US-Backed Syrian ‘Moderates’ Behead 12-Year-Old

Exclusive: The grisly beheading of a 12-year-old boy by U.S.-backed Syrian rebels spotlights Washington’s creepy excuses for arming “moderate” jihadists who are barely distinguishable from Al Qaeda and ISIS, reports Daniel Lazare.

By Daniel Lazare

The video is appalling even by Syrian standards. It shows a couple of grown men holding onto a small boy who is perhaps ten or 12 years old. One of them grips the boy by the hair while the other playfully pats his cheek. The men smile, laugh and give the thumb’s up. Then they lay the boy on his stomach, tie his hands behind his back, and draw a knife across his throat. In the final frame, one of the soldiers holds the severed head aloft in triumph.

The child’s crime? Allegedly fighting for Liwa al-Quds, or Jerusalem brigade, a Palestinian armed group that backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S.-backed Syrian "moderate" rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video]

U.S.-backed Syrian “moderate” rebels smile as they prepare to behead a 12-year-old boy (left), whose severed head is held aloft triumphantly in a later part of the video. [Screenshot from the YouTube video]

“He sent us a child today, he no longer has men!” one of the rebels cries out in reference to Assad in the video, which went online on Tuesday. “We will leave no one in Handarat,” the rebels add, referring to the city north of Aleppo where heavy fighting has occurred between rebels and the government.

For its part, Liwa al-Quds put out a statement saying that the boy, whom it identified as Abdullah Issa, was not a fighter, but a Palestinian living in Aleppo with his family “among multiple poor families that live in the area under the control of terrorists.”

The statement said the boy had been ill, adding: “By taking one glance at the child, the argument that he was a fighter is immediately disapproved.” Indeed, little Abdullah looks too small even to hold a gun, much less shoot it. (An Associated Press story reported that the boy was suspected of spying.)

As shocking as this is, what makes it even worse is that Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zinki, the group responsible for the atrocity, is part of the U.S.-backed Revolutionary Command Council and has received TOW anti-tank missiles courtesy of the CIA. When asked about the incident, State Department spokesman Mark C. Toner responded with his usual word games.

“We’re very concerned, certainly, if it’s accurate,” he said of the report. When asked if the incident would lead to a cut-off in military aid, he added: “If we can prove that this was indeed what happened and this group was involved in it, I think it would certainly give us pause … serious pause and we’ll look at, frankly, any affiliation or cooperation with this group we may have going forward, if these allegations are proven true.”

Spinning the Story

So the U.S. may drop Nour al-Din al-Zinki from its list of Grade A government-certified moderate rebel forces if a proper inquiry bears the story out. But these are weasel words for a number of reasons.  First, there’s no doubt that the report is accurate. Raw un-doctored video footage doesn’t lie, and, what’s more, Nour al-Din al-Zinki has confirmed that the incident took place and that its fighters were involved.

President Barack Obama walks through the Rose Garden to the Oval Office following an all-appointees summer event on the South Lawn, June 13, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama walks through the Rose Garden to the Oval Office, June 13, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Second, as judicious as Toner may sound in calling for proof, his decision to reserve judgment is actually a stalling tactic aimed at giving Nour al-Din time to extricate itself from the PR mess its fighters created.  Indeed, Nour al-Din al-Zinki quickly put out a statement – possibly at the prompting of Brookings Institution Syria expert Charles Lister – declaring that the fighters have been arrested and a judicial commission formed to determine what had happened and decide on a punishment.

Needless to say, this doesn’t mean that a Sunni-fundamentalist group that Amnesty International has accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing journalists and dissidents won’t still cover the crime up.  Neither does it mean that the killers won’t get off with a slap on the wrist. All it means is that the group will make a show of justice so that business can continue as usual. (In its statement, Nour al-Din al-Zinki also asserted that beheading a child does not represent the group’s overall policies.)

But the third thing that makes Toner such a weasel is that his statement doesn’t address the most important question of all: why the CIA has armed such a brutal outfit in the first place. Toner’s statement doesn’t because it can’t. The Obama administration’s Middle East policy today is such a welter of confusion that it hardly knows what it’s doing itself.

The administration claims to oppose Al Qaeda, obviously. But it continues to run interference for Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf petro-states that have bankrolled the group over the years and, according to no less an authority than Hillary Clinton, are still doing so today.

The administration continues to insist that the long-suppressed 29-page chapter of the joint congressional into 9/11 contains nothing important about Saudi links to 9/11 even though anybody who bothers to read it will know, as the indomitable Kristen Breitweiser has pointed out, that it details numerous contacts between Saudi operatives and the men who blew up the Twin Towers.

In Syria, the administration insists that it opposes both ISIS and Al Nusra, as Al Qaeda is locally known, yet it continues to supply arms to Nour al-Din al-Zinki and other outfits that ally themselves with such forces.

Contradictory Policies

Similarly, the administration claims to oppose torture, summary executions, and slitting the throats of twelve-year-old boys. But because it is determined to maintain the fiction that groups that engage in such horrors are moderates opposed to Al Nusra and ISIS, it protests so quietly that no one even notices.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov outside a room in the Russian Foreign Ministry's Osobnyak Guesthouse in Moscow, Russia, on July 15, 2016. [State Department Photo]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov outside a room in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Osobnyak Guesthouse in Moscow, Russia, on July 15, 2016. [State Department Photo]

The contradictions were on full display in Moscow last week when John Kerry took part in a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following talks about possible joint action against Al Nusra in Aleppo. When New York Times reporter Gardiner Harris suggested that such a deal would be “a huge boon to the Assad regime by concentrating American firepower against the most effective anti-Assad forces and that you’re basically selling out the rebels,” Kerry was indignant, responding:

“If some critic is criticizing the United States or Russia for going after al-Nusra, which is a terrorist organization, because they’re good fighters against Assad, they have their priorities completely screwed up. The fact is that Nusra is plotting against countries in the world. What happened in Nice … could just as well have come from Nusra or wherever it came from as any other entity, because that’s what they do….

“We saw what happened when people said the same thing about ISIL for a period of time – oh, don’t worry, they’re just a force against Assad, and down the road we can take them on. Well, they became more than just a force. And so I think that it is important for the United States, Russia … to stand up against terrorism, and that is what we intend to continue to do.”

But what is perplexing about such comments is that the administration has repeatedly employed the same logic that Kerry now criticizes. It channeled arms and materiel to the Syrian opposition even though the Defense Intelligence Agency reported in August 2012 that Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Qaeda were “the major forces driving the insurgency,” that they were seeking to establish “a Salafist principality in eastern Syria,” and that the anti-Assad opposition was out to organize an all-Sunni jihad “against what it considers one enemy,” i.e. the Shi‘ites.

The administration stood by while the Saudis and other Persian Gulf states “poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of military weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except the people who were being supplied were Al Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world,” as Vice President Joe Biden confessed two years ago before a student audience at Harvard.  (Quote starts at 53:20.)

Instead of opposing Al Nusra and similar forces, the U.S. thus stood by as its closest friends supplied these jihadists with money and arms. As for the argument that ISIL (also known as ISIS, Islamic State, and Daesh) could be safely deployed against Assad, it wasn’t just certain nameless critics who said this but the White House itself.

Favoring ISIS over Assad

While combating ISIS in Iraq, the U.S. attitude with regard to the group’s Syrian branch was startlingly blasé — even after it launched its devastating offensive in western Iraq in June 2014.

Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative, known as Jihadi John and identified as Mohammed Emwazi, the target of a drone attack that the Pentagon announced on Thursday.

Journalist James Foley shortly before he was executed by an Islamic State operative, known as Jihadi John and identified as Mohammed Emwazi, the target of a drone attack that the Pentagon announced on Thursday.

“Certainly, ISIS has been able to expand in Syria, but that’s not our main objective,” The Wall Street Journal quoted a “senior defense official” as saying in January 2015. “I wouldn’t call Syria a safe haven for ISIL, but it is a place where it’s easier for them to organize, plan and seek shelter than it is in Iraq.”  The Journal added that “U.S. strategy in Syria is also constrained by a reluctance to tip the balance of power toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting Islamic State and other rebels.”

Translation: Despite the havoc across the border, the White House still regarded Syria as a place where ISIS could be left alone “to organize, plan, and seek shelter” and thus keep up the pressure on Assad.  That was its policy five months later when ISIS closed in on the ancient city of Palmyra. Even though Islamic State fighters would have been perfect targets as they crossed miles of open desert, the U.S. purposely withheld bombing so as not to tip the advantage to Assad.

As secretary of state, Kerry was thus party to the same policies that he now decries, policies based on leaving ISIS alone to make life miserable for Assad while others carried on unscathed. As a result, even he now seems to be confused.

Late last month at a conference in Aspen, Kerry emphasized the importance of defeating ISIS and Al Nusra along with “a couple of subgroups” such as Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham. The statement was accurate since both groups are indeed allied with Al Nusra.

But administration officials pronounced themselves “baffled” because the official line is the opposite. “For months, we’ve been arguing to make sure the Russians and the Syrian regime don’t equate these groups with the terrorists,” a senior administration official told the Washington Post.  “Kerry’s line yields that point.”

In fact, Kerry has been so concerned about protecting such groups on other occasions that he asked Lavrov last month not to bomb Al Nusra in Aleppo for fear of hitting pro-U.S. forces fighting side by side.  Evidently, terrorists and non-terrorists are so intermingled that even Kerry has trouble telling them apart. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Hillary Clinton’s ‘Entangled’ Foreign Policy.”]

So the U.S. condemns Al Qaeda except when it fights alongside pro-U.S. groups, at which point it begs Russia to leave it alone. The Obama administration claims to combat Islamic State except when it is marching against Palmyra, at which point it calls off the F-16s so ISIS can continue on its way. The U.S. backs “moderate” rebels except when they slit the throat of 12-year-old boys, at which point it promises to do something … soon.

Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace).

35 comments for “US-Backed Syrian ‘Moderates’ Behead 12-Year-Old

  1. A. Miah
    July 27, 2016 at 13:01

    This is such a said moment. I understand from other sources the boy is actually Abdullah Issa, age 19 with a medical growth problem. In either case I am saddened to see such joy in killing someone of such a young age. Even if he is not 12 his size still insights feeling of killing a child and the fact they don’t show any remorse it completely inhumane and reveals to us that these men are not pious religious Muslims but evil heretics cloaking behind religion to hide their evil deeds. I would like to help his family, any idea on how to do this. And please follow-up on this case. I read these men were turned over by the group, what happened to them, did this poor boy see justice, regardless of why he was fighting. No one deserves to die like this!

  2. Philip Owen
    July 23, 2016 at 19:32

    The video was released on the day the British DFID reported that a quarter of the schools in Syria had bomb damage and hundreds of children had been killed while at school.

    • observer
      July 24, 2016 at 07:00

      The video was released by child beheader, who was so proud on his “heroic” act that he had to upload it on YouTube. Btw, two of the killers from the video are Zinki’s commanding officers for Aleppo region.
      Do you maybe have any other bright ideas to justify murder of this kid?

  3. F. G. Sanford
    July 21, 2016 at 21:55

    “Why the CIA has armed such a brutal outfit in thr first place?” Apparently, they enjoy the kiddie porn, and snuff films are their favorite. If you think that this is the worst atrocity our CIA “first stringers” have committed, guess again. The “home movies” are in private collections, and unlikely to show up on Youtube. Hey, your tax dollars at work. You’re paying for this cinematography, so don’t let press conference double-talkers fool you. They know ZAKLY what their proxies are up to.

    • July 22, 2016 at 01:00

      Seems as though the C.I.A. has gone rogue and is operating a foreign policy all of its own. That would go a long way to explain why Mark C. Toner has such difficulty explaining what is happening and why; he just doesn’t know. Like many other U.S. agency officials – and even the White House – Toner is no longer in the loop.

      If I weren’t so down to earth and sensible I could easily believe that a cabal of unelected bureuacrats in Washington are running what they see as a New World Government unhampered by the incovenience of democratic elections every few years. They don’t like answering difficult questions. The C.I.A. could even be their military wing. Now, what sort of perverted sucker would want their tax dollars going towards paying terrorists to slit the throats of children?

      To paraphrase Jospeh Heller in Catch 22, just because it’s a conspiracy theory doesn’t mean they’re not conspiring to get you and your children too.

      • TruthTime
        July 22, 2016 at 10:54

        The C.I.A. went rogue the moment they rescued Nazi’s from WW2, allowing fascist ideology of Hardcore Nationalistic Imperialism to further spread within the Agency.

        They became truly rogue with the preplanned more than one shooter killing conspiracy of JFK, RFK, and MLK.

  4. July 21, 2016 at 19:48

    Which terrorist group attacked Building 7 of the WTC? Why should the government bemoan the death of one child? Their wars of regime change and conquest have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of children world-wide. Human life except for their own doesn’t seem to be much of a concern.

  5. Bill Bodden
    July 21, 2016 at 19:27

    The beheading of one person, especially of a child, is an act of pure evil. Without diminishing this act consider also that our military has blown to bits countless children in just the few years since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and many of the bloodthirsty warmongers who helped initiate these crimes against humanity will very likely align themselves with the Queen of Chaos for more of the same in other parts of the Middle East and beyond.

    • Joe L.
      July 21, 2016 at 19:38

      Bill Bodden… just look at Madelaine Albright when she was interviewed if the price of a 1/2 Million dead children in Iraq, due to the sanctions, was a price worth paying and she said yes! It is frightening that people like that darken the halls of power but maybe the adage is right, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Also, it is not shocking at all that Albright is supporting Hillary Clinton, birds of a feather and all… I often think that American politicians, but western politicians in general, do not see people in the “third world” countries as people or that their lives are equal to our own. We can even look domestically and there is definitely a two-tiered system where if you are I steal a car then we are going to jail but bankers, along with politicians, can nearly bring down the world economy causing suffering of countless people meanwhile not even serve one day in jail. How free are we? Plutocracy…

    • Zachary Smith
      July 21, 2016 at 19:55

      According to some ‘fringe’ news sites, the US and France are taking advantage of the Nice attacks to bomb in Syria. And civilians are reported to be the main victims.

      https://www.rt.com/news/352542-syrian-opposition-us-strikes/

      Is the story even true? Given that the Corporate Media hasn’t seen this yet, there is no way for me to say – either way. But there seems to be a consensus that an awful lot of civilians are dying in the Manbij area.

      Condemnations from the UN, the Syrian Government, and the Syrian Rebels. What on earth are France and US bombers doing, and why?

  6. Joe L.
    July 21, 2016 at 19:13

    Sadly people are the last consideration and this all boils down to geopolitics and “interests”. This plays out like a bad record going back to the creation of the Mujahideen which, I believe, in 1979 the US spent $500 Million six months before the Afghan/Soviet War to arm, train and fund. The Mujahideen would go onto become Al Qaeda and the Taliban meanwhile now we have ISIS which, I believe, is an off-shoot of Al Qaeda from within Iraq (after Hussein was overthrown because I believe under Hussein there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq). Also, when I look back on articles about “rebels”, such as the Al Nusra Front, the picture becomes all the more clear when they were “rebels” who pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda. This is a bad soap opera that keeps repeating over and over again – there are no moderate or acceptable rebels, only terrorists and our leaders should be held accountable for helping to create this mess for their own greed.

    • Joe L.
      July 21, 2016 at 19:27

      Even look at the Contras in Nicaragua. Reagan said, “They are our brothers, these freedom fighters and we owe them our help. They are the moral equal of our founding fathers” meanwhile 30,000 people were killed in the Contra War. Over and over again this plays out. How would the US feel if other countries did the same things to it? Sometimes I guess I am just perplexed how people, even to this day after so much history of lies & corruption, can continue to believe that it is O.K. to interfere in other countries. Enough Empire already…

    • Bill Bodden
      July 21, 2016 at 20:55

      Let’s not forget that Israeli crimes against humanity inflicted on the Palestinians contributed to the creation of Al Qaeda.

  7. Richard E. Browning, P.E.
    July 21, 2016 at 16:14

    I cannot believe you still believe the Saudi’s were responsible for bringing down the Twin Towers and the 47-story building 7 on 9/11. Do you also believe that gravity acts sideways instead of downward or that jet fuel that burns at less than 1600F can melt steel that requires at least 2700F. You are completely defying the laws of nature to believe such nonsense.

    • Rikhard Ravindra Tanskanen
      July 21, 2016 at 16:40

      Please go on RationalWiki’s article about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

    • Zachary Smith
      July 21, 2016 at 19:40

      Aluminum and the World Trade Center Disaster”

      http://www.911myths.com/WTCTHERM.pdf

      Consider the analogy of getting some logs going in the fireplace. My match can’t possibly ignite them. But it can start some crumbled paper. Which in turn ignites some small kindling. Those small pieces of wood, once blazing, will get the logs going and I have my log fire.

      I hadn’t known until reading the link that the piles of rubble remained extremely hot for long after the collapse.

  8. Joe Tedesky
    July 21, 2016 at 16:01

    Lies, lies, and more lies, that’s all we get. Although, our American media does a good job of keeping from us the stories which would expose these official lies we are told, and with this media help the American public hasn’t clue to what is going on inside Syria. Finally, as the article mentioned the 2012 leaked DOD memo, which forewarned that the rebels were our best bet to overthrow Assad, and this would lead to a NATO coalition victory somehow in Syria, is a little known piece of information in the average Americans mind. Every country, every rebel, who America has sided with in this Syrian War has their own agenda, and it shows in the results. It’s no wonder that because of all the various interest that we are stuck in first gear when it comes to finishing off this militaristic adventure we have gotten our country involved with.

    With Erdogan now accepting Russia’s friendship, and since after the attempted coup, Turkey’s allegiance to ‘who’ will be a most interesting to watch. I can only wonder where Israel is with all of what is going on, especially after Netanyahu met with Putin recently. Could we see a new coalition in this Syrian/Iraqi fight against ISIS? Will Israel benefit somehow, by siding with Russia? Where will this realignment put Saudi Arabia? Will America join with Russia to defeat ISIS? If America does show signs of siding with Russia, will this be an honest meeting of the two great super powers?

    In my mind, when I first heard of this poor little boys fate, I just had to mentally picture the little fellow playing in front of God in Heaven. It’s stuff like this that makes the world a very ugly place.

  9. Froggy
    July 21, 2016 at 15:59

    This is a sad moment when your so called proxy army ends up beheading a mere child. Those responsible should be hunted down and eventually killed for a murder. I no longer donate money to either the Democratic Party ( and never to the
    Republican Party) due to the corruption of the entire political system primarily caused by the Dodd / Graham Act and the U.S. Supreme Court. We should reduce our support for Israel due to its relentless occupation of Palestein . We went to war for the past 67 years to protect Israel while they would not want to solve their problems by desiring peace with those from whom they stole their land. Israel evidently wants to continue the harsh treatment of Palestein to create solidarity from having an “enemy”. .( The same for Chang Ki. Check & Taiwan )) All of our Middle East problems originated with the creation of Israel. However , Israel has now become ” Rosemary’s Baby” and will not try to seek Peace.. I would recommend to the World Court they list George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Kissinger,, and Carl Rove as war criminals for the havoc and the killings they have initiated under the disguise of creating democracies and spreading capitalism to eventually enrich themselves, in my opinion.

    • Froggy, Ph.D.
      July 22, 2016 at 00:27

      the United States has earned the reputation of being one of the biggest threats to world peace and in destabilizing other countries. We have attempted to destabilize a minimum of 50 countries since the end of World War II. This included phony operations through the World Bank to require various Countries to sell off their utilities at extremely low prices to Enron and other American Corporations and then these same American Countries jack up the prices to extreme heights and then use the local militia to enforce their
      policies when the public riots. See ” The Best Democracy Money Can Buy”. ( Argentina, Bolivia, Chili, Brazil )

    • TruthTime
      July 22, 2016 at 10:39

      The killer should definitely be tried as a murderer.

      As a word of caution to those reading this news for the first time of the beheading of an unlucky child of 12, my advice is to not watch the video. It is very real and it is very gruesome. I don’t know if I have enough words to describe how horrible it is.

      I don’t know why I felt compelled to watch it, my assumption was that it would be too grainy to understand what was happening… I felt physically ILL after viewing it in horror. I nearly felt like puking immediately after, but managed not to. My reaction afterwards was intense since I had not seen anything like this. I began to cry for that poor boys soul. I tried to walk it off, but it only replayed in my head, seeing the terrified look on the boys face. I couldn’t fall asleep that night.

      What people are not pointing out is that radical, twisted groups like Salafists and Wahhabis HATE Palestinians, so it should come as no surprise why they had no problem killing a young Palestinian refugee. It is known that Saudi Arabia leadership has ZERO sympathy for them. It is likewise why groups like Hezbollah fight WITH Assad’s forces.

      All I can keep thinking about lately is that boy. What was his life like leading up to his death? His family must have been displaced from Israel/Palestine, so I can only assume his life was constantly seeing brutality and subjugation. He never got to see the wider world. Not only are Palestinians seen as less than human by Zionists, but ALSO radical Muslim groups simply for who they are. An equivalent Native American-like people being systematically abused and eradicated in the Middle East.

      If there is anything such as a soul for all life, I can only hope his finds peace.

      • david thurman
        July 22, 2016 at 18:16

        In reply to TruthTime:

        You are either lying or they have changed the video, as with the previous supposed beheading videos it’s impossible to discern if it is real or fake. Obviously if it is a real event it is despicable, but given the politics/motivations involved their are too many reasons to suspect obfuscation.

        • TruthTime
          July 22, 2016 at 21:18

          Who are you? I am not lying, so don’t play dumb like Mark Toner of the U.S. State Department. The author of this article, David Lazare, I assume saw it as well since he describes what they do at the end of it to a T. Other authors, Brandon Turbeville, Vanessa Beeley, and Moon of Alabama all likely viewed it. It’s most horrific thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

          https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/aleppo-rebels-behead-a-child/
          http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/07/cia-rebels-behead-kid-and-other-recent-us-successes-in-syria.html

          If you think the videos linked in those articles are fake, which was also posted on Twitter, then I don’t know what else to tell you.

          And again, my warning stands. I advise NOT watching it unless you wish to be emotionally distressed.

          • david thurman
            July 24, 2016 at 12:48

            Still can’t be 100% positive it’s real. I’m not playing dumb or attempting to aid the U.S. Department of State. I don’t think we should be interfering in any way in foreign-sovereign countries period. ISIS wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t gone into Iraq. As with this recent article, “Drones generate more terrorism”; I’ve suspected that for a long while. Still accuracy matters, take the poison gas attack that was blamed on al-Assad when it was later learned it was not accurate and Obama still gets blamed for not following through on his “red line.” Likely done by the folks we support as a pretext for war after Obama drew his red line.

      • Hank
        July 24, 2016 at 11:46

        And to think the USG trains, funds and supports these assholes is sickening to the extreme to me! Any “leader” who from now on gives aid to these common moronic “freedom fighters”(terrorists)should be tried for aiding and abetting terrorism AND murder! Imagine how this young man’s parents and family must feel. Enemy combatants like him deserve to die? Well . . . when you have a 12 year old kid surrounded and trapped by older men, it may have been easier to show a little mercy and try to recruit him instead of causing a shit storm of publicity AGAINST your alleged goals. REAL and JUST revolutionaries do NOT abuse populations because they always want the minds and hearts of the people. These thuggish killers are just another episode of American-supported terror to help overthrow democratically-elected governments all over the world. The USA is not spreading freedom and democracy, but death and destruction.

      • Gray Brechin
        July 27, 2016 at 12:14

        You are absolutely correct in your warning, Truthtime; I thought I was insured to obscene violence because it permeates so much of our entertainment today, but I watched the video of Daniel Pearl’s beheading and had the same reaction: I was physically sickened and couldn’t sleep. There are some acts of barbarism that go far beyond the action movies and video games that are acclimating so many people today to what were formerly considered atrocities.

        Unfortunately, they are catching up. The kind of normalized savagery that fills our newspapers was entirely predictable as the brakes to bloodlust were removed.

  10. onno
    July 21, 2016 at 15:22

    Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 209 and as President of the USA he shows he is well worth it =cynical of course. It only shows that the President of USA is just a speaker or storyteller who is being paid by the 1%, the defense industry, the banks and the large conglomerates. Like the Clinton’s Obama will leave the White House as a rich man, not bad for a College Lecturer from Chicago.

  11. July 21, 2016 at 14:53

    How many more thousands will have suffer and to pay the price for the Supreme Court installing George W Bush as president!!

    • mary
      July 21, 2016 at 16:38

      Thank you Steve, for your comment on George W Bush. Another voice of an American so tired of these elitist sellouts, as I am. Barbara Bush- referring to herself as The Enforcer… enforcer of what???? George H W Bush may have remained more connected to American soil if he hadn’t crossed paths with Barbara.

    • Jerad
      July 23, 2016 at 05:02

      What about the current commander-in-chief, Steve? Anyone with half a brain knows that GWB is traitorous scum but Barack Hussein Obama is the one backing Islamic fanatics today.

    • Hank
      July 24, 2016 at 11:38

      Maybe some day we will all be fortunate enough to see people like Hillary, her husband, the Bushes and all the other war profiteers/mongers lined up on the gallows with their nooses waiting for them!

  12. Drew Hunkins
    July 21, 2016 at 14:24

    The Washington-Zionist-Saudi Terror Network will stop at nothing until Assad is pilloried; Damascus is reduced to rubble; eastern Ukraine is a wasteland; the West Bank is chock full of Jewish settlers; quisling leaders are ensconced in Tehran and Moscow; and the IMF, London City, and Wall Street are siccing austerity and misery on the entire globe.

  13. Bill Bodden
    July 21, 2016 at 13:11

    Given the fact that our top elected and appointed officials sold their souls in Faustian bargains to get where they are it should come as no surprise that they have continued to align themselves with these vile and squalid people. To repeat a point I have made before, what does this say about our so-called elite universities that they produce national leaders bereft of all but a miniscule measure of moral principles? And what does it say about the American people that they would elect such morally deficient people who appoint similarly degraded people to assist in spreading barbarism on a globalized scale?

    Lucifer should reserve a place in hell – not for women who decline to vote for HRC but for our national leaders associated with this and similar abominable events.

  14. Zachary Smith
    July 21, 2016 at 12:59

    The Obama administration’s Middle East policy today is such a welter of confusion that it hardly knows what it’s doing itself.

    I remain convinced that Obama was installed in the White House to take care of Big Business, and Big Banking in particular. His competence in that cannot be questioned. The ‘confusion’ of foreign policy is a consequence of that part of the Presidency being handed off to the neocons. And probably there is some infighting among the factions of the Israel Firsters. We had Hillary, then Kerry basically running foreign policy, and keep in mind that Victoria Nuland and all her buddies still have a job.

    IMO those embedded neocons installed by Hillary and ignored by Obama are busy preparing for when Queen Hillary takes office. New coups, new bombings; new troop movements; anything Holy Israel wants from Hillary it’ll get from Hillary.

    As for the head choppers, there will continue to be the Good Ones and the Bad Ones. Just like now.

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