This post from Alice should be the standard reference when referring to ISIS as well as other colored spawn of this imperial machine.
In a nutshell: Saudi Wahhabism was a very tiny, fringe movement that arose from the late 18th century alliance between an illiterate bandit, Mohamed bin Saud and his gang, and a self-styled preacher of a strange, heretic cult that was even rejected by the preacher's own family, and pretty much everybody else. In fact, it seemed this preacher, Mohamed Ibn Abdel-Wahhab, could rarely stay in a place for long, before being denounced by the local Muslim scholars and chased out by the inhabitants. But when these two hooked up, it was a marriage made in hell, because the illiterate bandit made it possible for the preacher to spread his "message" at sword-point. At the same time, the bandit got to cloak his thievery and mayhem in religious mumbo-jumbo. Within a few years, the armed gang spreading Wahhabi terrorism had allowed them to take over a few towns, but had also prompted the beleaguered Muslim scholars to unite and appeal to the Egyptian Khedive to send troops to rescue the Arabs. He did, headed by his own son, Ibrahim Pasha, and by the mid-19th century, the Wahhabists had been pretty much decimated. The tattered remnants retreated to an isolated town in Arabia, where they were set to die out.
Until...the British intervened, with advanced weapons for the time, and military training, and financial support to the defeated Wahhabists. Over the second half of the 19th century, the Wahhabists, backed by the British, rapidly advanced in Arabia, one region at a time, terrorizing the people, vandalizing and destroying everything in their path, and warring against the established Hashemite families. This time, Egypt couldn't help, itself being under British military occupation.
During WWI, the French Empire and the British Crown, in the person of another intelligence agent, "Lawrence of Arabia", had persuaded the established Hashemite families to join the Allies in defeating the Ottoman Empire in Arabia by promising that once the Ottomans were defeated, the Arabs would be granted their independence by the victorious British (the Anglo-French Declaration of 1918). Meanwhile, what the Hashemites didn't know was that the British and French empires had already divided up and distributed the Arab nation among themselves (and the Zionists) and had no intention of allowing the Arabs to achieve independence (the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement). Furthermore, the British were not interested in backing the Hashemites, who were widely respected and enjoyed widespread legitimacy as Arab leaders. They preferred the thug who was on their payroll, and never made a move without consulting his British "advisor", one St. John Philby, a British intelligence agent who reportedly converted to Islam and went by the name Sheikh "Abdullah". Interestingly, before going to Arabia, St. John Philby had been recommended for a job in the British civil administration of Palestine by none other than Chaim Weizmann in 1920. Later, he was one of the extremely select group that met in Britain in 1922 to plan the "Palestine question", along with King George, his mentor, Chaim Weizmann, the Baron Rothschild, and Winston Churchill. No Arabs were invited.
The next few years witnessed the total, extremely violent takeover of Arabia (within the borders drawn by the British) by the Saud gang, executed by the armed militias of the fanatic "Ikhwan" ("Brothers"), with the backing of the British. The Ikhwan committed many horrific atrocities, and ruthlessly destroyed ancient artifacts and monuments dating back centuries and even millenia. By 1932, the Hashemites had been totally defeated and expelled from the territories that the British had carved out of Arabia. The head of the Sauds, Abdelaziz, declared himself king and was recognized as such by the British Crown, who kept him on their payroll for years afterward, until he no longer needed their money.
Interestingly, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which is called in Arabic the Ikhwan Muslimeen (a more accurate translation of the Arabic is "the Muslim Brothers"), was also founded with a financial donation by Egypt's British occupiers, of 500 Egyptian pounds (a fortune at the time). Its founder, Hassan el-Banna, viewed the Wahhabi takeover of Arabia (with Saud's Ikhwan militia) as a model to be emulated. All the current "Islamist" groups, militias and gangs, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, or Ikhwan, and are headed by men who were trained and indoctrinated by this secretive, now global network. Among many constants over the years has been the backing of Western imperialist intelligence agencies, led, as always, by the British, with the Zionists in the shadow of their shadow.
The Parallax View was on TV yesterday, great movie. When the 'reporter' finds a questionnaire, he recognizes that these folk are shopping for psychos. For the script it is a Parallax Corp. that identifies and grooms killers, yet we all know who has the real corner on that market.
I know well two people that were profiled early and given special attention by the alphabets. They like smart kids from broken or single parent homes. Now imagine how many poor shattered souls there are in the middle east after so much manipulation, war and abuse.
This must stop
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
Indeed, Sounder. I know we're all slobbering all over ourselves having you back, Alice, so I will slobber once again -- You are invaluable! We are very lucky to have you here, esp in confounding issues such as these.
Alice, have you thought about publishing something mainstream about this? Like maybe Harper's or something. More need to know your dual insights and your excellent ability to communicate and write.
/slobber off
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
I have to say, Alice, I got a good laugh reading this, "I know, who has time to read? Let alone read entire books and stuff."
It's kinda sad to have to offer here a recap of 20th century middle eastern geopolitics, but it's good you did because it helps add context to present day actions for those more unfamiliar with the history. Thank you for explaining the evolution of modern Wahhabism. Your synopsis was a fine and accurate essay.
I have a question about your earlier post, Alice,
Even if that were true (ISIS is destroying all history, all artifacts and ancient monuments, including some several thousand years old, which predate Islam), it would still not address my question about how and why the Baniyan statues in Afghanistan were preserved intact for over a thousand years after the spread of Islam in Afghanistan, only to be destroyed after the US military/intelligence intervened in that country. It's the same pattern, over and over.
The US MI had long been engaged in Afghanistan, so what intervention do you mean? The Buddhas were destroyed in 20001, the same year the Taliban were "ousted." It seems you're suggesting the US MI is responsible for instigating or carrying out all such demolitions of cultural monuments. (I almost wrote 'icons'!) Are you?
Lastly, you say it's the same old pattern. I'm not sure what you mean. I recall no other demolitions of cultural heritage significance being purposely destroyed, though I'm sure some were in the 20th century.
Anyone remember this bullshit? It's an oldie but "goodie". Take it away 2003 Robert Fisk:
The Sacking of Baghdad Burning the History of Iraq The Sacking of Baghdad by ROBERT FISK
Baghdad.
So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives ? a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq, were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze.
I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.
And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all in delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq’s written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?
When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning–flames 100 feet high were bursting from the windows–I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines’ Civil Affairs Bureau. An officer shouted to a colleague that "this guy says some biblical [sic] library is on fire". I gave the map location, the precise name–in Arabic and English. I said the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn’t an American at the scene–and the flames were shooting 200 feet into the air.
There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad. In the National Archives were not just the Ottoman records of the Caliphate, but even the dark years of the country’s modern history, handwritten accounts of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, with personal photographs and military diaries,and microfiche copies of Arabic newspapers going back to the early 1900s. But the older files and archives were on the upper floors of the library where petrol must have been used to set fire so expertly to the building. The heat was such that the marble flooring had buckled upwards and the concrete stairs that I climbedhad been cracked.
The papers on the floor were almost too hot to touch, bore no print or writing, and crumbled into ash the moment I picked them up. Again, standing in this shroud of blue smoke and embers, I asked the same question: why? So, as an all-too-painful reflection on what this means, let me quote from the shreds of paper that I found on the road outside, blowing in the wind, written by long-dead men who wrote to the Sublime Porte in Istanbul or to the Court of Sharif of Mecca with expressions of loyalty and who signed themselves "your slave". There was a request to protect a camel convoy of tea, rice and sugar, signed by Husni Attiya al-Hijazi (recommending Abdul Ghani-Naim and Ahmed Kindi as honest merchants), a request for perfume and advice from Jaber al-Ayashi of the royal court of Sharif Hussein to Baghdad to warn of robbers in the desert. "This is just to give you our advice for which you will be highly rewarded," Ayashi says. "If you don’t take our advice, then we have warned you." A touch of Saddam there, I thought. The date was 1912.
Some of the documents list the cost of bullets, military horses and artillery for Ottoman armies in Baghdad and Arabia, others record the opening of the first telephone exchange in the Hejaz–soon to be Saudi Arabia–while one recounts, from the village of Azrak in modern-day Jordan, the theft of clothes from a camel train by Ali bin Kassem, who attacked his interrogators "with a knife and tried to stab them but was restrained and later bought off". There is a 19th-century letter of recommendation for a merchant, Yahyia Messoudi, "a man of the highest morals, of good conduct and who works with the [Ottoman] government." This, in other words, was the tapestry of Arab history–all that is left of it, which fell into The Independent’s hands as the mass of documents crackled in the immense heat of the ruins.
King Faisal of the Hejaz, the ruler of Mecca, whose staff are the authors of many of the letters I saved, was later deposed by the Saudis. His son Faisel became king of Iraq–Winston Churchill gave him Baghdad after the French threw him out of Damascus–and his brother Abdullah became the first king of Jordan, the father of King Hussein and the grandfather of the present-day Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II.
For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan’s grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq.
I also remember the stories of the target shooting and shit by the .mil of the animals held at the Baghdad zoo. All simply water under the bridge at this point.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
Sometimes dogs don't bark (this article is from 2013, when the fiction was still being maintained that the Western-backed terrorists trying to destroy Syria included "moderates" and even "secular" groups):
Syria’s ‘destroyed’ ancient synagogue is still intact New photograph provided to Times of Israel appears to show interior of 2,000-year-old Jobar shul largely undamaged; Torah scrolls said to be safe BY AVI ISSACHAROFF December 22, 2013, 9:35 pm 3
Contrary to a flurry of reports, the 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in Damascus has not been destroyed during the Syrian civil war, and is now being guarded by locals, The Times of Israel was told on Sunday. A photograph was provided that appeared to confirm that the synagogue interior is largely intact.
Despite reports that valuable artifacts from the synagogue, including its Torah scrolls, were being held hostage by an Islamist extremist rebel group, the objects are actually being held in safekeeping after being removed from the building, The Times of Israel was also told, although there was no way to independently verify this.
Several Israelis, including Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American Jew who has long maintained contacts with various Syrian opposition sources, exchanged messages with those sources regarding the synagogue, and in the last few days received assurances and photographs of the synagogue, The Times of Israel was told.
One of the photographs shows the interior of the synagogue, apparently largely intact, with a small handwritten sign bearing Moti’s name, dated December 2013, visible in the photograph to indicate that it is fresh. Other photographs show Torah scrolls, said to be from the synagogue, although there is no way to confirm where the scrolls are or who is holding them.
The Syrian opposition sources said they were protecting the synagogue 24 hours a day. They also said the Torah scrolls had been removed from the synagogue for safe-keeping, but would be returned if and when it was safe to do so.
Mandy Safadi, former chief of staff for ex-Likud MK and deputy minister Ayoub Kara, who has maintained relations with some Syrian opposition groups since the beginning of the civil war, said the release of the photographs underlined the “positive connection” between the Syrian people and Israel. Most of the mainstream opposition to Assad, notably including members of the Free Syrian Army, who are not members of an Islamist group, want to see that relationship strengthened, he said.
Safadi added that members of that mainstream opposition understood the importance and sensitivity of Syria’s Jewish holy places to Israel and the Jewish world, and had therefore decided to protect the synagogue and the Torah scrolls.
“We are receiving more and more requests [from Syrian opposition figures in exile] to meet with Knesset members and representatives of Israel, something that we have not seen in the past,” Safadi said, adding that “the decision to protect the synagogue is a kind of confidence-building measure.”
Reports on the destruction and looting of the ancient Jobar synagogue emerged as early as March. It was said to have been badly damaged by mortars reportedly fired by the forces of President Bashar Assad; some reports said the building was destroyed. A video to this effect was posted on YouTube. Syrian rebels accused the government of looting the synagogue before burning it to the ground, allegations the regime vehemently denied.
Last week, it was further alleged that the synagogue’s Torah scrolls and other Judaica were being held by an Islamist group inside Syria, which was said to be demanding the release of prisoners captured by the Assad regime in return for the items.
A source who told The Times of Israel that he was involved in negotiating for the release of the Judaica items and their extraction from Syria said the objects were being held by a group affiliated with the Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist organization associated with al-Qaeda and defined as a terrorist organization by the US.
He said the stolen items include at least three or four Torah scrolls as well as ancient Jewish scrolls and silverware. “They took everything they could get their hands on,” the source said. “They want prisoners held by Assad [in exchange for them].”
The Jobar synagogue — said to be 2,000-years-old — was built on the site where the prophet Elijah is said to have concealed himself from persecution and anointed his successor, Elisha, as a prophet.
An inscription in English at the synagogue reads, “Shrine and synagogue of prophet Eliahou Hanabi since 720 B.C.,” although the actual date of founding is disputed. One of the earliest mentions of the synagogue is in the Talmud, which states that Rabbi Rafram bar Pappa prayed there. The rabbi died in 375.
Another inscription, in Arabic, said it was the tomb of Al-Khidhr, held in some Islamic traditions to be a prophet who traveled with Moses.
Only a handful of Jews remain in Syria, as a remnant of an ancient community which numbered 4,000 as late as 1992.
Elhanan Miller, Yoel Goldman and JTA contributed to this report.
Iamwhomiam wrote:Lastly, you say it's the same old pattern. I'm not sure what you mean. I recall no other demolitions of cultural heritage significance being purposely destroyed, though I'm sure some were in the 20th century.
Palestine. The ancient land and civilization of Palestine have been so thoroughly and ruthlessly eradicated, in a process that continues to this very day, that it didn't even occur to you.
In contrast to the collateral damage expected of a normal war, Falah (1996) calls the 1948 conflict a “total war” due to the concerted and methodical annihilation of the Palestinian landscape. His in-depth study of the erasure of Palestinian material culture revealed that living spaces and other structures that could bear witness to the Palestinian past disappeared. Structures left standing were schools, [9] These were most often built in villages by the Bri...[9] khans (caravanserai), monasteries (with direct ties to European countries), or attractive buildings considered non-Arab (built, for example, during the Crusades).
New farming settlements were established in the wake of this destruction. Between 1948 and 1949, 170 farms were created, and 130 the following year. [10] Or 300 in under three years. By comparison, 243 agricultural...[10] Existing farms were enlarged in order to incorporate land from neighboring Arab villages. These farms had military and political significance because they were generally set up in zones that, according to the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, belonged to an Arab State.
In just two years, the Palestinian space was entirely restructured to achieve two objectives: territorial control, and the obliteration of all places representing the region’s Arab history. With the land now wiped clear, a new identity could be planted. The disciplines of archeology, geography, or cartography were tasked with nationalizing the landscape so that it reflected and legitimated the Zionist project. The Zionist vision of conquered space and, in particular, the direct link between present and past were made “objective realities” by being tied to the territory, which, in turn, reinforced them by giving them an almost instant material reality. This reflects the idea of “homescapes” (Azaryahu 2002, 149), whereby the homeland was transformed by an abstract idea into a reality that represented it as much as it produced it.
Israel’s 1978 antiquities law is a good example of a practice with one foot in politics and the other in scientific research. The law only applied to material objects made before 1700 or to those with historical value. It therefore completely discounted three-hundred years of history. Except for a few buildings built by the earliest Jewish pioneers, the law considered no other historical structure from that time as an antiquity in need of preservation (Benvenisti 2000, 305). Moreover, in blatant violation of the law, some Palestinian monuments built before 1700 were destroyed without a second thought. The Palestinian people thus disappeared from the space and the history of what, since 1948, has been referred to as “Israeli.” [11] This erasure was also accomplished by the terms used...[11]
As regards excavations in Jerusalem, Abu El-Haj (1998) highlights the central role archeology plays in producing a material culture that aligns the landscape with certain aspects of history while disregarding others. Like many scientific fields, it played a part in the conflict by producing the tangible signs that justified political and cultural claims.
Cartography also played a role. Under the British Mandate, Zionist requests to give Hebrew names to some sites were typically denied. The map drawn up by the British in the 1940s had only around 200 Hebrew names, and these belonged to Jewish colonies. Other than a few names of religious sites that already had English names (Jerusalem, Hebron), place names were transcriptions of Arabic.
Once the State of Israel was created, great efforts were made to disseminate maps that reflected the drastic changes to space that were taking place and used Hebrew names for roads, sites, rivers, and more. This had a two-fold purpose: to restore biblical toponymy, and to serve nationalist interests.
Paradoxically, many current names are derived from Arabic. The Old Testament and Jewish historical sources name only 174 places (Azaryahu 2002, 159). However, biblical historians and archeologists theorize that contemporary Arabic toponymy is a distortion of ancient names. Two tactics were used: some Arab names were translated into Hebrew, and new names were created based on homophony with Arab terms.
In any event, thousands of names changed their meaning. This erased one world to replace it with another. As Benvenisti (2000, 38–9) points out, names became a reality once they were entered on a map.
Although the commission overseeing this work claimed not to have altered any spatial characteristics of maps, it admitted omitting “invisible ruins.” However, many Palestinian villages do not appear on maps despite the presence of visible ruins. Others have a new name, beside which appears the symbol for an “ancient ruin.” Once these “ancient ruins” are covered up by nature or time, the symbols disappear. Therefore, “the process of consolidation of the ‘current map’ with the ‘Hebrew map’ went on as long as the eradication of all signs of habitation in the abandoned Arab villages continued; thus were the ‘ruins of which no visible traces remained’ wiped from the map—along with their names” (Benvenisti 2000, 42).
In the early 1960s, a new map of the country was published containing only Hebrew place-names and depicting an entirely different reality. Not only was this map a tool for territorial control, but more importantly, it was a way of depriving of space those lacking the power to name things and therefore to make them exist: no Arab name meant no Arab space.
Names were chosen according to two principles. One focused on biblical “continuity,” [12] This is in fact a fictitious continuity linking biblical...[12] and the other on modernity and the nationalist angle. Interestingly, Likud’s 1977 victory brought about two changes: biblical-sounding names were prioritized even more, and the West Bank, which had been occupied for ten years, was renamed Judea and Samaria immediately following the party’s political victory. Much of its geography was renamed in Hebrew to allude to the Bible and the ancestral homeland. Although only 20% of names in Israel have a biblical connotation, in the West Bank, that figure reaches 47% (Cohen and Kliot 1992, 666). Therefore, after a phase of Hebrization aiming to nationalize space, came a phase of Judization of the landscape in order to give it a religious meaning. This practice illustrates the power that comes with place naming. Although the West Bank was not officially annexed, Israel carried out both symbolic and real acts that suggest otherwise. For instance, many roads were reserved for Jews and many plots seized. Clearly, the intent was to take possession of the land. Following the political events of 1977, land appropriations for settlement colonies rose dramatically. These resolved the territorial paradox of the first wave of Zionist immigrants, who opted to settle in the coastal plain instead of the “biblical” hills.
Segel and Weizman (2004, 86) analyzed the principles behind the placement and architecture of these colonies and identified an essential strategic aspect in addition to the religious one. They argue that these colonies are not places of residence but instead form a vast network of “civilian fortifications.” Having scattered them throughout the landscape, the Israeli government uses them to enforce its authority over Palestinians in the absence of formal institutions (such as an army or a police force). In effect, these settlements can be likened to an occupation of the hilltops. In addition to the fact that they meet a security need by offering panoptic surveillance of the valleys where Palestinian villages are located, they help establish two national geographies that overlap along a vertical and symbolic axis. In the words of Rotbarb (2004, 52): ...
Palestinian space was therefore replaced by Israeli space. The landscape was transformed, villages were buried or surrounded by settlements, and maps were drawn up with new place names. These are the territorial ramifications of a political and military triumph over the Other. Unnamed, and with neither history nor geography, the Palestinian Other was reduced to act as a foil to Israel’s own legitimacy. Benvenisti (2000, 47) suggests that the reason Israel made such strenuous efforts to eradicate non-Hebrew history was because it was fully aware of the deep attachment Palestinians have to their land.
Palestinian memory may be the only tangible trace of a past that Israel has thus far been unable to eradicate. Through narratives and customs, refugees create and re-create their land and their landscape. Palestinian symbolic strategies for reclaiming a past, present, and future existence include using pre-1948 maps [13] The work of al-Dabbagh (1966) and Khalidi (1992) are...[13] (now considered “historical”), using the Arab names of destroyed villages instead of their current Jewish names, and continuing to use old place names. Link
Question: How relevant is it, that in contrast to the undisputed ancient monuments and artifacts being systematically destroyed by Israel and its sub-contractor ISIS to eradicate all traces of the indigenous people, there is not even one authentic, 'Jewish' artifact supporting the Zionists' historical claims that there once existed an important Jewish civilization, let alone an empire. None. Just a long line of fakes. How relevant is that, to understanding the otherwise incomprehensible?
"If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X
A baby-faced executioner who looks to be no older than 12 appears to kill an Israeli Arab who confesses to being a Mossad spy in the latest stomach-turning video released by ISIS.
The 13-minute clip was released via Twitter Tuesday evening, and shows a seated man identified by his family as 19-year-old Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam calmly confessing to having been recruited by the Jewish State's spy agency, even stating how much he was paid.
Musallam, from East Jerusalem, is believed to be the alleged Mossad spy ISIS claimed last month to be holding, and who was interviewed in the terror organization's February edition of its online magazine, Dabiq.
In the interview, Musallam says he was enlisted into the Mossad by a Jewish neighbor who worked as a police officer.
However, it makes perfect sense, right? Easy as pie, as they say in the know. Ageless grievances finally coming home to roost embodied within children -- a vast history expertly taught to children with their full comprehension. Makes total sense.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
8bitagent » Sun Mar 08, 2015 11:36 pm wrote:It is weird how every time Syrian government forces bomb from the air or attack ground positions of ISIS, Israel shoots them down or blows them up. And then the many reports of IDF treating wounded Syrian jihadis. You'll also notice ISIS is focused on attacking Lebanon/Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, etc..pretty much all of Israel's main enemies. And ISIS seems to always talk about how they hate Shiite Muslims, Yazidis, etc but never seem to go after Israel. Just saying. Im normally against Israeli conpiracy theories, but I guess enemy of my enemy is my friend applies here.
I'm usually not one for Israeli conspiracy theories, but it's odd how even al Qaeda loving oil rich Arab gulf states are being attacked and threatened by ISIS...yet Israel doesn't seem to be all too concerned.
I have wondered about why Dubai and Abu Dahbi, specifically the new high rises, have not been targeted.
Please forgive the wiki source.
Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, is home to 911 completed high-rises,[1] 88 of which stand taller than 180 metres (591 ft). The tallest building in Dubai is the Burj Khalifa, which rises 828 metres (2,717 ft) and contains 163 floors.[2] The tower has stood as both the tallest building in the world and the tallest man-made structure of any kind in the world since its completion in January 2010. The second-tallest building in Dubai is the 414-metre (1,358 ft) Princess Tower, which also stands as the world's tallest residential skyscraper.[3] The skyscrapers of Dubai are, for the most part, clustered in three different locations. The land along Sheikh Zayed Road was the first to develop, followed by the Dubai Marina neighborhood and the Business Bay district. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ta ... s_in_Dubai
Note: there are 911 of them even, oh boy geez.
The list ranks Abu Dhabi skyscrapers that stand at least 100 metres (328 ft) tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes architectural details and spires, but does not include antenna masts. Although not falling into the category of buildings, Abu Dhabi also claimed the world record for the highest free-standing flagpole in the world between 2001 and 2003. The flagpole stands at a height of 122 metres (400 ft).[1][2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ta ... _Abu_Dhabi
Most of the money used to finance the september 11th attacks was done through the Dubai banking system..AKA neo BCCI
"Do you know who I am? I am the arm, and I sound like this..."-man from another place, twin peaks fire walk with me
Also, the Taliban were Muslims destroying artifacts of the "alien" Buddhist culture; the ISIS goons are, we are told, Muslims destroying artifacts of Muslim culture. Given what we can piece together about the current situation, including the fact that the people who could stop it are doing nothing, I'd say the comparison is facile.
Elvis wrote:Also, the Taliban were Muslims destroying artifacts of the "alien" Buddhist culture; the ISIS goons are, we are told, Muslims destroying artifacts of Muslim culture. Given what we can piece together about the current situation, including the fact that the people who could stop it are doing nothing, I'd say the comparison is facile.
Even if that were true (ISIS is destroying all history, all artifacts and ancient monuments, including some several thousand years old, which predate Islam), it would still not address my question about how and why the Baniyan statues in Afghanistan were preserved intact for over a thousand years after the spread of Islam in Afghanistan, only to be destroyed after the US military/intelligence intervened in that country. It's the same pattern, over and over.
Not to get too esoteric in foreshadowing...but twin Bamiyan statues // Twin Towers.
"Do you know who I am? I am the arm, and I sound like this..."-man from another place, twin peaks fire walk with me
A baby-faced executioner who looks to be no older than 12 appears to kill an Israeli Arab who confesses to being a Mossad spy in the latest stomach-turning video released by ISIS.
The 13-minute clip was released via Twitter Tuesday evening, and shows a seated man identified by his family as 19-year-old Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam calmly confessing to having been recruited by the Jewish State's spy agency, even stating how much he was paid.
Musallam, from East Jerusalem, is believed to be the alleged Mossad spy ISIS claimed last month to be holding, and who was interviewed in the terror organization's February edition of its online magazine, Dabiq.
In the interview, Musallam says he was enlisted into the Mossad by a Jewish neighbor who worked as a police officer.
However, it makes perfect sense, right? Easy as pie, as they say in the know. Ageless grievances finally coming home to roost embodied within children -- a vast history expertly taught to children with their full comprehension. Makes total sense.
The Mossad wanting to harm a single hair on an Islamic State jihadist is like the mafia wanting to go after Frank Sinatra
"Do you know who I am? I am the arm, and I sound like this..."-man from another place, twin peaks fire walk with me
My most favorite thing in the whole wide world is watching thieves turn against each other.
Reports link Islamic State recruiter to Canadian Embassy in Jordan
JASON FEKETE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
LEE BERTHIAUME, OTTAWA CITIZEN
IAN MACLEOD, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Published on: March 13, 2015 Last Updated: March 13, 2015 7:32 PM EDT
Bruno Saccomani, Canada's ambassador to Jordan, is seen in a file photo with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which is run by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s handpicked ambassador and former top bodyguard, is being linked in news reports to an unfolding international terrorism and spy scandal.
The federal government refused to comment Friday on multiple Turkish media reports that a foreign spy allegedly working for Canadian intelligence – and arrested in Turkey for helping three young British girls travel to Syria to join Islamic State militants – was working for the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan.
Reports also say the suspect has confessed to working for Canadian intelligence and was doing so in order to obtain Canadian citizenship. The man previously travelled to Canada with the embassy’s approval, said one report.
Canada’s ambassador to Jordan is Bruno Saccomani, the former RCMP officer who was in charge of Harper’s security detail until the prime minister appointed him almost two years ago as the envoy to Amman, with dual responsibility for Iraq.
The suspect in custody is a Syrian intelligence operative named Mohammed Mehmet Rashid – dubbed Doctor Mehmet Rashid – who helped the three London schoolgirls travel to Syria upon their arrival in Turkey, according to Yeni Safak, a conservative and Islamist Turkish newspaper known for its strong support of the government.
Other Turkish news outlets identified the man with slightly different spellings: Mohammed al Rashid or Mohammad Al Rashed.
Police arrested Rashid more than a week ago in a province near Turkey’s border with Syria, multiple news agencies reported.
The initial police report says Rashid confessed he was working for the Canadian intelligence agency and that he has flown to Jordan to share intelligence with other agents working for the Canadian Embassy in Amman, various news outlets reported.
The suspect claimed he worked for the intelligence service in order to get Canadian citizenship for himself, said various news reports. The Turkish intelligence service confiscated his mobile phone and computer, which were provided by the Canadian government, according to reports.
Computer records revealed Rashid entered Turkey 33 times with his Syrian passport since June 2013, and agents discovered passport images of 17 more people, aside from the ones belonging to the three British girls, Yeni Safak reported.
The Citizen has not been able to independently confirm the Turkish news reports.
The Syrian agent reportedly received deposits of between $800 and $1,500 through bank accounts opened in the United Kingdom.
A federal government source in Canada said the individual arrested is not a Canadian citizen and “was not an employee of CSIS,” but nobody in government has said this on the record. Nor has the government categorically ruled out reports that the alleged spy was working for or helping the Canadian government in some capacity.
Turkish news channel A Haber reported the 28-year-old man was a dentist who fled the Syrian conflict into Jordan, and sought asylum in another country before the Canadian embassy took an interest in his asylum case.
He then travelled to Canada by approval of the embassy and stayed there for a while before returning to Jordan, according to news outlets that cited A Haber’s coverage.
The news channel claimed he contacted a Canadian embassy official in Jordan called “Matt,” and quoted Turkish police sources that Matt was likely an employee of a British intelligence service, said a report from Istanbul-based newspaper Daily Sabah, citing the A Haber coverage. The suspect only acted as a smuggler and was paid by the intelligence service.
A Haber has released two different videos of the man arrested, with one video allegedly showing him leading the girls into Syria and another of him in custody being led away by security officials.
The choppy footage in the first video, filmed by the man now in custody, shows the girls’ journey from Turkey into Syria, Turkish media reported.
The three girls arrived at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, then headed to the southern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, Daily Sabah reported. The girls then took a cab from Gaziantep to a location where they were greeted by the man.
The suspect starts shooting video when the girls arrive and asks for their names, before telling them to take their baggage and not leave anything behind. He then informs the girls they will be in Syria within one hour, Daily Sabah reported.
The girls and suspect then hop into another vehicle. He then delivers them to Islamic State militants in Syria and returns to Turkey, and is later apprehended by Turkish authorities, according to the newspaper.
In Ottawa, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney has refused to comment on the reports, citing operational security. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and Prime Minister’s Office have also refused comment.
The official Opposition pursued the Conservatives Friday in question period over the alleged link to Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which they noted is run by Harper’s handpicked ambassador.
NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie asked the government to confirm that someone linked to Canadian intelligence – “either an employee, an agent or an asset, is being detained in Turkey.”
Roxanne James, the parliamentary secretary to Blaney, confirmed the government is aware of the reports but, like the minister, refused to provide any details “on operational matters of national security.”
Defence Minister Jason Kenney, speaking to reporters Friday in Calgary, said he has never heard Rashid’s name before and refused further comment. “We don’t comment on allegations or operations about our intelligence agencies,” Kenney said.
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said the government’s refusal to outright deny the reports out of Turkey lends credence to them.
“They haven’t responded,” he said. “And in light of the fact that there’s been more than 24 hours for the government to establish the facts as to what happened, I can only conclude that there is some truth to this story.”
Dewar said if the reports are true, that would be devastating for Canada’s credibility, and, at the very least, reiterate the need to increase oversight over the spy agency’s activities.
“We have been engaged with someone who is not blocking people from travelling to Syria to join up with ISIL, they’re actually facilitating it,” he said.
“So the government has to understand that they’re accountable for the actions of our spy agency and whomever they work with.”
Should the allegations prove true, Dewar said there should be an immediate investigation into what happened, including how CSIS would have recruited such a person to work for it. At the same time, he questioned who would lead such an investigation and where the report would go given the lack of independent monitoring over the spy agency.
“This is why we don’t support Bill C-51,” he said. “There’s no proper oversight right now. It’s a black hole.”
Dewar also noted the reports say Rashid was recruited out of Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which is headed by Saccomani. He said it is ironic given the government defended Saccomani’s lack of diplomatic experience by touting his background in security issues when the prime minister appointed him to the post last year.
Exactly why Turkish officials chose to publicly identify the man’s affiliation as being with Canada, and possibly CSIS, remains unclear.
Relations between Turkey and Canada were rocky after the Conservative government formally recognized the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War as a genocide, but they have become more cordial in recent years.
In particular, Canada has remained largely silent while other Western countries are criticizing Turkey for not doing more to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Syria, many of whom have joined Islamic State (ISIL).
It has also refrained from speaking out too loudly on what some have seen as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian bent and attempt to turn Turkey away from secularism.
Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, are the three British girls believed to have joined the Islamic State, after they left their London homes in early February, travelled to Turkey and crossed the border into Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said the suspect arrested worked for the intelligence agency of a country that is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State.
He didn’t identify the country, but multiple media outlets, citing security officials, first reported Thursday the individual was working for Canadian security intelligence.
CSIS may well be operating in the region.
If Rashid worked in some capacity for CSIS, and based on reports his computer contained images of passport and travel documents of several apparent ISIL recruits, it’s conceivable he was actually gathering intelligence for CSIS about those recruits and the methods, logistics and contacts for spiriting them into Syria, said Ray Boisvert, former assistant director of intelligence for CSIS.
“If he was a CSIS asset, he’s likely an observer whose only job is to report what he saw,” Boisvert said.
If his computer did, in fact, contain information about many other ISIL recruits in Syria, “that’s a hell of intelligence operation, well done.”
Boisvert said relations between Turkey and Western coalition countries have become acrimonious, especially with the British. It has “become a very high, politically-charged discussion about who’s to blame,” for the ISIL recruit pipeline through Turkey into Syria.
If Rashid was working for CSIS in some fashion, the spy agency’s current mandate would prevent him or the organization from doing anything to have stopped the three British girls from reaching Syria. Under current Canadian law, CSIS and its assets are only allowed to gather intelligence.
Ironically, the government’s contentious security legislation, Bill C-51, would empower CSIS to disrupt such activities that threatened the security of Canada.
The reports come as the government pushes to enact two pieces of divisive security legislation giving CSIS extraordinary powers at home and abroad. But critics argue that without additional oversight and review, Canada’s security agencies could run amok with the new powers.
Under Bill C-51, the CSIS mandate would dramatically expand from its current intelligence collection-only role to actively reducing and disrupting threats to national security, whether in Canada or abroad. If those disruption activities are illegal or unconstitutional in Canada, the legislation authorizes Federal Court judges to grant CSIS warrants to break the law.
The bill also gives explicit direction to CSIS and Canadian courts to ignore the statutes of sovereign states in pursuing such operations. That development was highlighted in an online New York Times op-ed article this week by Canadian legal scholars Craig Forcese and Kent Roach.
Another piece of government security legislation before the Senate, Bill C-44, which amends the CSIS Act, also would allow Federal Court judges to “without regard to any other law, including that of any foreign state … authorize activities outside of Canada to enable the service to investigate a threat to the security of Canada.”
Those activities would be limited to traditional intelligence gathering, which is done, usually covertly, by intelligence services the world over. Link
"If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X
Islamic State Seizes Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria
By ANNE BARNARDAPRIL 4, 2015
AMMAN, Jordan — Islamic State militants have seized most of a sprawling Palestinian refugee district in the southern part of the Syrian capital, Damascus, an area that has been under siege and bombardment for nearly two years already, according to Palestinian and United Nations officials and residents.
The officials called for quick action by international organizations, the Syrian government and all armed groups to head off an unfolding catastrophe. Reports of killings and even beheadings were beginning to circulate on Saturday, worsening what is already a longstanding humanitarian nightmare for the 18,000 residents of the Yarmouk refugee camp.
By seizing much of the camp, the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, made its greatest inroads yet into Damascus, a significant step for a group that rose largely in the northern and eastern provinces of Syria, far from the capital. Yet at the same time, the move suggests that as the Islamic State loses ground in Iraq and northeastern Syria, the most daring response it could muster on the ground was to attack one of the most vulnerable populations in Syria.
Most of all, the attack was a perverse answer to the question of how life in Yarmouk could get worse. Many residents’ very presence there is a scar from a previous war; they are descended from Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war over Israel’s founding.
More recently, they have been blockaded and bombarded by the Syrian government for nearly two years, and ruled internally by a tangled web of armed groups, including Syrian insurgents and Palestinian factions, said by residents to siphon scarce food to their own fighters and families.
While Palestinian leaders had initially sought to maintain neutrality in Syria’s war, in reality, Palestinian refugees living in Syria — who had more rights there than in other countries and therefore had a greater stake in society — have strong sympathies on both sides of the conflict. Some supported President Bashar al-Assad, seeing him as a champion of the Palestinian cause, while others became leaders in the initial political uprising against him. Hamas, the powerful Palestinian Sunni militant group, broke with Mr. Assad over what it saw as his repression of an uprising led by fellow Sunni Muslims, but has lately sought a measure of reconciliation.
Nevertheless, Palestinians are caught in the middle, and most of the camp’s 160,000 prewar residents, once the world’s largest concentration of Palestinian refugees outside the West Bank and Gaza, have been scattered in what some are calling a second Nakba, or catastrophe, the Palestinians’ name for the events of 1948.
“For over 700 days, the camp has been the victim of a draconian siege, which has resulted in the death by starvation of at least 200 Palestinians,” Saeb Erekat, the longtime Palestinian peace negotiator with Israel, said in a statement issued Saturday that called on all parties to provide civilians with safe passage out of the “death trap.”
He said the humanitarian disaster underscored the vulnerability of Palestinian refugees and their need for a “right of return” to reclaim homes in what is now Israel, one of the thorniest issues in world affairs. But for the time being, he added, “Yarmouk shall remain a testament to the collective human failure of protecting civilians in times of war.”
The fighting in Yarmouk was also a testament to the complexity of the Syrian conflict, where various insurgent groups are battling both the government and the Islamic State amid shifting and contradictory alliances.
At first, the latest chapter appeared to have begun with low-level disputes between ISIS militants in the neighboring suburb of Hajar al-Aswad and members of a Hamas-affiliated militia in the camp, Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis.
But as the Hamas-linked fighters clashed with ISIS and tried to keep it from establishing a foothold in the camp, members of the Nusra Front, a Qaeda affiliate that has a major presence there, did not help, several residents said. Some said that despite its rivalry with the Islamic State elsewhere, the Nusra Front actively prevented other insurgent groups from sending reinforcements from nearby suburbs, and that many of its members defected to ISIS.
Anwar Raja, a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Assad group, said Nusra and the Islamic State were “all the same” and the latest fighting showed that recent talks to reach a settlement for the camp were “nonsense and promotion for terrorism.”
In spite of the difficulties they face, Yarmouk residents have continued to produce films and music about their and Syria’s plight, making the camp a symbol of resilience as well as suffering. But adding an ISIS occupation onto everything else, one Palestinian resident of Damascus said, “would be catastrophic.”
Hwaida Saad and Maher Samaan contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.” ― Joan Robinson
Despite the headlines, things aren't going too well for the US- and Zionist-backed terrorists in Syria. The fact is, no government could have held on for so long, against so much, without the strong support of its people and of its armed forces. Ergo, NATO will have to intervene, to finish what the terrorists started. In order to provide NATO's naked aggression with a legal fig leaf, it is necessary for the terrorists to "rule" any part of Syria, even if it's a few blocks, and for their "rule" to be internationally recognized. After that, the "rulers" will have the right to invite foreign forces to intervene. That's exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to do, with their armed "peaceful sit-in" in Rabea Square in 2013. The MB failed in Egypt, and God willing, their fellow terrorists will fail in Syria, too.
09.04.2015 Author: Tony Cartalucci Syria: Al Qaeda Seeks “Consultations” to Rule Newly Seized City
Making headlines recently has been Al Qaeda’s temporary seizure of the city of Idlib, in Idlib province, northern Syria. The embattled city lies just miles from NATO-member Turkey’s borders. With the Syrian Arab Army controlling the south of Idlib, it is clear that militants based in and supplied via Turkey took part in the operation, leading the Syrian government itself to accuse the NATO member of directly supporting Al Qaeda.
Reuters in its article, “Syrian military source alleges Turkish role in Idlib offensive,” noted:
A Syrian military source accused Turkey on Monday of helping Islamist rebels to stage an assault on Idlib, a provincial capital which fighters seized at the weekend.
The source declined to comment on the situation in Idlib, citing security considerations, but a monitoring group has confirmed the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and allies now control Idlib and said the Syrian air force bombed the city on Monday.
For years, prominent Western papers, including the New York Times in their report, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition,” have admitted that Turkey (as well as Jordan to the south) has harbored militants throughout the duration of the conflict, and has even hosted the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies as they armed, trained, and coordinated with militants bound for Syria. It is a coincidence, we are expected to believe, that now Al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, Jabhat al Nusra just so happens to be strongest in regions bordering Turkey, and its Arab accomplice, Jordan.
Further implicating Western support behind the recent Al Qaeda offensive, comes not from the Syrian government, but from the Wall Street Journal, who has claimed, with the terrorists not even holding the city for a week, that they are already well underway to “governing” it.
The Wall Street Journal in an article titled, “Syrian Opposition Tries to Govern Newly Won Idlib City,” claims:
The rebel groups that took over a provincial capital in northwest Syria over the weekend are now trying to consolidate control and establish civil governance.
After days spent tearing down the ubiquitous images of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the coalition of Islamist groups, which includes al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, say they will help form a civilian government to run Idlib, capital of Idlib province. For now the streets are full of armed fighters with little organizational direction.
Turkey’s media demanded the seized city be used as a seat to host an “interim” government, a scenario hatched by US policymakers years ago in a bid to replicate Western success in dividing, then destroying the North African nation of Libya. Originally it appeared that Aleppo would be the targeted “capital” of the West’s proxy regime, but the window appears to have closed on that opportunity.
By hosting the interim government in Idlib, NATO could be “invited” to provide protection via a “no-fly-zone,” effectively and permanently dividing Syria, and eventually leading to the overthrowing of the nation entirely.
The WSJ also reported that:
The opposition has a lot to prove in terms of governance as much of the territory it controls is beset by crime, corruption and a lack of services— in addition to regular attacks by the Syrian regime. The political opposition in exile, the Syrian National Coalition, has provided funding for local councils but the money has often been scarce and unreliable.
The Journal is apparently using the terms “opposition” and Al Qaeda interchangeably, while also lumping the exiled “Syrian National Coalition” in with the notorious terrorist franchise – a US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization. The Journal is also admitting that the Coalition is funding Al Qaeda to run “local councils.” The narrative, repeated across the Western media, is that Idlib has been irreversibly seized by the “opposition,” and destined to become the capital of Syria’s alleged “opposition.”
America’s Democratic Terrorists
Only a handful of Western sources include Al Qaeda in their headlines regarding Idlib. Many headlines are referring to Jabhat al Nusra, a US State Department-listed terrorist organization, as the “Syrian opposition,” or a “Jihadi” or “Islamist” coalition. It is clear that the West is attempting to spin the fall of an entire city to Al Qaeda as a victory, rather than a threat to global peace and stability.
Talk from the terrorists themselves attempts to portray a softer image, asking for “consultation” regarding the administration of the city. This comes in the wake of other recent calls by US ally, and host of the US Combat Air Operations Center for the Middle East, Qatar, who openly admitted it was supporting Al Qaeda in Syria, and sought to back it further with the precondition al Nusra scaled back its extremist rhetoric (note: not scale back its actual extremism).
In Reuters’ article, “Syria’s Nusra Front may leave Qaeda to form new entity,” it would be reported that:
Leaders of Syria’s Nusra Front are considering cutting their links with al Qaeda to form a new entity backed by some Gulf states trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad, sources said.
Sources within and close to Nusra said that Qatar, which enjoys good relations with the group, is encouraging the group to go ahead with the move, which would give Nusra a boost in funding.
Reuters admits inadvertently that al Nusra is already enjoying Qatari support. It is clear that al Nusra has not “severed ties to Al Qaeda” because it is Al Qaeda.
What is forming before the world’s collective eyes is an attempt to sell the concept of an Al Qaeda-led opposition government, based in Idlib, behind which NATO and its Persian Gulf allies will place their support.
While this scenario seems “implausible,” it should be mentioned that from the beginning of the fighting in Libya in 2011, it was pointed out by many geopolitical analysts that the so-called “freedom fighters” were in fact literally Al Qaeda, with NATO providing it with air cover, weapons, cash, and diplomatic support. In Libya, operational momentum outpaced the public’s awareness regarding the true nature of the opposition. In Syria, the West is desperately trying to reshape the public’s awareness that the opposition is in fact Al Qaeda – before a NATO buffer zone can be created around Idlib.
