FTAC – Political Philosophy – Moscow, Etc.

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, New Russian Medievalism, Russia

It’s not Islam — It’s Moscow.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/14/moscow-the-terror-with-one-reservation/

“Moscow” has chosen a revanchist feudal path for Russia using militarism and patriotism to achieve its aims.

There’s a relevant old saying in the Jewish tradition: “Those who are kind to the cruel will themselves be made to be cruel to the kind.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_nationalism

https://www.britannica.com/topic/absolutism-political-system

Putin’s Russia represents the medieval world revolving around Absolute Power. So does the Syrian Theater — no more true description than theater for that. And so do Hamas and Hezbollah and so many others bent on imposing their will on the free of the open democracies through the application of violence.

The Palestinian platform from within the unsettled territories has long been a Soviet project intended to block the west’s own liberation and security story and produce money for its figureheads and associates, but never the disenfranchised.

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

Stimulus for this post: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9065/europe-good-terrorists

The problem has been Moscow’s connection with 20th Century terrorism and its perhaps cynical leveraging of the same in this still young century.

This 2014 Guardian article about Moscow’s expulsion of journalist David Satter may merely hint at Putin’s considerable success at trying to move Russia forward while turning the clock backward:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/13/russia-expels-american-journalist-david-satter – 1/14/2014.

On this blog: search term “Cold War”.

On this blog: search term “Russia, medieval”.

On Wikipedia and relevant to the long view of Russian history

I would much prefer a book walk me through time (recommendations may be welcomed), but for a browse-and-peruse session, or several, these entries found on Wikipedia provide an arc from the brigands of the feudal world to Putin’s surreal narrative predicated, at least partly, on massive information and perceptual control of the Russians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Rus%27

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kulikovo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_stand_on_the_Ugra_river

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_III_of_Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsardom_of_Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_the_Great

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov

Despite its occurrence at the height of World War I, the roots of the February Revolution date much further back. Chief among these was Imperial Russia’s failure, throughout the 19th and early 20th century, to modernize its archaic social, economic and political structures while maintaining the stability of ubiquitous devotion to an autocratic monarch. As historian Richard Pipes writes, “the incompatibility of capitalism and autocracy struck all who gave thought to the matter”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_Revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Days

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1927-1953)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia_(1991-Present)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Russia

–33–

Palestinian KGB

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia

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Abbas, Arafat, KGB, middle east conflict, Russia, Soviet, terrorism

The document, which the University of Cambridge’s Churchill Archives Centre confirmed was authentic, was smuggled in to the UK by a defector called Vasily Mitrokhin.

It is entitled “KGB developments – Year 1983” and Mr Abbas identifies him by the codename “Krotov” or “mole”.

“‘Krotov’ – Abbas, Mahmoud, born 1935, origin Palestine, member of the executive committee of Fatah, PLO, Damascus, agent of the KGB,” says the brief entry.

BBC News. “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ‘was KGB agent'”. September 8, 2016.

The KGB, when I was still connected with it, went to great lengths to transform an Egyptian born Marxist, Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, nom de guerre Abu Ammar, into a Palestinian-born Yasser Arafat. It took the KGB — and my DIE — many years to endow Arafat with a credible Palestinian birth certificate and other identity documents, to build him a new past, and to train him at the KGB Balashikha special-operations training school east of Moscow.

Pacepa, Ion Mihai and Rychlak, Ronald J. Disinformation. P. 289. Washington, D.C.: WND Books, 2013.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/28/a-short-page-referencing-works-by-or-associated-with-ion-mihai-pacepa/ – 11/28/2016.

For those who may read in Russian, the Wilson Center hosts the Mitrohkin Archive at this address:

http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/52/mitrokhin-archive

How much of the intellectual poison delivered by Soviet-borne misinformation persists today in the Middle East Conflict?

Considering the looks of Syria, the miserable psychology shared between the dictatorships — on this blog, have a glance at the “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation” — and the horrific results, a side by side glance at Hamas behavior in Gaza (x human rights) suggests the same malign narcissistic values continues to course through the governance in both locations.

There may be no longer a need to wonder why.

Reference – Abbas, KGB Coverage

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/17/palestine-s-prez-was-once-a-kgb-mole.html – 9/17/2016.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/world/soviet-papers-palestinian-president-was-a-kgb-agent/ – 9/8/2016.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37305953 – 9/8/2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/world/middleeast/mahmoud-abbas-israel-palestine-kgb.html – 9/7/2016.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-abbas-idUSKCN11E1U0 – 9/8/2016.

Bergman, Judith. “The Soviet-Palestinian Lie.” Gatestone Institute, October 16, 2016: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9090/soviet-union-palestinians

Reference – Arafat, KGB

Before I defected to America from Romania, leaving my post as chief of Romanian intelligence, I was responsible for giving Arafat about $200,000 in laundered cash every month throughout the 1970s. I also sent two cargo planes to Beirut a week, stuffed with uniforms and supplies. Other Soviet bloc states did much the same. Terrorism has been extremely profitable for Arafat. According to Forbes magazine, he is today the sixth wealthiest among the world’s “kings, queens & despots,” with more than $300 million stashed in Swiss bank accounts.

Pacepa, Ion Mihai. “The KGB’s Man.” The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2003.

A little more than four months before the news this week that tests on Arafat’s body in a Swiss investigation showed “unexpected high activity” of polonium, a book co-authored by former Romanian spy chief Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa was published documenting Arafat’s training by the communist Soviet Union and pointing out that the only other known case of polonium-210 poisoning was the death of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

WND. “New Evidence Suggests Kremlin Poisoned Arafat.” November 7, 2013.

Their report concluded that Arafat’s remains showed levels of polonium 18 times higher than normal.

Arafat’s widow, Suha, has reaffirmed to the BBC her belief that their report proves he was assassinated.

But she said she could not directly accuse anyone, saying that he had many enemies around the world.

BBC. “Arafat polonium findings confirmed by Swiss scientists.” November 7, 2013.

Al Jazeera Investigative Unit. “Swiss forensic report on Arafat’s death.” Document, 108-pages. November 6, 2013.

http://honestreporting.com/plo-still-lying-about-arafats-legacy/ – 8/5/2015.

Yasir Arafat claims that he was born in Jerusalem, but he was actually born in Cairo. He claims to belong to the prominent Jerusalem family of Husseini, but he is at best only distantly related to it. He claims that he turned down a chance to go to the University of Texas, but according to one biographer, the Palestinian-born writer Saïd K. Aburish, it is highly unlikely that he was ever accepted. He claims to have disabled ten Israeli armored personnel carriers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but Israel didn’t even have ten APCs in the sector he was in. He claims to have made millions as a businessman in Kuwait, but this, too, is almost certainly untrue.

Obviously, Arafat is a congenital liar. But there’s more to it than that: his lies are all designed to create an aura of romance around himself and the Palestinian people.

Brooks, David. “A Brief History of Yasir Arafat: The PLO leader is a terrible administrator but a brilliant image crafter.” The Atlantic, July/August 2002.

Reference – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat

The history of Palestine–Russia (and between 1917–1991, Palestine–Soviet Union) relations has been long and complex. For a number of historical and political reasons, it has been deeply interwoven with Russian (and between 1917–1991, Soviet) relations with the Zionist-Israeli enterprise, Palestinian nationalism, and Third World national liberation movements in general. However, at the same time, particularly between 1956 and 1990, Soviet-Palestinian relations were also part and parcel of the then ongoing Soviet-American confrontation, and even after the Cold War ended, the international and ideological role and importance of the Russian-Palestinian relationship always far exceeded its local and regional limitations. This relationship has continued even today. Russia remains an important player in the Middle East peace process and is a member of the Middle East Quartet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine%E2%80%93Russia_relations

The leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, established close collaboration with the Romanian Securitate service and the Soviet KGB in the beginning of the 1970s.[9] The secret training of PLO guerrillas was provided by the KGB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_the_Soviet_Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine

According to Vasili Mitrokhin, a senior KGB archivist who defected to the UK in 1992, in early 1970 Haddad was recruited by the KGB as an agent, codenamed NATSIONALIST. Thereafter, in deep secrecy the Soviets helped to fund and arm the PFLP. The KGB had warning of its major operations and almost certainly sanctioned the most significant, such as the September 1970 hijackings. Haddad remained a highly valued agent till his death in 1978.

A letter by Yuri Andropov allegedly confirming Haddad’s role as an agent was independently discovered in Soviet archives by Vladimir Bukovsky and has since been published.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadie_Haddad

Reference – Gaza, Iran, Syria

http://armamentresearch.com/assessment-of-the-khaibar-1-rockets-captured-by-the-idf/ – 3/12/2014.

The Khaibar-1 (Arabic: خيبر-1‎‎) is a Syrian-made 302 mm [1] artillery rocket used by Hezbollah against targets in northern Israel. The name of the rocket was first revealed on July 28, 2006 by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on Al-Manar television station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaibar-1

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-says-hezbollah-hamas-arent-terrorist-groups-50783 – 11/16/2015.

Web search “Moscow, PFLP” also produces results.

Related

In July, Russia’s Federal Security Service, successor agency to the KGB, released a list of 17 organizations the Russian Supreme Court had identified as “terrorist.” The FSB’s counterterrorism chief described all 17 groups as a threat to the Russian state and noted that almost all were linked in some way to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the 17. Hamas, however, was not listed, though it openly describes itself as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and frequently features deceased Brotherhood dignitaries like Hassan al-Banna and Abdullah Azzam alongside Hamas leaders on its posters and pamphlets. The reason for not listing Hamas, the counterterrorism chief explained, was that Hamas was not engaged in violent activity in Russia, nor was it linked to illegal armed groups operating in the North Caucasus. But Hamas supporters do maintain a presence in Russia, and the group does express solidarity with Chechen fighters, including suicide bombers.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/putins-new-friends-moscow-hosts-hamas – 3/19/2007.

http://www.rferl.org/a/soviet-islamist-terrorism-israel-america-disinformation-pacepa/25034290.html – 7/2/2013.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9090/soviet-union-palestinians – 10/16/2016.

–33–

Syria – Moscow’s Show

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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In its post-Soviet alignment with Moscow — “Different Talks — Same Walk” — Syria has been made into a complete medieval theater of politics and war, for the production of “Assad vs The Terrorists” appears to have included the development of the al-Qaeda-type organizations, ISIL much included.

In line with what BackChannels has witnessed in association with the Syrian Conflict and Tragedy, Politico Europe yesterday reported “Vladimir Putin resurrects the KGB”.

🙂

Having cultivated its own “Russian Section” within its in-house library, BackChannels was not surprised: state capitalism may have replaced the promotion of communism in Russia, but the social architecture involving the secret security state, a powerful central leader, and an immensely favored and privileged few appear to have survived the dissolving of the Soviet that took place about 25 years ago (December 26, 1991).

“Let us be clear. Those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing. They know they are committing war crimes,” Ban told the Security Council.

“Imagine the destruction. People with limbs blown off. Children in terrible pain with no relief,” he said. “Imagine a slaughterhouse. This is worse.”

http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/syria-hospital-attacks-are-war-crimes-ban-ki-moon-116092900013_1.html – 9/29/2016

Ban Ki-moon was not referring to the primitive “barrel bombs” once dropped on every Syrian noncombatant target imaginable but rather modern incendiary bombs and missiles.

Additional Reference

“Iran has been there a long time,” said Sobhi Zeitun, an opposition fighter who fled Aleppo for Turkey in May. “We could hear them on the radio for a long time. They taunted and mocked. They said they were going to kill us in the name of Ali. This is the face of Bashar, a man who hands over the country to sectarian groups, because he can’t defend it himself.”

As the air attacks on Aleppo intensified this week, a senior Iranian general acknowledged that forces he commands had given targets to the Russian air force.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/29/aleppo-attack-foreign-syrian-fighters-plan-shia-islamic – 9/29/2016.

The recent cessation deal was meant to lead to joint Russian-US air strikes on so-called Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front).

However Russia has complained the US has not done enough to separate the more moderate rebel groups, which it backs, from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Many of these groups have formed a strategic alliance with the more powerful Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and fight alongside it.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/russia-vows-continue-bombing-aleppo – 9/29/2016.

BackChannels

Posted to YouTube by AFP new agency, September 28, 2016.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-hospital-idUSKCN11Y0QG – 9/29/2016

Posted to YouTube by Channel 4 News, September 28, 2016.

By the time it became clear this was wrong, a full-scale war was raging in two Ukrainian regions; a Malaysian Airlines plane had been shot down over Ukraine; the G8 had reverted to the G7; Putin’s closest friends were on international sanctions lists, and Russia was more isolated internationally for the first time since the Afghan war.

Finding himself in a Ukrainian dead end, Putin decided to raise the stakes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/29/how-putins-high-risk-syria-gamble-is-paying-off – 9/29/2016.

–post in progress —

Also in Media – “The Mutating Virus – Understanding Anti-Semitism” – by Lord Jonathan Sacks

29 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology

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21st Century Neo-Feudalism, anti-Semitism, Eureope, freedom, intellectual poisoning, neo-nationalism, scapegoating

Posted to YouTube by Rabbi Sacks, September 28, 2016.

Pakistan – “The Eighteenth Amendment: From Feudalism to Modernism” – Guest Blog by Tammy Swofford

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Pakistan

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18th Amendment, Eighteenth Amendment, law, Pakistan

The following was written to a law student approaching matriculation.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan became the law of the land when it passed from the Majlis-e-Shoora to receive the signatory approval of the president on 19 April 2010. With this amendment Pakistan made massive movement toward being a progressive state with the welfare of the citizens a primary concern.

One of the greatest accomplishments, one whose benefit is as of yet not fully realized nor wielded as a legal tool for social justice is the following clause:

“Every citizen shall have the right to access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law.”

Let’s break this down into smaller parts to show both the beauty and strength of this carefully crafted sentence.

“Every citizen . . . ”

Yes! Every citizen must have equal status under the law. Minus equality there is injustice. So the baker seeking an explanation as to why the price of his wheat flour has risen to quadruple the price in six months is as worthy an explanation as the landowner who grows and sells the wheat for a reasonable profit margin. Between the farm and the bakery lie the roads in between. It is there, that the answer can be found. The answer to this question (extortion for right to passage) requires access to information through legal channels.

“Every citizen shall have the right….”

The rights of the one are the rights which belong to all. You are called to be a community – al-jama’ah. It is the duty of government to assure that all dealings and responses toward the community are uniform and binding.

Guardianship of the constitution is the beginning point for societal cohesion.

“Every citizen shall have the right to access to information…”

Modern governmental bodies are dependent on chain of command and chain of custody for information. While all citizens are not part of a formal chain of command they must be included in various chain of information regarding issues of state. It was one word – Recite – which opened up a chain of information which eventually brought about a nascent Islamic state in Madinah. Information is important because minus information we cannot make the important decisions.

“Every citizen shall have the right to access to information in all matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by law.”

Let’s explore the complete sentence a bit further by placing the burden for the adjudication of this clause of the Eighteenth Amendment firmly where it belongs.

This adjudication belongs within the hands of the holders of authority – ulu-‘l – amir. In the truest sense, those entrusted with authority are those which are known to be of noble character. Within the annals of Islamic history it can be seen that there are those who lay claim to noble lineage and others who lay claim to noble character. While not all can be categorized as the former, all, who are vested with the authority of the state must be of the latter category.

To be anything less is to be base, corrupt, and incompetent.

Perhaps this thought can be best expressed with the words of Muhammad ibn Yazdad, a minister of al-Ma’mun:

“Whoever is a guardian of this world, it is not fitting that he sleep while all the people are asleep; and how can there be rest for the eyes of the one who must address the difficulties of his affair; resolving and contracting (the affairs of others).

In the case of the Eighteenth Amendment and the issue of access to freedom of information for the public you are distinctly admonished to intervene in the affairs of others.

When a mighty upheaval brought about the birth of Pakistan, Muhammad Asad wrote an essay titled “Islamic Constitution-Making” and it was published in Urdu and English under the auspices of the Government of the Punjab in March of 1948. These early thoughts were later penned in his book, “The Principles of State and Government”. In Chapter I, he has this to say:

“In the life of every nation there comes, sooner or later, a moment when it seems to be given a free choice of its destiny; a moment when the decisions as to which way to go and what future to aim at, seem to be freed from the pressure of adverse circumstances, and when no power on earth is able to prevent the nation from choosing one way in preference to another. Such historic moments are extremely rare and fleeting, and it may well be that if a nation fails to avail itself of the opportunity thus offered, it will not be offered for centuries to come.”

On 19 April, 2010 the nation of Pakistan was gifted with a unique opportunity in the form of a wisely crafted Constitutional Amendment.

I continue to wish for you the best in your struggle to consider the merits of the law with regard to the health which it brings to your nation.

Corruption is never the “best kept” state secret nor is it meant to be so.

Clear lines of communication, fairness toward all, and public accommodation of requests for information strengthen the state and her standing with the citizens.

–33–

Syria – ” . . . an onslaught beyond the capabilities of the Syrian Air Force alone . . . “

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, Syria

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Russia, Samantha Power, Syria, Syrian conflict, Syrian Tragedy, war crimes

Russia has been directly and repeatedly accused of war crimes at the UN security council in an unusually blunt session, as hopes of any form of ceasefire were flattened by the scale and ferocity of the Syrian regime’s assault on eastern Aleppo.

The war crimes accusations centred on the widespread use of bunker-busting and incendiary bombs on the 275,000 civilians living in the rebel-held east of the city, weapons that Moscow’s accusers say were dropped by Russian aircraft.

Borger, Julian and Kareem Shaheen. “Russia accused of war crimes in Syria at UN security council session.” September 26, 2016.

The quotation in the title comes from Matthew Rycroft, British ambassador to the UN, speaking in the video at the top of the referenced article.

BackChannels has maintained that Syria represents a complete medieval theater of politics and war, one in which ISIL itself, playing the role of the “The Terrorists”, was deliberately incubated by Assad for show.

Yesterday, in remarks made before a UN Security Council briefing on Syria, Ambassador Samantha Power brought to a head the issue of the barbaric medievalism characterizing the Assad regime’s entire response to what had begun as a mild popular challenge to the regime’s character and course through an agricultural and related economic downturn in 2011. Of course, the sadism was evident at the outset as the regime established its position by arresting and torturing schoolchildren.