James Foley "beheading" video. For real ...??

[82_28]

Yeah, I am not about to watch that either real or not but will take Nordic's word on his analysis. What is lost upon the propagandists is that us anti-war folk is that if real, it didn't happen in a vacuum. The need to convince through a beheading is telling as to what bullshit this all is. Nothing adds up. There is no impetus other than creating an "Islamist State". Which again, makes no sense. Who, AGAIN, is funding this show?

Like I said in another thread, the temperatures there are about 118 degrees F currently. It is impossible for what we are lead to believe to be a "rag tag" group to "safely" wage a war OUTSIDE of any kind of heat protection -- you don't just go and cool down and then "get back out there". I also brought up, who is flowing them the obvious much needed water if we are to believe this is real. And the absurdity of wearing head to toe black when it is nearly 120 degrees begs disbelief IF they are such a threat.

It's become clear to me that Israel and the Western think tanks who obsess over the destruction of Iran and Iranian influence are in many ways championing ISIS.

http://rehmat1.com/2014/06/30/netanyahu ... or-israel/
http://scgnews.com/ironic-israel-helps- ... government

It's always a weird coinkydink how Israel never seems to be a target of jihadists. It seems Turkey, who hates the Kurds with a passion, conveniently leaves MANY border crossings into Syria completely unmanned.
Jordan may be one of the few fat cat Sunni Arab states somewhat fearful of ISIS, but I wouldnt be surprised if the rest still secretly support them if not outright fund or move money for them.
Turkey(NATO) and Israel, and we know Saudi Arabia poured assloads of cash and arms into the Syrian "Rebels". But what about US and UK? Both can feign horror from Foley, but...
one has to wonder...

Yeah. Iran. I've known through the years a number of military people and they cannot wait to feast upon Iran. There's some saying they have and I can't remember the totality of it. But it ends in "real men go to Iran". It's like their only purpose for life -- to detstroy Iran. LOL. I seriously don't get it. Like, don't get it why someone would care so much about a country in order to destroy it.

[BOOGIE66]

Why is it that even after the fake beheading thing linked to upthread most reports about this start off with something like "following the beheading of foley" or "foley was beheaded" as if it was a fact which cannot be disputed ? They dont know if the video is legit and have foolishly jumped the gun on supposed beheadings before but they report it as a statement of fact anyway. So who benefits from this?

I know too many people that are buying a beheading just because there is a video implying someone was beheaded. I think it works because it plays on peoples assumptions or desire to believe that the "enemy" is stupid. I honestly cant believe that isis thinks beheading americans will persuade the US to stop bombing them

[MinM]

Mitch: You're telling me that you're gonna fake some terrorist thing, just to scare some money out of Congress?

Leland Perkins: Well, unfortunately, Mr. Hennessey, I have no idea how to fake killing 4,000 people - so we're just gonna have to do it for real. Blame it on the Muslims, naturally. Then I get my funding.

[stefano]

So my curiosity got the better of me and I watched the clip. I'm convinced it's real. I think they edited out the actual beheading because it must have been a mess, done standing up like that with a short-bladed knife. The idea was to show that they'd killed Foley, and they did. It also makes the video relatively tolerable to watch, so probably more likely to be watched widely. The wind business - maybe they switched off or removed the jihadist's mic between the last shot of him talking and the shot where he steps up to kill him. There's also no wind (either on the sound or on Foley's shirt) in the first shots, where Foley is talking, and the light's different. So the whole thing clearly took some time. But to think that it was faked and that the dead body at the end is a rubber prop or something is a real stretch.

[Searcher08]

Like I said in another thread, the temperatures there are about 118 degrees F currently. It is impossible for what we are lead to believe to be a "rag tag" group to "safely" wage a war OUTSIDE of any kind of heat protection -- you don't just go and cool down and then "get back out there". I also brought up, who is flowing them the obvious much needed water if we are to believe this is real. And the absurdity of wearing head to toe black when it is nearly 120 degrees begs disbelief IF they are such a threat.

It is not absurd at all.

Water:
There will be masses of water from the Tigris and Euphrates river system.

WARNING: This article has a truly awesome bad pun
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/19/most-improbable-scientific-research-abrahams
Why do Bedouins wear black in the desert?

The question so intrigued four scientists – all non-Bedouins – that they ran an experiment. Their study, called Why Do Bedouins Wear Black Robes in Hot Deserts?, was published in the journal Nature in 1980.

This is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens, and Other WTF Research
by Marc Abrahams

"It seems likely," the scientists wrote, "that the present inhabitants of the Sinai, the Bedouins, would have optimised their solutions for desert survival during their long tenure in this desert. Yet one may have doubts on first encountering Bedouins wearing black robes and herding black goats. We have therefore investigated whether black robes help the Bedouins to minimise solar heat loads in a hot desert."

The research team – C Richard Taylor and Virginia Finch of Harvard University and Amiram Shkolnik and Arieh Borut of Tel Aviv University – quickly discovered that, as you might suspect, a black robe does convey more heat inward than a white robe does. But they doubted that this was the whole story.

Taylor, Finch, Shkolnik, and Borut measured the overall heat gain and loss suffered by a brave volunteer. They described the volunteer as "a man standing facing the sun in the desert at midday while he wore: 1) a black Bedouin robe; 2) a similar robe that was white; 3) a tan army uniform; and 4) shorts (that is, he was semi‑nude)".

Each of the test sessions (black-robed, white-robed, uniformed and half-naked) lasted 30 minutes. They took place in the Negev desert at the bottom of the rift valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Eilat. The volunteer stood in temperatures that ranged from a just-semi-sultry 35C (95F) to a character-building 46C (115F). Though he is now nameless, this was his day in the sun.

The results were clear. As the report puts it: "The amount of heat gained by a Bedouin exposed to the hot desert is the same whether he wears a black or a white robe. The additional heat absorbed by the black robe was lost before it reached the skin."

Bedouins' robes, the scientists noted, are worn loose. Inside, the cooling happens by convection – either through a bellows action, as the robes flow in the wind, or by a chimney sort of effect, as air rises between robe and skin. Thus it was conclusively demonstrated that, at least for Bedouin robes, black is as cool as any other colour.

[82_28]

Well then, I stand corrected. However, I will point out that they are not wearing the long flowing robes and shit of the Bedouin. They are wearing tightly fitting "western" clothes which leaves no space between body and fabric. As corrected as I may stand, I still think waging a "war" in this way is impossible without direct access to AC while whiling away the day killing innocents wearing nothing but tight fitting black clothing. There is something else in play that we cannot see.

http://www.raqs.co.nz/me/clothing_bedouin.html

[8bitagent]

Yeah, I am not about to watch that either real or not but will take Nordic's word on his analysis. What is lost upon the propagandists is that us anti-war folk is that if real, it didn't happen in a vacuum. The need to convince through a beheading is telling as to what bullshit this all is. Nothing adds up. There is no impetus other than creating an "Islamist State". Which again, makes no sense. Who, AGAIN, is funding this show?

Like I said in another thread, the temperatures there are about 118 degrees F currently. It is impossible for what we are lead to believe to be a "rag tag" group to "safely" wage a war OUTSIDE of any kind of heat protection -- you don't just go and cool down and then "get back out there". I also brought up, who is flowing them the obvious much needed water if we are to believe this is real. And the absurdity of wearing head to toe black when it is nearly 120 degrees begs disbelief IF they are such a threat.

It's become clear to me that Israel and the Western think tanks who obsess over the destruction of Iran and Iranian influence are in many ways championing ISIS.

http://rehmat1.com/2014/06/30/netanyahu ... or-israel/
http://scgnews.com/ironic-israel-helps- ... government

It's always a weird coinkydink how Israel never seems to be a target of jihadists. It seems Turkey, who hates the Kurds with a passion, conveniently leaves MANY border crossings into Syria completely unmanned.
Jordan may be one of the few fat cat Sunni Arab states somewhat fearful of ISIS, but I wouldnt be surprised if the rest still secretly support them if not outright fund or move money for them.
Turkey(NATO) and Israel, and we know Saudi Arabia poured assloads of cash and arms into the Syrian "Rebels". But what about US and UK? Both can feign horror from Foley, but...
one has to wonder...

Yeah. Iran. I've known through the years a number of military people and they cannot wait to feast upon Iran. There's some saying they have and I can't remember the totality of it. But it ends in "real men go to Iran". It's like their only purpose for life -- to detstroy Iran. LOL. I seriously don't get it. Like, don't get it why someone would care so much about a country in order to destroy it.

Neocons, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Israel, al Qaeda, ISIS, etc...there is this absolute OBSESSION with destroying Iran. Based on 2007 era Sy Hersh articles and even recent speculation, there's a lot of theories
floating around that these groups like the "Islamic state" and others are some sort of dangerous gambit in a bid to destroy all of Iran's sphere of influence: Baghdad, Damascus, Southern Lebanon, and eventually Iran itself.
Why is it the US was only concerned once Kurdistan's existence itself was threatened as well as the CIA stronghold of Erbil? In fact, WASNT it one of the original conspiracy goals to Balkanize Iraq into three statelets?
I remember both Saudis and neocon think tank brethren wanting this.

Every time some terrible situation happens, it always seems to be the three amigos of US, Saudis/Gulf and Israel standing to gain.

I remember at the height of "al Qaeda", around 2007-2008, Ayman al Zawahiri (allegedly) made all sorts of audio, video and online decrees about how important it is to destroy Iran. Never mentioning Israel and barely mentioning the UK and US.

Now hey...I WISH Iran was more westernized. Meaning I wish they were more democratic, relaxed in their rules. If anything to thumb the nose at the surrounding Sunni blowhard nations surrounding them. Like "hey, we're Shia and we enjoy freedoms your people don't have". The young people in Iran are amazing people and I believe do deserve to have more freedoms. Iran to me seems like a country that could both hold firm in its Islamic culture but also provide a lot of opportunities and freedom independent of the West. But in no way do I believe Iran needing "democratizing"(ie Western invasion) and I believe change needs to organically(non CIA) come from within. It's already positive the new President of Iran is a lot more moderate than Ahmadinefuck.

[8bitagent]

So my curiosity got the better of me and I watched the clip. I'm convinced it's real. I think they edited out the actual beheading because it must have been a mess, done standing up like that with a short-bladed knife. The idea was to show that they'd killed Foley, and they did. It also makes the video relatively tolerable to watch, so probably more likely to be watched widely. The wind business - maybe they switched off or removed the jihadist's mic between the last shot of him talking and the shot where he steps up to kill him. There's also no wind (either on the sound or on Foley's shirt) in the first shots, where Foley is talking, and the light's different. So the whole thing clearly took some time. But to think that it was faked and that the dead body at the end is a rubber prop or something is a real stretch.

Well again, I'm totally with Nordic in his own interpretation but we've seen time and time again this ISIS army has no interest in holding back mass brutality.

My issue is, when watching the video up until the moment he's about to kill him(and Im glad foreign outlets do stop the video there), it almost feels like Foley is...oh god I hope this doesnt sound mean, but "in on it". Even if its real.
Meaning it's almost like he's been brainwashed to be like them, and like a suicide jihadi is proud and wanting to die. Almost like he's smiling. That's why I made the Se7en David Fincher comparison, not just because it looks almost exactly like that climax, including the framing of the scene...but because Kevin Spacey has that almost smug self assured "lets do this" kind of vibe before Brad Pitt executes him.

[stefano]

The video you saw wasn't edited by foreign outlets - that is what was produced and released by IS. With the stylish captions and subtitles and the video effects at the beginning and all. It must have been a committee decision to cut it in that specific way, OK'd by some higher up Emir. Comments about ragtag rebels or whatever completely miss the point: these guys are, as that English beardy says, an army. And like any army these days they have a propaganda department.

[82_28]

The video you saw wasn't edited by foreign outlets - that is what was produced and released by IS. With the stylish captions and subtitles and the video effects at the beginning and all. It must have been a committee decision to cut it in that specific way, OK'd by some higher up Emir. Comments about ragtag rebels or whatever completely miss the point: these guys are, as that English beardy says, an army. And like any army these days they have a propaganda department.

Yeah, but what we are treated to are images of this ragtag group rolling around in black western clothing, holding their guns up high, menacing, all within the bed of Toyota pick-up trucks driving down willy-nilly dusty roads in 120 degree heat. For contrast, Furguson MO has an army with tanks and access to quick AC, water and vittles. Not prepared to compare the two. However. . .

[Searcher08]

The video you saw wasn't edited by foreign outlets - that is what was produced and released by IS. With the stylish captions and subtitles and the video effects at the beginning and all. It must have been a committee decision to cut it in that specific way, OK'd by some higher up Emir. Comments about ragtag rebels or whatever completely miss the point: these guys are, as that English beardy says, an army. And like any army these days they have a propaganda department.

Yeah, but what we are treated to are images of this ragtag group rolling around in black western clothing, holding their guns up high, menacing, all within the bed of Toyota pick-up trucks driving down willy-nilly dusty roads in 120 degree heat. For contrast, Furguson MO has an army with tanks and access to quick AC, water and vittles. Not prepared to compare the two. However. . .

I do not understand this - what the fekk is ragtag about ISIS?
This is sounding like the 9/11 Bin Laden stuff that 'a bunch of ragheads in Tora Bora caves couldnt do squat against the US of A".
Why the heck will you need air conditioning when you are:
a) probably from rural Iraq or Syria and dressed for the desert (they are not in western clothing)
b) totally hyped up and on a self-perceived once in a lifetime Mission from God
c) part of a well funded, logistically highly organised, tightly controlled operation
d) have a massive city (Mosul) in your territory with a great deal of support inside it

Just because the kevlar-clad fat fucks of Ferguson would fry and feint - the *average* temperature in July and August in Baghdad is over 105 - why does this have any relevance to ISIS?

[8bitagent]

The video you saw wasn't edited by foreign outlets - that is what was produced and released by IS. With the stylish captions and subtitles and the video effects at the beginning and all. It must have been a committee decision to cut it in that specific way, OK'd by some higher up Emir. Comments about ragtag rebels or whatever completely miss the point: these guys are, as that English beardy says, an army. And like any army these days they have a propaganda department.

Yeah, but what we are treated to are images of this ragtag group rolling around in black western clothing, holding their guns up high, menacing, all within the bed of Toyota pick-up trucks driving down willy-nilly dusty roads in 120 degree heat. For contrast, Furguson MO has an army with tanks and access to quick AC, water and vittles. Not prepared to compare the two. However. . .

I do not understand this - what the fekk is ragtag about ISIS?
This is sounding like the 9/11 Bin Laden stuff that 'a bunch of ragheads in Tora Bora caves couldnt do squat against the US of A".
Why the heck will you need air conditioning when you are:
a) probably from rural Iraq or Syria and dressed for the desert (they are not in western clothing)
b) totally hyped up and on a self-perceived once in a lifetime Mission from God
c) part of a well funded, logistically highly organised, tightly controlled operation
d) have a massive city (Mosul) in your territory with a great deal of support inside it

Just because the kevlar-clad fat fucks of Ferguson would fry and feint - the *average* temperature in July and August in Baghdad is over 105 - why does this have any relevance to ISIS?

I can't stand Bill Maher a lot of times, but he did hit the nail on the head about 9/11 a few days later...he said it takes balls to do what al Qaeda did. Now I've gotten a lot of flak from fellow deep state/para-politicker/truther/conspiracy researches for my insistence that global jihad is real(or became real) and it's a shame to take them out of the 9/11 factoring. Because as we see now, crazy jihadists have genuinely taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq and have created the once laughed at "caliphate". My strong belief however is that this is not simply "blowback" but engineered by the chaos loving power structure. The real power structure. Not nation states.

I have long said that the demonization of Muslims and Arabs in the post 9/11 climate is unfair, and I've exhaustively engaged in online flame wars talking about the inflated hoax of al Qaeda and global jihad. But at the same
time you can clearly see the inner workings of jihadist culture. From 9/11 to the Madrid terror attack 911 days later to what's happening now. I've long said its not a question of "is global jihad a Western propaganda hoax", but what purpose does it serve. Look how both Democrats and Conservatives in DC were vocally championing the steroid mutation arming and funding of hardcore Islamist groups to take down both Libya and Syria. Now, the media and gov't expects us to not remember that THIS is the backbone of ISIS? Come on now.

To me it's clearer than ever than jihadist groups are created by the elite power structure to foment chaos, then come in as the "saviors" when the group has served their purpose or gets a little too out of hand. Why the hell is Golf Obama all the sudden decrying the horror of ISIS only when they get a little too close to CIA city Erbil? See, the US-Saudi-Israeli-Turkey-UK-Gulf state junta has no problem with ISIS in their obsession to destroy any and all Iranian/Shia influence...its only WHEN ISIS then decides to overstep when they become concerned. Otherwise the elephant in the room is US and ESPECIALLY Saudi Arabia and Israel are probably pleased as punch about
ISIS. ISIS killing off peacock worshippers, christians and shiites? Well yippy ki yay! Thats probably jerkoff worthy material for Saudis and Israelis.

But I have no question about the ability of tens of thousands of ISIS fighters being in unforgiving deserts wearing tight black clothes firing off heavy artillery and creating mass horror. When you have a virulent mixture of jihadist music blaring, religious fervor, Rambo fucking 3 80s Mujahadin glory revival, etc 118 degrees aint a thing

It sucks Jihadi music represents pure evil, as I find it really soothing and beautiful. Every time I see those al Qaeda/ISIS/al Nursura/AQAP propaganda videos with ultra violence, its weird hearing such amazing
hymns and music blaring over it.

[jcivil]

CIA folk were proud to say they made the Taliban in 95-6 to sort out the post soviet mess.

CIA runs ISI

Shadow Groups do shadow wha?

Other groups do other things...

And we say wha?

The strength of the diabolic power elite is obfuscation and that half their number are friendly do gooders. Golly. Systems analysis really cuts through it though. Lots of clarity now. Huge game.
Millions of read in players and various levels.

Vaya

[conniption]

Asia Times

The killer on the (Saudi) king's highway

By Pepe Escobar
Aug 21, '14

There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
The Doors, The End

The killer awoke before dawn. He put his American desert boots on. He took a knife from the ancient gallery. And he walked on down the hall - bathed in desert sunlight.

The killer spoke with a British accent (London's East End?) Father (Saud), I want to kill you. Mother (Langley?) I want to...

yeeeaaahh, c'mon!

Then the sartorially composed Man in Black beheaded American photojournalist James Foley.

This is not the end, beautiful friend. It's just a new beginning in the never-ending Global War on Terror. Now starring Papa Saud's brand new bag - The Caliph and his goons. This is the way Shock and Awe morphs into "Assad must go" morphs into Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, morphs into The Caliph's Black Britannia goon responding to "humanitarian" bombing. I'm my own baby now. Watch me work. Bring it on.

Choice scenery. Good sound and vision production values. Careful editing. No unnecessary gore. No blood splattering. No Allahu Akbar shrieks. "A Message to America", indeed - but most of all a message to the Ummah. As in we're the Men in Black badasses. We run The Caliphate. We're no mere death cult; we're winners. And we take no prisoners.

And why did Islamic State, formerly ISIS, become winners? Because the "West" regimented, schooled, trained, logistically helped and weaponized most of IS's Takfiri goons with a mission at hand: to destroy Syria. The "West" lauded them as "Syrian rebels". Freedom fighters.

Washington even promoted Jabhat al-Nusra (the official al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, and a "terrorist organization", according to the State Department) as "good" jihadis, as well as the preferred Saudi combo, the Islamic Front.

No wonder after photojournalist James Foley was kidnapped in November 2012 the Washington-sanctioned version was that he was being kept by "Assad must go" forces in a prison near Damascus.

Slouching towards Mecca

The House of Saud, directly and indirectly, and the proverbial wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council donors are the Mom and Dad of ISIS. All duly vetted/approved by the industrial-military-Orwellian-Panopticon complex.

And yet "Assad must go" had other ideas for Syria. He didn't go. He and his army resisted and counter-attacked. So the original mission in Syria morphed across the (non-existent) desert border towards Iraq. ISIS kept expanding - via extortion, kidnapping, captured oil fields, tribal smuggling networks.

The killer spoke with a British accent. Yet he may not be just a well-paid mercenary (500 from Britain, 700 from France, 500 from Belgium… ). He's most certainly a true believer in the wider IS medievalist ideology as well as its no-holds-barred sectarian methods.

How convenient that IS strategy is totally divide and rule. Totally balkanization of Iraq. Totally mum on Israel's slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Totally useful in wagging the (beheading) dog to make the world forget about Gaza.

Moroever, IS/ISIS strategy, stripped to the bone, is Pentagon manual; clear, hold and build - then expand (to an area larger than Great Britain). It's even Pentagon manual redux - as in building "coalitions of the willing" (see the alliance with "remnants" - Rummy talk - of the Saddam regime propelling their northern Iraq summer offensive.)

How convenient that the mighty Orwellian/Panopticon complex satellite maze could not identify a long convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert towards their summer conquests. And how convenient that a Briton beheading an American - what a "special relationship" plot twist! - fully sanctions the Return of Iraq Bombing ("for months", in Obama's words); more strikes; more drones; perhaps more boots on the ground; perhaps, in the near future, a Syria extension.

IS also took over Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam, in their summer adventure. Now Baghdad's military are trying to take it back. IS welcomed them with minefields, booby-trapped buildings, an array of snipers and hardcore mortar fire. How convenient that Obama's "humanitarian" bombs are not involved in R2P ("responsibility to protect") Saddam's birthplace. What really matters is the US consulate in Erbil, scores of CIA operatives and vast Big Oil interests in Iraqi Kurdistan.

And then there's this ultimate plot twist; a pearl by a dissident Saudi researcher (in Arabic). He argues, in detail, that IS is essentially a revival of "pure" Wahhabism; not only that IS comes from outside the House of Saud's dominions - in Iraq and the Levant - but tries hard to shatter the monarchy's legitimacy.

The House of Saud's counterpunch to the Arab Spring was (and remains) all about destroying or at least isolating the Muslim Brotherhood as an alternative Islamic rule/role model. Yet now comes IS - brimming with religious justification (however warped); military know-how; and an army of true - and well paid - believers.

Ride the king's highway, baby. No staged/not staged beheading could possibly top the ultimate blowback: the "West" nurturing the Beast who would slouch towards Mecca to finally behead the House of Saud. And those killers shall also speak with a British accent.
_______

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

(Copyright 2014 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

~

MoA

August 21, 2014

Syria: U.S. Intelligence For Syrian Air-Force Bombing

Pepe Escobar writes in ATOL on the IS rampage in Syria and Iraq:

[H]ow convenient that a Briton beheading an American - what a "special relationship" plot twist! - fully sanctions the Return of Iraq Bombing ("for months", in Obama's words); more strikes; more drones; perhaps more boots on the ground; perhaps, in the near future, a Syria extension.

Indeed. But the mission creep, or maybe the planned escalation, was already ongoing before the beheading video of James Foley was published:

Monday, the President again broadened the bombing’s objectives. The airstrikes against ISIS still protect U.S. personnel and serve humanitarian purposes, he said, but now, it seems, those are general goals that ongoing bombing serves. The President also suggested that ISIS is a security threat to the United States. Not for the first time, he said that once the new Iraqi government forms, we will “build up” Iraqi military power against ISIS.

Only the speed of this slide down a slippery slope is surprising.

The U.S. is again fully at war in Iraq. But bombing in Syria, it seems to me, will be left to the Syrian air-force. For some days now it has attacked IS targets in Raqqa with precise ammunition, not with the usual "barrel bombs". Precise weapons need precise intelligence to designate precise targets. Two knowledgeable journalist from the region have suggested that the U.S. is providing such targeting data to the Syrian government. The Angry Arab reports:

The highly able and reliable correspondent of As-Safir in Paris claims that the US has been providing intelligence help to the Syrian regime regarding positions of ISIS in Syria.

That As-Safir correspondent is Mohammad Ballout. Elijah J. Magnier, AL RAI chief international correspondent, tweeted two days ago:

#BreakingNews: #USA #Syria: #SAF Mig-29 is bombarding on daily basis #IS selective targets in #Raqqa w guided missiles following #USA info

Reuters reports that Syrian hopes to find a detente with the "west" over the threat of the Islamic State:

Ghaleb Kandil, another Lebanese journalist with close ties to the Syrian government, said the West would be forced to deal with Assad sooner or later. In return for security cooperation, Assad would demand full political rehabilitation.

"The Syrian state is the only body with adequate intelligence about the terrorists," he said.

With the U.S. providing targeting data to the Syrian air-force at least some informal detente has already been agreed upon. More opportunities for a public reversal of the "western" position will appear soon.

Unlike Pepe Escobar anticipates, "a Syria extension" of U.S. air-force attacks is unlikely to happen as long as the Syrian air-force has and keeps its capabilities to act on anti-IS (signal-)intelligence the U.S. provides. Russia (and Iran) will take care that the Syrian air-force will have the material and personal capacities to achieve that.

Posted by b on August 21, 2014 at 01:53 PM

comments

[8bitagent]

Asia Times

The killer on the (Saudi) king's highway

By Pepe Escobar
Aug 21, '14

There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
The Doors, The End

The killer awoke before dawn. He put his American desert boots on. He took a knife from the ancient gallery. And he walked on down the hall - bathed in desert sunlight.

The killer spoke with a British accent (London's East End?) Father (Saud), I want to kill you. Mother (Langley?) I want to...

yeeeaaahh, c'mon!

Then the sartorially composed Man in Black beheaded American photojournalist James Foley.

This is not the end, beautiful friend. It's just a new beginning in the never-ending Global War on Terror. Now starring Papa Saud's brand new bag - The Caliph and his goons. This is the way Shock and Awe morphs into "Assad must go" morphs into Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, morphs into The Caliph's Black Britannia goon responding to "humanitarian" bombing. I'm my own baby now. Watch me work. Bring it on.

Choice scenery. Good sound and vision production values. Careful editing. No unnecessary gore. No blood splattering. No Allahu Akbar shrieks. "A Message to America", indeed - but most of all a message to the Ummah. As in we're the Men in Black badasses. We run The Caliphate. We're no mere death cult; we're winners. And we take no prisoners.

And why did Islamic State, formerly ISIS, become winners? Because the "West" regimented, schooled, trained, logistically helped and weaponized most of IS's Takfiri goons with a mission at hand: to destroy Syria. The "West" lauded them as "Syrian rebels". Freedom fighters.

Washington even promoted Jabhat al-Nusra (the official al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, and a "terrorist organization", according to the State Department) as "good" jihadis, as well as the preferred Saudi combo, the Islamic Front.

No wonder after photojournalist James Foley was kidnapped in November 2012 the Washington-sanctioned version was that he was being kept by "Assad must go" forces in a prison near Damascus.

Slouching towards Mecca

The House of Saud, directly and indirectly, and the proverbial wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council donors are the Mom and Dad of ISIS. All duly vetted/approved by the industrial-military-Orwellian-Panopticon complex.

And yet "Assad must go" had other ideas for Syria. He didn't go. He and his army resisted and counter-attacked. So the original mission in Syria morphed across the (non-existent) desert border towards Iraq. ISIS kept expanding - via extortion, kidnapping, captured oil fields, tribal smuggling networks.

The killer spoke with a British accent. Yet he may not be just a well-paid mercenary (500 from Britain, 700 from France, 500 from Belgium… ). He's most certainly a true believer in the wider IS medievalist ideology as well as its no-holds-barred sectarian methods.

How convenient that IS strategy is totally divide and rule. Totally balkanization of Iraq. Totally mum on Israel's slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Totally useful in wagging the (beheading) dog to make the world forget about Gaza.

Moroever, IS/ISIS strategy, stripped to the bone, is Pentagon manual; clear, hold and build - then expand (to an area larger than Great Britain). It's even Pentagon manual redux - as in building "coalitions of the willing" (see the alliance with "remnants" - Rummy talk - of the Saddam regime propelling their northern Iraq summer offensive.)

How convenient that the mighty Orwellian/Panopticon complex satellite maze could not identify a long convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert towards their summer conquests. And how convenient that a Briton beheading an American - what a "special relationship" plot twist! - fully sanctions the Return of Iraq Bombing ("for months", in Obama's words); more strikes; more drones; perhaps more boots on the ground; perhaps, in the near future, a Syria extension.

IS also took over Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam, in their summer adventure. Now Baghdad's military are trying to take it back. IS welcomed them with minefields, booby-trapped buildings, an array of snipers and hardcore mortar fire. How convenient that Obama's "humanitarian" bombs are not involved in R2P ("responsibility to protect") Saddam's birthplace. What really matters is the US consulate in Erbil, scores of CIA operatives and vast Big Oil interests in Iraqi Kurdistan.

And then there's this ultimate plot twist; a pearl by a dissident Saudi researcher (in Arabic). He argues, in detail, that IS is essentially a revival of "pure" Wahhabism; not only that IS comes from outside the House of Saud's dominions - in Iraq and the Levant - but tries hard to shatter the monarchy's legitimacy.

The House of Saud's counterpunch to the Arab Spring was (and remains) all about destroying or at least isolating the Muslim Brotherhood as an alternative Islamic rule/role model. Yet now comes IS - brimming with religious justification (however warped); military know-how; and an army of true - and well paid - believers.

Ride the king's highway, baby. No staged/not staged beheading could possibly top the ultimate blowback: the "West" nurturing the Beast who would slouch towards Mecca to finally behead the House of Saud. And those killers shall also speak with a British accent.
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Oh my God that was brilliant.
Did I write that in my sleep? :p This is why I love Jeff Wells, Wrongwaywizard's and others lucid writing.