The U.S. propaganda campaign against Iran has tried to tie it somehow to Al Qaeda, including exploitation of a newly released document, but a close reading shows a very different story, says Gareth Porter at The American Conservative.
By Gareth Porter
For many years, major U.S. institutions ranging from the Pentagon to the 9/11 Commission have been pushing the line that Iran secretly cooperated with Al Qaeda both before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. But the evidence for those claims remained either secret or sketchy, and always highly questionable.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei visiting the holy city of Qom in January 2013. (Iranian government photo)
In early November, however, the mainstream media claimed to have its “smoking gun” — a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The Associated Press reported that the Al Qaeda document “appears to bolster U.S. claims that Iran supported the extremist network leading up to the September 11 terror attacks.” The Wall Street Journal said the document “provides new insights into Al Qaeda’s relationship with Iran, suggesting a pragmatic alliance that emerged out of shared hatred of the United States and Saudi Arabia.”
NBC News wrote that the document reveals that, “at various points in the relationship … Iran offered Al Qaeda help in the form of ‘money, arms’ and ‘training in Hezbollah camps in Lebanon in exchange for striking American interests in the Gulf,’” implying that Al Qaeda had declined the offer.
Former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, writing for The Atlantic, went even further, asserting that the document includes an account of “a deal with Iranian authorities to host and train Saudi-Al Qaeda members as long as they have agreed to plot against their common enemy, American interests in the Gulf region.”
But none of those media reports were based on any careful reading of the document’s contents. The 19-page Arabic-language document, which was translated in full for The American Conservative, doesn’t support the media narrative of new evidence of Iran-Al Qaeda cooperation, either before or after 9/11, at all.
It provides no evidence whatsoever of tangible Iranian assistance to Al Qaeda. On the contrary, it confirms previous evidence that Iranian authorities quickly rounded up those Al Qaeda operatives living in the country when they were able to track them down, and held them in isolation to prevent any further contact with Al Qaeda units outside Iran.
Taken by Surprise
What it shows is that the Al Qaeda operatives were led to believe Iran was friendly to their cause and were quite taken by surprise when their people were arrested in two waves in late 2002. It suggests that Iran had played them, gaining the fighters’ trust while maximizing intelligence regarding Al Qaeda’s presence in Iran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (from 2005 to 2013)
Nevertheless, this account, which appears to have been written by a mid-level Al Qaeda cadre in 2007, appears to bolster an internal Al Qaeda narrative that the terror group rejected Iranian blandishments and were wary of what they saw as untrustworthiness on the part of the Iranians. The author asserts the Iranians offered Saudi Al Qaeda members who had entered the country “money and arms, anything they need, and training with Hezbollah in exchange for hitting American interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.”
But there is no word about whether any Iranian arms or money were ever actually given to Al Qaeda fighters. And the author acknowledges that the Saudis in question were among those who had been deported during sweeping arrests, casting doubt over whether there was ever any deal in the offing.
The author suggests Al Qaeda rejected Iranian assistance on principle. “We don’t need them,” he insisted. “Thanks to God, we can do without them, and nothing can come from them but evil.”
That theme is obviously important to maintaining organizational identity and morale. But later in the document, the author expresses deep bitterness about what they obviously felt was Iranian double-dealing in 2002 to 2003.
“They are ready to play-act,” he writes of the Iranians. “Their religion is lies and keeping quiet. And usually they show what is contrary to what is in their mind …. It is hereditary with them, deep in their character.”
The author recalls that Al Qaeda operatives were ordered to move to Iran in March 2002, three months after they had left Afghanistan for Waziristan or elsewhere in Pakistan (the document, by the way, says nothing of any activity in Iran before 9/11). He acknowledges that most of his cadres entered Iran illegally, although some of them obtained visas from the Iranian consulate in Karachi.
Among the latter was Abu Hafs al Mauritani, an Islamic scholar who was ordered by the leadership shura in Pakistan to seek Iranian permission for Al Qaeda fighters and families to pass through Iran or to stay there for an extended period. He was accompanied by middle- and lower-ranking cadres, including some who worked for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The account clearly suggests that Zarqawi himself had remained in hiding after entering Iran illegally.
Strict Conditions
Abu Hafs al Mauratani did reach an understanding with Iran, according to the Al Qaeda account, but it had nothing to do with providing arms or money. It was a deal that allowed them to remain for some period or to pass through the country, but only on the condition that they observe very strict security conditions: no meetings, no use of cell phones, no movements that would attract attention. The account attributes those restrictions to Iranian fears of U.S. retribution — which was undoubtedly part of the motivation. But it is clear Iran viewed Al Qaeda as an extremist Salafist security threat to itself as well.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2016. (UN Photo)
The anonymous Al Qaeda operative’s account is a crucial piece of information in light of the neoconservatives’ insistence that Iran had fully cooperated with Al Qaeda. The document reveals that it was more complicated than that.
If Iranian authorities had refused to receive the Abu Hafs group traveling with passport on friendly terms, it would have been far more difficult to gather intelligence on the Al Qaeda figures who they knew had entered illegally and were hiding. With those legal Al Qaeda visitors under surveillance, they have could identify, locate and ultimately round up the hidden Al Qaeda, as well as those who came with passports.
Most of the Al Qaeda visitors, according to the Al Qaeda document, settled in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province where the majority of the population are Sunnis and speak Baluchi. They generally violated the security restrictions imposed by the Iranians. They established links with the Baluchis — who he notes were also Salafists — and began holding meetings. Some of them even made direct contact by phone with Salafist militants in Chechnya, where a conflict was rapidly spiraling out of control. Saif al-Adel, one of the leading Al Qaeda figures in Iran at the time, later revealed that the Al Qaeda fighting contingent under Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s command immediately began reorganizing to return to Afghanistan.
Waves of Arrests
The first Iranian campaign to round up Al Qaeda personnel, which the author of the documents says was focused on Zahedan, came in May or June 2002 — no more than three months after they have had entered Iran. Those arrested were either jailed or deported to their home countries. The Saudi Foreign Minister praised Iran in August for having transferred 16 Al Qaeda suspects to the Saudi government in June.
In February 2003, Iranian security launched a new wave of arrests. This time they captured three major groups of Al Qaeda operatives in Tehran and Mashad, including Zarqawi and other top leaders in the country, according to the document. Saif al Adel later revealed in a post on a pro-Al Qaeda website in 2005 (reported in the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat), that the Iranians had succeeded in capturing 80 percent of the group associated with Zarqawi, and that it had “caused the failure of 75 percent of our plan.”
The anonymous author writes that the initial Iran policy was to deport those arrested and that Zarqawi was allowed to go to Iraq (where he plotted attacks on Shia and coalition forces until his death in 2006). But then, he says, the policy suddenly changed and the Iranians stopped deportations, instead opting to keep the Al Qaeda senior leadership in custody—presumably as bargaining chips. Yes, Iran deported 225 Al Qaeda suspects to other countries, including Saudi Arabia, in 2003. But the Al Qaeda leaders were held in Iran, not as bargaining chips, but under tight security to prevent them from communicating with the Al Qaeda networks elsewhere in the region, which Bush administration officials eventually acknowledged.
After the arrests and imprisonment of senior al Qaeda figures, the Al Qaeda leadership became increasingly angry at Iran. In November 2008, unknown gunmen abducted an Iran consular official in Peshawar, Pakistan, and in July 2013, al Qaeda operatives in Yemen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat. In March 2015, Iran reportedly released five of the senior al Qaeda in prison, including Said al-Adel, in return for the release of the diplomat in Yemen.
In a document taken from the Abbottabad compound and published by West Point’s Counter-Terrorism Center in 2012, a senior Al Qaeda official wrote, “We believe that our efforts, which included escalating a political and media campaign, the threats we made, the kidnapping of their friend the commercial counselor in the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar, and other reasons that scared them based on what they saw (we are capable of), to be among the reasons that led them to expedite (the release of these prisoners).”
There was a time when Iran did view Al Qaeda as an ally. It was during and immediately after the war of the mujahedin against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. That, of course, was the period when the CIA was backing bin Laden’s efforts as well. But after the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 1996 — and especially after Taliban troops killed 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998 — the Iranian view of Al Qaeda changed fundamentally. Since then, Iran has clearly regarded it as an extreme sectarian terrorist organization and its sworn enemy. What has not changed is the determination of the U.S. national security state and the supporters of Israel to maintain the myth of an enduring Iranian support for Al Qaeda.
Gareth Porter is an independent journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of numerous books, including Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare (Just World Books, 2014). [This article originally appeared at The American Conservative.]
Somewhere I read that trustworthy people doubt the authenticity of these few pages which connect Iran to Al-Qaida.They explained it by the language used and the layout of these pages and the time of publication.
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documents like these seemingly pop up every time the US wishes to demonize Iran?
That’s why I don’t believe any of it.
The documents like these have been used by “The West” to start aggressive wars for a long time. Only four countries in the ME – Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Iran – did not have any thing to do with Terrorism or Terrorists. They are/were rather stable and prosperous countries too. All four have been/are the targets of the U.S. , U.K., France. And add Germany as well. Look what has happened to Libya and Syria. No body is going to be punished for inflicting all this carnage of death and destruction on these countries.
Iran has been the target of the Zionist NeoCon Cabal in U.S. for a long time now. But Iran is a big country with 80 millions people. And there is going to be carnage on a very big scale which will affect West Europe. Russia and China just can not stand by and let it happen. We only hope that some calmer and saner heads prevail in Washington. Trump may be anything else but he is not a fool. I am sure he knows the consequences, as it will be an excuse for the Ruling Establishment to remove him from the Office.
Here are a few observations made of how Iran showed deep sorrow over the 911 Attacks.
https://photosiran.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/irans-exceptional-reaction-to-911-attacks-candlelit-vigils-for-the-victims-and-60k-soccer-fans-respected-a-minutes-silence-2/
“a CIA document written by an unidentified Al Qaeda official and released in conjunction with 47,000 never-before-seen documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan”
I thought Gareth Porter was a mite better than this. Even if Osama bin Laden hadn’t been dead for years and even if the ever-changing story of his execution was true, and even if he had quite implausibly kept 47,000 potentially incriminating documents at his home, then I still wouldn’t trust a document from an unknown source especially if it was coming from the CIA.
Gareth porter has plummeted in my estimation simply for giving this obvious pile of crap any more attention than it deserves.
The time of BinLaden’s death is immaterial, and one would expect a large database at his headquarters compound (47,000 documents is only about 20 file boxes). The document apparently does not advance CIA goals. So feel free to question its provenance or authenticity, but there should be more cause than that.
The obvious pile of crap is the contention that Iran supported Al Qaeda or was involved in the perpetration of the crimes of 9/11. The point of Mr. Porter’s report is to expose the false characterizations by the MSM of the supposed CIA document, and to suggest a much more plausible understanding of events and the nature of the document in question. “Trust” in the document itself is neither here nor there with regard to Porter’s discussion (particularly since the document doesn’t actually implicate Iran)…. the issue is what AP, WSJ, the Atlantic, and NBC “News” reported (or regurgitated) and how that lines up with the realities Porter is well-acquainted with.
I’d say Mr. Porter deserves credit for an excellent report.
( Enhanced Interrogation Techniques )
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Negritude
pot call kettle black
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frantz-Fanon
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-cold-war-cia-interrogaters-leaened-from-the-nazis
According to BBC, MBS of Saudi Arabia is calling the Iranian leader Hitler. Nothing like the Pot calling the Kettle black!
This might unlikely but MBS and Adolf Hitler have several commonalities. Both are nationalists, believing in their nation’s culture and race as superior to all others. Both are linked by their willingness to destroy and kill to benefit their interests. Both accuse members of another religion for the problems faced by their nations. They also have connections to American finance and industry, and are recorded as having conducted political purges in a bid to secure power.
Funny, isn’t it, how people go all the way back to Hitler when there is a perfectly good contemporary comparison staring them right in the face: Netanyahu. He fits the description perfectly.
backwardsevolution –
You are right on the mark with Netanyahu – with the ethnic cleansing he had been preaching and now implementing for a decade or more.
George Soros, and the Gang are spending billions of dollars for their globalization and open borders project – of course with them as the controllers. Why no person in the Media or Political Establishment asks them this question – let us start this globalization with Israel first. It seems to me the only ethnically and culturally pure State to be left in The West in Soros’s plans is Israel. It also seems to me that the Soros and the likes of him have destroyed the Western Civilization as it was – with this Global Capitalism they have been spearheading. Yes there are other forces at work, but they are the main perpetrators.
The Associated Press laid the foundation for their death prematurely announcing Hill Clinton won the primary. More digression: I kinda miss Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For seven years he was in the spotlight. Now, we hear nothing at all regarding him. He told it like it was to the Cheney/George W. crime family. They shot off their mouths at him and shoved it up their ass. I kinda miss him.
jim – incredible work by Philip Giraldi illustrating the influence that Jewish money plays in American…..well, American everything. Or is it Israeli everything? Or is there a difference?
http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israels-money-machine/
Another more-than-creditable (and credible) contribution from Gareth Porter. Thanks once again!
I wasn’t aware of this latest bit of disinformation. My main MSM read is the NY Times: I don’t remember seeing anything recent there along the lines of the reports from AP and others quoted above, and a quick search of the Times site suggests there indeed may not have been one.
If indeed the NY Times steered clear of this one, I wonder why.
this has nothing to do with anything, I wish everyone a happy thanksgiving.
I’m confused ..Aren’t big Al the Kyder aka “Al Sham”/ “the moderate rebels” of Syria now our friends .. and the Iranians are fighting them? The US clearly thinks the masses are all thick.
‘Putinchev’s Cobra – The Stung Clean Break Drive on Iran’
WHEN: Wed Nov 29, 2017, 5:00 ~ 6 pm
WHERE: Otay Branch San Diego Public Library,
3003 Coronado Ave, San Diego, Ca 92154
WHO: Dr Lance Dale
Overview, zeitgeist, context and potential sweeping clarification of US and Israeli strategic intent and current play in the light of the Iran Deal, UN 2334, the ICC, and other recognized existential events*
The Stung Clean Break Drive on Iran
Putin’s Triple Crown – Hillary, Trump and Kahanist-dominant Political Judaism
Matrix/Intersectionality Checkmate, Modeling PM Barak/8200’s Great Tsunami on Israel
Zeitgeist Snap and Shattered Pro-Israeli/Kahanist Glass Ceiling
The Struggle of Judaism to free itself from Kahanism and it’s Messianic Settlers, ‘The Missed Pivot: Hillary’s Misfired Next Level’, ‘the CIS and the Israeli Generals Revolts’
Mueller’s Windfall Checkmate, ‘Connected Trump/Netanyahu/Kushner Cases’, ‘Mueller’s 2nd Bite at Big Zion’
The La Brea Tarpit of Kahanism and Jared Stuck to It
The Social Revolution against Trump merging with Sociocultural American Revolution against Kahanist-dominant Israel Lobby/Israeli Apartheid
The Great Wave of Kahangawa – heads up guys in the boats!
Schisms, Fusions, Transitional States, and America’s Schism from Israel anticipated by Diaspora Jewry’s Schism from Israel, Israeli Judaism’s Schism from Diaspora Judaism, and other existential internal Israeli divisions
Fusion of Messianic Settlers fused to Adelson fused to Bannon fused to Trump fused to Netanyahu…whoops
‘Getting Seen pushing America into Clean Break Wars – Netanyahu’s Royal Discomfiting of the Pooch’ – Bibi’s catastrophic surfacing/exposure of 30 yrs of prime Israeli/AIPAC Clean Break Strategy as ‘Mr Iran’ melts down
The Successful 2nd American Revolution, the Obama Revolution over Kahanism, a ‘Club of 2’
Please visit/view daily headlines at TimesofIsrael.com and Haaretz.com leading up to talk- if possible
==
next in series;
‘Netanyahu’s Putsch over the Iran Deal and UN 2334 at the heart of Trump’s Impeachment’, and ‘Obama’s Successful 2nd American Revolution over Kahanism’
Amongst many other things, on this day I’m thankful that I saw the Kahanist Avocado on Morning Joe (Richard Haas) say he now has ‘No Strategy’ after facing the double catastrophic news that
1- Trump and Putin decided not to have Trump help the Clean Break Drive launch into Syria, and ALSO
-that Mueller is now focusing on the Jared-Netanyahu conspiracy to subvert UN 2334. Voila, CHECKMATE ISRAEL AND THE ISRAEL LOBBY
Courage is contagious….
Since the following post was put into “moderation”, I’ll try again and add the link below the article. What do you make of this? Are the “old guard” shut down now?
“Yesterday Putin introduced Assad to the military commanders who are most responsible for the stabilization of his country. Syria as a political unit has survived.
Saudi Arabia’s old guard are imprisoned, impoverished and losing influence around the world by the minute. Israel’s neoconservative government, led by madman Benjamin Netanyahu, is fulminating impotently at the turn of events, and, of course, ISIS has all but been wiped out in both Syria and Iraq.
The U.S. continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth, allowing some ISIS members cover to escape to be used again another day, presumably against Iran and/or Lebanon, while taking credit for ISIS’s collapse and the capture of Raqqa.
This reflects the deep-seated issues within the vast U.S. diplomatic, military and intelligence communities and the difficulties President Trump is having bringing these disparate groups to heel while not appearing weak and ineffectual.
You need only look at the odd event over the weekend of military helicopters arriving at the CIA’s headquarters at Langley to know that, at a minimum, there is an internal war occurring within the U.S. government.
The best explanation I’ve heard (and this is by no means a corroborated fact) is that the U.S. military put on a show of force against Obama administration hold-overs in the CIA still operating its terrorist proxies in Syria. And that these operations are in direct conflict with U.S. military goals there.
If that is the case then Putin is right to simply ignore the Americans and move policy talks forward at an accelerated rate, ignoring the talks in Geneva and giving Assad all the support he needs to continue on as Syria’s leader, if that is what the Syrian people want.
Given Assad’s open support of his military and the way the war against ISIS and other separatist groups was led by Syrian forces on the ground, there is little doubt that Assad will win that support in any upcoming elections.
Putin Won’t Gloat
The big question is, however, what price will be extracted from the U.S. for their part in all of this. Putin will not put Trump in a bad position. The loss of face for the U.S. has already occurred internationally.
The Obama administration’s complicity in this sorry chapter of Middle East history has been mostly laid bare for anyone with eyes open enough to see.
Putin will offer Trump a way to save face for the U.S. while laying all the blame on Obama, Clinton, McCain and the rest of them. If you don’t think this ties into Robert Mueller’s ‘Russia-Gate’ investigation run amok, you aren’t paying attention.
Mueller is trying to desperately save everyone implicated here from treason charges. But, I expect, everything about the U.S. political scene is about to change radically.
Once Judge Roy Moore enters the Senate (the odds of that not happening are close to zero), Trump has an impeachment-proof majority in the House and the Senate and can shut down Mueller or get him to play ball.
Trump has the opportunity to play peace-maker here. He can solidify his position as the handler of Saudi Arabia’s and Israel’s worst actors and keep them on a short leash.
In fact, one could make a credible argument that is what the purge in Saudi Arabia was all about. Mohammed bin Salman’s counter-coup was done with Trump’s blessing.
Putin can act similarly to allay suspicions of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s intentions. He can also restrain Assad from retaliating against his enemies, though rightly deserved, in order to build a lasting peace. And once the talks are over and the threat of Kurdish independence is over, Turkey will withdraw its troops from Syria.
Putin called Trump earlier in the week to update him on what comes next. It’s obvious that the two have been in contact about how things are progressing in Syria. And, Trump, for his part has smartly left the clean-up work to Putin while he deals with his domestic neoconservative problems.
Whatever happens after this – framework for long-term peace or an uneasy ceasefire with Russia playing the go-between for the time being – the U.S. has lost all credibility in the region outside of Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
And we have no one to blame except ourselves.”
Thank you backwardsevolution and Stephen J. For your diligent and I think correct links as to the totally underreported international narrative that is taking place outside of America. I find similar reporting at http://www.defenddemocracy.press/syria-summit-kicks-off-in-russia-with-some-anti-saudi-trolling/
Bob Van Noy – thanks for the great link. Interesting to read the comments at Russia Insider (first time I’ve been at that site).
I’m hoping that what we’re hearing is true, that Syria will get its country back, that the refugees can go home and rebuild their country. I think the instigators have been sufficiently bitch-slapped and beaten, and I’m pretty sure some of the Washington neocons are crying over their expensive Scotch tonight.
I also think that none of this would have happened if Hillary Clinton were President. I would like to have seen her face when she heard about the Saudi prince arrests.
There’s been big changes in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon. This all bodes well for the people of the Middle East.
Cheers, Bob.
The good link provided by backwardsevolution ties in well by the article I wrote at link below.
————————————————————————————
November 18, 2017
Is There Hypocrisy and Hypocrites at Halifax Security Forum in Canada?
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/11/is-there-hypocrisy-and-hypocrites-at.html
Stephen – excellent job of getting all the links together like that! Add my Qatar link to your post. It’s always good when you get former government officials spilling the beans. It’s not just something they suspect, but something they “know” happened. Right from the horse’s mouth.
Thanks, Stephen.
Hi backwardsevolution great find by you. I have added the link you found to the links at the bottom of my article on my website. just watched a TV “news station” parrot more BS on Syria. The MSM corporate media are a sick joke.
cheers Stephen
Stephen J. – it’s a good thing I don’t watch much TV, because otherwise I would have thrown something through it by now! It’s like watching a referee make one bad call after another; you want to just throttle them.
I actually never thought I’d see the day when so many people lie, and do it with a smile on their faces.
Cheers, Stephen.
Jim – try to clean up your typos and spelling errors, it will give your comments more credibility. Just a friendly tip, not a personal criticism.
Maybe things are not as they seem:
“Yesterday Putin introduced Assad to the military commanders who are most responsible for the stabilization of his country. Syria as a political unit has survived.
Saudi Arabia’s old guard are imprisoned, impoverished and losing influence around the world by the minute. Israel’s neoconservative government, led by madman Benjamin Netanyahu, is fulminating impotently at the turn of events, and, of course, ISIS has all but been wiped out in both Syria and Iraq.
The U.S. continues to talk out of both sides of its mouth, allowing some ISIS members cover to escape to be used again another day, presumably against Iran and/or Lebanon, while taking credit for ISIS’s collapse and the capture of Raqqa.
This reflects the deep-seated issues within the vast U.S. diplomatic, military and intelligence communities and the difficulties President Trump is having bringing these disparate groups to heel while not appearing weak and ineffectual.
You need only look at the odd event over the weekend of military helicopters arriving at the CIA’s headquarters at Langley to know that, at a minimum, there is an internal war occurring within the U.S. government.
The best explanation I’ve heard (and this is by no means a corroborated fact) is that the U.S. military put on a show of force against Obama administration hold-overs in the CIA still operating its terrorist proxies in Syria. And that these operations are in direct conflict with U.S. military goals there.
If that is the case then Putin is right to simply ignore the Americans and move policy talks forward at an accelerated rate, ignoring the talks in Geneva and giving Assad all the support he needs to continue on as Syria’s leader, if that is what the Syrian people want.
Given Assad’s open support of his military and the way the war against ISIS and other separatist groups was led by Syrian forces on the ground, there is little doubt that Assad will win that support in any upcoming elections.
Putin Won’t Gloat
The big question is, however, what price will be extracted from the U.S. for their part in all of this. Putin will not put Trump in a bad position. The loss of face for the U.S. has already occurred internationally.
The Obama administration’s complicity in this sorry chapter of Middle East history has been mostly laid bare for anyone with eyes open enough to see.
Putin will offer Trump a way to save face for the U.S. while laying all the blame on Obama, Clinton, McCain and the rest of them. If you don’t think this ties into Robert Mueller’s ‘Russia-Gate’ investigation run amok, you aren’t paying attention.
Mueller is trying to desperately save everyone implicated here from treason charges. But, I expect, everything about the U.S. political scene is about to change radically.
Once Judge Roy Moore enters the Senate (the odds of that not happening are close to zero), Trump has an impeachment-proof majority in the House and the Senate and can shut down Mueller or get him to play ball.
Trump has the opportunity to play peace-maker here. He can solidify his position as the handler of Saudi Arabia’s and Israel’s worst actors and keep them on a short leash.
In fact, one could make a credible argument that is what the purge in Saudi Arabia was all about. Mohammed bin Salman’s counter-coup was done with Trump’s blessing.
Putin can act similarly to allay suspicions of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s intentions. He can also restrain Assad from retaliating against his enemies, though rightly deserved, in order to build a lasting peace. And once the talks are over and the threat of Kurdish independence is over, Turkey will withdraw its troops from Syria.
Putin called Trump earlier in the week to update him on what comes next. It’s obvious that the two have been in contact about how things are progressing in Syria. And, Trump, for his part has smartly left the clean-up work to Putin while he deals with his domestic neoconservative problems.
Whatever happens after this – framework for long-term peace or an uneasy ceasefire with Russia playing the go-between for the time being – the U.S. has lost all credibility in the region outside of Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
And we have no one to blame except ourselves.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-22/did-putinassad-meeting-cement-end-americas-mid-east-dominance
netanyahu is on the ropes in Israel.nyt,wapo and other media don’t tell US.
dahoit – I hope you’re right.
To pick just one highly suspect claim from the article you link to:
“You need only look at the odd event over the weekend of military helicopters arriving at the CIA’s headquarters at Langley to know that, at a minimum, there is an internal war occurring within the U.S. government.”
As far as I can tell, the ONLY evidence that this “odd event” happened comes from the Hal Turner Radio Show (http://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news/u-s-national-news/1626-reports-us-marine-expeditionary-unit-meu-lands-at-langley-2200-marines). Unfortunately, Turner is a far-right provocateur who’s been convicted of making threats against multiple federal judges and who traffics in bizarre and/or discredited conspiracy theories. For example:
1) The Holocaust never happened (https://web.archive.org/web/20070607135103/http://www.halturnershow.com/RedCrossRecordsProveHolocaustWasFraud.html)
2) The US government granted China eminent domain as collateral for US debt, allowing the Chinese government to physically take land, buildings, and entire cities (https://web.archive.org/web/20090302062835/http://www.halturnershow.blogspot.com/2009/02/feds-grant-eminent-domain-as-collateral.html)
3) North Korean sleeper cells were responsible for a gas line explosion in Michigan (http://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news/u-s-national-news/1647-major-gas-line-explodes-in-michigan-sabotage-suspected-north-korea-sleeper-cells)
I realize this is only a small element of the article you linked to, but if the author is willing to uncritically use someone like Hal Turner as a credible source I’m going to maintain an extremely skeptical attitude toward his entire thesis.
The ex-Prime Minister of Qatar is spilling the crown jewels. He said that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel, U.K., Germany, France and the U.S., among others, have had a huge hand in ISIS. In fact, they ARE the “hand” of terrorist organizations.
“A few days ago, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar Hamad Bin Jassim in an interview with the BBC announced that his country had been providing all sorts of assistance to the armed opposition groups in Syria through Turkey for years. […]
Hamad Bin Jassim announced that weapons and equipment was distributed to all sorts of opposition groups via Turkey. This operations were a common routine of American, Turkish and Saudi military personnel in this country. At the same time, the Incirlik Air Force base would host a joint operational headquarters, where intelligence officers from the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, France and Great Britain would coordinate the course of proxy operations in Syria. Washington has gone as far as to dispatch 6 special reconnaissance satellites for those officers to observe the entire territory of Syria 24 hours a day non-stop. […]
The former Prime Minister of Qatar announced that a total of 137 billion dollars was wasted on the attempts to topple Assad’s government since the beginning of the war, while some of these funds were stolen by various field commanders that became millionaires overnight. In addition, considerable resources were wasted on the attempts to bribe Syria’s military brass, in attempt to persuade them in betraying their country or desert their positions. On average, a Syrian officer would receive from 15 to 30 thousand dollars for betraying his country.
According to Hamad Bin Jassim, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri played a major role in fomenting the Syrian conflict with an extensive support of a number of pro-Saudi Lebanese officials. In addition, the former Qatari Prime Minister mentioned the role that Iraqi Kurds played in the formenting of the so-called Syrian “civil war”, especially Massoud Barzani. At the conclusion of the interview, he announced that his government played a big role in the destruction of Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, while acting on Washington’s behalf.”
https://journal-neo.org/2017/11/18/revelations-of-a-high-profile-qatari-officials-reveal-a-wider-anti-syria-conspiracy/
ISIS, Al-Qaeda – all in a day’s work. Seriously, without massive funding, arming and training from Western governments, there’s no way these terrorists organizations would get their foot off the ground.
USA -world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism.
backwardsevolution –
Good link. We tend to forget that we now live in an Orwellian World here. It is already here; it is not somewhere in the Future . This is what has become of “the Land of the Free and of the Brave”.
I read the article and watched the interview of Hamad Ben Zassem, the former Qatari FM and Prime Minister a few days ago. But Judy Woodruff last evening on the PBS news hour was talking about Hezbollah and Iran being the terrorists who have taken over Syria. There was a so called expert invited on the show to promote it. And of course my wife believes every word what is fed by Judy Woodruff, and others on the news channels. And our Ruling Masters (Zionists!) who control and run the Congress know it.
There were couple of very good cross talk shows on RT during 2017 Valdai Discussion Club Forum in October. On one of them invited guests were Dominic Lieven, British Historian, William Wohlsworth of Dartmouth College, and Dmitri Suslov. It is sad to watch that how our academia in U.S., fed by this grants from the Ruling Masters, has simply become a tool in the hands of the Ruling Establishment. All of them tend to toe the line. Wohlsworth did not toe the line exactly but never said a word against it.
As we know it, Russia is nowhere near the standard of living of the West, and these gentlemen invited to their talk shows are arrogant because of that – as if they are superior to Russians. Enconced in their big comfortable homes and well paying cushy appointments at the Universities, they are either ignorant of what the the cities in this Country look like or they simply don’t care. The country side in U.S. is also going down. America has changed and Europe is changing quickly. According to Professor Lieven, the population of the U.K. will be quarter Muslim in less than three decades.
All the the politicians in “The West” are simply puppets in the hands of Zionist Oligarchy. Soros has just donated $15 billions to Open Society Foundations for implementing the regime change agenda in countries across the Globe. I wonder how this Zionist currency speculator has accumulated all this Wealth.
This is the World we live in now.
Dave P. – what can I say? It’s like we’re living in a Twilight Zone episode – unbelievable!
Re Soros: “I wonder how this Zionist currency speculator has accumulated all this Wealth.” I’ve wondered this too. I’m certain it had nothing to do with luck. He really should be designated a “lethal weapon” for all the damage he’s doing: the destruction of nations, culture, traditions.
People like Soros could care less about the poor, but they use them in order to fulfill their larger agenda. At least I am seeing more people wising up to him.
Take care, Dave.
Backwardsevolution,
Revelations by the former Prime Minister of Qatar easily meet the definition of “bombshell”, but following the despicable pattern of omission of extremely important news developments this story remains outside the awareness or consciousness of Americans getting their information from major media corporations. Most readers of Consortium News, like yourself, have grown accustomed to such clear, damnable and outright manipulation – frankly criminal in nature for the tactics aid and abet those breaking international laws, helping to perpetuate highest-levels of criminality and harm to innocent people in the process – and suggest something maximally dramatic be undertaken to bust up the lies and end, once and for all, the harming of innocent people.
During the Reagan-Bush administration’s criminal, covert Contra warring in Nicaragua, four U.S. military veterans went on a fast in Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the profound harm done to innocent Nicaraguan people, and were successful in creating a storm of opposition across America leading to the Iran-Contra Hearings and scandal. That demonstration was hugely successful before the internet started becoming increasingly popular, and provides a worthy example of the “maximally dramatic” for dealing with today’s iterations of war crimes. Perhaps a good and honest group of veterans reading these comments will find the time has come to replicate the 1980’s good actions by (4) American veterans in order to end current wars.
One might predict such an effort would, as the internet has become an exponentially more powerful tool for communicating to people across the Earth since the 1980’s, have an immeasurably positive impact in the push for true world peace.
Jerry – great comments. Very interesting about the four brave veterans. Good people like that, taking a stand, makes such a powerful statement. Thanks, Jerry.
Jim, I prefer to call the pro-Israel Jews “zionists” so as to avoid the appearance of racism, and to include the many non-jewish zionists. Some of the non-zionist Jews are among the strongest critics of Israel.
I believe this is a War Crime. If you agree, please circulate. See Link Below.
—————————————————————–
Senator Murphy Demands Congressional Action On Saudi Arabia’s Blockade In Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcdzEPaLyWk
often, I toss and turn wondering what is a “pragmatic alliance” and how should I defend again it. At first, I thought it to be a lot like entangled quantum bits; where bits, both visible as well as invisible, separated by millions of miles, act and behave as a common entity as if they are, or were, but one structure or part of the same process. Soon I realized the best example of that model was economic Zionism; Zionism is a force that attaches and entangles objects and processes separated by thousands of miles, living in completely different cultures, and linked by a belief in fairy tail, acting in time sync, glued by reprisal fears, to act in common to achieve a common XXXX.. when lead bankers act, so too do the entangled.
A question for physicists: Was quantum entanglement involved in the unfoldment of the Big Bang
(which I call the Great Flowering)? If so, then every bit of our Universe is entangled with every other bit forever. Kind of an elementary particle version of “we are all brothers”………….
Then perhaps there is only one ultimate identity – and we are each and all THAT.
Fascinating; but nothing whatever to do with the subject at hand, unless of course, the Zionists are even behind that as well.
Accusing Iran of having links with Al Qaeda is the same as the pot calling the kettle black. The US is funding, arming and supporting Al Qaeda in Syria and elsewhere. I would go so far as to say that Al Qaeda is a brigade of the US military in all but name. It would appear that somehow associating Iran with 9-11 is already planting in the minds of the American sheep that Iran did 9-11 just as the same mind games were played for the attack on Iraq. It won’t matter a bit to the brainless American public that they were already told Iraq did 9-11 and was accepted by them as fact with a little help from the warped media. If the American public were told that farther Xmas had something to do with 9-11 they would believe it. We over here in the UK are just as stupid, perhaps even more so because we believed that hyena tony Blair who has given lying a bad name.
Normally, in America anyway, when we say, “It’s the pot calling the kettle black,” it’s when the guilty party is blind and doesn’t realize how hypocritical he is acting. The US’s supplying aid to Isis and talking oppositely is intentional deflective hypocritical propaganda.
Will “God Bless America”?
For the horrific wars that were planned
And all the killing in many lands
For destroying countries and cities too
And all the victims of its many coups
Will “God Bless America”?
For watching Syria on hellish fire
Was regime change its desire?
For selling arms to despots and dictators
And all the other evil creatures
Will “God Bless America”?
For its illegal invasion of Iraq
And all the fallout from this attack
Children contaminated with depleted uranium
Was this a “gift” from America at the millennium?
Will “God Bless America”?
For killing helpless children with drones
Decimating their countries and destroying their homes
Leaving any still alive horribly maimed
Are the assassins who do this evil and insane?
Will “God Bless America”?
For also helping to bomb Libya
And aiding Al-qaeda in Arabia
Does America really bring “democracy”?
Or has it become a powerful hypocrisy?
Will “God Bless America”?
Yemen is another country on fire
America’s “allies” is the bombing choir
Supported by Uncle Sam and others
And starving people die and smother
Will “God Bless America”?
Will war crimes with its allies go unpunished?
Is the rule of law and justice finished?
Does anyone care about crimes against humanity?
Are we in hands of a ruling insanity?
Will “God Bless America”?
Is the “land of the free” creating hell on earth?
Is world war three awaiting birth?
Or is killing, bombing, destroying, just Hysteria?
Or should it be called a hellish Amnesia?
Will “God Bless America”?
“Woe to those who call evil good” (Isaiah 5:20)….
[more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/02/will-god-bless-america.html
I think Reverend Jeremiah Wright had it right when he said God will rather damn America than bless it. That one true but controversial statement was enough cover for Obama to throw his one time mentor under the bus, and proceed to violate everything Jeremiah tried to teach him about truth and justice.
Of course Obama got quite a bit more than thirty pieces of silver for his betrayal of those higher principals – he has now joined the millionaire class he longed for. Funny how politicians (Like Bill and Hillary) can make so many millions on the relatively modest government salaries for their positions. Wonder how they do that ?
how?
– as we all sadly know, mike k, they’re dedicated apparatchiks for the financial interests of their benefactors.
(It was so ugly how Reverend Wright was attacked during his speech at the National Press Club trying to explain his very noble positions – it was a witch hunt on this man).
it’s a corrupt gravy train that permeates the whole culture.
At the top, MUST BE those who make the most from the massive government contracts and/or from the billions of dollars the government spends to protect access to natural resources.
Whoever they are by name, by inference, we know that they play a big role in defining government policies because those policies create a mess for the country but reward them.
They expect their apparatchiks to spin a narrative of fear to get acquiescence from the rest of us.
Somehow, the narrative (which always has huuuuuge contradictions within it) seems to dovetail with the financial interests…..wasting tax dollars to get them more wealthy.
For the life of me, I don’t understand what the fuck they are up to with demonizing the pro Shia group which seems to include Russia and Iran. It also includes Syria. Bashar Al Asaad has probably done some terrible things to stay in power, but so have the Saudi’s and for the moment we seem to love them…..
hoo boy.
I’d like to believe that the American people, who have been robbed of their middle class security attained through New Deal policies, have gotten sick and tired of the horrific mess created by our expensive foreign policy and also tired of the financial bungling that has robbed people of their retirement and their homes here in the U.S.
Unfortunately the gravy train includes the propaganda machine and some of the most “prestigious” universities that are paid to do the research for TPTB.
Nothing will improve while I’m around, but hopefully young people who surely see that they can do better than our “leaders” have done, will work hard to run for office and try to right this crazy ship before it goes down.
Run for office?? This mess won’t be fixed at the ballot box.
hah hah, sadly you may be right – it would take a huuuuuuge cultural, economic, shift….
and is quite unlikely to succeed – too many powerful entrenched interests….
Very good poem! Will God bless America? Did God bless Sodom and Gomorah(?)?
Impressive how Gareth Porter had all that history at his fingertips, contradicting this new red flag. Keep up the good work. Keep sharing. Thank you.
Well, here are the names of the incompetent (and presstituting) “interpreters” :
1. The Associated Press
2. Long War Journal, a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
3. Foundation for Defense of Democracies is led by Mark Dubowitz, an ardent ziocon and expert on sanctions against Iran
4. NBC News.
5. The Atlantic – specifically the former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price (Ned Price worked at the CIA from 2006 until last week)
Do these “thinkers” have something to tell us about teh following?: ““Ever notice how ISIS (aka Daesh) has never attacked Israel or Israeli interests or indeed the corrupt princes of Saudi Arabia – all of which would be the real targets of a genuine jihadi band were there such a thing in fact?
Syria, again and again, has uncovered weapons caches with US or Israeli markings. And those pick-up trucks ISIS originally ran around in were supplied by Saudi Arabia. And who do you think pays all the salaries for those thugs? And supplies weapons and food and intelligence?
It’s all a big fraud, a very nasty fraud putting the lives of millions at risk.
ISIS is a tool, not a cause, a tool in America’s long campaign to literally pave over much of the Middle East so that its colony there feels secure and can dominate.” http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/boy-is-this-stupid-or-what/#comments
Anna, I was struck by your comment “Ever notice how ISIS has never attacked Israel or Israeli interests or indeed the corrupt princes of Saudi Arabia.”
If that is true – especially about Israel – then I hope Robert Parry or someone writing for Consortium will address that. The implications are enormous! And surreal.
It makes one ask : has Israel helped to fund and also give tactical information to Al Queda? Or even more surreal : Is Israel an actual founder of Al Queda?
It says something about the surreal world we live in that these questions can even be asked.
There have been several recent articles claiming strong links between Israel and ISIS. I cannot assess their reliability, and will have to rely upon others to search for those.
Thank you Gareth Porter for this very useful information. The accusations of any connection between Iran and AlQaeda were always implausible because the Sunnis (AlQaeda) and Shiites (Iran) have so long been in conflict. AlQaeda could not even establish a relationship with Saddam Hussein of Iraq although his secular Baathist party was predominantly Sunni.
But of course the bribed politicians of our fake democracy must have a way of blaming US sponsorship of AlQaeda in AfPak on their latest proposed victim Iran, to get more bribes from Israel. Why wouldn’t we completely sacrifice our honor, fortunes, and future to support Israeli land thefts in the Mideast? And turn our government into a gang operation in the process?
Yes. As Realist said above, the US has been a gang operation from it’s genocidal founding. Biggest Mafia on Earth is located in Washington DC.
It is so easy for the establishment in the US through, their complicit media to release lies about the Middle East, which most people have such scant knowledge of. And the work of experts who know the truth on these matters never reaches the public. The huge majority of Americans never questioned the content of the texts that were crammed down their throats in their so-called education, so they have no experience discerning when their government is lying to them.
The American government stopped standing for truth and justice long before you were born, Mike, and I know how old you are. In fact, the country was founded on the principle of liberty and justice only for the oligarchs when the constitution was first written, a document enabling racists, slavers and genocidal maniacs license to do anything in the name of personal profit and gain. The U.S. government has been the de facto Church of Mammon for the whole world since its founding. Happy “Thanksgiving.” “I’ve got mine, Jack.”
Agreed. Exactly. Propaganda (lies) is the oldest art of statecraft. This black art has been brought to such perfection in the modern world that the population as a whole doesn’t have a clue that they are part of the greatest terrorist Empire on Earth – the USA.
Sadly before we all born but not the nation.
I believe the war criminals in our midst are determined to start a war with Iran. See link below for more info.
February 4, 2017
Will There Be War With Iran?
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-there-be-war-with-iran.html
I take your point but I am not sure that they have the stomach for it. It is completely contrary to the Neocon doctrine of only attacking enemies who are incapable of fighting back. Clearly Iran does not fall into that category. More-so now with the liberation of Syria, the renewal of the relationship with Iraq and, perhaps most importantly the fact that Russia and China would take Iran’s part to defend their interests in the region. Any assessment of what would likely result from a war on Iran would lead any rational person to avoid it at all costs. The key word there is “rational” so I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
Yes, an outright war with Iran would cow the chickenhawks. The zionist US will likely continue to support AlQaeda et al insurgency in Iraq/Syria/Iran to satisfy bloodlust and preserve their empire of secret wars.
“It is completely contrary to the Neocon doctrine of only attacking enemies who are incapable of fighting back.”
I agree and . . . remember that Iran does joint military training exercises with nuclear armed Pakistan.
That makes the risks even higher for the Neocons and Zionists.