Remember when all sorts of respectable people were telling you that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? They're at it again. The neoconservatives want to gin up another war based on a lie.
That lie is succinctly expressed in this call to arms by John McCain and Lindsey Graham. In their piece, McCain and Graham spend a goodly amount of time discussing the evils of ISIS. That's an easy sale: Nearly everyone hates ISIS by this point, and for good reason.
But then they slip in this lovely bit:
Any strategy must, of course, be comprehensive. It must squeeze ISIS’ finances. It requires an inclusive government in Baghdad that shares power and wealth with Iraqi Sunnis, rather than pushing them toward ISIS. It requires an end to the conflict in Syria, and a political transition there, because the regime of President Bashar al-Assad will never be a reliable partner against ISIS; in fact, it has abetted the rise of ISIS, just as it facilitated the terrorism of ISIS’ predecessor, Al Qaeda in Iraq.(Emphasis added.) Woah. Woah. WOAH!
ISIS is being used as an excuse to bring about regime change in Syria.
In other words, the threat posed by ISIS is being used as an excuse to bring about the very thing that ISIS wants.
McCain and Graham are betting on American ignorance. Most Americans don't know that ISIS has been fighting against Bashar Assad. Most Americans don't know that the Islamic world is divided between Sunni and Shiite -- two factions which have been at odds for centuries. Most Americans don't know that ISIS is a Sunni fighting force while Assad belongs to an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
ISIS and Assad are blood enemies.
To assert that Assad deliberately created ISIS is like saying that England deliberately created Joan of Arc. It's like saying that Dracula deliberately created Van Helsing. It's like saying that the Clantons deliberately created the Earps. It's like saying that the Hatfields "abetted" the rise of the McCoys.
The very idea is ridiculous.
So how did this "Assad created ISIS" meme get started?
I've been trying to track it down, and what I've found is pretty disturbing. At this point (and my research is not complete), I think that it all traces back to some of the same people who brought us the "Saddam has WMDs" fabrication. More specifically, a little-known news outlet in Lebanon -- funded by some important neoconservatives -- seems to have played a key role.
I will go into all of that quite soon. In the meantime, I ask you to fire up Google. Let's make this investigation a group effort.
Have you seen anyone try to offer evidence for the "Assad created ISIS" meme?
McCain and Graham sure as hell don't feel the need to festoon their argument with anything so gauche as proof. All they give us are unsupported assertions.
Now, a few people have tried to offer something more than proof-by-assertion. These people speak of a prisoner release from "Syria's notorious Sednaya prison on May 31, 2011." But the details of that release become hazier and hazier upon closer examination. Some sources assert that Assad deliberately released hard-core anti-Assad jihadis into the wild, in furtherance of some impenetrable game of 11-dimensional chess. Other sources say that Assad released prisoners in response to popular demand, and that these guys were radicalized while in prison.
Near as I can tell, this "prisoner release" business is it. That's all the "proof" on offer.
By that same logic, one could argue that the United States of America created ISIS. After all, the leader of that group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, spent years in an American prison. Some say he was radicalized during that time. When we released him, he became quite the michief-maker.
Assad had his prisoner release. We had ours. Seriously, what's the diff?
I'm asking my readers to help me investigate this matter. There is always the possibility that I've missed something important, and I don't want to be blindsided.
Do you know of any real evidence that Bashar Assad had anything to do with the creation of ISIS? (I'm speaking in terms of deliberately creating ISIS. Merely "inspiring" the jihadis doesn't count.) Has anyone offered an argument that goes beyond those highly dubious assertions concerning the 2011 prison release?
Can you find a detailed, objective account of that prison release?
Is there an official report -- by any intelligence agency or human rights group or United Nations team or anyone else -- which details the creation of ISIS? Does that report conclude with the words "Blame Assad because it's all his fault"?
At this time, it seems to me that some very slick malarky-peddlers have come up with a way to dupe the easily confused American public. A war against ISIS has subtly morphed into a war against the very guy that ISIS wants to topple.
This is a Dubya-style deception. Another war based on another Big Lie. It's happening now, right before our eyes.
Am I wrong? Can you think of any hard evidence that proves me wrong?
18 comments:
Your readers might like some background on ISIS (if it helps)....
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The Christian & Muslim genocide going on seems reasonable enough to do something. Seeing as how were the ones responsible for the atrocities currently happening in Iraq because of Mr. Obama's & Mr. Bush's policies it requires us to fix it.
Anon, you don't get it. I was afraid there would be someone like you out there.
Christ. A reaction like yours makes a writer despair. I tried to be very clear, yet you STILL didn't comprehend my point. There are times when language seems insufficient to convey ideas.
All right. Nothing for it but to try it AGAIN.
I was not (NOT NOT NOT) talking about the necessity of doing something about ISIS.
What I am trying to talk about is the neocon plan to use ISIS as an excuse to change the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad.
Bashar Assad and ISIS are two different things.
The propagandists are trying to convince dimwits like you that Assad somehow created ISIS. I see no evidence for that idea.
Lots of evidence indicates that our allies (Saudi Arabia, Qatar) brought ISIS into existence. They wanted to use ISIS as a proxy army against Assad.
For all of his many sins, Assad has treated the Christians of Syria fairly. It is the anti-Assad rebels who have burned churches and kidnapped nuns. (I've devoted a number of previous posts to these outrages.)
That is why the substantial Christian community in Syria has generally supported Assad in this civil war. They don't like him, but they consider him the lesser of two evils.
(There's a nun in Syria named Mother Agnes you may want to read up on. I've written about her.)
The ISIS maniacs are Sunni. They are murdering and oppressing Shiite Muslims, whom they consider apostates.
Bashar Assad is an Alawite, an offshoot of Shia Islam. ISIS wants to destroy all Alawites. Even the Free Syria Army (the supposed moderates) will kill Alawite captives simply because they are Alawites.
Assad has tried to cooperate with the West in the fight against ISIS. We rejected his offer.
In my view, we should be working with Assad against ISIS and other Sunni militants. Alas, long ago, our neocons fixated on regime change in Syria and Iran, and it seems that nothing will dissuade them from this long-term plan.
They claim that they are against Assad because he is a brutal dictator. Indeed he is, but he is arguably no worse than the ruling house of Saudi Arabia, whom we support.
For reasons of its own, Israel (which seems to find the Saudi regime tolerable) has declared that Assad must go.
Get it?
Sorry. The 9:51 was Ben
This may help; I put together a short piece that borrowed heavily from the work of Thierry Meyssan at Voltaire Network:
Al The Sanators Terrorists: John McCain, The Nazis and ISIS
http://www.dojorat.com/all-the-senators-terrorists-john-mccain-the-nazis-and-isis/
Meyssan's piece outlines meetings John McCain had in 2013 with both the Free Syrian Army leader General Idriss Salem and Ibriham Al-Badri. McCain is in a photo with these men and others on a terrorist watch list.
Ibriham al-Badri is now known as the ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, or more recently as Caliph Ibriham.
McCain must now establish a new legend for the origin of ISIS since he was caught red-handed in organizational meetings with them.
What a lying sack of crap.
Refer to Meyssan's original article linked in mine and there is quite a bit more info.
I hate war. I hate what US did and doing in the ME. But right now what is going on created by The US. ISIS is something that shouldn't be allowed to continue. US broke it they should fix it. At this point I don't care how they do it but I want them gone.
ANOTHER Anonymous commenter who completely misunderstood what I wrote! Good Jumping Jesus. Did you read ANY of it? Did you even read the headline?
I was not (NOT NOT NOT) talking about ISIS, dolt.
I was talking about regime change in Syria.
Shit. Why bother explaining? Do words even matter any more?
It's 2003 all over again! No matter how many times I told people that Saddam Hussein had nothing to so with 9/11, people insisted that we had to take down Saddam Hussein because of 9/11. And now I'm telling people that Bashar Assad's only relationship to ISIS is adversarial...and people keep thinking that we need to take out Assad because Assad "created" ISIS.
This country is hopeless.
Joseph, the closest thing I have seen is an article in the London Review of Books on 9th April 2014 by Peter Neumann: "Suspects into Collaborators". Neumann, a professor of Security Studies at King's College, London, argues that after the invasion of Iraq, the Syrian regime deliberately facilitated the movement of jihadis, Syrian and others, into Iraq in order to undermine the U.S. occupation.
Neumann has much detail but not, as far as I can see, much documentation for this quite common claim. Curiously, he never mentions the many threats made against Syria by leading U.S. neocons after the invasion of Iraq, only saying "everyone in Assad's inner circle feared that Syria would be next".
According to the Wikipedia article on Neumann, he "offered some useful lessons" for British troops in Iraq in a February 2004 article, based on his study of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Lars
I think you're misreading the two anonymous comments, although I agree that they aren't responsive to what you asked for. I read them to say that the US (not Assad) directly or indirectly created ISIS, so we ought to fix it.
Odd that you should mention that one, Lars! I just came across that piece myself, an hour or so ago.
It does make sense to me that Assad would release jihadis into Iraq during the Bush era (and perhaps even into the early Obama era). We all recall that in the triumphalist days of "Mission Accomplished," the neocons were making noises about marching on the Syria and then to Iran. So it makes sense that Assad would want Iraq to be as troublesome as possible for the Americans.
Besides, from his point of view, the wackos were better relocated into some country other than his own.
"Seeking to establish emirates"
Moon of Alabama has in its Current Top Picks, "A Short History Of The War On Syria, 2006-2014". In the second paragraph the first link led to an April 2011 news article which discusses violent killings in Syria and the government's blaming of outside extremist groups that sure sound a lot like ISIS.
Here's the relevant paragraph;
"On Monday, the Interior Ministry identified the gangs as "armed Salafi groups," referring to an ultraconservative form of Islam that has its roots in Saudi Arabia and can be found all over the region. The statement carried by the state news agency said they were seeking to establish "emirates" and were "abusing the freedoms and reforms launched in the comprehensive program with a timetable by President Bashar Assad.""
you want to turn off the "made in the usa" lie machine? good luck to that!!! wanting to just stop the one lie that is the focus of this article would be a good start i suppose, but still.... it would be like trying to turn around the titanic! cheers james
Everyone, I am very grateful for the links.
Cambridge, I know full well what they were saying. I said the same thing myself in a previous post.
But the dolts didn't understand that this post was not about that. I am writing about the devious attempt to use the ISIS crisis to justify regime change in Syria.
This is the Iraq war all over again. How many times did you have this exchange back in 2003?
"But we have to invade Iraq! Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11!"
"Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11."
"But we have to invade Iraq! Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11!"
And here's the 2014 version:
"But we have to topple Bashar Assad! He created ISIS!"
"No he didn't. ISIS is Assad's greatest enemy. It's more likely that WE created ISIS as a proxy army against Assad."
"But we have to topple Bashar Assad! He created ISIS!"
Maybe we are doomed to repeat this pattern every decade...
PLEASE DO WHAT YOU CAN IN US TO STOP THE INSANITY!!!
Al Assad is NOT the monster the propaganda makes him out to be.
Ghouta gassing was an atrocity false flag - US-Saudi-Turkey.
More input that may help :
1. Start of the war - by Insane McCain - Senator Death everywhere he appears in the world , war starts - Syria evidence in links :
http://tinyurl.com/nbdd7y6
2. CIA CONTRACTOR: “ISIS FABRICATED ENEMY” CREATED BY THE BANKING CARTEL’S PUPPET, SUPPORTED BY INTEL AGENCIES!
http://tinyurl.com/mpbqpaj
3. Some good arguments on the Orwellean rubbish that al Assad created ISIS .... e.g. the recent Tabqa airbase massacre of SAA
a real blow to Syria & troop morale
http://tinyurl.com/oj4xjjl
Another quite comprehensive source of info :
http://tinyurl.com/lxgseah
I like the not so coincidental derivation of the acronym from Israel Secret Intelligence Service .... for the destruction and now balkanisation of Iraq & Syria into small weak warring sectarian cantons is DIVIDE & CONQUER for Israel to expand way beyond already illegally occupied Golan Heights ....
Coincidence ? :
Jun. 27, 2002
The cult of ISIS
"A nephew of the late philosopher Isaiah Berlin and the great-grandson of a famous general from Berlin met yesterday in Brussels to discuss the common threats facing Israel, Germany and the 18 other countries that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The great-grandson is Gebhardt von Moltke, Germany's ambassador to NATO and formerly the political deputy - a position reserved for the German representative - of the alliance's secretary-general. The nephew is Efraim Halevy, the head of the Mossad, Israel's espionage agency, or as he is usually introduced in English, the chief of the ISIS (Israel secret intelligence service). SIS is the official name of MI6, the British version of the Mossad; Halevy was born in Britain and came to Israel as a youth..."
http://tinyurl.com/mqa5s5a
Also - dot forget that for the past >3yrs, Syria's U.N. ambassador Bashar Jaafari has been reporting in UN on Islamist terrorists arriving from >80 countries .. begging for UN inspection on site to see what was going on ..... as far back as May 2012 - even CNN reported on the invitation.
All UN reports and many briefings by this poor man trying to tell the world what was happening in Syria on youtube
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/10/world/meast/syria-unrest/
Hi it is me aka dolt. I don't understand the reason for the out burst but hay... Anyway let me me rephrase since it was so complicated the first time. WMD was a lie, ISIS is not. They are the WMD. I don't know of a lot of people who would believe that Assad created ISIS since it was not long ago Obama and the warmongers were trying to go into Syria to fight in their side(remember the red line). Now it seems to me and I hope I am terribly wrong and out of line here; since the victims of ISIS are not particularly one of the chosen ethnically, that may be the reason for the delay in taking them down. They kill in an afternoon close to # of people who died in 9/11. They SLAVE women by the hundreds as young as fifteen for sex, and people still debating the logistics and politics of attacking them. That is shameful. Now attacking Isis doesn't have to be from Syria it could be from Iraq and they are willing at this point. I could have gone into Saudi and Qatar but
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