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Tag Archives: ISIL

FTAC: Reprise: How ISIL Serves Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran

09 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Syria

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

ISIL, KGB-Style Theater, Soviet/Post-Soviet Totalitarianism, Syria

Again: Assad (w/ Putin and Khamenei looking on) incubated ISIL as a tool with several interesting functions:

–A “jihadi” trap that has drawn thousands of fighters to itself, including from Chechnya, to serve as a “Kill Zone” for the type. Not a bad idea, eh?

–However: the same ploy turns out for bribing the west — “Assad OR The Terrorists” in relation to the promotion of tyranny (that’s referenced in the terms “absolute power” and “political absolutism”);

–and for depopulating an ecologically troubled landscape (prior drought drove Syrians to protest their government’s disinterest in their starving;

–and for goading the west with mass migration, a part of the concept of “death (to America) by a thousand cuts”.

The combination of the “ownership” — ability to manipulate — an al-Qaeda-type machine (ISIL) — and the costs associated with fighting it plus the costs of absorbing the misery in human desperation that Syria has created . . . and the political costs of the western conversation that has led to reduced cohesion through a polarized politics have indeed damaged EU / NATO internal popular strength.

All in all, ISIL, The Terrorists, in one place, kind of, has turned out a great idea for Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran. The same also get to make themselves look good when fighting their very own Bozo clown (keeps getting up, so their forces can knock it down.


How Moscow Earns Back Some of its Costs for Syria’s Misery

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/syria-war-showroom-russian-arms-sales-160406135130398.html


Down into the Works: Origins of ISIS

The origins of the ISIS Emni were revealed in a chance discovery of documents in 2014, owned by Haji Bakr (aka Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi), a former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein’s Air Defense Force. Haji Bakr became the architect of ISIS’s intelligence apparatus–the Emni. Previously jailed in Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, along with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as other embittered former nationalistic Iraqi intelligence officers, Haji Bakr emerged in the leadership of a group, which, after plotting together in Camp Bucca from 2004 to 2008, reunited in 2012 to create the clandestine organization that eventually became known as the “Islamic State.”[3] Eager to retaking power and re-establish Sunni dominance, by making Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi their emir and later “caliph” of what in actuality is a totalitarian state–these former intelligence officers cleverly gave the organization an Islamic face, carefully modeled after the former Iraqi Baath regime but now cloaked in Islamic garb.

Speckhard, Anne and Ahmet S. Yayla.  “The ISIS Emni: Origins and Inner Workings of ISIS’s Intelligence Apparatus.”  PDF.  Perspectives on Terrorism, 2:1, February 2017.

BackChannels’ Perspective

Assad chose to battle back The West first and only confronted at critical junctions the al-Qaeda-type organizations coming into the fight.  In essence, he allowed the same to gather and duke it out while he defined the war he believed most advantageous to himself in relation to his power and image as a modern dictator.


Most related piece on BackChannels:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/

Next best:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/03/11/reflexive-control-process-allahu-akbar-terrorism-new-nationalism-neo-feudalism/


The conversation continued, and as it is immediately at hand, here’s the addendum ending with a note on “Moscow-Tehran” —

Take the long view of dictators who have produced state support for terrorism: Saddam Hussein: gone; Muammar Qaddafi: gone; Bashar al-Assad: he’s hanging on.

When the Soviet Union dissolved 25 years ago, it did so with a plan for the survival of the “privileged of the Party” (source: Karen Dawisha’s book). It appears that “Colonel, President, Emperor” Putin has succeeded in restoring Russia’s autocratic state with its totalitarian PRESENTATION of states-of-affairs and its imperial ambitions intact. Reagan called it an “Evil Empire” and now we’re seeing it again, but it’s not what it was through the Cold War.

Now we’re approaching the end of the end of the Soviet Union. The Russian State is financially weak (low cash reserves; most related assets have been “parked” in the “rule-of-law” west); it has developed wars on two fronts with Syria and Ukraine; it may other issues, patently criminal, with its “frozen conflicts” (for practical purposes, ungoverned spaces amenable to the inspiring of James Bond movies). It has at least one trump card left to play: nuclear war — and that’s what we’re hearing in hints: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-07/u-s-launches-missile-strike-on-syria-in-response-to-gas-attack

“Moscow-Tehran” — I don’t know which may be the “stronger” party, but they are both nutty with malignantly narcissistic leaders who may embrace their own destruction as glorifying. The psychology of martyrdom seems well known as regards Islam but the psychology of sacrifice in Russian culture is to me obscure.

–33–

FTAC – Reflection – Moscow – Terrorism

04 Wednesday Jan 2017

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

false flag operation, history, ISIL, Moscow, Russia, Taliban, terrorism

Imaginative, Jackson’s movie, but this is more the history I know:

1> http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/05/19/how-putin-became-president/

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

3> https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/

4> Definitely not yesterday’s news:

http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/how-russia-may-approach-the-taliban-and-afghanistan-in-2017/

Forget about books and movies. Put on the thinking cap. What comes together for you from well known history and the high-integrity independent press?


–33–

Syria – Assad – ISIL – Background

09 Friday Dec 2016

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

≈ 45 Comments

Tags

Assad, fascism, ISIL, ISIS, political theater, Syria, totalitarianism

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

Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population

— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

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.

–33–

ISIL – Groomed for a Role in “Assad vs The Terrorists”?

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

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

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Homs, ISIL, Russia, Syria

Posted to YouTube by Euronews, October 1, 2015.

As noted: http://www.newsweek.com/us-accuses-assad-aiding-islamic-state-through-airstrikes-338582 The bad guy catches a break, enough to put together an army. Assad’s priorities — always flanked by Putin and Khamenei — have shown up in the news over time.

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

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.

If you want to see what Assad had been fighting instead of western-back revolutionaries, have a look at the destruction of Homs (in the video at the bottom of this post).

BackChannels is not suggesting ISIL was never hit but rather that it has been groomed and shaped over the years for a role in  “Assad vs The Terrorists”.

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

On this list, you will see that al-Nusra gets some early “licks” in in Damascus but, ISIL, which assembled into the “Islamic State” a couple of years into the war (around 2014), does not show up in association with Damascus until April of this year. Now there’s conspiracy-think: why not a 2014 or 2015 car bombing in Damascus credited to ISIL. And why this year? Perhaps they started taking hits from Russian jets. Finally.

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

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

Addendum – October 13, 2016

WikiLeaks released an August 2014 e-mail from Hillary Clinton to John Podesta, who currently serves as her campaign chairman, stating that the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” Evidently President Obama has not heeded Hillary’s concern, or chose to ignore it. In December 2014, Obama praised Saudi Arabia’s significant role in helping to fight ISIL (also known as ISIS and the Islamic State) during a meeting in Washington with the Kingdom’s Minister of Interior Prince Mohammed Bin Naif Bin Abdulaziz. And at a meeting he hosted with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, at the White House in February 2015, Obama said, “Qatar is a strong partner in our coalition to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.”

Klein, Joseph.  “Saudi Arabia and Qatar Bankroll ISIS – And the Clinton Foundation.”  Frontpage, October 13, 2016.

BackChannels believes the post-Soviet Moscow axis — Moscow-Damascus-Tehran — chose, as it resisted the challenge to Assad’s authority, to emphasize fighting the west first by first combating the defecting officers who took up leadership of the Free Syrian Army while holding off, or shaping, the al-Qaeda-type organizations coming onto the field (reference, again, Lucy Westcott’s report in Newsweek, “U.S. Accuses Assad of aiding ISIS Through Airstrikes” (June 2, 2015) and compare that with more recent reports on Russia’s air campaigns both leading to the “Concert in Palmyra” (Russian jets appear to have bombed a refugee camp the next day) and the more recent barbarism, including the wanton destruction of hospitals taking place in Aleppo.

One might also have a glance a Michael Weiss’s “Russia’s Double Game with Islamic Terror” (The Daily Beast, August 23, 2015) —

Based on extensive fieldwork in one village in the North Caucasus, reporter Elena Milashina has concluded that the “Russian special services have controlled” the flow of jihadists into Syria, where they have lately joined up not only with ISIS but other radical Islamist factions. In other words, Russian officials are adding to the ranks of terrorists which the Russian government has deemed a collective threat to the security and longevity of its dictatorial ally on the Mediterranean, Bashar al-Assad.

Putin — and everyone else with a yard of the political science classroom — knows that every “Allahu Akbar Attack” induces some patriotic nationalist response, just as a bee sting causes the flesh to swell.  The same therefore becomes a tool of a greater political force: what if you could get the “worst of the worst” to now and then hit a western target?  Of course, each drama would amplify injured state’s existing political divisions by giving voice to the “defense leagues” and each state’s most conservative leaders while also reaching through the old comrade networks and combative Muslim defense circles in their hate-the-west-first presumptions.

It turns out the URL cited near the top of Klein’s piece says nothing about “. . . clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL . . . .” from Saudi Arabia or Qatar!  

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3774

Here’s an excerpt from that source:

>> 2. It is important that once we engage ISIL, as we have now >> done in a limited manner, we and our allies should carry on until they are >> driven back suffering a tangible defeat. Anything short of this will be >> seen by other fighters in the region, Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, as >> an American defeat. However, if we provide advisors and planners, as well >> as increased close air support for the Peshmerga, these soldiers can defeat >> ISIL. They will give the new Iraqi Government a chance to organize itself, >> and restructure the Sunni resistance in Syria, moving the center of power >> toward moderate forces like the Free Syrian Army (FSA). In addition to air >> support, the Peshmerga also need artillery and armored vehicles to deal >> with the tanks and other heavy equipment captured from the Iraqi army by >> ISIL.

Unless “Leaks” changes — too late now! — the claim made about the URL doesn’t jive.

Addendum – November 5, 2016

His fellow prisoners were members of ISIS. “Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, (founder of the Jihadist group, Jabhat al-Jabhat al-Nusra) was rumored to be there. Mohammed Haydar Zammar, (one of the organisers of the 9/11 attacks) was there. This is where the Syrian part of ISIS was born,” he said.

Alghorani is convinced that members of ISIS were released strategically by Assad. “From the first days of the revolution (in March 2011), Assad denounced the organisation as being the work of radical Salafists, so he released the Salafists he had created in his prisons to justify the claim … If you do not have an enemy, you create an enemy.”

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

–33–

Russia Flexes And Goes Hungry

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

21st Century Neo-Feudalism, Crimea, ISIL, nuclear strategy, political absolutism, political costs, Putin, Syria

Posted to YouTube by Caspian Report Aug. 17, 2016.

For Moscow, perhaps more than ever, image drives perception and perception is reality.

Or not.

As Putin flexes Russia’s renewed international political and military presence, a brief look at the character of the same seems in order.

ISIL and Syria

As BackChannels has noted for some time, “ISIL” was going to be Moscow’s “gift” to itself and the world — and now it is.

Baghdadi’s organization has provided Assad with the excuse wanted for depopulating and leveling his state; it has given Putin something ugly to throw westward; and it serves now as a hornet’s nest somewhat defined in space and useful for demonstrating Moscow’s latest in military prowess and technology.

Russia’s stand in Syria — now that Iraq’s no longer a Russian client state and Libya has similarly disappeared in that regard — has become remarkable for the hardware, technology, and troops allocated to “The Terrorists” (while apparently hitting also hospitals —

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/22/three-syrian-hospitals-bombed-since-russian-airstrikes-began-doctors-say – 10/22/2015 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/31/wave-of-russian-air-strikes-on-syrian-hospitals-leaves-60-dead/ – 5/31/2016 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-assad-russia-air-strikes-deaths-bombing-hospitals-idlib-maternity-clinic-babies-a7163691.html – 7/30/2016 | https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2016/03/syrian-and-russian-forces-targeting-hospitals-as-a-strategy-of-war/ – 3/3/2016

Crimea

 

Russophiles “rescued” by Russia’s incursions in Crimea appear to be learning about their true status as “protected” subjects: prices are soaring while their rubles lose value and their earnings remain flat.

 

Turkey

Russia, having also and apparently won over Erdogan into fulfilling his destiny as Turkey’s next presumptive sultan and guardian of the Moscow-enabled “Turkish Stream” Gas-to-Europe energy delivery system, has also demonstrated the chutzpah of asking permission to use the airbase at Incirlik — as NATO forces now do — for running sorties against ISIL targets in Syria.  President Erdogan assented, not that Putin needs those runways at this moment.

 

European Union and BREXIT

It should be clear by now that every “Allahu Akbar Attack” prods a reflexive nationalism.

Add the refugees pouring out of Syria and flowing into Europe and other potential hosting space, and the backlash forms around a new xenophobia.

The gates and fences go up, first in the form of “defense leagues” and later in potential policy.  BackChannels credits the Soviet / post-Soviet style incubation and later “deployment” of ISIL with goading a brief majority of Brits into separating the island state from the main traffic in commerce and politics associated with the continent.

Russia’s New Nuclear Front

This excerpt comes from the Free Beacon article published last week and cited in the “Links” section of this post:

Russia is engaged in a major buildup of strategic nuclear forces, building new missiles, submarines, and bombers. A State Department report on Russian activities under the New START arms treaty stated in the spring that Moscow added 153 strategic nuclear warheads to its arsenal under the treaty.

The increase in warheads is said to be the result of the deployment of new SS-27 Mod 2 intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiple warheads and SS-N-32 submarine-launched missiles.

Cold War?  Cold Struggle?

We might haggle about missile defenses in Poland and Romania, but Russian efforts in the field may be focused on defeating NATO’s nuclear defenses, and that according to Putin’s own statements about related nuclear balance of power.


For all such statements made — fighting the terrorists in Syria; co-opting Turkey against its European and NATO interests; spooking the Brits out of the EU; and redeveloping the nuclear-obsessed Cold War mentality, Putin may nonetheless be working with a low stack of financial chips.  Even though he may offset that with appeals to blood-and-soil nationalism and related sacrifice, one wonders how much room for play he has with the oligarchs who may be expected to pay either for ambitions now or their aftermath later.

A glance at posts like this one and its sources also suggests that while Putin has indeed brought Russia to its feet with the immense theatrical prowess that produces both the Winter Olympics at Sochi and the spectacle of a ruined Syria, it’s the latter on which Russians, poor or wealthy, connected or well outside the system of patronage, and “Russophones” in the “Russian near abroad” may wish to dwell.

Related:  https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/experts-proclaim-lost-decade-for-russias-stagnating-economy-55039 & http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/21/russian-stocks-boosted-by-stabilizing-economy-may-surprise-analysts.html

Links

MOSCOW — Russia flexed its muscles again over Syria on Friday, for the first time launching cruise missiles at targets from warships in the Mediterranean Sea days after beginning bombing runs from a base in Iran.

Taken together, the new military moves appeared to be a demonstration that Russia has the ability to strike from virtually all directions in a region where it has been reasserting its power — from Iran, from warships in the Caspian Sea, from its base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia and now from the Mediterranean.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/middleeast/russia-syria-mediterranean-missiles.html – 8/19/2016


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/europe/russia-bolsters-submarine-fleet-and-tensions-with-us-rise.html – 4/20/2016


http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/21/politics/us-warns-syria-russia-on-attacks/ – 8/21/2016


“Russian doctrine states that tactical nuclear weapons may be used in a conventional response scenario,” Scaparrotti said on July 27. “This is alarming and it underscores why our country’s nuclear forces and NATO’s continues to be a vital component of our deterrence.”

Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policy official, said Russia’s new national security strategy, which was made public in December, discusses increasing civil defenses against nuclear attack, an indication Moscow is preparing for nuclear war.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-building-new-underground-nuclear-command-posts/ – 8/15/2016


Ankara has given Russia the go-ahead to use its Incirlik air base for operations in Syria, though no official request from Moscow to use the strategic military facility has been made, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/turkey-pm-russia-can-share-incirlik-airbase-with-us-if-necessary/ – 8/21/2016


More than two years after Russia annexed Crimea and promised its 2 million people a better life, residents say prices have soared, wages and pensions have stagnated and tourists have fled.

The sunny and mountainous Black Sea peninsula is back in the news, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing Kiev of sending infiltrators across the border to wreck its industry. But locals say the damage has already been done by Moscow’s neglect.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-crimea-idUSKCN10W0EM – 8/21/2016.


Over the last week, the number of heavy weapons deployed near the front lines in eastern Ukraine has doubled, part of a pattern of Russia ramping up its military presence in the region throughout the summer. An estimated 40,000 soldiers have been stationed there, on top of aircraft and the anti-missile defense system.

All of this has been stoking fears Russia could be planning another invasion, two years after it formally annexed Crimea, as peace talks crumble. It’s Putin’s first visit to the territory since March.

https://news.vice.com/article/putin-touches-down-in-crimea – 8/19/2016


The Russian military has test fired the short-range nuclear-capable 9K720 Iskander-M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) ballistic missile during a large-scale military exercise in Russia’s Far East this week, according to local media reports.

http://thediplomat.com/2016/08/russia-test-fires-nuclear-capable-ballistic-missile-in-far-east/ – 8/19/2016.

–33–

FTAC – A Compressed Note about “Assad OR The Terrorists”

21 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Iran, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

21st Century Neo-Feudalism, ISIL, medieval political presentation, political theater, Russo-Iranian Axis, Syria

Keep in mind that “Daesh” was incubated (manipulated into existence) by Bashar al-Assad to serve for political blackmail (“Assad OR The Terrorists”), as a goad to the west (a nice present to pack along with refugees bound for NATO states), as a foil (for Russian, Syrian, and Iranian forces), and for target practice (Russia has been showing off). https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/02/syria-assad-vs-the-terrorists-how-isis-defends-assad/

BackChannels readers are more than welcome to independently research and review each claim.

BackChannels believes that the “Syrian Conflict and Tragedy” represents a complete theater of politics and war put on display by Putin, Assad, Khamenei and with Baghdadi’s organization their most useful villain.

Moscow’s own approach to terrorism, generally speaking, may be reflected in its hosting PFLP in Moscow (Nov. 2014) and refusing to designate either Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.  Although its state interests may differ from those of Tehran, its relationship has proven friendly enough for flying sorties into Syria from out of an Iranian base.

BackChannels way of addressing this relationship between “political absolutists”: “Different Talks – Same Walk.”

–33–

Is Moscow Building a Greater Medieval Theater of War?

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Syndicate Red Brown Green

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

foreign affairs, ISIL, medievalism, narcoterrorism, political manipulation, political science, politics, Putin

Putin’s Feudal Revanche

KGB/FSB
Vertical of Power
Oligarchs
State Validated Russian Orthodox Church

–>

Assad’s Incubation of ISIL

–>

ISIL Attack in Rouen


For each element but that pertaining to the Russian Orthodox Church and the last, which is breaking news today, in the above statement, BackChannels has developed material or reference, e.g., the bibliography in the “Russian Section” of the library, an analysis of how ISIS defends Assad in the shameful medieval display and theater that has been running for many years as “Assad vs The Terrorists” — it’s really Putin, Assad, Khamenei, (and Baghdadi) vs The Open Democracies of the World.

This blog is not the media spotlight, which today is going to light up the undeniably “Islamic terrorist” attack in Rouen, which may promote greater division between the Catholic and Muslim communities of France unless the Muslim community intercedes to opposite effect.  Instead, BackChannels noodles around in the post-Cold War, post-Soviet  neo-feudal and neo-imperial revanche engineered by Putin.

For the vast public dependent on western mass media for political information, the Cold War is ancient history.

The Soviet dissolved in bankruptcy and chaos on December 26, 1991, and that was the end of total incompatibility between the communist and capitalist systems.

Not quite.

From BackChannels’ perspective, Putin has neatly transitioned the political and social architecture developed during the Soviet Era into something a little different and conveniently kleptocratic but also effective in returning central governance to Russia.  The term of art applied on this blog — and used as a blog category — has been “21st Century Neo-Feudalism” and that applies to Moscow’s renewed validation of political absolute power and the encouragement of despotism and extremism — Far Left and Far Right — worldwide.

While the public reads about Moscow’s fighting Chechnya’s rebels or running sorties against ISIS (or noncombatants in marketplaces), Moscow in fact has hosted PFLP representatives (an easy lookup, “Moscow, PFLP”) and refused to designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorist organizations.

Fact check me, please, and forget about the “Reset”.

There was none.

Moscow doesn’t play from one side of the chessboard: it may believe it owns the chessboard, i.e., the control of politics in their totality wherever its leverage and influence may reach.

So ISIL, incubated to bribe and goad The West — and to serve as field test targets for Moscow’s most advanced weapons systems — has launched a simple attack on a medieval western target, a Catholic church in France, and Moscow looks on, perhaps knowing that without its guidance, the popular challenge to Assad’s rule would have turned into an ordinary “Arab Spring” demotion of absolute authority.  Instead of that yawner: a promotion of global criminal enterprise using ISIL (and ISIL appears blissfully unaware of how it has been manipulated into existence) to bite into otherwise peaceful and prosperous free and far more predominantly lawful states.

Excerpts and Fast Reference

That Putin would need a spiritual and physical retreat from the pressures of Moscow at a time like this is not surprising. While Russia has withstood the pressures of economic sanctions and seemingly limitless information warfare while fighting proxy wars in Ukraine and Syria, the cracks in society are starting to show.

Real hardships for working and middle class Russians due to the general global economic crisis, the collapse in trade with Europe and oil price slump are increasingly evident. However, a spirit of resistance to globalism, to the degradation and nihilism post-Western societies offer the world is also evident, with a growing number of Russians participating in the life of the Orthodox Church and new temples going up all over Moscow and other major cities.

http://www.roguemoney.net/stories/2016/5/27/putin-and-patriarch-kirill-of-moscow-at-mt-athos – 5/28/2016


The patriarch recalled that Athos’ hopes for a calm and peaceful life used to be connected to Russia and the people of Russia, but all ties were severed after the 1917 revolution and only some of the brethren of the Russian St. Panteleimon’s Monastery eventually survived.

“It was all like a ghost, some of the buildings were burned and some were desolate,” the patriarch said about his first visit to Athos.

http://rbth.com/news/2016/05/29/patriarch-kirill-thanks-putin-for-supporting-athos-monastery_598311 – 5/29/2016

Analysts say the Kremlin would welcome a Trump win because the billionaire U.S. businessman has repeatedly praised Putin, spoken of wanting to get along with Russia, and has said he would consider an alliance with Moscow against Islamic State.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/26/kremlin-hack-democratic-party-emails-dnc/21439043/ – 7/26/2016  Candidate Trump has no idea of the extent to which the Islamic State has been Moscow’s project through Assad’s early election to combat other challengers to his regime while easing off the al-Qaeda type to allow ISIS to consolidate and grow as a criminal organization.

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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