Category Archives: 21st Century Feudal

FTAC – About that Image of Israeli Girls Signing Rockets

27 Thursday Oct 2016

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About that picture of Israeli girls signing rockets —

The photograph was taken on July 17, 2006 by AFP photographer Pedro Ugarte or AP photographer Sebastian Scheiner*, who was then covering Israel’s defensive war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It appears to have been taken up by the Far Left (New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left, has been my trope for a while) in 2012, in which year it was exploited by The Electronic Intifada and others —

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/i-picture-dead-arab-disturbing-video-israeli-childrens-words-echo-indoctrination

http://americantribune.org/?p=14646

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/may082012/israeli-missiles.php (note the anti-Semitic caption — a bald lie — invented for the presentation of the image).

Israel Images may provide the most accurate and blunt caption for the true when-where-and-what: http://www.israelimages.com/see_image_details.php?idi=8814

The image was put to use by “Stop The Wall” on July 20, 2006 and on the next day used in a cynically demonizing “message received” way — with pictures to prove it — by “22dollars” — “Dear Lebanese, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Christians Kids – Die with love. Yours Truely, (STET) Israeli Kids.”

When The Electronic Intifada had recycled the same image on its site in 2012, the caption had shifted to crediting Pedro Ugarte, possibly a ploy to keep AP and Scheider from noting the later use of the image.

The issue — who took that picture?  — has come up because writer Gal Beckerman, today Editor of The New York Times Book Review, had posted a similarly titled piece about the picture in the Columbia Journalism Review (July 20, 2006): “About Those Photos of Little Girls and Artillery Shells …: Photographs of Israeli children doodling on artillery rockets have inspired strong reactions across the world. But what’s the story behind the photos?”

Gal’s piece says Scheider took the picture.  I believe it.  Those are the captions that appear in 2006.

Related Reference

On Soviet Era “Active Measures”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures;

https://www.spymuseum.org/education-programs/news-books-briefings/background-briefings/active-measures/;

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/26/putin-s-wicked-leaks-didn-t-start-with-the-dnc.html;

http://fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/su0523.htm;

http://www.statecraft.org.uk/research/russian-active-measures-modernised-tradition

On the Soviet KGB and the Palestinian Cause

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/

 

Also in Media: “Kremlin Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures by Other Means” – Stop Fake – March 21, 2016

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Philology, Political Psychology, Russia

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Upcoming in Estonian Journal of Military Studies, the journal of the Estonian National Defense College (ENDC)  By Yevhen Fedchenko ABSTRACT This article traces the evolution of Russian propaganda as part of active measures from Soviet times  through Russian occupation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine in Donbas  as the climax in use of propaganda and media manipulations. Fakes and forgeries are a part of active measures conducted by the Kremlin and amending its military capacity and diplomacy efforts to cover it up. The manufacturing of fakes is characterized by centralized and systematic approach to manufacturing and distribution of fakes, their coherence and connection with the Kremlin policies and talking points. The article concludes that the use of media-related active measures is not a new phenomenon and was widely used by Soviet Union before as an instrument for conducting its foreign policy by clandestine means. Through examination of more than 500  items from Russian

Source: Kremlin Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures by Other Means – 3/21/2016.

Ukraine – Crimea – Tension

25 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine

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The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), Illinois Division, joins our fellow Americans, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and friends of Ukraine throughout the world, in condemning Putin’s military aggression in Ukraine. October 14 has been designated as a day of protest, calling upon the world community to “Stop Putin – Stop the War in Ukraine.”

Russian military formations and their surrogates, including advanced weapons systems, continue to pour into the Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian defense forces and the civilian population along the war zone are subjected to incessant shelling – over 10,000 have died, thousands more wounded and over 1.8 million have been driven from their homes.

Therefore, we appeal to President Obama and to the international community to force Putin to stop the killing.

http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/stop-putin-stop-the-war-stop-the-killing-of-our-people/ – 10/25/2016

There are many look-ups cogent to looking over “Crimea, Ukraine, Russia,” starting with “hybrid warfare” and perhaps ending with “frozen conflicts”.

NATO appears so far reactive as regards the Russian investment in low-level fighting with artillery (and observation drones) in Crimea.  It has met the Russian presence with its own presence, but it has left to Ukrainian forces the mounting of resistance to Russian aggression.

So far, so good.

However, as Bashar al-Assad continues his destruction of Syria — in that immense piece of political theater this blog has referred to as “Assad vs The Terrorists” — pressure may mount in Moscow to “prove” through force its cooked-up narrative for Ukraine while Russia herself continues descending into economic misery — and as regards that misery –

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-26/russian-economy-takes-hit-fron-putin-s-grip – 9/26/2016.

https://www.neweurope.eu/article/russian-economy-crumbles-according-official-data/ – 9/20/2016.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-economy-kaliningrad-idUSKCN11D1MP – 9/7/2016.

What follows is simply the morning’s compilation of background source material in reverse chronological order.

http://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-defense/2107681-militants-launch-40-attacks-on-ukrainian-troops-in-donbas-in-last-day.html – 10/25/2016.

http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/stop-putin-stop-the-war-stop-the-killing-of-our-people/ – 10/25/2016.

http://uatoday.tv/society/no-fly-zone-over-crimea-and-eastern-ukraine-792709.html – 10/25/2016.

Ukrainian news website Liga, citing sources from the Ukrainian delegation, reported that during the meeting in Berlin, Poroshenko grew tired of Putin’s insistence on elections and raised his voice, declaring, “No, you should just stop shooting.”

http://www.newsweek.com/poroshenko-told-putin-halt-fire-ukraine-513049 – 10/24/2016.

http://en.sobytiya.info/the-population-of-the-ukraines-region-next-to-crimea-prepares-for-territorial-defense.html – 10/24/2016.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/24/eus-russia-appeasement-over-military-trade-on-disp/ – 10/24/2016.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/10/tim_judah_on_how_putin_won_crimea_and_lost_ukraine.html – 10/18/2016

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14804613.Russia_and_the_West_____A_Cold_War_that__39_s_turning_hot/ – 10/15/2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/matthew-fisher-canadas-dreamers-ignore-russian-aggression-and-offer-putin-an-olive-branch-instead – 10/10/2016

Posted to YouTube by Vice News, October 5, 2016.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russian-military-forces-staging-near-ukraine/ – 8/17/2016.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/06/27/us-nato-thumb-noses-at-russia-with-massive-war-games-in-ukraine.html – 6/27/2016.

They are creeping across all of Europe; for the time being, they wear suits and, instead of sinking of boats, they use propaganda and espionage, money and servants who help them destroy democracy and freedom. Yet we don’t want them here; we are returning the green men back. It is not possible to overlook the dangers and ignore the crimes committed by Putin. It is not possible to forget the thousands of dead Chechnyans and Georgians, the theft of Crimea and the thousands of dead Ukrainians; it is not possible to ignore the war crimes committed in Syria. It isn’t possible to ignore the despotism exercised against the political prisoners in Russia, be they committed against Russian citizens or against abducted foreigners, such as Nadezhda Savchenko and Oleg Sentscov. Hundreds of thousands of dead, with some – like Nemtsov or Litvinenko – known by their name, but others just grey dead faces on photographs documenting the crimes of Putin, Kadyrov and al-Assad. Putin, take your little green men back, stop waging wars and occupying territories, supporting other dictators and oppressing your own nation.

http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/03/16/little-green-men-returned-back-to-russia-in-prague/#arvlbdata – 3/16/2016.

Posted to YouTube by oMen oMen, March 15, 2016.

 

Also in Media – “Inside the bear” | The Economist – October 22, 2016

24 Monday Oct 2016

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The revolution of 1991 overturned the Soviet Union’s political, economic and social order and put 15 countries on the map where there had previously been only one. But like many revolutions in history, it was followed by a restoration.

The tsar the Kremlin most admires is Alexander III, who on taking office in 1881 reversed the liberalisation overseen by his father, who was assassinated, to impose an official ideology of Orthodoxy, nationalism and autocracy. His portrait and his famous saying, “Russia has only two allies: its army and its navy,” greet visitors to a revamped museum of Russian history at VDNKH, a prime example of Stalinist architecture in Moscow. Stalin himself has had a makeover too. Gigantic portraits of him line the roads in Crimea, proclaiming: “It is our victory!”

Source: Inside the bear | The Economist – 10/22/2016

Also in Media: “Keeping Up with CAIR’s Islamic Radicalism” – Capital Research Center – by Andrew E. Harrod, October 18, 2016.

24 Monday Oct 2016

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Ghassan Elashi, a co-founder of Texas CAIR, was convicted in 2005 of terrorism-related offenses and sentenced to almost seven years imprisonment. CAIR civil rights director Randall Todd Royer was given 20 years for federal weapons and explosives convictions in 2004. Bassem Khafagi, a community affairs director at CAIR, was convicted in 2003 on bank and visa fraud charges and shipped back to Egypt. Rabih Haddad, a fundraiser for CAIR’s chapter in Ann Arbor, Mich., was detained in 2001 for overstaying his visa. Authorities found a firearm and considerable ammunition in his home. He served 19 months in prison and was then deported to Lebanon in 2003. CAIR board member Abdurahman Alamoudi was sentenced to 23 years imprisonment for directing at least $1 million to al-Qaeda. (See Foundation Watch, December 2015.)“

Contending that American Muslims are the victims of wholesale repression, CAIR has provided sensitivity training to police departments across the United States, instructing law officers in the art of dealing with Muslims respectfully,” according to DiscoverTheNetworks. The estate of 9/11 victim John O’Neill Sr., a senior FBI counter-terrorism agent, filed a lawsuit claiming that CAIR’s goal “is to create as much self-doubt, hesitation, fear of name-calling, and litigation within police department and intelligence agencies as possible so as to render such authorities ineffective in pursuing international and domestic terrorist entities.”

Source: Keeping Up with CAIR’s Islamic Radicalism – Capital Research Center – 10/18/2016.

FTAC -Solomon’s Folly and the Middle East Conflict

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Russia

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Third-party adoptions take place too, but let’s not add complications to the retelling of a parable involving the difference between authentic and inauthentic claims.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_gist/1997/05/selling_land_to_jews.html offers a brief look at the Arab sale of land to the Jewish State for the development of a new agricultural economy. As with most facets of the Middle East Conflict, the depth of the bickering has no bottom, lol, but the western principle elevating integrity in the telling of history should stand. The peaceful processes involved in the development of Israel, including the chartering by the United Nations (which then Soviet Russia, among a majority of other states, approved) should not be omitted from accounts of the “baby’s” birth.

As geopolitical space worldwide naturally compartments into politically separable and potentially distinct units — x nation, region, state, county, district, city, neighborhood, township, and individual private property — nonetheless sharing the earth, Solomon’s method fails for immediate relevance: the “baby” — the land — is greater than the “mothers”. In effect and regarding the basic service required for life, common security (policing), and for trade are in fact already co-administered.

The People — either, en masse, or by more parochial organization — may “see” things differently, but that, again (coming from me), devolves to methods in misinformation continuously driven by the “carrot” that is (reward for) tribal loyalty and the “stick’ that is intimidation.

As long as a loyal ruse trumps an inconvenient truth, that is as long as the conflict will last.

However, the conflict is already . . . tired. Old.  Perhaps while the mothers were arguing, the baby grew up.

Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, founder of Islam’s moderate Wasatia Movement, had posted a lovely personal history and parable about the middle east conflict and the biblical Solomon’s famous discerning of the birth mother of an infant laid claim to by another woman.  The true mother, so Solomon decided, was the one who would rather give up her baby than see him divided in two.

Daoudi’s suggestion on behalf of the Palestinian Cause and peace: perhaps both mothers should raise the baby.

There’s probably no need here to suggest that one of the two moms would batter the other over the next step: naming the baby.

🙂

So, up top, there’s the response.

The truth of the matter, now long publicized on BackChannels, involves Soviet manipulation and misinformation in its efforts to use the Arab world through the refugees of 1948 to block the further western liberalization that would threaten the political absolutism and totalitarianism on which authoritarian, despotic, and tyrannical regimes sustain themselves in power.

If there’s an appropriate counterpoint, it would be this: all civil societies require principles of organization, and the spectrum most certainly includes elite authority — experienced, knowledgeable, and wise — in several forms, including royalty (rule by divine right).  Even so, other principles involving ethics, human development, and morals needs must apply against the suite of politically criminal behaviors known to unbridled or “unchecked” authorities: capricious justice; corruption; kleptocracy.

Basically, the Palestinians cannot get to their oasis of peace through an ocean of lies, a body of speech that must include not only its fabrications but its own sins of omission.

–33–

Also in Media: French Foreign Legion.  ISIS.  Jailbird — “The French Spymaster of ISIS” – The Daily Beast – October 24, 2016

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Islamic Small Wars, Political Spychology

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He is not an ethnically European convert to Islam, as one French private intelligence newsletter had it, an assumption apparently based on the lightness of his complexion. Himich is Moroccan, having been born in Rabat in 1989, although it would be more accurate to describe him as a cultural Frenchman, as his kunya, or nom de guerre “Firansi” suggests. He spent the majority of his adolescence and education in Lunel, a southern French town of around 26,000 that has produced as many as two dozen youngish foreign fighters for the Syrian battlefield. Also, he does not appear to have run gyms or fitness centers; instead, he ran drugs. And, typically, before becoming a jihadi, he was a jailbird.

Source: The French Spymaster of ISIS – The Daily Beast – 10/24/2016 – by Michael Weiss.

The ‘War on Terror’ – Not ‘Sacred’ – Practical

19 Wednesday Oct 2016

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Patriarch Kirill urges all countries to unite in sacred war on terrorism

London, October 18, Interfax – The war on terrorism is a sacred war, and must be a common cause of all countries, not just Russia, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia told a press conference at London’s Luton Airport after his visit to the United Kingdom.

“I regret that my words were misread. I never spoke about a sacred war in Syria, I spoke about a sacred war on terrorism. I think very many victims of terrorism in Europe could subscribe to these words. Suffice to recall all that happened comparatively recently in France, in Belgium,” the patriarch said, responding to reporters’ questions about the military operation in Syria.

Who is “running” the terrorists?

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/14/isil-groomed-for-a-role-in-assad-vs-the-terrorists/ – 9/14/2016.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-says-hezbollah-hamas-not-terror-groups/ – 11/16/2015

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/how-russia-manipulates-islamic-terrorism/ – 9/8/2015

Perhaps more important than merely noting the framing applied by Patriarch Kirill to confronting the evidently Moscow-manipulated terrorists —

For good measure:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/23/russia-s-playing-a-double-game-with-islamic-terror0.html – 8/23/2015.

http://www.businessinsider.com/russias-war-on-terror-not-what-it-seems-2015-8 – 8/25/2015.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439060/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible – 8/17/2016.

— may be the promotion of the medieval worldview.

In effect, Kirill suggests to the Russian people and others that they may know nothing and that the conflict is religious as painted by the al-Qaeda types against the “crusader west” or Christianity in general.

What say ye, mainstream, moderate, and modern Muslim?

Or Christian?

Is the modern “Other” too much for co-existence and pervasively so?

If the answer is “No”, then the medieval framing — the “holy war” on terrorism that has been used to depopulate and destroy a fair part of Syria — falls away and what is left looks only archaic, barbaric, and evil.

The real war on “Islamist” and other terrorism may involve the combined law enforcement and research practices that have long been applied in the west to extremist violence: accurate comprehension of terrorist motivation; detection of intent to commit a crime accompanied by investigation; interdiction.

There is nothing “holy” about the business of combating extremism and related criminal activity, but may God bless those who authentically engage in diminishing the threat posed to others by the same.

–33–