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Tag Archives: narcoterrorism

FTAC – Narcoterrorism, Hezbollah, and Human Rights in a Nutshell

08 Saturday Oct 2016

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fascism, Hezbollah, Islamofascism, Moscow, narcoterrorism, Tehran

“Narcoterrorism” is the term and a large part of what has become transnational crime.

From the blog some time ago: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/11/11/reference-pakistani-political-attitudes-taliban-arab-influence-heroin-cash-uae-and-the-marines/

This is the stuff of political thrillers in films and novels.

In general, both Hezbollah and Hamas may be interpreted as the advanced troops of Tehran as ultimately backed by Moscow. Again, the prize: political absolute power and destruction of democracies and the decimation of the concept — as demonstrated in Syria — of human rights.


Inspiration: The Jerusalem Post.  “Analysis: Hezbollah’s drug trail.” October 7, 2016.

–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.

-33-

Reference Pakistani Political Attitudes, Taliban, Arab Influence, Heroin, Cash, UAE, and The Marines

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Pakistan, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

narcoterrorism, Pakistan, Pakistani, political attitudes, politics, Taliban

Ours is a culture of guilty eschatology: hereafter is real, and here is fake, but we are more here-bound than hereafter-bound; we are not genuine Muslims because we are not Arab. We live in Pakistan, but we belong to the holy lands in the Middle East. Our political-economy is borrowed, stolen, and fake.

Refuge of failures – Abbas Zaidi – 11/7/2013 – ViewPoint.

* * *

We gave those camels [a derogatory Afghan term for Arabs] free run of our country, and they brought us face to face with disaster. We knew the Americans would attack us in revenge.

Haqqani as quoted by Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau – The Taliban’s Oral History of the Afghanistan War – Newsweek – 9/25/2009.

* * *

Their base of operations logically became FATA, and they began to establish (or re-establish keeping in mind the 1980s) training camps in Pakistan. These camps included not only Afghans, but also constituted many new Pakistani recruits, and the Pakistani militant groups were actively involved, especially in South Waziristan. The organizing effort also brought an influx of money to the region, coming from various international sources hoping to help the resistance (Yousafzai & Moreau, 2009). Fighting against the foreign troops in Afghanistan and re-establishing Taliban rule served as the primary motivations, as well as profiting from control of drug routes out of Afghanistan (Acharya, 2009)

(30) Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan: Reaction or Revolution? | Muneeb Ansari – Academia.edu – Pp. 5-6 – 5/2/2011.

______

The reading, whether for background, retrospective analysis, or, frankly, pleasure proves illuminating.

If you are a BackChannels irregular, 20/20 hindsight rehashes of the Lal Masjid tragedy (2007) and more recent battles in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theaters may summon old memories, directly experienced or mediated.

Web searched first-page reference  to data on the Taliban’s narcotics trafficking seems to trail off for 2013, but relayed at the bottom of this post, there’s combat footage from early 2013 posted just six days ago.

Afghanistan supplies 90% of the opium and heroin global markets.

The Afghan farmer who grows opium poppies could earn as much as $230 for a kilo to opium. Processing the opium into heroin turns it into one of the world’s most profitable commodities, fetching between $175,000 and $850,000 wholesale depending on the level of purity and availability.

The Illicit Drug Economy & The Case Against Cornflakes – 6/7/2013.

Cornflakes?

The authors, Rachel Ehrenfeld and Walton Cook, discuss western attitudes toward “war on terror” countermeasures and high-tech agronomy.

Related Reference

International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.  “The Taliban’s Assets in the UAE”.  (WikiLeaks Project, 2012).  Related: US embassy cables: Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network using United Arab Emirates as funding base | World news | theguardian.com – 12/5/2010: “Mendelsohn praised the UAE for its contribution to building a stable and moderate Afghanistan. He thanked the SSD and GDSS for its commitment, per the directive of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, to disrupt any Taliban-related financial activity that can be identified in the UAE.”  The upshot from the IICT piece: organized crime — drugs, extortion, kidnapping, etc. — provides Taliban funding with cash (!) assembled and carried by courier out of the UAE.

Middle East Policy Council | Protecting Jihad: The Sharia Council of the Minbar al-Tawhid wa-l-Jihad – 2013.  “This article analyses al-Maqdisi’s efforts to protect jihad by looking at his actual criticism of certain jihadi militants and, conversely, at his attempts to support and praise “good” jihadis in several countries. The article then focuses on the successful attempt by al-Maqdisi to set up a council of like-minded scholars in order to provide guidance and advice to youngsters dealing with religious questions about a host of issues, including jihad, and what advice this council has actually given. Using mostly Arabic primary sources taken from the internet,11 including the collections of fatwas published by the council, this article argues that these radical scholars may well have an important impact on the future of jihad and as such are worthy of both scholars’ and policy makers’ attention.”

Malhot, Aditi.  “Understanding the Ghazi Force.” Center for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), November 15, 2012: “Pakistan’s once feared terrorist group, the Ghazi Force is back in the limelight. This time for the reported revival of their funding sources and its resurrection to inflict greater damage on the Pakistani state. a recent report from the Pakistani intelligence agency obtained by BBC urdu states that banned jihadi groups are reviving their local and international funding sources, after their affiliates started opening local and foreign currency accounts under pseudonyms.”

TTP— from Deobandi link to Salafi influence – DAWN.COM – 9/7/2013.

WikiLeaks Project — Afghanistan: A Haven for Low-Budget Terrorists.  Related: British troops seize £50m of Taliban narcotics | World news | The Guardian – 2/17/2009.  Related: How Opium Profits the Taliban – United States Institute of Peace – August 2009.  Related: US adds Taliban shadow governor of Helmand to narcotics kingpin list – The Long War Journal – 11/16/2012.  Related: Narco-Terrorism in Afghanistan: Counternarcotics and Counterinsurgency | International Affairs Review – n.d. but 2008 or later (A World Bank paper cited dates to March 2008: “Responding to Afghanistan’s Opium Economy Challenge: Lessons and Policy Implications from a Development Perspective.”

______

▶ Marines Storm Taliban Opium Factory In Helicopter Raid | Part 1 – YouTube – Posted 11/5/2013 (from Helmand Province, Afghanistan, early 2013).

Related: ▶ Narcotics and Corruption in Afghanistan – YouTube – video (40:56), Posted by U.S. Army War College, posted 6/24/2012.  Col. Lou Jordan asks, “What is the relationship between the poppy and the money?”

* * *

Cannabis was found to be the most commonly used drug in Pakistan, with by 3.6 per cent of the adult population, or four million people, listed as users. Opiates, namely opium and heroin, are used by almost one per cent of overall drugs users, and the highest levels of use are seen in the provinces which border principal poppy-cultivating areas in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Drug Use in Pakistan 2013 Summary Report reveals high levels of drug use and dependency.

The Whole Business Romanticized

Posted to YouTube by MI5MI6GCHQ February 21, 2015.

 

# # #

Ecuador – Fighting Continues On Colombian Border – FARC Known – Hezbollah? A Question Mark

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Regions, South America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

conflict, crime, dark space, Ecuador, FARC, Hezbollah, narcoterrorism

I have been assured by my contact in Guayaquil, Ecuador, that fighting reported in the Miami Herald last Thursday is still ongoing but with one changed note: the hint that Hezbollah has banded with the FARC “to move their operations to neighboring countries, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador, seeking new territory to plant opium  . . . .”

That coca and poppy cultivation have taken place, or takes place, in certain areas isn’t news, but whether or not Hezbollah’s is in on that enterprise — or a part of this most recent fighting — that might be something worth the watching.

Excerpts From an Exchange

Sunday, August 11, 2013:

“We are worried about a war against Israel from many terrorist groups, we have information that Mexico and Peru are increased production of cocaine and opium are sowing now, it is likely that drug traffickers with this money can finance violent groups worldwide, in exchange for weapons and as part of the drug trade, then they can make terrorist attacks with Opium money.”

* * *

“This is a battle with two front of war to Ecuador, because the drug traffickers control the jungle between Colombia and Peru, where the government of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador have no presence, the state have no presence with roads, village, school, hospitals in remote places of the country, far away from the Andes mountains all this place remain alone.”

Dark Space

From back rooms to board rooms to “secure compartmented information facilities”, any space may be made and kept “dark” in terms related to privacy and the keeping of secrets, but remote rural space affords another dimension in dark space: the opportunity to develop criminal and, in essence, criminal political enterprise with impunity.

Reference

Bargent, James.  “Discovery of Coca Plantations in Ecuador Points to FARC.”  InSight Crime, April 8, 2013.

Levitt, Matthew.  “Exporting Terror in America’s Backyard.”  Foreign Policy, June 13, 2013.

Levitt, Matthew.  Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God.  To be published September 3, 2013, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

McDermott, Jeremy.  “Shootout on Colombia-Ecuador Border Claims 6 Lives.”  InSight Crime, August 9, 2013.

Torres, Diego.  “Ecuador soldier slain in firefight with Colombians.”  Miami Herald, August 8, 2013.

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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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