not weapons of a mob, but of a well armed military or terrorist faction.  Only a large, well-organized group enjoying at least partial support from the local government in major urban centers of Libya could have accomplished this.

Next, the fact that both the US diplomatic enclaves were attacked in a near simultaneous fashion by large  groups (in the hundreds) that sent the local security fleeing and the Americans at the mercy of the mob screams of a coordinated attack plan.  American embassies are hardened to resist these type attacks, but it is clear that the defenses were breached and not designed for the threat level required for a country like Libya.  Nonetheless, only through prior intelligence, surveillance, and heavy weapons would this still have been possible to this degree as security enhancements had been added.  Small arms simply are not sufficient overwhelm the defenses of a U.S. embassy or consulate.

Motives for these attacks have been primarily linked to a video allegedly portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a negative light; however, a more likely motive is available.  Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al Zawahiri in a video released to his Al Qaeda affiliates on September 11, 2012 urged revenge attacks against Americans for the drone killing of Abu al-Libi.  Abu al-Libi, as his name suggests, was a Libyan and leader of Al Qaeda cells.  Many of his fellow jihadist fighters were active participants in the violent overthrow and murder of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.  Further, members of Ansar al Sharia, a known Libyan political organization that has been widely considered the Libyan arm of Al Qaeda, was witnessed at the scene of the massacres.  Note that Ansar al Sharia is an organization that Gaddafi tried to suppress before the U.S began providing its members support to overthrow Gaddafi.  Ambassador Stevens was a vocal supporter of this action to arm known former and current jihadists.

Collectively looking at the picture, it is clear White House statements suggesting this was a small, uncoordinated, non-representive cadre of thugs are simply untrue.  Further, it appears that jumping to blame a video made in a free country that protects free speech is grossly reactionary and premature.  In fact, it appear now that the immediate use of this explanation may be done for political reasons to spin attention from the fact that a very real Al Qaeda threat has been created in Libya by a deliberate, yet ill-conceived plan by the White House.

From a security perspective, it is clear the U.S. Embassy in Libya was not prepared and significantly underestimated the threat.  From a manpower perspective, it is the host nation’s responsiblity to protect foreign diplomats, but common sense should dictate a robust security staff for any high-threat country like Libya.  More “shooters” would likely have repulsed the attack and saved the Ambassador and other Americans.  Further, accepting the risk of using a temporary building rather than a purpose-built embassy that incorporated the latest security and defensive measures in a high-threat nation was a critical failure.  Warnings about the poor state of security readiness have been raised for years and were not implemented in a timely fashion.  The decision to stay in a soft compound approaches reckless and stupid since the country threat was known to be high.  Not only is it still not stable and internecine post-revolution violence continues, but a bomb was planted in front of the US Consulate in June that detonated wounding a local guard.

On the intelligence front, the CIA and Department of State threat intelligence organizations failed to effectively warn of this impending storm.  This is the second massive failure in as many weeks.  The previous weekend a US Consulate Peshawar motorcade was obliterated in a vehicle borne suicide bombing attack in Pakistan resulting in the wounding of two outstanding and highly experienced American security specialists.

All of this points to the single responsible person, the ambassador.  The ambassador is charged with the ultimate care and safety of all United States citizens in his country and as such, this disaster is a direct result of his leadership and guidance.  Much like a ship’s captain going down with the ship, Ambassador Stevens went down with his ship.  Sadly, Ambassador Stevens appears to have been a dedicated, well-liked, and highly educated diplomat, but failed to recognize the difference between the ground truth and ideological concepts.  For this, he and at least three other Americans unnecessarily paid the ultimate price.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/12/world/africa/libya-us-ambassador-killed/index.html

 

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