Spain Arrests Freed Gitmo Captive Running Jihadist Recruitment Network

Spain Arrests Freed Gitmo Captive Running Jihadist Recruitment Network

JUNE 20, 2014

In a story unlikely to receive attention from the mainstream media in the United States, a former Guantanamo Bay captive has been arrested in Spain for operating what authorities there say is a sophisticated jihadist recruitment network.
Spanish media is reporting that the one-time Gitmo prisoner is a 46-year-old Moroccan named Lahcen Ikassrien, who heads an Islamic cell that recruits fighters for the Syrian and Iraqi-based terror group known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Ikassrien and seven others were arrested in Madrid recently as part of a dozen raids on terrorism cells in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
The ISIL has received global attention recently for its terrorist activities in Iraq, where the extremist group seized the country’s second-largest city of Mosul. A number of international press reports have revealed that ISIL militants have massacred and captured Iraqi soldiers during the raid. Ikassrien, who spent four years at the U.S. Military prison in southeastern Cuba, recruited and sent jihadists to Iraq via Turkey, according to Spanish authorities cited in the news story.
After leaving Gitmo Ikassrien embarked on a sob tour for the leftist human rights group Amnesty International, mostly offering lectures throughout Spain recounting how he was mistreated by the evil Americans from the time he was arrested in Afghanistan until he was released from Gitmo years later. Here are some tidbits from one of the Spanish-language lectures delivered by Ikassrien; the prisoners at Guantanamo are all “suffering” he says, confirming that “everyone knows that Americans are the biggest assassins and torturers.” He goes into detail about how he was chained and tortured by U.S. forces, that he and his comrades were stripped and left without food and water for lengthy periods at Gitmo.
In the video Ikassrien seems like a regular guy, with short-cropped hair, a neatly trimmed beard and a stylish sweater with a matching scarf. The audience clearly sympathizes with him as he delivers the lecture almost matter-of-factly, in a soft tone sprinkled with smiles. Ikassrien proceeds to trash the United States and mentions, almost enthusiastically, that there could be positive changes under President Obama. How proud the commander-in-chief must be to have this type of endorsement.
The timing of this terrorist’s arrest couldn’t be worse for Obama because he’s in the process of emptying out Gitmo to fulfill a campaign promise of closing the prison. The world’s most dangerous terrorists—including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and USS Cole bomber Bad al-Rahim al-Nassir—remain at the maximum security compound. At its peak the facility had 770 captives and now the number is down to 154 as the president works to empty it out.
Many former Gitmo captives return to terrorist causes after getting released, according to government, press and independent think-tank reports. Judicial Watch, which has traveled to Gitmo multiple times to monitor the terrorists’ Military Commission proceedings, has reported this for years. The Pentagon and various intelligence agencies have also documented that many Gitmo captives rejoin terrorist missions after leaving the military compound.
In a report to Congress a few years ago, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) revealed that of 598 detainees released up to that point, 150 were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.” In fact, a one-time Gitmo captive became an Al Qaeda chief who masterminded a U.S. Embassy bombing after getting released, according to a mainstream newspaper. His name is Said Ali al-Shihri and after leaving Gitmo he became an Al Qaeda deputy chief in Yemen and he organized a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital. The former captive was also involved in car bombings outside the American Embassy that killed 16 people. That was about five years ago and the recidivism among former Gitmo captives is still in full force today.
Just a few weeks ago a mainstream newspaper published an alarming story about three hardened Moroccan militants released from Gitmo to the Moroccan government under the assumption that they wouldn’t commit terrorist acts. Instead they wound up leading one of the most violent Islamist groups fighting in Syria’s civil war. Pointing out that this is hardly an isolated case, the article cites recent DNI figures that confirm 29% of 614 detainees released from Gitmo have returned to violence.

Lawmaker Denied Ft. Sill Entry After Reports of Displacing Soldiers to Accommodate Illegal Aliens

Lawmaker Denied Ft. Sill Entry After Reports of Displacing Soldiers to Accommodate Illegal Aliens

JULY 02, 2014

Following reports that soldiers were booted from their barracks at an Oklahoma Army base to make room for a wave of illegal immigrant minors, the Obama administration is refusing to give the federal lawmaker who represents the state in Congress access to the facility.
Could it be that the administration is hiding something? The facility, Ft. Sill, is located in Lawton about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. It serves as the United States Army and Marine Corps’ Field Artillery School and houses nearly 9,000 soldiers along with 62,621 family members, according to its official Army website. Last week Judicial Watch received reports that single enlisted soldiers were transferred from their barracks to tents in order to accommodate the flood of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) coming from Central America.
A Ft. Sill spokesman, Keith Pannell, told Judicial Watch that no soldier has been displaced because illegal immigrants are being housed in quarters that have been empty for months. “No soldiers have been moved out of any barracks to make room for UACs,” Pannell told JW. “Those barracks were being remodeled and the last time they were occupied was in April.” Pannell wouldn’t offer any further details on the arrangement, including the number illegal aliens staying at the base.
One of the state’s representatives in Congress, Jim Bridenstine, tried to visit but was denied access to the facility. In a statement issued this week Congressman Bridenstine’s office says Ft. Sill is housing up to 1,200 UACs, but the lawmaker couldn’t offer any more information because he wasn’t allowed inside. He says a fence covered with material that totally obscures any view has been erected around the barracks housing the UACs “There is no excuse for denying a Federal Representative from Oklahoma access to a federal facility in Oklahoma where unaccompanied children are being held,” said Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot.
This crisis has been cloaked in secrecy from the start and the administration has withheld crucial information from the American public. For instance JW reported that a Texas military base is being covertly used as an illegal immigrant processing/holding location. A hangar at the El Paso facility, Ft. Bliss, is quietly being used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to process, house and transition the influx of illegal immigrant minors that have arrived in the U.S. in recent weeks, a high-level inside source told JW. A Pentagon official demanded JW pull the story three days after it got published but backed off when we requested he put it in writing.
JW has also been in touch with Homeland Security sources on the scene who have confirmed that the barrage of illegal immigrant minors has created an out-of-control disaster with jam-packed holding centers, rampant diseases and sexually active teenagers at a Nogales facility. The president of the Tucson Border Patrol Union, Art Del Cueto, told JW that many of the migrants are not little kids, but rather 17-year-olds with possible ties to gang members. Yet, Del Cueto confirms, many will be released to relatives in the U.S.
The government is so overwhelmed that U.S. Border Patrol agents are being recruited to serve as babysitters, according to an internal document obtained by JW. This is the front-line federal agency responsible for preventing terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United States. Yet agents with “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling” are being recruited to feed, monitor, interact and provide security for the illegal alien minors until they are placed elsewhere.

Former Israeli Defence Minister Calls on Government to Assassinate Hamas Leaders

Former Israeli Defence Minister Calls on Government to Assassinate Hamas Leaders

By Middle East Monitor

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Middle East Monitor

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: Crimes against Humanity

In-depth Report: PALESTINE

Israel’s former Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer called for the Israeli government to immediately assassinate Hamas leaders, an Israeli news site has reported.
Ben-Eliezer is reported to have said:

“The government must immediately return to the assassination policy, and let Hamas leaders understand that there is no security for them day and night and that there is no difference between political and army wing leaders.”

He said: “Hamas political leadership incites and inflames the atmosphere [against Israel] and encourages terrorism.”
Ben-Eliezer called on the Israeli government to strengthen Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and to pressure him to remove Hamas from government and then work on the resumption of the peace process.

The Militarization of American Public Schools

The Militarization of American Public Schools

By Steve Filips and Don Barrett

Global Research, July 05, 2014

World Socialist Web Site

Region: USA

Theme: Militarization and WMD

This fall, Syracuse, New York will join the still small but growing list of public schools dedicated to the training of students for military service in the United States Armed Forces.
This past April, the Syracuse Central School District (SCSD) approved the closure of Fowler High School in the city’s impoverished Westside section and its transformation into the Public Service Leadership Academy (PSLA), which will focus on training students for military service, to work in the Department of Homeland Security, or as police officers and firefighters.
There are 18 military academies as part of the public school system in the United States. Six are located in Chicago. All of these schools are associated with the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), whose goals include indoctrinating students with “patriotism,” “responsiveness to all authority” and an increasing “respect for the role of the US Armed Forces in support of national objectives.”
Most of these schools are located in working class and low-income communities and rely upon the lack of job and college options available to students to push them into the military.
The Westside section of Syracuse is one such area. It is a poverty-stricken area of the city that has been struggling with increasing inequality in the Obama “economic recovery,” and staggering levels of poverty, particularly among children. Childhood poverty approaches 50 percent and for those in the 18-24 year age bracket—those just out of high school—the rate approaches two thirds. (See: “Syracuse, New York housing in shambles” and “Deindustrialization and unemployment in Syracuse, New York”)
Employment opportunities for vulnerable students are slim and decent jobs are rarer still, thus leaving them as targets for poverty conscription to the military and police forces. In addition, the new Public Service Leadership Academy will also grant recruiters earlier access to students, allowing them to get their foot in the door to recruit among this young and captive audience.
Abandoned factory adjacent to Fowler High
PSLA will be comprised of four career academies. In addition to the Military Science Academy are the Homeland Security Academy, First Responders Academy and Entrepreneurial Academy. The academies will be phased in over four years, beginning this September with ninth graders and adding a grade each year.
The Military Science Academy begins this September. This program will consist of the Navy’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC), which relies on partial funding from the Syracuse school district. Those enrolled will “gain a foundation in maritime heritage, the significance of sea power, the fundamentals of naval operations, seamanship, navigation and meteorology.”
The Homeland Security Academy will feature computer forensics, cyber security and geospatial intelligence. The First Responders Academy will focus on training students to be police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, while the Entrepreneurial Academy will give students training in cosmetology and barbering as well as in the electrical trades.
In addition, students enrolled in the First Responder Academy, Homeland Security Academy and the Military Science Academy will also take four years of Arabic, American Sign Language or Spanish. Not being bashful about these languages being needed as US imperialism engages in more wars, the SCSD web site states, “The intelligence community has been open about the need for interpreters, engineers, scientists and other professionals who speak these languages, which are essential for emergency/disaster management.”
The JROTC was part of the legislation of the National Defense Act of 1916 to bolster recruitment efforts as the United States was expanding its military to participate in World War I, concurrent with growing public opposition to the war effort.
The act authorizes the military to seek and have contact with students 17 and older, but there is a program geared to establish early contact with students as young as 11 for the Middle School Cadet Corp. For many decades the JROTC functioned as clubs in public high schools. What is new is that entire high schools are now being transformed into military training centers.
The closing of Fowler High School and its replacement with the PSLA is part of a plan by the SCSD to close three public schools in Syracuse. In addition to the high school, the school district will close Delaware Elementary, also in the Westside section, and Hughes Elementary in the city’s Southside.
Photo from the Syracuse City School District web site promoting the Military Science Academy
The increased scrutiny and threats for reorganization of the school began in 2009 by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and culminated with a recent review, which cited the continued poor performance of Fowler High and the necessity of a drastic intervention. The NYSED based their decision on insufficient academic improvement when taking into consideration what the state describes as their “significant financial investment at Fowler.”
The flow of money administered by the state for Fowler has amounted to only $5.6 million overall since 2010. During this period other budget cuts still allowed teacher levels to drop and class sizes to increase, with the accompanying frustration of teachers, students and parents. Without any doubt, the main factor negatively affecting student achievement is rarely mentioned when reforms are discussed: Poverty and inequality are marginalized as the primary causes of the decaying educational system.
Lindsay Gordon and her fiancé Joe Buske spoke with WSWS reporters. When asked her thoughts on the lack of resources for education, she responded indignantly, “Instead of spending money on other things I think they should be defending our children’s education.”
She was unaware of the statistic that 85 of the world’s richest individuals have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people. “It’s a shame,” she exclaimed, “They do nothing for our future; our children are our future—the next generation.”
She added, “Money needs to be spent for having a brighter future; children are not going to have the appropriate education and the appropriate help they need because of the budget cuts. Our children are not getting a fair chance to a fair and equal education.”
Lindsay described how she worries about her own child’s future. “I have a two-year-old daughter,” she said. “She goes to school in three years, and I’m going to make sure that she receives that education. I don’t think it’s fair. Children [remaining] in these areas are [always] getting budget cuts … so it is absolutely unfair, it’s unethical.”
Joe Buske and Lindsay Gordon
Joe Buske commented on the militarization plans for Fowler High, saying, “We’ve spent money on wars, which I believe could have been better spent on needs at home. We were sold a story to send troops there to bring ‘democracy’ and I think that is something that should be left up to people there to decide on.”
He added, “No one asked for our opinion before going to war.” He said he is currently working for a hospital earning $15 an hour and knew of many who were struggling with unemployment, food stamp cuts and lack of health insurance.
A number of young people who asked to remain anonymous felt strongly about social conditions in the area. One young person said, “I would say that my experience having gone to Fowler High two years ago was that class sizes are larger and the amount of what we were learning was not equal to the time I had spent in a high school in the suburbs.”
A senior-year student who had just finished his final exams that afternoon said that in his experience over four years at Fowler High, there was a noticeable lowering of the quality of education. He said his future plans were for higher education, but that nearly two out of three students at Fowler would not graduate their senior year.
The lack of opportunities for work leads to the preying on young people to join the military. The transformation of public high schools into institutions such as the Public Service Leadership Academy in Syracuse is a continuation of the political establishment’s militarization of society, to support US military policy and to utilize police state measures to impose even deeper levels of social inequality.

US Troops Have Secretly Been Deployed to Somalia Since 2007

US Troops Have Secretly Been Deployed to Somalia Since 2007

By Thomas Gaist

Global Research, July 05, 2014

World Socialist Web Site

Region: sub-Saharan Africa

Theme: US NATO War Agenda

Some 120 American soldiers are on the ground inside Somalia, a deployment that has been ongoing since 2007 but was never publicly announced, US officials admitted this week in statements to Reuters news agency.
The Pentagon had publicized a small deployment of advisers to Somalia in October of 2013, but the presence of the larger force—there since 2007—was still being kept secret. In January 2014, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) admitted the presence of US troops in the country but claimed the number was lower than five. BBC international correspondent Mark Doyle wrote in an article this week that he personally saw heavily armed and “clearly operational” US troops during a recent visit to Somalia.
Reuters made the US presence public, not as the result of investigative journalism or a leak from someone critical of the secret, illegal US military deployment, but in the wake of a speech by a US government official, Wendy Sherman, under secretary of state for political affairs. She publicly declared that a “small contingent of US military personnel” including special operations forces had been present in parts of Somalia for several years. The news agency then contacted other US officials to get the actual number of troops involved.
The episode sheds light on the role of the American media. None of the television networks have reported the direct involvement of US forces in Somalia. Newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have repeatedly sent correspondents to Somalia over the past seven years without ever reporting the presence of a significance force of US military personnel. The Post actually published an extensive profile of US military operations in Africa, largely involving Special Forces, that made no mention of the Somalia force.
The deployment of a significant number of “trainers” and “advisers,” that is, of Special Forces soldiers, for years on end and without any form of public disclosure, raises ominous questions. What other secret deployments has Washington ordered during the past decade? How many new secret wars will the president and his top appointees decide to launch during the next year?
Bourgeois democracy in the US is being supplanted by an emerging totalitarianism based on unlimited executive power. Deployments are made in secret and revealed to the public years after the fact. The executive branch claims for itself and exercises the right to deploy military and intelligence forces anywhere on the planet, admitting no check on this authority.
Statements make clear that Washington is preparing to deepen its military engagement in Somalia, using the pretext of combating the “terrorist” group al Shabaab, a militia that developed out of the youth wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and commands an estimated 4,000-7,000 fighters. In October, US Special Forces mounted a raid against the al Shabaab stronghold city of Barawe.
Speaking to Reuters, the US officials said the American military is preparing for increased engagement with the Somali National Army (SNA), which has already benefited from at least $170 million in US military aid. “What you’ll see with this upcoming fiscal year is the beginning of engagement with the SNA proper,” according to an unnamed US defense official. US forces are already involved in training and equipping armies from Uganda and Burundi affiliated with AMISOM, the African Union’s military mission in Somalia.
US imperialism is determined to politically dominate Somalia, a strategically crucial country in the Horn of Africa, as part of its drive to return the entire continent to a state of naked colonial submission before the Western powers. Somalia sits adjacent to some of the most critical sea-lanes on the planet, with huge quantities of oil sailing past everyday.
The US has established a new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in the capital, Mogadishu, according to reports. The US has also announced it will appoint an ambassador to Somalia for the first time since 1993, though for security reasons he will not reside inside Somali boarders.
Forces from the European Union (EU) are also currently present in Somalia and involved in training local armies.
While the imperialist powers blame al Shabaab for the catastrophic situation in Somalia, the US and its regional allies have reduced the country to rubble over a protracted period of interventions. Al Shabaab’s parent organization, the ICU, came to power amidst the social chaos that developed after the 1991 US withdrawal of its support for the Siad Barre regime, which it had backed since the 1970s.
In 1993, the US deployed 30,000 troops to Somalia on the pretext of delivering food assistance, killing hundreds of Somalis before withdrawing after the disastrous Battle of Mogadishu. Then, in 2006, the US backed an Ethiopian-led invasion of the country, producing a war between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the ICU that killed at least 16,700 civilians and displaced 1.9 million more.

Germany Detains “Double Agent” for “Spying on Spy Investigation” obama sucks so bad he cant even spy good

Germany Detains “Double Agent” for “Spying on Spy Investigation”

By Jon Queally

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Common Dreams 4 July 2014

Region: Europe

Theme: Intelligence

German intelligence officer reportedly confessed to reporting back to US government about inquiry into NSA surveillance of German targets

A member of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has been detained for possibly spying for the US. The 31-year-old is suspected of giving a US spy agency information about a parliamentary inquiry of NSA activities. (Image: PictureAlliance/DPA))German news outlets on Friday are reporting that a so-called “double agent” has been detained after confessing to investigators that he was paid by U.S. agents to spy on the German parliamentary panel now investigating the extent of U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance inside the country.
According to Deutsche Welle:

During questioning, the suspect reportedly told investigators that he had gathered information on an investigative committee from Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. The panel is conducting an inquiry into NSA surveillance on German officials and citizens.
A spokesperson for the Federal Prosecutor’s office declined to provide further details about the case, according to news agency AFP.
German-US relations have been on the rocks since revelations of mass surveillance not only on German citizens, but also on Chancellor Angela Merkel and other politicians made headlines last year.

Der Spiegel (Google Translate) notes that initial information indicates the individual—who worked for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s equivalent of the NSA—had “been specifically looking for information related to the NSA investigation committee of the Bundestag and given them to his American contact man.”
As journalist Glenn Greenwald immediately observed:

That’d be the ultimate irony: US Govt spied on German parliamentary investigation into US Govt spying on Germans http://t.co/P9WkGT83oQ
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 4, 2014

And David Meyer, writing for Gigaom, adds:

The 31-year-old was originally arrested on suspicion of having contact with Russian intelligence, but then apparently confessed to having reported back at least once to the Americans on the Bundestag committee’s activities. He reportedly did this for money. The reports raise the possibility that he may be lying, but also note that the committee has long suspected it was being spied on. If this is all true, it may turn out to be an even bigger diplomatic scandal than the NSA’s bugging of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, a formal probe into which was announced a month ago.

On Thursday, the Bundestag’s investigative committee looking into NSA surveillance heard testimony from two U.S. whistleblowers who worked, Thomas Drake and William Binney, for the spy agency but objected to what they consider its troubling tactics. As Deutsche Welle reports, Binney—who once headed the agencies technology division—accused the NSA of having a “totalitarian mentality” and wanting “total information control” over U.S. citizens and the entirety of the global digital environment. He went on to compare the NSA’s approach to that used by dictators against oppressed populations. According to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA):

Drake said the BND had become a “vermiform appendix of the NSA,” referring to accusations it had been passing data on German citizens on to the American service – an act forbidden under Germany’s constitution.

“The silence of the BND is terrible,” Drake told the committee, and said people had a right to know what was going on. “You shouldn’t wait for a German Edward Snowden to lift the veil.”

Obama Faces Iraqi Conundrum

 Obama Faces Iraqi Conundrum

By Nikolai Bobkin

Global Research, July 05, 2014

Strategic Culture Foundation 3 July 2014

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: US NATO War Agenda

In-depth Report: IRAQ REPORT

Obama has nothing to be proud of when it comes to his Middle East policy. One failure after another everywhere you look, it starts to get really eerie. With Libya, Egypt, Syria failures behind, Iraq adds to the list. The US has always sided with those who started unrest while Saudi Arabia was pouring fuel of fire pursuing the dream of using terrorists as a tool for turning the Arab world into the Wahhabi safe haven.
The Wahhabi formations used the US support while operating in Syria. Now they are back to Iraq to capture a major part of the territory. As Dick Cheney admitted the United States gave the Middle East away to terrorists who can do as they please and impose their ways on others to the heart’s content. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant emerged in Syria supported by the United States. Now having suffered a defeat in its fight against Damascus, the militants made a U-turn to threaten Baghdad. The Iraq shaped by the United States within its present borders is facing the threat of elimination.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) has already declared the establishment of caliphate and called on the jihadists throughout the whole world to pledge allegiance. The Iraqi Sunni Muslims opposed to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, former military from the Saddam Hussein armed forces and small terrorist groups joined the Islamic State movement. It’s easy to guess what is in store for Iraqi Shiites in case the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant comes to power in the country – another story of mass genocide will become a burning issue of contemporary history. The Sunni radicals don’t make a secret of their plans which include the elimination of Shiite shrines and execution of Shia preachers. The Iraqi Shiites are supported by Iran; if the war intensifies the Iranian involvement becomes an option. As of now, Tehran believes Iraq needs no boots on the ground – neither US, nor Iranian.
The Islamic Republic of Iran will not send armed forces to fight against Takfiri terrorists in Iraq but will help Baghdad if it demands military equipment, a high-rankling diplomat says. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks during a visit to Moscow where he held talk with Russian officials on June 1. “If Iraq ever requires our arms for an effective combat against terrorism, we will provide these arms in accordance with international law and our bilateral contracts,” he said. Although Iraq has a strong army, Iran is ready to send military consultants to the neighboring country to help with battles against the al-Qaeda splinter Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Amir-Abdollahian noted.
Until recently Washington had supported the tough policy towards the Iraqi Sunni Muslims and initiated the persecutions of former supporters and functionaries of the Saddam Hussein’s regime. The late ruler still has many followers filling the ranks of staunch opposition to the incumbent government. The United States is putting the blame for the goings-on on Prime Minister of Iraq, the one they installed in power and who did not quite meet the expectations. The pro-Iranian foreign policy of the Shiite – dominated government is the major irritant. According to the United States plans, chaos, civil war, the division of the country – all told these factors will put a stop to Iraqi-Iranian rapprochement. That’s how Tehran interprets the US reaction to the events in Iraq as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant started its offensive. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes no bones about it saying the enemies of Arab’s resurrection try to use others to pour fuel on the war in the Middle East and make Sunni and Shia Muslims clash. Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, deputy joint chief of staff of the armed forces and a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer, told Iran’s al
Alam television that Iran’s response to the militias would be “certain and serious”. Jazayeri’s remarks late on Saturday did not provide details on the assistance Iran could give Baghdad, beyond saying Iran could help with what he called popular defence and intelligence. “Iran has told Iraqi officials it is ready to provide them with our successful experiments in popular all-around defence, the same winning strategy used in Syria to put the terrorists on the defensive… This same strategy is now taking shape in Iraq – mobilizing masses of all ethnic groups,” he told the television station. “A response is certain and serious,” he said. “With Syria, too, we announced we would not allow terrorists in the hire of foreign intelligence services to rule and dictate to Syrian people. We will certainly have the same approach with Iraq.”
The remarks came as Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on June 28 as part of a government offensive to retake the northern city from Sunni jihadists led by ISIL (ISIS), residents and officials said. No doubt Iran will defend its borders and Shia holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala. The battle will decide the outcome of the conflict. Tehran will not hold talks with extremists; the preparations are in full swing to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Iran enjoys solid support inside Iraq. Maliki is not the key figure. The man Iran really relies on is Ayatollah Ali al-Husain al-Sistani, the highest-ranking Shia marja in Iraq and the leader of the Yawza of Najaf, an Iranian citizen. He is the one who has clout. The Ayatollah has already called on the Iraqi Shiites to repel the Islamic State offensive. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards will work as instructors to train Shiite volunteers’ formations. Perhaps al-Maliki will manage to cope without Americans relying on the Shiite volunteer units and Iranian military aid. It will make Baghdad even more anti-US.
The US will hardly get any geopolitical dividends playing a game of its own without taking the other states’ interests into consideration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that not just the US and UK, but all of the region’s countries should participate in dealing with the Iraqi crisis. If Iraq collapses it could destabilize the entire Middle East and the adjacent regions, with unrest lasting for years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 28. “If Iraq collapses – and considering that Libya has almost collapsed already, and someone apparently wants Syria to share a similar fate – the whole region would simply explode and unrest would become its dominant feature. And it would affect not just the Middle East and Northern Africa, but the adjacent regions as well,” Lavrov said. “We urge others to make conclusions out of what happened in Iraq, Libya and Yemen – the countries where not all of the problems were dealt with. The country’s unity is still being severely tested. It’s not London and Washington that should make the decisions, like it was in Iraq in 2003, but all of the region’s countries, all of the neighbors of Iraq,” Lavrov said.
Only those in the Middle East who have avoided an outright US involvement managed to stay stable. The Central Intelligence Agency’s analysts predict that with Iraq collapsed, Afghanistan is next. The United States appears not to understand what it does. On the one hand they are ready to follow the advice of Saudi Arabia to keep away from the Iraqi turmoil and shy away from cooperation with Iran. On the other hand, the White House still does not fully realize what dire fallout the collapse of Iraq may entail. Israel is also pushing the Obama administration from support of Iraqi integrity.
Shimon Peres made a probe when he said a Kurdish state has de-facto been established. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also declared his support of the idea to create an independent Kurdish state in the northern part of Iraq. The borders and political system of such a state could to great extent influence the events in the region. The Kurds living in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran make up the largest ethnos in the world without a state of its own. Actually the Iraqi Kurdistan is an independent canton while Iraq appears to be moving to a confederate state. Iraqi Kurdistan is oil rich. It’s the sixth largest reserve in the world. It was reported a few days
ago the first tanker with oil bought in Iraqi Kurdistan dropped anchor in an Israeli port. Iraq believes the oil is stolen. The Kurds face difficulties with customers. Israel and Kurdistan have common interests running counter to goal of preserving united Iraq.
Obviously the creation of independent Kurdistan will entail international problems. No way will Turkey, Iran and Syria reconcile with the idea of getting their Kurdish enclaves separated making them parts of another state. The emergence of independent Kurdistan may pose a security threat to the statehood of these countries. Tehran believes getting out of Baghdad’s control may make Kurdistan a springboard to be used by Israel to deliver military strikes against Iran. The Iranian Kurdish population exceeds by 2-3 million the number of Kurds living in Iraq. The West has always been interested in using the Kurdish factor as leverage against the government of Iran.
Barack Obama said the United States will take steps to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He never made precise what kind of measures he means. Till the White House is blowing hot and cold, the extremists are taking advantage of the situation. They can do away with Iraq, the United States will reap no benefits and the Middle East will face the horrible fallout plunging the region into dire straits of political turmoil.