Category Archives: Islamic Small Wars

FTAC – Middle East Conflict – A Little Wisdom

10 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Philology, Political Psychology, Politics

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BackChannels editor means to turn some attention to writing fiction, but not on this post, which responds to the political cant that has been spinning off the concept of “The Occupation” for decades.

At this point, some 69 years about from 1948, the very term, “The Occupation” should morph into what it has been always: “The Preoccupation”.

A little bit of anti-Semitism, a lot of anti-Zionism, a bit informed by Russo-Soviet anti-Semitism and a murderous medieval politics that while claiming to protect the Palestianians and advance the cause of their dignity and freedom has instead robbed them for decades of both.

If there are BackChannels readers — frankly, there are 🙂  — I suggest we prepare to say goodbye to the Orwellian world that has handled — and intellectually poisoned — the refugees of 1948 for absolutely breathless sums of money that have been reliably skimmed away from them and their needs as people.

“The fact that the occupation is immoral, that military occupation has elicited violent resistance since time immemorial, that Israel has faced terrorism for decades or that home-grown terrorists were running over Israelis with cars and trucks way before ISIS was even born is conveniently overlooked in Israel’s eternal quest to absolve itself of culpability and to gloss over its failure to do anything substantial to bring it to an end. Palestinian violence, in this scenario, can only be quelled by force, never eradicated at its source.”

The true underlying source of so much violence has been and remains at this moment old Soviet-style (earlier: medieval) information control and incitement.

End the Preoccupation.

There’s nothing else to do but turn Arab eyes and minds toward the manipulations of the KGB, including the invention of Yasser Arafat and the engineering for the long term of a disingenuous People’s Struggle designed to bolster Arab Pride while actually controlling and exploiting the Palestinian People.

I watched a classic last night — _The Little Drummer Girl_ — and found it sad how little has changed.

The course Moscow chose decades ago continues to sustain the Middle East Conflict. When the lying stops and the truth dawns, when the incitements stop — and the encouragement of extremism loses drifts into absurdity and loses its energy — then there will be peace — and justice for the Palestinians who may need other than the manipulations of despots.

What some writers in this field do in defense of the Palestinians is actually condemn the Palestinians by defending the concept of “The Occupation”.  None argue that checkpoints and martial law — or rules appropriate to low-intensity conflict — persist so long as the terrorism business persists, but one may now argue the utility of “The Occupation” in the Arab mind.  What is it doing in there, in the head, but repeating over and over a perception of circumstance that has become with amassed Hamas and PA wealth an ugly absurdity?

Links frequently cited on BackChannels in relation to the Middle East Conflict:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/
– 10/3/2016.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/23/moscows-rules-a-module/
– 11/23/2016.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels
– 7/25/2014.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/28/gazas-millionaires-and-billionaires-how-hamass-leaders-got-rich-quick/
– 7/28/2014.

This appeared on my desktop a few minutes ago, and published on December 9, 2016, it’s recent, and it too focuses on the institutionalized incitement to murder in relation to the Middle East Conflict:

I am going to describe for you this ecosystem of incitement to terrorism. I use the word “ecosystem” on purpose. Incitement has evolved. Incitement is no longer about a specific action or statement; it’s about participation in the ecosystem of hate which is intentionally aimed at bringing about the result of terror – violent, brutal murder with an endgame of genocide (first Israel, eventually the rest of the Western World). It’s about participating in, and strengthening, the feedback loop which eventually brings children to murder innocent civilians.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-ecosystem-of-incitement-to-terror/ – 12/9/2016.

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Also in Media: “Putin Using All Means Against The West – Including Islamist Terrorism – Piontkovsky Says” | December 12, 2016

28 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Russia, Syria

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“There is a mass of evidence about the strategic cooperation of the Kremlin and ‘the Islamic State,’ about the conscious dispatch by the FSB of Caucasus militants into its ranks, about the use by Moscow of terrorists as an instrument for weakening and destroying the West” and also about Putin’s use of terrorism to build his increasingly vicious state at home.

Source: Putin Using All Means Against The West – Including Islamist Terrorism – Piontkovsky Says 12/12/2016

BackChannels has seen a related reference online recently:

Satter, David.  “Putin is No Partner on Terrorism: It’s a Mistake for Washington to Count Moscow an Ally.”  Foreign Affairs, December 22, 2016.

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FTAC – Moscow’s Presence in the Middle East Conflict

24 Saturday Dec 2016

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

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Here’s a different perspective:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/12/ftac-tip-to-the-kgbs-amplification-of-middle-eastern-anti-semitism/

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

Soviet Era Moscow and “Putin’s Moscow” today both defend and represent a medieval political absolutism laced with criminal and kleptocratic features.

As long as Moscow’s role in engineering the invention of Arafat and the PLO goes unnoticed, and as long as it remains masked off from conversations like this one, there will be no solution to the “middle east conflict”. It’s a money maker for the leaders, clans, and cronies who sustain it at cost to the Palestinians.

Related Reference

On BackChannels – Fast Links

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/12/ftac-tip-to-the-kgbs-amplification-of-middle-eastern-anti-semitism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/11/ftac-why-the-middle-east-conflict-will-be-drawn-down-if-it-is-drawn-down/

Elsewhere On the Internet

Danan, Deborah.  “Gaza’s Millionaires and Billionaires — How Hamas’s Leaders Got Rich Quick.”  The Algemeiner, July 28, 2014.

Greenfield, Daniel.  “Palestinian Authority: 1,700 Hamas Millionaires in Gaza.”  FrontPage Magazine, March 24, 2014.

Lightening, S. M.  “4 Hamas Billionaires and 600 Millionaires Turning Civilian Suffering Into Hard Cash.” Jewish Business News, July 25, 2014.

Toameh, Khaled Abu.  “How Many Millionaires Live in the “Impoverished” Gaza Strip?”  Gatestone Institute, August 30, 2012.

Toameh, Khaled Abu.  “How Much is Mahmoud Abbas Worth?  Try $100 Million.”  Gatestone Institute, May 18, 2012.

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FTAC – Briefly On American Secular Governance

11 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, A Little Wisdom, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion

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The Constitution emphasizes equality for all beneath the law and forbids the establishment of a relationship between the state and any church, mosque, synagogue, or other symbol of faith. ALL are free here to practice their faith — in private and at private expense — in a civil and lawful manner.

The United States is a Christian-majority state, but it is not a Christian state by law or even exclusively so within the spirit of its laws. It’s true inheritance may be characterized as “Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian”. To the extent that Islam has borrowed from Judaism and recognized Christianity and in the better aspects of the Qur’an, say those emphasizing freedom of religion (“There is no compulsion”) and integrity (Muhammad’s emphasis speaking the truth), we’re good as a secular humanist society.

If one were to take the coldest view of the political science attending “Allahu Akbar Terrorism”, it would be to note that each attack has naturally promoted traditional patriotic nationalist and religious responses.  “Damned Arabs, damned Muzzies” shouts a part of the public and off it goes to Brexit in one state and resurgent white bread Christianity in another.

The truth about that comfortable extremism — often our own! — may be anchored elsewhere.

Last week, BackChannels noted the data-in-press for Bashar al-Assad’s incubation of ISIS in Syria.

In light of or coinciding with Moscow’s KGB resurrection, BackChannels has promoted note of Soviet Era Russia’s long dalliance with terrorism and the engagement of the same in the agitation and propaganda dimension known as “Active Measures”.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan told Al-Monitor, “The Meshaal-Lavrov meeting shows Russia’s interest in the Palestinian cause and comes as a continuation of the periodic meetings held by Hamas with regional and international parties. However, there were no discussions in the meeting regarding the possibility of Russia playing the role of a mediator to reactivate the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, although Lavrov and Meshaal have stressed its importance in general.”

Amer, Adnan Abu.  “Is Russia Hamas’ bridge to global diplomacy?”  Cynthia Milan, Translator.  Al-Monitor, August 24, 2015.

And from whence derived the “Middle East Conflict”?

Have a look at BackChannel’s October 2016 note on “Palestinian KGB”.

This blog also may be searched for “Russia, anti-Semitism” for further enrichment — but as much may return this note to the wisdom of secular governance and its producing for all of its constituents equality under the law and zero, zilch, nada, never ever compulsion to either choose an “official religion” nor feel intimidated in the classroom or anywhere else as regards having by way of choice or legacy a different minority path.

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Syria – Assad – ISIL – Background

09 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Politics, Syria

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Imagine turning one economically challenged and environmentally troubled middle eastern state into a complete theater of politics and war.

Imagine producing every element in that state and managing the same for political gains in the world beyond its borders.

Then put a label on the production:

Assad vs The Terrorists
&
Assad OR The Terrorists

Why put on such a show?

  • To assert the power of absolute power and demonstrate the maniacal ability to visit suffering on innocents with impunity.
  • To produce a terrorism center that helps goad the west toward patriotic but autocratic and xenophobic nationalism in a way that divides states and encourages the abandonment of core values, especially cultural pluralism and religious tolerance.
  • To blackmail the west toward choosing to having in power a tyrant as opposed to an equally criminal and tyrannical movement.
  • To threaten the west — the European Union and NATO — with the monetary, security, and social costs associated with mass migration infused with criminal elements.
  • To produce a useful tool — “The Terrorists” / ISIL and other al-Qaeda type bands and organizations — with which to demonstrate military prowess in line with a fascist state script.

Herewith, a brief listing of citations building up to the image, quite correctly, of a murderous totalitarian mentality in action in Syria.

BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/02/syria-assad-vs-the-terrorists-how-isis-defends-assad/

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

International Business Times

The regime continued losing ground over the summer of 2015, provoking a direct Russian intervention in September 2015 that was explained, quite falsely, as an effort to destroy IS. Moscow trained its firepower on the mainstream armed opposition, systematically targeting the parts of the opposition supported by the West, which actually opened space for IS to expand. In July 2016, Russia even attacked US-supported forces that only fight IS.

Rather than counterterrorism, the actual Russian intention was to secure Assad militarily and then extinguish all workable alternatives, thereby rehabilitating Assad politically. To disguise this fact and rewrite the narrative of the intervention as one of anti-extremism, Russia’s ruler, Vladimir Putin, sought to end the major offensive phase of the intervention in March 2016 by pushing IS out of Palmyra.

Orton, Kyle W.  “We should not be shocked that Isis took Palmyra – Assad and Putin cannot hold back the jihadi hordes.”  IBTimes, December 12, 2016.

Newsweek

Bennetts, Marc.  “Putin’s War in Syria: Why Russians Don’t Seem to Care About It.”  Newsweek, October 10, 2016.

Cordall, Simon Speakman.  “How Syria’s Assad Helped Forge ISIS.”  Newsweek, June 21, 2014.

Hebbo, Mahmoud.  “U.S. Accuses Assad of Aiding ISIS Through Airstrikes.”  Newsweek, June 2, 2015.

Moore, Jack.  “ISIS’s Multimillion-Dollar Deals with Assad Regime Uncovered in U.S. Special Forces Raid.”  Newsweek, April 26, 2016.

The Daily Beast

Gutman, Roy.  “Assad Henchman: Here’s How We Built ISIS.”  The Daily Beast, December 1, 2016.  Part II: “How Assad Staged al Qaeda Bombings.”  The Daily Beast, December 2, 2016.   Part III: “How ISIS Returned to Syria”, The Daily Beast, December 5, 2016.

Weiss, Michael.  “Russia’s Double Game with Islamic Terror.” The Daily Beast, August 23, 2015

The National

Sands, Phil, Justin Vela, and Suha Maayeh.  “Assad regime set free extremists from prison to fire up trouble during peaceful uprising.”  The National, January 22, 2014.

The Tower

Decker, Benjamin T.  “Iran is More Deeply Tied to ISIS Than You Think.”  The Tower, December 2015.

Wikipedia

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

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

Miscellaneous

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/06/21/al-tanf-bombing-russia-assisted-isis-attacking-us-backed-fsa-group-cluster-bombs/ – 6/21/2016.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/01/politics/john-mccain-cia-russia-airstrikes/ – 10/1/2015

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-strikes-more-u-s-backed-rebels-in-syria/ – 10/21/2015

Twitter

YouTube

Update on Orwell’s (Putin-Assad-Khamenei’s) Regressives

Orton, Kyle.  “The Coalition isn’t Defeating the Islamic State — But It’s Empowering Iran.”  The Henry Jackson Society, October 6, 2017.

Orton, Kyle.  “The Syrian Regime’s Funding of the Islamic State.” The Henry Jackson Society, October 28, 2017.

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Also in Media: Dailytimes | “Defiance” | Tammy Swofford | December 9, 2016

09 Friday Dec 2016

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

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Defiance! The word is not a bad one when it comes to religion. Because it is on the heels of many, an act of defiance that religion has become healthier, stronger, more tolerant, and certainly more enjoyable. Martin Luther hammered his edict into a wooden door, and the empire of the Catholic Church was shaken. Colonists fled Europe. Their defiance against the belief that the state had any right to meddle in the private worship of the citizen proved a powerful motivation to escape. Resistance against government constraint of private acts of worship caused them to load onto their wooden ships and set sail. The Mayflower Compact sprang to life at Plymouth Rock, and the giant-hearted turned their faces into the harsh wind. Some shivered and died from the cold, while other starved to death in Jamestown. But the strength in their bones carried fires of conviction into the marrow of their future generations.

Defiance.  America remains a powerful societal example today because of acts of religious defiance.

Source: Dailytimes | Defiance

Also in Media: “Israeli Defense Minister Suggests Hezbollah Was Smuggling Chemical Weapons” | The Tower – 12/8/2016

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Also in Media, Islamic Small Wars, Israel

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Israel does not usually acknowledge foreign military actions, but Liberman told European diplomats Wednesday—the same day that the Mazzeh military airport near Damascus was reportedly hit by surface-to-surface missiles, and a week after two strikes elsewhere in Syria—that that his country was taking action to keep Hezbollah from acquiring “advanced weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction.” His latest comments to the Knesset seemed to suggest that at least one of the strikes was in order to stop Hezbollah from acquiring chemical weapons.“

Our policies and our positions are very clear and are based on three red lines: We won’t allow any harm to the citizens of the State of Israel, we won’t allow any harm to the sovereignty of the State of Israel, and we will not allow the smuggling of high-quality advanced weapons and chemical weapons from Syria to Lebanon for Hezbollah,” Liberman told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Source: Israeli Defense Minister Suggests Hezbollah Was Smuggling Chemical Weapons | The Tower

Moscow’s Rules — A Module

23 Wednesday Nov 2016

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

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This thin post telegraphs in web links a few of the essentials about President Putin’s Soviet / post-Soviet ultra-nationalist neo-imperial Russian project and revanche.  For the viewer, it may work as a portal both into related posts on BackChannels as well as a channel out for greater web-bound curiosity.

Agitation and Propaganda

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

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

Recently ‘Also in Media’:

Weiss, Michael.  “Russia’s Long History of Messing With Americans Minds Before the DNC Hack.”  The Daily Beast, July 26, 2016.

Related:

Weiss, Michael and Peter Pomerantsev.  “The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture, and Money.”  The Interpreter, November 22, 2014.

Heritage Foundation.  “Propaganda, Disinformation, and Dirty Tricks: The Resurgence of Russian Political Warfare.”  Features YouTube event recording (1:53:40).  Host: Helle C. Dale; speakers: John Lenczowski, Paul Goble, and Ariel Cohen.  April 21, 2014.

Freedom

https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia

Middle East Conflict

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

Moscow Apartment Bombings

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

Russian Orthodox Church

The ROC has made billions from trading concessions granted to it by the government. It is increasingly asserting its position as the largest of the 14 self-governing Orthodox Churches and is using its political muscle in support of Putin’s aims. It’s no friend to evangelicals, especially in the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, seeing them as puppets of the West.

But how has it become so powerful – and how is it using its power?

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/how.the.russian.orthodox.church.is.backing.vladimir.putins.new.world.order/81108.htm – 3/3/2016.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the church received official privileges including the right to import duty-free alcohol and tobacco. In 1995, the Nikolo-Ugreshky Monastery, which is directly subordinated to the patriarchate, earned $350 million from the sale of alcohol. The patriarchate’s department of foreign church relations, which Kirill ran, earned $75 million from the sale of tobacco. But the patriarchate reported an annual budget in 1995-1996 of only $2 million. Kirill’s personal wealth was estimated by the Moscow News in 2006 to be $4 billion.

During this period, the church has been silent about genuine moral issues, such as Russia’s pervasive corruption and the indiscriminate killing of noncombatants in Chechnya. As Kirill begins his reign as patriarch, there is little reason to expect this to change.

Yakov Krotov, a liberal Russian Orthodox priest, recently compared Kirill to a “court Jew,” like Peter Shafirov, the foreign policy aide to Peter the Great. The role of the court Jew, according to Krotov, is to put a civilized face on a repressive system.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/20/putin-solzhenitsyn-kirill-russia-opinions-contributors_orthodox_church.html – 2/20/2009.

Security State

http://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-resurrects-the-kgb-moscow-security/

Soviet Era

https://conflict-backchannels.com/library/russian-section/

Terrorism – Fast Links

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

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/12/ftac-how-isil-developed/

http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-the-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/

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

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

Standard Reference

Piontovsky, Andrei.  “Putin Using All Means Against the West — including Islamist Terrorism — Piontovsky Says.”  The Interpreter, December 12, 2016.

Rosenfeld, Jesse.  “Russia is Arming Hezbollah, Say Two of the Group’s Field Commanders.”  The Daily Beast, January 11, 2016.

Satter, David.  “Putin is No Partner on Terrorism: It’s a Mistake for Washington to Count Moscow an Ally.”  Foreign Affairs, December 22, 2016.

FTAC – A Post as Module

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439060/vladimir-putin-1999-russian-apartment-house-bombings-was-putin-responsible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_the_Soviet_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures
http://Politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-resurrects-the-kgb-moscow-security/
https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia

In effect, Moscow, with its penchant for total control, bears responsibility for using the Palestinian refugees to block western democratic and open society (with free press) expansion while also milking the world under the guise of a good deed.

Moscow (Bogdanov) has met with PFLP in recent years (November 2014) and continues to refuse to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

In Syria, and keeping with its “total control” outlook, it appears that Assad himself incubated ISIL as an element that could be used to blackmail and goad the west.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/12/ftac-how-isil-developed/
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/how-russia-manipulates-islamic-terrorism/

Examine, query, test each URL. As a post on Facebook, the cited URLs taken together tell a story about Putin’s Soviet / post-Soviet transformation of Russia into an ultra-nationalist neo-imperial dictatorship.

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