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Syria: The Next Stop?

Started by Nucky Nolan, August 26, 2013, 12:55:16 AM

Nucky Nolan

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 11, 2013, 01:32:47 AM
It gets better; the UK is a signatory to the ban yet this week it's been revealed UK companies supplied the chemicals to make the compounds to make said weapons. So my worry is that a trigger happy US four star general might extrapolate the field of responsibility and I wake up one morning, dead. As for pesky legal grounds; I know you asked that, tongue firmly wedged behind your molars. Since when has an exercise in "pick a country on the world map to bomb" involved legalities? Syria have apparently (Or more specifically, Assad) said that once their alleged weapons have been removed and disposed of by the UN, they'll sign up to the chemical weapons ban; although I wonder if that includes biological weapons too? Certainly won't include conventional ordnance; they kill people 'nicely' by all accounts.

You're lucky that the UK isn't a small, weak Muslim country in the Middle East, situated in the proximity of a future planned oil pipeline. That British corporation would be censured and condemned in a world without double standards. It brings to mind a photo showing Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein, which brings to mind a photo showing John Kerry with Bashar Assad. It's dangerous to pose with officials when you're a dictator.

Sardondi

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 11, 2013, 01:38:35 AMObama...sent Susan Rice around this week to the Congress to drum up support for his attack on Syria....All the while both of them knowing it was a complete lie.
Which is the common factor shared by Benghazi and Syria.

Yorkshire pud

Thank fuck! At bleeding last.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24043751 

I just hope it's not just this week, or just next..


Quote from: Sardondi on September 11, 2013, 07:41:12 AM
Which is the common factor shared by Benghazi and Syria.


The members of the House and Senate - like them or not - are the representatives of the American people in DC. 

Back when Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama were busily covering up the real story about what had happened in Benghazi, and creating a better cover story (several different versions, as it turned out), Susan Rice disgraced herself as the one willing and eager to go on all those Sunday shows, give daily interviews with the media, and flat out lie about the attacks in Benghazi being about some YouTube video.

This is who he chose to go around to brief our representatives in the Congress?  It's another example of the distain he has for anyone outside his administration.  Instead of still working at the State Dept, she ought to be in jail.



Remember when Obama's complete lack of experience and his scummy associates didn't matter because he was just so smart?

b_dubb

Quote from: aldousburbank on September 11, 2013, 08:15:01 AM
It's good to thank fuck every day for being alive.
there's a strange, uncomfortable truth to this

bateman

QuoteThe Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/wall-street-journal-elizabeth-obagy-fired-96637.html#ixzz2ebdcS9iD

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 11, 2013, 08:01:10 AM
Thank fuck! At bleeding last.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24043751 

I just hope it's not just this week, or just next..


Obama is incredibly arrogant, and has learned to just keep pushing.  With the Assad regime weakened by war and the Sunni Islamic terrorists well positioned to take over if the regime falls, I would expect Obama to lay low for a short period then start looking for ways to help his friends again.

We have 800 soldiers in Jordan recently sent there for 'training', 'advising', and who knows what all else (so much for the lies about 'no boots on the ground'), perhaps covert ops in Syria?

Nucky Nolan

Quote from: Yorkshire pud on September 11, 2013, 08:01:10 AM
Thank fuck! At bleeding last.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24043751 

I just hope it's not just this week, or just next..

I learned something today. Scratch(?) what I said yesterday. Evidently, the country was a signatory to a ban during the World War II era. Are they legally beholden to the new ban or the old ban?

NowhereInTime

Quote from: Paper*Boy on September 11, 2013, 06:56:15 PM

Obama is incredibly arrogant, and has learned to just keep pushing.  With the Assad regime weakened by war and the Sunni Islamic terrorists well positioned to take over if the regime falls, I would expect Obama to lay low for a short period then start looking for ways to help his friends again.

We have 800 soldiers in Jordan recently sent there for 'training', 'advising', and who knows what all else (so much for the lies about 'no boots on the ground'), perhaps covert ops in Syria?
Want incredibly arrogant?  Your idol Putin now has to show the world he can deliver on Assad's promise to give his chems away.  Good luck. 
Putin should resign. He's in over his head. He's a disgrace.

Juan

If you don't like Putin, there's something you can do to oppose him.  His power comes from oil money.  The best way to reduce Russia's oil power is to support natural gas and oil production in the US - through fracking.

onan

Quote from: UFO Fill on September 14, 2013, 06:52:26 AM
If you don't like Putin, there's something you can do to oppose him.  His power comes from oil money.  The best way to reduce Russia's oil power is to support natural gas and oil production in the US - through fracking.

I would rather we get off our collective dumb asses and start converting to cleaner energies. Rather than give cheney another dime.

And fracking just on the damage it does to aquifers is enough to know it is a bad idea.

Juan

Ford had a car a few years ago that actually cleaned the air.  The car had very little emissions, and it had a radiator made of some substance that collected and held molecules of pollution as it drove through the air.  The radiator collected more pollution than the car emitted.  I wonder what happened to that?

onan

Quote from: UFO Fill on September 14, 2013, 08:37:39 AM
Ford had a car a few years ago that actually cleaned the air.  The car had very little emissions, and it had a radiator made of some substance that collected and held molecules of pollution as it drove through the air.  The radiator collected more pollution than the car emitted.  I wonder what happened to that?

I found this. will look at it when I feel a bit better.

http://inhabitat.com/bmw-hydrogen-car-cleans-the-air/

NowhereInTime

Quote from: UFO Fill on September 14, 2013, 06:52:26 AM
If you don't like Putin, there's something you can do to oppose him.  His power comes from oil money.  The best way to reduce Russia's oil power is to support natural gas and oil production in the US - through fracking.
I like when American geniuses step in to give us new options:

www.teslamotors.com

...of course, you need to make UFOFill money to afford one right now, but these are gorgeous cars.



Juan

I saw a Tesla in the parking lot in front of Home Depot last week.  A very attractive woman was driving it.  I have some suspicion that it might have been radio host Clark Howard's model/wife. 

I'd like to know how energy efficient these things really are.  How much energy does it take to make them?  How long do the batteries last?  What happens when the batteries die?  It's great to think you're driving along without burning gasoline, but are you really being energy efficient? 

NowhereInTime

Quote from: UFO Fill on September 17, 2013, 04:38:55 PM
I saw a Tesla in the parking lot in front of Home Depot last week.  A very attractive woman was driving it.  I have some suspicion that it might have been radio host Clark Howard's model/wife. 

I'd like to know how energy efficient these things really are.  How much energy does it take to make them?  How long do the batteries last?  What happens when the batteries die?  It's great to think you're driving along without burning gasoline, but are you really being energy efficient?

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/07/tesla-model-s-review/index.htm

99 out of 100 rating including long battery life, ease of handling, overall design. Elon Musk is going to create a series of battery swap stations where you can do battery changes in 90 seconds:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/22/tesla-motors-ceo-elon-musk-unveils-new-battery-swap-system-for-model-s.html

Please forgive Daily Beast as the source - it reads like the CNBC article but I can't find that.


Yorkshire pud

Quote from: Paper*Boy on March 07, 2014, 11:20:26 AM
Here are a couple of geniuses, homie


Maybe they were inspired by mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan?


NowhereInTime

Quote from: b_dubb on March 07, 2014, 11:35:30 AM
I call bullshit. That's Detroit.  Not Syria.
Actually, I think that's my next door neighbor...

pate

Quote from: Nucky Nolan on August 26, 2013, 12:55:16 AM
Will Syria be the next stop on the USA's eternal war world tour?...?

tHIS assertaitiaon is sumbfulidousl.

-d


Iraqi WMD Mystery Solved
By: Jamie Glazov
Thursday, March 02, 2006

New evidence reveals Russia moved Iraqi WMDs into Syria.
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ryan Mauro, who spoke at the recent 2006 International Intelligence Summit on Iraq. He is the 19-year old author of  Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq and founder of WorldThreats.com. He was originally hired at age 16 as a geopolitical analyst for Tactical Defense Concepts. He is also a volunteer analyst and researcher for the Northeast Intelligence Network and the Reform Party of Syria and believed to be the youngest hired geopolitical analyst in the country.

Glazov: Mr. Mauro, nice to have you here again.

Mauro: Thank you. It's always great working with you.

Glazov: The recent Intelligence Summit released 12 hours of audiotapes of Saddam Hussein and his key officials discussing their WMD programs from the mid-1990s onwards. What do you make of the significance of these tapes? How do they square with your claim in your book that Russia helped move Iraqi WMD into Syria?

Mauro: The tapes are extremely significant in that they prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that as of the year 2000, Saddam Hussein had a secret plasma program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, or "special bombs" as he calls them. The Duelfer Report previously concluded that this type of enrichment program ended in the 1980s, but here we have Saddam and his top advisors discussing using a power plant in the area of Basra for the program.  The scientists involved in the program are not known to the UN, leaving Western intelligence clueless.

On the tapes, you hear Saddam discussing the assistance of Russia and Brazil in dealing with the United Nations. He laughs off inspections, as his son-in-law who later defects, Hussein Kamil, reports how as late as 1995 their chemical and biological programs were being hidden from the world. They also discuss keeping the ingredients for these weapons separate, so that should they be found, they will be looked at as innocent dual-use items. They were not destroyed in 1991 as the Duelfer Report concludes. There are even indications on the tapes that Iraq may have had a role in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

My book was the first to make the claim that Russia was involved in moving Iraq's WMDs to Syria. After all the nay saying and criticizing I received for it, testimony at the Summit confirmed that this was true.

Glazov: What exactly is the evidence that Iraq moved its WMD into Syria?

Mauro: It has been confirmed across the board that 18-wheelers were seen going into Syria before the war, crossing the border soon after Iraqi intelligence replaced the border guards and cleared nearby areas for their passage. There are also eyewitness reports of the trucks going into Syria, and eyewitness reports of their burial in Lebanon.

The trucks with the weapons were tracked to three locations in Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, currently controlled by the Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah. Sources I've spoken with that have seen satellite photos of the movements confirm that the WMD in Syria are at military bases, while the ones in Lebanon are buried. A fourth site in Syria, the al-Safir WMD and missile site, should also be looked at. From spring to summer 2002, there was a lot of construction here involving the expansion of underground complexes.

We have tremendous testimony as well, by General Georges Sada, the former second-in-command of Saddam's Air Force that 56 flights took place on converted Iraqi Airways planes in the summer of 2002 to transport weapons, along with a ground shipment. He claims to know the pilots involved. A second Iraqi general, Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, in an interview I published, confirmed in detail the movement of WMD into Syria saying that discussion on such a move went back to the 1980s. He claims his sources for this include Iraqi scientists and others in the regime that were very close to him even after he defected. He confirmed to me that Russian vehicles, including ones equipped to handle hazardous materials, were used. Reports of WMD being moved out of Iraq to Syria go back to 1997, and it is believed by many that weapons were moved in and out of Iraq using Syria routinely since the mid-1990s.

The Italian media also reported that their intelligence services had information indicating that in January and February of 2003, Iraqi CDs full of formulas and research work along with tubes of anthrax and botulinum toxin were sent off to Syria. By the end of February, Iraqi WMD expertise was already in Syria including a top nuclear physicist.

An Iraqi scientist also led Coalition forces to hidden stockpiles of precursor chemicals that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons. The scientist said some facilities and weapons were destroyed, and the rest were sent to Syria. Syrian defectors are also claiming that Syria is where the weapons are, along with Representative Curt Weldon's source in his new book. The Prime Minister of Albania even stated that based on information he has which is not available to the media, he cannot rule out such a transfer.

There is also a report that an Iraqi medium-range al-Hussein missile on a truck moved into Syria, and in the early stages of the war, was spotted briefly coming into Iraq, operating its radar overnight, and returning to Syria. Most reports about the transfer indicate missiles were included in the transfers.

Glazov: Why do you think Russia was involved?

Mauro: In my book, “Death to America: The Unreported Battle of Iraq,” I detail Russian involvement in Iraq’s WMD programs and intelligence services. Inspectors have described the Russians employed on UN inspection teams as being very paranoid, with some even suspecting the Russians helped the Iraqis thwart inspections. I believe that as more documents are translated we will find this to be true.

My immediate suspicions that the Russians were involved in cleansing operations began back in early 2003, after I learned about how two Soviet generals had arrived in Iraq and been awarded with medals. Igor Maltsev, known as a leading expert in air-defense, and Vladislav Achalov, an expert in rapid-reaction forces, were accompanied by Yevgeny Primakov, a long-time friend of Saddam Hussein from his days as the head of the Soviet foreign intelligence service and later, prime minister. This occurred as I simultaneously received the first reports of WMD going to Syria, leading me to speculate on such a connection. I became convinced when Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former chief of Communist Romania’s intelligence service, and highest ranking Communist intelligence officer to ever defect, wrote about a plan the Soviet Union had entitled “Sarindar,” or “Operation Emergency Exit.”

The plan was drawn up after the Soviet Union decided to use its rogue state allies, specifically Libya and Iraq, to sponsor terrorism. The Soviets would help them make WMD in return, believing that would prevent Western retaliation. The head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, told Pacepa that Russian advisors ran these countries intelligence services. Primakov was the central figure in dealing with Iraq, Pacepa said, and pointed to his presence in Iraq in the months before the war.

“Sarindar” was drawn up first for Libya, and then expanded to include Iraq, with the aim of stripping the rogue state of evidence of WMD activity and especially Russian involvement in illegal programs. The operation also “would frustrate the West by not giving them anything they could make propaganda with,” said Pacepa. The plan went so far as to involve an offensive propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting politicians making the accusations against Russia’s allies.

From that, I became convinced. Then later on, John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for defense for international technology, reported to the media that Russian Spetsnaz units moved Iraqi WMD into Syria and Lebanon. He said that U.S. intelligence knew the names of the units involved. The Washington Times had other Pentagon officials report that Russian Special Forces helped Iraq perform counter-intelligence operations to thwart the West from knowing what was going on.

We must also consider the huge Russian involvement in the Oil-For-Food Scandal. So Russia’s relationship with Iraq was beneficial for them on multiple levels, including financially.

Glazov: Do we have the details of the Russian involvement?

Mauro: At the Intelligence Summit, Shaw revealed even more detail I was unaware of. Shaw discussed how two Russian ships left the Umm Qasr port in the months before the war and went to the Indian Ocean, carrying materials that he believes included WMD from southern Iraq. He also said his contacts told him of barrels containing hazardous materials being moved to a hospital basement in Beirut, Lebanon.

Shaw discussed that Achalov and Maltsev had visited Baghdad at least twenty times in the previous six years. The final planning meeting before their last trip to Baghdad took place in Baku and was chaired by the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations.

Shaw said that much of the information came from a source close to the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, who was thankful to the United States for securing the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

Glazov:  What has been the intelligence community's reaction to the allegation of Russian involvement?

Mauro: Shaw said that often this information was dismissed as Israeli disinformation. Although I’m sure it happened to him on a much larger scale, I can confirm this happened. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve brought this up with experts in the field who dismissed it as Israeli garbage, or a fantasy of “Russophobes” and conspiracy theorists. “The Cold War is over” was said to me on several occasions, bringing the debate to a close. I can only hope that deep inside the community they know about all this and are acting upon it in a secretive way.

Glazov: So if all this evidence is credible, why wouldn't the Bush Administration take advantage of this information?

Mauro: There are multiple ideas out there. I tend to believe that the foreign policy implications of these revelations explain the Administration’s silence. The politicians don’t want to feel obliged to take strong action against Syria, and certainly don’t want to offend Russia. On several issues, Russian cooperation is a great asset if it can be achieved. There’s a debate as to whether Russia ever really helps us. Every country we seem to have problems with has close ties to Russia. It’s likely part of their strategic plan to counter American dominance. Yes, they’re pressuring Iran through negotiations, but Russia is closely tied to the Iranian regime, so one must ask in light of these revelations, is Russia simply “cooperating” as part of a game to buy time for her allies? Or does Russia genuinely want Iran to end its nuclear program?

Glazov:  Why do you think Duelfer missed all this?

Mauro:  In my speech, I said that Duelfer’s conclusion that Iraq disarmed in 1991 as based on:

A) The failure to find WMD stockpiles. This is easily explained by their movement to Syria. I should also mention that there are Pentagon reports and testimony of several people that point to numerous problems in how the ISG operated and was put together, thus hampering the search.

B) The lack of documentation on the programs after 1991. Yet, in the same report, Duelfer says that much of the widespread looting was a cover for Iraqi intelligence to destroy documentation and loot weapons sites. Even the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission told the Security Council in the summer of 2004 that satellite imagery showed the Iraqis dismantling suspected weapons sites before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom began. Destroyed material and metal was then shipped throughout Europe and the Middle East at a rate of 1,000 tons of metal per month. Dismantled missiles and related components, they said, had already been discovered in several countriesâ€"some with UN inspection tags still on them.

It is also likely documents were moved outside of Iraq. The Russian ambassador to Baghdad, Vladimir Titorenko, got together a convoy carrying Russian staff from the embassy and headed to Syria, and suddenly got fired upon by American forces. Titorenko and his three closest intelligence officers flew directly to Moscow after escaping, and used the same flight to return immediately to Damascus.  There are widespread reports, even in the Russian press, that sensitive intelligence documents were in the convoy.

C) The lack of testimony from detainees. Duelfer relies upon the interviewing processâ€"the same process he harshly criticizes as deeply flawedâ€"to reach his conclusion. The detainees are afraid to talk out of fear for retribution, their testimony being used against them in war crimes trials, and simply because there’s no incentive. I could go into deeper detail as to some of the criticisms of the process. We also know many, many regime figures and scientists are in Syria and to a lesser degree, Iran.

It was easy for Iraq to move people around. Most of the regime figures were in Syria, including Saddam’s sons, until American pressure hit a breaking point and they were expelled in the later part of spring 2003. As the war commenced, 23 of Iraq’s 60 diplomatic posts were still operating, including in Amman, Moscow, Damascus, Beirut, Minsk and Tehran. It is possible that personnel are in Belarus as well. Many Iraqi regime figures that were captured [had] Syrian and Belarusian (and often, Libyan) passports. There were reports that people escaped from Syria to Belarus and Libya. Limousines usually used by the Baath Party were seen entering Syria, and then flew aboard a military transport to Libya.

Regarding Belarus, another very close ally of Russia, there was an incident on March 29, 2003. A chartered cargo flight took off from Saddam International Airport when the air space was closed and flew to Minsk. Originally, some suspected it [was] Saddam or his sons were aboard as only the highest officials could get clearance.

Glazov: Mr. Mauro thank you for joining us again.

Mauro: Thank you for having me.


http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=5360



1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14 And behold at eveningtide* trouble; and before the morning he is not...

https://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/isaiah/17.html


The Sudan-Iraq-Afghanistan Alliance and the Russian connection:
America's enemies unveiled

Archived J.R. Nyquist articles
17 September 2001


    The terrible events of last week were anticipated by the work of security expert Yossef Bodansky.  Readers are advised to study Bodansky's book, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.  Using Bodansky's basic outline, recent news stories, the excellent research of John K. Cooley's Unholy Wars and Samir al-Khalil's Republic of Fear, I attempt to describe the forces at work behind the destruction of the World Trade Center. 

In October, 1998, Sudan's Islamist ideologue, Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi, sent a delegation of terrorist commanders to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Saddam's defiance of the United States had won much sympathy from the poor and humble folk of the Arab world. Turabi wanted to harness this sympathy. To do this, he envisioned a terrorist attack like none before, striking at the very heart of the United States. Since America is an open society governed by weak liberals, he argued, it would be helpless against a sustained terrorist onslaught.

Furthermore, once enraged by the first wave of strikes, the United States might be counted on to blunder its way into the Middle East and South Asia, killing indiscriminately.  This, in turn, would inspire Islamic unity under new and more radical leaders. The Muslim world would then come together into a huge warlike coalition -- an effective fighting machine that would control the world's largest oil reserves. The West would be doomed and Israel would be driven into the sea. 

The operational details of Turabi's plan were left to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national hiding from U.S. authorities in the wilds of Afghanistan. Western intelligence knew little, except that the plan involved "spectacular terrorist attacks" aimed at New York and Washington.

Saddam Hussein was intrigued by Turabi's plan of campaign, and perhaps flattered to be offered a leading role. In late October, 1998, Saddam sent his son Qusay on a secret mission to Peshawar, Pakistan. There he made contact with an officer of the Pakistani secret service (ISI) who led him deep into Afghanistan for a meeting with Osama bin Laden. In that meeting Qusay Hussein and bin Laden discussed a joint strategy against America. The Islamic extremists, led by Turabi and bin Laden, would form an iron alliance with Baghdad. According to intelligence sources sited by Yossef Bodansky, "The use of chemical and biological weapons in the anticipated terrorist strikes was explicitly addressed."

All the resources of militant Islam would be mobilized for a crushing series of strikes against America. As agreed at the meeting in Afghanistan, Iraq was tasked with constructing special chemical and biological bombs for use by bin Laden's terrorists. Qusay Hussein promised that Iraq would deliver whatever bin Laden's group needed. True to his word, by December 1998, Hussein sent 12 chemical munitions experts to Afghanistan to build the bombs. Iraq also dispatched a team led by Abu-Walid, an intelligence expert who felt out Afghanistan's leader, Mullah Omar. The purpose of Abu-Walid's visit was to ascertain Afghanistan's willingness to stand up to the full force of American wrath in the wake of the planned terrorist attacks, and to stand by Baghdad when the Americans unleashed their full fury.

Due to Abu-Walid's efforts, Iraq and Afghanistan agreed to a quiet alliance that would unite their military forces and intelligence services.  Sudan's Turabi simultaneously prepared terrorists for operations against the oil sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf. While the Iraqi's held out the prospect of supporting the Taliban against Iran, Turabi and bin Laden offered honeyed words to the Iranians. The war against America, they explained, would be "protracted." Many "martyrdom operations" would take place. There was lots of glory (and revenge) to be shared.

Why quarrel?  Kill Americans.

In November, 1998, bin Laden openly described his strategic objectives in a note to Islamist organizers in Pakistan. He said that non-Muslims should be driven from Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia. He wrote of the day when Islamic law will be enforced "in the land of God." The Jews and Christians will be pushed out, he said.

As it is a religious obligation for every Muslim to support the mujahideen fighting for ... sacred places, similarly they are also obligated by their religion to support the Taliban government in Afghanistan, because by enforcing Sharia in Afghanistan, the Taliban have established the system of God on God's land.

In December 1998 the Ulema-i-Afghanistan, a key Islamic body in that country, declared an "armed jihad against America," saying that this was mandatory. "All Muslims are ordered to rise against America to kill Americans," said the decree, which was issued by leading Islamic clerics and scholars.

It is curious that the Taliban, which is fighting Russian-supported forces in Northern Afghanistan, does not think to declare war against Russia. After all, it was the Russians who killed a million Afghans in the 1980s. It was the Russians who devastated the country and its infrastructure. In fact, it was the Americans who helped the Afghans in their struggle. But no, Russia somehow escapes the wrath of these curious agents of fanatical misdirection -- men with fishy backgrounds and unreal objectives.

How do we explain Turabi and bin Laden's disinterest in Russia -- whose allies and surrogates the Taliban is ostensibly fighting? What is the real reason they have focused on America? Instead of avenging a million Islamic dead at the hands of Moscow, the Taliban looks to the other side of the globe, to Russia's "main enemy." How postively curious this is! Why should Turabi and bin Laden do Russia this favor? Why should they deliver crushing blows against the U.S. and not to Russia?

But there it is. The madmen of Islam have been led, step by step, to turn their enmity from Moscow and declare what the Ulema-i-Afghanistan says will be a "war of extermination" against the people of America. To be perfectly clear, this is not merely an effort to damage U.S. interests, but a declared campaign to eradicate America entirely -- to wipe the United States from the face of the earth.

"...no steps for the total elimination of America by force should be avoided," said the assembled scholars and holy men. "America is an enemy of the Islamic world and should be annihilated."

In recent days we've heard that Pakistan has accepted U.S. proposals to cooperate in a war against Afghanistan. But can we trust Pakistan, whose secret service has been deeply involved in bin Laden's war preparations? American strategists should think this one over. If Pakistan appears to be our ally today, the tables may turn tomorrow. Radical Islamic groups in Pakistan are deeply committed to waging a jihad against America. You would think that these groups had fish to fry next door, in Kashmir -- against India. But here we go again. The immediate enemy, the historical enemy, is left in the lurch. The far away Americans, who don't even know where these people are on the map, are suddenly the main concern.

It is amazingly absurd.

One is reminded of what Gustav Le Bon has written on the suggestability of crowds. "Whatever be the ideas suggested to crowds," wrote Le Bon, "they can only exercise effective influence on condition that they assume a very absolute, uncompromising and simple shape."

The Islamic crowd has fixated on an idea which has, in itself, become contagious. America is the root of all evil, and American must be destroyed. Who originated this infectious preoccupation with destroying America? Wasn't it Stalin and Mao?

The regime in Iraq has committed all its resources to backing Turabi and bin Laden's assault on America. In early 1999 Saddam Hussein asked for assurances that his Islamist allies would not stab him in the back. It is reported by Bodansky that they assured the Iraqi leader of their good faith; that as long as he supported the Islamists, they would not betray him or undermine his rule. It should also be noted that many Islamist training camps were then opened in Iraq. Saddam even ordered his son, Qusay, to create a new terrorist army under Iraqi command -- the al-Nida. This force would support bin Laden's terror campaign against America when the time was ripe.

It should be noted that Iraq has long been a client of Moscow. It is a complex and many-sided relationship, like the alliance between Saddam and the Islamists. As long as the Iraqi dictator was allied with Moscow, the communists would not attempt to undermine him.

The alliance began in 1973 when Saddam Hussein personally supervised the reorganization of Iraq's secret police. In order to guarantee his future control over the country, Saddam signed a secret intelligence agreement with KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov (who later became dictator of the Soviet Union). Building on key clauses of the Soviet-Iraqi Friendship Treaty of 1972, which Hussein negotiated, the Iraqi security services were reorganized to fit KGB specifications. According to extracts taken from stolen Iraqi documents and discussed by Samir al-Khalil in his book, "Republic of Fear," the KGB agreed to:

(1) Supply sophisticated surveillance and interrogation equipment to the Iraqis.

(2) Train Iraqi personnel in KGB and GRU schools in the Soviet Union.

(3) Exchange intelligence information.

(4) Assist the USSR with spying on countries which did not then have diplomatic relations with the Kremlin.

It could be argued that by 1980 Iraqi intelligence had become the Arab-speaking branch of the KGB. That is why, despite Soviet support for the Gulf War coalition, Russian technicians were aiming SCUD missiles at Americans and others. Even more telling, a continuous convoy of supply trucks poured into Iraq via Iran from the Soviet Union during the conflict. It is no wonder that Iraq's capabilities are being built up today by Russia's new ally and friend -- the Chinese!

If Saddam has long been in Moscow's pocket, one is left to wonder about Turabi and bin Laden.

Journalist John K. Cooley, in his controversial book entitled "Unholy Wars," describes Sheikh Hassan al-Turabi as "brilliant, scholarly, elusive; profoundly opposed to American hegemony." What is most striking and unusual about Turabi, however, is his Western education. He was not brought up on the narrow and suffocating views of rustic holy men. He attended universities in France and England. He speaks French and English fluently.

Did his Islamic faith really survive his Western education?

But the real dirt on Turabi has to do with drug trafficking. Both Turabi and bin Laden became involved with a double-dealing Afghan commander, Gulbaddin Hekmatiyar, who also distinguished himself a drug criminal -- exporting narcotics to the West. Those who are familiar with Joseph D. Douglass, Jr.'s work (see "Red Cocaine") will realize the significance of drug trafficking and organized crime as a conduit of corruption and control for KGB-sponsored gangsters. Since Hekmatiyar allegedly worked for the communists at times, leading holy fighters into ambushes, and since he ended up becoming Afghanistan's prime minister with the connivance of the CIA (and the KGB), his early financial relations with bin Laden and Turabi may provide the key to understanding Turabi and bin Laden's anti-American obsession.

While Russian tanks were crushing Chechnya there was no thought in Turabi or bin Laden's circle of eradicating Russia or declaring a war of extermination against the Kremlin murderers. And here is where the linkages become even more curious. The best observers on the ground in Chechnya believe that the Islamists in Chechnya were planted in the country by the Russian General Staff for reasons unknown and perhaps unfathomable. In fact, before 1996 there was no significant Islamist presence in Chechnya, and no Islamic power base. The religion of Chechnya is not the religion of Iran, Afghanistan or Arabia. Yet there suddenly appear these Arab gunman who -- with the help of the Russian Interior Ministry -- conducted an incursion into Dagestan during the summer of 1999. And this is what triggered the Russian invasion.

Even more frightening, in December 1999 it was reported that the Chechin Islamists had smuggled suitcase nuclear bombs out of the former Soviet Union to Osama bin Laden. It was even alleged (by Yossef Bodansky) that Russian special forces commandos were being recruited to deploy these stolen Soviet nukes against the United States. It is with this stretching of the story that a fishy aroma reaches the suspecting nostril. As a wise old Chechin observer told French journalist Anne Nivat in 1999, "[Chechin leader] Maskhadov and all the others you hear about in the West, none of them has any power. We are all victims, manipulated by the politicians in Moscow."

How could the former Soviet killers of Afghan woman and children, of Chechin women and children, become the "paid mercenaries" of drug-running Islamic fanatics bent on destroying America -- as opposed to Russia? The absurdity of these "pious" individuals -- Turabi and bin Laden -- supporting the Godless Iraqi dictator is almost humorous.

Given such curious details, whatever the sincere beliefs of Turabi, bin Laden and Hussein, we see the hand of Moscow in the Iraqi security organs. Is it possible that Moscow's Arab pupils knew nothing of last week's terrorist strike in advance?

As you watch TV and learn of the virtual non-existence of U.S. "Human Intelligence" assets in the Middle East, you should also realize that the Russians are the world's masters in "Human Intelligence." They are the ones who have, historically, penetrated the British Secret Service, the FBI, the CIA -- even Hitler's bunker during World War II.

The West has never had equivalent successes against Russia or its clients. And that is the reason last week's terrorist attack met with success. American intelligence is weak. We do not have a winning team at the FBI and CIA. Without timely intelligence information, America cannot forestall major plots and conspiracies directed against our leaders, our economy or our citizens. And that's exactly what we're confronting today.

There is another Russian aspect to all this, as well. And it shouldn't go without being mentioned.

Through most of the summer, Russian analysts have been buzzing with talk of America’s coming economic crash. The collapse of the U.S. dollar has been anticipated.  Russian economist Tatyana Koryagina, for example, testified on this before the Duma.  According to Koryagina, the American dollar will soon be used as “wallpaper for toilet stalls.”

Is this notion based on some solid bit of analysis, or does it derive from the necessities of Russian state propaganda -- as an excuse to move Russia out of dollars and into gold or other currencies?

In anticipation of the U.S. crash, on July 10, the Russian Federation officially adopted the gold chervonet as legal tender.  This was an odd move, similar to what Lenin did 79 years ago in order to stem the tide of ruble inflation in the early Bolshevik economy. 

Now that the twin towers are down, the dollar is falling (or will be). Hundreds of thousands will be thrown out of work here in America. The capitalist system will be severely challenged. Karl Marx might even emerge from his moldy grave, along with the "undead" Lenin, and point an accusing finger at the money-men. "It is time to try a new system," the old worm-eaten ghoul will say with satisfaction.

A spectre is haunting the Middle East, I fear.

Readers should note that Col. Stanislav Lunev, the highest ranking defector from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff, has issued a firm warning to all Americans. When he defected several years ago Lunev tried to warn the FBI, CIA and DIA "that the Russians already had elaborate war plans against the U.S. I suggested that such a war might begin with a diversion, some sort of terrorst attack. With people's attention focused elsewhere, special troops could storm Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the White House -- to kill American leaders."

Lunev went on to emphasize something that many Americans don't fully appreciate. "I have no doubt," said Lunev, "that Russia has been behind many of these terrorist groups, financing and equipping them."

Yes, that's right. You heard it from a high ranking defector who has knowledge of Moscow's military plans. As it happens, Russia and China have been supporting rogue states all over the map. And now these states, in league with terrorist organizations, have killed thousands of Americans -- striking a real blow against our economy. "These terrorist groups," stated Lunev, "want nothing less than war against Western Civilization."

And that is what, in my opinion, the leaders in Beijing and Moscow also want. The only thing holding them back all these decades has been their relative weakness. And today, after many years of reduced vigilance and severe military cuts on the American side, Russia and China's weakness may be at an end.

It is good that Americans are rallying to their country. It is important that we pull together. The struggle ahead may be far more difficult and dangerous than any of us imagine.

http://www.jrnyquist.com/sept17/jrn_essay.htm

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