H/t Hope n’ Change
H/t Dry Bones
Posted tagged ‘Islamic slaughter’
Cartoons of the day
November 20, 2015LIVE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’: Shooting, Hostage Situation Underway At Radisson Hotel, Mali
November 20, 2015LIVE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’: Shooting, Hostage Situation Underway At French Troops’ Radisson Hotel, Mali
20 Nov 2015
Source: LIVE: ‘Allah Hu Akbar’: Shooting, Hostage Situation Underway At Radisson Hotel, Mali
Gunmen have taken 170 hostages, killing three so far at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako. The gunmen are reported to be releasing people that can recite verses from the Quran.
Automatic weapon fire was heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre where security forces have set up a security cordon, according to Agence France Presse. Security sources told AFP the gunmen were “jihadists” who had entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates.
“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” one security source said.
Malian soldiers, police and special forces were on the scene as a security perimeter was set up, along with members of the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and the French troops fighting jihadists in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.
French troops are believed to have been stationed at the hotel.
LIVE UPDATES BELOW (GMT):
3:44PM: The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, earlier made a statement in the French Assembly. His comments were met with applause. He said:
“This morning Bamako, Mali, a country which is resisting jihadism with so much spirit, has been attacked.
“A hostage situation is in progress. I want to express here once again France’s total support for our friends in Mali and Malian democracy.
“We are at their sides yesterday, today and always.”
3:41PM: The BBC has reported how the rescue operation unfolded.
First, Malian security forces, supported by UN troops as well as French and U.S .special forces, set up a cordon. They then entered the hotel and brought out hostages at a rate of one or two roughly every 20 minutes.
As the liberators moved from floor to floor gunfire was heard, with the attackers firing most heavily when the rescuers reached the fifth and seventh floors.
3:35PM: The Malian security minister has announced that the gunmen are “holding no more hostages”, reports AFP. The death toll may have risen to 18.
3:29PM: Besides Mali, at least nine countries have citizens among the hostages — Algeria, Morocco, Germany, Belgium, China, France, India, Turkey and America.
3:23PM: The Malian security minister has listed 89 freed hostages, excluding the six U.S. citizens freed by U.S. Special Forces. It is believed that 43 hostages remain in the building.
3:15PM: The freed hostage who said he heard attackers speaking in English as he hid under his hotel bed — Guinean singer Sakouba ‘Bambino’ Diabate — says the accents were Nigerian, according to Le Monde.
3:10PM: Seven Algerians, six of which are diplomats, and two Russian airline workers are among the freed hostages.
3:01PM: Northern Mali’s Al-Mourabitoun, a group of mostly Tuaregs and Arabs but also Algerians, Tunisians and other nationalities, has claimed responsibility on Twitter. Their claim is as yet unverified.
2:56PM: An Al-Qaeda affiliate group has claimed that they are behind today’s terror attack.
2:54PM: A military spokesman has announced that six U.S. citizens have been freed.
2:52PM: The Indian government confirms all 20 of its citizens have been freed.
2:50PM French special forces are reported to have arrived at the hotel where an estimated 138 hostages, including 13 staff, are being held by terrorists.
2:44PM: AFP confirms US special forces are helping rescue the hostages, according to Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza. He said:
“Special Operations Command Forward-North and West Africa personnel are currently assisting hostage recovery efforts at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako.
“US forces have helped move civilians to secured locations, as Malian forces clear the hotel of hostile gunmen.”
2:41PM: The U.S. State Department believes U.S. citizens might be present at the hotel
1:50PM: Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier has reported that two Germans have been released from hotel attack
1:28PM: The hotel has announced an information telephone line for families of potential hostages.
1:26pm: The Indian Embassy in Mali has said all the Indians who had been staying at the Radisson Blu hotel are safe. It had been reported that 20 Indians were hotel guests. An embassy official the BBC:
“They are in a block of the hotel which is slight off the main area. They are employees of a private business enterprise. We are in touch with them.”
1:19pm: US and French troops accompanied Malian forces entering the hotel, Bloomberg is reporting. The news is said to come via a local United Nations official’s e-mail.
1:03PM: 125 guests and 13 staff are reported still to be held hostage, but sources warn the numbers are “fluid”.
12:56PM: Malian journalist Moussa Konda reports security forces told him they were able to free hostages because attackers did not know the hotel layout very well.
12:53PM: There is still confusion over numbers in the siege situation. Hostage numbers are now estimated to have been between 150 to 180 and attackers numbering between two and 13. Turkish, French, Indian, Chinese and Guinean citizens were staying at the hotel which was reported to be 90 per cent occupied.
12:45PM: Amid reports that passengers were told all flights between Paris and the US have been cancelled, flight radar shows an Air France Boeing 777-200 from Paris to San Francisco performing several loops and a u-turn over the English Channel before returning to France, reports The Mirror.
12:38PM: Reuters reports a freed hostage saying the attackers spoke English before launching the attack, saying “did you load it, let’s go.”
12:18PM: Around 40-50 members of the French counter-terrorist and hostage rescue specialist GIGN anti-terror unit are en route to Mali.
12:14PM: Film footage from inside and outside the hotel recorded by Malian television has been broadcast on Sky News.
12:13PM: Air France confirms 12 of their crew who were in the hotel, two pilots and 10 cabin crew, have been “extracted” from the siege. All Air France flights to Mali have been suspended.
11:50AM: Images from the siege.
11:40AM: Air France has cancelled a flight to Mali.
11:35AM: An escaped hotel staff member says the attackers have taken the hostages underground to a basement of car parks and storage rooms which is more difficult to access than the upper floors, according to Jeune Afrique.
11:24AM: Aaron Klein at Breitbart Jerusalem points to a possible Mali connection to last week’s Paris attacks.
Last year a well-known jihadi website with ties to al-Qaida called on supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks inside France with focus on soft targets. Significantly, the al Minbar Jihadi Media Network also called for the assassination of President Francois Hollande, who was inside the soccer stadium hit by two suicide bombers during the Paris attacks.
The Al Minbar Jihadi Media Network publishes propaganda for al Qaeda affiliates, including al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. It is particularly active in Mali.
The website said its anti-France posters came in response to French military campaigns in Mali and the Central African Republic, where France has maintained 2,000 soldiers as part of a 6,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission.
At the time, Hollande responded directly to the threats, saying, “We are extremely vigilant” and “It’s not the first time there are threats.”
The Mali branch of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb is particularly capable and has international connections. It has been led by Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, now the strongman of the group Al-Murabitoun.
Belmoktar claimed responsibility for a January 2013 attack on an Algeria gas facility in which at last 39 foreign hostages were killed during a three-day siege.
He has also been connected to the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack.
11:21AM: The UN’s Minusma taskforce has joined the Mali security services in dealing with the siege.
11:11AM: BBC French Service’s Mamadou Moussa says that a radical Islamist militant leader in Mali had called on his followers to target French interests in the country.
11:08AM: Earlier statement from Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno:
“There is a new terrorist attack taking place in Mali at the moment. Hostages have been taken at the Radisson hotel – a place everybody knows.
“There are men and women, citizens who are just doing their jobs and have been targeted.
“I condemn in the strongest possible way this barbaric act which has nothing to do with religion.
“I reaffirm our unending support for our brother Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (Mali’s president) and all the people of Mali.
“Nothing is very clear as yet. But we can expect blood and tears.”
11:05AM: Three Turkish airline workers have escaped from the hotel, reports Reuters.
10:57AM: Security services convinced that the attack has been launched by Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Dine.
10:46AM:
The Real Containment
November 19, 2015The Real Containment, Steyn on Line, Mark Steyn, November 19, 2015
It works for Barry Manilow concerts, so why not against ISIS?
[T]he biggest obstacle to a vigorous ideological pushback is the west’s politico-media class – Obama, Kerry, Merkel, Cameron, Justin Trudeau, etc – who insist that Islam and immigration can never be a part of the discussion, and seem genuinely to believe that, say, more niqabs on the streets of western cities is a heartwarming testament to the vibrancy of our diversity, rather than a grim marker of our descent into a brutal and segregated society in which half the population will be chattels forbidden by their owners from feeling sunlight on their faces.
**********************
Because (per Obama’s latest complaint) of “how decentralized power is in this system”, over 30 American governors have told the President they don’t want him shipping battalions of “Syrian” “refugees” to their states. He, in turn, has sneered that his critics are scared of “widows and orphans”. With his usual brilliant comic timing, he said this a couple of hours before a female suicide bomber self-detonated in St Denis.
Nonetheless, the presidential-gubernatorial split is an interesting development. Obama has responded with a brand new hashtag: #RefugeesWelcome. If you live in Hashtagistan, this is another great hashtag to add to such invincible hashtags as #PeaceForParis, #JeSuisCharlie, #UnitedForUkraine and, of course, #BringBackOurGirls. If you live in the real world, the magic hashtags don’t seem to work so well, and these governors seem to think #RefugeesWelcome will perform no better for New Mexico and New Hampshire than the others have worked out for Paris, Ukraine and Boko Haram-infested West Africa.
So reality is not yet entirely irrelevant – and reality is on the march:
An Italian priest is fighting for his life in northern Bangladesh after being shot and seriously wounded by unidentified gunmen.
The attack on Wednesday is the latest in a series targeting foreigners in the country, which have been blamed on Islamic militant groups including Islamic State.
A Jewish teacher has reportedly been stabbed in Marseille by three people claiming to be ISIS supporters… The suspects, who were reportedly wearing ISIS badges, made anti-semitic comments before stabbing the teacher.
A married couple plotted an Isil suicide bombing of the London Underground or Westfield shopping centre around the tenth anniversary of the 7/7 suicide attacks, a court heard on Tuesday.
Mohammed Rehman, 25, and his wife Sana Ahmed Khan, 24, had enough bomb material to “cause multiple fatalities”…
Honduras Detains Five Syrians Said Headed To U.S. With Stolen Greek Passports
The man arrested Tuesday trying to enter Parliament carrying a hidden meat cleaver probably has mental illness and isn’t a terrorist, the head of the RCMP said Wednesday.
Toronto man Yasin Mohamed Ali, 56, was arrested outside the Centre Block of Parliament in Ottawa and appeared in court Wednesday.
Hmm. “Mentally ill” “Toronto man”… But then, as John Kerry has assured us, all of the above is nothing to do with Islam. Objecting to mass murder in your country of nominal citizenship is also nothing to do with Islam:
France: Only 30 Muslims Show Up For Rally Against Paris Jihad Attacks
What’s the punchline? “…and seven of those were wearing suicide belts”?
ISIS is not itself the cause of the problem. What ISIS is is the most effective vehicle for the cause – which is Islamic imperialist conquest. What ISIS did in the Paris attacks was bring many disparate elements together – Muslims born and bred in France, Muslim immigrants to other European countries, recently arrived Muslim “refugees”… An organization that can command numerous assets of different status – holders of 11 different passports – and tie them all together is a formidable enemy. Playing whack-a-mole on that scale will ensure we lose, and bankrupt ourselves in the process.
Meanwhile, the caliphate is coining it: ISIS is the wealthiest terrorist organization in history, making billions of dollars a year from oil sales, bank raids, human smuggling, extortion and much else. So they have a ton of money with which to fund their ideological goals.
And yet, as I say, ISIS is merely the vehicle for the ideology, which in the end can only be defeated by taking it on. You can’t drone the animating ideas away. And the biggest obstacle to a vigorous ideological pushback is the west’s politico-media class – Obama, Kerry, Merkel, Cameron, Justin Trudeau, etc – who insist that Islam and immigration can never be a part of the discussion, and seem genuinely to believe that, say, more niqabs on the streets of western cities is a heartwarming testament to the vibrancy of our diversity, rather than a grim marker of our descent into a brutal and segregated society in which half the population will be chattels forbidden by their owners from feeling sunlight on their faces.
But best not to bring that up. So the attackers got suicide bombs to within a few yards of the French president. And a football match intended to show that European life goes on ended in cancellation, security lockdowns and the German chancellor being hustled away to safety. And the Belgian government has admitted it can no longer enforce its jurisdiction in parts of its own capital city within five miles of Nato headquarters… And yet, for all that, the European papers are surprisingly light on analyses of what’s going on. The multiculti diversity omertà is ruthlessly enforced, and few commentators (and even fewer editors and publishers) want to suffer the taint of “Islamophobe!” or “Racist!” Easier just to run another piece on how heartwarming that Eiffel peace symbol is – as even my old friends at the Telegraph, a supposedly “right-wing” paper, did.
Responding to Steve Sailer’s column “Four Ways To Save Europe”, Kathy Shaidle comments:
Sailer assumes Europe wants to be saved.
Whereas Europe is like, “What black eye? No, I ran into a door. Everything’s cool. You must be weird or something…”
Europe as a battered wife in denial – just like Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s all-American hometown girl.
Meanwhile, during the moment of silence for the dead of Paris, Turkish soccer fans aren’t shy about yelling “Allahu Akbar!”. It was, in fact, the least silent “moment of silence” of all time. Euphemism, circumspection and self-censorship are strictly for the infidels.
So is the gubernatorial pushback (against a president who calls them bigots and racists) a sign that the sappy hashtags are having a harder time post-Paris? Or is it just a passing phase in the immediate aftermath of mass slaughter?
Donald Trump had a good line at his Massachusetts rally on Wednesday night:
ISIS is ‘contained’? The only thing that’s contained is us.
Whether that’s true in America, it’s certainly true of the European political discourse. And, unless that changes, in Sweden, Belgium, Austria and elsewhere, we are approaching a point of no return.
~On Thursday evening, I’ll be checking in with Sean Hannity coast to coast on Fox News at 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific.
1 Dead, Ten Wounded, in Gush Etzion Shooting and Ramming Attacks + Updates.
November 19, 20151 Dead, Ten Wounded, in Gush Etzion Shooting and Ramming Attacks
By: Jewish Press News Briefs Published: November 19th, 2015
Source: The Jewish Press » » 1 Dead, Ten Wounded, in Gush Etzion Shooting and Ramming Attacks
The Gush eztion attack area
Photo Credit: Courtesy Gush Etzion Regional Council
There were one dead and ten wounded in a shooting and ramming attack on Thursday in Gush Etzion. The IDF reported that an initial inquiry reveals that the terrorist opened fire from a passing vehicle at a shuttle van at the intersection of Alon Shvut, and then carried on towards the Gush Etzion junction — where he collided with a private car. Police and army forces who arrived at the scene shot the terrorist dead.
MDA forces in Gush Etzion junction reported that after resuscitation attempts medics and paramedics determined the death of an 18-year-old on the scene. In addition, the forces provided medical care and evacuated to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center a 50-year-old man in very serious condition with a gunshot wound in his upper body. The man was unconscious. Four additional Israelis were lightly injured and evacuated to receive treatment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
3 killed in Etzion Bloc shooting attack, bringing day’s toll to 5
Palestinian man, young US national said among dead; at least six wounded; 2 attackers detained; earlier, Palestinian man stabs 2 people to death in Tel Aviv
http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-19-2015/
3 killed, including American tourist, in terrorist shooting near Gush Etzion in the West Bank
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Suspected-terrorist-shooting-at-Gush-Etzion-Junction-in-the-West-Bank-434692
Three people were murdered and seven wounded in a shooting and ramming attack on Thursday in Gush Etzion.
The IDF reported that an initial inquiry reveals that the terrorists opened fire from a passing vehicle at a shuttle van at the intersection of Alon Shvut, and then carried on towards the Gush Etzion junction — where they collided with a private car. Security forces who arrived at the scene shot one terrorist dead.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/shooting-attack-at-gush-etzion-junction/2015/11/19/
FBI admitted in 2013 that “dozens” of terrorists have already entered the U.S. through refugee program
November 19, 2015FBI admitted in 2013 that “dozens” of terrorists have already entered the U.S. through refugee program
By Pamela Geller
November 18, 2015
The FBI has 900 ongoing ISIS-related investigations. And now the traitor in the White House wants to bring in at least 200,000 more “refugees,” with untold numbers of jihadis among them. Absolute madness. – See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/11/fbi-admitted-in-2013-that-dozens-of-terrorists-have-already-entered-the-u-s-through-refugee-program.html/#sthash.UmeZr62C.dpuf
FBI In 2013: ‘Dozens’ Of Terrorists In US Through Refugee Program,” by Kerry Picket, Daily Caller, November 17, 2015:
WASHINGTON — The FBI told ABC News two years ago the U.S. may have already allowed in “dozens” of terrorists as refugees. The revelation came after two al-Qaida terrorists who were admitted as refugees and lived in Bowling Green, Ky., later said they attacked U.S. military personnel in Iraq.
“We are currently supporting dozens of current counter-terrorism investigations like that,” FBI Agent Gregory Carl, director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, said in an ABC News interview at the time….
French PM Manuel Valls Warns Of Risk Of Chemical Attack
November 19, 2015French PM Warns Of Risk Of Chemical And Biological Attack
19 Nov 2015
Source: French PM Manuel Valls Warns Of Risk Of Chemical Attack
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that France is at risk of chemical and biological attacks from terrorists, in an address to the French parliament.
“We must not rule anything out,” Mr Valls said. “I say it with all the precautions needed. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons.”
He said that “terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria… but for what it is.”
“What is new are the ways of operating; the ways of attacking and killing are evolving all the time,” he added.
“The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is unlimited. Assault rifles, beheadings, suicide bombers, knives or all of these at once.”
The BBC reports that Mr Valls also called on Europe to adopt new measures to share information about airline passengers. “More than ever, it’s time for Europe to adopt the text… to guarantee the traceability of movements, including within the union. It’s a condition of our collective security.”
Mr Valls’s comments come as it is reported US intelligence warned French authorities in May that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the so-called “mastermind” behind the Paris attacks, was involved in plotting an attack.
AP reports that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis said that the plot “may indicate that the group has developed the capability to launch more complex operations in the West,” as opposed to “lone wolf” attacks.
The report identified Abaaoud as the leader of the Belgian plotters and claimed he directed operations from a safe-house in Athens.
It said that although the threat was primarily aimed at Europe, it cautioned that similar attacks could happen in the United States.
“We cannot discount the possibility for potential complex attacks here in the Homeland,” it said.
Op-Ed: The US president’s migrant darlings
November 19, 2015Op-Ed: The US president’s migrant darlings, Israel National News, Jack Engelhard, November 19, 2015
(Please see also, Attkisson: Obama won’t read intelligence on groups he doesn’t consider terrorists. — DM)
There is no accounting for the suicidal stupidity that afflicts our leaders whose enlightenment is bringing us all down together in one heap. Obama did nothing for Christians who were being beheaded by ISIS but he is all in for Muslims. People are starting to ask whose side is he on? Does he care about us, or does he care mostly about them?
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Incoming migrants mean incoming anti-Semites, but Obama’s migrant darlings imperil all Americans.
The man on CNN (or maybe Fox?) says that we should welcome Obama’s 10,000 Syrian migrants. They’re harmless.
After all, there’ve been no signs of terrorism from the thousands, Syrians and otherwise, who have already encamped within the United States over the years, meaning that aside from the Fort Hood slaughter, the Boston Marathon massacre and other such displays of affection – heck, what’s the problem?
The problem is — what do we mean by terrorism?
Islamic terrorism (just about the only flavor we’ve got nowadays) does not always go boom, as it did in Paris and as it does so often in Israel.
Every time a Jewish kid or speaker gets bullied on campus by Islamic delinquents who’ve infiltrated our schools – that’s terrorism.
I hate to be so blunt about this, but 10,000 new Islamic Syrian migrants automatically means 10,000 new anti-Semites. You read it here first. Nobody else says this because saying something so brutally obvious is politically incorrect and impolite. But that’s the math.
On what day did the plight of the hordes come before the safety of dutiful tax-paying citizens? Hollande is still inviting them in, 30,000 over the next two years, and when it happens again he’ll wonder again why…and why French Jews are packing fast for Israel.
Ditto Merkel, who started it all – and we shall see what her politeness soon brings to Germany and throughout rape-capital Europe.
There is no accounting for the suicidal stupidity that afflicts our leaders whose enlightenment is bringing us all down together in one heap. Obama did nothing for Christians who were being beheaded by ISIS but he is all in for Muslims. People are starting to ask whose side is he on? Does he care about us, or does he care mostly about them?
He has it that we must be true to our values. That’s who we are, he says. We are also dead ducks.
His lame response to Paris — you expected Churchill? You were expecting “we shall fight on the beaches?”
Instead, a confederacy of nomad towel-heads has the entire Western World in fear and trembling.
Our politicians. Our leaders. Their choices are failing us. Their stupid mistakes are killing us.
On stupidity, can anyone beat John Kerry? This fool, just yesterday he explained that the Paris bloodbath was inexcusable.
But of the Charlie Hebdo butchery – well, of that, he, John Kerry can find justification, “rationale.”
That was real blood, John. Not ketchup. Married into the Heinz fortune, he can’t be that stupid.
Defeat ISIS with this leadership?
As if once we bomb them to smithereens we can go back to worrying about the Kardashians again.
Sorry, not so simple. The pestilence we face may live next door without an ISIS shingle or dashboard ID. We don’t know what they’re thinking. Sometimes we do. Last week here in Manhattan a Pakistani cabbie beat up a passenger for being Jewish. That too is ISIS and that too is terrorism.
As I’ve said before, people who don’t know Sinatra are taking over the town…town by town…and as a majority of governors say no to the migrants, de Blasio has already raised his hand to bring in more. He wants the 10,000, or as many as Obama is willing to ship and import of these “widows and orphans,” to quote the president.
The facts and the pictures show otherwise. Most are big strong able-bodied men who ran from the fight – deserters.
I’ve been saying this clearly in my columns and in this book, and finally even uber-leftist Chris Matthews agrees that Obama has it wrong.
Our Liberal Leftists, leaders and followers, are not merely an inconvenient irritation. They are imperiling our kids and our grandkids.
USA Delivers 19,000 Bombs to Wahabist Saudis Supporting ISIS
November 19, 2015USA Delivers 19,000 Bombs to Wahabist Saudis Supporting ISIS Could it be any more clear who is on the right side, and who is on the wrong side of this conflict?
(German Economic News) 1 hour ago
Source: USA Delivers 19,000 Bombs to Wahabist Saudis Supporting ISIS
Dealing death
Originally appeared at German Economic News. Translated by Susan Neumann.
The Islamist theocracy Saudi Arabia is getting heavy ammunition equaling billions of dollars from the United States. It remains to be seen whether this economic booster shot for the U.S. defense industry will lead to consequences in Syria. The Saudis are fighting covertly against the Russians.
The U.S. government has approved a multibillion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In order to strengthen its air force, the Islamist monarchy wants to purchase more than 19,000 bombs, which would total up to 1.29 billion dollars (1.19 billion euros). This was confirmed by the State Department in Washington on Monday. Although the final word from the U.S. Congress is still pending, it’s likely that the approval will go through.
Saudi Arabia is one of the United States’ key allies in the Middle East. The agreement on Iran’s nuclear program has caused tension in the relationship. Saudi Arabia is engaged in a power struggle with Tehran for control in the Gulf. The Saudi Arabian air force is launching air attacks in Yemen, whose government is not accepted by the Saudis. These attacks are recognized by the international community as unlawful.
The Saudis play a special role in Syria. They sit at the table at the Syrian peace talks in Vienna, when in fact, it is they who support the terrorists who are in a fight against the Russians. It’s unclear whether the Saudis are acting on behalf of the Americans. In any case, it can’t be ruled out that those U.S.-provided bombs will eventually be used in Syria, too.
In Saudi Arabia, human rights apply only in the context of a religious fundamentalist theocracy. Up to this point, protests out of the EU and the U.S. have been only scarcely perceived.
The arms shipment includes some 12,000 bombs with a combat weight of 500 to 2000 pounds, 1500 bunker-busting bombs, and more than 6,000 laser-guided precision bombs. According to Washington data, bomb arsenal from the Saudi Arabian armed forces will be heavily taxed by “the high level of deployment in several anti-terrorist operations”. Saudi Arabia participates in the U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State jihadi militia in Syria.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia ‘have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam
November 19, 2015Qatar and Saudi Arabia ‘have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam’ General Jonathan Shaw, Britain’s former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, says Qatar and Saudi Arabia responsible for spread of radical Islam
10:23PM BST 04 Oct 2014
Read also : Turkey’s Erdoğan urges united Muslim front against terror
General Shaw told The Telegraph that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were primarily responsible for the rise of Wahhabi Salafism, the extremist Islam that inspires Isil terrorists Photo: EPA
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have ignited a “time bomb” by funding the global spread of radical Islam, according to a former commander of British forces in Iraq.
General Jonathan Shaw, who retired as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff in 2012, told The Telegraph that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires Isil terrorists.
The two Gulf states have spent billions of dollars on promoting a militant and proselytising interpretation of their faith derived from Abdul Wahhab, an eighteenth century scholar, and based on the Salaf, or the original followers of the Prophet.
But the rulers of both countries are now more threatened by their creation than Britain or America, argued Gen Shaw. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has vowed to topple the Qatari and Saudi regimes, viewing both as corrupt outposts of decadence and sin.
So Qatar and Saudi Arabia have every reason to lead an ideological struggle against Isil, said Gen Shaw. On its own, he added, the West’s military offensive against the terrorist movement was likely to prove “futile”.
“This is a time bomb that, under the guise of education, Wahhabi Salafism is igniting under the world really. And it is funded by Saudi and Qatari money and that must stop,” said Gen Shaw. “And the question then is ‘does bombing people over there really tackle that?’ I don’t think so. I’d far rather see a much stronger handle on the ideological battle rather than the physical battle.”
Gen Shaw, 57, retired from the Army after a 31-year career that saw him lead a platoon of paratroopers in the Battle of Mount Longdon, the bloodiest clash of the Falklands War, and oversee Britain’s withdrawal from Basra in southern Iraq. As Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, he specialised in counter-terrorism and security policy.
All this has made him acutely aware of the limitations of what force can achieve. He believes that Isil can only be defeated by political and ideological means. Western air strikes in Iraq and Syria will, in his view, achieve nothing except temporary tactical success.
When it comes to waging that ideological struggle, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are pivotal. “The root problem is that those two countries are the only two countries in the world where Wahhabi Salafism is the state religion – and Isil is a violent expression of Wahabist Salafism,” said Gen Shaw.
“The primary threat of Isil is not to us in the West: it’s to Saudi Arabia and also to the other Gulf states.”
Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia are playing small parts in the air campaign against Isil, contributing two and four jet fighters respectively. But Gen Shaw said they “should be in the forefront” and, above all, leading an ideological counter-revolution against Isil.
The British and American air campaign would not “stop the support of people in Qatar and Saudi Arabia for this kind of activity,” added Gen Shaw. “It’s missing the point. It might, if it works, solve the immediate tactical problem. It’s not addressing the fundamental problem of Wahhabi Salafism as a culture and a creed, which has got out of control and is still the ideological basis of Isil – and which will continue to exist even if we stop their advance in Iraq.”
Gen Shaw said the Government’s approach towards Isil was fundamentally mistaken. “People are still treating this as a military problem, which is in my view to misconceive the problem,” he added. “My systemic worry is that we’re repeating the mistakes that we made in Afghanistan and Iraq: putting the military far too up front and centre in our response to the threat without addressing the fundamental political question and the causes. The danger is that yet again we’re taking a symptomatic treatment not a causal one.”
Gen Shaw said that Isil’s main focus was on toppling the established regimes of the Middle East, not striking Western targets. He questioned whether Isil’s murder of two British and two American hostages was sufficient justification for the campaign.
“Isil made their big incursion into Iraq in June. The West did nothing, despite thousands of people being killed,” said Gen Shaw. “What’s changed in the last month? Beheadings on TV of Westerners. And that has led us to suddenly change our policy and suddenly launch air attacks.”
He believes that Isil might have murdered the hostages in order to provoke a military response from America and Britain which could then be portrayed as a Christian assault on Islam. “What possible advantage is there to Isil of bringing us into this campaign?” asked Gen Shaw. “Answer: to unite the Muslim world against the Christian world. We played into their hands. We’ve done what they wanted us to do.”
However, Gen Shaw’s analysis is open to question. Even if they had the will, the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Qatar may be incapable of leading an ideological struggle against Isil. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is 91 and only sporadically active. His chosen successor, Crown Prince Salman, is 78 and already believed to be declining into senility. The kingdom’s ossified leadership is likely to be paralysed for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile in Qatar, the new Emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, is only 34 in a region that respects age. Whether this Harrow and Sandhurst-educated ruler has the personal authority to lead an ideological counter-revolution within Islam is doubtful.
Given that Saudi Arabia and Qatar almost certainly cannot do what Gen Shaw believes to be necessary, the West may have no option except to take military action against Isil with the aim of reducing, if not eliminating, the terrorist threat.
“I just have a horrible feeling that we’re making things worse. We’re entering into this in a way we just don’t understand,” said Gen Shaw. “I’m against the principle of us attacking without a clear political plan.”
Turkey’s Erdoğan urges united Muslim front against terror
November 19, 2015Turkey’s Erdoğan urges united Muslim front against terror
ISTANBUL – Agence France-Presse
Source: Turkey’s Erdoğan urges united Muslim front against terror – POLITICS
He still dreams of a new ottoman empire !
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Nov. 19 called for a united front by Muslim leaders to fight extremism after the Paris attacks, warning that otherwise jihadists will commit further atrocities.
Erdoğan warned that “calamities will happen again” if the rise of radical Islam is not halted in Europe, after the Paris attacks on Nov. 13 claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group which killed 129 people and suicide bombings in Ankara that left 103 dead in Oct. 10.
“We are at a crossroads in the fight against terrorism after the Paris attacks,” Erdoğan told a meeting of the Atlantic Council think-tank in Istanbul.
“I strongly condemn the terrorists, who believe in the same religion as me, and I am calling on all leaders of Muslim countries to put up a united front,” he said.
“If not, those who knocked on our door in Ankara, will knock on your door elsewhere, as they did in Paris.”
Erdoğan, a pious Muslim whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) spearheaded the rise of political Islam in Turkey, has long angrily dismissed suggestions that Ankara colluded with ISIL in the Syrian civil war.
Turkey has supported rebel groups throughout the over four years of conflict in Syria in the hope they can help oust President Bashar al-Assad from power.
But Erdoğan lashed out at any notion “that all Muslims are terrorists,” saying: “Bad people can be Muslims as well as Christians and Jews.”
“Those who demonise Islam by looking at Daesh are making a big mistake,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
“Daesh has nothing to do with Islam.”
With momentum building after the Paris attacks in the long-stalled bid of the world powers to find a solution for Syria, Erdoğan made clear Turkey would not budge from its insistence that Assad must leave power.
He accused Assad of supporting ISIL — which is ostensibly fighting the Damascus regime — and buying oil from the group.
“You would be blind not see it.”
“The chief reason for the humanitarian crisis and the rise of terrorism in the region today is Assad… Assad is waging state terrorism,” said Erdoğan.
International efforts to find common ground on Syria have so far been thwarted by disputes with Russia, which has long insisted the Syrian people alone should decide the fate of Assad, a Kremlin ally.
Turkey, however, has argued there can be no solution in Syria unless Assad leaves power.
November/19/2015
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