By Thierry Meyssan
Source: Information Clearing House

Western governments no longer hide the fact that they’re using jihadists – NATO overthrew Mouamar el-Kadhafi by using al-Qaïda as its only ground forces; Israël displaced the UN Forces to Golan, and replaced them with al-Nosra; the international anti-Daesh Coalition allowed Palmyra to fall in order to cause more problems for Syria. But while we can understand Western interests, we fail to grasp why and how the jihadists can serve Uncle Sam in the name of the Coran.

We often ask ourselves how the Pentagon and the CIA manage to manipulate millions of Muslims and send them off to fight for Uncle Sam’s interests. Of course, it’s true that certain leaders are paid agents, but all jihadists believe that they’re fighting and dying in order to gain access to Paradise. The answer is childishly simple – using the rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood as a start, it’s possible to evade human reality and send them to kill anyone you like as long as you wave a red flag at them.

Officially, the Islamic Emirate no longer recognises the authority of Ayman al-Zawahiri, and has therefore left al-Qaïda. Nonetheless, in many places, like the Qalamun mountains, it is still impossible to distinguish between them, since the same jihadists claim allegiance to both flags at once.

Of course, one could argue that this is only a personal quarrel – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi simply wants to replace the current leader. But while the two organisations have exactly the same practices, they develop very different dialogues.

They share the slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood – « The Coran is our Constitution », « Islam is the solution ». A life of holiness is therefore very simple. It doesn’t really matter if the Creator has made us all intelligent, we must, in all cases, apply the Word of God like a machine. And when the situation is not dealt with in the Book, we should just smash it to pieces. The result is obviously catastrophic, and nowhere have these organisations been able to set up even the beginnings of the perfect society that they hope for.

History demonstrates their differences. From 1979 to 1995, in other words, from the CIA operation in Afghanistan to the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress in Khartoum, Oussama Ben Laden’s mercenaries fought the Soviet Union with public aid from the United States. From 1995 to 2011, in other words, from the Congress in Khartoum to operation « Neptune’s Spear », al-Qaïda took position against « Jews and Crusaders » while continuing its struggle against Russia in Yugoslavia and Chechnya. And since 2011, in other words, since the « Arab Spring », it has supported NATO in Libya and Israël at the Golan frontier. Generally speaking, Western public opinion has not kept up with this evolution. It remains convinced of the danger of a mythical Russian expansionism, persists in blaming the jihadists for the attacks of September 11th, has not realised what happened in Libya and at the Israeli frontier, and maintains the false idea that al-Qaïda is an anti-imperialist terrorist organisation. As for the Arabs, they do not base themselves on facts, but choose, according to the situation, between reality and Western propaganda so as to invent a romantic narrative for themselves.

From its side, the Islamic Emirate is moving away from the Coran and closer to the neo-conservatives. It claims that the main enemies are other Muslims – the Chiites and their allies. It has clearly forgotten the Bosnian episode during which Ben Laden’s Arab Legion were supported both by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran. But who are the allies of the Chiites? The Syrian Arab Republic (secular) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Sunnite). In other words, the Islamic Emirate is fighting in priority against the Axis of Resistance to imperialism. De facto, it confirms that it is an objective ally of the United States and Israël in the « Greater Middle East », even though, theoretically, they are the enemy.

The malleability of these two organisations resides in their basic ideology, that of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is therefore logical that almost all of the jihadist leaders, at one time or another, have been members of one branch or another of the Brotherhood. By the same token, it is logical that the CIA has not only supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, since their reception at the White House by President Eisenhower in 1955, but also all its foreign branches and all the dissident groups. Finally, the califat that Hassan el-Bana dreamed about and that Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi pretended to want, is not the reproduction of the Golden Age of Islam, but the reign of obscurantism.

This was confirmed by Laurent Fabius in 2012, in other words, before the split between al-Qaïda and Daesh, when he declared: « On the ground, they’re doing a good job! »

Thierry Meyssan, French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.

RT Interview with Jeremy Salt, political analyst
Source: RT
The so-called Islamic State is the kind of group the US wanted for years – but couldn’t get – to put pressure on the Syrian government. At the same time, it didn’t stop the IS advance in Iraq and in Syria, political analyst Jeremy Salt told RT.

Iraq has admitted losing more than 2,000 Humvees and other weapons when Mosul was taken over by the Islamic State group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) last year. The extremists posted images online, claiming they had seized US-supplied hardware. And that’s not the only case of US weapons ending up in extremists’ hands. Last year, in Syria the US air-dropped weapons meant for Kurdish forces fighting the terrorists, but they fell in the wrong place and were found by IS fighters.

RT: Do you think Islamic State’s advance would have been so successful without access to US military hardware?

Jeremy Salt: Let me just briefly revise the history of American so-called blunders over the last couple of years with regard to weapons ending up in the hands of Islamic State. The first one was the accidental airdropping of weaponry into IS-controlled territory – not once, but several times. Last year, in early June we had IS take over Mosul. Now here we have a state which has the most advanced, most sophisticated global surveillance system of any country in the world. It can actually watch you scratching your nose, it can hear you cough. Yet it didn’t see and didn’t hear those pickup trucks storming across the Syrian Desert in the direction of Mosul. Of course, when they got there it was a mess with American weaponry that they seized including 2,300 Humvees and massive weaponry and ammunition. Then just more recently that same scenario played out with Ramadi… They proudly went with a procession on the streets of Ramadi, a line of pickup trucks with men and machine guns that could have been obliterated from the air, exactly the same as Mosul.

So we have Mosul, we have Ramadi, we have a second seizure of immense Iraqi weaponry. Now we have a third kind of scenario when IS storms across the desert in the direction of Palmyra. Are we seriously to believe the US couldn’t see them coming, didn’t see those pickup trucks racing across the Syrian Desert when they create massive plumes of dust for one thing? They got to Palmyra and they took over the city. What explains all of this, this extraordinary history of blunders?

So we turned to recent documents released by the Defense Intelligence Agency in reply to the Freedom of Information [Act] request. This shows that in 2012, the US government knew and anticipated the possibility of a “Salafist Principality” being established in Eastern Syria and it said this wasn’t inconsistent with American policy and in fact the rise of these Salafist groups inside Syria was supported by all the governments that supported the Syrian opposition. And they knew that the opposition was not moderate. We had Joe Biden say exactly that… So what we are getting here is the real picture behind the picture that is represented by media.

RT: Do you think these blunders are going to help IS?

JS: I don’t think they are blunders. That’s the whole point. This is a strategy here. And I think this long-term strategy – and Israel is partner to this – is to break up the central lands of the Middle East into mini ethno-religious mini-states. It suits Israel’s purpose and it would suit America’s purposes. If you look at Iraq for example, the invasion in 2003, destroyed Iraq as a huge Arab state.

RT: The director of the CIA said on Sunday that the fight with Islamic State is set to last for a very long time. Do you see the US getting more involved in it over time or it’s just words?

JS: It’s just words. The US, as far as for Iraq is concerned in particular and even Syria, has not done a great deal to stop the advance of IS. If it seriously wanted to attack IS they could have attacked them when they moved to Mosul, Ramadi or Palmyra. They didn’t do a thing. So this is not all blunders and accidents, it’s indicative of a strategy at work. And the strategy I think is that in Iraq, in particular, the US is using IS like an attack dog… It’s giving IS a free hand in Western Iraq, in Mosul, in North-Eastern Syria. As I said that document predicted the rise of a “Salafist Principality” in North-Eastern Syria three years ago as a means of putting pressure on the Syrian government. In other words, IS is actually a kind of group the Americans wanted for years but couldn’t get.

Source: RT
The Pentagon has announced new multibillion dollar arms contracts with the regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia, America’s primary allies in the Middle East. Both are knee-deep in military conflicts destabilizing the region.

The $1.9 billion deal with Israel implies supply of some 3,000 Hellfire precision missiles, 250 AIM-120C advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, 4,100 GBU-39 small diameter bombs and 50 BLU-113 bunker buster bombs. The order also includes 14,500 tail kits for Joint Direct Attack Munitions for 220kg and 900kg bombs and a variety of Paveway laser-guided bomb kits.

Israeli media sees the deal as “compensation” for the rapprochement between Iran and the US, which Washington sees as trying to get Tehran’s nuclear program under control.

Tel Aviv has been sharply criticizing Washington for its decision to negotiate a nuclear deal with Tehran, and Israel has even ostentatiously “reserved the right” to conduct a unilateral air strike on Iran.

“The proposed sale of this equipment will provide Israel the ability to support its self-defense needs,” the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said, adding that the new contract is meant to“replenish”Israel’s arsenal without supplying the country with any kind of new weapons.

In November 2014 it was reported that Pentagon was going to supplying Israel with 3,000 smart bombs, similar to those used by the Israeli Air Force in Gaza last summer, where an estimated 100 tons of munitions were dropped.

The main contractors to fulfill the lucrative Israeli arms deal will be Boeing, Ellwood National Forge, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Missile Systems, AFP reported.

As for Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest buyer of American weapons, it wants to buy 10 Seahawk MH-60R helicopters along with radars, navigation systems and 38 Hellfire missiles.

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, between 2010 and 2014 Riyadh spent $90 billion on American weapons, becoming world’s leading buyer of US-made arms.

The helicopters will be supplied by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, while associated gear will be produced by Lockheed Martin.

The US administration must notify Congress 30 days ahead of the sale of weapons to a foreign government, as lawmakers have a right to block or amend any arms deal.

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have been recently conducting offensive operations on the territory of their neighbors.

During the 50-day campaign in Gaza last summer, where Israel actively used its Air Force, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority of them unarmed civilians.

Israel is also regularly targeting airstrikes on the territory of neighboring Syria.

Apart from multiple airstrikes against military installations controlled by the Syrian Army, Damascus has accused Israel of providing air support to armed terrorist groups in Syria.

Saudi Arabia has initiated and led airstrikes on the territory of neighbor Yemen, where Houthi rebels have seized power and ousted a Riyadh-backed president.

Since late March, when airstrikes were launched and a naval blockade of Yemen was imposed, at least 1,250 people have been killed and over 5,000 wounded in the conflict, according to the World Health Organization. Local estimates of casualties have been much higher.