Category Archives: Regions

FTAC: Brief Comment: Optics on Frenemies Moscow and Washington

16 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Russia, transnational crime

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” . . . they are making a show to other countries . . . “

True. The action taken to forestall additional Chemical Weapons (CW) attacks was conducted as a deliberate and open demonstration of capability (imho) and not as one blow among others launched without warning in the chaos and fury of combat.

Russo-American cooperation in “optics” has been a theme in the Syrian Tragedy from the beginning and in current form dates back at least to the end of the Cold War in which Moscow and Washington in a presumptive peace were to work on terrorism and transnational crime together.

It is uncertain that that is not taking place!

🙂

How would one know?

In that Moscow sustains numerous “frozen conflicts”, operates its war machinery against noncombatants in Syria and Ukraine, and that it has long cherished (by not reforming itself much) the title, “Mafia State”, I may suggest the west had been snookered by old political criminals or a mentality in Moscow befitting the same.

Related Reference

In the too-fast press associated with blogging, there may be a little bit of post-first-read-later taking place here.  Even if so, the main point is to look into what happened between Moscow and Washington in their respective thematic characters — paternal authoritarian for one; liberal democratic for the other — in the nearest shadows of the Cold War.

PDFs cited go straight to the BackChannels Kindle and may be read on that platform soon afterward.

Elliott, Dorinda.  “Lifestyles of Russia’s Filthy New Rich.”  Newsweek,  December 18, 1994:

Where did all the money come from? Most of the new robber barons — an estimated 61 percent of Russia’s richest people, according to one study — simply turned the socialist empires they managed into their own private companies. Others built their fortunes on the roots of criminal trading they were doing secretly during Soviet times. The result is a pervasive sense of unfairness — particularly since Russia still has no real middle class. But Russian society for centuries has been driven by envy.

Finckenauer, James O. and Yuri A. Voronin.  “The Threat of Russian Organized Crime.”  PDF.  Issues in International Crime, National Institute of Justice, June 2001.

Hockstader, Lee.  “Russia’s Criminal Condition.”  The Washington Post, February 26, 1995.

“In Western Europe and the United States . . . organized crime controls only criminal activities such as prostitution, drug trafficking and gambling,” wrote Pyotr Filippov, a former adviser to President Boris Yeltsin, in a report to the president last year. “In our country, it controls all types of activities.”

In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, an alleged criminal leader with a long prison record and a private militia loyal to him is the right-hand man to the country’s leader, former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. In Russia’s Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, an ex-convict named Vladimir “The Poodle” Podiatev, who spent 17 years in prison, is said by police to be the city’s foremost power broker, allegedly controlling his own television station and much commerce in the city.

Mirsky, Wendy L.  “The Link Between Russian Organized Crime and Nuclear-Weapons Proliferation: Fighting Crime and Ensuring International Security.”  Comment.  University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Business and Law, 16:4, 749-781.

Orttung, Robert and Christopher Walker.  “Putin’s Frozen Conflicts: Each of Russia’s reform-minded neighbors is plagued by separatism.  It’s no coincidence.”  Foreign Policy, February 13, 2015:

Russia’s attempt to subvert Ukraine cannot, however, be seen in isolation.Russia’s attempt to subvert Ukraine cannot, however, be seen in isolation. Its tactics are part of a wider pattern in which the Kremlin uses separatist conflicts as engines for corruption and criminality, and as Trojan horses to block progress in reform-minded countries on Russia’s periphery.

Shelley, Louise I.  “Post-Soviet Organized Crime: Implications for the Development of the Soviet Successor States and Foreign Countries.”  The National Council for Soviet and East European Research.”  Title VIII Program, The National Council for Soviet and East European Research.  February 8, 1994:

Organized crime has penetrated most of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union at all governmental levels, and is assuming an important role in the political , economic and social evolution of these states, with consequences already being felt in Europe , the United States and parts of Asia . The collapse of communism may not lead to democratization and the transition to a competitive capitalist economy.  Instead, the pervasiveness of organized crime may lead to an alternative form of development — political clientelism and controlled markets. Domination by the Communist Party may be replaced b y the controls of organized crime.

U.S. Department of State Archive.  “United States Relations with Russia: After the Cold War: 1990-1991.

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FTAC: A Possibility at the End of the Cold War — and How We Got Here from There

06 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Psychology, Russia, United States of America

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Possibly: when the Soviet Union dissolved Dec. 25, 1991 and then presumably ended the Cold War, it’s possible (possibly) that American and Russian security elements thought to cooperate on issues confronting both states, Islamic Terrorism high on the list of possibilities conveniently at hand for that.

For the United States, one presumes that cooperation would have been intended to reduce the power and presence of dictatorship in the world and (in domino effect) remove the vestiges of the defunct Soviet Union in global foreign affairs.  In the way of political “optics” — how things look — the American and other EU / NATO constituencies would have perceived some great measure of peace and trade taking place between the former superpower antagonists, so when Clinton and others signed off on “Uranium One”, it may have been in that context that the deal went down.  

East and West had taken the great leap forward toward peace in 1992 and by 2010 business involving uranium, a strategic asset, appeared to have been conducted in overall calm, bureaucratic, and peaceful conditions.  

While other business and political mixers were proceeding, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya were also transformed (in 2003 and 2011, respectively), at least as regards the deposing of each dictator — and let none remember them fondly: they were both monsters in each their own demonic way.

Then in 2011: Syria.

When offered the choice, Putin refused the liberal western path and reverted to the KGB past.  At that moment, possibly(!), Team Security USA, in some part, discovered that it had been duped

(Note: intervention in Libya preceded the perceived (Wikipedia) start date of the Syrian Civil War — on BackChannels, the “Syrian Tragedy” — by five days).  

Moscow had intended to refuse the adoption of democratic liberalism all along.

What the United States and EU / NATO had done for peace between 1992 and 2011?

I don’t know.

However, one may imagine the possibilities. 

However, the old news cross my desktop a few minutes ago, and it seems to add its little bit to the BackChannels perspective on Cold War / post-Cold War / Phantom of the Soviet history.

If you haven’t hit the link, the “old news” was this:

Albawaba.  “America’s gulag: Syrian regime was a ‘common destination’ for CIA rendition.”  February 5, 2013.

Syria was a key participant in the C.I.A. rendition program at a time when President George W. Bush’s administration labelled Damascus part of the “axis of evil,” according to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative.

 The report – titled “Globalizing Torture” – said President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was one of the “most common destinations for rendered suspects,” indicating an established security relationship between Syrian intelligence and Western agencies.

The story — and not written for conservative Americans — traces its thesis back to at least 2003.

Apparently, Moscow and Washington had been fighting terrorism together in the double-0’s of the new century.

However, that day must have been young compared to this in which the interested public knows of the false-flag operation known as the  “Moscow Apartment Bombings” (September 4-16, 1999).

Also today, thanks to Anna Politkovskaya, we know also of the Russian Army’s unofficial but observed brutalizing of Chechen villages as a means certain to fill the ranks of “Chechen rebels” through the Second Chechen War (August 26, 1999 – April 16, 2009) — for where else would Chechen boys and men go to fight back against so monstrous a force?

BackChannels stands by its argument that Assad incubated ISIS as its preferred foil in a piece of KGB-type theater one might call “Assad v The Terrorists”.

The assertion has held up over time.

A companion piece suggesting that “Islamic Terrorism –> Reflexive Feudal New Nationalism” has held up as well.

Welcome Moscow’s post-Cold War totalitarian design and the west’s apparent partial cooperation with it, possibly, up to the Syrian gambit of spring 2011 when Obama tested Putin’s navigational tendencies.

In Russia’s persistent feudal mode, states serve power, and power need see no difference between property and persons, sovereignty in the politically absolute mode implying the right — more: even the obligation and demonstration — to destroy either with impunity and without explanation.  A little foolery with political perception and CIA “rendition” programs (to fight al-Qaeda and others) would be one thing, but to travel further with Moscow and Damascus in their tyrannous journey appears to have been something Washington could not bring itself to do. 

The “KGB Playbook” — “Active Measures”; “Perceptual Control”; “Hybrid Warfare”; playing both sides for fun and profit — listen to the BBC’s interview with Admiral Gorchkov on the instigating of the Ogaden War between Somali militia and Ethiopian defenders; the loss of boundaries and limits (that dovetails so well with the “malignant narcissism” concept) that would seem to have licensed surreptitious poisonings (in Great Britain) straight out of 007 Bond fantasia; and the complete loss of compassion, conscience, and empathy for others — has turned out a still living evil, and one that even the paternally and narcissistically  authoritarian Trump Administration cannot dismiss while doing its duty to defend America’s Constitution.

Additional Assorted Fast Reference Related to Russia’s Encouragement of Conflict

http://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6

https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/understanding-the-russia-taliban-connection/

https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/15162-defector-putin-s-kgb-trained-top-al-qaeda-terrorists

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/04/24/russia-is-sending-weapons-to-taliban-top-u-s-general-confirms/

Posted to YouTube November 14, 2011.

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From Correspondence: 9/11: Moscow’s Phantom Vision –> End of Gaza’s Suffering

01 Sunday Apr 2018

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

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“Yes, but there many things that must be explained… the terrorist attack of 9/11 received the support of Saudi Arabia… ???”

No, ______, it did not.

http://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6
–
https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/understanding-the-russia-taliban-connection/
–
https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/15162-defector-putin-s-kgb-trained-top-al-qaeda-terrorists
–
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/04/24/russia-is-sending-weapons-to-taliban-top-u-s-general-confirms/

Now everyone has a problem, not least the state of ______: do the leaders of the world — and the worlds of business, finance, and politics — want the present to recycle into the future using totalitarian techniques — or does it want authentic progress on behalf of our species and the planet that hosts all of us?

I have come to know — no longer just think — the Moscow believes that political issues and perceptions can be invented and controlled from ‘behind the curtains”. Knowing the little I know of wildness in nature and evolutionary unpredictability, I would counsel against that Orwellian ambition.

Place the blame for 9/11 on “east-west competition” for political and resource (“Grand Game”-related) control; post-Cold War realignment, perhaps — the idea that western security services would cooperate with Moscow’s on crime, for example, or on “fighting the terrorists” (after Moscow has positioned them) where it belongs and in proportion to the contribution to design. Of the two, “Moscow” and “Washington”, the data I have dredged from the web points to Moscow’s so-far persistent totalitarian ambition.

Goog-Kremlin-sq-228xThere’s much to hash in the above message, but all will distill into the two familiar and very different worldviews so often referenced by BackChannels as “Medieval Political Absolutism v Modern Democratic and Liberal Distribution of Power”.

In which world would you rather live?

Point by point —

First, official Saudi Arabia revoked Osama Bin Laden’s citizenship over the crime visited on the United States of America on September 11, 2001.  That leaves unofficial KSA and other actors as possible donors to the Wahhabi al-Qaeda enterprise, but as the sovereign state has maintained its innocence, the potential rogues within have made themselves only potential persons of interest for internal policing.  At this time, about 17 years later, a KSA-USA alliance has been established and is being promoted as reliable online.

Regarding reliability, we shall see, as it seems in the nature of history and politics to be full of surprises.

Second and in regard to the news articles cited, BackChannels has noticed from the Cold War Era a kind of symmetrical diplomacy attending “east-west relations”.  When, for example, the Soviet Union reclaimed its nuclear missiles from Cuba, the United States moved back its forward-based Jupiter missiles from presence near the Soviet Union’s fringe.  Whatever the two states may have been saying to one another, they were saying it at the same time.  In popular history, the more dramatic and visible recovery of “nukes” from Cuba was more quietly matched by similar behavior in Europe.  It would not be much of a stretch, if any, to suggest that as the Soviet Army retreated from Afghanistan, the American CIA similarly pulled back from its involvement with the Mujaheddin even though that would leave the proxy available to the next Russian state, which was to announce its presence, however pale, with the appearance of the Russian Tricolor raised above the Kremlin on the morning of December 26, 1991. 

Finally, BackChannels may wish not to know what took place in 1992 between business interests and multiple state security services with the Cold War presumed over, Communism defeated in Russia, and some new western-leaning and capitalist state about to be born.  It would rather — and so will — fast forward to today’s “Phantom of the Soviet” and the destruction brought to Syria and Ukraine (Crimea), the revival of feudal ambitions spurred in EU/NATO targets by the reflexive response to Islamic terror attacks, and in both Turkey and nascent Kurdistan the leverage applied to ego by Putin’s “energy politics” and appeals to narcissistic aggrandizement in leadership in both geopolitical spaces.

Today’s Hamas-produced political theater on Gaza’s border with Israel smacks of Soviet Era spectacle.  While nothing would appear to have changed from earlier days, much has changed as regards “state-sponsored terrorism”.  The Soviet Union passed into history more than 25 years ago, and the phantoms of it in search of the source of their dark souls must find it absent.  In its place now stands the autocratic “Mafia State” fully willing to destroy innocents in its chosen combat arenas, induce greater chaos in the world (seldom more so than in Syria and in Ukraine’s Crimea), bomb hospitals with impunity, and revive the Soviet’s most criminal and pernicious practices and programs.

If Gazans, who in the main have gotten very little out of decades of so-called — and violent — “resistance” only knew for what and for whom they were protesting . . . .

Hmm.

The Internet is fully up: now the Palestinians may know (and know well who has lied to them and how) and — if and when determined to extricate themselves from the powers that have profited off their sustained suffering — make themselves truly free within their own community and more genuinely nascent Palestinian state.

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FTAC: Hamas’s Latest KGB-Style Theater: “Palestinian Killer”

31 Saturday Mar 2018

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

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“On the streets of Gaza people have a sense of security – except when Israel attacks” — In defensive modes, preventive, responsive, retributive.

The Palestinians have long surrendered their dreams to propaganda, the PLO/PA, and Hamas as well as the corruption attending such governments that hold themselves beyond criticism.

From what sense of ethics, integrity, or justice were the greenhouses and synagogues of Gaza destroyed after departure in 2005?

Such rage would seem to have been set loose by officially and socially approved, promoted, and popular anti-Semitic incitement, the same that had Hamas in 2006 proclaiming to Palestinians that Hitler admired them as ideal revolutionaries (PMW: “Hamas: Hitler praised the Palestinians as models”).

Perhaps Israel should treat as poison the disinformation fed to the Palestinians and see the same receive an antidote in an honest telling, for Hamas fairy tales have only enslaved the Palestinians and gotten them to get themselves killed for show.

Posted to YouTube March 30, 2018.  Ten more Palestinians were to draw fire and die, and the cause should be clear through what the cameras recorded in the way of “peaceful” demonstration.

One may marvel at the power of bad ideas and failed dreams to continue placing the innocent in harm’s way — and for the global press, the more souls corralled and misled into martyrdom, the better for sympathy and “understanding”, never mind the squandering of billions of dollars intended for Palestinian practical betterment going into the pockets of corrupt and venal leaders and their systems of patronage.

The Soviet Union dissolved in bankruptcy about 26 years, and yet the scenes remain much as Yuri Andropov must have seen them when promoting dictatorship beneath the cover of Popular Liberation Movements.

The peace camps of the west may have to soon decide whether they wish to remain in business by doing their part to sustain the middle east conflict on bogus claims; and Mr. Putin may soon have to decide whether he will take KGB and more general historic Russian barbarism forward with the cynical manipulation and destruction of every space in which Moscow has chosen to play.

Related on BackChannels

Set: “Palestinian KGB” and Other BackChannels Observations Related to the Middle East Conflict.”  February 6, 2018.

Related Online

Algemeiner Staff.  “As IDF Thwarts Gun Attack on Gaza Border, Israel Warns that Palestinian ‘Return’ Protests are ‘Cover for Terror’.”  The Algemeiner, March 30, 2018.

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

Menachem, Yoni Ben.  “Corruption in the Palestinian Authority.”  Jewish News Syndicate, March 10, 2018.

“Palestinians destroy synagogues in Gaza”.  The Telegraph, September 12, 2005.

Palestinian Media Watch.  “Hamas: Hitler praised the Palestinians as models.”  May 18, 2006.

The Tower Staff.  “Hamas Leads Violent March, Using Human Shields, at Israeli-Gaza Border.”  The Tower, March 30, 2018.

Wikipedia.  “Israeli disengagement from Gaza”.

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Event! “Who Deserves a State? Stories of Jews, Native Americans & Kurds” – Sophia Marjanovic, Anna Langer, Kani Xulam – March 28, 2018, 7-8 p.m., School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Events and Other PSA's, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kurdistan, Middle East, North America, Politics, Syria, United States of America

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GWU-180328-digFlyer-NOTJSOs

School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA)
George Washington Univeristy
805 21st Street NW
Room 309
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-6227
smpa@gwu.edu

Google Maps

https://www.google.com/maps/place/George+Washington+University+School+of+Media+and+Public+Affairs/@38.9001909,-77.0469929,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x3e32dedd82d144b3!8m2!3d38.8998277!4d-77.0461775

–33–

FTAC: Nigeria: Boko Haram Convert-or-Die; Fulani Land Pirates Devouring Nigeria’s Christian Margin; Lost Confidence in Governance and Security

24 Saturday Mar 2018

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

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Of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped in Dapchi in February, 104 were released by the Boko Haram, five died during the kidnap while one remains with the terrorists for allegedly refusing to put on a hijab and renounce her Christian faith.

Haruna, Abdulkareem.  “#Dapchi Girls: We feel betrayed by Nigerian govt, father of killed schoolgirl speaks.”  Premium Times, March 24, 2018.

Her name: Aisha Adamu.

Her killers wear masks and appear to have no names.

From The Awesome Conversation —

The Ummah of Islam has bloody edges, and the Christian community of Nigeria appears to be an edge. The “Fulani Land Pirates” — that’s what I’m calling them — are nibbling away Nigerian Christian territory with rape and rapine, and the Christian community disarmed by the state is become “internally displaced”, currently by about 200,000 souls in relation to the Land Pirates, about 2 million in relation to Boko Haram, who have got a kind of game going: abduct, convert or kill, and return the sworn converts to their parents.

There are multiple levels in these conflicts — locally, Boko Haram is a scourge; however, the arms are Kalashnikov, generally speaking; we know today that Moscow arms and backs the Taliban in Afghanistan; we know that the same defends politically absolute systems, AKA “dictatorships”, and we know that the sponsors in the surrounds of these fighting elements, emir, general this or that, fit that description.

My call: it’s not overpopulation or too much imagination that drive the Islamic Small Wars, although that would be true for producing recruits for war parties: Nigeria provides dual images — the assaults of the Fulani Land Pirates in one part, the barbarism practiced by Boko Haram in the other —  of the Islamist program of conquest “by the sword” in action.

Whatever reassurances and sweet words may come from the “leadership” may appear more and more as cover.

The marauders keep getting away — and refreshed with arms and funding keep returning too.

Posted to YouTube on February 26, 2018 — before the return of most of the schoolgirls: ” . . . and just asking how could our daughters be left unprotected to be taken again . . .?

Related Reference

Bakare, Tonye.  “Dapchi girls kidnap staged by Buhari’s government, PDP says.”  The Guardian: Nigeria, March 21, 2018.

CNN.  “Inside Nigeria’s internal displacement camps”.  Africa View, January 11, 2017.

Correspondents.  ” . . . we feel betrayed by FB, says father of dead girl.”  New Telegraph, March 24, 2018.

Speaking in tears, the middle-aged resident of Jumbam, a village 2km away from Dapchi, said rather than the Nigerian soldiers combating the insurgents after they came back to drop the girls, the soldiers simply “watched with folded arms while the insurgents left triumphantly.”

The resident spoken was the father of Aisha Adamu, Adamu Jumbam.

Egeland, Jan.  “Forcing displaced Nigerians may worsen crises.”  Op-ed.  Norwegian Refugee Center, October 12, 2017.

Gaffey, Conor.  “Why Are Over 1 Million Displaced Persons in Nigeria Too Scared to Go Home?”  Newsweek, October 12, 2017.

The report involved 3,455 household surveys and 46 focus group discussions across 12 local government areas in Borno State. Most of the IDPs surveyed expressed fears about security as their main reasons for not wanting to return home.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed on several occasions that Boko Haram—which has fractured into at least two major factions—was no longer a fighting force in Nigeria. But the militants have continued to launch attacks and have been solely responsible for some 700 deaths so far in 2017, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.  “Nigeria IDP Figures Analysis — As of December 31, 2015 —

IDMC estimates that there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria as of 31 December 2015 . . . .

Of the total figure of IDPs, the assessment indicates that 12.6 per cent were displaced due to communal clashes, 2.4 per cent by natural disasters and 85 per cent as a result of insurgency attacks by Islamists. The decrease in the percentage of IDPs who were displaced by insurgency from 95.3 per cent in August to 85 per cent in December 2015 and the increase in the numbers of those displaced by communal clashes from 4.6 per cent to 10.1 per cent in October were due to the inclusion of five additional States witnessing communal violence more than insurgency by Islamist groups.

Obiejesi, Kingsley.  “Her dream was to become a scientist, says father of late Dapchi girl.”  ICIR Nigeria, March 23, 2018.

Relief Web.  “Internal Displacement in North East Nigeria: Operationalising the Kampala Convention in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.”  December 31, 2016.

Sahara Reporters.  “UPDATED: Nigerian Govt Lied, 5 Million Euros, Boko Haram Fighters, Swapped for Dapchi Girls.” March 21, 2018.

But a source who also participated in the negotiations with Boko Haram that led to release of over 80 Chibok girls in 2017 told SaharaReporters that the federal government not only made the ransom payment of five million euros to the insurgents, it also exchanged some Boko Haram prisoners in return for the Dapchi girls.

However, the lie that no ransom was paid to secure the return of the Dapchi girls followed a consistent pattern of such under the table millions of dollars payments by the Nigerian government to Boko Haram to secure freedom of abductees, especially since the advent of the Buhari administration.

Addendum – More From the Awesome Conversation

Moscow’s hidden hand may be behind both conflicts — Boko Haram and the Fulani Land Pirates — for the still medieval Russian state appears to promote “political absolutism” — the power of the tyrant to destroy both property and persons with impunity — worldwide. In such systems, the state exists to serve the Great Leader who may hold his position beneath a banner and program essentially swallowed by the public. As regards dictatorships, one may say: “Different Talks — Same Walk!” Always.

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Rosenstein – Nine Iranians Charged in Tehran-Sponsored Hacking Scheme

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Iran, United States of America

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Posted to YouTube 3/23/2018
Asserted:

  • Iranian hackers worked on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps;
  • Hacks involved 320 universities in 22 countries, 144 of which involved American universities;
  • Estimated value of intellectual property developed and stolen: $3.4 billion;
  • Madna Institute mission: stealing intellectual property for IRGC, Iranian Universities,or sale;
  • Charges include computer fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and identity theft;
  • The indicted are fugitives who may face arrest and extradition in more than 100 states.

–33–

Nigeria: ‘Fulani’ Herdsman, Razed Villages, Arms Running, Hezbollah, Even Turkish Diplomats –>

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Regions

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BackChannels source this morning relayed the following from Lagos, Nigeria in relation to raids by apparent herdsman against largely disarmed villages.

  • Since the first of the years, source claims, more than 500 Nigerians have been slaughtered in raids and no arrests have been made;
  • The number of Internally Displaced Persons associated with the conflict exceeds 200,000;
  • The Nigerian government has been repossessing simple weapons from villagers while attackers typically carrying AK-47s surround their targets and destroy buildings and stores with burning petrol;
  • The complement attending raids may average about 100 or more fighters;
  • Source of arms: Libya, other Arab nations, and Turkey.

In 2013, news reports mentioned a Hezbollah cell and weapons cache in Nigeria; the latest weapons seizure of similar scale in 2017 appears to have originated through Turkish channels.

Although Fulani herdsman have been blamed en masse for the aggression noted, BackChannels has heard suggestion that the weaponizing may devolve to the same forces backing extremist organizations elsewhere.  The 2013 Hezbollah connection and the more recent 2017 interdiction involving Turkey would appear to support that thesis.

Recruitment into raiding units would also appear to correspond to conditions channeling fighters into rogue organizations elsewhere.

Dr. Omolade Adunbi, Assistant Professor, Political Anthropology, University of Michigan noted the following earlier this year in the publication Africa is a Country:  “The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment.”

Related on YouTube

Posted to YouTube 3/28/2014

Posted to YouTube 1/11/2018

Posted to YouTube 8/2/2016

BackChannels can never “vet” these videos, but most recognize this conflict in Nigeria as involving cattlemen, basically, and farmers.  Less played may be the role played by religion in the conflict, which here has been made apparent:

Posted to YouTube 1/16/2018

Considering the 2013 Hezbollah weapons cache story, the latest interdiction of arms involving Turkish (criminal, of course) channeling, the claim of arms coming from Libya and more recent participation associated with Turkey and the activities of Moscow and Tehran in manipulating conflicts and extremism into existence (listen to the BBC interview of a once Soviet admiral on the Ogaden War), the drivers of this latest tragedy in Nigeria may start to surface.

Reference

Abiodun, Eromosele.  “Turkish Govt to Deal with Collaborators of Arms Shipment to Nigeria.”  This Day Live, September 27, 2017.  Denial —

The Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Hakan Cakil, in a meeting with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), over importation of four containers of pump-action rifles into Nigeria in last eight months vowed to help Nigeria fish out criminals behind the illegal arms shipment to Nigeria.

Adunbi, Omolade.  “How did Fulani herdsmen become such bogeymen in Nigeria?”  Africa Is A Country, February 1, 2018 —

The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment . . . .

Amnesty International: Nigeria 2017/2018.

Amnesty International.  “Nigeria: Dozens killed as military launches air attacks on villages beset by spiralling communal violence.”  January 30, 2018 —

On 4 December 2017, Nigeria’s air force sent fighter jets to fire rockets at villages as a “warning” to deter spiralling communal violence, as hundreds of herdsmen attacked at least five villages in Adamawa state to avenge the massacre of up to 51 members of their community, mostly children, the previous month in Kikan.

An Amnesty International team visited the villages in the aftermath of the air raids and gathered witness testimony from residents who described being attacked by a fighter jet and a military helicopter as they attempted to flee.

BBC News.  “Nigeria: Hezbollah armoury discovered in Kano city.”  May 30, 2013 —

The cache, including rifles, anti-tank weapons and an RPG, were found in a warehouse in the city of Kano, he said.

Nigeria’s State Security Service said they were intended for use against “Israeli and Western interests”.

BBC News.  “Nigeria: How Customs seize 1,100 guns for port.”  September 11, 2017.

BBC News.  “Nigeria’s Benue clashes: Mass burial after farmer-Fulani clashes.”  January 11, 2018 —

Mr Onoja, who was at the funeral, said 73 people were being buried.

He defended his state’s controversial ban on open cattle grazing implemented in November, which Fulani herders have complained targets them unfairly.

“Our economy in Benue State depends on agriculture,” he said. “Take that away and we have a serious problem.”

Come to Nigeria.  “Hausa and Fulani People”.

Eboh, Camillus.  “Nigeria says arrests Iran-linked cell targeting U.S., Israel.”  Reuters, February 21, 2013.

(Reuters) – Nigeria’s secret service say they have arrested a “terrorist cell” trained in Iran who planned to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in Africa’s most populous nation.

The State Security Service (SSS) said they arrested Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and two other Nigerians in December after Berende made several suspicious trips to Iran where he interacted with Iranians in a “high profile terrorist network”.

Inyang, Ifreke.  “No one can defeat us in Nigeria — Fulani national leader, Bello boasts.”  Daily Post, January 29, 2018.

The National Chairman of Fulbe (Fulani) Development Association of Nigeria (FULDAN), Malam Ahmad Usman Bello, has declared that they cannot be defeated by any ethnic group in the country.

Bello made the remarks while speaking with Saturday Tribune in Kano, amid the widespread outcry against the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states and many other parts of the country.

Sahara Reporters.  “470 Guns Seized at Lagos Port.”  September 22, 2017.

The federal government is set to meet Turkish diplomats today over the spate of illegal importation of rifles from Turkey to Nigeria.

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Comptroller-General (CG) Col. Hameed Ali (retd) said this when he briefed reporters over the seizure of another 470 rifles at Tin-Can Island port in Lagos.

Sahara Reporters.  “Amnesty International Brands Nigeria’s Response To Fulani Herdsmen Violence Inadequate, Reveals 717 Killed In Less Than 2 Years.”  January 29 2018.

The body also said communal clashes have claimed over 700 lives since last year. AI made its position known in a statement issued on Monday. It stated that clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna states have resulted in 168 deaths in January alone.

Sahara Reporters.  “Fulani Herdsmen Kill 4 Soldiers in Garrison Commander’s Convey, Injure Scores in Plateau.”  March 17, 2018.

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